This news might not surprise most people but Assassin’s Creed III PC version has been delayed. This has now become common for Ubisoft to delay Assassin’s Creed games on the PC. Eurogamer caught the news from a source, which also included the following image:
The PC version of Assassin’s Creed III which was supposed to launch along side the Console version on 31st October, will now release on 23rd November.
With the fourth of July just a couple of days away, gamers and fans are no doubt getting ready for the upcoming festivities. Ubisoft thought this to be a great opportunity for the release of a brand new trailer and some major announcements for Assassin’s Creed 3.
The trailer is titled Fourth of July and starts off with a child singing Amazing Grace in the background as colonists get blown away by British soldiers. The naval warfare mission shown at Sony’s E3 conference this year is included here as well. Over all the Independence trailer is mostly the assembly of trailer clips that have been on the web before.
The release of the trailer was bundled with details of the limited edition version of the game for North America. For the PS3 and Xbox 360 the Limited Edition will set you back $119.99 and will include the following:
Bad news for PC gamers would be that the consoles get exclusivity for the Limited Editions. The PC version of the game however, will get a Digital Deluxe Edition which will be retailing at $64.99. This edition will include the following:
PC gamers shouldn’t be that down since the official press release maintains that Assassin’s Creed 3 will definitely arrive on Windows at the same time as of the consoles. It was previously rumored that the PC version of the game might suffer a delay.
Assassin’s Creed 3 releases later this year for the PS3, Xbox 360 and hopefully the PC on October 30th.
Undeterred by its deposition to the Call of Duty crowd, Ghost Recon Future Soldier is a terrific and peerless update of Tom Clancy’s tactical shooter. Ubisoft is perhaps best placed to open up second among the war on modern military shooters out there. Their third person, cover-based approach might be hardly removed from the heavy hitters in the world of elite video game soldiering but it’s no less bombastic, explosive or enchanted.
The game starts off with a Ghost team being taken out by a hidden bomb wiping the whole team out. Then it’s up to another Ghost team which you’ll be controlling, to find the source of bomb and take out everything which gets in your way. The Ghosts will end up further down the rabbit hole as they expose different secrets and go to many flung and dangerous locations around the world. However this isn’t the most intriguing part of stories, but it does try to rig it in a more serious manner, compared to other blockbuster shooters.
One of the most onerous games in some respects, Ghost Recon doesn’t allow you to stand out in the open and expect to survive for more than a few seconds, well on the harder difficulties anyway. It forces you to think strategically, to plan ahead and use cover at all times technically. Most of the times, the best route is to not fire at all, but to move silently and secretive to your objective without the enemy realizing you’re even there. Almost every mission requires a sneaky mindset, the game is Ghost Recon after all. Use your recon drone to scout the surroundings instead of popping your head out and risk being detected. Better to wait and hold fire and watch patrols from the drone than charge in and be torn to shreds, this is what a tactical shooter is.
While traveling between Russia, Nigeria, Pakistan and other portentous but audacious places, in Ghost Recon players are treated to some wonderful variety and choice, as well as the challenges each location gives, makes Ghost Recon more exciting. Russia will see poor perceptibility thanks to some impressive snow storms which look great by the way, whilst Nigeria has you trying to stealthily and secretly move through crowded villages while trying no to hit the civilians. Each area gives the Ghosts a chance to try out new toys dependent on where they are and what they are needed for, which vast the experience of the player as they have to play strategically
The new tech has a great impact on how the game is played and despite some early fears that some of it may cause the game to be too easy, or give the player a completely unfair advantage; there are no real issues with that at all. The tagging system is improved a lot as it works well too. You can spot and tag enemies by using items like sensor grenades, UAV or even your vision, then issue a command to the squad to take them out simultaneously.
The AI is fairly intelligent at normal difficulty, giving a decorous challenge, but the harder difficulty sees you really needing to plan specifically each attack and each move. It keeps things really intense and severe as you progress through each environment. You need to be quick and stealthy with UAV’s use as AI will spot it if it is in their line of sight. Again this adds a balance to the new tech rather than being overly advantageous to the player.
Whilst Future Soldier is enjoyable in single player, it gives best experience in co-op and four player co-op at that. Playing online with three other friends, with headsets on talking your way through each encounter takes the game to a whole other level, if you can play it this way, then you are in for a treat.
