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Assassin's Creed II - The |OT|

ZAnimus

Member
Minamu said:
Can someone confirm that the EU white box doesn't come with the artbook & DLC? :( That's what Gamestop told me today at least. You get the game, a big box & the white statue, that's it... Fail if true. I thought the black & white box had exclusive free dlc? Or is that only in the US? Pre-order bonus or something?
The White Edition which we're getting down here -- which should be the same as the EU one -- comes with a figurine and one bonus map/quest. It doesn't have the artbook, the bonus DVD or the two other maps/quests that the Black Edition has.
 
ZAnimus said:
The White Edition which we're getting down here -- which should be the same as the EU one -- comes with a figurine and one bonus map/quest. It doesn't have the artbook, the bonus DVD or the two other maps/quests that the Black Edition has.


Um what? I bought my "white" edition from Gamestop and its got the artbook and bonus DVD.
 
infinityBCRT said:
I don't think its about trashing the game or being unhappy (at least not in terms of my post above). Its just about what the next evolution for video games is. Ten years ago we didn't see games with this scope and I'm hoping ten years from now we see games with an even bigger and better scope. I've always had an eye for game design so thats just how I think when I see a game. I always have criticisms, even for my favourite games, and I'm always looking at what can be better for the next iteration. Its not a bash on AC2 at all.

The other day I told my friend that I really liked UC2 because of the exploration and set pieces and the way they paced the game and theres not really many sections of the game where you are in a shooting gallery for an extended period of time like the first game. I told him I thought the shooting was still a little weak but I thought it was 9/10. The guy freaked and said I was being anal and too critical because I wasn't fully fellating the game.

I think for people who are in the game industry (and I'm not, but I aspire to be there) they have to take a critical approach to all games to be able to create a great game. The guys at ubisoft weren't happy with AC1 and they showed it by what they did with AC2, and I'm sure they aren't entirely happy with AC2 either and they'll show that with their improvements for AC3.

Well I think the viewpoint you have is fine and its grounds for solid progression. There is always means to improve things, that will never change. Though some people, not on GAF persay, suggest they barely see the changes in AC2 or still thinkthere isn't enough content in this game and still find it more akin to the first in content. For this I just say WTF!
 

Barrett2

Member
Orgun said:
This makes me sad T_T :(

(broken box pic)

Curious, how did you tear the 360 case like that?

I actually had (I think) a very similar thing happen, which I can only attribute to the flimsy new 360 cases.

I went to open my game yesterday, used a small knife to cut the plastic seal around the opening of the clamshell, and out of nowhere the knife slices right through the case and slashes the underside of the freaking disc. Amazingly, it still installed to my 360 and works, but it was wild, like the game box just crumpled in my hand. -_-
 

Baker

Banned
JambiBum said:
Question about the Uplay stuff, does it tie in to your gamertag and all that? I can't seem to figure out how to tie it into it. I got the 10 points for signing up but that's it.
I think it's broken in that regard, but it still works. Loading up Uplay from the main menu lets you unlock the rewards. However, I really don't think there is a way to tie your gamertag to the web version (yet). They give you another free 10 points for playing AC2 though, so you're not missing anything. There are 100 points worth of rewards and there are 100 points in AC2.

slasher_thrasher21 said:
Well I think the viewpoint you have is fine and its grounds for solid progression. There is always means to improve things, that will never change. Though some people, not on GAF persay, suggest they barely see the changes in AC2 or still thinkthere isn't enough content in this game and still find it more akin to the first in content. For this I just say WTF!
Yeah, anyone who says that is on crack. Fuck, if you got me drunk enough I'd probably say there is too much stuff to do. :lol
 
Oh goddamnit, for all the improvements they've made you think Ubi would have fixed the free running? I've only been playing it since this afternoon and already I can't count the number of times i've gone to make a horizontal leap from one set of windows to another only for him the jump away from the ledge i'm hanging on into thin air. It just isn't clear when a certain jump is or isn't possible and it's already cost me a number of times, but I guess the more I play it the more i'll get use to the finnicky behaviour of the free running, just like I had to with the original.

