Word in Kotaku Tower is that Assassin’s Creed 2 is a strong contender for game of the year. But what about the PlayStation Portable version?

I’ve been waiting for something to topple God of War: Chains of Olympus from the top of my list of favourite games to play on Sony’s portable. Could Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines be that game?

I still haven’t had a chance to spend any time with it, so I’ll reserve all judgement.

Don’t forget, you need to be 18 to watch this video… or your head will explode.

Says the publication:

Our reviews are tough, but fair. We will not give up our independent scores for the sake of a timely review. This holds true for “Assassin’s Creed 2″. The publisher asked us to guarantee the score ’sehr gut’ [very good], otherwise we would not receive a review copy, thus we will publish our review in next month’s issue. We’d be more than glad to give the game a ’sehr gut’, but only if it deserves it.

I’ve sent an email over to Ubisoft’s PR to give them the courtesy of a response. Any that comes will be printed here.

But despite the fact this behaviour has strong precedent, keep in mind this boils down to he-said Ubi-said. And it boggles the mind, from what we’ve all seen so far, that Assassin’s Creed II would need such strong-arming to get a good score. But who knows. There is a ton of money riding on a game’s Metascore, providing motive enough.

Ubisoft Demanding High Scores for Early Assassins Creed 2 Reviews? [wearetheinternetz, thanks Lorand K.]

The novel is titled “Assassin’s Creed: Renaissance,” and is written by Oliver Bowden. I couldn’t find a book description on either Amazon or Tower Books, but Play.tm says it will be an expansion of Ezio’s tale. Whether that means a prequel or continuance is anyone’s guess. The book has a release date of Nov. 26

“Penguin are hugely excited to be publishing the novelization to the second Assassin’s Creed game,” Alex Clarke, the Penguin editorial director, told Play.tm. “This partnership presents at last a way for traditional book-publishing to cross-over with the ever growing and increasingly exciting world of gaming media.”

Penguin to Deliver Assassin’s Creed Book [Play.tm]

Connected Consoles reports that, at the Eurogamer Expo, an Ubisoft rep told them straight up the game will not be getting a demo. Your only opportunity to try before you buy is if Ubi brings it to a public expo near you.

No Demo for Assassin’s Creed II [Connected Consoles via Game Stooge]

Everyone always complains about game movie adaptations — but we are so not complaining about this. More please.

This is the first in a series of short movies that are being developed by Hybride Technologies, the visual effects studio behind 300 and Sin City, which Ubisoft bought last year for just this sort of project.

Thanks Svenohair!

On Friday, Azaïzia Aymar, the Ubisoft community developer for Assassin’s Creed II, tweeted this fun fact: “AC2 will feature 7 spoken languages for a total of 87,206 lines of recorded voice dialogue.”

Of course, driving up the total is the game’s multilingual support, but even at one-seventh of the total, that’s still more than 12,000 lines per version. Impressive, but sounds like a spit in the ocean next to The Old Republic’s script, said to be the equivalent of 40 novels.

87,206 Lines of Dialogue in Assassin’s Creed 2 [Hot Blooded Gaming]

