Next time someone tells you to stop playing video games, show them this.

However, it is getting nice outside, so don’t forget to take a break and get a little fresh air!

As the title suggests, this will be a prequel to both Arkham Asylum and Arkham City. It will focus on Batman’s early career as the caped crusader, before any of the well known super villains came out of the woodwork.

The press release from Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and DC Entertainment also suggests that the game will be set in an “expanded Gotham City”. So instead of being restricted to Arkham Island (as in the Arkham Asylum) or a portion of Gotham City (as in Arkham City) this game will actually give players an opportunity to explore all of Gotham.

For more information, check out the official website: www.batmanarkhamorigins.com

You can also read the entire press release here.

The artwork and character renders are fantastic.

There are two options to play in this demo – single player tournament and local multiplayer – three characters you can choose from – Wonder Woman, Batman and Lex Luthor – and one location – Gotham City. Naturally, when my boyfriend and I played the local multiplayer, I chose Wonder Woman and he chose Batman.  What I loved the most about this matchup was taking the bat signal and smashing it on Batman’s head. Classic.

This is a demonstration of the interactive backgrounds.  Characters who are strong enough can pick up or tip over large objects to use against their opponents and those who are not, can use the environment in other ways, such as breaking fire hydrants to catch opponents in a jet of water.  This adds a really cool new dimension to a fighting game. You’ll find yourself searching the backgrounds for possible weapons while attempting to fend off your opponent at the same time.

The backgrounds, or locations, also have multiple levels. So if you attack someone the right way at the right time, they will experience an series of unfortunate events (losing health throughout the entire thing) that transports the fight to another part of the location.

Finally, each character has a “character trait” that can be activated with the press of a button (for example Batman has batarangs) and a special move that can be activated when the super meter has reached a certain point. If the initial attack is successful (and you have enough cache in your super meter) a combo that is unique to your character will activate. These combos don’t feature mere punches, kicks and throws. Each character brings in auxiliary objects or people that makes the special moves so much more fun to use.  There is also a wager system that players can use to interrupt these combos.  Each player places an anonymous bet using parts of their super meter and the winner is rewarded either with health or by finishing the combo.

In the single player mode available in this demo, you fight against all three characters available to choose and if you get through that, you battle with Doomsday. In the full version, Doomsday – along with a list of others that can be found here – will not be a playable character. Finish the single player mode and watch the trailer that comes on afterwards to get a better idea of what will be available in the full version of the game.

From what this demo has shown so far, this is going to be a fighter you’ll bring out at every party.

This is a third person MMO that takes place on a devastated Earth, where an alien species (Votans) and humans live amongst each other. Your missions will involve finding and gathering advanced alien technologies that come to Earth in something called “Arkfalls”. This game has been in development since 2008, will be accompanied by a TV Show and gives players the ability to choose their character’s origin and have significant control of their appearances.

Star Wars: The Old Republic – Rise of the Hutt Cartel – BioWare – April 14, 2013

Who doesn’t get excited about new Star Wars releases? Rise of the Hutt Cartel is an expansion pack for Star Wars: The Old Republic, another MMO released on December 20th, 2011. The premise of this addition is the Hutt Cartel is threatening the Republic and the Sits for galactic power. The Hutts represent totalitarian, mafia-like political power that is looking to expand its authority.

Injustice: Gods Among Us – NetherRealm Studios – April 16, 2013

This is fighting game based on the DC Universe, where characters you know and love are dressed in high tech, futuristic battle garbs, that somehow also appear ancient. For those of you that enjoyed Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe, this game will follow a similar premise, where defeating the story mode is not based on being the victor in a tournament, but rather taking control of different characters throughout a narrative. The story will also explain why characters that would otherwise be considered allies are fighting each other and how characters with obvious strength differences end up being evenly matched.  The trailer seems to indicate some themes similar to the Justice League episode “A Better World”. Looks like loads of fun!

Video games are useful for so many things.

Nico Vega is a Los Angeles band that formed in 2005 and features Aja Volkman, a Janis Joplin/Pat Benetar style vocalist, Rich Koehler, guitarist, and drummer Dan Epand.

There are a lot of other great tracks on their album, We Are the Art, that you can check out through their SoundCloud profile: https://soundcloud.com/nico-vega

Should you be the kind of person that likes music with a lot of energy, I personally recommend “Blood Machine”, “Be Giving” and “Million Years”.

If you like their material, don’t forget to support them. Let’s keep the music industry alive with good music!

I have a bias. I have an incredible bias. I’ve been a Tomb Raider fan since I was a little girl and this game has completely blown me away. I will try to be as objective as I can, but I will warn you in advance, this may sound like a fan girl love letter more than a review.

Dear Square Enix,

Thank you.

That is all.

Okay, now that I got that out, on to the review.

Story and Gameplay

This version of Tomb Raider is the best that has ever been released.  Granted it might not be fair to compare the capabilities of modern gaming to that of 1996, but it is not just the gameplay they’ve improved upon.

As almost everyone knows now, this new installment is an origin story. It’s meant to introduce gamers to Lara Croft before she became a twin pistol wielding badass, and give her an air of humanity. [For anyone that’s interested, Meagan Marie has a very good article on Game Informer – “Lara Croft: The Evolution” – which is about the history of the series.] Lara, freshly graduated from university, takes part in an expedition to Yamatai, an ancient city in the Dragon’s Triangle to discover the myths surrounding the island and the sun God Himico. Right from the start, I appreciate that the writers make it clear that she is a knowledgeable and legitimate archaeologist, rather than only being a gun toting adventurer.

Roth, who is a mentor of sorts for Lara, and his mate “Grim”, charter a ship called the Endurance to Yamatai.  They set sail along with a crew consisting of Lara’s best friend Sam, Alex the techno geek, Reyes the mechanic, Jonah the cook and Dr. Whitman, a senior archaeologist. On the way, they are shipwrecked by a massive storm, which splits the group and Lara, naturally, ends up alone.

She immediately encounters hostility from the island’s inhabitants, for reasons you will discover as you play on, but the actual gameplay begins with Lara hanging upside down in a cocoon-like contraption. The first sequence of gameplay is very frantic and intense.  You can sense that Lara is very unsure of herself and even somewhat clumsy (to those of you who were a fan of the handstand ledge climb – none of that happens here).  However, through the first 10 minutes of the game, you quickly see her resilience and instinct to survive.

This, as we can all probably imagine, would be incredibly painful, but that doesn’t stop Lara.

