Spec Ops: The Line Message Board older than one year ago

For me, Spec Ops: The Line is like watching a child play with a balloon. Like, I want it to be good, and I think it definitely has the tools to do so – but I’m still tensing every muscle and waiting for a deafening POP. Maybe it’s a sign of early onset cynicism, but plenty of other shooters have promised non-black-and-white moral choices and a “true” battlefield experience. Also, while probably purposefully bereft of those things, the demo didn’t exactly make a believer out of Richard. So now, on the eve of the eve of the eve of the eve of the eve of the eve of Spec Ops’ release, 2K calls for another supply drop of big promises. But will Yager deliver?

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Sir, I was trying to listen to you talk about your dark and mature narrative, but I was too busy trying not to stare at your dark and mature beard.

Developer Yaeger explains the effect of combat and choice on Spec Ops' story

#farcry It's starting to look as though game developers have moved their cinematic ambitions beyond the story of Charles Foster Kane and on to something a good deal more violent and possibly more attainable. To put it glibly: Apocalypse Now is the new Citizen Kane. More »

Use the desert as a weapon in this shocking demonstration of what makes Spec Ops so unique!

Arriving slightly later than on consoles – boo, hiss – you can now check out the Heart of Darkness inspired shooter Spec Ops: The Line in all its sand-strewn glory. It doesn’t just want you to murder your way through armies of crazy people in the remnants of fallen Dubai, but to think a little while you do. And not simply ‘which gun should I shoot this guy with?’ You’ll get sand in your eyes, sand in your pants, and sand in your sandwiches, but try this demo if you’re still feeling… wait for it, wait for it… Dubai-us! (accepts applause and thrown undergarments)

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#specopstheline Here is a video game soldier, rifle in hands, taking cover. A helicopter explodes behind him. The word "intense" might describe this scene from the TV commercial for the new shooter Spec Ops: The Line, but "unique"? More »

The best of the E3 2012 show floor set to some crazy dubstep. Let's get weird.

Bullets and sandstorms fly in this demo at E3 2012.

Spec Ops: The Line's demo is available now on Xbox 360 for Gold subscribers and later today, following the PSN update, on PlayStation 3. It will be available to all Xbox Live members on May 15. The sampler features both a single-player and multiplayer experience.

The single-player covers two early chapters in the game and the multiplayer gives a taste of the class-based combat. You'll have plenty of time to play the demo and practice the multiplayer, Spec Ops: The Line won't storm retail shelves until June 26.

What follows is a moment-by-moment recounting of my facial expressions while watching Spec Ops: The Line‘s multiplayer trailer – in ultra-vision. Exposition-y stuff: an expectant stare followed by an eye roll so hard it nearly detached my retinas at the phrase “This is their war.” Cover shooty runny ‘splodey stuff: a furrowed brow as if to say, “Is this all?” and “Why waste a slow-mo shot on a reload?” Class-based skills and rewards, etc: drooping eyelids, a hint of spittle dangling from the corner of my mouth. SAND AVALANCHE: Eyes wide-open, mouth creaking into a tentative smile, head cocked in much the same way as a dog saying, “Baroo?” Still though, it’s a bit worrisome that they actually had to spell out “Sand is a game-changer,” as though saying, “No, wait, don’t go! We’re sort of different, see?” And see you shall, if you opt to check out the trailer after the break.

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When American troops fight American troops, nobody wins.

#specops How refreshing is it to have a tactical shooter set in Dubai without one side having to be some sort of terrorists? It's The Exiles versus The Damned in Spec Ops: The Line's online multiplayer sandbox. More »

These special operatives in Dubai sure are mad at each other! Spec Ops: The Line's latest trailer, focusing on multiplayer, showcases the various brutal, assuredly anti-Geneva Convention-approved ways to end the lives of your opponents.

Spec Ops: The Line is an escape from the usual dirt and brick of modern warfare to a post-apocalyptic fantasy kingdom of tarnished gold and sand-battered chrome. It's called Dubai, and hell on earth has never been more opulent. Towers that once proudly scratched the sky are now buried and bridged by...

You know, because there's sand all over the place.

Having read Adam’s hands on with Spec Ops: The Line, I’ve found myself intrigued by a game I suspect I might have otherwise ignored or dismissed as another military shooter. While it’s very much about men shooting each other, the themes of the collapsing Dubai being eaten by the desert, not to mention the underlying occult weirdness, looks like something I’d like to explore. The latest trailer (via Blue), below, is intensifying that feeling, too.(more…)

In fairness, the trailer above for Spec Ops: The Line was likely cut and produced over the course of a few months. As such, its "ripped from current headlines" nature isn't really 2K Games or Yager's fault, but it does make for an awkward juxtaposition against recent news.

