Assassin's Creed III is a fantastic game that's marred only by a glacial few opening hours, a surfeit of history and exposition, and the odd glitch. That aside, ACIII is a triumph and the perfect way to say hello to Connor.

A friend of mine teaches a history class at a high school. A few years ago he noticed his students were going from C-grade mediocrity to A-grade brilliance almost overnight. He was perplexed, so he asked them what exactly it was that had suddenly made them such experts on, of all people, the...

Incredible value for money - so much content; Wonderful American Revolution setting; Fantastic multiplayer

Technology is starting to feel a little long in the tooth; Not as funny as its predecessors; Takes quite a long time to get going

Assassins Creed III : When it comes to this title, I haven't played any game in the series other than the first one – which disillusioned me with the fact that it kept jumping back to the present day and I found that very jarring – and last year's Assassin's Creed Revelations which fixed a great...

Assassin's Creed III is undoubtedly the best in the series and revitalises everything about Assassin's Creed that was starting to age prematurely. Connor has a fantastic story to tell, and in many ways is a more enjoyable protagonist to control; against the backdrop of the American Revolution,...

+ An amazing world; + Heaps of side missions to explore; + Improved combat and free-running; + Connor and the American Revolution

- Horses are rubbish; - Some visual issues

The next generation of Assassins are here. Find out how the series has evolved in our full review.

+ Naval combat is intense; + Tons of new ideas; + Fantastic story; + Visuals can be gorgeous

Frame rate woes; Glitches are abundant; Takes a while to get going

For years now, Assassin's Creed remains one of Ubisoft's most popular video game series. The original showed terrific potential, although it suffered from repetitive mission design. The developers have been improving the gameplay mechanics and building upon the story of Desmond Miles ever since.

Ubisoft finally nailed the fighting mechanics; maintaining the flow of combat is one of the best aspects of the game; naval conflicts are fun as hell; an authentic representation of sea and land battles that took place during the American Revolution

Missions feel unrewarding and uninteresting at times; Connor's no Ezio (or Altair for that matter); initial release crammed with technical issues; there are many elements in the game that just seem useless (like hunting)

Not a bad game in itself, but I was going for 100% game completion and the rampant glitches/bugs completely ruined that for me. Completionists DO NOT rent.

The Assassin's Creed series has been polarizing over the years. People have both criticized and lauded the automatic free running system, the counter-based combat mechanic, and the sci-fi/historical setting.

In case you're wondering, yes, the Assassin's Creed series is still about a bartender in 2012 saving the world from imminent destruction by reliving the exploits of his ancestors at the behest of cybergods.

History is a funny thing. Napoleon said "History is a set of lies agreed upon." Easily misread, misunderstood or misinterpreted, it is written by the victors and those who do not remember it are condemned to repeat it.