As the game goes on,  you will see an evolution both in her attitude and in her abilities.  Instead of quietly cursing to herself upon encountering enemies, she eventually begins to verbally challenge them to take her on.  There is consistently the sense that she will do whatever it takes to get herself and her friends off the island. One cutscene, somewhere around the middle of the game, does a really good job of depicting her steadfast determination in accomplishing this, for better or for worse.

The improvements in her ability come from the base camp system.  While you play through the game, you collect xp by completing challenges and storyline checkpoints as well as killing enemies.  This will accumulate  into skill points, which allow you to upgrade Lara’s survivor, hunter or brawler abilities.  My favourite skills came from the brawler set.  They make Lara’s fighting style more gritty and brutal.  You can also upgrade her weaponry by accumulating salvage, which is found in boxes, lockers, on dead enemies and from hunted animals.

This game honestly has a little bit of everything. Aside from the base camp system, while following the main story line, there are tombs, puzzles, challenges, duck and cover combat, head on melee combat and stealth.

Let’s just say the mature rating is warranted.

The first few sequences of the game are quite linear and have very little room for exploration, however, they are necessary to set up the story and are still enjoyable as a result of the Rhianna Pratchett’s plotting.  Once those sequences pass, the possibility of exploration expands immensely.  If the number of puzzles and tombs available in the main story line does not give you your fix, there are numerous tombs littered around the area, which you can discover and explore.  Each tomb has its own unique puzzle to solve. There are also a wide variety of challenges to complete, and relics, documents and gps caches to find. If you ever get lost or stuck, there is the survival instinct that can be activated at any time, which gives you your point of reference and hints on what you can interact with. Overall, the experience is much more realistic and Lara, as a character, has become very believable.  Should you be like me, and have an irresistible curiosity and impatience to find out what happens next in the story, you will have the ability to travel back to areas that you’ve already passed and completed.  There will also be places that are initially inaccessible to you, which you will be able to travel back to after obtaining the requisite equipment.

There are a couple of short sequences in the game that feel like “follow the bouncing ball” gameplay; however, it’s also a ton of fun watching the chaos around Lara unfold and the incredible amount of physical hardship she has to survive. There are also a few parts where you have to react to oncoming danger (either by dodging or shooting) in order to avoid some pretty graphic deaths.  These can be very entertaining. I know I caught myself moving the controller side to side, freaking out every time I failed to find the safe path.

Run Lara Run!

In this installment of Tomb Raider, the villain is not only an individual and his followers, but the entire island itself.  The developers do a good job of making the island feel like a living hostility, and along with the ominous personality of the main villain, you get the sense that Lara has a lot to handle.  The other characters, aside from Roth, are somewhat shallow, as they are not explored with incredible depth.  Dr. Whitman and Sam are given a little bit more care than the others, but in the end, they provide a basis for important story points and motivations for Lara.

Ranking:

Story – From begging to leave (1) to happily entertained (10) – 9.5/10. (This is an origin story that does an incredible job in creating character depth and a very realistic depiction of Lara’s evolution into “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider”.)

Gameplay – From frustrating (1) to pleasantly challenging (10) – 9.5/10 (Although there are a few moments of planned and linear gaming that may slightly displease some, there is so much variety provided throughout the game, that it barely detracts from the experience.)

Sound/Graphics

Camilla Luddington was a perfect choice for Lara.  She has a young tone, but can also depict an attitude of toughness and maturity.  You feel her pain when she is harmed, her fear when she is scared, her fatigue when she is tired, and her determination when she is challenged.  Basically, her voicing of Lara is very believable.

Roth is voiced appropriately as the motivational mentor. His does well at being the reassurance Lara needs to get past the initial fear and despair of being shipwrecked and separated from the rest of the crew.

The enemies also provide comments.  They express surprise at her ability to survive, her accuracy with various weapons and make their desire to kill her very clear.  It makes you really want to be able to take them down, especially when they mention the fact that she’s just one little girl.

Jason Graves has composed a wonderful score. Not once is the music distracting, but rather it establishes the appropriate emotions. The music highlights the important moments.  When Lara is threatened the music emphasizes it, then when she is triumphant it changes and you actually feel a sense of relief and accomplishment.

I really enjoyed the cinematic camera style.  For the first time in Tomb Raider history, the camera was not your enemy.  The angles change appropriately and allow you to see important environmental points.

Tomb Raider often has the cinematography style of a high budget action movie

Lara also looks great, as I’m sure most people have seen. She looks very different, but somehow the same and much more realistic.  The other characters also have very realistic renders. Even if the subsidiary characters are not necessarily developed fully from the perspective of narrative, the developers did not cop-out on their designs.

There was one very small graphical glitch. After slipping through a narrow space, the weapons that were normally visible on Lara’s back disappeared. The bow, shotgun and rifle would disappear when put away and appear when armed. However, this was minor and went away after a quick restart.

Another criticism I’ve heard was with regards to her hair. Although it is a vast improvement on the squirrel tail with its own rules of physics in Tomb Raider: Underworld, there are still a few moments where her pony tail looks like a stiff clump attached to the back of her head. However, if played with the appropriate video card specifications on PC, her hair is rendered like individual strands.

The in game environments are vast and the characters interact well with them. The foliage looks real, the water looks drinkable, the tombs are creepy and the vastness of the island itself is obvious. The places you have to go or things you can interact with are discoverable, but they are also well nested into the environments. Gone are the shiny rings and overtly clean white ledges randomly placed throughout ancient ruins. The exploration in this game’s environment is much more realistic.

Ranking:

Sound – From Backstreet Boys (1) to Beethoven (10) – 10/10 (Jason Graves and Camilla Luddington make the game extremely audibly appealing.)

Graphics – From fake (1) to virtual reality (10) – 9.5/10 (The characters and the environments are very well designed. Aside from the minor glitch and maybe her hair at some points, there is nothing to criticize.)

Overall

I will go out and say it one more time. This is the best installment of Tomb Raider released in the 17 years of its existence. If you loved Lara Croft and Tomb Raider before, you will love this one as well and then some. I’ll admit the character is depicted in a much different light, and I was skeptical at first, but the gameplay is incredible and she still possesses the qualities that initially made her a beloved character. I can’t wait for what Square Enix has in store for the next release.

Tomb Raider (PS3) – 9.5/10

Claude Giroux for the cover of NHL 2013 was the perfect choice.

There are a few new modes – a GM mode where you compete with 29 other NHL 2013 users around the world, an Ultimate Team mode, and an NHL Moments mode, where you can play through some of the most memorable moments of teams or players during last season.

This portion of the game is a very intriguing addition.  The moment provided to players in this demo is game 5 of the LA Kings and Phoenix Coyotes series, where the Coyotes were trying to stave off elimination and the Kings were looking to put away the series to advance to the Stanley Cup finals.  Your tasked with the responsibility of winning in overtime as the LA Kings.

