VG247 posted this video of the first five minutes of Treyarch’s Call of Duty 5, which is out next week. Pat notes that the intro sequences includes actual footage of people being executed. Not game engine killing, or rendered in a cutscene, but the actual death of someone in the war. Of course we see this kind of footage all the time in documentaries about the era, or simulated and mocked up in World War II movies, so I guess it’s nothing to worry about…
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Bobsy – try Medal of Honour Underground for the PS1 (although it’s not very good).
My favorite part of the “Death From Above” level is just how monotone the crew is. Like they don’t see it as much more then some blobs on the ground that might talk.
A example:
*You blow up a building*
“Ka-Boom.”
I love it. They just don’t care. It’s like their office job.
I keep hearing a lot about the Russians invading Berlin, and how horrific it was… what the jiff happened? I’m clueless on that entire period.
Whether it was the introduction to The Kingdom or those “military industrial complex” conspiracy theory shows, this game is ripping one or both off, and pretty shamelessly. Then again, maybe it’s the same guy, the artist. Maybe it’s his/her style or whatever…
Also, i’m pretty sure COD4 wasn’t substantially “anti-war” or anything. I think some people may be reading too much in, or ‘projecting’ a little bit. There’s not much that’s really ‘pro-war’, because it’s sort of hard to be unless you’re completely insane, but i’m pretty sure COD4 didn’t have a “message” or anything.
Lastly, this documentary-game mashup isn’t new or anything. Way back in the Dynamix days, Aces of the Deep had interviews Band of Brothers style with U-boat aces and other veterans between missions. I don’t know, maybe that’s okay or whatever because the game was so stale, but it’s pretty much the same thing. Yeah, this game is all about (trying to be) entertaining, but so is watching Black Hawk Down or Saving Private Ryan. Shit, the latter launched the WWII shooter genre into prominence to begin with, because people watched it, and band of brothers, and said “i want to do that in a videogame!” Which is why every level in COD1 was ripped straight out of a scene from either the movie or the show. Moderately warped? Yes, but then again violence as entertainment is hardly a novel concept.
They raped their way across Germany, for a start.
(Not totally fair – it wasn’t a systemised Everyone Does It thing. The contrast between how different soldiers behaved in a given situation is one of the most striking elements of it.)
If you’re interested in the period, you should read something of it. I’m re-reading Antony Beevor’s Berlin: The Downfall right now and it remains the ability to shock and provoke me so much I’ve got to put book book down sor a few seconds every couple of paragraphs.
KG
ETPC: “We got a runner – he’s down”
That level made me shiver.
It annoys me that they have gone to WWII again, this feels like a rehash of CoD2 to me. Good game, but do we need more?
I agree that there is a certain amount of irony inherent in showing footage of mass graves and executions when the player is a walking death machine whose only purpose on this earth is to end the lives of others. At least, that’s the way Call of Duty has always played. (It would be interesting, perhaps, to have a game where your team-mates kill as many as you do; eg your overall killrate drops while theirs gets more in balance… Difficult to do with curent AI technology perhaps but it could be worth it to make you less of a one-man army.) Yet CoD2’s history sections in between levels were often interesting and informative. That said they did not include images of people being shot, I think. This was a while ago and I can’t remember.
Also, as a parting shot, zombies in a WWII FPS is gimmicky. Nothing more, nothing less. I will probably never know why they thought it was a good idea.
Yes this was it, I don’t usually play first-person shooters. I’m more of a RPG fellow. CoD4 was the first FPS I have played and loved in years. I was pleasantly surprised how awesome it was. My only criticism was that it was too short.
In regard to war games I tend to not think of goodies and baddies, I think of it as people who just doing their jobs. Such as the bombing mission, it was no big deal to them. There are no soliloquies, thank goodness.
I may have liked it because I didn’t see myself as the ‘Ultimate War Hero’. I was poor old Soap and some American guy I don’t care enough about to remember.
Breaking continuity for a moment, I think Gears of War 2 is touching on some of the above themes (don’t laugh) – an interesting and welcome new direction in gaming…?
“Guerilla war struggle is a new entertainment!”
“Guerilla war struggle is a new entertainment!”
(forgive me)