Currently Playing in 2019....

If you like the setting, you might enjoy III. I was always interested in that period of history and I enjoyed getting to experience it in the game.

The game has a lot of fat on it, so just a warning. It's a little less refined than AC II as well, though it often looks amazing. Most of the bugs at launch have been ironed out too, so it shouldn't be as frustrating for you.

The story missions are often a lot more action-adventure quests rather anything assassin-y. It's maybe the least stealthy of the series.

It's also the opposite of ACII in that, for me, I wasn't really interested in Renaissance Italy but appreciated how beautiful the cities and buildings looked. In III, the cities, whilst historically accurate, aren't particularly memorable, so the setting has to carry it. So for me, I had a lot of time for the game.

Some thought the game was a little dull, and I can definitely see why. But I could forgive a lot of its faults by being interested in the history of it all.

Do you know much about the story/characters?

I skimmed the Wikipedia entry of the first game before starting II. All I've gathered about the plot is that a company is using the Animus to delve into people's memories to get them to assume the role of their ancestors who were assassins. They have a rivarly with the Templars for some reason and II ultimately boils down to finding out something from Ezio's life that will help in the modern day for some reason. Ezio's story seems to be him avenging his family and, in doing so, stopping a conspiracy to take over Italy.

To be honest, plot doesn't play a big role in my interest in most games. Great writing can really add to a game, like in The Witcher or KOTOR, but I can still enjoy a game if I find myself lost when trying to follow the story. When I played Dark Souls, I got so caught up in trying to survive that I completely forgot that there might be a story to the game and just enjoyed hunting monsters until I saw the credits. In terms of Creed II, I'm happy enough following the story to see if Ezio avenges his family and stops the conspirators. He's already assassinated quite a few of them but was chased away with Leonardo so now he's in Venice. I'll piece together what I can and then read the wikis of all the games when I'm done. Of course, if you or anyone else feels like sharing some background, I'm listening.

I played a bit more of ACII this morning as it's a bit cooler so my CPU shouldn't be getting too warm. I made more progress in Venice and I really enjoyed the mission where you escort Rosa on the gondola. Running alongside the water and climbing around the buildings to dispatch guards was a great change to the usual protect and follow structure.

I took another screenshot because I realised that I hadn't set Steam to save uncompressed images.



During one of the next missions I had a cool moment with the guards. I was moving along the rooftops looking for my target, dispatching guards as I went, but I couldn't find him. I wanted to jump to the next roof but Ezio dived into some hay instead. I saw some guards approaching so I was going to wait until they passed before scaling the nearby buildings but my target just happened to stroll by. I managed to assassinate him without the guards noticing, probably because they were looking at the body of their comrade who fell when being attacked by Ezio. There's a video of the assassination below.

Super Mario Sunshine on Gamecube. I know it's the weakest of the 3D Mario games but I enjoy it. I have just managed to earn a Shine Sprite that I have never been able to get before the one that places you in a pachinko machine and to finally succeed at something that has eluded me for years was very satisfying

I've just started playing MGS3 again through the HD collection. I've considered it one of my all time favourites since the first playthrough, but I really think it might be my favourite game ever I love that Bond-like opening so freaking much.

I seem to be increasingly prone to talking about games rather than actually playing them. At present I'm occasionally loading up...

> Elder Scrolls Online
> The odd few games of Pro Evo Soccer 2015
> Mario Kart Mondays

Playing through Dead Space 3 (PC version) I am struck by just how far away from the original Dead Space game this third iteration seems to have strayed. Where the first game had tension, long moments of non-combat and fearful exploration, DS3 seems to have gone down a very different road - there is barely a moment in this game when the player is not faced with hordes of monsters pouring out of the vents, floors and, of course, the inevitable behind-the-back magic spawn points. This changes DS3 into a full-on action shooter, absolutely bereft of the slow, creeping sense of dread that was the first game's hallmark.

As someone who always plays on 'Easy' I'm also struggling to find any explanation of how the developers decided that swamping the player in enemies at every available turn was in any way - and by any definition - 'Easy'.

Seems to me that all that DS3 actually achieves is to remind fans of the IP just how great that first game actually was and just how rare it's slow pacing and fantastic sense of growing dread still is.

