> I know there are some hardcore video gamers on the list. Apparently the PS3
> has a new Call of Duty out ("World at War") that lets you fight the Battle
> of Stalingrad? Anyone tried it?
>
> I played a previous Call of Duty game on my cousin's PS3 and couldn't stand
> how chaotic it seemed. Squad-level, first person POV mano y mano fighting
> that just seemed impossibly frenetic and aggravating.
>
> -B.
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>
I've played it on the XBox and I was fairly impressed. It is a little chaotic but I think that's kind of the point. It tries to realistically reproduce the conditions of fighting in WW2 and, while I'm obviously not speaking from personal experience, I think they do a pretty good job.
One thing that really struck me is how bleak the game is. War isn't made out to be fun or glorious or anything of the sort. For example there's much emphasis placed on the hatred directed against the invaders. At one point you have to option of allowing your fellow soldiers to burn surrendered Nazi soldiers to death with Molotov Cocktails while laughing at their screams and pleas for mercy; the effect of which is actually quite chilling. It seems to me that often when popular films try to portray the brutalities of WW2 they either come across as hopelessly melodramatic, dishonest and... well... shit (I'm thinking Spielberg here) or they succeed in making a point in an extremely cryptic manner (I'm thinking the subtle treatment of PTSD in "A Matter of Life and Death"); video games, on the other hand, seem to have a bit of an edge here. Now all we need are more games set in the trenches of WW1...