Assassins Creed 2

The first one was the bane of my existence.

I thought the first one was graphically delicious, but found it very repetitive and boring after a while.

I thought the first had a good story, nice graphics, and I liked the climb on anything platforming a lot. That said, a few things ruined the game for me (aka, I'd never replay it.)

1. Beggar ladies.
2. Those dudes who push you.
3. Timed missions
4. Unintuitive (IMO) sword combat.

Still, in spite of what my first comment may suggest, I am hyped for the sequel. Worst case scenario, the interesting story gets expanded on. Best case scenario, they also manage to bring the gameplay up a few notches.

The first game, at least to me, felt more like a fancy tech demo than a game. It was kind of interesting, but the worlds lacked any substantial depth, and if it would have had some RPG elements(e.g. buying new equipment, bribing guards, etc.) it could have led to some far more interesting game play scenarios.

Hopefully in the upcoming game they incorporate more of those types of features into the game.

In one of the new GameInformer magazines, they have a big article about AC2. From reading the article, it sounds like they've fixed a lot of the gripes people had with the first one.