Assassin's Creed II: Bonfire of the Vanities Out Today

John Funk

U.N. Owen Was Him?
Dec 20, 2005
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Assassin's Creed II: Bonfire of the Vanities Out Today

Bonfire of the Vanities, the second DLC for Ubisoft's excellent Assassin's Creed II [http://www.amazon.com/Assassins-Creed-II-Playstation-3/dp/B00269DX5W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1279052535&sr=1-1], is out today on PSN and XBL, and it comes in two flavors: Face-stabbing, and extra face-stabbing.


Earlier this week, we learned that Bonfire of the Vanities would be hitting XBL and PSN Thursday [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/98364-Assassins-Creed-II-Bonfire-of-the-Vanities-Launches-Thursday]. Well, since it's Thursday, guess what's out?

Ezio must work with Machiavelli to free Florence from the grip of the "mad monk" Savonarola, and to do so players will have to take advantage of his new move, the spring jump. No, seriously, the spring jump - I guess Ezio is going all Sonic the Hedgehog on us. No word on whatever happens to this spring jump after the sequence is over (seeing as how it does take place before the end of the game), so ... maybe he just gets amnesia.

Bonfire of the Vanities also features three new locations in Renaissance Italy: The Palazzo Medici, the famed church Santa Maria dei Frari, and the Arsenal Shipyard, which seems to just be Ubisoft running out of badass Italian names for places. Interestingly enough, the DLC will come in two flavors: The regular, vanilla version will retail for 320 Microsoft Points ($4), with a special version for 520 ($6.50) that includes three extra Templar Secret Locations.

If by Templar Secret Locations they mean the Assassin Tombs that you went to to unlock Altair's armor, then that's pretty cool in my book. Those pure-platforming segments were some of the best in the entire damn game.

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ZeroDotZero

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Sep 18, 2009
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The Arsenal Shipyard? Wasn't that the pre-order bonus? Offering up the pre-order bonus for money is a sign of laziness.
 

Heart of Darkness

The final days of His Trolliness
Jul 1, 2009
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Uh, not to nitpick or anything, but isn't the Santa Maria dei Frari in Venice, not Florence?

It has since been edited. I shall take my leave now...
 

MurderousToaster

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Aug 9, 2008
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Gonna buy this. I loved AC2, and (even though I've yet to nab Battle of Forli) I'll very surely be buying this.
 

Nerf Ninja

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Dec 20, 2008
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The special version cost me 560 points, just FYI.

The templar locations were the bonus levels included in the black edition if I remember rightly.
 

Epitome

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Jul 17, 2009
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I got the first DLC , but I dont think I am going to get this, not while Ubi are dicking around the DRM
 

GonzoGamer

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Apr 9, 2008
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I loved AC2 so I'm getting this tonight.
I'm amazed that we're getting new places to explore.
I hope R* is paying attention; this is how much dlc should cost and in a sandbox type game, there should be some new locations to check out too.
 

Phokal

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Oct 12, 2009
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GonzoGamer said:
I loved AC2 so I'm getting this tonight.
I'm amazed that we're getting new places to explore.
I hope R* is paying attention; this is how much dlc should cost and in a sandbox type game, there should be some new locations to check out too.
AC2 is cool, and this new content is great and well priced. But you pick R* to call out? The guys that made epic expansion packs that could have been a full game, and released it as cheap DLC (both packs on disc are $30 at amazon).

Crackdown's pack is well reviewed, and all it added was a couple of weapons and mission markers.

Then there are the bad packs, like Oblivion's Horse armor. Any FPS mappack (3 maps = $10).

Technically, some of these areas aren't new. The areas in AC2's DLC pack #1 were visted in AC2; you just didn't do anything there.

I'm still picking this up unless I read it is absolutely awful. AC2 is a great game with or without DLC. I'm just surprised you called out R*, who have made some of the best DLC available and offer the most content for the price.
 

Pocotron

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Mar 16, 2009
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The only problem in this entire game is... Ezio's facial hair.

Nothing against Mr. E, but the facial hair makes him look like a man-child.
The first DLC was kind of confusing after not playing for about a month, but it's all clicking together now.
 

GonzoGamer

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Apr 9, 2008
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Phokal said:
I'm still picking this up unless I read it is absolutely awful. AC2 is a great game with or without DLC. I'm just surprised you called out R*, who have made some of the best DLC available and offer the most content for the price.
The gta4 dlc wasn't bad exactly but they were twice the price they should've been. All they did was throw together some new missions and add in some stuff that should've been in the original release. That shouldn't cost $20 a pop. For $20 a pop, we should've been getting new islands, or at least flesh out some of the landmarks like Grand Central, Lincoln Center, or the 5 ptz building.

The dlc was much like gta4 itself, not necessarily bad, just very disappointing.
 

brunothepig

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May 18, 2009
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Cool.
John Funk said:
If by Templar Secret Locations they mean the Assassin Tombs that you went to to unlock Altair's armor, then that's pretty cool in my book. Those pure-platforming segments were some of the best in the entire damn game.
Heres hoping, eh? Anyone played it yet lol?
 

sigma83

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Oct 26, 2009
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May I request that those who are thinking of buying this read how Ubisoft is utterly screwing their PC gamer consumers and then reconsider giving them any kind of money?

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/98396-Ubisoft-Online-DRM-Its-Worse-Than-Expected

The short version is that you must be connected to the ubi.com servers at all times to play any of their games. If for any reason your connection drops, you will be booted to the main menu and lose any progress you made since your last save.
 

SangRahl

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Feb 11, 2009
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sigma83 said:
May I request that those who are thinking of buying this read how Ubisoft is utterly screwing their PC gamer consumers and then reconsider giving them any kind of money?

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/98396-Ubisoft-Online-DRM-Its-Worse-Than-Expected

The short version is that you must be connected to the ubi.com servers at all times to play any of their games. If for any reason your connection drops, you will be booted to the main menu and lose any progress you made since your last save.
While the new DRM meens that I will be joining the ranks of the PC "boycott" of Ubisoft, that doesn't mean that I'll be passing up console releases, especially DLC for prior releases.

Now, if they change it to require active PSN or Live access in order to play S/P games on consoles, I'll completely give Ubisoft a wide berth. Until then, just PC releases won't be found in any shopping carts of mine.