And then along came Obsidian Entertainment to shake up that paradigm, by keeping the old that worked and adding the new which would lead to the creation of the greatest Fallout game in the franchise’s history.

Fallout has always been a political game franchise, even if it was hard to tell through some of its later installments (I’m looking at you Bethesda). The first two games, take heavy inspiration from the culture of 1950s America, complete with the persistence of big band music into the 21st Century along with an overdose of jingoism and anti-communist rhetoric in the collective consciousness of the nation. These attitudes along with dwindling resources, lead to a conventional war between China and the United States, which eventually metastasizes into nuclear annihilation. Fallout, despite the persistence of dark humor throughout the game, has a keen understanding of the dangers of those Cold War attitudes and correctly diagnoses how it easily could have led to a horrifying end if less cautious individuals had been at the helm. The Atomic Age while a time of scientific progress, was also a time of wanton carelessness in regard to the dangers of nuclear technology. Had the culture and science not advanced into the 21st Century with significant changes, maybe we’d all be gathered around a flaming trash-barrel dying of radiation sickness ourselves. But humanity’s better angels persevered (fingers-crosses they stay that way). Fallout, despite being a post-apocalyptic game, has always spent more time analyzing the pre-apocalyptic world, compared to similar franchises such as Wasteland, Metro, or Rage. While that has led to the creation of a fascinating lore and a retro-futuristic aesthetic which adds to the satirical and musical elements, it comes at the expense of really analyzing what kind of world comes out of a nuclear war.

The main series of Fallout games from the days of the Interplay isometric RPGs to the modern action-oriented games under Bethesda, have almost always focused on a lone wanderer of some kind, usually from a Vault, who follows the traditional hero’s journey of discovering the wasteland beyond and eventually saving it from a greater evil which threatens the existence of its denizens. While in the first two games this was novelty and fun, it got tired by the third installment, even with the changes in gameplay which made the franchise more accessible. The games spent more time satirizing and criticizing the pre-war world, than the one which has come after. The villains of the games, whether they be the creepy Master or the neo-McCarthyite Dick Richardson, usually had terrible enough plans, that we felt compelled to stop them even if they had a rationale which didn’t entirely come from a place of malice.

So when it came time for a spinoff set in the wastes of post-apocalyptic Nevada, what a treat it was that what was supposed to be a sideshow, became the premier example of what Fallout can be if handled properly.

Bethesda, which by all intensive purposes rigged the project to fail, had unintentionally picked the perfect people to work on New Vegas in the form of the original Black Isle devs. While they adapted to the gameplay style of Bethesda RPGs, they decided to return to the Southwestern setting of the first two games, instead of the Bethesda’s romps through previously unexplored East Coast locales. Familiar factions from the first two games returned: The New California Republic, the Brotherhood of Steel, the Great Khans. Would this just be Fallout 3 with a West Coast reskin? Thankfully, not at all.

What New Vegas did that was really different and defining, was that it explored the politics of the post-apocalypse. While the other games all paid lip-service to the idea of rebuilding civilization and the conflicts that arise in the process of doing so, Obsidian put together a story where it had actually been realized. Instead of a Vault dweller emerging from your cave to save the ignorant locals, in a Joseph Campbell approved fashion, you are an ordinary wastelander. A “hapless fink” as Benny might say, in the old-school film noir tradition you’re a fall-guy. Caught between a far greater conflict over the rights to a priceless source of energy for the Mojave, the Hoover Dam, you go from being on a mission of vengeance to becoming a critical player in a war for control of the Mojave Wasteland and its crown jewel, New Vegas. While a myriad of unique factions with their own motivations and plotlines exist in the game, there are three who are of the most consequence in the story, as they will wind up controlling the Mojave should you choose to help them.

The first faction is familiar to players of the original isometric games, the New California Republic. A federal republic modelled after the ideals of the pre-war USA, the NCR in many ways supersedes the country which it models itself after. The NCR is one of the few genuine believers in liberty and equality among the citizens of the wastes. With legal protections for human and mutant citizens alike, the NCR tries to bring a semblance of order and safety to people who have spent most of their lives being the victims of raiders, slavers, and other ne’er-do-wells. The NCR’s elite rangers, in the tradition of the heroic lawmen of the Old West, hunt down bandits and slavers, bringing them to justice and trying to provide aid to the hardscrabble settlers of the Wasteland. The NCR is one of the few civilizations in the Fallout-world which has managed to actually provide some return in the standard-of-living to the people of the wasteland. However, this doesn’t mean the NCR is a utopia. When the NCR started out under its first president, Tandi, its mission was far more noble and clear. Tandi created the NCR to expand the protections of the booming town of Shady Sands to her fellow wastelanders in the New California region. This led to a democratically-elected federation of states to form. The mutual protection and aid offered by the NCR, was understandably very attractive in opposition to the brutal frontier-living which characterized most of the post-war United States. But as the country grew, so too did powerful interests within it. Agricultural “Brahmin Barons” increasingly bought up land for their private enterprises, what formerly had been an economy based on mutual aid, was now becoming one modelled more on the capitalistic one of old. Political influence could now be bought, and the Congress of New California started to become much more like the Congress of the United States with all its faults. To add onto that as the NCR grew in military prowess, so too did its ambitions. Much like the policy of “Manifest Destiny” in the USA, the NCR felt a duty to civilize the wasteland. As it marches east towards the Mojave Wasteland it would try to incorporate tribal communities either peacefully or through force into its structure of taxation and laws. The NCR by launching its campaign to claim the Mojave would also create conflicts with larger factions who could actually challenge their might including Caesar’s Legion and the Brotherhood of Steel. This has led to a seeming “endless war” in the Mojave, which has weakened the economy, but persisted due to the beliefs of warhawk politicians and generals that the land can be tamed (where have I heard this story before???). The NCR in many ways serves as an analogy for the United States during the early 2000s, a country which while incredibly strong both militarily and economically, was losing its way in a campaign of endless wars to supposedly make the world a safer place. The NCR while arguably more understandable and urgent in its motivations, struggles with many issues which plague the USA to this day. But much like the US, the NCR serves as a slightly less shitty option, because the competition… well let’s just say they don’t even live by the illusion of decency.

Caesar’s Legion is essentially what would happen if you let the kid who always shares Roman memes, actually live out his fantasy of governance with no restraints. So in a sense I guess you could say he’s kind of like Mussolini in that way, albeit much more effective and with far less incompetence in military matters. Caesar’s “Roman Empire” much like Mussolini’s is also a crude imitation of the original, as one of your companions Arcade Gannon notes, Caesar picks and chooses what he likes from Ancient Rome to suit his narrative best. The former Follower of the Apocalypse turned slave army master, claims much like the Emperors of Rome to be the Son of Mars. He uses a bastardized form of the Latin language to create a new culture within the myriad of tribes he has assimilated and eliminated by force. Creating an army with such a strict discipline that it would make Hitler’s stormtroopers blush, Caesar’s sole concern is martial prowess, to the point he prefers his soldiers using melee weapons to guns so that they will be stronger in their will. Medicines that have any kind of anesthetic properties are avoided, as Caesar wants his soldiers to be able to ignore pain so they can evolve into hardier humans. Caesar’s built his reputation off the conquest of tribes or “Gauls” as he “affectionately” refers to them. But he’s grown bored with conquering the barbarians east of the Colorado River and now looks for a “Carthage” by which he can stake his true status as a ruler worthy of the Romans he idolizes. The NCR is that Carthage, and much like the Punic state of antiquity, the NCR are a capable foe who have not been as easy for the Legion to dislodge. The Legion is a totalitarian slave-based society, governed by the whims of a self-styled Roman impostor, so why would people go along with it. Well Obsidian tries its damndest to make a compelling case for supporters of the Legion (even if many people, myself included, rejected it at its face). Caesar’s Legion, like many a roving army of pillagers and murders which has come before it whether it be Mongols or Turks understands the basic principles of appealing to the pragmatists of the world. They allow for ease of trade within their territories, the roads within Caesar’s realm being some of the safest in the wastes and the cheapest to do business. Despite having engaged in the genocide and assimilation of multiple tribal communities, Caesar’s Legion is respected more by tribals than the NCR. The “civilization” offered by the NCR is much more difficult for the tribal communities of the wasteland to adapt to, and while Caesar does destroy the individual cultural aspects of the tribal communities he takes over, many of the values of his Legion line up with already existing values within the Wasteland’s tribes. The Legion also has its own crude and twisted beliefs in justice as well, holding a disdain for bribery, trickery, corruption, and decadence, preferring straightforward dealings and open displays of power. You might think this is Obsidian somehow lionizing a totalitarian regime, but rather its them demonstrating they understand the basic character principle that even a villain is the hero of his own story. Caesar’s Legion’s atrocities are on full display in New Vegas, but there’ a raison d’etre behind them, twisted and cruel as it is.

