The Bard Posted November 28, 2012 Posted November 28, 2012 (edited) According to the forums, you can get it gifted from a US user. Could probably do it yourself with a proxy if you don't know anyone who could do that for you. No idea how to jigger this proxy doohickey. Think I'm going to have to wait for a couple of months. Apparently it's not on Steam yet because of some weird PC exclusivity deal Ubisoft have with a high street retailer. Laaame. Edited November 28, 2012 by The Bard
Cube Posted November 28, 2012 Posted November 28, 2012 What's wrong with the disc version? Ubisoft games are usually full price on Steam, so it's cheaper in shops.
The Bard Posted November 28, 2012 Posted November 28, 2012 I could get it on disc, but my house is already cluttered to the brim with physical media. I don't feel a real urgency to play it either, being super busy with X Com and Borderlands. I'll just wait it out.
Cube Posted November 28, 2012 Posted November 28, 2012 I believe that you can run it without the disc, and can redownload it from uPlay if you need to.
The Bard Posted November 28, 2012 Posted November 28, 2012 Hmm, I am stroking my chin in contemplation. Have you played the PC version yet? I'm hearing that it runs a little choppy.
Cube Posted November 28, 2012 Posted November 28, 2012 I had one gaming session where it paused for about 0.5 seconds about three or four times (seemed to be loading related), but that was only session and hasn't happened since. It depends how you define "smooth". I've tested mine and had a solid 40fps (which looks great), but lots of PC games seem to think anything less than 60 is a crime, so I'm not sure if that's what the people complaining are referring to. It looks lovely, and is incredibly smooth for me. I forget I'm playing on PC, especially as I use a 360 controller. Just as smooth with slightly better graphics. My specs for reference: Intel i5 3570K 8GB DDR3 RAM Radeon 7850 HD Sapphire (No overclocking) It's also running on my normal HDD rather than my SSD.
The Bard Posted November 28, 2012 Posted November 28, 2012 Yeah, I've gotten used to not playing anything under 60fps. I'm running a 7870 so maybe it'll bump it up into that range.
Sheikah Posted November 28, 2012 Posted November 28, 2012 I have nearly the same setup as Cube, ACIII runs smooth and slick. Blows the console versions out the water. You'll be impressed, it plays great. I've been using my dual shock 3 to play, feels like I'm playing a super PS3 version.
Magnus Posted November 29, 2012 Posted November 29, 2012 So I finally finished this. Hahaha, that ending. I can't believe I used to be interested in the Desmond story at one point. The ending is just... I don't even know. The best part is how they present you with two choices, then have Desmond choose by himself anyway. "Oh, and also this choice will kill you" reminded me of Mass Effect 3. All of the Desmond stuff is pretty awful in this game, really. Cross is a terrible villain and serves no purpose whatsoever. And when Desmond is cowering in a corner (with the Apple in his bag, but I guess he forgot he brought it with him?), Cross only fails to kill him because of a hitherto-unmentioned problem with his animus training. Talk about lucky! Going back to Abstergo felt forced beyond belief, but I guess they had to make Desmond kill that bearded guy somehow. Awful, all of it. Actually, one thing I like is how all of the characters are completely baffled by Lucy's betrayal. "I can't believe she did that," they say. "It makes no sense!" I'm kind of hoping it's meta commentary by the game's writers, who are bitter because Lucy was killed off. Connor's story is okay, though. I was genuinely surprised by the twist at the end of sequence 3. Naval combat is surprisingly fun. I hadn't watched any videos of it, so I had no idea what to expect. Hunting is fun, too. It reminds me of Red Dead Redemption, except here I can jump around the treetops and stab animals in the face. I think 90% of my kills were with the hidden blades. I like how you get to know the people in the homestead because they all have missions for you. It's just a shame that most of the missions are pretty boring. I kind of wish I could just stab Norris and Myriam when they keep making me run back and forth through the forest all the time. Of course, nothing compares to the tediousness of the Encyclopedia of the Common Man sidequest. Speaking of tediousness, I always though the one thing missing from the Assassin's Creed series was mazes! We definitely need more of those in the next game. I hate the way the map works in this game. Viewpoints are too rare and exploring the map on foot just to find sidequests? Ugh. It's not helped by the fact that unexplored areas of the map are almost the same color as the parts you've explored. Not being able to see sidequests on the map unless you're already in that area is a stupid oversight, requiring you to fast travel to the area, then fast travel again once you know where the sidequest is - adding another 10-20 seconds of loading every time. Notoriety has always been one of the more annoying gameplay aspects