Assassin's Creed 3 will be Ubisoft's "biggest to date"

To be honest - I didn't buy revelations. I bought the first, second and brotherhood and having seen revelations I was not that impressed. I completed the first 2 and thought they were very good (the second is awesome and so much better than 1). Brotherhood however really disappointed me and Revelations looks even worse (not graphically but storyline and silly things like the tower defence etc.) I may get Revelations if I see it very cheap. I still have to complete Brotherhood but each time I start to play it I get fed up very quickly. I hope 3 returns to the epic that was Assassins Creed 2 in terms of scale, story etc.

I've played all versions of AC, and really hope AC3 goes back to the style of 1 and 2. Brotherhood and Revelations may have included the MP aspect, but I didn't like the game play as much. Especially the stupid 'defending' side missions you were forced into every so often.

I've been really careful that there are no spoilers in what i've written below, but if you're a sensitive soul or unaware of anything (setting/characters etc) related to Assassins Creed Revelations you may want to think twice before reading.

I'm in a good place to comment on this i feel as i completed Revelations main story last night and really enjoyed it - once again! I won't say anything about the ending other than it's 1 part awesome (altair/ezio), 1 part bullshit/baffling (desmond/modern day), anyone who's completed 2 or brotherhood should be able to get the gist of that!

Firstly, and this goes for all of the big franchises, i don't mind the yearly updates, but they honestly can't moan if we all wait for them to become cheaper. I enjoy assassins creed as i always have done, but i don't think id miss it for a year, although with a story as complicated as its becoming it does seem to get harder to remember everything thats happened, they want to be careful they don't turn people off like TV show Lost did with all the waiting. My other issue here is that AC3 is due out this year as the end of the series - does anyone really think this big finalé isn't going to be itself dragged out for 3-4 iterations over the next few years? They'd do themselves credit if they 'did a mass effect' and ended desmonds storyline with this years game and come up with something new - the animus technology can still exist and plenty of history/ancestors to choose from!

I don't really care where the next one is set, if all the info from the combined ending sequences is put together then there's a pretty good hint, but i believe it will take in multiple time periods and places if i'm honest which could be pretty exciting, but only if each of the places matches the quality/shape/scale of the current cities. If each time period/city was cut down to something like a deus ex hub, that'd feel awfully claustrophobic for an AC game.

Lastly, i feel that father time has caught up with the AC engine & controls. What was cutting edge and frankly awesome the first time i played the original has now turned into something a little clumsier and sometimes slow to respond, quite a few of my deaths/detection issues in the current games have been because i was fighting against the controller. The delay when calling up the map or menu also add minor irritation that shouldn't be there. If they've stretched the current tech out for four games then surely in the background they've been building a new shiny engine for the next proper instalment - although admittedly nothing would surprise me!?

Lastly, the den defenses - yep, they suck royally and hope they're dropped, but i only did the training and 1 more and decided to just pay (and then steal from) the heralds and never had to do another one, it's not difficult to avoid, just a minor irritation. If you train 7 recruits to master level and do their missions it doesn't even become an issue anymore as they then can't challenge the dens.

I completely agree there, 2 is my favourite too, and I haven't played Revs because with all the other games out it paled in comparison. I'm not even sure I'll pick it up cheap, might borrow off my mate. I really hope 3 goes back to being like 2 as well, with lots of nice assassinations, anyone remember flying the Da Vinci thing to enter the building from above then sneaking in? Brilliant. I hope it's 3 that is released, not some money making spin off. Damned capitalism!

To add to what you've both said there, i agree a greater number of the missions need to be sneakier and more assassination based, but i feel this goes hand in hand with the controls/engine upgrade i mention above...!

I've played and enjoyed all the series so far but still think AC2 was the high point. They have just added too much side stuff and lost track of what the series should be about. Genuinely I was two thirds of the way through Revelations (and enjoying it) before I realised I hadn't actually assassinated anyone, and wasn't actually sure how the Templars were involved.

Buying new armour, weapons and even paintings in AC2 was fun because upgrading your character is always a nice touch, but extending that to single handedly rebuilding the economy of an entire city has been a step too far, and while I liked the idea of rebuilding the Brotherhood the recruits were just too interchangeable to make it feel worth it. I think giving Ezio an apprentice with a fully formed personality and story arc of his/her own would have been a better approach and given a better sense of what you were aiming for than the Championship Manager stat tracking they decided on. I wanted to be Obi-Wan Kenobi, not Alex Ferguson

Definitely, AC1 to 2 felt like a big leap but wasn't really, they'd changed the gameplay so you didn't have to do those godawful prerequisite missions and made the combat a lot more fun, I hope the same is true from 2 - 3 in that it keeps the vibe of the series but feels a lot different on the face of it. Like feudal Japan - a different fighting style perhaps? With Rainbow Six Patriots reportedly using the AC engine, I'm thinking new engine could be a big ask.

Definitely, AC1 to 2 felt like a big leap but wasn't really, they'd changed the gameplay so you didn't have to do those godawful prerequisite missions and made the combat a lot more fun, I hope the same is true from 2 - 3 in that it keeps the vibe of the series but feels a lot different on the face of it. Like feudal Japan - a different fighting style perhaps? With Rainbow Six Patriots reportedly using the AC engine, I'm thinking new engine could be a big ask.

