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

TrounceX

Member
PC version is a shit port but it's still the one to get. It can be had for $20-30 and it looks fairly nice. My rig isn't top of the line but I haven't dropped below 35 fps at any point. It runs around 50-60 most of the time

Wait, the PC version can be had for $20-30?

Where?
 

SRTtoZ

Member
Just picked up the game yesterday for PS4. Am I right in saying

AC1:AC2 as AC3:AC4

?

Feels that way.

Yes. And so far overall to me in the series it goes:

AC2>AC4>ACR>ACB>AC3>AC1

Have not played Liberation so ill leave that out. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed Revelations and Brotherhood but it felt like a lot of the same, with Black Flag it feels new, the giant world, owning your own ship, the Farcry 3 craftables, etc. So good.
 

Lingitiz

Member
Wait, the PC version can be had for $20-30?

Where?

Nvidia codes are going around ebay for around that price and also includes Splinter Cell Blacklist. You can also look on Steam trading or on our own BST thread.

This is pretty usual for games included in the AMD/Nvidia graphics card bundles. I got Bioshock Infinite, Tomb Raider, and FC3 Blood Dragon for $60 back in March.
 
iuvpTeBvffgMa.jpg
(PC)

TXAA seems to blur shit

TXAA is awful. Absolutely awful.

Do you guys find the gameplay repetitive at all?

Yes, it's very repetitive. But I guess it helps if you enjoy the game mechanics. I love sailing around and exploring new areas. Especially when those new areas are really gorgeous.
 
Are the codes for Steam or what? The few sellers I checked didn't say which.


Finding it hard to find a difference in them pics. Granted i'm at work on a 1280x1024 monitor so that might be why.

nope uplay. gmg amazon etc anywhere besides directly from steam, ubisoft games are uplay.
Not really an issue lol. have uplay origin and steam installed. thanks 16gb ram!

And yeah the visuals are pretty close. You can get shadows and stuff softer on pc naturally, but ps4 version is great visually, only flaw (for me) is 30fps.
 

HORRORSHØW

Member
Do you guys find the gameplay repetitive at all?

I've never played an AC game before, just curious. Kind of interested in this one.
I've never played an AC game prior to this and I haven't found it repetitive yet. I'm about 20% done. Sure, sets of missions follow the same premise, but there's enough mission variety and areas to explore that it breaks up the tedium. The game is gorgeous on top of that.
 

Gun Animal

Member
Do you guys find the gameplay repetitive at all?

I've never played an AC game before, just curious. Kind of interested in this one.

roughly half of the game plays exactly like every other assassin's creed, only slightly more polished and well designed. you run around and jump on things and murder lots of dudes who probably didn't have it coming. Lots of optional collectibles to collect.

The other half of the game is amazing naval combat and I'd say the best gameplay experience of the year. The fact that you can switch between these two very different games at your own discretion keeps the game from ever feeling repetitive like the rest of the series. It's basically one really amazing naval game and one ok stealth-action game in the same box.
 

Eppy Thatcher

God's had his chance.
Whats everyone's favorite Shanty?

I love The Dead Horse. Its the one where the refrain says, "And we say so, And we know so, - Poor old man".

Stormalong John or Lowlands ... without doubt.

But the Shanty that Red sings at the end was pretty solid too .. "Of allllll the money i've er had.. i spent it all in good com-pany"... That scene right there was the closest AC has ever been to a tearjerker moment.
Blackbeard :(
 

MilkBeard

Member
Do you guys find the gameplay repetitive at all?

I've never played an AC game before, just curious. Kind of interested in this one.

Personally I don't, because what I end up doing is a lot of running around and finding collectible shit and doing assassinations, while discovering new islands and attacking ships, just basically screwing around, until I've had my fill and then I jump into the main mission again.

For some reason, AC4 is balanced pretty well in this regard, so there's always something else you can do to spice it up.

Oh yeah, and when all that stuff gets tiring, you can rummage around the Abstergo building and hack computers.
 

Paches

Member
Cuba is an island country, so you need a boat.
"Restricted area" means that you're entering hostile territory, not that the game won't allow you to go there. So go to the beach, (the one closest to where it tells you to go to Havana) carefully. The water at the bottom of the waterfall is deep enough for you to dive off the top safely.

