Thanks to D5120 for reporting this via twitter. This comes directly from Eurogamer, who have revealed details from Major Nelson about the up coming sale of Games On Demand for the Xbox 360.

For those that may not know, these are full retail releases that you can download directly to your Xbox 360. These digital copies have been known to be rather pricey compared to their retail disc versions, but – like we did last year in the Games on Demand Summer Sale – we could see some cracking bargains out of this lot.

Lets take a look at the list reported via Eurogamer:

(I’ve trawled through the marketplace and added the CURRENT price, so you get an idea of the bargains that we could grab).

Remember, that you can also use Microsoft Points to purchase these games, £1 = roughly 120 points

• Assassins Creed £11.99
• Assassins Creed 2 £11.99
• Assassins Creed: Brotherhood £19.99
• Assassins Creed: Revelations £19.99
• Batman: Arkham Asylum £14.99
• Batman: Arkham City £19.99
• Bioshock £14.99
• Borderlands £14.99
• Borderlands 2 £49.99
• Call of Juarez £11.99
• Call of Duty 2 £14.99
• Call of Duty 3 £14.99
• Call of Duty: Black Ops £44.99
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 £49.99
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare £19.99
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 £29.99
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 £49.99
• Dark Messiah of Might and Magic: Elements £11.99
• Dead Island £14.99
• Dirt 2 £24.99
• Dishonored £39.99
• El Shaddai Ascension of the Metatron £N/A
• Fable 3 £29.99
• Fallout 3 £11.99
• Fallout New Vegas £14.99
• GRID £19.99
• Halo 3 £14.99
• Halo 4 £39.99
• Halo Reach £24.99
• Halo Wars £19.99
• Kane & Lynch Dead Men £14.99
• Left for Dead 2 £19.99
• Max Payne 3 £24.99
• Metal Gear Solid HD £19.99
• Metal Gear Solid Peacewalker £11.99
• Mortal Kombat £44.99
• Mortal Kombat vs. DCU £14.99
• Orange Box £14.99
• Portal 2 £19.99
• Resident Evil Operation Raccoon City £29.99
• Rainbow Six Vegas
• Rayman Raving Rabbids
• Resident Evil 4 £14.99
• Resident Evil 5 £14.99
• Resident Evil 6 £24.99
• Resident Evil: Code Veronica £14.99
• Red Dead Redemption £19.99
• Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution £19.99
• Street Fighter 4 £14.99
• Street Fighter X Tekken £29.99
• Super Streetfighter 4: Arcade Edition £19.99
• TC’s H.A.W.X. £11.99
• Tekken 6 £14.99
• Tekken Tag Tournament 2 £39.99
• The Darkness £14.99
• The King of Fighters 13 £19.99
• Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter £11.99
• Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 £11.99
• Tomb Raider Legend £19.99
• Virtua Fighter 5 £14.99
• World at War £19.99

So, anything jumping out at you?

Well, if you haven’t already got it, and it maybe one hell of a download, but The Orange Box from Valve is a bundle of gaming goodness.

Anyone who’s got themselves a 3D telly, might be interested in Batman Arkham City as you can play the full game in glorious 3D. Same goes for the Black Ops games…but can they match retail pricing?

For the community there is the one and only Left4Dead 2. Such a fun game with many, many great community nights in the past, it would be great to see this come back and reclaim the ‘Undead Tuesday’.

So, anything floating your gaming boat?

Something that you think, at the right price, could bring the community together?

Torn is the key word in that quote taken from one of the early Assassin’s Creed III trailers, and it’s probably going to be the key word for anyone currently playing the game as well.

 
Since the first game was released in 2007, the Assassin’s Creed series has gone from strength to strength; it would have been very easy for Ubisoft Montreal to churn out the same game with different historical settings at yearly intervals: however they didn’t. Instead they split the development across multiple teams all over the globe, each working on different aspects of the gameplay before bringing it all together to much critical delight, introducing new gameplay elements with every release whilst maintaining the feel of the series. Each new title brought something new, and whilst some decisions were initially greeted with distain, all added something to the series..

However, Assassin’s Creed III is more of a back to basics approach than the promised revolution, removing the abilities to buy businesses and build strongholds, instead replaced by creating a Homestead to bring in crafting material and the ability to hunt the many wild animals you will encounter on your journey across the eastern Seaboard of the USA. The combat has been stripped back too, focusing more on countering, making it feel less complex but strangely more satisfying when you take down a large group of redcoats using just your trusty tomahawk.

