The Ezio Auditore Guide to Being the Perfect Valentine’s Day Date

Ezio Tache Pic

According to Matthew Inman of ‘The Oatmeal’ fame, the only thing worse than Valentine’s Day itself is trying to avoid it altogether which is why I, Jasmine (woman of no fame whatsoever) am going to embrace it wholeheartedly with this list of tips that you can use to attract, be and create the perfect Valentine’s Day date.

And who better to take advice from than the smooth Mediterranean lothario, Mr Ezio Auditore da Firenze, known for his love of the ladies, and, on an incredibly unrelated note (thankfully!) his ability to murder groups of Templars before he’s even had his morning coffee.

With Ezio in mind, these *relatively* spoiler-free tips should provide some useful advice to perfecting the annual Valentine’s Day festivities, do feel free to add your own in the comments!

Continue reading

5 Games Every Self-Respecting Gamer Should Avoid

Kane & Lynch 2 Screenshot

Video games. They are perfect pixelated products that only the best imagineers could have invented. Words, thoughts, images and dreams of an interactive, game-playing future, all collated into a cluster of levels and missions, digitally processed onto shiny plastic discs that are barely thicker than your fingernails.

They never fail to entertain, enthral and conjure up feelings that we didn’t even know we could feel.

Except, that is, for those times when they fall flat on their binary coded rumps. For each of those hidden gems and mega-rated blockbusters, there’s a small gaggle of games that has to sour the bunch and you must keep your wits about you if you want to be able to dodge the foul-tasting punches that these games are pulling, which is why I’ve put together a list of a few games that you will want to avoid.

Continue reading

2011 Christmas Gaming Gift Guide

Christmas Gaming Gift Guide - made with wordle .net

If ever there was a time for you to be freaking out about your lack of gift giving ability, that time would be now. There are only 5 days until Christmas and it’s inevitable that you get your last purchases in before it’s too late and you end up re-gifting that ugly (now moth-eaten) sweater that you got from your Aunt several years ago.

Below are some of my top gift picks for the gamers on your list. And if you have any suggestions for presents, feel free to leave them in the comments.

Click ‘Read More’ for the full post.

Continue reading

Song of the Week–from the Assassin’s Creed Revelations Trailer

Assassins's Creeed Revelations Screenshot

If you’ve been paying attention to the comfortingly gamer-centric optical onslaught of television adverts recently and you haven’t been avoiding holiday time ads like the plague (symptoms include : buying last minute cheapo presents based on very efficient Christmastime marketing) then you may have seen the Assassin’s Creed Revelations launch trailer which has been doing the rounds on just about every single channel ever.

It features a rather ear-pleasing song called “Iron” by a French artist called “WOODKID” (real name Yoann Lemoine) and despite the fact that he started off as a director and has directed music videos for Top 40 friendly artists such as Katy Perry and Taylor Swift, this song is less bubblegum pop and more ‘swooning orchestra and heavy drum beat that feels like an indie rock lullaby’ but nonetheless, it’s brilliant and so is the video (which feels like it could be another trailer for AC Revelations).

Click ‘Read More’ to see the music video for the song.

Continue reading

Movember Special– the 5 Best ‘Taches in Gaming

It’s a little known fact that November is actually the best month on a gamer’s calendar. Sure, December is wonderful with Christmas being an excuse to stuff your face and get chocolate wasted, but does the final calendar month have the release of Uncharted 3? No. Does it have the release of Modern Warfare 3? Again, that’s a no. And the most important reason that November trumps the month of Yule? Well, November is  “Movember”.

For those of you out of the loop, Movember is the annual event that takes place worldwide throughout the entirety of November. Men (Mo Bros), cheered on my the women in their lives (Mo Sistas), shave their faces on the 1st of the month and spend the remaining 29 days growing, grooming and perfecting the almightiest example of facial hairiness that they can come up with. It’s not just for lulz though, the occasion is actually to raise money and awareness for men’s health (specifically prostate  cancer).

To kick off the month of ‘tache appreciation, I’ve put together a list of the best razor-dodgers in gaming, enjoy! (Info on how to donate to the Movember cause is at the bottom of the post).

Click ‘Read More’ to read the rest of the post.

Continue reading

BATTLEGROUNDS : Ubisoft’s PS Vita Line-Up

“Let’s get ready ready, let’s get ready ready, let’s get ready to rumble!” – if you know who sings that, you are awesome. It also means that you have an atrocious taste in music! While it may be a bad song, it is however, the perfect way for me to introduce my third new JSX feature this week– BATTLEGROUNDS. BATTLEGROUNDS is a feature that’s posted at least once a month (more if I can find contenders) that pits several in-development titles against each other with whoever comes out on top being the game that you should spend your cash on.

This week the contenders are from the list of titles that Ubisoft are developing for the PlayStation Vita : Assassin’s Creed, Rayman Origins and Lumines.

Click ‘Read More’ to find out which of the 3 deserves your money.

Continue reading

Assassin’s Creed Sequel Confirmed for 2011!

ACROME_Logo

Would you like to see these guys come back in a sequel?

Being completely honest with you, I haven’t even played Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood yet (single player, at least)  as I’m waiting for Santa to fit his rather rotund self in my chimney and drop it under the evergreen in my living room. However, it doesn’t take genius to listen to how everybody, everywhere is praising the game and it’s amazing-ness. I’m also not surprised to hear that another Assassin’s Creed game is in the works.

Speaking to MCV, Yves Guillemot, a CEO at Ubisoft said

Next year we will have another big Assassin’s Creed game

Woop!

Personally, based on how much fun Assassin’s Creed 2 and how great the multiplayer of Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood was, I’m already incredibly hyped up for this game!

What would you like to see in the next Assassin’s Creed game? – Leave a comment!

Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood Multiplayer Beta Impressions

ACROME_Logo

Aww, they look so lonely without Ezio!

“I am Ezio Auditore da Firenze” – as if Mr ‘I’m too cool for school’s’ hack & slash, free-running ways weren’t enough to make you pick up a copy of Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood this November, the game’s developer, Ubisoft Montreal, has only gone and added an epic new multiplayer mode to the game as well. Shocking, I know!

I recently got the super special chance to download the beta and get to see what all the ridiculous fuss was about over a little bit of climbing & killing (boy, was I wrong!) thanks to my £40 year subscription to PlayStation Plus.

Click ‘Read More‘ to find out why I think that the Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood Multiplayer beta is so awesome!

Continue reading

Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood Beta!

ACROME_Logo

Where's Ezio?!?

I’m currently downloading the over 3GBs of data required to play the Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood Multiplayer Beta and I felt that I needed to inform/pester you all into downloading it.

It’s a PlayStation 3 exclusive (fanboys and girls can go and rant in the comments!) and is available today, before the official date of October 4, exclusively to members of PlayStation Plus. I’m a PS+ member and I have to say that it’s absolutely worth it. You get beta entries, early demos as well as a few free games. Awesomeness.

If you aren’t part of PS+ go and buy a subscription now! It’s one of the very few things that I’ve actually spent money on on the PS Store and you know that you want to play Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood. You know.

Also, talking about the PlayStation Store. here’s a PS Store pro tip from Twitter user and generally cool gaming fellow @wilbossman

Don’t forget you can sometimes search for things and find them before the main store update

Thanks wilbossman!

Follow me on Twitter @Jasmino924