What a sado !

[TimberWolf]

*****SPOILER ALERT******

What are your thoughts on the airport scene? I'm not sure it was entirely necessary to have it play out the way it did? I certainly wasn't comfortable playing it. Apparently the German version has it included but has a different outcome should you decide to go along with your comrades, I can't see why that wouldn't work for every version?

I can't help but think it was included to deliberately court controversy as there's no such thing as bad publicity when it comes to sales figures, IMO it doesn't help much to promote gaming as a mature media though.

Is the gameplay that immersive and realistic?

[Board Game Geek]

*****SPOILER ALERT******

What are your thoughts on the airport scene? I'm not sure it was entirely necessary to have it play out the way it did? I certainly wasn't comfortable playing it. Apparently the German version has it included but has a different outcome should you decide to go along with your comrades, I can't see why that wouldn't work for every version?

I can't help but think it was included to deliberately court controversy as there's no such thing as bad publicity when it comes to sales figures, IMO it doesn't help much to promote gaming as a mature media though.

I'd like to consider the airport scene from a number of perspectives.

In the context of the game, it exists to explain that you need to win the confidence of the leader, and that sacrifices have to be made. In other words, it's a moral conundrum that demonstrates that not everything in life is in black and white, and neither is it in the game either.

The game doesn't, and could never, say whether it's morally right or wrong to murder hundreds of innocents, in order to potentially save millions. There's no easy answer to that one.

What the game does do, is put you in this situation, and leave you, the player, to make the decision yourself.

I decided in the context of the game, and the story, that I would do what was asked of me.

I rationalised that the few would have to be sacrificed to save the many.

All I could do, was ensure that the suffering was kept to an absolute minimum, and go for kill shots each time.

It didn't feel "good", during the episode, and I felt "uncomfortable", but neither was I morally outraged or appalled.

It opened my eyes to the harsh brutality of war in our modern age, and I applaud the game makers for introducing more nitty-gritty elements to the game that provoke thought.

On the other hand, I know of a few other gamers who have played that scene, and they joked and laughed about it, saying how cool it was to chase injured people and shoot them slowly.

That sickened me. They completely missed the point of the scene. I suspect they also play GTA and run over grannies for laughs as well.

For me, there was nothing humourous in that scene. It was sad, but the only way to get through it was to suppress all emotion, wear a "different mask", kill mercifully, and think "1 innocent dead, but another 1000 saved" over and over again.

I don't think they were out to court controversy, seeing as they warned the owners of the game several times about the content, and gave them plenty of chances to cut out the scene.