| JFK Reloaded | |
|---|---|
Screenshot of the game. The player (being in the position of Lee Harvey Oswald) has JFK in sight. | |
| Developer(s) | Traffic Software |
| Designer(s) | Kirk Ewing (Marketing Director) |
| Engine | BRender |
| Platform(s) | Windows |
| Release | November 22, 2004[1] |
| Genre(s) | First-person shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
Apr 20, 2009 Download the best games on Windows & Mac. A vast selection of titles, DRM-free, with free goodies, and lots of pure customer love. JFK Reloaded (aka John F. Kennedy Assassination), a really nice simulation game sold in 2004 for Windows, is available and ready to be played again! Time to play a historical battle (specific/exact), shooter, contemporary and north america video game title. Black Squad is Free to Play first-person-shooter military game, with Battleye support, dedicated servers, great shooting mechanics and amazing netcode. You can experience 10 different modes from classic to massive multi-play modes. And unlock new weapons and characters with currency given to the player after each match. JFK Reloaded v1.1 (Free Game) As I watch the limo creep down Dealey Plaza, I put my finger on the trigger and peer down my rifle's telescope. I can see my target in the cross hairs.
JFK Reloaded is a historical simulation video game, designed to recreate the assassination of John F. Kennedy. It is noted for its controversial subject matter, and was released November 22, 2004 (the 41st anniversary of the event) by Scotland-based Traffic Games. The game's developers insisted their intentions were to 'bring history to life', and help prove the Warren Commission's findings.[2]
Gameplay[edit]
JFK Reloaded puts the player in the role of Lee Harvey Oswald, who was found by five U.S. government investigations to have been Kennedy's assassin.[3] The player is then scored on how closely their version of the assassination matches the report of the Warren Commission (first shot missed, second hit JFK and Governor Connally and third hits JFK's head and kills him). According to the company, the primary aim of the game was 'to establish the most likely facts of what happened on 1963-11-22 by running the world's first mass-participation forensic construction', the theory being that a player could help prove that Lee Harvey Oswald had the 'means and the opportunity to commit the crime', and thus help prove the Warren Commission's finding.[2]
Players were able to submit scores, rating how close their version of events were to the Warren Commission's, for a competition that ended on February 22, 2005.[4] The competition promised winnings of 'up to' $100,000, but the final prize was just $10,712.[1] The competition was won by a then 16-year-old French man from Paris who went by the handle 'Major_Koenig', who posted his score one day before the competition closed.[5] Afterwards, the competition option was disabled and the cost of the simulator was reduced to $4.99. It was later offered for free download before the official website closed in August 2005.
The game starts just before JFK's limousine comes into view—about 28 seconds before the first shot was fired according to Warren et al. The player aims and fires with the mouse, and is free to fire immediately, but points are only given for the first three shots; all others subtract points. Ammunition is limited to 39 rounds. Oswald's rifle only contained four live rounds – three were fired and the fourth was in the chamber ready to fire. Three empty brass cartridges were found near the sixth floor window of the Texas School Book Depository.
The game ends when the limo disappears into the tunnel or a certain amount of time has passed from the beginning of the game. The player can also end the simulation at any time by pressing the space bar.
