Assassin's Creed Valhalla

Flogger23m said:
I know there was a patch last week, and I also updated drivers last week.

A "fix" seems to be to run the game in full screen rather than borderless full screen (I believe that is what it is called). The problem is whenever I select full screen my frame rates essentially halve making it unplayable. I'm going to assume it is just the engine and game, because Odyssey is like that to. Crashes aside, at least most of the other bugs like NPC invincibility, physics bugs, and falling through objects seems to have been fixed in the past two years. I just have to remember to save every 2 minutes. Problem is they don't let you save in enemy outposts which is where the crashes really get to me.I plan to finish the Ireland DLC while I still have Ubisoft + for free.

The French one and this seem to be more of the same. Not horrible, just barely interesting enough to play. My character is so over leveled that I can kill most people in 2-3 hits which makes it play a lot better. But my character is practically invincible now from enemy hits. I suppose I can un-equip all health related upgrades to make it a challenge.
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Huh. I've always played full screen (I play on a 4K 120hz OLED and I believe in order to get the benefits of VRR/FreeSync you need to be fullscreen?) Frame rate and overall performance is good even with everything maxed out , but its a 3090 vs a (admittedly well designed) console port so no surprise there. I have to give credit to the Valhalla devs for having so many granular settings of every kind in the options, from graphics to gameplay tweaks. For instance, lots of people didn't like how you couldn't one hit assassinate in AC Odyssey anymore, so Valhalla had not just 1 but 2 fixes for people bothered by this. 1st, the one I prefer, is that your can skill tree spec into being able to assassinate anyone provided a timed button press that comes up on the harder types of enemies. However, for those who just don't even want to wait there's an option in the settings that basically turns on "assassinate everyone" mode , so everyone should be happy in this regard

I've not made it to Ireland or France yet, but I imagine that "more of the same" may be kind of in line with Odyssey's take on its first core expansion Legacy of the First Blade or Origin's Hidden Ones expansion, as opposed to the later expansions' more mythological elements. Hopefully all of them will bring story elements and good core gameplay/challenges, as well as some new overhaul'd mechanics; something that the patched and updated content, even small stuff like River Raids or the puzzle Tombs of the Fallen vs the bigger Helheim roguelike mode seem to be doing well.

Regarding your difficulty/overpower, you could mess with the settings if you wanted more challenge. I recently started the Trials of the Gods or whatever the update-added challenge mods are and there are some VAST changes from the baseline difficulty. The Trials basically mess with the difficulty settings and you can really see the difference in things like stealth - guards will react and notice you MUCH faster, can hear you from further away, will get more alert/change their patterns and stay interested longer from less noise. I presume this is the result of the game setting many of the stealth related difficulty settings to higher settings than "normal" among other changes. Now you may still be overpowered if you overlevel everything and have great gear, but if you're not playing on hard/very hard that may be an idea if you're getting bored and want more challenge.
 
516.59 drivers
Assassin's Creed Valhalla Screenshot 2022.10.16 - 15.18.40.07.png


New 522.25 drivers
Assassin's Creed Valhalla Screenshot 2022.10.16 - 16.00.04.48.png


Not sure why the VRAM wasn't correct on my prior drivers (8043 v 8192) but there's some solid uplift all around.
 
RanceJustice said:
Huh. I've always played full screen (I play on a 4K 120hz OLED and I believe in order to get the benefits of VRR/FreeSync you need to be fullscreen?) Frame rate and overall performance is good even with everything maxed out , but its a 3090 vs a (admittedly well designed) console port so no surprise there. I have to give credit to the Valhalla devs for having so many granular settings of every kind in the options, from graphics to gameplay tweaks. For instance, lots of people didn't like how you couldn't one hit assassinate in AC Odyssey anymore, so Valhalla had not just 1 but 2 fixes for people bothered by this. 1st, the one I prefer, is that your can skill tree spec into being able to assassinate anyone provided a timed button press that comes up on the harder types of enemies. However, for those who just don't even want to wait there's an option in the settings that basically turns on "assassinate everyone" mode , so everyone should be happy in this regard

I've not made it to Ireland or France yet, but I imagine that "more of the same" may be kind of in line with Odyssey's take on its first core expansion Legacy of the First Blade or Origin's Hidden Ones expansion, as opposed to the later expansions' more mythological elements. Hopefully all of them will bring story elements and good core gameplay/challenges, as well as some new overhaul'd mechanics; something that the patched and updated content, even small stuff like River Raids or the puzzle Tombs of the Fallen vs the bigger Helheim roguelike mode seem to be doing well.

