#I have a version of her at 60 fps as well for whatever reason

[fishcop]

Tried to animate but got distracted by granny granite

yappin :]

[m39]

History of the Creed - Part 5: Assassin’s Creed: Liberation

This review would have been earlier if I hadn’t had problems with the Internet.

Before we start, here is a fun fact: This is actually the first time I played Liberation. So my opinion may end up differently if I’ll play it in the future. Also, I didn’t get every collectible, since everytime I play the game for the first time, I tend to skip around 50% of the optional stuff to see how the main story ends.

So, without any further to do, let’s get it started.

ASSASSIN’S CREED: LIBERATION (Original release in Europe: October 30th, 2012 (original version on PSVita), January 15th, 2014 (HD version on PC))

Played on the remastered version, released on March 29th, 2019.

Liberation is an interesting case of a game. As shown higher, it was originally released for the handheld-console, PlayStation Vita, as a side game along with AC3. It was later released on the main consoles due to the fans’ petition, adding some content into it, and changing some of the more irritating stuff in it. The remaster I play is based on the latter version. Time to find out if I liked this game.

STORY

Now the plot is rather… how to put it… kinda’ messier than AC3 due to the jump cuts in the Animus console or how the fuck this version of the Animus is called. Here’s how it goes:

You are Aveline de Grandpré, an Assassin and the daughter of the French merchant and the slave woman. She wants to free slaves and stop the local Templars and their leader, The Company Man, from doing... whatever Templars want to do.

So, uhm… yeah, that’s all I can understand from it. The (probably) only thing that stands out is how Liberation is also an in-game product created by Abstergo, but I’ll talk about it later.

CHARACTERS

Aveline is… fine, I guess? I can see why many people like but me? I’m not so sure about it. She wasn’t really annoying but I can’t really see her standing out.

Other characters were doing a nice job. Aveline’s mentor, Agaté, was the most interesting out of all of them, while captain Carlos Dominguez was the funniest character, mostly due to his drunken antics. Also, I liked Connor’s cameo in one of the missions.

As for the Templars, they were underwhelming. Surely, most of them were interesting but I feel like some of them didn’t have enough screen time. The Templar before the confrontation with the Company Man might be the best out of the bunch.

As for the Company Man, well, this character’s identity is kind of interesting but I’m not gonna talk further due to spoilers.

GAMEPLAY

One of the biggest cases of Liberation is that Aveline can change her outfits into three different personas. Each one has its own advantages and disadvantages. Assassin’s Persona will let you freerun, use bigger weapons, and have more health for the cost of constantly being at the first level of notoriety. Lady’s Persona will let you bribe or charm other guards to let you pass, but you can’t have any weapon outside of the hidden blades, your health is lower, and you can’t freerun. And Slave’s Persona will let you slip through the guards while carrying a crate and have a small weapon to defend yourself, but any suspicious activity like climbing will slightly increase your notoriety meter and you have the same amount of health as Lady’s Persona. The last Persona is my favorite one, probably because I can freerun and my notoriety isn’t constantly on level 1. Also, you can easily decrease your notoriety.

Speaking of notoriety, it’s almost exactly like in AC3 with three levels of it and the same ways to decrease it (however, the printers are replaced with the Witnesses). What’s different from AC3 though, is that in Liberation, notoriety is for each of the Personas, that is, it only increases for the Persona you are dressed as, and each way to decrease the former corresponds with the latters. So tearing down the wanted posters decreases the notoriety of the Slave’s Persona, bribing the corrupted magistrates for the Assassin’s Persona, and killing the witnesses for the Lady’s Persona. I’m not gonna lie, I kind of like the idea of it.

You also have a Whip. You can use it in combat to pull enemies closer and make yourself pass through some of the larger gaps. Honestly though, aside from traversal usage, I had no need of using it while fighting.

There are also Chain Kills, which, after filling up, will let you automatically kill up to three targets in a short time. I find this ability useless since you are easily capable of fighting even without it. I used it only once for the tutorial and that’s it.

I mostly liked the locations in this game. In terms of main ones, New Orleans was good but nothing special, while Louisianan Bayou was fine but more annoying. Good thing the trees are stacked up in such a way that it didn’t make me want to use canoes.

Oh yeah, there are canoes in Liberation… I hate canoes. It’s hard to get on canoes. It’s hard to get off canoes. It’s hard to control canoes. The canoes are ass, and I don’t want to talk about them anymore.

To put it in the nutshell, Liberation in terms of gameplay has some stuff that I would remove and many things are just the things from AC3 but still, I had some fun playing it.

