"Assassin's Creed has received mixed reviews and the public opinion is currrently very much split. With all the innovation and style the title displayed, in the end it was little more than repetitive "go to X which leads to Y" gameplay wrapped in an interesting story."

"Across the pond, consumers prefer racing and soccer games to blockbuster action, adventure and first-person shooter games that are the staple of the U.S. diet. Indeed, Europeans view such games as "evil," says Cevat Yerli, chief executive of Crytek, a German game developer that specializes in first-person shooters."

XboxFocus goes through the Ten Commandments governing over the sacred ways of the Xbox Live Achievements. The things that everyone is gunning for, no matter how ridiculous the means to achieve them are.

"They suggest rumors that:

Uncharted 2 will be set in the Jungles & temples in India
Capcom is working on a game called Spyborgs
There will be an Assassin's Creed movie
A Cloverfield game
A Darkness sequel"

"That Ubisoft/Kojima April Fool's joke was pretty elaborate! Snake running around MGS4 dressed as Altair, looking for all the world like it was actually in the game...so would it surprise you to hear that it wasn't really a gag? Yeah, that's right. It was announced at the MGS4 wrap party today that MGS4 players will indeed be able to unlock an Assassin's Creed outfit for Snake"

"Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed continues to motor on, selling over 6 million units as of March 31 this year, further establishing itself as a star franchise for the game maker.

The sales figure came as part of Ubisoft's quarterly earnings report.

The game launched on November 13 for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and is slated for release on PC this fiscal quarter.

When the title outstripped targets with sell-through of 2.5 million in December, Ubisoft said it was the fastest-selling new vi..."

"Their unholy alliance seems to be paying off as everyone’s favourite Plumber and Hedgehog have topped the UK’s all format charts again this week. This game is proving to be a beast that will not be slain, consistently rising and falling in the charts just to climb to the top spot again. Not only is the game number one overall but first on the Wii and second on the DS charts, cementing the fact that I am the only one who finds the premise of a stunted overweight Italian posing anything that ev..."

"The four new investigation missions are an addition to the five original ones found in the console version; meaning, players will never have to complete the same (investigation) mission twice before moving on to assassinate their next target.

Rooftop Race Challenge: Upon meeting an informer, the player will have a set amount of time to reach a second informer. The reward for reaching the second informer on time will be information on the mission target.

Archer Stealth Assassination Chal..."

"Xbox 360:

No new releases

PS3:

No new releases

Wii:

Mini Copter Adventure Flight

Baroque

PS2:

Arcana Heart

Baroque

Fatal Fury Battle Archives Vol 2

Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure

PSP:

World Championship Cards

Nintendo DS:

Fab 5 Soccer

Plushees

PC Games:

Assassin's Creed: Director's Cut Edition

Half-Life 2: Team Fortress 2

Half-Life 2: Portal

Half-Life 2: Episode Pack

Civil War Mysteries

Escape From Paradise"

""

"SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
(Both Minimum and Recommended):

• Supported OS: Windows® XP/Windows Vista® (only)Processor: Dual core processor 2.6 GHz Intel® Pentium® D or AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 3800+ (Intel Core® 2 Duo 2.2 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ or better recommended)
• RAM: 1 GB Windows XP / 2 GB Windows Vista
• Video Card: 256 MB DirectX® 10.0–compliant video card or DirectX 9.0–compliant card with Shader Model 3.0 or higher (see supported list)
• Sound Card: DirectX 9.0 or 10.0–compliant sound card (...

"

"The biggest flaw Assassin’s Creed had was that even though the game world was magnificently realized, there wasn’t much to do in it except the same things over and over again. And after being forced to it nine times, this mechanic had outstayed its welcome for far too long. But as announced last month, Ubisoft plans to remedy the situation in the upcoming PC version, set for an early April release, by adding to the amount of total investigations that lead up to each assassination."

