Gaming

Assassin's Creed Revelations

2011-11-14T22:31:00.001-08:00

Assassin's Creed Revelations is another strong entry into Ubisoft's successful series, the storyline may be losing a little of its lustre, but an enhanced multiplayer shines.

Few series have established themselves with such speed and efficiency as Assassin’s Creed, Ubisoft’s renaissance tale of political intrigue, vengeance and endless backstabbing. Where the first game, set in a medieval replication of the Holy Land, was beautiful but bland in terms of its repetitious gameplay, its creator’s willingness to throw resources at the franchise has resulted in yearly sequels, each one more intricate and stuffed with content than the last.

Ezio Auditore, the boisterous yet charming Italian lead of this nested trilogy, once again takes to new streets and rooftops, this time those of Constantinople, hastily erected in the previous year by an army of artists and coders. The storyline has you taking out Templars and foiling plots, but Assassin’s Creed has arguably become a game more about its side-quests than its main narrative, which is beginning to stumble as the scriptwriters race to lay a path ahead of the relentless stampede of players each year.

As such the map is always covered in quest markers that vie for your attention. Recruiting soldiers is as much a part of the game as buying up property, perusing bookshops, acquiring art and renovating rundown parts of town, so much so that its easy to forget your primary job description. Even a Tower Defence minigame manages to make its way into this year’s update, in which you protect threatened Assassin Strongholds from invading armies. The huge amount of content is generous, but the series has reached a tipping point where the distractions are now eroding the core.

And it’s a strong core. Traversing the city is a joy, as it’s always been, while the central premise that has you searching for five keys to unlock a door is reassuringly straightforward. Each key is located in a different dungeon, and these are the standout moments of the game; intricate, smart puzzles that mix platform design ingenuity with a purity of focus. Here, away from the hobbies of the outer city, the strengths of Assassin’s Creed shine, adding to the sense that the copious embellishments are all filler, not killer.

Where Assassin’s Creed Revelations has bloomed into fine maturity, however, is in the distinguished multiplayer. This area of the series never seemed like a particularly comfortable fit with a style of play that was always about the solitary stalker, hidden in a crowd, leaving a quiet crumpling body and no suspect in sight. This DNA isn’t a part of the boisterous games of cops and robbers that define modern multiplayer, which are often about teams hurtling about wide expanses. Restraint is a rarity in contemporary multiplayer design, and yet Assassin’s Creed is a game built around the art of subtlety.

As such Ubisoft Annecy has done well to thread this characteristic into Deathmatch, an old name for a new take on one of the core game types plucked from Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood. Here each player is simultaneously a target and a pursuer. It’s your job to find a single pre-assigned target and take them down before any other players who share the same mark get to him or her. Meanwhile, you need to watch your back for the player who has you marked for kill. The tension between being both predator and prey is fascinating and gives the mode a near unique feel in contemporary games.

Tweaks from the previous game improve the experience immeasurably. Rather than following a compass to find your target, now you pick the character out of the crowd. The target portrait in the top corner changes colour when you’re close, but that’s the only visual read-out you have to help you in your aim. Audio hints let you know when a pursuer is close (via tension-building whispers that increase in volume and frequency as they move in for the kill).

Meanwhile a palette of different abilities such as the chance to disguise yourself as a different assassin or use throwing knives at a locked on target add further nuance and subtlety to the experience. Bonus points are given for more stylish takedowns, an important distinction when the aim of the game is to secure the highest number of points, rather than necessarily the most kills.

The other core mode, Artefact Assault, is a stealth-based take on that other stalwart of competitive gaming, Capture the Flag. Once again, this somewhat routine game mode is given fresh vibrancy thanks to a smart, considered approach, and a clutch of features that make sense in the universe. Two teams of four attempt to sneak into the opposing side’s territory to grab their artefact and deliver it back to their home turf. When in possession of your opponent’s artefact you can stun pursuers, but not kill them, so the emphasis is on evasion.

A huge array of social features have also been introduced into the game, principle of which is the friends HUB, which by allowing players to issue challenges to their friends, acts in a similar way to EA’s magnificent Autolog. There’s a great deal of content here for a game that only first flexed an online muscle last year.

