Left Behind demo now available
A demo version for Left Behind: Eternal Forces is now available for download. We aren't sure how to comment without offending someone, so download and decide for yourself. We should have our own impressions of the demo up within the next day or two.See Also:
The Daily Show Get Left Behind
[via Blue's News]
Read - Left Behind: Eternal Forces on Wikipedia
Download - Left Behind: Eternal Forces demo (via AOL Games)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Agent MOO @ Aug 31st 2006 7:07PM
I doubt the commenters here will show the same mercy...
http://agentmoo.com
Russell @ Aug 31st 2006 7:20PM
Grand Theft Rapture
tactics @ Aug 31st 2006 7:26PM
right-wing propoganda bullshit. please please please tank. (yeah right.)
-"superfan" tactics.
nes one @ Aug 31st 2006 8:04PM
this was a terrible idea
Dan @ Aug 31st 2006 8:08PM
I've read all the Left Behind series and I love them all. I'll try out this game without much expectation.
redspear @ Aug 31st 2006 8:14PM
I am shocked at how few comments there on this game.
As a christian I find the premise and the idea behind this game terribly offensive. It is not one of tolerance or love but one of a horrible idea. That being that a life which is not "saved" is not as valuable as one that is not many what they do. They do not call this murder when you kill someone jew pagan athiest because they will not convert. This is worse than any video game violence even without the blood because it applies a moral conviction and authority to it that was not present in the other video games.
To take this game lightly especially if it is popular is a bad thing. I would hope that religous groups would outright denounce this game. I am sure some will but I don't think all and tha tis turly sad.
Dr.Swiss @ Aug 31st 2006 8:15PM
I'll just hold out for Street Fighter: Bible Turbo instead.
ben @ Aug 31st 2006 8:19PM
This is exactly what I think about it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ct-hzYodttU
=D
Pc @ Aug 31st 2006 8:21PM
Man....I downloaded this demo, installed it, and the damn thing keeps lockin up halfway through the load screen...sooo i had to uninstall it, but it sounds to me so far that its pretty gay anyways.
ohh well
Satan @ Aug 31st 2006 8:25PM
Don't believe the lies. *Our side* will win the final battle.
Ubersnuber @ Aug 31st 2006 8:25PM
"7. I'll just hold out for Street Fighter: Bible Turbo instead."
ROFLMFAO!! xD
GSI @ Aug 31st 2006 8:28PM
Another crappy Christian game for the bargain bins.
@ redspear:
Get over it...it's just a damn video game, stop being so uptight.
@ tactics:
It has nothing to do with left-wing or right-wing...this has NOTHING to do with politics.
andrew @ Aug 31st 2006 8:33PM
there is spyware that you cannot uninstall, atleast on the full version. i dont trust teh demo either
GSI @ Aug 31st 2006 8:33PM
ANyone else find it hilarious that the BAD GUYS are called:
Global Community Peacekeepers
HAHA!
lolersticks @ Aug 31st 2006 8:38PM
I tried to play the demo, but the game became corrupted and unplayable halfway through the good bits, and said that it would have to be reinstalled next Sunday. Then it installed spyware that made pop-ups full of ads for Cadbury Eggs appear. I'm a little spooked, maybe the Instruction Booklet can enlighten me, though it itself is a rough, edited translation of the original manual that was written back in the C64 days.
Ritz @ Aug 31st 2006 9:02PM
Well, I downloaded it and it runs decently enough. But the graphics make me sad. And it looks like what, an RTS? Not much of a fan of those either. On another note, I share similer views with redspear.
Fandel @ Aug 31st 2006 9:09PM
Some one please tell me how this game is somehow more offensive than anything you see in the Grand Theft Auto series?
If you take away the religious aspect, the violence in this game is probably more tame than 85% of the games released over the past 5 years. If you're offended by this game, then shouldn't you also be offended by the vast majority of games that are released today? Why the double standard?
GSI @ Aug 31st 2006 9:14PM
Like I said...stop being uptight.
Any Christian "denouncing" the game b/c of it's content is as bad (IMO) as the Muslim's extremists rioting over a CARTOON.
It's called free speech...the game isn't hurting anyone...if you don't like the content then just ignore.
GSI @ Aug 31st 2006 9:16PM
-->"Why the double standard?"
See also:
Religion, hypocracy, etc.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad @ Aug 31st 2006 9:22PM
Left Behind: Eternal Forces isn't "just a videogame", it's a training run for the apocalypse. Keep in mind that many people truly believe that the events depicted in the game (or some very similar set of events) are actually going to occur, and soon.
