Skull & Bones vs Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag | Direct Comparison

Review code provided by Ubisoft.
A graphic, gameplay, and feature comparison of the new "Skull & Bones" and the fan-favorite "Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag."
Both games captured on PC using the highest graphic settings (Post Processing and PhysX disabled)
This comparison will provide a comprehensive breakdown of everything in the game, including character models, environments, textures, object models, lighting systems, effects, sound, and features.
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
00:42 Character Models
04:18 Pirate Ship
10:44 Lighting Design
12:46 Effects
14:56 Sound Comparisons
19:25 Final Thoughts
New documentary on "Prince of Persia" is in production, featuring interviews from developers including the original creator, Jordan Mechner! Subscribe and enable notifications to be the first to catch it next month!

[@Eikuza]

Unfair comparison. Blackflag is an AAA game, Skull and Bones is an AAAA game.

[@sokotrahd6199]

:(

[@r_e_f_x]

More is "Quadruple L"

[@gibleyman]

Skull and Bones is truly the "scream in agony" type games

[@George-gp7bw]

Lol! AAAA comment!

[@stuffnstuff8844]

Just because it is a vowel, does not mean it justifies an “an” instead of an “a”. This occurs when the sound the follows the “a” is more of a consonant than a vowel. This is usually when there is some acronym or something in that vein. In this situation it is because of AAA being read as “Triple-A” and AAAA being read as “Quadruple-A”

[@NFGUN1T]

*AC: Black Flag still remains a great game: The open world, towns, ship battles. And the main music theme & sea shanties.*

[@slowmercy69]

Not a good AC game

[@NFGUN1T]

@@slowmercy69 It is quite different from the previous AC for sure but if you compare it to every others AC made for this franchise, it is certainly one of the most loved title.

[@AmariKhumalo]

@@slowmercy69 Still a better *game* than every other Assassin's Creed title besides possibly 2 but 2 and 4 are both excellent. The rest of the titles are turds by comparison.

[@slowmercy69]

@@AmariKhumalo I like 3 the best. 2 is a great game, but 4 is one of those video games I had a hard time even booting up Then again I also despise Brotherhood 🤮

[@MasoMathiou]

I mean... the simple fact that it's being compared 10 years later to a supposed AAAA game says it all.

[@jonaspetty8767]

1:47 I'll have to disagree, maybe the textures and geometry on Black Flag are worse, but the animations and personality the characters convey are much better on Black Flag. Skull and Bones' characters move and sound like robots disguised as people.

[@Nick930]

To reiterate - I'm talking about the story characters in the story cutscenes. These are most certainly more expressive in regards to facial animations compared to older Ubi titles. The player character animations are terrible, I'm not referring to that.

[@HadrorexHun]

​@@Nick930How could they be more expressive? Skull and Bones uses premade animations. In AC4 scenes are peformance captured directly from the actors. There are many things I disagree with. How can you say that the ship handles better? It is so cheap feeling and floaty. Or that water is better and more dynamic while not even showing storm footage from AC4? Your comparisons are so surface level when you are not talking about games you are passionate about.

[@__________.....]

passion causes prejudice​@@HadrorexHun

[@irecordwithaphone1856]

@@HadrorexHunDude I don’t know how you can say black flag has more advanced water. I’m not even a fan or skull and bones and I’m not blind enough to say it’s not vastly more advanced wave tech and water physics. I swear the people acting like skull and bones doesn’t have better water when sailing are crazy. You can hate the game while acknowledging where the technology is clearly more advanced. It’s been over 10 years

[@step6584]

@@Nick930even in the cutscenes, I think the voice acting is a lot better in black flag.

[@Beanibirb]

I don't even have any words for this its just sad seeing how games from over a decade ago are just genuinely better

[@Be4zle]

What's even worse is that this trend is almost universal across the industry. I.e. halo, cod, bf etc

[@lukemorris9066]

Your talking 💩 .... sometimes this happens but games now are generally on another level from the past stop crying.

[@MeTaLISaWeSoMe95]

Thats some complete bullshit lol. This past year in gaming has been amazing.

[@MeTaLISaWeSoMe95]

​@@lukemorris9066im not surprised. All gamers do now is whine.

[@flowerthencrranger3854]

@@Be4zle Then play other games, you I’ll find lots of fun with actual good games outside of mainstream shooters.

[@atharvtyagi3435]

AAA game vs AAAA game, AAA game wins

[@Haarba1]

well... AA battery is bigger compared to AAA right? AAAA is even smaller... so sounds about right, AAA would be better :)

[@Thecookiewhocrumbled]

​@@Haarba1 😭😭💀

[@skullkraken_resurrected9857]

@@Haarba1 They probably went with that lol.

[@eclip1991]

When your parent call you a disappointment, remember that there's Skull and Bones.

