Gaming deals

[Lex]

I'm torn over Assassin's Creed. I've heard the first game wasn't very good, but that the second was amazing. Is it worth playing through the first, or would it be enough to watch a playthrough on Youtube, what do you (people who have played it) think? And would I have to put up with that Uplay bullshit for the first two games, or did that come later?

UPlay exists in the second I'm sure, I don't remember about the first. But it's not like a mandatory login thing IIRC.

The first Assassin's Creed is a good game, it just becomes very repetitive (and therefore can get quite boring). The second is a vast improvement in every respect. It's really up to you, I don't think you're missing out on anything by not playing the first, you could just watch one of those "movies" on YouTube (cutscene compilation) because the story in I, II and Brotherhood is really good.

 

[Ami]

The first Assassin's Creed is a good game, it just becomes very repetitive (and therefore can get quite boring). The second is a vast improvement in every respect. It's really up to you, I don't think you're missing out on anything by not playing the first, you could just watch one of those "movies" on YouTube (cutscene compilation) because the story in I, II and Brotherhood is really good.

Lex has it nailed here.

In fact, the second game quickly recaps the first. The second is among the best of the PlayStation games I've ever played. The third's quality dips quite a lot, but the fourth comes close to II. Rogue is a pretty decent game and Unity can be all over the place (although it's close to being a duplicate of II, but in France).

I couldn't recommend the second one enough, even if it turns out to be the only one you play.

 

[Cthulhu]

IDK; I really liked the first because of its style, atmosphere, graphics, etc. But yeah, it got repetitive very fast.

Some say the second is better, but IMO it's still repetitive. AssCreed was the game that started an 'open' type of gameplay a lot of other ubisoft games (at least Far Cry 3 olol) copied - open map, add loads of dots with repetitive missions (kill this guy, run over this roof, etc), rinse and repeat. IDK. I've yet to finish AC2 and I started it aeons ago.

 

[Lex]

The thing about AC2 is that it's more story driven. You might say it's repetitive but I don't see how you can compare it to AC1 in that respect. In AC1 you literally repeat the same process over and over again, in AC2 the gameplay might get repetitive (like every single game) but every mission requires you to do something different, and you always have options in how you carry them out to make it not repetitive at all.

50% of AC1 is sitting on a horse travelling through uber lengthy roads with nothing on them at all.

 

[Flintlock]

Thanks for the advice. I guess I'll pick up AC2 and watch a movie of 1.

 

[Lex]

There you go

 

[Flintlock]

HIGH SPEED INTERNET ACCESS AND CREATION OF A UBISOFT ACCOUNT ARE REQUIRED TO ACCESS THIS VIDEO GAME AND ONLINE FEATURES AND TO PLAY ONLINE.

I've got a bad feeling about this. There are already lots of reviews on Steam from people who bought the game in the last few days saying that they haven't been able to play the game because of Uplay being unavailable.

I'll give it a shot, but honestly, it's only because of Steam's no-questions-asked refund policy.

 

[Cthulhu]

*but only if you've played for less than two hours in total.

I'm sure there's uplay-less, steam-less versions on the known piracy networks. Because fuck that shit.

 

[Flintlock]

Yeah, but fuck piracy as well. :/ When games are selling for 2,49€ on Steam, as AC2 did, I have no problem getting them legitimately. It's a business model I want to support.

And if I can't log in to Uplay, then I definitely will have played the game for less than two hours, since it has to connect the first time you launch the game.

 

[Cthulhu]

I think it's just a bit silly to have both Steam and Uplay behind the same game; Steam itself is a rather good form of DRM on its own, and it does the community thing, screenshots, achievements etc better than uplay does.

Although iirc you can unlock shit / dlc-like stuff with uplay.

 

[Hisako]

Unlike Origin (which actually bothers to curate its material and incentivise its use, support its userbase and offers halfway-decent connections for its online experiences), imo Uplay is a pile of trash garbage that lacks maturity despite being technically older than Origin

 

[Flintlock]

Uplay and I didn't get off on the best foot: it crashed on its first launch. And its second launch. Then I looked up the problem and found it's because ACII on Steam comes with an outdated version of Uplay. Really, Ubisoft... Removing it manually and then downloading the new version from the Ubisoft website did the trick, but I should never have had to do that in the first place.

 

[Flintlock]

Another update: despite having an option for the Xbox 360 controller in its settings menu, the Xbox 360 controller doesn't fully work with Assassin's Creed II out of the box. The triggers don't work and can't be mapped to any actions. There's a fix, but it's an unofficial one. Once again, it feels like Ubisoft didn't bother to actually test the game on Steam. So, fuck 'em. I requested a refund. Having to fix one problem just to play the game is annoying, two is just taking the piss. The first half hour of gameplay left me pretty unimpressed anyway.

And now I get to uninstall Uplay. Hooray!

 

[Ami]

There's a Halloween Steam sale going on right now. Picked up the first two Witcher games for £1.04 and £2.24 respectively. The Eidos collection is also going for £31.99 on the Squenix site.

Currently downloading all the games as we speak, bringing my total Steam games up to 42 now.

 

[Hisako]

Another update: despite having an option for the Xbox 360 controller in its settings menu, the Xbox 360 controller doesn't fully work with Assassin's Creed II out of the box. The triggers don't work and can't be mapped to any actions. There's a fix, but it's an unofficial one. Once again, it feels like Ubisoft didn't bother to actually test the game on Steam. So, fuck 'em. I requested a refund. Having to fix one problem just to play the game is annoying, two is just taking the piss. The first half hour of gameplay left me pretty unimpressed anyway.

And now I get to uninstall Uplay. Hooray!

I missed this post, but this is my chance to reiterate that Uplay games are generally trash garbage

Partly because back in the day Ubisoft didn't care a whole lot about having quality PC ports so a lot of shit ended up being released half-baked and with poor online support

 

[Flintlock]

I feel like I announce every Civ V sale on here, but GMG currently have the complete edition for 8,50€ (link, but you need an account to see the deal), less than the 9,99€ it usually goes on sale for. They also have good prices on the PC edition of GTAV (30,59&#8364 and some other games.

Speaking of Civ, I've been wondering if anyone here fancies a game?

 

[Kuroto]

I wouldn't mind playing.

 

[Joe]

I'd totally be up for a game. I've had a real hankering for it lately but nobody I know has the patience for the multiplayer.

 

[Flintlock]

Yeah, playing a multiplayer game all the way to the end can easily take up a couple of evenings. I'll PM/FB you two next week (and anyone else who wants in) to see if we can arrange a time.

 

[Cthulhu]

I've got Civ 5, played it for hours, but I'm still in the first game and I don't feel like I've got a clue what I'm doing besides just building shit and expanding and maybe attacking someone wicba,

 

[Flintlock]

So are you in? It's not going to be a competitive game, just a bit of fun, hopefully. I got quite good at the single-player a while back but multi-player is a very different beast and I haven't touched the game since (*checks Steam*) March.

 

[Lex]

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is 25% off on G2A

 

[Obsidian Fire]

The Talos Principle is 75% off this weekend on Steam. It's pretty much the best first-player physics puzzle game to come out since the original Portal game.

 

[Flintlock]

Tropico 4 is free on the Humble Store for the next 15 hours or so.

 

[Cthulhu]

On that note, Journey is also free for PS Plus peoples. Not sure if that constitutes a gaming deal since you're paying a subscription, but hey