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Top 10 Games of All Time

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 08/02/2012

Posted in: Blogs. Tagged: 2k games, 989 studios, ac2, assassin, assassin's creed, assassin's creed 2, assassin's creed ii, bethesda, big daddy, bioshock, blog, cars, david jaffe, eidetic, elder scrolls, epic games, ezio, fatality, fighter, fighting, gabriel logan, games of all time, gears of war, god of war, gran turismo, greek, guitar, guitar hero, harmonix, irrational, kratos, marcus fenix, Microsoft, mortal kombat, next-generation, oblivion, playstation, PlayStation 2, polyphony, ps1, ps2, psone, racer, racing, rhythm, rpg, Sega, sega genesis, shooter, simulator, sonic, sonic the hedgehog, Sony, spy, stealth, syphon filter, top 10, top ten, ubisoft, unreal, xbox, Xbox 360. Leave a comment

There are hundreds of thousands of games out there, but only a few hundred are considered masterpieces or classics. These are my personal top ten. I know it’s to everyone’s taste, but you can’t deny that these games are great. I have played hundreds in my 20 years of gaming, I have played through three generations of consoles, so at least I can speak on experience. I will try to be non-biased and even address some flaws in the games I pick because I have no problem with that. Flaws are flaws, and not a single game is perfect. There are more that are my favorite, but I would have to make a top 50 list.

10.Sonic the Hedgehog 2

This was one of the first games I had ever played at 2 years old. It helped introduce me to the gaming world and I just fell in love with the fast speed and intense gameplay. StH2 had some of the best level designs out of any game in the series and one of the best soundtracks to date. I remember never being able to actually beat the game because it was too long and too hard. I could never get past the factory level with all the grey orbs floating around Robotnik. I had to beat it many years later using an emulator and quick saves, but I still enjoyed it every time I played the game. I think I actually ruined my cartridge from taking it in and out of the Genesis so many times.

In fact, I even remember my first Genesis for Christmas of 1992. The copy of StH2 it came with kept freezing up in the system, so my mom took it back to Circuit City to exchange it. I remember throwing a tantrum because no matter how many times I blew the cartridge it kept freezing after pressing Start. The series has fallen off the deep end in the past ten years, but nothing can ruin the memories of this classic gem.

9. Gran Turismo

This game changed everything for me when it came to cars. My very first racing simulator actually made me think about every turn and what car I had to choose. I always played arcade racers before because consoles didn’t really have the power yet for realistic physics and graphics. I actually learned some things from this game like how to recognize cars on the street, and basic ways on how cars operate. I was sitting in front of my TV at 8 years old tuning my car and adjusting things like camber angle, toe angle, stabilizers, sway bars and gear ratios like a champ. I then followed the series all the way to Gran Turismo 5 today and have witnessed one of the greatest evolutions in gaming history.

8. BioShock

I remember the skepticism from PC gamers because of the greatness and expectations from System Shock 2. I didn’t have a PC capable of playing any major games throughout my early gaming years. My computer didn’t even run Flash very well, so I solely relied on consoles. BioShock’s narrative and atmosphere made a huge impact on me and the gaming industry as a whole. The first time seeing a Big Daddy and Little Sister was just shocking. You felt trapped in this underwater utopia, but you were also memorized by how it could have been accomplished in such an early time period. The game just worked so well and felt different from the standard military shooters at the time. BioShock 2 was too similar to the first game and just didn’t make the same impact.

7. Assassin’s Creed II

The second game was so much better than the first because it created a whole new world and a much more likable character Ezio is one of gaming’s most familiar faces and the game itself was revolutionary for its time. A huge open world in a historically accurate Rome, Italy was just unheard of. There was so much attention to detail that you had to sit back and just take it all in. The characters were likable, and the story was memorable with a deep and tangled political plot. The game was also violent with a fighting system never before seen in an action/adventure game. This game was almost perfect in so many ways that the rest of the games have yet to capture.

6. Syphon Filter

Syphon Filter was criticized a lot for ripping off Metal Gear Solid plot-wise. The game had unique characters, a memorable plot, and some of the best-level designs ever seen for its time. The stealth was perfectly executed and had some memorable moments. I have played this game numerous times and was actually my first-ever third-person shooter. I remember how confusing the game was because I didn’t understand how shooters worked. I was so used to platformers, adventure games, and puzzle games. After playing this game I felt like I was part of the grown-up crowd. The other two games on the PS1 were just as good but not as memorable as the first game. This has grown to be one of my favorite games of all time just due to the wonderful memories I have had.

