The update launches June 25 at 7am PT / 10am ET / 3pm BST, as Ubisoft details in a new , and depending on your platform of choice you might wanna budget a little extra time to download it. On PS5, the update🙈 is 6.27GB, and that size grows progressively bigger through various PC v♛ersions up to the Xbox Series X/S edition at a whopping 19GB.

Some chunk of that download will be dedicat💜ed to a new crossover story quest called A Critical Encounter, where you'll meet Robbie Daymond's character Rufino from Critical Role's Assassin's Creed Shadows one-shot. Daymond will in Shadows, adding a little extra authenticity to the collab. Shadows' earlier crossover with Dead by Daylight seemed to be broadly well received, so here's hoping the C♈ritical Role crossover is of similar quality.

The other headline addition here is the new nightmare difficulty setting, which sounds like it's living up to the billing. Enemies deal more damage, parry timing is far narrower, and "enemy AI is smarter, faster, and more aggressiꦦve in a varie𝔉ty of circumstances." The difficulty boost applies to stealth, too, and you'll now be in danger of being heard even while crouching as Naoe.

There are a bunch of other nice little changes, including the option to show - not hide - your headgear in cutscenes, and alter visual effects like parry indicators and the like to customize wh🐠at gets overlaid in-game. The biggest gameplay change is a new open-world alarm system, which will put you at risk of triggering a regional alert for "repetitively attacking Civilians or Military units outside Castles."

And one more extra bonus for PC players trying to make this open-world opus work on potato-level rigs: an ultra-low spec mode. "This will allow PC players with a limited GPU configuration to experience the game in better framerate conditions," Ubisoft explains. Shadows is likely still going to be very demanding at a CPU lඣevel, but at least you'll be able to squeeze out a few more frames if you're rocking an older𒅌 graphics card.

Sneak into our list of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Assassin's Creed games.

Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle was the first major third-party exclusive to hit ꦅthe original Nintendo Switch, and ended up with by its fifth anniversary. Naturally this led to a sequel being developed with Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope, which was branded as a bit of a sales disappointment by Ubisoft (with its CEO saying it ).

In the years following Sparks of Hope, Mario + Rabbids series director 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Davide Soliani left Ubisoft after a 25-year run, and co-founded Day 4 Night. Meanwhile, the studio behind the games – Ubisoft Milan – has started posting job listings for staff to work on a "prestigious AAA title for the Rayman brand." However, acco෴rding to The Game Business co-founder Christopher Dring, Ubisoft Milan was seemingly more than ready to continue Mario + Rabbids despite the sales disappointment.

Speaking on , Dringꦓ noted that the Mario + Rabbids team have mostly disbanded, but said, "I know they had pitched another title that didn't get approved." He adds, "I don't know why but it just never happened, which was again, I thꦚink, tied to Nintendo."

It's unclear whether Dring means that the title was turned down by Nintendo, or Ubisoft didn't want to make a title in collaboration with them, but that probably explains why a number of members of🧜 the Mario + Rabbids team left alongside Soliani.

It's worth noting that Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope's final DLC was themed around Rayman, so perhaps Ubisoft Milan's new title is a new Mario + Rabbids-style game, but with Rayman taking the starring role from Mario.

Mario + Rabbids composer Grant Kirkhope澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询: was surprised to hear some of his music is making an appearance in 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Donkey Kong Bananza.

In this guide, we'll explo♒re whether cr✨ossplay in Rainbow Six Siege X is available and everything else that you need to know to help you enjoy the game to your utmost. Read on and let's get started!

Want to know what we thought about the big RSS overhaul? Then check out our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Rainbow Six Siege X review to see why we deemed it "Bigger, better, and more user friendly than it's ever been" and "it's the perfect time to dive in."

Is Rainbow Six Siege X crossplay available?

The answer is yes! Rainbow Six Siege X supports crossplay, making the process of playing wi𝐆th your PC or console friends easy. Every supported platform can benefit from crossplay, and it's actually turned on by default for PC players and cannot be turned off, but can be tweaked.

It isn't for conso🅘le players, however, presumably due to the age-old advantage that PC players have thanks to mouse aiming. If you want to turn it on, or indeed turn it off, we've included that inform♍ation in our guide below.

How to turn on crossplay in Rainbow Six Siege X on console🧔s

To enable 🦩Rainbow 🤡Six Siege X crossplay on PlayStation and Xbox, this is the process to follow:

• Boot up the game and go to the Options menu
• Find the 'General' tab
• Enable/disable the setting marked 'Crossplay Matchmaking'
• If playing on Xbox, you can also set crossplay settings in your console's settings under 'Account' > 'Privacy & online safety' > 'Xbox privacy' > 'View details and customize' > 'Communication & multiplayer'

PC crossplay settings in Rainbow Six Siege X

As noted before, crossplay is locked to enabled on PC, with no option to turn it off. However, there is a crossplay setting that you can still tinker with. If you'd prefer not to communicate with players on other systems for any reason, you can disable crossplay communication. T🍬o do this, follow these steps:

• Boot up the game and load into the Options menu
• Select the 'General' tab
• Scroll down to the very bottom and enable/disable 'crossplay communication'

Note that ꧃to disable this setting, you will need to disable the 'Text & Voice Chat' setting as a global setting in 𝐆your Ubisoft account.

Is there cross🌳-progression in Rainbow Six Siege X?

Not only is crossplay a key feature of Rainbow Six Siege X, but it also supports cross-progression. If you unlock a cool operator on PS5, for example, you will also unlock it on PC and on Xbox. The o🔜nly key consideration to keep in mind is ensuring that your various accou🤪nts across different platforms are all linked to the same Ubisoft account.

By now, you should know everything that there is to know about crossplay in Rainbow Six Siege X. It's present across all platforms, whether it's enabled or disabled by default, as is cross-progression, so long as your accounts are linked to the same Ubisoft account. If this guide is helpful, why not also check out our guide to the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Rainbow Six Siege👍 X Operators for beginners? Happy Sieging!

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Where are the dreamers, I hear you ask? We're right here, arranging our candles into summoning circles and tending to the innermost wishes of our very soul. No, these aren't the likeliest games to surface from our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Summer Game Fest schedule 2025, but they're the ones from♏ which hope springs eternal. Without that, what would we have? Well, we'd have Silksong, but that's beside the po♕int.

Below, the true believers of our team have gathered to pin their wildest hopes and dreams on this week's slate of showcases. If there's something you'🌳re desperate for, join usꦬ in trying to manifest it – disappointment is temporary, but the bragging rights from a truly left-field prediction coming true last forever.

The Elder Scrolls 6

Valkyria Chronicles remasters

The Wolf Among Us 2

The Witcher 4 gameplay

Banjo Threeie

A new Animal Crossing

More Castlevania

Persona 4 Remake

A Haze remake

Resident Evil 9

Haunted Chocolatier

Resident Evil – Code: Veronica remake

For a more grounded glimpse into the future, our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:new games 2025 list outlines everything we know is on the way

My guess as to why we might not be getting a Ubisoft Forward this year? Simply that Ubisoft doesn't have enough showable content to pad out an hour-long program. It's only just given us 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows, after all, and with plenty of new content scheduled to come to the RPG as detailed in a 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:recent roadmap, it makes sense that Ubisoft doesn't want to divert our attention from Naoe and Yasuke just yet.

But Ubisoft has been moving strangely in these pivotal days leading up to Summer Game Fest, and as an official partner of this weekend's LA festivities, I'm reluctant to believe that it has nothing in store…

Buying time

2025 has been a busy one for Ubisoft. Not only did Assassin's Creed Shadows finally launch after being delayed twice, the publisher recently 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:announced a partnership with Chinese conglomerate Tencent.

The details around the deal are still somewhat hazy, but this partnership essentially crဣeates a dedicated "mini-Ubisoft" that will be handling some of the publisher's biggest IPs in future. As a result, the assumed lack of Ubisoft Forward this year is indicative to me that Ubisoft is trying to lay low until it's ready to tell us exactly what that means for named franchises like Far Cry.

However, you can't blame me or any fellow Ubisoft fans for getting a little antsy. The list of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Ubisoft games is looking sparse now that Assassin's Creed Shadows is out in the wild, and when the new Rainbow Six Siege game launches a few days from now on June 10, it'll be shorter still.

But still, that's not to say there's nothing in the tank. I get wanting to keep Shadows in the spotlight (pun intended) a little longer, given it barely launched two months ago, but Ubisoft would be missing a trick if it neglects to sꩵhow off Anno 117: Pax ෴Romana at Summer Game Fest this weekend.

The upcoming latest in one of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best city builder game franchises is currently slated for a "Winter 2025" release🀅, but Ubisoft has yet to put a firm date on it.

Even a quick showing of the latest gameplay trailer would be useful to show fans that Ubisoft hasn't gone to ground completely, especially since it debuted said new trailer on two weeks ago and I'd somehow never caught wind of it until, well, literally just now. There's also the mystery-enshrouded Prince of Persia: Sands of Time remake on the cards, first announced in 2020, as well as 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed: Codename Hexe and a huge question mark hanging over a prospective 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Far Cry 6 sequel – but now I'm getting greedy.

While I'd call it highly unlikely that Ubisoft's witchy follow-up to Assassin's Creed Shadows will get more than a mention (if anything at all) this weekend, the publisher has nodded to a different upcoming project in the lead-up to Summer Game Fest.

I'm talking about the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:cheeky Splinter Cell Remake tease that had fans thrown into a frenzy days ago, and now, it would almost be cruel to have us come away with nothing. Personally, I think this would be great to see during Sunday's 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Games Showcase – though with a 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:last-minute summer editio💮n of Sony State of Play now schedul🥂ed for𒆙 June 4, it's anyone's guess what Ubi has up its sleeve.

Sure, Sony might have proven that there's no such thing as being too late to the Summer Gꦦame Fest party, but I'm still not expecting to see Ubisoft Forward announced anytime soon. Even without a dedicated showcase to gather all its ducks in a row, however, Ubisoft has the chance to still make a statement this weekend. Whether it chooses to illuminate some announced titles, go into more detail on the Assassin's Creed Shadows roadmap, or playfully tease us with an assortment of the two, I'll be keeping a beady eye out for the publisher's presence – and hopefully next year, Ubisoft Forward will be back on schedule.

Don't miss the Future Games Show Summer Showcase on June 7, hosted by the one and only Matt Mercer

First reported by , citing featuring a clip from a PureArts livestream that has seemingly been deleted (I couldn't find it in any of the store's YouTube or Twitch vods), PureArts staff members suggested there's something 🏅going on with Black Flag protagonist Edward.

Addressing viewers asking why Edward hadn't yet been featured in the store's new Anim⭕us Assassin's Creed line, PureArts staff said: "Assassin's Creed fans out there, you should be aware that there is something going on with Edward."

At this poi♚nt, 🐠the stream's co-host asks, "Has that been announced?"

Our apparently unwi🌄tting leaker replies: "I think so. I'm pretty sure I saw rumors about it. No, I defi▨nitely saw an article about it."

"There's going to be somꦡething going on with Edward," they add, "and our PVC 1/8 scale statue will reflect that accordingly."

PureArts d꧟oes notably have , but they're made of polyresin, not PVC. They're also 1/4 scale, not 1/8. The store specifically calls out PVC as a material when it's used, which supports the claim that♔ PVC Edward is still to come.

This is certainly short of jumping on the table and🐠 shouting 'Black Flag remake confirmed,' but it's probably the firmest leak we've gotten. The fact that this stream has – again, as far as I can tell – vanished from PureArts' channels also suggests that somebody from Ub🍒isoft may have given them a ring to say it had not, in fact, been announced.

Ubisoft said last year that remakes o🉐f "older Assassin's Creed games" are in the ওworks, and plenty of folks assumed (or hoped) that Black Flag would be high on the list of candidates, if not the very top. At this point, you don't need a crystal ball to guess that we might be in for a swashbuckling ꩲsurprise announcement.

Here are all the confirmed 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Assassin's Creed games.

True, some of these games have seen more commercial success than others. South of Midnight's modest reception felt lukewarm after the breakout hype over Avowed, undoubtedly Xbox's standout first-party exclusive of the year so far, while Bethesda and MachineGames' already popular 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Indiana Jones and the Great Circle became a cross-platform favorite when it launched on PS5 mere months after its Series X debut – and hey, remember when 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:The Elder Scrolls 4: Ob𒆙livion Remastered got shadowdropped five days later?

2025 is shaping up to be one of the best years for Microsoft Gaming in a very long time. That makes it even more important for the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Games Showcase to make a strong case for the rest of the year, showing off its in-house 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Xbox Series X games while championing the flagship console as the best place to play imminent third-party hits. Especially since, you know, the showcase is coming three days after the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Nintendo Switch 2 launches – and I'd be surprised if that didn't cast♏ some kind of 🐎shadow.

Thinking outside the (x)box

With the promise of both first and third-party Xbox titles on June 8th's lineup, as well as a dedica💫ted The Outer Worlds 2 deep-dive from developer Obsidian immediat🌌ely after, Xbox Games Showcase 2025 has an opportunity to be not only celebratory, but preparatory.

The success of Avowed earlier this year cements Obsidian as the latest Xbox posterchild, with a litany of successful games released since the studio's acquisition by Microsoft in 2018. It makes sense that Xbox is positioning Obsidian front and center as it sets its intentions for t𝕴he coming months; even as the publisher bears down on its cross-platform "Xbox Everywhere" initiative, first-party exclusives will still be of special interest to many tuning in this weekend.

There are plenty of likely showstoppers I can think of in that vein. We haven't seen much of Fable 4 since its 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:delay to 2026, while 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Perfect Dark and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Gears of War: E-Day have both been MIA since their respective reveals this time last year. We're also fairly light on 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:State of Decay 3 and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Clockwork Revolution news, as despite both currently sitting pretty on our list of expected 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:new games for 2025, rumors and estimates have them likely to beও del♔ayed.

I'm especially keen to see if we get any new 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Marvel's Blade intel, despite how Arkane Austin said it would 🐈be "going quiet" for some time in 2023 to focus on its production stages – but hey, a girl can dream.

Xbox has many third-party partners it could be showcasing this weekend, drumming up some hype around announced games with release dates already set for the imminent future🐭.

澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Borderlands 4 is an especially hot topic, with the release date mere months away at this point, as is 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Mafia: The Old Country and Supermasive Games' Directive 8020. It would also be a brilliant time to firm up some ballpark-2025 release windows for games like 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Vampire: The Masquerade Bl༒oodlines 2 (which was delayed to October for a in response to early gameplay feedback), 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Crimson Desert, and Chucklefish's cozy new pixel RPG 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Witchbrook.

After all, now that GTA 6 has been delayed to 2026, there's surely no time like the present for an avalanche of new release dates to 🌺help iron out the r𝄹est of our 2025 gaming calendars.

The road ahead

I know, I know – that's a lot of games, and a lot of educated assumptions besides. Perhaps the most interesting potential third-party partner we might see at Xbox Games Showcase, though? Ubisoft.

Despite being listed as a Summer Game Fest partner, the Assassin's Creed publisher has yet to confirm whether a Ubisoft Forward showcase will be going ahead. Bummed as I am at the prospect of waiting even longer for a look at 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed: Codename Hexe, though, a cryptic tweet has led many fans to believe that 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:this could be a teaser for a long-a🍰waited rꦇemake Ubisoft announced some 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:four years ago.

If this is true, it could coꦚme at any point over the weekend's festivities – including the inaugural proceedings on June 6 – so it's definitely one for Xbox sleuths to watch for.

After an impressive start to 2025, Xbox Games Showcase is Microsoft's chance to keep the good times rolling. It's an opportunity to impress console and PC gamers alike, not giving up on theꦉ strength and utility of its hardware even as console unit sales slow down, and prove that Xbox intends to carry this momentum into Q4 and beyond.

It'll be no small feat to draw attention away from the Switch 2 hype, but if Microsoft brings the goods I know it's well equipped to, the Xbox Games Showcase 2025 should be well worth postponing a 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Mario Kart World race for.

Tune into the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Future Games Showcase on June 7 to check out a litany of brand new games on the way this year, hosted by Matt Mercer

"I almost forgot that we were struggling with two more challenges," Adam Badowski, joint CEO remembers in a new episode of the AnsweRED podcast. "One of them was that we have to plan how the open world works. What are the basic rules? Basic rules are al🅺ways the most challenging."

In Ubisoft games, you climb towers to reveal the map; that's a basic rule of its open worlds, one that people have gotten quite sick of over the years. Each company, serie🐼s, and game will hav🌳e different rules, and not all work in other franchises.

"Do we want to have gating?" Badowski asks. "There is a monster. The monster has this ultimate level 100 or something. You cannot go further without defeating this monster. It was a bad idea for our game. It works for all 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:FromSoftware games, it's nat෴ural, it's one of the pillars of those🅰 wonderful games. But in The Witcher, it doesn't work. So you have to plan it differently."

While FromSoftware games are all about the challenge, The Witcher is more about enjoying the story a༺nd roleplaying as a monster-slaying witcher.

I actually prefer playing on the hardest difficulty because it makes♕ me engage with the systems of the world a lot more than I otherwise woℱuld. I need to make oils and potions and learn a foe's weaknesses.

But if that were how the game had to be played by everyone, it would be a 𝕴completely different game, not The Witcher 3 as we know it today.

Another aspect of The Witcher 3 that Badowski says is obvious with hindsight is that "we don't have quests that you can cancel and replay if you failed. If you failed, we have to create another constellation of consequences because the stoﷺry stops when your character dies, not when your character failed the quest.

"So it makes it super, super difficult. Usuall♛y, the mission fails, so you can restart it. And here we have, 'No, no, it's a starting point for what's next i♒n The Witcher.'"

The developers have to consider, "What areও the consequences? ♚I failed, so there are different choices, different consequences, there are different reactions. It changes relations with my characters."

They had to learn "how to make itౠ and not to force players to save and load all the time and make gamers frustrated. Now we ꦏkind of know how to deal with it, but back then it was really challenging."

It's not something I'd ever noticed before, but it's a fascinating detail that must make the world feel so much more real. Things don't ✨always go to plan, and often, playing through your mistakes can be more fun than simply save scumming them away.

If you've already played The Witcher 3 more times than you can remember, why not check out the best 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:games like The Witcher 3 instead?

First things first, there are two new quests for you to play through. Well, sort of. One is actually new, a collaboration with 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Dead by Daylight. Villagers begin to disappear, and Naoe gets suspicious of a "strange presence attacking the loc🃏al people of 💃Harima."

The quest includes "unique mechanics" and unlocks via your hideout once you unlock Yasuke as a playable character. The other ques𝐆t is the pre-order one about a vengeful dog, Thrown to the Dogs. This unlocks 💎right after From Spark to Flame and can be started at the Tennoji Temple outside Osaka.

The news I'm most excited about, however, is the new parkour moves. 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Unity has its problems – it's boring and everyone is way too British – 🧸but it𒉰 has the best parkour the series has ever seen.

Shadows is getting a new vertical jump move that allows both Yasuke and Naoe to jump and grab "any ledge, awnings or overhangs within reach," meaning you won't need to first run up a wall to do so. This may seem minor, but it truly opens up the possibilities of navigating the world and getting up onto roof🐬s quicker.

The other improve꧟ments are better rear and side ejects. These happen when Naoe or Yasuke jump to the side or behind themselves when on a wall. Now, they'll gain morꦐe height and distance, and Naoe has some new animations when doing a height-gaining side eject.

There are also improvements being made to the game's photo mode. You can 🌃read the full patch notes .

Once you've finished running around in Shadows, check out some of the other 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best RPGs you can play right now.

Speakꦚing to Edge Magazine, Clint Hocking - creative dꦯirector on Chaos Theory and a writer and designer on the original Splinter Cell - said that when it came to the third game in the iconic stealth series, "we couldn't have gotten more out of the hardware if we wanted to. In many ways, Chaos theory and a small handful of other titles led the transition to a sort of pseudo-next generation."

That not-quite new generation was kickstarted by the original Xbox. Arriving more than 18 months after the PS2, and well after the Sega Dreamcast, Hocking says that Microsoft's first console kicked off a "paradigm shift in rendering technology." As with any new console, it would take a few years until ꦿdevelopers worked out how to get the most out of the hardware - but by the time Chaos Theory arrived, a few months before the Xbox 360, Hocking and his team had pushed it as far as they thought it could go.

That work paid off. While Chaos Theory was well-re🔥ceived on most major platforms, it was clearly at its best on Xbox, where it still boasts its best scores to this day. Hockiꦍng maintains that the improved lighting and rendering on that platform compared to the PS2 and PC releases was only "made possible for the first time by the Xbox."

Don't believe us? Check out our list of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Xbox games of all time.

Speaking to Edge Magazine, Clint Hocking admitted that "development on the first game had been very, very difficult." Hocking, who went on to be creative director on Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory as well as Far Cry 2 (and the upcoming 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed: Codename Hexe), s🙈ays that "many of us who went on to work on Chaos Theory felt we could have done🀅 much, much better."

Most of the problems, Hocking claims, came from the fact that "we had failed as designers and developers to anticipate how the game would actually play." Eventually, the team at Ubisoft started to✤ realize the errors that had crept in - their stealth game never really offered players enough freedom to work around their errors. Unfortunately, it was too late to fix things. "By the time we encountered the problem, we had no plan and no time to addre𒁏ss it except by forcing a mission failure."

Those failures were so apparent t𒁃hat Chaos Theory was quick to make note of them, a brief fourth wall-breaking moment early in the game attempting to make light by telling Fisher that he's not in a video game. Thankfully, however, Hocking and his team had a better sense of how to address those mistakes than simply making jokes about them.

"The core game experience did not change significant🅰ly [from the original Splinter Cell]," he says. That meant that it was "very clear to us what was working and what needed to be fixed. Our common goal became simply to deliver - to an exceptionally high degree of quality and polish - all the promises we felt we'd failed to deliver in the first gam▨e."

"It seemed to me then, and it still seems so today, that the ♚only path toward improving what we had🥃 done in the best parts of the original Splinter Cell was to totally unify story and level design from the beginning of the game to end."

That path was the right one - Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory sits at a 94% score on Metacri🐼tic for its envelope-pushing Xbox version, a figure that Hocking says suggests there was little he could have changed that would have m🌜ade the game any better than it was.

It's been a while since the last Splinter Cell, so here are the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best stealth games you can practice with while we wait for the remake.

Speaking to Edge Magazine, Clint H🥂ocking explains that he "took on too many tasks and too many responsibilities" as the lead developer behind the Splinter Cell sequel, which was developed in just two years. Hocking, who served as a scriptwriter and lead level designer, eventually also took on the mantle of th🔯e game's creative director. Eventually, he found himself working 80-hour weeks, which he's previously said gave him brain damage, resulting in memory loss.

"[I was] effectively doing three jobs at the same time," Hocking says. "I was enthusiastic and passionate about doing that work, but it took a toll on m꧋y personal well-being." Thankfully, Hocking hasn't repeated that level of work since - while he did pull double-duty as creative director and scriptwriter on 2008's iconic Far Cry 2, by the time of 2020's Watch Dogs: Legion, he was only serving as creative director, a role he's repeating o💟n the upcoming Assassin's Creed Hexe.

"20 years later, it's clear I would not, and could not do the same [amount of work]. Now I only have one job. I am just the creative director, and I try to surround myself with people who are better than me at those other jobs. Certainlꦗy, this has proven more sustainable, and hope🌜fully I'll get to keep doing it for another 20 years."

If nothi🌃ng else, the kind of extended crunch that Hocking is talking about has become less prevalent over the past two decadღes as devs speak out more against unsustainable work practices, so hopefully, he'll never be in a position to have to work quite that hard again.

While we know very little about Hexe - at the beginning of this year, it namedropped the project for the first time💦 in more than two⛎ years - the rest of Hocking's collected works are impressive. Splinter Cell, Chaos Theory, and Far Cry 2 were all extremely well-received titles. Unfortunately, both Hexe and the upcoming 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Splinter Cell remake are still pretty much AWOL, so we'll be waiting a while to learn more about H⭕ockiꦉng's work.

Want to catch up? Here's a list of all the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Assassin's Creed games.

It's been over a decade since Ubisoft casually released one of the greatest platformers ever made in 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Rayman Legends and then decided to do nothing substantial with the character since. A couple of mobile games and an appearance in the Netflix series Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix later, Rayman showed a spark of hope by appearing in the DLC for 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope in 2023.

But it looks like that DLC was a bit of a trial run, ওas Ubisoft has now put up looking for staff to work on "a prestigious AAA title for the Rayman brand." Notably, the game design roles are for Ubisoft Milan – who developed the Mario + Rabbids games – while the lighting and FX artist roles are at Rayman's usual home of Ubisoft Montpellier.

Outside of its existence, the job descriptions don't reveal much about the Rayman project. Although it's interesting to note that one of the roles is for a 3D gameplay animator, which could hint at the series going back to being a 3D platformer for the first time since 2003's Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc. Although it could just as easily be a 2.5D platformer akin to Ubisoft Montpellier's latest game, 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. Or even a continuati🐷on of the Mario + Rabbids series, ditching Mario for Ubisoft's own mascot.

Regardless, it's nice to see that Rayman could be coming back, considering Origins and Legends are far and away better than anything the publisher has released in the time since, in my eyes.

After several rough years, Ubisoft says "the launch of Assassin’s Creed Shadows was a defining moment" and its Tencent deal to basically make Ubisoft 2 is coming along.

CEO Yves Guillemot acknowledged "mixed dynamics across our portfolio, amid intense industry competition" in the company's . The company is reporting net bookings "slightly below" its objective, and while it'd be easy to point at 澳洲幸运5开💝奖号码历史查询:disappointing Star Wa🐬rs Outlaws sales as the prime cul𝓡prit, Ubisoft says the downturn is "mainly reflecting lower than expected partnerships, notably due to a timing impac🌜t."

"Aware of the challenges ahead, we took decisive steps to continue strengthening the company’s future," Guillemot said. "The launch of Assassin’s Creed Shadows was a defining moment. It reaffirmed the power of the Assassin’s Creed brand, with a highly favorable community response from lon🍬g-time fans and new players alike."

Ubisoft reported in March that Shadows marked the sec﷽ond-biggest launch in Assassin's Creed history, behind only Valhalla – which released in the midst of the Covid pandemic that had the world desperate for games to get lost in. In today's release, the company makes is explicit about Shadows having "clearly outperformed Assassin🍌's Creed Odyssey."

Shortly after the release of Shadows, Ubisoft announced the creation of a new subsidiary backed by Tece꧟nt that will "spearhead development"♚ on new Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six games. Think of it as a sort of sequel to Ub🌱isoft that'll take over the company's biggest games.

In today's statement, Guillemot said that th👍is is a "major step" in what's set to be a "profound transformation" for the company. "Focused on accelerating the growth of three of our most iconic IPs," he continued, "this new subsidiary will play a pivotal role in building evergreen, billion-euro brand ecosystems. We are progressing steadily toward the closing of the transaction by year-end, a key milestone that will fully deleverage the Company and position us for sustainable, long-term growth."

Notably, the company also plans to "provide additional development time to some of our biggest productions." In other words, the Shadows delay worked out, so other big games are getting delayed, too. The only question is which 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Ubisoft games are going to be affected.

There's plenty more ahead on the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows roadmap.

Shadows 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:beat the Steam launch fꦅo🧸r Valhalla within a day, but ultimately trailed behind the viking rendition of Assassin's Creed overall. Ubisoft called Valhalla's launch 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:a "perfect storm we𝓰 may never see again," and its new report affirms that Shadows generated "the secon༺d-highest Day 1 sales revenue in franchise history—second only to Assassin’s Creed® Valha💯ll💙a."

To date, consumer spending for Shadows exceeds Odyssey, long held up as the epitome of what modern Ass🌼assin's C𓃲reed games have become (though some fans swear by Origins), "with the player count also outperforming."

"Players have logged 160 million hours in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, underscoring its engaging gameplay and the en🌺during appeal of the franchise," Ubisoft adds.

Later in the report, Ubisoft reflects on its decision to delay Assassin's Creed Shadows in the final stretch𒅌 despite the fiscal hopes ridingℱ on it. "This decision has already been beneficial to the quality of Assassin’s Creed Shadows," the company believes.

As our own Andrew Brown put it: If Assassin's Creed Shadows' delay means lessons have been learned from Star Wars Outlaws, I say: let Ub🌠isoft cook.

Ubisoft says the team mꦍostly focused on polish in the final stages, though there were "a couple bits of narrative here and ther🍬e.🧸"

Through all of this business lingo, it's important to remember that Shadows is a good game, too. Our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows review praised "more confidence, texture, and purpose" than we've seen from Ubisoft in years, and the game's Steam reviews are holding ℱat a "very positive" 80%. (Funnily enough, Assassin's Creed Odyssey is beating Shadows on Metacritic by a few points.)

澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:The most recen꧒t Assassin's Creed Shadows update snuck in som💝e parkour improvements ahead of a larger update coming later.

The broader 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows roadmap includes a special collaboration, new story and difficulty additions, and a lot more still to come.

Last week's Assassin's Creed Shadows update, version 1.0.4, added a new free story pack and made a plethora of bug fixes, but one thing its didn't mention was the changes made to its parkour mechanicsಌ. Some significant differences have been spotted by content creator Ropotopolous, who shares a video demonstrating new parkour animations, improved ob﷽ject targeting, and ejects that "are definitely GAINING HEIGHT." You can see it in action below.

On Twitter, the official Assassin's Creed account has responded to this, confirming that, yes, some alterations have been made ahead of the dedicated parkour update detailed in 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows' roadmap.

"Our parkour devs just couldn't wait and added a subtle increase for consistent🌳ly maintaining vertical height when free running," . "More ejects and tweaks🐼 coming with the next update!"

Ubisoft explains this a little further in a comment left on Ropotopolous's YouTube video, calling the changes "subtle but important tweaks to how parkour prioritization works." It adds: "This lays the groundwork for our upcoming height-gaining side and back ejects🧸 update later this month."

There's lots more in the Assassin's Creed Shadows roadmap to look forward to, from photo mode updates to new difficulty options, promising to keep the stealthy RPG fresh long after its March release. Its Claws of Awaji expansion is also set to launch at some point this year, which will take place after the base game's ending in an eerie new location.

Be sure to check out our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows review to see why we think it's one of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Assassin's Creed games.

The game's first expansion, Claws of Awaji, was previously teased without a release date, and well, we still don't have a release date, but we know it's coming "later this year." We still don't have a price either, but Ubisoft says it'll be free for everyone who pre-ordered the game. The DLC continu🍬es the story following Shadows' epilogue scene and opens up the island of Awaji as a new explorable area. It'll also add new enemies, abilities, and the new bow staff weapon exclusive to Naoe.

The newly unveiled 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows roadmap also includes new "story drops" that will be free for everyone, and those will add new abilities, new allies, new activities, and cutscenes that'll help flavor the backstories for characters that "perhaps need a little more screen time," according to associat𓂃e game director Simon L🤪emay-Comtois.

The first new story expansion is titled The🌜 Works of Luis Frois, and it focuses on the titular historical Jesuit scholar. That drops in early May, so ostensibly in just a few days, and will include a new quest.

Ongoing title updates based on community feedback are also part of the roadmap, with the first coming in late May with updates to the parkour system, including height-gaining back and side eject jumps and a new vertical ledge jump that'll let you jump onto low-hang💫ing awnings instead of just awkwardlಌy bumping your head against them when you jump.

Photo mode is also getting a big update in May with new filters, feature♛s, character poses, facial expressions, and a new way to add ambient music♑ while you're snapping shots of feudal Japan.

The second communi🐟ty-driven, free story update will focus on immersion, with new customization options that'll allow you to toggle visual effects like glinting light on weapons in combat, assassination filters, ability features, and that little outline around your character in stealth sequences.

This June update will also include a nಌew quest, new ally, and new dif❀ficulty settings while expanding the alarm system to the open world and letting you toggle on and off your headgear in cutscenes.

That's not all, more p🦄lanned future content that'll be free for everyone includes a New Game Plus mode, more coဣmmunity feedback updates and story content, "special collaborations," codex updates, new animus content, and new rewards. And then there's some paid content in the works as well, including store drops and more DLC.

Fighting through high-level regions to get Naoe to date night has been my favorite Assassin's Creed Shadows moment yet.

"The Nemesis patent still gives other designers significant space to operate around," Strange Scaffold studio lead Xalavier Nelson Jr. tells 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Edge in its new magazine issue 410.

"I think you can see some similar designဣ language in the Mercenary system in Assassin's Creed: Odyssey and some other thin🎃gs Ubisoft has done since then."

Introduced by Lord of the Rings orc extravaganza Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor in 2014, the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Nemesis System makes it so enemies eꦇxist in a bustling hierarchy; vulgar Uruk-hai remember you and seek constant revenge, vying for more power but sometimes losing it in a a perpetual battle up and down enemy ranks.

2018's 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed: Odyssey doesn't use every intricacy of this system for its own Mercenary design ꦆ– it can't, not with a patent in place – but it does borrow the Nemesis System's core concept with a tiered enemy list. Kill the ranked mercenaries, and gain notoriety.

For this reason, Nelson continues to say that 𒅌"the language and specificity of the [Nemesis] patent is not so significant that, if I had a game concept that would benefit from similar ideas, I would be scared away from doing it, personally."

Patent attorney and partner at law firm Banner Witcoff Scott Kelly agrees w♎ith the sentiment, telling Edge that "our whole video game in💙dustry is built on the shoulders of what came before us."

"I think peop💫le can keep this in mind," he continues encouragingly, "and can find a way to use the parts that they like that will make a really good game, without infringing the specific technology that Warner Bros. patented here."

Hot on the heels of its open-world Wonder Woman game cancelation, Warner Bros. Games is apparently working on a "new unannounced IP" that's set to launch this year.

While it seems the publisher hasᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ no intentions of updating the original racing game to bring it back to life, its sequels are getting offline modes, and Ubisoft has just published an update on what to expect from these new optio🎃ns.

"We are pleased to confirm that we are aiming to deploy a new hybrid way to play the game before the end of 2025 for all The Crew 2 players," producer Gregory Cor🔴gie says in a . A similar update for Motorfest is coming later.

What does "hybrid" mean? That's not entirely clear, though it'll apparently let you "switch between online and offline" as you like. Corgie notes that "The Crew 2 has originally been developed to be played onlin🥃e" and "thus, we will need to adapt the experience." As a result, the devs will be running several tests to "refine and balance the content" of this offline mode, s🌌tarting with an April 30 beta on PC.

"We would like to clarify the difference between decommissioningꦯ a game and deploying an offline m♈ode," Corgie also says.

"Decommissioning occurs when all online features and infrastructure for a game are no longer available due to various reason🏅s. An offline mode, on the other hand, allows you to launch andܫ access the game even if the server are inaccessible."

I'm not sure who out there was confused about the difference between shutting down a game and developing a new feature for it, but at least one thing is clear – while The Crew 2 and Motorfest are getting offline modes, the original Crew has de🍸finitely been decommissioned.

The shutdown of The Crew in 2024 inspired the initiative, which has coalesced around a European Citizens' Initiative that's collected 437,538 signatures. That's a massive amount of support, but it's still well short of the 1 million signatures needed to bring the issue before EꦆU lawmakers.

Nonetheless, all the concerns about the death of The Crew have been enough to get Ubisoft to invest in offline modes for its sequels. These 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:offline modes were first announced just a few weeks after the EU petition started getting traction, and Ubisoft notes that "we have been reading your comments" in the de♚scription of today's video. That's some progress, at least.

Ubisoft's lawyers are being a lot less friendly in a recent lawsuit rebuttal: they say you "cannot complain" the publisher shut down The Crew because you never actually owned it, and you weren't "deceived" by the lack of an offline version "to access a decade-old, discontinued video game."

In a video posted to the official Assassin's Creed Twitter account, Shadows' community developer Dan says: "It's been thrilling to see milᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚꦫᩚᩚlions of you enjoying the game. Launch is only the beginning. Now it's time to turn our eyes towards the future and reveal a little more about our post-launch plans."

The video thenꩵ cuts to a clip of a dev working on something, as Naoe gracefully climbs a wall on their screen, before another pushes the camera away and✃ says, "It's not ready, it's not ready." What are they cooking?

The current 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows roadmap only has one planned DLC on it, Claws of Awaji, which will feature dual protagonists Naoe and Yasuke trapped on a mysterious island. It's due out later this year, so hopefully we get a release date April💦 30 when more of the 🍰roadmap is revealed.

Ubisoft has also said it's going to be 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:listening to your feedback when it cons💝iders what to ad༒d to the game next. One such feature is New Game+, which isn't in the game yet but could be added if enough of you want it.

I hope it does get added, because I want to do a 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:canon mode playthrough first and then another where I get all the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows romances I want, and it'd be nice notཧ to have to hunt down the best weapons again.

In the meantime, check out some of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best RPGs you can play right now.

Might and Magic Fates is a free-to-play game that'll be arriving on mobile platforms "soon," according to , as well as PC later do💜wn the line. It'll allow players to build decks and battle in "fast-paced matches," and include "hundreds of cards to collect."

With "deep strategic gameplay" and "faction-based playstyles," Ubisoft claims that it's "designed to offer a competitive experience where victory is earned through skill, not spending." You might begin to raise an eyebrow when itꦛ explains the trading functionality, however, which is "handled through an external marketplace powered by Immutable's technology that will enable and secure these exchanges."

Further expanding on this in a , it's explained that this is an "optional Web3 layer that unlocks digital ownership for players who want it," aꦦllowing players to "freely trade your cards using the Immutable blockchain."

Both here and in the game announcement post, it's 🍸reiterated that the feature is "entirely optional and offers no competitive advantage," with the FAQ noting: "You can enjoy the full experience, grow your collection, and compete at the highest level without ever engaging with the Web3 features. The choice is entirely yours."

Even so, it's hard to imagine that everyone will be thrilled about this. Blockchain technology is widely criticized for its impact on the environment – while some blockchain systems generate less carbon emissions than others, others require a lot of electricity, and therefore loads of energy. It's a large part of the reason why NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are so controversial.

This isn't Ubisoft's first rodeo using blockchain technology. Back ♐in 2021, it announced Ubisoft Quartz, a platform allowing players to get NFTs thatꦆ are playable in AAA games. Beyond that, last year it released its first blockchain game, a PvP tactical RPG called Champions Tactics: Grimoria Chronicles.

The good news is that if Might and Magic Fates isn't your jam, the franchise was already set to make a comeback in the form of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era – a turn-based strategy prequel that's set to launch in early access on PC 🌌at some point this year. There's no release date for that just yet, but its Steam page says it's eyeing Q2 2025.

Be sure to keep up with our roundup of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Ubisoft games to see what else the company is working on.

Mat Piscatella, an executive director and video game industry analyst at Circana, posts on that "Assassin's Creed: Shadows debuted as the best-selling game of March, ranking 2nd [year-to-date]." It amassed more than 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:two million players just a few days after launch, so this result isn't surprising.

Ubisoft already mentioned that Shadows garnered the second-highest revenue of any game in the series for the company, only behind Valhalla. It also noted that Valhalla's success was "澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:a perfect storm we may never see again."

It came out during the COVID lockdowns when people were spending a lot more on video games, and was released across two console gܫenerations, whereas Shadows is only available o🅰n current-gen hardware.

Ubisoft has struck a business deal with Tencent that will see 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:a $4.3 billion subsidiary "spearhead development" on new Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six games. What that means exactly isn't entirely clear, but after a series of missteps like "澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:softer than expected" sales for 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Star Wars Outlaws and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:the closure of XDefiant and its San Francisco studio, Ubisoft needs winꦚs, and Shadows has been a huge🐽 one.

Overall, spending on games is down, though, so in a year already filled with layoffs, more could ಌbe on the horizon.

For now, check out all the upcoming 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:video game release dates of 2025. Maybe one of them will dethrone Monster Hunter.

Assassin's Creed Shadows has done pretty well, being the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best-selling game in the US since it was released back in February 2025 (and second best-selling in 2025 overall, behind 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Monster Hunter Wilds). However, it hasn't been without issues, with the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:game's previous patch fixingဣ problems like the 30fps cap in hideouts and some NPCs just refusing to di♍e.

This time around, Shadows' patch is mai⛦nly focused on improving the game's overall stability.

Assassin's Creed Shadows Title Update 1.0.3 is out now and will be anywhere from 0.40GB to 11GB, d🐻epending on which platform you're playing on. In terꩵms of gameplay changes, there's one pretty negative one.

The says, "We have tempor☂arily deactivated the multi-sell feature in shops due to some unexpected issues. We appr🍸eciate your patience as we are working to fix the issue and bring the feature back in an upcoming patch." Meanwhile, the only other gameplay change is a fix to a problem where players were unable to call allies.

Outside of that, it's pretty much just technical stuff. Stuttering issues on PC, crashes during the game's prologue and when applying the Claw of Dragon 🐭skin to weapons, and fixes to an audಌio loss issue.

Meanwhile, PS5 is getting special treatment, as Ubisoft is targeting crashes on꧋ the regular PS5, with HDR and PSSR bugs on PS5 Pro also being addressed, which hopefully makes people f෴eel better about their $700 console.

Assassin's Creed Shadows is the closest we've been to Ezio's timeline since Revelations, and that could be huge for Codename Hexe.

This comes from , who cites data available through April 5 via Circana's retail tracking service. Year to date, the only game Assassin's Creed Shadows currently trails is Capcom's wildly successful action-RPG 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Monster Hunter Wilds, which has been 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:breaking sales ⛦records left and right.