The cities also feel stripped back and although this is in keeping with the time period it does take something away from the game. In previous titles the cities have felt alive, bright & colourful, as much of a character as any of Desmond’s bladed relatives, however here the cities of Boston and New York, although not as sparse as most expected really feel a little bland. In-between the cities you are able to navigate the great frontier, running through the trees with ease, kind of like that awful Shia LaBeouf monkey scene in Indy IV, hunting elk, wolves and beaver for items to trade. However, although the alpine traversal feels fluent, and stalking an enemy from the treetops is fun, it again feels a little bland and more akin to the deserts of the first game in the series.

Another major change from the established, is the main character Connor (or Ratonhnhaké:ton).Whereas Desmond’s previous ancestors have been righteous and very clear on their quest, Connor come across as a little hot headed and plain naïve at times which can also make him slightly unlikeable. I’m not too convinced this isn’t deliberate though as Assassin’s Creed III attempts to blur the lines between the Assassin’s and the Templars more than ever before and will often have you questioning everything you thought you knew about both orders. Connor finds himself heavily involved in the formation of the United States as we know it, yet his focus is always on the defence of his people and what he considers right for his country even if it doesn’t always seem the best decision. The game also allows you to recruit assassin’s and send them on missions to level them up, which is a little strange as Connor himself often shows little regard for the ways of his order and their struggle against the Templars.

The missions themselves are a little stunted and way more defined than the previous games, offering little in the way of freedom to tackle them any way you want and making you feel much more directed. Some of the side quest’s do offer a little more variety to the go here and kill the British of the main story. The frontier challenges are taken straight out of Red Dead Redemption and will see you hunting down mysteries as well as wild animals and there’s the usual collectables, although annoyingly you have to chase most of them.

Assassin’s Creed III however does do a lot right, sadly most of it is hidden in the menus and easily missed. The story cleverly involves some of the most important days in America’s history, with the Animus database detailed enough to be referenced in a history piece on the period and the even more simplified assassin’s contracts will have you idling in the city as your trusty minions tackle Templar threats across North America. It’s easily the best looking of the series too, even if it does suffer from the god awful frame rates and texture pop-in that has dogged the series.

One major plus is the introduction of Naval combat; the ability to wreak havoc on the high seas is truly epic and really deserving of its own game in its own right. Although a little daunting to begin with you’ll soon be swashbuckling your way through fleets of loyalist ships in beautifully crafted and tense sea battles, battling the elements just as much as the ship’s out to send you down to Davy Jones locker. These epic moments are few and far between in the main story but there’s plenty of opportunity to take to the high seas in a series of side missions.

The popular multiplayer suite makes its return as expected too, this time bringing a new mode in Wolf Pack mode, pitting you and your friends against NPC targets in a series of co-op challenges. The lasting appeal however will be with the hugely popular Assassinate mode, where you have to identify other players hiding around the map, as you yourself hide from assailants. Progress in the multiplayer will also unlock further back story into the mysterious Abstergo company and its development of the Animus, in an effect to get more people playing and creating a lasting community.

Assassin’s Creed III is by no means the weakest in the series, but it’s also far from the strongest and it’s likely going to be overarching storyline that keeps you playing through the glitches and bugs the game has, after the excellent Ezio trilogy ramped up the storyline. It still has all the problems that have littered the series, and whilst lacking much of the charm and character of its predecessors its worth picking up to finally get some closure on Desmond Miles’ fight against Abstergo.

MLG Rating: 7/10 Platform: Xbox 360/PS3 (PC/Wii-U coming soon)  Release Date: 31/10/2012

Disclosure: BlueWolf rented a physical copy Assassin’s Creed III for review purposes . The title was reviewed over the course of five days on a Xbox 360. For more information on what our scores mean, plus details of our reviews policy, click here.

The list includes Nintendo-published games like Nintendo Land, New Super Mario Bros. U, Sing Party and Ninja Gaiden3: Razor’s Edge, as well as third-party powerhouses like ZombiU from Ubisoft, Call of Duty: Black Ops II from Activision Publishing, Disney’s Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two from Disney Interactive, FIFA 13 from Electronic Arts and Scribblenauts Unlimited from Warner Bros.

