The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

Apparently Sequences 12 and 13 are included seamlessly. I believe that the Templar lairs are not included, however, as there are both black and white editions of the PC version. I'm sure it would be pretty easy to edit the local save file to enable them.

It will obviously support higher resolutions than the console versions, and higher levels of anti-aliasing makes a big difference. I don't know what the native resolution is for AC2 on the consoles, but it's no higher than 1280x720. On the PC version, I will be playing at 1920x1200 with 8xAA/16xAF. I will be using an Xbox 360 controller because I'm not a fan of the way AC1 plays with a keyboard and mouse and I imagine AC2 will be identical in that regard.

The PC version does indeed have the weapon wheel. I hope that we will be able to assign all the different weapons/items to specific keys. That would be great. Not that I plan to use the keyboard.

The game is already available in some parts of the world, but not here. I'll post my findings once my local store gets it and I have some time to play it. If anyone else gets a chance, post your impressions of the PC version versus the console versions here.

Picked up the PC version today.

The game is very much identical to the console versions, more so than the first game was. Yes, it does indeed look better at a much higher resolution, but it also goes to show just how average the graphics in the game really are. Especially after playing Final Fantasy XIII. The character and facial models in AC2 are pretty bad in comparison.

The same exaggerated depth of field effect remains, giving the visuals a soft, blurry feel. I can't speak for everyone, but things in real life aren't that blurry for me, not even at a great distance. And I don't wear glasses or contacts. Turning off the depth of field, however, does indeed make the game look worse. While objects once again have crisp clean edges, it becomes clear that the game's anti-aliasing only applies to characters and nearby objects, but not world geometry. Buildings in the distance are heavily aliased. And up close, characters and objects just look worse because the polygon counts were not very high to begin with. At least the depth of field helps to hide those flaws, I guess.

What would have been ideal is to have an adjustable depth of field, rather than an off/on toggle. It just makes things too blurry with it on. I might as well be playing at a quarter the resolution. It would be much better if we could set the strength of the depth of field, even if it's just a switch between three or four levels of intensity.

The gamma issues that the first game had do not appear to be present in AC2. At least not so far, as I have yet to play any night missions. And speaking of brightness, I find the default brightness of 6/10 to be a little too bright on the PC version, whereas it was just perfect for both the PS3 and 360 versions. However, setting it down to even just 5/10 makes some of the darker areas a little too dark. It's just tough to win with the settings on this game...

As far as performance goes, it seems to run as well as the first game, for the most part. It's a little surprising that it runs as smoothly as it does at such high resolutions with the draw distances that it has. That said, sprinting around on rooftops with the full city spanning out ahead of you does cause a noticeable dip in framerate, to the point that it's a bit annoying. But it's not really any worse than playing the game on PS3.

The PC version thankfully has a v-sync option, which the PS3 version sorely lacks with it's intense screen tearing problems. The 360 doesn't tear as much as it appears to have v-sync running most of the time (but not so much during cutscenes), but it's still not impervious. The PC version is 100% tear-free, however. Just too bad the framerates while roof-bounding weren't a little smoothed out.

Control-wise, I haven't even bothered to try the keyboard and mouse. I began with my Xbox 360 controller right from the start and it works great. I actually have to increase the camera sensitivity by one notch for both vertical and horizontal to match how the console versions play, but that's hardly even worth mentioning. Otherwise, the controller works exactly like the 360 version. The one catch is that unlike the first game for PC, this one cannot seem to auto-detect the controller; you need to use the keyboard or mouse to go into the options menu and switch the control scheme to the Xbox 360 controller before it will respond at all. From that point on, you can use it to do everything in the game, including control the main menu.

For the record, I am using a wired 360 controller for my PC. Apparently AC2 for PC has the same issue that the first game did with the wireless 360 controller in that it doesn't recognize the triggers as buttons.

