Black Flag is one of my favorite games ever not just a AC game. Ive never finished it though. I got really far into it twice and not so far 3 others. Just love it but never finished. Ill go back again some day.
Daehawk wrote: ↑Mon Oct 19, 2020 4:47 pm
Yep you hunt down tattoos like you hunted down sea shanties in Black Flag. Least thats how I saw it in one video.
Black Flag was, by far, my favorite of the AC games. It was also the last one I played. The whole Abstergo/modern day overarching story was always really hard for me to follow, and I fear that I'm hopelessly lost now. I'm probably not going to go back and play the games I missed after Black Flag, but can anyone point me to a decent (short) synopsis of where the story is heading into Valhala?
Valhala looks sweet, btw!
I know it's often listed as a favorite, but it's actually the only AC title I haven't played! I fell out of the series after #3 (Revolutionary war), but spent time during the summer of 2019 finishing Origins and then this last spring playing Odyssey. Both were absolutely fantastic. There were some short vignettes involving modern day, but nothing problematic. They really seem to have abandoned the pretense for all that sci-fi stuff - it's really just a thin veneer to justify the game play mechanics at this point.
Regardless, after Origins and Odyssey I have zero hesitations about Vahalla. This looks amazing.
Well, now you're tempting me to check out Origins an Odyssey. The pirate-setting for Black Flag is what got me, and I do like the idea of AC in ancient Egypt and Greece. Need. More. Time.
Re: Assassin's Creed Vahalla
Posted: Tue Oct 20, 2020 7:05 pm
by Daehawk
Origins Im enjoying on my third try at it. The first two times not so much. It was more of performance than game play though. But Im not impressed with its look. All desert and sand and not a lot to see. But Odyssey I loved what I played of it. Its played better and looked wonderful. And the setting is just for me.....only way it would be better would be if it was Roman instead of Greek. But pretty close.
Today, Ubisoft announced the Assassin’s Creed® Valhalla post-launch plan, including a Season Pass with two major expansions of narratively driven gameplay and an exclusive quest. Additionally, all Assassin’s Creed Valhalla players will have access to free seasonal content including in-game events and festivals, new settlement buildings, services and games modes. Ubisoft also announced that Discovery Tour, the educational tool that lets anyone explore the game in a conflict-free environment, will be available for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla in 2021.
With the Season Pass, players will discover new territories and stories through two major expansions and an exclusive quest. Once available, expansions will be accessible early from within the structure of the main game, providing a meaningful story that adds to Valhalla’s rich open world. In addition, all players will enjoy new free content through Seasons, with each Season lasting three months – Season 1 will launch in December 2020, extending the Assassin’s Creed Valhalla experience post-launch.
The Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Season Pass is included in the Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Gold, Ultimate and Collector Editions and is available for purchase separately for $39.99. The Season Pass includes:
The Legend of Beowulf quest: In this exclusive quest, players will uncover the monstrous truth behind the legend of Beowulf, available on the launch day of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.
Expansion 1 - Wrath of the Druids (Spring 2021): In this new adventure, players will journey to Ireland and unravel the mysteries of an ancient and mysterious druidic cult, tracking and discovering their members. Diving into Gaelic myths and folklores, they’ll need to fight their way through haunted forests and dazzling landscapes while gaining influence among Gaelic kings.
Expansion 2 - The Siege of Paris (Summer 2021): In The Siege of Paris, players will have the chance to relive the most ambitious battle in Viking History with key historical figures of war-torn Frankia. During this key moment in history, players will infiltrate the fortified city of Paris and the River Seine under a prolonged siege, uncover enemy secrets, and form strategic alliances to safeguard their clan’s future.
In addition, all players will have access to an extensive lineup of free seasonal content including new narrative content and in-game events available after launch. Each season will last three months and will come with exciting content, accessible to all player types and levels of progression, focused on gameplay and world evolution.
Season 1 will launch in December 2020 with the following content planned:
A new settlement area, allowing players to continue to grow and evolve their settlement.
A traditional Viking Festival: the Yule Festival, for players to experience in their settlement.
A new game mode: the River Raids. Building on Valhalla’s core raiding mechanic the mode will deliver a dynamic, challenging and highly replayable raid experience.
