Two simple reasons I am beyond excited for the upcoming Ubisoft sequel, Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation -

Assassins // American Revolution

And Templar’s, of course.  So that’s three reasons.

Anyway…

I am a new sign-on to the Assassin’s Creed franchise.  I’ve only recently entered the “next-gen console” ownership program, having just received an Xbox 360 from my amazing wife and daughter as a present, and I never liked the idea of playing this style of game on PC.  There is nothing inherently wrong with playing Assassin’s Creed or any other game of this genre on a PC, in fact I am now playing Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood via Steam, thanks of course to the Steam Summer Sale and a found gift card from Father’s Day I had forgotten about (it’s like Christmas all over again when that happens!).  Playing Brotherhood on my PC has shown me that I do not want to play Liberation on the PC, that  will be buying it for the Xbox 360 as I know I’ll be able to enjoy it more sitting on my living room couch, looking at a42″ TV 10 feet away, rather than a 24″ monitor 2 feet away, sitting in a moderately comfortable desk chair.

Now that I have been playing Brotherhood I do see how much I enjoy getting the different outfits for Ezio.  It’s akin to Transmogrification in World of Warcraft.  Basically it is the more masculine form of dressing up our dolls.  I can say this with experience, as I have a 4 year old daughter who constantly asks my wife and I to help swap outfits on her dolls, over and over and over again.  And if you play WoW you know how common it is for players (male and female alike) to swap their Transmog sets over and over and over again.

In edition to the outfits for the characters, additional unlockable missions sound wonderfully fun.  So, naturally, I am excited by the Pre-order bonuses for Liberation.

This chart lays out all of what the pre-orders have to offer (click on the image for full size):

There are a few problems with the above chart, unfortunately.

1. There is at least one feature I would like to have from each store
2. One set I like the most is at a store I do not care for, and avoid generally
3. My favorite store listed has one of my least desired feature packages
4. There is a full feature package available, with a reasonable increase in cost, from the UBIshop… but ONLY as PC download, not for Xbox 360 or even PS3

Therefore – I am forced to choose from one of the stores listed that have only limited, and exclusive pre-order features, and only because I want to play the game on my console instead of my PC.  I hesitate to make a purchase choice, because I know myself – I will buy one of these pre-orders, enjoy the exclusive bonus but all the while be thinking “man, that other bonus would have been great too” …

Granted, I am a bit radical in my thinking (that was sarcasm, in case you missed it), I am of the opinion that a company – no matter what industry they are in – should  make their products available to all consumers, on all platforms or in all stores, without restrictions.  I would be HAPPY to pay the $10 additional charge to Ubisoft to get the full assortment of pre-order exclusives for the Xbox 360 version – except they do not offer it!!   That purchase is for PC download only.

Quite frustrated.

// Do you like this style of store-specific exclusives with the ability to pay a bit extra for the full assortment?  Is that subject to the availability of the full assortment option being on all platforms?  Let me know in the comments! //

Cheers!

~Ril