Rise for This Live Action Assassin's Creed III Trailer

[Ducce]

AC is looking more and more like the TV series Lost for me, first three games (seasons) where great, and somewhere in the middle of game/season three I started wondering to myself when the writers where going to produce even the slightest of answers to all their plot holes and branches. And then I slowly realised that no one has even the slimmest idea where they are going with the story. Like a child that ensnares itself in their own lies.
-- Just produce more to make sure people watch or buy it.

And I bet you a fotjilllion banana dollars that it will all end with a lack luster and droopy ending. If AC will ever end at all that is...

 

[TheIronRuler]

.
Dude.
It was a trailer. Just one. There will be more. It was specifically out for the fourth of July. OF COURSE IT WAS FOR THE AMERICANS. I can expect to see a trailer for the British.

Dude.
You realise there's been 2 other trailers of the new protagonist killing redcoats and none with him killing colonists?

I don't understand why people are complaining about killing the British, since unless i had the worst history teacher ever, i am pretty sure the American Colonists, are still British. Until the "Americans" win the war, everyone in the colonies are still British colonists. It is impossible to kill Americans until they win the war.

Well done for your use of semantics. I think you know what everyone means though...

I won't condemn Ubisoft till I see all of the trailers they get out. You shouldn't either.

 

[CaptainMarvelous]

"I will fight the enemy, regardless of their allegiance" [http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=EiVJG_mrtFo#t=38s]

Yeah, that sounds one-sided.

Great, got some footage of Connor doing that or are we still watching him kill Redcoats over and over?

I want you to be right, dude, I want the game to not take this stupid 'America f*ck yeah" stance but whenever they release a trailer or an advert it's this stuff, having Connor pay lip-service doesn't diminish what actions they show him taking :-/

 

[Scrythe]

I'm going to sidestep the arguments above for something a little different:

I'm calling it right now, this one will probably have the best soundtrack out of the whole series.

Yes, better than Brotherhood.

You heard it here first.

 

[TheAmokz]

This is not so bad as in Revelations where rebels against ottoman rule were the "bad guys".

 

[Diplian]

Well technically the only americans you can kill are the natives.
Technically all the 'americans' are still british.

 

[Baresark]

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Right, a few major problems here. First of all, he's a patriot who is described as often as they can as "Half British/Half Cherokee", The Cherokee weren't on the side of the American revolution they were on the British side as were the British, he's given a cool ethnic backstory which is thrown out so he can kill Redcoats (inaccuracy the first). Altair killed both Christians and Muslims, perhaps most importantly, the marketting didn't have him running around killing Christians claiming it was a justified Muslim crusade to stamp out the oppressive Christian regime. Or, in short, they did SHOW both sides. This shows one side. It is very one-sided in all released footage, and if you want to argue that you are just not watching them.

I also take issue with "I'd be fine if it was reversed" because I doubt you would. It never happens that a game shows the Americans as the bad guys, and if there was one where, say, you play as a Vietcong soldier fighting Americans and all the demos/footage for it showed the Americans as child-murdering, rapists and the Vietnamese side as finding for freedom and liberation from the evil American Empire, I suspect you'd be annoyed by it. Finally, if they had a game set in 1931 about the Chinese-Japanese occupation, I would still prefer they do it even-handedly by showing both sides! I'm not greatly informed about the time period but from what I imagine, that one enormous massacre which is still a giant issue between the two countries would be interesting if thrown in a Templar/Assassin light.

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I can see that. You have definitely made some very valid points. But, that being said. I absolutely would not have a problem with a game that involved killing Americans. Or that depicted Americans as the evil invading empire because I would not consider a work of fiction a slight against myself or my country. First, as a game, it's inherently fictitious and is not representative of an entire conflict, or entire people. Second, the way you described American soldiers is not untrue in regards to some soldiers. But the main reason I would be fine with it would be because it's only a little snippet of a game. If they aren't showing just enough to get me interested but showing the entire story in a demo or a few pictures, they are doing it wrong.

Also, the annoying part of this whole conversation is that people ignore the part that negatively depicts US soldiers. The judge looks at the camera and says, "when I ask God to look the other way". In the background there are minutemen mistreating a prisoner.

We can also further uselessly analyze the known background story of the protagonist. Have Cherokee and half British. First, the Cherokee were on the side of the British in the Revolution, that is undeniable. But he is obviously not meant to be representative of the entire people. And as far as him being half British, there were plenty of folks who fought against Britain that were full British. The only thing that really annoys me about this whole thread is that people are using the historical inaccuracies in the game as a reason to be upset about this. We should all be better than to compare this game to actual history.

All of this is pure speculation. Every bit of it. From both sides of the argument. I'm simply saying that maybe people should wait for the game before they get upset about it being unevenly handed.

