Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood.

While a discussion of adding multiplayer to series that don’t necessarily need it is always going to be a tricky one to argue, Ubisoft have helped opened that discussion up again with Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood which’ll come with it’s own multiplayer mode which was showcased at the Eurogamer Expo throughout the weekend. While it was consistently crowded with plenty of people more than willing to give it a shot, I ended up being a bit less than impressed with the experience.

Continuing from Assassin’s Creed II, a game I still need to invest in, the multiplayer level took place in a market area, but before starting, I had to pick which of 8 Assassins I could have been, and then a pair of special abilities (which you can also change between deaths) before spawning. You’re then given a target to assassinate. But be careful, anyone else can be hunting you down at the same time. Enter a game of cat and mouse where you’re a cat and everyone else is a potential mouse who is also a cat and hunting you, their mouse. While you’re given a primary contract, you’re also allowed to hunt down everyone else but won’t receive as much as a points pay-off as killing your contract. Sadly though, there’s no punishment for killing civilians apart from being given another primary contract and potentially giving away your disguise, but the latter is so easy to do that you might as well consider killing civilians consequence free.

The fundamental problem that the mode seemed to have for me is that for a mode that should rely on you being stealthy, hiding in plain sight and being careful, it didn’t feel like you were rewarded for any of that, or that any of those things were even easy enough to do in the first place. The engine for the game is built in a way that being stealthy around computer characters is easy enough if a bit unrealistic, but against human players discovering who the other humans are is simple. It’s anyone who runs, climbs anything, and doesn’t follow a very fixed movement pattern. It seems weird that considering how easy it is to distinguish who the human characters are, even with only eight character models present, that Ubisoft didn’t really do anything to mix up the computer AI to throw people off the scent. I didn’t even see the AI really react to people being murdered, and it really bugged me that in the end the mode didn’t have any of the stealth or intrigue it should have. It could go down to who you’re playing against but it’s obvious when people are trying to stay hidden and even more obvious when they’re human.

When you’ve been spotted, or spot someone, you then have to run after them or run away. It just seems a bit weird because seeing as all of the characters don’t have defining differences apart from the special abilities, so you’ll run after someone at the same speed they’re running unless either of you has the sprint ability. Not that it matters because most of the abilities are a load of crap. The smoke bombs are useless, the gun is horrendously slow, you can’t target it and it doesn’t even kill who you’re aiming for and it takes forever to fire and its super obvious when you’re doing it. Plus for some reason it wouldn’t even use some of the abilities the first few times I pressed the buttons and you can’t customise which two abilities you have, you have to pick from predetermined combinations.

Then it comes down to when you then attack your contract or someone trying to kill you, and for some reason a lot of the time it wouldn’t let me strike my opponent for no reason, so nearly all of my deaths came down to “I pressed the button and nothing happened for no reason whatsoever”. If there was a better indication of when you needed to attack or if there was a way to defend or counter it’d be less frustrating as well. Then on top of all that, there’s nothing stopping someone standing behind you when you kill someone and killing you as soon as the canned animation is finished.

What it comes down to for me is that it really lacks a lot of polish. It seems that they didn’t change anything to do with the mechanics or the engine of the game to accommodate the multiplayer, it feels very incomplete and threadbare on top of that. While other people may find enjoyment on it to me it certainly feels like multiplayer for the sake of it. I should add that this is in no way writing the whole game off totally. I will openly admit I don’t know anything about the single player and so if I find myself buying the game, all the demo has done is put me off indulging in the multiplayer aspect, as I found it all rather lacklustre and underwhelming.

Donkey Kong Country Returns

Despite being one of Nintendo’s oldest creations, Donkey Kong doesn’t really get much of a chance to shine as the hero of as many games as other Nintendo mainstays. The Gamecube generation bought him a few games which you played with that weird and ultimately pointless Bongo peripheral, and so far the Wii has bought him… a Wiimake of one of those Gamecube games. Great. You’d have to look back to the days when Rare was tasked with Donkey Kong for one of the last real times he achieved true greatness in a game. Donkey Kong 64 is an obvious one for many gamers, but for most it’s the old Donkey Kong Country games which had that perfect blend of platforming and fun and stole the limelight with their technically amazing looks for the time, collectables worth collecting, level design that’s clever and intuitive and games that were all about the fun. At E3, fans of those good old nostalgic days were satisfied when it was announced that Retro Studios would be taking on the mantle and reviving the classic franchise. So how did it play at Eurogamer’s Expo?

With the ability to play solo or co-op, we were then given a choice of four different stages to choose from. Each one was taken from a different area of the game, with the fourth one being a boss battle which admittedly I was terrible at and lost all of my lives quicker than I was getting them back. Whoops. The platforming actually feels pretty tight, with plenty of collectables throughout the stage even though they were demo stages with extra areas to unlock throughout play and subtle differences between both Donkey and Diddy Kong, especially thanks to Diddy’s probably-trademark-by-now-Jetpack. Each character is only allowed to be hit twice before losing a life, and then has a limited number of balloons or extra lives, and characters can be bought back into play much like New Super Mario Bros last year, except replace the bubble floating towards your friend with a screaming ape in a barrel. At least one doesn’t require cleaning, eh?

