Assassin’s Creed PC requirements confirmed, lowered

You’ve probably been one of several folk waiting patiently for Ubisoft Montreal’s Windows version of Assassin’s Creed. Beautiful renders like those shown before often clued that you’d need a monster of a machine to rival or best that level of visual candy, but Ubisoft has just confirmed that extreme hardware isn’t a must. Give your aging machine a pat on the back, and head on over to the full story to find out why.

Over press wire, Ubisoft Montreal has just listed down the system requirements of Assassin’s Creed for Windows, and it appears that previously rumored specifications were pretty much accurate in approximation. In fact, the latest platform release will give players with at least two-year old PCs a chance at assassinating prominent figures in the Crusader era.

Assassin’s Creed will support DirectX 10 out of the box, though the extent of its performance and visual quality enhancement is not confirmed. Like Codemaster’s Overlord, however, there’s much speculation once again that Assassin’s Creed for the PC will likely be a souped up port of the Xbox 360 version, despite all of the added work that will arrive with the currently platform-exclusive Director’s Cut Edition.

The system requirements and recommended specifications were stated together and are as follows:

• Supported OS: Windows XP (for DX9) and Windows Vista (for DX10) only
• Processor: Dual core processor 2.6 GHz Intel Pentium D or AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 3800+ (Intel Core® 2 Duo 2.2 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ or better recommended)
• RAM: 1 GB for Windows XP; 2 GB Windows Vista
• Video Card: 256 MB DirectX 10.0–compliant video card or DirectX 9.0–compliant card with Shader Model 3.0 or higher (ATI RADEON X1600*/1650*–1950/HD 2000/3000; NVIDIA GeForce 6800*/7/8/9 series) * PCI-E versions only
• Sound Card: DirectX 9.0 or 10.0–compliant sound card (5.1 sound card recommended)
• DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0 or 10.0 libraries (included on disc)
• DVD-ROM: DVD-ROM dual-layer drive
• Hard Drive Space: 8 GB
• Peripherals Supported: Keyboard, mouse, optional controller (Xbox 360 Controller for Windows recommended)

And also note that if you had issues with copy protection schemes and your DVD optical drives in the past (e.g., Crysis discs clicking in your DVD writer drives, BioShock discs not being read), you must be warned that Assassin’s Creed for Windows will be no exception.

The dual layer disc will come with copy protection technology that “may conflict” with some disc and virtual drives. Uh oh – that could only mean one thing, and we know it ain’t pretty: StarForce. Alas, the list of potential drives has not been given, and you’d do best to wait out for StarForce hiccups before rushing out to buy a copy.