Tag Archives: AC Mirage

September 10, 2025 · 12:34

Outside the box we see

That occurred to me, the Arab News (at https://www.arabnews.com/node/2614596/saudi-arabia) is giving me ‘Artist showcases Qur’anic verses with intricate paper cutting creations’ It caught me unaware, I never considered this and the image (source: Arab News) is showing us the amazing creations 

With the subtext “Australia-based Pakistani artist Tusif Ahmad visited Jeddah this week to showcase his intricate and colorful papercutting representations of Qur’anic verses.” In that same setting I am a little amazed that this is an Australian based artist. It is the first I ever heard of it (and here I am blaming the media yet again). And it is not impossible that I overlooked that setting, so I am willing to take part of the blame. Yet the setting should have been a lot more visible in Australia. Weirdly enough three thoughts penetrated my feeble brain.

  1. Does this technique work in English too?
  2. Is it possible to do this technique in braille, so that the blind could enjoy this?
  3. How can non-Arabic people enjoy the art for what it is?

I am not saying that this is a prerequisite, but there is a larger stage (there always is) and to propagate the setting to a larger audience is what we tend to focus on, especially as I am an absolute Arabic noob (a non Arabic literate person).

So when we see “Over the past 12 years, he has produced more than 500 pieces, exhibited globally, and won recognition for an art form he describes as “an invitation to reflect on the Qur’an.”” Making the ‘unheard’ of scene a lot more visible. I reckon that Australian Universities should invite his art form a larger audience (the young tend to be more accepting of new forms of art) and that is seemingly a starting point. I am of course considering that this was already done, there his no way that I am the starting point of anything that isn’t my concoction.

So as we are given ““Each artwork aims to create a bridge between tradition and modern expression, inspiring both Muslims and non-Muslims to connect with the spiritual essence of Islamic art,” he said.” That I might as a non-Muslim not see the whole picture (or image) and I get that, but I know of this art form for less than a day and that needs to be revisited.

Of course my brain goes into all kinds of side-roads, like “What happens when you take this idea and add lasers to this and project that form of art” that and a few other ideas I get from “During his Jeddah talk, Ahmad showcased works from a series inspired by the surahs Ar-Rahman, Yaseen, and Yusuf. He explained that small pieces may take weeks while larger ones require months of patience and spiritual focus.”

A setting is that Ubisoft take this idea and add it as an achievement to AC Mirage (as they are creating a new addition to this game later this year) and create an entirely new following, giving this IP (owned by Tusif Ahmad) a interesting large following, giving himself a character in Bagdad at 862CE and letting this art form creating a wave of additional fabs and showing it to a larger audience. It is a way to get art the attention it needs and this merely happened as I combined two ideas in the same time. Timing is almost everything. You still need to cajoles to combine ideas and do this against the folly of time where people laugh at your ideas.

As such Yves Guillemot, I just gave you another setting that might have gone unnoticed in the larger grand scheme of things. And I reckon that Tusif Ahmad might never have considered showing his work to a population that is interested in video games. As such as his audience he would gain, I would wish him good fortune (artists tend to be a hungry lot at times)

Its all in a days work and as I just passed the mark of midweek (Wednesday 12:01pm) it is time to bid thee all a good day and have a great time wondering what comes next. I don’t know because New Zealand is ahead by three hours and they cannot tell me what happens at 15:00 (as they aren’t answering the phone). Time travel through telecom. Who would have thought it.

Write to you all later (in about 20 hours)

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March 19, 2025 · 20:50

Ubisoft a shadow?

That is the setting. Of course the setting at this moment is that the NDA’s have expired and we get legions of ‘fans’ giving their view on the game. As I personally see it, I will wait until the real reviewers come out to play. As I see it there is a danger from Ubisoft. They lost 75% value and I stated this a few times, the last critical view was on July 7th, 2020 when I wrote ‘Death of the creed’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2020/07/07/death-of-the-creed/) There I stated “I see a game that is shoddy on several fronts, but I do realise that I was watching something that had not been released yet. However, the stage I saw is in line of what AC had become. Yes, it is a game, as was Odyssey, but when you realise that not one fort on the planet had thousands of arrows, their aim was not that great (especially as they cannot shoot things in the night that moves), we see a much larger lag in gaming and a lag in the AC series.” After that AC Mirage was released and that was a good game (I think it was) and I enjoyed every minute in that game. But the AC range has had its failures, or as I would prefer to call it, shoddy approaches towards the wrong setting. I know that is my view on the matter, and not everyone agrees and not all the ‘super glitches appear on every system (as far as I know), but there is a larger setting to wait until the real reviewers have had a go at that next game. I don’t mind buying a game, I mind spending my money the wrong way. And waiting for real reviewers is that first step.

