Video: Digital Foundry Finds Assassin's Creed III Remastered On Switch "Hard To Recommend"

I’m probably gonna get this game regardless because I like it, but it would be swell if Ubisoft patched it. Let’s hope they care enough.

Apart from the crackling sound this game is amazing on the switch. To be able to play it on the go anywhere on a “HANDHELD” system is amazing.

The trick is to make a fuss about it 'till they patch it, and I'm not being sarcastic lol. I will get it eventually, just like Saints Row The Third. Nowadays every game needs a few patches and updates, so the best course of action is to wait a few weeks anyway.

@HobbitGamer uh oh 🙁

I was really on the fence for this, but I snagged it today. Still playing as Haytham, and loving it. For those that only have Switch, I still recommend it. Add the handheld aspect in, and the touchscreen map, and the gyro aiming, and I’m quite pleased. Given the amount of things Ubisoft has put on Switch so far, I wouldn’t be surprised for any future tweaks.

Never had much interest in the games but playing on handheld seems fun. May just add this to my list

Wish it were black flag. I know others have said it. I've never played a AC but black flag would have gotten me. This doesn't interest me although I am happy about the resolution, not happy about the fps.

So they improved it over the Wii U version. Guess that something. Handheld definitely the way to play. Virtuous really don't give a damn about audio quality!

This game is hard to recommend on ANY platform.

Similar to Doom and Saints Row 3, AC 3 is optimized for portable play.

That's how developers think, you bought a Switch to play the games in portable mode. If you want to play on TV you would've bought Xbox One or PS4. Ubisoft even bother to add touchscreen support, that says a lot: play handheld!

AC3 + Liberation are squeezed into 13 GB to fit a 16GB cartridge (PS4 version is over 60GB). Of course the sound is compressed, if it's not you will have to download an additional 10 GB+ patch, which will leads to yet another complaint of incomplete cart content.

As with Saints Row the third on Switch, I have been having a good time with this. Maybe I just have lower standards when it comes to the switch vs my Xbox one x, but the portability is worth the technical trade off in my opinion.

I am really liking it. I think we switch gamers are pretty tolerant of these shortcomings. I’ve only noticed a few glitches / rough patches that stood out or affected my enjoyment.

Still gonna buy it. Its worth having both of these games portable. I have this on xbone and have put in an hour tops. Meanwhile I have 135 hours in dragon’s dogma on my switch. Switch is the only way I actually have free time to play. I wish Ubisoft would port 1 anywhere. Ezio bored me to tears as a protag.

Meh...Im playing Liberation now and it looks and runs perfectly fine to me. It's a fine port people. Really wish ppl would stop expecting PS4 level visuals and performance from a $300 tablet.

I’m getting tired by all these switch vs ps4/xbox one comparisons. I would still get the switch version bec its the only gaming system that can play AAA games on the go. Everyones playing games on the go these days

When I got AC3 on Wii U it was pretty much entirely because it was "portable" so this is definitely an upgrade on that. Didn't play this or Black Flag on the TV much at all. And even on the Wii U it was kinda impressive at the time. So if you haven't played it then give it a spin I guess.

Honestly my hesitation, other than having played it already, would be that it's not a particularly great game anyway. If it was Black Flag and the same things were being said? Easy sell. 3? Not so much.

I rater prefer dont follow DF advises... they tend to be to useless techincal.

Its pretty clear at this point if you're gaming on the TV get the PS4 version but if you're playing on the go get the Switch version. That said performance looks ropey even ignoring the other versions and for me wasn't a great game to begin with. Give us the vastly superior Black Flag and I'd give it a go

What is up with the lighting on characters in the PS4 version in cutscenes? Reminds me of a bad fan TF2 animation.

Its still an improvement over the ps3/360 versions. Thats all I can ask for out of these older ports. This one doesnt interest me much, but I might snag it for a 20 spot down the road.

Ubi can Make a good new AC for the Switch and sell millions like on PS4/PC. Or, keep releasing only the broken mediocre ports that barely chart.

I'll just do something else on the GO, until they figure it out.

I still got it as it’s one of my replacements from Wii U.... when I traded the Wii U towards Switch there were 7 games I were praying to get ports to Switch - AC3, AC4, Twilight Princess, Wind Waker, NSMBU, Capt Toad, and Tokyo Mirage. Plus my VC collection with Circle of the Moon and Aria of Sorrow.

