Yeah definitely. Although I still remain hopeful that Ezio's personal motivation is just that, and that the backdrop is still used to convey something else in addition. And hopefully without undoing its entire message in the end.

With a game with this level of hype and anticipation you kinda have to be speaking on many levels simultaniously to different groups of your audience. A mainstream hit communicates different things to different people, and cringeworthy as it may be, a period James Bond is probably exactly the right way of conveying part of the game to people who find that appealing. Hopefully there's more to it when you scratch the surface.

I remember when the producer spoke to GSY about it and he seemed very passionate about history generally and about people through history specifically. He might've given up on those grand ideas of his and this might just be Ninja Gaiden, but I reckon there's a possibility still - and a degree of likelihood - that it's once more placed in a specific time for more reasons than its sci fi overlay.

Well, AC sold like a goombajillion koopazillion copies and recieved pretty awesome scores, so I'm kinda just assuming this is hyped. I have the worst feel for that kind of stuff of anyone ever probably. I mean in the runup to its release Halo 3 was hard to miss unless you bent backwards and stared up your own arse (though I'm sure some people would find traces of it there too, what with all the teabagging) but apart from that I keep hearing words like "overrated" and "didn't live up to the hype" constantly that baffle me completely.

I mean take for instance Killzone 2.. sure there was that trailer and people were doing their usual being people with a pinch of idiot chucked in on forums, and I'm sure a lot of people hoped it would be good and a lot of people couldn't sleep, fearing nightmarish dream encounters with a KZ2 that actually WAS good and hopelessly developed for a platform most waking hours are spent hating. Despite ALL of that, when KZ2 actually came out it was just a game - a pretty good one at that - and I couldn't tell you if the hype train had crashed or turned into a large batch of doves and transcended this plane into heaven. Dove heaven. I just don't have a handle on that stuff.

I prolly should just point out that AC2 is Ubi's most expensive title and that they clearly have a lot riding on it (riding on italian Q made wooden contraptions as it were) and that the videogame community, and plural thereof, seems to be paying attention. Although the brand of attention differs - some cheap knockoffs and some officially licensed, overpriced ones.