I see nothing wrong with videogames being pro-American military. I wouldn't support one that took the opposite perspective. We're running out of complaints. Strike force missions apparently open up. Edit: Beaten to it! Edit 2: Recommend Call of Duty 2, also. Before it got focus-tested into corridors. Used to have pretty good, open environments.
There's a difference between pro-American military and being straight up jingoistic, which is what Call of Duty gets accused of a fair bit. Which isn't totally unfair, since it is absolutely ludicrous guns-and-freedom-hooah porn in spots, MW2 especially. Still, the series does show that it has a brain every now and then, which people seem to overlook - the general cynicism of the original Modern Warfare, the ironic quotes from politicians in Modern Warfare 2, the unflattering roles you take up in Black Ops, etc. Honestly all of the recent games are fairly "anti-military" in the sense that they pretty much never paint the top brass in a good light. Battlefield 3 is the same way, actually. Pretty much everything relies on the old-men-sending-the-best-and-brightest-into-danger-for-their-own-gain trope (or reality, depending on your opinion).
Showing people who cause war as incompetent or immoral is unavoidable. Battlefield portrayed it fairly and wasn't anti-American while still being anti-conflict. If that's how the thing is, it shouldn't be changed. Call of Duty has always been more flexible but ultimately, down to it's name, remains pro-American military. Going into the future, I think it's all right to change that up, but there's no way it should come down as pro-Chinese military (assuming you have to be favoring the opposition if your outlook is focused on showing America's military in a bad light) just to appease people who hate a pretty decent all-around country.
One way might be to make America the enemy/terrorist and then they win the war. That game will have to be made in another country and will never find publishing or support here. Anyway, let's focus on this game. Gaming forums are no place for politics. I love this idea that everyone in the '80s traveled by horseback. Also, who says horses don't exist in the future.
They'll be having the Terminator Salvation version of John Connor as the main character next & you'll have to use a Deloreon at some point
Maybe it's just me, but I've always considered the Call of Duty series to be about the role of the average soldier in large-scale conflict. Remember the very first game? You took part in the D-Day landings (one of the very first infiltrators to land, no less) and defended Stalingrad with nothing but an ammo magazine to start off with. You were heavily outnumbered but you knew, once you'd won this great battle, that you'd been a part of something amazing but that your individual contribution would never be remembered. COD4 refined this by setting it in the modern-day, looking at the sacrifice made by soldiers in the middle-east through the eyes of the US Marine who gets caught in the nuclear blast and through the work done "behind-the-scenes" by soldiers like Price and Soap in the SAS. Your contribution would not be remembered, but it would be felt. That's what I loved about Call of Duty, until MW2 came along with a greater emphasis on completely fearless marines "just pushin' forward and kickin' ass". That's kind of why I'm falling out of love with the series, and why I'm unimpressed with Black Ops 2's trailer. The series has gone from being a touching retrospective of the role of the average soldier in large-scale combat to being an all-out "dudefest" of explosions and one-liners. MW3 felt more like an 80's film than a story-driven war game. I'm not expecting Saving Private Ryan every time, but I am expecting the developer to make me care about the characters I'm controlling the lives of. -- Woah, that got off-topic real quick, think I might have an article in me here! Either way, Black Ops 2. Not convinced. If they are seriously going to call it "Black Ops" I fail to see how the number of explosions and gunfights in the trailer will work. The horses section looks pretty sweet but the rest of it leaves a lot to be desired, for me. Also, Hideo Kojima called, he covered the whole "unmanned weapons taking over combat" four years ago.
I'm just pretty damn impressed with Treyarch. They're finally getting a chance to make something their own and they're totally going for it. Good for them.
I'm sure they're glad to have Treyarch off their design now, as well, but I don't see them as being on the same level. Respawn/Infinity Ward brought Saving Private Ryan to videogames, created the cinematic military FPS, the modern one. Treyarch's contributed Nazi Zombies and Zork. I think the obvious thing would be for them to compete with whatever Bungie's doing instead. There's a reason almost any change they made would be replaced within the next year and all of Infinity Ward's changes became the standard. I haven't really enjoyed any of their CoD games but it's always been because I want to see what they'd create. I think this is more interesting than any iteration.
I honestly haven't been able to enjoy a Call of Duty game for years now, I've tried, but I just can't stomach them anymore. Wonder if EA will churn out a new Battlefield to cash in? If it is a sequel to 2142 they're developing then I think Black Ops 2's 'near' future vibe will have pissed them off.
Excited for this, especially since I expected it to be yet another rehash of a game we've been playing for the past five years. Obviously I won't be completely sold on it until I've played it myself but it sounds very promising. I like the fact your choices will have an implication on the story and missions will have branching paths, and the Strike Force stuff with it's sandboxy open-ended level design sounds cool. Not to mention the shift to the future so we're not seeing the same old battefields we've seen 10x times over - even if some of that stuff makes it into the flashbacks.
It looks like that section is in Afghanistan, in which case a lot of people did travel by horseback in the 1980s
Huh. Never really factor Afghanistan in. Just read up on the dynamic story. There's a good way of not taking sides on being pro or anti anything: just let the player choose. So much more potential than the default 'you're a hero because you've shot the terrorists and they're the anti-hero'. Seems like they're getting almost everything right so far. Get so used to something being familiar and becoming the industry's punching bag, it's almost disarming when it gets it right. I guess there's always Medal of Honor 2 for everyone who just wants Modern Warfare back.
So much potential in the idea of technology outpacing humanity (this part actually does sound like Dues Ex, in a sense). I love this concept. I'm not sure I've ever felt that about a CoD before but I'm hyped.