Regarding your difficulty/overpower, you could mess with the settings if you wanted more challenge. I recently started the Trials of the Gods or whatever the update-added challenge mods are and there are some VAST changes from the baseline difficulty. The Trials basically mess with the difficulty settings and you can really see the difference in things like stealth - guards will react and notice you MUCH faster, can hear you from further away, will get more alert/change their patterns and stay interested longer from less noise. I presume this is the result of the game setting many of the stealth related difficulty settings to higher settings than "normal" among other changes. Now you may still be overpowered if you overlevel everything and have great gear, but if you're not playing on hard/very hard that may be an idea if you're getting bored and want more challenge.
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I'm not too sure what is up with crashes. I just have to assume there are inherent bugs in the engine that won't be fixed, because Odyssey does the same thing as of last month's build. It can occur every 45 or so minutes and then be fine for hours. I am assuming it might be a certain piece of equipment though. The frame rate seems a bit higher overall than it was near release, my hardware has not changed if I am not mistaken. I know I was on a RTX 3070 back then.

I finished all of the DLC, at least story ones, aside for Dawn of Ragnarok. I didn't like the fantasy vision quests in the main game so I doubt I will care for this much but I will play it eventually if possible. There is still an upcoming final story DLC, but I assume it will be more like 2-5 hours long. If I ever pick up this game again I'll finish both of them together.

As for the two DLCs, I liked the Ireland one more. But both were very much more of the same with some minor annoying quests every now and then. More half baked stories, more characters with wooden dialogue, and the same general gameplay. Passable enough to play. What I find interesting is it seemed like some of the characters had a French accent in the French DLC. This is an welcome change from Unity, where the French had English accents.
 
On December 6th, Ubisoft will be releasing the final content update for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, wrapping up two years of post-launch support...Title Update 1.6.2 will include some exciting new content for the game, including The Last Chapter, a touching and intimate conclusion to Eivor’s saga

here’s what you’ll need to accomplish to access The Final Chapter:

-Complete the main storyline by pledging to all territories of England
-Complete the mythical story arcs of Asgard and Jotunheim
-Upgrade your settlement to level 5 and construct the Jomsviking barracks
-Kill all targets of the Order of the Ancients and unveil its leader

https://www.ubisoft.com/en-gb/game/assassins-creed/valhalla/news-updates/6L7OFMqDHtuPYc2TGmRfOM
 
Jeez that seems like a hell of a lot of pre-requisites to access the DLC. Reminds me of RE: Village using "play as the bosses in Mercenary mode!" as a selling point only to gate them behind ridiculous requirements.
 
Domingo said:
Jeez that seems like a hell of a lot of pre-requisites to access the DLC. Reminds me of RE: Village using "play as the bosses in Mercenary mode!" as a selling point only to gate them behind ridiculous requirements.
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Most of it's stuff you'd need to do to get to the end of the game anyway. The only thing that's semi-grindy is the settlement requirement.
 
I will probably play this, but not sure if my saves will work as I last played with the Super Duper Confusing Ultra Extreme Premium Golden Silver Enhanced Extended Cut with Pre-order and Post-order DLCs when Uplay + was free for a month. And since that expired I have no idea if I touched exclusive DLC that I won't have going forward.

Still have the last story DLC too. But if my saves don't work I'll be done. Got around 130 hours out of it as is.
 
I initially played this on Uplay+ as well. As long as you buy the complete edition you'll be fine, as that includes the season pass content from before. It also includes the dawn of ragnarok expansion. It's only $49 on Uplay right now, so it's the perfect time to pick it up. There is just so much content to this game.
 
Mchart said:
I initially played this on Uplay+ as well. As long as you buy the complete edition you'll be fine, as that includes the season pass content from before. It also includes the dawn of ragnarok expansion. It's only $49 on Uplay right now, so it's the perfect time to pick it up. There is just so much content to this game.
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Yeah I am not sure if I am willing to spend more than a few dollars on the extra content. It isn't that great, but not awful either. But after 130 or so hours in game, I think it has gotten very repetitive. If the price is right I'll consider it.
 
polonyc2 said:
On December 6th, Ubisoft will be releasing the final content update for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, wrapping up two years of post-launch support...Title Update 1.6.2 will include some exciting new content for the game, including The Last Chapter, a touching and intimate conclusion to Eivor’s saga

here’s what you’ll need to accomplish to access The Final Chapter:

