• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Assassin's Creed III |OT| Easier to read than Ratonhnhaké:ton

malfcn

Member
Collecting pivots. Kind of cool. Would have been neat to use during the story some how.

Who introduced you to pivots, and who is celebrating at the end?
 

JB1981

Member
Did patches improve the framerate on PS3? I played this game last night after not having played in months and it seemed ... smoother?
 

pakkit

Banned
This game was lent to me by a friend, and I'm going to return it. I'm relatively early on with Connor, but the amount of fluff this game throws at you from the start is extremely unappealing. I actively dislike this game, which is a shame because the initial information sounded really appealing (Assassins + Native Americans + U.S. History + Red Dead Redemption).

What we got is a bloated mess. So many of these missions revolve around running from checkpoint to checkpoint. Anvil really shines in animation - climbing has never looked so good - but as a consequence we've been given flash with little substance. So, you're given a checkpoint to travel to and your options are: ride a horse (which is boring), run along (which is boring and slow), freerun and hold the trigger (which is boring but at least looks cool). The wilderness is astounding. It's really beautiful to walk through, and despite some sharp angles, running through the trees is just as beautiful as I had hoped. And yet...so little gameplay. Why aren't we stocking more enemies in the trees? Or using the wilderness as cover? Even stalking prey could have been fun, but we have paper-thin AI and buggy navigation coding leading everyone from Sam Adams to a hapless deer running into shit repeatedly. Immersion breaking, and unforgiveable for a game with this much anticipation. Ubisoft has shown with this series that they care more about their yearly revenue than QA and game design.

Don't even get me started on this plot. This has the most boring intro to an AAA game since Twilight Princess, the difference being that Twilight Princess eventually stops barraging you with tutorials. The gamer sits idly as Desmond, Haytham, and Connor are all reminded of the Precursors - as if we haven't heard this drivel hundreds of times by now. This is a script that has no respect for its audience - "hello, Connor, we've appeared to you as an eagle because your people really relate to eagles," "I'm a guy with a limp named Achilles," "Just pretend you're italian in the city and people won't notice your obvious native american garb." It just makes my head hurt. In Adam Sessler's review of DmC, he viciously attacked the narrative for dropping the series' tongue in cheek attitude and replacing substance with explosions. In my opinion, ACIII is an even bigger offender - cherry picking moments from the Revolutionary War that students learned about in elementary school and throwing Connor there, while ignoring the racism of the era, or even fully exploring native american history. Which isn't to say they hadn't maimed the history in previous games, but having it so close to home hurts even more. Django Unchained, flawed as it was, at least had the decency to explore new avenues of the era, with a sense of humor to boot. In the end, I'm amazed this series chugs along - it obviously has suffered from too many cooks in the kitchen. There are gameplay systems in place, minus the fun gameplay. There are remnants of a good story hidden behind layers and layers of crap. Alright, rant over.
 
Something has been bugging me since I finished this game. I may have missed something but...it seemed like Haytham had no idea about Connor's existence in the beginning of Connor's story but at some point (off screen, it would seem) he learns about him and isn't surprised to meet him.

Was there a scene I missed? I did play some of the game on the GamePad which means I had the sound off and probably paid no attention to a few cutscenes so I could have missed the reveal but as of now...I'm confused.
 

Toa TAK

Banned
Something has been bugging me since I finished this game. I may have missed something but...it seemed like Haytham had no idea about Connor's existence in the beginning of Connor's story but at some point (off screen, it would seem) he learns about him and isn't surprised to meet him.

Was there a scene I missed? I did play some of the game on the GamePad which means I had the sound off and probably paid no attention to a few cutscenes so I could have missed the reveal but as of now...I'm confused.

Maybe, they cut out a lot of cutscenes from the game from what I've heard.
 