[@Nick930]

You dont know what disappoint it. Disappointment is Tomb Raider Angel of Darkness. Disappointment is Splinter Cell: Double Agent. Disappointment is Duke Nukem 3D and Daikatanna. Skull & Bones isnt even a bad game. Its just... not a great game

[@eclip1991]

@@Nick930Disppointment is a subjective feeling.

[@brucewayne404]

@@Nick930 I liked Double Agent. Specifically the original Xbox version.

[@stofosaurus]

@@Nick930 these people are just hating on the game because it's trendy. I agree with you. S&B has flaws but It's still fun.

[@firdanharbima6997]

​​​@@stofosaurus ah and let the sole fact it hype itself so much to be a perfect be end be all games that is AAAA game that is Absolutely Bullshit when it can't even have a single feature Right from the previous Pirate games that is Blackflag

[@snuffytoon]

The fact that these games can even be compared really says something

[@stofosaurus]

Because they are very similar in more ways than one?

[@cthrekgoru]

no . Because a decade old game is actually better than the new one . Normally it should be impossible to even compare . We are truly living in dark times...@@stofosaurus

[@AmariKhumalo]

@@cthrekgoru To be fair though, modern video games have been pretty bad for the last 5+ years. I can't name a single game since Red Dead Redemption 2 that truly impressed me. I honestly feel sorry for anyone who purchased a PS5 or Xbox series X because there just haven't been enough quality games this generation to warrant a purchase of either. It sucks to admit it but I personally believe that quality video games are slowly being phased out in some attempt by the industry to lower the standards of the players. When every game released is mediocre then mediocrity becomes accepted out of necessity. Sure, you'll get your solid offerings every 2-3 years but the days of being blown away by AAA games are going to be few and far between in the near future (and in regards to modernity). Maybe we will see things improve eventually, I hope we do at least.

[@cthrekgoru]

@@AmariKhumalo maybe templars took over the Ubisoft and in their new world order , these games are enough for common peasant s like us. Once we accept their rule and direction , we will feel much better with our shitty but 'chosen for us' games...

[@stofosaurus]

​@@cthrekgoruhaha you're overreaching and overthinking. Skull & Bones was never supposed to be like AC Black Flag, or Sea of Thieves. It was always supposed to be a homage to Sid Meier's Pirates in a co-op mmo setting. You people complain for complaining sake.

[@RainFirst_]

Hate to disagree but saying that the animations are somehow better in Skull and Bones than Black Flag is an insane statement and flat out wrong

[@Nick930]

Pay closer attention to how those models' facial aninations are done. AC animations back then were much simpler. Turn off the voice acting and sound and actually watch the way they turn, look, blink, squint their eyes, open/ close their mouths, and theres def an improvement technically in skull & bones. Tho, as I stated, that's not saying much. Ubi has been lagging behind in this department for a while

[@Bubbleshful]

Boy I really think "technically" is the operative word there though tbh. The actor's performances actually come through well in Black Flag, I dont know what I'm looking at half the time with Skull and Bones lol, the expressiveness simply is not there, the facial expression seems diluted into almost nothing. @@Nick930

[@Nick930]

@@Bubbleshful The actor's performances come through because those are deeply scripted cinematics with much better voice actor performances attributed to them. Black Flag is great, and absolutely a better game. But the animations are absolutely dated.

[@koinpusher]

imo 'animations' can either be "facial animations" (which is going down to a more in deail aspect), and "movement animations" (like performances of the character's body, walking, running, fighting etc) , going by that, i could agree with the facial expressions of Skull & Bones being better, but i feel like the overal moverment of actions seems better in AC Black Flag

[@Birs_84]

​@@koinpusher Yes, this differentiation definitely has to be made. While the sole facial animation (and the lighting) are surely better in Skull & Bones (but it's useless as they don't show much emotion), I just can't look at the movement. Back Flag has some realistic walking, running and swimming animations, Skull & Bones looks like a Ogre moving around (no swimming! In an open seas pirate game, wtf?).

[@TheVisualDigitalArts]

wait, they took out the boarding and call it a AAAA game?! The Audacity of it is incredible.

[@AMT_AllMyThoughts]

Thats a disign choice not a downgrade. They said from the beginning what this game will be and what it will offer. And still people complain after getting exectly what they were promised. I dont get it.

[@TheVisualDigitalArts]

@@AMT_AllMyThoughts its still a downgrade Compared to Black flag, aka "the Design Choice is a Downgrade" compared to Black flag they were able to do it in the past and it set itself apart from other pirate games the whole reason for a ubisoft pirate game is Blackflag without the assinations parts. its a downgrade wether or not they avertised it as such or not.

