Perhaps, but it is a philosophy that is associated with console games. I honestly can’t think of any PC games (that are not ports) which have this “feature” and although that doesn’t mean there aren’t any, I can think of many console games that do.
I think EVE is probably the best MMO out there in terms of sandbox worlds, and I couldn’t stop laughing at Yahtzee’s review. It astounds me that there are people who send him hate mail when he rips on their favorite games. It’s what he does! His idea of a perfect game is Prince of Persia Sands of Time and he still has issues with it!
Wow, that was hysterical (and hardly a ringing endorsement)!
No, by Yahtzee’s standards that was pretty much a rave review. 
Say what you want about the gameplay and story, at least it gave my friends and I the hilarious idea of horse-blending.
Girl at the bar you dont want to talk to = horse blend.
Baby mama drama = horse blend
Cops caught you holding = horse blend.
Assassins Creed taught me that walking a mite slower and whistling will get you out of any jam.
It fails more often then it works, but hilarity always ensues!
Like I said, it does get repetitive, and by the end of the game, I was really just playing it to finish, not because I was interested in playing it anymore. Still, I think the games a lot of fun for the first half or three quarters or so. My only major complaint was that it was too combat-oriented, and not enough stealth-oriented. I’d love to play a game that incorporated the climbing system from this game with the stealth system and level design from Thief. On the other hand, the fact that, as much as possible, I didn’t play it as a fight game meant that the combat system itself didn’t bother me too much.
I’d just like to pop in and agree wholeheartedly with this. I thought “ooh, neat, this is a nifty setting. . .” and then all of a sudden I’m in this weaksauce generic sanitary sci-fi modernist lab being exposited at.
Alt-F4 and bam, you’re out. Took me a while to realize that, though. But I agree that the PC version has serious consolitis. Why the heck are we stuck with this stupid console-based 5-button control scheme when we have a whole freaking keyboard. Just make sprint and blend two different keys, instead of the same key, but hold down the right mouse button to get the second function. Gah.
I ended up using an xbox 360 controller.
I used alt + F4 out of frustration a few times, but twice my progress did NOT save! So I was paranoid after that point.
Isn’t Alt-F4 a command handled at the Windows level though, rather than the application level? Meaning, it tells Windows to terminate the application immediately without saving any data or anything like that.
That console baggage thing with the limited saves is really a holdover from the days of cartridges and memory cards. All the current consoles have at least an affordable option for a hard drive, so the save point systems really need to just die already. And yeah, Assassin Creed’s save system was especially annoying, I had forgotten.
I have only played the PS3 version, but was not exactly blown away. Besides what was stated in the OP, the game is just really, really, easy. I mean, once you learn how to fight, you basically CAN NOT DIE, unless you fall in the water.
There isn’t any point to being a stealthy assassin when you can just blow into town via the front gate, announce to everyone that you plan on killing the lot of them, and then doing just that, John Rambo style.
It reminds me of the movie ‘True Lies’ where Arnold’s charecter, under truth serum, details his planning for killing EVERYONE and then does it as prescribed.
I’m not an expert gamer, but damn, I’d at least like to get killed every now and then. Maybe I’ve been playing too much Rainbow Six, where sticking your head out from behind a door frame too far buys you full honors at Arlington.
Well, if you like getting killed, you could try playing STALKER. Even on the easy difficulties, you will get killed about a billion times. You start out with next to nothing, a suit that doesn’t protect you from anything, and a piece of shit handgun. By the time you finally, by sheer luck, manage to get your hands on a short-barreled AKS-74U rifle - the shittiest rifle in the game - even that feels like the goddamn hammer of Thor in comparison. And you’ll still get killed by everyone. Even if you’ve got a full armored exoskeleton and hazmat suit, and a G36 or SIG SG556 and a bunch of grenades, you’re still totally vulnerable to gunfire and you’ll still get killed after one or two hits - as it should be.
Fortunately, the same is also true of your enemies. That’s why this game really puts marksmanship and patience above sheer brute force.
Speaking of STALKER, is clear sky out yet? Anyone play it? Maybe I should start another thread in the game forum
Fuck Ass-grabber’s Creed!
Resurrecting an old (but not zombie) thread.
I just finished Assassin’s Creed this past weekend, and I have to give it a slightly more positive review than most people. Please forgive the lengthy post.
The Good
At first I felt that the entire Desmond Miles part of the story was entirely pointless. The game could’ve stood by itself if you were playing Altaïr by himself, but Ubisoft decided to explore genetic memory, which is actually pretty cool. As the game progressed, I got more and more comfortable with the Animus “intruding” on my Medieval fantasy to the point that I would definitely miss it now if it weren’t there.
