Time capsule: Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Remember Me, The Sims

Time capsule

We are not eternal. Nothing forever. Who knows what universal horror can happen to our generation and what will remain of it in the end? Perhaps archaeologists of the future will be able to get closer to the answer than archaeologists of the present – to the secrets of antiquity.

And we volunteered to help researchers from the unknown century. We will leave the time capsule (though in textual form), in which we “hide” the most socially significant games of our generations, published in recent years, and after several more years, perhaps we will repeat the experiment. Each of the games is an example of one of the phenomena of reality, which future generations should find out in order to add the impression of us and at the same time not step on our archaic rakes.

This text will be printed in the February issue of Gamery, so if suddenly the Internet “breaks” once, our list can be found in a printed form. Paper, as you know, lives for a long time.

Grand Theft Auto 5

According to Coppola, it is impossible to refuse to refuse. Every few years they invariably create another kaleidoscope that penetrates all the corners of pop culture and does not even mock, no! Brutally puts on both shoulder blades, parallelly quoting classics like the same Coppola, Brian de Palma or John “Why so little blood” trails.

However, why the hell would these quotes surrendered to someone and this is a merciless mockery if GTA (and this applies not only to the fifth part, but any-for example-for example, San Andreas ) was not a farce by nature. GTA, in addition to the growing sandbox, gives us a unique performance in its shameless. The crooked mirror, which is probably driven into the paint of many prominent figures of show business,-and Lindsay Lohan, sorry, was “sucking” that the judgment did not end to this day.

Unfortunately, GTA is still a parody of the American way of life and not a meaningless stupidity show like Saints Row 3. Although it actively flows into the brains of the inhabitants of any part of the planet, but is completely unable to get involved – however, see other games about globalization, in the neighborhood. Therefore, we, the inhabitants of the fallen USSR, will not be able to sincerely laugh at the “black helicopters”, like Hillbill from the Middle West will never fully understand the joke about the fallen jacket of Brezhnev. But the value of this parody is not diminished from that (all the more so that in the last series they swept the same on the Russian topic). Because good, evil and relevant satire in games has always been desperately not enough.

Remember Me and The Sims 4

It’s scary to think, but a couple of centuries ago people wrote letters to each other. Not an email that a person receives immediately and can write an answer right from his smartphone, but real paper letters. Then people had to agree on a meeting in some shop in the park in advance, and there could not be any globalization and there were no talk-people were left to themselves.

However, now we deliberately abandon our own privacy for the sake of comfort and security. Before going to meet with a stranger, we find him " VKontakte ", We study his tastes and hobbies, watch Twitter and Instagram and first contact the phone. We want to know everything about others. And these others are happy to share their lives with us, their thoughts and experiences.

That is why reality shows like “Dom-2” are so popular-we experience interest in other people, we like to watch the same as we react to certain domestic situations. We want to know everything about each other. Modern society does not tolerate any secrets.

In this regard The Sims 4 (and all the parts that were before her) is brilliant. She gives the player a chance to feel herself not just a full-fledged participant in the reality show, but also his director. You see everything that happens to your wards – how they quarrel, how to fall in love, how they go to the toilet, you can even see their thoughts. Full control over itself.

But more than others the topic of globalization develops Remember Me. Dontnod Entertainment, with some reservations, drew an amazingly believable future – without clumsy police robots and ridiculous implants from Deus Ex , but with a complete lack of privacy. And it turned out not at all anti -utopia – the concept is viable and works properly.

This has begun today, thanks to social networks. We follow each other with interest, we do not tolerate secrets, secrets scare us. The next level is a complete exchange of memories, and this is a decisive step towards the collective mind. If globalization continues, in the future we will receive an absolutely safe society in which people consciously exchange their neighbors with their memory and know everything about each other, which means that evil intent is excluded. There are many minuses, but at least it is better than fighting and killing your own kind.

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

Call of Duty will enter the capsule for the same purpose with which agitlakates with eating babies would be put in a metal capsule. Cod is the main ideologist of the militarism that our contemporaries only have.

That is, no, of course, Call of Duty did not invent armed fetishism. There were other militants. But starting with Modern Warfare The direction of thought has changed. The battles of World War II were attractive that Nazism is a hydra, which by default is a road to the cemetery. Negotiations seem to be impossible (in fact – no, Comrade Isaev delicately suggests).

