A ‘Creed’ you’ll want to follow

Controversy in video games is nothing new (for example, see Auto, Grand Theft). Gamers by now have gotten used to seeing disclaimers at the start of games.

So when a game is based on historical events in the Jerusalem of the Middle Ages, like Assassin’s Creed, a warning at the start boasting the many different religious beliefs of the creative team seems only natural. (“Don’t pick on us, we’re cool,” it’s as if the makers are tying to say.)

Potential controversy aside, Creed is a stunning trip to a magnificently detailed world with big, wide-open spaces and plenty of people with whom to interact.

Besides the massive, open-ended missions and gameplay, the most amazing thing about Creed is the free-run abilities of Altair, the assassin. (Free-running, for the uninitiated, is the ability to scale walls and climb buildings with the greatest of ease.) See that amazingly detailed surface in front of you? Simply run over to it and Altair instantly ascends it. In most video games, this looks superhuman and unrealistic. Here, Altair’s moves are so well rendered that he looks graceful, natural and extremely athletic.

The missions are well-written and well-planned, and the visuals are flawless. The battle controls are overly simplistic and repetitive at times, but half the fun is hiding out, avoiding trouble.

And, hopefully, avoiding controversy.

Grade: A (awesome and epic).

Details: Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 platforms; $59.99; platforms; rated Mature (blood, strong language, violence).

Good characters, lousy controls

Kane & Lynch Dead Men is one of the best crime dramas ever written for a video game. The title characters -- an unlikely pairing of a balding, bloodthirsty mercenary and a heavily medicated, balding psychopath -- are better fleshed out than characters in most action movies. The gun battles are more intense than the bank robbery scene in “Heat.” And the visuals are very realistic and detailed.

But then there is the bad news. The game is incredibly buggy and can freeze in mid-action. Your main characters actually pass right through dead enemies as if they weren’t there. And the controls are clunky and hard to get comfy with. Oh, what could have been. . . .

Grade: C+ (criminally bad controls in an otherwise great crime drama).

Details: Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 platforms; $59.99; rated Mature (blood, drug reference, intense violence, strong violence).