Next Need For Speed To Be First In Series To Have Full Two-Year Development Cycle

Who’d have thought it? Yearly iterations of titles have an uncanny ability to drive a series into the ground, and it was probably for the best that we haven’t had a new Need for Speed title in 2014. Need for Speed Rivals was, dare we say it, a bit crap, and it seemed to all intents and purposes like EA and Criterion / Ghost Games had run out of steam.The open-world racer was a mishmash of ideas from the series’ and Criterion’s past, but following a relatively muted launch the Need for Speed franchise looked like it was in a spot of trouble. EA has now confirmed that there will be a new Need for Speed title in 2015, and it will be the first in the series to benefit from a full two-year development schedule.Yep, it is indeed pretty shocking that apparently no Need for Speed title has taken a full two years to make, but that’s the words of EA CEO Andrew Wilson, who said “Need for Speed will be back in a year having had a full two-year development cycle for the first time in its history.”It looks like Ghost Games will once more be at the helm, a relatively new studio formed when previous Need for Speed and Burnout developer Criterion Games was shrunk down to just 17 staff, with many moving on to Ghost Games. EA hasn’t announced a direction for the title just yet, although in a financial call earlier Blake Jorgensen said they would be interested in targeting the South-East Asian market for the next title, citing it as “a huge opportunity to play off of some of our strong IP.”

Fallout 4: Geoff Keighley hints at possible VGX 2014 announcement

Geoff Keighley, host of GameTrailersTV and, more relevantly, the executive producer of VGX (formerly known as the Spike TV Video Game Awards Show), has recently stated that he had a “great night planning with the ladies who run Bethesda,” hinting at the possibility of a major game announcement – possibly Fallout 4 – at this year’s VGX. 

If Fallout 4 were to be revealed at VGX 2014, it would fit right in line with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim‘s pre-release schedule, which was officially announced at the 2010 Spike Video Game Awards (now VGX), followed by gameplay reveal at E3 2011, with a release date of November 2011. 

Fallout 4's pre-release schedule would be similar if is announced at this year's VGX, with a gameplay reveal at E3 2015, culminating in a launch date of November 2015.

EA Confirms Launch Periods For Star Wars Battlefront And Battlefield Hardline

During a recent financial call to investors, EA revealed the finalised release date for cops and robbers shooter Battlefield Hardline, as well as confirming that DICE’s Star Wars Battlefront will be coming in holiday 2015. Visceral Games, the Dead Space devs working on Battlefield Hardline, has confirmed that it is readying the multiplayer shooter in preparation for a March 17th launch in North America and March 19th in Europe, some six months after its initially intended October 2014 release date.

During the financial call EA also revealed that the next title in the Battlefield series wouldn’t be arriving until at least holiday 2016, with EA’s chief financial official Blake Jorgensen saying “This allows us to have a major first-person shooter title each year.” 

From the sounds of it it’s looking like EA is planning to alternate between a Battlefield title and presumably a Star Wars Battlefront year on year. EA’s executive vice president Patrick Söderlund said back in June this year that EA has no intention to annualise Battlefield, and while it doesn’t look to be doing quite that, it’s coming pretty close with this pair. 

In terms of Star Wars Battlefront, this multiplayer shooter will most likely be coming out around the same time as the Disney Star Wars movies begin to arrive next year, the first of which is due to arrive on December 18th, 2015. We haven’t seen much of Battlefront yet save for some assorted artwork, although it’s likely to be a reskinned title similar to Battlefield 4, with DICE recently confirming the series will be switching to FPS rather than the third-person of the originals.

Uh Oh, Get Ready To Scare Yourself Senseless Again As Red Barrel Confirm Outlast 2

