Seriously. The new faces are freaking me out. I can dig Ezio's new look, with the grey beard and visibly exhausted, but Altaïr and Desmond? What was Ubisoft thinking? I barely recognize the characters. Sure, all three characters had been based on the same real-life model, Francisc Randez, but they were distinctive enough. I just can't recognize Desmond now.

Is there any reason for this? I may understand that in-story it makes sense: better Animus, better reconstruction of the unique features of the characters, less using Desmond as their model. But why now? Was there any sort of problem with the licensing of the model's face or something? It's even weirder when they show Desmond's "old" face in the recap intro and then immediately show his "new" one...

Anyone got a picture of new Desmond? I want to see the difference.

Anyone got a picture of new Desmond? I want to see the difference.

Man I watched my roomate play this game last night and I was shocked at how buggy it is. I must have seen at least a dozen or so glitches and bugs in the twenty minutes I watched him play. I love assassins creed but damn I think I'm gonna wait for a price drop on this. Bums me out.

I've always found the faces in the series a little weird.

I found it a rather sudden, extreme difference. Though I am hoping it is more of an intentional thing given that both Altair and Ezio have essentially had Desmond's face up till now due to the whole Animus avatar thing. So hopefully it is more just symbolic of the melding of the three personalities leading Desmond to (in his mind) exhibit a sudden costume change and a weird hybrid face of himself and both ancestors combined. That is what I am hoping anyway.

@yoshimitz707 said:

Anyone got a picture of new Desmond? I want to see the difference.

@CL60 said:

@yoshimitz707 said:

Anyone got a picture of new Desmond? I want to see the difference.

Yeah, I watched the quick look, but I couldn't make it out.

Maybe not the best example, but I'm finding it hard to get a good picture of Desmond's new face. If you play the game, you'll notice it instantly, though.

Edit: Uh, wait. This video shows it even better:

@msavo said:

I've always found the faces in the series a little weird.

Me too. They all look a bit funky.

Oh my God, it's more jarring than that whole Kristen Bell thing.

I thought desmond just got a new beard..

I like the "new" faces. looks better than the old ones. All the characther models in this game seems way better than they were in brotherhood.

Desmond looks like Dan Ryckert.

Faces in AC thus far have been poor. I think the new ones are an improvement, though nowhere near the "hey guys we're using the LA Noire tech it'll be awesome" game Ubisoft was spitting earlier in their PR cycle.

Dude looks like David Blaine now, maybe AC3 will have street magic minigames.

Well, he looks far more Middle Eastern now. I suppose that works better with the origin of his ancestors but it's always weird when they change up a characters appearance mid stream.

They should probably just model him after Nolan North/Nathan Drake.

You weren't kidding when you said the difference was jarring.

I was confused in the beginning, because the intro cut-scene was so beautiful and when he took his hood off, I was like "oh, Ezio switched with someone else". It wasn't until it switched to game play that I realized it *was* Ezio (it's just that the cut-scene looked so much better than the shitty aging graphics). Same impression I had of Desmond, at first.
 
I've been rather uninterested in another chapter to the story so quick, but the intro was so cool that it was starting to sway me for just a minute . . . then it dropped me into the actual game engine and I just let out a big sigh, when I realized what we were in for more of. But hey, at least it's not as bad as clown-face from the first game.

My guess is that this change will come with AC3 when they push an improved engine and graphics. Most of the faces looked pretty funky in AC1 and even 2 despite looking a lot better, and they would most likely not look good in any shape or form in the iteration.

I'd rather have them do the change in a middle step rather than rolling out a new installment with everything looking completely unlike the previous. Also, I find them to look a lot better now.

Has anyone else noticed that Desmond and Ezio's teeth really stick out now? I swear they hadn't used to...

I don't understand the problem a lot of people seem to have with the faces I personally don't mind them and anything is definitely better than Lucy's fish lips in 2.

I think they tried to mix Altair and Ezio face through a morpher to make Desmond's face this time around...

@Marz said:

I think they tried to mix Altair and Ezio face through a morpher to make Desmond's face this time around...

That answers the question of " will it blend"

Desmond, Altair and Ezio's faces in the first three Assassin's Creed games are modeled after that of this man, French-Canadian model Francisco Randez. My guess is that Ubisoft had a three-game deal for his likeness and, for some reason (perhaps because of the cost of releasing these games annually), didn't want to sign another deal to keep using his face. I feel like that might also be why they

Here's a reference portrait of Francisco Randez and a CG facsimile.

And here is a good comparison of what Desmond looks like in Brotherhood and Revelations, respectively.

Personally, I miss Desmond's old face.