Final Assassin's Creed Thoughts

I finished AC yesterday and I just want to drop some final impressions of the game.

1. "If you don't expect too much from me, you might not be let down," might be the most opportune quote to describe my experience with AC. All I remember hearing from everyone was that the game was repetitive and the ending was crap. Given that I knew the handicaps before even buying the game I had the bar set pretty low. Luckily I kept my head and just really enjoyed the game.

2. The control scheme was awesome. By the time I got to the last couple of missions I was flying along the rooftops graceful as a figure skater. I love the ability to free run without having to constantly push buttons in order to get it happen.

3. Few stupid achievements. I like games that reward a game played through in a more or less normal playstyle. I got achievements at the right spots and skipped the flag cheevo because there was no f'ing way I was doing that.

4. AC2 might now be a launch day purchase. I had so much fun with the first one that I cannot wait to see how they improve on the minor flaws and give us a new world, Venice!

For those of you who haven't played AC, I thoroughly recommend that you do. It's dirt cheap now and the game play is more than worth it.

I Don't Listen

In yesterday's blog I wrote asking for suggestions on a "new" game to buy. I appreciate everyone's suggestion but when I got to the store there was a game that was just calling to me, "The Orange Box".

Despite owning HL2 for the PC I never played it all the way through... yes, I know, blaspheme.

I'll be honest, I got it mostly for Portal and TF2, since I've never played either.

Portal is a ton of fun and challenging. The humor is dark and entertaining. I can't wait to play more of it.

I've only played TF2 in one match so I don't have enough to give an opinion there.

This morning I woke up and decided I'd screw around a little playing through HL2 and I must say, I'm hooked.

Yes, yes, yes, I know the game is great and telling you guys this is tantamount to telling you the sun came up this morning but I'm glad I gave this game a chance.

Catching up on older games is sweet. If anyone still has The Orange Box and wants to play some TF2 let me know... in the meantime, I'll be all over the many options the game has to offer.

Thanks for your advice on future purchases... I will be sure to come back to them as time warrants.

Take care and happy gaming!

Laughlyn

AC

Come hell or highwater, I will finish Assassin's Creed today. The last encounter is a little tough but I figured it out... just a little too frustrated from earlier to try again. I don't want to be down a controller.

I'm really glad that I took a flier on this game and gave it a shot. I won't have that many achievements when I finish and I don't see any replay value so it will be going back and something new and cheap will be arriving.

Does anyone have any suggestions for older 360 games that I might have missed? I was thinking about finally getting Burnout: Paradise but I could be easily persuaded... you hear that? Easily persuaded. Give me some suggestions!

Being "That Guy"

There are certain people within this community that I CANNOT stand. One person that really annoyed the hell out of me was "Fighting Game Controller Guy". These wackos would spend hundred of dollars to play a game that could easily be played by your standard controller... or so I thought.

The other night at 3am when I might have been a little too anebriated to be spending Microsoft Points I picked up a copy of Street Fighter II from XBLA.

Two problems:

1. I apparently got the older crappy version and not the super duper version that everyone plays online.

2. Trying to use the thumb stick to play fighting games sucks.

Long story, short... I wasted $10 and have big-time buyer's remorse.

AC

It's hot here in Chucktown... I mean HOT. The funny thing is that my girlfriend insists on keeping the air conditioning so low that she has to wear a sweatshirt in the house! Does this make sense to anyone else? Why are we paying to keep the house so cold that we need sweatshirts?

Take care and happy gaming!

Laughlyn

Unfortunately, that is not a clever title... it is my actual fate today.

I have a bedroom full of dirty clothes and a dog that stinks so that can only mean one thing to do on my day off! Those two things... and a blog about them as well as some other random thoughts.

Assassin's Creed

I'm moving right along through this game and with the day off and nothing else to do today it might actually get finished. The plot is so-so (I'm pretty sure I can see how it ends from a mile away), the action in simplistic but still a lot of fun (the skill progression was done very well), and the controls are pretty sweet (climbing buildings FTW!).

99 Nights or N3

Last weekend when I was taking advantage of the Gamestop sale "Buy 2 Used Get 1 Free" I picked up AC and Ninja Gaiden 2. My girlfriend picked up 99 Nights because of the seemingly limitless action as well as the female protagonist.

It turned out to be a Dynasty Warriors clone and needless to say, she hated it. Since today is the 7th day to take the game back to the store we will and try something else.

I like that she's trying all kinds of genres to see what she likes but at the same time without a huge video game knowledge its also very frustrating to not just be able to instantly pick out what she wants and what she'll like.

Summer

How's the weather in your neck of the woods? Yeah, yeah, yeah... I wasn't really asking. It's hot as hell down here in Chucktown. Nothing like 5 days in a row with the heat index over 110! Good thing I went to the beach last week and got my tan. Now I can spend the days inside chipping away at my backlog... at least until the temps drop below a million.

I hope everyone has a great Sunday... if you see me online and want to play some multi-player just let me know.

Take care and happy gaming!

Laughlyn