The third and final faction is the Free Economic Zone of New Vegas, which sounds like the name of an ancap’s microstate project and in many ways is under the leadership of its Chief Executive, Robert Edwin House. A pre-war billionaire and scientist, modelled after Howard Hughes, Mr. House realized the world was headed for nuclear Armageddon before the bombs dropped. Always one step ahead, House used his vast fortune to create a missile defense system which would protect New Vegas from nuclear strikes, along with an army of Securitrons and a life-support system which would allow him to live well into his 200s. Mr. House succeeded at his goals, New Vegas compared to many other cities, survived relatively unscathed and Mr. House upon being reawoken from a state of suspended animation, quickly got back to business running New Vegas as his own personal fiefdom and contending with the dangers of this new world. Mr. House is one of the game’s more prescient characters, even if you dislike his own motives, you can’t deny that he recognizes what’s going on better than anyone. Having seen the mistakes that the old world made, he doesn’t want to repeat them again. In the NCR and Caesar’s Legion, he correctly identifies them as imitations of Old World civilizations with all the same faults, and believes them incapable of amounting to anything that would progress the state of humanity. Mr. House believes himself to be the only person capable of advancing humanity and wants New Vegas to be a beacon of light amid the darkness of the wastes. With plans for a future restoration of the surrounding area and even eventual travel to pace to find a new home for humanity far from the destroyed Earth, Mr. House is as ambitious as ever. While Mr. House proclaims altruism, he ultimately thinks for himself and it shows in how he governs. Mr. House is best described as a “liberal autocrat”, a term which on its face sounds like an oxymoron, but in truth has been demonstrated throughout history. A liberal autocracy is quite simply a system whereby one person holds all the power and rules according to a nominally liberal ideology, and by liberal I mean small “l”. Mr. House explains it perfectly with this quote:

“I have no interest in abusing others, just as I have no interest in legislating or otherwise dictating what people do in their private time. Nor have I any interest in being worshipped as some kind of machine god messiah. I am impervious to such corrupting ambitions. But autocracy? Firm control in the hands of a technological and economic visionary? Yes, that Vegas shall have.“

Mr. House unlike Caesar has no interest in legislating the day-to-day economic and social interactions between people. The only thing feared by House is a threat to his own power and control, in which he does compare to Caesar. Liberal autocracies have existed in history before, the best example I can think of being Singapore. This might sound at first jarring to some, as Singapore is well known for cruel and draconian punishments of drug offenders, and issuing fines to people who chew gum and spit in public. While Mr. House certainly has no qualms with drug offenses, spitting, or any human vices, I imagine much of Singapore would be to his liking. Singapore is essentially a one-party state ruled by the Lee family. They have maintained a liberal market economy which is one of the wealthiest in Asia. The standard of living is high and the citizenry are by-and-large free to do as they please aside from a few select vices as mentioned before and most importantly so long as they don’t try to remove the Lee family from power. The Singaporean approach to dealing with dissidents is also much less obvious and obliquely authoritarian compared to other regimes in the world, which is why it usually flies under the radar of human rights organizations. Singapore is the world’s most successful liberal autocracy, it has the veneer of freedom of speech and a free press, without any real support for either of those values by those in power. Mr. House in that tradition is a dictator, despite any pretenses he holds of being otherwise. While possibly more benevolent or at least less invasive than Caesar, he bears the messianic complex and unquestioning demand for obedience which characterizes such a dictator. However, there’s a quick remedy for this all! Simply by working with a reprogrammed Securitron aptly named Yes Man, you can overthrow Mr. House and make yourself… the liberal autocrat! Yes, the independent option is seen by some players as the “obviously correct” option as it for the most part allows you to keep New Vegas independent from other bodies while also removing the tyranny of Mr. House. But really at the end of the day you’re simply inheriting Mr. House’s position as the autocrat of New Vegas. The diplomacy that will guarantee the city’s fate rets on your shoulders, this is not you being the savior in the Lone Wanderer fashion of previous games, but you being the ruler of the Free Economic Zone of New Vegas. If that feels good to you then go for it, but just note that the idea it is the “correct” decision is not what Obsidian is going for.

The truth is in New Vegas, there are no right decisions. Yes the Karma system exists (and it is definitely way harder to be in the good if you roll with the Legion), but at the end of the day much like in a real war, there are no binary “good guys vs. bad guys”. Instead its a measure of weighing evils and figuring out which one you think will fuck over the Mojave Wasteland the least. The minor factions in game, can be guaranteed their own survival through your decisions or can be brought to ruination should you choose it. Is that right? Again it depends (unless you’re the Fiends, fuck those guys for real). Even the DLCs while dealing with smaller, self-contained stories, in different locales, navigate complex decisions where you must weigh difficult choices. The idea of binary good/bad choices (something Bethesda is unfortunately way too fond of), is too simplistic for something as grim and brutal as the world of Fallout. Obsidian understands that Fallout is a franchise whose ultimate message since the first game has been that war is truly humanity’s greatest folly and that even after a civilization-ending catastrophe, they still continue in roughly the same manner as before. The conflicts of previous and future games in the franchise, however, never allowed the player to make factional choices with true meaning as New Vegas has. This is why the game remains venerated to this day and why fans still dream of a proper sequel developed by Obsidian.

Final Note:

An idea I’ve recently had upon learning of Microsoft’s purchase of Bethesda has been to pitch an idea for my dream sequel to Fallout: New Vegas. I’ll try to have it finished in the following weeks and will post it to my blog. Many great mods have been made already trying to do the same thing including brilliant Fallout: The Frontier and Fallout: New California. I highly recommend looking both up and checking them out, the modders have worked their magic and have done wonders for the community of fans like myself. I also recommend keeping an eye on the Fallout: New Vegas remake mod which is being done through the Creation Engine of Fallout 4. With the design document I’m creating, I’m hoping to try and put together something that will create public attention and further remind Bethesda of the fan desire for a sequel to New Vegas. I’m under no illusion that my idea is likely not to be made into a reality, but if I can raise awareness or in any way get the ball rolling for a sequel to be made to one of my favorite games, I’d appreciate any support. Hell, if you can get my idea out there to J.E. Sawyer, the original New Vegas director, I’d appreciate it a tonne.

Happy trailers partners! And remember

War… war never changes.

So this is the future you got.

Cyberpunk. Not Star Trek or Fallout. You got cyberpunk. I’m not talking about the capital “c” series of RPGs created by Mike Pondsmith either, I’m referring to the genre of sci-fi which emerged in the late ’70s and early ’80s which speculated rather correctly that the growth of corporate power and increasing indifference to it would lead to a dystopia where we’re so wired to our machines that we find it unable to perceive the truth of our scary reality. “High tech, low life” is the cyberpunk maxim and boy-oh-boy are we there. The smartphone is far more sophisticated a technology than either Gibson or Dick could’ve predicted. It’s not just a super computer in our pocket, it’s an integral body part, a brain outside a brain if you will. Even Major Motoko Kusanagi of Ghost in the Shell would be jealous of the cyberbrains we walk around with everyday. Who needs to build an artificial brain, when every thought we have is stored in a computer stuffed comfortably in our front pockets. Flying cars, replicants, and various other ideas of cyberpunk have yet to come to pass, but in many ways they feel more like unnecessary add-ons as we’ve already got the basic elements. Corporate and state actors know more about us than our own friends and family, proxy conflicts between shadowy factions are a daily routine, and human beings increasingly interact more with computerized consoles than their flesh-and-blood kith and kin. How could this have happened?

What should’ve been a bleak warning of hard-industrial climate killing disaster, was instead sold as sleek-and-shiny progress. The People’s Republic of China’s march away from Maoist communism to a fascistic state capitalism was sold to the West as a march unto progress. Old China, without consideration of the pros and cons of ancient tradition, was quite literally washed away by cities built overnight with amenities that even outclassed its competitors including maglev train lines, state of the art crime preventative surveillance systems, and shopping meccas with every conceivable product you could imagine. So what if millennia old minority cultures like Tibetans, Mongols, and Uyghurs were swept away, this was true progress from a country which had experienced the chaos of the cultural revolution and the backyard smelting days of the Great Leap Forward.

Across the Pacific Ocean, the United States is having its own issues. Political confidence is sadly at an all-time low. The Republicans and Democrats, despite their vicious partisanship, are still seen by many people as two sides of an awful coin. A coin which invaded Iraq out of pure greed. A coin which has been unable to bridge the inequalities both economic and social. A coin which offers vague promises of a better future, despite being trapped in the same old loop of circus-style election cycles which are more about media bombast than trying to solve the ills of a suffering nation. But wherever there’s a roadblock for some, a lane opens for others. Corporations are the beneficiaries of this loss of confidence. Now based on social media soundbites, one might assume that anti-corporate sentiment is at an all-time high. But your Bernie Sanders/Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez style paragons of a more equitable order are few-and-far between, and their followers while zealous occasionally, sway more to corporate influence than they would care to admit. “There’s no ethical consumption under capitalism.” It’s an oft-trotted out maxim in this day-and-age. It’s hard to tell whether it’s a genuine statement of fact or an excuse for complacency. Perhaps both. It’s frustration and resignation mixed in a big bowl salad bowl of “fuck it this is the world I’ve been given”. But no matter our frustration, our loyalties to corporations are far better cemented than that of political parties or even nation-states. We lap up streaming services, online shopping services, food delivery services, and so many other… well, “services”. All of which are run by companies which are usually subsidiaries to even larger companies which are often owned by a few canny and extremely ruthless investors. Jeff Bezos may not dive into a pool of money everyday while telling the WaPo to retract an article which displeases him, but he does exercise such a great amount of sway on the global market that he single-handedly might as well be his own economy. Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and many other an exec who calls America home, have become far more influential and emblematic of the future than any plucky young congresswoman or cantankerous old senator.

Many people of my generation feel there is no future. That climate catastrophe will destroy us before it’s too late. Influential people of a generation below mine such as Greta Thunberg and Autumn Peltier, remind me of the messianic prophets of old Israel, albeit citing scientific data as opposed to Jewish religious tradition. I understand their feelings and in a way they’re right, but I also think they are wrong. They assume the plan is that these few corporate villains plan on destroying humanity wholesale, but they’re wrong they merely want to immiserate the majority while the minority get to surround themselves with the pleasures of Eden.

