Train2Game News: Games Industry News – 03.05.13

GameStickIt’s the end of the week and it is time for the Train2Game news round up!

Playjam, the team behind the much anticipated GameStick have released a new product ´explainer´ video. The product came under attack when people felt it didn’t live up to expectations. The console is not yet released however and only developers have had hands on. You can see their explainer video here: http://youtu.be/QlNjIzNZh4o

Gazillion Entertainment will be kicking off a Marvel Heroes “Iron Man 3” Open Beta Weekend beginning on Saturday, May 4 through to Monday May 6. This is to coincide with the release of the film. As part of the “Iron Man 3” Open Beta Weekend, new players who participate will be able to select an Avenger as their starting hero – including Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Captain America and Black Widow. In order access the Marvel Heroes “Iron Man 3” Open Beta Weekend, players should register now at www.MarvelHeroes.com. As the weekend approaches, an email will be sent with download instructions.

In further Marvel news prepare to Hero Up this autumn, when LEGO Marvel Super Heroes puts players in control of their favourite Super Heroes from the Marvel Universe. With more than one hundred memorable characters to choose from, each with their own unique powers and abilities, players are in for a brick-smashing adventure. In a new video released today, you’ll get a sneak peek at a few members of the Amazing, Mighty and Uncanny (hint) team who join forces to stop an array of Marvel villains. You can enjoy the trailer, here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYAXHqCM-b4

Now for further LEGO news, The LEGO Group proudly announce that their latest, action-packed free mobile game LEGO Star Wars The Yoda Chronicles will be available to play on iOS devices as well as on the official LEGO website from May the Fourth 2013. This is of course, unofficially, Star Wars Day. Questing with Yoda or Count Dooku, players can choose to join the Light Side or the Dark Side in this new game. The LEGO Star Wars The Yoda Chronicles story and game intertwines with the 2013 LEGO Star Wars novelty products in a mix of real time laser battles, intricate dungeon crawling, lightsaber duels and tense space combat high above Coruscant.

Finally, Perfect World Entertainment Inc. and Cryptic Studios are proud to announce that one of the most anticipated free MMORPG’s of 2013, Dungeons & Dragons Neverwinter, is officially in Open Beta. Free to download and play, Neverwinter is built for gamers who crave more action combat, adventure and glory out of MMOs. The major milestone of Open Beta marks the beginning of unrestricted access to Neverwinter and its content creation system, the Foundry, along with no further character wipes. For more information about Neverwinter and to begin playing the Open Beta now, please visit the official website: www.playneverwinter.com/

Train2Game News: International studios game on Kickstarter

Son of NorStillalive studios is a young independent game development studio who have members all over the world.

They first got together in early 2010 in Innsbruck, Austria as a team of 3. Over time, the team grew due to the ambitious nature of the Son Of Nor project and new members from Switzerland, Germany, Finland, Italy, US, and Ecuador joined the international distributed team of game developers. The core focus of stillalive studios team is to make innovative indie core-games for PC, Mac and Linux with special and unique game mechanics.

Since their small beginnings they have moved on and now have a game on Kickstarter.

The Son of Nor Kickstarter campaign started on 30th April and will run for 30 days and hopes to pique the interest and backing of gamers everywhere to raise the $150k needed to launch this game into the market.

Son of Nor is a 3rd person action adventure game set in a desert world where human kind is on the brink of extinction at the hands of the Sarahul; an evil race of reptilian creatures bent on the destruction of human civilization. Players become humanity’s last hope for survival in an epic struggle to hold back the Sarahul hordes and change the destiny of the entire planet.

In Son of Nor, players command unique force abilities with which they must fight, solve puzzles and ultimately stay alive. These abilities include telekinesis, powerful magic spells and terraforming; manipulation of the game world itself.

Julian Mautner, founder of stillalive studios, said “If you have a specific goal, it will be the player’s choice of how to achieve it. Players can also choose to play in single player mode or enlist their friends to help them. As gamers ourselves we know the co-op in a game is so important and we have had the most amount of fun developing these elements and know, from feedback so far, our backers and gamers alike will find this very appealing.”

The studio released a new video today detailing multiplayer and co-op game elements for their debut title

Co-op is a key motivating factor in the game. Special level sections, in-game rewards and some puzzles will only be achievable and solvable with the help of companions, when playing through the campaign in multiplayer mode.

