 What's up, everybody? I'm the hook and I'm the blade and I'm the elegant design. Welcome to the Black Pod flag show about all things Assassin's Creed for Black Flag. I'm your host, Lawson, joined as always by Tim. And we have a guest host this week, the legendary White Wolf whispers, Moderator S extraordinaire. She is a part of the moderator team over on the Assassin's Creed subreddit. She's also a huge help on the marathon team, where she's pretty much single handedly made our playthrough of Odyssey possible. And she's part of the moderator team with our friends at the AC Sisterhood Discord server. Of course, I'm also the moderator of the Assassin's Creed subreddit Discord server. That is true. I can't leave that out. You cannot. That's important. It's a big discord. So moderating it is probably a pain in the ass. It's a lot of fun. I have a lot of fun, pretty much anything I'm doing with Assassin's Creed. So I wish I could say that were true for me. We both just went for that same joke. We got Tim going. Hey, this early on, that's a good sign. It is, it is. In this episode, we are setting sail on the high seas in search of piracy and plunder to talk about Assassin's Creed for Black Flag. Now, I feel like the public should know, Wolf, is it true on the record that Black Flag is your favorite Assassin's Creed game? That's a pretty safe bet to say that. Yeah, yeah, I would definitely say that. And like, why is it your favorite AC game? Like, what is it that makes it so important to you personally? First and foremost is the story. I'm a huge fan of the story in in any game that I play anyway. I feel that Black Flag has the best story in in all of the Assassin's Creed games. Otherwise, characters are a big thing for me. I really like to get, you know, invested with my characters. I do like the gameplay of that particular part or time frame, like the whole Kenway saga. I do like the gameplay. I'm not a big combat person. So the combat in like Origins and Odyssey doesn't thrill me all that much. Right. Combat in Black Flag is easy. I'll be honest. Oh, yeah. So it's like an all in one package for me. And Tim, why is Black Flag your favorite Assassin's Creed game ever? There you go. We have no dissenting opinions on this podcast. Everyone agrees all the time. It's rule number one. Well, so as anyone that watched like our listing video, I believe mine ranked in at five, right? Yeah, number five. I know just no saving him. I can say that with this replay, it did change on my list. Oh, did it go up or down? It went down and then it went up to three. Oh, nice. OK. So it's in my top three now. There we go. Do you know off the top of your head what the games are that it leapfrogged? I guess it just would have jumped over AC one. And Brotherhood. OK, I'm pretty sure it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter at all. But I was just curious. No, well, because my relationship with Black Flag is always interesting, because I've never, ever had an issue with it in terms of enjoyment. I always just had a problem with it from a perspective of like, does it scratch that Assassin's Creed itch that the other games do? And I had some different opinions this time around. And I'm interested in talking about. But yeah, it definitely feels like it's worth reevaluating its assassin-ness in the context of the last two Assassin's Creed games and potentially the next one, right, not being very assassinate at all. I feel like it changed it like it shifts the window a little bit that a lot of the people were like, yeah, Black Flag isn't an Assassin's Creed game like, well, it has assassins in it. So it's kind of kind of sets it apart now. Yeah, you want to trigger me, say that Assassin's Creed Black Flag is not an Assassin's Creed game and or just say it's just a pirate game. It's a good pirate game, but not a good Assassin's Creed game. You know, my hot take Assassin's Creed 4, good pirate game. Not a great assassin game. I don't know if anyone's ever said that before. Yeah, no, that there's a lot of Assassin's Creed elements in Black Flag. There are. And there are some that I think I actually forgot about, but there are also some elements that do exist that I remembered that didn't really change so much. Like there are some things that I still don't love. Sure. But there are some things I did change my mind on. So yeah, I mean, I totally get a lot of people who don't like part of the gameplay part of it, like if they don't like the naval combat, naval combat is a huge part of Black Flag. And I totally respect that. I totally get that. But yeah, again, to say that there's no elements of Assassin's Creed in it. Yeah, that's that just doesn't work for me. I agree with that. One of the things I always felt like before we started this podcast, this is the case, I used to kind of be like, oh, AC4 and AC2 are tied. But I can't really say that anymore. And I definitely have chosen that AC4, in my opinion, is all around the better game. That's because you have good taste. I feel like that it has more to say about the ideological conflict, you know, assassins versus Templars. It has more perspective on that element than a lot of the games that people do consider to be more assassinate, a lot of them. Some of the most assassiny games, like barely hold a candle to this in terms of actually presenting their conflict in a thoughtful way. I think a lot of that has to do, certainly, with the writing of the story. You know, Edward is not an assassin at the beginning. He doesn't even know assassins and Templars, and he's just an outsider. And as the game progresses and we see him become more and more involved with this whole assassins and Templars. And I think it's just presented in a really well done way. And Darby wrote an amazing story. Yeah, we're going to have to get like a Darby counter installed somewhere on like every time we say Darby. Because we cannot go an episode without smooching Darby on the cheek. We just can't do it. There certainly is something to be said about how off top my head, like I think it's like the sixth or seventh game. Yeah, it's the sixth. And yet it still feels like the presentation of the assassins in the creed in the beginning of it in the beginning sequence of the game. It still is like a new take that we haven't seen before, which I was pleasantly surprised about on this go of it because the way that it's presented through interactions with characters and whatnot to me is pretty impactful. Instead of just like, oh, you know, inciting incident. Let me join the assassins now. Yeah, exactly. Like it gets you firmly out of the world of like a cheap origin story or having to like suffer a great personal loss. Like all these tropes that assassins create seemingly like can't get itself out from under and and they're like nowhere to be seen here, which is so cool. I agree. I was going to say too that, you know, you said, oh, after, you know, six games in the series, it's it was really fresh. Interestingly enough, how many games are we in now? What is this, 13 or 14? Valhalla. Yeah, it's around there. Valhalla will be 12, I believe. And it's still Black Flag is the only game that really fits that description. Yeah, that's a good point. It just feels like having all the knowledge that we do about the assassins mythos and whatnot going in still, it really do a good job of putting you in Edward's shoes as in making you feel like it's your first time discovering this stuff. Yeah. And that sense of discovery is really lost in a lot of these games. Yeah, for sure. And I don't know. I can't put my finger on what it is. I think it could be like the time period and the characters. And it's just you I never expected an assassin template conflict to be this well realized in like a piracy conflict. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah, because it's not the first thing you'd expect when you when someone tells you to picture an assassin's Creed game about pirates. Right. Yeah. Yeah, because you you said that you that you felt like a lesser writer would have just made the pirates the assassins because. Oh, yeah, absolutely. And I think that's a great point because, yeah, they probably would have, you know, there's just been like, oh, Nassau is the fucking assassin headquarters and all the other assassins. Right. All right, exactly. We did it. Everyone go home. I think too, with the with the pirates in Nassau, with their whole set up of of freedom and, you know, they were just looking to be on their own. I'm really glad that they didn't make the all the pirates on Nassau to be assassins because it just, yeah, I agree. It wouldn't have felt fresh. It wouldn't have felt true or real to, you know, to to what the assassins were where we're doing and, you know, kind of what they stood for. Edward really had to grow away from the pirates. He had to kind of give up his pirating ways in order to be common assassin. I'm really glad that they didn't, you know, make all the pirates be assassins. Right. Then he wouldn't have had to change his ways at all. Exactly. It would have been the story of brotherhood. Yeah, exactly. He would have always been on where he needs to be in the conflict, and that's it. But the way that we got, there's actual growth and change. And another thing that I'm just thinking about right now is, is I think a part of why it does feel fresh is, well, one, we have the introduction of the sage and that presents a whole different dynamic for the, you know, MacGuffin. And you have the sanctuary, the blood vials. You have like with the introduction of these new things, because if you look back at the Assassin's Creed games prior, they all deal with like the same like first sieve characters, Apple of Eden, you know, like the Apple of Eden is present. And it's present in all the games except for AC3. And yet there's, you know, there is a little crystal ball, but whatever. Yeah, this is the first time the MacGuffin was something actually interesting. And also the last time the MacGuffin was something actually interesting. I think there's something to be said, though, that like there is mythology added, you know, like, like sages didn't exist in the lore before this time. I do think just thinking about it at the moment, a part of its freshness is due to the fact that there is some like new elements, because while we know what the Assassin Templars are, but we are discovering these new elements too with Edward. And that helps us put, that helps put us in the seat, find these things out with Edward, because we don't know what a sage is. This is one of few Assassin's Creed games with like a genuine mystery in the story, because the whole game, Edward and the player are trying to figure out what is the observatory? You know, what does it do? What makes it so valuable? I said sanctuary, I'm sorry. We knew what you meant. Yeah, the observatory, not the sanctuary. I'll go over to the part where you said it and I'll just awkwardly paste in you saying observatory. Or you should put in your saying of observatory. Well, fix it in post, God damn it. We'll do it live. And no one will notice the difference in the way that the word sounds. They won't know who's saying what. Because we just have the same voice, apparently. Yes. Yeah, the concept of like the sage and the I almost fucking said sanctuary, the observatory. They're a lot more interesting to me than like, here's a sparkly sword, here's a ball with lines on it. Here's a blanket question mark, like all of those things. It also gives like autonomy to like the thing that the two sides are fighting over. Like, yeah, him being his own force, his own like entity among the fight. It's not like they're just passing around an apple of Eden. Like it's an actual person who is kind of a wild card and you don't know if you could trust him or not. And I think that also provides an extra layer of I don't want to say fresh too much, but it provides an extra layer of freshness because we're not used to like the assassin Templars fighting over a person. And something I want to highlight, too, that I feel like doesn't really get mentioned a lot is that not only is it cool that the quote unquote MacGuffin, so to speak, of the story is a human being who can make their own choices. But the the concepts behind the sage itself is an interesting story that gets fleshed out through all the like letters you can pick up in the open world of this idea that like you are a person who has the memories of a first civilization being and this unknowable, intangible desire to get to a place and to be with a woman. And all of these memories that are swirling around in your head and you have sort of no way of making sense of them for most of the sages that will ever exist. They'll pretty much just be practically schizophrenic with no other, you know, means of achieving that central goal to their their person, to their being. And there's something like really interestingly tragic about that and exploring that it's it's a very it's a very sci-fi like idea. It's a very I was just getting ready to say it's very sci-fi exactly. Yeah. And I I love when Assassin's Creed gets clever with it. Sci-fi like moments like having, you know, the the issue addressed Desmond directly through someone's past. Like when you get the sense in in watching one of these stories play out that that this this idea could only exist in the world of Assassin's Creed. That's just that's what makes it memorable. That's that's how you make it. That's how you make an Assassin's Creed game, baby. That's what you got to do. Well, it's also to cooperate what you're saying, you know, Roberts does say at one point like I was born to you, to you know, too soon, like countless others. Yeah. And we see that reflected in the God awful modern day in this game. It is fucking terrible. It's so bad. Oh, yeah. It's let's talk about the modern day, shall we? It is it is shockingly bad. It is so terrible. I don't hate it as much as you do. I don't. Yeah, I don't hate it as much either. It is such a slap in the face, but I do recognize that it is it is often very cringe inducing and the level of meta that they go for where we're supposed to be playing. It's good. It's basically Ubisoft without the sexual assault. Oh, no, you didn't just say that. I mean, it is. It's so it's so it's so pretentious. It's so self-aggrandizing, right? It's so like, well, especially with all of the books laying around the office. There's like Assassin's Creed three books like you're in the office and far cry books. Shoot me in the head. Liberation was a real game in this universe. Oh, I like that level of like, oh, so such a street's being marketed for like it's I hate it. I hate it so much. Like it's like it's like any in any chance for mystery or secrecy in the modern day is fucking flit out the window when you do that shit. You don't like playing Frogger to the computers. No, you know what I found out is the worst fucking one of those. Dude, you know what you know, I found out, though, you can ride on a single beam of like data past the screen. Like, yeah, you can. If you ride to the bottom, it could you come out at the top again, unless unless it specifically has red bars. I didn't know that. I couldn't say myself so much so much anger because I would get impatient and keep moving along. I didn't know that I could just stop and and think. Oh, man, look, the frog, all the other ones. Oh, also, fuck the one where it's like a sphere and you just have to line up the the line with some arbitrary. Yeah, the green line. I think the only one I like is the one where you have to like hit the target number, the numbers, yeah, that one's kind of kind of a genuine puzzle and not just a frustrating bullshit minigame. I do like the information, though, the once you actually get through those little minigames, I do like the information that they present. I think a lot of that was really. Yeah, you felt like, oh, I'm finding something really cool. I've never gone through and hacked all the computers, but I want to do that. I have not a surprise. I did it in rogue because I was just sitting waiting for my ass to be able to get a PS4 to play Unity. So I just hacked all the computers in rogue for a year or whatever. But I did not do it in Black Flag. Was it worth it? I liked it. I I liked the feeling of like actually having to explore the environment to find the places that I could hack and to find little goodies and Easter eggs. Like if it weren't for the cringy self-referential nature of it, I don't think I would have that much of an issue with the the gameplay format of the modern day where your first person and you're not a character and you're just exploring an area. Here's my main issue with it. Yeah. Aside from the self-referential, you know, pat ourselves in the back where you be soft shit. I do think the other problem that comes in, you know, we've talked about this a lot. A lot of the allure of the