Silly, rabbit! Nukes are for kids

Phil Harvey, Editor-in-Chief

October 2, 2006

2 Min Read
Everybody Dies

7:00 PM -- From The Philter's Video Game Violence Can't Kill You File comes the new title from Introversion Software: DEFCON, a game that bills itself as "The World's first Genocide 'em up."

It hasn't hit retailers yet, that I know of, but here's a bit of marketing copy to whet your appetite for killin':

You play the role of a military Commander hidden deep within an Underground bunker. Your mission - to successfully exterminate your enemy's civilian population whilst disabling their ability to attack your own. Start by launching your battleships, subs and bombers in order to decimate your opponent's defences. Scramble together your alliances but remember only one can stand victorious.

Prepare your pre-emptive strike before one of your supposed allies gets the same idea. Choose the perfect moment for betrayal, obliterating your opponents with an apocalyptic thermonuclear barrage, but get it wrong and their devastating counter attack will bring you to your knees!

It's Global Thermonuclear War, and nobody wins. But maybe - just maybe - you can lose the least.



Excellent. Why bother shooting thugs with Grand Theft Auto when you can take out entire rogue nations? There are a few words about the way the game's played on Wikipedia, and here are a couple of screen grabs:

105038_2.jpg105038_1.jpgI think these guys at Introversion are onto something. If you're going to build a multiplayer, online killin' game, don't limit yourself to shooting some jobber in a bank-heist-gone-awry. Melt someone's ass from a thousand miles away. That's fun.

And patriotic.

— Phil Harvey, Shooting Stuff Editor, Light Reading

About the Author(s)

Phil Harvey

Editor-in-Chief, Light Reading

Phil Harvey has been a Light Reading writer and editor for more than 18 years combined. He began his second tour as the site's chief editor in April 2020.

His interest in speed and scale means he often covers optical networking and the foundational technologies powering the modern Internet.

Harvey covered networking, Internet infrastructure and dot-com mania in the late 90s for Silicon Valley magazines like UPSIDE and Red Herring before joining Light Reading (for the first time) in late 2000.

After moving to the Republic of Texas, Harvey spent eight years as a contributing tech writer for D CEO magazine, producing columns about tech advances in everything from supercomputing to cellphone recycling.

Harvey is an avid photographer and camera collector – if you accept that compulsive shopping and "collecting" are the same.

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