 

[The Cheezy One]

Calm your shit, brit.

...Is going to be my new catch phrase!

As a Brit, I'm trying to maintain an even-handed approach. If they were Americans being slaughtered, I would probably already be praising it as my game of the decade, so, because hypocrisy is my number one hatred, I need to cool my jets, and accept what appears to be going on. Anyway, being surrounded by Brits, I hate them as much as the anyone.

My biggest issue is that for the first time, this assassin seems to have chosen a side. In AC1, he manipulated both sides indescriminately so he could get to the people that mattered, the templars. In AC2, he fought the people who were the templars for revenge more that anything, regardless of position. In AC2:B, he fights the Pope, not because he hates the Pope, but because the man the Pope is. In AC2:R, he can do whatever, I missed that one, I'm afraid. In AC04 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AC04], he will take to a fighter jet, and it will be the best flight/fighter sim ever.

For the first time, it appears we are being made to favour a side. I don't mind the fact that Brits are being portrayed as arseholes, because we can be - even though I'm pretty sure we wouldn't actually burn houses with young families in, but what would I know, I'm no historian - but before, the conflict between Ass and Temp just happened to be taking part in, say, the crusades, or the Papalcy. But now, the game is being portrayed as more about the war, as well as whatever Connor is doing, who cares - OOH LOOK, GEORGE WASHINGTON! MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE! Massive historical battles, ho!

Note the italics - I still don't know what's going on, all we can do is infer.

 

[SpectacularWebHead]

When I refuse to learn the history of a country I will never see?

What a ridiculous, American attitude. I'm rooting for the British.

Thats true...Actually. All points in the film were accurate aside from that one, that was just stupid.

This entire game reeks of alienation. Not racism, But there is most certainly a Stay away from those people dear, They're english" attitude to it.

 

[jmarquiso]

I can see that. You have definitely made some very valid points. But, that being said. I absolutely would not have a problem with a game that involved killing Americans. Or that depicted Americans as the evil invading empire because I would not consider a work of fiction a slight against myself or my country. First, as a game, it's inherently fictitious and is not representative of an entire conflict, or entire people. Second, the way you described American soldiers is not untrue in regards to some soldiers. But the main reason I would be fine with it would be because it's only a little snippet of a game. If they aren't showing just enough to get me interested but showing the entire story in a demo or a few pictures, they are doing it wrong.

Spec ops: The Line has you against the 33rd, another division of the American military. Apparently.

We should all be better than to compare this game to actual history.

I agree with this - if Assassin's Creed didn't bill itself as historical action or drama. It's always been about as accurate as a Dan Brown novel, but it pretends to be. And people take it as it is.

I still hear game reviewers talk about Assassin's Creed, and even being offended at killing a Pope. Besides the point that Pope Alexander has always been a point of contention in Catholic history. They didn't actually use it as a jumping on point to learn more, when the opportunity was there.

I hope that they do, because these people are much more interesting than how they tend to be painted.

 

[The Cheezy One]

well i just watched the trailer.. and now i feel compelled to go back to empire total war and wipe out those colonial upstarts and giving the land ack to the native peoples fear the red coat !

In the words of the original spy - from Red Alert - "For king and country"!

 

[jmarquiso]

I'm hoping the game introduces a third faction - the Freemasons (mentioned in a lot of the puzzles / etc from other games). They did have a hand in recruiting and creating the revolution, and was the primary arm to organize.

BTW, I'm not a conspiracy theorist that believes the freemasons are the be all end all of evil.

There's just a lot of great conspiracy theory (specifically anti-American conspiracy theory) in there to feed the rest of the fiction.

 

[Absimilliard]

Just going to leave this here:
http://kotaku.com/5918810/can-americans-not-handle-the-sight-of-their-ancestors-being-killed-in-assassins-creed

In summary: Every single thing in advertising and publicity so far has been anti-British, not just this trailer. The reason apparently being that Ubisoft thinks that Americans either can't cope with the idea of colonists being assassinated. Or would get confused by it, thinking Connor is fighting on the side of the Brits.

So just a bit condescending, then? And they only consider it a small problem that many fans worry that the story will be inferior to those of the previous instalments, which in itself makes me worry... It really wouldn't confuse anyone if they released a picture or two were a non-redcoat is assassinated, they should have some faith in the consumers. (Or come up with a better excuse...)
And no, I really don't want to just take their word for it that it's not jingoistic. I mean, seeing as I love the gameplay of the series, I'm probably going to buy it on the first day like a good little sheep, but it would be nice if I could do it without a feeling of dread with regard to the story...

 

[CrazyJew]

Ahem. Let me just turn on this metronome...

AMERICUH! FUCK YEAH!

