Assassin's Creed celebrates its 15th birthday! And I could not have a more ambiguous history with this franchise. While I did play the games chronologically, I admit that Assassin's Creed II remains my alltime favorite. Having the advantage of living in Europe and - at that - very close to Italy, I actually took a … Continue reading Tuscany and Venice, Ezio style! (Assassin’s Creed II)
Disclaimer: While the latest entry of the franchise, Assassin's Creed: Valhalla, has been out for a while now, the last installment I played was Assassin's Creed: Origins. And that only after a lengthy absence of a couple of years after having played through Assassin's Creed: Unity quite a number of times. The reason for that … Continue reading Assassin’s Creed – Ranking My Favorite Games
You may think this is about a Rainbow Six Siege-mission, but you could not be more wrong... So, it's been a while since I updated this series, but in order to remedy that woeful neglect, here's a quick recap of which games and missions were featured so far: Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, Saving Caterina Sforza: The … Continue reading Favorite Mission Six – Hostage Situation Resolved
Welcome to the second part of Whatchaa.com's best and worst of 2017 series! Now, I don't think that a game necessarily needs a powerful nemesis for it to be a good game (The Last of Us comes to mind). But if there is a nemesis (and let's face it, in most cases there is that … Continue reading Heroes and Villains of 2017
As mentioned in my last Favorite Mission-post, this one brings us back to the Assassin's Creed-franchise, more specifically back to Assassin's Creed II and beautiful Venice. Why this game? Italy! Venice! Ezio! Need I say more? That's what I thought. Seriously, though, I still consider Assassin's Creed II the best to date (Let's face it, … Continue reading Favorite Mission Four – Assassin’s Creed II, Deja vú
Usually, when I'm taking my car for a ride, which does not happen all that often, there's a best-of-compilation of The Glitch Mob playing. For longer trips of, say, four to seven hours, I connect my mp3-player, which features the best playlist ever for long hours spent alone in my cute little convertible. The ultimate … Continue reading Ultimate car playlist
So I promised to publish my first favorite mission somewhere during the first week of October, but unfortunately there was lots to do at work and also, I got totally hooked on Watch Dogs (That story! The hacking! That soundtrack!) and didn't really play anything else these past days. Still, here it is, finally, one of … Continue reading Favorite Mission One – Hopeless Romantic
I've decided to do a series about my favorite missions and how I like to beat them. Favorite missions are those missions I like to play over and over again, for various reasons. Some for the thrill, or the possibilities, others for the romance, and some for both. These missions feel comfortable, somehow, like a … Continue reading New series: Favorite missions
There is something extremely thrilling and utterly satisfying in just rolling through a game like nothing can touch you. You've sunk hours into learning the combat system, sure, summer has gone without you noticing, but, hey, you're the boss now! Let's face it: Essentially, games exploit our need to prove ourselves. And once we've tasted … Continue reading It’s the competition, stupid!
The second episode of Hitman is out! Set in sunny Sapienza, jewel of the Amalfi coast in Italy, it does up the ante in comparison to the Paris fashion show. Why? Well, for one, there are three targets instead of two (two hits, one virus to be destroyed) and second, getting to your targets is … Continue reading Hitman or What’s next for Agent 47?
Ever had a crush on a video game character? I confess: it was my guilty pleasure letting Ezio Auditore do some extra climbing in the early hours of Assassin's Creed II, just because I enjoyed the view. And - emotional and awesome as it was - I heaved a wistful sigh when he first donned … Continue reading It’s not cheating!
Ubisoft published The Division and Far Cry Primal pretty much the same week and since I could not decide, I started to play both at the same time. I expected Tom Clancy's The Division to be much like another Ubisoft title I played and enjoyed, which was Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell -The Blacklist, and yep, … Continue reading Far Cry Primal vs The Division
There exist a multitude of articles on the web that analyse how video games make use of the classic hero's journey, as described by Joseph Campbell in The Hero with a Thousand Faces. There is one article by Stephen W. Williamson in Relevant Magazin, dated March 7th 2005, that I myself found particularly interesting. In … Continue reading Making life count or Why no game needs a hero
Games are all about a gripping story, characters you can relate to, stunning visuals and surprising ideas and concepts. But what really, really makes them great is their musical score. This is something that, at least to me, begins with the trailer music. One of the best trailers ever is that of Assassin's Creed Revelations, … Continue reading Games and Music – Six favorite music moments and a (dis)honorable mention
Last weekend I realized that I haven't posted anything the past two months, but I do have the perfect excuse: Dragon Age Inquisition. If you haven't played it yet, by all means do. The story is beautifully written, the settings incredible, the dialogue options many and the characters both cliché and colourful. I especially loved … Continue reading Language!
Those moments when you realize you're in over your head. We've all had them. Here are my Top Ten. So far. 1. Jedi Knight II - It's all so fresh! That moment happened at the very beginning of the very first mission in Nar Shadaa, the famous Vertical City. It was the first PC game … Continue reading 10 Holy Sh*t-Moments in gaming
While having done my share of gaming ages ago, starting with such classics as Day of the Tentacle, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis or Monkey Island and working my way through a few Star Wars Titles (Jedi Knight, Mysteries of the Sith), all of those played on my various PCs and laptops, a … Continue reading Ultra rare
When I started studying I wanted to do an internship at LucasArts, didn’t care which department. I loved the games, be it the classic Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, the legendary Monkey Island or Jedi Knight. I remeber scouring the Website for fitting openings and fantasizing what it would be like, living alone … Continue reading My couch, my castle
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