DREAMWAR! Part Two: A Curious Metropolis

After the impression of travel, Todd found himself riding down a street of a magnificent city. Every building towered high above his head, and the cab crossed multiple bridges spanning rail lines and canals. “Mish-mash” wouldn’t even begin to cover the range of architectural styles on display. Towering glass spires would be situated directly next to neoclassical edifices whose pillars rose high into the clouds.

The most curious thing about the city, though, was the people who inhabited it. As Todd saw them out the window of the cab, they came across as almost completely nondescript. Even though he was looking right at them, Todd couldn’t come up with any way to describe any of the pedestrians. The best he could do was “Has hair” or “Is wearing clothes”.

At last, Mr. Pendleton (Physics 101: The Music of the Spheres) brought the cab into a grand plaza. After wheeling around the obelisk in its center, Todd and the officer stepped out of the cab to find themselves at the foot of the Cleveland Tower City Center, its high-rise edifice stretching up above him.

Todd followed the officer as he trotted up the steps. Inside the building he found the mall he’d last visited a few years ago, but the shops were all closed except for the food court and a mattress store. The mall itself was also almost entirely deserted, except for a few staff members in the restaurants and store and a few people milling about. One of them was Mr. Wen, who lived across the hall from Todd, and he was about to ask him what he was doing here when the officer urged him on.

“No time for gawking, lad. We’ve got to get you to the President.” The two of them strode quickly across the central hall, and in just a few seconds Todd found himself on the other side of the mall and at the entrance to one of the neighboring hotels.

“Hang on,” he had the presence of mind to ask before any more time could be skipped. “Where am I? What exactly is going on?”

“Simply put, my boy, we’re in the Capital, and there’s a war on.”

“War between who?”

“He’ll explain.” Todd was going to say he wanted the answers now, but then he realized the elevator they were suddenly in had arrived at the top floor. The doors opened and he found himself in a hallway with thick blue carpet and golden wallpaper, decorated with busts of himself. He had no time to dwell on this, though, as the officer strode purposefully towards a door at the far end of the hall, and he was compelled to follow. He knocked, and the door opened.

Inside was a pair of knights in shining armor. They were standing on either side of a chair in front of a giant picture window displaying the streets of the Capital. In the chair itself was a man who looked very much like Danny Glover in a suit.

“Mr. President,” said the officer, standing at attention and snapping off a salute after closing the door behind him. “We’ve found him.”

“Well done, Major Hartswell,” said the man, using the voice of Todd’s grandfather rather than that of Danny Glover. This was Todd’s first real hint. “Now, I’m sure you’re wondering what exactly is going on, Mr. Phillips. I’ll put it as simply as I can. I’m the President of Alliance of the Superego, and we need your help.”

“Alliance of the what? Look, I don’t know about any of that, and I have a doctor’s appointment in an hour, so if we could just-“ It was at that point Todd received his second hint, and the only other one he’d need. He glanced at the clock next to the double bed opposite the President to see how much time he had left before his appointment, then looked again. The digital clock read 19:82. He looked out the window behind the President and saw a clock tower situated directly behind him on which both hands were spinning erratically. It finally dawned on Todd.

“I’m dreaming, aren’t I?” The President nodded.

“That you are, my boy. And I’m afraid this is a particularly important one. As of two hours ago, the Alliance has found itself at war with the Empire of Id. We’ve tried multiple times to get ahold of one of their officials with the big red phone, but there’s been no response, and their embassy is abandoned. We’ve maintained a tenuous peace with them for years, but there was never any indication they were planning to attack. We’ve been able to keep each other in check for quite some time. But now hostilities have broken out, and no one wants to admit it, but we’re losing. Somehow, they’ve found something that’s let them turn the tide.”

“And where do I come in?”

“You’re the Champion of Ego, Todd. If there’s anyone who can decide the outcome of this conflict, it’s you.”

Todd was about to ask what exactly that meant when the air raid siren sounded.

DREAMWAR! Part One

When Todd Phillips fell asleep on the night of April 14^th, there was nothing to indicate he would soon find himself embroiled in war, locked in a monumental battle for his very existence. The night was calm, the street outside his apartment was quiet, and there was no noise except for the occasional creaking of the building.