Furthermore, Ubisoft did an absolutely splendid job in their research, remaining more true to the actual history than most period games. Masyaf (in Syria) was actually the real stronghold of the Hashshashin (“Nothing is true, everything is permitted” was actually a mantra of theirs) during the Third Crusade, and every single one of Altaïr’s targets were men who died roughly in 1191 (though I believe liberties were taken with some of their names). Ubisoft also rendered Masyaf, Jerusalem, Acre, and Damascus to be as close as possible to the actual cities in 1191. The game did a fantastic job of forcing you to feel like an oppressed Muslim during the Third Crusade and absolutely loathing the Christians for it (one of my favorite parts of the game was hunting down and killing Templars).
As far as graphics go, it really doesn’t get any better than this. When I first played the game on my friend’s 360, my breath was taken away the first time I did an Eagle Climb. The streets you saw during Eagle Climbs were completely walkable, which is amazing. Everything from the scenery to the objects to the characters were gorgeously rendered. The parkour and climbing aspects were perfect and weren’t forced upon you.
Finally, despite impeded character development, the voice acting was very good. People in this thread and others have criticized Altaïr for having an American accent, however, I think one thing the game hints upon is that either the Animus put Desmond’s body in Altaïr’s life, or that Desmond and Altaïr were (dun-dun-DUN!) the same person.
The Bad
Yeah, it got repetitive after a while. The investigation tasks were simple and no real development of the story or characters ever happened. Altaïr himself, while definitely bordering on Kratos-like badassery, came dangerously close to being Mary Sue-ish without any explanation of his past. He was never put in any real danger. No getting caught and rotting in jail while awaiting execution. Had he had to fight his way out of prison with his bare hands, it would’ve put a nice twist on a boring and all-too-linear plot.
Additionally, the game really would’ve benefited by giving the player choices to make. For a sandbox-style game such as this, branches in plot linearity based on multiple options for responding to Al Mualim or the Bureau chiefs in conversation would’ve produced much richer and more detailed gameplay.
Finally, while Altaïr’s story was wrapped up nicely, Ubisoft attempted to leave Desmond’s as a cliffhanger, and a poorly executed cliffhanger at that. It simply felt like Ubisoft forgot to put in the final cutscene.
The Ugly
The AI was dismal and damn near ruined the game. Hiding from pursuing guards was too easy, yet, at other times, they seemed to attack for no reason at all (apparently town guards back then had very Draconic orders: kill anyone engaged in anything from walking too fast to murder, but wantonly starting fistfights with civilians was perfectly legal). Since the spirit of the game was stealth, the player should’ve been given much more opportunity to stealth-assassinate his targets. I only remember three or four targets which I was actually able to stealth-assassinate – the rest forced you to fight his guards. The swordplay was very fun for a long while, but eventually, the one-button counter-kills became way too easy and every opponent seemed to suffer from Kung Fu Movie Syndrome, where only one opponent attacks at a time while the rest watch.
In conclusion: great game, great replay value, but corners were cut. I look forward to Assassin’s Creed 2, though sadly, Altaïr’s story has come to an end and we will most likely never find out anything more about him.
I think it’s kharaa kalb.
What is this current trend with all action or adventure games that are supposed to be realistic being all brown/gray, brown, gray, grey, brown, gray/brown, or grimy?
I recently played Resident Evil 5 at someone’s house for the first time…unbelievably UGLY, monotonous, BROWN/GRAY color palette!
I want fucking COLORS in a game. I want vivid environments, lush green grass, colorful outfits on characters, etc. The old sandbox game Mafia was a perfect example - an adventure game with COLOR everywhere you looked. I STILL play that game now even though it’s ancient by today’s standards, because the environment looks so great.
But those days are over. Now everything is brown, brown, brown. Dirty, dusty, grimy, brown.
It’s a game? It sounds like reality TV.
Aren’t there mods for one (or more) of the Thief series which let you become an assassin?
I came in to post that while it definately wasn’t Thief when it comes to stealth that overall I enjoyed the game despite the shortcomings mentioned earlier.
The only things I found rather pointless were the optional find the flags and kill the templars missions. If there were some goal to them other than getting the achievement awards I might have spent some time on them. Okay, killing templars was fun, but I really don’t need a pocket full of flags.
All said, I’ll get the second one too.
Thank you so much for posting! I actually thought this game looked intriguing (from the commercials! I’m a noobie!) despite the fact that I rarely play anything but WoW lately, but there’s no way I’m going to play a high-tech alternate reality game. I hate them. Thanks again!