Have you noticed? You can’t spell ‘Edward Kenway’ without ‘wayward’. And the protagonist of Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag truly embodies the word. At the game’s beginning, he spins a story to his wife about riches in the New World and leaves Bristol by boat. “I want food that don’t make me sick,” he tells her. “I want walls that hold back the wind. I want a decent life.”

He writes home once a year, and otherwise behaves like a man with no responsibilities, to his family or his fellow sailors. After a sea battle spits him out on the shore of Cape Bonavista, he winds up in an altercation with an Assassin named Duncan Walpole. Or “posh git”, as Kenway calls him. When Walpole tries to negotiate passage to Havana, Kenway attempts a robbery, and the fight escalates to the point of murder.

“I’m onto you, Sneaksby,” Kenway cackles, chasing his quarry through the jungle with carefree abandon, as if playing a game of tag that incorporates sabers.

Soon enough, Walpole lies dead in Cuba, his body hidden in a bush, and his outfit donned by his killer. Kenway impersonates the Assassin in the hope of profiting from a deal with a local governor - selling the maps found in Walpole’s pocket, which detail the location of every Brotherhood hideout in the region.

It’s worth noting just how unusual an introduction this is to a protagonist in the series. The induction of Ezio Auditore into the Brotherhood in Assassin’s Creed 2 had been ritualistic and reverent. In a ceremony held at the top of a tower, witnessed by some of the greatest minds of the Renaissance, Ezio had somberly accepted his role in tearing down the Templar’s control of humanity. That centuries-long mission was held to be sacrosanct.

For Kenway, by contrast, the peaked hood is merely a costume to be exploited. By the time he has a proper conversation with a robed-up follower of the Creed, he’s killed still more assassins, and betrayed the location of the rest to Europe’s great empires. Then, he has the audacity to insult them. “By God, you bravos are a cheery bunch eh? All frowns and furrowed brows,” he laughs upon meeting the Assassin mentor Ah Tabai.

Yet Kenway was the perfect match for Assassin’s Creed players in 2013. Ubisoft had released six entries in seven years, and the lore of the series was already a tangled muddle of science fiction and lineage. In fact, the overarching plot that connected the games was so unpopular that Ubisoft had prematurely killed off its modern-day protagonist, Desmond, in Assassin’s Creed 3. As initial plans for a trilogy expanded to the point of confusion, fans became tired of tracking story threads across hundreds of hours of play. Many wanted a soft reset.

In that context, Kenway was a breath of ocean air. This was a man unburdened by lore; one who would never have the patience to read a codex entry about aliens or Pieces of Eden. He laughed in the face of po-faced expositionists, and interpreted the Creed in whatever way he saw fit. To him, the mantra “everything is permitted” was a continuation of Nassau’s pirate mindset - representing freedom from country, duty and allegiance.

At the same time, he offered plenty for series diehards to dig into. Thanks to Assassin’s Creed’s non-chronological journey through history, fans of the series knew something about Edward Kenway even before meeting him. Namely, that his son Haytham would grow up to become a Templar grandmaster, and that his grandson Connor would in turn become an Assassin during the American Revolutionary War. Somehow, a certain ambivalence to the cause was baked into Edward’s DNA.

This relaxed attitude to matters of import was a powerful match for the format of Black Flag, which presented players with greater freedom than ever before. Where its predecessor had confined sea missions to a particular corner of the map, Black Flag let you steer your ship to any point on your compass. It didn’t mind whether you were doggedly pursuing main quests, chasing the treasure in the belly of merchant vessels, or hunting hammerhead sharks with harpoons. If the plot took a backseat to more trivial concerns, as they so often do in open-world adventures, then Black Flag could support that. After all: it’s an approach that suits a man who digs in his heels when faced with obligation.