Did patches improve the framerate on PS3? I played this game last night after not having played in months and it seemed ... smoother?
Which is one of the reasons I roll my eyes at the individuals who trash the game in that regard in every new AC thread. 15fps? Come on, son. Keep proving you haven't played it. (Talking to a ficticious poster there haha)

This game was lent to me by a friend, and I'm going to return it. I'm relatively early on with Connor, but the amount of fluff this game throws at you from the start is extremely unappealing. I actively dislike this game, which is a shame because the initial information sounded really appealing (Assassins + Native Americans + U.S. History + Red Dead Redemption).

What we got is a bloated mess. So many of these missions revolve around running from checkpoint to checkpoint. Anvil really shines in animation - climbing has never looked so good - but as a consequence we've been given flash with little substance. So, you're given a checkpoint to travel to and your options are: ride a horse (which is boring), run along (which is boring and slow), freerun and hold the trigger (which is boring but at least looks cool). The wilderness is astounding. It's really beautiful to walk through, and despite some sharp angles, running through the trees is just as beautiful as I had hoped. And yet...so little gameplay. Why aren't we stocking more enemies in the trees? Or using the wilderness as cover? Even stalking prey could have been fun, but we have paper-thin AI and buggy navigation coding leading everyone from Sam Adams to a hapless deer running into shit repeatedly. Immersion breaking, and unforgiveable for a game with this much anticipation. Ubisoft has shown with this series that they care more about their yearly revenue than QA and game design.
Initially, it does seem bloated and I felt the same way once upon a time. But upon completetion, with no backlog, plenty of time to dedicate to it and a bias born from in-laws who are American Rev war reenactors, I discovered the amazing in the post-game cleanup that has gone unnoticed by those who have dismissed it because of the technical issues and bloat. Doing the club assignments, the forts (especially stealthily), the naval missions, collect-a-thons, and homestead missions really added depth and a game to the game, in a fun way.

Hunting QTEs are terrible, but attacking from above makes up for it. They have responded to the criticism of the waypoint markers and the distance and time between them saying they regret not having more fast travel points but also still wanted players to see the beauty of the frontier. In the GW DLC, they address it by letting you pick the next story point and fast travel you directly to the mission start prompt. The bugs I've seen just as often and just as batshit crazy in RDR.

Don't even get me started on this plot. This has the most boring intro to an AAA game since Twilight Princess, the difference being that Twilight Princess eventually stops barraging you with tutorials. The gamer sits idly as Desmond, Haytham, and Connor are all reminded of the Precursors - as if we haven't heard this drivel hundreds of times by now. This is a script that has no respect for its audience - "hello, Connor, we've appeared to you as an eagle because your people really relate to eagles," "I'm a guy with a limp named Achilles," "Just pretend you're italian in the city and people won't notice your obvious native american garb." It just makes my head hurt. In Adam Sessler's review of DmC, he viciously attacked the narrative for dropping the series' tongue in cheek attitude and replacing substance with explosions. In my opinion, ACIII is an even bigger offender - cherry picking moments from the Revolutionary War that students learned about in elementary school and throwing Connor there, while ignoring the racism of the era, or even fully exploring native american history. Which isn't to say they hadn't maimed the history in previous games, but having it so close to home hurts even more. Django Unchained, flawed as it was, at least had the decency to explore new avenues of the era, with a sense of humor to boot. In the end, I'm amazed this series chugs along - it obviously has suffered from too many cooks in the kitchen. There are gameplay systems in place, minus the fun gameplay. There are remnants of a good story hidden behind layers and layers of crap. Alright, rant over.
I have a hard time nitpicking these things since they're easily understandable to me. The eagle has represented the assassin's since the original. With the exception of Connor, even the protags' names loosely mean eagle in some form. Given Connor's lineage and his people's tendency to speak of spirit guides and animal guides, of course it makes sense.

If I'm not mistaken, weren't there folks in the colonies who dressed in Native American garb?

