Assassin's Creed For PS3: "White Screen Of Death"

Kotaku writes: "Irate PlayStation 3 owners are reporting a host of technical problems with their copies of Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed, writing of frame rate problems, screen tearing, geometry clipping and game-stopping lock ups on the official game forums. Most reports from those affected by "white screens of death" are writing that they're using firmware 2.0, specifying so at the request of official Ubisoft forum managers. In addition to a thread dedicated to the PS3's freezing issues, a consolidated bug/glitch thread is currently receiving plenty of responses".

[jack who]

gold anyways there you have it 360FTW!!

[Tabasco]

I'm pretty sure they are playing with the idea of the "red ring OF Death", so one game or a whole console being screwed up, which is worst?

[PMR_21]

2 my ignore list Jack

[lwsbrck]

To be honest, i would reckon its less a play on words of 'Red Ring of Death' and more of the Blue Screen of Death you get on PC's...

I mean, honestly, which one is closer?

Blue screen => White Screen
Or
Red Ring => White screen...

surely its not that hard of a decision ^o)

I keep considering buying a PS3 (i really think GT5 is shaping up to be a stunner) but things like Skate, CoD4 and now AC are making me have doubts...

If GT5 gets lower reviews than FM2 then eff it, not worth the the hassle.

[jack who]

oh teh noessss i have been ignore

[PS3Freak]

skate on the ps3 is fine(I've seen it slow down twice), and so is call of duty.. what are u talking about. Assassin's creed i agree with you on that one though.I rented it and it froze within 10 minuites.

[feejo]

Ya it so hard to accept their RROD.

[Enigma_2099]

Froze on him... the stupid SOB left it frozen on the screen for over an hour, they said... don't ask me why...

... so yeah, the problem ain't just with the PS3 version... but I'm sure you knew that... right?

[Laexerias]

mine works fine here. dunno whaddya mean guys o_o

[Vip3r]

That you? The fanboy comments and poor spelling and grammar seems like it is and the fact you were banned from the UK PS forums make it all the more believable.

[power of Green]

WTF is the PS3 anyways?. Seems too computer-ish to be a game console. You have to do all these things to it; to get to do what you wan't.

[lebaneseprince1]

wow u have no life i always see u post in every piece of news btw PS3 OVER 360

[Apocwhen]

You mean insert game disc and play, yeah I know, really difficult /sarcasm

[Beren]

Allmighty ignore button :D

[EZCheez]

That's about as specific as it gets right there.

And not to be too technical, but it's not called Sony COMPUTER Entertainment for nothing.

[supermandead666]

Some 1 should buy Consoles For Dummies book for Mr. power of Sh!t.

[jctoyou]

power of green,power of ignore,goodbye

[power of Green]

Its like PS3's not finished being developed/desinged, like its in a coninuous fix. I wonder if gamers that don't update their PS3s will be able to play furture games due to Sony playing some sort of low key catch-up.

[Bonsai1214]

you really have nothing productive to say do you. if you don't, then shut it.

you cannot place the problem on sony because 1) people with both versions of firmware are experiencing this, and 2) the difference between 1.93 and 2.0 were actually really small.

this is another classic case of bad development.

and sony is actually smart enough to include firmware updates with their games. so people who don't routinely update their ps3s still get a boost at some point or another.

oh, and "You have to do all these things to it; to get to do what you want." its called PROGRAMING. developers should do a better job at it sometimes.

[Infernus]

At least Sony are providing continual support for the PS3. Microsoft gave the 360 users a blank 'Here's a warranty, now be done with this RRoD nonsense'.

Shows how disappointed you are with MS deep down, considering that you're now trying to drag Sony and the PS3 down at every possible opportunity, it's a form of reflective disappointment, closely linked with jealousy, pushing your underlying bad feelings towards MS upon the PS3 owners.

[supermandead666]

"Its like PS3's not finished being developed/desinged, like its in a coninuous fix"

I wonder if the 3FIXME BOX was ever finish developed/desinged?

