Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag trailer reminds us that pirates are cool, claims to tell "true stories"

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pirates are fun guys

As much as I'd love to Eternal Sunshine my memories of the recent pirate craze (Arr! Avast! Topmast! Do ye want me to stop talking like this, ye scurvy dogs!?), I still love pirates. Pirates are great. Time has romanticized them (we tend to leave out the more horrible bits) into ruthless and cunning adventurers, profiteers free to live by their own code. The latest trailer for Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag seeks to remind us of that.

Benjamin Hornigold, Calico Jack, Charles Vane, Blackbeard... "Here, at last, are their true stories, rough and unvarnished." Wait, wait, wait. I thought we were going for the fun, romanticized pirates with buried treasure and all that? Well, alright, if you want to get into the real nasty bits, then do your worst.

I'm not sure the Golden Age of Piracy looked quite like this , though. Probably less exciting adventure, more scurvy, dysentery, smallpox, and typhus. Not that I'd rather play a game about dying from dysentery (with the possible exception of Oregon Trail).

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Tyler Wilde
Tyler Wilde
Editor-in-Chief, US

Tyler grew up in Silicon Valley during the '80s and '90s, playing games like Zork and Arkanoid on early PCs. He was later captivated by Myst, SimCity, Civilization, Command & Conquer, all the shooters they call "boomer shooters" now, and PS1 classic Bushido Blade (that's right: he had Bleem!). Tyler joined PC Gamer in 2011, and today he's focused on the site's news coverage. His hobbies include amateur boxing and adding to his 1,200-plus hours in Rocket League.

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