Ubisoft's latest open-world behemoth has been aꦕ success by pretty much every measurable factor, including player and critic reviews. 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:GamesRadar's 4-out-of-5-star review reads:

"There's an examination of Ubisoft's formula here, a lunge toward the texture that's reshaped RPGs in recent years, but the studio's moreish open world formula is still there. Not every idea comes together neatly, and two phenomenal protagonists feel wasted on a lackluster story, but this is a titan in the same ജleagues as series staples Assassin's Creed 2 and Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag – and Ubisoft's best RPG to date."

Assassin's Creed Shadows also boasts a "generally favorable" with a respectable score of 81 at the time of writing. Meanwhile, 80% of its 16,000 are posi🐭tive, ranking overall reviews as "very positive."

Although it's off to a great start, as with any huge game released these days, Assassin's Creed Shadows is being continually updated to improve performance and quality of life, with the moꦦst recent patch fixing a number of minor grievances including tedious dismantling and th🦩e hideout FPS cap.

Assassin's Creed Shadows is the closest we've been to Ezio's timeline since Revelations, and that could be huge for Codename Hexe.

At least, that's how things are looking to me. I'm currently 21-hours deep in Ubisoft Quebec's gorgeous new RPG, and the only signs of modern day storytelling have come from the Animus itself. These moments of direct address, so far only experienced during the game's opening hours and halfway through Act 1, offer a repeated warning: the ancient memories I am experiencing are somewhat fragmented. This is pretty standard fare in any AC game, but the breath of fresh air here is that I'm no longer being asked to care about any of the other modern day protagonists introduced since Assassin's Creed 3. In a way, I am the main characte🐻r – and I could really get 𓃲used to it.

I could end uღp being well off the mark about this, but if The Animus Hub means Ubisoft is finally dropping the dead weight of its modern day nar🤡rative, it'll confirm something we've known for years. Assassin's Creed has outgrown its roots for the better, and it's time to move on for good.

MC energy

Once upon a time, a modern day storyline was absolutely intrinsic to Assassin's Creed's DNA. I'm talking about the good old days of Altair and Ezio, where black box missions, tighter narrative experiences, and gripping sci-fi-meets-historical worldbuilding edified the up-and-coming Ubisoft series as home of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best stealth games of its time. But when Assassin's Creed Origins pivoted sharply into RPG territory, those days꧂ were numbered.

The reality is simple. Assassin's Creed's modern day storyline should have died with Desmond at the end of Assassin's Creed 3. Desmond was the heart of the series' 21st century narrative, the brevity and linearity of these🙈 early Creed games putting the parallel narratives on equal footing. Jumps between time periods felt fluid and intentional rather than distracting, showing the Animus' "bleedi❀ng effect" at work as Desmond adopts traits of his assassin ancestors over time. It comes to a head in Assassin's Creed 3, when a heroic Desmond uses this knowledge to sacrifice himself, save humanity from a catastrophic event, and ultimately bridge that gap between worlds past, present, and non-temporal.

Thisꦍ dramatic finale left Ubisoft with a weird conundrum. The story of Assassin's Creed is built upon the centuries-long adversity between the Templars and the Brotherhood, a bitter war stretching ඣright up to the modern day – but Desmond himself connected those timelines. Was there a future to Assassin's Creed's present day without him?

Yes, there was. Ubisoft has tried all sorts of neat tricks to try and recapture our interest in the series' modern saga, only for each attempt to fall flat. Layla's narrative arc was so unpopular that 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Odyssey sought to make it optional, the player able to complete Kassandra and Alexios' storylines almost completely without interruption. Later, Valhalla went to even greater lengths to do the complete opposite – it tries to🀅 tie past to present by turning Norse gods into time-hopping Isu warriors, capable of travelling from 872 AD Viking Britain to 2022 in a flash while trapping Layla in The Grey with our dearly departed Desmond.

More bizarre yet, most of that is unveiled in the game's optional true ending – totally separate from Eivor's journey, and yet key to understanding exactly why any of this matters at any point in time at all. Basim, aka Loki, proved an equally unpopular modern day "hero" in 2023's 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Mirage – he's literally the bad guy, after all – and the whole mess left me wondering what could possibly come next. Which is why I could kiss the digitized walls of the Animus Hub for "enhancing, not 🦩overshadowing, the historical journey" in Ass🅷assin's Creed Shadows with its siꦐmple meta framing.

It might be a one-off reprieve from the time-bending confusion of the last two games, but I'm excited for a modern day Creed scenario that doesn't feel like an afterthought – and isn't trying to replace Desmond, for a change. By situating the modern storyline, whatever it may be, within the Animus itself, Ubisoft has killed two birds with one Piece of Eden. On one hand, the Animus Hub is intended as a "singular entry point" to the franchise, a platform from which past and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Assassin's Creed games can be launched and played. But we also know that the hub has s♊ome level of inte﷽raction with Shadows itself.

Is this a sign that modern day Creed is going full meta, implicating the player in a new narrative surrounding sentient tℱechnology, time travel, or some other sci-fi intrigue previously touched upon? Is Juno the one addressing us through the Animus? And will we ever see Desmond and Layla ever again? Honestly, I could do without the lat🐠ter - but everything else? Sign me up.

澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Codename Hexe is the next 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Ubisoft game set to expand the stealth series

Sling your hook

The first thing you need to know about the kusarigama is that it is not a flail. This was my first mistake whi๊le using Wada's Death Whisperer the first few times, running straight up to foe after foe and simply whipping the thing about in a series of light attacks. While this makes for deliciously gory proceedings, garish spurts of red flung far and wide with each fleshy gouge, it's not exactly effective considering its actual purpose.

I know now that the kusarigama is meant to be a defensive tool, best suited to ranged combat over hand-to-hand. As a Naoe-exclusive weapon, that makes perfect sense – she's a stealthy shinobi, a glass cannon to oppose Yasuke's brawn, so keeping some distanꦺce between her and the enemy is a good idea. Hard as I tried to bear that in mind, though, the number of times I've forgotten my lack of katana and barrelled straight into three minutes of stabby hell is nothing short of shameful. It was clear I'd need a lot more practice, but since Shadows lacks a handy weapon tutorials system tailored to each one, I had to work this baby out for myself.

First, the kusarigama basics. The boulder end should be seen as a bowling ball, your enemies mere pins. I especially love sending them flying upon charging up a heavy posture attack, knocking out five bandits at once from 🐟the safety of my horse. Meanwhile, the light attack button controls the hook end of the weapon for rapid, close-quarters melee encounters. This is a fun double whammy to work with, something not seen in any other weapon I've encountered in Assassin's Creed Shadows so far – but the kusarigama t♔ruly comes alive with the help of the skill tree.

Tinkering

I mentioned earlier that Ubisoft Quebec does things a little differently in this RPG compared to the likes of Valhalla, Origins, and Odyssey. The weapon-specific 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows skill trees are 🅰proof of that. Finding a new weapon type unlocks a requisite skill tree, 🔜and by investing Mastery Points into each one, you can turbo-charge your weapons-of-choice.

It's a clever way to give players a degree of flexibility, even with each character's fixed playstyles. No, you can't make Naoe a samurai or Yasuke a shinobi, but we can shape these archetypes to our own mechanical preferences. The catch is that each weapon's coolest tricks are pretty buried in those skill trees, with the more complex combos and combat maneuvers level-locked according to your 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:AC Shadows Knowledge rank. Thankfully, the kusarigama has an incredibly useful passive available for just one Mastery point: Entangleme♑nt. After charging up a heavy attack, letting go, and holding the same button down right before the attack hits, Entanglement sees Naoe truss up an enemy and chuck it into neighboring ones. Remember the bowling ball comparison? Well, imagine turning a pin against its brethren and causing even greater carnage.

The timing can be hard to pin down, but with the help of the Death Whisperer's legendary perk that grants 200% more damage when throwing enemies, Entanglement makes the kusarigama incredibly powerful. It's been my saving grace in this late-early game stage, so if you're looking for a sneaky way to turn Naoe into a one-woman bowling club, here's your sign to bite the bullet and master the mღost finicky weapon in Assassin's Creed Shadows – and maybe the franchise in general.

Will Shadows become one of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Assassin's Creed games ever?

🎃But not only is Assassin's Creed Shadows a stunning world to experience, it's peppered with mechanical quality-of-lifꦗe overhauls that I didn't know I'd been missing in past entries. Experiencing each one during the game's prologue had me almost whooping for joy – so much so, I was very nearly distracted from how explosive of an introduction it is.

Following the leader

I can't look baby Ezio in the eye while I say this, but Assassin's Creed Shadows has the best prologue and introductory sequence of any Creed game I've ev🌳er played. Brute-forcing my way through enemies as Yasuke, his violent hacking, slashing, and wanton destruction of property presented through Ghost of Tsushima-like widescreen action, only to have the perspective shifted from aggressor to aggrieved as my heart shatters during Naoe's origin story? Devastating in the best way. But two things make the quieter moments just as impactful as any action-packed stab-a-thon. Namely, auto-follow and pathfinder.

Call me lazy or impatient, but one of my biggest gripes in any video game is when you have to follow an NPC and have a nice old chat. I can't be the only one who feels they never move at the correct pace, forever running ahead of my "leader" in Assassin's Creed Odyssey or trailing far behind them. With my walking pace too slow and my jogging pace too fast, a constant battle repeatedly emerges as I fight with the game to let me just do the thing – and end up ignಌoring everything being said to me in the process. So, as soon as I see the "auto-follow" on-screen instruction in Assassin's Creed Shadows, it's safe to say I leap down its nonexistent throat.

Holding down the A button on﷽ my Xbox controller, something beautiful happens. Naoe falls into step, beside but slightly behi♕nd her father, and I can simply sit back and take it all in. Auto-follow is a tiny addition in the grand scheme of things, by far one of Ubisoft Quebec's more subtle tweaks to both the style and execution of a Creed game, but it's an incredibly helpful tool on multiple accounts.

Auto-follow means I'm no longer playing a stilted game of tag with NPCs, obviously. But most importantly, being able to automatically follow a character leans the game even further into its cinematic DNA. There I was, taking in Naoe's father's words undistracted, picking up on all the subtleties of the script and his deliverance of them in the process, and I found myself actively listening. It's a known thing that many Creed heroes lose someone dear to them in each opening salvo, and though many of these special someones have been 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:love interests in past games, I don't feel I've ever💝 formed an emotional bond with any of them qu🍨ite as I did with Chichue. In a way, I owe it all to auto-follow – and my total inability to multitask making it all the more satisfying.

Horse by the nose

Later on in the Shadows prologue, the siege♐ of Iga well underway, I'm introduced to yet another delightfully welcome fix to a pet Assassin's Creed peeve of mine: rid🐎ing my damn horse.

It's true that loveable mounts and other animal companions are two things I look forward to in any game, but without a minimap to guide me, I'm pretty useless. Time and time again, after finally accepting that I can't make a horse canter vertically up a mountain like a hooved and hairy Spider-Man, I surrender myself to the idle trappings of a൲uto-riding to marked destinations. In open world RPGs, this can take ages. Who has the patience for that? Certainly not me.

Long have I wished for a nice middle ground between fast travel, auto-riding, and simply clambering across maps on foot in my infinite stubbornness. Enter: pathfinder. Instead of taking the literal and figurate reins from my hands completely, Assassin's Creed Shadows' pathfinder carves out a visible path to follow through the underbrush that I simply must foll𒉰ow. I can control the horse – or myself, if no mount is present – along the journey, stopping and starting at my leisure if I see something interesting on the way. I can already foresee how useful pathfinder will be later in a huge RPG like this, no longer forced to race past imperilled civilians at my horse's unwavering behest, but instead able to simply dismount and investigate. Also, the way Naoe autonomously leaps onto her horse after summoning it, no pesky "mount" interaction needed? Smooth as silk, every time.

ܫI'm still early on in my Assassin's Creed Shadows adventure, but I'm already getting pl𓆏enty of use out of both auto-follow and pathfinder. They feel like accessibility tools that should always have been staples, fluidly merging story and exploration into one cohesive, hassle-free experience. That alone speaks volumes of how far Ubisoft Quebec is extending itself in the name of innovation – and on behalf of all ADHD sufferers out there, I offer my thanks.

Also still in those early game hours? Check out our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows tips and kick things off right

Since first releasing back in 2007 in the original Assassin's Creed game, we've been introduced to a wealth of characters across 14 mainline games, with the latest RPG set in Feudal Japan introducing some fresh faces to the fray - read our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows review for more on that. We've also seen lots of unique spin-offs set in various time periods, and with more 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:new games on t🐻he way, we're sure🧸 to meet more in the future.

Every protagonist has earned their place in the history of the series, with many memorable performances from actors who breathed life into the roles we've come to know and love. Following the release of Shadows, now's the perfect time to reflect back on 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Assassin's Creed games and celebrate the lead🌠ing characters who'ℱve stayed with us.

So read on below as we take you through our pick of tꦇhe 10 best Assassin's Creed protagonists.

The best Assassin's Creed protagonists to meet in 2025

10. Fujibayashi Naoe

Game: Assassin's Creed Shadows
Played by: Masumi Tsunoda

Naoe in 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows is a skilled shinobi with l❀ots of skills that make for excellent and engaging stealthy escapades. With a variety of different weapons at her disposal, and her nimble movements, the latest protagonist really is a dream assassin to play as, and offers different approaches to fellow protagonist Yasuke, who's more action-leaning and puts more emphasis ꦿon his strength in combat.

Outside of her skills and stealthy prowess, she's also such a resilient character who goes through lots of hardships in Feudal Japan during the Sengoku pe𝓡riod. As an RPG, you can choose to shape her responses, but there's a great journey of personal growth to explore in the adventure.

9. Adewale

Game: Assassin's Creed Freedom Cry
Played by: Tristan D. Lalla

A much-loved figure in Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag, Adewale was an escaped slave who served as quartermaster alongside Edward Kenway on the Jackdaw. He got top billing in Assassin's Creed Freedom Cry, where players helped him to free slaves in the Caribbean. Adewale isn't as light-hearted as his roguish captain, but his stꦜern, serious manner serves the character well given the gr🙈im environments of his work, and he's an extremely admirable and likable figure with a truly vital goal.

Eloquent and principled, he's a genuinely nuanced and fascinating character, something that not all protagonists in the series are able to live up to. While he may not be ranked as highly as other characters on this list, he's definitely one of the most memorable. He's also the first protagonist who is a Black man, a sho🐈rtlist that's now joined by Yasuke from Assassin's ♋Creed Shadows, allowing the game to tell a different type of story than we got in any of the other games.

8. Eivor

Game: Assassin's Creed Valhalla
Played by: Cecilie Stenspil and Magnus Bruun Nielsen

Putting Eivor on this list almost feels like cheating since it's two protagonists for the price of one, with players able to choose between a male or a female Eivor. They're quite different, too, and will impact your time in 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Valhalla, with the male version being more spirited and the female version more stoic. This is a more important choice than it may appear as well, as Valhalla is a very long game.

Both protag✤onists have some excellent dialogue, and the sidequests allow them to explore more of their personality, revealing the complexity behind them. They're a charming protagonist to be around, and despite the overall length of Valhalla, the charm doesn't wear off, thanks to𝓡 excellent performances on the part of both voice actors.

7. Evie Frye

Game: Assassin's Creed Syndicate
Played by: Victoria Atkin

Debatably the first female protagonist in the series (Aveline de Grandpre is the f🦩irst, but only featured in a spin-off of Assassin's Creed 3), Evie Frye is another serious character. Compared to her brother, Jacob, who players can also play in Syndicate, ꦡshe takes her duties as an Assassin far more seriously. This could have lent to making her a fairly boring character, but like Adewale, she's able to remain compelling. She also has a sense of humor, which shines through on occasion, and it's interesting to see a lead character in the series who takes the job of being an assassin deadly seriously.

It's also notable that a lot of missions in Syndicate revolve around her clearing up after Jacob, and we stan a competent king (or queen) at GamesRadar+. That goes a long way to making her a much more likable protagonist than Ja🅷cob – not that he's entirely unlikeable.

6. Basim Ibn Ishaq

Game: Assassin's Creed Mirage
Played by: Lee Majdoub

Like Eivor, Basim is an Isu incarnation of Loki specifically. In both his lead appearance in 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Mirage and his supporting appearance in Valhalla, he comes across as mysterious and suspici🦩ous, with some shady motives. In Mirage, we get to see more of his backstory and learn what made him who he is today.

Basim is an interesting character with a well-written background – a devotee to the search for knowledge but who occasiona🧸lly gets reckless with it, causing conflict and some surprisingly unpleasant outcomes. Part of what makes him a strong protagonist in Mirage springs from our knowledge of him in Valhalla, and having his story spread across separate games like this is a very interesting choice. Plus, the man is literally the reincarnation of a God, I mean, that's pretty cool. He'd rank higher on the list were it not for the slightly more intriguing and well-written characters still to come.

5. Kassandra

Game: Assassin's Creed Odyssey
Played by: Melissanthi Mahut

The de facto protagonist of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Kassandra may share the billing with Alexios, but, in reality, she's the clear winner. Don't get us wrong, Alexios is fun, but Kassandra is a much more interesting character. She's a muddle of contradictions in a very human way, very capable of🐻 showing compassion, especially to children, while also capable of showcasing the brutality that Sparta is renowned for.

Her story is expanded by the DLC ♍as well, which sees her surviving until 2018. This is, of course, nonsensical, but that's part of the charm of the series. Not only is Kassandra a fun character to play as, she'🌱s also one of the most key figures in the entire series.

4. Altair Ibn-La’Ahad

Game: Assassin's Creed
Played by: Philip Shahbaz

The original protagonist of Assassin's Creed and one of the best, Altair, wܫas our introduction to the assassins, their creed, and the world that they inhabit. While he may only have got one game, he's strikingly memorable. He was quite literally raised by the assassins, and reflects that upbringing through a cold, sometimes brutal nature. He was deeply flawed, often arrogant or objectionable, but his characterization developed a great deal throughout the game.

By the time you've reached the end, he may not be some towering Dostoevskian figure, but he's wiser and more mature, making him significantly more likable. Like Basim, Altair wasꩲ a man in search of knowledge, which ultimately led him to repeat similar mistakes to his wayward master, Al Mualim, becoming obsessed and reliant upon the Apple of Eden. A deeply conflicted character, his writing was sharper than that of a lot of contemporary video games and made a huge impact on gaming culture.

3. Bayek

Game: Assassin's Creed Origins
Played by: Abubakar Salim

If you want to talk about Assassin's Creed characters with genuine emotion in their performance, they don't come much higher-rated than Bayek in 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Origins. An Egyptian living under Greek occupation, Bayek is no stranger to strife, but it's the death of his son, Khemu, that puts him on the path to revenge. He carries himself as a figure of vengeance, rad🎃iating coldness and ruthlessness to all those who he considers his enemies.

While this could potentially lend itself to a one-dimensional character, Bayek is anything but. Despite all that he goes through, he's still capable of kindness, and he 🦩also occasionally feels guilt for the assassinations he carries out. Perhaps the most emotionally complex character that we've ever seen in an Assassin's Creed game, Bayek is a sensational hero in a sensational setting, he's a natural fit on this list.

2. Edward Kenway

Game: Assassin's Creed Black Flag
Played by: Matt Ryan

Edward Kenway is a man on a mission, but not for revenge – for glory and booty. A genuine Errol Flynn-type roguish character, Edward is the Welsh-born pirate captain of the🔜 Jackdaw, the most dangerous pirate ship on the seven seas. Shiver your timbers and board the ship alongside him, and you'll follow him on his quest for power and the desire to become more than his birthright. He's a bit of an idiot at times, frequently reckless, and definitely of quꩲestionable morals, bending the titular creed to his own whims at times.

Yet above all that, Edward's personality is roguish, as roguish as a pirate captain should be. His interpersonal relationships are a particular highlight of the game, with his friendship with Edward Teach, AKA Blackbeard, a real highlight not just of Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag but of ♑the series as a whole. He's equally charming, enthralling, and foolish, all coalescing into a really well-rounded and likable protagonist. He's second only to the man who, for all intents and purposes, is the long-standing face of the series.

1. Ezio Auditore da Firenze

Game: Assassin's Creed 2, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Assassin's Creed: Revelations
Played by: Roger Craig Smith

As far as series protagonists go, they don't come much more important than Ezio Auditore. He's been the protagonist of three mainline games in the series, from Assas🦂sin's Creed 2 to Revelations. Part of what makes him number one is likely the fact that we spend so mucꩲh time with him across so many different situations and settings, but that's not to take away from the fact that his characterization is fantastically done.

Ezio is, essentially, living quite a banal, if luxurious life to begin with.꧃ If there were a medieval Rich Kids of Instagram, he'd have been featured regularly, living a life of ease. Yet as events turn against him, he struggles with anger and a desire for revenge, juxtaposed against his former life of largesse. Over the course of three games, we witness him go through a lot, and it's impossible not to identify with him. A genuinely vital figure of Assassin's Creed, Ezio remains the face of the franchise to this day.

For more on this iconic franchise, check out our guide on how to play all the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed games in order. Or look ahead with our list of all the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Assassin's Creed games on the horizon.

On top of Shadows, we're currently awaiting updates on all the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Assassin's Creed games that are in development for all sorts of devices, not just consoles and PC. Moreover, a 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:live-action show is set to come to Netflix in the near future. Hopefully, it will make up for that disappointing movie we got in 2016. In any case, it appears that, while the mainline series is returning to a 'historical RPG' approach with Shadows and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Codename Hexe as Ubisoft ushers in a new era for the franchise, the powers that be are still interested in expanding🍃 the universe beyond video games.

Before we dive into the full chronology🎉 of the entire mainline Assassin's Creed series, we'll be listing every video game that's been released so far ♉in release order. This first list includes spinoffs and standalone DLC releases, too. For the sake of brevity (this will take a while anyway), and to focus on the central overarching storyline in an effective way, the chronological order list is sticking to the major console and PC installments only.

HOW TO PLA🍎Y THE ASSASSIN'S CREED GAMES IN RELEASE ORDER

There are a ton of Assassin's Creed games, so if you want to play all of them (spin-offs and m🌃obile outings included), we've listed them all below, along with what platform you can find them on.

Here's a complete list of all the Assassin's Creed games in release order:

• Assassin's Creed (2007) – PC, PS3, Xbox 360
• Assassin's Creed: Altaïr's Chronicles (2008) – iOS, DS
• Assassin's Creed II (2009) – PC, PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Switch
• Assassin's Creed II: Discovery (2009) – DS, iOS
• Assassin's Creed Bloodlines (2009) – PSP
• Assassin's Creed Brotherhood (2010) – PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Switch, PC
• Assassin's Creed Revelations (2011) – PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Switch, PC
• Assassin's Creed III (2012) – PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Switch, PC
• Assassin's Creed III: Liberation (2012) – PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Switch, PC
• Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (2013) – PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Switch, PC
• Assassin's Creed: Freedom Cry (2014) – PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Switch, PC
• Assassin's Creed Rogue (2014) – PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Switch, PC
• Assassin's Creed Unity (2014) – PS4, Xbox One, PC
• Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China (2015) – PS4, Xbox One, PC, PS Vita
• Assassin's Creed Syndicate (2015) – PS4, Xbox One, PC
• Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India (2016) – PS4, Xbox One, PC, PS Vita
• Assassin's Creed Chronicles: Russia (2016) – PS4, Xbox One, PC, PS Vita
• Assassin's Creed Origins (2017) – PS4, Xbox One, PC
• Assassin's Creed Odyssey (2018) – PS4, Xbox One, PC, Switch
• Assassin's Creed Valhalla (2020) – PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PC
• Assassin's Creed Mirage (2023) – PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PC
• Assassin's Creed Shadows (2025) – PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC

HOW TO PLAY THE ASSASSIN’S CR♎EED GAMES IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER

Below, we've listed all the main installments of the Assassin's Creed games in chronological order and broken down the timeline so you can get a complete oveꦗrview of the story.

We've made sure that by the end of this page, you'll be fully caught up with the AC timeline and ready to navigate all the different periods in the franchise before you dive into Ubisoft's new 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Animus hub.

Here's a list of all the Assassin's Creed games in chronological order:

• Assassin's Creed Odyssey
• Assassin's Creed Origins
• Assassin's Creed Mirage
• Assassin's Creed Valhalla
• Assassin's Creed
• Assassin's Creed II
• Assassin's Creed Brotherhood
• Assassin's Creed Revelations
• Assassin's Creed Shadows
• Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
• Assassin's Creed Rogue
• Assassin's Creed III
• Assassin's Creed Unity
• Assassin's Creed Syndicate

Assassin's Creed Odyssey (431 B.C. – 422 B.C.)

澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Odyssey is a massive action-adventure RPG that takes players to Ancient Greece and happens almost 400 years before the next entry in the Assassin's Creed chronology. In this entry, the Assassins and Templars, as seen in other games, don't exist yet. Instead, the Cult of Kosmos a♏re introduced as the precursors of the series' bad guys. Players can play as either Alex🔯ios or Kassandra, grandchildren of Leonidas of Sparta.

Odyssey is actually more concerned with mythology and the conflicts of the Greek world during the times of the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta, but it doesn't neglect the ongoing sci-fi storyline that's mostly developed during the modern-day sections. Layla Hassan, the present-day character, continued his story arc following Origins' non-histor🌳ical events and with the help of a new Animus device.

Read our Assassin's Creed Odyssey review

Assassin's Creed Origins (49 B.C. – 38 B.C.)

With 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Origins, Ubisoft and the franchise's creative♓ architects aimed to tell the story of how the Assassin Brotherhood was first formed (as the Hidden Ones) and how forerunners of the Templars (the Order of the Ancients) began to expand their influence as their members tried to control the course of history across nations with the help of artifacts that predated h🃏uman civilization.

The game is mostly set in Egypt during the final phase of the Ptolemaic period, and puts the focus on a Medjay named Bayek of Siwa and his wife Aya. After the murder of their son, a quest for revenge eventually leads them right into a much more important conflict that could reshape the future of Egypt, Rome, and the surrounding territories. 🍸This is the entry that introduced RPG elements in a big way and reworked the structure, which had become a bit tired after years of non-stop releases.

Read our Assassin's Creed Origins review

Assassin's Creed Mirage (861 – 870)

Originally envisioned as an expansion for Valhalla, 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Mirage continues the modern-day story of the three previous games (in order of release) while taking the players back to 9th-century Baghda🅷d during the Islamic Golden Age. The story focuses on Basim Ibn Ishaq, a character first introduced in Valhalla, as he went from street thief to key member of the Hidden Ones.

The RPG elements were aggressively dialed down in this entry, with the focus put back on stealth, parkour, and assassination mechanics that tried to replicate the style of early installments. It also downplayed the modern-day sci-fi storyline despite some ominous teases about what's🐼 next. The lower price tag and overall size also translated into a far tighter narrative experience for players who thought Origins, Odyssey, and 🅷Valhalla had taken things a bit too far into sprawling open-world RPG territory.

Read our Assassin's Creed Mirage review

Assassin's Creed Valhalla (872 – 878)

While 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Valhalla isn't entirely set in the British Isles during the Viki🐟ng expansion, its main goal was to let longtime players, as well as newcomers, experience a big 'Viking fantasy' while pushing the Assassin-Templar plot forward alongside the modern-day s🅠toryline. Eivor Varinsdottir (man or woman) is the main character, with Layla Hassan still around in the present-day sections.

Needless to say, this third 'historical RPG' entry also explored Norse mythology in the same way Odyssey and Origins h🐭ad done so with their respective settings. Still, clashes between the Vikings looking for a new home and the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms are front and center alongside the Assassin-Templar narrative. And, of course, a more seasoned Basim shows up to guide Eivor into a war that's been happening in the shadows.

Read our Assassin's Creed Valhalla review

Assassin's Creed (1191)

The action-adventure game that started it all was mainly set in 1191, during the times of the Third Crusade in the Holy Land. However, the modern-day storyline was also there from the very beginning and followed regular guy (as far as he knows) Desmond Miles as he's pulled in☂to the Assassin-Templar conflict that's been raging for generations. In the 1191 story, Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad is our guy, and unlike other protagonists, he's quite good at his murderous job when we meet him.

Aജssassin's Creed also hit the ground running when it came to the whole 'powerful artifacts of unknown origin' plot that fed into the modern-day storyline. This was perhaps Ubisoft and the developers' master stro🍒ke when it came to the marketing campaign, as the whole 'genetic memory' and Animus layer of the game was kept mostly a secret until launch.

Assassin's Creed II (1476 – 1499)

The 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:second Assassin's Creed game is set roughly 300 years after the original and introduces Ezio Auditore da Firenze, the most developed protagonist in the entire series. During the modern-day sections, players continued to control Desmond Miles as he uncovered mor⛄e secrets of the Assassin-Templar conflict and what they𓆉 were after. In the past, a young Ezio sought revenge against the killers of his father and brothers while learning about the Brotherhood and its bigger-than-life goals.

The centralಞ narrative takes place in the middle of the Renaissance period in Italy, with Florence and Venice among the many settings that were painstakingly recreated for the game. When it came to systems and mechanics, it was also far meatier than the original and established a richer open-world structure that subsequent entries would upgrade for years.

Read our Assassin's Creed 2 review

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood (1499 – 1507)

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood shocked and wowed everyone back in the day because it was a direct continuation of AC2 that no one was expecting and because it actually had lots of new ideas to add to the pile. While some locations from its predecessor returned, the main setting was Rome, where the local Assassins Guild needed a bit of help dealing with the Borgia 🌸family. At the same time, the Italian Wars raged in the background.

Meanwhile, in the present day🎀, Desmond Miles learns of an impending apocalypse that could be stopped with the help of the knowledge left behind by an ancient race that was in contact with the first humans. By this point, the modern-day storyline kind of goes off the rails, and despite some compelling ideas, the general consensus is that it never got back on its feet.

Read our Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood review

Assassin's Creed Revelations (1511 – 1512)

After a small time jump after the ending of Brotherhood, Assassin's Cree🌳d Revelations takes place over the span of two years. An older Ezio travels to Constantinople to find the keys needed to access Altaïr's library while dealing with the pesky Byzantine Templars during the Ottoman war of succession between Ahmed and Selim, sons of Bayezid II.

Revelations' was characterized by a deeper, more emotional story that connected Ezio to both the Brotherhood's past and Desmond in the fu🅘ture. Not all of its plot beats land, but it was a more concise and slightly dialed-down effort after Bro✃therhood to wrap up this story arc in a more mature way. Since most long-time fans of the series still regard Ezio as the main protagonist of the story, we'd say Ubisoft succeeded here.

Read our Assassin's Creed Revelations review

Assassin's Creed Shadows (1579)

The latest mainline Assassin's Creed entry is set in a familiar feudal Japan scenario. More specifically, it begins during the Azuchi-Momoyama period, which marked the end of the Sengoku period. 🌳If you aren't familiar with Japanese history, let's just say this was an intensely bloody civil war time for the country. We also know Nobunaga's assault on the Iga province in 1581 factors into the plot, but we've yet to learn when the full tale ends.

澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows lets players explore central Japan, with regions like Kyoto, Kobe, and Osaka 🍌available. It's also the first installment since Syndicate that allows players to seamlessly contr🌱ol two characters over the course of the same playthrough: Fujibayashi Naoe, a female shinobi, and Yasuke, the legendary African samurai who served Oda Nobunaga. Of course, expect more on the Assassin-Templar conflict.

Read our Assassin's Creed Shadows review

Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (1715 – 1722)

While most people refer to it as simply Black Flag, Assassin's Creed IV is a prequel to III, actually. The story ta꧅kes place during the Golden Age of Piracy in the West Indies. This one was a fantastic pirate simulator first and a standard AC entry second, which may explain why it continues to be a fan favorite after more than a decade. Barely any modern-day narrative in this one, too.

The protagonist is Edward Kenway, grandfather of AC3's Connor an🎶d, of course, father of Templar antagonist Haytham Kenway. For the most part, Black Flag is the story of a Welsh man who wants to go home after getting more adventures than he bargained for. As for the main cities, you have Havana, Nassau, and Kingston to explore (plus a whole lot ꧅of open sea and small islands).

Read our Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag review

Assassin's Creed Rogue (1752 – 1776)

Assassin's Creed Rogue had somethi𝄹ng rather interesting to present with its twist on the Assassin-Templar conflict. The main character is an Irish💜 American privateer named Shay Patrick Cormac, who goes from Assassin to Templar after rejecting some of the Brotherhood's tactics. Haytham Kenway also shows up and guides him past a certain point.

The story takes place before and during the French and Indian War which had the North American colonies of the British Empire fighting those of the French. Ship-based naval exploration – in the western North Atlantic – was kept around, but the main 'land maps' (New York City and the River Valley) are equally important locations in the game. The final twist is that, in 1776, Shay murder꧃s the Assassin Charles Dorian, father of Unity's protagonist Arno, in France.

Read our Assassin's Creed Rogue review

Assassin's Creed III (1754 – 1783)

澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed III follows both Haytham Kenway and his son Ratonhnhaké:ton (aka Connor), though the main player char𒁏acter is the latter, who joins the Assassins to both protect the Native American lands and avenge his mother's death. O🧜f course, he's soon dragged into a much larger conflict that’s also part of the big American Revolution.

The story is developed over the course of nearly three decades and is mostl⛎y told from Connor's confused perspective. While much of the story takes place in the Frontier, Boston, and New York City, as well as settlements, can be explored. Meanwhile, the preꦜsent-day storyline that follows Desmond Miles comes to an abrupt end which paved the way for the series' future... but disappointed most fans in the process.

Read our Assassin's Creed III review

Assassin's Creed Unity (1776 – 1794)

Assassin's Creed Unity, an initially divisive entry that has been reevaluated in recent times, kicks off in Versailles in 1776 when🍌 Arno Dorian's father is murdered, and he's left an orphan. The funny thing is that he's adopted by François de la Serre, the French Grand Master of the Templars. No more spoilers here, but things take a turn in 1789 and Arno eventually becomes a member of the Assassin Brotherhood.

Unity allows players to explore Paris and its surroundings during the🧸 French Revolution, while the modern-day storyline was... almost nonexistent. Black Flag and Rogue kept it to a minimum after the post-AC3 backlash, but it was Unity (and Syndicate) that dialed it down until Origins came along with a new storyꦐ arc.

Read our Assassin's Creed Unity review

Assassin's Creed Syndicate (1868)

Last but not least, we have 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Syndicate, which explores London in 1868 as the Second In𒁏dustrial Revolution explodes. Like in Shadows, the player controls two canon characters, twin Assassins Evie and Jacob Frye, who unsurprisingly get into a lot of trouble and are thrown into an Assassin-Templar conflict which has a much bigger reach than what they knew at first.

The story was fairly straightforward in this one, but both the setting and the dynamics between the twins (each with a distinct pl꧅aystyle) shined. Theꦆre was, however, a major wrinkle in the form of 'time anomalies' that transported players (and the present-day Animus user) to the time of World War I, when Lydia Frye, Jacob's granddaughter, defended London from German spies.

Read our Assassin's Creed: Syndicate review

Want more on this iconic series? Check out our ranking of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Assassin's Creed games and the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Assassin's Creed protagonists. Or read our guide on all the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Ubisoft games heading our way.

If you read my last sartorial tirade – a piece I've affectionately nicknamed 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Fashion's Creed – you'll know that looks matter to me. That makes transmog a key area of interest in Assassin's Creed Shadows. Blissfully, my silent prayers and not-so-silent grumblings have been heard by Ubisoft, as stipulated in a recent . I'm delighted to report that the the upcoming adventure in Japan has finally addressed one of my 🍃biggest pet peeves about the lastജ two games.

Sling your hook

Ubisoft has been trying for years to nail transmog since it added it to 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Odyssey post-release, and to be honest, the last couple of attempts have fallen flat by my estimation. There's something fundamentally upsetting about schlepping Basim to a blacksmith in 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Mirage all the time for the gift of altering his weapon appearance, but I was even more irritated about having to journey back to Ravensthorpe to change Eivor's hairdo in 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Valhalla. What, you're telling me a Viking can't💜 use the flat si♛de of her axe as a mirror and get a little creative?

The hassle of having to flit from pillar to post in the name of the drip has long burdened my impatient shoulders. Worse still, having to pa🐟y a blacksmith for the pleasure felt ludicrously unfair in Valhalla, though I believe Mirage righted that financial wrong. Still, the latest revelation about Shadows' , with it set to combine the best of Valhalla's base-building elements with Odysseꦑy's inventory immediacy to create the perfect amount of optional realism.

To unlock transmog in Shadows, as detailed in the Ubisoft announcement above, you "simply need to build the Forge in the Hideout" – but instead of having to visit it all the time like you had to in Valhalla, placing the building allows you to swap out both clothing and weapon appearances via the inventory screen. It's a neat trick I loved about Odyssey, even if it's less steeped in immersion, and I was devastated to find that Valhalla did away with it. Shadows looks to rectify that by tying transmog to something else rooted in the more creative side of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Assassin's Creed games – in my mind, it's the perfect middle ground.

The more sophisticated implementation of transmog is inherently linked to the importance of Shadows' huge improvements to the base-building systems of Valhalla. Sure, it was satisfying to see Ravensthorpe grow into a thriving town-stead, but with a grid-based building system, placeable animals, and more nuanced construction methods like creating corridors and themed rooms, it looks like 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Shadows' "fu✤lly customizable sandbox" Hideout is going full Sims 4. With so much to see, do, and create, this might actually sway me from my constant need for immediate gratification in video games – including and especially regarding RPGs – so much so that I actually want to visit my forge in person to swap out Yasuke an꧋d Naoe's appearances.

Ok, that's a bit of a stretch, even for me. But the moral of the story is that the element of choice is a profoundly important one when it comes to letting players interact with as much or as little of the more robust RPG systems out there. Here's hoping that Ubisoft has landed on a goldmine that will go on to influence something similar in 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Assassin's Creed games like the reportedly witch trials-themed, 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Codename Hexe. A spooky, sprawling coven hideout with a built-in wardrobe for all my transmog needs? Count me every bit in.

A fan of the stealthy series and looking for something to play while you wait for Shadows? Check out our pick of the best 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:games like Assassin's Creed.

Assassin's Creed Shadows update roadmap

Ubisoft has unveiled new post-launch content plans for Year 1 of Assass𝓰in’s Creed Shadows, which include new quests, parkour improvements, new game plus, and the previously announced Claws of Awaji expansion.

Unlike previous Assassin's Creed games, Shadows will not have a Season Pass which means that these content updates will be free, with the Claws of Awaji expansion (covered further below) and new store items being the only exceptions. These free updates💞 will also be packed with new activities and features, as well as improvements to existing aspects of the game.

Here are and when they’ll relꦬease for the Assassin’s𒉰 Creed Shadows roadmap:

Early May

• First Story Drop, “The Works of Luis Frois”: A free update focused on learning more about the Jesuit scholar Luis Frois, who appears at various points in the main story, notably right at the beginning when Yasuke (then Diogo) is acting as a bodyguard.
• Codex update
• Quality-of-life improvements

Late May

• First Special Collaboration: Who this collaboration is with has not yet been announced.
• Parkour update: New height-gaining back-ejects, newly animated height-gaining side-ejects and an entirely new vertical ledge jump move. The latter is a simple vertical jump that lets bother characts grab overhangs and awnings.
• Photo Mode update: New filters, stickers, character poses, facial expressions, and even ambient music.

June

• Second Story Drop: New free quest and a new 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin’s Creed Shadows Ally.
• New difficulty options
• Gameplay immersion options: You’ll be able to turn off weapon glints, black-and-white ability filters, assassination filter effects, and stealth outlines – for if 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin’s Creed ♋Shadows immersive mode hasn’t been enough.
• Open world alarm system: The alarm system will be expanded to make things tougher when you’re not in a castle – make sure you read our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assas𒊎sin’s Creed S𒉰hadows Wanted level guide first.
• Headgear in cutscenes option: Allows you to choose whether your hoods, hats, and helmets for Naoe and Yasuke appear during cutscenes and conversations.

Later

• Claws of Awaji expansion
• Assassin’s Creed Shadows New Game+
• Community feedback updates
• More Story Drops, Special Collaborations, and Codex updates
• More Animus content: New items in the Exchange, new rewards, and new 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin’s Creed Shadows Projects.
• New rewards
• New premium store items

Assassin's Creed Shadows Claws of Awaji expansion

The first Assassin's Creed Shadows expansion, Claws of Awaji, sees Naoe and Yasuke trapped on꧃ a mysterious is🌳land, the real-life Awaji Islಞand west of Osaka. It will release "later in 2025" and is free to all players that pre-ordered Assassin’s Creed Shadows, but there is still no way to buy it separately for when it launches.

Naoe and Yasuke must reclaim a lost treasure while avoiding traps and ambushes from deadly new foes, the crafty Sanzoku Ippa. The expansion also introduces the Bō weapon type for Naoe – a staff for poking and beating opponents – and will feature new gear to loot and abilities to unlock. Ubisoft says it will provide "over 10 hours of additional content" and takes place after the ending of the main game.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

I get it. Viking fashion is not known for its daring silhouettes – who cares if you look boxy when you're dodging flying hatchets, after all? – but I would have happily seen Ubisoft allow a little creative indiscretion if it meant that Eivor had a sense of style and basic grasp of the color wheel. It's long bugged me, and now, it speaks to perhaps my biggest wish for 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows. Please, Ubisoft Quebec: follow in the footsteps of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Assassin's Creed games and show the chic side of feudal Japan.

A Fashion's Creed

Eivor's crimes against my retinas aside, sartorially-challenged Assassin's Creed protagonists are something of a novelty. It's what gives me the most hope for Yasuke and Naoe's wardrobes in the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming AC game, even if some time periods just so happen to feel more fashionable than o🤡thers as far as the series' protagonists are concerned.

Arno stunned in Assassin's Creed Unity, though it's hardly impressive given the abundance of French lace, satins, and other luxe fabrics on offer to the fledgling stealth killer in the soon-to-be home of Paris Fashion Week. Similarly, the series' 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:most slept-on protagonists Evie and Jacob were allergic to not serving in Assassin's Creed Syndicate, each suffering from a chronic case of fashion victimhood. The only cure? Ensembles as killer as their hidden blades. Evie's Dracula-inspired Bloofer Lady outfit is perhaps🅺 my favorite costume in AC history, as are most of the pieces in the Victorian Legends pack – £8.99 well spent. And let's not 🦂forget Ezio's striking white getup, a timeless epitome of assassin style.

Even Kassandra managed to turn Ancient Greece into her own personal catwalk. I ran a particularly lethal poison build during my latest 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Odyssey playthrough, but thanks to transmog, only the choking plumes emanating from Arachne's Stingers and the acid green-strung Fanged Bow gave it away. Repping for Sparta, Kassandra was a deadly vision in gold and red. You'd have to pry her Amazonian body armor and ta♌ssets paired with the red colorway Ancient King's gauntlets, boots, and the Bloodstained Hood from my cold obsessive hands. I can only wish for the same magnitude of earth-quaking aesthetic victory for Naoe and Yasuke – and I'm not the only one.

Styling profiling

Playing dress up with our video game heroes is nothing new, whether you're a 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:fashion souls advocate or just enjoy 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:super detailed designs. We all like to look as powerful as our𝓀 char𓆏acters feel, and in an RPG, there's something special about taking your protagonist from grungy newcomer to suped-up slayer – both visually and technically – after levelling them up with skills and perks galore. Eivor's wardrobe killed that fantasy for me.

With the exception of unlocking new hairstyles (actually, please bring this feature back in Shadows) it was hard to translate Eivor's growing physical prowess into a visual display of grandeur. None of her clothes ever felt special enough, and while part of me is wondering if that's because they have to look presentable on both male and female Eivors, it robbed me of my favorite RPG pastime: putting together fierce fits. It's a shame that AC's drive toward more realistic historical gameplay risks showing the ugliest parts of the past, and I'm not talking about 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:the gratuitous violence. The bleak environs of Ye Olde England put Valhalla low on my list of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Assassin's Creed maps, and unfortunately, Eivor's bulky fur-lined leathers match that🔴. At least with transmog, I could keep her looking at least a little badass in the Berserker set. Who doesn't love a crop top?

That said, I also recognize that as a Viking, Eivor's clothes had to be functional and appropriate. But fashion can be functional and nice to look at. Again, just look at literally any of the other protagonists in AC history. No, I'm not asking for Naoe and Yasuke to be clad in the season's latest cuts and fabrics, but a little personality goes a long way – whether through more colorways or styles. Evie and Jacob's extensive cosmetic options prove my point, all of which still reflect their time period and occupation. It goes to show that you can stay true to representing a historical era while providing a range of styles to suit how a player might see their character. Sure, maybe I personally wanted Kassandra to look like a murderous muscle mommy, but she also pulls off heavy pla🎐te armor and a menacing helmet beautifully.

At the end of the day, all I want is an opportunity to be stylish in Shadows. It's not that I want𒀰 my Naoe and Yasuke to look like time travelling Barbie dolls. I just want a little freedom to express their attitude – though for a shinobi, black is always in.

Assassin's Creed Shadows is just one of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Ubisoft games on the horizon.

Using throwing knives, I swiftly take out any templars moving in groups of two or three with well-aimed headshots before they can react. Then, I cleanly finish off any enemies foolish enough to𓆏 stand around solo with my hidden blade. Disabling any bells as I go, it's not long before the cemetery is as quiet as the dead once more. This mission contrasts greatly to what I was doing previously as Jacob. Surrounded by a group of Blighters, I was instead playing to his strengths by fighting in a way that was anything but stealthy. Throwing fists and landing hits with my cane-sword in plain sight, it was just as satisfying as Evie's covert operation – thanks to the slick combos and double-finishers I was landing as her twin brother.

Revisiting Assassin's Creed Syndicate has made me once again appreciate the sense of variety both Fyre twins offer, and I can't wait to see how that might translate over into the dual protagonist set-up in 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows. But there are also other parallels that can be drawn ꦑbetween Syndicate and what we've seen of Shadow✤s so far that only make me more excited for what's to come.

Two sides

Since Ubisoft Quebec worked on both Syndicate and Assassin's Creed Odyssey – two of my favorite entries in the series – I've been riding the hype train for Assas🍸sin's Creed Shadows since it was first announced. Returning to Victorian London to relive the Fyre twin's gang-laden, carriage-rid🎃ing adventures just reaffirms my excitement. Not only does it serve as a reminder of how downright fun a dual-protagonist set up can be, but it also has me looking forward to see how the studio is bringing the 10 years of experience it's garnered since Syndicate to bring us a new, updated take on the feature in feudal Japan.

Right away, it's not hard to see the similarities between the Frye twins and Naoe and Yasuke. With Noae being a shinobi who 🐓goes all in on stealth not unlike Evie, and Yasuke being a samurai who's more combat-focused which is akin to Jacob, both lean into different strengths and abilities. I always liked how Assassin's Creed Syndicate often gives you free rein to decide which twin you want to play as, but there are certain quests that require either twin, and it always felt like it offered up variety in terms of your approach because of it. Now, Shadows is also going to give us the freedom to choose who we want to tackle a given scenario with, and I can only 🌳hope it'll be just as satisfying as my shenanigans with the Fyre twins, if not more.

In many respects, the new protagonists 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:feel like an evolution of the Fyre twi☂ns, with their own circumstan𝔍ces – such as the facꩵt that they're not closely related – promising to change up the experience and offer up a fresh perspective on the dual-protagonist setup. And not unlike Syndicate, I can't wait to see how and𒉰 if their dynamic and different skills will offer up an experience as varied as the Fyre twins.

History and hooks

As a longtime fan, I've often considered Assassin's Creed Syndicate my favorite game in the series, and that's not just down to how well it delivers on the dual-protagonist formula. I always appreciated how it explores the history of the Victorian era, its sense of scale, and its satisfying combo-heavy combat system. Not to mention the traversal, with the grappling hook allowing me to 🦄zip up to chimney tops and scale notable landmarks with ease. The latter is happily making its way into Shadows with a grappling hook that's far more physics-based, which again speaks to how the upcoming RPG is evolving what's come before, but I'm also hopeful about the other aspects that spoke to me in Syndicate, too.

In terms of the historic aspect, there were so many collectibles dotted around its setting that would tell you more about the time period, from telling you the meaning of different pressed flowers you find, to showing Victorian newspaper illustrations showcasing different historic events in the city. Even the loading screen – which is now becoming a thing of the past thanks to current-gen hardware – would drop kernels of history. It always felt🔯 like I was immersed in the 19th century, with plenty to feed my hunger to learn more about London at that time. I very much hope this will be carried forward into Shadows, and I can't wait to see how it will delve into the Sengoku period of Japan.

Since Syndicate is just set in the city of London, which is made up of different boroughs, it succeeds at providing plenty of exploration without feeling as overwhelming as the likes of Assassin's Creed Valhalla. With Assassin's Creed Shadows following the RPG route of Odyssey, it'll likely๊ feel bigger than Syndicate in this regard – with the developer revealing it will have a map that's similar in size to Origins. But I do get the sense that it will scale things back from the bigger RPG entries, and hopefully tap into the slightly more curated feel of Syndicate.

Of course, Syndicate offered plenty to do within the city, with a host of different side activit🐬ies to complete that tapped into the culture of the time. Most interestingly, every activity is tied to a particular ally you meet as Evie or Jacob, and completing them will build their loyalty and earn rewards – which ince🐼ntivizes me to do all of them. I'm curious to know if such a feature, or something like it, may factor into Shadows. We already know that you'll be able to recruit people who will also stay at your home base. You can get to know them and hear their stories, but I wonder if there will be other allies not unlike those in Syndicate that will give you a similar kind of motivation.

I know Syndicate's combat didn't click with everyone, but it really did always make me feel like I was a slick fighter. Landing combos without taking a hit and p♊utting different weapons to use always felt satisfying. While the hidden blade has been a mainstay fixture, combat in the series has changed a lot in the years since. As more entries have gone down the RPG route, we've seen fighting that's far more action-oriented, with more weapons introduced into the mix. From what we've seen so far of Shadows, it looks like it's drawing from Syndicate's mix of the protagonist's strengths and building on it between Naoe and Yasuke, while also leaning into its RPG direction by making full use of the more action-based combat systems we've seen in the likes of Odyssey and Valhalla.

I did enjoy fighting in the latter games, but I'm also glad there'll be more of stealthy focus on Naoe's side to offer up a mixture of approaches. And just like the cane-word, knuckledusters, and Kukri blade꧙s in Syndicate, I'm looking forward to seeing how Shadow's arsenal of weapons may offer up something unique to the time period.

My time with Evie in th❀e cemetery and Jacob against the Blighters only makes me more excited about what's in store for us in Shadows. I can't wait to discover how the studio might have evolved the formula over the years since both Odyssey and Syndicate, and how my favorite game may have informed the adventure set in Japan. With only a month to go before we'll be able to step back in time and meet Naoe and Yasuke for ourselves, I won't have to wait much longer to find out.

Explore the future of the series with our roundup of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Assassin's Creed games.

Warning: Spoilers for Far Cry 5 ahead

Planting the Seeds

The best thing about Far Cry New Dawn is the familiarity of it all. In a world untouched by the ravages of humanity for 17 years, New Dawn offers a startli൩ng premise: the Seed family we spent an entire game fighting was right all along, and life as we knew it has ended. So did that make Far Cry 5's protag🐓onist, Rook, the real bad guy for trying to stop cult leader Joseph from saving humanity?

Well, New Dawn sees us step into the silent shoes of another everyman🍌, the Security Captain, tasked with liberating Hope County from a new kind of tyranny. With the Seed family largely ousted and the Cult of New Eden (nicknamed the Peggies) contained in the North, the Twins and their Highwaymen have moved in to make life hell for the recently emerged survivors. The rest of the game feels like classic Far Cry: liberate bases, collect and upgrade your guns, and befriend yet another animal with a curiously cute name for such a brute. Horatio the hog, you are my best friend. It's still a guns-blazing good time of an FPS, as is completing smaller side missions to level up faster, but I think New Dawn benefits from trimming the fat and playing through the main missions almost exclusively.

The๊ side material can feel superfluous at times, distracting us from the post-apocalyptic politics of the region that makes New Dawn such a strong narrative experience to play off the back of Far Cry 5. It also feeds into the key game design element that makes New Dawn feel more like a DLC: there are no territory leaders to dispatch across the map. Rather, Cap is on a mission to gather recruits – some new, some returning – to build up the fledgling community of Prosperity and rebel against the sisters' regime.

In between bursts of play, I take stock of its comfortably average aggregate score on and am reminded of how niche this game fills. As we said in our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Far Cry New Dawn review, "if you liked Far Cry 5, you’re sure to find Far Cry New Dawn thoroughly satisfying." Being so intrinsic to one another, it's certainly not going to have the same impact for anyone who skipped the fifth mainli✱ne entry in the series. But it's Joseph Seed himself that makes New Dawn such a joy to play for me – and when I'm confronted by the Peggies in the game's middling acts, I'm elated to learn that the tortured prophet is out there somewhere, waiting for me.

Sins of The Father

Joseph is one of the most prolific antagonists in the Far Cr🦂y series. I'm not going to spoil anything for those who are still on the fence about New Dawn, but what I will say is that it reveals the many layers of his madness, and that makes it a must-play for any lore fiend.

I consider Joseph Seed one of the most intriguing and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best video game villains of all time, even before New Dawn proved him to be more of an antihero than all-out bad guy. Right from the off in Far Cry 5, I found it hard to hate the guy. His calming, soft spoken demeanor can come across as textbook cult leader manipulation, professing a disarming amount of love and understanding amid all the reliജgious zealotry, but it's an entrancing charm brought to life through excellent writing and voice acting. Even the way his followers revere him as The Father makes sense; Joseph appears to genuinely care about each and 𝓡every member of Eden's Gate, and his relationship to the cult seems even deeper in New Dawn.

At the same time, he is unpredictable and immediately untrustworthy for it. That emotional seduction is what makes his attempts to recruit Rook in Far Cry 5 so compelling, and Ubisoft must think so, too, because Joseph has now featured in three Far Cry games: Far Cry 5, New Dawn, and a Far Cry🃏 6 DLC which digs into the backstories of the series' iconic host of bad guys.

For me, New Dawn really comes into its own when The Father is returned to us and we're reminded of why any of this matters at all. It's a small consolation prize for your Far Cry 7 patience as the publisher whittles through all the other 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Ubisoft games on its plate, but here's your sign🐻 to take advantage of both sister games being on Game Pass this month and get lost in the American wilderness. Say hi to The Father for me.

Here's how we rank the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:10 best Far Cry games.

It appears that Ubisoft must toe the line between two sets of expectations, if not surpass them completely. On one side of this precarious path sits 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Ghost of Tsushima, Sucker Punch's artful ode to samurai action cinema that has long been considered the pinnacle of its subgenre. On the other, 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Odyssey is an undisputed fan favorite among the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Assassin's Creed games – especially when it comes to the trio of existing RPG entries – that has been heꦛld up repeatedly as an example of Ubisoft's finest work. Each could make the case for unfavorable comparisons when critiquing Shadows as either a samurai game or an Assassin's Creed RPG, mounting pressure on the publisher to show how it has learned from past mistakes.

After replaying Ody🦹ssey in anticipation, though, I'm reminded that Ubisoft is already sitting on all the ingredients it needs to come up with a winnin🌌g formula. By leveraging the series' greatest strengths, I have confidence that Assassin's Creed Shadows can blow both of its biggest comparisons out of the water – and it all starts with climbing.

Side questing

It's wild to think that Shadows should have been in our hands back in November. Even after the first delay, I was still disappointed to hear that the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Assassin's Creed game had been 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:delayed once again, this time to March 20, to account for "gameplay quality control." This second postponement might have only nudged it a few weeks back from its intended February 14 release, but I had been so ready to immerse myself in everything Assassin's Creed that I couldn't help but feel cheated. Thank goodness, then, that Assassin's Creed Odyssey is still among the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best games on Xbox Game Pass.

I've spent almost every evening over the last week exploring ancient Greece as misthios Kassandra, playing double agent to Spartan and Athenian alike as I take on each contract with a barefaced liar's smile. It's been a delight to rediscover Odyssey's responsive, reactive open world, teeming with side missions and outposts to stealthily loot and high-level mercenaries I have no choice but to avoid. History feels so alive in this game to the point that I rarely question any of it, turning it into an educational as well as entertaining experience when I let myself get caught up in the drama of it all. But with one of Shadows' biggest gameplay reworks being the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码🐷历𒅌史查询:implementation of unclimbable surfaces to dial into the realism, I'm suddenly picking holes in 💎Odyssey's illusion. As I climb a statue of 🍌Zeus on the island of Kephallonia, Kassandra scaling the smooth, marble curvature of his gigantic backside as if part mountain goat before expertly landing the three-foot jump to an overhang, I have to admit that maybe level-locked assassination damage isn't Odyssey's one and only sticking point.

If Ubisoft wants to capitalize on the immersion factor in Shadows, that process would start at these smaller breaks from reality. Climbing footh🅠old-free surfaces with the strength and grace of an acrobat is one thing a burly samurai like Yasuke might be less proficient a🐭t, while I do hope to see sleek shinobi Naoe putting even the likes of Arno to shame with her parkour. Assassin's Creed Unity had some of the best, weightiest traversal in the entire franchise, and if its buggy launch hadn't soured its initial critical and public reception alike, I think it would be better remembered for it.

In with the old

While I'm keen to see Shadows steal realistic climbing mechanics from the series' past, with Ubisoft Quebec calling the shots I'd be remiss not to once again 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:extol the joys of 🎉Assassin's Creed Syndicate and how much I hope to see the spirit of my favorite AC game in this latest offering. It might be a rogue choice – to anyone other than myself and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Senior Staff Writer Heather Wald, anyway – but I've always lo🎃ved the heart 🔯and soul it exudes.

A tightly written script and impressive vocal performances bolstered Evie and Jacob Frye as they pioneered the existence of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:dual protagonists in the franওchise, their moments of playful back-and-forth establishing reasons to root for each twin for respective reasons. I've not found an Assassin's Creed protagonist as likeable as the Fryes since Ezio himself, which is really saying something considering how fond I am of Kassandra. We already know Ubisoft can hit a ho♛me run when it comes to brilliant character writing, so if Yasuke and Naoe have even a hint of that spark I saw in Evie and Jacob's eyes, Shadows could well become my new favorite Creed.

Thus, the perfect combination of elements is clear to me. Shadows needs the believable weight of Unity's parkour to immerse us, well-rounded protagonists who embrace flaw and brilliance alike, and a world that channels a deeper sense of historical realism like Odyssey's – with a lot of artistic fictional embellishment to seal the deal. I'm more than ready for Ubisoft to deliver all of the above on March 20 – and if it gets delayed again, I guess I'll have to brave 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Valhalla's daunting wealth of DLC to k😼eep that excitement stoked.

Check out all the upcoming Xbox Series X games we're itching to see in 2025

Twinsies

In our hands-on 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows preview, our Games Editor describes the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Ubisoft game as "stealthier and bloodier than ever." The latter is courtesy of the violent, often barbaric nature of Feudal Japanese warfare, which is manifested in Yasuke's combat style as a merciless samurai. Not only do꧟es it make more sense for Yasuke to fight differently from Naoe considering this distinction, but a lot of what I'm hearing about his gameplay is oddly reminiscent of a certain loudmouth Brit.

2015's Assassin's Creed Syndicate is my favorite of all the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Assassin's Creed games, and a large part of that is down to its series-first twin dynamic. Jacob and Evie Frye are both assassins in the Victorian London action epic, but their respective skill trees speak to how differently each character plays. Sligh♈t and agile Evie is the stealth master, her highest level ability "chameleon" being a character-specific skill that allows her to turn almost invisible in the blink of an eye. Conversely, Jacob's skills pertain to a stronger display of force. Jacob can still be stealthy if you play your cards right, but as it comes so much easier to his sister, you can safely swap between twins (most of the time) to plan your approach according to your preferred playstyle. In the Jack the Ripper DLC, a fear mechanic gets added to the mix. Brutal Takedowns replace simple assassinations, horrifying on-lookers with violent displays of murder that send them scattering. It's not too dissimilar, then, to the sound of Yasuke's own "Brutal Assassinations" in AC Shadows that have you "yell to attract attention just before the kill."

With Syndicate also developed by Ubisoft Quebec, it's clear that Shadows is a logical 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:evolution of this twin dynamic as well as that of combat extremes. Much like Jacob, Yasuke can attempt to be stealthy if he so wishes, but each duo is supposed to offer oppositional experiences. The only difference is that Assassin's Creed Shadows simply calls a s🍬pade a spade, removing the gray area between stealth and action as offered in Syndicate. By stripping Yasuke of the assassin shackles altogether, Ubisoft is finally answering a question it's had on its lips since 2015: what would two refined, evolved combat fantasies look like in one Assassin's Creed game? And what if there was nothing stealthy about one of them?

You've been here before

Syndicate isn't the only AC game that's tried to broaden our combat horizons. Ubisoft has been ꦆseeding the concept of a non-assassin ꦦAssassin's Creed hero for years now, permitting greater flexibility and choice with each new game.

澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Valhalla's largely inconsequential choice between a male or female Eivor is down to nothing but player preference, but broad-shouldered male Eivor could be considered far more awkward when it comes to stealth than his lithe female counterpart – though given 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:how broken stealth was at launch, I still think Valhalla feels best when played as a brash Viking RPG instead. Meanwhile, biological advantage has nothing to do with combat diversity in 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Odyssey. Both Alexios and🌃 Kassandra have access to three skill trees – Hunter, Warrior, or Assassin – to let the player decide how heavily to invest in each playstyle.

I'm comforted in knowing I won't have to make that agonizing judgement call in Assassin's Creed Shadows. At the same time, I'm prepared to be much more careful with Naoe than I am with my current Kassandra, who can easily waste a whole Spartan stronghold as a one-woman armored stealth-tank. Shadows looks set to not only demand we think smarter not harder about our combat approach, but consid♐er each character's strengths and weaknesses from a role playing perspective. In my mind, that only makes a non-assassin protagonist the perfect next step as Ubisoft experiments with the series' RPG future – although if all goes well, you'll hear my impassioned Syndicate 2 demands from outer space.

Assassin's Creed Shadows is one of our 50 most wanted games of 2025, and there's more where it came from.

Getting Started in Assassin's Creed Shadows

If you're looking for a selection of guides to help you get to grips with your first few hours in Assassin's Creed Shadows, or just to know what's ahead of you before you even start, these guides below will help acclimate you to the perils and possibiliti🐷es ahead.