Nintendo of America President and COO Reggie Fils-Aime said “We’re making sure that Wii U owners will have great games to play from the moment they open the box, and that a steady stream of fun new games are always on the way, from new franchises to creative new approaches to familiar favourites.”

Below is a list of upcoming Wii U games scheduled for the launch window

505 Games
Funky Barn

2K Sports
NBA 2K13

Activision Publishing, Inc.
Call of Duty: Black Ops II
Skylanders: Giants
Transformers Prime
Wipeout 3
007 Legends
Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 2013
Rapala Pro Bass Fishing

Broken Rules
Chasing Aurora

Pwnee Studios
Cloudberry Kingdom

D3Publisher
Rise of the Guardians: The Video Game
Ben 10 Omniverse
Family Party: 30 Great Games Obstacle Arcade

Disney Interactive
Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two

Electronic Arts
FIFA 13
Madden NFL 13
Mass Effect 3

Frozenbyte
Trine 2: Director’s Cut

Gaijin Games
Runner2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien

WayForward
Mighty Switch Force HD

NAMCO BANDAI
Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Wii U Edition
Tank!Tank!Tank!

Nintendo
New Super Mario Bros. U
Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge
Nintendo Land
Sing Party
Game & Wario
LEGO City: Undercover
Pikmin 3
Wii Fit U
The Wonderful 101

SEGA
Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed
Aliens: Colonial Marines

Shin’en
Nano Assault Neo

Tecmo Koei America Corporation
WARRIORS OROCHI 3 Hyper 

THQ
Darksiders II
JEOPARDY!  
Wheel of Fortune

Tomorrow Corporation
Little Inferno

Two Tribes
Toki Tori 2

Ubisoft
Assassin’s Creed 3
ESPN Sports Connection
Just Dance 4
Rabbids Land
Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2013
ZombiU
Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth
Rayman Legends

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Scribblenauts Unlimited
Game Party Champions
Batman: Arkham City Armored Edition

Born of Mohawk and British Blood, his fight for freedom and justice will be forged in the flames of revolution.

Keep up to date with all the latest Assassin’s Creed III news here at Midlife Gamer.

The Freedom Edition

The Freedom Edition includes the following:

-      Assassin’s Creed III retail game

-      A 24-cm high-quality figurine of Connor

-      A steelbook case art drawn by awards-winning comic artist Alex Ross

-      George Washington’s notebook revealing all the truth & secrets about the Assassins and the Templars during the American Revolution.

-      One exclusive Lithograph

-      2 in-game Single Player Missions:

• Lost Mayan Ruins: Connor’s mission leads him in an old Mayan pyramid, full of mysteries and revelations. Players will be able to unlock Captain Kidd’s fabled cutlass, a deadly, brutal and beautiful piece of steel
• Ghost of War: The tide of the Revolution turns into the Templars favor. Defeat your enemies and unlock The Pontiac’s War Club, a powerful Native American weapon.

-      1 in-game Multiplayer Package:

• The Sharpshooter package: Unleash the Sharpshooter fury in multiplayer with 1 new character, the Sharpshooter, 1 Relic, 1 Emblem, 1 special Picture and the Title of “The Jester”.

The Join or Die Edition

The Join or Die Edition includes the following:

-      Assassin’s Creed III retail game

-      The medallion of the Assassins with its high-quality curd ladle

-      George Washington’s notebook revealing all the truth & secrets about the Assassins and the Templars during the American Revolution.

-      1 in-game Single Player Mission:

• Ghost of War: The tide of the Revolution turns into the Templars favor. Defeat your enemies and unlock The Pontiac’s War Club, a powerful Native American weapon.

-      1 in-game Multiplayer Package:

• The Sharpshooter package: Unleash the Sharpshooter fury in multiplayer with 1 new character, the Sharpshooter, 1 Relic, 1 Emblem, 1 special Picture and the Title of “The Jester”.

The Special Edition

The Special Edition features a special packaging, the retail copy of the game and an exclusive single player mission:

• A Dangerous Secret: Fight against a secret that could jeopardize the funding of the revolution. In case of success, you’ll be rewarded with an exclusive weapon: a Flintlock Musket.

