The Week's Biggest News & Win Assassin's Creed: Black Flag

Daily Fix Roundup for the Week of October 28, 2013 - IGN var IGN = IGN || {}; IGN.pagetype = "article"; var igndrones = igndrones || {}; igndrones.async = igndrones.async || []; igndrones.async.push(function() { igndrones.init({"audience":{"csid":"C07583","property":"ign","pagetype":"article"},"buyerbase":[],"chartbeat":{"uid":"21105","domain":"ign.com","authors":"Naomi Kyle","sections":"Desktop Web,articles"},"comscore":{"c2":"3000068"},"ga":{"account_number":"UA-23541058-1","_setDomainName":".ign.com","custom_vars":[[1,"pagetype","article",3],[3,"article-id","526eed9f9e4e8ff5848ed5fb",3],[4,"content-title","Daily Fix Roundup for the Week of October 28, 2013",3],[5,"author","Naomi Kyle",3],[6,"publish-date","2013-11-02",3],[7,"article-type","news",3],[12,"categories","ign.pc.ps3.ps4.wii.xbox-360.xbox-one",3],[15,"action","articleview",3],[16,"controller","v2articles",3],[17,"module","default",3],[18,"resource","articles",3],[20,"is-community","no",3],[21,"signed-in","no",2],[22,"subscriber","no",1]]}}); igndrones.fireTop(); });SugarAds.adsData = {"adsDisabled":"false","dfp_network":"5691","dfp_adunit1":"IGN","resource":"articles","pagetype":"article","tags":[],"article_types":["news"],"categories":["ign","pc","ps3","ps4","wii","xbox-360","xbox-one"],"route":"articles","year":"2013","article_id":"526eed9f9e4e8ff5848ed5fb","zdid":"c18c0e3b"};SugarAds.renderAds(["prestitial","4x4","728x90","300x250","featured","side300x250","s728x90","2x2"]); x Prime Newsfeed Latest View My Newsfeed » IGN's Vita Indie Week Big love for little games Xbox 360 Xbox One PS3 PS4 Wii U PC Vita 3DS iPhone Tech Movies TV Comics Reviews Wikis & Cheats Upcoming News Videos Boards Blogs Podcasts Blu-ray Stars Daily Fix Roundup for the Week of October 28, 2013 This week's top stories. by Naomi Kyle November 2, 2013

If you missed anything on The Fix this week then you're in luck. Below, we have each episode linked so you can catch up on the biggest news and participate in our week long giveaway. A copy of Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag can be yours if you simply answer any one of our daily questions. Enjoy!

function frameDim() { this.width = 0; this.height = 0;}var videoDim = videoDim || new frameDim(); videoDim.width = 610; videoDim.height = 344;

 

function frameDim() { this.width = 0; this.height = 0;}var videoDim = videoDim || new frameDim(); videoDim.width = 610; videoDim.height = 344;

 

function frameDim() { this.width = 0; this.height = 0;}var videoDim = videoDim || new frameDim(); videoDim.width = 610; videoDim.height = 344;

 

function frameDim() { this.width = 0; this.height = 0;}var videoDim = videoDim || new frameDim(); videoDim.width = 610; videoDim.height = 344;

 

function frameDim() { this.width = 0; this.height = 0;}var videoDim = videoDim || new frameDim(); videoDim.width = 610; videoDim.height = 344;

 

Naomi Kyle is IGN's news host and on-camera personality. You can find her every day on The Daily Fix, kicking ass and taking names. You can follow her on Twitter @NaomiKyle.

by Naomi Kyle Latest IGN Videos IGN AU Talks BioShock Infinite: Burial At Sea #dsq-content #dsq-topbar{ display:none !important; } #dsq-content a.dsq-bar-reply{ display: none !important; } #dsq-content #dsq-new-post.dsq-unauthenticated{ display:none; } You must be logged in to post a comment.

var show_postbox = false; var link = document.getElementById("comment-socialLogin"); var redirect = link.getAttribute("href"); redirect += encodeURIComponent(window.location.href); link.setAttribute("href", redirect); blog comments powered by Disqus Become a fan of IGN Follow @IGN Trending Content 25 Things You (Probably) Didn't Know About Thor

1,229 reading now

Battlefield 4: Next-Gen vs. Current-Gen

532 watching now

San Francisco to Become Gotham for a Day

513 reading now

The Best Gaming Lag-Reducing Hardware

493 reading now

Destiny: How Halo Got The Star Wars Treatment

317 reading now

The Top 6 Assassin's Creed Games

314 watching now

Best Buy PS4 and Xbox One Midnight Launches Detailed

233 reading now

What Does Next-Gen Mean to You?

