Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag PS4 E3 Gameplay Demo Video Footage

One of the most impressive games we saw at E3 was Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. This next chapter in Ubisoft’s popular Assassin’s Creed franchise follows a completely new character who, as you might guess from the game’s title, assumes the role of a pirate. The E3 demo we saw behind closed doors was running on a PS4, although versions are also planned for Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii U. In the video below, you can see for yourself a full-HD video of the Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag PS4 demo, complete with commentary from game director Ashraf Ismail.

Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag tells the story of Edward Kenway, who falls from privateering for the Royal Navy into piracy as the war between the major Empires comes to an end. Edward is a fierce pirate and seasoned fighter who soon finds himself embroiled in the ancient war between Assassins and Templars. Set at the dawn of the 18th Century, the game features some of the most infamous pirates in history, such as Blackbeard and Charles Vane, and takes players on a journey throughout the West Indies during a turbulent and violent period of time later to become known as the Golden Age of Pirates.

During our E3 demo, it was explained to us that Black Flag contains the largest game world of any Assassin’s Creed game to date. Considering the previous outings were massive, that’s really saying something. Keep in mind, of course, that Black Flag features seamless land-to-sea and back again gameplay, so a large world is necessary to accommodate all that pirate ship travel across the sea.

The E3 official gameplay demo has been augmented below with full commentary from Ubisoft’s game director Ashraf Ismail. In addition to seeing the game in action, this video will let you learn new insights directly from the development team and hear more about the vast and diverse pirate world of Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag.

And yes, in addition to being huge, you’ll see in the video below that Black Flag also looks gorgeous. Frankly, what we saw of Black Flag on PS4 was one of the most beautiful games of the show. It should’ve been, of course, considering it was running on next-gen hardware, but the graphical powerhouse of the PS4 was clearly on display. It’s likely that the Xbox One version of Black Flag looks equally good, although we didn’t see it for ourselves.

Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag will ship for Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U and PC on October 29. Its Xbox One and PS4 versions will ship when they’re ready, presumably at the launch of the Xbox One and PS4. Any bets on how quickly Ubisoft and the console manufacturers will start to pull together a PS4 bundle and/or an Xbox One bundle featuring Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag?