After 38 straight hours of Assassin’s Creed II… haha, just kidding. After 38 hours of Assassin’s Creed II over the last few months, I have finally completed all 14 chapters of this single-player action adventure with a 97% rating. As anyone who has played either of the two Assassin’s games knows, Ubisoft loves to put random treasure hunts and grinds within their games in order to get what they refer to as extended replay value. Personally, I refuse to do these exercises in futility all the while teasing my best friend because “he must” complete them. For example, there are 100 random feathers hidden throughout all six areas of the game. I only found 21 of them in my travels.

There were a number of “collect type” quests that I did complete, but these were all ingrained within the story, and I did not feel as though they were a chore to complete. I really enjoyed the six Assassin’s Tomb side-quests. They played a lot like Ubisoft’s sister game Prince of Persia, where crazy acrobatics wins you the prize. Completing all six of these dungeons also unlocks the best armor in the game, so it is well worth the trouble. As someone who never goes out of his way to complete “senseless quests”, I was really shocked and pleased to find that I had completed 97% of the game. The developers did a great job of leading you through a story while making you feel like you were calling the shots the entire time.

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I just got finished playing the 2007 single-player action game by Ubisoft titled TMNT based on the film by the same name, which was released on pretty much every platform including the PC. Obviously the game was released to capitalize on the film, and typically these types of games don’t go very well, but I will say that I had fun. That is right, these are the beloved Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from my childhood, back with all the attitudes and personality that I so fondly remember. Perhaps that is why I had fun because if you were hoping for some new and exciting game mechanics, this game is pretty much an exact copy of Prince of Persia, except with big green turtles instead of our beloved Prince.

Personally I love and can’t get enough of the Prince of Persia games, so playing TMNT was a blast, if not way too short and a little frustrating. Read more