203 reading now

IGN.com:Editorial StaffReview GuideSend Us NewsSign Up for Email UpdatesSite Map International:IGN World MapAustraliaAsia PacificBeneluxCanadaDenmarkFinlandGermanyIrelandItalyMiddle EastNorwayRussiaSpainSwedenUnited KingdomUnited States IGNAskMenGameSpy1UpGameStatsGIGA.DEUGOIPL

Copyright 1996-2013, IGN Entertainment, Inc. An IGN Entertainment Games site

About UsAdvertiseContact UsPressCareersRSS FeedsSupportPrivacy PolicyUser Agreement AdChoices /**/ igndrones.async.push(function() {igndrones.fireBottom();});

Video Games: Little Inferno; Hitman; Assassin’s Creed III; Persona 4 Golden; Angry Birds Star Wars; My Little Pony

Released on Nov. 18

Developed by Tomorrow Corporation

For PC, Mac, Linux and Wii U

Rated T for Teen (drug reference and crude humor)

Here’s an odd one. Little Inferno is an interactive fireplace. It’s an emotional, interactive fireplace with a story line and some notions about the dangers of amusing ourselves with distracting trifles.

At first this strange creation appears to be a simple puzzle game consisting of little more than a fireplace, a catalog of items to burn and 99 clues that challenge the player to burn these things in proper combinations. One clue is “Movie Night.” Burn the popcorn. Burn the TV. A weirder one is “Bike Pirate.” Burn the wooden bike. Burn the pirate.

As you play, an unseen character begins to send letters. They burn, too, but something seems off. The messages are alternately cheerful and sad, a wee bit wicked and increasingly desperate.

The purpose of the pyromaniac pastime becomes smoky with doubt. Why are we doing this? What are we missing? It’s odd enough to play a new video game that questions our decision to play video games. That it’s an interactive fireplace game that does this is all the stranger and more wonderful. It’s a yule log for our times.

HITMAN

Absolution

Released on Nov. 20

Developed by IO Interactive

Published by Square Enix

For PC, Xbox 360 and

PlayStation 3

Rated M for Mature (intense violence, partial nudity and strong language)

It’s a vile, dangerous world in Hitman: Absolution. Nearly everyone is in need of a good killing, and Agent 47, the depilated murder machine at the center of the long-running Hitman franchise, is just the man for the job.

Absolution is consistent with the setup of past Hitman games: At the start of a level, 47 is given an assassination target, and he must make his way through semi-open areas by any of a number of possible routes. The reactive artificial intelligence keeps things enjoyably unpredictable, and the best levels feel like a buffet of sadistic improvisation.

The story is pure B-movie hogwash. It’s mostly enjoyable in a certain exploitive way, but it often feels as if the writers were trying too hard.

When it gets cooking, Hitman: Absolution evokes the feeling of a deadly, measured dance. It’s a tango between you and the computer, with each party alternately taking the lead through arenas that shift and upset expectations.

ASSASSIN’S CREED III

Released on Oct. 30

Developed and published by Ubisoft

For PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii U and PC

Rated M for Mature (blood, intense violence, sexual themes and strong language)

Assassin’s Creed III is really the fifth major Assassin’s Creed game. The numbering signifies that this new historical epic is a shift, as this Ubisoft series about the ancestral lives of a man named Desmond Miles leaps to its third era. Finished with the 12th-century crusades and 15th-century Renaissance Italy, Assassin’s Creed now lets us do interactive historical tourism in Boston, New York and the nearby woods of Revolutionary America.

Assassin’s Creed games are lavish action-adventure blockbusters. In this new one, we primarily play as a young, bitter, half-British, half-Mohawk greenhorn assassin named Ratonhnhaké:ton, who finds himself crossing paths and sometimes doing the bidding of Sam Adams, Paul Revere, George Washington and other real figures. Most of the bad guys are red coats with slow-firing muskets. We’re best with a tomahawk and a bow and arrow.

The new game involves a lot of climbing and killing across a sprawling landscape of bustling cities and gorgeous frontier. Add in a mix of awkwardly instituted horseback riding, homestead building, trading, trapping, hunting and, at the wheel of your own tall-masted warship, epic naval combat. There is much to do and witness in a ripped-from-the-history-books adventure that is refreshingly unwilling to ignore the unsavory aspects of America’s birth. A lengthy production cycle didn’t spare the game from a wealth of bugs that are only now being patched out.

The series’s low-key multiplayer games of competitive assassination return, but the star of this epic is something that might seem almost quaint: Assassin’s Creed III is easily the best tree-climbing simulator in history.

PERSONA 4 GOLDEN

Released on Nov. 20

Developed and published by Atlus

For PlayStation Vita

Rated M for Mature (violence, alcohol reference and partial nudity)

Persona 4 Golden is part turn-based role-playing game, part high school simulator and a rerelease of a celebrated PlayStation 2 game on the portable Vita.

These edited and condensed reviews are from the writers and editors of the gaming Web site Kotaku.com. Full reviews are at kotaku.com/nytselects.

Assassin's Creed III Dev on Listening to Fans and Ignoring Boundaries

Speaking with Assassin’s Creed III associate producer Julien Laferrière in Sydney the Ubisoft Montreal dev revealed that, while the vision of their incredibly broad title was vast, they never felt the need to draw a line on their ambitions during the project.

“Well, I mean, we obviously wanted to do something very special,” said Laferrière. “I think having a new hero, a new era, is a good foundation for that. It’s a good reason to do so.”

