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Review: Cinematic thriller ‘Assassin’s Creed’ hits the mark

If you ever doubted a video game could deliver a movie-like experience, pick up Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed for an adventure so engrossing it should’ve come with a crowbar to pry yourself away.

Designed for the Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation 3 and PC, this intense and near-photo-realistic action game lets you play as a retired assassin who is sent back into action in the late 12th century, when the Third Crusade is raging across the Holy Land. You are Altair, whose task is to suppress the hostilities on both sides with stealth and precision.

But how you stalk and approach your target, perform the task at hand and exit the scene safely will vary from player to player. This is because the authentically re-created cities you’ll be visiting — such as Jerusalem, Damascus and Acre — are open-ended and bustling with citizens. At the start of the game you’ll learn how to blend in with crowds, scale buildings and end confrontations quickly with a concealed dagger.

It’s not just about violence in this game, though — other missions include pickpocketing and reaching the top of a high building to survey a scene.

You will no doubt be amazed the first time you find yourself perched on a rooftop, staring at a sea of people making their way through cobblestone streets — especially when you realize this world is interactive. How should you assassinate your target when he’s giving a speech to a bunch of onlookers? Take out the guards first one by one? Cause a distraction on the street before subtly making your way to the target with dagger in hand? Approach from the rooftop behind him, drop down and then try to run away after the deed is done? Try throwing a knife from afar?

The game’s wide-screen presentation and high-definition graphics are only outdone by its smooth character animation, dialogue (including a female character voiced by Heroes and Veronica Mars star Kristen Bell) and Hollywood-style music soundtrack — composed by British Academy Award-winner Jesper Kyd — that changes depending on what’s happening onscreen.

The comparison of Assassin’s Creed to the Prince of Persia and Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell games is inevitable — and understandable, too — given the fact that these two popular game franchises are also from Ubisoft Montreal’s world-famous studio. Altair’s acrobatic moves, such as hopping from building to building or balancing on beams, are straight out of Prince of Persia, while creeping through environments to kill targets is like the infiltration and spy scenes in Splinter Cell.

Some players, however, might be disappointed that the combat in Assassin’s Creed isn’t as fleshed out as in past Ubisoft Montreal games. Perhaps to make the game more accessible or to focus more on the planning and exit strategies, the action sequences in Assassin’s Creed are simply well-timed button presses, rather than deep-combat control schemes.

That said, Assassin’s Creed is an imaginatively conceived and wonderfully executed single-player adventure that should take a good 10 hours to complete, and more than double that for the optional side missions.

Mature gamers in search of a beautiful, exhilarating piece of interactive entertainment will be more than pleased with this hard-to-put-down adventure. E-mail to a friend

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I-Reporters find giant turkeys, share family traditions

VIDEO PHOTOS
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Sharif set to return to Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — An exiled opponent of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf was taking steps to return to Pakistan as early as next week, his party said Friday, setting up a potential challenge to the military leader’s declaration of emergency rule.

The return of Nawaz Sharif, the man Musharraf overthrew in a 1999 coup to gain power, could bolster the opposition to the president ahead of crucial parliamentary elections on Jan. 8. Sharif, one of Musharraf’s staunchest critics, leads one of the country’s two main opposition parties.

The re-emergence of a heavyweight rival is a headache for Musharraf as he tries to defend his emergency rule against stiff criticism, including from the United States.

The 53-nation Commonwealth comprising Britain and its former colonies suspended Pakistan’s membership because Musharraf failed to meet its Thursday deadline to end the three-week-old state of emergency and quit his dual post as head of the military.

The Commonwealth’s decision is an embarrassment for Musharraf but does not carry any economic sanctions. Pakistan denounced the banishment as unreasonable and unjustified and said the body had failed to appreciate its serious internal crisis.

The Foreign Ministry said Pakistan was reviewing its ties with the group.

Musharraf, who has allied himself with the U.S. in battling al-Qaida, is now expected to give up his post as army chief within days in hopes of cooling domestic and foreign criticism of his emergency rule.

