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Game Review: Assassin’s Creed II – Back, and better than ever

Aaron Cappe — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:46:35 +0000

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For the most part, sequels of any medium, be they film, novel or video game, have a few important items to address on a checklist: better developed characters, a more enticing story, new locations, and most importantly, a sense of polish and completeness that the original, while perhaps something new and unique, was unable to be fully realized for any number of reasons.

Assassin’s Creed II manages to not only address all of these issues, but manages to throw out the entire list and make you wonder just how far the inevitable sequel will be able to go from this point.

Anyone familiar with the first Assassin’s Creed is aware of the ongoing war between the Assassins and the Templars. The story picks up immediately where the first game left off, with you starting out in the shoes of Desmond Miles. Luckily, this is quickly rectified, and you are whisked away to the Renaissance, landing in the middle of 15^th century Italy. Immediately, the sense of history, structure and life that flows through the city streets is instantly believable, immersing you in the reality of the game world. Merchants sweep the walkways in front of their stores, businessmen walk the streets with an entourage in tow, all the while engaged in private conversations. Doctors and artists hawk their wares to the passing crowds, some of who even stop in for a quick peek before returning to their chore of the moment. The cities feel alive in a way that the first game lacked, and each character walking the streets is unique – very rarely will you see a repeat costume or face in the same block of cobblestone walkways.

What helps to bring these vistas to life is the fantastic musical score. From haunting melodies to angelic choirs, the music fits the scenery as well as the action throughout the entire world. Attempting to scale to the top of a church tower results in both an uplifting and equally haunting rise in the score, making the sequence feel scripted, even though you are in complete control of when and where you choose to start climbing, or even if you decided halfway up to perform a swan dive into a conveniently-placed ox-cart; and even then, the sound design doesn’t fail. Dive off a high enough ledge, and you hear the wind whistle past your ears, and your clothes begin to flutter faster and harder the longer you fall. It is this attention to detail that helps fully realize the world in which Ezio lives, and immerses you in a way that few other games have been able to do.

The fighting mechanic has also been overhauled for this second outing, and the changes have made an incredible difference. The controls are tight, responsive and the animations flow perfectly from one attack to another as you combine high and low punches to thwart your enemies. You still have access to your standard hidden blade, but it can now be upgraded to dual blades, one on each arm, which allows for some pretty neat kills, especially when you are surrounded by pesky guards. As you progress through the game, you establish your own stronghold, and can upgrade your own resources (such as armour, weapons and gadgets) as well as decorate the stronghold to your liking. While this is more of an aesthetic choice than a necessity to the gameplay, it does offer a nice break during the game, and a way to wind down and focus on developing Ezio into the assassin you always wanted to be. Teaming up with Leonardo Da Vinci through the game unlocks different suprises, although for the most part, you will more than likely be sticking to your traditional blades to do your dirty work, as they provide the most visceral and “personal” endings to your prey.

At certain points during your historical adventure, Ezio is tasked with raiding Tombs hidden beneath the three cities you are exploring. This is where the tight control and amazing camera-work come to life and show off exactly what the team at Ubisoft Montreal had been working to bring to life when they originally brought Assassin’s Creed to life. These are a mix of old-school platforming combined with fantastic puzzles, very similar to Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. While Ezio might not be as nimble as the Prince – he can’t run along walls – he’s still incredibly nimble, balancing on rock outcroppings and deteriorating pieces of timber jutting out from crumbling masonry. These quests are a nice change of pace from the assassinations and other side-quests you come across walking through the pedestrian markets, and are a great tool in showing just how far this series still can go.

Overall, Assassin’s Creed II takes everything that was great about the original game, trims the fat of what wasn’t useful, and adds better controls, better scenery and an amazing voice cast and heartfelt story, and creates the game that Ubisoft (and gamers) originally wanted with Assassin’s Creed. This is a game that everyone needs to play, and if you haven’t already, sneak out right now and get your copy!

Gameplay: 4/5

Graphics: 5/5

Sound: 5/5

Replay: 4/5

Real Da Vinci Code Found In Painting?

Eva Lam — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 08:30:32 +0000

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A secret song, hidden for more than 500 years in Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper”?

It sounds like it could be the plot of a Dan Brown novel, but one man claims to have discovered music hidden in the Renaissance man’s famous painting.

Giovanni Maria Pala, an Italian musician and computer technician, says the hands of Jesus and the Apostles along with the loaves of bread in the painting each represent a note. When the “notes” are read from right to left, following Leonardo’s particular writing style, a 40-second composition emerges.

Pala said he made the discovery after superimposing a stave – the five lines used in sheet music – onto the painting.

“It sounded really solemn, almost like a requiem,” he said of the song, which he believes plays best on a pipe organ.

Pala published his findings in a book, “La Musica Celata (The Hidden Music).”

Alessandro Vezzosi, a Leonardo expert and the director of Tuscany’s Leonardo museum, said that he had not seen Pala’s research but that the musician’s hypothesis is “plausible.”

Previous research has indicated that the Apostles’ hands in the painting may form a Gregorian chant, Vezzosi said, but this is the first time the bread loaves have been taken into account.