Guerrilla mode is also there aside from main campaign mode, like other games it sees you attacks various maps and take on various waves of enemies, in different ways, ranging from stealth, to all direct fire fights. It is designed primarily with co-op in mind, as multipliers and bonuses can be got by working as a team and killing multiple enemies in quick succession for rather than fighting alone for own prestige. Trying to do this in single player is a lot more difficult and a lot less rewarding.
Multiplayer offers up various modes, each with their own immense enjoyment, experience with sets of objectives. Conflict, Decoy, Saboteur and Siege, all these maps offer up enough variety across which, the online aspect becoming stale, old and decayed. Saboteur seems to be the most enjoyable, with a kind of reverse capture the flag, whereby teams have to secure, transport and plant the bomb before the enemy team. However the online servers are pretty inconsistent, some are laggy as hell while others will be smooth as butter. Depends on your timing and luck mostly.
There is plenty to be taken from Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, the game is a bit different to previous entries in the series as it is a very much improved version of the Tactical Shooter, however those changes are positive rather than being negative. Ghost Recon hardcore fans may not get on with the new direction, but in general it is a fine game well worth your attention and is certainly recommended.
TechDeville awards Ghost Recon: Future Solider 4/5 stars.
It wasn’t long when Ubisoft demonstrated the power of their new ‘AnvilNext’ engine by showcasing Assassin’s Creed 3 which contained a glimpse of ‘watery’ sequences, which in turn led us to think about whether we will be able to control the ships on the high seas or whether it will just be another scripted sequence.
This doubt of ours turned into reality when Ubisoft showcased their latest trailer confirming the details that we will, in fact, play a fair share of our part in naval warfare.
Check out the announcement trailer below
So this gives us a chance to become swashbuckling pirates on the high seas with our main character Connor Kenway at the helm of the ship. Sounds great so far. Ubisoft confirmed that the players will be able to own ships and navigate the waters complete with cannons and other naval weaponry. Players can enter these battles however they please. The whole theme of Assassin’s Creed 3 revolves around the concept of freedom and by introducing Naval Warfare, Ubisoft is staying true to the word.
The trailer showcases the impact of the surrounding environment that will play a role in these battles, as Connor is seen fighting in the midst of a storm at sea.
Assassin’s Creed 3 is slated for an October 30th 2012 release in North America for the XBOX 360 and PS3 platforms and later on November 23rd 2012 for PC.
Ubisoft decided that it doesn’t want to be left out in this era of delivering games and game content through PC clients, so it decided to launch its very own PC Client service known as Uplay alongside the reigning champion “Steam”, a PC client by Valve and still-getting-there “Origin”, a PC client service by EA.
Uplay will not only serve as just a store for Ubisoft’s games but also as a universal launcher for them too. It will also link a player’s Ubi profile across all platforms (facebook, mobile, consoles and PC) into a single organized app. Which means that all Uplay’s currency and rewards features will also be tied-in together. If you’ve played any Ubisoft games in the current-gen era, you would be familiar with how Uplay rewards its players by giving them ‘reward points’ which one can spend at their store to obtain special items or unlock special features. Seeing how Uplay’s rewards accumulate across games, this feature may be quite useful and easy to use for the players.
Ubisoft doesn’t stop here, to motivate gamers to give their new and improved client a go, Ubisoft is offering cheap games for you to try out. This week, they’re offering $1 deals through the service’s store: From Dust today, Silent Hunter 5 on Saturday, and Driver: San Francisco on Sunday. There are also great discounts on a wide selection of other games. If you didn’t get a chance to be in a prince’s shoes or relive the moments as an assassin, now would be a time no great than other to experience and catch up to them.
We guess that the reason behind the delay of Assassin’s Creed 3 for PC may have something to do with the launch of their new service.
You can download the Uplay client for free from their website. Why not give it a go and let us know how you feel about this new move by Ubisoft.
Splinter Cell: Blacklist, the newest addition to the widely known Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell series, gets a new gameplay video released by publisher Ubisoft featuring tortures and moral choices. Maxime Béland, Creative Director for the game, takes the role of narrator for the video.
The footage, which is an expansion of a trailer shown at E3, showed the return of the “Mark and Execute” feature from Conviction, where you can mark multiple targets and execute them all at once at the touch of a single button. Also introducing is a new ability to perform “Kill and Drag” melee takedowns.
