Thanks to TigerWife, we now have another system to write on! Adding the Wii to the mix necessitates a new dimension to these reviews, and that's the exciting, old frontier of motion control. I'll be relating this with a highly subjective (and occasionally sarcastic) system called the Waggle Factor. With my snarky little comments, I hope to convey the extent to which the game relies on (or ignores) the technology, how well integrated into the experience it is, and just how tired your arm will get. (Quiet, you.)
Wii Sports
Shake that thang! And....pretend like you're playing outside.
Shake that thang! And....pretend like you're playing outside.
- Wii
- Release Date:11/19/06 (4 years behind!)
- 6 games @ 2 hours total
- Waggle Factor:Exxxxxx--treeeeeeme!
My time with Wii Sports was short, and so is my review.
Tennis = Lame
Boxing = Lame
Baseball = Super Lame
Bowling = Awesome
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
- PS3
- Release Date: 11/16/10 (1 1/2 months behind!)
- Playthroughs: 1 @ 50+ hours
- Trophies: 87%
I've always felt a little guilty for not writing a longer blog on Assassin's Creed 2. A page-long entry wouldn't have begun to do that excellent game justice, to say nothing of the measly little paragraph I gave it in my rush to get “caught up” last year. What a joke.
I intend to make amends this year by recounting the excellent time I had with Brotherhood, which continues the story of Ezio Auditore da Firenze (and Desmond Miles, of the far more boring name) who has been forced to Rome to hunt down Rodrigo Borgia, now Pope Alexander VI, whose life he spared at the end of AC2. Ezio, now a full fledged Assassin, realizes that he cannot take on the Borgia establishment on his own, and begins recruiting new initiates into the order.
While I have to admit that I wasn't very excited for AC:B at first (A multiplayer AC? An unnumbered entry? Can you say, Cash in?) I'm more than happy to accept being wrong. The campaign was just as engrossing and intriguing as 2, if not more so, easily coming in at 60 hours to find everything. It could be said that Brotherhood is Assassin's Creed II-2 (but that type of name would never fly, oh wait), and I'm more than ok with that. 2 and Brotherhood both have such sprawling stories and settings, I can't help but feel a great deal of gratitude that Ubisoft didn't try to cram it all into one game.
The gameplay has improved by leaps and bounds, and engagements that used to take 5 minutes or more are reduced to seconds. With timing and skill, Ezio can now chain kills together. After finishing one enemy, all it takes it a button press to kill the next, and the next, and as long as you don't get hit, a whole mob of enemies can be leveled in this fashion. If that wasn't enough, Ezio can now call Assassin recruits to fight by his side (as well as assassinating targets and wreaking havoc for distractions).
In fact, the Assassin Recruit missions were as strangely addictive to me as the Merc management in MGS: Peace Walker. I guess I just like throwing underlings into harms way. These missions level up your band of merry men and women, and net you a good deal of money in the meantime. It's too bad that once you begin the mission, you only get a succeeded/failed message when they return. A little animation or something like would have been nice.
While playing this series, I've never once thought to myself, hmmm, this would be a fun multiplayer game, so when the mode was announced for Brotherhood, I was quite skeptical. After a few hours of trying it out, it's a lot more fun than I expected, but still not enough to “convert” me. The main mode consists of hunting an assigned target while evading the player hunting you, and this simple formula is pretty engaging. However, my problem with Brotherhood's multiplayer is the same problem I have with most online multiplayer, and that's I get bored of doing the same thing fairly easily.
In short, if you've played and enjoyed the first two, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood is a natural fit for you. Also, if you're looking for an alternative to the run and gun online multiplayer formula, you might find Brotherhood a worthwhile diversion. Brotherhood delivers on all fronts, and hopefully, AC3 won't be too far off.
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