Assassin's Creed 2

Assassin's Creed 2 is the sequel to the 2007 Ubisoft release Assassin's Creed. The story revolves around Ezio, an assassin from the Renaissance time period who befriends Leonardo da Vinci. Assassin's Creed 2 is released on Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 on November 17, 2009 for North America, and November 20, 2009 in Europe. http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=217432

Though the original Assassin's Creed was hailed for its graphical representation of Crusade time Middle East and its historical references, it was also criticized for its repetitiveness. The developer and Publisher of this second installment, Ubisoft, wanted to take heed of this criticism, and added many improvements. The storyline has been much improved, with many twists to the plot, incorporation of a wide variety of side-missions, the introduction of money and RPG elements (armor and weapons are upgradeable), hidden crypts with platform puzzles, and many collectibles like figurines, seals and feathers. The improvements have been generally been well received, resulting in a Metacritic score of 91, where the original Assassin's Creed scored 81.http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/xbox360/assassinscreedhttp://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/ps3/assassinscreed2

The game revisits Desmond, who featured in the first game as the contemporary hero, whose DNA gave access to his Assassin ancestor Altaïr. This time, the game visits a later ancestor, Enzo, who lived in Renaissance Italy. Although not an assassin himself, Enzo learns his father was one, and he reluctantly takes on the role when his father and brother are murdered. As his motive is revenge, the storyline and gameplay is more brutal and dark. Enzo has to learn the ways of the assassin, and contemporary Desmond relives his story to learn along with him.http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/989/989408p1.html

Ubisoft announced on December 1, 2009 that Assassin's Creed 2 will receive at least two packs of Downloadable Contents (DLC) packs in 2010. The first pack, called "Battle of Forli" is scheduled to be released in January 2010. The second pack caled "Bonfire of the Vanities" will follow a month later, in February. There are no additional details on the content, except its size: Both packs will require at least 1GB of hard drive space. http://www.gamespot.com/news/6241616.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=newstop&tag=newstop;title;5

On February 17, 2010, Ubisoft announced the "Bonfire of the Vanities" DLC pack would be released the next day. The pack will feature Ezio and Machiavelli, having them trying to free Florence from a crazy monk Savonarola, in a ten memories-spanning story arc. http://www.bscreview.com/2010/02/assassins-creed-2-bonfire-of-the-vanities-dlc-february-18/

Assassin's Creed 2 was released for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in the US on November 17 and in its first week sold 1.6 million copies worldwide. The PC version was released early 2010. Together with the main verision, the portable spin-offs were released as well: Assassin's Creed II Discovery for the Nindendo DS and Assassin's Creed Bloodlines for the PSP. The game was also released for the iPhone.http://www.gamespot.com/news/6241616.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=newstop&tag=newstop;title;5

In February, 2010 it became apparent that the PC version of Assassin's Creed 2 will require a continuous Internet connection, to validate its DRM.
This became apparent when CVG has received a review copy of Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed 2. Apparently, if the Internet connection drops for any reason, the game exits, forcing the player to start again at the last savepoint.http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/21723.cfm

ARS Technica contacted Ubisoft, who explained:
"As long as you do not quit the game, the game will continue to try to reconnect for an unlimited time. Once the game is able to reconnect, you will immediately be returned to your game,"

"Where exactly you are reconnected in the game may differ from title to title. Settlers 7 reconnects at the exact point where the connection was lost, AC2 reconnects you at the last checkpoint (and not the last auto save, as indicated in the CVG article). There are many checkpoints so you're back to the point where you got disconnected in no time."

"Our online services platform will require a maximum of 50kbps of available bandwidth, so even with the slowest connection, gameplay won’t be affected."http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010/02/ubisoft-details-drm.ars?utm_source=arstechnica&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=rss