Took a month off, for no real reason, but I’m back in Italy now. And I’m having a whale of a time. There’s a million things to do, all of them fun, and it’s just one of the very best games I’ve played in ages. It’s amazing how much better than the first game it is. I loved that one, but I’m sure that if I went back it would seem far too empty and simplistic.

Last night I played for about an hour and a half and in that time I managed to do one story mission, some side assassinations, kill a courier, find my way to some tricky feathers, buy a treasure map and go hunting, upgrade my town and villa, change my clothes, buy some new armour and weapons, name a horse Jeremy, climb new eagle points, hire some courtesans and mercenaries to distract guards, solve some puzzles revealed by glyphs, decode and rearrange codex pages, etc., etc.

Brilliant.