Assassin's Creed Thoughts - Not Repetitive to Me

I rented Assassin's Creed from Gamefly and have been playing it quite a bit over the last week or so (I got more time with it because of the XBL outages).  I wasn't eagerly anticipating this game pre-launch.  While it certainly looked impressive, it was just released too close to CoD4, which I was eagerly anticipating.  I read about 7-10 reviews about the game in the weeks following its launch and the one consistent theme was that the game had the ability to grab ahold of you early, but that it became very repetitive by the last half to quarter of the game.  So, when I received my copy in the mail (finally - it was #1 on my Que since its launch), I went into the game with tempered expectations.

I haven't quite finished the game yet, I am about to hit the 7th assassination target of the 9 and I have really enjoyed the game so far.  Part of that is due to lower expectations based on the reviews.  But, the biggest part is that I anticipated that the game would become repetitive and have varied my approach to the game almost level to level and, as a result, I haven't found it any more repetitive than most other games that I play.  What I mean by varying my approach is that I have accomplished assassinations by being stealthy, by fighting off all of the guards, or by simply charging in to hit the target before the guards can react.  I have done most of the investigations tied to a particular assassination and I have done the minimum.  The complaints about the repetitiveness of this game remind me of those same complaints being made about Crackdown.  A few reviews for Crackdown complained that it was repetitive in that you could simply use the same strategy on every boss and it would work every time.  This is generally true of any sandbox type game.  Easy solution to this "problem" is to vary your approach, challenge yourself to accomplish the goal in a different way, and the game won't become repetitive.  I also do a lot of stupid crap that I enjoy doing, even though it isn't within the concept envisioned by Ubisoft (I get a tremendous satisfaction from assassinating beggars and those jackasses that hit for you no apparent reason, but one of my favorite aspects of the game is the chases).  The game's setting is absolutely gorgeous, I like that after you initially travel to each city that you can subsequently skip from Massayf directly to the desired city without having to go through the Kingdom (which would have been tedious as hell), and I LOVE the Leap of Faith.

The only real knock that I have on the game right now is that the combat is too easy.  However, that has a lot to do with the fact that I won't vary my combat approach (the counter attack is SO effective), so, consistent with my analysis above, that is a knock on me as a gamer more than a knock on the game itself.

So, if you haven't played Assassin's Creed yet, you probably haven't put unreasonable expectations on the game.  If you commit to varying your approach as you play, I think that you will have a lot of fun with this title.

Gears 2

I don't blog very regularly. Generally, I blog when I am bored and have something game-related to talk about. But there are times when I have no choice but to blog. This is one of those times.

GEARS OF WAR 2 - release date: November 15, 2008

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=177789

Here is the referenced ad, straight from Amazon.com:

Gears of War 2 by Microsoft (Nov 15, 2008) (Xbox 360)
Buy new: $59.99
Available for Pre-order
Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping.
ESRB Rating: Rating Pending
Video Games: See all 12 items

I realize that neither Epic nor MS have even announced that there will be a Gears 2, but we all know that there will be. I have had my doubts that Epic could put Gears 2 together in time for a holiday 2008 release, but this post certainly gets my hopes up that it may happen.

My Public Apology to Bungie

To start out (for those that haven't read my archives), I hate Halo 3's MP.  I have ripped it for many reasons, but one of the biggest is because it is really just Halo 2's MP with new maps.  Granted, Bungie added tons of bells and whistles to the MP portion of the game, but none of this affected the actual MP gameplay (ex., theater, customs).  There are few new weapons.  The only in-game customization is based entirely on what armor you can wear and is purely asthetic.  There are a number of new maps, but that is about the only thing that is significantly new in the MP game.  Considering the lack of innovations in gameplay and that I didn't like Halo 2's MP, it really isn't a shock that I don't enjoy H3's MP.  However, I also realize that there are a TON of people out there that absolutely loved Halo 2's MP.  After thinking this through more thoroughly and applying the logic to my personal all-time favorite game, I think that Bungie should be applauded for its decision to stay true to its MP formula rather than criticized for doing so. 

