Let's Sperg Did Spec Ops The Line Ruin Gaming?

[Otis Boi]

Sure, games can be art. Problem is, most games aren't art at all.

Not to sound up my own ass but i think most media (Books,T.V.,Movies,ect). I think a lot of if it mostly a entertainment product and at a best a pairable. I don't think most corporation putting out media now don't care about making though provoking art just Propaganda or the next 1 Trillion dollar franchise.

 

[LightDragonman1]

I still remember interacting with one guy who was completely in love with SOTL, calling it a flawless experience, and if I didn’t at least respect it for what it did, then I was part of the cancer killing video games.

 

[The Last Stand]

I've been watching a playthrough recently because of the White Phosphorus level, and comparisons to the MW2 "No Russian" airport level.

Was there ever a publicized controversy with Spec Ops: The Line's depiction of white phosphorous? Homefront did it first in 2011 in single player and multiplayer; I haven't heard a peep about that. And Homefront was arguably more controversial than Spec Ops: The Line with its depiction of North Korea.

 

[xXx: State of the Union]

Was there ever a publicized controversy with Spec Ops: The Line's depiction of white phosphorous?

I really do not remember there being one, at least not one that hit the "mainstream".

Like, I was on Gamefaqs at the time and I even remember them making fun of people treating Spec Ops: The Line like it was serious business.

Thinking back, it's kind of crazy it'd only be a year later where I'd see everyone treating The Last of Us as serious business.

 

[Fag Albert]

Too many people let this game get under their skin lmao

 

[HyperboreanRightsActivist]

Something something "undertale with guns"

 

[Anti Snigger]

I'm going to play 3D retard chess and say it was shit because it had the two weapon limit.

Spoiler: my beloved

 

[Screamer_2]

I played it when it was new, haven't really thought about it at all since.

 

[Stoneheart]

It's definitely a 2deep4u hipster meta retelling of Heart of Darkness, but I don't think it's imitators were nearly legion enough for its impact to really negatively impact the entire scene. It was part of an existing wave of deconstructivist/post-modern critiques of video games, not the progenitor of the trend.

It was still a good game, unlike the legions of copy cats.
they devs are also not complete asshead and understand that people play games for different reasons and made a smallish cheap game for a niche.
we now get AAA games with a retarded message...

 

[JohnnyG]

Was there ever a publicized controversy with Spec Ops: The Line's depiction of white phosphorous?

Not sure, I don't remember the game being noteworthy, but I also wasn't gaming much at the time. I came across some comparisons to MW2's "No Russian" and decided to check it out.

I guess the aftermath images were somewhat graphic (for a game), but as other people have pointed out, you don't have any choice in the matter, so it's just a forced shock-gotcha.

 

[Ghost of Wesley Willis]

Spec Ops the Line was the peak of "le grey morality, le deconstruction, le subversion of expectations" craze that was really big back in that time. However, I would argue The Last of Us is far more guilty of this. That game and its sequel was far more pretentious with the presentation and execution, especially with the second game. The first game just punched you in the face with "GREY MORALITY, MORAL DILEMMA, DECONSTRUCTION, SUBVERSION OF EXPECTATIONS!" The second game just bludgeoned you to death with it and added a Jewish lesbian love interest, a tranny, and the director's self-insert.

Guess which game got a TV adaptation and an annoying fanbase of turbo coomers and guess which one was delisted from sale earlier this year and considered a commercial failure?

 

[Vibralldo]

It ruined game criticism video essays more than games itself

 

[David Brown]

You don't have any other choices because the devs didn't program them in. You're deliberately not given any agency

Turn the game off

 

[Snekposter]

I mentioned this in another thread, but about halfway through I started saying "aaaaaaand somebody ambushes Ellie and Joel.... now!" during every cutscene and was right nearly ever time.

Reminds me of my time in Dead Space 3. "Oh look, an intersection of several narrow corridors with a suspiciously round patch of clear snow on the ground. I wonder if a necromorph will pop out of the ground..."

