The posturing between Texas and Texas A&M has finally hit the absurd mark.
First, A&M sends a break-up letter to the Big XII. But it’s cool, everyone, the Aggies still want to be friends and will be sure to let the Big XII down easy. After all, when it comes to a conference that contains a heated rivalry such as the one they have with Texas, it’s important to be considerate when jumping ship to the SEC.
Not to be outdone in absurdity, Texas’ internet mouthpiece, aka Chip Brown of Orangebloods.com, tweeted that should A&M dare leave for the SEC it’s over between the two of them. No more football game, they’ll play Notre Dame Thanksgiving night instead.
How ND got mixed up in this, I have no idea. The shark has officially been jumped.
Firstly, just consider the source. This is the same guy that last offseason had his sources assure him that the superconferences were coming, with Texas bolting to what would be the Pac-16, A&M going to the SEC, Nebraska to the Big 10. The Big XII was even going have its scraps picked up by the Big East! In the end, all he got right was Nebraska jumping ship (easy to do since they already did it) and Texas found themselves holding the Big XII by the balls with a sweetheart contract, full well knowing they were going to spring the Longhorn Network the following year.
I have no doubt Chip has great sources inside of UT; however, those sources are not dumb. They know Chip is one of the most followed UT news sources and one that I have seen quoted and re-tweeted by several national media outlets and sports writers. If Chip gets a scoop like Texas will replace the Aggies with ND on their schedule, people are going to listen. It’s a shot across the bow to A&M, and something that will get everyone talking. It’s a political play and a damned smart one at that.
As much as I hate the Longhorns (if you are a new reader, Texas A&M would be my Texas school of choice), I can’t begrudge Texas for making use of a media outlet like Chip. However, if Texas is going to create a steaming pile bigger than Bevo’s droppings, it should at least be feasible.
ND/Texas on Thanksgiving night not will not happen, period.
Any ND fan knows that the ND/USC rivalry game has USC’s home leg over Thanksgiving weekend. During years which ND hosts Southern Cal, another west coast trip is planned. This gives the team a nice warm-weather location to end the season every year as well as keeping an annual Irish presence in the state of California for recruiting purposes.
Currently, the ND/USC contract extends to 2016 and that game will not be going away anytime soon (read: ever). As for the other west coast opponent, ND currently has a home-and-home agreement with Stanford stretching until 2019. So I’m not sure what Chip’s source is thinking, but ND has it’s turkey-day plans booked for quite a while and ND isn’t exactly in the habit of setting fire to such contracts at the whim of another school. To add on to the absurdity, Texas and ND are already booked to play in two separate two year home-and-home series in 2015-2016 and 2019-2020. All four games are currently slated to be early season or opening games for both teams.
While both ADs might be good friends and while all of college football would likely love (or love to hate) such a match up during Thanksgiving weekend, it ain’t happening anytime soon.
This breakup is like watching Ronnie and Sam scream at each other in the Jersey Shore and then having the Situation create absurd rumors to keep you two at each other’s throats. Seriously, leave my alma mater the hell out of this mess.
It’s time to get back on track with this thing. Football season is almost upon us and this series needs to be finished before then!
Thus far, we’ve covered what a student athlete can get with their scholarships and addressed the revenue argument for why players should be paid. Now it’s time to move on to another common argument to pay the players and that’s using the Olympic Model. Not only is this the next logical stop, but it also deals with another sticky situation in college athletics: endorsements.
For those that are unaware of what the current Olympic Model is, here is a quick run down. Originally, only amateur athletes would participate in the Games, but now pros are allowed to play, and individuals can receive endorsements and pay from their sponsors. One important thing to note here is that the players are not being paid by simply being on the team.
So the Olympics, to a point, are very much like college athletics. You have a large group of athletes on a national team ready to compete, but a select few are actually making money. The only difference here is that the athletes making money at the Olympics are doing so legitimately.
