Huh. Assassin’s Creed Shadows is actually launching day one on Mac

By Carli Velocci May 15, 2024

Yasuke with his sword up and and Naoe with a shuriken in her hand in Assassin's Creed Shadows — Ubisoft

Ubisoft’s biggest upcoming game is arguably Assassin’s Creed Shadows, which is set to release on November 15 across all the usual platforms, including PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. That also seems to include some unusual ones, too, including Mac.

While the official store page only mentions that the game will be available digitally on PC, a press release sent to Digital Trends features a few more details, including that the standard edition will release on Macs with Apple silicon on day one via the Mac App Store. However, players won’t be able to buy more premium editions for the platform.

This move is in line with both Ubisoft’s and Apple’s gaming strategies over the past few years. The former hasn’t shied away from releasing its games on newer, less-established platforms. It was one of the first publishers to release games on the now-shuttered Google Stadia, along with other cloud streaming services like Amazon Luna. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey was even the first demo for Stadia, back when it was known as Project Stream. The Ubisoft+ subscription service was also available on Stadia and Luna.

Baldur's Gate 3 being played on the M3 MacBook Air. — Luke Larsen / Digital Trends

As for Apple, the company has been attempting to make strides in the video game space for years. In 2022, it revealed two new features: MetalFX Upscaling and the Fast Resource Loading API. It also announced that Resident Evil Village, No Man’s Sky, and Grid Legends would be coming to Mac and would show off how supporting these features would improve performance. The next year, Apple brought noted game director Hideo Kojima out during WWDC 2023 to announce the Game Porting Toolkit, which makes it easier for developers to port their games to Mac.

The most recent silicon chip, the M3, does make gaming on Macs much better than it has been in the past. Digital Trends’ Luke Larsen was impressed with the M3 MacBook Air’s gaming performance, and was even able to run Baldur’s Gate 3 (with some caveats).

All of this is to say that while Mac might not be the best way to run Assassin’s Creed Shadows, it is possible, and Ubisoft is betting on that with a day one release for MacOS.

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Contributor, Games

Carli is a technology, culture, and games editor and journalist. They were the Gaming Lead and Copy Chief at Windows Central…

Gaming

All Lost Book locations in Assassin’s Creed Mirage

After the massive worlds of the last three titles, it is nice to be back to a more intimate setting with Assassin's Creed Mirage. While not nearly as large as previous games, Baghdad is still dense with activities and collectibles to find. Among the loot and outfits are a special set of Lost Books hidden across the map. These are not only great to find for the rewards you can get, but also necessary if you want to fully complete each district in the game for the Explorer and Scholar trophies and achievements. Even with eagle vision at Basim's disposal, finding these Lost Books isn't going to be an easy task. Follow our lead and we will make sure you find all the Lost Book locations in Assassin's Creed Mirage undetected.
All Lost Book locations

There are technically seven Lost Books to find in Assassin's Creed Mirage, but only six are required for the quest tied to them. Collecting certain ones will give you a skill point as a reward, but not all. Turn them all in to Al-Jahiz to complete the quest. Note that some books can't be collected until you've gone far enough into the story to unlock the areas where they are hidden.
Harbiyah
There are two books in this district to find.

Gaming

All Assassin’s Creed Mirage outfit locations

Basim showing off his hidden blade in front of the Bagdad cityscape.

A true assassin knows how to blend in with any crowd necessary to stalk their prey and remain undetected until the moment is right to strike. That is unless you're talking about Basim in Assassin's Creed Mirage, or any protagonist from the series really. Those white robes with the hood aren't exactly helping the assassins blend in anywhere, so why not spice up your look with some fresh outfits? Not only will they let you add some personality and style to keep the game a little fresher, but each outfit, unlike costumes, also has its own upgrades that give you different buffs. Unfortunately, there are some that can only be purchased as DLC, which we will list in a separate category, but all the others are able to be found in the game naturally. If you want to fill your wardrobe with all the latest fashion in Assassin's Creed Mirage, here is how you can get every outfit.
All outfit locations and perks

