The Little Touches in Assassin's Creed

Derelict Frog

New member
Jun 7, 2010
73
0
0
Calvar Draveir said:
I never f
Falseprophet said:
Yahtzee's right, it's hard to buy into the modern day Assassin v. Templar conspiracy in Assassin's Creed when we hardly see any of it. But "The Truth" segments in AC:Brotherhood did more to give it weight than anything Lucy, Desmond or even Vidic have said. Most noteworthy is one phone log where

A man calls his cable company to complain about his TV flashing all of his and his son's personal and medical data on the screen--probably negligence on the part of some Abstergo tech, for all we know. Within 2 minutes, the Templars have sent someone to his house to kill him and his son.

Now that's a little touch that shows just how pervasive and powerful this conspiracy really is.
I also thought that was a cool moment, the Truth segments showed us so much about the state of the world in 2012.

Desmond has never really been an uninteresting character to me, he's a bit quick to distrust people, he's not the most empathetic person ever, but he also has this kind of naivety to him. In AC 1 I always talked to lucy just to hear more dialogue between them. I think lucy is a nice character too. I find it funny that Yahtzee thinks she's stuck up and work-focused, since there's a bit of dialogue where Desmond doubts she ever does anything fun and she gets offended.

I think Yahtzee's just sticking with the first impression he got of these two characters, since they have gotten way deeper than from the first and even second game.
I really don't mind Desmond as a character. He may be a little bland - but not insultingly so. Shaun is one of my favourite characters from all videogames - maybe because I do love Danny Wallace and his reserved, sarcastic humour.

One thing I love about the AC series is this whole conspiracy/counter-factual history plot going on; and the fact the glyphs and the rifts in AC2 & Brotherhood respectively shed a lot of interesting light on how actual world events were always being manipulated by the Templars I thought was awesome:

The phone logs especially were awesome and slightly disturbing. Especially the one about how the Templars were to theatrically assassinate Alan Turing because his new 'computers' would reduce the control the Templars had over workers - and they said make it happen like Harry Dexter White (who was known to be in contact with John Maynard Keynes - who is identified in the rifts as a Templar). It's a fascinating interpretation of history for me at least.
 

jabrwock

New member
Sep 5, 2007
204
0
0
I had the same conversation a few days ago playing Ghostbusters on the PS3. As soon as the mission started, I walked over to the water fountain and took a drink, knocking a table-lamp over on the way.

He laughed, and said "yes, you can drink the water".

I replied, "It's the little touches like that (including the bumping into the table and knocking things over) that make the world more immersive."
 

Shadow-Fox

New member
Nov 11, 2009
29
0
0
In FEAR 2 it was not only the fountain that triggered this little gimmick. Also if you shot at a nearby car right after you took control of the player character, your teammate would ask whether you don't have any respect for other people's property.
Later on when your meet up with the rest of the team this character would than apologise for being late and say that you were "busy vandalizing shit (or stuff, don't remember so well)"

I too thought it would be awesome if the game kept up this attention to detail but unfortunately there was no second example like that to find.
 

Jonathan Fifer

New member
Oct 26, 2010
6
0
0
I dunno, if you read all the e-mails (at all 3 different computers) in Assasin's Creed 1, you get a pretty good idea of how much the Templars control the world. It also is how you learn that
SPOILER
The girl researcher is actually an assasin spy.
 

feather240

New member
Jul 16, 2009
1,921
0
0
ike42 said:
feather240 said:
ike42 said:
As with others here I have to say that if he thinks Fallout 3 is shallow, then he didn't put any energy into the game whatsoever. It's so easy to miss things like the town full of Cannibals (Andale) or the little part where you can get a drug addict to pass OD so you can rob him. That game is packed full of stuff that you don't catch unless you're paying attention.
That game is packed full of stuff that you don't catch unless you're paying attention.
unless you're paying attention.
I have a problem with that. I couldn't find anything good until after hours of searching and I was getting tired of visiting abandoned buildings that had a few radroaches, so I asked myself why it took so long to find adventure in the wasteland. The answer? It was too big. I asked myself why it was too big. The answer? Fallout 3 is big because it wants to feel big. Ironically by making the map larger they made the game feel smaller. I could have lived with less open space. Would it have killed the desolate feel? Perhaps it would have, but that's the same reason they made almost the entire game world grey and brown. My ideal version of Fallout 3? Having Bethesda squeeze the game into a quarter of the map. That way when I go exploring I find something quickly.
I can understand your point of view, but when I play RPGs I want them to feel big. It can be tedious at times when walking across the entire wasteland, but I want the feeling of exploring a world. If I get an RPG I expect to spend 60+ hours on my first run-through. The problem is that Fallout 3 (and New Vegas for that matter) is an RPG that tries to be a shooter to appeal to a broader audience. Non-RPG fans buy an RPG and then complain about the game's RPG features. It's a classic example of savoring the experience vs. instant gratification.
Wouldn't they feel bigger if there was less filler space?
 

