Assassin's Creed Valhalla is being used to promote Ireland tourism
"We want to spike players' curiosity about the featured locations"
Scenes from Assassin's Creed: Valhalla are being used in a tourism campaign to encourage visitors to pay a visit to Ireland.
Given the first expansion, Wraith of the Druids, brings Viking Eivor to Ireland, Tourism Ireland has teamed up with Ubisoft to showcase some of the game's most memorable real-life landmarks, such as Dublin, Benbulben, and the Giant's Causeway.
It's only a brief promotional video – at just 38 seconds, you can blink and miss it – but it draws on the spectacular scenery from the game, offering suggestions on how these stunning backdrops might have looked back when Vikings roamed the land. Here, take a look:
"Gamers, check out Viking Ireland in Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Wrath of the Druids. Dublin, Benbulben, the Giant’s Causeway, the Hill of Tara... have a look at these ancient sites brought to life in the game!" the company said in the video description of its latest campaign, ending with the hashtag: #FillYourHeartWithIreland (thanks, Eurogamer).
"Ubisoft has done an incredible job in bringing aspects of Celtic Ireland to life in amazing detail," said Mark Henry, central marketing director at Tourism Ireland. "This campaign is a fun and innovative way to bring Ireland to the attention of a new audience of gamers.
"We want to spike players' curiosity about the featured locations and inspire them to come and explore them in the real world."
ICYMI, title update 1.2.2 is now live for Assassin's Creed: Valhalla for all available platforms. As detailed in the patch notes, it will weigh in at anything between 6GB to 20GB, depending on what platform you're playing on.
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Players will be able to set out on Mastery Challenges which are quests that have trials to complete that will "transcend the rules of reality", with each trial testing strength (Bear) marksmanship (Wolf), and stealth (Raven). Completing these will unlock unique rewards and more options in combat, too.
Furthermore, Eivor can use the bow ability while mounted with the Mounted Archer skill, and with Shield Master, Eivor can automatically block incoming attacks by holding up their shield. The Unstoppable skill will ensure Eivor's sprint is unblockable and will knock enemies back, but this will cost stamina to perform.
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Vikki Blake is 12DOVE's Weekend Reporter. Vikki works tirelessly to ensure that you have something to read on the days of the week beginning with 'S', and can also be found contributing to outlets including the BBC, Eurogamer, and GameIndustry.biz. Vikki also runs a weekly games column at NME, and can be frequently found talking about Destiny 2 and Silent Hill on Twitter.
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