melmer

Assassin's Creed: Buccaneer

Recommended Posts

Better be some Monkey Island references in this shit.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I think I'm probably being to harsh on this game after quitting AC3, I've forgotten how much I loved 2 and brotherhood. Hopefully it'll be a return to form.

I should wait and pick up the next gen version whenever those consoles come out, it's been confirmed for the ps4

Ultimately I really just want to murder some whales in super HD

They'll hopefully have a really robust ship upgrade system, much like the village you restored in AC2. I'd love to be able to walk around my ship and see all the new pirates I've recruited first hand swabbing the deck, and seeing all the upgrades I make actually making a noticeable difference to how the ship looks. I bought a load of upgrades for the ship in AC3, did they actually change how the ship looked? I didn't notice.

I'd love it if this game didn't have any of the animus stuff, no Danny Wallace talking shit, lose all the running around in a white room whilst the game loads. Just set it in history and let that be that. It can keep all the ancient alien bollocks, I like that stuff, finding an ancient alien tomb wasn't treasure hunting would be fun, maybe just leave it till right at the end of the game.

It's a shame that this game has to have anything to do with the AC franchise :(

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Presumably this is a mobile game to set up Abstergo Entertainment, which Ubisoft claimed in their press conference for Assassin's Creed IV is a real-world company that you, as the player, will be working for by using your console-animus to play their games?

 

Or not, but I just wanted to bring that up again, from the RPS article. Someone at Ubi really really really loves the near-future conspiracy shit.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

"the protagonist is YOU. That’s right, the frame story of this Assassin’s Creed is no longer that of a bland, hoodied bartender but of you, sitting right there, YOU. “We are now in the present day,” said Ubisoft, smiling postmoderningly. “You will be the hero of the game, working for Abstergo Entertainment.”

Was some of the present day stuff in AC1 in first person? I think I remember it was. That would be a good way to treat the present day stuff in this game. Make you some faceless abstergo worker who's a distant relation to Desmond (I'd imagine a pirate capt would father a lot of children) maybe not having any loyalties to Templars or assassins and just working for money. And maybe your present day missions could involve hunting down and killing Danny Wallace and the rest of the assassin crew, that would be fun

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Liberation on Vita was centred around the conceit that the animus had become recreational software and that you could purchase different people's histories from Abstergo to play. It followed through on it pretty hard too, up to including "hacks" from some assassin coder who would show you the part that Abstergo "edited out" of their software if you found certain NPCs and killed them. AC is weird.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

AC is basically a mix of really well-researched and beautiful historical fiction combined with truly bad sci-fi. I was originally OK with it because it provided an excuse for some useful/cool gameplay and UI stuff. Unfortunately someone at UbiSoft clearly thinks it warrants being more than that.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Unfortunately someone at UbiSoft clearly thinks it warrants being more than that.

 

I have to admit, I am more curious about who this is than any mystery the Assassin's Creed games have managed to conjure up.

 

Who fought against Desmond's unpopularity year after year, game after game? Who made the decision to increase the number of near-future scenes in Revelations? Are they responsible for the fiction or are they simply fans of it? Are they one or many? What are their positions at Ubisoft? Do they have a plan? THIS IS THE CONSPIRACY THEORY THAT INTERESTS ME.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

AC is basically a mix of really well-researched and beautiful historical fiction combined with truly bad sci-fi. I was originally OK with it because it provided an excuse for some useful/cool gameplay and UI stuff. Unfortunately someone at UbiSoft clearly thinks it warrants being more than that.

 

That's a pretty solid critique of that series in general IMO. However I'm not entirely sure that the sci fi stuff ads any cool game play elements. All the dumb sci fi story really does for the game is couch the UI elements and collectibles inside that section of the worlds ridiculous fiction. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Well I was mostly describing how it gives stupid gamey stuff like invisible walls an equally stupid but at least canonical explanation.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm calling it right now as a game that disappoints versus hype thanks to not enough time/money.

 

Yes, I know that they actually spent 3 years on it, yes I know they have a huge budget. But they're promising something along the scale of Red Dead Redemption/GTA V without spending a hundred+ million and 5+ years on it. So I just don't see them delivering, and all to keep their artificial money making schedule.

 

Zeus I'm cynical. Maybe I should go back to playing Rollercoaster Tycoon 2. Making a make believe theme park can at least cure part of that temporarily.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

All the dumb sci fi story really does for the game is couch the UI elements and collectibles inside that section of the worlds ridiculous fiction. 

This makes me want to think that Far Cry 3 takes place in some sort of animus not only because of the invasive AI, but the tone early on that made it seem like there was something like 'The Game' going on.

 

In any case, the only thing I found really compelling about AC3 was running around as a Native American kid in the forest. During that all too brief period, the aesthetics enhanced the experience of retreaded AC mechanics. Hopefully I'll be able to just sail around in AC: BF and just be a sailor.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I think to think this will be anything but more Assassins Creed is sort of foolish. We're now 5 (will this be 6?) games into the series. I think what you're going to get from AC has become pretty clear. I wonder how bad sales will need to get before they consider shelving the franchise for a while?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Gameplay demo, if you're curious what the UI will be like. I hated it with a passion in 3

I'm only 3mins in, praise the sun they have introduced free aiming with guns

Finished and pleasantly surprised, god I hope this game deliveries the goods.

