Just used my MW2 $20 gift card to pre-order this; which is on sale currently for 4% off and comes with it's own $10 gift card. Opted for the free super-saver shipping, so I probably won't get it for a while, but I'm sure MW2 will keep me busy.
My firm does some work with Ubisoft Australia; last time I was visiting their offices they were mucking around with a prerelease of this game. I'm no expert but it looks freaking sweet.
I was gonna do that but I saw if you pre-order at gamestop you can get a freemap. worth it I wonder? I might do that.
I can't find it online anywhere to verify, but the BB near my house had a sign on the shelves advertising the "exclusive" free map. I can only assume it's the Palazzo Medici ... I doubt there'd be more than 1 free map being offered. Errr, forget I said that. Found something on BB's website: Palazzo Medici: And then there's the Master's Assassin Edition, where you get the Palazzo Medici AND another map, Santa Maria Dei Frari. And a Black Edition (only available in PAL regions?) gives you all three maps: Palazzo, Santa Maria, and the Arsenal. FFS
I'm looking forward to picking up my copy after work tonight. From reading around the web it sounds like the story is paced diferently than the first one.
Decent review on GameSpot - 9.0/10 http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/assassinscreed2/review.html
got it this morning ... but I feel like if I play it now I'd be cheating on MW2, and I don't want to get it mad at me. don't make me hurt you, baby. you know I don't like it.
Got an email from Ubisoft about a new "service" they're offering called Uplay. Some highlights: So far there are 4 actions and 4 rewards you can get from AC2 at the moment (SC: Conviction and R.U.S.E. will be online in 2010), with more on the way I would suppose. I won't post the actions as they may contain spoilers. But here are the current rewards: Knife belt upgrade - cost 20 pts possession of the Altaïr Outfit - cost 30 pts access to an exclusive in-game map [result]the Auditore Family Crypt[/result] - cost 40 pts Download the Uplay exclusive Assassin's Creed II Theme for your Xbox 360 console - cost 10 pts Signing up is free, giving you an automatic 10 points, and participating is free as well (it seems). All you have to do is accomplish certain tasks in-game to "buy" upgrades and add-ons. Read more about it here - http://www.psxextreme.com/ps3-news/6148.html
I like the idea. I still haven't seen any Avatar rewards in games yet, but I like the idea of game accomplishments manifesting themselves in your console outside of the game (like spending your Uplay points for themes). BTW, you wouldn't think it'd take two days for a piece of mail to make it from Campbellsville KY (outside of Lexington) to Columbus OH, but apparently it does, because AC2 did not make it into the mail delivery today. Boo.
Well, tracking data from USPS shows that the package has arrived in Columbus! I should get the game tomorrow afternoon. Time from a break from MW2, I guess.
I'm just in the very, very early stages of the game but I heard that you can play the game with Italian dialogue with English subtitles. I think I will be doing that.
OK, I'm playing in English with subtitles, but there is a ton of Italian sprinkled in. I love this game. The setting - Renaissance Italy - is less compelling to me than the Holy Land in 1192, but the storytelling and gameplay are light-years beyond AC1, which I really enjoyed. I, no joke, played last night from about 10PM until about 6:30AM nonstop. The Assassin's Crypt portions of the game are straight platforming, and a lot of fun. Some of the climbing tasks feel very "technical" and challenging. The story is tight, with some surprises and mysteries that I haven't grasped yet, and the best part is that your missions an assassinations feel organic and natural to the story. After taking a brief nap this morning, I'm resisting the urge to fire it back up before the OSU-M*ch*g*n game...
This game is crazy fun, and it's astonishingly easy to say "I'm going to play just a few more minutes" and then look up and it's two hours later (midnight), then say "no, really, just a few more minutes" and then it's suddenly 2AM and you're just 4 hours from getting up to go to work. Like I did last night.
I'm picking this up today, finally. (Damn peer pressure) I finally broke down last night when I was playing MW2 and thought that I needed a good single player game to keep me from going insane when I realize how bad I am at that game.
Been playing this and it's really a slow starter ... lots of stuff at facility, lots of cutscenes, etc. but now that I'm back in good ol' AC gameplay I'm having a blast!
I think I've been playing this game too much; I'm seeing hidden Assassin symbols everywhere in RealLife(tm).