Assassins Creed Valhalla (Vikings)

26-11-2020 1:08pm

Patch live now, 4.9GB on Series X

EDIT: Tried it on visual mode as opposed to the default performance mode, doesn't look any better to my eyes. Okay maybe the grass and flowers look a little sharper but the frame rate fell through the floor. My character was on horseback in an open area with no enemies or animals save for birds when I loaded in. I'd question if it was even hitting 30fps as I panned the camera and the birds in the sky were janky as hell.

Markitron · 26-11-2020 1:25pm

Did the patch notes mention anything about fixing the screen tearing? I don't notice it often on PS5 but when I do it sticks out like a sore thumb

ZiabR · 26-11-2020 1:36pm

PS5 has very little tearing alright and when it does tear it is up towards the top of the screen compared to Series X tearing in the middle and much more often. This patch was supposed to address the tearing on Series X, anyone tested this yet?

26-11-2020 2:02pm

Haven't seen any screen tearing what so ever on Xbox Series X. Though the fact I'm playing on a freesync enabled monitor might have something to do with that.

CatInABox · 26-11-2020 3:29pm

ZiabR wrote: »

PS5 has very little tearing alright and when it does tear it is up towards the top of the screen compared to Series X tearing in the middle and much more often. This patch was supposed to address the tearing on Series X, anyone tested this yet?

Now, I'm not Digital Foundry, but it does seem better to my untrained eye. It's still there, but pulling out the torch doesn't result in massive tearing anymore, and it seems reduced out in the open world. The only time I really saw it in my quick test was when I went looking to induce it, i.e. spinning the camera around while standing in the middle of a busy part of a city.

ZiabR · 26-11-2020 3:41pm

CatInABox wrote: »

Now, I'm not Digital Foundry, but it does seem better to my untrained eye. It's still there, but pulling out the torch doesn't result in massive tearing anymore, and it seems reduced out in the open world. The only time I really saw it in my quick test was when I went looking to induce it, i.e. spinning the camera around while standing in the middle of a busy part of a city.

Thats good news, so hopefully progress in the right direction from Ubisoft.

Gonzo · 26-11-2020 4:00pm

tried the AC Vallhalla patch on the Xbox Series X, I have not seen any screen tearing so far so that seems vastly improved. The screen tearing was the main reason I stopped playing once I made it to England from Norway.

The 30fps mode look maybe slightly higher quality visuals than we had before but the fps is of course halved, it seemed smooth enough then again I only tested in a quiet area with not much action.

The 60fps mode is silky smooth and couldn't see any tearing but the resolution definitely looks lower than what we had previously and maybe textures paired back a notch as well.

Markitron · 26-11-2020 4:05pm

Gonzo wrote: »

tried the AC Vallhalla patch on the Xbox Series X, I have not seen any screen tearing so far so that seems vastly improved. The screen tearing was the main reason I stopped playing once I made it to England from Norway.

The 30fps mode look maybe slightly higher quality visuals than we had before but the fps is of course halved, it seemed smooth enough then again I only tested in a quiet area with not much action.

The 60fps mode is silky smooth and couldn't see any tearing but the resolution definitely looks lower than what we had previously and maybe textures paired back a notch as well.

The image quality of the 60 FPS mode didn't bother me in the slightest on PS5, can't see myself changing. Option is nice though.

CatInABox · 27-11-2020 12:15pm

When Ubisoft said they wanted both platforms to have the same framerate, I thought that they'd just spend some time tweaking the Xbox version. They did, but also managed to reduce the framerate on PS5 at the same time :pac:

27-11-2020 12:56pm

The Phantom Pain wrote: »

Platinum done.
I think I got the good ending which laughably reminded me of The Witcher 3.
This was a disappointment. I'm a fan of the series so I'm glad I completed it for my collection but it should have never been released in this state.

How long for completion? I'm guessing 100+ hours all in. I'd say I'm about 60 hours in with 4 or 5 territories left to do, starting Lincolnshire I think was where I left off. Collectibles seem to be the biggest time sink.

