Assassin’s Creed was awesome, but I’m not here to debate that. Even so, as much as I loved the game, there were a stack of niggles that added up to one giant sabre-toothed niggle monster. So, like a good Ritalin-deprived action gamer, I found my own ways to enjoy Assassin’s Creed to its fullest.

Care to join me in a mostly inappropriate trip to the 12^th Century Holy Land? Good. For this week’s hobby, you’ll need several hours to waste, a completed copy of Assassin’s Creed, an Xbox 360 (or PS3 if you’ve more money than sense), a disrespectful attitude towards organised religion and a flask of weak lemon drink.

Altair’s sense of scale once again let him down as he bravely dived towards the olympic swimming pool housed within the village courtyard

1) Jumping Off Things

This is a vitalising virtual pastime I learned after completing Spider-Man 2: The Game of The Movie of The Comic far too quickly. Shades of the Creed there already, eh free-runners?

Easily one of the best things about these roaming sandbox worlds crammed inside modern consoles is that you can sack off the missions and go sightseeing. And where better to see such sightseeing sights as from the highest points on the map?

Of course, I realise this hobby is actually a sub-mission within Assassin’s Creed anyway, but taken as a kind of virtual rock climbing or depressed stock broker simulator it actually makes a pretty entertaining mockery of the whole show.

Scouring the landscape looking for the highest points in each map (including the Kingdom) is one thing, but testing Altair’s durability is quite another. It’s awesome making the leaps of faith, but have you tried getting down from those lofty heights without relying on the cushioning effect of a few straws of hay?

As any good Assassins out there will already know, the church in Acre is the highest point the white robed brother can climb to, and legging off the cross at the top is pretty cool. Before drinking your weak lemon drink, time yourself at how quickly you can get back down without killing or crippling Big Al. Bouncing from pillar to post and crashing heavily onto the roof tiles and streets is bone crunchingly good fun, and you can perform some painfully impressive manoeuvres looking for the second shortest route to the floor.

Now drink your weak lemon drink.