Earlier, I was reading Gatsu's blog in which he asked what is your concept of the ideal game that hasn't been made yet.  I left him a comment about how, for me, that game will be Gears of War 2.  Since then, I have been thinking about his question a lot, especially in terms of GoW's MP.  Even though I will be the first to acknowledge a couple of minor glitches, I can't conceive of a MP game that I could like more than the MP in GoW.  I love the dodgeball-like race to the more powerful weapons that are generally housed in the middle of the maps and the absolute killing fields that they create.  I love the viseral feel of the game.  I love that you can't respawn during the game, thus providing a major disincentive to the "fools rush in" tactics that are used in a lot of other games with the same sort of race to the weapon style.  So, it finally dawned on me that I don't want there to be any major changes to the MP in GoW 2.  Boatloads of new maps, a kill cam option, allowing MP achievements to be earned in player matches rather than only through ranked matches (like the DLC did), maybe one or two new weapons to take the place of the couple that are rarely ever used (ex., hammerburst), and fixes for some of the more glaring glitches (ex., being able to go off the map on Bullet Marsh) are about all I want to see in GoW 2's MP.  Trying to innovate with a proven formula in entertainment media generally leads to alienation of the fan base without attracting a lot of new fans that weren't fans before.

So, after finally putting this all together in my mind and applying it to "my" game, I would like to publicly apologize to Bungie for my disparaging "Halo 2.5" comments.  I should have been heaping praises on Halo 3's MP precisely because it is "Halo 2.5."  I beg Epic to take a long hard look at what Bungie DIDN'T do when it comes time to work on GoW 2's MP.

I may be converted

I was thinking about my figurative GOY vote again today and I think that right now I would throw my vote to CoD4.  I previously posted that I was leaning toward BioShock as my choice, but, as amazing as that game is, its lack of MP hurts it in a comparison with a game that has an amazing MP, like CoD4.  My GOY from last year was GoW (and would be again if I could do so) and one of the main reasons was because I was (and still am) playing it long after its release.  Replayability should definitely factor into GOY.  I played through BioShock and quickly traded it in while I could still maximize its value.  I won't be trading in CoD4 because I can see myself still playing this a year from now.  While I would give the nod to BioShock if I were comparing only the SP portions of the games, it isn't like CoD4's SP was lame.  It is short, but it is truly amazing graphically and it plays relatively bug-free.  A lot of critics have said that it can't win because the campaign is so short, but the campaign on vet difficulty is going to wind up taking more time for me to complete than BioShock did.  So, right now, I have decided that CoD4 has supplanted BioShock as GOY in my mind.

However, I have to qualify my vote by noting that I haven't played Assassin's Creed or Mass Effect yet.  Gamefly has sent me Mass Effect and Assassin's Creed is at the top of my Que.  However, since neither of these games has MP, they will have to be so amazing and so likely to hold my interest for an extended period that I will feel compelled to click the "Keep It" tab before I could seriously consider either.

Has CoD4 caused any of you to rethink your GOY votes?

Guitar Hero - I don't get it

Prior to the release of GH III, I had never played any of the Guitar Hero games.  I was always curious whether this would be something that I would enjoy, but I wasn't real sure.  I knew that the people that liked these games swore by them.  I inquired of a few clanmates regarding whether I would enjoy this title enough to drop $100 on it since I am not really into music, have little to no rhythm, and, due to my lack of rhythm, generally don't like rhythm games.  Overwhelmingly, the answer was that these games are tremendously fun, that GH will make me like rhythm based games, and that I will not regret the purchase.  So, I ran out and bought a copy with the cool Les Paul guitar on release day.  I rushed home and played for a couple of hours.  I can't say that I had a lot of fun playing the game, but it did give me a bit of vertigo.  After playing for a couple of hours, anything that I looked at would move slightly downward in my vision (like the notes move down the fretboard in the game).  I don't get motion sick playing video games, but this game did disorient me for a while.  Regardless, I decided to give it another try the next day and was able to get through the campaign on easy.  However, I again had that movement in my vision when I quit playing and, again, I didn't really enjoy it.  It just seemed like a lot of work without any real payoff (not that other games that I play give me a lot of "payoff," but they are actually fun to play).  I really couldn't get the motivation to play again for about a week, but I didn't want to have to admit that I just threw $100 down the tubes.  When I did play again, I tried to bump up to medium, thinking that it may be more fun if more difficult.  I quickly realized that I was going to have to practice to be able to play any of the songs on medium.  It absolutely sucked to have a game repeatedly tell me that I suck so badly that it won't even let me play anymore.  That was the last time that I played this game.  I do not want to have to practice to play a game.  WTF?  I play games to have fun.

Well, I guess some things work out by not working out.  Today, a co-worker of mine asked if I knew where he could find a copy of GHIII with the guitar because he wanted to get that for his son for Christmas but couldn't find it.  I quickly told him that I can get him a very slightly used one for a discount price.