I used to beat the game once a week using the one-shot-kill code then again without it. I memorized every enemy, and how to get every kill without being seen in stealth missions. I even went as far as replaying certain dialog scenes because they were just that cool. Syphon Filter is a mostly underappreciated game because of the lack of releases the series has seen. The last game came out three years ago on the PSP, but thankfully Syphon Filter 4 was announced for PS3.

5. God of War

God of War changed my way of thinking about action/adventure games. I remember driving to K-Mart to buy my copy after reading reviews and hearing the game blow up on forums. I didn’t really expect much other than Greek mythology-themed Devil May Cry. I was dead wrong. The game had one of the most thrilling and epic combat systems ever created. I never really even knew what quick time events were until God of War made them cool and did them right. It added a whole new layer of depth and connection to the combat that has never really been done before. The huge boss fights, gorgeous (at the time) visuals, and unabashed nudity and sexuality that few games dare tread. God of War still impresses to this day and with each iteration in the now 5 game series. Kratos is also one of the most memorable and recognizable characters to date. Make sure to pick up God of War Collection and God of War Origins Collection if you missed out on those four awesome games while waiting for God of War: Ascension.

4.Gears of War

Gears of War changed my mind on shooters the way God of War did for action games. The gameplay was just so different from your standard shooter. It was heavy-hitting, atmospheric, and featured some of the most memorable characters and stories to date. For a futuristic military shooter that’s a huge achievement. The weapons were memorable, it was perfectly balanced, and everything had a dark crunchy hit to it. The game was nearly perfect, and the graphics were out of this world at the time. I remember this being the first next-generation game I ever played when I got my first Xbox 360 for Christmas of 2006. Each of the three games in the series is amazing, but nothing compares to when I first played the first game. It wowed me like no other, and Gears of War is one of the few games I have played multiple times.

3.Guitar Hero

Sure this series along with Rock Band single-handedly killed the band instrument rhythm genre, but nothing compares to the first Guitar Hero. This game is the reason why I currently own and play the guitar today. Pulling off complicated riffs, solos, and chords with the then high-tech guitar controller was like magic. I spent dozen upon dozens of hours replaying songs and getting high scores. Sure it cost a lot, but it was well worth it to me. While the songs weren’t originals they were masterfully re-created and the guitar controller responded perfectly. The games later in the series lost sight of the value of mastering songs and just start pumping them out uncontrollably after GH3. This game redefined the rhythm genre and took the entire world by storm. Most people nowadays never played the first game, and they were missing out on a lot.

2.The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

This was the first game I spent over 100 hours on. The world was so rich and fantastic that I felt like I was playing in one of my favorite fantasy novels. The lore, characters, quests, and loot were just so addictive and engrossing I couldn’t put it down. I remember one play session going on for 12 hours when no other game has kept me in front of the TV for that long. The expansion pack was even more amazing, and the graphics blew me away. Of course, there were a lot of technical problems, and the PC version was better, but I sure had a ton of fun with this game. Skyrim is just as good, but it didn’t wow me like Oblivion did because this was my first Elder Scrolls game. To be honest I picked this up for $60 expecting not to like it much and I was dead wrong. Anyone who has just played Skyrim needs to go back and play this. It revolutionized the action RPG genre in my eyes and a lot of games have tried to copy it to this day.

1.Mortal Kombat

Yes, I am talking about the 1992 Sega Genesis/Arcade classic. This is my favorite video game series of all time and this is because it was the first video game I ever played. I remember my cousin babysitting me and seeing him control these characters on-screen at 2 years old. I remember seeing him pull off Scorpion’s mask and burn a character. It was something I saw before, and soon enough I was mastering the controls and beating him at 2 years old. I never knew how to pull off a fatality until years later when the internet became more mainstream, but I loved beating this game constantly. To date, I own almost every game in the series on several different platforms and have pre-ordered every recent game since 2004’s Deception. I don’t think I have played a game more than Mortal Kombat, but I still enjoy Japanese fighters. I find Mortal Kombat more accessible with more interesting characters and a story because they aren’t cliché and generic like most Japanese fighters tend to feel. There’s a whole giant story behind each and every character and they are all unique.

