Charles Dickens style actually lent itself to spoiling very easily. He would write every chapter as a cliffhanger to draw in readers by the time the next chapter was released. So often when a new chapter came out people would immediately ask about the resolution of the cliffhanger, then read on. So it was actually…

Definitely. Hating on anyone who tries to actually build something or work towards something. It's a celebration of apathy and tribalism. Tribal societies are much more violent, and people starve and die of disease in them. They aren't some Eden like utopia.

But it was made by a multicultural team of different faiths, gender and ethnicity!

The Musketeers. I don't know if you've seen any of it, the first season came out in Britain apparently already. It's on BBC America on Sundays I think and they just aired the first episode. I thought it was quite good!

Meanwhile they support this myth of the Assassin's being good by having them rebuild all the businesses in whatever city you are in. The game, despite featuring a massive evil corporation, is actually very much in favor of laissez faire anarcho-capitalism.

But what about the compelling "Those that came before" plot. Despite having no historical record, and being a massive insult to indigenous and ancient cultures, that old sci-fi trope never gets old. It's basically the modern equivalent of the 19th century idea that every monument made by brown people was actually the…

Loved it. My one complaint was the incredible numbers of weak ships. Put half the number of ships in there, make a good three quarters of them civilian craft, and make everyone twice as hard to kill, and you have a truly epic game right there.

But they try to control the world into a state of peace. You see in the game all the time how many people are taking advantage of everyone for their own power and ends. The Templars recognize this, and use those same methods, but towards a good end. You can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs, and if those…

As I commented below, the Assassin's are clearly the evil organization, and the people who think otherwise are motivated by protagonist bias. It's a complex evil organization, that thinks it's good for some reason, but all they really do is sow misery and death everywhere they go.

But it's not revealed they are assassin's either. And based on the logic of the games, who is more likely to be a Templar than a leader of men? Especially one that uses a Piece of Eden to sway their minds. I thought the Assassins were all about freedom of choice?

I sometimes think AV Club writers are sadomasochists.
"It's just so gloriously bleak and awful and depressing!"

Ha you found me out!

The Templars are not an evil organization. That's a lie the game tells you. The Assassins are actually the bad guys. If you watch the flash-back etc, especially in the second one, you find out that like every great leader in world history was a Templar. FDR, Jesus, Gandhi, etc. etc. And some evil leaders too, but also…

The third was waaaaayyy too rushed. Hey here's the rebellion, we're going to fight now, hey we won all the way to the capital, now we're going to take the capital, end of book. It's like she rushed a political plot that was supposed to unfold over three books into the last one.

Exactly, the life they are living cannot be sustained. It couldn't for a day, let alone 75 years. You are going to rip people's children away from them, in public, in broad day light, in front of the entire country, and everyone's cool with it? Even the North Korean government LIES to it's people. They don't like…

The whole series is frankly a bit unimaginative. A plot that makes no sense, when the Japanese invented it (Battle Royale) they didn't even really try to explain it since it was so ludicrous. What's the best way to piss someone off? Steal their children, broadcast it all over the country so everyone knows you're doing…

They have nukes, how will they deliver them? The Chinese would confiscate a nuke the second it crossed the border, they couldn't shoot it at us, those missiles are huge and we'd shoot it down first. The worst thing they could do is blow it up at the DMZ, but that would hurt their army as much as ours, and probably…

If you haven't seen Goon, you should. One of the best indy movies I've seen lately.

I never really played when it was that cold. Living in the south and all. The wedgies definitely happened, but that's more of a fuck you thing than damaging.

Also there's a weird lack of energy at the end of the game. It's like, "Is this about to end?" for about a minute. I thought it was clearly inferior to a clock counting down. I don't know why they don't change it? Fear of inserted commercials maybe?