Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood
Put in a little more time with Assassin’s Creed multiplayer. I’m amazed how much Manhunt has grown on me, so much so that I don’t hate it. I enjoy having to hide from multiple people at once, and using counters to take out people who think they are cleverer than they actually are. (Here’s the thing, guys, if I see a group of 6 you’s walking around, I have maybe three different things I can do to flush you out. Try a different trick.) I still can’t win a game to save my life, but at this point I don’t need to, so I’m not even trying, just having fun. And really, isn’t that what games are all about? (Begins waxes poetical for what feels like eight years.)
Showing posts with label Assassin's Creed Brotherhood. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Assassin's Creed Brotherhood. Show all posts
What I Played Today: April 6
BattleCON, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood
Tried BattleCON again, and I think I made a good decision, although I cannot win this thing. In this one, I was Mr. Elemental or whatever his name is, and I got my pants kicked by Cadenza, who is slow but hits really hard, a fact that was impressed upon me when I did a pittance of damage and he came back and hit me for as much damage as I did plus 4 more. It hurt, and I lost. BUT, I want to play the real thing. This is neat.
Also finished up the DLC for Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. Got into a huge fistfight with an idiot who could not keep his mouth shut, stole some paintings, found Leonardo and a secret temple that somehow had coordinates in it rather than something that was actually useful to the people who found it. Makes sense, but a nice interesting clue to what the next game will be about, one that may be neat. We will see…
Also started working on achievements, did a lot of the fun ones, like beating up the harlequins and killing a guy with a broom. I’ve lost all sense of danger, as I spent a good twenty minutes just flatout running around the city and pissing off every guard I could see, because I needed to have a certain notoriety in order to complete one of the objectives. They really aren’t that tough when you got the best armour and an awesome mace.
Tried BattleCON again, and I think I made a good decision, although I cannot win this thing. In this one, I was Mr. Elemental or whatever his name is, and I got my pants kicked by Cadenza, who is slow but hits really hard, a fact that was impressed upon me when I did a pittance of damage and he came back and hit me for as much damage as I did plus 4 more. It hurt, and I lost. BUT, I want to play the real thing. This is neat.
Also finished up the DLC for Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. Got into a huge fistfight with an idiot who could not keep his mouth shut, stole some paintings, found Leonardo and a secret temple that somehow had coordinates in it rather than something that was actually useful to the people who found it. Makes sense, but a nice interesting clue to what the next game will be about, one that may be neat. We will see…
Also started working on achievements, did a lot of the fun ones, like beating up the harlequins and killing a guy with a broom. I’ve lost all sense of danger, as I spent a good twenty minutes just flatout running around the city and pissing off every guard I could see, because I needed to have a certain notoriety in order to complete one of the objectives. They really aren’t that tough when you got the best armour and an awesome mace.
What I Played Today: April 1
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood
HOLY CRAP I passed Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood today. That is quite an ending, and it really makes me excited for the next game. While I still don’t want to run around as Desmond, I’d be okay with it if it comes to that, because man oh man do I want to find out what happens next. This is the first time that the events of Assassin’s Creed actually seem to matter to the people in the outer story, because you spend some much time jumping around as Altaire or Ezio that these morons on the surfaces are just kinda there, you almost forget exactly why they are doing what they’re doing. But now, oh man, right now? Something is happening.
I also totally called the last chapter, which takes place on top of a castle in France. You throw that jerk Cesare off of it. It’s not spoiling anything if it’s history. There was this one part before that was spoiled for me in a one-star review, and frankly I think he overreacted. The missions in question were definitely tedious, but they did not completely negate every other thing that happened up to that point. Plus, they took only about 15 minutes tops. Sure, it felt rushed, but I think they ran out of time and were focusing on other stuff, and they needed to make it perfectly clear that the Borgia were definitely out of Rome, which they achieved. So yeah, not exactly super pleasant dénouement, but nothing to completely trash the game over.
Oh, and there was this one stupid race at the Coliseum, in which you have to bustle up from the bottom to the top and leap off into a haybale. Interesting race, except for the complete weirdness that it starts you standing at the top of the Coliseum already, and you need to get down to the bottom and back up again. Why would I be standing up there? And why do I need to spend the 30 to 45 seconds to safely get down to the ground floor? The guy who gave me the mission is standing on the ground near the starting gate. Start me next to him! Odd.
HOLY CRAP I passed Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood today. That is quite an ending, and it really makes me excited for the next game. While I still don’t want to run around as Desmond, I’d be okay with it if it comes to that, because man oh man do I want to find out what happens next. This is the first time that the events of Assassin’s Creed actually seem to matter to the people in the outer story, because you spend some much time jumping around as Altaire or Ezio that these morons on the surfaces are just kinda there, you almost forget exactly why they are doing what they’re doing. But now, oh man, right now? Something is happening.
I also totally called the last chapter, which takes place on top of a castle in France. You throw that jerk Cesare off of it. It’s not spoiling anything if it’s history. There was this one part before that was spoiled for me in a one-star review, and frankly I think he overreacted. The missions in question were definitely tedious, but they did not completely negate every other thing that happened up to that point. Plus, they took only about 15 minutes tops. Sure, it felt rushed, but I think they ran out of time and were focusing on other stuff, and they needed to make it perfectly clear that the Borgia were definitely out of Rome, which they achieved. So yeah, not exactly super pleasant dénouement, but nothing to completely trash the game over.
Oh, and there was this one stupid race at the Coliseum, in which you have to bustle up from the bottom to the top and leap off into a haybale. Interesting race, except for the complete weirdness that it starts you standing at the top of the Coliseum already, and you need to get down to the bottom and back up again. Why would I be standing up there? And why do I need to spend the 30 to 45 seconds to safely get down to the ground floor? The guy who gave me the mission is standing on the ground near the starting gate. Start me next to him! Odd.
What I Played Today: March 31
Puzzle Strike, Familgia, Castlevania: Harmony of Despair, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood
A little of column A and column B today, with some two-player tabletopping. I won a couple of games of Puzzle Strike, mainly by aggressively pursuing combines and strikes. There are some chips that do some awesome stuff, like Mix-Master, which breaks up your opponent’s gems and gives you a combine, and Iron Defense, which guarantees you have a strike when you need it. Again the phantom of not being able to counter being hit arose, which I’m not sure I like. There’s just not enough time in the game.
Gave Familgia another spin, and the game holds water in its simplicity, if its aesthetic is pretty terrible. My opponent was going out of his way to grief me, picking up the exact guys I wanted by nefarious means, so I was blocked a lot, but I used the pitchhitters and a couple of well-placed punches to snag the level 4 boss of two of the gangs, which helped me win in the end.
Then I played some video games. I hadn’t played Castlevania: Harmony of Despair since I’d purchased a larger TV, so I turned it on to see if it was actually fun now that it was visible. It was…okay. I easily made it to the boss of the first level with only a few jumping troubles, only to have him completely swamp me. I just don’t understand why that jerk has so many hit points, considering everything else I fight goes down in a couple of hits. It just feels unbalanced, and there’s a lot to the game that’s undecipherable.
Then I lost a lot of time in Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. Not that I want it back, but it just sucked me right in. I tried out a couple of missions of the new DLC, and it’s good, if a bit wonky in some of the story elements. For example, Mona Lisa finally makes her appearance, and it’s just as obnoxious as you’d imagine. Then I have to storm this villa, which is staffed by the laziest, deafest guards in the worlds. There are at least half a dozen times when Ezio should have been spotted but wasn’t. At one point you walk into a room only to watch a guard leaving the room and apparently not bothering to check again. There is a guard lounging on a fountain that you vault off of! And this after the guards were specifically told to double security by some crazy lady. What’s worse? Once you get inside, you chat up the enemy and convince her to give you a painting in exchange for sex (actual plot point) and she calls the guards into the room and tells them to leave the painting outside uncovered by the side of the road. They do not even blink and acknowledge that Ezio is standing right there. Then, two minutes later, you decide that you don’t really want to put your thing in that diseased mess and tie the lady up and bail, which gets all the guards’ attention, including the exact same guards who were told to move the painting. Fission mailed, right? No, because apparently the painting is already outside waiting for you. It took them literally seconds to move the painting, and it never occurs to Lady Death to not back out of her end of the bargain. So hey, free painting.
