well here goes nothing.  i think i liked the first one better than the second.  i know the majority probably say the second blows the first away.  there are pros and cons in both games.  one con i found in both games is that the story feels rushed.  i mean for the most part its just go here and do this unless you want to get all the viewpoints, treasures, feathers and etc.  the one thing that i do like better in the second is theres a little more freedom with weapons, armor, abilities,  and the town renovations.  i think that was one of the biggest assets they added to the series.  i think the thing i like most about the first one over the second is altair.   i mean ezio is a fine main character but altair was just so badass while ezio goes from the town hoodlum to a killer within a few hours of gameplay.  also, i feel the climbing in the first one was a little easier to do cuz i found myself getting a little angry in the second one several times while i never had a problem in the first.  what do you guys think cuz i know i go against the norm for the most part.

I prefered the city in the first game. It felt more filthy and dirty.

Other than that, the second game improves in every way.

Gameplay wise the 2nd has improved on everything.

I still like the setting of the first game and Altair more though.

I too prefer the first game

I thought the second game was just exactly the same as the first, just like brotherhood is aswell.

And did anyone else think the graphics in the first game actually looked better

Yeah that's also something I have observed. Especially the characters.

But the scale of AC2 is far greater which probably explains it.

QFT

personally i think nearly everything about the first game is better than the second.

to chazy, i did think the graphics in the first looked better, especially outside of the animus, the girl (i forget her name) looks really funky in the second one

The visuals of the first one definitely impressed me more than either AC2 or ACB. I've still yet to feel the same way when I finally climb up to the tallest viewpoint to synch in the first game. Probably because most of them aren't as high in AC2/ACB. Except for one in the Vatican in ACB that came pretty dang close... (You can see all of Rome). 

That said... 

I love the first game, even now. But I love the second more, and ACB even more. Here's why. The second game added a ton of stuff that I really like, at the cost of a bit of atmosphere. Brotherhood did even better. The story in all three is great, I think. But it was always the extra stuff that sold me on the second two. Double hidden blades, smoke bombs, the flying machine, parachutes, renovating, the Brotherhood... 

Well, I love all three. One of my favorite franchises of all time. Can't wait for the next one (and stop leaving me with a cliffhanger!!!!!). 

I've never seen so large a concentration of AC1 lovers.

Anyway:

• Altair's horrible accent made me want to punch a brick wall
• The menial tasks that you had to perform before each assassination were excruciating
• Your targets engaged you in unskippable half-hour monologues about nothing when you killed them, and Altair just listens and listens.
• There was a much larger variety of weapons in Assassin's Creed II. Enemies as well.
• This is personal opinion, but I think that Italy during the Renaissance is far more interesting than the Middle East during the Crusades, which was just people battering each other senseless for several centuries.
• Da Vinci! Come on!
• There was some actual character development in ACII. Altair had no personality at all.
• The story was genuinely interesting in ACII. Again, things happened other than random people being murdered.
• The music was definitely better in ACII. So was the voice acting. Ezio sounds Italian! They even speak Italian at points! Continuity, people. There were no Americans in the 12th Century, and certainly not in the Middle East.
• Desmond did something other than stalking Lucy and Vidic by reading their emails and walking up and down three rooms.
• You got a sense that the game was actually going somewhere (which, admittedly, you don't get in Brotherhood until the final hour or so).
• Even the platforming was better, with the ledge grab. But then, platforming was one of the high points of AC1. One of the very, very few high points.

I don't see how anyone can prefer that absolute catastrophe known as Assassin's Creed to its infinitely superior sequel. Seriously.