Even more ambitious than we thought - Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced (Hands-On Impressions)

[00:01] this video sponsor, Manscaped, the undisputed leader in male grooming tech correct from tip to hairy toes. Their industry-leading Lawnmower 5.0 Ultra is pruning or removing body hair, and Manscaped have just released it in a

[00:16] super limited edition desert sand colorway. Get 15% off plus free shipping checkout. Click below to grab one or stick around to the end of the video to learn more. Surprise, Assassin's Creed Black Flag

[00:28] Resync preview video. I've played it. I've visited the studio making it in Singapore. I've interviewed the game's director, Paul Fu, and I have a hell of let's be clear on what exactly I experienced so you know what to expect.

[00:41] I did spend a full day at Ubisoft's Singapore-based studio. Ubisoft did flights and accommodation, but as usual, I declined, choosing instead to cover my own costs so that you could be guaranteed truly independent coverage.

[00:54] signing up and supporting what we do over at this week in video games.com. The day consisted of a few relevant elements, being a welcome presentation he outlined the major changes and improvements that Resync aims to bring.

[01:07] game's audio director, who told us about the significant overhauls coming to the for Dolby Atmos setups. Next, we sat down with members of the technical team new Anvil engine is breathing new life into the Caribbean setting, including

[01:21] traced lighting, and more sophisticated weather effects. After that, I spent a full 4 hours plus playing the game, a mixture of campaign missions and free with Paul Fu, where I got to ask anything I wanted, and he certainly gave

[01:34] last thing you should know before we really get stuck into what is I love Assassin's Creed Black Flag to an unhealthy degree. It's not only my favorite AC game, it may well be one of my favorite games, full stop. If you

[01:47] played it back then, then you would know what an incredible breakthrough it was. almost peerless for its time. Its technology was astounding, rendering such a vast world so seamlessly and so effortlessly. It's careful balance of

[02:00] open-world exploration and discovery was pitch-perfect and the writing. God in heaven, this writing. Such vivid characterization, such an engaging thematic plot, such poetry in the turns of phrases employed, all of them so

[02:13] masterfully delivered by this absolutely flawless cast of voice actors. I replay in preparation for this review and I expected to encounter a game that had aged fairly poorly in the intervening 13 years. The exact opposite

[02:26] was true. I was floored by how well this game holds up all these years later to do you even remake this when it feels like a remaster would suffice? And if you are going to be bold enough to remake it, how do you do so without

[02:40] looking for came in the opening presentation from the game director Paul that the starting point for all of their work was a deep reverence for the source material because many of the people who are working on re-synced actually worked

[02:53] game's development was led by Ubisoft studio that provided a lot of support across various parts of the game with a particular focus on naval combat. Almost all of the team members we met during

[03:06] some capacity. And I'm going to tell you right now, the way these people talked into it, you can tell they take a lot of pride in what they built all those years desire to bring it to a new generation of fans. That also manifests in one of

[03:21] the major design philosophies that underpins re-synced. Fu said repeatedly to protect what was already there and after that improve it or add to it where Flag as something that needs to be fixed, they view it as something

[03:35] opportunity to revisit and add to. I think that comes through most strongly definitely talk more about later, but it's not what you'd expect. It's not modern AC combat dropped into Black Flag, it's its own unique combat model

[03:48] that is greatly inspired by the original combat. For better or worse, like I said, we'll come back to that. Phil also made clear that re-sinned is absolutely surprised to learn that they're adding around 6 hours of new content to the

[04:01] game. That includes new islands and locations, side quests, a new naval officers, and 10 new missions between them, an expanded hideout with new characters, as well as an entirely new end-game chapter called A World Without

[04:15] Gold, which is actually an epilogue to Conway's story. That is a lot of new stuff and already positions re-sinned as one of the most ambitious remakes ever in addition to all of that new content, are major overhauls of key game systems,

[04:28] like mission structure, collectibles, naval combat, melee combat, stealth, as weather system resulting in both enhanced visuals and gameplay affecting yeah, it also got that new coat of paint, being rebuilt entirely in the

