I’m very thankful to have gotten the chance to play through a bit of Assassin’s Creed 3 last week. Art of the Assassin, the traveling art gallery of original Assassin’s Creed 3 art, stopped by Chicago’s upcoming art neighborhood, Pilsen, right near Chinatown. The real estate is less expensive and there are a lot of old warehouse like buildings that have been converted to galleries/living spaces. I’ve walked through Pilsen during the middle of the day during the week once on a random adventure, but other then that this was my first intentional stop there.
We knew parking was cheap or free since I figured it would be similar to Chinatown. We drove in a few circles before finding the address, but it was clear we made it when we saw security hanging outside of a lit door on one of the dark shadowy old industrial buildings that bared the Assassin’s Creed emblem in crisp clean cut vinyl on the window. Pilsen, like all other neighborhoods in Chicago has it’s own unique feel and culture where you can learn a bit about the history of Chicago through the group that settled there. The gallery was a beautiful space with warm toned lighting on the brick walls, creaky hardwood floors and exposed beams of Art Revolution.
The atmosphere of the event was laid back and friendly with enthusiastic Rock the Vote volunteers signing people up to vote (General Election Mail-In Voter Registration Deadline: October 9, 2012) at the door and handing out election swag. There was a Revolutionary War themed photo booth with props that came with an Instagram-ish filter printout and the ability to share on Facebook or Twitter right from their equiped ipads runing custom software, which I would like to say worked seamlessly, that sent out a tweet with the correct #hashtag that was being pull to the tweetshare monitor. Free drinks were provided by Hennessey. A projector displayed live gameplay of Assassin’s Creed 3 showcasing the navel ship war play and general city gameplay.
THE GAME!
I’ve been trying to avoid engrossing myself too much with AC3 videos, reviews, news, etc. I get my fair share, but I had been trying to not hype myself up too much. The new game is created on Anvil Next, a brand new engine created exclusively for Assassin’s Creed 3. And after playing the demo, I can say that I am really excited now to play this game. Loving the series to begin with I am anxiously awaiting more of the story to unveil, but the game flows so seamlessly with the new tech and feels so good. Hard to explain in words, but the familiar acrobatics and combat that I love from the previous games now preforms how I always dreamed it would. The graphics are rich with Earth tone colors and the movement is lifelike. The navel battle gameplay is intense while driving these massive ships that felt hefty and required finesse to pilot. I only wonder what the multiplayer will be like.
I express my gratitude to Ubisoft for bringing this event to Chicago, as I think it was a big hit with our gaming/art community.
See some of our photos on the Pixeldom Facebook page.
We also talk about the event on Pixels and Popcorn this past week on Ep 129: Looper.
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