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 04/05/2012

Posted in: Editor's Choice, Microsoft Consoles, PC Reviews, PlayStation 3, Sony Consoles, Steam Deck Playable, Steam Deck Verification, Xbox 360. Tagged: adventure, assassin, assassin's creed, ezio, firenze, parkour, pc, revelations, steam, ubisoft. Leave a comment

Publisher: Ubisoft

Developer: Ubisoft Montreal

Release Date: 11/29/2011

Also Available On

Ezio Auditore da Firenze. When most gamers hear this name they think of one of the best video game characters ever made. Ezio went down in-game history the way he did for a reason. Assassin’s Creed revolutionized the action/adventure genre with assassination skills, and a whole new take on stealth gameplay, plus awesome parkour gameplay. Revelations are the conclusion to Altair and Ezio’s story, but just another chapter for Desmond Miles. Desmond is stuck in the blackness of the Animus and is in kind of a coma. His brain can’t tell his personality apart from Ezio and Altair’s, so Subject 16 (yes you finally meet him), helps you a little bit here. There isn’t much of Desmond here because this is the two assassin’s story, in fact, there are only three cut-aways to Desmond through the whole game.

Ezio’s story starts with him trying to find 5 keys that Altair hid, but the Templars are also after them. Altair has some secretly hidden library under Masyaf, so it’s a race. This is the shortest AC game to date, but that doesn’t mean it’s worse. There is a new layer added to Ezio’s personality because he’s 50 through 62 in this game. Playing as an old man is pretty awesome though. Ezio is now wiser, smarter, and a master assassin. You even play as Altair through his old age up to 92 and he still kicks ass! This should be more like Geriatrics’s Creed. Let’s go ahead and start with side missions. The same ones from Brotherhood are kept, but others from past games are cut. Templar Dens replace Borgia Towers, you can recruit assassins, buy stores, buy monuments, find viewpoints, and that’s about it. Side missions took a back seat here to some epic main story missions. Overall the game can be beaten in less than 15 hours even if you try to do the side missions that are here.

Collectibles this time around involve only Animus Fragments which are used to unlock crappy Desmond side stories which will be explained later. Two new combat abilities are brought to the table here and that is bomb-making and the hook blade. This adds a layer of depth to combat and climbing. Remember when you would jump off a building from too high and just can’t reach the one in front of you? Now you can with a quick press of the action button and you can catch yourself. It can be used in combat as well as running away from guards. Remember when guards would block your path and you had no choice but to get knocked over? Now you can hook them and roll right over their back. This also adds another item to climbing which is zip lines. Zip along and assassinate enemies at high speed which is a blast.

Bombs have three different levels, diversions, weapons, and defense. Boxes are scattered everywhere that contain parts of bombs that contain the container, gunpowder type, and item inside. You can use a lamb’s blood bomb to make enemies think they’re wounded and become stunned. A splinter bomb stuns enemies, or uses a cherry bomb to drive guards away from areas. These really come in handy when you don’t want to get into a huge fight. The problem here is that it’s wasted on the short length of the story. I didn’t even get to use all the bomb types because there just weren’t enough missions in the game that called for them.

There is also a strange strategy-type section at the beginning that is never used anywhere in the game and I thought it was fun. You can use points to call down different types of assassins on roof types or use defenses on the ground. You can use your gun when the wave of guards comes. This was kind of like a tower defense thing and was really strange just to have in on one mission.

All the other items are here like parachutes, poison darts, and all that stuff from past games. However, combat is finally perfect with combo chains after you kill an enemy. Keep the chain up and you can kill each one near you with just one hit. The combat really flows this time, and the new kill moves are just gruesome. You can do everything else in past games so nothing here has really changed. You do use your Eagle Sense more because you need to use it to find these clues to the keys. This leads to awesome and varied main missions which involve epic chases, picking your way around guards, and even giant climbing puzzles. I found these to be the most entertaining, but the gameplay really ends there. It is short and sweet as well as entertaining.

The area is completely new because it is set in Constantinople and Istanbul. There is one sequence dedicated to a whole underground Templar city, but I felt all this was wasted on such a short little sequence. The area in Revelations is tiny compared to past games, but this is understandable for how short the game is. The new art style and the setting are a great welcome because Rome and Italy were getting tiring to see. The graphics are still superb even with just the slight updates to the engine. The voice acting is superb and so is the storytelling.

Desmond’s Journey is a strange telling of Desmond’s past through a first-person platforming puzzle thing. I have no idea what this is but it should go away. There are five short little areas that involve platforming and pushing buttons. Then you get to place floating blocks in front of you to make paths. Yeah, what the hell. It’s nice to know Desmond’s story, but collecting 100 fragments for this isn’t even worth it.

