First thing’s first, I put the disc in! Now I’m told I need to update the PS3 firmware, fair enough as I haven’t switched the thing on for christ knows how long! Whilst this is updating I get distracted only to look back at the PS3 45 minutes later and it’s only on 90%! What the hell! The 360 only take 5 minutes at the absolute most for an update. Once the PS3 update finally finishes, it then tells me it needs to update the game, which bare in mind is only a few weeks old, but it proceeds to download over 100MB worth of updates on the game too Good start this is!

Another hour later, I finally get to the game but I’m so bored of waiting by now I don’t have high hopes for it, even though many other reviews rated it quite well. Right, well on to the review of the actual game rather than the system now. We start off learning a few of the controls whilst hanging off a cliff in a wrecked train carriage, awesome start to the action. Following the instructions on screen, I immediately begin to recognise the controls from the first game (which I only actually played for about 2 hours, never got into it). Though at the same time, the controls were already frustrating me. I think this is because I played Assassin’s Creed II for so long and the controller layout for that was just perfect, but I was really struggling with this one.

Gameplay

So I’ve just started the game, I’m climbing up the outside of a train carriage vertically whilst it is hanging off of a cliff, piece of cake, right? Wrong! Right from the very start this game was aggravating me with it’s ridiculous camera angles. Let me set the scene for you. You are trying to go up the train, near the edge of a cliff, whilst it moves about in the wind slightly and you have debris falling down hitting the train. Where would you expect the camera, sideways on, perhaps a bit lower than your character to see where you are going? Apparently not, the camera here is looking straight down and is situated between the cliff edge and the train, I can’t see a thing! I finally get to the top after dying a few times and make it into the next carriage, which is on the top of the cliff but still round the right way. I start to walk through and the camera then pans to the door which I’m heading for at the far end, I stop expecting a cut scene or someone to come wandering in wanting to kill me. No. The train begins to slide and before I know it I’m dead again as the entire train goes tumbling off the edge. Grrrrr.

I’ve now progressed to chapter 20, which I’ve been told is the last one and the stupid camera angles are still giving me problems and I still have not got used to the controls to the point where I try and take the character out of covering behind a wall, he’ll run off, jump, do a roll then fall off a ledge, what the hell?! Seriously, this game has stressed me out so much I have to complete it just to get it out of the way! If you’ve ever played Uncharted 1, then you will know that it involves some form of free-running and climbing ancient monuments, a cross between Assassin’s Creed and Tomb Raider I suppose, just a very poor one. Let’s compare an example, in Assassin’s Creed you can run to the edge of a building, jump and land it, grab for something or simply fall to your death. With Uncharted 2 you can’t jump off certain ledges, it just doesn’t work, sometimes the character stumbles around and is then fine, sometimes he wall off but spin around and catch himself on the ledge, but also you can fall off and just die, there is no consistency at all.

Graphics

Now that the rant is over, let’s get some positive points about this game. The graphics are spot on, very nice visuals (and I hate to say this) but it looks better than most games on the 360. I don’t know if it’s down to the developers of the game or the console, but I have noticed that the PS3 handles 1080p TVs a lot nicer than the XBOX does. Everything on the screen looks good, the mountains in the distance, the flaming cars you are hiding behind and even the guns glowing on the floor indicating for you to pick them up. Even the speech lip sync is pretty much spot on with only a few blunders. Some of the best graphical examples are in the cut scenes where the story really takes form.

This video shows some of the great visuals, one thing in particular I noticed is the facial expressions on the main characters. The main character tries to be funny on quite a number of occasions (I say tries as it isn’t really funny, but it makes you laugh that they are trying) but the good point is the realism of the facial expressions, they look almost perfect. That look of “I’m soooo funny, but no one is laughing” with the faint sign of a smile but also sheer embarrassment. There are plenty more of the cutscenes on YouTube if you just search for “Uncharted 2 cutscenes”, hell you can even watch the entire game on there and save yourself some money rather than buying it!

Sound

I don’t really have much to say about the sound to be honest. It’s good, you can really feel the punch of the explosions through the subwoofer, but that’s becoming standard with most games now. As well as the sound of bullets whooshing past your ears and hitting the wall behind you. The speech for all the characters is really good and clear, this is actually one of the only games that I didn’t have to put the subtitles on to hear them properly. I have also noticed that the speech of the characters changes depending on the environment you’re in. I’ve just been in a massive ice cavern type thing and I noticed the occasional shiver mid-speech as well as a lot of echoing, you could really feel the environment around the character.

