Assassin's Creed 2

[Queasy]

Edit- IGN just put up their review: http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/104/1045745p1.html

MTV Multiplayer

Kotaku

Xplay

 

[coldmeat]

It's getting some real nice reviews. I got the afternoon off work today so I'll be picking it up in about 30 minutes. That's if the Walmart has it. It's just about the only place in town to buy games.

 

[Kabob]

MTV Multiplayer

Kotaku

Xplay

Post some review scores? I can't see IGN at work.

 

[Queasy]

Post some review scores? I can't see IGN at work.

The high - GamePro and Playstation Mag at 100
The Low - GiantBomb and Edge Magazine at 80

Notables:
IGN - 92
GameInformer - 95
GameTrailers - 92
1Up - 91
GameSpot - 90

 

[Malak]

Post some review scores? I can't see IGN at work.

9.2 for IGN. Average rating is almost 91% across the board. IGN says, in a nutshell, that it is a huge improvement over the first game.

 

[GrantMeThePower]

Well, Blockbuster had this along with Left 4 Dead 2 today. So I rented both with my rent 1 get 1 free coupon. Then the clerk kindly reminded me of the change of policy that charges you $1 a day when you keep games out longer than 5 days.

Crap. Blockbluster is always cutting back on their offerings.

wow.....i didn't know about that change. That really changes how useful it is.

I guess with the rent 1 get 1 it helps, but still.

 

[Kabob]

I almost find it easier to do the "buy on release day, beat it rapidly, sell on Ebay" move. Batman: Arkham Asylum is still pulling $40 on ebay, had you bought it on release day and played through it a time or two you could probably have made $50 of that back. And with Amazon doing promotions constantly for $10-$20 in store credit you can almost support your addiction that way.

 

[mugs]

Well, Blockbuster had this along with Left 4 Dead 2 today. So I rented both with my rent 1 get 1 free coupon. Then the clerk kindly reminded me of the change of policy that charges you $1 a day when you keep games out longer than 5 days.

Crap. Blockbluster is always cutting back on their offerings.

Mine didn't have it, though I forgot to ask if they had received it but hasn't put it out yet. Maybe I'll go back out later and check again.

They did have about 20 copies of MW2 for 360 though, which is the most I've seen of any game there. 11 copies were unrented; it's pretty much unheard of to find a good game available to rent a week after it came out. Someone over-estimated demand for rentals.

 

[gorcorps]

Mine didn't have it, though I forgot to ask if they had received it but hasn't put it out yet. Maybe I'll go back out later and check again.

They did have about 20 copies of MW2 for 360 though, which is the most I've seen of any game there. 11 copies were unrented; it's pretty much unheard of to find a good game available to rent a week after it came out. Someone over-estimated demand for rentals.

Heh, with the sales figures on opening day it wouldn't surprise me if there's unrented copies of MW2 because most people who want to play it already bought it :hmm:

I need to rent AC2 or MW2 when my schedule opens up, as I won't be able to wait til christmas to play either.

 

[tdawg]

AC2 is sounding great and something I really want to pick up, but I have Uncharted 2 to finish and MW2 is sucking up any free gaming time at the moment.

 

[Kabob]

Any mention of replay value on this game yet? That's what's keeping me from making a purchase.

 

[coldmeat]

Well I've played about 4-5 hours so far. It's definitely a pretty fun game. Pretty much what AC1 should have been. There are still some things that I can see might get a little repetetive later on in the game, but who knows, and they aren't a major part of the game anyways. There is a good variety of missions and there are some cool areas/environments that change it up from the usual cities. Being able to upgrade your weapons/armor is pretty cool too.

 

[SirFelixCat]

LOL @ these professional reviews. I hate reviews like these (gametrailers.com in particular). The economy is unbalanced, the combat AI is pitiful, the platforming isn't that smooth or fresh, meh, we'll give it a 9.2. Professional video game reviewers are a joke.

