Original Assassin’s Creed Side Missions Made Five Days Before Launch
Looking back at the Assassin’s Creed series, it’s almost funny how one of the biggest franchises in gaming started out by receiving a modest 7.5 out of 10 from IGN. The first Assassin’s Creed game proved to feature interesting exploration of Crusades era cities, different (if wonky) combat, and way too many repetitive side missions, which had you either hunting down Templars or collecting countless flags strewn about.
According to Charles Randall, who served as Ubisoft’s fight system AI lead on Assassin’s Creed, the game only had side missions because “the CEO’s kid played it,” and they were implemented only five days before the game was due to ship out to stores.
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2018/09/24/every-ign-assassins-creed-review-score"]In a Twitter thread early Saturday (first reported on by Eurogamer), Randall explained the odd story.
By Randall’s account, Assassin’s Creed was pretty much ready to ship without any side missions. This apparently changed when the CEO’s children took the game for a spin.
“So we're all ready to ship the game, first submission goes pretty well, and then...the news...the CEO's kid played the game and said it was boring and there was nothing to do in the game,” Randall said. “Oh yeah I forgot the key part. We have to put all these side missions into the game in five days, and they have to be bug-free, because the build is going to be burned directly to disc and released to retail."
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/02/07/heres-what-ubisofts-5-promised-aaa-games-in-2020-2021-could-be"]Randall says he and a handful of others spent five days in the main conference building of Montreal’s Peck Building, a former textile factory where Ubisoft Montreal was located, all trying to implement the seemingly impossible task of adding the side missions.
“Anyway, the rest of it is a blur, but I know that it went super well, because we did it,” Randall said. “We managed to implement all of it in 5 days. And it was bug-free... almost.”
“But I know it's a miracle that the game didn't just melt your console or whatever,” he added.
One major bug did manage to slip through. One Templar assassination side mission featured a target that could fall through the world and effectively die, but the player wouldn’t get the credit for the kill. This meant that if players wanted the perfect 1,000 Gamerscore, they’d have to start the game over. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=assassins-creed-valhalla-first-screenshots&captions=true"]“So it turns out one of the Templar were parented to the wrong sector,” Randall said. “If you approached the Templar from the wrong direction, he fell through the world and was despawned. Which didn't give you credit for the kill, but stored him into the savegame as dead. No more spawning.”
Randall also admits that a bug where two assassins would spawn if you had two controllers plugged in was “probably my fault. You’re welcome.”
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/05/07/assassins-creed-valhalla-game-engine-reveal"]These days, the Assassin’s Creed series has so much in-game content that some fans have criticized it for being too bloated, leading to conflicting messaging from Ubisoft on whether or not Assassin’s Creed Valhalla will be bigger or smaller than the absolutely immense Odyssey.
Don’t forget to check out the rest of our Assassin’s Creed Valhalla previews. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer/saxon man for IGN.Zack Snyder’s Justice League Reshoots Won’t Involve the Cast
Zack Snyder’s Justice League Reshoots Won’t Involve the Cast
Suicide Squad Director Reveals Sinister Joker Scene Cut from Film
It’s a long scene and Joker intimidated him into killing himself. https://t.co/JCDAumApv2
— David Ayer (@DavidAyerMovies) May 22, 2020
— David Ayer (@DavidAyerMovies) May 22, 2020As you can see, the original question comes with the hashtag "#ReleaseTheAyerCut," which might now gain momentum in the wake of the Snyder Cut finally seeing the light of day. Many fans have always wanted to see the Joker scenes that got left out of the finished product. Even Leto himself told IGN, back in 2016, that "there’s so much that we shot that’s not in the film." With Justice League so much in the news now, we recently tracked the history of the Snyder Cut. Could it be that we wind up, at some point, if fan fervor persists, tracking the history of the Ayer Cut? [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=every-dceu-movie-review-score&captions=true"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBFowler.
Suicide Squad Director Reveals Sinister Joker Scene Cut from Film
It’s a long scene and Joker intimidated him into killing himself. https://t.co/JCDAumApv2
— David Ayer (@DavidAyerMovies) May 22, 2020
— David Ayer (@DavidAyerMovies) May 22, 2020As you can see, the original question comes with the hashtag "#ReleaseTheAyerCut," which might now gain momentum in the wake of the Snyder Cut finally seeing the light of day. Many fans have always wanted to see the Joker scenes that got left out of the finished product. Even Leto himself told IGN, back in 2016, that "there’s so much that we shot that’s not in the film." With Justice League so much in the news now, we recently tracked the history of the Snyder Cut. Could it be that we wind up, at some point, if fan fervor persists, tracking the history of the Ayer Cut? [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=every-dceu-movie-review-score&captions=true"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBFowler.