"These issues are slowly being addressed, though, as many publishers are starting to churn out multi-platform releases with an eye for the PlayStation 3. LucasArts recently announced an initiative to make the PS3 their leading platform for development, joining a growing wave of developers seeking to improve multi-platform games heading to Sony's console. With any luck, this movement will result in better performance for all gamers, Xbox 360 and PS3 alike. For now though, just enjoy fragging te..."

It's Thursday again, and that means that we've gotten a store update, read on to see what's new in the store:

PS3 Store:

Lost Planet Playable Demo (Capcom CE Europe LTD)
Conflict: Denied Ops Launch Trailer (Eidos Interactive)
C:DO Diary 3 -: Co-Operative Gameplay (Eidos Interactive)
Assassin’s Creed - Dev Diary:Altair (Ubisoft Entertainment SA)
DMC 4 Wallpaper 5-11 (Capcom CE Europe LTD)
Sports Theme (SCEE)

PC store (For the PSP)

Wipeout Pulse Harimau Pack (SCEE) - £2.99/ 3.99 eur
...

"The winners of the 2nd annual ELANS Awards have been announced and with five awards, this years big winner is BioWare. Their sci-fi RPG Mass Effect walked away with the Game of the Year, Best Art Direction, Best Game Design, Best Writing for a Game Production, and Best Character (Commander Shepard) awards."

"01./00. [WII] Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Nintendo) - 819,647 / NEW
02./00. [PS3] Devil May Cry 4 (Capcom) - 205,390 / NEW
03./00. [PS2] Tales of Destiny: Director's Cut (Bandai-Namco) - 116,928 / NEW
04./00. [PS2] Haruhi Suzumiya's Wonderment (Banpresto) - 114,335 / NEW
05./01. [WII] Wii Fit (Nintendo) - 73,325 / 1,356,000
06./00. [PS3] Disgaea 3 (Nippon Ichi Software) - 54,596 / NEW
07./00. [360] Devil May Cry 4 (Capcom) - 40,023 / NEW
08./04. [NDS] Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games ..."

"You surely recall how Assassin’s Creed was slammed because the game forced you to do the same three actions over and over for nine times (eavesdrop, pickpocket, interrogate) ? Well, it seems Ubisoft wants to avoid the hatred this time around and is adding four brand new exclusive types of investigations to the PC version."

"Xbox 360:

Devil May Cry 4

Turok

Culdcept Saga

The Spiderwick Chronicles

Karaoke Revolution: American Idol Encore

PS3:

Devil May Cry 4

Turok

Nintendo Wii:

The Spiderwick Chronicles

Karaoke Revolution: American Idol Encore

My Horse and Me

PS2:

Twisted Metal: Head On

Karaoke Revolution: American Idol Encore

Nobunaga's Ambition: Rise to Power

The Spiderwick Chronicles

PSP:

Downstream Panic!

Nintendo DS:

Assassin's Creed: Altair's Chronicles

The Spiderwich Chronicle...

"

"Although Ubisoft’s sprawling third-person epic Assassin’s Creed runs without any serious issues on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, it would appear that PC gamers hoping to fully enjoy the adventures of master assassin Altair will first need to think about investing in better hardware.

Specifically, Windows XP and Vista owners should be armed with a minimum of 2GB of RAM (3GB recommended) as well as a 2.6GHz Intel Pentium D CPU as basic (with Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2GHz or better recommended). ..."

"HW Sales
System December 2007 Annual 2007
PlayStation 2 1.1 million 3.97 million
PlayStation 3 797.6 K 2.56 million
PlayStation Portable 1.06 million 3.82 million
Xbox 360 1.26 million 4.62 million
Wii 1.35 million 6.29 million
Nintendo DS 2.47 million 8.50 million


Top 10 SW Sales
360 CALL OF DUTY 4: MODERN WARFARE ACTIVISION (CORP) NOV 2007 MATURE (M) *1 1.47 million
WII SUPER MARIO GALAXY NINTENDO OF AMERICA NOV 2007 EVERYONE (E) 2 1.40 million
PS2 GUITAR HERO III: LEGENDS OF..."

"Altair’s Chronicles will arrive as a direct prequel to Assassin’s Creed and will give players the opportunity to uncover more background history regarding the game’s stealthy memory-created hero Altair.