-Complete the main storyline by pledging to all territories of England
-Complete the mythical story arcs of Asgard and Jotunheim
-Upgrade your settlement to level 5 and construct the Jomsviking barracks
-Kill all targets of the Order of the Ancients and unveil its leader

https://www.ubisoft.com/en-gb/game/assassins-creed/valhalla/news-updates/6L7OFMqDHtuPYc2TGmRfOM
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I have to give them credit for how they've supported the game for 2 years; it really has a lot of content and was rolled out in a way that no matter how you liked to play you could do what you enjoyed and wouldn't be horribly punished or need to grind through stuff you didn't (ie River Raids questlines gave you a ton of useful gameplay for those who liked raiding, but if you didn't the most you'd lose out on is a unique looking gear set. Mastery Challenges can be HARD and literally override game difficulty settings temporarily, but you don't have to 100% them at Gold rank to see the little storyline through ). As far as this new The Last Chapter, I get having them put it at the end of the main storyline + main Order of Ancients quest branch ending; it lets them do more with the game's story rather than try to make a "farewell chapter" that can take place as soon as you get to England or something like that. Its a sensible place for a final chapter, though to be honest I'd think it would be nice if it included some bonus content if you did it after the expansions and DLC - as Ireland, France, and the mythical svartalfheim/other realms , not to mention the other more optional free patch/DLC content added a bit of side story/content. I get them not wanting to require that players do all of the above to start the Final Chapter, but it would be nice if there was more content and nods to the DLC / expansions if you did them beforehand.

and anyone who wanted to grab the whole game at this point either A) pick up a "Complete Edition" key (most likely for UPlay direct) for cheap during a bunch of sales ongoing or B) Subscribe to UPlay+ for a month or pick up one of the free sub tokens floating around (I think Amazon Prime / Twitch gaming gave them away not long ago). Its at most $15/month, so if you don't know if you'll like it or if you think you're going to pick the game up and finish it in a couple of months, it may be an inexpensive way to play it (not to mention anything else you may want to try that they offer. Ubi gets credit for making UPlay+ in my mind one of the only decent gaming subscription services - You get all the games they publish as their "best versions" with all the DLC, new or old! Unlike so many others they're not making Uplay+ as part of a swindle to get you to buy DLC or something, they want to keep subscribers by giving people content worth subscribing - surprising indeed! The games are not streamed, they reside on your PC and they are exactly the same and compatible as if you bought that title all in all a good job. The only thing I'd like to see is them not only partnering with Steam again but allowing players to sync Steam - Uplay+ so you could download any title that was Steam supported on there. That bit aside, its a reasonable service and can be a good value if you're interested in Valhalla or any other Uplay+ title.
 
This is an awesome game overall. It's benefitted quite a bit over time with lots of robust support.
 
polonyc2 said:
does this mean the end of Ubisoft Connect formerly known as Uplay?
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Unlikely, but its still a good sign. I'd GUESS it will go back to how it was before Ubi's ill-fated faustian bargain with Epic Store, where their titles will launch on Steam and have all the benefits therein, but launching on Steam will launch a (possibly stripped down?) Uplay/Ubi-connect client that handles stuff like the achievements, uplay points, challenges in game and rewards etc. This is how even their EGS clients worked too, where Epic just launched Uplay etc. If Ubi has decided to completely dispense with Uplay and just go with Steam for now I'd be all for it, but perhaps more than most other platforms they have their own "stuff" in current and past titles they'd have to either wrap entirely into the game client itself and/or find another solution. Still a good step forward and the end of their semi-exclusivity.
 
polonyc2 said:
I wonder if this means the end of Ubisoft Connect formerly known as Uplay
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Doubt it, Uplay has been around forever. A few years back they went to Epic instead of Steam for 3rd party but it still requires Uplay/Connect. One or two things happened:

1) Epic isn't giving them as good of a deal anymore.
2) Valve is giving them a better deal.

With a lot of developers leaving Steam I assume Valve has started to lower fees for big publishers that have multiple high selling games. Probably why EA, Activision and now Ubisoft is back. As far as I know Acitvision never put games on Epic, so I doubt it has anything to do with Epic. Valve is probably realizing too many AAA franchises were leaving and decided to do something to bring the big publishers back.
 
Flogger23m said:
Doubt it, Uplay has been around forever. A few years back they went to Epic instead of Steam for 3rd party but it still requires Uplay/Connect. One or two things happened:

1) Epic isn't giving them as good of a deal anymore.
2) Valve is giving them a better deal.

With a lot of developers leaving Steam I assume Valve has started to lower fees for big publishers that have multiple high selling games. Probably why EA, Activision and now Ubisoft is back. As far as I know Acitvision never put games on Epic, so I doubt it has anything to do with Epic. Valve is probably realizing too many AAA franchises were leaving and decided to do something to bring the big publishers back.
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I don't think either of those scenarios are true. The hard truth is that your biggest audience is still on Steam, and trying to force people to your own launcher isn't going to win the hearts of customers. Ubisoft probably looked at sales data and realized they cut off their nose to spite their face. Bottom line is if Ubisoft wants to make money on the PC platform, they have to sell on Steam where the majority of PC gaming customers are.
 