RROD, send it to M$ for 3-4 week to repair, M$ send back the "repaired" 3FIXME BOX, RROD again repeat the process.

ONLY RETARDED XBOTS WILLINGLY TAKE IT UP THE @SS AGAIN AND AGAIN.

[ActionBastard]

You're right. Enjoy your dashboard update on that "finished" 360.

[EZCheez]

I'll never sleep easy as a PS3 owner until I own one with the "Falcon" chipset. Hopefully my PS3 has the new HDMI port too.

[lodossrage]

I can never understand why an xbot (Power of Green) has a comment in a PS3 thread

[SebL]

It's obvious why you're so xbox obsessed. Your dad uses your xbox controller as an arse-vibrator, and if you give it up for a PS3 (with no vibration) he'll go back to abusing you again.

[NanoGeekTech]

U r a FOOL........................Po wer of the Retards...unite....

[Chris399]

Official Ubisoft forums thread for the 360 version of the game can be found here:

http://forums.ubi.com/eve/f...

I guess you folk are just used to freezing, glitchy software and general - hardware - malfunctions associated with your gaming experience. Maybe it's not such a big deal to you.

On a less snide note, the last game that I played from Ubi was Enchanted Arms. That was the ONLY game that has ever - repeatedly - frozen my PS3 (I exchanged the disc, reset all my settings, played it on my friend's PS3 and everything, still with the same results). And the issue was not PS3-centric, but on the 360 as well.

Instead of attacking each other we should be blaming sloppy developers and their destructive code.

Cheers,
- C

[jack who]

reviewers say you phailled

[Snukadaman]

but on another topic..isnt this a double post of a story done already???

[jackdoe]

Assassin's Creed could have benefitted from a delay. More QA, more polish.

[Thugbot187]

I don't have the PS3 version so I can't comment on that. However I have the 360 version and while i haven't got the white screen I got the complete freeze to where I had to power off the console. One time by press y in the map area. One time i got thrown of a roof and it froze in mid air. There are also some combat glitches that i ran into also.

[lodossrage]

The 360 one is causing its share of problems too. And personally, which problem would you rather. This "white screen of death" where at least your system still works. At least the ps3 STILL WORKS AFTERWARDS.

Or, when assassin's creed causes the red ring of death on your 360 whereas the system will more than likely STOP WORKING PERIOD??

You xbots are moving far beyond simple fanboyism at this point. Now it's more like downright stupidity.

[Covenant]

Good point, well-said. Agree and bubbles.

[KingJames1906]

Most of the posts were from other fanboys (PS3 or PC) making stupid RROD comments. Others have stated that the issue happened once (on the 360) and non since after that. Unlike the PS3, that has continuous issues with AC. I rented AC for the 360, I played it for 3 hours without one freeze. I didn't rent it for my PS3 as I prefer multi platform games on the 360 more than the PS3. Uncharted is out now, play that game instead and take back that AC. I don't think I'm going to buy AC as I think it's kind of repetitive. I'm interested in the story line more than the game. There just seems to be a lot of anger in these post which I would be angry if I spent 65 bucks for a buggy game (PS3 or 360).

[Nicosia]

http://boardsus.playstation...

Didn't know the ps3 version was having problems. Kinda sucks for gamers, waited so long for the game...

[vilmer]

I can confirm the freezing issues. Happened twice already in the PS3 version. It's actually the first time a game has ever froze lol.

[Infernus]

Where's the white screen of death come from?

I've had issues at the loading screens sometimes but since the game autosaves to the PS3 HDD everytime you complete a mission etc you never lose your progress. I'm sure 2.00 is to blame, like most updates are lol.

P.S At least I don't have to worry about my console breaking...

[ikkokucrisis]

Leave it to Kotaku to insinuate more negative PS3 publicity.

Their last attempt was almost 48 hours before this article was posted.
They're slipping...

