Assassins Creed reviewed

Since I picked up the platinum version of the first Assassin's creed game for the xbox I  am a huge fan of the series and pre-ordered each following game in a collectors edition. I always tried to unlock everything there is to unlock and spend a long time adventuring and exploring the Cities and environments given.

My favourite game of the series so far has to be Assassin's Creed Brotherhood. It's the sequel to Assassin's creed 2. Different to the ac games before they added a online multi-player and a lot of environment changing mechanics to the story mode. The online multi-player works really well and is a lot of fun. You get perks, gadgets and abilities to form your character individual so you can never say what the other players are using exactly. For the basics you just have a target given and depending on how good you are doing you are a target by yourself to up to three other players, the better you are the more are hunting you. The changes in story mode are slightly but make the battle of Rome more intense, they introduced enemy towers yo need to capture before you can use shops and special places. You can run errands for shops and there are throw back missions to the past of Ezio in the time ac2 played it, Ezio meets up with Leonardo Da Vinci again who you help to destroy war machines of him the enemy uses against you. So in total you get a lot more then in Ac2 and the story line hasn't the big gaps in time of ac 2.

The second part of ac has given the series it's popularity it has today. For the first time the series has a real story line with missions and concrete goals what you got to do. Different to the first ac the second one plays in the renaissance in Italy where Ezio moves from Fiorentina over the Toscana , Flori and Venetia to Rome fighting the templars, learning the arts and abilities to become the master assassin and leading his creed. The graphics developed a lot and the mission system become moreto look like an actually story line. There were plenty of new weapons and loads of new fighting tricks. So far it was the biggest development from one ac to the next. Ezio was introduced as the new player character in this part and with three direct sequels to this game, Ezio so far is the most liked assassin out of the three so far.

Assassin's creed 3 i got for my fiance as the join or die edition and what i have seen or played of it looked amazing. I started the game in 3D when i was over in England and it just looks amazing the 3D works really well with the game and it's a big reason to get into the 3D gaming. For ac3 the location and time changed to the revoltion of the United States of America and the main character becomes Connor Kenway, a half british and half native american boy, you learn to grow up and take his side in word. I  haven't played a lot of it so far and i haven't come to play Connor yet. So when i am back to England i will get back to do that so I played and finished all of the ac games. I really like what i have seen of it but the new things and the big changes about it, i missed so far. The fighting system hasn't changed really in my opinion just the button layout and the tricks what is a result of the time difference in my opinion.

Next would be Assassins creed 1. I like the game and it brought a great new franchise. The main character is Altaïr ibn-La'Ahad during the third crusade. You start by trying to stop the templars to get hold of a sacred artifact during that the templar manage to get that artifact and you break with the codex of your brotherhood. Back in the Hideout of the Brotherhood the leader of the assassins sets your rank of assassin back to one and you have to visit towns and companions to complete missions and achieve goals to gain back these ranks and after achieving a few of the given targets you get a person to assassinate and to return after the assassination when you are undetected. The nice thing about the mission system is that you always can choose by yourself how to unlock the assassination mission that is the one that actually really provides the story line in the game. The bad thing is that you can get in a bad habit of doing the same things over and over to proceed fast with the story. As mentioned before that system was changed with the second part of the series. I enjoyed playing Ac a lot when it cam out and the time and main character are my favourite but because of the repetitive missions and the lack of story line i would prefer the other ac's nowadays.

Last on my list is Assassin's creed Revelations. In this part you return as Ezio to the holy land, with the mission to achieve the secrets of the Creed and the leader of assassins Altaïr ibn-La'Ahad. Early in the game you get the hook blade that makes it easier to maneuver through town and handle big gaps, another new thing was the possibility to craft bombs for different reasons, like attacking purposes, to lure guards away , smoke bombs, and bombs with claptrap's to get rid of pursuers. A new tower defense game made it a bit more challenging to keep control of the city. Next to that there was the change of location form Italia to the holy states. The online multi-player and the economy system stayed and like brotherhood it was basically a updated ac2 with a new story line and a few more features. I had a lot of fun playing through it and meeting Ezio's last love but the aged Ezio and the lack of new stuff made it the last title on my list.

In total this is my ranking and liking and disliking's of the released ac games. I tried not to go into story analytically, i might do that another time when i have finished ac3 and ubisoft makes it obvious where they will be heading with ac. I would like to know what you think about ac and what your favourite part is.
(P.S. check out my girlfriends blogger: xgardenofedenx.blogspot.co.uk)

Pre-ordered games

All the games that i am going to talk about are from the list of games i am looking forward to in 2013. I have pre-ordered Metal Gear Rising Revengeance, Ni No Kuni : Warath of the white Witch and Dead Space 3. I'm really looking forward to get each of them , Metal Gear is releasing on the 21.02.13 , Ni No Kuni on the 22.01.13 and Dead Space 3 on the 7.02.1.

I pre-ordered Metal Gear because of Platinum Games without a doubt , I never cared about the story of Metal gear and i still don’t, even  though i am playing their new game. The game play just looks on the point again, but  i am used to it from platinum games. The graphics are not even close to amazing and the background often is grey on grey but that doesn't really matter if the fights and the game are fun.

So i am always kind of annoyed when people say games are good because of the graphic. On the other hand  i am doing exactly the same and it adds to the atmosphere,  if the atmosphere in a game is right and you like it, the chance you get back to playing it is bigger. I guess graphic is important but in this case you get your pleasure out of other things. I expected non-stop action, millions of rockets and explosions. Until the release of Metal Gear i started playing Vanquish on Elle's account to get into the action again and when i think about it Metal Gear will have the combo gameplay of Bayonetta and the location PLS action to be more like Vanquish, i can't wait until i finally get it. 