ACTIVITIES

I think you already know the drill with this series. In terms of collectibles, there are Alligator Eggs on the bayou (collecting enough of them will give you a hat that scares the alligators away), Diary Pages of Aveline’s mother, Mayan Statuettes in Chicken Itza, and Pocket Watches that can be bought out of friendly smugglers. Also, each Persona have their own individual collectibles: Assassin has the Assassin Coins, Lady has the Jeweled Brooches, and Slave has the Voodoo Dolls.

As for the side-missions, like with collectibles, each Persona gets its own set of five missions. There are also missions where you recruit people for your ship crew, kill business rivals to later buy out their shops, help one of the slaves, heal people who are frenzy on bayou fever, and rob the camps that belong to the impostor’s acolytes.

There is also a matter of Citizen E. As I said earlier, Liberation is also an in-game product created by Abstergo itself, and while playing Aveline’s story you will notice the glitches during some of the cutscenes. These ones have been censored to convince the general public that the Templars aren’t as bad as they look at first. That’s when the Erudito comes in. After completing some of the main missions, in some places there is hidden the Citizen E. Killing them will play the rest of these cutscenes.

In my opinion, this stuff is fine, but I feel like in some places it becomes more obvious that it stagnates. I have mixed feelings on how some of the collectibles can be earned only by a specific Persona. I really enjoyed Citizen E stuff though, due to the award it gives.

GRAPHICS

The graphics, from what I’ve seen, are on the same level of quality as AC3 most of the time. Sure, in some parts is worse, since it started as a Vita game but still, it was good in other parts. As I said at the beginning of the review, this is the first time I played Liberation so I’m not gonna compare it to its previous version.

SOUND

The sound effects were on the same level as AC3 so, it was good. Although the enemies sound somewhat too loud which can get annoying.

The music (composed by Winifred Phillips) was fine most of the part. My favorite one was the one that played in Chicken Itza.

STABILITY

Framerate, for most of the time, was constantly running at 60 FPS except when synchronizing viewpoints for some reasons where it drops to 30 FPS.

The bugs I encountered during my playthrough were actually worse than in AC3. One time, Aveline didn’t appear in the cutscene, so all this time I was watching nothing but her voice. Other time when the game faded to black when I was changing my Persona, it didn’t return to normal, fixed only after I exited and returned back to the game. Another time it straight up just crashed (I think it was during one of the Business Rival missions)! Sure, Assassin’s Creed 3 wasn’t a diamond in terms of bugs, but at least those bugs weren’t so severe as the ones in Liberation.

SUMMARY

Assassin’s Creed: Liberation has many problems: some of its mechanics are redundant, the story and its characters could’ve been better, and the bugs that I’ve encountered were worse than in AC3. Did I still have fun while playing it? Yes, I still had some fun. And I can understand that this game was developed as the handheld console game first that was later ported for the home consoles and PC, but still, if I had to rate this game, I would say it’s just an okay game. Would I recommend it to the other fans? I honestly don’t know. There is some spoiler stuff about the Company Man in Black Flag, but I feel like you won’t miss that much if you skip Liberation.

But oh well, at least the next game on the list is better than this one. Better prepare some ship for the next game. It is the type of game that some certain Vaska will enjoy.

See you next time.

Bye!

[valereth2]

