Zero Punctuation: Call of Duty: Black Ops 2

[Muspelheim]

Yes, Oliver North, this game is perfect for me! I've always wanted to play as the first world's prime repression drone! Stay off my bananas, filthy peasants!

Do I get to obliterate tiny grey specks that can't shoot back from a flying robot again, by any chance?

And Yatzhee, how DARE you disrespect our glorious U.S. Army?! Obviously, he utterly hates the United States, and wishes it and everyone in it to burn. Because critizising the glorious jobcreator and freedombringing warmachine is the same thing as being anti-everything the United States stands for.

(On second thought, I don't think I've got what it takes for sarcasm. I'll get me coat...)

 

[PainInTheAssInternet]

Man I am getting tired of this shit... /long comment/

I've always had an issue with the notion that one cannot be criticized for liking something. If that object has unfortunate implications, low quality in innovation or especially troubling aspects in its online community, what does that say about the individual who chooses to enjoy it?

There is a definite link between what the game is and what the community is; look towards attitudes online if you want any proof of concept. Also, most of the online community is white because they are the ones buying consoles. Why do they do that? Because they have the money. It's not "white guilt," it's fact.

I'm a born-into-wealth white guy and I reject the notion that I am responsible for the past. I am, however, responsible for the present and the future. Don't use the fact that people point out our ancestor's actions as an excuse to disengage.

So crusades to "correct" those communities by bashing them fits into your "responsibility for the present and future"? Because that never has consequences.

You have a funny way of "not being responsible for the past" but still taking responsibility for it. I'll just tell you, it doesn't help and it won't ever be enough. Do good where you are, people will actually appreciate that.


This isn't an "opinions are sacred and you have no right be against mine" argument. You can say: I like the starwars prequels just fine, Michael Bay can be a good director, I don't like Christopher Nolans movies, Yahtzee isn't funny to me, yahtzee is very funny to me, you have bad taste, whatever.

Stick up for your preferences and pay to have them. That's fine. But you don't get the right to bully other people just because a bunch of people might agree with you. And you CERTAINLY don't get the moral high ground for it. Especially when your facts are wrong.

- Online community is pretty international these days, but still mostly male and western. It's just that way and that's fine. It'll change on it's own.
- just because people have money doesn't make them evil. Or their ancestors.
- Racism and nationalism is usually more pronounced just about everywhere except America. America is just the one getting the lions share of the scorn from Intellectual Elitists generally because they have the most means to do something about it.

And I'm engaging just fine. I want people be free to like what they want and have judgements of character be made by people who actually know them before they're punished for it. This "White guilt" nonsense is just the current bullshit that casts aspersions on trumped up charges that I'm not fond of.

If you doubt my comment about the XBox Live online community, identify yourself as anything but a white heterosexual male and see how people react. I didn't have any identification and all I heard every match was "homo" "******" "*****" "******" "get back in the kitchen" and many inventive combinations of the sort. It's practically what XBox Live is known for. You don't see anything problematic with that? I'm not advocating censorship as that benefits no one. Changing minds and attitudes is the way to go.

Also, if you don't believe there is an issue, look to the birther movement, the NY "Anti-Mosque" movement and the participants in Fox News.

I'm saying that the past is noted but ultimately irrelevant if we wish to move forward. Those in a position of power and/or resources has an obligation to help. That's humanism.

 

[geru45gyik]

Yahtzee has imbibed
Absolving Whitey of all guilt? Check.

I'm sorry. I know i should feel guilty for things, that people who are not related to me with the same skin color as mine did on the other side of the planet centuries ago.

 

[Treblaine]

1. Most of the maps are terrible
2. The guns and killstreaks are still a lot of the same ole shit from the last games. Isn't this supposed to be future warfare? Why am I still using MP5s or MP7s or whatever. Same guns, same grenades, same whatever.
3. The lag compensation is still buggered and can basically ruin any match any time.

Well lag comp was fixed in MW3, and couldn't you give specifics on map problems? Like, what makes them terrible?

But anyway, as to weapons thing... this "future" is only 2025.

This may come as a shock but that is less than 12 years away you may very well be driving the same car today as you will be driving in 2025. Think about that. Dude, we're living in the future!

And FYI, the MP5 was first produced in 1964 and was used right the way through to the mid 2000's. And it doesn't appear in Black Ops 2's multiplayer, the MP7 does and that was first produced in 2001. So if it has the same life as MP5 then we can expect it being used till 2041!!

