Topic: Assassin's creed.

[Pugnate]

Most probably.

Damn I am going to pay money to Ubisoft again, aren't I?

[Quemaqua]

I'm confused, Pug.  It's like you were talking about AC then suddenly started talking about Bioshock?

Hard to say if the PC will get a special edition, though.  Seems lately a lot of these have been sort of spotty.  Some countries get them, some don't, some only get them for certain platforms and not others, and some stores get the exclusive rights to sell them.  It's honestly getting to be a bit of a headache.

[gpw11]

Shouldn't every topic really be about Bioshock?

[Quemaqua]

I've really been wanting to go back and play it again lately, but... ugh.  I wanted to wait until I got a new video card.  But it looks like that's pretty much a pipe dream now, so I may just go ahead and reinstall it now that my 300GB HDD is back and the new patch is coming out.

[Pugnate]

I'm confused, Pug.  It's like you were talking about AC then suddenly started talking about Bioshock?

Hard to say if the PC will get a special edition, though.  Seems lately a lot of these have been sort of spotty.  Some countries get them, some don't, some only get them for certain platforms and not others, and some stores get the exclusive rights to sell them.  It's honestly getting to be a bit of a headache.

 

hahah...What the hell? Stupid brain tumor/

Let me explain...

Didn't get the Limited Edition but still want the little hardcover art book?  Somebody's ebaying them for 3 bucks a pop.  I'm tempted, but I'm also tempted to just buy the actual LE and sell my other copy to somebody.

Anybody here interested?

This is where I -- for some fucking reason -- thought your comment was regarding the art book for Bioshock. It could be because I had been obsessively been searching for Bioshock's LE online. It could also be that I was in that Bioshock thread as well, and got a weeeeee bit confused.

When I clicked your link, I still didn't get it. I thought maybe the guy was selling art books for many games, and you had linked the one to Assassin's creed by accident.

Can you still find the LE now?

By this, I was asking if you can still somehow find the LE for Bioshock in stores.

Yep I saw some at the store today; I didn't get the LE myself though when I bought it 3 weeks ago.

iPPi's answer surprised me.

How much is it going for these days?

Obviously I am talking about Bioshock.

Probably $69.99.  An extra ten bucks seems to be about the norm these days.

Yea here I thought you were talking Bioshock.

Shit. I want it so badly. To me that is easily worth the extra $20 or whatever.

If anyone is willing to ship to me, I'll pay via paypal for the CE of the game as well as registered express USPS mail.

Again since I don't have a 360, it wouldn't make sense for me to want it at all.

Just comparing to the Crysis sp ed., the Unreal tourney sp ed, the Hellgate London sp ed and the Quake Wars special ed... I find this to be the best of the bunch. The box is huge, and you've got a special metal case for the game and of course Mr.Bubbles:

This is in response to Que's comment that the Assassin's Creed LE doesn't look as good as I was making it out to be. Again I was talking about the Bioshock LE.

*cries*

Those were tears of joy when Cobra posted a pic of the Assassin's Creed LE. I still didn't realize we weren't talking about Bioshock's LE, and thought maybe Cobra was sharing what the Assassin's Creed LE would look like.

...Anyway... ahem....

I have a feeling that Assassin's Creed will get the LE for the PC, but we'll see. Anything is possible. Like my brain becoming worthless.

[Cobra951]

Beware that the "normal" LE has a 3" figurine.  The big 10-12" figurine in what I posted is allegedly part of some Asian release that is *supposed* to be region free.  Someone was selling one of those figures on eBay.  The bid or price was near $50, and I think that was just for the figure.  I really don't know what all is happening with these different versions.

[Quemaqua]

I hate that.  They did so many versions of The Witcher, that got aggravating.  Still, I don't care about the figure that much.  Honestly, I don't care about any of it that much.  I just like the game so much it seems stupid to have the regular edition.  I may just content myself with that and the Prima art book, though.

Damn it, and that reminds me that I have to buy the Okami art book they released in English not so long ago.

