Assassin's Creed Origins - it's an RPG now

[IncendiaryDevice]

So much handwringing about whether it is RPG or not. Does it have choices and consequences, branching narrative, multiple endings reflecting player actions?
Yes? Choose Your Own Adventure.
No? Not Choose Your Own Adventure.

Ftfy?

 

[Paul_cz]

So much handwringing about whether it is RPG or not. Does it have choices and consequences, branching narrative, multiple endings reflecting player actions?
Yes? Choose Your Own Adventure.
No? Not Choose Your Own Adventure.

Ftfy?

Choose Your Own Adventure gamebooks were sort of early attempts at RPG.
But for me, C&C + player agency is a defining feature of RPG as a genre. Followed by character progression and customization, exporation.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Sure it's an RPG. Just listen to this connosieur here:

I finally have a neat short youtube video to quote in future debates on "what is an RPG?":

"Any good RPG always has a set of classes"

"You've got some amazing quests, like great bossfights"

 

[Alienman]

Talent tree = RPG.

Well, according to game journalists and marketing folk.

 

[vonAchdorf]

They borrowed some asynchronous multiplayer ideas - you can stumble across crosses of other players and get a mission to avenge them by killing their killer. They quest are much more integrated than into the world than in previous titles, where you went to a glowing pillar and it transferred you into an instanced world populated with quest targets. This time, quests don't reload the environment, but just start (or you can have them completed before you actually activate them (like if you kill the killers of a PC before accepting the avenge quest)).

So while the world is still a stage and many mechanics are the same as in previous titles, it feels less like it and more like an actual game world.

Talent tree = RPG.

Well, according to game journalists and marketing folk.

The talent tree isn't really anything to call home about - it's similar to previous titles, just the UI changes make it look more like an RPG because they separated it into "classes" / play styles. But you already could learn different attacks, skills and unlock sleep darts etc. in the older titles. There's one difference though: Abilities aren't gated behind specific missions. You can unlock them anytime you have enough ability points.

Same with the inventory. In Unity, you looted different items from people which would immediately be converted into money, so you never actually had them and only saw them as flavor text while looting ("Soap - 10F"), here you get trinkets and have to sell them.

 

[Astral Rag]

Assassins Creed Origin DRM Hammers Gamers’ CPUs


Assassin's Creed Origins gamers are reporting massive CPU utilization. While the game is said to be quite resource-hungry already, game cracker Voksi informs TorrentFreak that anti-piracy efforts are to blame. With Denuvo in trouble, Ubisoft has called in reinforcements which are reportedly dragging down all but the most powerful machines. "It's anti-consumer and a disgusting move," he says.

There’s a war taking place on the Internet. On one side: gaming companies, publishers, and anti-piracy outfits. On the other: people who varying reasons want to play and/or test games for free.

While these groups are free to battle it out in a manner of their choosing, innocent victims are getting caught up in the crossfire. People who pay for their games without question should be considered part of the solution, not the problem, but whether they like it or not, they’re becoming collateral damage in an increasingly desperate conflict.

For the past several days, some players of the recently-released Assassin’s Creed Origins have emerged as what appear to be examples of this phenomenon.

“What is the normal CPU usage for this game?” a user asked on Steam forums. “I randomly get between 60% to 90% and I’m wondering if this is too high or not.”

The individual reported running an i7 processor, which is no slouch. However, for those running a CPU with less oomph, matters are even worse. Another gamer, running an i5, reported a 100% load on all four cores of his processor, even when lower graphics settings were selected in an effort to free up resources.

“It really doesn’t seem to matter what kind of GPU you are using,” another complained. “The performance issues most people here are complaining about are tied to CPU getting maxed out 100 percent at all times. This results in FPS [frames per second] drops and stutter. As far as I know there is no workaround.”

So what could be causing these problems? Badly configured machines? Terrible coding on the part of the game maker?

According to Voksi, whose ‘Revolt’ team cracked Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus before its commercial release last week, it’s none of these. The entire problem is directly connected to desperate anti-piracy measures.

As widely reported (1,2), the infamous Denuvo anti-piracy technology has been taking a beating lately. Cracking groups are dismantling it in a matter of days, sometimes just hours, making the protection almost pointless. For Assassin’s Creed Origins, however, Ubisoft decided to double up, Voksi says.

