The developers behind the Assassin's Creed series have always been proud of how much effort they put into maintaining a thin veil of historical accuracy. That's most evident in the settings, from Revolution-era Boston to the Holy Land during the Crusades, where that veneer of accuracy goes much deeper. But it's there in the plot, as well, despite the presence of deific holograms and a secret order of superhero Assassins.

The large-scale battles in Assassin's Creed 3 are certainly based in reality. Maybe there really was a lone, robed figure infiltrating those battlefields and taking out officers. Maybe that guy that Connor killed in whatever sequence really died of mysterious causes around that place and time. Maybe.

The point is I was surprised when Ubisoft announced that the first expansion for AC 3, "The Tyranny of King Washington," would throw all of that out the window. Instead of basing the new narrative on actual historical events, they'd create an alternate version where George Washington became a tyrannical king with a supernatural scepter, with figures like Benedict Arnold cast as his evil underlings. They weren't just augmenting history; they were altering historical facts in service to the game, and as far as I knew, this was the first time they had done this. At least it was the first time they had done it so blatantly, and it was a huge departure from their normal attitude.

When I spoke with the DLC's mission director, Ubisoft Quebec's Hugo Giard, I suggested that it must have been cathartic to not be constrained by the realities of history when developing "The Tyranny of King Washington."

"It was a blast," he replied. "During pre-production, imagining new scenarios for each of these characters, whether they be this time good guys or bad guys or whatever, all of that was a lot of fun to do." He said just like in the main Assassin's Creed games, real historical figures provided "a jumping-off point." But without the need to research and consider trivia like who died at what battle, they were able to take the creative license much further than the teams behind the main games can.

"Once we jumped in there, I mean, as storytellers and as mission designers we were free to come up with any ideas that we wanted to," he said. "We could explore, you know, we could go crazy!"

The "crazy" definitely came through. So far only "The Infamy," the first of the DLC's three parts has been released, but it includes hallucinogenic tea leaves, a Crysis-style cloaking mechanic, packs of spirit wolves with deadly jaws, and an extraordinarily evil George Washington. He's even got the Apple of Eden, an important relic in Assassin's Creed lore, and he's using it to manipulate reality.

None of that would have been possible if Giard and his team at Ubisoft's Quebec Studio had had been limited by the rules of fiction grounded in history, as opposed to the fictionalized history that "Tyranny" is.

Including the Apple was important to Giard because of an image in Assassin's Creed 2 that briefly shows Washington holding the artifact. Never mind that Washington never came near it in the main Assassin's Creed 3 storyline. In fact, I'd guess that was one of the main reasons for "Tyranny" to go off on this unreality tangent to begin with—hardcore fans would have no doubt started a whitehouse.gov petition if the series had moved on without Washington ever holding the Apple himself.

"When we started working on the DLC we knew we wanted to bring something new and fresh to the gameplay," Giard said. Becoming invisible definitely accomplishes that, and the upcoming two chapters will add "bear might" and "eagle flight" powers to complement Connor's new "wolf cloak." But I think the real triumph is the degree to which Ubisoft is getting comfortable manipulating history to suit its own narratives.

Via GamesRadar, this is the leaked first trailer for Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag.

In the trailer, a grizzled pirate describes Captain (and assassin) Edward Kenway.

"There was a time I thought myself the deadliest scourge of these seas," the pirate says. "But this man..."

We then see Kenway hacking, slashing, and doing his assassin thing. The trailer ends on a silhouette of Kenway.

At the end of the trailer, we see a slide saying Assassin's Creed IV will be out October 29 and that it's "also coming on next-gen consoles." Logos on the bottom: PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Wii U, PC.

UPDATE: The trailer has been taken down. Here's the pertinent screencap:

We'll have more on Assassin's Creed IV this Monday.

So Ubisoft officially confirmed Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag today. If you're a weirdo like me, then you weren't spending the majority of your time speculating on the gameplay or setting, but instead were wondering what level of involvement the American hardcore band Black Flag had in the process.

