Swimming in the Seine in Assassin's Creed Unity (Time Lapse)

Figured I'd revisit this game since I missed swimming the Seine river in Paris.

I'm done.

Assassin's Creed Origins // Scenery Time Lapse

Time lapse of various locations throughout Ancient Egypt in Assassin's Creed Origins.

I'm done.

Crouch Walking Across Egypt in Assassin's Creed Origins (Time Lapse)

The original recording of this feat happened in earlier in the year. While I was deleting files to recover more space in my hard drive, I ended up deleting the clips before I could edit. So I had to re-record the whole crouch walking feat again.

The route is similar to most of the routes I took for horse riding (northwest to southeast of the Egypt map). I made two edits in the middle of the run to turn off subtitles and to reset a route when I went inside a dead end instead of following the usual route. Another change I made is try not to move the camera as much and keep the destination cursor visible in the center and static. That makes it prettier in the timelapse video.

This is the longest of all routes in my Assassin's Creed videos so far, but only about 5 minutes longer than the sum of all strolling (walking) maps from Assassin's Creed II. If I were playing on PC and set the slow walking option instead of sprinting, this would exceed over 2 hours. I'm not sure if I'll do a video for Assassin's Creed Odyssey, though. That game is huge. The biggest hurdle is the numerous islands. There's more stuff to do in each islands compared to past games. We'll see if I have time.

I'm done.

Riding Across Egypt in Assassin's Creed Origins: War Chariot Edition (Time Lapse)

I'm riding the two-horse drawn war chariot across Egypt from one point(northwest) to the other (southeast). This is the fastest means of traveling in the game with drifting for quick turns. I had to be careful with huge jumps. Unlike horses and camels in Discovery Tour mode, war chariots break easily with falls and high impact.

Unlike the main game, you can't just whistle and call war chariots in Discovery Tour mode. It's mostly a chance encounter with Roman soldiers. Then you have to follow them around until they stop and get off the chariot so you can use it. There are two towns near the northwest portion of the game where you can find war chariots. Once I gain control of them, I had to drive them back to my starting point. They're about the same speed as the eagle flight.

I'm done.

Riding Across Egypt in Assassin's Creed Origins: Cattle Wagon Edition (Time Lapse)

Throughout the game world, there are NPC farmers riding cattle wagons with leaves and other types of plant debris. I think some of these are used in random missions, but they're mostly for show and for NPC to go about their routine. You can hide in the plant debris. They are also slower than running. They don't spawn by whistling like a horse, camel, or war chariot, but they are rideable. Since I'm in Discovery Tour mode, I have to track them near farmland in order to do this task.

I'm riding the cattle wagon across Egypt from one point(northwest) to the other (southeast). It starts out in the same path as the horse and camel ride, but changes in the middle going around the mountains from the right side. I end up back back in Faiyum Oasis. I had to be very careful not to fall and tip the wagon. Unlike horses and camels in Discovery Tour mode, wagons break and the cattle are not invincible.

I'm done.

Riding Across Egypt in Assassin's Creed Origins: Camelback Edition (Time Lapse)

I'm riding a camel across Egypt from one point(northwest) to the other (southeast). This is close to the same path that I took with the horse with a slight alternate route about two-thirds of the way. Since I'm in the Discovery Tour mode like my other videos, there are no deaths or enemy/animal fight encounters.

I'm done.

Boating from the Nile to Faiyum in Assassin's Creed Origins (Time Lapse)

Using a boat made of reeds, I traveled from the top of the Nile where it meets the Mediterranean all the way the down south to the embankments and shallow passages leading to Faiyum Oasis. The reed boats are significantly slower than the Felucca sail boats. They are comparable in speed to swimming.

I'm done.

Swimming in the Mediterranean Sea in Assassin's Creed Origins (Time Lapse)

Back to playing as Bayek, I'm swimming from east to west of the Mediterranean Sea (Great Green Sea and Mesogeios Sea). Even on Discovery Tour mode, the NPCs on sail boats will always sail towards you thinking you're drowning. The only way to complete most of this is by swimming underwater in Tour Mode (no deaths). The swim speed is about the same, but I didn't really test it.

