Games of the Generation #7 - Assassin's Creed II

Fly like an eagle

If there's one thing that Assassin's Creed II can teach us, it's that games need character to become great. The first game in the series was a fascinating tech demo that was hollow at its core. It underused its compelling setting and what ultimately resulted was a fascinating advanced world that was drab, dry and possessed little real reason to become invested.

Given that, the opening of Assassin's Creed II feel like a defiant statement. After spending the entirety of the first game trapped in a sterile white laboratory, you're broken out in rapid order and introduced to a crew of actual, genuine characters who are funny, arrogant and, most importantly, recognisably human. And that's just in the real world. Once you plunge back into the digital reality of the Animus, you're reincarnated (via a fantastically daft 'birthing' sequence) as the Italian nobleman Ezio Auditore da Firenze, and now it's time for the party to start.

What Assassin's Creed II remembers that it's predecessor (and some of its successors) forgot was that even if you've got the biggest, most technologically advanced world ever, it's nothing without some semblance of life. So instead of the bleached greens and greys of medieval Acre, we're dropped instead into the vivid blast of the Italian Renaissance, perhaps the most fascinating period in all of history, and weaved into a tale of revenge, discovery, comedy, family and, most importantly, effortless adventure. Assassin's Creed II dances between the raindrops of history while only occasionally getting wet, twisting its mad premise into actual events with barely surpassed glee. It's an unabashedly Hollywood version of history and all the better for it, sweeping da Vinci, Machiavelli, Borgia and Medici alike into the same stew as ancient aliens and Adam and Eve, and climaxing in one of the most memorably jaw-dropping endings in all of gaming. Seriously, it was great.

But it's also a world that's alive in other ways, one filled with glorious scenery and fun, diverting missions. Whether you're scaling Il Duomo and watching the birds soar, or jumping post to post down the torchlit canals of Venice hunting feathers, it's a world which feels at once both a place in time and history, and a playground of near limitless potential This is a game which is equally at home as a breezy history tour or a rollicking chase scene, as a complex platformer or a sneaky stealth sim. It tries to be all things to all people, and gets a damn sight closer than you'd think. Above all it's a game supremely confident in its ability to dazzle and entertain. A game which gives you not only your sandbox, not only all the toys you'll need, but does so with a winning smile and an elegant flourish. Just like Ezio, it's got style and substance.

Games of the Generation #8 - Prince of Persia

Change can be scary. Change, in the videogame world at least, can also be extremely bad for business. Gaming thrives on slow evolution rather than radical re-invention, a gradual honing of mechanics and styles towards a final goal. Sometimes this works very well, as other games in this list will demonstrate. Sometimes it can lead to ennui and creative stanancy. but it'll sell, at least.

That's why Ubisoft's re-positioning of Prince of Persia, one of their flagship franchises, coming into this generation was such a shock. Newly re-emergent as a force in action adventure gaming after the exceptional Sands of Time trilogy, the franchise was poised for a nice graphical brush up and a straight porting of gameplay mechanics. Instead, the Montreal development team blew it all up and started again.

What emerges is a radically different game. Gone is any trace of Persia, replaced instead by one of the most beautiful fairy-tale worlds ever put on screen, a shining collection of towers, spires, canyons and windmills painted in a gorgeous sketchy graphical style. Gone was the tried and true platforming of the previous generation, replaced by a fluid, natural system that kept the Prince jumping, swinging and running without pause. And perhaps most controversially, gone was any trace of time-rewind, replaced instead by your new companion Elika, an infaillable safety net for when your high flying goes wrong. Gone even was the Prince himself, the refined aristocrat usurped by the brash, punkish Nolan North voiced upstart in the red and blue headscarf.

The thing is though, while much changed on the surface, at heart the game stayed true to the series philosophy. It's all about movement through a captivating world, solving the puzzle of 'how do you go from here to there'. It's still about the elegance and fluidity of executing the platforming, a blend of style, grace and verve that has never quite been matched. Even the much debated 'no death' mechanic was simply a means to an end. One less loading screen, one quicker way back to the action. Never stand still.

The critics hated it. The public hated it. Sales were poor and the franchise retreated, first back to the safe haven of past glories, and then to a (seemingly) permanent vacation. Truth be told, not all of Ubisoft's new targets were hit - the Prince and Elika are definitely a work in progress, and some of the combat is tiresome. But so much of what the game achieved was overlooked, the simple pleasure of running from point to point through some of the most beautiful and well designed obstacle courses we've seen in a game, looking out from the observatory tower, watching the torches come alive in the City of Light. Perhaps in time something else will change, and others will look back on Prince of Persia with as much love as I do.