I am not a negativity blaster, I merely want to see the real deal and wannabe influencers and Ubisoft approved reviewers will not get me there, not whilst Ubisoft is on the verge of bankruptcy (losing 75%-80% of stock value does that) and the news in other settings, like hearing news of buyout by Tencent and several other options. I mentioned this in ‘A repetitive bashing’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2021/03/28/a-repetitive-bashing/) where I stated “I also warned all last year that their next two products better be beyond good and Watchdogs: Legion was, the other (AC game) was not” we are now in a stage where apparently AC Shadow is likely to be the last straw they have. As I always stated “A game to appease everyone, is a game that pleases no one”, but that is merely my view. The fun part is that I created several gaming IP, so Ubisoft only had to take notice. That doesn’t mean that my views are better, but I created several original gaming IP’s and Ubisoft is merely flogging the same horse again and again. Perhaps they are out of ideas? 

So, what is the view on AC Shadow? I don’t have none at present. I will take a better stance when the real reviewers have had their look, as such I will know in a day or two if I will buy the next AC game. And there is no AC Harry within me. The games I loved were the First AC, AC2, AC Brotherhood, AC Black Flag (but I don’t consider that an AC game), AC Origin (my personal favorite) and AC Mirage. So will AC Shadow grace my gaming shelf? I will know no later than Sunday.

So you all have a nice rest and optionally run for the gaming shop in several hours (here it arrives in 11 hours). On the off chance that it will be a great game they will house the two game that were required, this will drive up the price of their Ubisoft IP and I saw articles (unproven) that implies that they are about to move certain IP into other ventures, it read like they are about to pull a Bad Bank setting, not unlike Credit Lyonnais (1994) if I remember correctly, there were more and what Ubisoft is doing is perfectly legal and accepted in the business world. As such there is nothing stopping them from doing so. 

How the rest of the month will go? Time will tell and most likely the real reviewers. Have a great day. And try to ignore the hard times we are introduced to news by digital dollar chasers.

