#dena cod

[blogquantumreality]

CoD MW3: Farah and Dena

So does anyone else out there wanna discuss these two because for a HOT MINUTE I was ready to go with this ship.

This naturally means I would like to see a fix-it fic where Dena doesn't get shot by some random-ass Konni soldier.

[itsagrimm]

did Call of Duty just pass the bechtel test?

[halfmoth-halfman]

My MWIII Thoughts

I’ve finally taken the time to get all of my thoughts about the new campaign together and put them in a single post. There are no spoiler tags since the game is officially releasing today/tomorrow, but everything is under the cut with a warning. I have a lot of things to say here, so I’ve tried to organize it point by point. The points I think are most important are first, and I ask that you take the time to read through them. If you want to skip to the points about characters and that death, the beginning of those sections is marked with red, but be prepared to scroll.

I watched the custscenes, with gameplay, all the way through once and I’m not doing it again. I tried to go back to specific scenes to reference in this post, but even that was a lot for me, so if my timeline in here is a little screwy don't fault me too much.

If you just want my quick, overall thoughts: This campaign was two hours of egregiously incoherent, poorly written, shoddily thrown together military propaganda, even more than the cod games usually are, and your money would be much better spent donating to help Palestine - there are links to do so in this review, marked with green, as well as boycott information, and the same donations links are also provided on this shorter post if you want to go directly to them.

(There are spoilers below, and this is long. I'm not kidding. Do not click the readmore unless you are prepared to scroll.)

Military Propaganda/Islamophobia

I spoke about this some already here and here because I felt this was an important enough topic that deserved its own post.

Call of Duty has never been has never been the game where I expected to see proper representation of the Middle East or Middle Eastern politics. It is first and foremost military propaganda. More than that it is American military propaganda. Just like with every superhero and pro-military movie post-9/11, it should be expected that you’re not going to get any kind of meaningful insight or depth when it comes to Middle Eastern storylines and characters, but there is usually more of an effort to hide the Middle East = Terrorist subtext.

To say I was shocked at how overt and blatant the Islamophobia was in this game is an understatement. We get four deaths of named characters in this game. Two of whom are Middle Eastern women, Dena and Samara, from the country Urzikstan, the fictional combination of Syria and Afghanistan and home to terrorist group Al-Qatala (real subtle, right?). Both of these women are associated with the ULF, the Urzikstan Liberation Force, Farah’s group of freedom fighters whose goal is to free their country from foreign subjugation with Samara no longer being an active member. Both of these women are introduced in this game. Both of these women are minor characters. Both of these women, Samara in particular, are trying to live their lives peacefully now that their country has been freed.

Both of these women are given deaths more brutal and more shocking than the other two deaths of two main characters in the series.

We meet Dena at the beginning of the game when we’re first re-introduced to Alex and Farah. We see her have a heartfelt reunion with Farah, and the two have a conversation while driving where Dena expresses her concerns about wanting Urzikstan to remain peaceful but assures Farah that everyone will support her. After, Dena is suddenly shot in the chest, and Farah is forced to take control of the vehicle they’re in, which ultimately flips over and we get Farah’s first death fakeout.

It’s in this cutscene that we see a lingering shot on Dena as well as her corpse being thrashed in the car as Farah tries to take control and as it flips. We are given a Middle Eastern woman showing hope for her country that the peace she has fought for will be maintained only to then watch her die for shock value and a fakeout for another character, and watch her body fly across the car as it flips. We don’t get that with either of the other two gunshot deaths in this game. Soap’s is just as sudden, but we see it coming, and there are no shots of his body being thrown about, no closer views of his face like there are with Dena. Shepherd’s is entirely off-screen and all we’re left with is a shot of him lying face down on his desk - no blood or bullet wound in sight.

Notably, the only other person we see a comparable amount of blood on in this game is Makarov, the enemy of the series.

Samara, who gets the worst death in this game, in my opinion, is a retired ULF soldier we’re introduced to on a plane. I’ll start by saying I was under the assumption this may have been the reboot replacement for No Russian, the mission in which Makarov and Co. shot up Zakhaev International Airport to frame America for terrorism in the original series, and the mission that was teased after the credits in the MW2 reboot. We get the scene of Makarov and his men at the airport before boarding the plane, which could just be a nod to the original mission. However, until there is an official reboot of the No Russian mission, I’m going to assume this was Activision’s new take on it. 

In this mission, we learn that Makarov plans to use this plane bombing to frame Urzikstan, Farah and the ULF specifically. The thing is, as Big Mak and friends are in the airport preparing to board, we are shown that the ULF is already being blamed for the missile attack on Arklov Military Base from the previous mission where their missiles were stolen, capped with Konni’s chemical gas, and one was detonated. There’s even a news sequence showing that the world already thinks of the ULF as a terrorist organization, and has not-so-quietly thought that for years. That makes this upcoming scene feel not only unnecessary but like a deliberate choice made by Activision to be extra cruel to a Middle Eastern character. 

We see Samara text with her family and are shown a picture of her husband and children before the man next to her begins speaking to her in Arabic. He compliments her family and, I assume as we’re not directly shown, gets the No Russian text - a text, for those who have not played the original games, meaning to not speak Russian to not tie the terrorist act they’re about to commit back to the Russians. The Traveler, as he's called, then reveals that he knows who she is, knows her family, and knows that she is a former ULF soldier and fought the Russians. He then pulls a gun on her and Makarov and Konni take the plane hostage, purposely speaking Arabic and declaring this is for Urzikstan. 

We are then forced to watch as Samara fights back, but is ultimately taken to Makarov where a bomb is strapped to her chest. He gives his usual cryptic speech, and over-explains to the audience what’s happening before diving out of the plane D.B. Cooper style. 

Samara is then dragged to the back of the plane by a Hijacker, where the remaining passengers are, kicking and fighting and trying to reason with him to stop. He pauses and we then get this exchange:

Hijacker: Are you a terrorist?

Samara: No…

Hijacker: You look like one.

He then puts a gun in her hands, tosses the cellphone that will let her stop the bomb, and shoves her into a crowd where we have to watch her struggle to explain what’s happening to her and that she needs the phone to a crowd of people that are either afraid of or angry with her. She is shoved to the ground by a random man, forced to fight through people trying to tackle and beat her, and, when the phone is finally within reach in the hands of a scared passenger, the plane blows up. 

I want to emphasize that most of this is a cutscene. There are a few button presses for the player to try and get the phone, and you are allowed to look around and try to fight back, but that is quickly stopped, and you are forced to sit and watch through Samara’s perspective. The end result? There’s an investigation for who may have done this, and you play as Farah collecting evidence from the crash site so Makarov can’t frame the ULF. The mission succeeds, because it’s a story mission and it has to, Makarov is unable to control the narrative so people can only suspect the ULF did it but can’t prove it, and Samara…died for nothing. All of that was so people could suspect the ULF was a terrorist organization, which the game has previously gone out of its way to establish was already happening before Makarov got on that flight. This entire sequence and the mission after added nothing to the storyline other than the brutal forcing of a Middle Eastern woman to hijack a plane 9/11 style and die a death worse than two of the series’s main characters.

Two side characters, two Middle Eastern women who have never existed before this game, are put in this game solely to die in ways where their deaths are more emphasized and graphic than a character we’ve played as since the series began, and one of the main villains. 

There is a genocide happening in Palestine. Islamophobia in the United States, and the West as a whole, is rising to post-9/11 heights. There is already so much propaganda being spread in an attempt to dehumanize the men, women, and children who are being murdered by Israeli forces, to justify the actions - the war crimes - of the Israeli forces. Could this be a sloppy attempt at Activision trying to mirror real-life stereotypes and how quick the media is to jump to the Arab = Bad narrative? Possibly. I don’t think it is. I think this was a deliberate change from the original No Russian mission in which America is framed for terrorism, made by an American company that makes games meant to garner interest and support in the American military, during a time when the American government is being criticized for funding and aiding an ethnic cleansing. 

As slapped together as this game was, I don’t believe they couldn’t have changed the campaign in the time since the situation in Palestine escalated to this level. I firmly believe it was a purposeful choice to write that scene, to film that scene, to keep that scene. 

It is blatant, it is clear, it is as in-your-face as it can possibly be. It is not something this fandom gets to ignore because they don’t like the campaign. It is not something this fandom gets to overshadow with Soap’s death as poorly written as it was. It is not something this fandom gets to stay silent about while also posting about #freepalestine. 

I have never expected the best when it comes to Islamophobia from the Call of Duty games or its fandom. I’ve never expected anything beyond mildly okay. Call of Duty is military propaganda, I know. The fandom is known for its racism and it’s not getting better, I know that especially. But I don’t see how anyone, in the times we’re living in right now, would be able to look at this and not acknowledge it for what it is. 

It is the purposeful brutalization of Middle Eastern characters. 

It is propaganda.

It is racism. 

It is Islamophobia. 

It is wrong. 

Engaging Critically/Acknowledging Privilege

While I may be stepping back from the CoD fandom, I understand that not everyone is going to. For some people, these games are a comfort or an escape. I’m not here to call for a boycott of Call of Duty or Activision while there are more important boycotts to be focusing on - and you can find more info on them here & here.

What I am asking, particularly of those of us in the fandom that are not being directly affected by what’s happening in Palestine, is that there is more acknowledgment of the level of privilege that we have and that people learn to engage more critically with the media they consume. 

It is a privilege to play a game like Call of Duty and not have to think about the propaganda. It is a privilege (and ignorant) to say “it’s not political”, “it’s just pixels”, or “it’s not real”. It is a privilege to be able to just turn the game off and never have to think about war, and the impact of the representation of the characters, and the real-life events that these games base themselves on. And this isn’t just a CoD issue, this is something that should be considered with every piece of media you engage with. 

There is no such thing as a “politics-free” book/movie/game/show. Everything carries the biases - conscious or subconscious - of the person or people who created it. There is no such thing as media or fiction not having an effect on real life, especially in a fandom for what is essentially War Crimes: The Game.

I’m going to take a quote from this post by @yeyinde.

"It’s incredibly egregious to pretend that the media you consume isn’t based, in some part, on real life or has no repercussions outside of it just being fiction. And it’s especially dishonest to say this isn’t the case within the COD fandom when people have said that the erasure of Gaz from the fandom in favour of a white character is traumatising. The portrayal of the Middle East is traumatising. The portrayal of Makarov in fiction as an uwu-sympathetic babbie is traumatising. The portrayal of the military as heroes is traumatising. These are real people expressing real emotions and bringing up important matters that impact them long after they’ve logged out of tumblr. Just because they stop being relevant to you after that does not, and SHOULD NOT, matter. Their trauma, their feelings, and their interpretations shouldn’t be ignored in favour of some catch-all excuse to limit your responsibility as a consumer to think critically about the media you’re devouring just because it has no consequences for you."

Fiction mirrors real life whether you want to admit it or not. It shows real biases, and it affects real people. Participating in fiction and the surrounding culture does not magically absolve you of consequences. It does not suddenly mean you get a free pass at things like sexism, racism, ableism, colorism, romanticization of abuse and sexual assault, etc. just because your escapist fantasies are conveniently free of people who are different from you.

It may be your fiction, but it is someone else’s non-fiction, and you do not get to decide that it isn’t or that the impact doesn’t matter because it’s about fictional characters.

I'm going to link another post from @yeyinde with another quote here.