Call of Duty – This is a whirlwind of metal and gunpowder, an endless weapon attraction. A fascinating and political correct version of the Vietnamese War. Any issues in it are resolved by armed intervention: in this world there is no economy, culture, diplomacy. Unless once the presidents of the United States and Russia signed a peace treaty, but … Otherwise, the world would have turned into a nuclear cemetery, and the Russian Federation, by and large, was presented not as an equal enemy, but as a pear for whipping.

Such a philosophy does not learn to kill, not at all. No healthy person wants to “soak” a neighbor after the game session in Black OPS 2 – Rather, on the contrary, it will break anger in the game, asserts the virtual blank and will measure aggression ..

But in his mind, the stereotype of the “abstract enemy”, which is not only not only sorry, but also honorable, will be firmly fixed in his mind. I am a person, son, husband and taxpayer, he is a mobile target. And it’s easier to instill general logic: what is the difference, what is our GDP if we can incinerate the planet with a nuclear arsenal? The armor is strong, tanks are fast, a rifle is a friend to me, and a machine gun is a father.

That's why Call of Duty copes with the problem of recruitment much better than America’s Army 3 , where there is only a cold -blooded network action movie with tactics and without seasonings. And COD distinguishes: there is a great power, and it is for everything good, and around – evil beetles.

This War of Mine

In contrast to the powerful industry of militarism, for the first time in many years, the growth of the struggle against him was opened to the light.

This War of Mine – a tiny, barely alive and high hoping signal that the gaming morality is moving along the path of sobering from the long -term dominance of the cult of the war. The first important milestone along this path was Spec Ops: The Line , Oddly enough, an action movie about brave American warriors. Who, like heroes " Apocalypse today ", Plunge into the ears in serious, non -heroic and unpleasant insanity. This is the nature of the war: to erode mental attitudes, violate all logic and destroy the human nature itself. A very bold experiment, which is not appreciated by the public.

The next important step was Valiant Hearts: The Great War , This time – from ubisoft. Suddenly, true? But the French on the occasion of the anniversary of the First World War managed to dig up and resurrect the phenomenon, which was revived at that bloody moment of history – aversion to war and its critical perception. Pipe-subject heroism was replaced by trench-gryaz desperation, confusion and indignation: after all, a new age came, why such a nightmare happened? What are we fighting for? Why you can’t just throw a rusty rifle and leave the trench, where you've spending the night for the third week? Before this, the battles began and ended quickly, went into battle by march and to the music, and back-they ran briskly, dropping swords.

This War of Mine showed a new essence of war, which did not reflect. Civilian city. So helpless, unhappy creatures is hard to imagine. From the perspective of the hammering and an anvil, the massacre appears in a completely different light. A spontaneous disaster – incomprehensible, uncontrolled and meaningless.

Especially meaningless. Why are you fighting? For the homeland, which, meanwhile, turns into scorched land? For the future Queen Vegas sister sites of children who – by the fact that they will survive, will have to build everything from scratch? For the memory of the ancestors, who for some reason should be happy to death? For ruins and fires, hunger and dysentery? Certainly not for people. Certainly, This War of Mine inspired by events in Kosovo, but it was this year that she gained new relevance. Regardless of the conflict.

For which you are fighting?

The Stanley Parable

Over the past few years, the market has slowly conquered games that sacrificed gameplay diversity and difficulty for the sake of plot dance. What can you do, a good story often harm shootings not by the time and tasks for several days of thought. In our editorial office, the opinion that this was not a banal circumcision of "unnecessary" elements ripened. Just external gameplay, requiring emergency decision -making and planning, was replaced by internal gameplay, when the game provokes doubts, makes you think, confuses and pulls by the scruff.

The Stanley Parable He became the top of evolution. Journey taught us to contemplate the art, Dear Esther – Play "In the Book", live text and landscapes, and the TV shows Telltale ( The Walking Dead , The Wolf Among Us ) created a convincing illusion of heavy choice. The Stanley Parable , As the third model, Philip Dick, improves the method itself – the story becomes nonlinear, editing and extremely deceptive.

