30. Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden

Don’t Nod’s second major action RPG, Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden was released early last year, and it turned out to be a way better experience than Vampyr. Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden was an excellent action role playing game with plenty to do with story being its main focus. Throughout the game’s narrative, players would have to make tough decisions which can result in any of the five endings.

The update, clocking in at around 230 MB, pushes Assassin’s Creed Origins up to version 1.62, while the Assassin’s Creed Valhalla update weighs in at around 500 MB, and pushes the game up to version 1.7.0. They don’t add anything aside from fixing compatibility issues for the games with Windows 11 24H2.

Both titles have been facing complaints from PC players because of these compatibility issues, with players taking to Steam’s reviews section to post negative reviews. This led to review bombing, with the aggregate rating for Assassin’s Creed Origins dropping from “Very Positive” to “Mixed” as a result.

Interestingly, other Ubisoft titles affected by these issues, which include Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, and Star Wars Outlaws, haven’t yet gotten similar updates to fix these issues. The publisher has yet to provide an ETA on the same.

Originally rolling out for Windows 11 back in November, the 24H2 update generally offered a performance upgrade for most games, depending on the user’s hardware. However, it also caused issues in some Ubisoft titles like crashes and severe performance drops.

Ubisoft titles have been uniquely affected by Windows 11 24H2, with even Microsoft acknowledging the issue and stopping the update from being released for Windows 11 users. Affected Ubisoft titles include Star Wars Outlaws, Assassin’s Creed Origins, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.

The 24H2 update for Windows 11 was originally rolled out back in November, with many other titles getting significant performance upgrades thanks to the update working particularly well with some of AMD’s processors. Ubisoft titles, however, seem to be facing compatibility issues with the update.

At the time of writing, the overall review aggregate for Assassin’s Creed Origins on Steam sits at “Very Positive”, with the recent reviews aggregate having fallen down to “Mixed”.

Assassin’s Creed entries are perhaps most identifiable by their respective settings, so we’ll start there first. AC Origins is set in Egypt just before the turn of the first Century. Alexandria was still the trade capital of the world, and known figures were reigning, making this a ripe time and place for an AC game. Before Exploring Origins’ depiction of Egpyt itself though, let’s reminisce on the brilliant traversal used to get from point A to point B.

Just like many open world games, you have a mount to travel long distances with. Except with Origins, you get a wide variety of mount types, from camels to unicorns and even … a chocobo?!? Yes, you can ride a chocobo in AC Origins. The mount controls feel natural and intuitive with automatic movement in the direction you aim, freeing you up to examine the environment and initiate mounted combat. Camels are best suited for combat while horses have better stamina and speed for long-distance journeys. Like Breath of the Wild, the mount seeks roads automatically without the game fighting your control away. Of course, the main character Bayek is no slouch himself, with a tight turn radius and snappy run-and-jump controls that feel breezy.

Exploring Egypt in Assassin’s Creed Origins is a sublime treat, not only because of the intuitive and snappy controls, but the environments. AC Origins may have the most beautifully diverse environment out of all the games in the storied franchise to date. There’s the obvious deserts and pyramids you’d expect from the Egyptian setting, and they’re recreated with stunning realism in AC Origins. But then, there’s the Nile River and its surrounding swamps and jungles, which are filled to the gills with crocodiles and other native species. The density of animals and how they’re portrayed is brilliant in AC Origins. Flocks of flamingos scatter away realistically as you approach them, and vultures characteristically circle their prey. Seriously, this is the Assassin’s Creed game to experience if you want diverse African wildlife; it’s got it in spades. Heck, you can even tame the wildlife, using lions and hippos to temporarily fight for you; how fricken’ cool is that?

The cities of Thebes, Memphis, and Alexandria are no less jaw-dropping than the surrounding wildlife. AC Origins retains that classic density that the series is known for as you brush dense crowds aside on your way to a tall building begging to be lept off of. The realization of Egypt was so well executed in Origins that a Discovery tour mode was added serving as a guided tour of various key locations detailing their potential stories. Discovery Tour is a master class on how you do interactive learning. This mode lets you control a wide selection of NPCs as you walk through the locations and listen to narrations in a safe environment. Entries can be re-read in the archives. Discovery Tour would later be used for AC Odyssey and AC Vahalla.

And then there’s the thing that made AC Origins really stand out from previous entries: the eagle. You use your eagle friend, Senu, for aerial reconnaissance in AC Origins. When I first saw this mechanic being shown off in previews, I thought it would make the game too easy, essentially giving us even more superhuman abilities as an assassin, but the execution works out splendidly. As you return to Bayek’s perspective, you see enemy outlines and routes through buildings and obstacles. The top-down ‘preview’ of the terrain, via your eagle, provides an element of memorization and strategy that past games in the series didn’t quite have. The extra reconnaissance tools at your disposal in Origins are similar to the high-tech gadgetry available to you in games like Splinter Cell or Deus Ex. You can pre-plan assassinations and ambushes using the eagle’s lay of the land in a more comprehensive way than ever before, making you feel like a tactical mastermind. Far from destroying the sense of difficulty, this literal eagle vision is balanced well with the more involved action combat that Origins introduced.

Bayek is something of a Renaissance man when it comes to combat style. There are four types of bows, from the shotgun-style Warrior Bows to the long-range Predator Bow, and there’s an even wider variety of melee weapons. The DPS stat is the most reliable way to tell how good a weapon is, but there’s many other parameters like reach and status ailments that you want to keep an eye on too. It’s a blast to create your own unique build in Assassin’s Creed Origins, something you could never do until this entry in the series. Want to be a close-range shotgunner with a long spear for range attacks? Or, does a sniper with duel swords sound more pleasing to you? You can also ignore builds entirely and just focus on skilled shield blocking and parrying to get through the game; the choice is yours.