Keep up to date with all the latest Assassin’s Creed III news here at Midlife Gamer.

[Show as slideshow]

Set against the backdrop of the American Revolution in the late 18th century, Assassin’s Creed III introduces a new hero, Ratohnhaké:ton, of Native American and English heritage. Adopting the name Connor, he becomes the new voice for justice in the ancient war between the Assassins and Templars. Players become an Assassin in the war for liberty against ruthless tyranny in the most stylized and fluid combat experiences in the franchise to date. Assassin’s Creed III spans the Revolutionary War, taking gamers from the vibrant, untamed frontier to bustling colonial towns and the intense, chaotic battlefields where George Washington’s Continental Army clashed with the imposing British Army.

Assassin’s Creed III is set to release on October 31, 2012 on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation3. The Windows PC release date is still to be announced. Assassin’s Creed III is also in development for Wii U.

Keep up to date with all the latest Assassin’s Creed III news here at Midlife Gamer.

We all agreed that Assassin’s Creed is still a terrific game, with timeless visual and mechanic qualities that out weight the flaws.

 Direct Download

Many thanks to OverClocked Remix for the intro tune, Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance: I Need Scissors! 61! remix by Prince of Darkness (Tony Dickinson).

Oh at the end we’ve included some outtakes for you, although you should be warned, Neale’s sporting injury related story right at the end is kind of disgusting.

Our winner this month for their comment is SiStevens. Congratulations to him and you can all enjoy his wonderful and mammoth sized winning comment below:

—

Before we begin our Gaming, I would like to say a few words. And here they are:

Ok so before we begin we need a little pre-gotm to give you a little back story to where I was at last month.

The long story short last month’s game of the month was a huge miss for me because I was in the middle of the biggest gaming funk of my life.  I could always find something I wanted to play more.  Well I say play, I mean hate on more. Jeez, I could nitpick on games so much that I hated everything

How to train your dragon – repetitive

Fecking Tiny Tower – Dear God save me now – finished, ok this raises an interesting question, I have just spent  10 minutes trying to think of the word to signify that you have completed a game centre game, platinumed…..taken, cheevo’d……taken, I’m going to suggest pipped, as in the seed of an….aaaahhh see what I did there – #ItsStillAllDarensFault

Fifa 11 – Controls are just wrong, different, no likey

Fight Night Champion – 1^st amateur fight just annoyed me to hell as I couldn’t last the 4 rounds and I wanted to just knock the guy out

Farmville – It’s never so bad that you resort to this

F1 2010 – Round and round we go and round and round we go and round and round we go, change tyres, round and round we go, round and round we go

And then the good lady came forth with words of help and wisdom – “Why are you playing all the games that begin with F, is your gaming sponsored by Sesame Street at the moment”

You also need to know that if I am playing games at night I tend to play without volume so I can hear the little one and I have no headphones (Oh Yes, I am an online gamers’ dream partner ain’t I).

So then I made a decision, I would lock all my games away apart from Fifa 11, Fight Night Champion, and only play that and whatever the rental company sends me, I mean we have some immense games to look forward to and I have put everything on Low priority apart from these new releases so I should have tremendous gaming to look forward to right? Wrong.  Please see http://bit.ly/pgconP for details.

This was 2 days before the GOTM was announced and NOW I have to finish Ice Age 3 before I can get my hands on the game of the month.  This could be a bad one this time.

Week 1 – Subtitles? We ain’t got no subtitles. We don’t need no subtitles! I don’t have to show you any stinkin’ subtitles!”

Well completing Ice age 3 wasn’t as painful as I imagined and most importantly I finished it so I could unlock ma booty chest and get Assassins Creed out.

So the set up is as it always is.  The good lady is watching some inane American TV show with a catchy theme on her laptop and I have no sound on my ps3.  So first things first let’s turn on the subtitles.

First lesson you learn with Assassin’s Creed is that after 5 minutes of perusing various menus it becomes obvious that subtitles were not an option.

So I began soundless and began my tutorial with all instructions clearly on my screen, this isn’t bad I thought – I don’t need subtitles.  This thought although waning at times continued until my character was nerfed and I lost all abilities.  Damn it, I must have done something wrong or missed something, I’ll restart again tomorrow.