The addition of the Ranks for Jomsviking: in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla players can not only create their lieutenant to be part of their raiding crew, but also recruit some from their friends and the community. In Season 1, players will see an update to the Jomsviking feature which will allow their Jomsviking to earn XP and rank up – the higher will be the rank of the lieutenant, the more silver players will earn when recruited by other players.
Finally, as for each season, Season 1 will also come with new player skills and abilities, weapons and gear, and cosmetic items for the settlement, longship, horse and raven.
Season 2 will launch in March 2021 with a new game mode that builds on Valhalla’s core combat experiences, a new Jomsviking update, festivals in the Settlement, new gear and cosmetic items, and more. More information about Season 3 and 4 will be come at a later time.
There will be more to come as the Assassin’s Creed Valhalla development team is committed to support the game and continued improvement of the core experience with additional content, yet to be revealed.
Re: Assassin's Creed Vahalla
Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2020 6:10 pm
by Paradroid
No one-handed swords in this game. Seems like an odd decision, but whatever. I'll be roleplaying a totally mental, savage raider swinging axes everywhere anyway!
Re: Assassin's Creed Vahalla
Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2020 9:35 pm
by Daehawk
Vikings even used their penis and vagina to hold an axe. I wonder if thats in there?
Re: Assassin's Creed Vahalla
Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2020 9:39 pm
by Blackhawk
No one-handers? That seems odd. One handed swords, axes, shields, and spears were the core of the Norse armory.
Re: Assassin's Creed Vahalla
Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2020 10:09 pm
by Daehawk
If theres no 1 handers then why is there dual wielding in the game?
Re: Assassin's Creed Vahalla
Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2020 11:09 pm
by Blackhawk
Swords. There are other one-handed weapons.
One-handers weren't all that common, but they're iconic enough I'm surprised they didn't include them.
Re: Assassin's Creed Vahalla
Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2020 8:24 pm
by baelthazar
Blackhawk wrote: ↑Thu Oct 22, 2020 11:09 pm
Swords. There are other one-handed weapons.
One-handers weren't all that common, but they're iconic enough I'm surprised they didn't include them.
It isn't my period, but I think Viking swords were typically one-handed. The depictions of swords from that era have men holding them in one hand (and the bayeaux tapestry, which shows Norman swords (which evolved from Viking swords) were one-handed.
This seems like a weird decision, unless all swords are automatically linked with a shield (and thus, they come out as using two hands).
Blackhawk wrote: ↑Thu Oct 22, 2020 11:09 pm
Swords. There are other one-handed weapons.
One-handers weren't all that common, but they're iconic enough I'm surprised they didn't include them.
It isn't my period, but I think Viking swords were typically one-handed. The depictions of swords from that era have men holding them in one hand (and the bayeaux tapestry, which shows Norman swords (which evolved from Viking swords) were one-handed.
This seems like a weird decision, unless all swords are automatically linked with a shield (and thus, they come out as using two hands).
I phrased it badly. Most Viking era swords were one handed, yes. It was swords themselves that were fairly rare. They took too much metal, so most carried axes or spears.
Re: Assassin's Creed Vahalla
Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2020 10:49 pm
by Grifman
Paradroid wrote: ↑Thu Oct 22, 2020 6:10 pm
No one-handed swords in this game. Seems like an odd decision, but whatever. I'll be roleplaying a totally mental, savage raider swinging axes everywhere anyway!
Uh, where are you getting that from. I've seen several images with one handed swords such as this:
Re: Assassin's Creed Vahalla
Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2020 10:58 pm
by Grifman
Here's another one:
Re: Assassin's Creed Vahalla
Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2020 11:08 pm
by Blackhawk
Someone got their 14th century in my Viking age!
Re: Assassin's Creed Vahalla
Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2020 11:38 pm
by Grifman
Blackhawk wrote: ↑Sun Oct 25, 2020 11:08 pm
Someone got their 14th century in my Viking age!
How about that flail - and the armor on the right looks like it came out of Skyrim
Re: Assassin's Creed Vahalla
Posted: Mon Oct 26, 2020 12:12 am
by baelthazar
Blackhawk wrote: ↑Sun Oct 25, 2020 11:08 pm
Someone got their 14th century in my Viking age!
