Spec Ops: The Line - A Post Preview and Review

SpecOps: The Line (2011)

There was some excitement in my office and at IGN when I heard about Spec Ops: The Line at E3 2010 this year, not only because this game can turn the tables for the Spec Ops line, but also it happens to be based in my current city of residence - Dubai. 

Gears of War 3 was being shown alongside Halo: Reach, Medal of Honor is being revealed – I just like to root for the underdog.  Now Spec Ops: The Line isn’t 50 Cent: Blood in the Sand underdog, but it’s actually a quality underdog that could just take down the big guys.

I got a chance to see a preview of Spec Ops: The Line. SOCOM seemed to be a squad-based tactical shooter, and Spec Ops seemed to be more of a hybrid between Medal of Honor and Call of Duty, which are 2 of my favourite titles, by the way.  It’s more of a linear single-player campaign where you don’t have to worry about where your other squad mates are in relation to you at all times and how they affect the enemies your fighting. You take control of one military dude, and push your other mates forward.

It’s hard for a game to differentiate itself from the big players in the first-person military shooter genre.  The smaller guys are always compared to the mass marketed, big budget explosion-fests everyone knows about. One of the cool features that Spec Ops hopes to do is bring in an environmental element that some of the big dogs lack.  Things react to what you do.  I’ll quote an example from the E3 Demo.

In the demo we saw, our squad entered one of the abandoned temples of Dubai I believe.  The game is set in a desert region that has overrun a city.  You’ll see cars, trucks and buses have all been semi-buried by sand.  As you enter the temple, beams of light shine in through the high windows above the sand layer, and the windows and walls below have gone dark from the lack of sun coming through.  It was really a cool experience.  After a little exploration, we wondered how in the hell we were going to get out?  There wasn’t another door or anything, so we had to think.  About 20 feet up on our right side was a huge facade of windows with sand on the other side.  That was our ticket out.

We shot up the windows until they shattered into a million pieces, sending tons and tons of sand into the temple we were in.  We had literally created our very own ramp back out into the sweltering desert heat.  It was this type of moment that stuck out from Spec Ops:  The Line.  And not only in this way, but in combat too.

As we progressed further into the demo, we made our way through a series of sand channels that made their way through the sand.  The walls of the channel had barricaded the sand back as best as it could, but little clouds of dust continued to fall through.  I almost thought that if I could use this to my advantage against the enemy, why couldn’t they use it against me?  We ran across a few guys and the demo player proceeded to throw a grenade and blow one of the plates holding the sand away.  It buried the few enemies that were unlucky enough to be under it. 

SpecOps: The Line (Game-play)

Spec Ops: The Line also incorporates a moral system for key moments in the game.  But the most awesome feature of the game is supposed to be how one decision of yours can actually have an effect on the subsequent portions of the game. And what makes it even more interesting is that how you make your choices determines how your squad mates refer to you and talk to you.  Make a couple of bad decisions and your teammates won’t look at you the same way, so it actually includes the fun of having a multi-player AI while playing single-player campaigns.  You’ll also get to see some pretty f*%$'ed up shit too.  It is a military game after all.

The music they featured with the game was this sort of post-rock ambient grunge that's really just cheesy.  If they get a few licensed tracks from actual bands that do this type of stuff then they would absolutely have a winner in my book.  The slow flowing, silent guitar picking starting out but giving way to the loud crashing and crescendos later on in the song would be perfect for this type of game.

SpecOps: The Line (2011)

It’s hard these days to come up with a fresh take on the tried and true first-person military shooter.  It’s hard to do.  People try to do it all of the time, and it just doesn’t work out.  You also have to factor in that no matter what you do, you are going up against other shooters with the initials MOH or COD.  To make a name for yourself, you have to really push the envelope to do that.  Spec Ops: The Line doesn’t look to be of the caliber to take down the big guys, but it definitely has some surprise traits to look out for.  I’d say its a good middle ground between Call of Duty and SOCOM 4: US Navy Seals.

Spec Ops: The Line doesn’t have a definitive release date at this time, but we do know it should be some time in 2011.

Free Speech Rules!! Hackers Relive The Revolution

A hackers free-for-all exploded yesterday on the Web, and Facebook and Twitter are caught smack in the middle.

On Wednesday, anonymous hackers took aim at companies perceived to have 'harmed' WikiLeaks after its release of a flood of confidential diplomatic documents. MasterCard, Visa and PayPal, which had cut off people’s ability to donate money to WikiLeaks, were hit by attacks that tried to block access to the companies’ Web sites and services. Even Amazon.com, who provided free web hosting services to Wikileaks wasnt spared when they withdrew their free services from Wikileaks.Advocates of WikiLeaks complained that Amazon.com was bowing to political pressure to cut the organization from its Web services. An Amazon.com spokesman said the company was simply banning an organization that had violated its terms of service by trying to distribute documents it did not own.

To organize their efforts, the hackers have turned to sites like Facebook and Twitter. This, has drawn these Web giants into the fray and created a precarious situation for them.

Both Facebook and Twitter — but particularly Twitter — have received praise in recent years as outlets for free speech. Governments trying to control the flow of information have found it difficult to block people from voicing their concerns or setting up meetings through the sites.

Now the problem, both Facebook and Twitter have corporate aspirations that hinge on their ability to serve as ad platforms for other companies. This leaves them with tough PR and business decisions around how they should take care of situations as political as the WikiLeaks developments.

Any Internet user who cares about free speech or has a controversial or unpopular message should be concerned about the fact that intermediaries might not let them express it.

The problem came into relief on Wednesday, through an effort called Operation Payback, organized by a group calling itself Anonymous. The group spent much of the day posting notes on Facebook and Twitter that told followers which companies to single out and that documented hacking successes.

But Facebook banned one of the group’s pages, saying that using the site to organize hacking attacks like that violated its terms of use. The group went on Twitter to complain.

A Facebook spokesman issued a statement saying that the company was “sensitive to content that includes pornography, bullying, hate speech, and threats of violence” and would “take action on content that we find or that’s reported to us that promotes unlawful activity.”

In an interview Wednesday morning, Joe Sullivan, Facebook’s chief security officer, addressed WikiLeaks’s own presence on the site. He said the company had not received any official requests to disable pages or accounts associated with the WikiLeaks organization.

Facebook generally resists requests by governments or advocacy groups to take down material if that content is not illegal or does not violate Facebook’s terms of service, which prohibit attacks on individuals or incitements to violence.

Twitter allowed the Operation Payback account to stay active most of Wednesday. But the group’s account was disabled late in the day, after it posted a link to a file that provided thousands of consumer credit card numbers, according to a person with direct knowledge of the situation.

The company is not overly concerned about hackers’ attacking Twitter’s site, he said, explaining that it faces security issues all the time and has technology to deal with the situation.

Twitter is in a particularly delicate situation because its founders have celebrated their service’s role in political protest and free speech. They have not been shy about trying to capitalize on the good will engendered by playing that role.

WikiLeaks’s own Twitter account remains active, and it is the group’s main channel for reaching supporters and the media.

The last week has given rise to a hacking war in which counter-groups have blocked access to WikiLeaks’s Web sites by bombarding them with requests. Similar to the DDOS attacks launched on Mastercard, Visa, PayPal & Amazon.com

And now the WikiLeaks supporters have responded in kind, flying the freedom of speech banner as the motivation for their actions.

Protests have finally taken to the digital streets of revolution & freedom. Corporates really dont seem to get away with anything nowadays.

(with a little help from NYTimes)