Ars - Spec Ops: The Line's lead writer on creating an un-heroic war story

Ars - Spec Ops: The Line has been one of the year's most surprising titles for me. I'll admit I was almost entirely unexcited about the game after playing a short demo at PAX East earlier this year. That's probably because that demo came from the first half of the game, which largely plays out as just another in a long line of indistinguishable, mindless, testosterone-fueled, "kill anything that moves" war games in the vein of Call of Gears of Medal of Duty Honor War. Taking out an entire rogue battalion of US soldiers trapped in Dubai by recurring sandstorms isn't exactly boring, but it's not anything incredibly different from what video games have been doing for years.