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[Wolfe]

Honestly, you probably just don't have the eye to differentiate framerates between 20 fps to 30 fps. The PS4 framerate is very, very unstable and DF metrics confirm this.

Dude get out of here with this shit, you honestly don't know anything about me so please do not assume.

No I can tell the difference, the time I've personally spend with Unity has not had any noticeable framerate issues. I don't care what DF said about the game when it came out I'm playing it right now.

 

[gossi]

There were complex AI routines in Unity?

They had some intelligence. If you killed somebody in front of crowds they could react, sometimes run away, call for help etc.

There's a moment 5 minutes into Syndicate where you have to kill two people right in front of factory workers - literally two feet from them -- and they stand and stare into space.

 

[NullPointer]

They've opened by saying they're really enjoying it, much better than Unity.

That's a pretty low bar.

Unity was such a gorgeous looking game though. Just needed a lot more time to iterate on the gameplay, and then a lot more time squashing all of the technical issues.

 

[keltickennedy]

That's a pretty low bar.

Unity was such a gorgeous looking game though. Just needed a lot more time to iterate on the gameplay, and then a lot more time squashing all of the technical issues.

Yeah, It was really unfortunate. You would thought that will Ubisoft being a French company, they would of really wanted to take the time to make Unity something special.

But still, it came down to holiday or bust.....and man was it busted.

 

[jackdoe]

Dude get out of here with this shit, you honestly don't know anything about me so please do not assume.

No I can tell the difference, the time I've personally spend with Unity has not had any noticeable framerate issues. I don't care what DF said about the game when it came out I'm playing it right now.

It wasn't meant as a slight at all. Metrically, DF has shown with the last performance patch that the framerate is still wildly variable. And historically, many reviewers have subjectively had a hard time noticing framerate fluctuations between 20/25 to 30fps. Pre-patched Unity had microsecond stutters and dropped to teens which really made it stand out compared to last-gen AC where they frequently gave the game a pass in the performance department (which is pretty much how Unity is performing now after four patches). Sorry if I offended you.

 

[antitrop]

It wasn't meant as a slight at all. Metrically, DF has shown with the last performance patch that the framerate is still wildly variable. And historically, many reviewers have subjectively had a hard time noticing framerate fluctuations between 20/25 to 30fps. Pre-patched Unity had microsecond stutters and dropped to teens which really made it stand out compared to last-gen AC where they frequently gave the game a pass in the performance department (which is pretty much how Unity is performing now after four patches). Sorry if I offended you.

Ya, here's the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReSNdhmZ0hQ

They smoothed over the severe drops, but the whole thing still chugs along at around 25fps on the ground, closer to 30 on the rooftops.

 

[RedAssedApe]

This is ridiculous.

> if it's out on Friday, why can't they release it on Tuesday?

I'd riposte:

> if it's out on Tuesday, why can't they release it on the Friday before?

You could keep cycling back, Tuesdays and Fridays, it's a totally arbitrary thing to say. The developers will release it when they want. But most importantly, that wont change the fact that Friday release dates make more sense. More people spend money on Fridays. More people play games on Fridays, and they have a whole weekend. Fridays are better days for releasing things.

Except Tuesday is the standard day for the release of all store bought media in the US (movies, music, games.). Including when huge games have midnight launches (COD day zero is a recent example where they pushed the release a day earlier). Assumption being that if that's the standard release, the retail store would have gotten their shipments of the game earlier in the week along with all the other new releases.

And if it was released on Tuesday, you'd have most of the week to play. The people buying stuff at launch, at least the ones not still in grade school , don't only play games on weekends. Regardless, once again I don't know how having the game available on Tuesday for those of us that will go out and buy it that day affects the habits of someone who doesn't have time to do this and will wait until Friday to buy it. Not sure what's so ridiculous.

Anyhow...agree to disagree I guess. Not really what this thread is about. heh

 

[gossi]

Games almost always release on Friday outside the US, for reference.

