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Assassin’s Creed Revelations: a long tutorial

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It doesn't seem like a year since I played through Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, but it is and so it's high time I continue the series - in an attempt to make sure that I'm only four years behind the curve and no more.  I mean, when I finish Revelations I'll only have III, III Liberation, IV, Rogue, Unity, Chronicles and Syndicate to go.

Hmm.

So, Revelations.  I know that I will get to play as both Ezio and Altäir, since they are both on the cover.  I know that I will struggle to adapt to a slightly changed control scheme, since they've moved the ranged weapons button.


I know that I will get completely lost in a new city for ages, and will take some time to work out the best way to run away from the guards.  I know that I'll quickly get distracted by opening shops and chasing down thieves and looting the bodies of dead soldiers.


I know all this will happen.  Why in the future?  Because as of now, a few hours into the game, I'm still playing through the tutorial.  It goes on forever.  I have had to complete some basic missions to learn about the new eagle sense, to learn about the ranged weapons options, to learn about bombs.  I finally have a bit of freedom now, but it's taken so long.  I mean, it took over half an hour to get to the title screen!


It feels like a refined version of Brotherhood so far.  I appreciate the better control over throwing knives, I find the reformed eagle sense a bit annoying, and I find the odd Animus Island a bit odd.  It's almost as if they're running out of ideas for the modern-world story.


I'll report more soon.

Sonic Generations: completed!

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The additional challenges were pretty easy, once I chose the right ones, and so Shadow the Hedgehog appeared to me.  Having never played Sonic 2006, this is the first time I've been exposed to his lack of character.  Luckily I quickly defeated him - it would have been nice to understand why I had to, admittedly - and I had my final chaos emerald.

To the final boss, then, or rather the construction yard surrounding it.  I had to jump onto broken platforms and slot in chaos emeralds to fix the gears and start the gate up again.  I was rather worried by this, since holding on to the chaos emeralds is generally a good thing,


I needn't have worried.  Somehow, although the emeralds are clearly visible embedded in the cogs, Sonic(s) still had them when facing down the final boss.  And what an awful final boss it was.  As Super Sonic, you have to boost forwards towards the big Time Eater enemy, and lock on to his core.  But quickly, since your rings supply is constantly counting down and trying to get hold of more rings is pretty difficult.  It's easiest to switch to a 2D display until you get close to the boss, then switch to 3D and boost into the core.  But it's not easy at all, and took me multiple attempts.


But finish it I did, completing the game.


There's a lot left to do - many challenges in terms of time attacks, races, ring collections and similar.  I have about 50% of the red star rings.  But I'm not sure I will play much more for now - I'd prefer to play Sonic Colours or a completely different game rather than going over the same stages again.  Maybe in the future.

In any case, this is the best Sonic game for a long time, even if the last boss is pretty rubbish.

Sonic Generations: hitting walls

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Oddly enough, although I wrote at length about my experiences with the 3DS game, I don't appear to have written about the Xbox 360 version which I played at pretty much the same time.  I didn't complete it though; of the nine main stages of the game I had completed both acts of six and played through the 2D parts of the remaining three.  I've no idea why I stopped.

With the launch of TrueSteamAchievements, I was able to register and see which games I own but have hardly played on Steam. Most of them, it turns out. One of the more interesting pages is 'My Easy Achievements' which lists those achievements I've not yet won which most people who own the games in question have. This list was topped by the achievement for completing the first Act in Sonic Generations. I have absolutely no idea when I bought the game on Steam, though I won't have paid much for it.

Anyway, suitably shamed, I loaded the game on my work PC - no Mac version, it seems - and played through both Acts of the Green Hill Zone. That took some effort; the game juddered and slowed in the resolution it recommended, and then looked ugly and in the wrong aspect ratio when I tried to change that. Why was I struggling through it when I had a perfectly accessible console version?

No, I didn't know either. And that, in a roundabout way, is why I loaded up Sonic Generations on my Xbox 360.

I'm glad I did. This is a good Sonic game - particularly the 2D sections, although most of the 3D Acts are fun as well. The only real problem is that the controls feel a little imprecise at times, which I think is down to using the analogue stick (with its length of travel) over digital pads. Turning in the air to avoid spikes can take a fraction of a second too long, and occasionally I can't steer Sonic away from the walls that jut out into the 3D levels.