I also went through an entire set of missions for a sequence somehow, in which La Volpe spends the entire time being a bit of a dick. You want to save some actor from being killed so you can soak him for a key to the palace, but the Fox is far too concerned that Machiavelli may be a traitor, and refuses to help you because you’re willing to trust him. A whole bunch happens, mostly involving riding horses past guys holding boxes, and you eventually crash a passion play to stop an assassination attempt. Then, as luck would happen, you see the real traitor standing on the side of the road, just chilling, and you hunt him down and kill him. With the knowledge of the real traitor in your hand, you have 80 seconds to stop La Volpe from killing Machiavelli, something that he had mentioned he was going to do. I just didn’t think that he would be doing that RIGHT NOW, a good couple of hours after saying he would. This came out of pretty much nowhere. But everything is good, Ezio becomes the official leader of the Assassins, and now it’s time to do that thing we completely failed to do earlier in the game.
A little of column A and column B today, with some two-player tabletopping. I won a couple of games of Puzzle Strike, mainly by aggressively pursuing combines and strikes. There are some chips that do some awesome stuff, like Mix-Master, which breaks up your opponent’s gems and gives you a combine, and Iron Defense, which guarantees you have a strike when you need it. Again the phantom of not being able to counter being hit arose, which I’m not sure I like. There’s just not enough time in the game.
Gave Familgia another spin, and the game holds water in its simplicity, if its aesthetic is pretty terrible. My opponent was going out of his way to grief me, picking up the exact guys I wanted by nefarious means, so I was blocked a lot, but I used the pitchhitters and a couple of well-placed punches to snag the level 4 boss of two of the gangs, which helped me win in the end.
Then I played some video games. I hadn’t played Castlevania: Harmony of Despair since I’d purchased a larger TV, so I turned it on to see if it was actually fun now that it was visible. It was…okay. I easily made it to the boss of the first level with only a few jumping troubles, only to have him completely swamp me. I just don’t understand why that jerk has so many hit points, considering everything else I fight goes down in a couple of hits. It just feels unbalanced, and there’s a lot to the game that’s undecipherable.
Then I lost a lot of time in Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. Not that I want it back, but it just sucked me right in. I tried out a couple of missions of the new DLC, and it’s good, if a bit wonky in some of the story elements. For example, Mona Lisa finally makes her appearance, and it’s just as obnoxious as you’d imagine. Then I have to storm this villa, which is staffed by the laziest, deafest guards in the worlds. There are at least half a dozen times when Ezio should have been spotted but wasn’t. At one point you walk into a room only to watch a guard leaving the room and apparently not bothering to check again. There is a guard lounging on a fountain that you vault off of! And this after the guards were specifically told to double security by some crazy lady. What’s worse? Once you get inside, you chat up the enemy and convince her to give you a painting in exchange for sex (actual plot point) and she calls the guards into the room and tells them to leave the painting outside uncovered by the side of the road. They do not even blink and acknowledge that Ezio is standing right there. Then, two minutes later, you decide that you don’t really want to put your thing in that diseased mess and tie the lady up and bail, which gets all the guards’ attention, including the exact same guards who were told to move the painting. Fission mailed, right? No, because apparently the painting is already outside waiting for you. It took them literally seconds to move the painting, and it never occurs to Lady Death to not back out of her end of the bargain. So hey, free painting.
I also went through an entire set of missions for a sequence somehow, in which La Volpe spends the entire time being a bit of a dick. You want to save some actor from being killed so you can soak him for a key to the palace, but the Fox is far too concerned that Machiavelli may be a traitor, and refuses to help you because you’re willing to trust him. A whole bunch happens, mostly involving riding horses past guys holding boxes, and you eventually crash a passion play to stop an assassination attempt. Then, as luck would happen, you see the real traitor standing on the side of the road, just chilling, and you hunt him down and kill him. With the knowledge of the real traitor in your hand, you have 80 seconds to stop La Volpe from killing Machiavelli, something that he had mentioned he was going to do. I just didn’t think that he would be doing that RIGHT NOW, a good couple of hours after saying he would. This came out of pretty much nowhere. But everything is good, Ezio becomes the official leader of the Assassins, and now it’s time to do that thing we completely failed to do earlier in the game.
What I Played Today: March 27
Dominion, You Don’t Know Jack, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, Dungeon Raid
A couple of games of Dominion, with some old favorites hitting play again, specifically Chapel. It has been forever since I’ve gotten a chance to play with the cheapest card in the game. It lets you trash up to 4 cards from your hand. A card that confuses newbies, but for cheap, super-effective players like me, a delight. I used that to pump up a deck that was mostly gold and provinces, and some cheap tactics to force my opponent to tack half a dozen curses. It must have been pretty annoying.
I will not be discussing my crushing defeat in You Don’t Know Jack, but rather let you know that my opponent has a disease that prevents him from losing a game of YDKJ. Luckily, it’s not contagious.
Stabbing guys in the Bro-hood; I actually realize I enjoy Manhunt a lot more, considering the alternatives. One trick that I’m having a lot of fun with is using morph to turn a static crowd of dumbies into versions of me, and then jump into a nearby bush. The signal isn’t accurate enough to let them know I’m not one of the duplicates, so I’m almost guaranteed a lure. There is a counter to it, Templar Vision, but that can counter all kinds of shenanigans. I think I’m going to start Morph a walking group, and then walking away, forcing a pursuer to waste time following a group of nobodies, or blowing their Templar Vision. Lot of opportunities for mind games.
I also have been tricked into downloading Dungeon Raid, a puzzle RPG that doesn’t shamelessly comp from Puzzle Quest. Instead of just matching three, you draw a line through like symbols and get a bonus; either refilling your hit points, getting gold, repairing armor, or killing dudes. The dudes appear on the grid itself, and you have to draw lines through swords to kill them. It’s a slow burn, as you slowly level up, get more skills, and buy more gear. You also eventually unlock new classes. It’s interesting how slowly it builds, and absurd how long the game can go on. I hit a streak on a warrior character, strong enough that I couldn’t die on purpose in normal mode, but with no endgame, I just kept getting more powerful without opposition.
A couple of games of Dominion, with some old favorites hitting play again, specifically Chapel. It has been forever since I’ve gotten a chance to play with the cheapest card in the game. It lets you trash up to 4 cards from your hand. A card that confuses newbies, but for cheap, super-effective players like me, a delight. I used that to pump up a deck that was mostly gold and provinces, and some cheap tactics to force my opponent to tack half a dozen curses. It must have been pretty annoying.
I will not be discussing my crushing defeat in You Don’t Know Jack, but rather let you know that my opponent has a disease that prevents him from losing a game of YDKJ. Luckily, it’s not contagious.
Stabbing guys in the Bro-hood; I actually realize I enjoy Manhunt a lot more, considering the alternatives. One trick that I’m having a lot of fun with is using morph to turn a static crowd of dumbies into versions of me, and then jump into a nearby bush. The signal isn’t accurate enough to let them know I’m not one of the duplicates, so I’m almost guaranteed a lure. There is a counter to it, Templar Vision, but that can counter all kinds of shenanigans. I think I’m going to start Morph a walking group, and then walking away, forcing a pursuer to waste time following a group of nobodies, or blowing their Templar Vision. Lot of opportunities for mind games.
I also have been tricked into downloading Dungeon Raid, a puzzle RPG that doesn’t shamelessly comp from Puzzle Quest. Instead of just matching three, you draw a line through like symbols and get a bonus; either refilling your hit points, getting gold, repairing armor, or killing dudes. The dudes appear on the grid itself, and you have to draw lines through swords to kill them. It’s a slow burn, as you slowly level up, get more skills, and buy more gear. You also eventually unlock new classes. It’s interesting how slowly it builds, and absurd how long the game can go on. I hit a streak on a warrior character, strong enough that I couldn’t die on purpose in normal mode, but with no endgame, I just kept getting more powerful without opposition.
What I Played Today: March 25
Nightfall, 51st State, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood
I cannot win that one game about vampires. The dynamic give and take of the game is still interesting, although you really do need to pay a lot of attention to what is going on. I got really excited to play all five cards in my hand in one chain, but only when I started to resolve it did I realize that I didn’t want to do that, as I had to target my own minions with direct damage attacks. So, after a couple of dumb moves, I lose, unable to keep up. We also keep tossing Vulko out of the running. He’s just such a priority, so we often decide that nobody gets to play him.
Stumbling through a game of 51st State, I think I finally understand how to play. You get some resources each turn, you spend them to bring cards into play, and you keep having to look up in the book to see exactly what each symbol means. I don’t understand why they thought they needed to make a confusing series of icons on every card. But it eventually came together. There are a lot of cards that aren’t very useful, and because the factions have one type of action they do well and the others they do poorly, it’s tough to get moving. It is ridiculously easy to score victory points though, so it keeps the game short enough.
I’m officially no longer any good at Assassin’s Creed multiplayer. I just don’t have my chops around the peers that I’m getting teamed up against. I’m officially against Assassinate now, because it’s a very constrictive form of gameplay. You make a single mistake, accidentally hold down the right trigger, and you are instantly marked for death, which you can’t really counter. The worst part is the accepted strategy now seems to be everyone acting obvious, and whenever they are marked, running away from crowds as quickly as possible. Your opponent will either give chase, marking them and making it easy to stunlock and counterkill them, or they will give up, keeping you safe. It’s not how I want to play, and I don’t think it’s the intention. At least in Wanted if you act like an idiot, there are plenty of counters, from low point scoring to multiple hunters on podium players. Here, there is no disadvantage to acting like an idiot if you have your smoke bomb prepped, because nobody can sneak up on you without you knowing about it. So I won’t be playing Assassinate again if I can help it, and it’s impossible to get a game of Escort up, which is too bad, I want to try it.
I cannot win that one game about vampires. The dynamic give and take of the game is still interesting, although you really do need to pay a lot of attention to what is going on. I got really excited to play all five cards in my hand in one chain, but only when I started to resolve it did I realize that I didn’t want to do that, as I had to target my own minions with direct damage attacks. So, after a couple of dumb moves, I lose, unable to keep up. We also keep tossing Vulko out of the running. He’s just such a priority, so we often decide that nobody gets to play him.
Stumbling through a game of 51st State, I think I finally understand how to play. You get some resources each turn, you spend them to bring cards into play, and you keep having to look up in the book to see exactly what each symbol means. I don’t understand why they thought they needed to make a confusing series of icons on every card. But it eventually came together. There are a lot of cards that aren’t very useful, and because the factions have one type of action they do well and the others they do poorly, it’s tough to get moving. It is ridiculously easy to score victory points though, so it keeps the game short enough.
I’m officially no longer any good at Assassin’s Creed multiplayer. I just don’t have my chops around the peers that I’m getting teamed up against. I’m officially against Assassinate now, because it’s a very constrictive form of gameplay. You make a single mistake, accidentally hold down the right trigger, and you are instantly marked for death, which you can’t really counter. The worst part is the accepted strategy now seems to be everyone acting obvious, and whenever they are marked, running away from crowds as quickly as possible. Your opponent will either give chase, marking them and making it easy to stunlock and counterkill them, or they will give up, keeping you safe. It’s not how I want to play, and I don’t think it’s the intention. At least in Wanted if you act like an idiot, there are plenty of counters, from low point scoring to multiple hunters on podium players. Here, there is no disadvantage to acting like an idiot if you have your smoke bomb prepped, because nobody can sneak up on you without you knowing about it. So I won’t be playing Assassinate again if I can help it, and it’s impossible to get a game of Escort up, which is too bad, I want to try it.
What I Played Today: March 17
Mansions of Madness, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood
Oh those mad mansions, they always flummox me. I was on the side of the investigators in Mansions of Madness, exploring a school building that apparently spent every moment being plunged in darkness. This scenario is a weird one because the keeper doesn’t have a lot of monsters running around, so their only options is to build up strength and cause the lights to go out, and attempt to scare the crap out of the investigators as much as possible. My investigators were doing pretty well, I picked up on the clues, but I got screwed in a couple of ways. First, one of the items I found was a ceremonial skull, which either gives the player some skill points or the keeper threat. It takes an action to use, and tests luck, so it’s barely worth it, but when the keeper has the ability to force you to use it? It can get bad, because more often than not he will get double the threat for his effort.
There was also this terrible moment when I was storming around, ready to complete the objective, when my detective Joe Diamond has the misfortune of losing his last sanity point. Usually not that big of deal; you go a little crazy, you become a bit instable, but nothing REALLY bad can happen, right? Actually, no, the keeper threw down a trauma card that causes the investigator to kill himself. It’s a terribly frightening card that really raises the stakes, and it sealed my loss, because it took out the only fighter. A great moment.
Also kinda played Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. Well, I definitely played it, but I sure wasn’t winning. I have decided that I’m not that big of fan of the new Assassinate mode, just because it’s a pretty wishy-washy system. The free-for-all means that you are getting attacked a lot, and scores seem to skyrocket quickly. I like having a little control and not having to watch out for seven other people. Up to four is enough.
But, now that I’m level 50, I no longer care if I win or not, just if I’m having fun, and I did have a lot of fun. Disguise continues to be a surprise favorite, especially during Manhunt, because they are looking for those other guys, so they will pay no attention to you, and you can get some sweet stuns. The new map is also really cool, Alhambra, with a lot of different levels and some cool flavor. It’s funny because the word instantly triggers in my mind that popular board game that I’ve never played that seems to have 12 different expansions. So I didn’t actually know what it looked like, just that it looked Middle Eastern like. Turns out, it’s actually in Spain. Huh.
Oh those mad mansions, they always flummox me. I was on the side of the investigators in Mansions of Madness, exploring a school building that apparently spent every moment being plunged in darkness. This scenario is a weird one because the keeper doesn’t have a lot of monsters running around, so their only options is to build up strength and cause the lights to go out, and attempt to scare the crap out of the investigators as much as possible. My investigators were doing pretty well, I picked up on the clues, but I got screwed in a couple of ways. First, one of the items I found was a ceremonial skull, which either gives the player some skill points or the keeper threat. It takes an action to use, and tests luck, so it’s barely worth it, but when the keeper has the ability to force you to use it? It can get bad, because more often than not he will get double the threat for his effort.
There was also this terrible moment when I was storming around, ready to complete the objective, when my detective Joe Diamond has the misfortune of losing his last sanity point. Usually not that big of deal; you go a little crazy, you become a bit instable, but nothing REALLY bad can happen, right? Actually, no, the keeper threw down a trauma card that causes the investigator to kill himself. It’s a terribly frightening card that really raises the stakes, and it sealed my loss, because it took out the only fighter. A great moment.
Also kinda played Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. Well, I definitely played it, but I sure wasn’t winning. I have decided that I’m not that big of fan of the new Assassinate mode, just because it’s a pretty wishy-washy system. The free-for-all means that you are getting attacked a lot, and scores seem to skyrocket quickly. I like having a little control and not having to watch out for seven other people. Up to four is enough.
But, now that I’m level 50, I no longer care if I win or not, just if I’m having fun, and I did have a lot of fun. Disguise continues to be a surprise favorite, especially during Manhunt, because they are looking for those other guys, so they will pay no attention to you, and you can get some sweet stuns. The new map is also really cool, Alhambra, with a lot of different levels and some cool flavor. It’s funny because the word instantly triggers in my mind that popular board game that I’ve never played that seems to have 12 different expansions. So I didn’t actually know what it looked like, just that it looked Middle Eastern like. Turns out, it’s actually in Spain. Huh.
What I Played Today: March 9
Persona 4, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood
I played through another boss fight in Persona 4, being able to field a persona that’s twice my current level makes it easy enough. I’m breezing through the social links and such, almost about to cap the first one. I had forgotten one of the stories, which is actually pretty interesting. One of the kids is adopted and was expected to continue the family line, but after his younger sister is born, he seems to be given free reign to do whatever he wants, which worries the hell out of him and gives him an existential crisis. Naturally, the PC tries to solve the problem with a pickup game. All problems are solved with basketball!
The new update for Assassin’s Creed is now available, with four new dudes, unlocking of all the maps (so happy) and two new game modes. I tried the new free for all mode, and it truly is free for all. You don’t have a designated target; you have to find a target using some small arrows, and then target them to designate them as your target, then kill them. It’s to your advantage to act as unhuman as possible, but if you spend too much time hiding, you’ll never find anybody to hunt down. It’s a very different game, and I’m interested to see what strategies will develop.
I played through another boss fight in Persona 4, being able to field a persona that’s twice my current level makes it easy enough. I’m breezing through the social links and such, almost about to cap the first one. I had forgotten one of the stories, which is actually pretty interesting. One of the kids is adopted and was expected to continue the family line, but after his younger sister is born, he seems to be given free reign to do whatever he wants, which worries the hell out of him and gives him an existential crisis. Naturally, the PC tries to solve the problem with a pickup game. All problems are solved with basketball!
The new update for Assassin’s Creed is now available, with four new dudes, unlocking of all the maps (so happy) and two new game modes. I tried the new free for all mode, and it truly is free for all. You don’t have a designated target; you have to find a target using some small arrows, and then target them to designate them as your target, then kill them. It’s to your advantage to act as unhuman as possible, but if you spend too much time hiding, you’ll never find anybody to hunt down. It’s a very different game, and I’m interested to see what strategies will develop.
