Searching for Tom Clancy’s ghost

theverge.com:

I know people are hyped for a subscription-based future of video games. But if it’s anything like a streaming service, the actual experience of having a big library is scrolling around your options and going, Hmm, I sort of remember hearing about this thing five years ago. And because the stakes are low, you try it, and more often than not, you realize why you never bothered paying to see Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle in theaters.

Sometimes, though, a mediocre product can be gratifying, especially if you go into it with some pals.

I stumbled upon Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands on Xbox Game Pass, which, from the title, I assumed was a game about doing recon, in the wildlands, in search of Tom Clancy’s ghost. Turns out I was wrong. It’s a pretty run-of-the-mill open-world third-person shooter and feels very of its time (2017). You just drive around, and then when you feel like it, do some casual murders.

Also, these “wildlands” are apparently… the country of Bolivia? Booting up the game, you get treated to a mealy-mouthed disclaimer that everything about this rendering of Bolivia is fictitious. Which is how I remembered hearing about this game: that it was so offensive that the actual Bolivian government threatened legal action against Ubisoft.

And they’re not wrong to be mad! Everything about the game’s politics is straight-up appalling. You play as some form of secret operative, trying to overthrow the current regime — a move the United States does often and nearly always results in disaster. The writing has zero self-awareness of this. At one point, my character, while interrogating someone, proudly exclaimed that he was there on behalf of the CIA. (A more accurate title would be Tom Clancy’s War Crime Simulator