Assassins Creed Again
Was reading a full magazine review of Assassins Creed today, which blatantly gave away the apparent plot twist in the game. Ok, so I had heard from a number of sources that this was a major talking point for this particular title. The game itself gives away this twist very early on, which does seem to quench the experience somewhat. Having said that, this may be due to the fact that this particular twist does tend to conflict with the setting and general game mechanic. A better option might have been to make it public early on in the development, leaving room for further twists as the gamer approaches the climax. You never know...
A final thought though, in the event that the development team had left 'it' to the end, then the game would certainly go all M. Night Shyamalan on us!
Inverness
Had a boat race in
Inverness last weekend. It involved a 3am start in order to drive up to
Inverness, unload the boats, etc and then race. Actually, it wasn't so much a race as a time trial, so every boat started at different times but it was a 5k course which took about 20 minutes of hard rowing. The whole thing generally went well, but our boat was an old relic from the 60s, so it was heavier and slower than most of the others. Was absolutely shattered when I got home, but it was well worth it...
Now I'm off to catch up with my Uni work that seriously slipped down the priority ladder...
Assassins Creed
Assassins Creed has certainly been one of those next-gen games to catch my attention, and although I've been loosely following it's progress, I must admit, I didn't expect it to be released so soon. Anyway, I've just looked at a few American reviews of the game, and they both surprised me to say the least. This game was hyped as the experience to define next-gen, and it certainly was on my purchase list, but now I'm not so sure. One article heads the whole review as the 'the first next-gen disappointment', with the other allocating it a very average 3.5 stars. Although the game is far from mediocre, I would have expected much better, and it doesn't seem like it's going to go down in history as a legendary title.
The game is designed to be fully free roaming, whereby the player can scale any building in any of the game's 3 entirely living, breathing cities. This already sounds fantastic, however, I get the impression from these reviews that the game is actually all a display of next-gen technical prowess, with no 'glue' to hold it all together. Apparently, it's very repetitive and also has an 'dry' combat system.
I don't know what to make of the criticism, I really does look the part after all. Will it be worth the cash?
Tennis Games
Looking forward to getting my hands on
Virtua Tennis 3 in a few weeks. I played the 2 prequels to death on the D
reamcast. I don't play too many sports games in general, but there are a number of excellent examples of modern tennis
sims - you can certainly enjoy them even if you're not too keen on tennis. The
Virtua Tennis series seems to focus more on arcade action with a very simple control system and pick up and play
gameplay. The first 2 titles had no 3 or 5 set match options, although this has been rectified with the 3rd installment, presumably to the relief of most fans.
The Top Spin series is equally addictive, but definitely from more of a simulation perspective. The developers have managed to implement a control system whereby, you can strike the ball very hard but radically increase the risk of sending it out. Likewise with drop shots. It may not sound like much, but in practice it makes for many exciting points, especially when you're stretching to reach a ball. Do you go all out and crack it down the line for an amazing winner?
A Mathematical Theorem
Was reading a textbook (which will remain nameless) for my project the other day. At the beginning of one early paragraph, it clearly states "All mathematicians were very young when they were born". I'm not sure what to make of this theorem.
Hmmm, it seems obvious, but there might be a way to disprove it, possibly by counterexample or contradiction, even...?