Eco-fascism is a term gaining more and more traction. I can’t assuage as to whether every ecocidal bigwig looks up to Hitler or Mussolini, but they do share with those men a callousness and lack of empathy which certainly predominates the fascist frame of mind. Peter Thiel of Palantir and “gay guy paling around with Trump” fame, has already purchased himself a New Zealand hideaway, having estimated that the climate crisis will kill much of mankind and that this Oceanic island might be one of the few places which will manage to survive. Why does he believe this? I’m not certain. Maybe he’s done the scientific research. Maybe he believes in the resilience of the people of this island culture in the face of crisis. Or maybe he just likes Lord of the Rings so much he decided, “this is the land for me”. Whatever his reasonings, I’m certain that Peter Thiel is not a man who intends to die. He is not someone who would simply promote politicians who intend to kill him. If others suffer that’s fine, so long as he and the select few scaly serpents he calls friends live.

The example of Peter Thiel and others like him, leads me to believe that there will be survivors of the ruination about to be heaped upon our earth. But as cyberpunk teaches us, the majority must suffer to enrich this tiny and gluttonous minority. The future is not all of us drowning in a seaside metropolis, but the majority of us drowning while a collection of billionaires live on stilted houses looking down at us like ants. That actually sounds kind of like something from a dark and far more twisted version of The Jetsons now that I think about it.

You would think there would be some kind of awakening to this insidious plot to kill the majority of humanity, but it feels as if we the lump refuse that make up the majority of humankind will go out with a whimper rather than a bang. Mass mobilization to battle corporate control whether through the courts of law or in a worst case scenario, through actual combat, is few and far between. We march, we sing, we protest, but things rarely get done. We post our black square or our fancy hashtag and we sit back down in a cafe taking selfies because “we’re too busy”. We can’t give up our lives, even if the corporations have already deemed them worthless. If this doesn’t scream cyberpunk, I don’t know what does. The existential ennui of this genre and the feeling of isolation it inspires, are rooted largely in an acceptance of the status quo. Yes there’s a tinge of rebelliousness which puts the “punk” in cyberpunk, but it’s an individualistic rebellion largely. It’s one of person vs. system, that usually results in a pyrrhic victory over the system. Maybe you’ve escaped the Matrix but the vast majority haven’t and probably won’t. And maybe they like the Matrix?

Cypher, played by the brilliant Joe Pantoliano (also great in The Sopranos as Ralph Cifaretto), I think represents majority opinion in the cyberpunk scenario. Sure we’ll be a complacent cog in a machine which sees us as ultimately nothing, but at least it won’t be a grim life of fighting. A continual and perhaps eternal struggle against a force greater than ourselves. A war not against man but a system, is something which to many seems wearying and daunting. Systems are tougher to beat than human beings. While humans create systems, they take on lives of their own and can live well-past those who created them. Not a single person alive today is responsible for the creation of the racial caste system which is prevalent in American society, but its still upheld by many different people who have replaced the old cogs and overseers of the machine. Systems are in a way progenitors to artificial intelligence (AI). They exist solely for the usage of human beings and never for themselves. But they persist past our individual lifespans and find new users to keep them going through the allure of power as promised by them. Certainly when you’re about to become the victim of ecocide, holding Cypher’s mentality seems less of a burden, than that of the resistor.

I don’t think we should give up even if we’re now immersed in the dystopia. It’s too easy to do that. That mentality only leads us to more misery. Why push the button which launches the nuclear arsenal of a nation, just because some dipshit general with a hunger for destroying the other side tells you too. It just doesn’t make any goddamn sense to commit suicide because someone else wants you to even if it goes against your own wishes. I don’t know what the solution is, but I think those of us who believe in a more ethical future need to live by a new motto. This motto is a twist on that of Johnny Silverhand, a character played by Keanu Reeves in the upcoming video game Cyberpunk 2077.

“Wake the fuck up samurai, we’ve got a system to burn.”

In the year 2020, many observers of the socio-political sphere have diagnosed America as incurably fucked. COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on the American healthcare system and the response of the Trump administration has ranged from minimization to outright denial of a problem. Alongside COVID comes one of the worst recessions in the history of the world, which has already done as much if not more damage than the ’08 recession. Donald Trump and his cronies have done more than any other presidency in recent memory to destroy American credibility in both the mind of its foreign allies and adversaries, and the general public whose trust of institutions is at an all-time low. For many, the Trump presidency feels like a four-year nightmare and the commencement of everything going to absolute hell in America.

The problem is that’s incorrect. The diagnosis is legit, but the causation doesn’t lie with Trump, he’s merely the worst symptom of a collapse which started in the early 2000s.

The year 2000 feels very alien now, but it was a time of optimism. At least that’s what I’m told and what I’ve seen from archival media footage, as I was only five-years old at the time and was still trying to process the greatness (or at least what my tiny mind thought was greatness) of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. My memory of the early 2000s up until the Obama presidency is pretty hazy, but what I do remember was that once we entered 2001 and more specifically once we experienced that tragedy that was 9/11, the decade took a much darker turn. Although I didn’t have an amazing understanding of what was going on, I realized that adults felt like they were going through crisis after crisis. 9/11 led to Afghanistan and the hunt for Bin Laden which led to the Invasion of Iraq which led to Abu Gharaib, and then Hurricane Katrina happened, and “oh fuck the housing bubble just burst”, and finally recession. That period when I was making the transition from middle school to high school, and Obama was entering the White House was when I really started to gain any semblance of political consciousness. I wasn’t all the way developed in my views yet, but I did realize that the promise of “hope and change” which the first African-American president represented, came out of a place of needing to find a kernel of optimism in what had otherwise been a pretty shit decade.

Now that I’m a “grown-ass man” and am in the middle of a whole new period of crisis, where American Empire truly feels at it’s death knell, I’ve felt the urge to go back and look at the early 2000s more critically as a decade. I wanted to know what happened, where and when everything went wrong, and who the key players in that decline were. I’ve looked at documentaries, YouTube video essays, and also the excellent podcast Blowback (I’m including a link to the Stitcher page for it because it really is that good a podcast: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/blowback). However, one of the finest cultural resources for analyzing this critical decade in American decline has been the work of David Simon and his underappreciated writing partner Ed Burns (an ex-Baltimore cop and infantryman, who added a gritty on the ground realism to both series which I’ll be talking about). Specifically I am referring to two Simon helmed shows: The Wire and Generation Kill.

Simon and Burns were involved in the writing of both shows, and despite being set in two different worlds they provide critical analysis of American policy, one from the domestic angle and one from the foreign angle, in the early 2000s and how it was emblematic of a nation in decline both in its values and overall condition.

First let me give you a quick summary of both series.

The Wire is outwardly a crime drama series, but instead of having a person as the main character, the setting is the only real constant and protagonist we follow. That setting is the City of Baltimore. The choice of Baltimore as setting has a lot to do with the fact that David Simon cut his teeth on the crime beat as a reporter with The Baltimore Sun, but it’s also because the city’s sordid state and history symbolizes urban dysfunctionality in the USA. While it seems hard to believe now, Baltimore used to be one of America’s leading ports of entry for immigrants coming to the United States. It was a manufacturing hub for heavy industry, with Baltimore’s docks frequently shipping goods both off its docks and from railway cars to places far-and-wide. It once was a prosperous city, but there’s a key word in that: “once”. Outsourcing, restructuring, deindustrialization, and a shift to a low-wage service economy, have destroyed this once great center of American industry. While you’ve probably heard this story before in places like Detroit, Newark, and many a declining metropolis, Baltimore with its historic and multicultural heritage adds a sense of real tragedy and makes you feel like an elephant looking at the ivory tusks of a fellow brethren once past. The yearning of the residents for the city’s former glory is something you feel in your bones as the viewer. Each season of The Wire focuses on a different but similarly blighted institution of the city and America at large. The first season deals with the police, the second dockworkers, the third politicians, the fourth the education system and schools, and in the fifth and final the media. While the characters are fictional, almost all of them have a real-life allegory and are heavily rooted in the non-fiction works Simon wrote, Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets and The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood (both of which had been adapted into TV series before The Wire was created). In many ways The Wire feels like the complete story Simon was trying to tell about Baltimore in his previous works, that he simply couldn’t have due to their constrained structure. With The Wire, Simon was given a semi-anthology structure by which he could analyze and pick apart these institutions, individually. But as much as he may have wanted to, one of those institutions which he couldn’t get an inside peek at was the military. That’s where Generation Kill comes in.

Generation Kill is an adaptation of a book written by Evan Wright a journalist who worked for Rolling Stone and was embedded with the 1st Recon Battalion of the United States Marine Corps during the 2003 Invasion of Iraq. Generation Kill is a brutally honest depiction of modern warfare and those who fight in it. The Marines of 1st Recon are to say the least “an interesting bunch”. Wright uniquely managed to gain a familiarity, which few journalists let alone civilians in general, would ever get with the Marine Corps’ “killer elite”. The men of 1st Recon are impossible to characterize because they represent such a broad cross-section of American society. While the majority do come from a working-class background, one of the coldest operators the aptly nicknamed “Iceman”, Sergeant Brad Colbert is an adoptee from a well-to-do upper middle class Jewish family. The Marines vary in personality, some are psychos and bigots, while others are at times compassionate and have remarkable self-awareness of the political realities of the situation they’ve just been ordered into. Almost all of them, share a common brotherhood and camaraderie, and a pride in being the best the Marine Corps has to offer. Their dark humor and the way the story is told in an almost “roadtrip via Humvee” manner, makes this a uniquely “honest” and “pertinent” take on the military bureaucracy and terrible decision making which created a clusterfuck which to this day has negatively impacted the centuries old civilization of Mesopotamia. Simon’s choice to adapt a work by someone who actually understands how the military works and has been in combat situations as opposed to making his own fictional story was an excellent choice, and the authenticity it brings pays off.