realslimshadowen

New member
Aug 28, 2010
143
0
0
I love the little things. Even in a game with big flaws, little things that I find can make me feel allll better. Like in Dragon Age: Origins, the two mages having the discussion of reality by the docks at Lake Calenhad, and one of them mentions his boil as proof that they aren't just someone else's dream.
 

The Big Eye

Truth-seeking Tail-chaser
Aug 19, 2009
135
0
0
Sean.Devlin said:
Sounds like someone hasn't played Fallout 3 quite enough. Or maybe he was just baiting the fanboys like us for no apparent reason?

Kinda detracts from the very good point of the article, though. ;)
My Twitter informs me he actually meant to refer to Gears of War.
 

LazyAza

New member
May 28, 2008
716
0
0
Yeah I love finding the little things in games, walking off the main path and coming across some random cool thing is always fun.
 

ike42

New member
Feb 25, 2009
226
0
0
feather240 said:
ike42 said:
feather240 said:
ike42 said:
As with others here I have to say that if he thinks Fallout 3 is shallow, then he didn't put any energy into the game whatsoever. It's so easy to miss things like the town full of Cannibals (Andale) or the little part where you can get a drug addict to pass OD so you can rob him. That game is packed full of stuff that you don't catch unless you're paying attention.
That game is packed full of stuff that you don't catch unless you're paying attention.
unless you're paying attention.
I have a problem with that. I couldn't find anything good until after hours of searching and I was getting tired of visiting abandoned buildings that had a few radroaches, so I asked myself why it took so long to find adventure in the wasteland. The answer? It was too big. I asked myself why it was too big. The answer? Fallout 3 is big because it wants to feel big. Ironically by making the map larger they made the game feel smaller. I could have lived with less open space. Would it have killed the desolate feel? Perhaps it would have, but that's the same reason they made almost the entire game world grey and brown. My ideal version of Fallout 3? Having Bethesda squeeze the game into a quarter of the map. That way when I go exploring I find something quickly.
I can understand your point of view, but when I play RPGs I want them to feel big. It can be tedious at times when walking across the entire wasteland, but I want the feeling of exploring a world. If I get an RPG I expect to spend 60+ hours on my first run-through. The problem is that Fallout 3 (and New Vegas for that matter) is an RPG that tries to be a shooter to appeal to a broader audience. Non-RPG fans buy an RPG and then complain about the game's RPG features. It's a classic example of savoring the experience vs. instant gratification.
Wouldn't they feel bigger if there was less filler space?
No, they would feel cramped.
 

feather240

New member
Jul 16, 2009
1,921
0
0
ike42 said:
feather240 said:
ike42 said:
feather240 said:
ike42 said:
As with others here I have to say that if he thinks Fallout 3 is shallow, then he didn't put any energy into the game whatsoever. It's so easy to miss things like the town full of Cannibals (Andale) or the little part where you can get a drug addict to pass OD so you can rob him. That game is packed full of stuff that you don't catch unless you're paying attention.
That game is packed full of stuff that you don't catch unless you're paying attention.
unless you're paying attention.
I have a problem with that. I couldn't find anything good until after hours of searching and I was getting tired of visiting abandoned buildings that had a few radroaches, so I asked myself why it took so long to find adventure in the wasteland. The answer? It was too big. I asked myself why it was too big. The answer? Fallout 3 is big because it wants to feel big. Ironically by making the map larger they made the game feel smaller. I could have lived with less open space. Would it have killed the desolate feel? Perhaps it would have, but that's the same reason they made almost the entire game world grey and brown. My ideal version of Fallout 3? Having Bethesda squeeze the game into a quarter of the map. That way when I go exploring I find something quickly.
I can understand your point of view, but when I play RPGs I want them to feel big. It can be tedious at times when walking across the entire wasteland, but I want the feeling of exploring a world. If I get an RPG I expect to spend 60+ hours on my first run-through. The problem is that Fallout 3 (and New Vegas for that matter) is an RPG that tries to be a shooter to appeal to a broader audience. Non-RPG fans buy an RPG and then complain about the game's RPG features. It's a classic example of savoring the experience vs. instant gratification.
Wouldn't they feel bigger if there was less filler space?
No, they would feel cramped.
How does a game with the filler subtracted out become cramped? :/
 