Sound crazy? Well personally, I think all you Americans are dangerously unstable.
Fandel @ Aug 31st 2006 9:37PM
"21. Left Behind: Eternal Forces isn't "just a videogame", it's a training run for the apocalypse. Keep in mind that many people truly believe that the events depicted in the game (or some very similar set of events) are actually going to occur, and soon.
Sound crazy? Well personally, I think all you Americans are dangerously unstable."
Well, you can say the same thing about any military themed game, or almost any game/movie/book for that matter.
And with all due respect, I would be much more concerned with all the propaganda crap that they make in the middle east, than any crappy Left Behind game that no one will play.
Americans unstable? Dude, we aren't the ones who rioted and killed dozens of their their own people over a couple of stupid political cartoons that were printed in a Denmark newspaper.
skyrous @ Aug 31st 2006 9:41PM
So Denouncing = Rioting???
So i guess everyone denouncing (A.K.A. bad mouthing and predicting failure) the PS3 must be the most violent bunch of monsters in all of video gaming right now.
Strangly enough I haven't seen any group of PS3 bashers rioting anywhere, is joystiq slipping in their coverage?
Fandel @ Aug 31st 2006 9:46PM
24. So Denouncing = Rioting???
Dude, if you actually read what I said, you would know that the last paragraph in my last post was specifcally responding to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's claim that Americans were "unstable".
GSI @ Aug 31st 2006 9:47PM
Repeat:
Stop being uptight :-P
Here is what you said:
"To take this game lightly especially if it is popular is a bad thing. I would hope that religous groups would outright denounce this game. I am sure some will but I don't think all and tha tis turly sad."
You are calling for a VIDEO GAME to be denounced. There are worse things going on in the world (including things within the Christian hierarchy) that should be denounced and even people being imprisoned (including religious officlas molesting children.)
Dr.Swiss @ Aug 31st 2006 10:10PM
Battle Pope > Left Behind
http://www.newsarama.com/ImageComics/BattlePope/BattlePope01issue.htm
Dave @ Aug 31st 2006 10:33PM
Can you imagine if the rapture were real? What if it happened tomorrow? Imagine, you wake up, and the war in Iraq is over, there's no more prayer in schools, parents are responsible for raising their children and decide what movies and video games they can play, people form their opinions based on knowledge and rational thought, actual science would be taught in schools...
Amen.
potato @ Aug 31st 2006 11:06PM
"You are calling for a VIDEO GAME to be denounced. There are worse things going on in the world"
The existence of worse things doesn't mean this one bad thing should be ignored. I'm with the other guy here, this game encourages and reinforces radical Christians who hold the "convert or die" attitude.
While GTA beat up hookers and ran over pedestrians and encouraged Rampage missions based around mass killing, they were all done tongue-in-cheek, with a tacit understanding that this is purely a farcical fantasy. Note how the GTA series have always featured charicatured characters with overemphasized stereotypes - the whole series is meant to be one big, fun, tongue-in-cheek romp.
Though the graphicness of the violence in this game may be far less, I find it all the more offensive because of its nature - that it is in fact taking itself seriously - and that it condones and in fact encourages the "convert or die" train of thought. This type of attitude is what causes racial tension and religious war.
Eric @ Aug 31st 2006 11:18PM
What a zionist load of crap. Christianity like this makes me sick to my stomach.
bill pullman @ Aug 31st 2006 11:40PM
"Christianity like this makes me sick to my stomach."
lol. what kind of Christianity do you like? the kind where you get to make out with yourself all night?
super freak.
Turken @ Aug 31st 2006 11:44PM
Dave (#28)
I hate to burst your bubble... but your argument about how nice getting "left behind" would be is fundamentally flawed. Back up just a moment to your first two sentences: "Can you imagine if the rapture were real? What if it happened tomorrow?"
Yes, you could possibly then live a life devoid of any Christain influence, BUT if the rapture were to occur tomorrow and you recognized it as such then you would also have to acknowledge the existence of God, and the authenticity of the end times prophecied in the bible.
Which means that you wil most likely then be condemning yourself to an eternity of burning in hell. And unlike the movies, hell is really going to suck for the people that go there. Beyond measure. forever. But hey, an eternity of torment and suffering is a pretty small price to pay for a couple years (seven at most) of "freedom."
