LOS ANGELES — Bethesda Softworks’ Brink is an immersive action shooter that blends single-player, co-op, and multiplayer into a video game experience that finally blurs the line between the single player offline experience and the often rabid online shooter world.

The game is under development by Splash Damage, the studio behind the Enemy Territory games.

Brink has RPG elements that require you to build up your player from the clothing and gear he wears to the missions he decides to go on, to which side of a civil war he chooses to fight for.

You’re on a man made city called Ark — a complex of hundreds of islands seen as the last visage of hope for humanity. It was originally one of those “Bio-Dome” green habitats until Earth’s oceans started to rise, making the Ark a refuge instead of a paradise. After 25 uneasy years, the residents of the Ark reached their breaking point. War breaks out.

The game has beautifully stylized visual elements and scenery. It also has an interesting control scheme with a “smart button” that lets you target a ledge or point on the map that your character will vault, leap, climb or fall to automatically. The game understands where you’re trying to go and interacts with the environment around you.

The game is set for a Spring 2010 release, and it wasn’t playable at E3 this year. Though, the demo we were shown looks wonderful.

Blast did get to sit down with the game’s Creative Director, Splash Damage’s Richard Ham. Ham is a powerful name in video games. He invented Syphon Filter and just finished a stint with Microsoft working on Fable II. Ham told us there’s a message behind Brink and other types of post-apocalyptic games, as video game developers, like movie directors and television producers, engage in social commentary with their mediums.

BLAST: What do you hope to add to this project? What’s your vision for Brink?

Richard Ham: When I actually went in to interview with Splash Damage I was actually a little bit nervous thinking “gosh I don’t really have a lot of multiplayer shooter experience.” I mean Syphon 2 had a little bit of a deathmatch game, and that was kind of nice. Fable has a little bit but not very much, and Paul (Wedgwood), the owner, said “that’s perfect. That’s exactly what we want because I’ve got a whole team full of guys who have been doing nothing for the last decade but make kick ass multiplayer shooters and that’s what they’ll continue to do.”

But now that they’re moving over to console, they really do want to kind of bridge a gap, and what I tend to think we’re actually going to accomplish here bringing all this together is with Brink I tend to think it’s almost a gateway drug in that players like me who traditionally don’t play a lot of online shooters — I mean, I love Call of Duty. I play them all, but I get to the end of the story, and then I shelve it, and I never go online because “that’s a dangerous place” it’s a nasty place and it’s a real shame, because for all these years I’ve been missing out on these great experiences. So a big, big push for Brink is creating a great multiplayer experience, but then making it open and accessible so players who would have thought twice about going online actually have a reason to and will find that “wow we’ve really been missing out.”

BLAST What design elements did you immediately want to bring to Brink?

RH: Probably the number one thing for me, the biggest thing that I wanted to push, was the notion of having dynamic objectives. It’s actually something I did a long time ago going back to Syphon Filter 1. You’re going through a mission and all of a sudden “oh a new objective will happen,” based on the preset storyline of the game and of the level you’re in.

We’re going the complete opposite way in that every mission you’re going to go on has a clear set of objectives you are to go through and pretty much plays by the book. …

But your personal story is radically different depending on what class you’re playing, what body type you have, what type of player you are, what level you’re at. Because in the game there’s this kind of invisible commander running the whole show, running your team, who knows what’s going on, knows who’s doing what and can basically give out orders, optional orders, to everybody.

We will bribe you as a player to do these things. “We need somebody to turn into an engineer to repair the crane. First guy that does it, 300 experience points.” That’s the equivalent of killing 30 guys. Why would you not do it? We’ll do it just to get you to change, just to try. Even if you don’t make it, we’ll reward you.

That’s a really big push. All these dynamic objectives are coming up. It’s one of the reasons I think it’s an accessible game. A first person shooter online is a pretty hardcore place. You go in there; everybody’s been playing for days and months, and they know every square inch of that level and you’re like “I don’t know what to do.”