Dastardly

Imaginary Friend
Apr 19, 2010
2,420
0
0
Yahtzee Croshaw said:
Extra Punctuation: The Little Touches in Assassin's Creed

Yahtzee realizes that sometimes it's the little things that make a game interesting.


Read Full Article
Seasoning. Nearly no one notices it, but everybody misses it when it's gone.
 

xdiesp

New member
Oct 21, 2007
446
0
0
I want to repeat this even if I'm going down, that's just what I believe.

Ezio is an awkward, uncommon name in Italy that leaves a bad aftertaste. The style for italian names is just different, see how Leonardo-Dante-Ludovico-Giulio how different they sound.

It's like hearing about Jay-Z, renowned scottish landlord.
 

Alphavillain

New member
Jan 19, 2008
965
0
0
Although the Assassin's Creed owe a lot to the whole Dan Brown Da Vinci Code thing, I find them fascinating simply because they open up players to highly detailed worlds that games generally don't venture into: the Holy Land circa The Crusades, and Renaissance Italy.

In a way, the AC games are more escapist than any other games I can think of.
 

Normalgamer

New member
Dec 21, 2009
670
0
0
The_ModeRazor said:
In Fallout 3, if you open the right door in the right place,
FUCK YOU.
If you found it, you know what I'm talking about. Is it fun? Hell no.
There are alot of doors in places, give an explanation will ya?
 

TehDuke

New member
Dec 1, 2009
15
0
0
Now that I think about it, I think these little touches are probably my some of favorite parts of a lot of games. In every game I play I always end up exhausting my options of what I can check out trying to find little bits of goodness like this. The Assassin's Creed series does this really well, and I've spent way too much time finding all the little touches in the Mass Effect games.

Touches like that really can make the game for me.
 

Dhatz

New member
Aug 18, 2009
302
0
0
Avoid this to avoid AC:B spoilers! Yahtzee, where's a MASSIVE SPOILERS tag in the article? Shit hasn't come out for PC yet you ignorant.
 

Ckeesy

New member
Nov 12, 2009
142
0
0
Oddly enough, when I read the title "The Little Touches..." the first game that jumped to mind was Fallout 3. True, the vast majority of the wasteland is devoid of anything "memorable,", but this actually helps add to the immersion, because what better way to make a player feel like they are trekking across a huge wasteland than to make it big. The long journey between locations is one of the highlights, IMO.

Back to the little things, though, if you actually take the time to explore FA3 and visit all the locations, you'll soon realize that each of these places tells a story. Some of these locations tell the story verbally, like Andale or (A personal favorite) Bob Anderstein's radio broadcast. Others use computer terminals or Holodisk recordings, like the Farming family who presumably got killed by raiders, or the Keller family transcripts.

The best ones, though, and most frequent, are the little stories that are only told through the setpeices. Several people have mentioned the spooning skeletons as a good example. Another of my personal favorites is the dead waste lander in the museum of History who is sitting in a toppled chair against a bloodstained wall, holding a .32 Pistol. All of these tiny stories add tons of depth to an already deep game.

So yeah, Fallout 3 is "big," but just because it's big doesn't mean it's empty (that's what she said).
 

fingerbang143

New member
Dec 21, 2010
215
0
0
This is what I find so appealing in Fable 3 everywhere you look there are hidden secrets that improve immersion and keep you interested. Where as a game like halo reach just stuffs ridiculous easter eggs in and calls it a day.