TehDestroyer @ Aug 31st 2006 11:57PM
Everyone saying this is just a game and that people should get over it should also note that it's not trying to be just a game. The whole point of the game, and any piece of Christian entertainment aimed at the general populace is to convert people. The fact that it rewards killing those that don't convert isn't a big deal to me but I can see how the average Christian or person of any faith for that matter could be mad at it.
Ritz @ Sep 1st 2006 12:14AM
So, I dislike the game. Ignoring the merit or some peoples bias towards Christianity or not, the merits of the game in terms of graphics and gameplay (including the camera) are pretty terrible.
http://img328.imageshack.us/img328/9763/leftbehindod3.jpg
Thats what the game looks like at full quality. Its pretty gross. The camera system is terrible, its hard to manage and confuses the hell out of you. The character models clip through objects and 'ehh. Just blah. Control of each of the units is difficult too. This is just the tutorial, telling me what to do step by step. I don't expect the game to get a very high rating. It's just not fun to play, regardless of it being controversial or not.
Komrade Kayce @ Sep 1st 2006 12:18AM
redspear deserves a star. He is giving an honest view from a 'gamer' christian, I appreciate his take on it, actually, since he would be the target market for such a game.
The game itself isnt all that great. I just find human beings can do some very curious things. Like to completely leave this game out of all regular media coverage when GTA III (not even SA, just III) still gets slapped around like a red headed stepchild.
GSI @ Sep 1st 2006 12:54AM
-->"since he would be the target market for such a game."
Yes...uptight religous people who blindly follow what the imaginary boogyman and his "son" tell him to do.
Patrick @ Sep 1st 2006 2:35AM
"And with all due respect, I would be much more concerned with all the propaganda crap that they make in the middle east, than any crappy Left Behind game that no one will play."
I'd be worried about all the Propaganda stuff being released in the US over anything released here in the ME =)
Alcoholic Zombie @ Sep 1st 2006 2:44AM
All I am saying is I thank god that I cant run any type of 3d game at the moment.
Thank god...
:D
BRAINS! Delicous God Fearing BRAINS!
Fandel @ Sep 1st 2006 2:49AM
37:"I'd be worried about all the Propaganda stuff being released in the US over anything released here in the ME =)"
Yeah, because Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and other radical Muslims in the rest of the Middle East making propaganda ads claiming that the Jews in Israel drink the blood of Palestinian Children is so much less scarier than some stupid generic video game that no one will play in the United States.
Well, if you guys are so outraged about a video game. Please, feel free to join the boycott of Left Behind: Eternal Forces. Because you know the outrage is growing when 47 whole people sign up for an online boycott.
http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?left1106
Oh, by the way, If you actually want some sanity in this debate, then read this post by Michael Standaert from the Huffington Post on the game. Then ask yourself, why people are so outraged about the video game, but had no problem about the books, which were preaching the same thing for the past ten years.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-standaert/boycotting-the-image-but_b_28174.html
Rob @ Sep 1st 2006 2:56AM
I think the only reason Jack Thompson hasn't jumped on this yet is because it's a religious game.
Personally, I think it's hypocritical. I'm sure people like Hilary Clinton will jump all over it and praise how it's educational and pure and this and that, but if I remember correctly, religion has been making people kill each other longer than video games.
Personally, it makes me sick and I think games like this cause more damage than Grand Theft Auto and gallons of blood stuffed in the carcass of a sheep that's slowly being ripped apart by rabid dogs who are getting their heads stomped in by horses because people actually TEACH these things.
Darrel @ Sep 1st 2006 3:19AM
@40.
"I think the only reason Jack Thompson hasn't jumped on this yet is because it's a religious game."
Have you read the link on post 39? Jack said it "broke his heart".
Except it's for a different reason. Nothing to do with he game. The publisher of the "Left Behind" game so happens to be the same publisher who published JT's book, and due to abysmal sales, he's indirectly attacking them.
At least JT's on OUR side for once. Finally. Gamers and Anti-gamers have something BOTH can agree on. ie. the Left Behind game is digusting.
Also, gameplay wise it's stale and derivative. Wait for Supcom and Company of Heroes instead.
Fandel @ Sep 1st 2006 3:35AM
Rob and Darrel, you are both 100% wrong, but for different reasons.
From this article
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2006/6/27/234014/762
In Jack Thompson's own words....
"In this game, you can take on the role of Christian soldier and kill unbelievers, or you can take on the role of the Antichrist and kill the Christians. The killing setting is in Manhattan, of all places. I'm not sure that this is a faithful presentation of the Gospel message. In fact, I know it isn't. It makes a mockery of the witness of all of us."
