BBAlpert

I feel like there are some cases where it's not necessary for story reasons and the later games are better, but the earlier games are still worth playing. But because the later games are better, having added in convenient new features or streamlining the overall experience, you have to either play the earlier games first or not at all (because it becomes very hard to go back).

The crew mentioned on one of the Bombcasts a while back that Pushmo and Crashmo had this issue, I'd imagine that some of the Assassin's Creed games suffer from this, and in my opinion this definitely happens with Hitman 1 and 2 after having played Blood Money.

Edit: Looking back, I realize that I basically just repeated what @lydian_sel said.

I also highly recommend those games. Though while it's true that VLR did streamline a ton of stuff, there is still an awful lot of corny fluff dialogue. But then again, that's part of the charm, I suppose.

I do, ever since I came to the realization that pro wrestling occupies the same place in my mind as Eve Online- they're both things that I could/would never put enough time into enjoying firsthand, but I could listen to crazy stories about them all day long.

I really wish Kenway's Fleet had a "speed up all friends" button. Going through one ship at a time can be kind of a hassle.

A lot of the design choices in the game feel like they're directly addressing the problems that people had with AC3.

• A streamlined crafting system that's actually USEFUL
• A protagonist that's not constantly brooding and maudlin
• An out-of-Animus experience that's FAR less up its own ass
• Guns are useful again. They still take a while to reload (because that's just how things were), but now you can carry like 5 pistols.
• A system for making money on the side (Kenway's Fleet) that makes more sense. It's still not great, but it's a lot better than AC3's caravan stuff
• Not as many instant fail stealth missions (although still far more tailing and eavesdropping missions than I'd have liked)

Ah, thanks.

I thought the ending was pretty good, but they never addressed the one thing that I was hoping to learn: How Haytham ended up with the Templars. I know it's Edward's story, not Haytham's, but I kept waiting for some kind of twist where the Assassins betray Edward, or for his experiences with guys like Rackham and Roberts to cause him to believe that maybe people DO need a stern master's hand, or even that the baby that the Templars (or just the British) took from Kidd before she died would turn out to be Haytham- and that he'd be raised and indoctrinated by the Templars. SOME sort of explanation.

Two things I did really like though were the "Market Analysis" segments and what I am wildly speculating to be hints that the next AC may be in China.

Based on the description, it sounds like Spring Breakers is what Hotline Miami would be if it were made in 2035 (so that it would be about 2012 instead of 1989). Having not seen the movie myself, I don't know if that's at all accurate, though.

Saying it's from the Forza 5 QL doesn't help unless you know the original context of the "Never" picture.

Ah, that's right. I think LSL 5 or 6 also had some puzzle where one of the women said she'd sleep with you if you had a condom (which you couldn't get for some reason), so you had to find a rubber glove or a balloon or something to use as a substitute.

Although I may be conflating that puzzle with the balloon animal puzzle in Grim Fandango...