in the Assassin's Creed series, so I'm glad it's much easier to get rid of it in this game than in Revelations. Exceeept in the frontier, where I can't even go to the hunting lodge without sneaking around the back or getting attacked by guards. As if exploring the map on foot wasn't annoying enough already. It really was high time the series switched over to replenishing health. No more swinging by a doctor every time you've taken a fall! Assassin recruits are no fun in this game. I liked how you had to balance risk and reward when you sent them on missions in Brotherhood. Do you send just one assassin and have him get massive amounts of experience but risk him dying, or do you make sure they survive by sending more assassins, but instead they earn less experience? In this game, they get the same amount of experience no matter how many of them you send on a mission (and it's such a small amount, too!), and there's no punishment for failing a mission. Well, the recruits become unavailable for a few minutes, but the only useful thing about them was arrow storm anyway, and they removed that. The trading minigame should have been left in hell where they found it. How to send out convoys filled with pelts: - Locate a shop or go to the homestead (every 10-15 minutes, if you want to earn as much money as possible). - Press right, right and X to go to the trading interface. - Select a convoy. - Select a slot. - Press down, down, down, down, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, X. - Select a trader. - Select the next slot. - Press down, down, down, down, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, X. - Select a trader. - Select the next slot. - Press... well, you get the idea. That's not even mentioning the fact that crafting items to sell is completely pointless when any item you craft after the first one increases the price with 100% of the original price. £250 is a great price for a barrel that should cost £25! So you'll have to make one crate and one barrel and one mast every time you're trading, instead of sending out one convoy with nothing but barrels. Thank God there's nothing to spend money on, save for a few ship upgrades. This is by far the buggiest Assassin's Creed game I've played. Collectibles for the sake of collectibles. Bleh. I really could do without the 'full synchronization' malarkey. It just feels like the game is trying to get me to play a certain way, and every time I fail an objective, I get that big red text telling me what a failure I am. It's not like there's any point in doing any of it (other than an achievement/trophy), so it's just there for replay value, I guess - in a game that's already 30+ hours long. They could at least let me turn it off so it's easier to ignore. I don't know if it's because I'm on an SD television, but the white text could be really hard to read with all of the white/light in the game. There were many times when I couldn't see what my objective was (spoiler: it was usually to stab someone), and I could only understand some of what the Native Americans were saying when most of the text had snow or sky behind it. The almanac pages had the same problem, and it just became a matter of running in one direction and hoping it was the right one, because I could rarely see the almanac page I was chasing. Thank God for the mini-map. Anyway, I enjoyed it overall, but I'd love it if the series would take a break for a year or two until Assassin's Creed 4.
Shorty Posted November 29, 2012 Posted November 29, 2012 I feel compelled to respond to nearly all of that. So I finally finished this.Hahaha, that ending. I can't believe I used to be interested in the Desmond story at one point. The ending is just... I don't even know. The best part is how they present you with two choices, then have Desmond choose by himself anyway. "Oh, and also this choice will kill you" reminded me of Mass Effect 3. My main problem here is that I feel they gave into fan pressure. The fans didn't like Desmond, so they killed him off. I really doubt that's what they've had in mind for Desmond from the start. That means they've compromised the story for the vocal majority. I found it so bizarre that all the conversations in the temple filled out all the "first civ" storyline gaps, but then blew it all at the end. They explained how they time travelled, what the apples were for and how they were made, the various attempts they made to stop the apocalypse and how they failed etc. Then at the end it's like "but we finally figured out, you are the key for no reason and this magic ball is the gate!". All of the Desmond stuff is pretty awful in this game, really. God yes. The maps are awful, even the NPCs look ten times worse. I think they gave the design of these parts of the game to interns. I was reminded of Enter the Matrix on the Gamecube. Cross only fails to kill him because of a hitherto-unmentioned problem with his animus training. This is the only part I don't get in your criticisms. They talk about Cross' problems all the time. I guess you didn't talk to your team much. Going back to Abstergo felt forced beyond