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LTTP: Spec Ops: The Line (I am Sick) [SPOILERS]

A

antitrop

Member
McBradders said:
I'm not entirely sure either of the writers are still at 2k :(
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ilnadmy said:
Hmm I thought Walt Williams was still with 2K. I could be wrong though.
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http://www.linkedin.com/pub/walt-williams/64/896/866

Walt Williams
Lead Writer at 2K Games
Addison, Texas (Dallas/Fort Worth Area) Computer Games

I am currently working as a Writer/Designer with 2K Games on an unannounced title.

This is the other writer, Richard Pearsey's LinkedIn, but doesn't have the same details as Walt:
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/richard-pearsey/2/302/69
 
A

Andrew.

Banned
It's really insanely fucking weird, but I havent played any other games since I finished Spec Ops last weekend. It's like that narrative totally spoiled me in terms of storytelling in gaming. The impact it can have on you is not just because of the game itself, but the quality of the storytelling, the themes and feelings it evokes, which absolutely skyrockets with the acting and soundtrack. And seriously, the gunplay is great and this game has downright one of the best shotguns ever.

I love this game so fucking much.
 
N

NotTheGuyYouKill

Member
antitrop said:
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/walt-williams/64/896/866

Walt Williams
Lead Writer at 2K Games
Addison, Texas (Dallas/Fort Worth Area) Computer Games

I am currently working as a Writer/Designer with 2K Games on an unannounced title.

This is the other writer, Richard Pearsey's LinkedIn, but doesn't have the same details as Walt:
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/richard-pearsey/2/302/69
Click to expand...

I'm really interested to see what Williams and Yager do next. Spec Ops was a breath of fresh air.
 
A

Andrew.

Banned
NotTheGuyYouKill said:
I'm really interested to see what Williams and Yager do next. Spec Ops was a breath of fresh air.
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z220125614.gif
 
T

Totobeni

An blind dancing ho
maybe this was answered already, but why didn't they use the real Burj Khalifa? I mean it was in the first trailer of the game, then they replaced it with weird tower.
 
A

antitrop

Member
Andrew. said:
It's really insanely fucking weird, but I havent played any other games since I finished Spec Ops last weekend. It's like that narrative totally spoiled me in terms of storytelling in gaming. The impact it can have on you is not just because of the game itself, but the quality of the storytelling, the themes and feelings it evokes, which absolutely skyrockets with the acting and soundtrack. And seriously, the gunplay is great and this game has downright one of the best shotguns ever.

I love this game so fucking much.
Click to expand...

Welcome to how I've been experiencing games for the last 8 months. It's kind of a weird lens.

My post-Spec Ops backlash towards the inanity of Medal of Honor: Warfighter is what got me the tag and all. Though I exaggerated plenty, I still stand by much of what I said with that game.
 
A

antitrop

Member
Andrew. said:
Gotta ask Antitrop. Ive never even seen the trailer lol.
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You should. Spec Ops had some phenomenal trailers, both of these are amazing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=z6O3ji0OtJM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vorEEeC9eS4

If you want to play the game like the first trailer looks you can use one of the filters found in the Brightness options, plus the No-HUD/FOV mod found here:
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2781370

I was able to get this shot, although not using the filter, just FOV/NOHud:

ibryvAg96SWpN6.png
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I'm considering doing a full play-through like that. It's pretty difficult without a crosshair, but it's extremely cinematic. Seems like a fascinating way to play through.
 
A

Andrew.

Banned
antitrop said:
Welcome to how I've been experiencing games for the last 8 months. It's kind of a weird lens.

My post-Spec Ops backlash towards the inanity of Medal of Honor: Warfighter is what got me the tag and all. Though I exaggerated plenty, I still stand by much of what I said with that game.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the lens. It seems we're both looking for some sort of hope in TR and Infinite.

I think TR will be temporary awesomeness but Infinite will be enough to fill in that gap. *hopefully*

That's alot of Bjork in those trailers.

Wheres my fucking "Rooster"?!
 
T

TheOGB

Banned
Forgot to mention I finished this game later that night. I've got to go back and beat Chapter 14 on Medium; I was so tired I had to switch the difficulty to Easy. :p

I forgot reading in this thread that I didn't have to shoot into that crowd that lynched Lugo. .__. Didn't hit me until Konrad's whole "You've always had a choice" speech.

Speaking of which, my first time through that ending I was so mindfucked I couldn't do anything but turn the gun at Walker. But I didn't pull the trigger. Then I read there were 3 more endings and went through those. I like that the game ended with yet more choices, but I honestly couldn't see Walker not killing himself after all that shit. >_>

Great game, fantastic storytelling. (I'd have said more but I've literally had this tab open all day and not posted this yet >.>)
 
G

gabbo

Member
TheOGB said:
But I didn't pull the trigger. Then I read there were 3 more endings and went through those. I like that the game ended with yet more choices, but I honestly couldn't see Walker not killing himself after all that shit. >_>[/spoiler]
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I guess it's all part of what we bring to Walker ourselves, because my initial play through I felt the opposite. I didn't really understand what the ending was asking me to do, so I actually
shot Walker when I had intended not to do so. To me, he had been to the depths of hell sure, but as I saw him, he would want those people to have justice and being locked away for the rest of his life would be one step towards that.
But maybe I'm just altruistic to a fault.
 