first game is the kind of psychological horror element that you're going to be strapped down into a into a table when I'm going to be forced to relive an ancestor's memories. A lot of that fear and anxiety based around that idea is completely gone. You're just a fuck off and absurd employee that hops into your animus. Yeah, but I feel like that stuff was gone after the first game anyway. Like there was not really that sense when you're playing, say, AC3, that it's ever going to be on your mind that Desmond has to go through this weirdly psychologically traumatic experience. Right. But if they're going to introduce a new character, you know, I don't want to say protagonist, but like if they're going to introduce a new modern day character, they should have played with that stuff. I've never cared for the whole like of Sturgo has made a video games subsidiary and that's how they're going to collect genetic data. It's just it just seems like it's pretty forced. Well, it's very on the nose, of course. Also, just being a voiceless and faceless person also doesn't help things for me. It doesn't help with immersion. That's for sure. You don't feel that character. Absolutely. Yeah. Everyone, everyone who's talking to you, you feel like you're this new employee theoretically and within like two days, you're eavesdropping on the boss. And they're like, you know, on Olivier Garneau and Melanie LeMay. And they're like, they're like, yeah, we've got our best guy working on this. I'm like, what the fuck are you talking about? We've got the employee of the week. He's on it. Or why the IT guys like I'm going to give you all the credentials and all the security like why me, dude, I just got here. How long have you worked as an IT guy that you're just starting to figure out how to do this? I just started. I just locked the door. And now you've got me in this weird conspiracy and you're like, I'm going to ruin your life. If you tell anybody it's it's it's it's all it's all pretty awkward. I'm not trying to say that like, oh, A.C. Brotherhood has a psychological horror element that no other like it doesn't. No, I know. But there is a certain aspect to like it's still it still is a taxing thing. Like an A.C. Three Desmond can go into the animus for two weeks and no one cares. Also, like it just seems like bleeding effect completely gone. It's all ironed out within this whole process now. And so there's no risk. There's no risk reward for the animus time. It's just get in there and get the information. It's not like there risk anything except for a little overtime hours. I have to say this. I feel like this really sums up. I think what a lot of people feel about it is I was playing. I was like booting up A.C. Four recently for the first time on my PS4. And my dad was like just sort of in the general vicinity. And he's kind of like watching me do the whole tutorial pirate thing and like learning them and you know, he's like, Oh, that's cool. And the moment it pulls you out and like Melanie, you know, waddles up to you and starts spouting some welcome to the fucking place you're in. Like my dad literally goes, What the fuck is this shit? No, no, go back to the pirate game. I was like, I'm still in the pirate game. Why are you in an office building? I was like, look, it's complicated, dad, but dad, it's orientation. Look, Desmond Miles saves the world. Okay. And then yeah, it's just also really bizarre to go from a like full on skyscraper, you know, running around as Desmond on a skyscraper in Brazil during an MMA fight to first person like to revelations modern day gameplay. Ask just walking around the tablet in your face. It's it's really jarring. It's it's pretty weird. Anyway, I didn't mean to take us in that direction necessarily. I just it's fine. It's like the one thing I can really complain about in AC four. And yeah, it's fun to complain about things. I did like seeing Sean and Bex in the down in the lobby. But why do they use their full names? They use their real names. I know. What is he accomplishing as a coffee vendor? They're in the belly of the beast and they're like not even Hi, Rebecca. They're in the belly of the subsidiary of the beast. They're going to learn some hot details about the video game being developed and pretty much nothing else by pretending to be a coffee barista. Does he think fucking Alan Reichen is going to walk in the lobby and just troll up to the coffee booth and just start talking about anyway, we're getting this piece of Eden next week. What is he going to learn? Haha. It's such a good point. What is he? He's there seven days a week. He's going to get some hot scoops about Pirates of Nightmares. Yeah, he's literally just. Oh my gosh, they make it a point that they can get in touch with the hacker like remotely. Why do they have to be in the building like she's a data courier, which is a job that doesn't exist like just email it. John, what are you doing? What does Rebecca have to do here anyway? So the actual game, right? Yeah, the real the real black flag, the real pirate game, the pirate simulator. I just I feel like the whole concept of the ship and of traversal. I just I always feel so immersed in the loop of setting my destination on the map going to an island or a new town and just, you know, collecting the things that they're there to collect and, you know, exploring and doing whatever side missions and enjoying the area. And then all right, next next thing get back on the ship, go somewhere else, sing a shanty by pulling me into the the the pirate fantasy of it all. I find it actually makes the assassin fantasy stronger because it's not the only thing you're doing all the time and because the fact that I've engaged and related to Edward on a character level and on this gameplay level of those naval mechanics and feeling like oh, I'm the I'm the pirate captain, dude, I'm sailing them yo ho ho and shit. It's like it just makes it more interesting to me when I have to get out of the I have to get off the boat and do some do some assassin stuff and hide in a bush and tail some motherfuckers like it just feels more satisfying. I don't know how to explain it. I definitely could feel on this replay the effects of my now deep nostalgia and appreciation for this game because where I'd say replay it for the marathon and go, oh, here are these missions that annoy the shit out of me and oh, this game gameplay is actually kind of inconsistent and there are some parts that don't really work. Now I kind of I play it and I just love the whole thing. I'm just like so glad to be playing a good Assassin's Creed game, the best Assassin's Creed game that I'm pretty much at this point willing to overlook all all flaws. Someone says, yeah, but there are a lot of tailing missions. I kind of even though I recognize that that's completely true. I'm like, yeah, but they're they're kind of fun though. I just love everything about it now. It's like what I hope marriage is like where you just start loving the thing. Well, okay. This is a weird metaphor. I'm not going to commit to it. 30 years in you realize it's not so bad after all. Yeah, but there's a lot of tailing. Oh Lord. There sure are. Oh my God. The yeah, the there definitely are a lot of tailing in the game, but I don't mind them so much. One of my all time favorite tailing missions of any Assassin's Creed game is actually in Black Flag the one at the end when you have to tail the Italian diplomat. I don't like that one. The I call him the NCO. The city has no plan. He's like you all are like animals like cattle with no sense of decorum. Oh my God, dude, you are I just follow him all day. I wish he would just keep talking. It is fun to hear Roger Craig Smith and he came back for some of the modern day stuff. Right. Yeah, the market analysis. Easy oh auditory or whatever it is he says. Matana Tenkin. Yes. And Altair Altair Altair. I don't remember I didn't do him this time and it's like you all can get him back for this and not for AC Chronicles China. Black Flag is still like a main release though Chronicles China is my ass. Yeah, but if you're going to if it's Ubisoft, you're going to find it in your accounting to pay the like hourly fee for Roger Craig Smith to say 12 things and you'll do it for for no reason in Black Flag, but you won't have him reapprises iconic character. I'm sure he would have done it. Oh, he said he would have done it. They just probably think it not being Roger Craig Smith validates that