“Basically, Ubisoft have implemented VMProtect on top of Denuvo, tanking the game’s performance by 30-40%, demanding that people have a more expensive CPU to play the game properly, only because of the DRM. It’s anti-consumer and a disgusting move,” he told TorrentFreak.

Voksi says he knows all of this because he got an opportunity to review the code after obtaining the binaries for the game. Here’s how it works.

While Denuvo sits underneath doing its thing, it’s clearly vulnerable to piracy, given recent advances in anti-anti-piracy technology. So, in a belt-and-braces approach, Ubisoft opted to deploy another technology – VMProtect – on top.

VMProtect is software that protects other software against reverse engineering and cracking. Although the technicalities are different, its aims appear to be somewhat similar to Denuvo, in that both seek to protect underlying systems from being subverted.

“VMProtect protects code by executing it on a virtual machine with non-standard architecture that makes it extremely difficult to analyze and crack the software. Besides that, VMProtect generates and verifies serial numbers, limits free upgrades and much more,” the company’s marketing reads.

VMProtect and Denuvo didn’t appear to be getting on all that well earlier this year but they later settled their differences. Now their systems are working together, to try and solve the anti-piracy puzzle.

“It seems that Ubisoft decided that Denuvo is not enough to stop pirates in the crucial first days [after release] anymore, so they have implemented an iteration of VMProtect over it,” Voksi explains.

“This is great if you are looking to save your game from those pirates, because this layer of VMProtect will make Denuvo a lot more harder to trace and keygen than without it. But if you are a legit customer, well, it’s not that great for you since this combo could tank your performance by a lot, especially if you are using a low-mid range CPU. That’s why we are seeing 100% CPU usage on 4 core CPUs right now for example.”

The situation is reportedly so bad that some users are getting the dreaded BSOD (blue screen of death) due to their machines overheating after just an hour or two’s play. It remains unclear whether these crashes are indeed due to the VMProtect/Denuvo combination but the perception is that these anti-piracy measures are at the root of users’ CPU utilization problems.

While gaming companies can’t be blamed for wanting to protect their products, there’s no sense in punishing legitimate consumers with an inferior experience. The great irony, of course, is that when Assassin’s Creed gets cracked (if that indeed happens anytime soon), pirates will be the only ones playing it without the hindrance of two lots of anti-piracy tech battling over resources.

The big question now, however, is whether the anti-piracy wall will stand firm. If it does, it raises the bizarre proposition that future gamers might need to buy better hardware in order to accommodate anti-piracy technology.

And people worry about bitcoin mining……?

 

[ilitarist]

So much handwringing about whether it is RPG or not. Does it have choices and consequences, branching narrative, multiple endings reflecting player actions?
Yes? RPG.
No? Not RPG.

So visual novels, wargames and 4X are RPG. Gotcha.

 

[flyingjohn]

Assassins Creed Origin DRM Hammers Gamers’ CPUs


Assassin's Creed Origins gamers are reporting massive CPU utilization. While the game is said to be quite resource-hungry already, game cracker Voksi informs TorrentFreak that anti-piracy efforts are to blame. With Denuvo in trouble, Ubisoft has called in reinforcements which are reportedly dragging down all but the most powerful machines. "It's anti-consumer and a disgusting move," he says.

There’s a war taking place on the Internet. On one side: gaming companies, publishers, and anti-piracy outfits. On the other: people who varying reasons want to play and/or test games for free.

While these groups are free to battle it out in a manner of their choosing, innocent victims are getting caught up in the crossfire. People who pay for their games without question should be considered part of the solution, not the problem, but whether they like it or not, they’re becoming collateral damage in an increasingly desperate conflict.

For the past several days, some players of the recently-released Assassin’s Creed Origins have emerged as what appear to be examples of this phenomenon.

“What is the normal CPU usage for this game?” a user asked on Steam forums. “I randomly get between 60% to 90% and I’m wondering if this is too high or not.”

The individual reported running an i7 processor, which is no slouch. However, for those running a CPU with less oomph, matters are even worse. Another gamer, running an i5, reported a 100% load on all four cores of his processor, even when lower graphics settings were selected in an effort to free up resources.

“It really doesn’t seem to matter what kind of GPU you are using,” another complained. “The performance issues most people here are complaining about are tied to CPU getting maxed out 100 percent at all times. This results in FPS [frames per second] drops and stutter. As far as I know there is no workaround.”