Ultimately, Kenway is changed by his time in the West Indies. His story takes place over a span of several years - long enough for him to see the damage done by his actions. “For years I’ve been rushing around, taking whatever I fancied, not giving a tinker’s curse for those I hurt,” he says. “Yet here I am, with riches and a reputation, feeling no wiser than when I left home. When I turn around and look at the course I’ve run, there’s not a man or woman that I love left standing beside me.”

On her deathbed, a friend asks Kenway to clean up the mess he’s made. It’s this plea that convinces him to reassess the ideas of the Assassins - which have always defied simple understanding, even for longtime players. “If nothing is true, then why believe anything? And if everything is permitted, why not chase every desire? It might be that this idea is only the beginning of wisdom, not its final form,” he muses.

I won’t lie to you: Kenway is a little less fun once he’s wised up. Controlling a wrecking ball is undeniably exhilarating, and the resulting hangover is more of an apology tour. Yet his redemption arc is convincing and well-earned. Stubborn personalities tend to require plenty of lessons before embracing change. And Kenway’s slow transformation befits a long game - giving the story somewhere to travel while you’re still mopping up missions on far-flung islands.

Now that Resynced is on the horizon, he's the perfect man to meet the moment once more: heading up a game that rejects the stodgy RPG trappings of modern Assassin's Creed in favour of a simpler call to the sea. Black Flag wants you to feel wayward, and Edward Kenway is ready to give you permission.

Jeremy Peel is a freelance journalist and friend to anyone who will look at photos of his dogs.

IGN is on the ground in Paris all weekend, capturing all of the breaking news at the Rocket League Championship Series Paris Major. Catch the Semifinals and Finals on IGN’s YouTube channel.

When Rocket League first came out 11 years ago, it appeared on the surface to be a relatively simple proposition: players face off in a soccer-like arena and battle to get a giant ball into a net. But, more than a decade later, the game has amassed a huge following and a distinct spot in the world of competitive Esports.

That growth culminates this weekend in the Rocket League Championship Series Paris Major - the game’s biggest-ever in-person tournament (in a venue holding up to 25 thousand) fans gathering to see which one of 16 teams takes home the biggest share of a $350 thousand prize pot.

I spoke to the team behind Rocket League about how the game is still growing, why they consider it to have an “infinite” skill ceiling, and the massive tech behind next-generation broadcast.

“The vast majority of everything you will see in broadcast, even in-arena triggering of lights, the light panels on the floor, [the in-game and arena cameras],is all being used by Unreal Engine,” says Cliff Shoemaker, Competitive Programming Director at Epic Games. “I think the real-time rendering of everything opens up a lot of doors. It’s even in the hype chamber. We have so many options that we can use in that space, [to] create stuff that maybe we can't create in-game in UE3.”

Beyond Unreal Engine, the team at Epic brings their own server team to the Paris Major to make sure the competition remains fair by guaranteeing zero lag. The system feeds the production team real-time data every two seconds to ensure that each team experiences the exact same ping.

Mauricio Longoni, Senior Director of Game Publishing for Rocket League, says events like the Paris Major underscore why Rocket League is growing event after being out for so long.

“We call [Rocket League] its own sport,” Longoni says. “It's not a simulation of soccer. It's not a simulation of volleyball. It's its own thing. So as a sport, that fan base keeps growing and more people play and they start training and getting better. RLCS is a big component of that.

"The competitiveness of Rocket League is one of the strongest pillars and we keep investing in that. RLCS is certainly a big part of that. Having these big celebration moments, having a place for players to grow and get better [is] a big component."

Globally, RLCS registrations are growing at an average of over 24% per year. Longoni says the game’s low barrier to entry (it’s free to play) and relatively simple mechanics are a big reason why.

“It's simple, but not simplistic,” Logoni says. You get into a car, you run around, you hit the ball and try to hit a goal. The ceiling is infinite because it's physics-based and it's player ability-based. Speaking a little bit about the future, I think there's always an opportunity for us to provide better ways for players to improve their skills. You can keep playing online [to] get better, but can we help players get better [by] giving them more ways to train. That’s on our mind.”

