Eleven

I just started playing it. Very AC4-like.

I'm certainly not trying to be unfair, I simply think there's little validity to the notion that being graphically dated robs a game of its value. I mean, cinematography has come a long way since the 1940s. Does Citizen Kane suffer so much from technological advances in the field that it needs to be remade? Not that I'm trying to compare FFVII to it but I think you get my point. I get your point, I also don't agree with it. While I myself can appreciate old games, since I grew up playing those, the same may not be true for players who grew up in the PS3 era. Honestly, we've come a long, long way in terms of animating and voice acting, that the FFVII experience can certainly, without a doubt, be improved if it was remade today. There is such a huge difference in the way we experienced those games, because at the time, that was cutting edge. That was it and we were happy. This day, we look back, and since we experienced it, we can better appreciate the game as it was. To younger gamers, it's going to be different. Story-based games today have all the bells and whistles. You can approach the game and treat is as a classic, approach the game with that mindset, but still, i don't think it's going to be the same. They're not going to be wowed by the animation (we were, because before this we just had sprites), they're not going to be wowed by the dialogue (we were, because having no voice acting was the standard). Those things will have a different feel, because they're going from new tech to old tech. They can appreciate it like "Ah, this is how it was done before. Cool", but that's different than "Woah, this is the shit right here. So cool!". Graphics is not everything. But it's so in your face that it affects you even if you think it doesn't matter. People get annoyed with animations are janky righy? Like Skyrim and all the Bethesda games? Sure, graphics are not everything, but there's a limit to the amount of bad graphics you can take. Skyrim graphics is acceptable, but I don't think blocky PS1 graphics are. They might be fine, but you cannot expect new gamers to, basically, "deal with it". This only loosely ties up to the mythical FFVII remake. I'm not saying that all classic games should be remade just so the newer generation can enjoy it. But I think some remakes have a point. As I said, I would love to watch FFVII in hi def, instead of little blocky sprites. I think there's value in it, and I think its justified to ask for it, since it's an exceptional game.

It's an old, beloved game. The people asking for ports are people who played it already. At least most of them. They ask for it because they believe that it will make the game even better. I liked Mal's suggestion, as I'm going to play the remastered game anyway purely to see the story. The point is not about bad graphics, per se. They just want to make an already great game better. Would it actually make it better? Personally, being able to see the emotion in the characters faces and hear it in their voice would be a huge improvement for a story driven game. If there's demand (people ask for it all the time), and an audience (possibly the new generation of gamers), then I think they should make it. And honestly, I hate the idea that everyone should be able to enjoy decades old games. That is an unfair expectation. But that's a different topic i'd rather not get into.

The graphics are really awful though (by today's standards). You can't blame people for hating it. It was a shame this game got released when people were in the "let's make 3D games!" phase.

I think using two fingers to swipe down should take you directly to the settings? That's how it is on my Motorola... something. It's not on lollipop though.

Last generation's epic protagonists. Commander Shepard, Nathan Drake, Ezio? I can't think of any major last generation protagonist right now. I'm sure people won't like Hawke. Does it have to be teams? The Normandy Crew, Drake's treasure hunting buddies, Ezio's Brotherhood? (hmm that doesn't work).

I did only a few riddles myself, mostly those that have clues about landmarks you can see. Some of them depend on the database entries (or just be familiar with the era/lore - i mean the riddle says church, but which church?), those I just look up if I don't get it right away. The murder mysteries, I haven't really started them yet. I only did 1 to unlock all the others, but I've been seeing them pop up on my map now. I may do some of them in between the co-op and single player missions I need to complete.

Other than the framerate, which is still not great, I didn't really encounter any issues with Unity. Probably some PC bugs (I saw a video with missing skins, heads), but those are probably on the PC port, which were never on the PS4 version I played. Then it blew up. The patch notes has a LOT of fixes when I read it, but I don't think I've encountered any of them... Anyhoo, finally completed chests, cockades, and Nostradamus Enigmas. Man, I think collecting was the only thing I did in the game this past 2 weeks. I've finally unlocked the dark Altair armor, and now it's time to complete and get all the rewards for story and co-op missions. I'm going to be playing the real game now!

