That is, until now. Insider Gaming’s Tom Henderson, who reported that the series as we know it is “dead,” recently discovered that some work is being done on the franchise. But before you get your hopes up, it’s apparently for Legion, which may get some kind of Director’s Cut with new content.

“I’ve heard that they might do like a fully night mode version of the game or something like that.” It’s also reportedly doing new motion capture, so it’s likely some new story content is on the way. As for why, Henderson speculated that this is “kind of Ubisoft’s new thing, I think. Trying to do Director’s Cuts and new versions of games that they’ve already done. Like remasters in a sense as well, right?”

He theorized that this was until it could get things together with “the rest of the company.” This suggests that an announcement is forthcoming in the coming months. It’s possible that the rumored Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag remake falls into this category as well, but based on everything we’ve heard, there’s clearly more work put into it. Perhaps Ubisoft decided it was worth considering as a full-fledged release, hence the alleged delay to next year.

Either way, this rumor does line up with insider shinobi602 claiming that the franchise isn’t exactly dead. No new entry and definitely not a remake but something to cater to existing fans. As for why Legion was chosen, it may be the most suitable option (since it’s technically current-gen) that requires the least work. Stay tuned for updates and check out our review for the base game here.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown

Expectation was moderate following Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown’s announcement, perhaps given the mediocracy of Assassins Creed’s side-scrolling Chronicles games, but The Lost Crown, in fact, will be remembered as a modern platforming masterpiece. Deep combat, enthralling, satisfying platforming, and time manipulation powers to unleash upon a host of enemies render this action-adventure game an exhilarating must play.

]]> 605136 https://gamingbolt.com/15-best-stealth-games-of-all-time-2024-edition Mon, 25 Nov 2024 17:01:50 +0000 https://gamingbolt.com/?p=604976 It’s fair to say most stealth games nowadays aren’t built precisely around the act of infiltrating, killing, and evading undetected but instead include stealth as a viable option to navigate. For this reason, there’s a broader spectrum of game genres on this rundown than we’ve featured on previous stealth lists. There is a common thread though: each game on this rundown, when played stealthily, requires incisive, careful, considered approaches. A demand to utilise tools and techniques to complete objectives undetected. For stealth fans, there’s no bigger reward than that.  

Assassin’s Creed Unity

Most games these days includes mechanics to facilitate stealth, but oftentimes enemy AI is poorly implemented that you risk being detected no matter how hidden you are. Assassin’s Creed Unity isn’t perfect, but it’s arguably last gen’s best stealth experience due to thoughtful level design and enemy placement. There’re the token tools to distract guards, of course, but Unity has a surprising depth to character move sets. Understanding distinct animation length and noise emitted in low or high-profile moves is key, as is – perhaps counterintuitively – mastering non-lethal takedowns. 

]]> 604976 https://gamingbolt.com/10-excellent-open-world-games-where-you-control-it-all Fri, 15 Nov 2024 20:10:40 +0000 https://gamingbolt.com/?p=603663 Gamers have quickly realized that a fun open-world game isn’t just about size and scope but rather how you interact with it. There’s a reason the ‘Ubisoft-ification’ of games has caused many to roll their eyes with an emphatic ‘next!’ when seeing a checklist of towers to clear. Many of us want surprise and depth, not a checklist of repetitive tasks to complete. One of the best ways to engage players with a world is letting them control various aspects of its mechanisms. Thankfully, there’s plenty of great games that achieve a fun and dynamic open-world. Here are 10 open world games that let you control almost everything.

10. Satisfactory

You may not find the prospect of factory-building initially appealing, but Satisfactory makes the process addictive and wildly open-ended. Part of that open-endedness is the resource-rich open world you, as a settler, are tasked with exploring and mining for resources. Unlike a lot of management building games, everything in Satisfactory is accomplished from a first-person perspective, adding an extra ounce of immersion to your production chain empire. While the main route through the game starts off with limited technology tiers, progress grants you access to a vast toolbox to create anything imaginable.

We are, of course, talking about Watch_Dogs, which was an attempt to create a new-age open-world action game centered around hacking. Over the course of just three major entries, Watch_Dogs has managed to garner quite a following for itself, and the latest entry Legion has been received pretty well by fans and critics alike. However, it’s been close to three years since Legion came out and the lack of any updates on a new entry is rather surprising. So, what the hell is going on here?

