This article tends to justify releasing the game on the basis that U.S war vets approve of it. Sure that's one key factor, but you've blown over the other key factor. What do the residents of Fallujah think about it?
A military shooter with true authenticity would be one in which both sides of the conflict are humanized. This was briefly alluded to in the regret of Ross Caputi, a U.S veteran, but unless the game builds on it, it's story will lack freshness and authenticity.
The quality of Team Ico's games are practically unmatched. They are unique in every way, not like the rehashed titles of Naughty Dog and Insomniac which follow the same formula over and over (not to say that those games are bad, or that they follow the same formula to the extent that CoD shamefully does). You just can't compare these guys to those other developers. Let them take their time and create a master piece.
This trailer looks like it should be a parody! Cheesy dialogue and action scenes, lack of elegance, rap and rock music in the Metal Gear world.... ah. People have a right to complain about this. That's the purpose of sites like Gamespot! Sure it's MGR and not MGS, but that doesn't mean its okay to butcher the game world (pun intended).
Ubisoft has a great opportunity to nail this one and really pull it off, so long as they don't fall into the bane of Native American pop culture stereotypes (alluded to by UndeadAssassin in the comments below).
A lot of people are criticizing the author of the article, saying that he doesn't understand the difference between reality and reality in representation. This is a very shallow interpretation of his words. Although it isn't mentioned explicitly, the article is critiquing the lack of feeling that exists in military shooters. Such games give us a glorified, dumb-downed version of war. It isn't a joke when people say "war is ugly." Take a look at photos of the Vietnam War's Mei Lai massacre. These pictures are grotesque. Among other things, they'll show you how when you shoot someone in the head, a gush of blood doesn't just spray out. The person's brain will literally ooze out from the hole the bullet left in their head. Soldiers deal with many problems during and after the war, and many of them never recover from the trauma they suffered. Since these issues are not depicted in bland and generic shooters, the representation of reality isn't a harmless escape for us, it is mind-numbing and denies us of the truth. Of course shooting a digital representation of the real thing doesn't affect us the way it does real soldiers. We have been given a pleasant, but grossly misrepresented version of reality, and it fails to respect the soldiers and civilians who have gone through the real thing.
"Scripting is suggestive of an experience where the player has no real impact on what goes on in the world." It was clear in the demo that the player did not have to euthanize the horse or interrupt the execution. I think its a bit too early to judge how scripted the game is or isn't.
The deepest, most intricate characters that move and inspire us in games often tend to be female. Anyone remember Konoko from Oni? How about The Boss from Metal Gear Solid 3? Motoko from Ghost in the Shell? Definitely some of my favourite characters =). Too bad we don't see these kind of characters very often.
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