Musharraf imposed the emergency just before the previous Supreme Court was to rule on complaints that the constitution bars the army chief from running for elected office.

He suspended the constitution, dismissed independent-minded judges on the Supreme Court and blocked independent TV news. Authorities arrested thousands of lawyers, opposition party supporters and human rights activists.

Musharraf could face a new threat to his authority with the return Sharif from exile in Saudi Arabia, which could potentially shift the political landscape in Pakistan considerably ahead of elections. It could complicate former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s hopes of regaining power. Bhutto, who returned in October, has been favored by the West.

Zafar Ali Shah, vice president of Sharif’s party, said he would be in Pakistan next week.

There is no doubt about it, Shah told The Associated Press. Nawaz Sharif will be with us next week, but at this stage we cannot say exactly when and where he will arrive.

Presidential spokesman Rashid Qureshi declined to say what Musharraf would do if Sharif tried to enter Pakistan. Sharif was swiftly deported to Saudi Arabia when he tried to return in September.

Musharraf has insisted that Sharif stay out of Pakistan until after the vote, which the West hopes will produce a moderate government able to turn the tide against Islamic militants who have gained ground along the border with Afghanistan.

Speculation that Saudi Arabia wanted Sharif to go home had been rife since Musharraf made a surprise trip to Riyadh, the Saudi capital, for talks with King Abdullah on Tuesday.

An official in Musharraf’s office told the AP the general had softened his approach toward Sharif.

The hope is that he (Sharif) will not act like Benazir Bhutto who is following the politics of confrontation, said the official. If he agrees to do it, he will be allowed to return home even before the elections.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the issue, said associates of Sharif and Musharraf were in touch to explore how they could end their feud.

On Friday, the court also declared Musharraf’s seizure of emergency powers legal.
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Parents: Airlines should do more for kids traveling alone

(AP) — Susan Cole wanted to fly her 12-year-old son Danny from their Maryland home to Houston so he could catch a football game with his dad, who was there on a business trip.

Danny had only flown once or twice, and never alone. So Susan, plenty nervous herself, last month took Danny to Baltimore-Washington International Airport three hours early and accompanied him to the gate.

I assumed Southwest would let him on early, before the herd of passengers gets on, because I’m not even sure he’s tall enough to reach the overhead luggage, Cole said.

Cole said a succession of Southwest employees not only refused to let Danny board early, but wouldn’t promise to help him meet up with his father.

A Southwest executive says the employees were just following company policy.

Southwest escorts children 5 through 11 who are traveling alone, but once you hit 12, you’re considered a youth and not an unaccompanied minor, said Teresa Laraba, the airline’s vice president for ground operations.

Each year across the United States, hundreds of thousands of unaccompanied minors take to the skies. Airline officials say the holidays are second only to summer in numbers of solo children, making it a time of year that tests anxious parents and airline policies.

It’s hard to know just how often things go wrong with unaccompanied minors. Airlines aren’t required to report such incidents, although parents sometimes tell the federal Transportation Department. An agency spokesman said there were 36 complaints through last week, compared to 47 in the same period last year. The most complaints this year have been lodged against US Airways, 9; Delta Air Lines, 8; Northwest Airlines, 4; and American Airlines, 3.

In June, Northwest put two children on the wrong flights in Memphis. Both were reunited with family members — 12 hours late, in one case — and the airline said it was taking steps to avoid similar events.

Last December, a 9-year-old boy headed to Omaha, Nebraska, to see his father, who was just back from a tour in Afghanistan, was stranded in the Denver airport by a snowstorm. The boy used a stranger’s cell phone to call his family. His mother complained about the response from United Airlines after the flight was canceled.

Policies for unaccompanied minors vary throughout the airline industry.

Southwest doesn’t charge extra for unaccompanied children, but most other U.S. airlines do. Some parents say they were surprised to get to the gate and then learn that their child’s trip would cost an extra fee — up to $100 for domestic trips, more for international ones.

Airlines say they’re doing all they reasonably can to safely accommodate more young travelers.

