Gamers Question US Foreign Policy

There is a look of confusion on the faces of the 14–22-year-olds walking out of Activision’s North America headquarters today. They were the lucky few who were able to beta-test Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. Upon questioning, Justin Tennenbaum, 17 said that he respected the decision to allow you to play as a CIA agent distributing crack/ cocaine in Brooklyn on the basis of its “realism” but felt the gameplay was too reminiscent of Grand Theft Auto. Another gamer, Devon Greene (15), thought that allowing you to call a napalm strike on a Vietnamese farming village was “in poor taste” but “still f*cking sick”. Sarah Liebowitz, the only girl to test the game prior to its release, enjoyed the minigames where you can play as Gorbachev and have to pick dialogue options as he attempts to minimize the public reaction to the Chernobyl disaster “It’s just like that time I cheated on my girlfriend!”. !!!SPOILER WARNING!!! When asked about the blank stare the beta-testers carried they questioned the artistic decision to play an instrumental rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner over footage of the first McDonalds opening in Moscow as the credits rolled. “Why did I have to sell crack? Why did I have to napalm strike a village in Vietnam? Why did they think the game needed so much U2?” “It felt unrewarding”.