[ActionBastard]

How many Kotaku posts do you see where they are showing off all their MS schwag? Now, how many posts do you see where they are showing off their Sony schwag? I appreciate the fact people, as well as other websites, like the PS3 for it being a PS3, not because they got a duffel bag with their Gamertag stitched on it. F*cking puppets...

[Infernus]

I tend not to read many gaming review/blog sites anyway so tbh I don't care what happens to Kotaku.

[Skerj]

Dude Kotaku lost the little bit of respect I had for them when they posted that Elite outselling the 40gb PS3 story.

[Snukadaman]

all that sony and microsoft swag...they even gave away a red ps3...in fact all the websites give away that crap for the integrity of keeping it...just for the reasons as you people are trying too insinuate.

[radical_pi]

the screen freezing thing happened to me a few times so far... very annoying considering it takes forever for this game to load

[toughNAME]

these things are always exaggerated

[367 To Your Ass]

"hmph" YEAH i think i read this yesterday, ubisoft said they would get to it as soon as possible quoted: a patch would solve this WSOD error.

i don't know how many copies have this problem but i'm guessing about 4/10 copies mite have it, it is kind of serious ( i find it practically on every game page i go to.)

[lawman1108]

I am scared to turn it back on after that last FW update !

........THE FW UPDATE OF DEATH.............

Thank god for lack of good games.

[myxomatosis]

you dont have a playstation 3

[rofldings]

my ass you have a playstation 3

lawf@g.

[Spike47]

CAN'T YOU PEOPLE SEE? YOU FRICKEN FANBOY IDIOTS, THE GAME FREEZES UP ON BOTH SYSTEM, JUST MORE ON THE PS3.

THE GAME WAS A PIECE OF CRAP TO BEGIN WITH, IT DID'NT MEET EXPECTATIONS, IT HAS BUGS ANYWAY.

THE WHITE SCREEN OF DEATH?HOW COME UNCHARTED OR RATCHET AND CLANK DID'NT HAVE ANY PROBLEMS, OR MOTORSTORM, OR RESISTANCE, OR HS, OR WARHAWK.

HOW COME THIS WAS'NT A PROBLEM FOR COD4?

THIS IS JUST STUPID, FANBOYS WANNA MAKE THIS A NEW PROBLEM SO THAT IT WILL MAKE AN EXCUSE FOR THE 360'S RROD

[thereapersson]

The fanboys on this website are some of the dumbest around. No sense, no reason, period.

edit: 2 disagrees and no explanation as to why. I rest my case.

[Expy]

Ubisoft fails again. I think they should shut down operations :P

[feejo]

Oh that is bad from sony, they make a new ubdate that is bad.

[PirateThom]

Mine froze up once while on a horse, but I've played it for about 12 hours over 2 days, so I'll accept it for now.

It's lucky the game saves very often.

[Idmpc]

What the HELL were all of you expecting from a Non-Xbox UBISOFT game anyway? They completely f*cked up Splinter Cell Double Agent for PS3 and PC (and the X360 version ran better, but still had bad framerate), the PC version specially would crash on MOST PCs (I was one of them, they even deleted all the topics related to PC crashes from their forums, and released two useless patches that didn't fix anything). On PS3, GRAW2 has a slow framerate sometimes and has no anti-aliasing, not to mention someplaces where you can see a dotted white line (crossing a wall, for example) where we shouldn't have anything like that. Rainbow Six Vegas also gets a bad framerate on PS3 sometimes, and even this Assassin's Creed has lots of tearing and bad framerate.

I knew UBISOFT was crap the moment they f*cked up Splinter Cell Double Agent, and I was SURE that it would happen again with Assassin's Creed. Well, there you have it.

[Snukadaman]

no theres NEVER any framerate, tearing, game ending problems....as for myself im honest about my RROD problems....when xbox live wasnt available....how im not too happy with single player halo 3...theres problems with both consoles...and metroid prime is boring as fack.

