Zero Punctuation: Call of Duty: Ghosts

[Dalisclock]

I don't know. I haven't played COD games for so long maybe I'm out of touch. I thought the game was fun from simply a shoot 'em up stand point.

It seems like you are taking things way too seriously by expecting "realism" and plausible story-lines, etc. Can't I just shoot some bad guys and look at some cool graphics and maybe for two seconds not feel so bad about spending $400 on a game system that has no games?

I can't believe you injected race somehow into this. I didn't even notice. That you did I think says something about you. How many black guys are appropriate? Tell me. Maybe you can set up a committee that determines the proportion of women to men that need to be in each game. Then once you've achieved your fantasy ideal mix of race and sex, you can then go on to complain that the game doesn't focus on game-play.

Yahtzee, I think in some ways you yourself sold out on this video. You bought a COD game and now you are complaining that it's a COD game. What did you expect?

Except that COD actually used to have plausible stories and were semi-realistic, feeling less like a Michael bay movie and more like Band of Brothers. The first modern warfare is lauded because it struck just the right tone between real life combat and video game awesomeness.

Not to mention some of us are kind of dismayed by the fact the series actually used to fall on the "War is horrible but sometimes necessary" side and over the years it's slowly drifted into "America. Fuck Yeah!". Which is why the whole plotline in ghosts of "America is invaded by (brown) South Americans" seems particulary tacky, if not racist. Black Ops 2 did something similar but BO2 actually came off as more plausible(hacking the US drone fleet) and less disturbing by emphasizing that cooperation between the US and China is required for a good ending, not to mention the fact the Menedez is actually characterized to make him more a far more sympathetic(or at least empathic) villain then any other in the series.

 

[Ihateregistering1]

I don't know. I haven't played COD games for so long maybe I'm out of touch. I thought the game was fun from simply a shoot 'em up stand point.

It seems like you are taking things way too seriously by expecting "realism" and plausible story-lines, etc. Can't I just shoot some bad guys and look at some cool graphics and maybe for two seconds not feel so bad about spending $400 on a game system that has no games?

I can't believe you injected race somehow into this. I didn't even notice. That you did I think says something about you. How many black guys are appropriate? Tell me. Maybe you can set up a committee that determines the proportion of women to men that need to be in each game. Then once you've achieved your fantasy ideal mix of race and sex, you can then go on to complain that the game doesn't focus on game-play.

Yahtzee, I think in some ways you yourself sold out on this video. You bought a COD game and now you are complaining that it's a COD game. What did you expect?

Except that COD actually used to have plausible stories and were semi-realistic, feeling less like a Michael bay movie and more like Band of Brothers. The first modern warfare is lauded because it struck just the right tone between real life combat and video game awesomeness.

Not to mention some of us are kind of dismayed by the fact the series actually used to fall on the "War is horrible but sometimes necessary" side and over the years it's slowly drifted into "America. Fuck Yeah!". Which is why the whole plotline in ghosts of "America is invaded by (brown) South Americans" seems particulary tacky, if not racist. Black Ops 2 did something similar but BO2 actually came off as more plausible(hacking the US drone fleet) and less disturbing by emphasizing that cooperation between the US and China is required for a good ending, not to mention the fact the Menedez is actually characterized to make him more a far more sympathetic(or at least empathic) villain then any other in the series.

I'm sorry, but how come no one ever seems to mention (or remember) that the primary antagonists for all 3 Modern Warfare games were the Russians? Hell, the big bad guy in MW2 was a white American General! So it's perfectly acceptable for the US to be at war with Russia in a fake videogame storyline, but if they're at war with any country where the majority of folks aren't white, it's instant racism?

This reminds me of the people who cried foul at the movie "The Siege" because it had the audacity to have the terrorists be Middle Eastern.

 

[Dalisclock]

I'm sorry, but how come no one ever seems to mention (or remember) that the primary antagonists for all 3 Modern Warfare games were the Russians? Hell, the big bad guy in MW2 was a white American General! So it's perfectly acceptable for the US to be at war with Russia in a fake videogame storyline, but if they're at war with any country where the majority of folks aren't white, it's instant racism?

Because Russia is a far more plausible threat to the US(and even then it was a bit of a stretch. MW3 made the whole scenario a lot more implausible) then South America. South Americans destroying and invading the American southwest is not only fairly ludicrous, but also smacks heavily of racist conspiracy theories held by some right wingers that Mexicans are invading and reconquering lands that used to belong to Mexico(AKA the American Southwest).

Again, MW2 also differed in the fact that it was (tenously on the side of) "War is bad"(More specifically, "Revenge is bad") rather then "war is awesome and explosionific". Gen Shephard and Makarov were the primary antagonists in MW2 and pushing the world into war for their own agenda. Sure, the Russians are shown as being pretty evil, but it's not like the 141 was exactly a wonderful group of people either. I'm fairly sure you're not supposed to be smiling when one of the soldiers mentions they're going to burn Moscow to the ground as retribution for DC and it seemed fairly obvious by the end of MW2 that Price had lost a few of his marbles in the Gulag(launching a nuke at DC, for example).

