The Medal of Honor Tomahawk
As a games journalist growing up in England during the rise of the internet and social media, I’ve never been terribly conscious of the vast, vast expanse of Atlantic Ocean that separates me from the many people I know and like in the USA. I speak to them all the time online and I even get to see them pretty frequently thanks to shows like E3, GDC and Gamescom that bring us all together in the same place. So it’s remarkably easy for me to forget that, while we speak the same language, the USA is actually a very foreign country. I do tend to notice it occasionally in video games though. One of my favourite examples in recent years was the original Gears of War. In the US, nothing seemed amiss. Reviewers noted that it was “a bit light on story” but reflected on how the game offered “a sweet introduction to the world of Sera and to Marcus, just enough to pique our interest”. Meanwhile, over in the UK, we honestly thought the game was some sort of brilliant parody. I mean, the marines have shoulders like the back end of a horse and say things like, “That smells nasty. What are these guys made of, shit?” It arguably ended up working in the series’ favour, giving the game cult appeal among snobs like me who might otherwise be expected to overlook it (which is handy, because that meant we got to savour some sparkling level design and brilliant ideas like Active Reload), and perhaps the writers started playing up to it a little. After all, it’s hard to imagine that even cultural differences could account for somebody with a straight face, busy writing Gears of War 2’s script, to reach for inspiration and discover “They’re using a giant worm!” Read more…
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