What To Make Of Assassin's Creed Syndicate, One Month Out

Less than a month from release, Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Syndicate is likely to be judged as much on its own merits as on how well its publisher listened to fan discontent about the flagship series and what it’s been willing to change. Companion apps are out. Platform-exclusive DLC is back. The overall plan for the game and its various add-on components is nearly as complex as it has ever been and shows that Ubisoft is largely moving full steam ahead.

Syndicate will be out soon and is deep into its preview hype cycle. Several reporters and YouTubers recently got a look at two missions from the 19th century London-set game and have been posting written and video impressions. Fan sites, the AC subreddit and YouTube channels are filling up with possible Trophy/Achievement lists and speculation about whether the game will have a substantial section set in the modern day, a series staple all but dropped in Unity to mixed reaction.

The game will finally come out on October 23 for Xbox One, PS4 and PC. The differentiating factors this year appear to be the setting, the GTA-style system for stealing and driving horse-drawn carriages, the swappable twin protagonists, Jacob and Evie, and the Batman-style rope-launcher that is used for grappling up buildings and tightroping between them. It played well at E3, but, really, they always do.It’s impossible to know in advance of release how good the game will be—or if it’s another clunker like Unity—but it is possible to at least look at how Ubisoft is setting it up and where the publisher’s priorities seem to be.The fact that Syndicate is even coming out this year is a signal that Ubisoft remains aggressive about the franchise, though the disappearance of two other planned Assassin’s Creed spin-off games suggests the company might be dialing back a tad. Some fans and critics—including some of us at Kotaku—have suggested that Ubisoft needs to give the AC series a year off, but that’s not happening this year. For any other series, Ubisoft’s 2015 plans forAssassin’s Creed including the release of at least two new games in the series would in fact seem like overdrive; these plans are restrained only in contrast to what has come before.

So far this year Ubisoft has released the AC Unity expansion Dead Kings in January and the sidescroller Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China in April. Both were unremarkable. The latter was supposed to have started a new 2D trilogy and be followed by games set in India and Russia. Both of those games have been slated for 2015 but we haven’t heard anything about either since June and neither has a release date. Presumably Ubisoft wants all AC fans’ eyes onSyndicate for now.

Dead Kings was released for free to all Unity players, as part of Ubisoft’s attempt to recover from an overly ambitious 2014. Ubisoft had begun 2014 with its sails full from the warm response to 2013’s Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flagreleased an incredible four major Assassin’s Creed projects: a remake of the portable Assassin’s Creed Liberation, a well-received ACIV expansion calledFreedom Cry, and two massive fall games, the calamitous Unity for Xbox One, PS4 and PC and the excellent, unsung Assassin’s Creed Rogue for Xbox 360 and PS3. Then they stumbled. Unity slipped from October to November, was slammed by critics (the only AC game to get a “No” from Kotaku) and was such a creative disappointment and glitchy technical mess that an apologetic Ubisoft decided it would offer Dead Kings as a consolation bonus.

Late last year, Ubisoft was loosening up its add-on Assassin’s Creed content as a make-good to disgruntled series fans, but this year they’re back to chopping it up to maximize sales opportunities. Warning: what follows might seem like a maze. Don’t get lost!

Ubisoft has already announced a slew of DLC for Syndicate including a 20-years-later paid expansion involving Jack the Ripper.

The Resident Evil 2 remake is happening

The Resident Evil 2 remake is happening

Capcom is moving ahead with a remake of 1998's Resident Evil 2, the company announced in a video posted to the series' official YouTube channel today.

"Thank you for your great support on this Resident Evil 2 Remake Project," said Yoshiaki "H" Hirabayashi, who will be the producer on the remake at Capcom R&D Division 1. "Thanks to your incredible passion and support, the project has finally been approved for development!"

The Resident Evil 2 remake appeared to be finding support within Capcom late last month, shortly after the company asked fans for their thoughts about the idea. Hirabayashi said July 31 that he had presented the "basic concept" to his boss.

