Added: 14.01.2014 13:59 | 4 views | 0 comments


Aveline de Grandpré is no stranger to PlayStation Assassins. Making her debut as the first playable female Assassin on PS Vita a little over a year ago, Aveline has quickly grown to be one of the most popular and praised Assassins in the series. She even took on a few missions on the PS3 and PS4 versions of Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag (And if you haven’t played those yet, be sure to download them for free from the AC4 main menu!).

Added: 14.01.2014 1:31 | 11 views | 0 comments


Once more with feeling. Ubisoft cranks out a brand-new Assassin’s Creed game once a year. I should know. I’ve played every single Assassin’s Creed to date, blazing a trail of silently stabbed corpses in marathon play sessions, hungrily gobbling up every twist and turn in the franchise’s convoluted narrative. I was there with a pre-order receipt when the series kicked off under Patrice DeÄ‚Ĺ‚silets, who left for THQ which got bought by Ubisoft, who eventually Patrice all over again. I was there when Kristin Bell got written out of the franchise on a cliffhanger ending. I was there when a multiplayer mode that no one wanted turned out to be pretty damn good. Being the diehard ’s season pass, Freedom Cry, offers enough new gameplay while retaining a lot of what made the main game so good. Ubisoft also smartly dodges the overarching narrative in favor of AdeÄ‚Ĺ‚waleó’s dedicated tale. And what a tale it is. Being a freed slave himself, AdeÄ‚Ĺ‚waleÄ‚Ĺ‚ wastes no time in charting a course for liberty and freedom for his fellow man. On the way, he equips himself with a few brand-new weapons, including a crowd-clearing, shotgun-styled Blunderbuss and a quick and nasty machete. These weapons go a long way in attacking and liberating plantations, one of my favorite new gameplay loops. Players can launch full-blown and bloody assaults or they can treat these as stealth missions where any single set-off alarm can cost dozens of valuable human lives. If players make too much noise on a plantation, the enemies there will start to execute remaining slaves which plays heavily to the narrative motivations I had as AdeÄ‚Ĺ‚waleÄ‚Ĺ‚, but also to the completionist in every gamer as rewards and upgrades get tied directly to the number of slaves freed. Ultimately, plantations and slave-trading centers will only accomplish so much. Utilizing high-seas combat abilities in Freedom Cry’s open waters will net a lot more freedom a lot faster. AdeÄ‚Ĺ‚waleó’s high-seas adventure feels a lot more high-stakes than Kenway's did in , but this is primarily thanks to the way combat draws a fine line between liberating and sinking ships carrying large numbers of slaves to traders in the region. AdeÄ‚Ĺ‚waleÄ‚Ĺ‚ has to eliminate the slave ship’s escorts before boarding and freeing the slaves themselves. Lining up shots that don’t have a chance of connecting with precious cargo gets harder and harder, but that’s exactly what I hoped for after finishing the main game. Combat, stealth, looting, and naval battle mechanics have changed just enough to keep things interesting while retaining accessibility. That said, the story missions can feel a little too similar to those Edward did in the main game—pursuit missions, assassination missions, eavesdropping on targets. The story will only last about four hours, meaning similar objectives won’t keep players from enjoying the emergent gameplay present in Assassin’s Creed’s constantly expanding worlds. In the end, gamers will enjoy Freedom Cry as much as they did Black Flag, assuming they enjoyed mixing sea-legs and sandy-shore excursions. Some moments might leave players feeling like the lives they save serve only to tally up towards a new ship upgrade or a new weapon, deflating the narrative power behind play, especially play as heavy-handed and emotionally powerful as a slave freeing other slaves. Still, fans who've been with the franchise and have played enough of Black Flag to consider buying the season pass will know what to expect from Freedom Cry. AdeÄ‚Ĺ‚waleÄ‚Ĺ‚ has his moments, but the real draw here is in the expansion of free-form gameplay both on land and at sea, meaning Freedom Cry succeeds at what it set out to do. Code provided by publisher. Review based on PS4 version. Also available on PC, XONE, PS3, and X360.

Added: 14.01.2014 1:16 | 18 views | 0 comments


EA remain at No1 with a 7th week for FIFA 14 (-32%) - the last 4 weeks consecutively. Activision Blizzard remain at No2 with Call of Duty: Ghosts (-41%) and 4 consecutive weeks behind FIFA 14. EAs Battlefield 4 is No3 (-48%), swapping places with Ubisofts Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag at No4 (-52%). Sonys PS4 Killzone: Shadow Fall climbs 13 places back into the Top 10 at No8 (+63%) as PS4 hardware stock hits retail, whilst Segas Aliens: Colonial Marines (-14%) climbs 5 places to No10 as the average price on all versions drops below £5. Deep Silver/Kochs Dead Island: Riptide re-enters at No16 (+76%) due to strong price promotion and Rockstar/Take 2s Max Payne 3 climbs 12 places to No21 (-7%) for the same reasons.

Added: 13.01.2014 20:16 | 9 views | 0 comments


BenchmarkReviews.com: Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag is powered by a wide range of NVIDIA technologies that allow it to deliver striking graphics and an exhilarating gaming experience. In addition to using long-standing NVIDIA technologies like FXAA and TXAA to improve image quality, it also leverages newer technologies like NVIDIA HBAO+, God Rays, and Percentage-Closer Soft Shadows (PCSS) to enhance the games overall atmosphere. Combined with rich object detail and being the first game to ever launch with 4K textures, Assassins Creed IV Black Flag takes advantage of the best graphics technologies and architectural features available in GeForce GTX 700-series graphics cards.

Added: 13.01.2014 15:36 | 5 views | 0 comments


Next-gen blood and plunder

Added: 13.01.2014 15:19 | 9 views | 0 comments


El33tonline writes: "Last weeks status quo remains this week on Chart Tracks UK Software Sales listing with FIFA 14 (sales down 32%) and Call of Duty: Ghosts (sales down 41%) once again at No. 1 and No. 2 respectively, but Battlefield 4 (sales down 48%) swaps places with Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag (sales down 52%) putting the former at No. 3, and the latter at No. 4."

Added: 12.01.2014 20:20 | 3 views | 0 comments


Over the years, the Assassins Creed franchise has been tumbling down a road of mediocrity since its peak in Assassins Creed II. Lucky for us, the franchise has managed to correct its mistakes with Black Flag, and remind everyone what the Assassins Creed franchise is all about.

Added: 12.01.2014 16:16 | 2 views | 0 comments


Over the years, the Assassins Creed franchise has been tumbling down a road of mediocrity since its peak in Assassins Creed II. Lucky for us, the franchise has managed to correct its mistakes with Black Flag, and remind everyone what the Assassins Creed franchise is all about.