Assassin's Creed

[Maverick]

Ok well this game is being released around spring this year; for the xbox 360, ps3, aswell as the as well as the computer.

I just wanted to post a bit about the game and if we have enough enthusiasm about this game, we will add a section

First off if you want to take a look at the game here is a link to gameplay videos (please click on the one that is called "X06 Onstage Demonstration
Sep 27, 2006" and that is 46.9 mb through quick time; that is the original gameplay vid which isnt edited so watch that one)
http://www.gametrailers.com/gamepage.php?fs=1&id=2581


*the following info is from the the official Assassin's creed forum

-The main character's name is Altaïr, he uses a switchblade hidden in his hand.
Apparently this game follows his story as the most legendary assassin in 1191 AD, during the Third Crusade.

- This game is being developed by the same team that developed Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.

- Although it's by the same team, it has nothing to do with Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. It's a completely different game.

- This game has been in development since Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was finished. Which means it's been in development for 3 years now.

- The developers seem to be going for a 'real world feel', with movement being the main focus (in a crowded city, your character can run bumping into people, automatically pushing people out of the way, stumbling when someone pushes back.) according to the first impressions from the presentation at GDC.

- At this stage, the game uses five and the left control stick. The R trigger accelerates your movement, X is jump, Y is view mode, A is attack, and B is not known.

- Where the story is concerned, the game begins with the initiation. You're a novice. And as part of the initiation, your finger is cut off, to give you the switchblade.

- There is no online play. However, there is downloadable content.

- Not every mission ends in murder. You may be required to steal money and give it to the poor, the developers also wanted to go for a 'Robin Hood' feel to the game.

- You have to build a reputation with the crowd around you. Each person in the crowd that surrounds you has individual Artificial Intelligence, something not possible without the power of the PlayStation 3.

- Jumping is automatic. Real skill comes in manouvering Altair through streets and over rooftops without getting caught or knocked over.

- The Health System is realistic. There is no health bar. You can take more damage easier, so one fatal blow by the enemies sword is just that - fatal. Luckily, an intelligent blocking system helps you out here.

- Surprise! About 10% of the game WILL TAKE PLACE IN THE PRESENT DAY/FUTURE. This is according to the Independant PlayStation Magazine America. So definately not speculation, the future IS involved.


quote:

Project Assassin's preview for PS3


At the Game Developers Conference in San Jose today, Ubisoft's Jade Raymond and Patrice Desilets delivered a speech called "Defining the Assassin." The speech was set up to show the development team's approach to game design, and in the process revealed a lot about Ubisoft's mysterious next-gen game Project Assassins, which has previously only been shown in a brief trailer at last year's Tokyo Game Show.

The main concept the developers wanted to share is the idea of "organic" game design. Their goal is to make a game that a person who isn't accustomed to the traditional video game 'language' can understand and not be intimidated by. "Current-gen games are accessible as long as you know the video game rules," said Desilets. To achieve a next-generation experience, nearly every element of Project Assassins will attempt to focus on providing realism to the player.

This means that everything in the world will be realistic. If someone jumps, they will jump a normal human distance (or, at least, the normal distance of a street runner who can jump and perform fancy tricks -- Ubisoft showed reference footage of scenes like this). If someone climbs up a wall, they will only be able to do so if there is actually something sticking out of the wall for them to climb on. If someone jumps, they will not be able to double jump or turn in mid-air -- though they will be able to reach their hands out and grab onto a ledge if it is close enough to them.

Much of the early tech demo footage shown in the presentation focused on these platforming elements. The team that is working on Project Assassins is the same team that created Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, so it makes sense the game will have lots of platforming elements. But from what we saw at the presentation, it's clear the team wants to take the idea to the next level with quick travel between rooftops, up ladders, and all around a stone and grass covered European city.

The control scheme as well is being designed not to intimidate newcomers to video games. By using only the left analog stick for movement and buttons for each body part and to move around the environment, things are being kept simple. The individual body part system won't quite work like that in Tekken, however. Whatever situation the player is in, they will be able to perform a contextually sensitive action using that body part by pushing the button -- it could be an attack or something less aggressive.

