{"id":21366,"date":"2018-12-22T05:21:08","date_gmt":"2018-12-22T02:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tentaclii.wordpress.com\/?p=21366"},"modified":"2018-12-22T05:21:08","modified_gmt":"2018-12-22T02:21:08","slug":"ancient-egypt-alive-with-kitties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/tentaclii\/index.php\/2018\/12\/22\/ancient-egypt-alive-with-kitties\/","title":{"rendered":"Ancient Egypt – walking with kitties"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lovecraft would have liked strolling about Ancient Egypt, petting the sacred kitties. The Assassin’s Creed: Origins Discovery Tour<\/em> enables one to do that. The best-selling Assassin’s Creed Origins<\/em> videogame is set in the Ancient Egypt of Ptolemy, and since spring 2018 has a special official “Tour mode” — without the user needing to wrestle with acquiring and installing third-party no-combat mods…<\/p>\n

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The Assassin’s Creed: Origins Discovery Tour<\/em> is a mode that will allow you to explore ancient Egypt without being interrupted by combat or quests. Purely educational, this mode is a “virtual museum” in which you can simply walk around or take guided tours.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Excellent idea, and seemingly unique as an official option for a big AAA game that’s top-of-the-range in terms of ancient environment recreation in real-time 3D. I’ve used no-combat mods before for the likes of Morrowind<\/em> etc, and some games such as Rime<\/em> have unofficial trainer\/savegame combos which effectively serve as no-combat\/no-enemies mods. But it’s good to see big developers supporting ‘virtual tourism’. Actually we should probably call it ‘virtual time-travel’ in this case, and presumably it extends the game’s sales period into decades (rather than the usual six years or so). <\/p>\n

The Tour<\/em> comes in two identical variants, with different access points. If you own the latest Assassin’s Creed: Origins<\/em> already, you can download and start the Discovery Tour<\/em> from the game’s main menu. If you own the standalone Discovery Tour<\/em>, then you can start it like any other Windows application. <\/p>\n

There’s nothing on Amazon for “Assassin’s Creed: Origins Discovery Tour”, but it’s on Steam at \u00a312.50<\/a> and also Ubisoft’s own UPlay service. Although if you’re not signed up to either it’s probably a lot less hassle to get an unlock code for the standard game via Amazon<\/a> at \u00a316.50, then download it from the main servers. The page for the Amazon purchase states that… “The Discovery Tour is available now as a free update!”. <\/p>\n

However, be warned! The Tour alone needs 42Gb(!!) of space hard-drive. That’s going to be a long<\/em> download it’s you’re on slow broadband. I guess there may be a disk version for those with slow rural broadband, but you’d need to check if the Discovery Tour on the disks or not.<\/p>\n

Apparently the Discovery Tour version for the new follow-on game, Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey<\/em> (set in Ancient Greece), is coming soon. Other games have unofficial mods, as discussed in a PC Gamer<\/em> article in the October 2018 issue, “How modders are removing enemies from games to create stress-free experiences”<\/a>. The world of The Witcher<\/em> is probably the most interesting to readers of this blog, though it would be interesting to find one for the new Call of Cthulhu<\/em> game and take a stroll around an access-all-areas Innsmouth. Such mods usually go by the name of ‘no-enemies’ \/ ‘no-threat’ \/ ‘no-combat’ mods. So far as I know there’s not yet any one website that collates and links to them all. Also of note, at the highly-polished end of games, is one of my favourites which is TheHunter<\/a><\/em>. This is effectively a no-combat walking game, if you choose to carry a camera rather than a rifle.<\/p>\n

And yes, there are kitties in the Ancient Egypt of Assassin’s Creed: Origins<\/em>….<\/p>\n

Cats can be found just about anywhere in the world of Assassin\u2019s Creed: Origins<\/em>. We\u2019ve had the most luck finding them on the outskirts of larger towns, though. Try fishing villages and smaller farming communities. Take a stroll along the water or through the fields and keep an eye open for the furry four-legged creatures. Simply crouch near a cat and, if you\u2019re lucky, the cat will come seek you out and let you pet them. Though some will remain aloof, as cats will.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Which makes one think… would a “Cats of Ulthar” game mod be possible? With the story? Or perhaps in The Witcher<\/em>, using the kitties and their animations extracted from Assassin\u2019s Creed: Origins<\/em>?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lovecraft would have liked strolling about Ancient Egypt, petting the sacred kitties. The Assassin’s Creed: Origins Discovery Tour enables one …<\/p>\n

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