Sadly it looks like I probably won’t be getting access to GBA stuff again - why they didn’t fully do that with 3DS is beyond me. But at least I’m happy with 3 of the 7 getting ported. Now I just need to get the money for Mario and Toad. Lol. Still praying for Twilight and Wind Walker ports!

"Game that didn't run that great with the original or remastered release continues to not run that great."

I'm shocked!!

/s

I’ve only been playing Liberations and find it to be great. Don’t really care about playing the main game at all. Liberation runs smoothly and that’s all I could have asked for

So... the game runs like the first syllable of its title?

Not a better version (compared to Wii U) if the sound quality is worse. How come all these remasters (Dark Souls Remastered as well) have messed up sound? Usually, in music at least, if something is remastered it's supposed to sound better. But in games, apparently a remaster has to sound worse.

Almost any game with "Remaster", "Deluxe", or "Definitive Edition" in its title is a scam and the publishers should be ashamed.

it's a heavy game and sorry Nintendo fans. I told you.... a system with only 4gb ram in time like this is hard to make game work good. Load times can be decreased as well and take heavy cpu task a bit away... put more ram Nintendo on your next system and be at the same level as MS and Sony. Thank you

Frankly you dodge a bullet if you skip this, and not just because of the sloppy Switch porting. Assassin's Creed 3 is the worst in the series by some margin. It's desperately earnest and frankly flat out boring. It's at best a 3/10 game.

@Alucard83 AC3 was developed as a 360/PS3 game. Both of those systems have 512mb of RAM. Far less than the Switch's 4gb.

I am pretty sure Liberation looks better on the Switch than it did on the Vita. I got both versions and I know the Vita version has always been kinda ugly and poor performing but it stood out as the only portable Assassins Creed... until now.

Will hold off for a while until it's hopefully patched up a bit. Likewise with Saints Row: The Third.
Did this with Wolfenstein 2, waiting till the 1.2 patch. And it plays great in portable.

I booted up Assassins Creed: Black Flag on WiiU yesterday and wow I don't remember the framerate being so bad! Very choppy, looking mid teens/low 20s. And on a 102" screen didn't help xD
Still a fun game though and played for hours.
So I think I'd survive seeing AC3/liberation at 24/30fps. But a fix to a locked 30 would be nice

I played this game top too bottom on WiiU so I can't justify a double dip. The game's good. Better than most people give it credit for although Black Flag was a much better game. Sucks Ubi couldn't get the framerate to be a bit more soild.

I wish Ubisoft would fix the Child of Light frame rate first, then help this game be smoother. The video is great, as usual. It makes sense to point out the lack of smoothness, especially when they could've included a variable resolution or a high frame rate mode that uses a lower resolution.
Also, the Ministry of Silly Walks reference was hilarious coupled with the video of that guy with a disembodied leg!

@sixrings
Let’s be honest. That wouldn’t be good enough either would it for the haters on here

@60frames-please
This is an assassins creed article not a child of light article!!!!

@Perryg92
Played saints row before and after the patch and I can’t see a difference. It played fine as it was.

@Luigi_Skywalker @Zach yeah, same here. People have also complained about SR3 framerate, but I've played it since before the patch and haven't run into anything troublesome on that front (the game does serve occasional gameplay hiccups like vehicle theft targets sometimes self-destructing before you get to them, but these reportedly date back to the original). Ironically, it's only the normally smooth Warframe that has challenged me with its framerate drops as of late, in one Lotus Gift defense mission I found myself in a full squad on.

And yes, framerate tolerance can vary, I suppose. A gamer with a rather retro childhood (a Mega Drive clone was my main gaming platform through the early 2000s), several years of pre-G6 emulation and a veteran PC rig with Intel graphics, I may have my threshold quite low.😆 It says something when after all the flak Ark got you look up actual Switch footage, stare at it for a while and wonder, "yeah, this is noticeable, but... isn't this the framerate range I literally did 95% of GTA San Andreas on?" And the latter was a game with tons of shooting and driving. ¯(ツ)/¯

I hated this game on vita and although I agree with the devs decision to prioritize portable mode, I don’t know why they chose this assassins creed for switch.

Granted it may be an underplayed game in the franchise but there’s a reason for that.

Personally assassins creed 1 and unity were my favorite.

@nintendolie bless you. What you've said is true.

