What Are You Playing This Weekend?

Flag
12:00PM November 28, 2009 | David Wildgoose

Easy: Assassin’s Creed II. I can’t really imagine playing anything else until I’ve completed every assassination contract, looted every treasure chest, explored every tomb, plucked every feather, decoded every glyph and of course avenged the Auditore family.

I like to take my time with open world games, completing as many side missions and optional objectives as I can in between each primary task. Perhaps the depth of my love for Assassin’s Creed II is down to the sheer quantity of these secondary activities.

Yet it’s not just how much there is to do, what also impresses is the diversity of these challenges and the manner in which they’re so cleverly integrated into the world. Sure, the treasure chests are an obvious collectathon, but you buy treasure maps from the town art merchant. Shooting pigeons in Liberty City was tedious, but here you can find assassination contracts in pigeon coops, unlocking some of the game’s most freeform gameplay upon accepting the contract.

I’ve nearly upgraded my villa to its full capacity and have been working my way through the assassinations in Tuscany. Still haven’t gone to Venice yet. It’s an exceptional game.

What are you playing this weekend?

Comments

1 2

  • Kira Hall

    November 28, 2009 at 7:59 PM

    Dragon Age : Origins. Loving the game heaps but I might balance it off with a bit of Call of Duty 4.

  • james

    November 28, 2009 at 8:40 PM

    I think that the best part of this game is the “truth” sections. Man the puzzles are epic, particularly towards the end. And they’re really, really hard later, too. My brother and I shared a hi-5 or two upon completing them. Definitely the mark of a good game.

  • Chris

    November 28, 2009 at 8:57 PM

    Ratchet and Clank, way too much fun.

  • Zendegi Leonard

    November 28, 2009 at 11:48 PM

    I finally summoned the courage to play Dragon Age. Weekends are for sitting in front of your screen for 15 hour stretches right?

  • Justin Robson

    November 29, 2009 at 12:40 AM

    I’m poor, so I didn’t get any new games this week… like everyone else, I’ll be playing a lot of MW2, I might play some Fallout 3 as welllllll… but what I really want to play is Sacred 2, I’ve had a love hate relationship with this game… things like not being able to pause (guh…), the confusing weapons and armour systems, having NO story, etc… but it’s still a really good Diablo-esque RPG if you stick to it.

  • Matthew Kermeen

    November 29, 2009 at 1:46 AM

    I’m mainly playing AC2 between sessions of packing for my move in two weeks. My wife has already finished the game and keeps urging me to rush through it. It drives her crazy how I can non-play… I’ll declare I’m done “playing” which means I’m done with the story for the time being, and I’ll just wander aimlessly. Not looking for collectibles, not performing any function, just wandering while I procrastinate actually turning off the 360 or giving up the controller.

  • Steve

    November 29, 2009 at 1:50 AM

    Assassin’s Creed II. Like David, I doubt I’ll be investing any serious time into anything else until I’ve done everything in ACII.

  • Mr Waffle

    November 29, 2009 at 10:57 AM

    Finished Assassin’s Creed (never got around to finishing it the first time), finished ODST (longer than I thought it would be). Now playing “spot the screwjob Steam sale pricing”, Borderlands is “discounted” to US$54. lol.

    • Mr Waffle

      November 29, 2009 at 11:02 AM

      I’ll clarify that for people not playing at home; US$50 is what the Americans NORMALLY pay for the game, their discount is down to like US$33 or something. We USED to pay US$50 but then it was taken off Steam and bumped up to US$80 when it went back on.

  • James Ward

    November 29, 2009 at 11:15 AM

    Finishing up AC2. Great game, but sadly not enjoying it as much as the first.

    I’ve got all the feathers & chests, the villa’s finished, collected all the codex pages, been to Venice (and finished Rome) so now I’m just finishing up the assassination contracts.

    …So much to do. I’m going to take my time with the second run through however

  • Tracey Lien

    November 29, 2009 at 11:24 AM

    Prince of Persia. Still.

  • Mr Explody

    November 29, 2009 at 1:19 PM

    Batman: Arkham Asylum picked up on one of the cheap steam deals – ~$27

  • Tedski15

    November 29, 2009 at 2:59 PM

    Am I the only person alive who returned AC2 because of the very ‘features’ that’s making everyone so excited? Any game with a 4 hour tutorial is no game I want to play… or a hardcore flight sim…. which I might want to play.

    Anyway, the game is a massive pile of meh. And what’s more, that ridiculous “itsa me, Mario!” reference… it made me gag. Gag because it was an horrific, tone breaking move. That, and all the unbalanced missions, not being able to skip cutscenes (!!!!!!!!!! WTF?!), and the double meh storyline. Honestly, this is up for game of the year, and it’s running with the likes of MW2? Shift had better character development, and the game is about cars.

  • RK

    November 30, 2009 at 2:10 PM

    I ended up making a start on my 2nd playthrough of Dragon Age (including the DLC, which I skipped on my 1st playthrough), and for a change some Patapon 2 which I had been meaning to get around to. Pata Pata Pata Pon.

    I can easily see myself making a 3rd playthrough of Dragon Age after this, so probably pencil my gaming in for “Dragon Age” and various PSP games until January. Then pencil in “Mass Effect 2″ until March, then I’ll have to make the call on buying a PS3 or XBOX360 for FF13….
1 2

Post Your Comments