Month Overview: June

Games completed in June:
 Samurai Warriors Chronicles                                                                           8.0
 Dark Cloud 2                                                                                                  9.0
 Bleach - Heat the Soul 7                                                                                 7.5
 Vanquish                                                                                                         8.0
 Assassin's Creed                                                                                             6.5
 Assassin's Creed 2                                                                                          9.0
 Assassin's Creed Brotherhood                                                                         7.5

 Taking into account the amount of free time I had this month... it's kinda impressive how much I managed to play, and the latter three were kinda long games. It was a fairly good month, many good and great games, I can't complain!

 Game of June:

 It was a huge game and a huge improvement from Assassin's Creed 1. It was better than Brotherhood, and at the moment, even better than Revelations! I spent a lot of time playing AC II, I found myself trying to find the time to play this one, I loved AC II, that I did, it was a no brainer that it was gonna make it here.

 Runner-up:

 It's sad how Dark Cloud 2 was so easily forgotten by people, you never see it pop up in PS2 "Top X" lists or what have you. Dark Cloud 2 was phenomenal and deserves better, it's surprising how it never made the jump to HD, either in a sequel or a HD Port.

Saturday Quickie: Uncharted - Eye of Indra

 I've had this installed since last year!

 Eye of Indra is a short 4-part motion comic that serves as a prequel to Uncharted 1. While it's supposed to explain the beef between Eddie Raja and Nate... this is actually their second encounter, and their first quarrel is quickly handwaved with "He wanted to screw me, but I beat him to the punch", in other words, the main selling point is kind of a lie. As for the story itself, it jumps between the present, where Nate and Eddie are being tortured, and the past, slowly piecing together what happened before they got caught. The set-up is not as smart as it thinks, and the story itself is rather plain and one of the plans a bit of a stretch(What if the torturing took place in another room?).

 The art is very average, with varying degrees of quality. Nate's face isn't very consistent, and at times he looks more like a gruff, square-jawed action hero than the "everyman" Naughty Dog envisioned. Being a motion comic, they employed some dull looking movements every now and then, nothing particularly exciting. On the flipside, voice acting is a highpoint of the product, with the series' voice actors reprising their roles, even though sometimes the tones used don't match the art very well.

 Uncharted: Eye of Indra feels like a rather short and unexciting 24-36 self-contained comic book, with nothing interesting to look forward to. Fans of the series might even feel disappointed seeing how it's supposed to explain why Eddie and Nate hated each other, but this isn't even supposed to be their first encounter.
 3.5 out of 10

Now Playing: Assassin's Creed - Revelations

 Time to.... finish the fight(That Halo tag-line sure has stuck!)

 Only with a male character could they get away by making him grow old AND making him the lead character. Regardless, first thing you notice: Another graphical upgrade, while ACB's was pretty minor, Revelations looks a whole lot different, Desmond doesn't look like Desmond anymore and his scar is missing!

 Most of the gameplay remains the same, but combat seems to have been tightened a bit with how subweapons operate, and seeing how I'm looting dozens of "Bomb materials" I'm guess this game's gimmick will be bombs. Speaking of the game, the first sequence sure was odd, for an AC game, with the carriage section.

 Obviously it's too early to judge, but it's looking promising, although I'm not looking forward to Altair's memories, who cares about Altair?!

Review #124: Assassin's Creed - Brotherhood

 Another year, another Assassin's Creed. Or maybe another week?

 After Assassin's Creed 2 Ubisoft realized that they had a hit on their hands, so there was only one choice left for them... Milk it as hard as they can. Released about a year after Assassin's Creed 2, does Brotherhood manages to top it or is it just a shameful cash in?

 Both for Desmond and Ezio, the game continues their stories right where we left them off, Desmond and his pals on the run in a van, and Ezio escaping from the vault he had just discovered. Remember the Villa the first game had you funding? Well, as a consequence for letting the Pope live, he retaliates by having his son, Cesare, destroy the villa and murder Ezio's uncle in the process, yes, this is another revenge story for Ezio. For the first time in the series, what little of Desmond's story we get is actually more interesting than Ezio's story, AC 2 did a good job at fleshing out the present-day cast, but AC:B does it even better, by allowing you to exit the Animus at any time, you get new little scenes with Lucy, Rebecca and Shaun every new chapter, plus, you can read their e-mails for further insight into their shenanigans. As for Ezio, many familiar faces return, but Ezio himself doesn't evolve too much and his story relies on many cliched tropes, you'll see the twists coming from a mile away, and the second to last chapter feels very rushed, which takes away some of the punch from outcome.

