Assassin's Creed IV- The Announcements Guide

Ubisoft bring us the full unveiling of their new Assassin's Creed game for 2013...
Well, the time has finally arrived. After a week full of leaks and reports, Ubisoft Montreal have today officially announced Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, bringing with them a flurry of huge new details on what this thrilling latest instalment in the video games franchise will have to offer. Here's our guide to ALL of the big announcements from today, right here and right now, with the first CGI trailer below...

• THE STORYLINE: In 2013, Abstergo Industries are trying to find the key to a centuries-hidden secret by using a test program of countless Animus subjects. You are one of these subjects, placed inside an Animus machine to research Desmond's ancestor Edward Kenway. The grandfather of Connor Kenway, Edward's adventures as a pirate captain take place from the year 1715 onwards, forty-five years before the three decade adventure of Assassin's Creed III began. Here, this pirate legend will face iconic events such as the fall of the Spanish Armada in his quest for dominance of the seas and everything beyond...
• THE GAMEPLAY: Key to the gameplay engine (enhanced from 2012's ACIII engine) this time around will be the naval warfare that made last year's entry such a hit. This time, though, the gameplay will be seamless between land, ships and the sea, meaning there won't be loading times in transitioning between environmental locales. There'll be well over 50 locations to visit, with three massive main cities and innovative piratical gameplay mechanics yet to be revealed. In the minor modern day storyline, players will have the chance to roam Abstergo for clues of the battle against Juno and the current Assassin-Templar conflict.
• THE RELEASE: This time around, Assassin's Creed will bridge two entire generations of console hardware. Yep, that means that not only can we expect Black Flag to retail at the usual ports of call on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo WiiU and PC, it will ship on the "next-generation consoles" of the PlayStation 4 and Microsoft's still-to-be-named new hardware as part of their console launch line-up too.

Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag will retail on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and WiiU on November 1st, with Xbox 720 and PlayStation 4 releases due to ship in late 2013 alongside the new hardware.