• Before you begin: You'll probably want to know what lies ahead on this grand journey, so why not check out our helpful guidelines on 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史❀查询:how long is Assassin's Creed Shadows, or discover what's waiting in the game's future with our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin’s Creed Shadows roadmap?
• Set up and gameplay options: There are several choices you make before you even start playing, based on what kind of experience you want. 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows Canon Mode streamlines the story by taking away certain options, while the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:As♎sassin's Creed Shadows Immersive Mode option is all about changing the language used to feel more accurate to the time.
• Gameplay modes: If you're curious to know more about AC Shadows' options, you can discover to what degree 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shad🌺ows multiplayer is included in the final package, as well as if there's a 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历꧟史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows New Game Plᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚus.

Gameplay Basics and Tutorials in Assassin's Cr💛eed Shadows

Once you have your Katana ready to go, there are many mechanics and systems at play in🐈 AC Shadows that are worth understanding if you want to make the most out of them, not just survive - but thr🌊ive.

• Navigating the world: First of all, our selection of basic 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows tips will help players better understand how they should operate on a moment-to-moment basis. Or for a sense of the scale of exploration ahead of you, our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows map has the full layout of the world of Feudal Japan you'll be free to navigate! And if you're curious about the effects of the weather on that world, we've explained the new 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows seasons system and what it changes.
• Interacting with NPCs: From questgivers to merchants, there are a lot of characters to find and meet. To understand the influence of your words, we've explained the slightly confusing 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Sh𒀰adows dialogue symbols, or if you want to go in as a captain of industry, here's all the best 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows money farming methods!
• Your base and scouts: Naoe and Yasuke have their own lair you can upgrade and customise, the best options for which are laid out in our guide on the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows Hideout. However, all of those will require you to farm ܫhideout resources in Assassin's Creed Shadows, which we can explain how to do. And finally, one of the main functions of your base is as a place to house and direct the new 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows scouts, which our guide covers here.

Equipment, upgrades and character powers i🐻n Assassin's Creed Shadಞows

Now you understand how to play AC Shadows, you need to learn 💙how to master it, and how🔯 to make the most of those you're playing as.

• Naoe and Yasuke: Our two protagonists play very differently, with their own strengths or weaknesses, as listed in this page on the Assassin's🌼 Creed Shadows Naoe and Yasuke💟 differences. Or if you're wondering when you can play as Yasuke, here's how to s🧸witch characters in Assassin's Creed Shadows.
• Levelling up skills and abilities: This game has two intertwined systems for leveling up - first you build up your 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:As🍨sassin's Creed ꧒Shadows Knowledge Points, then you earn the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:𝓰Assassiꦜn's Creed Shadows Mastery Points, both of which have different functions in-game. Our guides will explain them both to you, as well as how you can earn them quickly and improve fast. And of course, what's the best way to spend them? We've listed all the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Assassin's🌜 Creed Shadows skills to tell you where you should be putting all that effort.
• Equipment and Gear: Obviously we've got pages on the 澳洲幸♒运5开奖号码历史查询:best Assassin's Creed Shadows weapons and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Assassin's Creed Shadows armor, but we've also got a page explaining how to upgrade we🐲apons🃏 and armor in Assassin's Creed Shadow so it can match your current level, as not doing that would mean it'll stop being helpful after a while. There's also the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows engravings, which will allow you to customize all the gear you have available!
• Allies and teammates: Not every battlefield soldier is an enemy, as there are six different 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows Allies you can unlock throughout the entire game to help you on your journey! Each has a different skillset, and we've got a walkthrough on how to find them all. Some of them are also 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查꧅询:Assassin's Creღed Shadows romance options, if you want to follow your heart.

Qu🌠ests guides and walkthroughs for Assassin's Creed Shadows

We'll be careful with details here to avoid spoilers, but below we've picked up all the most hotly-demanded guides and 𝓰walkthroughs to help you through the story of AC Shadows, laid out in roughly linear order for you.

• How to retrieve the box in Assassin's Creed Shadows
• Assassin's Creed Shadows Thrown to the Dogs quest and key location
• Which kosode to acquire in Assassin's Creed Shadows
• Assassin's Creed Shadows tea ceremony answers
• Assassin's Creed Shadows confront Otama or Wakasa choice
• Assassin's Creed Shadows Mitsumune location
• Assassin's Creed Shadows Yaya Mitsumune choice
• Assassin's Creed Shadows Kabukimono locations

Activities, side quests and collectibles in Assassin's Creed S🎉hadows

There's plenty of additional things to find in AC Shadows, not essential, but definitely helpful to allow you to progress. We've got all the most commonly requested ones below, as wജell as what si﷽de activity they're tied to!

• Temples and Lost Pages: There are three major temples that we've found give players a lot of grief: the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询🌃:Assassin's Creed Shadows Makinoodera Temple, the 澳洲幸运൲5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows Gan🌠senji Temple, and the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Sꦜhadows Tennoji Temple. Completing each one by finding the collectibles within it will grant you a knowledge point!
• The blocked Kofun: Players who find the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's C🐭reed Shadows Makin൩o Kurumazuka Kofun aren't just struggling to complete it, but to get inside at all! We'll lay out how it's done, and the legendary bow you'll get for doing so…
• Riddles: Random NPCs throughout the game will give you riddles and puzzles with rewards for the quick-witted. If you want the cheat codes, here's the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows ri🐠ddle answers laid out for you!
• Projects and Battle Passes: Shadows' equivalent of a battle pass (yes, even in single player) is the Assassin's Creed Shadows Projects system, which allows you to earn unique gear. If you're interested, our guide explains how it works and how to complete it ASAP!

Assassin's Creed Shadows review

We gave the game an impressive four-star rating in our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows review. In fact, we dubbed it as one of Ubisoft's best titles yet, with author Andrew Brown writing on the game: "This is a titan in the same leagues as series staples Assassin's Creed 2 and Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag – and Ubisoft's best RPG to date."

Assassin's Creed Shadows release date

Assassin's Creed Shadows was released on March 20, 2025. Originally, the game was set to come out on November 15, 2024, before its initial February 14 push, and then a second delay pushed it firmly into Marc♛h territory. However, this is not the end of its development, with more updates and content additions planned for the future.

Assassin's Creed Shadows platforms

Assassin's Creed Shadows is available to play on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X. Unfortunately, PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch players will be out of luck. Speaking of Xbox, if you're curious about the commonly-asked question: "澳洲幸运5开奖号码历ℱ史查询:Is Assassin's Creed Shadows on Gam🌱e Pass", we explain when it might make the jump, as well as what subscription services you can find it💙 on.

Assassin's Creed Shadows Editions

You can now purchase the Assassin's Creed Shadows Deluxe and Standard Edition for PS5, PC, and Xbox Series X.

The Deluxe Edition costs $89.99/ £74.99 and includes "The Sekiryu Dual Pack," "T♛he Sekiryu Hideout Pack," and five masꦏtery points.

The Standard Edition costs $69.99/£59.99. This only includes the base game, so pick wisely before making you🍌r final choice.

For more new releases, check out our guide on all the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming PS5 games and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Xbox Series X games. Or catch up on the timeline with our guide on how to play all the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed games in order.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission

In an Ask-Me-Anything thread on , Ubisoft developer Johnathan responded to a query on 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Mirage protagonist Basim's potential relevance in Shadows. Spoiler alert: as revealed in 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Basim is also the reincarnation of Norse god of trickery Loki, which in turn makes him a central figu𝐆re in both the modern and historical Assassin's Creed timelines. His prominence over the last two mainline games begs the question: will we see more of Basim/Loki in Shadows?

"I’ll try answering this one without spoiling anything," Johnathan replied in the thread. "Shadows wil💝l lay the groundwork for a new chapter of Modern narrative that will be different than what we have done in the past, but that is connected to our modern day lore and will develop over time in the Animus Hub and subsequent titles. The franchise team will have more on this soon."

This "new chapter" in the modern timeline, paired with earlier comments in the Reddit post where Basim's presence in Shadows is again dispelled, infers that we will be getting acquainted with potentially new modern day faces in the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Ubisoft game. Say bye bye to Layla and Loki for now, then

The next part of user ItZ_wArLoRzZ's question relates to the established "Japanese lore from the Transmedia & Side Games" – mobile card game Assassin's Creed: Memories and the Assassin’s Creed Blade of Shao Jun manga, specifically – and whether it will ꦏbe honored in Shadows. In response, Johnathan simply hints that "we’ve had to retool some of the AC Memories lore" to accommodate some of Shadows' narrative.

These changes could be miniscule for all we know, especially if you don't engage with every offshoot branch of Assassin's Creed. But if "retooling" the lore of the card game has knock-on effect𝄹s to the canon timeline, it could be a fun spot for series diehards in search of a new challenge come Shadows' February 14 release date.

For more on Naoe and Yasuke's upcoming adventure, read our Assassin's Creed Shadows hands-on preview

Of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Assassin's Creed games, Syndicate is one of the quirkiest and most charming – and its vibrant characters, missions, and worldbuilding make up for what is admittedly one of the weaker combat systems across the Ubisoft stealth series. It had something of a tough go of things when the game launched in 2015, with a critical eye already being cast on Ubisoft following the painfully buggy Assassin's Creed Unity released the year before. I feel that fact, alongside the constant dragon-chasing factor in the wake of how brilliant Black Flag was, caused many to come down harder on the Fryes than perhaps necessary. But now that the game has received a on PS5, PS5 Pro, and Xbox Series X, as 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:hinted on Twitter back in September, thiಌs is your sign to take advantage of Assassin's Creed Syndicate's and fall in love with the twins' saga for the very first time – or, if you're like me, all over again.

Two for one

If one thing gets you to try out Syndicate, let it be the fact that it helped set the course for the next big Creed RPG way back in 2015. That's because before 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows was a twinkle in Ubisoft Quebec's collective eye, Syndicate marked the first time players got to experie🔥nce dual protagonists in an AC game. 

Fellow Frye enthusiast Heather Wald highlights how she hopes 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询ꦕ:ꦐthe dynamism of swapping between characters is as fun and integral to Shadows' gameplay as it is to Syndicate's – a sentiment I echo, too. From the joint player-controlled protagonists to the return of a grappling hook-like traversal system, these shared stylistic traits mark both games as identifiable products of Ubisoft Quebec. For that reason, Syndicate feels to me like a mandatory experience in the leadup to the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Assassin's Creed game, showcasing the origins of Ubi Quebec's interest in character-swapping🐽 and the implications of doing so on an 🐻ever-evolving, overlapping narrative.

Zeroing in on Syndicate specifically, I love stalking the streets of Victorian London as both twins𒈔 intermittently, getting to know their distinct personalities, strengths, and weaknesses over the course of the game. While I find the impetuous Jacob and his quick-witted charisma far more entertaining than his serious, borderline killjoy of a sister, Evie is my go-to for pretty much all missions – especially ones where I need to be stealthy. The developer did an excellent job at scripting their relationship, the twin's unique characteristics playing off each other and making each of them likeable and important to the narra🎉tive in equal measure. 

Pair that with some top-class voice acting, and you can't help but be instantly hooked by their journey. Would I have preferred Evie's storyline to pass the Bechdel test and revolve less heavily around a man? Sure, but I also appreciate how her romance with Henry Green proves an interesting parallel to Jacob's budding…something with one of the game's most enigmatic, definitely queer coded vill♔ains. But a dissection of Jacob Frye's implied bisexuality is a topic for another day. You'll just have to trust me that Jacob and Evie Frye are a lot more than two wannabe gang leaders; they're fully-formed individuals with goals, complexities, and flaws that had me yearning for a Syndicate sequel before I even rolled credits.

London's churning

The final reason you absolutely need to give Syndicate a shot as a matter of urgency? Why, you'll have the whole of Victorian London at your feet. I ranked it (potentially provocatively) high on my list of best Assass༺in's🍃 Creed maps ranked by aesthetic, because I'm a sucker for a city-based Creed moreso than I am ones set in arid deserts or entire countries – sorry, 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Valhalla. 

Syndicate is the perfect historical fantasy, a reimagining of 1800s London that feels both incredibly realistic in its shades of dreary grey and playfully unserious. You can swing by Buckingham Palace to pick up a mission from Her Majesty Queen Victoria before going ghost hunting with Charles Dickens, scaling Big Ben, and causing a riot at Bedlam all within a couple of hours. In contrast, the must-play Jack the Ripper DLC doubles down on the atmospheric nature of Victorian London by removing the comedy entirely. A veil of dread, grief, and impending doom has been cast ove🥃r the city, reflected not only in the DLC's musical score but the more serious missions an older Evie Frye🌸 embarks upon a mission to save her brother and unmask the infamous serial killer stalking the streets of Whitechapel. 

Even after 100% completion, I still find so much to marvel at in Assassin's Creed Syndicate. It's one of the few games I refuse to delete from my overstuffed Xbox, frequently returninไg to it simply to walk about and soak in the ambience– and every time I visit real-life London, the itch to play Syndicate grips me almost instantly. It might be an acquired taste for some, but here's hoping that my words have been enough to convince you to give the black sheep of Assassin's Creed a fighting chance – especially now that Syndicate sports a buttery 60 frames-per-second to take some of the clunk out of those combat encounters.

Check out the host of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Ubisoft games to watch out for, from Assassin's Creed to Anno.

I was relying upon 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows to challenge my rigid tastes further still. I'm a horror and fantasy hound through and through, so the whole shinobi-samurai action hero shtick never really appealed to me. Still, as I told myself back when the game was first announced: if any franchise could change my mind about how much fun it would be to swashbuckle about with katanas in bulky ancient armor, it would be Ubisoft's iconic stealth series. But now that it's been 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:delayed to the new year, I've decided to take a stab at a certain game that's been si⭕tting in my Steam library for months now. After just two hours, I'm glad I did.

On my dishonor

Taste is a funny thing. I've always prided myself on being the kind of person who makes their mind up about things pretty quickly, because I know exactly what makes my brain tick and what does not. At least, that's what I've been thinking this whole time, especially when it comes to action archetypes that just don't speak to me. But after misjudging Arthur Morgan unfairly all these years, I've come to realize that perhaps going out of my comfort zone is ne꧒cessary.

Avoiding Red Dead Redemption 2 was not a choice, exactly. I just never cared to seek it out, and for that, I am ashamed. In the case of Ghost of Tsushima, though, I have a bit more of an excuse for why I'd never given it the time of day: it was a PS4 exclusive when it launched back in 2020, and I am a proud PC and Xbox kid. I don't mean that in a tribal sense. I was reared on PS2 and PS3, and still keep the former console handy whenever the desire to play 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:one of the best James Bond games ever strikes me. But Ghost of Tsushima: Director's Cut has been sitting pretty in my Steam library s💧ince its May 2024 launch, and now, I'm banishing my preconceptions so I can give iꦚt a fair shot.

And wow, what a shot this is. Where Red Dead Redemption 2 took a while for me to warm up to, the deliberately slow, languid pacing of those introductory missions, I've been immediately taken by Ghost of Tsushima. Choosing my experience mode is the first thing that piqued my interest. I went with Samurai Cinema for an English-subtitled Japanese adventure, which feels closer in line with the cinematic tone I'm expecting. Already, those expe🔯ctations are being met.

As Jin's story unfolds before my eyes, the expertly-written script charting an emotional journey from fearful teenage clan lord to brave samurai warrior, I'm reminded that this is exactly how Red Dead got me. It just goes to show that while the iconography, style, and setting of Mongol-invaded Japan might be far from my usual genre beat, I am a sucker for a brilliant story. The worldbuilding is sumptuous right from the get-go, and by the time I'm introduced to the Guiding Wind mechanic, I already see it as a genius indictment on the necessity (or lack thereof) of mini-maps in an open world game. The fact that the combat already feels🍌 sharp and intuitive to me, as a true-blue hack-n'-slash fan? That's just a happy bonus.

I really have to thank Ubisoft for this gift. If Shadows hadn't been delayed to Valentine's Day, I'd probably have let Jin sit on ice for quite a while longer. I don't know when I'll be able to finish Ghost of Tsushima – in any case, h🦂opefully before February – but I'm proud of myself for pushing the boat out just that inch further in the name of experimentation. That,𒀰 and the pride of Clan Sakai.

Check out these beautiful 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:games like Ghost of Tsushima for open world action-adventures galore while we await 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Ghost of Yotei.

Everything is intended to come together to transport us into what will hopefully be a living and breathing environment. Not only is it intended to look visually impressive, but Dansereau says the open-world setting is also designed to be more interactive and responsive to you, with footage showing Naoe slicing through bamboo, while Yasuke tears his way through pap🔜er screen doors. 

"Our goal is to immerse the player as much as possible in the world," Dansereau says. "So we didn't want our world to feel like a background that has nothing to do with your gameplay experience. This is why we have put a lot of attention and detail [into] our props and foliage destruction so that the player can interact with the world - break stuff, break foliage, bushes[…] because we wanted to support the fantasy of the katana being the sharpest blade made by humans at this time, but we apply the same principle t𒈔o all of the weapons that you'll be able to use in the game." 

Weather and seasons  

The world of Assassin's Creed Shadows' 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:is equivalent to that of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Origins in "terms of play size", with Dansereau adding that the team reworked the setting to a "much more realistic scale ratio compared to the prev♍ious titles" to reflect the mountains within the landscape of Japan that they wanted to capture. During the tech demo, I get to see some of the ways the team is trying to make its world feel mo🦩re alive and immersive, with picturesque environments that move with the wind, and reflect light in realistic ways. As one of the most long awaited settings in the series, it's clear from speaking with Dansereau that the team felt pressure to bring something new and go beyond what has been done before.  

"This time around was difficult, because we knew it was a highly anticipate൲d setting, and we knew that the expectations were very high," Dansereau says, "and so we pushed ourselves, [and said] 'okay, let's do something very ambitious'. So we needed that very strong support from the Anvil team, because they're working end to end with us making sure that we have the support we need." 

The weather and changing seasons are some of the biggest changes introduced to the Anvil engine, with conditions brought on by the weather feeding into missions and giving us more ways to navigate through areas. Every season will have "two steps", like e🅷arly and late spring, and after a certain amount of time, when you fast travel or load, the "the next logical step will be loaded in". As an example, Danserau says that if you're in autumn, then after loading into the game again or another location, you might be in winter. Sometimes certain quests will be tied to specific seasons for narrative reasons, too. 

"The seasons offer the abi🍒lity to go and see the same location in a different season, but also a different weather state, so from a player point of view, it's a different visual experience and also [a different] gameplay experience," Dansereau says. "This, for us, was something great to achieve in a new-gen game. This is part of what's new for AC that we wanted to do. Of𝓡 course, it was challenging because we had to rethink the way we were producing assets and how we rig them to the wind tech that was built, [which] is completely new." 

In motion

As Dansereau says during the demo presentation, "the world is in constant motion", and the wind tech is a big part of that. I watch as the wind causes rainfall to bounce off of the rooftop of a temple in a certain directi💟on, or richequot off of Naoe's armor as she runs through a storm. I can also see how it interacts with the landscape, picking up leaves or causing snowflakes to swir꧃l off the ground. 

"It [the wind tech] rea🔜lly follows the ♊world in the environment," Dansereau says. "We are constantly reviewing the game, and at some point we were in a field and just looking at the particles, how they were carried over with the wind. They were swirling around, and we just stopped and looked at the game. And we said, 'wow, this is real'. This is what the system is giving us." 

While it certainly looks impressive, I'm more interested in experiencing how all of these systems will impact the way we play. As an example, Dansereau explains that the weather and seasons can affect how NPCs behave. So, if you were to knock an icicle from a rooftop during winter, that will naturally draw attention, while weather states like fog or the day and night cycles will affect your visibility. Guards can even fall asleep during warm weather, and if it's colder or raining, they might seek shelter and change position. Ultimately the hope is that the v🔯arious systems introduced will offer more variety and make it so that each pla🔴yer will have a different experience. 

Everything shown certainly looked like it's capturing the "photorealism" the team is striving for, not just 🧸in terms of how picturesque it appears, but how it moves, and how light reacts in different ways to make it appear more realistic. How it will actually change how I approach every mission remains to be𒀰 seen, but from slicing through bamboo, to snuffing out lights, and using the weather for added cover, all of the new systems promise to offer up some new ingredients I'm looking forward to playing around with as Naoe and Yasuke. 

See what else is in store in the stealthy series with our roundup of all of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Assassin's Creed games on the way. 

Creative director Julian Gerighty and game director Mathias Karlson may be playing Neon White and Rocket League in their free time, but it's easy to understand where their passion for shouldering the challenge of Star Wars Outlaws' construction comes from as we discuss the video games they love, and why. "When you look at Rockstar Games, GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2, they are such works of incredible scope and detail at every single level; they are endlessly inspiring for professionals," says Gerighty. "They make a lot of decisions that you can agree or disagree with, but the level of execution, the level of imagination and commitment to what they are doing, is commendable. You'd be hard pressed to find a developer who, deep down in their jellies, doesn't recognize that." Karlson adds: "Elden Ring is a fantastic experience, and I could talk at length about the key steps FromSoftware took across its previous games to make it the monster success that it has become. But the way you can just be curious, and be rewarded for just following your nose – especially throughout a game of that scale – is real🍬ly very impressive."

