There are a few explanations that come to mind when pondering the inclusion of a framing narrative in the Assassin’s Creed story: it allows subsequent games to jump anywhere in history; it provides another layer of both plot and gameplay on top of the rich historical settings; it acts as a legitimiser for the historical parts of the game; it gives the player control of a novice, equally confused about what is happening to him; and it even perhaps acts as a metaphor for videogames themselves. All well and good, but I’m going to debunk as many as I can. I think Assassin’s Creed 2 is a much riper fruit for this kind of criticism, so that’s where I’ll source most of the examples I’ll be using. Desmond’s genetic memory is used to allow him access to his ancestors’ lives, to become them and live their lives as they lived. You could argue that without such a device, it would be difficult for the game to leap from era to era as it has; from 12th century Holy Land to Renaissance Italy. While it is an imaginative way to link subsequent titles to the original, why not have Ezio realise he ...

In the last decade there have been around 20 big-budget blockbuster movies based on well-known comic book characters, and the vast majority of them have been given the inevitable tie-in game treatment.  Some, like X Men Origins: Wolverine and Spiderman 2 are actually worth a look, if still ultimately too flawed to really stand up to the best that the world video games can offer, while the likes of G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra and Watchmen: The End Is Nigh offer little to entice us beyond an official licence. Batman, however, has been lucky.  Rocksteady Studios opted to cut out a stage in the usual game-based-on-a-movie-based-on-a-comic routine, instead going straight to the source material.  The result is Batman: Arkham Asylum - in my and many others opinion, easily the best comic book game ever made. Rocksteady Studios are a relatively new developer, founded in 2004 in London, with the forgettable (but by no means terrible) PS2 and Xbox shooter Urban Chaos: Riot Response their only previous title.  But their youth is somewhat deceiving, as they were in fact founded by former members of Argonaut Games, a company that dates back to 1982, but who were forced to close in 2004 due ...

"Mario Kart without the charm" was the snap judgement of my younger brother as he watched me slip-sliding around ModNation Racer's circuits, struggling to get used to the powersliding mechanic. It was a comment that made me smile- there's certainly a ring of truth to it- but after properly getting to grips with the beta version of Sony's great white hope for a new casual-focused racing I.P for 2010, I realised that it's a title that deserves considerably more than a pithy put-down to summarise it. Whilst all karting games will inevitably be compared to the multicoloured elephant in the room in the form of Mario Kart, it is in another game that ModNation has principally sought inspiration- for this game seeks to transplant the create/play/share philosophy that made LittleBigPlanet the PlayStation's darling of the games media. Indeed, the developers, United Front, openly discuss their close relationship with Sackboy's parents, Media Molecule. The graphical style is cutesy, but not overly so- whilst the playable racers are clearly the (more colourful) love-children of Miis and Sackboy, the style of the actual courses designs are a little inconsistent, with some adopting a realistic style, and others a more cartoon aesthetic. The result is something ...

Tim Schafer’s latest game was released to a fairly predictable reception in October 2009: conditional praise. The mind of the man behind much of Monkey Island has always been best at writing games and creating concepts. Schafer’s previous effort at the helm of his development company, Double Fine, was Psychonauts; a brilliantly conceived concept and a well told narrative wrapped around a slightly awkward platform game. Brutal Legend is certainly a more polished effort, but it does fall into some of the same traps. Despite the fact that Schafer set-out to make a game in which you control battles on a large scale, this strategy element was poorly advertised, and many reviews denounced it for various reasons. The fast pace of the action can be too confusing, and it’s tricky to do anything with individual troops, which tends to mean that I’ll send my entire army around the battlefield on small consecutive causes, rather than splitting them up for effective slaughter. Fighting and driving sections are far punchier; the action is simpler and generally more rewarding, and most of the time they hold together as a decent action-adventure game. What really ties the game together is the art direction. The characters either look ...

Splash Damage is pretty well respected for its work on the Enemy Territory series, so a presentation on its new title Brink, at the Eurogamer Expo 2009 was worth a glance, at the very least. CEO Paul Wedgwood began with bold claims for his company, referring to its publishing partnership with Bethesda Softworks in 2008: “We announced our intention to make the transition from a pure multiplayer shooter studio for the PC, to a triple-A multiplatform game developer for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC, and Brink is the result of that partnership.” As is the way with these things, of course, Splash Damage hasn’t strayed too far from its ideological roots. It’s worth mentioning straightaway that Brink looks to be, at heart, a multiplayer shooter with narrative pretentions, rather than a game that has equal amounts to offer in both modes, as Splash Damage claims. Brink takes place on The Ark, a kind of above-water eco-Rapture. Wedgwood explains; “It’s an immense floating city, built at sea as part of a contemporary green vision, but now existing around 2045 and having lost contact with the rest of the earth it exists in total isolation and is an immense and artificial focus ...

You know a game is doing something right when you find yourself spontaneously creating new save game files for the sole purpose of replaying memorable scenes. I did that a lot in Resident Evil 4. In the 2005 GameCube game, a heart-pounding, well-choreographed  set-piece was just around the next corner. By the time I conquered Uncharted 2, I found I had a grand total of sixteen save points- for precisely the same reason. It turned out that I needn't have bothered, because developers Naughty Dog were way ahead of me: I later discovered that the game lets you replay chapters as you complete them. But I digress. What I really wanted to open this review with is by saying that I have a confession to make. Despite being one of the PlayStation 3's most acclaimed titles, I never took the opportunity to sample Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. I don't generally make a habit of skipping the first part in a story before experiencing the second- and I fully expected Among Thieves, Drake's second adventure, to be all but incomprehensible to a series newbie. It was with some surprise, then, that from the stunning opening cliffhanger (literally) to the dazzling finale, Uncharted 2 grabbed my ...