9. A Bustling World You Want To Explore
Then theres the humungous world Ubisoft have put together this year. You can often rank an open world-game through whether or not you feel impressed by that first zoom-out of the world map. Its safe to say the resulting overwhelming feeling of adventure you get when the game gives you your own ship, leaving you to plot courses anywhere you like, is a pleasant change from the contrasting nature of AC III where exploring the Frontier felt largely pointless outside of the optional Homestead hunter-gatherer missions. If youre looking at Black Flag as more of an investment purchase rather than something to race through in the run-up to getting any of the other games or consoles this Xmas, Ubisoft have you covered. Main missions still lean much more towards the established structures that have gone before (think tailing a guy, eavesdropping conversations, assassination and fort-infiltration), but the more laid-back exploratory side-elements such as treasure hunting and diving amongst sunken wreckage can be pretty addictive in that stick-on-a-podcast-and-play kind of way.