What I Played Today: March 5
Mansions of Madness, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, Surviving High School
I played a game of Mansions of Madness with a group today, with three investigators that really got into the game. In this adventure, there were a lot of zombies to threaten the players, but as a keeper I stumbled by not pressuring them constantly and by making the mistake of setting fire to everything. I could raise corpses, but unfortunately whenever a corpse and fire meets, the corpse disappears. So when I thought to cut the players off by setting fire to the main corridor, I also made it really easy for them to get rid of the constant threat of zombies, especially with a gung-ho investigator with a tommie gun. But it was a fun time.
I have hit the top level in the multiplayer of Assassin’s Creed, after a really fun marathon session in which I used disguise and morph pretty much every chance I could. I got a good flow, and while it staggers more than it won, I had a lot of fun. I also figured out the deal with that combo I keep seeing, and have decided that I will not use it, because it’s just so cheap. It depends on triggering the x2 score modifier by forcing five subsequent target losses (which is easy when you just stab NPCs), then using smoke bomb to stop your target, getting a focus, and then applying long-lasting poison. This can skyrocket your score, but it just feels so wrong. So I won’t use it.
Also downloaded a game on the iOS, a story-heavy game developed by Electronic Arts, of all people. It’s been around for over a year, but I kept avoiding it because it’s called, well, Surviving High School. My excuse was always, “DONE IT,” but my curiosity finally peaked and I tried it, and it’s definitely a dating sim. Which is just bizarre, because this is America. So I’ll try some more, see what happens.
I played a game of Mansions of Madness with a group today, with three investigators that really got into the game. In this adventure, there were a lot of zombies to threaten the players, but as a keeper I stumbled by not pressuring them constantly and by making the mistake of setting fire to everything. I could raise corpses, but unfortunately whenever a corpse and fire meets, the corpse disappears. So when I thought to cut the players off by setting fire to the main corridor, I also made it really easy for them to get rid of the constant threat of zombies, especially with a gung-ho investigator with a tommie gun. But it was a fun time.
I have hit the top level in the multiplayer of Assassin’s Creed, after a really fun marathon session in which I used disguise and morph pretty much every chance I could. I got a good flow, and while it staggers more than it won, I had a lot of fun. I also figured out the deal with that combo I keep seeing, and have decided that I will not use it, because it’s just so cheap. It depends on triggering the x2 score modifier by forcing five subsequent target losses (which is easy when you just stab NPCs), then using smoke bomb to stop your target, getting a focus, and then applying long-lasting poison. This can skyrocket your score, but it just feels so wrong. So I won’t use it.
Also downloaded a game on the iOS, a story-heavy game developed by Electronic Arts, of all people. It’s been around for over a year, but I kept avoiding it because it’s called, well, Surviving High School. My excuse was always, “DONE IT,” but my curiosity finally peaked and I tried it, and it’s definitely a dating sim. Which is just bizarre, because this is America. So I’ll try some more, see what happens.
What I Played Today: March 3
Mansions of Madness, You Don’t Know Jack, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood
There were mansions full of madness today. This is the latest game by Fantasy Flight, set in the Arkham Horror universe, in which you take a group of adventurers into a spooky house, while one player controls all the baddies and the horror. The set-up sounds like Descent, but it’s a lot more story-driven, where the players are looking for clues and trying to avoid all the baddies around the house. Even the combat is story-driven, where each attack involves drawing a card and resolving the text on the card. The players occasionally also have to solve wiring puzzles, which is neat. It’s pretty clever, and I like the game. I almost instantly want more stuff, and I know it’s coming too, because if Fantasy Flight pimps anything, it’s the Arkham stuff.
Two games were played, where I sat on both sides, investigator and keeper. During the keeper game, I was tasked with getting samples from players and raising a shogoth. I thought I was doing alright, but the investigator knew what I was up to and often was able to shoot down the few enemies I could get on the board, and eventually time ran out and I lost. During the investigator game, I was too cautious and wasted time looking everywhere but where the clue was, and I eventually ran out of time, causing everyone to lose. That mission also led to far more enemies roaming the map, but my pretty good rolls kept me from getting killed. That is, until I broke my arm.
I lost a couple of games of You Don’t Know Jack, because I am not good at Jack Attacks. My opponent is just so much faster at getting the answer. There was a neat category in which you had to match the lyric in the song with the dance that went along with it. I enjoyed that, even though I keep losing. (Sad trombone.)
In the multiplayer of Assassin’s Creed, I had four awful games and then one really good one. I think I need to start changing my tactics up; there’s a lot of awesome things I could be doing that I’m just not because I’m depending on the same sets over and over again. I also lose out on a lot of bonus points. I was thinking to myself, “It has been forever since I got a kill streak of something,” and I actually managed tonight, scoring a clean 750 bonus points for getting five silent kills in a row, which catapulted me to a solid lead. I also used the decoy correctly at one point, which was also awesome. I see a possible walking towards me so I trigger the decoy, who bolts away from them. They start chasing after them when I wheel around and bonk them good, which scoring 300 points for an escape stun. But, I really want to use disguise or something again. I never seem to use them.
There were mansions full of madness today. This is the latest game by Fantasy Flight, set in the Arkham Horror universe, in which you take a group of adventurers into a spooky house, while one player controls all the baddies and the horror. The set-up sounds like Descent, but it’s a lot more story-driven, where the players are looking for clues and trying to avoid all the baddies around the house. Even the combat is story-driven, where each attack involves drawing a card and resolving the text on the card. The players occasionally also have to solve wiring puzzles, which is neat. It’s pretty clever, and I like the game. I almost instantly want more stuff, and I know it’s coming too, because if Fantasy Flight pimps anything, it’s the Arkham stuff.
Two games were played, where I sat on both sides, investigator and keeper. During the keeper game, I was tasked with getting samples from players and raising a shogoth. I thought I was doing alright, but the investigator knew what I was up to and often was able to shoot down the few enemies I could get on the board, and eventually time ran out and I lost. During the investigator game, I was too cautious and wasted time looking everywhere but where the clue was, and I eventually ran out of time, causing everyone to lose. That mission also led to far more enemies roaming the map, but my pretty good rolls kept me from getting killed. That is, until I broke my arm.
I lost a couple of games of You Don’t Know Jack, because I am not good at Jack Attacks. My opponent is just so much faster at getting the answer. There was a neat category in which you had to match the lyric in the song with the dance that went along with it. I enjoyed that, even though I keep losing. (Sad trombone.)
In the multiplayer of Assassin’s Creed, I had four awful games and then one really good one. I think I need to start changing my tactics up; there’s a lot of awesome things I could be doing that I’m just not because I’m depending on the same sets over and over again. I also lose out on a lot of bonus points. I was thinking to myself, “It has been forever since I got a kill streak of something,” and I actually managed tonight, scoring a clean 750 bonus points for getting five silent kills in a row, which catapulted me to a solid lead. I also used the decoy correctly at one point, which was also awesome. I see a possible walking towards me so I trigger the decoy, who bolts away from them. They start chasing after them when I wheel around and bonk them good, which scoring 300 points for an escape stun. But, I really want to use disguise or something again. I never seem to use them.
What I Played Today: March 2
You Don’t Know Jack, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood
Played a couple of games of You Don’t Know Jack, for fun. It’s gotten to the point where there’s not much else to talk about it, it’s still funny, it’s still good, and…that’s about it!
I spent some more time with the single player in Assassin’s Creed. Just a lot of running around; the main missions involves the French suddenly and inexplicably attacking my friend about ten minutes outside of Rome, which is…weird. I knew this guy was fighting the French, I just didn’t know it was happening in my backyard. I also had to do an awful mission where I had to close the gates while dozens of French tried to kill me, but I paid them back next mission when I was tasked with killing 20 Frenchmen. Harder than it looked, because I had to kill them all without a fight. But, I did it, and now it’s time to pull some Trojan horse nonsense.
Played a couple of games of You Don’t Know Jack, for fun. It’s gotten to the point where there’s not much else to talk about it, it’s still funny, it’s still good, and…that’s about it!
I spent some more time with the single player in Assassin’s Creed. Just a lot of running around; the main missions involves the French suddenly and inexplicably attacking my friend about ten minutes outside of Rome, which is…weird. I knew this guy was fighting the French, I just didn’t know it was happening in my backyard. I also had to do an awful mission where I had to close the gates while dozens of French tried to kill me, but I paid them back next mission when I was tasked with killing 20 Frenchmen. Harder than it looked, because I had to kill them all without a fight. But, I did it, and now it’s time to pull some Trojan horse nonsense.