Neither The Wire or Generation Kill are intended to comfort the viewer. While they never dwell in grotesquerie, they also never lie to you. Dead little girls riddled with bullet wounds can be found in both shows, as can frank depictions of racism and hostile interactions between people from differing ethnic groups. Racism and violence two toxic ingredients baked into the American apple pie since birth are on full display, and Simon wants us to understand their consequences. In the case of Baltimore, we see a mostly black populace confined to ghettos which are in constant disrepair and where forms of legitimate employment are so hard to find that almost every young man turns into a “dope boy” only to wind up another casualty of the War On Drugs. In Iraq, we see young men from a vastly different culture coming as invaders into a situation and country which they barely understand and struggling to survive a war where “poor leadership” and “poor strategy” are in abundance.

Despite being told in both shows that America is on top of the world, we see that it’s anything but the case. Characters yearn for better times and more clear purposes. Stevedore Frank Sobotka in the second season of The Wire rightly criticizes the vulture capitalists who deindustrialized America only to outsource to parts abroad by stating “we used to build shit in this country”. In Generation Kill many of the Marines going into Iraq also served in Afghanistan, where they felt they had a clearer mission and believed they were doing something that mattered, as opposed to the Iraq War which has a flimsy premise and an ultimately catastrophic conclusion.

Bureaucrats inhabit both shows and their corruption both seen and unseen ranges from absurd to criminal. In The Wire we see this in the form of crooked politicians like Clay Davis and corrupt police officials like Ervin Burrell. In Generation Kill this takes the form of incompetent officers who are given derisive nicknames by their grunts like “Encino Man” and “Captain America”. Many of the characters who try to do the right thing in both shows, often find themselves more disillusioned than when they started. Bunny Colvin who tried to adopt a more liberal policy when it came to drug enforcement and bring about community policing in Baltimore, finds his efforts hamstrung by NIMBY public opinion polls and crooked police officials. He eventually is forced to quit the force and only later finds redemption in helping put Namond Brice on the right path. Back in Iraq, we have Sgt. Eric Kocher, an experienced and competent squad leader under the command of an incompetent officer nicknamed “Captain America” who got his position largely due to nepotism. Kocher tries his best to work under the command of a man who is utterly incapable of leadership in the face of combat, who often panics during low-intensity situations, fires at unmoving vehicles, and doesn’t hesitate to abuse prisoners of war. Eventually Kocher finds himself facing a court martial when he tries to stop his CO from abusing a POW but gets written up because a witness wrongly perceives him as taking part in the abuse. Kocher, despite his experience and skill, suffers under the command of an idiot and later has to face the consequences of actions which he tried to actively prevent.

These two shows contextualize the disasters of Bush-era domestic and foreign policy, by giving us real people living through them. But these shows never truly address the President himself because Simon realizes that these issues are bigger than the president and are largely systemic in nature. Simon cannot be accused of playing partisan in the show because he realizes all of these issues are built into America and not bugs or flaws created by “evil Republicans”. While the Bush administration exacerbated these issues, Simon knows that they were always there and simply needed the right people in office to make things that much worse.

David Simon is not a prophet, everything his shows present has been talked about through numerous non-fiction works before him. Simon instead gives us a tragic almost poetic elegy to this age of American imperial devastation. The false promise of America and the empire’s collapse have never been told better, and now I can finally understand the adult world of the early 2000s which I failed to comprehend in my childhood. 2020 might be the year that the empire finally collapses, but the first shockwaves hit in 2001 and we fooled ourselves into thinking that maybe we’d recover. If you get anything out of these shows, I hope you realize that it won’t get better and that it’s time to start thinking about a post-American world order.

If your first response is “get the fuck outta here“, control your Calabrese for a moment so I can lay it down for you.

When the Sopranos was airing in it’s heyday, it was a show which came under a lot of flak. That flak coming from the self-appointed guardians of Italian-American sensitivity. The National Italian American Foundation, UNICO National, the Order Sons of Italy in America, amongst others, all felt that the show trafficked in the negative stereotype of Italians as boorish gangsters. And you know what… they’re right. The show actually wants us to go in with that expectation and even gives us a taste of it. But then it subverts it entirely. The fat hairy guy with chains and a cigar in perpetuity in his jaw it turns out loves ducks, comes from a broken home in a culture which reveres the family, and suffers from panic attacks despite having to put on a brave face. Every character is introduced to us a stereotype, but comes out as something else. David Chase (the show’s creator) doesn’t try to sweep the stereotypes under the rug, he engages us with them, but then shows us the other side of the coin. We’re let into who these people are and by the end they come out humanized, one-dimensional malapropism machines like Chris Moltisanti are revealed to be sensitive men who use drugs and macho-ness as defense mechanisms to perpetually roadblock facing who they really are. Mob wives, long stereotyped as dolled up and pampered firebrands are turned into a dark inversion of the stereotypical American housewife. Carmella Soprano is as much a fully realized and humanized caricature of a mob wife as she is an American housewife trapped amidst a patriarchal mainstream culture as she is a criminal subculture. We are also shown the “respectable”, “honest”, and obliviously “Americanized” Italians through the lens of Tony’s shrink, Dr. Jennifer Melfi and her family. They criticize and despise how their culture is depicted, and rightfully so, but forget that they have been so culturally whitewashed and integrated that their difference from the average White American is indistinguishable. It’s not that organizations like UNICO are entirely wrong that The Sopranos deals in stereotypes, it’s that they misunderstand what the creator of the show is trying to do with them. He’s trying to reflect a lens on the Italian-American community and on American society as a whole.

The Mafia as the last bastions of Italian-ness amid the rising tide of American assimilation seems like an absurd and offensive premise. But it actually isn’t. The Sopranos makes a strange case for it and while the show doesn’t outright endorse it, the argument is given it’s day in the sun. In the episode “A Hit Is A Hit” we are shown the character of Dr. Bruce Cusamano, the Sopranos’ next-door-neighbor. A straight-laced all-American with an Italian last name, Cusamano is absolutely disconnected with his culture. He invites Tony to hang out with his WASP-y golfing buddies only for them to parrot Tony with questions about the mob life and to treat him like a “dancing bear”. For them Tony is a walking stereotype a peephole into that “authentic Italian-American-ness” which they want a taste of. Tony tries to fit into the “meddigan” or “straight-laced” white-washed world, but quickly realizes he can’t do it and retreats into his ethnic enclave. Tony realizes he is an object of curiosity and not seen as anything other than his ethnicity. In a later episode, Tony exhorts the idea of the Mafia as a way by which some Italians wanted to live a life of honor and respect akin to the rural parts of Sicily and Calabria, instead of be Americanized as a whole. He presents an argument about America’s use of Italian labour and lack of appreciation of the culture that in the modern-day you might hear from the son of Mexican or Chinese immigrants: “When America opened the floodgates, and let all us Italians in, what do you think they were doing it for? Because they were trying to save us from poverty? No, they did it because they needed us. They needed us to build their cities, and dig their subways, and to make them richer.” Tony Soprano sees himself and his circle of friends as the last holdout of Italian-ness in a society where Italians are so integrated into the cultural fabric that the once “dark, dirty hordes” from places such as Sicily, Calabria, and Naples, which US Congressmen and KKK members alike railed against in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, seems an almost incredulous and laughable proposition to the contemporary White American.

“White ethnics” are a dying breed in the world of The Sopranos if not an already dead breed which can’t face-the-facts of what it is. Other non-Italian “white ethnics” appear in the show including Hesh Rabkin the Soprano family’s long-time Jewish associate, Irina Pelitsin Tony’s fresh-off-the-boat Russian mistress, and the family’s Polish housemaid and her husband. But these people are of a dying breed amid the country’s new minorities who come from Latin America, Asia, the Middle East, etc. The Sopranos and their associates hold White American prejudices as firmly as the “meddigans” they claim to resent. In “Christopher” we watch as Silvio Dante leads an almost fanatical crusade against Native American activists who want to protest the Columbus Day parade, and engaging in what can only be called “oppression Olympics” by stating the woes of Italians despite not acknowledging the fact they have moved up the ladder in America while the indigenous people have not. Likewise African Americans on the show are regularly called “moulignans” (the Sicilian version of the n-word) by Tony and co. Tony is especially bothered when Meadow briefly dates the bi-racial Noah Tannenbaum in the third season, stating she should be with her own kind (which ironically leads to her dating Jackie Aprile, Jr. who cheats on Meadow and meets a tragic end due to his criminal ways.) As much as Tony positions himself as in opposition to White American society and thinks of himself as one of the “white ethnics”, that category has essentially lost all relevancy in America’s racial caste system beyond the criminal subculture of the Mafia.

The meditation on ethnicity and identity at the core of the Sopranos reflects on many ethnic groups both past discriminated against and those currently discriminated against in the United States. The story of the Sopranos could easily be told about an Irish American, Polish American, Jewish American or Greek American family. Asian immigrants who are increasingly being assimilated into the American fabric and who are rapidly entering the upper income bracket might find themselves in similar situations as the Italians of North New Jersey, albeit in places like San Francisco’s Chinatown or LA’s Koreatown. And post-2045 when America becomes a majority minority nation, we could even see Hispanic immigrants similarly embraced into the fabric of quintessential Americans aside from small enclave like holdouts. The truth of America as shown by the Sopranos, is that immigrant communities once seen as the outsider can suffer discrimination but by the end are usually embraced into the fabric of American life. America is always good at finding a new foreign pariah when convenient. And if not one that is foreign, than the age-old domestic pariahs that are Black and Indigenous Americans will suffice.

