Comments on: Interview: Tom Clancy’s HAWX

By: James T

James T — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 08:43:36 +0000

I wondered if someone would pull that card — but when it comes to the topic “are Infinity Ward unthinking regurgitators of US State Dept talking-points or subversive questioners of received wisdom?”, intent is everything. Of course, there’s some natural overlap between videogame plots and the expressed worldviews of yer Rumsfelds and Rices, since they tend to package the latter to sound like the former — “We’ve killed loads of al Qaeda “deputy leaders” — we just have to beat Osama bin End-Boss to win the ~~game~~ War on Terror!” — so I don’t begrudge IW the CoD4 storyline, but quoting one of Rice’s pathetic ‘War on Terror’ talking points as though it was sagacious food for thought was taking the piss just a bit.

By: Dracko

Dracko — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 02:41:43 +0000

I wasn’t aware intent informed art, but there you go!

P.S. It’s an AC-130, just so you look less silly.

By: James T

James T — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 02:50:39 +0000

no, because i thought it was an amazingly well-executed piece that brought home the actual impact of that kind of warfare almost entirely through minimal graphics and a responsive dialogue set that was slow-paced enough for the little taunts like “oh that’s gonna hurt” and the like to really set in.

I thought the same, except I think I read on RPS itself — although it might have been, oh, Eurogamer or somewhere — that they intended no ‘subversiveness’ at all in the AC32023e2r349058 bit (oh I don’t remember the plane name), it was just a ‘something cool’ idea, which is even more disturbing, just… not in a positive way. Of course, dev teams are big these days — maybe some of ‘em ‘got it’ and some didn’t.

By: FunkyBadger

FunkyBadger — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 19:37:27 +0000

CoD4: bit on the first trawler, second time through the game I was quick enough to get into the first cabin to see THEM killing the crew while they slept. UnNice. To paraphrase Mr Y: “the SAS are portrayed as maladjusted psychopaths, just like in real life”

By: Rodafowa

Rodafowa — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 16:49:38 +0000

Yeah, blimey. CoD4 was the best game for bringing home exactly what circle of Hell war is situated in since, er, the first Call Of Duty. There were several genuinely chilling moments in it (the aforementioned Death From Above, and the Ha Ha! Remember All That Hassle And Danger You Went Through And Survived Just Now? Well, You’re Dead Anyway! So Here You Are Bleeding Out Your Last mission).

Anyway. On topic, if this turns out to be Ace Combat 6 but without the jaw-droppingly badly-judged cutscenes, I’ll be first in line.

By: dhex

dhex — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 15:52:34 +0000

Because killing people you can barely see from the safety of a gunship is less jingoistic than actually shooting them in the face up close? The only real difference is that you don’t have to wash the blood off yourself afterwards.

no, because i thought it was an amazingly well-executed piece that brought home the actual impact of that kind of warfare almost entirely through minimal graphics and a responsive dialogue set that was slow-paced enough for the little taunts like “oh that’s gonna hurt” and the like to really set in.

maybe i’m reading things in there that aren’t, but that’s an entirely different thing for the cod series. there are parts of it in the first game with the russian campaign, especially the beginning, but this was far more explicit. it undermines any kind of sense of extreme patriotism, along with being pretty awesome on its own.

By: rob

rob — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 09:01:42 +0000

Please tell me more about Tom Clancy’s Hawes.

By: Crane

Crane — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 08:25:44 +0000

@dhex “cod4 being jingoistic kinda requires ignoring the death from above sequence, no?”

By: Mr. President

Mr. President — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 05:15:00 +0000

Yep. Definitely Ace Combat, but with cool graphics and not located on some fantasy planet. What’s not to like?

By: Thiefsie

Thiefsie — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 03:58:05 +0000

Can’t wait for this really… Should be some exciting new spins on the combat from Ace Combat without the craptacular side story.

By: NegativeZero

NegativeZero — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 03:09:08 +0000

I hope that this has a better plot than Ace Combat 6 did. “Go dance with the angels”. God, that was dire.

What they really need to do is get rid of this crap and give us a new Chuck Yeager’s Air Combat.

By: darkripper

darkripper — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 22:20:25 +0000

WAIT it’s.. It’s..

Ace Combat. Maybe with a little more political intrigue. Also, you basically work for some Blackwater lookalikes?
I hoped in something more interesting, like a virtual battlefield that’s directly changed by your actions as a pilot. I’m a learning Flight Simulator pilot but I can play without crazy level of realism (I don’t think I will ever be able to pay attention to both the flying and the battle in those kind of games), I still wished for some kind of innovation. Also, I don’t really want to dogfight with a joypad.