I beat Halo Reach for the second time. I played the original Xbox 360 version of the game on the Xbox One X and not the recent rerelease of it that runs at 60 FPS and 4K resolution. It has a much more steady 30 FPS than it did on the 360, so it still feels smoother to play on this console. When I first played Halo Reach in 2013 or so, it was the game that made me reconsider my position on these games.  Originally,. I just didn't care for the series really. I played them more as something to play on my 360 than anything else, and it never really clocked with me. This one, though, instantly became my favorite in the series at the time, and I wound up thinking that, while overrated, the series was better than I thought, I wanted to revisit this campaign to see if it still holds up to be the best of the Bungie era games. Having played through it for the first time in 6 or so years, I can definitely say that it does. I think this is Bungie's best work, not just in the Halo franchise but period...at least from a gameplay standpoint. It's great. What this game does that I love so much is take everything that was great about the first Halo and toss away everything that sucked ass about that game. Health packs are back. Large open level design is back.Fighting the Covenant is still fun, and the atmosphere and sense of mystery it creates is back. It, also, does away with the worse parts of the first Halo like the Flood (who also suck ass in 2 and 3. I hate fighting them. They ruin every level where you have to fight them) and the ultra repetitive nature of the games second half. Combine all of that with the most variety of any Halo game, and you get the best of Bungiest games. This adds in a level centered around flying the Falcon, and there is finally dog fighting in space in one of the best levels in the entire franchise. It's got turret sections, as well, that do not outstay their welcome. The added variety is much appreciated, and it helps elevate this game to pretty much everything I want from a Halo game from a gameplay standpoint. I can be less kind to the story, though, as I think it has the weakest story telling in the series. With a prequel such as this, you know how it is going to end before we even pop the disc into the console and play for the first time. We know what happens to Reach, so we know none of the main characters are going to survive. When you do that, you have to work extra hard to give the viewer or player a reason to care about what's going on in the story. That's where this game falters. This has the same problem as Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. It does not develop its characters...at fucking all.I couldn't tell you who the characters were in this game or what their personalities or histories or anything are. I know character development has never been Bungies fortey. Their characters are usually static. They don't usually get big character arcs (except the Arbiter in Halo 2. I discussed that extensively in my video review of the game), but these aren't even as memorable as some of the past static characters like Sergeant Johnson or. That's a problem It feels like a missed opportunity to tell a good tragedy type of story. You can write a prequel like this where we know the ending before we even start playing and still have it emotionally impactful when it happens. Look at Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII. If you played Final Fantasy VII, you knew how that game was going to end before you put the game in your PSP for the first time, but it was still emotionally powerful because the game spent 30 to 40 hours before that point developing Zack as a character that you care deeply about. This game just...doesn't. I guess that exposes Bungies biggest weakness as a storyteller. Spoilers beyond this point. As if you haven't played this game in the 10 years or so since it came out. What the fuck is the package? The game makes it seem like it is Cortana, but that makes no sense. The first Halo hints that Cortana has a history with both Master Chief and Captain Keys, and she..given the information about herthat we are given in 4...the package can't be her. It would make no sense. The game talks about it like it is an ancient AI construct more powerful than any human AI. I believe it's meant to be fore runner tech, right? What, then, is it supposed to be? Cortana is not the only advanced AI of her type. There is one in Halo Wars, as well, so that just confuses me. The game tries to make a big deal out of the one spartan that stays behind to blow up the Covenant cruiser at the end of Long Night of Solace, but it immediately undermines his sacrifice by having a ton of Covenant cruisers arrive immediately after he blows the ship up. That cheapens it so fucking much by going "Yeah well that was pointless." It even gives you a moment to reflect back on the planets surface as if the game didn't make it almost comical by how quickly it undid that sacrifice. Couldn't the arrival of the covenant fleet been moved to a mission or two later so as to NOT do this?! Eh. Whatever. From a gameplay standpoint, it is the best work Bungie has ever done. The story falters, but the game is so much fun to play that I don't really mind.

[cupcakeshakesnake]

Watching SU or the first time: Season 3 ep 16~21

(Originally I was going to split the reactions into episodes 16~20 and episodes 21~25, but turns out 20~21 forms one double-length episode. So... yeah.)

Greg the Babysitter

-Man Rose is HUGE.

-One does not simply bathe in saltwater.

-VIDALIA

-LITTLE SOUR CREAM LOOKS LIKE A LENNY FACE

- ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) << SOUR CREAM

-HIS FUCKING VOICE

-FUCKING SOUR CREAM

-DAMMIT GREG

-WAIT HOW TF DID THAT HAPPEN?? THE SHIRT TOOK THE STAINS ON THE HAIR AND FACE WITH IT?? HOW SHIRT WORK????

-damn vidalia

-sour cream. what even.

-”mini human”

-”Did you make him?”

-Never leave... a baby... alone...

-Thanks for making me feel better, Rose.

-wait wtf

-”Vidalia’s gonna destroy me!”

-”ROSE CREEEAAAAM!”

-”I watched him climb all the way up there”

-um

-Rose is strong

-Team Rocket’s blasting off agaiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnn

-So he just went to a car wash and started working there... just like that.

-”So what happened to baby Sour Cream?”  OH HE CAN’T POSSIBLY HAVE GROWN UP INTO THE TEEN KID CALLED SOUR CREAM, THAT’S SUCH NONSENSE

Gem Hunt

-That kinda looks like the bell thing they used to receive Lapis’s message in Season 1.

-Oh yeah, Pearl, let’s all forget that you tried to brainwash the twelve-year-old into having no sense of self-worth.

-wut

-I forgot those gem monsters were still around

-k bye

-wtf Pearl that came out of nowhere

-ah well I guess she needs that boost once in a while

-TO WASH AWAY ALL THE SALT

-sorry that came outta nowhere

-DON’T EAT YELLOW SNOW

-I mean, it wasn’t yellow, but still.

-I love how Connie’s parents went from “Don’t you dare go on disney channel without our permission” to “yeah of course we’ll let you go on that potentially super hazardous mission into the uncharted areas of the wild north lol”

FACE

-That reminds me of that moment in Zootopia where Judy and Nick are hiding in the confinement facility and they almost get caught because Judy’s parents called her on the phone.