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March 11, 2025 · 11:41

What the mind remains digesting

That happens to us all, especially the dreamers and the creators. As such yesterday’s blog is still on my mind. It reflects on Ubisoft as I see negative articles appear on a game that is not released yet (AC Shadows). It is said to be a whopping 125 GB, which is rather large as Skyrim and Fallout 4 don’t go that far. There are several reasons where this could be the case, but I digress. You see at present I have no intention of buying the game pre week 3. At that point the real reviews will have been out for some days. Let’s be clear AC Mirage was a wonderful game and for the most a real AC game. I loved it. It was a pleasant surprise from the disappointment AC Odyssey gave me. Ubisoft just didn’t listen “A game that is mean to appease everyone will please no one”, a rule I find to be the cornerstone of gaming. You see the Business Intelligence dude (or dudette) thinks different. In their terms they think that AC is 50%, add a little Prince of Persia you get an additional 10%, add another part from another successful game and another 10% is added and so on until they get to 100%. But the reality is that the stealth, the true AC part is diminished. Almost like adding water to the wine and at some point you can never tell the real taste of water or the real taste of wine. That is my firm believe. Let’s be clear to add sides that complement a game to a next version can make the game better, but it needs to be a unique setting that complements the original. That is what I intent to write and add to Hogwarts Legacy. So in that Trent what if we add to the beast setting, not copy (perhaps in part), but add to the story. As such I saw two parts. What if the next version adds jobs to the game. (3-5) per house. And they do overlap, A house has (lets say) 5 jobs. Two unique and three sets one in another house. That applies to all houses and you get each house with 2 unique jobs and one job shared to any of the three houses. That creates the achievement “A true Hufflepuff”, or the other three houses. 4 achievements right there. 4 play throughs, and in my example (in the connected story) one job is a wand-maker, A student of Olivander. Now the wand needs a core. We have unicorn hair, phoenix hair or dragon heartstring. What if there was a fourth one? The 4th one, requiring a Graphorn horn. There might be more, but that is a mere instance of what I thought. As a student you’ll learn how to make a wand (leading to the achievement “Wand artisan” and the obvious second one Wand-maker master (when you make a successful wand) with a graphorn horn. It isn’t that simple. You see, now all beasts create the right part, we could see a mere 1% successful Unicorn hair. With proper attendance by food, brushing the 100% success rate goes up (2%) and as you create a better understanding of animals and who they are combines with the success rate another 100% (4%). When you are not using that hair (so we get golden unicorn hair) they can be sold for the usual 120 knots (or sickles) we get something worth galleons. Galleons can only be exchanges at Gringotts or a comparable bank, the Galleons also represent a second part (I get to that) because all jobs have that distinction. Some at a smaller pace. I just created an economic state all in one go. This is what I believe that is what some developers miss (no assault on Avalanche Software). And the setting intensifies as we get specific jobs. No matter what you chose you will have a different goal. As we get to chose from the ministry jobs, the locations (France and Germany come to mind), you could become an Auror you could get specific options, and as such can increase your ‘fortune’, I see the aurora as a specific Gryffindor and Ravencroft job. 4 play throughs with very unique settings. It makes a person want to replay the game. I thought the very first location, the castle of Percival Rackham. The idea that it is a goal to restore that Castle, which required to set in place charms so that the people avoid it as well as a few other settings, the appearance of the ruin that all see and when you get close to the house, the ‘real’ house. Another idea was to add the French and German locations due to the Newt Scamander documentaries (me laughing on the inside) gets us two more settings, so in that case Avalanche gives us the near perfect setting. That haunted village could be part of the next story. Perhaps the third act is around Durmstrang. And if the French episode connects to Beauxbatons, than Durmstrang (believed to be in Sweden) gives us the fourth act in Stockholm (or Oslo). Four acts all carrying part of the story, all giving us parts in Exploration, Battle (example: Ice giants) and Beasts. It could add to the lore to a larger degree as these elements are added. The four acts will get us to the fifth act (the deserted village) and that can get us a few more versions. Some will want to believe one version, or another version, but in the end we are all given all the facts as portrayed through acts one through four. The idea to have additions of stealth like an animals or a plant has merit here. As I see it, the truth is always according to the truth of one, the other or insight of self. Although the spells are all there, we can get a few more spells from each of the other three houses. 

I got this in a little over a day, so it seems fair that tinkering is required. On the offset that my view of the 25 months is given, the new version allows for a lot more than 25 months of joy. And if someone wants to embrace the 11 unique jobs that the game gives it will be a lot more than 25 months. If the first idea (the portal) allows for the 2 games to be united, the stage of a near everlasting wizarding world epic tale will be the achievement of a lifetime, to be more precise Avalanches lifetime. According to Statista 44% is an avid fan and 53% is a casual fan, as such 30 million copies will not come close to the amount of optional copies sold for the next game. There is every chance that this game has the ability to break nearly all records. I reckon that there is little chance to break the records of Pokemon and that is not a bad thing. To break the stage of 50-100 million copies is close to amazing to say the least. Then there is the lore that needs to be created. A stage not easily done to say the least. 

Look at me go, a mere day (perhaps 2-3 days to seed the idea on November 27th 2022) and we have ourselves a chase. The others (for example Ubisoft and Bethesda) to get ahead where they never got and Avalanche to let them see their tailpipe as they sloughed ahead in gaming. And Warner Brothers to sit in the stands enjoying the race where the others come short by a lot.

Not a bad day for me, I got to hand over creative exclusivity to Avalanche Software and the rest (like Microsoft) seeing again and again what they missed in the first place. Have fun you all.

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August 15, 2024 · 00:20

By any other name

This started some time ago and today things started to mesh up in my mind and it got started with the movie Gods of Egypt, I watched it again this evening. The setting is not one could debate the reality of things (as one could consider), but there is the crux. What is real? 

