JFK Reloaded

Maybe you have heard of this video game, maybe you haven't, but it's causing quite a stir in the mainstream media. I bought it. When I tell people the initial reaction is invariably: "I can't believe you bought it, that's sick", followed by "What's it like", followed by "Can I play it?" After playing it for an hour I got bored with trying to recreate the assassination. Instead I would shoot the driver then cull the entire motorcade with head shots. Once that got boring I'd injure the driver so the car would accelerate and crash head on into a tree killing the passengers. Then I started to look at the faces of the people and began to feel uneasy. After all what is it that I'm recreating here? Sure the ballistics analysis and the comparison to the real assassination are intriguing but the idea that a game is simulating a real event down to Kennedy's brain explosion isn't right.

I'm an advocate of gun control and free speech. Games like this reveal that technology increasingly blurs the line between reality and fantasy. Legislation banning games like JFK Reloaded may not be a terrible thing.

Back to Halo II for me, at least I don't recognize any of the people...