 

[ogbg]

Games almost always release on Friday outside the US, for reference.

Which is why I usually buy them on the US PSN. It's never the Friday before the US release, always the Friday after

 

[FranXico]

Cor' blimey! Get those indicators and button prompts outta me face!

Seriously, that amount of distracting crap is even disrespectful towards the hard work all those artists put into the world.

 

[Krappadizzle]

Cor' blimey! Get those indicators and button prompts outta me face!

Seriously, that amount of distracting crap is even disrespectful towards the hard work all those artists put into the world.

Yeah, the franchise is desperately in need of a U.I. overhaul. It's too much too often.

 

[ogbg]

Cor' blimey! Get those indicators and button prompts outta me face!

Seriously, that amount of distracting crap is even disrespectful towards the hard work all those artists put into the world.

You can usually get rid of all of it if you want

 

[CopperPuppy]

Yeah, the franchise is desperately in need of a U.I. overhaul. It's too much too often.

You can usually get rid of all of it if you want

Yeah, the games let you tweak all aspects of the HUD to your liking. I feel like anyone who has played one of these games would know this. The first thing I do when I play a game is start fucking with the settings to get everything where I want.

This series is easily - even preferably - played with minimal to no HUD.

 

[Krappadizzle]

Uh... yeah... it was a conversation about console performance.

My bad, pimps fuck up too antitrop.

Yeah, the games let you tweak all aspects of the HUD to your liking. The series is easily - even preferably - played with minimal to no HUD.

Nice. Does it make it more difficult to play though? Is there a HUD toggle? I like turning the shit off to play, but it's always annoying to have to go into the menus to turn shit back on for simple gameplay reasons.

 

[ogbg]

My bad, pimps fuck up too antitrop.



Nice. Does it make it more difficult to play though? Is there a HUD toggle? I like turning the shit off to play, but it's always annoying to have to go into the menus to turn shit back on for simple gameplay reasons.

There was a toggle button in unity as well as a whole range of customisation options in the menus

 

[Wolfe]

It wasn't meant as a slight at all. Metrically, DF has shown with the last performance patch that the framerate is still wildly variable. And historically, many reviewers have subjectively had a hard time noticing framerate fluctuations between 20/25 to 30fps. Pre-patched Unity had microsecond stutters and dropped to teens which really made it stand out compared to last-gen AC where they frequently gave the game a pass in the performance department (which is pretty much how Unity is performing now after four patches). Sorry if I offended you.

My apologies, I definitely took that poorly as it felt like you were telling me I was wrong after I tried sharing my experience with the game so far.

I've been playing video games for over 20 years now I guess and having worked in testing and slightly in development (also being a big proponent of 60+ fps) for a while and feel I have a pretty good grasp on framerate differences. Guess I felt like my ego was taking a hit lol.

No hard feelings.

Edit: this is also not to say that the game couldn't be running at say 25 or whatever fps for me, just that if it is it's staying fairly constant and is not having any noticeable deviations from what I can tell.

 

[CopperPuppy]

My bad, pimps fuck up too antitrop.



Nice. Does it make it more difficult to play though? Is there a HUD toggle? I like turning the shit off to play, but it's always annoying to have to go into the menus to turn shit back on for simple gameplay reasons.

I know there is a HUD toggle in Unity (right thumbstick press, I think).

I suppose going HUD-less technically makes things more "difficult," but only to the extent that you have to pay attention to your surroundings more. Really, it just takes your eyes off of the minimap and focuses them strictly on the game itself.

It's the same reason I prefer on-screen driving indicators in open world games with modern automobiles - instead of looking at your minimap to make sure you're staying on route, you can just follow the subtle in-game markers. You soak in more of the world that way, instead of having it breeze past you while you stare at a tiny circle or square in the bottom corner of your screen.

 

[PowderedToast]

I would love to know what the character customisation is like after unity being by far the best in the series?

