Assassins Creed 3 360/PS3

[mugetsu]

I'm currently playing the ps3 version which comes with 2 lots of dlc, one of them being exclusive.
If you've played revelations it does follow on from there but without spoiling anything i was pleasantly surprised by the oppening act.
Only played about an hour but so far so good , music is nice , graphics are definitely a step up especially on the faces with pretty good lip syncing(all in engine).
The fighting mechanics are a bit better and now include throws and grapples from what i've seen so far, free running and climbing is the same as previous AC games with its nice animations.
This time round the story has grabbed me more than the other games did so far probably due to a mild twist in the first mission, you can do the usual leave the animus thing to speak to your colleagues but being at the start of the game there's not much out there to do yet.
I passed on the vita version for now so i'm not to sure how the cross content thing works there.
cant really say much more than that at the moment due to the short time spent with the game but i am eager to get back into it which is a good thing.

[teddymeow]

Played the first hour on 360 yesterday but am buying on PS3 along with Liberations on Vita.

I'm torn as to whether I like it or not.

It looks nice. Hoping it starrd to impress later on when it kicks off proper.

A nice, slow scene building opening which surprised me somewhat.

I only ever played AC1 but the intro to this kinda brings you up to speed.

Looking forward to playing more on Wednesday.

[mugetsu]

wait til you get to roughly chapter 4 or 5 , it gets really good and the fact that you are now outside looking in(people will understand when they get there)is kinda new for the series.
i think the reason i'm enjoying this more than the others is that at a certain point in the game the terrain and tactics changes radically and its such a breath of fresh air.
only downside i've noticed so far, and this is just my opinion is that you can still leave the animus when you want and it still has that horrible scooby doo gang style atmosphere going on when you do so.
I've actually deleted my save because i want to get to where i was at a slower pace and do some exploring.

[Jimmyboi]

Is it actually a stealth game this time? Coz my biggest problem with the Assassins Creed series is that its about as much of a stealth title as Mass Effect 3 is an RPG. The assassinations in previous games nearly always result in you running around after your target Benny Hill style while guards take pot shots at your back. It would be good if you could sneak into a place, loosen a few chandeliers and then sneak out again. But I'm guessing this will still be a highly dictated opened world environment again?

[JU!]

Nice impressions. Seems it changes in scope and style as you get further into it. I did own AC: Brotherhood and enjoyed what I played, did not finish it though. I think it started at a bit of a slow pace, and I needed to get further and deeper into it in hind sight also. The Trailer below looks brilliant too.

[nonny]

My copies shipped this morning so should have it by the weekend... Its my most anticipated title this year and I've played the entire back catalog. I didnt really like AC1 that much, too many gameplay flaws... but the rest have been stellar and AC2 is probably one of my favourite games of all time (top20).

[Greg Moss]

Can anyone who is on the 360 version confirm that there is a disk for single player and a disk for multiplayer please? I only ask as the missus has got me the PS3 version for Christmas as she loves watching me on "Ezio" as she calls it, so I can't go near the Story mode until xmas day. However I love playing wanted in multiplayer so I might try to get away with buying the 2nd 360 disk and playing online only before xmas, as long as I don't need to start story mode before multiplayer or something stupid like that.

[elaniel]

Multiplayer is an entirely separate disc.

[davek22]

My Vita copy of Liberations turned up today. It sure looks lush on the Vita. Amazed to see how close they have got it to the home console versions. Draw distance on New Orleans is massive and lots of NPCs wandering the streets. Only played a couple of missions but really this is the kind of game Vita needs right now. I have the main game pre ordered on Wii U but fancy getting PS3 version when it drops in price as it unlocks Connor mission on the Vita

[dazza_cole]

Picked up both ACIII and Liberations today, sat in my bag whilst "working" Went for the "Join or Die PS3 exclusive edition", and hope that the mayan temple level in the collectors edition (or whatever its called) is released as DLC at some point in the future

[EvilBoris]

Got this yesterday, I wasn't going to bother as there is so many games to play at the moment.
Put it on and play it for a while, instantly I noticed the non fake foreign voices made the game feel much more credible, the initial sequence inside the theatre was very pretty. After I left there the graphics actually looked a bit bland, the new setting doesn't lend itself as well to pretty graphics as Rome or Florence, everything looks a bit grey and flat.
Playing as Haytham, I felt pretty dissapointed, it suddenly hit me that I was playing the same game for the 6th time and yet again the game forces me to do an incredible feat of hand holding for the best part of 2 hours.
It was tedious and I was half tempted to put it down and not play any more.

