I don't hate the modern day stuff, I just kind of don't care. It existing is pretty critical to a cool moment in Odyssey but other than that it barely matters.
Wait, there was modern day stuff in Odyssey?
It opens with Layla digging up the spear and every couple dozen hours goes back to her for five minutes.
.......In Odyssey?
I literally just finished Odyssey a couple months ago and I don't remember ever getting out of the animus.
You go scuba diving!
And meet Alexios/Kassandra in modern times.
Ahhh! I haven't finished the story yet (despite spending an ungodly amount of time in this game).
Well, shit. Guess its on me. Game has been out for two years now.
I don't hate the modern day stuff, I just kind of don't care. It existing is pretty critical to a cool moment in Odyssey but other than that it barely matters.
Wait, there was modern day stuff in Odyssey?
It opens with Layla digging up the spear and every couple dozen hours goes back to her for five minutes.
.......In Odyssey?
I literally just finished Odyssey a couple months ago and I don't remember ever getting out of the animus.
You go scuba diving!
And meet Alexios/Kassandra in modern times.
Ahhh! I haven't finished the story yet (despite spending an ungodly amount of time in this game).
Well, shit. Guess its on me. Game has been out for two years now.
That's some DLC-shit, I think.
I personally would be more happy with pure historical AssCre-games, with Assassins and Templars.
Do you need anything else?
I was way into the modern day timeline and conspiracy stuff. Then AC3 happened.
Same. Until AC3 I thought we would get a one off Desmond in modern day game before they went back to historical stuff. After 3 I don't hate the modern day stuff, I just don't care.
I don't hate the modern day stuff, I just kind of don't care. It existing is pretty critical to a cool moment in Odyssey but other than that it barely matters.
Wait, there was modern day stuff in Odyssey?
It opens with Layla digging up the spear and every couple dozen hours goes back to her for five minutes.
.......In Odyssey?
I literally just finished Odyssey a couple months ago and I don't remember ever getting out of the animus.
The ship combat in Odyssey isn't the same as Black Flag's. Arrows and javelins are just to do a bit of damage/set them on fire as you approach then once you're close you break them in half with a full speed ram.
I mostly treat the modern-day stuff as an excuse for some of the more ridiculous stuff in the past -- Medusa? Real cyclops? Using a falcon as a Predator drone? Sniper sights on the bow? It's because I'm not "accessing genetic memory" -- I'm inside a giant digital simulation of the past.
This is where the whole precursor eden stuff opens up the freedom to do whatever you want. I'm reading the Curse of the Pharaohs description, and it says something to the effect of "Undead zombie mummies, yup". And I don't even bat an eye at that because all I think is "rogue piece of eden, yup".
I said this earlier, but I'm not so much attached to the modern plot as I am to the precursor plot. 2's ending is again bonkers and amazing. 3 had a bit of dialog that I loved, where Conner is talking to Achilles about "spirits", and Achilles just scoffs. Not out of disbelief, but instead says "Spirits... yeah, ever since Ezio uncorked the damn bottle...". That's the shit that I really love.
"The sausage of Green Earth explodes with flavor like the cannon of culinary delight."
I mostly treat the modern-day stuff as an excuse for some of the more ridiculous stuff in the past -- Medusa? Real cyclops? Using a falcon as a Predator drone? Sniper sights on the bow? It's because I'm not "accessing genetic memory" -- I'm inside a giant digital simulation of the past.
This is where the whole precursor eden stuff opens up the freedom to do whatever you want. I'm reading the Curse of the Pharaohs description, and it says something to the effect of "Undead zombie mummies, yup". And I don't even bat an eye at that because all I think is "rogue piece of eden, yup".
I said this earlier, but I'm not so much attached to the modern plot as I am to the precursor plot. 2's ending is again bonkers and amazing. 3 had a bit of dialog that I loved, where Conner is talking to Achilles about "spirits", and Achilles just scoffs. Not out of disbelief, but instead says "Spirits... yeah, ever since Ezio uncorked the damn bottle...". That's the shit that I really love.
See, I loved the "back and forth between 2 competing secret societies through the ages" bit, and the literal magic is where they lost me
I don't hate the modern day stuff, I just kind of don't care. It existing is pretty critical to a cool moment in Odyssey but other than that it barely matters.
Wait, there was modern day stuff in Odyssey?
It opens with Layla digging up the spear and every couple dozen hours goes back to her for five minutes.
.......In Odyssey?
I literally just finished Odyssey a couple months ago and I don't remember ever getting out of the animus.
You go scuba diving!
And meet Alexios/Kassandra in modern times.
Ahhh! I haven't finished the story yet (despite spending an ungodly amount of time in this game).
Well, shit. Guess its on me. Game has been out for two years now.
I don't hate the modern day stuff, I just kind of don't care. It existing is pretty critical to a cool moment in Odyssey but other than that it barely matters.