They have gone on record saying that we know so much about the era, that it would have been disappointing not thrusting players in the middle of some of the most important, most intersting and most well known moments of history and the era. Could have handled some of it better and added more but... I enjoyed what I played, at least. And they hint at racism at the end almost as if they were setting up a sequel but alas... My wish doesn't seem to be coming true.

As someone who loves the game more than most, I respect this rant compared to the drivel I've seen since launch.

Something has been bugging me since I finished this game. I may have missed something but...it seemed like Haytham had no idea about Connor's existence in the beginning of Connor's story but at some point (off screen, it would seem) he learns about him and isn't surprised to meet him.

Was there a scene I missed? I did play some of the game on the GamePad which means I had the sound off and probably paid no attention to a few cutscenes so I could have missed the reveal but as of now...I'm confused.
I need to check, but I could have sworn there was some sort of reveal. They kept it small because they didn't want the dramatics of the "I'm your father/son" trope.
 

Robin64

Member
So this evening, myself and two friends decided to try Wolfpack on the Wii U. We've all had the game a while, and I've enjoyed some online multi even, but none of us had done this.

An hour later, we gave up. We could not get a single one of us to join another's session. Always "Game session no longer exists" or not getting the invite appear at all. All three of us had green NAT, too, we're no strangers to networking or anything like that. In the end we just gave up.

What a mess.
 
So this evening, myself and two friends decided to try Wolfpack on the Wii U. We've all had the game a while, and I've enjoyed some online multi even, but none of us had done this.

An hour later, we gave up. We could not get a single one of us to join another's session. Always "Game session no longer exists" or not getting the invite appear at all. All three of us had green NAT, too, we're no strangers to networking or anything like that. In the end we just gave up.

What a mess.

I haven't even been able to connect to a regular multi game and I have had it since launch. Is this an issue on Ubisoft's end?
 
So i just finished up AC3.

Can anyone explain the epilogue. Who is that guy talking? What the hell are pivot points.

I really enjoyed the game.
 

jett

D-Member
So uh 3 months later, I decided to pick up on the game and do the Benedict Arnold missions. I talk to Washington and then... there's no mission icon anywhere on any map. What am I missing?
 

iNvid02

Member
So uh 3 months later, I decided to pick up on the game and do the Benedict Arnold missions. I talk to Washington and then... there's no mission icon anywhere on any map. What am I missing?

the game sensed you were done with the series and is halting you from further progression :p


i think they take place after sequence 10, icon should be in new york in the north west corner. the icon for them is a sword

restarting the game should also fix the nonexistent icon bug iirc. http://ubisoft-en.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/17379/related/1
 
So i just finished up AC3.

Can anyone explain the epilogue. Who is that guy talking? What the hell are pivot points.

I really enjoyed the game.

Sit down .

ok ?
Spoilers incoming
Desmond is dead. His body died , he might be alive as an entity inside the temple like with subject 16 but that's not confirmed. Juno is free to do as she please now She was sealed in the temple before. Juno wish to enslave the inferior humanity, minerva disagrees.
By the way you might have seen a conversation between desmon and his father while playing ( way before the ending ) indicating that assasins and templars have tried to work together several times but failed each time. One big theory unconfirmed or not is that juno was the one behind the failure of those attempts.

The guy that was talking in the after credits once you reach post game is an abstergo employe. Pivots are pivotal points across an animus session you're synchronised to.
haversting all of them will allow the person playing to upload your session to the abstergo cloud.

Abstergo was actually gathering as much points of view in history as possible. They're actually selling them to the general public( no i'm not joking ) in a very commercial way , in a censured version (censured mean void of anything making templar look bad.)
One of those examples is assasins creed liberation on vita, an abstergo product , powered by Animus trademarked.This means that anyone can revisit the memories of someone that has been saved to the Abstergo cloud , even if it's not an ancestor.