Markitron · 27-11-2020 1:03pm

CatInABox wrote: »

When Ubisoft said they wanted both platforms to have the same framerate, I thought that they'd just spend some time tweaking the Xbox version. They did, but also managed to reduce the framerate on PS5 at the same time :pac:

Is it noticeable on PS5? Haven't played since the patch but it was running fine for me beforehand

CatInABox · 27-11-2020 2:48pm

Markitron wrote: »

Is it noticeable on PS5? Haven't played since the patch but it was running fine for me beforehand

No idea, just going from what people are saying online.

Markitron · 27-11-2020 3:07pm

CatInABox wrote: »

No idea, just going from what people are saying online.

I had a look at the thread on Era, one of the Digital Foundry lads was in there saying the comparison that people are basing this off is shoddy. I'll wait to see what they say.

R3_Regera · 27-11-2020 9:24pm

Deleted User wrote: »

My favourite is the fishing animation, character stood there holding nothing after every catch.

Well that's definitely changed since the patch!
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27-11-2020 10:46pm

R3_Regera wrote: »

Well that's definitely changed since the patch!

Was that on PS5 by any chance? On Xbox they just cut out the animation holding the fish altogether. Which is actually fine as it speeds things along, now you can recast again straight away.

CatInABox · 27-11-2020 11:13pm

Deleted User wrote: »

Was that on PS5 by any chance? On Xbox they just cut out the animation holding the fish altogether. Which is actually fine as it speeds things along, now you can recast again straight away.

Yeah, it seems like this patch on Xbox seems more like a quick fix thing, rather than actually fixing the problems. Useful, but I'll wait until they are actually able to do some proper work on it.

Not a complaint on Ubisoft, by the way, they just launched a huge game on a bunch of platforms, during a pandemic. It's pretty solid for all that, but having played their work on Origins and Odyssey, I'll wait until it's at that level of quality before playing further.

R3_Regera · 27-11-2020 11:38pm

Deleted User wrote: »

Was that on PS5 by any chance? On Xbox they just cut out the animation holding the fish altogether. Which is actually fine as it speeds things along, now you can recast again straight away.

Yup, PS5!

29-11-2020 12:31am

Jotunheim trying my patience with collectibles, some bull**** there. That and Asgard are easily the worst part of of the game. Maybe there is a payoff at the end but but the magic bs in Jotunheim made me turn the console off for the night.

I said before Asgard felt like DLC from the last game, I'm just glad it's in the base game now and they are not charging me extra for it here :mad:

29-11-2020 12:41pm

The Phantom Pain wrote: »

Yeah, Jotunheim is by far and away the worst section of the game. A story line that refuses to end , a map that's horrible to traverse with collectibles annoying to grab. By the way 2 of the wealth collectibles in Jotenheim are missable so watch out.

Yeah luckily I'd read about those 2 so was prepared for them and made sure to get them. Actually just did those last night.

johnny_ultimate · 29-11-2020 12:55pm

Played this for an hour last night (first hour) and found the audio pretty iffy. Like everything was muffled or poorly mixed. This was on headphones on the PS5. Really took away from the atmosphere, honestly!

Sephiroth_dude · 29-11-2020 1:10pm

Deleted User wrote: »

Jotunheim trying my patience with collectibles, some bull**** there. That and Asgard are easily the worst part of of the game. Maybe there is a payoff at the end but but the magic bs in Jotunheim made me turn the console off for the night.

I said before Asgard felt like DLC from the last game, I'm just glad it's in the base game now and they are not charging me extra for it here :mad:

In what way is it trying your patience ?

dzsfah2xoynme9 · 29-11-2020 1:15pm

One thing that annoys me on PC, specifically Ubisoft Connect, is that there's no achievements. I've close to 70 hours in the game now. They say they're adding them at a later date so I'm guessing if I want them I'll have to replay the whole game again..

29-11-2020 1:42pm

Sephiroth_dude wrote: »

In what way is it trying your patience ?

The collectibles mainly as they are many and awkward with every one having a small puzzle, from a story point of view it's not great at all and as mentioned a chore to traverse.

29-11-2020 1:45pm

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Played this for an hour last night (first hour) and found the audio pretty iffy. Like everything was muffled or poorly mixed. This was on headphones on the PS5. Really took away from the atmosphere, honestly!

Haven't tried on headphones but I find I have to crank up my speakers a little more than I'd normally have them set at for this game. Wouldn't say muffled exactly but certainly quieter than most games.