[@firdanharbima6997]

​@@AMT_AllMyThoughts it's still a half assed cut scene it's literally them jumping and then end it Have no impact nor you even Feel the other ship is being Boarded so no go out and actually play Real Boarding games and say That Again

[@stofosaurus]

@@TheVisualDigitalArts but the game was never supposed to be like black flag in the first place. I don't understand where you people complaining are getting that idea from. 🤦‍♀

[@TheVisualDigitalArts]

@@stofosaurus I dosent have to be exacly like black flag but...... I dont know can we have BOARDING in a PIRATE game , they knew people only were excited for Skull and Bones because of black flag. all those resouces and all we get is looter shooter themed trash.

[@phrophannus]

I was hoping it was something like "Play as a normal pirate in Black Flag's world" but it's definitely not that.

[@clashcon11]

It's something more Arcade. Maybe when the price cuts 89% it's gonna do something with the player base.

[@stofosaurus]

Lol you lot are hilarious. Thinking S&B was supposed to be some sort of Black Flag mmo. Go play Sid Meier's Pirates and get back to me. Then you can call yourself a person to culture.

[@firdanharbima6997]

​@@clashcon11 nah it's still gonna sunk thank God

[@gleam6370]

Don’t let people tell you it’s nostalgia. Games back then are better in almost every conceivable way

[@ArcticVXR1]

Hard agree.

[@kristjaangaming1935]

Cough cough rdr2

[@nohcam22]

So true dude

[@plankton2878]

i think it’s because they were games first more than anything

[@mynamedoesntfi--6161]

And it's so sad because that's not entirely true. The best games of today are better than the best games of back then. The only difference is back then, good games were frequent. Today, good games are extremely rare.

[@bronyhub]

Black Flag is years ahead of Skull and Bones despite having come out in 2013.

[@RS_Redbaron]

They bought the first version of blackflag. Put a skin over it and taraaaaa 70 euro...

[@stofosaurus]

​@@RS_Redbaronso you thought it was supposed to be some sort of Black Flag mmo? Lol. It's a co-op focused homage to Sid Meier's Pirates. A game I doubt you've even heard of.

[@restful-shrimp2662]

⁠@@stofosaurusyes that was the point of making it they saw how successful Black Flag was and wanted to make a co-op version of it.

[@bensadfleck9972]

they also had less than 2 years of development

[@stofosaurus]

@@restful-shrimp2662 No, that was never mentioned and was never their intention. Sorry to say this but you're part of some mass delusion that this was supposed to be like black flag or sea of thieves when it wasn't. It was never mentioned. In fact, they delivered exactly what they promised. I've been following Skull & Bones for years.

[@yourgoodfriend276]

"Cuts down on the tedium of jumping between ships during a boarding event" My guy that isn't tedium that is piracy that is the game that is the genre. Imagine a Call of Duty game where you don't shoot a gun because it's "tedious" and instead you just click player names in the same lobby

[@Nick930]

Yeah, calm down there. I didn't say I disliked the feature. But it absolutely was always tedious in that game. Towards the end of my original playthrough, i just started sinking ships outright to save time

[@kombinatsiya6000]

Maybe he is entitled to his own opinion?

[@onzer52]

Bro can’t have preferences 💀

[@firdanharbima6997]

​@@onzer52 when it's about controversial topic? Who does?

[@HushtheMag]

Tedious to you. I've been playing the game for years and have it on several consoles and I always enjoy boarding ships to lay everyone out and assert dominance, especially when adding new ships to my fleet@@Nick930

[@TheBlacGhost2093]

Ubisoft could've just copied and pasted AC Black Flag gameplay mechanics. Updated the graphics to be more modern and voilá! They could've got more sales than they've gotten with skull and bones.

[@clashcon11]

They maybe didn't think of doing that, instead they do what they think will sell well. Yet AC: Black Flag sells well because it is AC: Black Flag and not Skull and Bones.

[@lt_johnmcclane]

Lol it’s voilà not walla 😂

[@chrisredfield6274]

​@@lt_johnmcclane Came here to say the same thing

[@TheBlacGhost2093]

@@lt_johnmcclane Thanks for the correction. It always sounded like walla. 🤭

[@LightningBoltz]

I’m still baffled as to why they didn’t do this

[@ThoRCX]

I'm sorry but I think the white foam effect ( 14:07 ) looks terrible. It's so blurry and looks more like magical dust. I prefer without it honestly.

[@ObeseMommy]

I agree very much today with you

[@ShenMerrick]

It's not even a question. Screw the ever so slight increase in graphics and physics. You can actually be a PIRATE in Black Flag. You know...boarding ships, swashbuckling, getting into mischief in the towns(pirates aren't just pirates while on water). You won't get any of that in Skull and Bones, it's just a small piece of a much larger pie. The only thing Skull and Bones succeeded in was making me consider revisiting a class game in Black Flag.