Indeed, breadth is a watchword throughout Assassin’s Creed Revelations, a game bursting at its hastily-stitched seams with content, the single and multiplayer modes bulked out yet further with a series of exploration puzzles that allow Desmond, Ezio’s descendant, explore backstory. A wide game that offers countless hours of content for the perseverant, then. But at the same time, it’s a game that feels as though it’s making up for something with this embarrassment of interactive riches.

There’s no denying that, as a piece of virtual tourism through the ages, the series has no equal. But today, with endless piles of side-quests, there’s also a sense of ennui creeping in, a lack of focus that no amount of micro-improvements can disguise. As such, Revelations is a strong, assured conclusion to Ezio’s storyline, but one that begs for a fresh start reboot in whatever comes next.

The best of 2011 so far

2011-09-04T12:57:00.000-07:00

Littlebigplanet 2

While the first game gave players powerful tools to create and share their own levels, this game around, you can create whole new games of any genre within LBP2 itself, complete with cinematics, characters and narratives, These creative tools were also put to great use by the developers themselves for sackboy's new story mode adventure. LBP2 is great for all ages , but don't let the cute art style fool you; it will challenge even the most seasoned gamers.

L.A. Noire

A radical departure for rockstar games, L.A. Noire was a story driven whodunit where players spent their time solving cases as opposed to embarking upon killing sprees. the star of the show was the game's wicked facial animation system that tied into gameplay, allowing palyers to catch lying suspects based on their facial reactions during interrogations. The game is out on consoles, but PC gamers will also be able to have a go at it when L.A. Noire comes to PC this year.

L.A. Noire

The witcher 2: Assassins of kings

You probably wouldn't expect a stellar from a small polish developer, but you'd be wrong. The witcher 2 greatly improved on all aspects of its predecessor . You had gorgeous visuals; improved combat and a riveting story that sucked you in till the very end. Be warned though; the game is not very noob-friendly and can appear pretty intimidating with it's erratic difficulty. But if you're patient, there is a vibrant, dangerous and exciting world ripe for exploration.

Portal 2

Portal was a tiny little game bundled with the Orange Box that garnered cult status thanks to its sharp writing , sarcastic humor and innovative gameplay. For the sequel . valve turned it up to 11, with a fully fleshed out single player campaign, in addition to some of the best voice acting we've come across all year. Portal 2 was also used to launch Valve's online service, steam on the PS3, allowing cross-play between PS3 and PC.

Dirt 3

The dirt 3 was codemasters' attempt to move from pure rally to all-round off-road racing. But the fans still wanted rally, so in dirt 3, it made a return and comprised 60 percent of the game, alongside the other the other event sides from previous games. The responsive car handling, the well designed tracks , the slick menus and the stunning visuals were in evidence as well. The game also added several fon online modes, making this one of the best off-road racing games ever.

Infamous 2

There aren't too many sweeping changes this sequel, but its the little things that Sucker Punch has done that together combine to make infamous 2 one of the most open world games in a ling time. The new city of New Marais has a ton of character, the missions are well designed, and the morality system, however superficial, works brilliantly. Infamous 2 doesn't break new ground for the franchise, but when it's this much fun, who cares!

Fight night champion

Fight night champion gave the struggling boxing franchise a new direction, and it couldn't have done a better job of it. The main focus of the game was its new cinematic story mode that included slick cutscenes , great characters, an engaging story and some intense gameplay scenarios that constantly kept you on the toes. Throw in a bit of brutal bare knuckled brawling and this game had everything a fighting game fan can want.

Kill zone 3

After the success of killzone 2, expectations for the next game was sky high and Guerrilla games didn't disappoint. the exposive single player campaign was packed with cinematic set pieces, massive bosses, large, varied environments and lots of FPS action. The multiplayer is a massive draw for series fans and the developers rebuilt the multiplayer from scratch to address the issues from KZ2 and add more features, while keeping the signatiure killzone experience intact.

Crysis 2

Crysis 2 may not have been the game to bring your uber powerful PC to its knees, but it sure was pretty. Crytek made the game highly scalable so even old year PC's could enjoy Crytek's version of post-apocalyptic New york and all its visual glory. The action was fast and satisfying, offering a healthy blend of stealth and all out action. Crysis 2 made a must-buy this year.

Dead space 2

Taking a gmble with new IPs in this day and age is risky; one that paid off real well for developer Visceral Games. Dead space was a game that combined action and horror to near perfection, offering players a chilling ride, playing as an engineer forced to face his fears aboard a derelict ship. With the sequel, Visceral expanded upon what we loved about the first game, introducing some truly impressive set pieces along with a multiplayer mode reminiscent to the one from Left 4 dead 2.

