Assassin's Creed III

THE BUZZ: Ubisoft is aiming to make Assassin’s Creed III look next-gen on current generation consoles, with the help of its new AnvilNext engine.

The game, which saw its first trailer release yesterday, is powered by the AnvilNext engine which the publisher describes as ”a revolutionary new game engine” that is capable of rendering thousand-man battles. The team has been working on this engine since Assassin’s Creed II.

“It’s a scary thing to say, but I think the goal was to look next-gen on current-gen,” creative director Alex Hutchinson told Game Informer.

He also mentioned that the team is trying to reach new fans with Assassin’s Creed III while keeping factors that old fans will love also:

“We have this goal to do something completely new, but still remain true to the franchise,” he said. “People want that familiarity, but also something radically new. So we have the familiar pillars of fighting, navigation, and social stealth, but brand new environments and brand new ways to use them and extend them.”

EGM’s TAKE: Improving current-gen graphics is a tall order, with many developers already maxing out what the consoles can do. However, if anyone can pull it off it’s the Assassin’s Creed team who always deliver top visual quality. We’re looking forward to seeing more of how the game will handle in this new setting. We’re guessing that the snow will play an important part in sneaking around.