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 Unless you live under a rock, then you have probably heard about the Assassin's Creed franchise. It's basically Ubisoft's flagship product at this point, with them releasing a new game in the series every year. Some of these games are good. Some of them are not. I rather enjoy them, especially the fourth title in the series (or sixth, depending on where you count from), Black Flag. Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag was released in 2013, riding close behind the fans' poor receival of Assassin's Creed III. While people's hopes weren't high, the game turned out to be one of the best in the series, fixing many of the issues that plagued the game prior. In short, this is a good game about pirates.  I really enjoy the hell out of this game and I want to show people that even though the Assassin's Creed franchise can be kind of tiresome, when it's good, it's great. It goes without saying that I'm planning to show off all the major events. I'm not going for a 100% completionist run because this being a Ubisoft game, there are some annoying collectibles that really don't provide any sort of decent reward. That said, there's a lot of side content in the game that's worth showing off, so I'll be doing my best to shed light on them as we go. As for the  SPOILER POLICY, don't spoil things. Content from the previous entries in the series is fair game. That is to say: AC, AC2, AC: Brotherhood, AC: Revelations, and AC3. Try not to talk about stuff that hasn't happened yet, especially major plot points. If you absolutely need to talk about something that happens later, use spoiler tags. I'll be splitting the LP into three parts. 1) Historical gameplay: This is the meat of the game itself and where we'll be spending most of our time in the LP. My guest in these videos will be my good buddy Crazed. 2) Modern day: Anyone who knows anything about Assassin's Creed will know that they are a game-within-a-game with part of the story taking place in modern times. Unfortunately, Black Flag's modern day portions are largely irrelevant to the rest of the game so I'll be cutting them out and putting them into their own videos. I'll be doing solo commentary over these. 3) Let's Learn: Assassin's Creed wouldn't be itself if it wasn't at least somewhat historically relevant. This video series will be dealing with the history of the people, places, and overall period that Black Flag takes place in. Take note that these videos don't really have any relation to the rest of the LP, so if you're not interested in history or learning, then feel free to skip them. I will strive to keep them relatively spoiler free, but keep in mind there may still be some minor ones involved. (Thanks to Geop for the idea and showing that there's an audience for that kind of stuff!)  Historical Gameplay Episode 1 - Lively Havana -- Uncut Episode 2 - And My Sugar? -- Uncut Episode 3 - Mr. Walpole I Presume? -- Uncut Episode 4 - Stealing a Brig -- Uncut Episode 5 - This Tyro Captain -- Uncut Episode 6 - Raise the Black Flag -- Uncut Episode 7 - Sugarcane And Its Yields -- Uncut Episode 8 - Proper Defenses -- Uncut Episode 9 - A Single Madman -- Uncut Episode 10 - This Old Cove -- Uncut Episode 11 - Side-Pirating -- Uncut Episode 12 - The Sage's Buried Secret -- Uncut Episode 13 - Contracts and Convoys -- Uncut Episode 14 - Traveling Salesman -- Uncut Episode 15 - Unmanned -- Uncut Episode 16 - Diving for Medicines -- Uncut Episode 17 - The Siege of Charles-Towne -- Uncut Episode 18 - We Demand a Parlay -- Uncut Episode 19 - Upton -- Uncut Modern Day Episode 1 - Orientation Episode 2 - John From IT Episode 3 - Frogger Let's Learn Episode 1 - The Golden Age of Piracy Episode 2 - A Pirate's Life For Me Episode 3 - The Notorious Captain Kidd Zarah fucked around with this message at 02:43 on Jun 29, 2016 |
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Aug 12, 2015 04:24
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This is already looking pretty great. Love me some history lessons with my video games 
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Aug 12, 2015 17:26
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  Episode 2 - And My Sugar? -- UncutWe also saw some other things of note in this video, which I will be compiling as we play. But for this video specifically, here's what we found: Landmarks: Havana - Castillo San Salvador de la Punta Havana - Church of Havana Manuscripts: Voynich Manuscript - Folio 34v Zarah fucked around with this message at 07:34 on Aug 15, 2015 |
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Aug 14, 2015 19:09
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Currently working my way through these and I haven't had a chance to listen to the latest episode but I wanted to toss something out... Y'all mentioned in the first episode how weird it was that the currency in the game was reals, since that was French and you never see the French, just the Spanish, Portuguese, and English. I'm not really sure where y'all got French from in that, since the real is the Spanish dollar. You'd probably be familiar with the other name that was used during the time period the game is set in - they're pieces of eight. And the reason why everyone seems to be carrying them around is that, well, everyone did. BBC Radio 4's program "A History of the World in 100 Objects" actually had an episode devoted to pieces of eight and their impact on global trade during the time. Now watch this be covered in the part I didn't listen to yet...
