(baogame.vn) – Tựa game chiến thuật thiên về quản lý kinh tế của Ubisoft sẽ có bản mở rộng đầu tiên. Đó là thông báo mới nhất được đăng lên trang chủ của Ubisoft vào hôm thứ tư vừa rồi. Được biết bản mở rộng này sẽ được phát hành vào tháng 2 năm sau.

• Bổ sung môi trường mới lấy cảm hứng từ thành phố Venice
• Các loại tàu thuyền mới
• Phát triển nội các phục vụ cho việc xâm nhập và phá hoại kẻ địch từ bên trong
• Kiểm soát thành phố của đối phương nhờ gây ảnh hưởng lên hội đồng thành phố

• Lựa chọn chơi đơn hoặc co-op để đánh bại máy
• Số lượng người chơi trong cùng một bản đồ có thể lên tới 8 người

• Nâng cấp lên 60 item và 300 nhiệm vụ mới. Bổ sung thêm 2 dạng nhiệm vụ mới là Trading Race và Ship Boarding
• Khám phá và khai thác tài nguyên ở hòn đảo mới: đảo núi lửa
• Nhiều thử thách với hệ thống điểm thưởng, tính thành tích và các kho báu mới

Source: Ubisoft công bố bản mở rộng đầu tiên cho Anno 1404

Así es. Esta mañana he recibido una clave para la beta del R.U.S.E. para PC, y como aún no he instalado la gráfica que compré hace unos meses (lo sé, lo sé…) y me da mucha pereza (además que antes quiero formatear, lo que me da más pereza, y quiero cambiar también de compañía de telefonía, y…), y como ya estoy abriendo y cerrando demasiados paréntesis en el primer párrafo (lo sé, lo sé…), he decidido regalar la clave a alguien que la aproveche mejor.

Según el e-mail recibido por parte de Ubisoft, la beta comenzará el día 30 de noviembre, así que tendréis de plazo hasta el 29 de noviembre a las 23:59, a no ser que el Barça golee al Madrid, con lo que el plazo se terminaría antes… Nah, esto último es broma ;P

No habrá sorteos, y lo único que tendréis que hacer para ganar esta clave es decirme los motivos por los que creéis que os la merecéis. Podéis ser honestos, originales, graciosos, lo que sea. Y en base a ello, escogeré la propuesta más llamativa

Así pues, mandadme lo que queráis a mi dirección de correo (harukendia arroba gmail punto com) con el asunto Ensaladille RUSE.

¡Suerte a todos!

(baogame.vn) – Làng game thế giới trong những ngày qua đã có biến động gì. Hãy cùng chúng tôi điểm qua những tin tức nổi bật nhất nhé!

Source: Tin vắn thế giới tổng hợp (rạng sáng ngày 27/11)

Resmi PlayStation dergisinin haberine göre popüler fps serisinin üçüncü oyununun geliştirilmesine başlanmış.
Daha fazla yan görev ve haritanın istenilen yerinde doğmak gibi yepyeni özellikler Far Cry 3 hakkındaki ilk bilgiler. (K)

(baogame.vn) – Không “nổi đình nổi đám” như Modern Warfare 2, thế nhưng các tựa game khủng khác cũng đã có được lượng tiêu thụ khá ổn định. Dragon Age: Origins đã chạm ngưỡng 1 triệu bản từ cách đây hai tuần, và giờ đến lượt sát thủ của Ubisoft hái ra tiền.

Source: Assassin’s Creed II tiêu thụ được 1.6 triệu bản trong vòng một tuần

Hace apenas dos años que salió a la venta un título que causo mucha expectativa, sus gráficos nos impresionaron, su historia nos impacto pero errores en su ejecución no lo dejaron alcanzar ese estatus de clásico pero al menos las ventas que generó, lograron darle una oportunidad a sus creadores para volver al “Animus” y arreglar esas fallas.

La trama sigue girando entorno a Desmond Miles un descendiente de una linea de asesinos y al cual por medio de técnicas de manipulación genética  tratan sacarle los recuerdos de sus antepasados para descubrir un misterio que acabara con un conflicto entre dos hermandades secretas (los templarios y los asesinos). En esta entrega, Desmond logra librarse de la empresa Abstergo Industries y con ayuda de una vieja amiga llega a la hermandad de los asesinos los cuales tienen su propio Animus y logran conectar con otro de los antepasados de Desmond, llamado Ezio Auditore da Firenze a quien seguiremos a través de varios años en los cuales le ayudaremos a vengar la muerte de su padre y hermanos y desentrañar una historia digna de una de las más altas producciones hollywoodenses.

La historia y el desarrollo del juego desde mi punto de vista es muy lenta en un principio, y recordaras mucho de lo que no te gusto de AC pero en esta ocasión Ubisfot nos otorga la libertad de terminar las misiones como a nosotros nos de la gana; y debo decir que es algo sumamente necesario ya que odie al primer juego por sus misiones obligadas a terminar de la manera en la que intentaron diseñarlas, en esta ocasión todo es distinto y este parámetro la da al juego un valor más alto para con el usuario.

Nos encontraremos con misiones sumamente bien diseñadas (especialmente aquellas en donde tienes que perseguir a un objetivo y denota un diseño de escenarios excepcional) y con otras extremadamente aburridas, los cambios de ritmo en el juego son muy notorios y las misiones alternas (tipo GTA) son muy repetitivas y aburridas.

