"So what are you playing now?" no one asks me, ever, but this is my blog so I'll answer whatever I want, even if I'm not asked.  As you've probably surmised from the trailer above, lately I've been playing Assassin's Creed: Origins.  The trailer song is by Leonard Cohen.

I like this game. A lot.  It's visually stunning and there have been several moments when I've just paused playing to say "Whoa" out loud due to the spectacular vistas and cityscapes depicted in the game.  When you arrive in a new town or city, it makes you want to set aside 20 minutes or so just to wander around in it and explore.  

It's set in First Century Egypt, the era of Cleopatra and Greek and Roman occupancy, and it seems to at least be making an effort at being historically accurate. I like it that the Egyptians are dark skinned, not tanned caucasians like the Hollywood version.  I like it that the protagonist's wife is Jewish.  The characters are a real melting pot, much like occupied First Century Egypt probably was. That and there are no magic potions or hocus-pocus in the game that requires suspensions of disbelief.  So far, at least, mummies are just dead people wrapped in cloth waiting on cremation.  

The game is published by UbiSoft, the same developers who produced the fascinating but ultimately frustrating Far Cry 4.  There are some similarities between the two games in the battle styles and the game controls, but it feels like the creators listened to the complaints about the Far Cry series and produced a game where the quests do not feel repetitive, where dying in game doesn't require you to replay the last 45 minutes of the game over again, and steering vehicles (in this case, boats and chariots) isn't as impossibly difficult as steering cars and trucks in Far Cry 4. 

This is my first Assassin's Creed game (the series has been out for years now and there's even a movie version already), so I don't have a precedent for comparison with Origins.  And even though I'm only about 20 hours in to the game (Level 13), I'm already rating this game among the very best, right up there with Witcher 3 and Fallout 4.  It's that good. 

On an unrelated note and for those keeping score at home, I saw a young red-tailed fox in the backyard again this morning.  First fox sighting in a couple weeks.