 Gameplay remains mostly the same, but with some new additions. Firstly, the game now takes place almost entirely in Rome, with a few excursions for some sidequests. It's a bit disappointing seeing how AC 2 had at least three big cities, but Rome does have a lot of variety and is pretty extensive. While it is technically a sidequest, you'll make it your first priority to rid the land of Borgia influence, which is done by assassinating a commanding officer and then climbing the nearby tower adorned by Borgia flags. You must do this in order to open up brotherhood slots and allow for you to renovate neighboring buildings. Remember how you used to spend your money to renovate the villa? This mechanic returns, albeit in a less convenient way. You must now renovate each building individually and you actually have to physically move to its location, rather than talking to an architect. In this way the game can grow a bit tedious, there's a lot of Borgia Towers to burn, and while the location of the officer changes, they all play out the same.

 As for the biggest new mechanic, and the best one, is recruiting assassins for the Brotherhood. By saving citizens from Borgia soldiers, you can then recruit them into your brotherhood, and then serve two purposes: Sending them away on missions or calling them out for help. While sending them away on missions is helpful to your purse, having them help you against a enemy squad is incredibly useful and satisfying, and after you get about 8 Assassins you can use the massively overpowered Arrow Storm that kills every enemy on the vicinity. After this game, abandoning this mechanic would be extremely disappointing. Not only is it an useful and fun mechanic, seeing Assassins fighting alongside Ezio is really cool, and having Ezio work as a sort of... mentor to these Assassins helps further his character.

 Fighting has received a couple of tweaks, now enemies can grab you, just like in AC 1, but you mostly get tools to make your job even easier. After assassinating an enemy, tapping square and moving the analog stick against an enemy will make Ezio instantly assassinate that target, this is called "Kill Streak" and unless an enemy hits you and you don't press counter(While in the murdering animation), it won't break. Killing huge groups of enemies has never been this easy. Another fun tweak is "special attacks", holding the attack button will usually result in Ezio aiming the wrist-gun, although it depends on your weapon, allowing you to use your projectile attacks in conjunction with your melee weapons, without having to switch weapons. Then there's also the kick which allows you to break an enemy's guard. Basically, you got a ton of tools to massacre your enemies with little effort.

 Sadly, a lot of the game is just getting back the stuff that you lost from the second game. There's a couple of new tools, like the incredibly useful parachute and the crossbow(Which is a glorified wrist-gun), and the introduction of heavy-type weapons, but 80% of your tools(Don't quote me on that number) return from AC2. I was also not particularly fond of the pacing, the rate at which new weapons, armors or items are available isn't very consistent or rewarding, the same goes for the rate at which the map opens up and the sidequests pop up, on some chapters you'll be swimming on sidequests and new areas to explore, while others will have nothing, there's a chapter in particular(Memory Sequence 2) that actually blocks off areas you've already been to. It's especially noticeable coming directly from AC2, which had a fairly consistent pace.

 The main story is noticeably shorter than AC2's, but the game offers sidequests in spades. There's 10 feathers to collect, 101 flags(Like AC1!), Glyphs and chests to uncover, coupled with the Assassination, Courtesan and Thief's sidequests. Speaking of sidequests, there's a wide variety of objectives, from Leonardo's War Machines(They managed to include a Tank and a Turret sequence on Assassin's Creed, I'm not even joking) to some interesting ones, like robbing a letter from a courier, fabricating a forgery and placing the forgery on him without him noticing. Then there are the "Virtual Training" challenges that consist on races, finding objects or killstreaks with varying conditions and handicaps. New to this game are "Synchronization Bonuses", by finishing missions(This applies to some side missions as well) while fulfilling certain conditions you will earn a synchronization bonus, maxing the synchronization on each level might unlock some rather funny extras. New to this game as well are the Store Quests, there are about 6 of them which makes them feel like a really annoying afterthought, you simply must collect a certain amount of items(Found on chests or Bandits) and go to a specific store and turn them in for a reward, it would've been nice of the game to tell you sooner about these, as I sold a rather rare one, thinking that these were just to sell at different prices through the different stores, which meant I couldn't get the last purchasable armor pieces(And finishing all the Thieve's Guild missions will stop all Bandit attacks, so no more chances for a random drop).

 Brotherhood is the first game in the series to introduce Multiplayer Mode, which is probably why the main story felt so short, and while it offers three variations... this mode will probably be either hit or miss among the players. I, for instance, didn't find much fun in it, as you must try to assassinate a target while another player hunts you, it has a bit of a slow pace, which is why I didn't like it a whole lot.

