Assassin's Creed Rogue: Everything the Franchise Has Built Towards

Assassin’s Creed Rogue

It’s Assassin’s Creed season yet again! Thank god too, because I had an itch that I needed to scratch. Seriously, the yearly dose of stabbing that the Assassin’s Creed franchise gives has become such a constant force in my life that if the series ever dies, I won’t know what to do with myself.

Assassin’s Creed Rogue is the sister game to Assassin’s Creed Unity. Rogue was released on passed-gen, while Unity is on current-gen. I originally suspected that Ubisoft was going to slack off on Rogue, but I was pleasantly surprised with Rogue’s overall quality and amount of content.

Note: I have played every AC game, and am a huge fan of the series. That said, I will try to write this review with as little bias as possible.

Gameplay

If you played Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, you have essentially played Rogue. All the mechanics (aside from some minor weapon changes and ship combat additions) are cut and pasted from Black Flag. Still the games feel very different.

Black Flag was, at heart, a pirate game. Rogue, on the other hand, is an Assassin’s Creed game. This is a bit ironic, seeing as you play most of the game as a Templar, but nevertheless, Rogue combines all of the qualities of the older games in the series with the sailing in Black Flag perfectly.

Since the game takes place in the Northern Atlantic and New York, all of the buildings on land are much taller. I felt like a true Assassin running across rooftops in New York City, as well as when I was exploring the landscapes in the River Valley and North Atlantic.

There have been some minor changes in combat, like the additions of a silent air rifle and a not-so-silent grenade launcher. The most significant change to the game is probably the variety of enemies. Since Shay is hunting Assassins, you will face enemies equipped with all the skills and tools as you.

Using the hunting mechanic from Black Flag’s multiplayer, players must track down and take out lurking assassins before being spotted. If you give them the chance, the assassins will do everything in their power to attack you, and their attacks deal a lot of damage.

Rogue does not stand out because of it’s normal gameplay. It is the locations and expansive map that make the game a great experience.

Note: Rogue also offers some great set pieces and alternate areas in places such as Lisbon, Portugal, Paris, France, and the Arctic Ocean. These moments in the story are fantastic. In fact, the Lisbon mission is one of my favorites in the entire franchise.

Story

There are two separate storylines: one in modern day, and one in the animus. I will do a separate section for each.

Modern Story

The modern storyline is very similar to Black Flag’s. You once again play as a faceless worker at Abstergo Entertainment. After a virus hits the building, you are the only one left in the building to restart the servers.

After being enlisted by a modern Templar Knight, you go into the Animus to record Shay’s memories, occasionally coming out to reboot servers so that you can go back into the Animus and record more memories.

This storyline doesn’t really go anywhere, but it does give the player to go Easter Egg hunting by hacking computers around the Abstergo office building. Yay.

Animus Story

(the interesting one)

Rogue is the first installment in the franchise where the player can play as a Templar, the enemies of the Assassins. You play as Shay Patrick Cormack, a former Assassin who after serving the creed for years, decides he doesn't agree with what the Assassins are doing, and leaves his brothers to become a Templar and do what he thinks is right.

I knew going into the game that Ubisoft was going to have a hard time making the player prefer the Templar side after having them be enemies thus far in the series, but I thought the issue was handled well. By the end of the game I really felt like all the decisions made by the Shay were reasonable and that he was doing what he thought was right.

Speaking of the end of the game, I beat the main campaign in about 16 hours. This is pretty short for an AC game, but it places it at the approximate length of Assassin’s Creed Revelations. It just so happens that Revelations is/was my favorite AC game, so maybe the series is better off with shorter games.

The amount of collectibles and unlockables in the game is unreal. This game was built for 100 percenters. Here lies my only problem with the game. The story is so short that I didn’t visit a lot of the locations in the game. I bet I have seen about ⅓ of the entire game, even though my save slot says I’m 60% through the game.

Decide what you want about the story (or lack thereof). The massive map certainly provides for some replayability, but I wish the story had taken me to those location so I had a reason to go there besides to get collectables.