The controls are also being designed to make player interaction with non-player characters realistic. If you literally run into a character in a town, instead of slipping past him as you do in most current-generation games, your character will physically take out his hand and shove that character out of the way. Sometimes this shoving is violent, and sometimes it's very calmly presented and just done so the character can slip by without crashing into the NPC. In one scene shown in a tech demo, the hero shoved so many enemies that everyone in the town starting coming after and attacking him. There's a lot of animation in these kinds of standard interactions that looks to make the game movement very realistic.

Perhaps the most ambitious part of the presentation was when Desilets mentioned he hopes to create a new control standard for third-person action games. He hopes that as there is now with dual-analog controls for first-person shooters, there will soon be a standard in place for third-person games, and it will be one that non-gamers can pick up in addition to hardcore players.

As part of the control scheme in Assassins, combat in the game will also be performed realistically, but as Desilets explained, realistic combat leads to one-hit deaths, so the team has implemented a system where your character blocks with his sword by default, and can choose to attack or be attacked at key moments along the way.

Partway through the presentation, the developers showed a video of a skit from Chapelle's Show, where Dave Chapelle imitates the Grand Theft Auto series by doing game-style things in real life -- and showing how ridiculous they look. Ubisoft's goal with Assassins is to get past this type of fake reality altogether and create something that works in a truly realistic way. To these developers, that is truly next-gen design.

We don't know much about Project Assassins' story or main character -- or even how the balance of action and adventure elements will work -- but today's presentation left us with a lot of hope for something new in the industry. If the game can achieve a sense of realism as ambitious as the developers claim, this could be a big step forward in game design.

Oh, and a final quote from Desilets: "We didn't mention it [in the presentation] but there's also a horse in the game." Sounds next-gen to us.

Ill be posting more later

[Silenoz666]

If you watch the gameplay video, this game looks pretty much like the next-gen Prince of Persia. Same company, Ubisoft, so that makes sense. Definately gonna keep an eye on this one.

[Maverick]

yea, as mentioned in my post the makers of pop are working on this. What wasnt mentioned though was that some of the makers of splinter cell are also working on it.

Looks just bloody fantastic if you ask me. What is really interesting me is the parkour encorperated into it. if you dont know what that is, here is a video of actual people doing parkour (parkour was invented by a french person named David Belle, and thats the guy in this video)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtS7bDsh7Qc

and the next is of a random person who has trained and is now also good at parkour

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KSr1pozm6Y

[Felix12g]

This game is definitely being carefully watched by plenty of people. It has alot of potential while making use of the next gen equipment and engines.

[Maverick]

Felix one question, i sadly have no idea if xbox360 and ps3 are cable of playing direct x10 games... Now it would be logic for them to be able to use dx10 but im not sure.. so do you know if they can utilise dx10 or are they just stuck with 9?

[the no one]

If you watch the gameplay video, this game looks pretty much like the next-gen Prince of Persia. Same company, Ubisoft, so that makes sense. Definately gonna keep an eye on this one.

Its not like Prince of persia at all. Yeh, same people but its totally different in that its free to go anywhere, no puzzles, moe action and basicly better

[Maverick]

yea except when it is compared to prince of persia, the entire game isnt being compared but what you can do is being compared. Like wall running, backflips, acrobatic moves etc...

[Silenoz666]

Its not like Prince of persia at all. Yeh, same people but its totally different in that its free to go anywhere, no puzzles, moe action and basicly better

If you watch those videos and Prince of Persia doesn't pop into your head, you should get something checked out up there.

It is made by the same company, uses a slightly similar setting, and nearly half the moves I saw in the video were done in PoP, just not as good.

Honestly, to say it is not like PoP at all is insane.

[Felix12g]

I wouldn't count on PS3 being DX10 compatible. They didn't bother to update their video card even though the project was delayed greatly putting that card into the category of "Crappy old stuff." Since the X360 is from Microsoft I would think they have something up their sleeve. How? I haven't a clue, their hardware is started to get old as well. I'm not sure if it is up to handling DX10 but if it can happen Microsoft will definitely make it happen.

A problem with running dx10 on the console however is whether it will remain compatible to the dx9 games that are current made for it. Another thing to consider is making developers switch from programming for dx9 to 10 in the middle of their project. It would be nice if it was updated to 10, but it would also cause many problems.

[Bella2010]

I thought AC 1 was OK but not great, is the 2nd one similar to the first or any better? I thought the first one took too long to get going, the whole intro thing at the start seemed to take forever.