Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag

[polonyc2]

with the game less then 3 weeks away on PC, Nvidia has released a tech demo of AC4 showing off all the fancy Nvidia enhancements as well as some 4k screenshots...NVIDIA lists TXAA, HBAO+, PCSS, higher resolution textures and high precision light rays among the features that will make the game superior on their hardware...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6YUVwGQvzM#t=0

the PhysX patch was released on December 18th...Black Flag PhysX demo...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6a4MbYAPFU

screenshots and detailed technical specs: http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/ar...iv-black-flag-pc-nvidia-enhancements-revealed

 

[RanceJustice]

Sigh. Not too fond of proprietary tech, no matter whom is doing so. This kind of thing, PhysX etc... all provide unnecessary barriers compared to using more open techniques that aren't the domain of one GPU company or another. Still, its nice they're adding these kind of features, but no one should have an inferior play experience simply because they chose a different GPU than the one that shelled out boatloads of cash to the publisher/devs to "optimize" the game for their hardware.

 

[polonyc2]

Sigh. Not too fond of proprietary tech, no matter whom is doing so. This kind of thing, PhysX etc... all provide unnecessary barriers compared to using more open techniques that aren't the domain of one GPU company or another. Still, its nice they're adding these kind of features, but no one should have an inferior play experience simply because they chose a different GPU than the one that shelled out boatloads of cash to the publisher/devs to "optimize" the game for their hardware.

it's only going to get worse...AMD's Mantle being the big wildcard...PhysX, TressFX etc...now you have to choose a card based on which exclusive features you want enabled

 

[styckx]

I'm torn on this issue but have come around to support it in a sense.. I used to be a "Screw Nvidia and their Physx!!" guy... And left Nvidia once a while back. I road the AMD wagon for two generations.. I still have two 5870's sitting in storage for a just in case scenario and owned a 6990 for over a year after those which I sold to a gentleman in Seattle. (assuming to mine bitcoins with) Then I jumped ship to what I have now and couldn't be more pleased..

To avoid a wall of text.. My experience with AMD.. They had their chance to shine and they failed to impress with their sketchy Crossfire performance and most famously their ever "good/wtf you had the balls to release this crap?/bad/great" driver quality.. They're trying mantle now and TressFX.. IMO. Too little too late.. I'm found of my time with AMD products but I ran into too many instances were my problem was dubbed an "AMD issue".. I run the same games now plus a ton more and never have had an "Nvidia issue"..

 

[DPI]

TXAA looks great.

 

[polonyc2]

I gotta admit the game looks pretty amazing with all those Nvidia features enabled...the Caribbean island setting has that Far Cry 3 feel...the underwater stuff looks pretty impressive...AC3 seemed to have this blur filter constantly enabled which made things look grainy

 

[Derangel]

I gotta admit the game looks pretty amazing with all those Nvidia features enabled...the Caribbean island setting has that Far Cry 3 feel...the underwater stuff looks pretty impressive...AC3 seemed to have this blur filter constantly enabled which made things look grainy

Yeah. The game also sounds pretty good. I've been seeing people say that it is much better than 3.

 

[polonyc2]

Yeah. The game also sounds pretty good. I've been seeing people say that it is much better than 3.

I also hear the main character in Black Flag has much more personality then Connor from AC3...not quite as good as Ezio but better then Altair and Connor

 

[Derangel]

I also hear the main character in Black Flag has much more personality then Connor from AC3...not quite as good as Ezio but better then Altair and Connor

Well considering Altair and Connor were basically walking planks it's not hard to have more personality.

 

[Q-BZ]

Looking forward to this!

 

[Viper87227]

Got this for free from a friend who dropped a bundle on video cards and didn't want the games. I'm pretty stoked, as I was looking forward to this but didn't have the cash.

 

[chalmer9]

Got this for free from a friend who dropped a bundle on video cards and didn't want the games. I'm pretty stoked, as I was looking forward to this but didn't have the cash.

You don't own sixty dollars?

You have a freaking 73" television monitor...

 

[Viper87227]

You don't own sixty dollars?

You have a freaking 73" television monitor...

I lost my job recently, am moving across the country in two months, and am working on starting a business with my dad. Also, my wife is leaving soon to go spend a year in Afghanistan. Any spare cash I come across now is much better spent taking her out while I can. A year ago, when I bought the TV (and pretty much all the nice stuff in my sig - note that all of it is hardware over a year old), my life was a lot less complicated

 

[polonyc2]

I officially pre-ordered yesterday...bought the AC4 Nvidia game code for $15...steal of a price for what is being called GOTY material (based on the console reviews)...looks like Ubisoft didn't just mail it in this year and brought something new and exciting to the table...might be right up there with AC2 and Brotherhood...can't wait till the 19th!