While AC Origins wasn’t technically the first game in the series to have a skill tree, it is the first to fully flesh the skill tree out among its various weapon categories. Unity and Syndicate gave you skill points as you progressed the main story, but Origins followed a more traditional action game approach with skill points being rewarded based on experience gain. The RPG-ification of the series really started with Origins, for good and ill; and Origins did it best with its wide selection of weapon styles, balanced experience point gain, and fleshed-out skill tree.

Of course, you can still opt to play a pure assassin in AC Origins, only striking from the shadows with your hidden blade using Senu for reconnaissance. I had the most fun combat-wise when using Senu’s intel to devise stealth routes as I took out unsuspecting enemies and exited the scene undetected. But you can just as well go guns blazing as a bersker without any stealth whatsoever if you so wish. Origins balanced old-school stealth and action combat well, remaining unrivaled in its fusion of styles to this day.

Assassin’s Creed Origins exists as the true nexus point for the series, retaining much of what made the genre so loved (stealth) while injecting action RPG mechanics that the series would go on to live by. The next entry would abuse the existence of experience points and upgradable stats by aggressively gating content behind a heavy grind wall, clearly pressuring players to either pay for levels or grind side content. This stat-gating would continue with Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, with some major difficulty curves mandating further exploration of the map and/or purchase of level-up DLC. But Origins hit a good balance with a smooth experience rate and a campaign that wasn’t gated by artificially padded enemies. Assassin’s Creed Origins hit the sweet spot between stealth and action RPG elements really well, and we’re hoping the series returns back to this brilliant balance of styles with the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Shadows.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

PS4 players also gain access to Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX and Monster Energy Supercross – The Official Videogame 5. But other titles includ Spiritfarer: Farewell Edition, Chicory: A Colorful Tale, and Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2. Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Origins, Rabbids Invasion: The Interactive TV Show, Rayman Legends, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game – Complete Edition, and Watch Dogs 2 are also included.

The Classics Catalog, exclusive to PS Plus Premium subscribers, includes Syphon Filter 2 on the PS One. PS3 titles available via cloud streaming include Bentley’s Hackpack, The Sly Collection, and Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time. The new PlayStation Portable titles for the month include Kingdom of Paradise and Toy Story 3.

Since Assassin’s Creed Origins recently got an upgrade patch to enable 60 FPS for those playing it on the  Xbox Series X/S as well as PS5. Sadly, the game doesn’t support full 4K on the new consoles, but both systems should be able to run the game fine at an average of 1700p to 1800p with a dynamic buffer, as was the case on the Xbox One X.

The last major bit of content Assassin’s Creed Origins got was back in 2018, right before the launch of its sequel, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey.

Ubisoft recently celebrated the Assassin’s Creed franchise, during which it announced a new roguelite mode for its latest game—Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. Dubbed Forgotten Saga, the roguelite mode sees players venturing into Niflheim for a series of runs.

Does this mean you can experience the 2017 open world action RPG in 4K/60 FPS? The answer is somewhat complicated. Since it was updated to support Xbox One X and PS4 Pro, Origins runs at an average of 1700p to 1800p with a dynamic buffer on Microsoft’s console. The PS4 Pro version averages at about 1440p resolution most of the time.

It still looks very good, especially on a 4K display, and the 60 FPS boost should result in smoother gameplay (further testing is needed though). Don’t expect visual fidelity and pixel counts on par with Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and you should be fine. For more details on Assassin’s Creed Origins, check out our review here. In addition to the 60 FPS update, the title is out today on Game Pass.

First released in October 2017, Assassin’s Creed Origins is set in Egypt and focuses on Bayek, a Medjay who protects the people. Following the death of his son at the hands of a mysterious group, Bayek embarks on a quest for vengeance. Compared to previous entries, Origins emphasizes fast-paced, hack and slash combat along with loot, a massive open world and detailed side quests.

Its success informed the direction of sequels like Assassin’s Creed Odyssey (which also received a 60 FPS patch for current-gen consoles) and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. You can check out our review here for our thoughts.

You've been waiting, and now the winds of Egypt are calling….

Experience Assassin's Creed Origins in 60FPS – available for PS5 and Xbox Series consoles on June 2.#AssassinsCreed pic.twitter.com/SxxiyTROE0

— Assassin's Creed (@assassinscreed) May 31, 2022

On June 7th, as previously announced, Assassin’s Creed Origins arrives for cloud, consoles and PC. This may coincide with the release of the 60 FPS patch for Xbox Series X/S and PS5 – we’ll need to wait and see. Space combat title Chorus is out on the same day for the same platforms, providing a fast-paced, narrative-focused arcade shooting experience.

Brutal puzzler Disc Room and rogue-like co-op management title Spacelines from the Far Out also releases on June 7th. Both are coming to PC and consoles but Disc Room is also playable via the cloud. Check out the list of titles that will be leaving Game Pass on June 15th below. Play them now while you have the chance.

• Darkest Dungeon (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Dungeons and Dragons: Dark Alliance (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Greedfall (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Limbo (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Worms Rumble (Cloud, Console, and PC)

Of course, that patch still hasn’t arrived yet, though it seems that might change soon. Ubisoft seems to be teasing an imminent 60 FPS upgrade for Assassin’s Creed Origins on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, having recently taken to Twitter with the official Assassin’s Creed account with a tweet of a clip of protagonist Bayek, along with a cryptic accompanying caption that reads, “And the wait is almost over.”

Recently, Assassin’s Creed Origins was also made available via Xbox Game Pass. Read more on that through here.

"Sleep? I don't sleep. I just wait."

And the wait is almost over……. pic.twitter.com/4E7QPrmZtX

— Assassin's Creed (@assassinscreed) May 30, 2022