Aún así ACII logra atraparte y si compras la premisa del guión tipo Matrix, te encontrarás con uno de los trabajos de historia mejor ejecutados en la industria de los juegos, de verdad el detalle es tremendo; en todas las ciudades que visitas, Venecia,Florencia y Tuscania podremos ver los edificios insignia como probablemente existieron en esa época, personajes reales (aunque no me gusto lo de Leonardo Da Vinci) e historia real cuidados al extremo.

El esquema de control ha mejorado y se siente muy responsivo pero me causo mucha molestia cuando te pedían exactitud por que el personaje no responde de la forma en la que tu esperas y sobre todo por que para correr (y aquí corres muchísimo) tienes que dejar apretado el gatillo derecho y después de 15 minutos es sumamente molesto para tu dedo. Los escenarios de puzzles tipo Tomb Raider son bastante divertidos y en estos el control ayuda bastante.

Gráficamente su antecesor nos causo una tremenda impresión , pero para estas alturas todos ya hemos visto cosas extremadamente impresionantes y aunque el detalle de las ciudades si es impactante los diseños de los personajes son muy malos y más cuando los tienes cerca ya que se ven como diseños de la ultima generación del primer Xbox. El trabajo de actuación en las voces es muy bueno y te aseguro que se te grabará más de una frase en Italiano por todo lo que los personajes pueden llegar a decir.

En resumen, ACII es mucho mejor juego que AC se mejoraron muchos errores del primero pero a mi parecer aún no alcanza el estatus de clásico o épico que tan desesperadamente busca. Si te gusto el primero esta es una compra obligada y si no te gusto te recomiendo que al menos le des una rentada ya que el título lo merece.

Esta temporada el mercado de fichajes ha estado muy activo, pero ¿es Ezio el ultimo fichaje mediático del año? ¿Que hace Ezio rodeado de futbolistas?

No os preocupéis, no nos hemos vuelto locos (aún) y Ezio no ha fichado por ningún equipo de fútbol. Pero tampoco os vamos a anunciar su presencia en un videojuego de esta temática (Altaïr por su parte si que carrera en el mundo del fútbol). La solución a estas dudas tras el salto

La solución es muy sencilla, Marca y Ubisoft se han unido para buscar al jugador que recibirá el nombre de “Asesino del área”, en otras palabras están buscando a un autentico “Killer”. 10 jugadores son los elegidos y entre ellos se encuentran Ibrahimovic, Villa, Forlán, Eto’o o Benzema.

El futuro “Asesino del área” depende de vuestros votos; que por otra parte vuestra participación no será altruista ya que accederéis al sorteo de:

• 1 Xbox 360 Elite
• 1 PS3 Slim
• 5 Ediciones Black de Assassin’s Creed II (Xbox 360)
• 5 Ediciones Black de Assassin’s Creed II (PS3)

Jugosos premios, que requieren de muy poco esfuerzo para aspirar a ellos. Si os sentís afortunados o queréis decidir que jugador será el primer “Asesino del Área” solo tenéis que entrar en la web oficial del concurso de Marca y seguir sus instrucciones.

Suerte

Hoy nos ha llegado un curioso comunicado oficial des de Ubisoft:

¡Que no cunda el pánico! Solo quería informaros que nuestra web de www.splintercell.com ha sido hackeada por alguien de Rusia o algún país de Este. Estamos intentando solucionar el problema lo antes posible. Si alguien consigue descifrar algo de lo que pone en esa página nos seria de gran ayuda.

Al acceder a la pagina de Splinter Cell nos encontramos con la imagen que encabeza esta entrada, ¿que significado tiene este mensaje? A ver si alguien consigue dar con la solución

THE GAME EYE has uploaded the official video review of Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines. Here’s the direct link:

Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines – Review

Assassin’s Creed II Review

Two years ago it seemed a lot of people had to lob some justification in front of their enjoyment out of Assassin’s Creed, or harsh criticism for their contempt with the game. Neither side was necessarily wrong. The game laid out a heady story,  catapulted parkour as a genre mainstay, and blended elements of action and stealth to appease plenty of fans. It was also terribly bogged down by poor pacing, repetitive side missions and utterly inept AI to contend with, so you can understand peoples love or hate relationship with the beginning iteration into the planned franchise.  If Ubisoft has done one thing with Assassin’s Creed 2, and I’ll argue they’ve done more, it’s their ability to show they aren’t precious or stubborn, that they’ll listen to peoples qualms and address them in a meaningful way. As a result, we’re left with a far better game that helps drive the series forward by making headway with almost every single issue that cropped up the first go around.

For the uninitiated, you play as Desmond, a modern-day everyman from a bloodline of assassins. A war has been going on between Templars and Assassin’s for a centuries, and you’re the key to unlocking the mysteries surrounding it all. You do this by laying down on an Animus, a system by which Desmond can jack into memories of his ancestors – think Matrix and you’re in the right ballpark. But this is all just the setup to get you where you really want to be, before it was with Altair in the middle east, but this go around you play as Ezio in Italy circa late 14oo’s. This is the first mark of improvement in the series, as the towns of Florence and Venice and subsequent surrounding areas are far more vibrant and diverse. It adds a spark that’s subtle and reigns you into a world that feels far more believable and real.