Also, the game needs a freaking retry option in the menu. When you're doing a timed mission like a foot race one wrong jump can cost you and it sucks having to wait for the timer to run down knowing you can no longer complete the objective - the game forces you to restart the mission anyways.

Final whinge, goddamn the first hour or so was just horrible, not fun at all and it only served to remind me just how much I detested the crap with Desmond & Lucy in the first game. Once in the Animus 2.0 I couldn't wait to get the tutorial & errand-boy crap out of the way, seemed like an age before the first assasination.

Other than all that i'm having a good time exploring at the moment, combat is still as enjoyable as I remember it and while not much of a graphical leap from it's predecesor the game still looks very pleasing.
 

Baker

Banned
Bootaaay said:
Oh goddamnit, for all the improvements they've made you think Ubi would have fixed the free running? I've only been playing it since this afternoon and already I can't count the number of times i've gone to make a horizontal leap from one set of windows to another only for him the jump away from the ledge i'm hanging on into thin air.
I'm not singling you out, but this has come up a lot.

I don't think you're supposed to play AC like a Tomb Raider/Uncharted/whatever. Always hold RT/R2 and just use the stick. You shouldn't be hitting the jump/foot button when you're scaling walls unless you're still holding on to it from the initial mount.

If it's not letting you get from Point A to Point B horizontally, it's because you can't in that position so jumping isn't going to help. Move up or down and try to find a different path.
 

JambiBum

Member
Baker said:
I think it's broken in that regard, but it still works. Loading up Uplay from the main menu lets you unlock the rewards. However, I really don't think there is a way to tie your gamertag to the web version (yet). They give you another free 10 points for playing AC2 though, so you're not missing anything. There are 100 points worth of rewards and there are 100 points in AC2.


Yeah, anyone who says that is on crack. Fuck, if you got me drunk enough I'd probably say there is too much stuff to do. :lol

From the main menu in the game or on the website?
 
Totally loving this. I was a bit worried last night because I thought I was nearing the end (read the DNA menu wrong I guess) but turns out I still have 5 chapters left. Anyway, I was hoping someone could help me find an illusive treasure chest in the villa. It's listed on the map as right in front of the actual villa building. I've been up and there's nothing. Any idea?

EDIT: Nevermind, found it. Wow. talk about a treasure hunt.
 

Baker

Banned
JambiBum said:
Thank ya.
I don't know how, but it already had my email address and password saved when I first opened it up through the game.

The four rewards are tied to four specific achievements/trophies, so when you ding one of them, the points are credited in your Uplay account.
 
Baker said:
I'm not singling you out, but this has come up a lot.

I don't think you're supposed to play AC like a Tomb Raider/Uncharted/whatever. Always hold RT/R2 and just use the stick. You shouldn't be hitting the jump/foot button when you're scaling walls unless you're still holding on to it from the initial mount.

If it's not letting you get from Point A to Point B horizontally, it's because you can't in that position so jumping isn't going to help. Move up or down and try to find a different path.

It just seems retarded when i'm hanging from a ledge and there's another not three feet away horizontally and he just refuses to jump for it - evidently i'm not meant to be pushing the jump button in situations like that, but it seemed to me that the game was implying I should do just that as the character adopts a leaning animation that is so vague it could interpreted as leaning away from the ledge or leaning across it, especially with the camera to your back. It was exactly the same in the original, I just hoped that either I would have more precise control over jumping or that the set climbing paths would include those seemingly possible jumps that the first game (and now the sequel) would not allow.

It's but a minor complaint and as I said i'm sure i'll get used to it after a good few hours of play, but it's also kind of annoying that Ubi didn't see anything particularly wrong with the original climbing system worth changing.
 
Bootaaay said:
Final whinge, goddamn the first hour or so was just horrible, not fun at all and it only served to remind me just how much I detested the crap with Desmond & Lucy in the first game. Once in the Animus 2.0 I couldn't wait to get the tutorial & errand-boy crap out of the way, seemed like an age before the first assasination.

