(Spoilers of course.)

It was all over far too soon. With barely a moment to rest or let your guard down to admire the amazing environments and graphical details of the year’s biggest release, the campaign mode of Modern Warfare 2 – whilst inarguably exhilarating from start to finish – wasn’t quite what I was hoping it would be, nor was I as profoundly affected by the controversial airport level as I was building myself up for. The emotional resonance of the original story in the first Modern Warfare, set in current times and grounded (somewhat) in reality, has given way to fantasy in the sequel. By way of comparison, MW2 has pretty much turned into Metal… Read More

Okay then. Here’s my two cents on this whole lack of R18+ classification in Australia and, since it’s the popular topic at the moment and will doubtless prove even more controversial once the game is officially released, the Modern Warfare 2 airport stage. Warning: long rant ahead.

*Originally posted here.

A serenade to Captain MacMillan from COD4 (a spoken word companion to weird Yoko Ono music):

Those times you spoke were like a dream

Sean Connery and Trainspotting altogether it seemed

Dressed in our ghillie suits and crawling through marsh

You stayed calm under pressure, no matter how harsh

~

You loved the wild dogs. Oh how you loved them.

~

“Oi, Suzy” you muttered as you stealth-killed the guard

And entrusted to me a task: the hardest of hard

Variable humidity and wind speed you reminded me not to neglect

As well as taking into account the Coriolis effect

~

When the chopper crashed and rendered you prone

You covered my back and got on the phone

Backup was coming but it was such a long wait

Camping I was, behind the bumper car gates

As I planted my claymores like a scared little wuss

There you were, shooting, an invincible bush

~

I salute you Captain MacMillan: the best NPC ever.