Assassin's Creed Mirage was envisioned as an homage to its franchise—a celebration of how it began and what it accomplished between 2007's Assassin's Creed and 2023's Mirage. Beginning as an idea for a DLC expansion that would take Eivor to the Middle East, it grew into a standalone prequel starring Basim, the enigmatic Hidden One from Valhalla. Developed as a shorter experience by Ubisoft Bordeaux, the return-to-roots game presented a distinctive set of challenges, which are explored in the March 22 GDC talk "Between Legacy and Modernity: Creating an Homage Game to the 15-Year-Old Assassin's Creed Franchise."

During the talk, Creative Director Stéphane Boudon and Lead Producer Fabian Salomon discuss the game's beginnings, its growth into a "remoot"—that is, something between a remake and a reboot - and how a streamlined approach helped them make tough choices and focus the game on the Assassin experience. To find out more, we spoke with Boudon and Salomon about some of the early concepts behind the game, a few features that didn't make the cut, and how Mirage re-introduced and redefined stealth as a gameplay pillar.

MSI made a really bold move building a handheld game console around an Intel Core Ultra processor, when traditional logic would've pushed them to the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme. The Claw is powered by a Core Ultra 7 155H processor with some tight power management by MSI. The 155H comes with a maxed out Arc Xe-LPG integrated graphics, with 8 Xe cores, worth 128 EU (1,024 unified shaders). In comparison, the Ryzen Z1 Extreme has a maxed out Radeon 780M with 12 CU worth 768 stream processors. Specs are just half the story, the design win the Arc Graphics gets from MSI as the primary GPU, over the Radeon 780M that comes from company that's been designing GPUs for close to 3 decades, is the main story here.

The MSI Claw is about the same size as an ASUS ROG Ally (powered by the Ryzen Z1), with a 16:9 1080p, 120 Hz touchscreen in the middle, flanked by two halves of the main controller. The MSI Center M is the main user interface, which runs on top of Windows 11. This has a game launcher, a platform aggregator (though not with a storefront), and will probably get some gamer social media features down the line. There are two variants of the Claw, the $749 main variant powered by the Core Ultra 7 155U, and a cheaper $699 variant that rocks a Core Ultra 5 135H (with 4P+8E CPU). Both come with a 53 Wh battery that's larger than the 40 Wh on the ROG Ally. The demo piece is the $749 model powered by the 155H, and was shown running "Assassin's Creed: Mirage" with XeSS enabled. Gameplay was butter smooth, and with reasonably good settings. The Claw is a much needed vote of confidence for the Arc Graphics team, more than anything.

Steam has launched its Winter Sale 2023, which runs from December 21st to January 4th, offering some impressive deals on popular games like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Diablo 4, Hoghwarts Legacy, Alan Wake 2, Assassin's Creed Mirage and others.

Although it does not offer free games, like it is the case with Epic Games Store Holiday Sale or GOG's Winter Sale, Steam might have the cheapest price on some games that you might have missed. There are plenty of titles on the list with discounts from 30, up to 75 percent, and it might be the perfect time to get some games that you might have missed.

Welcome to Epic Games Store's Black Friday Event 2023! Why launch it on a Tuesday? With the return of the Epic Coupon, delivering 33% off of eligible transactions, and a boost to 10% Epic Rewards, we couldn't wait until Friday to tell you! Save on a range of top games!

From Nov. 21, 2023 at 11 AM ET / 4 PM GMT / 5PM CET until Nov. 28, 11 AM ET / 4 PM GMT / 5 PM CET, any eligible transactions (see the Terms and Conditions), or shopping carts of $14.99 or over will have a 33% discount applied at checkout. And the coupon is limitless, so you'll receive one following each eligible transaction completed for the duration of the event. We'll also be boosting our Epic Rewards program to 10% for the duration of the event. We've crafted a Black Friday Buyer's Guide to help you out. We've gathered some highlights below, listing great titles new and old, but it's just a taste of the range of games that you can buy this Black Friday. Enjoy!

