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World at War was remarkable for a different reason, too, and was the first game that I played where not only I cared about the actual gameplay, but also the story and the outcome of an event that happened 60 years prior. The game offered fun-filled action of one of the world’s most grisly events as a form of entertainment, but more importantly became a history lesson for myself and anyone else who played the game. When I purchased “World at War” - and when I say I purchased, I meant my Dad purchased the game for me (because the MA rating stopped me from buying it myself, more collective sigh) - my perspective of war changed dramatically.
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We had known for most of our lives that World War II changed the course of history, but we weren’t emotionally connected to the story, and can you blame a group of teenagers? As my teacher prepared his PowerPoint presentation on the assault of Berlin, a collective sigh was heard, almost in harmony, among the class of 30 school boys who simply didn’t give a damn. I was a young lad when Call of Duty’s “World at War” was released back in 2008, and I happened to be studying WW2 at school at the time. And Call of Duty: World War II gets close to scoring all of them. Blood, sweat, and tears: the three things required to produce a historical first person shooter that can both entertain and educates the audience.
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