Is it just me or didn't the part with Desmond really only take about 20 minuntes? How are people getting a hour for the intro part? Really just curious? I even talked to everyone in the room till I had to get in the animus and ran into the other areas just to sneak a peek.
 
Wrath2X said:
It was nice playing as Altair again
:D

Yea it was, and totally unexpected.
I honestly don't remember the part in AC1 where you spare Maria? Anyone want to refresh my memory? After seeing Altair again in his plain white robes I was a bit sad how drab he looked :( Ezio rolls in style
 

JambiBum

Member
Baker said:
I don't know how, but it already had my email address and password saved when I first opened it up through the game.

The four rewards are tied to four specific achievements/trophies, so when you ding one of them, the points are credited in your Uplay account.

Got the whole, cannot connect to ubisoft servers at this time lol.
 

Baker

Banned
Bootaaay said:
It's but a minor complaint and as I said i'm sure i'll get used to it after a good few hours of play, but it's also kind of annoying that Ubi didn't see anything particularly wrong with the original climbing system worth changing.
I agree and see your point. I'm just saying the situation can usually be rectified by climbing up another two feet and getting closer to the predefined "latch point."

I just pretend the game doesn't have a jump button. If Altair/Ezio doesn't do something automatically, I don't try and force it.

The one gripe I guess I noticed is the game suffers from Uncharted syndrome. If you run up a wall with no ledge, you can only jump like 2-3 feet. However, if you move two inches to the correct spot, you magically jump like 10 feet and can grab something. I only really noticed that once on some crazy vantage point on a huge dome though.
 
How do you wall run? I am at the Assassins Tomb in Forli and I need to run up a wall and then jump to the opposite side a couple of times. I press R1 and then x... but that just leads to Ezio jumping up and trying to grab something, not wallrunning. I've done it a couple of times... am I supposed to run up the wall on the side, or on the same wall which has the ledge?
 

OmonRa

Member
INDIGO_CYCLOPS said:
Yea it was, and totally unexpected.
I honestly don't remember the part in AC1 where you spare Maria? Anyone want to refresh my memory? After seeing Altair again in his plain white robes I was a bit sad how drab he looked :( Ezio rolls in style

At the funeral in Jerusalem when you're told it's Robert de Sable you'll be assassinating. You grab him, go into the white room, rip off his helmet - discover Maria - and then let her go. What happens AFTER that is detailed in the PSP game and the flashback in AC2 is after the events of the PSP game.
 

Ranger X

Member
iamcool388 said:
How do you wall run? I am at the Assassins Tomb in Forli and I need to run up a wall and then jump to the opposite side a couple of times. I press R1 and then x... but that just leads to Ezio jumping up and trying to grab something, not wallrunning. I've done it a couple of times... am I supposed to run up the wall on the side, or on the same wall which has the ledge?

I am not sure what your current situation is but to jump on the opposite direction of where you are walling, you simply need to jump without any direction inputs.

You can also start a walling and jump with left direction or right direction and you will jump in that direction instead of opposite of the wall you're walling on.

.
 
Solo said:
But free running wasn't broken in the first.

Does that mean it couldn't have been improved upon? All I was saying was that somthing I percieved as a fault in the original remains unchanged in the sequel - maybe it's not broken, but there are definite areas for improvement.
 

Spoo

Member
I honestly disliked Assassins Creed 1 for a lot of reasons: 1) I never felt like an assassin -- I could never properly sneak in, for whatever reason, and assassinate the bad guys; I'd end up in a sword fight time and time again and wonder why the fuck I couldn't just "do it right", 2) There was nothing *but* assassinations and boring, formulaic quests, and 3) There was no story. I mean, there was a story, but it was presented so terribly I could never push myself through the rest of the game.

