On another note, 2011 ended with a Bastion marathon and 2012 continues my Metal Gear Solid-ucation (after the amazing MGS3) with more Big Boss and some Mother Base building in Peace Walker, and at the same time *finally* getting back to Italy to hang with Ezio and the Ass Bros.

Edit: Anyone want to try Peace Walker coop? It seems like craziness. I mean, cardboard box tank, you guys.

@feenwager Curious to hear more about SWTOR on the podcast, specifically whether or not you think you’ll be playing it in a month. All reports seem to be that it’s well made, but very much an mmo-ass mmo.

I’d like either a gaslight London or colonial American era Assassins Creed at some point. Think of the architecture, history, and personalities available. I’d be cool with an 1800’s Alienist-kinda New York deal, too.

Finished DaVinci DLC. Worth the $10 if you’re into that universe, but it also has one of the single most frustrating bits in a game I’ve come across in recent memory.

In other words, it’s more Assassin’s Creed.

@redswirl I’m digging it so far. I talked about it on the latest episode of the Squadcast, which we recorded this evening.

Watch this space.

So. Da Vinci DLC. How is it?

Okay, so first week of my new placement was drained me of all energy to go anything but stay in tonight, so anyone up for some AC: Brodeo tonight??? I’m flexible for the starting time

@feenwager I guess it’s to be expected with a year of dev time. Still…camera problems in 2010 is total horseshit.

On the flip side, sending your assassino bros & hos squad to do your dirty work for you is hot shit of the highest order.

@rocgaude I think the camera issues you’re referring to (I experienced them as well) are mostly due to the fact that Ubi has multiple teams working on multiple parts of the game. My guess is that some of the B-Squads were working on parts of Brodeo.

Giant Bomb’s cavalcade of incredibly entertaining “best of 2010” podcasts have left me wanting for nothin’ over the holidays. If you’re looking for a suitable replacement for our “lost episode”, look no further.

As for my best gaming memories of 2010, here goes:

Mass Effect 2: When my Shepard completed the final, casualty-free encounter by making a mad leap into Joker’s outstretched hand, I high-fived my family as if I had won the Super Bowl. When my typical response after finishing a game is either “…aaaaand done”, “really?”, and/or “fuck this game”, that’s special.

Red Dead Redemption: John Marston is hands-down the best character I’ve ever controlled for 30 hours straight. Rock Star (of all developers) made a truly mature game that I enjoyed every minute of.

Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit: @angryjedi and @cptcarnage are some cheatin’ muthafuckas. That said, I haven’t had this much fun with a racing game since…hmmmm, oh yeah…Criterion’s last game. I like those guys.

Bayonetta: Man, did they make that girl move in ways that dripped confidence and charm. Sex as a weapon? Hell yeah it is and no other studio proved their point as meticulously as Platinum.

On to my current spin…

AC: Brodeo is proving to be a solid continuation of AC2. Still, I’m scratching my head as to why some things are actually worse then the last game. I can’t count how many times I’ve hopped into a battle and had more trees in my face then anything else. Does anyone else struggle with the camera?

You guys were spot-on. Assassin’s Creed 2 has blown the first game out of the water in the first hour of play. The controls are better, the story is better, the gameplay is better, the usage of vaginal euphemisms is better!

Glad I stuck around for it, and I can’t wait to make my way to Brodeo, so I can jump on board and play some squad action!

If you need another for AC Brotherhood I’m down.

Itching to try the multiplayer.

@mjpilon sounds good to me. I’m actually free a good portion of the next week. Monday night is the only bad evening for me.

Hey everyone. Happy new year. May 2011 be an amazing year for all of you.

Now that the holidays are past us and some more of us have finally gotten their copies of AC: Brodeo, I’m thinking we need to try and set-up a 4 v 4 multiplayer session and get all stabby with each other.

Playing with @beige and @feenwager prior to the holidays was awesome and so I can only imagine what a session of all Squaddies would be like. This is just a feeler to see how many people we can get into this and try to work out a date in the near future.

