I really liked this one a lot. Mmm shooters, nom nom noms ^_^
Some of my earliest shooter memories were with Goldeneye. I didn't like the multiplayer much and probably because I sucked at it. My cousins and I all played and my older cousins would destroy the rest of us. I liked the single player it was one of the games in my history that cultivated my love for single player games as well as shooters. I thought it was really cool, but Goldeneye didn't get me to love shooters. I also played the first 2 Turok games on the N64, as well as some Medal of Honor games for PS1 and those were awesome especially the Nazi AI. Nazis would grab your grenades and throw them back at you! First time in a game I ever saw that and it blew my mind. Using the cerebral bore to drill the matter out of enemies skulls and make it explode never got old in Turok. I loved dinosaurs as a kid, and Turok was like magic to me. Tribal drums, dinos, nuke guns, assault rifles, bow & arrow, lots of fog, cheat codes, and tons of gore. Good times.
Halo CE got me to love shooters. I just wouldn't be myself if I didn't show up and drop pointless Halo knowledge on you guys. Halo 2 didn't come out in 2005, it came out here on November 9th, 2004. During E3 '04 after Joe Staten and Max Hoberman finished the Zanzibar demo Peter Moore came on stage and showed a tattoo with the release date and everything. Those were the days.
I started with Halo 1 and was blown away by it in every way. When Halo came out it innovated console shooting in many ways, and to me it felt like console shooters practically never happened before Halo came out. The visual and, most importantly of all, mechanical jump between games like Goldeneye and Halo were enormous. Using dual sticks, guns, grenades, vehicles, exploration, and firefights was so fresh in Halo CE and there was nothing like it on consoles. It had everything Goldeneye had, a long engrossing single player, spectacular multiplayer, but it was better in every way. It was the natural progression of shooters, an evolution of what Rare started with 007.
I was becoming a Halo fan the second I got out of the drop pod in the level Halo, started walking around the grassy hills, and saw the ring in the sky. The art was incredible and to this day I've never felt the same awe as I did back then when I looked at the ring on the horizon, or the ocean beside the cliffs, the energy pulses shooting into the sky from forerunner structures, and all the colors of the aliens, vehicles, and weapons, not to mention the music. Outside of the other Halos, the closest I've ever felt to the awe I had with Halo CE were my first experiences with Half Life 2 and Portal 2. In these 3 particular series (halo, portal, half life) the shooting has never been the hook for me. It's always been the environment and characters. In Halo when I came out of the drop pod I didn't want to own noobs (that phrase hadn't even been invented yet, that come later with Halo 2) I just wanted to figure out what was happening with this ring world, these aliens, and these humans. In Half Life 2 the thing that hooked me wasn't the shooting (the mechanics in Half Life games are terrible), what hooked me in Half Life 2 was the environment and characters. The moment I fell in love was when I was scrambling on the rooftops, evading capture, and seeing the plight of citizens in the first level Point Insertion when you get chased through the apartment complex by Combine Overwatch. In Portal 2 you don't shoot and kill anything, and the thing that hooked me was the level design, puzzles, characters, and environment. I always wanted to get on the other side of a wall next to me, escape the test chamber, see what's really happening in here. Where is everybody, what happened, where am I, when am I? Looking back at Portal 1, when I came to the end and realized I could escape the fire pit and explore behind the scenes, the fact that the game didn't end, and it let me do exactly what I was wanting to do this whole time, fucking blew my mind. I could probably add Bioshock into that whole conversation, but it didn't come to mind right away like those other games did. Bioshock was amazing though.
I can't disagree with Rob more, I don't think the Half Life story is "fucking stupid" at all lol. There's plenty I don't like about the designs. I hate the guns, I don't like Freeman, I don't think all the narrative needs to be done through the environment, I don't think the silent model works for him, and I can't stand how stagnant Source has become and how little progress the engine has made. I love the story (at least the tiny bits that have been explored so far), level designs, and characters though. I cried at the end of episode 2. Don't know if anybody has played it, and I don't want to spoil it unless you tell me it's alright, but the event that happens made me tear up and traumatized me for the next few days after I beat the game. The way the narrative gets presented to the player, and the way players experience it needs to evolve and expand, the guns need a complete overhaul from scratch, we need to be able to aim down ironsights, Source needs an overhaul completely, we need Freeman to talk a little, we need to be able to see Freeman's body in frame (he has one of the coolest suits in gaming and you never see it, there aren't even mirrors in HL games!), and we need to explore the connection between Aperture and Black Mesa more. We need to come up with new ideas for the movement mechanics, combat mechanics, and how Freeman interacts with the environment. I've heard some crazy ideas and speculation that people at Valve have had, like sign language among other things, and I'm excited. I have plenty ideas of my own, there's so much potential it makes me crazy. I think about it all the time and in my dreams I'm helping them make the next installment lol. I don't have a seasoned portfolio full of previous works to send in, but one of these days I will. I can't even tell you how much I want to make levels and gameplay for these games because I care about them too much to see them be stuck back in 2004 or left to mediocrity. I know entirely too much about Half Life, Portal, Source, Valve, and anytime people like Mike Ambinder have something to explain on level design and playtesting analysis I eat it up.
