The Art of Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag

Sometimes, it’s difficult being an adult. You have to balance what looks cool to you, or what is fun for you, with what other people think. It becomes even more difficult when you have a significant other living with you, as you have to balance your interests with those of another person who may have totally different interests than you in the limited space that you call home.  And until you actually have children of your own, it is difficult to fathom that when they arrive, you have to take a critical view of what you like versus what is appropriate for your children to view, play with, or listen to. That Suicidal Tendencies CD you’ve been bumping since ’83 may in fact be awesome, but you don’t let your children listen to it. That Batman poster of his back being broken by Bane is pretty cool, but it might not be something you want your 4 year old to look at.
But sometimes, you find something that fires on all of these cylinders. It’s just so perfect for everyone that lives in your little condo that it just works. The first time you see it, your inner fanboy just screams “Yes, yes, a thousand times yes!” You bring it home to your wife who doesn’t even remotely care about video games and she makes a comment like “Wow, that book is actually really pretty!” You know it’s going to be amazing before you open it. And after the kids go to bed, you go to the couch and slowly start turning the pages…..
But let’s stop there. Because, honestly, I could talk about this book, “The Art of Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag” for hours. And I’m not even an “Art Guy”. Paul Davies did such a wonderful job of compiling the artwork that some sort of award should be given. But more credit should be given to Raphael Lacoste and his team. Turning through the pages, we see so many beautiful picture of this game which is set in Havana, Santo Domingo, and Costa Rica that it sometimes takes your breath away.
The best description I can give to this book is the discussion I had with my wife last night after dinner. Basically, I told, her that I had played the first AC game. And while I had enjoyed it, I wouldn’t have called it my favorite game ever. Maybe the top ten. The second and third AC I hadn’t even played. Sometimes life happens and we get busy, or there are other games that released at the same time that I was more interested in playing that released at the same time. I’m not a professional blogger, and frankly, I have to be extremely judicious about which games I buy because I don’t buy new games often at all. But then rumors of ACIV started swirling. And my friends who DO play a lot of new games started talking about how amazing this new installment was going to be. And I thought, “Okay, I’ll give it a rental and see what’s up.” Then I checked out the trailer and said to myself “Okay, I’ll have to buy it, but I’ll probably buy it used.” Yesterday I was handed this book and asked to take a look and see what I thought. And after looking through it for several hours, I can honestly say I’ll be going to pick up a copy as soon as possible
If you need any ideas for a Christmas present for the gamer in your life, you should sprint, not walk to www.titanbooks.com and buy this book. It isn’t a common Christmas present, this one is a “Hide it under the couch, “Guess that’s all, Oh wait, what is this hiding under here?” kind of present.