I’ll come right out with it: Assassin’s Creed has to be one of the, if not the, best video games I’ve ever played. I’m usually content with flash-based games or the occasional gracious defeat in Command & Conquer 3 but Assassin’s Creed has given me a new taste for video games and a renewed faith in the video game industry that new IP can be, and is being, successful.
You, the player, take on the persona of barkeeper Desmond Miles who in turn is kidnapped by a group of scientists. They make you enter a machine called the Animus which extracts genetic memories from your DNA. Stay with me. The premise is that your DNA holds memories of your ancestors which this machine can access. Your player, Miles, is the distant ancestor of an Assassin; Altaïr – “The Flying One”.
This machine lets you take control of Altaïr as he completes missions throughout 4 [said to be] historically accurate cities, 3 or which are highly detailed worlds in themselves. As the game unfolds, you discover that the people you are charged with assassinating are actually Templars with the goal to unite humanity. The scientists are found to searching through these genetic memories to seek the location of certain artefacts which can help them revive the Templar mission and unite humanity under one cause.
Hubbub
I knew very little about Assassin’s creed before it was released. I had followed a few articles that Digg gifted me with and a few discussions on the Xbox.com forums and was partially excited by the rumour a major theme of the game would be time travel. Although this particular rumour isn’t technically the case, the game does live up to the hubbub surrounding it pre-release; albeit that some of the hype was unfounded.
The games industry is always hungry for a new concept and new ideas but at the same time are weary of the claims that are made about them. Assassin’s Creed was no different and the eye candy and demos Ubisoft provided created high expectations of the game. The tid bits of information that Ubisoft trickled out to technology blogs and journalists certainly caught peoples’ attention and the end product didn’t fail to impress in most areas. The battle system and basic character interaction system has improved much since the last demos which many are thank full for.
History is Beautiful
You play the vast majority of the game as Altaïr in the delicately crafted cities of Jerusalem, Acre and Damascus as well as Masyaf which is the assassins’ stronghold. I play the Xbox 360 version of the game so I don’t know whether the Playstation 3 version has different textures but what I can say is that the textures and the graphics in general are just beautiful. 
You feel you’re in those towns in that time because the look and sound of the cities is immersing.
It may be because my computer is rather lacklustre in the graphics department but the graphics Assassin’s Creed provide are nice, at least from my viewpoint and considering it’s a games console and not a PC. Shadows, textures, buildings, hay, horses and character models are really detailed and look beautiful.
Creed Control
The game is very easy to play and the control system becomes second nature after you’ve played through a few memories. Engaging enemies and scaling the scenery is quite exciting and although escaping enemies becomes rather easy, it still remains rather thrilling finding a pile of hay or a rooftop hide to disappear in. You’re able to disappear into the crowd as it were in a number of ways. Firstly, you can just blend in by pressing a button but for short-term anonymity you can sit on a bench or for long term anonymity you can join a group of scholars who are dressed similarly and walk around the city unnoticed, but very very slowly.
Greatness or Guillotine?
Assassin’s Creed is a wonderfully crafted game but it’s not perfect. If the developers had spent as much time as they did on making it look as good as it does on game play and the story line, it would be one of the best console games ever. The world is huge and patience is a virtue that one must learn as quickly as possible if you’re to stay under the radar and keep to the creed.
You develop a range of weapons and skills during the course of the game which aren’t exactly put to good use except for the main kills you have to make. Silly side track missions such as ‘interrogation’ and ‘pick pocketing’ deter you from what you really want to do – 
explore the cities and be able to assassinate your targets in a number of different ways (which are limited still by the paths you can take and the weapons available to you).
I hope that rumours of it being the first in a trilogy of games is true but now it has been released, this seems less likely. This game is a great buy and the ability to complete it a number of different ways and the atmosphere the graphics and sound makes will make sure you really get into it. The mystery surrounding the characters (which I’ve probably spoiled if you bothered to read above) and their intentions is exciting to unravel and learn for yourself. I would like to see more Assassin’s Creed games and if the idea of a film becomes reality, I wish everyone involved well and good luck.
We’ve known Super Mario Galaxy has been a long time coming and although the hype surrounding it may have only been contained to a small circle of Nintendo and Mario faithful, the game has certainly made a splash since being released in an unprecedented way.
From what I’ve played so far, there is a small amount of puzzle solving (as you would expect) that you experience on your adventures. So far they’ve been simple but still manage to make the game fun. Unless you play the game non-stop, you can expect to get some pretty decent time out of this game. When you’ve completed the game – spoiler alert here – you get to play it all over again but as Luigi. Luigi acts and behaves differently to the environments so you’ve got to play differently. I would say that you could play many levels over again, just for fun.
I’ve posted about 
Ethan is a crazy character and a fanatic of video games at the age of 25 and is either inciting or engaged in trouble in every strip he’s featured in. His antics have resulted in many story lines and many laughs. On Valentines day this year, Ethan finally proposed to the recurring character Lilah – also a game fanatic – by, what could more appropriate than, getting the 7 tops scores on an arcade video game and making them spell “LIL” “AH_” “WIL” “YOU” “MAR” “RY_” “ME_”. In the comic, Ethan works at a gaming store but how he has managed to keep his job is beyond me (though he has gone through quite a few jobs) and his antics there are amusing. He always finds a way to pre-order the latest game or grab the latest games console by any means and even when he doesn’t always have the money to do so. Ethan is a rather odd character but one you can love, pity and laugh at all in the same strip.
Lucas is the more level-headed main character but apart from being totally serious he’s also sarcastic and cynical. He tries to keep one step ahead of Ethan and always tries to bring a sense of reality to the story line. Lucas is a programmer currently and has worked at the customer service desk at two stores since the start of the comic. Because of this, he has developed a distaste for ignorant people and often provides his customers with a dose of harsh truth when they act so. He often calls 911 in advance when he suspects that Ethan is going to do something silly. The comments that Lucas makes are often a reality check for the other characters and usually the sarcastic comments are taken literally by Ethan which always makes for a good comic and a laugh. He’s laid back and will choose a video game over work if he can.
Scott has been in the comic since 2002 and is an avid web designer and Linux user. He brings a pet penguin into the equation, called Ted, which is always funny to see when it is interacting with Ethan – Ethan is always trying to capture and kill Ted, yet is always outsmarted. Scott is intelligent, relaxed, mysterious and practises meditation here and there. He’s been working on a rather secret project in his room which is guarded by an electrified metal door (which is only activated when Ethan is snooping around). Scott is a funny character and brings passive humour to the comic particularly inciting laughs with his use of silence. Although he turned up rather mysteriously, Scott keeps himself to himself and usually stays in his room with Ted, tinkering on his project.
Zeke is a 
Lilah Monroe is the rare type of girl that you only hear about in dodgy chat rooms or on digg. She smashed Ethan’s preconceptions that cute girls don’t play video games; let alone are good at them. She’s smart, attractive and started dating Ethan only 
Leaving the Nintendo and Microsoft bandwagon, I thought I’d tell you about a game that I was introduced to yesterday by a friend. From the creators of Darwinia and Uplink, British game designers 