The game also looks great, but lacks a ‘wow’ factor to them more than anything else, with nothing really popping out at you and really impressing you, unfortunately. Of course, your mileage may vary on that assumption but it could always be worse, and there’s no overriding need to have amazing, incredible graphics anyway as they wouldn’t really do anything to enhance the game overall but putting more energy into the thing couldn’t hurt.

If anything, that’s probably the single criticism I can make against what looks and plays like a faithful revival of an amazing old series: it doesn’t have the soul of the old games. It’s not that it feels like a cynical attempt to revive something old and amazing to make money (I’m glaring at you, Activision with your Goldeneye remake), because its clear Retro Studios have put a lot of effort into making the game as good as it is even off a simple demo build. It’s just that, as Iain from Gaminglives put it to me, that it feels like it lacks the soul of the original games, and that’s what’s potentially holding it back.
Regardless of that though, it looks like an amazing return to form for one of Nintendo’s oldest characters, and come November 2010, we’ll all going ape for Donkey Kong…
I’ll leave now.

Killzone 3 (3D)

Whether you like it or not, 3D is coming to gaming. While at the moment it seems too expensive with too little promise at this early stage unless you’re talking about the 3DS, it hasn’t stopped the initial outlay of games coming out trying to take advantage of 3D. Anyone else find all this talk of 3D in games really confusing? I got into gaming literally as the old kind of 3D was coming in and we all remarked at how stuff like Super Mario 64 was in three dimensions. Now we have this other one with glasses and depth and at times I’m never really sure how to address which is which.

Anyway, Sony is putting quite a bit of investment into 3D gaming at home and pushing the PS3 to its limits, and while current games enabling it weren’t initially developed to use it, Killzone 3 is one of the first games to be developed for the PS3 with 3D in mind. Being shown in its Pre-Alpha Code build at the Eurogamer Expo on 3DTVs with attached glasses, it was always going to be a weird experience getting used to.

The settings shown off in the game were clearly meant to showcase some of the new things being featured in Killzone 3 such as the snow and the jet-packs, as well as of course the 3D, but, well. Snow’s nice and all, and I’m sure the jet-packs are actually a unique and fun if slightly clunky experience, but after the time I spent on the other demo level, I came out feeling like I’d just played Killzone 2 again. The snow is purely an aesthetic touch which does nothing to impact the gameplay in any way, and the gameplay and mechanics felt literally exactly the same as Killzone 2. Of course if you were a fan of Killzone 2 then it’s a great starting point and you’ll be right at home, but something about Killzone 2 never really clicked for me and I ended up giving up a few missions after feeling kind of underwhelmed about it all.

So what about that 3D vision as well? The one the game’s been built in mind for? Sadly, I came out feeling underwhelmed about that as well. I’m pretty sure it’s because the game is in a pre-alpha state, but the 3D would either focus on the gun in front of you or far into the distance, but never in the part where enemies were and were shooting at you, which made the whole thing seem kind of wasteful and very slightly nauseating. Also, if I wasn’t sitting at the middle of the screen, then the 3D wouldn’t work particularly well, which was particularly noticeable in the cut-scene I witnessed as well.

I come off sounding extremely negative, but it’s more a case of disappointment. Granted, the technology is in its infancy and the game was in an early build, so I’m hoping it’ll improve drastically as it continues development. That doesn’t mean there weren’t flaws with what I played, and it felt like they’ve taken Killzone 2 and just added one or two things without trying to meaningfully improve the gameplay and make it a more incredible experience. I’ll keep my fingers crossed it’ll improve, but if a flagship 3D title isn’t going to improve the experience then it might not sell 3D for Sony as well as they’d like.

Kirby’s Epic Yarn

He’s made of string. He walks around in one of the most beautiful games I’ve ever seen in my life with the most fantastic and whimsical animations to boot. Everything clicks and I’ve fallen in love. Actually, let me rewind and back up. At Nintendo’s E3 conference I was expecting the new Zelda and the 3DS, but one title being announced completely caught me off guard and caused a very audible cheer. That was the return of the pink puffball known as Kirby in what looked like it’d be one of the most unique platforming titles around. Come Eurogamer’s Expo and I find myself staring at it. It’s simply so beautiful, and grabbing Pix3l from Gaminglives I went to tackle the demo they had on-hand of the first three levels. I would pose a hypothetical question about whether I’d like the game or not, but I may have spoiled the answer already.

The first big difference from previous Kirby adventures is the fact he can no longer inhale and eat enemies. Instead, Kirby has a large range of abilities from the offset and morphs into different forms to fit the situation. Double tapping the direction you want to go turns him into a car, picking up your friend turns them into a baseball, and when falling you can float further by turning into a parachute or fall to the ground by turning into an anvil. It’s not only useful but insanely charming and cute too, and it means you’re instantly able to go in and try to master it.

Which is a good thing too as the challenge comes not from dying, as dying is impossible in this game. Instead the challenge comes from the fact trying not to get hit at all. You see, throughout each level there are loads of beads and gems to be found, as well as three treasures. Grab as many beads and gems as you can to try and get the gold medal for each level, but don’t get hit or you’ll lose a bunch of them. It worked incredibly well in the demo and didn’t become frustrating or hard to play as a result, but for me added to the fun, as well as trying to mess about and see what I could find by exploring, which is encouraged heavily with all the rewards you can find to boot.

