BruceVC

No the game is fun and I thought kept you interested in the narrative the whole way

Intelligence reports say they were raped and killed. Seriously? Or are you joking

Funniest line of the week

After beating the game and loving the direction it took in the latter half, I basically started consuming every video and article that discussed it in detail. There were a lot of very similar interpretations of authorial intent there, and most of those were proven correct in Walt Williams' We Are Not Heroes: Contextualizing Violence Through Narrative session at GDC 2013 Well all I can say is "Well done Sir" , that was very fascinating

So, when Quinn posts stuff on Twitter about her abuse or Sarkeesian 'quotes' stuff there as well, you're ok with doubting that, correct ? I was told that was a big no no. So, when Quinn posts stuff on Twitter about her abuse or Sarkeesian 'quotes' stuff there as well, you're ok with doubting that, correct ? I was told that was a big no no. That's different Malc, they're SJWs so they would never lie. There is a propaganda war going on from both sides and people like you are falling for it. They use the easily influenced to spread the misinformation, not all information is false but don't think for a second there isn't an orchestrated campaign to align people to either side. Stop being manipulated No I don't believe Twitter comments, I need real links that I can verify. Have you ever known me to post Twitter links

Nonek the word " fascists" is a naughty word, we don't like to call people that. Its like playing the Hitler card, its just hyperbole and theatrics It should be below you He probably just forgot to put a winkie emoticon after it. You not still annoyed with me about that Neo-Nazi comment are you, you know I was teasing you

Nonek the word " fascists" is a naughty word, we don't like to call people that. Its like playing the Hitler card, its just hyperbole and theatrics It should be below you

Why are you victim blaming, Bruce ? Listen and believe! Guys seriously, all I'm going to say is if you endeavour to partake in truthful and interesting debates where you make a point from a position of intellectualism ( and I assume this applies to all of us ) and when asked to substantiate your point all you can produce is Twitter comments.....you are in big trouble of people questioning the validity and credibility of that information " Do you guys want to know something the USA is building prisons on the moon and will be sending all Islamic extremists there to serve there sentence. Its true, I read it on Twitter" You see my point

Three things: A) While helping Syrian rebel certainly did benefit ISIS; that wasn't the intention of Israel or the US. It was another unintended consequence of our idiotic interventionist attitude. B) The US is no one's puppet. We are however, bleeding heart fools who seem to have forgotten how to mind our own business; this tends to be a problem as we don't always even understand the situations we get ourselves into. Iraq is a good example of how pathetic our understanding of a situation can be. C) Israel is hardly to blame for ISIS. America is very much at fault however. Starting with our aid to al-Qaeda when they were fighting the USSR in Afghanistan. Followed by our hapless invasion of Iraq. Finally, we gave aid to a bunch of radicals we knew nothing about in their fight against a brutal but secular Assad. Ladies and gentlemen: America's brilliant foreign policy. Some good points raised, a couple of considerations ISIS in its current structure is the due to the prolonged civil war in Syria and the fact that when the USA left Iraq Al-Maliki didn't incorporate the Sunnis in the new government. I'm not sure why you feel the USA is responsible for either of these? In fact as I've often said if the USA and its allies hadn't be vetoed in the UNSC by Russia and China they would have intervened in Syria years ago, like Libya, and ISIS wouldn't even exist. Remember Syria is there homeland and "birthplace" in there current form and they only exist because Assad has been incapable of dealing with them so they become stronger as more people flocked to there cause America never aided Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, they helped the Mujahideen who were fighting the occupation by the USSR. No one knew that Al-Qaeda would evolve eventually from some of the Mujahideen fighters and also remember that the Cold War was on going at the time and the greater evil was always Communism. There were various proxy wars fought between the USA and USSR and sometimes from the assistance that both powers provided there were unforeseen consequences that came to effect years later. That's why the USA basically ignored Apartheid for so long because South Africa was staunchly opposed to Communism

Did you find with all your training you were doing it helped you sleep?

Extra Credits (<- as spoiler-free as can be) and Errant Signal should explain it more than adequately. If you haven't played through Chapter 8, then you haven't reached the part where the game starts making its point. Starts. Before that the game carries itself like a dudebro shooter with subtle hints to the contrary No, absolutely not. Never. Suggesting anything like that makes it clear that the entire message of the game went very much over your head. Imagine the reveal in Kotor 2 where your weird nature as a wound in the force is why you get XP and level up from killing things, amplify its importance by 10, then say "this should have been a book". No. Player agency and the illusion of player choice are fundamental to the message the game is trying to convey here. It's actually not- It's a subversive discussion on the shooter genre itself. I'm going to assume you haven't gotten far yet How did you guys know all this about the game, its very interesting

No offense TN but is social media really irrefutable proof of anything? Like that photo of the syringe...how do you know its real? Can you possibly post some credible links that can be verified?

