Mass Effect 1 – Mako Segments

Mass Effect’s first outing laid the foundation for what would end up becoming one of the most beloved sci-fi RPG trilogies of all time, but even those who swear by the franchise will tell you that the Mako segments are easily the game’s most off-putting mandatory sections. On paper, cruising across alien planets in a six-wheeled all-terrain tank sounds like a thrilling opportunity to explore strange landscapes and uncover hidden secrets. But in execution, the driving experience turns into a bumpy nightmare in the face of weird controls and awkward handling. The Mako handles like a bouncy toy through and through, ricocheting off the slightest hill and sliding around at every slope. It also doesn’t help that most planets you explore are barren with little variety between them and the enemy encounters presnet within. And when mission objectives force you into these segments repeatedly, it becomes painfully clear they were more ambitious than polished. They can break the narrative flow, drag the pacing down, and leave anyone dreading the next time the game says, “Time to deploy the Mako.”

Mad Max

Veering away from massive open world destruction into post-apocalyptic, vehicular exploration, Mad Max was an odd turn for Avalanche Studios. It was about upgrading your car, the Magnum Opus, and taking on convoys. It was about assaulting bases and brawling with baddies. There were the unoriginal side quests, sure, but the sheer expanse of its rolling dunes and spectacle of the vehicle combat helped Mad Max stand out.

As reports had suggested prior to Nintendo Direct, Ubisoft is bringing Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag and Assassin’s Creed Rogue Remastered to the Nintendo Switch. Bundled together as Assassin’s Creed: The Rebel Collection, it will release on December 6th for the hybrid platform. Of course, all of the single-player DLC is also included. Yes, even Freedom Cry.

Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag focuses on Edward Kenway, a pirate who stumbles into the Assassins’ fold and eventually wars with the Templars. It built and expanded on the ship combat and sailing mechanics from Assassin’s Creed 3, with numerous islands to explore and treasures to seek. Overall, it received a good amount of critical and commercial acclaim.

Assassin’s Creed Rogue Remastered is a high definition port of the previous generation title. It focuses on Shay Patrick Cormac, an Assassin who eventually joins the Templar side and hunts down his fellow comrades. The game serves as a parallel story to Assassin’s Creed Unity and brings some new weapons and mechanics to the table.

Assassin’s Creed: The Rebel Collection will feature support for HD Rumble, touch screen interface, motion control aiming, and even an optimized HUD.

You may not know who Ashraf Ismail is, but he was responsible for one of the best games in one of gaming’s biggest franchise- he was the director of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, which is widely considered to be one of the best games in the series, and was also the last title in the franchise that released to universally positive reception.

Now, Ismail is working on something new, something big, and while he is not ready to talk about exactly what it might be just yet, he is teasing it on Twitter all right. In response to a fan’s tweet, Ismail said, “Wait till you see whats coming ;).”

It is important to note that his Twitter bio reads that he is working on a currently unannounced project- which means that he is sadly not at a liberty to discuss it yet, something that he had to remind a fan who asked him if his next game might be the Assassin’s Creed game set in Egypt that is due to launch next year.

Honestly, that guess is a good one- after all, if you are looking to do some soul searching and create a new game in the franchise to revitalize interest in it, who better to recruit for the job than the man who created the most loved game in that series? Ismail won’t say either way, but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he really was working on Assassin’s Creed Egypt.

https://twitter.com/AshrafAIsmail/status/723182899084709888

https://twitter.com/AshrafAIsmail/status/702011269549793280

Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End just got a new trailer today, and by all accounts, it is excellent- it’s definitely the most hype I have seen for Uncharted 4 yet (and considering just how crazy people get each time Naughty Dog does anything, that really is saying something). But it appears as though the trailer may have, embarrassingly enough, stolen some of its artwork from Ubisoft’s 2013 game Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag.

Seriously, check out the top image above- that’s a screen capture from the end of the new trailer, where we can see the framed image the trailer shows at the end. Now see the image right below it- that’s Ubisoft’s artwork for Black Flag, and as you can see, the two seem to be identical, except for the pirate in Black Flag’s art, who has been removed, naturally (though of course, I think he would be particularly fitting in this instance).

Even Ubisoft have noticed the similarity, and commented on it. Speaking on Twitter, Ubisoft’s Azaïzia Aymar, head of Assassin’s Creed content, said, “Woooow Uncharted 4 using one of ACIV artwork in their trailer… I get the “thief” title now!” He did add a ‘lol’ to his post, but… yeah.

Not a good look for Naughty Dog.

Uncharted 4 is set to launch in April on PS4.