game less, which is good because it sucks fair point. But now you'll be able to read the story of the game in book form, but only if you speak French. True fact, speaking of of tailing missions though. The ship tailing. Well, those suck. Yes, they do. That wasn't what I was going with it, but they are terrible. I was going to say in a more general sense that this game has the best stealth in the series. Yeah, I do like sneaking through the plantations. I always thought that was fun. It is. And like you genuinely feel like they give you enough toys to play with that you can actually like give you plenty of room to operate. Yeah. And to do things however, like you particularly want to do them and strategize and like actually use your brain, which is cool. But yeah, I was going to say about ship tailing and ship stealth in general is that what I really hate about it is that if you want to not be looking at your mini map, you're stupid. You cannot. It is mini map stuff. Yes, you cannot play this game and not look at the mini map when you are ship tailing. And it's it really makes you feel like you're playing a little mobile mini game in the corner of your screen. What what is the need for all of the rest of the visual information on the screen? If it literally does not add anything to the fact that I have to just be like eyeballing the mini map for the entire duration of that mission. It's not fun. No, I agree. But the stealth on foot is quite good and I just I don't know why not to like go way off topic. I just don't know why if all the systems are pretty much the same why there aren't things like that in really AC three. I mean, I guess they're like six forts or whatever, but I don't want to talk about that game. Yeah, let's not. We don't have to talk about AC three. I never want to talk about it again for as long as I live. No, I mean, I'm just being shady. It is worth mentioning though that like it's terrible in AC three and it almost perfectly it pretty much perfectly works in black flag like black flag is so satisfying when you pull off like a set of maneuvers and you're going in like you're running in between bushes and taking out guards and it is so satisfying and it certainly like it's not going to punish you without a reason like it gives you plenty of stocking zones and they work properly even if even if an enemy is looking at you, you can still go into stocking zones, which wasn't an ace was what which wasn't an AC three. I will have to we'll have to see what jacers has to say about this, but I'm pretty sure that you move faster in this game than any other game like you move so quickly as Edward that's possible. Edward does move pretty well. That man can clear cross a field in no time and it's so satisfying because if I I know if I just be line it to the other set of bushes, I can make it. You can outrun the detection, which is cool. Exactly. And it's so much fun to do that. If you get if you get spotted and you have a little combat encounter, you're not going to be forced to fight everyone in the fort because the radius that spreads aggression to other like you'll have a little skirmish, but you'll feel like after that skirmish is over, you can then resume stealth and be stealthy for the rest of the mission if you succeed. Right. And not every single guard in the whole fort is alerted that you're there and fighting those two or three that you've just messed up on. There certainly is like something that's more enjoyable enjoyable about stealth games that or games with stealth systems that are robust that when you mess up, it doesn't feel like now your plan is out the window. If the game can help you feel like you are still in control of the situation and sometimes that means just killing off two guards really quickly and going back into stealth. And I think it's all the better in that scenario. Absolutely. And you know, this isn't a classic example of as we all know combat in Assassin's Creed for a black flag is piss easy. There's like if you upgrade your swords or health at all, you're kind of well, you know what? I'm not going to I'm not going to judge anybody. All I'm saying is it's piss. It's piss easy. And therefore the only thing preventing you from running into an encounter and killing everyone because it's the easiest path to whatever it is you're trying to achieve is that stealth is fun. That's the only reason not to and props to them for making stealth so fun that you do genuinely feel like it's worth trying to be stealthy even when it's technically not the easiest route to getting what you want. I certainly think that like the bells and in the radius of aggression like you're talking about it was a step in the direction that I wanted stealth to start going was less about like, oh, you're detected and now the entire level is aware of you or you're or you're desynchronized or whatever. I mean, I got detected more times and salvaged it than I have in any other game. Like I mentioned, I feel like Metal Gear Solid does this pretty well. And when you are spotted, you still feel in control and you don't feel like you might be like, oh, I messed up, but this game does a really good job at making you feel like it's not like all is lost. And it's a shame that how stealth is so enjoyable in this game. It didn't really translate over to Unity very well, I think because it's not as fun in Unity. And AC4 gives you a lot of things you can do with corpses, which I've learned recently is important to Wolf. Yes. Body piles are a whole lot of fun to make. Throwing them overboard into the water is always fun to do watching them float along for a while. Throwing them down wells. Although I'm not sure that there's too many wells in Black Flag, but it's always fun to throw them somewhere having fun with with corpses. It's it's morbid, but it's something that I do like doing. Wolf on record likes to have fun with corpses. There you go. It's it's it's out now. Okay, so I'm going to see where you two line up because even as recently as when I was with you Lawson, you were we're just putzing around AC4 just for a moment. And I was like, I hate this parkour system. And on my replay, I realized I actually quite like it. Really? What was it before that you didn't like? Okay, so I don't like there being an automatic sprint. I've always enjoyed the RT and a at least an Xbox controllers. I never had a problem with that distinction. And so and so revelation is still being my favorite. I actually quite liked how they implemented it in AC4 and it's it goes back to what you were saying about how stealth is doesn't work at all in AC3 and yet in AC4 somehow the the free running system, which is exactly the same pretty much is so much more enjoyable. And there certainly were times where I would get hung up on things and climb things I didn't want to, but most of the time it worked in my favor and tree climbing and usually climbing on the boats and just most of it in general always worked well for me. I never I didn't have much of a problem. I always felt like when it did assume what I was trying to do it often assumed correctly. So that was surprising for me because I was expecting to hate it. Like there's some problems with it for sure. Like the idea that when you're running, you can accidentally like end up climbing something by accident like maybe a hundred times. I feel like interestingly enough in the context of what you're saying like, you know, you were at my house or kind of switching between all of the games and just running around in them and talking about our thoughts on the like game feel and the parkour and stuff. I feel like AC4 and the Kenway movement system in general feels really weird when you compare it directly against pretty much any other game. But when you get used to it, it really shines. Like when you are actually sitting down to play a game for 20 hours and you are having to do that movement system and like get accustomed to it, it can feel pretty great. I think. Wolf, what are your thoughts parkour was? Yeah, where do you line up on that? What do you think? I've never really had a issue with the parkour side of it. I do tend to hold that right trigger button pretty heavily. So I've just kind of gotten used to, you know, Edwards climbing up a building and then all of a sudden I've got him flying off the building because I'm still holding on to that right trigger button. But I do feel that he usually moves fairly well fairly easily. I don't usually have problems