Retirement
"When I lose the sense of motivation and the sense to prove something as an [Assassin's Creed] player, it's time for me to move away from the game." -Michael Jordan, 1993
You probably have noticed that I haven't been around for a few weeks ever since Brotherhood came out in the United States, and I wish I could say I have been away from the forums enjoying the game as many of you have.
But sadly, I have not.
The reality is that unlike many of you I was extremely disappointed with Assassin's Creed Brotherhood for a variety of reasons, the chief reason being that I no longer find the game remotely challenging at all. Between the additions of overpowered combat weapons like the gun, poison darts, the blessing and curse that is the crossbow, and the addition of unnecessary features that make the game even easier such as the flawed Brotherhood system and the killstreak system, the game has completely lost the challenge of stealth that, in my eyes, it held on to so well at the start of the series.
The economic system started in AC2 has also gotten worse due to the fact that, once again, there are more money faucets than money sinks, chiefly because you're turning sinks into faucets constantly. After you get to 100%, what now? What's the point of the economic system? What the hell am I supposed to do with enough Florins to buy out half of Europe? You can't tell me you've ever gambled it away at the Thieves' Inn, I don't think anyone's even attempted to do that. Our methods of acquiring weapons are also extremely flawed, between the easily purchasable weapons at any point in the game, and then those god awful shop quests that can only be completed by chance. I didn't even get the Captain's Sword until AFTER THE GAME because the shop quests take so long. Terribly flawed, among other things in the game.
One of the worst parts about Brotherhood is the assassinations in that they are horribly scripted, easy, and there's only three in the entire story. The Banker's was somewhat challenging if you were going for full synch, but at the end of the day it was really nothing special, and no less challenging than a contract mission. You want to know how to do a party assassination right? How about you remember Abul Nuqoud's assassination from AC1 where you had a sense of utter chaos surrounding you as people made mad dashes for their lives while a hailstorm of arrows rained down from the decks above, and during all this you had to get up onto a balcony UNDETECTED and take out the richest man in Damascus. That's how you do it, Ubi. Don't just take Abul's great great great great grandson, put him in the middle of the Roman Ruins almost completely naked, and have him pace back and forth waiting to be killed. It's way too easy. Although, not nearly as easy as the other two assassinations.
The French General's assassination was so ridiculously easy that a blindfolded first-grader could have done it. Infiltrating his stronghold consisted of hugging the wall and then taking out two guards facing the complete wrong way (seriously, what's going through their heads, "I have to make sure no one's INSIDE THE BASE ALREADY?!?!?") followed by a textbook air assassination. The challenge was to complete this mission in 5 minutes and I did it in probably 30 seconds. Once again, Ubi, recall the last time you had a military official up for a main assassination, William de Montferrat, and how positively received that assassination was. A heavily guarded fortress with roaming squads on the ground and archers that must shoot on sight on the rooftops? That's challenging. A simulation that shows how the French can't fight a war for shit, let alone defend themselves and their general, is flat-out boring and dry. Oh well, there's a few memory blocks left, right? They still have a chance to redeem themselves, but did they? Absolutely not. In fact, they found a way to screw up even more.
I honestly have little to no recollection of this memory block (I can't even remember which one it was) because of how horrible it was both from a gameplay standpoint and a story standpoint. Here's what I know: Lucrezia Borgia's lover is going to be assassinated by someone close to Cesare Borgia, and her lover holds a key to get back into the Castello. So wait, we're trying to get a key so that we can gain access to a place we've already infiltrated before? Why the hell do we care about either of these two people, let's just wait for Cesare to return, re-infiltrate the Castello, and take him out when he's inside? But no, Ezio decides instead to play dress up by robbing the guards of play costumes, entering a play where there's no audience and we have to walk around in a circle for about 3 minutes before we can get a shot at our target, and then all we have to do is run straight forward and hit a button? Wow. But wait, there's more! Ezio did this in the least stealthy way possible, so now every guard inside the Coliseum is coming straight at us and we have to carry out a man covered in what I can only assume is pigs blood, dressed as Jesus, and dying from being slipped poison prior to the performance. To top it all off the whole thing is completely linear and overscripted, in addition to not making any sense. Terrible job, Ubi. Go back and look at what you did with Majd Addin next time you want to do an assassination during a public execution (okay, maybe it was a reenactment of Jesus' execution, but the idea is the same). Instead of positioning the guards some 100 yards away from where all the action is, maybe make going on stage almost impossible because the ground pathways are blocked off by guards. The possibilities are endless, but Ubi chose the boring and easy way out, and I condemn them for it.