Playing lots at mo:

Online:
FIFA 15 - after 1 season out of co-op top division we back in.

Halo MCC: Halo 3 & 4 ranked matches with a smattering or ranked Team Doubles, amazing. ODST co-op is strawberry floating class

The Elder Scrolls Online - love this to bits, seriously love it, its everything I wanted it to be and more, genuinely surprised by how good it is.

Elite:Dangerous - All the retro feels along with online stuff makes this game awesome.

Destiny - trying to get to level 20 so I can do raids with lads on here

Battlefield 4 - I play this to remind myself that I'm good at online shooters cos I am genuinely good at this game for some reason.

Offline:
Batman Arkham Knight - stunning, absolutely stunning.

The Long Dark - addictive survival game set in Canadian wilderness, lovely.

With all that, I've put The Witcher 3 on the back burner but ill delve back into it when I can.

And you still haven't played ACII again, after Microsoft gave your backwards-compatibility and put it on A PLATE for you.

Are you a fan of Skyrim/Oblivion, Photek? I must say, I am tempted by Elder Scrolls Online.

If I had been able to find it over here (I don't even know if it is out yet...) I would probably have given in to that temptation. It's been an expensive month as it is.

Creed II is fantastic. It's a shame that uPlay made me averse to trying it again for so long.

Nier

Pretty much at the end of this. Just going through getting all the endings (there's nothing I love more than playing the same sections over, and over, and over again). Also working out if I can be arsed with a couple of the last achievements - the likely answer is 'no'.

Resident Evil 4 HD (PC) - Still one of my favourite games of all time, the game play is every bit good as it was the first (and last time) I played it on GC in 2005. The textures are a bit fugly playing on a 60" screen, but I've just found this: http://www.re4hd.com and they're making good progress, enough for me to try it out with Professional mode.

Dark Souls II (PS4) - I'm attempting to platinum this again and I'm getting through pretty quickly. I've not played any of the DLC so I'm purposefully avoiding any info about it to keep things fresh, I don't even know how to access it. The mix up of enemy types and item placements is quite nice, and it does look quite stunning. However the gameplay really shocked me coming back from Bloodborne, I couldn't believe how strawberry floating slow and unresponsive it felt at first.

Arkham Knight - boring / 10

Would happily trade this in for remaster of AA. I'm only up to the bit where you're saving people from chem plant, but it all feels so stop start because of the Batmobile, and the combat once you are within it has none of the pleasure of the fisticuffs.

At this rate, if their next game has similar vehicle mechanic, or is another open world game, then I'll be avoiding it.

Restarted Final Fantasy 6 on the Vita.

I stopped playing some time ago at the tactical part where you have to beat Kefka (right after the separate scenarios), I couldn't beat him. And I couldn't go back to do some grinding. So now I'm making sure to do lots of grinding before I get to that part...

Dandy Kong wrote:Restarted Final Fantasy 6 on the Vita.

I stopped playing some time ago at the tactical part where you have to beat Kefka (right after the separate scenarios), I couldn't beat him. And I couldn't go back to do some grinding. So now I'm making sure to do lots of grinding before I get to that part...

That PSOne port, though. Ew.

I never played the SNES version so I don't know better.

All the loading takes five times as long. It's so sluggish. I noticed when I was walking through dungeons or whatever, if I missed something on PSOne I wouldn't go back because I didn't want to sit waiting for more random battles to load, but on SNES, I was happy to explore every nook and cranny.

Ratchet & Clank 3

Still at the beginning but still enjoying what I've played. Quark thinks he's a monkey

jiggles wrote:All the loading takes five times as long. It's so sluggish. I noticed when I was walking through dungeons or whatever, if I missed something on PSOne I wouldn't go back because I didn't want to sit waiting for more random battles to load, but on SNES, I was happy to explore every nook and cranny.

I guess that has improved then, when played on the Vita. I haven't really noticed loading times...

Roller Coaster Tycoon 2

I'd forgotten just how good this is, it might be looking quite dated now but it's still an absolute joy to play.

RCT3 on the other hand has aged terribly, also the in-game text/menus are almost unreadable in windowed mode but can't play it fullscreen as I need to use an onscreen keyboard.