In one of the outer areas if the game you’ll encounter your home, a villa at the top of a small rundown and terribly drab village. You’re given the options to invest in the town, by renovating shops, or rebuilding thieves guilds or brothels. While the only real reward is a high value given to your villa, which helps raise funds for you to collect and use, you’ll also notice that the town becomes a little more active. Open up the church and the brothel and you’ll see beautiful women and monks passing by in town that weren’t there before. You’ll get better gear and bigger discounts at shops. You can adorn your villa with wonderful works of art. It’s these touches that breath some life into the world and help with the immersion. If I had any complaints, it’s the I wish it was even more interactive, perhaps some side missions tied into your town or NPC’s to interact with. Given the scale of the game it becomes a minor issue that doesn’t hamper the game but if they utilize a similar town or home base in the third game I hope it’s something they take into consideration.

Scale here is important to note. While the first game was large, and that was hammered in by the fact that you had to hop on a horse to get anywhere (a most cumbersome affair), AS2 feels bigger, and has more to do. There isn’t a ton of secondary missions, still more than the first time, but at least they’re more fun. You can race, perform assassination contracts, deliveries or beat-em-ups. They’re sort of there, but only at your choosing — they also aren’t really tied into achievements or trophies beyond doing a single one…something I actually appreciated — and while you can do them all if you want, they aren’t needed to extend the game to feel like you’re getting your monies worth. At the completion of the game, having collected all 100 Feathers as well I had reached just under 26 hours of gameplay. I completed only 1 of each side mission and all Tomb Missions, the rest was all story. It’s a treat now days to get a game that offers a lengthy campaign without feeling strung along, and you never do here.

The combat mechanics are seemingly untouched from the first game, which isn’t entirely bad. The combat worked the first time, even though it was fairly simplified and grew repetitive. AS2 adds a couple nice additions by way of new weapons and gadgets, which help broaden the depth, if only just enough to feel fresh. A second assassin’s blade makes for a deadly weapon while sneaking and a formidable match against guards using axes, swords, or spears, each of which you can pickup or purchase yourself. Smoke bombs and throwing money add to distraction options to help get away from guards, and throwing stars are still around to pick off archers. It’s really the new weapons that provide the most enjoyment, as some clearly work better in some situations than others. It’s here though that the AI show’s some kinks. At times I was able to walk up to 4 guards and assassinate them all without a single one drawing a weapon on me. Stealth elements also highlight just how dense they can seem when you plop right behind them a loot treasure or walk away after stabbing someone right behind their back. These issue’s don’t hamper anything for too long, and players that played the first to death will notice some improved enemy attack patterns.

A huge reason why everything comes together so much better this time around is because the story and the protagonist are far more enjoyable. While the AS1 painted an intriguing world, it was a choppy affair that ended rather predictably seen through the eyes of a rather passive and unlikable character. Altair followed orders blindly without much sense of self motivation or involvement beyond being the murderer sent around. Ezio on the other hand is thrust into this situation after the brutal murder of his father and brothers, he too was to be hung but escapes in time to plot his revenge. While it’s more bloodthirsty, it’s still very easy to relate to his pain and choices and makes for a much smoother narrative.

The story takes a couple leaps into the full-blown mythic sci-fi realm towards the end of the game, but I can honestly say that everything moves the story forward in such a way that’s sure to make people want to come back for the third game. There’s a refined hand in the way this is all laid out, instead of jumping back and forth from Desmond to Ezio, you only come back into the modern day setting a few times, which means there’s no going to bed and sitting back down for every memory sync. It moves everything along and keeps you doing whatever you want, and it forces the story to unfold while playing instead of in some clunky exposition filled discussion with characters that don’t seem part of the story you’re actually focused on.

One last note on added little touches. The gadgets that you unlock as you progress are given to you by none other than Leonardo Da Vinci, who isn’t just a throwaway character so people feel smart for knowing a name, but he’s actually a friend of Ezio’s that helps him out and requires a hand or two himself. It adds some credence to stuff you use, and fleshes out this world to help it straddle the line between reality and game. A little history never hurt anyone, after all.

Assassin’s Creed II makes every intention to be better than it’s predecessor, and it does so proudly and without negotiating away it’s stellar setup. While the issues were never in the sound or graphics of the first game, they’ve still maintained a beautiful world full of life to explore while stepping up every other aspect in both subtle and obvious ways. A minute number of problems remain for the ultra-nitpicky, but none of them hold this back form being a triple-A title. If this is proof of what a developer can do with a little criticism and a sequel – my only wish is that we could get more than just a 3rd game out of the franchise.

