In Limbo

I probably spent more time pulling together the template for this blog than I've spent actually playing the game.

Needless to say, my initial enthusiasm for what was going to be my new passion has waned. It may have been premature to have registered the 'assassinscreedgirl.com' domain and to have fantasised about hours on end of role-play fighting and puzzle-solving intermingled with writing about role-play fighting and puzzle-solving. I probably should have read others' reviews first.

The FIFA player has asked me to hurry up and finish Assassin's Creed so that we can turn it in for some other game. Such drastic action is itself premature. I still don't think I've given the game a fair shot. If the FIFA player makes more trade-in overtures, he'll find a fight on his hands.

My complaint about "save game" stands: it is ridiculous that in order to save multiple games you need to either create a new profile or save your current game to some other location (USB stick?). Granted, it's not difficult to create a new profile; but, how difficult is it to code a game to allow multiple game saves? If it is so hard, why have so many other games succeeded in giving their fans the OBVIOUS ability to save multiple games.

I guess that's my biggest complaint: the lack of intuitiveness / transparency in this area. I shouldn't have had to google to figure it out.

Save Me

To Do:

Research Game Save.

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As I said before, players and non-players get sucked in by the life-like details. The FIFA player asks me to play just so he can watch. At some point watching isn't enough. The FIFA player wants to be Assassin's Creed Boy if only for a moment. I growl, but relinquish the controls.

He uses no tact. He storms through town on the back of a galloping stallion. Soldiers circle. They attack. The FIFA player cum Assassin's Creed Boy attacks. His play demonstrates a complete lack of finesse, which, although I've not gotten far I know is required.

I'm not worried. I figure I just won't save his progress.

Should I have been worried? It seems Assassin's Creed doesn't have the save options that I would hope it would have. Can't I have more than one game in progress (i.e. saved) at any given time? Did the FIFA player really steamroller over all my progress, and is there no way to go back?

I do not know the answers to these questions. So far the game save functionality does not appear to be as robust as I would expect it to be. If my I'm wrong on this point, then the functionality is not as intuitive as it should be, because a player should be playing his/her game, not researching it.

Second Impressions

I've brandished my sword.

I've slept a sleep of death.

I've mounted a horse and scaled numerous buildings and eavesdropped on a conversation about a basket weaver. I've picked a pocket.

After all this, the promise is still a promise, neither confirmed nor repudiated.

My almost-initial impressions are this:

a. The graphics have me tongue-tied. AC is visually beautiful. So beautiful that I found it difficult to shake my audience: players and non-players alike get sucked into the life-like details: the swoosh of robes, the feathers of a bird, the clippity-clopping of a galloping horse. It's a compelling game to merely watch.

b. From a story/action/puzzle-completion standpoint, Assassin's Creed hasn't sucked this girl in the way my good friend Lara Croft did. One could argue I'm more mature now, and so less easily ensnared by a game, less prone to addiction. That would be a spurious argument: anyone who witnessed my alcohol intake this holiday season would know I have the makings of an addict. There is something -- or rather there is not something -- that hasn't pull me in as immediately as I had expected. I'm making no definitive judgements yet. Who knows what tomorrow will bring?

First Foray

The FIFA Player laughed at me as I tried to handle the new Playstation 3. I found the main power button without difficulty. It's just just like a normal on/off button and sits right where it did on the PS3's predecessor. The Eject Disc and Reset Game buttons were the ones that caused me frustration. The FIFA Player and I are space conscious, and consequently have the new device set up vertically between a couple of fancy art books, which results in the already camouflaged futuristic, flat Eject Disc and Reset Game buttons in being more camouflaged. After some swearing on my part and chuckling on the FIFA Player's part, I figured it out. The game slid into it's slot. Our screen burst to life.

As I suspected, the intial familiarisation with the controls, the moves, walking, running, blending in, was dizzying. I lasted about 15 minutes before I turned the game off. Learning the basics is something you want to do alone, not in front of the seasoned fingers of a FIFA player.