We asked two parkour athletes to rate the realism of Assassin's Creed's acrobatics, and a surprising 'crime against parkour' might actually be one of the most realistic things they saw
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I think the Assassin's Creed games are how I first learned about parkour, which would probably be nails on a chalkboard to Toby Segar and Benj Cave, two actual parkour athletes with team Storror in the UK. We asked Toby and Benj to judge Assassin's Creed's take on the sport in the latest episode of our new video series, Reality Check.
The two clearly have an affinity for the series, but took it to task in the realism department. I was surprised to learn just how effective the games' hay bale-cushioned leaps of faith might be in real life—up to eight stories with perfect execution, by Toby's reckoning—but the iconic sky high jumps of Assassin's Creed would result in "a perfect assassin's outline in the floor underneath the actual cart."
Something I really appreciated were all the little details Toby and Benj caught that just never would have occurred to me to question, like how fast the upcoming Shadows' Naoe can sprint across a tightrope or, indeed, how Mirage's Basim can do a one-story landing onto a rope and not just bounce off or slip into the streets below.
The thing Toby deemed "a hate crime against parkour" might actually be one of the most realistic moves they observed, though. In a clip from Shadows' previews, they saw big guy samurai Yasuke clamber up a ledge by swinging his leg up and putting his weight on his knee to mantle it. This move, an "alpine knee," is apparently a parkour 101 no-no. Given the sensitive nature and biomechanics of your knee, you're just never supposed to put your weight onto it like that when practicing parkour.
But this actually fits really well with Yasuke, who's your less agile, brute force tank character in Shadows, as opposed to the more nimble Naoe. It makes sense that he'd be alpine knee-level bad at parkour, especially when he's clanking around in 40 or so pounds of lamellar armor. Ubisoft's animators might have specifically selected the move to say "This guy's got a Dex score of eight at best."
Above the feasibility and physics of individual maneuvers, Benj pointed out that the biggest fictions in Assassin's Creed are probably the protagonists' iron endurance and flawless execution even after hours of rooftop antics, as well as their constant improvisation when real parkour is carefully planned ahead of time.
You can follow Toby, Benj and Storror on Instagram, while the team is also working on its own parkour sim of the same name, set to release in early access at the end of March on Steam. Meanwhile, you can follow PC Gamer on YouTube to catch future episodes of Reality Check, as well as our video reviews and other non text-based content of a PC gaming persuasion. Our previous episodes of Reality Check include a paleontologist's take on Monster Hunter monsters and a psychologist's assessment of drama in The Sims.
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NYT Connections today – my hints and answers for June 18 (#738)
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Looking for a different day? A new NYT Connections puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Tuesday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Connections hints and answers for Tuesday, June 17 (game #737). Good morning! Let's play Connections, the NYT's clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need Connections hints. What should you do once you've finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I've also got daily Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too, while Marc's Wordle today page covers the original viral word game. SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers. Today's NYT Connections words are… SMACK BARM PEA WET RANKLE ASTRONAUT GRAY WHALE COLD COFFEE RIGHT SHIP EXACTLY WINDY LEAR DEAD What are some clues for today's NYT Connections groups? YELLOW: Got an umbrella? GREEN: Completely true BLUE: Found within or formed from a specific word PURPLE: 'Slip' could be another Need more clues? We're firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four theme answers are for today's NYT Connections puzzles… What are the answers for today's NYT Connections groups? YELLOW: QUALITIES OF A RAINY DAY GREEN: SQUARELY BLUE: CONTENTS OF A POD PURPLE: BODY PART PLUS A STARTING LETTER Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM. The answers to today's Connections, game #738, are… YELLOW: QUALITIES OF A RAINY DAY COLD, GRAY, WET, WINDY GREEN: SQUARELY DEAD, EXACTLY, RIGHT, SMACK BLUE: CONTENTS OF A POD ASTRONAUT, COFFEE, PEA, WHALE PURPLE: BODY PART PLUS A STARTING LETTER BARM, LEAR, RANKLE, SHIP My rating: Moderate My score: Perfect Hi all, it's Marc on Connections duty today, back for a few days while Johnny goes on a well-earned vacation. I stared at the board for at least five minutes before finding anything today; there was simply nothing that appeared to go together. Well, that's not entirely true – there were several options that had two or three words, for instance WINDY, WET and COLD for 'weather types' or EXACTLY and RIGHT for 'Correct'. Eventually, I tried to let my mind think a little more freely, and placed DEAD and SMACK with EXACTLY and RIGHT in order to make a group that ended up being SQUARELY. With green done, I looked again and tried to think in a devious NYT way. SHIP contained the word 'hip' within in and BARM the word 'arm', so that seemed plausible. A few seconds later I'd added RANKLE ('ankle') and LEAR ('ear') and was delighted when that turned purple. That only left two groups, including the supposedly easiest yellow. I returned to that weather group, all three of which were still left on the board, and this time added GRAY to make my final group. Blue, which was unsolved by me, ended up being CONTENTS OF A POD, which I'm not sure I would ever have got. How did you do today? Let me know in the comments below. YELLOW: THINGS TO BOOK FOR A VACATION CAR, FLIGHT, HOTEL, TOUR GREEN: METTLE FIGHT, GRIT, RESOLVE, SPIRIT BLUE: BAD THINGS FOR A WEBSITE TO DO FREEZE, GLITCH, QUIT, TIMEOUT PURPLE: FIGURES IN CLASSIC DISNEY ANIMATED FILMS ELEPHANT, FAWN, MARIONETTE, MOUSE NYT Connections is one of several increasingly popular word games made by the New York Times. It challenges you to find groups of four items that share something in common, and each group has a different difficulty level: green is easy, yellow a little harder, blue often quite tough and purple usually very difficult. On the plus side, you don't technically need to solve the final one, as you'll be able to answer that one by a process of elimination. What's more, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you a little bit of breathing room. It's a little more involved than something like Wordle, however, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trip you up with tricks. For instance, watch out for homophones and other word games that could disguise the answers. It's playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.