 

[ogbg]

I would love to know what the character customisation is like after unity being by far the best in the series?

From what I've seen there are way less outfits than unity which sucks.

 

[Harlequin]

They had some intelligence. If you killed somebody in front of crowds they could react, sometimes run away, call for help etc.

There's a moment 5 minutes into Syndicate where you have to kill two people right in front of factory workers - literally two feet from them -- and they stand and stare into space.

I thought this was done on purpose in the factory sequence because the factory workers likely wouldn't feel too much sympathy for the guards or their boss (or at least they aren't supposed to in AC: Syndicate's story) and they'd probably also be more accustomed to seeing violence and death. That being said, it's certainly also possible that it is a technical limitation. I guess we'll see which one it is once the game is out.

From what I've seen there are way less outfits than unity which sucks.

Don't worry, you'll probably be able to buy lots of extra outfits and accessories for 10$ each.

 

[Quadraphonic]

From what I've seen there are way less outfits than unity which sucks.

There's at least 4-5 outfits you can unlock through the AC Rewards website. So I expect plenty more.

 

[ogbg]

There's at least 4-5 outfits you can unlock through the AC Rewards website. So I expect plenty more.

Yeah, but it doesn't seem like you have the different parts like hoods, coats, waist, trousers, etc. that you had in unity. I've just seen coats and belts in the streams.

 

[Ascenion]

Xbox One vs PS4:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuXS8HrPeX4

Evie has the same double assassination animation as Arno.......that's a bit disappointing. Nice to see both games look decent though. Cautiously excited for Friday.

 

[Loakum]

Assassins Creed Syndicate |OT| No Victory Here
Assassins Creed Syndicate |OT| Series Assassinated

ROTFLMAO!!! Gaf is still the place for gems like this!

 

[Krappadizzle]

Assassins Creed Syndicate |OT| Victory through Unity.

 

[antitrop]

ROTFLMAO!!! Gaf is still the place for gems like this!

I don't think it's possible to get better than Unity's |OT| Liberté, égalité, parité

 

[RowdyReverb]

I've been a fan of this franchise for a long time, through its ups and downs, and I just can't muster any hype for this game. It's not even Unity's fault. It's because of the changing landscape of modern open world games.

I'd like to see them do something really different with AC. Take a year off and brainstorm. Its biggest problem is that it's still using its original formula with new bells and whistles. While that made a game stand out at the beginning of last gen, the open world formula is so commonplace now that new entries just sorta press A to blend.

I think it could be interesting if they pursued a less-open world approach with historical areas as complex and intricate set pieces with many different solutions and interesting scenarios, much like the new Hitman game is aiming to do. Make a plot people can give a shit about that ties these locales together and play them as stages with replay incentives like randomization or secrets.

 

[Inspector Q]

Assassins Creed Syndicate |OT| Gangs of York

Going to probably Gamefly the PS4 version of this game. I definitely don't hate the series like some others do, but I am really disappointed with the direction they have gone since AC3. I enjoyed the modern day of AC1-ACB, along with the Truth/Glyph puzzles of AC2 and ACB.

Also doesn't help that I was a fan of the competitive MP which has been absent for the last few titles.

The main thing I am hoping for is an improved story and more interesting characters than Unity. It looks like that may be the case, but I am trying to avoid spoilers, so I haven't really watched a lot of the cutscenes.

We will see, I guess.

 

[Krappadizzle]

i got a chuckle outta the GS playthrough.

 

[G_Berry]

The GS playthrough actually has me hyped for this way more than I thought.

 

[RedAssedApe]

i got a chuckle outta the GS playthrough.

you gotta play with jacob to be able to throw dudes over ledges. cuz he's the fighter of the twins

Spoiler

jk

 

[Portugeezer]

Game looks decent in its own right. Hard to get too excited over it though. Will probably get it when it's cheaper.

i got a chuckle outta the GS playthrough.

MGS5 vibes.

