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Assassin's Creed II - The |OT|

TheSeks

Blinded by the luminous glory that is David Bowie's physical manifestation.
No, the weapon pick up system is kinda shitty. But you don't really need to use if it you use the PSP connectivity and get the Bloodline's final boss' weapon that pretty much owns everyone in 2-3 hits for a good 3/4th of the game.

Up to Memory Sequence 9
(of 14)
. Enjoying the game, but yeah, the control and weird freeze/platforming freezing is annoying. But it doesn't stop me from enjoying the game and story.

Moment of the game for me was memory sequence 8: Climb the castle. Get over the target. Drop-hang. Wait... DROP! *equip smoke bomb* BAM!

Me: "I'M THE GODDAMN BATMAN, BITCHES!"
(Double-stabby stabby Brutesx4)
(High-profile assassinate the target)
[Smoke clears]

Me: "Fuck yeah, awesome." :lol

Also yeah: The Assassian's tombs are pure joy. Probably the best new addition to the series.
 

jett

D-Member
pakkit said:
Am I the only one that almost immediately changed the language settings to Italian? The English dubbing with "hey let's throw in a few words of Italian dialect to remind the audience that this isn't in America" really annoyed me, although now, as a consequence the introductory non-Italians in the real world are all Italian too.

Why can't developer's have a "let's have people of certain dialects speak in their own language" option? The game has full English and Italian dubbing, so it shouldn't really be all that hard.

And yes, I'm absolutely nit-picking because otherwise, this game is fabulous so far. I can't wait for a Mirror's Edge/Assassin's Creed cross-breed. They both have their strengths and weaknesses in their platforming.

You realize Italian wasn't spoken in either Florence or Venice, right.
 

TheSeks

Blinded by the luminous glory that is David Bowie's physical manifestation.
noire said:
During my fight against the
Spaniard
, I tried to use a smokebomb. Like 10 enemies immediately around me and none of them were effected by it. Really shitty.

Weird. I haven't had issues with the smoke bomb. I do wish I could hotkey it on the PS3 as it's annoying having to go to the weapon wheel for it and then tap up to stabby stabby people with the hidden blade. :|
 

CrankyJay

Banned
noire said:
Beat this last night. Didn't care for the ending, but whatever.

Close enough to platinum that I'll probably grab the remaining 49 feathers just to get it. I will feel no shame in finding a map online.

I used a map too. Way too many games in my backlog.
 

bengraven

Member
I'm way LTTP on this game, started playing it a couple weeks ago on PC.

I have to say that this is seriously one of my top 5 games of the last few years.
 

TheSeks

Blinded by the luminous glory that is David Bowie's physical manifestation.
noire said:
Close enough to platinum that I'll probably grab the remaining 49 feathers just to get it. I will feel no shame in finding a map online.

Used a map as well for Platinum. Can't be assed to look through the sandbox for hidden stuff.

Also "What. The. Fuck." Yeah, I said the same thing as well Desmond/Ezio at the ending. What the hell is going on? Suddenly we're going from
"TEMPLARS WANTING TO RULE THE WORLD IS BAD."
To some serious Halo/Mass Effect
"WE WERE AN ADVANCED CIVILIZATION AND SHIT GOT REAL AND WE MADE THESE THINGS TO WARN YOU"
going on. Does Brotherhood explain/expand this storyline to where the ending of 2 will actually make sense?

Also I'm kinda laughing at the "you must be stealthy" bit at the end. I murdered about 100 templar/guards and no desynch. But if I get spotted in the "stealth" section of that area (not that it's impossible to get past this without being spotted. But I did screw up once climbing something and then attempting to double stab instead of just getting close to double-stab automatically) it's a no-no. WTF?

Anyway, besides that the ending (besides the WTF bit) was pretty satisfying.