[Idmpc]

I'm just saying what I've seen with my own eyes because I have a PS3, not an Xbox360. The games are great, I'm one of those in the minority that liked Lair :), but of course the games have problems. Heavenly Sword is beatiful, but also has tearing problems and slowdowns sometimes. Sega Rally was a great example of how multiplatform games should be! Tons of Anti-Aliasing, great framerate (at least on the demo), same graphics for both platforms. Apparently, Call of Duty 4 too (I can't comment on that because I still haven't bought one). But what I'm really pissed about is UBISOFT and their stupid ports. I was really amazed how they completely ignored all PC problems with Splinter Cell Double Agent and even ignored ME on their Customer Support. (My problem was NOT solved and they closed my thread, marking it as solved)

[e-ray]

My 360 version is having disc read errors--namely, right after a mission is completed and I am back in the fortress thing when the dude is giving me the run down. Sorry, I'm not remembering names well right now--just completed the first assassination.

But, yeah, this is happening on both systems, unfortunately.

EDIT: I have added my gamertag to my profile for the person beneath me.

And outside of the glitchiness, the game is pretty damn fun. Right now, I'd give it an 8 or 8.5/10.

[Snukadaman]

how can anyone see if your full of sheit?

ok YOU got both the game and the console so I got too belive youi skerj..but I would be damned if I never experienced any of those problems...maybe a tear here and there...but no framerate problems..no freezes anywhere. I also have too agree with you on having fun playing the game..its massive and looking for them dam flags and killing templars is fun.

I regret buying kane and lynch though....its terrible....cant even get online too play that fabled free for all multi...but your right...assasins creed is a tight game and very massive.....its going too take more then 6 hours for this one finding everything.

[Skerj]

I haven't had the DRE or anything but I'll be damned if it isn't glitchy as hell. I've been stuck in the air causing me to restart, missed 2 jumps and died due to clipping through them, watched a guard in an infinite loop of trying to get on a ladder that he was NOWHERE near, saw Kristen Bell morph into a brunette then back to blonde, seen various NPCs pop in from nowhere and start walking, and I've had objectives disappear from the map without even completing them even though I was standing RIGHT near them.

This is all happening on the 360 version since I seemed to have gotten further than I did playing the PS3 version (yes I own both) so I just kept playing instead of going back to the PS3 and trying to catch up. Whoever says the bugs are central to one system are completely wrong and biased, it's a buggy game PERIOD. That said I am actually having fun in this game as I'm usually really really anal retentive about stealth in similar games, but now I've just pretty much been fighting everyone and killing whoever gets in my way.

@Snuk

I played a good hour and a half before I saw the first one and it happened right as I was about to approach my first major assassination target. After doing every piece of recon in the district, saving all civilians, and getting to every viewpoint to unlock the map I finaly went to the bureau. After that I was roof jumping and jumped off to the area where the mark resided and got stuck in the air. I could pan the camera and that was it so I had to restart the game.

That case was the only time it happened but the other things, while small and not really interrupting my gameplay have happened. I still like the game and I don't regret my purchase(s) but some of these things should have been caught by the testers with such a high profile game and the time it's spent in development. I'm just glad the AI isn't as dumb as it was in that Gametrailers review video.

[cr33ping_death]

alot of the hardcore MS fanboy doesnt have their gamertag up....what can they be afraid of???

[akaFullMetal]

happened to me twice while playing in the first 3 hours of the game, plus i saw a bunch of tearing, and pop up, god this game could of been one of the best of this year, if it wasnt because of this

[Bathyj]

Arse Creed should have been delayed on both consoles. It hasn't passed QA or been play tested enough. Its out here next week and now I'm really debating whether to get it or not. It WAS going to be a day 1 purchase but now I'm not so sure, its not like I dont have heaps of other games to play right now, maybe I should skip it till they sort their crap out.

