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Leaked Assassin's Creed 3 Screenshots Show American Revolution
An anonymous reader writes "After three years, Ubisoft is finally finishing the newest installment of their Templars vs. Assassins series, set during the American Revolution. PC Magazine reports that 'If the cover art is any indicator, the new Assassin is pals with George Washington, Paul Revere, Ben Franklin, and the other leading American revolutionaries of the day.' A team of developers at Ubisoft reportedly dedicated a full three-year development cycle to re-examining every element in the franchise to improve the game — although it could've taken even longer."
Beadwork armbands, moccasins, ponybead necklace, fringed quiver, ornamented bow and belt, and tomahawk.
Messer Ezio's great-grandson here is *not* an English colonist. He most likely speaks an eastern dialect of one of the Algonquin peoples and languages. ...and I for one can't wait to play this.
better not have the same SHIT DRM that the last game had.
Kick Benedict Arnold in the... eggs.
I'd imagine the America aspect of it will draw in quite a bit of American players that didn't feel like playing the previous games.
Still. It's Ubisoft. DRMisoft.
I think the recent Assasin's Creed games are some of the best being produced today. I'll buy it, no matter where it's set.
better not have the same SHIT DRM that the last game had.
You speak as though Ubisoft are able to learn their lesson.
I know Slashdotters reflexively make anti-US statements every time the US is even mentioned, but I'm really struggling to see the relevance of this complaint.
Any discussion about an Ubisoft product is bound to come around to DRM. Their policy (and the subsequent alienation of legit paying customers) has been one of the worst in memory, so I'd say it's pretty relevant.
Fuck Ubisoft. I will never buy another game from them because they hate their own customers.
What kind of DRM is this anti-consumer company handcuffing their cash cow with? Will it be another always-on internet connection, preventing a single-player game from working on a laptop when you travel, your internet service is down for maintenance, you moved and haven't gotten your internet service established, or just plain don't like having some company track when and where you play your games?
+1 from a lurker!
I know there's a lot to do in the game, but somehow I always think it's a good idea to buy the game and then end up wandering aimlessly around some ancient city.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
I some how got into some Fox Engine stuff looking at the links. That engine looks amazing. The question is, what kind of a beast of a computer does one need to run that at acceptable frame rates?
I know, L2Research.
Take the Red Pill.
in anticipation.
If this is AC 3, then what were Brotherhood and Revelations? I guess 2.1 and 2.2?
I really like the people who complain about the DRM but then buy the game anyway. Oh, the horror! I can't just not buy the game because that would mean I wouldn't get to play it!
Well, that would be a Pro-US statement... and he existed during the time the game takes place... so possibly Bieeanda is getting excited about the potential to kick Benedict Arnold in the testicles... the relevance of your comment is now in question eh?
Ubisoft, while consistently putting incredibly restrictive and obstructive DRM on their games, sure know how to make a compelling story. It creates dissonance because I don't want to support the studio which implements such draconian DRM, but I want to support the artists and developers who make such a great game.
SPOILER ALERT.
To anyone who hasn't played the franchise, or hasn't kept up with it through the latest game, Revelations, I believe you are missing out on a fantastic work of fiction. The entire story has dealt with the protagonist Desmond's uncovering of an ancient civilization on earth which were wiped out by a massive solar event. He is able to discover this through "re-living the memories of his ancestors in his DNA" by hooking up to a special machine called the Animus. By doing this, he is able to re-live characters throughout time, be it the crusades in the 1190s (Assassin's Creed) or the Renaissance (Assassin's creed 2 and it's two spinoffs). Eventually, Desmond discovered the ancient race, and they instruct him to find something (which we still don't know what it is) that will prevent the Earth from suffering the same cataclysmic fate. In the mean time, the order of the Knights Templar, and their current incarnation, Abstergo Corporation, has been secretly pulling strings on humanity since at least 1198 AD.