The worst experience I ever had playing an online shooter was the first time I played a capture the flag match, and I got the flag, and I was like “What do I do? Where do I go? Everyone wants to kill me. My team wants to kill me. This is terrible!” You want to kill yourself just to drop the damn thing. You’re completely helpless. In Brink, at any given time there’s always a lot of missions you can take. You can be on the front line where all the hardcore guys are, whooping it up. If that’s not going to work for you, look at that objective wheel that comes up. There’s always going to be lots of options, whether it takes you behind enemy lines to do some sneaking around, whether it’s all about rescuing civilians, capturing enemy command posts.

BLAST: There are a lot of shooters and a lot of online multiplayer shooters. There have also been a lot of lofty multiplayer games — M.A.G. for instance. What specifically about Brink do you feel will turn on players?

RH: Well there’s a standard answer, but the big one is that mission inside a mission. But there’s other things too. Splash Damage, you go back to the Enemy Territory Games, it was the first online shooter that actually had experience points and leveling up, even before Battlefield. So, they’ve been doing this for a long time, and it’s now kind of become en vogue. With Call of Duty’s perks, people go “oh wow this is really exciting.” Killzone has a really deep system. Resistance had one as well. But these guys have been doing it for a long time.

We’re all big fans of MMOs back at the office. I think players when they finally see all the RPG options that are available so they can really customize themselves and create the perfect guy for them that’s going to be really refreshing.

The entire storyline of Brink is the outbreak of the civil war on this remote man made island, kind of the last refuge of humanity — or so they think — it’s a civil war and there are two sides. The important thing is you choose up front whether you fight on the side of “the man” of security, keep the peace or do you go on the other side and play as Resistance. The important thing is on your side, you’re clearly in the right. When you get to that mission on the other side of the fence, it’s a completely different story and there’s a completely different set of things going on. That’s a really key element in the game is this kind of two sides of the same coin and you don’t know the whole thing until you’ve seen it all.

BLAST: The post-apocalyptic genre has exploded recently. Do you see parallels to modern society with these games?

RH: We’re actually trying to use this platform to actually say something. I’ll be honest; I turned 40 this year. I’ve been doing this for 15 years, and I’m getting to the point where I actually want to say something. I don’t just want this to be about cheap thrills, and I know it has to be. It has to be fun, but when you look at the setting and what’s going on with the two sides, I’ll be honest we’re definitely trying to put parallels into whats going on in our world today, particularly Palestine and Israel.

You look at that situation, and it seems completely intractable. If you look at it from one side or the other, well everything’s entirely justified or justifiable. It’s been in a stalemate forever. We can use a setting like this, because obviously nobody wants to play a shooter set in modern day Palestine. Nobody would want that.

It’s like Star Trek back in the 60s. “Well we can’ really do anything about race relations on network television, so let’s paint a guy with half his face white and half his face black and have him have an internal struggle.” It was a way for them to actually do stuff, and that’s kind of what we’re trying to do as well.

The setting really just kind of comes out of that naturally.

LOS ANGELES — Bethesda Softworks has a lot of money to develop new games right now. Everything they touch is gold. Oblivion was huge. Fallout 3 is legendary. Video gaming is up in a down economy.

So Bethesda Softworks can bring in Mr. SEAL Team Six, Richard Marcinko and the voice of Mickey Rourke to put you in the boots of a real American badass.

But there’s more to this than just action and explosions. The SEALS have a special meaning to guys in their 20s. It’s the only reason Steven Segal had a career. We all watched Michael Biehn, Charlie Sheen, Bill Paxton and Rick Rossovich in “Navy Seals.” It’s an awful movie, but it’s the stuff of legends. We love that shit.

Enter Bethesda’s Rogue Warrior, which we saw up close at E3. Playing as Marcinko, you go behind the iron curtain to disrupt a suspected North Korean ballistic missile program, uncovering a conspiracy that could turn the Cold War in the commies’ favor. Death and destruction follow.

