Assassin's Creed Brotherhood

I really loved part 2 so I will pick this up for sure.

So is this essentially Assassins Creed 2.5, a sort of multiplayer extension pack before the final chapters eventual release?

Ive yet to finish AC2, which I have absolutely loved so far and managed to delete the awful memory of the first game, so yeah, I'm game for this.

Yeah gotta say, the idea of running around renaissance Rome in multiplayer is pretty fucking delicious.

Enjoyed the 1st one and loved the Sequel, so I'm pretty much onboard for this.

Good as bought.

Yep I'm in. The sequel was just too much fun and being able to run around online while fighting others with hidden blades on rooftops, Yes please!

I read the write up today in playstation magazine. It sounds like it could be a lot of fun. The MP part sounds like a blast.

Yep, that works for me. Definitely bought. I should be finished with RDR by then (just).

Multi looks like a blast. I'll have my copy tomorrow (PS3) and I look forward to straight murdering fools. Also, I hear single is pretty great, too. Ryan Davis over at Giant Bomb said it kicked mega ass.

PSN name: Mediumdave

I am curious what people think of this. I don't really do mulitplayer, but I could be convinced to get it for single player if it's supposed to be any good.

From all reports, this is basically Assassin's Creed's Vice City.

Yes, that's a compliment. A big one.

Im determined to conquer the tiny stack of games I've got before I go for this, though. But I'm stoked.

I played a couple hours of the single player in Brotherhood last night, and it felt a lot like AC2 gameplay wise (which is a good thing) with a few additions to the control scheme. My favorite is the kill streak that lets you take out crowds quickly. Basically, once you start killing one enemy, you can target the next for an immediate assassination. With proper timing, you can take out lots of people in quick succession.

Storywise, it literally starts where AC2 ended and runs with it. I've played a fair bit with Ezio and a fair bit with Desmond, and I was surprised at how much fun I had with Desmond. Perhaps that has a bit to do with where Desmond and crew end up going (Ezio's villa at Monteriggioni in the present day) and the environmental puzzle there. Desmond controls exactly like Ezio or Altair now, and his outfit even resembles a modern take on their white and red assassin outfits due to strategic backpack placement.

I'm pretty much a whore for the AC universe at this stage. I'll be buying this as soon as I get back from my overseas holiday.

What on earth is this? Is it DLC or an entire new game set in Rome? Either way I'm getting it. AC2 was pretty much everything I hoped AC1 would be (though sadly it lacked the cool setting of AC1). My most heart felt videogaming desire at this point is that the sequel to AC2 would take place in either

1) Ancient Rome -- I want to walk the forum!
2) Colonial India -- Wonderful plot possibilities and a fascinating range of architectural styles
3) The Mayan Empire a few years after Spanish occupation -- again, cool setting, interesting architecture

The multi-player is so fun, I've been burnt out on shooter multi-player so this is a nice change of pace. I'm digging having be careful and trying to blend into crowds but also trying to hunt down my own pray. Will hopefully get to the single player this weekend.

Gamertag is hexx462 I'm playing on 360.

Rented this. It drops you in with a steep learning curve if you didn't play 2 (and I played 1 so long ago the controls took a while to remember). I'm not too far in but I'm already frustrated as hell though. Early on Machiavelli tells me about a borgia tower and my guy decides he has to do something about it. I have to throw a captain into some scaffolding to free the area of their influence...but there's no captain. I've looked everywhere. I mean, it makes sense that he'd be next to the scaffolding, or at least would patrol near there. Nope. I can't free the tower and without doing that can't actually do anything else in the game. I've run around for an hour climbing towers and killing random guards, but I'm pretty well screwed.

Picking this up tomorrow, are we going to get a few Chud SNEAKY/STABBY/DISGUISY sessions in this weekend?

I'd be up for some sneaky/stabby/disguisy hijinks this weekend. I haven't touched the multiplayer in AC Brotherhood yet (just a bit of single player), but it looks like fun.

He was on the ground for me. You don't need to throw him into scaffolding, give him a hidden blade to face or whatever weapon you like (The captains have a special red flag showing you where they are when you get close enough). Also, if you spook him and he runs and gets away he'll return with the next changing of the guard (which happens twice a day).

I love my hidden blades but the Butchers Knife has some absolutely BRUTAL killing animations that I've been using that almost all the time once I bought it.

I looked online after I posted that and apparently throwing him into the scaffolding is necessary to get 100% synchronization but not to pass the area. The thing is, I literally killed every guard within 500 yards of the tower at least three times over. I never, ever saw a guy with a red flag (thanks for letting me know about that at least, I was spending all my time trying to find a guy who looked like the picture). I saw the changing of the guard a few times, but just never saw him. I'll try again tonight but it feels like a bug. Maybe reloading will fix it.