 

[The Cheezy One]

From watching this trailer I can only assume the actual events occurred something like this:

In the Second Era of Man. At the end of the seventh century a great shadow was cast over the Eastern American Coast. King George the Third had forged a dark and evil tax. A tax which would rule all taxes before it. Valiantly the Colonials refused education, exporting goods, demanded political representation and decided to rise up.

Sensing the rebellion against his rule the Dark lord gathered his armies in the East, across the deep seas he amassed his horde. He gathered the vilest of creatures and the most despicable of men to his cause. The Irish, The British, The Welsh, The Germans. All abominations of nature headed his call. Thus the Black Ships set sail. To bring death and destruction to America.

Getting a Lord of the rings vibe from your comment:
Change middle-earth to America, and it kinda fits.

What is this? Seriously people? Come on. This is borderline fucking ridiculous. I get it it's a 4th of July advertisement, of course it's going to play to American patriotism to get them to buy the game. But this?

It's so bad it's almost good. No no scrap that. It's so bad it's almost like EA made it. If you told me this was an EA add I'd believe you.

"It's so bad it's almost like EA made it"
...Is going to be a quote of mine

The fact that Connor is mostly anti British wouldn't bother me so much, except when you pick up a history book and see the Cherokees, supporting Britain. Guess what our little Connor is? Yep, half Cherokee. If anything Connor would be siding with the British first, Americans second.

I'd like to say that he is picking sides based on his loyalty to assassins first, country second, but we haven't had ANY indication as to what his mission/true opponent is, so we can only assume it's based on country, and then that falls into the massive historical plot whole. He's also half English, according to the wikipedia page. Not too sure what that means.

I will just continue being amused by Ubisofts marketing department wanking of the big old american patriot cock. I just hope that after all this pandering they just do a complete 180 in the game and we get to see Americans taking to the forums complaining about how the game gave a fair depiction of both sides rather than portraying the Americans as complete saints.

Ouch. The burn wasn't even aimed at me and I could feel the heat from here.

 

[AnarchistFish]

Did I just watch a game trailer or a propaganda video from a few hundred years ago?

This series isn't even made my Americans.

 

[The Cheezy One]

Haha, the comments in this thread are among the funniest I have seen. They released that trailer yesterday because it was Independence Day in America. People on the internet can be really really thick headed when it comes to Anti-American sentiment.

I don't know why people are having such a hard time dealing with this trailer. It's a game trailer. Last time I checked, this doesn't mimic real life in any form, nor does it advertise itself as a history lesson.

The Ass Creed games have always been pretty even handed in how they portray their characters and factions; those loosely based on real world counterparts anyway. This is why all the publicity for this game comes over badly, because even handed it is not.

I'm not overly bothered, I don't buy new Ubisoft games for my PC, but when I do eventually pick up my used console copy I'd like it to have a decent story; not be some American Patriot's fantasy wank off material.

My main problem with this assessment is that it's not uneven as far as we know. We don't know much of anything about how the game plays out, only that it's from the perspective of the colonists. We have not seen anything that depicts it unevenly. This ad was the closest, but it was clearly aimed at American audiences who were celebrating Independence Day. People are freaking out about this and using it as an excuse for wide spectrum anti-american sentiment, and it's just kind of pathetic that people are freaking over a game we don't know anything about. All the pictures of ingame footage have been mostly battlefields, and last time I checked, they didn't benefit anyone in particular. Also, to point out the obvious, this game is created by a French company. American's don't have any say at all the advertising routes the company takes.

Or to put it another way, in every released example of footage be it in game or cinematic has had the protagonist killing Redcoats and helping colonists. If we're basing our opinion on what we've seen, it's very f*cking uneven and it's getting harder and harder to take Ubisoft's word for it that it won't be.

You're just finding excuses to be argumentative. The character is a patriot. In the first game Altaire was a Muslim and the major villains were Christians, but no one found fault with that. There are two sides to every conflict, I just don't understand why you folks are so upset about this. Would you rather have the main character be a British Loyalist and trying to overthrow the creation of the American Republic? I wouldn't have a problem like that, but the game is meant to very loosely follow history. And I mean very loosely. If there was no conflict, there would be no game. If they had done a game based around the Japanese occupation of China in 1931, and all the scenes were of an Assassin character killing Japanese, we wouldn't even be having this conversation. Or even if we reversed it where it were a Japanese Assassin killing Chinese, you would still be fine with it. You wouldn't be insulted because it was not even handed.

In AC2, there wasn't really a war going, and yet it still managed to find conflict.
But the fact is, the assassin isn't supposed to be a patriot. The war in AC is not between the natives and the invaders, it's between Assassins and Templars. There has been one (1) indication of templars so far, and it was in that equally ludicris trailer. Any other conflicts should be a background to the real one, not the basis of the plot. That is what Ubi promised us, and so far, that is what we have received, yeah?