on us Assassins Creed II Xbox360, 57 (also on PS3, 57) The anticipated follow- up to the beautiful yet hopelessly flawed Assassins Creed manages to avoid many of the pitfalls of its predecessor while retaining most of what made it, at points, one of the most breathtaking games in years. The sequel picks up where the last game ended: you are Desmond, a descendant of an ancient society of assassins, captured by the Templar-controlled Abstergo Corporation. You are busted out by a group of contract killers and trained to discover what the mysterious corporation is seeking to find. And, in a stroke of suitably insane plotting, this finds you in a machine that can transport you back in time to relive your ancestors life. Yes, its a rather neat sci- fi addition to an adventure that sees you wandering around Renaissance Italy, completing a host of assassins missions with a combination of deadly and often silent combat, acrobatics and rooftop running. You even bump into the odd historical figure, including Leonardo da Vinci. The brilliance of the originals core gameplay is retained but, thankfully, the mind-numbing repetitiveness has gone, and the ability to teleport from city to city is added, removing the tedium of trudging across vast tracts of empty space. Football Manager 2010 PC, 46 Sports Interactive once again brings the trials and tribulations of soccer management to your living room and with a whole host of new features. A tactics creator, a backroom meetings system and an improved 3D pitch view all make it into this effort but the most noticeable change is a big facelift to the user interface, complete with navigational overhaul. This makes a significant difference to the way the game feels and it manages to breathe some much- needed life into the game. You will, however, still need a powerful computer to take full advantage of the 3D match engine and the hundreds of new animations. The tactics creator gives the ability to construct custom tactics through an in-game wizard, allowing you to shout touchline instructions during the match. Old-school players can still use the classic tactical controls but you will, for some reason, lose the ability to use the shout function, which seems rather odd. Overall, SIs strength has always been the ability to take a tried-and-tested formula and make the right small changes to keep things interesting. Steven Fox STATE OF PLAY Games reviews sad stories. One skit hes particularly fond of involves a radio jock getting visibly excited by the sorry tales he hears from listeners, which, without being too explicit so soon after breakfast, involves a pair of nipple clamps and a dwarf in a gimp mask. I love that scene, McSavage enthuses. For me it captures, without dilution, our capacity for getting turned on by suffering. Its all a long way from McSavages middle-class upbringing in respectable, suburban Dublin. With his outr sense of humour, is he kicking out at that conservative milieu? To be honest, he says. I cant really say if I am or not. I see comedy as validation and it stems from my wanting to be liked. What Ive learned, though, is that just because people laugh at your jokes, it doesnt mean they like you. The Savage Eye, tonight, RT2, 10.25pm Monday, November 30, 2009 metrolife 13 Staying In DVD Reviews Orphan Optimum Home Entertainment, 15, 22 Spanish director Jaume Collet- Sara redeems himself after his forgettable 2005 debut House Of Wax (starring Paris Hilton), with this surprisingly creepy evil kiddie thriller. Grieving parents Kate (Vera Farmiga, The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas) and John (Peter Sarsgaard, An Education) think adopting a child will fill the emotional void left by the death of their unborn third child. Unfortunately, they fall for the charms of the mysterious Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman, pictured; eerily commanding for her 12 years) who is not as sweet as she would have everyone believe. Shes barely settled into her new home before a school bullys leg is broken, an inquisitive nun from the orphanage disappears and the family starts to fall apart at the seams. Collet-Sara masterfully builds the tension as Kate gets closer to the deliciously dark truth about Esthers past, relying refreshingly on taut performances and cruel mind games rather than gore. That said, he does slightly spoil all his good work with a painfully cheesy one- liner in the final showdown, but its a hell of a ride getting there. Extras: director and cast interviews, deleted scenes, alternate ending and featurette Mamas Little Devils: Bad Seeds & Evil Children. DTP Soul Power Eureka Entertainment, 12, 22 Zaire 74 was a concert series of legendary proportions, staged in Kinshasa, that ended up as a footnote in music history after legal wrangles left the unseen footage in the vaults for 35 years. Glimpses of the three-night extravaganza were spliced into Leon Gasts Oscar-winning doc When We Were Kings. Jeffrey Levy-Hinte, who worked on Kings, has now created a vrit-style documentary of the concerts in their own right. The exuberance with which greats of the American soul scene at the time Bill Withers, BB King, Celia Cruz, James Brown embraced the chance to play in Africa with some of that continents biggest stars, such as Manu Dibango and Miriam Makeba, is stirring; the images of Ali messing around behind the scenes with the stars are a pure delight. Best of all, the concert footage itself is second to none and the extras possible on DVD make it even better in this format. Extras: director interview, deleted footage, extra performances, trailer and 32- page booklet. Siobhn Murphy DVD Of The Week Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen (12A) Paramount Home Entertainment, 22 Michael Bays noisy turbo- charged, special-effects saturated follow-up to 2007s Transformers surpasses its predecessor in many ways. Theres more Autobots and Decepticons, more mind- blowing battles, more Megan Fox in tight skimpy clothing... if only the scriptwriters had spent more time on creating a plot that could hold up the films mammoth 144-minute duration. Revenge Of The Fallen picks up two years after the events of the last film. The Autobots, led by the mighty Optimus Prime, have formed an alliance with the US government and are hunting down any surviving Decepticons. The Autobots chosen one / human sidekick Sam (Shia LaBeouf) is off to college and all is swell until he discovers the hot new chick on campus is a lethal fembot intent on extracting some ancient symbols from his brain that will lead the Decepticons to a power source with which centuries-old bad dude The Fallen can drain the Sun and restore himself to his former all-powerful glory. Get all that? A tedious bloated rehash of the first film which overstays its welcome by about 90 minutes. Extras: commentary by Michael Bay, and writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. The two-disc edition (27) gets you extra making-ofs, featurettes, extended scenes and music video. Damian Tully-Pointon Barfly: McSavage in character on the set of his new RT show, The Savage Eye index.html2.html3.html4.html5.html6.html7.html8.html9.html10.html11.html12.html13.html14.html15.html16.html17.html18.html19.html20.html21.html22.html23.html24.html25.html26.html27.html