The first Watch_Dogs was marketed as a showcase title for the power of eighth-generation consoles, and the E3 2012 gameplay trailer showcased a ton of impressive lighting effects and an open world that looked better than anything else on the market. Trees would sway to the tune of the winds, NPCs would behave in a realistic manner, the rain effects looked slick, and much more. Expectation from fans was at an all-time high, and all that was left for the developer was to deliver on its promise for Watch_Dogs to be a smash hit.

Watch_Dogs would finally release in May 2014, and it was generally well received among critics. A rather respectable Metacritic score of 80 backs that sentiment. Watch_Dogs had some fresh gameplay ideas, and while the open-world was generally cut from the same cloth as other open-worlds – it made for an enjoyable adventure nevertheless. The story surrounding Aiden Pearce’s revenge is compelling in some aspects, but it also felt a bit too bland as the characters lacked any form of personality.

But the biggest criticism by far with Watch_Dogs was its graphics downgrade. It was evident that corners had been cut when compared to that E3 trailer, and the visuals were just not up to those pre-release standards. This in turn sparked a ton of controversy over the internet and outrage. Despite being a decent game, Watch_Dogs is generally deemed as one of the biggest letdowns of that year. Regardless, Watch_Dogs managed to make some impressive sales with over 10 million copies sold in its lifetime. All in all, the developer knew that Watch_Dogs’ IP had a lot of potential, and there was money to be made with a potential sequel that can correct the original’s shortcomings.

Jump to November 2016, and Watch_Dogs 2 was released for consoles and PC after just being announced earlier that year. There was a ton of skepticism surrounding this release due to the first game’s controversies, but most of those worries eventually turned into anticipation as favorable reviews started flowing across the internet.

Watch_Dogs 2 transports players to a high-tech rendition of San Francisco, and you take on the role of a new protagonist Marcus Halloway as he joins the Dedsec organization in an effort to take down the intrusive ctOS 2.0 network. Watch_Dogs 2 ditches the overtly grim tone of the original, and instead presents a colorful cast of characters that have a ton of personality – and it works well to create a markedly more engaging narrative than the original.

The gameplay had also seen major improvements, with the addition of parkour being one of the biggest additions to the player’s set of movements. You also get new tools to play with such as drones and RC cars to remotely hack systems, and all of this beautifully comes together in the game’s set of open-ended missions where you can use these tools in interesting ways to complete objectives. Even the multiplayer component was a lot more fun this time around. It featured a total of four distinct game modes that served as a worthy distraction from the single-player component.

There were still some apparent technical flaws within the experience, which were later patched, but by and large – Watch_Dogs 2 was a worthy sequel that corrected almost every shortcoming of the original. Fans absolutely loved it, and the game once again sold pretty well – despite originally having fewer pre-orders than the first game. The developer reported that Watch_Dogs 2 sold well over 10 million copies, and now that the franchise’s reputation was restored once again, the future was looking pretty bright for the IP as a whole.

Fast forward to 2020, the industry saw the release of the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X | S. A new Watch Dogs subtitled Legion also joined the party. The game followed a similar pattern of a relatively short marketing cycle with an announcement in 2019 and a release set to align with the new consoles’ release in late 2020. Set against the backdrop of a futuristic London, Legion offered a brand new twist to the Watch Dogs experience. Instead of playing as a fixed protagonist, you have the option to recruit any NPC to your cause and play as that person.

It’s a rather fresh mechanic that was executed well enough, though Legion was not immune to some inherent flaws that come along with this new system. Each NPC has their own set of abilities and special tools that enable more personal expression in the gameplay, but the lack of a well-written protagonist also means that you don’t get a story that involves any personal stakes.

As for the gameplay, Legion builds upon what came before – and refines the mechanics in some neat ways. The systemic open-world design of prior entries was brought over but since there were different characters to play, it also meant that there were different tools, gadgets, and styles to play with. The open world of futuristic London also looks stunning with excellent attention to detail. It’s a mostly great game, but reception seems to be somewhat divisive as some fans didn’t really jive with the play-as-anyone mechanic.

The developer tried to solve those complaints with Bloodline, a post-launch DLC. At the end of the day, despite some problems, Legion seems to have largely turned out to be a successful venture. We don’t know how much the game has sold to date, but Legion reportedly sold almost 2 million copies in just three days – which was an impressive start to say the very least.