Conclusion

Personally, this game has stressed me out so much that I never want to go near it again (even Call of Duty doesn’t annoy me this much ) but the story and action of the game is so good, it’s a real let down really. This game would make a brilliant movie and/or short tv series, but as a game I don’t think it cuts it, not for me anyway. If the controls were as good and as smooth as they were in Assassin’s Creed II then this could easily beat that for entertainment value, but it’s just not a good game if it can’t be played properly. You can even see in the second video I posted that the player is struggling to perform the moves correctly and it looks really odd.

So overall, a major major letdown of a game, good story and great action, but if it can’t be played then it’s a bit of a useless game! I’d rate it 6/10.

Truth is Written in Blood…

“I will seek vengeance upon those who have betrayed my family, and uncover a conspiracy bigger than I could have imagined. I am Ezio Auditore da Firenze. I am an Assassin.”

The highly anticipated follow-up to Assassin’s Creed features a new hero, Ezio Auditore da Firenze, a young Italian noble, and a new era, the Renaissance. Assassin’s Creed II retains the core gameplay experience that made the first opus a resounding success and features new experiences that will surprise and challenge players. Assassin’s Creed II is an epic story of family, vengeance and conspiracy set in the pristine, yet brutal, backdrop of a Renaissance Italy. Ezio befriends Leonardo da Vinci, takes on Florence’s most powerful families and ventures throughout the canals of Venice where he learns to become a master assassin.

Gameplay

Obviously being a sequel to Assassin’s Creed, we’d expect the gameplay to be fairly similar which is a great thing in this case. Although there were some slight hiccups with the way that the original game played, overall it was brilliant and unique. There are now many more fighting maneuvers to learn and master as you are often outnumbered, I’ve already experienced 8 guards to fight by myself whilst stuck at the end of an alley (which did look bloody awesome, similar to a scene from a movie).


There have been occasions where the game’s fluidity has sometimes dropped, but it hasn’t happened often enough for me to make a big fuss out of it. The game is just as fast paced and full of action as it’s predecessor which many people rated highly. Due to the speed of this game, it is really difficult to stop playing and put it down. Each time you complete a mission another is available for you immediately, and you end up taking the longest route you can to capture some more of those stunning graphics.

Graphics

We can see right from the off that there have been some graphical improvements since the first game, most noticeably to me (sad I know) as that the Ubisoft logo seems to be more defined, the menus are also more crisp and a lot sharper when seeing them on a 1080p resolution TV. Another observation after playing the game for an hour or so, the eyes on each character are fantastically detailed to the point where they glisten in the sun light.




Although as with all games there are also some graphical glitches such as some of the characters eyes wondering all over the place, skin overlapping clothing and lip sync was slightly out occasionally too. I have only noticed this happen a few times but what games doesn’t this happen in? The textures all load instantaneously rather than loading a single layer every two seconds like in Modern Warfare 2 (which to be fair you don’t really notice, but I do ).

Sound

The sound has vastly improved since the first Assassin’s Creed, though I have been having some problems where some of the dialogue only comes through the subwoofer so I couldn’t understand what was going on until I put some volume on my TV as well as the sound system. Other than the small fault possibly with my sound system, the sound is absolutely spot on. As you move the camera around whilst running through the Italian cities you hear different things coming from every angle. On one side you have guards whispering about you saying that they’ve seen your cape before, swing the view around and you will hear a group of young ladies offering a certain service. This is especially noticeable when standing on one of the Eagle spots and the camera is constantly rotating, allowing you to hear birds in mid-flight, water falls and occasionally music coming from the bustling streets below.

Overall Quality

As you may have guessed, I think very highly of both games in the Assassin’s Creed series thus far, the second game being the better of the two. At the time of writing this review I have only played through for around 2 hours or so and I’m already extremely impressed. From the wide range of screen shots and videos I’ve seen, I have a lot more game time on my hands which seems to be becoming a rarity these days (it took me less than 3hrs to complete the Modern Warfare 2 campaign). I will continue to play and amend this review if it needs it, but I don’t think it’s going to be anything other than awesome. I’d recommend Assassin’s Creed II to people who liked Assassin’s Creed, Wet and Mirror’s Edge.

Overall Rating: 9/10

Graphics

Visually, the game is stunning, not quite what the pre-release “screenshots” showed but it is still pretty good. The best thing is the map. When you bring the map up, the camera pans to the top of your car and zooms all the way out to view the whole city, then you can do the usual zooming in and out, moving around, then when you hit B, the camera moves towards your car whilst zooming in and getting behind the car rather than on top of it, really cool! All the mods on the cars seem to work quite well, unlike in previous versions of both Midnight Club and Need For Speed where some parts didn’t fit certain cars properly or parts of the kit just disappeared behind others.

