Digital Foundry || Assassin's Creed: The Ezio Collection on Nintendo Switch: Digital Foundry Tech Review

[ILikeFeet]

We've already seen some fairly successful Assassin's Creed ports for Nintendo Switch, but the arrival of The Ezio Collection completes the classic pre-Unity set. Just how well do these conversions stack up against the last-gen consoles - and indeed the Xbox 360 originals? Oliver Mackenzie reports.

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written article

Assassin's Creed Ezio Collection on Nintendo Switch isn't a bad port - but it could have been better

www.eurogamer.net

• AC2
  • lighting change for the remaster is back for the Switch, looks worse
  • no DoF, AO, lower shadow and texture resolution
  • lighting as some cuts as well
• Brotherhood
  • aesthetic is preserved compared to original release
  • similar cuts to DoF, AO, etc
• Revelations
  • remaster is a match
  • similar cuts, but also no atmospheric fog
• some areas are worse than original due to atmospherics being remove
• 936 - 1080p docked, 2 and Brotherhood are mostly 1080p, Revelation dips more, but still charts high
• no AA, which is weird as the 360 had it
• 540-720p handheld, res dips more often than docked
• when resolution drops, the image is scaled using nearest neighbor filtering, instead of linear filtering
• sharpness is preserved but exaggerates aliasing
• docked is near locked 30fps
• dips are momentary due to res scaling and cutscenes
• handheld has more drops
• both are still more stable than the 360 version
• audio mix seems messed up and compression is present again
• not bad versions, but could have been better

 

[Lant_War]

So the takeaway is that you get all the weird lighting changes from the remasters and almost none of the upgrades outside res. Weird port.

 

[ILikeFeet]

summary done. not bad but could be better

So the takeaway is that you get all the weird lighting changes from the remasters and almost none of the upgrades outside res. Weird port.

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pretty much. also some extra cuts compared to the 360 version. seems like a bandwidth issue

 

[Richietto]

Come the fuck on Ubisoft. Completely unacceptable that they look even worse than the original versions in some places.

 

[J_ToSaveTheDay]

I can't help but feel the results would've been better if Ubisoft had based this collection on the original 360/PS3 releases maybe?

Basing it off of the 2016 remasters feels like it actually wasn't the right move, but obviously that's just pure and largely baseless speculation on my part. The only thing I'm running with is the comparisons at the beginning of the DF video, where IMO the aesthetic looks better and presumably also would take a lot less compute grunt to run on something like the Switch, given the origins of the footage coming from 360 (though it is in BC mode).

 

[TaySan]

Weird there is no AA even the original had it. Embarrassing on Ubisoft's part

 

[bloopland33]

Do the PS4/XBO remasters have pop in like at 6:16 (the fountain's shadows) and 9:51 (buildings on the left)? Never played them.

 

[Deleted member 13101]

Both threads were created at the same time, nice!

https://www.resetera.com/threads/di...he-ezio-collection-on-nintendo-switch.562723/

 

[Liam Allen-Miller]

So the takeaway is that you get all the weird lighting changes from the remasters and almost none of the upgrades outside res. Weird port.

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Still a better portable version than what we had last month! :P

Also for what it's worth this seems like a perfectly fine way to first experience them.

 

[Lukar]

Weird there is no AA even the original had it. Embarrassing on Ubisoft's part

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Black Flag and Rogue didn't have any either iirc. Not sure about AC3 and Liberation.

 

[Transistor]

540P with no AA and dipping below 30 for a PS3 / 360 game? What the hell, Ubisoft?

 

[Man Called Aerodynamics]

I still hate the changes to lighting and color tone that they made to AC2. The original game had an ethereal look that's just gone now.

 

[Pottuvoi]

Nearest neighbor is not good solution for scaling outside of dividable resolutions.

 

[JangleLuke]

Well, the resolution scaling explains a certain bad moment I had while playing AC Brotherhood.

I used the "arrow rain" move in the center of a busy plaza just for kicks, and the image got CONSIDERABLY blocky for a few seconds, wish I had captured that.