Wait, there was modern day stuff in Odyssey?
It opens with Layla digging up the spear and every couple dozen hours goes back to her for five minutes.
.......In Odyssey?
I literally just finished Odyssey a couple months ago and I don't remember ever getting out of the animus.
You go scuba diving!
And meet Alexios/Kassandra in modern times.
WHAT
How the hell did I miss all this?
Since someone has already spoiled it...
You know when your mom says to go meet your real dad? You need to go do that and then do the stuff he wants you to do.
0
Options
DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
Alright.
Now they've shown all sorts of side activities and puzzles being back in the game.
THANK GOODNESS. So many open world games just end up with "do combat and maybe collect some thing a ma bobs". But varying up the gameplay and putting puzzles (back) in really helps. And skill books confirmed for exploration with unique items in chests?
Animations be damned, this game is looking really cool.
I’m a bit interested in how they are going to handle gender.
It seems like from previews you can switch at any time, and anyone that can sleep with Eivor doesn’t really get picky over what gender they are at the moment. The devs have also said this isn’t a convention but is explained in the story somehow?
Maybe you are related to Loki somehow? Iirc he identified as male but being a shapeshifter could switch genders at will (also could turn into animals or monsters at will which, being mythology, led to some interesting parental situations).
+2
Options
SnicketysnickThe Greatest Hype Man inWesterosRegistered Userregular
edited July 2020
More likely there's only a partial tissue sample to work from so the animus fills in the blanks as you see fit, just like Jurassic Park.
Now if it's more than that and Eivor is a deliberately ambiguous character then excellent, even if that's headed into some fraught waters in terms of getting things right.
Maybe you are related to Loki somehow? Iirc he identified as male but being a shapeshifter could switch genders at will (also could turn into animals or monsters at will which, being mythology, led to some interesting parental situations).
Hey, what gender fluid mythological character wouldn't want to become a mare, get rode by Svaðilfari and wind up giving birth to an 8 legged legend that is badass enough for Odin to use as transport?
No matter where you go...there you are. ~ Buckaroo Banzai
+1
Options
FencingsaxIt is difficult to get a man to understand, when his salary depends upon his not understandingGNU Terry PratchettRegistered Userregular
Just got to Lato. This place is fun
0
Options
DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
Maybe you are related to Loki somehow? Iirc he identified as male but being a shapeshifter could switch genders at will (also could turn into animals or monsters at will which, being mythology, led to some interesting parental situations).
Hey, what gender fluid mythological character wouldn't want to become a mare, get rode by Svaðilfari and wind up giving birth to an 8 legged legend that is badass enough for Odin to use as transport?
The funny thing about that story is it’s supposed to be embarrassing for Loki, but given that he basically instigated the whole situation in the first place you kind of have to wonder if he just wanted to have crazy horse sex and felt the need to set up an elaborate justification for it.
+1
Options
Dr. ChaosPost nuclear nuisanceRegistered Userregular
edited July 2020
edit: Probably a question better left to a PM since its abit off topic.
I’m going dark on all AC Valhalla stuff but I’m worried cos I heard like English accents coming from the Vikings in the trailer. One of the most memorable and enjoyable aspects of odyssey and origins were the accents, I’m really hoping they do Nordic accents because they sound so badass and it would be far more immersive than everyone speaking with an English accent, it would also separate the Vikings from the English, I’m very worried they’ll bland it out like they did with Unity
I hadn't been paying too much attention to ACV. But: I just read that A) ACV is set in 873 AD, and ACV has castles. This probably isn't something that most people care about, and I think that most people are probably going to be like "So? This a series where an ancient race built enormous installations under just about every major city, who cares?"
But it matters a bit to me. To me, this is the equivalent of having a Sherman tank show up in AC3, or to have jeeps in Paris in Unity, or to have an aircraft carrier in Syndicate: it's far, far too early in the timeline. The first castles didn't appear in England until 1051, when some enterprising Frenchmen built two in Herefordshire and one in Essex. Now, with that said, my hope is that these structures that people are calling castles are actually the burhs. The burhs were the fortified towns Alfred had created to defend against the Vikings. These were not castles, but being fortifications I can understand some confusion.
Grumble, grumble, whine, complain.
Civics is not a consumer product that you can ignore because you don’t like the options presented.
All the stone castley buildings seem to be in some state of disrepair, could they be old roman forts? The place they attack during the gamplay video looks like stone ruins with wooden walls placed in the collapsed parts.
All the stone castley buildings seem to be in some state of disrepair, could they be old roman forts? The place they attack during the gamplay video looks like stone ruins with wooden walls placed in the collapsed parts.