with the controls. Like I don't feel like I'm fighting the controls to get Edward to do what I want. Speaking of the controls, you were telling me beforehand that you were playing this on the Nintendo Switch. Interesting. How is that? The Switch in general, it's a very good port. It looks very good. And you know, when you think about how the game looks with textures and graphics, it looks pretty good for a ported game onto the Switch. At least for me, there is a little bit of issues with the controls. And I think that's just because I'm not used to the buttons on the Switch. Like X is not where X is on the Xbox and Y is not where Y is on the Xbox. So when it tells me to hit Y to do this, I'm not hitting Y. So that, you know, I think that's probably more of my just playing it on the console so much. You know, I'm used to the console controller. Interesting. So that sometimes is a little bit of an issue also to just the, I don't usually play the Switch with a controller. I just, you know, I hold the Switch. I have a Switch Lite. Oh, so you're playing Switch Lite. Okay. Yes. Yeah. I don't play on the full Switch where, you know, you can dock and have it on the TV with a controller or whatever. So sometimes the, my hands are in a different position. Again, it's all muscle memory. So my hands are in a different position holding the Switch than it would be holding a controller. Sometimes I have to reach a little bit more to to get a button, like to get the matte button. You have to reach up over the thumb stick controller or the thumb stick to push that matte button. And it's, it's, it's a little awkward. Interesting. There are some differences in the Switch. The, for example, in the, I'll just call it the original version, which is whether it's console or PC, but on the original version and the Abstergo challenges, you have 100. On the Switch, you have 96. And basically they have taken out all of the social, the social chest, the social, the royal convoys and the white whales. That sounds awesome. Yeah. Great. They also took out the, there's one challenge where you have to harpoon all of the sea animals. Again, because they took out all the, they took out the white whales. You don't. The white whale whispers. I was about to do it. So they, they took out those four challenges. So, you know, it's not significant number, but it is, it is notable. There's no, yeah, there's no community, there's no community events, but that's also pretty nice because the original versions, like nowadays you can no longer get the rewards that you get for, for doing the community events because there's no more community events going on. In the Switch version, they gave you all of those rewards default. So there's like skins for your ship and there's an outfit like you get the Haifam outfit now. Those are all now in the Switch version that are not available any longer on the, on the original version. Right. I will say this playthrough that I've done on my PS4 is the first time I've seen all the community bullshit because, and I hope I don't get sued for saying this. The first time I played Black Flag when I was 13. Look, it's a pirate game. Can you blame me? I, I pirated it on my computer and you plundered it. I plundered it from the sea. I, and Ubisoft deserved it, which I didn't know at the time, but they didn't get my money for that one at that time. They got it this time. I gave in, but yeah, when you play pirated and you're not connecting to the internet at all, you don't get all those annoying pop-ups that are like, we shared the location of this chest with your friends. Yeah. We found a fucking whale and we're going to tell your friends about it. Your number 890,436 on the pirate leaderboards. I don't give a fuck. Yeah, there's no more leaderboards on the, on the Switch. Sounds lovely. Also too, because there's no more white whales can't, there's the whaler outfit and I don't know why they didn't just give you the outfit, but they still require you to craft the whaler outfit with, you have to go buy the three white whale skins. I almost said white wolf skins. It's so funny. You have to go buy the three white whale skins from the store. Why they didn't just give you the outfit. I'm not really sure. That's ridiculous. In sex, all those outfits look terrible too. Yeah. I don't think there's a single good looking outfit. I usually, I use the politician one because it's the only one without shoulder plates. I like the, the red one. It's the governor's outfit or the that's the, that's the captain's outfit, I believe. Yeah, I'm not. Yeah, whatever the red one is, Edward Rocks. But the Mayan outfit is the best looking thing. What? It's only missing a hood. Otherwise it looks incredible. The Mayan armor that's bulletproof. Yes. Yeah. No, I don't care for that. What do you mean? It's so sleek looking. It's got robes at the bottom of it. It just needs a hood. I'm going to Google it right now until you live, whether it's stupid or cool. I think it looks like like Edward's a robot and I'm just not into that robot Edward look. Oh, oh, oh, that one. Oh, yeah, that's dope. Robot Edward. No, you would let you like that. Okay. Yeah. It looks awesome. I like when they get a little sci-fi with the outfits. Like, I like the syndicate one where Evie gets to sparkle. Her Aegis outfit? Yeah, that one. So I wanted to mention something. I think the thing that I changed my mind about the most on this game before I get off of this topic. I didn't want to like, you know, abruptly end anything that you guys wanted to say left about like any of that stuff. Well, let me say one thing. I would like to hear by retract the statement I made that the politician outfit is the only one without shoulder pads. Not because I have learned that it isn't, but because I'm sure it might not be. And I just don't want Treviso to leave a comment telling me about another outfit that doesn't have shoulder pads. You know he will correct you. So the thing I said earlier, forget that if you already wrote the comment though, it's too late. Not many things in life are that dependable, but Treviso commenting to correct you sure is. So what's the thing that you've changed your mind about on AC four? Yeah, I mean, I don't mean to like make a big deal about it. I just I want you to make a big deal about it. Originally, my whole my whole thing about AC four was like great game, but it doesn't scratch the Assassin's Creed itch. There's a lot of naval stuff. And and while I enjoy the naval stuff, there's a lot of naval stuff. Are you saying it's a better pirate game than an assassin game? Don't go there, Tim. Don't go there. That's the thing is I originally was of that opinion, but I've come around to accepting it as, you know, a completely serviceable and and like serviceable. But what I mean is it's allowed to like it's it's able to stand with Tim. Go fuck yourself. It's able to stand with like the classic AC games. Just let me just let me finish. So originally, I was of that opinion where it's like, all right, I don't really care about the naval stuff, you know, like there's a lot of there's a lot of stuff you can explore on the map, but like, does it really matter? And so on this replay, I realized and this is something that I've been thinking about a lot recently is is how gimmicky AC can become. And I think what separates a gimmick from like a fully fledged system is something like the rope launcher compared to the hookblade. So in this game, I don't feel like there's any gimmicks. The naval combat feels fully realized and the navigation feels fully realized the way that you traverse through the jungles and the way that you explore the world feels very Assassin's Creed like. And I just I've come around, you know, on that opinion because I knew that there was a lot of like, you know, just kind of fuck off islands and stuff. But there's a lot of like really in depth jungles that you can explore. And, you know, I want my AC games to be divisive and not in the sense of like I want it to upset players, but like I want them to take these kind of leaps. Leaps of faith, if you will. Yes. And kind of what you were saying earlier, like compared to origins or Odyssey, like this is nothing. Like I said, I was thinking a lot recently about like gimmicks versus fully realized systems. And I think AC shines the most when it is working off these fully realized systems. And I'm kind of fooling myself if I just expect it to stay the same all the time. I feel like