Flashback Friday: With the Upcoming Release of, "Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Resynced," Everything Old is New Again

I played many of the earlier, "Assasin's Creed," games and while, "Assasin's Creed III," might be my favorite, I've got plenty of love for, "Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag," and mix of the usual Creed-stuff and addition of piracy shenanigans. Ubisoft's pirate-centric game, "Skull and Bones," was in development Hell forever before with released and bombed, hard. It seems the company decided to go back to what works, as there were rumors of an ACIV remake, and it was recently confirmed we're getting, "Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Resynced." The release date is actually already close, July of this year.

A lot of ACIV/Resynced has been tweaked, but the meat and potatoes of it apparently still is great, plus now it looks even better thanks to all the tweaks 13 years(!) since its initial release. Some news outlets that have had hands-on time felt things were a bit clumsy, but it seems the overall consensus is that this is a fun remake that excises a lot of the annoying elements (those weird first-person modern-day segments), adds in features that came later to the series that were helpful, and so forth. There have been a lot of, "Assassin's Creed," games over the years, and I've probably missed out on more than I've played just due to how often a game comes out in the series. That said, I'll admit I am a bit excited at the thought of dipping my toes back into an overhauled version of this game so that I get a mix of nostalgia while enjoying a bunch of improvements.

With the Latest Price Hike I'm Canceling My Xbox Game Pass

I don't play a ton of video-games these days. I do sometimes get a chance and enjoy renting games for my PS5 from the library and/or VStock. With my Xbox, I've used the Game Pass to sample various titles as I don't, "Own," them via the pass, but can play a variety of stuff. I'm going to cancel my pass this month, however. The main reason? A sudden and massive price hike with little to show for it. Yeah, Microsoft, this wasn't a good move.

There are various, "Levels," of Game Pass, and the, "Best," in terms of getting the most games to play, is the Ultimate Level. It has been $20 a month for a long time, but starting this November, it is shooting 50% to $30. This means it will be the most expensive streaming service around, to my knowledge. The other Game Pass echelons will be going up in price too, with many saying the, "Premium," level will now be best as there isn't too much coming via Ultimate besides some big day-one games to fiddle with. I'm just quitting for now, though, as I don't want to pay more for less. Other folks are angry as well, and Microsoft isn't giving us much for this upcoming cash grab besides a lot of old Assassin's Creed titles or that Hogwarts school game, if you're into Harry Potter games without Harry Potter.

Is this proof that Game Pass is not a sustainable model? Is this because Microsoft is thinking of launching a, "Free with ads," style version of Game Pass? Will a massive number of cancellations counteract any possible benefit of a price increase? Clearly, there are many questions that only those with access to big ol' spreadsheets (for how much money Game Pass has made/lost) or the ability to tell the future (for how this will work out) can answer. All I personally know is I don't use my Game Pass enough right now to want to pay $360 total a year. If a title comes to Game Pass which I'm chomping at the bit to play. I may dive back in for a month someday in the future, but for now, I'm much happier just occasionally renting games and buying ones that I determine I absolutely love and need to own. I mean, heck, that PlayStation Network has its own Game Pass-style options that might start looking pretty attractive to sample now as well, even!

July 2023 News and Links Roundup

Do We Work Today, Do We Take it Off?

It's July 3rd and a Monday. So many people have taken today off with the National Holiday known as July 4th falling on a Tuesday this year. It's made things a bit messy when it comes to figuring out what stores are open or closed. Plus, we didn't have mail yesterday but should get some today, and then none tomorrow, with it back Wednesday. Don't worry about me taking today off, though, I'm here with some assorted news I found interesting and thought I'd link to.

News and Links to Kick Off July

A massive rollercoaster was shut down when a park attendee named Jeremy Wagner noticed a huge crack had appeared upon it. Known as the Fury 325 one wonders how bad things could have been considering it was a support pillar. Upsettingly enough, when Wagner first alerted the park they seemed less than concerned about this massive issue. Once the fire department and media were alerted more action was taken. Scary stuff.

It's a bit baffling when a game that is barely a decade old gets a remake, but rumor has it Ubisoft is planning to give us a next-generation and remastered, "Assassin's Creed IV." That was the AC game that heavily incorporated sailing pirate ships and inspired the still heavily-delayed, "Skull and Bones," game. Apparently, the tech being used for that money sink might go towards this remake, salvaging some funds.

HBO used to be a big deal. Now, owner Warner Brother Discovery insists HBO's streaming service HBO MAX instead go by MAX and farm a lot of its biggest shows out to other streaming networks--that's if they aren't outright taking shows/movies off the internet (making them hard-to-impossible to watch legally). David Zaslav was brought in to save Warner Brothers Discovery but he seems more interested in breaking it down piece by piece for any scraps of change he can scoop up. That, or I'm just still bitter about what happened to "Batgirl."

