Play Assassin's Creed

You gotta love those Canadians, or, at least the Ubisoft team based in Montreal.  Being a hockey fan, I've grown to like America's northern neighbors, but Assassin's Creed gives me even more motivation to say,, what's up hose heads.  If you haven't played Assassin's Creed yet, do it now.  The original was a literal Mona Lisa in gaming, the graphics and cinematics were and are still unparraleled.  Speaking of modern works of art, the newest installment bosts a quote from Leonardo himself, "Our life is made by the death of others".  Hmmm, what better a quote for a game about the Assassin?  If you like history, Assassin's Creed doesn't dissapoint, you get to see the world from the Assassin's view.  This time in 1476 Italy.  If you haven't played the first installment of Assassin's Creed, pick it up and do it, cause the new one is scheduled for release.

A Change in Scenary

In the first Assassin's Creed you got to explore the Holy Land during the 12th Century and what a job they did at Ubisoft bringing this experience to your HD set.  This time, we fast forward the clock as the egalitarian Assassin's face off again against the Templars.  Explore the waterways and canals of Venice as you complete your missions and experience a whole new world of intrigue, commerce and politics.  Expect to explore not only urban but rural countryside as you complete your missions.  Seems like a nice balance to me.  Run across rooftops then sneak in by water to your assassination target.  Visit historic places such as Da Vinci's workshop, continue your adventure and along the way witness the faces of the renaissance.   All this, with a wider variety of weopans access and player movements!  

A Common Complaint

A common complaint of the first installment of Assassin's Creed was after a while it took on a repetitive feel.  In Creed II, the game designiers have made an honest effort to depart from the strict mission concept and present a more open format.  In the new game, a player will have a little more decisions to make as far as where they want to go, when, and who they want to take out.  Passive actions like eavesdropping and pickpocketing have been replaced by more active ones, like trailing a suspect.  All this, and the easier travel from place to place will undoubtedly lead to more action.

New AI

Icing on the cake is new AI, and new enemies.  This game is gonna be a winner.  While sticking to it's roots, it's intelligently expanded and sharpened it's game play.  Even to the point of adding a night/day feature, so you know when it's time to hit the rack before you get canned from your job for being late to work.  Basically, letting you get a better sense on the passage of time.

Assassin's Creed II, get your GhostGrip ready!

Little Mac

If you ever got the pleasure of playing the original arcade Punch Out,,, what up bra!!!  Nuff said on that.  If not, there was the NES version, which in itself was pretty dang good considering you had basically a rectangle with a d-pad and an a and b button to work with.  My favorite dude to whoop up on was Soda Popinski, and to this day, that's the name of my hockey player on NHL09.   On top of that, Nintendo went out and did something historically significant, they released Mike Tyson's Punchout, how bada$$ is that.  To bad ole Iron Mike had to be the guinee pig of blockbuster video game deals, I bet if his peeps could turn back the clock, he'd be getting a little jingle off this new release for the Wii.  Why,, cause MT put punchout on the map yo.  Anyway, enough about video game history, let's look at this classic from Nintendo.

Viva La France

Here's the best part of the new Punch-out.  Glass Joe has a voice now, and while 17 year old 107 pound Little Mac is hookin up the rights and left, heavy french accented Glass Joe pops off with things like "Viva La France" and "Bonjour".  How awesome is that?  All the old foes are there, the big Canadian Bear Hugger, you can still bust King Hippo in the gut.  Let's not forget the german Von Kaiser or the vain Don Flamenco from Spain.  However, there is a surprise new opponent, introducing in the glitter corner, Disco Kid, a dancing fool that may try to grease lightning you if you get dizzy'd by his fancy footwork.

All in all, Punch-Out on Wii looks to be all the fun of the original arcade classic brought right into your living room, courtest of Nintendo.  You may not need your GhostGrip for Glass Joe, but make sure you dab rub and clap for the Disco Kid.