Assassin's Creed is going the wrong way.

So I'm playing AC 4 nowadays and I gotta say it has changed so much over the years that it has forgotten to be what it was. I had loved AC1 very much & it's still is my most fav AC game. Everything in it fascinated me. The character, Altair, the story, the setting, the gameplay etc was so beautiful. And then came Ezio's adventure for 3 games. I had liked AC2 almost as much as AC1. Some people liked it more some liked it just as much as 1 but I loved the 1 more. Everything you did in AC1. i.e. eavesdropping, viewpoint synchronizing, random killings, were all related to the main missions. AC2 was way too non-linear for me. I hate it when games are so non-linear that they forget to pay more attention to the main missions. The only "too sandbox-ish" game I like is, 'The Sims' series but that is because it doesn't have any pre-made story that you need to follow in order to proceed. I also hated Ezio as a character. I loved Altair's personality. He had this bad-ass attitude in the beginning and he later becomes very down to earth and nice. I also loved to hate Al-Mualim the antagonist. I hated his accent in the PSP game as much as I love different accents. Though Ezio changed a bit in brotherhood but the game had started to get a little less interesting for me. Revelations was good too but nothing special. I loved Ezio in the intro. He looked very different. I also didn't like the way they showed Altair's story in revelations or so though it wasn't that bad maybe. Desmond's story had started to bore me too with all the 'end of the world' crap. Finally Ezio's story ended as a trilogy & we were given the new character. Unfortunately the game took so much in developing the character that it didn't have any excitement in it except for a few parts. I had thought it would be my last AC game but then I heard about the new game having pirates and later when it got released it managed to get great reviews so I thought of getting it. I'm still very early in the game (3rd sequence) & I just want to stop playing it already. Half of the game is full of boring, hard to control ship travels and battles. It doesn't even seem like an 'Assassin's Creed' game. I'm liking the story for now and the platforming is also still interesting. In fact, I had loved to do all the platforming very early in the game on the beautiful island. I wished that was more in the game, but there are many things that I'm hating. The repetitiveness, the timed missions etc. While I still want to play more and see if there's anything interesting or till I get another game, here are the things that I hate in this game. I might include them again in my review if I do a review if I complete the game:

- Sailing: Very boring and hard to control.
- Ship battles: Always hated these in AC games.
- Random side missions,
- Timed side missions (target went to pee) Side missions shouldn't be timed. why would I waste my time on other missions if they are just as hard,
- Timed main missions: Desynchronized because you couldn't reach in time blah blah boring.
- Baby sitting:  Desynchronized because your Ally died because he can't take care of himself.
- Chasing fragments, shanties etc. As if getting to these shits isn't hard. After you do find out the locations of these shits & reach them they start to run away from you. Why would I waste my time chasing them instead of paying attention to the main game?
- Too many main ship missions: Half of the game is full of ship battles that are not optional. Is this a stealth assassination game or Around the World in 80 days?

 There are two things I hate about Ubisoft. 1. They tend to include things only THEY like and fans hate (for e.g. timed missions, chasing which includes not only human beings but fragments & papers too, horse races with crappy controls & ship battles) 2. They tend to change the sequel way too much from the original. So much, that it looses it's originality & becomes something else (For e.g Assassin's Creed, Prince of Persia series, Splinter Cell, And I yet have to try out Far Cry series.)

 What they should do IMO for the next AC is to add more stealth elements & assassination moves. After all it's "Assassination" Creed & not "Pirates"Creed unless they change the title. We should be able to utilize the platforming, I loved the crypts in AC2. Give us more stealth weapons. They are actually removing throwing knives from AC, Unity I read. That would suck. It was fun throwing knives at the rooftop guards.

Anyway, I'm going to play AC4 to see if I want to continue or not. I've started Far Cry 1 on PC. It doesn't seem much stealthy for now but lets see. And here are my scores for the AC games I've played excluding the PSP one.

AC 1: 9/10
AC 2: 8.5
AC B: 8
AC R: 7.5
AC 3: 6
AC 4: ???? 

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning on GeForce 210

I've been playing this game since a few days. I still have P4 HT & Geforce 210. It wasn't that smooth at first on high setting but toning down a few settings has made it run smooth. I don't remember toning everything down & I'm lazy to check. So far it has been fun. This game is almost as much fun as the Elder Scrolls series. In fact Skyrim tends to get repetitive at times. This game hasn't gotten repetitive yet but I'm still early in the game. The combat is main beauty of the game. It's so beautiful that my hero is more of a mixed character than one in specific category. Though I mix up my character in other RPG games as well but I choose to be a rogue mainly. In Reckoning, the weapons associated with other personalities are so cool that you rarely want to be one kind. In other RPG's, when I choose to be a Rogue/Archer, I DO use a sword for close combat & rarely use magic. But in reckoning, like I said the weapons & animation are so beautiful that I don't want to give up the hammers. Hammers are so much fun. And I also use some magic though I've started using staves & other cool magic weapons (and the other magical weapons are really cool) less & less. There are a few things I wish they had added but every RPG can't be Skyrim. So, unfortunately:

* You can not have a love interest or get married. (I read you can get married in some DLC but not Skyrim style)
* There are no horses or any other rides. (The plain is vast & at times you'd want to take a ride. There are fast travels though.)
* You can not buy houses in every village/town you visit. (You can buy only ONE house, which you can upgrade like 4 or 5 times. The house has a chest that you can use to dump the stuff you don't want to sell but it has a limit of 150. The house also has a mirror where you can change your appearance.) This house can be found at 'Webwood.'
* You can not use your bow in stealth mode. (I hate this very much.) What's the point of stealth if you can not attack enemies from far while hiding. It has these daggers that you can use in stealth which can instantly kill an unaware enemy from stealth and has cool animations for different kinds of enemies.
* You can not have allies. (Kinda sucks because there are just so many cool weapons to choose from & there doesn't seem to be any quick way to access them. You can only map Primary & secondary weapons. For others, you'll have to open up your menu.)

There are so many other cool things you can do in this game. So far, I've been enjoying it very much. Let's see. I've heard it doesn't have good story or the plot doesn't move forward or so. Also, it would be cool if the game allows a controller & we can set some weapons to some quick redial. I don't remember checking my shitbox controller. Maybe I did & it didn't work. I don't remember :P