Assassin's Creed (PC) Review 

Assassin’s Creed (PC) Review
After much (or very little, depending on how I tell it) deliberation, I give you my mini-review of Assassin's Creed.

I won't give away plot elements, or the ending or any spoiler of any kind. I will deal only with the grit and grime. And the game is quite grimy. In a great way.

Now, I'll start by saying that I rarely have had as much fun as I did when I played an hour of this game. The freedom of it is unprecedented.

The combat is extremely satisfying, and there's a lot of it. At the very beginning of the game you don't have the amazing Counter Kill ability. But after a little while you discover it, and it is just swell.

As the name implies, some guy swings a sword at your face-- you counter and then perform one of dozens of "quick kill" moves: knocking him down and gutting him like a fish; pushing him back and burying your blade in his shoulder/neck area; deftly spinning around and slashing diagonally to tear his throat.

Every element in the game is responsive to what you, the player, do. You stab a soldier in the street, the crowd screams and runs. More guards rush at you. Kill enough of them and the last one or two may choose to run for their pathetic, pointless lives. Then, you may chase them and plunge your dagger in their ear, or let them run and warn the others. That usually leads to more bloody antics, though, so be warned.

For grown men wearing suits of plate and chain mail, they climb like monkeys. They can and bloody-well will chase you all up and down the city, howling insults at you. Sometimes they throw rocks.

Also, there are archers to worry about.

Not much satisfies more than bounding up a wall, racing across the roof and tossing one of those suckers off the edge. Look down at his sprawled form and you will see the panic begin to take effect below. "Guards, guards!" "Infidel!"

Now, a note on religion and race: as Altair, you kill without discrimination. That's important. The game would be a mite inflammatory if you only killed a certain creed. Luckily, that's not a problem here.

Personally, I prefer murdering Crusaders. Only because it's hilarious to hear them curse you in French, English and German.

That reminds me. Y'know how Mario has you collect Red Coins and things of that nature? Well, this game also has... "collectibles". But rather than scour the land for mere coins... there's a side-quest/collectible quest where you have to search the Holy Land for Templar Knights to butcher. These warriors are each much stronger than you in the beginning, and they attack on sight. But as the sworn enemies of your Order, they have to die (apparently).

They are men like any other, however, and often a silent approach is favorable...

Graphics... what can I say, really? They're the best I've ever seen. The Behemoth (my PC, 'case you missed that bit of info) runs the game splendidly. I only had to set one of the options one notch down. Even with that slight down-grade, the game looks amazing. Mere words cannot describe it's sheer awe-inspiring holiness.

I know there's lots of stuff I omitted. But I think that discovery is the best part of any game. So, I chose to give you a light sampler. The main course is yours to try.

Of course, you could always go to IGN.com or something. But I think the best way to learn about a game is from a player, not a professional reviewer. Besides, I don't like any of the reviewer sites much anymore.

A lot of their decisions have "political" reasonings behind them.

In my opinion, the gaming industry has become way too self-important and absorbed in all the wrong issues.

Got a little sidetracked, it seems...

Conclusion! If you like running, climbing, jumping, chasing, fighting, assassinating action-- you pretty much owe it to yourself to buy this game. The requirements are a little steep, so just make sure you read them over.

For your convenience, I've added the requirements below.

In order to play this game properly, your PC MUST meet or exceed these minimum requirements:
Supported OS: Windows XP / Vista (only)
Processor: Dual core processor 2.6 GHz Intel Pentium D or AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ or better recommended)
RAM: 2 GB (3 GB recommended)
Video Card: 256 MB DirectX 10.0–compliant video card or DirectX 9.0–compliant card with Shader Model 3.0 or higher (512 MB video card recommended) (see supported list)*
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0 or 10.0 compliant sound card (5.1 sound card recommended)
DirectX Version: DirectX 10.0 libraries (included on disc)
DVD-ROM: DVD-ROM dual-layer drive
Hard Drive Space: 12 GB
Peripherals Supported: Keyboard, mouse, optional controller (Xbox 360 Controller for Windows recommended)
*Supported Video Cards at Time of Release: ATI RADEON X1300-1950 / HD 2000 / 3000 series NVIDIA GeForce 6600-6800 / 7 / 8 / 9 series
Laptop versions of these cards may work but are NOT supported. These chipsets are the only ones that will run this game.
NOTICE: This game contains technology intended to prevent copying that may conflict with some disc and virtual drives.

Julian R. Traas

August 29^th, 2008 

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Wii) Review

Julian R. Traas

To those of us who have been fans of Nintendo® for the better part of our lives, the Metroid® saga is no stranger. Why, ever since its conception it has been one of Nintendo’s flagships—like The Legend of Zelda®.

With that title comes a vital responsibility. Every successive game in the series must be better than the last. Sometimes these sequels fall miserably short of that goal… but that is not the case here, rest assured.