My favorite part of the game is how Ubisoft has been able to link have the massive conspiracy of the Knights Templar throughout history and even into modern times. The game leads the player to believe that almost every major player and every major event in history has been part of this conspiracy. Through the story and the puzzles, the game implicates Robert de Sable, The Borgia Family and Pope Rodrigo Borgia, Chief Justice John Roberts, Hitler, and an unnamed modern day telecommunications company as being all part of the templars. Meanwhile, Da Vinci, Niccolo Machiavelli, and Suleiman the Magnificent are all part of the other side, the Assassins, whose mission it is to stop and expose the templars.
I find it interesting they pull no punches even with modern day public figures. In Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, one of the puzzles requires you to figure out that John Roberts and Scalia decided Citizens United v. FEC specifically so that the templars, under the guise of Abstergo Corporation, could elect and influence any politician they want.
I hope Ubisoft gives this game and this franchise the due care and attention to detail and presentation that they have in the past, and aren't trying to just push out a product every year for financial gain. I am excited to see how they will continue the arc in the American revolution.
BEN FRANKLIN WITH HIDDEN BLADES, YO!
Predator Drone Operator Mode: Unlocked!
. We've got computers, we're tapping phone lines, you know that ain't allowed - Talking Heads, "Life During Wartime"
So, is Washingtons's Havoc weight going to be 2000lbs?
I have little doubt that the flag-waving "patriotism" the government and media was pushing ...
I think you're making the serious—but all too common error—of confusing patriotism with nationalism. This error is especially easy to make because nationalists like to say that they are patriots.
Patriotism is love of one's country; it is defensive in nature. Nationalism is the wish to subject other countries and peoples to the dominion of one's country. Where patriotism is passive, nationalism is aggressive, and—if successful—turns into imperialism. I am a conservative and a patriot. If I did not love America, I would not be living here. However, I hate the strident imperialist policies of this country's current and recent governments. I hate the wars that have been engendered by ambition, money, and calculated scheming on the part of that government (or series of "administrations", if you like).
I do what I can to oppose those policies, but the majority view is against me. This is a democracy, so we are all responsible. When the we reap the whirlwind that is engendered by the winds we have sown, it will touch us all. Though I speak out against my government's policies, I am still responsible for them, and deserve to bear their consequences. "Let those who have ears, hear"
Great men are almost always bad men--Lord Acton's Corollary
In any discussion of Ubisoft, the probability of discussion of DRM approaches 1.
This means that the person who bring it up has lost.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
I know Slashdotters reflexively make anti-US statements every time the US is even mentioned, but I'm really struggling to see the relevance of this complaint.
The topic is a game that has the American Revolution as its background. An American might surely be forgiven if the word "patriotism" comes to mind in that context. As I pointed out in my reply to the original poster, he is in error when he equates patriotism with nationalism. I think that this discussion is well within the bounds of the topic.
Incidentally, I currently have moderator points, so I'm faced with the usual dilemma: do I comment, or mod? I prefer to comment. I'm wondering if there should not be a sanctioned way to have your cake and eat it too: abolish the rule that you can't comment if you have modded anything in the thread. To prevent abuse, the fact that you have modded the thread should be pointed out (e.g. "modded OP -1 Flamebait" after your name and slashdot number). Heck, maybe commenting should be compulsory after you mod...maybe you should have to justify why you modded a post up or down.
Great men are almost always bad men--Lord Acton's Corollary
Oh wait, it's an Ubisoft game, which means it will have bullshit DRM on it. Guess I'll just have to miss out.
After attending a Project Appleseed and learning more about the American Revolution, this sounds fairly awesome. Regardless of what you think of America today, the American Revelation is truly an amazing underdog story.
(Propoganda? Yes, get some: http://www.appleseedinfo.org/)
What kind of DRM is this anti-consumer company handcuffing their cash cow with? Will it be another always-on internet connection, preventing a single-player game from working on a laptop when you travel, your internet service is down for maintenance, you moved and haven't gotten your internet service established, or just plain don't like having some company track when and where you play your games?
