Post Turkey Day War Report

After taking an extended vacation to enjoy Thanksgiving to its fullest, and by fullest I mean....lots of turkey and all the video games I can muster, I am back to do a pretty decent size post summing up everything nerdgasmic from the past week or so. Lets get right to it...

Flick Picks Week 8......There isn't any. Truthfully, nothing really catch my eye for this past Tuesday's picks, and it seems like its the same for my colleagues, Joey and Ron. Previous weeks have yielded us such releases as Live Free or Die Hard, Super Mario Galaxy, Ocean's 13, Assassin's Creed, and Mass Effect (both of the latter will be touched on later in my post), Frankly, making this week' releases seem like extremely small potatoes. Now since we got that out of the way, lets move on to some video games.

Assassin's Creed

Not long ago, Joey did a pretty complete review of Assassin's Creed, and I couldn't agree with him more. When initial reviews started pouring onto the web I became hesitant about purchasing the game. You know, If I plan to pay $60 bucks for something, I want that something to be so fantastic that throwing that money at it seems like I was throwing away pennies. I bitched and moaned back and forth about buying the game, whether I wanted to take the plunge, or wait it out for Mass Effect's release a week later. Then my savior appeared before me in the form of Gabe from Penny Arcade posting about AC about how great it actually is. Clicking that link will bring you to his post (once you scroll down) and you can read for yourself, but it makes a strong argument and because of it, I purchased Assassin's Creed on release day. So now we get to the part where "score" the game myself.

Its good. Its really that simple. Creed has you on the hurt for nine targets throughout the Holy Land and does a fantastic job setting the mood of the era. The graphics are stunning, and made even sweeter by the fine movement animations the team at Ubisoft Montreal put in the game. I will admit that after 3 assassinations, I got a little tired of completing every area (this means searching every high spot, saving every civilian, and researching every target fully) because its the same missions over and over again, and the praises you receive from the citizens saved repeat the exact same dialogue. I ended up storming through the rest of the story at this point, but can say that the day after I beat the game, I went back in to play around and finish up those side quests to unlock achievements, so interest in the game was not lost upon completion.

But now, how about interest in the plot? As a lot of reviewers had detailed, the plot to Assassin's Creed is not what you think. With being as vague as possible, the game takes a serious Da Vinci Code/ Indiana Jones turn right away, and stays that way throughout the conclusion of Altair's quest. What might be another sore spot for gamers is the lack of a real finale. Altair finishes his quest, but the over arching plot of AC is far from over. Once I completed the game and got the "Visions from the Future" achievement, I was a little befuddled. I won't spoil anything, but it took me about a day or two, pondering what I "saw" to realize I really liked how the game wrapped up, and am anxious for more.

So overall, I will say Assassin's Creed is a game worth buying. Dropping 60 bones on the title was worth it for me, and I'm sure if people have an open mind going into the experience, they will come away enjoying the ride chapter 1 of the Assassin's Creed saga presents.

Mass Effect

We now move on to the following week's release Mass Effect. Very much like Ron, I am writing this as I approach 10 hours exploring the galaxies of this vast video game. I can also agree with Ron, and the rest of the gaming populace, that Mass Effect is awesome, flaws and all. The game has such a fantastic cinematic scope that oozes out of every pour, and makes you feel like your actually controlling a film. The game play, being more a shooter, is also a great change for an RPG, and really keeps the action moving. While not as deep of a shooter engine as Halo 3 or Gears of War, Mass Effect makes up for it with sweeping locales, GREAT music, fantastic characters, and a mythology to it's universe that competes with the best of sci-fi. However, the game does have serious frame rate issues and glitches that can sometimes render the player screwed. I once walked across a bridge to get stuck in the middle, nothing blocking me, and all my character did was do the jump animation....so much for being a badass colonist commander, the man can't even walk. I still have much to play, both story and exploration wise, before I complete Mass Effect, but I'm loving the ride so far. The game is already on the same level as Knights of the Old Republic for me, its just missing its own HK-47.

The Joker Revealed!

If a reader at Flickblurbs was to go back through our MASSIVE archive, they would discover that I, Erik, love to post about news and campaigning for The Dark Knight. Well I am back to give one more piece to the puzzle as Empire magazine's January cover featuring the Joker has been leaked onto the interweb early. The image was the source for the latest viral ad campaigning from The Dark Knight, started way back with whysoserious.com and with this new image we finally know exactly what Heath Ledger's Joker looks like, verdict: in-f'ing-sane. The design looks amazing, and its exactly how I would picture a real world Joker to look, sorry Jack Nicholson. Take a peek at the cover on behalf of Comingsoon.net (I'm making you click the link to leave you in more suspense MUHAHA)

The above post is pretty much a recap of everything I wanted to talk about over the last week or so, but have been too lazy to do so. In the coming days you might see a post about the latest DC Universe Original Animated Movie, Justice League: The New Frontier, adapted from my favorite comic story by Darwyn Cooke. The specs for the single and double disc release have become public, and it looks like they are really packing the extras on there. So wait for more news on that and maybe a review of the actual book.