Last year's ultimate scare-fest Outlast has a sequel in the works, although it’s early days so there's no word yet on how long fans will have to wait for Outlast 2. The first person survival horror launched on PC and was followed up with with PS4 and Xbox One versions this year.In a recent interview Philippe Morin, co-founder of developer Red Barrels studio, stated that the company is looking to expand the scope of the series from what was seen in the first Outlast. The developers are keen for Outlast 2 to not just be a repeat of the original outing, which took players deep into a not-so-abandoned mental asylum. Despite not revealing much about where Outlast 2 will actually take the franchise, Morin confirmed the next installment will take place in a different setting and feature a new protagonist.
The storyline of the original Outlast centered on investigative journalist Miles Upshur, who enquires into an isolated mental asylum following a tip off from an anonymous source regarding extremely inhumane experiments taking place on site. What follows is a truly pant-soiling experience in which players get trapped inside the asylum and must find their way, all the while being hunted by a host of deranged patients and doctors in the facility.Earlier this year Red Barrels released a DLC titled Whistleblower that served as a prequel to the storyline of the main game. The plot centered on a former employee of the asylum whose information led to Miles Upshur making his ill-judged journey to the hospital.Despite featuring many horror cliches, Outlast caught on with fans of the genre due to providing players with no ability to fight at all. Armed only with a notebook and a camcorder it’s a game based purely on hiding and running away. Inspired by found-footage style movies, players are often forced into using night vision mode on their camera to get around whilst they watch the limited battery power drain away!No word yet on when Outlast 2 will be released, but don’t expect it anytime soon as it looks like the developers are still in quite early developmental stages.

Far Cry 4’s Villian is very different from Vaas

Far Cry 3 was a great game for a variety of reasons, but what really made it amazing was the awesome villain Vaas and the amazing performance the voice actor did with him. He was terrifying and unforgettable and easily stole the show of Far Cry 3. So, how is Far Cry 4’s villain, Pagan Min, going to compete?So far, Pagan Min certainly has our attention with his bleached hair and bright suit but Ubisoft have said they are keen for Min to be his own villain, rather than a clone of Vaas. The process of creating Min was apparently a long one, and there were several versions of the character according to Ubisoft.“Vaas was lightning in a bottle; it happened and we all kind of looked at each other and went ‘that’s a really interesting performance’, and just took it from there. Pagan Min was more of us looking at the process, getting into rooms and arguing.” said Soulban. “We had several different versions of Pagan Min before this one. Versions that will never see the light of day, you’ll never recognise. We didn’t like them, we opened up the cellar door, kicked them down into the cellar and then locked it. They’re done, they’re gone”Pagan Min certainly looks like a great character from what we’ve seen in the trailers so far. Whether he will rival Vaas is something we’ll only know for sure once the game is released.

Splinter Cell 2015: 10 Essential Improvements It Must Have

It’s pretty easy to forget just how big of a deal Splinter Cell is when we’re surrounded by annual Assassin’s Creed releases and Metal Gear Solid coverage, but the game that provides one of the most enjoyably pure stealth experiences is also one of Ubisoft’s multi-million dollar landmark franchises.

Last year’s Blacklist saw the team opt to tell a different sort of story, losing veteran-voice Michael Ironside as hero Sam Fisher and instead recruiting younger actor Eric Johnson for the sake of motion-capturing some more intense cutscenes. It definitely peeved off some fans, but overall Blacklist was a return to the more stealth-focussed approach the earlier titles – and crowning achievement Chaos Theory – are still know for, as oppose to the more ragtag approach seen in both Double Agent and Conviction.

Luckily having been confirmed by Ubisoft a next-generation Splinter Cell is on the way, leading to fan-speculation kicking into overdrive as we ponder on everything from whether Ironside can return again – he’s almost 65 – to just how serious the game will take itself, and even if there’s more to be told about Fisher himself. Whatever happens the series itself has rarely faltered on the whole with fans sticking by it every step of the way, regardless of the sporadic direction changes.

10. Deal With Fisher Appropriately

As much as we love Michael Ironside – alongside Solid Snake he’s got the gruff-chops to be picked out on tone alone – he said himself in a Reddit AMA that “nobody wants to see a 65 year-old Sam Fisher bounce around on set [...] stumbling while he kills people” in response to the idea of him getting in any motion-capture suits.

What we propose – which was a popular theory when Ubisoft announced the switch Eric Johnson – is that Fisher retires to a support role, instead offering his advice and personality to a newly-trained recruit. We know there are multiple Splinter Cell agents in the world anyway – some more secretive than others – and if the person in question was trained by Fisher himself Ubi can get away with having some similar animations crossing over.

It would easily make for a more interesting story, solve the huge age problem the series has for when each instalment has taken place, and keep Ironside in the game but out of a mo-cap suit. Everybody wins.

9. Bring Stealth Back Properly

The early noughties were a funky time for video game design. Hot on the heels of the original Metal Gear Solid’s game-changing tactic of evasion and guard-watching, everybody and their granny started implementing stealth into their titles – with only a few doing it any justice.