What I Played Today: February 28
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood
Yes, still. I’m still running around in the single player, doing some more side-quest business. They are starting to get difficult, as I keep getting flummoxed by some just bizarre and dickish interface. For some reason, if you happen to fail the full sync condition during your first runthrough of a mission and you fail that runthrough, and then repeat the mission without aborting it and succeed with full marks, it still counts as half synced, which is stupid. I also kept failing a race across the rooftops because I either wasted too much time killing guards so they wouldn’t shoot me, or getting shot by the seven guards who are inexplicably positioned along the route. Why are all these guards here? Didn’t I free this area of the city from Borgia control? I also was tasked with killing some thieves on roofs, and I got so frustrated that I just quit.
I was also running a mission and saw this pimp mother f’er walking around all sly with a cane! Rocking it Joseph Ducreux style. Hells yeah.
Yes, still. I’m still running around in the single player, doing some more side-quest business. They are starting to get difficult, as I keep getting flummoxed by some just bizarre and dickish interface. For some reason, if you happen to fail the full sync condition during your first runthrough of a mission and you fail that runthrough, and then repeat the mission without aborting it and succeed with full marks, it still counts as half synced, which is stupid. I also kept failing a race across the rooftops because I either wasted too much time killing guards so they wouldn’t shoot me, or getting shot by the seven guards who are inexplicably positioned along the route. Why are all these guards here? Didn’t I free this area of the city from Borgia control? I also was tasked with killing some thieves on roofs, and I got so frustrated that I just quit.
I was also running a mission and saw this pimp mother f’er walking around all sly with a cane! Rocking it Joseph Ducreux style. Hells yeah.
What I Played Today: February 27
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood
Okay, I am really lazy, and the only reason I played this again today is because I didn’t feel like changing the disc. I am very lazy. But! I did switch over to the single player, and got engulfed in that for a couple of good hours.
I didn’t actually do anything impressive; I did one main mission, but as it turned out, it was only an end-of-chapter cutscene in which Ezio gets to the brothel to be told that the ladies who stole the money were followed and the guards were in the brothel! So Ezio goes running in to find four corpses and his sister standing over them. There’s a brief scene where they exchange glances and then Mom walks in and everybody has a great laugh! Oh, we are all murderers, hah hah hah!
In the real world, it turns out that Desmond now has access to everyone’s e-mail, which seems like a big security risk. There was also Mario’s sword lying around in the dirt, which I picked up, because why wouldn’t I? I have no idea why Mario’s sword would be completely ignored for over 500 years in a village that has obviously been built upon, but whatever. Plus, I turned on my eagle vision (which Desmond apparently has) to find some crazy red footprints! That…lead nowhere and gave me nothing to interact with. Nobody will talk to me, and I have no idea where Lucy went, so back into the fake world I go.
The last of Leonardo’s death machines has been destroyed! This one was not as bad in terms of getting to where I needed to go. I only dysynced twice due to being spotted, which is still too much, but I got to drive around a death tank, so that was fun. After I finished with that, Leonardo thanked me by handing me a parachute. Now I can…parachute. I really have no idea why I would ever need to use this. (I was about to get in the game’s grill over this, but as it turned out, Leonardo da Vinci did in fact draw a sketching of a parachute. So I’ll shut my face.)
There’s also a new kind of mission that I can try called Templar Agents. I got excited when I saw them appear on the map and immediate ran to try one, running into some lady standing on a roof, threatening to suicide because her husband now makes a living pushing dudes off roofs. Ezio talks her down because her motivation is stupid, and then goes to kill this jerk, Larz. I see him dicking around and take him out, and then notice that he looks like one of the playable characters in the multiplayer! Ezio is going to kill all the playable characters! Heck, he may have already killed the executor, now that I think about it, at the very beginning of the game. For some reason I am stupid excited about this. I also killed the Blacksmith, who apparently spent his time making propaganda posters (posters?) and spoke in a doofy tough guy voice. I wonder who I will kill next!
One last thing, during a standard assassination mission, I was tasked with killing six armored assholes who were standing around being dicks to people. I was warned that if I wasn’t careful, they would call reinforcements, so I had to figure out a way to prevent them from doing it. Then I remembered I have poison! Poison kills silently! Actually, no, in the main game, poison makes you go woozy and you start swinging around your sword like a dick. So I poison four of the big guys and then go crazy, killing off those around them, and I sneak up and stab the survivors. Pretty neat! I wish they didn’t give me so many weapons, so I actually learned to use them all.
Okay, I am really lazy, and the only reason I played this again today is because I didn’t feel like changing the disc. I am very lazy. But! I did switch over to the single player, and got engulfed in that for a couple of good hours.
I didn’t actually do anything impressive; I did one main mission, but as it turned out, it was only an end-of-chapter cutscene in which Ezio gets to the brothel to be told that the ladies who stole the money were followed and the guards were in the brothel! So Ezio goes running in to find four corpses and his sister standing over them. There’s a brief scene where they exchange glances and then Mom walks in and everybody has a great laugh! Oh, we are all murderers, hah hah hah!
In the real world, it turns out that Desmond now has access to everyone’s e-mail, which seems like a big security risk. There was also Mario’s sword lying around in the dirt, which I picked up, because why wouldn’t I? I have no idea why Mario’s sword would be completely ignored for over 500 years in a village that has obviously been built upon, but whatever. Plus, I turned on my eagle vision (which Desmond apparently has) to find some crazy red footprints! That…lead nowhere and gave me nothing to interact with. Nobody will talk to me, and I have no idea where Lucy went, so back into the fake world I go.
The last of Leonardo’s death machines has been destroyed! This one was not as bad in terms of getting to where I needed to go. I only dysynced twice due to being spotted, which is still too much, but I got to drive around a death tank, so that was fun. After I finished with that, Leonardo thanked me by handing me a parachute. Now I can…parachute. I really have no idea why I would ever need to use this. (I was about to get in the game’s grill over this, but as it turned out, Leonardo da Vinci did in fact draw a sketching of a parachute. So I’ll shut my face.)
There’s also a new kind of mission that I can try called Templar Agents. I got excited when I saw them appear on the map and immediate ran to try one, running into some lady standing on a roof, threatening to suicide because her husband now makes a living pushing dudes off roofs. Ezio talks her down because her motivation is stupid, and then goes to kill this jerk, Larz. I see him dicking around and take him out, and then notice that he looks like one of the playable characters in the multiplayer! Ezio is going to kill all the playable characters! Heck, he may have already killed the executor, now that I think about it, at the very beginning of the game. For some reason I am stupid excited about this. I also killed the Blacksmith, who apparently spent his time making propaganda posters (posters?) and spoke in a doofy tough guy voice. I wonder who I will kill next!
One last thing, during a standard assassination mission, I was tasked with killing six armored assholes who were standing around being dicks to people. I was warned that if I wasn’t careful, they would call reinforcements, so I had to figure out a way to prevent them from doing it. Then I remembered I have poison! Poison kills silently! Actually, no, in the main game, poison makes you go woozy and you start swinging around your sword like a dick. So I poison four of the big guys and then go crazy, killing off those around them, and I sneak up and stab the survivors. Pretty neat! I wish they didn’t give me so many weapons, so I actually learned to use them all.
What I Played Today: February 26
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood
I did not end up playing anything besides Assassin’s Creed today, spent more time watching cartoons and stuff. I did play a few games to get myself up to level 48, for the strong mute. I had a couple awful games where I couldn’t do anything right, but I also ended up getting on the podium once, so that went well.
There’s also something I learned that made me mad, in that apparently you can only have one DLC pack “turned on” at a time. So, if I want to play the Mont St. Michel map, I am out of luck, because I need to turn on Update 1 in order to unlock it, and because the majority of all the players will have Update 2 turned on, there aren’t enough players around to fight. Why is this? What is the thinking? The worst part is that Update 2 contains BOTH new game types (which I don’t play), so the only game play option I’m getting blocked out of is my favorite map.
I did not end up playing anything besides Assassin’s Creed today, spent more time watching cartoons and stuff. I did play a few games to get myself up to level 48, for the strong mute. I had a couple awful games where I couldn’t do anything right, but I also ended up getting on the podium once, so that went well.