AC4 shakes it up, changes things. But in a way, I still very satisfying in an Assassin's Creed way. Like when I can park my ass up at a jungle and run through it and then see my jackdaw at the other end, like the jackdaw is just another way for me to navigate this world. Yeah. It's very empowering because, you know, that's the best word I can I can describe. It's very empowering to hop on my jackdaw and just drive to wherever I need to go. And like some of the cities, they're so well designed, you know, like you you actually can run through most of them. And so I guess to kind of summarize what I'm saying here is while I originally wasn't too big on the naval exploration, I thought a lot of the jungles and stuff were cool, but I like more of the city environments. It's not a problem for me anymore. I do like when an AC game kind of takes a chance like this and it works out really well. And the thing is, too, is if you're thinking about it from like each assassin brings his own unique flavor to the to the series, you know? And so I found myself just going through, you know, these jungles and whatnot and I just wasn't skipping a beat. I was having a lot of fun with it. I don't know. It just feels like enough time was devoted and enough attention was devoted to it to make it interesting. So compared to how much care and attention was put into some of these areas, I can't say that like, oh, well, Brotherhood's Rome is better because it's more urban. This has much more inventive navigation and parkour implemented into it. And I hope I'm making sense about all of this. No, I think you are. I think you are. I think, too, yeah, I mean, Black Flag does Assassin's Creed very well, but it also does the world very well when you're in the jungles and then when you're on the sea, no matter which one you're doing, it's a lot of fun. The one mission where celebrating Blackbeard's retirement and at first, Edward has to kind of run through the jungle and then he has to race through the ships that are on fire to get to his ship. I actually, I think it's Blackbeard's ship or somebody's ship. It just feels good, but there's no, it's just continuous. You're running through the jungles and running through the fires and you're jumping on the ship and you're sailing and yeah, seamless. There we go. Lawson beat me to it. I was Lawson, I said it first. I do, yeah, I really do enjoy the, I certainly enjoy all the stuff on land, but yeah, Black Flag, the sailing in this game, it feels so good. You know, when you first start off and you're just fighting off in that little map area that has just the little teeny little ships and then the further away you get, the further as you explore on the map, then you're starting to fight the bigger ships and then the bigger ships. And then when you're finally, you know, you've got your jacked all leveled up enough and you start taking on the man of wars, you feel so good. You feel like, oh yeah, I can bring that ship on. I'm going to take that one down. I'm going to add that to my fleet. Welcome to the fleet. Yes, welcome to the Kenways fleet. One of the, I don't like the Kenway fleet, but we don't have to talk much about that. I think you're spot on, Tim, about how well realized and fully integrated all of the different evolutions of gameplay are in this game. Like, I think about it a lot when there's the whole debate where, you know, a lot of people who are fans of the modern Assassin's Creed games, they like to bring up the point that like, the games can't stay the same forever, man. They have to change over time. I think even though I'm sure people would disagree with me, Black Flag is a great example of how it can change in a way that still respects the core pillars and the core fantasy because 100%, I wouldn't have agreed with you before. I know the existence of the naval gameplay never invalidates the assassin stuff. It's just augmented. It's just a new way of engaging with those pillars. I completely agree with you. Putting you in combat situations, letting you parkour above the rigging of the ship while you're boarding. There's just a lot of ways that it fits naturally. Going into Odyssey and having stealth be as gimped as it is, someone might who loves of the game say that that's a change that they just had to do because they have to change to be good and not play the same game over and over again. But, you know, no one says that shit about Call of Duty. Like, it's shooting every year and people still buy it. Things like adding in new stuff, mechanics, or changing the combat system every game, or adding in a new parkour system. All of those things very much still promote or better the three pillars, as you were saying. Exactly. I think we as players are more okay with like, okay, there's a crouch button now. There being a crouch button doesn't make stealth. It doesn't invalidate it, but it also doesn't make, it doesn't like discourage you from using the system. And so there being a crouch button doesn't make you want to do stealth less. There being a parkour down system doesn't make you want to parkour less. There are things, examples of that, that do infringe on those things like completely lobotomizing parkour all together. And stealth. The reason why I now agree with you is because I think I realize about Black Flag, that navigation, the biggest shakeup of this game, I'd say, is the way it handles navigation, and it's still very respected. And it is put through the prism of Assassin's Creed. It's not like, hey, we've got a really cool pirate idea, and that's those assassins in it. I do now think it's the other way around. I was really excited about when they were reintroducing open world naval in Odyssey, because I've always felt like the idea of the system, that there's so much potential. Something I thought about, I had so much fun in the mission where you pilot the Mana War, and that was such a great experience. I would love a naval game that kind of gives you different modes of gameplay and different ships to use based on where you are and what ship you choose. That'd be great somewhere down the line. But let me go Mana War style in all of the different, make it work. But Odyssey, and I know Tim, you don't know this because you haven't played it. Odyssey is so, like, it's so extraneous. It's not tied to the fantasy or the role playing of the game in any way. It's just there. It's something you can do. You sometimes have to do it, but it's not the center of your world the way the Jackdaw is the center of your world. It's not thoughtfully integrated in the same way. Yeah, I see the Jackdaw as a character in Black Flag. I see the Jackdaw as something that Edward really can't live without. And you care about it as a player. When it's under attack, you're like, oh, fuck, not my Jackdaw. Don't, yeah, don't beat up my ship too much. But I just put it in, like, in Odyssey, not to, you know, not to talk down on Odyssey. You can't. It's okay. It's allowed. We do that for most of our episodes. But I never felt like that the ship was that important. You know, I never felt like, you know, if the ship sank, okay, I'll just find another way to get around whatever it is I need to do or... Fuck the address to you. It also helps that all the customization feels natural. Yeah. And so not once was I like, hey, you know, I don't like being able to put these sales on my Jackdaw. It all, it all felt natural to me. And I have my gripes with certain levels of customization. You're the only one who hates customization, dude. I think Black Flag does it pretty well. I do want to bring up like, you know, it's, it's not perfect that, you know, the, the naval focus and whatnot. Like for instance, I didn't feel like there was a lot of instances where I was being brought to the cities. Obviously there are main missions that take place in the cities, but I wish the cities were either more numerous or bigger. And this kind of comes into my, my main gripe with the game is I feel like Edward's switch to assassin comes way too late in the game. I disagree. It comes in, in like the last couple sequences. The whole time I was like, I can't wait for Edward to become an assassin because then I can actually like fully a hundred percent be in the fantasy of I'm Edward Kenway the assassin. Yeah. Like I couldn't wait for it, but you do assassinate things. You, the Italian diplom, a politician thing, like we were talking about it stealing his disguise and infiltrating the party. It's