Assassin’s Creed Revelations announced

Here’s the cover of this month’s Game Informer. Hey, that guy on the left looks familiar…

From Game Informer’s site:

You've heard the rumors; now get the facts. Ezio's final chapter will bring the answers that fans have been waiting four years to uncover.

The June issue of Game Informer is on its way, and Assassin's Creed Revelations will grace the cover. Our exclusive, first look, 12-page cover story reveals extensive details on the franchise's next major installment, due out this November.

You'll learn how each of the franchise's major characters -- Altaïr, Ezio, and Desmond -- play a part in the story, and how you'll control each of the three as playable characters. Uncover a brand new part of the world as Ezio travels abroad for the first time to explore the wonders of Constantinople at the height of the Ottoman Empire. Learn about all the new features that set Revelations apart, from a brand new weapon and tool that changes the way you'll fight and traverse the world, to extensive details on the newly customizable multiplayer game. And what exactly is going on with Desmond after the end of Brotherhood? Of course, we also have a wealth of new screens and art to accompany all the information. We unveil all this and more in our magazine cover story, and we'll have more in-depth information, interviews, and videos about the game's central features here on gameinformer.com throughout the month.

For new updates on Assassin's Creed Revelations all this month, click on the banner below. To start things off right, we've already updated the hub with the first high resolution screenshot from the game, along with three convenient sizes to download and use as desktop wallpapers. Enjoy!

On top of the Assassin's Creed Revelations story, you can look forward to six pages of new details and assets of the gorgeous new platformer, Rayman Origins. We also have our full report on everything we know about the Nintendo HD console, we go behind the scenes with augmented reality gaming, and explore a dedicated feature on how you can go green in your gaming habits. Watch for the June issue of Game Informer to arrive in the next few days.

Awesome!

"Stitches wrote:

Awesome!

I’m crossing my fingers for an achievement named “They Might Be Giants”. :lol:

And if no one gets the above post…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4phHwSSing

So we get to play as Altair and Ezio? Thats pretty cool.
The Maysaf symbols on Ezio's coat are a neat touch.

Also from Gamestop's product Info page:

•THE FINAL LEGENDARY CHAPTER Experience the final chapter of Ezio's epic adventure in story-driven gameplay.
•UPGRADED ARSENAL OF WEAPONS AND ENHANCED ABILITIES - NEW! The new hookblade boosts free-running, bombcrafting provides endless levels of gameplay customization and Superior Eagle Senses enhance game performance.
•AWARD-WINNING MULTIPLAYER CONTINUES TO INNOVATE All new online characters, modes, and maps build upon an award-winning online multiplayer providing infinite replay value and competitive gameplay.
•ADDED-VALUE BONUS GAMEPLAY - NEW! For the first time in franchise history, experience a game within a game, featuring hours of Animus-dedicated gameplay in an Assassin's Creed spin-off.

Looks like they included a lot of elements from the survey they conducted a while back. Better Eagle Vision, new weapons/items, and new multiplayer modes. I’m glad to at least have better Eagle Vision. It became pretty useless by the time Brotherhood rolled around.

Also, if this wraps up the “Ezio trilogy”, then it probably happens after Lost Legacy.

My issue of Game Informer just arrived. Reading the ACR article now. Some points from the article:

• Concludes both Altair’s and Ezio’s stories, and clears the narrative path for Assassin’s Creed 3. Altair, Ezio, and Desmond are all playable.

• There are six development teams: 200 people in Montreal, plus different developers in Sweden, France, Singapore, Quebec, and Bucharest. Each team is responsible for a different part of the game. Damn.

• Constantinople is split into 4 districts: Constantin, Beyazid, Imperial, and Galata. The city overall is bigger and “denser” than Rome in ACB, also has terrain elevation.

• Hints that the story, at least in Ezio’s time, is about a war of succession of Bayezid II as ruler of the Ottoman Empire. The Templars are former Byzantines who are trying to get the Byzantine Empire back.

• There’s a second city, Cappadocia, a “Templar city” located underground. Described as “going into the belly of the beast.”

• Revelations begins with Ezio going to Masyaf from AC1, now overrun with Templars, so I guess that’s the Lost Legacy tie-in. Assuming they didn’t just cancel Lost Legacy and fold its story into Revelations, that is.

• Ezio is 48 at the beginning of the game (as we knew from the fact that ACB ends in 1507). Part of the story is about him looking for answers about his life, wondering if he actually wanted to be an Assassin at all.

• Overall plot is about a secret hidden in Masyaf locked away with 5 seals, something that would let the Templars beat the Assassins. So Ezio goes to Constantinople to get the keys.

• The Templars already have one of the five keys, so part of the game is about playing politics, discovering who the Templars are, and getting that back.

• Ezio finds a woman. Of course he does, Desmond wouldn’t be alive otherwise.

• The keys are artifacts from Those Who Came Before, and apparently have memory recordings of Altair on them, so that’s where the playable Altair segments come from. Proto-Animus techology, maybe?

• There are ziplines that Ezio can use to drop onto enemies from above. The hookblade from the released screen is both a climbing tool and a weapon. Ezio can grab stuff (like pots) and throw them at enemies. You can also grab enemies and flip over them with it.

• The hook makes free running “30 percent faster”. “Makes combat and movement one.” “Gives more choices to the player.”

• New weapon: bombs. You can make your own, there are supposedly 300 combinations with varying strength and effects.

