My fellow Assassins!

[Lambonius]

Anyone else been playing this?  I'm on my second playthrough and I'm really enjoying it.  It's better than the reviews give it credit for.

However, they are largely correct in a few things: 1) the bomb-crafting is a completely useless addition--thankfully you can sell the ingredients for money (which is a lot harder to earn in this game), and 2) the den defense sucks balls.  Luckily it can be avoided almost entirely.

Otherwise, it's great.  The story is the best since AC2, definitely, and the graphics are noticeably prettier this time around.  I love it!

[wilco64256]

I still need to pick this one up.  Problem is there's so much other good stuff I got on my plate right now.

[Cez]

Still need to finish Assassins Creed 2.

I also gotta finish Dark Souls. Thank God I'm getting back home tomorrow after two months of being out. Can't wait.

Then I'm also currently playing Final Fantasy III on the DS and The Whispered World. Man, Whispered World is such a pretty game. It's got a very Curse of Monkey Island feel to its graphics and attention to detail. And so far, it's a decent adventure.

[dark-daventry]

I hereby revive this thread in honor of Assassins Creed 3; what does everyone think of it? Personally, I love it and think its the best of the series so far. I do have some glitches and bugs, so those are a little annoying, but the plot and gameplay are as we'd expect from an AC game. As usual, all plot discussion should happen inside spoiler tags.

[Bludshot]

but the plot and gameplay are as we'd expect from an AC game. As usual, all plot discussion should happen inside spoiler tags.

So it is incredibly stupid but tries to pass its self off as serious?

I'm probably not being very fair to the franchise, while I think the plots are garbage, they are very fun games and from what little I've seen of AC3 it looks fun, if not terribly interesting.

I'll probably holdout and see if I get it for Christmas, otherwise I'll just buy it the day after.

[wilco64256]

Liking it so far, played for just a short while the other night. I'm a bit of a completionist in this series so as soon as it started showing me viewpoints to sync from that became my only focus until I either sync them all or there are some that I can't get to currently.

[dark-daventry]

Yeah, I'm the same way, Weldon. I've been on a homesteadt mission spree lately, trying to get all those out of the way. As far as the plot goes, I think it's pretty good, but maybe thats just me. I like how it weaves around established history.

[wilco64256]

I do find the plot pretty interesting myself, and I especially love how much effort they put into including real historical information, landmarks, and facts into these games.

Imagine how thrilled I was to discover that one of the first buildings I was scaling was the Old South Meeting House, which features prominently in Cognition.

[dark-daventry]

I still need to play cognition...

I too love how much effort they put into making the AC games as historically accurate as possible. Little known fact: ezio auditore was a real person who appeared in newspapers from the era a couple times, and then just fell off the map. I also have to say that as far as Xbox 360 games go, it's downright beautiful. They really optimized the engine for the hardware it's running on.

[Bludshot]

Well historically accurate and AC have a strange relationship.  I always appreciated that AC games take place in largely unexplored settings for videogames, it didn't just go for a conventional medieval Europe (I guess AC2 comes close but that was Italy in the Renaissance, different from stone castles and broadswords everywhere). 

However it is hard for me call a game historically accurate when it involves fisticuffs with Pope Jeremy Irons.

My inner history buff is pretty bummed that AC3 will probably continue bastardizing people's perception of the American Revolution, but from a gamer perspective the game looks new and fun.

I really hate the overarching memory templar nonsense, Desmond and all his buddies are incredibly annoying and I just do not care.  AC2 would've been a lot better if it was just an Ezio revenge story, which they messed up in the game anyways but still.

[dark-daventry]

Actually, I LOVE the Desmond story arc. I really enjoy his segments. I must also admit that I know little to nothing about history, and it generally doesn't interest me much.

[Bludshot]

My only concern, and this might not come to pass since New Ezio is not fighting the war so much as the silly templar eden thingies war, is that Native American tribes sided with the British in the Revolutionary war, I don't know how much they'll play up New Ezio's half Native American-ness, but I am really hoping they don't make him fight for liberty or and lower taxes etc.

Kind of unrelated, but to anyone who is currently playing the game, are those naval battles any good? Because that is primarily the new addition I'm excited about.

[dark-daventry]

The naval battles are fun, except that I suck royally at them. Their a nice break from the rest of the game. Connor (the new ezio) fights for lower taxes and liberty and stuff. His clan also opposes the British, at least from what I can tell, though they do mention that his clan is a little different than the others; they are trying to stay neutral in the whole revolutionary war going on.

[Lambonius]

I want this game so bad.  I have a raging hard-on for it.  But unfortunately, I am broke as a joke for the next month or so.  Gotta wait til someone gets it for me for Christmas.  The plus side is that more of the bugs may be patched by then. 

[dark-daventry]

The bugs are annoying, and I think the game could have used another month or two in development to patch those up, but otherwise I think it's fantastic. I only hope that after AC3, Ubisoft let's the series rest for a little while. I fully expect the series to continue for awhile, but I just hope they give the game some time to sleep. Maybe they can go back and revisit Prince of Persia again (there was a leak back in August of a supposed reboot of the franchise anyway) and get us Watch Dogs (which, according to Ubisoft's CEO, is still scheduled for next year on current gen consoles and PC's. I might buy a new PC to play it...)

[Lambonius]

I loved this game.  That is all.

[dark-daventry]

I loved this game.  That is all.

I'm not even done with it (life and work got in the way of me beating it), but it's amazing so far. I've some gripes with the bugs, but overall I love this game so much.

[Lambonius]

You should try playing with most of the HUD elements turned off.  It's a much more immersive experience.  For my money, combat is greatly improved when you don't have the flashing red "push button now" symbol above enemies' heads.  They telegraph their moves pretty well anyway, so you don't need it.  It feels like you as the player have more control over the combat without the indicators on.  I found myself pulling off better combos, with a mix of attacks, counters, and guard breaks than I did when I was just waiting for the red icon to appear.

[dark-daventry]

I had enough of the HUD turned off during Desmond's sequences. The combat with no HUD is fairly straight forward, but the hiding and stealth elements proved to be a challenge for me, even with Eagle Vision. I don't think I could go an entire game without the HUD though.