Plunderbund

I spent a good portion of my free time last week playing Assassin’s Creed on my Xbox 360. Fun game. Interestingly, you play as an Islamic assassin named Altair, and you assassinate Templars (and non-Christians working with Templars) in 1191AD (during the Third Crusade). Assassination targets include prominent historical figures that died during the Third Crusades (including Robert de Sable, leader of the Templars at the time). I found the game quite enjoyable.

However - as is often the case in real life - the politics of the game are more complicated than they might appear. I won’t spoil the game for any readers who might be interested in playing (tho you can read the entire plot summary on the game’s page at Wikipedia), but while the Templars methods are portrayed poorly, their goals (and King Richard, for example) are not. And the mastermind behind the Templar plot is not who you might expect.

Counter-point to my alleged Islamofascism: I spent the long weekend killing Russian and Islamic ultranationalists who were trying to nuke the west into oblivion as a US Marine or SAS operative in Call of Duty 4. It was a blast (pun not intended)! So I’ve got that going for me.