Parts of an Assassin's Creed Valhalla seasonal update were removed after causing crashes

(Image credit: Ubisoft)

As build-up to Wrath of the Druids, the first paid expansion for Assassin's Creed Valhalla, a free seasonal event began on March 18. Called the Ostara Festival, it's an Easter-themed fair taking place in the village of Ravensthorpe. There are Easter egg hunts, competitions, invading spirits, and a quest to become the May Queen. However, many players were prevented from taking part in all that because they experienced crashes when they tried.

"We're aware of increased instances of crashes in and around Ravensthorpe since the release of Title Update 1.2.0", Ubisoft said on Friday. "Our team is working on a solution that should be ready sometime next week. We thank you for your patience in the meantime."

The culprit was apparently the festival decorations added to Ravensthorpe by the update. A hotfix has now removed them, and there's a fuller patch to come. As Ubisoft explained, "We’re deploying a server-side hotfix to address a rise in crashing near Ravensthorpe. Settlement decorations will be temporarily removed and Ostara Festival quests involving decorations will not be completable. Thanks for your patience as our team releases a permanent fix soon!"

The Ostara Festival was due to run until April 8. Wrath of the Druids, which takes Eivor to Ireland, will be available on April 29.

Jody's first computer was a Commodore 64, so he remembers having to use a code wheel to play Pool of Radiance. A former music journalist who interviewed everyone from Giorgio Moroder to Trent Reznor, Jody also co-hosted Australia's first radio show about videogames, Zed Games. He's written for Rock Paper Shotgun, The Big Issue, GamesRadar, Zam, Glixel, Five Out of Ten Magazine, and Playboy.com, whose cheques with the bunny logo made for fun conversations at the bank. Jody's first article for PC Gamer was about the audio of Alien Isolation, published in 2015, and since then he's written about why Silent Hill belongs on PC, why Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale is the best fantasy shopkeeper tycoon game, and how weird Lost Ark can get. Jody edited PC Gamer Indie from 2017 to 2018, and he eventually lived up to his promise to play every Warhammer videogame.