I haven’t played Assassin’s Creed yet myself, but I have read the numerous mixed reviews around the Web. Many have lamented about it’s repetition or the twist in the plot being revealed right at the beginning, but I’ll still give it the benefit of the doubt.
Destructoid pointed out the part of the game that excites me the most–the free running and combat system.
Indeed, once I got the hang of countering and attacking, and once I found myself in fights with up to six or seven guards at one time, I was stringing together counters and offensive slashes to create a goddamned ballet of death and destruction. I’m not at all exaggerating when I say that Assassin’s Creed contains the single most visually rewarding melee combat system ever implemented. I found myself picking fights with guards just so I could experience the pleasure of countering their attacks and viciously finishing them off with well-timed sword blows. Granted, the sword fighting gets way too easy after you get the hang of it: as you might see in an old-school Kung Fu flick, Altair can be surrounded by ten or fifteen guys at a time, but they’ll only attack one at a time, making a fight against three opponents just as easy or hard as a fight against twenty. I would have really liked to see some more aggressive enemy AI in the sword fighting. Still, though, the fighting is enjoyable.
UbiSoft took it’s time in making this one–over three years–and even though it will be strange to have a movement system without having to time jumps–I still think it looks like one of the best games to come out this year. Again, disclaimer: I haven’t played it yet, so my honest opinion will have to be held back until I check it out.
I am actually a fan of the show ‘Life’ on NBC. It follows the cases of a detective who is vindicated for the killing of his business partner after serving 10 years in prison with new evidence. He now has his old job as a police detective back along with a hefty settlement to live off of and comes closer each week to solving the mystery of who really killed his business partner.
I have to say it looks more impressive than my former Windows Mobile 5 device and smoother than the iPhone program transitions that I have seen on units that my friends own. Of course, this demo unit is probably a very high end piece of electronics, but still, it makes it look promising to hold out for this open source OS to hit mobile and make it all a little cleaner and “not evil” as is the Google way.
Considering the device is open source, the flexibility is bound to be endless, and I can’t wait to see what it will offer in order to take down the iPhone dominance since the iPhone hasn’t really opened up to third-party apps just yet. Plus, the unit they demo plays Quake–nothing revolutionary to the smartphone market but a promising touch that maybe Google will pay some attention to making handheld gaming a more stable industry with Android.
Is it just me, or does that visual history in the Web browser remind you a lot of the iPhone/iTunes album view?
Amazon runs a vote to see which deal it’s customers would prefer for Black Friday, and an incredible deal on Wiis is among the possible options right now. If the deal is voted as the best, you will be able to snag a Wii for just $79 on Black Friday!
1,000 Nintendo Wii Game Systems (see prices on Customers Vote page)
500 Panasonic 7.5MP Digital SLR Cameras, $499 (*normally $1,149.95)
1,000 Razor E100 Electric Scooters for $29 (*normally $89.99)
500 TiVo HD Digital Video Recorders, $89 (*normally $253.48)
The company is gearing up to make a serious run at buying wireless spectrum, a chunk of the airwaves that can be used to provide mobile phone and Internet services, in a Federal Communications Commission auction in January. Google is prepared to bid on its own without any partners, say people familiar with the matter. It is working out a plan to finance its bid, which could run $4.6 billion or higher, that would rely on its own cash and possibly some borrowed money.
Google has already been experimenting with creating their own mobile carrier service at their headquarters and could jump out big with a nice network if they are successful in this move.
With the Android initiative on the way, Google could be making a move to easily steal customers from other carriers by making it cost-effective and simply to swap service plans over to Google without even having to change your phone or software.
I would welcome a Google phone simply because they could open up a more competitive environment for the smartphone market by integrating many of their apps and services cleanly into a mobile interface.
Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 looks even wilder and crazier than the first one. The first Rayman was one of my favorite “party” games for the Wii, so this one looks to be even more ridiculus–and, therefore, better.
I stumbled across this post by Mark Fletcher about his passion for the IBM keyboard of old. Although I can’t find the same obsession myself, I am very particular about keyboards that I use. Right now, I have a Logitech MX 5000 Bluetooth with the laser mouse. It was nice when I got it, but lately, I have found myself lusting after something like the diNovo Edge with those soft laptop-like keys. I think something like that might be more nice to my hands–I tend to type very hard and fast. I’m a go-getter like that. My Logitech desktop hasn’t been working the greatest with Vista as of late, but maybe I can learn to love it again. My passion for laptop-like keyboards is probably just because I was on my laptop for the last 2 weeks waiting for some bad RAM to be replaced on the ol’ desktop.
Unfortunately, I can’t possibly justify in my head buying such a keyboard for that much.
It makes me think though. I have the same obsession with certain kinds of pens. I like the heavy liquid ink flow types–keep your ballpoints away. I wonder if it is all part of the same trend.
Google has already been experimenting with creating their own mobile carrier service at their headquarters and could jump out big with a nice network if they are successful in this move.