You see, this is the question that I have often asked myself and this week a few things happened that calls an old idea into power.

You see, Ubisoft did most of the work and AC Origins set it in motion. When you get the addition on the game, you also got a tour you had to complete, visiting a brewery that makes beer and a few other places, places that were in the game and now Ubisoft added a tour to show the players how far they had taken the game. It was brilliant and some will find it boring. Yet it could be taken further and in part based on their own IP.

You see, what else could be done?

There are two settings here. The Egyptian side gives the people the option of polytheism, the believe of multiple gods. The game could take you on a trip as a diverse amount of people in Egypt and take you on a trip of worshiping the gods like the Egyptians used to do this. We could limit the player to be in Memphis, Alexandria, Letopolis and a few others. The second site is the Roman side, with a Roman farm, the ability to learn Latin, set this part to Latin and as we are thrown into the deep end we learn a language and there is a market, more importantly as Ubisoft already created the IP, it would be a simple alteration to the game to engage in languages (Egyptian and Latin) and here you are no hero, you could be a roman legionnaire, a scribe, a farmer or a slave. We saw the impact of it in all kinds of TV series, but that is the story told us. So what would it be to live it? And that is only the beginning. At some point Ubisoft will create a Unreal Engine 5 transfer making it as lively as possible and there we could use these programs to educate. And Ubisoft has the IP to make larger changes to programs like AC Mirage and add Arabic to the fold. 

Now some people might think that this seems boring and yes. It is not a slice and dice game, but it is IP that exists and could get a double function. You see as people ‘return’ to learning the classical languages they will also increase several other languages Spanish, Italian all have a grounding from Latin and in this day and age, we need more to keep us busy. There is only so many time that you can chase a Pokemon, or kill the masses in a race car. To give people something more will soon be the only way. The people and the gamers want more. I have nothing against Elden Ring or games of that nature, but how long can you play these games? And here Ubisoft clearly has the upper hand. They created such treasures from the old days. The renaissance, Egypt, Native America, Victorian London, Paris and a few other places. They have the materials, so why not employ the powers to use them for education? For me and many others Egypt have held sway on us and there we get two settings. In the first the Egyptians and in the second degree the romans. The second one could be set to the area of Pissa Oros Citadel. Where you have to complete several ‘tasks’ whilst you optionally do it all in latin (an optional advanced setting). And now (either as Egyptian or Roman) you do it without any assassin skills. 

Will it be successful? I believe it will and with the IP already made by Ubisoft, there would be a case to see it happen. 

Am I right? I don’t know, but the idea to learn ancient Greek, Latin or Egyptian is immensely appealing and I know there are more who find it appealing. There is whole group on Twitter (still refusing to call it X) with the notion to lean Latin, with a few thousand members. 

Just a thought to get through the day, it’s Thursday here now.

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November 25, 2023 · 02:11

Stopped making sense

Yes, at some point my mind stops making sense. Even to me. The weird part was that I had no idea whether it was simply a dream, the setting for a video game, a script or even the future. OK, the last speculation was definitely not the case. 

I was on trip with a motorcycle, riding the roads and taking trains in or around Switzerland. The roads had gotten so bad that bikes were allowed on trains (for an extra fee). I was being hunted by an assassin with a chrome coloured .22 with a silencer and that dweep was really accurate with that party popper. I had escaped his vision and I got somewhere around Lausanne (I had to look it up). The thinks that make it all unreal was in the first the bike, which was the bike Kaneda drove in Akira. The second part was the hotel outside of Lausanne. I had room 25334. I have never ever seen or been in a hotel with numbers that high. My mind filled in the blanks from trips to that region. 

The thing that is the most elusive were the roads. The roads had to a larger degree collapsed. They were pretty good in Switzerland, but with Germany’s economy collapsed the roads in Bavaria were dismal, no mentionable repairs had been made in close to a decade and certain seismic shifts broke the roads even further. 