All these games are what got me in love with shooters, and I think shooters have been getting better with time. I played Crisis 2 and it's become mechanically my favorite shooter I've ever played, I explained it all to Travis in his review of the game he put out a couple weeks ago. They're all a bit different, they all borrow from eachother, and each has different design goals in mind. I know everybody rides the CoD hate train but I for one love those games for their gameplay. I don't play online, so I don't care about competitive gaming, I just care about the single player and co-op gameplay. CoD is way too much fun. I have MW3 and I had a blast in the campaign, spent 10 hours 45 minutes in my first playthrough, and I had even more fun in Survival Mode. I've spent 23 hours playing survival, I'm a level 49, and it's one of the most addicting things I've played in a long time. The level designs are really fun, the gameplay is great. I love buying and upgrading weapons on the fly, setting up defensive sentries, claymores, bringing in friendly AI squads to cover me, taking on Juggernauts, and fighting off waves of enemies to I inevitably get overwhelmed and killed. It engages and satisfies a variety of shooter, rpg, and strategy itches I have all in one game mode. You three are looking in the wrong place if you want a story, characters, and people to ask questions about war. We have Mass Effect and other games to scratch that itch. Does anybody rail Street Fighter for not asking the tough questions about real street fights? Does Street Fighter trivialize the very real issues of kids bashing each other in the streets after school and posting it on youtube? Does Street Fighter sell real world violence in a kid friendly package and warp their little brains? Is Capcom desensitizing our kids to melee violence? What about UFC games and Fight Night?
MW2 was the first game in the series I played. I didn't like the No Russian mission, not just because it was a bunch of people killing at an airport, but because it wasn't fun. That level was all just for cinematic effect, not gameplay, and it sucked. The story that it told was stupid, and it wasn't fun to play. It came across as just a waste of space on the disc, and on top of that it offended people a great deal by simulating a terrorist act. No Russian sucked as a mission and a story telling method. Onto the rest of the game, once I was done it all just clicked for me. I look at the levels and I know how and why they are setup the way they are, the mechanics click for me, the pace makes sense, and the encounters make sense. It's fast paced, fun, and there's no wasted space or time. It's not mean to give you exploration like Halo does, and that's okay. Linearity isn't always a bad thing, and non-stop action isn't always a bad thing. Plenty of developers go to great lengths to break up pacing, like Valve does, but CoD avoids all those rules and it works for them. It's just non-stop fun, not unlike an arcade game. It's an unrealistic, arcade-like, and comically dramatized version of warfare, but it is fun, and it is a game. It's a fun game. If it weren't so popular I don't think people would have a problem with it. Back when CoD was all about WW2 and it wasn't so huge, I don't remember people hating it so much. I use to hate CoD because I was a Halo fanboy in my teen years, but eventually I got over it, started playing other games, and I became reasonable enough to admit it lol.
The mechanics are great in MW3, the level designs are great, it's a ton of fun, and when I play it I just don't come across the same ideas Pat had about real world war, oil, and politics (I hate politics). I certainly don't think CoD is "evil" or propoganda. If we want to throw CoD under the bus we have to be willing to throw all games under the bus since the beginning of time. Cops and robbers? Cowboys and Indians? Laser tag? Street Fighter, Zelda, Starcraft? I never played MW2 or MW3 and got the feeling I was being influenced by biased violent politics and media. I felt like I was playing a silly, over the top, war game that was a ton of fun. It's a digital version of all the games little boys play anyways. It's gung ho, action packed, and insane. The kind of stuff that happens in a MW3 level is the kind of stuff my best friend and I acted out when we played around the house as kids with pretend guns.