And a necromorph pops out of the ground.

Of course what really fucking sucked was later on there's a bunch of bodies in a big circular room, so I go and blow their limbs off thinking something will try and reanimate them later. Naturally, the game has me backtrack through there and... the bodies I very specifically delimbed to avoid getting turned into necromorphs are intact and getting turned into necromorphs.

 

[Masturbator]

No

I bought the game at launch. Very few people gave a shit. Normies completely ignored the game. The few gamers who praised it were often mocked because the game, at it's core, is a generic as fuck shooter. Edit: I also remember people who praised the story being laughed at for taking it too seriously and finding depth where there wasn't any.

I liked the game for what it was, but I enjoy generic shooters for some reason. I don't remember anyone really "giving a shit" until video essay faggots started gaining prominence in the past few years.

The Last of Us is far more responsible for how faggy the AAA game industry has become than Spec Ops.

funniest part probably is when i torrented it when i was wee bit of lil shit decade ago i straight up just went through campaign paying least attention to anything and considering walker goin cuckoo ballistic a pretty damn good character development (irreversible trauma), that said i believe most attention about the entire game is retrospect purely because most you see on yt is parroted harder than yellow papers and unironically best review of it was that of an army psychologist in east europe who properly disassembled the protag and said he is rather believable, so the whole fact that everyone says bout muh trauma instead of muh characters psyche is kind of funny

spec ops the line has a good story and it doesnt chastize you for making bad decisions in the fog of war or playing the game
it also pulls apart the idea of a protagonist who can kill hundreds of people without getting shell shock

its probably a part most people miss generally regarding the whole plot is that protag straight up deserted and did what is natural in a environment where is no clue where the fuck to go and who is who to the point his group is already perceived as part of either glowies or insurgents or us army by either side that opposes em, as much "you did this" trick is dirty its a good grounding attempt from all the polish shooters from 2010's about killing iraq niggas and saving da president

 

[Ibanez RG 350EX]

Turn the game off

I've heard pretentious faggots posit this unironically and it's the most retarded thing anyone has ever said.

If you're a brilliant auteur developer breaking with convention by creating a game designed not to be played, I'm going to be a brilliant auteur consumer who breaks with convention by not paying for your game.

 

[Mike Matei's Penis]

It's a good game but this speedrunner I watched once is a faggot for choosing not to shoot the virtual brown men when it would be faster for the run.

 

[Local FloRida-man]

Turn the game off

Pay me my refund

 

[LightDragonman1]

One thing I really can't stand is how many bloggers and journalists who were heaping praise on the game were using it to say that it made military shooters completely unneeded and outdated, and that no developer should bother making them and/or no gamer should buy any more of them because it showed just how sickening the genre is.

Like, Yahtzee said during his review of (the admittedly terrible) Medal Of Honor Warfighter, "I thought we were over the whole Modern Warfare thing. It had its fun for a while, systematically abusing the word "realistic", but then Spec Ops: The Line came along and showed us what a bunch of violent paranoid glory-boy twats the whole genre was making us all look like. You were supposed to slink off in shame! Nanny caught you with your hand in the cookie jar, you don't just continue eating the cookies."

Or how about Errant Signal trying to compare the Modern Warfare games to it, saying the the former glorifies questionable actions that SOTL condemns when it doesn't, even falsely comparing the airport massacre to it, implying that MW tries to justify such an action, when that couldn't be further from the truth.

And heck, just plain old overhyping it, saying that it is an experience that makes Heart Of Darkness and Apocalypse now look like kiddie works compared to it.

Honestly, I can't think of another game that has as much of a pretentious and snobby fanbase this side of The Last Of Us.

 

[BirdUp]

some people mention how it doesn't give you many choices but it's not about the lack of free will or other gay shit from bioshock, it's about the awful consequences of your decisions that you couldn't have predicted when you made them and the psychological toll of war
if it allowed the player to make the Right Choices™ and get the Good Ending™ where you kill konrad and topple his evil warlord regime, it would be retarded and undermine its message of how complex war is