You can view the trailer for the multiplayer mode below:

A story like this one shows that no matter where you are or what your situation you can make games and get to a successful level. There is nothing stopping you achieving your dream.

To pledge support please visit the Kickstarter page at: http://bit.ly/SonOfNor

Train2Game News: Train2Game Radio – Sam Henderson

Sam HendersonLast week I got to interview Sam Henderson who was the runner up in the Rapid2D competition. Sam told me about how he came to Train2Game and how he found working with the engine and Windows 8.

You can listen to the interview here: http://audioboo.fm/boos/1366288-train2game-student-sam-henderson-shares-his-prize-from-rapid2d

Or read the following transcript:

My name’s Sam Henderson, doing the Train2Game developer course and I live in Darlington.

Hi Sam, how you doing mate?

I’m good thanks

Excellent, so tell me who you are and what have you done lately?

Well at the moment just trying to be a games developer, went to university for 2 years, didn’t like it, went on Train2Game, learnt loads from that.

I understand you worked with the Rapid2D engine recently, you were part of the competition weren’t you?

Yeah

How did that go?

I came second, I was runner up.

Yeah and what did you have to do for the competition?

Just design games for Windows 8.

How did you find working with Rapid2D and Windows 8 and all of that?

A lot easier than I thought! It was difficult to get used to it but when I did get used to it, it was perfect to use. A lot easier than I thought it was going to be.

Excellent, so what sort of games did you make?

I made a Space Game, I used templates that they provided to us and just tried to edit them. I used a couple of quiz games based on the template they provided us with and I just went from there really.

You had to make a certain amount of games to enter didn’t you? How many?

Yeah it was 5 to enter then for every one you get an extra entry. I made I think it was twenty three in total.

That must have been quite some work!

Yeah, day and night!.

Yeah, who needs sleep!? So was that on your own you did that?

Yeah I was on my own.

You said you were at University and didn’t enjoy it that much. What was it about University that you weren’t into so much?

Um, because we were quite a big class, because games programming is quite popular, I didn’t get the support, the one to one support, I wanted and needed. So the lecturers came in, dealt with the people they liked and who stood out more to them but for people like me who stay back, stay quiet, through certain things, it was a bit harder for me to grasp everything but then I found Train2Game and I found everything a lot, lot easier, a lot more support, got the forum and got the Tutors. It was so much easier to use. In my own time as well.

How did you find out about Train2Game?

I think it was an ad through Facebook!

So how did you initially get into games development? What sparked off your interest for it?

Well my initial games interest was from when I was a kid, I had a lot of free time because I was in hospital quite a bit because I fell in a river and got an ear infection and lost hearing in my ear. So I was in and out of hospital every now and again and I had a games console to play while recovering. That sparked my interest in games and as I progressed through life I just wanted to do more with games and try and produce them myself and get more involved in development for them.

Excellent. So where would you like to end up working in the games industry?

Not sure! Anywhere that’s willing to take me really.

You haven’t got any ambitions to work at any of the big companies or anything like that?

Well I suppose probably my favourite one to work for would probably be Bethesda, working on the Fallout or The Elder Scroll games.

Yeah? They seem to be popular with the programmers because of just the amount of work that goes in to them must be quite appealing!

Yeah.

Alright, well thank you very much then Sam!

Thank you.

Train2Game News: BioShock Infinite Review

BioShock Infinite I realise that this is about a month late but I had to make sure I had played it properly and let it sink in, just to make sure BioShock Infinite was as good as I thought it was.

*SPOILERS**SPOILERS**SPOILERS**SPOILERS**SPOILERS**SPOILERS*

The lovely people at 2K sent me a copy of the game and I must say straight away this game was incredible, since playing it at the start of April it has still been running around my head. One of the signs of a good product is one that you keep on thinking about once it is finished.

So what made this game so good and stand above all the rest?

From the moment you start the game rowing to the light house, it reminds you of the first BioShock beginning. You don’t know it yet but it is giving you little teasers of the story and what is to come. The game is full of little snippets of information all through out. The levels are crafted beautifully to subtly display these teasers.

Speaking of the levels and the world, after you get fired up to the city of Columbia you are blinded by the beauty of the world and this detail continues in every section. Walking around the early areas of the game through the peaceful beginnings gives you a true sense of being in 1912. This is shown by finding young children smoking and posters with racist tones around the place.

