Aaaand my second playthrough of Assassin's Creed II is in the books. As much as I loved the ending of AC2 the first time around, now that I know how it all unfolds (at least so far), it's just weird. They could have done some cool things, and I thought it all worked out decently at least through ACB or ACR, but AC3 was just a shit storm with all the present day stuff. Obviously there's still plenty there, but with how AC3 ended and the fact that you're just an Abstergo employee for AC4, it seems like either they just aren't going to play around with that stuff this go around, or they are dropping it completely. As weird and sloppy as all the present day stuff turned out to be, I'd still like a conclusion to that at some point. Don't take me through a story for 5 games and then throw it away.
Glad I played again though, reminds me just how much I love the series (once again, despite 3). Can't wait to jump into my favorite of the series, AC: Brotherhood. It'll be interesting to see if my opinions of the games change at all after I finish the entire second playthrough of the series.