"It’s easy to get swept up into something when you have no tangible ties to the effects of what’s being portrayed, which can lead to making dismissive or hurtful statements out of pure ignorance. My biggest gripe was the excuses being laundered out and (either unintentionally or intentionally) giving the creators a pass for what they created and the harm they caused other people to experience. Just because they did not experience the same trauma, it does not diminish its impact on others. This is a very important distinction, which I think was being missed."

Does this mean you can’t ever write or read about traumatic things, or that you can’t enjoy the CoD games ever again? No. 

But I need you all to understand that you can criticize the media you enjoy. You should criticize the media you enjoy. Criticism does not mean never letting yourself enjoy a piece of media again. Criticism does not mean trying to get a character or creator “cancelled”. Criticism does not automatically equal hate.

Criticism is an act of love, and it is necessary when deconstructing and confronting biases - both yours and other people's.

Resources To Support Palestine

The lovely @moondirti provided some organizations where you can donate to support the humanitarian aid in Gaza with the note:

It's important to acknowledge that, while limited aid is being allowed through, recent negotiations have allowed your charity to reach the people of Palestine.

DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS

PALESTINE CHILDREN RELIEF FUND

UNITED MISSION FOR RELIEF – PALESTINE EMERGENCY

ANERA

Onto the actual game.

The 141

I don't know what happened during development between this game and MW2, but the relationship between the members of the 141 is severely lacking. We get the usual Soap and Ghost banter for one mission, because, let’s be real, that's what got a lot of people into the last game, but that's about it? There’s nothing new, nothing added to their relationships, and the game sticks to the same duos (Ghost/Soap & Price/Gaz) that we’ve had for the past two games. Even Soap and Ghost’s banter during the attack on Milena’s private island doesn’t have the same impact on the characters as their banter during the Alone mission in MW2. They get a few lines about Soap admiring Milena’s cars and Ghost taunting him about marrying an Oligarch, and…that’s it until the cutscene where they interrogate her.

There’s maybe a few quippy lines here and there, but overall the 141 gives off the same feeling as a group of semi-friendly co-workers that sometimes work on the same project rather than an actual team that has shed blood, sweat, and tears with each other.

This would’ve been such a great time to explore deeper into the team dynamics, show us pairings we don’t get to see as often and build on those relationships, make us really feel for these characters on a personal level. In the original series, you got a feel for every character and their team dynamics, and the player felt the impact of each death as they watched the other characters react (something I’ll talk about later). With this game, we get…what? Four men that desperately need a lozenge throwing a few sassy one-liners at each other and giving each other a harsh pat on the back like a bunch of dads at a barbecue?

I feel like so much of the heavy labor regarding the 141 in the reboot is done through fanfiction at this point because this game especially gives us barely anything to go on, and that’s such a missed opportunity on Activision’s part considering how so much of MW2’s popularity came from the relationship built between Soap and Ghost. It all just feels so hollow and surface-level; there’s no depth here, no attempt to build a connection from the player to this group as a team. In my opinion, Activision relies too heavily on the older fanbase’s connection to the original series, and the newer fanbase’s self-created characterizations, to fill in the blanks so they can leave these characters as empty and vanilla as possible in order to appeal to a broader audience.

And they’ve still somehow managed to fail at that. Speaking of failing...

Graves and Shepherd

Graves should’ve died in that fucking tank, and I will stand by that opinion even after I die. It was such a cop-out to have him live, and for him to suddenly come back with the excuse, “Well, I wasn’t in that tank, blah, blah, blah.”

This is supposed to be a game series where characters die and stay dead. The characters die. Some die heroically, some die horrifically, some die quickly, some die painfully slow, most die bloody, but they die. It’s a staple of the series, like Game of Thrones pre-season 5. I don’t know if Activision didn’t know what to do with his character, or if they realized he was semi-popular with the fans and decided to magically bring him back via deus ex remote-controlled tank, or if they were trying to “subvert expectations” and give us all a little surprise plot twist, but it sucked.

Also, no one checked the tank for a body? That seems to be something everyone has a problem doing in these games, and I don’t know what Activision thinks that does for the 141, but what it does do is make these elite military officials look incompetent as hell because their “dead” enemies keep coming back.

There was nothing different that Graves did in this game from what he did in the previous game. We get the same air support mission from him that we got last game, and really that’s it. Okay sure, he’s working with Farah now, that’s a little different, but what did he do in that mission? Give her vague instructions on where to find some GPS trackers and then give her more vague instructions on where to find the missile containers to slap the trackers on? He could’ve easily been replaced with one of Farah’s people who scouted ahead, or Alex, or a decorative cowboy hat, and the mission would have gone the exact same.

Other than that he spends the entire game hiding behind Shepherd like a scared child up until the end when he ultimately turns on Shepherd, and even that felt so blah. He faces no consequences for his (racist) actions in Las Almas other than Gaz refusing to shake his hand, he faces no consequences for betraying the 141, going so far as to lie that it even happened in front of Congress, and he gets off completely free as far as we know. There was no point to his character, no point to bringing him back, no point to him being in this game at all, and if I find the Activision employee who decided to keep him alive I will be throwing hands expeditiously. 

Shepherd was…there, I guess? I’m sure he was meant to be a menacing, sly, back-stabbing character, but he came off as more irritating than anything. His rescue mission felt akin to being forced to babysit your annoying younger sibling who questions everything you do. They give you a cute little nod to the OG series with his cutscene with the 141 in the snow (because Activision has to rely on nostalgia and easter eggs since they know this game is emptier than the promises of an absentee father), but most of it is spent with Shepherd preaching about how great he is and threatening the 141 like he’s been doing the entire game. I’m sure he’s supposed to come off as clever, outsmarting the 141 and tricking them into rescuing him - this big, bad, battle-hardened General - but all of that is undercut by him getting captured to begin with.

The General Shepherd in the original series killed two of the player characters. How am I supposed to be intimidated by this nagging grandpa briskly jogging through the snow behind me in his ugly pajama jumpsuit? Even his ending is lackluster. He’s outwitted in front of Congress by Graves of all people, and then we get a cutscene where Price shoots him off-screen. That’s it. There was no satisfaction like in the original series, no triumph, no sense of vengeance, only a tired feeling of thank god I don’t have to deal with this anymore. This constant attempt at build-up in this reboot series of Shepherd being this looming figure over the 141 ends not with a bang, and not even with a whimper.

Makarov

I’m going to start this off by saying I mean absolutely no hate to Julian Kostov, Makarov’s actor, he definitely did his job.

Unfortunately, that job was playing a random Russian man that happened to have the same name as the Vladimir Makarov from the original series. He’s literally just a dude. There’s nothing particularly menacing about him, nothing that really screams Leader of an Ultranationalist group, nothing that would set him apart in a line-up of kind-of-gruff white men. I wasn’t expecting him to be some over-the-top supervillain, but he feels too normal, too regular, too everyday. Maybe that was the point Activision was trying to make - that having a villain with too-sharp features, eyebrows with in-your-face arches, and two-toned eyes is realistically too much - but it feels like they leaned too far in the opposite direction to compensate.

How am I supposed to take Makarov seriously when they gave him such big, brown, babygirl eyes? Though I realize this may be a character model issue because everyone in this game seemed to have huge doe eyes at one point or another (looking directly at you and those unblinking baby blues, Soap).

The first time we get a proper cutscene with Makarov, he shoots one of his own men – one who had questioned his plan in the rescue mission – and he gives some passionate Make Russia Great Again speech that involves a lot of big gestures, promises of showing the world “true power”, and him being weirdly touchy with one of his men. It’s not a bad scene, and I think Julian really shines here as Makarov. It’s a little in-your-face for me, but overall not a bad introduction to what is supposed to be the overarching big bad for the rest of the series. It gives you a good enough sense of danger, and just enough worry for the main crew as they get ready to go up against this guy.

Unfortunately, the rest of the game doesn’t really follow through on that. Makarov spends more time monologuing, asking his men “philosophical” questions about prisoners and guards, and cryptically foreshadowing at the 141 than he does doing…anything. We are told about all of the bad deeds he’s done. We are told how evil he is. We are told that Makarov needs to be stopped at all costs. The only problem is, we aren’t shown any of that. We see the aftermath of Verdansk, a distant explosion after Makarov has been captured, but we never see Makarov do any of that. When we do get to see Makarov, his men are doing all of the dirty work while he stands around and looks evil. It’s his men fighting and killing guards to get him out of prison, his men attacking Farah and her soldiers, his men launching missiles topped with biochemicals, his men forcing Samara to blow up a plane, his men guarding Milena and his finances. The most he does during any of these scenes is order his men around and give evil villain speeches to give the audience exposition about why he’s doing all this.

We probably see more of Makarov’s shirtless Tinder pic than we see him in action. 

In the original series, we see Makarov being at the forefront of his movement, unafraid to get his hands dirty. He is part of the group that commits the massacre/terrorist attack on Zakhaev International Airport, he kills the two FSO agents protecting President Vorshevsky, he’s the one who shoots and kills Yuri, and that’s only part of what we see in-game. Sure, we’re told about his other crimes, but we’re shown enough to back up the claims that he is evil. In this game, he kills two people himself, one of them being his own soldier that I mentioned earlier, and the other being Soap (and we’ll get to that later). Two extremely lackluster deaths that are over before you get the chance to really digest them. Maybe he kills more people during the intro mission when you rescue him, but it’s during gameplay and easily missed when you’re too busy trying to fight your way out of this Arkham-esque prison. I think I could look past it if he wasn’t also present during some of the scenes where his men are carrying out his atrocities for him, but instead, Activision chose to have him in the background standing there…menacingly. 

I don’t want to say Makarov was a bad villain; he was certainly better than Shepherd and Graves. I just think Activision made very strange choices with his character that resulted in him becoming this weird mishmash of an average monologuing movie villain and the micromanaging boss that stands over your shoulder, and it took a lot of the “oomph” out of his character for me. 

Soap's Death

I hope whoever made this decision at Activision has to live the rest of their life constantly feeling like they have to sneeze and are never able to. What the fuck happened here? In what world did Soap’s death make any kind of sense here? This felt like they knew fans were expecting someone to die (and they already retconned the yeehaw war criminal) so they put a bunch of names in a hat and had some poor unpaid intern pick one out. 

I have not been quiet about how much death I wanted in this game. I expected at least two deaths, with one of them preferably being Price. Going into this I was prepared to lose characters, and I was prepared to lose them to a heroic sacrifice, to an exhaustingly epic gunfight, to an explosion in a clocktower, to literally anything, but I was not prepared to lose a character to bad writing. And that’s what Soap’s death was. There is no build-up to it throughout the game other than a cryptic, “I’ll see you again, MacTavish.” from Makarov in a flashback scene. There’s no exploration of Soap’s character arc, his background, his family. There’s nothing.

Price and Soap try to defuse a bomb, Makarov shows up and his men overpower them, Makarov goes for the kill on Price, and instead shoots Soap when Soap tries to stop him. The entire cutscene can be summed up as A Series Of Conveniences. Makarov conveniently gets to Soap and Price just as they’re about to defuse the bomb, the officers they have with them are conveniently incompetent to stop any of Makarov’s men, Makarov’s men conveniently don’t notice Soap getting up to stop him from shooting Price, Ghost and Gaz are conveniently one second too late save Soap, and a train conveniently passes by to let Makarov make his escape. It’s over in less than a minute, and there’s little to no reaction from the surviving 141 members before the game starts shoving in your face that there’s a bomb you have to defuse that has conveniently not gone off yet and was conveniently missed in all of the gunfire.