“People of color” the nebulous term referred to non-whites in the 2010s is already out of vogue and being replaced by “BIPOC”. While I am woefully misinformed as to why this term has now been substituted, I have a lingering suspicion it is becoming increasingly clear that Black and Indigenous people face a unique challenge that descendants of immigrants from places like Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East have a possible chance of eventually being assimilated away from. I remember having a conversation with a good friend of mine and fellow fan of the Sopranos who happens to be an Indian Muslim, about the nature of “ethnic identity” and “whiteness” as discussed on the show. I suggested “Indians” could one day be seen as “White” in American society and he thought I was joking, before dismissing the idea as impossible. I pointed out that many in that first wave of Southern Italians who came to the shores of North America via Ellis Island had darker skin tones than some of India’s northernmost populations in states such as Gujarat or Rajasthan. Despite my friend dismissing my proposition as impossible, Indian Americans are slowly going from being a reliable Democratic voting bloc to a toss-up like many “white ethnic” demographics which also used to be locks for the Democratic Party. This is particularly the case with Indian American Hindus who turned out in droves for Donald Trump’s “Howdy Modi” event this year in Houston, Texas. While Kamala Harris’ VP slot might lock in Indian Americans to majority vote Democrats again, there is no denying Republicans are making inroads into that community. What does this mean? Well I’ll borrow the words of another friend of mine once famously told me: “Any ethnic group which votes 50% Democrat and 50% Republican, is for all intensive purposes a White American”.

Immigrants, settlers, whatever term you wish to use, might be a more honest category going forward than people of color. After all our ancestors came here by-and-large to reap the benefits of a land to which they had no ties, while the Indigenous people and African slaves brought over received nothing but horrifying violence, repression, and segregation. The descendants of these same people continue to face these barriers. While it is undeniably true that certain immigrant groups do face discrimination, for them lies the promise of climbing up the ladder or “up the guinea gulch” as Tony Soprano would say. This promise is almost always deferred or denied to African and Indigenous Americans.

The Sopranos tells the story of every immigrant group in America that faces assimilation into the mainstream. You might not know all the lingo or be familiar with the culture, but the reason it hits you is because it is you. My paternal grandfather was born in Meran, in the German-speaking regions of Northern Italy near the Dolomites. He too faced discrimination when he arrived in Canada in the aftermath of WWII. He eked out a living and prayed that all his descendants after him would be seen as a part of this new world which he called home. His wish was granted. As much as I have tries to re-connect and assert my ethnic roots, I must admit that I much like Tony Soprano or Paulie Walnuts or Silvio Dante have become assimilated into the fold. The question of whether I maintain some sort of subversive holdout that is essentially an inaccurate caricature of an ethnicity to which I am woefully unconnected or accept my status as one of the many “meddigans”, is one that I have meditated on ever since watching the show. It’s a question for all of us children of immigrants and how we relate to the settler societies into which we are assimilated. Even though we aren’t all wiseguys in therapy, every single one of us is a Soprano in some way or another and it is that incredibly relatable aspect of the show which keeps so many people of a multitude of different ethnic backgrounds coming back to it. So if you haven’t seen it, sit down with your favorite ethnic cuisine peculiar to your culture and turn on the first episode. Be entertained, be enlightened and mangiare!

10. The Sorrow Boss Fight – Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

One of the most unconventional boss fights in gaming history and one of the weirdest battles in the franchise. As Naked Snake in the chronologically first installment of the franchise, you are tasked with taking down the Cobra Unit, a legendary group of WWII commandos with unique abilities. One of these commandos is The Sorrow, a Soviet spirit medium. There’s a catch though. The Sorrow died three years ago. You are tasked with fighting a spirit, who cannot be killed. In this fight you trek down a river, confronting all the past enemies you killed in-game. It’s weird, post-modern, and provides a unique lens by which gamers can understand the human consequences of war.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40chueG-4II

9. Ocelot’s Torture – Metal Gear Solid

The Geneva Convention goes right out the window when dealing with gun-slinger and interrogator Revolver Ocelot. As Solid Snake, you are given a taste of Ocelot’s sadistic passion, when you are captured after a sniper duel. This sequence is unique in that you have an easy way out of the torture. You are told from the beginning you can submit and end everything painlessly. However, it will result in the execution of your love interest an comrade in arms, Meryl Silverburgh. If you want to save Meryl you will have to resist the torture courtesy of electric shocks. But if you die from the torture there is no restart. In fact make sure you save early, as otherwise you could lose all your progress. A meditation on the cruel nature of torture and mortality itself, this is a gruelling button-mashing sequence, which despite its seeming mini-game aesthetic, retains a dark and poignant undertone.

8. Naked Raiden – Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

Bizarre, satirical, post-modern, these all describe Metal Gear Solid 2 all too well. Playing as rookie agent Raiden, you find yourself captured aboard a submersible mech called Arsenal Gear. In this sequence in which your hands cover your genitals, you are forced to move past legions of enemy soldiers. However, you are also faced with a series of strange Codec calls from your commanding officer, which reveal a “mechanical” nature to your seemingly human CO. This sequence manages to make you both laugh and question the subjective nature of reality. It’s Kojima magic at its finest!

7. Psycho Mantis Boss Fight – Metal Gear Solid

Psycho Mantis. Is there a name more beloved for fans of the franchise? Probably not as he revolutionized what people in 1998 thought a boss fight could be. Psycho Mantis didn’t just break the fourth wall, he detonated a nuclear bomb which went through the screen to your controller. The first baddie to “read your memory card” and make your “controller move via psychokinesis”, the Psycho Mantis boss fight is amazingly meta and perfectly encapsulates what Metal Gear is all about. Using a medium to tell a brilliant story, while at the same time pushing the boundaries of the medium and blurring the line between the real and virtual. Now witness the power of this psychokinesis!

6. The Entirety of the Outer Haven Battle Sequence – Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

Emotional, wide-screen, and worthy of challenging the dramatic beats of any Hollywood blockbuster, the penultimate installment of the franchise gets bold on the cinematic front. While this makes for some excruciatingly long cut-scenes, the final battle of MGS4 is well worth it. Blending cut-scenes with gameplay, we watch Solid Snake and friends do battle with Liquid Ocelot and his private army on the high seas. Meryl and Johnny are caught in a last stand gun battle, Raiden fights cyber ninjas with sword in jaws, and a WWII battleship goes head-to-head with a tricked out Arsenal Gear with a Mount Snakemore monument to boot. That’s not to say Snake doesn’t do cool stuff too, Snake goes through a hallway of microwaves which challenge the limits of his strength, only for one final hand-to-hand battle with Ocelot which serves as a callback to the previous three MGS games. This final battle was epic in every sense of the word.

5. Fighting Sahelanthropus Across The Map – Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

In the Metal Gear franchise you take on a lot of giant mechs. It’s in the title and it makes for a lot of fun. REX, RAY, Shagohod, Peace Walker, all of them make for tough challengers, but none even remotely match Sahelanthropus. Named after humanity’s first upright walking ancestor, this Metal Gear stands as tall as Voltron and it inspires a terror like no other. In the final battle against Sahelanthropus, you as Venom Snake are charged with battling it across the entire map of Northern Kabul, Afghanistan. It’s a boss fight which truly challenges the limits of the hardware, making for one of the most exciting battles in the entire franchise. It’s incredible and epic in every single sense of the word.

4. Face… The End – Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

Before Sahelanthropus there was The End. In terms of boss fights testing the limits of the hardware, this one kicked things up a notch back in 2004. Spanning multiple levels in-game, this was a long sniper duel with the world’s oldest living and best marksmen, appropriately named “The End”. This fight could take as long as you wanted it to and was unique in that, The End never tried to kill you. In fact he deliberately used tranquilizer rounds only to slow you down. The End knows he will die, but doesn’t seem to care. He just wants one last fight and for you to give it to him. This is a truly memorable battle and shows Kojima’s innovative brilliance in twisting the formula of boss encounters into something which enhances the overall narrative and experience for the player. Oh and before I forget, The End can also die of old age as well.

3. The Death of E.E. – Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

Poor Otacon, he’s always the survivor. Over the course of the series, he loses many of his loves. Whether it be sexy assassin Sniper Wolf or the nanomachine obsessed Dr. Naomi Hunter. But none are perhaps more tragic than that of his step-sister Emma Emmerich or E.E. Stabbed by the vampiric and appropriately named Vamp, E.E. has minutes left to live in which she confides her deep love of her brother. Otacon is left heartbroken due to his own feelings of guilt about not being there for her. Strong emotions and handling of difficult topics including loneliness, childhood sexual abuse, and feelings of being an outsider are explored in both Otacon’s and E.E.’s monologues. It’s a tearjerking and beautiful moment, showing the emotional pathos of Kojima’s storytelling.

2. The Truth of the Patriots Revealed – Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

While less action-y or dramatic than the previous sequences, some deep and highly relevant topics are explored in this final Codec conversation in MGS2. The Colonel, your enigmatic commanding officer, reveals his A.I. nature to you before your final battle with Solidus Snake in this sequence. Topics including the information society, the nature of truth, the necessity of regulation, and free will, are explored in this fascinating moment which has gotten even more relevant in our post-modern era of Brexit, Trump, and shadowy electoral influence. Was Kojima just spit-balling his worries for the future or was he just laying out the path set before us. Either way this 2001 game, predicted ideas that would become relevant over ten years later.

1. THE Boss Battle – Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

The Boss is quite literally “the boss” of MGS3. An American hero of WWII, she now faces you in a field of brilliant white flowers, foreshadowing the finality of the battle between herself and her apprentice Naked Snake. It’s a beautiful moment in which she monologues about the nature of conflict and the futility of nations fighting one another. Her exploration of soldiers as pawns lays the ideological groundwork for Naked Snake aka Big Boss’ own Outer Heaven. But for now this is a fight between master and student. It’s brilliant, it’s beautiful, it’s majestically scored with the titular “Snake Eater” theme. It’s a battle which will truly break your heart and make you feel guilty for being the victor. It shows the awfulness of war and it’s affects on soldiers, it saddens you as much as it excites you, and above all it’s downright fun to play through. It’s the perfect example of what makes the Metal Gear franchise so great and Hideo Kojima’s work so beloved.

Agree with my choices? Or perhaps you disagree? Sound off in the comments below! I look forward to hearing what you have to say and for Death Stranding to drop in the future. Long live Kojima-san!