The answer is none. I'm pretty sure the main protagonist is not going to be voiced by former Black Flag lead singer Henry Rollins. I'm almost positive artist Raymond Pettibon will not be doing any of the promotional art. I'm practically certain that the announcement trailer will not be set to the song Rise Above and that there will not be a side-quest where you have to get Robo a six pack. These are things I'm 99.9 percent sure about.

But c'mon guys, wouldn't it would be pretty cool?

Look: I know I have a history of doing hardcore and gaming crossover Photoshops before. I realize this is territory we've gone over before in a much broader context, but let's break out the Photoshop one more time and make some crossover art that the early-80's Hardcore scene would be proud of.

Post your results in the comments.

The worst-kept secret in gaming is no longer "secret," as Ubisoft has revealed the cover art for the next Assassin's Creed, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. The game stars a new pirate assassin and turns its focus to the Caribbean, mixing open-ended ship-based exploration and combat with land-based adventures on a number of Caribbean islands.

The fact that this year's AC would be Black Flag—and that it would be more of a nautical adventure—was becoming more and more clear on Tuesday, as a poster leaked to Kotaku, showing both the new character on its front and the game's map on the back.

But let's drop the pretense of "breaking news" for a moment and let me level with you, folks. I was shown Black Flag this past Monday. I already knew this was the new game even prior to us running those two poster images. As is standard, I'd not informed my reporting team about most of the game's details, freeing them to react genuinely if anything came up.

On Monday, I had talked to two of the game's creators, saw a presentation on the game and some video footage. As is common with seeing games early, I signed an embargo agreeing not to talk about what I'd seen and been told—in this case for a full week, up until noon Eastern on March 4.

The advantage of an embargo is that it allows the people showing a game to present something in an unhurried manner and allows the reporter to take time to compose their thoughts. Some embargoes are signed documents; others are verbal agreements. They're not unique to corporate game publishers (plenty of indies request holding coverage until a certain date, though typically only verbally), and they're not unique to covering games. That said, the severe disadvantage of embargoes is that they put us in the position we found ourselves in on Tuesday, a day after I saw ACIV, of not being able to speak freely to you, the reader about material we're publishing.

By Tuesday, as anonymous tipsters began to send us the images of the front and back of a poster that none of us had seen in person—but that squared with the game I'd been shown—we faced a conundrum: 1) refrain from publishing what we knew were valid tips that would be of interest to our readers, thus failing to honor our commitment to informing our readers about compelling news, 2) play dumb and publish, while pretending we didn't know the images were probably real, thus intentionally misleading you, the reader, 3) potentially tick off Ubisoft to whom I gave my word we'd hold off on covering the details of my briefing until March 4—a date that began to seem like it was tied into a pre-order incentive.

In both instances on Tuesday involving those poster images, the instinct to inform you, the reader, won out. Cynics will say that the instinct to get pageviews is simply what won out, but that is inherently intertwined with a sense that it is anathema for a news outlet to ignore compelling news tips—for a week, no less.

It is reasonable for the creators of any video game to ask that their new baby be kept under wraps for a time and to ask for such an agreement from the reporters to whom they show it. But it is maddening to not be able to level with you guys and gals; it is unacceptable for us to sit on news tips sent to us independently; and it is nauseating to recognize that this situation was partially of our own making. Some may say that the simple solution is to refrain from signing future embargoes, but, as I wrote above, verbal agreements are common on this beat and often are simply a matter of courtesy—the price for seeing something rough-edged a bit early. In the future, we can be more clear with those who show us games that we will run tips that are clearly sent to us independently and that, if and when we do, we will have to be able to more clearly acknowledge their veracity.