The chronicles of Altair will include "a fully realized 3D world," which will enable players to "battle through four cities of the Crusade’s Middle East," while utilising all the daredevil acrobatic moves and devastating attacks that Altair made his own in the home console original."

"While some of Assassin’s Creed’s glitches are jarring and annoying (i.e. enemies being inexplicably catapulted high into the air following collapsing scaffold) a diligent poster at videogame media site GameTrailers has recorded and shared a more amusing A.I. error… at least, we think it’s an error."

"It seems the editors of Famitsu may have hired a new staff writer: in the latest issue, the magazine has enlisted the help of Assassin’s Creed producer Jade Raymond in interviewing famed Japanese developer Hideo Kojima.

In the piece, translated by Develop, Raymond spoke of the differences in culture and play style between different game markets, and asked Kojima how he creates games that are anticipated in both his native Japan and the West.

“The fundamentals of game design, and how the..."

"Ubisoft has today announced that its new IP Assassin's Creed has recorded worldwide sales of more than two and a half million units and is the fastest-selling new video game intellectual property in the US ever.

Because of the game's better than expected performance, Ubisoft has now upped its sales forecast for the game. The publisher had forecast sales of three million units by the end of its fiscal year (March 31, 2008), but now estimates sales of at least five million units.

"With th..."

"sonycowboy

Many thanks to NPD

Hardware Unit Sales

PlayStation 2 496K
PlayStation 3 466K
PSP 567K
Xbox 360 770K
Wii 981K
Nintendo DS 1.53 million

November 2007 Top 10 Video Games Rank # Units
360 CALL OF DUTY 4: MODERN WARFARE ACTIVISION (CORP) NOV 2007 MATURE (M) 1 1.57 million
WII SUPER MARIO GALAXY NINTENDO OF AMERICA NOV 2007 EVERYONE (E) 2 1.12 million
360 ASSASSIN'S CREED UBISOFT NOV 2007 MATURE (M) 3 980K
PS2 GUITAR HERO III: LEGENDS OF ROCK ACTIVISION (CORP..."

"Now, far be it from me to disagree with Time...I have to call shenanigans on a few things here. First: Halo 3, while a great game, is not as good as BioShock. Halo 3 is still plagued by problems seen in previous games where both level design and gameplay are concerned. BioShock, on the other hand, was a superb gaming experience and should have easily been the top of the bunch on the list."

"Cheesemeister

01./00. [NDS] Prof. Layton and Pandora's Box (Level 5) - 293,897 / NEW
02./00. [WII] Wii Fit (Nintendo) - 261,226 / NEW
03./00. [PS2] SD Gundam G Generation Spirits (Bandai-Namco) - 252,380 / NEW
04./01. [NDS] Dragon Quest IV (Square-Enix) - 134,556 / 732,000
05./00. [PS2] Sengoku Basara 2: Heroes (Capcom) - 95,409 / NEW
06./04. [NDS] Mario Party DS (Nintendo) - 79,531 / 539,000
07./02. [PS2] World Soccer Winning Eleven 2008 (Konami) - 73,744 / 368,000
08./00. [360] As..."

"All those U.S. parents unable to understand and appreciate the usual ‘E for Everyone’ and ‘T for Teen’ and ‘M for Mature’ guidelines slapped onto all videogame packaging (which are provided for parents by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board) should probably think twice before purchasing the following for pesky ankle biters below the age of 17 or 18..."

"Unfortunately, the patch can only be downloaded directly to the PlayStation 3, so if you do not have Internet access on your PS3 then you will have to wait for an alternative solution. Early reports are suggesting that the game still crashes occasionally and there are still glitches in the graphics, and there have also been reports of failed installations. Ubi may have rushed this patch a little. Look out for more information on any new developments."

"We never normally report about glitches. They are common and always happen in every game. But when a game duplicates the lead character so the player is left controlling two people, it makes for a funny video and an enjoyable read on a Sunday. Hit the jump for two non-spoiling videos of two players in Assassin’s Creed.

