We know that some of you complained that Assassin's Creed's missions got a little repetitive after a while, and it's a fair complaint. But, as we can see in this new video from Mega64, all we apparently needed to do to spice them up was to actually attempt them in the real world (no, not all of them, JT).

We felt this after the Rainbow Six Vegas 2 terrorist video, but Assassin's Creed once again leaves us dumbfounded that the Mega64 guys still haven't gotten the crap kicked out of them by some muscley stranger. Not that we're complaining, of course.

Sometimes April Fools' jokes become a reality. Hideo Kojima revealed today that Altair's costume, from Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed, will be unlockable in Konami's Metal Gear Solid 4. Kojima said that players will have to do something special to obtain the outfit, but no specifics were given.

We now can't help but imagine all the other costumes Snake could dress up in. Perhaps a collaboration with Nintendo for a Mario or Kirby costume (only fair considering Kirby has a Snake outfit)? Konami could always just sell more costumes as DLC, sort of like the Ninja Gaiden fashion line.

Money continues to pour into the House that Rayman built as Ubisoft announced fourth quarter sales growth of 10% to €217 million ($339 million). In addition, the company saw its wallet grow by an impressive 36.4% over the entire fiscal year ended March 31, 2008 by some €928 million ($1.45 billion) driven by "stronger than expected" sales of Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (nearly two million units sold), Assassin's Creed (more than six million units sold), and titles from its casual "Games For Everyone" brands.

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot called 2007-08 a "remarkable year" thanks to "excellent sales" of established brands and a "steady output of new releases...that have performed exceptionally well." Ubisoft also continues to work towards a sales target of €1 billion, or $1.42 billion, for 2008-09, while the exec set the bar high for his company going forward with an expected growth of "at least 15 percent" in the coming year.

Lastly, Guillemot boasted of a "particularly strong" line-up of titles in the year ahead, including seven existing franchises, five new releases, and a continued focus on bringing more casual games on the Wii and DS, one of which we think should be based solely around counting money.

Oh ... dear. This is exactly the sort of video the internet shouldn't be showing us. Does it not realize the colossal, sensory danger posed by a combination of two of our favorite franchises? Seeing the Assassin's Creed garb running around a modern environment is one thing, but when the mise en scène happens to feature Metal Gear Solid 4 gameplay, we stop asking questions ("Where did this come from? Why is it so unrelenting in its awesomeness?") and start experiencing debilitating gleezures. That's glee + seizure, FYI.

[Thanks, Emphar]

In an attempt to address criticism aimed at the game's repetitive "investigation missions," Ubisoft has detailed (via IGN) some of the enhancements made to the PC version of free-roaming bump-off sim, Assassin's Creed. Four new types of missions will be added to protagonist Altair's premortem preamble, including "archer assassination," which tasks players with stealthily eliminating rooftop guards, and "escort challenge," an exercise in protecting a fellow (seemingly inept) assassin as he wanders to a specific location. Also new to the personal computer will be the rather impolite "merchant stand destruction challenge," a pastime that's sure to exude the same amount of subtlety seen in "rooftop race challenge." We're surprised Ubisoft didn't throw in some pizza delivery missions for good measure.

Still, considering the more diverse activities and enhanced guard AI (no more blending right next to a corpse!), PC gamers won't be waiting until "early April" without compensation. And just so you know, we never partook in all the assassin hate -- we liked the clambering and killing well enough to put it in our list of top ten games of last year.

Usually, when a movie is kept under wraps until it's released to the public – meaning no screenings for critics amongst other things – it's almost always a sure sign that it's terrible. Like ... crap. So, it was with little hesitation that we assumed the closely guarded Assassin's Creed: Altair's Chronicles for DS was going to be, well ... crap. But after being released yesterday, we checked out the above video and, you know what? It doesn't look that terrible.

Okay, sure, all Altair does is walk on a straight path ... with no enemies anywhere ... collecting glowing gems. Oh, and then there's a minigame. But, really, we were expecting something somewhere between Superman 64 and being murdered, so consider us impressed. With no reviews available to reference (see above note about avoiding critics) we're left wondering if any of you have risked some coin on Ubisoft's secret lovechild.