For starters, the collectables in the world seem to be tied to upgrades :tup: unlike in 3 where they were utterly pointless.

This game desperately needs a Wind waker fishman Easter egg. Hoy!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Gotta say, that video definitely appeals to me. I couldn't really care less about the setting of AC3, but as a life-long lover of all things piratey and big fan of AC2 this is so made for me. It kind of pisses me off that we had to go through three unnecessary releases to get to here, though.

 

One thing that I'm a bit irritated about is the fact that I know they're going to try and jam the Desmond bullshit into this one too. Before I wasn't so bothered by the Desmond stuff, but as time has gone on I've realised that like others on this forum I just want a fucking Renaissance or pirate game — non of this sci-fi shit. I don't know, to me the whole Desmond side of the game just feels so pointless, like it's not really going anywhere. It's the struggle of a character I don't like surrounded by other characters I don't like in a world that feels shallower and less real than the virtual reality one you spend most of your time in.

 

I noticed that there was a conspicuous absence of anything Desmond-like in that video, but I know it's there lurking beneath the water, waiting to reveal its vile head and destroy the perfect Caribbean atmosphere with yet another loading screen of the main character walking through a digital void or some 'disintegrating world' effect that seems more at home in The Matrix or more relevantly in Watch Dogs.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Have you finished 3? (If you haven't....DON'T) I'm not so sure we'll see Desmond in this one. Maybe a relative? The single best thing about 3 was the twist they pulled with Haytham Kenway, I'm expecting more of that.

They've really toned back on the UI which is fantastic in my eyes. In fact all of the glitchy 'sync' bullshit is absent. When he completed the mission by taking out those two guys and theres none of the polygon web when hiding in bushes. Maybe.....just maybe they'll play this one straight without any present day stuff. 4 games of Danny Wallace is enough.

Maybe this time around the present day stuff will be left purely for the games ending. It seems like they've really listened to what people want, and I think 'the people' are all a bit sick of the present day gumf, so I'm optimistic

And, watch dogs is now their 'present day/near future' gadgety sci fi world, they'll probably want to leave a lot of that stuff out of ass creed so that the games aren't to similar in tone. Abstergo I blatantly turning up in watch dogs

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

This reminds me I need to go get my free copy of AC2 on XBL in the next few days.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Have you finished 3? (If you haven't....DON'T) I'm not so sure we'll see Desmond in this one. Maybe a relative? The single best thing about 3 was the twist they pulled with Haytham Kenway, I'm expecting more of that.

They've really toned back on the UI which is fantastic in my eyes. In fact all of the glitchy 'sync' bullshit is absent. When he completed the mission by taking out those two guys and theres none of the polygon web when hiding in bushes. Maybe.....just maybe they'll play this one straight without any present day stuff. 4 games of Danny Wallace is enough.

Maybe this time around the present day stuff will be left purely for the games ending. It seems like they've really listened to what people want, and I think 'the people' are all a bit sick of the present day gumf, so I'm optimistic

And, watch dogs is now their 'present day/near future' gadgety sci fi world, they'll probably want to leave a lot of that stuff out of ass creed so that the games aren't to similar in tone. Abstergo I blatantly turning up in watch dogs

The marketing team did a sterling job of keeping the Haytham stuff on the down low for sure, and credit to them for that. I think the key thing to do is compare it to equivalent publicity material from Assassin's Creed III. The UI still says "hey, you're a guy stuck in the Matrix, here's your Star Trek mission summary" to me, but Ubi may be wary of losing players who would run a mile from a pirate sim. Which is fine. You've got to sell bucket loads if you want a game with that amount of people polishing it.

Other stuff about the trailer being the same trailer as last week's except twice as long, the color palette being lovely until you realise it's Michael Bay'd to oblivion, and pressing foward and X to win.

My cynicism needs a hug and a sleep :-(

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I agree that the Assassin's Creed games have gotten... uhm. Easy is to easy of a word, dim? Illusory, that's a good word. Like Skyrim and a ton of other games. They give the illusion that there's some sort of challenge to overcome, and then the illusion that you've won a victory. It's the non interactive, televisionlike experience except for a video game. Which is great for business! A ton of people enjoying lying on a couch, with their brains off, being delivered the phantasms of success and etc. through no effort of their own.

 

It's just not something I enjoy most of the time; and when I do enjoy it it's not something I look for in a video game. And the idea that there ever was such a thing as a "difficulty setting" doesn't seem to have occurred to any of these "Triple A" developers. Rockstar excepted of course (You rock Rockstar!). Which is all a shame, because I really enjoy some of the look of this. I really like the Master and Commander series of books, a naval combat game is right up my alley. I love the idea of a fully interactive Sid Meir's Pirates! type game. I just wish it wasn't stuck with Ubisoft or Assassin's Creed. Because if I'm a pirate, I want to be a fame and fortune seeking murderous douche, that's what a pirate is. Any sense of nobility or whatever is kind of ruining the point.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Oh, and the game looks really, REALLY held back by this generation of consoles. Their lighting is still incredibly flat in shadows, they cheat with storms by making water around coastlines is always calm no matter what, their ship destruction is basically canned, there's no swinging or swaying lines or nets on boats to cling onto, etc. etc.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Yeah, it's little details like the static ropes on the ship during a storm that just take me out of it slightly. I do like how seamless the world appears to be, the load-free transition from boat to sea to land is quite cool.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now