Splinter Cell was one of a few that did, and being an Xbox exclusive it easily had the right kind of fire to take on Kojima’s ridiculously enjoyable masterpiece. By treating stealth in a far more realistic manner and letting us play the role of a badass skin-suited army-ninja with a penchant for dry humour and choking out terrorists, the very idea of saving the world by leaving a trail of bodies in your wake without the world even knowing your name was revolutionary.

Since then Metal Gear has veered into more action-territory for part four, and with Splinter Cell’s Double Agent, Conviction and even Blacklist the idea of taking on scores of terrorists has become a potential playing style. However Blacklist reintroduced that satisfactory feeling of being one triple green-light death-dealing blur amongst the carnage, making fans of such a once-dominating genre yearn for the king to re-assume his position.

8. Multiple Entry Points – Continue Intelligent Level Design

Apart from one great level set inside multiple floors of the same tight building there was scarce few to recommend inside Conviction, and with Double Agent’s focus on character’s being played off against each other it seemed the original trilogy’s fantastically-replayable environments had been lost.

It was with Blacklist though that suddenly we were scarpering back up stairs, scouting patrols from multiple vantage points and watching out for rogue zip-wires that could cut out sections of the level and allow for a totally different approach altogether. One of the most celebratory things about Blacklist was how well-balanced its different approaches to gameplay were in reaction to the world around you, and for SC 2015 we want to see more of this. Ubi can pull from another one of their titles in Deus Ex to connote that idea of seeing a good handful of potential entry points on your first time through that you’re already aching to replay straight after.

7. Ditch First-Person Shooting – Know Your Audience

We can only assume the strange-feeling first-person parts of Blacklist were intended to be a preparatory for the online Spies vs. Mercs mode, but it didn’t stop them completely derailing the very feeling of stealth that a Splinter Cell title should be about.

Most of us ended up crouch-walking around and popping headshots anyway just out of sheer refusal to play a SC game like Call of Duty, so it’s well worth saying that as much as Ubisoft are known for cross-pollinating their titles with mechanics from others, no Splinter Cell fan wants to take part in any mandatory first-person shooting sections.

In addition long-time fans will remember the initial teaser for what would eventually become Conviction that showed a more downtrodden homeless-looking Sam fighting police in a cafe, whilst also flipping tables as a sort of melee attack. The backlash was so strong that everything relating to that reveal sans just the environment itself was eventually removed, showing that above-all we just want more gameplay that’s routed in avoiding detection and stalking from the shadows, not fighting groups of guys like Batman orShadow of Mordor‘s Talion.

6. More Experimental, Contextual Kills

Something that always feels great in newer stealth titles like Blacklist, Shadow of Mordor or Assassin’s Creed is knowing that regardless of what direction or placement an enemy is to you, a quick reaction can save your hide. The first Splinter Cell introduced the ‘split jump’ that let you scarper up a thin corridor before waiting for your prey below, Chaos Theory the idea of leaping up to pull guys over ledges, and the AC games the idea of pouncing on multiple targets at once. But it’s always been in the combination of your entire repertoire of moves that we’ve had so much fun.

Part of the appeal in the original games was exploring every facet of the levels to experiment with what happened if you did something like throwing a guard off a balcony onto some glass below, or in Chaos Theory in particular just lobbing them off all manner of things to see how the ragdoll physics would cope. Strange? Absolutely, but that sense of experimentation with guard patrols and enemies in general is something that’s almost gone away completely in the last three titles.

With the general direction of level design going the way of allowing greater experimentation, there’s no shortage of unique situations we’re sure to find ourselves in – something that adding more kill-animations to every possible occurrence would make all the more enjoyable.

5. Further Expand Class-Based Multiplayer

It’s up for debate whether or not Blacklist’s Spies vs. Mercs multiplayer-reprisal was as warmly received as the original Pandora Tomorrow was. Part of the reason it soared so highly in the early day was because Xbox Live was so new, we were all introducing ourselves to each other nice n’ kindly, making sure to play every night.

Regardless of what a hovel for abhorrent language and screamed expletives that’s turned into, the very idea of counter-balancing first-person movement-restricted shooting with nimble third-person stealth based on which class you pick is one of the most unique multiplayer modes out there.

As the mode itself has seen various iterations or omissions over the years, we’re just hoping it essentially stays intact for next year’s announcement – bring on more great things like mixed teams, inverted expectations like forcing Mercs to stay still and hack turrets, and scores of gadgets to blow each other up with along the way.