 

[Tahnit]

hmm. framerate looks stable on ps4. may just end up playing this on ps4 then. I usually play these on pc but unity really disappointed me. Still going to wait for reviews though. If it performs well and gets good review scores ill pick it up.

 

[erotic grandpa]

I shit on it quite a bit in the last thread (Unity - not so good!), but watching Danny's stream and this looks...this looks OK. Not great! Nothing earth-shattering or new! But alright.

I'll keep an eye on the reviews. Not like Assassin's Creed reviews haven't steered me wrong before (3, woof), but I gotta imagine they'll show this one no mercy if it can't surpass Unity.

Plus, 4 AM the day before release should still early enough to get that $10 Best Buy preorder bonus.

Spoiler

This series is my "comfort food" of gaming and I just keep coming back ;_;

 

[bluuberg]

I watched till they arrived in London... I think I'd be more interested if we were playing solely as Evie. Her fighting style seems more fun and she seems to be the brains of the duo too, I haven't seen anything yet that makes me want to like Jacob. Then they meet Henry Green and I'd rather have a game featuring him and his story, why can't he be the one to have the initiative to retake London? or at least make it 50/50 between him and Evie after Jacob falls off a train or something.

 

[SomTervo]

Joke post? Everything about Unity's story was clumsily written cliche trash.

Not at all. The story as a whole was awful, I'm just talking about Arno's character and dialogue, which was solid (best character development and dialogue in the series imo). Character and dialogue are just a subset of 'story'. Everything else about Unity's story - the plot, the themes (or lack thereof), the narrative - all of that was shit.

I should have said 'dialogue' instead of 'writing' really.

Yeah it was made fun of and it was really annoying in most missions. It was only when you got put into an entirely separate area where they did handcraft the environment for a single mission.

I also hate the full sync stuff that unlocks as you progress in a mission but loved them in tombs.
Like the aqueduct you have to finish w/o getting hurt or the church you should finish w/o touching the ground.

Yeah, the Full Sync Stuff I initially liked, because it gave more gameplay depth.

But after Brotherhood I realised it doesn't give more gameplay depth. It would give more gameplay depth if you got more resources/abilities/equipment for getting Full Sync. But you don't. It's literally just % completion. Which is so lame.

Except Tuesday is the standard day for the release of all store bought media in the US (movies, music, games.). Including when huge games have midnight launches (COD day zero is a recent example where they pushed the release a day earlier). Assumption being that if that's the standard release, the retail store would have gotten their shipments of the game earlier in the week along with all the other new releases.

"Except Friday is the standard day for the release of all store bought media in the UK and all of Europe (movies, games, books)." That's a subjective non-argument. In the UK, movies, games, theatre shows and books come out on Fridays. (Music comes out on Tuesday, but music doesn't abide by the same rules.)

And if it was released on Tuesday, you'd have most of the week to play. The people buying stuff at launch, at least the ones not still in grade school , don't only play games on weekends. Regardless, once again I don't know how having the game available on Tuesday for those of us that will go out and buy it that day affects the habits of someone who doesn't have time to do this and will wait until Friday to buy it. Not sure what's so ridiculous.

... But on Tuesday most people don't have 'most of the week' to play. There's relatively little time to play until the weekend. Most people have limited time in evenings, what with being late back from jobs, spending time with their family and doing housework/meals. On Friday you immediately have the two biggest free-days of the whole week right on your doorstep.

It's a total no-brainer. It's a similar situation to the whole idiotic American date system, which was made just to be different from the rest of the world - ie for no meaningful, sensible reason.

 

[ironcreed]

i got a chuckle outta the GS playthrough.

LOL. If anything, the game looks a bit more fun to goof off in. London seems pretty nice.

This was pretty funny as well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5IQzQ3Y8QA

 

[johnnydrama]

So there are two patches. Both roughly 500MB each. Don't know how the 18GB rumor got started. It seems like people actively want this game to fail.