Pac-Man Celebrates 40th Anniversary With Minecraft DLC and a Game You Play on Twitch
Celebrating Pac-Man’s 40th anniversary this Friday, Bandai Namco has announced that the iconic yellow gobbler will come to Minecraft as a new DLC. Bandai Namco also announced Pac-Man Live Studio, a free version of the game that you can play literally on a Twitch stream.
Every public maze will go into a leaderboard which can be used to discover popular mazes from other streamers and creators.
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/05/22/pac-man-40th-anniversary-join-the-pac-trailer"]
The Pac-Man Minecraft DLC shifts things to a more modern perspective, with ten 3D mazes to explore, and some seriously oversized ghosts hunting you down. Players can compete for high scores, or create their own maps, too.
Some of Minecraft’s familiar items will also be usable in these new Pac-Man mazes, like a stick of TNT, which blows ghosts and the surrounding maze walls to smithereens. That’ll show Blinky. Check out the trailer at the top of the page.
As if all that weren’t enough, GPU company Nvidia has developed something called GameGAN, a “generative adversarial network trained on 50,000 PAC-MAN episodes.” Basically, Nvidia used AI to develop a playable version of the classic Pac-Man game without using an actual game engine. The AI watched 50,000 playthroughs of Pac-Man and was able to replicate it in a fully playable form without actually understanding the rules of the game, generating new visuals for every bit of player input. “We were blown away when we saw the results, in disbelief that AI could recreate the iconic PAC-MAN experience without a game engine,” said Koichiro Tsutsumi from BANDAI NAMCO Research Inc., the research development company of the game’s publisher BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Inc., which provided the PAC-MAN data to train GameGAN. “This research presents exciting possibilities to help game developers accelerate the creative process of developing new level layouts, characters, and even games.”
You can check out a video of the GameGAN version of Pac-Man here.
Bandai Namco has plenty of other stuff in store for Pac-Man fans, and you can find details on their official Pac-Man site. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Joseph Knoop is a wokka-wokka-wokka-wokka.Pac-Man Celebrates 40th Anniversary With Minecraft DLC and a Game You Play on Twitch
Celebrating Pac-Man’s 40th anniversary this Friday, Bandai Namco has announced that the iconic yellow gobbler will come to Minecraft as a new DLC. Bandai Namco also announced Pac-Man Live Studio, a free version of the game that you can play literally on a Twitch stream.
Every public maze will go into a leaderboard which can be used to discover popular mazes from other streamers and creators.
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/05/22/pac-man-40th-anniversary-join-the-pac-trailer"]
The Pac-Man Minecraft DLC shifts things to a more modern perspective, with ten 3D mazes to explore, and some seriously oversized ghosts hunting you down. Players can compete for high scores, or create their own maps, too.
Some of Minecraft’s familiar items will also be usable in these new Pac-Man mazes, like a stick of TNT, which blows ghosts and the surrounding maze walls to smithereens. That’ll show Blinky. Check out the trailer at the top of the page.
As if all that weren’t enough, GPU company Nvidia has developed something called GameGAN, a “generative adversarial network trained on 50,000 PAC-MAN episodes.” Basically, Nvidia used AI to develop a playable version of the classic Pac-Man game without using an actual game engine. The AI watched 50,000 playthroughs of Pac-Man and was able to replicate it in a fully playable form without actually understanding the rules of the game, generating new visuals for every bit of player input. “We were blown away when we saw the results, in disbelief that AI could recreate the iconic PAC-MAN experience without a game engine,” said Koichiro Tsutsumi from BANDAI NAMCO Research Inc., the research development company of the game’s publisher BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Inc., which provided the PAC-MAN data to train GameGAN. “This research presents exciting possibilities to help game developers accelerate the creative process of developing new level layouts, characters, and even games.”
You can check out a video of the GameGAN version of Pac-Man here.
Bandai Namco has plenty of other stuff in store for Pac-Man fans, and you can find details on their official Pac-Man site. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Joseph Knoop is a wokka-wokka-wokka-wokka.Sega Sued by Manchester United for Football Manager’s Use of Club Name
Manchester United, one of Europe’s top football clubs, has sued Football Manager series creator Sega Publishing and Sports Interactive (SI Games) for allegedly infringing on the use of its trademarked club name “extensively throughout the game” according to the Guardian.
