f13.net

So this is blowing up in Ubi's face rather spectacularly, although reviewers seem to have taken the post release embargo and other problems mostly without complaint.

Features:

• Terrible performance even on consoles
• Glitches everywhere
• Microtransactions ranging from $9.99 to $99.99
• The game part also sucks

Pics and shit, mostly poached from Neogaf:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YdgnxdzE5g

(https://i.chzbgr.com/maxW500/8374645248/hA1A989CB)

(http://abload.de/img/mjx1omb4i7zkygnlvzatdmo9d.png)

(http://i.imgur.com/fsOzJh0.jpg)

(http://i.imgur.com/huYDJC2.jpg)

Wow. I wonder how far this franchise can sink.

Glad I skipped day one. If nothing else, I'm waiting to see if they can finally offer a stable four-core experience. All of the ACs and expacs I've played I've always had to dial back to two.

Also, I don't understand what's wrong with the second to last screenshot (the find the lower gallery), aside from it looking like shit. Or is that the problem?

It's just next gen LoD stuff on that pic. An example of how the console graphics are, it's that or sub 20fps.

Pop-in:

(http://i.imgur.com/mYYVSLf.gif)

I still avoid Ubisoft PC games thanks to their fucked up PC support and DRM policies but I have broken down and bought a few of the Assassin Creed games for my consoles. I've been enjoying AC4 on my PS4 so I went ahead and pre-ordered AC5 for it as well. I just received it but I'm going to return it and avoid all their games for all platforms for a while.

:--> Return of rapehorse.

I'm not buying Ubisoft games at launch after the Watch Dogs fiasco.  I find it telling when they forced reviewers of Unity to wait until launch to review.  With Rogue, they didn't even provide review copies I hear. 

Also of note is that Jade Raymond left Ubi last month.  I can't say the poor games and her resignation are correlated, but it is somewhat interesting timing. 

I suspect the games are collapsing under their own weight based on how these games are made.

A couple things stand out about Ubi games:

1. They are often very similar in many ways.
2. They tend to have a ton of breadth and very little depth.

The way these games are made is they have a dozen teams doing different parts. (As best I understand it) So you have one team responsible for a 2d hacking minigame, one for a 3d hacking minigame, one for in-game 3d UI, one for driving, etc. The end result is you can come up with a million different gameplay systems and missions and such, but they don't feel coherent and don't sum to more than their parts. The games are collections of distinct bits.

Then those same teams do similar work in the next game. So you have Watch Dogs and the Division having very similar 3d UI, or different games sharing the same animations. (I believe Watch Dogs and AC share literally the exact same animations for things like swimming)

It's a model that in my mind almost inevitably produces things that are samey and disjointed. And it's also prone to just becoming overburdened and not coming together. You throw all these different parts made by different teams together and hope they make a good game and sometimes they don't.

I suspect this is also why performance can be problem and why the PC versions are bad. Imagine trying to optimize code coming from 10 different teams - no thanks!

Margalis, that's exactly right. They even split up missions between teams. If you encounter a series of missions you like, chances are they were all made by the same group. Also, the groups are literally all over the world. So who knows.

This is probably going to be a good time to put my money where my mouth is. I think it's time to stop buying things at release - only buy the bundled GOTY editions that include a few DLC packs 1+ years later. If it doesn't have a bundle 1+ year later, it wasn't worth it to begin with.

I call it the "Borderlands policy."

Free avatar to good home:

(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/85916/AC_unity.png)

I haven't outgrown my flooping avatar (not sure I will) or else I'd use it.

That running animation looks terrible. Maybe I'm looking back on earlier Assassin's Creeds with rose-colored glasses, but I liked that you could see and feel the weight of the character in their movement. Now they're floaty ninjas.

My price point for all AC games is sub-$10 to put up with the headaches. Usually by then they've fixed all but the dumbest bugs.

No the animation is great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhl5yjMY0Ws

Bonus edit from the OG of horses:

(http://i.imgur.com/ZWEE6uW.jpg)

Holy fucking God, the bugs this thing has are FABULOUS!

Also, by this point, anyone who knowingly buys an Ubisoft game at release, SPECIFICALLY an Assassin's Creed game... you are just asking to be punched in the dick.

Wait.... $99 microtransactions and a post-release review embargo? Seriously?

(http://www.27bslash6.com/images/logo_for_simon_edhouse.gif)

And the microtransaction costs were hidden during the review process so almost all of the published embargoed reviews made no mention of the costs.

Is this the first post-release review embargo from a major publisher? It looks like an excessive abuse of power to the consumer's detriment.

Who needs critics and consumer advocates, really?

Anyone who still buys Ubisoft games deserves this.

