back to article Shoot to THRILL: Assassin's Creed: Unity and Halo: Master Chief Collection

Ubisoft left itself with an uphill struggle in trying to top last year's Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag, a game that blended the franchise's core gameplay with a swashbuckling style that its buccaneer subject matter demanded. Assassin's Creed: Unity The style council Black Flag’s Edward Kenway was more of a drunken sailor …

  1. Kaltern

    Dear Mr Reviewer.

    Are you on crack?

    Glitches aside, the one thing that is universally abhorred by the gaming community on all platforms is the awful framerate - it barely scratches 30fps, and is usually hovering between 20-30. This makes any game utterly unplayable, so how can such a game get what might be considered a fairly good score?

    It's no wonder companies such as Ubi continue to get away with atrocious releases year after year, when reviewers simply can't bring themselves to give them the slating they deserve.

    1. El_Fev

      Re: Dear Mr Reviewer.

      Who are you TotalBiscuit??? 30fps is the minimum as it means smooth gameplay, anything else is gravy. I come from playing DOOM original when you had 20 fps, if its not 60 FPS its unplayable is a load of bollocks!

      1. BasicChimpTheory

        Re: Dear Mr Reviewer.

        For El_Fev and his upvoters:

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1J2WMoEP9A

        The visual jitter is not your connection. Well, maybe it is. Pause and wait for it all to download.

        My point is that you're not comparing like with like. The systems that reproduced Doom couldn't even dream of displaying *rendered* images at anything nearing modern resolutions let alone gameplay. 30fps is garbage on a modern system.

        Even Wii U...

      2. SolidSquid

        Re: Dear Mr Reviewer.

        Firstly AC is a much more dynamic game in terms of movement and animation, so low frame rates will be more noticeable. From the Rock Paper Shotgun review though, ti seems it's less about it running at 30fps and more that the framerate is incredibly inconsistent, making it far more noticeable when it's running at lower rates (sometimes even under the 20fps of DOOM)

        1. JDX Gold badge

          Re: Dear Mr Reviewer.

          Out of interest how are you measuring fps on your consoles?

      3. Kaltern

        Re: Dear Mr Reviewer.

        30fps is NOT smooth ffs, why do people always say that?? Just because game compaines would have you believe it is, 60fps should be the minimum that is accepted as 'smooth', seeing as this is what the human eye is most comfortable with.

        Honestly, we're not in the 90's any more, we can do a bit better than Doom.

        1. Martin-73 Silver badge

          Re: Dear Mr Reviewer.

          Because 24fps is good enough for movies without noticable flicker?

          1. John Tserkezis

            Re: Dear Mr Reviewer.

            "Because 24fps is good enough for movies without noticable flicker?"

            To be fair, that's most likely interlaced, effectively (visually) doubling the frame rate.

            I'll even do the math for you, it looks like 48fps, a lot closer to that 60fps everyone is talking about.

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: Dear Mr Reviewer.

              Are you for real, you do realise the P in 24p,720p and 1080p is progressive right.

            2. NumptyScrub

              Re: Dear Mr Reviewer.

              "Because 24fps is good enough for movies without noticable flicker?"

              To be fair, that's most likely interlaced, effectively (visually) doubling the frame rate.

              I'll even do the math for you, it looks like 48fps, a lot closer to that 60fps everyone is talking about.

              I downvoted this, because you appear to have forgotten that pre-digital, physical reel film projectors are not interlaced, and ran at 24fps. You also appear to have confused framerate and flicker rate; films being shown at 50Hz 1080i have a 50Hz flicker rate, but only a 25Hz framerate. If your HDTV is displaying a game at 1080p/60 and the game is running at 1 frame per second, you still have a 60Hz flicker rate, but it is most assuredly not 60fps.

              A smooth, persistent 30fps (married to a display running at a multiple of 30Hz) is perfectly adequate to fool the human eye into seeing smooth transitions. What most people moan about in gaming is variable framerates (which can be jarring) and/or tearing from not having VSync enabled (which can also be jarring).

              Complain about Unity or Halo having variable framerates and I will agree wholeheartedly. State that 30fps is unacceptable for a smooth gameplay experience and I will just as wholeheartedly disagree; a persistent 30fps is absolutely fine as long as it stays at that rate and there is no tearing.

              1. robin thakur 1

                Re: Dear Mr Reviewer.

                That's nonsense. Having played games in a time when 60fps was the norm, not the exception (Capcom fighting games, Virtua Fighter, Tekken) and were mandatory on the Dreamcast to output to VGA. I also spent hundreds of hours of my life benchmarking PC Graphics cards back in the day. I can tell the difference all the way upto 120Hz. Easily.

