Nerd Mentality

X06: Assassin's Creed Update
The latest on Ubi's next, um, killer game, including controls and potential multiplayer.

September 28, 2006 - 10,000 plus.

That's how many character animations are loaded into Assassin's Creed, 700 of them alone contextual. To put things into perspective, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, developed by the same crack team at Ubisoft Montreal, features 500 character animations. And Prince remains to this day one of the finest animated games on the market. Get the picture?

Of course, controlling all these moves is something of a chore on a controller that doesn't read minds. Jade Raymond, producer on Assassin's, took a few minutes to break down a complex yet seemingly intuitive control scheme that will have you offing targets faster than you can say John Wilkes Booth.

As Altair, a medieval hitman with a mysterious past (Raymond confirmed that he's not a time traveler), you have free reign to explore vast cities and countryside. You will investigate your targets by exploring, eavesdropping and even picking pockets for clues on his whereabouts. When you have three clues-- and there are many more you can choose to find through thorough investigation -- you can then move to the assassination stage, using "social stealth" to blend in with crowds, searching for handholds to scale castle walls, using killer's intuition to hone in on the target and, finally, sinking a blade in his gullet.

In order to control Altair, Ubisoft attached four "puppet strings." One to his head (the Y button) his weapon hand (X), off hand (B) and his lower body (A). The right trigger has been jokingly dubbed "emotional control" by Raymond and her team. In short, it is a strength modifier. While walking, hold it down to run. While swashbuckling, hold it down for a lumbering power strike.

Using Y, you will do things like eavesdrop and use intuition. A, then, would be used to jump. An interesting control feature is climbing, done in a way we've never seen before. We didn't get a chance to touch the controller, but you will actually feel for handholds, like rock climbing. With it, Altair can climb anywhere in the world where there is a decent grip, and we're hoping he has a chance to move up the tallest of towers while sneaking past the castle guard.

There wasn't much more news out of Ubisoft's camp, except that the team is trying to put together a package of downloadable content that Raymond could only say is "something ambitious." She hinted slightly at extended gameplay and possibly even some kind of multiplayer -- the team did create a prototype multiplayer and co-op mode. But, as of now, there is still nothing to announce.

While the PlayStation 3 and 360 versions of Assassin's Creed are virtually identical, Raymond did say that on the 360 the team is putting a special emphasis on achievements. The hardware also allows for improved threading, which will improve even further the crowd AI.

Even at this early stage, Assassin's Creed is a safe-bet for one of the most innovative and beautiful games of 2007.

But, but... the PS3 is supposed to have the better hardware, we're paying $200 extra for it... wonder what our local Sony-fanboy-extraordinaire Assman, or Snuggles2 (I recently acquired his permission to call him that ) has to say about this...

This game is going to be cool though, I'm probably going to buy this for pc, since I'm not planning to buy a Xbox360, let alone a PS3, anytime soon. Or is there a Wii version?
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Batist - The Frenchy formerly known as Majinbuu -

... and Knight of Cydonia. die. just die. die in a hellpit of fire from satan's ass.

Batist - The Frenchy formerly known as Majinbuu -

... and Knight of Cydonia. die. just die. die in a hellpit of fire from satan's ass.

Jay

Controls sound lame as all hell

I agree... but it looks SO good.
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Strange days indeed.

Advance

BR makes the PS3 more expensive, and BR doesn't make games look or play better.

But Sony says gane take p 30 gigs now!

I guess Sony considers demos and dummy files game content.

AI not better on the 360:

Recently we reported that perhaps the Xbox 360 version could offer a better AI in Assassin's Creed (according to a statement of a female Ubisoft employee). Now the developer team itself denied this. The AI for both platforms is developed at the same time and thus on both consoles the same results are to be expected, since the programming code for the AI on PS3 and Xbox 360 is about the same.

IGN changed their original story to this:

While the PlayStation 3 and 360 versions of Assassin's Creed are virtually identical, Raymond did say that on the 360 the team is putting a special emphasis on Achievements. And while the 360 hardware enables Ubisoft's team to use multiple threads to enhance the crowd's AI, the end result for the game on both systems will be the same. "While the method for distributing AI load is different on each platform, the AI code itself is the same. Players will experience the exact same crowd results on PS3 and Xbox360," Ubisoft explained.

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/736/736325p1.html

bleeper2.0

Is the only reason the Wii is not getting this is because it is really underpowered? If it is the case this is the sort of **** i am worried about.

Buy a 360.

Buy a Wii.

All your problems will magically disappear Bleeper.





Well not all of them.
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I was young and confused and your mom didn't want me around no more. Now pass me dem damn collard greens!

Buy a 360.

Buy a Wii.

All your problems will magically disappear Bleeper.





Well not all of them.

I know you'll still be around.

But, but... the PS3 is supposed to have the better hardware, we're paying $200 extra for it...

AI not better on the 360:

"Looks like you were PWND."
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"Do you understand the difference between dying for something and dying for nothing? Today I can die for something, my way, my choice."