Shit.  So poor...

[JacksRag(e)]

I know.  This game was the last big purchase I made.  It was a complete whim too.  Now I'm just running through the game.  I just climb and kill people.  I'm not even progressing the story line anymore.  I just pick fights now.  And climb on climb on.

Damnit...so poor.  And I just bought the Zim box set too!  Curses.

[MysterD]

Zero Punctuation takes on Assassin's Creed!!!

Hilarious.

[Jedi]

I agree with the traveling between towns, that's really not fun if you really screw it up you'll have half the countryside chasing you into town!

[iPPi]

I agree with the traveling between towns, that's really not fun if you really screw it up you'll have half the countryside chasing you into town!

I don't mind... makes it fun to run and if you get knocked off to engage in combat with 2974145781924 guards.

[Quemaqua]

Nice.  Very funny.  I disagree with him on several points, actually, primarily the combat.  I love the combat and think it's just swell.  It's one of my favorite parts of the game, even.  It isn't too perplexing or demanding on the whole, but I still fuck up enough to make it a challenge if I start to get lazy.  I don't mind the travel either.  It's a nice break.  I also disagree that it's really all that innovative.  It's a masterpiece in many regards, but for the most part it just does a lot of the same shit games like this have done for years.  What makes it so different is the way it's presented and how firmly it sticks to its convictions.  Well, and that makes it sound like I don't think it's innovative.  It is to a degree in certain specific ways, but on the whole I don't think that changes the overall formula all that much.

[Jedi]

Traveling sucks!  But it's my only hate about this game and even then to say it sucks is overstated!
The combat is pretty dam cool if done right you can lay waste to a dozen guards easy... what's not cool about that. And while I don't find the game repetitive I can see why some people would see it that way, the investigations are limited in their variety, but in context I don’t find it repetitive I don’t find it a problem.

[Quemaqua]

I agree.  For me, I'm not concentrating on the action, I'm concentrating on what's being said.  It's very easy to not realize what's being talked about if you don't pay attention.

Also, I only just the other day realized you can open up the menu and actually see the maps you steal from people and read some extended info.  I had no idea.

[Cobra951]

Relax about the travel.  As in other good exploration games, after you've done it all once in "the kingdom", you'll have the option to go straight to the towns whenever you exit one.  If you have a horse, they'll never catch you anyway.  Just stay away from their swords as you gallop by.  I kept a whole crowd going after me in a circle recently.  It was hilarious.

I laughed my butt off watching the ZP review.  I agree with most of it.  I take a lot of perverse pleasure in using my hidden blade on the damn assault beggars.  The crazy people and drunks are much less annoying.  They're easily avoidable most of the time.

The combat mechanic is OK.  My only big problem with it is moving while in combat mode.  If I push the stick in one direction, that means I want to move that way, and if I'm bending the damn stick with all my might, it means I want to move that way fast.  It's fine to have me auto-face the target, as long as I fucking move.  They need to get a clue from the 3D Zelda games.  Also breaking from combat should be a simple move, not a frustrating challenge.  Some of the groups you face later on get a lot tougher, and that's when these flaws will bother you more.

I'm poised now to go into the 8th assassination.  Each scenario has been unique in some way.  Any repetition complaints don't hold water in the main plotline, I don't think.  I didn't catch on about the extra maps and info until recently myself.

[Jedi]

I agree.  For me, I'm not concentrating on the action, I'm concentrating on what's being said.  It's very easy to not realize what's being talked about if you don't pay attention.

Also, I only just the other day realized you can open up the menu and actually see the maps you steal from people and read some extended info.  I had no idea.

Oh man I only found this out myself a few days ago... but I didn't find them too useful in my most recent mission in Acre (which was my last one to do in the city). But I felt a little stupid finding them a few days ago but really how should have I known? 

[iPPi]

I was not aware you can look at the maps you steal.  Heh, in the end though it probably doesn't provide too much assistance, since I was able to do most of the game using stealth kills without the maps.