[04:41] latest version of the Anvil engine, the game looking absolutely incredible, and throughout this video. So that's what Ubisoft are aiming for. obvious question then becomes how well are they hitting these goals? Well, important caveat

[04:54] build I was playing on was still not finalized since the game is in active certainly can't offer a definitive view yet, but I will tell you right off the jump, this is looking pretty damn solid so far. Not perfect, and there are a few

[05:07] nitpicks I'll get into, but Black Flag was an incredible video game, and this been changed in ways that I'm sure some people won't love, but none of those changes are so profound that they stop this from being Black Flag. So far,

[05:20] definitive Black Flag experience. And honestly, that's a bit of a relief, cuz skeptical. I was thinking, man, what if they [\h__\h] it up? What if they somehow find a way to ruin this near-perfect video game? After 4 hours though, I

[05:33] with it. The visual uplift is fantastic, the weather system is great, the mission structure changes are welcome, the UI and menu overhaul is a real win because the original's menus

[05:45] the worst part of going back to replay it recently. Having said all of that though, there are a few things that aren't landing for me just yet. Combat hear some mixed commentary from other previewers about the combat, which is

[05:57] think the way combat was demoed to us in this preview wasn't great. It was only after I spoke to the game's director that I started to understand what they definitely not passing judgment just yet. The same could be said of the story

[06:10] edition since the new story I did experience wasn't really floating my came to the tone and the sharpness of the writing. And finally, parkour is one not necessarily worse than the original, but it just has a different feel, and

[06:23] are going to have plenty to say about it when they do get their hands on it. But even with these hesitations, re-synced is looking like both faithful homage and possible that some parts of this package don't hit the mark, I get the distinct

[06:37] feeling that the overall offering is going to be a much-needed win for returning fans or first-timers to experience the legend of Edward Kenway. experience the legend of Edward Kenway. >> [music]

[06:54] >> You had better be a very good shipwright. I >> [music]

[07:09] >> Let's kick off with the easiest thing to talk about, visual glow-up. Black Flag modern version of the Anvil engine, the same one that powered Assassin's Creed Shadows. Now, whether you like that game or not, one thing we could all agree on

[07:22] video game, helped in no small part by the advancements to the Anvil engine, sophisticated lighting and weather effects. Locations could be utterly shifts by the change from summer to winter, and Black Flag benefits

[07:36] We did see a live demonstration of the way that time of day affects a scene's visuals using a debug build of the game, but we were also able to experience a little of that ourselves since the game does let you pass time.

[08:05] beautiful light shaft running through it. You can see for yourself just how much better this space looks than the original.

[08:27] Flag on PC at 4K resolution, I remember thinking to myself, "The original still later." And that's true, I think, owing some bold use of color that gives the visual palette an almost stylized

[08:40] to remain grounded and realistic. Seeing those same colors here in the remake and detail, with this many people walking the streets of Havana, it was incredible, man. It It really just feels like they brought the CG cutscene from

[08:54] the original game to life and made it playable. YouTube will no doubt compress this for yourself, you're going to be pretty blown away by what Ubisoft have head canon stuff, but I do reflect on what I said in the intro about the team

[09:07] don't think you get a game that looks this good unless the developers are really going the extra mile to pack tiny, barely perceptible details into grain and the stone floors and the painted shutters and all the rest. It

[09:20] work to create visuals this dense and this detailed, and it just looks this detailed, and it just looks absolutely fantastic.

[09:38] time with the lead audio supervisor, and he walked us through what's changed. The way he described it, in the original ship combat essentially had one sound against, namely the center mast. In resync, it's using Dolby Atmos powered

[09:52] tech that brings a more object-focused sound mix, delivering more accurate sound physics. So, the sound of a cannonball flying over your head is original ever could manage, and you'll hear those benefits even if you aren't

[10:06] hear those benefits even if you aren't running AN ATMOS SETUP.

[10:18] stems to give them more texture, and during combat music will actually takedowns, which the team was particularly proud of since this apparently took a hell of a lot of work to pull off.