[@hayyanmalik1079]

Black flag is peak

[@AmariKhumalo]

Yeah, it truly was the best pirate game I've ever played despite being an Assassin's Creed title (I dislike Assassin's Creed). Black Flag was son damn solid that despite hating stealth games I put up with those parts just because of how good of a game it was. Still looking forward to the day there is another pirate RPG as good as Black Flag but I feel it might be at least another decade before we see one, if we're lucky.

[@callmeLetr0]

@@AmariKhumalohating on stealth games is crazy

[@Brandonhayhew]

that peak was in 2013

[@davidgrim5990]

Shouldn't a pirate game be "ARRR" instead of "AAAA"

[@brucewayne404]

Not using this for Skull and Bones' marketing is a missed opportunity.

[@firdanharbima6997]

​@@brucewayne404 everything about this game IS missed opportunity

[@landlockedcroat1554]

how is it that now developing games is easier than ever but old games are still better?

[@Nick930]

Lmao what? Who told you developing games today is easier?!

[@SaintRampalSpiritualLeader]

​@Nick930 Better technology, more resources and information, availability to name few?

[@Alert111]

​@@SaintRampalSpiritualLeader Better technology mean more ambition. For example, right now render time is much faster than before but the demand of higher resolution/asset, effect etc. makes the render time is the same as back in the day. What actually easier is developgame that looks like come from an old gen console, now that easier but not for the modern game with a modern look. remember people surprise with Ps4 game that get port to ps5 game have no loading screen? the game that specifically made for ps5 will have a loading screen again it inevitable Not even talk about new engine and new method of workflow in general is completely different from back in the day.

[@bartfratze9529]

yea when u use unreal engine 5

[@Nick930]

Better tech can only get you so far. At the end of the day, quality games have to be made by lots of talented people. It takes time. GTA7 isn't going to pop out 10 weeks later because the devs got their hands on a PS6 dev-kit

[@stugamer2693]

A pirate who is the protagonist of his own fear of leaving the ship

[@Wrd12]

and cant even swim lol

[@clarkjmullen8928]

How did you get that emoji?

[@indominusrex1652]

@@Wrd12 maybe he is related to altaïr

[@PersonalAccountIndeed]

Yo nice emoji

[@bogdanstroe7967]

Imagine how good will look ac4 with skull and bones technology

[@clashcon11]

No need to imagine, it's never going to happen.

[@nathanielr2326]

Actually, ubisoft is remastering black flag. Its al​ready years in development. They will most likely use a lot of the same tech for it @clashcon11

[@anteshell]

7:19 "The design of the ships themselves along with how they handle does feel like a bit of a step up." I think that comparison must have been the hottest burn on the supposed AAAA-game in the whole video. That really got me chuckling. ;D 13:55 I think the shore wave simulation itself in easily on top-3 of all games, but the way they visualise and render it in-game is just horrendous. It would have been relatively easy to write a shader that dynamically created bubbles or even use pre-made textures to make it look better, but instead they use blurry white spots that represents nothing like sea foam, and makes otherwise good simulation to look like total crap.

[@Nick930]

Agreed, but for the sake of focus, im only comparing the waves to black flag. By default, those weird white foam effects are better than black flags' absense of shoreline waves altogether

[@anteshell]

@@Nick930 Yes, that is true too.

[@kylerclarke2689]

I'm not sure that I would play Skull and Bones even if it was free

[@stofosaurus]

Ok so you haven't even tried it. Way to jump on the trendy hate train.

[@MasonHowell-hm9te]

I mean you cant even swim ​@stofosaurus

[@RadenHZ26]

What makes ACBF amazing are the mechanics, they remove all the great part of BF, the swords fight, flintlocks, ship boarding, walkable islands, sea shanties, they only gives us naval battle mechanic and called it a day. If they decide copy and paste AC Black Flag, alter the map and give it a new name, i would more than happy to play the game.

[@Nick930]

I agree, but shanties are 100% in skull & bones too

[@stofosaurus]

Ship boarding, walkable islands and sea shanties are still there. You haven't been paying attention and most importantly haven't even tried the game LOL

[@skullkraken_resurrected9857]

@@stofosaurus bruh it's not worth the money to even try, lol there are reviews in youtube. Are you living in stone age?

[@ingocernohorsky]

The ships in S&B are way to fast. Those 17kn look more like 170...

[@erbkaiser_]

Having put a good 20 hours in Skull and Bones, I uninstalled it and reinstalled Black Flag. Technically S&B is better, but it is a soulless live service experience.

