It’s hard to believe it, but it’s true: if it wasn’t for possibly Yves Guillemot‘s son, Assassin’s Creed might look entirely different nowadays.

Charles Randall was formerly the team lead on artificial intelligence at Ubisoft, and he worked on Assassin’s Creed, which launched in November 2007 on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, followed by a PC port in April 2008. On Twitter, he explained how the game got expanded at the last possible second: „If you’ve ever played the original Assassin’s Creed, you’d know that there were the missions with the targets, and there were also a bunch of side activities. What if I told you those side activities didn’t exist in the first submission?

The CEO’s kid played the game and said it was boring and there was nothing to do in the game. So my lead comes to me and he says, ‘So, we have to add a bunch of side activities into the game. We have a plan from Patrice [Désilets], but I’m not going to say yes unless you are in.’ I tell him to give me some time to think about it, and I go crank my music and have a nap at my desk. He says, ‘We have to put all these side missions into the game in five days, and they have to be bug-free because the build is going to be burned directly to disc and released to retail.’ About an album later I lift my head and see him sitting there staring at me, just waiting for me to give him an answer. I say, ‘Yes. But I have conditions.’ He says, ‘Anything.’

So that’s how myself and 4 or 5 other people ended up in the main conference building of Montreal’s Peck building, which is normally only accessible with a special door card. And it was only us who had access. No one else was allowed in. We had all our computers moved there. The rest of it is a blur, but I know that it went super well, because we did it. We managed to implement all of it in five days,” he wrote. Sure, the game wasn’t entirely bug-free. There was one in the X360 version that prevented the players from maxing its gamerscore (1000 – and the PlayStation 3 didn’t even have trophies at that point yet).

Let’s hope that Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla‘s flyting isn’t implemented in such a rushed fashion. In the video below, Ashraf Ismail explains the rhythmical verbal battles between the Vikings, including Eivor. Since it was a part of their culture, it got included. You have to choose the fitting insult or the one that fits the rhythm. The game launches this Fall on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, PC (Epic Games Store, Ubisoft Store), PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Google Stadia.

Source: PSL, PCGamer

Viking rap battles, you say? @AshrafAIsmail will get you up to speed on how this all-new feature works in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.#AssassinsCreed #ACFacts pic.twitter.com/WB9BEYO0yC

— Assassin’s Creed (@assassinscreed) May 22, 2020

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