Well shit, that is why I didn't go down there, LOL. Thanks for the tip.
 

TAJ

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Well shit, that is why I didn't go down there, LOL. Thanks for the tip.

My sister had the same problem.
I might have, too, but I think they actually bothered to explain it in a previous AC game.
 

SnakeXs

about the same metal capacity as a cucumber
So are the modern day/FP segments not surround sound or is something wrong with me completely? I'm in the real world and I'm not getting speech from my rears. If someone's talking and I rotate while stationary it'll be in the left channel, stay there and then switch to the right once I'm closing the complete circle. Very weird...
 

hwateber

Member
So I am really stupid and I am stuck in the first area after killing the guy and taking his suit. I can't for the life of me "find a way to Havana".

I had the same damn problem. This game really does just throw you in without any real direction (this is my first AC game). I combed the entire map over and over, carefully making sure not to go into the "restricted area." Confusing as hell! Haha
 

TAJ

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Godddd, I hate the fucking sailing parts.

I like them, but I just got to the part where you're required to take forts, and I haven't been upgrading my ship enough.
I feel like I should have over a thousand metal but I have less than a hundred and I'm not getting any from taking ships now that I'm actively trying to farm.
I've even been avoiding the Kenway's Fleet stuff because it costs resources that I don't have.
 

calder

Member
I've played for 35 hours, near the final set of missions I think, have collected a solid 60% of the random shit and upgrades (for the ship and Kenway) so far I think.. time for a bit of a break.

Still enjoying it but I think I'll play Killzone for a bit before tackling the endgame. Not sure I'll bother with most of the collectibles (will have the armor sets, but beyond that I don't care much) but I will finish at least some of the secondary stuff. The thought of getting all the boxes and animus scraps in Havana and the other cities, nevermind the uncharted stuff, is just extremely unappealing. I'll get my last Fleet slot and that's about it I think lol. Still, this game has kept my attention exponentially better than AC3.
 

rybrad

Member
nope uplay. gmg amazon etc anywhere besides directly from steam, ubisoft games are uplay.
Not really an issue lol. have uplay origin and steam installed. thanks 16gb ram!

And yeah the visuals are pretty close. You can get shadows and stuff softer on pc naturally, but ps4 version is great visually, only flaw (for me) is 30fps.
Actually, Amazon has had the option to get Steam keys for a lot of Uplay games for a bit now and Black Flag is no exception.
 

kazebyaka

Banned
I've played for 35 hours, near the final set of missions I think, have collected a solid 60% of the random shit and upgrades (for the ship and Kenway) so far I think.. time for a bit of a break.

Still enjoying it but I think I'll play Killzone for a bit before tackling the endgame. Not sure I'll bother with most of the collectibles (will have the armor sets, but beyond that I don't care much) but I will finish at least some of the secondary stuff. The thought of getting all the boxes and animus scraps in Havana and the other cities, nevermind the uncharted stuff, is just extremely unappealing. I'll get my last Fleet slot and that's about it I think lol. Still, this game has kept my attention exponentially better than AC3.
I found collecting random shit to be fun as hell, just because you get to visit remote islands and such. Just don't forget to gather all chests/hidden chests to unlock best weapons for ship/armor. Also, collect all bottles, the story they tell is awesome.
 

Naite

Member
Man I really need to pay more attention to the popup text. I spent 20 minutes trying to 100% sync this mission near the end of the game without going into combat, only to miss an objective because I didn't see a popup for a new optional objective.
 

LeBart

Member
TXAA is awful. Absolutely awful.

I still can't really see that blur everyone's talking about, if I'm not looking at side by side comparisons. For something that pretty much kills aliasing and that isn't very demanding on the hardware, a tiny amount of blur is a small price to pay for me.

I'll take that over the "flickering" foliage (which is still there even with MSAA 8x) any day of the week.
 
Que? You choose which guns to use with the camera view. Forward is chainshot, side aim is regular round shot, side unaimed is a power scatter shot, rear is fire barrels, and L1 is Mortars. Once you start fighting big ships, there is very definitely strategy involved. (also, ramming)

You can't just slide up next to a Man o War and exchange cannon shots, for example. I have everything but elite upgrades for my Jackdaw, and I've gone after one or two Legendary ships and had a hard time outgunning them. You really do have to play around with strategy.