The World: Italy not only makes for beautiful scenery, but it offers a more varied and fresh world than anything in AS1. The towns themselves feel different and large, giving you every reason to want to spend a little more time climbing every building just to catch the view. 10/10

The Combat: It’s the weapons that sell it this time around, but it’s still a fluid system that’s intuitive enough to grasp for most, and just deep enough to offer some complexity and options. The AI could be improved to provide some more challenge, however, as you’ll still realize that one solid strategy will get you through three quarters of the game safely. 8/10

The Story: Being a sequel, it’ll be hard for anyone that didn’t play the first to keep pace during this game with a lot of the stuff that’s going on. But it’s also a more focused and simple story at it’s core, outside of the over-arching trilogy that it’s all fueling. With a likable protagonist to relate to this time around it’s far more fun to play the role of the assassin. 9/10

The Sound and Visual: Some of the best moments come while atop a building, staring out over the landscape and the town around you. The draw distance is astonishing, and the details to the city layout or more than just admirable. Some of the cutscenes, however, are showing their age for the engine. The dialogue here is better, and the voices seem to be spread a bit more thick as well – still the rumblings of the town will start to sound all the same after ten hours of running around. 8/10

The Improvements: Maybe we should just expect this every time we play a sequel, but if you play enough games you know that it just isn’t always the case. Ubisoft went out and addressed everything that made people shy away from the first As or kept it from being truly remarkable. You can swim, you feel more apart of the town, you feel like you have a real impact on the world, you don’t need to sit on benches to listen to people, you don’t need to do side-quests but there’s more of them, there’s more weapons, more ways to assassinate, more ways to infiltrate, you can boat around on a  gondola, your armor damages, and your acrobatics feel better than ever culminating in some of the best platforming side missions I’ve ever seen- they make you wonder what Prince of Persia coulda have been if it starred Ezio. I applaud the approach to developing when it’s not taken so defensively, when producers realize they can always do something better and so long as they try — we’ll all see the fruits of their labor. 10/10

SCORE: 90%

Que Just Dance despierta pasiones o acumula enemigos según quien diga su opinión, es algo que no voy a poder negar, y demostrado quedó cuando os presenté el juego.

Poco a poco han ido apareciendo nuevos trailers con diferentes canciones para promocionar el juego. Para aquellos que quieran ver los vídeos, a continuación les dejo con un vídeo que recopila los 6 trailers promocionales.

Pero hoy vamos a observar un vídeo donde se nos muestra un poco de “Gameplay”. ¿Seis trailers de promoción y ninguno mostraba imágenes de como era el juego? Si os hacéis esta pregunta es que no os habéis mirado los trailers del juego, peor para aquellos con poco tiempo les resumiré que los primeros 6 vídeos nos mostraban un grupo de jóvenes en una fiesta mientras bailaban las canciones de Just Dance (los trailers me recuerdan un poco a los que se utilizaron para promocionar SingStar).

Así pues veamos un poco de “Gameplay” de Just Dance.

Ahora es el momento en el que los “Hardcore Gamers” me saltan a la yugular

Tras el vídeo, me queda una sensación un tanto agridulce. Es cierto que el vídeo nos corrobora lo que ya habíamos deducido de los trailers de promoción, diversión fácil y perfecta para fiestas con los amigos; pero por otro lado te deja con la sensación de que es el típico juego que todo el mundo quiere jugar, lo pones y tras un par de canciones ya necesitas descansar.

Yo sigo pensando que el juego puede dar mucho de sí entre los mas jóvenes, no veo a mis padres jugando a Just Dance como lo hacen con Wii Sports (que ya es un clásico); pero si que veo a un grupo de adolescentes frente al televisor, con buen ambiente en el local donde se encuentren y jugando al juego entre risas y esa estraña sensación de “¿pero que estoy haciendo?”.

Lo que está claro es que Just Dance, como ya he dicho al iniciar esté articulo, cosechará detractores o partidarios según la persona a la que llegue. Pero este tipo de juegos creo que son muy fáciles de criticar y mas difíciles de analizar sin guiarte por los prejuicios.

A partir de aquí, las opiniones serán bienvenidas

Los Rabbids se independizaron de Rayman y quieren volver a su casa, su camino no va a ser fácil pero ellos pondrán todo su empeño para poder regresar a la luna.

Hoy no hablaré del juego (recordad que tenéis una primera impresión de los Hard Days 09 por si queréis mas información sobre el juego), hoy hablaremos del curioso blog donde los Rabbids nos cuentan sus experimentos para encontrar la forma de volver a su casa.

En el Comic Blog de los Rabbids nos encontraremos unas viñetas muy graciosas que nos permitirán seguir la evolución de los experimentos para llegar a la luna. A día de hoy hay dos viñetas publicadas que os dejo a continuación.

• Primer experimento: La bebida con gas

• Segundo experimento: Los Globos

Ademas también nos irán informando sobre los nuevos vídeos que se publiquen de los Rabbids, como el vídeo que os dejo a continuación basado en una película de vampiros muy popular a día de hoy

In lieu of having anything I want to talk about musically right now, I thought I’d focus on another interest of mine – video games. Having just finished Assassin’s Creed II, here are my thoughts.

—

The fact that I cared almost infinitely more about the release of Assassin’s Creed II than the much-hyped Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 does perhaps indicate something about the nature of my own personal appreciation of games (or, as Alex would say, how big a geek I am). Not for me the game that many people were buying purely for the multiplayer aspect, no, instead I care more for the expansive single-player experience offered by the Assassin’s Creed series – if that makes me a hopeless introvert, so be it.