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption starts off with a bang as Samus lands her ship (the player actually pushes all the buttons, using the Wii-mote to perform the actions) in the docking bay of the Galactic Federation Starship (G.F.S) Olympus. She and the three other cream-of-the-crop Bounty Hunters have been called in by the Federation to perform a special, super-important mission.

The Aurora Units, advanced organic computers interconnected by a network, have been infected by a mysterious virus. Of course, the nefarious Space Pirates are the prime (ha-ha, get it?) suspects—not in the least bit because they just blew the G.F.S. Valhalla to tiny space-bits.

So, it’s up to the Bounty Hunters, each with their unique abilities, to travel to the separate planets and administer the cure to the virus manually. The task must be done physically because—and this is great—the network is automatically shut down when an Aurora Unit has been compromised.

Naturally, mere seconds after the debriefing is over, those dastardly Space Pirates attack the Olympus. All soldiers report to their battle stations, the Aurora Unit on the ship repeats “Condition Red, Condition Red” a few times, etc.

The player proceeds to blast a path through the starship’s invaders to attempt to reach her ship ‘cause, guess what, the Pirates’ main assault force landed on the planet below, Norion, and that’s where Samus is needed most.

It’s not an ultimate, original opening sequence to the story, but it still works and is most enjoyable.

Anyway, nothing more will be revealed about the plot, but the first bit that was described above serves as the player’s tutorial on all the movements, targeting and shooting aspects of the game. And the whole battle sequence is complete with some pretty cool animations and interesting settings for skirmishes.

Since the game works with a bonus system, depending on how the player performs throughout the adventure, additional points are granted for, say, saving the life of a wounded G.F. Trooper.

Don’t let that Trooper get sucked out into the black void of space… whoops! Too late.

On to the control scheme. This game is the most easy to understand first-person shooter ever. Period. I’m not pulling your leg.

Aiming is all done with the Wii-mote, and so are various other actions like jumping in Morph Ball form (finally one doesn’t have to bomb oneself to jump anymore!).

To open doors and activate machinery, the player most times has to walk up to the box and follow the onscreen prompts to complete the mini-puzzle. These are never boring. I’m not sure why, but even though they’re so simple, they’re good fun and give you respite from all the jumping and killing and scanning.

Oh, yes. There’s lots of scanning. Scan everything! The more the player scans, the more bonus points he/she gets. And there are truck loads of objects to scan. But there’s another use for it, scanning tells Samus how those darned machines work, more often than not, so get to it!

Did I say “scan” enough in that paragraph?

Fighting is amazingly fluid, and never gets redundant. All the enemies behave differently and have certain weaknesses. There are some foes that can only be destroyed by latching onto them with the Grapple Beam (which is found early on) and yanking back quickly with the Nunchuk. Now, that’s just satisfying on a whole new level. Pulling one’s enemies apart… ah, the pure, palpable joy.

So, take heart, the controls are just awesome. There’s no disappointment here.

Sound? With Metroid it’s always been the little things, like the creature you can’t see that is busily making gurgling noises, or the door that goes fwwht after being blasted. Every teeny tiny sound feels in its proper place. The machines buzz away, the Space Pirates’ battle cry reverberates off the walls, and when Samus takes a nasty hit she lets the player know.

No complaints with sound either. The Metroid universe is brought to life with fitting musical touches and the different effects really give it more of an immersive quality.

The graphics in this game are at least twice as good as the previous Prime game on the ‘Cube. At least! And for the record, the other two Primes weren’t exactly ugly ducklings.

Everything glows. From Samus’ suit, all the way down to the item pickups. It all just looks so amazing. I like shiny things.

The Wii was not designed for Godlike graphical capabilities like the other consoles, but that doesn’t stop the games from appearing really good. Just remember Twilight Princess, if there are any doubts. That looked great, and it ran on the Wii engine without any issues.

One small touch I enjoy about this game is when the Scan Visor is selected, you can see Samus’ face reflected off the glass (or space glass, or whatever it is).

Metroid is one of the best looking titles on the Wii and probably will remain on its throne of graphical glory until Super Smash Brothers Brawl comes along to claim the torch in December.

The value of this game is solid. Buy it, and get hours and hours of head-scratching puzzles and teeth-clenching action. Even when through with it, the player will likely feel the need to revisit the fiery corridors of Bryyo, or the floating platforms of SkyTown. And those blasted bonus points will keep he/she searching every nook and cranny for shortcuts and people to save.

Top notch action-adventure, that’s the value of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.

Plot: 7/10

Not exceedingly original, but gets the job done.

Controls: 10/10

Believe me, if I could find something wrong with them, I’d say so.

Sound: 10/10

Again, no idea what to complain about, here.

Graphics: 10/10

Judged based on what other Wii-games look like (not a console-to-console comparison). A better looking Wii title simply has not been released.

Value: 8/10

A 15 hour explosion of exploration and tech-heavy battles. While not the longest experience, you will play it again because there are loads of secrets you will miss. Unless you’re cheating with a strategy guide and, if so, get out!

The unfiltered entertainment, in my opinion, makes up for its brevity.

Overall: 9.5/10