Roman forts were generally built as garrisons, housing a Legion (or some detachment of it, in the case of a castellum). You’d have very long outer walls, with small defensive towers, and a gate on each wall. There would be no central keep; the classical stone keep didn’t emerge in northern France until the end of the 10th century, and from there spread to Britain through the Norman invaders the better part of a century later. They had a very different design goal than the classical 12th century castle.
The wiki entry on Roman castra has a pretty good fly-through animation that shows what they were like. Alternatively, look up Portchester Castle; the keep is a 12th century Norman addition, but the outer walls are mostly Roman.
Shadowhope on
Civics is not a consumer product that you can ignore because you don’t like the options presented.
So in the middle of a bunch of other fucked up ubisoft news, bloomberg is reporting that ubisoft corporate mandated the assassins creed game have a male main character for years, because “female protagonists hurt sales”. The devs apparently wanted to make Aya the main character of Origins, with an Assassins creed 3 like intro section as Bayek, and also wanted a more expanded role for Evie in Syndicate, and in both cases were overruled from corporate.
Eventually the devs figured out they could make the female protagonist they wanted if they had a male record the lines too and had a token male option to please corporate, and so Alexios was born.
Note that as this was all going down, Tomb Raider sold 11 million units, its sequel pushed 7 million units, and Horizon Zero dawn sold 10 million units as a single console release.
So in the middle of a bunch of other fucked up ubisoft news, bloomberg is reporting that ubisoft corporate mandated the assassins creed game have a male main character for years, because “female protagonists hurt sales”. The devs apparently wanted to make Aya the main character of Origins, with an Assassins creed 3 like intro section as Bayek, and also wanted a more expanded role for Evie in Syndicate, and in both cases were overruled from corporate.
Eventually the devs figured out they could make the female protagonist they wanted if they had a male record the lines too and had a token male option to please corporate, and so Alexios was born.
Note that as this was all going down, Tomb Raider sold 11 million units, its sequel pushed 7 million units, and Horizon Zero dawn sold 10 million units as a single console release.
It's an uphill battle. You literally cant win with corporate.
I mean I agree with you. If I can empathize with a character nothing else matters.
You point to TR and Horizon and corporate just folds its arm and goes "yeah but if it were dudes it would sell more". There's no evidence to disprove their negative argument but they hold the purse strings.
+1
Options
BlackDragon480Bluster KerfuffleMaster of Windy ImportRegistered Userregular
What I've seen so far it looks like moat-and-bailey layouts, with some stone walls and palisades and a couple of large, primarily timber halls/keeps similar to a Medusel or Heorot, which would fit into the latter part of the time frame of Carolingian Northern Europe/Alfredian Wessex. I'm certainly not seeing anything on the scale of a Crusader era castellian complex a la Kerak or the like. .
As long as I can raid Iona or other monasteries I'll be happy.
No matter where you go...there you are. ~ Buckaroo Banzai
0
Options
AegeriTiny wee bacteriumsPlateau of LengRegistered Userregular
So in the middle of a bunch of other fucked up ubisoft news, bloomberg is reporting that ubisoft corporate mandated the assassins creed game have a male main character for years, because “female protagonists hurt sales”. The devs apparently wanted to make Aya the main character of Origins, with an Assassins creed 3 like intro section as Bayek, and also wanted a more expanded role for Evie in Syndicate, and in both cases were overruled from corporate.
Eventually the devs figured out they could make the female protagonist they wanted if they had a male record the lines too and had a token male option to please corporate, and so Alexios was born.
Note that as this was all going down, Tomb Raider sold 11 million units, its sequel pushed 7 million units, and Horizon Zero dawn sold 10 million units as a single console release.
It's an uphill battle. You literally cant win with corporate.
I mean I agree with you. If I can empathize with a character nothing else matters.
You point to TR and Horizon and corporate just folds its arm and goes "yeah but if it were dudes it would sell more". There's no evidence to disprove their negative argument but they hold the purse strings.
This is before the heaping of sexism, misogyny and worse towards female employees. Both voice actresses for Syndicate and Origins have also directly called out the company for demeaning them and treating them like shit.
It’s really bad and not just a “corporate are idiots with unrealistic sales expectations”, but genuine issues with women from a company culture point of view.
This should surprise nobody, because they said they didn’t want a female protagonist in Unity because “women were too hard to animate”. I'm especially infuriated having learned they intended Aya to be the main character of Origins, but decided they didn't want to take the risk of having a woman lead a main entry in the franchise.
So in the middle of a bunch of other fucked up ubisoft news, bloomberg is reporting that ubisoft corporate mandated the assassins creed game have a male main character for years, because “female protagonists hurt sales”. The devs apparently wanted to make Aya the main character of Origins, with an Assassins creed 3 like intro section as Bayek, and also wanted a more expanded role for Evie in Syndicate, and in both cases were overruled from corporate.
Eventually the devs figured out they could make the female protagonist they wanted if they had a male record the lines too and had a token male option to please corporate, and so Alexios was born.
