Assassins Creed Brotherhood: Game Review

Welcome to the Brotherhood 

   I would like to start off by saying that Assassins Creed Brotherhood isn't necessarily the Assassins Creed 3 we have been waiting for. Supposedly Assassins Creed 3 won't even be coming out in the next couple of years. Secretly I'm praying nightly that it's a giant rumor and it's right around the corner, but who knows?

The Story 

   Assassins Creed Brotherhood picks up where Assassins Creed 2 left off. You're still controlling Ezio, however this time you are only in Rome and don't travel around to different places. And, since everyone loved the "town" system in AC2 where you bought and upgraded things for Monteriggioni (I spelled that right on the first try, whaddup?), you get to do the same thing, but instead you're opening shops around Rome and buying all the ancient buildings for some reason. I feel like this was kind of sloppy, correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't remember them really giving a solid reason for having to reopen the shops and buy things like the Coliseum, besides saying "lul da bad guiz taked ov3r ur sity nd u got 2 kill dem to take it bak 4 the ppl." I feel like they just could have come up with some other reason that made more sense I guess. Why would the Borgia people close the shops in the first place and why should a random assassin have to buy them back?

   However, despite some things that seem just thrown in there to make the game similar to AC2, the gameplay is still pretty fun. The story and the things that happen make sense. Ezio has to go through these memory sequences because memory sequence 9 has something important in it. Since they can't randomly access memory sequence 9, you have to "live" through all of them I guess. The first couple are tutorial sequences basically, and get you used to using the Mercenaries, Thieves, and the Courtesans. I really, really like the Courtesans, they're definitely the best out of the three. The story is fun and refreshing because it's not the same place as AC2 was, and I didn't feel like it was boring at all. On a scale of 1 - 10, 1 being Modern AssShit 2 and 10 being The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, I'd rate Assassins Creed Brotherhood at about a 6. And since Ocarina of Time was so epic, it's rare for a game to get in the 8/9/10 range, so really anything above a 4 is worth playing 40-60 dollars for.

The Multiplayer 

   Wait, ACB has multiplayer? It seems like it would be weird to have multiplayer for this kind of game, but hey, multiplayer accessibility sells and I'm sure Ubisoft knew that. They, however, didn't just make some strange wanna-be Call of Duty with assassins, they made an entirely knew multiplayer experience which is just downright fucking awesome. I don't want to talk too much about what exactly is in the multiplayer, but if you click here you can check out a YouTube video by the one and only WiNGSPANTT which is a video of one of the game modes, and he commentates and gives a lot of tips and tricks. This multiplayer is definitely one of the most fun multiplayer experiences I've ever had. I'm pretty sure I've played more ACB online then Black Ops, because this multiplayer really doesn't get boring and it's different every time. It's much more relaxed too and not as competitive, you don't have try-hard caring about things like KDR and people trying to make cool montage clips for their pathetic YouTube channel.

All in all, buy this game despite the fact that your friends may say "but wat abot black opz?", because it's totally worth it. And also, if you don't buy it you will die a slow, painful death from my slow-acting poison. 

 

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PSN Game Review: Castle Crashers

I never really got into PSN Games much until pretty recently. And since most of the games are small, the reviews will be small, but hopefully they will provide enough information for you to be able to decide whether or not you actually want to buy the game. First on the list...

CASTLE CRASHERS

   Castle Crashers is made by The Behemoth, a developer I had never heard of before. This game originally was only out on the Xbox, until August 2010. As soon as it game out for the PS3, I bought it right away, and it was $15 dollars well spent. Castle Crashers is a side-scrolling beat-em-up type game with many unlockable characters.

   The game is set in a medieval world, and you play as a knight saving some princesses stolen by some evil guys (what else is new?). Although the back story is kind of basic, simplistic, and done a million times before, that still doesn't stop the beating up of monsters from being really fun. The game features up to 4-player Co-op, and also can be played online with other people.

   This game does have replayability unlike a lot of PSN games have, because when you beat the game with one of the four starting characters, you unlock a new character depending on which starting character you used. And there's also a third 'tier' of characters to unlock by beating the game with the character you unlocked after being the game the first time. Wait what? If you're confused, just click here for a playable characters flow chart to make both of our lives easier.

   For $15, this hack and slash cartoon-y game is well worth it. The developers definitely had fun with this one, as there are quite a few funny scenes/bosses/levels that you have to go through. Trust me, you'll know what I mean when you play the game. Oh, and I'd also like to mention that it isn't the easiest game in the world. Some of the bosses can be quite difficult, especially if you play alone (Although sometimes playing with others can make boss fights more difficult... cough cough bad connections cough cough). And the game also features an Insane Mode, which is extremely difficult. But hey, you get a trophy/achievement for it, so it's great for the trophy whores such as myself. Definitely go out and buy this game now, you won't regret it.

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Black Ops Review/Rant

Alright, well this blog is new, Black Ops is relatively new, so I may as well write a review about this game first.

Black Ops is by no means a bad game, it's fun to play for me. However Treyarch (aka 3arc) seems to have done a pretty sloppy job in the technical aspects of the game. Sure, the game looks nice, and the multiplayer has a whole new Wager Match mode and all of that good stuff, but the games non-visible aspects seem to be lacking.

For example, the anti-lag. The anti-lag coding has been the same ever since Call of Duty 4, and this is definitely a bad thing. Anti-lag itself is a good thing, there is some lag compensation so you don't actually have to lead a lagging target to get hit markers, but the anti-lag that this game uses is just old. I know that 3arc can do a better job with it, because they should know that there is always going to be lag and it's always going to piss people off, and it really shouldn't be too hard of a problem to fix with a patch.

Next, the gun stats. Now, most people don't care enough about games to actually learn how much damage each gun does over what range, and it's RPM and all of that. However, if you look at the stats (Found here: http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/4396/weaponefja2w.png), a majority of the guns are exactly the same. Just as an example, sniper rifles. Every single sniper rifle is 70 damage, 50 with a silencer. The only differences are very small: Recoil, clip size, and damage multipliers, and possibly other subtle differences other then the way the gun looks in-game. Oh, they also have different looking scopes (However, you can only actually see this if you're outputting in HD for some reason)

Gameplay-wise, I have to say this game is still fun. Although the Call of Duty series has become very noob-friendly, they seemed to have balanced out things like grenade launchers and flamethrowers. I thought when I first bought the game that those 2 objects would still be crazy overpowered, but the "Noob Tube" has been nerfed from the Modern Warfare 2 version, and is just like the grenade launcher from World at War (And is also called the 'Pro Pipe' by some, definitely a more appropriate name). For some reason though, when I first bought Modern Warfare 2 I played it for 3 straight months every day for hours on end before I got bored of it, Black Ops however, it took me 3-4 weeks before I stopped playing it, and to be honest I haven't put the game into my PS3 since before Christmas. The only time I have played it since then is at friends houses, and I really don't know why. I have a lot of interest in the game, and I watch YouTube commentators like WhiteBoy7thst (http://www.youtube.com/user/WhiteBoy7thst) who only play Black Ops, but I just don't have the motivation to pick up the game again and play it. Maybe I will though after writing this little review/rant.

Well anyways, if anyone actually reads this thanks for reading. I should probably give Black Ops an actual review eventually, because this was more of a rant and didn't talk about the actual game very much. And, if anyone actually sees this, leave a comment and let me know if you like this type of review/rant, or if you would like more of an actual review that talks more in-depth about the game and its pros/cons.

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