We will never leak information ourselves, but we can't sit around and fail to report when information starts leaking. If that spites us some access, so be it. I don't want Kotaku readers waking up on any future March 4ths feeling they were misled by our site. We worked hard to not seem like we were playing dumb in our AC IV posts this week, but that doesn't feel like it was enough.

So, yes, look for more AC IV coverage from me on Monday. I still feel I should honor my agreement to not divulge the many, many things that were shown to me about the game that haven't leaked. But, rest assured, we'll do everything we can to make sure this kind of awkward situation doesn't happen again.

The odds should've been against Assassin's Creed III: Liberation. It starred a woman—specifically the half-black, half-French heroine Aveline du Grandpre. And it was an exclusive on the PlayStation Vita, a system that many people see as a sadly under-supported platform.

But Liberation shipped a very strong 600,000 units, according to Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot. Sure, that number doesn't amount to much when compared to the Call of Dutys or Halos of the world. But it puts the lie to the corporate reasoning given for the inexhaustible supply of square-jawed Central Casting white guys who wind up starring in most video games.

But, to me, Liberation's biggest success isn't sales. Right now, it's the best example of how to craft a character descended from African heritage in a video game. The game takes the historical moment where the action happens and finds ways to integrate the experience of being a mixed-race woman in 18th Century New Orleans into a playable adventure. Tricky but very well-done.

Curious about what went into making Aveline so great, I e-mailed Jill Murray, who worked with the Bulgaria-based Ubisoft Sofia dev studio as a writer on the portable Assassin's Creed. It's not just me who thinks Aveline's story was memorable. Murray, along with co-writer Richard Fareze, just won an award for Outstanding Achievement in Videogame Writing from the Writer's Guild of America. (It's got an award-winning soundtrack too.) In the interview below, she talks about the research that went into the game, why the attitudes keeping more games from having more diverse characters suck and how she wants to write herself out of a job.

Kotaku: At what point in the game's development was the decision made about Aveline's ethnic make-up? From the very beginning of design, or was it when the story was being fleshed out, presumably a bit later?

Jill Murray: Who Aveline is and where she was from were important to the team in Sofia from the very beginning, long before I or even Richard joined the project. They did their research and decided from the beginning that a woman Assassin of French and Haitian descent would be a compelling character. They were right!

Kotaku: I pointed out some of the historical tropes that show up in Liberation, like the tragic mulatto, slave revenge and the Back-to-Africa movement. Was it coincidence or was it a conscious decision by you and the other developers to work those elements in there? Did you and the team do any kind of research in the name of authenticity?

Jill Murray: Personally, I am unevenly read, and my academic background is in Theatre Production, not English or cultural studies. In theatre, our approach to text was with an eye for how to bring worlds and characters to life, rather than for the sake of analysis itself. Consequently I don't have a strong vocabulary of tropes and conventions, and continue to approach everything from a practical standpoint, looking for the best way to learn about people and understand life by making things.

It would have been a mistake to attempt to reflect the entire eighteenth century black experience in Aveline all by herself; she's an individual, not a people or an issue. So, we looked for other opportunities to represent different points of view through the characters she meets. The result is an array of men and women trying to survive and carve out their own destinies in diverse ways. The story of Jeanne's kidnapping and life as a placée is recounted in diary entries. Aveline helps abused slaves, meets a man who has no territory he feels he can call home, locks horns with a soldier who has opted to fight for the English in exchange for his freedom. Each of these characters speaks for him or herself.

The formal research Richard and I did was primarily into the official documents of the era that directly impacted life for our characters— particularly the Code Noir, the French legal document that lays out the rules of slavery in French territories at that time. I also read a lot of slave narratives from different eras to get a sense of the variety of experiences and reactions people had, as well as their use of written language.

