While others focused on Ubisoft producer Jade Raymond before Assassin's Creed, we were always wonder what the game's Creative Director Patric Desilets was doing, how his beard was and when he was going to accept our friend requests. In a recent interview with game site Game Daily, Ubisoft honcho Yves Guillemot says this about Patrice:

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Assassin's Creed Creative Director Patrice Desilets delivers this installment of the AC developer diary, which focuses on the combat of the game, or what happens after you take down your target. He covers the control scheme, weapons, and most importantly - how to escape from an entire city chasing you through the streets, hell bent on tearing you to pieces. If only I had this knowledge back in 92...but that's another story.

As I went over the pages of notes I took while Patrice Desilets was in town, I knew I had more than enough to write a full-blown preview.

But everyone's done previews and interviews and the game will be out in a few weeks - the 15th to be exact (thanks VURP). So instead, here's a list of eight things you may not have heard about Assassin's Creed.

Now, hit the jump and enjoy.

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What would a tax rebate for game developers do for Australia? If that was the only question the government had, it could be easily answered by looking at Canada, specifically Montreal in the Province of Quebec.

Sound familiar? It's where Ubisoft Montreal is based, arguably one of the top development houses in the world. It's also the home of Assassin's Creed. Need I say more?

In 1996, Quebec established a special fiscal program for multimedia titles, whereby companies developing games could receive a tax credit on labour costs. Depending on the type of game being made, developers can currently receive a break of up to 30%, with an additional 7.5% for French-language titles.

How effective have these tax incentives been? I asked Ubisoft Montreal's creative director Patrice Desilets this very question while he was here promoting Assassin's Creed.

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During the Assassin's Creed demo down at the Australian Maritime Museum today, creative director Patrice Desilets (second from the right) commented on remarks he made two weeks ago on cramming all the game's data onto the Xbox 360's puny DVD format, and into the PS3's questionable memory density.

According to Desilets, his boss (Raymond perhaps? Far right, above) called him the day after the comments were made and they exchanged a few words. All Desilets was willing to say today on the Xbox 360 issue was:

There's no problem anymore. It's gone.

And:

I learned my lesson.

Patrice is a nice bloke, so I hope whoever spoke to him wasn't too hard on his tongue slippage.

Fair warning now - there's going to be a deluge of Assassin's Creed coverage over the next few days, as the game's creative director, Patrice Desilets, has ventured out from Ubisoft's Montreal studio to visit Australia. We saw a presentation of Creed today, and there's a one-on-one Q&A tomorrow, so expect me to make the most of it.

For now, here's a shot of the official Assassin's Creed faceplate for Xbox 360. Ubisoft handed them out today along with a quill and some pink ink, just in case I suddenly feel the need to scribe how hetero I am on the walls of my house. There's also a close-up shot after the jump.

If you have any questions you'd like me to take to Patrice, be sure to leave a comment!

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