Assassin's Creed IV: New DLC

So! I just found out that Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag will have an additional DLC exploring the backstory of Adewale, the first mate on Edward Kenway's crew.

I wasn't super excited for ACIV for two reasons:

1) After ACII the games seemed to go downhill. Brotherhood was fine but I really, really did not enjoy Revelations. I started III but it didn't pull me in, and I intend to finish it after the HSC. What I did play of it wasn't particularly gripping. I think the main problem was that Ezio's story dragged on far too long.

2) Edward's outfit was hella boring. I'm sorry, just... you're doing pirates. The opportunity that gives you to design the most epic, badass assassin outfit. And they wasted it. They wasted it so badly that it makes me clench my fists just thinking about it.

People are saying this is the best game in the series yet - which means it has to be pretty good to beat ACII (which as far as I know is generally considered the favourite). To me it seemed like nothing special.

But then today I found out about Adewale! Who previously I hadn't even known existed (I wasn't keeping up with trailers/gameplay updates).

But heavens above does he look epic!

This is the character, guys. This is the character I wanted. This is the character Black Flag should have been about!

I know nothing about Edward yet. As I said, I haven't finished ACIII (didn't even get up to Connor's bit) so I don't know how he links to the other two Kenway characters. But from what I've seen he's just another hunky white male, possibly filled with manpain... IDK, he doesn't grip me.

But Adewale! The tiny glimpse I got of him in the ACIV cinematic trailer + the preview for Freedom Cry... aso;dignasdlgs I cannot even express how excited I am!

And look! He even has an epic outfit with a fresh design!  A:LGNSDGK:GLADFNL:SDJG

Now that we have that out of the way - Assassin's Creed is generally pretty good with racial diversity. I mean, we've got the whole first game set in the Middle East, and then AC:R went back to Turkey. And Connor Kenway who-I-have-yet-to-properly-meet is half Native American, from what I understand. It was really the modern-day Desmond side of things that was glaringly full of skinny white boys. But that's all being changed up in AC:IV, so I'll be interested to see what they do with that.

In any case, that was part of my disappointment with Edward Kenway's character. The shaggy blonde haircut isn't doing anything for me either. What I really wanted was a female lead because the only playable one we've got so far - if I recall correctly - is Aveline from Liberations (epic WOC ahoy!) and that was solely for the PlayStation Vita - which I don't have! Ugh.

So anyway - I'm  stoked for Black Flag. I can't wait to meet Adewale (here's hoping he's the Malik to Edward's Altair, the Leo to his Ezio) and draw all the fanart, write all the fic, etc.

And I absolutely cannot wait for Freedom Cry.

Here's the Freedom Cry trailer.

I'll do another post when I have time about my raging disappointment at the casting of Michael Fassbender as Altair in the upcoming Assassin's Creed movie. Don't get me wrong, I love Fassbender, but that's just blatant whitewashing.

(EDIT: it has come to my attention that Fassbender isn't playing Altair - they're creating a new assassin for the movie set in a completely different time period. Let's all breathe a collective sigh of relief.)