I talk about AC2 briefly over at M7 after spending a substantial amount of time with it yesterday, in case anyone's interested.

Haha, no no, no spoilers. :D

Mostly just comments on gameplay and how the game differs from the first. Which it does, hugely.

Well the game is positively huge, so I fully think it justifies the price tag. I bet GAME has some trade in deal you can make use of. :)

Ah yeah, if the core mechanics of the first game don't tickle your bones a lot, then it's prolly safer to wait.

That said, this is way more of a proper platformer now. You collect these seals that are hidden in secret rooms throughout the cities, and what you do is you find a secret door to enter and then it's a proper Sands of Time style traversal thing inside that you have to figure your way across.

I should prolly have mentioned that in my writeup actually.. oh well, something for the opinion later. :D

But yeah, games, AAAH, so many of them. I've also pegged a few to catch up on next year when the inevitable dry period comes.

It doesn't require much skill, I just know myself. We've agreed so closely on so many topics and games, these days I pretty much use my own likes and dislikes as a compass. :D

I'm just swinging by with a realisation I had. It's not detrimental to the game in any way, just a curious fact I would say. In the first AC, the locations felt very etheral to me.. riding towards Jerusalem and realising that.. that there is Jerusalem.. was very powerful. I'm not religious (nor an atheist I'll stress) but somehow those locations, and maybe that time period in general, somehow got to me.

Assassin's Creed 2 is technically set in exciting historical times, and maybe I just don't know my history well enough, but there's really never that moment where you kinda just stop and to a small degree experience the gravity of what is going on.

I'm gonna go on here because that's the way I am!

I had a similar experience with Tomb Raider Underworld. Now, Anniversary was a remake and couldn't be expected to deliver Legend type stuff narratively, but in Legend I had a moment of.. well awe I guess is the word for it. When you punch through the wall in that fakey Excalibur fortress/attraction level and you realise that what you entering is the *real* grave of Arthur, that gave me goosebumps.

I am of course able to separate fiction from history here, but in my heart's mind I guess they occupy the same space. The sensation of true, significant discovery is extremely fleeting and hard to capture but AC and Legend both did it for me.

Underworld bungled that with its norse god stuff. For me I think it just got too fantastical, but it also lacked that decisive moment of realisation. Likewise I can sort of look at the historical parts that make up the whole of AC2 and understand in theory why it's significant, but it hasn't actually *hit me*. Not yet anyway.

As I said earlier, that doesn't affect the game at all - which is superb (yeah I'm upgrading it a bit here, being 9 hours in now) - but it's still interesting stuff to think about.

I agree with basically everything you're saying, but you're definitely underselling the combat. It's really, really expanded on in this game. You've got a shit ton of different weapons you can either buy or use after disarming dudes, and the hand to hand combat is like its own little Streets of Rage where you can do grabs -> into headbutts, punches, knees or throws. You can also simply pounce on dudes instead of stabbing them by hitting B while running and locking on to enemies/thieves running off with your money, or tackle them by doing the same without targeting.

All of it is tightened up too, with counters actually requiring proper timing on your part. Certainly, every area of the game is improved tons, but I thought I'd just emphasise this since you glossed it over a bit unfairly I thought.

IRAIPTOIR: You can dye your clothes, purchase different armor pieces and stuff throughout the game. When you start out, you play as straight up normal Ezio without fancy.. well.. pants.. so no, not "the entire game", but once you get the assassin's garb, sure. I'm currently donning some sweet Ocra coloured clothes and have recently invested in some expensive armor for my legs and chest. Looking right spiffy I am, doing thief races over rooftops at the moment. :D

I could seriously see this finishing as my fave game of the year, but I'll have to reserve that kind of statement until I have some perspective on what actually came out THIS YEAR. Sooo foggy for me for the first half. It's been a completely insane year for me, with this type of character movement based action adventures turning my legs into jelly.

You may or may not wanna know this, but I have a little tip.

It's not to do with the story or anything major, but just in case I half spoiler tag it.

When you're renovating places around the mansion be sure to find them afterwards. You can climb down the well, enter the mine, etc, and they all hide money and stuff inside. It's all Zelda-esque. :D