Surely they wont release a brand new shiny rainbow six on AC's old clunky engine? Maybe it will use the AC engine, but the new shiny updated one - a bit like frostbite is used by EA for everything now including need for speed? Maybe there won't be a new one, but i feel that by modern standards (and batman is probably the best comparison for AC style wise?) AC is starting to feel/show it's age. Updated tech could allow us plenty more stealthy goodness! Oh god, feudal japan could make it like Tenchu (the odl good ones, not the more recent shit ones)! There's conspiracy theories about china & the ming dynasty because of a character thats in the new animated (yes, really) show they're doing for it.

I've played and enjoyed all the series so far but still think AC2 was the high point. They have just added too much side stuff and lost track of what the series should be about. Genuinely I was two thirds of the way through Revelations (and enjoying it) before I realised I hadn't actually assassinated anyone, and wasn't actually sure how the Templars were involved.

Buying new armour, weapons and even paintings in AC2 was fun because upgrading your character is always a nice touch, but extending that to single handedly rebuilding the economy of an entire city has been a step too far, and while I liked the idea of rebuilding the Brotherhood the recruits were just too interchangeable to make it feel worth it. I think giving Ezio an apprentice with a fully formed personality and story arc of his/her own would have been a better approach and given a better sense of what you were aiming for than the Championship Manager stat tracking they decided on. I wanted to be Obi-Wan Kenobi, not Alex Ferguson

Oh my God, I've just realised who the Templars in Revelations were.

The whole series is based on the Assassins championing individuality and self determination against the Templars anonymous mass of obidient drones, but with the Mediteranean defense we were forced into ordering around a dozen faceless sets of statistics who never asked why! Ubi made us the Templars!!!

I think giving Ezio an apprentice with a fully formed personality and story arc of his/her own would have been a better approach and given a better sense of what you were aiming for

This - i would like very much! I grew to kind of know my recruits in brotherhood and gave them all different coloured outfits so i could distinguish in battle. In revelations they were in the 'main party' for about five minutes before i shipped them off to god knows where to run regular BS missions to stop templars retaking the city!

I like the templar theory too - did cross my mind at one point playing through!! It's funny that as the series goes on i find myself thinking more and more that both sides are the bad guys!

I'd have Rocksteadys Batman fighting implemented into the next Assassins Creed. It would probably be terribly implemented with swords (final boss in ArkCity) but it is so perfectly simple.

You hear they're (Rocksteady) maybe doing TMNT...

Think rainbow six will be next gen, maybe utilizing a new AC engine, that could work. You've started a rumour mill now.

I like the templar theory too - did cross my mind at one point playing through!! It's funny that as the series goes on i find myself thinking more and more that both sides are the bad guys!

Both sides are zealots willing to sacrifice anything for their particular beliefs. Makes either side less than likeable.

I kinda see Brotherhood and Revelations as like the Half-Life 2 episodes, an extension on the story that is already present. I enjoyed all of them because I enjoy the life of Ezio Auditore, not for gameplay or graphics or anything like that (even though they are still quite important). Works with the MW series as well (sorry about bringing up CoD, don't hate me), I only got them to continue the story of soap and price, not for the multiplayer features. Just looking forward to AC3, hope they can deliver.

assassins creed 2 was my favorite on the whole, however i thought the crusades setting in number 1 seemed to fit a lot better. i completed brotherhood after nearly a year (because i got bored); and i received revelations as a christmas present i got to the point where you have to play your first tower defense (near the start of the game) and i haven't touched it since then. graphically revelations is superior to all the rest but the gameplay just seems bland for me, so i wont be playing it anymore- I'm very cautious about number 3 (i wish they would take a year off then deliver an astonishing game).

Definitely, AC1 to 2 felt like a big leap but wasn't really, they'd changed the gameplay so you didn't have to do those godawful prerequisite missions and made the combat a lot more fun, I hope the same is true from 2 - 3 in that it keeps the vibe of the series but feels a lot different on the face of it. Like feudal Japan - a different fighting style perhaps? With Rainbow Six Patriots reportedly using the AC engine, I'm thinking new engine could be a big ask.

Hell no. I'll acknowledge that 2 had a lot of things better, but it was significantly worse it 2 way, first, graphically, it was a significant step back, 2nd, the combat was garbage. The combat in 2 completely ruined the game it was awful with not one single redeeming feature.

Feudal Japan is my hope for AC3. The old Tenchu games set the template for how good these games can be. Tenchu Z is a travesty, but an Assassin's Creed set there could well be the perfect successor to the original ones.

But I DO hope they keep the core game mechanics the same, changing the fighting mechanics for example would kill what makes this series great, the aesthetically perfect flowing combat.

I'd have Rocksteadys Batman fighting implemented into the next Assassins Creed. It would probably be terribly implemented with swords (final boss in ArkCity) but it is so perfectly simple.

You hear they're (Rocksteady) maybe doing TMNT...

If they do that, I will personally pay for each and every one of them to get titwanks from Lucy Pinder.

I thought perhaps a modern day setting for the next installment and for the love of god, NOT NY!!!