Assassin's Creed II

Well this is a vast improvement. Take all my original complaints and throw them away... (Well, except one, but we'll get to the complaints later...) You are Desmond Miles, of course, and you are rescued by Lucy Stillman, who makes you get into the Animus and be reborn as Ezio Auditore da Firenze, Italian assassin.  Now, finally, Desmond is playable... but for like five minutes. But you get to beat up some Abstergo guards, and explore Abstergo Industries for a bit, until fish lady I mean, Lucy, throws you in the back of a car. Which, I kinda don't blame her. Desmond was asking the most pointless and idiotic questions (with guards around, mind you, when he's supposed to be silent)... He even brought up the question: "What is the plural of animus?" No, I'm not joking. So yeah, throwing him in the back of the car was probably the best idea. Kudos to Lucy.
Lucy takes you to a "secret hideout" where you meet Shaun Hastings and Rebecca Crane. There's another problem. Rebecca. She's annoying... ugh. Primarily her voice, really. Oh and her hair. (Oh, shut-up I know it's a girly comment, but I'm not talking about the style) Well, that seems to be a problem in Assassin's Creed II, the graphics of some main characters look a bit rushed (even in the cinematics), and could have been better... but I'm just nit-picking.
Anyway, then you are off to past-land to become Ezio again, but now you're not a newborn! Yay! Well, you kinda of run around a bit doing errands for your family, and you get to meet Leonardo da Vinci, which is pretty cool. Then you get thrust into the exciting world of the assassins. You don't have to sit on benches to eavesdrop anymore, or pick pocket for information on your "target," thank God. I was really looking forward to da Vinci's flying machine, too... Until I got to it, and was done with the mission in five minutes... and discovered that was the end of the flying machine.
Oh, and another problem... You remember the beggars? Well, they've returned in fancy clothes and a habit for trying to sing for you. The singers hunt in packs, I'm warning you. I once had three of them following me at once. That was ridiculous, so I threw money at them, a genius addition Ubisoft decided to put into the game. The money also distracts guards, which is great. Another thing Ubisoft decided to fix was that business with the long *ahem* "journeys" between cities. There is a little umm... "express booth?" Yeah, and it instantly teleports you to your desired location. Which comes in very handy, because there's a money making system, which is your Uncle Mario's ("It's-a-me!!" haha) Villa... and it constantly annoys you to come back and collect your money, but the problem is when you've purchased everything in the game, and are going through just to gather achievements, it still annoys you.
But overall, this game is incredibly wonderful, and does fix a lot of the problems many gamers had with it's predecessor. So, what did you guys think of this game? Thanks.

-Tosha

Assassin's Creed

Okay, so, in Assassin's Creed you are Desmond Miles, and you are kidnapped by the evil corporation of Abstergo, and 'Doctor' Warren Vidic forces you to relive the events of your ancestors to obtain information about a very powerful item, because I guess Dr. Vidic wants to rule the world.
Well, in the game Desmond (you) are Altaïr ibn La-Ahad, and you tick-off your master, Al Mualim, so he takes away all your weapons, and you have to go to various historical cities, including Jerusalem, and assassinate the people Al Mualim tells you to. Occasionally, when you get enough 'brownie points' you get to go back to Masyaf (your awesome secret-but-not-so-discreet assassin's base) and Mualim gives back a piece of your weaponry.
However... This game gets incredibly repetitive as you go along in the story. Just to complete an assassination, you have to go to the local assassin place, and get permission to kill the guy, although Mualim tells you to in the first place. So, you get permission, kind of. The guy then tells you to go learn about your target, like where he'll be and whatnot. You have to do this for every target. Oh, and you have to gather information from three different people each time. Seriously? Couldn't Altair just listen to one informer and go kill the guy? Nooooo... Maybe Ubisoft was just trying to drag out game play. I don't know. But it gets boring.
Oh, and the beggars. *sigh* They nag at you for money, which you apparently do not carry, and they won't stop. You have to avoid them at all costs, pretty much, because I once punched a beggar, and that somehow alerted the soldiers around me. Wouldn't they have done the same thing if they were in my shoes? Probably. But maybe they were having a long day and wanted to beat up a monk-looking guy, who really looks nothing like a monk... I don't know.
There's also the issue of traveling from one place to the other... That gets very boring. If you're on horseback, you can't go any faster than a slug, lest you alert the guards, and you have to travel from place to place either on foot or horseback. I prefer the latter, because I can go into full gallop, and still escape the guards... sometimes. But, overall... It's a great idea, it just needs more... much much more.

-Tosha