See, firearms technology moves slowly with stops and starts. The M1911 pistol for example has been in continuous service for OVER 100 YEARS! The same design. There is virtually no other technology that's still in use essentially unchanged after that time. Even the humble lightbulb has been usurped by the LED and even successors to the M1911 (like the TAC-45 in Blops 2 multiplayer) still use the same fundamental operating principal and identical ammunition.

Most of the weapons in COD4 were more than 12 years old. It should be no surprise that Black Ops 2 has many weapons that we have seen today.

All the advancements we are seeing with weapons technology are not with the fundamentals of guns. No. They are as deadly as they'll ever need to be till humans become more bear-like in their build, the advancements are in sighting and guidance systems, as you see in Black Ops 2.

No laser guns.

 

[Sheo_Dagana]

Eh, all these games really start to run together. I'm not surprised to see a negative review from Yahtzee. I enjoy seeing reviews of the game based on it's merits as just a GAME, not just as the new Call of Duty game.

A lot of people seem to have forgotten that Yahtzee doesn't do multiplayer, which is truthfully a very small part of the game, even if that's all you do, so I don't see why people aren't surprised he didn't bother with it.

 

[Biodeamon]

I think we've reached Dave Strider Level irony here

 

[catalyst8]

'That?s makes 4 attacks that we know of so far related to blacks engaging in lynch mob mentality to attack whites because they feel "justified".'
http://thegraph.com/2012/04/another-white-man-critically-beaten-20-black-racist-thugs-assault-him-citing-justice-for-trayvon/

You can throw up all the cherrypicked right wing rag articles about "reverse racism" and "scary black people" you like. It isn't in any way comparable to institutionalized racism, still inherent in the Western system as it was build by the white man and by far and large still works in favor for him both on the small and large scale.

You are just using stuff like that an convenient excuse to ignore this fact (and doesn't it sort of imply you believe one wrong justifies another?)

You seem to be labouring under the misapprehension that institutional racism is a white 'western' phenomenon. I can only conclude that you've never travelled to Asia (e.g. Malaysia, where I can assure you race riots are quite commonplace) or Africa (e.g. Ethiopia & Somalia). I've seen appalling racism in Dubai by Arabs against Africans where it really is institutional, & that goes back to the Arab slave trade (which the UN has admitted still exists).

You also misrepresent me, claiming that I believe 'one wrong justifies another' & that I condone racism, neither of which is true. If you want to believe that racism is a purely white 'western' problem & you refuse to educate yourself in the ways of the world then that's up to you, but please don't be so dishonest as to level unfounded slurs to support your knee-jerk reaction.

Racism is the prejudicial discrimination of individuals based on their ethnicity. Regardless of who perpetrates it it's an atrocity, & to claim that whites can be perpetrators but not victims of it is an appalling hypocrisy. Truly sickening.

 

[razer17]

Okay, the gameplay can't have stayed the same and got worse at the same time. Modern Warfare 1 at the time was hailed as being a brilliant game with excellent gameplay. Blops 2 still basically has the same gameplay, but now it's suddenly shit?

Hey, I get that for some people it definitely gets boring, because the gameplay is the same on the most part, the only things that change are the maps, stories and characters, so I guess Blops 2 is basically MW with a different skin. Boring to some, but if you love the previous games it will keep it's enjoyment. CoD hasn't really gotten much better or much worse. It's the same.

 

[SNCommand]

Perhaps I should clarify. The US has killed more enemy civilians than any country in the world. We claim we're killing "insurgents" and "terrorists" and whatever else the Pentagon calls them this week, but we end up killing way more innocent civilians than we do enemy combatants. Hitler and Stalin killed their own people, which is a large difference in this case.

So the London Blitz was nothing then? Eastern Europe was never moved westward and the mass exodus that followed never killed a million people? North Vietnam never exterminated South Vietnamese villages and started a genocide on the US allied Hmong? There were no genocides in the Balkans after Yugoslavia fell?

The only thing that is different when the US wages war is that their enemies can't touch their civilians, instead they attack their own.

 

[Treblaine]

Perhaps I should clarify. The US has killed more enemy civilians than any country in the world. We claim we're killing "insurgents" and "terrorists" and whatever else the Pentagon calls them this week, but we end up killing way more innocent civilians than we do enemy combatants. Hitler and Stalin killed their own people, which is a large difference in this case.