There are many other factors in this game that contribute to my distaste for it, but the bottom line is that I have lost the thrill and drive to play Assassin's Creed, and that is why I will be retiring myself from the game and quite possibly these forums all-together. I'll be donating my time to playing extremely challenging games such as the Metal Gear Solid series, rather than waste my time playing a game that requires no rational thought or skill to be good at any more. This also means that I will be abandoning my plans for Eagle's Bruise for ACB, and that if any of you wish to take my place, you may do so. I'll also be awarding the duty of updating the VT Mission Leaderboard to someone else (that job got very difficult very quickly anyway).
Before I leave, there are just a few people I need to thank.
Ian, if it wasn't for your amazing ability in the game I never would have met you wonderful people. I'm still captivated by your Eagle's Strike on William from AC1, and I'll probably never forget it. I've always viewed you as a kind person and am glad I got to call you a friend.
Stab, it's a shame we never got to hang out in Hawaii, because I'm sure we would have been great friends. Your sense of humor combined with your creativity when playing this game really is something to marvel at, and when you factor in the success you've had in the field of technology, it's impossible not to be astounded with the success you've had in life. Stabgal must be proud, I don't blame her.
Asaic, I know we had it out for each other when I first joined on ac-maps, but since then I've come to appreciate you as an extremely insightful person (sometimes a bit TOO insightful) and a very hard worker. As the map-creator for the site, I can't help but have respect for you as one of the people that keeps this site going. Stab and Ian, if you haven't already, you need to make Asaic a moderator of THB.
SBZ, you and I have had some really funny moments together and I'll always be amazed by how you can find AC videos regarding games that haven't been released yet 5 minutes after they go online (including every Dev Diary EVER MADE). You did an excellent job of sorting out the information available on ACB before it was released and I thank you for it. You also made everybody sigs. You do so much for the site and I don't think you get nearly enough recognition for it. So here you go.
Rob... uh... good luck in the army? Haha, remember, you're gonna be a general some day. Thanks for the order link for Julmust, it's fantastic.
Finally, Jack-Reacher. I honestly had no expectations for you when you first came here. Your first few videos you posted were all pretty lame contract assassinations that looked pretty botched. Now you're a world record holder in the AC universe. I'd even put you up there with Ian and Stab as one of the best on THB. In addition, you've been a very positive contributor and even a good mentor to some of the more inexperienced players, and if it wasn't for you I never would have learned the Poison Punch for Eagle's Bruise, so thank you.
Everyone else, thanks for making the time I spent on these forums worthwhile. Remember, Jordan didn't stay retired forever. Who knows, maybe I'll make a comeback for AC3, or maybe I'll give Eagle's Bruise a shot after all, but for now my passion for the game is gone, and I don't know when it will be back. So until then, safety and peace be upon all of you.
Hakunamatata,
FLAE 
I agree with almost, no not almost, ALL of your points on brotherhood. Im glad we share many views in my "Drifting away from AC1" topic, the scripting and restrictions in the main assassinations are pathetic, the coliseum mission ( I call it this because I cant even remember the damn guys name anymore) literally makes you walk spot to spot in a triangle before taking him out in the most unimaginative way possible.
Im really hoping you return to AC3, I have a feeling it will take the AC series in a new direction like AC2 did, after all ACB is really a short, dare I say, expansion of AC2. I hope its for the better, maybe they will return to its roots with good structured assassinations.
I always wanted to try a minimal kill challenge like in MGS, but never got around to it. You're Eagles Bruise challenge inspired me to go replay AC2 for the XXXth time and try it out, I had a lot of fun doing it.
Im really honoured with your mention of me, on par with Ian and Stab means a lot. Those early vids... I had to start out somewhere with my videos right?
