Nothing is True - Review: Assassin's Creed Director's Cut

It's been a long time since I've anticipated a game so much, and equally long since I've been so baffled about my reaction to one. It's a testimony to Assassin's Creed that it can elicit such a complex response, as for better or worse, this is one of the most interesting and elusive games I've played in quite a while. The premise is reasonably simple - you are a medieval assassin, tasked with killing 9 important historical figures across three open world cities - but buried beneath are layers which are often bafflingly complex.
Good stuff first then - the game is gobsmackingly gorgeous, with some of the finest lighting and texturing work ever seen. Similarly, lead character Altair is also a triumph, this time of animation, his every leap, bound and movement choreographed to a tee, so for the first time a character in a video game moves like somebody who is truly alive.
Assassin's Creed also offers a fairly unique setting in gaming terms, namely that of the holy land circa the era of the third crusade. Emanating from this are the game's three main cities of Jerusalem, Damascus and Acre. These cities are arguably the game's greatest achievement, vast, highly detailed, and teeming with people. The cities truly feel alive, and walking their streets and prowling their rooftops it's easy to become immersed in their culture and communities.
That aforementioned walking and prowling is easy due to a clever set of controls that allow for great flexibility in your movement and fighting. Basically, Altair can be triggered between low profile, in which his movements are subtle and restrained, and high profile, where he becomes an acrobatic killing machine. In high profile mode he skips effortlessly across beams and scrambles up walls, while in low profile he stalks the streets silently, blending into the crowd.
It's perhaps mission structure where the game shows the first signs of stumbling. The 'investigations' you undertake to scout out your target are interesting to begin with, but they remain exactly the same throughout all nine killings. The assassination attempts themselves are refreshingly open, but too often degenerate into mass brawls where you can kill the target almost by accident. And the game suffers badly towards the end, as it descends into a series of uninspired melee battles and abandons it's open world ethos. The ending in particular feels rushed and ends on the worst cliffhanger since Halo 2, basically as if somebody had arbritarily cut the game midway through. It leaves the player utterly baffled and cheated.
Despite this, my love for the game burns undiminished. It's not the more conventional videogame aspects such as the missions which make the game great, more the sense of immersion into an entirely different world. Similarly to GTA, the greatest moments in this game are those of your own making, be it a frantic chase through the markets of Damascus, crowds scattering everywhere, or a lonely climb to the cathedral spire in Acre, giving breathtaking views over the entire city. In short, the game may not suceed on every level of traditional videogame standards, but as an experience it is unique and a triumph.

8/10

Here We Go!

Apologies for the length of time since the last post, I've been rather caught up in various other things. What i wanted to talk about in this post is two big releases that I've been waiting a while for, both of which landed this past Friday.
The first of these is Mario Kart Wii. While I was never a big fan of my contemporary childhood version, Mario Kart 64, I loved the DS version and subsequently revisited the classic SNES original. I've been stoked for the Wii version since it was announced, but I became worried by the lack of news flowing from Nintendo HQ. The game seemed to go under the radar for a long time and even when screenshots started appearing the whole PR seemed remarkably low key. No major announcements have been made since the original, and the game easily made ship date of Q2.
I shouldn't really have worried, as the final product is more than up to the series' usual high standards. I had the great advantage to be staying round a friends when this was unleashed, and together with another mate we basically played the game until the small hours. There's not too much to say that hasn't been said about all previous Mario Karts, save that I love the motion sensitive steering, and thus the plastic wheel packaged in is not a complete waste of time after all. Still probably the worlds greatest party game.

The other release this week I've been anticipating for a long long time. It's the PC port of Assassin's Creed, about 6 months late and with a huge fallout from the console release to deal with. It's only fair to point out first that this game ticks nearly everything on my gaming dreamlist: developed by the Prince Of Persia team at Ubisoft Montreal and marrying that game's flowing acrobatics to huge free roaming environments, sprinkled with intelligent crowds and cold-blooded contract killings, I was sold on this game the moment I heard of it, and the mixed reaction from the console versions did little to temper that.
I'll offer more fully detailed impressions once I've completed the game, but I must say that my first impressions are overwhelmingly positive. The only downside is that this game will kick your system, and kick it hard, and as a result, although I'm running in high resolutions, it doesn't look quite as stunning as the console versions. There will definitely be more words written on this one soon.