Apparently in the full version, you will have the opportunity to change history towards your favour.  For Leaf fans like myself this kind of virtual comfort is needed, because how the season has played out recently in reality (and by recently, I mean for the last 45 years) has been very stark.

Aside from that, the two other available options in this demo include the free skate (you play as Kopitar of the LA Kings) and a Play Now option, featuring, as usual, a faceoff between last year’s two Stanley Cup finalists.  You get to play as either team and in the final period of the game.

In terms of gameplay, I am a very big fan on the new True Performance Skating system. It’s smooth and much more realistic.  Players can no longer cut in front of the net at full speed and shoot for an almost guaranteed goal.  They will stumble and slip at erratic movements, shots are inaccurate at full speed and acceleration with quick strides resembles what skating actually looks like – all of which add an extra touch to gameplay. The puck also no longer magically follows the player as he moves left and right with his stick raised, winding up for a big slap shot.

The Goalie animations look amazing.  They’re quick, smooth and intuitive.  At least while I played through the demo, there weren’t any spastic goalie movements, which was very common in a large number of the EA SPORTS NHL series.

The AI of your team as well as the opposing team remains to be highly adaptive, as it has been since NHL 2008 (I think).  The commentary also remains the same as it was since 2008, where they give hints as to what you and your opponents are doing right or wrong.

I personally despise the commentary in the EA SPORTS NHL series and have for the longest time.  The last time I remember enjoying the commentary would have to be in NHL 1999.  During breaks in action the commentators would provide facts about individual players, which was a lot of fun for hockey fans.  They also didn’t crack so many terrible jokes and use ridiculous superlative vocabulary.  NHL 2013 commentary can also be very generic, “That was a great save by the Goalie…” Would it be so difficult to program inserting the name, so we get, “That was a great save by Brodeur, Quick, Smith, Rinne, Howard, Reimer, Price, etc.” instead?

Either way, NHL 2013 looks like it’s going to be a pretty top notch sports simulator.  So, if the NHL does intend on a lockout, AGAIN, it looks like EA SPORTS will be able to provide people with their hockey fix with NHL 2013.

When the Play Station Network went down due to the infamous (HA!) attack by unknown hackers (currently, there are only suspects, not convicted perpetrators), they offered a bunch of games to PSN members for free, as an apology for their apparently second grade security systems. inFAMOUS happened to be one of them, so my boyfriend and I jumped on the opportunity to download what looked like a great game for free. Did we ever score on that decision, as inFAMOUS turned out to be excellent, and would have been worth offering up hard earned cash.

Story

The game begins with Cole at the epicenter of an explosion that has killed many, but left him alive. The cause of the explosion was in a box he was asked to deliver, the contents of which he was unaware, and when it explodes, he is given the power to control and use electricity.

Empire City subsequently goes into chaos. There are different gangs in each district, each led by different main antagonists in the game. You have Sasha, the leader of Reapers gang, who uses a tar-like substance to induce mind control, in the Neon district, Alden, who leads the Dust Men in Warren, and finally Kessler, the toughest of the three and the leader of First Sons in Historic District.

This split of different gangs in different districts makes for a good variety of enemies. For example, each district has a different “conduit” – one can teleport (Neon District), another has a rocket launcher and spits out spiders (The Warren), the third is a behemoth of an enemy created with bits of scrap (The Warren) and the fourth creates a massive aura of itself for efficient smashing (The Historic District). There is also a steady increase in difficulty as you make your way through the districts, which matches well with what your increase in gameplay skills. Thus, the game is challenging, but not unpleasantly frustrating.

In all the chaos, a plague breaks out (Sasha’s tar substance) and Empire City is put into quarantine by the government. Cole and his best friend Zeke try to escape, but Cole is caught. He is then contacted by an FBI agent named Moya who offers to bail him out if he agrees to work with her. Throughout the game she leads him along, giving him missions to fulfill in an attempt to restore some order in Empire City and to stop government from invading and wiping out Empire City as a last attempt to get rid of the problem. She also tells Cole he needs to locate John White, her husband, who has gathered a lot of intelligence on the Ray Sphere and the three antagonists.

In addition to that, Cole is tasked with restoring power to the districts as he moves through them. Every time he uses his body to complete the circuit to the generator, he is given a new ability. While you make your way through the underground area to recharge the main generator, you’re given a chance to test that new power. Although at times, this could become a little repetitive, the more important part of it was, it allowed the player to get used to the skills Cole already has and figure out the best ways and situations to use them, before introducing new ones. This works much better than throwing everything in at once, as certain capabilities that might be necessary to complete a mission are often forgotten, making gaming frustrating, and the effort developers put into creating an varied gaming experience overall, could go to waste.

Another interesting aspect of the blacked out areas is, when Cole enters them, it is much harder for him to survive. His vision becomes blurred, as there are no sources of electricity.

Being a bit of a comic book geek myself (maybe a little more than a bit), I really enjoyed the comic book story telling style. The entire game plays out like a superhero’s origin story and the cutscenes are composed of well drawn animated comics.

Cole discovers his new powers in this comic style cutscene.

The fact that, like most comic books, the narration is from the superhero (Cole), you only ever know as much as he does and discover only what he does, so the story keeps you guessing. You, like Cole, do not know who to trust, you don’t know what will happen next or what the reaction to your actions will be. There are some other great story telling tools that occur as your exploring Empire City in game. News breaks about the city, and what actions the government may take, appear on public televisions, and an anonymous hacker-style, conspiracy theorist, “The Voice of Survival”, randomly appears to give his two cents on current events – often berating Cole for his actions. There are also satellite drops that John White has left around the city, each one giving a little more info on the kind of intelligence he has gathered.

Throughout all of this, there is, of course, a “romantic” side-story that focuses on the relationship between Cole and his girlfriend Trish. She loses trust in him after finding out he held the package that caused the explosion (the fact that her sister died in the blast doesn’t help his case either) and he tries to gain it back by helping her out and, if you decide to do so, being a hero. Although my boyfriend wasn’t overtly interested in the romantic part of the story, I thoroughly enjoyed it and felt that it brought realism and humanity to Cole’s character.

The inFAMOUS storyline has twists all over the place, especially as you get closer to the end. The last one is pretty epic, possibly bordering sci-fi/comic book cliche, but never crosses into the realm eyeball rolling corniness or melodrama. The motive behind the twist is also very creative and accomplishes a feat many movies aren’t even able to – creating an end that is open to a sequel, but isn’t so obviously an attempt to secure another mother-load of cash – *ahem* Avengers…

Ranking:

From begging to leave (1) to happily entertained (10) – 9/10 (Maybe I have a bias, considering the comic book style inFAMOUS had taken, but the story has all the qualities you want to see in a hero’s origin, and has a number of intersecting layers that allow for interesting gameplay features and maintains the story’s intrigue.)

