Assassins Creed Revelations Review

Assassins Creed Revelations is the fourth main installment of Assassins Creed from Ubisoft Montreal. It's the last game of Ezio Auditore as a main protagonist. It is a historical open world game that takes place in 16th century Constantinople.

Constantinople is an awesome city. It is the largest city ever in an Assassins Creed game. While Rome had a large area, there was a lot of open space. Constantinople is more vibrant and has very rich color hues compared to Rome in Brotherhood which was a bit bland. The landmarks in Revelations are based on actual buildings in Constantinople, however they are the most expensive thing to buy in the game.

In present day story, Desmond was in a coma at the end of Brotherhood. In Revelations his memories of Altair and Ezio has been tangled with his memories, and he needs to categorize them for him to get out of the Animus. Since the Animus is in safe mode, the HUD Interface is almost the exact same interface as the first Assassins Creed. In safe mode, Desmond is on Animus Island where he sees Subject 16. The most unfortunate thing of Subject 16 is not explaining more of the 30 glyphs he left behind in Assassins Creed II and Brotherhood. Another thing underutilized of Subject 16 was his experiences he lived through in the Animus. Like if he relived through Altair and Ezio or only partially. Subject 16 left behind many clues and questions and it was disappointing that Desmond didn't ask questions. Especially at the end of Brotherhood of finding all the glyphs when he says a lot of cryptic things and when Desmond wants to know more, Subject 16 says goodbye.

The story takes place right after Brotherhood. Ezio travels to Masyaf to discover what was hidden the library. Ezio learns that the Templars are trying to open the door, but they only have one of five keys. The majority of the game is trying to find the keys in Constantinople before the Templars do, which the Templars never do. This makes the campaign the weakest part of the game. While the game makes it feel there is a rush against time, it never feels that way. When Ezio collects the keys, you get to relive Altair's memories. The Altair parts of the game are very good, however they are short. However the ending of the game is one of the best endings of any videogame I have ever played. It is a great emotional ending, that ties up the stories of Altair and Ezio. From a fan that has beaten all the main installments of Assassins Creed, it does a great job of closing their stories. If Ubisoft Montreal tried to make any more games of Altair and Ezio it would just be spinoffs and prequels.

The controls has been changed up. Instead of the 1 circle in Assassins Creed 2 and Brotherhood that pulls out your inventory, Revelations has 2 circles of inventory. One for primary weapons and health, and the other for secondary weapons and bombs. The left circle of inventory is controlled by the left analog stick and the right circle of inventory is controlled by the right analog stick.

Somethings that have remained unchanged in the Assassins Creed series are, beggars asking for money, and trespassing on rooftops is punishable by death by guards that randomly patrol on top of buildings. In order to un fog the map, Ezio has to climb viewpoints and synchronize. However you only need to climb up 22 unlike 24 in Brotherhood, and 60+ in Assassins Creed 2.

The soundtrack for the Assassins Creed series has always been solid, and Assassins Creed Revelations is one of the finest scores for any Assassins Creed game. Jesper Kyd and Lorne Balfe co-composed 80 tracks for Revelations. During my time progressing through the single player campaign, each new chapter I'd played had different background music.

For the new gameplay additions, the hookblade allows Ezio to scale up buildings 30% faster, which is a huge plus. Anything that speeds of transportation time in an open world game is a huge plus. The bombcrafting while a bit confusing at first, is another empowering feature of the game. In one mission where you must be undetected and there is 30 guards patrolling the path, a wide radius explosive bomb can easily kill 5 Janissaries. Which the Janissaries have to be countered attacked three times before they die. When I discovered I can kill 5 of them at one time with explosive bombs, it made the remainder stealth missions tolerable. The questionable additions to Revelations was the tower defense game and the Desmond first person platforming. The Tower defense game was tolerable but it wasn't necessary. The Desmond first person platforming could be related to Portal only with no portal gun. In the first person platforming levels, Desmond recalls his past, but all of it is reiterated material from Assassins Creed 1. Which information revealed that he lived on a farm that trained assassins, he escaped and became a bartender, and he got kidnapped by Abstergo. What makes the first person platforming levels not so bad, is if you fail it is an instant respawn at last checkpoint. It is not a 10 to 15 second wait after failing a mission. If you had to wait 10 to 15 seconds for failing at any part of the first person platforming in would have been the worse addition ever to Assassins Creed.

One of the problems of Revelations was the conquering Templar Dens. In order to conquer a Templar Den, you had to kill the captain before he runs away and hide. When the Captain hides, you have to wait 20 minutes in order to reconquer the den again. When you do conquer the Templar Den, it becomes an Assassin Den. However if Ezio's notoriety goes up to 100% it can get invaded by Templars, and that is when you must do Tower Defense mode. If you don't do Tower Defense Mode it becomes a Templar Den again, and you must kill the Templar captain before he runs away and hide. That was the most annoying part of the game for me.