In-between the last paragraph and this, the good lady went out and bought me a Bluetooth headset so I could listen to my game I was playing.  So I paired it up with the PS3 and got it all working and was ready to play the game again and then I discovered that a Bluetooth headset will only let you partake in in-game chat via the headset and the game sound has to come out the TV.

So I play again without sound, blah de blah blah get nerfed, think I have done something wrong rage quit etc etc

This is where we can enter quote of the month entry 2.  “Honey, if I plugged in my laptop headset into my laptop to listen to my programme could you not just turn the TV up”, yes, yes I would but when did you get a headset? “Oh I bought one at the same as your Bluetooth headset”

So now I have sound I realise I missed nothing and did nothing wrong I got nerfed purely because the story dictates that you have to be.  I have replayed the tutorial and first section of this game three times for no reason but it also doesn’t explain that weird arse distortion when I’m not in the animas.

And thus begins the theme for week 2.

Week 2 – Do you ever have déjà vu, Mrs. Lancaster?

Ok this game does look nice, in fact the good lady asked when I booted up the game this week and was just letting the title video play she actually asked “what are you watching, I thought you were going to play a game” and my god I think I have lost about 3 hours in the last 2 weeks climbing up towers and watching the “Michael Bay” style pan but that was before I knew that I actually had to do that to progress the game.

So I have been given my first assassination mission and I have been a good little assassin and completed all of the set tasks to get all of the quality information required to send the target into an everlasting sleep.  I watch my target from afar, gradually getting closer and then I’m in and I get the kill, time to make my escape.  Now this is where it went a little pear shaped for me.  It’s as if by completing the kill both my PS3 and I went for a few drinks because both the controls and the AI just seemed to go to pot.

Buttons stopped being as responsive as they were before the kill resulting in me running around the block of houses 5 times whilst trying to perform a number of jumps, grabs and swings to make my escape. It is at this point where the funniest moment of playing this game happened.  My game turned into the Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd show.  Before you start thinking, seriously Si you HAVE been drinking let me explain.

In order to make my escape I knew I had to break the line of vision between me and the guards, so I spot a nice escape point.  In this case a high wall with beams leading to a building that I can scale, so I run at and jump onto the wall.  In a moment of too much button pushing I jump off of said wall before I have a chance to position myself to grab the beam so, for the benefit of those who are not keeping up the scenario is as follows

ME

————————-       ————————————

G    G

G  G  G

So forgetting the line of sight thing I decide to run through the gap in the wall so I can repeat and jump onto the wall to grab the beam whilst one of the guards is climbing the wall

This led to this scenario

G           G

————————-       ————————————

G

Me          G  G

The guards on the same side of the wall as me carried on climbing the wall and following my line of travel even though I was just stood next to them therefore hence the Elmer Fudd moment

Me – “heeeeeeeeey what’s up doc”

Guard – “We chasing that wascally assassin”

Me – “Where did he go?”

Guard – “He leaped over this wall but we got him caught now”

Me – “Is there any way he could get out? A hole in the wall perhaps?”

Guard – “Heeeey what are you twying to say, oopps sowwy gotta go it’s my twurn to jump over the wall”

Ok time to head back to the batcave, I mean the assassin’s guild hole in the roof.

Right before I go any further, there are how many towers in this game that activate the Michael Bay mode? Are you trying to tell me that not a single guard or their bosses had the idea to go up the INSIDE of one of them and have a look down?  If they did why did they not see either this opening in the roof of a building or for that matter the symbol of the Assassin people emblazoned on the roof next to it?

Anyway, onto my 2nd mission, what new tricks do I need to do for this mission? Oh the same tricks? Again? Aahhhh different people to target. Ok do I need to do all ten of them again? No cool, I shall meet you halfway and do 5 then.

Right before anyone has a go at me and says look you’re not playing the full game if you are only doing 5 tasks in order to progress I say this.

If you mug a sweet old granny on the street but only take half her money you are still mugging that sweet old granny therefore I am still playing and completing the game.

And that’s all I have played so far in week 2 mainly because of a teething daughter and it has opened up 2 questions that I must answer sometime in week 3.

1 – If the game is seriously this repetitive, how did it get a sequel when less repetitive games have not been able to get one yet (Mirror’s Edge I’m looking at you)?

2 – What is with that damn distortion when I am not in the Animas?

