The Year of the Samurai

I've been feeling the mid-late May malaise that comes with being a teacher nearing the end of a stressful school year, therefore I'm not playing anything too exciting.  My time gaming has mostly been spent with a couple of different relaxing faves--namely trying for more success at saving the colony in I Was a Teenage Exocolonist and chalking up some goofy achievements in PowerWash Simulator.  Payday is coming up soon and I'm eyeballing the poker deckbuilder Balatro that currently has overwhelmingly positive reviews.

This week the trailer for the newest iteration of the Assassin's Creed franchise dropped.  If you haven't seen it yet, give it a gander:

Looks cool, no?  I had a brief glimmer of excitement before I remembered the fact that I felt pretty meh about the last game in the series.  Honestly (and I've stated this many times before), I think the UbiSoft formula has gotten a bit stale for many gamers.  The big, beautiful world filled to the brim with pointless map marker tasks that wind up feeling like checking off a list...well, it gets old.  I also didn't have the best performance with Valhalla and experienced way more crashing than I should have (this was despite turning down many graphic settings).  It's not all bad though--I thought the river raids were a lot of fun.

Samurai themed games and shows are having a moment.  From Ghosts of Tsushima to FX's Shogun series, it seems like feudal Japan is the current cool vibe.  I'm totally okay with that because I've really been hoping that games that focus on periods of history would veer away from the strictly Western settings and cultures and try something more unique.  (I suppose since everyone seems to be doing samurai/feudal Japan stuff at the moment that this does take a bit away from that uniqueness)

It does seem like Ubi is trying to switch things up a bit with Assassin's Creed Shadows.  It sounds like they're veering away from the overwhelmingly large maps and that the world will be about the same size as it was in Origins (which I found to be just right).  They're also changing the way that synchronization points work--apparently the sweeping cinematic camera pan is going away.  Instead, players will be able to view the surrounding area and mark areas of interest (they'll still serve as fast travel points).  Sadly, it sounds like they're axing the use of bird companions and adding in a player focused ability to use "eagle eye" to mark enemies.  I liked my bird friends!  (Source: this article)

I'm going to be sitting on the sidelines for this one.  My ideal way to buy the Assassin's Creed games is to wait until they start going on sale for 50% off (or more--FYI they're currently on sale on Steam for super cheap).  Someday in the future I might find myself stabbing baddies in feudal Japan, but not anytime soon.