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Aug 15, 2015 02:47
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We recorded the LP episodes before I did any real research for stuff, so yeah I realized that afterward. It sounded French and for whatever reason I always assumed it was even though it really didn't make any sense in context.
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Aug 15, 2015 03:08
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The one thing that keeps this game from being awesome is the fact that it's an Assassin's Creed game. Ubisoft should've put out Awesome Pirate Adventure Simulator, instead I have to stop being an awesome pirate every now and then in order to tail guards and climb viewpoints and go through all the motions. It's the worst.
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Aug 15, 2015 03:52
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I really enjoy your style of LP narration. I'm looking forward to this, as I haven't played an asscreed game since 1.
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Aug 19, 2015 20:09
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 Episode 3 - Mr. Walpole I Presume? -- UncutOnce again, here are the notable things for this update: (Some of these things I will be collecting off camera, so they won't all be present in the videos themselves) Manuscripts: Voynich Manuscript - Folio 34r Voynich Manuscript - Folio 33v
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Aug 21, 2015 23:16
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Definitely my favourite AC game after brotherhood. I like Kenway because he (at least at the beginning) doesn't give much of poo poo about anything and just wants to be paid.
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Aug 22, 2015 12:08
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Bonnet in this episode is like when you're in high school and going to a party but you've convinced your parents that you're gonna go study with a friend but then fuckin Bonnet comes along and is all "yeah, Ed, gonna have a great time at the party tonight, see you there!" right outside your house. Fucker didn't even get invited to the party, why is he so excited about it??
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Aug 22, 2015 14:44
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I've actually got a copy of The Republic Of Pirates laying about somewhere, which Ubisoft heavily drew from for this game. It talks about Woodes Rogers in depth and might include his appearance, but it's been forever since I read the book - I could take a look again and see if it explains the scars, if you'd like. My assumption is that they're either pox scars or from his time in the navy, either from being burnt or some other thing combat related.
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Aug 22, 2015 17:04
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This is really fun so far. I just hope Ubisoft will focus a bit more on the present day mechanic in future games. I know that a lot of people don't like it at all, but for me it's really interesting how everything is unfolding.
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Aug 22, 2015 21:37
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Air is lava! posted:This is really fun so far. I just hope Ubisoft will focus a bit more on the present day mechanic in future games. I know that a lot of people don't like it at all, but for me it's really interesting how everything is unfolding. Wow. If I had any, any wish at all I wish they'd finally get rid of this nonsensical current/future day mechanic. They're proven over all their games now, especially with Desmond, that it's just so loving dull that it makes me want to self-harm. The switch between the two is massively grating, especially between 1st and 3rd person perspective and the fact that you CANNOT GODDAMN RUN in the Aspergo offices. The assassin/templar conflict can be interesting - I thing AC Rogue went a ways towards proving that, but either they need to set a full game in the present day, or get rid of the poo poo.
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Aug 23, 2015 02:16
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I spent a lot of time (but not nearly enough) in the Florida Keys as a kid and teen and this game just nails the feel of the nature in that region. One of the most gorgeous and wistful games I've ever played.
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Aug 23, 2015 04:51
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Junior G-man posted:Wow. Ubisoft is a giant company, which is mainly buisness oriented. They mostly decided against focusing on the present, becaue they fear it might not sell as well. There are people who really like the meta story but want more of it and people who want all of it gone, Ubisoft doesn't want to offend either group. This means that they are not commited enough to make those segments extensive and good. A lot of Ubisofts decissions only make sense if you think about maximizing profit. But I can't really blame them. There are countless people working on these games and announcing a pure present game would lose them a huge chunk of their audience, even if it would be a genuinly great game.
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Aug 23, 2015 07:25
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I would say though, there seens to be one interesting thing about the present segments. Correct me if I'm wrong, because I haven't played these things since 2, but haven't the bad guys basically... won? I mean if you look at the score - Assassins: shattered. Sun: not exploded. Top-secret history-scouring pseudoscience: now for videogames.
