In case you need a reason to buy ...
I'm on the fence as to when I'll get this game. Release day? Maybe not. Black Friday sales? Maybe. Christmas? Maybe.
If you're on the fence, here's a reason to get it though... http://www.gadgetreview.com/2013/03/peta-vs-the-black-flag-upcoming-assa...
For those that don't want to click on the link, PETA has taken issue with Black Flag due to its portrayal and supposedly glorification of (completely historically accurate) whaling. The response from Ubisoft is great (bold added for emphasis):
Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag is a work of fiction that depicts the real events during the Golden Era of Pirates. We do not condone illegal whaling, just as we don’t condone a pirate lifestyle of poor hygiene, plundering, hijacking ships, and over-the-legal-limit drunken debauchery.
And even if the game does glorify whaling — as it certainly glorifies the life of a pirate — I don’t think it will lead to a generation of gamers who head to the Caribbean to hunt down humpbacks. Just as I don’t think anyone who played the previous Assassin’s Creed games have found employment as a murderer for hire.
“Force has no place where there is need of skill." Herodotus
Just as I don’t think anyone who played the previous Assassin’s Creed games have found employment as a murderer for hire.
I don't know man. I still have no idea exactly what Ian does when he's not on THB.
I like animals as much as the next person but PETA goes overboard. If they have a problem with whaling in fiction then I suppose they'd like to see Moby Dick banned as well.
PETA has had a history of going overboard, honestly. They were active over the release of StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm because of Zerglings being treated unfairly. People, Zerglings are 1) Not real, 2) Vicious beasts that we would not be able to share our world with even if they did exist.
http://www.peta.org/b/thepetafiles/archive/2013/03/11/peta-starcraft-zer...
Hehe..."overboard"...
but they do have a habit of getting celebrities naked, so they can't be all that bad
but they do have a habit of getting celebrities naked, so they can't be all that bad
Awesome, Rob! They used to be annoying but now I have a whole new attitude toward them. Thanks, man!
UH OH.... land hunting is back too... PETA's not gonna like this....
“Force has no place where there is need of skill." Herodotus
Someone told me that PETA protests EVERYTHING slightly animal welfare related just as a PR stunt. It certainly keeps them high profile and makes people who agree with them remember them.
I have a better reason to buy:
At 0:40 Ismail says it will only take two gunshots to kill you.
STEALT. There's no H. It's too stealthy too be seen.
Two gunshots from a specific guard. I'm sure the other version's firearms will be closer to AC3, though still something you don't want to get hit by if you can avoid it. We have no idea if armor's coming back, but I'd wager that if i is, upgrading it will make those guards less deadly.
For fun, I'm going to do a run-through where I get full upgrades on everything, and another where I only upgrade the Jackdaw, no Edward upgrades. That way I'll have a file where free-roaming will be more interesting.
But yeah, it's really good for designers, as they can strategically position those guards in two-person groups to encourage stealth. (or prioritize taking them out first.)
How many shots did the Jannisaries in ACR take to kill you?
“Force has no place where there is need of skill." Herodotus
I'm not sure, but way more than two, and you had health items.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSG-o_iJDRw
Darby says the plantations are excellent stealth places, due to the randomly generated location of the key-holder you have to kill, and the fact that they reset after a while so you can replay it again.
I'd assume the guard setup remains the same, but even so, that's really really cool and should make for unique experiences.
they reset after a while so you can replay it again.
excellent. It's like what I wanted the Forts to do in AC3... reset (even manually) so you can play them again.
EDIT: It actually didn't make sense for the forts to reset (you liberated them already). It DOES make sense for the plantations to reset though. Just because you plunder a plantation, that doesn't mean they stop building up stores.... ideally, they would hire more security to make it harder for someone to plunder in the future. That would be rad.
“Force has no place where there is need of skill." Herodotus
Okay, maybe handing it over to a new main studio was a good idea. I have more faith in this game.
The lead team is still Montreal. Many of the people who worked on AC3 are on AC4. Not to mention the smaller studios are probably mainly the same.
I thought Montreal moved on to other games like Watch_Dogs and other properties and gave AC4 to the rest of the studios. Wonder what I mixed up this time.
How can that be if AC3 and AC4 were being worked on at the same time for nearly 2 years except for this last year?
“Force has no place where there is need of skill." Herodotus
Watch dogs is an entirely different branch of Montreal. Montreal is a big place. There are at least three teams at montreal working on Assassin's Creed games, and they're all communicating with each other and sharing technology and members and transferring people between them.
That's why the free-running system in Black flag uses the same sort of animation techniques as in AC3. You didn't seriously think they re-made all of that stuff from scratch, or got handed the previous game's code with no explanation on how it works, did you?
Um, no? I heard that they switched, so my assumption was: Montreal moved onto finishing Watch_Dogs in full force, along with Splinter Cell and other games, while they handed the primary control over to another Ubi studio to head it. Obviously they'd have communicated notes and gameplay during development. It's Ubisoft; one big company. This isn't Ubi handing it to NetherRealm or Epic Games. Of course there would be communication if it were the case. And that's how that would work if it was. Don't shoot down my assumption like that. There's still logic in that case.
I wasn't shooting anything down, apologies if it seemed that way. For future reference, Ubisoft Montreal has historically always been the lead developer on Assassin's Creed, even when there are several ACs in development.