The era is a strong presence in the game, again much like that of the first BioShock but because of the games story, which I will try not to give away too much, you can hear bits of music that don’t belong in the time zone. Songs such as Cyndi Lauper’s – Girls Just Want To Have Fun can be heard at one point.

Columbia is a beautiful place with a dark under tone which becomes increasingly more obvious as you progress through the game.

The next thing I love in this game are the characters, particularly the interaction between main protagonists Booker Dewitt and Elizabeth.

From the beginning Booker has an air of depression around him. This is nicely balanced out with the introduction of his companion Elizabeth. I always felt that Elizabeth was like a Disney Princess for an adult audience, her facial expressions are beautifully animated making her all the more real.

I also enjoyed the way Elizabeth’s character evolved from the scared girl who ran for her life the first moment Booker had to take someone’s life, to realising it needs to be done for the world they live in. She does always keep a small bit of innocence which can be heard as she gasps whenever you decapitate an enemy with your Sky Hook.

The relationship that grows between the two as the game progresses is a heart warming experience and adds to the immersion of the game. From a game play point of view, Elizabeth was a very helpful addition. She would keep you well stocked on the things you needed with, at times, some very impressive throws. Her ability to pull things through was also a nice addition but possibly could have been expanded on a bit more, I found myself not using it ever so much.

The other incredible characters of note, who since the games release have become Cosplay favourites, are the Lutece twins. These are the first characters you see in the game and play an incredibly important part in the story.

They are more than that however, they are part of the very world you play in and without them the game wouldn’t have been as good in my humble opinion. Their interaction and bickering shows a deep caring between the two. One of the only other heart warming parts to this dark universe.

The main antagonist of the game is Lord Comstock, a figure who you see constantly through the game but never meet until close to the final moments. He is very similar to the antagonist of the first BioShock in the way he is often heard and not seen. He does a good job of making you hate him and want to work through the game so you can get at him.

Finally to the actual game play itself.

I love this game and it is one of my favourites but the game play was nothing overly new or exciting. The game play was the same as the previous BioShock’s with your gun in one hand and ability in the other.

This has evolved slightly with different guns to try and seeing which works for your personal preference and like wise with the now called Vigors.

My personal weapon of choice was a Machine Gun with a Sniper Rifle back up and the “Ram” Vigor as in games I personally like to get up close and personal. I felt these choices complimented each other nicely.

The Sky Hook as a melee weapon was a good choice, it is one I enjoyed throughout the game. I would say this is where the majority of the gore from the game comes from.

As a travel system though, riding the rails with the Skyhook, it was very easy to get disorientated and lose where you were going. Without the helpful pressing up on the D-pad navigation system I imagine I would have been very lost a few times in the game.

The enemies in the game were nicely varied. Starting off against standard guards running around shooting, moving on to a couple more super natural ones. These I will let be a surprise. The Patriots were a good enemy, having their hard to hit weak points on the back of the American President robots made them quite a challenge.

The hardest enemies were the Handy Men, who are this games equivalent of the Big Daddy. Their ability to hurt you on Sky Line’s was constantly challenging when trying to get a better vantage point to shoot them. I did feel they weren’t used enough though.

In conclusion, the story and universe of the game is incredibly astounding and these alone will keep it as one of my favourite games for some time but to make the game truly perfect I would of liked to have seen perhaps a bit more evolution of the combat.

This is only a small section of how I personally feel and what the game is about, I have done my best to do justice to this incredible game but the only true way to find out what this game is like is to pick up a copy and play it!

Train2Game News: 2013 Game Events Round up

EurogamerOne of the best ways a Train2Game student can expand in their career is by going to Video Game events and with that in mind here is a round up of some of the big up coming events.

The Gaming Den
When: 4 May
Where: Visual Collective, 10 Vyner Street, London
What: The latest in a regular series of events organised by Average Gamer. As editor Debbie Timmins explains, “One day a month we take over an art gallery in Bethnal Green and fill it with games for the ultimate multiplayer experience. With three massive projectors covering the walls, gamers can race head-to-head in the first public, multiplayer demo of GRID 2. Serious racers will be able to test their skills in the Vesaro racing rig. Set the best time on the Red Bull Ring Power Lap to win GRID 2 swag and a copy of the game when it comes out. Over in the retro room The Gaming Den has your favourite living room classics. Grab a drink from the cash bar and challenge your friends at Mario Kart 64, Micro Machines v1, v2 and v3, Virtua Cop 2, Super Smash Bros Melee, Tekken and many more.”