In terms of everything in the game though, it all just feels… perfect. The mechanics of how everything works is perfect. The animations, the graphics and the way everything fits together just flows so well that the game gives off an utterly irreparable sense of charm that gives you a massive smile on your face and the game is such fun, even with two players. There’s no frustrating pitfalls from working with someone else, and literally, everything clicks into place as soon as you even start. The game is outstanding in every way and should hopefully be a massive runaway hit. I can’t even continue praising the game enough from all too short three levels I played. Not short as in lacking, but short as in “I wanted that moment to last as long as possible”. Hopefully it’s another smash hit for Nintendo, and to anyone who doesn’t find themselves impressed by the game in any way or unable to at least smile at it, I hope you find your soul again soon.

- Jokesound

Assassin’s Creed II was a hugely enjoyable game for me – one of the best sandbox style titles I’ve played. Unlike it’s predecessor, the game was chock full of things to do and places to see – taking the original concept and melding it into something vastly more exciting. Truth be told, I’ve still yet to get the DLC, since I’d long since stopped playing since it’s release – but I could quite happily say I was satisfied with my purchase and even managed to get my first Platinum Trophy by tracking down every last feather in the beautiful Italian regions of Venice, Florence and Tuscany. It’s rare I say that a sequel surpasses a predecessor in every way – but this time I think they managed it.

The upcoming release of Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood this November did get me wondering what exactly we should expect. Firstly – the game is not deemed a true numbered “sequel”, secondly - it’s only been a year since the release of Assassin’s Creed II, as opposed to the two-year gap between the first two titles, and thirdly - I haven’t noticed nearly as much advertising for the latest installment. It’s perhaps because they’ve simply decided to follow the plot of the same character that they have made these choices (akin to Final Fantasy X-2), but the reluctance to number the title does make me wonder if the game will feel more like an expansion than a true sequel. So what do we know? I’m here to tell you what I can.

Although we are returning to Ezio as the lead character – I’m happy to say that the game will not be set in the same area as Assassin’s Creed II – it’s not recycled content, but instead the vast city of Rome for you to explore. However, the city is not as beautiful as you might expect – the city rife with corruption, the Vatican having drained the city of its wealth through its ruling of the Templars. A new area is a good sign – but actually, it seems there may be even more to Brotherhood than you might expect. The game introduces multiple new features that are making the game look like something very interesting indeed.

Rebuilding Rome

That’s right - in the same way that you could rebuild the small district of Monteriggioni in Assassin’s Creed II, the vast city of Rome can be rebuilt and improved. This means that by investing in the city you will actually see the world change as you progress, on a much larger scale than we’ve seen before. This feature is supposedly integrated into the storyline itself – so I do wonder whether you will need to have reached a certain ”city level” for the story to progress, or otherwise capped on improvements until you hit certain points – but either way it sounds very exciting. I did enjoy Monteriggioni in ACII, so this definitely sounds exciting to me – especially since Rome is supposedly the biggest city in the whole series to date; although the previous titles did consist of two or three cities, so that’s not to say the game will necessarily be larger in total. Rome will be composed of five districts - Vatican, Downtown, Tiber, Country and Antique – hopefully each with its own distinct style.

Recruiting Rome

Perhaps one of the biggest new features in Brotherhood is the new recruiting system. Now a Master Assassin out to retake Rome, Ezio understandably needs allies. Using a new management system, Ezio will be able to take on rookie assassins and train them in his ways. Said recruits will be customisable, including their specific weapons. These recruits can then be sent out on various tasks, called in as support in missions, and will gain experience as they do so to become more powerful teammates. Although similar systems have been seen in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, I’m quite intrigued to see how this all works, as I can’t say I’ve seen such a system used in a home console title before. One thing I will say – the idea of being able to call a group of assassins down to take down an unsuspecting group of Templars sounds like good fun to me. Oh – and I’m glad to note that there will be female assassins in the mix - not just a selection of grunting generic males but  a variety of different characters.

Fighting in Rome

While I expected Brotherhood to simply clone the fighting mechanics from ACII, it seems even the combat has been at least worked on, if not rehauled - it’s hard to tell until we can get a more hands-on experience. However, it looks as though there are a few new features worth noting – firstly, the introduction of ranged weapons in combat. While previous titles allowed such weapons for long ranged stealth-kills, it seems these weapons will now take a much more active role in battles, allowing Ezio to interchange sword combat with his hidden pistol and throwing axes. There are also new enemies to keep you on your toes, such as horsemen and riflemen – both of which sound nasty in their own way. While I find the fighting mechanics to be the weakest area of Assassin’s Creed’s gameplay – being far too easy to master – it’s said that Brotherhood will have more focus on quick strikes, rather than focusing on counter-attacks – and enemies are supposed to be more aggressive, ditching the habit of only attacking one at a time when in a group. It may be a little early to know for sure – but these definitely sound like changes that could improve the combat vastly. Not only that – but now horses will be available inside the city itself, and horseback attacks have been introduced, giving a lot of potential for some new scenarios such as horseback chases through marketplaces, for instance. Could be tricky to control – but I’m glad to see that Ubisoft are making an effort to improve their game rather than churning out a clone.

