Assassin's Creed II [XBOX 360/PS3] (2009)

First, let me say that I own both XBOX 360 and PS3 systems so that's why it's titled as so. There is a difference between the two games for both consoles, no matter how small. In the PS3 version, I believe there is just a few additional missions to do than the 360 version. I'm not positive on that, but I beat the 360 one a while ago and the PS3 very recently.

Let me say that AC2 is a HUGE step up from AC. AC had so much repetition in every mission and it got extremely annoying. Thankfully, Ubisoft fixed most of that. There is a good deal of repetition in AC2, but not as much and the gameplay is just so much better. With a new main character, new time period, new location, new supporting characters, and new and improved weapons, there's a lot of different ways to show off your assassin skills throughout the game. As with most games like this, you upgrade and improve over time from playing and AC2 is no different. I understand completely why that happens in sequels that aren't directly coming from the original games, but if they are directly from the original, you can't have it re-do what was already done. In a direct sequel you should already have the skills, abilities, and weapons that you acquired in the original, but make it so you can get stronger, faster, better, and have tougher/more enemies. I hope they do that with Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood coming out in November.

You play as Ezio Auditore and Ezio is really an interesting character. He has just about every quality you'd want in an Assassin. The game takes place in Italy and has a lot of beautiful landscapes throughout. I won't spoil anything for anyone who hasn't played the game or finished it yet so I'll just give my summary/review of the entire game. Anyone who has played it probably knows of the flaws it still has and it can get frustrating at times when you're doing something important and lengthy in the game. On that note, the game is a pretty long game to play so expect to sit down a few times for several hours all together. I guarantee it will be a good game if you play it, though.

Game Spot Score: 9.0 (Editor's Choice)
Critic Score: 9.0 (62 Reviews)
User Score: 9.3 (7,216 Votes)
My Rating: 8.5/10

Happy Gaming!

GeNiO

Modern Warfare 2: Resurgence Package Map Pack

With my summary/review of the Stimulus Package map pack comes the newest map pack review/summary: MW2's Resurgence Package Map Pack. This map pack, again, comes with 3 new maps and 2 old, CoD4 maps. These maps are Trailer Park, Carnival, and Fuel for the new ones and Vacant and Strike for the CoD4 ones. This map pack also isn't too bad as far as the actual maps go. Trailer Pack is just that, a trailer park map. There are a lot of trailers close or connecting to each other so most of the map is close quarters fighting unless you play Hard Core TD. Then it could end up being a slower paced, using the entire map match. I enjoy this map especially when I'm playing with a squad otherwise it's a little difficult at times. Carnival, again, is what it's called: a carnival map. This map can be confusing at times, to me at least. For some reason, a lot of the areas seem to blend in with the player if they aren't moving or aren't in front of something that's a completely different color. I don't mind the map, but I usually play with a squad so it makes it more enjoyable. Fuel is like an abandoned oil refinery/drilling site. It's a fairly large map with several areas to fight it out. One thing that's annoying at this point is there is a glitch where players can go into the rocks outside the map and not be seen. It can get annoying, but there's ways to find those players. People are catching on quickly with that so hopefully it gets patched soon. Vacant is a decent map, but some complaints I hear are that people played it so much in CoD4 that they don't want to play it that much in MW2. I don't mind it as I'm fairly decent on that map, but others don't feel the same. Strike was another semi-favorite of mine from CoD4. They revamped the colors/lighting in all of the CoD4 maps so they look a lot better and some maps have additional areas added on for MW2 so look out for those.

That's the end of my summary/review of the MW2 Resurgence Package Map Pack. Overall it was a decent map pack and I've heard they're going to release at least one more map pack. I can't confirm nor deny that so if you can, let me/us know. I'd really like to see Broadcast in MW2 from CoD4. I always liked that one when they released it.

Happy Gaming!

GeNiO

Modern Warfare 2: Stimulus Package Map Pack

I know I'm late on this, but it's been a while since I've written anything on here so I'll start it back up with the MW2 Stimulus Package Map Pack. This Map Pack included 3 new maps along with 2 maps from the first Modern Warfare, Call of Duty 4. The new maps are Bailout, Salvage, and Storm while the original maps are Crash and Overgrown. Personally, this map pack wasn't that bad. All 3 new maps are fairly decent maps once you get use to them and Crash was one of my favorites from CoD4 and Overgrown was a 50/50 map for me, meaning that half the time I did well and the other half not so well. Bailout is basically just an apartment complex with a street running through the center. I would say that most of the action happens within the buildings and coming from or going to the buildings. I rarely see any major firefights happening in the street, but there will be some from time to time. Salvage is a smaller, snowy junkyard. It's actually not a bad map as long as you have a decent team and depending on what mode you play (I play Hard Core Team Deathmatch most of the time so it's a nice map to be on). Storm has a bunch of warehouses and different sized buildings in a rainy setting. This isn't a bad map, per se, but it's not the greatest. Some good matches happen there from time to time. Crash, if you don't know already, is part of an urban area with a crashed helicopter right in the middle. Like I said above, this was one of my favorite maps in CoD4 and since they revamped the graphics/lighting for MW2 I love it even more. A lot of good matches go down here. And, lastly, Overgrown, if not known, is pretty much like a grassy village with a dried-out riverbed going through the middle. A lot of people tend to snipe on this map, but if you know the map well you know how to get around without getting sniped. I don't mind this one, but it can get frustrating sometimes to play on.

Well, that was my summary/review on the Stimulus Package Map Pack for Modern Warfare 2. Post some replies if you want to discuss, agree, disagree, add on, etc. Let me know what you think about the entire map pack as well as what you think of each map.

Happy Gaming!

GeNiO