Multiplayer has been amped up and is just as fun. There are more modes, but instead of being really original, they are hidden under the AC theme. These are models you see in first-person shooters that are disguised here. Capturing the flag is just taking a key from the enemy base and returning it to yours. There are a deathmatch mode and a few others, but more modes are good and they are fun. There are more maps, characters, and abilities that will keep you coming back for hours.

Overall, Revelations is just as amazing as past games in the series, but just on a smaller and shorter scale. It perfects the series to a T and I don’t think anything else can be done with these two heroes. If you made it this far in the series go ahead and finish it. Long asked questions are answered, but there are also some new ones now. The game has a touching ending, and we even finally get to see what happened after the first AC. Revelations is an excellent game with just enough new stuff to keep fans happy.

2011 Game of the Year Awards — Achievement Awards — Game of the Year

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 12/23/2011

Posted in: 2011, Game of the Year Awards. Tagged: 2011, action, adventure, anime, arkham city, assassin, assassin's creed, assassins of kings, atlus, awards, batman, battlefield 3, catherine, cd projekt red, comics, dark souls, dating, DC, deus ex, dice, directx 11, drake's deception, ea, elder scrolls, epic games, ezio, fatality, fighter, fighting, fps, frostbite, game of the year, gears of war 3, guerilla, human revolution, insomniac, japan, japanese, katherine, killzone 3, la nore, Microsoft, mortal kombat, origins, pc, platformer, playstation, playstation 3, portal 2, ps3, puzzle, rayman, resistance 3, revelations, rockstar games, rocksteady, romance, rpg, runner ups, shooter, Sony, steam skyrim, ubisoft, uncharted 3, valve, warner bros, witcher 2, xbox, Xbox 360. 1 Comment

Game of the year is the hardest of them all. What makes the game of the year? Everything must be almost perfect, well balanced, epic, have a great story, characters, mechanics, graphics, and everything that makes up a game must be amazing and better than the competition. I wish I could have picked more than one because there were so many amazing games this year.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Skyrim actually wasn’t my first choice. It won because of how grand in scale the game was and the attention to detail that only a few games this year did. Over 100 hours of gameplay, unique characters, a grand story, beautiful graphics, lots of customization, and a gorgeous soundtrack made Skyrim come out on top of the entire pile. Skyrim is a special game in the sense that no other RPG or game can do it.

Runner-Ups

Battlefield 3

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Killzone 3

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Portal 2

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Resistance 3

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The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

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Dark Souls

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Batman: Arkham City

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Catherine

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Rayman Origins

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Deus Ex: Human Revolution

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Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception

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Assassin’s Creed: Revelations

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L.A. Noire

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Gears of War 3

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Mortal Kombat

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2011 Game of the Year Awards — Achievements — Best Voice Acting

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 12/22/2011

Posted in: 2011, Game of the Year Awards. Tagged: 2011, 360, achievements, action, adventure, arkham city, assassin's creed, awards, batman, best, comics, DC, directx 11, drake's deception, ezio, game of the year, la noire, Microsoft, naughty dog, pc, playstation, playstation 3, portal 2, ps3, revelations, rockstar games, rocksteady, Sony, steam, ubisoft, uncharted 3, valve, xbox. Leave a comment

Voice acting is what delivers the personality in characters, and good voice acting is key to any good game. What makes it the best is a wide variety of personalities delivered by the voice actor and thus bringing out the greatness of characters. Good voice acting makes them unique, lovable, and makes you become attached to them. This year had some great AAA titles with amazing voice acting, but only one can take the prize.

Portal 2

Portal 2 delivers some amazing characters through witty whimsical writing and some talented voice actors. Portal 2 doesn’t just have good voice acting but diverse, funny, and unique voices for characters that are one of a kind. This is what made it top the others and is definitely something to be remembered. With characters like Wheatley, GlaDOS, Turrets, Cave Johnson, and other characters you just can’t beat that.