Has this series produced anything considered a "must play" since the first one?  The repetitive nature of the first Assassin's Creed kind of put off the series for good.   I don't see any reason to revisit after playing Orc Murder Simulator 2014.

(http://a.pomf.se/yvjovd.gif)

The second one was much better than the first. AC4 is fun if you want to play a pirate. The combat and stealth mechanics are much much better in Shadow even compared to AC4, though.

AC2 was the peak of the series for me.

Kotaku has a pretty good collection of glitches (http://kotaku.com/assassins-creed-unity-has-the-best-glitches-1657939797)

Release the hounds!

AC2 was the peak for me as well, though Brotherhood and Revelations weren't bad.

(http://i.imgur.com/H59vi5y.png)

I don't understand... how do you have a POST release embargo? It's... it's out there, anyone can see it... what?

Because once they've bought it to figure out how bad it is, it's too late.

Wait, what? Post-release review embargo? As in Ubi is stopping reviews from being published after release?

Looks like Ubi is getting kicked anyway -

http://www.kotaku.com.au/2014/11/assassins-creed-unity-causes-ubisoft-stock-to-plummet-over-9/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2014/11/12/congratulations-ubisoft-youre-the-new-ea/

I got a download code for this POS. I guess I should check the fine print and see if it needs to be redeemed right away. Otherwise I may as well not bother with it for a year or more.

Yes, Ubisoft told review sites that they if they published a review less than 12 hours after release that they'd get no more review copies of games in the future.

I'm interested to know if any gaming websites gave Ubi the finger over that and broke that embargo. If any.

Out of interest, what do you actually play these days? Half of your posts seem to be in politics and the other half are mostly in the non-gaming areas. The few about games seem mostly to be bitching about things that you don't appear to play.

Thanks. Found it mentioned in the Forbes link. I read a few other articles linked off it as well - apparently a couple of places are no longer going to accept embargoed products for review after this. Didn't see who they were mentioned though.

Nice to see Ubi hit with a 9% stock drop from this, though.

This is my favorite glitchshot so far:

(http://38.media.tumblr.com/c0195b798aaa34dbacb6e96b628374e9/tumblr_newhk3PbAK1qecwmio2_1280.jpg)

I only read Forbes seriously now for game reviews, because Forbes doesn't give a fuck. Ubisoft thinks they can hold Forbes over a barrell with no review copies? LOL. Enjoy your stock drop assholes. See how the magazine that affects the feelings of the investment community deals with your hubris.

I don't think Forbes is going to fold up shop if they don't get their daily industry rations of mountain dew and dorito crumbs.

EDIT: Also the Forbes article makes these points


That's a fairly obvious list, but yet here we are. Customers are treated like garbage by publishers like Ubisoft, and I believe the customer base is getting more hip to their BS.

Since all the game journalists collude anyways, they could really screw Ubi over on the next game if they had decided to break the embargo.

"Farcry 4 Review"

"We'd love to review this game, but after we decided to tell customers exactly what we thought of Ubisoft's last release, they no longer send us review copies.  We cannot play them until the street date.  As such, and given the quality of the last game, we suggest you hold off any purchase until there is a chance to see how other suckers early adopters find it."

I figured they are already half there with the "where all the assassin women at?" thing.

Too busy in the kitchen.  Assassin biscuits take a lot of work!

Like hell. You know all the kickass assassin minigames they could set in the kitchen?

Hop on cabinets to find the ingredients.

Face your kids in glorious one on one combat!

Do you have the speed, strength and focus to carry out... the BOBBIT MANEUVER!!

And of course carefully design your costume for maximum cleavage without the danger of spillage.

Mainly Hex and random indie shit. The last "big game" I bought was Skyim. The Hex forum is hidden for whatever reason.

Oh, the Bobbit is easy.  The secret is to exhaust your target, which takes about 30 seconds, then strike when they're passed out.

Ah oh ah oh aaah!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DzsFMsIZPM

Oh God, I'm rolling!  :awesome_for_real:

Shit, even the texture popping/lighting issue on the main character's hood is SO BAD. I'm so glad I checked out of this series after the first one ended like it was half-finished.

It's not a bug but a new kind of emergent gameplay! :awesome_for_real:

Assassin's Creed: The Bloopering?  :uhrr:

That 'glitch' looks better than hair in most games. :grin:

Ridiculous glitches aside, we are getting real close to getting out of the uncanny valley.

I don't think so.  The closer it gets to looking real, the even more real it has to look to keep you from noticing if that makes sense.  Most of this stuff isn't even IN the uncanny valley because your brain recognizes it as obviously fake.

Also, stylized.

AC Rogue doesn't have reviews from the major outlets yet, but the comments tend to be significantly more positive.  The general theme seems that it's an amalgam of previous AC games and keeps throwing new ideas in a way that feels fresh.