“There’s always a risk of seeing something that is not there, but it’s certain that the spaces [in the painting] are divided harmonically,” said Vezzosi.

“Where you have harmonic proportions, you can find music.”

Painted from 1494 to 1498 in Milan’s Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, “The Last Supper” has been the subject of renewed interest following Brown’s bestselling novel “The Da Vinci Code,” which suggested that one of the Apostles sitting on Jesus’ right is Mary Magdalene instead of a male.

Movie Review: The Da Vinci Code

Eric Emin Wood — Fri, 19 May 2006 01:14:32 +0000

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According to the IMDB, Joel Surnow, the creator/producer of 24, read The Da Vinci Code and thought it would make a great storyline for the third season. He approached his boss, producer Brian Grazer (who also produced The Da Vinci Code), with the idea, and Grazer approached Dan Brown, who rejected their bid.

If I am to believe the IMDB (their record can be a little spotty) this means I have good reason to be pissed at Dan Brown.

Don’t get me wrong: in the interests of full disclosure, let me admit that had I been in Brown’s shoes I would have done the same thing. I’m sure he’s proud of his novel and having netted Tom Hanks for the lead role and Ron Howard behind the camera, I’m sure he watched every frame of this movie with glee.

But man, this really would’ve made a great season of 24. All the ingredients are there – a gigantic conspiracy, narrow escapes and betrayals that make no sense. By the time the action element abruptly wraps itself 75 per cent of the way through, there’s easily a novel’s worth of material remaining. 24‘s writers would have had no trouble expanding it, and it wouldn’t have had such an anticlimactic ending. As is, we get a movie that’s solidly acted, really well directed, and frankly, about as good at delivering thrills as two or three solid episodes of 24.

My complaints with the movie lie with the writing. Watching The Da Vinci Code dredged up memories of reading R.L Stine and Michael Crichton’s potboilers in middle school, the kind where the plot moves at a breakneck pace and one solid event in someone’s past counts as character development. Again, full disclosure: I haven’t read The Da Vinci Code (I’d like to), and in 99 per cent of cases (Jurassic Park‘s the only exception that comes to mind, and maybe last year’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe) the movie is either vastly inferior (the first two Harry Potter films, the Lemony Snicket film from a couple years ago) or, if it’s lucky, equal to (The Lord of the Rings, The Silence of the Lambs, The Godfather) the book. I usually try to read books before seeing the movie, so I’m not proud of this. I’ve read/heard most of the criticism, however, and recall reading the prologue and laughing. From what I can tell Brown wrote a typical potboiler with a really good premise, and I’m willing to bet the movie follows his plot reasonably faithfully.

Which means I can probably blame him for the awful dialogue, especially painful when characters are talking about that one event from their past. I can probably blame him for the paper-thin characters (Robert Langdon has to be one of the most boring protagonists in bestseller history; far more engaging is the wonderful Audrey Tatou – whose name, incidentally, should be on posters right next to Hanks’; she has more lines than him – as leading lady Sophie Neveu). And I can probably blame him for the way characters’ pasts and moments in history are abruptly dredged up during the action (Ron Howard handles it well, though – it ends up coming off like the PS2 game God of War, and that’s a compliment).

Of course, bad dialogue, thin characters, and bald exposition are forgivable if you’re telling a ripping good story. And I may not have the time or interest anymore to read potboilers, but I’m all for hearing a shopworn tale if it’s done really well. Again, though, I think I can blame Brown for the way the movie derails itself 75 per cent of the way through. And from what I could tell overhearing a pair of critics in the bathroom afterward, screenwriter Akiva Goldsman changed just one or two minor details that relate to Sophie’s back story (you get to know her better than Langdon). Ron Howard directs this movie very well – lots of scenic pans, on-location shooting, close-ups where necessary, and the camera’s always moving – and the acting, with strong turns from pros like Ian McKellen, Alfred Molina, and Jean Reno, seems to be as good as it gets given the material. For a large part of the way, The Da Vinci Code is quite involving. But I’m guessing Dan Brown’s prose is pretty thin material, and because it’s been adapted this well the thinness has only been accentuated. Even Tim Burton wouldn’t have been able to make one of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps books a classic. It still would have been watchable; that’s basically what we get here.
3*/5*

Video Bible: A Christian Alternative to The Da Vinci Code

andPOP Staff — Tue, 02 May 2006 16:47:47 +0000

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An evangelical company is releasing a video Bible as a “Christian response” to The Da Vinci Code movie, which opens in theatres on May 19.

The WatchWord Bible, a 10-DVD version of the New Testament, will be sold in 140,000 churches across the U.S., says the Hollywood Reporter.

“We feel it is important to be able to open up a dialogue about faith that is positive, that looks at The Da Vinci Code as a positive platform for discussion about faith and the roots of our faith,” said David Kirkpatrick, president of distributor Good News Holdings and former head of production at Paramount Pictures. “Personally I think The Da Vinci Code is a really good book, a great work of fiction, and it will be a huge success at the box office.”

The video Bible has a total running time of 26 hours and the complete New Testament in both onscreen text and narration. Churches will keep half of the selling price of $49.95.

The Da Vinci Code’s controversial theories about Christianity has led to some officials in the Vatican calling for Catholics to boycott the movie.