So why I took a chance on AC2 I know not, but the game, as far as my above concerns go, is great. They've given me many more tools and gameplay mechanics to help me assassinate better, there's no "structure" to the quests; I can do things how I want, when I want, and there's a ton of different types this go-around, and 3) there's a story with legitimite cutscenes and good characters, and it's told in a way that is fairly well-done.

I can see people who didn't like the core idea or gameplay mechanic (ie: assassination) in AC1 not liking this game, but I feel like AC2 is a much friendlier, much more accessible experience, that isn't just better in every way; it's a significant evolution to the original game which seems more a tech demo to me now that I've delved into AC2. Glad I decided to get it :D
 

d0c_zaius

Member
Bootaaay said:
Does that mean it couldn't have been improved upon? All I was saying was that somthing I percieved as a fault in the original remains unchanged in the sequel - maybe it's not broken, but there are definite areas for improvement.

I agree with this
 

Minamu

Member
ZAnimus said:
The White Edition which we're getting down here -- which should be the same as the EU one -- comes with a figurine and one bonus map/quest. It doesn't have the artbook, the bonus DVD or the two other maps/quests that the Black Edition has.
Thanks, hopefully you're correct about that. Haven't decided if I wanna "risk" it yet. It's not very expensive. I paid more for the AC1 statue than I will for this one so :)
 
Game looks great to me on PS3 but is anyone else noticing massive amounts of pop in? I turn the corner and everything in front of me starts popping in. Framerate isn't stable, either, but I can live with that. It's the pop-in that really takes me out of the game. Playing in 720p, too.

Would deleting the install and installing it again have any affect? Or would we have to wait for a patch?

Anyone else noticing this?
 

Archaix

Drunky McMurder
I just turned the game on. Absolute first impressions? These are some of the worst faces I've seen in years. For the love of god, stop the closeups. Make everybody wear masks. Please, tell me the game does something to prevent me from seeing this more than absolutely necessary?
 

Toski

Member
After playing for around 5 hours yesterday my impression is that AC2 is for people who hated AC1. While AC2 is better than AC1, something about AC2 seems off to me. The assasinations lack the tension of AC1 because the target knows your coming, so every assasination seems like Talal's in AC1, with Ezio chasing them through the streets and rooftops of whereever. The game is less about assasinations and is more like an adventure game. They should also just let you assign which weapon you want to the d-pad due to the new weapons they put in.

Storywise I'd say Altair's Redemption> Ezio's Vengeance. While Ezio's a likeable guy, I prefer Altair because he is a professional while Ezio seems to me to still be an amateur, although I guess that will change as I progress through the game.
 

bistromathics

facing a bright new dawn
Archaix said:
I just turned the game on. Absolute first impressions? These are some of the worst faces I've seen in years. For the love of god, stop the closeups. Make everybody wear masks. Please, tell me the game does something to prevent me from seeing this more than absolutely necessary?

For real, some of the worst first impressions i've ever had from a game.

also this unskippable shit has got to go.
 

MattKeil

BIGTIME TV MOGUL #2
Baker said:
I don't know how, but it already had my email address and password saved when I first opened it up through the game.

So was mine. I think I entered my info when I played EndWar or maybe HAWX, but at the time it didn't actually do anything.
 

Zeliard

Member
Spoo said:
I honestly disliked Assassins Creed 1 for a lot of reasons: 1) I never felt like an assassin -- I could never properly sneak in, for whatever reason, and assassinate the bad guys; I'd end up in a sword fight time and time again and wonder why the fuck I couldn't just "do it right", 2) There was nothing *but* assassinations and boring, formulaic quests, and 3) There was no story. I mean, there was a story, but it was presented so terribly I could never push myself through the rest of the game.

So why I took a chance on AC2 I know not, but the game, as far as my above concerns go, is great. They've given me many more tools and gameplay mechanics to help me assassinate better, there's no "structure" to the quests; I can do things how I want, when I want, and there's a ton of different types this go-around, and 3) there's a story with legitimite cutscenes and good characters, and it's told in a way that is fairly well-done.