Story-wise, Assassin’s Creed 2 picks up directly where the first game left off – though the game begins with a short recap just in case your memory is rusty or you didn’t actually play the first game. You are Desmond Miles, a seemingly ordinary man caught up in a centuries-old war between the Assassins and the Templars – the latter being represented in the modern world by a typically sinister corporation called Abstergo. In case you weren’t aware, the first game’s big ‘plot twist’ was that the whole assassin thing was in fact just an alternate reality accessed through Desmond’s memories (sorry if I spoiled that for you, but the original gave it away within the first 5 minutes anyway). Naturally, the premise of the second game follows on from this – except this time you get busted out of Abstergo to help the Assassins more directly, by training to become an assassin via the memories of Desmond’s Italian ancestor, Ezio Auditore. But what starts out as a glorified crash course in assassination soon turns out to be much more, and so you run, jump, climb, sneak, stab and battle your way through Renaissance Italy in a story of betrayal, intrigue, revenge and much more.

I enjoyed the first game, but certainly recognise that it was flawed – and thankfully, the sequel has done a lot to address that. No more trekking around a largely pointless overworld – not only does every area of the world have a purpose, but you can travel back and forth between cities for a small fee. No more running around doing investigation errands before you get to the good stuff – the story flows from one key event to another, and while it’s not all non-stop action, there’s more of a sense of purpose in what you’re doing, whether it be stalking a target, learning a new skill to help with an upcoming mission, or undertaking one of the thrilling assassination sequences. However, some of the things that would have fallen under the investigation category in the first game are still present in a slightly modified form as side-quests. For example, there are optional assassination missions galore, you can challenge certain characters to a timed race, and instead of beating up enemies to gain information, you can now beat some sense into cheating husbands. Not only do these provide a nice distraction from the main quest, there’s also a more tangible reward that’s tied into another of the game’s new features – money. Pickpocketing also returns, but thankfully it’s also entirely optional and nowhere near as frustrating – instead of having to pickpocket a specific target, you can now steal from anyone you see to get a little bit of cash. It’s not the most efficient way, for sure – but if you’re short of just a few florins at a crucial moment, you’ll be thankful that the option exists.

The reason you’ll want money, of course, is the game’s new ‘economic system’ – although to be honest, such a term seems a little bit grand given the ultimately limited nature of the purchases you can make. Basically, you’ll need cash to buy weapons, armour upgrades, health vials, ammunition, and various other things. If you wanted, you could leave it at that – but fairly early on in the game, you’ll gain access to a villa-cum-stronghold, which you can use your cash to upgrade. In a nutshell, the more you spend on it, the more cash it’ll earn for you – but upgrades can also convey other benefits, such as discounts in the stronghold’s shops. It’s entirely up to you whether you choose to spend your money directly on weapons and armour upgrades now, or plough it into your villa and cash in later. Admittedly, if you focus on the stronghold you’ll eventually end up earning more money than you can spend, but it’s nice to have the option of building up a regular income – and then blowing it all on fancy weapons and paintings. Oh yeah, in another of the game’s nice little diversions, you have the opportunity to decorate your villa with a number of art pieces from the period, as well as being able to dye your clothes to suit your taste or mood. Ultimately, though, the potential to select different weapons is nice in theory but ultimately ends up feeling uninspired – you’ll probably just buy the best sword available and then forget about it until you have the cash to buy everything else at once.

You can also use cash to create a distraction – either directly by tossing coins on the ground, or indirectly by hiring groups of mercenaries, thieves or, er… ‘courtesans’ (as the game tactfully puts it). They all basically serve the same purpose – point them at a group of guards to distract them while you sneak past or otherwise go about your dirty work – but they do all have their own perks. Mercenaries are good fighters, thieves can free-run, and courtesans act as a mobile blending spot. Oh yeah, that’s another improvement right there – you can now blend with any small group of people rather than just the roving bands of monks from the first game. Yeah, suspend your disbelief about how the guards are too stupid to spot your outlandish garb, ultra-realism isn’t the name of the game here (see also: the ’sit on a bench to hide’ mechanic and the physics-defying leaps of faith into bales of hay).

That’s not to say that the game isn’t somewhat rooted in reality – the cities of Florence and Venice in particular are beautifully realised. Standing on one of the many viewpoints in either city, you can get a very real sense of what it they might have looked like in the 15th century – sure, one look at an actual map of Venice will show you that the game isn’t aiming for 100% accuracy, but that’s not the point. To simply convey the sprawling expanse of a Renaissance city is an achievement in itself, never mind the lovingly re-created historical landmarks present throughout the game world. But rather than be slavishly tied down to reality, the game merely uses it as it sees fit – realistic when it needs to be, and unrealistic when it makes for a better gaming experience. Equally notable is the extent to which the game has gone to tie its fiction in with real-world history – the main story is full of notable characters from the period, and even the game’s overarching conspiracy theory is interwoven with important historical events.

So what works, and what doesn’t? By and large, the new equipment and combat features are a success. The time-honoured ‘counter-attack everything’ strategy from the first game still works to some degree, but as the enemy types are more varied now you’ll want to use different tactics against different opponents. For example, I couldn’t get the hang of countering the spear-wielding ‘Seeker’ guards, but they seemed more vulnerable to being grabbed than the others. The nimble ‘Agile’ guards are not only better at chasing you down, they seem better at dodging and countering in combat as well – I found I had more success using my short blade against them. Of course, combat is generally something you can avoid in most situations – either by just legging it and finding somewhere to hide, or by using items such as smoke bombs to cause a distraction. The smoke bombs seem almost too effective actually – after using one you can pretty much just butcher the guards as they stand and choke on the smoke.