Ubi, dont become the new EA by spreading yourself so thin. Remember it was your quality that made you so big.

[hardcorehippiez]

as with most games now they are rushed then patched. assassins is an interesting game and worth the purchase. they will fix it and its easily a 8.5 a very big game and very atmospheric. am now looking for my 5th assassination and the AI is getting well smart now making me think more careful how to attack and get out quickly. it does have its problems but if you turn off for a while and then go back it seems to stop them for a while. not a total failure like some in here would lead you to believe.

[TheTruth89]

PS3 White Screen of Death just FREEZE the PS3... you cannot compare it with XBOX360 RROD... it not kill the Console... Stupid Fu*king Asshole.

Shut Up and go cry to mama for your RROD instead of write bullshit

[Avto]

Sh*t like this ain't Sony fault this is Ubis fault they can't make a proper game without bugs.

[m9105826]

No freezing here as of the third 'block' of the game. PS3 version, BTW.

[Figboy]

when it comes to Assassin's Creed?

because, for me, i haven't seen the "washed out" visuals from that comparison video, and i haven't seen any screen-tearing or framerate issues. *AT ALL.

the game *HAS frozen on me, however, but i just restarted the system with no loss in progress, honestly. big whoop.

in either case, i'm enjoying the hell out of Assassin's Creed, and i feel bad for the people who are having issues with the game.

[StrboyM]

lets see ps3 white screen of death on 1 game

or xbox 360 no screen at all after your system burns its insides out

you decide!

[FirstknighT]

Remember the days of the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo??? Never needed no stinking patches.

[MaximusPrime_]

someone is confused between Red Ring of Death with White Screen of Death.

RRoD is a serious matter. It shuts down your console and you will not be able to use it again, ever. The only solution is get it repair (wait at least 3 weeks to get it back), get a replacement ('till RRoD comes) or get a Wii or PS3.

WSoD is nothing to do with PS3 hardware. PS3 is 0.1% of failure rate. WSoD only happens on Assassin Creed game. Unisoft will no doubt fix that problem very soon.

[paracardium]

white screen of death?? who's the idiot that thought that one up and if it white screens reset it unlike the RROD where you wait 4 months to get a refurbished one. Lame xbots try harder your system is dying.Simple firmware update will fix this. As for comparisons I swear they use like super low end TV's for comparisons because my games never look like what I see posted on these sites or they never put it on game mode and adjust the settings properly.

[tk]

So a software glitch not related - and not as often occurring as the XB360 RRoD gets a lot of attention because it is on the PS3 - even though reports indicate that the XB360 version suffers the same. Just a shock - as the PS3 is so robust and stable that you don't expect failures like this.

Tempest in a teacup anyway. They will release a patch, it will be OK, and it will be forgotten by all but Sony haters who will try and keep it on life support to have something negative to whine about for a console that they never plan to own. Pitiful.

Anyway - Sony has a lot of catching up to do - I mean - there are so many XB360 and MS in general issues that one can list - that it will take Sony quite some time to "Catch Up".... Blue Screen of Death, RRoD, Disk scratching etc etc

[jinn]

the 3 red ring of death has come to the PS3 in a different form

[ROCCOZILLA]

the 3sh*tty is having the same problems!its only happening on one game for PS3.on the 360 its the console itself.ubisoft should be sued for making PS3 look bad.

[makingdamage]

So no need for me as a ps3-owner to buy this game yet then? Until they fix it that is. But i still would like to try a demo of the game before i hand over my cash.

[Spike47]

SNAP OUT OF IT, WE ALL EXPECTED ALOT FROM ASSASINS CREED.

AND ACTUALLY, DRAKE'S FORTUNE GOT BETTER REVIEWS.

FUNNY HUH?

THE GAME HAS BUGS ON BOTH SYSTEMS, LETS JUST HOPE UBISOFT DOES'NT DO THE SAME DARN MISTAKE WITH HAZE.

