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Sorting Fact from Fiction in Call of Duty: Black Ops
To get a game with different historical period and littered with
historical figures, the latest Call of Duty game sure does take a lot of
liberties with, well, history. So let’s try and sort the simple fact
from the fiction.
Call of Duty: Black Ops takes place while in the
Cold War, a period in the other half of the 20th century when tensions
between United states of America and the USSR threatened to plunge the
world into a Under developed War. While the two world superpowers never
directly came to blows, they constantly fought proxy battles around the
globe while in the name of the respective ideologies and agendas, and
it’s these conflicts amongst which Black Ops is focused.
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD
Beginning in 1961, with the abortive attempt from the CIA to retake Cuba from
Communist forces at the Bay of Pigs, Black Ops spends the rest of the
1960s taking players to Vietnam, Hong Kong, the USSR, the Arctic Circle
and even the waters off the United States. Some of the places – and the
reasons you’re sent there – actually happened, others are ridiculous,
while others, well…Because they were secret operations, we can’t be
certain they didn’t happen, however silly a number of them seem.
Below you’ll find some (we obviously do not have the space to list all) of
the particular important events, weapons and pieces of equipment located
in the game, broken down while in the name of history to inform you
what really (or in some instances most likely) happened.
Now, nobody is looking to pooh-pooh the game or maybe the designers: they a
piece of fiction to create, and in some cases, the specific events of
this Cold War weren’t nearly as interesting or as exciting as is also in
this particular game. We’re just trying to offer you a little
background to all or any that stuff you will end up blowing up and
rampaging through while playing the game.
THE BAY OF PIGS
What Was It? The Bay of Pigs invasion was an effort by the US to remove
Fidel Castro and the Communist government from power on this tropical
isle of Cuba. Working with a Communist nation so near the continental
United states of America was a major concern for the administration of
President Kennedy, so in 1961 a small invasion force comprised almost
entirely of ex-patriot Cubans (with more than some help from US aircraft
and the CIA) was landed on the beach at Playa Girón, on Cuba’s
south-western flank.
What Black Ops Nailed: Amongst gamers, what
begins as a cocky adventure into Cuba ends in disaster. The American
backed Cuban exiles routed using a better-supplied, better-equipped
Communist force. The few American handlers in the area overseeing the
operation are forced to flee, as the “invasion” leads to embarrassment
and defeat for the CIA (who backed the operation) and US President John F
Kennedy. That’s also how it occurred in the real world.
What Black Ops Got Wrong: Very little! Although the exact locations and
events depicted in the game may be fictitious (particularly the
“assassination” of Fidel Castro), the normal duration of events as well
as the involvement of US special forces and the United States Air Force
within the battle checks out.
NAZIS in the SNOW
What Was it? Throughout the game’s “flashback” sequence, players control
Reznov as the Soviets battle a top-notch Nazi force inside Arctic
Circle. Despite this event taking place at the conclusion of the war,
when Germany was critically short on both men and equipment, you
encounter a large Nazi base dug into the snow, full of stores of nerve
gas and V-2 rockets.
What Black Ops Nailed: Though the idea itself
sounds fanciful, the Germans did establish bases in the Arctic Circle
during the war, in such remote locations as the Norwegian island of
Spitsbergen, the Lapland region between Finland and Sweden and also
Greenland.
What Black Ops Got Wrong: The Arctic Circle from the
1940s was a difficult place to work; getting enough men and equipment up
there, even by boat, could have been just about impossible for the
Germans by 1945. For this reason, the recorded German bases in the
Arctic Circle were a lot smaller and a lot less dangerous, most being
weather stations (indeed, one machine – “Kurt” – remained intact and
undiscovered until 1981.
The SR-71
The thing that was it? The SR-71 – unofficially nicknamed the “Blackbird” -
was a large, expensive and incredibly advanced spy plane built from the
United States Air Force in the 1960s. Oh, it was also fast; so quick
the fact that airspeed record of 3529km/h it that is set in 1976 still
stands to this day, despite 34 years of subsequent advances in
aeronautical engineering.
What Black Ops Nailed: The Blackbird
first entered service in 1964, so flying one in 1968 – as you do in
Black Ops – is real. Also will be the “space suit” the gamer wears, as
being the SR-71 flew way too high and too quickly for just a regular
flight suit to keep a person alive. In the game, additionally, it seems
as though the Blackbird is flying in “space”; with an operational
ceiling of 85,069 feet, it may well also have been.
What Black Ops Got Wrong: While the developers got a lot of the aircraft right, the
things they put inside was a tad fanciful. In Black Ops, players work
with an infrared video camera to guide a squad of infantry, who you are
also in radio connection with. That sort of technology would not exist
in the real world for decades, even for special forces units. Instead,
the actual Blackbird had to make do with regular cameras (both still and
video) which were used for reconnaissance. It did have an infrared film
camera, but it couldn’t perform the surveillance depicted in the game.
Soyuz 2
What Was It? In reality, Soyuz 2 was the 2nd mission with the Soyuz class of
spacecraft, launched atop the dependable Vostok class of rockets. It
was a fairly routine mission in terms of pioneering space flights went,
with nothing exploding and nobody being killed.
What Black Ops Got Right: The rocket looks like it ought to, and Soviet spacecraft did
indeed lift off from Baikonur, the base you storm throughout the game
(and which can be still a functioning space center to this day).
