Assassin Creed : Anti-Atheist?

Game Review: Terrible science; Terribly fun.

THough I doubt I have enough readers to warrant the warning, Spoilers ahead.

Plot: Dystopian future: Desmond, an assassin, is captured by a mysterious corporation, and forced to use a device that allows a person to recount "genetic memory". the main part of the game takes place in his memories, where his assassin's ancestor kills a group of men who are attempting to take over the Holy Land while King Richard and Saladin battle it out.


Now that thats done, I ask, what the hell? The main villains in the game are atheistic Knights Templar. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm, glad to see atheism spread into media like video games. It could only enlighten like-minded thinkers(Except for the eight people who enjoyed the Left Behind game). But the fact that these Templars Atheism is coupled with an overriding desire to conquer and control the world is rather disturbing. The way the game is written seems to imply that the two are one and the same, ans the connection tries to establish the idea that atheists are in and of themselves evil.

The whole game is based around the idea that some artifact, "The Piece of Eden", ostensibly an alien artifact, (according to the Templars, and a... well, from the title you can guess what the christian and islamic characters think is is) can let you control the masses. The Templars ant to use the device to scour religion from the minds of all in the Holy Land(and then control and rule them, but that's a minor detail. Name a political group that doesn't).

I must admit, this is a case where I identify more with the villains than the hero, as much as I enjoyed the game. The Templars were rounding up books of Faith and destroying them for the lies they are, actively converting the learned folk to their way of thinking, blockading the sea to prevent reinforcement from the crusader countries, finding ways to cure things like mental illness and leprosy, and attempting to unite Richard and Saladin to common cause.

And then the Assassin kills them all on faith.

Oh well. The game was fun, anyway.

Edit: Also, did anyone else who played the game noticed that Vidic was a cross between Half-Life 2's Dr. Breen and an evil PZ Myers(of Pharyngula fame)?

Harper on CBC

Peter Mansbridge interviewed Stephen Harper on The National earlier this evening. I once again got to admire his skill to show how he didn't say those things that made him look bad, ever, and skirt ever single question thrown at him by beating the audience over the head with how against partisanship he is. Which I can understand, since we Conservatives wouldn't stay in power form long in people in Ontario and Quebec realize that they are being represented because they aren't Alberta.

What caught my ear was his answer to the question "Is Leading more about Canada following what you believe, or you following what Canada believes?" Mr. Harper managed to skirt this one with non-committal line about it being a blend of both. I realized then that Harper us a great politician, but has no idea what a leader is. If your will and the people will is not the same, you shouldn't be leading us. THe question shouldn't come up whether to follow what the people want and what the people need. If they want something the don't need, or need something they don't want, its your job to SHOW them. Thats what a Leader is, Mr. Harper.

Mass Effect: Needs More Substance

I picked up my copy of Mass Effect last week. Got home, popped it in ye ole ‘360, and spent the weekend amassing as much game time on it as I could. The Verdict?

Need more Mass Effect.

The game is well done, fairly polished, and damn addictive. Once you pick it up, you don’t want to quit. This is why there is a large gap in between this post and the last post. The game stands up to other games of the genre, like the KOTOR series, quite well.

The game UI screens are fairly intuitive, and pretty to look at. The Character Creation screen is a little limited, but this is not oblivion, so I don’t expect that from it. It gives you a nice range, and variable customization options. I have an issue with the navigation UI, and find myself continually swearing at it. The ‘B’ button is exit, and ‘X’ is zoom out. And I press exit every single time I want to zoom out. Every single time.

The main problem with mass effect is near total lack of unique content outside the main mission. Every cluster has only one or two systems, and a system has only one, small square of a barren, desolate world. Every pirate base has the exact same layout, every bunker follows the same exact blueprint. The sky on every nearly identical planetary may is either filled with another looming planet, volcanic ash, or thunderclouds. Mines, for some reason, all follow the same schematic as well.

Every assault rifle looks the same, as well as every shotguns, pistol, and sniper rifle, the only difference between weapons of the same class being stats, and occasionally, a paintjob done by a 4-year old epileptic.

The main campaign, however, make up for the lack of well, anything else, in the game. The rich, interesting worlds of the main quest (there are five), show the potential of what mass effect could have been. The fact that these finally polished worlds are present in the game puts the emptiness of the rest of the world in stark contrast. The multiple ending are all pleasing, and really gets you hooked on the story.

I won’t go into the story, because, well, I don’t want to ruin it, but suffice it to say, there are lots of choices to be made, none of them easy. The only downside to the story bit is the lack of real character interaction. Okay, lack of interaction besides the people you get to fuck.


Overall, I’d give it a 7/10. It lost a mark for reusing the same three pieces of building geometry on every single non-story worlds, a mark for lack of character interaction, and another one for that goddamn B button.

Link now, post later.

http://www.cracked.com/article_15663_god-fuse-10-things-christians-atheists-can-must-agree-on.html

Angry. Can't type.