I wish I could buy a map with the collectibles like in AC.. I wanna say AC2. One of the AC2 games. Hell I'd even pay for an add-on to show them all up on my map. I'm going for full sync on the story missions so I might as well go for the platinum. Traversing rooftops is strangely satisfying, but it gets old after a while. Collecting chests is not fun. The Nostradamus Enigmas are harder (if you don't look them up), but at least it's not just running around collecting chests. On a related note: I think requiring only 90% of the chests/meaningless collectibles before you get a trophy would be better. It makes one feel that it's OK to miss some, and might actually make someone go for that achievement. It's a bit different than collecting "keys" to unlock an armor. I guess that would make sense (and there aren't 100 keys anyway). I don't know. They could just add 10 extra chests to the standard 100, and that would technically be the same as only offering 100, but I think it would make the collector feel better. At least that's how I would feel. Also, that Ezio outfit unlock is harsh. Level 13 in Initiates? I just got Level 13, and I only got there since I linked all my other AC games to u-play. If you miss 1 game, say goodbye to that unlockable. Edward Kenway unlocks at Level 1. No love.

Steam ID/Wishlist/Country (in case of regional restrictions): franc0pirate / Darkadia wishlist (I've consolidated this with my steam wishlist) / US (well, at least when it comes to region codes, except Steam - Southeast Asia) General criteria: I have a gaming PC, although I rarely use it now, as I'm more of a console guy, but it doesn't mean you can't get me a Steam game. And if it's a steam game that can run on an Intel 4000, then that's great too, since I can play on my laptop. What are your favorite genres? Action/Adventure games. RPGs. Beat 'em-ups. What are your favorite games? Assassin's Creed, I've played them all (except for Adewale)!, Mass Effect, TES and Fallout (including the old ones)!. Yep. Mainstream AAAs! I'm a filthy casual. Are you looking for any non-Steam gifts? Non-steam means PSN, right? Will you take games not on your wishlist? Yes, you can use the wishlist as a guide. Also includes gift cards, too! All is welcome. Any other information you think relevant? I have a PS+ subscription for so long now that any game that was free on that service, I already have, as I grab those religiously. You can view my steam games on my steam profile. This link should show my PS trophies and can be used as a reference too. EDIT: I posted an update below due to region codes, but if you have the gift already, don't worry about it and send it. But if not, well, avoid Steam.

Edit: Nevermind Ethan's here. Am I in?

Did you guys start already? I'm in too if it's not too late.

PS4. I didn't notice that much less traffic online. I drive on highways a lot since my garage is in the desert and I need to get to my friends in the city, and there are always a lot of cars I need to bypass. We play on private though, so I don't know if that affects traffic spawns. There probably is less than single player, but I don't think it's like a post-outbreak type scenario. I still land on top of cars when my car jumps on upward slopes or run into cars when driving on oncoming traffic.

Edit: I'll put some text here because apparently Tapatalk shows spoilers in the preview. This way you won't get spoiled! So if you haven't finished the game yet, I just made this post "Tapatalk safe"!