belief Ugh, yea. After sneaking into a closed and empty office building with no security via Mission Impossible style parachuting and insane skyscraper parkour, he then walks in the front door to Abstergo and uses the lift to get to his target. Connor's story is okay, though. I was genuinely surprised by the twist at the end of sequence 3. Naval combat is surprisingly fun. I hadn't watched any videos of it, so I had no idea what to expect. Hunting is fun, too. It reminds me of Red Dead Redemption, except here I can jump around the treetops and stab animals in the face. I think 90% of my kills were with the hidden blades. I like how you get to know the people in the homestead because they all have missions for you. It's just a shame that most of the missions are pretty boring. I kind of wish I could just stab Norris and Myriam when they keep making me run back and forth through the forest all the time. Of course, nothing compares to the tediousness of the Encyclopedia of the Common Man sidequest. Are you me? Speaking of tediousness, I always though the one thing missing from the Assassin's Creed series was mazes! We definitely need more of those in the next game. Are you referring to the underground areas? I'm surprised this bothered you when you only just finished the game. I never even visited the underground beyond the required 2 missions until long after completing it. There was no need to, you could fast travel to any exit or port nearby your target. I hate the way the map works in this game. Viewpoints are too rare and exploring the map on foot just to find sidequests? Ugh. It's not helped by the fact that unexplored areas of the map are almost the same color as the parts you've explored. Hm. Apart from North of New York, which only has one Assassin recruitment mission and almost no viewpoints, I can't say I had this problem at all. I cleared the fog of war as I progressed without ever trying. The aforementioned mission was actually refreshigly different, as I actually had to search manually up and down roads for people to help, not just set a marker on my map and hold "forward" and "RT" until I got there.Notoriety has always been one of the more annoying gameplay aspects in the Assassin's Creed series, so I'm glad it's much easier to get rid of it in this game than in Revelations. Exceeept in the frontier, where I can't even go to the hunting lodge without sneaking around the back or getting attacked by guards. As if exploring the map on foot wasn't annoying enough already.It's way too easy to lose notoriety. You don't even spend money on the bribes anymore! Unsurprising since he seemingly communicates his bribe telepathically. It really was high time the series switched over to replenishing health. No more swinging by a doctor every time you've taken a fall!Don't know if joking but every time a series adopts infinitely replenishing health 1000 kittens die. Assassin recruits are no fun in this game. I liked how you had to balance risk and reward when you sent them on missions in Brotherhood. Do you send just one assassin and have him get massive amounts of experience but risk him dying, or do you make sure they survive by sending more assassins, but instead they earn less experience? In this game, they get the same amount of experience no matter how many of them you send on a mission (and it's such a small amount, too!), and there's no punishment for failing a mission. Well, the recruits become unavailable for a few minutes, but the only useful thing about them was arrow storm anyway, and they removed that.Agreed. Not sure how they messed them up. Added a bunch of moves etc, but messed up their execution. Totally noticed the XP thing too. It used to be that you could tactfully level up a newbie by sending them on a tough mission, now it just doesn't matter who does what. The trading minigame should have been left in hell where they found it. How to send out convoys filled with pelts:Ugh, yes. God forbid you actually forget to press Y to action the craft/trade, then you have to start all over again. Back doesn't take you back to where you were, but wipes the lot.I really could do without the 'full synchronization' malarkey. It just feels like the game is trying to get me to play a certain way, and every time I fail an objective, I get that big red text telling me what a failure I am. It's not like there's any point in doing any of it (other than an achievement/trophy), so it's just there for replay value, I guess - in a game that's already 30+ hours long. They could at least let me turn it off so it's easier to ignore.Yep yep yep, they fucked up full sync this time round. I used to see it as "this is the way Ezio actually did it", it required a bit of extra skill but not approaching the mission a whole new, awkward and idiotic way. Like saving both Washington's bodyguards and killing two random enemies en route. Pointless, illogical, irritating. I don't know if it's because I'm on an SD television, but the white text could be really hard to read with all of the white/light in the game. Of course that's why! Time to join the 21st century methinks!
