I am not a hardcore gamer. I think in the four years I have my XBox360 I owned no more than 30 titles and most of those were multiple titled under the same franchise (Assassins Creed 8 games, Batman Arkham 3 games, Dead Space 3 games made up nearly half of what I owned) and I almost decided I didn’t want to bother upgrading to an XBox One at all. But I was sold on just two games.

The first was Assassin’s Creed Unity, the much-maligned first outing on the next gen console of one of my favourite series. I am presently playing it and so far, so good. I really am not getting the hate so far. I am enjoying the variety of side missions and collectables, I love the enormous scope of revolution-era Paris. In some ways, it feels more of a cousin of the Ezio trilogy than of ACIII or Black Flag. The hunting and crafting has gone and we see the return of city improvements and renovations that was reminiscent of Brotherhood and Revelations. We’re also back to a large, single map. I am now eagerly awaiting Syndicate when it comes out at the end of the year.

Anyway, that’s enough about Assassin’s Creed for now. The other series I wanted to upgrade for was the promise that Batman Arkham would go out with a bang. After seeing movie level promotion for it for at least a year, I have high hopes for what promises to be a grand finale for the storyline (if indeed reviews and sales do not tempt them to carry on the story). Arkham Asylum is considered one of the best open world games of the 360 generation yet it was blown out of the water by its sequel Arkham City which took the gameplay, combat, story and scope to a whole other level. Even on a fourth playthrough, I was still finding new things about it.

I say trilogy, but there has already been a third game. The prequel Arkham Origins was a let down in many ways, feeling too similar to City but without some of the things that made it truly amazing. The combat became clunky and the much-promised improvements to investigations were superficial, the side missions dull and uninspired. It was released by a different studio so that is why you will see the studio releasing Arkham Knight referring to the story as a trilogy.

I am expecting my copy to arrive tomorrow; if not, then the day after. I may even put Assassin’s Creed Unity aside for a few hours to see how it is IGN has a spoiler free review already here.