Vietnam Med Evac
Platoon
Vietcong
Line of Sight: Vietnam
I think there are others that are slipping my mind…
Does this have some connection to the US’s current military engagements overseas?
No, it’s just that Vietnam is the second-best-known conflict in the American market, after WW2. With all the hype about WW2-theme games over the past few years, naturally people would focus on Vietnam as the ‘next big thing’.
I can’t wait for Invasion: Grenada, then!
Or Police Action: Korea!
You’re forgetting 2015’s upcoming game, Men of Valor. And no, these games have nothing at all to do with the conflict in Iraq. (Conflict: Desert Storm might, though.)
Vietnam: Med Evac is a piece of crap helicopter game that could just as easily have been set in the gulf war or the blockbuster motion picture Blue Thunder.
Platoon came out last year, long before the Iraqi conflict became an issue of mainstream public interest.
This is not a “sudden crop.”
They may all be trumped by the BF1942 mod Desert Combat. Holy crap does this mod rock! Its not Viet Nam, but the equipment is all modern. Its set on the same maps, but the characters and vehicles are all new. I don’t know if I can go back after zipping around on the humvee with mounted TOW, scoring actual hits with air to ground missile attacks from the F-16, and gunning dudes down with the engineer’s M-60 (now THAT I didn’t expect). Its a very well done mod if you haven’t tried it yet.
Also, watching this movie is absolutely required to get the full goodness of the Desert Combat mod. It has another half dozen vehicles they’ll be putting in the final version (wouldn’t be modern warfare without Blackhawks and Hinds). Check that C-130 gunship!!!
http://www.fileplanet.com/dl.aspx?/planetbattlefield/news/0.3preview.zip
Are there lots of players? I’m getting pissed at BF1942 just because I never find anyone playing the maps I like.
There are a ton of players. Just type in desert as a filter for the server name. You’ll have dozens of choices, many with low pings and many players.
In World War II, the average age of the combat soldier was twenty-six. In Vietnam, it was nineteen. nineteen. n-uh n-uh nnn-uh n-uh n-uh nnn-uh… nineteen.
I think it’s all just coincidence.
Nam titles were just the natural progression after the crop of WW2 titles.
I find that there’s alot more people that are opposed to a game based on Nam than WW2. This revelation is based on the amount of negative email we received after the release of LOS. (People that were opposed to the subject matter of the game)
I really hope that publishers don’t start jumping on the Iraq /Afganistan bandwagon. That would be pretty low class.
I was listening to a talk radio discussion of the war in Iraq the other day, and was shocked to hear the program’s host bring up Avalon Hill. Anyone know if the following anecdote is true? The host said that Avalon Hill was attempting to create its first Vietnam-based wargame, and solicited advice on it from various military experts of the time, attempting to make all of the stats of the various units and weaponry as accurately as possible. The host claimed that at a certain point the Avalon Hill folks tested it out and discovered that they would have to radically rethink the game, because based on the stats of the US units versus the stats of the Vietcong units, the US side would immediately win the game. Yet this is not how the actual conflict had gone (or was going – the host was unclear on the time period of this game’s development), and they couldn’t figure out why the actual war wasn’t going as lopsidedly in the American forces favor as their game was turning out.
The host was very vague in telling this anecdote, and didn’t name the game. Anyone know if there’s any truth to this tale? I was just shocked to hear Avalon Hill brought up on a talk radio show not devoted to gaming.
heh, your statement suggests that there are talk radio shows devoted to gaming… does such a show exist?
Personally, I’m happy to see more Vietnam games. It’s a conflict that’s been unfortunately ignored throughout much of gaming history (save for the occasional flight sim that had sparse coverage). I’d love to see some more Vietnam helo sims, as this seemed to be as tense as any fighting on the ground.
There used to be an internet video talk show on the called Game Time, which featured interviews with designers and developers (Richard Garriott, Peter Molyneux, etx), previews and reviews of games, and a lot of on-the-scene coverage of industry trade shows. The main Game Time host is involved with the G4 network, but I don’t think he appears on the air anymore.
This show was part of a block of programs which included a weekly show on combat sims (!), a weekly show devoted to first person shooters which was hosted by Blue of Blue’s News and Jason “Loonyboi” Bergman, and a weekly show about women in gaming hosted by three gals.
I miss that stuff. I used to have it on in the background at work, not watching the video, but listening to it. Fun stuff.
You can access the archives now online at http://www.pseudo.com . To see 'em, click on the “Archives” link, then select “All Games Network,” then select a show. There is some real nostalgia fare on there. For instance, there’s a show on there from 1999 when the guys got their first Dreamcast, showed gameplay footage, and argued about how it measured up to the PS and N64. Or you can watch the guys talk to John Romero about his upcoming megahit Daikatana, and hear how it was going to blow everyone away. Or ponder the BitchX mystery. Lots of old nostalgia shite there if you want it.