"enemy civilians...
... innocent civilians"

Errm... that doesn't clarify anything at all.

Are they enemy or not? One second it's "America does this" then it's "We do this". Wait... are you claiming to BE America? Speak for America? Part of the current administration? And what kind of distinction is that from the crimes of Hitler and Stalin whether they were "their own people" or not?!?!? Really.

Please, if you want to reply to me, reply to me via PM, because this has gotten WAY off topic.

 

[Treblaine]

No laser guns.

I would buy the next Call of Duty game if it had laser guns.

It sure is 2008 in here.

 

[Kelgair]

Huh, I thought Yahtzee was smarter than that. He actually fell for the white privilege bullshit line.

 

[Rikortez]

Remember guys, check your white privilege at least twice a day. And if any minority insults or is racist towards you, its your own fault for being a privileged white male cis.



Seriously, i was very disappointed Yahtzee, never expect this kind of thing coming from you.

 

[Barciad]

Crikey, Yahtzee, what have you done? I can't remember a flame war like this since your review of 'Super Smash Bros. Brawl'. I find it hard to say anything original on the topic, since you have already covered most of it. I will be honest in saying that I find these flag waving, semi-imperialistic games tiresome in the extreme. Yet, at the same time, I tend to usual play historical grand strategy games like Total War. Am I being hypocritical here or is there a genuine disconnect between the game play and events? Especially since the Ottoman Empire has been officially defunct for close to a century.

 

[ARCTIC_EAGLE]

OK, let me be clear, I have and always will LOVE COD. Its by far the greatest FPS ever made, probably the best game ever made. Some people are saying I'm a troll, misquoting me, misleading others but let me say this, I have and never will hate COD, its an amazing masterpiece. To my fellow COD lovers out there, stay strong, no matter what others might say we are right because our game is popular. Like Apple, COD/Activision is perfect due to its popularity. No game can hold a candle to this amazing piece of programing. I am disappointed that Yahtzee can not see the gray-brown goodness that is COD, it stays true to what made COD4 amazing, by being almost the same, and we all know innovation comes from doing the exact same thing forever. Also you're all just jelly you can't shoot as well as me and will never have my amazing KDR.

 

[Karavision]

Also, help from Moviebob on Oliver North:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2l9jnevggnc

Fucking Moviebob....

As a black transwoman (essentially a minority in a minority in a minority) I love his focus on making sure that no one is invisible and that no biased slight is below our notice but damn is he ever going to try to see the world through a lens other than his own?

On another note, that was my first time ever seeing him and he is rather cute.

 

[Erttheking]

Ah dear lord, what the Hell happened? I went away for a couple of hours and all of a sudden this whole thread devolved into a talk about racism? Jesus Christ, why does this crap always happen?

Also some people are saying that it's impossible to be racist against white people...isn't that kinda like saying that it's impossible for a man to be raped? Yeah it doesn't happen nearly as often, but you can't deny that it exists.

 

[LiquidGrape]

Wow I've never heard people whine about white privilege before. Its pretty exiting and edgy. Please tell me more about POC first world problems. Yatzee is risking his job by having such dangerous political opinions!

Yatzee appears to be morphing into another Bob Chipman. Oh well, it was good while it lasted.

Exciting and edgy? Not really. A welcome occurence when community favourites like Yahtzee (as opposed to hobbyist sociology minors) makes a point of adressing the issue? Absolutely.

Slightly unrelated; oh, the white tears in this thread. Om nom nom. They sustain me.
Nobody has, to my knowledge, ever claimed that white people cannot be subject to racial prejudice. It is absolutely a possibility, and to claim otherwise would be foolish. But to equate that to the systemics of racial oppression suffered by people of colour? Asinine.

 

[SNCommand]

Remember guys, check your white privilege at least twice a day. And if any minority insults or is racist towards you, its your own fault for being a privileged white male cis.



Seriously, i was very disappointed Yahtzee, never expect this kind of thing coming from you.

Unless whites are rounded up and stuck in a concentration camp like Hispanics are in some western red states, its not true racism on the scale other races face.

Citation please?

I'm fairly certain there has never been concentration camps setup in the US for a singular race since WWII when FDR and the rest of his party got loony and sent all the people with Japanese ethnicity to camps

 

[Suits]

I hope there will be a ZP on Far Cry 3.