Multiplayer

Perhaps the biggest love/hate inclusion to Brotherhood is the new addition of an online aspect to an Assassin’s Creed title. Since it has already been stated that there will be no co-op, it doesn’t appeal to me hugely over the much larger interest in the solo aspect of the title. If, however, you are one of those people who loves to spend your evening fighting your best friends to the death, then perhaps this will be your cup of tea. There will supposedly be various modes, including one called “Wanted” which involves up to eight players, each of which is tasked in hunting a specific player.  The idea - to kill your target before your hunter kills you. There will be a selection of different characters available to play as, each with their own signature weapons and animations to mix things up – and players can even level up to gain new abilities - such as disguises, attack boosts and various other skills. Although I’m not a huge fan of multiplayer modes, one of the cool things that does interest me is that the modes will still use civilians in the same way as the story mode, allowing you to work yourself into the crowds - which could create one of the most interesting stealth experiences seen in a multiplayer mode if done right. So long as the online mode hasn’t taken any of the manpower away from the quality of the main game, it could actually be quite good – a nice break from the huge hoarde of gun-based online titles that saturate the multiplayer market. I guess we’ll just have to see how it pans out once we get access to the real thing.

Overall, I was really surprised with what seems like a lot of work put into Brotherhood. Although a quick glance had me thinking it would be another cash-cow spinoff such as Bloodlines, it looks as though the new title will be bringing back all of the features that made ACII great, with a fair amount of new content to get excited about, too.

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood is set for release in November – just enough time to play through ACII one more time, and maybe the DLC, too.

Leon

Back on the Sega Mega-Drive, one of my favorite games I would play constantly was Streets Of Rage 2. For some reason 1 and 3 didn’t compare to the second outing of thug bashing. Plus there was a kid on roller blades who I thought was awesome. So I started off playing beat ‘em ups, a side from the classic FPS games which I don’t really need to mention  now.

When I finally got to play Castle Crashers on XBL I loved it, but for the life of me couldn’t complete the damn thing on my own. It was a perfect mix of old school beat ‘em up, plus some awesome medieval and quite comical graphics and theme, it was truly a game that brought back some fond memories.

Since then I have been thinking, what would be the perfect game to combine Castle Crashers and Streets Of Rage 2? Well put simply, there wasn’t one out on the market…Untill now.

I have been following Scott Pilgrim Vs The World intently. I have all the comic bar Volume 6 (just finished volume 5 see) I am pretty much booking the evening off for the day the film comes out, and to be honest I just think the whole concept of Scott Pilgrim is just beyond awesome. You may remember the post I did about the whole Scott Pilgrim universe a couple of weeks ago, but if you don’t the basic story is that Scott has fallen head over heals with a girl named Ramona Flowers and in order to date her he has to defeat her seven evil Ex-es, throw in a tone of video game references and you have a pretty awesome story. In the last post I only showed you a video of what the game has to offer, but now I can give you an insight into the game and what the Downloadable has in store for noobs and Pilgrim fanatics a like.

Character select, Mario style - Taken from IGN.com

From the get go you get to choose from 4 different characters. Scott Pilgrim himself, Ramona Flowers Scott’s love interest, Stephen Stills who is Scott’s friend and lead singer of his band Sex Bob-bomb and Kim Pine who is the band’s drummer. All of these characters have their own set of unlockable moves (which are unlocked as you level up though the game, much like Castle Crashers) and unique special attacks, they also have the ability to call in for a striker to help them for a momentary time. It is all what we are pretty much used to when it comes to a 2D side scrolling beat ‘em up. But there are a couple of nice little touches that keep the game fresh. For instance you can use sub-space if you so wish. On your travels if you find a door marked Sub-space you can use it to take a short cut through that level, this is completely in optional, in subspace you will find a number of mini games, one of which is a mini game where you have to destroy flying piggy banks to collect their coins.

Well that's sub space for ya - Taken From IGN.com

As with all old school beat ‘em ups, it’s not all about punching and kicking. Scott Pilgrim is no different, you do have some weapons at your disposal you can pick up bats, recycling bins, and even snowballs which does always add a nice element of carnage in there, but the really cool thing is you can pick up your team mates and do a team up attack also, nice touch.

Well that’s a little bit more info on the up coming game, I personally can’t wait for this title. Oh, but one bit of good news is that the Xbox 360 version of the game has been confirmed, so I am breathing a sigh of relief at least.

Scott Pilgrim Vs The World hits PlayStation network on August 10th and Xbox LIVE Arcade on August 25th. Pre-order you PSN version and get an awesome Sex Bob-bom T-shirt for your PlayStation home avatar.

I hope they do one for XBox LIVE avatars…..

Garv.

Recently I have been reading the Scott Pilgrim series of Comic books, and believe me when I say that these are beyond awesome. In a nut shell the books are about a 23-year-old guy called Scott who finds the girl of his dreams (literally) and then has to fight her 7 evil Ex’s in order to date her. Sounds pretty cool, but if you thrown in a load of video game references you are in for a total geek fest. I am only on volume 4 of 6 and I love it.

So when I heard they were creating a film of this comic book series, I was a little dubious. I then watched the trailer and noticed Micheal Cera ( you know the huy who was in movies like Juno, Super Bad and Year One), I was thinking that this film was going to be pretty poor, I’m not the biggest Michael Cera fan. But, now I have seen the latest trailer a countless amount of times, he is growing on me. I then saw how much detail they have put into the gaming references, and it is my top movie I want to see this year.