For multiplayer it has multiplayer.

As a fan that has played the previous installments of Assassins Creed, Revelations is a game not to be missed. For new timers new to the series, I suggest starting with Assassins Creed 2. Overall, Assassins Creed Revelations is an amazing game. I give it a 9 out of 10.

Review Considerations

-Paid $34.99 at Best Buy on Black Friday

-Played on X360

-Doesn't care at all for multiplayer in the series

Midnight Club LA Review and comparisons to Midnight Club 2

Midnight Club LA released by Rockstar San Diego is an excellent arcade racing open world game. It takes place in the most detailed rendition of Los Angeles so far.

The main story is about an unnamed white protagonist racer starting with a cheap tuner car and becoming city champion. The story is forgettable and the characters are also forgettable. You progress by winning races, and unlocking new cars, and parts. There is also abilities that are gained by racing such as slow mo, ramming, roar, and EMP. The slow mo helps on tight turns, the ramming let's the car for a few seconds ram other cars off the road, the roar makes the cars get out of the way, and the EMP temporarily slows down cars that are near you. Of all the power up abilities, the slow mo power is the best one.

The man that guides you is a Eastern European guy name Karol. He is the less obnoxious type of Roman Bellic. He gives you tips along the way by cellphone. Along the way there are characters that call you on cell phone asking if you want to race, which you can decline every one of them, but they happen every half an hour in free roam. The main story is long, and takes about 25 to 30 hours to complete.

Outside of the main story missions, there is side missions such as sprint, circuit racing, red light racing, and highway racing. The side racing missions are on the map HUD with the main missions which makes it confusing when trying to find a main mission race. To isolate a main mission race, you need to go to the sub menu of active missions to progress through the game. In the later stages it gets more annoying since there is more cops on patrol. When your car is in pursuit the last toggled mission gets reset. During this time you must escape the cops to do missions again. One of the downsides of this, is having to commute to next race objective than already starting it, and if cops are there it lengthens the commute.

For the multiplayer there is multiplayer. However, it is close to nonexistant However if you can master the motorcycle, you will never lose to another car. If and only if you never crash or take a wrong turn in a race.

When I first heard that Midnight Club LA was coming out, I was a bit disappointed, because they have already done L.A. in Midnight Club 2, but Midnight Club LA as a city is bigger and better in every way. One thing I missed about LA compared to 2 was that Midnight Club 2 took place in different cities that felt completely different. Paris and Tokyo was a nice change of pace from Los Angeles.

Comparing to Midnight Club 2, it is not as brutally difficult. There is no 5 to 8 minute race where if you make one wrong turn in a bunch of alleys you automatically lose the race. Also there is difficulty sliders from very easy to extreme. The benefit of racing on higher difficulties is more experience and cash.

Midnight Club 2 jumping off ramps physics was the most crazy fun absurd physics I've experienced in a racing game. In Midnight Club LA it is scaled back.

Where Midnight Club LA falls in everyway to Midnight Club 2 is the main story and characters.

Midnight Club LA tried to be serious while being fun, and failed on both regards. Midnight Club LA tows the ESRB E 10+ line and never strays the course. The protagonist and the racers go back in forth with mild ten year old put downs. 90% of the dialogue is I'm a better racer than you followed with a lame joke insult. If Midnight Club LA had a Teen rating it probably wouldn't have been lame in that regard.

Overall Midnight Club LA is a solid open world racing game, that fans of previous Midnight Club games shouldn't miss.

Battlefield 3 Marketing Folly

Battlefield 3 according to EA was going to light the FPS genre by storm. Offering an amazing singleplayer, multiplayer, and co-op experience that would not just rival but surpass the mega successful Call of Duty.

The EA marketing department said that they spent over 100 million dollars on marketing as in one followed by eight zeros. They were explicitly said they were competing head to head with Call of Duty.

Some faults of the way Battlefield 3 was being marketed was trying to beat Call of Duty by being in the same contemporary setting. When a game becomes a mega successful blockbuster, for example Halo, Call of Duty, Gears of War, and Grand Theft Auto, they never once position themselves as going head to head against what is currently the most successful game in the genre they are competing against. Nor do they market themselves as the "Successful game franchise Killer." Killzone back in 2005 was marketed as the "Halo Killer" and that game fell through oblivion. When Call of Duty debuted in 2003, Activision didn't trash EA about their World War II shooters and said it would be more successful than Medal of Honor. Battlefield 3, while clearly outperforming last years Medal of Honor, it will be secondary in total sales to Modern Warfare 3.