[10:37] shanties! We're getting a bunch of new shanties, baby, and some of the shanties since it only makes sense that his legend grows as his exploits throughout the Caribbean bring him more fame and fortune.

[11:00] I'm sure sounds like an oddly specific thing to call out. Like I said at the top, the menus in particular have aged terribly since the original, and here character sheet, it's easier to navigate, clearer about which gear you

[11:14] also notice some new weapon types added since there are now three classes of set, as well as a new system of trinkets, little things that you can example, I found one trinket that

[11:27] Another one Ubisoft showed us is a trinket that heals you on a perfect parry, that's what I mean. So, visuals, sound, music, and menus, they these are limited remastering, and they're all here and they're all great. They

[11:39] Ubisoft could have probably just gotten away with if they weren't looking to do anything more ambitious. But, this is not a remaster, it is a remake. So, now looks to refine, expand, and potentially improve Kenway's saga.

[12:02] new weather system, and it's a perfect addition to a game set in the Caribbean. Previous game also had a weather system, but it's much more ambitious here. The wind will gale stronger, the rain will fall heavier. It'll form puddles on the

[12:15] for a time after that rain stops. With ray tracing on, these puddles become and texture to the environments. The weather system is best felt out on the original, but the new ones feel more organic, and they actually limit

[12:28] visibility, which they didn't before. Here's how game director Paul Fu put it intent, quote, "Weather was something that I also worked on in the original struggle of should we make the weather visualization block the view of the

[12:41] player? You have to provide a balance of chaos versus gameplay, so I think we amped up the visualization, and we accepted the fact that sometimes you can't see, and that's going to be okay." End quote. There's also a new weather

[12:53] effect called a rogue wind, which works like the rogue waves of the original along, and all of a sudden a big gust buffets your ship in one direction, and you have to steer the other way to compensate.

[13:15] land, too. Kenway's visibility in stealth is now affected by day-night cycles and heavier weather, which we'll certainly come back to. So, weather is a definite win thematically, visually, and in a gameplay sense. Let's talk now

[13:27] You might have forgotten this, but in the original everything was framed as a started by walking up to a stationary NPC, pressing a button, and triggering a cutscene. Then the mission would play out, and at the end you'd get a rating

[13:41] based on optional objectives. You'd also have the chance to rate the mission and wondered whether or not Ubi ended up looking at that feedback, or they just kind of stored it somewhere in some big server. Anyway, all of that is gone now,

[13:53] more immersive. When you want to start a mission, you often just walk up to During the missions, there are no longer optional bonus objectives. There's no more pop-up freeze-frame at the end, and no chance to fill out a customer survey.

[14:06] modern games. Tied to this, the missions themselves have been reworked, too. Desync was a big part of the original. Get spotted in a follow or escort desynced, sent back to the start of a mission or a checkpoint. In Resync, if

[14:20] you can just keep going. Ubisoft has rebuilt those failures to branch the into a desync. I didn't experience that for myself, because I didn't fail they promised, and it's a nice change, because Star Wars Outlaws reminded us

[14:34] that instant fail stealth missions really suck. This is probably a good time to mention that the modern-day stuff has been removed. For anyone who hasn't played the original, the conceit of older Assassin's Creed games was that

[14:46] and you were playing some person at a desk in a VR headset reliving these memories while they were being mined by Abstergo, an nefarious corporation that It was actually pretty cool, and it's

[15:00] these sequences will be replaced by little segments that dive deeper into Kenway's own memories. Ubisoft are calling them modern-day rifts focused on Kenway's internal struggles. And look, while I understand why Ubi made this

[15:12] call, I got to say I don't love it. I think the original modern-day sequences added a really clever, mysterious twist to the game. There was something in of a meta storyline that you would dip in and out of, that there was this

[15:25] broader intergenerational intrigue playing out, the impact of Templars still living under the yoke of their tyranny. There was just something in think it's a bummer. I haven't experienced any of the new Kenway

[15:37] content, so I can't say if it makes up for it, but I don't see how it could different objectives. Like I said, I get it since modern AC games have completely think at least a little bit is lost by re- syncing, not letting a new

