Assassin's Creed, my thoughts

A quick note to link to my Gamepedia entry again. 


I have actually owned Assassin's Creed on three occasions and I don't even like the game. Allow me to explain...


I bought it first, cheaply, on eBay for the Xbox 360 and played it briefly. I was so bored inside the opening hour that I never played it again. I managed to trade it in for the same price I paid for it. Skip forward 18 months and I became a huge AC fan after playing, loving and unlocking the Platinum Trophy in ACII on the PS3. 


So after ACII came Brotherhood, which I also loved. So I decided that to complete the set I would need to own the first AC game. So I got it cheaply enough but could only find the Platinum version unfortunately. So that is the second time I have owned the game. And the third? It came as a bonus downloadable game with AC: Revelations last year. 


Still haven't put more than an hour into the original though.

Darksiders, some thoughts

I finished Darksiders way back in March 2011, the 28th to be precise according to my Trophy stats. I'm just writing up some thoughts now so that I can link my Gamepedia entry to them. This type of post will probably become common over the next while on the blog.


I remember buying this game along with a few others like GTA VI, Saints Row 2 and some others I can't remember in a blaze of bargain hunting glory. I started it that night but the game didn't immediately draw me in. I played the opening section, finished up for the night and never went back. I'd say it was easily six months later before I tried it again.


This second time though, I stuck with it. Once I got through the opening hour or so I really started to feel it. The general consensus about this game is that it is a Zelda clone but a Zelda game done with a modern feel. That might well be the case but seeing as though I've only ever finished one Zelda game to completion I can't really comment. Regardless, it is a very good game in it's own right. The combat feels satisfying with just enough button combos to elevate it above simple button mashing. I like the upgrade system to the weapons in the game and traversing the game world is great fun once you have gotten War's horse. 


I did like the story but found that I had to resort to Wikipedia to get a full understanding of what exactly had happened. Some of the story points feel a little rushed and as a result, unclear. That and some moments where the difficulty really spikes are the only things I would hold against this game. 


Darksiders II is out this summer and I do intend on picking it up. Maybe not day one though as THQ games tend to drop in price pretty quickly. 

A Crack in Time

A Crack in Time is the sequel to one of my favourite games on the PS3, Tools of Destruction. Strangely though it had taken me the best part of a year to finally go and buy it. I picked it up back in July for a knock down price of €20, I wish all game prices would fall like that after some time on the market.

Just like the first game I thoroughly enjoyed my time with this one. In my opinion it was an improvement in nearly every department over the the first. Graphically the game was even better, which is some accomplishment as the first is still one of the best looking games around. I enjoyed the fact that they opened up some of the levels, making for some rather epic battle sequences. The story was perhaps a little more straight forward in this one but I did enjoy the time travelling portions of the game. A big improvement in this game was the navigation between the planets. Piloting your spaceship around the map was more fun and the space combat was easier this time around.

One of the highlights of the game was the sections that you controlled Clank in the Great Clock. These sections contained some ingenious puzzles, some of which I had to resort to YouTube for solutions. The surest sign that I really enjoyed this game is to look at my b collection. I managed to stick with the game long enough to get the Platnium Trophy, which requires a minimum of two playthroughs. There aren't many games around these days that I will play twice.

I'm looking forward to the next game which has a four player co-op campaign. I just hope I can find some nice people to play it with.

Platinum in The Force Unleashed

Just a few moments ago I unlocked the latest Platinum Trophy on my PSN account in The Force Unleashed. It was the best of games but it did have some high points. Not the most satisfying Platinum though. The Trophy list only shows 64% complete because they include DLC Trophies in the list. Very annoying not to see the magic 100%.

Assassin's Creed 2 - Platinum Trophy Unlocked

Ezio

Until recently I wasn't that bothered collecting Trophies in PS3 games. On top of that I also wasn't that interested in playing Assassin's Creed 2 (AC2) either. I had played the first one but only for an hour before I was so bored by it that I stopped playing it, for good. However, I do like a good bargain and I picked up AC2 cheaply in the US back in May.

When I started playing it a few weeks ago, it immediately sucked me right in. I enjoyed the story, the missions, the environments and the fighting system. Everything about the game was polished and very, very enjoyable. As a bonus the Trophies keep unlocking without me aiming to get them specifically. By the time I beat the game I had 92% of the available Trophies. 

It was only the last two that I had to actually grind out but I wasn't going to leave the game that close to 100%. It didn't take long to get the remaining Trophies and that 100% looks so good on the Trophy list. Now that I've done that I feel like I want to go and earn more Trophies. I started a few games in the last day or so - Ghostbusters, Super Street Fighter IV and Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time. I think it will be the latter that I will stay with to get some Trophies. And enjoy the game.