"This is dangerous stuff, not only because it legitimizes the use of violence to Christian kids, but also because the last time I checked we were in a War on Terror, in which the other side claims we are engaged in a latter day "Crusade" against Islam. Now we have a Tyndale House-blessed killing game that glamorizes just that. What a rhetorical gift to radical Islamists. I can hear Al-Qaeda now: `America is producing a video game that trains Christian children to kill Muslims and to enjoy doing so.' "
"What this company is doing is using the rubric `Christian video game' to come in under the radar and sell a violent game to Christian adolescents and teens (the game is due out this fall) that thinking parents would not allow their kids to have but for the disarming `Christian' label. This is stealth. A lawyer would call it fraud."
"This is undoubtedly, in my twenty years of experience as a foot soldier in the 'culture war,' the worst example to date of how the corrosive pop culture has conformed the Church to its image, rather than believers confronting and transforming the culture... Tim LaHaye at one time seemed to understand the danger of what he is now doing. You and he helped created the Moral Majority to do a number of things, not the least of which was to counteract pop culture's assault upon morality and faith. Tim LaHaye, with his killing simulator marketed to Christian children, enabled by stealth and fueled by avarice, has now become part of the problem rather than part of the solution."
Pragmatick @ Sep 1st 2006 4:48AM
Thanks to redspear for a glimpse of intelligence in this otherwise dumb "discussion".
I am an atheist, btw.
Don Jose @ Sep 1st 2006 5:51AM
I'll hold out for "Tom Cruise's OT VII: Xenu Deathmatch."
Jellodyne @ Sep 1st 2006 9:39AM
Get on your black Nikes we're going for real this time!
Lighttech @ Sep 1st 2006 11:17AM
I'd rather see a Moses FPS. It would be awesome. God levels you up and you unleash new plagues upon Eygpt. The gameplays really bogs down however when you get to the Desert.
I am absolutely serious.
Roland @ Sep 1st 2006 2:33PM
Its probably going to be packaged with the militant-muslim flight simulator 2007. (That was low, I know)
Lighttech @ Sep 1st 2006 3:18PM
I hink the real problem with this game (from a philosophical point a view) is that it goes against the teachings of Jesus and God. If you only fought the armed forces of the Anti-christ, then only Jack Thompson and these asshole atheists who decided to use this game to attack the whole of Christianity, not the sect that this game is geared to) would have a problem. However since you can kill noncombatants just because they don't accept your religious views, I have a major problem with it. The 5th commandment I believe is thou shalt not murder, and I believe religious materials should practice what they preach. Rockstar is just some gaming company, but Left Behind as become an icon of the whole of christianity, and I feel it should make itself more respectable. Please note I said thou shalt not MURDER. Murrdering innocents is wrong, but I believe you are allowed to protect yourself whether it be from the forces of Anti-christ or the Covenant Invasion force.
Brad Lee @ Sep 2nd 2006 3:09PM
@ GSI
You are the worst kind of atheist my friend. I don't mean to attack you or anything but you really give us a bad name. First, you claim a game that is being made strictly for christian propagandaism is perfectly okay just because 'freedom of speech.' Sure, freedom of speech grants things like this, but to say propagadaism is okay is just downright nutty. Thats like saying it is okay for President Bush to create fake townhall meetings where people are prescreened and only those who support the president are allowed in, and they can only ask questions that are approved of by the president. That is not okay, that is propaganda, and the only purpose it serves is to reinforce the delusions of people who still think he is a good president or has any idea of what he is doing. Technically it is still 'freedom of speech,' but it is not okay by any means of the word.
And of course then when redspear makes a decent comeback you degrade yourself to the childish 'you believe in an imaginary God so you're stupid' argument. Atheistic dogma is just as bad as religious dogma.
@ redspear
You should become an atheist man. It's great, and you seem to be halfway there anyway. Personally, I don't understand how people can believe in God without being a paranoid schizophrenic. I used to 'sorta' believe in God a long time ago and I was paranoid of doing ANYTHING wrong every moment of my life for fear that the one thing I did wrong would cause me to spend eternity in hellfire and brimstone when I die. And because of that, I wasted many, many years of my life being waaaaaaay too cautious; never taking risks, never having a moment of fun, etc.
I'm not saying everyone who believes in God is like that, or that other people's experience with religion would be as negative as mine was. I'm just trying to say that I believe religion is more of a spiritual anchor than the 'angel wings' religious folk always try to make it out to be.