Often, people will ask me "did you interview any actual black people?" This is a more complicated question than it seems on the surface. I think that people really want to know if we actually care what black people would think, or what their real experiences are, or what their ancestors went through, compared to how history is recorded. The simple answer is yes. We are aware that colonial history was recorded by colonizers, and that it is inadequate to the task of representing the genuine experience of slaves, native people, and a host of others denied a voice in recorded history. The more complicated reality is that there is no one living today who knows what it felt like, in their own body, to live in the eighteenth century. If you want to really delve into authenticity, we also don't have ready access to young women political Assassins. At some point, a character must be invented—a responsibility we approached with enthusiasm, curiosity and, I hope, compassion.

That said, of course we talk to people informally all the time! At work, at school, over drinks, as one does as an alert and social writer, friend and colleague, personally interested and professionally nosy about the lives of others. I also have people in my family of Haitian and French Canadian descent, and I cannot look into the eyes of these toddlers I love and do anything but try create something that in some small way might help build a world in which they can grow up not feeling like they need to stab something. All I can do is try to be an ally. I hope it's working.

Kotaku: If people were intrigued by what they experienced in Liberation's plot and characters, where would you direct them to get similar stories?

Jill Murray: Aveline's story is first and foremost an Assassin's Creed story, so I would invite them to play not only the other Assassin's Creed games, but also have a look at some of our other media, in particular the excellent comic books by Karl Kerschl and Cameron Stewart, The Chain and The Fall.

Kotaku: There's been a lot of talk about diversifying the protagonists of video games along gender and racial lines. You've been part of a lot of such threads on Twitter. What frustrates you about the current state of racial and gender representation in the medium?

Jill Murray: Two things frustrate me, and together they frustrate me doubly by existing in parallel, when they should cancel each other out. I'm glad you asked this because I'll be addressing it in detail in my Twitter-frustration-inspired GDC talk, DIVERSE GAME CHARACTERS: WRITE THEM NOW!

Essential Frustration #1: The fear that "diverse" characters are risky and might offend or alienate players by their simple inclusion—that including them requires a magic touch, special bravery, a trembling sensitivity, or a mandate to ignore sales. (Liberation is selling very well, thanks for asking!) In fact, creating "diverse" characters is no different than creating any character, and I believe that those who struggle with it need to address deeper issues within their own creative process. A writer or designer needs to be able to dig deep, research, and find the humanity of the people they invent. It should be exactly the same process whether the character is white, black, comes from planet Krypton, lives in the future, or is a sea creature. (Sure, sea creatures aren't people, but they'd still need to be relatable.) I strongly believe that if an audience can't connect to such a character, it's not because women, brown people, old people, queer people, or any type of character at all doesn't belong at the helm of a game; it's because the creator didn't dig deep enough to find a way to connect with that character. A good writer should be able to make you weep for, laugh with, even aspire to be an amoeba if necessary. Blaming a character for failure is like blaming a hockey stick for losing the game—a hockey stick you made with your own hands, to use in a game of your own invention. I call shenanigans.

Essential Frustration #2: The concept that we don't need to try to create diverse characters—that if it's right for the story, it will just happen. Of course it's not going to just happen. If it did, we wouldn't be having this discussion. The reason it doesn't just happen is contained in my first frustration. It's necessary to fight these assumptions, and stand up for our characters. If we believe in them, we have to rise to the occasion and show ourselves and the people we work with how to bring them to life successfully. But this does not require magic, scary effort—it's effort anyone can put in. It's fun, it adds variety, and it makes a lot of players feel good. It's more than worthwhile and we should definitely try to do more of it.

Kotaku: What's your big takeaway from the experience? What do you wish there were more of?

Jill Murray: What I always want more of, are actual game mechanics used to communicate point of view and experience. I want to strip everything down to its mechanical essence and add back only the words necessary to round out the experience. This is the "show, don't tell" of video games—put as much of experience as possible in the hands of the player. Basically, I want to run myself out of business.

Is the next Assassin's Creed all about pirates? A tipster just sent over marketing materials for something called Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag.

Ubisoft hasn't announced anything about the next Assassin's Creed just yet, other than the fact that it will star a new character and a new setting, and it will be out next fiscal year.

