Assassin's Creed Comments by Tom Bramwell

I really don't understand what the issue is here...

BremXJones, get a girlfriend, then you can drop the phony knight in white armour act. It's an EG comments section and you are not Jades personal minder so give it a rest, you just look desperate and silly.

I cancelled my Assassin's Creed pre-order the other day as I wouldn't have time to play it and Mass Effect and one needed to go. Even so I'm disappointed that it only got 7/10 after all the promise it was showing earlier in the year.

From reading the review my biggest let down is what sounds like a really repetitive experience once the novelty wears off.

It does leave me confuzzled though as I'm enjoying Resistance immensely and that only got 6/10, I think it's just a case of anything less than an 8 isn't an instant purchase, for me at least.

Suddenly, it feels like many of us pitched into Deadly Shadows unfairly. Despite the lack of rope arrows, and the dull city, and the multiple boring levels, it had the fundamentals nailed.

O_O Real REVIEW

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/27754...

Tom, don't suppose you or anyone else at EG has spent time with the PS3 version? I haven't really been properly torn with a multiplatform choice between the two yet and I don't want to find myself significantly shortchanged somehow with the PS3 version, which they seem to have been a bit hesitant to demo with.

Also, do you perhaps think the fact that you're worked to a deadline to complete and review the game by a certain time means that the repetition weighs a bit more heavily on you than it might to the average punter who could pace the game a bit more at their own leisure (a concern I sometimes have with some reviews, not necessarily on EG, where repetition is cited as a major criticism)?

Tom, don't suppose you or anyone else at EG has spent time with the PS3 version?

You already know the answer to that question, though, don't you?

Nice review.

"You know already know the answer to that question, though, don't you?"

haha, yeah, at least the one week delay in Aus is handy in that respect, I expect some people that have played it will weigh in on that aspect in the next week or so.

gaselite:

"Tom, don't suppose you or anyone else at EG has spent time with the PS3 version? I haven't really been properly torn with a multiplatform choice between the two yet and I don't want to find myself significantly shortchanged somehow with the PS3 version, which they seem to have been a bit hesitant to demo with. "

I've got both versions, yep. I reviewed on the 360, then poked around with the PS3 build. I haven't played it significantly on PS3, but I would say that performance in the early sections is certainly comparable. It isn't a SKATE scenario, anyway. If you're nervous, hang on for Rich Leadbetter's next Face-Off - he has a much better eye for the platform variations than I do.

"Also, do you perhaps think the fact that you're worked to a deadline to complete and review the game by a certain time means that the repetition weighs a bit more heavily on you than it might to the average punter who could pace the game a bit more at their own leisure (a concern I have with some reviews, not necessarily on EG, where repetition is cited as a criticism)?"

Actually for Assassin's Creed the situation was unusually relaxed. I got the game on Wednesday and was able to play through it across Thursday, Friday and Saturday in fairly equal chunks. I then took a day to think about it and poke around the world, wrote the text on Monday, and played around with it on Monday afternoon again to make sure. So no, I'd say the repetition will weigh equally heavily, particularly since in AC's case, it's not just doing similar things but doing exactly the same things over and over again except the bad guys have different accents.

...and Ubisoft insisted on carting out their trophy staff member at every opportunity.

Trophy staff member? Or someone who built up anticipation about the title by being good at PR?

BremXJones, get a girlfriend, then you can drop the phony knight in white armour act. It's an EG comments section and you are not Jades personal minder so give it a rest, you just look desperate and silly.

Or he's been well brought up and isn't a complete twat. I know where my vote goes, Mr Caveman.

"For what it's worth, wikipedia, that most reliable of sources, says that Ms Raymond has a degree in comp sci, so maybe she knows a bit about this computer lark after all. "

I sincerely hope that you're just being ultra-dry with that must-be-a-piss-take comment :)

Come on... Seriously! The word "ass" is represented two times in the title. Did you really think it would be any good?

heck metacritic.com other reviewers are being a little more generous! some even giving it a 10!

I've met Jade too, and can honestly say she's possibly one of the most coherant, clued up people I've ever interviewed. The fact that she's easy on the eye is a nice bonus, nothing more.

My post from 26/10

'got a feeling this will be a 6 ot 7 out of 10.... '

There you go....

"The fact that she's easy on the eye is a nice bonus, nothing more."

