Announced through a post on Ubisoft’s forums, the plans to delay the decommissioning of Assassin’s Creed multiplayer servers and DLC purchases likely happened thanks to the games having vocal playerbases.

It is worth noting that, despite the delay, the decommissioning is still slated to happen. Check out the list of Assassin’s Creed games that will see their servers and DLC decommissioned below.

• Assassin’s Creed 2 – PS3 (2009 release)
• Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood – PC, PS3, Wii U, Xbox 360 (2010 release)
• Assassins Creed Revelations – PS3, Xbox 360 (2011 release)
• Assassin’s Creed 3 – PC, PS3, Wii U, Xbox 360 (2012 release)
• Assassin’s Creed Liberation HD – PC (2014 release)

While these games will see their DLC and multiplayer no longer available from October 1 onwards, many of these games have been remastered. The decommissioning only affects the original releases of these games; the remasters will see no changes.

Assassin’s Creed: The Ezio Collection was announced for the Nintendo Switch last month, following rumours about the same. Now, that collection is out, bringing Assassin’s Creed 2, Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, and Assassin’s Creed Revelations to the Nintendo hybrid platform (which means Switch owners now have access to arguably the three best games in the series). Check out its launch trailer below.

Meanwhile, in other Assassin’s Creed news, Valhalla expansion Dawn of Ragnarok is releasing next month, while recent leaks have claimed that a smaller, stealth-focused standalone entry in the series is also planned for either later this year or early next year.

Ubisoft has announced Assassin’s Creed: The Ezio Collection for the Nintendo Switch, along with a release date that’s just a little over a month away- February 17. The remastered collection includes the single player campaigns of Assassin’s Creed 2, Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, and Assassin’s Creed Revelations, along with all single player DLC for the three games. Two short films “that dive even deeper into Ezio’s story” – Assassin’s Creed Lineage and Assassin’s Creed Embers – are also included in the collection. As some of the best games in the series (and the best protagonist), they make for quite a good package together.

Assassin’s Creed: The Ezio Collection first launched for PS4 and Xbox One in 2016.

BATMAN: ARKHAM ORIGINS

Batman: Arkham Origins could not have released under worse circumstances, in retrospect. Not only was it developed as a stopgap and sandwiched between two of the series’ biggest games in Arkham City and Arkham Knight, it also came out exclusively for 7th-gen consoles right on the cusp of the beginning of the next console generation. The fact that it was developed by WB Games Montreal while the series’ main devs Rocksteady focused on Arkham Knight did its pre-release hype no favours either, while Warner Bros. themselves have, bafflingly enough, continued to roundly ignore the game in the years that followed. That’s a real shame, too, because with a great story, some of the best boss fights in the series, and the typical strengths in combat and open world traversal that the Arkham games are know for, Arkham Origins did everything series fans wanted it to.

It’s the middle of April and that means more free games for Xbox One users subscribed to Xbox Live Gold. Thank to Games With Gold and backwards compatibility with Xbox 360 games, you get two big games to play (not including Ryse: Son of Rome which is available till April end).

For Xbox One, there’s The Walking Dead: Season Two which continues Clementine’s tumultuous journey in the post-apocalyptic, zombie-ridden world. Though not quite as highly rated as the first season, it’s still more than worth looking into, especially if you’re interested in the on-going third season, A New Frontier. Season Two will be available till May 15th.

Meanwhile, Xbox 360 users get Assassin’s Creed: Revelations. As the final game in the Ezio saga, Revelations sees an older Auditore trying to unravel the mysteries behind the Templar-Assassin war. Certain sections even head back to the past to see what Ezio’s ancestor Altaire is up to. Once again, not the highest rated in the series but still a pretty fine open world title. It’s available until April 30th.

Which game interests you most? Let us know in the comments below.

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.

While we were somewhat bummed to hear that Assassin’s Creed III’s director would be heading up development for Far Cry 4, there is some slightly better news for Assassin’s Creed: Unity in that it will have Alexandre Amancio as its creative director.

Who is Amancio? He directed Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, the final chapter in the saga of Ezio Auditore of Assassin’s Creed II and Brotherhood fame. While not the best game of the three, Revelations was still a solid effort overall. Amancio had left Ubisoft after Revelations but is now back to direct Unity.

His involvement was leaked by Jade Raymond in a tweet (subsequently removed) and further digging by Game Informer on LinkedIn confirmed his role.

Assassin’s Creed: Unity will be out on PS4, Xbox One and PC in the Holiday season and is the first game in the series to launch exclusively for next-gen. It will be showcased at Ubisoft’s E3 media briefing.

Thanks to the positive results, the company has also taken to raising it’s outlook on the full fiscal year ending on March 31st 2013, with $1.54 billion to $1.62 billion USD in sales, compared to earlier predictions of $1.49 billion to $1.54 billion USD in sales.

Given that this is the first truly revolutionary Assassin’s Creed title to come out in a long time, and it features a larger scale and diversity in missions than before, Assassin’s Creed 3 has managed to win collective hearts of it’s audience, despite bugs that remain to be resolved.

Source: GIBiz

Ubisoft has confirmed that the Assassin’s Creed Anthology, which was leaked by Amazon France just hours ago, is a real thing.

The Assassin’s Creed Anthology, according to the retailer listing which leaked the collection, will not only include all five canonical main games of the… uh, trilogy- Assassin’s Creed, Assassin’s Creed 2, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, Assassin’s Creed: Revelations and Assassin’s Creed 3-, but also all the DLC that has ever released for the five games.

