Added: 27.07.2015 22:09 | 9 views | 0 comments

Warfare on the Water

The 7 Year’s War took place in the mid-18th century, at the height of guns, germs and steel warfare. During battles at sea, soldiers would use oil to burn their enemy’s ships, as featured in Assassin’s Creed Rogue. (Photo: Ubisoft)

History of Architecture

In Brotherhood, Leonardo DaVinci wants to build a single-span bridge across the Golden Horn (now in Istanbul) in the early 1500s. In real life, he wanted to do that too. This was the longest bridge of its kind to be proposed at the time. (Photo: Ubisoft)

Pope Problems

During the Renaissance in Rome, Pope Sixtus V tried to renovate the Colosseum and turn it into a wool factory, mainly to give Rome’s prostitutes an honest living. Sadly, he died before it could happen. This historical fact is integrated into Assassin’s Creed II. (Photo: Ubisoft)

Founding Father

We all know Benjamin Franklin as one of America’s greatest inventors, but did you know he came up with something called an electrified gun? It’s known as the TASER’s predecessor. While this specific model isn’t used in Rogue, Franklin is shown giving a ‘modified’ gun to Rogue’s main character. (Photo: Ubisoft)

Art Imitating Life

Unity, which takes place during the gruesome French Revolution, includes the story of radical journalist Jean Paul Marat. Marat was famously murdered in his bathtub by the young Charlotte Corday, who was on the opposing side of the revolution. Marat’s real dead body was creepily painted postmortem, becoming the famously controversial painting, “The Death of Marat.”

Machiavellianism

Niccolo Machiavelli, famous author of classic “The Prince,” is depicted in Brotherhood pretty accurately: not only as a political activist, philosopher and military man, but also as a scheming adversary to the Borgia family. In reality, Machiavelli was Cesare Borgia’s advisor. Machiavelli admired his master, but also saw and exploited his weaknesses. (Photo: Ubisoft)

In Assassin’s Creed III, American revolutionary Israel Putnam is accurately portrayed as a poor war strategist and tactician. In the game, he works with assassin Conner on a few missions, but they always result in heavy casualties. Putnam is famous for the quote, “Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes,” shouted at The Battle of Bunker Hill. (Photo: Ubisoft)

Blackbeard’s Rival

In Assassin’s Creed IV, otherwise known as the ‘pirate’ game, Blackbeard (Edward Thatch) fights Robert Maynard in an epic sword fight during a ship battle. Blackbeard was badly injured from the incident, enduring many bullet and sword wounds. In real life, Blackbeard was in fact killed by a group led by Maynard. (Photo: Ubisoft)

Parisian Legends

In Unity, an accurate historical legend of the Little Red Man of the Tuileries is integrated into the story. According to the legend, a homeowner was killed in the garden of Tuileries and swore he would come back to haunt the grounds forever. This is a myth people mainly only know about in Paris, but now, thanks to Assassin’s Creed, so do we. (Photo: Ubisoft)

Have Gun, Will Travel

Syndicate takes place during London’s Industrial Revolution. There were three primary modes of transportation back then: the steam train, the riverboat and the horse-drawn carriage. Oh, and of course, a rope, if you’re an assassin who climbs rooftops. (Photo: Ubisoft)

Added: 27.07.2015 13:00 | 8 views | 0 comments


Introducing the sharpshooter, XCOM 2's sniper with a twist.

Added: 27.07.2015 13:00 | 6 views | 0 comments

In the world of XCOM, much has changed by the time

Can you share a moment when using the sharpshooter in particular where your plan came together in a memorable way?

That stuff happens all the time. We have a weapon upgrade system that we've just talked about super high level. Now, you can actually modify your weapons back at base with these specific attachments. You can find something on the battlefield. It's a tangible item. Then you bring it back. You have to do some research with your scientists, just in pure XCOM fashion, to be able to have the capability to do this. Once you do, you can customize your weapons to your heart's delight, not just how they look, but then also how they behave.

With the sharpshooter, you can use things like expanded magazines, which implies more ammo. You have more ammo capacity, and there's other attachment points. I've used expanded magazines and autoloaders, which is basically free reload. Then when you combine that with something like Death From Above, and basically the equivalent of something like Double Tap from Enemy Unknown, where you're chaining these abilities together, then you get a sense that you can get those moments of these awesome kill streaks closer to mid-game if you choose to focus on that rather than other tech. That sort of stuff, I wasn't expecting with the weapon upgrade system, but it's been pretty pleasing to play with.

Come back to GameSpot tomorrow (5amPT, July 28 2015) for another XCOM 2 exclusive class reveal.