Reflecting on the Star Wars Outlaws launch

While I suspect that neither Gerighty nor Karlson would come right out and say it, I think it's clear in Star Wars Outlaws that Massive Entertainment strived to deliver scale of detail at every single level, and experience with the clear potential to become a monster success. Launch has proven to be slightly more challenging, as players begin taking their earliest steps across Toshara. "I'm a little disappointed with the Metacritic; recognition from critics is very important to us, but I do think players are reall𒈔y connecting with what we did," says Gerighty. "We had a very ambitious target, we literally reached for the stars, and I think we were successful from so many different angles. There's a magical, unique experience within Outlaws, whether it's Star Wars or not." 

That it is a Star Wars adventure that so wonderfully captures the definition of the original trilogy is undoubtedly where Outlaws succeeds above all else. Gerighty points to players enjoying the "virtual tourism" aspect as a highlight, noting that the team is happy to see one feature in particular being utilized by the community. "Photo mode can often be an afterthought in development because there are millions of little fires to deal with because we get something that's a little bit annexed, but honestly, it's brought me so much joy to see the incredible images being captured and shared. I thin꧑k that&🍨apos;s proof positive that this is an experience like no other Star Wars experience before." 

There may be nothing else quite like Outlaws out there, but that doesn't mean that Massive is moving on from its Star Wars adventure just yet. As disappointedꦓ as Gerighty is with critical reception, he also understands that there's room for improvement. "I think Outlaws has such long legs that this will be a game that millions of people are going to play for years and years, and we're never going to stop improving it… well, okay, that's a lie, we'll probably stop improving it eventually🎀," he ✤laughs, adding, "but today my mind is not on stopping." 

How about tomorrow? Ubisoft confirmed that The Division 3 entered early produc🐼tion last September, and Gerighty – who previously served as associate creative director on The Division and creative director on The Division 2 – will need to shift his attention soon. "It's been announced that I'm executive producer on The Division, so💙 these are my last weeks [on Outlaws], but I'm making sure that I'm pushing as much as I can. But whatever happens next, I'll be playing it for sure."

The potential for change

Massive will soon turn its attention to the development of two story expansions, Wild Card and Pirate's Fortune, although the studio is prioritizing improvements to the baseline game. With Gerighty and Karlson, I discuss a key point of friction raised in my 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Star Wars Outlaws review concerning some difficulty spi🥃kes and failstates across the critical path. "One of the things we can see through data is that elements aren't working as well as we would like them to," says Gerighty. "One of the earliest missions in Mirogana is incredibly punishing and, for me, that is a mistake – and it's something that weꦑ're going to work on improving." 

This doesn't necessary mean that Massive is going to begin removing failstate conditions from Outlaws' missions, like infiltrating Gorak's base🍌 at the Pyke syndicate stronghold in Mirogana, but the studio i❀s assessing different ways to make these sorts of encounters "more enjoyable and understandable" in the weeks ahead. "With theꦓ Faction district that you're going through in that mission, there is this sort of tension that we want to create, but we don't want it to feel unfair. And today, I think it feels unfair and, believe it or not, that was not our intention. This [realization] is something that crept in in the last week or so, and it's something that we're correcting already for a patch that's coming out in maybe the next 10 days." 

The creative team tells me that it's carefully analyzing data to pinpoint areas for improvement, and ways to ease friction in an adventure it feels players will undertake for years to come. That doesn't necessarily mean that the fundamentals will change though. "We believe that giving players the opportunity to have a stealth appro🅷ach fits the scoundrel fantasy really well," says Karlson, "and I think if stealth wasn't a part of the experience at all it would be a very one note game overall. It affords us a lot of width and variety in the context of our quests. The 'don't raise the alarm' ques꧂ts specifically, what we were reaching for there isn't fail on detection – it's implemented in places like the Imperial space stations, where you wouldn't want the whole station to be on alert, so we think that's an intuitive fail state." 

Karlson says Massive spent a lot of time trying to get these missions right, where Kay Vess is able to exist on the knife's edge of detection and quickly work to diffuse a situation before an alert is raised with things like the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Star Wars Outlaws Fast Talk ability. "We really tried to create that💫 fun suspense zone where it could tip all the🎃 way into failure, where you have many ways of dealing with the situation. However, if that turns out to not connect with its current tuning with enough people, then that's something we take very seriously, so we'll consider changing it." 

Gerighty⭕ adds: "If you're going into an Empire-controlled area, coming out of your ship all guns blasting, that, narratively, doesn't quite fit the generosity that we'd love to allow – Mathias and I are 100% believers in player agency, and your ability to make decisions." It's an interesting point which speaks to the complexity of building an adventure in the Star Wars universe, one which isn't as inherently free-flowing as experienc🎶es like the aforementioned Red Dead Redemption 2. "I think once the world opens up, you get a lot more freedom. It's just these moments where we're trying to convey that aspect of you being a scoundrel against 1000 Stormtroopers, so what are you going to do?" 

That natural c🥃onflict between fantas🥂y and freedom is clearly something that Massive has spent years trying to work around, and there's no easy fix – not in a game which has already shipped, which the studio isn't treating as a live service. But that isn't to say that Gerighty isn't thinking about subtle ways the studio could make shifts to open up sections to broaden the avenues of play in future patches. "To be honest, if you tell me today – and, okay, I'd also have to look at the metrics and data – that there's a blocker for people enjoying the game then we're going to tweak the narrative context." 

As for what that would look like in reality? Gerighty holds a preten꧟d microphone to his mouth and muffles his voice to mimic that of a tannoy announcement. "So, the Stormtroopers have gone down to Toshara, and now we only have a skeleton crew on site," Gerighty laughs, as he sets the metaphorical microphone down on the table, illustrating one way Massive could facilitate more opportunities for loud action in spaces once designed for stealth and subterfuge. "The context would change, just so that we can get people to enjoy these moments as much as possible. We're not married to that concept," he says, speaking to the failstate systems currently in place, "It's something that we wanted to do, but if it isn't working,▨ and if the data supports it – not just anecdotal, your experience or my experience – then we'll absolutely come back to these moments. We're not precious about those things."

Looking to the future

It's been a long road for Massive Entertainment to get here, and there's still a little distance it wants to cover still. Karlson says it's strange to reflect on the earliest days of the project, and the challenges that all of the Ubisoft teams navigated across its development. "We went from, okay this is actually happening, to establishing the core fantasy that we wanted to bring to life, and then the pandemic came along. That was unexpected, and of course brought new challenges. But the way this team was able to come together and make the project take off under those circumstances, and the adaptations we had to make along the way to make it happen, is a testament to the team, and the passion that everyone had for both the IP and the fantasy we were going for. Everyone in the team has always said that they could see so clearly what the target was; every game production is a long journey of a million𒐪 little hurdles to get towards that point, but as long as you know where you're walking you can keep walking even in difficult circumstances."

Looking to the future of the Star Wars Outlaws world, Gerighty says: "I'm feeling pretty good about it!" Getting either Gerighty or Karlson to comment beyond that on the potential for a sequel is more challenging than making the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs, especially because the pair s𒁃till have plenty of work to complete. "I'm still working on it, Mathias is still working on it – we're pushing a lot of improvements," says Ger🍒ighty."Not just on the base game, but it's things that we're going to deliver later this year and next with the downloadable episodes we're creating. They are heavily themed, pushing a certain aspect of the game that we have even further."

"The first [Wild Card] is all about 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Sabacc in Star Wars Outlaws, so we're going to build on that and make something that has a really strong Sabacc theme. And the next [A Pirate's Fortune] features Hondo Ohnaka from the animated shows – he's a legendary pirate, a great character, and super humorous. That is space piracy focused and really pushing the space aspect – we would have loved to spend more time in space in Outlaws. There's so much mo🐻re for us to do the༺re. We've got such a great system, there's a great foundation. It's not as easy as it looks, because everything is level designed and that's a lot of work, but there's so much we can do there," says Gerighty, adding: "I'm still working on it, Mathias is still working on it – we're pushing a lot of improvements. We just don't want to let it go. They're going to have to kick us out the door!" 

With the chance🅘 to create a fresh experience that plays around with the "Han Solo archetype", the team set out to craft a story that could "combine LucasFilm's great history of storytelling with Massive's ability to craft open-worlds" through the lens of an up-and-coming thief who's🎃 trying to find her own way. 

"It was crucial to us that Star Wars Outlaws is not a story about the Rebel Alliance. It's not a story about the Empire. It's the story of a scoundrel🧜, a thief, a hustler, an outlaw, it is the story of Kay Vess," Khavari says. "And that feel, that tone, that aesthetic, that perspective, was absolutely crucial in forming the character of Kay Vess. So who is Kay? Well, she's a rookie taking her first steps into the greater galaxy, she's absolutely a dreamer. Someone who has big dreams and high hopes to land a score that is going to set her and Nix up for life. 🐽And like any great scoundrel she takes risks, rolls the dice. And that is the only way really to succeed in the Star Wars underworld." 

Entering an era 

Once the team decided on exploring a scoundrel story in Outlaws, one of the first hurdles was determining where it would sit in the Star Wars timeline. Khavari explains that it was i𓆏mportant to figure out the era early on, since "every era has its own tone, its own set of characters, and its own aesthetic" they would need to try and capture. After meeting with LucasFilm Games at the start of the project, the suggestion was made that the turbu🎃lent period of time between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi would be perfect.

"That one year gap, where the Empire is at its absolute height of power," Khavari says, "but it's a bit distracted by this vigilante Rebellion, and𓂃 the underworld really is thriving. And so that felt like a really, really good period to base our game and our story." 

Not unlike Massive's approach to the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:open-wo🔴rld design of Star Warಌs Outlaws, the narrative team also looked beyond the original trilogy for inspiration to craft the story. "We wanted to go♓ a bit further," Khavari says, "in that both these films, Empire and Return the Jedi, were blueprints [for] aesthetic and tone. But we actually delved a little bit further into the cinematic roots that George Lucas himself used." 

Pointing to the films of Akira Kurosawa, such as Seven Samurai and The Hidden Fortress, Khavari also highlights spaghetti westerns and dog fight sequences in WW2 films that helped Lucas formulate the trench run sequences in A New Hope. Drawing from these cinematic roots for inspiration, the narrative team created a "roadmap" of ingredients for the tone of the story, with matinee action to deliver explosive action and c🌃hallenges, while characters bring a mix of light-hearted fun and emotional tension. Finally, of course, ther෴e's the all-important scoundrel charm that shapes Kay as a cunning, playful figure who "can talk herself into and out of trouble".  

Story rooms  

With an era and scoundrel archetype in mind, the narrative team worked in collaboration with the whole studio to see what would be possible from a gameplay and technical point of view, but al📖so to develop and grow the s♏tory. 

"We moved into what we call story rooms," Khavari says. "These weren't just writers rooms, which is sort of what we traditionally might see. We actually tried to invite a lot of different disc𒉰iplines to participate in organically growing the story – so level artists, quest designers, writers – [because] we wanted it to grow holistically. And this is something we've been carrying forward quite early in the project." 

"What emerged out of those story rooms is the narrative pillars of the game. These are what we call almost lenses for those o🅠n the team, those focused on story development, whether a writer or a narrative designer, with a sort of view through the prism of fitting our aesthetic and fitting our tone. If you're not hitting three or four out of five of these, it probably isn't going to fit in Star Wars Outlaws."  

These pillars revolved around the scoundrel fantasy, with Outlaws again bringing us into the Star Wars universe as a rookie who's experiencing the galaxy for the first time and "emerging into the underworld". Above all, the team wanted to tell a story with a character who feels like a relatable character𝕴, which actually led  to one of the most engaging discussions in the story room about one familiar face that will be making an appearance. 

"We really feel like Kay is one of us," Khavari says. "S💛he's not part of this sort of bigger battle between good or evil, rebellion a🍒nd Empire. This is someone who is relatable to us, someone that we can connect with. And with that in mind, it gives us a new perspective. Kay is not a character that has ever fought a stormtrooper, and one of the most fun story rooms we had was talking about: what would it be like for any of us to meet Jabba the Hutt the first time? What does that play like when you have no history, or even any idea who Jabba is? And so the idea is that while audiences might be familiar with Star Wars, we get to go on this journey with a rookie who's seeing everything for the first time." 

Outlaw origins

As Kay goes up against the underworld, she won't be alone. With Nix at her side as her partner in crime, Khavari says he's like "Kay's heart" in "a lot of ways narratively". She's not one to trust others easily, but Nix is said to open her up, meaning that "she might have the ability to trust others as well" thanks to his loyal presence. Though the pair will venture to various locations and worlds, the story begins in Cantonica, or the city of Canto Bight, which is where Kay comes from and where she struggled to survive. "This is where she lived in the shadow of the wealthy elite," associate narrativܫe director John Bjorling says, "far away from the oppression of the Empire and the fights of the Rebellion."

"Kay✨ herself is going to be taking jobs on Canto," Khavari says. "She is running out of some marks to hustle, her world is getting very, very small, and she's looking to leave Canto Bight. And when she takes on one job that puts her in way over her head, she ends up with a death mark on her back, and on entering a journey through the galaxy, and through the greater underworld. And what that means is, she's gonna have to rally a crew together to take on one of the galaxy's biggest ꦅheists." 

I can't wait to discover what Kay's perspective on the galaxy will offer us when the Star Wars Outlaws arrives on August 30. The chance to step into this universe as someone who's an underdog, outside of the Jedi, has drawn me in, and I'm very curious to see how we'll have to tackle thi♈s heist – which just may "guarantee" her future with Nix. 

The Star Wars universe has a new moon – how Ubisoft's Massive made Toshara for Star Wars Outlaws, "a true haven for the outlaws and the underworld".

Early on, the team immediately recognized that in order to truly deliver an open-world, they would have to let us navigate through one of the key ingredients that makes Star Wars, well, Star Wars. Space. 

"Being the first truly open world Star Wars game, we of course imagined the different places we can go to, the different locations," game director Mathias Karlson says of the early stages of development. "But we instantly realized that the true Star Wars open-world experience needs to go beyond planet surfaces. They [the planets] are completely central to the variety, but so is space. Space is an equally important part of the Star Wars world and experience. So surrounding th𓆉ese planets are orbital regions, space regions. And we can therefore, as part of this space experience, put one of the most iconic moments literally at your fingertips: hyper driving, hyper jumping between these different regions at will. When you arrive, this is not an authored, roller coaster ride where we tell you when to go to space and how to go through it. It's real time space flight." 

Familiar and new  

I've only gotten a small taste of space flight from my hands-on time with Star Wars Outlaws, but it certainly leftꦉ me eager to see just how much freedom we'll be afforded in these "space regions". But being able to fly through space at will is just one side of the open-world scoundrel fantasy Star Wars Outlaws is promising - on th෴e other side is planetary exploration. 

As associate world director Cloé Hammoud highlights, the Star Wars universe is home to "more than a million worlds", so the first task for the team was deciding what planets Outla🔯ws would bring us to. Using the concept art of Ralph McQuarrie who worked with George Lucas on the original trilogy, art and world director Benedikt Podlesnigg outlines the rules of the design the team followed. These rules draw from movies - such as strong silhouettes, the "3 second rule" (which is how long it should take you to understand what you see), and the underworld feel they wanted to capture. In what Podlesnigg describes as the "cookbook recipe for worldbuilding", the team considered 🎉both the familiar and the unfamiliar when it came to determining which worlds in the Outer Rim would make a good fit for Kay's adventures. 

"When we started working on Stღar Wars Outlaws, it became really clear to us that we wanted to have a mix of familiar planets, but also brand new creations to provide not only diverse environments for players, but also a sense of visual progression", Hammoud says. "To leverage the underworld feeling we needed to have a right balance between human spaces, but also natural spaces. 

"We needed planets to have at least one city to support this underworld feeling and opportunities," Hammoud adds. "These spaces needed to be large enough to encourage exploration, to [be able to] take your speeder, but also [for] traversal and on-foot explorat🔯ion to support a wide range of open world activities. We also wanted to capture 𝓀the scoundrel fantasy because this is core to our game, and each planet needed to accommodate the presence of criminal syndicates, but also the Imperials because the Empire at this time is at its peak." 

Working closely with the narrative team, Hammoud explains that they also put a lot of consideration into what would support the kind of journey Outlaws is trying to tell, which also informed the number of planets needed to explore Kay's scoundrel story. In Star Wars Outlaws, the open-world will be made of "five very distinct hand-crafted worlds to offer new experiences", which we'll be able to navigate to and from as we jump from cities to landscape🦋s and space in our Trailblazer ship. 

Inspirations 

The five planets in Star Wars Outlaws are a mixture of the familiar and unfamiliar. Tatooine, for example, will be familiar to Star Wars fans far and wide for its famous appearance in the original trilogy, while the moon world of Toshara is a new creation to the Star Wars canon made in collaboration with LucasFilm. We'll also be going to planets that have made appearances in other media, such as the frozen world of Kijimi that appeared in Star Wars: Rise of the Skywalker, along with the opening location of Cantonica which is featured in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. The team have also brought to life the jungle planet of Akiva, which has so far only appeared𒆙 in the novel Aftermath.

While Outlaws is set between the events of Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, Kay's journey presented Massive with an opportunity to explore Lucas' inspirations and go deeper than the movies to bring to life both established and fresꦰh locations. 

"We asked ourselves, how do you create worlds that feel authentic to Star Wars, that resonate with fans, because it has a strong community and we wanted to acknowledge that, but also bring something new and fresh to this franchise?", says Hammoud. "So it was critical for us to not be too self-referential, and not only look at the movies and the original trilogy, but also we wanted to do the exerci💃se of going deeper and really 🍃ask ourselves what inspired George Lucas when he created all of these worlds, these characters, and these locations?" 

Hammoud speaks at length about how George Lucas was greatly inspired by the Wild West and Spaghetti Westerns, which informed🙈 the frontier-style design of Tatooine. With this in mind, Massive decided to bring to life some new locations on the desert planet, such as the Wayfar station, which has a lot of frontier iconography and acts as a rendezvous point for traders and farmers. The Sheriff's office is also another spot we'll venture to as Kay, which we first saw in the latest showing of Outlaws during Ubisoft Forward this year. 

The planet of Kijimi, which was originally inspဣired by samurai movies such as The Hidden Fortress, sets the scene for the introduction of the new crime syndicate: The Ashiga clan. The clan was brought to life in collaboration w꧃ith LucasFilm, whose design is heavily influenced by feudal Japan and the creative impact samurai movies had on Lucas. 

With a wealth of differ♓ent inspirations ultimately leading to the make up of the open-world setting, I'm curious to see how Massive brings it all together. I've still yet to experience how varied the Outer Rim will actually be in Star Wars Outlaws, or get a true sense of the amount of freedom we'll have as we go from place to place directly, but I hope the adventure can pull it off. After all, the prospect of getting lost in the Star Wars universe, delving into the dangerous side of the galaxy, and trying💞 to make it through unscathed? Well, that's a more than exciting one. 

Star Wars Outlaws is coming to PC, Xbox Series X/S, and PS5 on August 30, 2024. 

We visited Massive's headquarters in Malmo, Sweden, for an extensive look at Star Wars Outlaws. It's there where w🔯e got n🐲ew insight into Kay Vess, her companion Nix, and ND-5, fresh details on the sprawling outdoor landscapes you'll be able to race across on your speeder, and info into the blaster gun, trailblazer ship, wanted level and reputation, and exploration systems in the adventure. We also spoke with key creative leads about how Massive collaborated with LucasFilm to bring an original Star Wars story to life, how progression is different from other Ubisoft open world experiences, and so much more. 

The GamesRadar+ Big Preview of Star Wars Outlaws kicks off with an in-depth coverܫ story exploring how Massive rallied around a single sentence to bring the first open world Star Wars game to life. You can expect more on Outlaws in the coming weeks, with daily interviews and features covering the most exciting aspects of the game to get you set for its release on August 30, 2024 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X. 

Cover Story

Building beyond The Division

In this video version ﷽of our St⛄ar Wars Outlaws cover feature, you'll learn how Massive Entertainment set out to create the ultimate scoundrel fantasy with ♔insight from the developers and a fresh look at the game in action.

Creating an open-world 

Star Wars Outlaws is set to deliver the "first-ever open-world" game set in the Star Wars universe. Learn how 澳洲幸运5开奖号码🌜历史查询:Massive approache𒉰d crafting its galaxy, in which we explore how the developer quickly realized that in order to deliver a "true Star Wars open-world experience," it would need "to go beyond plane𝓡t surfaces". 