 

[MorgothPl]

It's the best pirate game since Sid Meier's pirates. The plot is okay, but the whole sailing, fighting with ships of line in high waves, while your crew sing the shanties, is what makes the game superb... It's one of the games I just spent half an hour sailing from one side of the map to the other. Just because I could.

For me, it's best AC made, and Ed Kenway is even more interesting protagonist than Ezio. He adds the human touch to the all earlier "born and bred as assassin crowd".

Ubi's back in game.

 

[polonyc2]

It's the best pirate game since Sid Meier's pirates. The plot is okay, but the whole sailing, fighting with ships of line in high waves, while your crew sing the shanties, is what makes the game superb... It's one of the games I just spent half an hour sailing from one side of the map to the other. Just because I could.

For me, it's best AC made, and Ed Kenway is even more interesting protagonist than Ezio. He adds the human touch to the all earlier "born and bred as assassin crowd".

Ubi's back in game.

best AC game?...Kenway better then Ezio?...high praise!...can't wait to play in 2 weeks...so the side quests/sailing missions don't get repetitive or boring?

 

[MorgothPl]

best AC game?...Kenway better then Ezio?...high praise!...can't wait to play in 2 weeks...so the side quests/sailing missions don't get repetitive or boring?

Did you like Pirates!? Where you just chased from Barbados to Villa Hermosa, just to catch that treasure fleet and had to sail there? You will like AC... it's exactly like Sid's greatness, but with much better graphics and real boarding action.

You get changeable weather on the way, which you can avoid, as you see stormclouds over horizon and waves rising, also almost most of the map is aviable at launch (access to 2 islands is limited till like chapter 10), but if you sail your unapgraded ship into man'o'war or legendary ship, you will get your ass handed with just one salvo.

Sidequests like assasinations or missions for asassin's cantors are IMO more interesting than some of the missions in main plot. I like also treasure hunting - you get a map, with marked X, coordinates and a landmark painted, so you have to find the place.

Takes also some jumping skill to reach chests and fragments of animus, and sometimes some creative thinking in reaching the spots.

Oh, and you get whale/shark hunting with harpoon, hunting and skinning animals, and most fun for me - diving missions, where you jump down the bottom in diving bell and avoid sharks or medusas to reach the chests, while fighting with dropping oxygen meter.

For me, I love this game same as I loved Far Cry 3. It's my personal GOTY.

 

[KickAssCop]

This is fantastic. TXAA and PhysX in Batman makes a world of difference.

 

[Ryoohki360]

Ill preorder it next week, someone at ubisoft told me that the game should run great at 1080 on a 660ti so ...

 

[polonyc2]

Ill preorder it next week, someone at ubisoft told me that the game should run great at 1080 on a 660ti so ...

the system requirements are not demanding at all...

Minimum:

OS: Windows Vista SP or Windows 7 SP1 or Windows 8 (both 32/64bit versions)
Processor: Intel Core2Quad Q8400 @ 2.6 GHz or AMD Athlon II X4 620 @ 2.6 GHz
Memory: 2 GB RAM
Graphics: Nvidia Geforce GTX 260 or AMD Radeon HD 4870 (512MB VRAM with shader Model 4.0 or higher)
Hard Drive: 30 GB available space
Sound Card: DirectX Compatible Sound Card with latest drivers
Additional Notes: Windows-Compatible keyboard and mouse required, optional controller

Recommended:

OS: Windows Vista SP2 or Windows 7 SP1 or Windows 8 (both 32/64bit versions)
Processor: Intel Core i5 2400S @ 2.5 GHz or better or AMD Phenom II x4 940 @ 3.0 GHz
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 470 or AMD Radeon HD 5850 (1024MB VRAM with Shader Model 5.0) or better
Hard Drive: 30 GB available space
Sound Card: DirectX Compatible Sound Card with latest drivers
Additional Notes: Supported video cards at the time of release: nVidia GeForce GTX260 or better, GT400, GT500, GT600, GT700 series AMD Radeon HD4870 or better, HD5000, HD6000, HD7000 series Note: Latest GeForce drivers tested: 320.49 for all series Latest Radeon drivers tested: 13.1 for Radeon HD4000, 13.4 for Radeon HD5000 and above Laptop versions of these cards may work but are NOT officially supported.

 

[harmattan]

30GB HD space required? That's a huge game.

 

[Hacendado]

I just hope the y don't make a shitty -go there, do that, don't have any fun- like in AC3

 

[Viper87227]

I just hope the y don't make a shitty -go there, do that, don't have any fun- like in AC3

I was not a huge fan of AC3. The cities weren't interesting, the frontier was a pain in the ass to get around in, the "intro" to the game was waaaaay to long. Aside from the first game, which was incredibly repetitive, AC3 was definitely the low point of the series. Thankfully, many of the reviews I've read for AC4 agreed with these same points and noted that none of that crap is present in AC4. I'm getting the impression that Ubi did a much better job this time around.

 

[polonyc2]

I was not a huge fan of AC3. The cities weren't interesting, the frontier was a pain in the ass to get around in, the "intro" to the game was waaaaay to long. Aside from the first game, which was incredibly repetitive, AC3 was definitely the low point of the series. Thankfully, many of the reviews I've read for AC4 agreed with these same points and noted that none of that crap is present in AC4. I'm getting the impression that Ubi did a much better job this time around.

I think the main issue for me with AC3 was that Connor was just not an interesting lead character...his story progression was also not as well done as Ezio...Ezio had 3 games to develop but even just taking AC2 by itself was better...I did like the frontier and Revolutionary War settings of AC3 and their world building is always top notch but it sits somewhere between Revelations and AC1

 

[B!nd.]

The systems requirements for this game may not look demanding, but how does it run? AC3 was not demanding yet I had trouble staying over 60 frames.

 

[Q-BZ]

I think the main issue for me with AC3 was that Connor was just not an interesting lead character...his story progression was also not as well done as Ezio...Ezio had 3 games to develop but even just taking AC2 by itself was better...I did like the frontier and Revolutionary War settings of AC3 and their world building is always top notch but it sits somewhere between Revelations and AC1

You nailed it although I thought AC3 was an awesome game. I just didn't give a rats' rear end about Connor.

 

[Deleted member 232162]

You nailed it although I thought AC3 was an awesome game. I just didn't give a rats' rear end about Connor.

I was rather indifferent, but I really liked the whole tomahawk and bow/arrow thing...it was just epic in a way, to me at least.

I'm beyond excited for AC4, especially that I'm getting it free with my video card, which is a nice bonus, haha.

Also, how are you??

 

[piratepress]

So, is this about a game or an American hardcore punk band? Is the next one going to be called "Assassin's Creed 5: Motley Crue"?

 

[RanceJustice]

I'm seeing quite a few people selling Nvidia keys for AC4 and I'm tempted to pick it up at a good price, but I'm a bit worried that it will lack a lot of content compared to what comes in the Gold Edition, besides just the Season Pass. It was nice that they offered the Splinter Cell Deluxe Edition as part of the promo, but it doesnt' seem they're doing the same for the AC4 Gold.

Does anyone know of perhaps a coupon or something for AC4 Gold perhaps? I'd prefer the Steam version, but that may be impossible.

 

[Q-BZ]

I was rather indifferent, but I really liked the whole tomahawk and bow/arrow thing...it was just epic in a way, to me at least.

Same here.

I'm beyond excited for AC4, especially that I'm getting it free with my video card, which is a nice bonus, haha.

Nice. I just finished some upgrades myself.

Also, how are you??

Been busy but chillin'. Hope all's well with you.

 

[styckx]

I think the main issue for me with AC3 was that Connor was just not an interesting lead character...his story progression was also not as well done as Ezio...Ezio had 3 games to develop but even just taking AC2 by itself was better...I did like the frontier and Revolutionary War settings of AC3 and their world building is always top notch but it sits somewhere between Revelations and AC1

Completely agree. When I first started playing AC3 I read none of the backstory about it. I went into the game with a blank mind. So when in the beginning when you were playing as Haytham I was like "I dig this character! Tons of personality and a badass!" I was starting to get sucked into it and then BAM.. You're boring Connor. If it wasn't for the supporting cast of characters, storyline and excellent gameplay Connor could have killed that game..

The only other weakness was the near useless trading system. There was never a reason to trade lower quality items. Once you opened up the Bear and Beaver pelts you just constantly load out your convoys and send them all to New York constantly. I probably traded 1% of the available items. I say "near" useless because it was useful to make quick coin but just ashame so much of it was wasted and useless.

 

[Domingo]

AC3's biggest performance problems were the DX steam and smoke effects. If they can optimize those effects, performance should improve a lot.

