If you’re a PlayStation Plus or Uplay member (the latter of which is free, by the way), you can get access to the Assassin’s Creed Revelations multiplayer beta. That beta starts tomorrow.

But, if you don’t want to be stuck waiting for a download to finish while your friends are all playing, you can start downloading the beta content now. It’s sort of an “I’ll gladly pay you today for a hamburger tomorrow” kind of thing. A “Reverse Wimpy,” if you will.

This beta offers nine different characters on three maps with four modes, which Ubisoft says is just a taste of the final content.

You can get the full tasting menu on November 15 when the game is released.

They’ll have something there for pretty much any kind of gamer. Take a look at the lineup:

• Assassin’s Creed Revelations
• From Dust
• Just Dance 3
• Might & Magic Heroes VI
• Might & Magic Heroes Kingdoms
• Rayman Origins
• Rocksmith
• Shoot Many Robots
• Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Online
• Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Future Soldier
• TrackManiaCanyon

There will also be a panel on the development of the latest game in the Assassin’s Creed series:
Assassin’s Creed Panel
Main Theatre (Paramount at 911 Pine Street)
Friday, August 26 from 6-7pm
Conference attendees can join members of the Assassin’s Creed Revelations development team for a live on-stage demo of the thrilling fourth instalment in the critically acclaimed entertainment franchise. Fans will be part of the first audience in the nation to see all new gameplay of the single-player campaign, starring the wiser and ever more lethal master assassin Ezio Auditore, as he makes his journey to Constantinople. The panel will close with a special guest musical performance of the literal Assassin’s Creed Revelations trailer by YouTube celebrity Tobuscus.

Those who cannot attend PAX in person can check out Ubisoft’s Twitter account for exclusive updates, behind-the-scenes photos and video from PAX throughout the duration of the event. PAX prize packs will also be given out each day of the show via Twitter for those consumers that are unable to attend PAX. To contribute to Ubisoft’s PAX coverage on Twitter, please use the official hash tag “#UbiPax”. Ubisoft’s official Twitter page is: (http://twitter.com/ubisoft).

From then until September 11, PlayStation Plus members (and Uplay members) will get access to nine characters (The Sentinel, The Vanguard, The Guardian, The Vizier, The Thespian, The Deacon, The Bombardier, The Trickster and The Champion), three maps (Knight’s Hospital, Antioch, Constantinople) and four playable modes (Wanted, Manhunt, Deathmatch, and Artifact Assault), all for testing purposes.

The full game releases November 15, 2011.

Because you've always wanted to "decorate" your fighter.

You’ve got a 3DS. You want more games for it, I’m sure. Nintendo’s press conference didn’t disappoint you if you love first-party games, for sure. Third-party stuff is on the way. But you want specifics. I’ll give them to you. Several of these were not at all surprising, given that they’ve been discussed before. Most of these will launch before the end of the year.

• Luigi’s Mansion 2
• Super Mario 3D
• Mario Kart 3D
• Starfox 64 3D
• Tekken 3D
• Kid Icarus: Uprising
• Animal Crossing 3DS
• LEGO City Stories (Also showing up on Wii U)
• A new Super Smash Bros. that will work with Wii U in some capacity

Don’t forget that there are other titles on the way, like two different Resident Evil titles, but these other third-parties didn’t get the same kind of exposure onstage.

What sorts of things can we expect to see on the newest console, Wii U? Well, besides the already-listed stuff that hits two sets of hardware at once, we can expect to see things like…

• Darksiders 2
• Batman: Arkham City
• Tekken, which I really hope is just a working title
• Assassin’s Creed
• Ghost Recon Online
• DiRT
• Aliens: Colonial Marines
• Metro: Last Light
• Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge
• A new Legend of Zelda title

EA’s president, John Riccitiello, also made an appearance on-stage, during which he hinted that a Battlefield title might hit the new HD hardware. I guess we’ll see it when we see it.

Take a look at the trailer announcing Wii U third-party titles.

What excites you most about the 3DS and Wii U lineups?