Feature-wise, the game comes with Sequences 12 and 13 built right in for seamless play. However, it does not come with any of the Templar lair maps. You need to purchase a special edition of the PC version to get those, and to the best of my knowledge, no such edition is available in North America. Good thing we're not missing much.

I'm not using a crack yet as a 100%-working crack is still in the works. Since I have an always-on broadband internet connection, staying connected to the net isn't an issue for me and throughout about an hour of playing I didn't have a single hitch. Fortunately, Ubisoft felt that this constant internet connection crap was enough copy protection, so it's not necessary to have the disc in the drive. I imagine you could run the game on multiple computers without an issue, as long as you don't run the game on more than one PC simultaneously.

Overall, I'm not particularly pleased with the PC version. Other than slightly improved graphics, it doesn't offer any other improvements over the console versions and requires you to be constantly connected to Ubisoft's servers (at least until a good crack comes out). I'd still take the PC version over the PS3 version any day, but it doesn't beat the Xbox 360 version in my opinion.

thx for writing asaic!

i was annoyed that the pc version of ac1 was different from the console versions. i got a lot of questions from pc players regarding the AI differences. if the pc version of ac2 is essentially identical in terms of gameplay, im actually happy about it in that regard. on the other hand, it would have also been nice to see at least 1 version of the game with replay.

On the plus side, backing up and restoring saves on the PC is a cinch. A simple batch file could reduce it to a couple of clicks. Takes all of one second to copy the files.

Hey! I resemble that remark! In all seriousness, I'm glad that the PC version does not stray too far from the original. It was awkard at times to talk "PC" for AC1 and have ppl clueless. Maybe Granjow will join us again soon since he's a PC only player. BTW, when did the PC version come out?

I'm a PC-player too! The PC-version came out on march 3rd (only for certain regions of the world, don't know exactly) I had the game finished on the 10th, and I'm starting an Eagles Bruise campaign. I still haven't really seen big differences. I can play BoF and BotV as DLC and I don't have to pay extra, that's awesome. The weapon wheel is handy, but I got to get used to it on PC.

Hello again … after quite a long time

I didn't get AC2 yet, mainly due to DRM (There is even a petition against it: http://www.petitiononline.com/ew15dl94/) and due to the first news mentioning mainly bugs (instead of interesting things) when the PC version came out.

As the next semester has started again, I wouldn't have a lot of time for playing anyway.

But I will eventually get AC2 too, in some weeks/months.

Asaic, there is a fix linked on gamecopyworld. Did you try it? Is it working properly?

Simon

edit
Oh. Is that true? The saves are being saved on Ubisoft's server (this is, by definition, EVIL). And their servers were kind of down one week ago.

Perhaps I'll also wait for ACIII.

Man, really, imho File Sharing is stupid and so on. But every second game I buy does NOT work the first time or is unplayable later for some time because of the copy protection. Assassin's Creed 1, Stalker, Modern Warfare 2 for example.

You can set the saves to work off your hard drive instead of being stored online. So that part isn't an issue.

So far there is no 100% crack. Many missions will not begin without some small data stream coming directly from Ubisoft's server. A group is already nearly complete with recording this data and including it in a crack. They don't have an ETA but they expect their 100% crack to be released "soon".

Would someone be kind enough to explain to me what exactly Ubi did to make the PC version less enjoyable? I know they did it to prevent piracy, but why is it bad outside of that?

Because it's a single player game with no online features that requires you to be online constantly to play the game. And if you lose your internet connection, it pauses the game, autosaves it, but if you try to do anything while your internet is out, it'll kick you out of the game.

It doesn't help that right now, people all over the world are DDoSing Ubi's servers, and because of that the people that paid to play the game can't do so.

I'm a honest customer.
I've got a full shelf of games I bought.
I've even made video tutorials on youtube which may have contributed to visitor's decision to buy it too.

I also expect publishers to appreciate honesty.

That's why I've downloaded Assassin's Creed 2 now, without paying for it.