The Olympic Model also covers some sticky endorsement and merchandise situations as well. With this model, any likeness of the athletes can be used and easily compensated for plus if an athlete’s jersey is sold, they can receive royalties. Simple right?
Well, not really.
First off, consider jersey sales alone. Many schools, and ND is one, do not print names on the back of their jerseys (yes, yes, bowl game exception, I know). Now while you can make an argument that a player would only receive money for the time they were at the school, but there are some issues there as well. The #3 is still a huge seller at ND, and it isn’t just because of Michael Floyd, but because of Joe Montana. The #1 as well is quite the generic number that many schools use in their jersey sales as well that has no relation to a player.
So this means players can get rather “lucky” by coming into a program with said famous numbers available. What a nice little recruiting tool that could be used as well for a player looking to maximize their revenue.
Even when you consider third-party sponsors, another sticky situation arises. If a player is making a considerable amount of cash, how do you keep him in the classroom when he is making considerable money? In short, you really can’t save for the threat of said player becoming academically ineligible. While a sponsor could simply just cut ties, but, depending on the money involved, a sponsor would likely want to keep their investment protected and would definitely cut a few academic corners here and there to help out.
If you think it’s hard to control renegade boosters, have fun with an entire corporation.
I’ll be honest, despite the fact that I am punching some holes into the Olympic Model argument, I do see it as having potential. The NCAA could possibly use this as a starting point if they wished to go that route; however, it doesn’t completely cover the situations that exist in the college game. Perhaps with some additional regulations, it could be a possibility (and I will discuss this in a later post), but on its own, it is still lacking.
Alright, DMQ at HerLoyalSons has kicked off the preseason edition of the Irish Blogger Gathering, so it’s time to get this thing rolling. I honestly don’t have much for an intro here, and really, it isn’t needed, so let’s just jump straight to the questions.
1. Go to youtube, pick a song that a) applies to your life in some way and b) will serve as the unofficial 2011 Fighting Irish Football Anthem. Extra points if you entirely avoid any band with members born in Ireland. Disqualification for any use of Freekbass. Embed the video for that song in your answers and explain why it’s so fitting under both qualifications A and B.
If I’m picking a theme for the season, I want it to pump me up and have an edge. After much thought and several different contenders, I’m going metal with Killswitch Engage’s “Starting Over”.
Why the song has to apply to my life is beyond me (pretty sure DMQ is looking for ammo here with music choices/reasons), but I’ll roll with it. There’s always points in life where it’s time to hit the reset button or at the very least want to. I’m not going to go all LiveJournal in here with details (seriously, not metal), but that should qualify for part A.
As far as the Irish, 2011 comes on the heels of what was a rather crazy 2010 season. We definitely ended on a serious high, taking down Utah, USC, and a bowl win against Miami; however, there were some very, very frustrating lows: giving up a Michigan game winning drive at home, losing to Sparty on a fake field goal (by tripping over ourselves no less), a defensive collapse against Navy, and a WTF coaching decision against Tulsa. It doesn’t take much to see 2010’s glass as half-empty or half-full.
We’ve been caught hook, line, and sinker before by a new coach and and yet another “return to glory” only to watch everything crumble before us. The relationship with ND football has been a constant cycle of high hopes and crushed dreams to say the least. We are damn near programmed at this point to brace for our eventual fall.
Here we are again having plenty to be excited for and even have landed in the preseason top 25 once again, but this time around, Kelly is adamant that this 2011 squad hasn’t done anything yet. The Irish know that they have to get back in the BCS picture, that’s the goal. This isn’t the year for silver linings or “could have been” situations, it’s the time to start winning again.
Whether it is our previous national titles, our previous failures, or even 2010, the past is the past. It’s time to start over and get Notre Dame back where we all want it to be.
2. Now that you’ve got your unofficial anthem rocking the home office, predict the single biggest play, positive or negative for the Irish, that will occur this season in a Notre Dame football game. Color this prediction with situation, players involved, opposing team, and even weather conditions. It’s the pre-season. Let’s see what your imaginations are doing.