With all of that said, as far as I'm concerned, the biggest disappointment of this collection is the absolute lack of screen recording; I personally find these games a goldmine of "innocuous" jank, and I would have loved to capture those moments of hilarity for keepsake.

Other than that, I'm satisfied with the collection, I blazed through AC2 and Brotherhood and had a lot of fun (I'm saving Revelations for sometime later in the year).

 

[Eoin]

So the takeaway is that you get all the weird lighting changes from the remasters and almost none of the upgrades outside res. Weird port.

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The Ezio Collection was always a strange one - a lot of the "upgrades" were really arguable as to whether they made things look better or not (especially on AC2). I think the major upgrades - the truly inarguable ones - were the higher resolution, better framerate and V-sync, and Switch did get those upgrades. Switch isn't doing so well visually, and in terms of performance, even though it's not as stable as it should be, it's still way ahead of the console originals which by today's standards were a mess.

I can't help but feel the results would've been better if Ubisoft had based this collection on the original 360/PS3 releases maybe?

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Maybe, but whatever their reasons were for creating the Ezio Collection in the first place would presumably apply to Switch as well. We've seen pretty good results from later AC games on Switch that appear to be more direct ports of the original and Ubisoft are presumably aware of that so maybe there's some technical reason why that wasn't easily done this time.

Do the PS4/XBO remasters have pop in like at 6:16 (the fountain's shadows) and 9:51 (buildings on the left)? Never played them.

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Not to that extent. They do still have pop-in, especially with foliage (and lighting effects have annoying distance limitation as well) but both of them are considerably better than the Switch version for that. You can see how that fountain looks on PS4 at 02:06:58 on this video - it's not great but not quite as bad as Switch.

 

[fourfourfun]

I can't help but feel the results would've been better if Ubisoft had based this collection on the original 360/PS3 releases maybe?

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That's how I feel. I've always treated the Switch as a 360+/PS3+ (like the Vita was a PS2+), and so getting a whole load of old gen bits and pieces running as best as they can would be perfect for me. Don't need to run remastered PS4 versions through it as you're always going to be punching up a bit. Punch down and do it well.

 

[wrowa]

I can't help but feel the results would've been better if Ubisoft had based this collection on the original 360/PS3 releases maybe?

Basing it off of the 2016 remasters feels like it actually wasn't the right move, but obviously that's just pure and largely baseless speculation on my part. The only thing I'm running with is the comparisons at the beginning of the DF video, where IMO the aesthetic looks better and presumably also would take a lot less compute grunt to run on something like the Switch, given the origins of the footage coming from 360 (though it is in BC mode).

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Frankly, with these kinds of super late ports it isn't really about delivering the best possible version but even more than usual about what's most cost efficient. Using the original versions as a base might have had resulted in a better overall product, but it's likely considerably easier - thus more cost efficient - to use the more recent 2016 codebase as the foundation.

 

[Serpens007]

I really want to get this, and it looks to be far from the port it should be. The problem is that it seems that there aren't an actual great way to play these anymore.

On original hardware you get low fps, low res, etc.
On the last gen remaster you get a lot of weird changes but at least good performance/res.
On Switch you get a middle ground between original hardware issues and last gen remaster weird changes
On PC, they're just awful ports and with often problems like controller issues.

I think I'll just get it on Switch for the replay. Seems non ideal, but at least it has the novelty of portability

 

[bloopland33]

Not to that extent. They do still have pop-in, especially with foliage (and lighting effects have annoying distance limitation as well) but both of them are considerably better than the Switch version for that. You can see how that fountain looks on PS4 at 02:06:58 on this video - it's not great but not quite as bad as Switch.

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Hm. Well, it being an issue present to some degree on all versions of the game makes the Switch port an easier purchase in my book (never rebought these after the 360). It's such a distracting issue to my eyes (at least when watching a DF video...maybe not so bad when playing) that if it were totally absent on the other platforms I would consider getting them on PS.

Thanks for the timestamp to that playthrough, being able to directly compare was great - thanks!