They do sh*t like that? And people buy those games? Wow. Of course, I'm a very conservative gamer—I'm still playing the original Everquest. And yes, I know about Sony...and um...I guess having an internet connection is kinda obligatory when you are playing an MMORPG. Seriously, I kind of liked the look of a game my daughter was playing ("Skyrim" or something), until I found out she had to slavishly log in to Steam to play this single player game. No way.
I just talked to daughter. She says there's an "offline mode" for the game that allows playing without being mind-melded with Steam, but she's never tried it. Where have I gone wrong?
Great men are almost always bad men--Lord Acton's Corollary
How is experiencing a moment in history, in a video game, admiration of the actions?
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
The Assasin's Creed games are not to my taste, but I approve of the main character being an Algonquin. The history of the aboriginal people of the United States and Canada has not gotten the attention it deserves, and its great to see it used as background in a popular work.
The map is not the territory.
Beadwork armbands, moccasins, ponybead necklace, fringed quiver, ornamented bow and belt, and tomahawk.
Uh, not necessarily. Many frontier settlers of that time period had regular interaction and trade with native populations, and in many cases adopted the lifestyles of the natives. They would even go as far as to take a native wife or become a "member" of the tribe. Also, you have to remember that the native clothing and lifestyle were perfectly adapted for living in a wild forest, much more so than traditional European clothing and culture. The frontier settlers wore buckskin, they wore moccasins. They would be familiar with Native weaponry, and would likely possess native jewelry as well through trade. You also have to remember what happened right before the Revolution: the French-Indian War. Most of the battles that took place in the colonies took place on the frontier. There were many frontier militia groups formed to fight alongside the British, and in many cases they fought alongside friendly Indian tribes. So, yeah, just because he has a bow, or is wearing native clothing or tribal jewelry does not necessarily mean he is an Indian. I would put money down that he's simply a frontier settler.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
How to lose 60 million potential customers, unless they play it very carefully...
Maybe I'm just naive, but when a game says "you must kill this person because he is irredeemably evil", and then forces me to kill him, and then says "hurrah, by killing that irredeemably evil person you have saved the world", I kinda get the impression it might possibly be trying to tell me something.
According to this, he will be half English, half Native American.
Nationalism is the wish to subject other countries and peoples to the dominion of one's country.
No, it's not. Just as patriotism is the love for one's country ("patria" - fatherland), nationalism is the love for one's nation. Since countries are not always matched up with nations one-to-one, they don't always coincide. Either can be defensive or aggressive etc.
Since I ended up having to downloading the crack last time anyway, I'm going to save time and money and skip that first step of buying it. Other than that I look forward to a great game.
If he's Ezio's descendent, it's going to make more sense for him to be Métis, yes?
Don't worry, they'll be sure to have even stronger DRM this time! I hear that the new kind makes you set up an appointment with an Ubisoft representative who will not only helpfully install the game for you using a secret code, but they will watch over your shoulder as you play to make sure that you don't copy their stuff! In fact, you would probably do that when you're NOT playing (Even though with AC2, they must think that if you lose connection for a few seconds, you're obviously pirating.) so they'll install monitoring software and set up cameras to watch your activity. Expect the cost of the games to double, but it'll be worth it to stop those dirty pirates, right?
It'll be nothing like the shit DRM the last game had, but if they keep doing things like this, it's going to BE their last game.
nor should we indoctrinate children to admire a clandestine cell of violent insurgents who plotted to overthrow the civilized, modern government of their parent state.
It's okay because Americans were the good guys. My US History book says so.
The substance of the post was obviously "the US revolted because it wanted freedoms and now the system is pushing that America is free and its enemies aren't, but really that's not true at all! The more people learn about this, the more it's going to hurt the government."
