Ben-DutkaBased on the real-life experiences of soldiers in the battle-torn town of Fallujah in Iraq, Konami's Six Days in Fallujah has already garnered plenty of controversy. And now, due to the potential promise of extensive brutality, Europe is waiting on an official launch announcement.
According to Joystiq, unnamed Konami representatives at Konami's Gamer's Day in Frankfurt said "they were waiting to see how Atomic Games plans to portray the brutal battle for Fallujah before deciding if the game would see a European release." They didn't let any details slip about the violence in what may be a "documentary-style" shooter, but evidently, they don't have much info right now. Ever since we got the announcement, both Atomic and Konami has come under fire by a variety of peace groups and war veterans. Obviously, the reason for their offense is obvious, although we should probably point out the inherent weaknesses of humanity: it seems time is the only requirement for addressing sensitive issues in history; for as time marches forth, the sensitivity lessens in an equally linear fashion. The problem is that Six Days in Fallujah 's premise still feels very fresh to those closely related to the war (which is still going on, in reality), and a fresh, exposed wound is – of course – more sensitive. It needs time to scab over; to get to the point where it's no longer exposed to the harsh, scathing air of controversy.
There's a reason why games based on World War II and Vietnam barely register in the eyes of any peace groups. But if something like World at War had released in 1946, one can imagine we'd see a similar fallout as we're seeing with Six Days in Fallujah . Stay tuned to see if Europe will indeed see the game on store shelves.
Related Game(s): Six Days in Fallujah
Isn't this almost like when producers made movies about 9-11 .. I personally thought it was too close to the fact, but after watching one of them I was glad I did. So maybe it won't catch any flak if it's done well – but somehow I doubt it.
Seems a bit risky releasing a game based on the Iraq war
I think this is very necessary for people to understand what hell our troops go to defend our freedom. I dont really believe that but its a good argument for the game. I just think this game has a lot of potential to be epic.
Time and the availability of information from BOTH sides. I think people are worried, myself included, that it'll be one sided like almost every other war game (except MSG4). Regarding the accuracy of information in the game: I was recently watching the video interview on GT and I noticed that plates of the truck from a (proposed) screenshot had Dubai plates. Dubai and Fallujah are worlds apart. Its inconsistencies like this that totally debunk the games authenticity, in my view.
If it seems OK to the brave Marines who fought the battle, us at home should have nothing to worry about.
Why is this not taken into consideration by those in media?
if they had left "fallujah" out of the title no one would have battered an eyelid about the game…video games are meant to be entertainment and fun i think your on a slippery slope adding actual named wartime events to a game …although most of cod4 singleplayer could exactly be the iraq war its just names and place names have been made up..
Last edited by daizycutter on 4/14/2009 5:46:40 PM
Anyone ever consider that it might be more concerned with giving the right experience and feel instead of just exploiting violence? There was tons of violence in Blackhawk down but it wasn't exploitative.
Hopefully this game will be done right and make you care about whats going on, not just shooting away to beat a mission.
Unnecessary war