4. Make Stealth The Priority Gameplay Choice

Depending on how much Ubi continue down the action-route it seems they’re a fan of with the likes of Assassin’s Creed’s one-versus-twenty battles, at least make the levels in such a way that stealth can be a primary focus that’s also the most rewarding.

In Blacklist we saw the option to suit Fisher up in more armoured gear along with various rifles and shotguns for the sake of taking on bad guys face-first. Although it could be fun to do this, it seems completely pointless to advance this further – after all there are hundreds of run n’ gun shooters where you can take cover and fill bodies full of lead all day long.

Splinter Cell can accommodate this direction if absolutely necessary, but as with Blacklist, A.I. and damage modifiers should remain in such a way that playing a Splinter Cell game like a Splinter Cell game reaps the richest rewards.

3. Create Awesome Interactive Set-Pieces

Pandora Tomorrow’s train level was a standout moment in a time when developers were still proving themselves with then-new hardware. We knew the Xbox was something of a powerhouse, but seeing an entire level set on a moving train was pretty mind-blowing.

Still today you’ll rarely see developers having the technical prowess to code levels that may crumble and deform as you go – only Naughty Dog’s Uncharted series springs to mind – but they stand out as a great way to do set-pieces; memorable standout moments that retain player agency without making them on-rails.

For the most part we’re all sick of overly-linear cutscenes punctuated by quick-time events that occasionally let up for the sake of holding the right trigger a bit, and considering how many compromising positions a super-spy can get themselves into, we’d love to see Ubisoft’s insanely high budgets being put to better use than just polishing out some character models.

2. A More Involving, In-Depth Campaign

For the most part the Splinter Cell games have always done their own thing on their terms, but one mechanic Ubi put into Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood that’s also in Metal Gear’s Portable Ops and Peace Walker, is the idea of assembling a team of soldiers that can take on other tasks while you handle the big jobs.

If we go off the aforementioned idea that Ironside ends up in a support role, it allows the Fisher character – or you, really – to dictate the direction Fourth Echelon goes in, whilst also championing another main character through a string of main missions. The idea of speccing new recruits in certain ways after you’ve nabbed them out in the field, only to then take control and shepherd their first mission would elevate the entire experience into something very different from what’s gone before.

Overall we need a more involving story, as whilst the by-the-numbers tale Blacklist told was a serviceable one, it just didn’t have the same calibre of sense of purpose previous titles did. Moments like that final gun barrel-to-gun barrel showdown with Shetland from Chaos Theory were great because of the inbuilt emotion we had for both parties – something that was completely missing from the final fight in Blacklist, despite Fisher and Sadiq both being played by regimented actors.

1. Near-Endless Replayability

At the end of the day it’s the core set of gameplay mechanics that’s always made the series so enjoyable over the years. Even in the first couple games we were constantly doing things like taking multiple cracks at the Chinese Embassy levels to see how we could take guards out, or leaving others alive in Pandora Tomorrow’s Kundang Camp airplane hanger just to shoot them whilst hanging upside down from above.

It’s things like this that prove the core gameplay of the series was fun in a purely experimental way, and as Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor proved with its myriad of side-missions that let you tackle swathes of enemies sans any overarching motive other than ‘these dudes need killing’ sometimes when gameplay is that polished, it’s all we need.

Blacklist saw a handful of optional missions available depending on which member of your crew you spoke too, but there just weren’t enough of them. We’re sure next-gen hardware could handle a few procedurally generated in-game assets such as building location and enemy placement within a given level – so why not utilise such a thing to give us randomised objectives, or change up assassination targets?

Even creating something of a mission-builder that the SC community can get stuck into would solve this too, with ranked leaderboards providing the most devoted players with a constant challenge.

