Why Ubisoft’s Two Big Holiday Games Are Better On PC (Hint: It’s Not Uplay)

The last couple of weeks have given us two of the biggest games of the fall, both from Ubisoft. Assassin's Creed III continues the historically focused swashbuckling adventure series, and Far Cry 3 lets players loose on a violent South Pacific island paradise.

Both games feature the number "3" and both games have a second word that begins with "Cr." Both are very ambitious, open-world games that push the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 to their limits. And as a result, both games shine brightest on PC.

[aquamala]

So true

[vulcanproject]

Problem with far cry 3 on consoles is it just runs choppy and the edges seem rough. Once you crack it open on a good PC the refinement and smoothness and seamlessness of the game massively enhances the open world experience.

It's a difficult feeling to explain to a console only gamer.

Like the difference between a cheap n cheerful rough whiskey and a long matured refined smooth malt. Yes they are both are alcoholic and essentially the same thing.

But one is sooooooooo much tastier and enjoyable

[Mocat]

Same goes for PC screen tearing frame drops random events dont get me started i have it on pc and if it wasnt so cheap i prob wouldev got it for xbox. and dont forget that this is a console port this game was not made for PC just look at the GUI.

[vulcanproject]

Screen tearing on PC? So you never heard of vsync?

Framedrops? So you never heard of getting your settings right?

Are you entirely sure you have it on PC and haven't mistakenly pretended you actually have a gaming PC and mistakenly lied in this reply because no genuine PC gamer in the history of PC gaming doesn't know how to turn on vsync in game settings.....

[Mocat]

so i should turn on Vsync and lose FR yea no i dont think so.Dont believe me go look in the PC forum of ubisoft FC3, and i dont really care what you think about my rig.

[vulcanproject]

So you are complaining that your PC isn't very powerful. Really thats it surely? Whether you can turn vsync on or not depends on how good your machine is. But it doesn't have to be very good to have it on, it'll surely be the very first thing you have on. I would sacrifice another setting if it meant getting vsync. Its a no brainer.

Medium settings here looks like consoles.

Far Cry 3 is demanding when everything is turned on for sure, but at lower settings/resolutions that still comfortably outstrip the consoles it is not much problem for weak hardware. You may need the latest drivers that have optimisations. Again, fairly obvious stuff.

A fairly slow dated system with like an 8800GTX (only 5 years old, and massively slower than a modest and also now aging Radeon 5770) should manage medium and 16x9 rez 30+FPS. Which I'll remind you is still over 60 percent more than what PS3/360 are doing on this game......as they wobble, judder and tear along scraping a 25 frame average!

http://www.eurogamer.net/ar...

[kevnb]

they are, but I'm still disappointed in assassins creed 3s performance. I know its pretty woeful on consoles as well, but I expected more...

[Plagasx]

Yea, they really need to patch the game for better fps especially in the Boston area...

[AKS]

Nvidia's latest beta drivers improve performance in those games quite a bit, and SLI with Assassin's Creed III has been working for me since I downloaded them. It's nice to have both cards working at a reasonable amount (and more importantly, reasonable temps) instead of one heating up and the other remaining at idle.

I'm not sure about AMD, as I don't have an AMD card currently (swapped GTX 670s for 6950s last time I upgraded my GPUs). I think I read an update is coming soon. Hopefully it will get an improvement like Just Cause 2. How the hell did 12.11 Beta improve Just Cause 2 by 90% with a single driver update?! LOL. That's better than most games would get from CF with a second card.

[rainkore]

I really feel that everything was rushed or just poorly executed as far as gameplay goes. The game is beautiful but to the culmination of such a great story you figured Ubisoft would have attempted to make a flawless game.

[e-p-ayeaH]

assassins creed 3 that is

[Allsystemgamer]

Yea. AC 3 plays aweful. Fun game but runs bad.

FC3 runs at 40fps max on 1080p on my ancient 6970 2gb so I'm happy about that

[rainkore]

Talking about FarCry 3 it is amazing! 60fps on a core i7 3770/16 gb ram/ Nvidia GTX 560ti.

Gameplay is so amazing. I am doing a full play through right now. OMG it is so good! I cannot say that enough. it is close to perfect.

[OcelotRigz]

Built my first gaming pc recently and ive been loving the experience so far, but nothing has blown me away yet like Far Cry 3, i find it hard to play the game because i just spend most of my time looking around and admiring how beautiful this game looks, especially at sunrise.
Looks aside, its a great game and im really enjoying it so far.
Not interested in AC3.

