Exactly— why make an open world game if you're going to throw bright red messages in the player's face that says "NOPE! He didn't do it that way! He climbed that tree first, then used the hidden blade! Found a really neat way to kill him? NAH! STICK THE SCRIPT BOY!"

Stephen, how did you feel about Optional Objectives?

I see what you did there...

They are just unrelenting. Straight up to the final mission you're given the "option" to playing on a very specific (and hair-pullingly frustrating) path.

From a previous AC3 Article:

I think shaming someone about not having a job during a recession vs. looking for a PDF of a very expensive and old Japanese children's book is a little worse. Just a little.

I submit my own example using the water surrounding China, the Koreas, and Japan

Saying "get a job bum" during a global recession.

"but _some_ of these groups are not people that a peaceful humanitarian should support."

Well you kind of were saying you're against the balloons, but regardless, having a few friends working in one of the programs that sends balloons, I can guarantee you these programs aren't entirely political— besides, what isn't political when its dealing with the longest on-going war in modern history?

It is great, isn't it?

No, I definitely think its a good idea that volunteers for these efforts don't listen to you and do keep helping people. Maybe they aren't as "backwards as we think" but a significant number of them are starving, and do need food and supplies. I'm sure these condoms (which, btw, were included to help the spread of…

I beginning to think what you just said is true. http://screencast.com/t/pBvkufnFH

I feel like you haven't actually played a R* game before.

Gotcha. Also I agree.

Why is he a token minority? R* did interesting things by perusing the story of gang violence in LA from a black guy's view point in San Andreas, seems like they are doing the same thing here. How is that token?

Niko was Serbian. So yeah, Eastern European.

He has an SNES for a chest! For shame... For shame!

This is the exact segment that lead me to writing this. When I said "you have to exploit the game", I was referring to this haha...

There's no excuse for making your game less fun to play. Again, AC, from the start, was all about presenting the player with a situation that could be tackled freely with a diverse toolset.