So anyway the abstergo missile was doomed to fail, working between templars and assasins impossible ( thanks to juno ) the only way to survive the solar flare is for desmond to sacrifice his energgy to power up the temple defenses. If he doesn't a very small portion of the populace on earth would survive and the circle leading to another flare later will start anew ( that's what they showed ) . Desmond choose to save humanity , even if it means to release juno in the wild. and that's what happenned.
 

Pixels

Member
I'm torn. This looks awesome.

I hated 1, love love love loved 2, Brotherhood and Revelations didn't appeal to me as extensions to 2...

So that brings us to 3.

Is 3 worth playing if you loved 2?
 

Martian

Member
I'm torn. This looks awesome.

I hated 1, love love love loved 2, Brotherhood and Revelations didn't appeal to me as extensions to 2...

So that brings us to 3.

Is 3 worth playing if you loved 2?

Bear with me as I'm still playing the game myself for the first time.


I loved AC I, despite all the critics and also loved AC2.
ACIII offers more of the same and more features. If it's the world and setting you love (like I did with AC I and II), you'll enjoy AC III as well.

There are quite a few bugs, and the controls (at least on PS3) can sometimes work against you. They removed the free-run button and combined it with the sprint/high-profile button. So you'll try to run away but end up sprinting onto a wall.

It's not as polished as ACII, but its still a lot of fun.
Say I would give AC II a 90/100, AC III would get 75/100. It's not as great as its predecessor(sp?) but still worth a playthrough and you won't feel like you've been ripped off.
 

conman

Member
Bear with me as I'm still playing the game myself for the first time.


I loved AC I, despite all the critics and also loved AC2.
ACIII offers more of the same and more features. If it's the world and setting you love (like I did with AC I and II), you'll enjoy AC III as well.

There are quite a few bugs, and the controls (at least on PS3) can sometimes work against you. They removed the free-run button and combined it with the sprint/high-profile button. So you'll try to run away but end up sprinting onto a wall.

It's not as polished as ACII, but its still a lot of fun.
Say I would give AC II a 90/100, AC III would get 75/100. It's not as great as its predecessor(sp?) but still worth a playthrough and you won't feel like you've been ripped off.
As a huge fan of the series (including AC1), I agree 100% with this post.

The only caveat I would add is that your ability to stomach AC3 will depend entirely on your tolerance for playing a sub-par entry into an otherwise stellar franchise. For me, I couldn't finish it, but I agree that it's worth a shot as long as you know what you're getting into. I intend on playing completely through it at some point, but only after I can pick it up on a Steam sale for less than $10.
 

MickeyPhree

Member
Ok I finally got my robes.

This game is awesome. I am having an absolute ball doing all the maritime missions and raiding forts in the frontier. I haven't done a main storyline mission in the past six hours.
 

Pachimari

Member
Are there any technical differences between the PS3/360 and Wii U versions? Like less pop in, framerate or something?

I loved AC1, really liked AC2 and got fatigued by Brotherhood, so I skipped Revelations. But Assassin's Creed 3 looks SO awesome, cool and entertaining in videos. Wonderful animations, climbing trees, sailing in the ocean, hunting animals etc. I can imagine just climbing in trees waiting for someone to pass by and then shoot an arrow in his head.

Yet all this "backlash" from the community makes me confused. I probably should just wait for Black Flag to get back into the series.
 
Are there any technical differences between the PS3/360 and Wii U versions? Like less pop in, framerate or something?

I loved AC1, really liked AC2 and got fatigued by Brotherhood, so I skipped Revelations. But Assassin's Creed 3 looks SO awesome, cool and entertaining in videos. Wonderful animations, climbing trees, sailing in the ocean, hunting animals etc. I can imagine just climbing in trees waiting for someone to pass by and then shoot an arrow in his head.

Yet all this "backlash" from the community makes me confused. I probably should just wait for Black Flag to get back into the series.
The frontier and free running through trees and across cliffs is amazing. I live in CT, and it feels great running around what could essentially be my neck of the woods.

Problem is, it takes several hours before it's all available to you to explore.

