The 10th Hour 07.03.09: Patriotic Video Games

Posted by Adam Larck on 07.03.2009

With the Fourth of July just a day away, check out Adam Larck’s newest 10th Hour as he talks about games that relate to the American way of life.

Well, with my first full column under the belt, let's keep moving forward. I'll respond to some of the comments in a minute, but first I want to touch on a few things.

-Finally sat down last weekend and beat Prince of Persia on my own system. It was a good game, although fairly short (except for getting those damn light seeds) and helped me prepare for the upcoming Assassin's Creed 2 with the acrobatics. I'm curious if they will actually do a sequel to this game or just leave it with the cliffhanger ending.

-Besides my usual Call of Duty playing, I'm now into Sacred 2 for the 360. While I'm still an extremely low level … 11, to be exact, I'm having fun and would love to get a game going with some 411 fans. So, for anyone who has the game and wants to play, shoot me an invite at Vengeful Rain.

Reader Feedback

Last week was all about Fallout 3, but let's see what some of the readers had to say about my list.

First up, it's Quimby. What's the mayor of Springfield think about the Fallout universe?

"I think hearing 3-Dog talk you up on the radio is a nicer feature than the S.P.E.C.I.A.L book, and a LIAM FREAKIN' NEESON voiceover trumps a Vault full of Gary's IMO.

Still a nice list though."

Well, I'll be honest. I completely forgot about Liam Neeson. The same thing happened to me with Patrick Stewart in Oblivion. While Neeson had more lines than Stewart, I just never heard him enough to remember to put him in the list. Now that I've been reminded (by multiple people), I probably would have shuffled my list around and the Gary Vault would have been out.

As far as 3-Dog, I never listened to the radio. There was a few songs that caught my interest I would put it on for, but actually listening to 3-Dog normally did not happen for me.

Next, we have Serp. What are your thoughts on the list?

"VATS is really just turn based RPG. Which is what the originals were. For sniping, I think you're better off manually aiming, as the game is pretty generous on long distance aiming manually but harsh on VATS percentages. I use VATS only for mid range and close. For unarmed I use it sometimes to teleport to a running enemy, or to get the Paralyzing Palm perk.

I like the Karma system too, I thought that was kind of unique.

Mysterious Stranger really isn't worth it because it's something like a 10% chance, with the opponent having a certain amount of life left, and a requirement of vats mode, with grim reaper's sprint not triggering if it works. I pretty much never had it work for me, maybe 6 times a game if I used it."

I agree fully with the sniping point brought up. When I'm a substantial distance away, it's always manual sniping while sneaking for the extra bonuses. About mid-range, though, I am known for using V.A.T.S. to have a sure shot headshot with a critical bonus.

The Karma system is nice, but it still had the same problem that always annoys me with those types of systems. It seemed to be either one side or another. I know that it had neutral as well, but when I think of Karma I think of being an actual person, with manipulation or white lies not being noticed so a person still seems good. If you didn't lose Karma for taking stuff when no one saw you, or doing other subtle things, I probably would have rated it higher on my list.

I am surprised you've gotten the Stranger so few times during a game. About every 5-10 fights I was getting him, so he reoccurred quite a bit for me. It just goes to show that the Fallout gameplay is vastly different for everyone.

Last up, we have Kent Baker. What do you have to share with us, Kent?

"Bloody Mess is number 1?

Wow...that was the WORST part of the game. Taking that perk and having people expload(sp) when you punch them? So stupid, it got old after 10 minutes."

Wow, probably the first person I've heard that hated the Bloody Mess perk. For me, the game was mainly about the explosions. While I didn't like to be weighed down by the big guns, being able to get the same bang for your buck from regular guns was awesome to me. I actually found it hilarious to see a guy explode from just a punch. I guess the only good thing for you is that you can just skip it by pressing the A button.

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The 10th Hour – Patriotic Video Games

Well, by now, many of you may be preparing festivities and fireworks for the Fourth of July tomorrow. Because of the holiday, I figured I'd do a list over some of the most patriotic games I've seen. Each game may represent a different aspect of American life, from war to explosions to just general patriotism, but I felt that each one belonged here in some way or shape.

Without farther ado, let's get started.

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10. FantaVision - While it doesn't actually have anything to do with America, it represents what most people look forward to on Fourth of July: fireworks.

The whole object of this game was just to explode fireworks above locations. It originally debuted as a PlayStation 2 tech demo, but was turned into a full game after people saw it. I actually got this game as a gift with my PS2. While it took me a bit to get into it, I loved the fireworks fun once I did. With people getting ready to see fireworks tomorrow, I figured this was a great choice to get people ready for them.

