Why Assassin's Creed 2 belongs in my honorable mentions for 2010

I missed one crucial game in my top games of 2010 list - yes, those of you who told me I was posting the list a mite early were right.  I did wind up playing one more game - Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood for those of you click-happy jackanapes who didn't read the title of the blog - that deserves to be on that list as an honorable mention along with the other games I noted.
 
AC: Brotherhood (and its eventual Volition counterpart AC: Brother in the Hood) is a great game thanks to a well-crafted "kitchen sink" mentality of sorts that helped other open-world games of this generation like Saint's Row 2 or Red Dead Redemption.  The core gameplay is raised from being bland and unappealing (more on that in a sec) to greatness by din of that idea that the game needed just one more little thing for the player to do.  It encourages exploration, adds hours to the game, and in general, the side tasks are pretty fun to boot.  Ripping through the main quest only wouldn't have impressed me much.  It's serviceable, mind you, but it's very apparent that this is a filler title in terms of stories and characters.  It's sort of awesome that the story is as good as it is, considering the multiplayer was such a focus for the developer, but you're not going to get major revelations or anything that will render the next game unfathomable if you miss out on it. 
 
It's a game that could still use a lot of work.  The controls, while generally great, sometimes aren't as intuitive as I'd like.  Sometimes, Ezio kicks off walls without any real reason, or he makes backwards jumps when you need him angled a bit.  The combat system also needs to be examined from head to to, especially in terms of guns, crossbows, and darts.  There's just no excuse not to have a free-aim look without both a Y and X axis.  Hand to hand combat feels okay, but a better explanation of how to handle groups would go a long ways. 
 
There are other little issues, too, like font size and its colors against the background.  Again, that's primarily a problem with my eyesight and shouldn't be a problem for most anyone else.  However, there are other things that will almost certainly affect others, like the baffling lack of names when selecting your weapons.  Seriously, they couldn't have put "Small Weapon," "Hidden Blades," "Smoke Bombs," or any other small indicator other than a vague picture?  Certain mission structures are baffling or flat-out irritating, too.  I get that this is basically a stealth game, but taking away the player's option to rip through guards and watchmen on certain missions made me want to turn the game off at various points.  I've said it before in regards to games like Metal Gear Solid 4 and Perfect Dark Zero - enforced stealth missions will bring down otherwise great games. 
 
Those things aside, Brotherhood is seriously meaty, and a whole hell of a lot of fun.  So yes, it definitely deserved to be on my Best of... blog, and next year, I'll know better than to post my list before I've finished up for the year.