So what could be causing these problems? Badly configured machines? Terrible coding on the part of the game maker?

According to Voksi, whose ‘Revolt’ team cracked Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus before its commercial release last week, it’s none of these. The entire problem is directly connected to desperate anti-piracy measures.

As widely reported (1,2), the infamous Denuvo anti-piracy technology has been taking a beating lately. Cracking groups are dismantling it in a matter of days, sometimes just hours, making the protection almost pointless. For Assassin’s Creed Origins, however, Ubisoft decided to double up, Voksi says.

“Basically, Ubisoft have implemented VMProtect on top of Denuvo, tanking the game’s performance by 30-40%, demanding that people have a more expensive CPU to play the game properly, only because of the DRM. It’s anti-consumer and a disgusting move,” he told TorrentFreak.

Voksi says he knows all of this because he got an opportunity to review the code after obtaining the binaries for the game. Here’s how it works.

While Denuvo sits underneath doing its thing, it’s clearly vulnerable to piracy, given recent advances in anti-anti-piracy technology. So, in a belt-and-braces approach, Ubisoft opted to deploy another technology – VMProtect – on top.

VMProtect is software that protects other software against reverse engineering and cracking. Although the technicalities are different, its aims appear to be somewhat similar to Denuvo, in that both seek to protect underlying systems from being subverted.

“VMProtect protects code by executing it on a virtual machine with non-standard architecture that makes it extremely difficult to analyze and crack the software. Besides that, VMProtect generates and verifies serial numbers, limits free upgrades and much more,” the company’s marketing reads.

VMProtect and Denuvo didn’t appear to be getting on all that well earlier this year but they later settled their differences. Now their systems are working together, to try and solve the anti-piracy puzzle.

“It seems that Ubisoft decided that Denuvo is not enough to stop pirates in the crucial first days [after release] anymore, so they have implemented an iteration of VMProtect over it,” Voksi explains.

“This is great if you are looking to save your game from those pirates, because this layer of VMProtect will make Denuvo a lot more harder to trace and keygen than without it. But if you are a legit customer, well, it’s not that great for you since this combo could tank your performance by a lot, especially if you are using a low-mid range CPU. That’s why we are seeing 100% CPU usage on 4 core CPUs right now for example.”

The situation is reportedly so bad that some users are getting the dreaded BSOD (blue screen of death) due to their machines overheating after just an hour or two’s play. It remains unclear whether these crashes are indeed due to the VMProtect/Denuvo combination but the perception is that these anti-piracy measures are at the root of users’ CPU utilization problems.

While gaming companies can’t be blamed for wanting to protect their products, there’s no sense in punishing legitimate consumers with an inferior experience. The great irony, of course, is that when Assassin’s Creed gets cracked (if that indeed happens anytime soon), pirates will be the only ones playing it without the hindrance of two lots of anti-piracy tech battling over resources.

The big question now, however, is whether the anti-piracy wall will stand firm. If it does, it raises the bizarre proposition that future gamers might need to buy better hardware in order to accommodate anti-piracy technology.

And people worry about bitcoin mining……?

Or it could be that they are using the same cpu focused engine from the previous games with a lot more details and scope present in this game.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Copied from Steam:

MINIMUM CONFIGURATION
OS: Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 (64-bit versions only)
PROCESSOR: Intel Core i5-2400s @ 2.5 GHz or AMD FX-6350 @ 3.9 GHz or equivalent
VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA GeForce GTX660 or AMD R9 270 (2048 MB VRAM with Shader Model 5.0 or better)
SYSTEM RAM: 6GB
Resolution: 720p
Video Preset: Lowest

RECOMMENDED CONFIGURATION
OS: Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 (64-bit versions only)
PROCESSOR: Intel Core i7- 3770 @ 3.5 GHz or AMD FX-8350 @ 4.0 GHz
VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA GeForce GTX760 or AMD R9 280X (3GB VRAM with Shader Model 5.0 or better)
SYSTEM RAM: 8GB
Resolution: 1080p
Video Preset: High

I don't think either one of these is a particularly high-end CPU for the present time.

People playing this - what are your CPUs? How are your CPUs faring?

 

[Paul_cz]

So much handwringing about whether it is RPG or not. Does it have choices and consequences, branching narrative, multiple endings reflecting player actions?
Yes? RPG.
No? Not RPG.

So visual novels, wargames and 4X are RPG. Gotcha.

