Rev Rant: Modern Warfare 2

_{Every week, sort of, features editor (Reverend) Anthony Burch discusses games and gamer culture in his “Rev Rant” video series.}

This video includes SPOILERS for the Modern Warfare 2 “No Russian” level. Not so much for the rest of the game. And I realize that the preview frame for the video may be sort of spoilery, but you’ll live.

This week’s rant is, yes, about the controversial MW2 airport massacre level, but hopefully not in a way you’ve heard it discussed yet — I tried to focus less on the arguments of propriety or controversy and more on how the scene does and does not work on basic interactive and narrative levels.

Watch it above, comment below. If you’re interested in hearing the discussion in this video taken further, you may also enjoy this week’s episode of Podtoid.

[A note: the actual video in the rant is taken from Brad Nicholson’s capture of the No Russian level, which I used for convenience’s sake.  I went through the level without killing any civilians — don’t read too much into the fact that Brad did not.]