Introducing a new moon 

Star Wars Outlaws will introduce a new moon to the Star Wars universe. Hear how ༒Massive created its signature savanna moon Tosharaꦉ: from its inspirations, the dangers we can expect to face when we land there, and more.  

A Star Wars story

In Star Wars Outlaws, we'll follow Kay Vess as she tries to navigate the crime syndicates of the underworld with her trusty friend, Nix. Discover 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:how Massive crafted Kay and Ni꧅x🌱's story, in whi🃏ch you'll learꦛn that the team used story rooms where they found themselves asking, "what would it be like for any of us to meet Jabba the Hutt?". 

Tricks of the scoundrel trade 

 When it comes to big sprawling adventures, we've become accustomed to seeing progression come in the form of skill trees, XP, and levelling systems. But Star Wars Outlaws is going in a different direction. At the Massive studio in Malmo, Sweden, we learned all about the reasoning behind the decision to break away from traditionꩵal RPG progression feඣatures by instead having us learn from elusive experts. Not only has this been designed to reflect one of Star Wars' storied traditions, but you'll discover how it's geared towards rewarding player curiosity and making every skill we learn "an 🐎adventure in itself".  

Fresh faces in the galaxy

For Star Wars Outlaws, Massive brought to life a fresh cast of rogues in a galaxy far, far away. Learn how the team set out to create new characters t🍨o be very authentic but als☂o very new, with insig✱ht into some of the meaningful details of Kay, Nix, and ND-5's design. 

Making the Trailblazer 

As Kay Vess, we'll be getting behind the wheel of our own ship as we venture out into the stars. Read all about how Massive approached the Trailblazer's design, the unlikely source it was inspire💟d by, and how we'll be able to customize it to our liking. 

Bring your blaster 

As any would-be scoundrel knows, you won't get very far with a good sidearm. From giving us different modules and abilities to play around with, to offering the option to temporarily use an enemy's weapon, find out how Massive set out to equip us with an iconic blaster in Star Wars Outlaws that also delivers "a full-fat shooting exper🍒ience". 

Jabba the Hutt 

What is it like to bring established and iconic characters to life in a new Star Wars game? We sat dow🎃n with Massive Entertainment to discover how the team made Jabba the𒉰 Hutt for Star Wars Outlaws - from old school audio techniques to behind-🐽the-scenes experiences, and more. 

A seamless open-world ambition

Creative director Julian Gerighty and game director Mathias Karlson discus༒s the challenges of creating a seamless open-world in Star Wars Outlaws, while technical director Stephen Hawes breaks down how Massive is trying to tackle the transition fr💎om space flight and planetary exploration. 

Wanted system

In Star Wars Outlaws, you won't just have to grapple with your reputation and the various crime syndicates. Should you get on the wrong side of the Empire, you'll also be dealing with a wanted level. See how you'll be able to "mess with" the GTA-style want𓄧ed system to make𝓡 the "ultimate open-world playground type of self-imposed challenge. 

Star Wars Outlaws impressions

You've heard a lot about Massive's push to deliver the ultimate scoundrel fantasy, but how does that actually look and feel? After 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:playing throඣugh three Star Wars ♕Outlaws missions, escaping Imperial space stations and stealing valuable relics, we quic💮kly fell in love with Kay and her companion Nix. 

Upcoming Star Wars games

Star Wars Outlaws may be the game we can't stop thinking about, but it isn't the only
one set in a galaxy far, far away. Learn about all of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Star Wars games, from Uncharted co-creator Amy Hennig's new venture to Quantic Dream&ꦓapos;s Old Republic-set adventure.

Best Star Wars games

You may need to wait a few more weeks for Outlaws to launch, but that doesn't mean you can't get your Star Wars fix elsewhere right now. And if you need a hand deciding on where to invest your time, use our guide to the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Star Wars games that are still great to play today.

"If you a꧑sk me, it's all in a PowerPoint and magically happens," jokes creative director, Julian Gerighty, of the undoubtedly challenging processes that have been undertaken to shape Star Wars Outlaws into a seamless open-world – one that spans🍨 multiple planets, at that. "But if you ask the tech team, it's a big challenge. There's a reason why very few games do this – it's tricky."

Game director Mathias Karlson is able to speak more closely to these technical demands. "You'll see a lot of pride in the tꦜeam, being able to offer that scale. Not just in scale, but I mean in experience." 

Karlson goes on to describe how this fluid, uninterrupted exploration might feel to move through as a player. You could "literally be sitting, playing Sabacc – you know Star Wars poker – in a cantina in a little town, walk outside, jump on your speeder, drive across a whole world, get in your ship, take off, explore space, hyperdrive to a different one♋ and land again – all seamlessly. It's a fantasy fulfilment we're very proud of," he finishes🌳. 

With no loading screens to break the flow of our intergalactic adventures and all those 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Red Dead Redemption 2 comparisons floating around, Star Wars Outlaws is 𓂃sounding more and more like oneꦆ of the most compelling open-world games of 2024.

Star Wars𝓰 Outlaws is set to launch on PC and current gen consoles on August 30.

From Pax Romana to Assassin's Creed Shadows, here's all the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Ubisoft games to keep an eye on in 2024.

But I'm turning one question over in my mind: why now? As exciting as the prospect is at face-value, Ubisoft taking a stab at remakes could be indicative of something greater. It feels like the series has reached a crossroads in terms of its creative v💜ision, and remakes would offer a chance for Ubisoft to take stock of its roots. This approach worked wonders for Capcom – so why not Ubisoft?

Rudderless

Remakes are an interesting entity when looked at under a microscope. From the players' perspective, it's a chance to see your old favorites given a modern spit and polish – or to broaden the net and bring new fans into the fold. But from a development standpoint, remakes allow studios to go back in t൲ime and get reacquainted with the basics.

While there are many reasons a publisher might decide to remake a classic game, it's something of a canary in a coalmine situation for ongoing franchises. You only need to look at how Resident Evil 6's disappointing launch in 2012 led to Capcom's decision to remake 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Resident Evil 2, the announcement coming three years later in 2015. This couldn't have been a wiser decision on Capcom's part: Resident Evil 2 went on to usher in the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:survival horror remake renaissance, setting new stylistic standards for the genre that the likes of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Alan Wake 2, 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Silent Hill 2, and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Dead Space have followed in suit. In starting a chain of remakes, Capcom is building an ongoing point of contact with the past that can help inform the series' future – and with 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Resident Evil 9 🍬officially announced, th😼ings are definitely on the up f🃏or the Japanese publisher.

So how might this relate back to Ubisoft? Well, it is facing a similar creative conundrum to the one Capcom grappled with some ten or 12 years ago. Following Resident 𒁏Evil 5 and 6, Capcom's struggle to tap into its audience revealed a disconnect between the developer and fans. It emerged as a result of attempts made to edge Resident Evil not-so gently into the action games sphere from its survival horror origins, a move that failed to click with much of its player base. 

Likewise, the Assassin's Creed series now sits at a crucial juncture in its evolution: Ubisoft can keep going "back to basics", as was promised in 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Mirage, or it can break new ground with ཧits RPG entries.

Return to shadow

It's true that you can't keep every person happy all of the time, but with remakes planned in tandem with 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Codename Hexe and other 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming As❀sassin's Creed games that might come next, it could be the next best thingᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤🐲⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ for Ubisoft.

Much like Capcom's decision to step back to go forward, the remake avenue will buy Ubisoft some time to reassess what players want most – and to reorient itself with pl🌠ans for the series' next steps along the way by tapping into what made it special to begin with. 

I have every confidence that it shall. After all, it's not like Ubisoft is known for being rigid in its approach to the shape, feel, and execution of Assassin's Creed. Different in-house studios are tagged in for each entry, a constantly revolving set of hands on deck that keeps the gameplay experience fresh and enables innovations to be made across all installments. Each new game experiments with the genetic makeup of its predecessor, whether that be the physical weightiness of climbing buildings – arguably perfected in Assassin's Creed Unity, and you can fight me on that one – or the ins and outs of its combat mechanics. That expectation does bring with it some snags, thouꦿgh, and it means that the series has always felt like it's constantly searching for its groove.

With 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows slated to launch later this year, we're about to see Ubisoft try and have its proverbial cake and eat it in the form of our Ghost of Tsushima-like samurai action hero and stealth-assassin duo. It's co🐟ol and all, but it does feel a little bit like Ubisoft is throwing things at the wall to see what sticks. Perhaps with the remakes there to keep classic Creed fans happy, the publisher will be able to steer a clear path ahead in good conscience.

Check out our Asssassin's Creed Shadows summer preview for an in-depth look at Ubisoft's next stealth-RPG

I was spellbound. Last night's extended gameplay reveal proved to me that Ubisoft Quebec has truly outdone itself, taking strides to incorporate a sense of dynamic, fluid movement and physics-grounded verticality in its upcoming RPG that the long-running stealth series has been lacking up until this point. But that's just it: Assassin's Creed is at its best when it remembers that it's a stealth series. So why on Earth would I favor Yasuke's tanklike, all-guns-blazing approach? It's just as well that AC Shadows will let you play the whole game as one protagonist, because I'm already turned off from his playstyle. Sorry, big guy, I&apos🐟;m sure you have a great personality.

Yin and yang

As happy as I am that AC Shadows heralds the return of dual-protagonists, I can't get behind how utterly strange it is that one of them seems to somehow possess even less stealth potential than the muscled likes of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Valhalla's male Eivor.

Look, I get it: it's fair to assume on a general level that a typical man has the capacity to be bigger, bulkier, and altogether easier to spot than your average woman. But that doesn't mean they can't at least try to be quiet about it. Even Jacob Frye, one half of Ubi Quebec's last male-female protagonist duo inꦆ Assassin's Creed Syndicate𝐆, knew how to pull his hood up and keep that lip zipped. 

Almost every other Assassin's Creed lead, bar a scant three, has managed to pull off being both male and a master of the shadows. There's probably potential for Ya♑suke to hide menacingly around a blind corner and pounce on a target, but right now, I have my concerns.

Storming down the streets of Japan, Yasuke is anything but a stealthy assassin. Nor is he trying to be one; the towering samurai confronts his foes head-on, either with a skull-bashing kanabo in hand or the glinting blade of his katana. While this does fit the physicality of a samurai more closely, and while it's excellent to see the first Black protagonist in an AC game being such a powerhouse, it does mean that players eager to step into Yasuke's historical shoes as Japan's legendary African warrior will be locked into a playstyle that deviates so markedly from the core tenet⭕s of Assassin's Creed.

It certainly sets Yasuke aside from your average Assassin's Creed protagonist in terms of functionality, pitting him more fairly against the likes of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Nioh 2 and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Ghost of Tsushima as a samurai action hero rather than the Ezios and Altairs of the gaming world. Don't get me wrong – he does look very handy with a sword, and those nasty finisher animations are a thing of beauty. It's just that Yasuke now has two sets of expectations to meet: those of Assassin's Creed as a series, and the worryingly high bar that has been set by the smaller host of truly excellent sa🌸murai action games of recent years. 

Much like Yasuke's broad figure blocking the narrow alley ahead, there's no way of getting around those standards and how much they oppose the ones set by the series' classic model. With one of AC Valhalla's most common player complaints falling along similar lines – essentially that it's a great Viking RPG, but a bad Assassin's Creed game – I'm interested to see how the community receives yet another brash warrior being added to the roster. It's just as well that he has a little help from his partner in crime: 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:stealth queen Naoe.

Girl power

On the other side of the coin, we have Naoe. Quick and lethal, I'm already seeing her ꦓas the unofficially-off🐓icial main character of Assassin's Creed Shadows; she's the one who seems to be an actual assassin, after all, hidden blades and everything.

Gameplay wise, it looks like Naoe could deliver a wholly satisfying Assassin's Creed experience perfectly well all on her own, even without Yasuke providing a different approach and perspective. I know there is a lot more to him from a narrative standpoint, but given the publisher's track record, I can't help but feel that Ubisoft is shying away from letting Naoe take the spotlight, flirting with the idea of presenting the first solo female hero in an Assassin's Creed game before ultimately chickening out. With both characters offering their respective pros and cons, I am thankful that it's not a case of reskinning the same archetype. It should definitely be celebrated that a Black man is playing such a pivotal part in an AC game, but I am so ready to see women take a similarly unapologetic role in my favorite stealth game series next – and if the rumors hold water, perhaps 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed: Codename Hexe will do the honors

I've clearly already picked my Assassin's Creed Shadows main. That said, I am aware that the main story details will implicate both characters and their overlapping arcs in meaningful ways, with Yasuke being a key player given his 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:real-world context to further enrich the🍷 historical adventure with political intrigue, faithfully detailed world design, and the series' signature blend of stealth action meets narrative density. Maybe I'll change my mind on this when I actually get to play the game, and I'm sure I'll find the different playstyles useful at different moments, but I only hope that Naoe isn't expected to play second-fiddle in terms of who gets a bigger slice of the storyline pie. And please, Ubisoft: don't do an Evie Frye on me by making Naoe's all about some dude she supposedly has 🐷a crush on.

There are plenty of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Ubisoft games to get hyped for, from Anno 117: Pax Romana to a Prince of Persia remake.

While it's not always clear what games are actually open-world – I'm looking at you 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Pokemon Legends Z-A (which could be open zones like the game that came before, or build on the open world set up of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet) – I've tried to take a stab at which ones we might see that are on my personal bingo card. So, join me as 🉐I explore the most anticipated open-world games coming our way that I really hope we get to see more of at Summer Game Fest 2024. 

GTA 6

Okay, so everyone is chomping at the bit to see more of Rocktar's open-world in 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:GTA 6. Set to bring us back to Vice City for a taste of the studio's take on Floridian life, we've been briefly introduced to the twin protagonists. It would certainly be exciting to get a more in depth look, or start to get a clearer picture of what's in store - let's face it, it would be exciting to see anything GTA 6-shaped this year after the initial reveal dropped. Will we see it at Summer Game Fest, though? Well, that's the big question isn't it. Rockstar tends to do its own thing - after all, it doesn't need any help drawing attention to the nജew GTA game - but we can still put it on our bingo card all the same. It would certainly be exciting to g💟et a look at its world. 

Monster Hunter Wilds  

As the follow-up to Monster Hunter World, the recently revealed 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Monster Hunter Wilds is the next big open-world adventure from Capcom. While we got a 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:first proper look during the PlayStation State of Play May 2024 showcase - following its initial announcement during the Game Awards last year - it's not entirely outside the realms of possibility that we could see it pop up again during the big summer event. It may be best to temper expectations given the fresh trailer drop, but I certainly wouldn't be mad about seeing more of the "living world" Wilds promises to transport us to, with its vast open regions that we'll get to explore on the back of a new mount.  

Star Wars Outlaws 

As the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:"first-ever" open-world Star Wars game, 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Star Wars Outlaws is one of the biggest 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Ubisoft games on the way, and with a Ubisoft Forward coming our way, the studio has revealed we can expect to see more of scoundrel protagonist Kay Vess' adventure. With previous trailers showing off some of the crime syndicates of the Outer Rim, and a look at how Kay and Nix work together during stealth and combat, I'm certainly looking forward to seeing more of what's in store. Given the game's place in the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Star Wars timeline - which wedges it right between the events of Star Wars Empire Strikes back and Return of the Jedi, I'm dying to see more of the setting developer Massive is bringing to life. This is certainly one open-world I can't wait to get swept up in.ꦉ 

Assassin's Creed Shadows  

Alongside Star Wars Outlaws, we're also set to get another look at 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows, the next big flagship 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Assassin's Creed game. Previously known as codename Red, Shadows is set to take us to feudal Japan as dual protagonists: the first Black samurai Yaskue - 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:who was a real historical figure - and the shinobi, Naoe. With each having their own particular strengths when it comes to combat, I'm keen to see more of Ubisoft's recreation of Japan and its open-world which is said to be around the same size in terms of scale as Egypt in Assassin's Creed Origins. With our first proper glimpse of the game just last month, it'll certainly be exciting to get a better picture of its long-awaited setting as the next big RPG experience in the long-running stealthyও seriꦐes. 

Everwild 

Now, this pick is a little left of the field, since there's a lot of mystery surrounding 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Everwild and whether it actually is open-world strictly speaking. But from what we've seen of Rare's new IP in the past, a lot of emphasis has been put on the world it's set to take us to as an Eternal - a being who has a symbiotic relationship with nature. In , art director Ryan Stevenson described the natural world the team is making as "fantastical and interesting", with some insight into the creatures that inhabit it. So much is still uncertain when it comes to Everwild - with a report alleging it had been rebooted since we last saw the game - but as one of the most intriguing 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Xbox Series X games, I hope to manifest its appearance during the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Game showcase this year. 

15 games we really want to see at Summer Game Fest.

No-nonsense gunfights

This was the year of Black Ops 3, which introduced specialists, abilities, and ultimates, along with the thruster pack to enhance movement. While the latter doesn't feature here, 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:XDefiant factions are essentially specialists in disguise, as each comes equipped with a passive, active, and ultimate ability. While it's too early to determine how these will impact the metagame, early impressions are thaꦍt they're not too defining. Most XDefiant battles come down to pure gunskill: accuracy, reflexes, and having a weapon suited to the situation you're in.

These straight-up gunfights feel immensely satisfying too, which is largely because the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best XDefiant weapons ensure a fairly high time-to-kill. Call of Duty games often fall into the trap of having player 🧔health too low compared to the average damage dealt per shot, which leads to situations where you're being shot in the back and feel like you can't do anything about it when so many players have taken to hiding in corners. On the flip side, you have games such as Halo, where shields make for an incredibly high time-to-kill, and unless you have a power weapon such as the Energy Sword or Grav Hammer, you'll always stand a chance in a fight even if you get🥂 caught unaware.

XDefiant strikes the balance perfectly. If your reflexes are sharp, you stand a chance in practically any gunfight. Thanks to the complete omission of killstreaks, this also means you're suffering from far fewer infuriating deaths because let's face it, while manning the guns in an AC-130 or hopping inside a Juggernaut suit is a whale of a time in Call of Duty,🗹 it's not quite as enjoyable for everyone you're facing off against. Even basic killstreaks such as UAVs can suck the fun out of COD because they're almost essential to use, so everyone runs perks to counter them, and the cycle continues. Killstreaks are hard to balance – we've all been blown up by an RC-XD in Black Ops at some point – and forgoing them is a win for a healthier meta.

Esports adjacent

There's no definitive answer as to why XDefiant has gone down this back-to-basics route, but if I were a betting man, I'd suspect it's thanks to two specific people in the development team. Firstly, Mark Rubin is the Executive Producer on XDefiant, and he previously held the same role at Infinity Ward from 2005-2015. This means he was one of the leads on, at a minimum, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Modern Warfare 2, Modern Warfare 3, and Call of Duty: Ghosts. Excluding the latter, this initial Modern Warfare trilogy is widely considered to be among of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Call of Duty games ever made, and did things far simpler than we see in mor🌱e modern release🦄s.

Patrick "Aches" Price is also one of the developers on XDefiant, and he is an ex-Call of Duty pro player. He competed at the top for around a decade, winning two world championships betwe♚en 2010-2020, and likely had some influence on how similar XDefiant feels at launch to a Call of Duty esports ruleset after bans and restrictions have come int𒐪o effect. Black Ops 2, 3, and 4 are often considered to be the golden games of competitive Call of Duty amongst top players and analysts, and it's a surefire bet Ubisoft will be looking to channel that era and get competitive XDefiant up and running.

Skill-based match making

However, one area of Call of Duty that the highly skilled players love to complain about is skill-based matchmaking (SBMM). It's a never ending debate because when you're in the top percentile of players and you're playing unranked matches, of course it's a lot of fun to be matched up with opponents worse than you. So there are lots of calls on social media for the SBMM parameters to be changed in Call of Duty, or even removed entirely, but it is very much♏ a vocal minority.

XDefiant has listened and heeded these complaints, meaning 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:there is no SBMM o🍌nce you leave the introductory playlist beyond rank 25. As always, the response is mixed, with plenty of the better players online lauding this approach, while the more casual players are f꧙inding it to be more of a struggle. The problem is that while it's all well having plenty of dedicated players who dream of going pro, they'll only ever make up a small subset of the population, and if all the players who only hop on for an hour or two each evening for fun fall off the game because they're not enjoying themselves in lobbies with players far better than themselves, XDefiant's shelf life will be limited.

This could well be an instance of "git gud" for those complaining, but some players don't want to get good. They want to enjoy the latest FPS without running into skill issues and being demolished by players far better than them, which is exactly what could happen in the longterm when SBMM is disabled. After all, there's a reason it's so widely used in other games: the stats for player retention must far outweigh the players that quit thanks to it being enabled. If Ubisoft keeps SBMM on across the board – or at least continues experimenting with it as an option – then I'm certain that this fresh, exciting FPS will have a bright future ahead of it. How could it not? XDefiant does a fantastic job of emulating an era of FPS games that we haven'🍃t seen for quite some time. 

Looking for more games like XDefiant? Why not check out our list of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best FPS games to play today