Capcom will take fan feedback into account in developing the remake, and will endeavor to provide updates about the project directly to fans, said Hirabayashi, sporting a "WE DO IT!" T-shirt. The company did not specify platforms or a release window for theResident Evil 2 remaster.

Hirabayashi added that there won't be any news regarding Resident Evil 2's remake for a while, but in the meantime, fans of the franchise can look forward to Capcom's remake of 2002's Resident Evil 0, which is set for release next year.

The remake strategy appears to be working for Capcom. The company released a modern update to the original Resident Evil in January, and had sold more than 1 million copies of it worldwide as of late April.

Now we can update our Resident Evil 2 timeline:

• Jan. 14, 2003: GameCube owners, heretofore treated to the very first Resident Evil remake and the entirely new Resident Evil 0, express disappointment in the straight PS1 port of Resident Evil 2.
• 2003 to 2015: The collective world expresses disappointment in the absence of a remastered version of Resident Evil 2.
• July 31, 2015: Less than two days after asking fans if they were (still) interested in a remake of the survival horror classic, a conveniently pre-existing ideas document makes it into the hands of a "boss" at Capcom.
• Aug. 12, 2015: Less than two weeks after saying it was considering a Resident Evil 2 remake, Capcom confirms it's going ahead with the project.

Correction: This article originally referred to a "straight PS2 port of Resident Evil 2" in the timeline. The GameCube version of Resident Evil 2 was a port of the PlayStation original. We've edited the story to reflect this.

If you haven’t upgraded to PS4 or Xbox One yet, you’re about to be left behind

The most difficult decision that a modern console gamer has to make it when to upgrade to the new generation. I know, it’s not exactly a life-altering decision, but it’s typically not a cheap one, so some carefully considerations must be made ahead of time.

Although tens of millions have already made the leap, there are still plenty of gamers who are squeezing every last drop out of their PS3s and Xbox 360s, but it’s looking like the beginning of the end for the former generation.

RELATED: Microsoft is going to unveil five Xbox One bundles next week ahead of the holidays

Late last week, Activision announced that Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 on PS3 and Xbox 360 will not include the full campaign that will be featured in the PS4, Xbox One and PC versions of the game. Instead, PS3 and 360 owners will be restricted to Multiplayer and Zombies gameplay.

According to the studio: “The ambitious scope of the 1-4 player coop Campaign design of the PS4, Xbox One and PC versions could not be faithfully recreated on old generation hardware.”

In order to give PS3 and 360 owners a worthwhile online experience, the campaign had to be cut altogether. As restitution, Activision is including a free copy of the original Black Ops, but will that satisfy the fans?

Regardless of whether or not the inclusion of a free game makes up for a downgraded package, it’s clear that the new generation is becoming a priority for developers and publishers, even more so than it was this time last year.

Just a few weeks ago, Rockstar Games revealed a new update for Grand Theft Auto V that would add Freemode Events to the open world of the game’s online mode. But there was something else about this update that made it unique — it was the first to miss the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game.

Here’s what Rockstar told Mashable about the next-gen exclusivity of the update:

The Freemode Events update will be the first to come to PS4, Xbox One, and PC only. We managed to pack in two years worth of free updates onto the older platforms, but after the release of Heists we started to run into some very real memory constraints. We knew moving forward that the game’s online performance could be in jeopardy if we continued to pile in new content. But after some creative programming, we were able to deliver the two-part Ill-Gotten Gains update.

Moving forward, we knew that we could not make any more meaningful updates without putting the stability of the entire game at risk. By focusing on the opportunity with these newer platforms, it will allow us to do some exciting stuff in the future, and the Freemode Events update is just the beginning.

Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto, two of the biggest franchises in the world of gaming, are leaving the PS3 and the 360 behind. If you’ve been waiting for the right time to update, this holiday season might be it.