Livin' in America

I'm back. Turns out that bout of depression was a cold, and I'm a drama queen.

So you've probably heard the news by now. Assassin's Creed 3 is happening. And if you didn't...

There's so much awesome about this, I have nothing
to add but this self-referential statement

The Most Wonderful Time of The Year

Oh and it's Christmas too? I was talking about coming home for the holidays and spending six hours a day on the Xbox. As a serious point though, I need to take more breaks, I'm starting to get quite bad headaches.

Okay, moving on from that downer of an opening, I'M BACK HOME FOR CHRISTMAS! I finished up all of my deadlines before the end of term, and now I have a month to catch up on my gaming backlog. First on the chopping block is Assassin's Creed Revelations.

Nothing is True, Everything is- HEY PRESENTS!

The Big Ten; My Favourite Games of All Time

It's a ritual every games writer must go through at some point; the traditional run down of his or her top ten favourite games.

After scribbling down a shortlist and then using an advanced method of moving bits of paper about on my desk, I decided on an order. I'm still not a hundred percent sure about the order of the bottom five, but the games that matter are all there. So let's begin;

10; Wario Land 3, GBC, 2000
Probably the least known game on the list, but one that has always stuck with me, WL3 is a 2D platformer in a similar vein to the other Wario games. The game features a linear upgrade system where Wario's powers develop over the course of the game. This allowed for an element of the game which probably is the main reason for it sticking in my top ten; after gaining new abilities, you would go back to older levels and unlock new routes through them, resulting in new levels unlocking. A night and day cycle that altered the enemies and layout of certain levels was a clever feature, as well as some fantastically ridiculous boss fights and an ingenious power up system that beautifully exploited Wario's invincibility. Wario Land 3 showed me that small cartridge games didn't have to be small in vision.

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.

Assassin's Need (To Post More Regularly)

It's been well over a month since I last posted and I've been getting myself bogged down in trying to start the next post so I'll summarize quickly;

Back home, got my Xbox, working over summer, secret job, not very content friendly.

Right. Assassin's Creed. Creeds.

I've had Assassin's Creed for ages, ever since I originally got my Xbox, when I was lent it by a friend. After said friend traded in his 360 for a PS3 and didn't ask for the game back, I figured the game was now mine. I'd never got round to playing it, but when I came back from uni, I needed something fun to play. Since Bioshock 2 seemed a bit heavy, I decided to scuttle around the streets of Damascus, introducing knives to people's jugulars.

AC is pretty good fun. The assassinations and the run up to them are all relatively formulaic, although it's still fun to pickpocket people in a busy street. The missions that involve hunting down guards in the street were quite annoying, but relatively satisfying when I pulled them off successfully. The plot wasn't fantastic, and I knew the twist was coming, although frankly, it was pretty obvious. So, I generally enjoyed AC. It reminded me a bit of the old Sly Cooper games. Only with more stabbings and crusaders. Overall thoughts; AC is pretty fun, but a bit aged.

As a result of my enjoyment of AC, I decided to get the sequel. And by decided, I mean I accidentally stumbled on it in GAME for 15 quid.

As it goes, AC2 is pretty good. The character of Ezio is much better formed compared to that of Altair. He develops from a hot-headed youth to a more mature, yet vengeful assassin. Also, he gets a very cool armour set, and has much better finishing moves.

The game is set in Italy, a country I have actually been to (hooray, I guess). I've actually been to Florence as well, so running around the city and climbing the Duomo was quite cool because I've been there. What was really weird is that I've also been to Sam Gimignano, meaning I'm fairly sure Assassin's Creed 2 was designed around me. I am probably an Assassin. Go figure.

Quick notes about AC2; Better, story, better locations, better weapons, better side quests, generally a better version of the first game. Pretty much everything I didn't like was improved, and it had Leonardo Da Vinci, which was cool. Overall thoughts; AC2 is better than AC, and still plays great.

I also got Altair's Chronicles on my iPod touch but the less said about that the beturrrrggghghhblzzzzzzzzz.