The other way to avoid combat, of course, is to be sneaky – you are an assassin, after all. The new dual hidden-blades certain help here, as does the addition of a poison blade. There’s even a somewhat less-subtle pistol attachment which gets a memorable use during the story – it’s not as overpowered as it could be, but neither is it useless. Sneakiness is also aided by the fact that the enemies can be a bit thick at times, but to be honest if they were ultra-alert it would make the game less fun.

One much talked-about aspect of the new game are the Prince Of Persia: Sands Of Time style platforming sections. Again, all but one of these are entirely optional – but there’s a tasty reward if you complete all of them. The problem is that such gameplay isn’t exactly a perfect fit for Assassin’s Creed’s mechanics. The free-running mechanics, while solid, don’t feel designed for precision platforming in the mould of Prince Of Persia – and as such, when I went plummeting to the ground or dived off a platform at the wrong angle, I felt like it was at least partially the fault of the control scheme. Of course, in the Prince Of Persia series you could rewind time to correct such mistakes, but no such luck for Ezio. Indeed, given our hero’s surprising resistance to fall damage, it’s difficult to kill yourself – even if you want to do so intentionally to get back to a higher checkpoint. And so, after most falls you’re left with no option but to trudge back up to where you were before. This is compounded by the fact that it’s sometimes not completely clear where you should be going – and unlike in Prince Of Persia there’s no fail-safe for experimentation. Ultimately, most of these sections are optional – you can decide for yourself whether the reward is worth it (as it’s waved right in front of your nose), but I couldn’t help but feel like they were more frustrating than fun.

Another problem with the first game was the ultimately pointless (unless, like me, you’re a bit of an OCD achievement-whore) flag-based collect-a-thon. Assassin’s Creed II goes at least some way to addressing this by adding some incentives to search its collectables out. There are 100 feathers scattered throughout the world, but this time round there’s actually a reward for collecting them all. Admittedly, it’s still only going to really interest the completionists, but it’s nice that it’s not just collecting for the sake of collecting. There are also hundreds of treasure chests to be found, each containing the more instantly gratifying reward of cash to spend.

Graphically, the game looks stunning for the most part, particularly when you consider how much is often being displayed on screen at one time. There are a few quibbles perhaps – the odd texture glitch, a tiny bit of pop-in (the game particularly seems to struggle with gondolas for some reason), and the fact that the character’s faces can look a little odd during cutscenes. But the game looks so good in motion and the landscapes are so spectacularly created that it’s impossible to hold a few minor things against it. The music is also great, suitably stirring when it needs to be without overpowering the action. Voice-acting is good too, including a particularly amusing turn from humourist Danny Wallace as Shaun, a sarcastic historian who’s part of the modern-day Assassins. And if-a you get a bit-a fed up-a with everyone-a talking like-a this, you can always choose to have all the characters speak in Italian – and it’s worth turning the sub-titles on even if you don’t, as some Italian still slips through regardless.

Overall, Assassin’s Creed II isn’t without its faults, but it does a good job of fixing the problems that the first game had. It’s also worth experiencing purely for the spectacle of it all – the world Ubisoft have created is a marvel in itself, and it’s filled with colourful characters and inspired scenarios. Oh, and as it happens the game’s pretty fun too, and full of satisfying moments – leaping from a building to nail two guards at once with your hidden blades, stealing a Brute’s axe and beating him down with it, or surveying the city after painstakingly climbing the highest tower. Not to mention the thrill of finally hunting down the bastards who’ve caused you so much pain and trouble and giving them their just rewards. Yeah, it’s a game you can get involved in alright.

Ubisoft continues the conspiratorial storyline of assassins versus templars with the recent release of Assassin’s Creed 2.

Venice is for lovers ...or assassins.

AC2 tells the story of Ezio Auditore de Firenze, an assassin in Renaissance Italy, and Desmond Miles, a near-future descendant of Ezio.  Ezio is out to get revenge on a group of conspirators for the unjust killing of some members of his family. The game plays like a typical third-person action game, with some stealth and platforming elements.  The controls, for the most part, are tight, however because the controller buttons are context sensitive sometimes Ezio does not always perform the action the player wants to do.  There are a few good things about the game as well as some bad.

The first good thing that is noticed is how gorgeous the game looks.  Character models are extremely well detailed, down to the little details such as a character’s hair style or beard.  Ezio moves fluidly through the world, and when he performs a killing attack animation they look so beautiful and deadly they will make the player cringe.  The historical accuracy of the game is another great aspect.  Many of the main characters, including the main antagonist, are real people who lived during that time period.  The conspiratorial story, while it does get a bit confusing and strange near the end, is very well written and mashes together Ezio’s story in Renaissance Italy and Desmond’s near-future story.  Many of the repetitive parts of the last game, which were previously necessary to upgrade the character’s health, are still in the game, but no longer a requirement.  The player now upgrades Ezio’s health by buying new armor and weapons.  The missions are also more varied than the last game in the series, not only including assassination missions but timed races, stealth missions, and courier missions.