Note that the guy controls all of this with a single controller, as can be seen when the guy demonstrates the jumping and various other moves. Apparently this glitch happens..."

"Following our recent statement regarding the freeze issues that some consumers are facing with Assassin’s Creed on PlayStation 3, we can confirm that we are actively working on a game update. This update will help improve the stability of the game and will be released as soon as possible. In the meantime thank you for your ongoing feedback and patience."

"Assassin's Creed is getting very varied scores at this moment, going from a nice 9 to a 6 or 7. Biggest disadvantage or point of discussion seems to be the repetitive game play.

However, the PS3 version is dealing with some additional problems like graphical glitches, clipping problems and system crashes where restarting is the only possibility.

Sony and Ubisoft have stated this is probably a result of the new firmware update. There are searching for a solution. Everything should be so..."

"There are about four or five reviews of the game with scores in the low to mid 7's. I want to cover some of the common complaints these reviewers had in case anyone out there is worried about them."

"I dont know what they're talking about here but it probably relates to you guys and even if it doesn't it's still your fault and I'm furious here and I'll never forgive you in a thousand years or in a million years or a thousand million years ever, I'm shutting this forum down and replacing it with a Neopets trainer guide.

Basically Ubisoft is threatening to sue me because somebody here posted an offsite link to a comic somebody else drew, and the comic featured a cartoon version of somebo..."

"Hello everyone. When we last spoke, I posted some ads for PS3 third-party heavy hitters Assassin’s Creed and Call of Duty 4. Well, as promised, we have more up our sleeves and have a couple more spots to debut for you all before they officially air the week of November 19th.

We’ve brought back the same pulsating music track (Saliva’s “Ladies and Gentlemen”) from our PS3 brand spots and feature games from our 3rd party friends like Burnout Paradise, WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2008, Madden NFL 08,..."

"Gametrailers review:

IGN review:
"

"It's a fitting end to a game that starts off brightly, wriggling elusively as you try and grasp what's going on, delighting in the mechanics and beautiful visuals, before sinking into a pattern that, while fairly gratifying, never evolves and ultimately becomes a bit boring, and quite amazingly repetitive. After each briefing, you travel the same route to the Masyaf border with no way to skip the journey, and it takes five minutes."

"We'll have an Assassin's Creed review with you shortly but, in the meantime, here are six new screenshots from the game.

Due out Friday on Xbox 360 and PS3, if you've been living in a cupboard, Assassin's Creed follows the story of Altair, a medieval assassin on operations at the time of the Third Crusade and the war in the Holy Land.

Look out for the review later this week."

"Xbox 360:

Assassin's Creed

BlackSite: Area 51

Beowulf: The Game

Kane & Lynch: Dead Men

Need for Speed Pro Street

Monster Jam

Soldier of Fortune: Pay Back

America's Army: True Soldiers

WWE Smackdown Vs. RAW 2008

Xbox Live Arcade:

Screwjumper

PS3:

Assassin's Creed

Need for Speed Pro Street

Beowulf: The Game

WWE Smackdown Vs. RAW 2008

Uncharted Drake's Fortune

Nintendo Wii:

Super Mario Galaxy

Geometry Wars: Galaxies

Cars: Mater National

Spongebob: Atlantis Squarepanti...

"

"If the prospect of exploring some massive environments coupled with some extremely cool fighting moves, or indeed Games Radar's glowing review, hasn’t already convinced you that Assassin’s Creed is well worth your money then maybe the video below will."

"Assassins Creed is the type of game that comes along only rarely a title that innovates in so many areas it helps to set a new bar in various aspects of gameplay, storytelling, visuals, and controls. Simultaneously, it's an imperfect game in which the small flaws that mar its sheen are all the more noticeable because so much of the rest of the game shines so brightly. Deep, engaging, and surprising from beginning to end, Assassins Creeds merits will be debated for a long time. However, as a b..."

"Assassin's Creed is shaping to be a Game of the Year contender and whilst there is a deep learning curve in the controls, I believe that there is plenty of reward in them that will keep you enticed and immersed in this visual delight."