*looks back at "Day At The Market" and shudders* And lets not forget that failed courier tackle...
In fact, before ACB came out I went and re did most of those contracts in a more stylish way, thanks to ideas that Ian gave me.
I might take over your VR Mission record topic for THB for you, people started gathering interest in it.
FLAE,
I'm sorry to hear about your disappointment with Brotherhood. I hope it doesn't permanently damage your love of the AC series.
I understand how you feel. I was a long-standing member and contributor on a great game series website and lost my taste for it after a couple of lousy sequels came out. I know how heart-breaking that is. But this site doesn't discriminate, so even if you don't want to talk about AC, feel free to hang around and post about other things. There's always stuff to talk about. 
One last question – did you try out the multiplayer for Brotherhood? What were your thoughts, good or bad? I didn't expect much at all, but I found it to be a lot more fun than I thought it would be. It's not perfect, but it's definitely challenging. If you haven't tried it yet, perhaps it may be the one aspect of Brotherhood that you could find enjoyable.
Anyway, (hopefully) talk to you soon!
Your presence will really be missed on the site but your points are all very valid and I can see exactly why you want to retire. TBH, I think I got caught up in the hype surrrounding AC:B and agree that it is somewhat disappointing.
Goodbye and have fun with MGS
Wait holy crap I read your last part, your an MGS fan?!
If thats the case, I want you to try out "Ghost Running"
It can be done in all the games. The basic idea is that there is no interaction between guards at all, just like a Mysterious Death, only no poison. You must get through the stage without CQC, weapons, not even stunning or luring is allowed. I dont want to hijack this topic about MGS though lol, but if you check out the featured vid on my channel you will get an idea
I didn't read any comments, because I don't want to lose you FLAE the only thing I can say is that ACB is an expansion of AII not exactly a full game please don't go and come back for ACIII please?
Aww. I always looked up to you as one of the best contributors on this site and ac-maps. Good luck with whatever you do next
This actually made me kinda sad. 
<------ See? like that!!!
When AC3 comes out, we better see you make a comeback thread (crosses fingers that it'll be worth it).
But yes, I agree on all your points. Ubi made it into just another action game series and lost all the intelligent mission structure.
I know I've only been on this site for a short time but you've provided me with alot of ideas and inspiration for these games so I was sad to see this ,although I agree with all your points(I just impose restrictions to make it difficult for myself) and I hope you'll return when the next AC game is released.
I think you were expecting too much, FLAE. One of the reasons I enjoyed brotherhood so much was because I realized that it was essentially a bonus mission pack, with interesting new abilities to play around with. When the credits rolled, I was impressed with how good it was for being that. And even if I hadn't done campaign at all, the multi was fun enough to keep me occupied for hours!
I do hope that Ubisoft remembers what the original promise of assassin's creed was, and delivers, in AC3. I think I'm going to make a thread in the AC3 discussion topic on what I want, control scheme/abilities wise. Sorry to hear you're not making more vids, but feel free to lurk and play multi, man!
As everyone else has said, I'd hate to lose you from this site, FLAE. Hopefully you will emulate Michael Jordan and play semi-pro baseball for awhile, and then come out of retirement... twice. Just don't try to buy the site. 
I laughed out loud at several points in your review of Brotherhood. Yes, it's certainly no AC1. Consider Brotherhood a "side sequel" like Bloodlines. The same goes for this next title they have planned for 2011 but please keep an open mind about AC3 when it eventually comes out (in 2012?) We'll still be here. I hope you will join us.
Jack-Reacher. I honestly had no expectations for you when you first came here.
You know, the same could be said about all of us: you, Ian, me, etc. In fact, dougiethewonderboy did say something like that about me: "Way back in April, when 'Assassinating Talal Quickly' first appeared here, I had no idea what a stellar addition to our forum it's author would prove to be."
Anyway, that was a classy move giving credit to some of the members here. If it's alright with you, I will reassign the Virtual Training Leaderboard topic to Reacher.
Awww, FLAE. I will also miss your contributions. 
I'm sure there are may MGS players here and you can discuss it in the other forums. There are also new ways to play AC1? Or just talk about? Other games? I hope you re-consider.