Note that as this was all going down, Tomb Raider sold 11 million units, its sequel pushed 7 million units, and Horizon Zero dawn sold 10 million units as a single console release.
It's an uphill battle. You literally cant win with corporate.
I mean I agree with you. If I can empathize with a character nothing else matters.
You point to TR and Horizon and corporate just folds its arm and goes "yeah but if it were dudes it would sell more". There's no evidence to disprove their negative argument but they hold the purse strings.
This is before the heaping of sexism, misogyny and worse towards female employees. Both voice actresses for Syndicate and Origins have also directly called out the company for demeaning them and treating them like shit.
It’s really bad and not just a “corporate are idiots with unrealistic sales expectations”, but genuine issues with women from a company culture point of view.
This should surprise nobody, because they said they didn’t want a female protagonist in Unity because “women were too hard to animate”. I'm especially infuriated having learned they intended Aya to be the main character of Origins, but decided they didn't want to take the risk of having a woman lead a main entry in the franchise.
Yeah, it really makes a lot of sense in restrospect, Aya seems a lot more like a classic Assassins creed protagonist (ruthlessly idealistic, etc), and a lot of big moments in the game are told from Ayas perspective.
I don’t think it ended up being a bad story by any means, but its annoying to know thats why it was like that.
It’s funny, because “can have a female protagonist” is a major +1 to buy for me. An offhand list of my favourite games of all time: Mass Effect 2, Orcs Must Die! 2, Alien: Isolation, Tomb Raider 2013, Crusader Kings II, Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Portal 2, Saints Row the Third, and Dishonoured 2. There’s something in common there. . .
Civics is not a consumer product that you can ignore because you don’t like the options presented.
So in the middle of a bunch of other fucked up ubisoft news, bloomberg is reporting that ubisoft corporate mandated the assassins creed game have a male main character for years, because “female protagonists hurt sales”. The devs apparently wanted to make Aya the main character of Origins, with an Assassins creed 3 like intro section as Bayek, and also wanted a more expanded role for Evie in Syndicate, and in both cases were overruled from corporate.
Eventually the devs figured out they could make the female protagonist they wanted if they had a male record the lines too and had a token male option to please corporate, and so Alexios was born.
Note that as this was all going down, Tomb Raider sold 11 million units, its sequel pushed 7 million units, and Horizon Zero dawn sold 10 million units as a single console release.
It's an uphill battle. You literally cant win with corporate.
I mean I agree with you. If I can empathize with a character nothing else matters.
You point to TR and Horizon and corporate just folds its arm and goes "yeah but if it were dudes it would sell more". There's no evidence to disprove their negative argument but they hold the purse strings.
This is before the heaping of sexism, misogyny and worse towards female employees. Both voice actresses for Syndicate and Origins have also directly called out the company for demeaning them and treating them like shit.
It’s really bad and not just a “corporate are idiots with unrealistic sales expectations”, but genuine issues with women from a company culture point of view.
This should surprise nobody, because they said they didn’t want a female protagonist in Unity because “women were too hard to animate”. I'm especially infuriated having learned they intended Aya to be the main character of Origins, but decided they didn't want to take the risk of having a woman lead a main entry in the franchise.
You're right, good point, it's not just corporate blinder, it's very pro-active misogyny.
I wonder if they'll course correct this philosophy too, with the few shakeups that have happened. Safe to say I'm not holding my breath, though.
So in the middle of a bunch of other fucked up ubisoft news, bloomberg is reporting that ubisoft corporate mandated the assassins creed game have a male main character for years, because “female protagonists hurt sales”. The devs apparently wanted to make Aya the main character of Origins, with an Assassins creed 3 like intro section as Bayek, and also wanted a more expanded role for Evie in Syndicate, and in both cases were overruled from corporate.
Eventually the devs figured out they could make the female protagonist they wanted if they had a male record the lines too and had a token male option to please corporate, and so Alexios was born.
Note that as this was all going down, Tomb Raider sold 11 million units, its sequel pushed 7 million units, and Horizon Zero dawn sold 10 million units as a single console release.
It's an uphill battle. You literally cant win with corporate.
I mean I agree with you. If I can empathize with a character nothing else matters.
You point to TR and Horizon and corporate just folds its arm and goes "yeah but if it were dudes it would sell more". There's no evidence to disprove their negative argument but they hold the purse strings.
This is before the heaping of sexism, misogyny and worse towards female employees. Both voice actresses for Syndicate and Origins have also directly called out the company for demeaning them and treating them like shit.
It’s really bad and not just a “corporate are idiots with unrealistic sales expectations”, but genuine issues with women from a company culture point of view.
This should surprise nobody, because they said they didn’t want a female protagonist in Unity because “women were too hard to animate”. I'm especially infuriated having learned they intended Aya to be the main character of Origins, but decided they didn't want to take the risk of having a woman lead a main entry in the franchise.