@Bizzyb
I absolutely agree with you. There are a lot of a**e holes on here.

@Perryg92
Wonder why it looks rough on a 102” telly lol😂😂😂😂😂

@nintendolie
Why is Doom optimized for portable play? It looks better on TV, it plays better on TV, so your statement doesn't make any sense. And why should developers assume, I play my Switch only in handheld? I don't have a PS4 or XBO or gaming PC because, quite frankly, there are almost no games I'm really interested in.

@Woosh193 You may be correct, but no one could truly verify that. Maybe someday, once science has progressed and there are truth verification mechanisms in place it will be possible to determine what this is about, but until then it is all a mystery!

I kinda wish they went with the Ezio Collection for Switch. Maybe they would have been easier to port...

@Woosh193 I can only speak for myself but all I feel I'm asking for is ports which run better than the 360 and ps3 versions. Better than the Wii u version if there is one. For instance new super Mario u runs better on switch. That's good. Anyways I'm not buying that everyone complaining is a hater or a troll. I sincerely think there are people like myself who are just a bit dissapointed. That disappointment rightfully or wrongfully is going to grow with more and more ps5 xbox two coverage. I get that it's a portable. But it still needs to be competent on a tv. Again not everyone plays mainly portable. And again this isn't to me about third party games it's about hardware which is limiting nintendo own first party games. Just sell a pro already.

No worries. It's one of the most overrated game series of all time. So boring.

@sixrings I've never been a fan of Assassins Creed but Black Flag was a great game.

@electrolite77 @MrBlacky

Did you not noticed that every review of these demanding games on Switch ends with a conclusion that they look better in handheld mode than on TV? Doom runs in 720p for both handheld and TV mode. The smaller LCD screen masks a lot of defects, even though AC3 runs in 1080p on TV, there's aliasing problem that is not so obvious in handheld mode.

@electrolite77

You can read many articles like these when Doom was released:

https://www.theverge.com/2017/11/9/16627782/doom-nintendo-switch-review

It's really common sense. All these games already existed for PS4 and Xbox, you can play them on TV. If you buy the Switch version, the devs will naturally optimized for handheld mode as a priority since that's the selling point.

@electrolite77

"DOOM was definitely made with portable mode as the primary focus. Whether docked or not, it runs at 720p, the native resolution of the Switch's display. That means it looks really great in handheld mode, but when docked things start to look a bit muddy and blurry."

https://www.nintendolife.com/reviews/nintendo-switch/doom

@nintendolie
You obviously never played Doom on the Switch.🙄 Let me tell you, as someone who owns the game and played it in handheld mode, a 50" Full-HD TV and a 55" 4K TV, it looks worst in handheld.

The problem is that Ubisoft said it is the REMASTER version. It's even on the box.

It is clearly not the remaster version. It's the old version with better resolution. That's it. They lied to us.

None of the water effects, lightning effects or even new textures.

They need to fix this fast and work hard to earn back the trust because I am actually pretty upset.

Is it possible to sue them for fraud? This must not be a common practise in the industry! If you release the old version over again, without any of the Remaster improvmenta, you just cant print REMASTER on the box. We need to let them know that.

@nintendolie
"...optimized for handheld mode as a priority since that's the selling point."
No it's not! It's a hybrid system, meaning I can play my games on the TV and keep playing them when I am on the road. It doesn't mean, play it only in handheld, the rest doest matter.

@nintendolie
Nintendolife didn't have any clue what they were writing, when they wrote this. Doom NEVER looked better on the Switch itself, than on a TV (unless of course, they played it on a 100" 4K screen, then it maybe looked slightly better).

Playing it right now I can surely tell that what it is a bit Off is Digital Foundry and NintendoLife. Yes, the game needs a few fixes, especially in the sound department but other than that it plays wonderfully.

It’s clear a lot of people are having fun with this that have actually played it and it’s been hated on by lots that haven’t played....

It seems Ubisoft is as willing to patch AC3 as they "did" with Child of Light. It's not a matter of being able to do it or not, they just don't care. I don't like that company for some reasons and this is one of them.

Unlike Digital Foundry, some of the channels I watch videos of have recommended the game while mentioning its flaws and giving scores around 7.5, stating the game is enjoyable. I don't know what to think

@MrBlacky It's not just NL, you can read all the Doom reviews and they tell you same thing.