There’s also something I learned that made me mad, in that apparently you can only have one DLC pack “turned on” at a time. So, if I want to play the Mont St. Michel map, I am out of luck, because I need to turn on Update 1 in order to unlock it, and because the majority of all the players will have Update 2 turned on, there aren’t enough players around to fight. Why is this? What is the thinking? The worst part is that Update 2 contains BOTH new game types (which I don’t play), so the only game play option I’m getting blocked out of is my favorite map.
What I Played Today: February 24
Gosu, You Don’t Know Jack, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, Disc Drivin’
The game about goblins hit the table today. I had kinda forgotten how to play, as did my opponent, and he got frustrated because he burst out of the gate without getting a card drawing engine into play, while I took advantage of some jerk named Kaq, who lets me draw a card whenever a card is flipped, and then used some graveyard combos to flip pretty much every card my opponent owned, easily winning the next two great battles. It was not even fair.
I got floored in You Don’t Know Jack. I am not very good at Jack Attacks, at least against this guy. I am not fast enough, and there was an entire game where I didn’t know the answer to at least half the questions. So, yeah. I should play online so that my feelings aren’t hurt for being awful at this.
Then I stabbed some guys! In an electronic facsimile of the Italian Renaissance, at least (which in story is itself an electronic facsimile of the Italian Renaissance. Oh the layers). Anyway, I had a couple of bad games, followed by a couple of good games, and a lot of waiting. There was this one jerk who did this weird trick where he would lay down a smoke bomb, stand there and watch me cough, and then a moment later I fall down from poison and he nets over 1000 points. He pulled this on me twice, and while my initial instinct was “That can’t be right,” I think I figured how that nets so many points, and now I think that it’s incredibly cheap. So…now I want to try it. I’m not proud.
I also had a great game where I was doing quite well but not perfect, able to evade a lot of my enemies, and in the last seconds, someone tried to kill me and missed, and then my target came running straight towards me and I stabbed him and took 1st. I was excited, because hurray for a comeback, and I knew this was worth points towards a challenge reward. So I checked to see how many more times I had to perform this fairly difficult stunt to get the next chunk of XP, and found out that the next reward comes when you make a comeback in the last 10 seconds 30 times. This sounds impossible. There are so many factors that cause that circumstance, and I can’t imagine replicating it 30 times in a single lifetime. I’ve managed to do it twice, and I am about 20 games from the highest level (at which point XP rewards become pointless). The fact that this is the 2nd tier of three for this particular challenge makes me think they didn’t think this one through.
Oh, and new game on the block, Disc Drivin’, which is a stupid name for a thing, by the way, but it’s fun. It’s the board game Pitch Car with some modifications that are only possible in electronic form, such as power ups and speed strips and neat ramps. It’s fun, although I’m a bit concerned that there are a few sections where you can just get stuck and keep flying off the map every turn while your opponents lap you. There should be a mulligan option, move your disc to somewhere where you can actually do something.
The game about goblins hit the table today. I had kinda forgotten how to play, as did my opponent, and he got frustrated because he burst out of the gate without getting a card drawing engine into play, while I took advantage of some jerk named Kaq, who lets me draw a card whenever a card is flipped, and then used some graveyard combos to flip pretty much every card my opponent owned, easily winning the next two great battles. It was not even fair.
I got floored in You Don’t Know Jack. I am not very good at Jack Attacks, at least against this guy. I am not fast enough, and there was an entire game where I didn’t know the answer to at least half the questions. So, yeah. I should play online so that my feelings aren’t hurt for being awful at this.
Then I stabbed some guys! In an electronic facsimile of the Italian Renaissance, at least (which in story is itself an electronic facsimile of the Italian Renaissance. Oh the layers). Anyway, I had a couple of bad games, followed by a couple of good games, and a lot of waiting. There was this one jerk who did this weird trick where he would lay down a smoke bomb, stand there and watch me cough, and then a moment later I fall down from poison and he nets over 1000 points. He pulled this on me twice, and while my initial instinct was “That can’t be right,” I think I figured how that nets so many points, and now I think that it’s incredibly cheap. So…now I want to try it. I’m not proud.
I also had a great game where I was doing quite well but not perfect, able to evade a lot of my enemies, and in the last seconds, someone tried to kill me and missed, and then my target came running straight towards me and I stabbed him and took 1st. I was excited, because hurray for a comeback, and I knew this was worth points towards a challenge reward. So I checked to see how many more times I had to perform this fairly difficult stunt to get the next chunk of XP, and found out that the next reward comes when you make a comeback in the last 10 seconds 30 times. This sounds impossible. There are so many factors that cause that circumstance, and I can’t imagine replicating it 30 times in a single lifetime. I’ve managed to do it twice, and I am about 20 games from the highest level (at which point XP rewards become pointless). The fact that this is the 2nd tier of three for this particular challenge makes me think they didn’t think this one through.
Oh, and new game on the block, Disc Drivin’, which is a stupid name for a thing, by the way, but it’s fun. It’s the board game Pitch Car with some modifications that are only possible in electronic form, such as power ups and speed strips and neat ramps. It’s fun, although I’m a bit concerned that there are a few sections where you can just get stuck and keep flying off the map every turn while your opponents lap you. There should be a mulligan option, move your disc to somewhere where you can actually do something.
What I Played Today: February 16
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood
I was just stabbing dudes today. I’m up to level 47, which means I have only three more to go before I can make my characters wear jaunty hats. I can’t really figure out anything to say about the game. I mean, I play this game all the time.
I was just stabbing dudes today. I’m up to level 47, which means I have only three more to go before I can make my characters wear jaunty hats. I can’t really figure out anything to say about the game. I mean, I play this game all the time.
What I Played Today: February 13
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, Magic the Gathering Tactics, Guy of My Dreams
More running around and stabbing dudes in Assassin’s Creed: Bro-hood, the single player campaign. I was tasked to kill the Banker in the main storyline, some fat idiot whose chain of influence I had forgotten about. I had saved a senator who owned him money, and so in a multi-part mission, I had to give the senator money, who took the money to some guards, who took the money to their boss, who I then killed and impersonated. Then, in a goofy mission in which I had to “lead the way” (i.e., dramatically change direction whenever the two loudest buffoons frequently proclaimed we were heading in the wrong direction), we took the money to the boss’s boss. Then, I followed the money once again, to watch it trade hands one more time, before finally, finally being given to the Banker, who sets it down for half a second...and it's immediately stolen by my prostitute allies. I know that in real crime, people covered their tracks to this degree, but this was ridiculous. Especially when it turns out the banker is walking around half-naked and in a stupid hat at some kind of Bacchanalic festival going on down by the ruins. This part was actually really trippy, actually, as I was just wandering and suddenly these couples in masks and green togas start appearing by the road; it was like stepping into a Gilliam film. Or at least, the best approximation of such. ANYWAY, I finally sneak up on the Banker as he walks around with my spy on his arm, and then escape, again completely blowing my chance to kill Cesare and the evil pope, who also happened to be at the same party.
I also did some of Leonardo’s death machine missions, and woof, do I hate these. They wouldn’t be so bad if they weren’t so long, clocking in at nearly half-an-hour each, and if it wasn’t so easy to desynchronize. Every mission, you have to go undetected until a certain point deep in the mission, or you lose and have to start over. It’s really annoying, because they throw a lot of guards in-between you and the objective. There’s also the second half of the mission, in which you have to quickly master the controls of the war machine and turn it on the Borgia, which is more annoying then fun. Luckily, it looks like there’s only one left. I also was just running around cleaning up the city, buying buildings and stabbing guys. A weird thing that happened a couple of times is when a bunch of thieves suddenly attack me for no reason (I’m going to assume they are the opposing gang to the thieves I know and like). I quickly dispatch them and the guards who were also trying to kill them, and then I loot the bodies to find that they are loaded with valuable goods. It’s almost as if five treasure chests just decided to attack me. Helpful.
I also found out that Magic the Gathering Tactics is out, and downloaded it to give it a try. It’s…fine. It’s a tactics game, only with Magic. I guess that’s okay. The gameplay may be a bit off, in which they import wholesale actual stats from the card game and then add other stuff that doesn’t quite work, like damage that sticks, defending that increases one’s life by 30, and initiative, and it’s so hard to tell just how mana works. Mainly, you start each game with not enough, and then you have too much. Oh, and there’s also a talent tree, which is completely original, but god knows when you actually get talent points, because it’s not at level 3. Not sure about this one.