"No... killing you won't bring my family back. (Walks off)"
Fucking badass, Ezio. :D

Edit: Oh yeah, "corrupting"/hiding DLC in the main storyline/"DNA" of the game is a dick move, Ubisoft. :|
 

Stallion Free

Cock Encumbered
TheSeks said:
Edit: Oh yeah, "corrupting"/hiding DLC in the main storyline/"DNA" of the game is a dick move, Ubisoft. :|
I played the game on PC where the DLC is just built in and while I enjoyed the DLC, it did hurt the pacing of the game quite a bit and didn't add much to the overall story.
 

jarosh

Member
i played ac2 and brotherhood in italian as well and it just felt right and made so much more sense. it helps that the voice acting was excellent too.

jett said:
You realize Italian wasn't spoken in either Florence or Venice, right.
that's not really correct. florentine, especially the one spoken in the 14th and 15th century, essentially built the basis for modern italian and is about as close as you could get to what we know as italian today. even venetian (and what's survived of it today) is now considered simply an italian dialect, although it did differ quite a bit from florentine several centuries ago. nevertheless, it is certainly MUCH closer to italian than english. i'd say having people speak italian in 15th century venice is a lot more authentic than hearing americans speak english with thick fake italian accents throwing in the occasional (oddly pronounced) modern italian word or expression. as for florence: not even worth arguing about for the reasons i mentioned above.
 

Binabik15

Member
LTTP on pc.

My copy just arrived and now I´m wondering what kind of tweaks I should us in RadeonPro, if any, to get the best experience/performance.

I´m on a i5 750, stock Radeon 5850 (well, slider set to max), 4 gigs DDR3, 64 bit Windows 7 and a 1080p tv.

I have ZERO experience with RadeonPro, since it was crashing all the time.
 
Guess what I just found out?

Apparently save games with the disc version don't work with the download version from the PlayStation Store. At least, not for me.

ALSO, to this day I cannot make a UPLAY account.
 

Stackboy

Member
Picked this up for 360 for cheap recently. Loving it. I'm not the type to play through a game and be compelled to do everything, but I really like all the options.

Will move on to AC:B about 6 months after finishing this one, I would imagine.
 
Stackboy said:
Picked this up for 360 for cheap recently. Loving it. I'm not the type to play through a game and be compelled to do everything, but I really like all the options.

Will move on to AC:B about 6 months after finishing this one, I would imagine.

AC:B has even more stuff to do.
 

An-Det

Member
I'm playing through this for the first time as well, I just finished the first tomb. It's fantastic so far. I loved the first game, but damn if this doesnt destroy it in almost every aspect.
 
An-Det said:
I'm playing through this for the first time as well, I just finished the first tomb. It's fantastic so far. I loved the first game, but damn if this doesnt destroy it in almost every aspect.
Just about, and it only gets better in Brotherhood. The only thing I miss is the very primal and ancient feel to the original game. If only the mechanics were as rich as the stage set in AC1.
 

kodt

Banned
I'll just leave this here.

dmemV.jpg
 

Kevin

Member
So I recently purchased this title on Steam. I can load into the Ubisoft loader and it appears to connect to the internet but when I start the actual game I quickly see a half sized white box in the upper left corner of the screen and then the game just goes back to the desktop. Anyone have any ideas as to why this is happening?

Here is some information that may help:


Specs:

-Intel Core i7 980x (6 core)
-Geforce GTX 590, Latest Drivers
-Directx 11, latest updates.
-Windows 7 64-Bit

It does not appear to be a DRM or router or internet conflict. The game just simply won't boot past the regular loader.

I also tried to verify the Steam cache in case there was an error in the download. That came up fine. I am having the same problem with Far Cry 2, another Ubisoft title.
 

Ether_Snake

安安安安安安安安安安安安安安安
sn00zer said:
Does anyone else have this issue? A REALLY aggressive LOD distance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6B21w70W1k
Been googling around and cant find a fix

That's how it is on console too. ACB and AC1 look better than that. Only thing that might not be normal is the vegatation, but the LOD blending on the buildings is normal. On ACB they look much crisper.