“Where do we draw the line? We didn’t have any obligations, if you want, to take something from the franchise. Like, ‘Oh, we did that in previous games; we need to include that. Oh, we did that in that other game, we need to include that.’ It was more of a clean slate, and we really built the fresh new game that we wanted to make.

[W]here do we draw the line? I feel that we didn’t have to draw the line.

“We obviously wanted to make sure that it’s an Assassin’s Creed game; it’s about combat, navigation and stealth basically, but we kind of redefined what the game is about. We treated it almost as a new IP, if you want. So where do we draw the line? I feel that we didn’t have to draw the line.

“We wanted to have the forest; the forest was a pretty big deal for us. You can’t really tell a story about America without having something going on in the forest, especially when you have a Native American character, so forest was a big deal. We did a bunch of prototypes and the forest came out the way it is now and we’re super happy with it.

“Naval battles are also another big thing. When you look at American history there were some pretty epic battles at sea. When you think about having ships near the shore, just bombarding the troops, like the English man o' wars, you know, those huge ships with, like, three rows of cannons firing at the rebel troops, it would’ve been impressive. So we wanted to have ships in the game so, again, three years ago we worked on some prototypes and we said, ‘All right, we can do this, so let’s do it.’

“Then it becomes a matter of choices, I guess. We have the forest, we have the sea, we want to have cities, so Boston and New York. What can we do inside those cities? The line drew itself, kind of naturally in terms of what sort of story we wanted to tell. We didn’t say, ‘Oh well, let’s not do the sea. Let’s not do this.’

On that note, the team has been pleased with the response from fans to the content they’ve showcased during the lead up to the game’s release next week.

“We were pretty happy, actually, about the response on the naval battles,” said Laferrière. “Because for us it made a lot of sense, but obviously Assassin’s Creed wasn’t about boats before, right?”

“So we included a new element that, for us, we designed with the same philosophy as the rest of the game. I think it fits in not only in the narrative sense but also in an experience sense. I mention combat, navigation and stealth; you’ll get to have those elements in the naval battles as well. But obviously it might seem like a risk.

“Another thing is the American Revolution. If you go back to the history of the announcement, when it was first announced it was in the American Revolution and so on, and people were like, ‘The American Revolution? Really?’ It’s not a moment that’s touched very much in video games. It’s not like if we did World War II, for example; people could pretty much imagine what’s going on. For the American Revolution, it’s not as easy.

“I remember we were reading one specific forum when we announced the American Revolution and they were like, ‘Well, if they do the American Revolution they need to have massive battles, they need to have the forest, they need to have snow, and they can’t do it. They won’t be able to do it. It’s crazy. And if they don’t include that in the game it’s not the American Revolution.’ And we were building those exact features; we had those elements working. We were laughing. People were worried; ‘How can they pull it off?’ In the end we managed to surprise them with the scope [of this game].”

Despite early cynicism, however, the team never felt they had to justify the game.

“We knew we had something,” said Laferrière. “We knew we had something interesting to tell. We knew we had a real Assassin’s Creed game in the making; true to the franchise but very new in other ways. So we knew we had something."

“It’s just a matter of, ‘Well, wait and see what we have.’ It was more of a nice challenge, if you want. ‘We can do this, just wait and see; we’ll show some stuff!’ And right now I think that there’s nobody doubting the American Revolution as a setting for an Assassin’s Creed game.”

 Luke is Games Editor at IGN AU. You can chat to him about games, cars and why Master and Commander is definitely the best movie-on-a-ship he can think of right now on IGN here or find him and the rest of the Australian team by joining the IGN Australia Facebook community.

Assassin's Creed Movie Finds Studio

The Assassin’s Creed film moved a step closer to becoming a reality today, with Ubisoft teaming up with film studio New Regency to make the forthcoming video game adaptation, which is set to star Michael Fassbender.

According to Deadline, New Regency will finance and distribute the movie, while the Ubisoft Motion Picture division “will have strong creative input as the project moves into the script stage.”

“This is the perfect intersection of what we have been trying to do, and that is to work with top quality talent like Michael Fassbender,” explained Regency CEO Brad Weston. “We see this as our first big commercial action franchise property. Fassbender just did 12 Years A Slave with us, and he is as good an actor as there is right now. The storyline we are pursuing has a great narrative and because Ubisoft’s games are so character and story driven, Assassin’s Creed lends itself perfectly to our goal to re-brand Regency as a filmmaker driven company.”

“Ubisoft chose to partner with New Regency because they are a talent- and filmmaker-driven company, with the same independent and creative mindset that we have at Ubisoft Motion Pictures,” UMP CEO Jean-Julien Baronnet added. “Bringing aboard New Regency’s renowned production and distribution expertise while maintaining our own creative and financial flexibility ensures that Assassin’s Creed will be a high-quality film that respects the lore and fans of the video game franchise.”

And according to Variety, in addition to preserving elements of the game that make up its DNA – like the design of its characters and historical elements – Ubisoft hopes to tie the release of a film in with a new game launch.

Chris Tilly is the Entertainment Editor for IGN in the UK and is hoping that this will be the video game adaptation that doesn't suck. He can be found on both Twitter and MyIGN.