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Assassin's Creed considered co-op, but it 'didn't fit' the story
"Before we knew about the Desmond story and Animus link, we had a huge co-op component in there," Assassin's Creed 3 mission director Philippe Bergeron has revealed. "But it just became too hard to do: the engine couldn't support it, and then the metaphor we had above it didn't support it."It's part of an interview featured in the current issue (95) of OXM on news stands right now. Initially the co-op feature was going to be a driving mechanic in the original Assassin's Creed, but Ubisoft abandoned the concept. "Co-op was one of those big things at the beginning that just didn't make sense in the end," Bergeron says. "For us it was really part of the single player experience, to have in-and-out co-op, and in the end we never thought it made sense in the storyline that we had for the Animus."Of course, once the idea became more and more about Desmond and the Animus, it didn't make sense to have someone else running around in Desmond's ancestral memories. "There was no way to reconcile having multiplayer or co-op in an ancestor's memories," Bergeron explains."Your ancestor lived his life in a certain way, so assuming you had branching storylines, it creates a paradox. It didn't fit."
Ubisoft, Gametrailers sued in Assassin's Creed copyright infringement case
American author John Beiswenger has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Ubisoft and Gametrailers that claims the Assassin's Creed franchise stole core ideas from Beiswenger's novel, Link. Link was published in 2002 and the first Assassin's Creed game dropped in 2007.Beiswenger claims the Animus in Assassin's Creed is a direct copy of his Link device, which allows users to access ancestral memories and relive specific moments in history, much as the Animus does. Beiswenger says his novel discusses "assassinations" and has "spiritual and biblical tones" also found in Assassin's Creed. And then there's the battle between good and evil that Beiswenger says Assassin's Creed stole right from the pages of Link.Beiswenger is suing Gametrailers for the Assassin's Creed trailers that he says infringe on the same Link copyright. There are 11 counts against Ubisoft and Gametrailers in total, and only most of them made us laugh.Beiswenger is seeking up to $5.25 million in damages and a cessation of further copyright infringement. We're pretty sure that second part is already happening, so perhaps Beiswenger will get something out of all this paperwork after all.
Rumor: 'Seizure' caught on tape for Assassin's Creed: Revelations [update]
A lot of disturbing videos slither their way onto the Internet, and many can linger unnoticed in the bowels of YouTube for years -- but not this one. Hosted on Kazakh sharing site Kiwi, this video is not only gruesome, it's mysterious. Here's what we know: It's titled "Assassins creed revelations Seizure - Ubisoft." It is described by the uploader as "an internal project we did here at Ubisoft Cinematics. I animated the character on the table. No mocap whatsoever." It features a serene doctor performing barbaric head surgery on a living dead man, all in the name of "memory binding." It is absolutely gorgeous. You can watch it right here. We don't know what this is, but we have some theories. For one, the Animus had to start somewhere, and Subject 1 may as well have been a schizophrenic guy with a broken back. For two, we don't think this is part of any actual Assassin's Creed game -- but it could be a supplemental short film, perhaps part of the Assassin's Creed: Embers short. Or, of course, it could be a really clever fan work. We're running our ideas by Ubisoft for clarification, or perhaps an impromptu, company-wide lobotomy. Update: The audio and visual inspiration is most definitely ripped straight from Jacob's Ladder, meaning this piece probably wasn't made for public release. Even if it is only an internal animation test, this baby deserves to be in the public eye (and frontal lobes).