Matt Hannon Interview: https://the-peak.ca/2016/02/cult-movie-close-up-matt-hannon/

How To Make Your Own B-Movie: https://the-peak.ca/2016/02/how-to-make-a-cult-classic-b-movie/

10. Doris – Earl Sweatshirt (2013)

With a gritty underground sound and lyrics that befit someone far-older than the at the time nineteen years old rapper, Earl Sweatshirt’s debut studio album was refreshingly honest. A forbearer to the emo rap of the later 2010s, Earl’s album is unique in that it focuses on the rise of a young artist who became famous way too fast and doesn’t know how to take it all in. For those who need a refresher, when Earl debuted as a member of Odd Future in 2010, his music was (to say the least) highly controversial. Lyrics that focused on raping, murdering, and kidnapping young women were common fare for the then sixteen year old rapper, on his first mixtape. They revealed the immature and edgy rantings of a teenager trying to make a mark in a genre, that revels in tales of masculine bravado. But after a stay at a Samoan boarding school and time-away from the limelight, Earl came back a much more focused and emotionally aware artist. Earl’s new music dealt with mental health, loneliness, and the struggles of fame. Painfully honest and poignant, the album also was the last true Odd Future album, as songs such as “Chum” revealed a feeling of disconnect with his former collaborators. Doris represented the end of the Odd Future era of edginess and aggression, and the birthing of the later and far more conscientious careers of Earl, Tyler, Domo, and the rest of Odd Future’s artistic roster.

Best Songs: “Burgundy” (ft. Vince Staples), “Hive” (ft. Vince Staples and Casey Veggies), “Whoa” (ft. Tyler the Creator)

9. Oxymoron – ScHoolboy Q (2014)

The sound of Schoolboy Q was best described to me by a musician friend as “a combination of the last inhalation of a crack pipe mixed with a crush of glass”. Yes that’s a very good thing. Q’s lyrics are raw, rough, and rugged, as befitting a man who spent most of his life keeping one-eye open at all times. Crack fiends, crooked cops, and opportunistic rivals, stalk the streets of Q’s world and he doesn’t beat around the bush about how his life was consumed by drugs. As a dealer and user, kush, crack, and eventually the titular Oxy, became not only a source of income but a way to dull the pain of living. The only thing that keeps Q going is the fatherly desire to provide for his daughter Joy. While the album is well-known for its classic party bangers like “Hell Of A Night”, “Man of the Year”, and “Collard Greens” (featuring an epic verse by TDE labelmate Kendrick Lamar), it’s the lesser known songs that shine through lyrically and thematically. “Hoover Street” provides a brutally honest recollection of how a young Q developed from a normal kid into a future d-boy, “Blind Threats” deals with the crisis and hypocrisy of faith as a gangster, while “Perscription/Oxymoron” describes the utter hell that is addiction to prescription pharmaceuticals. With this album, don’t just jump to the bangers. Take time and listen to everything. It’s worth it, trust me.

Best Songs: “Collard Greens” (ft. Kendrick Lamar), “Hoover Street”, “Break the Bank”

8. Straight Outta Compton – N.W.A. (1988)

To avoid putting this album on the list some might say would be sacrilege. However I’m already doing that by not including a 2Pac album on my list according to some old heads (the dude was from Baltimore, fight me IRL). That said I have to admit, this album while dated in some aspects, remains a solid classic and a foundational document of West Coast Hip-Hop. N.W.A. gave us the honest and cold lyrics of Ice Cube, the gangsta bravado of Eazy-E, and the legendary production of my personal idol the one and only Dr. Dre. While it definitely was not the first gangsta rap album (Schooly D’s titular debut  album takes that trophy in 1985), this was the album that popularized that specific subgenre of rap. Profane, poignant, and completely uninhibited, N.W.A. had no intention to hide behind the mask of respectability, and that is so much of what makes the album great. While obviously the titular song and other crime-filled romps like “Gangsta Gangsta” do make for good listening, it’s N.W.A’s more politically-charged songs which show the lyrical prowess of Ice Cube as a writer. “Fuck Tha Police” was a brutally honest (and desperately needed) protest song against police violence directed toward African-Americans, “Express Yourself” was an ironic profanity-free song designed to cleverly critique radio censorship, and “Dopeman” provided a cynical portrait of the effect of the crack epidemic on inner city neighbourhoods. It is undeniable that the album does have, at times, misogynistic and homophobic lyrics, but it needs to be understood in the context of the time it was made. The issues raised by this album are still relevant today and Kendrick Lamar himself has pointed out very little in Compton has changed since the album was released in ’88. For better or worse, Straight Outta Compton has stood the test of time because it’s an album that still remains relevant to the reality of too many of America’s most marginalized people.

Best Songs: “Express Yourself”, “Straight Outta Compton”, “Fuck Tha Police”

7.  2001 – Dr. Dre (1999)

While the title of the album is ironic due to the actual year it was released, 2001 like every Dre album is a certified classic. When it comes to structuring an album I’ve always felt, Dre treats each project like a widescreen epic. There’s a unifying vision in relation to production and once he figures out the basic album structure, he starts picking his cast members or guest artists to accompany him. With 2001 Dre brought aboard a host of West Coast rap legends including Kurupt, Nate Dogg, Xzibit, and of course the one only Snoop D-O-double-G. The other major guest appearance on the record was from Dre’s at-the-time protégé, Eminem, who further cemented himself as an artist to be reckoned with on songs like “Forgot About Dre” and “What’s The Difference”. Of all of Dre’s albums this one racks up the most notable array of singles including “Still D.R.E”, “The Watcher”, “Xxplosive”, and of course the unforgettable smokers’ classic “The Next Episode. Per-usual Dre’s production quality is excellent and 2001 is a certified G-Funk classic. That said lyrically this is Dre’s weakest effort. While Dre is first and foremost a producer, and has never been known to write his raps, the lyrics don’t go anywhere beyond typical gangsta bravado, misogynistic zingers, and smokers’ odes (except for the final song “The Message” dedicated to Dre’s dead brother Tyree, which seems very out-of-place considering the overall tone of the album). While 2001 might be Dre’s best known album, it remains my least favourite. That said Dre’s worst, would still rank in my top ten, and you’ll grow to understand why as you go down the list.

Best Songs: “Still D.R.E.” (ft. Snoop Dogg), “The Next Episode” (ft. Snoop Dogg), “What’s the Difference” (ft. Eminem & Xzibit)

6. To Pimp A Butterfly – Kendrick Lamar (2015)

To Pimp A Butterfly has received heaps of critical acclaim and when you listen to the album, it’s not hard to understand why. Hip-hop music has had a long, and completely unfair, history of derision by the American critical establishment. However, with Kendrick’s third studio album, hip-hop’s status as an important facet of American musical culture, could no longer be ignored. Kendrick’s album is also an undeniably black album. With an album cover displaying ghettoized African-Americans on the front lawn of the White House, the album states very clearly it’s intention to analyze the black experience in American life. Thus Kendrick incorporates elements of other African-American musical genres such as jazz, funk, soul, and spoken-word on the album. Thematic and tonal shifts on the album feel fluid and effective. Kendrick easily manages to move from aggressive assaults against institutional racism on “Blacker The Berry” to introspective tracks about his Christian faith on “How Much a Dollar Cost”. The underlying narrative of the album is also highly cohesive. Kendrick through spoken word style interludes, speaks of a crisis of conscience in his post-fame life. Survivor’s guilt, frustrations with inequality, and the price of success, are mulled over in an incredibly vulnerable and poignant fashion. Kendrick allows us to peak inside his soul and perfectly captures the sense of a man undergoing an existential crisis. While To Pimp A Butterfly isn’t my favourite album by K-Dot, it’s one that shall undeniably stand the test of time. It will inspire numerous essays and artistic critiques, and will forever have a paramount place in the American musical canon.

Best Songs: “King Kunta”, “These Walls” (ft. Bilal, Anna Wise, & Thundercat), “How Much a Dollar Cost” (ft. James Fauntleroy & Ronald Isley)

5. Flower Boy – Tyler, the Creator (2017)

Tyler, the Creator holds a very special place in my heart. Much of my work as a writer and artist was inspired by his motto of “Find Your Wings”, and since hearing that song in 2015, I’ve tried to do just that. Tyler has himself tried to find his wings as an artist and truly cement his place as a musician worthy of mainstream as much as alternative respect. With Flower Boy he finally succeeded. A 2017 Grammy nominee for Best Rap Album, Tyler finally has his full creative footing on display with this artistic masterpiece. Combining elements of jazz and R&B, while Tyler ditches some of the more extreme vulgarities he’s stated in the past, he remains as pointedly honest as ever. Particularly we see him open up more about his sexuality. While Tyler has never stated exactly where he is on the sexual spectrum (despite innumerable rumors), it’s clear he isn’t afraid to be proud of homoerotic feelings he has felt. Songs like “Garden Shed” and “I Ain’t Got Time” while regarded as a coming-out moment by many critics, seem more-or-less an admission of something we all failed to see through his previous musical efforts. Tyler’s compositions and production are absolutely outstanding, and his raps are solid even if they lack a complex technicality. The features on the album are also appropriately varied and match-up to the many facets of Tyler’s personality. Tyler can easily exude bravado on one track with ASAP Rocky, while relishing in the nostalgically emotional on another with Kali Uchis. A true work of art, with this album Tyler has finally found his wings and it’s been absolutely riveting to watch him grow. And I for one can’t wait to see where he goes next!

