Game Design and the Geneva Convention

Cory's posted this interesting bit about Hugh Spencer, a parent who's agreed to let his 13-year old play Call of Duty, provided he reads up on the Geneva Conventions and abides by them during the course of play.

Awesome. I can't wait to hear the outcome.

I'm curious whether it's POSSIBLE to successfully finish the game when doing so. I wonder whether the designer(s) read the Geneva Convention and incorporated it into the design.

I wonder whether you can successfully finish Amerca's Army when doing the same?

GTA IV sucks...

...sucks me in that is.

I have to admit. Watching this TV spot has me ready to pony up money for my copy.



A couple thoughts while on the subject:

- GTA 3 did a good job of populating a large city with ambient characters/content. Crackdown & Saints Row took it further, but GTA 3 was quite a bit earlier. GTA4 looks from early footage that it does an event better job on this front.

- In terms of "realism", camera work/effects/automation seems a WAY bigger bang for the buck than things like animation or shader effects. Madden and Ace Combat 6 are great examples. Footage of the latter here: