As I mentioned in my last post, I started my own gaming channel, Calvero Plays. And I chose to start with my favorite series, Assassin’s Creed.
From the very beginning.
I should say that the game is violent, though not in the way that there is horror or a lot of slashing(okay, a good amount of slashing). You only can kill who your target is (along with the target’s henchmen). There’s penalties when you kill innocent people (one of the reasons why I like this series better than Grand Theft Auto).
Below is the first part:
(My microphone level is low, I’m working on adjusting it.)
There also is a good dose of history throughout the series, which is one of the reasons why I love the series so much. This first installment of the series takes place during the Third Crusade in 1191 in such places as Damascus, Acre, and Jerusalem. The music is great (improves IMHO in AC II and Brotherhood), graphics are beautiful, and the game play is fairly good (there have been complaints about it being to repetitive, which is is, but it doesn’t bother me as much).
And this is combination “Let’s Play” and “Walkthrough” since I have played this before and show where things like flags are, easter eggs, and how to defeat people. It’s not thorough though. I never have found all the flags, and I’m sure there’s easter eggs that I do not know about, but there’s a bunch that I share.
How I got interested in the series
I do not fit the typical demographic for playing a game like this. I’m female, in my 40s, and a mom. So how did it happen?
First thing is the historical aspect. As I say in the video, I love history. Any era, it doesn’t matter. I may not understand Wall Street or wrap my head around various scientific theories, but I love learning about the history of anything. Always have (I have a BA degree in it). And when I was first reading an article about the game in a gaming magazine back in ’07, I thought “Wow! That’s amazing!” The pictures were great. I loved that is took place in a different era that was rarely tackled by game developers.
But I was put off by the title. *Assassin’s* Creed. That sounded…well…. violent. Too violent.
Then I got drawn into it. Both the historical part, and the mystery of “The Ones Who Came Before”, the First Civilization, which added a scifi element (where is Ubisoft taking that story anyway? Do they even know?) drew me in.
The first AC game I actually got to play (since Ubisoft didn’t make any AC games for the Nintendo Wii and it was before I got a XBox 360) was Altair’s Chronicles. It was a great game, though a side-scroller which is a different set-up than the 3D-ish POV of AC console games. The ending was a bit of a let down….
And so now I have completed the first installment through III (AC, AC II, AC Brotherhood, AC Revellations, and AC III, total of 5 console games. Yeah, Ubisoft numbered them weird), didn;t finish IV Black Flag. Have yet to start Rogue. At some point I’ll be getting a XBox One and play Unity. But for right now I’m replaying the first one again, this time recording it.
Come along, won’t you? See some beautiful cities, meet some historical figures, watch for glitches (for there are bound to be some)!
A Native American, Theodore Roosevelt, a night guard, Attila the Hun, a monkey, an Egyptian Pharaoh, and the night guard’s teen aged son walk onto a bus…
A couple weeks ago I went to see Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb. I had only seen bits of the first one so I had an idea of what the series was about. And I also went because I was, in a way, paying my respects to Robin. I did not become a sobbing mess like I thought I would be when it got to the scene where Robin Williams’ Teddy says goodbye to Larry. Not going to lie though, I did get choked up. Backtracking, it was good to see Dick Van Dyke again (another person from my childhood), though only for a couple minutes. Mickey Rooney makes an even shorter cameo in his last (?) movie (ah, another one lost in 2014!). Sir Ben Kingsley makes a regal appearance as the father Pharoah, and Sir Lancealot is played by Dan Stevens (of Downton Abbey fame)
Ben Stiller returns, making an interesting straight man for a group of somewhat historical misfits.
And this was all preceded by a trailer for the upcoming Peanuts movie (seeing Snoopy fighting the Red Baron has always been one of my childhood’s fondest memories.)
Wow. So many bits of my youth all in one afternoon.
Memorable scenes: The bit with Jedediah and Octavius watching a cat video on YouTube.