No. I was talking in context of this game. Obviously other established genres are what they are, even if they feature CnC (and if they do, they are better for it).

 

[Citizen]

GAME OF DA YEAR.

 

[TT1]

Well, I have 15 hours of gameplay and so far it's quite similar to previous AC games. Of course, the look is gorgeous and extremely detailed, but the game does not deliver anything new. The skill tree is small and easy to fill, so you invariably end up having all skills anyway, which ruin whatever build you want to do.

Someone needs to nerf or urgently change the mechanics of poison. At this moment it is too strong and too contagious, completely unbalancing the combat. I almost annihilated the entire population of Alexandria, unintentionally, because of half a dozen poisoned bodies on the main street.

 

[AwesomeButton]

That explains why pedestrians were running around with blue clouds around them after some combat at a marketplace in the LP I'm watching. The retard playing it didn't even notice.

 

[Urthor]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...ins-sales-roughly-on-par-with-2015s-syndicate

Assassin's Creed Origins has taken the UK chart top spot with physical sales roughly equal to that of Assassin's Creed Syndicate.

Physical sales on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One were just a few copies lower than Syndicate's equivalent total back in 2015, although the rise of digital sales since then will likely push Origins' overall result comfortably higher.

(UK numbers company Chart-Track does not count digital console or PC sales.)

Still, Syndicate marked a low sales point in the Assassin's Creed franchise, so coming in at around the same total is not too much cause for celebration. Syndicate was the lowest-selling in the series except for 2014's Rogue, which was designed as a game for last-gen consoles and released alongside 2014's other AC game, Unity.

I mean after two years of the physical market shrinking in favour of digital because people cbf to walk down to Gamestop when they have the playstation store, same physical sale results as Syndicate is actually a very good outcome I would have thought.

 

[vonAchdorf]

Well, I have 15 hours of gameplay and so far it's quite similar to previous AC games. Of course, the look is gorgeous and extremely detailed, but the game does not deliver anything new. The skill tree is small and easy to fill, so you invariably end up having all skills anyway, which ruin whatever build you want to do.

It's basically all the skills from the old games, presented in a different UI and with added filler skills like XP boost (more XP for headshots, stealth kills, assassinations, ...) to make it look more treelike.

Weapons can have some nice abilities, like poison, bleed or sleep. Though I haven't seem much use of the latter als a CC tool, because I think they wake up when I hit the guys a second time (or they die too fast).

The setting and exploration are still fun. The quests are sometimes a bit samey and every other guy you have to rescue has a broken ankle and you need to carry him. And while TW3 managed to make mundane stories interesting, here they often stay mundane (with exceptions).

The different bows could potentially be interesting, I mainly used the sniper bow so far.

The combat options are slightly expanded from the previous games. You have sword and shield, dual swords, scepters (staves), spears, clubs and axes, all with different combos and special moves.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Mhm, as I've been saying, Witcher 3 weaves layers of motivation and realistic character over mundane tasks such as "go fetch my goat". That's where its trick is. If I don't get engaged with the characters' story, which from what I've seen so far won't be the case, I'll probably play through the first 1/4 to 1/3 of this and drop it. Not worth buying.

 

[flyingjohn]

Nice bloom effects.

 

[muds_animal_friend]

Nice bloom effects.

That's from a boss fight that takes place during a sandstorm. It involves killing a strong, independent black woman, which follows on from a mission where I shoved my sword repeatedly in the face of strong, independent black man. I haven't killed this many digital black people since Might & Magic 6. RPG Codex Politics, God & The Wealth of Nations GOTY 2017.

 

[Falksi]

Sure it's an RPG. Just listen to this connosieur here:

The thing is, this doesn't highlight that AC is now an RPG; it actually highlights just how dumbed down TW3 actually was in terms of genuine RPG depth.

It's sad, incredibly sad, but the bloke makes some valid points and I'm actually amazed how much some people can't see how similar The Witcher 3 is to the AC series in some ways.

 

[AwesomeButton]

One significant difference - I like TW3's story and characters. This provides motivation for me to cruise the open world and do entertaining but not very effort-intensive errands. Rinse and repeat for 500 hours. AC Origins? I don't know, but from what I'm seeing it doesn't have the same magic.

 

[cvv]

Does adding all these "rpg elements" actually make the game better than say putting this much effort to making ass creed a proper stealth-action title?

