14 DAY TRIAL // Even though the game has already been launched on the PS3 and Xbox 360 consoles, the news that it will also come to the PC users was a real reason to be happy. With the hype growing like crazy around this title to be released (not like Rockstar does with GTA IV, though ? but that a little bit later), Assassin's Creed developer Charles Beauchemin took some time to answer a few key questions.
The first thing we find out from Beauchemin is how was the four months gap between the console and PC version used: as you probably know, 4 new investigation types were added, each coming with some brand new experiences for the PC owners. To explain them quickly, the archer assassination you have to kill archers in a dedicated zone without being seen; the rooftop race challenge brings Altair face to face with an informer and a limited amount of time to reach the second; the merchant stand destruction is pretty self-explanatory ? some merchants must be annihilated; and the escort challenge requires you to escort a fellow Assassin.
When asked if the game will exploit DX 9 and DX10, Beauchemin answered:
The game comes with both DX9 and DX10 executables. If you own a DX10 card running on a Vista system, the game will use the full capabilities of the board to optimize the performances of the 3D graphics. You'll be able to play the game at high resolutions with minimal impact on your framerate.
What matters most to us is if we need a Crysis-ready computer to play the game. It seems that is not true:
Any dual-core machine running at 2.2GHz and over with a decent graphic card (such as a ATi HD2600 or a NVidia 8600) will give great performances. Our minimum requirement is a Pentium D 2.4GHz or a AMD X2 Athlon 3800+, equipped with a Shader Model 3.0 card (ATi X1300 and better, NVidia 6600 and better).
The console version was criticized for being pretty repetitive at times. Things will be changed a little in the PC version, according to Beauchemin:
As mentioned in the first question, we included 4 new investigation missions to increase the variety so in total, we now have a total of 9 investigation missions. Also, you can now skip from one city to another without going through the kingdom once you visited every city.
It?s been said quite a few times that the AI on guards and on the crowd was not always as "ideal" as promised. Has this been changed? Yes, kind of, Beauchemin says:
We modified the reaction of guards in certain occasions. Blending when close to a dead body doesn?t work anymore; guards will spot you if you stay too close. Also, the reaction of the guards to stealth assassination is now based on the number of NPC around you making it more realistic. If there is no one around you, the guards will spot you much faster and if the crowd is bigger, you won?t be spotted that fast.
Except from that, we now know that the game will be released in the early days of April, so we just have a little bit to wait, the Xbox 360 achievements have not been "translated" for PC (which means that we will not have them) and the control scheme promises to bring, along with the controller support, four different default keyboard and mouse configurations, all customizable ? so we should have no problem controlling Altair.