I'm pretty sure that within a week of the game released they released a patch that allowed you to play with people who had the dlc installed if you didn't

I think it just added the models to the game even though you cannot select them.

There are a number of games with unachievable achievements, usually through bugs, so I doubt it.

This is gone now too, though. So if you buy the game new, or didn't download the patch earlier, too bad.

Also, you're screwed if your HDD crashes...

Odd, it's almost as if the game doesn't exist. I guess when I plop this one in, we'll keep it strictly offline. Well I do have one friend to play it with and he's not the DLC type, so it will probably still work.

wow, that is wrong.. I still bought but def something to keep in mind.

It has a lot to do with licensing since disney bought marvel.

Assassin's Creed II is currently $36 on Amazon for both systems.

NEVER, and I can't emphasize this enough, NEVER buy an Ubisoft game when it comes out. They are always $20 within 4-6 months, which I think is a pretty good strategy on their part. It's gotta cut into the used market in a huge way.

Beatles Rock Band (360/Wii/PS3) $28.49 today only:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001TOQ8LG

It's actually a terrible strategy, if you consider that people will delay their new game purchases of their games especially because of this... I know I do. Well, terrible for them, good for us.

Yeah, if any 2009 single player game was worth its $59.99 MSRP, it was Assassin's Creed 2.

You could almost say NEVER buy *any* game when it comes out. (I'm excluding true "limited edition" bonus packs, although there have only been a few of those that have actually been hard to find or increase in price).
Almost every game drops in price within a year, if not six months, on the new market, and definitely on the used. Even RPGs which were one of the major exceptions in previous generations are more mainstream now and usually released in such numbers that they will drop in price and still be available as well - and the ones that aren't, you've probably saved enough by doing this on the other games to still be ahead if you pay a markup later.
That said, my instant response to those who want to erode consumer rights and prevent reselling a good you have legally purchased, is that there will always be people to whom paying that additional 15-20$ is worth being able to play the game 'first' or while it's still "new". It's possible the pendulum will shift the other way, where they actually are losing money because too many people are buying used/later, not enough new, but I think that's still a long way coming. I actually support some level of "value add" for new purchasers, but it's a slippery slope as to what is acceptable there.

What I'm saying is that Ubisoft titles drop in price almost immediately. AC2 was released in November, right? By December it was available for 40 bucks. Now it's 36. Same thing happened with the first AC, the last Prince of Persia, Tomb Raider Underworld, etc.

Yup. Ubisoft does this a lot. Activision used to as well - the price doesn't drop so much as the games go on sale within a couple months, usually for $39.

But, is Ubisoft doing it, or the stores just marking down the excess supply?

Considering you see it across a variety of stores, I'd assumes it's the publisher driving it. EA's done a lot of quick, temporary drops too. L4D2, Dragon's Age and Brutal Legend were all $39.99 at multiple places within their first month or two on the market.

I'm pretty much to the point where I'll wait for at least the $40 price point on 90% of games I want. If you factor in used options, it gets even easier. I did end up picking up BioShock 2 new with some Gamestop credit, but mainly because if you did, you got 25% + edge off a used game. So buy snagging it new, I was also able to get a complete copy of ME2 for $35 a couple weeks after its release.

It's been happening more frequently when a title doesn't sell like gangbusters the first couple weeks, but Ubisoft seems to lead the charge no matter how sales are doing.

I agree about the $40 price point. There's almost not reason to buy a full price game for me unless:
1) It's a AAA title.
2) I'm going to get my money's worth.

The last 2 games I bought for $60 were MW2 and Fallout 3, both of which I sunk A LOT of time into. I think it's really a matter of knowing yourself. But I won't pay $60 anymore for a game like AC or even a Batman AA because there's no immediate need for me to play it. I know that on more or less a daily basis I'm going to jump on MW2's multiplayer, at least for the next couple of months, so I'm not going to pick up a full price game when I already know what I'll be playing most nights.

Clone Wars Republic Heroes is 12.98 today

Pretty good deal, but I hear the game is bad. I thought this was funny : Look at these results you get when you search Metacritic for "Clone Wars"

^ I heard the same but am still tempted at that price

Last day for the BF2 credit I'm assuming....do I pull the trigger?!?

If you want to save a few dollars and don't mind buying used, Blockbuster has that Star Wars game (any system) for $9.99.

Brutal Legend is the same price.

There's a demo on XBL. Not sure about the PS3.

I didn't like it.

http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/ga...-d8024c4107e2/

Yep, this was my point entirely. The price drops for Assassin's Creed and Prince of Persia (08) were...shall we say...precipitous. I really think it's an attempt to usurp the used market and capture those sales, and I still think it's a smart strategy.

The folks who follow this stuff on the internet and who even know one publisher from another are a very small portion of sales. Ubisoft has simply identified a curve in which they catch different people at different price points depending on their sensitivity to price...and as an added bonus, gamestop takes it in the shorts by overpaying for used copies and then being undercut by new ones.