In fact, to everyone else in New York, and indeed most of the rest of the world, no massive war took place. This is largely due to the fact that the current geopolitical situation between the great powers of the world is a lot more stable than Hollywood action movies and best-selling first person shooters would have you believe. Also, we’ve yet to make contact with any vast armadas of belligerent aliens looking to stir up trouble.

And, of course, the war was taking place entirely in Todd Phillips’ subconscious. That might also have something to do with it.

The second he fell asleep, Todd found himself in one of the most vivid dreams he had ever experienced. He was standing in the middle of a green field, and in the distance a red caldera rose out of the ground. Before he could take in any more of his surroundings, the ground rumbled. He turned to see a legion of horsemen on white steeds, clad in plate armor and riding under the banner of a blue cross on white. As they rode towards him, there was a boom from the caldera, followed by a puff of smoke and the whistling of a shell.

The riders passed right by Todd, who stood there feeling like a rock in a stream, and continued across the field. The bombs hit the ground and detonated on the vanguard of the advancing force, covering them in a sticky purple substance. The horses whinnied in fear and tried to turn and flee, but both they and the knights commanding them found themselves unable to move. The shells had had the desired effect.

A cacophonous blare resounded from the caldera, which soon resolved itself into what Todd recognized as a few notes from the bridge of a Muse song. This was met by movement at the foot of the rock base. Though at first only specks could be seen, the shapes moved impossibly fast, and in mere seconds it seemed as though the aggressors were practically upon the knights. It was one of the most bizarre and frightening sights Todd had ever seen. A horde of malevolent shadows, some of them bearing faces but most of them only possessing toothy grins, sat astride gigantic wiener dogs that propelled them to the trapped knights. When they closed the distance, they drew sickeningly curved blades and showed no mercy, the massive canines eating whatever their rider’s swords missed. It was at about this point Todd decided to try and leave.

He found himself faced with either being trampled underfoot by the advancing reinforcements thundering to the aid of their ensnared comrades or facing down the dogriders. Neither of these was an attractive prospect, but Todd reasoned that the men on horses hadn’t tried to kill him so far and had already avoided him once, so they seemed the safer bet. As he ran at their ranks, he found that once again they moved to accommodate him. He couldn’t really tell where he was headed, but at the moment he was willing to settle for simply “away”.

Soon enough, he found himself tumbling head over heels into a ditch. Raising his head out of the mud with a perhaps-too-cartoonish “squelch”, he found himself not in a mere ditch, but rather a trench. Infantry swarmed around him, wearing the uniforms of the British soldiers in that World War One documentary Todd had watched out of boredom sometime in the last week. Their equipment wasn’t quite period accurate, though, judging by the M16s they were using and the iPhones hanging from their belts. As Todd got to his feet, someone finally noticed him.

“Oy, ‘oo’re you?” asked the soldier who approached him. “Some koinda special agint or summat?” Todd deciphered the horrible Cockney accent as best he could.

“Todd,” he said. “I’m not an agent or anything, and I don’t know anything about any summit.”

“Well, ye don’t look loike any soldjah oi’ve evah seen. Whatchoo dewin all the way out heah?”

Todd made it halfway through “ I don’t know” when a man wearing an officer’s cap and brandishing a vuvuzela strode over.

“What’s all this, then?”

“Says ‘is name’s Todd, sah,” said the soldier. “Not an agint or anyfing. Dunno why ‘e’s out ‘ere, really.”

“Todd? Todd Phillips?” asked the officer, turning to him. Todd nodded, and the officer’s eyes bugged out of his face.

“Private Jenkins,” he ordered, pointing at the man with one hand while using his other one to settle his eyes back in his sockets. “Send a text to command at once. This man is a VIP who is to be escorted to the capital at once. Understood?”

“Yes sah!” Jenkins unclipped the iPhone from his belt and was in the middle of sending the text when silence suddenly reigned. The officer jerked his head around and swore under his breath.

“Let’s go, lad. Gotta get you to a car. If they’ve stopped fighting over there, it can only mean one thing.” Right on cue, the cry pierced the air, flowing down the trench from soldier to soldier.

“BANANAMEN!”