**This blogger has been almost killed by the godawfulness that is Altair's Chronicles. And honestly, I gots know idea when he'll be back. See y'all when it next occurs!**

Going through the Motions

E3. Every year we get together on the internet to watch the press conferences, and every year we are disappointed. Except we weren't this year! Well, except Nintendo.

As is the norm on the net, I'll whiz through each conference and what I thought of it.

Microsoft; Almost bloody missed this thanks to Gamespot's live feed... Which would have been lame. But Microsoft was good. Actually that's a lie, it was the best of all three. It had Beatles which the other two couldn't top. Both Tony Hawk and Modern Warfare don't particularly interest me, but Final Fantasy XIII did. Weird since I left that franchise after the problems I had with X-2. I think that's where FF lost it's way. Shadow Complex = yes. Joyride = meh. Left 4 Dead 2 shocked me, very fast sequel release. Splinter Cell looked good, but I wouldn't buy it. Forza 2 is a racing game, next. Halo ODST looks pretty generic, Reach interested be cause I read the book. Alan Wake = looks interesting. Facebook and Twitter on the 360 isn't really surprising. MGS Rising on the other hand is. Awesome. In my opinion, stuff like Project Natal is the future. I was honestly amazed by the menu scrolling crap. Milo is PROBABLY not that good, but it doesn't matter. Microsoft Conference = good.

Nintendo; Missed both the beginning and the middle of this, but I'm caught up now, and this had a rising scale of interest. New Super Mario Bros. Wii will be really popular, but also lame. Wii Fit Plus must have pissed off a lot of people. We saw Wii Sports Resort last year, altough I like the idea of the island becoming a constant thing. Crystal Bearers looks quite interesting, may investigate further. I'm sure that Bowser's Inside Story wasn't news. Explain what kind police force offers jobs to criminals, I said as COP appeared. User generated content rears its head on the DSi, as well as Facebook. Damn. Oh yay, Spirit Tracks, again. Iwata, in my opinion talks too much about too little. I'm copyrighting the idea for using the Vitality Sensor in some survival horror game. Also, it's a downright stupid idea. That's it Nintendo, I'm leavi- OMG SUPER MARIO GALAXY 2! But seriously, that's cool. Yoshi in 3D. The Conduit = meh. Darkside = weird camera. Dead Space = hmmm. I don't even like Metroid that much, but Other M looks sweet. Eat lazer beem, spaze dragon! Boring press conference, too many numbers, some interesting things.

Sony; First off, I hate the guy who presents this, Jack Something. He always seems really smug. But this wasn't a bad conference... Just it wasn't good either. The flashy intro sequence was TACKY as hell. Lots and lots of numbers. Hooray for stats. Uncharted 2 looked nice, and the sidekick was English, which made it go up in my ratings. The game then dropped when the idiot main character said "We could have been in that!" refering to a collapsing building. Idiot. MAG again, oh fantastic. Nobody cares! PSP things feels a little ironic when UMD has failed epically... But I still want one. SenseMe... So it's Genius then. If I had lots of money, I'd get a PSP Go... Grand Turismo PSP... Is a racing game... Which I have nothing to say about. Hideo Kojima making another MGS game, unsurprisingly... with millions of Snakes. Not for Indy then. RE; Portable... Great, another game I can't get. Lots of PSP games coming out. You know, there was two many montages. No-one else did montages. Last year Sony used LittleBigPlanet for a presentation, this year... MONTAGE! Agent appears... for three seconds. Assassin's Creed 2 looks pretty much exactly the same with more flying. I'm playin' dat. Final Fantasy XIII again, and suddenly, Final Fantasy XIV! Gasp! The guy unvailing the new EyeToy thing was as nervous as hell. Probably because he realised he was just combining the Wii with Project Natal. Modnation looked dull. I really hope The Last Guardian is some EPIC pet sim of your crow-dog. GT5 is visually spot on. GoW3, despite what the guy says, bears no resembelance to real Greek mythology. LONG press conference. Completely irrelevant for me.

Two words sum up the conferences; motion control. Apparently it's the future. SURPRISE.

Good night y'all.