Games of the Generation #9 - Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations

The Wright stuff

It's sometimes difficult to draw the line between a great game and a great story. Games are an interactive medium sure, but like all media we need a reason to partake and inhabit them. Increasingly as the generation has gone on, there's been an obsession with 'defining' a game, and questioning whether certain pieces of entertainment count at all.

None of which matters in the case of Trials and Tribulations, because this is a game. Sure, it's a game more intimately tied to its narrative than almost any other, but at the end of the day, it has mechanics, progression and reward just like any other game. It's just that that progression comes from careful thought and puzzling rather than shooting people. It's that the reward is nothing as trivial as a new powerup or a new plaything, but is instead a chance to move closer to the mystery that beats at the heart of each of the game's five cases, every one a superb example of how to write a compelling story.

Trials and Tribulations cheats in its storytelling of course, because we've already had two games and thousands of lines of dialogue to learn to love these characters. But that shouldn't take away from the incredible job the writers at Capcom (and their truly stellar localisation team) did in bringing such an endearingly goofy cast of characters to life. Each of these people is someone you'll root for, with likes and dislikes, tics and habits, hopes and dreams and salary cuts. It's incredible how a half dozen sprite animations and some canny writing results in more personality than a million grim stories of war-torn futures.

That's not to say that there's no darkness in Trials and Tribulations of course. In fact, the game is positively infested with it - it is a game about murder after all. This time though, we're going places we've never been before, into a tragedy that runs in a murky undercurrent throughout the hours you'll spend here. For a game which features cross-dressing French chefs, cartoon master thieves, spirit mediums and cyborg lawyers, this is an astonishingly grim, mature tale. It's often unflinching in the wickedness of its criminals, and the complexity of the conspiracies they weave. The ending of Case 4 remains one of the most shocking moments in all of gaming, an impossibly tragic conclusion that will stay with everyone who's played it forever, for reasons both good and horrible. Despite, the cartoonish excesses of the art and dialogue, this is a tale with a vicious, ugly streak.

If all that's a little too much, it's worth also remembering this is one of the funniest games ever made too. Words are Phoenix's weapons and they're the game's also, one liners zipping and crackling like fireworks as our spiky haired lawyer struggles to tie down his friends and foes alike. Whether it's Pearl  lambasting him for straying his affections from 'Mystic Maya', Edgeworth imposing yet another salary cut on the long suffering Detective Gumshoe, or a certain doppelganger promising that "I atta beat you so hard, it'll feel like youse were smoochin' the express train!", there's humour and pathos behind every line.

What we're left with then is (surprise!) a contradiction. How can a game be so free and fun, and yet so sad and meaningful? How can what's basically a point and click adventure be one of the best games of the new millennium? The thing is though, this one's easy to solve. It's because we want to be a part of this tale, to face evil head on, confront it, expose it and ultimately triumph over it. It's because we want to battle for the truth and fight alongside our friends in a world where there truly can be justice for all. To craft one of the very best games ever, all Capcom had to do was remember the power of stories.

Games of the Generation #10 - Rock Band 3

You got the touch

At the end of the day, videogames are power fantasies. That's not meant as a slur, but rather as an endorsement of what so many people find so compelling about them. While a lot of media is escapist, only in games do you get to truly feel a part of the experience, because even to the smallest extent you're the one guiding the narrative and interfering in the flow of the story. What Harmonix Music Systems set out to do with Rock Band  then was not so much create the perfect rhythm game, but rather to craft the perfect rock star fantasy simulator.

It's all about those instruments. They've been criticised for being overblown toys that are a waste of space, but people who say that are missing the point. The reason they're so essential is precisely because they're overblown toys, props to act out your own school-play level musical debauchery. If Rock Band were just about pressing buttons, then it might be the same mechanically, but all the fun, all the investment, all the marvelous let's-pretend charm of the experience is gone. 

This alone is why it's the greatest five-slightly-drunk-people co-op game ever. The essential silliness of the whole exercise requires you to complete abandon your dignity, but there's infinite consolation in doing it together as a group, watching your mates stumble over the chorus or hammer the drums so hard the kit begins to move away from them. That you can do it to the soundtrack of some of your favourite songs only sweetens the deal.

Why then 3 over the genre defining original or the coming of age 2? The addition of the keyboard is a neat one sure, but what really matters here is the culmination of all the work Harmonix did over the previous installments, as well as the revolutionary Guitar Hero games. So you've got a super slick interface that allows easy jumping in and out, profile switching or just freeplay. You've got an addictive tour mode where everything you do and play feeds into your progress. And most importantly, you've got the benefit of the deepest library of music ever put into a videogame, drawn from Harmonix's extensive DLC catalogue, the first two games, track packs and the marvelously silly LEGO Rock Band. With hundreds of tracks, from rock to metal to country to comedy, each play session is as much mixtape assembly and singalong as it is rockout time.

