Tag Archives: ac2

Weekly Gaming Update – Week 8

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Posted by Craig on February 27, 2010 – 10:09 pm
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Still playing:

Rockband for Xbox 360

I got this for my birthday in January and I’m still playing it. The guitar is fun, but after I get to medium I just can’t do the fingering properly and I give up. But with the drums I believe I can actually learn to do it properly! I just finished Medium this week, so I’m moving on to Hard mode. And yes, hard mode is hard. But I think with practice I can actually do it.

Afrika for PS3

This game seems to go on and on and on. I’m still playing it occasionally, but not that often really. I’m almost at my limit.

Assassin’s Creed 2: Bonfire of the Vanities for Xbox 360

This DLC was quite fun. Finally you get to explore the other side of the river in Florence! There are 9 assassinations to complete, so it gave me a nostalgic feeling. Kinda reminded me of AC1 a bit, which was a good thing.

New Game Purchases:

Heavy Rain for PS3

Despite being a little buggy, this is a cool game. I really liked that while waiting to install the game, it instructs you on how to fold a piece of paper (that comes in the game box) into one of those origami thingies from the front cover. The game basically is one big, long quick time event. Now normally I hate those, but considering the entire game is based from the ground up around the concept, it works well. The graphics are good, although the characters are very robotic and not all the voices are actually good. But overall, a fun game. I had a hard time putting the controller down to write this.

Endless Oceans 2 for Nintendo Wii

Going from Heavy Rain to this game is BAD. It makes the graphics look absolutely horrible. I remember Endless Oceans 1 looking okay, but maybe my memory isn’t that great. The game itself is fun, it’s just the graphics that look dated – and that’s Nintendo’s fault for making the Wii too underpowered – but that’s another subject.

DLC should not be used to fill holes!

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Posted by Craig on December 22, 2009 – 10:36 pm
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Okay, DLC is something that is really getting on my nerve lately.

For those that don’t know what I’m talking about, DLC is DownLoadable Content. It’s when you buy a game, then later you can purchase extra missions, and other things, to extend the game. In theory it’s a good idea. In practice, some game developers are taking it a little too far.

Take Assassin’s Creed 2 for example. The game is divided up into Memory Blocks, and there are 14 in all. But when you get to Memory 12 and 13, they are mysteriously corrupt, and it skips over to 14. You never get to play 12 and 13 in the main game. Now, they have announced that you can purchase 2 DLC’s that will fill up the 12 and 13 space in the game.

Now I don’t mind the idea of extending a game past the end, but to deliberately leave a gaping hole in the middle of the game is just petty. They are hoping that people will want to fill a hole (because nature abhors a vacuum), and it would entice people to play the game. In fact, they even admitted that these missions were supposed to be in the original game, but were cut for various reasons (time, money, etc). I understand the need to cut things from a game, but as a writer, I also understand that you don’t leave big holes in your product!

I’ve had to cut plenty of things out from my stories, but I would never leave my book with Chapter 11 going on to Chapter 14 – then later make people pay to read Chapters 12 and 13. Its idiotic, and ruins the story. They could have (and should have) quite easily renamed the missions so that when playing, you wouldn’t even notice there was a hole, then released DLC that EXTENDED the game. Extend is the key word here. The AC2 DLC does not extend anything, it just fills in a hole that should never have been there in the first place.

Another good example is Dragon Age: Origin. In this game, when you make camp there is a character standing right at the edge of your camp offering you a quest. The trouble is you need to pay extra to access that quest. As I said, I don’t mind purchasing extra quests and such, but I don’t want a character in my game telling me I need to pay real world money. It breaks the immersion of a game when a character tells me I need to download extra content (and pay for it) in order to help him with his problem.

It’s the equivalent of this:

Dilemma walked through the door. “Hey reader,” she said. “If you want to find out what happens in this room, you need to purchase the ‘Dilemma in the Room’ expansion story, available now for the low price of $10”.

I don’t mind buying DLC, but it needs to be ‘extra’ content, not filling in holes!

10 Thoughts on Assassin's Creed 2

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Posted by Craig on November 24, 2009 – 5:00 pm
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1. If you liked AC1, you’ll like AC2
2. There are lots of things to collect:
- On one hand, they have added treasure maps so you aren’t searching for Flags all over the place.
- On the other hand, they are 100 feathers to collect, which don’t show up on the map, so you still have to hunt around, but they’re easier to see than those darned flags.
3. The graphics and sound are excellent.
4. They added interior catacomb areas that are clearly inspired by Prince of Persia.
- I don’t like them. It feels too much like a totally different game. Assassin’s Creed is about running over rooftops and assassinating people, running around some underground lair like PoP.
5. The story is better than the last game, Ezio actually has a personality.
6. Desmond looks like he’s nose has swollen since the last game, and Lucy’s lips got bigger.
7. You actually get to see what is outside of the AC1 lab at Abstergo!
8. Gameplay mechanics like blending in with crowds and pickpocketing have been improved. Now you can do it to anyone you want.
9. Ezio can actually swim! And during later levels you get to drive around Venice in one of those boat things.
10. It’s a great game :D