Assassin’s Creed Review/Guess Who’s Back?
Hey guys, me again. Yes, I know. I haven’t been on in forever! Due to 3 deaths in my family, various school things, etc. I’ve had to keep close and keen to my personal life for a month or two and ignore my blog. Sorry. I’ll be posting daily from now own, promise. 
Anyway, my main post today is Assassin’s Creed (AC). I covered it last time I was on, so I finally picked it up and slammed it in my 360. Is it really that good? The answer lies ahead, my friends.
AC presents itself in humble fashion. It seems like some typical crusade junk, when suddenly it turns out to be a drama in the near-future. That’s right. Fooled you. It’s a fucking science fiction game and a holy land crusader simulator. The main plot revolved around you exploring your ancestor’s DNA, only to find that he was a famous assassin.
It’s a really fun game. The controls present itself in a fun fashion, the graphics are brilliant, and the minigames are just a tad bit repetitive. Overall, a great rent. But a lackluster buy. It repeats itself between missions and doesn’t live up to the sandbox game I hoped for.
I present it with a 7.9/10.
QA for the Hills
Hey gang.
It just so happens that today, my friend, Steve Jackson , has ultimately given me a chance to participate in a game project he’s doing over at Indiana University. What is my glorious first ‘design’ position? A tester, of course!
Sadly, its a small game. No free pizza, no Mountain Dew, and no staying up all night hitting walls with every single iron sword in the game. (It doesn’t have any.)
I’ll try to update you on anything that happens with this, along with (hopefully) a finished product.
See ya guys! Have a good weekend.
Designer’s Creed
Ocarina of Time, Halo 2, Pac-Man. What do these three completely different games have to do with one another? They all are considered to be some of the most revolutionary games in the known universe. And I don’t know about you guys – the readers – but I’d say they are pretty damn revolutionary.
For those of you who never ever take intrest in the gaming community, you must now realize that nobody no longer cares how many ghosts you have devoured at the pizza parlor, how many songs you can play using the N64 controller, or (Now that Halo 3 has shown up on all your doorsteps) how many Elites you’ve sniped because of their ‘ginormous’ heads.
Assasin’s Creed is what everyone else is talking about.
Assasin’s Creed (AC) is an action/adventure game made by everyone’s favorite, most under-rated developer ever, Ubisoft. They’re the guys who made Rayman, Beyond Good and Evil, and..er- did I mention Rayman?
But now, they have a new trick up their French sleeves, they are hitting the mature audience hard with AC. The design concept is a bit like that of retro 3D adventures including Mario 64 and its much less-fun, shitty, oh-so-kiddified knock-offs. (I remember this one spy game where you played as a lizard?)
You see, you play as a killer who has been banished for fucking up. Harsh, yes. But it starts you on your quest to move back up in the ranks as a pro death-machine. In other words – complete missions and get your upgrades/rewards. Now to be honest, this is pretty O.K. sounding to me. It’s been done so many times before, I mean, what’s the point?
Graphics-Wise, the game looks lovely. But no better than the other good lookers on the 360/PS3…
The controls are what makes it different. You see – they are making each button represent a movement of the body. (Right trigger, right foot, etc.) I think this is a big of an over-reaction to wanting to ‘revolutionize’ gaming.
If you ask me, this is a BUY. If only for its good looking grahpics, old-style yet strangely modern gameplay, and the er- revolutionary controls. (Still iffy on this last one.)
Design – For Those Who Don’t Know
Well, chanced are, if you’re reading this you are one of the first visitors to my new web log Design Of Destiny (DesignOD for short). Basically what I’m doing here is commenting on the design (If you came here hoping to find uber cool Halo 3 cheats, I’ll get to this part later) of games, not to mention pull some of my personal hobbies like Toho monster flicks and Pro Wrestling out my ass whenever possible.
Thank the gods that the boring first blog post introduction is over! Now let’s get to the cool stuff – design! I’m sure many of you are coming here out of searching for ‘game blogs’ on Google or whatever search engine you use in hopes of finding cheats, news, or a small yet personal IGN like site to replenish your ever-flowing database of gaming knowledge.
Sadly, this isn’t the blog for you. Game design is often ignored. Yet, it’s what make a game tick. When thinking of a game office, people usually think of a couple coders in a cubicle on some game maker like program making the awesome graphics and funny AI voice you get when you get shot by the always difficult alien baddies. This brings to me to a commercial I often see on popular gaming network G4. A couple guys (possibly a gay couple?) at a console, controllers in hand, entering sound effects and weapons via a couple levers next to them.
Is this really how cool and awesome game guys are? No. The answer to your question is no. If this is how it’s done, and I’ve been lied to to by all sorts of pros, please someone, tell me.
Game design is all about thinking. If coding is like real-life math, design is like real-life philosophy.
The battle-rifle in your favorite FPS? More than likely, a weapon design made that. What about Neverwinter Nights awesome combat system? I suggest tracking that guy down to send your ‘Thank You’ cards to, not the lead programmer.
With this in mind, I hope you enjoy reading this blog! Though currently I’m short on time I’ll be sure to update as soon as possible.
