I recently started playing Assassin’s Creed III, which, despite the number, is the fifth game in the series. (Assassin’s Creed II was basically its own trilogy.) It is set in New England during the buildup to the Revolutionary War (I’m only about halfway through the game, and we just fought at Lexington and Concord and at Bunker Hill.)

The game offers many improvements to the controls, as compared to previous games in the series, and makes other changes that help game play. The new feature that I most like however, is that animals  feature prominently into the game. By that, I mean:

• You can hunt, and then sell meat, hides, pelts, and other spoils to merchants throughout the game areas;
• If you run into redcoats, you have a fighting chance of getting away, but if you run into a wolf, cougar, bear, or male elk in the wilderness, you might as well just put the controller down, wait to regenerate, and find a different route; and
• You get to pet domesticated animals.

Via tumblr.com

Really, I only care about the third thing. I thought Assassin’s Creed: Revelations was awesome for adding ziplines (although I still don’t quite understand why 16th-century Constantinople had so dang many of them everywhere), but the ability to pet a dog for no reason is gaming brilliance.

Sometimes, dogs will walk up to you and roll onto their backs, but unfortunately, there is no “belly rub” function. Get on that, please, Ubisoft!

Here are a few image macros that express my thoughts quite well: Continue reading →