Assassin's Creed Origins lets you pet cats, and fans are very happy
Feline good.
Last night, the final round of Assassin's Creed Origins previews hit the internet ahead of the game's late-October launch.
Eurogamer's take, written by the lovely Tom Phillips, focused on gameplay. Others focused on the detailed version of Egypt Ubisoft has created. But Assassin's Creed fans only had eyes for one thing.
Yes, Assassin's Creed Origins lets you pet cats.
The top thread on the Assassin's Creed reddit right now is about this very topic. "They listened!" exclaimed one fan. "GOTY 2017 CONFIRMED" agreed another.
You could pet animals - both domestic and farmyard - in 2012's Assassin's Creed 3 and 2013's AC4: Black Flag. But this ability was absent - for no good reason at all - in 2014's Unity and 2015's Syndicate.
Origins' development is led by Ashraf Ismail, who was also game director of Black Flag. Many fans have taken to thanking him personally for ensuring the much-requested petting feature was added back in. The thread is titled: "Ashraf went and did it!" "Legend", another fan agreed.
Animal petting is not the only fan-requested feature to make it into the game - the ability to toggle your Assassin hood up or down is also available, along with a long asked-for photo mode.
And it's not just fans who are enjoying a spot of feline petting. Four minutes into Eurogamer's video below, Aoife discovered the ability herself:
Meanwhile, Outside Xbox's Jane and Ellen were completely distracted by a cat following them around - it seems like when you pet a cat, they will stick by your side afterwards. This derailed their playthrough for quite a while:
Purrfect.