[Funky Town_TX]

how badly coded this game it. If this was EA you guys would be all over them. The fact is that AC is a coding joke. I'm glad I just rented it. $8 is all I wasted on it. The only thing ubi makes that is worth buying are the Tom Clancy games

[socsca]

Don't care about flaming. But I have never, ever, seen so many ps3 fangirls on one thread before. Amazing to see, really. Watch me get 54 disagrees and 1 bubble!

[Pain]

Im sick of 360 hand me down Ports....
1) All that Clippy~Crappy DX9 junk PC code.
2)The make Game with more RAM thing really kills Porting out ANYTHING good.
3)Not useing Other Console's strenghts hurts games.

Make On The Best, Port To The Rest.

[aba]

Im not buying this game till its patched.

[DJ]

for the description. This is happening across both platforms, so it doesn't seem right to simply point out one platform and ignore the other. I'm actually worried about Haze now since it's obvious that Ubisoft let their developer get away with this issue.

These things are supposed to be ironed out in the Beta stage (though great developers get rid of these large bugs during Alpha status). I'm sure the development team needed more time, but Ubisoft didn't want to miss out on the holiday express.

[sonyfanonly]

oh my god more xbots to bash the ps3 the problem aint the ps3 its the game and the flaws in AC is fixed with version 2.01 so you dont have to send your ps 3in like the 360s RROD so xbots get over it UNCHARTED is better than AC and it runs great

[harv052]

Mine hasn't froze yet. No tearing, no nothing....

[bootsielon]

360'd on me.

[Bullseye]

whether the game is good, bad or indifferent in terms of gameplay is irrelevant. If they can't code something without such terrible bugs, then it shouldn't be released. I haven't, and would never buy such half a$$ed code.I've heard the problems compared to P.C stating now that we have such advanced machines.Well, that's BS. The reason there are nearly always problems with PC stuff is due to the almost infinite variations of P.C builds.PC Dev's have at least some excuse, since they can't possibly test it on every conceivable build of PC. Console dev's do NOT have that excuse. The build is same for everyone, no excuses. If the problem really is with the game code, then you should return the software citing, not fit for purpose! On the other hand. If it turns out to be something other than the software, it'll be interesting to hear what that is.

[andron]

I thought about buying it on launch day, but luckily decided to wait.

Now I wait and see what happens, and buy Uncharted instead.

It's not often console games are this buggy when released, and I hate games crashing on me. Ubisoft better do something or AC will suffer in sales.

[socalr6]

I purchased cod4 for my 360 and within an hour it froze with a "disc unreadable" error. I keep trying and it will stop again after one match. The disk was brand new. It is scratching a ring all around it too. So I went to cc and picked up a PS3 and cod4. I sold cod4 for 360 to blockbuster and picked up Rachet and clank. I also picked up that lame ass game Kane and Lynch, that game sucks balls! It looks so bad on the PS3 I imagine just as bad on the 360. First bad game puchase for the ps3. I was going to get Assasins and am glad I did not. HAZE will prob be next. The 360 is warranted till 3/09. I should fry it now soI can get a new one. I will be testing all my other games to see if I get that error on the 360. That is how my brothers 3 rings came. First the disk read errors, and dashboad freezing, then finally the Three rings.

[PMR_21]

should be ashamed of themselves

[Die_Sloe]

All you need to do is check metacritic to solidify that statement. Of course, people that post on this site arent "average" gamers. We are alot more hardcore, and I promise you that the guy you work with that plays videogames knows absolutely NOTHING about this. Not to mention that this is really a small related issue with maybe 5 percent of games purchased.

Doesnt make it any more acceptable, but the hate this game has received on this site is downright nasty.....

And for the 360 haters out there (mainly PS3 owners), last place is not a place that Sony is used to. You guys won the last 2 console wars, and in the end might right the ship and win this one, but right now PS3 has been a major disapointment, and theres no need in getting salty about losing every once in awhile.