According to our tipster, this poster will be on store walls on Monday, March 4.

The poster shows a white-hooded assassin—presumably the protagonist of Assassin's Creed IV—on a pirate ship, surrounded by gruff-looking buccaneers. There's a black pirate flag in the background.

The full poster:

Earlier this month, a Redditor claimed to have seen the name Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flags on an airplane while peaking at a powerpoint presentation by the woman who sat in front of him.

"I was on a flight where the lady in the row in front of me was working on a powerpoint presentation on marketing strategies of several gaming titles," Redditor photoacoustic wrote. "And one that stood out the most was AC4: Black Flags, aimed for release 2013 Holiday season according to her slide. It already had a cool looking logo for it."

Did you know that there's a video game where George Washington is evil? And that it's made by the French?

Yesterday, when Ubisoft released the first part in their trilogy of downloadable content for Assassin's Creed III, Fox News wasn't pleased. The French? Evil George Washington? Surely somebody should be offended by this!

So they posted an article titled "French company releases video game depicting George Washington as villain to be assassinated."

Check out the first paragraph:

A day after the United States honored George Washington, a French software company released a video game that depicts the first president as a tyrant who hangs people and must be assassinated.

Just look at that lede. The subtle xenophobia, the muted anger. Written as if with trembling fingers and bulging eyeballs. HOW DARE THOSE GODDAMNED FROG-EATERS TURN OUR FIRST PRESIDENT EVIL.

The game, titled "Assassin's Creed III: The Tyranny of King Washington" and released Tuesday by Ubisoft, can be played on Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The game presents an alternate reality that depicts Washington as "the former champion of American freedom turned power-mad overlord," according to its creators.

(Note: The Tyranny of King Washington cannot be played on Nintendo Wii. It can be played on PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3. A Wii U version is coming in the future. Also, The Tyranny of King Washington is not a game. It is a downloadable add-on to a game.)

"With the introduction of our first single-player episodic DLC 'The Tyranny of King Washington,' we figured we should reacquaint you with the hero you thought you knew," Ubisoft says in a statement on its website, underneath a promotional video showing an evil-looking Washington wearing a crown and gripping a throne with the American flag draped overhead.

It's smart, the way this article is constructed. The details are objective and (mostly) accurate, written in a way that might make you think "hey, maybe this author DOESN'T have an agenda." But it's the word positioning. The contrast between "United States" and "French software company." The subtle details, crafted to paint the ugliest picture possible for swarths of Fox News readers looking to get angry at video games. They even ask for comment from the estate of George Washington. (Note: the estate of George Washington "expressed no opposition" to the Assassin's Creed III DLC, probably because they are not insane.)

And the comments! Half of them call the article dumb; the other half are about as xenophobic and generally terrifying as you might expect from comments on Fox News. They're the scoop of hatred atop this glorious outrage sundae.

DJ76
17 hours ago
Some American software company should make a similar game with an heroic French leader as it's subject...oh wait...I forgot...there have been NO heroic Frenchmen.

postmortimer1
18 hours ago
Video games and the Frogs: both a waste of time!

jimboelrod
20 hours ago
The only villains that need to be assassinated are socialists. That would pretty much take care of the country of this games origin.

brian2799
22 hours ago
Maybe they got him confused with Obama?

Maybe they did, brian2799. Maybe they did.

After a really long wait, the Tyranny of George Washington DLC for Assassin's Creed III drops today, bringing with it an evil version of the United States' first president. This trailer shows Connor's alternate, first-nations look in action as well as new abilities for him to wield. The Infamy, part 1 of the three-chapter expansion, hits for 800 Microsoft points or $9.99. The Assassin's Creed III Season Pass lets you get all of the Tyranny of George Washington DLC (as well as the other content packs) for 2400 Microsoft Points on Xbox LIVE or $29.99 on the PlayStation Network and Windows PC.