A big-but-short event is launching from DC for a couple months called, "Knight Terrors." It is a four-issue series focusing on the DC Universe fighting a villain named Insomnia (they use dreams and nightmares to fight everybody, it seems). There are a slew of tie-in comics that are replacing the usual DC output for two months and while it is a clever idea this doesn't sound like anything I'm in a rush to go buy a ton of tie-ins for. That said, the two-issue one for the Joker actually sounds kind of genius. He--basically accidentally--kills Batman and with that done goes and gets a regular office job now that his life lacks purpose. The Joker's worst nightmare is essentially Batman dying and his life being boring. That's pretty fun. I might check out the first issue this week as it just seems quite clever.

I was bummed to hear about the passing of Alan Arkin. He was 89 and known for a ton of roles, but my absolute favorite has to be, "Little Miss Sunshine," where he plays an incredibly ornery but kind-hearted Grandfather. He will be missed. 

To conclude, I'm definitely getting old because I'd never heard of Colleen Ballinger or her, "Miranda Sings," character that younger folks apparently love. That is, until a big scandal broke involving her having toxic relationships with fans. She handled this scandal by singing a half-apology half-denial song on the ukulele. What even is reality, anymore?

Get Ready for the 4th!

Tomorrow will be July 4th so if you live in the United States get ready for a whole lot of fireworks, grilling, and--for some folks--drinking. Make sure to stay safe out there!

Yet Again, "Skull and Bones," is Delayed

I have written about the pirate game, "Skull and Bones," and its development Hell at various points in time. Announced in 2017, I wrote about how it sounded like it was suffering huge issues in 2020. Then in 2021, I wrote about further problems. Oh, and in October of 2022, I wrote about how it had supposedly its last delay to March 9th of what is now this year, 2023. Guess what, ya'll? The game is delayed until the next fiscal year by its publisher, Ubisoft--meaning it won't come out until at least after April 2023.

"Skull and Bones," has morphed so much during its development that I'm not sure what exactly it will even be when it does come out. A single-player open-World action RPG? Multiplayer pirating combat game? Something that has a long grind as you level up but you can buy advancements with real money too via in-game purchases? I seriously just want a fun pirate game like we saw in a tiny bit of, "Assasin's Creed III," and the better parts of, "Assassin's Creed IV." We'll see what exactly we get from, "Skull and Bones," when it does come out. I just hope it is enjoyable as opposed to a Frankenstein's monster of ideas horrifically stitched together in a broken manner.

"Skull and Bones," Sounds Like it's in Development Hell

Way back in, "Assasin's Creed III," there was a small gameplay element where you could pilot a ship and get into fights with other ones. It was loved by players and led to, "Assasin's Creed IV," having sailing about around be the main feature--making it often thought of as the, "Assasin's Creed," for people who normally hate, "Assasin's Creed." Other games in the series have used boats a bit, but there was interest in a game announced in 2017 called, "Skull and Bones," which sounded like a pirate-themed game from the company behind, "Assasin's Creed," Ubisoft, without all the baggage. Again, that was 2017. It was mentioned by Ubisoft in 2019 as being delayed to 2020 and supposedly still getting work done. Now there is an, "Open letter," of sorts from the game's creative director, Elisabeth Pellen. This letter to the fans says how the game has a new vision and will be re-revealed in 2021 as whatever the new, "Skull and Bones," will be. This worries me.

I am concerned that, "Skull and Bones," is going to try and become one of those games that is a, "Service game," as rumors are saying, in that you buy it and then keep buying more upgrades and features. There are games that are essentially, "Free," and do this like, "Fortnite." There are also games like the new, "Avengers," one which you buy it, but then it also comes with a mode that offers a premium currency. These aren't monthly fees like in MMORPGs like, "World of Warcraft," these are games that want to technically, "Never end," and keep getting money as they add an update here and there with a new character/outfit/ship/gun/whatever. I'm not sure I want that, but Ubisoft maybe wants to offer that sort of game in the hopes it'll get, "Skull and Bones," out of whatever development Hell has been delaying it. When I first heard about, "Skull and Bones," in 2017 I was excited. Then I forgot about it. Now, I just don't really have much enthusiasm or hope for it at all.