Aside from the bullshit way it happened, the most disappointing thing here was the cutting of Soap’s arc and the lack of reaction from Price, Ghost, and Gaz. There was no growth for Soap in this game, no building of his story that would make his death feel like a satisfying conclusion. We just got the same Soap we’ve had in the rest of the series, and then he was gone. And the fact that we got absolutely nothing from the team in that moment was so…frustrating. Yeah, Ghost kneels by his body, and gives a brief, “Johnny!” but that’s…it? Price says nothing. Gaz rushes to the bomb and says nothing. After that moment in the cutscene, Ghost says and does nothing. There’s not even a hitch in their voices as they finish disarming the bomb. In Soap’s original death, we got Price screaming and begging over his body. We got to see his grief and pain and hurt at losing someone so close to him. Here we get…them standing over the body, a cut to black, and then a funeral cutscene that doesn’t feel earned full of commiserations that feel empty, hollow, and generic. 

Maybe I’m too nostalgic for the Captain MacTavish we had in the original series, and the death they gave him that was impactful enough that people still talk about it to this day. Maybe there’s something meaningful here that I’m not seeing. Or maybe Activision can’t write for shit and rushed Soap’s death without a care just like they rushed this game as a quick cash grab to ride the hype of MW2.

Whatever the reason, these characters deserved far better.

Soap deserved better.

And I deserved to see a rebooted Captain MacTavish.

Gameplay

This section is going to be short because I didn’t spend money on this game to actually play it, I only watched gameplay. The general consensus seems to be that this game is nothing but glorified DMZ, and I can’t disagree with that. Supposedly, at least two of the campaign settings were ripped straight from Warzone, the Gulag and Verdansk Stadium, and I think that really shows how much of this game was slapped together because Activision wanted to hurry to release so they could capitalize off the CoD hype as much as possible. The combat is the same in every mission, the air support mission is as boring as ever, the NPC AI is all over the place, and the character models constantly shift from being really good to mobile game bad within the same cutscene.

I’m not saying I could do better, but I don’t think I could do worse. You can take that however you’d like.

The Writing/Storyline

Starting off, I’m going to say this with my whole chest:

Main story content should be in the main story, and not in optional or additional content.

Look, I don’t mind an easter egg here and there in DLC. I don’t mind the mention of a big bad in an extra, paid quest to build up hype. What I do mind is when the understanding of the main storyline of your game is dependent on things that happen in content that players are required to complete outside of the main game. 

Do you know how we found out Alex was alive? An optional Raid.

Do you know how we learned Graves was a little bitch and wasn’t in the tank? An optional Raid.

Do you know how we–

You get my point. These kinds of reveals should have been in the main storyline because they pertain to the main storyline. Otherwise, you have people reacting with confusion because the main campaign was all they played, and they were left under the assumption that Alex may or may not be dead, that Graves burned in that tank in Las Almas, that Farah’s brother (Remember him? Activision doesn’t.) was alive and out there somewhere, etc, etc. It feels like they’re trying to do what Marvel does when they interweave their cinematic universe with their television shows: leave references to things only the more committed audience - the audience who will watch every show, play every game, see every movie, buy every DLC - would understand while punishing everyone else. It feels lazy on Activision’s end, and cheapens any kind of suspense they may leave us with going forward.

I wouldn’t even be surprised to see something like “Oh, Soap died and Makarov escaped at the end of the main campaign? Just kidding! They revealed in the newest Raid that Soap actually survived, and Makarov got hit by that train at the end.”

Outside of that, the whole storyline just feels unnecessary. This whole game feels unnecessary. I know there are rumors that this was meant to be a DLC for MW2 that got extended into a full game because Activision wanted more money, and if I didn’t already believe that, the writing would confirm it for me. Nothing feels fleshed out. Not the story, not the plot, not the characters. It all feels very surface-level and shallow, like more of the exact same thing we got in the last game, but somehow worse. The banter between the 141 is just not there, the tell don’t show when it comes to Makarov, the rapid POV switching, it all feels so thrown together, so last minute, like the writers had no idea what they wanted to do up until release. 

One thing that really bothered me was the constant death fakeouts. It felt like every mission something awful would happen and one character would be left with their fate unknown in a dramatic cut to black as a cheap way to build suspense…only for that suspense to be immediately undercut by showing them alive in the very next cutscene. This happens with Farah (twice), Price, Alex (partially, there’s no cut to black, but there is a fakeout that he has been captured), and Laswell all within the first half of the game. At some point, it starts to get irritating and kills any and all suspense going forward. I was spoiled on Soap’s death, I knew it was coming before I watched the cutscenes, but by the time I got there, I was almost expecting Soap to show up in the next sequence without a scratch on him. Up until that point, I had stopped caring when characters were in danger because the writing led me to believe everyone was safe. There’s a way to build suspense, and every writer understands that, a majority of the time, less is more, so I don’t get how this went so unbelievably wrong. 

The characterization is also so weirdly off. In what world would John “Somebody has to make the enemy scared of the dark. We get dirty, and the world stays clean.” Price not immediately take a kill shot when he has Makarov in custody? Soap was ready to kill every person he talked to in this game, so why did he let Makarov live? Why would Gaz advocate for giving Shepherd a gun after his multiple betrayals that he shows no remorse for? Why would Farah continue to begrudgingly work with Graves after learning about Las Almas? Why is Makarov over-explaining his plans to his victims?

I’m not saying I expect Shakespeare-level writing from a Call of Duty game, but I expect something better than whatever this is. 

I don’t know who Activision hired for their writing team, but there are so many instances here where I almost have to believe that they may not have hired one at all.

Overall Thoughts

I wish I had a time machine so I could go back to who I was before I watched this campaign. This whole game was nothing but a DLC lazily stretched to two hours with assets taken from other games and a storyline that was slapped together using blindfolds, a dartboard, and too much alcohol. Please do not use your money to buy this game. Your money would be much better spent donating to help Palestine.

[collinnmckinley]

Modern Warfare III Review:

Okay so, I finished my first play through last night 5 days ago and ngl… lmao i had to open a gameplay so i could recount what actually my thoughts were at those times because I was confused half the time if not more from the story.

So here’s my unfiltered, filled with spoilers, and honest review. 

Before anything let me just say this; I was wrong, my theory was wrong (although a banger if you ask me. Hire me Activision), and nothing I said in that post mattered. I’ll swallow my words… But I am slightly annoyed by it.

Here're the points I had problems with:

The story: it was…. Idk how to put it other than it being super fucking fast and filled with plot holes. Like half the time I was confused as to what was going on or I would forget what needed to be done. I think I blacked out 40% of the playthrough, because I would go into an OCM (Open Combat Missions) and Graves/Laswell would be like “bruh you need to do this we don't got time for stroll on the park get to it” and I’m just running around like a headless chicken trying to figure out what are the obj. I think they could’ve made it a bit slow paced, like MWII or MW even. Those had perfect story pace, even after the fact MWII didn’t have good writing. I just thought, MWIII would be impactful in a way the previous MWs weren’t, the ending WAS, but it took them 5 hours to of dragging and stretching one fucking thing, literally one thing. Because if you see the campaign in a way, even the bad guy, Makarov, wasn’t THAT impressive. I legit didn’t give a single fuck about Makarov or what his motives were, I just followed with 141’s intuitions.

Speaking of Makarov’s plans, he just appeared out of nowhere, and he has some beef with Farah and Urzakstan for some reason. Why? They didn’t specify other than he wants to “bring Russia to its old glory”. And of course they had to put fucking Farah into middle of this fiasco because why wouldn’t they. I hate the fact that she’s STILL to this day the center of the fucking MW storyline. She didn’t have much of a role to play in MWII campaign but the Raids took the center part. And that annoyed me tbh. Alas, we can’t have everything we ask for. (I would’ve stanned Farah in the long run but her holding hands with Graves in season 5 REALLY annoyed me but that's for another day).

Operation 627: Misleading. That's what I have to describe this mission, when i read the mission name, I was expecting it to be Price centered mission. I really wanted it to be a Price centered mission because the number 627 is Price’s identity. So to just take the number away and give it to Makarov really irked me if I’m being honest. And the whole marketing for it was misleading too (I’m looking at you barry). Gameplay wise it was okay I guess, typical CoD campaign mission.

Open Combat Missions: now here things gets fucked up. I was not expecting to be thrown right into OCMs right away. And by the end of my 400th try I was just running around and shooting without any care. I tried to do it stealthy, and with the enemies standing around the objectives that you CANNOT avoid it's almost impossible to even go undetected. It’s like a mixture of campaign and DMZ, which BTW is a really bad combination. And also, whenever I try to restart from the checkpoint it starts from the TOP! You have to do it all over again. I just wish they added the checkpoint thing it would’ve made so much easier. I know they want to make it feel like DMZ but it just SUCKS. And I wish it would've been at least a choice that you could make before the mission starts. Basically either you go OCM or just a regular mission, but in this case you’re forced to go to OCM. 

(Also Farah’s Arabic sucks ass. At least they casted a good VO for Dena who knew how to speak Arabic properly.)

Reactor: again, another OCM. But this time, it was Price I played as. Now here everything felt off for me. Normally we would be playing as Soap or Gaz in ANY scenario because that would be the logical thing to do. But when the camera angle shifted to Price’s perspective, everything changed. And following this mission, every mission we got to play as Price just gave me a fear of sorts. Same as before, hard not to go undetected but more manageable than “Precious Cargo”. By the end of the mission Price almost gets incapacitated by the toxic gas, and that's what we see in the trailer. And from it we knew someone’s gonna die but it was not Price for sure, because he lives and kicks ass left and right.

Price being an errand boy: there’s a cutscene before mission ‘Payload, where Price and Farah get together to infiltrate an underground bunker to stop some rockets. In that cutscene it felt like the roles have been switched between the two. When Price was this leading figure in Farah’s life that had an enormous impact that changed the course of her life, now she’s acting like he owes her? It’s the other way around if you ask me, and she owes him fucking big. I don’t know man, I just hated the way she treated him the way she did. They keep giving her a piece of the story bigger than she could chew, and Price is left with crumbs (even with the amount of cutscenes and gameplay we have with him), he almost felt like he was being LED by everyone around him instead of him LEADING the team (and Farah). He felt like what Soap felt like in MWII, even Soap had a major ass role in MWII. That cutscene, as much as he looked good in it, felt really undermining Price for me. And the audacity Farah had when she said “do you trust me” to Price. Girl, after what you pulled with Graves, I would never trust you with anything. And Price giving his utmost loyalty to her just didn’t feel like he would do something like that. And I mean that in the most respectful way. When Price told her about Shadow company calling a hit on 141 and Shepherd being a bad man, I legit thought she would actually be shocked and side with Price, but what did she say? “My weapons are my business” fuck you Farah, and fuck your weapons. In conclusion, yeah Price felt more like an errand boy than the Captain of 141 task force. The mission that follows that cutscene was almost standard campaign mission. I say almost because it still felt like OCM.

Yuri Volkov: I’ll be honest, I was not expecting Yuri to make an appearance, I was expecting ‘Roach’ to be there more than anything. And we finally got to see Yuri’s face. I liked how they took Yuri’s story and twisted it around so he never 'betrayed' 141 by keeping the fact that he worked with Makarov from them. I guess Laswell is indeed useful sometimes. The fact that they made him be useful to 141 without having him take one in the face from Price was indeed surprising. (I was screaming in discord chat about it to Mari when he appeared.) Though we don't know what his fate is, but I'm 100% sure he's still alive and I have a feeling he'll be joining 141 in the next installment if not in the upcoming seasons of MWIII. I just hope he got away safe. That man sounded like a rascal lol, he definitely has some stuff up his sleeves.

