Author: Trafficblast

War Video Games “Romanticize” War In An Unhealthy Way, Medal Of Honor Recipient Says

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Dakota Meyer, a former United States Marine who was awarded the Medal of Honor for saving lives and sustaining injuries in a 2009 military operation in Afghanistan, has spoken up about how war video games “romanticize” war in an unhealthy way.

Meyer said war video games may encourage people to think it’s fun or exciting to kick down doors and kill people. These are the real-life nightmares that keep him awake at night.

“Suffering has become normal for people. It’s become entertainment,” Meyer said on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast. “Video games about war … war has now been romanticized. It’s been romanticized that it’s this cool image … I hear people say I just want to go kick in doors and shoot people in the face. Well, you’ve probably never done it then. We’ve got kids playing video games of the stuff that keeps me awake at night. And it’s like, at what point do we start humanizing these things?”

Meyer went on to say that people are becoming desensitized to human suffering due in part to the increasingly graphic nature of video games and other entertainment.

“There is nothing cool about taking another human’s life,” Meyer said. “When you’re playing video games, and it’s like, ‘Oh I got this many kills.’ These kids are just watching this screen over and over, and the more graphic it gets, the [more desensitized we become] to another human being’s suffering.”

“We’ve pushed ourselves away form being empathetic to, hey, these are real people. These are real people’s lives,” he added.

Also during the podcast, Meyer said video games like Grand Theft Auto, which allow people to kill anyone or run people down with your car, are problematic. “How does anything positive come from that?” he said.

Meyer earned his Medal of Honor for disregarding orders and charging into a killing zone where, over the course of six hours, he saved 12 fellow soldiers. He has said the September 9, 2009 ambush was the “worst day in my life.”

Meyer was awarded his Medal of Honor at the White House in 2011. President Barack Obama remarked at the time, “You did your duty above and beyond, and you kept the faith with the highest traditions of the Marine Corps you love.”

The next big military shooter to release is Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. The game’s campaign is being led by a team of former Naughty Dog developers. The game appears to be taking steps to better represent a soldier’s experience. For example, Modern Warfare’s campaign puts an emphasis on encouraging players to identify threats.

If you cause a lot of collateral damage, you will see a fail screen. “The game sort of has its own version of, ‘You just got court marshaled and arrested,'” narrative director Taylor Kurosaki told Game Informer.

“We have pretty complex heuristics where we’re basically trying to determine, are you, the player, acting like a proper soldier? Or are you kind of being a psychopath and not playing by the rules?”

The new Modern Warfare, which is a soft reboot of sorts of the 2007 game, launches on October 25 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

Not all war video games are seen as glorifying battle, death, and suffering. The 2012 shooter Spec Ops: The Line tells a war story that asks the player to consider the horrific realities of war.

Destiny 2 Launches Charity Event That Gets You In-Game Prizes

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There’s plenty happening in Destiny 2, including a just-released Exotic bow quest. But now, there’s another event that will let players loot and shoot for a good cause. Taking place on October 24 through November 10, players in Destiny 2 can participate in Games2Give, Bungie’s annual charity event for streamers and viewers alike to help those in need. Viewers who donate to streamers taking part in the event will also earn some special unlocks for your Guardian and Ghost.

In a blog post on its official site, Bungie stated that all proceeds from this charity event would go straight to Bungie Foundation’s iPads for Kids Program and the Children’s Miracle Network. Viewers who donate will earn limited-time rewards for your characters. For instance, the $10 donation will give you the new Mist Blossom emblem, while sending in $50 will let you snag the Exotic Ghost shell known as the Gilded Shell. Donating $100 will get you both previously mentioned rewards along with a submission into a larger prize pool for a set of rare physical prizes. This set includes the Destiny 2 soundtrack on vinyl, two Guardian figurines, and a real model of the Ghost’s Gilded Shell.

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For those interested in streaming, there are several prizes you can get on your own, which include the rewards above, along with a VoltEdge TX70 Wireless Headset, and a VIP trip to visit Bungie’s development studio. On October 29, Bungie and several content creators will take part in a special 24-hour livestream. During this event, the group of fans and developers and developers will take part in several daring challenges and activities to raise more funds for Games2Give.

