Assassin's Creed II

Primarily focusing on the level of customisation and sidelining available to the player - we'll come to that in just a tick - our most recent, and by all accounts last look at Assassin's Creed II has exceeded all expectation. Allowed free run of the game from the first minute through to, well, as far as we got has alayed any fears we previously held with regard to a potential lack of polish. Liquid framerates and eye-popping visuals replace a build that was distinctly lacking the convictions of its ambition.

But the bare bones were there and now that the meat is added, its full, glorious form is there for all to see. It sucked us right in from the word go with engaging characters and a series of fun mini-quests to allow us to get used to Ezio's various abilities and take in our surroundings. All of this after Desmond Miles' daring escape to the headquarters of a resistance cell with their own new and improved Animus.

Ezio comes across somewhat like Disney's Aladdin at the outset. A cheeky womanising rogue whose pride in his own family gets him into all manner of honor-bound mischief. There is also a substantial amount of gameplay on offer leading up to the death of his father - the catalyst event that leads Ezio down the path of the Assassin. We're trying hard here not to spoil any of this for you, so let's just leave it there in terms of the story.

A brand new feature on show today was the the Villa of Ezio's uncle, Mario. If you've ever played Overlord you'll get some kind of idea of what's on offer here, but we have to say, we've never seen anything on this scale of customisation and collectable-hording. Everything you buy, unlock or find in the game is displayed somewhere in the main mansion house of the Villa.

The Villa itself is actually more like a small walled village with shops to sell you necessary items at an initial 5% discount. But it's pretty much a tumbledown old wreck at the game's outset and while the player won't need to do anything about that to complete the game, should you decide, you can invest your entire income in sprucing the place up.

Starting at the back of the house, you'll find a room containing all of the weapons and armour you've bought and unlocked. It's just sitting right there on display should you wish to peruse your options in a visually appealing format. Another room contains dozens of empty picture frames. Paintings may be bought at substantial cost to fill the gaps. Completionists are going to love this and maybe even learn something about the renaissance masters along the way since each painting is a digital interpretation of a real-life counterpart.

Throughout the game you'll also find pages from Leonardo da Vinci's codex - the yellow-paged book that some of you may have seen containing designs for guns and helicopters that would never work. It's a favourite item in renaissance-related IPs. Who can forget the classic Hudson Hawk starring Bruce Willis? Er... Hudson what? We digress.

There are thirty of these in total and mounting each of them on the codex wall of your manner will unlock special assassin secrets which tie back into the main plot and indeed the final twist. But it's not that easy, fist you'll have to piced them together jigsaw-style with each of the pages rotatable. Now that may take a while.

Your sister, Claudia, sits at her desk in the study. Here she keeps the books. You see, each of the shops, brothels and other outlets in your villa bring you an income, measured by day or in gameplay terms every 20 minutes and it's here that you'll be able to keep a track. Upgrading the buildings within the villa will increase this income so as well as making your surroundings generally more palettable you won't just be blowing money needlessly on asthetics - in the long run it will pay you back, with interest.

But upgrading various buildings also allows Ezio to climb around them where previously he could not, which in turn leads to collectables he could not previously reach. The entire collectable versus upgrade system is a mobius of elegant design with each feeding naturally into the other ad infinitum. You'll also find numerous athletic rat-runs around the Villa just like you would in any of the game's three cities.

Right now, Asassin's Creed II has just jumped from middling anticipation to somewhere near the top of our must-have list. Ubisoft has not only learned the lessons of it forebear, but if anything has over-compensated, providing us with an experience that will keep completionists busy for literally weeks. Bravo Ubi, bravo.