The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

I was about to say Arkham. Injustice is pretty good, as is inFAMOUS, I'd highly recommend them both to you. New God of War less so, but still on the list. Seems we have similar tastes.

I've played a little inFAMOUS on my friend's PS3 as I have an Xbox. I played the Xbox GOW (Gears OF War) which is one of my favourite franchises to date. Not a big fan of 2D combat though (MK, Injustice). We share 2 liked franchises as of now and that's likely to expand.

When I first met stabgal my reputation had preceded me. "I heard you like The Kinks." she said.
"Yes", I replied cautiously, "but my favorite band is Led Zeppelin."
"Well of course. They're the best!" she said, as if everybody's favorite band was Led Zeppelin and what differentiated people was their second favorite band.

So I now say to you that the best video game I have ever played is Assassin's Creed. Of course. It's the best.

For my second favorite I'm going to reach back to 1994 and select Star Wars: TIE Fighter. It was a sequel to Star Wars: X-Wing but improved upon it in every way. Both games were space flight simulators with an open sandbox. You could fly anywhere you wanted but would fail your mission if caught too far out of position when the action started going down. Each mission had a primary objective, secondary objective, and secret objective. To advance the story one only needed to complete the primary objective. I kept trying until all three objectives were met in a single playthrough.

In the years that followed I kept looking for other games with open world space flight but found nothing to satisfy my yearning for more TIE Fighter. If you decide to try TIE Fighter now, beware that it's best played with a joystick.

A sweet backstory!

Stabguy Why is AC1 the best?
I think I've heard of your reasons before (unfortunately I have forgotten some of them), and I too am an avid enjoyer of AC1, although I feel that its shortcomings do have a great impact on the enjoyability of said game.
As you know, I'm currently replaying AC2 and I simply feel that the locations compensate for the changes in it. AC1 had an amazing story and philosophy, but it's locations and characters were not as likable as AC2's. AC2 was severely lacking in a strong plot and felt overly long and drawn out.
AC1's mechanics were stellar and felt better than AC2's even if one had mastered AC2. I've been watching a youtuber by the name of Execution Producer (I'd also like him/her to join THB/the server if not already a member) who makes brilliant videos on (generally) AC combat and he/she has shone new light on what I assumed to be the bland combat of AC2. Nevertheless, I still find AC1 to be more fun and fluid.

Then why do I still like AC2 so much?
The locations, level design, new mechanics (money) and of course the characters. Ezio is truly fun to play as, and gives the player a far more gratifying experience than the generally unsmiling Altair.

The aforementioned does not change my opinion on ACB/ACR which I still cherish more than their predecessors.

This is going to sound backward. That it was unpolished and a rough draft of an AC game actually made it more endearing.

For example, take hidden blade counters and air to assassinate. Neither of these game mechanics are exploits. They work exactly as designed by the developers. First, observe that they are essentially undocumented by both Ubisoft and the Prima guide. This led to gamers discovering the moves and sharing them with each other on forums like this one. Second, once learned the skills were difficult to master. Hidden blade counters require precise timing and running air to assassinate typically involves orchestrating four controls: , + + . One felt a sense of accomplishment when pulling off these tricks and would proudly share their best moments on video.

Agreed. Italy is my favorite place to vacation and I was thrilled to get an AC game set in Florence and Venice. Ezio is a more interesting protagonist than Altaïr. Hidden blade counters are still present but look at what they did to the (newly renamed) air assassination. Now there's an in-game tutorial for it and the controls have been reduced to a single button press. I was no longer motivated to make videos of air assassinations because it was simply "Watch me press X."

I apologise for the late reply.

I cannot disagree, as finding and using tactics that are undocumented is much more rewarding than the game handing it to you. The thing is though, AC2 also has it's share of undocumented tactics which make for very good videos. The person I mentioned before (Execution Producer), has content for quite a few of the AC games, although it's not as deep as THB's content.

The point I'm trying to make is that while esoteric mechanics do make for amazing content, mechanics that are revealed to the player make for a better game (in my opinion at least). ACB and ACR had tutorials for players to learn the in-depth mechanics of the game and better themselves, but after they learned the basics, mastery was something they had to do themselves.

I believe that AC2 is better as it is more accessible AND also has great scope for expansion for players who wish to achieve mastery. Creating captivating content with mechanics that are explained to everyone may be tougher, and relies on the players' creativity to use them effectively to turn something simple into something special, which is not required when the mechanic itself is something that had to have been found. THB certainly has its fair share of said creativity though

It's hard to pick a favorite game for me. I'd have to go for a top 3 (in no particular order), which would be AC1, Control, and Horizon: Zero Dawn.

AC1 is a lot of what Stabguy said, in that it's a first draft of limitless potential. The direction Ubisoft went for with the series is not what I ever expected it to be, but the first is the most pure version of the franchise. You can experiment in so many ways and find so many hidden mechanics intentionally left in by the dev team. It's a treasure trove of experimentation.

Control is mind-bending, not only in story, but also its gameplay. It's best played on a PS5 with the Dualsense controller functions, in my opinion. There is so much to uncover through gameplay and collectibles, plus the aesthetic is pure art.

Horizon is definitely one of the most fun and responsive games I've had the pleasure to enjoy. I never felt locked-in to an animation like a Dark Souls-style game, I always felt in control of the character, and the visuals are gorgeous.

Off topic, but what happened to Leo?

He got so famous that he saw us as little peasant people doing little peasant things in our peasant houses.

No, he's just doing his thing. I don't get to see his work as often as I used to, but I saw he still uploads and posts content semi-regularly.

We, the Proletariat must rise against the content creator Bourgeoisie!