Hopefully someone we have on the ground will get to test this title out and report back.

The game will feature Ezio somewhat shadowing his mentor Altaïr and traveling to Constantinople, “where a growing army of Templars threatens to destabilize the region.” Well, that doesn’t sound too good, does it? You’ll also be able to manipulate Desmond’s memories and the Animus to both reveal more of the past and learn about the future.

The online multiplayer will also return with more modes and maps to test your mettle against other assassins.

Game Informer’s latest issue, available May 13, will feature the new title.

“Delivering the final chapter of the Ezio trilogy is an important milestone in the Assassin’s Creed franchise for us and for our fans,” said Alexandre Amancio, Creative Director at Ubisoft Montreal. “Assassin’s Creed Revelations includes lots of new features and some significant surprises. We can’t wait to show our fans what we have in store at E3 this year.”

Rating:

BUY

I​’ll avoid them as best I can but consider this a warning that there will most likely be spoilers here.

A​ lot of people don’t know that I’m a huge history nerd. One of my favorite genres to read is historical fiction and sometimes I even tackle non-fiction about some pretty crazy historical figures. One of the reasons I adored Assassin’s Creed 2 so much was because of how much the history plays into the game and plot. I was thrilled to learn that when the next AC game came out that it was going back to Ezio’s crazy hijinks in Italy. Consider me doubly thrilled to learn that the Borgia’s were going to play a big part of that story.

If you’ve never read about the Borgia family, let me tell you a little bit about them. No, there is to much; let me sum up. Rodrigo Borgia was elected as Pope (and took the name Alexander VI) in 1492 (what year is that kiddies?). He had a number of illegitimate children, however there were a few that he claimed and raised. The most famous which were Cesare and Lucretzia: both featuring heavily in Brotherhood. The three of them (Rodrigo, Cesare and Lucretzia) have a colorful (to put it mildly) story. It’s obvious by their actions that the three of them were mad with power and always hungry for more. There are a number a crimes allegedly tied to the family: murder, adultery, gambling, theft, simony and incest (namely between Cesare and Lucretzia). /interesting history lesson

Okay, so now that you know what interesting people the Borgia’s were, I can tell you how they play into the bigger story in Brotherhood. See, Brotherhood starts right where AC 2 left off. You find Ezio just finishing his bizarre conversation with Minerva, then meeting up with his uncle Mario and heading back to Monterigionni where they assume Ezio can start to live a more normal existence. He’s let Rodrigo Borgia live and thinks that’s the end of things. After a pleasant night back home with the lovely Caterina Sforza, Monterigionni is attacked by Rodrigo’s son, Cesare. Caterina is taken hostage and everyone must flee the keep as cannons and fire tear the walls of the city down. Ezio sets out on his own once outside the keep and a desyncronization with the Animus 2.0 is triggered bringing you out of Ezio’s story and back to Desmond, Lucy, Rebecca and Shawn in the truck, fleeing Abstergo.

P​layers looking for a vastly different experience in Brotherhood from the previous game, aren’t going to find it here. The story, characters and mechanics are all a continuation of the second game, although there’s been small tweaks to each. Once Rebecca gets the Animus 2.0 going again and you’re back to Ezio and the very early 16th century, in Italy, there’s going to be a few differences in how you interact with the game. For instance, Ezio has a few new tricks up his sleeves (sometimes literally) that changes how he fights. Remember the pistol from 2? There’s a new way to shoot now (one I learned the hard way before the game explained it to me): when you hold down the attack button, Ezio lines up and fires on the enemy he’s fighting. He can kick his enemies to break their defenses, which keels them over so he can stab them. And there’s this new thing called an “Execution Streak” where once you’ve killed one enemy with an “Execution” (which is just attacking the same guy multiple times until he dies), it’s easy to kill sequential enemies just by moving towards them. There’s also been an upgrade in the way horses can be used in the game, including during combat – you’ll often find Ezio has to take down guards that are already on horseback. There’s new faster acting poison and the ability to carry and throw heavy weapons that you couldn’t before.