Best Songs: “See You Again” (ft. Kali Uchis), “Boredom” (ft. Rex Orange County & Anna of the North), “911/Mr. Lonely” (ft. Frank Ocean & Steve Lacy)

4. The Chronic – Dr. Dre (1992)

The album that put the “G” in G-Funk, The Chronic is one of the finest examples of hip-hop’s ’90s golden-era. The production quality of this album was revolutionary as Dre managed to capture the sonics of George Clinton, Zapp, and other funk forbearers, and distill them with a healthy dose of gangsta rap. Although the lyrics are aggressive, the rough edges are always smoothened out by the syrupy flow of funkiness. This was the debut also of the one and only Snoop Dogg (then with a Doggy in the middle), and his laconic drawl makes for some of the album’s finest moments. While he is Dre’s most important collaborator, RBX, Kurupt, and Lady of Rage also make important contributions on the album as well. While much like 2001, the album doesn’t thematically go very far, there are still remnants of the militant-nature of N.W.A. lodged in the albums. The song “The Day the N*ggaz Took Over” is a particularly powerful track focusing on the frustration many Black Americans felt in the aftermath of the Rodney King beating, while “Lil’ Ghetto Boy” serves as a lament to being born into the street life. The album is also notable for its humorous skits, particularly the classic and oft-repeated, “Deeez Nuuuts” prank call made by Warren G. A brilliant throwback to ’70s-era funk and an innovative and inspirational codex for many West Coast hip-hop stars, The Chronic remains a definitive classic which helped codify the West Coast sound.

Best Songs: “Let Me Ride” (ft. Snoop Dogg & Jewell), “Nuthin’ but a G Thang” (ft. Snoop Dogg), “Lil’ Ghetto Boy” (ft. Snoop Dogg & Daz Dillinger)

3. Good Kid, M.A.A.D City – Kendrick Lamar (2012)

Many children of the nineties grew up off of Compton rap, but few grew up in that notorious Southern California suburb. For a young Kendrick Lamar, the streets depicted by artists like Ice Cube and Dr. Dre, were an everyday reality… and not the kind you would want to experience. With Kendrick’s second studio album, life in Compton was demystified and humanized. The senseless bloodshed caused by gang violence, the havoc wreaked by the crack epidemic, and many other issues of inner city life, were given a reality check. Kendrick doesn’t glorify the life of crime and violence, and depicts it rather as a mentally tortuous feeling of constantly being on the edge of death. Songs like “M.A.A.D City” and “The Art of Peer Pressure” ratchet up the tension and paint a frightening picture of events once reveled in by previous artists. The underlying truth of Compton, is that it’s a desperate place inhabited by people trying to get by, despite the insanity all around them. Kendrick manages to humanize everyone, from the girl selling her body on the corner to the professional shooters who don’t flinch at facing death. Rather than seeing them as the causation of their misery, he portrays them as the products of dismal circumstances and casualties of broken institutions. With this album Kendrick also managed to sell the religious to the secular. While I doubt mass conversions to Christianity were caused by this album, Kendrick manages to justify his Christian faith and make it understandable to even the most ardent atheist. As a mechanism for survival, Kendrick makes it clear how it saved him from what his mother called “a dark place of violence”. We may not agree with his beliefs, but we certainly understand why he has them. Short of living there (which I reckon few would want to do, if they had a choice), Good Kid M.A.A.D City serves as the most authentic depiction of one of hip-hop’s legendary locales.

Best Songs: “Bitch, Don’t Kill My Vibe”, “Money Trees” (ft. Jay Rock), “Compton” (ft. Dr. Dre)

2. Summertime ’06 – Vince Staples (2015)

“Gangsta Rap”. “Realness”. Words like that are nothing but bullshit to Vince Staples. A truly deconstructionist album, Long Beach-native Vince Staples subverts the stereotypes and mythology of street life with his debut album. To create a double album is always bold, but to do so as your debut is a challenge. The fact that Vince Staples managed to create both a successful debut and double album, shows his natural affinity for music (even if based on interviews, that never was his goal in life). For those questioning Vince’s credentials, he is open from the get-go about being a Crip and gang member. It’s a part of his life and he’s lived everything artists like Dr. Dre and Ice Cube have talked about. And in his opinion: it’s all bullshit. Vince shows the street life as a bleak and brutal world, where one constantly walks a tightrope, that if you fall off, you could wind-up dead or in jail. There’s no rest for the wicked in Vince’s world and none of his stories have truly happy endings. That just doesn’t happen in North Side Long Beach (well except maybe in Vince’s own circumstances). This is the only rap album that actually made me honestly wonder, whether the artist had actually killed anybody. If I learned Vince had committed murder it wouldn’t surprise me, but I don’t know if I could judge him either. The life he lived was part of a series of cruel circumstances which he is open about. Vince does not beat around the bush about institutional racism, police brutality, and the inherent hypocrisies of the so-called “greatest country on Earth”. Vince and many of his fellow Crips are products of a broken system, which has failed many young men and women with potential. Vince got out and he knows how lucky he is. Too few ever get that chance and it makes an outsider wonder whether or not we should turn up to these songs.

Best Songs: “Lift Me Up”, “Norf Norf”, “Lemme Know” (ft. Jhene Aiko & DJ Dahi)

1. Compton – Dr. Dre (2015)

Compton is many things and all of them excellent. It’s the perfect hip-hop album. The perfect soundtrack. The perfect final project for a veteran artist. With this album, Dr. Dre has put together a masterpiece. While it is a companion to the biopic Straight Outta Compton which was released in the same year, Dre’s album manages to hold its own and carve out it’s own uniquely important place in West Coast hip-hop history. With this album Dre put forth is best production efforts yet. He manages to combine the old with the new and proves that age is not a barrier. Working with the best artists from the past and present, Dre gives us a superstar lineup consisting of Ice Cube, Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar, The Game, and countless other music legends. This is also Dre’s most introspective work, as he openly discusses his struggles to succeed and anger at a system which still disenfranchises young black men. Dre has some particularly powerful songs including “Animals” (with his latest protégé Anderson .Paak and East Coast legend DJ Premier) and “Darkside/Gone” (featuring posthumous vocals from Eazy-E). The whole album feels like a culmination of everything Dre has tried to execute both lyrically and production-wise since his career began in the 1980s. Finally he has succeeded and magnificently so. A true tour de force, Dr. Dre is exemplary of the kind of artist everyone should aspire to be.

Best Songs: “Genocide” (ft. Kendrick Lamar, Marsha Ambrosius, & Candice Pillay), “Animals” (ft. Anderson .Paak), “Loose Cannons” (ft. Xzibit, Cold 187um, & Sly Pyper)

P.S. And to appease the 2Pac stans here are my favourite ‘Pac songs: “Do For Love”, “California Love”, and “Keep Ya Head Up”

1. 

“When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: The people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous, and surly. They are like this because they can’t tell good from evil.”

2.

“Remember that man lives only in the present, in this fleeting instant; all the rest of his life is either past and gone, or not yet revealed.”

3.

“The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.”

4.

“The intelligence of the universe is social.”

5. 

“Do not think that what is hard for you to master is humanly impossible; but if a thing is humanly possible, consider it to be within your reach.”

6. 

“Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.”

7.

“Look within. Within is the fountain of the good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig.”

8.

“It is not fit that I should give myself pain, for I have never intentionally given pain even to another.”

9.

“A wrongdoer is often a man who has left something undone, not always one who has done something.”

10.

“Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.”

10.

Call of Duty 2: Big Red One (2005)

Platforms: GameCube, PS2, Xbox

While Call of Duty is now known for its online gameplay loaded with perks, killstreaks, and tweens yelling homophobic and racial slurs, there was a time when Call of Duty strove to make strong, emotional, and narrative-heavy campaigns. It’s most successful enterprise was in Call of Duty 2: Big Red One a console spinoff for PlayStation 2 and Xbox. Taking inspiration from both the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers and Samuel Fuller’s 1980 war classic The Big Red One (starring Lee Marvin and Mark Hamill), instead of utilizing multiple protagonists, this game had you playing as one man solely: a mere infantryman in the US Army’s 1st Infantry Division. Following the protagonist and his squad through the North African, Italian, and Western European campaigns of WWII, you truly bond with your squadmates across epic large-scale battles in the deserts of the Kasserine Pass, the hills of Sicily, and the beaches of Normandy. The voice-cast is outstanding as Treyarch managed to get actors from Band of Brothers including Michael Cudlitz, Frank John Hughes, and James Madio, to voice your squadmates. The game had an epic and emotional feel, and gave you a detailed and intuitive combat chronicle of a unit of men who had truly been to hell and back. (Bonus Points for having Mark Hamill as the narrator in homage to Samuel Fuller!)

9. 

Assassin’s Creed II (2009)

Platforms: PS3, PC, Xbox 360, Mac OSX

As someone who minored in history back in my college days, I have mixed feelings about the Assassin’s Creed franchise. On the one hand this is a great way to get young people interested in otherwise unexplored historical time periods through fast-paced and frenetic action. On the other hand it’s bogged down by a convoluted modern-day plot involving ancient astronaut conspiracies and a shadow war between the Knights Templar and Assassin’s Brotherhood, which is about as historical as the History Channel (not very damn historical at all). That said some great games and iconic protagonists have come out of the franchise. One of the best examples being that of Ezio Auditore da Firenze, who came to us through the franchise’s second installment. Set in Renaissance Italy, the second game took us through beautifully rendered re-creations of Florence, Venice, and the Tuscan countryside, as Ezio sought revenge on the conspirators who killed his family. While Ezio was a bit stereotypical as the classic Italian Romeo character, he kept us entertained with a nice balance of charismatic charm and world-weary cynicism. Ezio remains to this day, the franchise’s best loved protagonist. We truly journeyed through the birth of an assassin in this game (no seriously, we quite literally see his birth at the beginning of the game) and the payoff through it’s sequels Brotherhood and Revelations, cemented Ezio’s status as the best assassin in franchise history.

8.