You're right, good point, it's not just corporate blinder, it's very pro-active misogyny.
I wonder if they'll course correct this philosophy too, with the few shakeups that have happened. Safe to say I'm not holding my breath, though.
It’s a bit weird because the developers are pretty clearly in favor of diverse settings and characters.
I think the switchable genders thing will be the norm, which is good and bad. The bad is that there are some stories you just can’t do with that. For example I am playing through Liberation, and there are a lot of sections where Aveline, for example, puts on a dress to sneak into a party or runs a honey pot scheme to get information or whatever. You certainly could have a New Orleans Alexios dress up for a party or flirt with a male character for information, and that’s fine, but there’s still a lot of things going on in Liberation that make it definitely a story about a specific person, in this case a woman of color from aristocratic background who was the child of a slave that was legitimized and accepted by her father, and there’s a lot about the character that making an alternate gender version would really water down. I’m afraid to miss stories like that in the future and just making every protagonist gender-swappable doesn’t fix that.
+2
Options
Dr. ChaosPost nuclear nuisanceRegistered Userregular
"This is a cast of someone's dick!" is not a line I expected to hear in AC.
God bless, Odyssey. One of my favorite entries.
Really hope they don't toss out the mercenary and cult hunting mechanics.
Especially the latter which is one of my favorite additions in awhile.
It’s funny, because “can have a female protagonist” is a major +1 to buy for me. An offhand list of my favourite games of all time: Mass Effect 2, Orcs Must Die! 2, Alien: Isolation, Tomb Raider 2013, Crusader Kings II, Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Portal 2, Saints Row the Third, and Dishonoured 2. There’s something in common there. . .
Most disappointing out of these revelations, was that Evie was supposed to be the sole protagonist of AC: Syndicate. Her role was gradually scaled back and due to interference from one of the creative directors (who has since been fired due to various allegations), she was scaled back and Jacob was given more of her lines, then eventually missions intended to be for her as well. This is completely against what the original designs and idea was, which was to have a sole female protagonist of the game and not to have both.
It's clear this is a compromise because, without a male protagonist, certain people at Ubisoft would just tell you that you weren't allowed to make the game in the first place. Hell, I didn't even realize you could play as a woman in Valhalla until it was recently pointed out to me. It's completely hidden unless you go searching for it.
Edit: Just to indicate how bad this was, apparently this guy who okay'ed what was and wasn't allowed in a game would literally get bored if a male character wasn't playable for more than 5 minutes or so.
Tbh with all the shakeups at higher end of production, I wouldn't be surprised if most Ubi games that aren't mostly done are gonna be slowed down/handled differently. This is the same company that responded to fans asking for a female option by saying it was "too expensive" to animate a female in addition to a male, and yet did that exact same thing with ease several times since then (and did the opposite for Syndicate). They have a lot of work to do still.
Every single AC game with a female protag has been more interesting/dynamic than any other entry, save for maybe the AC2 trilogy.
Local H Jay on
+2
Options
AegeriTiny wee bacteriumsPlateau of LengRegistered Userregular
Actually Local H Jay, we now know it took less than an hour for the team on AC Unity to demonstrate they could make a playable female character at the time. The higher ups still stuck to their ridiculous claim, despite the team proving otherwise and it led to a lot of bafflement and confusion there.
Essentially, anything that they've said if you can imagine it's actually worse in reality, it probably was.
I've not played an AC game since Assassin's Creed 3 solely because of that comment, even though I was really tempted to give Odyssey a go. Now I'm not really sure what to think about the series or if I ever want to try another AC game again.
So in the middle of a bunch of other fucked up ubisoft news, bloomberg is reporting that ubisoft corporate mandated the assassins creed game have a male main character for years, because “female protagonists hurt sales”. The devs apparently wanted to make Aya the main character of Origins, with an Assassins creed 3 like intro section as Bayek, and also wanted a more expanded role for Evie in Syndicate, and in both cases were overruled from corporate.
Eventually the devs figured out they could make the female protagonist they wanted if they had a male record the lines too and had a token male option to please corporate, and so Alexios was born.
Note that as this was all going down, Tomb Raider sold 11 million units, its sequel pushed 7 million units, and Horizon Zero dawn sold 10 million units as a single console release.
It's an uphill battle. You literally cant win with corporate.
I mean I agree with you. If I can empathize with a character nothing else matters.
You point to TR and Horizon and corporate just folds its arm and goes "yeah but if it were dudes it would sell more". There's no evidence to disprove their negative argument but they hold the purse strings.
This is before the heaping of sexism, misogyny and worse towards female employees. Both voice actresses for Syndicate and Origins have also directly called out the company for demeaning them and treating them like shit.
It’s really bad and not just a “corporate are idiots with unrealistic sales expectations”, but genuine issues with women from a company culture point of view.