Now we take one story line that is full to the brim with game references, we make a movie of it, then we make a Video Game. Now most people who know me, know that I am not the biggest fan when it comes to film to game/game to film conversions. But I think what they have done with this title is just got from Comic to game, totally disregarding the film, clever move (Even though the movie look flipping awesome).

Now not much is known about this game, but what we do know is that it will be a downloadable game, the PlayStation 3 is going to get its hands on it first, and the 360 will get it….later.

After seeing very little of the game,I have found out that it takes its inspiration from retro arcade games, 2D pixel graphics are used in this game, and I for one couldn’t be happier. This is the perfect setting for Scott Pilgrim game ans all the references in the story line range from the original Sonic and Mario games to stuff from Final Fantasy.

Again, I don’t know much about the game so I will leave you with this world exclusive trailer from Game trailers. It left me wanting to know more, so as usual, more news as I get it.

Garv.

I have been playing Assassin’s Creed II for the most part of the last week – having received it for Christmas alongside my copy of Dragonball: Raging Blast. Although I haven’t yet finished the game, I feel it’s time I wrote down my thoughts of the second installment regarding the story of the battle of Assassin’s and Templars.

The original title was a bit of a mixed bag, with a general feeling of uncertainty around a lot of gamers. On one hand, the concept of the game was cool, with a strong lead character, the amazing scenery, the incredibly adaptive animations with free-running and climbing, and the guilty pleasures of performing the silent kill. However, the game was largely flawed with a sense of too much repetition, the simple “side mission-assassination-side mission” formula becoming quite tedious at times, and it all felt a bit like an excellent engine that lacked interesting gameplay. So it’s not surprising that I took up the sequel with a little bit of unease, the Eurogamer demo not doing much to whet my appetite with what I now feel was a rather poor showcasing of the title.

AC2 takes place directly after the end point of the first, taking the role of Desmond Miles once again as he leaves his matrix-like “Animus” chair to make his way on a sudden escape. Unlike the original, Mr Miles has a little more to him than simply providing a bit of dialogue and walking around a couple of rooms, this time taking up a bit of sneaking and bare fist fighting before being stuck on a different Animus, his mind being sent back into the body of another of his ancestors, beginning the story of the game’s real major protagonist, the Italian assassin – Ezio Auditore.

Whereas Assassin’s Creed had you taking the reins of Master-Assassin Altair, AC2′s control covers some of Ezio’s earlier life, and shows his transformation into the Assassin he eventually grows to become. After a very quick interactive scene involving Ezio’s birth (which reminded me somewhat of the start of Fallout 3), you skip forward into Ezio’s life as he frolics around Florence as a young man. Unlike Altair, the young Italian sports a much more lighthearted personality, the games earlier missions involving some pre-assassin street brawls, and showing you the ropes with some parkour-style races and exploration – introducing you to Ezio’s family; his bank-running father Giovanni, his mother Maria, and his three siblings.

As you might expect, however, soon enough things start to happen. His family betrayed, his father and brothers hanged for crimes they did not commit, Ezio finds himself caught up in a conspiracy he knew nothing about – taking up the garb of the Assassin to initially exact revenge on a man he knew guilty of betrayal, and escaping Florence with his mother and sister for their safety. After some training by his uncle, Mario Auditore, Ezio takes up the reins of a real Assassin in order to uncover a plot that spreads much further than he realises. The story is much more interesting than that of the first game, and since Ezio is hurled into the conspiracy unawares, you find yourself sharing his confusion and figuring it out yourself as the plot unfolds.

The general gameplay is very similar to the first, although a little refined – the free-running still fluid and easy to pick up, with the climbing and exploration all flowing together in an almost seamless way. Florence is a wonder to behold, each building being very individualised and having a lot of character, reflecting the real locations to a very impressive standard – I happened to watch a programme about Florence’s old artists only a couple of days ago, and was amazed to realise that I could recognise several buildings and locations instantly – I’m sure it’s not identical, but it’s an incredible representation nonetheless. All of the good parts of the original game are still included, such as the bustling streets, and I can’t think of a single change that has been for the worse. There is no longer a lot of obviously repetitive dialogue in the general conversation amongst the civilians, but the place still feels very much alive. There are so many other little touches that make it even better, such as cut scenes having interactive moments where you press prompted buttons to result in extra little scene elements such as activating Ezio’s hidden blade when showing his new enhancement to one of his contacts.

Staying incognito has been improved – blending into the city being much more comfortable than before – instead of having to walk slowly and hide your face when walking near any people of note, and being forced to blend with set groups of monks that walk along set paths, the game now involves a Notoriety system which means you can walk around the city safely unless you provoke guards or cause real trouble. If you do so, a gauge will fill, and upon becoming Notorious guards will attack you on sight. However, you can remedy this situation by a few little side tasks, such as ripping down wanted posters, killing certain public figures, or bribing the Heralds who spout gossip throughout the city. Once the Notoriety meter is empty, you return to being Incognito and can explore the city without worry once more.

