Okay, so lately, I haven’t really had anything to blog about, but still I get nagged at by someone to post a new blog entry. Well here it is, happy now?

The last couple of days I have been feeling shit because I SOMEHOW caught a cold during this sudden British heatwave that felt like it wanted to add to my already aggravating sore throat. As soon as the sore throat goes away, my illness starts to play up, and tomorrow I have to go to the job center. I predict I’ll be making another phone call to the job center saying I won’t be able to make it.

Anyway, nothing much has gone on lately apart from that I got to see my best friend again since last time which seemed like FOREVER! I never get to see him much anymore and it is a shame considering he is probably ‘The Man’. Anyway, we chilled out, played games and smoked ciggies as usual, but it was still fun. I let him borrow 3 of my Xbox games, 2 of which are guaranteed to have him hooked onto his 360 for at least a few days, which were Mass Effect 1 & 2 and Gears of War 2. I also borrowed 3 of his games which were Splinter Cell: Conviction, Dante’s Inferno and Assassin’s Creed II.

Since he left, I have been playing Assassin’s Creed II that night and I couldn’t get off it for 6 straight hours because it was that awesome. I’ve heard mixed reviews about it, but to be honest, all the bad reviews can duck out. Yeah, I don’t expect much replay value, but do most games without multiple endings or multiplayer capabilities have replay value? As if. I mean, its not as if Assassin’s Creed was ‘T3H B35T G4M3 3V4!’ in the first place, but really..? Assassin’s Creed II’s story was pretty gripping right from the word go for me and it hooked me like a fish. Most of the combat is fluent, despite the constant countering of the AI when you fail to assassinate them, which to me is pretty ridiculous, even for AI. Most of the gameplay mechanics are well done as well, apart from one thing. The sodding free-running mechanics. Yeah, I went there. The free-running aspect is awesome, I have to admit, but when you’re trying to escape from the guards, I hardly find a solid fucking brick wall with nothing to climb a good route for escaping. I hold RT and B, I push forward towards a crate that led to planks to jump across, yet somehow I manage to jump into a brick wall that was to the left of me. Anyway, I still haven’t finished it yet but either way, it is a pretty awesome game.

(Oh my god, I sound like a damn game reviewer…)

I have also been playing Splinter Cell: Conviction most of today and I find it pretty enjoyable, despite me not being the really stealthy type of player. It takes a while for you to get into the whole stealth part of things if you’re a newcomer to the Splinter Cell series, but it is pretty interesting. But the main thing I’d like to point out is the fact that you sponge up as much damage as the enemy does (On the Normal difficulty at least, I have yet to test other difficulties). I mean, most games nowadays are either too forgiving, or too relentless. With most games, on easy, I expect it to be easy, not scratching-your-arse easy, and on hard, yeah, I expect a challenge, but some games are stupidly ridiculous. Take Call of Duty for example. I don’t want to have to replay the same part of a level twenty fucking times just to get past a single part just to die another 20 fucking times the next part. And you could say ‘Well, you just suck’ Fuck off, I’m pretty good online, so how the fuck would that make any difference? Its the same with Halo. Its practically impossible to finish the game on Legendary without nearly throwing your controller through the screen. But back to the point, Splinter Cell: Conviction made me feel like I’m being punished for my mistakes rather than shitting on me for no reason. I get cocky, I get killed. I take my time, I’m rewarded with easy, stealthy kills like its supposed to happen.

I haven’t really played Dante’s Inferno that much yet, but I guess it could be a game that I’d enjoy, especially as it is a hack ‘n slash RPG of some sort. I’m sure I’ll get into it whenever I finish Assassin’s Creed II and Splinter Cell: Conviction.

Anyway, I was supposed to be getting shut eye like twenty-five minutes ago, but I have been writing this. Sorry if it just felt like a review of the two games I’ve been hooked on for the last 2 days, but I guess this IS a blog, I am writing about my feelings and experiences with personal opinion.

Ash, Out.