Assassin's Creed 3 Preview: Everything We Know So Far
The Tech 
Remember when Assassins Creed II was released, and it was immense? It was so much more immersive than the first instalment and while it wasnt a perfect game, it certainly made huge waves amongst fans. And then Brotherhood came out. And then Revelations Im not taking anything away from the actual overarching story, which I think is generally satisfying, but in reality, AC fans have played what is essentially the same game three times in a row. Its time for a change, a revolution. Enter the AnvilNext engine! Only derived from the original Anvil engine, AnvilNext was built from the ground up and the construction of this whole new beast actually began in the weeks following the release of the first ACII title in 2009. New technical features include deferred lighting, ambient occlusion, more intuitive camera control and a more realistic NPC A.I that sees city inhabitants interacting more directly, not only with you but with each other. Ubisoft spokespeople keep assuring us that while Connor feels intrinsically different to play as than either Altair or Ezio, ACIII retains enough similarity to other titles in the franchise to still feel like an Assassins Creed game. You might have been worried that in such a vast and open space as The Frontier (which I have to reiterate once more, is 1.5 times the size of AC Brotherhoods entire game world alone), there may have been some impact on the climbing mechanics. Well youre right, but dont worry, its definitely shaping up to be a positive impact. In the Frontier everything is climbable; from trees to cliff faces. This is a sharp right turn for the franchise, which up to now has kept its climbing system confined to city rooftops, where a tree would more likely ruin your line of action than abet it. But youve seen the trailer; Connor is a veritable Tarzan by comparison, illustrating that this Frontier wilderness has been totally incorporated into the design of the well-loved climbing system. Creative director Alex Hutchinson (overlord of the AnvilNext engine) assures us that animation fidelity is such a big part of the Assassins brand that if we were going to do it we wanted to do it right, our goal with the new game is to have no animations from the previous ACs. We dont want you to see anything from previous ACs in this game unless we deliberately put it in there. And that means literally thousands of character new animations encompassing movement, climbing and combat. The new engine has also allowed it possible to double the amount of facial bones in character models meaning that ACIIIs cinematic cut scenes are going to be top-notch in terms of realism. Recently pioneered technology has also allowed for a uniquely cinematic approach to motion capturing for cutscenes, with creators being able to capture dialogue, facial and body animation from multiple performing a scene live (instead of the usual method of capturing one actor at a time and stitching the elements together). Check out a more thorough rundown of the AnvilNext engine here: http://whatculture.com/gaming/assassins-creed-3-the-anvilnext-engine.php Certainly the work has gone in to Assassins Creed III and I cant help but feel this will be one that lives up to its hype. With only five short months to go, keep your ear to WhatCulture! As usual well be bringing you the updates as quick and fast as Ubisoft can dole em out. 
Assassins Creed III will be out in October (not soon enough) on PS3, Xbox and PC. Interested in the special editions? Check this to see exactly what youll get: http://whatculture.com/gaming/assassins-creed-3-collectors-editions-details-unveiled.php