Even the shark / whale hunting is feels different and satisfying every time you climb into the Jackdaw’s fishing boat.

While grabbing all the Animus shards is a teeth-grinding exercise in compulsive ‘stuff collection’, the Assassin contracts and Templar hunts offer refreshingly creative breaks from the core story. Side missions themselves are a mixed bags of quality. Oh, have you stopped singing? I didn’t tell you to stop did I? No. I feel a definite sense of serenity as I chop across the ocean with my crew singing sea shanties, and pointing out areas of interest. Again, though, because the world is such a pleasant, yet unpredictable place to be thanks to random weather changes, getting to these collectables is half the fun. Most of the other collectables just appear on your map, which means that finding them requires time, rather than actual skill or smarts. So, the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions are technically fantastic-they push the respective hardware to their limits. There’s a loss of vibrancy in the textures, so PS3’s lush jungles and azure seas aren’t quite as deep and colourful, and the environments don’t feel as alive because the detailed foliage effects are exclusive to next-gen. On current-gen the game looks beautiful, and even the amazing wave effects are comparable across formats. I played through AC4 on PS4, but had a chance to try the final PS3/360 versions.

Assassins creed black flag mini games