Assassin's Creed
Genre: Action/Adventure
R.R.P: £40 - £50
Age Rating: 15
Release Date: Out Now
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Format: Xbox 360, PS3
Welcome to the Third Crusade, the setting of Assassin's Creed and home to some of the most retarded guards in exsistance. I'm serious they're on par, if not dumber, than MGS 2's guards of "What was that just now?" ilk. Now anyone who reads my reviews knows that I generally don't open with a rant, but I just had to get that of my chest, I'll be normal now.
Assassin's plot (dare I call it that) has been quoted within the range of "Deep and meaningful" to "complete and utter bull", I tend to agree with the latter. Altair is one of the most unimaginative characters in exsistance, and lines such as "You kidnapped me! I don't even know you!" kinda finish the guy off. I'm sure that any great story teller will assure that it's a bad move to reveal the main plot twist at the beginning of the narrative, Assasins Creed ignores this and therefore nothing is gripping, mysterious or anything else!
Plot and AI aside, the game holds up fairly well. The graphics are lush, with cities brimming with life, and burning in the sun. Indeed Assassin's graphics are among the best I've ever seen, with the games only noticable graphical flaws being clipping and decent facial animation. The occaisional weak patch of graphics occur in between assasination but other than that the game is beautiful and runs without lag.
Combat works well, but could have been tougher. As guards only attack one at a time and rarely employ any tactics other than circling the player, you can happily resort to counter attacks and take on thousands of guards at the same time. This would be an excellent point to explain the controls, if they were easy to explain, all you need to know is that they are perfect and intuitive.
Finally climbing, which is what Assassins Creed is all about really. Altair can climb on anything, and more importantly he actually climbs on it! His feet actually touch everything they're meant to, as do his hands. Although this is astounding and all it should have been done years ago. Having said that I do Ubisoft for doing it.
Unfortunatly Assassin's good points end here. Missions follow an incredibly repetitive structure where the player gathers information by pickpocketing, eaves dropping, interogations and on occasion doing favours for informants (the more bizarre of these being the collection of flags), an then undertakes the assasination. Unfortunatley thats all there is to do, which begs me to ask the question, why give us the sandbox? My first answer would be to kill indiscriminantly, but killing civilians hurts you, meaning the sandbox world completely and utterly bemuses me.
7/10 - Assassin's Creed isn't exactly special, but it remains buyable or at the very least rentable.
Monday, 19 November 2007
Thursday, 8 November 2007
The Orange Box Review
The Orange Box
Format: PC, Xbox 360, PS3.
R.R.P: £40
Release Date: Out Now (360, PC), 16th November (PS3)
Publisher: Valve
Developer: Valve
Genre: First Person Action
Rating: Teen-Mature
The Orange Box is a shrine to all that Valve have achieved, and to be quite frank theres acctually very little to say. In the days leading upto the games release I admit that I did spend at least 4 hours pondering upon what I was going to say, and if I would be able to avoid re-iterating myself.
Half-Life 2 and Episode One have already paved there way into the mind of gamers, so I've (sagely) decided not to talk about them. Instead I'm going to talk about new content, which is here in droves.
Episode Two starts off where Episode One left off and is byfar the best game in the Half-Life series, this is mainly due to the inclusion of new enviroments. In previous games dark, dank corridors made up the majority of game time and while they are still present in Episode Two Valve have decided to let players run free in the lush land of White Forest.
As the plot progresses some rather interesting things arise, including some rather strange hints as to how G-man and the combine may be stopped. As each event unfolds the gameplay becomes more and more intense untilit culminates in the defense of the White Forest missile silo from the unstoppable Combine forces.
In short Episode Two is fantastic. I know move on to the most interesting part of the package; Portal. Portal is a first person puzzle game in which players use a "portal gun" to shoot portals into the level. These Portal can instantly transport the player around the map, whilst applying the gravitation force before entry. Example if you fall into a Portal from a hieght you will fire out another with the same velocity.
This is a relatively simple idea which gets taken to stupid lengths, and ultimatley prepares Valves physics engine for Half-Life 3 (which may or may not happen, I have NO information!) which is not a bad thing as Portal still manages to be one of the most enjoyable games I have ever played.
All this goodness is bundled up with Team Fortress 2, which offers a Battlefront style of gameplay modes, involving taking key points. While it is a solid Multiplayer game it fails to stand upto the likes of Halo and is by far the weakest part of the Package.
In all The Orange Box is one of the most solid expieriances out there at the moment and is proof that Halo mania can be beaten (In the way that I stopped playing Halo but this is by no means better than it). Whilst offering a solid single player experiance it offers a meagre multiplayer one.
9/10
Format: PC, Xbox 360, PS3.
R.R.P: £40
Release Date: Out Now (360, PC), 16th November (PS3)
Publisher: Valve
Developer: Valve
Genre: First Person Action
Rating: Teen-Mature
The Orange Box is a shrine to all that Valve have achieved, and to be quite frank theres acctually very little to say. In the days leading upto the games release I admit that I did spend at least 4 hours pondering upon what I was going to say, and if I would be able to avoid re-iterating myself.
Half-Life 2 and Episode One have already paved there way into the mind of gamers, so I've (sagely) decided not to talk about them. Instead I'm going to talk about new content, which is here in droves.
Episode Two starts off where Episode One left off and is byfar the best game in the Half-Life series, this is mainly due to the inclusion of new enviroments. In previous games dark, dank corridors made up the majority of game time and while they are still present in Episode Two Valve have decided to let players run free in the lush land of White Forest.
As the plot progresses some rather interesting things arise, including some rather strange hints as to how G-man and the combine may be stopped. As each event unfolds the gameplay becomes more and more intense untilit culminates in the defense of the White Forest missile silo from the unstoppable Combine forces.
In short Episode Two is fantastic. I know move on to the most interesting part of the package; Portal. Portal is a first person puzzle game in which players use a "portal gun" to shoot portals into the level. These Portal can instantly transport the player around the map, whilst applying the gravitation force before entry. Example if you fall into a Portal from a hieght you will fire out another with the same velocity.
This is a relatively simple idea which gets taken to stupid lengths, and ultimatley prepares Valves physics engine for Half-Life 3 (which may or may not happen, I have NO information!) which is not a bad thing as Portal still manages to be one of the most enjoyable games I have ever played.
All this goodness is bundled up with Team Fortress 2, which offers a Battlefront style of gameplay modes, involving taking key points. While it is a solid Multiplayer game it fails to stand upto the likes of Halo and is by far the weakest part of the Package.
In all The Orange Box is one of the most solid expieriances out there at the moment and is proof that Halo mania can be beaten (In the way that I stopped playing Halo but this is by no means better than it). Whilst offering a solid single player experiance it offers a meagre multiplayer one.
9/10
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