TONS of new info from Game Informer. Very slight spoilers about the set up of the game, and a very vague spoiler about the Revelations ending. Should be okay for everyone to read. Spoiler -Want it to be a jumping on point for new players without losing touch with what longtime fans cherish most. -New hero called Connor/Ratohnhake:ton (pronounced Ra-doon-ha-gay-doo). He has an English father and Native American mother. -More details about the protagonist/scenarios: You will experience Conner's childhood on the American frontier as he is raised by the Mohawk. The Mohawk eventually clash with white colonists who burn their village down, causing Connor to dedicate his life to confront tyranny and injustice. -A new traversal approach that has players leaping and climbing trees and mountain cliffs. -Uses a new version of the Anvil engine that can "depict thousands of troops engaged in bloody battle" along with highly detailed face close-ups. They later imply that if they used version numbers, they would be like going from Anvil 1.0 -> Anvil 2.0 or something of that nature. -Judging by the images, the faces really are quite good. -Combat is focused on putting you on the offensive and based on speed/momentum. -The main character has thousands of new and unique animations (no carry over from other titles) to support the new combat system. -Character details: -George Washington: Interacting with Washington is one of the core relationships of the game. -Benjamin Franklin: He's not a convenient inventor a la Da Vinci. -Charles Lee: His role is a mystery. -The game is set between the years 1753-1783 and is centered around the cities of Boston and New York. -"It's not just going to a historical building now; it's going to a historical event." -Event examples: "You will see the great fire of New York. You will visit Valley Forge as a location that is currently occupied by Washington's forces. You will visit these places in the moment that they were important, and hopefully, experience the reason why we know where they are today. That's the goal." -Connor is in the heart of major battles, and they can now have a couple thousand guys on screen, whereas before it was capped at about 100. -The overall story is still centered around the Assassins versus the Templars and Connor's journey. -Not all the Colonists will be cast as good people, and not all the British will be cast as evil oppressors. They're trying to focus on how both the Assassins and Templars viewpoints exist in a gray morality as the Templars really believe they're saving the world. -The French and Native Americans will also feature in the game, as was probably really obvious. -The modern day stuff relates to that location in New York at the end of Revelations. -There will be all sorts of wilderness in the game referred to as the Frontier. -The map of the Frontier is 1.5 times bigger than the entire map of Brotherhood. -The Frontier is not empty like in Assassin's Creed 1, but features a third of the game's missions and gameplay content. -The Frontier also includes colonial settlements like Lexington and Concord and Connor's Mohawk village. -You can hunt animals for resources, and how you kill them effects your reward. A one hit kill on a bear gets you a much more valuable pelt than stabbing it eight times. -The wilderness traversal plays a big part in the gameplay in the Frontier, allowing you to use trees, cliffs, ledges, and more to set up kills and combat. -Connor does have a hidden blade. -The world changes as time passes, so a field where a battle happened in one year may just be a series of empty encampments a few months later. -The entire world will change with seasons, so the cities and the wilderness will all exist in both Summer and Winter settings. -In the winter, soldiers will move slowly and stumble about in the snow, and lakes and rivers will freeze over allowing you new terrain to work with. This gives Connor an extra advantage since he can still use the trees and wilderness pretty effectively during this time of year. -There are all sorts of clubs and groups who want you to join and give you quests. These are separate from the mission system. These clubs will contact you based on what you do in the game. For example, hunting a lot will get you an invitation to the hunting society. -There will be a goods based economy, a new property system, and more Desmond stuff. -There's going to be some new puzzle thing like the first person Tetris. -There's a new GUI known as Animus 3.0. -There's a new Animus database written by Shaun Hastings, who makes snarky comments about the British perspective of the war. -They're not unveiling anything about the multiplayer yet. -There will be more platforming levels. -Full synchronization returns, but with major tweaks. Missions have checkpoints, You also get significant rewards for doing these tasks instead of a 100%. "Imagine a leveling system in an RPG, except there's a finite amount of XP to find. The more in-sync you get, the more you fill your sync bar. Within each mission, each activity you complete has a value". You can replay everything to increase your score. -They imply there is something resembling the Brotherhood system of picking up fellow assassins. -Aligned groups are gone, but something new is replacing them in regards to factions. They don't say what. -There's a new notoriety system that is more hidden and doesn't penalize you for exploring risky areas. -The game has fast travel because the game has more traveling. -Don't expect more tower defense. -You can upgrade Connor's gear and costume as the game goes on in an attempt to make it feel more authentic. -The cities have a lot more subtle detail now in terms of ambient things that happen. -You can now leap over wagons or slide under obstacles, including navigating over and around moving objects. The free running stuff also has you jumping through windows to trees and then on top of church roofs. Basically, expect the free running stuff, but more fluid and presumably generally closer to the ground. -Connor enters battle with two weapons. The game uses the same controls in and out of battle. -The tomahawk and knife are a "constant presence" in battle. They also let you do double counters and multiple takedowns, and you can chain kills. -There's no more target locking, it just automatically detects your target. Counter/defense are the same button to prevent turtling. -You can use human shields and other context sensitive moves. -They want you to constantly move in battle. -There are lots of secondary attacks like the one shot pistol on the Y button. -There's a new dynamic camera to track the action and make it look as cinematic as possible. -There is a new sprinting system also, so you can hold the button to instantly turn around and start fleeing from combat. They also let you kill people while still moving so you can keep chasing a target. They kind of imply you can even leap off of them after you kill them, though I'm not sure if that makes you faster or just doesn't impede your movement. -They really, really, really want you to constantly move. I mean like they say this every four sentences. Not just in battle, but in every section of the game. -They also try to keep you more in control of the combat than ever before. -Game Informer really loves their animation system. -There are around 2.5 hours of character scenes in the game that are fully acted and recorded. They mean this in Naughty Dog style where they have the actors being mocaped while performing on a set that resembles the scene in the game. -They're aiming for accuracy by having historical dialog consultants and actual Native American actors. -This game has the longest development cycle since AC1, and has twice the production capacity (in terms of work hours) and budget of Revelations. -They want the game to feel like AC3.5, and the game will have its first version complete in just a few more weeks, at which point they're going to spend the rest of their time refining it.