Todd vaulted over the other edge of the trench while the soldiers on the opposite side opened up with their rifles. But Todd turned and saw it wouldn’t be anywhere near enough. A swarm of smiling banana people wearing striped pajamas had reached the trench and were beating the soldiers there to a pulp, in some cases tearing them to pieces with their bare hands. Todd’s heart nearly stopped, and he would’ve stayed there frozen if the officer hadn’t been there to urge him on. He had always hated that show as a kid. The officer ushered him into a waiting taxi commandeered by his freshman year physics teacher, and together they sped off down the road.

"Comedy"

So I was re-reading this article on Cracked.com when it occurred to me: some of the most insightful criticism and commentary I've read in the past few years (practically since I've discovered the site) has come from there. A comedy website that also boasts such articles as "7 Physical Mutations that Helped Famous Careers" and "The 6 Stupidest Video Game Commercials".

Now, I'd like to think I'm fairly well read. I keep up with the news as best I can, and I don't rely on Cracked for all of my information and commentary on current events. But the most memorable articles I've read, and most of the ones I've found online that have profoundly affected my thought process and worldview have come from Cracked.com. One of my all time favorites has to be "7 Reasons the 21st Century is Making You Miserable" by David Wong.

Another thing that's very apparent from these types of pieces that show up on the site (usually written by one of the columnists) is that they actually aren't all that funny. They'll have a few chuckles maybe but they're more profound than humorous. If anything, the jokes are there to justify their existence on a comedy site, but you won't remember them. You'll remember the intellectual points the columnists would point out.

The crazy part? That's a perfect way to write these kinds of pieces. Rather than urge them to excise the humor and turn these columns into "serious" works, I (for what it's worth) applaud them for taking this approach to intellectual and philosophical debates.

Another great example is The Daily Show. One of the images that has for a long time been etched into my mind was a political cartoon that appeared in the Columbus Dispatch many years ago. I can't find it online, but I can describe it perfectly. Like most every political cartoon, it is distinctly unfunny, more intent on eliciting a knowing chuckle from supporters than actual laughs. It consisted entirely of a man in a suit looking at a younger man in a black turtleneck who says, essentially, "Well, I get all my news from the Daily Show." That was it. No, seriously. Hah hah?

Upon further examination, it's possible to glimpse why this cartoon was made. The idea was to get readers to shake their heads at those crazy kids, watching a comedy show and thinking that it was news. The main flaw in this argument (and one which has surely been pointed out before, but here we go anyway) is assuming that the Daily Show wants to serve as a news outlet. It doesn't. It's half an hour long, and doesn't try to relate what happened that day, as that would be pointless and dumb. What it instead does is examine the news media itself. For every joke on the Daily Show about some gaffe a politician makes on camera, there are ten about how major networks will spend 10 minutes discussing real issues and then 50 about the gaffe, reactions to the gaffe, what people on twitter have to say about it, etc. As Jon Stewart said, the trouble isn't that they're trying to inject comedy into news, the problem is that the news is becoming far too much like a satire of itself.

The overarching theme here is that this comedy website and a comedy news show have become, for me, two of the most consistently insightful and intellectually stimulating media outlets available. And they're able to be this not just because so many things about modern life are inherently ridiculous (though to be sure, they are), but also because they're supposed to be comedic. And for really great comedy, nothing can be sacred. So maybe they can get away with this because, as the argument goes, they're allowed to make fun of everything. It's expected of them to lampoon things that "serious" commentators and news outlets are supposed to treat with somber tones or not even mention for fear of provoking controversy. Look at that Gladstone piece about atheists and believers at the top of this piece again, then imagine CNN or Fox News trying to discuss the issue. Then imagine watching the shoutfest that would more likely than not ensue and being able to come away from it with something resembling a new outlook, or even a single new insight.

I'm not saying this is the way things should be, and I definitely haven't shut out "serious" sources of information entirely. What I am saying is that in the modern era, comedy is proving to elicit more of a response from my generation in particular to the issues of the day than mainstream news outlets. And this isn't borne out of cynicism either. These articles and the Daily Show's segments have an undercurrent of wanting to keep people honest. Of telling people that it's not only okay to laugh at ridiculous politicians and viewpoints, but it's kind of necessary. Because once you strip away the veneer of inviolability that surrounds some of these things, it's a lot easier to effect meaningful change.