The footage also became the center of controversy due to a scene in which Sam Fisher thrusts a knife into a man’s clavicle and the players are to ‘rotate the analog stick’ to interrogate him to get information.
“Sam will do whatever it takes to retrieve crucial information before it’s too late,” Beland explained during the scene.
After the torture, players are left with a moral choice, whether to kill the enemy or knock him out.
Sam Fisher, as the head of Fourth Echelon, will have access to some serious firepower in the field. He can call on airstrikes for heavy targets and also can control a UAV to wipe out enemies with its machine gun. All these moves may not exactly be stealthy but should give players some tactical edge in the game.
Beland noted during the video that they wanted to offer the player “tons of choices”. Which means the player can either take the stealth approach or dive straight into the action. Pretty much like Metal Gear Solid 4, no?
Check the footage below:
Splinter Cell: Blacklist is all set to ‘invade our privacy’ sometime next year for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 platforms.
A sad news indeed for pirates when Ubisoft’s CEO Yves Guillemot talked about why the company is now turning all its focus on free-to-play titles for PC, blaming PC piracy for it. He then states that how only five to seven percent of free-to-play users pay for the product via online shop, which is the same for the amount of people who pay for hard copies of their games.
The advantage of F2P is that we can get revenue from countries where we couldn’t previously – places where our products were played but not bought. Now with F2P we gain revenue, which helps brands last longer.
It’s a way to get closer to your customers, to make sure you have a revenue. On PC it’s only around five to seven per cent of the players who pay for F2P, but normally on PC it’s only about five to seven per cent who pay anyway, the rest is pirated. It’s around a 93-95 per cent piracy rate, so it ends up at about the same percentage. The revenue we get from the people who play is more long term, so we can continue to bring content.
They also released a PC client recently to compete with Steam and Origin.
With Ubisoft also joining the Free-To-Play wagon, who knows what the future might bring for PC gamers. Piracy is like a double-edged sword, where it can hurt the revenue of a company whereas it can also promote and bring light to the company’s hardwork which means more recognition of the developer, can also lead to legit purchasing in the future etc.
Ubisoft is a French global video game publisher and developer with titles and series like Prince Of Persia, Assassin’s Creed, Tom Clancy brand etc under its belt.
The Assassin’s Creed franchise has been around for quite a long time. The first Assassin’s Creed game displayed the magnificence of the next generation consoles and was positively received at the time. Fans have followed Altair Ibn La-Ahad in the first game, and then Ezio Auditore da Firenze in the second, third and fourth game. Practically, Assassin’s Creed 3 is the fifth main game in the series, with Brotherhood and Revelations being the third and the fourth. But, since Brotherhood and Revelations continued with Ezio, they are somewhat considered as side parts of the second game. Assassin’s Creed 3 features a completely new assassin: Conner.
Conner is a nice addition to the series, but one cannot admire him as much as Ezio with his sweet Italian accent and wonderful way of saying “Futrovelli”. Nevertheless, Conner isn’t half-bad. His outfit could use a few tweaks, but that’s fine. So, is Conner enough to make this game shine like it’s predecessors? Read on to find out.
First of all, Assassin’s Creed 3 enjoys it’s fair share of bugs and glitches, but that’s nothing that can’t be fixed. A patch is expected to cure these ailments ASAP. These bugs made my experience horrendously problematic and I was highly disappointed with Ubisoft for not having fixed these beforehand. But with the plethora of content and a rich story, this game is hard to hate and ‘ragequit’. Just like the previous games, Assassin’s Creed 3 packs an amazing story, once again continuing with Desmond Miles and taking place during the American Revolution. Obviously, you’ll also be taking the role of Desmond and, since this is the final game and the fate of the world rests in Desmond’s hands, you will be exploring Desmond’s character even further and ultimately using his skills, hence finally getting to assess what he has learnt from his ancestors via the Animus.
Also like the previous games, what makes the story of this game so amazing is it’s ability to interweave it with real historical events such as the Boston Tea Party and the Battle of Bunker Hill. You’ll also see famous American personalities that you thought would only exist in your school text books. All these elements contribute and work together to deliver a thrilling story and a wonderful experience that you won’t be forgetting any time soon. Obviously, I cannot tell you much about the story without spoiling too much, so I’d recommend that you try it out yourself, or read a short summary on the internet if you’re still curious. But let me tell you this, the ending of the game will have you pondering over it and possibly even obsess over the nature of humanity. The game seems slightly slow and boring at the start, but that’s only because some character development was needed before the story could be set on it’s way. The ending isn’t that surprising, but it’s a good conclusion to one of the best video game franchises of this generation.