#specops Mass lynchings. Vultures feasting on unburied soldiers. Lots and lots of sand where it should not be. Things look way past effed up in the new story trailer for 2K Games' military drama. More »

Spec Ops: The Line is on a mission to prove it’s not just the sand that’s gritty with this new “Community Gameplay Trailer”. Whoever the Spec Ops community is, they’re sick puppies, as this is nothing but a catalogue of human misery: Argos filled with skulls, a Littlewoods of pain, an Innovations dedicated exclusively to a helmet that stops brain matter from staining your nice rug. Bad things might go down in the desert, but you won’t have to worry about worming bits of lobe out your finest shag with the Brain Buster! Act now and get Butt Blaster, the amazing all-in-one rifle butt cleaner and clockwork radio.(more…)

Spec Ops: The Line has been pushed back and previewed across several years, but now we finally know it'll cross the finish line come June 26. Take-Two revealed as much this morning in a PR missive which also detailed the "Premium Edition" of the third-person shooter. I will feature a variety of multiplayer bonus content to folks who pre-order the game from "participating retailers" (none are listed, but we're thinking places like GameStop and Amazon are fair bets).

Perhaps "Premium Edition" doesn't sound militaristic enough for you? Thankfully, Take-Two totally thought of that, which is why part the premium edition gives access to the "FUBAR pack," containing various multiplayer customization options ("unique and visually distinct items). Additionally, premium content includes an AK-47 unlock and an Officer Class promotion (which confers "several team-based advantages") at rank one, as well as double XP for the first week of online play.

2K Games producer Denby Grace openly calls out the unbalance in this pre-order scheme, saying "People who pre-order the game are going to have an immediate advantage in the multiplayer mode." G ... great?

This morning 2K Games announced that Spec Ops: The Line comes to stores in North America on June 26th and internationally on June 29th...

Ooh, I’ve come overall military. Let me try that again: “I don’t know what I’ve been told, Spec Ops: The Line is out June 29th”. Ah, military cadence is a wonderful medium for delivering game news. The Dubai set Gears of War-ish shooter that Adam liked but I have concerns about is taking advantage of the sweltering heat of summer and potential beach holidays. Imagine, an entire marketing campaign claiming to have brought about sand and sun. There’s also a multiplayer video that shows off the perks of pre-ordering, below.(more…)

#specops Cheer up, soldier! 2K Games first foray into the military shooter genre hits retail on June 26 (June 29 internationally), and preorder customers receive a free upgrade to the premium edition in all its FUBAR glory. More »

Spec Ops: The Line has been pushed back and previewed across several years, but now we finally know it'll cross the finish line come June 26. Take-Two revealed as much this morning in a PR missive which also detailed the "Premium Edition" of the first-person shooter. Said premium edition will feature a variety of multiplayer bonus content to folks who pre-order the game from "participating retailers" (none are listed, but we're thinking places like GameStop and Amazon are fair bets).

Perhaps "Premium Edition" doesn't sound militaristic enough for you? Thankfully, Take-Two totally thought of that, which is why part of the premium edition's content is getting access to the "FUBAR pack," containing various multiplayer customization options ("unique and visually distinct items" ... to everyone who pre-orders the game). Additionally, premium content includes an AK-47 unlock and an Officer Class promotion (which confers" several team-based advantages") at rank one, as well as double XP for the first week of online play.

Bizarrely, 2K Games producer Denby Grace openly calls out the unbalance in this pre-order scheme, saying "People who pre-order the game are going to have an immediate advantage in the multiplayer mode." G ... great?

It's been ten years since the last entry in the Spec Ops series, and the world of military shooters has changed significantly in that time. While the series was presumably successful enough to produce several games, the diminishing level of quality and bargain-bin status of each new title meant that...

Drawing inspiration from Joseph Conrad as much as the series that it seeks to reinvent, Spec Ops: The Line is a brutal, plot-driven third person shooter. After playing a few chapters of the game, I sat down with senior designer Shawn Frison to talk about Dubai, war stories, and the tension between horror and entertainment.

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#specops Might we be seeing soldiers cry—or, at least get very pensive—in Spec Ops: The Line? Maybe. It may be set in the architectural wonderland of Dubai but bad shit's going to down in 2K Games' upcoming military shooter. These screens and concept art shots show the shattered steel and glass of Dubai festooned with bodies of lynched soldiers and one firefight that looks like it might be happening in front of what might be a playground. Emotional manipulation needle's in the red, captain! More »

As I sat in 2K’s lobby waiting to play Spec Ops: The Line, a man played The Darkness II on a nearby consolebox. If I were to estimate, I’d say 84% of his time was spent eviscerating people, tearing them limb from limb, punching gaping holes through their most precious parts and lopping off their screaming faces with a twitch of his tentacles. It truly was one of the most gruesome displays I’ve ever been witness to. That man was Shawn Frison, senior designer at Yager Games. In Spec Ops, he has helped create something far more brutal than the comic book killfest of The Darkness.

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If I were to tally up all the people I've shot throughout the host of single player first-person shooter campaigns I've played I'd be shocked. Outside of the games where the antagonists are super natural or not of this world, most of the humans were foreigners, people who already feel alien to me an...