Oh and special mention about Nikolai, am I happy to see Nik again. That man deserves every bit of love. No MW or 141 would be complete without Nik. 

Stealth: For some reason this game was made to be played as ‘go big or go fucking die’ because in “Deep Cover”, you play as Laswell trying to sneak into the Arklov base, to meet up with Yuri, and i got caught like at least 10 times before I had to restart all over again, and again and again. The fucking stealth in this game is horrendous. Whoever made it IMPOSSIBLE to stealth, I hope you choke on water you drink and recover so you know how I felt all those tries I had to restart. It’s the same case even in regular missions, you either get caught even in fucking desguise, or they start shooting you for no fucking reason. I walk far, I'm too far from the obj, I walk close they shoot me. Fuck me man, I just had to fucking power walking through the first half of this whats suppose to be a 10 minutes walking simulator, took me 3 minutes of multiple tries because of that. Not gonna lie, I was kind of expecting Laswell to meet her demise in that mission because of the unavoidable missiles (maybe I was little bit of hoping it too who knows), but she survived, yaay.

Alex & Farah: then comes in the Master and the Lapdog duo. At this point I’ll never get tired of complaining about Farah and her personality. They tried so hard to make her into a girlboss, and they would have succeeded if they just left her story as is after MWII. But no, they had to drag her and her lapdog into this story and make something out of it.

I am just annoyed by everything she says. She keeps secrets from Price, the man who basically saved her life to become the commander she is today, her motives are unclear, she says she does this to protect her country and that she doesn’t get out of it to protect but stays INSIDE it protecting it (her words not mine), extends hands with a war criminal when she said that she doesn’t work with people who kills civilians for no reason, she compares herself, 141 and PRICE to the Shadows/Shepherd by saying “we’re all dangerous”, and the icing on the cake, her Arabic is horrendous. I know because I speak Arabic fluently. You might say “but Jay thats her accent you can’t judge her like that”, I know how Arabic accents sounds like, and this bitch’s is fucking incoherent half the time if not all the time. 

And Alex… oh boy, this man is a fucking idiot lmfao. He had good intentions in MW2019, and I liked him there, but they should’ve just killed him off. But no, they had to bring him back. What are they gonna do now with Soap huh? They're gonna bring him back too? Also didn’t Keller say “he’s tired of getting told who his friends are” and didn’t want to follow the CIA blindly anymore? What’s he doing now with Farah, hm? I’ve never seen a boy so delusional like him before. 

So many plot holes in these two characters only, I hate how they’re written.

Makarov lives: we… never got to learn the reason. Yes I went back and watched the gameplay today just to make sure I was not wrong, they never say why Price stopped Soap from killing Mak in that heli. “John he’s in custody he’s not going anywhere. Stand down.” FOR WHAT?! If they knew Makarov had this much power in the world, they should’ve just executed him. But noooooo they had to keep him alive for plot progress. If he died then and there in that heli, Soap would’ve been alive at the end. Was it because Shepherd said “bring him out ALIVE”? Or was it because Price wanted a win so bad that he threw his moral ambiguity out of the fucking heli he was riding? Man, I miss the MW2019 Price. But we’ll get to Price’s personality section later.

Yeah, we never got to learn the reason why Makarov didn’t die, why he is still alive. They just made it so that he’s the only villain that had the balls to do what he did. Bitch please, he looks like a whiny rich child that thinks he can do anything he wants to do. Literally that's how I saw Mak in the reboot. His character legit sounded like a spoiled child, not the evil man we knew and hated from the og MW series. And I can’t believe that I’m saying this but I kind of miss that Mak.

Like, who would look at this face and say “oh he looks intimidating shiver me timbers” 

Yullian is too adorable for this role, and he did a good job to bring a villain to life, it just wasn’t enough to be "The" Makarov.

Soap & Ghost: now that brings us to this broski duo. Watching that heli scene made me realize two things, 1. Either Ghost and Soap were friendly before MWII and Ghost was never a lone wolf to begin with. Or 2.141 was tight as knit before it was even formed. Because if you actually go back to the mission itself these two sounded as close to each other as they were aftermath of MWII Alone mission. Like it doesn't make sense, bare with me a little bit as I go through the timeline of the campaign. 

Ghost was introduced in season 2 of MW2019, he was in the 141 just immediately after Price had formed it, and rumors say Soap was too, but we never saw him until the very last season of whatever game that was released before MWII (I think Vanguard), as a character bundle in the store itself. Mind you the bundle was leaked long before Cold War was out (it came out right after MW2019). And in MWII we get introduced to Ghost as this lone wolf/rogue esque soldier that only takes orders for solo missions. So when he was told that Soap would be assisting him in that first mission we played, he sounded annoyed to say the least. 

Now, up until the “Alone” mission and aftermath of that, it's as if they were only on acquaintance bases, then they became close after the hardship they went through in that mission. And it makes you sympathize and understand why they became close all of a sudden. They were betrayed by the people they trusted, they were in this together. But I digress.

Now in ‘Flashpoint”, the mission that was supposed to take place 4 years prior to MWIII where they catch Makarov, Soap was WITH Price, and Ghost was in overwatch with Shepherd in that heli. When they spoke with each other they sounded very close to each other, mind you this was before MWII took place. I kept thinking long and hard about it. Did they tell us what took place in between? Why do they sound like bffs in that mission when Ghost was not fond of Soap in the beginning of MWII? Did I miss something? 

It’s one of the two, either they are not telling us the whole story of 141 and how Soap and Ghost know each other, or this is a massive ass yet another fucking plot hole.

Ghost: I have to talk about him, because as a character that had been glorified and milked to the brim, his presence in MWIII was so fucking underwhelming. Even as playable, I nearly forgot it was him we played as in that mission. And his dialogues felt kind of… dry… normally he would actually have a smart reply or he’ll talk very bluntly but it just felt dry from him this time around. Like… who asks “what’s the rest of your plan?” to the big baddie plain and simple expecting them to reveal everything? Man they made him sound dumber than MWII. Literally reduced to this emoji 🧍🏻‍♂️. He had almost no impact on the story if you ask me, he was just… there… I expected more from him.

no words....

“No Russian”: well, that was a lame ass “No Russian” mission if you ask me. Now bear with me if I keep comparing this game with the og one because it can't be helped. This is a reboot, this should be BETTER than the og, it had to be but instead we got this. If you compare the og ‘No Russian’ mission, as brutal and raw it was, it left quite the impact on the series. It told us how savage Makarov can be, it showed us the brutality of the world, and that the world has some BAD people with no remorse. In MWIII, the ‘No Russian’ we got was extremely underwhelming, it didn’t make us feel bad for our actions, it did not hold any sort of impact except feeling sorry for the woman because she was forced to do what she did. It wasn’t us following Makarov’s plan and orders, it was plain and dumb if you ask me. Now, I understand in the political climates we live in today, it would be controversial to remake that mission with the player being one of the gunmen that… mows down a whole airport filled with innocent people and civis, but that is what made the og game/mission so good. It didn’t hold back on brutality and the reality of villains, the truth of characters who want to play gods, their motivations, how the player is tied down to the villain no matter what they want to do because it’s inevitable. And It had an impact on the player, the game and the story. We needed the necessary evil so the game could progress. But instead we got a woman trying to save an airplane filled with innocents, disarm the bomb that was strapped on her chest, and clear her name at the same damn time, which was like 3 minutes. Could’ve done better if you ask me. 

Shepherd: how the fuck did this cunt get captured in the first place? Wasn’t he supposed to be in Shadows and Grave’s protection? The man weaseled out of 141 and CIA’s grasps but somehow was weak enough to be captured by the Koni group? What is even the plot anymore? And they didn’t say how or why he got captured. Maybe it was that one Shadows soldier that Mak and his right hand man Nolan interrogated? How does Makarov get his intel? We don’t fucking know. He’s just a prophet at this point :) 

I can’t express how much I dislike this man, I don’t hate him I just really really really dislike him. There’s a difference. 

His character was, again, weak af in the reboot. God… why do they keep making me compare the reboot with the og games, I hate doing that for real. BUT, og Shepherd being as fucked up as he was, still had a strong personality. And if you just put these two side by side, no one would believe they’re the same character. I’m glad he got offed by Price at the end, no one likes loose ends after all. And he was a massive one, and a liability, and someone that no one can trust anymore after what he pulled on 141 and Laswell. Especially after he threw Graves in the fire when he was in trial when Laswell and 141's condition for helping him out was to confess everything. But of course, as the fucking weasel he is he didn’t do that.

Graves: oh man… Can this guy be any more pathetic? I love Graves, as he is, as a whole, pathetic or not, Warren’s acting made me love this character. But again 😭, reduced to nothing but a pathetic man who looks for glory. Stabbing his handler in the back to save his own ass, although he got stabbed in the back first. 

They legit took everything good and cool about any character we like (Price, Graves, Ghost, etc) and gave it to Farah, a character that should not have an impact as much as her. 

Price: that point brings us to John Price himself. I cannot describe how angry I feel towards sledgehammer’s writers now. I’m so pissed at them for writing Price like this.

real img of me reacting to the way they wrote price:

In MW2019, his actions were so RAW, he was brutal, blunt, calculated and honest about his work and what he does. And he took pride in what he did and how he did. He didn’t give a fuck about what the upper management (Laswell, Shepherd) thought about his work. He was THE Captain that everyone respected, even CIA agents and the U.S General were at his feet asking for help from him. 

Laswell: “What can you brief?”, Price: “We just did”- LIKE WHO ELSE CAN SAY THAT SO CASUALLY AND SOUND SO FUCKING BADASS LIKE THAT. NO ONE, thats fucking who. Now even Price doesn't sound like that AT ALL. 

They reduced my man into a puppet that ‘trembles’ in front of Farah whilst she calls him “Old Man”. That scene annoys me every time I think about it. Why would they do this to him? Where did that man that said “they were leverage” to Gaz when he questioned Price’s morality about the hostages, disappear. MW2019 Price would never be this mild, or he would never be gentle or compromising when it comes to civilian lives. That heli scene? It should’ve been HIM instead of Soap, grabbing Mak and pointing a gun at him. MW2019 Price wouldn’t even hesitate to cut out Mak’s tongue for talking too much. Killed Shepherd where he stood in Frozen Tundra. It's as if Price was not there anymore, it was Gaz telling him, reminding him what HE would do, it wasn't just once when Gaz advised him to what to do. Price is losing his mind for some reason.

In MWIII, he looked like he was too scared to be cancelled if he said or did something out of the line. That’s you’re fucking job Captain! To step out of the fucking line when no one would!!

Price is a morally grey character, a necessary evil, and that is what made him so good as a character. MWIII took all that away. I want to cry at how badly they wrote him. I wanted them to bring back “Angry Price” from MW2019, and add even more rage in him because of Makarov, but instead they pumped “Fear” into him. Price was scared shitless in MWIII for some reason, and it made it look like it was because of Makarov. He didn’t take risks anymore… he was not the same Price that we got to know from the beginning of the reboot. It's as if they keep having to change his character in every game he’s in, they can't keep it consistent for some reason. And it cost them dearly. 

All in all it felt like Makarov and Price were having a personality mid-off the whole campaign.

