Topic: Wii U Freezes While Playing ACIII

I got my Wii U in July, and have been loving it. Until recently it's been running like a dream, and I suspect it's something with Assassin's Creed III that's making it freeze.

Trouble first started the day I loaded the game (It's a retail copy, no scratches or fingerprints as I got the disk brand new). After downloading all the updates, I loaded the game and...there was no sound. I let it run partway through the opening cinematic before hitting the home button, and...the system froze. I read somewhere that someone had no issues once they redownloaded the updates, so I deleted the updates and downloaded them again.

That was almost a month ago, and I didn't have any more issues until last week. Then, during a loading screen right before starting Sequence 9, the system froze. Now, tonight while waiting on a loading screen for Boston so that I could do a homestead mission, the system froze again.

I'm not entirely sure what to do. I believe that the problem may lie with the game, and I'm very reluctant to wipe my save this far into the game; I don't usually get a lot of playing time, so I cherish what playing time that I do get. So far, the freezes don't seem to have affected my ACIII save or any other system data, but I'm worried that this may happen in the future.

I did search a little online but couldn't find anything pertaining to my situation, and couldn't find anything here on the topic. It's pretty late here as I type this. My apologies for typing a book.

Thanks in advance!

This game froze on me twice, maybe it's just happened more to you? It was the only WiiU game I've ever had freeze the system too. Once it was right when you gain control during Sq. 4 at the start, then another time was during a time when it was snowing in the game and it just stopped in a random field.

Interesting, that freeze before Sequence 9 occurred right as I was also regaining control. I just realized that I wasn't as specific as I could have been. There was another time when I thought it would freeze as there was almost nothing on the screen, but it turned out to just be a rendering delay.

A lot of my internet searching mostly hit links pertaining to games like Nintendo Land last night (haven't had problems with that one at all), but I did find something today. Apparently it may be related to the system being connected to the internet, so I'll likely start turning off my wireless while playing ACIII to see if that does anything (I haven't been using any of the online stuff anyway).

Has anyone had this freezing issue with other games?

I don't remember the game freezing on me, sorry. Doesn't mean it didn't happen (I may not remember) but it obviously wasn't a problem like it is with your game or console. I played the game entirely in 3D, mentioning just in case you're playing in 3D and are wondering if that may be the problem.

The WiFi trick Trinexx mentioned may do the trick. I can only recommend to remove the clutter around the console if any or move it to a more airy location in case the system is overheating. I did notice the WiiU getting hotter than usual from the game, must be very taxing on the hardware.

Thanks for the suggestion, though I'm fairly sure the system isn't overheating; I keep the area around it relatively clutter-free, particularly where the ventilation holes are on the system. When this happened last night, I had been running both the game and system for two hours, and I've definitely played the game for longer periods without any issues. Still, I will check how warm the system feels after my next session before I completely rule that out.

Funny, the only game that has caused my Wii U to freeze is Rayman Legends, another Ubi game.

There are lots of posts on the 'net about AC3 freezing from years ago. Posts from back then tends to blaim Nintendo, but historically it's a few specific games that tend to freeze the Wii U, not the Wii U as a system.

LOL I forgot about the time when I thought it crashed but then Boston just rendered and I fell like 3 feet and everything was fine.
I've heard of Rayman Legends doing it and Watch_Dogs is well known to be a disaster.
Ubisoft.
But freezing/crashing when regaining control isn't an uncommon thing in the grand scheme of all freezings I suppose.

Mines has only froze when using Netflix. It had me worried because I couldn't power off my Wii U without unplugging it.

That's happened to me a handful of times while starting up. I press the power button on the gamepad to start it, screen backlight comes on, black screen on pad, blue power light on the system is on, but nothing happening on screen. Same thing will happen if I turn it on with a Wii remote sometimes, the system will "turn on" but the controller won't actually connect. Must be some issue with remote starting as well. It's rare, but I've noticed it a couple times and it's concerning when it happens.

Lol oddly enough I googled "cant powerdown WiiU without unplugging" and the first thing is related to this issue, and a few posts down someone said "My Wii U froze a couple of times while playing Assassin's Creed III to the point where I had to unplug it. Not much else you can do.", literally hitting on both issues haha

I've had system lock-up issues with both Call of Duty games, but they seem to be more random than anything else. Good luck finding a solution.

