I was browsing the Xbox Live Market Place and noticed that there are some dumb things being sold. Gamer Pictures and Themes are not worth the dollar or so they are charging. I love my Slurpee icon and that was free of charge. That led me to thinking; what would I pay for?

1. Level Skips

Recently I have been going through the Call of Duty 4 campaign in order to get some achievements. In doing so I noticed how devilish those missions are. I would have happily payed a dollar or two to get by because that would add to my enjoyment of the game.

I’ll admit that it sounds crazy to basically pay for achievements however, does it really matter? Achievements are not some kind of noble sport that is above cheating. Just look at the massive save trading going on. I think that anyone who takes points seriously is just sad. If someone is willing to spend their money on something you find stupid it should not bother you. Just support whatever you want to support. If it is truly stupid then no one will buy it and it will end on its own.

I just noticed how easily I got tracked off of my main point. I started talking about bad values then transitioned into points then went back to buying practices. In short, put level skips on XBLM.

The release of Metal Gear Solid 4 triggered the usual parade of PS3 fanboys to come out and say how the messiah has arrived to take us to the promise land. Don’t get me wrong, I dont have any problems with people expressing joy for a game. However along with all of the banner waving comes the Sony Defense Force to declaim every media outlet that does not give their game a perfect score. Thats the first thing that pisses me off, whenever heart felt anger is expressed they make it seem like they put their blood, sweat, and tears into the game. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that you do not qualify to be in that posistion.

The second thing that gets to me is that most of the time the game they are looking at gets a 9 as opposed to a 10. I feel the need to put out the fact that the number 9 is right next to 10. This is expressed perfectly by this comic. I’ll express how I see this, if you are looking at a review and are outraged at the number then you are a fanboy. You see, at this point your not looking for buying advice, you are just a fanboy trying to confirm your love for a faceless, cold hearted, cooperation that cares no less about you then the discarded soda can in the garbage. They are a company built to make money. They are not your friend built to make you happy. While they might do that along the way thats not their main purpose. They main drive is cold hard cash.

So this is where I say, fanboys…..SUCK IT!

Sadly I can’t assassinate the disappointment

In Assassins Creed you play as Altair. You are part of a brotherhood of Assassins that are on a quest to protect the holy land from the invading crusaders. Assassins Creed is a game that will bring you along on a unique adventure unlike any other.

At this point if you have heard of Assassins Creed you know about the “twist”. In reality you play Desmond who is a test monkey for some kind of evil cooperation. Extremely early in the game you find out that these mysterious scientists are holding you captive in order to get information on your ancestor, Altair. So therefore you must relive Altair’s life in order to obtain the correct “information”.

While playing you are thrust into one of three massive cities. Being as Assassin gives you the ability to scale buildings in a fashion that would put Spiderman to shame. Altair will fluidly scale massive towers grabbing rails and scaffolding without any hesitation. This is by far the best part of Assassins Creed; the platforming game play in this game completely elevate the genre and sets a new benchmark that will be tough be match and even harder to surpass.

While the cities themselves are a superb achievement the events going on within the city are rather disappointing. Whenever you go to a new part of the city you must follow a set routine. First you must get to a high point and survey the surrounding area. Secondly you must collect information on your target. In order to get this information you do one of four things. You can eavesdrop on chatty citizens to get the scoop. Pick pocketing an important document is another possible objective, or you can beat the information out of talkative individuals. While these three objectives make sense in terms of collecting information there is another type that make me confused. There are fellow assassins littered throughout the city that want you to complete objectives for them in exchange for information. However these objectives are so dumb; you either have to finish off their assassination duties for them, or collect the flags that they seem to misplace every single time you talk to them. This might not seem like much but I have one question, why the hell do I have to collect your stupid flags?

Regardless once you’re done with those you have to go and assassinate your main target. These also seem to go by some sort of loose routine. You must find your target wade through the crowd of people and go in for the kill. Once everyone notices the corpse on the ground twenty guards show up to brawl. This brings me to my next topic of discussion, the combat. Early off in the game you spend most of the time mashing on the X button until the dudes die. Eventually you will build up a repertoire of moves that will make you a very formidable opponent. However there is one move that seems a little overpowered, the counter attack just has you patiently guarding until someone on attacks you and you counter which gives you the one hit kill. Then you can just wait as each guard approaches you in an orderly fashion each eagerly awaiting their turn to review a good slash to the face.

While this is fun and exciting the first time around, you soon realize that this cycle will repeat a total of eleven times. Around the third time the cycle starts to become extremely tiresome. This is the major thing about Assassins Creed. Your tolerance to repeat this cycle will determine the amount of enjoyment that you will be able to get out of Assassins Creed. For most people I would recommend you borrow or rent this game first. Assassins Creed is not a game that is necessarily worth the sixty dollar price. In the end Assassins Creed is very ambiguous because whether or not it’s good or not depends on your personal taste. For me I found this a fun but repetitive game that everyone should experience.

7.5 out of 10

Since the summer has begun I have made one of my goals to post more often on this blog. However something has overtaken my life and puts productivity at an all time low. No, its not Halo 3 or Call of Duty 4, its extreme laziness.

For example, I have been meaning to write my review of Assasins Creed for some time now but it always comes down to me saying to myself, “I’ll do it later.” I swear to myself I’ll write it by the end of the day ( I wouldnt take this very seriously ).

In a none gaming related post Im here to report that my freshmen school year is coming to a close. I have one week of finals left and once I’m done, SUMMER TIME!

Basically hanging out, and playing games. I’ve been playing Assassins Creed and will put up my impressions or perhaps full review at the end of next week.

Recently I have really been craving Call of Duty 4 on the Xbox 360. I wanted it so that I can play with my friends. This compounded with the fact that Im getting sick of Halo 3. I had C.O.D. 4 on the PC but never got into it. Now that I’ve started playing it I have realized, C.O.D. 4 is awesome on any platform.

I love the whole leveling up system because its so smart. Get kills and get points. Pure genius.  I’m not quite used to the whole one bullet  will kill you thing yet but Im getting there. Its definatley more realistic that space spartan with magic shields.

It’s Pro. Gotta Buy it.

My friends go into a frenzy whenever a new Burnout arrives and everytime I would eventually make it over to one of their houses and try out these games. Every single time I see them having a really fun time and I just dont see why. I get it the cars go fast. Oh, you can boost to make your car go even faster? Great.

With the release of Burnout Paradise I was really psyched about the concept. The whole open world idea seemed like the good change of pace that I have been waiting for. However when I got it I found it extremly repetitive after you acquire your licenses. It was basically the same as the previous games but no instead of navigating menu’s you navigate a virtual world.

The only thing I like about the series are the visuals. Criterion games always put out games that blow my mind visually but when I get to the game play I always leave feeling underwhelmed.

Every year for seemingly forever a Tony Hawk game has come and gone. And every time one of these games came out I wondered was this the one? Would this be the one where the secret awesomenes that everyone one else saw in the series would be revealed to me. However I have rented a majority of them and played them for about four or six hours I always come out being really disappointed.

For me personally I do not feel compelled by the game play. To me it seems to be alot of grinding and going off ramps mashing alot of buttons to bust out a combo. Also, it seems that I am very prone to motion sickness. Whenever I play these games I end up with a mad headache and curse the constant up and down motions of the camera.

As I do with most games I can see why some people like it but for me personally, I could not care less.

I’m starting to hate Halo 3.

I need Call of Duty.

Thats all I gotta say.