Taken 2: Electric Boogaloo

Here is the current summary of the imdb.com entry for what will be "Taken 2":

"In Istanbul, retired CIA operative Bryan Mills and his wife are taken hostage by the father of a kidnapper Mills killed while rescuing his daughter."

At what point does the premise of the movie fall apart?

WRONG. The correct answer is when the phrase "Taken 2" is mentioned.

If you've seen the first film, you should understand why even the idea of there being a sequel to the first movie is an earth-shatteringly ridiculous idea. If you haven't seen "Taken" go do that right now. It lasts about as long as eating a pizza and is at least ten times more satisfying. Go. Right now. I'll wait.

See, I was right. And now it's clear to you too: There can't be a Taken 2 because in the first movie Liam Neeson murdered everyone in Paris even remotely connected to human trafficking.

Seriously, it takes him pretty much 48 hours to end the trade in human lives in Paris, and naturally he did it single-handedly. He was only really in mortal danger like once, maybe twice, and he just shrugged it off each time.

Of course, this movie takes place in Istanbul, and they haven't just kidnapped his daughter again. Instead, one of the fathers of the thousand people Neeson killed in the first movie wants revenge, and he takes it by assassinating his wife in front of his eyes, so he too can feel the pain of having someone he loves snatched away from- Oh wait, that isn't what happens at all. He takes both of them hostage.

This is easily the dumbest thing he could have done.

For starters, our villain clearly has no survival instincts. Clearly he should know how dangerous this guy is, because he must know about the scores of other men Neeson killed along with his son. If this guy is a crime lord worth his salt then once he's taken out his rage over his son's murder on his Bouncing Bobo doll, he'd realize that in addition to his son, he also killed everyone in Paris involved in the slave trade in like two days completely by himself (I really can't emphasize that enough).

And he wants to keep that guy hostage? Not kill him, just keep him captive and maybe torture him a bit? And you want to keep his wife too? So now, in addition to his fiery determination to protect a loved one (and we've already seen what he can do with that(Everyone in Paris)), you'll also have made him angry with all that torture. I don't care if you've got the police in your pocket and a bunch of ex-special forces guys on your payroll. The bad guys in the first movie had both, and that still didn't help.

Short of a long-range thermonuclear strike, there won't be any way for the bad guy to salvage this situation once the ball gets rolling. Here's my prediction for how the movie will play out.

Taken 2: You Are Going to Die

LIAM NEESON and HIS WIFE are brought at gunpoint before the BAD GUY, who proceeds to gloat.

BAD GUY: Liam Neeson, you killed my son years ago in Paris. Now I will make you-

LIAM NEESON kills the guards, leaps out a window hand in hand with HIS WIFE and takes HER to the airport, then goes on an 80 minute long killing spree consisting of EVERYONE who's ever said "Hello" to the BAD GUY. Finally LIAM NEESON makes his way to the BAD GUY'S mansion and confronts him in HIS OFFICE.

BAD GUY: (Fear urination)

LIAM NEESON kills the BAD GUY, then looks somber.

THE END

Why I Can't Shut My Mouth About Video Games

If you talk to me for longer than ten minutes, it becomes painfully obvious that I am really interested in video games. I kind of always have been. There are plenty of reasons for this, among them the fact that I have no depth perception, meaning sports are pretty much out of the question, and when you're growing up in Ohio in the nineties and early 2000's, that rules out a lot of other options.

At least, that was the excuse I used for a long time. But then I thought about it and realized that could only account for a part of it. There are plenty of people who follow sports but have little to no athletic ability, and I'm not one of them, either. I can't say for sure what initially attracted me to video games, but I knew that from my earliest exposure to them (watching someone play Doom, renting an N64 from Blockbuster), I was hooked. I found them fun, and still do, but I think there's still more to it, because that alone doesn't explain why I list them as an interest as opposed to just something I do in my leisure time.

