Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag

[Emperor Smeat]

Some of the stuff meant to be revealed on March 4 got leaked recently.

First was the trailer which Ubisoft has been actively trying to get deleted off of several Youtube accounts. Second was the confirmation of the release date being October 29, 2013 for both current and next gen consoles. Finally, the trailer and leaked details confirm Black Beard is in the game.




Now for some stuff originally posted in the Video Game news thread.

Official poster and potential box art for the game:

Originally Posted by Blitz

Originally Posted by Smelly Meatball Based on a leaked promotional poster, the next Assassin's Creed game will be called "Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag" and takes places in the Caribbean Islands. The new main character was also leaked to be the grandfather of Connor from AC III. http://www.screwattack.com/news/assa...eenshot-poster

[Skippord]

would he be considered a Pirate-Assassin or an Assassin-Pirate?

[whiteyford]

An oceanic entrepreneur.

[Next Big Thing]

I like the idea of a pirate assassin. Looking forward to it if all pans out.

[Reavant]

Captain Edward Kenway?????? it must be connar's half brother

[ozzman6669]

It's Connor grandfather, it's a prequel to 3 !

[Reavant]

ah.... where did u see that?

[Shisen Kopf]

They need to add zombies.

[ozzman6669]

Originally Posted by Reavant ah.... where did u see that?

that was in the leaked info yesterday

[Vietnamese Crippler]

Originally Posted by ozzman6669 that was in the leaked info yesterday

Not to mention it's in the first post on this very page...

[LoDownM]

Hope they don't mess with the combat from 3, if they don't, I'm already sold.

[ClockShot]

I NEED to conquer various cities all across the Caribbean AND save my family.

Played some Sid Meier's Pirates this morning. This sorta gotta be the blueprint for this game in order for me to get this.

[Blitz]

9 hours ago - 4:00 AM on 03.04.2013

86

Telling the real stories behind the pirate myths



Despite all the leaks in the past week, there's still a ton of stuff to tell you about Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. The first thing is that the new game sees you playing as a pirate, but not the Disney romanticized, cliche style of pirates from films such as Pirates of the Caribbean or Treasure Island. "No hooks, no parrots, and no walking the plank," as one of the promotional trailers I saw stated.
While the pirate theme is intriguing, the real big deal is the new world you get to explore, both on land and sea. Ubisoft is pushing for a massive open world, seamless experience akin to that of Far Cry 3. And that seamlessness will be huge when it comes to the transitions between naval and ground experiences all during Black Flag.

Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Wii U, Xbox 360)
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Publisher: Ubisoft
Release: October 29, 2013
Ubisoft, as they do with its Assassin's games, dug into history to find the real stories of pirates and bring those tales to players. In the case of Black Flag, it's the dawn of the 18th century, and players come in during 1713 where a succession of treaties between England, Spain, and France bring peace and order for the first time in decades.
This peace leaves thousands of British sailors out of luck though, as the King no longer cares to support them. Poor, hungry, and in desperate need of money, these sailors band together and set out to live their lives as they see fit, thus creating the golden age of pirates.
"We feel that there's this incredible opportunity to tell the more credible and realistic version of what actually happened," game director Ashraf Ismail told me during a meeting with Destructoid. "Because what actually happened was thrilling. These characters, these men, they attempted to do something for the first time history which was to create a Democratic Republic. These men disconnected themselves from the Empire, and decided that we'll create a new government.
"But they were lawless men, they were pirates, they partied, they spent all their money. So imagine these people are trying to make a government. It fails in a spectacular way, and we put the player in the heart of this experience."

You play as Edward Kenway, father of Haytham Kenway and grandfather to Connor Kenway from Assassins' Creed III. Black Flag is looking to tell the story of how the Kenways family got involved with the whole Assassins and Templar conflict in the first place.
Edward is a British man who comes from a poor upbringing. He's charismatic, charming, very brash, reckless, and selfish. All characteristics that make for a perfect pirate. You'll begin your adventure with Edward as a pirate on the high seas, and as the story moves forward Edward will be introduced to the Assassin's guild, join their ranks, and experience a journey where he is at odds with his selfish pirate greed, while trying to serve the selfless Assassin's creed.
Edward will also come across many historical characters and moments from the time period. Players will meet Benjamin Hornigold, Charles Vane, Calico Jack, Anne Bonny, and Black Beard, all legendary pirates from the era. You'll also be part of historic events such as the assault on 42 Portuguese ships, the massive gold wreck of the Spanish armada on the Florida coast, and the marooning of Charles Vane.

