@GunEye While I do think the AC3 storyline was kind of cool, I agree that the gameplay was way too easy. The hero's physical fragility is a requirement in stealth games, IMO.

Why the story was cool: It made me wonder whether or not the assassin/templar struggle was really one of good v. evil. Assassins believe that distributed power enables free will, which in turn leads to prosperous society. Templars believe that centralized power leads to ordered cooperation, which in turn leads to a prosperous society. Templars like working for large corporations, while assassins like working for open-source-powered ideological movements. You can't innovate in a large corporation, and you can't make money with an ideological movement.

@maeble You could totally be right that Ubisoft pitched the idea to Gamespot, because it will remind us that their game will exist. If I'm working on a game, then I'm definitely thinking about how I can tap into shows like this one and The Point to get people to think about that game. However, this particular episode was interesting enough that we don't need to care about that. If this one was Ubisoft's idea, then they won this one.

I agree with what I think Carolyn's aim is with this--encouraging sequels to build on predecessors rather than recycling them, holding sequels to higher standards than originals. That's awesome. I think, when you compare the numerical rating with what she says in the review, then the message is that the game will have a place alongside Asylum and City years down the road (i.e. people will definitely enjoy playing all three, absent the knowledge or concern that Origins came last). Just, for now, this game isn't anything new, so it's nothing to write home about.

Wow, when I read this video's subtitle I thought this would be crazy--when I played through ACIII I liked it a lot. I only focused on the story, though--the little side tasks and blah blah didn't even register for me. But then Danny made a really good point about completing the game. If "completion" is doing everything 100%, then I absolutely agree that this game spent a lot of effort making itself an obvious game--go here and collect this, then go there and kill the guy with the red dot over his head, then press this particular button to kill that guy. Very good points this video made.

Microsoft press statements have been making them look kind of pathetic, lately. "It's about games, not gigaFLOPS," sounds so defensive that they seem to think they've already lost. Besides that, all that headline does is make people like me think that XBOne's specs are weak.

"Guys, guys, guys, just forget about computing power. Okay? I mean clearly Xbox is the cool one. Right? C'mon, dudes. Because, okay?"

Oh my God the way she walked to the kitchen. Still laughing about that.

Part of me is a bit sad that MS are backtracking on their policies. If they really had a special vision for the gaming future, it would have been better long-run if they had taken a break, then explained it to us clearly (instead of what they did at e3). Instead, they're acting like they're cutting losses by watering the xbox down because they're way too concerned with day 1 sales. "Just react to all the customer anger in the most literal way possible and they'll buy it! All that matters is that they buyyy iiiiitttt!"

@adit942 That's probably exactly why they made this video. I see three reasons one would title an aricle "Call of Duty: 7 Years of Multiplayer Innovation."

1. You want angry comments

2. A publisher "politely requested" that you use the title their PR folks wrote

3. You've never seen a video game before

My guess is that Johnny needs material. And maybe a little from #2.

That, and it's a nice little kiss on the cheek to Activision right before Ghosts comes out.

Nice article. Something interesting is that this nostalgia effect doesn't even need time to incubate. Look at how people tore Dead Space 3 (and even 2, at first) to pieces because it wasn't "true DS" or "true survival horror." 2 came out 3 years after 1, and 3 came out 4 years after 1.

We love something, and our brains take note of exactly what made it amazing. If the next installment deviates from our mental note, it freaks us out.

@nirzor07 You have it backwards, bud. Many of the games we play on console don't require an internet connection, because consoles aren't required to connect to the internet. When consoles are reliably internet-connected, developers can make games that take advantage of that.