Going to "We are Americans. We are smart and brave and hard working and defending our lands from the brown, barbaric hordes who are persecuting us because they hate our freedom" comes across as jingoistic at the very least.

And I actually liked Black Ops 2 because despite having a similar plotline, it came across as being more plausible(breaking our cyber defenses, which controlled our drones, from the inside) and less jingoistic/racist actually could see why Menedez(the death of his family) and the rest of the third world really hated the US(Crippling poverty vs. Western Opulence and backlash against American Foreign policy in the third world).

 

[Ihateregistering1]

I'm sorry, but how come no one ever seems to mention (or remember) that the primary antagonists for all 3 Modern Warfare games were the Russians? Hell, the big bad guy in MW2 was a white American General! So it's perfectly acceptable for the US to be at war with Russia in a fake videogame storyline, but if they're at war with any country where the majority of folks aren't white, it's instant racism?

Because Russia is a far more plausible threat to the US(and even then it was a bit of a stretch. MW3 made the whole scenario a lot more implausible) then South America. South Americans destroying and invading the American southwest is not only fairly ludicrous, but also smacks heavily of racist conspiracy theories held by some right wingers that Mexicans are invading and reconquering lands that used to belong to Mexico(AKA the American Southwest).

Again, MW2 also differed in the fact that it was (tenously on the side of) "War is bad"(More specifically, "Revenge is bad") rather then "war is awesome and explosionific". Gen Shephard and Makarov were the primary antagonists in MW2 and pushing the world into war for their own agenda. Sure, the Russians are shown as being pretty evil, but it's not like the 141 was exactly a wonderful group of people either. I'm fairly sure you're not supposed to be smiling when one of the soldiers mentions they're going to burn Moscow to the ground as retribution for DC and it seemed fairly obvious by the end of MW2 that Price had lost a few of his marbles in the Gulag(launching a nuke at DC, for example).

Going to "We are Americans. We are smart and brave and hard working and defending our lands from the brown, barbaric hordes who are persecuting us because they hate our freedom" comes across as jingoistic at the very least.

And I actually liked Black Ops 2 because despite having a similar plotline, it came across as being more plausible(breaking our cyber defenses, which controlled our drones, from the inside) and less jingoistic/racist actually could see why Menedez(the death of his family) and the rest of the third world really hated the US(Crippling poverty vs. Western Opulence and backlash against American Foreign policy in the third world).

"We are Americans. We are smart and brave and hard working and defending our lands from the brown, barbaric hordes who are persecuting us because they hate our freedom"

Except the game isn't saying that, YOU are saying that. Sure, one can critique COD: Ghosts for being more Michael Bay and less Saving Private Ryan than previous MW games, but that's unrelated to any sort of racist ideals.

2nd, the evil Russians invading was a "right wing fantasy" a LONG time before MW ever came into existence.

3rd, the concept of illegal immigrants from Mexico (of which there are 15 million or so in the US) and the exploding US Hispanic population (which is statistically completely true) eventually becoming the majority in the US is a totally different ball of wax than a theory of a South American Army invading the United States, which I have never heard any "right-winger" talk about, even amongst the most extreme ones. The conspiracy theory you're talking about of Mexicans "invading" is not a literal invasion.

4th, since COD: Ghosts essentially says we're going to go down the ridiculous route, the lack of plausibility in the storyline is completely justified.

To me, this is simply knee-jerk reaction from many of the same people who already despise COD anyway. I don't particularly like COD, but this notion of "the game is racist if the US goes to war with any country that doesn't have a white majority" just reeks of searching for controversy.

 

[4Aces]

Gotta love those doomsday satellites. How many did the US launch last week alone?

 

[Kuuenbu]

So I guess you could say it didn't have a Ghost of a chance?

This is the best post in the thread and it will likely never be topped.

I think CoD is in a sort of uncanny valley period where the narrative still has yet to catch up to the universe. Most of the people who take a moral high ground over the series had no issues mercilessly slaughtering Russians in the old arcade side-scrollers of the '80s because there just wasn't much context to tie it into real-world logic: the worlds portrayed were cartoonish and ridiculous and the story was non-existent. Compare that to today's military first person shooters that attempt to shoehorn in graphic realism and vast political plots, yet still take the same care-free attitude of the "vaguely nationally themed and that's it" military side-scrolling shooters that preceeded them. Suddenly "shoot the person of a different color" takes on several new meanings.

Simply put, these developers are trying to apply old design philosophies into new environments where they're not nearly as compatible or as plausible.