The story behind the game sounds promising, but what I'm really looking forward to is the actual gameplay in Black Flag. Ubisoft is promising for one big seamless open world between the ocean and land as you explore the Caribbean sea. There will be three major city location -- Havana, Kingston, and Nassau, in addition to over 50 unique locations you can visit, plus the open seas in between all of the land environments.
All the locations will offer unique environments too. From hidden fisherman villages, plantations that will explore slavery aspects, hidden coves, thick lush jungles, naval forts, Mayan ruins, tropical islands, and a first for the series, underwater environments.
Traversing the ground in any Assassin's game is pretty fun as it's typically fluid. Thankfully, that fluidity will translate to the underwater sections as well and Ashraf told me that the controls should feel intuitive to players. It will be interesting to see how combat will work in these cases, especially when you encounter sharks.

Every great pirate needs a ship and that's where the Jackdaw comes into play. The Jackdaw will be your main vessel during your adventure and an essential part of your journey. You'll be upgrading your ship over time, and managing a crew in a variety of ways. Plundering is a part of a pirate's life as well, and virtually any ship you see in the game can be attacked, boarded, and pillaged of its goods.
While Assassin's Creed III teased it with only a cinematic, you will actually be boarding other ships in real time here. A basic example I was told is that players will see a ship, weaken it with an attack, then command the crew to throw hooks onto their target in order to drag the ships together. From there you can board it, continue your attack, and take what you want.
"ACIII started the naval combat experience," Ashraf told me. "They did something that was really credible, really wonderful. But for us, that was really just a foot in the water. It was a tease of a potentially bigger system. We're diving really deep on this [with ACIV]."
The team started work on ACIV in the Summer of 2011 and knew ahead of time that the naval elements of ACIII would do really well. Their prediction came true as Ashraf told me that it was one of the most well reviewed aspects of the game.
"We kind of knew ahead of time that this would be very successful. We played the really early versions of [the naval element] and we felt like okay there's something really solid here."

As always, there's a lot of options at your disposal as to how you want to engage your targets. You can swing in ahead of your crew during a boarding, or swim in the water to sneakily board and attack an enemy ship. You can also use the new free aiming system to shoot enemies from a distance (the lock-on system is still in place for close quarters combat.) Really, it's all up to you. One cool thing is that there are localized storms that take place and you can lead enemy ships into them to create new gameplay scenarios. Plus, you can hunt whales, Captain Ahab style.
You don't want to attack just any ship though, not without at least finding out what the ships have to offer. Edward will be able to use a spy glass to get information on ships from a distance, find out what type of ship he's about to engage with, how difficult it will be, and what kind of loot it carries. Ships aren't just like ground enemies, as they will come in different flavors and scale in difficulty which actually affects player progression.
The Animus no longer blocks the player with its invisible walls, instead tougher enemy ships will. Some ships can easily decimate Edward and crew. The only way around them is to actually explore the world, and find stuff that can go to upgrading your ship. You actually have a reason now to explore and do side missions.
That was one of the complaints I had with ACIII. The Homestead concept sounded great on paper, but really didn't matter to the core experience. Now, the AC team is going the route Far Cry 3 took. I loved the open world setting of that game, and was more than happy to do trivial stuff like pick flowers or fix a radio tower as it actually benefited me as a player.
While the Jackdaw is important, it won't burden you either. There will be fast travel locations again, and doing so will pop you up in the location plus have your ship already stationed at the docks waiting for you.
Naval gameplay is a big part of the game, but the core AC experience is still there. Ashraf told me that in terms of the main path, about 60% takes place on land and 40% takes place in the naval sections.
"One important thing is we wanted to make sure that the player sees that all this stuff happens in one world," Ashraf explained. "And this one world, the Caribbean sea, is filled with stuff to do, there's lot to do in it. Exploration is really important for us. We're creating a world that has many locations, and we needed to make sure that players were motivated to explore this world, that there's always new content to find. There's always something new on the horizon."
As this is an Assassin's game, all of this pirate adventure stuff is taking place in the Animus. Desmond's story wrapped up at the end of III, so this time around you're playing a new hero that Ubisoft is promoting as you. You the player are this hero. What that exactly means isn't quite clear, though.
Whoever this new character is, he's a person that was hired by Abstergo Entertainment, a subdivision of Abstergo Industries, and is lead to believe he was brought on as a research analyst. The true intentions for this Templar organization is that Edward did something very important for them in the 18th century, and whatever it is continues the war between the Templar and Assassin's in the present day world. Whatever is going on, I guess SPOILERS that ancient god lady hasn't destroyed humanity, yet.
You can expect multiplayer to return too. The team iterated on it, improved it, made new characters with the pirate theme, have new maps, and there will be new game modes as well.
There's a lot of new concepts and mechanics being introduced into ACIV, but there are still some key ideas from past games that Ubisoft is retaining. From AC1 they're bringing back the open ended assassinations where you can kill a target however you wish. From ACII they're bringing back the way of how they introduce and thought gameplay mechanics to players. The support system from Brotherhood and the visual beauty of Revelations will be reflected in ACIV too. Additionally, the way ACIII pitted players into the heart of the an important part of history is ever present in Black Flag.
ACIII was my first real foray into the series and while it had some great elements to it, there were some parts that just hurt the overall experience. So far, it's sounding like Ubisoft is working on improving the formula and I'm definitely interested with IV, especially if the seamless and emergent nature they're striving for at least matches what Far Cry 3 pulled off.