Last year, we posted an article on decommissioning online services for some older games. Today we have an update for you, as some additional online services will be decommissioned across several platforms on January 25, 2024. Decommissioning such services for older games is not something we take lightly, but is a necessity as the technology that drove those services has grown obsolete.

Below, you can find a list of the games and platforms affected. For a detailed breakdown of the effects of this decommissioning, please refer to our updated self-help article. Rest assured that the decommissioning of online services will only affect certain online functionalities; if you purchased these games, you will still be able to play them.

October brings more than falling leaves and pumpkin spice lattes for GeForce NOW members. Get ready for nearly 60 new games to stream, including Forza Motorsport and 16 more PC Game Pass titles.Assassin's Creed Mirage leads 29 new games to hit the GeForce NOW library this week. In addition, catch a challenge to earn in-game rewards for World of Warship players.

It's not an illusion - Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Mirage launches in the cloud this week. Mirage was created as an homage to the first Assassin's Creed games and pays tribute to the series' well-loved roots. Join the powerful proto-Assassin order - the Hidden Ones - as a 17-year-old street thief named Basim Ibn Is'haq as he learns to become a master assassin. Stalk the streets of a bustling and historically accurate ninth-century Baghdad - the perfect urban setting to seamlessly parkour across rooftops, scale tall towers and flee guards while uncovering a conspiracy that threatens the city and Basim's future destiny.Take a Leap of Faith into a GeForce NOW Ultimate membership and explore this new open world at up to 4K resolution and 120 frames per second. Ultimate members get exclusive access to GeForce RTX 4080 servers in the cloud, making it the easiest upgrade around.

Launching on October 5, Assassin's Creed Mirage takes place in ninth-century Baghdad during the Abbasid Caliphate, a golden age not only for Islam, but for art, science, culture, poetry, architecture, and so much more. To help the development team at Ubisoft Bordeaux make Mirage as culturally, religiously, and historically authentic as possible, three Ubisoft employees brought their local and global expertise: Mohammed Alemam, localization and social media manager at Ubisoft MENA (Middle East and North Africa); Malek Teffaha, Diversity, Inclusion, and Accessibility Senior Manager of Project Management; and Maya Loréal, Senior Manager, Inclusive Games and Content.

The three joined forces with Ubisoft's Humanities & Inspiration taskforce, led by Thierry Noël, in-house historians Dr. Raphaël Weyland and Maxime Durand, and Strategic Alliances director Amy Jenkins. Loréal managed relationships, and Alemam and Teffaha served as cultural, religious, and linguistic consultants. The three were integral to helping build the game from the ground up.

As we enter October—as well as autumn in the northern hemisphere—things kick off with a fairly big AAA release that involves assassins. The rest of the week is full of new games that range from lighting lamps to choo-choos and exploring unknown galaxies, to thieves and sword action to some kind of ice related sport. In other words, yet another jam packed week of new releases to look forward to.

Assassin's Creed Mirage / This week's AA title / Thursday 5 October
Experience the story of Basim, a cunning street thief with nightmarish visions, seeking answers and justice as he navigates the bustling streets of ninth-century Baghdad. Through a mysterious, ancient organization known as the Hidden Ones, he will become a deadly Master Assassin and change his fate in ways he never could have imagined.

MSI, the global leading brand in gaming, officially announced a collaboration with the renowned global game publisher, UBISOFT, for the highly anticipated game Assassin's Creed Mirage, which will be available worldwide on October 5th. Gamers who purchase designated high-end gaming laptops, gaming monitors or gaming routers equipped with the 13th generation Intel processors from MSI will have the chance to get a redemption code for Assassin's Creed Mirage.

UBISOFT's Assassin's Creed Mirage is an homage to the series and a particularly special tribute to the first Assassin's Creed. Inviting players to immerse themselves in a magnificent ninth-century Baghdad at the peak of its Golden Age, Assassin's Creed: Mirage offers a condensed, narrative-driven action-adventure experience with a modern take on the parkour, stealth, and assassination gameplay elements that have defined the franchise for over fifteen years. In this pivotal moment of History, players will become Basim Ibn Is'haq, a young thief with a mysterious past who joins the Hidden Ones in Alamut on a quest for answers.