Amazingly, one of the early Soyuz craft did also explode, though as you
are going to find out, it wasn’t exactly under the circumstances
depicted in the game.
What Black Ops Got Wrong: The developers got
the destruction on the Vostok rocket and Soyuz spacecraft partially
right. See, while Soyuz 2 – the craft you attack in the game – had an
uneventful mission, its predecessor, Soyuz 1 (which takes off safely
during the early stages of Black Ops‘ Baikonur mission) actually blew
through re-entry towards Earth’s atmosphere after a litany of technical
problems, killing its pilot.
HECKLER & KOCH G11
The fact that was it? The G11 was a prototype assault rifle designed by the
West Germans, which despite its appearance in Black Ops never actually
entered production. Work began for the weapon while in the 1970s, and
would continue through prior to the 1990s, when it vied with competing
firearms to replace the M16 as the standard rifle of the United States
military. In addition to its radical appearance, the G11 became a
revolutionary weapon because it fired “case less” ammunition. Because
its bullets did not eject shells, the rifle was much easier to both use
and maintain.
What Black Ops Nailed: Since the G11′s ammunition
did not have to spit empty shells out after every round, recoil was cut
down tremendously, turning it into a precise weapon. In Black Ops, the
weapon is just available during a single level – Hong Kong’s Kowloon
stage – but it is an unforgettable appearance, while using the virtual
G11 being as revolutionary (and accurate) in the game because it was at
the real world. What Black Ops Got Wrong: Developers Treyarch got the
look and feel with the gun right, but overlooked (or more likely could
not care) the fact that the gun failed to yet exist in 1968, the year in
which it’s provided to players. Instead, style of the G11 did not begin
prior to the early 1970s.
Steyr AUG
The fact that was it? A revolutionary assault rifle, created by the
Austrians and still in service in many military (including those of
Australia, the Netherlands, Taiwan and, needless to say, Austria)
throughout the world today. What Black Ops Got Right: Given to players
throughout the assault on a Soviet base located beneath Mount Yamantau,
Black Ops‘ version from the AUG looks and sounds like the real thing.
That is concerning this. What Black Ops Got Wrong: Most levels of Black
Ops are positioned during 1968. To obtain weapons like the G11 as well
as the French FAMAS rifle in the game is wrong, both being designed only
a few years after the events of the game. The Steyr AUG did not enter
production until at least early 70s, therefore it is an anachronism too.
Dragon’s Breath
That which was It? In certain stages of the game, players are given access
to “Dragons Breath”, a type of incendiary shotgun round that not only
shoots its victims but burns them also. It might appear to be something
out from a gun nut’s fantasies, but it’s actually very real.
What Black Ops Got Right: Dragon’s Breath shells are exceedingly expensive to
produce, so yeah, it’s right that they’d be rare. They also give off a
significant “flash” effect when shot, which the game also replicates.
What Black Ops Got Wrong: Dragon’s Breath rounds are for show. Because
they’re packed with zirconium, and also have a focus on pyrotechnics as
opposed to stopping power, they’re actually very low-powered rounds in
comparison to a regular shotgun blast, making them ineffective around
the battlefield. They do not set people on fire, either; while the
“flash” effect, the rounds generate cause them to become dangerous (and
usually illegal) to have on the understanding they are a fire hazard,
that’s only because the sparks could start up a fire in such things as
grassland. There’s nowhere near enough incendiary material inside a
round of Dragon’s Breath to make a man combust like they do in Black
Ops.
What Were They? Zombies, they’re the living dead. Corpses
returning from past the grave to flesh around the living. In Black Ops,
you will get kept in buildings surrounded by the things, and have to
thrive by slaughtering them in their thousands.
What Black Ops Nailed: Just about everything. A genuine zombie will not sprint, he
shambles. They moan, they shuffle a great deal, they have a taste for
human flesh. Also, Treyarch were spot-on getting Fidel Castro among the
survivors. Like a person the living dead himself, he’s the very first
man I’d want by my side when the apocalypse comes a knocking.
What Black Ops Got Wrong? Nothing!
You could raise a hundred more topics regarding background the game. Would
President Kennedy have really authorized an assassination attempt?
Could the Soviets have built such an impressive under water base right
beneath the American’s noses? Would an African-American (Bowman, played
by Ice Cube) have been such a prominent figure in the pre-civil rights
movement US combat forces of 1961?
Answering them, though, would
be difficult. The best thing about setting a game during covert
operations means we may not know the truth behind many of these events
for years, if ever. And perhaps for those who could answer some of them,
that might probably just result in a hundred more questions! So let’s
be content with figuring out the simple truth where we can, and leave
the rest to your imagination of the kind of people who make video
gaming.
Call of Duty: Black Ops has become the biggest
entertainment launch ever by selling over 5.Six million copies in 24
hours. The sales numbers are from Canada and America and the England
alone and beat Modern Warfare 2′s last year’s record of four.7 million
sold copies. The game generated over $360 million, which is $50 million
more what Modern Warfare 2 did within the same time interval a year ago.
Call of Duty: Black Ops is one of the most critically acclaimed games of the
season worldwide. The action logged over 1 million Xbox LIVE users
during its initial few hours online. Those are simply Xbox 360 numbers
and do not add PlayStation 3 and PC avid gamers. It’s expected that MW3
will double the record number in 2011.