Runner-Ups

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations

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Batman: Arkham City

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Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception

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L.A. Noire

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2011 Game of the Year Awards — Achievements — Best Story

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 12/22/2011

Posted in: 2011, Game of the Year Awards. Tagged: 2011, 360, achievements, assassin's creed, awards, best, deus ex, drake's deception, epic games, ezio, fps, game of the year, gears of war 3, human revolution, Microsoft, naughty dog, playstation, playstation 3, portal 2, ps3, puzzle, revelations, rpg, shooter, Sony, square enix, story, ubisoft, uncharted 3, unreal, valve, xbox. Leave a comment

A great story is usually memorable and you will talk about it for years to come. You need good characters, voice acting, and a lot of other elements to make a good story. Usually, there has to be a great ending as well as some twists and turns, but it also has to make sense. A good story is probably the hardest thing to find in the video game world, but there were a lot of great ones this year, but there can be only one.

Gears of War 3

This was the toughest category this year. With so many great stories I could only choose one. Gears of War may be considered a meat head’s game, but the story branching over the three games is full of great characters and a struggle for survival that eats at your heart. These people are fighting a genocidal race of bugs, and in the meantime, they are losing their loved ones right in front of their eyes. The delivery from the voice actors just makes you care so much about Delta Squad, but overall the ending and story in Gears 3 finish the story with a tightness that most sequels can’t really pull off.

Runner-Ups

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations

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Deus Ex: Human Revolution

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Portal 2

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Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception

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2011 Game of the Year Awards — Achievements — Best Music

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 12/22/2011

Posted in: 2011, Game of the Year Awards. Tagged: 2011, 360, achievements, alice, assassins'c reed, awards, bastion, best, ea, elder scrolls, ezio, fps, game of the year, indie, jeremy soule, madness returns, Microsoft, music, pc, playstation, playstation 3, portal 2, ps3, puzzle, revelations, rpg, shooter, skyrim bethesda, Sony, steam, ubisoft, valve, xbox. Leave a comment

The Best Music award goes to a game that delivers emotion, atmosphere, and tension through the game’s soundtrack. Whether it be orchestral, licensed, or anything else it must feel just right.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

This was a tough call against Portal 2, but Skyrim came out on top thanks to composer Jeremy Soule’s amazing passion for the Elder Scrolls game. Every piece of music moves you and sucks you into the world like no other video game soundtrack can do. There are dozens of songs and each is masterfully composed and that is extremely hard to do. Every piece fits everything you do, see, hear, or interact with within Skyrim. The sweeping and dramatic theme song to the softer tones of exploring the world is perfect and nothing can match this kind of instrumental beauty.

Runner-Ups

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations

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Bastion

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Portal 2

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Alice: Madness Returns

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Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 12/12/2010

Posted in: Editor's Choice, Microsoft Consoles, PC Reviews, PlayStation 3, Sony Consoles, Steam Deck Playable, Steam Deck Verification, Xbox 360. Tagged: action, adventure, assassin, assassin's creed, brotherhood, ezio, multiplayer, online, playstation, playstation 3, ps3, Sony, ubisoft. 5 Comments

Publisher: Ubisoft

Developer: Ubisoft Montreal

Release Date: 11/16/2010

Also Available On

Brotherhood is one of those sequels that was thought to be just a cash cow tie-in for II, and everyone forgets about it. In fact, it was supposed to be a multiplayer-only add-on, but a few months before release we realize it has a huge single-player experience bigger, and better than II. This is what sequels should be like, especially if they borrow everything from their predecessor. Now Brotherhood isn’t a true Assassin’s Creed sequel like II was to the first one, but a new chapter in the amazing universe of 1500s Renaissance Italy. This time the game is set in Roma (Rome), and it’s huge, and there’s a lot more to this game than one skeptical fan might suspect.

The story is just as engaging, if not more complex, than II. Ezio is now older, and the leader of the assassins, and must stop the Borgia reign in Roma (since he failed to kill Rodrigo Borgia in the second game), but Rodrigo himself is only seen twice in the game, and briefly. It’s all his minions and the fight against Cesare that is the main focus here. The game still has a deep political plot that ties in with real-life situations, and people, at the time.

Along with that you can also play as Desmond Miles outside the Animus and he has a bigger gameplay part with a whole section dedicated to restoring power to today’s Auditore Villa for the team’s new hideout to find the Apple of Eden, and stop Abstergo and the Templars. While you only see these guys at the beginning and end of the game, you get another cliffhanger ending that will lead to the third game, and also a great conclusion to Ezio’s story.

The game plays exactly like II with no changes to gameplay except for some added stuff like a new crossbow, which is a Godsend for killing stealthily from far away. It’s great to do a mission and wipe guys out with a crossbow, and not get detected by those hard-to-reach guys. There aren’t any newly added weapons besides that, but combat is enhanced slightly so it’s not such a counter fest. You can kick enemies, combo Arkham Asylum style, and even do some nice executions with the pistol. This is a nice change to combat and makes it a little more fun. You can also call in assassin recruits to help you and this is extremely helpful, but more on that later.