In case you weren't one of the 2.5 million people to pick it up in its first month of sales, Ubisoft is bringing history lesson-cum-assassin simulator Assassin's Creed to the PC platform in March. The only difference: when you drop "a few coins" on this version, you'll be rewarded with "four brand-new exclusive types of investigations" which should go a small way towards silencing complaints that the game (one of our favorites in '07, by the by) was repetitive. And, at $50, it enjoys the obligatory PC game discount.

Please sir, spare a few coins ...

The last of our three-day stint covering Anthony's artwork. The last two days were devoted to t-shirts, and today we show off two canvas pictures. One of Altair from Assassin's Creed, and the ever-awesome Day of the Tentacle art -- we're suckers for LucasArts adventure nods. Check out the highlights for today:

Joystiquery
DS Fanboy Lite: Jan. 12 - Jan. 18
Joystiq Podcast 034 - Awkward edition
Today's big hair video: Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII CGI trailer

News
Video introduces the new Smash Bros. Brawl fighters
Finally, a game about the Library of Congress classification system
See first screens from Highlander game
Tiberium (the Command & Conquer FPS) debut trailer
Microsoft apologizes for Xbox Live issues with free Undertow download
Rock Band songs tops 2.5m downloads, 200+ songs in pipeline
SCi management out, stock price recovering
Prince of Persia creator talks film adaptation, pitching project
Screenshots: Bionic Commando Rearmed
Sega theme parks planned for Middle East, North Africa
World of Warcraft players reach gold limit cap
Guitar Hero 3 gets Journey, Foreigner, Boston DLC
Activision was #1 US publisher in 2007
Rosenbaum gives voice to Dark Sector
Bully giving atomic wedgies on Wii and Xbox 360 the first week of March
Wal-Mart gives $10 gift card to victims (opportunists) of Brawl price error

Rumors & Speculation
Oblivion PSP listing appears on Amazon
Analyst: EA Sports is underperforming and trend may continue

Culture & Community
BioShock nabs 'record-breaking' 12 nominations from AIAS awards
Player credits America's Army for mad first aid skillz

More cool t-shirt designs from reader Anthony, whose work we showed off yesterday. For those that don't recognize the above images, that's Assassin's Creed on the left and Marathon on the right. Check out the highlights for today:

Joystiquery
X3F Week in Review: January 11, 2008 - January 17, 2008

News
GameTap Thursday: Gumboy rolls into town
Myst DS landing in US this March
Virtua Fighter 5 update on 360 brings saved replays, pants
PixelJunk Monsters to invade PSN on Jan. 24
Scrabulous under fire from Hasbro, Mattel
FIFA Street 3 demo now on Xbox Live
Meet Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney right here, right now
MotorStorm track pack arrives on PSN today
Alone in the Dark delayed until May, PS3 even later
Paperboy, Metroid Prime programmer dies at 43
Suda 51 wants more No More Heroes
XGen browser game dev throws casual weight behind WiiWare
There's a new trailer for Postal
Infogrames CEO outlines recovery plans for company and Atari
Leisure Suit Larry Box Office Bust coming everywhere Fall '08
Atlus USA reveals 'Rondo of Swords' for DS
Study: A Wii bit of practice before surgery is good
Sony says SingStar store will get updates soon
Gears of War dolls of masculinity available spring '08
December NPD: No wonder you're broke this month
TiVo Alert: Prototype gameplay on X-Play
PSN Thursday: Turok demo shows, PlayStation Eye games watch
Codemasters CEO: We're an attractive acquisition

Rumors & Speculation
Rumor: Devil May Cry 4 demo coming January 31
Rumorang: Crysis '1.5' to PS3, not Xbox 360

Culture & Community
Turner Broadcasting sponsors game design competition
Kindly check the mail: Big Daddies are en route
Video Games Live announces 40 shows across the globe
Ubidays 2008 coming May 28-29 in Paris
Mass Effect 'virtual orgasmic rape' columnist apologizes

Earlier this week we saw an editorial from Electronic Gaming Monthly Editor-in-chief Dan "Shoe" Hsu calling out Sony's sport division, the Mortal Kombat team and Ubisoft for purportedly blackballing the magazine. GameDaily's Media Coverage feature, written by Joystiq's Kyle Orland, talks with Hsu about the editorial to extract more insight into his decision to publish the editorial.