You know I was just thinking the same. They moved closer to the RPG end of the scale and I don't think it works. Yes you have char development and you have loot and the combat system is reasonably fun (or it would be if mounted combat wasn't so stupidly OP). But other than that it's just another AC. The game world is gobsmack gorgeous but it feels just as paper-thin and artificial and gamey as all the previous worlds. I guess it makes sense since you are actually playing a game within a game but as things stand AC can never be a real boy RPG. Your actions have no impact, no weight, not a shred of CC, you can depopulate whole forts and stations and the next minute they're full of guards again and nobody gives a shit, nothing changes, you palpably feel it's all just pixels and algorithms moving around. Quests are mostly about following the yellow dot, killing everything at the target area and going back to the quest giver.

It'd certainly make more sense to make a proper stealth AC. Make the world tighter and more focused, ditch the combat system (without a broader impact in the world the improved combat in ACO still feels kindda pointless and empty, plus it's kindda easy even on Hard) and make basically AC Thief. At least it's worth a try.

 

[AwesomeButton]

What do you mean "closer"? It is an RPG!!

 

[Great Deceiver]

Does adding all these "rpg elements" actually make the game better than say putting this much effort to making ass creed a proper stealth-action title?

You know I was just thinking the same. They moved closer to the RPG end of the scale and I don't think it works. Yes you have char development and you have loot and the combat system is reasonably fun (or it would be if mounted combat wasn't so stupidly OP). But other than that it's just another AC. The game world is gobsmack gorgeous but it feels just as paper-thin and artificial and gamey as all the previous worlds. I guess it makes sense since you are actually playing a game within a game but as things stand AC can never be a real boy RPG. Your actions have no impact, no weight, not a shred of CC, you can depopulate whole forts and stations and the next minute they're full of guards again and nobody gives a shit, nothing changes, you palpably feel it's all just pixels and algorithms moving around. Quests are mostly about following the yellow dot, killing everything at the target area and going back to the quest giver.

It'd certainly make more sense to make a proper stealth AC. Make the world tighter and more focused, ditch the combat system (without a broader impact in the world the improved combat in ACO still feels kindda pointless and empty, plus it's kindda easy even on Hard) and make basically AC Thief. At least it's worth a try.

Tightening up game design is the last thing that will happen to AssCreed. "Progression systems" and loot make Pavlovian rodents get stimulated when they see a number going up, so that's not going anywhere. Stealth gameplay would mean that it would be possible for players to fail, so that's also not an option. The Ubishit school of game design is just to keep piling shit on that seems popular, it's a shame that the game is so pretty because it's all wasted on basically a game that plays itself.

 

[cvv]

Stealth gameplay would mean that it would be possible for players to fail, so that's also not an option. The Ubishit school of game design is just to keep piling shit on that seems popular, it's a shame that the game is so pretty because it's all wasted on basically a game that plays itself.

To be fair it's very possible to fail this time around. If you cling to your old AC instincts and bumrush a group of guards mindlessly they WILL kick your ass if they're a couple of levels above you. Again, combat is not a problem this time around, it's the gamey, paper-thin world where nothing really matters.

 

[flyingjohn]

The previous games had plenty of fail states.
Every single tail missions could be failed because the target got away or you got detected.Starting from the second one you also had fail state in some cases if you raise an alarm during an assassination.

The problem with assassin creed stealth is that it is has no proper stealth mechanics .If you are hidden you are hidden and if you are visible you are visible and that is it.
Also the hide in a bush and use whistle is broken considering you can kill a entire town with this tactic.

Now the game focus is on social stealth and yet it fails in the fundamental thing social stealth needs:A disguise system or a event system.
Just taking whores/thieves and using them for distraction is stupid considering that draws attention.Also using crowds as stealth means the designer has to make crowds static which is unnatural.A proper disguise would work wonders and if there was an actual event system like hitman it would be even better.

As for origins combat,all i see is clunky souls with hp bloated enemies to cover the fact you need to grind.Add to that action rpg loot system with tons of garbage and this gets boring quickly.
You can do plenty in souls series with low levels,here you can't do shit.
And considering this game is still a action game,that is not a good thing and seems just there to force grinding.
Edit:Also don't see the love for black flag.The land sections are too frequent and if you want a pirate there are plenty of other pirate games with better mechanics.(like age of pirates or pirates of the Caribbean)