Some played the first Assassin's Creed in linear fashion, and drew upon its repetitive nature. Some went off and did all the sub-quests and remarked at how sprawling, open-ended and exciting the damn thing was.

But one thing everyone agreed on: VISUALLY, THIS GAME WAS A STUNNER. And it also sold s**tloads.

In this sequel - out on 20 NOVEMBER 2009 - things are even more gorgeous. And presumably, the gameplay's even better, too.

Set in Renaissance Italy, you'll star as young Italian noble Ezio Auditore, who gets to learn the wicked ways of the assassin, embroiling himself in an epic struggle of Florence's most powerful families, and also befriending paintbrush legend Leonardo da Vinci into the bargain.

With an open-ended structure and a living, breathing world of dynamic people, this really does look EPIC. And it also smacks of a 15th Century The Godfather to us, which sounds very bloody good too!