@feenwager like all the Leonardo’s Machine missions where you insta-fail for being seen by one guy 10 nanoseconds before you push a slab of retractable steel through his abdomen?

@feenwager I will continue to suck until I taste vacuumed epididymis, or rather, I can have Brotherhood for a song. Simply on account of backlog, being burned on Assassin’s Creed 2 once before with its silly Gibson-in-my-Eco animus shell undermining what should simply be a dashing and rollicking classical tale (more, my gratuitious pedantry in belligerently not suspending disbelief with this particular game), and wanting it merely for the multiplayer – but we’ll see how long the legs of the online are.

Granted, the beta was damn awesome and everyone is having a great time!

@bowlisimo Sir, Paul Taylor of Frozen Synapse uploaded a preview of the soundtrack he’s been working on, and I think you will dig it. Sounds great, especially that – dare I say it – anthemic first track! Even when the full thing drops, I’ll pick up the OST.

Assassins Creed: Brotherhood is Hot Shit of the highest order, and if you don’t have it yet, you suck.

I even thoroughly enjoyed playing the multiplayers with Mark and MJ last night, and it’s pretty well known I don’t like sharing my gaming time with anyone ever.

At around 9pm I probably will be playing Brotherhood, but I will not be giving a single fuck about the multiplayer.

As far as I’m concerned the singleplayer is already enough to make it one of the most involving games of 2010.

So I just got to the part where AC Brodeo basically becomes the clan system from Final Fantasy Tactics. The game has instantly launched into the ranks of my GOTY list. I don’t even need to ever touch the multiplayer to be honest. Ubisoft never really hyped up the singleplayer here, but it alone already provides me with enough assassin gravy.

Red Dead still sits on my shelf unplayed. Don’t know if I’ll have the time to get back to Hot Pursuit.

Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood. English or Italian with subtitles?

@zegolf Jesus, what a blast from the past. Technically, a “pile of shame” game is considered a game worth playing but hasn’t received the attention it deserves. I’m not so sure ET qualifies. 😉

@cptcarnage For the record, I grabbed AC: Brodeo yesterday but told the Mrs. to wrap it up for me for Christmas since I still have AC2 to play through. You won’t be alone.

Finished Assassin’s Creed II 100 percent last night. It doesn’t look like GameFly is gonna be able to get me Brotherhood anytime soon, so I’m just gonna grab it for $40 on Black Friday.

Until then, next up is Red Dead… Revolver.

@cptcarnage Don’t worry, man. I have a feeling that AC: Brodeo will earn a permanent place in the Squad night rotation. Even if the public-at-large may not swarm to it, I think that there will be a niche (but commited) community that latches onto it because of the finesse requirement.

Speaking of Assassin’s Creed, I’m desperately wondering what kind of douche bug hit me when I so easily dismissed AC2 a year ago. It’s an absolutely absorbing and rich experience with the kind of pacing that I admire. I originally wanted to “blow through it” so that I could start AC: Brodeo but it deserves to be savored.

Speaking of AC: Brodeo, this is some funny shit:

http://www.pvponline.com/2010/11/22/abbrevi-hate/

You guy’s are making me regret putting AC Brohood onto my Christmas list this year.

Wow, this discussion has made me feel less guilty about never finishing Half-Life 2. Like @Rocgaude and @zegolf , I’ve started it a number of times without ever finishing it. The further I’ve ever gotten is the prison and needing to defend myself using the turrets. While I do wish to get through it to “see what the fuss is about”, it seems more and more unlikely as time goes on.

Also, I am now 6 hours into Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood and yeah, it’s just more Assassin’s Creed 2 but with improvements. I am totally sucked back in and have spent the past 3 hours of my playtime ignoring the story missions and simply finding all the glyphs, killing all the Borgia generals, destroying the Borgia towers and unlocking all the stores. This will likely continue for sometime. I spent 25 hours with AC2 and I get the impression I may top that with this game. I simply love this game. I haven’t played any multiplayer yet and will do so eventually. The next Squad night can’t come soon enough.

GameFly is certainly taking it sweet-ass time with Brahood.

Just gimme a time and I am in for some multiplayer stabbery.