The main character here is a limp hard worker who for many years raped a keyboard on hard instructions. And now the brisk storyteller urges him to get up and go – towards the final of an interesting story. And we, of course, do not want to serve as a pawn. Instead of the right door, select the left. Do not press the necessary buttons, unnecessary – joyfully, without hesitation, click. Mentally argue with the narrator who enters into such wilds of sophistics and verbal juggling, which puts himself on a par with villains of the level of Glados and surpasses them.

Not only the “fourth wall” breaks here – the game finds new limits that immediately destroys. It is like a party in the Mafia, but one on one (and not dreary, as in the company of hipsters and without that for conversation). We have to join a mental battle with an unknown directive evil … or good? Or this struggle is also included in the plans? Maybe the narrator too-someone's puppet?

We have not seen such a virtuoso game in paradoxes anywhere else.

Papers, Please

When we are asked: “What is the meaning of indie?", We will immediately answer:“ They thought of Papers, Please ". A wild, unpromising plan, doomed to refuse even the most real avant -garde players, an incredibly difficult psychologically thing, as if created to kill marketers. How can it be popular? How it The players may like it?! 9500 reviews in Steam, 97% of which are positive. Even at Fallout 2 "Just" 95%.

Tedious boobs busting simulator? No. Bureaucratic thriller in a totalitarian country. The hero – the clerical rat at the checkpoint – decides with the blow of the press: will a person enter the country or not. A typo in resolution? Denied. Forgot the desired pass? Denied. Spicks are sitting on the tail, there is no time to collect documents? Denied.

The pitch horror of autocracy and total surveillance forces to be picky. For every third violation of the hero, they hurt the ruble (and the hungry son and mother -in -law die from cholera at home). Some muddy personalities ask to help them overthrow the dictator. A plowing old man is stubbornly trying to go to the country to pour criminal divisions. And in this hell we are offered to remain an honest person with a clear conscience, haha! You guess what article in court is fraught with?

Papers, Please made a feat twice. At first – having made the process of checking the pieces of paper tense and fascinating: every day the standards change, piles are more thicker, more visitors. And interesting events are constantly happening: the architect is looking for engineers for his project and asks to give business cards to the right people. For reward. Or an old friend asks you to miss his lover who fled from another country. Of course, she has no documents. A real, hard choice awaits at every step. And this is the second achievement Papers, Please.

In simple words – a terrible story about how to stay honest in the world of liars. Or – how to come to terms with the flour of conscience. Believe me, in a rare game you can become such a vile bastard as in Papers, Please.

Dayz

A game that began its story as a modification to the simulator of military operations combines several symbols of the last decade at once. On the one hand, this is a classic Robinsonade in a hostile world – and the popularity of “Survival Games” has long been among the players the subject of jokes. On the other hand, this is a classic zombie apocalypse (or even a zombie-alloles), about which the players are already tired of jokes. With the third – a social experiment, clearly demonstrating how to just persuade a person to the immoral effect of a simple “there will be nothing for you”. But in general, this is a huge virtual “frontier”, according to which our generation missed – lawless, wild, merciless … and free.

Zombies here are not otherworldly evil, causing irrational horror, but only a walking embodiment of danger. Forces to be on the alert and does not allow to relax, but it can and should be destroyed without the slightest moral torment at the first opportunity. There are no enemies among the players – maximum competitors – no friends, maximum comrades in misfortune. There is no property – what I found, what you selected, what you can hold, then yours.

And there are neither written nor unwritten rules – the “human rights” are limited only by the long -rangeness of his weapons and the number of cartridges. In a word, the open spaces of Chernorussia as nothing else are far from modern society with all its obligations, prescriptions, traditions, principles and prohibitions.

The desire for adventures and freedom from public restrictions did not become an exclusively achievement of our generation – it is old, like all human civilization. But Dayz – one of the most indicative incarnations of this passion. This game enables everyone to go out against the whole world, feel like the last single hero … and almost certainly finish the same as the majority of such “single heroes” finish is by no means a beautiful departure to the sunset.

And it’s good that all these trials will get only a character model on the screen-and a real, living person will stand over a computer and return to his boring, relatively safe and completely civilized life.