1. The Gameplay
But the glitches! The horrible horrible glitches! Yes, I know it was glitchy, and personally I saw a rather terrifying glitch where he was meant to be holding someone by the throat. The man being held was still squirming and making the noises, but Connor's arm got stuck below his waist, still trying to go up, so therefore going up and down.....you can see where I'm going with this. But seriously people, almost all games have glitches, and while AC3 may have had a few more than most, it didn't usually detract from the actual gameplay. The combat was improved in AC3, with it now giving more variety in how you attack and defend during combat. Prior to release, some believed that the introduction of a large amount of firearms would ruin the blade-based combat; it didn't. They weren't exactly giving Connor an M16 and introducing Arnold Schwarzenegger as an NPC, they were single-shot (excluding double barrels and duckfoots) flintlock firearms that were not used in massive firefights, but rather combat suited to their use. Free-running was as good as ever, and while tree-running may have had a few issues, but all in all it worked well and added a new element to the game. And that brings me to the frontier. The frontier, to me, was excellent. It was something never seen before in Assassin's Creed, so was once again a risk for Ubisoft. There was a lot of diversity in the frontier, and while all games in cities and towns can seem like a copy and paste environment at times, almost all of the frontier is unique. It's actually pretty interesting to just walk (or ride if you don't have about three weeks to spare) around the frontier for a while and take in the scenery and scope, in my mind anyway. Naval combat, while not my absolute favourite aspect of the game, was a great addition. Remember it was the basic version, and if you're a fan of it, you'll love the vastly improved version in ACIV. As per usual since a few games back, there are a lot of side missions in the game. While some of them are rather dull, there are a lot of enjoyable ones, for example, I very much enjoyed the sheer quirkiness of the frontiersmen's tales (who's idea was the headless horseman one? Seriously lads, that was.....rather odd). There's no shortage of things to do, areas to explore, items to unlock, things to find and people to kill. So that's my defense for AC3. AC2 is still my favourite, but that doesn't stop me from loving 3. As for now, I'm going to put on my hoody and wait for Black Flag. What is this "social life" you speak of?