What is stupid is that basically, outside of maybe AA, everything else is the same on PC as on console. So max settings on PC is like the console version, there are no improvements really outside of maybe AA. Triangle count, texture resolution, LOD distances, etc., is the same on PC compared to consoles no matter how powerful the PC is. You should have better FPS and AA, that's all.
 

sn00zer

Member
Ether_Snake said:
That's how it is on console too. ACB and AC1 look better than that. Only thing that might not be normal is the vegatation, but the LOD blending on the buildings is normal. On ACB they look much crisper.

What is stupid is that basically, outside of maybe AA, everything else is the same on PC as on console. So max settings on PC is like the console version, there are no improvements really outside of maybe AA. Triangle count, texture resolution, LOD distances, etc., is the same on PC compared to consoles no matter how powerful the PC is. You should have better FPS and AA, that's all.
Damn....thats stupid....I remember AC1 looking great on my PC...AC2 though...weird no mods or hacks have come out for it to fix the issue
 

Seraphis Cain

bad gameplay lol
So hey, the deluxe edition of AC2 (with all the DLC included) is $9.99 on PSN right now.

I've never played an AC before, but I'm thinking about just skipping the first and going straight for this. Ten bucks is a ridiculous deal.
 

Ellis Kim

Banned
Seraphis Cain said:
So hey, the deluxe edition of AC2 (with all the DLC included) is $9.99 on PSN right now.

I've never played an AC before, but I'm thinking about just skipping the first and going straight for this. Ten bucks is a ridiculous deal.
I'm thinking of jumping on that, too. As someone who played AC 1, I recommend watching a youtube playthrough of the first 2 hours, followed by the last 2 hours, and then reading the wikipedia page. AC2 starts with a recap, but I don't feel like its enough.
 
Since this game is 9.99 on PSN I am thinking of picking it up.. is the ps3 version worse then the 360 version? if so I might just forget it.

thanks guys!
 

Le-mo

Member
I just started this and the controls on the keyboard are a mess. Its real stupid of Ubisoft to not have gamepad support. I'll mess around with the controls a bit when I get off from work tomorrow.
 

Mairu

Member
Le-mo said:
I just started this and the controls on the keyboard are a mess. Its real stupid of Ubisoft to not have gamepad support. I'll mess around with the controls a bit when I get off from work tomorrow.
I played the PC version of AC2 with my 360 controller just fine, outside of the button prompts not changing to the 360 button icons (this was fixed in ACB though)
 

Stallion Free

Cock Encumbered
Le-mo said:
I just started this and the controls on the keyboard are a mess. Its real stupid of Ubisoft to not have gamepad support. I'll mess around with the controls a bit when I get off from work tomorrow.
I beat the game with a wired 360 pad....
 

Le-mo

Member
Mairu said:
I played the PC version of AC2 with my 360 controller just fine, outside of the button prompts not changing to the 360 button icons (this was fixed in ACB though)
Oh, silly me then. Its store page didn't mention the support of gamepads. I'll try to use the dualshock 3 through motionjoy. I'm still trying to map the buttons correctly.
 

Ranger X

Member
Gvaz said:
Is it nessessary to play AC1 before 2?

In my humble opinion no. There's a resume movie at the beginning of AC2 and the story is simple anyways so no real need of introduction. You also don't need the story to appreciate the gameplay + AC1 is a drag. Waste of time you could put on quality gaming like AC2 and Brotherhood.
 
So hey guys, I just re-bought this game on PC. I played it on console where I was able to put up with the draw distance, but it's driving me nuts here. Is there at least a way to increase the draw distance of the shadows? I've looked all around google but I can't seem to find anything.
 

Mana Sin

Member
Seraphis Cain said:
So hey, the deluxe edition of AC2 (with all the DLC included) is $9.99 on PSN right now.

I've never played an AC before, but I'm thinking about just skipping the first and going straight for this. Ten bucks is a ridiculous deal.


