POTC: PistolJack

Aye, a'vast ye digital naves!

While Warner Brothers Montreal works on fixes for Batman: Arkham Origins, I've been spending more of my gaming time in the early 18th century in the Caribbean Sea playing Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag. AC4 is the first game that I've bought for my current-gen system that will have a next-gen counterpart. I'm guessing that the next-gen version will look amazing because the current-gen version is beautiful! I've yet to finish an AC game, and I'm not sure if I'll actually finish 4, but I'll definitely be spending a lot of time with this one.

I couldn't get into AC1, but I picked-up AC3 basically for the Revolutionary War aspect of the game. Alas, while the gameplay is okay in AC3, the story is... well... annoying isn't quite the word, but neither is frustrating. My biggest issues are that Connor (the character you play as) is always bickering with his mentor. While a certain "frustration" element is understandable, it never stops, making me wonder why either of them even bother. Plus, the story paints many of the Revolution's founders as manipulative assholes. Ubisoft always puts up a disclaimer before the game that says it was made by people of various creeds, religions, faiths, and nationalities. They made have had many Americans working on it, but it smells of anti-Americanism. Just a hint, mind you, but there were times I felt that they emphasized too much on the negative aspects of the founding of our nation (Connor is Native American, so that's an obvious issue) and less on the positive. Again, while I've played a good chunk of the game, there maybe more positive points later on, I don't know. I don't think I've interacted with George Washington, yet, so I've yet to see what happens with him.

In AC4, you play as Connor's grandfather, Edward Kenway, a privateer turned pirate in the early 1700s, sailing the Caribbean and making trouble for the Spanish, the English, and the Templars, sworn enemies of the Assassins, an order Edward has only just recently stumbled upon. According to my save-file, I've completed only 13% of the game, but it feels like I've done quite a bit, running across the rooftops of Nassau and Havana, looting buried treasure and harassing ships across the Caribbean Sea, and killing the occasional person who needs killing, all the while collecting glowing orbs and fluttery pieces of paper with the lyrics to sea shanties on them.

So that's what has been taking up my time this weekend. I've also spent more time in the ME3 MP, trying to work my way to the final achievement banner, Best of the Best. It's not easy, but I'm getting there.

Oh, and you know that hour you're suppose to earn this weekend? it helps if you go to bed at a normal time instead of staying up to two in the morning playing video games.