 

[SomTervo]

My bad, pimps fuck up too antitrop.



Nice. Does it make it more difficult to play though? Is there a HUD toggle? I like turning the shit off to play, but it's always annoying to have to go into the menus to turn shit back on for simple gameplay reasons.

Unity was one of the best games I've ever played as a HUDless experience.

Turn all HUD off and you still, always have a very subtle green or yellow dot on screen showing where your objective is (failing that and you can use Eagle Vision to see objectives in gold).

It is totally non-intrusive and the game is totally playable with every other HUD element off.

They even added in the 'High ground' mechanic so that you could stand on a high building and a moment later all the nearby POIs would get flagged up on your screen.

If you hold R3 to turn off Unity's HUD, it becomes one of the best and most seamless open world experiences around, IMO. Rather than chasing dots on a minimap you're actually engaging with the level design and keeping your eyes open for collectibles.

So good.

Assassins Creed Syndicate |OT| Gangs of York

Very good.

My vote's with this one.

 

[Zero-ELEC]

Unity was one of the best games I've ever played as a HUDless experience.

Turn all HUD off and you still, always have a very subtle green or yellow dot on screen showing where your objective is (failing that and you can use Eagle Vision to see objectives in gold).

It is totally non-intrusive and the game is totally playable with every other HUD element off.

They even added in the 'High ground' mechanic so that you could stand on a high building and a moment later all the nearby POIs would get flagged up on your screen.

If you hold R3 to turn off Unity's HUD, it becomes one of the best and most seamless open world experiences around, IMO. Rather than chasing dots on a minimap you're actually engaging with the level design and keeping your eyes open for collectibles.

So good.

Ubi's been trying to make the games work without HUD since Revelations where eagle sense would show a giant pillar of light in the distance where a mission was. It hasn't always worked out.

 

[SomTervo]

Ubi's been trying to make the games work without HUD since Revelations where eagle sense would show a giant pillar of light in the distance where a mission was. It hasn't always worked out.

Those efforts were moot for several reasons:

- no instantaneous R3 on/off HUD switch (which was a revelation IMO, god-tier UI design)
- pillars of light sucked, an always-on small green or yellow dot is perfect (or white crosshair for custom waypoint)
- eagle sense only works for nearby objects/objectives/enemies. So in Unity, if you fancy looking for a chest, listen for the tingling, and/or hold Triangle and look around. Very intuitive
- the High Ground system fills the gap of revealing nearby side missions/interactable world objects which none of the previous games had. It's fantastic, and means you can check your map for a general direction, then intuitively hop on rooftops and scan the nearby area for objectives

Seriously, as much as Unity is a very flawed game, doing the more open 'Safehouse' side quests/assassinations without any HUD is one of my favourite experiences in the last year of gaming

 

[Ceadeus]

Looks like good fun and good looking too.

I'm just waiting for mid game performance impression, when all the mechanism are at work.

 

[Kinyou]

LOL. If anything, the game looks a bit more fun to goof off in. London seems pretty nice.

This was pretty funny as well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5IQzQ3Y8QA

For a second I thought you might be able to actually play cricket. Guess I'll have to wait for Rockstar to make a game that takes place in England.

 

[ogbg]

Those efforts were moot for several reasons:

- no instantaneous R3 on/off HUD switch (which was a revelation IMO, god-tier UI design)
- pillars of light sucked, an always-on small green or yellow dot is perfect (or white crosshair for custom waypoint)
- eagle sense only works for nearby objects/objectives/enemies. So in Unity, if you fancy looking for a chest, listen for the tingling, and/or hold Triangle and look around. Very intuitive
- the High Ground system fills the gap of revealing nearby side missions/interactable world objects which none of the previous games had. It's fantastic, and means you can check your map for a general direction, then intuitively hop on rooftops and scan the nearby area for objectives

Seriously, as much as Unity is a very flawed game, doing the more open 'Safehouse' side quests/assassinations without any HUD is one of my favourite experiences in the last year of gaming

I wonder if the HUD toggle might not be in this one since apparently R3 is eagle vision now. I guess it could be L3

 

[SomTervo]

I wonder if the HUD toggle might not be in this one since apparently R3 is eagle vision now. I guess it could be L3

Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit.