The only problem I can see is you're playing Assassin's Creed III...lol. What a horribly unentertaining game. I remember playing Assassin's Creed II and thinking "What in the world is this repetitive junk? Is this it?" I can only imagine the third game being much worse.

I did run across articles like that, but thankfully I've been able to turn off the Wii U by just holding down the power button on the console for 4-5 seconds. Some also mentioned a weird type of kazoo noise during the freeze, but my system hasn't made any weird noises; the disk drive simply spins like normal when it freezes.

Thanks for mentioning that Watch Dogs is a disaster; I've been on the fence about that one as the background was interesting, yet some have said that it's a disappointment. If it has way worse issues, I'll likely pass it over.

I normally don't play AAA games as the majority of them are bland FPSs, but the Assassin's Creed series is, to me, different. I love history, which extends to historical fiction; in fact, I've spent a lot of time in the Animus database reading up on the historical events, people, and places that are occurring in the game as I go along. I also like the stealth elements in the games.

The only other AC game that I've played was the first one, and I do agree that it got repetitive at times. I haven't had that feeling as much with ACIII since the frontier is a nice break from the different cities, and sidequests like the Homestead missions are making me genuinely care about some of the NPCs.

Unfortunately, I won't be able to test my "no wireless" theory until Friday night since I'm pretty busy tomorrow. This does have me a little apprehensive about playing Black Flag (same game engine), but I haven't found anything on it having freezing issues on Wii U, other than an obscure post somewhere about the game crashing if you go into Miiverse while that game is suspended, then try to go back to Black Flag (I rarely use Miiverse).

Thanks for the input so far, everyone!

Of course it is worse, with AC II being one the best multiplatform games of the last generation.

I have been having trouble with Bayonetta 2 freezing my Wii U. Never been able to complete the game, and there is no way I plan to restart it either.

Is it? I've played over 40hrs on it and the only teeniest glitch I've ever witnessed was the other night in a fire-fight where an enemy just spun round on the spot endlessly (until I solved his little issue for him with a comforting bullet through the head).

Have you played Watch_Dogs on the Wii U, or are you another of the smear campaigners against this quality game?

On topic (ish) - I have AC3 on Wii U but haven't played it yet as I'm still playing AC2 on PC. So that contributes nothing either. I'm sorry for OP's troubles. In 2 years when I finally get round to finishing AC2 and starting AC3 I will re-visit this thread to update

@gcunit: I've played it on the WiiU and PS4. I have no chip against the game. It was amusing, I just never got into it personally since it felt underwhelming at times. Neither copy of the game were mine. But most people complained about it dropped to 15fps often, or even dropping to 0 for a few seconds and not being able to keep up with heavy action, also an array of other glitches. None of that appeared in the other console versions the way it did in the WiiU version. But anytime I see the problems mentioned there's always one person who says "I didn't have the issues", guess you got lucky and the game isn't the biggest disaster but can be. I've played flawlessly through problematic games before.

@Trinexx: If it still interests you, it may be worth picking up for a discount, if either you can't get it on another system or it's cheaper for WiiU, but if you have also read the complaints it may steer you away.

I think an issue is you can't really tell what will happen because I never had such an issue with ACIII that I couldn't finish it, and I did. I never got Black Flag (or any other AC game afterwards) but it was fun enough that I tossed around getting it for a while on the WiiU. My point is, ACIII worked well enough I wanted IV, but you may not think the same thing because it's giving you trouble. Same with Watch_Dogs, it's hit or miss apparently. Almost every Ubisoft game that's been ported to WiiU is like this. Rayman & Child of Light work without a hitch because they were built for the system. But even so someone mentioned above Rayman freezing their system. Beyond that it's probably Ubisoft, I'd blame the WiiU if it weren't for all the glitchy weirdness Ubi gave us.

ACIII freeze a lot! It's normal.

@FragRed:

That is disappointing. Is that common on that game? I've never played any of the Bayonetta games but I'm interested in them.

@Rexcalibr: I haven't seen anyone else mention it so it sounds like there is a problem either with my Wii U or the game itself. If anyone knows anything about, please do let me know though.