Despite the main chapters, there are more side missions than you can shake a stick at. The side missions will take a good 20+ hours to complete and are tons of fun. You have the Borgia towers that have to be burned. These have to be burned down to buy closed-down stores, and restore areas, and landmarks. You have to enter a restricted area, kill the Borgia captain then climb the tower and burn it down. There are quite a few so these will keep you busy, and finding and killing each captain is different and challenging. On top of this, you can buy stables, blacksmiths, doctors, art stores, tailors, faction buildings, banks, and landmarks to restore Roma 100%. You will increase the city’s income and it will deposit in a bank every 20 real-world minutes.

There are other side missions for each faction (thieves, courtesans, and mercenaries), as well as assassination contracts, Christina missions, finding more The Truth files (10 this time), and now Lair of Romulus missions which have six in all and are much like Templar Lairs. After you find all six keys you can unlock the Romulus armor which is like Altair’s armor in the last game. You can also go to pigeon coops and play a mini-RPG that lets you send your assassin recruits out on missions based on their experience. Missions are based on difficulty and you will see a percentage bar on how successful they will be. Send more than one to fill it higher, but if they come back you can upgrade their armor or weapons, and when they reach level 10 you can make them full assassins. These are also helpful during missions since you can call up to three, or call them all for an arrow storm and kill all enemies on-screen. It’s great to call an assassin onto someone you can’t reach and then go in further without getting detected.

On top of all these missions can only be synched 100% if you complete the challenge such as using your hidden blade, completing it in this amount of time, don’t kill this person, only kill this person. It adds a surprisingly huge amount of depth to the game and makes playing missions (both side and main) more interesting and challenging.

Now the multiplayer is a really fun, and surprising addition to the series. There is only one mode and it’s all about a free-for-all cat and mouse hunt. You are given a target (another player out of 7), and you must use your abilities and skill to kill them while you may also be pursued. So you have to find your target and keep from getting killed yourself. The game has a Call of Duty style perk and ability system that lets you customize load-outs as well. The game is very addictive and keeps you on your toes. You must blend, and try to just act natural since NPCs also have the same looks as other players. There are many characters to play as, and each has its own unique abilities. The multiplayer will keep you hooked and come back to the game long after the single-player is exhausted.

With tons of new content, great new characters and a story, and an awesome multiplayer suite Brotherhood is an example of what sequels should be like. I highly recommend this to fans of the last game, and anyone who loves the variety in their games.

Collector’s Edition: For an extra $40 you get a Jack-in-the-Box with either the Plague Doctor or Harlequin (depending on what store you get it from), as well as a bonus DVD, extra maps (one exclusive to the PS3), a playable multiplayer character, and art book, and the soundtrack. This is a huge value for $40 dollars and is a must-have for fans. The Jack-in-the-Box is made a tad cheaply with weak springs, and getting the things to close is annoying, but the figure itself is high quality.

Assassin’s Creed II: Discovery

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 06/10/2010

Posted in: DS, iOS, Mobile Reviews, Nintendo, Retro Consoles. Tagged: 2d, assassin, assassin's creed ii, discovery, ds, ezio, Nintendo, platformer, portable, ubisoft. Leave a comment

Publisher: Ubisoft

Developer: Griptonite Games

Release Date: 11/17/2009

Also Available On

Assassin’s Creed is an amazing franchise, and no one would have thought it would ever go to portable systems, but it did. Discovery follows Ezio in a 2D side-scrolling adventure that plays out fairly well. The story doesn’t really have anything to do with the console game except following the Templar’s plots. Ezio must help Christopher Columbus get funding for his expedition to the new world, but the Templars are foiling his plans.

The game controls fairly well with you just moving left and right. Ezio can jump, climb walls, attack, throw knives, and even sneak his way through levels. The levels are fairly large and some even have multiple objectives so you must climb your way around the platforms, kill guards, and pull levers to find your destination. Wall climbing is fairly simple with the press of the B button. Like in the console game you can pull enemy of ledges that you’re hanging on, hide in haystacks, barrels, etc. While climbing walls are easy it’s also the most frustrating part since during tight situations you will try to jump on a wall and you have to press B again for Ezio to cling on. You never quite get used to this (especially if you’ve played the console game) and it can lead to cheap deaths.