 

[chorb]

LOL @ these professional reviews. I hate reviews like these (gametrailers.com in particular). The economy is unbalanced, the combat AI is pitiful, the platforming isn't that smooth or fresh, meh, we'll give it a 9.2. Professional video game reviewers are a joke.

Because if you give a poor review you probably wont be receiving any future pre-release copies to evaluate from that company. Its a fine line, they need the games early to review to drive traffic to their site, give bad review, no more early releases, no more traffic to their site.

I think I've come to understand their rating systems, less than 8 is a horrible game, between 8-9 is rent worthy, and 9-10 is actually a game worth buying.

 

[zinfamous]

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/...an-sequel-hands-on-with-assassins-creed-2.ars

This article pretty much sums up why I'm excited about Assassin's Creed 2, it seems like they revamped every aspect of the original. I was one of the very few who fully enjoyed AC1 and I'm definitely looking forward to playing this one.

The only problem I had with the first was the super repetitive play. It was extremely fun overall, but if they alter the game play a bit (not only variety to mission styles, but different choices, pathways if missions are failed or choices made, etc), I'd be all over this. Maybe will anyway, but my game-playing days are now finite.

 

[Kabob]

Anyone have any impressions yet?

 

[ivan2]

so how's counter working out for you guys who has it already?

 

[Queasy]

Anyone have any impressions yet?

I played for a couple hours last night after L4D2 was too laggy for me to play multiplayer. Caveat: I did not play the original Assassin's Creed so I can't really comment on the repetitive nature of the original other than being aware that it was a major issue.

First off, I'm really liking the story and the setting. Renaissance Italy with all of it's history and stories of family feuds and betrayal makes for a fantastic setting. The fact that little snippets of information pop up about the real history along with the fictional history makes things even more interesting for the history buff in me. One thing you're going to want to do straight away though is turn on the subtitles. Even though the characters speak in Italian-accented English (It's a me! Mario!), they still throw out numerous Italian phrases that would make me lost without the subtitles.

In the story, I got just past the point where Ezio dons the Assassin's garb, undergoes some training, and assassinates his first target. I actually spent alot of time (probably too much) just running around the rooftops and climbing all the viewpoints. Most of the missions in the beginning were of the run here, deliver this, beat up this person type so I don't think the game has had much of a chance to show off the variety promised in the Game Informer and other articles. Even though this part of the game has been enjoyable because of the characters and story, action wise I feel like I just got out of the tutorial.

Control wise the game can be a little touchy running around. It kind of reminds me of Gears of War where mapping the roadie run and the cover action to the same button causes problems. In AC2, they mapped fast walk to the same button that you use to pickpocket. So what happens? You try to fast walk through crowds and you end up pickpocketing everybody you bump into even though you're not trying to. And when you pickpocket somebody you have to take off otherwise you'll draw attention to yourself...but the act of running in the game draws attention to yourself which is in and of itself an attention getter. Kind of frustrating so you'll end up not using fast walk at all. At least with not any crowds around.

My other two issues with the controls are that sometimes when running along the rooftops you end up jumping at a more severe angle than you intended. Again, like the roadie run in GoW, if there's an object nearby that you Ezio can grab while your running and holding 'A' down, he'll grab that object whether you wanted him to or not. That may just be me though. It also took me a minute to figure out that you have to hold down 'Y' to turn on and off Eagle Vision. It's not just a button press and there was nothing on-screen indicating that you have to hold it. I'm playing sans-manual but I don't think I would have read the manual anyways.

Wow...I can't believe I just wrote 5 paragraphs and I'm still really only beginning the game. Oh well. I'm enjoying it so far. Overall, the story is really making the difference for me up to this point.

 

[R Nilla]

I played for a couple hours last night after L4D2 was too laggy for me to play multiplayer.

