Ever since the Assassin's Creed franchise added multiplayer, fans of the series have known what to expect. This year's Assassin's Creed 4 also includes multiplayer, of course. However, it adds a new feature that promises to shake things up.

"Game Lab" lets players create their own rules in online matches. For example, you can create a mode where players can only be killed using pistols. You can remove specific abilities. According to Ubisoft, there are 200 different things you can tweak when creating custom matches.

Read more: Introducing the "Frantic' game mode »

Whether you like it or not, Assassin's Creed is an annualized franchise, and will remain so until audiences stop being interested in stabbing people square in the face. You have to give the people what they want, right? All the same, it can be jarring to hear Ubisoft talk about its rolling stream of assassin games so frankly, mentioning three are in development right now.

Read more: Two-three year cycles to encourage risk-taking »

If you can't give a console maker exclusive games, you can at least get a little leverage out of exclusive content. Ubisoft is offering up exclusive missions for Assassin's Creed IV and Watch Dogs on PlayStation 4 and PS3, Sony announced during its pre-E3 press conference, including the return of Assassin's Creed III: Liberation star Aveline.

Read more: Three missions for AC4, four for Watch Dogs »

The alternate history of the Assassin's Creed universe can be an intimidating world to navigate. Spanning multiple eras in time, the franchise has its many disparate heroes connected by Desmond, a modern day successor that taps into memories trapped in his DNA. It's so complicated that Ubisoft has created an encyclopedia--one that is constantly revised year after year.

Assassin's Creed 3 ended Desmond's story, letting go of narrative baggage that was holding the franchise down. "It was a barrier to entry for people that want to pick it up," Darby McDevitt, lead writer of Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag, admitted.

Read more: Joining the Templars »

Assassin's Creed 3 was an ambitious, but ultimately very flawed, game. While many were quite fond of the narrative twist of the game's introduction, others were frustrated by how slowly the game progressed. It would take many hours before players would even set foot in the American Revolution--the very thing that the game advertised! Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag won't repeat that mistake, the game's lead writer promised us.

Read more: Tree-running and fighting from the get-go »

Assassin's Creed 4 will launch with a free companion app for tablets, enabling "second screen gameplay" that's so trendy nowadays. And it will be available for all platforms, no SmartGlass required.

The tablet will offer functionality that's typically reserved for Wii U games. For example, you'll be able to see an in-game map on the tablet, zoom in and mark points of interest on the screen. The tablet will communicate in real-time with the game, so by highlighting an objective on the map, you'll see a marker appear immediately on the game screen.

Read more: Play offine and asynchronously as well »

Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag stars yet another new assassin, Edward Kenway, and that means a fresh backstory from the historical-fiction series. Kenway has a strong sense of justice like his predecessors, and a new trailer suggests his pirating ways are his way of getting back at the royal and elite classes.

Watch: Pirates rob from the rich »

Assassin's Creed games have always had a strong historical backbone, as members of the ancient order Forrest Gumped their way through prominent events in the Third Crusade, Italian Renaissance, and American Revolution. Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag is no different, and a new trailer gives a short historical primer on the Golden Age of Piracy.

Watch: Famous faces appearing in AC4 »

Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag is going to be a transitional title, with one foot in the current generation and another foot in the next. The PlayStation 4 version, naturally, will be able to pull off a few tricks that the current-gen versions can, and Ubisoft has talked about what we can expect from it.

Read more: Improved visuals and social functions »

Games have been growing progressively more cinematic, working in scenes that could belong in a Hollywood blockbuster. But technical limitations still get in the way of otherwise simple tasks, as Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag lead writer Darby McDevitt has discovered.

Read more: 'Like Jackie Chan writing a movie with his fight choreographers' »

The Assassin's Creed series is a consistent money-maker for Ubisoft, and that has turned the series into an annualized juggernaut. That can run the risk of franchise fatigue, but Ubisoft Montreal head Yannis Mallat doesn't think that's a problem for the series.

Read more: 'The gamers are happy and it's our job to make them happy' »

Juggling two jobs can be difficult for anyone, but Captain Edward Kenway seems to take the responsibilities of both pirate and Assassin in his stride. Ubisoft today dropped a "gameplay reveal" trailer for Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag, showing the kind of salty shenanigans players can expect from its latest open-world murder simulator.

Watch: Avast, ye scurvy sea dogs! »

In this in-depth feature, we explore where the "present day" narrative of Assassin's Creed 4 can go. Note that there are many spoilers from across the entire Assassin's Creed franchise.

In unveiling Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag, Ubisoft has revealed their vision of the Golden Age of Piracy. Fans are learning much about Edward Kenway and the pirate's life that will surround him. However, little is known about the modern-day setting for Black Flag. Following the fate of Desmond Miles in Assassin's Creed 3, there's a lingering question mark as to where AC's modern narrative goes from there, with the answers only lying within Abstergo.

Read more: Abstergo's role in shaping the future »

You and I know pirates to be cheery drunkards, perhaps made of plasticine, who plunder cursed booty and battle sea monsters. Yet, Ubisoft Montreal claims, this is all fiction. The developer has said it is "giving pirates the HBO, reality treatment" in Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag, suggesting that perhaps piracy wasn't all hook hands and perching parrots.

Read more: "a fantastic opportunity for pirates in video games" »

It's fair to say that the last couple years have brought with it a wave of Assassin's Creed fatigue. Assassin's Creed 2 was well-received back in 2009; but the formula has felt a little more tired with each passing year. Even a shift to the American Revolution hasn't been enough for the series to shake that faint sense of exhaustion.

So for Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag--the fourth since 2009--Ubisoft is appealing to the very soul of the internet, and making their latest assassin a pirate. Not only that, he'll be running with a formidable cast of real-life buccaneers, including the likes of Edward "Blackbeard" Teach, Charles Vane, and Anne Bonny. It's not quite Pirates of the Caribbean, but it should be enough to tap into the same fascination that made Johnny Depp's star vehicle into a megabucks franchise.

Read more: Key characters and generic crew »