On your black ops, you’ll mix stealth and assault to infiltrate communist strongholds, swearing like a true sailor along the way.

In the hands off demo, done by Bethesda producer Charles Harribey, the best part of combat were any of the 25 different “brutal kills” moves you can perform by sneaking up on an unsuspecting bad guy, like throwing him off a ledge or stabbing him in the face. Yeah. Brutal.

This is a single player game with multiplayer combat modes. It’s very story driven, and it’s not a Solid Snake type stealth game. There’s a ton of overt combat as well.

The graphics and sounds are beautiful, and this will be a winner when it comes out in the fall for Xbox 360, PC and PlayStation 3.

Resistance: Fall of Man was the top launch title for the Playstation 3, and one of the most worthwhile on the system to date. Resistance 2, the highly-anticipated sequel, had a lot to live up to as it attempted to push the series forward while retaining the elements that made the first game such a success, but it is safe to say that developer Insomniac was able to deliver as promised.

For those who are not familiar with the series, you play as Nathan Hale, a U.S. soldier who had been sent to Britain to fight against the Chimeran threat. After successfully repelling their attacks overseas in the first Resistance, you find yourself back in the United States, against a larger and much more coordinated Chimeran attack force. Hale, the lone U.S. soldier still alive from the British campaign, was infected with the Chimeran virus in the first game, and the second game centers around Hale’s need to finish the mission he started before the virus is able to overtake his entire body and transform him completely. He will attempt this mission alongside the Sentinels, a unit of soldiers that, like Hale, are also infected with the Chimeran virus.

As excellent as the original Resistance was, there were issues that needed to be ironed out and improved upon in a sequel, and Insomniac did a solid job of identifying these problems and making them disappear. First of all, the health/medpack system was scrapped in favor of a cover system, with 100 percent health regeneration rather than up to 50 percent. This worked to speed up the pace of the firefights and allow you to do more than just hide behind walls and occasionally shoot, as you would not need to worry about running out of medpacks to boost your health back to full.

Second, the lower-level Chimera are no longer sinkholes for your bullets that took an inordinate amount of time and shots to kill. Instead, the game keeps the difficulty up by casually throwing enemies at you-sometimes in large numbers-that you would have faced in rare or special situations in the original. They back those enemies up with groups of Chimeran grunts, which are as stated easier to kill, but in larger numbers than before.

There are also new foes for you to face, the most memorable of which are the Chameleon Chimera. These are invisible and fast Chimera that you have to listen for as they come at you-you will hear their rumbling, and maybe a growl as they launch themselves at you, and a shotgun blast from an attentive player will be all that is necessary to dispatch them. For those who do not listen close enough though, expect to be torn asunder.

Thankfully, the AI for soldiers on your team has improved from the first game, and there will be times where they save you, and you them. Unlike the first game, where it often felt like large-scale battles were essentially you with the other soldiers there for show, they assist you in taking down enemies, including the aforementioned Chameleons. Of course, the Chimeran AI is also noteworthy, and there will be times where they flank you or sneak up behind you for the kill.

The weapons have been revamped, with some of the weaponry from the first game improved-the Bullseye, for instance, lives up to its name more here than it did previously, and the Auger now shows you the shape of the enemy units behind walls rather than simply reddening your reticule. Insomniac has also included new firepower, such as the Marksman, an accurate rifle with a scope and a short, three-round burst of fire. Think of it like a low-powered sniper rifle that you can take on a run-and-gun mission.

In 1982 Greg Kuperberg and Orion Software put out Paratrooper, an EGA action shooter game on the brand new IBM-PC that put you in a gunner’s turret as helicopters and parachuting soldiers invaded. Before that, in 1981, Mark Allen released Sabotage for the Apple II. They were early examples if a twist on a convention concept: shoot everything to get points, but shooting costs points.

Ten years later, Night Raid was released with a shareware version by Argo Games and Software Creations in 1992 to little fanfare.

