jeffr85
02-08-2012, 06:12 PM
18 minutes of credits is what I had to just sit through because the credits were unskippable and the game does not save a checkpoint until the credits complete.
In what world is this considered even remotely OK from a software usability point of view?
Please let me outline exactly why this is a terrible and abhorrent practice:
As the unskippable credits roll:
• The user's PC becomes unusable (because alt-tabbing pauses the credits, of course).
• The graphics cards are running at full-power which produces much heat and noise (because they can produce so many frames per second due to the very simple graphical nature of the credits).
• If the machine crashes or the user has to quit the game for whatever reason (say, perhaps, because they don't wish to sit through 18 minutes of irrelevant drivel) then they a have to play the ending and start watching the credits all over again.
People will no doubt say "don't complain, all those people listed in the credits deserve to be recognised." Yes, sure they do. So put their names in a "credits" section on the main menu. You should understand that I - and the vast, VAST majority of all other gamers - do not give even half of a **** about who was involved in producing the Italian/French/Spanish/Korean/Polish/Swedish/Japanese version of the game when all I played was the English version. Seriously.
By the same argument, why don't movies have unskippable credits, too? Why not lock movie-goers into the theatre while the credits roll so they can't leave before it's over? That is precisely what Ubisoft have chosen to do here with this game (and probably other titles, too).
Ultimately, Ubisoft already has my money by this point and I have completed the mainstay of the game. I should not and will not be forced to watch 18 minutes of credits just because they want to rub my face in the epic scale of their game creation process or something.
A Solution
As for me, after I got over the initial annoyance, I simply loaded up a nice program called 3D Ripper DX, forced Assassin's Creed into windowed mode using it, reduced the resolution in-game to 800x600, muted Assassin's Creed using the Windows 7 volume mixer, and watched 15 minutes of a movie on the other half of my monitor while the unskippable credits rolled on in defiance. Utterly ridiculous that I had to do that, but I had better things to do with my time than waste it being forced to watch credits.
I sincerely hope some Ubisoft employees see this and can understand and agree why this is an utterly terrible and intrusive practice.
With genuine frustration,
A gamer with high blood pressure.
In what world is this considered even remotely OK from a software usability point of view?
Please let me outline exactly why this is a terrible and abhorrent practice:
As the unskippable credits roll:
• The user's PC becomes unusable (because alt-tabbing pauses the credits, of course).
• The graphics cards are running at full-power which produces much heat and noise (because they can produce so many frames per second due to the very simple graphical nature of the credits).
• If the machine crashes or the user has to quit the game for whatever reason (say, perhaps, because they don't wish to sit through 18 minutes of irrelevant drivel) then they a have to play the ending and start watching the credits all over again.
People will no doubt say "don't complain, all those people listed in the credits deserve to be recognised." Yes, sure they do. So put their names in a "credits" section on the main menu. You should understand that I - and the vast, VAST majority of all other gamers - do not give even half of a **** about who was involved in producing the Italian/French/Spanish/Korean/Polish/Swedish/Japanese version of the game when all I played was the English version. Seriously.
By the same argument, why don't movies have unskippable credits, too? Why not lock movie-goers into the theatre while the credits roll so they can't leave before it's over? That is precisely what Ubisoft have chosen to do here with this game (and probably other titles, too).
Ultimately, Ubisoft already has my money by this point and I have completed the mainstay of the game. I should not and will not be forced to watch 18 minutes of credits just because they want to rub my face in the epic scale of their game creation process or something.
A Solution
As for me, after I got over the initial annoyance, I simply loaded up a nice program called 3D Ripper DX, forced Assassin's Creed into windowed mode using it, reduced the resolution in-game to 800x600, muted Assassin's Creed using the Windows 7 volume mixer, and watched 15 minutes of a movie on the other half of my monitor while the unskippable credits rolled on in defiance. Utterly ridiculous that I had to do that, but I had better things to do with my time than waste it being forced to watch credits.
I sincerely hope some Ubisoft employees see this and can understand and agree why this is an utterly terrible and intrusive practice.
With genuine frustration,
A gamer with high blood pressure.