now that the dust has settled, what is /v/'s opinion on spec ops?

>>715772762 (OP)
>war is… bad?
so deep i cried

>>715772762 (OP)
Games are art, you're a literal war criminal for shooting at pixel people.

>>715772762 (OP)
I've beaten it three times. And I shot everyone that lynched Lugo each time. As far as by the numbers third person cover based shooters of that era go? It's one of my favorites.

>>715772867

>>715772906
Did they ever fix the Dark Souls-tier AI? I stopped playing after I saw one of my teammates hide behind the same planter as one of the enemies and they both just sat there occasionally glancing at each other.

>>715772762 (OP)
Soundtrack full of bangers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0mC__bGcmM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngxYYjfjBoQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eb7Uu6Bz_wM

>>715773508
>he didn't get it

>>715772762 (OP)
Gamers were just following orders.
They are entitled to feel like a hero.
War and being a soldier are about that.

>>715772762 (OP)
>Protagonist Uncanny Valley intensifies.

>>715772762 (OP)
narrative falls flat when you're forced to do the war crimes instead of giving the player a real choice but one that acts on player's natural behavior

>>715777713
The earlier versions of the game actually did, but playtesters kept choosing to do the right things and they removed the option. No joke.

>>715772762 (OP)
Peak goyslop

>>715777713
The whole point is that the game makes it more and more clear you won't be getting that, yet you keep playing anyway. You made your choice when you started the game. You played it to feel like a hero. You kept playing because you were hoping it would all come around in the end.

>>715777787
That's just a fantasy that you tell yourself to cope. You desperately want there to be some alternate timeline where you did the right thing, so you made one up in your head. Just like Walker.

>>715778701
I didn't even play it, it looked like codslop.
>>715778626
Actually it was because all the players chose the right things and they freaked out.

>>715778801
>He's so insulted by the game that he couldn't even play it.
>He still makes up some alternate timeline where the game was a hero's journey
I mean, that says it all, doesn't it? This game had such an impact that it affected people who didn't play it.

>YOU ARE.... LE BAD FOR SHOOTING PEOPLE
epic game man
truly

>>715778950
I didn't play it cause it looked like codslop... and it turned out to be slop about cod! how do I do it? Superior inuiition, I suppose...

>>715779031
Hmm. It sounds like you're trying to use humor as a coping mechanism for how badly this game affected you. Are you afraid of playing it?

>>715772762 (OP)
>didn’t play the game
>am morally superior to everyone that did
feels good to be the hero

>>715772762 (OP)
Now every medium has its Heart of Darkness: books, movies, and finally vidya.
It's kino.

>>715779603
Far Cry 2 was a better Heart of Darkness adaptation

>>715779713
EveryoneinFarCry2talkedlikethis. Also you don't do anything bad in FC2. You always just kill asshole juntas and mercs.

>>715772762 (OP)
>kino setting
>kino plot
>kino dialogue
>makes retards seethe nonstop
>different endings, one is longer and in turn leads to two more different endings
Great game. The only problem is the gameplay doesn't really hold up, especially the turret segments

>>715772762 (OP)
I like it, kino scenery.

>>715772762 (OP)
how did they know this would happen?

>>715780365
>you don't do anything bad in FC2.
There's various missions where you destroy civilian infrastructure and assassinate people on the behalf of one of the factions but the writers had enough restraint to not beat you over the head about how much of a bad person you are for per taking in these missions and allow you to come to that conclusion yourself
>You always just kill asshole juntas and mercs
Most of the mercs are portrayed as being no different then the player character and when you're tasked to kill people it's usually painted as it being a cynical power grab between the factions and not as some morally righteous act. There's a mission where you can kill the king in exile for his son so he could take all his dad's money from his bank account.
Far Cry 2 works better as an anti-war game because it portrays a somewhat grounded conflict between two factions that are engaged in violent and amoral actions just to make sure the other side doesn't gain any ground and use the player as nothing more than a disposable pawn.
Meanwhile Spec Ops The Line has you press X to commit war crimes and acts super smug for being a critique of military shooters while at the same time indulging in all of the over the top spectacle of one while constantly fingering wagging at the player

>>715782042
You don't know what you're taking about.