I'm done.

Sailing Through the Mediterranean in Assassin's Creed Origins (Time Lapse)

Playing as Cleopatra (using Discovery Tour), I'm sailing from west to east of the Mediterranean Sea (Great Green Sea and Mesogeios Sea) on a Felucca sail boat.

I'm done.

Sprinting Across Egypt in Assassin's Creed Origins (Time Lapse)

Playing as Aya, I'm sprinting across Egypt from one point (southeast) to the other (northwest). This is the opposite direction as the route I took riding a horse. The console version of Origins removed the "sprint" button and incorporated both walking/running with the left analog stick. Since I can't do a consistent walk animation, there won't be a walking across Egypt video. I avoid water as much as possible, but it's fine here.

Warning:
Due to YouTube re-encoding the videos to their specs in a lower bitrate, you will see a lot of pixelations in 60 frames per second videos in any fast moving scenes. It's too bad because the original video looks really good on my system.

I'm done.

Riding Across Egypt in Assassin's Creed Origins: Horseback Edition (Time Lapse)

Assassin's Creed Origins is a big departure for the series with an expanded world and new gameplay mechanic that focuses on RPG elements and more action instead of the tailing and stealth missions in previous games. Fans are divided, but everyone can agree that this is a beautiful game.

Set in Ancient Egypt, you play as Bayek, the last of the Medjay from the Ptolemaic Kingdom as he searches for the people responsible for the murder of his son. His wife, Aya, works with Cleopatra to take back the Ptolemaic Kingdom and investigate the mysterious masked men from the Order of Ancients.

Playing as Aya, I'm riding a horse across Egypt from one point(northwest) to the other (southeast). I believe this is the longest straight path of the map from the northwest to southeast. I avoid water since the horse riding animation ends. Note that horses slow down to half their top speed when they are near/inside towns or cities. A small section has me going through Cyrene so I slowed down the time to half speed as well. It's not really an accurate estimate, but I basically lose about 30 seconds. With Senu's flight speed, an unimpeded straight horse ride is probably faster.

I'm done.

Final Fantasy XV - A Playthrough

I know I basically lambasted this game in my review and I didn't really expect much. However, I'm still going to finish this game for reasons. I've been playing most RPGs with a guide in hand to help me along the way. When it comes to JRPGs or just huge open world games like Fallout 3 or the Assassin's Creed games, I've got a strategy guide on the ready to get all the collectibles and game objectives for perfect playthrough. Back in the late 90s and 2000s, I used to buy strategy guides. Now with a really fast Internet and more developed online presence, there's really no reason to buy strategy guides when you have a gaming community contributing strategies for the game for free.

That said, I've been pretty relaxed with Final Fantasy XV. I'm treating this unlike any of the Final Fantasy games i've played before. I'm going about it my way like a sandbox game. Maybe that's how Squeenix designed it: to be a Final Fantasy game that is not as rigid and linear as past games.

Anywho, I've been doing side quests for the most part of my current 35+ hour playthrough. Actual game time is probably closer to 30+ actual hours of gaming. I'm still on Chapter 3 of the main story and already pretty high level. I logged in close to 12 hours of progress between Saturday and Sunday night this past weekend when tragedy happened: I accidentally overwrote my current save data with an older one.

Balouve Mines

The following day, I checked what quests I had to redo. They're not much, but they're still a pain to do with driving, running, riding a chocobo to the destination and fulfilling the quest. Prior to tackling these quests again, I remembered the various treasure spawn points in the game that I've come a cross. Some of them hold key items for fetch quests to upgrading weapons.

The in-game map is filled with icons from information supplied by chefs and cooks in the game (they not only cook you food, but they hand out hunting quests and provide info about the immediate area about active quests, treasure, parking and pitstops, or item spawn points).

So while I'm redoing these quests, I'm also scouring the area for these spawn points to activate scripted events that I may not know of (like photo op quests to take photos of scenic views with the gang). One of the treasure locations is near an abandoned train track which I encountered earlier in the game in Chapter 1. I thought it was just a backdrop with nothing of value. I decided to follow the train track and it lead me to an abandoned mine. These function as dungeons in the game and hold the royal weapons that your main character must collect to help in his battle in reclaiming the thrown of Insomnia and bring back the crystal (because it's not a Final Fantasy game if the crystal is not in danger).

