For a long time, in fact from Genesis days on, I was a PC gamer. More shameful than that, I was a stalwart RTSer. This was partially due to my own immaturity, and partially because first person games made me physically ill. And on the PC, there is nothing else.
Since getting a GameCube I've finally been able to drag myself into 2002 and experience the visceral joy of shooting people in the face. And now that I'm playing Medal of Honor, I finally understand why there are are so many World War II games: shooting Germans is really fun. Way more fun than shooting Russians or Arabs or regular people. Although I don't believe they've made a game yet that features shooting up a Korean internet cafe--that might give Normandy a run for its money.
Since I'm using a console controller, I play on easy and still have trouble hitting anything. This has the effect of making my Nazi foes really slow and stupid. In fact, it's more like killing untrained German teenagers than the cream of Arian eugenics.
But it's still really fun. There must be some genetic component, like the Germans are an archetypal symbol of evil. I bet if they made a game about shooting unarmed German tourists in the desert, it would be fun.
They should make a World War I game, with the same ambience as the WWI level of Eternal Darkness. It would be just like the WWII games except that you don't get to shoot any Germans, you just hide in trenches and bombed out buildings and occasionally get blown up by the relentless shelling.
More reader mail:
Subject: hockey strike
From: removed
Date: Fri, February 18, 2005 2:13 am
To: deacon@uacomic.com
I was with you right up until Christina Ricci.
This was in regards to my hockey rant. It's nice to know other people agree with face-punching as a form of restitution. And after seeing an interview on Conan, I have to change my opinion of Christina Ricci as a potential NHLPA president. She may have battled her way back from anorexia, but she has a lot of eating ahead of her before she regains her old form. This makes me sad.