I think I paid something like $80 for the collector's edition when it first came out. smh -.- Still, I have a bitchin' Ezio toy now.
 

garath

Member
Just got this during the steam sale. I love it..except the inability to turn off mouse acceleration. /sigh. I finally caved and purchased this:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003ZSN600/?tag=neogaf0e-20

I didn't want to buy it just for one game but I've had enough games now where I said to myself "A controller might be nice here".

The mouse accel thing just pushed me over the edge for this game. Google revealed no ini tweaks to turn it off.
 

apana

Member
I just beat the deluxe edition today, put a good 23 hours into the game. I really loved it, one of the best games of this generation no doubt. At least it's my favorite so far next to the Mario Galaxy games.
 
I'm still going through this game, and somehow it feels even longer and more reptitive than the first game. It's a great game, and much more varied than the first one, but like GTA it's sooooooo long winded. It could have ended 10 hours ago and it would have been enough. Love the story, interesting fiction, want to see where it goes, but the gameplay... got old a long time ago.

And Brotherhood is more of the same? And Revelations look so similar as well? fffffffuuuuuuuuuu.
 
Vigilant Walrus said:
I'm still going through this game, and somehow it feels even longer and more reptitive than the first game. It's a great game, and much more varied than the first one, but like GTA it's sooooooo long winded. It could have ended 10 hours ago and it would have been enough. Love the story, interesting fiction, want to see where it goes, but the gameplay... got old a long time ago.

And Brotherhood is more of the same? And Revelations look so similar as well? fffffffuuuuuuuuuu.
If you're only in it for the story at this point just head to Youtube.

Saved me from having to play through Alpha Protocol to see the Evil (total D-Bag) ending, which was hilarious.
 

Thrakier

Member
Vigilant Walrus said:
I'm still going through this game, and somehow it feels even longer and more reptitive than the first game. It's a great game, and much more varied than the first one, but like GTA it's sooooooo long winded. It could have ended 10 hours ago and it would have been enough. Love the story, interesting fiction, want to see where it goes, but the gameplay... got old a long time ago.

And Brotherhood is more of the same? And Revelations look so similar as well? fffffffuuuuuuuuuu.

I'm with you. AC is probably the most repetitve and slowest game ever made. And we got at least four of those games this gen, all of them are like almost the same. What the hell?
 

AEREC

Member
Vigilant Walrus said:
I'm still going through this game, and somehow it feels even longer and more reptitive than the first game. It's a great game, and much more varied than the first one, but like GTA it's sooooooo long winded. It could have ended 10 hours ago and it would have been enough. Love the story, interesting fiction, want to see where it goes, but the gameplay... got old a long time ago.

And Brotherhood is more of the same? And Revelations look so similar as well? fffffffuuuuuuuuuu.

???

AC1 was pretty damn repetitive, I really dont see how AC2 is anywhere near as bad.
 

apana

Member
Vigilant Walrus said:
I'm still going through this game, and somehow it feels even longer and more reptitive than the first game. It's a great game, and much more varied than the first one, but like GTA it's sooooooo long winded. It could have ended 10 hours ago and it would have been enough. Love the story, interesting fiction, want to see where it goes, but the gameplay... got old a long time ago.

And Brotherhood is more of the same? And Revelations look so similar as well? fffffffuuuuuuuuuu.

Did you get the assassin medallions and go to the templar hideouts? I like those areas better than the main game itself. For those who have played brotherhood, do we get more platforming areas like that in the game?
 

MMaRsu

Member
Gvaz said:
I'm gonna play the first game anyways.

Good for you, I enjoyed it. Just don't do all the side missions because they will get really boring after two times.

The main assassinations are still really good.
 

Antagon

Member
Just finished this. Allright game, but still got quite a few issues. Controls are not nearly as reliable as they should be and there were some really lame artificial barriers.