Wild Rumpus: On a F*****g Boat
When: 11 May
Where: MS Stubniz, Wood Wharf, London
What: The Wild Rumpus nights are a glorious mash-up of music, play and alcohol, showcasing some of the most intriguing developments in social gaming. Try Tenya Wanya Teens, hear Chipzel and MUCH more (keep checking the website for updates).

GameCamp 6
When: 18 May
Where: Keyworth Centre, London South Bank University
What: Described as an “unconference” this is an annual gathering of artists, designers and coders, with the aim of talking about and making games. From the website: “There’s a theme this year: Show and Tell, or Run What You Brung. Bring along a game you’ve made, a prototype you’ve got in testing or a work you have in progress, and be ready to show it off and talk about it. Digital or physical, both are great. Have a session to crow about your success or explore why something failed, or asking where you go from here, or to pull people into your new project. Get people to playtest and give you feedback on the day. Unashamed bragging is absolutely encouraged.”

GameDev Midlands 2
When: 18 May
Where: Utopia Bar, Birmingham
What: From the nice people who bought you GameDevNorth comes this midlands version – essentially a networking event for all developers in the area, whether they’re running a major studio or writing Android games in the garden shed. It’s free and there is a bar.

Leamington Backspace
When: 18 May – 2 June
Where: Leamington Spa, various venues
What: Taking place as part of the Leamington Looks Back heritage festival, this fortnight-long collection of events will celebrate the town’s rich history in games development. From the website: “The event will also include programming workshops, a cross-town ‘games trail’ and a careers evening, and is designed to showcase the current and future of creative innovation in the region as well as tell the story of times past.” Also, IndieCity will be running a Rapsberry Pi Workshop for anyone who wants to learn how to use this ingenious home computer.

GaMe 2013
When: 20 May
Where: Imperial College, London
What: A day of lectures on games-related research by academics and industry insiders. Eidos and Games Workshop founder Ian Livingstone is one of the speakers.

MCM Expo
When: 24-26 May
Where: Excel, London
What: Once again the London comic convention features a video game component, this year organised by the chaps at XboxAchievements. Site founder Dan Webb says, “We’ll be showing off a host of upcoming games, giving out cool prizes, getting all kinds of studio talent up on the stage for Q&As, as well as some big name voice actors and even closing the show with a video game-themed musical arrangement by a pianist.”

London Game Jam
When: 1-2 June
Where: Modern Jago, Shoreditch
What: A two-day game jam with a five pound entry price that will be donated to SpecialEffect, Child’s Play and EFF. Organiser Roberta Saliani says, “Microsoft will give prizes such as a Windows 8 phone, a Kinect dev kit and a Windows 8 OS to the best Kinect/Windows 8/Windows mobile app or game. GiftHub will give out five free accounts and Insert Coin has already sent T-shirts!”

Rezzed
When: 22-23 June
Where: The NEC, Birmingham
What: Organised by RockPaperShotgun and Eurogamer, this showcase of PC gaming has grown considerably since its modest – yet unmissable – introduction in Brighton last year. We’re promised hands-on time with the biggest mainstream releases of the year, plus the chance to discover plenty of interesting indie titles. Introversion will be there showing off Prison Architect and there’s a live Total War: Rome II demo among many other sessions.

Eurogamer Expo
When: 26-29 September
Where: Earls Court London
What: The biggest UK video game event of the year returns with its usual mix of Triple A hands-on demos, tournaments, developer sessions and retro gaming. Expect to see most of the big Christmas releases on the showfloor, but don’t miss the packed programme of talks and discussions – a unique opportunity to see key game makers revealing the secrets of their craft.

Norfolk Game Expo
When: 11-12 October
Where: Epic Studios, Norwich
What: A new event featuring 50 developers from the region as well as national and international studios. From the website, “The Norwich Game Expo will showcase the latest videogames created by developers in the East of England and beyond, giving members of the public a chance to play games in development for consoles, PC, and mobile phones before they are released, and talking directly to the developers making those games.”

These events are brilliant for meeting other members of the games industry and getting some valuable contacts.

Train2Game News: BioShock Infinite DLC leak

Bioshock InfiniteReports have emerged of a leak on Linkedin revealing a new companion for the next BioShock Infinite DLC.

