7. Anvil Next
Now this is surprising even for me, but Anvil has been around for a while. It was the engine that run many of Ubisoft's games, including Assassins Creed 2. I for one didn't notice this, I just assumed it was a fully new engine. And it is in a way. The latest iteration of their engine, is fully built and designed for this game. They dedicated the engine to make this game even more better than what it looks like. Anvil Next, allows a fully dynamic game world to exist. It changed the weather around, also changing the area as well to this. For instance, if it snows in the forest, it layers soft snow all over the terrain, totally changing the gameplay from during the summer, where you can run with no problem, into a big hurdle as you lumber around in it. This is powerful tech. Ubisoft have stated the new engine is a step up from its predecessor by placing over 2000 NPC's on screen at once, allowing them to create life like battles, which the new Assassin will witness, and half take part in. Im pretty sure Anvil Next is a feature to help it on its way toward GOTY. This reason alone should be enough to buy the game.