[@Nick930]

Agreed. Still, 20 hours is a decent amount of time. I think skull & bones wouldve been received better at a lower entry price

[@erbkaiser_]

@@Nick930 Oh definitely. Fortunately, I didn't even have to spend money on it as I got a key with the Tobii Eye Tracker I got with Xmas.

[@Crimsongz]

Yea I’m gonna go replay black flag right now on PC

[@kennethnoble6481]

Playing it for the first time on PC! Honestly game looks incredible. I can hardly believe it's this old. I was not prepared to have my swashes buckled so thoroughly

[@Crimsongz]

@@kennethnoble6481 if you have a high refresh rate monitor check out PCgamingwiki. There is a mod that let you play at an unlocked fps for the first time ever in this game.

[@ej1025]

I might have to as well, didn't really get that far story wise.

[@AmariKhumalo]

@@kennethnoble6481 It's an amazing game, in my top 10 ever I think. It's no New Vegas or anything but it's my favorite PIRATE game hands down. Sid Meir's pirates was great for years but Black Flag is better.

[@nateofallnatea]

What were they thinking not having a good dueling mechanic with ship boarding? AAAA my a**.

[@primtve_dope9568]

it is embarrassing how bad of a game Skull and bones is. I thought ubisoft couldn't do any worse but here they are.

[@andrewamp1]

Black Flag is flat out a badass game, my favorite AC game to date.

[@JasonTheOneAndOnly]

Nah man, the facial animations compared to black flag are ****

[@gamersykes]

Black Flag is the best ac game and one of the best games ever made 🙌🏻

[@lecuistotdepzbiensur1298]

best game no, but best pirate game i agree =)

[@oheneba_4183]

1:42 the wrongest take Nick930 has ever made but I get it (Because of the graphics). There's no way anybody can tell me characters in S&B show more life and personality than AC4. Most people like AC4 for the excellent performance from the characters. Great comparison though

[@nenoroalzafen30]

Black Flag - Solo - Exploration with no barriers - character models are far better - Face animation better - Exploration under water - Ship gameplay way better - It's NOT online - Better story - Deep acting - customize the ship / improve the ship - improve the HQ S&B will never beat Sea of Thieves neither some indi pirate games who are more interesting than it. You can notice how lazy were the devs and won't care to improve the game, character models etc etc

[@rpd6874]

Black flag was for the 7th generation not 8th, It released after the release of NG consoles but it was in development for 7th generation, and its core and tech were all for 7th generation. the next generation was unity which is 10 times better than anygame Ubisoft releases these days, both graphic-wise and combat mechanic realism-wise.

[@Nick930]

I didnt say any game was any number generation

[@rpd6874]

@@Nick930 I know, but since you mentioned the early days of the ps4, I wanted newcomers to know the tech was for AC3 times. PS. Love your work by the way, long time viewer brother 😍

[@irecordwithaphone1856]

Unity is not graphically 10 times better than any of their games nowadays. The lighting was baked into 4 times of day, which they've done away with for dynamic time cycles. The crowd density was the only thing from back then that visually speaking they haven't improved on. And even then, you'd see tons of repeat models in crowds. Yeah I get it's popular to hate on new Ubisoft titles but there have been pretty big graphical leaps since then and I think it's rose tinted glasses

[@rpd6874]

@@irecordwithaphone1856 I disagree, while I do agree that the tech has gotten better and more complex, the raw graphical output is worse, look at this the textures are bland the lighting is flat the population is of lower quality and quantity and the ost important the animation framework has gotten so garbage it can hold a candle to unitys awesome combat and parkour They have gone from being pioneers and creaaters of great Ideas TO a bunch of leftist, communist, censoring, and EVIL propaganda spewing whimpers that have no creativity and have given their souls to mediocrity and GREED with the least effort and RESPECT for peoples HARD earned money.

[@onceuponatimeonearth]

After sinking about 20 hours into Skull and Bones, the water looks better but sailing and feeling the actual waves did FEEL better in BF in my opinion. The horrendous island vegetation pop in in Skull and Bones, 3 ft from the ship when sailing by, also severely hurt it's presentation and immersion.

[@tatortot999]

"Immersion"

[@tatortot999]

No immersion when you can't leave your ship

[@ducksauce172]

I don't understand how hard it is, to do the same thing, but better. Take everything from black flag, build up to your new engine, then add whatever plans you had.

[@Brexxon-]

Idk black flag still feels better for me, just hearing the wood of the ship making noise just feels real

[@Nightxx9199]

Edward depicts more life with his pinky alone. Compared to every single character in skull & bones.

[@artgx8261]

Great comparison. Any chance of crew 2 vs crew motorfest in the future?

[@itsaxel8088]

Theyre evolving... Backwards

[@axcn4733]

Have you watched the video?

[@itsaxel8088]

​@@axcn4733 19:48 did you?