This is in the context of the announcement of a video game where you (apparently) are a modern-day bartender who is sent through a sci-fi device to re-live ancestral memories of a forebearer who was part of an international secret society, and mostly killed people with knives.
I guess you could say that the game will help people learn the truth about the American Revolution and its shocking similarities to the injustices modern Americans put up with. But you'd have to get awfully drunk first. Obviously the main point was just to get in the reflexive anti-American statement that helps make Slashdot so tiresome. It's like talking to a European in 2007.
Slashdot: providing anti-social weirdos a soapbox, since 1997.
IIRC, that's a uniquely Canadian term.
better not have the same SHIT DRM that the last game had
I'm sure those three years were well spent. It would've taken longer but they abandoned the requirement that your computer be plugged directly into their server using one of their miles-long cables.
If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
I totally agree. I'm the AC above, and the only Ubisoft game I've ever even played was Morrowind (which I bought second-hand). Assassin's Creed looked good, but the DRM was a deal breaker. Assassin's Creed 2? Same thing. The latest Settlers? Same. The rest of their franchises never appealed to me. If you find someone who complains about their DRM, then buys one of their games, please mock them mercilessly for me. Thank you.
I'm anonymous but I though I'd let you know I laughed. That was awesome! lol, for some reason it seems like it could be a reality...how wierd man.
Companies send a babysitter every time you load their software up :D
The Assassin Order frowns on your failure of a crosspost and has dispatched Stabs-Through-TCP/IP to... correct the situation.
My wife is Menominee (one of the Algonquin peoples). She zeroed in on those beaded armbands and the choker and instantly knew what she was looking at.
And, tada, she was right. :)
Props to Ubisoft for achieving that level of accuracy and historical fidelity.
or make it on-live only or pay per play like the arcade and then some jack ass mapper will one map so hard that you will die over and over having to put more Quarters in. Like the Water World arcade game where you walk a few step die and have to put 40 more quarters in.
Since I ended up having to downloading the crack last time anyway, I'm going to save time and money and skip that first step of buying it. Other than that I look forward to a great game.
Also, you have to remember that the native clothing and lifestyle were perfectly adapted for living in a wild forest, much more so than traditional European clothing and culture.
This was the 18th century - most of the European people did live very close to a forest, and knew how to survive in one. The Europeans who went to the US were of course not those kind of people predominantly.
Another thing to note: how would he have been a great-great-great-etc. grandson to the Italian Ezio Auditore and the Syrian Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, if he were fully native? He's pretty much got to have some European/Asian genes in him. So consider this to be me backing up both you and BinarySolo a few posts down.
And Ubisoft is a Canadian firm.
If this shot isn't almost a direct copy of "The Patriot" then I'm a monkey's uncle. The British on the road below, the hero with the high ground, tomahawk at the ready. Please.
'The tyrant will always find pretext for his tyranny.' - Aesop's Fables
snip
Messer Ezio's great-grandson here is *not* an English colonist. He most likely speaks an eastern dialect of one of the Algonquin peoples and languages. ...and I for one can't wait to play this.
From Milwaukee?
Actually, it's pronounced Millie-wah-kay; which is Algonquin for "The good land."
Offline Mode is still done via Steam - it just won't need an internet connection to start up after the game in question has been updated an authorized once. Still, Steam is a lot milder DRM scheme that Ubisoft's.
Seriously, Ubisoft one just kicks you out of the game, without possibility of saving, should your connection falter for a second. At least it used to. Steam needs just one check at its own startup - and this can be bypassed on next startups by enabling Offline Mode.
It may seem that "melding" a game with Steam is still superfluous for a single-player game. It is a good point, but Steam does bring some benefits. It manages the social part of the game that's very trendy now - achievements; it ensures automatic patching of the game, which is very important in TES series games where there are multitude of small bugs; it syncs save games between PCs with the cloud; and last but not least, for the first time in TES history, it offers a tightly integrated mod directory, in which you can simply "subscribe" to mods, to always get the latest versions of the mod cocktail you want.