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9. Patriotic Pinball - Back in the PlayStation's heyday, there used to be a ton of variant pinball games being made for the system, one of which was Patriotic Pinball.

One table featured a lot of various military vehicles, government seals and American flags, while the other was more like a road trip. Along with the boards, there were also seven various missions you could do on the boards, like the Battle of Gettysburg or Boot Camp for the first board. The second board focused more on places you could see around the nation. Between sightseeing and serving in the armed forces, this game has two of the top things that are done in America.

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8. Oregon Trail - Who doesn't remember playing this game during grade school, made over one of the major movements in American history?

It was always common during the free time at my grade school to see students running to be the first one to the computer to play this game. From hunting in the wild for food (and often leaving behind a lot of what you kill), to crossing the river and losing your daughter to drowning, this game was a blast to play and try to get to the end of the trailer, but yet still helped remind us of the actual trip people took. It was a blast to play then and can still easily be found on the internet in various places.

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7. SOCOM: U.S. Navy Seals - When it comes to celebrating our independence, why not remember the armed forces protecting us. What better way to do that then with a game themed over a particular group.

SOCOM is a great series dealing with the tactical aspect of the Navy. It actually allows you to give vocal commands to your squad with a headset. While I haven't played any of the newest iterations of the game, the tactical action with setting your squad up for a flanking attack was always great. It's worth a check out to pay homage to the Navy Seals in the armed forces.

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6. American Gladiators - Remember how difficult the old NES version was? It was based off a fun TV show, though.

How could I not include a game with American in the name? This game represents an entertainment value that many American's love, seeing one person beat the crap out of another. Whether it's with a jousting stick or various guns during the Assault game, this show was great to watch. If only the NES game wasn't so hard, it would have been just as much fun. At least the SNES version was a bit better.

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5. Fugitive Hunter - The game was terrible for the PlayStation 2, there was no doubting that. But, it was the reasoning behind it that let it make this list.

You went around and fought various fugitives around the world, leading up to the big man himself, Osama Bin Laden. Once against him, you could fight him a variety of ways. Shoot him with a gun, blow him up with a rocket launcher or even take him on in hand to hand combat. While it was over the top, what American today wouldn't want to try and teach Bin Laden a lesson he won't forget?

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4. Wolfenstein 3D - One of the two World War II games on here, there's great patriotism in fighting Hitler face to face.

You're a lone American breaking out of a German prison and fighting your way through to eventually fight Hitler and take him down. While it's over the top on action and definitely has no realism, the game represents one of the more patriotic things in history, liberating Germany from Nazism. While other iterations of this series have tried to recapture the glory this game brought, the original game is still great to play.

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3. Call of Duty/Medal of Honor series - I included both of these games into one spot because of their overrepresentation of World War II.

We always like to remember the wars that we definitively won. Well, this games really help to accomplish that. They've gone through so many iterations that we have probably seen most of the events that went on with the American's during the war. It's a great way to celebrate our independence tomorrow, by remembering one of the greatest wars ever that we helped win.

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2. America's Army - A military game actually brought to us by the government, I think that definitely belongs on here.

The game has been free to download on PC and was made to try and show prospective recruits what they were getting into if they were joining the Army. It was made free to download for anyone, though. It allows people to try training that is actually available to members of the Army, with successful completion actually allowing players to use different weapons or try different missions. Except for the idea of respawns, this game is high up there in the realism department when it comes to the Army and is worth a look, seeing that it is free.

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1. Metal Wolf Chaos - Seeing as it only came out in Japan, I've never actually played this game. However, after seeing this game in action and finding out what it was about, I had to put it as number one on this list.

While the premise of the game is about a coup d'état (the Vice President is trying to overthrow the President), it's the actual action that really made me put this game at the top of my list. The President, Michael Wilson, runs around in a huge robot that has a wide selection of guns at his disposal. He goes around the United States liberating cities trying to find the VP before making it back to the White House and finding out he went to Vegas. After chasing him to Vegas, the VP escapes into space where the final battle takes place.

For me, this is patriotism at its finest. You're country is being threatened, so what do you do? Pilot a huge mech, blow shit up and liberate your country! It doesn't get much more American than that. If you want to check this game out, I've heard that it was a hidden demo on the Holiday 2004 disc of the Official Xbox Magazine.

And, as a bonus, I figured I'd show everyone where I first found this game from. A few of the guys over at 1up did a great job with commentary when they played this game for the Broken Pixels podcast.

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Well, that's all I have for this week. Like or hate what I said? Shoot me an email at [e-mail] or leave a comment below. Any feedback is appreciated.

Also, as you see above, I tried my hand out at making a new banner. And, as you can see, I'm not the most artistic person there is. Let me know if you like the banner, want the old one back or want to try making one of your own for the 10th Hour.