I'll wait for next year's PC version of it, maybe.

That could only be improved by having it be the Scout (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iz_dj4u6pGA) doing the same thing.

Not sure I agree, there have been a few titles recently with realistic faces that just look good.

I'm not sure that "it's not in the uncanny valley if you see it as fake" is correct either, TBH. Uncanny valley is what it is because there's the tension between realism and blindingly obvious fake elements. When we look at them we think "that's disturbingly almost-real-but-messed-up", when we look at other things we just go "that's pretty realistic, neat".

Multiplayer is pretty fun when it works.  Naturally, this is my version of MP wherein we heckle each other for mistakes, riff on failures, sabotage each other, and remind ourselves that it is better than the later Dorf videos.  It would be even better if the game we were playing wasn't so shitty.

This. This is how you avoid the uncanny valley. I'd actually see "real" has long been the wrong goal anyway. Not until we break into real sustainable and widespread 3D interfaces.

The MTX stuff is rightly critiqued, as any premium priced game deserves. I don't get what models these companies run where they think the amount they might make on MTX will outweight the PR hit for having that stuff in there in the first place. Maybe it would be slightly less bad if the content here had the breadth of IV, the likeable Ezio of II and also the quality of both. But I doubt it. Fans will forgive a lot of things until they feel they're being gouged.

MTX or premium up front purchase. I don't get how this isn't axiom in the biz. It's almost 2015! for chrissakes.

I'll pick this up on a Steam Sale eventually because I do enjoy the series. And maybe by then they'll mea culpa the bugs and gouging.

Yes, it's a shame. Ubisoft is ruing their brandname (hö hö) by rushing this.

(https://i.imgur.com/szdjH6w.png)

The image is half clownshoes, half impressive. The hair and specular highlight on it is great.

He's totally about to fire his lazer there.

but yeah, the lighting on the hair looks really really nice. For that matter the skin ain't half bad either (what's loaded of it, anyway)

ten development teams have worked on that game over the course of its development and it probably cost upwards of $300 million to make if you include the marketing budget.300 million dollars and ten dev teams and they couldn't even make the game run at a constant 30 fps and without huge glitches and issues.

And still the gaming press isn't calling them out on that bullshit.

Source for those figures? That's insane, but I guess that's conglomerate development. It was a common practice at Blizzard to yank developers from other teams to help on a project, but based on what I've read on Ubi and my brief time at EA, it's more compartmentalized.

That's the "mythical man-month" right there, for sure.

So, I guess the game either sold poorly enough or is too-broken-to-patch enough that Ubisoft has canceled the season pass and is compensating anyone who bought it with a free game.

http://assassinscreed.ubi.com/en-US/community/liveupdates/live_updates_details.aspx?c=tcm:152-186650-16&ct=tcm:148-76770-32


Looks like they'll be squirting out the one DLC they had almost ready to go, give it to all owners for free, and forget the game exists.

That reminds me, a new game is coming that's a sequel to a major franchise that has been carefully crafted and only released when it is ready.

Arkham Knight. Origins mis-step aside, that's how you do a franchise.

I don't think it counts as free when you pay money for x and get offered y instead.

But then you bought a Season Pass for a game, so the company knows you are a sucker anyway.

The damage control attempts were hilarious as well.

At first they tried to ignore it, then it were the classics: "rare instances" and "it runs fine on ur systems.

After that they claimed that it was because the console hardware was too shitty to run their awesome game because "thousands of NPCs" and "something something CPU bound" until people politely pointed out that the PC version was even more of a shit show (they'd also have to explain how you can be CPU bound on a 6 core system when you're only using one core on most PCs)

Then they released a "known issues" list they claimed to work on which was several pages long and had to acknowledge that their own tests concluded that their bottlenecks didn't come from being CPU bound but from a shitty rendering pipeline and engine transaction handling instead.

Then GTA V came out and was exhibit A for just how full of shit Ubisoft's PR is  because it runs (with some minor hiccups) great on console HW and looks great.

Heads up to all owners of the XBox One version! Patch 1.4 for AC: Unity will be a whopping 44 GB because Ubisofts updater is broken and can't perfom a delta update.

If you own AC: Unity on disc, delete the game install files, reinstall the game and then apply patch 1.4. Then Uplay will only download and apply the 6.8 GB patch file. If you only have the digital download the patch file wil be 44 GB. PC version also seems to be affected by this bug.

:-->

FIFY.

just when you thought Ubisoft couldn't get any more evil/stupid.

People who bought the season pass and want to download the free Ubisoft game promised to them have to agree to never ever pursue any sort of lawsuit or sue for damages in regards to AC:Unity.
 :argh:

It's a serious problem. Why, I filed ten lawsuits seeking the return of $60 for the game just last night. Just wait for my super-lucrative class action...