I should mention that Rogue’s story ties into Unity’s in such a awesome and significant way that I don’t want to spoil any of it. Let’s just say that the ending of Rogue and the realization of who your final target is is fantastic.

Controls

If you’ve played an AC game before, then you know what to expect. Controlling Shay feels clunky and imprecise. You WILL run up poles and fall off ledges unintentionally.

At this point, the inaccuracy of AC controls might as well be a trademark of the series. There is nothing new or gamebreaking here. Just another AC game and more falling off ledges. No big deal.

Graphics

Rogue looks just as good, if not better, than Black Flag. The sceneries and textures are impressive, especially for passed-gen. There are some pretty noticeable framerate drops when large groups of enemies are on screen. Sometimes is got so bad that I could not even fight because my frame-rate was somewhere in the vicinity of 2. Still, these moments are scarce, and the rest of the game runs very smoothly.

Award Time!

Best New Character: Shay Cormack

Best Returning Character: Achilles Davenport

Best Mission: The Lisbon Mission

Best Voice Actor: Whoever voiced First Mate Christopher Gist; his voice is absolutely ridiculous. Seriously, he sounds like a British guy doing a rich, white, american impression.

Conclusion

There is no doubt that Rogue is a game meant for fans of the series. Still, I think Ubisoft outdid themselves and sent a great last hurrah to all those playing on past-gen. I give Assassin’s Creed Rogue a 9/10. I even liked it better than Black Flag.

At this moment, I have not played Unity. That said, Rogue is probably my favorite AC game since Revelations. Everything the franchise has built towards during the last generation is compiled in this one game. As Unity leads the AC voyage on next-gen, Rogue wraps all that the series has worked towards in one neat package.

But rent it. $60 isn’t enough for a short game with no multiplayer.

Why the Suicide Squad Movie Could be DC's Best

Why a Suicide Squad Could be DC’s Best

(and what needs to happen for it to be great)

DC comics announced that they were going to be adding a Suicide Squad movie to their cinematic universe. For those of you who don’t know the Suicide Squad is a team of convicted supervillains that do practically impossible and certainly fatal jobs for the government in order to earn reduced sentences.

“Hoorah!” I cried when I first heard this news. I am thoroughly convinced that a Suicide Squad movie could, if done correctly, be DC’s best movie to date.

Now, I am well aware that most people don’t actually know who the Suicide Squad is. But that is the exact reasoning behind my prediction. I mean, just look at Guardians of the Galaxy! Marvel Studios made fantastic movie about a team the many people previously knew nothing about. The movie sounded completely ridiculous on paper, but turned out to be my favorite Marvel movie ever.

DC has the perfect opportunity to start from scratch with this film. Since the average movie watcher is unaware of what the Suicide Squad is or does, they will have no predisposition about the characters.

One of DC’s flaws is that they keep making movies about characters that everyone knows. Batman and Superman are beloved by all, so when a movie doesn't hold up to the way everyone envisions it, then it sucks.

Essentially what I’m saying is that DC could and should make the Suicide Squad completely absurd and ridiculous. It’s what the people want! Interesting characters that are different from the norm.

So how will DC make this potentially amazing movie? Well…

5 Things the Suicide Squad Movies Needs to Have in Order to be Great

1. Harley Quinn

Technically, both Harley Quinn and the Joker have been confirmed to appear in this movie. Still, Harley Quinn has never been portrayed on the big screen, and this movie would be the best way to introduce her (and the Joker) into DC’s cinematic universe. Plus, Quinn is a prominent character in the Suicide Squad comics.

2. Unbeatable Odds

The Suicide Squad exists to do jobs that only the most desperate of people would do. In order for this to actually mean anything to the audience, the stakes must be as high as possible, with real, life-threatening danger thrown into the mix. This leads me nicely into my next point:

3. Death

I know it sounds weird, but at least one of the main characters has got to die. The Suicide Squad is a team whose roster is constantly being changed. A good way to mix it up if future sequels is to have the characters actually die. Plus, it’d be interesting to see how these villains (who are really only out for themselves) would react to one their “teammates” death.

