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  Passive actions like eavesdropping and pickpocketing have been replaced by more active ones, like trailing a suspect.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!

There's the top 10 and then there's my top 10

Top ten lists are great, I mean, look at David Letterman, the dude's made a living off them.  Everyone like's a top 10, it kinda helps us put things into perspective.  So 2008 is over, and everybodies gotta top 10 for 2008.  They all line up and put in their 2 cents, hundreds of websites, publications, bloggers, editors, and millions of Gamers, all of them have a top 10 and each of their top 10 is different from the next.  

Put it into perspective

So here's the thing, I may have just discovered Soduko or whatever it's called in 2008 or maybe Connect 4 and played it a bunch.  So does Connect 4 make my list?  How about this scenario, I found some obscure independent game made in Norway in 2008 that I think is the show, does that make the top 10?  In order to have a top 10, we gotta first lay out some ground rules.  Number one, my top 10 list will contain games played on major gaming consoles (xbox, playstation, nintendo.  Number two, I said consoles, not some handheld device like a PSP or Nintendo DS.  Number three, these games will have been available to the general public, I'm not gonna pull some game out of my a$$ that only a few played but it never got released or made it anywhere.  No diss to independant labels and stuff like that, actually, if you wanna send my something I can spin on my 360 or PC I'm game to give it a go and it may make the top 10 independant games list sometime.  So, be fair.  I'm not gonna list my top 10 NHL players of 2008 and just randomly throw some WHL dudes in there.  

The top 10 listed and in one sentence, why.  Drumbroll...

10.  Little Big Planet - Reminds me of some early Atari computer games, I think Adventure comes to mind.  Allows players creative input.

9.   Deadspace - Graphics, intuitive controls, great sound, and some scary moments,, golden.

8.  Fifa 08 - Great soccer, good online play, very nice.

7.  Burnout Paradise - Awesome addition to this franchise.

6.  Wii Sports -  A staple and great introduction to the Wii, besides Super Mario Brothers, probably the best game to actually be shipped with the console.

5.  Assassins Creed -  Can get a little repetitive, but groundbreaking gameplay, smooth, awesome graphics, epic.

4.  Left 4 Dead - Simple to the point and fun, think Galaga, Centipede, or PacMan with good graphics.  Grab your gun and start shooting.

3.  Fable 2 - A great follow up to Fable.  No dissapointments here.

2.  Gears of War 2 - There's just something about chainsawing locusts,, call me crazy.

1.  Fallout 3 - To me, this is Bioshock on crack, excellent. 

Till next time, keep your hands dry and keep those zombies in check.