The situation is all too familiar for the Irish. Once again the Irish took a late fourth quarter lead against Michigan, and once against Michigan has mounted a last minute drive and the Irish defense has their backs against the wall.
Trying to protect a 24-20 lead, the Irish defense finds themselves line up on their own 6 with just 30 seconds left in the game. It’s 3rd and goal and every Irish fan has the “here we go again” sinking feeling and I’ve plastered about 10 different #NDFBIsDeterminedToKillMe tweets as Denard Robinson seems to have the Irish defense figured out in this drive that started inside the Michigan 20 after ND failed to get a first down to run out the clock.
Denard sits back in a 4-wide shotgun with a single back and takes the snap. Carlo Calabrese fires through the gap on the blitz only to be picked up on a cut block by Denard’s RB protection. Seeing no immediate hot-route, Denard panics and scrambles to his left. Manti T’eo, serving as spy on the play, decides he has an angle and goes full speed at Robinson who has his eyes upfield. Robinson sees an opening for a TD pass, prepares to throw on the run, only to be hit so hard by ND’s favorite Hawaiian that, somewhere in San Diego, Tate Forcier falls flat on his face.
The ball flies backwards 5 yards, a clear fumble, T’eo pops up and dives on the ball. The Big House is stunned as the visiting ND band’s drumline busts out “Metallica” and the scattered Irish fans in the stands go nuts. As the booth reviews and delays the inevitable, Herbstreit eats crow on national TV saying that ND’s defense is what made the last stand and won the game, giving the Irish defense scary loads of confidence to carry over into the rest of the season.
3. I’m a fan of the cinematic hit, “Kicking and Screaming.” I know, it’s a film you all love too. So naturally we’d all like to re-live that moment when they’re playing “Would You Rather.” So let’s do so: Would you rather suffer a humiliating loss to Michigan this year, or a humiliating loss to Southern Cal? Why? And stop eyeing that chicken across the street, perv.
Good God, this is like asking whether I’d like a bullet to the brain or heart, either one will kill me.
Michigan is rebuilding in a scramble with a new head coach and a defense that is still full of holes. Add on to that, you have College Gameday on campus filled with the ESPN talking heads that are just oh so ready to call the Irish frauds at the drop of a hat and Desmond Howard can give us all a shit-eating grin as he breaks down how he told us so as we rage post game from the loss. Oh yeah, and the rest of the nation will see it, as it is an early season night game on ABC. Prepare to be the national punchline again.
USC is still reeling from sanctions. Beating them can always carry this excuse, but losing to a crippled USC will have the sanction talking point beat across all our faces. And then it happened at home, oh joy, we get to see USC celebrate on our home turf again. It will be the first night game in ND in 21 years, meaning we will all go into the game raging drunk and exit the game just raging once our football and alcohol buzz wears off. Oh, and NDNation will just explode citing everything from off colored gold helmets, breaking tradition by playing a night game, to irrational Kelly hatred for the reasons why we lost.
What a great pair of choices DMQ. You are a bastard.
I’ll take the Michigan loss, only because I will be personally attending the USC game and it will be my girlfriend’s first experience of ND football. God help her if she has to experience ND fail live on top of a pissed off boyfriend.
Neither one of these scenarios better happen, WHY DID YOU PUT THIS IN THE UNIVERSE MUCH LESS IBG, DMQ?!
4. Great teams require leadership, and with Notre Dame being the only truly national college football program in the country, a great Notre Dame football team requires national leaders. So pick one. Name a player on the Irish roster in 2011 who will lead the nation in a particular, official NCAA category. Also specify how much he’ll lead the nation by indicating his national rank in that category. Note: You must be predicting this leader to finish at least as high as 10th in the nation in your chosen category. Bonus Points: Don’t pick David Ruffer – the best player on the Irish Roster.
Oh look a Ruffer reference!