Overall interest in Destiny 2 has increased in a big way following the re-launch as a free-to-play game and the release of the expansion Shadowkeep. In Phil Hornshaw’s review, he stated: “Returning to the moon is full of spooky fun, and while Shadowkeep might not be as huge as Forsaken, it still provides some impressive additions to the world that will take time to fully explore. More meaningful choices in Shadowkeep are pushing me to think beyond just packing my most powerful guns and shooting everything in my path. These are improvements that represent a giant leap forward for Destiny 2.”

Iron Man Director Weighs In On Criticism Of Marvel Movies

Actor, writer, producer, and director Jon Favreau has offered his thoughts on the negative comments about Marvel movies made recently by directors Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola.

Speaking to CNBC, the Iron Man director said Scorsese and Coppola–who are two of the most esteemed directors of all time–are his “heroes,” and he owes them a debt of gratitude as it relates to his own career. They can say whatever they want about the current state of film, Favreau said.

“These two guys are my heroes and they’ve earned the right to express their opinions,” Favreau said. “I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing if they didn’t carve the way. They’ve served as a source of inspiration, you can go all the way back to Swingers where I was referencing Marty, and I’ve worked with him. For me, they can express whatever opinion they’d like, and I’ll leave it at that.”

Scorsese, the Oscar-winning director behind Goodfellas, The Departed, Taxi Driver, and The Wolf of Wall Street, made waves when he said Marvel movies are “not cinema.” Coppola, the five-time Oscar winning director behind The Godfather and Apocalypse Now, backed up Scorsese’s comments and went further, saying Marvel movies are “despicable.”

As Favreau alluded to, his 1996 movie Swingers features a handful of references to Scorsese’s movies, including Taxi Driver and Goodfellas. Favreau also acted in Scorsese’s Oscar-nominated movie The Wolf of Wall Street.

Favreau has had a big year. He directed Disney’s new Lion King movie, which went on to make $1.65 billion at the box office to become the seventh biggest movie in the history of cinema. He is also the executive producer on Disney’s new Star Wars TV show The Mandalorian which premieres in November on Disney Plus.

Watch the Trailers for Every Skywalker Saga Star Wars Movie

The final trailer for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker has hit, which means that every trailer for every movie in the nine-film Skywalker Saga has officially been released, floating around and waiting to be watched and rewatched and rewatched again.

Which, thanks to the internet, that’s totally a thing you can do right now. We found ourselves taking a trip down memory lane reminiscing on the trailers that have come before, and we figured we would help you enjoy the same experience right here. Below you’ll find all the main trailers released from the nine Skywalker Saga movies, all for your space-viewing pleasure!

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4 Reasons You Need to Keep Watching HBO’s Watchmen

Whether you loved the first episode of HBO’s Watchmen, like I did, or found it intriguing but imperfect, like mentioned here in the IGN review, one thing’s certain: Damon Lindelof’s new show is a head-scratcher.

Lindelof drops viewers off in the world of Watchmen (specifically the comics’ version, not the movie’s) 34 years after the events fans are familiar with, with three decades worth of alternate history and alternate politics to catch up on. It’s confusing, but purposefully so. Your enjoyment level of the pilot will correlate with how much you can stand not knowing up front.

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Terminator: Dark Fate Review

The Terminator franchise has always been about trying to maintain hope for humanity’s future in the face of relentless mechanized onslaught (as personified by the titular cyborg assassins). The latest sequel/reboot, Terminator: Dark Fate, embraces that notion as it steers the series into a new direction while both acknowledging and jettisoning many of the hallmark trappings of the franchise so far. It’s an exciting, action-packed and often humorous reset that captures the spirit and pacing of the first two James Cameron entries in a way that none of the recent three films could. It’s the best Terminator film since T2: Judgment Day.

One key reason is that Dark Fate does not place Arnold Schwarzenegger front and center. He shows up later in the film and appears for just the right amount of screen time. Where the first Terminator used him judiciously as the villain and Judgment Day introduced a new version of his T-800 as a heroic protector figure, the Austrian Oak’s shadow loomed large — perhaps too large — over the next three films, even when he was reduced to just a digitally recreated cameo.