Assassin's Creed Nexus VR will launch for Meta Quest devices - including Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest 3, and Meta Quest Pro - on November 16, enabling players to leap into a first-person virtual-reality adventure for the first time in the Assassin's Creed franchise. Embodying Assassin's Creed heroes Ezio Auditore, Connor, and Kassandra, players will parkour, climb freely across open maps, and use real-world motions to fight their way through a full-fledged Assassin's Creed adventure set across three different eras.

As an undercover hacker in the modern day, players will work from inside Abstergo to foil a plot to change people's beliefs using ancient technology. Working under Abstergo's cybersecurity chief, Dominika Wilk (played by award-winning actress Morena Baccarin), players will explore newly discovered memories from Renaissance Italy, the American Revolution, and Ancient Greece.

When Assassin's Creed Mirage launches on October 5, it will represent a return to the series' roots - but what does that mean, exactly? For one thing, it means we'll be back in the Middle East (the dense urban landscape of Baghdad, specifically) amongst the ranks of the Hidden Ones, who at this point are classic Assassins in all but name - working out of secret bureaus, constructing the legendary fortress at Alamut, and sporting the familiar white robes we first saw on Altaïr back in 2007. They can also speak entirely in their native language, with the series' first-ever full localization in Arabic.

But the connection isn't merely in the setting and story; Assassin's Creed Mirage recaptures the spirit of the series' origins through gameplay, in ways both big and small. For example, as a former street thief, Basim can pickpocket people in the crowds, much like Ezio Auditore could. He can also make use of explosive noisemakers and mines, like the ones Ezio could craft in Assassin's Creed Revelations - and if he draws too much attention, his notoriety will rise, and players will need to tear down wanted posters or bribe officials if they don't want continual, escalating attention from guards.

Ubisoft has proudly announced that the upcoming Assassin's Creed Mirage, has gone gold, and that the game launch has been pulled forward, from October 12th to October 5th. Assassin's Creed Mirage is developed by Ubisoft Bordeaux, and it will bring back focus on parkour, stealth, and assassinations.

As the game has gone gold, meaning that the development has been completed, we expect more information as we get closer to the announced launch date. Ubisoft has previously released gameplay and story trailers back in June, as well as confirmed that there are no plans for any DLC content for Assassin's Creed Mirage. As said, the game will launch on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox on October 5th.

Intel on Wednesday released the latest version of its Arc GPU Graphics Drivers. Version 101.4514 beta includes a handful performance updates. To begin with, it adds optimization for "AEW: Fight Forever," and "Layers of Fear." "Assassin's Creed Unity" is playable, with the drivers providing a 271% performance uplift at 1080p, and 313% uplift at 1440p, as tested using an A770 graphics card. F1 22 sees some performance uplifts: at 1080p with High settings, one can expect up to 36% improvement in frame-rates. At 1440p with High settings, up to 20% uplifts can be had. At 1080p with Ultra High settings and ray tracing enabled, up to 10% uplifts can be had. "Deathloop" is the third game with major performance uplifts—up to 10% at 1080p with Ultra settings; and up to 8% at 1440p with Very High settings.

DOWNLOAD: Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.4514

Assassin's Creed Mirage launches on October 12, 2023, for Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One, taking players to ninth-century Baghdad, where a young Basim starts his journey to become a Hidden One. Haunted by visions, Basim begins as a common street thief, but with guidance from Fuladh and Roshan (voiced by Shohreh Aghdashloo), he will grow to become a master assassin.

An homage to the first Assassin's Creed, Mirage will emphasize classic stealth gameplay, with tools that include throwing knives and smoke bombs, as well as new abilities like Assassin's Focus - which lets Basim take down multiple enemies in rapid succession. Additionally, Assassin's Creed Mirage will be fully localized in Arabic, allowing players across the world to experience the story in Basim's native language.

