Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag details, release date set

As promised, Ubisoft blows up the start of the week with tons of details regarding Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. Set before the events of the third game, Edward Kenway is the new assassin and is set to sail on October 29 on PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Wii U, PC, and next-gen consoles.

In a preview article by Joystiq, The development of Black Flag started in 2011, which suggests they have quite a ton of developers working on just one franchise at Ubisoft. Revelations was released in 2011, meaning they had three Assassin's Creed titles in the works that year(including Assassin's Creed 3). This definitely isn't a rush job, but how many more games like this can we take in?

But enough of the history lesson. Black Flag is embracing a highly praised feature that debuted in the last game - Naval battles. But it's not just the combat anymore, they expand on that concept further. Edward Kenway commands the ship called the Jackdaw, which seems to be the focus of the game's exploration. The game will have around 50 locations like Cuba, Bahamas, Nassau, and South Florida to visit. Including islands, cities and ports such as Havana, Kingston and Nassau. There will also be hidden paths to explore, quiet fishing villages, ship wrecks, plantations, dense jungles, islands, an underwater ship wrecks.

This is going to be pirate game in it's core, wrapped around that assassin's hood, which means boarding ships, plundering, finding lost treasure, and freedom to explore the open sea awaits when it hits this October. The sea exploration won't be restricted with artificial barriers, but you can't explore the whole world too, there will be ship upgrades to do, and some are required for you to progress.

Black Flag will have an absent Desmond this time. Ubisoft stated that the third game will conclude his story, and they are sticking with it. It's still not certain if Black Flag is a straight up history lesson, with no modern day sections of us exiting the Animus with a new character. But if you ask me, it's a step to the right direction if they remove it completely.

It was just four months, and already Assassin's Creed 3 has been pushed out of the spotlight by a new numbered sequel. Ubisoft's attempt of releasing a new title every year might be exciting for the hardcore of fans, but it makes me wonder if this healthy for a blooming franchise. I'm sure many players is still trying to find time to experience Connor's journey, and some might get sick of the franchise thanks to the annual release.

Check out the released trailers and screenshots so far for Assassin's Creed: Black Flag below.

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