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Assassins Creed 4: Black Flag |OT| Not Based on a DisneyLand Ride

This is my first AC game, but man, I'm having a fucking blast!

I'm playing the PS4 version, and it's crazy to me that a multiplatform game might have the best graphics out of the bunch. I'm not too far into the game (
Nassau
) but Jesus, when I was walking around, soaking in the sights, and it started to storm...fuck. Amazing.

Makes me wish I had gotten into the series earlier.
 

jaaz

Member
I love the little things about this game. The shanties your crew sings as you are piloting your ship around. The sudden rainstorms. The way Adewale shouts "Captain in the water" or Captain at the wheel" and other things whenever you are performing a particular action, the way the crew cheers when you climb back on board after finding treasure on a little island, etc. So awesome...
 
...but Jesus, when I was walking around, soaking in the sights, and it started to storm...fuck. Amazing.

Makes me wish I had gotten into the series earlier.

This series has always had absolutely amazing environments. The size and amount of detail of their cities is incredible, especially in AC2. It's the gameplay that has sometimes suffered, especially in AC3.

AC4 definitely seems my favorite of the series so far though, but that's because I kind of get a boner for 1700's naval combat.

You should go back and play AC1 and 2. AC1 probably hasn't aged well, and definitely had it's criticisms, but I liked it.
 

Diseased Yak

Gold Member
I really, really love this game. HOWEVER, I literally can only play it for 30 minutes at a time.

Seriously.

At or around the 30 minute mark, it crashes to the PS4 XMB or whatever. Like clockwork. I've tried to "rebuild database" in the Safe Mode. Nope, still crashes. I've tried to reapply the 1.51 patch, which took forever. Nope, still crashes.

At this point, I guess I have to admit I have a faulty PS4 and should return it. The bizarre thing is, all my other games work perfectly, with no crashes (LEGO Marvel, CoD Ghosts, Knack, NFS:R, and KZ:SF).

I guess I will call Sony, get a new unit, and hope.
 

tirminyl

Member
So, I deleted and re-downloaded, for the third time, AC4 and was finally able to get through the mission without it freezing. I am hoping that the third time was the charm. For good measure, I didn't play it while it downloaded. I am really enjoying the game but the freezing is killing my high.
 

Dead

well not really...yet
I love the little things about this game. The shanties your crew sings as you are piloting your ship around. The sudden rainstorms. The way Adewale shouts "Captain in the water" or Captain at the wheel" and other things whenever you are performing a particular action, the way the crew cheers when you climb back on board after finding treasure on a little island, etc. So awesome...
The cheering when you grab the wheel never gets old
 

Pooya

Member
post ending spoiler I think

Is there a way to get Adewale back as your quartermaster?
I want my best bro back :|
 
Hey a friend got this on PC who has the same build as me. With everything at medium levels it looked super nice in the opening boat scene and ran smoothly, then died in the arse in the foresty area. Everyone says it's disproportionately crazy at that point but I don't want to buy this game for it to be chunky 24/7, is that foresty chase really indicative of the game?

My build is!

i5 2500k
4GB Ram
Radeon HD 6900 2GB

Windows 7

I know it's not like top notch stuff but I just don't really know what to expect from it I guess.
 

Eppy Thatcher

God's had his chance.
I could listen to Stormalong John all day and all night long. If i could wrangle like 30 random people together to follow me around all day and "HUP HUP .. Heeeyyyyy I DUG his graaaaaaave with a silver spaaaaade......"

So dope.
 

Sajjaja

Member
I could listen to Stormalong John all day and all night long. If i could wrangle like 30 random people together to follow me around all day and "HUP HUP .. Heeeyyyyy I DUG his graaaaaaave with a silver spaaaaade......"

So dope.

Yeah, I'm actually REALLY enjoying the shanties. Game is quite pretty as well. I love the blue of the waters and the greens. It's all very bright and lively. AC3, while having its pretty moments, was largely bland.
 

GeoGonzo

Member
You know that short cinematic where Kenway puts a captain's hat on a crew member? I smile every single time at the other pirate. He seems really happy for his friend.
 

Barzul

Member
Game is great. Best AC I've played since 2, so much to do. Who would've thought sailing is so much fun. I don't even know if I'm playing a Pirate or Assassin's creed game, because I feel more like a pirate. I'd like to see where the series goes when it doesn't have current gen console hardware holding it back.
 

