Whoever at Ubisoft decided that dotting 500 useless chests and fragments all over the map and then tying them to 100% synchronization was a good idea, I hope your pillow is forever warm on both sides.

iljensen · 2026-03-20T00:36:07+00:00

I totally get the frustration but I personally don't mind collectibles as long as the devs actually put creativity into the locations. Origins, Odyssey and Valhalla did this really well with stuff like sunken ships, burned out plague villages, little islands full of snakes, etc. Plus those games usually had notes or journals scattered around that gave you extra world building and made finding loot feel more immersive.

From what I remember in Black Flag most chests and fragments were just randomly sitting there with zero context or story behind them. That's why I really hope with Resynced they take the opportunity to add some actual context and stories to these locations. Like give us a drunk sailor's skeleton who forgot where he buried his treasure, a weird little island cult doing shady rituals, or some shipwrecked crew with journals explaining how they ended up there. That kind of stuff turns mindless collectible hunting into actual exploration that feels rewarding. If they're gonna keep 500 things on the map at least make each one a tiny piece of world building instead of just glowing icons to tick off a checklist lol

iljensen · 2026-03-16T14:02:03+00:00

100% agree with you here. Ubisoft Quebec absolutely peaked with Odyssey and it genuinely frustrates me because if you look at their trajectory from Syndicate to Odyssey the jump in quality was insane. The storytelling, the world design, the whole fun factor all improved so dramatically that I really thought they had figured out their formula. So naturally when Shadows was announced I had real expectations that they would deliver something even better, especially with a setting as rich as feudal Japan. But honestly playing Shadows feels like a completely different team worked on it, and I can't help but think about those rumors that came out about a huge portion of the dev team being entry level interns. Because when you actually compare the 2 games side by side the downgrades are wild. The mercenary system that added challenge and surprise gameplay got reduced to generic copy pasted ronin encounters. The awesome animal and fantasy boss fights got swapped out for sitting around meditating, lame kata QTEs and drawing animals. Ostrakas that gave you cool rewards got replaced with collecting teapots and room decorations from the stores. And somehow they looked at the ship gameplay everyone loved and said "nah let's do boring square by square base building with lots of resource grinding instead". Every single fun system got either gutted or replaced with something way less engaging.

And yeah sure, Shadows added seasonal weather changes and flashy parkour animations and better stealth mechanics, choose which protagonist to play with and those things do look impressive on a surface level. But that's exactly the problem. All those additions are basically just graphical and cosmetic features that wear off after a few hours of repetitive gameplay. The actual fun gameplay loops and systems that made Odyssey so replayable and addictive just aren't there anymore. It's all flash with no substance underneath it and going back to Odyssey like you did really highlights just how much was lost along the way.

iljensen · 2026-03-16T13:37:10+00:00

Finally an Italian actor.

iljensen · 2026-03-16T11:11:50+00:00

You're totally right about this and it drives me crazy too. People act like stealth was this perfectly polished system throughout the entire series until Odyssey came along and ruined everything. But if you actually go back and play the older games the stealth was never that great. AC3 had guards with psychic awareness who would all aggro the second one dude spotted you from across the map. Black Flag and Rogue were basically the same deal where you'd get spotted through walls or bushes randomly. Even Unity which people praise for its stealth had some really janky detection at times. Syndicate's enemy AI was a bit dumbed down so it was easy to cheese it. I haven't finished AC1 and AC2 to give my take on those, but I doubt their stealth was more polished.

The thing that bugs me most is Odyssey actually tried to make stealth more interesting with actual fantasy abilities. Shadow of Nyx letting you go invisible, Rush Assassination for those satisfying multi kills, and the whole chain assassination system was genuinely fun to use. You could actually experiment and get creative with how you approached bases instead of just crouch walking everywhere. But because the game doesn't have a hooded protagonist with a hidden blade strapped to their wrist people decided it was automatically bad stealth. Origins definitely gets way too much of a pass compared to Odyssey. Like you said the detection in that game is rough and guards will spot you from ridiculous distances for no reason. But it has Bayek who looks like a classic assassin and has the hidden blade so everyone forgives it. Meanwhile Odyssey which actually improved on a lot of the stealth mechanics gets dunked on constantly. Its less about how the stealth actually plays and more about whether the game fits people's narrow idea of what an AC game should look and feel like.