Hsu clarifies that these incidents are not common, despite the perception one might get from all the media around it. In talking about Ubisoft specifically, Hsu points out two previews for Assassin's Creed, which discussed worrisome design flaws. He also notes that Capcom had at one point in the magazine's history pulled support and have since become a prominent advertiser again.

Our favorite line comes at the end of the piece. Said Hsu, "I'd drag EGM down with me or quit before we compromise our integrity." You hear that, EGM writers who value paychecks over integrity? Get out while you still can!

We haven't heard much about the DS version of Ubisoft mega smash Assassin's Creed since we learned of its existence back in October, but we've finally had a little light shed on it by a GoNintendo reader who seems to have nabbed the game's box art. Click here for an embiggened version.

We're kind of intrigued by the "Explore a fully-rendered 3D world" part, and a bit perplexed by using the stylus to pickpocket items from unwitting targets. We're also a bit troubled by the name, Assassin's Creed: Altair's Chronicles. We've learned through the years that "Good Game Title: Character Name's Story/Tales/Chronicles/Adventures" is almost always a recipe for sadness. Here's hoping this one proves us wrong.

EA Sports football (or "soccer" for the US audience) title FIFA 08 was the best-selling video game in the United Kingdom last year according to Chart-Track (via GamesIndustry.biz). The game reportedly sold 25% percent more than its closest rival, Dr Kawashima's Brain Training.

Perhaps surprisingly, Microsoft's flagship Halo 3 came in sixth place with only half of FIFA 08's sales. Both FIFA 08 and Halo 3 were released in late September within days of each other. It should be noted that FIFA 08 was a multiplatform title available on six different consoles and the PC. Top ten list after the break.

UPDATE: The full text of the editorial is now available on Hsu's blog.

In his latest editorial, Electronic Gaming Monthly Editor-in-chief Dan "Shoe" Hsu publicly calls out three companies that are allegedly refusing to work with the magazine due to negative reviews of their games. According to Hsu, the members of Midway's Mortal Kombat team, Sony's sports division and Ubisoft as a whole are refusing to give EGM access to early preview or review builds of their games (in the case of Ubisoft, Hsu specifically says "it seems our coverage of Assassin's Creed was the last straw").

As a result, Hsu says EGM readers will get "little, late, or no coverage" of these companies' games. "We won't treat these products or companies any differently, and we'll just cover them to the best of our own abilities, with or without their support," Hsu writes. "Because, after all, we're writing for you, the reader -- not them."

These types of allegations aren't anything new around the game industry water cooler, and stories of publisher reprisals in the form of pulled advertising or blackballed journalists occasionally bubble up in the game press. But editors are usually reluctant to publicly name names in these situations, for fear of pissing off publishers further. Are we seeing the beginning of a new age in game journalism, where journalists aren't afraid of standing up to publishers that try to push them around?

We'll be following up with Hsu and the companies involved and let you know what we hear.

Pac-Man Championship Edition (XBLA)

If not worthy of a Top 10 spot, then certainly Pac-Man deserves Joystiq's 'Comeback Player of the Year' award. I covered Pac-Man CE's overblown launch in early June, but it wasn't until I became a devoted player at home that I realized the sheer genius of the first true Pac-Man sequel since 'the Ms.' hit the maze in '82. Designer Toru Iwatani managed to scrape off a quarter-century of rust and fashion a remarkably relevant game that held me down during an otherwise punishing summer drought. Geometry Wars might be the most celebrated, but Pac-Man CE is Xbox Live Arcade's true star.