It turned out to be a high level dungeon with very low level minions (goblins that push mine carts your way for damage) and a high level samurai like boss. I beat it and recovered a royal weapon (a cross bow). This was not marked on the map so finding it by accident was a really nice experience.

Castlemark Tower

There's a photo quest that I had to redo about taking a photo of an ancient royal burial site/tomb. When I finished this quest in my lost save data, the site was ransacked with a note from the Hunting HQ people in the game saying the weapon was stolen by daemons and brought to Castlemark. I didn't know what it means so I just ignored it for now. I figured I'd run into it again later in the game when I've unlocked more features like summoning gods.

(Note: Daemons are creatures of the night which are mostly high level and more dangerous than creatures during the day. The lore of the game is that there's an unknown malady causing longer nights for the world of Eos and daemons rule the dark)

In my quest of redoing these quests, I was trying to catch some fish with the main character and realized a map location which I went through last week to hunt a monster that only appears at night. There's a circular structure in the area, so I decided to go over there with my chocobo in daylight. It turns out be an abandoned castle and was, in fact, Castlemark Tower. The game map updates it as a dungeon location, but there is no entrance to go inside. I remembered the message from that ransacked tomb about daemons. Since daemons only appear at night, I waited at a local camping ground (save points and camping in the game where it tallies all the experience points you accumulated and levels you up, including your skills). At night time, I went back to Castlemark Tower and some of the walls and floors are illuminated. The entrance is also now open and I was right that it only opens at night.

This dungeon has some seriously high level enemies, confusing layout, and moving wall blocks. The final boss is a dragon (Jabberwock). Beating it netted me a greatsword from the past king whose tomb was ransacked.

So what do all of these have in common? Despite not progressing the main story, I'm actually enjoying the side quests and random/surprise encounter in the game. Final Fantasy XV is very different from past Final Fantasy games. I was really used to the rigid linear storytelling. I was also used to knowing what would happen next with a strategy guide, but playing this game blindfolded, in a way, has been refreshing.

I'm going to continue exploring every inch of the map that I can get to, hoping for more surprise encounters like the Balouve Mines and Castlemark Tower again.

I'm done.

Flying Across Egypt in Assassin's Creed Origins (Time Lapse)

Assassin's Creed Origins is a big departure for the series with an expanded world and new gameplay mechanic that focuses on RPG elements and more action instead of the tailing and stealth missions in previous games. Fans are divided, but everyone can agree that this is a beautiful game.

Set in Ancient Egypt, you play as Bayek, the last of the Medjay from the Ptolemaic Kingdom as he searches for the people responsible for the murder of his son. His wife, Aya, works with Cleopatra to take back the Ptolemaic Kingdom and investigate the mysterious masked men from the Order of Ancients.

In this video, I'm using Senu, Bayek's eagle companion, to fly across Egypt from one point to the other. I believe this is the longest straight path of the map from the northwest to southeast.

I'm done.

Why Are There No Elise or Evie Frye Assassin's Creed McFarlane Action Figures?

In February 2013, McFarlane Toys announced teaming up with Ubisoft for a new Assassin's Creed (AC) action figure line. The following is a listing of all the AC action figures released so far (It appears they stopped the line in 2015. Ubisoft took a break and did not release a game in 2016):

Series 1

• AC III
• Connor (main outfit) 
• Connor (New York Outfit) (Walgreens Exclusive)
• Haytham Kenway
• Ratonhnhaké:ton (Conor's real name with outfit from the DLC)
• AC IV: Black Flag
• Edward Kenway
• Benjamin Hornigold
• Black Bart (Amazon Exclusive)
• Black Beard (Gamestop Exclusive)
• Golden Age of Piracy (3 in 1 package with Black Bart, Black Beard, and Benjamin Hornigold) (Walmart Exclusive)

Series 2

• Connor (Mohawk) [AC III]
• Aveline De Grandpre [AC III: Liberation]
• Adewale [AC IV: Black Flag]