Woooow Uncharted 4 using one of ACIV artwork in their trailer… I get the "thief" title now! https://t.co/rholpuvw9I lol at 1:36

— Aymar Azaïzia (@AymarMtl) February 24, 2016

The big news this week is that of Assassin’s Creed– the next game in the franchise seems to be everything that fans have been demanding from the franchise for years now. It’s taking a year off to ensure proper development, it’s set in ancient Egypt, and it’s exploring the origins of the series’ lore and mythos.

It’s been exciting, and the leaks, while confirming things that people have long requested, were something not many people saw coming. Which is, really, to their own detriment, as we may have seen the first hint of this Egyptian Assassin’s Creed game all the way back in 2012, GamesRadar points out.

In 2012, a Prince of Persia reboot set in Egypt was leaked (screenshot above)- at the time, it was called Project Osiris, but apparently, as is the case with Prince of Persia and Assassin’s Creed lately, it appears to have been absorbed into Assassin’s Creed.

As early as 2013, this project was being teased by Ubisoft- in Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, an email exchange between two Abstergo employees had the following screenshot below, which you can see below, which has the same character that we now know to be the main guy in Empire, standing in, you guessed it, Egypt.

So really, guys- Ubisoft has been hinting at this all along. Maybe we should have been more attentive.

Ahead of the launch of Assassin’s Creed Syndicate later this month, we’ve decided to go and look at all the mainline Assassin’s Creed games – that’s everything that was originally released on consoles, and at retail – and rank them all. It’s going to be an interesting way to celebrate the series that has made history cool again.

8. ASSASSIN’S CREED REVELATIONS

The thing with Revelations was that it wasn’t necessarily a bad game, even back at launch- unlike future games in the series, it launched without game breaking bugs, unlike future games, it didn’t suffer from mechanics that felt too dated, unlike future games, it didn’t suffer from trite mission design. But it just didn’t do anything well enough to stand out. It had no ambition, it threw in some vaguely tangentially related activities that murdered the game’s pacing (hello, bomb crafting and tower defense), and narratively, it was the very definition of filler, stalling the series’ momentum from Assassin’s Creed II’s excellent ending.

That said, the game definitely deserves some browny points for integrating the story of Ezio and Altair together excellently well, for concluding the Ezio saga satisfyingly, for setting up Assassin’s Creed III very well, and also for potentially being a better conclusion to the Assassin’s Creed franchise than III ever was. If only it actually played well too.

7. ASSASSIN’S CREED

The original Assassin’s Creed is the most dated game of the bunch, suffering from mind numbing repetition and very limited gameplay. But back when it first came out, there was nothing else like it- even then, it suffered from repetition and a dearth of things to do, but the game’s unique (at the time) take on stealth, combined with an actual emphasis on assassinations (gather intelligence, plan assassination, assassinate, escape), along with its incredibly fluid parkour and movement system, and the great historically authentic atmosphere that it weaved, made everyone stand up and take notice.

It was also a technical marvel, looking better than almost anything else on the market at the time, and narratively immediately sunk its hooks into people with the story of Desmond Miles, who was forcibly being held captive and exposed to a historical conspiracy. Playing Assassin’s Creed today is an almost painful experience, but at the time, there was nothing else like it.

6. ASSASSIN’S CREED III

Assassin’s Creed III was, on paper, perfect- it had a great setting (the American Revolution), a potentially great character (a Native American who gets pulled into the American War for Independence, and also the titanic struggle between the Assassins and the Templars), a complete overhaul of the series’ mechanics that had, by that time, started to show their age, the biggest map in the series, and almost too much stuff to do. Unfortunately, the game swung and missed- Assassin’s Creed III’s legacy is, in hindsight, largely one of disappointment.

The new traversal controls were problematic, as they combined climbing and running to one button, the combat was clunky thanks to the addition of guns, the mission design suffered from a crippling reliance and overabundance of eavesdropping and trailing (a specter that has continued to haunt Assassin’s Creed ever since), it was a disaster of pacing, with a ten hour long tutorial, it was buggy as hell at launch, almost to the point of being game breaking, the much hyped conclusion to the series’ arc was a bust, and none of its various elements gelled together too well.

All of that said, Assassin’s Creed III still was a game worth playing- it had incredible ambition, the actual traversal and combat were best in the series, warts and all, and it did introduce naval combat to the franchise, which may be the best thing to ever have happened to Assassin’s Creed. It wasn’t a highlight or triumph of its generation, but it was a game worth giving a look all the same.