Far Cry 4 hands-on: roaming free in Kyrat

Following Ben Griffin's hands-on with Far Cry 4 focusing on the game's single player and cooperative components, Shaun Prescott takes a look at the open world, and mostly gets killed by wild animals.Here I am in sunny Kyrat and I’ve been invited to "do whatever I want”. I have a bow and arrow, a handgun, a couple of molotov cocktails and binoculars. I have no desire to playFar Cry 4's story missions, so I mostly avoid them. The plot (seemingly) concerns a regular guy roped in to help some desperate people, even though all he wants to do is throw some ashes at some hills (the Himalayas).There’s an outpost metres from where I’ve spawned, so I take my binoculars out and start marking enemies from the safety of a nearby shrub. At first I plan to quietly tease the baddies out of their nooks before driving my knife through their necks. They’ll never know what hit them. But just as these plans are starting to come together my binoculars fall upon a feature I hadn’t noticed before.It’s an elephant. Given the option between a) sneaking around sensibly and quietly or b) stomping everyone to death via elephant, it’s difficult to resist the latter. I’d go as far to say that if your immediate instinct isn’t to plow in guns blazing atop an elephant then you’re either a) dead inside or b) an unusually nice person.Here’s the thing though: once you’ve had your fun with the elephant you’ll probably not want to ride it again. Or else, you’ll resort to the elephant only in worst case scenarios. The reason for this is because Far Cry was, and still is, an incredible stealth game. It’s not as mechanically deep as Deus Ex: Human Revolution or Shadow of Mordor, but plotting out the death of whole factions of baddies from atop a nearby hill is still a barrel of laughs. The elephant may be a novel idea, but in practice it’s kinda awkward. Weaponized elephants are fine, but motorized elephants would be better.

I spent the bulk of my time with Far Cry 4 running from tigers, unlocking new parts of the map (achieved here by scaling clock towers rather than radio towers) and, most memorably, flying the Buzzer around. The Buzzer is a primitive one-man helicopter which operates kinda like a motorised air scooter. It’s underpowered and incapable of reaching high altitudes, but it’s a surprisingly useful tactical tool, as enemies remained oblivious to me from certain distances. I spent about half-an-hour flying through Kyrat like this, shooting lazily at passing enemies and taking in the view. I was the laziest renegade / mass murderer there ever has been.The landscape on the south-east side of Kyrat isn’t as mountainous as some of the terrain shown in Ubisoft’s promotional material: that will presumably come with further exploration of the map. Off in the distance spiky white mountains promise new regions to come, but the green region I explored was nestled between huge mountains and cliffs, cut through by a network of wide waterbeds and dotted with the usual shacks, caves, shrines and points of interest.You won’t get far in this world without finding something to kill, because hostage situations and random enemy encounters seem to occur more frequently than they did in Far Cry 3. It may have just been my experience, but Far Cry 4 feels much less tranquil than its predecessor. There are more humans around waiting to take a chunk out of you.The wildlife is more aggressive too. In fact, the wolves in certain areas of the map are relentless, often compromising my silent approach by forcing me to take them out with a machine gun round. I quickly learned that it’s best to suss out an area for wolves (or tigers) before choosing an approach, or better still, to use the wolves to your advantage. In the end though, there’s nothing you can do to quell the beasts and that’s one of the series’ strengths: best laid plans can turn sour fast.Counter-intuitively, the most threatening wildlife are the sniffer dogs. New to Far Cry 4, you’ll want to lure these nasties out quick smart as they’ll sniff you out of cover if you get too close. On two occasions I was hidden inside a shack as I watched the glowing silhouettes of my marked foes, only to be suddenly chewed to death by a canine. You can always swipe at them with a knife but by then your stealth plans are ruined.

Outposts are generally a bit bigger than they were in Far Cry 3 (the better to march weaponized elephants into) but the trick to taking them out is still the same: remove snipers first, switch off the alarm system and then finish off the rest with stealth takedowns or, um, rocket launchers. Securing outposts was one of the most satisfying aspects of Far Cry 3, and like everything else in Far Cry 4 the ways to do so are not dramatically different to its predecessor.Far Cry 4 is full of the usual Ubisoft open world cliches but its mix of busywork and unique campaign scenarios is more satisfying than it is in say, Assassin’s Creed or Watch Dogs. This is because Far Cry’s openworld busywork is a lot more fun. In fact, the two campaign missions I played were a bit of a chore in the way they prescribed certain approaches to play. I was forced to be a rough and ready explosives-wielding monster instead of the silent killer I’d much prefer to be. Far Cry 4, like Far Cry 3 before it, is at its best when it’s a stealth sandbox.That balance between cinematic bombast and quiet, emergent gameplay was Far Cry 3’s drawcard. You'll get that again here, but don't be under the impression that Far Cry 4 will reinvent the series again, or even mix things up dramatically. That was Far Cry 3’s task, and on the evidence of my time with its follow-up the studio is sticking with the template for a little while longer, because it works. Except now there's elephants.