-It doesn’t look like it can see anything??

-JASPER?!?!

-JASPER WTF YOU JUST KEEP COMING BACK

-”Connie, where’s the-- *voice crack* jASpER”

Crack the Whip

-Amethyst has been reading that book for a looooong while.

-Steven is Captain Ameria.

-AMETHYYYYYYYST

-I don’t think it has anything to do with her skill. It’s like when you’re practicing for a speech, some school performance or other shitty thing like that, you have everything all perfectly memorized, but when you’re face-to-face with the audience, you forget, and your inner voice just screams FUCK THIS.

-snack break snack break SNACK BREAK SNACK BREAK

-FUCKING AMETHYST

-”JUST AMETHYST BEING AMETHYST BY NOT BEING AMETHYST”

-OOOHHHHH that coke’s gotta hurt their eyes.

-Please don’t do that, salt water really hurts the eyes.

-WHAT THE HOLY FRICK

-SOUR CREAM JUST CHILLING THERE- no wait never mind.

-Nice improvisation, Amethyst.

-But that means Jasper lost it for some reason??

-WELP THERE SHE IS

-IT’S NOT ROSE STOP CALLING HIm Rose... wait...

-”Why don’t you get a life?!”  “Fighting IS my life!”  Every internet troll ever.

-NOOO AMETHYST

holy fuck that got dark

-HOLY FUCK??

-AMETHYST NOOOOO

-DON’T YOU DARE JASPER, DON’T YOU FRIGGIN DARE

-FUCK YOU

-STEVONNIE YSE

-YES

-SHE USES THE SHIELD AND THE SWORD

-Lion, you could have used that sonic roar earlier.

-AMETHYST YOUR SHIRT CHANGED AGAIN

-*laughs evilly*  *walks backwards slowly into the ocean*

-In Amethyst’s defense, if she hadn’t taken on Jasper in the first place, Steven and Connie would have been most likely overpowered.

-On a completely unrelated note, I just ate a candy that said ‘extreme sour black cherry’ and it tastes terrible.

Steven vs. Amethyst

-Amethyst are you wasting perfectly good eggs.

-You better not be.

-Ummmmm Pearl is turning into a cringey teacher

-version 2.000001

-Feels like Pearl’s eyebrows are a bit thick or is it just me.

I am eyeing that thing VERY VERY SUSPICIOUSLY.

-POOR AMETHYST

-I suck at console gaming. I tried it only a couple of times, at my relative’s, It was an FPS; I kept shooting at the ground or the sky and this other kid killed me like 60 times. THERE’S JUST TOO MANY BUTTONS, HOW DO THEY WORK, HOW FINGER WORK

-WHOA THAT’S NEW

-k then

-you both just nearly died but whatever

-”You ruined the ruins”

-um

-”you ruined the ruins”

Bismuth (part 1~2)

-I hold my breath every time Steven gets in the lion’s mane. Also, that’s some durable shirt right there.

-whoa

-WHAT

-new title screen?

-she reminds me of a hippo for some reason

-didn’t she poof Lapis in that other episode flashback

-”It’s... an innie?”  what?

-Are those dreadlocks

vroom vroom.

-Lion: wtf

-Garnet and Pearl are crying with happiness at seeing their old friend again and Amethyst’s just like “Wow, a total stranger!” Amethyst is me at family gatherings

-I don’t blame them for crying though, I mean, if you’re seeing a friend you presumed dead for 5000 years...

-”Where have you been? We thought you’d been captured!”

-uh oh this is disconcerting

-CHIBI GEMS ARE BACK

-uh oh

-”The forge”  Yep, thought she was dressed like a blacksmith.  Or should I say...  BlacksMUTH

-HOLY FUCK DID SHE JUST DO THAT

-uhhhHHHH OK THEN

-ummmmmmMMMMMMM

-I WOULD RATHER NOT STEVEN GOT SMASHED TO PIECES

-AMETHYST THAT’S CHEATINF

FICKING AMETHYST

-Foreshadowing much?

-and open your eyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeesssss

-That is ominous.

-I don’t like this at all.

-Holy fuck?

-Holy fuckk????-

-Yes hello, Rainbow Dalek side of Bismuth.

-Can’t you poof a gem and then smash it?

-holy fuck?

-Holy fuck?!?

-HOLY FUCKING SHIT?

-DAMMIT FIRST JASPER, NOW BISMUTH, WHO ELSE IS CALLING STEVEN ROSE??

-HOLY FUCK IMAGINE IF THAT SHOT HAT HIT ITS TARGET

-HOLY FUCKING FUCK HE STABBED HER

-WTF IS THIS SHOW