Gameplay: 87% of it was ass. And short. And annoying af. I actually prefer the fucking driving mission from MWII than this bullshit.

The necessary death: I get it. I understand what they were going for, someone had to be the sacrificial lamb, the motivation for 141 to keep going, for Price to get angry and drag everyone to hell as we went there himself. But did it have to be Soap? They just introduced him like a year ago… and they took him out just as fast. In that scene Makarove appeared out of fucking nowhere to fight with Price and Soap, like… where did he appear from? Why is he here if he just armed the bombs? Did he REALLY want to take a body count with him that badly?

We were playing as Price, and again, I had a bad feeling, I couldn’t tell what it was but it was there. Then Mak was pointing a gun at Price, I honestly thought he would die then and there, and I was so scared that it would actually happen but Soap, my man Soapy boy, saved us. When Mak shot him I thought he was incapacitated but stood up and saved up, for like 5 seconds it reminded of the og MW gameplay, just for a short time. 

And then, instead of shooting us (Price), he deliberately shot Soap, in the fucking head. And ran like a fucking pussy… I keep remembering his run, it was so stupid.  Mari mentioned this to me the other day, in the OG we see Soap struggling to live, to breath out the last words to Price so he can know the truth, he was bleeding everywhere, there were seconds to at least say goodbyes, here his soul left his body before it even hit the floor. And after everything went quiet I thought Price would fall to his knees and grieve. But he just stood there like 🧍🏻‍♂️. 

I guess I felt just what Price felt because, I didn’t feel anything at first, because it felt surreal, seeing him take a shot in the head like that. Instantly wiping the light from his eyes like that, it shocked me that I didn’t even react at first. Took me to the last scene where they were spreading Soap’s ashes. And when Price said “Who Dares Wins. sleep easy soldier”, I lost it. 

Again, I get it, a major character death motivation was necessary, but did it have to be Soap?

What I liked about the game:

Frozen Tundra: I liked this mission for one reason only. Okay maybe two… Reason one being that it's a classic cod campaign mission, reason two being that it was in Siberia, Russia. And Icy and snowy environment… thank fuck that they did this in the classic style mission. Also sneaking, and actual stealth that worked, because we were wearing white suites IN the snow. *chefs kiss*.

Wish we had a bit more options and choices, where we would be able to ride vehicles, like snowmobile, or idk maybe snowboard? Some creativity would’ve been nice. Because dammit it’s a snow map. A lot could have been done tbh.

The Cinematics: if call of duty is good at one thing, it’s making good ass cinematic cutscenes for their games. It was filled with eye candy; Price, Soap, Gaz, Nikolai, Graves, Ghost, every single person looked amazing in the cinematics. And yes I was swooning over Price every shot he was in (although his personality was meh). 

Yuri, Nikolai and Gaz: the only characters that I actually liked in MWIII. It seems like the less presence you have in the story the better your character can be. (not you Ghost and Graves). These characters were actually tolerable if anything compared to the rest of the cast. 

The After Credit Scene: oh that was satisfying. Killing Shepherd before he became danger to anyone else ever again, and Shepherd was like “I ain't begging for my life” and Price was like “I know” and just shoots him. Price was not taking risks anymore. 

Now this scene, here we saw the RAW Price. Now after losing one of the closest 141 members to him, Price was in for blood, he was on his way to hell, and he was going to take every. single. poor and pathetic bastard that inflicted harm to his task force. You can see the pain and the guilt in Price’s eyes in that scene, he blames himself for Soap’s death for sure. I loved that emotional part of him, I just wish he was like that the whole campaign. RAW and unfiltered. This was my favorite scene in the game, period.

Conclusion: they had good intentions… but making what was supposed to be DLCs into a fully fledged campaign was not the way to go. I wish more creativity was thrown into the story, the points were good, yes my theory was good, (shut up im biased) but it had some solid points, but the plot holes and the poorly executed story was the demise of this game. 

Like Mari and I had a better fucking story written out WITH this storyline WITHOUT anyone dying, and to prepare for MWIIII. They could’ve used the “Price going MIA” from the og games and implemented it in this game, instead of killing Soap like that. Maybe kill him off later on after recovering Price back like they did in the og MW. so many potentials, yet very poor and bad execution to the story. Man Sledgehammer writers were not fucking cooking at all. I hate them all. 

I would give the game: 6/10.

also I'm still expecting apologies from the people who theorized Soap was a traitor. yall better be so fucking sorry about it. even the people who entertained the idea of it even if you didn't come up with it. shame on you all.

[aamiribd]

#Quran #DailyHadithSMS #Hadith #Islam سورة التوبة ٣٧ اِنَّمَا النَّسِیۡٓءُ زِیَادَۃٌ فِی الۡکُفۡرِ یُضَلُّ بِہِ الَّذِیۡنَ کَفَرُوۡا یُحِلُّوۡنَہٗ عَامًا وَّ یُحَرِّمُوۡنَہٗ عَامًا لِّیُوَاطِئُوۡا عِدَّۃَ مَا حَرَّمَ اللّٰہُ فَیُحِلُّوۡا مَا حَرَّمَ اللّٰہُ ؕ زُیِّنَ لَہُمۡ سُوۡٓءُ اَعۡمَالِہِمۡ ؕ وَ اللّٰہُ لَا یَہۡدِی الۡقَوۡمَ الۡکٰفِرِیۡنَ. Indeed, the postponing [of restriction within sacred months] is an increase in disbelief by which those who have disbelieved are led [further] astray. They make it lawful one year and unlawful another year to correspond to the number made unlawful by Allah and [thus] make lawful what Allah has made unlawful. Made pleasing to them is the evil of their deeds; and Allah does not guide the disbelieving people. [9. Surah At-Tawbah: 37] سورة التوبة 37 مہینوں کا آگے پیچھے کر دینا کفر کی زیادتی ہے اس سے وہ لوگ گمراہی میں ڈالے جاتے ہیں جو کافر ہیں۔ ایک سال تو اسے (یعنی کسی حرمت والے مہینے کو) حلال کر لیتے ہیں اور ایک سال اسی کو حرمت والا کر لیتے ہیں کہ اللہ نے جو حرمت رکھی ہے اس کے شمار میں تو موافقت کرلیں، پھر اسے حلال بنالیں جسے اللہ نے حرام کیا ہے، انہیں ان کے برے کام بھلے دکھا دیئے گئے ہیں اور قوم کفار کی اللہ رہنمائی نہیں فرماتا۔ Surah At-Tawbah: 37 Maheenon ka aagay pechay ker dena kufr ki ziadti hai, es sy wo log gumrahi main dalay jatay hain jo kafir hain. Aik saal to usy (yani hurmat walay maheenay ko) halal ker letay hain aur aik saal usi ko hurmat wala kr letay hain k ALLAH ny jo hurmat rakhi hai us k shamar main to muafqat ker lain, phr usy halal bana lain jisay ALLAH ny haram kia hai, enhain en k buray kam bhalay dikha deay gaye hain aur qoume kuffar ki ALLAH rehnumai nahi fermata. https://www.instagram.com/p/CoD-WZuo4zW/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[thomas60barnett-blog]

Guedin Fan Game

Nicely, having Super Mario Workis huge statement at the Sept 2016 keynote, there is one query to be inquired: what about Logo games that are cellular and people Dog Crossing that have been set this slip to hit? Weam a serious portable gamer (demonstrably) but I'm pretty sure PC gambling is not going everywhere. COD gamers searching for their following Crew Deathmatch” sport might fall in and out quickly of enjoy with-it while Tremble and Unreal Tournament enthusiasts may see this as being a come back to kind. An Android emulator is actually a virtual mobile unit that creates a breeding ground capsule allowing you to deploy apps and activities or just like one given by an telephone. Another great issue will be the undeniable fact that they can be sold by you in a few months, for a deal! Agreed, why they mightnot include slick that final objective while Idonot know or at Lowest cut it back, fixed it in the Cameras map's middle instead of challenge before losing it making a new is,. 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It surely is Android's best release.” of utilizing it After 5 months, we believe Nougat produces more choices, multitasking electricity, and maturity to the operating-system all together. Like all the EA Cell games this year, the games have a speedy-depart method that instantaneously saves your game each time a contact comes in - if you are done conversing and leap back in the sport, it'll pick up wherever you were final after a quick reload. The largest issue is for me to market my portable that many individuals feel ‘there's nothing in it.HA However, this maynever be additional from the reality and choosing to ‘sell my cell,' irrespective of how older it is actually, could well enable you to get . We daresay a recreation contemporary shooting like Callofduty is approach simpler then Goldeneye. Spinx can be a Specialist Mobile Purposes Improvement firm, for all kind-of software growth that is cellular; we're expert in Mobile Developers and supplying companies across the globe. 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Transformers: Battle Tactics is really a free-to- play with mobile-game returning soon from Hasbro and DeNA. Thus Micromax GC360 mobilephone is without several features like camera excellent, QWERTY pad that is key, internet connectivity functions, color accessibility, battery copy etc but concludes the research of several Indian buyers who want dual-sim telephone at cost that is affordable. I was raised with World and Sim City and you can find lots of imitations on cellular having IAP crappola that we WOn't acquire today,. Finished. everyone must recognize is in addition, although although the browser games will continue to work on most surfers, not just Opera OS stainless regarding windows IE etc., PERmac, chrome It's this that yahoo will. Entrepreneurs are getting out of bed towards the chance of outstanding accessible with staff and their consumers 24X7 through their phones so that critical judgements will not have to wait till another morning. It warrants that by being much more and bigger such as for instance a total growth, featuring a variety of new part content as well as one main new pursuit brand, plus fresh locations, foes and so on. As the recreation doesn't stray not even close to the map and world proven in The Witcher SEVERAL correct, Minds of Rock finds a way to heart anyone apart to an all-new area practically quickly within the form of a dank, faded sewage beneath a city players could have visited before.

[nsula]

Spring 2019 Dean’s List

NATCHITOCHES –  One thousand one hundred and thirty-one students were named to the Spring 2019 Dean’s List at Northwestern State University. Students on the list earned a grade point average of between 3.5 and 3.99. Those named to the Dean’s List by hometown are as follows.