American Airlines, the nation’s largest carrier, estimates that it carries more than 200,000 unaccompanied minors each year. While that’s a tiny percentage of its 98 million boardings last year, the number is growing, according to spokesman Tim Smith.

It’s probably more a social phenomenon, with more single-parent families where the parents live in different cities, and more kids going to visit grandparents, and more kids going to summer activities, Smith said.

Julio Garcia, a real estate investor in San Diego, said his two sons were among eight kids from 11 to 16 nearly stranded 1,500 miles from home in August. They were flying home without their parents after spending three weeks at a French-immersion program in Paris.

The parents paid Continental Airlines Inc. extra to have the four youngest children watched, but not for the 15- and 16-year-olds.

Storms caused the plane to be diverted, and when it finally got to Houston, the children had missed their connecting flight to San Diego. Continental found seats on a later flight for the four youngest, but Garcia said an airline agent told him the other four — three boys and one girl — were going to a hotel.

My eldest called and said, ‘They just hauled the little kids away and left us standing here,’ Garcia said.

Garcia said he spoke to three different Continental employees, and told a supervisor, Let me get this clear. It’s Continental’s policy to leave unattended minors stranded in an airport? How can you leave them in a hotel room? A hundred things can go wrong.

A Continental spokeswoman, Julie King, said because the parents didn’t pay the unaccompanied-minor charge for the 15- and 16-year-olds, the airline had no idea they were traveling with the four younger children. The airline doesn’t ask ages of other passengers, and it put the two groups of kids on different records, she said.

We have strict procedures that apply to children traveling alone that ensure they have a smooth travel experience, King said.

Experts on family travel say there are commonsense rules that parents should follow when arranging solo trips for their kids.

Sarah Schlichter, editor of Web site The Independent Traveler, said parents should pick nonstop flights in the morning so they can rebook if the flight is delayed or canceled.

Parents should give the child written instructions on what to do in case of flight delays or cancelations, including emergency phone numbers, and a calling card, Schlichter said. And have them carry a recent picture of the adult who will meet them at the other end, she added.

Natalie Windsor, author of How to Fly for Kids, said parents should prepare the child for the flight, especially if it’s his or her first solo trip. And, she said, create a rewarding reason for making the trip so it’s fun instead of intimidating or dreary.

They should be flying TO something, Windsor said, not just going from mommy to daddy.

Danny Cole’s story had a happy ending. Before leaving the Baltimore airport, an off-duty Southwest flight attendant getting on the same flight promised to stay with him until he met his father in Houston.

But Susan Cole said the episode left her angry and her son crying. She thinks 12 is too young for children to fly unescorted, even if she has to pay extra for the service.

Laraba, the Southwest executive, said the airline has recently heard from other parents who share Cole’s opinion. She said the airline is considering changing its policy.
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New York City’s murder rate may be lowest in 40 years

NEW YORK (AP) — The city is on track to have fewer than 500 murders in 2007, the lowest amount in a 12-month period in more than 40 years, according to a published report Thursday.

There were 427 murders logged as of Monday — 411 killings plus 16 crime victims who died this year from injuries they got years ago, The New York Times reported on its Web site. That makes the city’s average slightly more than one per day.

Last year, the city reported 579 homicides through December 24 — a nearly 10 percent increase from the year before.

The city’s homicide rate reached an all-time high of 2,245 in 1990, making it the murder capital of the nation. Since then, the rate has plummeted to levels not seen since the 1960s. There were 570 homicides in 2004, dropping to 539 in 2005.

This year, police have determined a relationship between the victim and assailant in nearly half of the slayings committed as of November 18, The Times reported. The motives in the remainder of the killings were still being analyzed.

The majority died in disputes with acquaintances, rival drug crew members or spouses and family.

Police department analysts found only 35 cases where the victim did not know the killer, as compared to 121 instances last year, officials said, according to The Times.

In the first half of 2007, New York City had a 5 percent decline in violent crimes, 23,887, down from 25,132. The city also had a 4 percent drop in property crimes for the first half of the year, according to a recent state report.
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