That would include the two added sequences to Assassin’s Creed 2, the Leonardo Da Vinci’s Brotherhood DLC, the added content to Revelations and Assassin’s Creed 3’s Season Pass (presumably).

I’m not sure if the Benedict Arnold DLC for AC3 will also be included, since it is currently exclusive to the PS3, but it probably should be.

Ubisoft hasn’t confirmed a release date, the contents or even the release platforms as yet, though. So stay tuned and we will keep you updated.

The Assassin’s Creed franchise has come a long way since it’s inception with the original game set in the Holy Land back in 2007. We already have taken a look at each of the four canonical titles (and AC3) in our retrospective series, in terms of what they brought to the series, but just how different will the latest game, Assassin’s Creed 3 be from the previously-latest game in the series, Assassin’s Creed: Revelations? How different will the game be visually? 

In this feature, that is our main concern – how much Assassin’s Creed 3 bring to the table when it comes to the visual department, but we will also be looking at other things.

Below, we will be comparing Assassin’s Creed 3 with Revelations via visual comparisons and determine how different the two are from each other.

So let’s begin!

The images on top are from Assassin’s Creed 3 while the ones on bottom are from Revelations. Click on the images to view them in full size.

Combat

We all know Assassin’s Creed 3 uses the AnvilNext engine, an engine built from the ground up especially for Assassin’s Creed III itself so that the game could look much better than its predecessors. Of course, seeing gameplay in motion is one thing, but from what we see here, the improvements aren’t exactly very noticeable.

As soon as you look at the two images, you can see that both the games, Revelations and AC3, look great. However, what’s surprising is that Assassin’s Creed: Revelations seems to have larger focus on the environments and how detailed they look, while the character models and the weapons in AC3 have been crafted very meticulously. It’s also noteworthy how excellent the grass looks in the top image.

Let’s have a look at another image for combat:

Now, in this image, Assassin’s Creed 3 clearly looks better. The city in the background is better detailed and less pixelated, the character models are- once again- very well crafted and it just looks all around more polished than Revelations.

In the visuals department, it seems as if both the games are almost neck and neck, but Assassin’s Creed 3 nicks it by a very small margin.

As far as playing it goes, Ubisoft has already confirmed that the combat system will be overhauled in AC3. The control scheme is supposed to be entirely different, you can use different kinds of weapons while countering and the basic aim is to keep your chain going without being hit. The combat looks brutal and enjoyable in AC3, but it looks like Ubisoft may not have been able to do anything about the stupid AI that has bee rampant in AC games during combat ever since 2007.

Now, let’s move on to…

NPCs

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations had plenty of great NPCs. It might have been missing the memorable Da Vinci, Machiavelli and Bartolomeo from Brotherhood and AC2, but it did have the likes of Yusuf, Suleiman and Sofie. In the NPCs department, AC3 seems to be going all out- George Washington, Ben Franklin and the infamous traitor, Benedict Arnold are just a few of the names that will feature in AC3. But how do they look?

With Revelations, the engine the AC franchise had been running on started showing its age, and the character models, while great, had a few rough edges… literally. In the image above, The character model of the NPC has been created very well, and it’s certainly an improvement. Yusuf’s character model has some rough pixels, and his features are not as clearly defined as the former’s.

Locations

The Assassin’s Creed franchise is hugely famous for its great settings, realistic ally and authentically recreated cities and the fun you have while exploring those aforementioned cities. Now, Constantinople is the largest city the series has ever visited, so we won’t be comparing the sizes of New York and Boston to Constantinople here (enter generic penis joke). rather what they look like.

Assassin’s Creed 3 seems to be focusing more on the forest area- the Frontier- but the cities look excellent too. They’re as perfectly created as you would expect in a game of this franchise. Not only do you see everything you used to in previous games, now you also see carts rolling down mud-streets, children running about, houses with their windows open, dogs and pigs roaming about the city. It’s a fantastic recreation, and it looks excellent as well.

Constantinople from Revelations is definitely one of the best cities the series has ever featured, and it looks excellent, and it’s size and scope are breathtaking. But it’s important to note that due to an ageing engine, Constantinople didn’t look as good as Venice did back in 2009 or as good as Boston does now. That is not a bad reflection on Constantinople in Revelations, just a good reflection on AC3’s visuals. Constantinople still looks awesome.

Free Running

Now this is a close one. The attention to detail in both the games is amazing- the city in Revelations look great, the draw distances are commendable and the tiny little details make it all look excellent. On the other hand, the forest in AC3 looks excellent oo- the snow looks great, the trees seem to be looking organic and natural and the animals in the background make it all look authentic.

As far as artistic style goes, it would definitely be a tie here, as both look excellent, but AC3 has the edge in technical terms. The pixels are smoother in AC3, as mentioned before, and again, the character models and the all round visuals seem more polished, with the new engine. The difference isn’t striking at the very first view, but it sure it noticeable.

Conclusion

While the AnvilNext engine is not the radical, drastic change we hoped for, it does bring the Assassin’s Creed franchise to a new visual high. Assassin’s Creed 3 is not the best looking game, but it looks great. In comparison with Revelations, it’s often tough to say which looks better, bothbeing such artistic games in their visual style, but AC3 has the better technical visuals upon scrutiny.

What do you guys think? Which looks better? Tell us in your comments.

Also keep checking back to GamingBolt, our very own review of AC3 will be up in a few hours.