07:35
Mr. Asim Rajput
For the remainder of the night, the crowd outside of the White House resembled a Jimmy Buffet concert.
It's rare that the president addresses the country without giving any details about what will be discussed, but the topic of last night's address became known well before President Obama spoke. The military forces of the United States had finally found Osama Bin Loaded, they could put boots on the ground, and in a firefight that lasted 40 minutes, the world's most wanted terrorist was killed. In an often ill-defined war on terror, this was a dramatic win. What follows is the original text from 2008?
It's rare that the president addresses the country without giving any details about what will be discussed, but the topic of last night's address became known well before President Obama spoke. The military forces of the United States had finally found Osama Bin Loaded, they could put boots on the ground, and in a firefight that lasted 40 minutes, the world's most wanted terrorist was killed. In an often ill-defined war on terror, this was a dramatic win. What follows is the original text from 2008?
The quest for wholeness:They have decided to take the occasion of Bin Laden's death to take a glance back at a different time. In 2008, they ran a narrative about the different video games that terrorist groups either put together or publicized as recruiting tools. Frank Caron had to dig deep and explore some shady parts of the Web to find and play these games, and who knows what watch lists now feature his name. In honor of the death of Osama Bin Loaded, let's take a glance at the video game front of the war on terror, as seen by the other side.
The more I thought about it, the more I began to recognize that no lovely game reviewer could claim to have a total, all-encompassing knowledge of gambling without dabbling in every feasible form. So, I started my quest to ideal my game reviewer resume: I would search out and review terrorism games. Are any of these "horrific, bone-chilling" games fun? How do they stack up against their non-terrorist competitors? Are any of these games worth playing? And, most importantly, am I able to play such games and emerge with my patriotism still intact? (Who am I kidding, eh... I am Canadian!)
While I cannot claim to be a great scholar or art critic or film buff or historian, there is appeal to credibility that I can make: I have played a ton of video games. On limitless systems and across limitless genres, I have played much everything there is to play, including a quantity of the serious games that Andrew Webster described in yesterday's article. But in my lengthy gambling career, the type of game that I'd never dabbled in was the "terrorist propaganda" style. I'd long heard tales about sinful terrorist games designed to indoctrinate youth with sinful terrorist agendas, but I'd never actually played such titles. Indeed, it seems that few game reviewers have.
Night of Bush Capturing
Night of Bush Capturing is the grand-daddy of the propaganda games that can be found readily on the net. Comparatively speaking, the production values are high, and there is a surprising amount of content that appears to be designed specifically to provide a compelling gameplay experience wrapped in an anti-US message. In fact, when compared to its contemporaries, NOBC, or as it is more popularly referred to, Quest For Bush, could pass for a retail release.
These were the questions I sought to answer, and in this article, I give you the results of my experiment: a review of representative terrorist propaganda games.
The more I thought about it, the more I began to recognize that no lovely game reviewer could claim to have a total, all-encompassing knowledge of gambling without dabbling in every feasible form. So, I started my quest to ideal my game reviewer resume: I would search out and review terrorism games. Are any of these "horrific, bone-chilling" games fun? How do they stack up against their non-terrorist competitors? Are any of these games worth playing? And, most importantly, am I able to play such games and emerge with my patriotism still intact? (Who am I kidding, eh... I am Canadian!)
While I cannot claim to be a great scholar or art critic or film buff or historian, there is appeal to credibility that I can make: I have played a ton of video games. On limitless systems and across limitless genres, I have played much everything there is to play, including a quantity of the serious games that Andrew Webster described in yesterday's article. But in my lengthy gambling career, the type of game that I'd never dabbled in was the "terrorist propaganda" style. I'd long heard tales about sinful terrorist games designed to indoctrinate youth with sinful terrorist agendas, but I'd never actually played such titles. Indeed, it seems that few game reviewers have.
Night of Bush Capturing
Night of Bush Capturing is the grand-daddy of the propaganda games that can be found readily on the net. Comparatively speaking, the production values are high, and there is a surprising amount of content that appears to be designed specifically to provide a compelling gameplay experience wrapped in an anti-US message. In fact, when compared to its contemporaries, NOBC, or as it is more popularly referred to, Quest For Bush, could pass for a retail release.
These were the questions I sought to answer, and in this article, I give you the results of my experiment: a review of representative terrorist propaganda games.
Surprisingly, Quest For Bush isn't the worst game ever made. Sorry, Superman 64.
