Just enough Cause to Keep Playing....

I am sure everyone is excited about the swinging, grappling, monstrosity ( I say monstrosity in the lightest and best way from the sprawling map), but I am trying to find the will to keep playing. Do not get me wrong it is hilarious grappling a jeep to a statue and watching the poor vehicle inhabitants learn a few things about physics, or grappling the 100th sniper so he falls to his cold hard death but it gets a little bit samey (Trust me it does).
There are a few problems with this game such as when you start out the map is BIG and I do not say big light heatedly, the map is so expansive that when you reach a milestone like 60km driven it actually FEELS like you have drive 60km, or nearer to 100km to the amount of time you spend just driving about. There are alternative means of transport, but I find grappling to peoples cars erratic as it normally;y causes them to crash, hilariously with me on the back if I am not quick enough to grapple off, or they just drive TOO SLOW. You receive the opportunity to also receive an extraction, but this is only to set places on your discovered areas, and the map the extraction provides is not the same map which contains your missions, meaning that you have to basically guess your drop point.
I also have a massive problem with the story as it is not very engaging, the characters are 1 dimensional, with either silly accents, or gimmicky props (Evidence pt. 1 Sheldon's continuous pork fetish). The story is like a snore inducing 007 story where they have tried to make twist and turns in the story but they have basically failed to even peak my interest one little bit. I feel that this generic story is not fitting for a modern game where stories have become so elaborate, and movie-like that I feel almost spoiled by recent titles such as Heavy Rain.
I must say there are good points, one of which is closely associated with one I have just whined about. The landscape.... it is gorgeous and just goes on forever, this is one of the reasons why the expansive map is probably there to show off the draw distances this game can crank out its like being in a plane at about 10,000 ft and thinking you can see half way across the world.
Dying, and destroying things in the most imaginative way, this is how games should be. Creating memories to share in which you either kill yourself in a way which would win you a Darwin Award, or destroy a building, a landmark, or a vehicle in a way only Mr. Bourne would know how to do. A great example of this was on a level where you were required to destroy some satellites before they reached orbit, I am rubbish at flying Jump Jets in this game so i got my better half to do it. He started firing at the infernal thing, and just couldn't get a clean shot (his aim is worse than my nan's without her glasses), so he decided to take a leaf out of the Japanese fighters books and end his life for the greater good, luckily before the £million jet collided with the few million pound satellite, he jumped out, and soared to the Earth before opening his chute like a true gentleman. It was so slick I thought I saw Rodrigo ( I have re-named the protagonist to something more fitting), light up a cigar at least 20,000feet and I was so proud, like a mother whose child has just performed her first piano solo at the Royal Albert Hall.
I wish I wasn't so critical about this game because if you want a wham-bam-thank you mam game, well this is it. It is a fun filled experience where you can basically create your own world one explosion at a time, the landscapes are lush and expansive, and I should really go back to it and spend more time just admiring the scenery, not trying to hurtle from A to B. The only gripe I do believe is that the story is weak, it reminds me of a game which is basically a one trick (grappling hook) pony, for some players this may not be enough as we have moved away from the days where games like bionic commando rule supreme.

Rating:
Gameplay: 4
Graphics: 7
Overall: 6

Assassin's Speed

The other day I looked at my PS3 game collection, and realised that although I have only had my PS3 for a few short weeks (3 in fact) that I have accumulated a large amount of games (Dante's Inferno, Aliens Vs. Predator, Ghostbusters, Heavy Rain (aka Hard / Solid / Dense Rain), Assassin's Creed 2, Resistance 2, Bioshock 2) and have only completed 1 to completion. These games do not demand my attention as ,much as PC games do, and so I can put them down to my hearts content, and pick them up again when I want (this is excluding Dante's Inferno... I am really into my Greek mythology, and religion at the moment, and also Heavy Rain). So I decided to play one of my other games and write a little review of it, as I now have completed it... 1 week later, although this is better than the 1 night that Heavy Rain took. The game I decided to lay and write about is Assassin's Creed 2 as I loved the first one, even though its restrictiveness was a bummer. If you haven't played the first one, you start of in an alternate universe present in a facility owned by a maniacal company Obstergo. You are given the mission to travel in the past to relive your ancestors past in dream-like sequences using something called an 'animus'. So you toddle off into the past, and I'll have to leave it there because I may be told off for spoiling the game. So lets fast-forward to the second one, where you are rescued by the lovely Kirsten Bell and taken to another 'facility' to re-enact some more of you ancestors dreams. Although this facility is run by your friends the atmosphere is tenser than Obstergo, thanks to Danny Wallace's dry wit, and aggressiveness towards you.



Picture the scene, you are in Italy in the 15th Century where I have a loving family and am a bit of a playboy. Well you can guess what happens next when his family life is compromised he falls into the harms of the assassin's guild with a little help from his friends, family, and Leonardo Da Vinci. As always the Assassin's Creed team, have delivered a top-notch story (sort-of) and has immersed the player in this world completely alien to us, to explore and play around with. With this though, I regret to say the game has decided to create some new limitations, which make me want to play the first one, even one of it's boring eavesdropping missions. As I said I have not had my PS3 for long, but I am a daughter of Playstation, I have been there through all its incarnations, and its six axis differs a small amount to the PS2 controller. So it was strange to me, why I was having so much trouble controlling Ezio, I wanted to jump off a building, he wanted to run up a wall. To be frank, I found the controls counter-intuitive, and for a game based on free-running I find it strange.
To add to this, I found the graphics for this game a real shame. This is a next-gen console and I found the graphics, on par or even worse than my PC offering of Assassin's Creed 1. The characters eyes, and mouths scared me more than a Japanese horror film, when my phone rings. There were just disjointed and ugly, and all I could think was 'what a waste'. I know this was a big game, and the graphics for the scenery was gorgeous, but to not push the boundaries of the PS3 is just a shame, and when done right graphics can take you and keep you in a game.
I have one more gripe, but I can't talk about it, as it is a story related gripe, and I will probably get shot if I reveal anymore.




Overall, Assassin's Creed 2 is a title I would recommend to people who played, and enjoyed the first outing, and wants to know where the story goes from there. If you are not a ticking time-bomb, which I realised I am, after trying to jump off a roof, and again running up a wall, and attaching myself to the chimney it is attached to for the 20th time, this is also a title for you, but be warned this game has magnificent vista, just don't look at any of the characters maybe apart from Ezio and you will be fine.

Summary
7/10

Pros:
Great story, I dived the height of canary wharf into a haystack and SURVIVED!!!,

Cons:
Characters Facial Graphics, Character Control, (SPOLIER!)

Please comment, as I would LOVE to know what you guys thought, as you can probably tell, I am gonna get through my games now, and I think ghostbusters which I will review when I complete it.