Topic: Problem getting Assasin's Creed 3 to play

Just checking to see if anyone else here has been having this problem...it's been reported quite a bit in other forums. Apparently Ubisoft has made some kind of change to their servers and people are unable to load play the game...before the game will begin it attempts to contact Ubi's servers and at that point the Wii U simply locks up...only a hard reset will restore it to operation (but of course, as soon as you try to start the game the problem repeats...so the game cannot be played).

Apparently there's a workaround where if you disconnect your wii u from the internet you can get the game to load, but then of course you can only play single player then.

Long term, I consider this a bad sign. No game, especially a physically purchased copy should have to phone home first to a server before it will allow you to play a game that you intend to play offline. This is compounded by Ubisoft's rather sluggish response to correcting the problem.

Yeah, I've had the exact same problem. There's been a couple of threads about this on the forums. Sounds like it's affecting Ubisoft's Avengers game too. I bought a bunch of Ubi games in a sale a while ago, so I decided to play Splinter Cell instead, which works fine. Hopefully they'll fix whatever the issue is soon, but it's the Wii U, so I doubt it's high on their priority list.

https://www.nintendolife.com/forums/wii-u/wii_u_freezes_while_...
https://www.nintendolife.com/forums/wiiu_eshop/avengers_battle...

I started a thread a little while back on the game occasionally freezing while I was playing it (Thanks @skwaark for linking it). I only ever had a start-up issue once, when I had booted the game for the first time; the game loaded the title screen without any sound, and I let it go on halfway through the opening cinematic (which was running very slowly) thinking that it would correct itself. I finally realized that something was truly wrong and and hit the home button, which caused the game to freeze.

It looks as though your issue is worse than mine, since other than occasional random freezing, I was able to play the game, finish the main story, and do some of the side missions/optional stuff. My only suggestion is that you try playing it offline if you haven't already, and see if that gets you anywhere.

Playing offline worked, though Murphy is with me today. Was a half hour into my session when the electric went out (very windy here today). Sigh..... (luckily I'd recently hit an autosave point....). I suspect Ubi will eventually get their act together with their servers, but I strongly dislike having the game call home before letting me play as a form of DRM, especially since server issues seem to be endemic for them.

Game is a bit odd....I'm walking down the steet in Boston and randomly kill two British soldiers with impunity.... guess the locals really, really disliked them . But then after taking his musket I can hear locals mumbling about how a new guy in town shouldn't be walking about carrying a musket.....

Can someone tell Ubisoft the Wii U isn't a PC?

@Vincent294: They figured that out, that's why there's not been any more support from them in some time.

@Dankykong: At Ubisoft we are devoted to providing users on every platform the same quality experience. That's why Assassin's Creed Unity arrived on consoles just as broken as on PC. We heard your complaints about DRM and decided the best course of action was to make it block users of all kinds, offline and online. Now Wii U gamers can finally get what they've been missing for the last 2 years: A broken, unplayable experience that will leave you wondering "Who the **** did I give my money to, I'm gonna kill that *****!" Not even EA can leave as bitter a taste in your mouth as we do, cause we're the best in the industry. Now give us your money or die!

@Vincent294: Well at least you at Ubisoft heard our voices as fans.

I daresay that EA is still worse, but Ubisoft is starting to slide in that direction. At least Syndicate seems to be a major improvement over the mess that was Unity (At least from what I've read).

@Trinexx: Syndicate was better from what I've heard though their PC ports are still disasters (though I do suppose just cause Origin is good doesn't make it any less stupid). Hopefully both clean up their acts, but being realistic that probably won't ever happen. Shame Mirror's Edge and Rayman are owned by them. And it's a tragedy Ubi won't even patch AC to skip server authentication. (I know Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 on the Wii had great mini golf and when the servers went down it gave up after a while, though a skip button for that cutscene would've been appreciated.)