The Professor, The Definetive Solution.

[UK Mylo]

I posted this a few weeks ago on GameFAQ's, and thought I just copy and paste it here, chances are most people don't need this now, but I thought I post it anyway, as it can't hurt!
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I finally beat the professor (aka Eugene Levy) on assassin, and this strategy seems to work 99.99% of the time, so anyone who's having trouble beating him (like me), should find this of use.

Before we begin, a few things you should, it doesn't matter how quickly you do the first stage in the barn (the shooting part) you always have 1:58 to beat him. So don't think about doing the first part of the level again in the hope getting a longer crack at him. Also, don't worry about time, I found it better to ignore the clock as it only serves as something that rushes you and you'll end up making mistakes. If you doing well, you'll always beat him with time to spare (Using this method I had around 10 seconds left).

Secondly, before you even begin the fight you have watch the cutscene of Bourne losing the shotgun and then counter P's attack (or if he has just killed you, you'll be watching it again), you can't skip this so be patient and watch it, and get ready to attack, if you fail to counter, then I recommend loading the last checkpoint, as there's not point starting this fight on 3/4 health. One thing I did notice is that the stating location of the fight changes depending on the type of counter in the cutscene, sometimes you'll be in the centre of the the barn, other times you'll be nearer the right hand wall, (but seeing as this out of you control, don't worry about it)

Thirdly, it's important to know or get a feeling for when a takedown/counter cinematic ends and when the game gives you back control (I found this to be a problem for me, as I was beginning a combo at the wrong time).

Foruth, Combos, In this game combos are pretty easy to pull and button timings are a lot slower than most people think, when pulling off combos, just remember to TAKE YOUR TIME!

The main combo you'll be using in this fight are:
X,X,Y (A swift jab, followed by trailing elbow swing then finished with a round kick) *This is most important combo, and you will need to be able to pull this one with ease to have any hope of beating the Prof)
X,X,Y (Two swift jabs followed by an uppercut)
X,X,X (Three swift jabs, seriously, if you can't pull this off, how did you actually get this far in the game?)
Y,Y,Y (Two slow and powerful hooks to the face followed by a jumping hook, v.easy to pull off)
Hold X (A quick-ish mid level far reaching round house kick, I know it's not technically a combo but who cares?)

[UK Mylo]

Now, finally the fight, as soon the fight starts (Be ready and know when you CAN actually start attacking). Use X,X,X (these should land these everytime) now block and P will hit you once, now attack again with X,Y,Y, now, this is the trick that works 99.99% of the time...

*If the round kick (from the X,X,Y combo) lands on P and he's stunned, Hold X for the roundhouse kick and WALK TOWARDS HIM and the kick with hit him and stun him, now you can hit him again, if he's out in the open use X,X,Y as this a quick combo and the initial jab has enough reach to get to him, if he's against a wall and your pretty close to him then use Y,Y,Y instead as this combo is slow and close range but far more powerful. Chances are that during or immediately after these combo's P will try a takedown on you so get ready to counter, but sometimes you'll be able to get another combo out if the final blow of your pervious combo landed on him and he's stunned, If this is the case use a X,X,X combo as it's quick and will allow to block because P will DEFINETLY block this combo at some stage and with do a TD on you.

**Now, back up a bit, if your first X,X,Y combo (the one after the X,X,X combo at the start of the fight) didn't land on P (i.e. He blocked the kick) then Hold X (for the roundhouse) and WALK AWAY FROM HIM, the kick will hit him as he goes to kick you, now simply do as above and use either X,X,Y or Y,Y,Y combos.

Now at this point P will use a takedown on you, it's important that you counter these as they will take your health down in seconds (but they will never kill you, they will always take your health down to 0, meaning nothing more than a strong breeze will see you off). Remember, don't panic about countering, you ALWAYS have more time than you think, but at the same time try not to let your finger linger too long, My tip is when you hear the TD sound, take your right hand of the pad and put you hand above the buttons (as you would if you were gonna tap one button repeatedly fast) and get ready to react. Remember if you do panic or freeze up, just press anything (by anything I mean A,B,X or Y not RT or RB etc) as you still have a one in four chance of countering, if you press nothing, then you are 100% certain of taking a beating.