Assassin's Creed Mirage is coming to Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One on October 12. A return to stealth for the franchise, Mirage takes place in the ninth century during Baghdad's Golden Age, with players guiding Basim from a young street thief to a master Hidden One, eventually becoming the man we see in Assassin's Creed Valhalla. Ubisoft also revealed a new gameplay trailer today, in which fresh features debuted alongside old favorites, with an overall emphasis on stealth, player choice, and parkour. Throwing knives and smoke bombs make their return to the franchise, as do the large-scale choose-your-own-path assassination Black Box missions.

New abilities like Assassin's Focus let Basim take out a group of guards in an instant, while pole-vaulting lets him traverse rooftops with ease as he makes his getaway. The trailer also provided a glimpse of Fuladh, the Hidden Ones' Eagle-Master and one of Basim's key allies in Baghdad.

NVIDIA has released its newest Hotfix Driver 531.58 which is based on the latest Game Ready Driver 531.41, but brings fixes for The Last of Us Part 1 game that may randomly crash on GeForce RTX 30 series graphics cards. It also fixes stability issues in Assassin's Creed Origins game, and corruption issues when FXAA is enabled in Resident Evil 4 Remake.

This hotfix addresses the following issues:

• [The Last of Us Part 1] Game may randomly crash during gameplay on GeForce RTX 30 series GPUs [4031676]
• Assassin's Creed Origins may have stability issues when using 531.18. [4008770]
• [Resident Evil 4 Remake] Corruption in the game when FXAA enabled [4051903]

GeForce Hotfix Driver Version 531.58 can be found here and is available for Windows 10 x64 and Windows 11 x64.

Steam's Spring 2023 sale has kicked off, offering a bunch of PC games at discount. To celebrate its first year anniversary, Valve is also giving a 10 percent discount for the Steam Deck during the Spring sale. There are plenty of great titles on sale, and some of the popular include Forza Horizon 5, God of War, Battlefield 2042, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Total War Warhammer, Red Dead Redemption 2, and more.

There are several franchises on discount as well, including The Witcher, Battlefield, Borderlands, Fallout, Resident Evil, The Elder Scrolls, Civilization, Hitman, Doom, Far Cry, and others. As noted, the Steam Deck is also on sale with 10 percent discount. This means that if you are in the US, you can get the base version for just $359 while the 512 GB version is down to $584.

Ubisoft has recently announced plans to decommission servers for 15 games on September 1st 2022 removing any multiplayer functionality and limiting access to downloadable content for certain titles. The games set to lose their servers include several Assassin's Creed titles for PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and the Wii U alongside Anno 2070, Far Cry 3, Rayman Legends, and more. These games are mostly older releases except for the VR multiplayer shooter Space Junkies that was launched in 2019.

UbisoftClosing the online services for some older games allows us to focus our resources on delivering great experiences for players who are playing newer or more popular titles. To help us achieve this, a number of older titles will be added to our list of decommissioned online services on 1 September 2022.

Ubisoft is looking to capture itself a piece of the lucrative pie of live service games with its Assassin's Creed franchise. Following on the steps of multiple game development studios (let's not forget Bungie's Destiny 2, Fortnite, and the upcoming Halo Infinite), Ubisoft seems to have reached the conclusion that their Assassin's Creed universe is better served by being treated exactly like that - a forever evolving, frequently updated framework instead of the usual one-off interpretations of the franchise.

Assassin's Creed Infinity (working title) will supposedly usher in multiple historical settings and a collaborative, inter-studio developmental framework between Ubisoft Montreal and Ubisoft Quebec, who will jointly "(...) guide, grow, evolve, and define the overall future of Assassin's Creed". Ubisoft wants to end the constant baton-passing of Assassin's Creed through its two development studios, and hopes that this change (alongside a mixed studio leadership) allows the franchise to really breathe in their in-house talent independent of developmental location.

LG Electronics (LG) announces a planned partnership with Google to bring Stadia to its latest webOS smart TVs in the second half of this year. After Stadia comes to Google TV, LG will be the first TV manufacturer to natively support Stadia gameplay via webOS.

