Ush's Videogames review thread!

I actually spent a night comparing the real Monteriggioni to the game one. It's accurate, except for the Auditore Villa. Peach and I were pointing out locations in actual pictures.

And as far as I can tell, to make up for Brotherhood only having one city instead of four, Rome is 1:1 in size.

Probably a long way off; AC games aren't my type of thing.

Originally posted by Ushgarak
though I am less happy about the effective time limited nature of the game, where if you do too many side-missions a bunch of your crew dies near the end.

this isnt true at all, ive played through several times, FULL play throughs my team lived every time, and every quest incl dlc completed, there is a clear 'No going back' point in which that 'take too long and crew die' point happens and you can complete ALL sid quests and DLC before even getting near it.

Just saying.

My experience, and the wiki agrees with me, is that the amount of time after you install the IFF system from the downed Reaper before it is ready to use and you MUST go immediately varies greatly and that variety depends on how many missions you have done, generally leaving you no time to get all content done.

First time through, after completing the IFF (which is NOT marked as a 'no going back point' in any way at all), several missions later I was forced to go through the relay before I finished all the side missions. I then reloaded an earlier save and did all the side missions before doing the Reaper IFF mission- it then IMMEDIATELY made me proceed before I could do Legion's loyalty mission (whilst first time through there was a gap of several missions before the IFF was ready); I was not allowed to do anything else at all without killing my crew.

So the only way I could do all the loyalty missions was to NOT do all the side missions. So yes, it is time limited, and that is the experience of myself and a great deal of other players. Your differing experience aside, this is generally recognised as something that happens in the game and very much worth noting in my review.

So the simple fact is this. The Reaper IFF mission- which I repeat, is not in any way indicated as some sort of no turning back point- activates a countdown of how many more missions you are allowed to do before your crew is kidnapped. This countdown can be several missions long.... or it can be ZERO. Its length depends on how many other missions you did before the IFF mission.

It's poor, because there's no way of knowing you can be punished for trying to be a completionist. Bioware's actual intent is that you do the remaining side missions after finishing the game, but how are people meant to know that? And if you just happen to do the IFF mission whilst passing by, you have no way of knowing you will soon after be forced into finishing the game if you want to save your crew.

That didn't happen with me either.

I did all the side missions and all my crew survived. But then, I don't exactly remember what I did.

Nonetheless, it remains a heavily reported issue in the game. You shouldn't have a mission trigger a countdown without a prior warning.

Originally posted by Ushgarak
Probably a long way off; AC games aren't my type of thing.

Sadly, unless it radically changes genre and design goal, I doubt it- I don't like stealth games and I don't like assassination. Which you have to admit is a disadvantage to enjoying such a game.

Well you're in luck cuz' the stealth and assassination kind of blows in AC. It's mostly either running around on rooftops offing guards untill you can just drop down to your target and shank him, or just shooting the ****er in the face.

That's still assassination- just a clumsy one. I am just ethically queasy about the concept.

Yeah...Brotherhood is definitely more of a stealth game than AC2 (and even that's only if you want 100% sync, most missions don't require it and the ones that do make it easy to stay hidden), but stealth is not really required all that much. Especially with ranged weapons.

My god, the fun I had once I got the crossbow in AC:B...

Originally posted by Ushgarak
That's still assassination- just a clumsy one. I am just ethically queasy about the concept.

Not really, no, as they all tried to kill him first. As much as any game will allow it, I only want to kill in self-defence, and despite their efforts to make your targets kick the puppy to establish their evil credentials, this is still just outright murder that cannot be justified.

Originally posted by Ushgarak
Not really, no, as they all tried to kill him first. As much as any game will allow it, I only want to kill in self-defence, and despite their efforts to make your targets kick the puppy to establish their evil credentials, this is still just outright murder that cannot be justified.

Altair is an ******* and under-developed, and the series only really finds its footing in the sequel.

He's not murdering for revenge, though; he's murdering to order (clearly worse). But that's not the point- it's the whole concept of assassination as a way to get anything done that I fundamentally dislike, and there is not a chance in hell the rest of the series will be any different in that way.

A loss, then. Hm.

I like the climbing buildings bits...

he's murdering to order

That's actually not the case in any of them but the first game. There are optional side missions like that in AC2/Brotherhood, but not a single one of the main story missions are like that.

But really, judging the entire series on AC1 would be like if I judged all of PoP on Warrior Within. It's just silly.

I'm done, though.

Originally posted by Ushgarak
I like the climbing buildings bits...

You would love the Assassin Tombs and Lairs of Romulus...

Well, to each their own, I personally quite like stealth and assassination games, but for example can't stand racing simulators.

I don't have too much problem with senseless or malicious violence in video games really, perhaps it's cause I don't think about it too much.

Originally posted by Peach
But really, judging the entire series on AC1 would be like if I judged all of PoP on Warrior Within. It's just silly.

I am not judging every aspect of the entire series- merely its central theme (and like I said, it doesn't matter what the reason for it is; targeted murder is still wrong). The clue is in the title; I am not wrong here unless you can tell me there are no assassinations in the other games. I won't enjoy the other games for the same reason, no matter how technically good they are. That's just how it is. And I know a lot of other people enjoy violence/killing in games, and that's fine. I just don't.