This game is fantastic, I've played like 7 hours today. Time to ship and full open world is like an hour and a half instead of 5 hours of bullshit and childhood trauma. Edward is a very likeible guy and a joy to play as. My favorite thing is actually all the sea shantey the crew sing. This game feels like AC 2 again It's great.

This makes me excited to try it out. I'm waiting for the next-gen version, personally.

I hear a lot of good shit about this go around at AC. Personally waiting on the PC version but it's good to hear the current-gen versions hold up.

Glad you're enjoying it. AC II was one of the very best games of last gen (and Brotherhood was great too, if not kind of AC II.5). Looking forward to the PC version.

Argh! I don´t want this on the current/old gen.. had hoped it would come out on PC day one.

Well, guess I should have seen that one coming. Anyway, glad you like it! The game seems amazing.

IGN.com

The shanties caught me really off-guard too. You would think it's just lame but it's sort of a brilliant play on what makes GTA so great, car-radio. In general everything about the sea is much better than I expected (having not been very impressed by the sea battles in 3). I wonder though, have you been introduced to every gameplay feature yet ? I've been playing about as much as you have and still not gotten around to attacking a fort or whaling. It's great that the world is open quickly and everything, but I just hate doing stuff before the game has actually introduced it to me.

Was it visceral?

Well , it almost can't be as blah as AC3 . I can't wait to play it in a few weeks .

Huh, really?

I'd just about convinced myself to abandon the series after Revelations and the hot ball of mediocre that was 3.

But this game is tickling a lot of my fancies in concept...if it's actually fun as well, I might need to get it when it releases on PC

I just can't give a shit. As much as a pirate game sounds interesting. The minute the whole Assassin's Creed bit starts I'll just want to walk away. I might actually care just as little about these games as I do Call of Duty at this point. They've saturated the market so that I can even feign interest to see the cool bits. Maybe I'm a cynical prick, or maybe if I'm going to spend eight to ten hours doing something I want it to be interesting. I am glad it's a step in the right direction though. Better games are generally a good thing.

People sure do love to rail on Assasin's Creed, huh? I didn't like 3 either but reading half the comments be "I quit this series!"

Okay, we get it.

Are there less modern day moments? So sick and tired of that shit and the blank loading screens.

how come pc version doesn't unlock for 3 fucking week?

@geraltitude: the modern day is optional

Didn't you mean to write "and" instead of "or" here?

because we get the shiny next-gen version.

As soon as they announced that this game would be more about the sea & ships I was hooked. There even seems to be some mild nods to "Sid Myers Pirates" with aspects to the game like building up your ship, gaining new skilled crew, trading at ports, and attacking other ships.

I'm so glad that the reviews are positive, that means my first PS4 experiences will be with a game I wanted.

Really? That's awesome. Sorry if they've shown this in the gameplay videos but is there still a lot of sci-fi UI elements & abstract/spacey menus?

Other question: how do you find the music? Forgettable? Good? Catchy? Piratey?

Without any spoilers, could anyone tell me if this game has it's modern day aspects as well? The Desmond/End of the world modern day thing was my big attraction to the AC series, and I am really only interested in this if that story progresses as well.

Haha... Maybe.

I still have to finish the supposed mediocrity of Revelations and 3. Unfortunately, I keep falling asleep playing Revelations.

My ps4 can't get here fast enough!

Revelations wasn't very good, and I've heard so many bad things about 3 that I never touched it. AC4 is a completely new story with completely new characters, though. Skip the most recent crap and feel free to dive right in with the new one.

It's hard to answer without any spoilers (especially since I don't have the entire picture myself yet), but yes there is still a modern world part to the game. I wouldn't recommend picking up the game if that is your main interest though, as this game is very clearly all about being a pirate in the Caribbean.

I played Revelations after not having touched anything beyond AC2 and it felt O-K if not a bit long in the tooth. Wouldn't say it was TERRIBLE, but it was a very obvious step to the side rather than forward for the series.

They also kind of bastardized Altairs story, and he was my favorite character. There were some really cool "Prince of Persia" like levels when exploring the ancient Templar ruins, cause you know.. they just keep finding more of them.

I'm really liking it too. It's real slick in almost every aspect, stabbing fellas feels better than it ever did.

@takayamasama: stop playing AC games. The modern day part is basically ignored and I really doubt they'll ever bring it back.