Replay and ballistics[edit]
The characters of the game are called 'actors'. After the first shots that hit someone are fired, Secret Service agentClint Hill runs behind the limo, which then slows down. If the player is able to fire the third shot and hit Kennedy in the head, Jackie Kennedy climbs onto the trunk and then goes back in. The limo speeds up either after Hill jumps on the running board or four seconds pass since slowing down. The original game software had severely unrealistic ballistics which caused bullet drop in the game to be exaggerated compared to the actual ballistics of 6.5 x 52 mm ammo fired through a Carcano Model 91/38 rifle, which was used to kill JFK. A modified version of the game allows correction for this mistake in the original program and also adds shooter positions at the 'grassy knoll' and the Dal-Tex building in Dealey Plaza. Players can then view a replay of their attempts from additional angles. There are twelve different angles for the camera, including 'bullet-camera' and freely moved camera. After that, ballistics of the shots fired at the limo are shown, including their fly paths. Statistics of the game can be stored. A maximum of 1000 points can be scored. In the competition, the final highest registered score was 782 out of 1000.[6]
Development[edit]
After working on State of Emergency, and founding Traffic studios Kirk Ewing wanted to make a smaller game based on a real-world event. After initially considering the Apollo moon landing as an option, he decided to make a game focused on the Assassination of John F. Kennedy due to the amount of information available in the Public domain and to exercise ballistics. Ewing also believe the subject had been talked about enough to warrant a video game approach to the subject matter. After approaching a friend at stainless studios about the game, they agreed to partner in its development. Leading the game to use the BRender engine. The game also decided to ignore conspiracy theories and focused instead entirely on Oswald's role as the sniper. A demo of the game was available at launch as was a full version of the game that cost $10. The competition to assassinate Kennedy as accurately as possible was devised to make people buy the full version.[5]
Critical reaction[edit]
JFK Reloaded was condemned by the late SenatorTed Kennedy, the late President Kennedy's brother, as 'despicable'; and by Sen. Joseph Lieberman who 'was sickened by the game.'[7] The game was also officially condemned by the Massachusetts House of Representatives.[5] Children NOW, an organization that promotes safer media for children, dismissed Traffic Media's claims that JFK Reloaded has educational merit. Director Christy Glaubke commented 'I would think the only [lesson it teaches] is how to be an assassin.'[7] The game, however, is explicitly not intended for children.[8]
On Metacritic, the game achieved a score of 69/100,[9] with some critics noting that 'the simulation, viewed on its own, is quite compelling', but that this was impeded by the lack of 'taste' in approaching the subject matter,[10] while others said the matter was taken 'seriously', and others praising the accuracy of the simulation and the enjoyability of the gameplay detached from the subject matter.[9]
Kirk Ewing, Traffic Software's Managing Director, said 'We genuinely believe that, if we get enough people participating, we'll be able to disprove, once and for all, any notion that someone else was involved in the assassination of President Kennedy.'[2] He later stated in Eurogamer in 2014 that he received death threats over the game's release and that he regrets posting the prize money for the closet representation of the JFK assassination. He also believes that if he made a similar game to JFK Reloaded was released today it would be treated the same way as JFK Reloaded was in 2004.[5]
Legacy[edit]
The game was included in ABC News's '9 Video Games That Went Too Far' list in 2009.[11]
In popular culture[edit]
In 'Raw', a 2005 episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, 'BlitzkriegKids.com', the website of a teenage neo-Nazi, has a link to the game. This catches the eye of Detective Munch, a devoted Kennedy admirer who believes many of the conspiracy theories surrounding his assassination. He asks, 'What the hell is 'JFK Reloaded'?', at which point Fin assures his partner that it is not something he wants to see.
References[edit]
- ^ ab'Competition Results'. Archived from the original on 2005-03-28.
- ^ abc'JFK shooting game 'despicable''. theguardian.com. November 23, 2004. Archived from the original on 2016-06-30. Retrieved 2016-12-17.
- ^These were investigations by: the Federal Bureau of Investigation (1963), the Warren Commission (1964), the House Select Committee on Assassinations (1979), the Secret Service, and the Dallas Police Department.
- ^'JFK Reloaded'. Giant Bomb.
- ^ abcdParkin, Simon (2014-06-04). 'The video game assassination of JFK'. Eurogamer. Retrieved 2021-01-22.
- ^'JFK:Reloaded Competition High Scores'. Archived from the original on 2005-04-03.
- ^ abTuohey, Jason (November 24, 2004). 'JFK Reloaded Game Causes Controversy'. PC World. Archived from the original on 2010-08-04. Retrieved 2010-07-10.
- ^'JFK Reloaded (official website)'. Archived from the original on 2004-12-09.
JFK Reloaded contains mature content not intended for children.
- ^ ab'JFK Reloaded'. Metacritic. Retrieved 2019-11-02.
- ^'Four Fat Chicks -- JFK Reloaded Review'. www.tap-repeatedly.com. Retrieved 2019-11-02.
- ^'9 Video Games That Went Too Far'. ABC News. Retrieved 2021-01-22.
External links[edit]
- Official site at the Wayback Machine (archived 28 March 2005)
- JFK Reloaded at archive.org
- 'JFK Reloaded: Revisited in 2006 - Review and Download'. Web archive. 2006. Archived from the original on June 27, 2006.
'JFK Reloaded.' You may have heard about this game in the news, on the Internet or in the paper. You probably assumed it's just another example of a violent video game in extremely bad taste. But it's worse than that. There's something very different about 'JFK Reloaded,' something that makes it bizarrely sinister.
