#taXmaster

[fofi42]

Alex I-didn't-have-time-to-make-this-so-I-went-to-the-corner-and-pretended-to-ring-Greg Horne

aka

taXmaster

[sleepyconfusedpotato]

Just finished grinding Assassin's Creed Mirage! WOOHOO! ୧⁠(⁠ ⁠ಠ⁠ ⁠Д⁠ ⁠ಠ⁠ ⁠)⁠୨

I think it's a deffo wonderful game and a refreshment after the RPG trilogy (it does have RPG elements to it, but still), and it also have some things that are lacking. It reminds me of the good 'ol days, but deffo not on par with the good 'ol days.

Here're some of my thoughts and reviews!

🕌 Sleepy's Assassin's Creed Mirage Review 🗡️

(Spoiler Warning ⚠️ Including the ending ⚠️)

Disclaimer, this is just my personal opinion. You may agree and disagree. I’m just gonna talk a lot because I LOVE Assassin’s Creed with all my heart. Here goes.

VISUALS

(+) Basim Ibn Ishaq, the handsome man that you are… HOLY SHIT (yes I’m adding him as the first plus point of this game what of it). Man's fine AF. 

(+) Baghdad’s really beautiful, nuff said. The color palette is PERFECT - displays the warmth of the atmosphere really well, but also just enough greens and many starking hues of flowers. 

(+) The waters and environment textures are CRISPY.  The detailed patterns on the clothes, the engravings and the state of the arts is really cool. I haven’t really looked a lot into the 800’ Baghdad arts, but I can see lots of good details and art styles. SHOUT OUT TO THE ARTISTS!!

GAMEPLAY - Now here’s what I have a lot to comment on.

(+) Stealth -> I think they did quite good with the stealth. One of the many complaints that I saw on the previous RPG trilogy games was the fact that the main characters/players had no reason to be stealthy, because they can just barge in and defeat the enemies easily. Ubi has marketed the game to be more stealth focused and intentionally made Basim a less of a fighter (make sense, since he came from a thief background, unlike Bayek, Kassandra, and Eivor who are actual trained warriors since they’re kids). However, this brings me to the first lacking point.

(-) Combat -> The combat feels janky. I feel like I’m really fucked up in combat situations if I don’t upgrade my sword and dagger. Like I get it, Basim is not meant to be much of a fighter, but in the beginning parts (or… even the middle parts of the game, let’s be real), I feel like combat is HELL. I forgot the Youtuber who said it, but he said something along the lines of “I’m an assassin, I want to feel like an assassin and want to feel like a badass and can take down many enemies with ease.” And that actually rings true with me. When I’m in combat and countless soldiers are fighting or following me (and I don’t have the smoke bomb with the forgetting effect), I’m most certainly FUCKED. 

(+) The fighting style is cool though, it's stylish and the finishing moves are sick af. It could deffo use some work. 

(-+) Parkour/Movements - It’s alright. It’s most certainly better than the previous RPG trilogy, but it’s definitely not Unity or Syndicate. Sometimes Basim can do something that I didn’t want and I’ve lost count on how many times I got caught and died just from a mis-movement. I literally don’t understand why they don’t use the Unity parkours and combat styles. Unity’s parkour is smooth, swift, and stylish. It feels GOOD. 

(+) Stealing - I’m a loot goblin in games, and believe me, I think I’ve spent like hours just stealing from the entire population of Baghdad that by the end of the game I’m probably richer than the Taxmaster and the whole entire Abbasid Caliphate. It’s fun, it’s easy, but it can sometimes be hard enough to miss. I just hope there’s more variety/difficulty in the stealings in different places – Like maybe in the Round City the diamond thingy is much smaller, or in like for stealing merchants (who has particular fashion/silhouette or have wallets/pouches with different colors) can be harder to steal from but have more rewards and money. 

(-+) Map - OKAY. I love the fact that Mirage has a significantly smaller map than that of Odyssey and Valhalla. It’s focused and it’s much more centered. HOWEVER. For a game this caliber, and with this good of a graphic? It’s much too small and it’s too divided between two parts. Hear me out – The graphics are really cool, but I feel like the map is too divided between – either a densely populated city, or just barren lands of desert. I think the map could be much much bigger with much more collectibles and much more variety in the terrains. Like, for example in Black Flag (The S tier game. Argue with a wall), there’re more than one major city, while in Mirage the map is so very centered (Yes I get it it’s the Round City), but I’d love it if there’s another major city that we can travel to, like Damascus, for instace. + I love the Tales of Baghdad. MORE TALES OF BAGHDAD PLEASE. 