 Abbeville -- Julie Melancon;

 Alexandria -- Marquita Benjamin, Morgan Brame, Morgan Bryant, Maslin Campbell, Dshaun Coleman, Katylyn Cox, Noel Cusick, Tyler Flynn, Maeghan George, Jaliyah Jasper, Keyerra Jefferson, Jasmine Johnson, Leslie Katz, Hunter Lewis, ShaKiyla Lindsey, DeShonta Manning, Deasheneire Payne, Eboni Phidd, Jabari Reed, Ragan Richey, Imani Ricks, Daziah Roberson, Kaitlin Roshto, Caleb Ross, Savannah Sices, Alexander Trotter, Thando Turner, Erin Vandersypen, Cherell Wallace, Christopher Warren, William Welch, Tashiana Whitehead;

 Anacoco -- Jacob Bennett, Kenneth Cochran, Alan Cosio, Nicole Fitzgerald, Zada Green, Elizabeth Guy, Theresa Heaton, Caitlin McKee, Brooke Phillips, Jean Phillips, Cayla Roberts;

 Anchorage, Alaska -- Sydne Bulot;

 Angola -- Ursula Poarch;

 Arcadia -- Alliyah Murphy, Ralyn Sampson;

 Arlington, Texas -- Charles Rodgers;

 Arnaudville -- Alayna Moreau, Misti Richard;

 Ashdown, Arkansas -- Anastasia Saucier;

 Athens, Texas --- Jessica Dubose;

 Atlanta -- Madison Hanson, Peyton Howell, Brianne Lashley, Keneisha Williams;

 Avondale -- James Brown, Kelly Maldonado;

 Baldwin -- Christine Barard;

 Ball -- Makenzie Jones;

 Barksdale AFB -- Victoria Charles, Jeanine Matthews;

 Bastrop -- Nikkia Lewis;

 Baton Rouge -- Diamanisha Betts, Rosa Campbell, Joshua Cheatwood, Peyton Clark, Emmanuel Dunn, Bryn Edmonston, Lydell Emerson, Maisyn Guillory, John Guillot, Kelly Guillot, Cameron Hooper, Misterie Jarrell, Robert LeMoine, Daniely Midyett, Phelicia Neal, Sarah Rehman, Emma Rivet, Ashleigh Rumby, Ashlee Simmons, Victoria Simmons, Haley Sylvester, Madison Szekely, Kori Thomas, Jordan Williams;

 Baunatal, Germany -- Yannik Gerland;

 Belgrade, Serbia -- Emilija Dancetovic

 Belle Chasse -- Jade Talazac;

 Belmont -- Jayce Gentry;

 Bentley -- Stephanie Hayes;

 Benton -- Haley Crosby, Makayla Goff, Joshua Johnson, Kara Knippers, Tamara Korner, Daniel Scott, Ted Scott, Torea Taylor, Kathryn Watts;

 Berwick -- Brittany Vidos,

 Bienville -- Mavis Collinsworth, Julie Martin;

 Bogalusa -- Laura McFarlain;

 Bonduel, Wisconsin -- Miranda Backmann;

 Bossier City -- Cassie Bailey, Jayde Barnett, Alicia Bartholomew, Elizabeth Blair, Alexandra Borrmann, Quintin Braley, Hannah Brooks, Izabela Carabelli, Kendall Caple, Jonathan Castillo, Colby Cranford, Callie Crockett, Peyton Davis, Ashley Digilormo, Kelsey Gallman, Marissa Gardner, Sydney Gootee, Samantha Guile, Savanna Head, Dejaney Jackson, Nourain Jamhour, Anqumesha Jeter, Kijah Johnson, Haley Joncas, Elizabeth Jones,  Abigail Kent, Alexandra Madrid, Samantha Maiette, Casi Martin, Michelle Moline, Andrea Parks, Kennedy Parson, Khayla Pugh, Nigmeh Rahman, Jasmine Roberson, Andrew Robinson, Sydney Shannon, Gerald Shouse, Hope Spaw, Brittany Spence, Taylor Stoker, Benjamin Tanner, James Taylor, Avery Tibbets, Danielle Toney, Giselle Trejo, Tomaya Turner, Madeline Webb, Dominique Wineglass;

 Bourg -- Mia Adams, Abigail Trahan;

 Boutte -- Samantha Vernor;

 Boyce -- Hannah Aslin, Seth Baggett, Sonya Hill, Anna Lacombe, Amanda Land, Hannah Miller, Wyatt Miller, Ashley Smith;

 Braithwaite -- Kelly Pagoaga;

 Breaux Bridge -- Elizabeth Bernard, Dylan Davis, Blythe Duvall, Beyonka Heine, Ashtin Mouton, Emily Roy, Tyler Thibodeaux;

 Broussard -- Catrice Ambrose, Matthew Buteau, Brandon Phillips;

 Brownsville, Texas -- Emily Saldivar;

 Bryant, Arkansas -- Lilly Roach;

 Billard, Texas -- Brandon Duecker;

 Bunkie -- Haley Laprairie;

 Bush -- Saige Tassin;

 Calvin -- Victoria Guy;

 Campbell -- Caidon Campbell;

 Campti -- Destinee Cotton, Allison Friday, Kortney Greer, Madelynne Greer, Dalton Parker, Ronald Reliford;

 Carencro -- Destiny Kennerson, Carl Randall, Melody Woodard;

 Cartagena, Colombia -- Carlos Camargo Patron, Juan Castilla, Ivan Lorduy Camargo, Jorge Ojeda Munoz, Romulo Osorio Herrera, Cristian Paez Geney, Luis Osorio Betancourt, Juan Padilla, Ramon Sarruf Monroy, Juan Santos Sierra;

 Castor -- Kaycee Collinsworth;

 Central -- Christian Chustz, Hayley Tarver;

 Chalmette -- Jessica Adcock, Dylan Fuselier;

 Cheneyville -- Katelyn Baronne, Laiken Haggart;

 Church Point -- Paige Felix;

 Cincinnati, Ohio -- Kristin Byone;

 Clayton -- Glendalyn Boothe;

 Clinton, Mississippi -- Adam Moncure;

 Cloutierville -- Glenda Metoyer;

 Colfax -- Jessica Hebert, Angela McCann, Alyssa Parker, Mikayla Richardson, Lessie Rushing, Morgan Vandegevel;

 Colorado Springs, Colorado -- Rossana Potempa;

 Columbia -- Tyler Duchesne;

 Converse -- Hayley Farmer, Ashley Forgues Brock, Mallory Mitchell, Elaina Richardson, Hannah Womack;

 Coushatta -- Colton Campbell, Elizabeth Cummins, Aaron Murray, Tianna Rock, Jon Russell, Mikailah Smith, Caroline Wren;

 Covington -- Henri Blanchat, Kierra Blase, Rachael Coyne, Kayla Keys, Cathleen Oviedo, Anthony Pupo, Crystal Tucker, Etienne Blanchat;

 Crowley -- Sidney Gilder, Alyssa Huval;

 Cumberland, Maryland -- Rebekah Apple;

 Cypress, Texas -- Alexis Gomez, Kaitlyn St. Clair, Luke Watson;

 Darrow -- Micheal Douglas;

 Dayton, Texas -- Jerry Maddox;

 De Soto, Illinois -- Jayci Deaton;

 Deer Park, Texas -- Blake Stephenson;

 Delhi -- Jasmine Poe;

 Denham Springs -- Joey Carroll, Caitlyn Cutrer, Lenni Kunert, Halle Mahfouz, Francis Toche, Emily Williams;

 Denver, Colorado -- Joshua Adair;

 DeRidder -- Eriq Carver, Colten Denning, Falon Drake, Alphonse Engram, Bambi Hardesty, Shayla Miller, Julie Ochoa, Lauren Taylor, Jaymee Thrasher, Cheyenne Vander, Michael Waryas, Ashley Wisthoff, Kailey Wisthoff;

 Derry -- Hannah Antee;

 Destrehan -- Kiera Robinson;

 Deville -- Hailey Bolton, Hailie Coutee, Colton Johnson, Marlee Paulk, Hannah Siebeneicher, Vivian Vallery;

 Dike, Texas -- Brynn Offutt;

 Dodson -- Lydia McGaha;

 Donaldsonville -- Madeline Sotile;

 Downsville -- Abby Fordham;

 Doyline -- Lucas Darbonne;

 Dry Creek -- Kayla Mandelin;

 Dry Prong -- DeAnna Barlett, Jacob Boydstun, Alisabeth Lockhart;

 Dublin, Georgia -- Jessica Rogers;

 Duson -- JoBeth Caswell, Lester Dugas, Autumn Ritter;

 Edmond, Oklahoma -- Payton Hartwick, Ashley Medawattage, Amanda Stokes;

 Effie -- Jaydan Perkins;

 Elizabeth -- Kolby Friday, Clyde Hurst, Sadie Perkins;

 Elm Grove -- Katrina Thornton;

 Elmer -- Brennan Mays, Tiffany Turner;

 Elton -- Kayla Bellard;

 Enon Valley, Pennsylvania -- Jennifer Smiley;

 Eros -- Nicole Skerlong, Alecia Smith;

 Ethel -- Abby Guillory;

 Evans -- Lakin Smith;

 Evergreen -- Walter Armand, Shelby Riche;

 FPO AP, California -- Amber Travis;

 Farmerville -- Malissa Loyd;

 Florien -- Whitney Byles, Travis Cook, Cullen Hopkins, Faith Hopkins, Tyler Johnson, Caroline Matthews, Emma Ray, Dylan Roberts, Elizabeth Squillini, Megan Wagley, Shari Wilson;

 Flower Mound, Texas -- Cody McGee;

 Forest Hill -- Anna Doherty, Rachel Humphries, Claudia Marie Musgrove, Rafael Sierra;

 Forest Park, Illinois -- Kimberly Murray;

 Forney, Texas -- Jared Walker;

 Fort Bliss, Texas -- Brittany Passi;

 Fort Polk -- Destiny Ash, Laura Cerqueira, Jennifer Chirlin, Kyley Cole, Anthony Holloway, Zoe Kata, Ana Murray, Jessica Ramirez, Adrian Rodriguez, Sasha Trevino, Lindsey Turner, Nohora Valencia Camacho, Julia Ward;

 Franklin -- Chaqaire Jenkins, Cheyanne Smith;

 Franklinton -- Brian Geraghty, Aron Stephens;

 Fresno, Texas -- Terres Anderson;

 Frierson -- Austin Barnes, Shelby Callens, Nicholas Parham, Valerie Smith;

 Fulshear, Texas -- Drew Nuschler;

 Georgetown -- Laura White;

 Glenmora -- Eric Baker, Kristopher Devore, Megan Johnson, Nellie Johnson, Melissa Lanier, Faith Lawrence, Savannah Thompson, Derrick Welch;

 Gloster -- Kylee Causey, Jennifer Simmons;

 Goldonna -- David Day, Alexander Guillory;

 Gonzales -- Jordan Enloe, Victoria Gardner, Harlee Melancon, Nicole Moody, Corley Payne, Denee Smith, Jaci Templet;

 Gorman, Texas -- Kourtney Seaton;

 Gramercy -- Amber Theisges, Sabrina Troxler;

 Grand Cane -- Kayden Booker, Matthew Raybon;

 Gray -- Austin Pierre;

 Grayson -- Sabrina Mckeithen;

 Greenwell Springs -- Katherine Bryant, Micah Fontenot, Anna Lingenfelter, Katherine Langlois;

 Greenwood -- Taylor Hughes, Branden Savell;

 Gretna -- Jasmine Miles;

 Gun Barrel City, Texas -- Colton Banghart;

 Hineston -- Chase Powell;

 Hahnville -- Catelyn Errington;

 Hallandale Beach, Florida -- Ralph Boereau;

 Hallsville, Texas -- Emma Hawthorne;

 Harker Heights, Texas -- Khalil Corbett-Canada

 Harvey – Faith Johnson, Alexis Taylor;

 Haughton -- Arneshia Brooks, Kyler Burns, Jessica Chase, Madison Farquhar, Shelby Grubbs, Kobe Jackson, Nathan Johnson, Luna Karkar, Elizabeth Langley, Nicklaus Lowery, Paige Ramey, Hannah Robertson, Cheyenne Ware, Hunter Woods;

 Heflin -- Haley Shepherd;

 Henderson, Texas -- Christina Marie Colley;

 Henderson -- Asha Cormier;

 Henderson, Nevada -- Kiana Winford;

 Hessmer -- Dana Lala;

 Hineston -- Richard Clark, Gabrielle Merchant Langley; Madison Morrison, Chase Powell;

 Honolulu, Hawaii -- Melissa Baker;

 Hope Mills, North Carolina -- Taylor Camidge;