For anyone who is religious I have a book you should all read to 'test your faith.' If you can read this book and still be religious, then you really do have true faith. Because, this book really opens your eyes to what religion really is.
http://www.amazon.com/End-Faith-Religion-Future-Reason/dp/0393327655/sr=8-1/qid=1157223948/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-1609117-1582340?ie=UTF8&s=books
simon @ Sep 2nd 2006 6:55PM
damn, that game is some ugly crap.
i downloaded and played a bit and it's is like 10 years behind tech-wise. the voice acting and sounds are hurting my ears and the graphics are worse.
controls are a hassle so all in all: no thanks.
i realy don't care about that christian extremist story. if the game would have been well made i'ld play it. i played all kinds of ideological shit, even patriotic american military bull. these are games. and this is a game blog.
i actually had to laught about the UN being the antichrist. at least they show you up front that they are some loonie ideologists. take it for what it is, a fantasy.
redspear @ Sep 3rd 2006 2:18AM
36. -->"since he would be the target market for such a game."
Yes...uptight religous people who blindly follow what the imaginary boogyman and his "son" tell him to do.
GSI,
Is that your issue because I am an uptight religous person in your opion? That you think I blindly follow an imaginary boogyman?
I do not ever tell others what to do. I will never say anyone is wrong for playing this game. At the same time I can say that I think the premise of this game is sick.
GSI you do not know how I view religion other than saying that I am christian. There are many people of all religions who have indepent ideas and understandings of their own religion. There are many christaians out there who say I am not a christian because I was never baptised. One I don't believe in Revelations and I do not need to. Two I am a quaker which means I am pacifist but even with that I am fairly liberal I understand that I live in a real world where stuff happens that I may not agree with. I know enterainment and that is what it is. To me moral judgement is only a personal venture but it does not stop me from speaking my mind.
Others here have said it and I will say it again. The people who look for=ward to arapture are the ones this is really targetted for. To some it will add an element of reality. You may not understand but there is a problem with violence and christianity in the United States. In the South they have posters in some churches with the phrase "army of god" and images of hands standning up in a crowd. There are small groups of christians who feel that their self appointed moral authority gives them the power to attack people who live different lives than them or dare to believe differently than them. Yes I get uptight when I see this I feel it is bad for religion whenever you take it out of the personal realm and try to extend it to others who may or will not see the world the same as you. If you don't believe in god I don't care it is not my business if you do it is still none of my business.
I believe in evolution. I beleive in the Big Bang. I am not a literalist. It took me years to develop what my understanding of religion is today. I don't believe in Satan as is described. If I am wrong and die well at least I will never know. Yet I do not let my relgious viewpoints inhibit me from new ideas. the greatest gift we all have is to learn.
The violence in this game extends beyond regular gaming violence the amount of blood in the game is not what makes violence serious it is only what may make it groteusque. If this game was a KKK game where you got power points for enslaving Black people or killing those who were not enslaved. Or a holocaust game where you get points for capturing and sending Jews to a Concentration camp or killing them. It would be just as bad. The convert or kill mentality is exactly the same thing. A sick twisted version of spirtuality that IMO lacks understanding and only leads to empty beliefs. The idea thatpeople use the idea of "moral authority" to give them the right to kill. Debatable yes, I could be wrong about my stances on everything. However to just "denounce" the game as you say. No there is no problem with that.
redspear @ Sep 3rd 2006 3:12AM
GSI I am not uptight.
I am not saying the game should not be made. I am not saying that tons of people will go out n the street tommorow and mimic this. This game is a fantasy.
I see no double standard here. I don't like the premise of the game. I think it is one that is based around hate and is borderline hate speech because of the idea of conversion or die tact. I consider a fantasy though solely in the fact that is what Left Behind is a Radical Christian fantasy that is advertised heavily on the 700 club and lots of readers of the series take it as more than what it is.
And GSI hate speech can hurt people if it used to incite violence. However show me one place where I said that this game should not be sold or banned because i never said that. I also said I haven't played it so it may different than what I think something I am fully aware of. However the premise seems to be based around the same mentality that is very dangerous the type of though and premise that Osama Bin Laden would use to gain martyr's and that does hurt people. Is that exteme nope.. Why because the game is proabably crap and won't sell. That still does not stop me from using my free speech to express my thought on a game beofer or after about what I think of it and its premise.
Yes call me crazy but I am not bothered by violence or sex in games or movies, however I do discuss the ideas of the movies and games and books I read or come across.