[@karlynn7719]

Does anyone else feel like this video is a "lip service" apology to Ubisoft for how honestly critical he was in his last video? Felt kinda "sellout" to me...

[@irecordwithaphone1856]

Not really. I just got the impression that he's acknowledging with a gap of 10 years you're going to see tech improvements and that doesn't speak for a games quality. I've seen people acting like skull and bones has worse water physics and I'm shocked because all the sailing gameplay I've seen you'd have to be blind to not acknowledge the leap in technology. You can still acknowledge tech advancements while also thinking it's a bad game

[@koinpusher]

For me the sound design of AC Black Flag seemed way better, i dunno about the Skull & Bones, it sounds like the ship is more like 'Gliding" on the water compared to what you see and think would happen (like some crashes when certain bigger waves hit the ship but it doesnt happen, just smooth sailing)

[@Ultraman3.0]

Hi Nick930, nice direct comparison. I thought your Prince Of Persia documentary was this month so I want to apologize for that. I will wait until March to see your documentary on Prince Of Persia, can’t wait to see Jordan Mechner though.

[@Nick930]

Next month. Lot of games this month plus a trip that took up my time. Script writing is the current phase for that project. Game capture is all done

[@reezwave]

You should do more of this downgrade comparison like comparing the new suicide squad game to arkham knight series

[@daviddarrenjoson2964]

Its sad to see that a game from decade a go is better that new games today. Skull and bone is Just fancy graphics, new animations and better design of the game. That's it. Black flag it still the king of the sea for me. The story, the gameplay, the animations, the way black flag make me felt like im a pirate is just awesome. Imagine i work in a cruise ship. And we went to nassau, and i automatically remember that in ac black flag. There is a place called nassau. And its just awesome..

[@legendcat8913]

Wait PhysX is no longer supported? Does it not work at all? Should I be turning it off on my older games or is it better to run them with an older card? Nvidia has no direction about this issue….

[@K2Orcus]

I see one thing, that in 10 or more years nothing has changed. They pass off old stuff as new technology with specially inflated requirements and pretend that this is complex and professional work from the AAAA era of games for 70++++ bucks = all this is complete crap.

[@shahnoorahmed1462]

I feel you were too generous when talking about the improvements of skull and bones, To me at least some of those "improvements" appear to have done better in black flag

[@IIXxSLAYERxXII]

Never played both but i heard that black flag has better gameplay. Graphics are worse but this is not a surprise compared to a game which just came out. Graphics are also not that important.

[@isken6593]

You should. The old assassin's Creed games are still really good. Especially black flag

[@IIXxSLAYERxXII]

@@isken6593 I know, im pretty interested in black flag. I only played Assassin's Creed 3. Which is a nice game. New ones are crap it seems.

[@AmariKhumalo]

@@IIXxSLAYERxXII I'd say Black Flag is my favorite, 2 is my second favorite, and 1 is my third favorite. I've played the others but these are the three that are most worth playing. And yeah, the newer games are trash.

[@irecordwithaphone1856]

​@@IIXxSLAYERxXIIOrigins is not crap I'd recommend it. It was made by the same devs who made Black Flag

[@omar_sacca]

Consider this: for a game that cost about as much to develop as The Last of Us Part II (or two GTA IV's); it has almost nothing going for it except for a singular game loop from a 10 year old entry in a separately-aging franchise, and a reasonably flashy presentation from the chase cam POV. I really hate to see this result, as much as I saw it coming, because developers are put to such hard work on projects like this which have absolutely no substance, and when the projects fail they are the first to get chopped off the payroll.

[@matthewzinkovic]

i cant wait to see people modd skull an bones textures and stuff into ac black flag

[@zeliph]

Looking forward to the direct comparison between Helldivers vs Helldivers 2.

[@pyro111100]

The absolutely hilarious (and also the most sad, because of what *could have been*) is that ship to ship combat is only PART of Black Flag, and yet is insanely better than S&B, where ship combat is literally the entire game. They somehow managed to make an entire game about only a part of a game over a decade old *worse*. That takes talent.

[@cjr4261]

Can you play Assassin's creed 4 on the ps5? And what features are unavailable ( I heard something about some features might be unavailable)

[@crashandmariobeast]

You can, and as far as I could tell it was fully functional

[@ArmoryAssault]

Another awesome comparison. I’m glad I didn’t buy skull and bones and support Modern day Ubisoft, they went down hill bad.

