Bono and Chavez

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Thursday July 06, 2006 14:04

by Surfer

It's all in the game

"North America's getting soft, patron, and the rest of the world is getting tough. Very, very tough. We're entering savage new times, and we're going to have to be pure and direct and strong, if we're going to survive them." - Videodrome

The Pentagon is co-parenting Pandemic with its unlikely - or possibly inevitable - same sex sugar daddy: U2's Bono. His Elevation Partners spent $300 million last November to bring the Studio together with Bioware "to create the world's best funded and largest independent game development house." Now there's a cause.

Venezuela lawmakers blast video game

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- A U.S. company's video game simulating an invasion of Venezuela is supposed to hit the shelves next year, but it's already raising the ire of lawmakers loyal to President Hugo Chavez.

Pandemic describes Mercenaries 2: World in Flames as "an explosive open-world action game" in which "a power-hungry tyrant messes with Venezuela's oil supply, sparking an invasion that turns the country into a war zone." The company says players take on the role of well-armed mercenaries.

Lawmaker Gabriela Ramirez said "Mercenaries 2" gives a false vision of Chavez as a tyrant and Venezuela as being on the verge of chaos. She said the game could be banned under a proposed law aimed at protecting Venezuelan children from violent video games.

"Pandemic has no ties to the US government," says Greg Richardson, the firm's vice president of commercial operations. That's the sound of hairs splitting. Pandemic Studios is a Pentagon subcontractor through the aegis of the "Institute for Creative Technologies," launched by the US Army in 1998 with $45 million as a go-between with the entertainment and gaming industries. Pandemic is the developer of military training simulations such as Full Spectrum Command, commercially available as Full Spectrum Warrior for gaming on Playstation and XBox. ("A quantum-leap forward in battlefield simulation" says Game Informer. "Enlist Now" for updates.) "Within days of its release" in 2004, "gamers figured out the cheat code to unlock the Army-only version hidden on the commercial discs, featuring less flashy graphics but smarter opponents." (Gee, how careless can the Army get?)

The Pentagon is co-parenting Pandemic with its unlikely - or possibly inevitable - same sex sugar daddy: U2's Bono. His Elevation Partners spent $300 million last November to bring the Studio together with Bioware "to create the world's best funded and largest independent game development house." Now there's a cause.

America's New Flesh is machine-scarred from its generational incubation in immersive battlefields which are, like Bono sings, even better than the real thing. Meanwhile, the real thing becomes just another level of play, until you play it, survive it, and return with the Home Version. Diplomacy is never on the table, except as a a board game that fewer young people have the patience to engage. So it has to be Grand Theft Oil, when some "power-hungry tyrant" in Venezuela "messes" with America's petroleum. War is the last option. Play is the first.

Defending World in Flames, Pandemic publicist Chuck Norris says "although a conflict doesn't necessarily have to be happening, it's realistic enough to believe that it could eventually happen." Or, as in the words of Brian O'blivion, "The battle for the mind of North America will be fought in the video arena." It's been fought, and maybe decided, for this generation.

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Comments (3 of 3)

Venezuela celebrated its independence day yesterday.

by guru

Thu Jul 06, 2006 19:33

With the biggest military parade in the state's history. This is pretty typical now, states of all hues seeking to emulate the positive effects of the 1916 commemoration which has put Ireland on the map of rocket launchers and peacekeeping forces.

Bono does a great job

by corporate cocksucker

Sat Jul 15, 2006 01:52

Bono is the best if you listen to him. He said that that Italian kid that got shot by the pigs in Genoa was a 'distraction' to the work he was doing at the G-8.
He really tries his best to bring 'awareness'. I know his mates are ripping Off Africa and the middle east for decades but, oil is to important to br left to the Arabs, no?
I admire anyone who sucks dick at the g-8. A corpo-whore is the name within. Doors open the more you suck.
If you show up at Tony Bliar's labour confrence to suck his dick, you get to play golf in Scotland with all the other Aircraft-Carrier owners in the world while the kids starve.
And dont forget that the judge in Ireland ruled that in his favor because he is a 'very important man' and must be right ..'because he is so buisy and still took time out'.. to claim his little trousers back from a makeup girl on one of his videos. ...He did all this on a break while trying to stop a child dying every three seconds in Africa of starvation. The kids would stop starving if his mates stopped ripping the kip off. Its armed robbery but hey its only rock and roll and he loves it.....
Ali..

What happened?

by A. Bingo - Rock'n'Roll

Fri Feb 01, 2008 02:19

What happened with Bono's white flag, what happened with "Bullet the Blue Sky", what happened with all power of Achtung Baby and ZOO TV? How can someone screwed up all his credibility with all stupid actions and talk so hollow and justify selling everything for little bit of blood money for Africa with BIG interest for large corporations and other vampire individuals. The change should be in the idea, how to help globally, every individual in the world in their hardships and spare change won't do it. Remember the ideas from 80s and be proud of "Bullet..." and not just said that was a frustration from the past, and criticism from 90s and that would be the path. From 2000 sell off began and spiritual desert, from if you want a good place in history and heaven, you have to get out and go to the roots and not $$$ and lofts of Mr. Fat Cat. Good luck or good riddance, you choose Mr. B.!

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Bono and Chavez

Comments (3 of 3)