That article was fluff. It didn't give an example of why he felt that way at all. The title doesn't even have to do with anything he wrote except for the last few lines.

Gordon's interactions with with npc's did little to give you insight to his personality at all. "Gordon freeman! The Gordon Freeman! I can't believe it." "Aaaw..you must be freeman." or " The free man".

If they wanted to instill personality into a mute character, they should have let their npc's react to his emotions at all. Only semi example of that is with the doctor when he scolds him to be careful with the equipment.

I'm just an FF fan in general. I felt it was a great game with the battle system and story. Only thing that disappointed me was I felt nothing for most of the characters. They gave you so many and they had nothing unique about them. I ran into the same problem I do with strategy rpg's. My core group gets ungodly powerful and I only switch out new guys if there's something else I want. Killed it a bit for me when two of my guys could heal themselves and tank at the same time. Easiest last boss ever.

I guess I could have taken on challenges and limited myself to class types, but...I'm not that motivated.

I don't disagree with the 9.0

[QUOTE="MikeE21286"]Wow, you think FF8 is crap? I personally loved it and I stopped reading right there......BreakingPoint8

Final Fantasy VIII > Final Fantasy X. Atleast for me, because Tidus was a horrible main character.

I think 8 was the worst out of the series. The story sucking isn't a small oversite. It is the CORE of the game. I don't agree with the OP except for the lameness that is ff8's story. GF amnesia and them all coming from the same orphenage? Some elite organization SeeD to not keep records of where their recruits came from. Junctioning was horrible as well.

I loved 10 and 12. 12's characters were on the week side, but it made up for the fact you can make them however you like. Story wasn't bad. (atleast it held unlike 8)

I'll undoubtedly play ff13 and any other ff game cause I love the series. (even if it's blemished by 8)

Aspects of the game are fantastic, but other aspects are deeply flawed.

The freerunning is great. The cities are very cool, and they really are packed with people. The story is interesting, even if the ending answers nothing.

But why are assassination missions bookended by long, unskippable, and pretentious cutscenes? Why can you stab a guard, and avoid suspicion by blending? Why are you clearly an assassin when you run fast? Why are there only four (or five) investigation missions in the game, copy-pasted across the cities? Why does the ending dispense with the open-world freerunning aspect of the game, and turn it into a combat slog? Why don't beggars go bother other people?

There are a ton of small things like that which keep Assassin's Creed from being as excellent as it could be.

sonicmj1

I think the unskippable cutscenes was an oversite.

You can stab a gaurd and get away with blend cause it's a hidden (spring loaded?) blade. I guess the idea is that when used correctly it delivers a fatal blow unnoticeably to those around you.

Ever heard the old expression "Only children and thieves run." Goin with the time and the culture this is set in. Running would realistically bring unwanted attention to you quickly. Especially with the guards on edge.

As for the copy and pasted missions. That is weak. Ubisoft probably spent most of the time trying to make the environment, smooth movement across obstacles, and different philosophies of the assination targets meld together. Wether that is reason enough to forgive the reptitiveness is a different topic IMO.

I can't answer your ending question.

I'll add my own gripe with the game. Aside from the reptitiveness people have said before. I loved the game, but it lost something when I realized I could just block and counter my way out of any alert. I didn't feel the need to run and hide and it took me out of the game. It's a good thing I didn't figure that out till after I cleared through through. I could stand at the guy I'm to report to and kill off any pursuers.

It's a trilogy. Hopefully they fix the problems. If they don't. I'll still rent to see the rest of the story.