Like previously mentioned, the controls sometimes do not do exactly what the player wants, but those times are few and are easy to get used to.  While the story gets a bit confusing near the end, it is obvious the developers are setting the story up for another game.  One other confusing thing about the story is why it takes place over a number of years in Ezio’s story.  The player never gets the sense that actual time has passed for the characters in the game, because over the course of only a few seconds the story will jump forward a couple years.

A fight or a dance party? You decide!

This game is an obvious choice for any fan of action games.  The graphics and character animations, especially Ezio’s killing animations, are gorgeous to say the least.  The controls are tight, although sometimes they do not do exactly what the player intends.  While the story does get a bit confusing at times, it is very well done and engaging.  The fact that a majority of the main characters were real people during Renaissance Italy makes the game even more interesting.  For fans of the original game, and any fan of third-person action games, this is a must play.

It has been confirmed that Ubisoft is currently working on Far Cry 3. For more information, go here:

The Game Eye/Far Cry 3 confirmed

So I wanna fly like an eagle, to the sea.

Format – PS3, PC, Xbox 360
Developer – Ubisoft Montreal
Publisher – Ubisoft

For me, Assassin’s Creed was where next-gen gaming began. It looked beautiful and promised innovative free-running gameplay and a variety of choices to kill a variety of targets. What it actually turned out to be though, was the equivalent of that woman who looked beautiful after a few beers, won’t stop repeating herself and is a bit on the festively plump side. Thankfully, Ubisoft have listened to my drunken spouting and replaced this woman with some sort of pigeon-Italian speaking goddess. Assassin’s Creed 2 is what it’s predecessor should have been. There’s variety, there’s charm but most importantly, there’s fun to be had.

From the get go, you’re thrust straight into the action with previous protagonist, Desmond, in an action sequence escaping from his Abstergo/Templar captors. You  join in with some of his fellow Assassins, where you learn a bit more detail on the war that has been fought across the ages between them and the Templars. Another thing missing from the 1st game amended within the 1st level, what is actually going on in the game. Upon arrival of the super secret Assassin base (A modern apartment, edgy) you’re greeted by a terribly sarcastic Shaun (Danny Wallace) and a girl named Rebecca who is essentially your Operator while you’re inside the new Animus they have created from Lucy’s undercover dealings. Finally, you get into the meat of the game playing as a young man named Ezio.

Ezio is a charming, witty and brilliant character and throughout the game is constantly make you smile or chuckle. Controlling him is pretty much the same as Altair in AC1. X controlling your feet, and running e.t.c, Square controlling your occupied hand for weapons, your empty hand, used to grab enemies and drop while climbing is circle and triangle activates your head, more specifically, your Eagle vision and talking to NPC’s (Non-Playable Characters). Combat is also the same, countering being the most effective way of wiping out enemies. However, there are now new enemy types which you must deal with: the Regular Soldier, armed with all sorts of weapons, namely swords and maces, the Seeker, who will stab things like bales of hay you might hide in while looking for you, the Agile, who is weak but incredibly fast and will give chase should you try to run away, the Archers, who patrol the rooftops and fire arrows at you and finally the Heavies, huge, armoured and incredibly strong.

These enemies add a whole new element to combat. In AC1, you could merely hold R1, wait for an enemy to attack then just press square and you would instantly kill them. Now, if you tried that, you’d be dead very quickly. Picking your shots are critical to how well you do in combat but which you choose is vital. Countering a heavy is damn near impossible. Their strikes are strong and must be dodged and hit on the counter-attack. The agiles meanwhile, will block and counter you, meaning you have to hit them with constant strong attacks to break them down.

Your free running skills are also intact and are just as fun as the old game, when they work. Gliding along the rooftops, free-flowing from roof to scaffolding via the flower-pot is an exhilarating feeling when you get it right. But sometimes, Ezio may be a bit suicidal. He does seem to prefer to divebomb off a tall building instead of latching onto the nearby ledge you were aiming for. The game does know this though and more often than not you’ll bump into something you can grab onto and get back on your way again.

AC1’s major bug bear was its lack of variety. Every mission was: travel>climb building>viewpoint>complete dire tasks>find target>assassinate target>run/fight>travel. Now, there are all sorts of different missions and tasks on top of the old ones. Pickpocketing is now a simple matter of fast walking into a civilian, giving you Florins to spend (more on that in the next paragraph). Eavesdropping now involves you following the people you’re listening in on while avoiding patrols and blending into crowds to make sure you’re not seen. Beating up criers is now a side-mission where you beat up unfaithful husbands. Fun. Theres also races against the friendly thieves, assassination missions given to you via pigeon coops up on the rooves, tombs of ancient assassin’s to explore, feathers to collect and couriers to slay. All of which give you Florins to spend.

Florins enable you to buy useful and sometimes, not so useful stuff from stores around the various locations of Italy. You can buy new weapons, armour and maps from various vendors to help you in combat become stronger or faster or, use the maps to help you find treasure which is obviously more Florins. You can also buy artwork and dye your clothes certain colours which obviously, aren’t so useful and are merely for aesthetics but the choice is welcome and gives you a bit of customisation that the 1st AC didn’t have. You can also earn money by investing in the town your villa is in. The more money you put into your town, the cheaper the goods are there, the more people there are to populate the town and the more income your town generates which you can collect in a chest in your villa. The system works really well and I can’t tell you the number of times I was on route to a story mission and ended up chasing thieves along rooftops to get my cape dyed a new fancy colour.