LG is demonstrating its commitment to supporting premium gaming on its state-of-the-art displays, made even more compelling with support for 4k and 5.1 surround sound for Stadia Pro users. Stadia on LG TVs will allow customers to instantly play hit Stadia games such as Cyberpunk 2077, NBA 2K21, Assassin's Creed: Valhalla and Watch Dogs: Legion with just a Stadia controller and no additional hardware or game downloads required.

AMD today released the latest version of Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition. Version 20.11.1 beta comes with optimization for Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War, DiRT 5, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, and Godfall. With Godfall, the drivers offer up 7% higher performance as tested with an RX 5700 XT. The driver changelog does not mention any issues fixed with this release, and only a short list of new issues known to AMD, which it's working on to fix. Grab the drivers from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 20.11.1The change-log follows.

Ubisoft has been a major proponent of Google Stadia since release announcing plans to integrate uPlay+ and was the first major publisher to release a new game on the platform. Ubisoft has recently announced plans to bring eight older titles to Stadia in the coming weeks, these games include; Watch Dogs, Watch Dogs 2, Assassin's Creed Origins, Assassin's Creed Syndicate, Assassin's Creed Unity, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands, Far Cry New Dawn, and Far Cry 5. These titles are in addition to major new releases such as Watch Dogs: Legion, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, and Far Cry 6 which are set to launch in the coming months. A variety of smaller Ubisoft games are also coming soon to Stadia, including Just Dance 2021, Immortals Fenyx Rising, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game, and Riders Republic.

Today, during the Ubisoft Forward digital conference, Ubisoft announced that the next installment in the Assassin's Creed franchise, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, will release worldwide November 17, 2020, on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, the Epic Games Store and Ubisoft Store on Windows PC, as well as on UPLAY+, the Ubisoft subscription service and Stadia.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla will also release on Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 upon the launch of the consoles. Players who purchase Assassin's Creed Valhalla on Xbox One or PlayStation 4 will be able to upgrade their game to the next-gen version (Xbox Series X or PlayStation 5) at no additional cost. Brand-new gameplay shown at the digital conference illustrates new features that players can enjoy, including dual-wielding, raiding, assaults and open world activities. Raids will be more action-packed and brutal than anything Assassin's Creed has seen before, with players able to take advantage of a new visceral combat system that lets players bash, dismember and decapitate foes. Eivor will be able to dual-wield axes, swords and even shields against the greatest variety of enemy types ever seen in an Assassin's Creed. Additionally, the return of the Hidden Blade allows Eivor to assassinate targets with deadly precision.

Thanks to a discovery by TweakTown, we have obtained game footage pictures of the Ubisoft Assassin's Creed: Valhalla. While TweakTown does not share any video links due to respect for Ubisoft developers, we still get to see the medieval-themed Assassin's game. It is mostly resembling a Witcher 3 vibe, which is a good thing. Combining the gameplay of classic Assassin's Creed game with stunning visuals, the game is set to be a hit. Right off the bat, the game starts in a bloody and chaotic battle. On the battlefield, there is lots of equipment you can interact with, like a siege engine and battering rams. Being that the setting is a medieval one, there are of course castles that you need to overtake. Ubisoft may officially launch game footage at its Forward event on July 12th, when we could take a closer look at the upcoming game. For now, please check out the pictures below.

AMD is planning to bundle "Assassin's Creed: Valhalla" will 3rd generation Ryzen desktop processors in a yet-unannounced game bundle likely to go live on July 7, according to a VideoCardz report. Localized to select markets and retailers, the bundle will see AMD giving away coupons for the latest chapter in the Assassin's Creed universe, with retail Ryzen 7 3700X, Ryzen 7 3800X, Ryzen 7 3800XT, Ryzen 9 3900X, Ryzen 9 3900XT, and Ryzen 9 3950X. Interestingly, there's no release date for the game itself, besides a vague "Holiday 2020" as announced by Ubisoft, so it's likely that redeeming the game bundle coupon will simply add ownership of the game to your UPlay account (similar to a pre-order), which you can download/pre-load and play when the game is released.