Off topic: I started a L4D2 game with a friend last night and we noticed right away it was too laggy. So we tried again but this time I set the server settings to "Local" instead of "Official Dedicated" and that solved the lag issue. I thought it was interesting that there's an an option of local or dedicated since usually Live games are hosted locally (AFAIK). Maybe the dedicated servers couldn't handle the release day load?

 

[Kabob]

I played for a couple hours last night after L4D2 was too laggy for me to play multiplayer. Caveat: I did not play the original Assassin's Creed so I can't really comment on the repetitive nature of the original other than being aware that it was a major issue.

First off, I'm really liking the story and the setting. Renaissance Italy with all of it's history and stories of family feuds and betrayal makes for a fantastic setting. The fact that little snippets of information pop up about the real history along with the fictional history makes things even more interesting for the history buff in me. One thing you're going to want to do straight away though is turn on the subtitles. Even though the characters speak in Italian-accented English (It's a me! Mario!), they still throw out numerous Italian phrases that would make me lost without the subtitles.

In the story, I got just past the point where Ezio dons the Assassin's garb, undergoes some training, and assassinates his first target. I actually spent alot of time (probably too much) just running around the rooftops and climbing all the viewpoints. Most of the missions in the beginning were of the run here, deliver this, beat up this person type so I don't think the game has had much of a chance to show off the variety promised in the Game Informer and other articles. Even though this part of the game has been enjoyable because of the characters and story, action wise I feel like I just got out of the tutorial.

Control wise the game can be a little touchy running around. It kind of reminds me of Gears of War where mapping the roadie run and the cover action to the same button causes problems. In AC2, they mapped fast walk to the same button that you use to pickpocket. So what happens? You try to fast walk through crowds and you end up pickpocketing everybody you bump into even though you're not trying to. And when you pickpocket somebody you have to take off otherwise you'll draw attention to yourself...but the act of running in the game draws attention to yourself which is in and of itself an attention getter. Kind of frustrating so you'll end up not using fast walk at all. At least with not any crowds around.

My other two issues with the controls are that sometimes when running along the rooftops you end up jumping at a more severe angle than you intended. Again, like the roadie run in GoW, if there's an object nearby that you Ezio can grab while your running and holding 'A' down, he'll grab that object whether you wanted him to or not. That may just be me though. It also took me a minute to figure out that you have to hold down 'Y' to turn on and off Eagle Vision. It's not just a button press and there was nothing on-screen indicating that you have to hold it. I'm playing sans-manual but I don't think I would have read the manual anyways.

Wow...I can't believe I just wrote 5 paragraphs and I'm still really only beginning the game. Oh well. I'm enjoying it so far. Overall, the story is really making the difference for me up to this point.

Surely Luca is offended

Glad you're enjoying it. I've got the original Assassin's Creed if you want to borrow it. I may have to pick up AC2 with my Amazon credit and give it a whirl, I can't really think of any options I like more.

 

[warcrow]

Queasy/R Nilla: You both play L4D/L4D2 and we're not buddies in Steam? We must fix this! Add me so we can play some time: warcrow

 

[R Nilla]

Queasy/R Nilla: You both play L4D/L4D2 and we're not buddies in Steam? We must fix this! Add me so we can play some time: warcrow

Although I could play them on my PC, I only have 360 copies at the moment. Do you ever play them on Live or just Steam?

 

[Kabob]

Queasy/R Nilla: You both play L4D/L4D2 and we're not buddies in Steam? We must fix this! Add me so we can play some time: warcrow

They're both posting about this game in the Console Gaming section...

 

[fearless47]

why is AC coming out next year.

overall score http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/ps3/assassinscreed2

pc release date http://www.gamestop.com/Catalog/ProductDetails.aspx?product_id=74510

 

[Queasy]

Queasy/R Nilla: You both play L4D/L4D2 and we're not buddies in Steam? We must fix this! Add me so we can play some time: warcrow

Haha...my computer is so decrepit that I can't even play Free Realms on it. I'm only gaming on the 360 and Wii until I can afford to upgrade my PC....which is way way way down on my list of things to spend money on.