STORY - nOW THIS… I never liked the stories post - Origins and here's why : 

(-) LET 👏 THE ACTORS 👏 DO 👏 MOTION 👏 CAPTURE 👏 - My biggest complaint for the RPG game styles is always about the facial and motion animation. The cutscenes feel DEAD. The eyes are DEAD. I almost can't feel anything. Ubi is rich af, why not use facial capturing? AC3 was the first AC game to use motion capture, and holy shit… it's one of my fave games. Yes. All games, not only AC series. The emotion in their faces, the gestures, the small glances, the little movements - they all decide every character's personality. The reason why I love every AC since AC3-ACOrigins is because the actors pour all their voices, faces, even body movements into the interactions between characters, because they make the stories feel alive. Let the actors be actors. I can rant more but this is already a long post so I'll stop. MOTION 👏 CAPTURE 👏.

(+) I love Basim's origin story. Dude's a 17 year old street thief who got a bit over his head and ended up becoming a fugitive because he killed the fucking caliph himself. That was crazy HAHAHAH anyway even though I think the beginning felt a bit rushed I love it. I just wish they could milk it more.

(+) I love the side characters! Especially Ali (I think he's hot 👉👈 and he's the absolute freedom fighter). Anyway, even though they don’t really do much, they all feel alive and do lots of things (except Roshan prolly HAHAHAH but there's a reason I guess)

(+) Roshan. Mentor and reminds me of Al-Mualim. I particularly love the fact that after all that wise words throughout the game, she literally threatened Basim if he actually went to the underground temple. And when she showed up covered in blood??? And THE TWIST AT THE END??? "Roshan bint La-Ahad". SHE'S ALTAIR'S ANCESTOR. THAT FUCKING SHOCKED ME YOOOO. She's just amazing. 

(-) Pacing - I feel like this is because they’re speeding things up (which is a good thing), the pacing is pretty standard in the beginning, but the ending is a bit too high of a rollercoaster mount. The ending went from 0-100 real quick. I feel like we need a more of a climbing storyline. This is why I kind of don’t agree with the ‘centering’ storyline instead of a linear story. Centering styles of story has no climb in the intensity, and because of that we can’t feel the character developments because he’s supposed to stay the same even though we’ve killed like 3 bosses already. And then when all the underlings are dead, finally the boss racks up Basim’s curiosity super duper high that it becomes too sudden.

(-) Weak Villains - The villains since Origins are always hidden and unknown, unlike the previous games where the Templars are literally KNOWN by the people. I want more villains like Haytham tbh, where he literally doesn’t care about the precusor sites and only wants stability in his reign as a Grandmaster. Or if the villains do care about the Pieces of Eden or have a prior interest of the First Civ, at least let them have an actual personality and character, let them be a menace and a threat since the beginning of the game instead of being the NPC’s we kill to finish the game. Let them challenge our beliefs as an Assassin/Hidden Ones. Let the villains actually have an impact to the main storyline. Imagine in the end Basim and Qabiha really went to the underground temple together, and got confronted by Roshan. That’s where the conflict in Basim climaxed! Imagine the emotion! The drama~! 

(+) How the stories interlinked with Valhalla. Basim is a sage, and host of Loki who sought revenge to Odin (who wronged him). So I don't think Basim nor Loki are evil per se. They're just gray. Now the stories aren't just about Templars vs Assassin, it's more focused towards the First Civilization. It's a bit hard to keep up but it's nothing a bit of reading/looking up some lore videos wouldn't solve.

MISC

We need more outfits! The outfits are far too few for us to choose from! 

Wonderful and mystifying music. Nuff said. Brendan Angelides and Layth Sidiq nailed it. One Republic and Mishaal Tamer’s “Mirage” in on repeat on my Spotify right now.

I love gear chests hunting and all the collectibles. I just wish the map is bigger and there’re more collectibles T_T I’M A LOOT GOBLIN OKAY.

I learn history of Baghdad LFG. I play largely for the stories and not the gameplays, so if there’s a codex entry or any new historical sites I always read it. Learning history doesn’t hurt! 

How I can really relate to the real world. I live in Indonesia where 90% of the people is Muslim (I’m a Christian), so when I here familiar words like Alhamdullilah, Assalam’ualaikum and Wa’alaikumsalam, or see the people praying, the Adzan sounds throughout the city, the people praying towards the Ka’bah, it kinda feels like home! Just hope that they add more funny shit to it though, like “Yaallah Basim! Istighfar!” Or “WALLAHI.” Or more Arabic sayings so we can immerse more to the world.

MAKE BASIM DO THE 5 PRAYERS (maybe when we pass time or after a big mission we come back to him finishing a prayer).

FINAL VERDICT - 7.8/10 -> It’s a focused game, and it really did come back to some of the original elements of AC before the RPG trilogy. It’s not too long and casuals can play it without feeling like we have to grind like Odyssey or Valhalla. Deffo would recommend playing it!

Once again, BRING BACK MOTION CAPTURE ‼️‼️‼️🗣️🗣️

If you did play it gimme some thoughts in the comments! Thank you for reading! (⁠人⁠*⁠´⁠∀⁠｀⁠)⁠｡⁠*ﾟ⁠+

[almacambiondaughterofsaleos]

i a bit disapointed about how poor Is the cultural diversity of the sinners.