Well, yeah for sure I don't like change when it's a change for the worse! The "I don't like change argument" can be brought up every time someone complains about any change. And it's not like I didn't state why I didn't like it anyway... See, we're on extreme opposite sides here. You think the previous combat was dull, repetitive, easy. That it's boring, that it's not fun. I, on the other hand, while I find it easy, I thought the flashy style and variety of ways to kill (things I call "fun") more than makes up for that lack of difficulty. I never found it boring because of that. It seems like people always take it as a truth that easy = boring. That is not always true. AC IMO actually makes it feel good, even if it's easy. See, I think I may have posted it on here somewhere, or have thought about it, but I remember thinking/saying that they could have released a combat simulator for Assassin's Creed (I'm thinking something with endless mode like what Batman had), and I would buy it and play it for hours. Back to the combat, I could say the combat in this system is repetitive too! All you really do is wait for the enemy to attack, parry, slash slash slash, or hold slash, taking care to look out for incoming attacks so you can counter (if you can manage that with this horrible zoomed in camera angle). Isn't that the same with the previous one, minus the difficulty? It's even worse because the other game actually gives you access to more weapons, hence more ways to actually kill. Switch to hand to hand, or grab your opponents sword. Switch weapons, combo with a gun, combo with the rope dart, pick up a musket and snipe, etc... The new system has, what, 1 gun that doesn't really combo, a smoke/stun bomb (which is possible with the old games too, albeit very OP), Arno can't pick up any weapon even temporarily, what else... That's it I think. Distraction items are in the old games too. But let's drop that boring/fun argument. Because I do think both impressions are valid (even if I don't agree with you). I'll never convince you otherwise, or you me. You listed some things about the new combat and it's effects but I have concerns too: - You use tools a lot more, I agree, due to the necessity of it. Free running has improved massively. Enemies, however, are lazier. So that change really feels off to me. Harder combat makes you flee, but fleeing is an unfun mechanic due to (IMO) fleeing never really feels good (who wants to ever back down? no one!), and enemies give up easily (you say it's realistic, I say they're gimped). Is it really worth sacrificing combat for such things? They could have at least improved that. - Creed points is something new, and they COULD have added this to the previous game mechanics. (Ironically, a lot of creed points comes from combat too. Should you really be going around and massacre guards, or give up the creed points? This is just basically new currency to buy upgrades instead of spending gold. Which is a welcome change. Otherwise a lot of time will be spent waiting for that chest to fill up... - I never really notice better enemy positions here. Especially relating to combat. It's the same room-to-room thing, get past thugs in this room, get past thugs in the next room, assassinate. In a lot of scenarios, when you woke up the room, you're still safe in the next room. The thing that improved here is the stealth mechanic. Due to crouching, they have more freedom to place enemies (and placements look more natural instead of people constantly looking out of windows), because it means you could duck behind tables, crates, etc, wherein the previous game you had to hide in strategically placed spots (which still do exist today), or hide in the bushes. Add in locked doors and lock-picking too. This is stealth improvement. Which is also welcome, IMO. Near death thrills, immersion, getting bored... We're back to how the combat of both games makes us feel. You can say those things, and I understand, however I can also say that the combat style of the old games actually DO make me feel thrilled, enough to keep getting into combat situations (poor guards) even at the latest stages in the game. Have you seen that compilation of Connor's brutal dual counter animations? "Shit, that was awesome!". I'm immersed and the game has no problem keeping my attention, losing hours at a time without me even knowing it. And I just like to say, that I have never had a problem with not feeling tense enough in stealth missions due to the easy combat. Or committing to stealth missions. Stealth missions are fun in their own right, here or in the old games. Stealth missions have never been lacking in AC games. Wait... actually... where are the assassination missions in this game? There doesn't seem to be any other than the main story ones... Like "forts" and their captains. The assassin missions I have played were point A point B stuff. Including a duel with a cross dressing master swordsman. The assassination missions have always been good at making you go stealthy. I guess I've just been unlucky, or these are now co-op stuff I haven't done yet. Other things, i guess: - They decided to lock out skills and use skill points instead of gradually unlocking them through the story. But sync points are unlocked through the story anyway so whatever. Sync points (so far, I'm on sequence 11) are limited and even if I wanted to switch to heavy weapons, I have to sacrifice something (like double air assassination, or maybe lock-picking 3) to be good at that skill. Even if they're unlimited, why keep me from getting them till the end of the game? This is not only a problem in this game however. A lot of games keep cool stuff till the end, where you really have only a few more opportunities to use them. - Double assassination is locked. Ok. I guess even Ezio never really had this from the start. But why is double air assassination a separate thing? I have never run into a scenario where double air assassination made a difference. So now it just makes me decide between that, lock picking, or combat improvements. I don't think that was a good idea. What's the harm with combining it into 1 skill? This is just locking out stuff for the hell of it. It's not even a new skill. - That's not all. I have to waste skill points on Money pouches so I can throw coins? There really is no actually new skill here. The locked out skills are all standard in previous games. Artificially making the game "harder". - They dropped a lot of combat options. For a challenging experience! Why not introduce something like certain guards are immune to certain items (agile ones can avoid a rope dart. special ones don't get smoked or stunned, just throwing some ideas). Then we have all the options we had before, but combat would indeed be more challenging. Counter kills can have a percentage where the enemy lives (maybe based on your health and their health, the enemy type, etc), but keep the combat's smooth flow going. I think those are better than limiting the things you could actually do, and changing combat to parry/strikes mechanic. It's like they said "Hmm... let's drop that mechanic... ok let's lock this out because fuck it.. there! We're done!". I guess they forgot to actually improve on those other things they want us to do, leaving me feeling that all of these is a huge step back. Too much stuff has been removed, not enough effort has been made to replace it. What could have they replaced them with? I don't know yet, but I'm sure giving us this new mechanic isn't the answer. Some things I believe, shouldn't be messed with, which is really what I meant with my "I don't like change"-sounding statement. And I believe combat was one of those things in this game. It was unique to Assassin's Creed, and I feel, as I mentioned, one of the game's trademarks. Too bad you didn't like it... otherwise you'd be complaining too. Now, it's too bad I loved it, and now you see me complaining. It's especially sad and frustrating because we've had that combat system for some time now. So in a way, this really ruins something that I look forward to every year.