Beyond the large-scale competitions like the Paris Major, the team at Epic is looking at ways to bring Rocket League into the future. To the team, partnerships are a key pillar of that evolution. Throughout its history, Rocket League has teamed up with everyone from WWE to LEGO to Jurassic Park. On the heels of the recently-announced Star Wars Fortnite islands, Shoemaker said they are open to more collaborations as long as they served the game's player base.

“I think there's excitement on my level to emulate a lot of what they've created [in Fortnite],” Shoemaker says. “I think it's possible because of the platform they have built and the user-generated content that's so accessible on that platform. [So] yes, 100% it's something the Rocket League audience deserves to have.”

“Rocket League has a history of partnerships,” Logoni says. “We’ve had Fast and Furious cars in the game. We have real brand cars in the game. In terms of looking forward, 100% we want to [continue] our partnerships and bring in new partners to really bring what the players in the community want to see in the game. We are always on the lookout for that.”

Michael Peyton is the Senior Editorial Director of Events & Entertainment at IGN, leading entertainment content and coverage of tentpole events including IGN Live, San Diego Comic Con, gamescom, and IGN Fan Fest. He's spent 20 years working in the games and entertainment industry, and his adventures have taken him everywhere from the Oscars to Japan to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Follow him on Bluesky @MichaelPeyton

Warhorse Studios has confirmed its next Kingdom Come game will be an "open-world RPG," and it's expected to launch next fiscal year.

Communications director Tobias Stolz-Zwilling and community manager Tom Grey helped clear up any confusion during a recent livestream hosted by the studio. It followed the announcement that Warhorse had plans to develop what it called a "new Kingdom Come adventure," a promise that had some fans spinning theories about what direction the acclaimed medieval series may head in next.

Stolz-Zwilling put any rumors of new movies or major gameplay changes to rest when he confirmed that the currently untitled Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 follow-up will, indeed, be an "open-world RPG." Further details about whether it will be a full-on Kingdom Come: Deliverance 3 were not shared, but Grey at least referred to it as one of its two "proper games" in the works.

Did you miss our stream yesterday?

Tobi joined with some news about our latest
announcement, while Chris and Tom continued their
journey in #KCD2.

Catch up now on our YouTube channel. pic.twitter.com/buAV9Bsyjb

"We still continue expanding the universe of Kingdom Come," Stolz-Zwilling said. "That is also very dear to us. Do not forget that Kingdom Come: Deliverance always was and still is and always will be an absolute passion project here in the studio."

As he noted, game director Daniel Vávra has begun work on a Kingdom Come movie, but the project announced earlier this week sounds like it will fall more in line with the games Warhorse has released thus far. The other of the studio's two "proper games" announced earlier this week is, of course, a new, additional open-world RPG set in The Lord of the Rings' fictional world of Middle-earth.

Later, Stolz-Zwilling also confirmed that Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 lead designer Prokop Jirsa is leading the Kingdom Come team, with design director Viktor Bocan placed in charge of the Middle-earth team. When the latter project will launch remains a mystery, but the livestream did at least come with the promise that, as teased by Phil Rogers, CEO of Warhorse parent company Embracer Group, the new Kingdom Come adventure is expected to launch next fiscal year.

That puts its tentative release window somewhere between April 2027 and March 2028. More importantly, as Stolz-Zwilling said, fans probably "don't have to wait seven years for another Kingdom Come."

"We won't have to wait that long until the next game," Grey said. "That's the aim."

Stolz-Zwilling chimed in: "But you know how game development works, so this is the plan: next fiscal year. That's where we want to release it, and again, we will do what we can to do that, to achieve that."

We gave Kingdom Come: Deliverance an 8/10 review upon its launch in 2018, and its sequel a 9/10 last year. As Warhorse rides toward its next projects, you can see what the developer had to say about its games' difficulty.

Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).