I feel like after 4 games of swordplay, I see no reason why a different feeling combat system and array of weaponry wouldn't be a refreshing difference. Why couldn't there just be a stronger focus on hand to hand combat to compensate? It works well enough for Batman Arkham Asylum. I mean hell, in many ways, that could be MORE awesome. A modern Assassin handling like the perfect Jason Bourne or something. That would be really freaking cool. The ability to improvise with any weaponry or objects lying around.
Also, you're forgetting, this isn't OUR 2012, this is a different future. Wait until you've played Revelations and all of the Desmond's journey sections, and you can see the differences. This isn't our contemporary time.
Played through Revelations and Desmond's journey? I did and I have no idea what you're referring to. I remember in the first game Americans were illegally entering Mexico and the movie industry had collapsed, but other than that it seems like it's pretty much our world.
I really hope Desmond doesn't become Batman. I made a joke a few months back that the only way a modern game (I mean the whole game being modern, in a free roam city) could work is if Desmond became Batman. Well, that backfired and now people actually wants this. Damn.
Play Arkham City without using your cape and grappling hook, and that's why a modern day game in a city wouldn't work. Hell, get to the top of a building and start running around, jumping from building to building. Can't go very far, can you? That's because you need to be able to fly to do this stuff. Something Assassin's are not generally known for. I would like the hand-to-hand combat to be more like Arkham City (especially double/triple counters), though.
I know you didn't say this, Wolvieboy, but it seems like some people think that the whole game will be ONLY Desmond. That doesn't make sense. Without the Animus there's no White Room, no multiplayer, no health bar, no history, no replaying missions.... on and on. The developers have stated so many times how much they love visiting eras that aren't really done in games, so people think they'll make a game that takes place completely in 2012? When the devs said WWII was too recent? And especially when there's so much that happened in 67,000 BCE we still don't know the details to?
My dream for AC3 is an American or French Assassin going through both The French and American Revolutions and a second ancestor going through the Human-First Civilization War and First Disaster. These ancestors alternate when Desmonds' modern day story comes in to play as he looks for clues on how to use and navigate the Great Temple. Something like that makes the most sense to me, given the hints we've recieved in Brotherhood and Revelations.