P

Palmer_v1

Member
I may have missed it in previous pages, but why are Lugo and Adams listed as dead members of the Damned 33rd on the various walls in the game? They're the only ones that don't have first AND last listed, and are the correct ranks.

I noticed it in the large room where you find Konrad's command team dead the first time, and it made me think Lugo and Adams were some PTSD shit from Walker. I really expected to hear that they had died back in Kabul because of you.
 
A

Andrew.

Banned
Palmer_v1 said:
I may have missed it in previous pages, but why are Lugo and Adams listed as dead members of the Damned 33rd on the various walls in the game? They're the only ones that don't have first AND last listed, and are the correct ranks.

I noticed it in the large room where you find Konrad's command team dead the first time, and it made me think Lugo and Adams were some PTSD shit from Walker. I really expected to hear that they had died back in Kabul because of you.
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fucking nuts because after i finished too i thought that they might have never existed either..

i figured different levels of walkers conciousness is what they represented.
 
A

antitrop

Member
Palmer_v1 said:
I may have missed it in previous pages, but why are Lugo and Adams listed as dead members of the Damned 33rd on the various walls in the game? They're the only ones that don't have first AND last listed, and are the correct ranks.

I noticed it in the large room where you find Konrad's command team dead the first time, and it made me think Lugo and Adams were some PTSD shit from Walker. I really expected to hear that they had died back in Kabul because of you.
Click to expand...

WclvBNS.gif
 
A

Andrew.

Banned
Maragidyne said:
You're absolutely right, Spec Ops barely has a subtle bone in its body when it comes to its storytelling. However, I think this is the one situation where subtlety would harm it, rather than add to it like it generally does.

Spec Ops is not just a lone game and should not be viewed separately from all other games, it is a deconstruction of the 'realistic 'modern military genre. It basically shows what the logical conclusion would be for someone who goes through what most modern military FPS "protagonists" go through these days. The modern warfare, battlefield and Medal of Honor franchises are insane when it comes to the sheer amount of military violence presented in their games (considering the fact that these are regarded as modern military shooters by many) and they are not subtle in any sense of the word. Spec Ops needs to become one of them in order to take them apart. Spec Ops basically just pummeled me senseless about how crazy my actions have been throughout this game and many other FPS, trying its very best to carve my actions into my mind as clearly as possible and I'm not sure I would have liked it any other way in this specific case.

I'm usually a much bigger fan of the (example) Limbo kind of subtle and symbolic storytelling, but considering the situation of the MMFPS genre, I don't think it would have been the way to go this time.
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Wait....so...are you a fan of the game?
 
Z

zkylon

zkylewd
Maragidyne said:
You're absolutely right, Spec Ops barely has a subtle bone in its body when it comes to its storytelling. However, I think this is the one situation where subtlety would harm it, rather than add to it like it generally does.

Spec Ops is not just a lone game and should not be viewed separately from all other games, it is a deconstruction of the 'realistic 'modern military genre. It basically shows what the logical conclusion would be for someone who goes through what most modern military FPS "protagonists" go through these days. The modern warfare, battlefield and Medal of Honor franchises are insane when it comes to the sheer amount of military violence presented in their games (considering the fact that these are regarded as modern military shooters by many) and they are not subtle in any sense of the word. Spec Ops needs to become one of them in order to take them apart. Spec Ops basically just pummeled me senseless about how crazy my actions have been throughout this game and many other FPS, trying its very best to carve my actions into my mind as clearly as possible and I'm not sure I would have liked it any other way in this specific case.

I'm usually a much bigger fan of the (example) Limbo kind of subtle and symbolic storytelling, but considering the situation of the MMFPS genre, I don't think it would have been the way to go this time.
Click to expand...
Eh, I dunno, I'm not arguing that Spec Ops should've gone minimalistic, just that some of its IN YOUR FACENESS just kind of feels redundant, and that I found some of the loading screen messages to be kinda cheesy, like the PSTD one.

Maybe because these things already were on my head since the game is not shy of insinuating them, so in the end it felt like the game explaining itself, which I don't like.
 
Z

zkylon

zkylewd
Yeah, a middleground is usually the best choice, tilted in whatever direction it suits the subject matter better. You can be vague without being obtuse, in fact, I hate vagueness for vagueness' sake, but when it's as explicit as Spec Ops, it can feel like it doesn't respect your intelligence in figuring it out for yourself (which I guess is not that bad, since the game in part is made as a wake-up-call to dudebro gamers, even though they'll never play or hear about it).

The higher a game aims, the harder it is to pull it off, I really like Spec Ops and I think it gets most things right, this is just one of my only gripes with it.
 