You're pretty easy on the eye, Kristan. I don't know if I've ever told you that. Rrrr.

you just look desperate and silly.

He's not going to dethrone you in that particular area of expertise anytime soon, don't you worry.

Cheers, Tom, good to know (re: the first question, at least).

Ewww! You two, get a room!

pre review what real reason did anyone have for believing this game would be good?? idiots

'well at least it brought us Jade Raymond...bless her little thong '

true indeed

"I can solipistically annihilate people from existence. It's quite a thrill. "

Poster Ignored

EDIT: Wordy tosser spelt solipsistically wrong. Ha!

last time i trust a pretty laydee.

You know your all going to buy this regardless of the comments you all make ; )

Obviously because it was also on PS3 it gets a 7. If it was 360 only it would be 8 or even 9.

BremXJones yeah like I say mustnt forget this is her first producing role, but that brings us back to the question was she the right choice for such a big project for Ubi? If it sells, then yes it was a good decision, for the wrong reasons but sales are sales. Of course we dont know if whoever else they had in mind would have done any better at all or worse too but its the principles of it.

She will probably end up being pretty damn good at it when you think about it, my point is would a guy of the same skill level/experience have been given such a great opportunity with a big project like this on his debut though? Well no matter the reasons its probably good that people can see now that a female(an atttractive one is just the Icing on the cake lol) can make it in the games industry, thats a first and about time(someone will probably find another female producer on google just to be clever now ;) ), perhaps it will do the industry good.

"Idly, I'm going to be watching this thread carefully, and anyone who goes on about the games' producer in it will be added to my list of people to carefully ignore in future for being misogynistic gits."

You should check the forum thread for what PESFanboy has said, hehe.

Calgon: There's lots of female producers. Some of them seem reticent about actually taking as public a role as Jade has. Could have many reasons, but I can speculate about one of them...

KG

Never expected much of this game. Glad for once EG didn't participate in the hype...

Too ambitious for its own good, I guess... Like thief: dark project three years ago, maybe. I was hoping that assassin's creed would do nothing but "fix" all the little annoying problems that prevented thief 3 from being the best game ever, but I guess next-gen stealth has not arrived yet. The Ai looks so bad in gametrailers review... I mean Tenchu-bad.

BremXJones well there cant be lots of them hidden away surely... actually I never read the credits to games I must admit, well I'll change that to games that Im interested in then. :)

After pairing up the Gametrailers Video Review (best to watch it muted, as the reviewer doesn't half talk some shit, plus the end rating really doesn't match up with the problems that the video shows) and the EG review, I'd reckon a 7/10 is accurate.

The combat looks terrible, only surpassed by the awfulness of the AI, where you can murder a guard infront of another in "monk mode", & the other guard will then walk up to the corpse and say "What happened here? Who did this?" even though you're the only person stood within 100m of the corpse.

"But while there's no end of potential to the foundations Ubisoft Montreal has set, the game built upon them is ultimately disappointing, and leaves you unfulfilled."

And still give it a 7... Man, if this was a review of a serious form of entertainment, it would have struggled to get a 5...

I have a question about the game. From what I understand you go to some dodgy chap, get your mission details from him and off you go to kill Mr Bad Guy. But how do you actually fail your assassination attempt? (Excluding the obvious, your target doesn't get killed) I mean is there a time limit? Does your target always walk around on a set, on rails, path throughout his particular area? So that if you cock up you can learn from your mistakes, and get ready to ambush him on your next attempt. And if your target realises you're trying to kill him does he run off, get a certain distance away from you and then it's a mission failure? And then if you fail, what happens? Where do you start from there?
If anyone knows, some answers would be appreciated.

...rucksacks!.....

"Obviously because it was also on PS3 it gets a 7. If it was 360 only it would be 8 or even 9."

Ah the selective memory! MotorStorm - one of my favourite games of this year. LocoRoco Cocoreccho - virtually the only person who gave it more than the time of day. Etc. If I'm flippant about PS3's troubles in my news it's because I'm flippant about everything. I've really no interest in how any of these platforms do - I own all of them anyway, and the more there are the more games there are. I played AC through on the 360 primarily because that code arrived first and I prefer the pad.

Oh, and I'd keep an eye out for Kristan's Uncharted review in the near future.

"But how do you actually fail your assassination attempt?"