Battlefield 1 (2016)

Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PC

Like many gamers, Electronic Arts and I have a… contentious relationship to say the least. That said I must give full credit to DICE for their most recent installment (well at least for a few more days until Battlefield V) comes out. While many people came to this game for the multiplayer and rightly so, the campaign offered was unique and one of the best captured WWI “stories” in gaming. Yes you read that correctly, stories. DICE decided with this installment to utilize the “War Stories” system of telling a story, by following multiple vignettes focused on different elements of the war. The game starts off with an epic and grim last stand on the Western Front. You play as different characters who in their own way all come to a horrible end, with DICE emphasizing from the get-go that this war is not an experience you are expected to survive. The war stories that follow take place in locations ranging from the Dolemites of Italy to the sands of Arabia. While some war stories aren’t as strong as others (“Nothing Is Written” I found to be very disappointing as a big Lawrence of Arabia fan), some of these stories are truly touching and really convey the sacrifices made in this terrible global conflict. If you don’t believe me, I dare you not to at least feel some emotion at this sequence! Admit it, there’s a little tear!

7.

Kessen III (2005)

Platforms: PS2

Of all the games on this list, this is the one the least amount of people are likely to know of. Kessen III is a real-time tactics game which follows the life of famous samurai warlord Nobunaga Oda. This game probably comes as close as a game ever has to one of Japan’s famous taiga dramas (historical period piece shows). This is one of few games that actually makes you feel like a real samurai general. You develop relationships with your retainers and must carefully pick those you wish to send into battle. The battles are a nice mix of strategy with action, and the cast of characters is memorable, with highly compelling heroes and villains alongside a magnificently orchestrated soundtrack. The voice acting is also very good and while some performances can come across as campy, the game is much more restrained than many Japanese productions. The game is not perfectly accurate for a few reasons including elements of magic and Nobunaga surviving his fateful assassination at Honno-ji so you can unite Japan in an alternate-history scenario. That said the liberties taken with history don’t detract from what is probably the most masterfully made game about Feudal Japan (although Ghost of Tsushima might hold the crown soon). Also the intro for the game was really kickass!

6.

Mafia III (2016)

Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PC, macOS

Dealing with the subject matter of race, especially in the context of its history in the United States, is always a tricky matter. However, Hanger 13’s Mafia III is one of the most gritty and realistic portrayals of racism in America in the gaming medium. This is in part owed to the choice of protagonist in Lincoln Clay (portrayed brilliantly by Alex Hernandez). Lincoln is a bi-racial orphan who grew up in the New Orleans-inspired town of New Bordeaux. Taken in by an African American crime family, Lincoln has always had to walk the colour line. He’s always tried to forge his own path and find his own family, despite never fitting in entirely within black or white circles. Growing up in the Jim Crow-era South, he has been traumatized by systematic racism and faces the added trauma of war through his service in Vietnam. The final straw is when his family is murdered by the Italian Mafia family which controls all of New Bordeaux. While the gameplay follows a rudimentary style of turf conquest through intimidation and violence, the story is the real treat of this game. Racism is not at all ignored, its always on display. As Lincoln you can’t enter certain restaurants because of your skin-color and you have to face not only your mob rivals but be wary of institutional dangers from the police and a KKK-style organization which is involved with crime and governance throughout the South. Mafia III has a lot to love with great characters, a swingin’ 60s soundtrack, and good old fashioned gunplay, but where it really shines is in its social relevancy both towards the past and present of America.

5. 

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (2015)

Platforms: PC, PS4, PS3, Xbox 360, Xbox One

The Metal Gear games are definitely not the most accurate portrayals of history in the world (in case the titular walking mechas didn’t give you the hint). But to Hideo Kojima’s credit he has always used real-world geopolitics in an intelligent and relevant way to convey his deeper thematic themes. Kojima brilliantly recreates some of the 1980s shadiest Cold War conflicts in the form of the Soviet-Afghan War and Angolan Civil War in this installment of the Metal Gear franchise. While this is not the strongest, narratively speaking, of the Metal Gear games, it does deal with some dark themes related to nationalism, genocide, and the use of child soldiers in warfare. This is by far the darkest installment in the Metal Gear franchise and while Kojima does retain some of his usual campiness, with this game he tries to take a much more serious tone. The gameplay is impressive and ambitious, the landscapes and atmosphere are incredible, and the attention to detail utterly astonishes. With an eclectic ’80s soundtrack including Joy Division, Hall & Oates, and The Cure, get in your chopper and prepare to infiltrate the jungles of Central Africa or sneak through dry brush in an Afghan village.

4. 

Bioshock Infinite (2013)

Platforms: PS3, Xbox 360, PC, Mac, Linux

This might be the most controversial addition to the list. If you thought Metal Gear wasn’t historical because of walking mechas, well a city in the clouds might be too much of a reach for you. But in oh so many ways is Bioshock Infinite a game that not only uses a historical backdrop, but is a game truly about history in general. For a moment forget the whole cloud city, alternate timelines, steampunk technology schtuff and things, and just focus on the thematic notes of the game. Bioshock Infinite takes us back to 1912 and puts us in the shoes of Booker DeWitt a man who is trying to escape a troubled history of gambling debts and a whole lot more including participation in the Wounded Knee Massacre and brutally shutting down organized labour as a Pinkerton Detective. While the game does rely on the science fictional and fantastical, it equally relies on the historical and realistic portrayal of attitudes in 20th Century America. Classism, racism, imperialism, and many of the dark sins in America’s closet are openly present in the game. Columbia’s Founders represent a fascistic twisting of the Founding Fathers ideals into a Nativist theocracy which victimizes blacks, Asians, Irish, Jews, and anyone who doesn’t fit the model of an upstanding White Anglo-Saxon Protestant. Bioshock Infinite is as much a story about America’s past as it is a sci-fi tale about alternate realities. It’s an ugly look at America’s sins and a reminder that no matter how hard you try to forget, those sins can’t be washed away.

3. 

Red Dead Redemption (2010)

Platforms: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

Rockstar Games is possibly one of the greatest game developers of all time. Their talent for making open worlds come to life is second-to-none, so its no surprise that their Western epic makes this list. Red Dead Redemption follows former outlaw John Marston in his quest to wipe away his past by killing his former gang members on behalf of the US government. Along the way Marston gets side-tracked by various outlaws, smugglers, revolutionaries, and other weirdos in both the American Southwest and Mexico. That said this is no simple GTA-clone with a Wild West setting. Marston’s story takes place in 1911 long-after much of the West has been settled. The buffalo are dying out, Native Americans have already lost their autonomy to the Indian Reservation system, and the days of the outlaw are by-and-large over. This game takes a critical look at industrialization in the West and government corruption. The federal bureaucracy of America is shown as a bloated and inherently crooked institution which uses the excuses of “civilization” and “progress” as a blunt instrument to quell independence and freedom. In Mexico, John is confronted by hypocritical revolutionaries who only seek to re-entrench corruption and tyranny to suit themselves, while lying to their people about promises of equality and opportunity. This game stands as an intriguing critique on the harmful nature of industrialization at turn of the century and questions whether civilization was worth it. It also gave us a brilliant villain in Dutch van der Linde, who we’ll see more of in the second installment (which I have yet to play). I normally don’t like to spoil plot points, but this dialogue between Dutch and John at the game’s conclusion is one of the finest moments of writing in gaming history, and I’d be ashamed to not mention it.

2.

Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 (2005)

Platforms: PS2, Xbox, PC, Mac

Gearbox Software is now mostly known for making Borderlands and its various spinoffs, but a long time ago they made the best war game of all time. That’s right. THE BEST WAR GAME OF ALL TIME. In this game we follow Sgt. Matt Baker of the 101st Airborne Division as he leads his squad through WWII’s Normandy Campaign. But gone is any of that heroism we normally see in WWII games. There’s nothing heroic here, no platitudes about victory over tyranny, or motivational speeches which rally men to die for country. Instead it’s watching your friend get torn to shreds by a Stuka dive bomber or just looking on as a young kid from Texas bleeds out through the neck with you powerless to do anything. The combat is gruelling and the characterization is brilliant through legendary voice actor Troy Baker’s monologues between levels which show a man damaged by the battles he fights both within himself and on the battlefield. Sequels have been made, but this is a franchise I never felt got its due credit. I haven’t played a war game like it since. Nothing has compared to the level of accuracy or grit which this game conveys. This game is probably truest to the experience of combat veterans and because of that is well worth a playthrough. The game won’t leave you feeling like a hero by the end. You’ll just be thankful you survived and saved the few men you could.

1.

L.A. Noire (2011)

Platforms: PC, PS3, Xbox 360

L.A. Noire is more than just a game, it’s a monumental feat. What Team Bondi did with this game was revolutionary. This is a true video game for adults in every sense of the word. Tight scripting, a gorgeous soundtrack, a perfect re-creation of 1940s Los Angeles, and revolutionary technology which turned even the most minor of NPCs into living and breathing cast members, this game is magnificent. Like the classic film noirs of the 40s and 50s, this game is by no means light material. Corruption, vice, and seediness dot the landscape, and no one is who they seem. You play as Detective Cole Phelps a rookie LAPD officer who investigates a series of crimes which go all-the-way to the top. Aaron Staton’s performance as Phelps is fantastic as he captures a nuanced and troubled man, who tries to remain honest despite the hauntings of his past. The supporting characters are also great with my particular favourites being the Southern Gothic seedy shrink Harlan Fontaine and the lovable-but-lazy schlumph of a detective Rusty Galloway. This game required a lot of work and almost was never made, but the finished product was excellent. I’ve never played a game like it since and if some kind of sequel is ever made, I’d be a day one buyer. That said I don’t need a sequel either, because this game on it’s own is perfect in every right. Rarely have I played a game I love so much, that occasionally I will find myself on public transit humming the opening instrumental.

Got any games that I haven’t listed, but you want me to play? List ’em in the comments below!

-T