A

antitrop

Member
Maragidyne said:
I found that to be pretty funny. I read reviews (I think it was GS?) about how the insane amount of killings override the moral dilemma's of the game and I couldn't help but chuckle at just how badly they missed the painfully obvious point of the entire game. The game even explained what cognitive dissonance is in the fucking loading screens for fucks sake.
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Hate to rag on Garnett some more, but...

(on Far Cry 3)
Jeff Mattis: "Now I don't think they were nearly as sucessful as they wanted to be in creating that second layer. I think it's there if you want to look for it, but its really not as well developed as.... You can play the whole thing on a surface level and not ever try to look for deeper meaning because you're so into the Rambo archetype."

Garnett Lee: "Better or less... More or less developed than Spec Ops?"

Jeff: "Having not played Spec Ops. Oh wait, no, no, no, no, no, I'm sorry. The Line, not the mode from Black Ops II."

Third wheel: "Another reason why your game was named horribly."

Jeff: "Way better, I think."

Garnett: "I would not disagree. I think we all know that my opinion on Spec Ops: The Line was fairly sour."

Jeff: "Dude, and I'll tell you I mean Spec Ops is one of those games where I still see people tweeting about it and I'm like "What fucking game did you play?" Like that's my, Ohhhhh my god."

Garnett: "It's not what game did you play, it's "Did you really want to read into your game?"

Third wheel: "People wanted to be impressed by it."

Garnett: "We want to feel good about ourselves. We wanna feel like "Ya, our hobby, we love our hobby and our hobby needs something excellent for us to put out there..."

Third wheel: "Just go play Journey and Walking Dead."

Garnett: "Exactly."
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Like I said, too subtle, I guess.
 
K

~Kinggi~

Banned
I really enjoyed the twisted take on the story. All of that was excellent. I knew pretty early on where this was going, and that you would be made out to be a mass murderer. Unfortunately the gameplay just wasnt that fun. Even on normal there was some frustrating segments. Game had way too much of a shooting gallery COD feel to it.

I also enjoyed the various ways they fucked with you in the later levels, like different loading screens and weird messages and hallucinations.
 
C

Cymbal Head

Banned
I just finished this and I need more games like it. I want to play through again to try to suss out more of the "real" story, but I don't want to commit those atrocities again.
 
G

gabbo

Member
Cymbal Head said:
I just finished this and I need more games like it. I want to play through again to try to suss out more of the "real" story, but I don't want to commit those atrocities again.
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I'm doing my usual and waiting a while before I go through it again. Let the horrors wash over me like they were fresh and new.
 
E

El_Chino

Member
I just finished the game and I found myself applauding the game for accomplishing what most don't and that's showing you the true horrors of war. I actually felt bad and messed up for what I did and didn't do in the game and during the ending I couldn't believe that it was just all in my head and I refused to believe so I killed Konrad's ghost then during the epilogue I kind of didn't trust the soldiers and was thinking about killing them but in the end I decided there was enough killing in this game and I laid down my weapon. Great game and a must play.
 
S

SirMossyBloke

Member
I bought this game yesterday new for $29.99 based soley on a few random comments in this thread.

Thanks guys, never would have looked twice at it otherwise. I should be playing it tonight for the first time.
 
C

Caesar III

Member
Just finished it and wow, what a disturbing experience. I really loved the storytelling and all. The posts about lugo and adams aren't real either just blew my mind though. Did not read through the soldier lists :/ God damnit
 
A

antitrop

Member
El_Chino said:
I just finished the game and I found myself applauding the game for accomplishing what most don't and that's showing you the true horrors of war. I actually felt bad and messed up for what I did and didn't do in the game and during the ending I couldn't believe that it was just all in my head and I refused to believe so I killed Konrad's ghost then during the epilogue I kind of didn't trust the soldiers and was thinking about killing them but in the end I decided there was enough killing in this game and I laid down my weapon. Great game and a must play.
Click to expand...

Exactly the path I chose on my first play. As far as I'm concerned, this is the "true" ending to the game.
 
A

antitrop

Member
Just to let everyone know, Spec Ops: The Line will be free for PSN+ members starting tomorrow:

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2013...ch-update-spec-ops-the-line-free-for-members/

For the week at hand, please welcome the critically acclaimed Spec Ops: The Line to the Instant Game Collection; meaning it’s free for PS Plus members to download starting with the March 5th PS Store update. We’ve also got week 2 of the PS Vita Anniversary Sale with a bevy of discounts on fantastic PS Vita games, with even deeper discounts if you’re a PS Plus member.
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If you pass this up for free... I don't know what to say.
 
K

kuYuri

Member
I 100% the game on Steam, I would attempt it again on PS3 version, but damn FUBAR tested my patience. Felt like putting a hole into my monitor.
 
A

Andrew.

Banned
Shit, I played my whole first playthrough with no crosshair. I got my ass kicked for a good hour but eventually I adapted. Now its the only way I play. Dont know what possessed me to do that. I do the same thing for Killzone. I guess the reticles are too distracting.

And if you guys don't snag this for free on PS+, I'm pretty sure Antitrop will snipe you while you're sleeping.
 
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