Topic: assassins creed shadows amazon preorder cancled and refunded

@Ravix the moment ubi made an AC prior to the Assassins being a thing… well all bets are off. They could make a bloody Neanderthal game that has extremely loose roots that feed through to the Assassins being a thing now 🤣

@PorkChopExpress I think you can choose either for most missions. I'm most intrigued about the story of Japan being told from another perspective, something people can't wrap their heads around as being a thing, despite it being common in some of the best films and tv ever made. It is clearly going to be set up that Yasuke is all about living for and supporting the culture he has adopted (potentially stubbornly and blindly, up to a point), whilst Naoe has become disillusioned with how that same culture is a breeding ground for corruption and persecution, whilst the population suffers under the control of "whatever the game's templars/cultists are"

And to me that seems like the most interesting the series has been for a long time, and has potential for actual genuine depth and nuance 😱

@colonelkilgore but neanderthals were real, to be fair 😅 I think they handled Origins pretty well anyway, despite the cult element getting incredibly annoying by Valhalla.

I think a more global AC game could work, as long as it's not too much like Watch Dogs 3. But having multiple Assassin's spread out over multiple locales over a period where a lot was going on would be interesting. The crusades, perhaps.

And have they ever assassinated a pope in a game? That could make for some fun headlines 😂😂😂😬😬😬

@Ravix Lee was one of the leading members of the Churchill’s guerrilla group recently depicted in Ritchie’s Ungentelmanly Warfare film, where Fleming was more of an advisor than a combatant. I think you’re probably right in Bond being an amalgamation of real-life sources though.

edit. wrong thread… that’ll teach me to post while shopping 😅

@Ravix since when has real stopped them… the Odyssey dlcs were as fantastical as it gets… and the best parts of the game as a result.

@Ravix I didn't know about the story approaches of each character as you state. That just ups my excitement. It's clear Ubisoft are putting a lot into this, not that they haven't before, but this just feels kind of "more" somehow. Even though many keyboard warriors has gotten themselves upset with Assassins Creed and Ubisoft, the Japanese setting is something people have been asking for, well, forever, so Ubisoft have had a long time time to assemble it and present the tale how they want. I'm hoping for some Tenchu nostalgia with Naoe's gameplay, though I may find Yasuke's story perhaps more interesting, as I did enjoy his series on Netflix and would like to learn Ubisoft's interpretation. I have no problem waiting for sales and usually only pre-order maybe 2 or 3 games a year, but as an AC fan since Altair, and my excitement of the long wanted Japanese setting, this may be one of them!

@Ravix I thought Hexe was going to be like a networked MMO style Assassins Creed that covered the world and different timelines.... or maybe it was a multiplayer thing of some kind, like Brotherhood perhaps? I think I'm partially dreaming, partially guessing, and have no idea what I'm on about. It sounds good, though!

I think I'll play the upcoming Ghost of Yotei instead.

@colonelkilgore yeah, I was pondering it in the shower haha. Would King Arthur have to be an Isu if used? But then it's a case of people writing about it 500 years later, or whatever, and that is a hell of a long time. So at the time, was there much of a legend at all, or was it just general romanticising of a past era? The reality would just have to be some warrior and an old bloke who acted like a seer or made herbal remedies and thus was seen as having some ability over nature. And as for knights the first use of Knights in Britain was probably 1066. And then around the time Arthurian legend was written/expanded upon, it is more what the state of the world was at that time, but in the past, it was nothing like that. So it's a bit like writing a book about the Tudors now, but everyone had mobile phones and rode electric bikes and Henry VIII ordered Uber Eats and blocked his wives on Instagram... which maybe that has legs for a game of it's own 😂

I know the fantastical stuff is included in the games, but it can be explained away by the in-universe gods, being depicted as other things by mere mortals. So the Greek Gods, Norse Gods etc were just the Isu, right? It's that much of a mindf*** that I'm never actually that sure what the heck is going on in AC games thoigh, tbh. It doesn't help that Black Flag was the first that I'd played myself.

The way they depicted Black Beard was great in that game. But I can't see a whole game hinged on Arthurian legend fitting in quite the same as the (explainable) cameos like this, in other games.

Now, if it was a mushroom binge DLC for Valhalla, maybe it would work.