The problem is legendary ships are the only thing I cannot defeat. I have actually slid up to a Man o War and boarded it with less than half the upgrades. I actually have 3 in my fleet. I know your can change shot type but it is much more limited that it was in Ass3, where ships were damaged differently by cannon, grapeshot and chainshot, which you could selectively load into your side cannons. It meant you could destroy sails and then sail to the back of a ship to continue firing without being fired back at

Nope, I said the same thing a few pages back. The ships are really dumbed down compared to 3. Wind barely even matters

This is really disappointing. I noticed the wind does nothing now but I imagined making an open world work with wind would have been hard. I can't believe they just scrapped the combat system they used to have. I mean adding mortars to that system would have worked fine.

I do like the game, it's the same old assassin's creed open world collectathon which I enjoy, but I never thought it would dumb down the ship battles considering the amount you go through.
 
So I FINALLY get to play this. Seems like I've been waiting forever. I was actually pretty skeptical about it since Assassin's Creed III was a huge, steaming pile of shit. This one is great so far, though. The game still manages to feel like an Assassin's Creed game while allowing the pirate stuff to really add something fresh to the game. I think the way the towns are set out allows for more classic AC gameplay. The cities of III just didn't work well for it at all.

They were done by different teams, no? Does that mean AC5 is going to be bollocks?
 

void666

Banned
I'm enjoying this game. It's my most played AC game.

BUT it's absurd how repetitive it is. You spend hours doing the same things over and over again.
I can't stand boarding ships anymore. I just sink them and collect half of the loot.
The same shitty objectives, the same animations everytime. They could have used a morale system instead of "kill X tripulants, kill these two random guys", etc. They could've used a fame system. The goddam jackdaw is coming after your little ship? Give up!

Hunting sea creatures is also absurdly repetitive and devoid of any strategy. The only difference between a bull shark and a humpback whale is the size of the target and the size of their health bar. You just shove harpoons up their asses.
And it's not fun. I just do it for crafting items.

Taverns, forts, assassination missions, EVERYTHING is like this. Repetition ad infinitum. Ubisoft creates loads of shallow mini games, copy paste it everywhere and call it an open world.

This is no better than AC3. It has the same shitty story, uninteresting characters, awful controls, repetition. It's the pirate theme alone that makes it bearable for me.
 

TAJ

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Does anyone know exactly what comes with the Season Pass, down to the last bit of DLC? All the press I've seen is pretty vague.
 
This is no better than AC3. It has the same shitty story, uninteresting characters, awful controls, repetition. It's the pirate theme alone that makes it bearable for me.

I wouldn't agree with this at all. Far below the design level, AC3 had some pretty fundamental flaws in regard to clarification of mission objectives, controls and level layout. I'm not getting any of this in AC4.

Sure it could get repetitive, but that could probably be said of most games. I do wish there was less naval combat - or less ships overall. Taken as a whole though I think there's still a ton of stuff to do in this game, and the navigation, characters and environments are enough to keep me going. Loving it.

My biggest complaint probably has to do with how a few items in this game are pretty broken - like the blow gun and smoke bombs taking away almost all of the challenge.
 

Gammacide

Member
So can anyone give me some hints as to how to get more supplies for the Kenway's Fleet missions?? I have a lot of them open, but I have like none of what I need to trade so I can't even sail any of them. I've got frigates and brigs ready to go in my many many docks, but no way to get the supplies. Help!!

Also, how do you beat Drunken Sailor for a shanty?? Stone cold classic!! Rio Grande is great too.
 

SJRB

Gold Member
So can anyone give me some hints as to how to get more supplies for the Kenway's Fleet missions?? I have a lot of them open, but I have like none of what I need to trade so I can't even sail any of them. I've got frigates and brigs ready to go in my many many docks, but no way to get the supplies. Help!!

Also, how do you beat Drunken Sailor for a shanty?? Stone cold classic!! Rio Grande is great too.

You get the supplies by doing the battles for each route. So when a route becomes "dangerous", you engage a tablet-style ship battle and as a reward the route becomes more safe and you get a bunch of supplies. You may need to do several of those in order to get enough supplies.
 
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