Call of Duty: Vanguard – Zero Punctuation

Call of Duty: Vanguard Zero Punctuation Yahtzee Croshaw Sledgehammer Games
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This week in Zero Punctuation, Yahtzee reviews Call of Duty: Vanguard.

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Transcript

Well go on then, Yahtz, tell us World War 2 shooters are overdone. And while you’re at it, be sure to inform us that water is wet and modern political discourse is fucked. Ironically, pointing out World War 2 shooters are overdone is, itself, overdone. We’re stuck in the fucking ouroboros of tedium, the snake eating its own tail while complaining that the seasoning is bland. Actually I wasn’t going to rag on Call of Duty for going Nazi-fartsy on us again because I’ve come to accept that while shooters can’t seem to get away from World War 2, it definitely hasn’t been for want of trying. The Modern Warfare trend was about as valiant an attempt as one could expect and we all know where that ended so, fuck it, let shooters have their fucking comfort zone. It’s the only uncomplicatedly good setting for a quote “realistic” shooter. Get too close to the present and war’s mainly decided not by the ground-level machine gun exchanges that FPSes bank on but by whose tech can make the biggest explosion happen the furthest away. Also it’s still the war with the best narrative. Where the writers weren’t trying to frame the side with aircraft carriers and predator drones as the plucky underdogs struggling valiantly against an opponent armed mainly with harsh language and angry livestock.

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Author
Yahtzee Croshaw
Yahtzee is the Escapist’s longest standing talent, having been writing and producing its award winning flagship series, Zero Punctuation, since 2007. Before that he had a smattering of writing credits on various sites and print magazines, and has almost two decades of experience in game journalism as well as a lifelong interest in video games as an artistic medium, especially narrative-focused. He also has a foot in solo game development - he was a big figure in the indie adventure game scene in the early 2000s - and writes novels. He has six novels published at time of writing with a seventh on the way, all in the genres of comedic sci-fi and urban fantasy. He was born in the UK, emigrated to Australia in 2003, and emigrated again to California in 2016, where he lives with his wife and daughters. His hobbies include walking the dog and emigrating to places.