French, they're based in Montreuil (it's part of Paris). Unless you're thinking of Ubisoft Montreal, which is their NA based studio.
Yeah, I had a sig once; I got bored of it.
He may be thinking that because Ubisoft Montreal is their Assassin's Creed studio. I believe I've heard that they've got more employees in Quebec than in France.
You know the difference between these guys and people who killed others just because they are of another nationality?
Native americans is a good example how someone can be a patriotist at the same time as they are not a nationalist.(Their "forefathers" was not a part of the "nation")
Patriotism is the love of the forefathers and the land, nature etc itself(as you say "fatherland").
Nationalism is the love of the nation, the current political system, the current leaders and the recent fucked up decisions.
To make a airport security analogy:
Nationalists loves that people get groped by TSA agents, if they don't they are not nationalist because the nation have decided that TSA agents should grope people. Patriotists hate it because such a thing was unthinkable in their forefathers time.
Will 6 soldiers wielding riffle just circle the hero and wait for their turn at trying to bayonet him dead instead of just shooting him?
According to this, Rayman Origins for PC is DRM free:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/01/26/rayman-origins-coming-to-pc-drm-free/
In the mean time, I've just discovered that Assassin's game for iPad:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/assassins-creed-recollection/id454682093?mt=8
It's a really great mix of the Assassin's Creed franchise and trading card game, all that in real-time instead of turn-based!
Love it!
Contrary to other kinds of DRM, Steam also provides advantages. In the case of Skyrim, any mods you may have installed get checked automatically for updates, and copies of savegames are kept in the cloud so you can play the same game on multiple machines.
When your internet connection goes down, it won't interrupt gameplay in any way, and it'll take care of synchronizing stored gamedata later on.
So yes, Steam is a form of DRM, but it is really quite mild, it is compensated by a lot of advantages, and it has made the necessity of having some sort of shiny spinning noise-making disc in the computer obsolete. In my book that more than makes up for it.
People replying to my sig annoy me. That's why I change it all the time.
How can the great-grandson of a medieval Italian nobleman be a native american?
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
Isn't the whole idea behind having multiple different up- and downmods precisely to express this? Besides, if every troll post is guaranteed to generate at least one visible message, stating it was a troll, the end result will be quite a bit of noise.
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
I see what you did there, Milhouse.
Nationalists loves that people get groped by TSA agents, if they don't they are not nationalist because the nation have decided that TSA agents should grope people.
This only holds if the nationalist in question believes that "nation has decided" and has vested some authority into TSA to that effect. Some do believe that; many don't.
I love the first Assassin's Creed like my own child, complete with its flaws. Above all else, the story was great.
Then came AC2, and with it, all the magic was gone. Hated the story and because I do not connect my PS3 to the internet, the only way I can re-visit some of the better missions is to replay the game from the beginning.
SPOILER ALERT
Curse that Apple and the Gods
The last game only had a DRM check on first play. See http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/11/10/oh-but-some-good-ass-rev-news-drm/
oh, you know it will... a bit ironic, though, that they will drm the shit of of a game that depicts an epic fight for FREEDOM.
You have many great-great-great-etc. grandparents. Couldn't it be a different branch of the family tree?
********************
I object to Intellect without Discipline.
You have to remember, when seeing these on a video game, all social economic theories go out the fucking window because it's a video game and if they put indian clothing on him that god damn they're probably going to make him an indian.
Perhaps, but it seems like the whole game revolves around this assassin. To have him still be connected to the whole end-of-the-earth thing, wouldn't he need to have the same precursor/forefather/whatever genes that Ezio and Altair shared? To have the eagle vision and those semi-psychic abilities?
Does this guy know how to party, or what?
Literalism isn't a form of humor, it's you being irritating.