Week 3 – Now I get it. Now I understand. You want it to happen… but it’s not going to happen

Firstly let’s get my act of stupidity out the way, the distortion out of the Animas is meant to relay the fact that you are watching through a CCTV. Kind of makes sense now that I have realised it.

And how did this game get a sequel?  Because it was planned that way.  As the credits roll I feel like I have been cheated in a way and all I have done is completed the tutorial for Assassin’s Creed 2 but ***SPOILER ALERT*** (you never know there MIGHT be someone else who has never played this) the incorporation of certain “blood” aspects after the credits have rolled did and will appeal to conspiracy theorists like myself.

I seem to remember Assassin’s Creed being a much coveted Triple A title.  After completing it I feel that parts of it are but there is too much that hasn’t stood the test of time to rate this as an average game.

As I said the graphics are unbelievable even now 4 years later and the accuracy of the animations for the Parkour element is pretty cool.  I loved the story too, more so after the blood reveal at the end and putting pieces together in my own head.

But, and this is a big but, and I cannot lie, this game is repetitive. If you imagine doing the training mission for Assassin’s Creed 2, resetting your machine and doing it again and again until you have done this 9 times, you will pretty much have the Assassin’s Creed experience.

It feels like Ubisoft spent so much time making it look pretty and fluid that they ran out of time to develop the missions and just threw something together and set phasers to repeat in order to stretch out the campaign gaming time. The fact that I picked this up for 7 quid helps ease this a little but if I had bought this day 1, man I would have been annoyed.

You haven’t slept for a long time now. Have you made a decision?

Overall, the graphics, storyline along with the MLG communities reaction to this game being suggested as GOTM will push me on to play at least Assassin’s Creed 2 if not Brotherhood and Revelations. But the repetitiveness brings the overall score down to a 5.5/10

—

The first puzzle appears to be a video montage of scenes from previous Assassin’s Creed games, after viewing you are required to arrange various keywords relating to the video you have seen. The first puzzle was a good challenge to get players going, and I have high expectations for further puzzles to come as we draw nearer and nearer to the release of Revelations.

There are a total of five puzzles expected to be released on the site, so potentially one per week between now and release day of the game.

There are numerous rumours flying around as to what this may unlock, and indeed of there are any true rewards for completing all the tasks. Ubisoft have teamed up with other online games sites to offer real prizes separate from the actual bonuses linked into the site, so it is worth checking out.

Maybe they’ll send you your very own “Make Your Own Hookblade Kit” if you complete it? Answers on a postcard, please!

Check out the latest trailer from Ubisoft, which shows off Ezio and his new bombing talents. Explosive weapons can be crafted by Ezio in about 300 different combinations, all of which have different ingredients and desired effects on the target. Some are used for wide spread damage on enemies, and some, such as the Cherry Bomb, are all Ezio needs to provide a quick distraction to allow him to escape from his pursuers. No more hiding in haystacks then?

This simple world of jumping was first tarnished by the ancient Greeks with their triple jumping nonsense and, to add insult to injury, some wise guy added a stick to the process and invented Pole-vaulting. Throughout history jumping at speed had only been done so someone else could measure the distance travelled and assign you a chunk of shiny metal. Over the last 30 or so years various young people started to run and jump for the hell of it. They would jump over bike racks and statues just because they could. This craze goes by many names but the most popular are Parkour or free running and as with most popular activities the media started to show it as something cool but dangerous that only bad boys did. One of the most famous examples would be the opening chase in the Bond movie Casino Royale, but cinema isn’t the only one trying to get in on the free running craze. Games are now one of the best places to perform parkour without the ever present threat of breaking your leg by tripping over a pigeon. Moreover it’s fun.

Titles such as Assassins Creed and Infamous have shown gamers there is a new, fast way of travelling around an open world without having to resort to carjacking. But is this new way of travelling style over substance or is it really the future of traversing an open area?

The first notable example of free running like motions comes from the Prince of Persia series whose main protagonist is adept at acrobatic feats in order to get around a 2D level. As the series became more complex the character’s abilities had to grow with the environment around him, so wall running, ledge grabbing and the like were introduced and soon became the norm in the series. Prince of Persia was originally owned by Brodebund Software Inc. but in 2001 Brodebund was in financial difficulties and sold the IP of Prince of Persia to Ubisoft who released their first version of it in 2003, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. It was Ubisofts Montreal chance to experiment with free running in this recently acquired IP. It was a unique and entertaining platforming mechanic, and this experience influenced a more recent IP from the same studio.