Magnus Posted November 29, 2012 Posted November 29, 2012 Then at the end it's like "but we finally figured out, you are the key for no reason and this magic ball is the gate!". Yeah, what was up with that? Desmond even says at one point, "what makes me so special?", and then... we never find out. This is the only part I don't get in your criticisms. They talk about Cross' problems all the time. I guess you didn't talk to your team much. Fair enough, I only recall them talking about how he was brainwashed or whatever. Maybe I just missed a conversation where they said that sometimes he gets headaches and decides to run away from his target. Kind of makes him worthless as an assassin, though! Ugh, yea. After sneaking into a closed and empty office building with no security via Mission Impossible style parachuting and insane skyscraper parkour, he then walks in the front door to Abstergo and uses the lift to get to his target. Bearded guy: "Man, I can't believe you were stupid enough to use the elevator in an enemy compound." *Stops elevator and orders his minions to kill him* And not five minutes later, Desmond gets into another elevator. Are you referring to the underground areas? I'm surprised this bothered you when you only just finished the game. I never even visited the underground beyond the required 2 missions until long after completing it. There was no need to, you could fast travel to any exit or port nearby your target. You can't travel to any underground exits until you've found them in the mazes, though, so I felt compelled to find all of them as soon as I could to cut down on travel time. Even better, those arrows that light up on the ground would sometimes not work (or, in the case of the New York maze, they worked once), so that made things even more fun. Hm. Apart from North of New York, which only has one Assassin recruitment mission and almost no viewpoints, I can't say I had this problem at all. I cleared the fog of war as I progressed without ever trying. The aforementioned mission was actually refreshigly different, as I actually had to search manually up and down roads for people to help, not just set a marker on my map and hold "forward" and "RT" until I got there. I guess it's because I always try to do side missions before main missions. Maybe it would have been less of an issue later on, but it's like Venice in Assassin's Creed 2 - that late in the game, I'm kind of tired of exploration. It's one of the reasons I preferred Rome in Brotherhood. I'd much rather start exploring the map early on and do it whenever the mood strikes than get a brand new map when the game is almost over. One of the great things about doing the assassin recruit missions as soon as possible was watching farmers harvest snow-covered tomatoes, though. Don't know if joking but every time a series adopts infinitely replenishing health 1000 kittens die. Actually, I was being serious! It's not like you ever ran out of health in the earlier games - as long as you went through the tedium of visiting doctors every now and then. I'd rather just have replenishing health and save some time. One of the few changes in this game that actually cuts down on tedium! Agreed. Not sure how they messed them up. Added a bunch of moves etc, but messed up their execution. Totally noticed the XP thing too. It used to be that you could tactfully level up a newbie by sending them on a tough mission, now it just doesn't matter who does what. I miss boosting new recruits. Eventually I ran out of missions and couldn't even access the mission screen, so I just stopped bothering. Ugh, yes. God forbid you actually forget to press Y to action the craft/trade, then you have to start all over again. Back doesn't take you back to where you were, but wipes the lot. Yeah, I'm not sure why select and deselect are the same button, while the back button takes you back way too far. The interface is kind of a mess at times. Of course that's why! Time to join the 21st century methinks! I'll give you my address and you can send me an HD TV. Doesn't have to be big, but it can't be too small, either. :p Good to know I'm not alone in thinking there were a lot of annoyances in this game.
Shorty Posted November 30, 2012 Posted November 30, 2012 I'll give you my address and you can send me an HD TV. Doesn't have to be big, but it can't be too small, either. :p There's never been a better time to buy! http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/technika-40-270-40-inch-lcd-tv-tesco-direct-163-7-95-code-td-ypwx-1383454
Magnus Posted November 30, 2012 Posted November 30, 2012 I could get four more copies of Assassin's Creed III at that price. I think the choice is obvious.
Jimbob Posted December 13, 2012 Posted December 13, 2012 First batch of DLC is out. It's all the pre-order content (single and multiplayer stuff)
Cube Posted December 14, 2012 Posted December 14, 2012 Finished it today. - I wasn't expecting much from the ending at all. Just something like *Desmond uses key* *Desmond walks to button* *Desmond presses button* *Cue cutscene of the sun emitting bigass solar flares, and some kind of shield protecting the Earth*. This is like the original Mass Effect 3 ending, but worse. The twist about Juno was just dumb, as was Desmond choosing on his own. Also, why was Desmond important? I thought the original idea was that he had a perfect lineage in that his DNA contained information on where all the required MaGuffins were. Why did we even need to find the Apple of Eden in the first four games if it wasn't used for anything? - And then you get a second-long shot of the Earth glowing and a terrible voice actor telling you what was going on. - The story started well with Haytham, especially the twist at the end of his segment. The start of Connor's story is also great. The part where you have the vision of the Eagle was great. - Then they just seemed to completely forget about the whole Assassin's plotline. Connor didn't really seem to care about the Assassin's thing, more about revenge. Everything related to the rest of the series just took a back seat until you got the key at the very, very end. I'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing. - You prepare a fleet for attacking the fort near the end. Then the game skips you to a one-on-one battle. That section could have been exciting. To add insult, they saw the need