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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare impressions — Taking war in a frightening direction

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman







 
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Matt_Fox

Member
Worth bumping this thread - as back in May when journalists had a chance to see Call Of Duty in action and 'describe it' for readers (we didn't see it ourselves) there was an enormous amount of hyperbole around how hardcore and traumatic the action was.

Now that many of us have had a chance to play it for ourselves it would be good to get some opinions.

I watched South Park's "Imaginationland" episode over the weekend and there's a bit where a terrorist suicide bomber blows up a bunch of imaginary characters - all in the colourful cut-out South Park animation style - and I have to say THAT was more shocking to me than clearing the terrorist house in Modern Warfare!
 

EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member
I liked it better when game journalists were shameless corporate lapdogs and credulous fanboys, not this generation of impossibly fragile pearl-clutching crybabies.

It’s a Call of Duty campaign. There isn’t really anything within more shocking than No Russian was a decade ago.
 

davidjaffe

The Fucking MAN.
Worth bumping this thread - as back in May when journalists had a chance to see Call Of Duty in action and 'describe it' for readers (we didn't see it ourselves) there was an enormous amount of hyperbole around how hardcore and traumatic the action was.

Now that many of us have had a chance to play it for ourselves it would be good to get some opinions.

I watched South Park's "Imaginationland" episode over the weekend and there's a bit where a terrorist suicide bomber blows up a bunch of imaginary characters - all in the colourful cut-out South Park animation style - and I have to say THAT was more shocking to me than clearing the terrorist house in Modern Warfare!

Finished campaign last nite; adored it. One of my fave campaigns ever in these sorts of games (COD, BF).

Wonderful varied mission/scenario design.
Fantastic characters and writing.
Wonderful production values.

I tweeted earlier that it feels like a big budget A-TEAM episode meets a bit of Jason Bourne. It's very cool to see great, best of breed design, production, and writing coming together to make something mainstream and entertaining. It SEEMS clear to me they've upped the game in terms of bringing in fresh blood and top-of-the-food chain creators (Naughty Dog folks, real life authors,etc.) to work on this. Usually-these days- the best AAA devs tend to be throwing themselves into games that want to be 'artistic' and 'meaningful' and-to me- it just feels pretentious and laughable. In this case it's clear they wanted to use their talents first and foremost to keep the audience entertained (vs. being all about 'Look ma! Get me! I'm an artist with something to say!!!') I really appreciated that. And I bet the audience will as well (i.e. so far, lots of people I'm seeing online dig the campaign...not all, but a good %).

Granted, if you go by the press, the devs DID have something to say (about war or some such?) Well, that never comes across. There are some scenes that I GUESS could be read as brutal if you are hyper susceptible to this sort of stuff. But honestly, I dunno what kind of person you'd need to be to be 'moved' by the 'this is real/war is hell!' aspects of this title. All the clear attempts at 'this means something!' just lie flat. They don't really distract; they don't hurt the game at all or pull you out of it; you just kind ignore them and get on with the great, fun military adventure.

And I'm a pretty easy cry; I get emotional at dog food commercials. It's not like I'm posturing as some sort of alpha 'ain't nothin' affects me!' kinda guy. It's just that -as it appears in the game- none of the stuff clearly meant to be emotional really feels like much of anything. For example:

Here's an example I captured of 10-15 seconds of play from one of the more 'controversial' scenes:



This did absolutely nothing to me at an emotional level. It just felt like going thru a haunted house at Halloween with all sorts of staged scenes. I THINK I'm supposed to feel something here but I really don't. It just feels very fake and silly and over blown (i.e. 'Dead kid not doing it for ya?!? No worries- try a whimpering dog!!! Bam!!! Did we get ya?!?!')

Another example:

The 'controversial' waterboard scene didn't play at all to me like, 'Oh no! This is so horrible that humans do this to each other! Holy cow- WE as Americans have done this to our enemies before! Are WE really the terrorists?! What are we even doing anymore in wars! What have we become?!?!'

Instead, it just played- to me- as a mini game where you need to move the sticks around to avoid the water long enough that you pass the test and don't pass out. There was zero emotion tied to it for me. It just felt like a little mini-game section.