One of the earliest things I realized about video games is that they let the player take on the role of the protagonist, rather than just watching events unfold. You get to be the guy who defuses the bomb with 2 seconds to spare or scores the winning touchdown. When you think about why video games were widely considered toys or children's games when they first emerged, it's not hard to see why so many of the plots (for the games that had them) boiled down to "kill all the bad guys and/or save the princess."

But video games have matured, or at least they're trying to. They're trying to tell stories that resonate more deeply, with more complex themes. What's more, they're also trying to tell these stories in a completely new way, one unique to the format. In the past decade, video games have started to assert themselves as not just a multimillion dollar entertainment industry, but also a new artistic medium.

For instance, consider this. That moment comes in the middle of Call of Duty 4, an excellent shooter that before that point had nothing deeper to say than "Bad guys pew pew pew!" (But done very well, of course.) Then, out of nowhere, that happens. Even though you've saved the pilot with seconds to spare, the nuke went off and you were in the radius. And then it teases you, saying "Look, you aren't dead! You survived the crash!" And earlier in the game you survived a downed chopper, so hey, it's not that far-fetched right? In fact, the first time I played this level, I moved towards the highway ramp right behind the chopper wreck, because I figured there was no point in moving towards the mushroom cloud. If I was gonna get help, I'd have to move away from ground zero.

But then I died. And you die no matter what you do, whereas previously if you got killed in a firefight, the screen would go blurry, you'd get a quote from some prominent figure, and then be thrust right back into the action. An inconvenience of at most ten seconds. But this moment tells you that actually, when you die in war, you stay dead, and it can be for really stupid reasons and it doesn't matter if you're the main character. That right there was the moment I realized that not only could video games have something meaningful to offer, but that could do it in a thoroughly unique manner. And let's just not talk about how Michael Bay apparently took the helm of the Modern Warfare franchise after the multiplayer made the game way more successful than anyone anticipated.

The point is, video games are a very new, innovative field, most especially where story is concerned. Giving control to the player not only intensifies their emotional investment, it can also be used to shape the outcome of the story. Some games have only the barest semblance of a plot and are basically excuses for you to explore and interact with a huge, fabricated world. My dream game, the one I'd want to make, would be one where everything in the plot is up to the player. The first level is the only thing set in stone, and all the choices you make after that are valid. They advance the plot, and they don't do so in terms of some sort of hackneyed "Jesus/Satan" moral choice system, but would instead lead to completely different character interactions, plot developments, and locales. It would all be set in the same world, but the story would be completely different each time.

The reason I can't shut up about video games and why I spend so much time on them is because they're still in a fairly early stage of development, and they offer a quite unique experience. They tell stories in a way no one has before, and it really works for someone like me who's been brought up in the emerging era of user-generated content, where the audience is a participant and not just a consumer.

...Okay, and they're also ridiculously fun and awesome.

My Favorite Movie

It's Children of Men.

...Okay, okay, I'll elaborate. GEEZ.

Yesterday I came across this video. I've only seen the movie twice, and I was only able to pick up

on probably a fourth of the stuff in that video. The various ads, TV screens, and computers in the movie are never on screen for more than a few seconds, and they're pretty much never brought front and center. There are only a few instances where the frame is devoted entirely to some of these ads or news reports. For the most part, the various posters, ads, and so forth are all just glimpsed for a second. Watching them by themselves, it's crazy to note how much detail is actually put into them. They are all produced like real commercials and look like it, not some half-assed thing just to get a concept or image across.

The question, then, is why bother? Why devote so much time and energy to making these ancillary bits that most people won't be able to view for more than a second as they take in most of the scene, if they even notice them at all?

For pretty much the entire movie, we follow the main character Theo, as portrayed by Clive Owen in a badass overcoat. The camera sticks on him, and pretty much never cuts away to show what other characters are doing or other plot developments taking place. The reason we see so little of these ads and all this amazing technology that's been developed in the next twenty years is because Theo just doesn't give a shit. The first scene is a perfect example of this. The movie opens with a news report that the youngest person in the world, the 18-year-old "Baby Diego", has died. In a world where everyone is infertile and humanity is officially terminal, this is a very big deal. But after a few seconds of the news report, we cut to Theo in a coffeeshop packed with people watching the news and looking suitably horrified. Not Theo. He couldn't care less. While we hear the news reporter talking more about what this means for humanity and the next youngest person on Earth, Theo just pushes his way past the throng, not even really bothering to glance at the TV, because he wants his coffee, dammit.

