Zath

UK Tech Blog - Hi-Tech Gadgets & Gaming

The Path of Zath: Gaming Roundup #1

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The Best PC Games being released in 2013 – a great list of pc games due for release this year broken down by type of game, it looks like it’s going to be a great year for PC gaming! (UPDATE: PC Gamer have included updates of how the games turned out with quick summaries and links to their full reviews, quite cool to see how the year turned out!)

Amazing Chinese-style Assassin’s Creed artwork – I’m a real fan of the Assassin’s Creed franchise, while admittedly these are far from perfect yet, still very enjoyable and a great way to virtually experience some history from around the world. From looking at this artwork, I think Medieval Chinese assassin would definitely be an interesting setting for a future game.

This fantastic aerial photo of NYC turns Manhattan into ‘Sim City’ – I used to love the first two Sim City games back as a kid, so this view of New York looks amazing!
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Assassin’s Creed: Revelations Review (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)

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assassins-creed-revelations-cover-artOur old friend Ezio Auditore is back for one final romp, and this yearly dose of conspiratorial frolics is getting somewhat perplexing. Surely such a hasty turnaround should result in shoddy and rushed sequels? But I think it’s safe to say last year’s Brotherhood proved us all wrong, with a healthy measure of new content and logical improvements. The question is, as we close Ezio’s chapter of the story, has Ubisoft’s army of international studios pulled it off once again?

Revelations is the first game to tie all three existing protagonists together, exploring both the twilight years of ancestors Ezio and Altair (the 12th century Syrian assassin), and fleshing out present day Desmond’s troubled past. Now here’s where I have to blurb the “previously on Assassin’s Creed..”, but to tell you the truth, it isn’t exactly straightforward. Not that the esotericism is necessarily detrimental to the franchise, but it does make it a tad impenetrable to newcomers.
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10 Most Wanted Video Game Releases For Autumn / Winter 2011

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deus_ex_logoThe autumn/winter period of 2011 looks set to both blow my tiny mind just like the gaming end of 2010 did last year, and financially destroy me. The cavalcade of great games coming out just in the next few months, let alone early 2012, is almost too long to list, so here’s a few of my most anticipated releases that will keep me firmly in front of the video gaming screen during the cold months.

10. Dead Island

Release: September 9th
This is my wildcard, so to speak. I can’t vouch for any tried and tested genius from this game to make it onto my wanted list. However, the less-is-more direction of the zombie-play has me more than a little intrigued. For instance, just one zombie is tough to fight off (so could be somewhat different from the likes of Left 4 Dead 2), thus the bleak screams of four or five of the chaps becomes utterly petrifying. Plus, plenty of melee frolics, including kicking and explosive throwing knives, makes Dead Island a worthwhile gamble. [Read more…]

Zath @ E3 2011: Games & Press Events Review – Day 1

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Nintendo Press Conference

Nintendo kicked off the day with a conference that left many people confounded. I’m still not sure what to make of it myself, but nonetheless, we’ll try to make sense of the festivities. Project Café is dead, long live Wii U. The naming conventions continue to defy logic and suggest that this iteration isn’t in fact, a whole new console — which it actually is.

The Wii U features a 6.2-inch touch screen controller, as rumoured, complete with mic, camera and gyro sensor. It will be able to run 1080p, is backwards compatible (nudge, nudge Sony) and will allow for multiscreen play with the TV.
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Assassin’s Creed: Renaissance Review (Book)

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It’s very rare (in fact this may well be the first) that we do book reviews on Zath for the obvious reason that as a general rule ‘literature’ doesn’t fall under the banner of ‘technology’, but seeing as this one is about one of the games of 2009 we thought we’d break the rule and have a closer look at the book we brought you news of about a month back: Assassin’s Creed — Renaissance.

As I said before Assassin’s Creed: Renaissance is a novel based on the story in the game which if you read any of the press releases and associated media related to it, has had a lot of effort put into it in an attempt to rectify the mistake made in the first one which lead to very repetitive gameplay and ultimately a general detachment from the storyline through sheer boredom.

So this time around the people behind Assassin’s Creed 2 have engineered the game around the renaissance story of Ezio Auditore da Firenze whom unlike Altiair (the main protagonist in the first game) you follow throughout most of his life — more specifically from the age of 17 where both the game and the novel start.
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‘Assassin’s Creed: Renaissance’ – The Book

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assassins-creed-2-renaissance-book-coverTrying to take something popular (like a TV series, film or game) and trying to transfer it to another it to another medium is very dangerous ground, none more so than any attempt to translate a game into a novel which with the very rare exceptions in children’s and science-fiction genres invariably fails – “Gears of War: Aspho Fields” anyone? Didn’t think so!

But now hoping to harness the every growing wave of euphoria surrounding Assassin’s Creed 2’s imminent release Ubisoft and Penguin have unveiled Oliver Bowen’s “Assassin’s Creed: Renaissance” which will hopefully add a more culturally accepted face on the story behind the game.
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Assassin’s Creed 2 Preview

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assassins-creed-2-coverWhen Assassins was released in late 2007 it set the gaming world alight receiving much critical acclaim and with the story left in many way incomplete it made sense to make a sequel so, two years and numerous awards later Ubisoft are back with Assassins Creed 2.

The fact that there was going to be a sequel is nothing new (we have known that since last November) and it was officially announced with a teaser trailer and a bit of information in April but at E3 2009 we’ve finally got a good look at what it will be like with a 4 minute trailer and 6 minute demo — and it’s mouth watering!

So, what’s new? Well firstly we are in a completely different age — whilst the first had Desmond going back into the time of the crusades the sequel will see him delve back into Renaissance Italy covering the city of Venice.
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