The Retardation of Ubisoft on PC Gaming Continues

[RavenSEAL]

Assassin's Creed III Dev on PC Version: "I don't see us investing hugely in a mouse and keyboard setup"

Some more Assassin's Creed III news for you this morning, as Ubisoft, in addition to boasting about pre-order numbers, has offered some context on the PC version's ideal control setup.

In an interview with Gamespy, Ubisoft Montreal's Creative Director Alex Hutchinson says PC gamers should probably invest in a controller.

"We're definitely supporting PC, we love PC, but I think it'll be PC with a controller," Mr. Hutchinson said. "I don't see us investing hugely in a mouse and keyboard setup.

"I think if you want to play on PC and you want to play Assassin's Creed, you have a controller."

Another interesting bit from the piece includes some context on ACIII's development cycle. The game's been in gestation for three years now, which represents the longest such cycle since the original game.

ACIII has also required double the man-hours as the Ezio games did.
For more on those things, as well as some tidbits on ACIII multiplayer and co-op, head on over to Gamespy.

How are they still alive as a corporation? Ubisoft has got to have the worlds SHITTIEST business pratices!

 

[BrightCandle]

They only just got off their DRM bandwagon, they now need to jump on the next most important thing to alienate PC gamers. Its like PC gamers money is poisonous in some way and they really wished we would stop buying their rubbish. I for one am happy doing exactly that.

I do wonder if Ubisoft is experimenting to see just how bad you have to get before you stop making a profit. Its an interesting test but not one I would want to bet all these peoples jobs and livelihoods on.

 

[Elixer]

Wonder if this is part of their new DRM, it disables all keyboard / mouse activity...hence the need for the controller?

Sadly, people will still buy this game.

 

[KaOTiK]

Gotta love how they announce they wont put much effort into the main control scheme for PC games.

It would be like releasing a PC FPS on the consoles and not focusing too much on the controller controls and they figure you should have a keyboard and mouse if you are into FPS' lol.

 

[Beev]

Now when they don't sell any copies they'll just blame it on piracy.

Hey Ubisoft, it's not the pirates; you're just shit.

 

[DaveSimmons]

It's amazing how much creativity they put into convincing me not to play their games.

Oh well, Wasteland 2 may be bringing Obsidian on board so the PC gaming news is not all bad....

 

[darkewaffle]

Personally I think a lot of third person action oriented titles play better with a controller than keyboard/mouse. A joystick is just more accurate and more precise than WASD for movement in some games.

I don't know how you could 'not support' a keyboard and mouse though. It's not like they're going to make them stop functioning in game or anything, they probably just mean the default control scheme for them won't have much thought put into it. But chances are you're just going to remap it anyway so who cares.

 

[Maximilian]

My opinion likely wont be popular but im fine this.

Console ports usually have crap tacked on afterthought kb/m setups, so much so i have a 360 controller sat on top of my case for such games, ive had no issues with it ME3 not having controller support ticked me off though!

 

[Grooveriding]

Face it, they probably make a lot more off consoles than PC.

I want to check out Far Cry 3, but knowing how polluted it will be with DRM and how much I loathe ubi, going to pass on it until it winds up in the $5 steam garbage bin.

 

[PowerYoga]

Fuck ubisoft.

 

[Dankk]

lol, I'm actually in the same boat as Maximillian. Why would I ever play AC with a keyboard and mouse anyway? In a game like that, a gamepad is always going to be the superior control choice, regardless of how how much effort they put into the PC version. It's just designed for a gamepad.

But... I understand that if you're going to make a PC game, you need to make sure your KB+M controls work. So it's not like this really excuses them.

 

[Stringjam]

I want to check out Far Cry 3, but knowing how polluted it will be with DRM and how much I loathe ubi, going to pass on it until it winds up in the $5 steam garbage bin.

Yup, I'm going to buy FarCry3 no matter how much I don't care for Ubisoft. Nobody else seems to care about making an open-world FPS so it's not like I have many options.

 

[Aikouka]

I don't get why you would want to play a game like Assassin's Creed with a keyboard and mouse anyway. I have a wired 360 controller plugged into my PC at all times for games like this.

EDIT:

The only thing that I like about using a keyboard and mouse in action games is that you usually have better camera control using the mouse's reaction speed.

 

[KaOTiK]

I played the first 2 AC games with KB/M with no problems at all. Third person is not an issue for that control scheme....

 

[homercles337]

In other words...
Ubisoft: We love PC, we HATE PC...

 

[gorcorps]

*shrugs*

Wouldn't use a mouse on such a thing anyway.