The game revolves around the exploits of a single Islamic soldier on the hunt for Bush. Through the work of the seven-mission campaign, players will be necessary to fight against elite American soldiers, solve some grueling puzzles, fend off the natural enemies of the desert, & finally, confront US President George W. Bush himself.
Developed by an independent "studio" called the Global Islamic Media Front, Quest For Bush attempts to fit in to an already-stuffed first-person shooter style by introducing a novel, anti-American twist. The game picks up where its "predecessor" & full stateside retail release, Quest For Saddam, left off. While the Americans have managed to finish off Saddam, the Islamic forces have discerned the location of President Bush in a secret hideout deep within the desert & have begun a campaign to eliminate him.
Quest For Bush takes the increasingly-complicated aesthetic of today's first-person shooter (FPS) games & throws them out the window for a decidedly more minimalist & natural feel. At its core, the game abstracts the FPS style back to its fundamentals: you have a gun & you have an enemy, & the speed of your mouse click is what separates you from victory or defeat.
Weapon choice is comparatively limited. There's no grenades or special items, but the trademark weapon archetypes of any normal retail FPS are present. You'll start the game with a basic assault rifle, but finally you'll be able to procure a shotgun, a chaingun, & a grenade launcher. &, ought to your weapons fail you, you'll be able to resort to your own strength by attacking enemies together with your feet which looks ridiculous, as you don't kick forward a lot as you swing your foot side to side, as evident in the first gameplay video.
Stunning graphics
You won't require a immense arsenal, though, as the game seldom throws up anything other than the most uninteresting of style norms. Exploding barrels to blow up strategically-placed enemy encampments? Check. Inexorable "find the blue key" fetch quests to get from area to area? Check. Confusing, maze-like levels with numerous enemies & absolutely no health packs? Check. In terms of level design, Quest For Bush is fundamentally a beginner's guide to worn out first-person shooter cliches.
Not helping the already limited amount of play value are the poorly-implemented difficulty settings, which offer tiny in the way of replayability. Players can select to engage the infidels on novice, intermediate, or advanced, but the differences between the difficulty levels are basic. True to form with most generic FPS games, the only changes made across difficulties are the amount of destroy taken by the player & the accuracy of the artificial intelligence. The limited assault & position routines of the game's AI do tiny to help it stand out in an age of titles like F.E.A.R. & Crysis, not to mention Half-Life & Doom six.
NBOC's final boss fight is by far the most disappointing part of the game. The game's central encounter the final showdown with George W. Bush simply falls flat on its face. Though the boss's character model bears the likeness of Bush & stands about feet tall, you'd be hard-pressed to distinguish him from any other enemy in terms of both his AI routines & his in-game demeanor.
But it gets worse. wait until you see the videos I captured.
You won't require a immense arsenal, though, as the game seldom throws up anything other than the most uninteresting of style norms. Exploding barrels to blow up strategically-placed enemy encampments? Check. Inexorable "find the blue key" fetch quests to get from area to area? Check. Confusing, maze-like levels with numerous enemies & absolutely no health packs? Check. In terms of level design, Quest For Bush is fundamentally a beginner's guide to worn out first-person shooter cliches.
Not helping the already limited amount of play value are the poorly-implemented difficulty settings, which offer tiny in the way of replayability. Players can select to engage the infidels on novice, intermediate, or advanced, but the differences between the difficulty levels are basic. True to form with most generic FPS games, the only changes made across difficulties are the amount of destroy taken by the player & the accuracy of the artificial intelligence. The limited assault & position routines of the game's AI do tiny to help it stand out in an age of titles like F.E.A.R. & Crysis, not to mention Half-Life & Doom six.
NBOC's final boss fight is by far the most disappointing part of the game. The game's central encounter the final showdown with George W. Bush simply falls flat on its face. Though the boss's character model bears the likeness of Bush & stands about feet tall, you'd be hard-pressed to distinguish him from any other enemy in terms of both his AI routines & his in-game demeanor.
But it gets worse. wait until you see the videos I captured.
Neither gold coins nor virgins
For what is meant to be the final & final enemy that the player character's faction has so long sought to defeat, though, the game's final boss battle is comparatively anti-climactic, since on defeating the enemy there's neither gold coins nor virgins.