I really liked all of the Assassin's Creed games so far eventhough the last entry was a bit disappointing (Connor was a pretty boring character and the story wasn't all that great either). I still had a good time with it but I'm hoping Black Flag will be a step up again. I guess it's the same reason I don't have a problem with the new Batman game. If it's well done I don't necessarily think that more of the same is a bad thing.

nice to hear this one sort of redeems the series,

im actually kind of curious to see the main story, ac3's main story was abysmal, so talk is that this games one is ok, so im curious.

@jz: Such a shame. That was the most interesting part of the entire series. Shame they're just tossing it aside to use it as an excuse for all the animus stuff

I think I might be of the rare opinion that AC3 is a good game. The setting was cool, the side characters were noteworthy, and I'm probably the only person who actually liked Connor and his character arc (being half-native/first nations/Indian/whatever you want to call me leaves me biased, undoubtedly). My problem with AC3 is that it delivered one hell of a wet fart of an ending. For the previous five years Assassin's Creed was an artfully done balancing act between the historical intrigue and the conspiracy theory goodness of the modern setting. AC3's finale just shits all over everything the series was about and I was infuriated by that.

After seeing first hand how little Ubisoft gives a damn about their own universe I find it hard to give a shit now. At this point, the series is a far cry from its origins. Assassin's Creed used to pose philosophical quandaries to the player via the Templar/Assassin schism. The games also created rich and relatable characters that you and I wanted to spend 20-30 hours with. Assassin's Creed used to have a heart, and a point. Now that it's gone I find it very hard to care about any future games. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure Black Flag is a fine game and I'm glad people like it, but to me the heart and soul of the series just isn't there anymore. Without that emotional hook, what's the point?

An open world action adventure in a historical setting. This was the appeal of the series since day 1 for me. The sci-fi angle was only partially good in two of the games to me, I don't really care that much. In fact, I remember being disappointing when anything sci-fi came into the picture, when it started to become apparent in the run up to the first game.

To me, it always seemed like the sci-fi was a way to make it kind of safe, since historical adventure is a harder sell than sci-fi. But I could be wrong. Either way, if you care about the Desmond plotline, and all the end of the world stuff, aliens etc, by III.... well I don't get how.

As long as they keep picking interesting settings and making a good product, I'm in there.

@oldirtybearon: I never like the modern day stuff, but love the past stuff.

So I've recently built a gaming PC and been loving it all summer. But is this a common thing? I don't want to wait weeks for games to come out on the pc.

Until recently, not so much. I think in this instance, Ubisoft wanted to push out the 360 and PS3 versions before the next-gen hotness came out so as to not cannibalize on their own sales [and they get that trade-up program, as well]. Assuming that the PC version is based on those next-gen titles [which from all accounts, it is] they'd rather release that the same week as PS4, for much the same reasons. BF4 is an exception, as Battlefield is typically a PC-first franchise.

But all of the recent console/PC releases I can think of came out day and date [DmC, Hitman, Saint's Row IV, Crysis 3/Far Cry 3, etc.] so going forward I don't see that being a huge issue.

Yeah it's not usually these days (PC support has gotten way better) but it will happen.

Ubisoft in particular is pretty established to have this kind of delay. AC III was the same way.

Still have to wait 2 weeks for the PS4 version. I CAN'T WAIT ANY LONGER!

I got blown away. I tried to take on a Legendary ship... only it turned out there were two. They were big.

This should be Ubisoft's number one selling point. Now if we could stop all the characters in this series from wearing that stupid white hood, we might really have something.

I'm enjoying the shit out of it. It's very good, much better than 3.

This is all good to hear. I might just skip III and move right on to this one, because I've found III to be sort of... "ehhhhh" thus far. A lot of that probably has to do with it taking a good 6 hours before opening up.

Glad to hear it's looking good. I honestly couldn't care less about the abysmal quality of the last two AC games. I judge the quality of a game and form an interest based on a game itself and not it's predecessors. I'm super excited for this. I'm going to wait and play it on the Ps4 though.

Well I liked AC3 a lot, unlike a lot of people (who are stoooopid) so this should theoretically be like the second coming then.

Are there any good big structures to climb...that was the one thing i really missed in AC3 (i realize the reasoning in it thogh

if only. that would be too perfect.

I didn't finish 1. I played the entire Ezio trilogy. I didn't finish 3.

... Should I finish 3? I don't think I can.

Nah.

I do get that feeling of 2/Brotherhood, good protagonist, good setting, the ship stuff is really good, the sea shanties provide just enough.. stuff for the longer sails, and I am digging the cast, and I know I am just getting started.

Though I do wanna get some MP in soon, I love the AC MP and I would be totally down for more of just that.

awesome! I'm going to wait and play it on the PS4. My first AC game so I'm pretty happy it sounds like a good time to get on board.