My Favorite, "Assassin's Creed," Game is Getting More Respect Now

I've played a solid chunk of the, "Assassin's Creed," video-games, although not really any of the newer ones. With that said, my absolute favorite of the series is one that for a good long while many people scoffed at. Yes, "Assassin's Creed III/3." I adored many of the aspects people hated, from the extended intro with a character who turns out to be evil, to the tree-limb parkour, and my wife (who watched me play) and I even were big fans of the main character, Connor. Seriously, anyone who claims he was difficult to like clearly did not play the big, "Homestead," side-quests that really flesh his character out. As an article from Kotaku I finally made time to read discusses, now that some time has passed certain aspects of the game have really aged well, especially the political discourse.

"ACIII/3," originally came out in October of 2012. Obama was about to re-elected to a second term against his opponent Mitt Romney whom everyone had basically agreed at that point was doomed to lose. The World was an optimistic place. A game about the birth of America and how a lot of people were screwed-over by ideologues just seemed so pessimistic. Now it is 2019 and our political landscape has turned into a dumpster fire with President Trump eagerly pouring gasoline on it any chance he gets. The idea of a game calling-out the deeply-ingrained prejudices in our country with a half-White-and-British and half-Native American protagonist sounds extremely topical.

From its very inception the vow of our Nation being a land of equal opportunity for all has been a hollow promise if you aren't a White Male Christian. Perhaps some of the game-play was wonky (so, so many map-icons to explore with a good chunk being extremely buggy)) and the game took awhile to get the main story content. It still was an extremely fun and insightful, "Assassin's Creed," even if, "ACIV/4," of course gets a lot of positive press for the fun ship-sailing (which some people forget actually was introduced in this game too)! Yes, this was my favorite game in the series, I guess it just took a bit over half a decade for it to become even more relevant.

Links to Peruse For Fun and Learning

Link-Intro
As I'm always finding interesting links on the internet I of course occasionally like to share the ones I think are especially worth reading with you, my dear readers. So dig in to this feast for your eyes!

The Links You Should Look At

The cover is the first warning sign.

The 35-issue run on "Wonder Woman" by Azzarello and Chiang has been considered by many to be one of the best takes on the character in some time. That makes it all the more depressing that the new creative team of writer Meredith Finch and artist David Finch (they're a married couple, in case you wondered about the same last name) is apparently God-awful and entirely misses the point of what makes Wonder Woman great in favor of making her a generic whiner. Yeah, DC done messed up and has ruined any goodwill for Wonder Woman they may have had.

For some time Bill Cosby has had some extremely depressing details about his personal behavior whispered about, but it also seemed that he had somehow been able to quiet the dull roar about how he quite possibly was a serial rapist, basically getting away with it. Well, lately that dull roar has become too loud to ignore, and now he may finally have to actually own-up to the claims or at least have the courtesy to deny them as opposed to just shaking his head and refusing to talk about it. All of this also raises the question though, what does it mean when someone who was a childhood hero to so many may very well be a monster?

In my last link-post I talked about how the launch of "Assassin's Creed: Unity" has been a comedy of errors (it's so bad people have made pieces of art based on the especially bad glitches). That makes it all the more surprising that the entirely different game in the AC-Universe that launched on the same day but only for last-generation consoles, "Assassin's Creed: Rogue", is in fact apparently pretty good according to some people and awesome in other's eyes. Apparently it serves as a nice link between the 3rd and 4th game while also doing some unique things such as making breaking through ice-breakers a fun little hobby. On a side-note about the Assassin's Creed-series, this piece on the representation of race in the AC-games is really good and worth a read.

Sometimes when applying for a job we've been asked to make a PowerPoint presentation, example of a press release document, or something like that. This article makes applying for certain jobs sound absolutely nightmarish, however, with examples such as basically being asked to make an issue of a magazine in 72 hours with 30+ examples of articles or other extensive projects for a job that may not even hire someone for all this work--even possibly using it without paying them or giving any credit.

McConnell has mastered the art of looking cranky.

It's funny to hear Republicans complain about how Obama taking Executive Action with Immigration Reform will immediately damage any potential relationship he would have with the newly-fully-Republican-controlled Congress. It is funny because it is not as if there would be a snowball's chance in Hell of Republicans ever doing the slightest thing for Obama considering how the previous six years went between everyone. It makes it kind of a "Oh, now you claim to want to foster a bond," moment where you basically roll your eyes as hard as possible at the GOP. As this article says, it is probably going to bring both sides plenty of pain--we will just have to see if it's hopefully worth it in the end.

I still don't really understand Uber. I suppose it is like taking a taxi but instead you're getting in the car of someone who isn't necessarily officially licensed to be a form of commercial transportation? Whatever the case, some people love it but the executives at the company seem to have a propensity for making stupid comments, with one man's remarks at a dinner he thought was off-the-record being especially disconcerting, even if it was supposedly meant more as a joke than anything else.