Sounding better and better. The hunting thing I mentioned was kinda obvious, but since it was officially confirmed I'm going to gloat anyway, to no one in particular. *gloats haughtily*
Also, FYI, first trailer on Monday. Most likely will be one of their CG trailers, but those are always entertaining nonetheless and usually reveal or show off some new mechanic.
That must take an unbelievable amount of programming. They make it sound like the game revolves around mostly the wilderness... and free running on trees through a forest? How do you design every tree to suit a nice pedestal w/o duplicating them or making them render the same?
I agree, these mechanics must be a real pain to code. There must be like nodes on each tree where a body part is allowed to cling to? But why does this game look so GOOD? I can't wait for this to come out.
Just found an article on Ign that reveals quite a bit of information. Spoiler The new print issue of Game Informer has started reaching subscribers, and a massive amount of new information about Assassin's Creed III has been revealed. The game's new assassin is named Connor. He comes from an English father and Native American mother and was raised among the Mohawk tribe. Connor's equipment will be able to be upgraded and strengthened, much like Ezio's in Assassin's Creed II. The game will be set between 1753 and 1783 and will include famous historical events such as The Great Fire of New York and the winter at Valley Forge. (For reference, 1753 is known for the French and Indian War, while 1783 marks the treaty of Paris that ended the American Revolution.) Famous historical figures including George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and Charles Lee will be in the game, with Washington as a "core relationship" and Franklin "won't be a carbon copy" of Leonardo Da Vinci in previous Assassin's Creed games. Lee's role has yet to be revealed. Players will explore the Frontier between New York and Boston, and stops in between will include Lexington & Concord and Connor's Mohawk village. The Frontier map is 1.5 times larger than the map featured in Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. Ubisoft's updated Anvil tech engine will allow for over one thousand characters to be on screen at once (such as in large battles), compared to one hundred in previous games. Players will be able to hunt animals, selling pelts in order to earn money and survive. Fast travel between locations will be possible, and the game will also feature weather effects in both summer and winter. Quests will be initiated via clubs, such as joining a hunting club before going on a specific mission. The notoriety system will return under a different name, and players will still be able to earn money and property like in Assassin's Creed II. As previously thought, Desmond will be involved in the game in the present day. He will no longer be in a coma and will use the Animus 3.0 to interface with Connor. Platforming levels will return, but the game will not feature tower defense elements like those in Assassin's Creed Revelations. Ubisoft hasn't commented on multiplayer. After seeing the official trailer, I'm pretty excited to see how this game turns out. Pretty sure I'll be buying it once October 30th comes around.
That must be why it's taken them since pretty much the end of AC1 to make this game; programming for free-running through trees without cloning large parts of the forest. Forget all this talk about 1000 NPCs on screen at once, that's nothing compared to the mammoth task of tree-running coding. Oh, and I now hereby copyright the term "tree-running".
The graphics for ACIII seem to be promising, then again its a trailer. I'm just worried of it is going to feel like a traditional AC. Also, does anyone here think that the game MIGHT have references to Ezio or Altair, meaning that will they be talked about sometimes?
It was JUST twitchy enough (I guess is the word?) to be in-game graphics methinks, even if they're cutscenes. And I'm sure it will have at least passing reference to the other protagonists of the series.
Oh, I'm really hoping that they've touched up the blood effects. Does anyone else cringe at the ACII through Revelations bloody scenes because the blood is squirting out and you're looking at it from the wrong angle so it looks like a piece of red paper from the side? I certainly do.
So I'm playing all the assassin's creed games before AS3 and I just finished Brotherhood for the first time, just now. Let me tell you, Ubisoft done an amazing job with ending all these games with cliffhangers that leave you begging to find out what happens next. My jaw was wide open from the moment I seen Desmond pick up the apple of Eden. Starting Revelations right now!!
Do want. I pre-ordered this and got the special tin case which is pretty cool. Now I just need to finish Revelations...