Bullet The Blue Sky

February 7, 2007 6:33 AM

Venezuelan State TV aired a show yesterday in which they complained about a certain videogame, in which the goal is to overthrow the "power-hungry tyrant who messes with Venezuela's oil supply." In Venezuela, people are a bit offended by the images of Caracas being destroyed in the game, outside, some people are offended because one of the owners of the controversial company that created the game is Bono, The Defender of the Poor, Bono, and they are trying to stop it.
posted by micayetoca (45 comments total)

Bono, Defender of the Poor Bono.
posted by billysumday at 6:38 AM on February 7, 2007

Sonny Bono has been dead for years. Please leave him alone.
posted by psmealey at 6:52 AM on February 7, 2007

If he remains mum on this then Pandemic Studios should go ahead with its "Celebrity Shootdown" stalker simulation.
posted by Burhanistan at 6:55 AM on February 7, 2007

And yet, psmealey, his legacy lives on.
posted by BeerFilter at 6:59 AM on February 7, 2007

First he flings shit at schoolchildren through the bars of his enclosure, then he drinks his own piss and falls out of a tree. Now this? What will that Bonobo do next?
posted by breezeway at 7:07 AM on February 7, 2007 [3 favorites has favorites]

Tangent, but what the hell is up with those Joe Kennedy/Venezuelan heating oil commercials? It seems to me like Hugo is trying really hard to get Bush's goat by offering aid to Americans.

Full disclosure:I'm all for heads of state fucking with each other in non-violent ways.
posted by Mister_A at 7:08 AM on February 7, 2007

I guess Bono is finding out that if you crusade for anything, you're held to a higher standard then other rich people. He was just critisized for moving his recording royalties to the netherlands to avoid Irish taxes.
posted by delmoi at 7:09 AM on February 7, 2007

The game's a walk amidst rainbows and daffodils compared to ZPC, the love child of KMFDM's pal Brute and the Barker brothers from RevCo.
posted by Smart Dalek at 7:13 AM on February 7, 2007

I guess it was a lot easier for them to release a game where you go around destroying Pyongyang. You didn't hear the North Korean people complaining about that, did you?
posted by saraswati at 7:13 AM on February 7, 2007

"Mercenaries 2: World in Flames," created by Tehran based Pandemic/Bioware Studios, simulates a mercenary invasion of New York City in the year 2007. Pandemic is a subcontractor for the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and SAVAMA (Ministry of Intelligence and National Security) funded Institute for Creative Technologies, which uses Hollywood techniques to mount war simulations in Kavir-e-Lut's high desert in order to conduct military training. "Mercenaries 2: World in Flames" simulates destruction in downtown Manhattan, and promises to leave no part of America untouched.
posted by limon at 7:14 AM on February 7, 2007

Did Bono just invest anew in Pandemic? Can't figure out why there wasn't this much BS over the FIRST Mercenaries game.

(full disclosure: I know the lead designer for Mercs 2)
posted by mkb at 7:14 AM on February 7, 2007

Geez, does anybody remember when rock stars just did drugs and humped nubile groupies on piles of money? I miss those days.
posted by jonmc at 7:16 AM on February 7, 2007

limon: We do have Left Behind: Eternal Forces for that sort of thing.
posted by mkb at 7:18 AM on February 7, 2007

Dang, limon. It took me a moment to figure out that was parody, and I was actually interested in playing that game.
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:22 AM on February 7, 2007

This is pretty sad attempt to make political hay out of nothing by Chavez. First, Pandemic is a big studio, and I guarantee that there is no overlap between the cartoonish violence of the Mercs game and the games they produced for the army (which the army didn't like, by the way). Second, US companies are doing this all the time - witness KumaWar and Iran -- heck, there are plenty of games set in the US where you get to kill a President or kill people in a realistic New York or LA. So, yes, Bono is invested in a company that makes violent videogames, but neither he nor the army is suggesting that anyone invade Venezeula.

The military is actually more sensitive to politics, believe it or not, they never use country names in any material, though they certainly imply it by giving "Orange" all the characteristics of a South American nation, for example.
posted by blahblahblah at 7:27 AM on February 7, 2007

Maybe we should just destroy fake places in our video games, like "Burhanistan" or "Latvia".
posted by Mister_A at 7:29 AM on February 7, 2007 [3 favorites has favorites]

It's not just my Id, it's a country between Kyrgyzstan and China that hasn't. Look it up.
posted by Burhanistan at 7:45 AM on February 7, 2007

(hasn't been put on modern maps, that is)
posted by Burhanistan at 7:45 AM on February 7, 2007

If Limon's game turned out half as fun as I expect Mercs 2 to be I'd preorder it today.
posted by subtle_squid at 7:45 AM on February 7, 2007

It's a fucking game.
posted by ColdChef at 7:49 AM on February 7, 2007

Actually, it's an FPS, unless there's a "hot cofee" easter egg in there.
posted by Burhanistan at 7:53 AM on February 7, 2007

I prayed to Bono about this just the other night. You know what he told me? "Fuck the poor. They never buy my albums anyway." WWBD?
posted by ColdChef at 7:58 AM on February 7, 2007

It's a fucking game.