[@Nick930]

Ubi has made cool stuff lately. Prince of Persia lost crown is a great game. This skull & bones project just feels leftover from one of their weaker eras

[@slowmercy69]

The ships in 4 behave like cars. I still prefer AC 3's naval levels

[@Colfax98]

both games feel like there's a missing water sound hitting against the ship, feels a lot more silent than i would expect from such a huge vessel

[@LightningBoltz]

There is no comparison. Black Flag is by far a better game than that stripped down mobile style warship game. lol at pirate ships shooting torpedoes 😂 what a disappointment skull and bones is

[@baophantom6469]

Bruh Ubisoft should have scraped Skull and Bone and make Black Flag 2

[@darkomiljkovic19761]

in Skull and Bones you have wind no matter where you go, your ship have stamina, you have cannon that can heal you.

[@alexyo5258]

My friend, this may just be your worst comparison yet. This over 20 minutes video boils down to only Skull and Bones having better graphics than AC Black Flag. There is nothing about logical aspects of piracy, physics or the in depth features of the two games. Skull and Bones has no boarding, no swimming, no melee combat. These are important aspects of piracy, which isn't about blowing other ships, but about capturing and selling their crews, taking their cargo. Pirates used their ship's weaponry to disable other ships in order to board and loot them, trying to minimize damage and settle things with their swords and guns at close range. In this aspect, Black Flag is vastly superior to anything in Skull and Bones, which is basically a glorified vehicular combat game rather than a piracy game. Then there's ship physics. Skull and Bones ships feel like they weigh less than the crew on them, bouncing on waves in manners that would throw the crew off the ship before encountering any other ship on the sea. Ships heel when steering like they are motorbikes and magically accelerate when ramming other ships. They have no weight, they don't behave physically correct. Black Flag's ship may not cut through waves in such a graphically impressive manner, but they behaved correctly, as ships of that size should. Another thing you compared incorrectly were the character animations. Both have terrible interactions with random NPCs, but in story cutscenes the two are not even close. Black Flag's characters move realistically, with unique motion captured animations, they move around, interact with the environment and with each other, and the lip syncronization during dialogues is decent, albeit graphically less detailed. This gives them personality, it makes them feel realistic. In Skull and Bones on the other hand, characters just stand around, moving based on the same generic animations every other NPC can use, there is barely any interaction with anything and lip syncing is all over the place. The only thing it has over Black Flag in animations is that they are more fluid. Skull and Bones' characters feel devoid of any personality and sterile. Every story cutscene feels like one of the cutscenes you would get when interacting with a random vendor NPC. Skull and Bones would've been a decent game if it was released at $20, made in Unity, by a small team of indie developers and not marketed like the greatest thing since sliced bread. Comparing it to Black Flag is like comparing Asphalt 9 and Forza Horizon 5. The shocking thing is that unlike those two, Black Flag and Skull and Bones were made by the same company on massive budgets.

[@orest395]

I’m surprised that he didn’t compare the ship combat

[@bulletinmybeard]

I was never a fan of that series but I really like your videos :D

[@ridongsridongs3183]

Still wating for Tekken 8 vs Tekken 7, Nick.

[@user-hi5pk1mw2x]

Same

[@cometomeifrit]

Black Flag=10 dollars tops Skull and Bones 80 dollars 😅

[@hitgaminvamp3865]

I don't think skull and bones have better characters. Yes they look good but their animations are just bad. Zero lip sync or any characteristic movements whatsoever.

[@carlosnumbertwo]

I didn’t know Kermit was narrating videos now! 😮

[@StudMacher96]

The amount of Laziness in companies these days is crazy

[@KuKMatoNeu59473]

Black flag was such an amazing game I played it at the age of 14/15 and was so immersed I stayed till 4 and woke up for school at 7 lmao, Still gotta say The Witcher 3 edges it, it's literally a perfect game, but I would put Black Flag as a solid 2nd favourite of mine

[@kratugautam304]

I didn't played witcher 3 but it is hard or easy or medium? Because i want a experience and don't want more depression from not beating a boss.

[@flynngeddes7672]

The wave foam particle effects in skull & bones look terrible.

[@BlenderUser1944]

I like how you always come into these with an unbiased look. Its clear Ubisoft is tryna get all they can outta their engine so they don't have to put money into overhauling it. I've been at companies before where we had to use the duck taped engine to avoid 3rd party costs. Theres like one gate keeper engineer with all the tribal knowledge on why stuff isn't working, and everyone quits after a year haha.

[@BigBoss-nc7tz]

i just want the water details in black flag its the only thing that caught my eyes

[@AAMODi-sv2jc]

the funny thing is if Ubisoft just copied the whole AC4 into S&B and just changed the settings no one would complain, if S&B was another AC game like rogue, it would be awesome, even though rogue was hated at first, now everyone loves it.

[@rubainjason8875]

skull and bones looks like a mobile game.

[@Nick930]

What phone are you using???

