Sounds like you have it about right. I like being connected to my friends on Live when I play, so I'll likely stick with that.

Gamespot gave it 9 and IGN 7.7. Welcome to Bizarro world. Review scores are all over the place, it's 12 hours and there's no multiplayer. What's that sound? That's the sound of rental!

And to finish the other discussion we were having: If stalking means entering two words into google then yeah, I'm a stalker.

Inara?

...Anyway, from what I've seen in reviews I'll still like the game. I don't really mind mediocre game-play, if that's what it comes down to, so long as I dig the setting, story, and/or characterization.

As far as length is a concern, I'm part of the "not enough hours in the day" crowd. I may never get past level 10 in Oblivion, and I don't much care. If I can get most of the experience in ten hours scattered over a couple weeks, I'm perfectly content.

I'm also perfectly content to drink a nice, fresh, bottle of High Life, though, so perhaps I'm just not that picky.

Somebody has to make sure the interwebs don't run out of things to whinge about. This should keep those who like to argue about consoles busy for the rest of the week.

Timed sections in games piss me off no-end, imho its the games developers copping out completely and hoping that by adding a timer they will somehow create the illusion of tension. It works in films because you watch the film once and don't have to keep rewinding and watching the same section if the actors bodge the bomb timer defusing.

That being said there are some games that benifit from having a timer. Counterstrike for example shows that when a timer is added as a key element of gameplay it can work (eg bomb timer). When plot driven games resort to a timer on the other hand it normally feels to me like a "immersion countdown" as soon as the timer reaches 0 so does my suspension of disbelief.

EDIT: A while back I heard word of a PC version being released? is this still the case or will I have to run across the local rooftops with a breadknife strapped to my watch?

I dunno - coming back after a review has been published and clumsily changing the tone of the framerate issues from 'gameplay-breaking' to 'mildly annoying' raises questions about IGN's editorial process. I'm guessing the difference is really between the review copy (aka beta) and a final version that was rushed to IGN's offices with better PS3 optimization.

It's interesting that IGN claimed the framerate on PS3 was horrible yet Gamespot says the PS3 version has a better framerate than the 360 version. This and Uncharted are the next two games in my gamefly queue so which ever comes out first is the next game i'm playing.

I don't know, Dev, that Teamxbox review paints a bad picture. Sounds like the last mission in the game is really really frustrating. I'm really torn.

Finished my first assassination last night... Have to say, the game looks pretty simplistic and repetitive. I'm still having fun, though. I can imagine playing through one more time, maybe, just to accomplish some things differently. But the repetition makes itself known in just about every aspect of the game, so if you don't think you'll like that, then rent.

I was right there with you until the High Life. Now I'm not so sure about Assassin's Creed

I think I'm gonna pick this up, despite the potentially mediocre gameplay. This sounds a lot like Crackdown - really fun to jump from building to building, but not too much fun to make the assassinations. Nonetheless, exploring the cities sounds like a blast, and I'm hoping that the escape scenes are at least really fun.

I might also "reverse cheat" and only use the monk invisibility when, you know, there are actually monks around.

I just got back from picking it up at Gamestop (what can I say I still pre-order games just so I don't have to hear them bitch and the BB/Wal-Mart/Targets around here don't necessarily get games on launch day/or even in launch week sometimes). I watched the head to head comparison of the 360 vs the PS3 one today and still went for the PS3 version. I've pretty much decided that I'll be getting PS3 versions of multi-platformers from here on out. I don't have a lot of Live buddies so I rarely do anything online anyway, and while the Achievements are addictive I've never been able to rack up the complete achievements for any one game. Anyway back to topic... I've been watching all the videos and I think I'm going to have a blast with this game

Gabe has a pretty length writeup on Penny Arcade today about AC. I think it helps put the reviews into perspective and has left me feeling encouraged about the game.

Yeah a lot of the reviews I have been reading say it looks great, the gameplay is extremely repetitive (almost chorelike), and combat is pretty terrible considering you're supposed to be an assassin. Although, the synopsis of the story does say that you are a disgraced assassin. My money is on you being disgraced because you can't do stealth kills and have to blindly charge into enemies to get to your mark.

Eh, I'm going to have to agree that this one screams rental until I am proven otherwise.

I just read it as well. For anyone interested: http://www.penny-arcade.com/2007/11/14/#22310
The short of it is that he defends the credibility of endorsements on the [Penny Arcade] site and that reviewing a sandbox-style game on a deadline isn't much fun. Exploring, climbing walls, combat, and performing side missions are fun when you do them at your own pace but not when you're in a rush to give impressions of Assassin's Creed so you can get to the laundry list of other games coming out right now.

It's encouraging to hear Gabe speak up in defense of the game and I bet he sold a few thousand copies of the game right there. Taking his advice to heart, however, means I'm not going to get around to this game until after the holidays. I won't be able to sit tight and leisurely enjoy a single game right now, I caught a bad case of gamer-ADD-itis just like most of you around here. Highly contagious, that.

My copy just shipped from Gamefly for the PS3.