5. ASSASSIN’S CREED ROGUE

Poor Assassin’s Creed Rogue. It was actually a very good game, it just had the misfortune of no one actually caring. The final game of the Assassin’s Creed III trilogy launched last year, alongside the much hyped Assassin’s Creed Unity, and completely flew under everyone’s radar. This, in spite of it being a nice game regardless. A lot of that has to do with the game feeling like a total and complete retread of the previous year’s release, Black Flag, without actually adding anything new to the mix- to a lot of people, there was no reason to actually get Rogue. If you wanted more Black Flag, well Black Flag was more than enough Black Flag (seriously, that game was massive).

This lack of ambition, coupled with a lack of marketing, and a release on last generation systems after the PS4 and Xbox One were in full swing, all conspired to kill Rogue in its tracks. A pity, it was a nice game. If you get the chance, hunt it down and play it. Or, hopefully, Ubisoft will release it on PS4 and Xbox One, as they should.

4. ASSASSIN’S CREED UNITY

This one is just a can of worms waiting to be opened, but let’s get it done with. You see, all the launch bugs (now mostly patched out) aside, Assassin’s Creed Unity was not a bad game at all. It had staggering ambition, it promised the evolution of the series’ core design that had largely stagnated ever since Assassin’s Creed II came out in 2009, it had some great new emergent gameplay in the form of its drop in/drop out co-op gameplay, a great setting with the backdrop of the French Revolution, a nice sandbox to play in thanks to Revolutionary Paris, and a very different take on the Assassin’s Creed story, by foregoing a bigger conflict and emphasizing character interaction.

Unity still did suffer from a lot of game design related issues, even if bugs are removed from the equation- its map had too many things to do, with Ubisoft equating banal checklist completion for actual game content, and none of it played well, and all of it detracted from the main game. The main campaign itself suffered from poor quest design, and the stealth of the game was absolutely terrible. The emphasis on multiplayer appears to have guided the design process for a lot of the game, which made it a poorer single player (the primary form of engagement with Assassin’s Creed) game.

All in all, much like every other game on this list so far, it’s a mixed bag. What Unity did well, it did pretty well, and the sheer audacity of its ambition must be commended. But it did so much wrong, too. It’s not a game that can be lightly recommended to everyone- depending on where you stand with different elements of game design, your mileage with Unity will vary.

3. ASSASSIN’S CREED BROTHERHOOD

When Assassin’s Creed is good, it is very good, and nothing demonstrates that as well as Brotherhood, which may be one of the best open world games of all time. Releasing just a year after the excellent Assassin’s Creed II, Brotherhood expanded upon its predecessor in just about every way, and did so in a sensible manner, meaning that Brotherhood’s improvements were not frivolous- all of them were genuinely necessary, and Brotherhood played far better as a result. The Rome setting, the eponymous Brotherhood mechanic, the continuation of Ezio’s storyline, the great villains in the form of the Borgia family, some of the best mission design in the series, incredible music, and the perfect balance of side activities, which incidentally, all organically blended with the main quest instead of feeling forced, and led to great excuses to explore the very well laid out map even more… Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood was borderline perfect. In fact, within the series, it may just be the best, strongest release yet. Not a single element of the package was lacking, even the multiplayer mode was a hit.

It’s the context of its release that pegs Brotherhood down to number 3, but seriously, this is a game that comes with a full, whole hearted recommendation. Even today, five years after its initial release, Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood is a joy to play, and represents the best of the franchise.

2. ASSASSIN’S CREED IV: BLACK FLAG

Arguably the most fun Assassin’s Creed game ever, Black Flag succeeds precisely because of how much it de-emphasized the ‘Assassin’s Creed’ part of the experience- its greatest triumph is in just how amazing of a swashbuckling, high seas pirate adventure it is. Following the roguish Edward Kenway, Black Flag ditches the traditional Assassin’s Creed trappings to give us a game that takes itself far less seriously than the series usually does- and it is a better game for that.

The naval sections of Assassin’s Creed III, which were just another side activity in that game, were expanded, and they form the backbone of Black Flag. Naval navigation and combat is beautifully handled, with deft, intuitive controls, and a seamless transition to on foot traversal and combat. Black Flag also offers a massive map, the biggest in the series, offering just about every single setting that you might want from Assassin’s Creed, and no shortage of things to do- and unlike every other Assassin’s Creed game sans Brotherhood, again, all of these things were actually fun to do. Black Flag was, in fact, at its best when you strayed off the main quest, and went whaling, or on a remote island to dig up some lost treasure or ancient Mayan ruins, or boarded a ship after pounding it into submission, and appropriated its crew and materials for yourself…

Black Flag did have some missteps, and those all came from the Assassin’s Creed part of the game. A maddening reliance on tailing and eavesdropping missions, and dated stealth mechanics bogged the experience down somewhat, but even there, Black Flag came through with a unique take on the franchise’s mythos, and a surprisingly engaging, touching story that might have the strongest conclusion yet in the series.