Edit: My favorite bit while I was running around bored with no way to advance was to find a group of 4 guards, and do the hidden knife to the jugular to the guy lagging in the back and then just walk away. I love that they stand there trying to stop the bleeding for a few seconds before collapsing, buying you the time you need to fade into the crowd.

I am wracked with regret for my COD BO early Xmas gift purchase at this moment. I just spent some time reading about BROTHERHOOD and I want more than anything else to be playing it right now. Unfortunately there is no way I can ask my parents to buy it for me after all the early Xmas gifts I've gotten. I should have done more research about what was coming out this holiday season

It was a bug. I reloaded the game, and the Captain was there with the big impossible to miss red flag that shows even through walls so you know where he is. I've now freed about 35% of the Centro district and I'm buying up property like a fiend. Just shops now, the landmarks are still a little bit outside my price range.

Killing most of the Captains seems to come down to waiting for them to respawn and killing all the guards around so that when they do respawn they're easy pickings. Some of those I just don't know how you can realistically kill the first time since they run so fast and have no interest in fighting you. My favorite tower was the one surrounded by water though. When the Captain respawned I was able to free run across the masts of the different ships and then do an air assassination on to him.

Most of them I kill by leaping on from above. If you kill them w/o killing their men first, you get the added bonus of watching nearly all of their men shit themselves running away.

There's something incredibly empowering about standing alone in an enemy base after 12 armed soldiers have run to the hills.

Yeah, I typically shoot them with the gun or crossbow if I can't do death from above.

I have a gun, and I have throwing knives apparently, and I can certainly afford the crossbow. I just really feel like getting up close feels more like an assassination.

I went hunting a captain last night and I tried to silently assassinate one of the roof guards but somebody noticed me. Every guard in the area flooded to the roof and attacked me, and I killed them all. It attracted the attention of the captain who stood below me but didn't climb up. Queue 4 minutes of me trying to do air assassinations, but the captain was so close to the building that Ezio would do the animation of leaping off of the building only to land on it again...over and over. I stubbornly refused to just kill him normally and kept trying new angles to figure out how to air assassinate him. Eventually I fell off of the roof on accident and had to fight him on the ground.

After some shameless begging this morning on my ride to work, my mom has agreed to finance my purchase of this game later today during a trip to Walmart!

I will soon be playing it along with you guys, I am very excited

The Tomb of Romulus can fuck itself. I've gone through it five times now and I'm always a few seconds under the perfect synch time. Aside from that I'm absolutely in love with the game. I kind of forget how much I love these games until I start playing them.

All this talk is gonna make me crack and but it much sooner than my budget can really allow at this rate.

I really am quite a geek for the AC universe I've realised.

Assassin's Creed 1 was one of the first games I played when I first got my 360, and I loved it to pieces. Looking back, I can see the game's flaws, but at the time I couldn't get enough of it. I even like Desmond. AC2 was even better than AC1, and so far AC Brotherhood seems to be at least on par with AC2.
I guess you could say that I like the series a lot.

Ok... this is getting absurd. I played for over three hours last night, and only then did I get to Rome. The inane time travel stuff is more prominent than ever in this game, and I get the feeling it's designed to pad the play time of the game

Let me be clear: I did NOT buy this game to play as Desmond. I did NOT buy this game to listen to characters spout stupid techno jargon for 20 minutes on end, only to then go on a treasure hunt to connect a power supply to some sort of device. I bought this game to walk around Rome, and Ubisoft should try and understand that

I get the feeling the sci fi framing device was only ever invented to avoid controversy with AC1. "It's not actually a crusades game, it's a sci fi game!"

The plot is one of the stupidest ones I've ever seen in a game. Listening to the voice actors try to discuss it with one another is like listening to a parody of convoluted videogame nonsense. The games would be much better off if they just played it straight and focused on ancient assassins. I do not want or need a reason for the series to travel through time. Just have the next game start with some other assassin discovering a scroll about Enzio or something. That's all the back story you need

The modern day characters are headache inducing cardboard cutouts, and the "sci fi" stuff is laughably dumb

OK, rant over. Hopefully I'll get to play in Rome today instead of trying to set up an animus, and I'll be able to report back with more in depth impressions

EDIT: And the sci fi stuff polutes the game play by being obtrusive visually. The NPC highlighting system is way too intense, glowing blue with sparkles ETC. I just need a little dot over someones head, I don't need them to glow like Dr Manhattan. I'd prefer to be able to play and just forget the sci fi stuff even exists

You make it sound like this is the first AC game you've played Kate because all that stuff was in the first 2 games. Its always been about modern/futuristic people tapping into DNA to gain knowledge from the past to do...something.

It seem like the ultimate goal of the series is to culminate with an installment that is entirely set in the present/future playing as Desmond to defeat the Templars.

Sounds like you're wanting another game entirely.