Gameplay

At first, inFAMOUS appears to be a little slow and contrived. Because you have a limited arsenal of power, the amount that Cole is able to do, and subsequently what the game can ask of you at first, is limited. However, as you move on and you acquire more powers, it becomes a lot more fun. There are some very cool things you can do with certain abilities, such as directing away rockets with the shockwave, but the where the fun really comes in is when you use a combination of abilities to fight enemies.

Many of these possible combinations are given to you as stunts you can perform to earn trophies and points. This pushes the player to try new combinations of skills, makes combat varied and interesting, and can sometimes result in highly entertaining take downs.

inFAMOUS also attempts to maintain variety in gameplay by introducing different variables to missions that ultimately require you to take out enemies. Cole is asked to protect this, destroy that (actually towards the end, there are some very interesting missions with this motif), guide this to that safely, prevent an outbreak, etc. I found that missions had enough individual uniqueness to keep my interest, but my boyfriend took some issue with the fact that, in the end, the main missions were mostly about killing progressively difficult enemies.

Reapers, Dustmen and First Sons

One thing we definitely agreed on was that the side missions did become repetitive. Some of them were also way out of context. I don’t see how a photographer taking pictures of Cole blowing up cars could possibly clear an area of enemies. However, the fact that these side missions did create an area of the district that was completely free of enemies made for enough incentive to complete them. I am a someone who is always anxious to find out what happens next (story wise), so side missions are often avoided. But in inFAMOUS, the desire to clear enemies was sufficient to accept distractions from the main story.

You also have the ability to choose whether Cole will be a “boy scout” kind of hero, or if he will be someone people feared. Gameplay does change slightly depending on which side you take. When you’re good, the people adore you. They take pictures of you and apologize when you run into them. When you’re bad, people fear you. They throw rocks at you and yell at you. There are also different moves and colours for good and bad karma. However, it is not difficult to spot the parts of the game, where regardless of which side you chose, the exact same thing would happen. I suppose you can only expect so much of a game, given that scales of good and bad are most often found in RPGs and this is an action game, but some of the limitations could have been lifted with a little more effort. Both my boyfriend and I are goody two shoes anyway, so we consistently picked the good karma (even when we both agreed that the evil poster looked way better than the good one, we still picked the good).

inFAMOUS also gives players an upgrading system to work with. You accumulate points by completing missions and side-missions, killing enemies, performing stunts and saving people. These points can be spent on upgrading Cole’s abilities. It isn’t a useless system, as it actually makes a difference in game play. Stronger shocks are needed to kill stronger enemies faster or you will find it quite difficult to get through certain situations.

There were also a bunch of little perks in gameplay that made the experience enjoyable.

Cole is given the capability to revive injured citizens by giving them an electric shock. Often when you’re exploring the city you’ll have people who run up to you and point out a person or group of people who need help. You can either ignore them or help them out, but it is a nice addition to the game.

Cole also interacts with water in a variety of ways. If you step in shallow water, electricity will travel through the entire puddle at no harm to you, but anyone standing in that same puddle will die. If you fall into deep water, you slowly lose health or immediately die, depending on if it’s possible to actually get out. Finally, if you shock deep water an enemy is standing in, it will instantly kill them. Given that Cole’s powers are based on electricity, it makes perfect sense to incorporate these interactions with water.

The way in which gaming reacts to Sasha’s tar is cool. When Cole is sprayed, the screen is tinted red, becomes extremely blurry and it messes up the controls. Sometimes Cole can’t jump and his dizziness makes it difficult to aim. Sasha also invades his consciousness with rants to provide further distractions.

When battling the main antagonists, there are moments in combat when Cole attempts to overpower them in a hand to hand encounter. In order to be successful, you have to continuously hit a specific button, then use the joystick to guide Cole’s hand to the appropriate spot. These parts are a lot of fun and actually do a good job at emulating the feel of a struggle.

Cole dukes it out with Sasha

Somewhere near the middle of the game, the idea of an electrically charged floor is introduced. As long as Cole remains on top of it, he has an unlimited source of electricity. When this innovation makes an appearance in the game, you know you’re about to engage in an action packed mission and encounter a plethora of enemies. These parts can be challenging, but they also provide a chance to go nuts with Cole’s powers.

Finally, inFAMOUS has an extremely open world to explore. Cole can very easily scale any building making any part of the world seem accessible. There are also battery cores spread around Empire City and collecting them gives Cole more electrical storage capacity. This is added incentive to explore the world in more depth.

However, the controls often became very cumbersome when directing Cole to climb more complex architecture. Cole will not always jump in the direction you intend him to, mostly because the system doesn’t necessarily recognize the ledge you’re aiming for on first attempt. This could become extremely frustrating, as Cole would either jump up for a ledge and simply bounce off and down again, or even make a decent, when your intended direction is up.

Ranking:

From frustrating (1) to pleasantly challenging (10) – 8/10 (Despite some repetitiveness, some missteps in controls and a limited karma system, inFAMOUS makes up for it in entertainment value with exciting gameplay and variability in combat.)

Sound/Graphics

Music wasn’t a main attraction in this game. It was more ambient than driving, not contributing significantly to the aura of the game. It would sometimes switch randomly, without any situational changes to accompany it, which could be an unwelcome distraction.

Cole’s voice, however, is awesome. I loved the deep raspy quality. It was perfect for the character and was suitable for either side of the karma spectrum. On the good side, he sounds like the rugged hero, who has been through hell, but still maintained his integrity. On the evil side, he just sounds like a total badass. Either way, the tone works.

Another example of good voice acting comes from Sasha’s character. In the game, she plays the role of a jealous lover and the voice reflects that very well. You can hear the unbridled desire in her voice, as she tries to convince Cole to leave Trish and join her, then the anguish when he refuses her advances and fights off her mind control.

I also enjoyed the bomber’s screaming. When you hear it, you know he’s coming, but not necessarily from where, so you keep looking around until you see him charging at you with a lit fuse. The AI for this character wasn’t the best (possibly purposely), so short term amusement could be gained by watching him run into a pedestrian or something else and blow himself up.

Ranking:

From Backstreet Boys (1) to Beethoven (10) – 7.5/10 (While the music is generally unremarkable – neither obviously good nor bad – Cole’s voice is music enough for my ears.)

