UPDATE 3pm UK: This season's event, the summer Sigrblot Festival, will run from 29th July to 19th August, Ubisoft has now announced.

Valhalla's The Siege of Paris expansion will land right in the middle of all that, on 12th August.

Preparations for the above will come as part of tomorrow's 1.3.0 patch, alongside a handful of new skills. These include Light Fingered (auto pickup nearby loot), Thrill of War (gain adrenaline while in conflict), Heidrun Slam (press R2 while sprinting to knock enemies back), Idunn's Heart (passively regenerate recent health loss after a short delay), Survival Instinct (when at less than a third of health, hold -> for partial healing in exchange for adrenaline) and Wolf Warrior (damage increases the lower your health).

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If this screencap is real, Assassin's Creed Valhalla's upcoming Paris DLC, Siege of Paris, is set to release on 5th August.

Though not officially confirmed by developer/publisher Ubisoft, the second DLC instalment seemingly popped up on an Italian Windows store and was promptly screen-capped before the announcement was removed again.

While all we can do is chalk this up as an unsubstantiated rumour for now, the screencap - shared via CriptAssassINI (thanks, NME) - certainly looks convincing.

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UPDATE 2.25PM UK: Ubisoft has now formally acknowledged Assassin's Creed Infinity and detailed more of how it will be run, and who will work on it.

The lengthy blog post contains mention of two teams led by two creative directors. Clint Hocking, formerly of Splinter Cell and Watch Dogs Legion, will lead a team at Ubisoft Montreal. Jonathan Dumont, a veteran of Assassin's Creed Syndicate and Odyssey, will lead a team at Ubisoft Quebec.

The Infinity project that will include the games made by both these teams will be led by Marc-Alexis Côté, who will now serve as executive producer of the entire Assassin's Creed franchise. Côté worked on Brotherhood before becoming creative director on Syndicate, and is one of the most senior staff at Ubisoft Quebec.

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This week's big Assassin's Creed Valhalla update added a new mode to the game, Mastery Challenge, which offers a series of repeatable maps to stomp and stealth your way through in return for fresh rewards.

We knew the gist of all this already - and we'll go into more detail below - but what has come as a nice surprise is the new narrative this mode folds into the game, including a tease for something else being added to Valhalla down the line.

The Mastery Challenge questline begins with a bang, as a meteor hits Eivor's Ravensthorpe. The impact reveals a door, apparently concealed within the cliffside all this time, and a mysterious woman, Hildiran, who's now investigating what's going on.

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The live-action Assassin's Creed series in the works at Netflix has signed up Jeb Stuart as its writer, according to Variety.

Most recently, and perhaps most relevantly, Stuart created Vikings spin-off Vikings: Valhalla, a spin-off from the popular Norse telly drama which is also Netflix-bound.

Further back, more years than I care to mention, Stuart also wrote the screenplay for the legendary Die Hard.

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Tomorrow's update for Assassin's Creed Valhalla adds a new Mastery Challenge mode to the game.

Update 1.2.2 will arrive for PC, PlayStation, Stadia and Xbox around 1pm UK time and also adds new skills, river raid cosmetics and other improvements.

Mastery Challenge mode is the big addition, and can be found at "numerous shrines hidden in the world", Ubisoft said in its patch notes. Each shrine will host a Trial of the Bear, testing your combat strength, a Trial of the Wolf, testing your ranged ability, and a Trial of the Raven, testing your stealth.

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Assassin's Creed Valhalla will get a second year of expansions, Ubisoft announced tonight during its E3 Forward event.

This is the first time any game in the Assassin's Creed series has received this level of post-launch support, but this news isn't surprising. Firstly, Valhalla has gone down very well. Secondly, as we reported last month, datamining has pointed to the mythical realm of Muspelheim coming down the line. And, indeed, Ubisoft teased Muspelheim tonight.

Before all that, Valhalla has its previously-announced Siege of Paris expansion coming this summer. No release date for that was shared, but we got a good look at footage. Ubisoft also confirmed the fan-favourite "black box" missions from the series' past will return here. These are assassination target opportunities where you have a set location and multiple methods to take down a target.

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If you've been hankering to get involved in some Viking-era assassination shenanigans then here's a way to play Ubisoft's gigantic open-world adventure on PC for less than a stein of ale.

New subscribers can now get their first month's membership to Ubisoft Plus for just £5.20. After that, it'll jump up to the usual price of £12.99 per month, so be sure to cancel beforehand if you want to avoid being charged. Assassin's Creed Valhalla is a massive game, but 30 days should be just about enough to see it to the conclusion.

Of course, that's not the only game on the service. In total, there are over 100 Ubisoft titles to choose from, including all recent and major releases. Handily, all expansion and season pass content is included too. If you want to dip into the back catalogue of the Assassin's Creed, Rainbow Six or Far Cry series (perhaps ahead of Far Cry 6 and Rainbow Six Quarantine) then that's all possible.

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Assassin's Creed fansite Access the Animus has worked with Montreal's Kanien'kehá:ka Onkwawén:na Raotitióhkwa Language and Cultural Center to translate all of the unsubtitled dialogue in Valhalla's Vinland arc.

The video below reveals what is being said in all of the conversations going on around Eivor in this part of the game, which she (and you) are deliberately left unable to understand.

As well as dialogue, it includes translations of item descriptions and more. There's also a fascinating explanation of the Mohawk creation myth Eivor hears around the campfire - previously told by the Oneida tribe in Assassin's Creed Rogue. Intriguingly, there are differences in the stories which accurately depict the differences in its telling by the two tribes.

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I'll get this out the way first. I understand there are people who may not want more Assassin's Creed Valhalla. It is an enormous game and, for sure, Wrath of the Druids is no minor DLC. To those people, I hear ya, and thank you for your time here today! Lovely. To those who are hungry for more Eivor and to hang out in a new country's history, welcome. Ireland offers lots of familiar things to do across a beautiful new landscape, and some fun fresh additions.

Here's the top-line stuff. Wrath of the Druids adds around two-thirds of Ireland to explore, with an enjoyable self-contained campaign, some interesting new enemies, a major new trading system and, fans will be pleased to know, a boatload of fresh armour sets and cosmetics to unlock and upgrade. This is an adventure focused on Eivor - and while things do skirt very slightly into the supernatural, there's no major modern day or Isu plotline here.

Designed to be played at any point of your Viking adventure, Druids introduces a new cast of characters led by your hitherto unmentioned cousin Barid, who has wound up becoming King of Dublin (where was he when we were trying to sort out England, eh?). Barid calls for aid via his trade envoy, the intriguing one-eyed Azar, who turns up in Ravensthorpe to rope Eivor in. From there, the action heads across the Irish Sea to a fresh map accessible via your Atlas, akin to Vinland and Norway, and the start of a sprawling new adventure.

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