Sephiroth_dude · 29-11-2020 5:18pm

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Played this for an hour last night (first hour)

I literally just fell out of my chair, didn't think you liked these type of games seeing as you're nearly always giving out about them and their bloat.

johnny_ultimate · 29-11-2020 6:40pm

The Phantom Pain wrote: »

You actually bought this, Johny? I wouldn't have thought this wa syour type of game. Interested to hear your thoughts on it.

Didn’t buy it, somebody else did and I’m just availing of it

Used to be an Assassin’s Creed fan but gave up after Black Flag so interested in checking out where it’s at now. I’m particularly keen to check out the Ireland DLC, however - hopefully I don’t need to put in 100+ hours to play it, because I tend to lose patience fairly quickly with these kind of bloat-a-thons.

marcbrophy · 29-11-2020 11:32pm

There'll be a discovery tour added later on, if you're not able to get there on your own

29-11-2020 11:42pm

Met Chet in Essex

the cake was a lie

Also there was a Prodigy reference in another world event there

Smack my Bishop

Markitron · 30-11-2020 9:45am

Markitron wrote: »

I had a look at the thread on Era, one of the Digital Foundry lads was in there saying the comparison that people are basing this off is shoddy. I'll wait to see what they say.

I watched the DF video last night. The PS5 version is practically identical to how it was before, the patch mostly just focused on the XSX/XSS.

I don't know why this game is causing so many people to freak out but its weird.

ZiabR · 30-11-2020 2:00pm

Markitron wrote: »

I watched the DF video last night. The PS5 version is practically identical to how it was before, the patch mostly just focused on the XSX/XSS.

I don't know why this game is causing so many people to freak out but its weird.

Its simple, the optimization is terrible on the Series X vs the PS5. In order to fix the FPS drops Ubisoft took the easy and lazy way out of it. Instead of actually fixing and optimising the game properly on Series X they just dropped the lower resolution threshold which is an absolute joke. The Series X now drops to 1188p in some scenes in order to keep a rock solid 60fps. So you have a more powerful GPU in the Series X running at 1188p while the PS5 is happy to run at 60fps in a much higher resolution.

Its a cop out from Ubisoft. Yes I know the game plays much better on Series X now but just dropping resolutions in order to fix screen tearing and fps drops is a cheap solution. The game is still not optimised for Series X or even PS5 properly and my bet is, it never will be as it was developed primarily with the last gen consoles in mind.

Two things annoy me about Valhalla, 1) its a Ubisoft game, it still has a mass of bugs and it is not optimised in any shape or form properly for the new generation of consoles and 2) A buggy Ubisoft game is being used to benchmark and compare next gen consoles that are both clearly able to run and perform alot higher than they currently are. This game was developed on last gen hardware and then "optimised" for the next gen. I take the performance comparisons with a pinch of salt.

JimBurnley · 03-12-2020 1:11am

Hoping to get some time to crack into this the next few days. In Odyssey general feeling was female character was best, what's thoughts on this one?

Markitron · 03-12-2020 10:45am

JimBurnley wrote: »

Hoping to get some time to crack into this the next few days. In Odyssey general feeling was female character was best, what's thoughts on this one?

I went with Kassandra in Odyssey and didn't regret it for a second, when I replayed it, I went with Kassandra again cos Alexios felt off to me.

I'm the opposite this time, female Eivor seems off to me. Thing is, unlike Odyssey, you can switch between them whenever you want so you may as well see for yourself.

OptimusTractor · 04-12-2020 1:37pm

I've just landed in Blighty. Do the boat songs improve at all.

Temptamperu · 04-12-2020 7:09pm

OptimusTractor wrote: »

I've just landed in Blighty. Do the boat songs improve at all.

The Stories are better.

04-12-2020 8:54pm

I think the only time I've used a boat is for raids. Why bother when the horse can swim now.

marcbrophy · 04-12-2020 9:59pm

Deleted User wrote: »

I think the only time I've used a boat is for raids. Why bother when the horse can swim now.

To bring along your Viking brethren?

04-12-2020 11:29pm

Ha just did the sync point in the north of Hamtunscire , nice nod to the towers in

Far Cry games

dreamers75 · 04-12-2020 11:50pm

Finding it hard to finish this, have alliances with everyone up to where I am in the story.

