This has been another awesome Christmas. No stress, no fuss, just good eating, great company, and a crazy amount of presents.
First, the presents. I wont enumerate them completely but the items relevant to what I talk about here include three video games (Super Mario Galaxy, Assassins Creed, and Folklore), Wii remotes and Sixaxis controllers (shared), and a Hello Kitty Stratocaster with practice amp and numerous Hello Kitty branded accessories(!).
First, the games.
After about 3-4 hours of playtime I feel the negative reviews of Assassins Creed are unfair. It’s not the second coming of video games but I find it quite enjoyable, particularly jumping from rooftop to rooftop like a medieval Batman. For nothing else I’d stick with it just to experience the story, which in my opinion, is probably the freshest new game IP in years.
In the past three days Lexy and I have put in about 21 hours of Mario Galaxy. It’s my opinion that this is indeed the best game ever made. Despite being on the Wii I have to say it’s probably the prettiest game on the current generation of consoles (not accounting pixels of course - but design). It is a bit on the easy side, but I do not consider this a fault. I’ve yet to think to myself “this game isn’t fair.” When it does become difficult you feel that with just a few more tries you can accomplish what’s vexing you. This is SO unlike Mario Sunshine. If I had one complaint it would be that the hub area (the Starship) isn’t as rich as Delfino Plaza in Sunshine. You could spend hours just tooling around Delfino sniffing out secrets. The secrets that are in the Starship, such as they are, are quite shallow in comparison.
I can’t yet comment on Folklore - I haven’t had time to put it in yet. But from the demos I’ve played I’m going to enjoy it quite a bit.
Now, the guitar. I’ve been keen to take up an instrument again lately. My last foray into music (despite being limited) was great if only for one thing - it really helped boost the self esteem. On a lark I suggested that I might want a Hello Kitty instrument and lo - there it was on Christmas morning! I haven’t managed to learn a thing so far but I suppose it’s early yet.
2 responses so far ↓
1 Aaron // Dec 30, 2007 at 3:55 pm
When I first heard about Assassins Creed, it sounded like the best game ever. I’ve always had an interest in medieval history and the chance to be a bad-ass assassin during the 3rd crusade sounded like a lot of fun.
But then came the reviews. The reviews from sources I trusted gave it abysmal marks. I was pretty gutted that it wasn’t going to be the game I thought it could have been.
However, after talking to friends who’ve bought it and finding it cheap, I took the plunge anyway.
Yes, the interaction with the free-roam world is pretty limited. Yes, there’s some boring bits in the game. Yes, there needs to be ten times as much dialogue for the city dwellers.
But it’s really caught my attention and I’m now about two thirds of the way through it. Assassins Creed is a stunningly beautiful game and I love the combat system. The animation is so fluid and the cities really feel alive. I’m taking my time with the game and it’s great finding all of its hidden secrets. Surprisingly, I’m not even hating the sci-fi angle on the story.
Personally, I think it’s a lot more enjoyable than Bioshock - a game widely hailed as Game Of The Year ™.
As always, the BEST review is from Zero Punctuation: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/zeropunctuation/2694-Zero-Punctuation-Assassin-s-Creed
2 Jim // Dec 31, 2007 at 1:26 pm
I have to agree with your assessment on Super Mario Galaxy. I am so hopelessly addicted to that game. My poor Guitar Hero guitar (Wiitar?) is gathering dust because of it.
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