All Hail The King Of Speculation

I've been making the most of the 360 since I've been home. I've done everything in AC: Brotherhood, bar the multiplayer achievements, and my wireless at home isn't good enough to play any matches properly, so I won't be getting them any time soon.

Instead I've been putting some time into Fable 3. I spoke about it last year giving my general impressions. There's nothing particularly wrong with it, it's just not a great deal different to its predecessors.

There's some interesting ideas in there though. The story is dark at times. The Fable series has often walked that line between "childish humour" and "balverines eating people" but when the final boss fight (oh right, MASSIVE SPOILER) forces you to kill your mentor, it's pretty heavy stuff. The final scene where he dies isn't going to make anyone cry, but it's pretty sad nonetheless.

Dr Medic or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Multiplayer Gaming

If you are a follower of me on Twitter, you'll have probably noticed something of a theme in my recent tweets; Team Fortress 2. I've recently started playing. Probably an unhealthy amount.

I'm not normally a huge multiplayer fan, in that up until very recently, my Xbox Live account remained staunchly Silver. This changed when I started playing Assassin's Creed Brotherhood. I had read many a review stating that the multiplayer was "pretty good". This didn't really ever affect me, multiplayer was always something for "other people" to play, gaming snob that I am.

After completing the majority of the single player of AC:B, I decided to use a free trial of Gold I had thanks to a flier that came with Fable 2. I was nervous as I went into my first game. My hands were shaking as the Abstergo logo shifted about, connect me to a server. I selected the Harlequin. And I started playing.

Everything about AC:B multiplayer appeals to me. It's not a test of lightening fast agility or well developed twitch skills, but rather a battle of wits. Who can be the best assassin? Who can blend into a crowd, disappear in the blink of an eye, vanish using the environment? The upgrade system attached to the multiplayer adds a level of customisation that keeps the gameplay varied but balanced.

AC:B is my kind of mutliplayer. Players who try the run straight at their target are swiftly put in their place as they target the wrong model or get dispatched by a hidden opponent. Skilled players will walk alongside you, lull you into a sense of security then pounce as you target your folly. The untraditional multiplayer is a place where I can not only enjoy myself, but actually shine.

Team Fortress 2 on the other hand is much more traditional online mutliplayer. If you haven't heard of it, you've clearly been under a rock for the past four years, or perhaps just really dislike the FPS genre. Here's a thing; Team Fortress 2 was released in 2007. In all that time, all the content updates have been entirely free. In fact, until recently, all of the in-game items could be obtained just by playing the game.

It's tough for me to decide on my opinion of TF2. I can't decide whther it's the best multiplayer game ever, or just the best game ever. Valve have covered everything. The classes are balanced. The maps are not only balanced, but also constantly increasing. Yesterday, I had a sniper duel across a crowded canyon. A few days ago, I created a teleporter way point for my team and kept them healed whilst we were pinned down in a tunnel. The number of stories that game produces is phenomenal.

If you'd like to play a game with me, you can send me a message on Steam. I'm lavalampbamboo, and I'm probably playing as The Medic or The Engineer.

Assassins Of Future Past

Ubisoft have been very clever with the design of the Assassin's Creed franchise. Not only is the Animus one of the most original framing devices used as a novel game interface, it also allows a great deal of choice in selecting the setting for any future games. It's a hot topic on forums across the internet as to the time period and location of AC3, so today I'm going to have a look at the top suggestions as to where the game might go next, and comment on their likelihood.

Feudal Japan; This one has been going about for a couple of years now, and I don't see why it couldn't work. I think a lot of people would like to see an Assassin running about with a katana, and the architecture in Japan does lend itself to free-running. However, it would be quite a challenge to try and work the Templars into this setting, so unless Ubisoft create a new enemy, it seems unlikely we'll be assassinating samurai any time soon.

World War 1/2; Probably the setting that has been asked about the most, I don't think that we'll be seeing either world wars as the background for AC3. For one, the wars have been done so many times in gaming that many gamers are simply bored of them. Another reason is that the addition of automatic weaponry to the series would make gameplay far harder. It's one thing to dodge a bullet fired from a matchlock rifle but to dodge a spray of lead from a machine gun is somewhat stretching belief. Finally, the designers have gone on record saying that it is not a setting they are particularly interested in covering, so I think that it is safe to say we won't be travelling to war-torn Europe in AC3.

The French Revolution; This one has the most force behind it right now, mainly because of the teaser at the end of AC3 mention two symbols appearing only in the time of French Revolution. On the face of it, I can understand why this could be a likely option. Like the games before it, it features a period heavy in conflict, guns aren't so advanced as to make free-running deadly and the Templars could very easily be behind the revolution (or maybe even the Assassins). The only thing that makes me doubt the use of 19th century France is that technology would not have moved on that much from the 16th century. Writing this down, I know it sounds ridiculous, but in an AC game setting, I am at a loss to think of what changes could be made mechanically if it were set in the 19th century.

The Modern (Future) Day; Ever since the not particularly exciting Desmond sections in AC1 and the marginally more exciting bits in AC2 and ACB, the fans have all been asking (and to an extent almost expecting) a Desmond game. Given the way the game are moving, with the constant training of Desmond, it would make logical sense to have the last game in the trilogy (of four) to have him being the ultimate assassin he is destined to be. But again the flaw lies in the gun element; once Abstergo starts rolling out the automatic rifles and shotguns, no amount of eagle vision is going to help. It would be nice to see some more action sequences with Desmond, but I don't think it's realistic, gameplay-wise, to have an entire game of him.