So after a clearing out of my game shelf and trading in some games that I will never finish or go back to, I have picked up AC: Brodeo on the 360 at the excellent price of 3$ 🙂 If any multiplayer is going down, it would be a pleasure to stab all of you 😉

AC: Brodeo has qualified as hot shit of the highest order. @beige and I scouted it out tonight and it’s primed to be the ultimate Squaddie playground. More news at 11.

@bowlisimo If you liked the first AC tha…

@bowlisimo If you liked the first AC that much then it’s a tragedy that you don’t have access to a non-bullshit version of AC2, because it pretty much kills its predecessor in every way.

AC2 treats its setting with so much more care and detail than the first game. It would not be an overstatement to call the game educational if you actually take the time to read all the encyclopedia files when they come up. In AC1 I spent all my time blasting across the rooftops but AC2 is one of those games that makes me actually want to walk at normal speed on ground level because the atmosphere comes off so well, especially in Venice.

AC2 is a lot more linear than the first game though in terms of the design of each individual mission, but in the end more polished and less repetitive. I’m going @beige-style on it (as you say) for my second run.

@bowlisimo I’ll do exactly that. I’m a…

@bowlisimo I’ll do exactly that. I’m assuming you’re only referring to AC1 in regards to the worthless side diversions? AC2 and, to a larger degree, AC: Brodeo, look like the perfect games to explore that territory with.

@redswirl Thanks for the link. @beige ga…

@redswirl Thanks for the link. @beige gave me a pretty thorough breakdown earlier today. I’ve gotta say, I don’t know why I’ve insisted on ignorance towards this series for so long. Now I’m absolutely fascinated with it. I think I may buy AC1 on principle alone.

@RocGaude Ehhhh. AC1 is a deeply flawed …

@RocGaude Ehhhh. AC1 is a deeply flawed game, but on the other hand AC2 doesn’t do a very good job of recapping it. My best bet for you is just that game’s section on the Creed Wiki:

http://assassinscreed.wikia.com/wiki/Assassin’s_Creed_Wiki

Ii’m about half way through Creed II now – half of all feathers found, half of all viewpoints found, and about to enter Venice.

@bowlisimo I go back and forth with GWJ…

@bowlisimo I go back and forth with GWJ’s Conference Call. Sounds like a great idea for a show. I’ll have a listen at work today. The shortage of solid gaming podcasts these days is heart-breaking.

I played some AC: Brodeo multi-player last night. I can see this being a great game for friendly groups to play against each other while cracking up after every dogpile and neck poke. It made me want to play the single player so that I can take more time with my killin’ setup without having to watch my back every second.

Sadly, I can’t touch it until I play through AC2 which should show up today. Not to be “that guy” but would a play-through of AC1 be beneficial? If not, a link to its story summary would bring a smile to my mug.

I may jump on the NFS bandwagon, only problem is GT5 comes out next week and I am thinking about it.

I’m in the dark about NFS and Assassin’s Creed B they fell off my radar and like Borderlands they are back on just after they came out.

Is NFS sortof like Split Second?

Also on that note, which site do you guys prefer for your reviews?

@bowlisimo Oh I would’ve bought Creed II PC day one if it weren’t for the DRM. It’s totally worth $40. Luckily I found it on a deal for $20 around the time I finally decided to get an Xbox.

I should also state that Creed II was the first new Ubisoft release I’d bought since 2005.

@beige

I was all ready to ignore Brotherhood as a poor knockoff/addon for AC2 and now I hear its actually decent!?!

*GRUMBLE* now If i had’nt just spent $500 on studded tires for my ice racer and a further $500 on brakes I’d be down. If I can scrounge the finance’s I’d be game. Still haven’t finished Assassins Creed 2 yet though.

@beige: I definitely would; multiplayer is super-fun. It’s essentially hide and seek. Which is awesome.

The only spanner in the works for that plan is I really, really can’t afford it. Be sure to give us an after-action report if you do play, though.

@beige Wait what? A lot of black people still like jazz. …Black people over 50 at least.

