By Jim Rossignol on February 6th, 2008 at 8:22 pm.
Much-debated man-stabbing game Assassin’s Creed is set to come out on PC at the end of March. Ubisoft’s latest transmission has revealed a few details about the beige-box version:
Following in the wake of the critically acclaimed and worldwide console hit Assassin’s Creed, the PC version entitled “Assassin’s Creed™, Director’s cut edition” will feature four brand new exclusive types of investigations, thus providing even more ways for players to explore the various locations of the Third Crusade.
Woo. I have to say I’m actually kind of looking forward to playing it on PC. No particular reason, it’ll just be interesting to see how time and a port will have treated the old fella.
So essentially they’re putting in content that by rights really should have been in the 360 version. While AC has bags of style, having to perform the same four actions repeatedly before every bloody bit of interesting gameplay became just a tad tedious after a while.
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Press Y to sit on a bench and listen! That’s compelling gameplay if I’ve ever seen it.
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I quite liked the listening. And the hiding by sitting down.
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“So essentially they’re putting in content that by rights really should have been in the 360 version.”
I approve of this trend, it happened the other way round enough times.
Although I’d rather they just gave everyone access to the same things, even if it’s downloadable later.
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The tasks were quite well implemented, but really, who wasn’t totally bored of them by hit number 5?
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I heard it looks great, but the game itself is arse. I’ll probably hold out for a demo to check out the engine technology, or wait until it hits budget. I’m not seeing this as a front runner purchase.
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I’m going to need a demo before even considering this – the system requirements seem absolutely insane.
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@fluffy bunny
Seriously. It makes me think that they’re not letting you decrease the graphics quality at all. Even Crysis and Unreal Tournament 3 allow you to reduce the graphical fidelity, so as to allow for systems that cost less than ten million dollars.
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As I mentioned before, Ubisoft isn’t really known for its top quality port jobs.
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@Elyscape: With the exchange s10 million dollars isn’t too bad!
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I quite like this trend of ‘PC release gets extra stuff’ (that sounds like it should alays have been there).
It’s a trend consisting of Gears of War and this (that I know of) but it’s a start.
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I loved it…till about the 5th/6th hit. It’s currently languishing at a friends house…
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Wait, so four new types of investigations, does that mean you’ll have to do up to eight types of mission before the assassination itself, or are they going to be level specific shoehorned in ones? It’s ingenious in some way mind – it could increase the playtime considerably – but in some ways it seems very lazy.
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I’ve been playing the PC port of Splinter Cell: Double Agent this week.
Based on the quality of that port, I have to say that there’s no way I’d consider playing a Ubi game on the PC any more, no matter how many new game modes they add.
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Why’d it have to be vista only :*(
*sniff*
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Vista only, is that a joke? Guess I won’t be playing (or buying) this then.
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I’ve played about half of the 360 version and that is enough for me. Once the wonder of the world and exploring wears off there is very VERY little to do… and well…it would be painful to do it all again, even with some new crappy hit x wait 20 seconds for something scripted to happen missions.
I need to finish it so I can sell it though, unfortunately it’s probably depreciated a hell of a lot by now.
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It’s Windows XP + Vista.
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I’ll definitely buy this, even if I expect I’ll get bored halfway through, but I am also quite sure I’ll enjoy it for the first few hours.
The system specs are indeed rather ridiculous though – wasn’t too long ago that Ubi made rather decent ports, but it’s all gone downhill in the last 2-3 years.
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The “lesser” 360 version will probably get a price cut, then. Time to get it for my console :)
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God, that’s weak. Why not just add alternate costumes and other worthless crap while you’re at it, Ubi?
They may as well be spitting in their audience’s faces.
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The German forums also had official specs for PC posted and they were lower than previously stated. Also they confirm it is not Vista exclusive. I don’t speak German but the specs are clear enough.
http://forums-de.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/9341034934/m/1971020236
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Now this’ll be interesting to see how else it differs from the console versions.
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ASSASSIN’S CREED. Developed by Ubisoft.
Changelog for PC Version 1.1:
Added: Big giant stompy robots
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That would add some nice variety actually…
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A little disappointing to be honest. To buy the shiny collectors edition on the 360 at release only to have them release it with almost twice the investigations is a bit annoying. If the additions are worthwhile, doubtful as that is, I hope they at least give me the option of picking it up as DLC.
Not straying into the area of Gamer’s Rage by saying that they shouldn’t have done it at all, I just wish I had known that they were doing this when I shelled out for the game. That said, I seem to be in the internet minority of folks who enjoyed the game immensely. Different strokes for different folks.
EDIT: The last mission was a bit of a drag, though.
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James: Last game I played that had a decent end-section was… Well, not counting a couple of recent Valve releases, I’d say it was probably the Baldur’s Gate 2 expansion pack.
Other than that, I find most games to end fairly Xen-ly.
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Amen, brother. Ubisoft owe me one functioning PC game, so I’m afraid SC:Conviction will be getting the pirate treatment from me, even if it doesn’t turn out to be bugged to fuck.
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My big gripe with the game…
The ‘investigations’ should have actually done something to the assassination portion of the level.
What they should have done:
Incriminate a general, and as a result, he no longer guards the target.
Steal the watch schedule, and there are fewer archers on the rooftops.
Bribe the soldier guarding the front gate, and he will accidentally leave it open, giving you easier access to the courtyard.
Slip poison into the court’s wine caskets and the target has fewer hitpoints when you go to battle him.
Such a simple change would have given Assassin’s Creed one of the most defining features of an outstanding game: Choice. As it stands, it is a mediocre game dressed up as more than it really is.
I played through half of the game, obsessively getting all of the investigation material before I realized it didn’t do jack to the final outcome. I got the bare minimum requirements for each level after that and got the same result as someone who had more patience than I did.
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@Jim Rossignol: “And the hiding by sitting down.”
The most amusing moment in Assassin’s Creed was when I fell from a more than lethal height during a chase but landed sitting on a bench which saved my life and lost the guards… Funny bugs are funny!
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Clearly whoever was sitting there last forgot his haemorrhoid-ring and it cushioned the fall.
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The problem with Double Agent was that they let the goons in Shanghai develop it for the next-gen consoles and PC. The interface was backwards next to Chaos Theory, which was developed by Ubi Montreal – who did the last-gen versions which used the Chaos Theory interface (w. sound sensor etc.)
What a fuck up it was.
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they should rather try to get the system requirements down to more reasonable levels than put in time for extra content only a few will be able to play due to the enormous hardware hunger…
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