Our American society is fucking stupid and even though I'm very patriotic and nationalistic, I'm not biased enough to be ignorant to our faults. Our culture cares more about nationalism, power, status, and appearance than we do about education, logic, reason, science, philosphy, and ethics. Our parents are stupid, were stupid, our kids are stupid, our schools are terrible, there's plenty going wrong, and when you simply says things like that people are so blind to it and stirred by nationalism they think you're insane for saying it all out loud. But it was like this long before CoD. CoD and the popularity of war games are probably a reflection of our culture. It's what we want to see, it's what we like. Romans liked to see gladiators be torn apart by wild animals for entertainment thousands of years ago, Americans like war simulations for entertainment. Before that there was a WW2 craze where we saw Saving Private Ryan, Medal of Honor, and early CoD games. Several years ago every other game on the market was a WW2 game. Now our culture is in love with modern warfare as opposed to old warfare, and cooincidently we happen to be fighting real life war at the same time. It's in the public eye, people are interested in it, and it shows in our entertainment.
I agree with Rob, we aren't born good, and human nature isn't naturally good. You logically can't generalize everybody, biology and evolution aren't that simple, but the majority of human beings have to be taught to be "good". We are indoctrinated in our respective societies to act certain ways. In America we aren't suppose to beat women, rape people, murder, etc, we have our civilization and we become indoctrinated in it. Other places are completely different. There are places where it's perfectly fine to murder a gay person, give a woman a good beating because you feel she deserves it, leave your unwanted babies alone in a forest to die, etc. There's no permanant code in people's brains that tell them to act a certain way. People have nature versus nurture debates all the time and the fact is that human nature depends on both. You have to nurture and teach people to act certain ways, and over time biologically these things could influence the human brain and nature. People will never automatically be educated at birth, but you can influence human biology in more subtle ways. It's always been both. Bibles, faith, prayer, baptisms, tribal ceremonies, dances, or magic don't make people naturally good. Our definitions of "Good" evolve along with the human species and are different everywhere you go. It's our job to teach the future generations what we believe is right and wrong. Games can tread these territories as well, games can be art after all (I think so) and should be free to push all boundaries, but not all games have to.
Because it's so popular and every kid in the world is playing CoD, it's fair to bring up these issues, but at the end of the day it's just a game and it's not a brainwashing or recruiting tool. You play the game, shoot guns, and kill enemies to save the world, it's fun. I play Zelda, swing a sword, and kill enemies to save the world, it's fun. Zelda isn't any more holy. I'm a liberal athiest by the way, so I don't give a shit about defending republicans or war. I hate real life war, it's not a game, it's not fun, and I thought Iraq and Afghanistan were stupid endevours that have all failed. I also don't support the use of the atomic bomb. I would've rather seen our entire country die with honor than push a button and kill a few soldiers and factories mixed in with hundreds of thousands of unarmed civilians. War is sometimes necessary, but it is never righteous, never good, and should only ever be a final option. And when you do fight a war, you shouldn't be willing to abandon all your ethics and rules of engagement. If you have to kill unarmed civies, use chemicals, or WMDs in order to "win", you've already lost the war in my opinion and you've lost all respect. We might be "badass" and have a mighty ground and naval force, but I don't have respect for many of our "accomplishments" in wartime. We deserve to be called out for our poor choices and often pathetic culture. We will never grow and improve if everybody just keeps worshipping our military might and refusing to be skeptical.
This is real life, we ask these questions. In a video game it's great to ask those questions as well, and some games choose to, but why should CoD have to? Does it owe us anything, does it owe us intellectual exercise? It doesn't have to give us that, and more importantly it doesn't try to give us that, so it's not exactly coming up short in any way guys. If you think it's irresponsible for Modern Warfare to present war in such a brotastic, wreckless, dramatic, and unrealistic way, I think you're looking for intellectual exercise in a game that isn't designed to give you any. Real world war is terrible, and our broken culture is a problem, and we have lots of work to do teaching our kids to be more rational and ethical, but CoD isn't exactly turning our kids into anything that they already aren't. Our children have always been disgusting and immoral creatures lol. I'm throwing our whole culture under the bus, adults and kids alike, whether CoD is in the conversation or not lol. We can't just "U-S-A! U-S-A!" our way out of everything and pretend everything is glorious and infallible.
I don't want to make CoD games by any stretch, and I personally don't ever want to adhere to their design choices because I prefer something with a stronger story, broken up pacing and variety, realistic characters, and I want more stealth like Crysis 2 or Deus Ex, but I'm never gonna get on the all-too-vogue hate train the games garnered. I dislike the online communites and culture as a whole, but everybody needs to realize that online communities and culture aren't the game. The game is amazing. It's just often overshadowed by all the baggage that people associate with it.