This should surprise nobody, because they said they didn’t want a female protagonist in Unity because “women were too hard to animate”. I'm especially infuriated having learned they intended Aya to be the main character of Origins, but decided they didn't want to take the risk of having a woman lead a main entry in the franchise.
You're right, good point, it's not just corporate blinder, it's very pro-active misogyny.
I wonder if they'll course correct this philosophy too, with the few shakeups that have happened. Safe to say I'm not holding my breath, though.
Yeah, it’s pure misogyny. Professional corporate marketing would look at past AC sales and advise, “the male nerd demographic buys our stuff no matter what. We’ve tapped them out. We’re leaving money on the table by not going after women, too.”
The gamergator fixation on selling to the franchise’s “core market” is not how real corporate marketing thinks. For real marketing, growth > all. If Ubi had competent product marketing, they’d have been easing more diversity in for years now, making sure that every new title maintains the “franchise” secret sauce while also adding elements that appeal to new demographics. It’s fucking amazing that in 2020, AAA game studios still refuse to accept that women play video games.
I have a bad feeling that Valhalla is going to return to the humorlessness of Origins.
I liked Origins a lot, but Bayek was rather dismal. He wasn't a bad character by any means, but he was depressing.
Like Kassandra is flippant and ridiculous and sure that comes with its own problems but I just prefer that at this point.
Bayek had a kindness and compassion to him which I think worked well. While he started out dismal with the revenge plot, a lot of his interactions with like side characters and especially children were really earnest and warm. It really endeared him to me
Also from what I can tell Valhalla will have at least some levity as there are Viking rap battles, meadhall songs, that kind of stuff
Actually Local H Jay, we now know it took less than an hour for the team on AC Unity to demonstrate they could make a playable female character at the time. The higher ups still stuck to their ridiculous claim, despite the team proving otherwise and it led to a lot of bafflement and confusion there.
Essentially, anything that they've said if you can imagine it's actually worse in reality, it probably was.
I've not played an AC game since Assassin's Creed 3 solely because of that comment, even though I was really tempted to give Odyssey a go. Now I'm not really sure what to think about the series or if I ever want to try another AC game again.
I don’t know, just not playing AC at all is publishing the developers as well as the publishers, and I still can’t think of a game series with a main cast as diverse as the AC games.
You have (counting playable characters in main games or DLC)
A Syrian Male
An Italian Male
An Englishman (minor character)
A Native American Male (mixed race)
An African American Female (dlc/ps vita, mixed race)
A Welsh male
An African american male (dlc)
An Irish male
A french male
An english male
An english female
An egyptian male
An egyptian female (minor character)
A greek female
A greek male (alternate non-canon character)
A scandinavian who apparently switches gender at will via some kind of technomagic
That’s... pretty diverse by AAA video game standards, especially considering all the games are single playable character games (With a few split protagonist games).
Actually Local H Jay, we now know it took less than an hour for the team on AC Unity to demonstrate they could make a playable female character at the time. The higher ups still stuck to their ridiculous claim, despite the team proving otherwise and it led to a lot of bafflement and confusion there.
Essentially, anything that they've said if you can imagine it's actually worse in reality, it probably was.
I've not played an AC game since Assassin's Creed 3 solely because of that comment, even though I was really tempted to give Odyssey a go. Now I'm not really sure what to think about the series or if I ever want to try another AC game again.
I don’t know, just not playing AC at all is publishing the developers as well as the publishers, and I still can’t think of a game series with a main cast as diverse as the AC games.
You have (counting playable characters in main games or DLC)
A Syrian Male
An Italian Male - white
An Englishman (minor character) - white
A Native American Male (mixed race) - only got half a game to himself, the other half was white guy
An African American Female (dlc/ps vita, mixed race) - side game nobody played
A Welsh male - white
An African american male (dlc)
An Irish male - white
A french male - white
An english male - white
An english female - white
An egyptian male
An egyptian female (minor character)
A greek female - white
A greek male (alternate non-canon character) - white
A scandinavian who apparently switches gender at will via some kind of technomagic - white
That’s... pretty diverse by AAA video game standards, especially considering all the games are single playable character games (With a few split protagonist games).
That is not that diverse at all. Of 16 games, a whopping 5 non-white characters. And of those 5, only 2 is a playable character for an entire full-length game.
Posts
Well, shit. Guess its on me. Game has been out for two years now.
That's some DLC-shit, I think.
I personally would be more happy with pure historical AssCre-games, with Assassins and Templars.
Do you need anything else?
Same. Until AC3 I thought we would get a one off Desmond in modern day game before they went back to historical stuff. After 3 I don't hate the modern day stuff, I just don't care.
WHAT
How the hell did I miss all this?
PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126
This is where the whole precursor eden stuff opens up the freedom to do whatever you want. I'm reading the Curse of the Pharaohs description, and it says something to the effect of "Undead zombie mummies, yup". And I don't even bat an eye at that because all I think is "rogue piece of eden, yup".
I said this earlier, but I'm not so much attached to the modern plot as I am to the precursor plot. 2's ending is again bonkers and amazing. 3 had a bit of dialog that I loved, where Conner is talking to Achilles about "spirits", and Achilles just scoffs. Not out of disbelief, but instead says "Spirits... yeah, ever since Ezio uncorked the damn bottle...". That's the shit that I really love.
See, I loved the "back and forth between 2 competing secret societies through the ages" bit, and the literal magic is where they lost me
No, that happened in the base game.
Since someone has already spoiled it...
You know when your mom says to go meet your real dad? You need to go do that and then do the stuff he wants you to do.
Now they've shown all sorts of side activities and puzzles being back in the game.
THANK GOODNESS. So many open world games just end up with "do combat and maybe collect some thing a ma bobs". But varying up the gameplay and putting puzzles (back) in really helps. And skill books confirmed for exploration with unique items in chests?
Animations be damned, this game is looking really cool.
Also timed QTE assassinations? I'm about that.
It seems like from previews you can switch at any time, and anyone that can sleep with Eivor doesn’t really get picky over what gender they are at the moment. The devs have also said this isn’t a convention but is explained in the story somehow?
Maybe you are related to Loki somehow? Iirc he identified as male but being a shapeshifter could switch genders at will (also could turn into animals or monsters at will which, being mythology, led to some interesting parental situations).
Now if it's more than that and Eivor is a deliberately ambiguous character then excellent, even if that's headed into some fraught waters in terms of getting things right.
D3 Steam #TeamTangent STO
Neither seem to be great though.
(man, I'm gonna miss Kassandra)
Hey, what gender fluid mythological character wouldn't want to become a mare, get rode by Svaðilfari and wind up giving birth to an 8 legged legend that is badass enough for Odin to use as transport?
~ Buckaroo Banzai
Male Eivor is Cnut from Last Kingdom.
I always loved his voice so I am excited for that.
The funny thing about that story is it’s supposed to be embarrassing for Loki, but given that he basically instigated the whole situation in the first place you kind of have to wonder if he just wanted to have crazy horse sex and felt the need to set up an elaborate justification for it.
But it matters a bit to me. To me, this is the equivalent of having a Sherman tank show up in AC3, or to have jeeps in Paris in Unity, or to have an aircraft carrier in Syndicate: it's far, far too early in the timeline. The first castles didn't appear in England until 1051, when some enterprising Frenchmen built two in Herefordshire and one in Essex. Now, with that said, my hope is that these structures that people are calling castles are actually the burhs. The burhs were the fortified towns Alfred had created to defend against the Vikings. These were not castles, but being fortifications I can understand some confusion.
Grumble, grumble, whine, complain.
Roman forts were generally built as garrisons, housing a Legion (or some detachment of it, in the case of a castellum). You’d have very long outer walls, with small defensive towers, and a gate on each wall. There would be no central keep; the classical stone keep didn’t emerge in northern France until the end of the 10th century, and from there spread to Britain through the Norman invaders the better part of a century later. They had a very different design goal than the classical 12th century castle.
The wiki entry on Roman castra has a pretty good fly-through animation that shows what they were like. Alternatively, look up Portchester Castle; the keep is a 12th century Norman addition, but the outer walls are mostly Roman.
Eventually the devs figured out they could make the female protagonist they wanted if they had a male record the lines too and had a token male option to please corporate, and so Alexios was born.
Note that as this was all going down, Tomb Raider sold 11 million units, its sequel pushed 7 million units, and Horizon Zero dawn sold 10 million units as a single console release.
It's an uphill battle. You literally cant win with corporate.
I mean I agree with you. If I can empathize with a character nothing else matters.
You point to TR and Horizon and corporate just folds its arm and goes "yeah but if it were dudes it would sell more". There's no evidence to disprove their negative argument but they hold the purse strings.
As long as I can raid Iona or other monasteries I'll be happy.
~ Buckaroo Banzai
This is before the heaping of sexism, misogyny and worse towards female employees. Both voice actresses for Syndicate and Origins have also directly called out the company for demeaning them and treating them like shit.
Victoria Atkin stating her experience
Alix Wilton Regan (Aya VA) reacting to various things
It’s really bad and not just a “corporate are idiots with unrealistic sales expectations”, but genuine issues with women from a company culture point of view.
This should surprise nobody, because they said they didn’t want a female protagonist in Unity because “women were too hard to animate”. I'm especially infuriated having learned they intended Aya to be the main character of Origins, but decided they didn't want to take the risk of having a woman lead a main entry in the franchise.