In Night Raid, commonly confused as Nite Raid for its DOS 8-character folder abbreviation, which I acquired in the 90s on a plain white 3.5″ floppy put out by Software for Everyone, a company that made their living by repackaging shareware, charging the legally allowed “copying and disk fee.”

The game has good graphics and sound for its time. It’s an addictive style too — you can shoot as many shells as you want, but the real object of the game is to rack up a high score. You get you get two points for shooting paratroopers, five for large, slow airplanes, 10 for smaller, faster planes, and 10 points for shooting down deadly smart bombs. It costs one point for each shell costs you a point, and you will get down to zero quite fast if you’re not quiet.

Of course, if you just want to blow off some steam, go ahead and blast the bejesus out of everything and keep firing those shells … boom, boom, boom, boom.

If one criticism is to be levied against Night Raid, it’s that the shareware is so short, only a handful of levels that takes up about 10 minutes of your gaming day to finish.

The registered version gets progressively harder, with more troopers, planes, and bombs engaging your hapless little bunker.

There is something to be said for the graphics, too. If you shoot the troopers parachute, he waves his arms as he plummets to the ground. During level intermissions, you get entertained by asides like pizza deliveries. For a game that three guys put together, it’s pretty detailed.

This game boasted over a megabyte of 256 color graphics, music, AND two-channel audio.

Ye Olde System Requirements:

• VGA Graphics Card
• 286 or better
• AdLib/SB/SS support
• 386 recommended

Download the readme file

If an American needs any further excuse to sit down and watch a British drama, Mobile is it. Mobile will convince you.

A seeming madman starts blowing up cellphone towers all over England and shooting people in cold blood simply because they were talking on their mobile phones — messages graffitied nearby proclaim the phones to be the work of the devil.

The four-part series brings together three main interlocking plots. A former telecom engineer with a terminal brain tumor comes under suspicion for the bombings. The plot then turns to two executives, Sir James Corson (Keith Allen) and David West (Michael Kitchen) who take turns trying to ruin each other’s careers. Enter Maurice Stoan (Jamie Draven) a former army sharpshooter who misses out on his chance to become a third generation warrior (the 2003 invasion of Iraq — perfect parallel to modern history) when his wife and child are killed by a hit-and-run driver, sending him home on bereavement leave.

The three plots culminate in the fourth and final episode. It’s explosive. It’s dramatic. It’s got guns, sex and betrayal. You just know some American film company is going to steal the plot and make an awful Hollywood movie out of it.

Before that happens, you need to watch Mobile.

Mobile’s stars — British veterans Kitchen (Foyle’s War) and Allen (BBC America’s Robin Hood) and a younger up and coming Jamie Draven — perform their roles with typical British dramatic perfection. Two female costars may be familiar to Americans — Samantha Bond (Moneypenny in the Pierce Brosnan Bond films), as the wife of the telecom executive and Julie Graham (Bonekickers, At Home with the Braithwaites) as the wife of the engineer.

The 2007 series was a big TV hit in the U.K. but has never been seen publicly in the United States yet. Mobile won a Silver World Medal at the 2008 New York Festivals International Television Broadcasting Awards.

Click here for Blast’s other review.

On February, 12 2007, Variety reported that Lions Gate Studios had purchased the movie rights to Eidos’ upcoming shooter; “Kane and Lynch: Dead Men.” The deal — the first time a game has ever been optioned before its release — should prove to be a smart choice by Lions Gate as Dead Men’s story is fast paced, and intriguing, just like a Hollywood blockbuster.

Unfortunately, as an interactive experience Dead Men is more of a mixed bag. Sure, there’s some solid action, but the title is so fundamentally flawed that it’s hard to even enjoy the game’s brightest spots.

