While the premiere of the next Call of Duty title isn't supposed to happen until later tonight on GameTrailers TV, VentureBeat is reporting that the next game will be set in the Vietnam war.
It's fertile narrative ground, that's for sure. And something that doesn't get touched on as much as I think it should. Don't get me wrong. I love World War II. There's just so much of it already on the market that I'd like a change of pace.
Of course, it's Treyarch, so the best you can do is pray.
Coming soon: Call of Duty Vietnam [VentureBeat via Kotaku]
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Contest:
2:00 AM on 04.30.2010
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Yes, Matt did post that same header image. And it did cause a big fuss.
BUT WHO GIVES A FUCK?
But I honestly don't think COD is the appropriate context for a narrative telling the story of this particular war. And if it's Treyarch, we already know that they didn't reach the level of compelling story-telling in their last game, which they claimed they were shooting for ("like a horror film").
So honestly, I can't expect at this point that it will add up to anything good.
From what I recall, Matt used the iconic image of the VC soldier being shot in the head. And I just checked the article in question, and the picture was eventually replaced.
While Matt's image was controversial because it showed a man being killed (albeit in the context of war), this image brings up other issues of human suffering, as well as the child nudity that has been partially censored. Now, I'm not trying to go all PC on this, but the latter aspect could be a problem for a post on the front page. I'm not personally offended by any of this, of course, but I don't want to site to draw unneeded negative attention.
That's such a logical conclusion to my statement. Obviously I'm all for genocide, atrocities, and filling the world with pain and misery! And also political correctness!
Robin Williams was awesome in that movie. :)
- Shane
BUT! If you so much as kill a VietCong or North Vietnamese, people will call you RACIST or IMPERIALIST or DUDE NOT FUNNY or THIS ACTUALLY HAPPENED SO STOP HAVING FUN!
What was I saying? Oh yes, as long as we can slaughter Vietnamese zombies, I'm all for this game.
I think if Treyarch approach a Vietnam setting in the same way there's no reason why (in it's own context) it could be an enjoyable game.
There's not many wars to cover as games that are properly ingrained in the public consciousness (as Vietnam definitely has been because of the countless films about it). I don't think you would see a Korean war game because it would put a fire under a lot of current tension and it probably wouldn't sell either. The other argument put forward is that it's suggested that the game designers should go even earlier (Civil War!) - but it simply wouldn't work. Rather than playing the game as realistically as it could be, gamers would play the game like they're playing a modern FPS and get bored from the lack of speed/'slower' weapons.
Perhaps they should skip the real wars altogether, then?
Star Wars proved in 1977 that you don't need a real world or real people to tell a story about military conflict. Most developers have an obsession with the past that is limiting imagination and creativity. The Halo and Killzone series have proven that you can have as much success and more fun with imagined scenarios of your own sculpture.
OMG yeah! And it would be a war where we fight this really bad terrorist guy and some Russians and you control like 2 main characters but one if them dies in a nuclear explosion? Yeah! And the other main character (preferably a Scottish fellow) could be named after something you use to clean things with, but I'm drawing a blank on exactly what. Oh, and there can be an overhyped sequel that becomes the biggest entertainment launch in history. Someone should totally make that game.
Are you saying that MW2 is the only way a contemporary fictional conflict could be portrayed? Because if you are you are very silly.
Doesn't this rumour about a CoD set in Vietnam go against a previous rumour that the next CoD is going to centre around Black Ops missions, or are both these rumours right but for different CoD games?
I just checked Kotaku too, and they're not saying it's not in Vietnam; they're saying it's not called Vietnam.
They're saying it's called Black Ops, and part or all of the game may or may not be in Vietnam.
So they're saying they have no idea where it could be.
That sounds a bit wrong. xD
Best regards, Katya, CEO of dvd power burner, iscsi rhel5