Hello!

I have been vocal about my issues with previous games of the series as well as Valhalla. Mostly because I'm an avid fan of the series. Indeed, as far as I am concerned, there is no bad Assassin's Creed game. Some games I like more than others, but I've enjoyed all of them. There always were (and probably always will be) issues that I don't like or want changed, but this, I believe, applies to all the gamers. In this discussion, however, I'd like to point out all the features I particularly liked in Valhalla to let the dev team know what (in my humblest of opinions) they did right. So here goes.

• I like how animations feel like they have weight. This is something I never knew I wanted until I've got it. In Valhalla Eivor feels like a bulky character (as he/she should) and I like it.
• This, in my opinion, is the most gorgeous world crafted for an AC game to date. I don't fast travel. I just jog around enjoying the views.
• Thank you for dedicating a button (at least for PC - don't know how it is for controllers) for sprinting. You guys have no idea how much this PC gamer enjoys having control over movement speed of his character.
• I enjoy having the not-so-hidden blade and proper assassinations (if only these animations were somewhat faster). Usually I play as an archer who does some sneaking around. Being able to properly assassinate is great.
• Orlog. I like Orlog. It's fun game and I already want to have a physical copy of it.
• Interface options. I'm glad I can remove the annoying screen markers and not have my UI cluttered by things I only sometimes need to glance at and not have them stare at me all the time.
• [PC] Holding C to jump over small objects. This was absent in Origins (although present in Odyssey). But yeah, it's handy.
• Social stealth is back. It's not yet perfect (walking around cloaked is extremely slow when playing with kb+m and when you switch to running it's too conspicuous, there's no middle option), but it's great to have it back.

Given the ongoing drama with Projekt Red/Cyberpunk, I feel the same kind of criticism should be directed towards Ubisoft. I got Valhalla for free with my CPU purchase in September, and was looking forward to playing it on my awesome new PC. It's a great game--- when it works.
From the beginning I had issues with freezing/stutters etc, which was hard to pinpoint the reason. I made some changes and the game intermittently worked fine. I have about 27 hours on it, a couple of those hours have to be me fiddling with settings to try and figure it out. I was under the impression that their recent patch helped, but alas--- the issues returned. I've read countless threads about people experiencing the same issues on PC, and even on consoles (many of them joking/referencing how this is Ubisoft's M.O. and their PC ports are known to be poorly-made). I usually enjoy troubleshooting and fixing things, but this game legitimately wore me out.
At this point it seems the issue was actually caused by my controller. I have NEVER seen a controller make a game behave as if the PC is struggling to keep up. Frame drops, audio cutting in and out, and more. Mind you, I purchased a rechargeable battery kit with this game in mind, and have no similar issues with other demanding games (even RDR2!). My final attempt at researching this showed that others had the same issue, and how not playing via bluetooth and/or disabling the controller "hybrid mode" and using "controller only" is supposed to fix it. It seems like it does, but so did all the other things I tried. It sucks, because when the game runs smoothly (whenever it feels like it), it's truly a really cool game. Even though I paid nothing in cash for this game, the stress and time I spent trying to fix a sloppy game has feeling like they owe me money. I played a good amount of Far Cry but I'm new to this franchise and was excited to catch up with the recent AC games, especially because they are so cheap, but--- yeah no. It seems like all of the people criticizing/making fun of Ubisoft are right.
I can't imagine how people feel who pre-ordered and spent money they were unable to get back. I'm sure many of you have pleasant experiences or are willing to deal with the issues more than I am, but I think it's pretty clear to many that Ubisoft has a lot of work to do. Was excited for the new Far Cry, as well, but they're going to have to do more to earn my business.
Anyway, thanks for reading! I'm sure I'm not alone in these sentiments.
For those of you wondering, here are my specs (on a fresh install of Windows btw):
Gigabyte B450 WiFi Pro ITX Mobo
AMD Ryzen 7 3700x 3.6 Ghz
16GB Crucial Ballistix RGB DDR4-3200
EVGA RTX 2070 Super KO 8GB
1 TB m.2/1 TB SSD
Seasonic Focus GX-850 PSU
MetallicGear Neo Mini V2 Series Mini-ITX Case
Asus TUF 27" 1440p Curved Monitor
Three Cooler Master SickleFlow 120 V2 RGB fans

So let me get this straight, you release paid content that shows the stats on the screen before you purchase said items, change the stats without telling the people buying said items first, and then you make a post that we can't respond to saying you're nerfing the brand new armor(s) too.

When are you planning to offer refunds on the products?

Better yet, why are you changing the items at all? Leave them alone. It's a single player game. Nerfing and balancing are not the same thing.

$20 says Ubisoft is going to have an ability in one of the DLC expansions that allows one more tier upgrade that gives all sets the ability to have a diamond slot and the paid armor sets are getting in the way of one of the features they want to sell to people.

On a side note, how about the fact that It's been three months since people have reported the bug preventing them from using/changing Tattoos that they spent money on. It's like a sign that folks shouldn't spend money on Microtransactions...

(Made this post in the Player Support section, but not sure if that's the correct location thinking back on it so sorry for the duplicate post)