Uuuugh.... no doubt. Looking at the pic above and that looks like the era I studied. A heater shield? Where is the kite or teardrop shield? And that two-handed grip and pommel looks almost 16th century. As Griff said, I'm not even sure what to think about that Skyrim flail. I don't think you have flails at all (except for the peasant kind) until the late medieval period.
Re: Assassin's Creed Vahalla
Posted: Mon Oct 26, 2020 4:17 am
by Paradroid
Grifman wrote: ↑Sun Oct 25, 2020 10:49 pm
Uh, where are you getting that from.
Grifman wrote: ↑Sun Oct 25, 2020 10:49 pm
Uh, where are you getting that from.
One of the devs said so on Twitter.
Hmm, that would seem very strange. From my reading, not a lot of swords were made in the Viking countries due to resource issues (but the ones that were made were very well made), but after a few raids, it would be very common for Vikings to have swords because they could easily pick them up from fallen enemies. And I think swords are generally considered to be better weapons than axes. I'll will note that in support of what you said, there are skills for spears, axes, hammers and bows but not for swords, at least from what has been revealed so far.
Re: Assassin's Creed Vahalla
Posted: Fri Nov 06, 2020 12:10 pm
by Paradroid
Pre-load is available on Uplay Ubisoft Connect.
Re: Assassin's Creed Vahalla
Posted: Fri Nov 06, 2020 12:21 pm
by coopasonic
...and I have the 11th off for Veteran's Day, and my wife has work and the kids have school. Gee, wonder what I'll be doing all day.
Re: Assassin's Creed Vahalla
Posted: Fri Nov 06, 2020 12:27 pm
by Daehawk
coopasonic wrote: ↑Fri Nov 06, 2020 12:21 pm
...and I have the 11th off for Veteran's Day, and my wife has work and the kids have school. Gee, wonder what I'll be doing all day.
coopasonic wrote: ↑Fri Nov 06, 2020 12:21 pm
...and I have the 11th off for Veteran's Day, and my wife has work and the kids have school. Gee, wonder what I'll be doing all day.
Sleeping.
Not a remote chance. My alarm goes off at 5:40AM. The high school kid gets dropped off at marching band practice at 6:45, the middle schooler is kicked out the front door on his bike at 7:20 and it's game time until the wife gets home from work around 3pm. After 15-20 minute catch up, game time again until dinner and again game time until kids go to bed around 9. Should be around 12 hours for gaming that day.
I don't sleep past 7 even on the weekend when there is nothing going on. My back doesn't allow it.
Re: Assassin's Creed Vahalla
Posted: Fri Nov 06, 2020 3:52 pm
by jztemple2
My new rig is supposedly arriving on the 11th, so unless something bad happens I should be able to play that night. I can preload before then on the old rig, but I guess I'll first have to uninstall something
Meanwhile, so those of you with PCs can get ready for it,
Not watched it yet but I like this guy's reviews usually.
Re: Assassin's Creed Vahalla
Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2020 6:25 am
by Paradroid
This unlocked in my region at 23:00 last night. Bit cruel! Never mind, I will try and play a bit at lunch time today.
Re: Assassin's Creed Vahalla
Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2020 9:04 am
by Max Peck
You know that you're getting old when you stay awake to confirm that a new game unlocks at midnight, then go to bed because you can't be up all night playing it.
Re: Assassin's Creed Vahalla
Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2020 9:42 am
by Skinypupy
I'm torn. I really want to play this, but my PC is getting somewhat long in the tooth and I'm not sure how well it would run.
So do I pick it up for PS4 and play it now, or wait until I eventually get a PS5 sometime next year and try it then?
Re: Assassin's Creed Vahalla
Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2020 9:45 am
by Paradroid
Apparently the performance on PS4 isn't great. I'd wait, either for the PS5 or to see what the upcoming patches achieve.
Re: Assassin's Creed Vahalla
Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2020 10:32 am
by $iljanus
Paradroid wrote: ↑Tue Nov 10, 2020 9:45 am
Apparently the performance on PS4 isn't great. I'd wait, either for the PS5 or to see what the upcoming patches achieve.
This is actually good news for me since I want to play this on the PS5 but I don’t think I’ll be getting one for a while. The temptation to buy it for the PS4 has now gone down.
Re: Assassin's Creed Vahalla
Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2020 10:43 am
by coopasonic
Got close to 2 hours in this morning before work. Its shockingly very similar to origins/odyssey in gameplay.