 Hornbeck -- Brandy Alford, Sarah Ceballos;

 Houma -- Kelsey Chauvin, Alexis Dardar, Jennifer Doiron, Anna Gautreaux, Zoe Hebert, Corinne Paris, Sara Rebstock, Rhianna Stamps;

 Houston, Texas -- Luis Cervantes, Brittany Davis, Levar Gumms, Kenneth Sheldon, Kendall Westfall;

 Humble, Texas - Aiyana Bean;

 Hutto, Texas -- Tommi Long;

 Ida -- Madison Campbell;

 Independence -- Tatlyn Costa;

 Iota -- Katie Latiola;

 Jacksonville, Texas -- Donovan Trent;

 Jefferson -- Matthew Broekman, Codi Vernace;

 Jena -- Mercedes Farris, Jill Kennard, Jessi McNeely, Dena Ray, Darian Thacker;

 Jennings -- Emily Benoit, Rachel Edwards, Mekayla Jenkins, KaTierra Lewis;

 Jonesboro -- Natalee Gray, Destini Mathews, Xavier Stringer;

 Jonesville -- Kameron Stevenson;

 Kaplan -- Laurie Breaux;

 Katy, Texas -- Erik Carver;

 Keatchie -- Antonio Dukes, Katelyn Hicks, Amber Nash;

 Keithville -- Amanda Eades, McKenzie Knotts, John-David May, Jerry Parks, Joanna Sims, Deja White, Larae Wooley;

 Kemp, Texas -- Katelynn Messer;

 Kenner -- Ryan Johnson, Nicole Lala, Gennyfer Pena, Henry Schlorff;

 Kerens, Texas -- Richard, Brumbelow, Cody James, Diego Maldonado;

 Killeen, Texas -- Kierra Poole;

 Kinder -- Nicholas Moldovsky, Stewart Wheeler;

 LaPlace -- Melvin Bates, Caitlin Foster, Jalen Haydel, Jacob St. Pierre;

 Lafayette -- Tamara Benton, Tene Cotton, Luke Dupre, Jeffrey Elkins, Adele Hebert, Michael Joseph, Julia Laperouse, Collin Monaghan, Joshua Monaghan, Christina Poole, Forrest Strang, Julia Towry, Madison Weathers;

 Lake Arthur -- Tuesdi Stipek, Hannah Worley;

 Lake Charles -- Jovan Avery, Leah Benoit, Chelsey Bertrand, Khristina Croker, Karley Hebert, Kathleen Hilliard, Zachary Neely, Isaiah Roy, Emily Roller, Michael Thomas, Kashell Williams;

 Lake Providence -- Lakarven Pitts;

 Lake Wales, Florida -- LaRon James;

 Lawtell -- Karoline Guidry;

 League City, Texas -- Mary Gilbert;

 Lecompte -- Ikeia Johnson;

 Leesville -- Autumn Boggs, Marilyn Brooks, Damion Brown, Rachal Brown, Angie Culbert, Junette Cutshaw, Sarah Deggs, Baylor Dillon, Raegan Dotson, Caryllan Fermato, Brandon Fredieu, Miranda Fulks, Brandon Furlow, Sarah Gibbs, Jarrell, Sean Grady, Jessica Gray, Beatrice Green, Cheyenne Grigg, Morgan Hall, Britney Harvey, Gabriella Haymon, Taylor Helton, Haley Hood, Emilee Keuten, Lane Koury, Samantha LaMonte, Karl Marzahl, Kelly Mitchell, Emily Moore, Brittany Paris, Victoria Perkins, Paula Pilkenton, Linsey Preddy, Amber Rose, David Santos, Hannah Scott, Joseph Slaughter, Peggy Stanley, Rebecca Thomas, Devin Toups, Matthew Ward;

 Lena -- Kadaria Lajaunie, Justin Williams;

 Lettsworth -- Meilyn Woods;

 Lindale, Texas -- Eben Cook;

 Little Rock, Arkansas -- Tara Lane;

 Livingston -- Shelby Cambre, Chase Crane;

 Logansport -- Amanda Hill, Maci Martin, Charles McClintock, Jessica Thompson, Trenton Timmons;

 Longview, Texas -- Gustavo Corrales, Kelli Hickerson, Deja Moore;

 Luling -- Macie Barrios, Nathan Roth;

 Lynwood, Washington -- Meghan Castille;

 McKinney, Texas -- Jameria Smith;

 Madisonville -- Sarahjane Ladut, Jensen Volz;

 Mamou -- Meggie Granger, Melissa Souileau;

 Mandeville -- Maci Burt, Lene Potter;

 Mansfield -- Rowdy Burleson, Meliyah Mitchell, Madison Welborn;

 Mansura -- Magen Hegger, Brandy Laprairie, Kate Losavio, Bailey Quebedeaux;

 Many -- Victoria Barnhill, Rachel Bensinger, Toby Bruce, Maegan Burkett, Hannah Chanler, Tyler Colston, Kelsi Horn, Charles LaFollette, Chase Manning, Brianna Miller, Tanner Mizell, Seth Ozsoy, Catherine Parrie, Chelsea Parrie, Chas Pilcher, Jasmine Sweet, Krisha Williams, Tobias Williams;

 Marrero -- Chris Charles;

 Marksville -- Madison Bordelon, Andre Boyer, Olivia Descant, Sarah Dyer, Shelby Lemoine, Tanner Nugent;

 Marrero -- Tara Brown, Chris Charles, Jade Duthu, Dorothy Giola;

 Marshall, Texas -- Serdalyer Darden, Laurann Graham, Sierra Smith, Abigail Upton, D’Sherrick Williams;

 Marthaville -- Emily Ford, Mallory Powell, Madeline Procell, Hannah Sattler;

 Merryville -- Shelby Royer;

 Mesquite, Texas -- Kaleb Fletcher;

 Metairie -- Taylor Crawford, Cameron Duhe, Virginia Falgoust, Mary Gaffney, Ellie Mandel, Morgan Nuss, Andrew Pitari, Madison Someillan, Mary Strickland, Holly Schiler;

 Minden -- Special Crawford, Jess Easley, Roxy Easley, Taya Hester, Lauren Holland, Fisher McLemore, Andrea McClinton, Amber Slater, Lamonica Smith, Madison Tanner;

 Monroe -- Kelche Browhow, Megan Gimber, Grace Underwood;

 Montegut -- Nicole Cohen, Megan Pellegrin;

 Monterey – Jacob Norris;

 Montgomery -- Morgan Bartlett, Morgan McManus, Hannah Vercher, Michael Waxley, Lauren Wise;

 Mooringsport -- Jay Davis, Jo Anna Fisher, Abigal Wolfe;

 Moreauville -- Austin Dismer;

 Morgan City -- Allie Atkinson;

 Morrow -- Quaniqua Joseph;

 Mt. Hermon -- Warren McFarlain;

 Muleshoe, Texas -- Caitlyn Barber;

 Murcia, Colombia -- Cristina Gonzalez Corchon;

 Nashville, Tennessee -- Doreen Cook;

 Natchez -- Sheri Prothro, Morgan Slaughter;

 Natchitoches -- Alissa Addison, Sharlexus Addison, Kayla Anderson, Tyler Anderson, Francisco Ballestas-Sayas, Gavin Bergeron, Sarah Bergeron, Megan Berry, Shenita Braxton, Trenton Brownlee, Taylor Burch, Morgan Burris, Elias Castro Caballero, Trevor Chalker, Donna Cooper, Fabian Correa Guette, KeShyra Culbert, Renee Cunnikin, Kenneth Darcy, Joshua Davis, Leah Deford, Gwenegan Dehe, Ashley Dranguet, Chasity Dupree, Joshua Ellis, Jason Fagundes, Daniela Forero Salcedo, Alaysia Fredieu, Katlynn French, Luis Gallo Quintero, Ruth Garcia Rodriguez, Matthew Giering, Julian Guerrero Acevedo, Valentina Herazo Alvarez, John Howell, Jasmyn Hunter, Holly Jenkins, Ronesha Johnson, Taylor Johnson, Hannah Jones, Brittany Jordan, Ashante Knox, Ricky Lacour, Carlomagno Leon Jimnez, Scott Macqueen, Miranda Mayeaux, Rylie Mcfarlain, Nestor Mercado-Garcia, Amber Minor, Maina Ibn Mohammed, Coy Morgan, Trevor O’Bannon, Kiara Padilla, Chaka Palm, Meredith Phelps, Jonah Poe, Keator Poleman, Shalondria Rainey, LaKendria Remo, Alejandro Restrepo Cardozo, Shelby Riedel, Kayla Roquemore, Daniela Salas Ricardo, Paula Sanchez Luna, Dante Samuel, Anise Settle, Jonathan Simmons, Skyler Speer, Patrick Sprung, Josie Stamey, Hans Andersen Tan, Travon Texada, Harrison Thomas, Mylika Thompson, Caitlyn Tobin, Austin Townsend, Abigail Vallery, Ricardo Ventura, Eva Venzant, Barbara Vercher-Smith, Lauren Vienne, Mary Whitehead, Jack Wright, Rylee Wyer, Ashtin Youngblood, Donna Cooper, Naloni Walker, Megan Winn;

 New Braunfels, Texas -- Charli Fouts;

 New Iberia -- Taylor Freyou, Jacob Gary, Jaci Jones, Grace Kerns, Destinee Leger, Payton Romero, Alexis Trosclair, Madison Willett;

 New Llano -- Justine Alzubaidi, Summer Atkins, Alexis Harbin, Kaitlyn Hotz, Nicole Naral, Katelyn Watson;

 New Orleans -- Jermone Baudy, Marquise Davis, Felicia Franklin, Haleigh Giorlando Wall, Jacqueline Gross, Jaime Hendrickson, Mia Jackson, Raphael Jones, Seven Joseph, Jamilah Pelrean, Julian Shum, Gloria Smyly, Amy Thomas, Tamara Yilla, Tracy West;

 Noble -- Savannah Anderson, Landen Funderburk, Ethan Morgan, Collin Procell, Joshua Ray;

 Oakdale -- Cheyenne Bertrand, Staci Brown, Coriana Moreaux, Kirstin Richard, Erin Russell;

 Oak Grove -- Tonya Creech;

 Oberlin -- Deanna Villareal;

 Oil City -- Ryan Connella;

 Olla -- Tanner Terrell;

 Opelika, Alabama -- Ceaser Stephens;

 Opelousas -- Kelsey Gallow, Kescheler Guillory, Amy Levier;

 Orange Beach, Alabama -- Elizabeth Gilliam;

 Otis -- Joshua Poston;

 Paincourtville -- Hannah Brister;

 Palmetto, Florida -- Cindy Hernandez;

 Pamplona, Spain -- Melba Mansilla;

 Paradis -- Kaitlyn Dunn;

 Paris, Texas -- Zachary Hevron;

 Pearland, Texas -- Clent Jones;

 Pelican -- Tabitha Averitt, Tabetha Caldwell;

 Pineville -- Taylor Bailey, Riley Bell, Emily Bordelon, Christian Boudreaux, Andrea Boyd, Kurt Burkett, Kaitlyn Burns, Latasha Cain, Taylor Campbell, Ameliah Carpenter, Noelle Carruth, Deja Chatman, Caitlin Crawford, Alexis Dennis, Sara Dorsey, Madison Evers, Erin Fallis, Casey Floyd, Lorali Hebert, Paula Jackson, Kara Johnson, Kelsey Kauffman, Landon King, Laura Lachney, Carlee Lake, Jaclyn Lambright, Connie Lawrence, Jeffery Lepage, Emily Litton, Cedrick Lott, Emily McCarty, Mya Melancon, Ashlee Mitchell, Curtessa Morrow, Judith Peek, Rachel Rudd, Jordan Sensat, Micah St. Andre, Gage Ulrich, Morgan VanBuren;