The Linkedin profile of 2k’s animator Michael Shanan let the information slip but it has since been edited. The DLC has already been announced so that isn’t a suprise but the news of a new companion is new information.

The DLC will apparently contain “hours of additional gameplay and continue the player’s journey in the sky-city of Columbia with new stories, characters, abilities and weapons”.

Given that, it’s possible that this ‘new’ AI companion will be a replacement for Elizabeth. Her travelling through the game was such a key mechanic that it’s hard to see how they could ask us to play through Columbia’s skyways without someone to toss over health and ammo at key moments. It’s all speculation of course, since this hint was clearly not meant to reach the ears of the gaming press, and information has not yet been released.

My theory is that the DLC will follow the story of one of the other characters in the game, just as the Dishonored DLC followed the story of the assassin Daud. There are several other characters the DLC could follow including the leader of the Vox Populi – Daisy Fitzroy, the old solider – Cornelius Slate or possibly even Lord Comstock himself.

I look forward to seeing what they do with the DLC and will most certainly be purchasing it. You can pick up a 3-for-2 price offer and get the season pass in order to pick up all three pieces of future DLC.

Train2Game News: Pirates taste their own medicine

Game Dev TycoonYesterday saw the release of Game Dev Tycoon, the debut title from developers Greenheart Games. The game in it’s self sounds interesting but the way it has fought piracy is amazing.

Studio founder Patrick Klug decided to pre-empt pirates and he put out a cracked copy of the game himself. He used it to teach pirates a lesson by “holding a mirror in front of them and showing them what piracy can do to game developers.”

The idea of the game, as the name suggests, is to run your own games development studio. Creating games, researching hardware and moving from generation to generation. Those who downloaded the cracked version however will run in to difficulty in about the PS2 generation, where their games will start to be pirated. They’ll see their studio finances dwindle as piracy bleeds out their balance until the point of bankruptcy.

The reactions Mr Klug has found from people pirating his game range from the amusing: “Is there some way to avoid that? I mean can I research DRM or something …” to the depressingly unaware: “Why are there so many people that pirate? It ruins me!”

The sad part of this story comes when you  know of the people playing the newly released game, around 93% are using the cracked version, with just under 7% having to chosen to pay the fee of $7.99. Mr Klug also details the various ways he’s tried to reach out and speak with pirates about the harm they’re causing his studio, yet it seems the stronger message will be the one coded into the game.

Klug leaves you with this final thought “If years down the track you wonder why there are no games like these anymore and all you get to play is pay-to-play and social games designed to suck money out of your pockets then the reason will stare back at you in the mirror.”

Train2Game News: Batman: Arkham Origins details and screenshots

Batman Arkham OriginsIn the new issue of Games Master magazine speak to WB Montreal, the studio behind the Arkham prequel. They discuss the approach to crafting a different Dark Knight and offers some insight into features that didn’t make the cut.

Warner has confirmed the Batman: Arkham Origins release date as October 25 for consoles and PC. There is also a few new screens from the game which can be seen in the gallery at the bottom of this article.

According to a recent report, Arkham Origins will have a multiplayer mode, making it the first in the series to include it.

Here are the new details as reported in Games Master:

  • Batman: Arkham Origins is the story behind “how the unrefined, rough-around-the-edges, early career Batman” becomes Dark Knight
  • Batman and Captain Gordon meet for the first time during the events of Arkham Origins
  • Senior producer Ben Mattes says there are elements to the story that they will never discuss before the game has shipped
  • Batman in Arkham Origins has the moves and the abilities, but hasn’t faced the challenges that shape him into the Batman we know. Arkham City Batman is described as Batman 5.0, while Arkham Origins Batman is 0.9.
  • It’s “year two” of Batman’s career, roughly speaking
  • WB Montreal has been given everything Rocksteady had, from engine tweaks to concept art.
  • It plays exactly like Arkham City
  • At one point the HUD included a storm indicator. Since Origins takes place during a snowstorm, it provided warning of incoming wind blasts. However, it negatively impacted the freeflow combat as “enemies stand around waiting for you to punch them” and “you’re swinging wildly because you don’t know where they are.” The feature was cut.
  • Another cut feature is the enemy quad-rotor drone which would patrol rooms in search of Bats. The drone “broke the richness of the predator room, which is in giving the player the power to play the way they want.”
  • Detective mode has been overhauled, as has the gadget upgrade progression tree.
  • Goons will be able to “take advantage of the verticality” of New Gotham
  • Legends of the Dark Knight was the “single most inspirational piece of media”
  • “Making Batman scary again is important”
  • WB Montreal believes it has made “the coolest version of Deathstroke. He’s a wonderful counterpart to Batman”
  • Northern Gotham is the area that became Arkham City, it is a mix of low-rent residential and industrial buildings. Referred to as the Brooklyn of Gotham.
  • New Gotham is described as the ‘Soho’ or ‘East Village’ of the city. It is a brand new, upmarket area, borderline financial zone of the city. Focus is tall buildings, catwalks and walkways here.
  • The GCPD is corrupt, so Gotham’s swat teams are out to get Batman too
  • No mention of Joker yet.
  • A ‘Most Wanted’ mechanic offers a selection of mini-campaign side-stories centered around other major villains.