Most people, including me, will complain about the disjointed story missions BUT I've just realized that he's not an assassin 24/7 so, sure, missions might take place months apart, but the life Connor leads is deeper than his story missions. The homestead missions are great.

In retrospect, Ubi should have specified a timeline for every mission so if players wanted to best experience Connor's life in chronological order, they could. Meaning instead of my route of mainly doing main missions and saving forts and homestead til the end, which sort of screwed the plot/pacing, they should have highlighted smaller tasks in between the gaps of the main missions for those who would appreciate the variety and contrast of Real Connor vs Assassin Connor. It's easier seeing this after completing the game but going in blind, you're kind of overwhelmed with everything.
 
Ok, mother FUCK killstreak perks. How in the shit is "kill anyone on the the map whenever for some reason" a fucking thing? Automatic win perks can go die. I'm sick of these bullshit MP boosters. This guy last night just kept killing me and the game would warn me about animus hacks and how I should just stay hidden. Fuck you, game/ubi. Terrible terrible terrible. That guy finished with 20+K points simply because every time you use it, you get added bonuses. I had to investigate wtf he was using. Utterly disgusting.
 
N

Noray

Unconfirmed Member
Any impressions of the PC port? How does it compare to past AC games on PC?

Played through the whole thing on PC just now, pretty much an okay port. There are glitches here and there, but I haven't come across anything game-breaking. It's just a glitchy game on all platforms. Performance varies, sometimes it's quite low on my machine (mostly in the frontier), other times it's fine. I have an i7 (forget what, good cpu though) and a 6870. Settings mostly on high.

Just know that it's glitchy as fuck, has some frustrating mission design here and there, enemy AI is bonkers and the controls can be frustrating on occasion. I quite enjoyed it, but it's definitely my least favorite of the console AC games.
 

kuYuri

Member
Played through the whole thing on PC just now, pretty much an okay port. There are glitches here and there, but I haven't come across anything game-breaking. It's just a glitchy game on all platforms. Performance varies, sometimes it's quite low on my machine (mostly in the frontier), other times it's fine. I have an i7 (forget what, good cpu though) and a 6870. Settings mostly on high.

Just know that it's glitchy as fuck, has some frustrating mission design here and there, enemy AI is bonkers and the controls can be frustrating on occasion. I quite enjoyed it, but it's definitely my least favorite of the console AC games.

Thanks for the impressions. I played the first 5 hours on 360 and even in that time I ran into some glitches. I was just wondering cause the performance on console is pretty bad and I would at least like to see it hover around 30 on PC.
 
The only time I've experienced severe framerate drops (PS3) is when I get those messages in game like "assassins returned safely" etc. I hope people aren't confusing that with regular performance.
 

Alfredo

Member
I'm kinda disappointed that the Washington DLC isn't getting much coverage. It's way more interesting to me knowing that it's canon and Connor still acknowledges the events of AC3.

The DLC is essentially Connor being thrust into a nonsense nightmare world, which allows the devs to go crazy with stuff like the animal powers, which enhances the gameplay without having to worry about breaking "realism" or whatever.
 

strobogo

Banned
Man, I didn't really care for this game at all. It was more enjoyable than Revelations, but not by much. It's so sloppy. There were 2 major glitches with in the first 30 seconds I started playing. Random missing textures, slow downs that should be unacceptable in this day and age, some baaaad voice acting, the subtitles are impossible to read if you still have an old tube TV (which I do, I literally couldn't read any of the text through out the entire game and it's a pretty decent sized screen), controls that actually seem to be getting clunkier and less responsive as the series goes on, a very non engaging story, ridiculous "go from this side of the map to the other, but you have to slog through the snow at a fucking snail's pace even on a horse" over and over and over, missions where your instructions aren't clear at all from the cut scenes, the last part with Desmond is annoying as shit, the over all story keeps getting dumber, and fuck the boat shit. It's way too easy. The controls and camera are more difficult to over come than any of the missions.