                                     

From - PCGAMER

Epic Games Distances Itself From Controversial Mass-Murder Shooter Hatred

Epic Games has sought to publicly distance itself from the brutal shooter Hatred that was announced by Polish developer Destructive Creations yesterday, which runs on Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 4. Epic has explicitly stated that it has had no part in Hatred's development and has requested that the Epic logo be removed from the promotional video of the game as Destructive Creations did not request permission to use it. You can check the trailer out below but be warned it is pretty graphic.

The Postal-esque isometric shooter Hatred puts player in control of an unhinged character who embarks on a "genocidal crusade". The aim, as far as the trailer shows, is to carry out mass murder, killing as many innocent bystanders and law enforcement as you can in a brutal manner. The small development team behind the game had obviously hoped the controversial announcement trailer would make an impact on the gaming world and they’ve certainly got their wish. The divisive game has instantly caused heated debate among gamers on the nature of video game violence.

Amid the controversy, Destructive Games has sought to justify Hatred, claiming “These days, when a lot of games are heading to be polite (sic), colourful, politically correct, and trying to be some kind of higher art, rather than just an entertainment. We wanted to create something against trends.” The studio tried to calm the storm arising with the reveal trailer, falling back on the age-old argument of “It’s just a game”.

Hatred is being developed for PC and Destructive Games hope to release the title through Steam and GOG, but there’s no word yet on whether either digital storefront will be selling the game. You can watch the reveal gameplay trailer for Hatred below, but be warned, it does contain footage that some people may find disturbing.

Hatred looks like it could reignite an old argument that has rumbled on for a long time throughout the gaming community and beyond. One thing it’s sure to do is provide those people who campaign against video game violence with a lot more ammunition.

Project Cars Stalls Until Spring 2015

Upcoming racing sim Project Cars has been delayed until Spring 2015. The crowdfunded game from Slightly Mad Studios was originally slated for release on November 21st in the UK on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One but it has been confirmed it will now be March 17th next year.

This delayed release might actually work kindly for Project Cars. The market for racing games is pretty congested at the moment. Driveclub and Forza Horizon 2 are out already and Ubisoft's ambitious open-world racing game The Crew is out on December 2nd, alongside other big releases out in the coming weeks like GTA V, Far Cry 4 and Dragon Age: Inquisition which will also take a big share of the game market.

In a press release, Slightly Mad Studios head man Ian Bell confirmed the delay rumours that had been circling on forums all morning. In the short statement Bell confirms the theory that the delay will give the game a greater chance of success in the market and provides an opportunity for the developers to add the finishing touches to make Project Cars as good an experience as it can be.

Racing fans will have high expectations from Project Cars. The studio behind the game has a good pedigree in the genre, previously working on successful games like Need for Speed: Shift and Shift 2.

A March release is now expected for Project Cars, this will lessen the chance that this promising game gets lost in the rush of big name titles due before the end of the year.

The game was originally slated for release via Steam and on Wii U around March, however it seems likely this will face delay too.

Ubisoft reveals ‘The Crew’ plot will be a ‘revenge story’, stars Troy Baker

Racing games are notorious for having hilariously bad story arcs. Part of this is due to their nature, there's no central character to grow attached to, only a vehicle. Need for Speed has attempted to drive story for decades now with The Run perhaps being the pinnacle of painfully bad. We spoke with The Crew's creative director, Julian Gerighty about how his team is going to avoid these very potholes.

"The way we approach the narrative of the game is to make it fun and not pretentious," he says, "The last thing I’m going to tell you is that the story of this game is going to change the world, no it won’t.

"Thinking of the source material, it’s stuff like Gone In 60 Seconds, it’s stuff like The Fast and the Furious, which are super fun movies that don’t take themselves too seriously."

Rather than focus on one overarching story, the team has split up each region into smaller tales.

"[T]he time playing the narrative is about two hours to four hours per region. What we decided on was an approach where every region was going to give you another facet of the narrative.

"In New York, it’s about money, in the South it’s about taking out one of the criminal groups, and in the mountain states it’s all about creating new smuggling routes because it’s all off road. Every region changes the sort of overall objective from the narrative. It gives you a two, three or four hour objective that is fun and light."

Gerighty knows that more than anything it's about the quality his team imbues into the game, "What was important to me though is to have absolutely top-notch execution in it. The cinematics look fantastic; the voice acting is really good," he elaborates, detailing a well versed voice actors implication. "We started working with Troy Baker. . .He plays the role of the man guy, Alex Taylor. . .about three years ago [we started recording] and he elevates any material you give him."