The football club also alleged that SI Games infringed on their trademark by not using the actual Manchester United logo, and instead using a simpler default red and white logo. Manchester United stated that this “deprives the registered proprietor of its right to have the club crest licensed.” [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/11/18/football-manager-2020-announce-trailer"]Sega and SI Games have rebutted by saying that the use of Manchester United’s name is “a legitimate reference to the Manchester United football team in a football context” and added that the club name has been used in the video game franchise since 1992, when it was known as Championship Manager, according to the Guardian.
Both sides of the lawsuit exchanged statements asserting their own control over or freedom to use the club name. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=21-football-manager-2020-screenshots&captions=true"]Manchester United lawyer Simon Malynicz QC stated that the club’s name is one of the most valuable brands in the world, adding that the money received from licensing is “very significant,” and that Sega’s use of the Manchester United name benefits their own properties.
“Consumers expect to see the club crest next to the name Manchester United,” Malynicz said, “and this failure to do so amounts to wrongful use.”
Malynicz asked Mr. Justice Morgan, the judge overseeing the lawsuit proceedings, to allow Manchester United to amend the claim against Sega and SI Games to include the use of patches and mods, arguing that the use of such modifications allows players to incorporate the Manchester United logo into their game without proper licensing.
[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=igns-top-25-modern-pc-games&captions=true"]Defense lawyer Roger Wyand opposed Manchester United’s attempts to amend their claim.
“The claimant has acquiesced in the use by the defendants of the name of the Manchester United football team in the Football Manager game and cannot now complain of such use,” Sega and SI Games said in a written defence.
Sega and SI Games also added that efforts to prevent the companies from using the Manchester United name “would amount to an unreasonable restraint on the right to freedom of expression to restrain the use of the words ‘Manchester United’ to refer to a team in a computer game.”
Wyand also pointed out that SI Games and Manchester United have already established a mutually agreeable business relationship of sorts.
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/04/29/euro-2020-in-football-manager-feat-football-ramble-daily-part-1"]“Copies of the game have also been sent by SI to a number of officials and players at the [club] for a number of years and there have been a number of positive press comments and tweets about the game by them,” Wyand stated, adding “further, the claimant’s staff working in the data analytics and scouting teams have contacted SI on various occasions asking for access to the Football Manager database for scouting and research purposes.”
Justice Morgan has reserved his judgement on United’s proposal to amend its claim for a later date, the Guardian reported.
IGN has reached out to SI Games for additional comment.
Football clubs in Europe certainly do hold a vast amount of financial and political sway, much like American football clubs across the United States and other major leagues. Manchester United has in recent months come under increased pressure to address its rapidly growing debt, with the Guardian reporting the club’s debt had risen by £127.4 million to £429.1 million in the 12 months prior to March 31, 2020.
Sega’s Football Manager series has managed to establish itself as one of the top sports management games of its kind, and has only risen in popularity with the onset of shelter-in-place restrictions. Forbes recently reported that the game had reached 130,000 peak concurrent players, with a total weekly player count of 875,000.
Football Manager’s player database is also a widely lauded feature of the game -- so much so that real-world player scouts often use it to discover new and rising talent. Manchester United coach Ole Gunnar Solskjaer himself has credited the game for helping prepare him for running the club, according to Manchester Evening News.
Check out our review of Football Manager 2020, which IGN dubbed “still addictively enormous, but more open to newcomers than ever.” [poilib element="accentDivider"] Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer/ignorant American for IGN.Sega Sued by Manchester United for Football Manager’s Use of Club Name
Manchester United, one of Europe’s top football clubs, has sued Football Manager series creator Sega Publishing and Sports Interactive (SI Games) for allegedly infringing on the use of its trademarked club name “extensively throughout the game” according to the Guardian.
The football club also alleged that SI Games infringed on their trademark by not using the actual Manchester United logo, and instead using a simpler default red and white logo. Manchester United stated that this “deprives the registered proprietor of its right to have the club crest licensed.” [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/11/18/football-manager-2020-announce-trailer"]Sega and SI Games have rebutted by saying that the use of Manchester United’s name is “a legitimate reference to the Manchester United football team in a football context” and added that the club name has been used in the video game franchise since 1992, when it was known as Championship Manager, according to the Guardian.
