that has to be the worst review i’ve ever read. you have to be a complete asshat to think the game is about killing immigrants. i can’t believe you published this review, too bad no one will ever take you seriously ever again.

I think this should have been a seperate article. I would rather have heard about the game itself. If you felt that strongly about the game, then an article about your objections would have been more appropriate. But not in the review of the game. A review should not be some one’s moral compas. I have my point of view below about violence in video games below. Seperate topic like this article should have been. I bought this game, so If you would like to read an opinion from someone that has no soul.

Violence in video games:
This kind of game is not new , see the GTA franchise. I do not try to link games to reality, that is one of the reasons I like to game. A release from reality. If my games start to come reality then there is a bigger issue with me. The problem would be with me not with the game. I write this in the shodow of the Virginia Tech Shootings, and I am a VT grad. Even as I mourn the victims at my university, I can seperate that tragedy with the games I play. I think people look for reason when there is none, and too often these games are made scapegoats. I saw Dr. Phil last night on one of the news programs talking of all things the violence in Video games. I think people are really missing the point and should really look to the individual that made the decision and not as society (as in games) made the decision for him.

[...] Click Here for his post[PDF Magazine] [...]

You, Peter(puffer), are on a level of Jack Thompson’s ineptitude. After this, I recommend you just stop now.

I agree one hundred percent that the questionable (or unquestionably messed up) underpinnings of the Crackdown’s “narrative” seriously undermine my enjoyment of the game. It’s a hell of a lot of fun vaulting around the city and blowing up cars (to compensate for the game’s prejudices, I try to only attack the cops), but it’s beyond me why developers perpetually fall back on racist, anti-immigrant stereotypes in their constructions of sandbox worlds.
Everybody’s ragging on Peter for trying to inject his “bias” into an “objective” review, but it’s exactly that type of detachment and apoliticism in the gaming community as a whole (which, for some reason, seems to be dominated by ted nugent types quasi-libertarian types) that encourages game companies to churn out content that indulges the institutionalized racism prevalant in our society. Anybody who doesn’t see how the content of the game is a critical (and, in this case, insidious) feature of the overall experience (and therefore relevant in a review) needs their head checked. Saying something like “the game targets all races equally” is total bollocks. Every enemy in the game is a mythological stereotype of a non-white or non-American bad guy , the dialogue and personas attributed to the mob bosses are ludicrous and hateful, and the non-white women in the game are all depicted as scantily clad succubi. This all in contrast to the macho All-American hunks that the player controls. If you’re trying to tell me that there’s not something seriously prejudiced about that set-up, I have to conclude that you’re making that comment from a position of total indoctrination.
This all being said, I think that it is possible to enjoy the game (especially if you steal it) at a purely mechanical level if you basically turn down the volume and ignore all the plot.
I won’t deny that this doesn’t help the fact that thousands of fifteen year old boys who fetishize violence will buy and enjoy the game for all the wrong reasons, and I desperately hope that somebody will release a game with equally successful implementation of city-scaling , real time physics, and vehicle exploration and none (fewer) of the problematic character elements. Until then, I guess folks can either take Peter’s angle and choose to avoid the game entirely or find a way to play it without giving Crackdown’s developers their money.

I can easily see where this reviewer is coming from. The first two gangs are all of one race, and the last one is questionably asian (all the bosses except for one is asian, and over half of the mobsters are american). However, you should note that one or two of the agents are Asian - heck, one is unquestionably Spanish or Mexican (I truly apologize for this gross generalization, I haven’t learned the difference yet). Plus, all of the civilians in each area are of that area’s nationality….I will take note, however, that all the Peacekeeprs are either white or black.

I am a hardcore gamer and I dont know where this guy gets off trying to think this game is about killing immigrants. The only thing I think about when im playing is stopping the bad guys. In no way am I taking out my wrath for society. This reviewer needs to get his mind checked.

From
A Souless Individual

“you know, REVIEW THE DAM GAME! not give ur opinion on why you dont like it.”

Doesn’t reviewing the game mean giving your opinion on why you don’t like it?

“Reviews are objective?”

Since when? Says who?

While I certainly respect everyone’s right to disagree with my opinion, I’m afraid I have to reject categorically the idea that a review of a product represents anything _other than_ opinion.

If all you’re looking for is objective fact, then I’m sure the product specifications sheet will be more than adequate. If you read a review, you should expect to be reading an opinion. I’ll go further, in fact, and say that any review that _doesn’t_ give you an opinion is, in fact, not doing its job.

Reviews are meant to be objective. It’s the same reason why we’re not supposed use the words “I” and “you” in a review but the word “player/s”. And yes it is based on one person’s experience, but that experience can be reported in an objective manner. I encourage every journalist here to get the Video Game Style Guide.

What Peter basically just did is a game criticism. That sounds like a bad word, but it’s really just an opinion piece, and he also mixed in a few bits of review.

And in all honesty Peter did his job as far as telling the people if the game was good or not, but some people (as you can tell from some of the statements above lol) just don’t care about someone’s opinion on the game and all they want is the facts.

I’ve finished the game and I have to agree that there is a dark subtext to Crackdown. Only the naive or wilfully ignorant will state that the casting of enemies in this game is innocent. It’s just too much coincidence that three enemy factions correpond to the three main immigrant groups in the US.

P.S.

The three largest immigrant groups in the U.S. are Middle-Eastern, Hispanic, and European. Slavs aren’t even in the top 5.

I’d not considered that aspect before, seamus, but you raise an interesting point. Just because we’re killing immigrants doesn’t mean _all_ in-game immigrants are thugs.

[...] name, are more Russian-Polish than German), and the South-East Asian Shai Gen. While some (such as PTD Magazine) see the ‘kill immigrants’ theme of the game as profoundly racis, I prefer to look at [...]