[@kupokinzyt]

There are games on mobile that's looked better than this, before you even started your channel bro. Shadow Gun is a good example and it's more than 10 years old. So yes, this does look like a mobile game. @@Nick930

[@Nick930]

@nzyt that's total nonsense. Does this PLAY like a mobile game? Sure. But no, mobile games today (or 10 years ago - which yes I checked, and no, that looks like a bootleg gears of war from 2008) do not look better than this. And btw.. this channel was started in 2007. So try again

[@kupokinzyt]

You are deleting comments my guy, over people disagreeing with your opinion instead of having normal conversations with them or allowing other users to debate on their own with each other. This does look like a mobile game; you are taking this very hard Nick. Be quick and spend that 5 dollars Ubisoft slipped you or else you'll lose it. @@Nick930

[@Jurkox26]

Very nice comparison even though I feel the graphics part could be left behind, as it is almost guaranteed that a 10 years old game would not hold its ground against a new game, graphically I mean.

[@calelsun]

Imagine if Ubisoft could be like techland, CDPR, or HelloGames ( think they're the NMS devs atleast lol ) and could atleast manage to keep adding and overhauling their games to a higher level after release. It shouldn't HAVE to happen after launch like this but i feel like there's so much they could have done here that they could build on the bones of this game and turn it and their reputation around atleast a bit. Let me walk around my ship and play games, punish/reward my crew, etc. Let us choose crew to add after boarding ships like odyssey. I would love to walk over even after my crew does the hard part and just execute, strand, or convert people to my crew.

[@wadeepperson6906]

It was nice we actually got a comparison between the two. A lot of other people are saying the game looks worse. It definitely has tons of improvements. Have to wait to see what else they add to make it worth the money.

[@fusionmasterable]

i think we can all agree black flag tops this vs battle hence why i re downloaded it. A much better game to reexplore if u want to feel like a pirate

[@flakoking]

Is there a black flag remaster?

[@LyteKrabec]

after this comparison want t replay ac4 not SB, thats all about new era games

[@KillerTacos54]

Excellent video

[@GymmyRhys]

please make each screenshot atleast 2.5 seconds long when you show comparison images, so that that way then we can easily compare both by prssing left and right arrow keys

[@firdanharbima6997]

7:06 but making faster ship with Stam is a bs low

[@JimvsBob]

Black Flag was peak Assassin’s Creed. They haven’t made anything close since

[@irecordwithaphone1856]

Origins was pretty great and made by the same dev team as black flag so no

[@JimvsBob]

@@irecordwithaphone1856 Origins was deathly boring

[@melonteacat3492]

Snb is good ? Meh 🤮 not my taste i still prefer black flag gameplay

[@Kadaztrof]

"Are you interested in picking up skull and bones?" No, not at all

[@KB-du3rh]

19:00 Where did they come from, where did they go? Where did they come from, musket firing squad

[@theCRACKERBOMB]

they lost me when i heard they turned boarding into an animation, that was the best part, widdling ships down and finally scoring a board was amazing, imagina you did that then a small battle occurs when you actually have to fight another captian player on the seas, would of been awesome but nah even after improvements over 10 years they dont see what ppl want.

[@SSRayner]

SKULLS & BONES lobbies are literally GHOST RECON BREAKPOINT lobbies but with pirates 🏴‍☠️

[@IonVortexx]

2:50 in and somehow, i am convinced that they created the perfect pirate game a decade ago. skull and bones is just a way to cash in on slightly improved graphics. They were better off selling a remaster of Blackflag

[@Midnight_Narrations]

With a simple reshade mod black flag looks fantastic

[@metalhead7319]

So Skull & Bones is out now? I didnt even knew.

[@Nightxx9199]

"Grounded world of assassin's creed" Bruh we lost that when we had to fight literal Egyptian gods. Chimera's and frost giants.

[@marcklank3560]

They should have made a black flag Remake and everybody would be Happy🤷

[@AmariKhumalo]

The game still looks great, no need for a remake/remaster honestly.

[@marcklank3560]

@@AmariKhumalo i know.... But would have made still more sense than this crappy In-game shop disguised as a pirate game!

[@Amin2k]

1:47 are we watching the same thing? Because for me its the total opposite. Characters in skull and bones look horrible and lifeless to me, while the black flag characters look amazing. for the age.

[@lecuistotdepzbiensur1298]

agree even if less detailled i rather have someone that look to be an actual human as a npc

[@zombiedemon1762]

8:50 So it mostly just sounds like Black Flag is much better than Skull And Bones.

[@liamrussell9103]

@nick930 Expeditions vs Snowrunner soon?? 👀👀👀

[@TheLegend-nf9wg]

I love how Ubisoft calls skull and bones a “Ubisoft original” but made a better pirate game 10 years before

[@126sebi]

you're better off buying asscreed 4 on sale for like 5 bucks take my word for it you'll enjoy it much more especially if you haven't play asscreed 4.