to add some pointless sections where you're forced to walk incredibly slowly. - Hunting was pretty cool, but most of the money seemed to be for crafting. As crafting was so tedious, I barely needed money for anything, just a few ship upgrades. As a result, hunting seemed pointless. - The towns felt much more alive then previously. Not having doctors (due to regenerating health) was good. Making it easier to decrease your notoriety was great, too. - However, making it impossible to reduce your notoriety in the Frontier made me hate that entire area. Did someone at Ubisoft forget to add the town criers? - A few missions at the end were extremely strict (the ferry bit and the chase with Lee) with what you could and couldn't do. Made them not fun to play at all. - The bonus objectives were done much better than Brotherhood and Revelations. Especially by reducing the massive "OBJECTIVE FAILED - 50% SYNC" message with a little X in the corner. - Combat was much improved in this, too. Connor's attacked look vicious and the animation of the attacks, and stringing attacks together, was great. - Large areas on the map without viewpoints. These seemed to even fade off the map after you went there once. - That Abstergo section....what? Desmond walks in by the front door, wearing the same clothing he was wearing when he escapes. Then he gets confronted by security guards with batons. While previously he's only knocked people out and has only killed Lucy, Desmond brutally murders all these guards (with these guards being foyer guards, these are probably standard security guards with families, not Templars). He then gets in a lift and gets trapped - the baddie mocks him over that. Desmond then kills a load more people and...gets in a lift again. Then he uses the Apple to force everyone to kill themselves. Surely the Apple has a lower setting to knock them out instead? - Naval missions were awesome. Great controls, great feeling. Loved them. - It was nice expanding the Homestead. It was better than simply buying everything. - The graphics were amazing, getting around was extremely smooth. - The Assassins you gather seemed to be rather pointless. I never needed to use them (other than scripted events) and their missions seemed pointless. For some reason, I found the random Assassin's in Brotherhood to have much more character (due to the risk of losing them and how you upgrade them) than the ones in this. While there's a lot of negative stuff to say about the game. Overall it's still a great game. One thing I would absolutely love is a pirate game that utilises the ship combat from this game. Have the bulk of it be ship-based, lots of side-quests, finding and exploring islands. It could be amazing.
Magnus Posted December 15, 2012 Posted December 15, 2012 You must have missed the part where they needed an Apple of Eden to open to entrance to the cave. No, really. That was Ubisoft's way of making it important. Ham-handed writing like that is why I checked out mentally somewhere around Brotherhood. And that's why the Mass Effect 3 ending is so much worse than the ridiculousness of this ending. Because I actually cared about how that ended.
Sheikah Posted May 25, 2013 Posted May 25, 2013 Oh man, that's it for me. I'm done with this game - it's so boring. The transition from Italy to America really hasn't done this series any favours. It has completely stripped the series of its charm and unique selling point for me. I'm really not digging any of the missions I've done so far, at about 6 hours in. They're just so uninspired. It's a shame because I really liked AC2, absolutely adored AC: Brotherhood (particularly with the introduction of multiplayer), and was at least more entertained by Revelations than this.
flameboy Posted May 26, 2013 Posted May 26, 2013 Oh man, that's it for me. I'm done with this game - it's so boring. The transition from Italy to America really hasn't done this series any favours. It has completely stripped the series of its charm and unique selling point for me. I'm really not digging any of the missions I've done so far, at about 6 hours in. They're just so uninspired. It's a shame because I really liked AC2, absolutely adored AC: Brotherhood (particularly with the introduction of multiplayer), and was at least more entertained by Revelations than this. I felt the same to be honest. I just finished the game last week and whilst it does pick up after... The Boston Tea Party It's still no where near the Ezio games. Basically the only thing that kept me going was the Desmond story, (loved the modern day missions, short and sweet but so good) the fact that I've not once thought about the ending till now speaks volumes about it's quality. I've spent a ton of time reading about Bioshock and it's ending and the meanings throughout the game and when the Assassin's Creed franchise first started it was certainly what I hoped this series would be. Remember the wtf ending to AC1? The mystery of eden video excerpts. Yet somewhere along the way it unravelled and never truly made good on it's promise.
drahkon Posted May 31, 2013 Posted May 31, 2013 So there was a "Ubisoft Blockbuster Sale" at a local store and I got this game for 24.99€ Still need to finish Revelations. Is it mandatory for the story, or can I start with the ACIII and go back to Revelations later? Would I miss anything?
Magnus Posted May 31, 2013 Posted May 31, 2013 Still need to finish Revelations. Is it mandatory for the story, or can I start with the ACIII and go back to Revelations later? Would I miss anything? Revelations is completely skippable. You'll miss absolutely nothing.
Cube Posted May 31, 2013 Posted May 31, 2013 Important plot from Revelations: The next McGuffin is in the USA.
Magnus Posted May 31, 2013 Posted May 31, 2013 Important plot from Revelations: [string not found] My favorite moment in the game was when Desmond finally woke up from his coma at the end, ready to tell everyone where they needed to go next - only to already find himself there because they figured it out at the end of Brotherhood.
flameboy Posted May 31, 2013 Posted May 31, 2013 I played 3 having not touched Revelations and don't feel like I missed a thing. I may go back to it just because I love the gameworld of that era in Italy. However now I know the end it may lose some of the impetus to play.
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