How do you feel about video games that depict modern combat?

When I was on active duty a lot of my peers would go home after being released for the day to relax and unwind by playing video games. I always found it mildly ironic that the video games of choice seemed to almost always be games based on modern combat. Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, Battlefield, these are some of the most popular examples of video game franchises that depict warfare in a modern setting.

These games are not realistic. Sure, they can get weapons, equipment, and other various "small details" right, but they do not accurately depict the life of a soldier even when said soldier is fighting in intense combat. I hesitate to use the term, but there is some truth to the idea that these franchises glamorize warfare and the violence that is a part of wars very nature. There are two notable exceptions to this though, games that go against this trend. The first of which was never released due to the controversy around its concept.

"Six Days in Fallujah" was originally planned to be released in 2009 but never saw the light of day. In a nut shell it fell into the "survival horror" genre of gaming (emphasis on atmosphere and building tension for those not familiar with the term) as it depicted marines fighting insurgents in Fallujah, often by clearing homes which you should notice was extremely grounded in reality. It became controversial the moment it was announced in large part because of its accuracy to events that were still ongoing in real life. In the words of the gaming press, and main stream press, it was "too soon."

The second noticeable exception to the rule of games covering modern combat is a game called Spec Ops: The Line which was released in 2012 and the game from which the picture you can see embedded in this topic above originates from. Again, in a nutshell, this game takes a squad of Delta Force operators as they fight in a middle eastern setting and focuses greatly on the psychological impact of killing. There's a lot to be said for this game, but to keep it on topic and to keep this short the game goes into a lot of depth into the nature of war and how it affects those who take part in it. Whereas in most games the avatar you play as kills indiscriminately with one liners being yelled out left and right, but here killing has real weight and meaning. Every fire fight, every moral choice, deeply affects not just the operator you play as but the operators in the story your character fights alongside. I've personally played this game to its bitter end and can attest that it was a deeply disturbing game in a lot of ways, for better or for worse. And that's the crux of this topic.

My question to the RallyPoint community is two fold. First, how do you feel about video games depicting modern combat in general? Second, given the choice between video games glamorizing war for the sake of "fun value" and games that attempt to show the true brutality of what service members endure in combat which would you prefer? Do you think the latter choice adequately provides context to a soldiers ordeal for civilians or do you think it's territory best left unexplored for the sake of civilians entertainment?