 

[mindcycle]

It's amazing how much creativity they put into convincing me not to play their games.

Haha, exactly my thoughts on this. To not support the default control scheme for PC (for a game being released ON THE PC!) is beyond ridiculous IMO. It just shows how complacent and lazy these ass cred ubisoft devs are really getting. They'll gladly accept your money for their shitty PC port but they won't even take the minimal extra design effort to support a default control scheme for a platform they plan on releasing for? What a bunch of assholes..

I stopped buying ubisoft games back when always on DRM was announced, looks like it'll stay that way..

 

[Specop 007]

My opinion likely wont be popular but im fine this.

Console ports usually have crap tacked on afterthought kb/m setups, so much so i have a 360 controller sat on top of my case for such games, ive had no issues with it ME3 not having controller support ticked me off though!

I'll hold him down, someone get the boiling oil......

 

[chelhxi]

Console ports usually have crap tacked on afterthought kb/m setups, so much so i have a 360 controller sat on top of my case for such games, ive had no issues with it

Yeah, seriously, just go buy a 30 dollar xbox 360 controller. I bought one 5 years ago, works fine for all console ports. Not sure what all the crying is about.

 

[Pia]

The terrible quality of Ubi games on PC means I won't be buying them, but on this particular issue I have no problem. Some games just aren't designed for some controllers, and that's that. People who insist playing a game on an unsuitable controller aren't interested in quality so why bother putting much resources on improving quality for them?

 

[PowerYoga]

Problem with this approach is controller are fine on the PC, but shouldn't be a requirement. I play stuff like Bastion, darksiders, etc fine with controllers.

But if they said "you can't play this game unless you have a controller" I'd tell them to go fuck themselves and take my dollars elsewhere.

 

[exdeath]

Personally I think a lot of third person action oriented titles play better with a controller than keyboard/mouse. A joystick is just more accurate and more precise than WASD for movement in some games.

I don't know how you could 'not support' a keyboard and mouse though. It's not like they're going to make them stop functioning in game or anything, they probably just mean the default control scheme for them won't have much thought put into it. But chances are you're just going to remap it anyway so who cares.

Point and click with pixel precision with a stick? Lol.

stick: press and hold stick, and wait.

mouse: turn 180 degs in the flick of the wrist.

I don't know how people can tolerate "press and hold" turning in console FPS games. Analog stick or not, it's as bad as keyboard turning.

I don't know why the thumb sticks on controllers haven't been replaced with thumb sized trackballs yet... would be a huge improvement in point-click stop-start on a pixel precision. You turn as fast as you want to turn, not at JOY_X / 128 * MAX_TURN_SPEED. I also don't like the auto centering and the need to hold the stick under tension to freeze your point of aim, as when looking at the sky. This too is a limitation of the sticks finite range unlike the infinite range and wrap around of a mouse/trackball and the inability to recenter a stick as you would when you pick up a mouse and set it back down.

Third person is irrelevant. It's just the camera backed out and a player model drawn on screen, play is damn near the same in that you generally ignore your player avatar and focus on the crosshair centered on the screen as you would a FPS.

Dual analog trackballs in game controllers would be the final bridge between PC/console gaming. You can do anything on a track back that you can with a mouse: stop touching it and leave point of aim where it is without auto centering, adjusting center by picking up your thumb and placing it back down on the opposite side is the equal of being able to pick up a mouse to "rewindow" physical hand position to camera orientation, ability to "throw" the ball at high speed under it's own inertia by releasing and stopping it again in an instant, turning 360s indefinitely without having to "hack" a "turn around fast" button, stopping and starting on a dime with infinitely variable speed, etc. You will never get that level of input control with a stick or d pad.

If I got used to it, I'd say it would even be superior to mouse and keyboard.

Even the manufacturers would be happy because they could abuse and market a whole variety of different textured and weighted balls to customize controller feel.

 

[queequeg99]

Could be worse. They could require us to play using some sort of anally-actuated joystick. Which, come to think of it, is what dealing with Ubisoft games often feels like these days.

 

[mindcycle]

The terrible quality of Ubi games on PC means I won't be buying them, but on this particular issue I have no problem. Some games just aren't designed for some controllers, and that's that. People who insist playing a game on an unsuitable controller aren't interested in quality so why bother putting much resources on improving quality for them?

Yeah, but this game series in particular has been proven to work just fine with kb/m controls and i'm sure a lot of PC players prefer it to a controller. To just simply stop supporting the kb/m in the sequels is just retarded.

 

[badb0y]

I played all AC games with my PS3 controller connected to my PC. It just feels better for these particular games.