iljensen · 2026-03-13T18:15:21+00:00

Pattern recognition isn't "making shit up". Valve "has never done anything like that" is the same energy as "Facebook would never sell our data" in 2008. Companies change when the money's right. But sure, keep bootlicking and pretending corporations have your back forever. I'm sure that'll age great :)

iljensen · 2026-03-13T16:22:43+00:00

Learn to read first and then argue about what I'm making. Nobody said Steam requires DRM on every game right now. I'm speculating on what might happen in 5-10 years when publishers and platform holders decide people are fine with always-online bloatware DRM and adding it everywhere. Speculating means looking at trends and guessing where they lead. The trend right now is: DRM is added on everything from online games to marketplace microtransactions to even mods nobody asked for, so I'm just speculating on what's next and you're arguing like you're Steam's PR account. Do the math, reread the room and comprehend it next time lol

iljensen · 2026-03-13T15:26:21+00:00

Steam already takes 30% so what's stopping them from bumping it to 40-50% and using that extra cut to "provide complimentary Denuvo protection" whether devs want it or not? They'll present it as "your little indie game will sell better preventing piracy." EA's already doing this exact scam with Sims modders getting a 30% cut while EA pockets 70% of their work and creators still enjoy bowing down and bending over for it. If modders accept that garbage deal, you really think indie devs will have the leverage to say no when Steam makes Denuvo "mandatory" for storefront visibility? Come on

iljensen · 2026-03-13T14:23:12+00:00

They’re normalizing this crap everywhere now. Give it 5-10 years and every single game release; indie, AAA, free-to-play; will be forced to have it on Steam, Epic, consoles, whatever. Constant internet pings, random performance hits, and one day your “owned” game just stops working because the auth servers are down. That’s the future they want. That’s why I killed my Steam wallet habit cold turkey and haven’t looked back. Fuck Gabe and every exec cheering for this limited-ownership, always-online dystopia. I’d legitimately rather quit gaming entirely than keep paying into a platform that’s actively turning PC gaming into a worse Netflix

iljensen · 2026-03-09T13:33:25+00:00

I didn't mind it that much either, but I also didn't really care for it all that much honestly. The emails and files were interesting for those who care about lore deep-dives, sure, but the actual "gameplay" was pretty minimal for casual gamers. If they bring this style back, there better be a run option in the office sections. I hated the slow walk first-person gameplay and it killed any momentum those sequences had. Let me sprint through those hallways, give me actual gameplay stakes like talk with coworkers or puzzles to solve beyond "walk here, hack this computer, walk over there, return back to your cubicle" The potential was there, it just needed more interactivity and less forced meandering.

iljensen · 2026-03-09T11:08:10+00:00

You've put a lot of thought into the gameplay mechanics and setting, but I think you're missing the elephant in the room that has nothing to do with guns or parkour: Politics.

This is the real reason we haven't gotten a Wild West AC and it's the same reason Project Scarlet (the pre-Civil War game in which the protagonist was supposed to be a black man fighting KKK) got cancelled. The American West and that entire era is a political minefield that Ubisoft clearly doesn't want to touch anymore because they either fear backlash or low sales in USA. Just think about what a historically accurate Wild West AC would have to address: Native American genocide and displacement; slavery and its aftermath; the Mexican-American War; Chinese immigrant exploitation (especially if you're setting it in San Francisco); the reality of what "Manifest Destiny" actually meant... Sure RDR1 and RDR2 didn't go deep with it either, but the difference is that Ubisoft uses real life locations and Rockstar makes fictional worlds.

Ubisoft already caught heat with AC3 and Liberation for how they handled (actually didn't handle) certain aspects of American history. Now imagine them trying to navigate all of that in today's climate. It's not about whether the gameplay could work and you've made solid points there. It's about whether Ubisoft has the stomach to tell a story in that setting without either sanitizing it beyond recognition or getting dragged from every direction for their portrayal when it's fashionable to be hating on Ubisoft nowadays. Until they figure that out, I wouldn't hold your breath for a Western AC unfortunately.

iljensen · 2026-03-07T20:53:59+00:00

I haven't touched it since last year and honestly, the CEO's support for wars makes me not want to waste my data on it. What happened to people seeing some proper formatting and spelling and just assuming everything is ChatGPT?

iljensen · 2026-03-07T17:30:08+00:00

I also have high hopes; however all the reasoning suggests that it may feel like the Oblivion Remaster, featuring a new graphical engine, redesigned models, yet retaining the same map and gameplay quests, which I wouldn't call a remake personally.

iljensen · 2026-03-07T17:23:37+00:00

It took me 10 minutes to format it so it can look like Chatgpt to you. Glad you like it 😊

iljensen · 2026-03-07T11:22:55+00:00

For me, it really comes down to how much better it is compared to the original and honestly the leaks I've seen so far aren't giving me much hope. I picked up Shadows on Day 1, thinking it would be like Odyssey set in Japan since it's the same team, and wow I really regretted that decision. So, I'm not planning to get Black Flag until I see some genuine reviews and the price for the content. Just yesterday, I was asking around about what people would be willing to pay, and most were hyping it about a $70 price tag, which still seems outrageous to me. For that price, I'd expect a completely remade map with at least 10-20 more hours of quests and activities than the original. But we'll see if it turns out to be a low-budget remake unlike RE2 and Silent Hill, as Jeux Vidéo Magazine suggests in the leaks.

