[360, PS3] Assassin's Creed 2

[Silent_Buddha]

I'll always prefer high production quality pre-rendered CG movies to anything else for video games. Diablo II for example or Warcraft III had excellant CG movies. I absolutely LOVE those.

After that I'd say Live Action would be next up for cutscenes if done well. If not done well then they are horrible.

And last on the list. Cutscenes using in game models, scenery are the absolutely worst and bottom of the barrel for me. Nothing screams cheap and skimping on quality than cutscenes using in game models.

Regards,
SB

 

[betan]

Live action rarely works except for games like c&c (futuristic setting, far away battlefield camera).

 

[corduroygt]

and famous actors...
Also if anyone remembers, the original need for speed back in 1993 or 1994 had video footage of the exotic cars being tested by Road&Track. I loved those too.

 

[suryad]

That was a pretty sweet vid! Thanks!

 

[Tap In]

can not wait for this game on Tuesday.

I put off MW2 for this and by all early accounts it is everything that we wanted the 1st to be and more.

allegedly 20-25 hours first time through with the side quests.

 

[PhilB]

First game has a special place in my heart and this looks even more amazing.

By the way, if anyone wants to try and get it early there're reports that several small chains and even certain gamestops are breaking street dates.

Also, here's the full lineage movie - prequel to the events of the game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcE8xJkK6t4&feature=channel

Can't wait!

 

[gokickrocks]

AC2 is much better than the first, its more varied while giving you the option to explore of course

enemies are harder to counter now that some have armor, unlike AC1 where you could pretty much counter every move from a hundred guards and never actually initiate an attack of your own

plenty of customizations and hidden items for those that like to collect everything

my only complaint is that the camera angles when you are in a confined area are a bit of an annoyance

also, i recommend turning on subtitles before starting the game as a lot of italian is spoken and it gives you translations, unless you dont care much for the story or dialog

 

[PhilB]

First review is in - 9.2 from ign. For reference, they gave the first one a 7.5. Can't wait to pick this up later today!

 

[RobertR1]

My copy should be there when I get home. Quite excited to play this. All the reviews say the repetitive parts are gone. That was my biggest issue with the first game.

 

[ShadowRunner]

Got the game today, played for couple hours. Not much to say so far, the pace is slooooooow just been doing silly little errands hope it picks up soon!

 

[Arwin]

Got the game today, played for couple hours. Not much to say so far, the pace is slooooooow just been doing silly little errands hope it picks up soon!

Reviews are dropping all over the place confirming your experience - first few hours are slow, then it gets good.

Eurogamer 9/10
Edge 8/10

 

[Lightman]

I had all 1000 achievements for previous Xbox version! Can't wait to get my hands on new one

 

[L. Scofield]

Damn, the PC version is still far away

 

[Arwin]

Damn, the PC version is still far away

Last time it was the same - a colleague of mine lost patience and bought a PS3 just so he could play AC1 on it. Since then he's stuck to the PS3, and if he's not getting AC2 on day one, it's probably because he's not yet finished UC2.

 

[gokickrocks]

i finally beat it, game says it took me 18 hours and thats just doing the main missions

For those that remember the ending to the first, this one leaves questions as well and sets it up for a third iteration

The first 2 assassinations are a bit slow since the game is basically a long tutorial at that point

 

[Tap In]

picked it up tonight gonna check it out later

 

[Laa-Yosh]

Had to buy one (shame on Ubi ) but it already cost me half a night's sleep.
Lots of GTA4-like small things, but ironically it's less about the killing, many missions can be completed without it at all, particularly the side quests.

Too bad the graphics aren't entirely up to my expectations, far too much pop-in, lowres shadows, and some of the character textures and their mouth animation are downright scary.
Why use normal mapping and specular shading if they don't make much use of it at all?
Oh, and the countryside is kinda empty at places... seems like they had to rush those levels.

But overall a very, very good game from the first 6 hours

 

[Arwin]

PSP version apparently also up on the store today, so if someone has both let me know if the extra weapons are worth it.

 

[gokickrocks]

Had to buy one (shame on Ubi ) but it already cost me half a night's sleep.

time flies by playing this game, if you ever pick up the controller to play make sure you are free for 4+ hours cause you wont want to put it down

 

[Laa-Yosh]

It's also that they have a very clever reward system where the next thing worth playing for is always just a short time away. Another twist in the story, money to buy a new piece of armor or weaponry, time to collect your income... and I haven't even looked into the side quests yet.

Pretty good game design, it seems the team took the criticism of the first AC very seriously and really wanted to impress this time.