You buy Switch to play Nintendo games, that's the most obvious reason. For both handheld and docked, they work perfectly with 1st party games and even simple indie games. For 3rd party AAA games, you will see that they are always optimized for handheld.

3rd party AAA games exist on many platforms, the devs see the uniqueness and selling point of Switch being portable so they use it as a benchmark, TV is a secondary priority. Their games exist on other platforms, you would've bought them if you want to play on TV. The fact that you chose a Nintendo console over PS4/Xbox shows that: you put Nintendo games as having higher priority over 3rd party ones so playing on TV with 3rd party games should be a less priority to you.

@John_Deacon The game plays fine. The audio stutters when changing scenes, that's the only major fault. It can easily be patched.

@nintendolie
Let me again explain it to you: I bought a Switch, so I can choose where and when I want to play my games.

@MrBlacky That's your preference, but games companies have priorities, optimizing software requires time and that means money.

@nintendolie
Oh, I see. You rather see developers being lazy and do the bare minimum, so they can make a quick cash grab.

@MrBlacky The focus here is this word: priority.

The priority is optimization for portable mode, then TV mode. Other consoles are easy, but Nintendo always required 2 things, portable/TV or 2 screens like Wii U or DS/3DS.

@nintendolie
@nintendolie
Oh god forbid, they would need to optimize their games for a lower and higher power mode. I bet this must be weeks and month of additional work hours.

@MrBlacky Which is what they did, lazy rushed port with no optimizing just to get it out.

@nintendolie DOOM is playable in both modes, and it looks great. Don't compare it to this poorly optimized port.

@Edu23XWiiU this is true. It's actually a pretty damn good looking game and fun as hell.

I've been hearing such conflicting things about this, but am really wanting to pick it up. Pro reviewers seem to be consumed with if it's sub 30 fps, whereas customers seem to be enjoying the heck out of it. I really miss the olden days, when reviewers concentrated on other things besides fps and resolution.

@nintendolie Even though it's easily patchable according to what you said, let's see if the people at Ubisoft don't think it's too much work and not worth investing the time on it

Loving it another AAA 3rd party on the go, off grid no mains power. As for the game itself, I have played and 100% completed all AC games on the 360 and yes this was my least favourite but us beggars can’t be choosers. Visually I have no issues with it, my only complaints after over 20 hrs play time are the occasional audio crackle and one “unexpected error caused the software to close” I have found that after updating and downloading the dlc things have improved some. Also turned the subtitles off as they don’t quite sync with the audio. If you want it buy it play it enjoy it, hopefully we will get the rest of them. Don’t be put off.

@nin10doom people hate on AC3 port before they touched it as it’s cool to say it’s the worst of the series. That became a thing just to say and not form your own opinion. Like in here. Everyone that’s played it says it’s good. Everyone that hasn’t said it’s lazy coz it doesn’t run as good as Xbox X.

Someone even claims it’s need more than 4gb of ram - yeah - ps3 version was extremely good IMHO.

So many aspects of this are opinion based and FPS shouldn’t be the only thing you care about.

I’m guessing most of the moaning are people that weren’t interested in this game anyway.

Same as when Doom came out and I read people saying it was unplayable - that’s just an outrageous statement tbh

Interesting comment section. I think I might chance this game and at least have a go. If I don’t enjoy it I can sell it on!

I come from a position where when I started playing games, I didn’t care about frame rates etc, you picked up w game because it looked fun...

One point I would like to make, in the comparisons to PS4, I have to say I don’t like the shading in the PS4 version for people at least, I feel it looks too bright in sections.

@CairiB @Indominus_B I’ve got it and enjoy it. It definitely looks better than both the 360 and WiiU versions. I’ve played docked and handheld, and am enjoying playing handheld this time around more than I did on the tv years ago. If you were already interested, give it a go

@Stocksy Yeah, I got that same impression. It's just this bandwagon that people seem to be jumping on without even playing it themselves.
I decided to go ahead and buy it and...I love it! I've only been playing it handheld so far, but it's running great. Having a game of this scope in the palm of your hands really is amazing. I encourage others out there to give it a go if you're into adventure games.

I find it strange. In the Wii and Wii U era it was all about the gameplay aspect. But with the Switch it seems that every game needs to be dissected and needs to be absolutely perfect 60fps 1080p or it's garbage. Well at least to those XBOX fanboys of DF.