The obvious picks are either Floyd for receptions/TDs or T’eo for tackles. Honestly, I could go either way here, but seeing as how Floyd’s health gives me pause (and Crist seeming to have red zone accuracy issues), I’m going to take T’eo with tackles on this one. I’m not sure if he’ll take top rank here, but I would not be at all surprised to see him in the top five.
With a season under his belt, I think T’eo’s scary natural ability will be even more refined leading to far less bad angles and less unneeded knockout attempts.
5. You’ve already done more parsing of Brian Kelly’s words than is healthy since he first took a podium in this pre-season. What’s the single most surprising thing he’s said in that time?
Honestly, the whole “top 25 t-shirt” thing shocked me. It probably shouldn’t have in hindsight, but I remember it sticking with me.
Maybe I’m still too used to the Weis bravado since I worked under him as a student manager and saw far too many of his pressers. I wouldn’t have begrudged Kelly at all if he said he expected his team to be there and stay there this season.
So much of ND is usually defined in my mind as expecting to be one of the best. I have no doubt Kelly has this expectation, but he’s brutally honest with the fact that the brakes need to be tapped before we start partying over an early ranking.
ND Football is just around the corner. This means that this blog will be turning ND Football heavy once again, but this year I’ll be doing something a bit different this season.
Some Irish fans might be familiar with what is known as the Irish Blogger Gathering (IBG) started by The Subway Domer. If you are not, the basic idea is that the best Irish bloggers gather weekly to answer questions posed by the host blog of the week. Every blogger will then post their answers to said questions on their blog, with the host linking all of them. The Subway Domer has more details as well as all the participants posted if you are so interested.
No, there isn’t a typo in The Subway Domer’s post, I will be a member this season. I will be hosting MSU week and the IBG will kick off this Friday.
I’m very much looking forward to being associated with such fine company (even if one of them thinks David Ruffer is the best player on the Irish squad) and this will increase the level of ND Football posts which is never a bad thing.
Punk celebrates his first WWE Title win at Money in the Bank. Photo courtesy of WWE.com.
Yes, that’s right, this is a wrestling post and if you’ve been following me on Twitter, you have likely seen the volume of wrestling tweets dramatically increase lately (actually, some of you have likely muted/unfollowed me because of it). Fact is, I’ve been a wrestling fan all my life, including the times in my youth when my mother banned it from my household along with the Simpsons. Needless to say though, it has been quite a while since wrestling, for any promotion has been a weekly stop-down event that I must watch live to avoid missing something great.
Sure, the WWE and TNA (recently re-branded to Impact Wrestling) have had a home on my DVR more times than not, and I’d catch the occasional PPV if it seemed interesting enough, but that was about it. There wasn’t really anyone or anything that grabbed my interest like Hogan’s turn to the nWo in WCW and his feud with Sting or the “I can’t believe that just happened” moments that littered the Attitude era of RAW. The WWE was able to lure fans like me back in though with returns of Stone Cold and the Rock for its Wrestlemania push and young talent like the Miz were keeping me around on a more regular basis. However, it was hard to get overly excited for Monday Night Raw and very little surprised me and gave me those moments when I would be on the edge of my seat.
In general, the PG-era that the WWE has been stagnant. The “big names” like Undertaker and HHH would return for Wrestlmania or another big PPV, a young talent would get a decent push here and there, and John Cena would find the WWE Title around his waist more often than not despite a severe love/hate relationship with fans, which is never quite good for your top face (but hey, the kids love buying his stuff!).
The WWE needed someone to shake everything up. Enter CM Punk.
I loved CM Punk’s wrestling talent and knew he had some good mic skills as well; however, the majority of his time in the WWE was spent mid-card leading a heel stable. During these runs, he proclaimed he was a savior as the leader of the Straight Edge Society and reminded his most recent stable, the New Nexus, to have faith his plans would succeed. As his contract with the WWE moved to its expiration (legitimately, by the way), CM Punk proved to be his own prophet.