Your points about the deficiencies in the game are extremely good ones.
Aw... Part of me hopes that you're just overreacting to the disappointment of ACB, but part of me also understands your perspective perfectly well. Either way... please understand that you are an irreplaceable member of this community. We will sincerely miss you, and we'll look forward to your grand return.
first of all i have to give you an big 
for your post FLAE. it almost brought a tear to my eye.
i agree fullhartedly, i started feeling it as earaly as AC2 but this was way worse
i know we had our differences with the whole Eagles Bruise vs my pacifist run, but i'll be sad to see you go, even though i'm probably running on spare time myself.
just promise that you'll give the other games a chance later on. please
Besides, if you leave, we'll have to retire the "FLAE's eye roll" emoticon. And then where would we be?????
Yeah I remember following Ubi forums long ago. One thing I realize about a series is sometimes they die out.
I remember that William De Montferrat assassination off the tower.
"God I wanted that Avatar."
I know this sounds odd but I remember following your AC Interactive forums like two years ago.
Just remember there are plenty of new games out there, this in my opinion is the best era of gaming. Started with PS1 in 1998 so I had a ten year experience.lol.
I love Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, hopefully this series stays on track with good audience
I'm kind of hoping that after AC3, they show Altair's early years in a game (not handheld, either). He's actually the core of the series when you think about it. Forgetting him just seems like an insult.
Imo this is the worst gen for gaming, its been going downhill ever since for me. Online community gets worse and worse, and games are just filled with superficial achievements that make you think you are getting more out of your game when you really aren't. Brotherhood looks like a really good complete game when the map is crowded with icons and things to do, but really is there any quality in any of those things? What is the point going around repairing shops, its a waste of time imo as I rarely even use the weapons you unlock, they are all one hit kills and once again the hidden blade is all you need
I think one of the Templar Agents was fun, the rest were like mini assassination contracts. Most of the courtesan missions were so boring, I HATE STALKING MISSIONS!
Borgia Towers were actually alright for me, there were a lot of ways you could go about it and some of them had loads of guards, I had fun making my Borgia Tower series.
Save Citizens, they barely bothered to improve it from AC1, they could have made some unique rare recruits that have harder guards after them, the best with papal guards nearby.
I guess it all beats the investigations in AC1 though, but at least I gained something from those investigations to make the main assassinations more fun
Meh I can admit I play many offline games however I do play LittleBigPlanet,Uncharted 2 online, heard of 3 coming out? Also Demon's Souls is somewhat online. Have you been playing FPS because I'm not sure about the status with the community in certain games seeing how... never was a big fan of First Person games in general.
Jack I definitely agree with the community getting worse, but I think it's normal.
PSN might not be great but I think Sony does a Darn good job keeping it up (especially if it's free).
No!
FLAE, we've been through a lot, at least by internet standards, and I really enjoyed a lot of the conversations we had. I'm sad to hear that ACB disappointed you this much, especially knowing that you had low expectations for the game, but were preparing to be taken by surprise. It's kind of a blow to see that as soon as I get back on THB, the first thing I see is this topic...
Thanks for the kind words, man, I really hope you come back for AC3 and I'm still around this site when you do.
Have fun
"When you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite."- Winston Churchhill
"Kill a man, and you are an assassin. Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror. Kill everyone, and you
I dont play much FPS, the online community is bad in MGO and ACB, and from what I have heard, disgusting in FPS games.
As for single player games, I feel the quality for this gen is getting worse. Stuff like gameplay and graphics are improving for sure, but the difficulty is getting easier, the "atmosphere" of the games are getting worse ( AC1 had the best atmosphere im sure most will agree) and the overall fun factor is getting worse, you know stuff that just makes it fun and not a chore.
I think the difficulty is a huge point, Its just not a challenge to 100% a game anymore with all the internet forums these days. Its not the games fault I guess, but in every forum I see topics from people who rush to the forum the second they get stuck. I remember when i was a kid I had only gotten 100% in very few games I owned because the challenges were hard. Im guessing its just me though as I never used the internet forums a lot back then.
