Assassin's Creed (NEW GAMES)

Ubisoft's acrobatic action-adventure breaks new ground left and right; here are the top five reasons you need to play it.
by YVG Staff

WATCH THE EXCLUSIVE LAUNCH TRAILER
1. A Tale of Three Cities

You're not limited to one urban locale. Three major cities populate the game, and you'll have multiple assassination targets and investigations in each. Acre, Jerusalem and Damascus are modeled after their 12th century counterparts, with liberties taken to emphasize stealth and fun rather than history. Finding the highest vantage points in each will open up gameplay maps and missions. To get from one town to the next, you'll travel between the city gates on horseback along dangerous roads. The streets of each burg are dense and complex, with a huge variety of citizenry, mercenaries, soldiers and other honest (and not so honest) folk.

2. Acrobatic Assassination

Prince of Persia players will recognize the combat system in some ways. There are nice touches that allow for a quick combination of offensive and defensive moves -- anti-hero Altair can bounce swiftly from throwing knives to deflecting and countering attacks. Combat works side by side with the game's high-climbing navigation potential, and you can also pull off classic moves like the drop-down kill. That one has a bad side effect: namely being stranded in a sea of enemies. Better to use the retractable stealth blade quietly and get away clean.

3. Medieval Parkour

Anyone who saw the Bond flick Casino Royale knows parkour; it's the free-running city sport originated in Paris, and it's also a good way to describe the exploration in Assassin's Creed. Since we first saw the game we've been in love with the ability to climb and jump on any surface large enough to grab a finger or foothold, and in practice the sense of total freedom is even more impressive. Simple analog stick movements do it all. You won't want to navigate a game city in the same old way after you get a feel for this one.

4. More Than Meets the Eye

Look beyond the confines of the game's three cities and you'll see a few odd things about the story told within Assassin's Creed. For one, there are those decidedly electronic HUD displays and the weird references to modern technology that you'll see when pausing the game. Combat also displays some techno-flourishes, and there are other telltale signs that your character isn't merely an assassin during the days of the Third Crusade. We can't tell you the real nature of the truth, but it is out there.

5. Social Standing

Not only will your own position within society increase simply by owning one of the fall's best games, your avatar Altair's position within society will constantly rise and fall during the storyline. Your standing can change during the course of any of the investigations that lead to assassination missions; these often require less than desirable actions like pickpocketing and roughing up informants. Guards can see your devilish actions or be informed of them; instead of running openly you'll have to move slowly among the crowd, perhaps posing as if in prayer to deflect attention, or even grabbing a seat on a bench between good citizens to hide while the guards dash by.
From Yahoo.com

Win A Wii (COMPETITION)

There was a lot of wordplay in this Sunday's Sunday Times magazine (around the Wii).

Wii will rock you.

The console is worth R2799 and is available now in South Africa. It's different to the other gaming consoles (XBOX and SP3) because it is simple plug and plug, and uses the fun concept of a motion console. Wii says it best: Wii would like to play!

From Sunday Times:

You say you want a Wiivolution

Don’t like games? Find them too demanding? Wait till you try Nintendo’s new console, where all you need is arms. James Francis gets a grip.

The story of Wii is the story of the comeback kid. Nintendo, a company that opened its doors over a century ago to sell card games, has brought the world some of its biggest gaming icons: Mario, Donkey Kong, Pokémon, to name a few.

For the rest of this article, click here.

I believe Wii is huge overseas, ranking second behind XBOX, and ahead of SP3.

More stories on Gaming:

Nintendo Wii Outpaces Sony PS3 in Japan

Week recap: PS3 price cut; Xbox 360 fall; Wii Fit

Women Prefer Wii, Men Prefer PlayStation 3

Wii in South Africa End of September - R2799!! PRE ORDER NOW!

Nintendo market value at $85 billon thanks to Wii

Wii

Click here to enter the Win a Wii competition.

Getting Real about Kids and Gaming

From escapistmagazine.com:

When I heard Wil Wheaton punctuated his keynote address at PAX with the cry "don't be a dick," I was wildly enthusiastic. Finally, I thought - he must be talking about reaching outside the gaming community with a positive message.

By the end of the speech, he was, sort of. The problem is starting a keynote by telling Jack Thompson to suck your balls isn't exactly going to get you the nod from Miss Manners. In fact, it's going to make a lot of people immediately stop listening - the ones who need to listen the most.

Oh, I agree with Will's sentiment; if I had balls, Jack Thompson could suck them. He's a hateful, abusive, violent human being - utterly unlike all the gamers and game developers I know personally. But responding to his negative energy with more negative energy isn't ever going to shut him up, and what it is going to do is cause more people to view the videogame community as abrasive, violent, thoughtless, uneducated and dangerous.
I'm really not even going to get into the censorship issue, because it's complex, under-researched and thorny.

What I do want to talk about is a critical audience that has been somewhat reassured by Nintendo's positive branding: parents.

I played Primal Rage (with the blood setting on) when I was in that dangerous early teen phase, yet I can't watch gory movies without getting nightmares, and I've come close to passing out at the sight of my own blood. But while we, as a gaming community, have a more direct experience with the dangers, or lack thereof, of videogames, the parents of the current generation don't, and they're terrified of them. This doesn't, however, make them bad parents.

Good Parent, Bad Parent

The most common counterargument to the videogame censorship force is that only bad parents would allow their children to have violent videogames. Obviously, good parents don't need censors, because they'll protect their kids themselves.

This argument is flawed for a couple of reasons. First, while most people are concerned about their own children, they also aren't happy if the "wrong" kids are devouring a bunch of videogames and practicing to become an army of the next generation's Unabombers. By throwing out the "only bad parents let their kids have violent games" argument, not only are we not responding to the issue - you know, with data - we're further alienating these parents motivated enough to engage in a dialogue about games with us.

And through that alienation we are feeding their very precise fears: If they don't exert some control over this force that they utterly don't understand - by removing it from their kids' environment entirely - they are going to be bad parents.

For more click here.

NVDL: I have a suggestion to combat crime in South Africa (which is infamous for its violence). Introduce violent TV games to those communities especially susceptible to violent crime. At least that ought to keep the criminals indoors, able to voyearistically do justice to their most violent fantasies. You think I'm joking?