I like jazz music. Certain kinds of jazz. The kind that sit on that sit on the rap-jazz borderline.

Anyway, I’m sure you guys have seen me on XBL playing through Assassin’s Creed II in preparation for Brotherhood. This is actually my second time through the game as I originally rented and beat it on PS3.

It is utterly shocking how much this game has its hooks in me. Creed II is basically the only Ubisoft production this generation that I would classify as “great”. Honestly, I don’t even care about the multiplayer of Brotherhood. I just want to revisit that world that Ubisoft so skillfully crafted. God damn I wish more games put this much effort into their settings, especially actual historical settings, and with such an awareness of what makes video games hook you too!

@tolkoto Over the last few months of ’99 and the first few of 2000, I had the option of picking up Planescape Torment a number of times. The little game store down the road had it on the shelf within the proximity of the games I ended up getting during that time period. I had read it reviewed very well, but each time my hand hovered over it, my digits twigged like a dowsing rod and I ended up in a preferred sci-fi heaven with Homeworld then Imperium Galactica II: Alliances. Maybe I did it wrong, but – full disclosure, something @angryjedi has mentioned to the Inquisition – Bioware stuff never did anything for me, especially any sort of fantasy. But, I’ve made a promise to play Torment at the end of the year. So, since ’99 I’ve been doing it “wrong” in the eyes of many people, but will redeem myself in December.

If you’ll excuse a fraction more gushing over Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, I’d like to do a bit of a micro @beige-esque rundown.

There’s something very satisfying about this game, something that trumps all the usual tenets of an action-based multiplayer experience. Camping, for instance – the bane of many FPS gamers – is augmented in such a way with Brotherhood that placing yourself on a bench to scope out your mark is only something that can be applauded when you stand up to shank them as they walk past, completely unaware their killer was staring at them from the time they turned the corner into the piazza.

What’s also the terrific balance is tracking a target, but knowing you’re someone else’s mark at the same time. This is only one mode – Wanted – but even then, making the judgement on just how fast you allow yourself to move in on your mark is worth considering, especially with a premium of points put upon a clean and quiet despatch. However, as you can guess, the luxury of stalking a mark is hindered by the possibility of anyone around you being a human…sidling up through the crowds to slip a blade between your vertebrae. If you make any sudden and unnatural movements in the immediate vicinity of your target, it triggers an automatic awareness that they are being pursued and undoubtedly they begin to make their escape – thus, the chase begins. There was something missing from ACII for me that made such events feel tepid, but knowing that I’m leaping over rooftops and down into cobbled streets after another human, one who is doing his or her damnedest to throw me off the trail via a number of feats, it feels much more invigorating.

So, if broken down, it’s a much better Renaissance-flavoured Hitman simulator, at least in multiplayer, than what I experienced in the single player of ACII. For all the pomp and beauty of ACII, the streets filled with citizens milling about, there seemed very little in the way of “life”. At least I know there are sharks amongst the throngs with this one. Goes a long way.

@feenwager Civ V in eight minutes. And to think we sat there for half an hour on Napster back in the day for a single MP3. Either that, or downloading a video the size of a postage stamp over a few hours.

Bleary-eyed as I am and as late as it is, I just got finished with the first few rounds of the Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood multiplayer beta, care of that strange Playstation Plus service that redeems itself very, very rarely. And, without a doubt, it’s the most interesting and unique multiplayer experience I’ve had in a long time. Wandering around sections of a city, getting contracts assigned onto other players whilst dodging your own bounties is ridiculous fun. The platforming is much more graceful, or at least less-finicky, and the options of losing your tail in the crowd – along with the special abilities unique to each character – is brilliant. I suspect I’ll have to add it to the list after playing more over the coming weeks, but if you want some seriously different multiplayer, this is it.

I found Assassin’s Creed II to be a bit of an empty vessel, but THIS…this works as a multiplayer game, and I never thought it’d be this…well…this much fun. Very big thumbs up. It took me a round to get used to the gameplay and just what to do, but once that was done, it was discreet daggers and dodging my pursuer in alleys and in throngs. Very, very cool