so subtle, but it's completely assassin's treat. And it felt so right in this game. And so the other side of the coin, one, I'm praising all of these things that the game did. It doesn't do enough of the assassin stuff that was so great towards the end there. Like some of the best assassination mission stuff is in this game, but it's at like the last bit of the game. I hear you. I think I respect that this game is like an assassin origin story more than an assassin game. It even does a better job of turning someone into an assassin than the one that's called origins. But I mean, I get that if that's what you're looking for, you may not get it, but there's enough assassinating, so to speak, that I never really felt like it's not like you're playing like the first half of AC three where you're not an assassin yet and you just, oh my God, can I hit the fast forward button so I can be an assassin finally because I feel so gimped without those abilities and weapons and costumes and stuff. I think at one point it's touched upon a little bit as to why Edward has or can do these assassinate things when he and James Kidd slash Mary Reed are running through the caves or through the, I don't even remember what they're running through. There's a stopping point where she asks him about his sense and why he can do this. And he's basically like, I've always been able to do it. And I appreciate that they put that in there so much earlier in the game because it does kind of add to why is Edward an assassin? Why can he do all these things? It's also one of the only games to handle the eagle sense in such a way. It's one of the only games that carries it all about making it make sense. Right, because it's not just like, oh, I can see through walls. It's like a full on like, it allows me to be more in tune with my surroundings, et cetera. It's also just kind of like not to be crude, but it's certainly like blue balls you when Edward's like, I have a long way to do I'm an actual assassin. It's like, well, what the fuck have I been doing this whole time? You know, it's like, I get it. Okay. So the game starts off and it's like, oh, wow. And you know, the assassins is pretty dope. And then it just disappears for a while. So you're dealing with Templar is pretty much the whole game, but you're not dealing with a whole lot of assassins and the assassins are almost nonexistent in this game for the middle portion of it. Ah, to buy. I think I'm saying it right. He's hardly a character. Okay. Yeah, that's fair. You bet you get most of your assassin perspective from from James slash Mary, who's a great character. Just having one, one assassin liaison. That's at least out of Wally later in the game. He's like, join the assassins, brother. No, and I do think that's cool. It's just like, it feels like the game's like, you know, it's like slowly climbing that assassin mountain and then seven sequences go by and you're, you know, you've, you've taken a detour and you're back up the mountain again to kind of like jingle, you know, your keys in front of you like, hey, Edwards being an assassin, he's doing, he's doing assassinated things. He's disguising himself and killing people and he's following the creed. They also don't mention the tenants whatsoever in this game. That's not true even a little bit. What are you talking about? They don't, they don't mention the tenants at all. There are two deep conversations about the tenants that show Edwards progression. No, about nothing is true. Everything is permitted. Not about the tenants. That is one of the tenants. That's not, no, that's the maximum. That's not the tenant. It is one of the tenants. Yeah. The tenants are the flesh of the innocent. Hide in plain sight. Never compromise. Hide in plain sight. Never. Yeah. Okay, you're right. They never talk about those. You're right. I'm wrong. I'm sorry. But okay, let me just, let me just ignore the stupid thing I just said and committed to really hard. Come and get your tenants. I'm going to put in some, I'm going to put in some Travis Scott ad libs under this section. No, but I want to give them some credit. I think I understand what you're saying like, I think what you want, what you're desperate for is you want in the end, a tabai to be like, Edward, you are a good assassin and then he puts assassin robes on him and gives him some cool shit and he's like, thank you for being a good assassin. Except the thing is, he kind of fucked the assassins in the ass repeatedly during the game and the fact that he won't be accepted immediately and given a cool title and given a cool robe is like part of what makes his commitment in the end significant. It's the idea that he's going to, he's going to say there and he's going to say, look, I know I have a long road ahead of me before I earn your trust and this responsibility, but I'm going to do it anyway because it's the right thing to do. I feel like that would be cheap and slightly if in the end, he got the cool shit already and there was nothing to work up towards. Like if, if we show him being initiated at the end, I mean that could have been, that could have been fine. It could have been good. It just, I like better the idea that, that it's not that simple and that Edward still has a lot of work to do because I think that makes the commitment stronger. I don't want him to like be knighted in, you know, at the end. I like that he is having a long road to climb, but I still think though that like, like for instance him putting the assassin insignia on a ship, like there's a lot of things that are assassin adjacent and I get that he's not like a fully fledged like an assassin, you know, but I ought to buy makes plenty of exceptions throughout the game of like giving him hidden blades and giving him his robes back and stuff. Like I know you guys are going to disagree with me on this, but I feel like just Mary Reed passing just terrible. I that being the catalyst for him to join the assassins. I needed more. It's not the cat. It's not just the catalyst for him joining the assassins. He that that's his whole reason. He's like, I need to do right by her. He gets screwed over and betrayed, but I think that's one reason, but I think that the bigger thing is that he has now realized that the lifestyle of piracy, it's it's untenable and that his commitment to greedy pursuits has cost him everyone who's ever been important to him. It's not just Mary. His whole group of homies is now dead, right? Like yeah, just because he says I want to do right by her doesn't mean that's the only reason he's joining them. I agree with you that that's what the reason is, but it didn't really do do it for me. And conveying that just giving him a little dream sequence of all of his friends being pissed off at him and him needing to get his shit together. That was amazing. Like it's just one instance though. It's like it's like night and day. Bam. Now now I need to go join the assassins. It's like there's well, yeah, there's probably a little difference between losing everything and losing most things. I think the the the assassination of Ben Harnagold is also a really big point for Edward. He really looked up to Ben Harnagold and, you know, Ben showed him the ropes showed him how to do all this pirate stuff. And then when Ben basically betrays them and, you know, turns Templar and whatever, it's really hard for Edward. It's really hard on he takes that betrayal. She speaks the truth, Timothy. I I'm not disagreeing that these things happened. They just don't they just didn't like stick the landing for me. Have you considered that you're wrong and also stupid? Because normally I respect your opinions, but this is an opinion I have no respect for. I like I like it. It's good, but it just doesn't like it doesn't stick the landing. It doesn't get there 100% for me. Like Edward's like, OK, well now that now that she died, I guess I'll join you guys. Like fuck, you know, it's just like they're there may not be a single worst take in any previous episode of Hookblade than what I'm currently hearing right now. Oh, no. Wolf, you've witnessed history. The worst take. Tim is capable. Hi, I'm I'm right here. I'm hearing it. I'm hearing it. Do you completely disagree with me? Do you see at all what I'm saying? I I I don't agree that Mary's death was the sole reason why he finally decided to to join the assassins. No, there was a lot of things leading up to that. Yeah, the whole game you're seeing, you know, I've