PENTAGONBUDDY'S PROFILE

The Smart Shooter for those who have caught on to the FPS military shooter’s dark secret: oftentimes these wargames are hilariously unrealistic and glorify violence. Spec Ops: The Line is a bold, daring new title that teaches us all a valuable life lesson:

War is harsh and damages both civilians and soldiers alike.

Alternatively, if one prefers to restrict the lens to video games, ignoring Real Life lessons in a game that uses Real Life scenarios and Real Life controversial tactics and appeals to Realism(TM):

Game narratives sometimes force you to do terrible things in the name of “just playing a game.” How fucked up is that?

Both of these lessons are things that could be gleaned with half a brain and far less than $60.

If you take the stance that one can learn valuable things about war and the attitudes involved, then the nature of its gameplay requires the game to shoot itself in the foot. Why yes, war takes quite the toll on people! Now play this game where you can only kill and kill and kill and then feel bad when confronted with the idea that maybe all that killing wasn’t good for you. Enjoy your regen health and unrealistic combat.

It’s the equivalent of bullying robots. Even Walker himself calls attention to this right before the infamous White Phosphorus sequence – you don’t have a choice in the matter.

If you prefer to ignore Real Life implications, you’re still left with a linear narrative that forces you to commit violence you may or may not engage in if you knew the full details. The cutscenes and dialogue are often heavy-handed – this is not a subtle game. So… yeah, sometimes game narratives force you to do terrible things in the name of “just playing a game”. How fucked up is that? Simply highlighting this fact is neither new nor revolutionary,(even the shooters SpecOps supposedly deconstructs do it from time to time) and SpecOps fails to actually do anything about it or give the player a choice in the matter.

The plot revolves around subversion of expectations and “deconstructing” the shooter genre without radically changing the gameplay or challenging core assumptions, acknowledging the nature of violence in games while providing no alternatives. You expect your standard FPS and what do you get? A game reminding you what a terrible person you are for playing it.

Hey, I'll even toss in a free link to an article that talks about the white phosphorus sequence, specifically, although the game is much more than that.

Despite all the complaining, I think some things are entertaining. (And I emphasize some since most of the game just makes my eyes roll in my head like slot reels.) The twists and turns about "what's real" and watching Walker's group fall apart sure are neat to watch. But I don't consider it a very Smart, Intellectual game, nor is it daring or revolutionary in the genre.

I've recently been posting art elsewhere. WHY NOT IN HERE TOO? But the images are pretty big so I'll hide tag stuff.

Sooper secret game project 1:

All of the above can be found on my DA, but I have a pretty terrible DA.

Sooper secret game project 2:

Sooper secret game project 3:

And I also will get around to posting actual resources and stuff I've done that other people can do things with other than stare at. Just probably not in here.

And why did this post twice? TECHNOLOOOOOOGY!

I'm not sure why I decided to now all of a sudden, ah-hahaha... But I've been, er, around for quite some time. I figured I might as well post and whatnot!

I do art!


(This one is somewhat big!)

Stuff like that. And also homosexual NSFW things.