Yeah, it really makes a lot of sense in restrospect, Aya seems a lot more like a classic Assassins creed protagonist (ruthlessly idealistic, etc), and a lot of big moments in the game are told from Ayas perspective.
I don’t think it ended up being a bad story by any means, but its annoying to know thats why it was like that.
It’s funny, because “can have a female protagonist” is a major +1 to buy for me. An offhand list of my favourite games of all time: Mass Effect 2, Orcs Must Die! 2, Alien: Isolation, Tomb Raider 2013, Crusader Kings II, Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Portal 2, Saints Row the Third, and Dishonoured 2. There’s something in common there. . .
You're right, good point, it's not just corporate blinder, it's very pro-active misogyny.
I wonder if they'll course correct this philosophy too, with the few shakeups that have happened. Safe to say I'm not holding my breath, though.
It’s a bit weird because the developers are pretty clearly in favor of diverse settings and characters.
I think the switchable genders thing will be the norm, which is good and bad. The bad is that there are some stories you just can’t do with that. For example I am playing through Liberation, and there are a lot of sections where Aveline, for example, puts on a dress to sneak into a party or runs a honey pot scheme to get information or whatever. You certainly could have a New Orleans Alexios dress up for a party or flirt with a male character for information, and that’s fine, but there’s still a lot of things going on in Liberation that make it definitely a story about a specific person, in this case a woman of color from aristocratic background who was the child of a slave that was legitimized and accepted by her father, and there’s a lot about the character that making an alternate gender version would really water down. I’m afraid to miss stories like that in the future and just making every protagonist gender-swappable doesn’t fix that.
God bless, Odyssey. One of my favorite entries.
Really hope they don't toss out the mercenary and cult hunting mechanics.
Especially the latter which is one of my favorite additions in awhile.
Most disappointing out of these revelations, was that Evie was supposed to be the sole protagonist of AC: Syndicate. Her role was gradually scaled back and due to interference from one of the creative directors (who has since been fired due to various allegations), she was scaled back and Jacob was given more of her lines, then eventually missions intended to be for her as well. This is completely against what the original designs and idea was, which was to have a sole female protagonist of the game and not to have both.
It's clear this is a compromise because, without a male protagonist, certain people at Ubisoft would just tell you that you weren't allowed to make the game in the first place. Hell, I didn't even realize you could play as a woman in Valhalla until it was recently pointed out to me. It's completely hidden unless you go searching for it.
Edit: Just to indicate how bad this was, apparently this guy who okay'ed what was and wasn't allowed in a game would literally get bored if a male character wasn't playable for more than 5 minutes or so.
I liked Origins a lot, but Bayek was rather dismal. He wasn't a bad character by any means, but he was depressing.
Like Kassandra is flippant and ridiculous and sure that comes with its own problems but I just prefer that at this point.
Every single AC game with a female protag has been more interesting/dynamic than any other entry, save for maybe the AC2 trilogy.
Essentially, anything that they've said if you can imagine it's actually worse in reality, it probably was.
I've not played an AC game since Assassin's Creed 3 solely because of that comment, even though I was really tempted to give Odyssey a go. Now I'm not really sure what to think about the series or if I ever want to try another AC game again.
Yeah, it’s pure misogyny. Professional corporate marketing would look at past AC sales and advise, “the male nerd demographic buys our stuff no matter what. We’ve tapped them out. We’re leaving money on the table by not going after women, too.”
The gamergator fixation on selling to the franchise’s “core market” is not how real corporate marketing thinks. For real marketing, growth > all. If Ubi had competent product marketing, they’d have been easing more diversity in for years now, making sure that every new title maintains the “franchise” secret sauce while also adding elements that appeal to new demographics. It’s fucking amazing that in 2020, AAA game studios still refuse to accept that women play video games.
Bayek had a kindness and compassion to him which I think worked well. While he started out dismal with the revenge plot, a lot of his interactions with like side characters and especially children were really earnest and warm. It really endeared him to me
Also from what I can tell Valhalla will have at least some levity as there are Viking rap battles, meadhall songs, that kind of stuff
I don’t know, just not playing AC at all is publishing the developers as well as the publishers, and I still can’t think of a game series with a main cast as diverse as the AC games.
You have (counting playable characters in main games or DLC)
A Syrian Male
An Italian Male
An Englishman (minor character)
A Native American Male (mixed race)
An African American Female (dlc/ps vita, mixed race)
A Welsh male
An African american male (dlc)
An Irish male
A french male
An english male
An english female
An egyptian male
An egyptian female (minor character)
A greek female
A greek male (alternate non-canon character)
A scandinavian who apparently switches gender at will via some kind of technomagic
That’s... pretty diverse by AAA video game standards, especially considering all the games are single playable character games (With a few split protagonist games).
That is not that diverse at all. Of 16 games, a whopping 5 non-white characters. And of those 5, only 2 is a playable character for an entire full-length game.
PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126