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.

MetaUpdate

Here's the thing. I've been playing a bunch of games recently. I've got a new phone, with games on it. I've also been playing a lot of App Store distractions. But I just haven't got around to writing about it.

I could blame it on not having a decent computer, which is half true. I switched on for the first time in a month yesterday, specifically to write a lab report. It's a poor piece of machinery and I generally now dislike using it. I'm writing this on my girlfriend's laptop to avoid using it. Hopefully, by Christmas I'll have a whizzy new computer that can actually run stuff. Fun fact; I've only played 45% of my Steam games. Not because I don't want to, but because I can't. Portal breaks when I use a portal, Trine just refuses to start, and I'm not even bothering with TF2 after the free weekend debacle.

But really I can only blame the lack of content on myself. I just don't have the self control to post. I get bored writing down my own thoughts, or get stuck on the title or the opening paragraph. I lack motivation. It's why I got 40% in my first year of university and it's why I'm writing this now. I originally started this blog because I wanted to go to E3, although that's a bit of a pipe dream really.

So here's the thing; I'm going to start afresh. Not in any blog-changing way, but I'm going to go for more regular status updates, with better content, that isn't just me talking about sentiments that have already been expressed by everyone. Hopefully, next year I'll have a podcast on the go as well so fingers crossed for that.

Basic gist of this post; coming in 2011, compelling content, and maybe a podcast. See y'all then!

And also, ilomilo. I've got a WP7 now, and I want this more than anything.

Use A Potion... Maybe.

So Fable 3 is pretty fun.

Thought I'd open with that. Get it out of the way. Mix things up a bit.

Fable 2 was the first ever game I played when I first got my XBox and I absolutely played it to death. It was a lot of fun and despite a few flaws I really had a lot of fun crafting a character who, for some reason, wore sunglasses.

So on to the sequel, which I have been waiting for since it was announced back in 2009 (possibly) and I was waiting on the courier for aaaages until it turned up. For some reason, despite pre-ordering it at least a month ago, Amazon decided to send it out on the say of release. Play were smart enough to send out New Vegas two days in advance so it arrived on release day, but Amazon... Well I certainly won't be using them again for any pre-orders. Not that I can afford another. Saving up for that 3DS.

Fable 3 was always very pushed as removing many of the features that were apparently clogging up Fable 2, and that's obvious from the get go. The health bar has been stripped away, the weapon equipment screen has been removed, and the emotes wheel has been taken away. It's a bold choice and it feels like something you might see in an experimental indie game as opposed to one of the 360's flagship franchises. Personally... It doesn't gel too well with me. The pause screen is clever I suppose and Jasper's dry humour is something I enjoy, but I didn't particularly ever feel that Fable 2 was clunky. The choice of only two emotes when interacting a character seems to detract from the level of interaction in the previous game and I liked having a health bar to indicate when I should start panicking. In Fable 3, it's more guess work.

The combat is still fun, striking the balance between challenging and manageable. There are some surprisingly vicious flourishes, like the other day when I jumped onto the shoulders of my enemy and BROKE HIS NECK WITH MY KNEES. It was pretty horrendously awesome. I also enjoy weaving spells together, with my personal favourite being a mix of fireball and lightening. Burn 'em and stun 'em. Just like Bioshock. Ranged combat is still ranged combat, and it's still great fun to blast away at enemies as they charged toward you. The weapon morphing is a nice feature, but doesn't really seem to be as dynamic as initially suggested.

The story is progressing nicely and has a more fantasy based plot-line than the previous. Whilst it took a while to get going, the cave sequence was very intense and really got under my skin. Freaky skull this are freaky.

Fable 3 will keep me busy for a while and gives me something to play when I'm tired of New Vegas, and vice versa. I have to see between the two I prefer F:NV, but they are both top notch games, and I heartily recommend them both. Although play Fable 2 first.

Next time... Something else. More New Vegas. See y'all in the Dino's mouth!

Viva New Vegas

I went for the easy option with the title today. And why not?

So yes, as should be clear by now, Fallout: New Vegas is here, and has been for about a week and a half now. I really wanted to write about it but the problem was that it was so damn good. The reservations I had about it after playing it at Eurogamer were completely unfounded. After I had starting playing for a while and I had recovered from being shot in the face by Matthew Perry, I really got into the swing of things. The attack on Goodsprings was a really good start, and it felt great to rally the people around town. There is a lot more variety in quests, and a lot of the story telling is much more compelling. I've also enjoyed the humour which is much more obvious.

