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.

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 & Bones," Delayed Yet Once More

Back in a year we'd all rather forget--2020--I noted that the video-game, "Skull & Bones," sounded like it was in development Hell. After reading about basically everything in the game being changed repeatedly I wondered if the thing would ever be released. Well, a release date of November 2022 was rapidly approaching, but now the game has been pushed back for the fifth time to March 2023. You would think at this point the damn thing would just be canceled, but perhaps so much money has been pumped into it that something has to be released. I just feel bad for the development team at Ubisoft that I imagine has repeatedly started from scratch and has what sounds like a huge (and once more delayed) mess to show for it.

"Skull and Bones," Has an Even More Troubled Development Than Suspected

Back in 2020, I discussed how, "Skull and Bones," was a video-game that seemed to be in development Hell. Little did I suspect just how bad things really were as a new and lengthy article from Kotaku breaks down. Written by Ethan Gack, the piece has quotes from many (anonymous) developers discussing a title that seems to lack any clear focus, is millions of dollars in the hole, and has basically nothing to show for years of work--so much would get made then scrapped. The phrase, "Running around in a loop," is used to describe development. The developer, Ubisoft, has had lots of controversies over the years about staff mistreatment and sexual harassment, so this is yet another problem for the conglomerate.

"Skull and Bones," may eventually take shape into a playable and enjoyable game. It may even be awesome if it does finally come out. Right now though? Things are just rough. It's a shame as pirate games can be pretty fun when done well.

They May Have Sadly Finally Stopped Making Games for Wii

 

The Nintendo Wii launched in November of 2012. It had a very unsuccessful follow-up, the Wii U, which after that had the extremely successful Nintendo Switch enter the scene. A rollercoaster of success-failure-success, frankly. Meanwhile, however, everyone kept making games for the Wii. Just less and less. Then the only big-release game left for it was, "Just Dance 2020," which came out in November 2019. In 2020 there has been a special release of, "Retro City Rampage," and, "Shakedown: Hawaii," for the Wii, but they were region-locked to European consoles as North American production of Wii games had basically stopped. Hence, it was tragic but expected to hear that, "Just Dance 2021," is most likely not getting a Wii edition. 

"Just Dance 2021,"  will be the first-ever, "Just Dance," game not also available on the Wii and the fandom of the game which owns Wii consoles and likes being able to play the year's hottest tunes on it is upset. Like, upset enough there is a petition for the publisher, Ubisoft, to find some way to release the game for the Wii. I understand to a certain degree--old tech is old tech and it can be more expensive to make things for outdated technology than newer stuff with less of a monetary return--essentially planned obsolescence making itself known. Even if I understand it is kind of a bummer though, as we enjoy playing all the, "Just Dance," games on our Wii.

"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.

Don't Use a Holocaust Quote to Promote Your Game

The upcoming game, "Watch Dogs: Legion," looks incredibly timely, as Kotaku observed. It is in a futuristic UK which post-Brexit is pretty fascist and totalitarian--cops brutalizing people, xenophobia everywhere, basically what America and Great Britan are currently grappling with. In an effort to impart a message of sorts, Ubisoft went and reworked a famous quote about the Holocaust to promote their game, something else Kotaku noted. No, bad Ubisoft, bad!

The quote is the famous one about how, "First the came for the ____," and the poet, Martin Niemöller, did not speak out because it didn't impact him, and by the time the Nazis came for him nobody was left to protest. It is pretty famous. Ubisoft tweaked it to be timely for their game and not be about Nazis. This is dumb. Now, I'm not saying you can't discuss Nazis or the Holocaust in your games. It would make perfect sense to use a Holocaust quote or alter it a bit if your game were about modern-day Nazis (which is something else that is depressingly timely), but, "Watch Dogs: Legion," is about fascism in general and as far as we all know has nothing to do with Nazis. This makes taking a quote about the Holocaust of all things and altering it to suit your purposes extremely inappropriate and tone-deaf.

Ubisoft is already dealing with tons of scandals so having this fiasco piled on top ain't gonna help. I just wish someone with an ounce of common-sense had put a stop to the idea of taking a poem about the Holocaust and using it to promote a game that has nothing to do with Nazis. That said, at least, "Watch Dogs: Legion," looks like it could be fun, idiotic promotions aside.