The way Ezio moves through the world hasn’t changed but the place he’s hanging out in Brotherhood is vastly different. The majority of the game takes place in Rome with it’s vast landscape, ancient landmarks and sprawling seven hills. The Borgia has a tight grip on the people of Rome and it’s up to Ezio to try and put his gang of misfits back together (Machiavelli, La Vulpe, Bartolomeo, Caterina Sforza) while wrestling control away from the Borgia and trying to rebuild the city. Ezio earns money from the hidden caches around the city and missions he completes, but he can spend that money on rebuildng Rome, which in turns earns him more money. Rebuilding Rome consists of opening up stalls around the city for stables, doctors, blacksmiths…all the stores you were able to visit in the other games. Sometimes it’s a little hard to spot where these stores are, but they’re on your map, so as you start to clear out treasure boxes and quests, you’ll be able to better pick them out.

If you played the previous games, Brotherhood is a fantastic addition to the series. You get to learn more about Ezio and the Abstergo intrigue is still firmly in place. The look of the game hasn’t changed much, if any from the the former game. And as it has been in the past, the landscape…the city, those are the most beautiful parts of the game. I mean the fact that you’re running around the entirety of Rome, hill and historic landmarks and all is pretty awesome. Jesper Kyd has also composed the music for this game, but I felt at the beginning of the game that it’d gotten a bit of an upgrade. I enjoyed the music a bit more in Brotherhood than I had in previous games (though I liked it then too) and I thought that it was a little less repetitive this time around.

The scope of the world might seem a bit smaller in this game since you’re relegated to Rome, but with your crew of Assassins, Ezio’s reach is now much, much longer. As the game progresses, Ezio is able to recruit citizens to the Assassin’s cause. As you reduce the Borgia influence you can recruit more Assassins, for a total of 12. Ezio then (with the help of an upgraded Pigeon Coop and transformed towers) can train his Assassins and send them out on assignments throughout Europe, from London to Moscow. Also, if you’re unfamiliar with it, this is a good time to head to Facebook and find the Assassin’s Creed: Project Legacy game. It’s an easy game where you do missions to build up money and supplies. Through Ubisoft’s UPlay system, you can connect your Project Legacy game with Brotherhood, and even when you’re not in Brotherhood, you can still level up your group of Assassins. These is an easy way to build up your Assassins experience when you’re out of the game. When you’re ready to log back in, UPlay let’s you sync up the two games, and any experience your Assassins have earned automatically gets applied. There’s also bonuses for owning the same landmarks around Rome in both games.

Let me talk a little bit about how the story, and the memories work in Brotherhood.  When you start a memory, you get goal (go kill this guy, find this place, go in this other place, ect.), then, you get a synchronization goal (complete in x number of minutes, kill them with this weapon, don’t get detected, and so on) to best complete the mission to fit with Ezio’s history.  This is supposed to make Desmond better synced with Ezio.  If you’re the kind of player that likes more of a challenge on your second (or third or fourth) play-through, going for the 100% synchronization challenges on many of the memories make for good replayability choices.

Leonardo Da Vinci and his wonderful inventions are back in Brotherhood, though it’s a little bit different this time. You can’t just go around to his place when you need new things this time around. Leonardo has been hired out by the Borgia to create machines of war. When you meet up with him for the first time, he gives you locations of the project overseers for each of the machines so that you can find them, and then from there determine the locations of the machines. It’s then up to Ezio to destroy not only the plans for the machines, but the machine prototypes themselves. This means Ezio will find himself in: a tank (an interesting wooden, circular contraption – a little like a wooden Roomba), another flying machine – this time with artillery, and a small gunboat at different times, to name a few.

