Argus

The game's initial reception was lack-luster - there were reports of bugs and basic gameplay problems. Now that the game has been out a few weeks, patches have been developed, and the modding community has sunk its teeth into the problem - is X Rebirth better off? More worth playing?

Hey folks. A little about me: I'm a video game designer with a degree in Middle East studies. For a while now I've been looking to combine my interest fields, and a few weeks ago I went and downloaded Special Force 2, a recruitment game created by Hezbollah (a quasi-state actor in Lebanon) back in 2007. The game is fascinating on many, many levels - from the way that it glorifies Hezbollah fighters, to the assets they rip directly from the game Far Cry.

I translated the game from Arabic and put up a few analytical Let's Plays - here's one:

I've also written up an article on my company's website: Eye of the Beholder: Special Force 2 and the Propaganda Game.

For me the interesting takeaway from all this is that not that Special Force 2 is blatantly propaganda (it is) but how easy it is to forget that most war games that we play are barely any deeper or more careful when addressing such a grizzly topic. Generally speaking Americans criticized Hezbollah for making a hateful propaganda game, but we seem fine with playing World War 2 games and fighting one dimensional enemies in Nazi Germany or Japan.

Just my two sense - I hope you all find this interesting.

TD;DR: I wrote a blog and made a Let's Play video series on the propaganda game, Special Force 2 and I think it's an interesting topic.

Edit: this is my first post on the forums in a long while. Not sure if it was appropiate to mark it as a "question" post, or how to fix it...

When I played the Alpha version, I got to the end only after I had wandered out to sea. So I was really surprised when the ending crept up on me in the middle of exploring the island, lost and looking for some stones. Evocative, definitely.

Patrick is the best thing to happen to Giant Bomb. The work he does is insightful and very well written. Thanks for everything, Tricky!

I'm skeptical.

It's nice to discover that I listen to a lot of the same podcasts as Patrick - let's me know I'd be interested in the ones he suggests!

Thanks for the link to Chris Dahlen's blog. Another gaming blog to add to my collection.

Wish this were coming for Android, but heck, Steam will do. Possibly even better!

“Proteus is like: an indie Wind Waker, with dashes of Boards of Canada, James Turrell, Carl Sagan.” I desperately love three of those things. SOLD.

I'm relieved to see that someone else noticed. I'll forget my keys in the lock on a daily basis but I'll remember the Lion Cub story from about 3 months ago. Unreal.

Name police and patent trolls - the ugly side of the game industry.