CrovaxPSO

Member
It's been a week now and I (and other people) still haven't been able to sign in to Uplay to access the fleet and other online events in single player. The issue has something to do with PSN accounts that are either older or were already linked on PS3, since creating a brand new PSN account allows it to connect to Uplay just fine. This is why I'm never a fan of single player content being locked behind some kind of online barrier.

Edit: Talking about the PS4 version.
 

Milennia

Member
Hey guys, for those up to or done with sequence 12 , more specifically the 4th mission,
so how the fuck do i get past the 2 level 36 man o wars? Do i actually have to grind up all of hull and weapons to max? Or can i get past them without taking both of them on... Really frustrating.
 

mileS

Member
Question for people that have finished the game or are nearly done with it.

Have the game for PC, I'm happy with the performance in cities and just about everything besides the forest heavy areas. The forest heavy areas bring my fps down to 22-26 and it realllly takes me out of the game.

Just how much of the game consists of these forest heavy areas or islands. A random % or just any general information would be great. Just trying to decide if I keep going or wait for a new computer.
 
Disabling all HUD elements and sailing around blindly is really cool.. actually looking for things through the fog with your telescope. Saw a ship in the distance barely through the fog, kept getting closer and when it was finally clear it was a huge ship that would have kicked my ass and I spun out of there. Was really neat...

It's awesome. Too bad I'm stuck with a bugged quest marker, so I perptually have this red dot with "KILL" written over it on my screen. :/

I really enjoy the modern time-stuff, too. Kinda weird how nobody is paying attention to a guy running around hacking all the computers, but oh well.
 

phoenixyz

Member
So is the PC version identical to the Xbone and PS4 version? If that's the case I am quite disappointed at how it looks (for a "next-gen" game). For PC gamers it's only a little upgrade from AC3 in regards of graphics and animation.
 

Riddler

Member
Disabling all HUD elements and sailing around blindly is really cool.. actually looking for things through the fog with your telescope. Saw a ship in the distance barely through the fog, kept getting closer and when it was finally clear it was a huge ship that would have kicked my ass and I spun out of there. Was really neat...

I love having no HUD elements for total emersion ,but I use the companion app every time it play so I can drop down waypoints quickly. I might try totally blind when I get to sequence 4.
 

Irish

Member
This title is a pretty nice in-between game for the various subsets of series fans.

I loved this game for the most part and I was always more of an original AC / Revelations fans, but it also seems like the ACII/Brohood fans enjoy it quite a lot as well.

I'm glad the cool, mysterious behind the scenes email shit from the original game made its return here. Those were so boring in 2 and Brohood. I don't care what kind of sandwich Shaun wants for fuck's sake.


Bomb crafting and the hookblade both should have been in this game considering the backdrop. Such great tools. Kind of disappointed you don't get the ropedart until near the end and that it uses ammo every time you use it unlike in AC3.
 
hmmm am a bit iffy about ship battles, but maybe i'm just early and shouldn't be tackling lvl20+ ships with like 20 cannons per side.

Only beat 1 convoy so far because for some reason at range, he didn't shoot me much.

Any general tips for ship combat? What are the upgrades worth tackling early?


oh yeah, boarding is sooo bad. seriously, crew, stay on the ship, I GOT THIS. stop bumbling around physics around knocknig me down etc.

died twice because its such a clusterfuck.
 

Rsinart

Member
I've played all the AC games before but this one.... I am addicted to. Love the visuals on ps4. Ship battles are really fun. Finding myself just going around sinking ships. Really surprised with how much content there is.
 

KingSnake

The Birthday Skeleton
Just started this on Wii U and I really love the places. Havanna is better than anything in AC3 (as long as I could bear playing that utterly boring game). I get the same vibe as for Brotherhood. If the surroundings are nice I can run, jump, hide and kill without getting bored.

Now only if they dropped the boring missions too, I will see about that.
 
Question for people that have finished the game or are nearly done with it.

Have the game for PC, I'm happy with the performance in cities and just about everything besides the forest heavy areas. The forest heavy areas bring my fps down to 22-26 and it realllly takes me out of the game.

Just how much of the game consists of these forest heavy areas or islands. A random % or just any general information would be great. Just trying to decide if I keep going or wait for a new computer.