The final element that I only lightly touched on above is the factions. There isn’t any balancing you need to do between them to keep them all happy, thank god. Looking at you Mercenaries 2! They’re all on your side and are more than happy to help you. You have the courtesans (entertainers of the “gentlemens” kind) who you can hire to distract guards with their “charms” (No, you don’t see anything, calm down Daily Mail), you also have the thieves who you can hire to steal money from the guards and get them to chase the thieves as a distraction and there are finally, the mercenaries who you can set on guards to fight them, causing a distraction. Bit of a running theme there but they’re all nice ideas which can help you out in times of need.

The story is brilliant but isn’t so well paced. The tutorial takes up the 1st hour upwards of game time as Ezio learns his skills. Then throughout, you’re getting upgrades which also have tutorials which dampen the game a little bit as you go from an amazing set piece and being an awesome assassin right back down to a lowly mortal, learning how to play with his knives. Once the game gets going though, it’s a brilliant ride with twists and turns and tonnes of thrills to be had and it’s a testament to how well Ubisoft have seen the problems from the 1st game and added in tonnes more things to do. The ending in particular blew my mind so much that I actually said out loud exactly what Desmond says at the same time. I obviously can’t detail but reaching the ending is worth it in so many ways.

Giving Assassin’s Creed 2 a score was difficult for me. I loved the game, I loved the improvements that have been made and I loved the storytelling however, there are still some fundamental flaws in the game that can dampen what is otherwise a splendid experience to play. Ironing out some of the free running directional problems, the pacing of the story and how well the tutorials are panned out would have made this a brilliant game for me and would be edging for more game of the year gongs than you can shake a stick at. Needless to say, you won’t need an Animus 2.0 to relive any of the memories of AC2, the charm, the story and the sheer brilliance of it all will be in your memories for a long time.

9/10

I have played this game since Friday – i had played the first assassins creed and i thought that it was a very original game. This 2nd game is very similar and just improves on the original game.

The missions are more varied and the gameplay is faster- especially the climbing. The graphics are good and the animation scenes really absorb you into the story.

Another good thing about this game is the way that you can gather more weapons such as swords, daggers, axes etc. Also there are some interesting new items such as smoke grenades which are good for evading enemies.You can assassinate guards in all sorts of ways which means you can be playing this for hours practising the perfect kill.

The game gets a real good balance of being a lone assassin but you can still fight with others and hire people to help you throughout the game. Another new feature is that you can swim.

Overall i think that this is a very good game- its better than the first. Well worth a try if you like games such as prince of Persia, tomb raider or the first assassins creed

Film Rating: 7.5/10

Developed by Ubisoft’s Hybride Technologies, the visual effects studio behind 300 and Sin City, Assassin’s Creed: Lineage combines live action and computer generated imagery (CGI) to explore the events that happen just before the Assassin’s Creed II game starts. The short films revolve around Ezio’s father, Giovanni Auditore da Firenze, and give insight on the game’s back story and universe.

The short films will whet the appetite of game players and fans of this type of cinematography in advance of the in-store release of the video game on November 17, 2009. Assassin’s Creed: Lineage will also introduce some of the characters that players will meet in the game: both foes and friends of the family, like Lorenzo de Medici, the Italian statesman and de facto ruler of the Florentine Republic during the Italian Renaissance period.

All three episodes from the new Assassin’s Creed: Lineage short movies makes its debut on YouTube. Below is the full movie. Enjoy!

Press Release from Ubisoft:

LONDON, UK – November 24, 2009 – Today Ubisoft announced record first week sales performance for its Assassin’s Creed™ II video game with 1.6 million units sold through worldwide according to internal estimates. This represents 32% growth over the first week sales of Assassin’s Creed. Launched in November 2007, Assassin’s Creed remains the fastest selling new video game intellectual property ever in the U.S.

Assassin’s Creed II has received an overwhelmingly positive reception from gamers around the world and from the video game trade press with to date an average user rating of 94% on Gamespot.com and over 91% average critics score according to GameRankings.com.

Assassin’s Creed II invites players to become Ezio, a privileged young noble in Renaissance Italy who’s been betrayed by the rival ruling families of Italy. Ezio’s subsequent quest for vengeance plunges players into a captivating and epic story that offers more variety in missions, surprising and engaging new game play elements, diverse weapons, incredible depth and lasting appeal and a profound character progression that will appeal to fans of the original Assassin’s Creed as well as entice players new to the brand.

[Via Ubisoft]

Lyfe’s Take: I have played roughly 75% of ACII thus far and, in my opinion, it is indeed in the running for Game of the Year honors. There is just a tremendous amount of gameplay offered up in the title. We’ll be going into greater depth as of why on the live show, but I will say this: if you appreciated what AC tried to do, there is NO reason why you should not be playing this.

Ubisoft ahora tambien quiere entrarle al campo de complementar tu experiencia en los videojuegos con “Uplay”, como puedes ver en el trailer se trata de un servicio en el que se integran todas las plataformas de juegos y todos los juegos de la marca, para brindarte información, tips y claro PREMIOS. Para los que gustan de los retos y los premios, tal vez sea interesante el concepto. Aunque me gustaria saber en realidad cuantos de los videojugadores se conectarian a esta red.