Read more at http://www.destructoid.com/assassin-...Dc737pA6Vgg.99

[Emperor Smeat]

According to Ubisoft, the PS4 will have some exclusive content worth around an extra 60 minutes of extra gameplay. Ubisoft did the same with AC III on the PS3 although later released the extra content for other systems.

http://www.destructoid.com/assassin-...4-247706.phtml

[Emperor Smeat]

According to Ubisoft, the next gen consoles versions of the game will require an internet connection for the game's single player campaign. Its due to all the social features they are implementing in the game with the PS4 also being the reason for the decision.

They did not clarify if the single player will or will not be playable without it.

The next generation versions of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag will include online connected single-player features, according to creative director Jean Guesdon, ensuring that players are always connected to the community even when playing solo. “ACIVBF will also be available on Next Gen consoles. In addition to improved graphics and physic, Next Gen versions will bring to the players new connected features allowing them to feel that even if they remain “Single Player” it will be better to be a “Single Connected Player,” said Guesdon in a leaked internal Q&A obtained by AGB (via VG247). “I mean, that Next Gen Consoles will allow players to have a solo experience that benefit the presence of a huge community.”

http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/...line-features/

[Emperor Smeat]

First trailer showing off actual gameplay was recently released by Sony and not by Ubisoft.

[drave]

Meh......

Too much AC saturation, starting to feel rushed/forced.

[Blitz]

I'm not really down with increased naval battles. Didn't absolutely hate it in AC3, but it was still my least favourite part.

Fucking hate the need to shoehorn these side games in. Like the tower defense thing in Revelations, the worst.

[Skippord]

the tower defense thing was horrible

not first person platforming bad but really bad

[Vastardikai]

I thought this was going to be about Henry Rollins being a contract killer.

[Fignuts]

Originally Posted by Skippord the tower defense thing was horrible not first person platforming bad but really bad

Shut up. Mirror's Edge is fantastic you curmudgeon.

[Fignuts]

Also, I really wish that whoever invented the concept of needing to be online for single player, would just go fuck himself and die.

[whiteyford]

Originally Posted by Vastardikai I thought this was going to be about Henry Rollins being a contract killer.

I would buy the shit out of that game.

[Fignuts]

Originally Posted by Blitz I'm not really down with increased naval battles. Didn't absolutely hate it in AC3, but it was still my least favourite part. Fucking hate the need to shoehorn these side games in. Like the tower defense thing in Revelations, the worst.

Since its apparently a much bigger part of gameplay this time around, I would think they put a lot more effort into making naval battles fun.

[whiteyford]

Didn't mind the naval stuff so much, just the AI ruined it at times. A lot better than the tower defence stuff though.

[Emperor Smeat]

Ubisoft announces there are 5 collector's editions available for the game.

Starting off with the American edition, which will be available at your local GameStop, will come with a poster designed by comic artist Todd McFarlane along with the Black Island pack, in which includes… Black Island Quest The Black Ship Captain Morgan’s silver flintlock pistols Multiplayer items such as Captain Morgan’s costume title and picture. As for Europe, The Black Chest, Buccaneer, Skull and Special Editions are all currently available for pre-order. Starting with the big boy costing £109.99 The Black Chest Edition (a Uplay exclusive) will include… 55 cm (22’) Diorama of Captain Edward on the Jackdaw’s Bow Exclusive SteelBook Artbook The official Soundtrack 2 Lithographs 2 canvas prints All existing additional Assassin’s Creed IV Unlockable in-game content Collector’s box Parchment world map An original Black Flag replica Available in UK GAME stores and Ireland Gamestops, The Buccaneer Edition (£69.99) features… A Edward Kenway figurine on Jackdaw’s Crow’s Nest A Artbook The official soundtrack 2 Lithographs Collector’s box Additional unlockable In-game content. The Skull Edition will be up for grabs all over the UK and will include Collector Jumbo Steel Case Artbook 2 Lithographs Unlockable in-game Content Finally running gamers £54.99 the Special Edition, which will be available at UK GAME stores and Ireland’s Xtravision, will include unlockable in-game content exclusively available at Black Flag’s launch. In addition, Ubisoft will be letting players, who pre-order AC4 from Amazon or Game UK, Ireland Gamestops, or Ubisoft’s UPlay service, access to The Watch; a special program which will give players additional content, information and rewards.

