AC3 Controls/Gameplay
Since this is a gameplay thread, I thought I'd share my most favorite move I've done: Leap sword-stab into a turning arrow shot.
Since this is a gameplay thread, I thought I'd share my most favorite move I've done: Leap sword-stab into a turning arrow shot.
Very nice! That's the kind of cool-looking gameplay I'm talking about. 
On that note, when I first saw an AC3 gameplay where Connor's animation "transition" from one counter to the next was teleporting two freaking meters from one frame to the next, I thought oh, cool, trying to fight with the least possible such glitches is a nice challenge in itself.
I tend to play games like I'm trying to emulate an awesome summer blockbuster movie. The main character is pretty awesome and typically wins while looking cool. IMO, if you go into a fight and you look like an amateur, you've lost, regardless of whether or not you walk out alive. It's a video game, you have 10 times the health of the bad guys, so you should outlast enemies. But if you look like a complete buffoon while doing it, then who cares if you 'won'? My philosophy is that you have to do it stylishly and look like you know what you're doing, otherwise you didn't really win.
Never thought about it like that, haha.
It seems that more and more these days, 'difficulty' in games is about giving you unfair restrictions or giving your enemies unfair advantages. That's not real difficulty, in my opinion. Real difficulty is a fair challenge where you're not given a handicap, but you're challenged to do the very best you can do within a realistic set of rules and boundaries. Do anything less than your best and you've failed the challenge. Giving your opponents unfair advantages just to prevent a game from being too easy is poor game design, IMO.
Another thing I never realized, an actual difference between difficult and unfairly restrictive. I guess you learn something new every day. 
Many thanks, Asaic.
This is like the only post I have fully read in this topic lol.
My opinion on the whole debate, I have moved on from single player in AC games, its clear they are not going back to Ac1s roots and the missions are all going to be scripted bullshit. Im doing my own thing wit hthe multiplayer, im slowly beating single player though one mission a day.
For breaking off from combat, there's a specific move. High profile plus free hand, towards an enemy. It's a jumping forward roll, that puts you behind your enemy. Another move useful for breaking off is simply running into the enemy.
What's even harder than breaking off is entering combat. Often I find myself hitting 
, and getting hit, because I wasn't in the combat mode.
I found a way for entering combat:
You move the left stick towards the enemy, and start an attack. Parrying becomes immediately available:
That's some next-level stuff right there, al!
or as Connor would say ... 
... that face gets me every time
“Force has no place where there is need of skill." Herodotus
Yeah, thanks, although for real combat it's usually too difficult. I'm trying to train myself to do it when a guard pokes after me when I'm trying to run away, but it seems to require lightning reflexes. It's nice how they programmed into the gameplay mechanics that Connor is a much shittier fighter than Altair.
As for breaking away from the fight, generally the best way seems to be just simply running into the guard, like in AC1. But there's also a jumping forward roll move that can be useful.
If requiring faster reflexes from the player is an indication of the lack of skill a character has, then Connor is better than Altair because he has far bigger counter windows. ; )
I'd put Altair and Connor on equal ground combat-wise, though I feel like Connor's style was more based on movement and aggression. It kinda makes sense, since Connor has a lot more raw muscle than Altair or Ezio did.
Here's hoping that every assassin from here on out continues to have mostly unique animations that reflect their fighting style.
I second that, Calvar.