Well there was this Italian bloke who went in that direction in 1492 (which is before 1766). I had a friend who is a descendant of native americans, negro slaves, lost pacific tribe (the Moriori) and the Irish. These things happen!
The Assasin's Creed games are not to my taste, but I approve of the main character being an Algonquin. The history of the aboriginal people of the United States and Canada has not gotten the attention it deserves, and its great to see it used as background in a popular work.
I'm pretty certain the attention that Ubisoft is going to give it isn't going to be all that much different than the attention it has already received. To be honest, the collision between Northern European culture and North American aboriginal culture has gotten at least some attention -- what happens when a technologically inferior culture gets between a technologically superior culture and their manifest destiny has been documented extensively in the popular media. I have a certain stereotypical image of how the interface between North American aboriginal culture and Northern European culture played out, and I'd be willing to wager that you share it as well, even if neither of us necessarily approves of it. I think the same can be said of a large number of people in Ubisoft's target demographic for this game. Even if we know *now* that the cowboys-and-indians aesthetic that dominated our childhood Saturday afternoons at the theater is not historically accurate, that doesn't mean that we weren't entertained by it. I'm pretty certain that if Ubisoft doesn't cleave to the popular stereotype closely enough, their game is going to tank. Historically accurate portrayals of such cultural collisions don't tend to do well at the box office -- last time I checked, Ubisoft's bottom line is driven by entertaining people, not by correcting stereotypes.
I know Slashdotters reflexively make anti-US statements every time the US is even mentioned, but I'm really struggling to see the relevance of this complaint.
The topic is a game that has the American Revolution as its background. An American might surely be forgiven if the word "patriotism" comes to mind in that context. As I pointed out in my reply to the original poster, he is in error when he equates patriotism with nationalism. I think that this discussion is well within the bounds of the topic.
Incidentally, I currently have moderator points, so I'm faced with the usual dilemma: do I comment, or mod? I prefer to comment. I'm wondering if there should not be a sanctioned way to have your cake and eat it too: abolish the rule that you can't comment if you have modded anything in the thread. To prevent abuse, the fact that you have modded the thread should be pointed out (e.g. "modded OP -1 Flamebait" after your name and slashdot number). Heck, maybe commenting should be compulsory after you mod...maybe you should have to justify why you modded a post up or down.
That's what meta-moderation is for. Perhaps not as direct and effective as what you suggest, but effective enough, I think.
Anyway -- "patriot" and "traitor" are semantically null terms. The positive or negative connotations conferred by each term are completely determined by the context in which they are used. George Washington and Ben Franklin were "traitors" to the exact same extent that they were "patriots;" whether or not one approves of their actions is determined by one's POV, and only by one's POV. A game that promotes one POV over another risks alienating a significant portion of the target demographic. I doubt Ubisoft is going to let that happen -- look at what happened when a certain game company decided to allow players to play from the Taliban POV successfully against American soldiers.
Anyway -- "patriot" and "traitor" are semantically null terms. The positive or negative connotations conferred by each term are completely determined by the context in which they are used. George Washington and Ben Franklin were "traitors" to the exact same extent that they were "patriots;" whether or not one approves of their actions is determined by one's POV, and only by one's POV. A game that promotes one POV over another risks alienating a significant portion of the target demographic. I doubt Ubisoft is going to let that happen -- look at what happened when a certain game company decided to allow players to play from the Taliban POV successfully against American soldiers.
I'm not sure what you mean by "semantically null". I suspect perhaps you are asserting that these words are meaningless. Maybe you think that these words are meaningless because one can view George Washington as a traitor or a patriot, depending on one's opinion on the matter. Today, some people say Obama is a traitor; others disagree. However, if "patriot" and "traitor" were meaningless, one could neither hold nor discuss such views. One could not even have what you call a "POV" on the matter.
You can't simply declare words "null" as your whim takes you, unless you want to stop talking or thinking altogether.
Great men are almost always bad men--Lord Acton's Corollary