Assassin's Creed - Xbox 360

I'm not normally a fan of stealth action or platform games - Assassin's Creed wasn't on my shopping list until Gabe at Penny Arcade convinced me otherwise.

It is a truly beautiful game. The first sight of Damascus is breathtaking. Player character animation is fluid and graceful. Climbing (one of the key mechanics) is simple to control but still a joy to behold. Horse riding is also well implemented. However combat from the saddle is generally short lived (is there a market here? Sparhawk anyone?).

For me, most scenarios degenerated into sword-fights. Admittedly by "degenerate", I mean morph into beautifully choreographed, visceral steel-play - and I prefer the direct approach anyway. Knife fights can be *very* satisfying, especially on rooftops. :-) [The one-context-sensitive-button approach bugs some players, see below].

The futuristic bent on the medieval theme works surprisingly well. It also serves as a useful plot device for fast-forwarding directly to the action. The story fizzles a little at the close of this installment as the sequel directions are left wide open but I was four-armed [sic] and forewarned about that.

The pseudo-interactive cut-scenes also serve their purpose admirably - presuming that purpose is:

• look very pretty.
• provide further (brief) insight into a character who normally doesn't have a long life expectancy.

'Creed is not perfect e.g. making collectible objects (flags) look like graphical glitches isn't a good call unless the game is completely free of graphical glitches. A Crackdown-like aural cue when the player is close to such objects would have been a welcome addition. On the topic of sound, the NPC dialog can be repetitive, especially for tasks should as "Save Citizen". The combat-camera logic can also be a little unhelpful - it would be nice if it put it back where it came after it temporarily wrests control from the player.

On the whole, I'm glad I bought it. Thanks Gabe!

PS This is a big step closer to fulfilling the Quake to Half-Life 2, Crackdown to ???, "prophecy". Maybe the sequel(s) will reach those heady heights. ;-)

PPS Zero Punctuation takes a stab.

Enchanted Arms (last of the dull RPGs?)

Being a launch title for a new console is not an enviable task. Such games rarely stand the light of day, let alone review in retrospect. (Critic-developer-publisher-consoleVendor circle-jerking frequently clouds collective judgment initially).

Enchanted Arms is a by-the-numbers Japanese turn-based-battle RPG. That, in itself, is not a bad thing. Unfortunately it fails to deliver on most levels.

The "characters" are all irritating. In fact, sometimes they seem to vie to be the *most* irritating. The dialog is terrible. ("..." alone is not a sentence. Using it in every interaction does not make it more enlightening). While the English voice acting is entertainingly bad at first, the more characters are introduced, the more grating it all becomes. (It seemed to drive most critics crazy too). There's a slightly more tolerable original-spoken-Japanese option but even that cannot prevent the high pitched screeching of many of the characters...

The storyline is predictable and uninteresting. I've been waiting many hours (more than I'd like to admit) for the hook that will make me give a s**t about what's going on. I have yet to find one.

Enchanted Arms does try something a little different in its grid-based, turn-based battle system. Unfortunately battles soon begin to feel more like repetitive time-filling chores than fun.

I am officially over the standard fare from the Japanese turn-based battle RPG genre.

I'm not interested unless

1. I can customize my character appearance
2. my actions make an appreciable difference to battle outcome(s)
3. those battles are fun and not just filler/the necessary means to increase stats
4. I have some *role* in the decisions my character makes
5. those decisions make a noticeable difference to the story outcome.

or give me compelling characters and an engrossing storyline in lieu of #1, #4 and #5 e.g. Kingdom Hearts series on PS2 from Square Enix.

For some time I've considered the approach taken by most Eastern RPGs to be a (poor) excuse that was permissible only because of the limitations of the last console set i.e. PS2. With the advent of the Xbox 360 (and PS3) those excuses are no longer good enough. Strictly turn-based battles, "random" encounters with invisible enemies, party members becoming invisible while navigating dull environments and being "rewarded" for exploring every dead-end in said environments, need to become part of gaming history.

Fortunately games such as Blue Dragon and Eternal Sonata do away with some of these jaded traditions and I hope spell the end of their use in the genre. Both games allow you to see the enemies you encounter and avoid them if you choose. Also, Eternal Sonata's battles, while still turn-based, have a countdown that begins as soon as a character moves, leaving you seconds to decide what action to take - this makes them refreshingly engrossing and exciting.

Roll on Two Worlds, BioShock, Mass Effect, Too Human and Fable 2...(unfortunately several of those titles risk being trapped in Uncanny Valley...but that's a topic for another day...).