Smiling is not something that happens just at the mouth, as it pulls on the jawbone, pulls the ears slightly, and often has a reaction in the eyes, cheeks, eyelids, and much more. Full body inverse kinematics, blended animations, and motion capture come together with Havok to create movement that is natural and fluid, with Connor’s movements being especially smooth.īeyond body language mechanics and the sway of clothing, there are subtleties of movement called micro-expressions in your face that are often the source of contention when something looks slightly off in animation. As fantastic as previous titles looked, Assassin’s Creed III is something altogether different. From the first Assassin’s Creed title, it is clear that Ubisoft has been striving similarly against the Uncanny Valley, and nowhere is that more clear than up-close facial fidelity and animation. As animation techniques and technology has improved, this Valley has become smaller, and if titles like Beyond and Quantic Dreams recent tech demo are any indication, development houses are looking to close the Valley for good. When Half-Life 2 came out, people talked a lot about how great the animation system for the eyes were, but when they started spinning around in skulls like human slot machines, that quickly turned into a discussion on how creepy they were. This concept stated simply is the point where a human being depicted reaches a point where they look and act almost exactly like human beings, but there is something just slightly ‘off’ about them, causing a fairly jarring reaction – something is just not quite right. There is a concept in robotics and 3D animation called the “Uncanny Valley”. It’s not all cold-looking snow and freezing rain though – AnvilNext has also taken facial work to a new level. While those items don’t affect gameplay, the immersion factor is high. Staying with environments a moment, the game does a fantastic job of depicting rain, heavy fog, and thick smoke. Additionally, this makes combat difficult at best as the rapid movements needed to avoid musket fire is severely limited. Animals may be light footed (in most cases) enough to not leave tracks, but people generally leave a pretty obvious trench as they plow through snow. This has an impact on gameplay as it also can be used to track. Well…not for AnvilNext.ĭuring memory sequences that take place during the winter, the player will find themselves hip-deep in heavy snowfall, having to pull their boots out of the thick blanket. While it’s easy to give players different colored leaves to signify Fall, it’s difficult to handle snow properly. The game takes place in parts of America that have seasonal changes and spans several years, so obviously the team wanted to have all four seasons. The new engine has given them even larger sprawling landscapes than in previous titles, more dense with forests, animals, people (later you’ll see thousands of people on the battlefield), and a huge bump to environmental effects. The team had specific goals in mind for this sequel, and they needed some upgrades to do it. “He must be late, and she must be beautiful!”Īssassin’s Creed III runs on an engine called AnvilNext, a new version of the engine behind previous titles. I don’t want to spoil it for you, but this singular moment is just a taste of what this game has to offer. After teaching Desmond the basics of climbing in the upgraded Animus 3.0, Haytham is tasked with silently taking the life of a single man in a room filled with hundreds of people. A British assassin named Haytham Kenway pops in for an evening at the opera house, only his aim isn’t to enjoy the play but to make sure somebody else does not. The game opens with one of the coolest tutorial levels in recent memory. When I do target something specific, I’ll try to do it in as general a way as I can. Once again, the key to the future lies in the past.Ī quick note about my review – I will not be discussing major points about the storyline as there is so much to learn and enjoy that discovering it on your own is half of the fun. Who are the Templars really? What does the order of Assassins have to do with the The First Civilization – a group seemingly from the distant past, and their insistence that the end of the world is coming? With the Apple of Eden in hand, Desmond and his friends go to their new hidden base and try to discover how they will stop the predicted solar event that threatens to destroy all life on Earth. Desmond Miles has spent every moment since his capture working to understand his past. What do you do when the enemy is bigger than anything you’ve ever known? What do you do when powers beyond all understanding conspire to destroy all? You do everything you must.
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