I started watching the latest season for Hell on Wheels and as usual its very entertaining

Just like you advocate the destruction of earth by living right? Don't take what Oby says seriously, most of us don't

Well you can see it like Gaider is on some grand SJW crusade or you can see it like he is making Bioware games more inclusive. I prefer to see it like the latter and his endeavors are much appreciated

Yep, US begin war against Syria at last. They make long path to make this real. Firstly with help of Turkish ally they create ISIS. But ISIS fail own goal and has been defeated by Syrian army and Kurdish selfdefence. Then US organise ISIS "invasion" into Iraq, where they: ◾Cut Kurdish supply lines. Syrian Kurdish self-defence has been weakened. ◾Has been armed by newest US weapons (Iraq army just delivers all these toys to them and flee without fight). After this well armed US-backed terrorist return to Syria for finishing own work. And US use this situation for attack of Syria without declaration of war or permission from UNN (We make war against terrorists, trust to us).... Profit. It's so good really. Syrian Trap triggered. Wait so you are suggesting that the USA created ISIS as a reason to actually invade Syria? Please tell me even you don't believe this ..... Not to mention that this whole ISIS situation will almost certainly ensure that Assad will remain in power. Also ISIS has made Iran more powerful than ever. If making ISIS were our plan; it sure blew up in our face. Not to mention there is really no room for profit here. Exactly, the USA has no intention of bombing anyone in Syria except for ISIS targets

Of course this is true, but any reasonable person knows this

Yep, US begin war against Syria at last. They make long path to make this real. Firstly with help of Turkish ally they create ISIS. But ISIS fail own goal and has been defeated by Syrian army and Kurdish selfdefence. Then US organise ISIS "invasion" into Iraq, where they: ◾Cut Kurdish supply lines. Syrian Kurdish self-defence has been weakened. ◾Has been armed by newest US weapons (Iraq army just delivers all these toys to them and flee without fight). After this well armed US-backed terrorist return to Syria for finishing own work. And US use this situation for attack of Syria without declaration of war or permission from UNN (We make war against terrorists, trust to us).... Profit. It's so good really. Syrian Trap triggered. Wait so you are suggesting that the USA created ISIS as a reason to actually invade Syria? Please tell me even you don't believe this .....

Something else that I mentioned that is very significant is that this is the first time, I can recall in recent times, that various Middle East countries are directly involved in airstrikes against ISIS or any enemy for that matter. For example the Jordanian air force is really bombing ISIS positions. Normally Middle East countries just supply logistical support. This is a real "coalition of the willing " and I'm glad the USA has obviously made it clear that they will get involved but not if other countries don't also contribute militarily. This makes sense on a number of levels.

Well after your indictment of the game I have to say ....nothing No, I did think the narrative was interesting. The constant questions ..where was the Colonel....what had happened to him Also I enjoyed the usage of some of the weapons, like sniping. But I suppose that's common to most shooters. But I do agree now that you mention it that some parts of the game were illogical

Narrative? Compelling? Uh...yeah, sure. We killed hundreds of militants to get to where we are right now, but, hey, there are like maybe three dozen more dudes ahead, and there's this neat white phosphorous cannon sitting over here...how could we resist? Also, we're not actually going to take a look to see if they're actually really militants, even though they currently haven't even spotted us yet! "Oh my gosh, we are such horrible people! The indiscriminate killing of the other hundred dudes before this clearly did not show that maybe there's something wrong with war and possibly us if you pay any heed at all to our normal societal values!" In my books, this kind of narrative would be laughable, not compelling. It's the kind of narrative almost any action game could show if it really wanted to, but it doesn't because it'd be ridiculous, not to mention tedious and preachy...all three of which the game very neatly exemplify. The fact that the basic gameplay was pretty boring didn't help much either. That seems to be true of every corridor third person shooter I've ever played, though, so maybe I'm a little biased. Barti when you put it like that it does make the game sound a bit silly, but you are also only discussing the negative

I think your criticism about the civilians who live in ISIS occupied territory is harsh and unfair. ISIS has had 3 years of fighting in Syria to hone and improve there combat skills. When they first invaded Iraq the Iraqi army capitulated and retreated. ISIS may not be as effective as any conventional army but they are still a dangerous force. And they have no issue with extreme violence, mass killings and they have a complete disregard for human rights. You can't expect your average civilian to reasonably oppose them. So of course non-combatants will either flee from them or accept living under there anachronistic and extremist interpretation of Islam

I have to confess I played this game about 3 months ago and I really enjoyed it. There are certain choices you need to consider that make the game different, like whether to use Napalm, and the narrative is compelling. But end of the day aren't all shooters really the same? You get different weapons and progress through a series of maps towards an end goal. What were you expecting that has you so disappointed?

Agreed, even if they get completely defeated in Syria that doesn't mean the ISIS ideology will vanish. You can never really defeat an ideology through military means. But the honeymoon of there safe haven in Syria is basically over and that's a goods thing

Volo are you not worried that this game is too old school and hardcore for you to enjoy in the long term? In other words does it have real replayability?