Assassin's Creed 4

[Spesh]

Trailer apparently uploaded 2 days ago. I'll throw up the rest of the info when they "announce" it later today.
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[Valandui]

That was quick.

[DisturbedShifty]

That was quick.

This was my reaction as well.

Forgive my spelling. This was sent from my phone.

[Locke]

This seems to be an annual release. Or maybe even bi-annual considering both Revelations and AC3 came out in 2013. You have to worry about the quality starting to diminish with the speed they are throwing this out. Even past the quality, what about originality? I'm worried that one of my favorite series is going to be in decline pretty soon here...

[Spesh]

Assassin’s Creed seems to enjoy operating without limits. The franchise has always dreamed big and attempted to deliver even bigger, and if the series has one blatant weakness, it’s that its annual ambitions exceed what consoles are realistically able to produce...

The question, then, becomes this: can the Assassin’s Creed franchise balance its desire to move into yet another new era with its need to acknowledge its inherent strengths and weaknesses? After five installments, is ambition enough to keep this modern blockbuster relevant as we begin to move into a new generation of technology?
In the case of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, those ambitious designs have moved prior to the American Revolution, to the earlier half of the 18th century, off the east coast of Northern America where piracy thrives. It is in this era that we’ll meet Edward Kenway, father of Haytham and grandfather of Connor, - clearly signifying the pursuit of what Ubisoft is calling the “Kenway saga” of Assassin’s Creed games. Where Haytham and Connor were present at the dawn of a new democracy, Edward will be tested by the failure of the old one.

Ismail’s Montreal-based team, in conjunction with studios from Singapore, Sofia, Annecy, Kiev, Quebec City, Bucharest and Montpellier, is working towards building what he describes as the “first true naval overworld.” Fans of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker might technically beg to disagree, but nonetheless the ambition is well-founded. Black Flag aims to blend between its land and aquatic experiences seamlessly, to the point where Edward can simply dive off of his ship, swim to the shore of one of 50 or so locations in the Carribbean, and explore. No loading. No segmented feeling. Ubisoft also plans for a great deal of variety in these locales as well, ranging from plantations and jungles to Mayan ruins and exotic coconut islands. All of this joins content hosted in three major cities – Havana (described as analogous to ACII’s Venice in terms of vertical emphasis), Nassau (the home of the so-called Republic of Pirates) and Kingston (a very dangerous, British-run city). Collectively the land-based portions of the game will comprise about 60% of Black Flag's core missions...

With the bold claim that Assassin’s Creed III was just testing the (forgive us) water in terms of naval combat, Ismail’s team intends to make Black Flag’s ocean-based warfare deeper and more complex than before, adding more weapon types, enemies, and challenges. These ideas stack onto an already fundamentally sound core, which for many was a highlight of ACIII. Calling back to Far Cry 3, Edward uses a spyglass to view ships and islands from a distance, which communicates valuable information on a destination or foe prior to any sort of engagement. Players will also be able to exploit weather patterns, luring the opposition into less than ideal conditions such as dynamic storms, to their advantage.

Of course, naval warfare doesn’t just end on the high seas. You’ll board your enemy’s ship, and Black Flag will offer a variety of options when it comes to this type of confrontation. Your goal with any ship-to-ship fight is to eliminate the other captain. How you do this is entirely up to you...

That kind of flexibility lends itself to the entire mission philosophy for Black Flag. Ubisoft wants to remove some of the barriers that previous games created, leaning more on open-ended directives, something that lends itself more towards the (comparatively) simple assassination orders from the first AC game. Ismail described his approach as being less about hand-holding and more about providing basic objectives with flexible conditions for satisfying said objectives, which also includes refining game systems for things like detection and stealth, so players better understand how the game "reads" their actions.

The entirety of Black Flag’s development could be characterized by that self-awareness and franchise-centric reflection. When we asked if the team had taken a look at how it paces its story and mission structure, Ismail noted that his team has, from the start, been focused on building mechanics within the pirate theme that the story then supports – not the other way around. The same applies to the franchise’s tendency to rely on excessive mechanics that continue to stack year after year – some that seemingly exist just for the sake of having something new. It’s here that the Black Flag team is placing a discerning eye, because any system the game doesn’t need is being discarded.

Assassin’s Creed has long had grand ambitions, but those same narrative and game design risks have sometimes proven the series’ greatest weakness. Those bold desires, combined with the speed at which AC iterations are released, has resulted in a variety of flaws that have remained for years...
Black Flag, if Ubisoft’s intentions come to life, seems poised to address some of those problems. The team seems genuinely interested in not only providing a new, naval-based, open world experience, but finding a better lead character, and fixing some of the faulty missions and gameplay systems from the past. There is plenty more to learn about the game, and plenty to play, but if nothing else, it’s genuinely exciting to see Assassin’s Creed head in this direction. It’s different. It’s unexpected. But the series must take risks and remain self-aware to remain fresh and relevant as an annual franchise. All indications point to Ubisoft taking these exact steps, and much like the limitless horizon of the ocean, the result full of possibility and potential.

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Well, there was alot they talked about. I tried to quote their acknowledgement to the problems you'll mentioned. Part i left out was the team from Far Cry 3 joining the AC team to make this thing. Excellent move by Ubisoft.

Sucks for me because i was one of the very few people in the world that like Connor and wanted to see his story continue. As well, i liked the modern day storyline and thought they should have expanded on it and not limited it even further(admittedly the "solar flare" storyline was idiotic, keep it simple people: asssassin vs templers for advanced technology).

The annual release part of their goal doesnt bother me much. I think its a nice change of pace from some of the other franchises out there. Ken Levine's Bioshock team only makes a "real" game once every 6-7 years. Bioware cranks out a game every 3 or so years. Bethesda comes out with a new open world game every other year or so(although they seem to alternate between Fallout and Elder Scrolls). I havent minded AC's releases because they usually are fresh and well made. "Usually" being the key term, because AC 3 was had some truly awful mechanics. That said, it was still one of the better stories ive played and by the end i had to give it a slow clap for telling a dark, mature, and nuanced tale. Heck, only real problem i have with the release practice is the damned multiplayer. Like hell am i going to keep working on hitting 50 in AC3.
All that said, it seems like they are focused on "originality" for this new game. We shall see if it works that way.

[Valandui]

I'm wondering if this wasn't a planned DLC they decided to expand into another game.

[Locke]

I'm wondering if this wasn't a planned DLC they decided to expand into another game.

Possible. Maybe why they expanded the King Washington DLC into 3 episodes...

[Mike13]

I'm wondering if this wasn't a planned DLC they decided to expand into another game.

Ubisoft rotates studios, thats how thet crank out annual assassins creed. This one was being worked on at the same time as AC3.
The Far Cry guys are working on this one actually.

[Thumper1016]

Looking forward to this game as well.

[DisturbedShifty]

I could never get into these games. I hate the pacing of them. Which is funny because I love Metal Gear.

Forgive my spelling. This was sent from my phone.