I’ve been doing much better about playing the games I buy more or less when I buy them, and Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag: Resynced is the latest example of this, in that I preordered it, had the disc delivered on release date and had it in the console and installing only a few minutes later.

Mind you it took like two hours to install and download patches, and I only played for about an hour that night, but I bought a game and then PLAYED THE GAME.

I’ve put another dozen hours in since.  I’m not very far in the story and really haven’t done a ton of side activities but I have been having a lot of fun sneaking through bushes and whistling at guards who walk over and get stabbed.

Sometimes they see the feet of the last guard sticking out of the bush and get all freaked out and then that’s where I come out of the OTHER bush and stab them.

That’s when I’m not just walking up behind dudes who are having a pleasant chat and stabbing them.

Pictures taken moments before disaster

This is not my first time through the Caribbean with Edward, though it’s been less time than you might think.  The ending of Assassin’s Creed III annoyed me so greatly that, even though I received ACIV as a gift in 2013, I only got far enough into it to confirm that, yes, they had in fact killed off the entire Desmond storyline and no, there wasn’t anything I could do about it.

I then put the disc back on the shelf and did not play it any further until 2018.

Yes, five years later.

Look, I can hold a grudge.

Anyway.  The Resynced edition pulls off the greatest thing a remake can do, which is that it looks as gorgeous as your memories of the original.  And it IS a pretty game, and very appropriate for summertime vibes.

I know I took some screenshots of my ship in the older version.  I wanted to compare them.  I just can’t find them.

I will say that combat seems tougher.  Apparently they took away some options from the original, but as it’s been 8 years I can’t remember the original combat very well.  I’m sure that if I did remember them I would be upset.

See : previous note about being able to hold a grudge.

Importantly, there is a new feature where you can have a ship’s cat.  Possibly multiple cats.  I only own one cat so far.  I have two monkeys but really… cats.

He hangs around on the railing of the bridge when you’re not in combat and when it’s not raining.  Peak cat.

Also, it understands – unlike the Uncharted games – that if you have a waterfall in a game it needs to have a cave behind it with a chest in.

All in all, pretty dang good time so far.

Also, while I still feel a little dirty about caving and buying a console again, I’m given to understand that the game is still a bit unstable under Linux – so if I HAD bought it from Steam, I would be booting into Windows to play it.  I would feel considerably dirtier about this.