Something completely new for the Assassins Creed franchise are the naval battles featured in this game. When I originally saw these sea battles at E3, I wasn’t sure what to say. They looked great, but I didn’t assume that they’d be a lot of fun. I mean, we all like to battle with different vehicles… but ships?! I was wrong, of course. Sea battles are one of the best things about Assassins Creed 3. They feel absolutely tense and one can have a lot of fun with them. They’re quite realistic and the mechanics are, well not entirely smooth, but quite good. I personally felt like a real adventurer as I sailed through those raging waters and wreaked havoc on the other ships. Simply put, it’s ecstatic.
Another change in the game is the loss of the health bar. You now have regenerative health, but that’s neither good nor bad. Since there was never a problem with the health bar in the previous games as it would regenerate the last block automatically, and you could find medicine on any dead guard, survivability was not that hard, and it’s quite the same with Assassin’s Creed 3. You now also have trees in the game. Trees that you can climb on and jump to. This may seem easy, but it can get buggy at times and you may not land where you intended to. On the other hand, the streets and buildings of the cities such as New York are yours to roam about, jumping from roof to roof, killing the redcoats and what-not. Coming over to the battle system, it’s quite the same. You still have to block and counter as you always have. Conner’s tomahawk is quite good though. I’m guessing Ubisoft will have a replica made and sold with some future super-expensive collectors edition.
Of course, battles can be completely avoided if you play the game stealthily like a real Assassin, which isn’t really hard. Conner automatically crouches when moving through long blades of grass, and you still have the other regular ways of hiding from your enemies as in the previous games. Either way, you have your advantages and disadvantages.
The game looks gorgeous, from the fierce water effects to the calm snow on the trees, everything looks beautiful. Maybe not highly detailed in terms of textures, but still admirable nonetheless.
When taking a break from the main story or the game’s many side missions that reward you in numerous ways, you could always try to develop your homestead which is similar to the Villa that Ezio had in Assassins Creed II. Simply seeing the homestead grow gives you pleasure and satisfaction.
Lastly, the multiplayer. I’ve never quite enjoyed the Assassin’s Creed Multiplayer because the players hardly ever act as Assassins. Instead, they run around rooftops, exposing themselves to their enemies. And this is the same with Assassin’s Creed III. The gameplay is the same: you have to hide among crowds and then identify and assassinate your target. Hiding and waiting for another Assassin to approach you is quite tense as you begin to worry about whether or not he has identified you as his target. However, the multiplayer is only fun if the players are playing properly. Otherwise, it’s a random ‘kill-on-sight’ affair. As you continue playing, you level up and get to use new skills. Also, you can use your real money to enhance your character’s basic look and gain other perks.
Assassin’s Creed III might not have the best Assassin in the series, and it might be incredibly buggy and it might not be perfect, but it still offers you a lot of content, provides you with a rich story and a great conclusion and gives you a lot of satisfaction as you progress through it.
TechDeville gives Assassins Creed III 4/5 stars.
For those of you new to the name and game, meet unnamed hero, who travels to his old home of the fictional city Haventon, to rescue his wife Julie and daughter Mary. The game takes place one year after the American has gone through a colossal disaster known as “The Event”. In the wake of The Event, resources have gone low, the government tries to help the citizens but isn’t able to do much because of the hazardous dust clouds that have paralyzed the city. The result? Low supplies and no help incoming turned once peaceful and loving citizens into agitated, violent and savage hunters. What more better scenario for a survival horror game.
Originally under development by Darkworks from 2008 till 2010, Ubisoft Shanghai then completed the title and was published by Ubisoft. It first made its debut on XBLA on March 7, 2012 and then later on PSN on April 4, 2012.
Ubisoft has announced that I Am Alive will finally see the light of day on PC coming this September. The PC version will include enhanced resolution and graphics and two new game modes: Easy mode and Replay mode. Easy mode will ofcourse let the game go easy on the players whereas the Replay mode will be the same as a New Game+.
The game will be available digitally through many digital retailers including Steam and Ubisoft’s own UbiShop.
Why not take a moment and see the PC trailer below?