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Retrospective: Assassin’s Creed 3: Liberation





So I’ve been meaning to write about this game for a while since it has been some time since I beat it. I’d like to get some bad flak out of the way for this game – it’s nice to see an Assassin’s Creed game on a handheld that is just as pretty as its home console counterpart; however, it seems like the character development skimps out a bit. I think that was a case for both installments of “Assassin’s Creed 3.”

It was exciting and fresh to see a female Assassin take the lead role in the franchise even if it was just for a portable on Vita. New Orleans was fun and I think the different personas added a nice twist to the combat system. At times it was annoying to have different levels of notoriety across different ‘costumes’, but it makes sense. There were a few things that just didn’t make sense to me that made this game really hard to play through at times: who is Aveline? I understand she is the daughter of a slaveholder who grants her freedom and she is also the adopted daughter of her father’s wife. How did she come to be an Assassin? Why did she share her activities so freely with her step-mother? Why is Aveline’s birthmother intent on keeping her distance? Just what is that damn disc everyone is so afraid of? I feel like these are important, pivotal questions which remained unanswered to the very end.

The gameplay is relatively intuitive – it plays a lot like its predecessors, although there are a few quirky things here and there ranging from stroking the back of the Vita to row a boat, to rubbing the backside
a certain way to pick-pocket someone. I’m sorry, but I don’t want to rub my handheld to steal some change! Hold triangle to steal, please! These extra ‘controls’ felt really gimmicky, like the mandatory sixaxis controls in Heavenly Sword (anyone remember that game!?) in which everything involved tilting the controller because.. sixaxis. I also couldn’t stand decoding maps or letters. I’m told to hold my vita to the light as if I am peeking at a real piece of paper, yet the damn camera controls are inverted for some reason and it’s actually the front camera that needs to be held to the light. Decoding maps and other riddles took forever because of this glitch that is NEVER FIXED. I suppose after the game breaking save glitch fix Ubisoft gave up on this game.



Onto other details: there is a trading system side mission(or quest.. or mini game?) where you could make a butt-load of money using Aveline’s company to buy and sell crops, linen, and supplies. It seems
to be the counterpart to the Homestead trading in Assassin’s Creed 3; however, the controls are so horrendous it often took me ten minutes or so to figure out how to select a ship and where to send it. Once I figured out how to do it, the controls are so NOT intuitive that I would forget almost immediately how to send out another ship. Let’s just say I didn’t bother playing this part of the game very much.


Connor: Everyone was looking forward to meeting and running through New Orleans with Aveline. Well, he’s really just eye candy – you can’t do anything with him and all he does is follow you around somewhat incompetently.  I think he is in this short game for just a few minutes depending upon how quickly you clear the missions.

I think this game is worth it if you can find it in the bargain bin. It’s been almost a year since its release so that may be possible at this point in time. I got mine with the Assassin White Playstation Vita bundle which I think was a very good bargain. I’m glad I did not pay full price for this title. Unfortunately, I think I’ll be waiting for the bargain bin for Assassin’s Creed IV since I’m still not convinced that it’s worth being a day one purchase.

Because Black Friday is for Gamers…

I never look forward to Black Friday because I want to spread the joy of the holidays and friendship by purchasing gifts - I usually begin gift shopping before the end of October because I don’t want to deal with crunch time. I do, however, indulge in Black Friday and Cyber Monday goodies for myself. Last year I scored an AMD chipset, a motherboard, 3 video games, and a ton of other stuff for myself for under 300. Aside from Comic Con - this is probably the only other thing that I save up for all year long. Amazon has already kicked off their “Days to Black Friday” with Lightning Deals and now the fliers are beginning to leak:

You can see the Best Buy Door Busters right here.

Notable mentions include a variety of recent releases for $35 such as Assassin’s Creed III and a Call of Duty: Black Ops bundle for just $199!

Cheap Ass Gamer has posted a list of Black Friday spoilers right here. This list includes Radio Shack, K-Mart, Sears, and more.

While Play-Asia.com doesn’t directly partake in Black Friday, be sure to check their site every week to nab some epic games in the range of $19.99-$35.

Unfortunately, there seems to be no leak yet on Amazon’s offerings for Black Friday and Cyber Monday at the moment.

And since this is a blog about everything that makes us go “Hey now!” I can’t fail to mention that Big BangTheory season 5 will be $8.99 at Best Buy.

Happy shopping!!

Assassin’s Creed: The Quick and Dirty Demo.

At NYCC I had the opportunity to get my hands on a Playstation Vita for a few precious moments – after waiting for two days in line. I was under the impression that the demo for Assassin’s Creed: Liberation was reasonably lengthy and would give me the chance to really experience the game since people seemed to be taking an upwards of 15 minutes to finish using the vita. Finally it was my turn. I slipped the Sony headphones on and wrapped my hands around the sleek frame of a black Vita. The level I played was combat oriented, I was told. The woman was condescending to me as if I never played any video game before so I was somewhat under the impression that the combat in this game was serious business. Finally, she left me be and I delved into the world of the very first female protagonist of the series. I started out by walking around – disappointed that there was nothing to climb. There were many lush trees but nothing that was actually climbable. Every moment I attempted to interact with the environment, the blue shirted Sony woman came by to remind me or “help” me with her advice that I should ‘get in the boat’ or ‘interact with people.’ So I really cannot comment on the climbing in this game. So I found my way to an old lady who advised me that I must get into a boat in order to proceed. So I followed her in my own bow, rowing along… or rather, swiping along the belly of my Vita to push off into the waters. Eventually I made my way to some wetland and approached a group of people that I needed to kill. Combat was relatively native to me, although I couldn’t seem to block and attack as easily as I could with Ezio. I’m wondering if this is because of the weapons equipped at the time. I made my way onto a ship and dug into a chest to receive the message that I had completed the task. So I figured… well, there must be something else to do? It’s only been five minutes! I figured maybe I was locked out from anything else since I was playing only a demo. I used the ship as an opportunity to jump from plank to pole and so on since that was my only chance to feel the jumping mechanics of the game… until the blue shirted Sony woman rudely informed me that “that’s it!” when the timer on my Vita stated I had a full ten minutes left of play time. Anyway, aside from the cranky woman, my experience was overall positive. I’m looking forward to both Assassin’s Creed games launching at 12am next week.

Liberation on the Vita looked beautiful and did not in any way feel stripped despite being on a portable system. I am worried that the touch features of the system will have the same fate as the Sixaxis on Playstation 3. The touch features did not feel intuitive, and if anything, they felt forced. I am given the option of doing things with the buttons OR with touching the back of the system in a certain way. Will developers find a way to fully utilize the touch features of the Vita or will it be pushed to the wayside since touch isn’t exactly a requirement or expectation in a game. This was the same for Sixaxis. Nice perk, but how many games aside from Heavy Rain utilized the feature in a natural feeling way? I had to turn it off in Grand Theft Auto IV, and it was only used a small bit in Heavenly Sword.

With a little bit less than a week to go before I get my hands on an Assassin White Vita, Liberation, and Assassin’s Creed III; I wonder what direction touch screen technology will take us in the world of video games.