Assassins Creed 3 - PC Review

Steam has a somewhat disheartening feature that logs how many hours you've put into a game. Early into my time with Assassins Creed 3, it read 7 hours played. My save game told me I was 20% through. By that count this should be a fairly meaty game of roaming the Eastern seaboard assassinating things. So why was I learning how to craft furniture?

Assassins Creed 3 doesn't know what it wants to do. Like an over-stimulated child, it sees something exciting, rampages off in its general direction until it becomes distracted, chases a new object and so on. Inevitably the child becomes tired and stops playing, having accomplished very little. 

Maybe this is a tad harsh, but Assassins Creed 3 is characterized by long stretches of activity that have nothing to do with being an assassin. You can't help but feel the time and effort spent crafting these features would've been better spent elsewhere. There is a solid game in here somewhere. You just have to sift through mounds of produce, pelts and plumage to find it.

Dark Souls Review

Ask and ye shall receive, Dark Souls has arrived on PC. Praised for its design and challenge, Dark Souls harkens back to the days when getting hurt couldn't be cured by cowering behind a wall and enemies weren't as disposable as the game's packaging. Dark Souls punishes the weak, but if you are up for it, the payoff is one of the best gaming experiences in recent memory.

It has to be said that Dark Souls is a straight port of the console version of the game . Don't expect to find many of the features you are used to seeing in a PC options menu. Fortunately, an enterprising chap has already found a work around to the limited resolution. The fix provides the depth of customization that will make Dark Souls a great looking game. It is also advisable to play with a controller as the keyboard and mouse support is poorly implemented.

This lack of optimization is a shame, however if you can get past it, you are in for a stellar experience.

And by stellar I mean brutal. You are going to die, a lot. This is a game that never holds your hand.