for reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HkAVLIUrIg

This is one of the early levels in Modern Warfare 2. In the level, you play as a Russian terrorist walking through an airport gunning down civilians left and right. This level is said to be the sole reason why the game is rated M. I was wondering what you all thought of such an edgy, and quite frankly dark opening to the game?

Edgy? More like publicity stunt.

And after a half dozen games where they didn't have the guts to let you play the bad guys.

EDIT: I saw the original (now taken down) video which didn't have crap music and instead had the actual gameplay audio. What a waste.

"An error has occurred, please try again later." So I'll just take your word for it.

I find it unlikely that this level is the sole reason for the M rating, unless they've done away with the blood and language that was in CoD4. As for the level itself, I assume there will be airport guards trying to take you down. Gunning through a mass of unarmed civilians doesn't seem terribly challenging.

Um, according to the Call of Duty Wiki, you're actually an undercover CIA agent.

EDIT: Found the Wiki article on it: http://callofduty.wikia.com/index.php?titl...mp;oldid=103332

From what i saw (lack of game play audio and terrible music made me not watch the entire thing) it looked like you were at first massacring civilians and then fought and easily killed multiple airport guards.

Ah...that makes sense.

Well, considering the first "level" in COD4 consists of you getting a first person view of an execution AND of a nuclear explosion induced death...this isn't entirely surprising, I guess...

While well executed I think there's a big gulf between being essentially an observer to being the trigger-puller.

You weren't exactly just an observer to the execution...you were the one being executed.

BRB, going to eat my controversial sandwich.

What isn't controversial these days?

Ever notice how these kinds of things never happen in America in games?

You didn't do anything though. You just watched as it unfolded on screen.

Oh no, I didn't mean that they were the same thing...just that I'm not surprised since the series has already brought you closer to death. On a side note, at the end of the mission where you're the SAS commando and you're running from the crash, you can shoot enemy soldiers who are in shock and actually no threat to you...at least, I'm pretty sure they're no threat to you.

To be able to pump innocent bystanders full of lead in first person sure isn't a world first, but definitely a very shocking move.

Spoiler: You're a CIA agent (as written before) and you die at the end of the mission.

I believe in MW2 there's a Washington DC battlefield with what looks like to be an assault on the Whitehouse.


and yes nobody batted an eyelid when you were told that the crew was expendable.

But they almost make it seem like the crew are also hostiles, since the guys you kill are all in fatigues of some sort (I don't remember exactly). Plus later on, they're shooting back at you.

But like you said, this would be on CNN and Fox if this was an attack on an American airport, or if there were children involved (video quality isn't great, so can't see how many civilians are female or how many are children).

There are children...or at least you see them dead on the ground in other videos. I haven't seen any kids actually get shot though.

Is attacking the White House in a warzone the same as slaughtering civilians in an airport? Don't get me wrong, there are definitely games that give you similar freedoms. (IE: Prototype, the entire city's denizens are at your whim) But how many games are there where you get as close and personal as this is AND it takes place in America AND you do it yourself? And they aren't horror games?

You're about 9 posts too late, I already revealed that.

Aaaaaaaaaand queue the anti-gaming whiners...

I take bets on FOX.

Which is why I had written (as written above) after the part you had already revealed...and added the last part about how you die...

50 tech on New York times.

And how many take place in Canada? Obviously the games won't sell, and even when they are set in other countries there is trouble selling them, what point are you trying to make?

A rather obvious one, I would think. They want to avoid a knee-jerk reaction to what is I presume their biggest market. Kind of like how the Americans tend to usually be the good guys.

Game looks even more interesting. Deep down though it's just pixels on a screen. There are worse things out there in terms of game violence. Just look at Postal 2.

Sounds like fun.

The more amusing fact is that more individuals want to be more free to kill civilians within many gaming titles, and a large portion of that desire probably comes from the fact that video game media in general has mostly censored such events for several years. It's to the point where, to kill someone unimportant to the storyline, your title has to at least in part mirror qualities found in the Grand Theft Auto series (though that may be more a case of game structure than outright denial).

And don't even get started on the killing of children.

What are you talking about? Can you walk me through some titles where any of that is even remotely true?

I'm not sure if what he meant was that in order to kill civilians in a game, the game has to be stylized like GTA. But at the same time, you have to think of who would be killing unarmed civilians and what games would feature them as the main characters. I'm guessing those would be any games where the main character is a criminal, or something along those lines...

EDIT:


Actually, although I've never had a problem with games like GTA...I'm not sure how pulling the trigger in first person in this game is going to be. Not really looking forward to it... though I do want to play the game...

Where the player is not capable of killing civilians? You want me to make a list of such titles?

They usually give them stuff like money or experience for killing them. Or you can test out your next weapon on the only target that stays the same for strength.


Where there is a will there is a way.

I have no will to list the hundreds of games that don't allow you to kill a wide amount of NPCs.

I had thought it pretty clear to at least everyone here that the inability to kill a majority of non-enemy characters was (and, for most intents and purposes, still is on a slightly smaller scale) the norm in the videogaming community.

Doesn't stop us from trying (you would be amazed at some of the schemes I have come up with in games)

...thanks for putting SPOLIER ALERT right below the partial spoiler about the level in the title. Very helpful

Anyway, who cares, I can't wait to play it.

Publicity Stunt? Yeah.
Can it still be a powerful statement, despite the money grubbing arses behind this? Yep.

There's actually a few pages surrounding just that, the second being more close to what you were saying.

Finally, a game for me!

All the GTAs.

True, though if one considers all of the weirdness of such areas as Liberty City being real (crime everywhere, no law on the road, everyone being xenophobic, etc), it seems rather horrific

Civilians die in war. Civilians die in terrorism. How come nobody raised concern about civilian deaths in the possible thousands when the nuke went off in Modern Warfare. I guess you've gotta see it happen in front of you for it to make a big deal.

Ooh the removed movie: http://www.liveleak.com/item?a=view&token=364_1256689255

Why not list titles in the past 2 years (or at least major ones) that meet your criterion:



Though how you're going to find games that don't "at least in part mirror qualities found in the Grand Theft Auto series" is beyond me because that's such a vague statement.

Though I'll make it easier on you. Just find me the major titles you can think of in the past two years that explicitly don't let you kill civilians.

Football Manager 2009 - one of the biggest selling games in the UK

That would be wonderful if it weren't in another language.

Need for Speed series.
Madden or any other sports game
The Sims 2 and 3 (though, I guess you can kill off people, so... maybe not)
Guitar Hero and Rock Band
COD4 Modern Warfare

The guy who got the early copy lives in France. I don't think he would be playing it in English.

Well, he should be. If it weren't for English speaking countries, he'd be speaking German. Down with the French!

Le wut? If the English countries didn't play police of the world France, Belgium, the Netherlands and much more wouldn't be invaded.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venlo_Incident

Thank you English speakers, for the invasion of the Netherlands

False. Germans were coming either way. English speakers saved the world. Again.

Not an FPS. IE: A game where you get up close and personal with it, like I said. That's something that FPS's specifically do.

And frankly, you play quite hardened criminals in all those games.