This month almost slipped by without an update! I have been so busy with work and taxes that it nearly slipped my mind to post this months news. It wouldn't have been any great loss. There is little to be said. I am still too busy to spend much time gaming. I play City of Heroes now and then when I have an hour or so free, world of warcraft if I have a couple hours. The one exception this month was Assassin's Creed. The game released for PC on the 9th and I purchased it through Steam. I played it over the weekend and was able to finish it. The game is very short, it took me maybe 15-20 hours total to complete the game which included completing every city objective but I didn't bother to locate all the hidden flags which seemed to have no benefit.
Assassin's Creed was very enjoyable. The graphics were outstanding and the environment well crafted. Combat in the game was a lot of fun and the variety of enemies created varying degrees of challenge. The game had a few downsides though. It is fairly repetitious. For every mission you are given you can follow the exact same formula of activities to complete it. You locate towers that you climb to get an overview of the area, complete the requisite task for the area, once you do three of these you can proceed to the final assassination. The game allows you to pursue these tasks at your leisure for the most part. Making your way through the objectives in most any order you want. Right up to the very last ten minutes of game play I would have given Assassin's Creed 10/10. It was as close to perfect as any game I have played in a long time. Unfortunately the last ten minutes (which occurs after you defeat the final enemy) is a giant turd burger of poor design and horrible implementation that will leave most players wondering if they have actually finished the game at all or just gotten stuck.
The good news this month is that Age of Conan is less than 6 weeks away. The game launches on May 20th and open beta starts up May 1. I've already pre-ordered my copy of the game and I hope it turns out well. Pre-orders are able to download the game 6 days before launch and start playing 3 days before it goes on sale in stores. Any characters you create or progress you make will be carried over to through the official launch.
Shortly after AoC comes out Mass Effect will be released for the PC on May 28th. The PC version reputedly has many enhancements and improvements over the console version which include improved inventory management and a more sophisticated lockpicking mini-game.
Sorry I was so late on this one but things have been hectic. (Hell, I'm finishing this up while waiting for a flight out of Chicago.) Hope to see you in AoC!