Most of the first part of the movie just has Theo walking around, and it's very clear the Britain he inhabits is not the one we know today. It's essentially a police state, with numerous cities turned into refugee camps for the numerous illegal immigrants fleeing the anarchy that's supposedly broken out in the rest of the world and suicide pills marketed as a comforting alternative to an untimely, unpredictable demise. It's also got technology that, while certainly feasible today, is clearly from a world 20 years ahead of ours where progress suddenly got stunted. Cars have heads-up-displays on the windshield to warn about oncoming hazards and video ads cover pretty much every surface. The director Alfonso Cuarón has called it "science fiction with the wires exposed."

And throughout all of this, Theo maintains pretty much the same attitude as he did in the first scene. He only really cares about politics and the refugee situation when he becomes directly involved, and characters never stop to comment on the amazing new technology around them or when it was invented. In addition, the camera almost never cuts away to focus specifically on some new technological marvel, and instead favors a lot of long, single takes. This helps to keep the action tense, especially during chase scenes, and it also helps to connect the audience with Theo, but that's not what I love so much about this movie.

What propels Children of Men, for me, to great movie status is the fact that this style of editing and camerawork, along with Clive Owen's performance, perfectly captures the way we interact with technology every day. Everyday, I walk around with an iPhone, which is not only a portable phone, but it carries pretty much every song I've ever heard, and can also be used as a map, to tell me the weather, and whatever else I want it to if I feel like buying an app for it. I can also access the internet with it wherever I get a cell signal, which is more places than you'd think.

Now picture going back in time fifteen years, or even ten, and telling yourself about this. Patton Oswalt has a great bit where he talks about this, as does Louis C.K. A lot of people are walking around now with phones that are more sophisticated than many of the computers we'd send up in the space shuttle. And at first, of course, everyone freaked out about it. "Holy crap, this is amazing! I just use my finger to swipe and it's awesome!" I was the same way with mine, but only for the first week or so. After that, everyone was just like, "Yeah, whatever," or griping about how slow it works.

Children of Men works the same way. It's a world radically different from our own in so many ways, and Theo just doesn't care. Like us, he's just become totally inured to everything. The performances help sell this, but the fact that the camerawork also adopts this perspective, of not particularly calling attention to all the crazy stuff going on, is what makes it such a great movie for me. It drives home a second moral, one about the way people can so quickly become accustomed and bored to the crazy world we live in, without cramming it down our throats or talking at us for ten minutes. It's a purely filmic way of doing it (still don't believe "filmic" is a word, but spellcheck isn't calling me on it, so whatever).

Transmetropolitan, my favorite comic book, does the same thing. Technology and the world can change in any number of ways, but at the end of the day, people are still going to be people. It's my firm belief that we're basically living in a work of science fiction at this point (See: unmanned aerial drones, chocolate-chip cookie dough pop-tarts), and if that really is the case, Children of Men is one of the best movies depicting that situation. It's my favorite type of science fiction, one that isn't all about the fantastic setting and technology, but rather uses those to tell a personal, tightly woven and really interesting story.

Far Cry 2: PERMANENT DEATH End Thoughts

So apparently I wasn't able to transfer my save data from home to college, so I will have to end

this little experiment here. It's probably for the best, given that I've (naturally) been pretty busy ever since school started, so playing video games while writing about them would probably be nowhere near as fun as I need my vidja games to be right now.

Rather than just abruptly say, "Well that's it" and declare this Let's Play (if you want to call it that) over, I thought I'd offer by way of closing a brief summation of why I think Far Cry 2 might be one of my favorite shooters. Like, ever.