                In general, very little I play these days looks fluid with a couple of exceptions. 30fps might create the illusion of motion but there is a world of difference between a movie running at 24fps (instantly noticeable to my eyes but entirely deliberate) and a game running at a smooth fluid 60fps. It increases my perception of the graphics in a game and it looks faster too. People have only gotten more accepting of 30fps games as the hardware in modern consoles is not upto pushing the geometry of games at 1080p/60 (or sometimes even 720p/60) without cutting corners, and most game sales are made through still shots on websites/magazines and lower res video on Youtube. Variable framerates are even worse than 30fps, I will begrudgingly admit. I think delevelopers believe that if the game world you offer is rich and realisitic enough to add more value than making it 60fps, that is a more desirable use of prcessing cycles, but it robs it of reality and clarity in my opinion, and I'm sure i'm not the only one.

    2. NumptyScrub

      Re: Dear Mr Reviewer.

      To be fair, IIRC every Halo was capped at 30fps on release on their native consoles, so running at 30fps will be an "authentic" Halo experience.

      What is surprising is no mention in the review of the matchmaking issues; friends of mine have waited 10 minutes or more to get into a match online (Halo 3 and Halo 2), and this is not an isolated experience, if the tirades on the internet are anything to go by.

  2. MJI Silver badge

    I used to like AC

    But never even finished no 3

    My favourites was the first, followed by AC2

    1. Rufus McDufus

      Re: I used to like AC

      I hated AC3. It was just repetitive and I found remembering all the moves way too much. AC4 was fantastic though - try it.

      1. MJI Silver badge

        Re: I used to like AC

        I may one day but still enjoying Destiny, then I will be onto FC4 if it is any good, then I will want Order 1886 and UC4.

        The AC loving son though wanted ACU on his gaming PC but it is not available so does not know what to do.

        http://store.steampowered.com/app/289650/

        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

        Home > Oops

        Oops, sorry!

        An error was encountered while processing your request:

        This item is currently unavailable in your region

        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

        So basically the AC fan son cannot play the new game as it has been removed from sale.

        So what is wrong with the PC version?

  3. Lamont Cranston

    I cannot read anything about HALO,

    without wondering what Master Chef has got to do with it. Is Greg Wallace inside that green armour?

    1. Irongut

      Re: I cannot read anything about HALO,

      That would explain why he's cumbersome and gets snagged on scenery.

      1. Isendel Steel

        Re: I cannot read anything about HALO,

        would that be speaking strictly ?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I cannot read anything about HALO,

      I think I would prefer to watch Master Chef, bound to be more interesting that a totally worn out and over monetized cash grab...

      Sure a handful of very vocal Xbox One owners will proclaim this to be the savior of their failed console, but it won't stop the Xbox One tank-a-thon.

      1. NumptyScrub

        Re: I cannot read anything about HALO,

        Sure a handful of very vocal Xbox One owners will proclaim this to be the savior of their failed console, but it won't stop the Xbox One tank-a-thon.

        It's the developers releasing buggy, half-assed games that are the issue here, and I'm seeing that trend on multiple platforms including Sony ones. Played Watch_Dogs recently? ;)

        1. MJI Silver badge

          Re: IWatch Dogs

          Got bored after a few hours not touched since.

          Luckily a boy had bought it and not me, Currently on Destiny - much more like it.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: I cannot read anything about HALO,

          Played and completed Watch Dogs on PS4 and didn't come across any bugs, was a very enjoyable game. Perhaps it's just the Xbone version?

          1. MJI Silver badge

            Re: Watch Dog

            No I played part of it on PS4, still crap driving controls, boring story and annoyed me.

      2. AbelSoul
        Trollface

        Re: I would prefer to watch Master Chef

        Here you go then.

    3. MJI Silver badge

      Re: I cannot read anything about HALO,

      I have also wondered why they keep on about Master Chef as well, but I think of that funny accent chap rather than Mr Slaphead.

    4. akeane

      Re: I cannot read anything about HALO,

      I thought Greg was the inspiration for the ogres on Quake...

  4. RyokuMas
    Stop

    Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

    [Insert normal comment about boring, play-it-safe AAA sequels here]

    At least we have Sunset Overdrive.

    1. Jon Arden

      Re: Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

      "At least we have Sunset Overdrive."

      Really wanted to like this game but I cannot play it for more than 10 mins before dumping the controller down in frustration. Its like playing Tony Hawks while trying to aim and shoot and change weapons at the same time. Its an excercise in user frustration.....

      Looks good, nice idea, poorly executed.

    2. MJI Silver badge

      Re: Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

      Seeing Insomniac on a MS console must be as weird as seeing Bungie on a Sony console.

      But then Fuse was disappointing, All for one was well definately no Crack In Time. But I did like Resistance 3.

      However we need more good games regardless of platform.

  5. youknowyouloveit

    Assassin's Creed Tail Missions

    Undoubtedly the most infuriating problem with all of the AC titles is the ridiculous tail missions. The ones where you have to follow important character x for half an hour, listening in on conversations. Knock anything over or fail to duck into cover quick enough and bang - you're right back at the start.

    Worse, they added a mission rating system in in ACIV - everyone I know who played rated the tail missions one star out of five, they seem to have ignored it though. I might pick this up in a bargain bin - but as a day one purchase? No way.

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