4. Not a Hero

The movie should be about the villains in the squad (SQUAD!) and should be told from their perspective. Any heroes that appear in the movie should be portrayed as the bad guy. However, I don’t think DC needs put Batman or Superman in this movie at all.

Captain Boomerang

5. Captain Boomerang

Who?

Yeah, I know. Just to fill you in since you probably don’t already know: Captain Boomerang is a villain who appears a lot in the Suicide Squad comics. His powers? He throws boomerangs with deadly accuracy and speaks with an Australian accent.

Now, if Boomerang sound like the most ridiculous villain in history, it’s because he is. That said, I firmly believe Captain Boomerang is necessary for this movie to succeed. He is he a prominent character in the comics and deserves to be in the movie.

Don’t agree with me? Think about it: Rocket Raccoon is, quite literally, a talking raccoon who shoots large machine guns lives in a talking plant monster named Groot. Yet, since Guardians of the Galaxy’s release, these two obscure characters have become some of the most popular comic characters in pop-culture.

DC need Captain Boomerang in their movie. He should be funny, lovable, and a complete bad-ass

. Make him cool, and Boomerang could carry the whole movie.

So What?

DC has a real opportunity to make a great movie. As far as the story goes, I could care less. As long as the movie doesn’t take itself too seriously, but still makes the viewers care for the characters, I will be satisfied.

If you want to learn more about the Suicide Squad and get a better idea of what I think the feel of the movie should be, I highly suggest you check out DC’s latest animated movie Batman: Assault on Arkham. It’s all about the Suicide Squad and I thought it was pretty decent. Actually, the movie contains my favorite portrayal of Harley Quinn ever! Check it out.

Don’t forget to like, comment, and hell, even subscribe. Until next time...

Interstellar Review: Better Than Avatar

Interstellar Review

Anyone remember Avatar? You know, the best selling movie of all time the was basically Pocahontas in space? The movie that is accepted as one of the best sci-fi movies ever? I have news for you, Avatar has been beat.

I don’t know why I’m only realizing this now, but Avatar has actually been bested (as far a quality goes) multiple times this year alone. Hell, Guardians of the Galaxy was easily better than “Quest of Blue Monkey Cats.”

I suppose I am noticing because Interstellar is the first sci-fi space adventure that I truly loved since Avatar. (To be fair, there haven’t been many of those in recent years). Let me explain:

By the way, there could be Spoilers. Maybe.

Plot

Describing the plot of this movie without spoiling too much is going to be like playing a game of Minesweeper. Here we go.

Interstellar stars Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway (among others) in a future where Earth is dying. Farming and food is the priority for every person on the planet. Blights and Famines have ravaged the countrysides, killing crops and creating a 21st Century dust bowl. People are starving and the world is desperate for a solution.

In comes Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), a farmer, engineer, and former NASA pilot. He is also a beloved father. After discovering a secret NASA base, Cooper is enlisted by his old mentor to lead a mission through a wormhole to find potential planets to relocate to. Much to the dismay of his family, Cooper agrees to the journey, and shortly after, lakes off towards the wormhole.

At this point you are about twenty minutes into an almost three hour long movie. Unfortunately, this is as far as I’ve decided to summarize this time. The rest of the movie is something you need to experience for yourselves. The rest of the movie is just constant thrill and emotion. Matt Damon shows up at some point; it gets weird.

Acting

What a cast. Seriously, everyone in this movie is fantastic (Yes, even Hathaway). I felt that in some moments McConaughey’s performance felt too forced, but for the most part he was okay.

Note: Do not go see this movie for the acting. Even though the performances are great, the movie is more about an exciting journey and heart-touching story.

SFX/Action

Interstellar looks gorgeous. Outer space and all the planets look amazing. There are several scenes in the movie that are so thrilling just because of the scenery and SFX. I want to tell you about them, but instead you should really just see the movie.

Award Time!

Best Performance: Matt Damon as Dr. Mann.

Best Scene: The emergency docking scene (you’ll know the one).