The graphics in inFAMOUS are decent, but nothing spectacular. Facial movements, especially in speech, aren’t very detailed or well refined. Emotional changes are jerky and Cole’s movements when you are not controlling him, for example if he’s talking to Zeke in his rooftop apartment, can also be awkward.

When you are controlling Cole, however, his animations are very smooth. There is a bit of a floating quality to Cole’s jumps and climbing, which I suppose is suitable for the kind of power he has at his disposal, and the actions in and of themselves appear believable.

Another thing that actually looks very good are Cole’s powers. Many of them are stylistic, similar to the kind of art you would find in a comic book and others – such as the shockwave and the thunder drop – resemble what you would expect something like it to look, if it were possible.

Bar none, the lightning storm is the best looking power of them all.

The biggest issue I had with the graphics in inFAMOUS was the shifting frame rates. At one point, the game and the textures would be running smoothly at a higher frame rate, making movements appear faster and the environment clearer. Then, at another point, the frame rate would shift to something lower. Movements would appear more sluggish and the environment made up of slightly more serrated edges. This is an annoying occurrence on its own, but what makes it more frustrating is that this is an issue that should have, and easily could have, been debugged before release.

Ranking:

From fake (1) to virtual reality (10) – 7/10 (Troubleshoot, troubleshoot, troubleshoot before releasing a game. That is all I ask.)

Overall

inFAMOUS has a lot of great features that make it an enjoyable game. Cole is a likeable character, the powers at his disposal are varied and fun to use, gameplay is solid – despite some flaws – and the origin style story engrosses players in Cole’s world – his loves, his losses, his motivations – whether you choose to be a hero or a menace.

inFAMOUS (PS3) – 8/10

My boyfriend loves the 40s era – the music, the attire, the cars, the chivalry (at least that’s what he likes to call it) – so Mafia II had all the right bells and whistles to peak his interest. Although the game does pick up on the glamour of the 40s, it’s also not afraid to explore the not so pleasant aspects of of the era – the war, the struggling economy, and most importantly, the hardships of being a gang member.  With being arrested, losing his home and money, realizing the fallibility of friendship and just plain, dirty, gritty, disturbing murder, Mafia II provides a highly satisfying gaming experience that represents the highs and lows of being in the mob.

Story

At the very beginning of the game, we’re introduced to Vito’s past – his childhood, teens, getting in trouble with his best friend, Joe and enlisting in war to avoid doing jail time.  The first bout of gameplay and the introduction to the combat system is Vito’s involvement in WWII. He is subsequently injured, returns home to his family and, in looking for a place to stay, he reunites with Joe.  Joe “makes some phone calls” pulls a few strings and gets Vito’s papers to say he is unfit to return to combat, preventing him from going back to war. From there, Vito’s interests are peaked in what Joe is involved in and the story goes on.

At this point, you know a lot of effort was put into story – the characterizations, narrative, story line – and this effort is fruitful.  The success of Mafia II relies heavily on the story and it does not disappoint.  The gaming is intertwined so well with story telling, bringing up consistently different, and often very unique, situations the gamer has to guide Vito through.  The further I played through the game, the further it reached beyond my expectations.  The cinematics themselves were like well scripted movies, introducing twist and turns you aren’t expecting. I’d take them over Avatar any day.

Normally, if I’m watching my boyfriend play, I eventually get antsy and either try to grab the controller for myself or convince him to do something else.  With Mafia II, I was itching to see what came next. His thumbs would get tired before I had any inkling of wanting to move on to another activity.

With all the focus on story lines and cinematics, that is not to say that Mafia II doesn’t allow for action packed sequences with high speed car chases and gun battles.  There is plenty of that, especially towards the end, to get your testosterone fix.

Action is definitely not lacking in Mafia II

There is also a point in time in the game where there is a change in era – from the 40s to the 50s – and much of the aspects of the game change along with it. The cars on the streets are different, the streets themselves look different and even the music is different. There are no longer songs about the war on the radio, but rather music by Elvis and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins.  It’s a nice touch that really emphasizes the occurrence around this point in Vito’s life.

The characterizations are also very well done. There are many small touches that are put into the game that really flesh out the characters. I love the dynamic between Joe and Vito.  They compliment each other in a classic brawn and brains relationship and their conversations are priceless.

There is also a point where Vito and Joe go out with Eddie and the latter two get very drunk. Their jackets are buttoned incorrectly, their hair is mussed up and while Vito is driving to take care of something not exactly legal, they sing songs in a drunken stupor.  Eventually, Eddie asks Vito to pull over so he can throw up. The interesting thing is, when you pull over, Eddie actually gets out of the car and pukes. I wasn’t expecting that at all, usually comments like those in a game remain to be simply comments. It is not a big part of the game, but it’s an example of the effort the game developers put into creating a realistic experience.

Finally, I definitely need to mention the end of the main story line. Obviously, I won’t give it away, but it is amazing. It’s so appropriately tragic and highlights the realism of the entire game. It’s a perfect recognition of the dark life Vito leads and shows that he is not meant to be the big bad protagonist that always gets his way.

Ranking:

From begging to leave (1) to happily entertained (10) – 10/10 (Honestly, I do not have anything to criticize in terms of the story. One could say that it was a little short, but in this case, I’ll take quality over quantity.)

Gameplay

The gameplay in Mafia II has a number of positive aspects worth mentioning, but to me, the most important of them all is the variety.  You have the duck and cover combat style, the stealth aspect, hand to hand boxing style combat, race against time driving missions, car chases, selling illegal goods and, of course, destruction of property. Even in situations where the formula of gameplay is the same, the situation surrounding it in terms of the story makes it seem as if you’re doing something completely different. For example, you have two timed situations where one requires you to sell as many gas stamps as possible and other requires you to get from point A to point B before time runs out.  Both require driving around within a time limit, but the circumstances makes for different gameplay.

The gun combat is fairly basic.  You have to find cover and shoot at the right time, but it is sufficiently difficult, as it’s virtually impossible to simply blast your way through. The cross hair sensitivity may have been a bit finicky for me, but if you pop out at the right time, your aim is placed directly on your target.

I also appreciated that the others Vito fights along side with (often it’s Joe and other members of the Mafia) aren’t idiots that immediately get themselves killed. They duck and cover and advance slowly, the way you do. If you take their spot in cover, they move over to other cover, so you don’t get a glitchy fight between the characters over the switch in spots.

Another interesting aspect of gameplay is that, although your health does recover when you’ve been hit, it does not do so completely. In order to bring yourself back up to 100%, you need to eat or drink something non-alcoholic. This added an incentive to approach combat carefully and avoid getting hit as much as possible.