Like I said at the beginning, Far Cry 2 is a game about war that not many other shooters and action games are nowadays. It explores the nature of conflict and what prolonged exposure to it can do to people. By the end of the game (SPOILERS DUH SKIP TO NEXT PARAGRAPH IF YOU CARE) you've machinated a hilarious succession of assassinations and counter-assassinations that leave the mercs previously employed by the APR and UFLL in charge of these militias, which are now working to round up and suppress the civilian population. The Jackal is having none of this, and enlists you in his plan to get every civilian in the country, something like two million people (but I might be exaggerating) across the border. Yes, all of them. You go along with it because you're a mute protagonist so it doesn't matter if you think otherwise, as there's no way in hell to voice your disagreement. Your merc "buddies" all betray you for a case of diamonds, and one way or another you end up killing yourself, as does the Jackal (maybe, they never found a body). As he puts it, "You and I are both terminal cases. But this time we can actually do something about it". The country descends into madness as the remaining leaderless members of the APR and UFLL perpetuate their bloodbath, and that reporter Ruben takes a picture of the refugees.

But this is all really secondary. The plot only intrudes on the game at the end of the first and second halves. And that is the right word, because otherwise you're aware of the enmity between the two factions, but it doesn't make itself that evident, especially because they're both trying to kill you anyway. Far Cry 2 succeeds in setting up its central question through gameplay and setting, not by dumping hours and hours of text, expositional and otherwise, on you as some other big name titles might (COUGH COUGH FINAL FANTASY AND METAL GEAR SOLID COUGH COUGH). This is a much more insidious way of doing it, because it conditions you in ways you aren't really aware of, or at least ones that might make you stop at points to consider exactly what it is you're doing.

Take melee kills. In Call of Duty games, using the knife simply requires pressing one of the control sticks, which your thumb is usually perched over anyway. The motion is quick and impact on any point of the body is instantly fatal. This is carried to its logical conclusion in Black Ops multiplayer with the Ballistic Knife, letting you shoot knives at your opponents. It's tricky to wield, but even if you hit someone in the foot, they're dead. Using the knife in Call of Duty becomes a reflexive action, a quick swipe or stab that allows you to resume running and gunning in seconds.

In Far Cry 2, it's very different. First, you have to select your machete, a very deliberate gesture that's especially tricky to undertake when there's an angry mercenary 3 feet away from you yelling in Afrikaans and trying his damnedest to put a bullet or two or fifteen in your face. Then you've got to hit him with it, and this requires even more deliberate actions. It'll take more than one swipe to bring him down, and the first one will take him to the ground. Finishing your foe off starts a new animation sequence where your character lunges and shoves the machete straight down into his chest cavity. The first couple times you do this, it'll be more than a little disturbing. It's a very visceral motion, and a lot of times the enemy might be limping away or pulling out a pistol, gasping desperately and maybe pleading for help from their comrades. Making melee kills such an involved process keeps it from being just a quicker way of racking up points, especially since those don't exist in this game. But that isn't even the most disturbing part.

That would be the fact that as you keep playing, you'll stop noticing how disturbing it is. When I'm showing the game to friends who haven't played as much as I have and I perform a melee kill, I'll always get a reaction along the lines of a grimace or "Oh, nasty!" Which is pretty much what I did, even if only internally, the first time I did it. But now, having experienced a world where literally everyone on the road is an enemy, I've come to think nothing of it. If they were in my position, they'd understand. You've got no friends out there and ammo is scarce, so you do what you have to. But really, all I'm doing is being paid to kill some other dude who's probably just out here for a paycheck, and did I really have to use the rusty blade that I haven't cleaned once since I've picked it up? It was seeing my friend's reactions after I'd become desensitized to the process that really drove home how effective it was to make the game mechanic function like this.

And that's kind of what happens with war, right? In his aptly titled book, War, Sebastian Jurgen wrote that one of the biggest problems the soldiers he was embedded with in Afghanistan had on their return back to the states was "not necessarily that they come back traumatized-which some do-but that they miss it." The experience of being under fire produces a rush that can't be rivaled, which I think Winston Churchill commented on in similar words. There are elements of brotherhood and camarederie at work too, but Junger devotes a significant portion as well to the addiction these guys develop to the thrill of combat, something that no one can understand unless they've experienced it. But to any outside observer and rational mind, this phenomenon is almost inconceivable. If a firefight were to break out as I was walking down the street, I'd probably hide and crap my pants, and not necessarily in that order. But this trend does exist, and it's not their fault. War can make those who participate in it love war more than anything else.