After everything  i  have seen and heard about Ni No Kuni i just had to get it. I love it even more because i love the Studio Ghibli films and them working on the game too is just amazing, it will be one of the best jrpg's that i heard about  in the last few years. The past years the rpg's of western developers have got much more attention,  Especially Skyrim and Fallout they  were huge successes  its about time in my opinion to show that a good jrpg is something special and can't be reached by the western ones. They just work on different things and get more feeling in the story and the fighting system. So does Ni No Kuni, the characters look amazing and the fighting system looks fun ( the wold is nice and i can't wait to explore it myself). I downloaded the demo before but i decided not to play it , i wanna discover the whole of Ni No Kuni myself when i start playing it. Glad I don't have to wait long anymore.

The last game pre-ordered is Dead Space 3, i guess everybody is looking forward to it. I don't wanna spoil any plot lines so i will just mention my expectations. After this i think it will once again be more action and less scariness  then the first game of the series and even more then part 2. On the other side and also adding to the action feeling, is the upcoming coop function. Still i like the idea and i already (as mentioned a few blogs before) convinced Elle to play Dead Space 3 with me. Another feature that should help the action in the title is the customization ability you got with the weapons. The new planet makes sense and works fine with the  earlier adventures Isaac Clarke had to go through. Surprisingly i am not to hyped about it so my hopes aren't high and i am just happy to get back in the world of Dead Space. 

Thanks for reading, Once i have played the games i will let you all know what i think of them!

Top 6 games of 2012

These 5 games are my chosen ones which i liked best last year, 5 and 6 both share 5th place because i liked them just as much as each other. Hope you enjoy reading what i thought of each one, comment to tell me what you thought of them.

#1: Dark Souls : prepare to die edition

Dark Souls actually released in 2012 but i love this game and the DLC plus the PC release was this year and because there was no significant other game that is as addictive as this i have to make it my number one . I love the atmosphere in it , it is cold , dark , dirty .  don't feel comfortable in the world at all additional to that the high difficulty and countless traps that cause detach after death is the thing that makes this game unique , you gotta adapt your abilities and find armor and weapons you enjoy using while nothing is overpowered and everything is always fair and balanced . On top of that you got an amazing online system with amazing battles player vs player or with friends against giant gods and demons . The multi-player is included in the game and plot in a nice and again unique was so the Souls series in general have been the outstanding game series since demon's souls started .

#2: Guardians of Middle-Earth

Moba's (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena)  are for a long time the dominant gaming genre on PC, Games like LOL, HON and DOTA got loads of views on Twitch.tv, huge tournaments and a large player base, but on console there were just a few and not really successful games of that type. With Guardians of Middle-earth is a new Moba on console and the controls on it are working extremely fine on the controller. The huge license of Lord of the Rings may give the game what it needs to build a Community for mobas on console. I am a big fan of Lord of the Rings and i like the teamwork and team oriented play in mobas so for me it was a highlight of 2012.

#3: Borderlands 2

I played Borderlands 1 for hours , i had a high level character with all of the starting classes and searched for Easter eggs and everything, so of course i was excited about Borderlands 2 and ordered it for me and Elle as the collectors edition and i wasn't disappointed at all. The game is fun you got lot's to loot to buy to get and to level up. The starting Characters are well balanced and the game can be challenging if you want it to.  Same as in Borderlands 1 it also gets harder and more fun the more players yo actually play it with so we ended up playing it with a team of three people ( me, Elle and her sister ). We haven't finished it yet and we didn't do the trasher-hunter mode (well not that i know of. but i expect it to be a New Game Plus) so i am looking forward to that and we will do that for sure when we are in the mood.

#4: Journey

This game is from "That game company" that was responsible for flower and flow before , I am a fan of flower and finished it the night i got it, flow is a nice game but i don't enjoy it that much . Journey now is a bit different to these game , you don't have to play it with the sixaxes anymore but you are still controlling the camera with it. You start that game with a character, unknown race, age or any story or information about him. You can make a noise and jump.The layout around you is a desert and you get given to start you journey to a far away mountain peek following a white guy who looks like you but he just fly's over. In the actual game you go through levels meeting people only being able to interact with waiting for each other , the voice to fill up your scarf and lead them the way. At the End of the title screen you get a list of the player names you met within your journey. The game is really catchy and enjoyable and for me the most emotional Journey in a game in 2012.

#5: Assassin's Creed 3

So the first number 5 i got is Assassin's Creed 3 and a lot was promised and hyped for this game. Too much to live up to in the first place. Still Assassin's Creed is fun as always, if yo get an ac game you want to free run through the city, build a society in it and just enjoy that century and for me Ac 3 has that and does that. I haven't played it for long yet but what i did play, showed me that it is exactly what i want and expect from an AC game, it's not the best game in the world for sure but its fine for me. I would have wished for a smaller leap in time and another location then america. But i'm excited to see what ubisoft has done with it and where the story goes. Besides i played it at Elle's house and the 3D on it looks stunning !

#6: Darksiders 2

As my second number 5 and surprisingly that was one of the games i was looking forward the most in 2012 and again i was satisfied with the product that delivered. The mix of this game is nearly perfect, i like the setting , angels , demons , Armageddon on earth , its unusual and i love it . They added wall climbing abilities to show that Death has a much swifter movement to War and it is really fun, the RPG elements are highly improved and you get loads of different weapons and armors that are all looking different. As i was used form Darksiders, the Boss battles always have a slight trick to it so you can't just run up to them and mash the attack button. The action part is mixed with a few riddles that sometimes can be complicated and a few jump and wall run sections. Like in the old Castlevania and metroid games you unlock items to get to new places and there are side missions and lots of collectibles , i really enjoy playing darksiders and i hope even though that goes down atm that the series is continued and keeps the quality at the level it is atm.

Thanks for reading guys!