14 DAY TRIAL // Mark Lamia, the studio leader at developer Treyarch, has said that the upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops will bo doubt include some controversial topics, mainly because its set during the Cold War, a time when both the United States and the Soviet Union did all they could to spy and hinder their enemies.
Talking with MCV about the new first person shooter Lamia said, “We cover the Cold War era and there are definitely some controversial topics in there. But I look at it as creating a piece of entertainment and we are strong advocates of creative freedom.”
He added, “Our game is entirely fiction-based – we’re not doing a historical recreation. We do our research and create that setting so you can immerse yourself in it but that’s just a backdrop for our narrative.”
The remakes come after Medal of Honor, the rival shooter franchise created by EALA, DICE and published by Electronic Arts, came under fire from parts of the media and some groups linked to families of fallen soldiers for allowing gamers to take on the role of a Taliban fighter in the multiplayer mode and kill NATO and American troops in some game modes.
The creators of Medal of Honor said that their video game was created using input from former soldiers and that the inclusion of the Taliban is needed to give the player a clear, well defined enemy.
Call of Duty is famous, as a franchise, for including shocking moments during its games, from the first person observed nuclear explosion in the first Modern Warfare to the “No Russian” civilian killing level in the sequel.
Black Ops takes place during the long Cold War and follows special operations operatives in battlefields as varied as the Arctics, Russia and Vietnam, with this latest setting offering the highest probability for shock.
Call of Duty: Black Ops will be released on the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3, the PC and the Nintendo Wii on November 9.