What he should have done was have Altaïr killed somehow when the Apple failed to work on him in the middle of the game, then sent someone else, who he could control, to finish Altaïr's mission.

If Assassin B found out what Altaïr did, then big whoop, Al Mualim could just control the guy's mind, get him killed, and dissolve the Assassin order or keep them in the dark about the truth. Bam, Templars win all the way back then.

But nope, he had to use Altaïr.

Game starts, yadda yadda stuff stuff. Can't control Altair. What do?
oh, I know. Have him jump off the edge of the castle into what he thinks is a stack of hay, but is actually a layer of hay over rocks.

...Wait, didn't that one guy break his leg when they did that scene?
Maybe they just fucked up and Altair managed to luck out by picking one of the good piles.

Wasn't Altair fooled into thinking that he was stabbed in the beginning of the game? Logicly we could assume AL Mualim thought he could control Altair.

Plus if you remember the villagers you can tell who is brainwashed and crazy. They obviously lose some of their abilities when they are under Al's control. Also since the "hits" on other Templar members are probobly not in their plans it's logical to assume that a) he was going rouge and b) he needed Altair at his full potential to attack them.

However this lead to Altair to re learn the basics of his trade and philosophy is to see though illusions making alt more resistant to the mind control

So, apparently, the game's gonna take place in the "Animus 3.0", but the imprtant bit is that the game's character/area database is going to be written by Shaun, who will have lots of snarky comments to make involving the British perspective on the war.

That alone is enough to make me want to play it. Shaun's snarky database was one of the best things in the Ezio trilogy, and I didn't even think about his position, what with him being British and everything.

What was wrong with Roma, exactly?

there was a large area without any buildings of any sort around thus nothing to do but ride your horse though it.

Huh. I must have not... oh wait, yeah.

That area.

I thought it was already established that you will be jumping through the trees and such. Just have plenty of forests, it's all good.

I really don't want to say anything till i have the game in my hands though. The maps are supposedly MASSIVE.