Now, when the takedown is over (and hopefully you countered) and you should be back in control (it is VERY important to get this timing right) as you soon as you can, start a X,X,Y combo as to repeat the combo/kick process again, if you mess the timing up, then more than likely Bourne is doing a Y,Y,Y combo and this probably won't hit P, so the best thing to do is hold block and hope you recovered in time to get away without taking a beating.

Now basically, repeat this strategy, until you have built up at least 2 TD's on the adrenalin meter, but don't use these yet, as TD's heal 1/8 of you energy bar, only use these if P hits you, if you build up 3 TD's (and your still on full health) then use one straight away, because otherwise your just wasting adrenalin (BTW if you have a full AM and FH, then you doing REALLY WELL!). Try and use environmental TD's as they do more damage, but don't worry if you initiate a takedown and it's just plain hand-to-hand one, as the difference in damage won't mean the difference between winning or failing.

[UK Mylo]

BTW if your having trouble working out P's attacks, he pretty much has the same attacks as Castel, he normally attacks you once, pauses then unleashes a three hit combo, if he punches, then this is easy as his punch combos have the same range as yours and you will be in range to counter, however if he uses that cheesy three hit kick combo that Castel also used (How come your the ONLY Treadstone assassin who didn't learn that combo?) then back away because once P has finished you won't be able to reach him (if you out in the open) with a combo before he starts it again, it's best to back up out of range and charge up a roundhouse kick, then combo.

Now basically keep this up and when P is down to 1/3 or 1/4 let rip with the 2 TD's you have stored, don't worry if time is tight at this stage because the clock stops during TD's and remember that you've banked these TD's so this is health you haven't taken of P yet. By now he should be nearly dead and the clock around 30 secs, but DO NOT PANIC, simply stick to the strat and once you've hit him enough to build up the final TD slot and let rip, he should be done (BTW if he's not, if he should only take few more blows to drop him, and if you have above 50% health, you can risk going full out offensive on him, I only recomend this if the clock is into single figures).

Now P should be dead, but wait, there is a 3 button cutscene at the end of the fight, SO BE READY AND DON'T MESS THIS UP!! Otherwise you'll be fighting him again. Remember in these quicktime action sequences you never push the same button twice, so if the first button you have to press is "B", then the next one in the sequence is going to be either A, X or Y.

NOW P should be 100% dead, Bourne should be on his way back to Paris and your done with this mini boss guide. Hopefully you beat P and this guide made it a little less frustrating, however if your still having prob's reply to this post or feel free to email me!!

(BTW you may have noticed that I start a lot of sentences with the word "now", it's not really a big deal, but it might get annoying after a while!)

(BTW Again, I know it's a bit long-winded, but once I get typing, I find it difficult to stop, like this one time I was in the park, and this guy comes up to me and asks me the time.........

[Method]

Wow, that's a lot to read (honestly I didn't get through it:)). Personally I just used the assassin trick posted here (http://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/showthread.php?t=75859) to beat this level. It's a lot simpler, but I guess if you want to do it legit this will help.

[thepaxman]

Man I must have been one punch away from doing this about 30 times before I gave up and did the Assassin trick. Then I came back to it and using the pressing XY trick and fuck, that made it so much easier.

Pretty dumb fight though. You batter the Prof for 10 minutes, he gets one combo on you and that's half your health gone!

[Mah Weezy]

yeah this fight sucked, but i managed to muscle trough it just using xxy and xyy, only took about 5 trys if you just spam them ultra fast, and blocking appropriately. I thought the fight in the apartment in paris was harder.

[Derrick DS]

I'm playing through it right now and I find the easiest way to hit him is to do the Y,Y,X combo... because when done at the right time, you can continue stringing this combo together, whether it connects or not, no blocking necessary. I still haven't beaten it, but after only my second try, i was a punch away.

EDIT: Third time's a charm, beat em with 10 seconds and a takedown to spare. :)