But I think the basis for any AC game has to be - real historical setting - shoehorn in some Isu via mythical figures and a sprinkle of real historical figure cameos, but exaggerated versions of them to make it fun. And that's about it 😅

@PorkChopExpress I think Hexe was an expansion of witches, perhaps. And there was some mega animus Desmond flavoured multiverse something or other. I don't know. It is genuinely hard to keep up with AC, which is why I quite like the ones that mostly stay in their historical setting 😅

@Ravix I was thinking more that Merlin would be the last Isu and is trying to rebirth civilisation after a post-apocalyptic (for the Isu anyway) ‘Dark Age’, through the grooming of Arthur to lead the renaissance. It’s all silly conjecture though, as it’s never gonna happen.

@colonelkilgore pitch it to them 😅

I'm not that big into Arthurian Legend so I can't really equate it that well to how it would work.

Is there anything you recommend that would convert someone to enjoying arthurian legend? Because I just find real history more fascinating than made up history, but, you never know, I could convert 😅

@Ravix not really… I think you’re either into mythology or you’re not. Personally, I can’t get enough of it, be it Greek, Norse, Mesoamerican… whatever, I love it. While it isn’t factual history, I think it gives a massive insight into human psychology. Sure Freud was able to analyse our psychology from a post-industrial age but mythology exposes humanity’s inner workings at a base level when we were still trying to establish ourselves as the dominant life on the planet.

edit. if you are intent on trying some Arthur though, you could do a lot worse than John Boorman’s Excalibur. Probably my favourite example of Arthurian myth.

@colonelkilgore yeah, maybe that is true. I don't think I mind Greek or Norse mythology though, but not to great levels, more as a side to the actual thing that interests me, which is the history, so the Pelopenesian wars were fascinating, for example. Saxon Britain and Danelaw also really interesting. Which is why Odyssey and Valhalla really tickled my fancy. In some ways they will go hand in hand, and like you say, speak about the people of those times. You can't look at those historical times and not also appreciate the different beliefs of those times.

It's funny really, because I do love full on fantasy. So maybe there is some scope to learn a little about Arthurian Legend and enjoy it. I think maybe it's the way mythology feels presented to me, and possibly it's similarities to religion. When lessons and myth try to share a similar space to actual history and facts it maybe rubs me the wrong way, possibly because of how people have historically used these things to control and oppress people and hoard money 😅

I mean, Norse mythology was the base of the religion in itself, until it died out and became just the mythology aspect, right? And that is a lot more palatable when people aren't currently stating it as something they must live and die by.

So maybe there is space for a little Arthurian Legend seeing as it never really became a religious belief, paired with some actual dark ages history. I mean, from a Roman point of view they were all just unruly animals and civilisation was pretty much dead before they arrived and after they left, all powerful as they were. But after the Romans left Britain, warring factions basically evolved into feudalism and that became the norm for a great chunk of history in the middle ages and is what the Holy Roman empire thrived off 😅

@Ravix yeah if you like fantasy, myth should definitely be right up your alley for sure. Tolkien’s model for fantasy draws heavily on myth… Norse in particular but I see Arthurian myth in there, Greek, Egyptian… even Old Testament.

Definitely give Excalibur a go… and then other films depicting mythology which forged my fascination with it would be the 80’s Clash of the Titans, The Neverending Story and anything that Ray Harryhausen laid his filthy mitts on.

@colonelkilgore yeah, Sapkowski is very much the same, as well as drawing on Tolkien, I think he really must have loved Arthurian Legend as it is ingrained throughout, culminating in the final Novel (The Lady of the Lake... 😅) I don't know if you've read the Witcher books, but I bet you could pick out scores of the influences, I mean even I noticed it and that was with my natural aversion to them. And the way he ties it all in is actually really quite cool and would probably make people who like the Legends grin. In fact, it's making me want to read all the books again, or listen to the audiobooks at the very least (praise Peter Kenny who makes them actually good to listen to)

So maybe if I do get stuck back into my Witcher collection it will entice me to a little sprinkling of Arthurian Legend on the side

@Ravix hmmm that definitely tempts me into getting into the Witcher books. I did like the world of The Witcher 3, even if I found the actual gameplay a bit boring. I liked the first couple of seasons of the tv show too. I’ll definitely consider them 👍