Finally, for all of you who think your washing-machine might smell a bit funny, there is a good chance it could actually have a problem. Apparently front-loaders in particular can build-up mildew or other nastiness (although top-loading washers aren't exempt from this either) and doing certain things to keep your washer clean can assist in avoiding any nastiness.

Interesting Things From Around the Web

So Much to See, So Much to Learn
There is always something interesting going on in the world, and these links go to those, "somethings," that I found fascinating enough to share.

Links For You, Yes You!

We often don't think about the stuntmen and stuntwomen who play an important part in the movies we enjoy. As long as everything goes well with a scene we shouldn't even realize there was someone else doing the dangerous driving stunt or high-dive off a building. That makes this article about the struggles faced by black stuntmen a fascinating read, as the question of who would do stunts for black actors was something I hadn't considered. The fact that in the past it often would be white men wearing blackface is pretty offensive considering how many black actors struggled to get work.

"Assassin's Creed: Unity" seems to have a launched that could politely be called messy, but we aren't being polite, we're being honest, so let's call it what is it:  A royal clusterfuck. Perhaps the first warning sign that things weren't all right with the game could be see in how it had a review embargo (meaning official reviews couldn't be posted until a certain date and time) that went until 12:00 PM EST, on the day of the games release. I've heard of embargoes that went until the day a game came out but even those only lasted until midnight. With that kind of embargo it kind of looked like Ubisoft was hoping to get people to buy the game or pick-up their pre-order before negative reviews could have swayed them otherwise. Well, it turns out that was likely the case as "Unity" has been getting middling reviews and there has been much talk of how much of a glitchy mess it is. It is such an embarassment for Ubisoft their stock dropped a preciptious 9% post-launch of "Unity" and Forbes called them, "The new EA," and not in a complimentary way.

While we are on the subject of video-games I thought I would share this interesting article on how the first "Modern Warfare" game (which was also the fourth "Call of Duty" title made in the franchise's history) and parts of its sequel were arguably quite good and at times surprisingly introspective about warfare, not falling as much into the jingoistic claptrap that later "Call of Duty"-related games did--I mean seriously, you get Oliver North to promote "Black Ops 2"? The man is arguably war criminal!

"Born in the USA" actually has lyrics that are darkly cynical and bitter about the United States. Countless politicians have seemed to miss out on this and used it as a cheery campaign-trail jingle. Therefore, this article asks if politicians are too dumb to understand what the song is actually about, or just don't care as it sounds catchy.

That cat and duck are best friends? I find that awesome!

Lastly, I always tell people I hate cats despite owning two, as the ones that live with my lady and myself are different from most. That said, I still find this website, with the adorable name of, "lovemeow.com" that I discovered with heartwarming stories and pictures of cats to be highly enjoyable.

Let's Link to Interesting Things!

I haven't linked to things I've found neat for awhile, let's rectify that!
Like the headline says, here are some cool links...

A good series.

In the past I've said how "Thunderbolts" was a good comic with a great idea, I'm glad since the title has had time to grow and try out other writers more folk think that also now.

Rosario Dawson is going to be in the "Daredevil" Netflix series. She's a good actress, so that sounds pretty good, and considering who they got to play the Kingpin it looks like a quality cast is coming  together.

Chuck Dixon

I've enjoyed Chuck Dixon's comics regardless of his political affiliation. He makes claims that being a conservative in the field has made getting work--especially with the big 2--much harder, however. The thing is, folk like Tom Brevoort counter that it isn't Dixon's politics that make him undesirable, but his attitude when it comes to working well with others. Whatever the case, I wish Dixon the best and hope he can get some work as the man has made some good comics.

I think even if he weren't also someone who cheated his way out of paying taxes, we could all still agree that Hitler was a terrible, terrible person.

Well done, Mozzocco, well done.

J. Caleb Mozzocco is a genius for coming up with the above article, and others along with myself have insisted he make it a monthly thing. The only aspect I hate about this is that I'm mad I didn't think of doing it first.

So, Iraq is a mess, again--and please note this link has a news-video that will auto-play.

I wish I could have gone to this Marvel-themed restaurant back in its heyday.

Bob Kane, the solely credited "creator" of Batman is getting a posthumous star on the Hollywood "Walk of Fame". As someone who has read-up on Kane and his numerous questionable-to-terrible actions, I have no comment on this...at least not one that is very nice.

Speaking of "Batman", 25 years ago today the original "Batman" film came out. Crazy to think I would have barely been walking and talking all those years ago.

Finally, Ubisoft is looking really bad right now for not having any female assassins in the next "Assasin's Creed" game, claiming that it would have been too difficult to animate women. People of course called them out on this B.S. and now its become one huge PR debacle, one that other companies are eager to take advantage of.