Regardless of that Gerighty continues, "As long as we’re focusing on the best execution possible, I think it’s a good story."

Assassin's Creed Rogue Now Confirmed To Be Coming To PC In Early 2015

Ubisoft has revealed in a new Assassin’s Creed: Rogue trailer that previous-gen exclusive AC outing taking players to the frozen wilderness of Northern America and the Atlantic will now be coming to PC in 2015.The publishing giant has been tightlipped about it arriving on other platforms, but sneakily slipped it into the end of this new story trailer, revealing the PC box art and claiming it is coming in Early 2015. It's not a huge surprise it's coming but it's pleasing that Ubisoft is putting the effort in to ensure PC gamers can get their hands on the complete Assassin's Creed experience this year.In Assassin’s Creed Rogue players will take on the role of assassin-turned-templar Shay Patrick Cormac, who is in the business of hunting assassins following a conversion to the templar way.Cormac’s adventure will see him around the North Atlantic and the arctic circle during the Seven Years War, where polar-bear hunting and pitched sea battles amid hulking icebergs appears to be the order of the day. The new ship Morrigan will also be much smaller than the Jackdaw, allowing river travel and rapid-paced combat.
Assassin’s Creed Rogue is out on November 11th for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, before arriving early 2015.

Assassin’s Creed Unity Could Be Ubisoft’s True Next-Gen Statement

Considering the series’ popularity, it’s hard to believe that Assassin’s Creed debuted just one console generation ago. Ubisoft proudly roared from the tops of the towers with that initial 2007 teaser of the original Assassin’s Creed: a living, breathing world to explore. The first Assassin’s Creed was a technical ascension, a promise that set the bar for what the seventh generation of games could accomplish technically. So now, seven years later, Assassin’s Creed has become a tremendous success. Regardless of the annual releases and constant spinoffs, Assassin’s Creed is still a series that reaches further with each year. Assassin’s Creed Unity is Assassin’s Creed embracing the new generation of consoles, and from what we’ve been shown, it could be exactly the shot in the arm the generation needs.

The technical side of Assassin’s Creed has always been its strongest element. With powerful new console hardware at their immediate behest, Ubisoft are dropping the subtlety and making Assassin’s Creed Unity a monolithic statement. The crowds in Unity are enormous; each individual citizen moves independently, leaving ample opportunity to blend in and explore undetected. You truly feel like you’re involved in a bustling metropolis, experiencing all of the turmoil that the French Revolution was known for. By far, this is where Assassin’s Creed Unity is at its most promising, dwarfing the technical awe of its predecessors.One of the best upgrades that the new hardware has brought to the series is the integrated city. Interior and exterior environments are seamlessly linked; you can dive into an open window and rush into a crowded dinner party without a loading time to speak of. To complement the naturally linked environment, the new Parkour elements deliver a surprising amount of control to the navigation. Parkour Up and Parkour Down allow total command of where you want to go while climbing, making the exploration much less segregated between high and low planes. Like the integrated city, the whole world feels much more organic when you’re not limited to jumping into a pile of hay as a descent. Add that with dynamic events like random fistfights and it’s clear that Ubisoft wants to make this world come alive like no other Assassin’s Creed game has before.The co-op play remains a crucial element with Unity. Players can coordinate missions with other players, which can make infiltrating a packed base or distracting a large crowd much more multi-faceted. The game’s missions feel tight and balanced, with options galore between single and multiplayer play sessions. Ubisoft has confidently presented the co-op play as an integral part of the series, and with every new bit of gameplay shown, their vision sounds more and more interesting.

With a packed release schedule with the Assassin’s Creed series alone, Ubisoft have a lot to prove with Assassin’s Creed Unity, but with every step towards launch, the game is shedding another layer of tedious retreading and delivering what could possibly be the best Assassin’s Creed game yet. A stellar showcase of technical power, Unity is a beast; exciting, dynamic and fully alive, its world feels cohesive without any obnoxious load times to pester anxious gamers. It feels tuned and tightly wrapped, all while providing ample activities and a controlled navigation system. Don’t let the sequelitis get you down: Assassin’s Creed Unity is one hell of statement for the series, Ubisoft and next-gen gaming as a whole. Keep your Eagle Vision tuned to Assassin’s Creed Unity when it hits PS4, Xbox One, and PC on November 11.