• Control remapping means you can use a secondary weapon simultaneously with a primary weapon. You can swing your sword in the primary and throw a bomb or fire your gun with the secondary.

• Upgraded Eagle Vision. Ezio can hear conversations at a distance, can listen for rapid heartbeats from a nervous target, detect guard patrol paths, etc.

• The Borgia Tower concept from ACB returns, but this time you “free” a district by assaulting Templars and running the district from a hidden “Assassin Den”. You can also change the type of troops that patrol the area.

• Increased notoriety means that the Templars will attack your Assassin Dens, and you can lose control of an area. Assassin Recruits return, and you can put them in charge of different districts. A Master Assassin will basically lock down an area and you’ll never have to worry about it.

• Assassin Recruit level cap increases from 10 to 15, and they can come to you with mission proposals. They also have more character.

• You can send Assassins to other cities along the Mediterranean. This is turning into Assassin’s Civilization V.

• Random tasks return from AC1. The more well-known Ezio is, the bigger the tasks become.

• New motion capture and facial animation techniques. The article compares it to LA Noire.

• Desmond is comatose inside the Animus, and he’s basically running through surreal areas generated by his subconscious. He can access his own memories and we learn his backstory. Purpose of the Desmond segments is to manipulate the space to “rebuild” the area and fix Desmond’s mind.

• Hints that Subject 16 is involved in the Desmond segments.

• Multiplayer involves Templar recruits trying to learn Assassin techniques. You move up the ranks in Abstergo as you get better, and you learn a lot about what’s going on there.

• Lastly, there are answers to at least some of the series’ big questions.

sounds sweet

Oh, I also want to mention something about the graphics in the article’s screenshots. Texture resolution and quality appears to be about the same as that of ACB, but the engine looks like it’s been upgraded with better lighting and light sourcing. There’s also more distinct special effects, like better motion blur and depth of field. Reminds me a lot of the Source engine upgrades Valve made for Portal 2. If you’ve played Portal 2, you noticed the lighting effects, especially early on. ACR really reminds me of that.

Also, there doesn’t appear to be much in the way of reused art assets, at least it’s not blindingly obvious as in ACB. Yeah, the architecture is going to feel similar to AC2 and ACB, but that’s how Constantinople actually looks.

I think this is going to surprise a lot of people, especially since the gaming press is already bitching about getting this instead of AC3.

"Desides wrote:

Hints that Subject 16 is involved in the Desmond segments.

"I will be with you always, Find me in the darkness".
Maybe thats what Sixteen referred to?

"Frumundah Finnatic wrote:

"I will be with you always, Find me in the darkness".
Maybe thats what Sixteen referred to?

Very likely. The Desmond segments occur in the "Black Room", which is sort of the behind the scenes version of the standard "White Room" Animus load screens.

I'm really hoping for a wrapup of the Subject 16 plotline, including his identity.

GI has posted a video describing some of the multiplayer changes.

Someone scanned the GI article. Here, you guys can look for yourself.

One Two Three Four Five Six Seven Eight Nine Ten Eleven Twelve

Enjoyed #2...I think they're shallow, but fun. Pretty easy to pick up, and I spent a semester in Rome, so I'm DIEING to see brotherhood when it drops in price. The accuracy of Florence in AC2 was awesome, and I can't wait to see how they brought Rome to life....

"daphins wrote:

Enjoyed #2...I think they're shallow, but fun. Pretty easy to pick up, and I spent a semester in Rome, so I'm DIEING to see brotherhood when it drops in price. The accuracy of Florence in AC2 was awesome, and I can't wait to see how they brought Rome to life....

Brotherhood is already $30 new at Gamestop. Less on Amazon. No reason not to get it now.

Thats a pretty cool screen shot of Ezio on the bottom, I'd like to see that scene in motion.

It looks even better in the magazine. The scans are of pretty poor quality, TBH. Like I said, the engine seems to be upgraded, and I wouldn’t be surprised if either some technical advancements were borrowed from the in-development AC3, or these advancements will be folded in to AC3, which happens to have a totally separate set of improvements.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfR_ncxSRGU

Altair's last stand?

That's Ezio in the video and speaking, so I don't know about Altair. The AC series' internal logic won't let us watch Altair or Ezio's final moments in life, too. Once they conceived whichever one of their kids became Desmond's next ancestor, the Animus can't follow them anymore, as shown in AC2.

Nice glimpses in the trailer there. I'm assuming that ship is how Ezio travels to Constantinople, and most of the battle footage appears to happen outside Masyaf. The graphics definitely look upgraded, with more apparent detail than in ACB. Can't wait for the E3 trailer. Ubisoft makes some of the best trailers around.

Well you do see Altair briefly in that trailer.
and I thought it was his hidden blade that breaks at the end.

"Frumundah Finnatic wrote:

Well you do see Altair briefly in that trailer.
and I thought it was his hidden blade that breaks at the end.

Possibly, but every clip appears to involve Ezio, at least to me. We’ll probably find out when the E3 trailer is out on the 6th.

The digital version of June’s Game Informer is free until May 30. Finally, a clear look at those screenshots.

Okay, Altair is in the video. Gametrailers has a nice video where they freeze frame and highlight what’s going on. What threw me off is that Ezio appears with the same soldiers that Altair does. That’s a little weird. What the hell is going on there?