As the generation ends the music game lies dead and buried, smothered by Activision's greed and a general disillusionment with the gimmicky nature of the games. That shouldn't detract however from the skill and spirit which went into crafting this, the pinnacle of the genre and one of the greatest multiplayer games ever made. And hey, any game which lets me live my childhood dream of performing Stan Bush's 'The Touch' is a-ok in my book.

Games of the Generation: Introduction and Honourable Mentions

It seems almost unbelievable, but the next generation is almost upon us, with Xbox One and Playstation 4 mere weeks away as of this writing. With that in mind (and since everyone is doing it) it seems an appropriate time to look back over the huge riches the past generation of games has given to us. So let's compile a list of the best games of the generation! But first, some rules...

• Only game made this generation are eligible. Even though the dates don't precisely overlap, I'm going to take 'this generation' to mean games released on Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Wii, Nintendo DS and Sony PSP, as well as PC games released since 2006.
• One game per franchise only.
• No remakes, HD remasters, anthologies or enhanced versions. New games only. Exception if the game was never released in English before this generation or was otherwise unplayable.
• This list is very much my *favourite* games of the generation, rather than the supposed 'best' games of the generation. Very often they'll overlap, but do bear that in mind.

With those rules taken care of, let's move on. To get those SWEET HITZ we're going to be counting down a top ten, with (hopefully) a post happening every day, but in this first installment we're going to go through 'the next ten' - honourable mentions who came close, and games I love dearly, but ones didn't quite make the cut. No order here, but every single one is absolutely worth playing.

Burnout Paradise

Criterion Games, Xbox 360/Playstation 3/PC, 2008

Still yet to be surpassed by its bastard Need for Speed offspring, Burnout Paradise took all of the traditional Burnout strengths - superb arcade handling, terrific track design, magnificent crashes and a fierce, aggressive racing style - and dropped them into the middle of a gorgeous, brilliantly designed open world, crammed full of jumps, shortcuts and opportunities for limitless mayhem. Combined with a minimalist interface and ground breaking multiplayer, the result was a chaotic hundred mile an hour playground, one supplemented through an enviable selection of patches, downloadable updates and new vehicles. The best driving game of the generation bar none.

Saints Row: The Third
Volition, Xbox 360/Playstation 3/PC, 2011

With Grand Theft Auto evolving into gritty, grim mush, those of us who loved our open world games a...touch on the silly side were holding out for a hero. A hero that would take everything dumb and awesome about San Andreas and then crank it up beyond 11 and end up somewhere in the mid twenties. A game that let you fight zombies alongside Burt Reynolds, take tigers out in your car for a spin around the block, or battle giant digital demons as blow-up sex dolls. A game whose outlandish excesses could often cover rock solid controls and combat design and a smart, addictive upgrade system. A game that could rise above the tasteless imitation of its predecessors and produce one of the smartest, funniest groups of characters in years. A game that could be the best pro-wrestling sim of the generation. But surely no one game could have all this power?

Elite Beat Agents

iNiS, DS, 2007

How do you make Good Charlotte cool? How do you make 'Sk8ter Boi' even tolerable to listen to? The answer is, you piggyback them onto a game of such immeasurable charm, such sheer, unbridled joy, that you can't help but laugh and sing and tap along to the beat. At the heart of Elite Beat Agents lies the beating heart of Osu Tatakae! Ouendan!, reflected in perhaps the most perfect game ever designed for the DS format, its precise tapping rhythms an ideal marriage between hardware and software. But on the surface are wickedly funny cartoon vignettes that should be totally at odds with their backing tracks, but instead combine to spectacular effect. Whether it's playing as a washed up baseball player battling fire breathing golems to the tunes of 'The Anthem' or hunting for sunken treasure to the strains of 'YMCA', there's never a moment that EBA doesn't feel like it's having the time of its life. And you'll never listen to Chicago in quite the same way again.

