E3 Previews - Assassin's Creed and Mass Effect

In a sea of sequels, there are a number of original titles standing shoulder to shoulder with already-classic games. Two of those being demo'd at this years E3 are Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed and Bioware's Mass Effect. After the demo shown onstage at the Microsoft event, folks were understandably underwhelmed with Assassin's Creed; though the stalking and chase mechanic seemed fascinating, combat seems overly simplistic and numerous bugs caused some hiccups. Just the same, the idea behind the game remains tantalizing, and we still don't know what the deal is with the sci-fi background. On the other hand, despite an equal amount of hype and hope, Mass Effect looks to be meeting every expectation. Finally Bioware is letting folks play the game hands-on, and there are still few frustrations to be found. From Joystiq's analysis: "We were shown the basic in-game talk interface: get near another character and hit the A button to start talking. You can direct the flow of the conversation, by selecting your responses with the left thumbstick, choosing from a radial menu. For instance, if someone is telling you about an attack, you can pick things like 'Too bad they didn't kill you' to 'I'm sorry' to 'Really? What happened?' They aren't exactly what your character will say, they're more like the gist of it ... It reminded us a bit of the chat in the Indiana Jones games, although those gave you the actual lines that Indy would spout out. Conversations are crucial to Mass Effect, and end up providing you with information and shape your relationships with those characters."

Mass Effect Target Demo?

[MBraynard]

Conversations are crucial to Mass Effect, and end up providing you with information and shape your relationships with those characters.

So this is a chick game, like Viva Pinata?

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[Anonymous Coward]

You've never actually played a Bioware game before, I take it?

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[Doctor Crumb]

It's got evil robots, alien planets, skintight spacesuits, vehicular combat, and lots and lots of guns. I don't recall viva pinata having any of that; did you install a mod?

Beyond that, it's still a Bioware RPG, which means that you'll actually want to pay attention to the story and the conversations. Especially with the voice actors they've got lined up (Seth Green, Lance Henriksen, Keith David, etc).

Forgive me my cynicism...

[CaseM]

...but that gamespy.com Assassin's Creed piece reads like someone at Microsoft or Ubisoft did an "OH SHIT" because of the poor on-stage demo and then shoveled a fluff piece toward one of their nearest media outlet lackeys to "get out the word" that it wasn't as bad as it seems.

Seriously, it's not like these game sites really have a choice. Play along to a (great) extent or get shut out of press events, pre-release information, etc. Information access is their bread and butter.

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[Salmar]

Microsoft has been notoriously bad at on-stage demos [slashdot.org]...

Gameplay Demos

[I'll Provide The War]

Gamespot had both games in their office for demo [Jade Raymond was demoing AC :)] They have a twenty minute video of each on their E3 site. (Check the Wednesday tab).

http://e3.gamespot.com/live.html [gamespot.com]

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[antic]

Assassin's Creed looks really good (like Splinter Cell, which I liked, mixed with Prince of Persia:TT, which I also liked save for the idiotic way you couldn't invert the Y axis properly). However, there seemed to be a few glitches in the demo - the floating body, and some framerate issues.

Something I've long wondered about - if you run your character into a wall continuously or slowly into another person, couldn't they come up with a more realistic reaction? In the AC demo, after the guard shoves him away,

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[Das Modell]

I'll watch anything with Jade Raymond in it.

The Gamespot demo reveals a lot of interesting stuff about the game.

No demo no purchase

[grapeape]

The comments from Ubisoft this week that they had no intention of creating a playable demo pretty much killed any enthusiasm I had for Assassin's Creed. In the days of broadband and no disk needed demos, there is just no real excuse for not having one. The only thing that comes to my mind is the way movies that refuse advanced screenings for reviewers generally do it to prevent anyone from knowing how bad a movie is before its released. What we have seen of it has looked great, but so does every Michael Bay trailer. Without a demo I can only assume that either the game lacks depth and variety so if you spend ten minutes with the demo you have pretty much experienced it all, or its just lacking in general. Hopefully I'm wrong but this just guaranteed I wont buy it until I see some reviews.

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[UnknownSoldier]

Why would you waste time creating a demo when you are trying to get the game done?

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[Anonymous Coward]

What he said.
The project merely started the debug phase and while most of the content is there, the backend mechanics are quite complicated and debugging the whole thing is quite an ordeal. Honestly, a live demo wasn't a good idea at this time, I find... As for a personal released demo, it might very well happen, just not before release because of priorities. Focusing on the whole package is more important than making a demo right now, especially when there are still a few bugs as graphically alerting as fl

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[DataBroker]

Why would you waste time creating a demo when you are trying to get the game done?

You would make a demo because the true goal isn't to get the game done, it's to profit. The way to profit is to sell merchandise (the game) when the margins are higher. So, if you want to sell the game to me when it hits the shelves, rather than when it's in the clearance bin, get me interested in it with a free demo.

I personally am interested in the game, but won't drop $60 on it unless I can try it out myself. I'l

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[Aladrin]

While I had no interest in Assassin's Creed to start with, I agree about your attitude about demos. Any major (ie: hyped/marketed) game that can't be bothered to put out a demo is probably not worth buying.

Most of the smaller games like Katamari Damacy and Shadow of the Colossus don't get a demo and and great games, but that has more to do with budget and manpower. They don't have the money to make the hype-engine work, and they dont' have the money for a demo.

I'm guessing someone will say that demos don'

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[Breakfast Pants]

I'm guessing someone will say that demos don't really sell [game], and I'm proof against that.

Fixed.

Assassin's Creed demo rushed

[atomicstrawberry]

According to CVG [computeran...ogames.com] the reason that the Assassin's Creed demo was a bit buggy and underwhelming in the press conference demonstration was that they were asked to show it off at last minute because Bungie were unable to get a single player demo of Halo 3 ready in time.

Strangly, Assassin's Creed had most G4 buzz at E3

[WillAffleckUW]

So something must be going on, since more people are interested in it than are admitting to it publicly.

Maybe it's like the Sims - some don't want to pretend they'll buy such games, but they do.