Armenius said:
I don't think either of those scenarios are true. The hard truth is that your biggest audience is still on Steam, and trying to force people to your own launcher isn't going to win the hearts of customers. Ubisoft probably looked at sales data and realized they cut off their nose to spite their face. Bottom line is if Ubisoft wants to make money on the PC platform, they have to sell on Steam where the majority of PC gaming customers are.
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Yep. 30% of $100,000,000 is more than 18% of 1,00,000.

Err, I actually meant that 70% of $100,000,000 in sales is more than 82% of $1,000,000 in sales.
 
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Armenius said:
This aged well:

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/ubisoft-explains-why-it-doesnt-release-games-on-st/1100-6469502/
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I can almost see the teeth through which whatever PR drone was lying, in such a statement. "doesn't reflect where the world is today in terms of game distribution"? The most advanced, comprehensive, and open platform with the highest playerbase - one of the only stores that creates things both developers and players actually CHOOSE for their features - is not "where the world is today"?

Even today EGS lacks a LOT of things that are common on Steam, but in 2019 it was really, really barebones. Pretty sure the only thing that caught Ubi's eye was whatever dumptruck full of cash promised for EGS exclusivity (or rather, not to sell on Steam - Ubi continued to sell direct activating Uplay keys ) Early on, EGS pretty much came out and said "We're going to bribe / lure / lock in in the publishers, especially if they want to use Unreal Engine, the players will do what they're told and go where the games are". Epic bet heavily on basically bribing for exclusivity but I think finally we're seeing tons of not only indies (who I can at least understand the lure of the Faustian bargain - Epic saying they're pretty much buy thousands upon thousands of copies up front -for an indie dev not sure if their title will sell well) but also even mega-publishers like Square Enix and Ubisoft (who are motivated only by shortsighted greed to make such a decision - it isn't like they are afraid that Assassin's Creed or Final Fantasy titles were not going to sell on PC) have HOPEFULLY figured out that its a bad idea and doesn't pan out, even with all the EGS money being thrown about at publishers and discounts/free games for players. Kingdom Hearts' failure was a perfect storm of Epic and SquareEnix's worst decision making - taking a massive series debut on PC for the first time, with a niche but very dedicated audience, and screwed up badly with both Epic exclusivity likely for a year plus insane pricing (It would cost nearly $180 to get the main "core" Kingdom Hearts saga 3 game package, at a time when the same titles were available on Playstation for an absolute maximum of $80-100, and often went on sale for less than $50) meant relatively few bought what should have been a big success; even today some don't know these games ever came to PC!

If Ubi has seen the light, even if its for greedy self interested reasons, I'll take it - its a better world when current and future Ubi games will be tested for Steam Deck (Linux via proton!) compatibility and it can be a situation where everyone wins if done right - Ubi, Steam, and players alike.
 
How many of you completed Odyssey before Valhalla? I gave up 20 hours into it because it felt like a drag. Also the fighting system was too complicated I just didn't have the time to relearn it. Man games are getting too difficult nowadays. Playing assassin's Creed feels like I'm playing mortal combat with complex button pressing combos.
 
xDiVolatilX said:
How many of you completed Odyssey before Valhalla? I gave up 20 hours into it because it felt like a drag. Also the fighting system was too complicated I just didn't have the time to relearn it. Man games are getting too difficult nowadays. Playing assassin's Creed feels like I'm playing mortal combat with complex button pressing combos.
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If Assassins Creed combat is too complicated for you…. Hmm lol
 
Valhalla's combat is a bit clunky in the early goings but once you get some skills and abilities opened up and get some timing down you will dance and fly no worries.
 
Armenius said:
The game is now available on Steam with a 67% discount.
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About time UBI went back to Steam UBI connect is a lost pool of games with alot of potential. I mean Steam basically made Rainbow SIx Seige popular for years on end. I think they know MIrage won't sell good on Epic so they went back to Steam to set the game in stone for sales. Or UBI Connect is pretty much a dead Laucher I mean it's a better launcher than Epic but people forget about it.
I mean I had Watch Dog Legion on it I hardly played it because it's on the far away launcher.
 
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This is currently free to play until Monday. Guess I am finishing the DLC this weekend.

Edit: Looks like the paid DLC is not included in the free weekend.
 
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Base game, Season Pass, and Ragnarok are $10 each right now on UPlay with the $10 off 20 coupon.
You will need to add a random DLC or cosmetic pack for 20 cents to pass $20.

Bunch of other games at the $20 barrier too.
 
It gets the job done but I don't think any music in this game is noteworthy. Nothing memorable.
 
All Ubisoft games have amazing sountracks, so this isn't surprising to anyone who actually plays them.
Everybody else is so caught up with "Ubisoft bad" they don't notice.
 
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