 As for the presentation, the character models look noticeably better and Rome is bursting with color and details.... but the amount of screen tearing has increased noticeably, alongside pop in, you'll notice details popping out of nowhere while moving, which is why as a whole, I'd say it's a step back. The music, most of it returns from AC2, and what few tracks are new, are rather forgettable, luckily AC2 had some great music. Voice Acting remains strong for all major characters, but some of the secondary characters are laughable at worst.

 Assassin's Creed 2 was a huge leap from Assassin's Creed 1. Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood is but a sidestep from AC2, as far as the gameplay is concerned, all the additions are great and fun to use... but make the game even easier than before. It also happens to have a rather wonky pace, a more structured flow to how activities and items became available would've worked wonders.
 7.5 out of 10.

Now Playing: Assassin's Creed - Brotherhood

 Because it's not over until we are done with Ezio's trilogy.

 The jump to AC 2 after AC 1 was huge. But from AC2 to Brotherhood it feels like a tiny step. Combat has been refined, a couple of new moves, execution streaks(Which makes combat even easier) and I think the weapon wheel has spots for new weapons? Know what isn't cool? How the game removes most of Ezio's equipment at the start, which I wouldn't mind, but I grew so attached to the double Hidden Blades, that going back to one is depressing.

 I'm barely a couple of hours into the game, and I'm already swimming in money, renovated a ton of shops everywhere, got a Butcher's Knife and I'm making over 5200 florins every 20 minutes, I think I just broke the game's economy.

 One thing I noticed is that the segment with Desmond and Lucy felt very Uncharted-like, both characters joking around and talking while performing athletic feats? Plus, Drake was voiced by the same guy that voices Desmond, it's impossible not to notice!

 All in all, I'm having quite a bit of fun, Ezio looks much more badass now, and while the gameplay is basically the same, I love having a new town to explore.... but I fear it might be a tad small? Only 23 viewpoints while the last game had 73? I noticed that the game has a couple of throwbacks to AC 1 as well, now on the loading screen you can use your weapons, like AC1, and the collectible banners return.

Review #123: Assassin's Creed II

 It makes Assassin's Creed 1 look like one ugly beta.

 Assassin's Creed was a good game, it wasn't anything special and had lots of little flaws that took away from it. Assassin's Creed 2 polished every single aspect from Assassin's Creed, resulting in a vastly superior, and more entertaining game.

 The game picks up almost exactly where the last one left off, with Lucy and Vidic leaving the room, and Desmond developing the Eagle Vision. Desmond escapes with the aid of the Assassins from Abstergo, and vows to help the Assassins defeat the Templars, doing what he does best: Strapping to the Animus chair. While in the Animus, this time Desmond goes back to his paternal ascendants, in the form of Ezio Auditore da Firenze, an Italian Assassin living in Florence during the late 1400s. This time around, characters are much more engaging than in Assassin's Creed 1, even though the present-day scenes are but a fraction of the game(A change I most welcome), Desmond and Lucy have received a bit more personality, as well as the rest of the supporting cast. The cast featured in Ezio's time is even more appealing, Ezio himself being everything that Altair wasn't: Funny, charming, emotive and above all, likeable. Story wasn't particularly bad in AC 1, but AC 2's story is much more involved, intriguing and better written, dialogue is more refined, with a couple of jokes that were more funny than they should've!

 Gameplay follows the same print from Assassin's Creed 1, but polished and expanded upon. Parkour was a great idea, but it wasn't as good as it could've been, AC 2 makes parkour flow much smoother, Ezio doesn't stop on his tracks while climbing, and does everything much more swiftly. There's the occasional jump when you didn't want to jump, or dropping to a haystack instead of a ledge, but they are infrequent enough as not to be too annoying. There's a fair amount of new mechanics, like looting dead bodies for money, medicine or knives, or even stealing money from passersby. Among people Ezio may come around Courtesans that can be hired to distract guards, mercenaries or thieves that can fight for Ezio, signaling them to do their works is pretty easy and they rarely get stuck on the environment. When it comes to stealth, Assassin's Creed was never a stealth game, but it did have some elements, and they were expanded upon in this one, blending with crowds is now a matter of walking with them, Ezio will turn grey if done correctly, you can now carry dead bodies and drop them to focus attention on them and using the Hidden Blade is much more fun, now that Ezio can kill while hanging from ledges, while falling, while hiding or even perform dual assassinations when he gets a second Hidden Blade!

