Burke's Joystick

[Warning: Some minor spoilers follow] I should have known that when Hillary Clinton showed up in Black Ops 2, the game's interesting campaign was going to go straight to hell.  Oh, she didn't star as herself - which is strange considering how this game did not shy from including other real people in its cast - but as "President Bosworth".  Nevertheless, a s with Oliver North , the similarity of appearance was unmistakable.   Sure, she wasn't running around hiding the Rose Law Firm records , nor did she scream "what difference at this point does it make!" when the bodies started piling up due to the global terrorism unleashed by Raul Menendez, but the bug eyes sort of gave the game away (as well as her apparent affinity for the ChiComs...I, for one, found it strange that "President Bosworth's" first call after the attacks went to the Chinese premier.  Hmm.  Old habits die hard , I suppose).  Be that as it may, it was shortly af...

[Yes, this is going to be another Black Ops 2 article.  No, Burke's Joystick is not turning into a BlOps 2 blog.  It just happens to be my flavor of the month. :) It also happens to be relevant in various ways to the mission of this blog...as the next posting will demonstrate. ]  What do you suppose would happen if someone invented a product so fantastic that is garnered over a billion dollars in sales in around two weeks time?  Do you suppose that if someone did accomplish such a business feat, that he/she would be the recipient of a lot of mainstream media attention? Probably, right? Let's be more specific:  let's suppose that James Cameron made another movie - call it Avatar 2: Feline AIDS Strikes Back - and it made another billion dollars, but in less time then the original film.  Do you think that - just perhaps - Cameron would be the toast of the town?  That Time, Newsweek, ABC News, TMZ, Entertainment Weekly, etc. etc. woul...

[WARNING 1: Image heavy blog posting follows!] [WARNING 2: BF3 fans should be prepared to have their minds blown!]  When I had moved on from the tried and true Battlefield: Bad Company 2 to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 , something immediately struck me about the difference in maps: those in MW3 were so much more vibrant than those in BC2. MW3's maps were not only more colorful, but the locations had a "lived in" feeling. That is, the art design of the maps successfully communicated the idea that people had actually lived in these locations prior to the arrival of the bad tempered soldiers; that the terrain players merely saw as a good camping spot or a wonderful sniper's nest were much more than that: they were formerly homes and businesses of the now displaced citizenry. it just made everything seem much more believably tragic. Unfortunately, the maps is BC2 lacked similar depth to them. While they superficially resembled homes and ...

Illustration COD by Greg Groesch for The Washington Times  Part of my mission statement for this here blog is to get "video game-shy but politically active adults...interested in gaming (it's no longer kid stuff, you know!)."  The paratethical notation is particularly key here as I know from experience that a lot of "adults" (I'll let you define that as you see fit) avoid video games because they believe the subject matter is on par with an after school cartoon (aka: James Cameron's Avatar ).  In other words, when the over 40 crowd thinks of a video game, it is likely to be  Sonic the Hedgehog or Mario Brothers type of stuff that is more evocative of a cartoon than a movie.  And while there is a lot of that going on, particularly in the console sphere of gaming, a lot of adults do not realize that there is also more serious fare in the offering, the type of stuff that if it was made into a TV series, they would probably be more than lik...

I knew there was going to be something special about the single player campaign in Black Ops 2 when the game began with this emotionally powerful video: Indeed, it seems that such intense emotional energy is the driving force behind the entire BlOps 2 story, not surprising when David S. Goyer, co-writer of The Dark Knight Rises , has penned the script. 

[Stand by for a lot of Blacks Op 2 content coming to Burke's Joystick!  I am finding it to be representative of what is best about gaming:  it is thought provoking, exciting, and wonderfully produced!] Imagine my surprise when during one of the early moments of Treyarch's superlative shooter, Black Ops 2 ,  an animated character walks up to me and I am struck by a sense of familiarity.  I think: "I know this guy...." "Hey!  That's Oliver North!" I exclaim.  And, sure enough, he is introduced as just that!  How cool is that? Why would that be cool, you ask?    

"This week Vice President Joe Biden spoke at a senior center in Iowa. Which explains why the seniors were like, 'Is this Hell?'" –Jimmy Fallon   Poor Joe Biden.  Personally, I think our VP is a rather nice fella.  Unfortunately, he just isn't the sharpest tool in the shed.  We knew this long before he was ever VP - I mean, he was caught plagiarizing time and again.  Then there are all those wonderful gaffes caught on film: And liberals like to make fun of Palin.  Wow.   Well, ol' Joe did it again with this incredibly racist statement a few days ago: Remember when Bill Clinton complained that Team Obama "played the race card" on him?   Well, it looks like they were planning on going back to that well in their desperation to talk about anything but Obama's abysmal record.  Unfortunately for them, this time they went too far and needed to put Joe back in the attic .  Now, what has this got to do...

Well, this is interesting.  It seems Frank Woods, one of the devs of the original Call of Duty: Black Ops , has been spilling the beans regarding all sorts of details concerning what content will be packed into Black Ops 2 .  Amongst the many tidbits is a reference to the Commander-in-Chief himself, Barack Obama: U.S.S. Barack Obama – An aircraft carrier. Clearly, in the near future world of Black Ops 2, the current president will have an aircraft carrier named after him.  Interesting, that, seeing how Obama might preside over the most damaging defense cuts in US history due to Obama's inability to balance the budget during his four years in office. I will say that I am a bit disappointed that Obama won't actually be more of a part of BlOp2.  I mean, I would love to have a mission where the player needs to quadruple the US deficit in three years!  I wonder what type of kill streak that would earn you? I also wish VP Biden would make a...

Back in June, there was an investigative report on FOX News concerning how America's increasing reliance on drones could present a severe security risk in an age of cyber-warfare.  It is a good report, so give it a quick watch here: Pretty interesting, right?  But here's the kicker: if you were one of those slack-jawed video gamers, you probably were already well aware of this possibility because of Treyarch's forthcoming title, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 .   Remember this from May (i.e., one month prior to the FOX special report)? But how can this be?  After all, aren't video games all about mindless violence?