Obsidian clearly wanted the player to have more choice in the direction of the plot, as I've been bombarded with options as to who to support in the grand battle for New Vegas. I'm currently supporting the NCR, in the hope that we can push Caesar's Legion right out of the Mojave. I've even toyed with the idea of disguising my self as a Legionary and assassinating Caesar to get it over with, although I get the feeling that killing him wouldn't really put an end to things.

My character, who travels by the name of Zach, is a gun-toting science geek with a penchant for smoothing talking, which is not entirely dissimilar to my Fallout 3 character (also called Zach). There are a lot more stat checks in the conversations, which I really love because passing them makes me feel as if I'm cheating the game somehow. It's also a bloody marvel that Zach isn't addicted to Mentats because the amount of them I take to pass repair and science checks is unbelievable.

New Vegas is really great fun, maybe more so than its predecessor. If you enjoyed roving the Capital Wasteland, you'll equally enjoy moseying through the Mojave dressed as a cowboy. If you didn't enjoy Fallout 3... There's something wrong with you.

I'll be posting more updates over the next few months. I've even thought of turning a few of the quests into short stories, just for a laugh. Who knows?

Next time; Adventures in Albion with John Cleese! See y'all on the throne!

DLC: Downloadable Complaining

Okay, that might be a bit unfair. I don't actually have any problems with the stuff I've downloaded (well, maybe a bit) but you'd think being about two metres away from a wireless router would affords me some favourable download speeds. However, I am in a flat where five people are all trying to get internet access from a 6MB connection, which is suppose to be 20MB, but isn't. MARG BLARG INTERNET STUFF.

So, I've been busy downloading a few things recently. XBLA has, in my opinion, had a run of really fantastic releases recently, I'm very swiftly going to run down a few of the ones I've been firing up on the ol' 360.

DeathSpank; Thongs of Virtue was released a week or so ago and although I failed to get it then, I did get it a couple of days before I went off to university. It's really good fun. It's a direct sequel to DeathSpank, which was released way back in July (which I intended to write about but it got lost in the ether of Mass Effect 2). My personal favourite is definately the latter. Whilst some of the humour is not as cutting as the original the gameplay is much more well rounded, and also, you can have a ray gun. And a chain saw. And a cowboy hat. And space boots. It really appealed to the childish side in me (so, it appealed to the only side of me) with aliens, soldiers, cowboys and robots all turning up, and then later being shot. Overall best part; Shooting a dinosaur with a laser. Screw high fantasy.

Alan Wake was good. I really enjoyed it, as it had one of the most compelling stories of any game I've played in a while. However, one of the downfalls of the story was the ending. I found I was left stranded not really understanding what the hell had happened to Alan. The first bit of DLC help a little; it seemed to suggest after defeating the Dark Presence, Alan had somehow regressed into his own dark mind. However, I still wanted answers (dammit) and The Writer DLC was all set to provide them. Which it sort of did. The pacing of The Writer is very good, and it has a very clever final fight which I didn't see coming. The storyline is still left relatively open though, and there are some major unfinished plot points (e.g. Mr Scratch?) Let's hope despite middling sales, Remedy are working on a sequel. Overall best part; Either the ferris wheel of death or the giant typewriter of self reference.

Comic Jumper is some what of a media darling at the moment, garnering positive reviews from almost everyone, and for the most part I agree. The different art styles and comic book universe world swaps are a feature I absolutely love and the humour is really some of the best I've seen/heard in a game. I just wish it was more enjoyable to play. I really loved 'Splosion Man, but one of my major criticisms was that it was just too damn difficult at points, and CJ suffers from exactly the same problems. I died about six times on the first level of the second world. If you are gonna make it so easy for me to get hit, Twisted Pixel, at least give me a way to gain back my health. It's a real shame but I am going to persevere and upgrade Captain Smiley to make it easier. Overall best part; "Why do you hate birds so much?" "I don't know, I just do!"

Finally, before I go, quick shout out to two internet based companies; GamePointsNow.com, who provide me with cheap Microsoft points via email, and Insert Coin Clothing, who have garnished me with an incredibly brilliant Quantum tee. Go visit them.

Right. Posted. I'm off. New Vegas and Fable 3 are just around the corner. See y'all when the post arrives!

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!