By popular request, for those of you who want to collect every item, every feather, decipher every glyph in the excellent Assassin’s Creed II then these are the maps for you:

Achievementhunter.com has all the maps from the game showing the locations of all feathers, glyphs and statues. Also when you click on each of the hidden items locations you get a youtube video showing its exact location. Couldn’t be simpler. Happy hunting!

Assassin’s Creed II is out now on Xbox 360 and PS3.

I mentioned in my Assassin’s Creed II review that 2 bits of DLC were going to be published by Ubisoft. Well, Battle of Forli (the first DLC) turned up last month to a fairly muted reception. Too easy, too short and therefore too expensive. Here’s hoping that the Bonfire of the Vanities DLC fairs a bit better.

Ubisoft’s Christophe Grandjean has posted 2 pictures taken from the latest Bonfire of the Vanities DLC via his twitter account. Take a look:

Interestingly, the action forms part of memory 13 in which Ezio gains a new move – spring jump – which isn’t available in the rest of the game. I guessing Ubisoft have come up with some suitably clever way of making Ezio “forget”" this new move before the end of the memory sequence. Mmmm, decapitation, head trauma, excessive exposure to lolcats maybe?

Update 18th Feb 2010: This DLC is now available in 2 flavours. For 360 MS points you can get the new memory sequence missions. But for 560 MS points you get 3 secret Templar lairs to explore which were includes in the black edition of Assassin’s Creed.

Assassin’s Creed II – Bonfire of the Vanities DLC is out now on Xbox 360 and PS3.

In the 2 years that have passed since my Assassin’s Creed review Ubisoft have been working on a sequel that should address many of drawbacks to the first game. It’s not like Assassin’s Creed was that bad. I really liked it, so much so I could forgive the crushingly repetitive nature of the missions and the long, and boring monologues. Oh, yeah, those drawbacks.

So what’s changed in Assassin’s Creed II? Well, the cites are much more detailed and are positively heaving people to interact (kill, bribe or buy stuff from) with. Ubisoft has done a great job optimising the Anvil game engine used in the first game. I just love the whole look and the feel of the game. It’s perfect. Wandering around Venice during carnival is just spectacular. Venice really thrives with people, fireworks, costumes and face masks. Your character, Ezio is also a joy to control. After a few hours (even if you’ve never played the first game) you will be running around rooftops and killing people like a pro! This all helps really pull you into the game.

Assassin’s Creed II has a better plot, shorter more meaningful cut scenes (thankfully!!!!) and characters in the form of Ezio and your best mate Leonardo Da Vinci that are not total arseholes. There is even more variety in the missions. Admittedly, you either kill, follow, fedex an item from A to B, chase or beat people up in these missions so there isn’t a hug amount of variety, but it is a very welcome and much needed improvement. Such is the improvement, Assassin’s Creed II becomes even more of a time killer than the first game. Entire afternoon’s will disappear playing this game. I promise you.

The music in Assassin’s Creed II is just awesome. All the tracks that Jesper Kyd has composed complement the gameplay perfectly. In fact, I have the official soundtrack on my iPhone it’s so good. My person favourite is the Venice Rooftops track (listen on iTunes).

The missions aren’t the only aspect of the game that has been expanded. Multiple weapons, armour, items, money and property development are all now included. Ezio can earn money from the various missions, or pickpocketing people in order to buy better weapons, and develop his home villa (e.g. fix up shops and buildings). Whilst all this brings another aspect to the gameplay, once you get to about half way through the game money becomes pretty pointless as you have so much of it. Well I did anyway!

The only other thing I can find wrong with Assassin’s Creed II is the clumsy way several “memories” are missing from the game, only to turn up – at cost – as downloadable content (DLC). Will I be buying this particular bit of Assassin’s Creed II DLC, well, no I won’t.

In summary: Assassin’s Creed II fixes many of its predecessor’s faults to produce an excellent game. Highly recommended.

Screenshots:

Assassin’s Creed II is out now on Xbox 360 and PS3.

Here’s a good walkthrough by one of the Assassin’s Creed II developers showcasing some of the main character’s new moves and weapons.

I like the double stab move in particular. It’s really quite effective. Also the ability to hide bodies in haystacks and swing around corners is also quite cool. The use of poison is a nice touch, bringing a little bit of variety to the assassinations. So far Assassin’s Creed II is shaping up to be a great game. Looking forward to playing it in Nov 09.

Video originally found on Destructoid.com

Update 3rd March 2010: Maps showing all of the Assassin’s Creed II hidden item locations.

Assassin’s Creed II is due for release on the 20th Nov 2009 on Xbox 360 and PS3.

Ubisoft has released a very nice looking set of Assassin’s Creed 2 screenshots. They also show various new skills and equipment from the game, in particular the glider (4th picture). The double stab looks like fun too (2nd picture) and effective. Hehe.

There is an Assassin’s Creed 2 video if you want to see the game in action and you can read my review of the first Assassin’s Creed game.

Assassin’s Creed 2 is due for release on the 20th Nov 2009 in the UK for Xbox 360 and PS3.

Here is some very, very, very tasty looking gameplay footage from Assassin’s Creed 2. I really liked the first Assassin’s Creed game, despite its repetitiveness. On the basis of this gameplay footage the sequel is looking fantastic. Coupled with the facts that your character can now swim, greater variety of missions and the eavesdropping missions are no more, I’m seriously looking forward to playing this.

Assassin’s Creed 2 is due for release on the 17th 20th Nov 2009 in the UK for Xbox 360 and PS3.