And just a little bit of Kongregate, with another game by the group who needs to just stop: Nerdook. They just churn out unsophisticated yet complex and uninteresting crap so often, and their art style is the ugliest. This little gem, Guy of My Dreams, is not only ugly and unlikeable, but also borderline offensive. (EDITOR’S NOTE: I was not, actually, offended. But, because I didn’t like the game, I’m going to point out what one could be offended by, mostly for fun and because screw Nerdook.) You play a girl who will walk down the metaphorical road between the ages 16 and 50. Littering the road are guys, chocolate, flowers, folders, skulls, etc. You are trying to rack up the most happiness by either hooking up with one of the guys (you get more points if he’s your type) and picking up roses and diamonds (which have no effect if you’re single) or picking up whatever chocolate you can and grabbing the folders, which will increase your yearly career bonus (the bonus goes up more if you’re single). If you touch a skull, the guy you’re with dies.
Now. I shouldn’t have to point out how this view of love and happiness and relationships is a bit screwy, and after the initial concept, they should have just stopped pitching new ideas and just did the basics. But when you get into the fluff, it just feels so pointless and derisive. I especially balk at the career bonus being higher if you’re single; as if to say, “Well, you know women, they just can’t concentrate when there’s some penis hanging around.” But this is a problem you get into whenever you make a game which has happiness as a numerical value. And I appreciate that the publisher said, “Don’t get offended, it’s all in good fun,” because at least they recognized how stupid this was. But to have this is the special Valentine’s Day game? Well, Kongregate messed up here, there was surely something better in the stack to be promoted. But it’s only a day, and it’s probably getting the worst reviews for Nerdook, so there we go.
More running around and stabbing dudes in Assassin’s Creed: Bro-hood, the single player campaign. I was tasked to kill the Banker in the main storyline, some fat idiot whose chain of influence I had forgotten about. I had saved a senator who owned him money, and so in a multi-part mission, I had to give the senator money, who took the money to some guards, who took the money to their boss, who I then killed and impersonated. Then, in a goofy mission in which I had to “lead the way” (i.e., dramatically change direction whenever the two loudest buffoons frequently proclaimed we were heading in the wrong direction), we took the money to the boss’s boss. Then, I followed the money once again, to watch it trade hands one more time, before finally, finally being given to the Banker, who sets it down for half a second...and it's immediately stolen by my prostitute allies. I know that in real crime, people covered their tracks to this degree, but this was ridiculous. Especially when it turns out the banker is walking around half-naked and in a stupid hat at some kind of Bacchanalic festival going on down by the ruins. This part was actually really trippy, actually, as I was just wandering and suddenly these couples in masks and green togas start appearing by the road; it was like stepping into a Gilliam film. Or at least, the best approximation of such. ANYWAY, I finally sneak up on the Banker as he walks around with my spy on his arm, and then escape, again completely blowing my chance to kill Cesare and the evil pope, who also happened to be at the same party.
I also did some of Leonardo’s death machine missions, and woof, do I hate these. They wouldn’t be so bad if they weren’t so long, clocking in at nearly half-an-hour each, and if it wasn’t so easy to desynchronize. Every mission, you have to go undetected until a certain point deep in the mission, or you lose and have to start over. It’s really annoying, because they throw a lot of guards in-between you and the objective. There’s also the second half of the mission, in which you have to quickly master the controls of the war machine and turn it on the Borgia, which is more annoying then fun. Luckily, it looks like there’s only one left. I also was just running around cleaning up the city, buying buildings and stabbing guys. A weird thing that happened a couple of times is when a bunch of thieves suddenly attack me for no reason (I’m going to assume they are the opposing gang to the thieves I know and like). I quickly dispatch them and the guards who were also trying to kill them, and then I loot the bodies to find that they are loaded with valuable goods. It’s almost as if five treasure chests just decided to attack me. Helpful.
I also found out that Magic the Gathering Tactics is out, and downloaded it to give it a try. It’s…fine. It’s a tactics game, only with Magic. I guess that’s okay. The gameplay may be a bit off, in which they import wholesale actual stats from the card game and then add other stuff that doesn’t quite work, like damage that sticks, defending that increases one’s life by 30, and initiative, and it’s so hard to tell just how mana works. Mainly, you start each game with not enough, and then you have too much. Oh, and there’s also a talent tree, which is completely original, but god knows when you actually get talent points, because it’s not at level 3. Not sure about this one.
And just a little bit of Kongregate, with another game by the group who needs to just stop: Nerdook. They just churn out unsophisticated yet complex and uninteresting crap so often, and their art style is the ugliest. This little gem, Guy of My Dreams, is not only ugly and unlikeable, but also borderline offensive. (EDITOR’S NOTE: I was not, actually, offended. But, because I didn’t like the game, I’m going to point out what one could be offended by, mostly for fun and because screw Nerdook.) You play a girl who will walk down the metaphorical road between the ages 16 and 50. Littering the road are guys, chocolate, flowers, folders, skulls, etc. You are trying to rack up the most happiness by either hooking up with one of the guys (you get more points if he’s your type) and picking up roses and diamonds (which have no effect if you’re single) or picking up whatever chocolate you can and grabbing the folders, which will increase your yearly career bonus (the bonus goes up more if you’re single). If you touch a skull, the guy you’re with dies.
Now. I shouldn’t have to point out how this view of love and happiness and relationships is a bit screwy, and after the initial concept, they should have just stopped pitching new ideas and just did the basics. But when you get into the fluff, it just feels so pointless and derisive. I especially balk at the career bonus being higher if you’re single; as if to say, “Well, you know women, they just can’t concentrate when there’s some penis hanging around.” But this is a problem you get into whenever you make a game which has happiness as a numerical value. And I appreciate that the publisher said, “Don’t get offended, it’s all in good fun,” because at least they recognized how stupid this was. But to have this is the special Valentine’s Day game? Well, Kongregate messed up here, there was surely something better in the stack to be promoted. But it’s only a day, and it’s probably getting the worst reviews for Nerdook, so there we go.
What I Played Today: February 11
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood
I got back in the multiplayer scene in Assassin’s Creed, and I did alright. Not great, just alright. I still hate poison with the passion of a thousand suns, and I actually backed out of a chest capture game, because I knew that I wouldn't find it fun, but other than that, didn’t get much, just moving about halfway up the experience bar.
OH! I did find out that charge has an effective range, which means if you’re looking to cap a dick, you need to be close enough. Specifically, 2.5 meters close enough. Luckily, I unlocked Strong Charge, which adds another 9 whole inches to the range, so hurray for that. Anyway, that means that each time charge has failed was because I was standing too far away, so hopefully this knowledge will make the damn thing more effective.
I got back in the multiplayer scene in Assassin’s Creed, and I did alright. Not great, just alright. I still hate poison with the passion of a thousand suns, and I actually backed out of a chest capture game, because I knew that I wouldn't find it fun, but other than that, didn’t get much, just moving about halfway up the experience bar.
OH! I did find out that charge has an effective range, which means if you’re looking to cap a dick, you need to be close enough. Specifically, 2.5 meters close enough. Luckily, I unlocked Strong Charge, which adds another 9 whole inches to the range, so hurray for that. Anyway, that means that each time charge has failed was because I was standing too far away, so hopefully this knowledge will make the damn thing more effective.
What I Played Today: January 23
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, Red Dead Redemption
Lot of single player action today, in which I get through an entire chapter of Assassin’s Creed: Bro-hood, and move on to Red Dead Redemption. First is the festival of crazy that is the four-mission chain that you have to complete in Assassin’s Creed when you break into the Castello with the mission of killing a couple of dudes, only for you to totally give up on that mission to instead save yourself a bit of tail that you were banging a couple of months ago, Caterina Sforza. The missions were kinda all over the place, with poor directions on where you were supposed to go, and having to do things that you haven’t had to do before. One thing I haven’t been liking is the secondary mission goals that will determine whether you fully sync or just kinda sync with Ezio, because if you mess up and get spotted in a mission where you shouldn’t have been, it just means you have to do it again later to get 100%. I don’t want to do the mission again. There are so many sidequests, why can’t you just give me full credit for doing each one?
After I managed to break Caterina out of jail by kidnapping some lady (Ezio can’t kill ladies, it’s against the Assassin’s code or something), you then finally get to recruit assassins to your cause and make your little nest of awesome dudes that you can send on missions. I got six of them recruited in short order, and were sending them all over Europe to ruin some shit. I also got a few unrelated missions about killing some slave trader until Leonardo makes his appearance again, looking old as hell, and he builds me some awesome upgrades and tells me that he’s been tasked with building warmachines, so I should really fuck those up so that the Borgia don’t use them to win their war. So I find some plans and mess up some machine guns, although not before I totally use that stuff to kill 60 dudes, because if you’re not killing 60 dudes in every mission, it is not a modern-day action adventure game.