said it before on the subreddit and a number of times were basically on this journey with Edward. We see him go from being this rather selfish person and it's not so much that he was selfish that he wanted to keep all the gold for himself, but he did want to be rich so he could, you know, he kept saying so he could have a better life. So, you know, he could take care of of his wife. That's it starts out as I need to make enough money for me and my family, but then later she left him already. He's not doing it for his family. He's doing it for himself. That's the point. He is doing it for himself. Right. Yeah, I'm just saying like he already starts out as kind of a deplorable person. Sure. He's not like well intentioned. He does. Yeah, he does. He's selfish at the beginning, which is fine. I'm not saying that's the problem. I'm just saying it's not like he's like he's not thinking about his making money for his family when he's running off. I do think though it's important to note that like he wants he wants riches and glory for everyone around him, not just himself. Like he's committed to the idea of Nassau as this as this experiment and as this opportunity for for these people that he's not he's not the kind of guy right who would like screw over Blackbeard or screw over Ben or anyone else. Yeah, yeah. That's I think that was more what maybe Wolf was saying about like it's not just for himself, but it is the ego driven not to speak for you Wolf if I'm misinterpreting. No, no, it's fine. But it is not to Wolf's plan. It's just it's a what's the word? It's a personal thing. It's an ego driven thing that he wants the riches in a sense because it's his own insecurities about his own place in life. I mean, we get that from the beginning with Carolyn Caroline Caroline telling him repeatedly. I might not enough for you like I I'm not judging you for being a poor broke ass son of a bitch. You're judging yourself dog. I digress for me anyway. The beauty of the story is watching this man just just his the growth throughout the whole story. And you know at first when when Mary is explaining to him about you know nothing is true and everything is permitted Edwards like oh yeah, bring it on. I want it all if everything's ready. I just you know give it. I'm going to take it. I'm going to take everything I can get. But then by the end you know towards the end of the game he realizes you know he even says to to add a wall a you know there's there's nobody left there's you know I'm I'm all alone here basically and he's he's realized that his life is so much better and I think that's reason why I like Mary Reid so much because she saw the potential in him. She saw the good in him when he didn't see that in himself. Yeah, you know I said at the very beginning of this it's the it's the story of Black Flag that that I that I love the most. I agree that that's the intention. Oh don't don't get me started with this shit Timothy. Come on. You're going to say that they did not execute that goal perfectly flawlessly beautifully. Yes, that's yeah. Yes, yes, yes. So your your heart doesn't break when you hear the parting glass or all the money. Not even a letter. You have a stone. You don't tear up when he kneels in front of his daughter and gives her a flower. You don't cry like a little kids. Oh, who cares? Guys, this podcast has been fun. We're not coming back next week. Tim and I have some irreconcilable differences creative direction. It's just it's not going to work. I completely appreciate like you're using the story. I just the entire time I'm like, this is great. I love this is excellent. You know, like my favorite line in the game is you made a soldier out of a scoundrel. I'm a I'm in a world without here in a world without gold. We might have been heroes in a world without heroes. We may have been gold in a world without heroes. We might have been Assassin's Creed gold available now on audible originals. It's just nice segue. It just didn't do it for me. It didn't it didn't set the landing. I want to see so much hate mail in the comments directed specifically at Tim. You guys have no idea. It would make my day bump up to it. Look, it's better than Brotherhood story. If you all commented that Tim is a dumb stupid idiot. It's better than Brotherhood story. Am I being too mean or are you okay? I don't want to hurt your feelings, Tim. I'll be leaving a comment. It's look. It's just the whole like parting glass thing. It's like half of those people aren't even my friends. Why are you showing me them and this flash and this vision? Like I did. I did laugh a little at Jack Rackham looking wistfully into the camera because like he betrayed me. He left me for dead. He mutinied my ass and literally and you can go and talk to Jack and not talk to him, but you can go look at his corpse and be like, you always made me laugh. Did you forget that he let he left you to die? He always made you laugh. Oh, when you almost died because of him. Oh man, I can't argue with that. I mean, putting him on a direct collision course with all of the people like there are there is a pretty high number of his friends that he directly does kill like Ben Hornigold, Charles Vane. Charles Vane doesn't die. He doesn't. He lets him live. He lets him live and then you see him later in the prison. Oh, you know that I always forgot to do where you also see Jack Rackham in the same prison. Every time it says on the optional objective like go see two of your friends, I always think wait, it wants me to talk to Mary and Anne and then I get to that part and then I see that I've filled that objective and I'm like, I didn't know I had any other friends in this prison. When you're walking around the prison, you can actually hear Charles Vane singing. He's singing the down among the dead song. We've we've established many times on on this podcast that I'm not a smart man and this is just one of those things that the truth. Maybe not smart, but maybe not observant. I wouldn't say smart. You are smart. I'm like flattered and also not because you just made my own self-burn more specific. So it's slightly realer now, but at the same time, you know, I can still be smart. Yeah, it's like, it's like if she was like, yeah, you are, you know, you are smart. You're just like, which would also be true. Um, but we don't have to talk about that. Oh, that's why it's not a video podcast. You almost beat Greg in the sexiest man of a, yeah, maybe in 2015, brother. Greg's Greg's our friend blue, by the way. You should check out our episode with him. You haven't the dear listeners. So we've learned a lot on this podcast. We learned what White Wolf Whisper's voice sounds like. We've learned how deeply wrong Tim can be about a thing. And but like with Edward and his merry band of pirate friends, not everything good can last. And so unfortunately we must part in glass or something. I don't know. As always, guys, there are a number of ways you can support the show if you enjoy listening to it. If you're listening on YouTube, we appreciate it quite a bit if you subscribe, like, comment and click the bell so you can be notified of new episodes. If you're not listening on YouTube, you're dead to us. Just kidding. We love you. You can reach us on Twitter at hookblade with any questions, concerns, hate mail or praise mail. Wolfie, you can find on the Assassin's Creed subreddit as White Wolf whispers on the Assassin's Creed subreddit discord as White Wolf whispers and on the Assassin's Creed sisterhood discord as White Wolf whispers. And she is the queen of all of those domains. Before we go, I just really want to tell you guys, thank you so much for letting me do this. Ah, thank you for joining us. It's been great. Your comments keep us going every single week. Anytime we have doubt about do we really want to keep doing this? We go, but Wolfie would be so sad if we didn't keep. I would be so sad. Oh, no. Also, before we go, I just want to tell both of you guys. Congratulations. I know it's on last week's podcast. You're over 400 subscribers now. You guys are doing well. We did not tell her to say that. It has been so much fun. Wolf, thank you for joining us. Thank you. We had a great time. Thank you so much. I've been the blade. I've been the hook. And I'm the elegant design. And we will see you next week. What's the word? It doesn't, um, what's the word? Damn it. It doesn't, um, shoot. What's the goddamn word? It doesn't, um, come and get your tenants.