The developers started down the right path: Bush's evil lair is hidden underneath an abandoned port-a-potty out in the midst of the desert. Within this lair are a variety of pics depicting a distinguished-looking Bush in the company of various world leaders & diplomats, so it's all the makings of a dramatic final encounter. But the developers, for whatever reason, passed up the chance to stoke their target audience's anger at the American president as a way of motivating them to defeat the final boss. For example, they could have had him spout random Bushisms as they assaults (might they recommend, "Bring it on!"), but there is nothing so creative about this fight. Bush basically assaults you with no apparent master plan, shooting away together with his M16.
Admittedly, I am willing to accept the fact that, on some kind of philosophical level, could argue that the simplicity of the gameplay is part of its charm. Simplicity has become a selling point in the new period of "casual gambling," & some might argue that those who have seldom played an FPS may be better off easing in to the style with something like this, than beginning out with the bigger mainstream titles.
For what is meant to be the final & final enemy that the player character's faction has so long sought to defeat, though, the game's final boss battle is comparatively anti-climactic, since on defeating the enemy there's neither gold coins nor virgins.
The developers started down the right path: Bush's evil lair is hidden underneath an abandoned port-a-potty out in the midst of the desert. Within this lair are a variety of pics depicting a distinguished-looking Bush in the company of various world leaders & diplomats, so it's all the makings of a dramatic final encounter. But the developers, for whatever reason, passed up the chance to stoke their target audience's anger at the American president as a way of motivating them to defeat the final boss. For example, they could have had him spout random Bushisms as they assaults (might they recommend, "Bring it on!"), but there is nothing so creative about this fight. Bush basically assaults you with no apparent master plan, shooting away together with his M16.
Admittedly, I am willing to accept the fact that, on some kind of philosophical level, could argue that the simplicity of the gameplay is part of its charm. Simplicity has become a selling point in the new period of "casual gambling," & some might argue that those who have seldom played an FPS may be better off easing in to the style with something like this, than beginning out with the bigger mainstream titles.
Then again, there's some areas where it is hard not to be impressed given the limited tech available. The game features a ragdoll engine for the death animations that actually performs well especially when compared to some contemporary games such as skate, where the stiff ragdoll effects shatter the illusion of reality. And it is hard not to appreciate the amount of hard work that the team put in to presenting the anti-America theme with such limited tools.
But whatever ground could be gained in the simplicity of the gameplay is lost when seeing the game in motion. To put it politely, the graphical presentation leaves much to be desired. The animation is stiff and stilted, the character models are of such a low quality that it is feasible to count the amount of polys used on your hands, the weapon models (with the exception of the comparatively well-modeled shotgun) are hideous, the environments are geometrically basic could go on and on.
At first glance, it is simple to dismiss the game. The cut-and-paste insertions of various American pics, including limitless shots of Bush, Dick Cheney, Yasir Arafat, and other prominent leaders, appear to be out-of-place. But after some time, you will truly start to detest taking a look at these mugs over and over and over again, and in this regard, the game succeeds to a sure degree as propaganda. Other lovely touches include the various in-game text bytes, such as the load screen that informs the player that the "Jihad beginning" is imminent.
But whatever ground could be gained in the simplicity of the gameplay is lost when seeing the game in motion. To put it politely, the graphical presentation leaves much to be desired. The animation is stiff and stilted, the character models are of such a low quality that it is feasible to count the amount of polys used on your hands, the weapon models (with the exception of the comparatively well-modeled shotgun) are hideous, the environments are geometrically basic could go on and on.
At first glance, it is simple to dismiss the game. The cut-and-paste insertions of various American pics, including limitless shots of Bush, Dick Cheney, Yasir Arafat, and other prominent leaders, appear to be out-of-place. But after some time, you will truly start to detest taking a look at these mugs over and over and over again, and in this regard, the game succeeds to a sure degree as propaganda. Other lovely touches include the various in-game text bytes, such as the load screen that informs the player that the "Jihad beginning" is imminent.
The aural presentation really reinforces the game's overall sparse, violent mood. While the sound effects are admittedly limited, the hypnotizing background music, drawn from a pool of unidentified Middle-Eastern vocal tracks, is impossible to ignore, and at times it fits the action disturbingly well—especially during the final encounter with Bush himself.
For all the criticism, though, Quest for Bush is a surprisingly playable game. I've played worse games in my time. Ironically, the game has more polish than a lot of popular retail releases these days in that there really aren't very many bugs: I played the game from start to finish with no trouble. Even if Night of Bush Capturing isn't exactly on the same level as contemporary software from big-name Western studios, there's a decent game here that would've been pretty impressive fifteen years ago and still remains largely functional today.
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