(Craziest about all the above: Disregarding the parts about Ezio, all of this stuff totally happened. The Borgia took Caterina Sforza captive, Leonardo da Vinci did work for Cesare Borgia, etc. I like how they did all the research on this and weaved in the part about the top secret assassin. I fully expect my final confrontation with Cesare to be on a castle wall in Spain.)
In Red Dead, I churned through the missions because goddang this thing should be over already. The time spent on the farm with Bonnie MacFarlane feel like a long lost memory at this point, and I just want to get on with it. First a bunch of missions with the racist anthropologist, who cannot stop talking in a way that is just painful to modern ears, and I’m glad he’s gone. I also had to stop a bank heist by Dutch, and the game is doing a really weird thing with Dutch. This guy is the Big Bad, the person whose death will mean that Marston is homefree and the game will be over. So you’d expect him to be hard to find, hidden even better than Javier Escuella, but…
You see, the writers wanted to really push the relationship between Dutch and Marston, so they had to have them talk a lot. However, this being pre-cell phone, they can’t just call each other up and have a spot of color between them. So you need Dutch to physically show up and talk to Marston. This would be fine if they gave Marston more of an incentive to not just shoot Dutch. The pseudo father-son relationship between them means little against the pile of evidence telling him why he should just full-auto on the old bum. But instead they have a number of civil conversations in which Marston is holding a gun and does absolutely nothing with it. At least fire at him and miss, John. And why aren’t the G-Men working harder to kill him? It feels like Dutch is riding into Blackwater three times a day, I’m sure you can find a way to waylay him and shoot him. You’re above the law with your pre-formation of the FBI. Just kill him already.
Lot of single player action today, in which I get through an entire chapter of Assassin’s Creed: Bro-hood, and move on to Red Dead Redemption. First is the festival of crazy that is the four-mission chain that you have to complete in Assassin’s Creed when you break into the Castello with the mission of killing a couple of dudes, only for you to totally give up on that mission to instead save yourself a bit of tail that you were banging a couple of months ago, Caterina Sforza. The missions were kinda all over the place, with poor directions on where you were supposed to go, and having to do things that you haven’t had to do before. One thing I haven’t been liking is the secondary mission goals that will determine whether you fully sync or just kinda sync with Ezio, because if you mess up and get spotted in a mission where you shouldn’t have been, it just means you have to do it again later to get 100%. I don’t want to do the mission again. There are so many sidequests, why can’t you just give me full credit for doing each one?
After I managed to break Caterina out of jail by kidnapping some lady (Ezio can’t kill ladies, it’s against the Assassin’s code or something), you then finally get to recruit assassins to your cause and make your little nest of awesome dudes that you can send on missions. I got six of them recruited in short order, and were sending them all over Europe to ruin some shit. I also got a few unrelated missions about killing some slave trader until Leonardo makes his appearance again, looking old as hell, and he builds me some awesome upgrades and tells me that he’s been tasked with building warmachines, so I should really fuck those up so that the Borgia don’t use them to win their war. So I find some plans and mess up some machine guns, although not before I totally use that stuff to kill 60 dudes, because if you’re not killing 60 dudes in every mission, it is not a modern-day action adventure game.
(Craziest about all the above: Disregarding the parts about Ezio, all of this stuff totally happened. The Borgia took Caterina Sforza captive, Leonardo da Vinci did work for Cesare Borgia, etc. I like how they did all the research on this and weaved in the part about the top secret assassin. I fully expect my final confrontation with Cesare to be on a castle wall in Spain.)
In Red Dead, I churned through the missions because goddang this thing should be over already. The time spent on the farm with Bonnie MacFarlane feel like a long lost memory at this point, and I just want to get on with it. First a bunch of missions with the racist anthropologist, who cannot stop talking in a way that is just painful to modern ears, and I’m glad he’s gone. I also had to stop a bank heist by Dutch, and the game is doing a really weird thing with Dutch. This guy is the Big Bad, the person whose death will mean that Marston is homefree and the game will be over. So you’d expect him to be hard to find, hidden even better than Javier Escuella, but…
You see, the writers wanted to really push the relationship between Dutch and Marston, so they had to have them talk a lot. However, this being pre-cell phone, they can’t just call each other up and have a spot of color between them. So you need Dutch to physically show up and talk to Marston. This would be fine if they gave Marston more of an incentive to not just shoot Dutch. The pseudo father-son relationship between them means little against the pile of evidence telling him why he should just full-auto on the old bum. But instead they have a number of civil conversations in which Marston is holding a gun and does absolutely nothing with it. At least fire at him and miss, John. And why aren’t the G-Men working harder to kill him? It feels like Dutch is riding into Blackwater three times a day, I’m sure you can find a way to waylay him and shoot him. You’re above the law with your pre-formation of the FBI. Just kill him already.
What I Played Today: January 21
Puzzle Strike, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood
I played the Dominion knockoff Puzzle Strike today. It’s an interesting beast, with its active timer that you constantly have to worry about. Each round, a chip is added to your pile, and if you ever have a total of 10 in that pile, you lose. So you have to use a certain kind of chip to get them out of there, which will in turn send those gems to your opponent, so it’s a lot of back and forth, trying to get some good combos while worrying about the constantly ticking clock. We played two games, one in which my opponent wasn’t paying attention to his gem pile, and one where he was well-aware of it, and completely ruined me. It kinda sucks that you know you’re totally going to lose a good two minutes before you do, because if your pile hits 10 and you don’t have the right chips in hand, you are done.
Also played what felt like way too much Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood multiplayer. The new update came out, with a new map, which is A-alright, and a new mode of play, which is crap. It plays a lot like Manhunt, in which one team tries to hunt down and kill another team, only instead of the hunted just being required to not get killed, they instead have to run around “opening chests,” meaning standing in very specific locations for short periods of time…meaning a lot of movement. If there is one thing you don’t want to be doing while being tracked by three to four enemies, it’s moving around a lot. It’s just absolutely no fun for the treasure hunters, because the protectors can still track you with the compass, and it’ll be obvious which one you are because you’ll probably be running. Sure, the compass shuts down if they are near a chest, but at that point, there is no incentive not to just stab the hell out of every version of the treasure hunter’s avatar that ambles into view.
This mode could have worked a lot better if no one had a compass and instead knew where the chests were and when they were currently being opened. That way they would have to depend on specific tells to figure out who to kill and who to hide from. I guess in that mode the hunters would instead just go hang around the treasure chests and just start stabbing at will. Maybe the only info the protectors get is “A chest is being opened!” without specifying which ones? I don’t know, all I know is that this was not fun, so I played two hours of wanted instead.
I played the Dominion knockoff Puzzle Strike today. It’s an interesting beast, with its active timer that you constantly have to worry about. Each round, a chip is added to your pile, and if you ever have a total of 10 in that pile, you lose. So you have to use a certain kind of chip to get them out of there, which will in turn send those gems to your opponent, so it’s a lot of back and forth, trying to get some good combos while worrying about the constantly ticking clock. We played two games, one in which my opponent wasn’t paying attention to his gem pile, and one where he was well-aware of it, and completely ruined me. It kinda sucks that you know you’re totally going to lose a good two minutes before you do, because if your pile hits 10 and you don’t have the right chips in hand, you are done.
Also played what felt like way too much Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood multiplayer. The new update came out, with a new map, which is A-alright, and a new mode of play, which is crap. It plays a lot like Manhunt, in which one team tries to hunt down and kill another team, only instead of the hunted just being required to not get killed, they instead have to run around “opening chests,” meaning standing in very specific locations for short periods of time…meaning a lot of movement. If there is one thing you don’t want to be doing while being tracked by three to four enemies, it’s moving around a lot. It’s just absolutely no fun for the treasure hunters, because the protectors can still track you with the compass, and it’ll be obvious which one you are because you’ll probably be running. Sure, the compass shuts down if they are near a chest, but at that point, there is no incentive not to just stab the hell out of every version of the treasure hunter’s avatar that ambles into view.
This mode could have worked a lot better if no one had a compass and instead knew where the chests were and when they were currently being opened. That way they would have to depend on specific tells to figure out who to kill and who to hide from. I guess in that mode the hunters would instead just go hang around the treasure chests and just start stabbing at will. Maybe the only info the protectors get is “A chest is being opened!” without specifying which ones? I don’t know, all I know is that this was not fun, so I played two hours of wanted instead.
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