Both sides of the lawsuit exchanged statements asserting their own control over or freedom to use the club name. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=21-football-manager-2020-screenshots&captions=true"]Manchester United lawyer Simon Malynicz QC stated that the club’s name is one of the most valuable brands in the world, adding that the money received from licensing is “very significant,” and that Sega’s use of the Manchester United name benefits their own properties.
“Consumers expect to see the club crest next to the name Manchester United,” Malynicz said, “and this failure to do so amounts to wrongful use.”
Malynicz asked Mr. Justice Morgan, the judge overseeing the lawsuit proceedings, to allow Manchester United to amend the claim against Sega and SI Games to include the use of patches and mods, arguing that the use of such modifications allows players to incorporate the Manchester United logo into their game without proper licensing.
[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=igns-top-25-modern-pc-games&captions=true"]Defense lawyer Roger Wyand opposed Manchester United’s attempts to amend their claim.
“The claimant has acquiesced in the use by the defendants of the name of the Manchester United football team in the Football Manager game and cannot now complain of such use,” Sega and SI Games said in a written defence.
Sega and SI Games also added that efforts to prevent the companies from using the Manchester United name “would amount to an unreasonable restraint on the right to freedom of expression to restrain the use of the words ‘Manchester United’ to refer to a team in a computer game.”
Wyand also pointed out that SI Games and Manchester United have already established a mutually agreeable business relationship of sorts.
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/04/29/euro-2020-in-football-manager-feat-football-ramble-daily-part-1"]“Copies of the game have also been sent by SI to a number of officials and players at the [club] for a number of years and there have been a number of positive press comments and tweets about the game by them,” Wyand stated, adding “further, the claimant’s staff working in the data analytics and scouting teams have contacted SI on various occasions asking for access to the Football Manager database for scouting and research purposes.”
Justice Morgan has reserved his judgement on United’s proposal to amend its claim for a later date, the Guardian reported.
IGN has reached out to SI Games for additional comment.
Football clubs in Europe certainly do hold a vast amount of financial and political sway, much like American football clubs across the United States and other major leagues. Manchester United has in recent months come under increased pressure to address its rapidly growing debt, with the Guardian reporting the club’s debt had risen by £127.4 million to £429.1 million in the 12 months prior to March 31, 2020.
Sega’s Football Manager series has managed to establish itself as one of the top sports management games of its kind, and has only risen in popularity with the onset of shelter-in-place restrictions. Forbes recently reported that the game had reached 130,000 peak concurrent players, with a total weekly player count of 875,000.
Football Manager’s player database is also a widely lauded feature of the game -- so much so that real-world player scouts often use it to discover new and rising talent. Manchester United coach Ole Gunnar Solskjaer himself has credited the game for helping prepare him for running the club, according to Manchester Evening News.
Check out our review of Football Manager 2020, which IGN dubbed “still addictively enormous, but more open to newcomers than ever.” [poilib element="accentDivider"] Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer/ignorant American for IGN.Sting, Shaggy to Debut New Music on Gary Whitta’s Animal Crossing Talk Show
Musicians Sting and Shaggy will both debut new music on Animal Talking, the live-streamed talk show hosted from Animal Crossing by Rogue One writer Gary Whitta.
Whitta made the announcement on Twitter and during his wrap-up of season one of the show, which aired Friday morning.
Shaggy, the reggae artist known for hits like “It Wasn’t Me” and “Angel,” is scheduled to join the show for the debut of its second season on June 1 to perform new music he is currently working on, Whitta said.
Sting, the former frontman for The Police and a solo act since the mid-80’s, will be joining Animal Talking on June 8 to similarly debut new music. “It’s pretty nutty, and I’m excited about where we’re going to be going,” Whitta said on the show. Whitta didn't give any major details beyond those dates, so make sure to keep an eye on his Twitter feed for details. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/05/15/animal-crossing-new-horizons-theme-song-performance"]The two legendary musicians join an increasingly star-studded guestlist on Animal Talking. Season one of Whitta’s show has already included film stars like Elijah Wood, Danny Trejo, and other musicians like T-Pain. The show has also featured some familiar faces from the video game industry, like Double Fine’s Tim Schaefer, Cliff Bleszinski, and Naomi Kyle.
Whitta hosts the show alongside band leader and game developer Adam Nickerson.
Don't forget to check out our huge list of Animal Crossing guides and tips. Celebrity guests not guaranteed.
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Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer for IGN, and he should really get back to those weeds on his island.