There was a stage where it could have been the setting for a new game, gaming with a difference. You see GaaS (or streaming service) allows for a larger stage of gaming. Consider that a game has more than one side. Consider the setting where you have a management game for infrastructure on your mobile. A match 3, or a Tetris, or puzzle game (or all) that gives you funds for your infrastructure. The results comes into play in the larger game. If you do not do that (always valid) you aggregated average of a cluster of gamers is what the game uses to improve infrastructure and utilities. This would show in all kinds of ways. The hotel was perhaps a reference to the collapsing cities. As economies go bust many buildings will lack maintenance. The cities would become deathtraps. Certain ‘luxury’ hotels would be available all over the world for those who could afford it and local hotels in places that still run would be the envy for those who could not afford to stay there and boosting local economies for those who could. 

It is an evolving idea, but the premise that this is an optional truth coming to us in the near future has been a driving force in gaming for the longest of times. What does matter is how we push that future. I believe that streaming systems will become the future. By being inclusive in more than one direction is one way to go, not the only one, but one direction that many game makers have ignored (for too long). There is also the other side (one I am not ignoring) not all lie the match 3 games. They are algorithms that are designed to make you almost succeed. I hate them. But there are other directions, other games you could play on your mobile. So how to connect them? How to get another game to entice people to play and then connect them to the stage of the larger game? This is not always an easy task, but it is a challenge worth meeting. 

Then there is another path that occurred to me and that one is specifically for Ubisoft. Sony had the Playstation Home (2008-2015) and many miss that open simplicity. Ubisoft has/had AC Brotherhood, AC Black Flag, AC Origin and AC Mirage. Just 4 out of a lot of options. Any person can get an account and can select a world and they end up being in that world owning a house (partially random) and for $1-3 a month the can have a house in a second location. There is also the upgrade. As you select for the upgrade in location one (a more unique setting) you get the second location for free (or the second location upgrades the building in location one). It allows for a new setting for fans. A place they loved they can live there, walk around that town or city and  live to some degree in that temporal environment. Now consider that Ubisoft adds a VR engine. Now the AC fans will get a jug of lemonade from places they revere. And there as an additional setting. It is an environment where Ubisoft has exclusive marketing rights. A place where they can evolve NPC characters and it is in a system where there will be millions of fans. All the places we ran through, but now we can call Alexandria, Aaru, Aten, Duat, Krokodilopolis, Baghdad, Firenze, Rome, Venice, Monteriggioni or Havana our home. As these places evolve and as our systems evolve, we could end up with an actual address that can be wielded in the real world. 

As such our secondary address could become an actual address. These are services now laughed at, but 25 years ago web addresses were laughed at, now over 1,500,000,000 people have one and they are holding onto this for dear life. Ubisoft lost (read: squandered) so many IP options, perhaps it is time to look back in seeing what they could regain and it is their advantage, the graphics are already there. The places to see are already theirs.

Just a though and it might not make a lot of sense, but in 1995 a web location made no sense at all either. Evolution is where you see it.

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October 12, 2023 · 01:22

The Bagdad butcher

I gave you an impression 5 days ago and now it is time for the review. I hadn’t planned it because of certain facts, but as I got a 20% discount, the option was decently good. As such I will go back to the article ‘Where is the Fata Morgana?’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2023/10/07/where-is-the-fata-morgana/) where I gave you all impressions of the game. Now that I have played it, it is time to give you the lowdown. The first part is what I saw from the reviews. The graphics are phenomenal. The setting looks good and it feels smooth. 

So now about some of the other views. One view was “A richly constructed world and a pared-down gameplay experience refocusing on stealth and assassinations don’t save a game that is largely just okay”. I disagree. I have slammed Ubisoft and I slammed the Assassins Creed franchise basically since before Unity. This game they got mostly right. 

So what’s mostly right?
This is a setting we do not see directly, but we do see it indirectly. There are a few settings in the beginning that are questionable (optionally not wrong). I saw 2-3 glitches, but they do not stop the game. There are a few settings that are up for grabs. The game has a larger setting towards stealth and I like it. Those who go in fighting (like AC Origins) end up being dead, plain and simple. The NPC intelligence needs an upgrade. I got away with a little too much and it is purely due to the shoddy intelligence of the NPC, it does not break the game and it does not hinder the storyline. There are upgrades to the game and the approach to intrusions have been upgraded, which is good. The overall game is decently satisfying. I also like the way that they have upgraded tools and how you can make weapons more powerful. I especially like the setting that you get to choose WHAT way you want to make these tools more powerful. All these elements contribute to making this Assassins Creed a much more interesting game than the previous game. 

