I finished Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood and Assassin's Creed: Revelations. I started Assassin's Creed III, too, and have got some way in. So far, of the five AC games I've played, Brotherhood is my favourite. I feel it had the right balance between everything. Revelations tried to expand a little too far in some things and sacrificed other things that I felt were still important. It still had great stuff to it, but I just didn't feel anything was balanced just right. It was trying to be too much of everything and ended up achieving little.

I worry that ACIII is heading in that direction, too. There is so much to do that it distracts a lot from the storyline. I find myself more interested in growing my homestead and hunting animals than I am in progressing the storyline. I feel they have mixed two games into a single game with this, and I don't think it works. I love large, open worlds, but only if I have a story-driven purpose for that large, open world. Instead I have a world that feels far, far too large for the game's story (maybe that will change, I don't know, but if it does it's poorly paced and if it doesn't it's poorly designed), and a lot more fun doing the exploring and village-growing than I do taking part in a history lesson. And in this game, unlike the previous games, it really does feel like much more of a history lesson.

Very mild spoilers, but oh well.Benjamin Franklin and his Almanac? Boston Tea Party? Really? I admit that I liked that I loved the end of the Boston Tea Party where I drop the last crate while giving Mr. Bad Guy a cold stare, but overall I miss the charm and passion of the Italian characters rather than the focus on the history of America. I still enjoy ACIII despite these things, though, and I in particular like those things I have mentioned (hunting/homestead) along with the tree-branch travel which is great fun at times. I'm not hugely fond of the combat system, which I do feel Brotherhood and Revelations were better at, but I like the new weapons.

I also got bored last night and really was looking for a way to kind of... tick through time gaming while listening to my own music. Over the past month mental fatigue has left me not wanting to play FFXIV (although I still look forward to getting back into it, I just want it to be when I'm ready), so after a little wishing I still had my old 386 and all it's games (I don't want to have to pay for them again!), I opted to open up Football Manager 2012 again. Played a game with Eyeson F.C., lost, got annoyed at how the naming convention I used made it so hard to tell who was what in the game... and then got an idea. Opened up my old FC United game (which is about ten seasons in, I'd just finally got a PL title in that game), saved under a new file name and... promptly resigned, removed almost ever league and went on holiday for a season. I thought to myself "You know, it'll be interesting to see what it's like to go for a really low league club as a PL title winnig manager." Let's see how long I last with this venture...