 Pitkin -- Whitney Strother;

 Plain Dealing -- Dormesha Noble, Ja’Mela Williams;

 Plaquemine -- Kameron Landry, Ma Kayla Washington;

Plaucheville -- Brooke Dauzat, Brittany Taylor;

 Pleasant Hill -- Yasmine Maxie;

 Pollock -- Stephen Carpenter, Erika Clark, Alara Faulkner, Christina Kendrick, Julie McGehee, Mary Robinson;

 Pollok, Texas -- Katelyn Boles;

 Pontchatoula -- Kimberly Holloway, Julia Verdon;

 Port Allen -- Kennedy Cullen;

 Port Barre -- Madison Estis;

 Prairieville -- Rebekah Bonner, Colleen Carline, Cameron Kelly, Bailey Mohler, Kyle Munson, Madeleine Sheets, Derek Walle, Kaylon Wood, Payton Stafford;

 Pride -- Leann Wills;

 Princeton -- Raynell Shield;

 Provencal -- Christopher Jennings, Rebekah Orsborn;

 Raleigh, North Carolina -- Aleida Alfonso;

 Rayne -- Bailey Beard, Cameron Desselle;

 Rayville -- Emily Rawls, Terry Rogers;

 Richardson, Texas -- Melissa Ferrer;

 Richmond, British Columbia, Canada -- Jalen Donaldson;

 Ringgold -- Alora Bryant, Joseph Hays, Arvionne Reliford, Aileecia Tipton, Caleb Vining;

 River Ridge -- Taylor Young;

 Riverview, Florida -- Robyn Larson;

 Robeline -- Jonathan Chism, Kelsy Elkins, Morgan Neugent, Megan Palmer, Jeffrey Watley;

 Rodessa -- Kristian Johnston;

 Rosharon, Texas -- Whitney Washington;

 Round Rock, Texas -- Evan Nafe;

 Ruston -- Erica Laborde, Phynecha Richard, Lara Schales, Jamesha Woods;

 St. Francisville -- Sara Baggett, Robert Burke, Katie Gray, Claire Leming;

 St. Martinville -- Blake Blanchard;

 Saline -- Shelby Savell;

 San Antonio, Texas -- Paris Finkbeiner, Kelli Gamble;

 San Pedo Sula, Honduras -- Cesoa Corrales, Bella Triminio Gutierrez, Xary Trimino;

 Scott -- Taylor Joseph, Alexandra Robichaux;

 Scottsboro, Alabama -- Jessica Provenza;

 Seabrook, Texas -- Amy Whitecotton;

 Shreveport -- Jessica Adams, DayJah Alexander, Trayveon Allen, Hannah Angell, Quinton Aught, Yasmeen Bader, Shakendra Bailey, Alyssa Bonacci, Antanae Baylock, Neely Caudle, Janie Cochran, Courtney Curtis, Kevin Denks, Chenara Dredden, Lauren Edwards, Jennifer Elliott, Hannah Ellis, Whitney Elster, Reagan Escude, Chloe Farrar, Irishia Finister, Samantha Freeman, Dejohn Garrison, Rayvin Gaudet, Jameala Ghazawneh, Evan Gibson, Shanetta Gibson, Karina Goodnight, Lauren Gore, Destinee Green, Jennifer Hardey, Madison Harper, Jaimee Henderson, Anthony Hill, Kimberly Housley, Jesamin Huff, April Hunter, Jasmine Jackson, Matthew Jensen, Caitlin Johnson, Jada Johnson, Kaitlyn Knighton, Akilah Lewis, William Mahoney, Katelyn Martin, Marissa Martin, Brooklynn McWilliams, Amelia McLaren, Marshall Merritt, Aysia Mills, Acquiria Mitchell, Destiny Mitchell, Dylan Molenhour, Cayla Morris, Jared Mourad, Katherine Mutter, Hillary Nicholls, Olivia Noonan, Bailey Patton, Zachary Person, Elizabeth Peterson, Mikayla Phillips, Haley Pickett, Patrick Pierce, Bailey Rech, Nahjee Reid, Natya Rogers, KeAndrea Samuel, Zachary Sanders, Yuriana Sauseda, Elizabeth Scott, Lawson Scott, Cynthia Shahriar, Catherine Shaw, Hannah Strickland, Morgan Strickland, Amanda Strother, Lindsey Sullivan, Alexis Taylor, Jordan Taylor, Joyce Taylor, Rodnisha Terry, Gabrielle Thomas, Breyonna Thompson, Kayla Waller, Dillon Wilkerson, Lana Williams, Ly’Shaquala Williams, Shamolia Williams, Jonathan Zavalydriga;

 Sicily Island -- Shawn Perry;

 Simmesport -- Kimani Batiste, Bailie Marsh, Taylor Myers;

 Simpson -- Carleigh Standifer;

 Singer -- Emily Smith;

 Slidell -- Claire Harvey, Alexzandra Hattier, Ashley Henry, William Jensen, Ariel Johnson, Allyssa Marshall, Isabel Melhado, Abigail Miller, Sabrina Miller, John Norvel, Savanna Owens, Holly Penta, Matthew Sanchez, Jourdan Waddell, Raina Woods;

 Spring, Texas -- Victoria Harris, Elyssa Hernandez, Sydney Normand;

 Springhill -- Armonis Crockett;

 Starks -- Melina Royer;

 Stonewall -- Alexa Barron, Raeanna Free, Brianna Hasch, Mallory McConathy, Kassidy Parker, Madison Parker, Chase Slater, Shderrica Whitaker;

 Sugartown -- Madison Budnik;

 Sulphur -- Andrina Ferguson, Erica Fuselier, Trevor Molitor, Makenzie Simon, Justin Sittig, Shelby Sullivan;

 Sunset -- Sonia Vidrine, Deandra Eaglin;

 Talihina, Oklahoma -- Heidi Couch;

 Tallulah -- Christian Cobb;

 Teruel, Spain -- Judit Castillo Gargallo;

 Texarkana, Texas -- Cody Hambly, Nicholas Sisk;

 Thibodaux -- Tierra Johnson;

 Tomball, Texas -- Nicole Henry;

 Tool, Texas -- Kimberly Kidney;

 Trout -- Harley Lisenby;

 Vidalia -- Katelyn Cooley, Hannah Hargis;

 Ville Platte -- Joshua Galland, Shelbi Rials, Cameron Tinley;

 Waco, Texas -- Isabella Hudson;

 Washington -- Tarik Andrus;

 Waskom, Texas – Mary Alexander, Kiara Kiper;

 Waynesboro, Mississippi -- David Hodo;

 Welsh -- Katherin Salassi;

 West, Texas -- Nathan Nors;

 West Monroe -- Katrina Chilton, Kirstin Elrod, Nicole Fletcher, Laura Lovell, Cassandra Phillips;

 White Castle -- Gavin Landry;

 Wills Point, Texas -- Rebekah Clark;

 Winnfield -- Erica Burnett, Taylor Burnett, D’Tyria Duncan, Jourdan Fitzgerald, Kerry Fitzgerald, Kassidy Grantadams, Trinity Homan, Madisyn Hubbard, Hunter Johnson, Caitlyn Martin, Morgan Martinez, Elizabeth Parker, Trakita Rainwater, Fatima Rodriguez, Lori Spangler;

 Winnsboro -- Hunter Cooper, Darrel Doyle;

 Woodworth -- Jonathan Magnano, Derek Wilson;

 Youngsville -- Randall Blair, Chloe Blank, Jude Garrett, Jessica Gilmore, Brette Reaux, Isabelle Vivien;

 Zachary -- Carmeka Cooper, Neil Ahldwin Garcia, Ciara Gibbs, Alaijha Trim;

 Zwolle -- Cheyanne Ebarb, Lloyd Gentry, Shakelia Maxie, Konner Parrie, Addison Rains, Marcelina Remedies, Holden Rivers, Brittany Small.

[capecoddaily]

Deck: Dena Irwin, RDN and Alyssa Sharp, RDN join CHC staffTowns: MashpeeTopic: HealthHub Category: Health and WellnessAuthor: CapeCodToday StaffTeaser: Dena Irwin, RDN and Alyssa Sharp, RDN join CHC staff…Main Image: Thumbnail Image: Image Gallery: Body:  Community Health Center of Cape Cod is happy to announce the hire of two Nutrition and Wellness providers: Dena Irwin, RDN and Alyssa Sharp, RDN. Ms. Dena Irwin, RDN is a Registered…

[halfmoth-halfman]

About the scene you just talked about:

I actually saw it (or interpretated it) as less problematic because Samara was part of Farahs group and therefore a freedom fighter, then she was forced to do you know what by Makarov. Makarov used not only the negative stereotypes that exist against middle eastern people, but also the fact that Farahs group is one of his main enemies in Urzikstan and this is where I think that COD actually did a good job i guess? Because stuff like this happens, especially in these times of the war in gaza, middle eastern (also mainly muslim people, but idk if Samara is explicitly muslim) people have it harder to fight against stereotypes and media are quick to blame them and use these stereotypes (which was also shown in mw3 with the news thing). Idk if it was their intention or if I just optimistically interpretated it like that, but I thought the scene was like a depiction of what happens in real life, short: middle eastern people being negatively used to push an agenda which is easy because of the existing stereotypes

I hope i was able to explain it well and not offend anyone. I would love to hear more opinions on this :)

(there are spoilers below)

i can understand that they may be trying to emulate real life, but personally i think regardless of samara's ties to farah and her being a former ulf soldier, they should've chosen a different way to go about the mission. yes, it could be understandable for makarov to want to frame farah and urzikstan, and that it could be playing off of real stereotypes and experiences that middle eastern people go through, but i don't think activision put that much thought into it and i don't think they care.

the original no russian mission involved makarov framing america despite the 141 (also his enemies) not being american, but activision chose to change that to specifically frame the middle eastern country for terrorism (mirroring a 9/11 style event) and kept that in during a time when there is actual genocide happening in palestine and islamophobia is growing back to a post-9/11 high in the us, the country they're based in.

and honestly, the change really cheapens makarov's character for me. he's supposed to be some big, menacing villain who is at the forefront of his movement and willing to do whatever it takes to achieve his goal, and in the og games we see that in the way he carries out the no russian mission himself. in this game, he does what? threatens samara then jumps out of a plane and that's it? the worst he does is give a speech explaining why he's doing it - it's his men that do most of the work forcing her to carry out the hijacking.

he's also supposed to be the 141's big bad, their mortal nemesis, but there's more emphasis on the way he and konni group terrorize and kill farah's friends and soldiers - dena and samara, in particular - than when he shot soap, a main character, and i think that's very telling.

if it were another gaming company that put more thought into their plot and considered the nuance of their storylines, maybe i could be convinced it was well intentioned, but activision makes military games. these game are meant to be military propaganda above all else, so i'm not willing to give them that kind of grace. i think it was a deliberate choice for an american company to not have their villain frame america like in the original game and instead fall back onto the same, tired "let's frame the middle eastern people as terrorists storyline" that's in every pro-military game and movie, during a time when there is a humanitarian crisis happening in palestine.