[Cobra951]

Well, hell.  I thought the game was awesome all the way to the end, including the end.  I figured they were setting up a sequel from everything that has been said.  Maybe it would have bothered me some had I not known.  There's no way I would have thought it made no sense, though.  If you pay close attention to the whole dual storyline, it makes perfect sense.  You need to be involved in the present as well as the past, even if the time spent in the present is much more brief.  You are not led by the hand in the present.  There are things you need to figure out.

There's a lot of heavy battling to get through as the game draws to a close, and I must admit I'm not good enough with the reflexes anymore.  I had to rely on a lot of sprinting in a circle to keep from getting killed.  I did it, though.  I got through the entire, er, plot past the known missions without dying once.  That made me feel better after dying like 5 times in a row during the 9th mission.  The continue point had me pop up with the short blade in the middle of a throng of heavy knights, with arrows flying past my ear.  Changing blades in the middle of combat is not easy.  (It should be.)

I think it's got to be the best experience I've had with a game in a long time.  It's definitely up there with Bioshock.  I thought I could wrap it up by a more decent hour, but there was a lot more to do than I thought.  Nobody give up on this.  See it all the way through.  Now, excuse me.  I think I'm going to go fall lifeless in bed.

[Quemaqua]

Inspiring post, Cobra.  My issue now is that Aquaria releases today, and I've been wanting that really, really bad for about a year or so.  In any case, this weekend is going to be spent doing nothing but playing stuff in one capacity or another.  At least provided I don't decide to reformat my system......

[Cobra951]

I should add that if this story is meant to be episodic, then at least the first episode is nicely self-contained.  The plot is nicely wrapped up, but as a result, new elements are revealed to you which must be tackled.  It doesn't end abruptly or unfairly.  There's no shortchanging on play time either, even without chasing the optional content.  There is no downside here.  I can't see owning a 360 and not having this game.  The detractors who can't think past some simpler game-design mold are doing their readers and the creators of this fabulous work a disservice.  Flaws are there, and some have frustrated the hell out of me on occasion.  It's a matter of weighing the good against the bad, and the enormous heaping of goodness trumps all else.  Just consider the achievement of realizing an ancient world in such detail, and then allowing you to own every corner of it.  That by itself beats the hell out of half the games I've played in my life.

I need to talk about those new elements I mentioned, but I can't do that without huge spoilers.  I don't recommend reading this until the game is put to bed.  And if you don't get the conversationalist achievement near the very end, then you missed something.  I don't know how much that matters, or how much you actually missed, though.

(click to show/hide)

Did you see and understand the messages on the floor?  You get your Y-button vision in the modern world at the end, and you can see two blocks of letters, one is a big square, and the other a triangle.  I eventually figured out what they say.  They're read bottom-up from right to left.

"artifacts sent to the skies to control all nations to make us obey a hidden crusade do not help them"

OK, easy enough.

"they drained my soul and made it theirs i drain my body to show you where is a wit"

That's more sinister, and I have no idea about what it means by "a wit".  I tried grouping letters differently, but couldn't come up with other words at the end.  Ideas?

Under the triangle is a number, "12212017".  I'm thinking that last digit might be a 2, not a 7, which would make sense, since all the other digits are 0-2.  That could possibly make it a base-3 number.  Base-3 as in trinity?  (See the triangle with the eye in it, symbol of God?)  Heh.  No clue at this point what it means.

I never made sense out of this either:

"yonA
guni"

At least that's what it looks like to me.

So from here, the (modern-day) "overworld" moves on to the next ancient scenario to conquer?  That's my guess anyway.  The mystery behind the artifacts has only been revealed.  It seems very little is understood about them, even by the modern Templars.

Edit:  OK, if that number is 12212012 base 3, then that comes out to 4271 base 10 (normal number for us 10-fingered creatures).  Doesn't seem to mean anything, does it?  Maybe it's just an 8-digit code that happens to have those digits in it.  Door codes are 8 digits in this game.  I'll doublecheck the math, but I think it's right.

