Assassin's Creed: The One With Boats Has Cool Boats

This is reporter Nathan Grayson, on the scene for the SHOCKING NEWS TIMES. You might be disturbed and even somewhat aroused to hear that Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag has boats by the boatload, but I can exclusively confirm it via a non-exclusive video. In it, you'll witness scandalous scalawag Edward Kenway steering a ship, upgrading said ship, shooting other ships, leaping between ships, and even disembarking once or twice because he doesn't play by your dumb rules. Go on, watch. Be shocked and infuriated, because that is the purpose of news.

Seriously though, it does look rather nice. Naval combat seems much more polished and fleshed out than it did in Assassin's Creed III, where it was sadly more of a (really neat) sideshow. I'm also a fan of how all the boat vs boat/boat vs fort/boat vs its own emotions and on-foot swashbuckling blends together, with Kenway murder hopscotching between land, sea, and air with the greatest of ease. Yeah, it's another Assassin's Creed game, but it at least looks like a fairly well-thought-out one.

Also, that map. If Ubisoft gives me a mostly open ocean and just lets me do my best Jazz Boatman impression while exploring/upgrading at my leisure, I think I might just be on board with this one. And that's saying quite a lot, given that this series lost me - like a needle in a very Assassin-unfriendly haystack - after I finished up Brotherhood.

Then again, AC III had a gigantic, multi-hour tutorial, because of course it did. So I'm not fully sold on IV just yet, but I am kind of warming up to it - even despite its arbitrary, obligatory (arbligatory?)  delay on PC. How about you?