 

[styckx]

AC3's biggest performance problems were the DX steam and smoke effects. If they can optimize those effects, performance should improve a lot.

My only performance problems always involved running through deep snow.. Everything else was fine.. Soon as I hit shin deep snow pack you could feel the game engine struggling to cope with it.

 

[polonyc2]

I'm seeing quite a few people selling Nvidia keys for AC4 and I'm tempted to pick it up at a good price, but I'm a bit worried that it will lack a lot of content compared to what comes in the Gold Edition, besides just the Season Pass. It was nice that they offered the Splinter Cell Deluxe Edition as part of the promo, but it doesnt' seem they're doing the same for the AC4 Gold.

Does anyone know of perhaps a coupon or something for AC4 Gold perhaps? I'd prefer the Steam version, but that may be impossible.

I paid $15 for the Nvidia AC4 code from an [H] member so I'm happy with the standard edition...I only care about the SP content and looking at the Season/Gold Pass, it all looks to be mostly multiplayer content with some weapon/ship unlocks...the only substantial SP content (3+ additional hours of gameplay according to Ubisoft) looks to be the one titled 'Freedom Cry' and deals with the slave turned assassin Adewale

I bought the AC3 Season Pass and have yet to play the 3-part 'Tyranny of King Washington' DLC...AC3 was still a very good game but just not the same quality as AC2 and Brotherhood (but I'm an admitted AC fan boy)...I loved the hunting mechanics and thought it was implemented really well even though it was pretty useless in the game itself...the trading/caravan thing was boring

*the AC4 codes look to be selling in the Classifieds section for around $15-$20 which is a steal for the game

 

[Q-BZ]

Completely agree. When I first started playing AC3 I read none of the backstory about it. I went into the game with a blank mind. So when in the beginning when you were playing as Haytham I was like "I dig this character! Tons of personality and a badass!" I was starting to get sucked into it and then BAM.. You're boring Connor. If it wasn't for the supporting cast of characters, storyline and excellent gameplay Connor could have killed that game..

I came at it with more knowledge than you did and that was still my reaction as well.

The game would have been much more compelling with a strong and ambivalent character like Haytham.

The only other weakness was the near useless trading system. There was never a reason to trade lower quality items. Once you opened up the Bear and Beaver pelts you just constantly load out your convoys and send them all to New York constantly. I probably traded 1% of the available items. I say "near" useless because it was useful to make quick coin but just ashame so much of it was wasted and useless.

I barely bothered with any of that.

 

[Derangel]

I came at it with more knowledge than you did and that was still my reaction as well.

The game would have been much more compelling with a strong and ambivalent character like Haytham.

I really hated what they did with Haytham and the Templars once you got control of Conner. All of a sudden they became huge douchebags, even though it seemed totally against who they were before.

 

[styckx]

I really hated what they did with Haytham and the Templars once you got control of Conner. All of a sudden they became huge douchebags, even though it seemed totally against who they were before.

Thank you! I thought I was the only one who thought this.. Once I got control of Connor and the story unfolded I was completely confused.. In the beginning Haytham and the Templars are portrayed as stealthy, badass antiheros. Then for reasons I still can't figure out are actually gigantic assholes.. Luckily it happened so early in the game I forgot about it.

 

[polonyc2]

I really hated what they did with Haytham and the Templars once you got control of Conner. All of a sudden they became huge douchebags, even though it seemed totally against who they were before.

I loved that twist!...making them Templars was a brilliant move and was the best part of the story...the AC games all follow a similar roadmap but this one went against the grain and was original

 

[Derangel]

I loved that twist!...making them Templars was a brilliant move and was the best part of the story...the AC games all follow a similar roadmap but this one went against the grain and was original

The twist was great, the problem is that after the twist they completely changed the character's personalities. Despite being a series where you play a guy that kills other people in cold blood there is surprisingly little room for grey area. All Templars are evil bastards and all Assassins are good guys trying to do the best for the world. Except when you are playing as a Templar, but as soon as you aren't they turn into stereotypical villains.

 

[polonyc2]

The twist was great, the problem is that after the twist they completely changed the character's personalities. Despite being a series where you play a guy that kills other people in cold blood there is surprisingly little room for grey area. All Templars are evil bastards and all Assassins are good guys trying to do the best for the world. Except when you are playing as a Templar, but as soon as you aren't they turn into stereotypical villains.

they were always villians even when you are playing them as the hero...you just don't know the context of any of their actions in the beginning so you assume they are the good guys...that's what made the twist so brilliant...if you re-play the beginning after you know the twist it still makes sense and you can see them as bad guys