Uncharted 3

2011-09-03T11:34:00.000-07:00

Drake's deception may be while away, but developer Naughty Dog has been kind enough to let us sample a taste of things to come via multiplayer-only beta. The beta was initially available to playstation members as well people purchased Infamous II, but was later opened up to all PSN members. This being a multiplayer-only beta is all about competitive play, and in case you missed out on the mayhem in 2009, here's the ultra quick version. Picture a more balanced Call of Duty with all its perks and killstreak rewards enhanced by gorgeous visuals and third person action and you will begin to understand what multiplayer in an uncharted game is like.

It's been a while since I have played UC2's multiplayer, so I was extremely rusty at first. I kept meleeing people when I wanted to reload , forgot how to take cover and died a lot! Since this was a beta, the game didn't bother with any sort of tutorial, so I had to check out the control scheme in the main menu itself. But even after a few rounds of being slaughtered mercilessly, I never got frustrated as the game has a new mechanic called Power Play that actually gives the losing team a chance to catch up. this could result in double damage being dealt out or the ability to see enemy markers all over the map. It's a very helpful mechanic that tends to balance gameplay, giving the losing team a fighting chance.

In the beta, you have a bunch of modes to choose from, such as Deathmatch, Team Objective, Free for All, Hardcore and co-op arena. Unlike the Hardcore mode found in games like CoD or battlefield, the one in this game is a bit lenient, so you will still see your crosshair, but stuff like boosters and kickbacks will be turned off. Boosters are the game's equivalent of perks; small tweaks that can improve your game so you can sprint more, respawn faster, and so on. I personally wasn't too impressed with the boosters available in the beta and I felt I could get by without them just fine, Instead I spent my hard earned money on kickbacks of a killsteak reward. But only instead of tracking your skills, kickbacks track the medals you earn. Some of these medals are of the simple 'shoot three guys in a row' variety, while the others require situational kills like killing a guy scaling a wall or extracting revenge on the player that killed you. Once you rack up the required amount of medals , you can activate your kickback, turning your tide un the favor. Think about it; your going up against multiple opponents and BAM! you trigger your rocket launcher kickback that bestows upon you - you got it a freaking rocket launcher or how about transforming into a swarm of spiders capable of engulfing your enemies? Gross buddy but incredibly cool.

There aretwo maps present in the beta; Chateau and Airfield. While Chateau is a solid map on its own, Airfield is without a doubt the star of the show. The maps divided into two parts, with the first bit taking place on a runway as players struggle to either board or defend a cargo plane depending on which faction they get assigned to. As one the bad guys, you spawn in a bunch of speeding trucks and then must slowly make your way to the plane by leaping from truck to truck to plane. As one the heroes, your claim is to make sure this does not happen . After a certain amount of time on the runway, the plane takes off and the action shifts to an airfield of sorts that offers a ton of horizontal and vertical movement. the transition between the two instances takes place seamlessly through cutscenes that make this game feel a lot different than your conventional deathmatch. And yes, this is the coolest freaking premise for team Deathmatch till date.
Player's who have spent some time with UC2's multiplayer will immediately figure out how different UC3 feels. Characters movements feel a lot realistic as a result of which movement is a tad slower. Weapons too have received a bit of an overhaul and everyone's favourite weapon - the AK, now features a truck load of recoil. These gameplay mechanics did feel a bit weird at first, but after a while, you get used to the game's place. while the second game was content with letting players just buy new skins, UC3 allows players to deck to crap out of their characters. Besides skins you can swap out clothes, accessories and lots more to project your persona on screen. New to the game is a loadout system, where players can choose to upgrade their guns, making not only cosmetic but functional changes as well, such as additional scopes to zoom in, or extended mags for more ammo. These obviously aren't revolutionary changes for a multiplayer game, but it's nice to have them in UC3.
This being an uncharted game obviously gets top marks in the visual department and keep in mind; this is just the beta so I'm sure naughty dog will add in a ton of split and polish by the time the game hits stores this november . So far, I'm pretty happy with UC3. Sure, the game feels a bit slower than before and the beginner will probably take some time to come to some grips with it, but naughty dog has taken great pains to ensure this game feels as balanced and enjoyable as humanly possible.
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception is set for release on November 1, 2011 for
PS3.