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Aug 23, 2015 09:25
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Assassin's Creed has definitely had its ups and downs, and we can all just hope that through refinement, we eventually end up with better games overall. Unfortunately I was having a thought as I watched the first video. Black Flag was released in 2013, and we're in 15 now. And I thought 'Wait, if there's a yearly AssCreed game, why haven't we had one since black flag?' I never bought Unity but I heard it was so bad I wrote it out of memory. I don't know if there was another one
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Aug 23, 2015 14:35
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While I haven't played Unity either, Rogue is quite good. It's essentailly more Black Flag.
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Aug 23, 2015 15:02
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Yeah, Rogue is good but I do think it has a lot more filler content like islands/locations that you only ever visit for completionist sake. That and I did miss the carribean; the Hudson Bay backgrounds etc just made me have bad flashbacks to AC III.
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Aug 23, 2015 15:22
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drat you for making me dig out my Black Flag disc again 
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Aug 28, 2015 11:26
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citybeatnik posted:I've actually got a copy of The Republic Of Pirates laying about somewhere, which Ubisoft heavily drew from for this game. It talks about Woodes Rogers in depth and might include his appearance, but it's been forever since I read the book - I could take a look again and see if it explains the scars, if you'd like. Sure, that has the potential to be interesting. I did a bit of research on him and I found nothing about any scars he might have had, but I did learn that he was a surprisingly huge badass of the era though, so I am entirely okay with his character design in-game. In other news, it's time for the Adventures of Captain Pissoff:  Episode 4 - Stealing a Brig -- UncutOther stuff: Sea Shanties: Running Down to Cuba Manuscripts: The Fetus in the Womb Voynich Manuscript - Folio 35r Atalanta Fugiens
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Aug 29, 2015 01:11
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I am thoroughly enjoying this LP. I even went and bought the game.
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Aug 30, 2015 21:38
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Wizard of Smart posted:I am thoroughly enjoying this LP. I even went and bought the game. Nice! Best advice I ever read about this game is to not hurry along too much; after sequence 4 or so, especially when you have your ship, just fart around, visit islands, do some of the small assassination quests and just enjoy the visuals. First time I ran through the main plot quickly and then the rest just felt like a massive clean-up action. Also, get the Templar Armor as fast as you can, it makes a lot of things hilariously easy, and some cutscenes funny as hell Also, I love that free-the-crew sequence - hopping from one ship to another, freeing pirates and murdering soldiers in a storm is so well designed.
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Aug 31, 2015 09:22
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Okay, so I'm half way through the first video and am on-board already. In saying that... Can anyone Please Enlighten me as to why Random words in the Subtitles are capitalised for No Good reason? It is driving Me Right up the loving wall. e.f.c: this is a Ubisoft fault, not our friendly LPers. 2nd edit: Explained about 5 minutes later. (It is still causing my eye to twitch). The Rabbi T. White fucked around with this message at 12:34 on Aug 31, 2015 |
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Aug 31, 2015 12:30
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This is the one true Way to write Nouns. For Example it still works that Way in German. I always thought, that the english version where you only capitalize proper names, and the letter "I" felt kind of arbitary. But it's cool to see how languages develops and that Ubisoft actually bothered with this little detail, even though I bet a lot of people reacted similiar to you.
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Aug 31, 2015 13:22
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I've never liked the Assassin's Creed games, but they are entertaining to watch when someone historysavvy is playing them. I did finish the first game, but I mostly enjoyed climbing poo poo in it, and running among the population for no good reason. The second game was fun for the same reason, but I never could bring myself to finish it. Got dull towards the middle. Hopefully you'll be doing some history episodes on a few selected famous pirates. How much of the game is "filler", that is, islands that are mostly there for the sake of an optional treasure chest or something along those lines?
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Aug 31, 2015 15:11
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There's not a lot of historical events or landmarks to talk about in the game, so I'll be focusing a good chunk of history time on specific individuals, yes. I'll try to touch on every historical figure that pops up in-game if possible. As for the filler islands, that's kind of a loaded question. There's a number of major locations in game, usually named islands or cities or what have you. You can fast travel to these locations. They will always have multiple collectibles and some definitely have more relevant stuff going on than others. The other kinds of islands are unnamed and unmarked on your map (so you can't fast travel to them, you have to sail to them manually). They are usually very small and will have one or two (at most) collectibles on them for you to nab. Those tiny islands are the biggest pain in the rear end to collect because it's rather time consuming going ashore for 30 seconds, then swimming back to your ship for each and every one. Thankfully, the collectibles on these islands are exclusively treasure chests and animus fragments. The former are optional because they'll only give you money while the latter are optional because collecting all the fragments doesn't really get you anything of worth. So you're probably not going to see me stopping off at any of these islands on camera. They are very scenic, though. As far as actual game percentage goes, I think all these loose islands only add up to like... 5% maybe? I haven't collected all of them in my main save file and it's sitting at 96%, so it's not much.