"The first 33 seconds commercial taken from a TV displayed footage of Assassin's Creed for the PlayStation 3."

"Today Ubisoft, one of the world's largest video game publishers, announced its highly anticipated Assassin's Creed video game has gone "gold” and is set to launch in North America on November 13, 2007."

"During the Assassin's Creed demo down at the Australian Maritime Museum today, creative director Patrice Desilets (second from the right) commented on remarks he made two weeks ago on cramming all the game's data onto the Xbox 360's puny DVD format, and into the PS3's questionable memory density.

According to Desilets, his boss (Raymond perhaps? Far right, above) called him the day after the comments were made and they exchanged a few words. All Desilets was willing to say today on the Xbo..."

"Finally a reason to be thankful in November. Forget the coming cold and use these reason to stay inside the entire month. We all know this year has one of the best holiday line-ups ever, but we didn’t know how good. Here is an entire top 7 list of games just coming out in November. And below, I have all the awesome games that didn’t make it on the list. Obviously game release dates are subject to game publishers dart boards, so all games are what I at least think is coming out in November."

"Kyd has brought home a British Academy Award and is no stranger to video game tunes - the man is responsible for the music in games like Kane & Lynch, Unreal Tournament III, the Hitman series, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, just to name a few."

""

"Ubisoft Montreal, had drafted in help from both Microsoft and Sony to make sure the game has “the same quality on both systems“.

“The PS3 version is as good as the 360 version. We’ve been showing the PS3 version at E3 this year, but we’ve done a lot of events and it’s just easier for us and for people from the press to have a 360. But the versions are the same, basically,” he said.

“Both have their own challenges. Right now we have a big challenge on the 360 to make it fit on a DVD, to ..."

So, Nintendo sent out new PR, detailing their new release schedule. Unfortunately, that includes Brawl on Feb. 10

However, there are some very amusing and hidden gems. Assassin's Creed apparently is set to be released February '08, and Advance Wars: Days of Ruin will be releasing on January 21st. There are some delays, including February 4th for Professor Layton (originally Dec. 3). It is shaping up to be a great end of '07/early '08.

Take note that this is a partial list. Most not...

We all know that IGN is supposed to have an exclusive look at the game tomorrow (they even had a countdown timer). But, AC's creative director sits down with UGO.com a day ahead of all that to do an exclusive video interview. Interestingly, Patrice Desilets talks about the beginnings of Assassin's Creed, before the PS3 and Xbox 360 even existed, when there were only specs. He also mentions what to look forward to next month.

It's about 4:30 minutes long.

"Over on Gametrailers, they've put up a video interview with Assassin's Creed producer Jade Raymond that took place during this year's Tokyo Game Show and she revealed that Ubisoft is not planning a demo for Assassin's Creed.

Her reasoning states, "No, we're not making a demo. The game is a more sandbox-styled game where there's a lot [to do] and [there's] not [really] a linear mission for a demo." She elaborated a little more by saying, "it's huge, there's 3 cities and there's no way to sa..."

""

""

Going on sale for $69.99, Assassins Creed looks to push the boundries of platform gaming with its stunning visuals and gameplay style. The collectors addition for the game was announced a few days ago, and the buty that are the images of the collectors edition are now here for all to see.

Included in the Collectors Edition Pack are:

1. Tin Box
2. Penny Arcade Comics
3. Figure of Altair
4. Mini-Strategy Guide
5. Making of Documentaries

If your planning on getting the game, I strongly advice you to make it the ...

The delay that has made many fans upset and angry, has also been a saviour for some game developers that no longer have GTAIV to compete with for christmas. Which will obviously mean that they will have more reason to release it before then, and will most likely be getting more notice from you than if GTAIV had released.

The games ofcourse are:

1. Bioshock
2. Army of Two
3. Lair
4. Haze
5. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
6. Assassin's Creed
7. Heavenly Sword

"The folks over at GameTrailers have voiced their opinions on the wealth of titles showcased at E3, offering up worthy nominations across a wide variety of categories before nailing their game of choice in each.