[15:50] generation of fans experience what was, in my view, pretty central part of the in my view, pretty central part of the old AC experience. old AC experience. >> [music]

[16:04] >> So, that's the content removed. Let's talk about new content being added. First up, it's subtle and easy to miss, but you might notice new voice lines added to existing quests. They're not too numerous, but having just played the

[16:16] them. They're fine. I don't think they're strictly necessary, but they don't detract from what's there, either. Number two, new locations and updated location activities. I got to experience one of these updated locations during my

[16:29] of Havana. In the original, you had to find four unique chests all hidden on land, but here in Resync, you sneak in and the pirates start talking about they're like, "Ah, your average pirate would have kept it on the land, but not

[16:42] pirate accent? I don't think it is. Anyway, point is, it's obvious that the chest is in the water, and sure enough, it is. And the thing is, you can the biggest changes in Resync is that Kenway can dive into any body of water.

[16:57] the diving bell sequences, but now you can dive in pirate caves, in rivers, in lagoons, and anywhere in the open ocean. I'm sure there are many, many secrets waiting for us hidden in all sorts of places that we couldn't reach before.

[17:17] the breach involved killing just one wear down the morale of the troops by killing a whole bunch of them. What it's worth, I actually kind of like that Kenway used to make a bee-line for the

[17:29] officers as the battle raged around him. That was kind of cool, but honestly, That was kind of cool, but honestly, this is fine, too. content spaces. All of them had big and small differences to their layouts, but

[17:45] more dense with more to climb on or hide behind. All right, up next, new story mentioned, some of this attaches to the main quest by way of those Edward Kenway surprising addition, though, is an epilogue called A World Without Gold.

[18:00] It's eight new missions and introduces a new character, and on top of that, there resolve storylines left open in the original. That's honestly pretty cool experiencing the same story they

[18:13] been expanded with new narrative two new characters living there. I didn't get to experience any of that in it. The most advertised new story content is the new naval officer system.

[18:27] naval officers, each with their own quest lines and a unique perk for your them. The mission I got to play through involved Lucy, who's a shipwright. When and the upgrade she brings improves bracing, which is, you know, you kind of

[18:42] hold the B button when you're about to take cannon fire. With Lucy on board, if less damage than you otherwise would. Cool system, I think. I like the idea officers, getting new abilities through them, building out the ship as we go. My

[18:55] concern is the storytelling side of things. I guess I'll just play this clip and then we can talk about it after. You could join us. Jackdaw nor a fairer crew. Christ, you're

[19:09] nor a fairer crew. Christ, you're relentless. So, you said you did keep me from hanging.

[19:22] True. But, that doesn't mean you own me. Also But, that doesn't mean you own me. Also true. enough. What else have you got for me?

[19:44] part of this is just me with nostalgic goggles on guarding too jealously this story and these characters, but for me this doesn't feel quite right. Lucy seems fine actually. It's more Kenway who seems too cheery, too quick to state

[19:57] the hell is this pose he's striking? But, obviously you can't judge a story on the basis of a single cutscene. That would be ridiculous. All I will say is of confidence and I'm going to reserve judgment on this stuff until I've

[20:10] judgment on this stuff until I've experienced the full offering. >> Black Flag's original naval combat was frankly an all-time achievement. And

[20:22] fundamentals, some newly added weapons and secondary fire modes enter and enlarge the combat sandbox. The main new weapon types are heated shots engineered naval weapon. Basically, a way to keep

[20:35] don't want to wait for your cannons to reload. Beyond that, chain shots get a double shot secondary. Fire barrels return with a larger area of effect, definitely too small before. As well as a shrapnel barrels secondary fire mode,

[20:48] mortar also gets something called Dead Man's Cohort, which concentrates mortar also a really notable change to swivel guns. They used to be a kind of quick Y button to fire them, but now you actually have to manually aim them at

[21:02] actually have to manually aim them at the weak spot yourself. changes as fairly minor since the overall flow of naval combat remains be said for stealth, which feels very similar except for one big change,

[21:18] you couldn't actually choose when to for you, which often led to weird moments where Kenway would kind of stand up in the middle of a sneak. In re-sync, you can choose to crouch anywhere, full

[21:31] how stealth feels. New takedown animations are also a nice touch. And Kenway's visibility is now impacted by day-night cycles and heavy weather, as cover or wait for nightfall if you want to make a tricky approach easier.