Audio

Yet another game with rap brap brap music, turned it off straight away and started streaming my own music from my iMac. The sounds from the cars are quite good, and certainly change between mods. Upgrading the engine and supercharging it definately makes a lot nicer sound than a stock one, including the simply awesome sound of the air being rammed through the engine The sounds from the crashes go a bit strange when topping 140mp/h and you are going so fast you just bounce off the lamp posts rather than stopping dead like usual.

Gameplay

Very difficult to get used to, but there hasn’t been any decent racing games out for a while so i’m very used to playing FIFA 09 at the moment, which is why i suppose it was difficult to get used to. Once you get the feel of the way the cars drive, it gets pretty easy, don’t overspend on visuals and upgrade the engine, suspension and brakes as much as you can and you pretty much can’t lose, but its fun nonetheless. I haven’t played online properly yet, but i have done a “quick cruise” with my brother which was quite fun, something i hear the new Need For Speed is also bringing.

Overall

The game is pretty good, if you like your racing/modding games i’d advise to buy it. The only thing that lets it down is the crap music but its pretty easy to overcome that problem with your own, or just turn it off completely and listen to the engines To finish off, here are pics of the two cars i have thus far

Fifa 09

Well, where do I start? First thing I did was start an exhibition match, going for the London derby of Arsenal vs. Tottenham. After playing the first half, the score was still 0-0 but I was amazed at how much EA have done on this game in comparison with the rather poor Fifa 08. Everything now is so much more realistic, though at times it makes it incredibly difficult and frustrating as we are all used to the years and years of Fifa games being pants, loaded with glitches.

Appearance/graphics

As you can see from this screenshot, the graphics look a lot better than previous games, though as with the Fifa series, improving the looks of the game each time isn’t anything special. One thing though that I have just noticed, the modelling of the players in the lower league (specifically referring to Luton Town in Coca Cola League Two here) is great, they actually look like the players now! The menus and UI (User Interface) are very easy to use as with pretty much every game these days, very simliar to Fifa 08 as well.

Audio

Black Kids – I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You (The Twelves Remix)
Caesar Palace – 1ne
Chromeo – Bonafied Lovin’ (Yuksek Remix)
Cansei de Ser Sexy – Jager Yoga
Curumin – Margrela
Cut Copy – Lights and Music
Damian Marley – Something For You (Loaf Of Bread)
Datarock – True Stories
DJ Bitman – Me Gustan
Duffy – Mercy
Foals – Olympic Airways
Gonzales – Working Together (Boys Noize Remix)
Hot Chip – Ready For The Floor (Soulwax Remix)
Jakobinarina – I’m A Villain
Junkie XL – Mad Pursuit
Jupiter One – Platform Moon
Kasabian – Fast Fuse
Ladytron – Runaway
Lykke Li – I’m Good I’m Gone
Macaco – Movin’
MGMT – Kids (MGMT Song)
My Federation – What Gods Are These
Najwajean – Drive Me
Plastilina Mosh – Let U Know
Radiopilot – Fahrrad
Reverend and the Makers – Open Your Window
Sam Sparro – Black And Gold
Señor Flavio – Lo Mejor Del Mundo
Soprano – Victory
The Airborne Toxic Event – Gasoline
The Bloody Beetroots – Butter
The Fratellis – Tell Me A Lie
The Heavy – That Kind Of Man
The Kissaway Trail – 61
The Kooks – Always Where I Need to Be
The Pinker Tones – The Whistling Song
The Script – The End Where I Begin
The Ting Tings – Keep Your Head
The Veronicas – Untouched
The Whip – Muzzle #1
Tom Jones – Feels Like Music (Junkie XL Remix)
Ungdomskulen – Modern Drummer

This list was extracted from the FIFA Soccer Blog

Unfortunately, as with all Fifa games, only a few of the tracks are good to listen to and they only play whilst paused and navigating the menus. So once again I am left to stream my own music from my iMac into the game and turn the commentary off. As for the commentary itself, I got bored/annoyed with it in one match so I guess that it was a lower priority of the massive list EA had to improve on Fifa 08.

Gameplay

The physics of this game are superb, if I remember correctly, each player has a number of stats for things such as balance, strength, sprint speed, jog speed, skill, etc. which then come into play for almost every action on the pitch. For example, you have a big beefy defender who is really tall but can’t run very fast, if you send a small and speedy striker (such as Theo Walcott) running straight into the defender, Walcott will go flying! This makes sliding tackles so much fun xD.

Video by Galatasaray4Sampiyon

Conclusion

Great looking game, most of the time it plays well too but some areas let it down such as the commentary. The gameplay is like no other football game that I have played before and a vast improvement upon previous Fifa titles. I’d like to buy the game, but I wouldn’t pay full price for it (luckily my brother and my dad did though so I won’t have to!).