Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

[deoxys]

So, how do we all feel about being pirates of the caribbean this time around?

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by deoxys

So, how do we all feel about being pirates of the caribbean this time around?

We don't? ^^; You made a huge deal about Assassin's Creed 3 when that was first revealed but then I don't remember you saying a peep about it afterward. Maybe you did but I've just forgotten. Did you play it? What did you think about it? From what I've come to understand recently (in connection with the rumors swirling around Assassin's Creed 4), AC3 was a huge disappointment for many longtime fans. Which is quite the far cry from your "YES! \o/ THIS IS THE ASSASSIN'S CREED TREQUEL I HAVE ALWAYS WANTED!" back when they first unveiled it, iirc. So ... I'm curious to know (or to be reminded, as the case may be) what your thoughts were on that one first.

As for Assassin's Creed 4, while I've no personal plans to get it or to play it, what does the Internet at large have to say? From what I've detected, it seems like a lot of people are burned out on the Assassin's Creed franchise right now, making me think that this might've been a big misstep on the developer's part. Instead of giving the franchise 2-3 years off, trying to figure out where they went wrong with the American Revolution-themed one, and then coming back with this one and people feeling the franchise was refreshened from its time off, it sounds like they're pushing a fourth title to try and milk the cow on the sinking ship for all she's worth before she and the ship both go under. Is that the case for you too? Have you detected a lack of enthusiasm / an abundance of cynicism regarding this fourth Assassin's Creed title? Or have you encountered people who are mostly quite thrilled to be getting AC4 so soon after AC3?

[kaisap112]

So...now we're a Playboy Pirate with Mysterious Background.

Who's the unlocky sod they got to replace Desmond? Or is Desmond coming back?

Truth be told, I was excited for AC3, but I'm kinda indifferent about this one. After the massive disappointment that was AC3 I'm hesitant to jump all over this thing just because there's pirates and naked chicks.

If it was a female protagonist, even that would catch my interest more! But the only AC-protagonist female so far is in a side-game for some handheld console (half-black half-French woman; "we need to pack all the unrepresented groups in one character!"). Kinda obvious the target demographic is still very much male. u.u

[deoxys]

I haven't played it yet because a. I still haven't beaten Revelations and b. I heard it was an incredibly buggy letdown with a horrible protagonist

My first thoughts on this was that I had heard my best friend tell me that he, after beating AC3, said the best parts were the naval missions against pirates and he hopes they make a game just like that all by itself. So imagine his reaction when they announced this...

I watched some of the naval battles and agreed, it looked like a truly fun idea and incorporating that with multiplayer ship battles, recruiting, treasure hunting, etc. would be neat, although my opinion was "they should just make a game based on that concept alone". I never once thought it should be an Assassin's Creed title, though! So, we'll see how it works out. I hear they have a different team than usual working on this one which is worrying, but as far as AC titles go, I'll compare it to what I read a guy on reddit say who seemed to describe it perfectly.

"My girlfriend cooks me a dinner once a week and it tastes absolutely amazing. She promises that next week it will be even bigger and better than before! I'm very excited, but next time dinner comes around, it's the same meal, prepared the same way, with the same ingredients. Not that it's bad mind you, but it's not what I was expecting."

Oh and I don't like how they made Blackbeard sound like even he was afraid of this guy. That's just. No, Blackbeard doesn't cower in his boots. Also, I didn't like his stereotypical pirate voice.

It's important to note that I along with many others don't view the milking of Assassin's Creed like CoD, but it's... it needs a break. Just for a year or two. Then come back in kicking after a long time working on the next one and reintroduce it as something entirely new.

We'll see how this concept goes over though.

[Concept]

>More Assassins Creed

Ugh. As if the previous games weren't crap enough.

[Loki]

BUY NOW FOR A POSTER! WHEE!

[Amras.MG]

I think it's interesting that they're doing it yearly now, and that they're doing another numbered installment a year (maybe less than a year?) after the 3rd released. There's no way this wasn't being developed concurrently with AC3, so that's a negative as far as the game goes, esp. due to the lukewarm reaction to 3.

A lot of what I've read shows that people think AC shouldn't be yearly, especially for main titles, and there's a lot of concern that most people won't have finished 3 by the time 4 comes out.