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Sep 1, 2015 05:04
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Found the part of the book that talks about it. Rogers was shot in the face during an attack on a Spanish ship and had a musketball lodged in the roof of his mouth... and kept giving orders through out it all. Phone posting or I'd go in to more detail. But, yeah, he earned the scars. citybeatnik fucked around with this message at 02:49 on Sep 5, 2015 |
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Sep 5, 2015 01:36
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 Episode 5 - This Tyro Captain -- UncutLike I mentioned in the video, we finally have access to new outfits and that means the pirate captain dress-up game can begin. So I'll let the thread decide what outfits they want to see. The ones that the merchant has for sale are all the ones that you can buy and merchants in different locations don't offer different outfits. Everyone has the same stock available. There are, however, other outfits that will become available as we complete certain objectives. In any event, let me know what you want to see and I'll make it happen sooner or later. Also, we collected a shitload of stuff in this episode, being new in Nassau and all: Landmarks: Nassau - The Queen's Staircase Sea Shanties: Drunken Sailor Stormalong John Paddy Doyle's Boots Manuscripts: "Solaris" from "Mundus Subterraneus" Columbus Map Tabulae Rudolphinae World Map 1570 Mayan "Dresden" Codex
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Sep 5, 2015 01:46
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Double post update! Episode 6 - Raise the Black Flag -- UncutSorry this took so long, I was in the process of moving a couple weeks ago. I wanted to release this update alongside a new Let's Learn episode, but it's taking longer to produce than I expected. I might have it ready for the end of the week though. Anyway, we didn't nab any collectibles this episode, but as with the last one, we've gotten to the point where we can customize our ship. If anyone wants to see specific cosmetic upgrades, let me know and I'll swap them out. To the best of my ability, anyway. Some things are still locked. Zarah fucked around with this message at 00:42 on Oct 1, 2015 |
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Sep 29, 2015 21:19
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citybeatnik posted:I've actually got a copy of The Republic Of Pirates laying about somewhere, which Ubisoft heavily drew from for this game. It talks about Woodes Rogers in depth and might include his appearance, but it's been forever since I read the book - I could take a look again and see if it explains the scars, if you'd like. I have that book and woodes rogers is facinating dude. he basicaly got half his face blown off in fight with a spansh frigate and basically hold his face together to give orders. he basically looked like two face. also he had a realy awful marriage, so bad that each party said the other died.
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Sep 29, 2015 22:46
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I don't know whether I want to vote to make the ship look good, or to make things clash as much as they can.
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Sep 30, 2015 03:31
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Really enjoying this! I might actually get around to playing the game now.
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Sep 30, 2015 12:42
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biosterous posted:I don't know whether I want to vote to make the ship look good, or to make things clash as much as they can. We need to craft a goonboat, which should be the most ridiculous monstrosity.
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Sep 30, 2015 14:59
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Kenway seems pretty stylish. Let him revel in his attempt at being one of the gentry and craft the most ridiculously opulent boat you can.
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Sep 30, 2015 23:34
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mrbasehart posted:Kenway seems pretty stylish. Let him revel in his attempt at being one of the gentry and craft the most ridiculously opulent boat you can. This. Opulence. That's the key.
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Oct 3, 2015 01:47
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Ridiculously opulent monstrosity goonboat?
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Oct 3, 2015 01:59
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Behotti posted:We need to craft a goonboat, which should be the most ridiculous monstrosity. biosterous posted:I don't know whether I want to vote to make the ship look good, or to make things clash as much as they can. Wizard of Smart posted:This. biosterous posted:Ridiculously opulent monstrosity goonboat? You folks are in luck- one of the boat gear sets is already explicitly themed around opulent garbage style. edit: Sorry, I was wrong, it's been too long. I forgot my preferred set: flower wheel, diamond sails, elite figurehead. These will take a while to get. "Gilded" is actually pretty disappointing. Discendo Vox fucked around with this message at 07:20 on Oct 3, 2015 |
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Oct 3, 2015 03:53
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Discendo Vox posted:You folks are in luck- one of the boat gear sets is already explicitly themed around opulent garbage style. So it's Rococo?
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Oct 3, 2015 03:58
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