I can see people who didn't like the core idea or gameplay mechanic (ie: assassination) in AC1 not liking this game, but I feel like AC2 is a much friendlier, much more accessible experience, that isn't just better in every way; it's a significant evolution to the original game which seems more a tech demo to me now that I've delved into AC2. Glad I decided to get it :D

Yeah, it's basically the same thing with me. I loved the first Assassin's Creed's core gameplay mechanics - the parkour free-running and even the swordplay felt very good to me. The problem was that there wasn't a very compelling context surrounding these mechanics, and there wasn't nearly enough variety when it came to the things you can use them for.

Now there is.
 

Ranger X

Member
CartridgeBlower said:
Game looks great to me on PS3 but is anyone else noticing massive amounts of pop in? I turn the corner and everything in front of me starts popping in. Framerate isn't stable, either, but I can live with that. It's the pop-in that really takes me out of the game. Playing in 720p, too.

Would deleting the install and installing it again have any affect? Or would we have to wait for a patch?

Anyone else noticing this?

Both versions have pop-ins (360/PS3) and reinstalling them won't do jack that's for sure. A game that would misinstall would simply be unuseable / corrupted.

.
 

JambiBum

Member
Decided to go around and collect all the treasure chests before I do my next mission because I'm tired of seeing them pop up on my mini map lol. Taking longer than I expected.
 
playing the game atm.

:lol @
baby ezio tutorial

also, I really don't like the first sequence
where you have to escape the research facilitiy
:/
 

Pol Wespol

Neo Member
Picked this up yesterday expecting this to end up being my game of the year after how much fun I had with the first one. So far, it's been better in many ways, so I'm definitely loving it.

I haven't played the first one since basically a couple weeks after its release, but in the first Assassin's Creed, did the objectives still show on your map even if you hadn't synchronized a tower's view point? Because in this one, I've not been going to any view points since the objectives are still right there on the screen, and for some reason, I'm remembering the view points being required to be able to see anything in the first game.

It's because of this that I remember the view points being one of my favorite parts of the first game, so this kind of bugs me. If this isn't the case, then maybe I'm just trying to rush through this one for some reason. I still think this will end up being my favorite of the year by the time I'm done.
 

MCD

Junior Member
they should have made a whole new combat system because so far this is the same just with more weapons which are probably slower than the hidden blades for quick counter kill.

other than that though game is AC done right and then more.
 

Zeliard

Member
Solid warrior said:
playing the game atm.

:lol @
baby ezio tutorial

also, I really don't like the first sequence
where you have to escape the research facilitiy
:/

The game starts off slowly, but they build up to Ezio becoming an assassin instead of just sticking you in his shoes when he's already a supreme badass, and I found that to be a nice way to go about it. The tutorials do stretch on for a bit too long, but I liked Ezio's character development in those early sections a lot.
 

Tiduz

Eurogaime
Anyone with EU PS3 version, did you manage to unlock the Premium theme on uplay? I got an error and it didnt appear in my DL history on psn store either :/
 
Zeliard said:
The game starts off slowly, but they build up to Ezio becoming an assassin instead of just sticking you in his shoes when he's already a supreme badass, and I found that to be a nice way to go about it. The tutorials do stretch on for a bit too long, but I liked Ezio's character development in those early sections a lot.
true.

also, the story telling and the scenario already surpasses AC1, IMO.
 

Mr. Sam

Member
This game is out in two days? You'd think that I - someone that was actually anticipating its release - would keep track of these things. Bit low on funds at the moment. Maybe I'll wait until Christmas. Shame too; I was looking forward to this.
 

MMaRsu

Member
Mr. Sam said:
This game is out in two days? You'd think that I - someone that was actually anticipating its release - would keep track of these things. Bit low on funds at the moment. Maybe I'll wait until Christmas. Shame too; I was looking forward to this.

www.gamehubs.com

35 euro including shipping ( takes a while though ) or use UPS 2-3 day shipping for 9 euro's extra.
 
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