Some gave the critique that the story is bland, the characters are too shallow. I did not have that feeling as I was playing the game and the voice of Shohreh Aghdashloo is sublime. Perhaps my only issue here is that the AC Master should have looked more like the actress, less silver in her hair. With Basim it is a different story. I did like the voice and the character, but his voice seems to stay more neutral during the game. Consider that I just climbed walls, killed over 30 guards (I killed nearly everyone in that prison, just for the fun of it) and then I meet up with the others and I am not even out of breath? This and the NPC part are small issues. None of them interfered with the ability to have fun. At this point I have no idea how much more issues, or glitches I will face. Yt I do believe that those who liked the first two Assassins Creed’s will find a game that they will enjoy. If there is one thing I would change then it is that artificial narration to be switched off from the start. So when I play the game again (very likely to happen) I might set it to Arabic (with English subtitles) to get that authentic Middle Eastern vibe going. 

I have slammed Ubisoft plenty of times. This one they got right (mostly) and that needs to be said too. Beyond all other things I do believe in fairness.

Enjoy the day.

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October 8, 2023 · 09:52

The preluding thought

This started a few hours ago. I was in a conversation when a thought occurred. The idea would have merit, but I was amazed that no one has acted on this, not in years. The first culprit would be Ubisoft. They are so caught up in what they perceive to be innovation that actual innovation passes them by. They might be the biggest one, but they are not alone. In less then an hour I had the setting maturing in my brain. So lets take a look

This is the selfie system. A gamer can upload a selfie into the gaming portal, from there it goes to a server side processing module and from there it goes into the game. We have all these photo options. Yet, I reckon that millions of gamers would want to see themselves in Whiterun, standing in front of a dead Thunderjaw, standing in Gotham, being in Cyberpunk and some of these games would allow you to buy the postcard in the game (in Cyberpunk) and that postcard of you in the City Center could be ‘mailed’ to your game account, downloaded and you could put it on your social media. The funny thing is that this approach was an option 10 years ago. There are of course the funny flaky moments (an 21st century image of you in 9th century Bagdad), you name it, there are options.

The server-side processing module would be the IP of the gaming company and it could be applied to EVERY game they want to, and that one server-side module would be applied to EVERY game, so one module only and as the stage evolves that module just gets better and better.  The portal might alter per game and per console, but there are already options with Sony, Nintendo likely too. PC had these options decades ago. The portal is the only one that might need adjusting for every game, as such every game will have a portal part, but that is actually the smallest part of all.

What baffles me is that no one has put this in place. Perhaps there are reasons and I reckon that there would be a need to set the legal premise that every uploader is legally responsible for WHAT they upload. Yet I do believe that this is a minor adjustment. It also corroborates with a thought I had years ago. To upload your image so that the character you play represents you. Wouldn’t it be great if you are the photo mode? I know that this cannot be done with every game, but a Nord in Solitude that looks like you? Skyrim has sold 60 million copies, that implies that well over 30% would want this. That is almost 20 million social media posts and those on multiple channels will show it everywhere. So why has no one considered and acted on this?

I refuse to believe that I am the first one, but the lack of actions on the other side (game developers) seem to imply that no one has seriously looked at that part of gaming. You see games can only exist as they cater to the gamer, that much has been a fact for decades. So what gives?

I will let you ponder that, for me Monday is only 14 hours away, enjoy the day you have.

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October 7, 2023 · 00:35

Where is the Fata Morgana?

Yes, this is about Ubisoft’s AC Mirage. First of all, this is NOT a review or rating setting. This is about impressions. If the spin systems is about giving you impressions, I need to give you an Impression too, but it needs to be fair. 

And I cannot give you a review, because I did not play the game. Yet I believe that YouTube is filled with people who ddid not play it either. So here comes

On the plus side
It is stated by many sources that this is a return to the original AC games. I consider this a plus, no doubt about it. On the second side are the graphics and AC Mirage drips with amazing graphics. All the play throughs I saw, the graphics were amazing. The stage is set in a wonderful way. 

