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[Solaire of Astora]

9/10 times they have delivered very good games. They dont skimp on content like Activision/Sony/EA.. Black Flag was meaty.

How was black flag "meaty"? Are you talking about the metric tonne of collectibles they added? Or the briefly fun, but all too samey fort raids? Seriously, I played black flag, but it just felt like ubisoft open world game #50.

I don't think I'll buy another of their open world games until they actually make an effort to make things unique and don't just recycle tedious content and add worthless collectibles.

 

[Scrooge McDuck]

Nope. That was the Relations team and my distrust ran deep.

Hm, but didn't Ubisoft Montreal make every Assassin's Creed game, anyway, bar the first one?

 

[VisceralBowl]

Hm, but didn't Ubisoft Montreal make every Assassin's Creed game, anyway, bar the first one?

There are around 6 studios working on portions of each game and usually a different one is the 'lead' of each.

 

[dreamfall]

It looks very dense.

Optimistic!

 

[ZaneZavin]

Am I the only one that liked Revelations? Loved the dark nature and the conclusion...

Spoiler

Ezio!!!!!! ;_;

Revelations was my first AC game. Loved it and totally cried at the end. Haven't really got into one since then. The full coop in this one might be enough to pull me back in.

 

[Nome]

Am I the only one that liked Revelations? Loved the dark nature and the conclusion...

Spoiler

Ezio!!!!!! ;_;

Still my #1 AC game, even after AC4. Everything about it was perfect.

 

[Warablo]

Revelations was my first AC game. Loved it and totally cried at the end. Haven't really got into one since then. The full coop in this one might be enough to pull me back in.

Geez, I think that one is the worst in the series for me. It still was decent though..

 

[ZServ]

Oh man. Oh, man. Where's that "stop I can only get so erect" gif when you need it?

My body is ready for this game so hard

 

[Sirim]

Oh god

The hope is dissipating.

That scene is so good that after 30 seconds I had forgotten what led me to it and I watched the entire thing.

 

[ZaneZavin]

Geez, I think that one is the worst in the series for me. It still was decent though..

I did try the first one after. It had such terrible writing a was riddled with bugs and poor mechanics. No way was Revelations worse.

 

[KingJolly]

Its going to a bit bigger than Rome from brotherhood I suppose but less nature areas.

 

[Net_Wrecker]

Variety worries me more than size.

One city/setting for the whole game? Uhm...

It worked well with Rome in Brotherhood, because that was pretty varied, but they weren't as concerned with authenticity then, so i hope they can replicate it with Paris.

The cities in AC3 for example were atrocious, didn't even explore them all, something i usually do in AC games.

I hope variety comes in the form of unique districts that have their own feel, and and great use of the huge crowd system and dynamic events. For too long we've always focused on purely landscape variety in these open world games, but devs can do more now even within a single city like this game. Throwing in some random countryside and calling it "variety" isn't enough anymore. As dense as this map looks to be, there's no reason for it not to have unique districts where people, sounds, atmosphere, colors, materials, conflicts, mission types, etc. all inform the story and mood of each area. I think attempting a sprawling city narrative like that can be even more impressive than a bunch of standard "variety" as we've come to know it.

 

[brickarts295]

God have mercy on us if they decide to put some ridiculous amount of collectibles. I'm still haunted by the flags...

 

[Scrooge McDuck]

There are around 6 studios working on portions of each game and usually a different one is the 'lead' of each.

Mm, I thought Montreal was always the lead. Which is why it's quite a news when they passed the torch to Ubisoft Quebec for the next installment.

 

[SimpleGamer]

I will miss the open seas....

.

 

[NBtoaster]

Brotherhood and Revelations are my least favorite. I like natural regions inbetween cities rather than borders inside big cities depending on your point in the story.

 

[Crossing Eden]

I hope variety comes in the form of unique districts that have their own feel, and and great use of the huge crowd system and dynamic events. For too long we've always focused on purely landscape variety in these open world games, but devs can do more now even within a single city like this game. Throwing in some random countryside and calling it "variety" isn't enough anymore. As dense as this map looks to be, there's no reason for it not to have unique districts where people, sounds, atmosphere, colors, materials, conflicts, mission types, etc. all inform the story and mood of each area. I think attempting a sprawling city narrative like that can be even more impressive than a bunch of standard "variety" as we've come to know it.

That's quite literally what they're going for in this game. Dynamic large scale crowd driven events, such as rioting in front of the church or faction driven public executions, and smaller scale events like random murders or theft.

God have mercy on us if they decide to put some ridiculous amount of collectibles. I'm still haunted by the flags...

Instead of a bunch of collection the side missions have been aptly named "1000 stories of Paris." An example of this is solving murders that occur throughout the city, the player has to investigate these missions and find the culprits, culminating in the player getting the murderer's weapon. Stuff like that.