 

[RedAssedApe]

"Except Friday is the standard day for the release of all store bought media in the UK and all of Europe (movies, games, books)." That's a subjective non-argument. In the UK, movies, games, theatre shows and books come out on Fridays. (Music comes out on Tuesday, but music doesn't abide by the same rules.)

... But on Tuesday most people don't have 'most of the week' to play. There's relatively little time to play until the weekend. Most people have limited time in evenings, what with being late back from jobs, spending time with their family and doing housework/meals. On Friday you immediately have the two biggest free-days of the whole week right on your doorstep.

It's a total no-brainer. It's a similar situation to the whole idiotic American date system, which was made just to be different from the rest of the world - ie for no meaningful, sensible reason.

Still not getting this argument. I don't see how releasing the game on Tuesday in the US (like everything else) affects you people who have no time to play until Friday.

 

[SomTervo]

Still not getting this argument. I don't see how releasing the game on Tuesday in the US (like everything else) affects you people who have no time to play until Friday.

What it if was the Friday before the proposed Tuesday? Would you still be complaining?

1. We're arguing two different arguments here. You're saying "in the USA it's this way so what's with this outlier". I'm saying "objectively Friday is a better day to release things on", also as someone who has lived in coutries and experienced both Friday and Tuesday release dates.

2. There is no 'why can't people just wait until Friday if it's out on Tuesday' argument. If it's out on Friday, why don't you wait until the following Tuesday, if you like Tuesdays so much?

The developers will finish the game whenever they want. A Tuesday just seems totally arbitrary to me. Why not Monday? Why not Wednesday? Friday is the unique weekday in that it has the weekend right after.

3. In many countries Friday is the release day, so the whole 'normal' argument seems reductive and USA-centric. You get the whole weekend to play on a Friday.

 

[v0mitg0d]

Can you pick whom to play (as either twin) before each mission or does it bounce back and forth between the two? Twins...how do they work?

 

[Zero-ELEC]

Can you pick whom to play (as either twin) before each mission or does it bounce back and forth between the two? Twins...how do they work?

Small missions (Templar hunt stuff or whatever) just use the Twin you were playing as in the freeroam (you can choose which through the menu). Big missions apparently have set characters.

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

Not at all. The story as a whole was awful, I'm just talking about Arno's character and dialogue, which was solid (best character development and dialogue in the series imo). Character and dialogue are just a subset of 'story'. Everything else about Unity's story - the plot, the themes (or lack thereof), the narrative - all of that was shit.

I should have said 'dialogue' instead of 'writing' really.

Yeah, the Full Sync Stuff I initially liked, because it gave more gameplay depth.

But after Brotherhood I realised it doesn't give more gameplay depth. It would give more gameplay depth if you got more resources/abilities/equipment for getting Full Sync. But you don't. It's literally just % completion. Which is so lame.

Just finished Unity today after not playing to for almost a year after I stopped at sequence 9 and yeah wow the story is just a huge missed opportunity.

Arno is decent enough character, it was kinda refreshing how he isn't nearly as radical as all previous main characters and that he'd actually not put revenge above everything.

Still doesn't come close to Adewale though, how I wish we'd have gotten him as the MC instead of the unlikeable idiot that was Edward.

What annoys me the most about full sync is that if I wanted to complete it I'd have to constantly check if the info updated so that I don't accidentally miss or fail it.
I like when it gives me clear restrictions at the beginning of a mission.

Unity had some awesome open missions you could approach in various ways. They could have been a little more intricate than they were but they were a nice touch.

All in all what I want most from AC in the future is feeling more in control, tol many times you just get discovered out of nowhere.