Seen in the trailer where Sir Lance and Teddy introduce themselves to each other:
Sir Lancelot: Sir Lancelot, at your service. Teddy Roosevelt: Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States of America. Sir Lancelot: I have no idea what that means.
The bit in the MC Escher work, “Relativity” was very smartly done..
Hugh Jackman. Was not expecting to see him in the movie. Loved when he broke into his Wolverine pose. Lance asks what is he doing. The woman says he’s doing “his Wolverine thing.”
I did expect, and laugh, when Teddy gives Larry one more scare just like he did in the first movie.
One of the reasons why I like these types of movies is that you have people from various different places on the panet, and from different historical eras, all working together. And saying things that you would not expect to hear, like Larry slapping Attila the Hun and telling him “Huns don’t hyperventilate” (another one of my favorite lines)
Some extra stuff
I came across some videos playlisted on NYT’s site containing clips of the film, interviews, and trailers. Here’s one of them.
I read a lot of professional critics saying it wasn’t that good, but I enjoyed it. Not the best movie out there, but definitely a lot of fun. A good popcorn movie. YouTuber movie reviewer Jeremy Jahns made a good video about his thoughts on it:
Behind the Scenes
And for those of you who like behind the scenes type stuff, Movie Bloopers & Making of uploading 3 parts of various raw clips of the making of the movie.
That’s what I would eventually like to be. And I’m not deterred by the fact that I’m 35 either.
To some, you should have you’re life figured out by then. You’re almost middle aged!
But Life has a way of working in a different way than what you expected. But the dream lives on through marriage, kids, and divorce.
Mark (ex-husband) poo-pooed the idea of me being a writer. Sometimes he was supportive but with everything else that was going on, I was majorly discouraged from writing. I have managed to keep some of my notes and short stories that I have written, and still add onto that.
So what makes me think I could be a writer? Well, throughout my schooling years I was told by all my english teachers plus other teachers that I would have to write essays for, would tell me I had a real good talent for writing. And as the years went by, the teachers never seemed like they were trying to say something nice, but they were consistent. Of course, my papers were not lacking in corrections, but the teachers would make compliments on my style. And all teachers encouraged me to do something with it.
So what kind of writing do I want to get into? Mainly historical fiction. And a bit of sci-fi because I love the idea of time travel. Right now I am working on a story that will mostly take place in Acient Rome. I have not decided whether it will take place before Caesar, after Jesus, or what. Maybe jump around to different eras. Acient Rome lasted a looong time, over 1000 years. The empire was just part of it.
Kristi is also interested in it, which is also part of the reason why I choose a Roman story. She loves (or I should say “loved”. I lost the discs when we moved :() playing Casear IV on the computer, and I would explain the different buildings, classes of people. She loved building her own Roman Empire :). And she watched a documentary that came with it, and looked at My Roman books, and checked out a couple more from the library.
When I told her my idea of writing a story, she loved it. And she wanted to read what I had written which wasn’t much at the time.
And while I was writing the Roman story, which starts of in present day in Somewhere, Some state, USA. I started writing another story changing from a different POV that takes place in the 1950s and I just kept writing. I have not decided whether to combine those.
I have decided to write it the younger set but still enjoyable for “old people” like me. Something like J K Rowling did with her…oh what was that series… She sold one or two copies. OH YEAH! That Harry Potter kid.
And yes, I’m kidding :).
Rowling is an inspiration for me with her writing the first Potter book while being a mom and divorced. That gives me some hope there!
And time for me to go back and deal with being a mom…
As I mentioned 
Backtracking, it was good to see Dick Van Dyke again (another person from my childhood), though only for a couple minutes. Mickey Rooney makes an even shorter cameo in his last (?) movie (ah, another one lost in 2014!). Sir Ben Kingsley makes a regal appearance as the father Pharoah, and Sir Lancealot is played by Dan Stevens (of Downton Abbey fame)
