Every Pachter thread demands a clown picture from now on.

lol...I agree COD is crap but Gears and Uncharted are unmm...not good comparisons for a decent story.

A good story in an action game would be a game like Darkness IMO.

The story was a mess, but it does show that people aren't into it for the story. Oh, it felt cool, and was presented well, but it still was a mess.

What I am seeing Pachter failing to realize here is that games are GAMES. A success of a game isn't dependent upon how great of a story it has. What it depends upon is how well it plays, and its enjoyment there. People take videogames as storytelling devices too seriously I think.

Anyhow, I will say there is no excuse for Infinity Ward messing up regarding the story angle. The first game had a decent story that was told well. To get more epic, but also mess up on the execution, is not really justifiable for the budget they had. Even the first Bad Company game had a decent story, so not sure what the excuse is here.

He is longing for his craft to be taken seriously.  I wonder if his company studies other industries also.  I have a feeling that he is probably getting a bunch of snickering in his office where he works, if it covers other industries.  The guys who cover the energy and manufacturing sectors are likely chuckling at Pachter not being in something serious, eventhough there is a bunch of money in it.

thing is, most of what pachter says in these things makes sense, I think he's a lot better than most people think (except the NMH2 thing). However the medai making articles about him is stupid. I swaer we get 3 news stories everytime a new episode of the bonus round comes out. How about we just watch the video?

I heart Pachter, look how much awesome conversation we get from his quotes! We need more crazy predictaholics in the industry that can't keep their mouths closed. You know how many sports analysts sound just like this? Part of the reason people love sports is the crazy personalities. Hell, look at American Idol, if it wasn't for Simon being a prick and Paula passing out (too bad she's gone) nobody would care.

OT: I agree, it was a complete letdown after the first game. The plot twist in the first game was EPIC and I can still see it in my mind if I close my eyes, but then they beat us over the head with it in the second one. Meh, already traded in.

Reading this, and seeing the plot holes, I have a feeling the videogame industry is filled with too many people who take themselves to be too important, but don't know how to create stories that make sense.

Modern Warfare 2 needed to make World War III happen, so they felt that being "more epic" was what mattered the most. So, the end result... let's have an invasion of America, and think of whatever might work, to get it there... even if it doesn't make any sense. By the time you figure this out, you will have bought the game, and played through it... and we hope you are into multiplayer, so you will forget all about it. All that matters it that videogame fanboys will feel that it is beyond epic, nevermind the plot holes (plug in my shot at MGS4 here).

Story is indeed crappy. Probably the only thing I'll ever agree with this guy on.

I agree with the Pack the story was trying to hard to be over the top and failed at doing so.

I guess it was inevitable I'd eventually find myself having to agree with something he said.

Mind you, this one is a bit of a no-brainer because unless you really haven't read many books or watched many films or think Transformers 2 is Shakespeare the story is clearly terrible and absolutely awful, so I'm not seeing this as anything other than someone stating the obvious.