The way in which cops on the streets, both on foot and in cars, react to different activities, make the player approach how they conduct themselves while they are out and about more carefully.

Police will react to bad driving. If you’re speeding, they will give chase, if you hit another car, they will give chase, if you hit them they will give chase, if you run a red light slowly and without hitting anyone, they don’t seem to react, but if you’re driving with Joe, he will definitely give you a hard time.

The police are a little more sensitive to illegal activity than in other games similar to Mafia

It is also possible to die in a car crash, should you be going beyond a certain speed.  This all meant that I didn’t have to watch my boyfriend drive around, showing off the cool moves he could pull in a fast car without any consequences. However, that didn’t stop him, or me in full honesty, from enjoying a nice fast drive over a long stretch of highway and drifting around corners once in a while.

There were a couple of other things that were enjoyable about driving around in the game.  The HUD map marks off the best path to get to your destination and you actually have to pay attention to your gas levels.  Filling up is also a little ironic, seeing as the price for a full  tank of gas is $4.50 and the attendant apologizes for the high prices… Damn.

Cops, obviously, will also react to stealing cars. There are a variety of ways to do so. You can either use a lock pick, smash the window or car jack one that’s already running on the street.  Either way, you had to be aware of where cops are on your map, to ensure they aren’t around to see you take a car that isn’t yours.

If the police do happen to chase you, there are ways to make yourself annonymous. Body shops are available to change your car’s license plate, colour and tune up your car, or if they have a description of your appearance, there are clothing stores for you to change your attire. However, what makes this part of the game more interesting is if you change your car, but not your clothes, the cops will recognize you when drive past them. If you change your clothes, but not the car, the cops will still chase your car. So here’s a fair warning for the lazy gamer, one will not cancel out the other.

The police will also react to you displaying a gun out in public or engaging in a fist fight with another person. If the police happen to catch you for an offence (mostly minor offences), you have the option to either resist arrest or bribe them, so your interaction with the police is not necessarily over immediately after they catch you.

When the police stop you, bribes and resisting arrest are often possible.

One issue I had with the actions of the police was, although you cannot access a body shop or clothing store if the police are still directly on  your tail, they disappear when you reach a checkpoint in the story line. This happened with me specifically when  I brought a stolen car to Mike Bruski’s junk yard for the first time.

Following the style similar to the first Mafia and the Hitman series, Vito is actually unable to jump freely.  You can hop over obstacles and climb through windows by approaching an obstacle and pressing L1. This has both pros and cons. Running from people who are trying to kill you is harder, as jumping freely makes for easier clearance of fences and walls.  If someone is shooting at you while the climb animation is in motion, you can basically count yourself as dead. It can also make parts of the world seem limited. However, there are also positives. There is virtually no possibility of stupidly falling to death by jumping off the wrong spot and it’s easier to find the right way to go, as only that particular ledge or window will be climbable. It also makes for more realism graphically. Vito cannot bunny hop through the street or fly up, over and above obstacles. He actually has to climb them the way a normal human being would.

There aren’t too many side missions available. There are a few different opportunities to make extra cash – one is to crush cars at Bruski’s, another is to bring luxury cars to Derek and the third is rob different shops. There isn’t too much incentive throughout the game to make extra cash, except for one point near the end, so the majority of these “side missions” end up being unused. Although some could view this as an issue, I didn’t have any problem with this.  It didn’t feel as if anything was missing as a result, seeing as the progression of the story and the gameplay surrounding that is the main focus of the game.

You also have little collectables in the form of playboy magazines that are scattered throughout the game. Never have I ever seen my boyfriend go so far out of his way to pick up trophies. I have to say, they are cute little additions to the game that fit in perfectly, given that Playboy Magazine did start in the early 50s.

There were a few other minor things I had problems with in terms of the gameplay in Mafia II. First off, and the most frustrating of them all, was the use of checkpoints in some of the missions. Often there weren’t enough, or they were not well placed, meaning dying somewhere in the middle of a mission resulted in starting all the way back at the beginning. Having to start so far back after making such significant progress was often a bit of a deterrent in replaying the mission, at least not immediately after dying.

The AI of pedestrians could also be a little on the dumb side. Instead of moving out of the way, they stop right in front of you and cower. This makes it very difficult to get around them without running them over, which is something you want to do if there’s a cop nearby and you don’t want to attract their attention.

The controls could also be a little awkward in some cases. For example, if there is a dead or unconscious body in front of a door, the action for the same button will alternate between drag the body and open/close the door unpredictably. However, this is only a situational problem and did not detract significantly from gameplay.

Finally, there was one notable glitch.  During the sequence where Vito has to follow Luca, if Luca attracts the attention of a cop, which is probable, since he drives atrociously, the whole thing has to be restarted.

What happened while I played was Luca hits a cop car, he is chased, but continues to the butcher shop, he stops at the door, both the cop and Luca get out, Luca gets on his knees and puts his hands on his head, the cop gives him a ticket and both get back into their cars. The cop wasn’t able to back out and Luca was honking the horn to get the door to the butcher shop to open, but because the cop was stuck, Luca was also blocking the door, and throughout the entire affair, Vito is unable to get out of his car. At first I actually thought it was a set occurrence, so I waited it out. But after seeing the cop trying to back out and keep hitting Luca’s car, there was obviously a problem.  Although, it was hilarious to watch, having to restart was annoying, especially without properly placed checkpoints.

Ranking:

From Frustrating (1) to Pleasantly Challenging (10) – 8.5/10 (All in all, Mafia II makes for highly entertaining and novel gaming, but unlike the story, there were a few changes that could have been made, which would have prevented glitches and minor frustrations.)

Graphics/Sound

As with many games, especially recently, the graphics are good overall, but Mafia II has a lot of nice touches that puts it a notch above.

The different types of clothing that Vito can choose from are very well detailed (of course, being a girl, I immediately notice the clothing). Whether it’s a full suit with a trench coat or a cowboy outfit, it’s obvious a lot of effort has gone into making the outfits look fashionable and believable.

When Vito sprints, the camera moves side to side to emulate the feel of someone running at full speed. While this is a small addition, it’s another touch that contributes to the realism of the game.

Hand to hand combat also a few nice visual touches. The camera angle changes to give you a better view of your target, so when he drops his hands, you can go in for a few quick jabs. When you finish off your opponent with a knock out punch, time slows down and the camera focuses on your target, capturing the blood and spittle spray from loose lips. It’s fun!

Butcher shop fist fight!

