Assassins Creed 4: Black Flag officially announced

bloodyroarxx

From Eurogamer

Pirate-themed Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag has been officially confirmed by publisher Ubisoft, and will have 60 minutes of exclusive gameplay on PlayStation 3.

Packshot artwork shows that the game will at least be released for PC, PS3, Wii U and Xbox 360.

The imagery confirms its rumoured pirate setting, while a sticker on the PS3 version reveals the exclusive hour of gameplay - the same deal offered with Assassin's Creed 3 and Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood.

Yesterday, numerous leaks hinted at the game's existence and offered up a few extra details - that the game is set in 1715 and stars a pirate assassin named Edward Kenway - father of Haytham and grandfather of Connor from AC3.

Eurogamer will be able to reveal full details of the game on Monday at 5pm UK time.

Suriko

There goes my dream of AC 4-6 being a new female modern protagonist and three historical figures played by that person.

Seems odd to title it 4 when it appears to tie into the Kenway lineage simiar how Brotherhood tied in with Ezio. At least this means more of that kickass naval combat, I guess.

bloodyroarxx

Suriko wrote: »

There goes my dream of AC 4-6 being a new female modern protagonist and three historical figures played by that person.

Seems odd to title it 4 when it appears to tie into the Kenway lineage simiar how Brotherhood tied in with Ezio. At least this means more of that kickass naval combat, I guess.

Its weird that its a sequel but its a prequel and has a subtitle (which usually has denoted sidestory).

Frei

hopefully this means more naval stuff which was the best part of AC3

bloodyroarxx

Frei wrote: »

hopefully this means more naval stuff which was the best part of AC3

You're a Pirate hell the boxart is ON a ship, I would assume its mostly Naval stuff

klemming

At least Ubi can tell what they did best in AC3.
I wonder what framing device they're going to use this time.

Assuming Desmond's actually dead and not in a cop-out-coma or anything, they're going to need a new Animus user, and they'd have to be have a shared ancestry at least. Whoever it is, I hope we still get Shaun's snarky encyclopedia entries. All American history should be taught by sarcastic Brits.

mxmarks

I am so excited.

This series does that to me, no matter how dissapointed I am in previous efforts, every single bit of pre-release stuff makes me go "Oh god thats exactly what I never knew I wanted."

Drez

They should have called it Assassin's Creed 5 just to fuck with everyone.

And as much as I felt burned by AC3, this will be a Day One purchase.

What worries me is that this obviously went into development before AC3 was released so I have a feeling that many of the design flaws present in AC3 will be present here too. Well, hopefully they can work them out before release.

Frei

bloodyroarxx wrote: »

Frei wrote: »

hopefully this means more naval stuff which was the best part of AC3

You're a Pirate hell the boxart is ON a ship, I would assume its mostly Naval stuff

None of this really matters. The only safe assumption is it will be more naval focused, but there will be plenty of land stuff as well. I just mean I want expanded naval combat, boarding, all the good stuff.

bloodyroarxx

this is the game map from a leak last week

mere_immortal

Subtitle makes me want an AC set in 80s west coast hardcore most pits.

Looking forward to this, naval battles were amazing in 3. Be neat if you have a bunch of different boats to choose from.

Lanrutcon

Arrr...nothin' be true, everythin' be BOOTY, MATIES! YARRR!

*swashswashBUCKLEswash*

mxmarks

Actually this could tie nicely into Liberation too, which would be cool.

More of Aveline's family story is always appreciated as it is awesome.

Kadoken

Me, I was hoping for Napoleom, American Civil War, or Boshin war where you play as a ninja.

But freakin' pirates? Hell yes!

Kyougu

I dunno. AC3 really burned me on the series (and I loved AC2 Brotherhood). Naval combat was fun in that one but it seems like they keep stuffing the game with extra stuff while neglecting to fix some of the design flaws that have been in the series since the start.

