Is anyone playin' it? I'm in the process of playing for the umpteenth time, and this is my best playthrough, with some of my most awesome kills ever. A few of those kills:

-Tamir fell before my hidden blade as easily as ever. I just stood there while blending, and waited for him to come to me.

-Garnier actually figured out my intent a split second before I would have ended his life. Usually I kill him with more stealth. Oh well, grab him, throw him to the ground, hidden blade him, and he's as dead as Tamir.

-Talel stood no chance in our chase, and even less this time. I anticipated his drop from the rooftops before he did, and when he jumped, it put him right in my path. Easy kill.

-Abul Nuquod, the Merchant King, gave me a bit more trouble than he usually does. Took me three tries to get it right. The first try, I jumped from the statue to the structure on the left and was almost upon him before he knew he was in danger, but the guards fought me off. Wanting to do it better (I am a bit of a perfectionist), I reloaded and this time accidentally jumped into the water while trying to take a shortcut to cut the Merchant King off (lol, that was bad). On the third try, I cut around the guards efficiently enough and had Abul before he could escape the palace and run into the streets.

-William of Montferrat didn't take any notice as I fought an angry group of guards just a few feet above where he was lecturing his troops. In order to get on with my work, I threw every guard to the ground and finished him off with the hidden blade. Killing eight or so like this, I dropped onto the platform right above William's head, with William none the wiser, and stealth assassinated him while he *****ed.

-Majd Addin usually proves a bit of a challenge because he's so well guarded. A few times previously, I was exposed when the wandering drunk shoved me while I was trying to get to the scholars, and I'd have to fight my way to him. Or sometimes, when I was crawling over the wall as another way to the scholars, a guard would see me. On this occasion, I managed to get to the scholars by crawling over the wall. It was a simple thing to blend with the scholars as far as the execution platform where Addin was standing, but initially, he wasn't close enough to assure a stealthy kill. So I followed the scholars back to the starting point (they knocked platform's only guard off to join the other guards on the ground, which would help my cause). When the scholars made their rounds back to the platform, Addin was close enough to get at, on the first try. It was a poetic enough victory, given how many times this one has given me problems in the past.

-Jubair was a lot of fun. He had eight or so apostles that look similar to him, and they all went to different parts of the city to burn books. I had killed all the rooftop guards beforehand, so there was none to alert anyone of my presence when I silently ran across the rooftops and picked off every member of Jubair's team from above with throwing knives. Not once were the guards able to so much as locate me after a kill, and it was amusing for me to watch them crowd around each body and yell, "Where are you? I know you must be here somewhere." I'd kill an agent silently and melt into the shadows, like Batman. Incidentally, I happened upon Jubair himself lastly out of chance, and finally revealed myself by jumping out of hiding and slitting his throat. It was like something out of a movie.

-Sibrand was another who used to be difficult because he'd inevitably see me before I reached his ship, and would then lead me on a merry chase throughout the castle ramparts and into the streets. Not this time. This time, I took a more indirect route to the stern of the ship and killed him before he knew I was there, giving him no chance to run away. Funnily enough, it was several minutes before the guards even realized he was dead.

Anyone else a practised killer who would share tales of their deeds in Assassin's Creed?

I played it a couple of times, but it got boring real fast and I ended up getting rid of it.

The most important thing you can do in the game is to always be in "defensive" position when you're in fight mode- that way, you can counter whatever the adversary you're fighting against with little trouble. Short of that, you're pretty much screwed- you can't just go hackin' and slashin' like Jason Voorhees.

BTW- the beggars and the drunkards are TOTALLY annoying and should never have been included in the final dev of the game.

Have the game still in its wrapper

I bought it because of the graphics at the time. I said wow look at how good graphics became!

I suck at playing the games. I would just love to watch someone play it then to play it myself (because I suck at playing xbox games).

It is almost like watching a movie. I must be getting old

The biggest problems with the game are the camera controls and movement- there's simply too many things to do while playing the game, which can result in your fingers being tied up in knots and stuff.

The end-boss gameplay was also rather lame as well- nothing close to what SHOULD be in a final end-game.

I got bored 1/2 into it

I have a friend who can't get the control right to the game. He says the darn man always squats like he wants to take a dump or something. He can't get him to jump or do anything special and gave up on it the first 10 minutes

It's possible to be more offensive as your assassin levels up. With proper timing, one can actually deflect a guard's sword (without having to wait for the guard to strike) and do a cool impalement, or even break his legs (or stab him in the head with the short blade).

With precision and luck, it's possible to win a fight being entirely offensive minded. I can rapidly kill six or seven guards that way. Of course, this isn't possible with the more skilled adversaries, such as the templars or the assassination targets. But remember, Altair is an assassin, so one shouldn't expect him to go Conan the Barbarian all the time. Defense as needed is to be expected.

The control can be tricky, you're right. Even now, as many times as I've finished the game, Altair sometimes hops on a box instead of stealth killing a templar, and inexplicably refuses to climb the rare buggy wall, despite there being obvious handholds. It works beautifully for the most part though.

And once you have the control scheme down, your power is almost god-like.

Some say patience is a virtue. I will eventually take the time to learn. At the moment Fable 2 is what keeps me fascinated

I beat that game so many times, still reinstall it on my PC from time to time just to screw around. I spent too much time getting stoned and lost in the cities and rarely killed the people I was supposed too...but the civilians are fun to stab!