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5 of Gaming’s Wildest Marketing Stunts

In the cosmic wake of the Black Hole that gobbled up Fortnite for a bit and then belched a new one back out, it seems that every gamer on the planet is offering at least a respectful hat tip to the ballsy — and, perhaps more importantly, seemingly ultra-effective marketing ploy — which included shutting down all of Fortnite’s servers and social media channels over the weekend in anticipation of the release of Chapter 2.

And that got us thinking: what are some other awesome viral stunts from the history of gaming? Here’s some that worked, some that didn’t, and one that never should have made it out of the conference room.

Click through the gallery above, or scroll down for the full list.

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Mayans MC Lets Sons Of Anarchy Do Something It Wanted To Years Ago

Sons of Anarchy got away with a lot during its seven-season run on FX. The series featured horrific violence regularly, plenty of vulgarity, and a large dose of sex throughout. However, there’s one line the show never got the cross–and it’s one the sequel series Mayans MC regularly does.

Regardless of any betrayal or murder that unfolded on-screen during Sons of Anarchy, at no point was a character driven far enough to drop an F-bomb. After all, that wasn’t a word you heard on TV at the time. While the FX biker drama tended to push the envelope when it came to vulgarity, that word was off-limits.

Times have changed, though. It’s not uncommon to hear a character on Mayans MC throw the word around in normal conversation. So with a Sons of Anarchy reunion being staged on Mayans, it provided the perfect opportunity to let the club that started it all talk the way creator Kurt Sutter likely envisioned.

“Who do we gotta f*** to get a drink around here?” Chibs (Tommy Flanagan) said to the Mayans the moment he and SAMCRO arrived for a summit between rival clubs. It certainly set the tone for what was to follow, as viewers got caught up on exactly what’s happening in the world of SAMCRO since the death of Jax Teller (Charlie Hunnam) in the Sons of Anarchy series finale.

According to Chibs, he expected the club to be out of the gun trade a long time ago, as Jax intended. Unfortunately, as Happy (David Labrava) explained earlier in Mayans Season 2, that didn’t happen. Now, though, the club is finally looking toward the future.

“We never thought this transition would have taken so long,” the SAMCRO president explained. “Things up in Northern Cali are just only settled down and our other interest is finally starting to land in the black.” Of course, they’re also being forced out of the gun trade by circumstance. According to Chibs, the port the Sons smuggle firearms into is closing down.

Still, while SAMCRO may think they’re finally done with the gun trade, that’s likely not the case. Given that a peace they brokered between the Mayans and a rival club has erupted into a flat-out war–with the casualties already stacking up–Chibs and his crew are probably going to have their hands full in upcoming episodes.

Mayans MC airs Tuesdays on FX.

Disney CEO Responds To Marvel Movie Drama Following Negative Comments From Scorsese And Coppola

A lot of people have a lot to say about Marvel movies in the wake of the negative comments about them from Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola. Disney’s CEO, Bob Iger, has now weighed in on the drama with a take of his own.

Speaking at the WSJ Tech Live event in Laguna Beach, the CEO responded specifically to how Coppola said Marvel movies are “despicable.” Iger said “despicable” is a word he reserves for mass murderers, adding that saying such a thing about Marvel movies is disrespectful to the many people who work on Marvel movies.

Scorsese and Coppola also are failing to understand how the Marvel movie audience is reacting to and appreciating the MCU films, Iger said.

Scorsese, the Oscar-winning director behind Goodfellas, The Departed, Taxi Driver, and The Wolf of Wall Street, made waves when he said Marvel movies are “not cinema.” Coppola, the five-time Oscar winning director behind The Godfather and Apocalypse Now, backed up Scorsese’s comments and went further, saying Marvel movies are “despicable.”

Scorsese and Coppola are two of the most esteemed directors in the history of cinema, and they have every right to share their thoughts on the film business, according to Iron Man director Jon Favreau.

Just because Scorsese and Coppola do not seem to enjoy superhero movies, Marvel, DC, and other will of course continue to make them and fans won’t stop enjoying them.

“Like westerns and gangster movies (and before that, just MOVIES), not everyone will be able to appreciate them, even some geniuses. And that’s okay,” Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn said.