Step 1. Control-Atl-Delete (for Windows users anyway)
Step 2. Select Assassin’s Creed.
Step 3. Click “End Task”

Could it be harking back to ‘Insert coin (to begin)’? The games were ported from the arcade machines onto the first consoles, and the trend has stuck ever since?

The ‘controller check’ hypothesis sounds a fair enough reason why this would be kept in, apart from the fact that most games ask you to put the controller back in when absent as a basic requirement.

The ’screensaver’ thing doesn’t really follow through for current generation consoles, though, since most console games have an ‘attract mode’ (a benefit of more memory/disc space) that shows you demo/teaser footage if you leave the game on the title screen. That in itself harks back to the arcade versions (where the ‘attract mode’ would entice you to play the game and insert more monies), but still has its uses when a game is shoved on a display unit on shop floors.

But following on from this I suspect Tycho is closest to the money. I think the ‘Press START to begin’ thing was probably -in the past- just to save on resources when the game is in idle mode. You’ll notice that most (if not all?) of these screens are very basic without too much on the screen and most are non-animated apart from the START message, which would otherwise burn itself onto the screen after time. Only once the end-user has made some input does the game start using more system resources to display an animated main menu. This piece of design could have kept arcade machines, which must have been expensive to replace, running for many more hours than if they were in constant medium-heavy use.

As I say this, to me, seems like an antiquated piece of arcade-to-first-generation design, which isn’t really necessary anymore. It’s worth noting that ONLY console-to-PC ports have this, since PC users only start a game program when they intend to play it. The PC has never been left idle in an arcade or an electronics boutique for a customer to play a demo of the game.

The overabundance of cutscenes are front-loaded – that’s the tutorial section. Once you get through that, the only cutscenes for a long time are before assassinations (and really briefly before investigations), everything else is gameplay. As for guards getting on you in the Kingdom, well…it’s a stupid, unnecessary filler region, to be sure. But the guard thing is not even remotely an issue. You can go at a full gallop through the whole thing whenever you please. The guards can’t do a thing to you unless you stop and let them catch up, and even then you just have to hide briefly or kill them. (If you want to collect things in the Kingdom, which there’s little reason to do, especially on the PC. Otherwise just charge through.)

But if people are perfectly willing to accept that then coming soon…..the new menu, menu, menu, game(save here only), menu, game, menu, game, menu, menu, game exit system.

Technologically it’s a great game, but the gameplay gets damn tedious damn fast, and the final few seconds are so desperately retarded. Seriously, if the credit’s rolled about a minute before the actual end, it would be a decent- if not great- ending. I really didn’t mind the whole Animus plotline- it means the sequels can be set present-day (or future or whatever the hell it is).