And to think that the game was supposed to launch as a PS3 exclusive...

Nov 14, 2007 12:03 GMT  ·  By
These are probably the times when it's most noticeable that frame rates are slow with the PS3 version
   These are probably the times when it's most noticeable that frame rates are slow with the PS3 version

Assassin's Creed fans and owners of Sony's fancy PlayStation 3 are going to be very upset at the sound of this: not only has the title lost exclusivity to the PS3 along the development process, but it now turns out that it even plays worse on the platform it was supposed to originally launch on. According to this IGN review, frame rates are clearly better with the Xbox 360 version of the game. This ironical piece of news should come as a pretty big blow to those who are stuck with a Sony console.

"These big open worlds, which are fully interactive, do come at a severe cost on PS3. There is considerable texture pop-in and noticeable framerate issues. Playing back-to-back with the 360 version, it's obvious that Ubisoft did not devote enough resources to the PS3 edition. The framerate is considerably worse, so much so that it begins to affect gameplay in the later levels. You can get through the first two-thirds of Assassin with the framerate being just an annoyance, but it becomes more of an issue for the final third of the missions."

So, not only are frame rates bad to begin with, but they get worse with progressing through the game. Add this to the ever-increasing difficulty of the game (as you get closer and closer to the end) and you'll have a very frustrating game on your hands. Of course, as we're still waiting for a hands-on experience ourselves, we'll just have to pass on the information as objectively as possible, leaving room for our personal notes on this very aspect, but why would IGN even lie about a thing like this, really now...?

So, while Assassin's Creed was supposed to launch exclusively on Sony's PS3, it now runs worse on the original platform than it does on second-priority platform, Microsoft's Xbox 360. What does this say? It's easy really: Ubisoft has seemingly put more work into the console version supposed to sell more copies, and who can blame them for tweaking up the experience as far as Microsoft's machine goes? The PS3 still has a long way to go to convince everyone it's alright to buy, so there's your answer.