Assassin's Creed Shadows patch fixes my 2 biggest annoyances, tedious dismantling and the hideout FPS cap, right as I've nearly finished this open-world RPG

Ubisoft has just announced the "first major patch" for Assassin's Creed Shadows, and it's introducing an array of quality-of-life improvements – including the option to dismantle or sell multiple gear pieces all at once, the removal of the hideout's 30 FPS frame rate cap, and even an option to make your horse automatically follow the road to your next marked destination. That covers pretty much every annoyance I've had, and as much as I'm happy with these tweaks, I'm a little annoyed they're coming just as I'm about to wrap up my time with the game.

Patch 1.0.2 launches across all platforms on April 8 at 7am PT / 10am ET / 3pm BST, and it'll be a 10-20GB download depending on your platform of choice. The patch notes include some notable bug fixes, including improvements to the consistency of double assassinations and a fix for "an issue where an NPC does not die after being killed by a finisher or assassination," which is probably the most notable bug I've come across in my 40 hours in Shadows.

But here's the important part, in Ubisoft's own words: "We know you've been hard at work exploring every corner of Feudal Japan, and that means you've filled your pockets with resources and loot. To help you save time when trading with merchants, we've added the option to tag and sell/dismantle multiple items in shops, or when dismantling gear at the Forge in the Hideout."

I've straight-up stopped selling and dismantling gear because the process is too tedious to deal with, so that fix is perhaps overdue. You'll also have the option to now reset Mastery Nodes – not just skill trees as a whole – for more granular respecs, and you'll be able to pop into the Investigation Board menu a bit more quickly by just holding down the options/start/hamburger/whatever the hell consoles want you to call it button for an extra second.

The other improvements catching my eye here are performance-based, and that includes the removal of the hideout frame rate cap. The expandable home base was previously locked to 30 FPS no matter what performance mode you're using, and moving between the hideout and the open world could be pretty jarring as a result. The update also introduces PSSR support on PS5 Pro, which should hopefully make performance even better.

Assassin's Creed Shadows launched in a much better state than Ubisoft's last big open-world game, but as with Star Wars Outlaws I've got a little bit of envy for players who've waited and will soon be getting a better experience from the jump. At least these updates are happening, and I'm still looking forward to seeing how they're implemented in game.

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