Assassins Creed Intro

My parents bought me a copy of Assasins Creed for the xBox 360 for an early Christmas gift this year - and the game has impressed me so much, I wanted to write a bit of an informal introduction.

Firstly - this is out for the PS3 too - I understand the PS3 has slightly better framerates than the 360, but there are also reports of game glitches that aren't on the 360 - regardless of the lower frame rate, this game looks absolutely stunning, and is absolutely smooth. Easily one of the most impressive games, visually, even Mum was suprised by the quality of the graphics. The video you see here is the introduction, and appart from some slightly different camera angles, you're near as dammit viewing the actual game engine.

Right up front, the story line will suprise you. I hadn't read into the game at all, and was quite taken aback when it started - it isn't set in the past at all, but set in some alternate present, or near future. Very unique, quite innovative and a little bit wierd at first.

The game itself has the kind of storyline that will bring you back for more - tons of little side quests, tons of things you can collect, but don't get in the way of the main story line if you can't be bothered. I've knocked off 5 or so of the main quests already, and haven't explored half of what I can.

I had some problems with the control at first - the way you enter fight mode and attack / defend wasn't quite clicking with me - but now I'm counterattacking with the best :)

The cities you are wandering are very good looking - considering you can climb almost anywhere, it never feels like there are "obvious" climb points that seem unnatural to the city - everything flows nicely.

Out of 10 stars, I'd go with a 9 - there are some things that are a little *too* contrived - the monks you can blend in with never move until you blend - the citizens you save from beatings stay in one place and get beaten until you rescue them.

Apart from those, and they are minor, this is a fantastic game I've not been able to put down.

Scared pug

I need one of these ...

Is this what Yoda has been reduced too?

Since there will be no more Star Wars movies, even aliens have to pay the rent!

Preparing for the snow

It's that time of year - the Winter Weather Advisories come in, the snow starts falling. This afternoon the neighborhood rang to the tune of snowblowers being gassed up and tested out. Our new neighbors took delivery of a new blower, so they must be in the same boat we were last year, first year they need it - they were bright enough to buy it before the snow, we had to dig out to go get ours :)

My warm gear is ready, our blower is waiting - I put salt down on the drive tonight and got the trash out before it got too bad to drag the bins out.

It's pretty out there, all dark and snowy with all the lights outside the houses :)

Visits

It's been a whirlwind couple of weeks!

We had some wonderful house guests in my parents, and Dancers aunt - we celebrated ThanksGiving, closely followed by a really pleasant Christmas celebration - I scored a couple of xBox 360 games (Mass Effect and Assassins Creed) that will keep me amused for quite some time!

My parents head back home a couple of days ago, and rather than it giving us time to relax, work has ramped up on the insanity levels. I've been busier than ever this last few weeks, and my boss seems to be taking notice now, which is good news for me, as they have their eyes on someone to step in and help. Nothing concrete on that yet, but we'll see.

This weekend is already planned out. Saturday I'm doing nothing. Sunday I'm watching Dancer do nothing (she's working Saturday). Thats it. Nothing. Grocery shopping will be done tonight on our way home from work.

The weather for Saturday is supposed to be a balmy, warm 20f all day, with the weather for Sunday looking to be several inches of snow. I'm glad my parents made it out when they did!

I'm rediscovering my enjoyment of British stand up comedians, and today I'm happily wearing my Billy Connolly T Shirt I was bought from his recent tour my family went to - no one in the office gets it :)

Back to the grind stone.

Turkey road block

This year we ordered a turkey for Thanksgiving and Christmas lunches. We've always hit the local supermarkets before, and bought the pre-packed junk ones.

This year we decided to order one, and we saw an article on Bobs Turkey farm, in Lancaster MA.

So today we headed out into the first snow of the year (dropping an inch or so), crawled down Route 2, navigating around the recent spin out of cars (3 of them had spun seconds before we got there, and were trying to turn around), and headed over to Bobs.

When we got there, we lost it. We were both laughing our pants off. There was a traffic jam right outside the farm. They were lining up to get in. This place has 10,000 Turkeys to sell this Thanksgiving, and they have 15 or so parking spots. It was absolutely hysterical watching the police who were trying to navigate traffic properly standing around in snow and playing musical parking spots with the Turkey Farm customers!

We got in and out, and now have a 14lb, freshly butchered Turkey ready for dinner on Thursday :)

Now for some food and cooking, before heading out to get my parents from Logan airport tonight - their flight has been screwed up and they are now flying through Chicago, from Manchester England to get to Boston. Thanks American Airlines, fuckers!

Incoming visitors

For the last few days we've been cleaning :) The house looks lovely now, but we busted ass to get it that way - on top of cleaning the whole place from top to bottom, we did a bunch of routine stuff too. The car needed it's 15,000 mile service, the dogs needed to go to the groomers, the studio needed some curtains put up over the mirrored wall, the basement desperately needed a sweep.

So it's been a lot of hard work.

Thanksgiving is coming - I have no particular attachment to it as a holiday, but it's the American Christmas, and the time of year to take some vacation from work, and this year, we'll be spending some time with our family, both my parents, and Dancers aunt will be here. I am very much looking forward to this holiday!

One day of work, then vacation for a week.

We have a big Thanksgiving dinner planned - including a farm fresh Turkey for the first time - normally we get a packaged bird, but this year, in the countryside, screw it, we're getting a fresh one :) It's a big one too, should be enough :D

So after a long day cleaning, we're sitting down, snoozing, cuddling pugs and watching some DVDs that make us laugh.