Having these in the game doesn't hurt the experience; it doesn't pull you out at all. But man, the fact that anyone is really affected by these strikes me as either:

a- posturing for the sake of clicks
b- an example of someone who experiences video games in such a different way that I do that I just can't relate at all.

Jaffe

ps. I know so little about Russian politics that I can't speak to how 'fair' this game is to the Russian point of view; how realistic Farrah's character is as a freedom fighter,etc. Like I said: it plays like the A-TEAM to me, so I wasn't expecting a master's thesis in geo politics. Judging from the net, clearly some folks were expecting that.
 
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SpartanN92

Banned
If Modern Warfare really triggers you then you’re a giant pussy. There are real life soldiers who have the biggest balls in the world who have to do this stuff every day and you can’t even handle a video game?

People who legit are upset over this game really need a wake up call.
 
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Gamernyc78

Banned
Worth bumping this thread - as back in May when journalists had a chance to see Call Of Duty in action and 'describe it' for readers (we didn't see it ourselves) there was an enormous amount of hyperbole around how hardcore and traumatic the action was.

Now that many of us have had a chance to play it for ourselves it would be good to get some opinions.

I watched South Park's "Imaginationland" episode over the weekend and there's a bit where a terrorist suicide bomber blows up a bunch of imaginary characters - all in the colourful cut-out South Park animation style - and I have to say THAT was more shocking to me than clearing the terrorist house in Modern Warfare!

Reminds me of the hype of the "Joker" movie and journalists with their hyperbole and society in general with NYPD being stationed at certain theaters. The movie had hardly any killing or action at all (found it quite boring BTW) movies like the "Purge" I can understand the violence hype, this one nahhhh. It's just society in general now wants to make a big deal out of anything. More pussy softees running the political landscape now so thy put a magnifying glass under everything and ppl follow suit like sheep.

Call of Duty campaign was run of the mill nothing crazy imo.
 
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Only on mission 4 so far but really enjoying the campaign and the graphics are fantastic.

The London Piccadilly mission was brilliant. Capturing the chaotic and confusing nature of what an attack like that might be like, not knowing who could be a terrorists in the crowd until they start shooting, and explosions going off all around, it's thrilling stuff.

All the negative media about the games themes and storytelling, just feels like more over sensitive, snowflake bollocks, looking for something else to complain about.
 

Bogroll

Likes moldy games
I sold mine yesterday, wasn't that keen on some of the multiplayer maps. seemed too big, got offered what i paid so sold. May buy again in a few months when more maps have been added.
 

Roufianos

Member
I really don't get what was meant to be so controversial about the campaign. Finished it yesterday.

A few women went for guns? That's about it.
 

Strider311

Member
Only on mission 4 so far but really enjoying the campaign and the graphics are fantastic.

The London Piccadilly mission was brilliant. Capturing the chaotic and confusing nature of what an attack like that might be like, not knowing who could be a terrorists in the crowd until they start shooting, and explosions going off all around, it's thrilling stuff.

All the negative media about the games themes and storytelling, just feels like more over sensitive, snowflake bollocks, looking for something else to complain about.
Wait till you play the night time SAS raid on a house a couple missions later. As someone who has been a part of operations like this in both a military and law enforcement capacity, they really captured the feeling and tension.
 
Thinking about picking this up for my nephews for xmas... How's the language and such? Boobies? Violence?
 
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Frotchki

Neo Member
Thinking about picking this up for my nephews for xmas... How's the language and such? Boobies? Violence?
No nudity I could see. The language is rough with several F words. The violence is pretty rough too and the campaign has some moments I found unsettling and disturbing. Each kid is different. But I would wait a bit depending on how old they are.
 

Tajaz2426

Psychology PhD from Wikipedia University
Does this man know that this is a video game? It isn’t realistic at all, no game is, never will be. It is an imagining of what they believe war is like from the safety of a gaming chair.

Man, this gent acts like you are actually a little girl, fighting. These kind of people are the same folks that think being a sniper is just like in COD or Battlefield.

There is no fog of war, there is no fight or flight, there isn’t a real friend beside you one second and parts the next, no one is doing litter patrol (picking up bodies or pieces of bodies), there is no actual women and children dead because their husbands didn’t join the terrorists.

This is a video game, a thing to have fun with and learn that just maybe the world isn’t all rainbows and lollipops.

A game developer, just as an author, should never be censored, especially over dead pixels.
 
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