http://www.screwattack.com/news/ubis...-iv-black-flag

[mitchables]

anyone playing this on current-gen? i couldn't be arsed waiting for next-gen, can't imagine it's going to pad the experience at a level that makes me feel like i missed out or whatever

as fignuts predicted, the naval battles seem way better this time around. naval stuff was easily my least favourite part of III, so i was sceptical going in, but it's definitely been helped by its expansion. in fact, i've spent the majority of my time committing random acts of piracy and sailing around singing sea shanties. actually a lot of fun. the land stuff is par for the AC course; i'm not that far in the story because i've been so into the side stuff. which is weird, because the story so far has been pretty great too, but i'm on a roll with upgrading my ship, which is swiftly becoming the terror of the high seas.


the "present-day" component is a bit lacklustre, honestly - and in fact probably hurts the game. the switch from following desmond - or any protagonist involved in serious end-of-the-world stuff - to making you a random game tester for abstergo entertainment gives the whole thing a lesser sense of urgency. there might be a big twist or plot development that i'm not up to yet, but so far the modern-day bit has been positively benign. expecting some kind of swerve soon though, since desmond's team has just popped up.


but all in all, a solid addition to the franchise. if you liked the others, you'll have no qualms with this.

[mitchables]

oh - it has been a little glitchy. nothing game-breaking, just the odd programming hilarity, where a body flies up into space or falls into the ground or whatever. and the ai seems a little skittish at best. could've possibly spent more time on that. or maybe it's just a jolt to the system going from arkham origins' frankly sublime combat system to ubisoft's slightly less refined attempt here.

[whiteyford]

I'll probably pick this up at some point, just too many other things out around this time to bump it up the list. The finance system better than the third? Hated the sending wagons to everywhere stuff to make money in 3.

[LoDownM]

Originally Posted by mitchables the "present-day" component is a bit lacklustre, honestly - and in fact probably hurts the game. the switch from following desmond - or any protagonist involved in serious end-of-the-world stuff - to making you a random game tester for abstergo entertainment gives the whole thing a lesser sense of urgency. there might be a big twist or plot development that i'm not up to yet, but so far the modern-day bit has been positively benign. expecting some kind of swerve soon though, since desmond's team has just popped up.

I prefer this games modern day to the last games. Roughly 5 minutes per-segment, running around as a faceless character that's supposed to be you, was much better than all the Desmond side shit you had to do in Revelations and AC3.

[ClockShot]

PS4 version is en route to my house right now.

[mitchables]

Originally Posted by whiteyford I'll probably pick this up at some point, just too many other things out around this time to bump it up the list. The finance system better than the third? Hated the sending wagons to everywhere stuff to make money in 3.

it's better, but how much better is probably subjective. you have access to a fleet from your captain's cabin on your ship, which you can expand with captured ships, and you basically send them on trade missions that earn you cash. pretty much set it and forget it, because some of them take like two hours, so it's kind of "go here and get me money, eventually". if you have a tonne of ships, it's pretty good, because you can just go in like once for the play session and send all your ships out to do stuff and the money will be waiting for you in a few minutes, an hour, by session's end or next session, dependent on the mission length. all happens in the background while you're off killing templars and redcoats.


you can also attack 'royal' ships, which carry thousands of riales and are a quick way to boost the bank. hence the benefit of upgrading your ship; makes light work of all manner of monster vessels.

[Blitz]

Played a few missions. It's good. Already like the story more than AC3 at this point. Edward is so much better than Connor. The Kenway line ended up so lame. And you know Connor's gonna have a son or something that he'll raise into the same person as him so that guy will be a bitch too. Anyways.

As for the gameplay, it's Assassin's Creed. You know what you're getting.

[ClockShot]

Having a blast right now. Best part is just joyriding in the Jackdaw with the crew singing some shantys.

Only thing is half the game is over before I learn everything I knew from previous games........again.

[ClockShot]

Legendary Ships were quite the challenge. A couple of them absolutely ridiculous and far fetched, but I sunk 'em all.

[Sepholio]

Loving this game. I just wish they got rid of those stupid 'area unavailable during this memory' walls. Kind of ruins the immersion. I don't care if I'm not supposed to be there yet damnit.

[Blitz]

This is probably the best game in the series. Naval combat is so improved. World is beautiful. Story is fun, characters are engaging. Head and shoulders above 3.

[Blitz]

Originally Posted by ClockShot Legendary Ships were quite the challenge. A couple of them absolutely ridiculous and far fetched, but I sunk 'em all.

I took down my first the other day. No idea how I'm gonna defeat that super armoured one, even with full upgrades.

[Skippord]

I hated the naval combat so I sold it and bought a new external hard drive! a

but I watched the story mode on youtube and loved it so much.

[ClockShot]

Anybody beat this and/or do all the challenges for this game yet? If so, I have a question.