Fighting is just like the console game which is a counter-attack fest. Holding R lets Ezio block and pressing Y at the right time will let him counter. It’s familiar with the console game so it won’t freak you out. The best way to avoid confronting guards in these fights is using your minimap on the bottom screen. They show up as yellow arrows and if they get in your field of vision (the black square around you) they will see you and alert nearby guards. Throwing knives before they see you are good as well as waiting for them to turn around so you can run up behind them and kill them just like in the console game.

Later on, all this gets more difficult and becomes hair-tearingly difficult since you can’t always see the next jump ahead of you and you can plummet to your death far away from the next checkpoint. There are multiple kinds of guards and you will get the harder ones thrown at you more often in the last few levels. Navigating around these guards is sometimes impossible and you must fight them due to the level setup. While these levels are hard all the ones before that are pretty fun and it’s satisfying to jump up from a ledge and land on a guy without him seeing you.

While there are different kinds of objectives you can blow through the game in about 4 hours. If you have a DSi you can take a picture of yourself and it will be put on a wanted poster like in the console game. Tear 10 of these down and you get a permanent health increase. Collect orbs throughout the game and buy Animus hacks to use when playing through the game again to increase your score. This adds to the replayability for people who really dig this game. The graphics are pretty good and look nice in 3D but there’s really no detail to it. The voice acting is good, and the game’s just overall fun to play and worth a playthrough.

Assassin’s Creed: Renaissance

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 03/28/2010

Posted in: Book Reviews. Tagged: assassin, assassin's creed, book, ezio, fantasy, novel, renaissance, ubisoft, video game. Leave a comment

Publisher: Penguin Group

Author: Oliver Bowden

Release Date: 2/23/2010

MSRP: $9.99

Pages: 496

Recommended Audience: Young Adult

Assassin’s Creed is one of those games that is really tricky to put into book form and it didn’t quite get pulled off right here in Oliver Bowden’s adaptation of the second game. Assassin’s Creed has two parts: One is a science fiction story where a man named Desmond Miles is captured by a secret government organization and stuck in an Animus machine to unlock the DNA of his ancestors and find the Pieces of Eden. The second part is whatever time period Desmond is throw-in and in this case, he is Ezio Auditore de’ Firenze in 1476 Italy.

The book completely cuts out the science fiction part of the game and just concentrates on what’s going on in the Animus, but dismisses this as well. This may be great for people who don’t like the science fiction side of Assassin’s Creed, but fans will miss this. Bowden also relies too heavily on the script of the game to drive the book, and rarely do you get to be inside the minds of the characters as much as you’d like to be. He rarely delves further than the games do and this is disappointing.

A lot of the secondary characters are built upon very well and you never feel for them except for Ezio. You always feel the other characters are just add-ons and not really important in the story. All of this is just more evidence that Bowden relied too heavily on the script. The book does include the story pieces from the DLC Bonfire of the Vanities and Battle for Forli, so you get some of that included that wasn’t in the original game.

The bits of Italian are nice, but most readers who didn’t play the game won’t realize that this was because Animus 2.0 had bugs in it that couldn’t translate all of it into English for Desmond. There is, however, a nice dictionary at the back of the book that translates all the Italian phrases for you.

All in all the book is great for fans and nonfans, but fans will be more disappointed than nonfans will be. The book just takes too much away from the game and doesn’t add anything back. It’s a decent read and feels rushed in spots, but there are better video game novels out there for sure.

Assassin’s Creed II

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 12/13/2009

Posted in: Editor's Choice, Mac, Microsoft Consoles, Nintendo Consoles, PC Reviews, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Sony Consoles, Steam Deck Unsupported, Steam Deck Verification, Switch, Xbox 360, Xbox One. Tagged: action, adventure, assassin, assassin's creed ii, ezio, Microsoft, renaissance, ubisoft, xbox, Xbox 360. 5 Comments

Publisher: Ubisoft

Developer: Ubisoft Montreal

Release Date: 11/17/2009

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Maybe once a decade we get a truly beautiful game that really represents what games are: Cinematic experiences that the player can get lost in for hours. Assassin’s Creed II is one of those rare games, and also represents what a sequel should be.

Assassin’s Creed II boasts a wonderful enrapturing story that really grabs you both in a politic/historical/science fiction sense. Never have I seen the three mixed so well with an ending that can make your head spin for hours afterward and have you talking amongst your friends about it for days. You are not Altair, but Ezio Auditore who is on a path of vengeance for the rival banking family that killed his. In the real world you are still Desmond Miles trying to unlock the secrets of his assassin ancestors, and figure out what the Apple of Eden is really meant to do and why everyone wants it.