Sigurd is a captive of some captain and Fulke is not nice

Spent nearly 70 hours unlocking sync points in places I have no buisness in (pwr lvl 161)

but its not grabbing me like Origins and Odyssey did, dont think its the characters as I am generally not arsed, its like it has gone backwards from being a stealthy ninja game to "raids" and open combat. I dont mind that if I had never played another Ass Creed game but not being able to clear an area without being spotted is one of the things I really like about these games.

05-12-2020 11:38am

I've 3 places on the west of the map left to do now, 100 hours in. So thats 18/21 areas cleared. By my reckoning the story missions take about 10 - 15 minutes each so that should take up 25-35 hours over all, that is a serious amount of busy work added to take me to 100 hours. There are just too many areas to take over and as yet I don't see the point to it even after this long, the main story beats you trigger when you return home take far to long to reveal.

I'm not sure the game ever tells you what the feast buff is or how to actually use it but you ring the bell at the door of the longhouse which I still haven't actually bothered to do.

I've actively been avoiding combat as there is no point to it given how little XP you get so I just run to the loot/objectives. That is not good game design. I also miss the stealth and being able to clear areas without being seen.

I was thinking about it and it crossed my mind that maybe they need to change direction again and maybe go more like Dishonoured perhaps and more story/assassin focused?

Davy05 · 05-12-2020 3:43pm

How long does the Asgard section go on for? I'm really not feeling it and just want it out of the way now.

marcbrophy · 05-12-2020 4:43pm

Davy05 wrote: »

How long does the Asgard section go on for? I'm really not feeling it and just want it out of the way now.

You can go back to England at any time and revisit it later!

skerry · 06-12-2020 1:51am

Picked this up yesterday despite not being able to get into the previous 2 games. About 5hrs in and its slow enough going. Have encountered a decent few bugs so far so can only imagine how bad it was before the patch. Combat feels really off to me, hit registration is really bad and enemies behave weirdly. Had first real boss fight there and seemed like the background music was missing or something, was a bit strange.

Finding the treasure a bit of a chore but maybe I'm not used to the mini puzzle mechanics. Interested to see if it improves any once I get to England.

Hey_Listen · 06-12-2020 6:45pm

skerry wrote: »

Picked this up yesterday despite not being able to get into the previous 2 games. About 5hrs in and its slow enough going. Have encountered a decent few bugs so far so can only imagine how bad it was before the patch. Combat feels really off to me, hit registration is really bad and enemies behave weirdly. Had first real boss fight there and seemed like the background music was missing or something, was a bit strange.

Finding the treasure a bit of a chore but maybe I'm not used to the mini puzzle mechanics. Interested to see if it improves any once I get to England.

Sounds like it isn't great so far...what are you playing on ?

skerry · 06-12-2020 7:15pm

Hey_Listen wrote: »

Sounds like it isn't great so far...what are you playing on ?

Playing on Series X. I havent really made much headway on it yet. Just think the combat isn't the best so far but a lot of skills to be unlocked so that may change.

Kiith · 06-12-2020 8:11pm

I got to England, and quickly lost interest. The bugs didn't help, but it just didn't hold my attention like i'd hoped it would. Cancelled my UPlay+, but may give it another go in a few months.

marcbrophy · 06-12-2020 9:29pm

Bugs bugs bugs bugs bugs!

Y'all crazy.

This game is practically bug free!

Glitches, on the other hand

06-12-2020 9:31pm

I guess I'm nearing the end now , I'm shaking my head at this point as the plot goes out the window. Why do we Major Spoiler alert

fight Basim, couldn't make any sense of it

?

The only thing that might make sense is that

Eivor is Odin so he is Loki

that would be some grade A nonsense but I guess we'll see when I get back to it later.

Markitron · 07-12-2020 10:00am

Just finished the first major questline with the Ragnarsonns and just did a couple of missions

in Asgard, seems I'm underlevelled so I might come back later

.

Need to get a move on with the game, need to finish it before starting Cyberpunk.

marcbrophy · 07-12-2020 6:46pm

Can you call up the Vikings in your boat to help you on land with enemies?

PsychoPete · 07-12-2020 8:01pm

I think that's where you go unviking like and go stealth, I prefer to run in swinging axes like a proper viking

Assassins Creed Valhalla (Vikings)

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