 

[Pryce]

I already miss the Caribbean.

 

[C.Olimar788]

Am I the only one that liked Revelations? Loved the dark nature and the conclusion...

Spoiler

Ezio!!!!!! ;_;

Revelations is by far my favorite of the series. It was a fantastic game with excellent conclusions to both Altair and Ezio's stories, and the new locale and diversified gameplay was a breath of fresh air after the godawful rehash that was Brotherhood.

I'll be very happy if they're doing one city again. 3 and Black Flag are far too spread out for their own good - I'll take a consolidated world with a lot of things to do wherever you go over an empty one with the same amount of content spread over a wider area any day.

Speaking of opinions that aren't shared by the majority, I hope this one has a lot of great modern day sections - they were one of the few things that were great in AC3. Crossing my fingers that

Spoiler

Desmond comes back in some form.

 

[ZeroX03]

Not a fan of Paris, love the Caribbean, but that's some impressive scale regardless and the co-op already sold me on the game. Just hope the fast travel options are good, because horseback is nowhere near as fun as boats.

 

[Kssio_Aug]

Don't really know what to expect about this game. Was so disappointed with the last 3 titles. AC IV was actually the best one after AC II, but something felt really careless from the developers imo (like the stupid legendary supersayajin twin ships, and those online events that I've never seen happening). Also, I can't stand that Animus bs anymore.

 

[Nokterian]

No open sea,no little islands to explore, no boatfights unlike Black Flag. To me that will get boring because your stuck in one huge city.

 

[Crossing Eden]

Not a fan of Paris, love the Caribbean, but that's some impressive scale regardless and the co-op already sold me on the game. Just hope the fast travel options are good, because horseback is nowhere near as fun as boats.

You can't ride on horseback in Unity. Paris is too dense.

 

[Alpende]

Density is good, I liked that in previous Creed games.

 

[ZeroX03]

You can't ride on horseback in Unity. Paris is too dense.

I think this is a good thing? It sucked ass in Brotherhood, and the fast travel points weren't very well placed.

 

[VisceralBowl]

I think I am the only person who thinks this:

AC2 = AC:B = AC:R > AC3 > AC4 > AC:L > AC1

Black Flag got boring and relied too much on ship combat. Stuff was scarce / too spread out and the game felt short. I am glad we're finally getting a big city again.

 

[Quadraphonic]

I just know that you're clinically insane ranking AC3 above AC4.

 

[yellow submarine]

You can't ride on horseback in Unity. Paris is too dense.

Look, I'm a super fan of the series as well, but that's not the real reason. That's the excuse. the real reason is they didn't have enough dev time to put in horses in the game. If they are cutting schedules so tight that they can't put female models and motion capture in the game, it makes sense that horses aren't in either. Maybe in Unity 2.

 

[VisceralBowl]

I just know that you're clinically insane ranking AC3 above AC4.

I would say they're equal but AC3 wins because there is less ship gameplay and the setting is (imo) more interesting.

The modern day part of AC4 was miles better though. Those audio logs and emails were cool.

 

[JaseC]

Gimme, gimme, gimme.

Its going to a bit bigger than Rome from brotherhood I suppose but less nature areas.

Yeah, it was stated in the recent tech video that Paris is the largest city yet, which was the least I was hoping for.

 

[ZServ]

I think I am the only person who thinks this:

AC2 = AC:B = AC:R > AC3 > AC4 > AC:L > AC1

Black Flag got boring and relied too much on ship combat. Stuff was scarce / too spread out and the game felt short. I am glad we're finally getting a big city again.

See, I hated 2. Don't know why. Think I just disliked Ezio for being a whiney teenager.

Personally, I'd rank em as:

AC:B > AC3 > AC2 > ACR > AC4 > AC1

Brotherhood defined what Assassin's Creed could and should be, for me. It was the true sequel to 1, IMO. 3 was another step in the right direction, but also like 10 steps back in other ways. I.E., if AC3 was AC2, Unity would be AC:B from what we've seen. So I'm kinda hype.

 

[Crossing Eden]

Look, I'm a super fan of the series as well, but that's not the real reason. That's the excuse. the real reason is they didn't have enough dev time to put in horses in the game. If they are cutting schedules so tight that they can't put female models and motion capture in the game, it makes sense that horses aren't in either. Maybe in Unity 2.

Why in the world would you wanna ride a horse throught out a city that has tons upon tons of civilians in the streets. That wouldn't be fun. Which is why they didn't include it. No Ubisoft is not cutting back on anything. Thinking that we can't ride a horse in a heavily populated city is because "they're cutting back" is completely ridiculous. There are plenty of female characters in the game, they literally just showed footage of a major female character and showed a much older female templar in the making of ign video. You only play as the main character, Arno, a french male. Even if there was a female version of Arno who was modeled with all of his animations, outfits, gear etc. You still wouldn't play as her because you'd never see yourself playing as any other character than Arno. End of story.