>>715783142
Actually, it's you who doesn't know.

>>715777787
No they didn't. Quit making shit up.

>>715778626
Sounds like an excuse for cut features.

>>715778626
>You played it to feel like a hero
Nobody does that. Nobody has ever done or claimed to do that.

>>715772762 (OP)
trash

>>715783189
Nah. In Far Cry 2 you mostly just press X to commit legal mercenary work in an effort to stop an international arms trafficker. Assassinating enemy leaders, sabotaging enemy equipment and killing enemy personnel are all valid forms of merc work. It's a dirty job and you know that if you choose to be a merc. The ending of the game is killing all the faction leaders (who had it coming) and saving many civilians. It's a fairytale ending.

>>715772762 (OP)
Thoroughly enjoyed it numerous times. You're a little BITCH if you're still memeing about the story.

Absolute kino setting

>Killing American servicemen
Big YIKES. Absolutely demonic garbage.

>>715772762 (OP)
It was ok.

I don't feel like the dust has settled considering there is a thread about this game almost every week since launch. Flailing around blindly in a dust storm of their own creation is a good metaphor for /v/ though.

>>715772762 (OP)
Serviceable 3rd person shooting action, with a fun little multiplayer addition. The story is probably the only thing that's survived this games sudden purge from most online stores practically killed it overnight. Said story works best when you stop trying to read into the devs meta-narrative about how you, the player, are just as bad as this fictional character who's having a particularly bad day that just keeps getting worse.

>>715783707
You don't know what you're taking about.

>>715784197
The thing about the metanarrative is that the more you fight it, the more it pulls you in. Pretty much every attempt the player could make to deny blame is mirrored by Walker in some way. Even saying the game isn't real was accounted for by a moment where Walker looks into the camera to say it.

Conversely, if you just accept that shit happened and you pulled the trigger, this doesn't happen. You remain an observer of Walker, rather than his accomplice.

>>715784382
Hahahahaha! I gotcha, didn't I?

WE'VE HAD THIS EXACT SAME FUCKING THREAD EVERY MONTH FOR YEARS!!! LET IT THE FUCK GO YOU FUCKING OBSESSIVE AUTISTIC FUCK. IT'S BEEN TWELVE FUCKING YEARS. YOU HAVE NOTHING NEW OR WORTHWHILE TO SAY ABOUT IT. YOU JUST WANT TO BITCH BECAUSE SOME TEXT ON A LOADING SCREEN TRIGGERED YOUR BABY BITCH ASS BEYOND HERE TO INFINITY.

GET A FUCKING LIFE LOSER!

>>715781129
It won't happen

>>715784507
are you cutting across the line or not

>>715783707
>Game ends with you killing yourself and directly the civil war doesn't end and the international community does absolutely nothing about it
>Fairytale ending
>But the refugees survived
Yes and it's portrayed as a sad thing that two million were displaced from their country

>>715784453
?

>>715784415
That's the part where I disagree with the devs entirely with it. No matter what I do, I'm still just that, an observer to Walkers story. Even replaying it, it becomes even more obvious that every single "choice" given to the player is still there to give you the illusion that this is anything more then set of train tracks that all lead to the same place. If their answer to this is, "just don't play the game" well what the fuck kind of answer is that? Isn't the point of a game, to play it? I'd say it's story works best as another recreation of the same Heart of Darkness style descent into madness and despair, but this time mixed with American interventionism and how blind jingoism can cause more problems then it solves....except the group that would've been the most responsible for the atrocities of Dubai (the UAE and the major powers in the city that hid information of the storm and promptly left before it hit) just get off scot-free. It's a plot thread that gets told in the background and completely ignored in favor of Walkers personal story of trauma and war crimes.

>>715784679
>he didn't get it

>>715783707
>Game concludes with you killing yourself and directly stating that the civil war doesn't end while the international community does absolutely nothing
>Fairytale ending
>But the refugees survived
Yes and it's portrayed as a sad thing that two million were displaced from their country

>>715784507
you gotta let go anon... we died years ago...

