Search Results for “Spec Ops” – Page 2

July 2nd

…to oppress them.”

Wars

Of course, games about combat don’t have to lack critical reflexivity – and games that offer dialogue as a way of solving problems are not necessarily nonviolent.

Why Are There So Many Games About Cops This Year? – Waypoint Cameron Kunzelman rightly points out that most of the recent indie games about policing have come out of Eastern Europe, and tries to offer explanations for their familiarity to US players.
Dan Golding — Spec Ops: The Line and the fine art of subversion Dan Golding highlights the role of rock…

This Year In Videogame Blogging: 2017

…the difficulty in properly resisting.

Choosing the impossible: Did BioShock define the last 10 years of video games? | AV/Gameological – Matt Geradi, Sam Darsanti, William Hughes, and Clayton Purdom A group of writers look back on the 10-year-old BioShock and the influence it has had on the gaming landscape over that time.

Spec Ops: The Line…5 Years Later | YouTube – Raycevick – Lucas Raycevick Raycevick looks back on Spec Ops: The Line and finds that it holds up superbly well, in his in-depth examination of the details of its mechanics and narrative. Mutliplayer not so much.

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June 2021

…jumping off point to think about the meaning and wish-fulfilment of alien invasion theories. (Autocaptions) [embedded advertising]

Spec Ops: The Line – A Literary Analysis – Games As Literature (1:12:33)

The Game Professor argues that the way Spec Ops: The Line explicitly positions and critiques player expectations for both choice and reward is fundamental to its anti-war messaging. (Autocaptions)

The Wendigo… In Video Games | Cryptid Month – Painticus (17:02)

Painticus reviews three games featuring the Wendigo, lamenting the misrepresentation and appropriation of myth from indigenous American culture. (Autocaptions)

Room for Improvement

Design

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November 25th

…This week might be the single greatest boon for long form game criticism I’ve seen since I’ve started doing this.

Brendan Keogh has finally released his book, Killing is Harmless: A Critical Reading of Spec Ops: The Line, for purchase. If you like criticism and want to see it properly supported and hopefully allow the medium to take one more step forward, buy it. It is available until December 21st for $2.99 and then on will be $4.99. If you want to pay more, Brendan says it would be more than appreciated. You can read an excerpt on Kotaku…

December 2nd

…an unexpected paratextual gutpunch while going through the game’s campaign missions.

REVIEWING IS HARMLESS

Brendan Keogh’s Killing is Harmless: A Critical Reading of Spec Ops: The Line released last week to generally enthusiastic response. Now Keogh brings us a roundup of some early and very worthy reviews of his book, acknowledging what his critique does and doesn’t accomplish.

LIVE, EAT, GAME

At Unwinnable, Jenn Frank pens this emotional introspection on her work in games, the death of her mother, hanging on and letting go. Also worth reading is this very valuable B-side.

Daniel Starkey pays…

July 9th

…systems themselves—and not the characters within the game—lie to the player.

Moving on to the subject of morality and ethics, the ever readable Richard Cobbett gets on the Eurogamer soapbox to write about the games which get players to feel implicated in the actions of their characters even when the choice isn’t theirs. He has some interesting thoughts about the morally grey shooter, Spec Ops: The Line.

Kill Screen’s Yannick LeJacq also shares his views on the aforementioned game, extrapolating on the themes from Cobbett’s piece rather well.

There would be little point in ethics or morality…

July 15th

…they can go.

Now come some back and forths.

Tom Bissel wrote another excellent essay at Grantland, this time on the new Heart of Darkness adaptation, Spec Ops: The Line in 13 distinct thoughts. Not everyone was impressed, however, Gobi at Fuyoh sees something fundamentally off in they way Bissel critiques calling them rather fuzzy and full of surface level critiques behind the wonderfully constructed prose.

Stephen Totilo asked several designers and academics the question ‘what makes a good video game‘ on his search for his own answer. Eric Zimmerman, one of the people Totilo asked, wrote…

September 2nd

…but these are flimsy when you take a look at the superfluous things a developer does decide to include instead. Or maybe there’s the uncomfortable implication that Caucasians are, as far as the game is concerned, actually more important than other races—and that’s why there’s more options for them.

On the subject of games and agendas, here’s a piece on Spec Ops: The Line straight from the horse’s mouth, as it were: a feature from narrative designer Richard Pearsey on the narrative objectives and process of the game.

Over on my old stomping grounds of PopMatters Moving…

September 16th

…Ontological Geek, in his description of a game he hasn’t yet played, but has read about (Spec Ops: The Line) and wonders if that isn’t the reaction that the developers wanted from their player base.

Finally, a Video Game Morality Play by Andrew Vanden Bossche in choose your own adventure style.

Trigger warnings in next section’s pieces for discussions of rape, sexism and harassment.

Marc Price calls the upcoming Feminist Frequency video series, “Anita Sarkessian’s Joan of Arc Moment.” Which may be a little myopic, but I fear is a bit too accurate.

Published in the…

September 30th

…loudest, most blatant way possible. Whenever you shoot an enemy, numbers pop out of their bleeding carcass instead of fluid and organs. It stops just short of having the Gunzerker get down on all fours and eat the same numbers with his bare hands to become stronger.

Is this a sign of manshooter’s inevitable decline, or the maturation of an industry and art form that’s finally learned to embrace irony? “In some ways we know that we’re reaching a level of sophistication with games because we are able to play them ironically,” Ian Bogost, a Professor of Interactive Computing…