Everything about the character animations is great.  The lips move and their expressions change while talking in game and the emotion animations are actually very believable. It is not just simple eyebrow movements that indicate anger or surprise, but rather precise changes to create facial expressions.  Not only are the facial expressions realistic, but the faces themselves are all unique and recognizable.  No one looks the same as another, which is often the case in games once you get past three or four main characters.

Finally, there are different motions that take place inside the car while Vito is driving. He steers the wheel whichever direction you guide him to and when he has passengers – for example Joe, Henry, Eddie – they move within the car according to the situation.

On the slightly negative side, the animations for opening and closing doors aren’t perfect, neither are those for climbing up and down stairs, but when are they ever? The two things that games are only beginning to get right graphically speaking are opening doors and climbing up and down stairs.

Mafia II also, unfortunately, has a few graphic glitches, the most notable being when Vito closed the front door to a clothing store, while a cop was chasing him, the cop ran straight into the door and his arm appeared on the other side. He then proceeded to give Vito a ticket through the glass door. There are a few more similar glitches that can take away from the gaming experience.

Ranking:

From fake (1) to virtual reality (10) – 8.5/10 (If it weren’t for some of the random glitches graphically, the visual aspect of Mafia II would be near perfect.)

Sound

Mafia II makes perfect use of beautiful music, creating an ambiance that always emphasizes the mood of that particular scene.  The more somber portions of the game are accompanied by orchestral compositions that stir up the appropriate emotions.  When Vito and Joe are living it up, the scenes are accompanied by more up beat, lyrical music from the 40s and 50s. Often this creates an amusing irony, given that Vito and Joe are usually committing unsavoury acts.

The radio is also great. It plays the music of the time, meaning, war songs during the 40s, Elvis, Sinatra (whom my boyfriend loves), Bing Crosby (another of my boyfriend’s favourites), The Andrews Sisters and more.  There is also the occasional cute commentary on subjects that were of interest at the time (studies that say smoking is bad for you are “superficial at best”) and each station has it’s own personality.  I also enjoyed the news breaks that are given every time you complete a mission where your activities and it’s consequences would be impossible to go unnoticed (like a firefight with another gang).

The voice acting in Mafia II is superb. Not a single word is spoken out of place and each is said with believable tones and accents. It draws you deeper into the world of the game and gives you insight into the characters’ attitudes and personalities. For example, when Joe and Vito talk/bicker about their assignments or about women, it really highlights the personality traits that make up who they are supposed to be. It makes them easier to sympathize with and more realistic.

Ranking:

From Backstreet Boys (1) to Beethoven (10) – 10/10 (The music and voice acting is flawless. Even the theme at the beginning gives me the chills.)

Overall

I have an immense amount of respect for the developers of Mafia II and the amount of effort that was put into the game.  The story in particular is what makes it work so well.  Everything else feeds off the superlative narrative and we are given a game that is extremely entertaining, exciting and yes, even emotionally stimulating.

Mafia II (PS3) – 9/10

The release of new installments of Assassin’s Creed is always an exciting time for my boyfriend and I. They have been presents for several occasions – birthdays, Christmases, anniversaries, Valentine’s Days (not really) – and have consistently made for satisfying gaming.  However, when the release date of Assassin’s Creed Revelations was announced so quickly after that of Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, both of us were weary of what that meant for the quality of the game. Although the game did not suffer to a significant degree, the effects of the quick release shows, making this is the weakest addition to the Assassin’s Creed series.

Story:

Revelations has a mix of three stories.  The first, and the main story, is Ezio’s search for the Masyaf Keys within the backdrop of the conflict between the Byzantines – of whom the Templars are a part – and the Ottomans in Istanbul. The second is Desmond’s struggle to figure out a way off Animus Island, where he finds himself trapped as a result of the occurrences at the end of Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood.  The third, and the most interesting of them all, is the story which follows Altair’s life and the Apple of Eden, each part encoded within the Masyaf Keys.

The first and major story is occupied mostly by the search for the Masyaf Keys, which becomes fairly repetitive after finding the first two.  Finding every key follows the same sequence – locate the map, locate the tomb, go to the tomb, retrieve the key. Although Ezio does inevitably get involved in the political aspect of the story, that is exactly how this part of the story is treated – a necessary obstacle to a larger goal. I, however, would have preferred more focus to be placed on the Byzantines (Templars) and Ottomans. This may not have been an issue for some, but I found the most interesting aspect of the past Assassin’s Creed games was not the mystical side of the story – following the Apple of Eden or in this case, the Masyaf Keys – but rather the political relations, which Ezio (or Altair in the first game) influence through tactical assassinations. Weaving the very basic main story of the Templars vs the Assassins, through a more complex story involving the politics of a particular region, was very effective in transporting players into the era in which the story in meant to take place. The charm of the Assassin’s Creed series can be attributed significantly to the beautiful settings.

The second story line features Desmond (Subject 17) and a man named Clay Kaczmarek (Subject 16) who was briefly mentioned in previous Assassin’s Creed games. Clay has been stuck on Animus Island for a lengthy period of time and borders on insanity. He plays the role of orienting Desmond on his current situation – often pointing out how dire it was. This part of the game allows the player to take on “Desmond missions”, which ended up being dreadful, to say the least.  Why this is the case will be discussed in the Gameplay section. Either way, these sections of the game create some insight into the nature of the Animus and Desmond’s character, but otherwise, it felt as if it was simply filler between memory sequences.

Finally, the third story line that is revealed as every Masyaf Key is found, focuses on the progression of Altair’s life, the Assassin’s brotherhood and the Apple of Eden. If Assassin’s Creed Revelations had been based on this in its entirety, the game would have been much more successful.

It’s too bad the entire game wasn’t as good as the Altair sections.

The anticipation of playing through another piece of Altair’s story was the main motivation for finding the Masyaf Keys. The best and most shocking moments occur in these sections, but unfortunately, they were only small and minute portion of the game.

Ranking:

From begging to leave (1) to happily entertained (10) – 7/10 (The decision to make the Masyaf Keys the main focus made the story repetitive, but it’s saving grace was the addition of Altair.)

Gameplay

The gameplay in Revelations was full of hits and misses. Let’s start with the good.

I liked that the Ottoman Janissary were much more difficult to fight. You can’t kill them with a counter attack or with a kill streak and they also have a dual wielded attack – gun and sword. Fighting off a large group of them can be a difficult task and running from them doesn’t work either, as they are just as fast, if not faster than Ezio. As a result, planning an attack that avoids conflict with the Janissaries becomes an important point to consider in completing missions. A tactical approach is often necessary instead of running in and slaughtering every enemy in site – as my boyfriend enjoys doing.