[shutUpAndTakeMyMoney]

To bad crysis 3 won't be as huge as farcry 3 but still will look amazing.

PC version of farcry 3 looks like gods day dream.

[Bathyj]

Man I hate Uplay.

Do I really have to tell them EVERY time I'm not interested. Take the hint.

No means NO.

[BushLitter]

I have to disagree, ACIII was my first encounter with Uplay, and I like it way more than Steam. Every steam title I have ever purchased takes forever to update after I have first installed it, and the update sizes are ridiculous, exceeding 5 gigs at times.

With both AC and FC3 it was a relatively simple process, no bull****.

[DudeJets]

Are you on any form of drugs?
Just asking because well you know...

If your steam is updating slowly there's a problem check your settings.

Steam has one of the fastest d2d networks available.

[SegaKnuckles86]

U Play is just silly. You can buy the game from Steam but cannot play the game via Steam? It's like purchasing an EA game on Steam but then forces you to use Origin instead to play the game. What's the point?

[taquito]

nvidia has beta drivers out for ac3 and fc3, recommend you get them, on my 680 ac3 is 60 frames locked with v-sync 2560x1600, with just a few, rare dips to 50 frames in the first few areas....and with dx11, the pixel perfect AA, the great high res textures.....man...

next to that, uncharted 3 looks like a ps2 game from 2003

gonna grab fc3 tonight, everything seems to be great about it

no matter what platform you play on, both are excellent games!

personally i like uplay, not anywhere near as much as steam, but i like it, origin too, greenmangaming, gamersgate, amazon downloads, competition is a GOOD thing, make these bastards BEG for your money

or, if you like everything all the same, get a console, be locked into permanent drm, pay $65 for an incomplete game with day one dlc and horrible online connectivity, terrible graphics and awful performance

me, i'd rather have options and graphics and performance right now that ps4/nextbox will never even come close to!

[Bigpappy]

Every game is technically better on PC. Why create and article that states the obvious every time a new multi-plat is released?

Answer: Some people are trying to recruit console gamers. The only comment on this, is to ask: why? People don't game on consoles because they think game run better on them. Just a thought.

[rpd123]

Yeah, if people wanted a game to run at it's best, then they wouldn't be playing on a console to begin with. Unless it's an exclusive that is.

[microgenius]

far cry 3 showed how the consoles are outdated badly
its crap on ps360

[ratcop22]

Ok then. How come games such as Halo 4 and Killzone 3 perform much better. And don't gimmie that open world bs. The mech battles in Kz3 are huge and hundreds of enemies on screen. So terrible port on Far cry 3.

[RuperttheBear]

'The mech battles in Kz3 are huge and hundreds of enemies on screen.'

Hundreds? Lol, maybe when you're drunk.

[Themba76]

this is a very stupid article every game is better on PC what news is that.

[isarai]

Meh, the game plays fine on my PS3, even the draw distance is pretty damn good IMO. I really haven't noticed any screen tearing, and only notice framerate drops when a lot of guns are going off. a slight bump in resolution, performance, and detail doesn't change the game at all IMO, as long as i can sit and enjoy the game it really isn't that big a deal to me. Never experienced texture popins either, maybe that's in FC3

[ratcop22]

I will say Far cry 3 is much better on Pc. But Ac3 not imo. The ps3 has a much better framerate than the 30-40 fps. Plus exclusive content. So yeah

[Halochampian]

Don't know much about PC gaming do ya?

You do realize that it's 720p on the ps3 and 1080p on the PC and has a better framerate.

[ratcop22]

You do know it's not native on Pc. You have to have a pretty damn good Pc to have 1080p, dx11, and etc. So yeah.

[RuperttheBear]

'You do know it's not native on Pc.'

That alone shows how much you know about pc gaming.

Native to what?

[DudeJets]

Because of uplay, I shall be pirating FC3 if upon completion I feel I want to play it again I will purchase it. But hey ho.

[josephayal]

PC's are already a generation ahead (maybe 2 ahead)

[CaptCalvin]

I run Far Cry 3 at native 1200p(yes, the taller resolution 1200p that's been phased out) at 30fps MAX graphics with my HD5850 which was considered mid range almost 5 years ago. I do have console gaming to thank for not having to upgrade my hardware at all for the past 4 years, or anytime soon, until probably the next generation of consoles roll out anyway xD