Khildith

I really liked AC3, especially the ship to ship combat. I'm very excited about the prospect of pirate stuff. I'm assuming somewhere around November release, like all the others.

emnmnme

Drez wrote: »

And as much as I felt burned by AC3, this will be a Day One purchase.

Skull2185

Haytham and the naval combat were what made ACIII somewhat playable. This could be ok, but I don't have that "OMG Day One!" feel yet.

ACIII ending spoilers

Was really hoping for a shift to present day, and a step away from the Animus. We don't really need it anymore. All the macguffins and cryptic messages in the past were in an effort to stop the 2012 event. Suddenly there's this one time where one of the old ones saw that Minerva would be unleashed upon the world and told a pirate about a new macguffin?

I also wonder who the present day protagonist is going to be. There was that silly post game ACIII stuff, with somebody hacking into the animus. Guess we'll find out who that is.

I dunno, the story's kind of a mess right now. It's like they really didn't know where to go after ACII or Brotherhood.

Nightslyr

Skull2185 wrote: »

Haytham and the naval combat were what made ACIII somewhat playable. This could be ok, but I don't have that "OMG Day One!" feel yet.

ACIII ending spoilers

Was really hoping for a shift to present day, and a step away from the Animus. We don't really need it anymore. All the macguffins and cryptic messages in the past were in an effort to stop the 2012 event. Suddenly there's this one time where one of the old ones saw that Minerva would be unleashed upon the world and told a pirate about a new macguffin?

I also wonder who the present day protagonist is going to be. There was that silly post game ACIII stuff, with somebody hacking into the animus. Guess we'll find out who that is.

I dunno, the story's kind of a mess right now. It's like they really didn't know where to go after ACII or Brotherhood.

Agreed. Plus, the gameplay/UI of 3 was pretty bad, which makes me super skeptical given this had to be developed in parallel. When I think of the features listed on the back of the box, my mind snarkily (it's a word now!) injects:

One white loading/transition screen per minute of gameplay!
Multiple chase missions which can only be solved one way!
A deep crafting system hidden behind a cryptic interface!
Interact with pirates who may glitch and not actually be interactive (or even there) at all!
A deeply engrossing story that's so far off the rails, it doesn't even matter any more!

SyphonBlue

Maybe there won't BE an Animus!

Maybe this'll just be the adventures of Pirate Assassins!

That is probably the best move for the series, IMO

Lucascraft

I agree. Do away with Abstergo, the animus, and all that. Just give me more adventures of stabbin through the ages.

mxmarks

I am still so bothered by the 4th game getting a subtitle. I have no idea if thats just OCD or if I have a reason.

But I am really hoping that they literally start with someone saying "Lets see what other adventures Desmond's DNA holds now that his DNA is synced with the cloud." and then its straight up pirate stuff.

I am very excited about the modern day stuff - but save it for a "Major" release.

although, Brotherhood wasn't supposed to be a major release either, and it's the series best in my opinion...

Lucascraft

I'm actually less annoyed that the game has a subtitle, and more annoyed that it has a number. I mean, there's not really a set precedent for this series, since the Ezio trilogy kind of did it's own thing for a while. But it does seem a bit odd to give us a 4 so soon.

SyphonBlue

I don't ever want modern day stuff. There are plenty of modern day games, give me all that historical stuff.

Dr_Keenbean

I want a modern AC because Mirror's Edge. I want to do that and also stab a fool.

Skull2185

Dr_Keenbean wrote: »

I want a modern AC because Mirror's Edge. I want to do that and also stab a fool.

Remember Me is the game for you, sir! Except replace "stab" with "punch".

Automaticzen

New protagonist, new number. Makes sense to me. The subtitle I can overlook.

mxmarks

Even if it's not an Assassins Creed game, throw in some easter egg that says Watch_Dogs is in the AC universe, and I will forever buy all of both series.

Thats not proper english, and I dont even care - thats how serious I am.