 

[Psoelberg]

Wow, love the comparison between the maps. Interesting.

 

[chaosaeon]

And how many titans will we need to achieve a stuttering 30-40 fps on this title Ubi ?

 

[BeberMan]

It would be nice if the mainline games would continue to expand the freedom aspect which started with IV, and the spinoffs would be area focused.

 

[Sorc3r3r]

I will miss the open seas....

You and me.

Dear Ubisoft, give us another pirate themed game, your amazing tech is wasted instead, use it to make money.

Yours,
Wallet.

 

[Palette Swap]

It's going to be so cool and weird seeing pre-19th century Paris, given that Haussmann and 6 World Fairs changed parts of the city a lot during the 19th century.

I never really expected Versailles to be on the map TBH as at the time, there were mostly villages and countryside between Paris and Versailles. I expect Versailles, and probably other locations, to be instanced for specific missions. At best, they could do what they did with Capadocce in Revelations I guess: a semi-permanent / semi-instanced location.

Also, for reference, this is how the outline of Paris evolved between 1795 and the end of the 19th century. Obviously, the game uses the former:

 

[AusRoachman]

Still my #1 AC game, even after AC4. Everything about it was perfect.

You actually enjoyed those tower defense moments ?

 

[JaseC]

You and me.

Dear Ubisoft, give us another pirate themed game, your amazing tech is wasted instead, use it to make money.

Yours,
Wallet.

Ubi sent out a survey last year to gauge fan reaction to the idea of spinning off Black Flag into its own franchise, which typically means "We've already started, so it'll happen regardless, but we thought we'd ask so we can spin it as a humanitarian effort later, if there's enough interest."

 

[Creaking]

Still my #1 AC game, even after AC4. Everything about it was perfect.

That's right! Well, sort of. I like 2 just a little better, probably because of the long-journey aspect and some of the great Italian locales. Brotherhood was good, but it felt like filler. Revelations is an exceptionally great ending to Ezio's and Altair's stories. The old man, sitting in that chair...

You actually enjoyed those tower defense moments ?

I certainly didn't mind them. The minigame (clearly) wasn't revolutionary or a huge hit or anything, but it was serviceable and mildly fun. In any case, the attacks weren't hard to prevent from happening, and if you really didn't like doing them, you could always just let the templars take your forts, and then retake them later through regular old Assassin's Creed gameplay.

It was nice anyway, and it helped to keep the city from feeling as though it was becoming deader the more you completed the game, which I felt quite a bit from Brotherhood.

 

[strafer]

this will run like shit on my computer.

Must buy a new one.

 

[Berto]

I really dislike AC games, I have no joy whatsoever in "playing" them, but I always get sucked into them because of the historic setting and attention to detail. Unity wont be an exception, I love the French Revolution with a passion.

We need more historic setting games.

 

[ekim]

Wut? That's basically 1:1 size. oO

 

[MNC]

Have we heard how the NPCs sound yet? I haven't watched many vids. (As in, french speaking or sounding)

Given it's UbiSoft I think (hope) it's going to be French speaking.

 

[Gaffercake]

Wut? That's basically 1:1 size. oO

What I was thinking, that map is humongous.

 

[Carbonox]

My loins yearn for this game. Sure I will miss the pirate stuff but I'm sure that will get split off in to its own thing hopefully. AC4 was a brilliant way to 'end it' as it were where piracy was concerned. I platinum'd that game and still wanted more from it. Very rarely do games do that for me - especially from ones as big as AC4.

AC4 > AC3 > AC2 = ACR > ACB > AC1

I loved AC3's setting, environments, Connor's fighting style and even the story. Glitchy mess sure and Connor himself is crap, not to mention the unbearable tutorial, but I loved everything else. Beat it twice, Platinum'd it, etc.

 

[eso76]

feck


Well, i hope that doesn't mean lots of copy pasta and while i'm still bummed by the lack of dynamic night/day cycle, this is one of the most exciting releases of the year for me.

 

[Auctopus]

Have we heard how the NPCs sound yet? I haven't watched many vids. (As in, french speaking or sounding)

The majority are American accents, including the protagonist.

 

[Sorc3r3r]

Ubi sent out a survey last year to gauge fan reaction to the idea of spinning off Black Flag into its own franchise, which typically means "We've already started, so it'll happen regardless, but we thought we'd ask so we can spin it as a humanitarian effort later, if there's enough interest."

Har har har..
You made me laugh.
But yeah nice to know, my ship is ready.

 

[DieH@rd]

Pretty faithful map.