So...the game is kind of completely open from the start. I'm on the 3rd Memory sequence, haven't even hit the main plotline yet, and I have the potential to refurbish the entire city, destroy the Borgia, unlock the ultimate armour, already. Kind of an interesting take, because I'm used to these games drip feeding you progress.

The second Romulus Tomb is great. Starts off with a fight against half a dozen wolf assassins, has a kick foot chase, has a quick game of 'spot the douchebag' in an Eyes Wide Shut style room, and then has a goddamn underground horse chase.

I just was frustrated that the sci fi story seems to be growing ever more convoluted and ridiculous, and the bulk of the early stages of the game involved alot of Desmond stuff when all I wanted was to get to Rome

You could have cut everything but Enzio's home coming (and the battle) and the game would have been better off for it. I am certain I'm going to love Rome. I loved AC1 and 2. I just hate the sci fi stuff because 1) it's poorly executed and silly IMHO and 2) it gets in the way of my historical adventuring

I have a limited amount of free time in my life, and I work early on Saturdays. I was all set to dive into Rome last night only to find out I had to slog through a bunch of nonsense before the game would let me do what I bought the game to do

Oh well. Sorry if I seemed angry, it just ticked me off quite a bit. I got to Rome just as I was ready to sleep last evening and so today when I get off work I should have fun

PS I really really hope not. I enjoy the architecture and depiction of city life in ancient times. That is why I play and enjoy these games (that and the free running ETC). An AC game set in some modern world holds zero interest for me. If I want to explore a modern city, there are a million games for that. If I want to go to 11th century Damascus, there is ONE only game that lets you do that. This series should play to it's strengths

But, but, leaps of faith, hidden blade kills, Eagle Eye Vision...IN THE FYOOTCHAH!

I'm down for that. Gotta finish what I started anyway.

Fair enough

I just wish we lived in a world where the market was clogged with historical action adventures and not FPSs. Then I wouldn't be as bothered when we get one twisted up in a convoluted Sci fi over story

PS Resetting my health feels cheap since, as many have pointed out, this is really AC2.5

Should have just carried over all stats like ME2

I haven't replayed it, but I prefer the 100% synch goals to be attainable if you do really well the first time. It feels like a cheap gameplay mechanic to force you to replay a few times to have a chance at it. I actually attacked that area and got through the first few rooms and mistakenly thought I had a chance at hitting the 8 minute time my first time through, got an announcement that time had expired and then spent another 15 minutes figuring out the route.

3rd best thing in the game - putting the gun and throwing daggers behind the sword and knife. No having to switch to cap someone in the face.

2nd best thing in the game - buying all sorts of shit. I love buying property in video games.

1st best thing - summoning your Pet Assassins to kill for you. He does a motion, but in my head, it's the whistle/click from Fantastic Mr. Fox. This never gets old. NEVER.

It also turns the player into an asshole. A guard even looks at you funny, and it's knife in the back city for him.

Fuck all the haters everywhere, I love playing as Desmond in these games. To me, the sci-fi aspects of Assassin's Creed are the extra bit of icing on top that makes them special. I haven't played much of Brotherhood yet (trying to polish off my 1st Fable 3 playthrough), but so far the early Desmond level is one of my favorite parts of any of the Creed games.

Hey, they were assholes first, pushing me just because I dared walk close to them. Arrow storm is a wonderful thing.

Really? I liked the more actiony bits from the second game where Desmond gets to play assassin. That seems to be where the series is going anyways, which is fine by me.

Damn you guys. It's only in the not purchasing of this game yet that I've realised just how much I love these games and this story ubisoft has created. I'm getting Brotherhood this week as soon as I get paid.

ETA: Watched the main E3 trailer for this over the weekend and damn near had a geekgasm. Damn they know how to make a great frikkin cinematic tease for these games.

Multiplayer is really fucking fun.

Not as fun as snapping your fingers and having mens jump out of the FUCKING SKY to kill your enemies for you, but still. Really fun.

My favorite assassin summoning was following a handful of guards into an alley. I whistle and out of the mouth of the alley, around a blind corner, an assassin jumps, shanking a guard in the face.

Also. Once, whistle/click out of a haystack jumps an assassin. They're everywhere!

It's not as open-world as it likes to pretend. You can't get God armor early on (although you can see it) but they cut off parts of the world to keep you from getting there too early. I don't like how hard it is to tell from the map what things you've already bought and which you're missing. I keep running into things I'd have sworn I'd already bought.

Finally beat the game, the ending was pretty sweet but I'm not gonna say anything about it, spoilers and all but damn I wonder how long 3 will be in the making.. I need it noooooowww.

PS. Brutus' knife OWNS.

Cracked. Bought it online. Should have it within the next few days.

I better hurry up and finish RDR:Undead Nightmare.