Lucascraft

You know...

Subtitles seem to indicate games made by Team B. The games made by Team A have all been strictly numbers.

mere_immortal

Well Team B have made the best and the worst game in the series, but as long as we have boats I'm excited.

Automaticzen

Lucascraft wrote: »

You know...

Subtitles seem to indicate games made by Team B. The games made by Team A have all been strictly numbers.

I assumed Team B would always be on this year's version. Team A will go back into hiding to probably improve Anvil Next for PS4/NeXtbox.

Drez

Lucascraft wrote: »

You know...

Subtitles seem to indicate games made by Team B. The games made by Team A have all been strictly numbers.

So Team B made Brotherhood? Because that was the best AC by far. I guess if Team B also made Revelations it's more or less a wash but both are better than AC3 so I'm very happy if your theory is correct.

Lawndart

mere_immortal wrote: »

Subtitle makes me want an AC set in 80s west coast hardcore mosh pits.

The subtitle also makes me think that the next Assassin's Creed game after this will be set in the United States during the 1960s.

Assassin's Creed V: Dead Kennedys

Drez

I actually think this game takes place in 2011 and you play as an Ubisoft data security expert (who is also an assassin) and takes on all the software pirates trying to circumvent their "always connected to Uplay" DRM. In the end, we find out that software piracy is a Templar plot and that software piracy is really what caused the decimation of the ones that came before. End of game series.

The pirate image and allusion to Kenway are just fabrications to throw people off the true scent of the game.

Automaticzen

Drez wrote: »

Lucascraft wrote: »

You know...

Subtitles seem to indicate games made by Team B. The games made by Team A have all been strictly numbers.

So Team B made Brotherhood? Because that was the best AC by far. I guess if Team B also made Revelations it's more or less a wash but both are better than AC3 so I'm very happy if your theory is correct.

Team A did AC1 and AC2. Team B did Brotherhood and Revelations while Team worked on building AC3 from the ground up.

Note, that this Team A/Team B is who's leading development. The AC games are the work of 4-6 Ubisoft studios in concert.

Rhesus Positive

If the trading in this game involves physically sailing the goods from place to place, it would be perfect - basically another Sid Meier's Pirates with decent hand-to-hand combat.

Dr_Keenbean

Lawndart wrote: »

mere_immortal wrote: »

Subtitle makes me want an AC set in 80s west coast hardcore mosh pits.

The subtitle also makes me think that the next Assassin's Creed game after this will be set in the United States during the 1960s.

Assassin's Creed V: Dead Kennedys

Set it in the UK in the late mid-late 70s.

Assassin's Creed V: Joy Division

And the follow up with a new protagonist -

Assassin's Creed: New Order

mere_immortal

Lawndart wrote: »

mere_immortal wrote: »

Subtitle makes me want an AC set in 80s west coast hardcore mosh pits.

The subtitle also makes me think that the next Assassin's Creed game after this will be set in the United States during the 1960s.

Assassin's Creed V: Dead Kennedys

Or we find out that west coast bands were actually templars all along while east coast are the last remaining Assassins.

Assassin's Creed: Minor Threat.

Renzo

Liberation dropped the modern day stuff. It was still inside the Animus, so it had the HUD and visual artifacting and whatnot, but there was no "Desmond", so to speak. It assumed the player was an Abstergo employee using the Animus for research. At least, that's my impression after a few hours.

So if they keep doing that, I'm happy.

Dashui

I hope this is Sid Meier's Pirates! meets Assassin's Creed. I want to freely roam around the Caribbean in my ship, or at least larger zones, instead of the majority of it being short sea missions. That disappointed me a lot in AC3.

mxmarks

Or we discover at the end of AssCreed: Black Flags that the protagonist has decided to forgo his pirate ways and become a quiet sea fisherman, thus shifting the series into the fishing simulation genre:

Assassins Creed: Reel Big Fish