Assassin's Creed Valhalla

Stephen Totilo @stephentotilo
Got clarification from Ubisoft about a key AC Valhalla detail:

It's AY-vor. Long A

So I wonder if we can go back and forth between England and Scandinavia or if our homeland ends up being a prologue area we can't revisit.

You can go back to Norway at any time, but most of the game and its story is in England.

Shinobi602 @shinobi602
#AssassinsCreedValhalla supports Smart Delivery on Xbox Series X.

The Ones Who Came Before ⚔️ @acfirstciv
Key art for #AssassinsCreedValhalla.
Available to pre-order now on Amazon UK:

amzn.to/3aRFdam

That's the rumor and the French guy (Julien Chièze) said he was told gameplay was very soon and that Ubisoft didn't give the specific release date because it's a day one release for the new consoles.

Just like Assassin’s Creed Odyssey before it, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla will let you engage in homosexual romances.

Speaking with Stevivor, Narrative Director Darby McDevitt said that homosexual relationships will be possible.

“Yeah — there’s a lot of romances to have that can be found all over the map,” he said, “and you can choose how to approach them any way you see fit.”

While Odyssey came out strong with an approach that encouraged players to roleplay as a heterosexual, homosexual or asexual character, that narrative hit a bump when DLC forced your protagonist to marry and have a child. While Ubisoft apologised and corrected the mistake, one hopes that Valhalla will learn from Odyssey‘s mistakes and provide a playthrough with the need for a patch.
stevivor.com/features/in-depth/assassins-creed-valhalla-lets-you-have-homosexual-romances/

Here's hoping there's options for Ace players as well, and if not then that the romances stay optional. 

There is a lot that other developers should learn both from pre- and post-MEA Bioware

I am sorry, what? If they have loot, they are not innocent! (screamed the veteran MMO player in me)

What Ubi call "viking rap battle" is actually called flyting and it's the art of exchanging insults via verses before battle.

Some more info (from press-start.com.au/features/2020/05/01/everything-you-need-to-know-about-assassins-creed-valhalla/)

4 major kingdoms: Northcumbria, East Anglia, Mercia and Essex.
Set in the 9th centuries. This means it might be concurrent to the Northcumbria Great Heathen Army raid, but we don't play Danes so I guess we now know who are the "evil" Vikings in the game.
Our settlement can be raided (jeez, copying Fallout 4 now).
You can dual wield shields apparently (I wanted that since Skyrim said you could and then they removed it).
Branching decisions are back
There is a talking squirrel: Ratatoskr (+ other Norse gods/mythology entities might show up)...note I'm not sure if he's talking, but he is in the game
They want you to know everyone living in your settlement.

I usually don't like settlement building, but I kinda like the way they are going at it here: it's the center of the game, not a side project you have to maintain while you have more important matters to deal with.

Considering the era and that we play invaders...expect the game to make ransacking and killing innocence the morally good choice. I've complained a bit about it for Odyssey and other AC games, but you play an assassin, yet the game makes you look cool and paint you as the "good guy" so you feel morally justified by that horrible life choice. Origins is the only game that made it work by making it all about revenge and dark.