Punk was given a shot to face John Cena at the Money in the Bank PPV for the WWE title and in Punk’s hometown of Chicago no less. Despite the fat his contract would’ve actually expired sooner, Punk signed an extension to have that match be his final match. Behind the scenes, there were several reports that Punk would indeed not resign, citing frustration with his role in the company as well as wanting to take a break from the demanding WWE schedule. The WWE decided to go ahead and use Punk’s contract situation as the build. Punk went out and announced that he would be departing the company, but being a good heel he added that he would be doing it with the WWE title. Later on, Punk was allowed to “shoot” (basically speak his mind and go “off script”) on why he was leaving the WWE and vent his legitimate frustrations.
After costing Cena a main event win on RAW, Punk took this opportunity and cut a promo that got everyone’s attention:
All of a sudden, Punk became the voice of all the WWE fans that were tired of Cena’s continued push and upset with the WWE’s direction in general. Fans, like myself, who couldn’t understand things like how the Rock could be booked in the main event of WWE’s biggest event despite not wrestling in the company for years. Not to mention, he managed to pull this off in character as well as he made sure to take jabs at the fans to keep the heat on him.
Taking such candid shots at Vince, HHH, and the rest of the McMahon family got everyone talking. Twitter exploded with tweets from not only wrestling fans, but former WWE talent as well. Jim Rome of ESPN even invited Punk to come on his radio show to finish his promo.
Punk had blurred the lines of reality. Was his promo 100% shoot? Was the indefinite suspension that came after a legitimate reaction of a pissed off Vince? Was this all a complete work? It didn’t matter, RAW catapulted back into must-see-TV. Not only that you better catch it live because everyone will be talking about it on Tuesday if you miss out. The Money in the Bank PPV all of a sudden had a huge draw despite Summer Slam, WWE’s traditional big summer PPV, being one month later.
Two weeks after Punk’s suspension, he was back on RAW. He cut an opening promo and had a “contract negotiation” segment with Vince to end the show and continued his momentum. Both segments are below (quite a bit of footage, but well worth a watch), but his scathing words aren’t the highlight. Simply take a look at his face throughout the segments–he had the WWE by the balls and the crowd was putty in his hands and he knew it. Armed with his pipebomb, he continued to push his character to heights he’d never been as he applied his craft to near perfection. In keeping with his heel character, he started making absurd contract demands of Vince, including that Vince bring back a discontinued ice cream line and put his face on it, prompting chants of “we want ice cream.”
Yes, he got a wrestling crowd, longing for the days in which they had a hero proudly display his middle fingers to them followed by a beer chug and a people’s champion that spoke of shoving several objects up people’s rear ends (after a thorough buffing first of course), the same crowd that consistently jeered what they considered a PG, kid-friendly champion was screaming for a children’s treat.
Part of Punk’s heel gimmick in the WWE has always involved him trying to lead people, to have them submit to his views, boasting that his straightedge lifestyle placed him on a higher plane to lead them. It was very easy to hate or love to hate Punk and the stables he led. And here he was doing the exact same thing, saying he knew best, that he was the only one in touch with the wrestling fan, the “voice of the voiceless.” He was a complete asshole, making unreasonable demands of Vince, insulting the hometown sports teams, and even comparing Cena to the New York Yankees
The result? Vince apologized and lost his cool. Cena’s own hometown turned on him. The crowd stood behind Punk, despite the fact he tore up his contract extension in front of them, cementing that he would leave them. Punk was even interviewed by GQ the same week. He had formed a new stable, but its membership was comprised of the fans.
Then came the climax, Money in the Bank. It was the first WWE PPV that I had bought in years, but I just had to see how the final act would play out. I definitely feared a let down, as the PPV’s namesake involved a match that would allow its winner to challenge for the WWE title at any time. It was the perfect cop-out to see Punk win the belt and literally lose it seconds later as he exited the company.
The title match itself did not disappoint and Cena and Punk squared off in a forty-plus minute match that was simply fantastic. As the match came to its conclusion, Vince and his “yes man” as Punk called him, John Laurinaitis came out to the ring. Cena slapped on his signature submission and Vince called for the bell a la the Montreal Screwjob on Bret Hart. The thought “great, I just paid to watch history repeat itself” definitely crossed my mind.