I have not played them, but that's what I've heard...

[big bad birtha]

So we have assassin pirates now? I wonder what they'll come up with next. Will we have futuristic space assassins?! Oh! How about we go to the Stone Age and have assassins riding dinosaurs! Or we can go to Atlantis and have mermaid assassins, or mersassins!

After 3, I think it's time for me to put the Assassin's Creed franchise down. I wasn't crazy for 3 in the least. I mean, it did have some nice improvements, but not enough to make it stand out among the others. Also some missions were just rage inducing. Not difficult, just irritating because of the controls.

Also in response to something said earlier. The ship battles sucked. They're about as bad as the defend the fort minigames from Revelations. Hearing that this next game will mostly be them makes me not want to play the next one even more.

[deoxys]

That opinion is like the polar opposite of most people including people I know. Most think the ship battles were the best part of AC3...

Also I think it's safe to say AC isnt going anywhere. It is one of the few franchises that has guaranteed content at any given time that it can never run out of due to being based on history. We'll have an ancient egyptian assassin, japanese ninja, victorian england, french revolution, and communist russian game before they decide to quit.

[Sneaze]

I literally just blasted my way through the tail end of 3 today, due mostly to being sick the past few days. I can honestly say without a doubt that ship battles made me want to punch someone. They weren't challenging but were still irritating due to how unneccessarily long they could become. BOOOORIIIIING is really the best way to describe it. Would have been more fun to let me sneak on the bloody ship, kill everything, and blow it up with its own gunpowder pr something.

[Talon87]

So that's 0-2 for UPN and n-0 for Deoxys's circle of friends. I wonder if we can get a third UPNer to weigh in with their personal opinion ...

[big bad birtha]

I forgot to mention another Assassin possibility.

TRON ASSASSINS!

[deoxys]

Like I said (or did I?), my friend was very bored with AC3. He told me the first half of the game is a tutorial more or less and the repetitive nature outweighs the coolness factor of taking place during the American Revolution.

Buuuutt yeah on the ship battles I've heard nothing but praise :P The UPNers here are some of the very few against them from what I've seen!



Good news though: AC4 is being developed by the guys who made Far Cry 3, which was a FANTASTIC game, one of the best, so the formula is almost guaranteed to be a lot different this time around. Hopefully. We say that every year. We'll just wait and see and get our first in game footage probably at E3.

[Rangeet]

You people are craaaaazy. AC3 was an amazing game but the ship battles sucked dick because you had to micro-manage everything and the controls sucked. Hopefully they fix that in AC4, either way pirate assassins are pro.

[Dylan_Cypher]

Let's hear from the peanut gallery shall we? Now I've never played all the way through one of the AC games but I have enjoyed playing the games and enjoy them. I've been rp-ing a pirate assassin from the first game's release so I'd say this will make a fun game.

I don't see why this thread started out so antagonistic. This is for discussion right?

However, I think they came on a little strong with the 'Wolverine' approach to Black Beard. I mean you're really gonna advertise your game by having BLACK BEARD; the undisputed most bad-ass pirate most people have heard about, the man who according to some accounts lived long enough after DECAPITATION that his body swam around his ship three times; talk about how bad-ass your protagonist is? Setting the bar a little high there aren't you Ubisoft?

[deoxys]

Well that was my initial problem with it more than anything and I think it was for a lot of people. Don't get me wrong the concept sounds very neat, but fucking Blackbeard of all people was made out to be afraid of him which is a load of crap. Blackbeard was the most feared pirate ever, and by doing that they just dapreciated who he was by a long shot.

And of course all of the tropes... the womanizing and jumping onto a ship and shooting while fighting two enemies at once... it just looks fake. And that was the novelty of past AC games, they were ficitional but managed to intertwine with real events and give you a history lesson while being GENUINE about it. The series has obviously far and away left that path since AC2's ending, which is okay, but now it is just getting cheesy.

While I didn't like AC1 nearly as muvh as other games in tthe series because of the same several missions repeated in each new city, I did appreciate how it handled history.

We'll see. I'm holding out for it. Also I totally preordered it for that sweet poster because it was like paying $5 for a poster anyway.

[deoxys]