 New to the series is the monetary system, instead of earning weapons as he killed enemies, like Altair, Ezio now can buy his weapons or armors from Blacksmiths. You can also buy bigger pouches to carry medicine, knives or poison, or even dye his white robes! The best part about all this is that the changes reflect on Ezio himself. Health doesn't restore over time, so visiting doctors to heal or using medicine is a necessity, even though the game is nice enough to heal you completely whenever you start a new mission. Early in the game, Ezio will enter the Villa, a town that can be upgraded by investing money in it, the more it grows, the more money it makes every 20 minutes. Investing as much as you can early on will end up with Ezio swimming in money later in the game, so it's a good idea to upgrade it as early as possible. AC 1 quickly got very repetitive, once again AC 2 tops it by offering more missions types: Assassination, Races, Courier and Beatings. Main Story missions also vary quite widely, you'll go from tailing people to flying on Leonardo's flying machine, competing in a carnival for a golden mask or protecting a boat from bowmen. There's also a slew of sidequests: Gathering all 100 hidden feathers, finding all 20 glyphs(each one rewards you with a very odd puzzle unlike anything else on the game), finding all 73 viewpoints and the 6 Assassin's tombs, each one possessing a platforming challenge that reward you with items to unlock Altair's armor. AC 2 is a very long game, but repetition won't sink in until much later in the game.

 To offset the removal of the regenerating hit points, combat was made easier. The window for parrying was widened and most counterattacks now outright kill. Continuously attacking blocking enemies will also damage them, so you could potentially win every encounter by just mashing on the attack button. The tools for combat have also increased, with the addition of smoke bombs, a gun on the Hidden Blade, poison on the Hidden Blade and barehanded beatings now actually packing a punch. As easy as combat is, there's a new Notoriety system implemented, killing in public or doing outrageous actions like pushing people in front of wards will raise your notoriety, which translates into how fast will guards realize that you are an enemy on sight, you can lower it by ripping posters off walls, killing certain officials or bribing spokesmen.

 Assassin's Creed 1 had some rather large cities, but they seem so small in front of Assassin's Creed 2's Italy. The player can now swim and ride boats, which comes very useful when traversing the watery city of Venice. Each of the game's town(Tuscany, Romania, Forli and Florence(And I'm sure I probably spelt two of them wrong)) are huge and very different from one another, with broadly different flavors making exploring them a joy.

 Character models definitely look better than in AC 1, but they are still a bit on the ugly side, with a couple of scenes in which they just look off as they talk or move onscreen. Animation is still a looker, even if there are a couple of odd ones(Just look at Desmond's neck when he punches while the game is loading!). Cities are still the high point of the game's presentation, every city portrayed in the game is downright beautiful with a ton unique landmarks. The game does suffer from a ton of pop in and a bit of clipping, frame rate does take a hit every now and then, the close-range draw distance is terrible, with flowers popping out of nowhere, but when it comes to distances you can see, very, very far away, and it looks glorious. While AC 1 wasn't big on the music department, AC 2 has some rather grandiose-sounding pieces, a particular favorite of mine being the one that plays on the race missions. Voice acting is very good when it comes to primary characters, although a few of the NPCs are fairly unconvincing, still a step up from AC 1!

 Assassin's Creed 2 is an awesome game, I'd go as far as to say that it makes AC 1 obsolete. Ubisoft did polish a diamond out of a stone, AC 2 is among my favorite games of the last generation, and while the game could use a bit of touching up, to make the framerate steadier for example, polishing certain glitches(Like freezing, which happened to me once but seems to be a rather frequent occurrence, or how certain cutscenes may desynch leaving characters to stab the ground or what have you), it's a great game.
 9.0 out of 10

Now Playing: Assassin's Creed 2

 Wow!

 I was ready to hate Ezio, I mean, Ubisoft created a sub-trilogy focused on him, I already found him annoying... but man, is Ezio hard to hate. The game is better than Assassin's Creed 1 in every way: Better graphics, better cast(The modern-day characters are engaging, Ezio's supporting cast is interesting and Ezio himself is completely different from Altair who was as unlikeable as it go), movement and fighting flows much much better, the game has already shown more variety in missions, and now there's even a currency system implemented. I played up to the "betrayal", and I can already say that this game is gonna be much, much better than the first one.

 Surprisingly, Jim Sterling gave it a 2, I usually agree with Jim, so I'm gonna wait until I finish it to re-read his review and see the whys, but so far I am thoroughly impressed.