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Train2Game News: UK Top 20 Games – 29.04.13

Dead Island RiptideYet another brand new number 1 this week! The superhero fighter, Injustice: Gods Among Us was knocked down to number 2 by Dead Island: Riptide. Other new additions this week are Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen which comes in at number 3, followed up by Star Trek at number 4 and Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins makes its debut at number 8.

All formats

Week ending 27 April 2013

POS.  TITLE  PUBLISHER  LAST
WEEK 
1 DEAD ISLAND: RIPTIDE DEEP SILVER
2 INJUSTICE: GODS AMONG US WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE 1
3 DRAGON’S DOGMA: DARK ARISEN CAPCOM
4 STAR TREK PARAMOUNT
5 TOMB RAIDER SQUARE ENIX 4
6 BIOSHOCK INFINITE 2K GAMES 2
7 FIFA 13 EA SPORTS 6
8 LEGO CITY UNDERCOVER: THE CHASE BEGINS NINTENDO
9 DEFIANCE TRION WORLDS 5
10 LUIGI’S MANSION 2 NINTENDO 8
11 CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS II ACTIVISION 7
12 FAR CRY 3 UBISOFT 10
13 FIRE EMBLEM: AWAKENING NINTENDO 3
14 THE ELDER SCROLLS V: SKYRIM XBOX 360 CLASSICS 11
15 SONIC & ALL STARS RACING TRANSFORMED SEGA 19
16 LEGO BATMAN 2: DC SUPER HEROES WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE 12
17 HITMAN ABSOLUTION SQUARE ENIX
18 SKYLANDERS GIANTS SKYLANDERS 14
19 ALIENS: COLONIAL MARINES SEGA
20 ASSASSIN’S CREED III UBISOFT 13
< previous week

Leisure software charts compiled by Chart Track, (C)2013 UKIE Ltd

These charts cannot be reproduced either in print or online without obtaining permission from Ukie. If you wish to reproduce the charts in print or online, please contact david.smith@ukie.org.uk for the appropriate license.

Train2Game News: Assassin’s Creed community program

Assassin's Creed 4: Black FlagUbisoft have revealed its first VIP program, THE WATCH, dedicated to the Assassin’s Creed community, now available for all players who pre-order Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag via retail, online stores or Uplay in EMEA territories.

THE WATCH will allow members to delve deeper into the Assassin’s Creed Universe and enjoy exclusive tailored content, as well as early access to the latest information, ensuring the community are the first to know about upcoming events, shows, talks and releases on the brand.

THE WATCH will bring the community closer to Assassin’s Creed than ever before via regular in-depth features exploring a variety of different themes, including the characters, setting, places, cultural inspirations and other game related elements.

The Assassin’s Creed universe also lives through the fans’ voice and creations, so THE WATCH also allows members to follow Assassin’s Creed related social media and discussions, discover and ‘like’ other member’s content and upload their own, and compare their skills and achievements! Key members of the community will also be chosen to update a special “Experts” section to share their deep knowledge on the universe.

THE WATCH will also introduce unique member quests to compete in, unlocking specific missions, special rewards and bonuses. These timed missions will only be available through THE WATCH and participants will be able to track themselves and other members through global leaderboards.

In addition to its desktop version, THE WATCH is optimized for tablets and smartphones. For more information, you can visit: http://www.assassinscreed.com/thewatch

You can enjoy a trailer for THE WATCH below