On the debatable side
This is my view, but the game is 78% at metacritic, the rest is giving it around 80%. That is not good. A game like this needs to be 90% or better, or at least very close to 90% and that is not a given, not from any of the sources that I find creditable. In a larger station nearly all of them have issues, bland this, bland that. It is THEIR views. What I saw is actors who gave 100%, to give the best characters. Characters like mentor Roshan, played by Shohreh Aghdashloo is more than a treat. Lee Majdoub plays Basim Ibn Ishaq and they did a great job from everything I saw online. Yet some reviewers say that this was bland, which amounts to not good enough. I feel uneasy to agree with this. The critical side on the story line is something I can support. You see, some sources give us that Assassin’s Creed Mirage is estimated to take players around 11 hours to beat the main story, 15 hours with side-missions added and just under 24 hours for a 100 per cent completion run. This is nowhere near good enough. It is less than the very first AC game. Yes, I have heard the setting that is was meant to be a DLC, I have heard that this game is only $80, but from those settings I state that this game is merely 50% of what it should be. This is an impression I have. If 24 hours is 100% and we see an introduction of around 2 hours, we see that this game is decently less than we find acceptable and Ubisoft should have done better.

On the bad side
To many reviews have issues with the game, to many media give us something is wrong here and we see too many YouTubes that give is all kind of solutions and shortcuts on the SECOND day. How weird is that? In all the parts I have looked at, this should not have happened, the fact that these video’s are out before the first weekend is out implies that Ubisoft have lost grip on the situation to a degree that is just too weird to mention. I get that these things become too openly available in week 2, but to see all this on day 2 is just unacceptable, it also gives too many people a reason to skip this title.

Verdict
I cannot say whether this game is good or not, but certain issues make this a lot less good than we would have given this. To give a frame of reference. I played the very first game on PS3 and Xbox360, I never got ALL the flags, but that was OK. I got nearly all of them and I played the game at least three times (twice on the 360). The game was above all a joyride of the first order and I believe that this part is seemingly missing in this latest edition of the game, especially with a main storyline a mere 11 hours large, and if that has a one hour introduction, the game is shallow. Too shallow. This is my view on the facts given to us and what angers me is that this IP was great, it was truly great. And the graphical side implies that the Ubisoft team hasn’t lost their touch. So why a game a mere 11 hours long? Forbes gave us ‘‘Assassin’s Creed Mirage’ Reviews Are In And Just Okay’. Really? Just okay? That implies that Ubisoft is pretty much done for, and that is the firm Microsoft is sharing cloud conditions with? You have got to be joking. Other sources tell us that the completion time is less than 24 hours. Is this true? I cannot tell, but too many less than stellar views made it important for me to set my impression on the internet too. For those who have Ubisoft plus or Game Pass it does not matter. Oh it does, it is not on Game Pass, but apparently it is on Ubisoft plus. I reckon that Game pass will get it when the price drops in the shops. When we get another list of issues and ‘features’ and the game goes the pricing of some of the other Ubisoft games, it will probably be launched on Game Pass. And that is not speculations. Yesterday I saw some articles that there are stability issues. Is that true? I cannot tell, but these all relate to the PC version. So I cannot say whether this exists on Xbox or PS5. 

But overall none of these negative sides should exist. This is as I personally see it another flaw in the Ubisoft testing side of matters. Yes, it is speculative and it is my personal view, but consider that we see articles of game freeze issues. Perhaps valid, perhaps not yet the larger issue is that this should not have happened, these issues should have been captured in alpha stage, in the alpha stage we should have seen a much better storyline (read: longer) because if Ubisoft sees a main line of 11 hours as acceptable, they truly have lost the plot in gaming. That is how I see that part. In addition to all this we see all kinds of other issues. Yet, we do not see them from credible sources. As such I am not stating that these articles are false or wrong. I merely wonder why others aren’t giving us those articles. Is it platform related? Is it a simple glitch? Your guess is as good as mine, but the fact that these articles are out there is a call for other matters and I will let you consider what the matter is. I honestly do not know.

So consider what you will do, but I do recommend that you check with the sources you consider credible (example: EuroGamer, IGN)

Enjoy the day and enjoy whatever game you really like.

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