Battlefield 3 is Above and Beyond the Call… of Duty!

I’m a big first person shooter (FPS) fan. It was the original Doom on the PC that got me into this genre of game. Other games took me into new worlds and let my imagination explore what lie before me, but Doom actually put me into a fluid three dimensional world with ominous sounds and evil creatures that charge at me… I know that Castle Wolfenstein did the same thing, but I never got the same excitement as I did with Doom. Just knowing that there might be something ahead, in the dark, made me cringe while I moved forward using the keyboard and mouse.

I’m always excited to see what new innovative features are released with each generation of shooters. Doom was just a bunch of flat characters, with choppy animations, that attacked on a flat alien space station. At the time, it was amazing, but to see it now just reminds me of how far technology has progressed. Quake and Unreal introduced us to 3D polygon characters. They moved more fluid through worlds that now had stairs, ladders, hills, and cliffs. No more flat worlds. Goldeneye on the Nintendo 64 added better artificial intelligence to the characters. They ducked behind cover when being shot at. You could also shoot them in the leg or arm and see them react differently. Halo on the original Xbox brought us new wide open worlds to explore and battle across. They felt more alive with foliage and life. Characters looked more lifelike and less blocky. It really showed us what could be done using the technology of the time.

Video Game Violence makes Kids Violent?

Jack Thompson is known for lobbying against violent video games. He had been doing this for years… until he was disbarred in 2008 by the Florida Supreme Court. He argues that violent video games cause teenagers to become murderers. These games allow the teenagers to practice their violence in the games (Murder simulators) before committing the crimes in real life. He was against games like Manhunt 2 and Grand Theft Auto IV, which I agree are a bit too violent as video games, but they are mature adult rated games. He was also against games like Bully, Halo, and Mortal Combat. He said, after one murder, that the shooter trained on Halo. Halo? The game where the red guys and the blue guys shoot each other. Yeah, that is Halo.