AC3 is worth watching for, and I loved Prince of Persia back in the day, may download that one again. The rest of it is ridiculously bad, though–I’m embarrassed to have spread their link.
Neverwinter Nights Diamond Edition is free on GOG for the next couple days or so.
Titanfall 2 is having a free multiplayer weekend starting 12/2.
Battlerite, a top down arena brawler is having a free weekend. Worth giving a try.
Between Me & the Night for free from Indie Gala
You have to join their Steam Group but you can leave immediately after.
Today is Ubi’s “Free AC3” day; naturally the servers are taking a beating. Activates on Uplay (naturally) not Steam.
I just got it. I started and quit AC1 twice. So boring.
I have heard the sequels were vastly better. Is this true? If so, can I start with AC3 and have fun & understand the story OK? I do not, I think, own AC2.
I’ve heard from people that you should just start on AC2, since it’s just better at everything it does than AC1. I would assume AC3 shares those improvements. You can catch up to the rather silly and convoluted story via synopsis.
AC2 and its sequel AC2:Brotherhood are by far the best of the series. AC3 has mostly the same gameplay, but an inferior story, physical setting, and main character. So I’d play those 2 AC2 games if at all possible first. You can skip AC2:Revelations though, it’s a step down from the previous two.
The stories themselves are largely stand-alone in different points of time and place though so playing AC1, AC2, Brotherhood & Revelations isn’t a requirement to play AC3.
The internal stories, true. For the external story it’s a probably a good idea to read up on the background.
The external story is horrible though 
What, you don’t enjoy learning everything about Desmond Miles’ bartending jobs?
Seriously, can’t argue that.
The reason to play AC2 before AC3 is because of the risk of finishing AC3 and saying, “Huh, that was fun.” and never going back to the AC series at all. While when you finish AC2 you get one of those rare “…Wow…” experiences from a fantastic game. IMHO.
So AC2 is not just more climbing buildings and doing repetitive assassinations? I was bored and I really, really tried to play AC1.
I loved all the Prince of Persia games, though. I even liked the weird one with the cell-shading graphics.
AC2 is so much better than AC1.
Alright, so this thread brings AC to mind and I’m thinking about giving it a go starting from AC2. What should I know from missing AC1 that would help me understand AC2?
[spoiler]There’s an organization called Abstergo that controls the world from behind the scenes. They’re direct descendants of the Knights Templar from the 12th century. Publicly they’re a huge multi-national company, but do plenty of secret work to control governments and other corporations all the way down to spying on everyone through their phones, TVs, etc. There’s another secret organization, the Assassins, that have been fighting the Templars since forever. They’re completely secret.
Abstergo has a device, the Animus, that lets people relive the lives of their ancestors through “genetic memory”. They use it on the protagonist, Desmond Miles, who was raised in the modern Assassins society but left. They make him relive the life of his ancestor Altair (there’s an umlaut in there somewhere), an assassin from the 12th-13th century, to find the location of the “Apple of Eden”, a powerful, mystical device. For some in-game reason Desmond has to relive several years of Altair’s life instead of just jumping to the relevant part, which is why the game actually exists. He assassinates 9 or so important people during this time (and countless guards). Each assassination is accompanied by a 5-10 minute (seriously) deep philosophical discussion between the victim and Altair as to whether the Templar (organization and control for the good of humanity) or Assassin (freedom above all) beliefs are better for humanity. Note, this was eliminated in the future AC games, where assassination conversations are more of the “Oh fuck, my aorta! You suck!” variety.
The game is about 95% Altair, but after each important assassination it switches back the modern world, where Desmond is a prisoner. During this time you find out that you’re actually the 17th person they’ve tried this on, Subject 16 died horribly but has left secret messages for the inevitable 17th subject and one of the scientists, Lucy, is or at least claims to be a member of the modern Assassins Guild. At the end, Abstergo is able to get the location of the Apple of Eden that they wanted, and you find that you’ve somehow obtained some of the cool assassin abilities that Altair had.
[/spoiler]
OK, so I don’t own Assassin’s Creed 2 and it is not on sale.
I’m starting with 3, then. Remember, I hated the first game and am trusting that the sequels were superior. I hope 3 is an acceptable starting point. I will go back and play 2 when it goes on sale and if I find 3 an OK game.
Was 3 a good game?
Three is probably the weakest of the more recent games.
Well, I hope it is good enough to encourage me to buy AC2 next time it drops to $5 or so. Anyone have a gift key they want to send me of it? I’d happily play 2 if I had a copy, but I’m not paying $19.99 for it.