Assassins Creed came out in 2007 and totally changed the way a character travelled around an open world setup. Previously in an open world you either grabbed a car or walked slowly, as in the Grand Theft Auto series, or you would be a superhero such as Spiderman and you could swing around skyscrapers or fly like the Boy Scout in tights that is Superman. In Assassins Creed your character was certainly mortal and his abilities, while exaggerated, were possible. A large part of the gameplay was built around your acrobatic abilities either to infiltrate enemy strongholds or to run away from the enemy when infiltration goes wrong. When Assassins Creed was being shown at various games expos in 2006-7 I remember watching the footage of the audience reaction. They excitedly clapped and cheered because they could see how free Altair was in a beautiful open world thanks to parkour. It was a revelation at the time, the fast paced platforming from Prince of Persia in an open world setting that fully realised parkour.

In 2009 three more games containing free running were published: Mirror Edge, Infamous and Prototype. Mirrors Edge was a first person game with free running and was noted for its clinical and stylised art style with the parkour being pretty realistic and the character was only human which helped separate it clearly from the other two major free running releases of the year. Infamous was a visually impressive PS3 exclusive that had a protagonist who could travel across the open world with a mixture of free running and electricity based moves. Prototype had a similar superhero premise but was far more over the top in its execution, with its parkour inspired movement that could have you jumping over entire city blocks.

All these games were fun and enjoyable; with the parkour playing a big part in why they were so much fun to play. However, the issue now is that many development houses want to emulate this style of transversal and some did so badly. For instance in 2011 Brink was released to mediocre reviews, getting a 68 on Metacritic. One of Brink’s main selling points that separated it from Call of Duty and Battlefield clones was the use of S.M.A.R.T  (Smooth Movement Across Random Terrain) a system that was meant to re-energise the stale genre. It was a good idea with legitimate originality behind it but the developers forgot one rule of the genre: if you leave cover you die. For this article I’ve watched a lot of gameplay footage and I seldom found a player using the SMART system, and when one did go for a good run they were gunned down before they got the pace going. Brink could be compared to Mirrors Edge for its first person perspective on free running but the key difference was that Mirrors edge was a platformer first with light gunplay that could have been totally avoided; Brink was a shooter with platforming elements.

It’s a common occurrence in videogame with developers copying popular ideas from other genres but failing to make the transition between the genres. The biggest threat is what this can do to parkour as a mechanic. It’s already becoming overused and less impactful, but the occasional title comes along still to remind us of how invigorating the mechanic is to how we play platformers. Infamous was the best selling new IP for the PS3 and the Assassin’s Creed series continues to impress with  Assassin’s Creed Revelations just round the corner not to mention Prototype 2 on the horizon. It doesn’t look like parkour is going out of favour anytime soon.

This Community Content article was created by Cynical Hunter, a member of our community. Community Content is your way of getting long-form writing and opinion out to the Midlife Gamer audience, an open platform to get something off your chest. For full guidelines on our editorial standards and how to create your own post, click here. The views expressed within are those of the author and not necessarily the opinions of the Midlife Gamer Staff.

Portal 2

When I was reading about Portal 2 I started to wonder why Portal had been so much fun. It’s a pretty straightforward story and only lasts a few hours but when I was playing it I was engrossed, and I did the whole game in one enjoyable sitting.  The player wakes up, gets a portal gun, goes through some tests for an unspecified reason and this builds towards the boss battle (it’s a bit more complicated and has a twist but, you know, spoilers and all that). It’s so simple but still utterly compelling, but why? Maybe it was the pleasing series of puzzles that used a novel twist on first person shooter mechanics to emphasis thinking as well as quick reflexives? Or perhaps it was the great villain and the compelling world it was set in? Was the reason that Portal was so enjoyable because it took an innovative gameplay mechanic and crafted a simple story around it?

