Refurbishment OCD, Facebook Games and 2011

Well I think I have the writing bug! Since the last time I did this all I've done is think about doing it again. I was only going to write monthly but every time I see something to do with gaming I think to myself “I wanna write about that!”. If I had left it a month before writing again I think I would've forgotten most of what I wanted to put down.

Ezio doing a Christ pose

I'm still playing Assassin's Creed : Brotherhood, I probably could've completed it by now but for some unknown reason I feel compelled to refurbish every single shop, tunnel, stable and landmark. All that happens by doing this is I get more money to buy weapons, but if I wasn't bloody spending all my money on refurbishing Rome I could buy all of the sodding weapons! It not like I even get a trophy for getting Rome 100% renovated. It feels like I'm carrying out an Extreme Makeover: Home Edition on renaissance Rome for no reason other than I must have OCD.

Da Vinci's Tank

The game is still holding up well and I have really enjoyed the Leonardo Da Vinci missions. I knew that Da Vinci had come up with ideas for flying machines and other contraptions before they're time, but I had never seen them. Now I've seen them, used them and blown them up! Getting to play with these wonderful toys has made a welcome change to the old face stabbing.

Recruiting and training up an army of assassins is a new addition to the game and it is an addition that works really well. There is nothing more satisfying then calling upon your hooded minions when your back is against the wall and watching them slaughter your enemies whilst you calmly walk away. I hope they keep this feature and improve upon it in the future games.

There is a part of me which is ashamed of what I'm about to tell you, but I have to get it off my chest. I hate facebook games like Farmville and Mafia wars. They bore the shit out of me! There is absolutely no skilled involved in these games whatsoever. Unless you count mouse clicking as a skill. So it surprise me I caught myself playing one every time I went on facebook. The only justification I have is that it was Assassin's Creed Project Legacy. This game is pretty much a carbon copy of Mafia Wars as in you click the mouse until your points run out and then wait a couple of hours and repeat. The only reason I'm playing it is because it unlocks rewards in Brotherhood and you can also earn extra exp points for your recruited assassins.

I haven't played much of Brotherhood online as I want to get the single player mode completed first. The only time I do play it is on a Tuesday night as that is when my brothers and my Dad come round for a night of gaming. This has been happening for about year now and its still a brilliant night. We have played many games but the game we have played the most is Tiger Woods 08.

This boy is Nike through and through

This game and all golf games are one of the few types of game that my Dad can actually play and play well! If you give him a controller and stick him on COD online he would be the guy in the corner looking at his whilst people were shooting him in the back. But give him Tiger Woods and he will give you a run for your money. So we played this game for 10 weeks on the trot. We set up a league and would record our scores every week. We all enjoyed playing this but for different reasons. My Dad enjoyed it because he could win and we (my brothers and me) enjoyed the challenge of beating him. At first my Dad won every game and sat proud at the top of the table. Then about 5 weeks into the Letchworth PGA league (yes we even named it) me and brothers started to improve. One brother in particular he seemed to get in to a zone and each week he ended with at least one hole in one! He ran away with the league in the end and that killed Tiger Woods for us.

My Dad stopped coming to our gaming nights for a bit as we started to play other games that he couldn't. Until last week when we decided to try out Fight Night Round 4. As I mentioned last time I've only just picked this up. We all sat there and took turns in going through the tutorial except my Dad as he couldn't be bothered and wanted to go outside a smoke a cigarette instead. Once the tutorial was done me and one of my brothers (we will call him by his psn name CS94 from now on) had a fight. I was Lennox Lewis and he was Muhammad Ali. We had a very ugly fight which I won. Next up my Dad took on CS94. Again CS94 was Ali and my Dad was Lewis. My Dad wiped the floor with my brother. Then he did the same to me! Me and CS94 were in shock. How could this be possible, we had been button mashed to death by our own father!

Now I'm going to go through some of my most anticipated games of 2011. They are in no particular order.

Bulletstorm

This game just looks like so much fun! The yearly doses of COD has killed FPS for me, but this looks like a breath of fresh air. Or should that be a breath of blood misted air? 

Mass Effect 2

After having Xbox fanboys go on about how they have access to one of the best games ever their mouths will be tightly shut come January. Its a shame that ME1 is an Xbox exclusive as it would be fun to build up your character and carry them across to the new game. Bioware have said they have added something to the game so to remedy this.

Batman Arkham City

This. Will. Be. Epic. If they build and improve on what they have already created then we will be in for a treat!.

Metal Gear Solid : Rising

Metal Gear with out Snake. But Metal Gear with Raiden in the ninja suit!

SSX: Deadly Descent

I loved SSX tricky and now 9 years later there is a new SSX game. Only thing is it looks a little bit too serious. As one of the writers on gamesradar.com said “it looks like a snowboarding mission from COD”

Right that's it for now. If I don't write before Christmas have a good one.