[iPPi]

(click to show/hide)

Read this link to decipher the meaning of the ending.  http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=175552&site=xbw

Also, you are overanalyzing the 12212012.  First it is actually a 2, not a 7.  Second, it is simply the date, presented in a format that is unfamiliar to Americans.    It indicates December 21, 2012, the date of the launch of the Abstergo product, which in fact coincides with the Maian date 13.0.0.0 which indicates the end of the world.

Read the link I posted, it actually provides a lot of incite to the ending and the stuff you read.

[Cobra951]

(click to show/hide)

Boo!  Anyone can go read a walkthrough or something. 

J/K.  *Slaps head*  12/21/2017 is already in the format familiar to Americans, MM/DD/YYYY.  Thanks for the link.  I'll check it out.

Edit:  Very nice.  That explains the significance of things I could have never figured out on my own, not being familiar with Mayan or oriental religions (or geography--so Yonaguni is an actual place).  Everything else I seem to have gotten on my own, more or less.

Did you get freaked out when everyone in the Masyaf town started to follow you?  I did.  I walked all over trying to see how many zombies I could pick up.

Edit 2:  Oh duh, "where I saw it", not "where is a wit".  Dimwit, that is.

[MysterD]

Dammit, I see "spoiler" tags and this game ain't even on the PC, so I gotta' skip them...

[Cobra951]

The game's ending is enigmatic.  iPPi linked an article that deciphers most of it.  I figured out most of it on my own.  (It's not rocket science.)  The specifics, including a head-slapping misstep of mine, are being discussed.  That's all you're missing.

[Jedi]

I am finishing this game this weekend gods damit, I've only got 2 targets to go.... and lots and lots of over time to do, but I'm finishing this game!

And at the same time I don't want to finish game 

[Quemaqua]

So frustrated... I have both this and the Witcher to finish, and Aquaria is stealing me from both of them!  I really hope I don't get any PC games for Christmas (fortunately I almost never do) because these are three games I sincerely want to finish.

[iPPi]

94/100 Kingdom flags... don't know if I'll be able to find the last 6 without resorting to a guide or a map of some kind.  I've got about 45/60 templars as well.

[MysterD]

So frustrated... I have both this and the Witcher to finish, and Aquaria is stealing me from both of them!  I really hope I don't get any PC games for Christmas (fortunately I almost never do) because these are three games I sincerely want to finish.

Go finish Witcher and Assassin's now!

[sirean_syan]

You're hardly one to talk, D.

[Cobra951]

94/100 Kingdom flags... don't know if I'll be able to find the last 6 without resorting to a guide or a map of some kind.  I've got about 45/60 templars as well.

I'm at 96/100 kingdom flags, and I've pretty much given up.  It's going to take forever to find them honestly, then it will take forever to finish each of the cities the same way.  They need some sort of clue mechanism, like maybe have your Eagle vision see a special color glow after you're fully synched (20 life-line segments) even through walls.  I'm at 45 Templars myself.

[Jedi]

You're hardly one to talk, D.

Yeah shut your trap D. 
Umm I take it when you 'finish' the game that there's no sandbox-ing after that which would mean I wouldn't be able to do everything.... dang.

[Pugnate]

But his comment was so tongue in cheek.

[iPPi]

Yeah shut your trap D. 
Umm I take it when you 'finish' the game that there's no sandbox-ing after that which would mean I wouldn't be able to do everything.... dang.

You can still enter the world once you finish the game.  Don't worry.

[MysterD]

You're hardly one to talk, D.

Ironic, eh?

[MysterD]

2.5 mill sold worldwide so far from Assassin's Creed, UbiSoft says....

[Cobra951]

Damn you.  Just 4 weeks to get to 2.5 million sold.

I'm so glad.  I think it's greatly deserved success.  I hope it snowballs from here, and we get great sequels.

[Pugnate]

Woah!

[MysterD]

Woah!

You sound like Keanu Reeves/Neo there...

[iPPi]

97/100 kingdom flags.

[Pugnate]

What happens when you earn a 100?