Series 3

• Altair Ibn-La'Ahad [Assassin's Creed]
• Ezio Auditore Da Firenze [AC: Revelations]
• Edward Kenway (Mayan Outfit) (Target Exclusive) [AC IV:Black Flag]
• Ah Tabai (Walgreens Exclusive) [AC IV: Black Flag]
• Arno Dorian [AC Unity]

Series 4

• Arno Dorian (Exclusive McFarlane designed outfit) [AC Unity]
• Arno Dorian (Eagle Vision) [AC Unity]
• Shay Cormac [AC Rogue]
• Jacob Frye (Gamestop Exclusive) [AC Syndicate]

Series 5

• Connor (Revolutionary red/white/blue outfit) [AC III]
• Ezio Auditore Da Firenze (Il Tricolore outfit) [AC Revelations]
• Jacob Frye (Union outfit) [AC Syndicate]

Despite having significant importance or being a main character in their respective games, Elise and Evie Frye did not get their own action figures from this toy line.

One could argue that this line consist only of the main characters, but most of the pirates only worked with Edward Kenway. The same with Ah Tabai. We only talk to him a few times in Black Flag and I don't get why he got his own action figure. What about Anne Bonny or James Kidd? They were pirates and definitely more significant to the game's story than Ah Tabai. Why not have Elise or Evie, who are main characters in the game?

One could say they only wanted to feature assassins and not the villains. Then why do they have Haytham Kenway? What about Shay Cormac (Assassin turned Templar headlining his own game)? Elise was the daughter of a Templar and was a Templar herself. Arno was raised by a Templar (Elise's father) after Arno's father was murdered by a Templar. Assassin's Creed Unity's story was a turning point in the series, showing the gray areas of the battle between Assassins and Templars. The cooler heads of Arno and Elise's fathers was working together for the good of the people. But then factions within the Assassins and Templar orders did not want them working together. But I digress.

I feel that they should have had people who know the Assassin's Creed games, gotten their input on which characters are relatable, and released the action figures for them.

I'm done.

Boating on the Thames // Assassin's Creed Syndicate (Time Lapse)

This was a bit hard to accomplish. Most of the boats traveling in the Thames in the game will make a pitstop at various locations as part of scripted events. It took several tries to find one that kept going from one end of the river to the other well past the desynchronization borders. Starting point at the bottom end between Westminster and Lambert towards upper end between City of London and Southwark.

I'm done.

Swimming in the Thames // Assassin's Creed Syndicate (Time Lapse)

I didn't do a swimming video for Assassin's Creed Unity (maybe after these, but probably not). For Assassin's Creed Syndicate, we're swimming the busy Thames River. During the Industrial Revolution, the river was used to carry cargo in and out of the river as well as ferry boats. Starting point at the bottom end between Westminster and Lambert towards upper end between City of London and Southwark.

I'm done.

Crouch Walking Through Assassin's Creed Syndicate (Time Lapse)

In Assassin's Creed Unity, I made a similar video and called it "duck walking." While duck walking is an actual exercise thing, the animations in the game looks more like crouch walking. Here's Evie crouch walking across London.

I'm done.

Strolling Through Assassin's Creed Syndicate (Time Lapse)

Flipped the script this time, using the same points, but strolling or walking starting from the right side towards the left.

I'm done.

Sprinting Through Assassin's Creed Syndicate (Time Lapse)

It's me playing Evie, sprinting from the southwest end of Westminster towards the northeast end between Whitechapel and City of London.

I'm done.

Driving Through Assassin's Creed Syndicate (Time Lapse)

Victorian era London in Assassin's Creed Syndicate is roughly twice as big as Paris from Assassin's Creed Unity. You get to explore 7 boroughs (Whitechapel, City of London, Southwark, Lambeth, Strand, Thames River, and Westminster), plus a time anomaly to World War 1. The streets are full of horse drawn carriages and interconnected train routes throughout London. The Thames river is full of boats and barges.

The longest path on the map I could find is on the southwest end of Westminster to the northeast end between Whitechapel and City of London. For driving, I chose the Rook's carriage (a Coupe model) that fits 6 people including the driver. It makes for quick trips that rival train speeds.

I'm done.