 

[Jacques Jones]

Well, who the hell buys CoD for singleplayer anymore?

Please, stand up and say your name, so that we may oggle at the oddity that is you.

Ooh, ooh, I do! I remember playing it on single-player. Those were good times.

 

[Evonisia]

I thought this game was going to a prequel be about the guy Ghost from MW2.
Hell, where does Ghosts fit in COD Canon anyway?

I know that:
COD4 > MW2 > MW3
and
Black Ops > Black Ops 2

But unless this is a different timeline...

I know it's nitpicking, but why else would they base the Ghosts off Ghost from MW2?

Ghosts is a part of it's own mini-series.

So Ghosts > Ghosts 2 > Ghosts Origins.

 

[Evonisia]

I'd also like to point out the lack of mention for Extinction. I know Zombies got no mention in the Black Ops II review (which was barely justifiable, Green Run was different and tried new things), but I don't see why Extinction is completely forgotten.

MW3 > No mention of Survival
Black Ops II > No mention of Zombies
Ghosts > No mention of Extinction.

They're all another third of their game and they're singleplayer.

 

[Pogilrup]

So I guess you could say it didn't have a Ghost of a chance?

This is the best post in the thread and it will likely never be topped.

I think CoD is in a sort of uncanny valley period where the narrative still has yet to catch up to the universe. Most of the people who take a moral high ground over the series had no issues mercilessly slaughtering Russians in the old arcade side-scrollers of the '80s because there just wasn't much context to tie it into real-world logic: the worlds portrayed were cartoonish and ridiculous and the story was non-existent. Compare that to today's military first person shooters that attempt to shoehorn in graphic realism and vast political plots, yet still take the same care-free attitude of the "vaguely nationally themed and that's it" military side-scrolling shooters that preceeded them. Suddenly "shoot the person of a different color" takes on several new meanings.

Simply put, these developers are trying to apply old design philosophies into new environments where they're not nearly as compatible or as plausible.

Call of Duty should just go the route of G.I. Joe.

Establish a cast of reusable heroes and villains.

The heroes are an international military coalition established to maintain the status quo. The villains is composed of various groups that get short end of the stick in the current world order and thus want things to change ASAP.

 

[Deadcyde]

This is the first video with a halt in the flow of speech.

Surely there is a trophy in it?

check it out 3:35, it stands out like a bollock from the leg of your high school phys ed teacher's gym shorts.

 

[Sergey Sund]

1) I hope those are not supposed to be links to the audiobook at the end of the video. Because clicking them doesn't work. Not even 2 minutes in a row.
2) Ghost Dog is an awesome movie. Made me read Hagakure and other Samurai knigge books.
3) CoD is getting more douchy? YOU DON'T SAY!?!
4) Seriously, watch Ghost Dog.
5) I'd even recommend getting the DVD instead of the game. Then again, I'm a massive Battlefield-junkie, so take that with a grain of salt.
6) Criticism: a bunch; CoD: zero.

 

[Scorpid]

Anyway, Yahtzee, did you seriously expected Ghosts to actually feature a weakened US? Everyone pretty much figured from the first trailer that it wasn't going to be any different from the previous one.

One can always hope.

I'm still waiting for the game where some US analogue is treated as the bad guy and the protagonist is horribly outnumbered and out teched.

Yeah, there is plenty of disturbing shit being done by the US. Like perhaps the fact we launch UAV's over non belligerent nations and blow up their citizens. Or the fact we kidnap torture people all the while holding them in detention indefinitely, classifying them as not prisoners and not POW's.

 

[TomWiley]

I liked the first three Modern Warfare games (yes all of them). I freaking love Riley. I don't give two shits about hardware requirements. Should I buy this game?

 

[Allan Foe]

Well, who the hell buys CoD for singleplayer anymore?

Please, stand up and say your name, so that we may oggle at the oddity that is you.

That would be me, Yahtzee (since he has to review these games) and Jim Sterling (who gave MW3:9.5, BLOPS2:8.5 and Ghosts:5 respectively). Of course Jim and I play a bit of the ol' multiplayer occasionally (not together, sadly), but I'm not very good at it and I stop playing as soon as the first DLC comes out.

MW1's singleplayer I remember very fondly, MW2 was still pretty decent and BLOPS2 had a fair amount interesting stuff going for it.

 

[Allan Foe]

Your response is exactly what i wanted;

Oh you're a claver cat creature, SILENTrampancy.

All right, you win this round. But this isn't over yet, not by a long shot.

 

[gamegod25]

Actually the funny thing is that the real enemy is another white American dude. He is the one who is always pulling the strings and laying the traps, he is the one taunting the main characters at every chance like a cartoon villain, and he is the one surviving a sure death just to bait a sequel. The South American soldiers are just kinda there as generic cannon fodder, you could find replace every reference of south American to Russian and most people would probably never notice.