But just as soon as I started to fear that such a crappy end would soil the story, things took a drastic turn. The timekeeper “didn’t see” Vince’s call, so Vince sent Laurinaitis to ring the bell himself and end the match. Cena seeing this, broke his hold, and took out Laurinaitis, telling Vince that wasn’t how this would go down. Cena returned to the ring, was immediately hit with Punk’s finisher and lost the title, causing the Chicago crowd to give one of the loudest pops I can ever remember hearing.
Of course, Vince still had the ace-in-the-hole-cop-out of the Money in the Bank match. Vince tore off the King’s headset and called for Alberto del Rio to cash his title shot in immediately and get the title away from Punk to pretty much no one’s surprise. Punk though, drilled ADR with a kick, and ran off into the crowd, blowing a kiss to McMahon on his way out, belt in hand.
Next week’s RAW was a strange one. The entire show was comprised of a tourney to crown a new champion and a segment in which Vince was to fire Cena for losing the belt. The show failed to crown a champion as Vince interrupted the final match before it started so he could send Cena packing. Before he was able to do so, his “doofus son-in-law” came out, informed Vince that he was relived of his duties and that a replacement had been made: HHH himself.
With no champion crowned, Cena still with a job, and HHH in charge, it seemed that everything Punk had spent the last month speaking out against was happening right before our eyes. It was as if the WWE had taken all the momentum from Punk’s storyline and slammed the brakes.
Punk though, wasn’t done. He decided to have a bit of fun of his own and crashed the WWE Q&A session at Comic-Con to confront HHH, title in hand:
Punk was again blurring the lines of reality as this appearance began to build the hope that he would soon return to the WWE.
The next episode of RAW, however, didn’t lend much hope to that. It seemed that the WWE was once again reverting to business as usual. The show opened with the conclusion of the title tourney as Rey Mysterio claimed his first WWE Championship victory. That win seemed short-lived though as HHH later announced that Rey would defend the title later that night against John Cena, citing that Cena was denied his rightful rematch with Punk’s departure and Vince’s attempted firing. Once again, the WWE was placing Cena right back on the “you are the best” tier.
Quite predictably, Cena won and I started to wonder why I even bothered with RAW anymore. As Cena celebrated his 11th title victory, his music was cut off by Living Colour’s “Cult of Personality”. A confused Cena looked around wondering what was happening and I was wondering who in the hell would be coming out. Then out strolled CM Punk:
Wrestling’s savoir has returned. If his new theme song is any indication (well, not really new, he did use it while in Ring of Honor), Punk will be building on the superb work that he’s put together the past few weeks. He is indeed the “Cult of Personality” using his influence on the microphone to attract loyal followers with his every word.
The brilliant part about this angle though is that, while it makes for a very compelling heel role (which this will likely stay), Punk could turn face as well if he wanted to. He can be the lying asshole leading people into a web of deception or he can truly be “the voice of the voiceless” and save the WWE. Hell, he could probably still claim he is “saving” the WWE by being a lying asshole while trying to achieve his own goals. No matter how you slice it, he is now the leader of a large section of the WWE Universe who will hang on his every word and action. This could seriously go several different directions and I cannot wait to see it evolve.
The Joker had a great quote in The Dark Knight, “I just did what I do best. I took your little plan and I turned it on itself. Look what I did to this city with a few drums of gas and a couple of bullets.” As stated before, Money in the Bank is far from a big summer PPV draw, and, with its main event headlined by a mid-carder facing off against the defending top-dog champ, the WWE needed Punk to give fans a reason to care and purchase the show, opening the door for Punk to vent his frustrations. With just his pipebomb and a some razor-sharp words, Punk made his match a must-see event, became the most talked about wrestler in years, and has now thrust himself into the main event of Summer Slam where he will face off against Cena yet again.