Which hole does the Wii-Mote go in?
posted by Ufez Jones at 7:59 AM on February 7, 2007

FPS means first person shooter. I believe Mercs is a third person shooter.
posted by subtle_squid at 8:11 AM on February 7, 2007

Mister A - Latvia IS a real place. If you want to dispute that take it up with its ruler, Dr Doom.
posted by Artw at 8:12 AM on February 7, 2007

The sarcasm detector is not so strong in this one.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 8:27 AM on February 7, 2007

(by which I mean I can't figure out who is supposed to be the tyrant in the game)
posted by mr_crash_davis at 8:31 AM on February 7, 2007

Actually, it's an FPS, unless there's a "hot cofee" easter egg in there.

Is that where you get to see Chavez screw his country?
posted by dcjd at 8:45 AM on February 7, 2007

^^ worked for Bush, but that just makes you sound like a dick.
posted by tehloki at 8:58 AM on February 7, 2007

I saw a cat with two pussies !

HERE: no not really. It's goddamn marketing for the love of Buddy Jebus MARKETING, do you SPEAK IT?

Argh !
posted by elpapacito at 9:29 AM on February 7, 2007

Dr. Doom is not even a real doctor—he's a PHD.

*ducks*
posted by Mister_A at 9:33 AM on February 7, 2007

I want a game where I can play as Sonny Bonobo and kill the Pope.
posted by weretable and the undead chairs at 9:35 AM on February 7, 2007

'zactly, elpapacito. I never would have heard of the game if it weren't for this publicity.
posted by Citizen Premier at 9:39 AM on February 7, 2007

I giggle when people talk about Bono.
posted by jeffburdges at 10:26 AM on February 7, 2007

posted by saraswati I guess it was a lot easier for them to release a game where you go around destroying Pyongyang. You didn't hear the North Korean people complaining about that, did you?

Pyongyangwned.
posted by fandango_matt at 10:39 AM on February 7, 2007

I love how the mercenary in this game is a mohawked, tattooed, X-treme sports-looking badass instead of a clean-cut, ex-military Republican in a Blackwater jacket.

Also, Smart Dalek, do you know if ZPC runs in Classic?
posted by brundlefly at 11:18 AM on February 7, 2007

Oh, heh. The download link's PC. I was thrown off by the Mac link.
posted by brundlefly at 11:23 AM on February 7, 2007

If it's good enough for Slavoj Zizek Scroll to end ...
posted by Abiezer at 11:30 AM on February 7, 2007

Bono is a joke.
posted by j-urb at 12:58 PM on February 7, 2007

Ah, my friends at Pandemic are all chuckling and upping their bonus estimates right now.

Yes, Mercs is a 3PS.

"I want a game where I can play as Sonny Bonobo and kill the Pope."

I just forwarded that to our creative director. Look for it 2Q 2008.
posted by zoogleplex at 1:00 PM on February 7, 2007

Maybe we should just destroy fake places in our video games, like "Burhanistan" or "Latvia".

Ej dirst, mikstais!

But I can understand why you might think Latvia is fake...we have a female President & are the first country on earth to have had a Green Prime Minister. That's green as in environmentalist, a concept probably too wildly fanciful for an ignoranus American to even conceive as being real.

/mock offence
posted by UbuRoivas at 2:43 PM on February 7, 2007

What will that Bonobo do next?

I have a hunch that sex might be involved in some manner.
posted by UbuRoivas at 2:51 PM on February 7, 2007

Synchronously enough Burhanistan's great-grandfather emigrated from Latvia to avoid becoming conscripted into the cannon fodder ranks of the tsar's army.
posted by Burhanistan at 8:19 PM on February 7, 2007

Hey, it's a man's life in the tsar's army!

Certainly better than being forcibly relocated en masse to Siberia, which was the usual Russian policy towards the Baltic peoples. Probably part of the reason that we sided rather enthusiastically with the Nazis in WW2. /derail
posted by UbuRoivas at 8:38 PM on February 7, 2007

Oh yeah, we care so much what South America thinks.
posted by Cyclopsis Raptor at 8:44 PM on February 7, 2007