At the start of Dead Men, we find our two heroes (in the loosest sense of the word), Kane and Lynch en route to Death row. When things are at their bleakest, a mysterious outfit known only as The 7 interrupts the trip. We learn that Kane is a former member of The 7, and owes them a hefty amount. They give Kane an ultimatum, return the loot or they off his wife and daughter. They have Lynch, a pill-popping, psychopath, keep tabs on him.

Without spoiling anything, Dead Men features twists, turns and some of the best character development seen in this console generation. What it also features is some of the most mature content ever.

Right from the start you’ll kill police officers, drop f-bombs and shoot innocent hostages with no remorse or recoil. In the past, some games have featured these same actions, but they’ve come off almost as cheap, shock tactics. This is not an issue in Dead Men. It would feel awkward if these two anti-heroes didn’t do these things, and the mature content gives it almost an edgy independent movie feel. (Tarantino?)

Aiding in that feeling is the game’s pitch perfect presentation. Minus a few camera glitches, the action unfolds very cinematically, with little to no interruption. Rather than interrupt the title’s flow with cut-scene after cut-scene, most of the story takes place in game (save for the traditional post-level cut-scenes). Kane and Lynch argue, and nitpick at each other, almost like a murderous odd-couple.

Sadly, Dead Men falters in almost every other aspect. When initially announced, Eidos promised that gamers would be able to choose their own style of play — whether it be old school run and gun or commanding Kane, Lynch and the squad of miscreants you encounter throughout the game similar to the style of the Ghost Recon or Rainbow Six franchises. Unfortunately, the squad-based controls seem rather useless, and besides a few key moments in the game where you are almost forced to use them, you’ll more than likely forget that they’re even in the game. Sure, it’s nice to have your guys cover certain exits, or attack a group of enemies, but it just becomes more of a hassle when you’re constantly running over to heal them, and you end up doing the work you sent them to do as a result of the horrible AI.

Luckily, the enemy AI is just as bad, and most enemies jump right out of their cover — seemingly happy to let your bullets hit them.

The cover system is another major disappointment. 90 percent of Dead Men is gun fights, and as a result the game’s faulty cover system makes it much more frustrating than it should be, and you’ll be stuck crossing your fingers hoping one of your squad members is close enough to give you an adrenaline shot and boost your health. Unlike the intuitive cover system of games like Gears of War, Dead Man requires no button presses to go into cover — as your character will find cover automatically when in close enough proximity to a wall, counter etc. While this may sound easier, far too frequently, you’ll be sticking to surfaces you don’t want to, causing yourself to become vulnerable to incoming fire, rather than being able to pick your best point in the aforementioned games.

Perhaps what bugs me the most about Dead Men is its problems with cheap gameplay. In many shooter games, the opening levels are used to set-up the game’s basics and rules, allowing players to seamlessly build upon them in the later levels. This seems nearly impossible when those rules are broken quickly after they’re established. Take for instance the level early on just after escaping from a bank where you must shoot cop cars trailing your getaway van from the back. Throwing grenades underneath the cars will sometimes do them in, but others it will merely result in an acme like cloud of dust billowing up around the car. It must also be noted that it’s in levels like this that it becomes apparent that the backgrounds and NPC’s (non-playing characters) have literally no personality. Case in point, the same level mentioned above, while shooting at the cop cars makes them swerve, other people on the road, just keep driving along, unaware of the bullets flying around, even when they’re the target!

Dead Men’s visuals are like the rest of the title: some are great, and some are just plain old horrible. Wide-shots, like that of downtown Tokyo as seen repelling down the side of a high rise are nothing short of breathtaking. But shots up close, especially player models, are downright bad — reminiscent of many games from the early part of this generation.

The developers must be commended on Dead Men’s online mode: Fragile Alliance. Rather than bank on the tried and true Deathmatch mode, Fragile Alliance uses the squad based gameplay to create an original and compelling experience. One team plays as bank robbers, while the other as cops. You can guess what each team’s objectives are, but what makes Fragile Alliance truly unique is that anyone on the team controlling the bank robbers can choose to risk it all, and screw over their teammates, taking the loot for themselves.

