The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIWonR67u4o
[Front-paged. -stabguy]

The main title page says "Executing the Executioner", which is almost the same as Stabguy's video on stylishly killing Majd. This one actually includes the 'execution' kill-move, though.

Swift Death
This relies on exactly the same mechanics as my Pre-exposed Blitz, but it takes very little setup time. I imagine it would be better to start from a position closer to Majd, but you'd have to piss off the guards real quick, or Majd will stay at the podium unless you wait, at which point you've got a bunch of guards taking swings at you. I didn't feel like trying over and over. I watched enough of Malik and Majd's blabbering during the making of the Pre-exposed Blitz.
Time taken is something like 6.5 seconds.

Instant Retribution
...after having been warned. While playing around in the area, I found this neat spot above the stage where you stand atop of the branch. You can't move or do anything really, or you'll fall. The spot is very easy to get to, you just need to find the correct place to wallrun, which is just a bit off from the side.

Base Jump Stunt
I called this a stunt, even though Altaïr doesn't take damage in the video. The description for 'stunt' in the Advanced Techniques Summary states: " The height of the fall should be sufficient to cause injury." And the height is, just not if you roll. Whether or not this can be classified as a stunt, it is a very stylish kill.
To start off, go to flag #14. From there you have to make quite a tricky jump, but you have plenty of time while Majd is busy talking. Once you land in the right spot, you have to punch yourself up a bit and then turn back around. If you look closely, you see this is because the wall isn't vertical, but diagonal at that height. When you get up top, you just wait for Majd to walk out, drop down, et voila.
Note how the assassin was killed. There is no penalty for this (if you wait too long you'll desynchronize, though) and Malik makes no note of it.

http://youtu.be/boj32as8Iaw
[Front-paged. -stabguy]

As the title says, a 16 block stunt, the highest amount of damage you can take from falling without dying. Made possible on Maria by reinitializing the memory to restart the assassination mission in a certain way.

Setup
Here are the original setups.
Glitching out of the city to reinitialize the memory.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKrs0HyY7hg
Results of Back to the Future with Maria.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaikxWTUYVI

Stunt Setup
The location in the video is a viewpoint close to the southern city entrance. Maria walks around randomly as a result of BTTF, but she usually walks around there. If she doesn't go directly to that area after leaving the cemetery, wait a little while. When she enters the area she may keep walking forward, which will lead her around the building with the viewpoint, or she may turn to the right and leave the area. Maria doesn't go much farther away than seventy meters, probably because areas aren't modeled in the game from far distances (so be patient and wait for her to come back).

Now for the stunt itself. The actual viewpoint tower won't work for a 16 block stunt. This is because the height for sixteen blocks of damage is right above a railing on the tower. Jumping from there will land you back onto the railing.

However what will work is the dome right next to the tower. It's about as high as the railing on the tower, and a wall run up the spike in the center top of the dome will give you the extra needed height (you may have trouble running up the dome sometimes). Just wait for Maria to walk in the right spot, about 10 or 11 meters away, when you start the wall run, then kick off and assassinate. It may be possible to get a stationary high profile kill, but I wasn't going to keep trying for it.

I put away my Assassin's Creed disc when Assassin's Creed 2 was released about 21 months ago. Shortly afterward, I lost the disc, and I was pretty much convinced that I would never see it again. Much to my surprise, I found the disc about a month or two ago, and I started playing it again a few days ago. It was nice to play Altair again...

You all know by now that I'm a big fan of air to assassinate. Ubisoft must have rushed it in at the last minute because both they and Prima failed to document how to do it. Whenever someone on the internet asks for help, at least one well intentioned player comes to their aid with advice like, "Jump at your target and hit the attack button when you get close." That's what I call a "jump assassinate" (or "stunt assassinate" if the fall is high enough to cause partial desynchronization). Air to assassinate is actually easier and more reliable. The problem with jump assassinate is you have to judge where you will land and make sure it's close to the target. I usually end up jumping way over the target's head.