So, what scoops Best Action Game? What nabs Best New Franchise? And what saunters off with Best Game in the view of GameTrailers? Well, that would be spoiling the anticipation, robbing ourselves of an extra click, and also stealing some of GameTrailers’ thunder."

"Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed press conference demonstration didn't go quite as planned yesterday at the E3 Business & Media Summit in Santa Monica, California. The game appeared bug-ridden and unfinished, with a dead body clearly levitating alongside other apparent glitches with crowd repetition and collision detection.

It wasn't Ubisoft's fault, though, reports CVG. The site has learnt that the Assassin's Creed demo was rushed out because Bungie didn't have the time to piece together a sing..."

"First to tick us off are the hordes of cloned water-jug-on-head women idly milling around at the start. Seriously, in some shots you can see six or seven of exactly the same person.

Then there's the much-lauded crowd-pushy-system. The collisions look anything but smoothly animated, more like robots bumping into one another than people. Or, by contrast, sometimes there's too much reaction, with the otherwise graceful Altair windmilling his arms like a seven-year-old on an icy playground.

..."

"Game|Life has a breakdown of the numerous PlayStation 3 exclusives that might have been. The high cost of making games and Sony's slow start out of the game means that titles like Assassin's Creed and Devil May Cry IV, which may have been exclusive to a Sony console at one point, will now be leading a double life on Microsoft's Xbox 360.
"Grand Theft Auto IV -- Peter Moore shocked the world at E3 last May when he announced that GTAIV would appear day-and-date on Xbox 360 and PS3. Months lat..."

"We've just got our hands on a brand spanking new development diary with Jade Raymond the producer behind Assassin's Creed for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 Platforms.

We can't wait to see Assassin's Creed in all its playable glory at this year's (but downsized) E3, showing off mouth-watering visuals from the city of Jerusalem. As you all know Assassin's Creed takes place during the Third Crusade in 1191AD, You play as Altair a disgraced master-assassin who wants to put a stop to this evil cru..."

"Assassin's CreedTM, the highly anticipated video game from
Ubisoft(R), centers on the role of the assassin, as he devises, develops and initiates his calculated attack.

IFC and Ubisoft(R) want you to deploy these methods to execute your own assassin inspired short film - 6 minutes or less - that incorporates one or more of the following:

Planning, assassination, escape

Social stealth - using crowd as a means of disguise or escape

Assassination in public and in close proximi...

"

"It's finally official: Assassin's Creed will be hitting both the PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 worldwide this November.

The game, developed by Ubisoft's Montreal studio, will sell for $60, while the limited edition version will sell for $70. In the game you will play as Altair, an assassin trying to stop the hostilities of the Third Crusade in 1191 AD.

"Assassin's Creed is going to be a huge launch for Ubisoft this year along with the added prestige of being the start of this excit..."

""

"Nothing is true, everything is permitted". That, according to Corey May, Assassin's Creed's scriptwriter, was the motto for the 12th century killers at the heart of the game - the Hashshashin. It's definitely a maxim that chimes throughout this game, because while Assassin's Creed is open-ended and it is open-minded in its approach to morality, method and the murder.

So all talk of epoch-wandering killers, dredging the genetic memory of dead relatives and that HUD is distinctly off the age..."

"For while the Montreal-based team is happy to talk about their plans and the plot, much remains unseen, unsaid and under wraps. So all that talk of epoch-wandering killers, dredging the genetic memory of dead relatives and that HUD is distinctly off the agenda. But at the same time, they kept hinting at something else, something Dan Brownish in hue, something vague about the Holy Grail, the Knight’s Templar, and a global conspiracy.
Here’s what we do know is true: the year is definitely 1191..."

""The crowd is really our main second character," Claude Langlais, technical director at Ubisoft Montreal and former lead programmer on Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, told us recently. "You get feedback from the crowd on your actions. So, gradually, throughout the game, you can help citizens and bring them on to your side."

Your side in this case is the assassins of the Third Crusade. Lead character Altair, once a highly ranked member, gets demoted to the lowest of grades after spectacul..."