That's possible. I feel though, with ACB adding the kick to the groin, they already knew where it was going - as this drastically reduced difficulty. They still added ACR's smoke bombs, AC3's dual counters and human shields (and rope darts), and AC4's gun combo and dual swords. So I don't see it as them realizing it getting out of hand. The previous designers knew exactly what the combat was. It's more like a "we don't want you to play that way anymore" thing. Fine. But then, the alternative way to play is arguably even worse than before. As someone who enjoyed all the AC games tremendously, this is pretty frustrating. It's not really about challenging combat. It's about completely changing the established expected mechanics (which is kind of one of it's trademarks), and not necessarily for the better.

Those are two completely different things. It's not like I'm putting Arno in a carriage so he can drive over guards and pedestrians because it's fun, GTA style. This situation doesn't compare at all. It's not using "any" mechanic. It's using THE Assassin's Creed mechanic that have worked so well (IMO, I know you probably don't agree). They built on top of that mechanic in each and every game. AC1 combat was slow, like this one. AC2 improved on that. ACB,ACR,AC3,AC4 all built on top of it and improved it, even if just by a little. Then they completely took it all away here.

But aren't games supposed to be fun? In your view, it's better because it fits with the games theme (though you're not only a stealthy assassin, you're a master assassin, as all of the protagonists that came before have proven). In my view, the old one was better because it's a lot more fun. The more enjoyable it is, the better. Those two views are as valid as the other. Hey, even the chase was more satisfying on previous games. The guards in this game give up easy and you lose them in 5 seconds. There are also way less hiding spots although you don't need them as the last known position they did here seems broken. Because nobody chases you. So yeah, you're forced to flee, but then fleeing "is so easy, it's not fun anymore". You might as well, you know, fight them. Besides, in previous games there were a lot of sequences that force or encourage you to be go stealth, either by desynchronizing you if you get detected, or by rewarding you if you stick to it. That was good, I think. Just because I enjoyed the easy fun combat in all the previous games, didn't mean I didn't care for stealth and went guns blazing into every scenario. The stealth parts were just as fun.

My thing is, combat was never like that to begin with. AC combat is how AC combat was, for years. It's not this thing. There are a lot of things they removed that made combat fun. For one, counter-kills and chain kills. Did it make combat easy? Yes. But it made it extremely satisfying to chain kill 7 guards. It feels so good to do that, even if it's easy, due to the fact that it was so smooth and the animations are so good. Bonus if you countered two attackers at once in later AC games. Or the gun-sword animations in AC4. Other things like using human shields, hand to hand and disarming enemies/using their weapons, rope darts, gun combos. A lot of combat improvements have been wiped out in this game. Would they be adding them back in to the next AC games? I'm scared, and extremely annoyed, with the reaction to the new combat system that it will purge these things from AC for good. That's a huge part of why I hate it. I read somewhere how Kenway was advertised in the trailers as a dangerous guy who clears decks of enemies on his own. And in the game, due to the combat system, you could actually do that. And it doesn't feel cheap. It feels good. As for Unity, I've upgraded myself now, and I can clear hordes of guards with effective use of medicines and smoke bombs. But it doesn't feel the same. It's not as smooth and satisfying as it had been. And for the "you're meant to avoid combat" thing... I don't know what to say. There was no problem avoiding combat before. You had the option to run, or annihilate them 'cause you're a badass, deadly, trained assassin anyway. It's an option. Even now, just use a damn smoke bomb. Honestly, I'd take this combat system on any other game and most likely be ok with it. But not in AC games.

What are the fast travel icons? What do they look like? I can't seem to find any except Arno's house...

I can see why people would like this new combat system, but... Fuck this combat system. I hate it. No more fun. Slow. And even slower loading times when you die. Arno must suck as an Assassin lore-wise that's why they had to make it harder, and slower. It's not even smooth like Sleeping Dogs or Arkham. Animations are goddamn slow and you're stuck in it most of the time, you get hit and you die. Fuck this combat system.

Has anyone seen the last South Park episode? WTF I am so confused...

Hmm... I don't see this. The turning animation seems fine to me... It actually looks the same as the previous games... what's wrong exactly?