Then I remembered that the character I was playing as was meant to be half native american, on consultation of the back of the box it said exactly that, the main character is meant to be called Connor, so I stuck with it.

Anyhow, I stuck it out and after a nice twist I got to take control of a new character!
Things are really picking up, I'm getting hand held for totally new gameplay features now :
Free Running through trees!
Hunting in the forest
Sailing a ship!

It's all looking up now, I am looking forward to the tutorials to finish and run around.

[JSR]

I've heard good things about the "download exciting DLC"-tutorial.

[EvilBoris]

Is there a Walkthrough guide you can buy that shows you how to download it?

[JU!]

Got this yesterday, I wasn't going to bother as there is so many games to play at the moment.
Put it on and play it for a while, instantly I noticed the non fake foreign voices made the game feel much more credible, the initial sequence inside the theatre was very pretty. After I left there the graphics actually looked a bit bland, the new setting doesn't lend itself as well to pretty graphics as Rome or Florence, everything looks a bit grey and flat.
Playing as Haytham, I felt pretty dissapointed, it suddenly hit me that I was playing the same game for the 6th time and yet again the game forces me to do an incredible feat of hand holding for the best part of 2 hours.
It was tedious and I was half tempted to put it down and not play any more.

Then I remembered that the character I was playing as was meant to be half native american, on consultation of the back of the box it said exactly that, the main character is meant to be called Connor, so I stuck with it.

Anyhow, I stuck it out and after a nice twist I got to take control of a new character!
Things are really picking up, I'm getting hand held for totally new gameplay features now :
Free Running through trees!
Hunting in the forest
Sailing a ship!

It's all looking up now, I am looking forward to the tutorials to finish and run around.

I had the same problem with AC: Brotherhood, lots of hand holding at the start. Keeps you as Desmond for ages. I heard AC: III is a bit slow to get going, like the others about 5 hrs until it opens up proper. Glad to hear it gets better as it goes on I really want to finish ACiII when I get it

[gambit6613]

I have been playing this pretty much all week and so far have spent 13 hours and most of that is just messing around and exploring. I have to be honest and say when i first started it did take a long time for the game to really pick up, it is indeed a slow burner. I really did not expect to play as Hatham, i thought the story would start with Connor so was a liitle surprised. It in all took about 5-6 hours for the game to really begin properly but once it does boy is it a truly brilliant game.

Once you get out into the Frontier my god, it is quit easily one of the most beautiful and stunning visual experiences i have ever seen in a game, some of the views from up high are just mind blowing. The forests are just so full of life, things scurrying around, branches blowing in the wind and all the leaves and dust blowing around, it really is spectacular. I just cant believe how big the game world is, i have read over the months that its big but i have been blown away by the scale its just massive. What is amazing is how different the whole world feels when in winter compared to summer, the whole map just transforms it is so impressive, walking through snow feels so right, Ubisoft really have nailed the sound of walking in snow, it sounds so real.

As for the combat it does feel so damn good, using hatchets is just such a much more brutal way of killing than using swords or fireams. Charging in to a group of Red Coats and just basically hacking them to pieces, it really is brutal and when in full flow and you nail every hit and every counter it looks beautiful but at same time feels strangely satisfying, i do have the sense that im just an unstoppable weapon of mass destruction The combat really does feel as if it has been lifted straight out of Last Of The Mohicans or the Mel Gibson film The Patriot.

The game does have its flaws, for me it at times is a very frustrating game particularly the climbing aspect, it does work well as ever when in towns/cities and climbing buildings but out in the frontier in the forests it is very annoying. I went into the game thinking you could climb every tree but no you can only climb certain trees, and at times its a real pain in the ass just trying to locate one of these trees, the same goes for scaling rocks again not all can be climbed and its not easy to tell which of these is climbable. The worst part for me is that some of the very high vantage points you need to climb in order so synchronise, like big churches in towns, are these giant trees but bloody hell are they frustrating to climb, maybe its just me being stupid but i get up so high and then its the like now where do i go as it is really not obvious.

The only other aspect of the game i dont like are the Desmond parts and i have never liked these bits. They are without doubt the single biggest immersion breaker, they are deeply irritating. You can finish doing an epic mission out in the frontier and really starting to make a difference and feel part of the environment etc then the world begins close and you return to Desmond.

One thing that does make me feel quit sad when playing the game is a great sense of inevitability about the game world. The fact that no matter what Connor does, when you are running around trying to fight and chase away the foreign invaders who are destroying these small villages etc, trying to fight for the Indian American way of life, its really all in vein because no matter how the game ends, ultimately i know this way of life has now gone, pretty much wiped out by the white man. Not very often does a video game make me feel like this.