What I Played Today: December 22

Kinect Sports, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood

I got some gift cards, so it was finally time to buy some games that I don’t have yet and keep thinking about. Also, the only other good game on the Kinect. Kinect Sports, which is…okay, I guess. It goes a long way to try to simulate these sports imperfectly. While the track and field is pretty much what you think it would be, the soccer game doesn’t quite work, and the beach volleyball game makes no sense in terms of what you’re doing versus what actually happens on the screen. The soccer game is a good workout though, and actually requires some strategy. Which beats out table tennis, in which you can’t seem to go wrong as long as you swing your arms. But it’s alright enough, and there appear to be a lot of minigames, which I’ll have to try. It’s also help keep my sisters entertained when they show up next week.

Also played some Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, which is so good, you guys. I played through five games on the multiplayer (after the game froze up for no good reason), and I really like it. You play an assassin who is given a human target in a world populated by NPCs. You know what they look like and you know generally where they are, but since there are at least 30 other versions of that character wandering around, you gotta be careful. You’re also being stalked by up to four people, depending on how well you’re doing, so you got to watch your back and try to act as inhuman as possible.

So great times, really enjoying it, here are some highlights. I had a really good game that I won definitively, in which I was able to quickly get my kills while easily evading my pursuers. At one point, I was on the docks by a pile of hay, and there were literally four other players around me, but also about 20 NPCs crowding together. I leapt forward, stabbed my victim, and then ducked into the pile of hay. I see two flags come up telling me that two of my pursuers killed a civilian, and then after hitting my disguise and jumping out of the hay, a third flag stating that my last pursuer also killed a civilian, and I was on easy street. I was so smooth in that game, so smooth. Also was killed in a completely awesome way, as I was just minding my own, stalking a dude, when a guy JUMPS OUT OF THE BUSHES and takes me out for a cool 800 points. (Most kills are worth 100 to 400 points, depending on sneaky you were.) I was completely floored, and I want to try to do it myself it was so awesome.