immediately before this you're riding around on a snowmobile doing jumps all 'James Bond style' and then immediately afterwards you're dumped in a Brazilian favela to take out some thugs. in a game which is merely a bunch of action set-pieces held together loosely by a silly-string plot this scene was so out of context that you can't respect it. it was just put in there because they could.

I never played CoD for the multiplayer, so I won't get into that, but I have to admit I was really disappointed with the singleplayer, considering how I expected this to be at least as good as the predecessor. I was especially disappointed with the story and the dialogue - it just seemed so way off from MW1. Specifically, I have to say that General Shepherd is one of the most poorly written characters I've seen in any game recently, and unlike MW1, almost all dialogue reminded me of wannabe cool-dark tough-guy dramatics.

There were a couple of moments that I really liked, such as endings to Favela, the beginning (right after the nuke) and the end of the West Wing level (the homage to The Rock), and the part right after the boat chase near the end, and ironically enough, I liked most QTEs, which I usually hate in any game. But above all my main gripe with MW2 was how chaotic and frantic the combat gameplay felt (I guess that's what Yahtzee was referencing with "constantly having to look left and right"). I just don't understand how in Spec-Ops, the defense missions are real easy for me even on Veteran, while in SP, I died some 20 times defending the safehouse in one of the last levels on Regular difficulty. And if the AI had been really smart, that hadn't been a problem, but instead it's just that the game throws too many enemies at you.

Oh, and the snowmobile chase sucked. A lot

I lived and worked in those favelas in and around Sao Paulo. I think that while he completely ignores the lawless underbelly of the squatter cities, he also makes some very good points. By our standards in the west, the living conditions are reprehensible. But when you compare the living standards most of the people had in rural areas it is vast improvement. I also agree that for many of the people it is a stepping stone to a better life because of the educational and entrepreneurial opportunities to which they now have access.



edit: apostrophe fail

Tags for this video have been changed from 'south america, brazil, slums, drug trafficking, rio de janeiro, gangs' to 'south america, brazil, slums, drug trafficking, rio de janeiro, gangs, favela' - edited by jonny

http://www.videosift.com/video/Red-Command-The-gang-that-controls-the-favelas-of-Rio#comment-534234

no, i want to see the full thing for sure, although it looks a bit over the top, but hey, it's an extreme situation.

In reply to this comment by jonny:
I intend to - that was actually one of my earliest submissions - got all of 3 votes the first time around. Have you seen it?

In reply to this comment by MINK:
keep requeueueuing

I intend to - that was actually one of my earliest submissions - got all of 3 votes the first time around. Have you seen it?

In reply to this comment by MINK:
keep requeueueuing

This seemed an appropriate post for today. If you haven't seen this movie, go get it now and watch it tonight. You will not be disappointed. Also, check out the Favela Rising website.