The Assassin’s Dens assignments were also a welcome addition.  Once a recruit reaches level 10 or higher, it is possible to assign him or her to a Den. Each assignment has something to report and a mission to fulfill. This creates the feel of a living city that has a variety of occurrences and a population with different story lines.

There are some cool uses of eagle vision, such as guiding your path, so you do not look suspicious.  The best and most creative exhibition of this ability is the attack through the play. I won’t give anymore away, but this was very amusing stuff. There is also a new system in using eagle vision to identify targets.  Now, instead of the target being immediately highlighted in red, you actually need to hover your cursor over people, one by one, until you find the right person.

You also have new tools in your arsenal.  The hook blade makes for faster climbing and increases your reach when making long jumps between buildings. It also gives Ezio new abilities, such as further jumps using hanging objects, zip lining on wires and rolling over enemies when trying to make an escape.

One of the abilities Ezio learns with the hook blade.

Creating and using bombs is another interesting addition to Ezio’s abilities.  There are a wide variety of bombs that can be created, depending on what materials you have collected. It allows players to use different tactics and added an extra layer to approaches that could be taken during infiltrations or assassinations. My personal favourite was luring a group of guards to one spot with a cherry bomb, then killing them with a datura (poison) bomb.

The random incidents of theft attacks were enjoyable. It keeps you on your toes, even while your exploring through the town and renovating buildings. In previous assassin’s creed games, my boyfriend always left the game on for hours, just to collect money.  He can’t do that anymore with both the theft and den attacks being a constant threat.

It is also interesting that the developers decided to make the assassins’ notoriety increase every time you renovate parts of the city. Now, with every four or five renovations, Ezio has to reduce the notoriety of the assassin’s. If he does not, then assassin’s dens will be attacked by the Byzantines. There are only two ways to reduce notoriety in this game (tearing down posters won’t do it for you this time). You either pay off a herald or kill/beat up an official, which is new.

The last, but definitely not the least, addition to the “hits” in Assassin’s Creed Revelations gameplay is the Altair missions.  Not only was the story well versed, but the gameplay had a lot of variation.  As Altair ages, his abilities change. You can no longer scale the side of a cliff or buildings, but there are other ways in which he carries out assassinations. There is even a section where you control the Apple of Eden. Everything about it, as I mentioned so tediously in the first section, is amazing. Did I also mention that it was awesome? Fantastic? Excellent?!

Now onto the not so good.

There were a number of gripes I noted my boyfriend making throughout the game, one of them being, “Where’s the horse?!” Although the entirety of Revelations takes place in a relatively small area, the use of the horse in navigating the interior of towns, the exploration of the outskirts of town or in traveling between towns was a very enjoyable aspect of previous versions and was sorely missed in this game.

Another one of his gripes was with the gameplay of protecting a den and I have to agree with him. Players basically have to place assassin’s with different capabilities and barricades (like pieces of a board game) on different parts of the den. This placement has to be able to withstand waves of attacks. With every enemy killed, you gain points that allow you to place more pieces along the playing field to provide better protection. A den attack only happens only when become notorious and you allow to remain that way, so it is possible to avoid. However, when someone is playing a video game with the desire to carry out assassinations, being forced into playing a game of chess, where the rooks, knights and pawns are replaced by archers, assassin’s and barricades, is not a welcome addition.

As I mentioned earlier, there is a new system of identification when using eagle vision. Although it is interesting, it is often unnecessary, especially when the attacking a Byzantine Den. Generally speaking, the head of the den is easy enough to spot just through normal vision, so the use of eagle visions is primarily for marking the target.

Finally, the most useless and frustrating addition to the game is the Desmond missions. Yes, it is a way to discover more about Desmond and the animus, or what have you, but running around in first person view, placing different types of blocks to walk on, some of which fall apart almost immediately, is ridiculous.

WHAT THE F*@#?!

All we got out of this portion of the game was a good half hour session of pass the controller. These missions are an unbelievable waste of time and whatever information you retrieve at the end is not worth the aggravation.

Ranking:

From Frustrating (1) to Pleasantly Challenging (10) – 7.5/10 (The only reason it did not receive a lower rating was the worst aspects of the gameplay could generally be avoided. However, isn’t that missing the point of of even developing these side missions.)

Graphics/Sound:

There isn’t much to say in terms of graphics. The only real difference noted was the use of different graphics in eye mechanics. Games are attempting to make the eyes of renders look less stagnant and dead, but the innovation is not yet a significant one.

Ezio’s aged face is rendered very well. The detail in the salt and pepper beard is very detailed and his face does appear more often without a hood (probably because of that detail).

Other than that, graphics have basically remained the same throughout every version of Assassin’s Creed. When the first game was released, the detail in the setting and characters was an incredible new feat and as a result, it is very difficult not to stagnate.

Not much of a difference between the old and the new.

That is not to say that the graphics appear out of date or insufficient. On the contrary, they still maintain pretty high standards. However, it would be nice for future games, if more time is spent of developing new graphical innovations.

Ranking:

From fake (1) to virtual reality (10) – 7/10 (The game looks good and the graphics run smoothly, but the lack of innovation is becoming tedious. Taking more time in between games to improve on the system they already have would give the appearance of the game a “wow factor”.)

I do enjoy how the music in all of the Assassin’s Creed games change in order to suit the culture of the city in which Ezio finds himself. The music heard in this version of the game had Turkish influences and had a variety of rhythmic hand drums.

The tense music that slowly creeps in when a thief attack is about to take place also puts the gamer on edge. At times it causes a bit of a jump on increase in heart rate, which makes for a more interactive experience.

The voice acting was of acceptable quality. Ezio is not as vibrant as in previous games, his age taking a toll, but his personality still comes through, especially when he speaks through the letters to his sister and to Sophia – the bookshop owner. Subject 16 often borders on insanity when he speaks, but there are moments where it may have been over action. Regardless, nothing stood out as being out of place or terribly acted, but nothing stood out as being overly spectacular either. The same applies for the music. It all basically sits at being good, but average.

Ranking:

From Backstreet Boys (1) to Beethoven (10) – 7/10 (What seems to be the theme throughout all aspects of this game is being comfortably average and the same applies to the sound.)

Overall:

I do not despise this game, but the initial excitement for it definitely died down a little as soon as I made my way into the game. In full honesty, the developers of Assassin’s Creed would have no problem creating a game that exceeds expectations if they would take more time between each one.  Instead of shooting out little episodes (as my boyfriend put it), maybe they should focus on taking the time to create a full length game that pushes the limits of innovation the same way the first and even second Assassin’s Creed did.

Assassin’s Creed Revelations (PS3) – 7/10

(Note: Assassin’s Creed 3, as it was presented at E3 2012, looks promising.)