For those who don't know by now, 'JFK Reloaded' instructs you, the player, to recreate the death of President John F. Kennedy. You are put on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository and given a Mannlicher-Carcano Bolt Action sniper rifle. The game's system gives you full rein to simulate the murder of JFK. The point of the game, as stated by the developers, is to prove conspiracy theories false and the Warren Commission true. Players supposedly debunk the idea of a sniper in the grassy knoll near the motorcade. It's all in the name of 'education.'
But an additional disturbing aspect of the game is the ability to fire upon whomever you please. Instead of attempting to shoot the president, players can choose to shoot Jackie Kennedy, Texas Gov. or Mrs. John Connally, the driver of the car or members of Kennedy's Secret Service escort. Why does the option of killing the others even exist? The physics are almost sickeningly realistic. Shoot and hit the car, and the bullet may ricochet up, hitting an agent in the head, causing him to fall under the wheels. After you shoot, you can look at your 'score' from many angles, you can rotate a 3-D model of the limo, you can freeze-frame your bullets' path.
I suppose, if you stretched real hard, you could claim this game has some 'research' merit, but I have a feeling more violent players aren't doing it for knowledge, and I am sure the developers are only in it for the money. And speaking of money, there's a contest attached to this game. The player who most closely matches the shots fired by Lee Harvey Oswald in terms of trajectory and timing can win up to $100,000. The rules state: 'Accuracy of your shots will be judged purely by the 'JFK Reloaded' server, which is programmed to audit each shot for timing and injuries, and thereby arrive at a total score.' Can you go any lower than this?
I played the game, in order to honestly review it, and it really didn't sit well with me. I've played 'Grand Theft Auto,' 'Doom' and 'Halo.' But those games aren't the same. In 'GTA,' I watch the events as totally fictional. Nobody really dies.
This game will have a backlash against all games, and that's too bad. I, like most video game players, know the difference between fantasy and reality. Even as a first-person shooter, I don't remotely think of it as really killing anyone because I don't consider the pixilated characters real. I see them as bits of data. 'JFK Reloaded' takes it too far, encouraging the player to 'think like a sniper' and offering you the option of a 'Chaos Meter' that works by 'increasing the level of chaos allowed in the system which will chiefly affect the level of panic amongst the vehicle drivers, and should bring some surprises—especially when not attempting to mirror Lee Harvey's shots!' Does that sound like a real forensic investigation to anyone?
What's next? Shall we lurk outside the Dakota waiting for John Lennon to come home? Will some disgruntled Beatles fans finally get to take Yoko out? Please, no.
In 'JFK Reloaded,' if I take a shot, and I see that I've killed someone, someone who is or was real, it reminds me of the old footage and pictures I've seen from that day, and I see that real person dying. That's why no other game is as bad as this one, and it should be rejected by players who know the difference.
JFK Reloaded
Rating: 0
Don't Download
Don't Pay
Don't Play
Don't Encourage This Kind of Crap
Previous Comments
Jfk Reloaded Mac Free Play
Jfk Reloaded Mac Free Download
My only familiarity with this game comes from this review and internet news stories surrounding it. However, from the basic premise presented, I couldn't agree more with your comments about the idea of this game.I am probably different from many readers of JFP in that I am a competitive shooter and a collector of military firearms, especially those of a historic nature.Like the overwhelming majority of firearms owners, I have no desire or inclination to harm a fellow citizen, and think that those who are so inclined are missing a huge chunk of whatever makes us human.The very idea of JFK Reloaded is obscene. For years now, I have thought about the anguish of the late presidentís family members exposed to the re-playing of the Zapruder film time and time again.I would think the idea that even a pathetic few would pay money for the chance to shoot the likeness of their loved one to be almost unbearable.It is my fondest hope that this 'game' ends up on the trash heap of really bad ideas.
Agreed. Yuck. And I agree with you that it should have little to do with one's views toward firearms (or the Kennedys, whom I don't like). Bad taste is bad taste. And as Potter Stewart said, you know obscenity when you see it.And, Jake, you might be surprised how many JFP readers (and progressive types) also like guns. Of course, you're new here.
BTW, forgot to add that this piece is the top featured piece on Altweeklies' front page right now:http://www.altweeklies.com/gyrobase/AltWeeklies/
Ive got it awesome recreation.