The game’s combat is also similar to the first, allowing for silent kills with the hidden blade, bare fist fighting and fighting with swords or daggers – allowing for fast paced combat with combos that build up by timing button presses as the weapon strikes. Counter-strikes can be used when blocking for impressive dispatches as before. It’s now possible to disarm enemies by timing a button press when bare fist, which allows you to steal enemy weapons for temporary use, all including their own attack combos and allowing for some more gory kills such as spearing enemies in the face for particularly nasty deaths. There are also other weapons to obtain during the course of the game, such as throwing daggers for long range kills, smoke bombs for escaping conflicts, and even an old-fashioned pistol; bearing in mind that Ezio lives in a time which is a little more modern than that of Altair’s.

The game offers the regular story progression by going to markers in order to activate missions. These can include fighting your way to assassinate certain targets, escorting people, tailing suspects, or whatever the story requires. It generally all flows from one thing to the next, so it doesn’t feel fragmented and all intertwines together well. There are more side-missions than before as well – allowing for several tasks such as assassination tasks, courier (delivery) missions, beat up missions where you can scare cheating husbands, free-run races and more.

One of the biggest new things is the inclusion of money in the game. Unlike the first title, Ezio can gain money by finding various chests, pickpocketing civilians, chasing other pickpockets or looting bodies. With this currency, it is possible to buy a myriad of different things – new, more powerful melee weapons such as other blades and daggers, and new heavy weapons like hammers and maces.  It’s also possible to alter Ezio’s appearance by dying his clothing (choosing from various colour schemes at the Tailor), and upgrade him by buying new pieces of armour and other items ranging from torso armour, greaves, arm guards, throwing knife belts and medicine pouches (for potions that can be purchased from various doctors throughout the game), and they all change his appearance accordingly, which adds a real sense of customisation – the armour also giving him boosts tao his maximum health and defense.

Along with the new money system, another great quest has also been added, perhaps one of my favourite parts of the game; Ezio’s uncle’s Villa is situated in a small ruined town outside of Florence. By paying Florins to upgrade individual elements of the city – such as shops, key elements like the well and mining facilities, and other buildings of note. As you pay your money into the city and improve it, the area changes and looks nicer, the whole settlement coming to life as you work on it, also rewarding you with access to new areas and discounts on all of the merchants’ wares. The villa also doubles as a huge collection storage area, where you can keep collections of weapons, armour, paintings you may purchase and other things. The more you put into the villa and the city, you get a higher and higher income in the form of a set amount of Florins being added to a chest every 20 minutes that you can access, so you can get rich quick.

There’s simply so much to the game, I could go on and on for a long time but I fear I’ve already said too much. The first game provided a spectacular engine but was wasted on content, but this time they’ve filled the game up with lots of things to do and collect, and it’s simply a joy to wander round doing whatever you see to do as you explore Italy. There are more places that even I haven’t reached yet, but the game has a great length, and you can even access Da Vinci’s legendary flying machine later on in the game for travel in the skies. There are plenty of other things I haven’t even mentioned – but it’s simply too much to put in writing (in a good way).

If you liked the first, get this – it’s better in every way. If you didn’t, I highly suggest trying this game regardless, although some minor points of the overall plot may be lost on you. This could be the best game I played from 2009 – and I hope to see many more games this good later in the year.

-Leon

I suppose my title really says it all. It is customary to save the best until last, but as I have never been one for tradition I now bring you my Expo experience of Rabbids go home on the Wii. I must say at this point that I only had a very limited amount of time to play this game, so these are just initial thoughts. Rabbids, if your out there, please don’t hurt me…you scare me….

Firstly, and in the interests of fairness, I will say that this game has a very cute (and surprisingly logical) story line. In a nutshell the Rabbids come from the moon and want to go home. In order to do this they are running wild in the city, collecting all sorts of useless objects in their shopping trolly. They are then transporting these objects via the sewers to a secret location and using their spoils to build a massive pile of stuff which they hope will stretch all the way to the moon. ET eat your heart out. Though I generally did not get on with this game I have to admit that I found the story line and objectives refreshing. The game is as crazy and disturbing as its predecessors, with the Rabbids using pretty much any means to, run things down with their trolly, collect stuff and cause as much mayhem as possible along the way. Most of the demo was spent pushing a trolly madly around the city before using an old mattress in the sewers as a secret highway to new parts of the game. The bottomless shopping trolly allows you to pick up anything from furnishings to food and pets, all of which can be saved up and added to your ever growing mountain of random stuff. As the mountain gets bigger you are able to survey more of your surroundings, opening up more possibilities for exploring, scavenging or just running around knocking things over if you like. The game does have some specific objectives should you feel inclined. One challenge the game gave us during the demo was to stun and then pick-up a collection of Chiwawas to add to our trolly. Yes. This confirms it. This game is officially just as mad as ever. With the Rabbid characters the same odd mix between strangely frightening and somehow cute this game has the same feel as the rest of the series without simply being an add on. I feel that Ubisoft have been very brave in taking a step away from the popular Rabbid mini games, which can only be commended.