I've never gone from loving a franchise to being completely disinterested so quickly. If IV is really pirate stuff and has more boat stuff, I'm out. The only reason I tried this was because they cut out the RTS parts, but replacing it with the boat battles is not really an improvement.


Also, fuck Desmond. Who gives a fuck about Desmond?
 

iNvid02

Member
the spanish ac facebook page posted the tyranny of king washington soundtrack

just like the main ost its awesome, its free

coverostaciiityrannyobdsdl.jpg


http://static2.cdn.ubi.com/gamesite...ny_of_king_washington_original_soundtrack.zip

one of the best tracks is not on there (as usual -_-), angel of war: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wx8fLapnPps
 

raviolico

Member
feel free to label me as a living-under-a-rock gamer....but i`ve never bought such thing as a "season pass" for any game this gen.

so..if i bought one for this game i will get free access to ALL the dlc stuff released so far, right? incl. weapons, outfits etc?
 
Already played and beat the PS3 version but given I sold it I picked the pc version up during the steam sale along with the Washington dlc. Had a few questions though and this is the reason I'm posting.

Is it possible to pick up a dropped musket during combat? Thought I remembered doing it in the console version but it doesn't seem to work at all now.

My other question is whether there is any way to cheat and automatically unlock all shortcuts without having to go through the underground again. Was somewhat cool the first time but good god I have no desire to do it two more times in the pc release.

Also: The PC release looks absolutely amazing, really stunning and honestly one of the best looking games I've played. With the hud off and everything at max it's just really breaktaking. Plus not nearly as many as the awful jagglies in the console version(steady framerate is nice too)

Edit: Also meant to ask if it's possible to turn off enemy highlighting. Can take me out a bit during combat given I have everything else off.
 
I tried carrying on with my 100% game I abandoned a while back... Currently on Sequence 7, the Battle of Bunker Hill. That ship section... Dear god.
 

Alfredo

Member
Just finished Part 2 of the Washington DLC. Yep, things are still pretty crazy in nightmare world. The eagle power is pretty nifty, letting you pretty much teleport anywhere. I hope they let you bring the animal powers into the main game eventually, but I kinda doubt it. I'd love to use the Eagle power in the frontier. They'd be so much fun to use, but you'd still have to deal with the crappy weapon-switching system.
 

Lima

Member
The eagle ability is fantastic. And so is the wolf one. Combined? Fucking crazy. Can't wait to see what animal power they come up with in episode 3 and see how it all ties together.

I don't really care that it makes no sense at all but this is what Assassin's Creed needs. New ideas that are fun. And on this front this DLC delivers, it is just fun to play.
 

Irish

Member
The Eagle abilities seem so freaking amazing. Completely removes the hassle from the return to clunky climbing that had been eliminated in recent entries of the series.

The thing that interests me most about this DLC is the fact that it features a completely fictional storyline, which is where I feel the series should be heading. Now, for the next full AC, make the setting fictional as well.

Watched episode 2 from a completely different youtuber who also struggled with some of the basic controls. Freaking crazy.

Things neither apparently knew how to do: Switch weapons/powers using the D-Pad, Use a Human Shield.
 

JB1981

Member
The eagle ability is fantastic. And so is the wolf one. Combined? Fucking crazy. Can't wait to see what animal power they come up with in episode 3 and see how it all ties together.

I don't really care that it makes no sense at all but this is what Assassin's Creed needs. New ideas that are fun. And on this front this DLC delivers, it is just fun to play.

Good video here showing the wolf ability.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4gUTEb3to0

Kind of crazy that they added such substantial mechanics do DLC.
 
The 100% synch requirements for the mission where you have to take out the Orpheus and her two escorts are fucking harsh. Three Manowars, and you can only take them out by blowing up their powder kegs. Nevermind the fact that, with the upgraded hull, the Aquila usually guts them in one hit instead of opening up their hull for explosion times.

This fucking game.
 
Top Bottom