We could have perfectly knights' who abused of their ranks, we're dishounorables or plainly violents.

Imagine if the cursaders who betrayed the church, now serve the demons as taxmasters.

" You better pay for your wáter and elecricity Bill, unless you wants the Giants jurggernauts of metales to break our Bones and talk all our money."

Man that would be cool

[taxmaster123]

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[omanxl1]

Funky House " Move On 2022 " Original Mix by Philgood 5336

Funky House ” Move On 2022 ” Original Mix by Philgood 5336

Digital Crate Digging Continues as we proceed and continue with this O-Dog Day Party on this Fabulous Friday!! the way we’re rocking it’ll blend in with the Friday Night Fever segment! The saga / struggle continues as life goes on as the toil and strife goes on; who’ll get a pass? please! we’re all going through something / everybody is eligible for it! Once again it’s on, as we party with a…

[potentpleasures]

STARTING JAN 2nd we will be printing loan checks on the spot!! #taxlaw #taxseason #taxes #taxreturns #taxpreparation #taxmaster #onlinetaxpro #taxday #taxaccountant #selfemployed #taxpreparer #financialfreedom #certifiedtaxprofessional #taxstrategist #tax #incometaxprep #incometaxpreparation #taxprofessional #taxplanner #irs #taxpros #taxeseason #virtualtaxprep #taxhelp #incometaxpreparer #certifiedtaxspecialist #certifiedtaxpreparer #taxprep #taxexpert #taxpro https://www.instagram.com/p/B5xn5DlFHGm/?igshid=uk7xoqb6iysm

[bunnywand]

u only need 2 swap round a couple of letters in “taskmaster” to make a Radically different show.. “masktaster” 😧

[cemeterygrotesque]

yes. 

we have taxes.

yes they are just as corrupt as you imagine

[yanavaseva]

Commission by etheldeviant on deviantart. Here's the context: Dzjana Lotheed as played in heavily customized version of Paizo's War for the Crown adventure path. Her half-brother and the County of Meratt have been saved from the schemes of the duplicitous taxmaster Gul Ghisarne. But despite his betrayal, she cannot help but mourn his ashes and what could have been.

[megathetaxmasterconsultancy-blog]

Here at The Taxmaster Consultancy we solve your tax problems for you.

[accounting4taste42]

My latest certification, because I can't seem to stop learning.... (at TaxMaster Financial Services Corporation) https://www.instagram.com/p/CHqMs8ulUQO/?igshid=1kvjktxa7vt5y

[scriptnews]

TAXMaster – Finance, Tax, Consulting & Corporate PSD Template TAXMaster - Finance, Tax, Consulting & Corporate PSD Template Prix : 12$ et

[omanxl1]

Funky Disco House Mix By Cole 2021

Funky Disco House Mix By Cole 2021

Digital Crate Digging Continues, check us out as we come through on this Saturday morning… …as it transitions into a Saturday afternoon; we’ll hit you up with this good word and a tune or two letting my people know what it do! it’s on once again! Check us out as we’re O -Dog Day Partying trying to uplift the masses! Check us out as we try to survive in the heart of this thing dropping this…

[potentpleasures]

STOP BY AND SEE WHAT WE HAVE TO OFFER THIS SEASON •Tax Prep for INDIVIDUALS & SMALL BUSINESSES •CREDIT REPAIR @carterandassociatesllc #taxlaw #taxseason #taxes #taxreturns #taxpreparation #taxmaster #onlinetaxpro #taxday #taxaccountant #selfemployed #taxpreparer #financialfreedom #certifiedtaxprofessional #taxstrategist #tax #incometaxprep #incometaxpreparation #taxprofessional #taxplanner #irs #taxpros #taxeseason #virtualtaxprep #taxhelp #incometaxpreparer #certifiedtaxspecialist #certifiedtaxpreparer #taxprep #taxexpert #taxpro https://www.instagram.com/p/B5wLYU7lHZJ/?igshid=fmqvxct730m3

[sir-purely-blog]

Business just got so real on so many levels. *Certificate of Registration of Business Name of Purely Royal Company* Ps. If you know us as Purely Enterprises before now, that has changed. We are now officially known as Purely Royal Company. The business registration number is BN 2497334. It is time to truly provide value and make money from it. The taxmaster is just around the corner waiting... #sirpurely #onepurely #purelygallery #teampurely #business #entrepreneur #hustle #buypurely #registration #value

[siliconpalms]

The US Economy is Rolling Over

The US Economy is Rolling Over

[box type=”alert”]Yet another “unmassaged” data point has shown that the US economy is rolling over.[/box]

If you’ve been reading me for a while you know that one of my biggest pet peeves is the fact that headline US economic data (GDP growth, unemployment, inflation, etc.)  is massaged to the point of being fiction.

For this reason, in order to get a real read on the economy, you have to look…