I played through the second Acts of Crisis City, Rooftop Run, and Planet Wisp, with a number of lives lost due to me trying to hurry through the levels. It's easy to forget that even in the original Mega Drive games you had to take the later stages somewhat slower. There's a boss battle next, but first I've got to unlock it by completing three challenges - special requirements within existing levels. What a faff. 
 

Halo Reach: flying around in space

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I am, apparently, a little way through the game, and I restarted halfway through chapter 3.  The difference in gameplay from the first Halo is marked, with increased reliance on team members and communication, and a move to large scale set pieces rather than small-scale battles in corridors from one waypoint to the next.  The world feels a lot more empty and open, and you have a sense of partaking in a massive war rather than an individual battle - as you drive around, you see fighting way off in the distance.


It's not just the scale of the world that feels different, but the detail.  Battlegrounds are strewn with objects, pathways, and debris.  Guns are located all over, and you sort of understand why - the previous battles have been hard.


It's still a Halo game, though, with the need for intelligent tactics to overcome the multitude of enemies.  Invisible Elites and Hunters make the combat fraught and it's best to stay at a distance as much as possible.  This isn't always easy, though, as your team mates have a tendency to barge in and get themselves killed if you're not supporting.

And then suddenly it wasn't a Halo game any more, it was a generic space shooter using Banshee controls.  Having to take to the skies to protect the space station seems a little odd, as surely the military should have a separate air force.  We're meant to be experts in ground combat.  Surely we haven't had that many casualties?




The flying bits were a disappointment.  Aim at the pre-set point and fire; there was no need to judge speed and distance unlike the Banshee battles in other games.  It didn't outstay its welcome though, especially as it transitioned into a segment set on an orbiting ship where I was able to sneak around and hit Elites with swords.  Blew up the ship, ran back to my craft, and I was soon on solid ground.


Lots of things have exploded.


Halo Anniversary: completed!

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Amusingly, as I travelled to work this morning I was reminded that I completed Halo 2 eight years ago today.  And today I have completed the updated original game.

I have a soft spot for the original Halo.  When I first played through it, the story wasn't massively inspiring, but the gameplay was and as I progressed through the game I got interested with the overall objectives.  Until, that is, I got to the Library, and the flood, which seemed to go on forever and really was pretty dull.  But after escaping from the library and backtracking through previous levels, watching the covenant fight the flood, I felt a sense of urgency and importance which was compounded by the final escape run.  I said I might play it again some time.

And, you know what, I did.  I played through the whole game again a year or so later, and of course played multiplayer a few times when people visited.  Each of the levels, while part of the narrative, stands up well as a separate game.  And then when Halo Anniversary was released, it seemed an ideal time to go back to it.  Unfortunately it came at a time when I'd just finished ODST and started Reach, and it appears that I stopped playing after the Pillar of Autumn.  With a renewed freshness for the game, I decided to play it again.

The thing about Halo Anniversary is that it looks how you remember the original game to look.  For example, I remember this:


I don't remember this:


 But the second picture is what the original game actually looks like.  Plain, muddy, dark.



The needler has always been pink, hasn't it?




Lot of dead spartans in a co-op mode, looking either rugged or metallic depending on when you play the game.



Lush scenery, or foggy closeness.



At least the light bridge is the same.

One of the very cool things about remasters such as this is the ability to switch between original and new graphics at will.  This isn't quite as slick as the Monkey Island remake, with a fade to black between the styles, but it still works well.


So, anyway, I played through the game to the end.  Blah blah, Library dull, Keyes face, nuclear reactors exploding, drive warthog, escape.  Still a fantastic game.

There are some additions to the game as well.  Borrowed from Halo 3, there are a number of skulls located in hidden areas.  I actually looked up where they were, since there is no way I would ever explore enough to find them, and then went through the game collecting them - sometimes in a co-op game with both controllers in order to get to obscure areas.  It was well worth it, because some of the skulls make the game more fun to play again.  Particularly infinite ammo.  That even makes the Library fun, throwing limitless grenades, especially with the double explosion size also turned on.


I think I may have had my fill now, though.  Time to leave the comforting familiar environments behind, and go back to see where I reached in, er, Halo Reach.