I haven’t yet got an XBox One, but I expect to trade in my trusty 360 sometime this year. I wouldn’t have bothered, but there are two series that have kept me hooked. One of them concludes with it’s third chapter. That is Arkham Knight, the third in the highly successful Batman games (nobody counts Arkham Origin as it was released by a different publishing house). The other – Assassin’s Creed – is a much bigger franchise and will probably go on forever.

I’ve written about the series before here and here, explaining the complex and often heavy mythology behind the series. It’s this mythology that has captured my imagination and makes me want to keep playing. As a storyteller myself, if a story grabs me, I can forgive poor gameplay.

I’ve recently acquired a copy of the final release for the XBox 360, Assassin’s Creed Rogue and started playing it today. First impression is that the gameplay is incredibly similar to Black Flag, but I expect the story to be driven forward only a little before moving on to Unity when I eventually get the XBox One.

Ok, I’ll stop waffling now because I was totally blown away by the big hype trailer released by Ubisoft yesterday. They released an image days ago leading to much speculation about where and when it would be set; many people theorised it would be set in Victorian London – and confirmation came yesterday that it will be. It’ll be nice that Brits are the good guys for once! It looks funky, exciting and a little steampunk. That is never a bad thing either. Gameplay seems to have driven forward.

Assassin’s Creed has its critics – the world’s greatest assassins not being able to crouch for example, and a half-British, half-mohawk assassin who is given an Irish name so he can blend in with the colonists who would assume he was a Spaniard, provided much comedy. But Assassin’s Creed gamers need a sense of humour because it can be quite silly at times.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the trailer and if you have anything to add about this game or the direction of the franchise, please feel free to comment.