Epic Spoon

Paul Zero

Like most video games, Assassin’s Creed (website) has its good parts and bad parts.  It’s the truly great part of the game that makes it so much fun.  If you’ve played it, you already know I’m talking about the Scimitar engine – the software that lets you run, jump and climb in a way that’s so easy, so predictable that obstacles in the environment disappear.  You can use every architectural feature to climb buildings.  You can run along narrow planks.  You can drop from ten feet up to assassinate your target from above.

Developer Ubisoft designed this engine using things they learned in the good-but-not-this-good Prince of Persia series.  They’ll be using Scimitar again later this year for the next installment of that series.

I normally advocate for choosing the right engine for each game; but even without the wall-climbing features of Assassin’s Creed, I think any third-person action/rpg game would benefit from its ability to move quickly up small ledges, hop fences and climb ladders.  If a game involves running around at all, I think it should have this.

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Paul Zero

I have played a lot of different types of multiplayer games over the years, from Super Mario Bros. to The Lost Vikings to Castle Crashers.  Multiplayer was one of the major missing pieces of the first Fable, so its inclusion in Fable II (website) must have taken a great deal of design and planning.  And it was worth it.

So I had a dinner party last night and I wanted to show Fable II to my guests.  My cat doesn’t play video games so I haven’t had a chance to try out the multiplayer before this.  I had read about it, sure, but it was still a shock to actually see it in action.  We weren’t sure how to get into the multiplayer mode, and I hate reading the instruction book, so I said, “Try pressing start.”  It’s that easy.  Player 2 gets to choose a sex and alignment while Player 1 assigns a percentage of gold and experience to each player.  In an online game with a friend’s real character – which you can also do – I’d split the gold and experience.  But this was a quick build-a-henchman, and the henchmen don’t save.  100% gold and 100% experience for me!

Seconds later we were back in the game!  It’s that fast.

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Pinkkis

Let’s call this ‘Fallout, first impressions’. Others might say “Fallout 3, first impressions” but I admit that I’m new to the series so all this is pretty new and exciting to me. I sort of know what the old games were like and what they were about, but I never played them. And yes, you’re not the first one to call me out on that, but I guess this is as good of a time as any to enter this post apocalyptic world.

The vault door is open…

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Paul Zero

First Impression: B-

I thought I’d start out my first post with the game I’m currently playing – Fable II (website) for the Xbox 360.  The first Fable, which came out in 2004, was so much fun that I played through it six or seven times.  That’s something I do with games that let you choose different character options.

In the first Fable, choices you could make were fairly limited and the biggest effect it would have is on the appearance of your character.  The game let you explore the world, but in limited areas that were all very linear, with no ability to “think outside the fence”.  It had a distinct art style, which was very attractive.  You would never mistake Fable for any other game.

Now, four years later, comes Fable II.  I’ve played through the first part of the game – at least far enough to formulate some first impressions.  And I should start by saying that I almost never like games when I first play them, so Fable II wins points by being bearable from the start (compared to games like Mass Effect, which I almost quit playing at the beginning, and then went on to play 4 times through).

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