Fable II

Lionhead, Xbox 360, 2008

For all his grand vision and ambitious promises, seldom has Peter Molyneux delivered on his aspirations. But this may have been as close as he ever got, a game which married his desire for choice and consequence to his studio's wonderful British eccentricity to produce an action-RPG of exceptional quality. Set in the delightfully cartoony, sun dappled world of Albion, Fable II abandoned its predecessors strict hierarchy for a more freeform approach, letting you roam free in search of people to help or hinder or enemies to conquer with the remarkably clever three button combat system. Perhaps more than any other game it let you walk the line between saint and sinner, and gave many of its choices genuine weight and consequence. Even aside from that it's a fine, memorable action adventure romp that more than earns its place here.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Infinity Ward, Xbox 360/Playstation 3/Wii/PC/Mac(!), 2007

Its reputation has been tarnished as the years have gone by, the franchise name overshadowed by bloated monstrosities that became drunk on their own spectacle, but the original Modern Warfare remains one of the tightest, smartest shooters ever made, and a turning point in the history of gaming as multiplayer spectacle and commercial entity. Weaving two intertwining narratives around a barrage of memorable set pieces, the campaign combined colossal impact moments with smaller, tenser sequences, excelling with outstanding weapon handling, great level design and a surprisingly meaningful story. The multiplayer meanwhile represented a seismic shift in the way games are designed, plundering RPGs and MMOs to create a persistent, ongoing connection between player and game the endured far past one deathmatch session. Perhaps the most important game to come out of this generation.

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective

Capcom, DS/iOS, 2011

Ghost Trick is a study in contradictions. It's a whodunnit where you're the one who has suffered the 'dunnit'. It's a comedy about death and a murder mystery in cartoon format. None of it should hang together in any way. And yet, under the guiding hand of Ace Attorney  producer Shu Takumi, what emerges is an absolutely gripping tale, both dark and funny, sad and uncontrollably hilarious. From a very simple set of rules, the game builds incredibly clever conundrums that live somewhere between classic point-and-click and pure puzzle game, while stellar writing and animation breathes life into an incredible cast of characters, alternately witty, creepy and frightening. From bizarre beginning to emotional ending, you won't be able to put it down.

Braid

Number None Inc, Xbox 360/Playstation 3/PC/Mac

Braid was always a game which aspired to be more than what other games were. Whether it succeeded is the subject of much debate, but it did at least reach the pinnacle of modern game design. A fantastically tricky puzzle game disguised by the 2D platformer format, it took Prince of Persia's time rewinding mechanic and bent it into new and insane shapes in service of some truly fiendish puzzles. To go with that, its hand painted style and classical music set it indelibly apart from other games, and its musings on the nature of life, relationships and existence may not have been to all tastes, but were to me an essential part of what made the experience so special. Capped by one of the most amazing twists in gaming, Braid acted as a vanguard for the generation of high quality downloadable experiences, and is still one of its finest exports.

Rayman: Origins

Ubisoft Montpellier, Xbox 360/Playstation 3/PC/Playstation Vita, 2011

It may have been New Super Mario Bros. Wii which invented the crazed, chaotic genre of four-player simultaneous platforming, but it was Rayman Origins that polished it into a fine sheen and produced the best platformer of this generation. Not only an absolute riot with more than one person on the sofa, even solo Origins was a beautiful, impeccably designed experience that cycled through incredibly imaginative worlds and levels, restoring a sense of fiendish challenge to a genre that had become blunted by oversimplification. Add to that the delightful 2D art, some of the best ever seen, and you've got a game that radiates joy from every screen.

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Rocksteady, Xbox 360/Playstation 3/PC, 2009

Before Arkham Asylum, 'licenced game' was a not-so-secret code for 'complete piece of shit'. But Arkham Asylum proved that a great property could do nothing but enhance an experience, when it was backed up by a great game. And make no mistake, even without the Caped Crusader this would be a fantastic game. It's dense, secret packed island is a memorably creepy world to prowl around, while an excellent re-imagining of Metroid's gear-based gating system means that there's a constant feed of new powers and new areas to explore. The rapid, smooth 'Free-form fighting' system makes every combat encounter make you feel amazing, and Rocksteady nails the Batman feel, letting you stalk from the dark and serving up potent re-imaginings of his legend. The Scarecrow levels make for unforgettable highlights but the entire adventure is a memorable one.

Bioshock Infinite

Irrational, Xbox 360/Playstation 3/PC, 2013

It was a tossup between Infinite and its illustrious forebear here, but I've picked out Infinite because I prefer its story. This isn't really the story of Booker DeWitt and Elizabeth though, despite the fact they're the people you'll be spending time with. Instead, it's an amazing story of an amazing place, a society which built wonders and then used them to commit atrocities, a paradise in which a deep evil has taken seed. Musing on ideas of choice, causality and the nature of reality, it's above all a chance to live in a world almost, but not quite, entirely unlike our own. While it may not be the most ambitious game on the list, it's arguably the most compelling experience.

So there you go, ten fantastic games from this generation. But not the ten best. Pop back over the next few days as we begin counting down from #10 and see which games I enjoyed the most from the past eight years.