1. ASSASSIN’S CREED II

There really is no point in checking the top of any Assassin’s Creed rankings list, simply because we all know what game will be at the very top- Assassin’s Creed II is a monolithic presence in this franchise, a release that still remains the golden standard to beat, even after six years and seven games’ worth of iterations upon its formula. That is because Assassin’s Creed II got it all right.

It might be one of the best open world games ever made, and it gave us not one but three maps to play on, with Renaissance Italy’s flavor coming out strongly in all three. Ezio remains the best protagonist the series has ever had, and following his exploits from his birth through to the end of his journey for revenge made for a surprisingly well written, involving story. The music was great, and the game was beautiful, and the mechanics- oh, the mechanics! Assassin’s Creed II fully realized the promise of the original game, to the extent that the original now feels like a prototype tech demo to showcase the full release that Assassin’s Creed II would eventually become. The traversal was perfected, the combat got a good shot in the arm (though it still did remain the weakest part of the experience), the repetition was removed via extremely varied missions and possibly the best assassinations in the series, and a whole host of things to do by the side, none of which interfered with the main storyline, and all blended in organically, without detracting from anything else.

Assassin’s Creed II was truly a magical experience, and it wove an atmosphere around the player like few other games can manage. It is not only the best Assassin’s Creed game (perhaps destined to never be surpassed, now that the series has gone annual), but also one of the best games of the previous generation, and one of the best open world games of all time. It is a perfect example of a sequel, and a game that really should be in every PS3 and Xbox 360 owner’s library. There are no excuses for this one.

Black Friday used to be a purely American thing, the day right after Thanksgiving, to allow for people to get some great stuff for stupidly cheap and save some money on holiday shopping, but if there is one thing that unites all of us humans as a species, regardless of national boundaries or barriers, it is our love for saving money and being as cheap and stingy as possible. So there’s no reason the rest of the world can’t join in!

Thus, GAME in the UK is now offering some crazy good deals for Black Friday too. These include an amazingly tempting offer of the Xbox One with four games for just £299- keep in mind, when this stuff is bought separately, it would cost you almost 150% as much, at £480.

The games being offered are pretty good as well- you get Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, Assassin’s Creed Unity, Forza Motorsport 5, and LEGO Marvel Superheroes, with the former three being digital downloads.

It’s a great deal, and will be available at all GAME stores throughout Friday, so… yeah, go for it, guys. Hard not to recommend the console at that price point.

Assassin’s Creed has always been a brand sort of associated with PlayStation- the first game was originally announced as a PlayStation 3 exclusive, and over the years, Ubisoft has continued to partner up with Sony to bring the PlayStation editions of Assassin’s Creed exclusive DLC and content. But something was different this year- Assassin’s Creed: Unitywas shown off at the Xbox E3 conference, and not Sony’s (odd in and of itself); over time, it became more and more clear that Xbox was going to be the co-branding and marketing partner for Assassin’s Creed: Unity, something that came to a head when Ubisoft announced last week that the game would be pared back on all platforms to achieve parity with the Xbox One SKU.

Well, here’s another manifestation of this series of ongoing attempts to make the game associated with the Xbox brand- apparently, there will be an Assassin’s Creed: Unity Xbox One bundle, and it will set you back by €509.99, featuring the game, the console, and Kinect. A Kinect-less variant is also to be found for a much cheaper €409.99. Both these SKUs will apparently also include Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, so it sounds like a good deal all around.

The bundles so far have only been spotted via leaks in Europe, and have neither been officially confirmed, nor leaked in the US. We’ll keep you posted if there are any more developments.

Today, Ubisoft announced a rather impressive video game collection that compiles the last three Assassin’s Creed titles into one single package.

This new collection that brings together Assassins Creed III, Assassin’s Creed Liberation HD and Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag in one single collection by the name of “Assassin’s Creed. Birth of a New World – The American Saga”. Whether or not this collection includes the DLC for the respective titles, remains to be seen.

Centred around three AC games that lead up to the birth of what we know as modern America, the pack includes:

• Assassins Creed III – Take Connor through a quest to counter Templar Supremacy during the American Revolution.
• Assassin’s Creed Liberation HD – Bring the fury of the Assassin’s to bear against the Spanish as Aveline de Grandpré in Louisiana.
• Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag – Take to the seas of the Caribbean as you do battle against the Templars during the height of Piracy.

Assassin’s Creed. Birth of a New World – The American Saga is going to be available on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC’s running on Windows when it arrives on October 3rd 2014. No Linux or 8th gen love, so stop crying.