It’s already close to three years since Legion released, and there’s little information on what’s next for the future of the franchise. Looking at release patterns of prior entries, The developer has churned out a new Watch_Dogs game every three to four years on average. Between this and the impressive sales of Legion, it’s a rather curious case as to why we haven’t heard anything of a new Watch Dogs in development.

As you can already imagine, it’s pretty hard to pinpoint why that is the case exactly, but all speculation point to Mirage being the biggest fish. In addition to the upcoming entry this year, we have Red, Hexe, and Jade in development right now alongside a VR game and a standalone multiplayer game called Invictus.

As such, the developer might just not have the bandwidth to undertake a new Watch_Dogs project at the moment, though we suspect that this will change at some point in the near future. Sales figures and critical reception are proof that there is a lot of potential in the Watch_Dogs IP, and it’s very likely that the developer will eventually circle back to this franchise. Exactly when, though? That is one question that will likely will not be answered for a while.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

Aragami 2

The original Aragami was a surprisingly solid stealth game in a market mostly devoid of such releases, and 2021’s Aragami 2 excellently builds on those foundations to create a sequel that’s both larger and better in more aspects than one. Aragami 2 allows you to take enemies head-on with a brand new combat system, mission objectives are more varied than before, and you can also tackle the many missions with friends thanks to support for co-op – making it a dream come true for stealth game fans.

Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain 

Kojima Productions delivered an excellent game with Metal Gear Solid 5, which stands tall as one of the most dynamic sandboxes of recent memory. It’s chock full of varied content that can keep you busy for dozens of hours, but there’s nothing wrong with trying to veer away from the intended experience with a few fun mods. Developed by MXMSTR, the Metal Gear Solid 5 first-person mod turns this third person stealth game into a first person adventure which is a completely fresh experience. Sure, it has a few rough edges thanks to clipping issues, but it makes for a fun time regardless. It’s available on NexusMods, and needs the Snakebite mod manager.

ASSASSIN’S CREED ODYSSEY

We’re going to be speaking about plenty of Ubisoft games in this feature, so it makes sense to start off with one- and it’s probably one that most people think of when they think of open world bloat. There’s no denying that Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is an excellent game, and the vast majority of the content it delivers is an absolute blast to play through- but there’s way too much of it. And that excessive size results in plenty of issues, from repetitive quests and quest design to excessively reused assets throughout the open world, and more. This is a game that can easily eat up between 80-90 hours of your time, and while most of it is a good time, by the time it’s coming to an end, it does feel like it’s overstayed its welcome a little bit.

Watch Dogs Legion on PS4 and PS5 is also worth trying out, as are Dishonored 2 and Dishonored: Death of the Outsider, even if they’re PS4-only. Marvelous’s Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin on PS4 is also a good addition, providing farming and side-scrolling hack-and-slash action. Other PS4 farming titles include Rune Factory 4 Special and Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town.

The latter allows downloading the game and its Expansion Pass Set or streaming the base experience. Fans of Tomb Raider can experience the entire modern trilogy with Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition, Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration and Shadow of the Tomb Raider playable on PS4.

Those who want some horror can check out The Evil Within 2 on PS4 and the action RPG Thymesia on PS5. There’s also Bus Simulator 21: Next Stop on PS4 and PS5, which is its own horror when things go wrong. Wolfenstein: Youngblood, Rain World, and Conan Exiles round out the PS4 offerings, while Lake and Soundfall are playable on PS4 and PS5. Stay tuned for more details on the PlayStation Classics available with Premium shortly.

Dishonored 2 – The Clockwork Mansion

Arkane Studios did a fantastic job with Dishonored 2, a sequel that builds upon the foundations of the original with better level designs and varied powers. Dishonored 2 gives players the ultimate playground of possibilities with huge levels filled to the brim with secret zones and plenty of verticality, and the Clockwork Mansion is easily the best of the bunch. Even talking about this level in purely visual terms, this level impresses with its rendition of a mechanical palace. The palace is also home to an underground prison and rusty servant quarters which offer a stark contrast to the large rooms filled with all sorts of luxurious furniture and paintings on the upper floors. And of course, pulling the levers will drastically change the level layout which looks really awesome.