Shocking!
Re: Assassin's Creed Vahalla
Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2020 10:58 am
by Octavious
I was trying to finish Origins this week. I'm not buying this one until I finish at least one of the last two. I also wonder why I keep on buying them as I get bored with long play sessions. While the game is very pretty it just feels like I'm running from one dot on the map to the next dot with little substance.
Paradroid wrote: ↑Tue Nov 10, 2020 9:45 am
Apparently the performance on PS4 isn't great. I'd wait, either for the PS5 or to see what the upcoming patches achieve.
This is actually good news for me since I want to play this on the PS5 but I don’t think I’ll be getting one for a while. The temptation to buy it for the PS4 has now gone down.
Same. I'll keep it as one of my own launch titles for whenever I eventually get a PS5.
Re: Assassin's Creed Vahalla
Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2020 12:36 pm
by Paradroid
coopasonic wrote: ↑Tue Nov 10, 2020 10:43 am
Got close to 2 hours in this morning before work. Its shockingly very similar to origins/odyssey in gameplay.
Shocking!
Yeah that was my thought too. It feels like Origins with a Nordic total conversion going on. I've only played the afore-mentioned one hour at lunch so it's far too early to make any judgements, other than the introduction was disappointingly boring; it's a story I've seen in many other games.
But I've only just got to what I suspect is the first hub, so again, far too early to make any judgements yet. I'm still excited and it's all I'll be playing this evening.
One thing: I've seen it mentioned more than once in some reviews megathread that combat is too floaty - total nonsense. Combat definitely has some weight to it - again, it feels very similar to Origins.
Re: Assassin's Creed Vahalla
Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2020 1:34 pm
by YellowKing
I got to play about an hour through Ubisoft Plus, but I think I may break down and buy it one Xbox X tomorrow when my console arrives. It's perfectly playable on my PC even on high settings, but there's just enough framerate loss to annoy me. If I'm going to spend as much time with the game as I think I will, I definitely want to experience it in the best way possible.
Re: Assassin's Creed Vahalla
Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2020 3:02 pm
by Daehawk
but I think I may break down and buy it one Xbox X tomorrow
Might watch the video I posted above starting at 4:40. It says the Xbox x has 30 fps and severe screen tearing. Then says the Series X does 60 fps 4k.
Re: Assassin's Creed Vahalla
Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2020 3:14 pm
by YellowKing
Oh geez. I meant Series X. WTF is up with their f-ing stupid ass naming convention.
Re: Assassin's Creed Vahalla
Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2020 3:21 pm
by wonderpug
YellowKing wrote: ↑Tue Nov 10, 2020 3:14 pm
Oh geez. I meant Series X. WTF is up with their f-ing stupid ass naming convention.
What will the mid-cycle Series X upgrade be called? Xbox Series X X?
Re: Assassin's Creed Vahalla
Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2020 4:29 pm
by Max Peck
My guess is Xbox Series X Y, aka Xbox SeXY.
Re: Assassin's Creed Vahalla
Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2020 4:57 pm
by $iljanus
Or the Triple XXX Box. Even more teraflops for your gaming...pleasure. (boom chicka wow wow)
Re: Assassin's Creed Vahalla
Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2020 7:39 pm
by Paradroid
Valhalla has a pretty lengthy prologue. I've played for 3-4 hours and only just got started in England. By the way, it appears you can travel between England and Norway at will; I haven't tried it yet but the option is there.
So far my impressions are very positive. The story is forgettable so far, but the characters and general atmosphere are pretty good. There's the occasional rough edge like difficulty with interacting with hot spots. Overall though, the gameplay is very fun. Combat is good, the assassin bits suitably assassiny, landscapes are pretty with some excellent attention to detail (especially the fauna). From the clues I've seen so far it looks like there's going to be an absolute shitload to do, too. And I'm not just talking about side quests and the like - there seem to be an awful lot of activities and settlement things.
Yep, not regretting this one bit. I'm already excited to play again tomorrow!
I should be able to play that night. I can preload before then on the old rig, but I guess I'll first have to uninstall something 
I also wonder why I keep on buying them as I get bored with long play sessions. While the game is very pretty it just feels like I'm running from one dot on the map to the next dot with little substance. 