If you aren't in a city or on the sea, you're gonna be on a heavy forest area/island. They are really all over the game. But most of the time, you'll probably be on the sea or in a city anyways.
 

megalowho

Member
Wish there was some voiceover for the letters in a bottle, like the hacking stuff outside the Animus. The way that text is displayed in game isn't great, just a couple lines and then scroll forever. Haven't read one fully yet, not sure if that stuff is any good or not. Might make me lazy, but I always appreciate extra VO for large chunks of text (Tomb Raider did a pretty good job of this).

You know that short cinematic where Kenway puts a captain's hat on a crew member? I smile every single time at the other pirate. He seems really happy for his friend.
Yeah, some of those little repeated cutscenes are really charming. That and hitting up bartenders for info give me that Sid Meier's Pirates feel.
 

rawktapus

Member
post ending spoiler I think

Is there a way to get Adewale back as your quartermaster?
I want my best bro back :|

I don't think so, sadly.
I thought that was a really dumb choice. I have no idea why they pulled that switcheroo so last minute. It also bugged me that he was so cool with it. Like, it was a big deal that Edward accepted him and made him quartermaster. Was a big WTF for me
 
Am I going crazy or is there some weird blur/dithering effect whenever you move the camera?

Also is there any control options? After playing almost all AC games on PS3 I am having the hardest time running with triggers.
 

MaLDo

Member
Comparisson using 900p, 1080p and 1800p. Low res shots without HBAO+, Softshadows and Enviroment quality set to High. The game has some kind of pre-filter that makes downsampling inefficient. By doing downsampling, you can not get the same quality as other engines.

Framerate in screenshots is not representative, to be able to catch them I had to disable Tri-SLi (with it activated, screenshots are all black) and I don't use Triple buffer because when I usually play with SLI is not necessary, that's why 30 fps appear here.

If someone with PS4/Xone/Wii-u can share screenshots in same place we can see what enviroment quality is used in console version. I think console versions don't apply ambient occlusion in characters, AO produces little black artifacts in main char hair.


1600x900 (upscaled to 1080p) Env.Quality High, SSAO, no soft shadows, FXAA
01-AC4-900pHighFXAA.png


1920x1080 Env.Quality High, SSAO, no soft shadows, FXAA
02-AC4-1080pHighFXAA.png


2880x1800 (downscaled to 1200p, cropped to 1080p) Env.Quality Very High, HBAO+, soft shadows, SMAA
03-AC4-1800pVeryHighSMAA.png


1600x900 (upscaled to 1080p) Env.Quality High, SSAO, no soft shadows, FXAA
04-AC4-900pHighFXAA.png


1920x1080 Env.Quality High, SSAO, no soft shadows, FXAA
05-AC4-1080pHighFXAA.png


2880x1800 (downscaled to 1200p, cropped to 1080p) Env.Quality Very High, HBAO+, soft shadows, MSAAx4
06-AC4-1800pVeryHighMSAAx4.png


2880x1800 (downscaled to 1200p, cropped to 1080p) Env.Quality Very High, HBAO+, soft shadows, TXAAx4
07-AC4-1800pVeryHighTXAA.png
 

Derrick01

Banned
It's a different generation with different expectations, I can understand it.

Were they expecting a cross generation game that came out almost a month later than the PS3 version to be a different game or something? The upgraded effects and resolution are there, that's all you can expect from a cross gen game.
 

K' Dash

Member
So guys, pretty early in the game I was given some info about some Assassins locations in my map, wich I didn't ever see again, how do I access that info again?
 

Bboy AJ

My dog was murdered by a 3.5mm audio port and I will not rest until the standard is dead
PS4 version. My cinematic audio isn't working. During a cutscene, voices are nonexistent. Rebooted system and it works now.
 

Dunan

Member
How do clans work in multiplayer? Do you invite people on your PSN friends list? I'm no competitive ace, but I went ahead and created a clan (called Grog And Fortune), so if anyone wants to join, let's do it.
 

kazebyaka

Banned
Just beat the game on 100%.
9.5 out of 10. Everything is amazing: story, lore, pirate stuff. Main missions weren't as varied as AC3's though and i didn't like that i can't kill civilians with hidden knives.
Collected all chests, bottles and such. Collectible armors are awesome and lore in bottles and computers is amazing. Collecting and reading/listening to all this you realize how vast and great the universe of AC is. Lots of backstory too.
 

Setsuna

Member
Stuck on the ship stealth part theres like nowhere to go and every nook i try to go down the ship just stops

nevermind apparently the solution was to get closer which is counter intuitive
 
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