Burrito of Peace wrote on Apr 17, 2024, 11:55:
AC peaked with Black Flag. Everything since then has been huge maps stuffed with pointless "activities" to pad out the game length with no meaningful improvement to the core experience.

It's weird that you would cite Black Flag, as it's mostly known and enjoyed for its non-core-experience content. I.e. pirate ship battles and open world exploration, with the core AC experience being pretty secondary to the game design. It was also the first to have a huge map populated with side-activities. Earlier games had some of this, but the maps were a lot less time consume to traverse. If anything, it foreshadowed what you'd see in Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla a lot more than Unity and Syndicate ever did.

Burrito of Peace wrote on Apr 17, 2024, 11:55:
AC peaked with Black Flag. Everything since then has been huge maps stuffed with pointless "activities" to pad out the game length with no meaningful improvement to the core experience.

To be fair, padding out the giant map with pointless activities has been a core part of the Assassins Creed series since the first game. That one had you doing timed races and collecting flags from the start.

Kind of an enticing offer but the trailer makes it look like yet more AC gameplay, except maybe this time with more emphasis on stealth. I would buy a remaster of AC Origins in a heartbeat as that was my entry to the series and I loved it to the tune of 200+ hours. I'm sure they'd make lots of money creating remasters of all the previous titles, particularly Black Flag.

AC peaked with Black Flag. Everything since then has been huge maps stuffed with pointless "activities" to pad out the game length with no meaningful improvement to the core experience.

Braden wrote on Apr 16, 2024, 22:13:
Pass. I was pretty much done with this series after Odyssey.

Ended on a high note there. MAN, I loved Odyssey. Played through as Cassandra, switched to....Alexi I think? For another playthrough and the voice actor was so dour I quit after about two hours.

I then got Valhalla in a bundle, and played a decent chunk of it, but it just felt...well, crappy. The viking raiders get all sad when ONE SINGLE ONE of their people gets killed by the people THEY INVADED, but are A-ok with murdering entire villages for a handful of coins. Also, the "assassin" part is so rare in it that it feels like a different kind of game entirely. You're expected and encouraged to go in loud.

Surprisingly, for whatever reason, the voice actress for the female Eivor sounded like she was actively smoking 4 packs of cigarettes at once. The male version was far more charming and fun, exactly the opposite of Odyssey. Amusingly, they ASSUMED you'd play as her, as there are SO many voice lines referring to Eivor as "she", even when playing the male version.

WannaLogAlready wrote on Apr 17, 2024, 03:01:
Since Ubisoft began erasing DLCs from bought games (and now outright erases full games) I stopped buying from them, not matter how good or interesting their games could be.

Not that much, really, as I never can progress too much in any of their games as I get bored.

Of course, will play them from friends gifting them to me if curious enough, full games, not trials nor demos, thanks.

Friends don't let friends gift them Ubisoft games. Anyone who does that is not a real friend.
Also... seriously... bugger off Ubisoft. Stop attempting to sell off things piecemeal and, for the love of god, stop pretentiously calling demos ANYTHING other than demos. Naturally I blame Konami and Sony for this stupid trend.

Since Ubisoft began erasing DLCs from bought games (and now outright erases full games) I stopped buying from them, not matter how good or interesting their games could be.

Not that much, really, as I never can progress too much in any of their games as I get bored.

Of course, will play them from friends gifting them to me if curious enough, full games, not trials nor demos, thanks.

Jim wrote on Apr 16, 2024, 20:28:
its kind of a meh game fine but not great. feels like a DLC. there are no present day animus scenes.

It was originally meant to be an expansion for Valhalla, but it was reworked into a standalone title with a smaller scope. Being able to say, "We released a new AC game" to shareholders, and charging close to full price were likely to be two deciding factors. There was also a feeling releasing another Valhalla expansion for a waning game may have felt like a bad investment.

Pass. I was pretty much done with this series after Odyssey.

I was going to play it on Ubi+ because there's no way I'm buying it until it's in the $20 or less category. I'll give this a whirl.

Jim wrote on Apr 16, 2024, 20:28:
its kind of a meh game fine but not great. feels like a DLC. there are no present day animus scenes.

That's why they're promoting it - maybe someone will buy it.

its kind of a meh game fine but not great. feels like a DLC. there are no present day animus scenes.