You don't exactly fail them. If you die, you respawn at the city's Assasin's bureau and go back and try again. If you alert them, you just try and kill them anyway. Most of the failure outside the main assassinations is in death or in getting spotted and having to do things the hard way.

Shame about the review, was hoping it would be better than that (although I know things rarely live up to the hype). It does make it sound quite boring. Also I dont like games with something like the "climb ledges to get to roof tops" mechanic, which lets you climb one building but then another with the same ledges is unscalable. Ruins the freedom you feel (said in reference to the passage about not being able to climb your home/castle).

To think of all the people that laughed at Sony when it passed on having this game as a system exclusive... Guess they're not that stupid after all...

(but of course still pretty stupid)

"I dont like games with something like the "climb ledges to get to roof tops" mechanic, which lets you climb one building but then another with the same ledges is unscalable. Ruins the freedom you feel (said in reference to the passage about not being able to climb your home/castle)."

AC actually gives you far more platforming freedom in the main cities than anything else I've played, but there are limits. The home castle bit is a real disappointment, but needs to be taken in the context of how much there is to climb in Jerusalem/Acre/Damascus, albeit in a fairly repetitive manner.

To think of all the people that laughed at Sony when it passed on having this game as a system exclusive... Guess they're not that stupid after all...

Actually, it was originally to be an XBox exclusive. Only while MS prepared to launch the 360 did it "become a PS3 exclusive". Of course we all know what happened from then on. BTW, notice how the PS3 version is getting more publicity nowadays? Coincidence?

It's not about being smart or stupid, they chose not to up Microsoft's ante at that time.

Seriously, the game has been a "up the moneyhats" contest from day one.

Why bother who's exclusive should it be?

I found it quite amusing how some people so quickly dismiss the game based on a review.

This game is no different than what Splinter Cell was 5 years ago. Beautiful graphics but repetitive. But that didn't stop me from enjoying it immensely, and neither will it stop me from enjoying this game.

And the fact that I hardly ever agreed to most of EG review scores adds some weight to my decision.

The comparison with SC actually is especially interesting. Isn't the next Splinter Cell going to use this engine?

"Why bother who's exclusive should it be?"

I couldn't care less because I couldn't care less for the game. Never understood why this was hyped as it was quite clear from the early footage that it would take a miracle to make something half decent out of this. The ridiculous sci-fi twist to the story didn't help either (seeing the crazy highlighting of the target made me lol and cry at the same time).

She does have a nice face though NickyJD

My suspicions about AC are confirmed then, looks like a rental to me and then I can get back to COD4 ;-)

"And the fact that I hardly ever agreed to most of EG review scores adds some weight to my decision."

I don't either. But the text of this review, as well as that of most of the others doesn't really make me want this game. Rather the contrary.

What I want to know is why so many of the reviews seem to treat the whole "the game is actually a present - day retrospective from one of Altair's descendants" thing as some kind of surprise? I knew that months ago, it was all over the previews. Apparently it's made clear right from the beginning.

Well I'm not cancelling my preorder, but the game's going to have to sit on my shelf for a while during my inevitable Mario - aided hibernation.

@ Les, I'll agree with you though, the moment I first heard that the game might have a Matrix-esque twist to it, I immediately lost a lot of my interest. Does not go without saying, though, I still had high hopes because of the promised realism and freedom, regardless of any messed up setting.

So, I am with those who are disappointed - and my disappointment comes from more reviews than this one.

"Wow, it takes some skill to make assassination, sword fighting and parkour repetitive and boring. "

Actually, no it doesn't.

Too much of anything over and over again gets dull (yes, even the old in-out).

As I say, I kinda expected Ubi to be lazy with this because the concept is undoubtedly very exciting and will sell itself easily but you still gotta polish it up and do the hard detailed stuff if you want true AAA status - that'll be the difficult & skilled bit then ...

Maybe someone else can pick up the gauntlet and do a proper treatment of the medieval assassin concept - i'll always be listening to dev's that give it a crack.

Doubt I'll be passing on my cash to Ubi for this though, another misjudgement of their's will be the competition they face in the run-up to Xmas - this isn't going to make the cut though it's probably a decent shout for January's bargain bucket ...

Big shame as it looks great but it's obviously fairly hollow inside.

Sometimes (not often enough unfortunately) decent looks aren't enough to get you by in life.

Eh Jade?

Will be getting this and Mario this week, and will put silly amounts of money on me spending more time playing this than Mario