@Jack
I used to play alot of FPS. Let me tell you, the community IS disgusting. So much flaming..7 year old kids who don't know what they're doing, and then yell at you (i ran into one today)
Its more or less not the games faults...the world around us is changing
It's because games are tailoring to casual gamers rather than people with any intelligence or skill. That's why there's so many idiots.
"When you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite."- Winston Churchhill
"Kill a man, and you are an assassin. Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror. Kill everyone, and you
I dont play much FPS, the online community is bad in MGO and ACB, and from what I have heard, disgusting in FPS games.
Sadly, this is true of most online communities. This is most common with younger players, but still exists among adults.
It's all about the "need" to win. In this day and age, most societies foster ego – bucket loads of ego – and they make losers out to be almost sub-human. So many kids these days feel that they must win at all costs, and feel that they deserve to win even if they didn't really earn it.
I have several friends who are teachers or are in university completing their education degrees. They've all echoed the same sentiments to me. Kids today in general tend to lack self-esteem and the way they try to make up for it is in their online personae. One of these teachers in particular made the startling discover that the kids in his class firmly believed that part of your worth as a person is determined by how many friends you have on Facebook. People whom you've never met in person who decided to click a button to link their online profile to yours. But to them, that's a status symbol. It stands out as one in a drought of alternatives.
That kind of thing makes me really sad. I shudder to think of what society will be like in 20 - 30 years when these kids are grown up and having kids of their own. Egos run absolutely rampant in the ongoing attempt to (falsely) bolster faltering self-esteem. That's like taking up smoking to reduce stress. The problem needs to be tackled at the source. But parents aren't teaching their children what it means to have a sense of duty or honor, right or wrong. It seems that integrity and ethics are are becoming things of the past.
I really wish more parents would take a proactive approach to their children's lives. Teach them a good sense of ethics, show them that ego has little place in society and, above all else, teach them to help and rely on others rather than competing with them. I really don't like what I'm seeing these days. I'd like to see trends change, but it's not my place to teach other people's children. That's the parents' job. At least we have things like the ESRB and PEGI ratings systems, though it seems that most parents don't care about those things either. They just let their kids do what they like and don't monitor their activities. Let's be honest – how many of these bratty kids online would act the way they do if their parents were right there the whole time? But we can't blame these kids. Their parents should be with them most of the time. Don't leave them to be raised by television and video games.
Anyway, this rant is getting off-topic so I'll end this post here.
And I will start it here, but just for a bit as you brought up a point about status that I want to share. I am a part time tennis coach, and I have seen my fair share of brats on the court ( I coach a holiday program for kids). One thing I have picked up is that kids think that little gadgets like phones and ipods gives them a sort of status. Whenever one of their friends walk by they will whip out their phone and text away on the court, on the $%#ing tennis court. I mean do you really have to do that?
Same with Ipods and the latest games, now most of this is all common knowledge to you guys but its interesting seeing them using it at a tennis club, where using stuff like Ipods and PSPs is just so out of place...
Im scared to read that message again as I dont think it makes much sense lol, all the pieces are there you can figure it out yourselves =)
I'm sorry you find the game too easy FLAE but i hope you come back when AC3 rolls around. Myself, i play the AC games for the story and i imagine that's one of the reasons you play em too.
To Jack and your rant about games nowadays being too easy, what about all those puzzles in AC2 and AC:B? I don't about you but you actually have to turn your brain to solve some of those. With the AC:B puzzles i'm ashamed that i had to look up the solution to em online(the AC2 ones weren't bad, i solved all those on my own).
I should have given them some credit, those puzzles were good. I will admit on the later AC2 puzzles I looked up the answers, but I regretted it so this game I stuck through all 10. It was really worth it, and I was about to post a topic for AC3 puzzles.
What I want for AC3 are puzzles that involve history in some way, and the answer is impossible to solve by just owning the game, the riddle or key to solving it is in some historical fact/date place or something that you gotta look up online or something. That would be epic, I think it should be optional as many people would complain its too hard, but they can simply cheat anyway
I saw this comment on a glitch thread for ACB a few minutes ago:
"It's the developer's fault that I can't get easy trophies. I mean, all trophies should just unlock as soon as you buy the game. What's the point of having challenging trophies that you have to actually try hard to obtain?
