Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag' takes 'second screen' seriously Ubisoft stole some attention from many of the superhero-related films at San Diego's Comic-Con with a replica pirate ship hyping its upcoming "Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag." Instead of pirate-inspired realism the ship hosted a dance floor and mini-sandwiches, but major celebrity-enticing gala aside, developers promised that "Black Flag" would take its marauders seriously — well, as seriously as any game can with a plot that follows a centuries-long conspiracy regarding a war between assassins and a secret order. "From a historic perspective, when we did research on pirates what was really jumping out at us is that, for whatever reason, it's Disney and 'Treasure Island,'" said game director Ashraf Ismail recently in Los Angeles. "Pirates became a bit of a fantasy and a bit mythical." As any "Assassin's Creed" veteran can attest, the franchise has its own increasingly complex and mythical time-jumping setting in which modern-day characters use a fantastical device to live out the adventures of their ancestors. Set primarily in the 18th century Caribbean, "Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag" will present a number of narrative and technological challenges for the franchise seeing as it's arriving at a time when Ubisoft is emphasizing a second-screen gaming experience via mobile or hand-held devices. What's more, the game must balance fun -- pirate looting, naval combat — with unsavory aspects of the period's history, such as rampant slavery. One of the main characters in the game has been revealed to have been a former-slave-turned-buccaneer from Trinidad. Though questions surrounding the narrative won't be completely answered until the Oct. 29 release date for the title, Ismail promised a "gritty" game that used history as more than a setting. "We're not doing 'Pirates of the Caribbean,'" Ismail said. "We're really doing pirates as they were. Of course, we give it a twist and that's the assassins and [the Templar Order]. We delve into characters like Blackbeard, a man named Edward Teach. He created this Blackbeard persona to scare people because he didn't want to kill them. It was fear to prevent violence. To be able to portray that is awesome." While the "Assassin's Creed" series has long towed the line between historical accuracy and over-the-top conspiracy gaming — the previous edition of the core series was set during the Revolutionary War — new to "Assassin's Creed IV" will be a heavy emphasis on playing away from the television screen. A companion mobile app will allow players to navigate the fleets of protagonist/pirate Edward Kenway. Ismail said Ubisoft, which is also releasing a companion app for its upcoming Chicago-set "Watch Dogs," is making the second screen an i ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILzOtNkBkVM