The Rumortoid post by Sterling today has me on the edge of my seat for the following reasons:
1. I really enjoyed CoD4, including the single player, but felt it could be revolutionary if it told the Iraq or Afghanistan war stories in a timely fashion.
2. Medal of Honor could either take advantage of the opportunity to create a compelling historical and relevant critique of US military action or inaction in Afghanistan or they could botch it horribly via poor story, propaganda driven story, poor graphics, or voiceovers.
The idea that they are examining operation Anaconda is interesting. This mission was followed the first attempt by the CIA and US special forces to hunt down and kill Osama Bin Laden in the mountains of Tora Bora, only to have the regular branches of the Military willfully allow him to escape into Pakistan. This needs to be discussed in any narrative covering the Afghanistan War. See the Wikipedia entry:
Tora Bora
I would suggest the excellent frontline series produced by PBS and available streaming at their site for free or on the torrents.
Bush's War (most recent episode dealing with this topic
As well, Seymour Hersh and Bob Woodward have done some wonderful writing on the subject of how the OBL could have been captured if the US had wanted it.
The issue of the mismanagement or outright sabotage of the War in Afghanistan should be reflected in any story wherein troops are the central actors. They knew the score when it was going on, and this book should be read by the story writer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jawbreaker:The_Attack_on_bin_Laden_and_al-Qaeda
If we get a puff piece of garbage from the medal of honor series I will be the first to rattle e-sabers and light my e-torch. Any thoughts?
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Actually, eww.
It's just a game. What the fuck do you really care for? It's a game. If it fails, are you really going to get angry?
If such a claim was made by the developer, and it turned out to be nothing but a fluff cheerleader story ala
Tom clancy/Rainbow six vegas style storyline style I would be very angry and shot it from the highest rooftops. I can see this happening.
As far as the army being portrayed in a good light, I find it difficult to believe that anyone who takes a longitudinal view of the Afghanistan or Iraq conflict to claim can call them a success. Can you?
Often times this is reflected in stories from actual soldiers relating the great degree that our military and civilian leadership has actually done more harm than good. I.E. aforementioned calling off of the hunt for bin Laden. See L. Paul Bremer's entire career in Iraq.
It's the soldiers who bear the brunt of these failures, and to portray them as your typical first person shooter GI JOE character in a FPS that purports to be based on historical fact would be the equivalent of putting Gordon Freeman in a cooking mamaesque DS science party game.
Liberals.
The fact is, you don't know the truth anymore than I do. So please, just play games and stop worrying about political BS.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A62618-2002Apr16
Even a fairly conservative paper like the WaPo backs up my assertions, this article is from back in 2002.
I'm sorry if your only reaction to the facts are to blame the messenger and insult my competence. I do know the facts more than you do, otherwise you may agree with me or give my point some credit as being truthful.
*HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA*
Yeah right. Tell me how that turns out.
Don't they already have the America's Army game for that?
BTW, I have no specific problem with the US army sponsoring or publishing a game, as long as it is clearly stated on the box that they paid for it. As long as the consumer is informed, he/she has a choice in the matter of ingesting domestic propaganda or not.
As an aside, I was contemplating the inequity of WWII games being made true to history, while modern warfare games ala Ghost recon/tom clancy all must be based on fictional conflicts. See upcoming Brothers in arms squad FPS.
Was there any Desert storm games based on actual events??
I know there were Vietnam games.