>>715784758
>Game concludes with you killing yourself
Pfffft. More like implies, but come on, nobody takes the bomb ending the first time, and nobody would actually shoot themselves after saving the refugees. We survive, and we don't even have to headcanon it unreasonably.

>>715783707
>The main protagonist didn't kill 500 civilians so therefore it's a bad antiwar story

>>715785007
>We survive
You literally have malaria that's been slowly killing you throughout the entire game

>>715784740
I get it, I just think the devs were sniffing their farts a little too much.

>Eternally BTFOs /v/irgins for all of eternity

>>715784679
The point where it starts or doesn't start is after the white phosphorous scene. Walker blames Konrad - a dead man - for making him do it. Did you blame the game - a scripted program - for making you do it? A player choosing to blame the game allows it to hook them and stick them into Walker's shoes, treating both Walker and the player as the same entity.

>>715785103
>You literally have malaria
Perfectly survivable with modern meds and care.

>>715785331
Cool expect it's stated that your character is stuck in the country and that the malaria pills they get from the underground are the only thing keeping them alive and once they run out their going to die a slow painful death

>>715785252
Why do brownies think spam means anything?

So why does /v/ shit of TLOU2 while sucking off SOTL?

>>715785612
TLOU2 had trannies.

>>715785612

Both are great. TLoU, part 2 especially, was released during the height of "culture war" peddled by /pol/

>Spec Ops of The Line
>The Last of Us 2
>Hotline Miami
>No More Heroes
>Metal Gear Solid
Why are there so many devs that want to lecture players on enjoying video game violence?

>>715785996

You're wrong about at least 40% of games

>>715786119
HM, NMH, and MGS all have various commentaries on nature of violence with it being blatantly obvious that the protagonists relationship with violence is supposed to be a statement about how players are content to mindless hordes of enemies without really thinking too deeply about why their doing it

>>715785289
I’m not so sure it treats Walker and the player as the same entity. To me, it’s rather that the game holds up a mirror to Walker and the reflection is the player. The player is not Walker, Walker is very definitively his own character and person - but the player has things in common with Walker, and those things are not good.

>>715786119
HM, NMH, and MGS all have various commentaries on the nature of violence with it being blatantly obvious that the protagonists relationship with violence is supposed to be a statement about how players are content to mindless kill hordes of enemies without really thinking too deeply about why their doing it

>>715772762 (OP)
Postal 2 is the only game that has successfully pulled off a meta commentary about how psychotic the average video game protagonist is when not running on game logic

>>715786717
MGS doesn't. The closest thing is "You enjoy all the killing", which is ironic when we trying avoid fights wherever possible in the game.

>>715786717
MGS’s stance on violence is more nuanced though-it doesn’t just wag a finger at the player, it dissects the layers of control, history, and ideology that push characters into killing. Raiden’s arc in MGS2 isn’t "lol violence bad", it’s "you were molded by a system that commodifies violence and erases agency." Same with Naked Snake in MGS3. Kojima isn’t just commenting on player bloodlust, he’s questioning what turns men into tools. Hotline and NMH are way more blunt with their meta-commentary.

>>715779603
>>715779713
>>715782042
>Heart of Darkness
What was FUBAR Ops: The False Flag's major beef with Apocalypse Now and whatever Hollywood war movies they're deliberately mad about?

>>715789247
I've no clue what you're trying to say

>>715772762 (OP)
nowhere near as good as youtube essayists think
nowhere near as bad as /v/ contrarians think
it's pretty good but mgs2 did all the same stuff better 10 years earlier

>>715789380
Of course you don't.

>>715789247
You have schizophrenia

>>715781129
>Cities naturally sprawl in all directions
>I have a genius idea, let's make a city that only goes in one direction
Why are arabs so fucking retarded

>>715772762 (OP)
It's a mindnumbingly boring corridor shooter.
I couldn't give a rats ass about muh story
Gameplay is king.

>>715772762 (OP)
Killing someone is bad.
Killing someone with fire is fun.
Killing someone with music is awesome.