From the start, you will notice major changes from the original, and this is graphics. The game is truly one of the most beautiful of the decade capturing the Italian Renoconce era with all of its amazing architecture, historic figures, and language along with the social classes of the time, but before we talk more about beauty let’s talk gameplay.

As everyone recalls the first game was very repetitive and pretty bare-bones so expect Assassin’s Creed II to have tons of things to do. Not only are there more side missions, but there are more scripted story-driven missions and playing a Desmond isn’t so boring. You actually go to a different location with Desmond and even fight with him…just a hint without spoiling anything. You have your Messenger, beat-up, and race events from the previous game, but gone are the “helping citizen” events. You have tons more variations from raiding assassin tombs (interior Tomb Raider style levels) to Templar Lairs, races on horseback, assassination contracts, finding codex pages to upgrade your health, chasing down people stealing your money, chasing down messengers, solving glyph puzzles, finding statuettes, restoring your uncles villa, more viewpoints and the list goes on. Yeah, there is more variety, and because there is so much to do, and so many ways to do them you really never get bored because I never did.

You can do ten side missions then three main missions then fast travel back to your uncle Mario’s villa to upgrade the city to get more income for you to spend, then go find some feathers for your mother in mourning, then maybe get some Codex pages.
Doesn’t sound like enough? That’s ok the variations in story missions never get dull with all the weapon upgrades you get. You even get to use Leonardo da Vinci’s flying machine about 2/3 of the way through the game. Want to talk about upgrades? Well, there is an economic system in play here, but don’t get too excited. It’s your simple buy stuff from merchants and upgrades your stuff type thing. You can upgrade your armor over a dozen times, buy dozens of weapons, upgrade medicine pouches, throw knives, and even poison vials. You can dye your clothes, buy paintings to increase the value of your villa. Did I mention there is every assassin weapon in this game? You have smoke bombs, dual hidden blades/punch daggers, poison blades, hidden guns, and even a passive ability to toss money on the ground to distract guards.

Fans of the original remember that the best attack was the running and jumping assassination attack. Wanted more? Well, you get more with the ability to pull guys down from hanging on a ledge, from a hiding spot, on a bench, in a crowd, jumping off something, and anyway you possibly can. You can now swim which is a huge plus, and blending has totally changed. Instead of having a “blend” button the previous “blend” button is now a “walk fast” button which can be used to pickpocket people for money by just running into them. Blending now consists of using any group of pedestrians or hiring people. You can hire courtesans, thieves, or mercenaries to do your dirty work or distract guards from important posts or patrols. This allows you to walk right on by to wherever you need to be. You can blend by sitting on benches or dropping your notoriety. Your notoriety is the creed diamond that has a red bar around it. The higher it gets the more the guards will be on your case and chase you for subtle things. Ripping down posters or bribing heralds can bring it down, but becoming anonymous first is a must.

Now that we have basic elements out of the way let’s talk combat. The core combat system is here, but with upgrades, such as being able to counter a counter-attack, take away weapons, use your hidden blade as a weapon for instant counter kills, and so on. The enemy AI is also better with four enemy variants that can chase you down or kill you with their bulk and massive weapons.
Free running is also slightly improved with tighter controls and better-designed levels, more climbing puzzles (viewpoints), and just more terrain overall. The game really only gets frustrating when the controls get a bit sticky and you cling too well to ledges. The world is 3x the size of Assassin’s Creed with the towns of Forli/Venice, Firenze, the Villa, and Roma. After about ¼ through the game, you get to ride a horse-drawn wagon in a chase down a mountainside to get to Forli/Venice which is a rich cinematic experience that the game is full of. Once you get to Venice you can ride gondolas and swim in the water.

So with all this greatness and beauty that Assassin’s Creed II gives us how does this soup taste? With all these ingredients I have to say it tastes damn good. Everything works well together and the game feels like a rich illustrious world that doesn’t feel dead. With fluid combat, free running, plenty of stuff to do, amazing visuals, voice acting, history, and science fiction you get anywhere from 15-25 hours of a wonderful game. This game will have you sitting back and savoring every moment, not because of just how amazing it looks and sounds, but how beautiful the game is as a whole. These games come once in a decade and Assassin’s Creed II, is it.