You may wonder at this point what my problem is with this game. So far I have spoken only positively about the story line and characters, so what could my problem possibly be? Well to be honest what really put me off this game was to poor positioning and tricky nature of the controls. Playing this game simply did not feel natural, and when compared to the slick, easy to use gameplay of other titles we sampled this year (such as Super mario Bro’s) Rabbids just does not cut it for me. Though this game makes full use of the motion aspects of the wii remote, the shopping trolly you push around the level feels as though It has a wonky wheel forcing it to constantly turn towards you. I’m serious, If you picked up this trolly in Tesco you would throw it back. Though players would probably adjust to the trollys wicked way in time, who needs the hassle? Especially seeing as the story line involves a lot of trolly dashes. Another thing which bothered me was the method of firing at enemies. In the demo we played we were able to fire other Rabbids from the safety of our trolly into enemies (Or the general public) to stun them. This seemed like a good feature, until we came to use it. In order to fire a Rabbid you have to aim the little dot on screen at the enimy with your left hand and then fire with your right hand trigger. Though this seems simple enough, It really doesn’t feel natural. I found myself wanting to hold my hands as if I had a rifle, and though this made shooting easier it made steering more difficult. I really don’t know whey the decision was made to separate the firing motion between two hands, perhaps there is a secret reason I am not aware of. Don’t get me wrong, this game isn’t the most complicated out there, its perfectly possible to play. Still, I feel that it would have made the game feel a lot smoother if they had kept it simple. This kind of game really relies on the fun factor, and with frustrating cointrols it is hard to have a lot of fun.

So in summery. This game is very cute, and a little disturbing but not one which I will be favoring this year. Its worth a play purely for seeing what destruction can be caused with a humble shopping trolly, but to me it is just not in the same league as some of its fellows. Perhaps after continual gameplay the controls would begin to feel natural, who knows. All I know is the entire team found it difficult to grasp, and this stopped any of us really being able to enjoy the game to the full. Which seeing as the concept of the Rabbids is so good is really a great shame. If you have a Wii here is my advice. Buy Super Mario Bro’s this christmas. Its easier to grasp and just as random as the Rabbids with added nostalgia value. A much better one to play with your friends and minus the Wonkey wheels. Rabbids…your cool…but go home…please…

Stay tuned for my christmas list!

GuitarGirl24

The first Assassin’s Creed was a title I had mixed reactions about – the game boasted impressive graphics and complex climbing animations, alongside a brilliant concept and some clever mechanics. However, after playing it for a while, I couldn’t help but feel the game lacked variety, with its repetitive missions, easy combat and basic objectives – in a way it felt as though the game’s engine was more advanced than its actual gameplay. Although it was enjoyable in many ways, it had plenty of flaws and really felt as though it needed work.

So, with the announcement of Assassin’s Creed 2, my curiosity got the better of me. Would the title take the good aspects of the original and flesh it out into a good title? Or would it simply be more of the same disappointment?

The game had perhaps one of the longest queues at Eurogamer, and being a long demo I could see why. Taking control of Ezio, you were let loose upon the streets with a mission to hunt down some archers in order to allow an ally to replace them in for some pre-assassination preparation.

My first impressions of the game were that it was indeed much more colourful than the original, the Italian setting giving much more allowance for attractive settings as opposed to the dusty areas of AC1. The controls felt very similar, allowing for the usual parkour, although I must admit I was a little rusty. One of the biggest additions is water, which has been added perfectly, allowing Ezio to swim – something that was clearly lacking in the first. The water looks good, and you can even take control of a small boat to sail on if you wish.

Ezio has access to a much larger range of weapons this time – alongside the normal hidden blades (he has two, rather than one), he is able to purchase new weapons, such as daggers and halberds. The demo allowed me to use a dagger, and by grabbing an enemy it was possible to cut the enemies throat, which reminded me of Metal Gear Solid 3. However, I found it tricky to get the hang of, and found it very difficult to actually assassinate any archers without getting spotted, ending up resorting to melee combat – whether or not this is simply due to the lack of a tutorial I do not know, but I didn’t feel as though I were doing anything largely different to my experience with the first game. I recall AC1 having the ability to move low profile and hide your face, which I couldn’t seem to do this time, hopefully I just didn’t know how to, or it just wasn’t implemented into the demo. The combat itself seemed similar to the first, and I liked the fact that Ezio can taunt, his personality a lot more fun than Altair’s was.

Money has now been implemented into the title, so it is possible to purchase items and hire assistance, although I didn’t get much of an opportunity to use this. However, this hopefully means it will now be possible to shut beggars up with coin rather than a kick to the face, assuming they’re still around – the amount of time’s I found myself screaming “JADE RAYMOND DIDN’T GIVE ME AN OPTION TO GIVE YOU MONEY YOU DAFT SOD” were more than they should have been in an ideal world.

One nice thing I did notice was that I didn’t hear any repetitive audio clips – although over the general noise of the expo, I may have missed it – I only hope they remembered to give more than ten lines of random dialogue this time whilst wandering the streets!

To be honest I was a bit disappointed with the demo as it didn’t feel as though it gave me an opportunity to really experience the title’s potential and new features – save for the addition of water it was all fairly simple stuff. That’s not to say the game won’t have the features; only that the demo didn’t allow me to try them out. Having completed the first, most of it was rather standard gameplay and I can only wait to play more of it until I can see how good it really is. The game will supposedly allow for almost triple the amount of different side-missions, and should flow better than the first game in terms of plot. The title is said to allow for customisation of Ezio’s appearance, the use of Leonardo Da Vinci’s various contraptions, and many other little additions such as a notoriety system and more weaponry. Also, it’s going to incorporate a day and night system – so there should be plenty of opportunities for night-time assassinations!

