Darby McDevitt: Brotherhood's modern day may inspire the approach for future AC
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-02-27-future-assassins-creed-game...
specifically the exploration of monteriggioni:
"That only came about because [we] were able to reuse Monteriggioni from AC2," he recalled. "So the future - and this is the plan - is to smartly reuse things so we can have a more robust modern day."
also a bit about more detail in TWCB lore:
"I particularly love the lore. I've been working the past two years, with all the other writers, on getting a great document together on the First Civilisation."We've created 500, 600, 700 years worth of history that we hope to start teasing out for the next 10, 20 years or however long we're around,"
"As I see it there were always two ways to go about this. You could always make [the First Civ] very mysterious - to never really go into what they were. But at a certain point in the games you got to the point where you knew they were real. So why not go the other direction and treat them as real history.
"So me and the other writers have been, as a side-project to really make sure all future projects have this cool timeline to go from, creating this huge First Civ history. With all the big moments and a ton of small moments you've never thought of. So every future writer can say 'I want to reference Juno again, or Minerva' and see where she was at a specific date... and how far along was the First Civ-human war going."
I loved exploring modern monteriggioni. That kind of historical archivism as opposed to straight tourism is really appropriate for the modern day, since reliving the past aligns neatly with exploring that same past. If they do start relying more on systemic interactions and objectives for Animus side content, I'd be happy if they seeded these modern areas with a relatively smaller, lower-key and more purpose-built number of side activities. This is assuming it also imitates Brotherhood in terms of engagement with this area being largely optional besides the opening and finale. (counting the Colosseum as part of the same "retread of already-made Italy assets" thing.)
I would definitely like to see TWCB fleshed out more, they've gone beyond what was absolutely necessary as far as building them out, and in the process uncovered a lot of really interesting things to explore: their faux benevolent attitude towards humanity, their role in the origins of the Templar and Assassin conflict and the similarities of their factions to those groups. This makes sense, and was pretty inevitable going off their literal advertisement for a TWCB-focused game in Unity.
Of course the thing likely generating the most discussion right now is the "10, 20 years" thing. I don't care how many years it lasts, I care that each game gets enough time to be the best it can be (and not ruin the lives of the people working on them)
YYYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.
I am genuinely HAPPY for the first time in maybe four weeks, wow.
I think I like Brotherhood's modern day the most of all games. So I like where this is going.
I messed up and made it appear as if my commentary was being quoted. I fixed it.
Anyone remember this thread?
http://thehiddenblade.com/assassins-creed-3-story-and-setting-speculatio...
(I was kidding about hijacking vehicles)
Funny how some people thought reusing areas was a bad idea, but now that it's Ubisoft's future goal, we just accept it.
And now I stumbled onto an old comment:
I have to say that if the French Revolution is chosen for AC3, that will make me the happiest puppy in the 'verse! It's my absolute most fave historical event. I would be able to bombard you guys with history lessons!(History lessons are like my own little hidden blade, I guess: tiny and lethal
)
But it would seem unfair to Desmond and all of his training if he didn't play the majority of it himself. I predict that will be the case.
Of course, there's no reason that Ubi can't set a whole different AC game (with a different Desmond) during the French Revolution as well. That would be awesome.
Man, Ubi, why did you wait so long for the French Revolution setting?! Now we'll never get those promised history lessons. 
Lol, apparently I thought AC3 would be the final game back then.
Hah, and that it'd come out in 2011. Well, I was right about it having levels in multiple cities. Which I ended up liking more than most folks, I think.