Comments on: Bullet The Blue Sky

Bullet The Blue Sky

micayetoca — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 06:33:50 -0800

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.

By: billysumday

billysumday — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 06:38:00 -0800

Bono, Defender of the Poor Bono.

By: psmealey

psmealey — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 06:52:13 -0800

Sonny Bono has been dead for years. Please leave him alone.

By: Burhanistan

Burhanistan — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 06:55:29 -0800

If he remains mum on this then Pandemic Studios should go ahead with its "Celebrity Shootdown" stalker simulation.

By: BeerFilter

BeerFilter — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 06:59:17 -0800

And yet, psmealey, his legacy lives on.

By: breezeway

breezeway — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 07:07:50 -0800

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?

By: Mister_A

Mister_A — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 07:08:58 -0800

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.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 07:09:37 -0800

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.

By: Smart Dalek

Smart Dalek — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 07:13:42 -0800

The game's a walk amidst rainbows and daffodils compared to Z P C, the love child of KMFDM's pal Brute and the Barker brothers from RevCo.

By: saraswati

saraswati — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 07:13:49 -0800

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?

By: limon

limon — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 07:14:19 -0800

"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.

By: mkb

mkb — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 07:14:52 -0800

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)

By: jonmc

jonmc — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 07:16:52 -0800

Geez, does anybody remember when rock stars just did drugs and humped nubile groupies on piles of money? I miss those days.

By: mkb

mkb — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 07:18:55 -0800

limon: We do have Left Behind: Eternal Forces for that sort of thing.

By: Faint of Butt

Faint of Butt — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 07:22:45 -0800

Dang, limon. It took me a moment to figure out that was parody, and I was actually interested in playing that game.

By: blahblahblah

blahblahblah — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 07:27:55 -0800

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.

By: Mister_A

Mister_A — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 07:29:07 -0800

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

By: Burhanistan

Burhanistan — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 07:45:25 -0800

It's not just my Id, it's a country between Kyrgyzstan and China that hasn't. Look it up.

By: Burhanistan

Burhanistan — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 07:45:51 -0800

(hasn't been put on modern maps, that is)

By: subtle_squid

subtle_squid — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 07:45:52 -0800

If Limon's game turned out half as fun as I expect Mercs 2 to be I'd preorder it today.

By: ColdChef

ColdChef — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 07:49:37 -0800

It's a fucking game.

By: Burhanistan

Burhanistan — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 07:53:20 -0800

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

By: ColdChef

ColdChef — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 07:58:09 -0800

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?

By: Ufez Jones

Ufez Jones — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 07:59:37 -0800

It's a fucking game. Which hole does the Wii-Mote go in?

By: subtle_squid

subtle_squid — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 08:11:51 -0800

FPS means first person shooter. I believe Mercs is a third person shooter.

By: Artw

Artw — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 08:12:35 -0800

Mister A - Latvia IS a real place. If you want to dispute that take it up with its ruler, Dr Doom.

By: mr_crash_davis

mr_crash_davis — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 08:27:44 -0800

The sarcasm detector is not so strong in this one.

By: mr_crash_davis

mr_crash_davis — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 08:31:51 -0800

(by which I mean I can't figure out who is supposed to be the tyrant in the game)

By: dcjd

dcjd — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 08:45:14 -0800

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?

By: tehloki

tehloki — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 08:58:50 -0800

^^ worked for Bush, but that just makes you sound like a dick.

By: elpapacito

elpapacito — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 09:29:36 -0800

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 !

By: Mister_A

Mister_A — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 09:33:38 -0800

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

By: weretable and the undead chairs

weretable and the undead chairs — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 09:35:52 -0800

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

By: Citizen Premier

Citizen Premier — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 09:39:22 -0800

'zactly, elpapacito. I never would have heard of the game if it weren't for this publicity.

By: jeffburdges

jeffburdges — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 10:26:52 -0800

I giggle when people talk about Bono.

By: fandango_matt

fandango_matt — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 10:39:28 -0800

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.

By: brundlefly

brundlefly — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 11:18:43 -0800

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?

By: brundlefly

brundlefly — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 11:23:07 -0800

Oh, heh. The download link's PC. I was thrown off by the Mac link.

By: Abiezer

Abiezer — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 11:30:31 -0800

If it's good enough for Slavoj Zizek Scroll to end ...

By: j-urb

j-urb — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 12:58:51 -0800

Bono is a joke.

By: zoogleplex

zoogleplex — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 13:00:42 -0800

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.

By: UbuRoivas

UbuRoivas — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 14:43:14 -0800

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

By: UbuRoivas

UbuRoivas — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 14:51:45 -0800

What will that Bonobo do next? I have a hunch that sex might be involved in some manner.

By: Burhanistan

Burhanistan — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 20:19:14 -0800

Synchronously enough Burhanistan's great-grandfather emigrated from Latvia to avoid becoming conscripted into the cannon fodder ranks of the tsar's army.

By: UbuRoivas

UbuRoivas — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 20:38:16 -0800

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

By: Cyclopsis Raptor

Cyclopsis Raptor — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 20:44:06 -0800

Oh yeah, we care so much what South America thinks.