Talking to the game’s representatives, I was told that the full title will cover much, if not all, of Ezio’s life – covering his birth, aging and education on his way to becoming an assassin. This aspect interests me greatly, and I believe he will be a much deeper, more likable character than the egotistical Altair was at times. Obviously I didn’t get to see any of this, but it sounds good.

From the small chunk that I played, Assassin’s Creed II looks as though it will take most of the good qualities of the first and add to it with new features such as water and money. However, I think we’ll need to wait a bit longer for a real analysis, since I know there is much more to experience than I actually managed to get my hands on.

-Leon

The original Red Steel was released alongside the launch of the Wii, and although it got mixed reception, I thoroughly enjoyed it – it wasn’t perfect, but its use of Wii-mote controlled FPS gameplay, mixed with some semi-decent katana fights was enjoyable – and the game had some really memorable moments, such as the scary fairground level. Seeing as the title felt like one that had a lot of potential with some tweaking, I was eager to give Red Steel 2 a shot when I heard it was appearing at Eurogamer.

Red Steel 2 focuses on a completely new storyline, where you play as a silent protagonist known as ‘The Swordsman’. Looking somewhat like a modern cowboy crossed with a samurai, I thought he looked fairly cool, if not a bit cliched.

The demo started with an interesting section – where the Swordsman had been tied by his hands to a chain attached to the back of a motorbike, and I had to control my movement to avoid taking damage whilst he dragged me around some barren landscape. Although different, the section was fairly easy and a little long, so I assume it’s there more for storyline purposes. After a little while there was a crash, and I found myself in a flaming wreckage, where the regular gameplay began.

I soon got hold of a fairly old-looking gun, and a similarly aged katana, which were both lying around nearby. The demo felt like a large tutorial of sorts, having me shooting locks and such to progress. The game’s gun controls are simple aim and shoot controls, which work well enough – although I felt as though the larger gun didn’t obviously react to my hand movements as well as the guns did in the first title, which had me holding my guns ‘gangsta style’ simply because I could. Switching to the sword (which can be done at any time, as opposed to the first title) allows you to perform various melee attacks with sword movements.

The game utilizes Wii Motionplus, although to be honest I didn’t find it any more responsive than the first – anyone expecting 1:1 motion control will be sorely disappointed, and I really didn’t find it worth the addition of the controller add-on. For instance, in combat swinging the Wii-mote vertically or horizontally will do a matching attack, but to do a heavier strike it required you to do a wider motion with the Wii-mote. However, this didn’t really feel natural, as it felt instinctive to just swing the Wii-mote harder and faster, whereas to do a heavy attack actually required a wider swipe at the same speed. This attack was necessary in order to break the armour of certain enemies, and felt more of an awkward gesture than a fluid gameplay mechanic.

As you may be able to tell, it wasn’t going particularly well in my eyes. The game did offer a few little special actions such as flicking the remote to push doors open, and interacting with certain walls in order to scale them in an inhuman fashion, but aside from that it all felt quite generic. The game has opted for a completely different visual style from the original, going with a more cel-shaded design, but I didn’t really find it to look particularly breathtaking – the enemies being equally boring with simple designs which didn’t really help my enjoyment.

I can tell that Red Steel 2 has attempted to incorporate the sword fighting into the general gameplay a lot more, which was perhaps the one thing that was missing from the original title, but in the visual conversion it seems to have lost a lot of its beauty. Whereas the original was a dark and gritty modern title, RS2 seems to be a completely different style and loses much of its old-meets-new feel in place of a rather western feeling title with a few armoured baddies thrown in.

Red Steel (left) opted for a realistic style, whereas Red Steel 2 (right) has attempted a cel-shaded design

Perhaps the game would be better further in – with a few more abilities and perhaps some more interesting places and opponents, but I really felt as though RS2 has scrapped many of the nice aspects of Red Steel’s atmosphere, and replaced it with a cartoony bland design. The main protagonist looks cool, but has no real personality – and seeing as it’s a first person title, appearances are very much irrelevant when it comes to the gameplay.

I was really disappointed by my impressions of the demo, it felt very much a matter of adding one or two new features and scrapping far too much of the original style – it didn’t really feel like a sequel, more a complete rehash of the original concept done far worse than the first attempt. With the Wii-Motionplus equally disappointing, I’ll be steering clear of this game until I see something worth playing it for. For now, I’d point people in the direction of the original, or Metroid Prime Trilogy for some of the best Wii gunplay if you don’t mind the sci-fi style.

-Leon

So sit back and relax as you watch these highlights from Eurogamer 2009.

Plus XP’s Garvaos speaks weapons and swimming on Assassins Creed 2.

Guitar Girl 24 talks to Chet from Valve about upcoming sequel L4D2. ARGGHHHHH ZOMBIES!

Garvaos takes a breather with media molucule for a candid chat on LittleBigPlanet.

Francis asks the questions we all want to know. HOW DO YOU GET INTO THE GAMING INDUSTRY?

The gang do the rounds with gamers impressions from the AvP demo available at Eurogamer.

The Plusxp and Gamersunite gang join forces to discuss our impressions on playing the game. Nintendo did not sponsor us for our positive reviews of the game, we all genuinely liked it that much.

Then again party games do usually make good expo games.

***

My Site www.gamers-unite.com will be coming soon.

- markBOSS