[21:50] stealth are fairly minor, changes to melee combat are anything but. And this about part of re-sync, so let's get into it. Combat in the original Black Flag was a very simple affair by modern standards. You attack, your attacks

[22:03] worked on most low-level enemies. You could knock them over in a few hits, done. Some enemies would block you, in which case you would press A to break attacking them, and that was basically it. There were flourishes on top of this

[22:16] enemies as human shields against gunfire, pulling out your pistols for a volley. The core loop was pretty simple. A big part of it was about standing your opportunity, creating an opening through patience, sort of like Batman: Arkham

[22:30] but with less forward momentum. It was a sword duel after all, never centered on back-and-forth. When re-sync was announced, the immediate concern was that it would go full modern Assassin's Creed RPG combat, extremely focused on

[22:44] relentless aggression, on throughput, on spamming big ability cooldowns, on was available. Given how central that combat style is to modern AC games, it where Ubisoft would take re-sync as well. But, combat in re-sync is

[22:59] official line from the presentation was that combat rewards player skill over DPS, staying true to the identity of the original game. Foo made the point that all moves unlock very early on in the game with no skill trees at all. You get

[23:12] your full kit relatively quickly, and the rest of the game is about how you use that kit. So, how do you use it? Well, there's only one attack button, R1, which you are hitting constantly. A lot of the time it works, a lot of the

[23:24] block your attacks. There's no more guard break ability now. Instead, attacks will actually chip away at it, but you can instantly empty it with a perfect parry or a gunshot. When an enemy is blocking and you don't have

[23:38] them with, the best thing you can do is leg sweep them, which honestly is a sweep most enemies straight to the ground, do a quick finish up, and take ground, do a quick finish up, and take them out.

[23:53] can chain into a takedown that hits up to four enemies at once, depending on weapons, swords are now split into three classes: rapier, cutlass, and pistol sword. Each class has its own unique heavy strike, which is a new attack type

[24:07] area. So, which sword you pick actually changes how you fight, not just the damage numbers. There's also a new elite enemy archetype called a demolitionist, grenades at you. Ubisoft added this enemy type in response to community

[24:19] touch. So, when we got hands-on, I think we all saw that defense meter, and we just thought, "Well, I guess I'll just spam R1 until that bar fills up." And through pretty much every combat encounter by just mashing R1 and

[24:33] sweeping guards to break their stance. So, I and a few other people I spoke to preview a little underwhelmed by the combat. I was thinking, "Okay, what you've made here works. It does feel more modern. It does feel true to the

[24:46] original, which is great, but it doesn't feel particularly ambitious. You've made a possible combat framework instead of a good one." Then I sat down with the game point-blank what they were actually aiming for with this combat. And here's

[24:59] heavily inspired by YouTube videos, actually. We went to look at YouTube fan videos from the original, where there's lots of pistol shots in between chains, and all that kind of stuff. We really wanted variety, but I also identified in

[25:12] But when it comes to gameplay variety, what I mean by gameplay variety is tactical decision-making, it wasn't exactly there. You had the freedom to do the decision may not necessarily have the same weight. So, how we approach

[25:26] fighting game nerd. We use the concept of flowcharting. If you did a perfect parry in Re-Sink, you would then do a chain takedown. But if you didn't do a your brain suddenly has to go down route B instead of route A. You then have to

[25:40] perform maybe a combo into a rope dart into a sweep into a ground takedown. But you don't want to waste your time, you just kick him, and then you perform a wall takedown. Every decision that you make matters more than the traditional

[25:52] AC-style RPG. So, it's not much about DPS or weapon perks, it's about road A, B, or C, not 100 roads. Because if the amount of decisions you give to the player is complete freedom, then the decisions no longer make sense, which is