I’m sure Kane and Lynch: Dead Men will make a great movie, but as a game — it’s a forgettable and lackluster run-of-the-mill shooter with some deep, fundamental problems. If you’re looking for a distraction from some of last year’s AAA titles, it might be worth it to give the title a rent, it may take some of the frustration out.

Quick hits:

Publisher: Eidos
Developer: Io Interactive
Platform: Xbox 360 (reviewed), Playstation 3, PC
Genre: Action, Third-person shooter
Players: 1-2 (local) up to 8 online,

Playability: 3 out of 5 stars
Learning Curve: 3 out of 5 stars
Sound: 4 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Overall: 2.5 out of 5 stars

Click here for Blast’s other review.

Kane and Lynch: Dead Men is a very solid game with an excellent story, good graphics and original multiplayer. It’s also easy to learn the controls and basics.

The game’s storyline puts you in the position of one of two men, Kane, the former mercenary, or Lynch who is a drug-up psychopath babysitting Kane. The two men go through various stages of heists and committing other kinds of crimes. They interact so realistically; it’s one of the strongest points int he game.

Not only during cut scenes, but during the actual gameplay you can see the two men showing their pleasure or displeasure towards each other and the current heist. The storyline is even better in cooperative mode with a friend, where one of you takes the role of Kane, and the other, Lynch.

The controls are easy to master. The game is a third-person shooter in which you use the Left Trigger to aim, and the Right Trigger to shoot. You are able to use the other buttons to control people that are helping you.

The graphics, while not the most impressive thing to hit the Xbox 360, are well-done. Each area is well-detailed and nice to look at. The people are well designed and so are the structures — interior and exterior.

Xbox Live multiplayer might be the best part of the game. It allows you and seven other companions to go on heists. You start by picking up jewelry and cash, trying to raise your total worth before the escape. However, players have the option of being a team player, or getting greedy and killing you for all of your loot.

The killed player gets respawned as a guard or police officer, and the killer will be marked as a traitor. Your former companions will come gunning for both of you.

Dead Men is the perfect way to fix that action-game craving. It’s not at all perfect, but there’s real “edge of your seat” action, exciting multiplayer, and a story that will suck you right in. It’s a definite rental, and if you aren’t turned off by the crude language, drug references, and bloody violence (F-bombs EVERYWHERE), this is one of those games you just buy by default.

Quick hits:

Publisher: Eidos
Developer: Io Interactive
Platform: Xbox 360 (reviewed), Playstation 3, PC
Genre: Action, Third-person shooter
Players: 1-2 (local) up to 8 online,

Playability: 4 out of 5 stars
Learning Curve: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Sound: 4 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Overall: 4 out of 5 stars

Ubisoft’s ambitious stealth sim, Assassin’s Creed seemed like it was destined to join the year’s growing list of must-have titles. Each time it was shown in public, it was met with long lines and auditoriums packed with throngs of fans cheering its completely open and intuitive gameplay.There is a kink in the hype-machine.

Assassin’s Creed is not a bad game, in fact sometimes it’s down right impressive, but playing through it I was disappointed compared with what I was initially promised.

Poor design choices, a weak, hard to follow story and some of the year’s worst AI lead Assassin’s Creed into the realm of average, run of the mill adventure games.

Assassin’s Creed follows the story of Altair, a member of the group of assassins that performed politically motivated killings during the third crusade in the Middle East.

One of the best parts about the game is that it is so steeped in actual historical events. But it’s a shame the developers felt the need to make such radical choices in the game’s story. Fans looking for a story of betrayal and murder in the middle ages may be disappointed as the game takes a very sharp turn that seems to do nothing but detract from what should be the core of the story.

Sure, surprises in storylines are great — but when it’s revealed in the game’s first five minutes, it confuses more than surprises. Were there too many stealth games set in the third crusade that the developers thought they needed to be different?

