So bad it's good

I can't remember if I've posted this before but the game Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing is famous in our office because of the appalling reviews it got. Here is Gamespot's wonderful review of the game. I recommend the video review. It is quite, quite awesome.

'Assassin's Creed' - Game review

7 out of 10

There are two schools of thought on this game. One gives it 9/10 and says the technical achievements and general coolness outweigh any frustrations or limitations. The other camp gives it 7/10 and says the opposite. I'm one of the latter. However, there's no question that those technical achievements and general coolness are very, very impressive.

This game is a stunning achievement. The fact that the team could actually ship this product is nothing short of a miracle of game production. Working for Ubisoft, I know rather more about the development of this game than I'm allowed to tell. Suffice to say, an awful lot of people went to a huge effort to get it out of the door. It's a massive project, incredibly complex, and worthy of a great deal of praise.

There are many brilliant elements. The city environments are truly wonderful, giving a very convincing atmosphere and sense of place. The interaction of the main character with the environment is deep, beautifully animated and almost flawless - the consistency and detailed planning of the world really helps here. The graphics are amazing (most of the time). The camera is intelligent and works well considering the dense, complicated levels. The combat is great fun (until you become a bit too powerful for the game's own good). There are many fine and subtle touches, such as: the chase camera when fleeing from soldiers; great depth-of-field effects; the constantly moving light and shadow; the way main character Altaïr lands on his horse; and some lovely set piece moments during the big assassination missions.

These moments of greatness make the moments of weakness all the more frustrating.

I will refer you once again to this article on The Future of Sandbox Games. It dismantles those aspects of Assassin's Creed much better than I can.

This is a story game and to be honest, it's not a very good story. The cut-scenes are often dramatic but they're also annoying. They're unskippable, which is very irritating, but they try to incorporate some "interaction" to make up for it - you can press a button to change camera and sometimes pressing at the right moment will switch to a "secret" camera for a special view of the "action". Wow.

There is a laborious tutorial and opening section to the game which puts a lot of players off I think. It tells you what the buttons do without telling you how to actually play the game well.

The worst problem by far is that there are only 8 different mission types that will repeat over and over. Of these, 3 types are so trivial that they hardly seem worth the effort (one merely requires you to sit on a bench and listen to a conversation!). Another involves assassinations and is plagued by dodgy AI and the fact that if you fail once, the corpses from your previous attempt are still lying around to alert the victims when they reappear to be killed again. Another involves collecting flags in a certain time, which is quite nice but is also the only example that is willing to break the reality of the world and tries to be more "gamey" - it doesn't seem to fit.

Speaking of flags, there are lots to collect in this game and most of the time there is no guidance about where they might be. Hunting them can be soul destroying.

However, there can be no doubting this game's accomplishments. It is a true "next gen" game and sets the bar for Ubisoft productions that our team at Reflections now needs to surpass. No pressure...

A wonderful, flawed, beautiful but irritating game. A game of conflict, between protagonists and antagonists but also between player and game. If only it had learned some sandbox lessons from Crackdown it could have been truly brilliant. I can't wait for whatever this team produces next...

'Ratatouille' - Film review

7 out of 10

Fun but ultimately disappointing stuff from director Brad Bird. I've come to expect a lot more from him. This film never really gets going. It's never laugh-out-loud funny. It never really tugs your heart strings. It merely keeps you entertained. Unlike his previous films The Incredibles and The Iron Giant (each of which does at least one of those things brilliantly), I can't see myself watching this a number of times.

I don't want to be too harsh because it is good fun, just not brilliant.

However, if you watch this on DVD I should point out a companion short film called Your Friend The Rat which really is very good.

'The Bourne Ultimatum' - Film review

8 out of 10

I love these films. Fast-paced, very silly, but with a good enough cast to make all the preposterous nonsense seem convincing. This is directed at breakneck pace by Paul Greengrass, who rarely lets the camera linger on one shot for more than 5 seconds. It's so fast that all you can do is hang on for the ride - "How did Bourne get that access card?" is something you only ask after the credits are rolling.

It has several action sequences that show James Bond how it ought to be done. The makers of Bond clearly watch these films and were sensible enough to take many cues from them when remaking Casino Royale. This latest Bourne film ought to help keep Bond on his toes. Thoroughly good fun.

Taking liberties

I'm a member of Liberty and so it's not surprising that I take note when politicians start discussing the slow development of the UK into a surveillance state. I'm always interested by the sheer cheek of justifying the erosion of civil liberties by saying it is actually to protect liberties (as Gordon Brown did in this example).

I also refer you to this recent Unspeak post, which picks on some further dubious arguments made by senior ministers.

My initial liking for Mr. Brown has certainly ebbed away since his early days in office. Over the months I've noticed that his method of debate largely amounts to "I think you'll find you're wrong". I've yet to hear him win somebody over through logical discourse and he certainly can't do it through passionate appeal like Blair could.

Football insanity

The Premier League are thinking about playing an extra match each season... overseas! One extra game at a neutral location against a random team. The point? To make more money obviously! What else? Who cares about fans or players when you can make more money?

If you care about football email the Premier League to point out their lunacy.