[26:06] why we designed this, what I call a deterministic fight system." End quote. to be honest, because we were never told any of this before we were handed the controller, and nothing in the game tutorializes this combat philosophy. As

[26:21] Fu was describing this to me, I was like, "All right, okay. Now I see it." to the game to play this way, cuz I didn't really know that that's what he and his team were aiming for. And honestly, it makes a lot of sense, and

[26:34] it's a cool goal to have. And looking back on my time playing, I can see the have combined them to create the exact scenarios that Fu was describing. I playing in the way that he was describing, and I was just relying on R1

[26:48] acknowledged that that's sort of built into the game, too. Quote, "For me, AC is a mid-core or low-core game. It's not necessarily a hardcore game, so we actually on purpose allowed a bit more spamming, at least in the northern

[27:01] regions, it gets a little bit harder to spam." End quote. So, that's the are more forgiving and let you kind of just vibe with the combat, but as you the deterministic decision-making starts to matter. There's also elite versions

[27:15] of enemies with golden epaulets that show up later. They parry faster, deny wasn't clicking for me in this preview, I really do want to give it a second more to it that I haven't yet experienced owing to my own lack of

[27:28] encountering these more challenging enemy types. One thing I definitely did not like though is the visual flair and soundscape of combat. I think they explosive parry animations from the trailer, I saw those and thought, "What

[27:42] the [\h__\h] is that?" Having now experienced them, I can confirm I do not like these at all. Talking about a pirate game where steel meets steel, it feels goofy to have a giant animated explosion every time two swords touch.

[27:55] And the audio that goes with this is just so boomy and loud. It's a lot, man. Combat starts to feel less like a jewel and more like an extension of the naval warfare full of explosive animations and explosive sounds. I really don't like it

[28:08] at all and I think taking the edge off these big parry animations and the sound would really be a good thing. Your last mistake, mate. HOW DARE YOU? Your last mistake, mate. HOW DARE YOU? GRENADE COMING!

[28:23] a bit of a cop-out, but it's the honest truth. You're going to hear plenty of them are fair. The context matters and I really want to give this combat a proper learn it and figure out whether or not it delivers on the developers' intent.

[28:37] Right now, I just can't say. We could work together on this. enthusiast, you may not be aware that the moment the gameplay trailer for

[28:51] recent dropped, the enthusiast AC community immediately started cutting comparison videos dissecting the parkour differences between the original and paying close attention to this actually. Since the game director told me, quote,

[29:04] identify very specific problems with parkour. Almost every day we actually file issues with parkour so we can fix them." End quote. So, why would parkour demand so much attention? Surely it's a pretty simple situation of just, you

[29:18] Definitely not. Quick context for all the people who aren't across this stuff, the older AC games had a really beautiful, smooth, weighty float parkour As well as a number of advanced parkour move sets that give you a lot of freedom

[29:33] addition to that, the older games forced you to navigate space more meaningfully. You couldn't just press forward on a sheer wall and climb it. The newer games let you do that, which was terrible and it felt dumb. Shadows and Mirage walked

[29:47] back from that and made handholds matter again, which was a huge win. But there's even with handholds back, the new parkour just doesn't feel as weighty, that the original games do. Playing recent after just replaying the

[30:00] original, yeah, you can immediately feel that this is a different parkour model. quite weighty in the way that Kenway would move. There was also quite rigid with the way that it would snap Kenway to specific handholds. It's a very

[30:14] different feel here in recent. It's much more about immediacy, smoothness, glide, and pace. The first thing I noticed was that Kenway can now jump a significant height without a clamber animation. He couldn't do that before. A jump that

[30:27] leg and would take a moment for that animation to roll. Here he can just jump animation to roll. Here he can just jump straight up.