There are six outfits you can get through natural progression, either by purchasing them or as rewards for main or side quests.
Initiate of Almut Outfit
A simple one to start, this is the outfit Basim has by default when you start the game. It has the Silent Blade perk that reduces the noise you make when assassinating targets by 50%, 75%, and 100% as you upgrade it.
Zanj Uprising Outfit
You can loot the Zanj Uprising Outfit from the Gear Chests in the Harbiyah region. The chest is in the galley of the ship in the Upper Harbor. This outfit grants you the Infamous perk, which reduces how much notoriety you gain from illegal actions by 20%, 30%, and 40% per upgrade.
Abbasid Knight Outfit
You first need to steal a key from a guard to unlock the Tax Collector's Mansion in Karkh before you can go inside and loot the Gear Chest with this outfit inside. Once equipped, this outfit has the Lick Your Wounds perk that lets you regenerate 1%, 2%, and then 3% of your HP every two seconds so long as you're in stealth, but only up to a maximum of 50% HP.
Milad's Outfit
This outfit is a reward for collecting five Mysterious Shards and using them to unlock the middle chest in the Secret Chamber. Milad's Outfit has the Forgotten Terror perk which comes at max level and stuns all enemies within 15 meters after performing an air assassination.
Hidden One Outfit
Named after the order itself, the Hidden One Outfit is left in a Gear Chest at the top of the Shurta Headquarters in Round City. Wearing these robes grants you Deadly Movement which will restore 5%, 10%, or 15% of your Focus Chunks each time you pull off a stealth kill.
Rostam Outfit
An easy outfit to get, but also to miss, the Rostam Outfit is a reward for beating the side quest called"The Marked Coins." With this equipped you get the Sound of Silence perk to reduce the amount of noise you make while moving by 50%, 75%, and 100% with each upgrade.
DLC outfits
While it is unfortunate some outfits are not available to everyone without paying, at the very least they do not have perks you can miss out on. All three of these need to be purchased in the shop or come with the Deluxe Edition of Assassin's Creed Mirage.
Sand Outfit
Fire Demon Outfit
Jinn Outfit

Gaming

The best skills to get in Assassin’s Creed Mirage

Basim about to assassinate a dude.

With Assassin's Creed Mirage going back to the series' roots with this entry, it also makes sense for us to start from scratch as well. Basim will begin his journey as a young street rat, but slowly evolve into the skilled assassin you later meet in Valhalla. This will be a long and arduous journey for our hero, and for you as a player, but one thing this entry doesn't abandon from the more RPG-focused titles is the skill tree. Basim's skills are broken down into three different trees, Phantom, Trickster, and Predator, that you can invest your points into as you see fit. While none are technically useless, there are some standouts that are much more useful across your journey through Baghdad. These are the best skills you need to get in Assassin's Creed Mirage.
Best skills to get

Unfortunately, nearly every skill in Assassin's Creed Mirage is on a linear tree meaning you need to unlock prior skills to get to the more powerful ones. Even so, there are some trees far more valuable to invest in in general than others. Note that you can freely refund any spent skill points by highlighting a skill and holding the button prompt to get your point back at no cost if you want to reallocate your points.
Auto-Collect - Trickster Tree
Let's be real, no one can resist looting a body. The problem with that is that when you're trying to stealth your way through an area, taking the extra time to dig through the pockets of a freshly assassinated foe will more than likely end up with you getting discovered. What is a greedy assassin to do? With the Auto-Collect skill you can steal an enemy's life and their goodies all in one fell swoop so you don't have to worry about getting caught or backtracking to all the bodies you left later to collect your spoils.
Chain Assassination - Phantom Tree
The only real essential skill in the Phantom Tree has to be Chain Assassination. This will be a familiar skill to those who played prior games as it allows you to stealth kill one target, and then chain that into a second if they're close enough, or in line of sight so long as you have a throwing knife handy to toss at a nearby target. Not only is this more efficient, but opens up tons more possibilities since you don't have to wait until each enemy is completely alone to stealth them.
Extra Tool Capacity 1,2, and 3 - Trickster Tree
The tools you unlock as you level up and complete missions are essential parts of Basim's tool kit. The more tools you can have at the ready, the more situations you will be equipped to deal with.
Knife Recovery - Trickster Tree
Throwing knives are almost too overpowered in Assassin's Creed Mirage. The only real balance to them is that you can only hold so many, and once you use one, you need to head to a shop to get more. Or, if you unlock the Knife Recovery skill, you can salvage any knife you use by looting it off the unlucky soul who was on the receiving end. If you play smart with this skill, you can save tons of currency and time by recycling your blades.
Pickpocket Master - Trickster Tree
Basim grew up as a thief, but he can still learn a few tricks to get better. Pickpocket Master has two effects, the first is to vastly decrease the difficulty of the QTE for pickpocketing higher-tier loot from targets. The second is to completely remove the QTE from basic pickpocketing making it an automatic success.
Stealth Recon - Predator Tree
Last up, we have the Stealth Recon skill from the Predator Tree. So long as you're in stealth and crouched or in cover, any enemy in the area will be highlighted and their patrols shown to you, even through walls.