Best Planet: The ocean planet.

Conclusion

From the outside, Interstellar may just look like a space adventure. Although that is true, Interstellar is more than that. It has a thrilling, heartwarming, and thought-provoking narrative that had me literally on the edge of my seat the whole time. I give Interstellar a 9.5/10. Please go see this movie and scratch that sci-fi itch that I know has been bothering you.

Constantine First Two Episodes Review and Thoughts on the Series

Constantine First Two Episodes Review: Better Than Gotham

DC Comics have premiered three different TV shows this fall. Combined with the already established show Arrow, DC now has four superhero-based shows across multiple networks (math), creating quite the foothold in the television medium. The latest show to premiere was Constantine.

Note: I put off writing this review because after the pilot, I didn’t have a great feel for the show. Having now seen the first two episodes, I think I have a good idea of how the show will unfold. Also, I can confirm: It is better than Gotham.

SPOILERS!

Constantine is based on the successful DC (and more specifically, Vertigo) comic series Hellblazer. There was a film adaptation the comic a couple years ago starring Keanu Reeves. The movie was fun, but not great.

The main character of the show is John Constantine, an exorcist, demonologist, and, um, dabbler of the Dark Arts.

I am a fan of the Hellblazer comics and a huge fan of Vertigo Comics as a whole. I was not only excited to see the show’s pilot, but also satisfied with what I saw.

Constantine’s pilot was incredibly fun. The pilot was full of cameos, references, and smart-ass remarks (courtesy of John). Essentially, the episode’s plot involves John helping an old friend’s daughter by protecting her from a creature that is haunting her. I was worried that the daughter was going to be a permanent character in the show, but it looks like she was written out.

Don’t get me wrong, the girl was a great plot device because Constantine was constantly having to explain things to her, but her character was stereotypical and a little obnoxious.

After this pilot, all Constantine had done was save the girl, move into his dead friend’s old house, and got a map with a bunch of supernatural disasters prophesied on it. It was at this point that I began to develop a suspicious thought. Later, I watched the second episode, and my speculation was confirmed.

Season 1 of Constantine is going to be just like the first season of Supernatural.

In episode two, John travels across the country to fight an unknown but prophesied force. Along the way, he met another, more interesting girl, who conveniently has the same skill set of the first one. Anyway, I have a feeling that this season is going to follow the “Saving people, hunting things” pattern.

But that’s okay! For those of you don’t know, Supernatural’s first season had the Winchester Brothers fighting a different monster/threat each episode. Honestly, I this route is the most logical for Constantine’s storyline.

It’s Award Time

Best Performance: Matt Ryan as John Constantine

Best Reference for All the Nerds: The Doctor Fate Helmet.

Ahem. Prepare for a pretty big geek-out. In the pilot, the helmet of Doctor Fate is shown in the house wear Constantine is staying.

Holy crap! I pretty much lost my mind at that point. If Doctor Fate makes an appearance at any point in this show, it will be amazing. Oh! And what if something happens that causes Constantine to put on the helmet in order to win a fight or something?!?

Wooo. Breath. Don’t worry, I’ll be okay; just give me a minute.

Note: If you don’t know who/what Dr. Fate is, then look it up! I don’t think I can appropriately explain his significance.

Conclusion

I have a problem with DC’s TV series. They exist in their own universe, are not tied to the movies in any way, and only Arrow and The Flash are connected (at the moment). But Vertigo is predetermined to exist in a different universe than the rest of the DC universe (Vertigo comics take place in the magical universe of Europe). That’s why I am okay with watching Constantine. There is no responsibility to watch any other shows or movies, and I don’t need to worry about ridiculous continuity errors (*cough, cough* Gotham). It’s just a fun show.

Constantine is not the best it could be. The show has a lot of plot holes and moments when things just don’t make sense. There needs to be a lot more backstory explained in the coming episodes. Still, I believe in Constantine. It shows definite promise. I give the first two episodes of Constantine a combined score of 8.5/10. Watch the show and enjoy it. I promise it isn’t that scary.