E3 Previews - Assassin's Creed and Mass Effect

In a sea of sequels, there are a number of original titles standing shoulder to shoulder with already-classic games. Two of those being demo'd at this years E3 are Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed and Bioware's Mass Effect. After the demo shown onstage at the Microsoft event, folks were understandably underwhelmed with Assassin's Creed; though the stalking and chase mechanic seemed fascinating, combat seems overly simplistic and numerous bugs caused some hiccups. Just the same, the idea behind the game remains tantalizing, and we still don't know what the deal is with the sci-fi background. On the other hand, despite an equal amount of hype and hope, Mass Effect looks to be meeting every expectation. Finally Bioware is letting folks play the game hands-on, and there are still few frustrations to be found. From Joystiq's analysis: "We were shown the basic in-game talk interface: get near another character and hit the A button to start talking. You can direct the flow of the conversation, by selecting your responses with the left thumbstick, choosing from a radial menu. For instance, if someone is telling you about an attack, you can pick things like 'Too bad they didn't kill you' to 'I'm sorry' to 'Really? What happened?' They aren't exactly what your character will say, they're more like the gist of it ... It reminded us a bit of the chat in the Indiana Jones games, although those gave you the actual lines that Indy would spout out. Conversations are crucial to Mass Effect, and end up providing you with information and shape your relationships with those characters."

Comments

No demo no purchase

[grapeape]

The comments from Ubisoft this week that they had no intention of creating a playable demo pretty much killed any enthusiasm I had for Assassin's Creed. In the days of broadband and no disk needed demos, there is just no real excuse for not having one. The only thing that comes to my mind is the way movies that refuse advanced screenings for reviewers generally do it to prevent anyone from knowing how bad a movie is before its released. What we have seen of it has looked great, but so does every Michael Bay trailer. Without a demo I can only assume that either the game lacks depth and variety so if you spend ten minutes with the demo you have pretty much experienced it all, or its just lacking in general. Hopefully I'm wrong but this just guaranteed I wont buy it until I see some reviews.

Re:No demo no purchase

[DataBroker]

Why would you waste time creating a demo when you are trying to get the game done?

You would make a demo because the true goal isn't to get the game done, it's to profit. The way to profit is to sell merchandise (the game) when the margins are higher. So, if you want to sell the game to me when it hits the shelves, rather than when it's in the clearance bin, get me interested in it with a free demo.

I personally am interested in the game, but won't drop $60 on it unless I can try it out myself. I'll just wait until it hits $20-$25 used (note that used nets you no profit either).