In keeping with great Joker quotes, “This town deserves a better class of criminal, and I’m gonna give it to them.” The WWE has deserved a better class of heel for sometime now, and you can be damn sure Punk is ready to deliver.
Time to take a deviation from the sports posts to discuss a bit of E3. I’ll run down the pressers of the “Big Three” later, but first I want to touch on the game I’m most looking forward to this fall, Assassin’s Creed: Revelations. Yes, I’m looking forward to this even more than Final Fantasy XIII-2 and for those that know my video game tastes, that’s saying quite a bit.
Unfortunately, E3 didn’t exactly deliver a whole lot of new information about the game and it’s story outside of a couple of awesome trailers and gameplay demos. In fact, it seemed as if the assumption was that everyone read the Game Informer cover story, which delivered loads of information, and didn’t really cover too much of it during E3.
Considering the issue is a month old, and GameStop was nice enough to give me a free copy, I will return the favor. Feel free to download the entire article and soak in the info. It’s about 10 pages worth of content and is very much worth the read. The story, game play mechanics, multiplayer, and new locations are all covered quite in-depth for a pre-E3 reveal.
In the article, Ubisoft has promised one thing: answers. While I’m sure Revelations will do so by first posing about 100 more questions, this is going to be a welcome addition after three straight games with incredible cliff-hanger endings. Revelations will be the end of Ezio’s story, Ubisoft has made it clear that Revelations, much like Brotherhood, is not Assassin’s Creed 3. In that game, we will have control of a “new assassin”.
However, we have had a whole trilogy dedicated to Ezio because his importance is much more than being just another ancestor of Desmond. Unlike Altair, Ezio was forced into the life of an assassin due to the starting events in Assassin’s Creed 2. In Revelations, he wants to hunt down the history of Altair and learn more about the knowledge and his devotion to the Assassin Order as hinted in the codex pages found in Assassin’s Creed 2. Along the way, Ubisoft has stated that he will find seals that, somehow, contain the memories of Altair, allowing Ezio to relive his memories. While this obviously screams Animus parallels to Desmond, Ubisoft wouldn’t state if that was the case or not.
And what of Desmond in this game? Without spoiling too much of Brotherhood, players loyal to the series know that the most recent cliff hanger ending contained events that made Desmond collapse. In the credits, you hear voices saying “get him back in the Animus” as well, without knowing if it referred to Desmond or someone else. According to Ubisoft, those voices were indeed talking about Desmond and he is now in a coma. He is now trapped in the Animus and must fix his fragmented mind to get back to reality (think Neo trapped in the Matrix in Matrix: Revolutions). In this Animus existence, we will be treated to a new gameplay feature in which Desmond will be able to manipulate the enviornment of the Animus with his mind (sup Inception?) and, apparently, doing so will help him continue to live out Ezio’s memories. Ubisoft has promised that there is a singular moment in which Altair, Ezio, and Desmond all share a key moment that aligns the three, and it exists within Desmond’s history, which we will experience for the first time.
The multiplayer will also be woven into the story as well. Much like Brotherhood, you will be a part of an Abstergo program; however, this time around, the higher you rise in your Templar rank, the more you secret documents you can unlock to learn more about the modern-day Templar organization. It all sounds like a very cool feature that will likely suck someone like me, obsessed with the story, into that feature this time around.
The article has much more information than I wish to type out here, but needless to say, this is shaping up to be quite a game. That same information though should put the trailers and gameplay shown this E3 into a different perspective and, hopefully, lead to a little less headscratching.
And since this post is really about E3 anyways, below is the footage we have been treated to this E3. The first is the cinematic trailer, showing Ezio returning to Masyaf, Altair’s home, now infested by the Templar order. The second video is a quick teaser showing Desmond’s new existence, but be warned, it will spoil the ending of Brotherhood, so do not watch it if you need to catch up! Finally, the third video will show actual gameplay, in which Ezio lays waste to an entire ship yard blockcade…with a flamethrower.
