Assassin's Creed III - 63 amazing things we saw and did in Colonial America

Recently, two GamesRadar editors had a chance to go hands-on with Assassin's Creed III. Unlike most demos, though, we were allowed to do whatever we wanted, so we immediately began wandering around 1770s America and exploring a full sequence from the game. After talking about our individual journeys, though, we realized that we had seen and done an incredible amount of cool stuff, and we felt as though the best way to convey this was to just list every single awesome thing we saw and did as we played Assassin's Creed III.

So, without further ado, here's a list of literally everything of note we remember doing and seeing in Ubisoft's upcoming sequel.

• Before we began we got a fleeting glimpse of Desmond Miles. Sadly, that's all we got to see of the current-day section. Sadness.
• We Animus'd into the body of Connor and bashed a tomahawk into a wall. Apparently, that's how Connor notes that he's about to go kill some British people.
• We explored the area near Connor's homestead and found a boat that we could jump onto. Doing this let us sail the high seas and blow up tons of stuff. If you want to know more about that we wrote a preview specifically speaking to the different ships we blew to smithereens.
• We climbed a rocky outcrop and used tree branches to reach a high-up cliff face. As we turned, we saw a guy fly over the edge of the cliff and dangle on the side by a rope.
• We killed the people dangling him (obviously, because that’s what you do in video games) and cut the guy free.
• We talked to the dangling guy and had him return to our Homestead, adding another warm body to our startup city.

• We traveled to The Frontier and were amazed by the massive open-world environment. We're actually playing like Skyrim--just exploring, and finding things to do, climbing, and--wait, did you hear that?
• We had a quick-time event fight with a wolf, which we won.
• And an elk, which we won.
• And a bear, which…
• Alright, so we died in a QTE attack with a bear. But we came back and killed its face off. Or at least... a bear. It might not have been the same bear.
• Soon after killing the bear we saw two baby bears playing. We think we've killed the mother of a bear family.

• Now we feel bad.
• Poor bear. At least we did the right thing and skinned the bear, leaving a pile of bones and blood. Bear Grease doesn't help our guilt, but the pelt is in good nick. And we have a pocket full of bear claws too.
• We also skinned an elk, getting good materials (since we killed it with our axe).
• We also skinned a wolf, getting mediocre materials (since we killed it with our bow and arrow).
• We also killed and skinned a hare, getting awful materials since we used a gun. Like, we’re shocked there was anything left to skin. We got a Hare Pelt, Hare Meat, and a Rabbit's Foot? Do hares carry rabbits' feet for luck or something?
• We killed three more wolves but didn't skin them. As we walked off, the screen suddenly warped for a second and a warning flashed up: "Failing to skin your next kill will result in desynchronisation." Of course--you're playing the memories of a huntsman. There's no way he would kill without taking what he could from the body.

• We watched a bear fishing for jumping salmon. This made us feel better, as we silently observed this beautiful scene at the top of a waterfall. Until he spotted us and came running. We hid up a tree.
• We ran through treetops. Tree-traversal is brilliant. You only need to hold one button to run (just that now--it's been streamlined) from branch to branch. You can still jump freely, but you might get hurt.
• We jumped off a tree and got hurt. And by got hurt we meant died.
• We spent so much time outside that the day to night transitions occurred.
• We enjoyed watching glow-worms in the night air.
• And butterflies during the day.

Check out the Assassin's Creed III reveal trailer for footage of Connor killing all sorts of stuff

• We tried, and failed, to kill them both.
• We reached the edge of the world…well, the edge of the Animus world, at least. It looks a little different, and now appears to be reflective shards of a mirror, like a barrier, along with the message “Are not available during current memory.” Still, there's plenty to explore that is.
• We stood in a fire and watched Connor do a merry little “oh no my feet are on fire” kind of dance. He kept doing it until he died in a small heap. In retrospect, we likely should have moved him out of the fire.
• We rudely stared at a man at the dock as he slurped noisily from a dish. Very noisily.
  
• We threw money at orphans, not because we felt bad for them, but because we sort of had to.
• We realized that orphans would swarm us until we paid them off, drawing attention to our presence and getting in the way, so we had to pay them off to get them to leave us alone.