On that note, us trophy hunters have it hard. We have to play game modes we don't like at all for platinum trophies. It's a really hard life, and we miss out on playing a lot of fun and interesting games instead of grinding trophies, but if we don't get the platinum trophies, only people who actually enjoy the games will, and who wants that?"
This just made me wanna throw up. This is probably some 8-year-old who has no idea what the game is even about. Like it was said before in this thread, he's after self-gratification and acceptance from his peers for having the most trophies in a game. 
I quite agree, In my opinion the trophy's should be challenging and inventive to obtain and require perserverance (like finding all the flags). I hate all these 10 year olds who want to make games so easy, it's annoying how much Ubisoft seems to listen to these young kids and not proper gamers
I should have given them some credit, those puzzles were good. I will admit on the later AC2 puzzles I looked up the answers, but I regretted it so this game I stuck through all 10. It was really worth it, and I was about to post a topic for AC3 puzzles.
The hardest of the AC:B puzzles for me was selecting the right wave segments to match the frequency. That always drives me crazy when you select one and half of it matches but you select another which matches the other half but throws of the previous selection.
Still found the end result pretty rewarding, although i wish that mini-platforming section was a little more challenging.
I saw this comment on a glitch thread for ACB a few minutes ago:"It's the developer's fault that I can't get easy trophies. I mean, all trophies should just unlock as soon as you buy the game. What's the point of having challenging trophies that you have to actually try hard to obtain?
On that note, us trophy hunters have it hard. We have to play game modes we don't like at all for platinum trophies. It's a really hard life, and we miss out on playing a lot of fun and interesting games instead of grinding trophies, but if we don't get the platinum trophies, only people who actually enjoy the games will, and who wants that?"
This just made me wanna throw up. This is probably some 8-year-old who has no idea what the game is even about. Like it was said before in this thread, he's after self-gratification and acceptance from his peers for having the most trophies in a game.
Sounds more to me like it's just somebody being sarcastic.
The only game that I found actually somewhat a challenge is Demon's Souls probably one of the best games that came out in 2009.
I am a 16 year old, soon to be 17. I do not own an MP3 player, and I have a cell phone that I only use for emergency calls to parents, as it is Prepaid. I have firsthand experienced the "Win or Lose" attitude that most current teens have. I prefer to challenge myself rather than others. Hence why I don't actually play traditional sports, and do stuff like parkour and free-running instead. I agree completely with Asaic. A group of girls will go somewhere, and instead of doing WHAT THEY CAME TO DO, they just stand by ONE of them, who has a Blackberry, looking at stuff. Now, it'd be fine if that was for a few minutes. Sometimes, they will do this for hours on end. It makes me kind of mad.
Lucrezia Borgia's lover is going to be assassinated by someone close to Cesare Borgia, and her lover holds a key to get back into the Castello. So wait, we're trying to get a key so that we can gain access to a place we've already infiltrated before?
Don't mind me for asking, but how does the key help you get back into the Castello? 
Don't mind me for asking, but how does the key help you get back into the Castello?
You have to open the "secret door" up the staircase that's blocked off by gates.
FLAE, I think AC:III at the LEAST will get you commenting back here again. I'm one of the fans of the original game, second one still enjoyable, brotherhood and revelations dont look completely surprising, in fact brotherhood is disappointing (from all that I've read) but even with all that downgraded play quality I think AC:III will take a much needed step in the right direction for serious fans of the assassin's creed series. Please come back, you're a prime contributor from what I've seen in my little time here.
FLAE continued to comment long after his "retirement" in 2010. We haven't heard from him since he moved to Columbus, Ohio in August of this year (2012). He was keeping an open mind about AC3 and may be back to talk about it soon. I could try to contact FLAE but he hasn't even logged into Xbox LIVE or YouTube recently so I don't know how successful I would be.
Well then I hope he tries out AC:III (likes it) and gives some feedback, it might just be enough to put his interests here again!
Stabguy will have no problem contacting FLAE. He has a special phone that can reach anyone (inside joke from stabby chat).
Awww, wish I was at that stabby chat!