Mayan/Aztec; A while ago now, a news story came out about how AC2 was going to be set in Aztec or Mayan times. Obviously, this never came to pass, but it does seem to make sense as a location. Given the series focus on the 2012 apocalypse, one of the Mesoamerican cultures that originated this idea would make sense. The city of Tenochtitlan would make an ideal location for free running, and would provide a unique setting for any game. The crystal skulls could be interpreted as Pieces of Eden. The time period would also not block the Templars involvement either, as they could arrive in the form of the Conquistadors (although I am aware this has briefly been touched upon in Project Legacy)

So there we are. Of course, it could easily be another time period entirely, and I'm not even mentioning the end of Brotherhood, and my theory that the whole game series is going to turn out to have been experience through Desmond's descendants. But until Ubisoft reveals AC3, I guess we will be left in the proverbial dark.

See y'all next time.

Back In The Nick of Time

Yes. I'm back, just in time to do at least one post in January. And there is no way you can prove I'm writing this in February.

So I'm back, as promised, and although I don't have any stimulating content just yet, I do have something just as exciting.

Say hello to Mycroft;

Yes, I named my new computer Mycroft, deal with it.

Of course the real computer is out of shot, sitting under my desk. It's a Dell Inspiron 580, with a 3.2Ghz i3 processor and 4GB of RAM. It's also black.

As you might be able to make out in the picture, I've been downloading a lot of my unplayed Steam library. Torchlight I've admittedly played before, but it's nice to be able to run the thing without it running at 1 FPS. Tales of Monkey Island works far better than it ever did on the Toaster (Requiescat in pace, Toaster).

I also spent some time downloading TF2, and when I say spent some time, I mean about four hours. The bandwidth in the flat is all over the place. It runs okay, and whilst the graphics aren't perfect, it's still a better experience than playing it on the XBox.

As we speak I am downloading S.T.A.L.K.E.R Call Of Pripyat which I'm quite looking forward to, ever since I read an article detailing the Emission events. I'm not sure how well I'll be able to run it but I'm hopeful. I'm sure it will be able to cope.

So there we are. A new year and a new computer. Also a new phone but that's not really relevant at this juncture. Stay tuned for compelling updates. Next time; the future of the Assassin's Creed franchise.

Video-Game-Conferencing

Coming to you from a small room, above a Londis, near a graveyard, it's The Return of The Starting Village!

So I'm at university after three months of... well, work but now work is done! It was at Buckingham Palace, which I feel I can probably say now the job is over. Working in a gift shop was FUN.

So the last weekend, I went to Eurogamer, which was really great fun. After an embaressing situation where I may have queued up in the wrong queue for like twenty minutes, I got in and started looking around my first ever games thing.

First thing I saw; Fable 3. Off to a good start it was really great to finally have a go on it, and I enjoyed what I played of it. There was definitely more of an emphasis on story, with the player character having a voice, as well as interactive cutscenes. The art style is similar and I really cannot wait until it comes out. You know the tie in novel is already out in America? It wouldn't wind me up so much, but Lionhead are a British company.

I also had a go on Fallout New Vegas, my other most anticipated game of the year, and it was... It really pains me to write this. I have so much love for Fallout 3. My whole summer was spent playing it to death. And playing on NV should have left me awestruck. But something just seemed off. The graphics looked really quite dated, and the game seemed a bit slow, although I'm hoping this is because it was a demo character. I've still got the game on pre-order, cause I really want my caravan shotgun and binoculars.

Other things I had a go on; Move. The Fight was, ultimately, shit. Punches seemed ineffective and didn't land with any degree of force. There was also three-dee support but it really didn't seem to be working, putting the glasses on just seemed to reduce the blur on the screen. Echochrome 2 was kinda fun, although it didn't particularly use the Move controller in a innovative way. From what I saw of all the Move stuff, it really seemed like they had just recreated the Wii controller, but with knobs on. Literally.

A quick run down of other stuff; Assassin's Creed Brotherhood looks fun, had a quick go, quite enjoyed it, but I'm more interested in the single player. Brink was insanely popular, watched a few people playing but didn't really look like my sort of thing. Dead Space 2 was also popular, but did look really good. Despite not having played the original, the sequel looked intensely atmospheric with some real blistering action sequences and a clever alternative to quick time events.

It was also my first time meeting the guys from the Newb Review, and we all had a real laugh. We recorded a podcast, which you can listen to here. I also sat in on an interview with Ian and the producer of Hunted; The Demon Forge. It hasn't gone up on the site yet, but when it does, you can hear me ask one question about multiplayer. Exciting stuff I'm sure you'll agree.

Overall, I had fun at Eurogamer. Whilst there was not a whole lot of new stuff, there was clearly a lot of effort put into the show. From what I heard, the developer chats were really interesting, and I'd love to be able to go to more of them. I will strive to be there next year, for at least the first and second day.

Well, I'd best be off. I'll be back soon to talk about... I dunno, downloads or something. See y'all when I next get bandwidth!