I just had to also heap praise on Assassin's Creed: Origins. Holy awesome sauce! My friend bought it to test out his new computer because I had mentioned to him that it looked promising and intriguing, and we just tried it out today. I don't have the game yet, but am planning on buying it sometime after I get through a few more games of my backlog. Anyway, fan-boy-like gushing follows!
This is based on a short play session, but me and my friend were both very, very impressed. My friend has a large screen tv/monitor that is 1080p.
AC: Origins is just gorgeous. The water effects are some of the best I have seen in a game for a very long time. (especially underwater) The ambiance is stellar, not just graphically, with the architecture being both beautiful and realistic, but sandstorms and wildlife and visuals all making you feel like this is an authentic re-imagining of what Ancient Egypt might have been like.
Even better, the sound design is unbelievable. The environmental sounds, the sound of the wind and the sand, and the ambient sounds of people and voices, the music, and just everything having to do with sound is done in a magnificent way.
I mainly just did exploring, and it was a blast. I found a bandit camp and had to run away on a camel while they chased me, but did manage to escape (although the pursuers were stubborn, I finally lost them after a time, it was actually fun to escape!)
Just wandering around in the solitude of the desert was quite atmospheric, and one of the coolest parts is when we were wandering out in the desert in the middle of nowhere, and then we saw some sort of, I guess it was supposed to be a vision/hallucination of a weird guy holding a snake, and then he vanished into the sands of the desert, and then it started raining scarab beetles. Not making this up, it was super cool! They really nailed the atmosphere in this game.
Finally, the hunting was awesome. I love the hunting mechanics in this game, hunting antelope and other wildlife and then crafting the materials for better gear was actually fun. The hunting was really well done.
If you are one of those people that love the desert like I do, and whenever you see a desert setting in a game that is like, an immediate ping on your radar and raises your interest, then this game is a must buy. The way they made the desert come alive and creating it in this game is pretty remarkable.