While I generally like sandbox games like Grand Theft Auto, the freedom they provide can often distract me to the point where I forget about the main storyline. In Assassin's Creed, however, Ubisoft have found a perfect balance between sandbox and hand-holding, and I'm having a wonderful time playing the game.

The game does become a bit repetitive after a while - gather information about your victims, kill, rinse, repeat - but I'm still hooked, for some reason. And climbing to the highest points in each area is amazing. I've played many games where I've been disappointed, because there's no way to reach the rooftops or mountains with the best views, and welcome games like Oblivion and Assassin's Creed where those spots are indeed (mostly) available to satisfy my climbing needs.

I've never been good at sneak-'em-ups - I'm almost always detected - so Assassin's Creed is great in that it's very forgiving when I'm having one of my less than subtle moments. Fight off the guards, or simply just run for it. Or both.

Before I got Assassin's Creed, I got Call of Duty 4. I wasn't able to finish the single player campaign before the assassin demanded attention, and I'm not sure when I'll get the time to do so, because now there's this other game I've been waiting for for a long time that's finally arriving. Earlier today, I got the email I've been waiting for: My copy of Mass Effect Limited Edition is in the mail. I'll have it on Friday or Saturday, then.

It's a good thing I'm going to take three weeks off from work in December/January. Even though I'm skipping a few games at this time, I'm going to be spending a lot of time playing games for the remainder of the year.

Before I finish, a short Gamerpoints update: Yesterday, while playing Assassin's Creed, my achievement number 500 ticked in. It was "The Blood of a Liege-Lord" and earned me 25 points. My total points stand at 9940, and I expect to hit 10,000 pretty soon. Yay me.