Assassin’s Creed is very heavy on story — almost to a fault. At certain points in the game, especially when the above plot twist is mentioned, the game borders on preachy, as you’ll sit in agony waiting to play rather than listen to an old man talk back-story in a temple.

Speeches are long winded, but voice acted well — except for that of Altair, who turns out one of the worst voice acting performances of recent memory. Seriously, it’s laughable — for the half hour. At least the in game music, performed by Jesper Kyd, is top notch.

Visually, it’s hard to deny that Assassin’s Creed looks stunningly accurate to what the Middle East would most likely look like a long, long time ago. The buildings in the bustling marketplace look disheveled as the sun and all of the amazing lighting effects bounce off them.

Even the character animations are top-notch, as everything from climbing and running look fluidly realistic — with the more involved maneuvers (most having to do with the actual assassinations) bordering on works of art.

The assassinations are at the core of Assassin’s Creed. You’ll find yourself doing recon work to gain information on your target. You’ll stalk in the shadows to hear conversations, pickpocket useful items from passers-by and intimidate people with more information than you. These tactics seem to get tedious faster than they should, as each mission — though a little different — proves to be very repetitive. Shake up this guy, get this information, gain entry — repeat.

What’s worse? Most of these investigations force you to take little or no action — take the eavesdrop action for example; you literally sit on a bench, waiting for someone with information to spout it out. That’s it. You sit.

The assassinations themselves are fun and rewarding, if not a bit too simple. Like the Hitman series, players have the choice of how to go about their kills. Do they go in through the shadows, and do your job site unseen? On the other hand, do you go in like thunder, taking the life of anyone who opposes you? Sadly, most attempts to take the stealth route turn into clumsy, kill-everything-that-moves slaughter fests. — a real tragedy in a game that preaches stealth.

After shuffling your victim loose from the mortal coil and hearing them babble on and on, the guards will be notified of your presence (did a "Hey! Our guy just died alarm" go off somewhere?). From here, you have two options; first you can take advantage of the game’s horrible AI and find a quick exit. The guards will come to your location in a hurry, but don’t bother to look up or at anywhere around them. Even worse, they give up and go back to their normal patrol routes after too long at all.

The second option is to try your hand at the game’s awkward and clunky combat system to fight the guards throughout the city. Combat essentially consists of holding down one button to guard from oncoming attacks, and pressing another to strike — or so it seems. Get into enough battles and you’ll see that like most Hollywood fights; they follow a distinct rhythm. While button mashing will lead you to moments of frustration, taking a step back and watching your opponent’s actions can lead to some very cool moments.

Assassin’s Creed takes a unique approach with its control scheme. Players basically act as a puppeteer, using different buttons to control Altair’s different actions and using the right trigger to change between high profile and low profile actions.

While the developers must be commended for trying something new, this tactic hurts gameplay more than its adds to anything. In most games, running is simply done by holding down the left thumbstick, but in Assassin’s Creed you must literally press three different buttons to run. First, you hold down the right trigger to change into high profile mode, then the a-button, then press the left thumbstick. This is unnecessarily complicated and puts a damper on some of the action sequences.

With a bit more focus and a little more tweaking, Assassin’s Creed could have been a great game.

Quiting Wired’s Chris Kohler: “Ubisoft spent an incredible amount of time and energy lovingly crafting this living, breathing world, and then, from all appearances, nearly forgot to actually put a videogame into it.”

Assassin’s Creed fails to deliver on many of the promises we’ve heard over the past year.

While the game does do some things well, including visuals and the first few assassinations, there are far too many flaws that keep it from being a great game. And with so many other great games available this fall, it’s hard to give Assassin’s Creed more than a passing look.

Quick hits:

Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Platform: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
Genre: Action/Adventure
Players: 1
Launch Date: November 13, 2007

Playability: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Learning Curve: 3 out of 5 stars
Sound: 4 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 5 out of 5 stars
Overall: 3.5 out of 5 stars (that’s 7/10 if you swing that way)