• Master Assassin – Unlock All Trophies (Platinum)
• The Birth of an Assassin – Be reborn as Ezio Auditore Da Firenze. (Bronze, 20G)
• Arrivederci Abstergo – Break out of Abstergo. (Bronze, 20G)
• Welcome to the Animus 2.0 – Enter the Animus 2.0. (Silver, 20G)
• The Pain of Betrayal – Complete DNA Sequence 1. (Silver, 30G)
• Vengeance – Complete DNA Sequence 2. (Silver, 30G)
• Exit the Son – Complete DNA Sequence 3. (Silver, 30G)
• Bloody Sunday – Complete DNA Sequence 4. (Silver, 30G)
• Undertaker – Discover the Assassin’s Tomb inside the catacombs under Santa Maria Novella. (Silver, 20G)
• The Conspirators – Complete DNA Sequence 5. (Silver, 30G)
• An Unexpected Journey – Complete DNA Sequence 6. (Silver, 30G)
• Bleeding Effect – Complete training and reenter the Animus. (Silver, 30G)
• The Merchant of Venice – Complete DNA Sequence 7. (Silver, 30G)
• The Impenetrable Palazzo – Complete DNA Sequence 8. (Silver, 30G)
• Masquerade – Complete DNA Sequence 9. (Silver, 30G)
• Bianca’s Man – Complete DNA Sequence 10. (Silver, 30G)
• The Prophet – Complete DNA Sequence 11. (Silver, 30G)
• The Vault – Complete DNA Sequence 14. (Silver, 30G)
• An Old Friend Returns – Escape the hideout. (Gold, 100G)
• Myth Maker – Find the 8 statuettes in Monteriggioni. (Bronze, 5G)
• Vitruvian Man – Unlock all 20 pieces of Subject 16’s video. (Bronze, 20G)
• Street Cleaner – Hide 5 dead bodies in a Bale of Hay. (Bronze, 10G)
• Fly Swatter – Kick a Guard while using the Flying Machine. (Bronze, 5G)
• Messer Sandman – Stun 4 guards at once by throwing sand in their face. (Bronze, 10G)
• Doctor – Perform an Air Assassination on a Poisoned NPC. (Bronze, 20G)
• No-hitter – Kill 10 enemies while remaining in conflict without being hit. (Bronze, 20G)
• Kleptomaniac – Pickpocket 1000 Florins. (Bronze, 10G)
• Lightning Strike – Sprint for 100 meters. (Bronze, 10G)
• Sweeper – Sweep 5 guards at once by using a Long Weapon. (Bronze, 10G)
• Venetian Gladiator – Discover the Assassin’s Tomb inside Santa Maria della Visitazione. (Bronze, 20G)
• I can see your house from here! – Discover the Assassin’s Tomb inside the Torre Grossa. (Bronze, 20G)
• Hallowed be thy name – Discover the Assassin’s Tomb inside the Basilica di San Marco. (Bronze, 20G)
• Prison Escape – Discover the Assassin’s Tomb inside the Rocca di Ravaldino fortress. (Bronze, 20G)
• Choir Boy – Discover the Assassin’s Tomb inside Santa Maria del Fiore (The Duomo). (Bronze, 20G)
• Assassin For Hire – Complete your first assassination mission for Lorenzo Il Magnifico. (Bronze, 10G)
• Macho Man – Defend a woman’s honour. (Bronze, 10G)
• Steal Home – Win a race against thieves! (Bronze, 10G)
• Show your colours – Wear the Auditore cape in each city. (Bronze, 10G)
• Handy Man – Upgrade a building in the Stronghold. (Bronze, 10G)
• I like the view – synchronise 10 View Points. (Bronze, 10G)
• High Dive – Perform a Leap of Faith from the Top of Florence’s Giotto’s Campanile. (Bronze, 10G)
• Mailman – Intercept a Borgia Courrier. (Bronze, 10G)
• Tip of the Iceberg – Use your Eagle Vision to scan a Glyph in the environment. (Bronze, 10G)
• A Piece of the Puzzle – Unlock a piece of Subject 16’s video. (Bronze, 10G)
• Art Connoisseur – Buy a Painting from Florence and Venice. (Bronze, 10G)
• Podestà of Monteriggioni – Reach 80% of your stronghold’s total value. (Bronze, 30G)
• Perfect Harmony – Tint your clothes with those colors: Wetland Ebony and Wetland Ivory. (Bronze, 10G)
• In Memory of Petruccio – Collect all the Feathers. (Bronze, 30G)
• Red Light Addict – Spend 5000 florins on Courtesans. (Bronze, 10G)
• Man of the People – Toss more than 300 florins on the ground. (Bronze, 10G)
• Victory lies in preparation – Get all Hidden Blades, Item Pouches and armour upgrades for Ezio. (Bronze, 10G)

Assassin’s Creed 2 Achievements/Trophies possibly leaked [Dtoid]

The agreement has given Atlanta Cutlery and Museum Replicas to make wristblades (aka the “Assassin Extension Knife”), throwing knives, swords, boots, belts, tunics and more, all based on the in-game items that Assassin’s Creed Altair wears. For Altair’s hangers-on, the Crusader Priest Robe, William of Montferrat Tunic and Lionheart Gambeson are also available.

Price? Not cheap. A full Altair get up with every available prop could easily set you back $US1000.

According to the official announcement, gear based on the original Assassin’s Creed is shipping now. Licensed goods for the sequel will hit sometime in Q2 2010.

While we can’t see ourselves playing Altair or Ezio dress up any time soon, we greatly look forward to someone being non-mortally wounded by the new Atlanta Cutlery and Museum Replicas, just for the ensuing mainstream media coverage.

Assassin’s Creed [Museum Replicas]

The Tokyo Game Show trailer for Assassin’s Creed II divulges Ezio’s motivation—namely revenge—in a nicely edited homage to the original Assassin’s Creed trailer, before dissolving into an intense, bloody montage featuring some brief gameplay.

It’s very well shot and builds to a nice climax with Da Vinci’s glider launching from the rooftops of Venice. Enjoy.

Raymond will be working under the “governance” of Yannis Mallat, CEO of Ubisoft’s Montreal and Toronto development studios, at Ubisoft Toronto which is said to be home to some 800 jobs. As of right now, Raymond is toiling away as executive producer on Assassin’s Creed II and “other Ubisoft projects” according to the release.

Jade joined Ubisoft’s Montreal studio in 2004 as a producer, but has kept a lower profile during the development of the sequel while still impressing the powers that be at corporate. We wish the Ubisoft Toronto team best of luck and godspeed to new executive headshots.