The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

I'm pretty sure it doesn't matter which game you play first. They both have their own stories that involve elements that aid the other, but are still solid on their own.

I'm going to take my time with the story. I want to make sure we're all ready for co-op around the same time and have a good handle on the controls. Also, I'm going to take advantage of the free 2 weeks of PS+ offer they have for beginners to save money, so take as much time as you guys need.

I plan on using the "spoiler" option when discussing any story elements about ACU/Rogue for a few months (which is what we do here every time a game comes out), so don't worry about that. I'll probably just look up a walkthrough of Rogue to get the story. I can't afford both games. The extent of my wallet will be the fact that I'm only going to pay for a few months of PS+ at a time, so let's make that time count!

Well... in that regard... I don't have a PS4 yet... so getting PS+ to play with me as a motivator is a bad idea right now.

EDIT: Also, I have no problem avoiding spoiler topics... it's when the topic itself is the spoiler... like if "Superfast Assassination of Al Mualim" were a topic for AC1 after the game being out for 5 days... You can't escape the fact that Al Mualim is a bad guy with that topic title.

Oh I won't get PS+ when Unity comes out. Singleplayer first and foremost. THEN co-op (when more people are up to speed).

I endorse the idea of keeping titles spoiler-free.

But what is the acceptable amount of time before you can type "Edward Braddock Variety Pack" vs "[S3M3] Variety Pack" as a topic? Or even go back and re-edit your topic titles to include the names for easier finding later?

I'd suggest titling them as "Sequence 3: Memory 2 Variety Pack" or something, but that may be too much work to go back and re-title them all after a certain period of time.

Or you could bookmark the forums that are updated the most : "forum games", "general", "other gaming", black flag, and ACR. This way you completely avoid Unity titles.

What amount of time would you suggest? I assume many will play fairly slowly (what with jobs and lives and all). 1 month, 2 months, until the end of the year 2014? It needn't be set in stone.

I was going to start with one month as a rough estimate and fine-tune it as we went along. Getting the titles sorted for easier searching once the spoiler moratorium is past shouldn't be too big a deal.

Basically, I was upset last year due to a "Woodes Rogers Assassination" topic 6 days after release. Maybe I'm still bitter over that is all.

I'm all for a strict spoiler policy. No spoilers in topic title, and an indication of the amount of spoilerage found within. Otherwise the topic gets removed.

The voice actor for Shay (I think?) said on Twitter that the two games aren't standalone, the stories are connected though he wouldn't elaborate on that. So I think play Rogue first, then Unity after (since Rogue happened earlier than Unity). I wonder how they are connected, Shay's story must be more important than Ubisoft has been revealing.

I never thought I would say this, but I don't really care about AC spoilers.

I'm almost certain I'll play Unity or Rogue somewhere in 2015 and I have no intent to hide from everything until then. I'll watch YouTube videos before then and they can spoil all they want. I feel like I've changed in what I like about AC. A few years ago, I didn't want anyone to spoil what happened in AC2 or Brotherhood until I finished it, so I played through it pretty quickly. Don't get me wrong, I can still enjoy a good story, but I don't think it's at the top of my list of things I'm looking for when buying a new AC. Right now I'm more about big explorable locations and well-designed assassination missions. I'll gladly read your discussions about the upcoming games until I play it myself. I'm not in any rush right now. I might get Shadow of Mordor first, or (check my wishlist) Far Cry 3, or Thief.

For other people though, I fully agree with Phi about keeping spoilers away from titles and in spoiler tags.

You could jump to Unity first though, because we already know how Shay's story plays out... Under Birch/Haytham and the Colonial branch of the Templars, Shay hunts all the Assassins down and wipes them from the colonies... save for Achilles Davenport. The game will fill in the details.

That said, having read Foresaken, I was bummed to see no reference to Shay in the French/Indian wars chapters.

I've also heard something similar that Rogue will/would contain something Unity related which is why I wanted to to play Rogue first, but since Ubi is probably also going to release Rogue on the PS4 I've decided to wait until that happens

Yeah, who would guess that a guy revealed to be a Templar in sequence 2 would turn out to be an actual assassination target? But I get your point.

And like I said in that topic, I didn't mind too much with the spoiler because I knew he was a target... but I had started the game.
- What about someone else who didn't get it on release week because it was sold out?
- What about someone who plays Rogue before Unity and doesn't want Unity spoilers?
- What about someone who plays Unity first?
- What about a target that is unforseen when you meet the character? Al Mualim, The Sage?

Anyway, back on topic.

I figured out ANOTHER reason to play Rogue before Unity (beside timeline, console generation, etc)... If they nail everything they are promoting with Unity, it will feel like a severe downgrade in gameplay going to Rogue after. Think about going back to AC1 from AC2... that guy can't even swim!

I'm afraid I don't follow. What's so bad about that?

Way to cut my quote off: "... that guy can't even swim!"

Swimming would've added zero to the game.

It would have made me not die 30 times to get to Sibrand ASAP...

In fact, the FIRST thing my wife asked me when she found out I was playing AC2 and Venice was a city was "can you swim?" So from a casual gamer standpoint: yes, it would have added to the game.

but it was an upgrade to the system to allow swimming. there have been similar feel and mechanics changes, this is just one example.

Speaking of which, does anyone else feel as though AC1 had a much more "realistic" look and feel to it? Comparatively, AC2-Current have an exaggerated look to everything. It might be the animations they've adopted over the years (f*cking Hookblade) or their color palettes. Things just seem...off to me.
#artistproblems

Back on track, I get what Cheese is getting at. Ubi isn't really hyping Rogue very much compared to Unity. I think we've gotten 2-3 trailers and one gameplay video. Unity has had a dozen of everything, it seems like. I hope it's not the case, but a player that goes from Unity to Rogue might leave with a bad taste in their mouth. Therefore, maybe playing Rogue first will be the best option?

Yeah. I've read that Rogue will be more or less a reskinned Black Flag - which is fine by me, but jumping to next-gen mechanics then back may not feel as nice... haha

Fucking casuals man.

Yeah Joey, definitely agree on that one. AC2 and beyond are way too colourful.

Unity now, Rogue when it's on PC or next-gen later.

What Amancio said about the order of Unity and Rogue (very vague):

Yeah... that could argue playing either way though... haha.