There’s also no more abrupt cuts from the Animus back to Desmond and the crew. You can leave the Animus at any time now. There’s a virtual training mode built in, so you can go into the Animus to train your skills which is handy for some of the newer tricks. Rebecca gives you a taste of how this works with an exercise to try and figure out the Execution Streak. This means that if you don’t want to, once you’re in the Animus, you don’t have to leave until Ezio’s part of this story is done. The game ends with a bit of a twist as Desmond and crew move out once more. Though I don’t want to spoil it for you, I think it’s a bit of a shocker, and I’m ready for a new game now, just so I can find out what in the world is going on. When the scene ends, and after the credits roll, Desmond gets tossed back into the Animus and you can continue as Ezio, before his part of the story is finished.

To be honest, I’m going to happily continue playing as Ezio gathering flags and treasure around the city, training my crew and whatnot. But, the switch at the end of the game between the surprise ending with Desmond and getting shoved back into the Animus to run around as Ezio…well, it was jarring for me. I appreciate the ability to continue the game even after the story is over but with that ending, it’s pretty weird.

So whether you’re here for the story or not, there’s also a whole other side to this game that doesn’t include the many hours of the plot. This is the first game of the franchise to include a multi-player component. There’s a couple of different options when it comes to multi-player. However, what was sort of disappointing to me was that there’s no inclusion of a couch co-op option for the gaming. Meaning if I have friends over, we cannot play the multi-player options together. I know that there’s probably some logistical issues (eg. friends being able to look at your screen) but I think it’s probably still do-able, and I wish they would’ve included the option. I mean, if I want to play with someone I’m sitting next to – and they can see my screen, that’s my problem right? I think it could’ve been done.

Anyway, aside from the lack of a couch co-op option, multi-player is a pretty interesting experience. The Wanted option lets you choose a character, then you’re assigned a target to find and kill. The trick is that there’s multiples of that person on the screen. So, let’s say there’s 10 character choices for co-op – those same 10 character models are used to populate an entire area. Which means, even though you know what your target looks like, you have to follow your assassin abilities (a small leading direction compass in the bottom corner) to find the RIGHT target. There’s also the Manhunt version of co-op where you can team up with friends or other online players to take out another team.

Wait times for either of the co-op options seemed a little long to me, even though it’s been a few weeks since the game launched. Maybe that’ll change, but I’m not going to hold out hope that it’ll get better. Personally, I like the Wanted mission just against the AI (as you do when you go through training) versus trying to play with random people online. (But that’s my opinion about a lot of games with online capabilities.) If you’re into that and you have some friends to play with, I think you’ll really like the multi-player options. They’re a good addition to the game if you have people you want to play with. But waiting in a queue for people to join up is going to get old, fast.

Even without the multi-player options, Brotherhood is an excellent addition to the franchise, and well worth adding to your collection.

Today, Ubisoft announced via PlayStation.Blog that the PS3 will be getting additional single-player content on the game’s date of release, November 16.

This content focuses on Nicolaus Copernicus, and he’ll have some extra courier, assassination and protection missions available for our hero, Ezio. His part of the storyline revolves around the controversy surrounding his heliocentric theories (AKA, the idea that the Earth revolves around the Sun).

PS3 users are getting more with this game right off the bat. How does that make 360 gamers feel?

Not only does $100 get you a copy of the game and a special bonus disc containing video, the soundtrack and more, but you also get a lovely art book, bonus DLC, and one of two jack-in-the-boxes. If you want the “Harlequin” version, pre-order at GameStop, but everyone else that pre-orders gets the “Doctor.”

It’s worth mentioning that if you’re in Europe, your offer is a little different. The European “Limited Codex Edition,” described here by Joystiq, looks a lot more interesting, but doesn’t offer any harlequins jumping out of boxes.

Time to start up the Animus again. Yesterday, Ubisoft announced details for Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. It will ship this holiday for 360, PS3, and PC.

You play as Ezio once more in a struggle against the Templar Order. He must go to Rome to fight the order, but he also needs an entire brotherhood to take them down.

This game is the first in the series to offer multiplayer. To help the Templars, you can use Abstergo to train in the art of assassination. You will have several characters to choose from, with each having their own assassination techniques and weapons. You’ll be able to challenge Assassin’s Creed lovers worldwide in a variety of modes.