[30:41] heavily as deliberately as he once did, old feeling. But, the trade-off is that you have more freedom to choose direction mid-flow, since the game isn't snapping you to specific handholds and

[30:54] jump directions as aggressively. The original was much stickier to the point difficult to make Kenway jump at specific angles, because the geometry direction. I remember trying to grab specific song sheets back in the day

[31:07] Just [\h__\h] Jump that way." And Kenway wouldn't do it. It was super annoying. Recent gives you a lot more control, less snap, but you do trade away some of that old familiar weight and momentum to get it. Do I think the parkour in Recent

[31:20] is bad or worse than it was in the original? I don't actually. I just think impressed with improvements made to Mirage. Parkour definitely felt improved it. I like this, too. But, I know that hardcore AC parkour fans are no doubt

[31:34] going to have their own views about all this stuff. Recent is looking to deliver when it arrives. Better visuals, obviously, and

[31:49] Vastly better visuals with improved weather effects and ray-traced lighting. Better, more immersive sound, revised music, new music, and most importantly, new sea shanties. New menus and UI, new locations to visit, existing locations

[32:02] substantially reworked in terms of both the level design and their objectives. Reworked mission structure with no desync fail states. New dialogue added officers with their own quest chains. An entire eight-mission epilogue expanding

[32:15] the main story. Naval combat gets new weapons. Stealth gets the ability to mechanics like time of day and weather. Combat has been entirely reworked in a rather than just the modern trilogy combat copy and pasted in. And parkour

[32:29] has been rebuilt in the new Anvil engine with a focus on control and immediacy. Now, looking at that list, there is an argument to be made that Recent is one of the most ambitious remake projects ever. All remakes look to improve visual

[32:41] improvements, but very few of them look to overhaul so many aspects of the game, be that core systems or locations, and fewer still look to add so much new content to the game. You could have just slapped a new coat of paint on this

[32:55] ended up recommending it because Black Flag is just that good, and it's aged much better than you'd expect. But Ubisoft weren't willing to rest on the brilliance. They really wanted to go the extra mile in every way that they could.

[33:08] In certain areas, this effort is already paying huge dividends. Visually, it's weather effects look better and are more immersive, and improvements to UI, When it comes to the newly added content, particularly the story stuff,

[33:22] I'm hopeful it ends up being truly additive rather than this awkward, comfortable with where parkour is headed, and as for the combat, I swing at it armed with new knowledge and with more time to actually learn it. But

[33:36] emotion I'm experiencing right now is jealousy because if you have never played Black Flag before and you are experiencing this game for the first going to lose your mind. Almost everything that made Black Flag great is

[33:50] Edward Kenway, the cast of characters, diving, harpooning a shark, getting into brawls at a tavern, all of it is here. So even if not all of the new elements land as strongly as we might hope, I

[34:03] enough to survive those potential shortcomings. Black Flag really is just that good. But I'm also feeling a quiet confidence that resync will make it a little or maybe even a lot better. We're going to find out whether or not that's

[34:17] 9th for PC, Xbox, and PlayStation. Please look forward to my full review for watching and I'll see you again real soon. Bye-bye. Have you ever looked at your ball shaver and thought to yourself, "It's nice, but

[34:31] probably haven't, but I guarantee you those thoughts will flood your mind when you gaze upon the beauty, majesty, and splendor of the new desert sand colorway for the Lawn Mower 5.0 Ultra from this video's sponsor, Manscaped. No matter

[34:44] which color Lawn Mower you pick up, your body hair will tremble in fear at the features longer, wider, and rounded teeth to tackle hair effortlessly, while finish, and switching between them is a breeze. Just a quick push and it's in.

[34:58] >> But the features don't just stop there, for the Lawn Mower 5.0 features dual LED multiple skin tones. With this sort of illumination, there is nowhere for your handy travel lock feature, ensuring that the Lawn Mower 5.0 Ultra won't turn on

[35:13] everything you'd expect from a top-of-the-line trimmer, including a and it's waterproof, allowing for easy use in the shower and easy cleaning when in the build quality of the Lawn Mower 5.0 Ultra, that they offer a 2-year

[35:28] sand colorway is a fantastic excuse to jump in, join the Manscaped family, and The desert sand colorway is a strictly limited edition offering though, so do manscaped.com/skillup and using offer code skillup at

[35:44] order plus free shipping. That's manscaped.com/skillup offer code skillup at checkout for 15% off plus free shipping. Thanks Manscaped for sponsoring the video, and thank you for watching it.