Oh my a frame drop.
DF: This game is trash.

It's safe to say that I really dislike DF.

Why do people seriously compare the graphical output of the Switch to the PS4 and Xbone? When I can take my PS4 and Xbone with my, like the Switch, then I will take that comparison.

I don't mind if a game on Switch is graphically compromised so long as it runs well. However the audio compression is annoying and unnecessary and more demanding games run at a better frame rate on the Switch. So this just sounds like a case of a lazy port.

@nintendolie Ps4 is 60 because Sony never bothered to optimise their console.

@atomicjuicer Assassin’s Creed 1 was also my favorite. None of the others clicked for me like that. It was new and mysterious, I got bored and left after 2, came back and played black flag on ps4, but I always wondered about 3. I like the revolutionary setting.

@sanderev

Yup. Throughout the Wii/DS and WiiU/3DS days, I never really saw people bring up frame rate and picture quality at all. Now its "60fps or bust!1!1" Which leeds me to believe that it's just a meme without much meaning.

UbiSoft choose the wrong Assassin's Creed, all we want is a port of Black Flag or the Ezio Trilogy, instead we get this mess of a game instead.

@Dm9982 I hope Tokyo Mirage Session gets 2nd chance on Switch. Like a persona 4 golden or Persona 5 royale style release.

Give it some QOL tweaks, some extra content, small graphical overhaul (should easily run 1080/60 and look nice) and give us proper chapter 2 / uncensored.

@TechaNinja Yeah, and I happily take full Persona releases on the Switch too, instead of just the Persona 5 S stuff. I mean warriors games aren’t bad, just not my cup of tea. Only ever got Hyrule Warriors. Debated on FE, but decided against as I still haven’t gotten around to finishing Hyrule on Switch or 3DS....

@Dm9982 Maybe they were being quiet for E3 for a Persona 5 port announcement. Like switch version with some exclusive content or crossover stuff. Would be cool.

@TechaNinja that’s my hope. I mean Joker being in Smash can’t be justified by a hybrid crossover with P5S right? *shrug That’s my theory at least, and what I tell my friend Rico (big Persona fan). There’s GOTTA be a full fledged Persona on the way. And with Atlus portable support in P4G on Vita, it’s not outta the realm of possibility. Plus Atlus has had a long fruitful relationship with Nintendo. Think most of their releases on 3DS did decent-great.

So basically the graphics for the Switch version are subpar but it doesn’t matter much because AC3 is a really boring game.

@60frames-please
You need help mate Seriously

@Edu23XWiiU
Doom doesn’t look great at all!!!!!!!!!
It’s fuzzy and washed out. Just be honest with yourself as well as everyone else you just don’t like Assasins creed. Go on, it’s not hard. Just admit it.

Ubisoft got lazy here

Listen I don't even know if I can tell the difference between 60 and 30 fps. Which is why I never mention it. But when a first party nintendo games goes 60fps this comment board goes crazy with nintendo does gaming right type comments. I'm so confused how the same board can praise nintendo like gods when smash,arms,kart,mario run at 60 but then when other games come out sub30 the same commentors are confused why DF and other people are hating on the game.

I own this version. When you’re not directly staring at other versions you don’t notice these “issues” most of which are really, seriously, not a big deal. The thing that IS a big deal is the audio crackle and sound cutting in and out when going in and out of a load or auto save. That needs to get fixed immediately. Otherwise I’m fine with everything else. It runs and looks great imo.

@Woosh193 a)DOOM looks awesome, in both docked and handheld modes, and it's freaking fun! b) The only Assasin's Creed games I played were the first one and III on Wii U, a little bit of Black Flag also, and I have to say, they're fun games, but actually, very narrow with the "open world" feeling. There's not much things to do in towns. That was a little bit more fixed in Black Flag, but still, all those games feel empty. The ending is pretty bad in III, it kills the game. But it looks better on Wii U than Switch, and that proves this is a half-ass port.

@Edu23XWiiU
Lol

@Woosh193 Great, out of words right?

@Woosh193 the crackling sound seems to go away after you leave Boston.

I wish Nintendo would implement a policy to make third party developers be more responsible towards the consumers when it comes to ports: no shortcuts like highly compressed audio just to avoid paying for a more expensive cart, no compromises to the visual aspect of the game unless the Switch 100% requires it, no "we'll patch it eventually" which makes physical releases meaningless.