The answer might be found in the games development. Created with only a small development team, decisions were taken for practical reasons, as well as artistic. For instance, by setting Portal in the existing world of Half Life 2, the team could use existing art assets. As one of the writers for the story stated in an interview with Edge, “Without the constraints, Portal would not be as good a game”. Less is, thankfully, sometimes more and with Portal by the time you got over the initial amazement and wonder at using space to solve problems you’re hooked into the storyline. And hooked so completely that you don’t need any other distractions. Simple, straightforward (plot wise anyway!) and addictive. It’s a game without any fat on its bones and unlike me playing it, it doesn’t put a foot wrong.

And this is, I think, the point that I’d like to make about other, more visually impressive, immersive and frankly big budget titles. Too often designers come up with something that doesn’t enhance the relationship that the player has to the story and sometime it breaks the world for me almost completely. Take Bioshock. I loved it. Absolutely brilliant. It was an interesting, engaging and atmospheric slice of sci fi. The world of Rapture was amazing and the plasmids… the plasmids. To this day me and my housemate still fantasise about being able to shoot bees out of your very hands (“Sorry, you wanted that presentation done by five? Bees!”). It worked. It made the game play more interesting and supported the storyline. Rapture’s fucked and the plasmids helped do it.

What didn’t work, in my opinion, was the harvesting. Save the little sisters or harvest them? Aaahhhh… If you harvest them they die and you’re a bad person. But if you don’t harvest them you’re not as powerful. So, what to do? What. To. Do. Except… neither choices affected the gameplay or the story enough to matter – you get a slightly different ending? You might not be quite as powerful? Tweaks. And both sides had tangible upsides to the gameplay thereby totally undermining the choice. Where was the gravity of the situation when the player was faced with a choice that had such a minor impact on the story as to not matter?

It was a mechanic that promised important consequences and just didn’t have the courage of its convictions. As a comment on morality and doing the right thing despite the hardships that this could involve, it just didn’t quite work. And if it didn’t quite work, Don’t put it in.

My other problem is when an option is introduced to the character but one that doesn’t make sense in the world that the developers have created. Take Red Dead Redemption as an example. Again, a great game. Bloody loved it. But there was a gameplay mechanic that didn’t work for me – the honour and fame ranking system. Sure, it can affect certain instances within the world but it doesn’t change the story like it should. If anything, it does the opposite. From the beginning we meet John Marston and we know he was a man leaving his… controversial… past behind. And this escape from his past is what motivates and drives the plot. And that’s why I felt absolutely no need to shoot civilians or execute nuns. Because I was John Marston. Or maybe because I’m also a little bit miserable.

But if you do give me the option to be a dick then please Rockstar, take it to the logical conclusion and make it affect the story. First town I come across I kill everyone. I mean everyone. And livestock, I kill them too. And I keep doing this until I go and see my family. And John Marston Junior should tell me to get lost because frankly, he thinks I’m a bit of a lunatic. The next mission should be John drowning his sorrows with a terrified hooker before he’s shot in the back by someone whose brother you killed a dozen missions ago. And if that’s how the game ends for me then fine, because that’s the world I’d have created.

Offer me a choice in a game but only if it makes sense to the story and doesn’t break the character you’ve given me to play as. Assassins Creed is a good example of how you can have your cake and eat it. The main character is a stand up guy on the side of the good people. Like Red Dead it’s a sand box world with side quests and free-roaming. But try and go postal on the citizens and the animus desynchronizes. Good. Because it wouldn’t make sense if it let Ezio be a prick and it would break the story for me.

So I suppose what I’m saying is that game mechanics shouldn’t be thrown in just because they can, they should propel the story and fit with the character you’re playing – Ezio doesn’t need to choose to kill an innocent bystander because he just wouldn’t. It’s not in his character (although killing guards by the dozen is so… he’s maybe not the greatest moral compass to follow). If I can do something in a game, make sure it doesn’t break the logic of the world even if it might cut short a campaign or close off side quests. Because it might pull me further into the game and consequences in a game might make the story more compelling too. Either way I’m looking forward to Portal 2 and I hope that just because they can do all sorts of cool new stuff that they don’t lose sight of how the limitations in Portal helped make it the game it was. 

This Community Content article was created by onionmurders, a member of our community. Community Content is your way of getting long-form writing and opinion out to the Midlife Gamer audience, an open platform to get something off your chest. For full guidelines on our editorial standards and how to create your own post, click here. The views expressed within are those of the author and not necessarily the opinions of the Midlife Gamer Staff.