Like in the end the doctor is in the truck while he sends his men to you. I ran past the men and tried to kill the doctor, but somehow couldn't climb up the two feet to get into the truck. Then you kill the men and see Desmond bitch about the guy getting away

AI is absolutely awful and at some points, especially during the DLC theres missions that don't allow you to be detected without any reason. Especially lame if you get desynchronized and during the desynchronization you kill the target.

Story was a convoluted mess as well.
Also, I killed dozens of guards for just a bit of money, but when I get the chance to kill the corrupted pope that killed my family and tries to conquer the world I suddenly take the moral highroad? Really?

Biggest problem to me though is that Ezio is obviously the worst assassin of all time.

And what the hell did that horse do on the Roman city walls?
 

The M.O.B

Member
Just finished it last night. I collected everything except the statues and the feathers. Spent around 20 hours with the game. PC Version all maxed settings and fully patched.

The Good
- The upgrades and loot. Very rewarding to upgrade Enzio with new armor and weapons.

- The movement animation, it looks very realistic and weighty when Enzio is climbing something.

- Chases, felt very fun and chaotic to run after your target with guards coming from everywhere to trying and block you.

-Larger scale than the first one, each city has a large outside area this time, and those in-between areas from the first game are gone thankfully.

The Neutral
- The side-quests. I'm talking the generic assassination contracts, beat up events, races, and others things that have no barring on the main story. There were a good thing to break up the pace, usually I would do one or two between my story missions. But they are really basic, just some generic characters that tell you to do something. I wish they went deeper.

- The gadgets. The gun just wasn't very useful, several times I questioned why you can't use they gun while hanging? or when peaking over a side. The poison blade I only used it once when they first gave it to me, why poison an enemy when you can easily kill them without it? The coins I used often and the throwing blades too, the hang-glider was bad bad bad and only used for one mission.

- The story...........very hard to follow. and honestly doesn't make me want to continue this series. The characters have no life or development to them and are largely simple, the only characters that left an impression on me besides Enzio was that Queen who had her husband killed.


The Bad
- Graphics, the incredibly low draw distance was terrible. Crap was popping up in right of front of me all the time. A completely flat window would suddenly become fully 3d as soon as I run up to it, but its completely flat if I am more than 30 feet away from it. This was really disappointing since there is an incredibly amount of detail when the draw distance isn't messing things up. Also par usual the post processing effects were messy and I turned them off. And don't get me started on the low character detail.

- The hand holding. While the platforming mechanics work, it makes it a complete bore to use them as there is ZERO skill involved. Hold the trigger button and go forward and your likely to reach your destination. Couple this with the fact that it takes a insanely high fall to kill you so even running and jumping off roofs is no problem.

- The combat, It is functional but so boring. Half the enemies can be quickly grabbed and killed, the others take about 3 hits and then can be grabbed and killed, and the big guys can be easily knocked over and stabbed. I NEVER died in combat, and this was due to the fact that any time I get into danger I could use a potion which is INSTANT. Why they made potions instant is beyond me but you can immediately be put out of danger thanks to it.

- The Stealth, lol at the stealth. No corner hugging? No hiding in shadows? No crawling under wood planks to sneak into a building?. The "stealth" in this game consisted of walking in crowds, sitting on benches, slowly walking behind your target to eavesdrop on them, and hanging off edges to "stealth kill" the guards..........I'm EXTREMELY disappointed that an assassination game could have such barebones stealth mechanics, they didn't even try. And once again there is hardly any need to be stealth except for the few missions that require it for some reason while others don't. I could just as easily run up to this archer on the roof and kill him rather than slowly moving along the edges to pull him off.


FINAL SCORE

6.0

Final Thoughts - I honestly can't say I understand anybody saying this is one of the best series this generation. The story and most of the characters are forgettable, the platforming mechanics are basic, easy and boring as anything, the combat is snore worthy. The only thing that kept me motivated was the upgrades and the chase missions. But this game is a huge improvement still over the original. For comparison I would have given the first game a 4/10. Still glad I picked this one up as the experience was still worth it despite the flaws.
 
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