Quick Look: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II

"You're bad at trolling"

Whoa. That opening scene of Amsterdam had me doing a double take, I thought it was real footage for about 3-5 seconds. That's some crazy good graphics, yo.

"Press LT to de-escalate" might be worse than the "pay respects" thing. Like, I know this is a Call of Duty game, but let's not pretend that it's not just violence. Aiming a gun at a person is escalation.

@neau: COD is and always has been the Western Imperialism game franchise. "De-escalate" is very much the shittest reading of that situation which is of course why it's called that. The only way it makes sense is because your shithead player character fully believes that's what they are doing, not that it makes it better.

Dan, the WINNER decides what a war crime is.

"maybe not heroin but most drugs are legal in Amsterdam" - maybe research that one again :D

This game feels like a self parody at this point.

When I was in Iraq, we had to follow "rules of engagement." Included in our RoE was a practice known as "escalation of force." In order:

Shout (warning, to turn back, etc.)

Show (your weapon)

Shove (nonlethal means of deterrence)

Shoot (in some RoE, this may be a warning shot)

Sustain (in other words, shoot the target until neutralized)

Notice that the second step here is showing a potential adversary your weapon. Notice that this is explicitly called "ESCALATION of force." [Emphasis mine.]

Fuck this game.

This 6-8 hour story mode is about stopping an Iranian major's revenge plot against American military, political, and civilian targets. The vengeance is lit when a very influential Iranian general is killed by a targeted US ballistic missile strike during a Russian mercenary or ultra-nationalist arms deal in an fictional middle-east region that is a known stronghold of the terrorist faction introduced in Modern Warfare 2. Oh, and a Mexican cartel is involved as an opportunist antagonist faction.

Foibles aside, the campaign is a fun time with some questionable G.I. Joe toys. Neat set pieces and surprising gimmicks. However, a lot of missions go on for two/three too many beats. And by the end of the game, I can't shake the feeling that my nostalgia is being weaponized against me.

no one should buy or play this

Been playing this, the campaign is pretty fun, and a decent length for what you want out of a COD campaign. It's all the usual hoorah COD nonsense but the shooting feels good.

Man that Amsterdam level is incredible, I know that exact spot having been to the dam so many times. It's an amazing little slice of the city. Some serious effort went in to recreating that.

Also, re the "deescalate" bit, the second it happened I immediately thought (after stopping laughing at how fucking dumb it was)

That 1- It felt completely self aware and 2-It was maybe even a tad cynical as a headline grabbing moment for the news cycles

The user who below said the game has become a parody of itself is very close to the mark I think. There's a lot of winking and nodding going on.

"Who decides what a war crime is?" is definitely a Dan quote.

After contemplating on all the horrible shit in the game, you can start thinking of all the horrible shit done by its publisher.

It drives me insane that its 2022 and we still cant get native Spanish speakers doing voice overs in games. Most of the supposed Mexicans have the thickest American accents, like Alejandro is I think the only that is kind of passable as a Mexican.

a special forces guy flagging civilians in a cartel infested border town chasing a terrorist is certainly not a warm fuzzy moment but the pearl clutching and condemnation is really amazing to me, especially given the greater context is a 15 year long tom clancy wet dream. i'm beginning to see what people mean when they say media literacy is in the gutter.

that said the story in this one is pretty bad, maybe the worst they've done

The pearl-clutching is super weird to me. People show up looking for something to get offended by. This is an action movie video game. It's The Fast and Furious / Bad Boys 2.

What video games / media are y'all consuming? I'm sure I could draw some moral boundries around them too.

Quoting known nazi Henry Ford in your wargame sure is a choice.