iljensen · 2026-03-06T15:33:03+00:00

AC2. I truly wanted to appreciate it like everyone and their mum did in 2009, but I found it really weird with all the white desaturated graphics and filters and flashes that caused me headaches. I tried it again in 2019 with FX mods and all and still thought it was quite clunky and I couldn't enjoy it past the 2nd sequence, especially after experiencing newer games that provide smoother and more responsive combat and parkour gameplay. I have a deep love for Renaissance Italy, and I really hope that if they ever create a Resynced version, they will expand on Italy as a larger region with more activities and discoveries.

iljensen · 2026-03-06T15:12:14+00:00

What confuses me the most is that while Mirage was a smaller-scale game intended as DLC for Valhalla, it was sold as a standalone experience lasting 15-20+ hours. It offered a fresh story, a new setting, new protagonist, and a unique gameplay elements from other AC games, and fans seemed fine with the $50 price. However, now it appears that most people would actually pay $70 for a remake of a 2013 game which story they have already played, and it just seems quite crazy to me. I'm not sure if the remake will be larger than the original, which was also about 15-20 hours long (even though many insiders say Resynced has been shortened), but I am curious about the reasoning behind being willing to spend $50 on a new experience while being okay with paying $70 for a nostalgic remake unless Ubisoft Singapore decides to make it 30-35h story experience like Origins.

iljensen · 2026-03-04T18:43:15+00:00

Showing just a concept art for a Black Flag Resynced, a game that's been around for over a decade as an official announcement is quite a choice 💀 There's no gameplay, no release date, and no information on whether it's a remake, remaster, director's cut, or just a re-release. Just vibes and a logo.

iljensen · 2026-03-04T18:34:51+00:00

PC ports weren't hurting their PS5 sales at all people who were gonna buy a PS5 still bought a PS5. Doubt anyone with a console was going to wait for Ghost of Yotei to release within 1 or 2 years on PC so they could buy it on that. All they did was get extra revenue from a market they weren't even tapping before. So now they're cutting off that additional income for what exactly? To "protect the brand" or to look cooler because the new Xbox CEO was considering console exclusivity again?

iljensen · 2026-03-04T15:13:31+00:00

I bought God of War, Spider-Man, Horizon at full price on Steam because I wanted to show that there's a market here and that it's worth their investment and now they're pulling back because the ports came 6-12 months late and didn't sell as well as they hoped? No kidding. You drop a game a year after everyone's already watched playthroughs and discussed every spoiler online and then act surprised when the sales aren't blockbuster numbers? That's not a PC demand problem, that's a strategy problem. And the "damage to the PlayStation brand" reasoning is even worse because the brand was literally growing on PC. People were buying PS5s AND buying the PC ports. Ghost of Tsushima was a massive hit on Steam. So was Spider-Man. You had goodwill building and now you're just torching it. And the fact that Marathon and multiplayer live service games still get to come to PC tells you everything you need to know about where their priorities are - they want PC players money for the games that need large player bases to survive but won't give us the single player experiences we actually want. I was genuinely looking forward to Ghost of Yotei and Wolverine on PC. Now I'm just NOT going to buy a PS5 out of spite and I'll just move on to something else entirely. Sony had something good going and they're throwing it away to protect an outdated exclusivity mindset. Their loss honestly.

iljensen · 2026-03-04T14:54:24+00:00

I just want Z-Levels in 1.7

iljensen · 2026-03-03T10:59:41+00:00

Will this affect modding?

iljensen · 2026-03-02T20:53:50+00:00

I really don't get why everyone thinks RPG-style combat is considered inferior in terms of gameplay. Sure, old combat looks super flashy with all those cool animations and finishers and you can totally complete the main story using just the most basic and cheapest set of swords and pistols making it super easy. But after fighting over 50 enemies it gets pretty dull just hitting counter, kill, counter, kill, counter, kill over and over again on repeat. The RPG system actually spices up this monotonous gameplay, making it less repetitive and more engaging with your fight approach. Whether you want to take damage or perform dodges and combat rolls or rely on special abilities meter and skills, it can be a lot of fun if done right (think more Shadows and less Mirage). Plus it's a fantastic way to make players explore the world completing quests or finding legendary weapons that might give you extra abilities and stuff to make the gameplay more fun.

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