I've actually been looking forward to writing this column. 'Cos sometimes I like to plunge myself all deep and warm into story analysis (pant pant) but I don't want to get too spoiler-y in Zero Punctuation because I talk fast and viewers might not have time to fling their breakfast cereal aside and hit the mute button. But now I can take the safeties off. So just to confirm, this column is only for people who've already played the Spec Ops: The Line story because it's spoilers ahoy. If you haven't played it, stop reading before it's too late. I don't care if you don't see yourself playing it anytime soon and want to read this anyway, stop reading now. You never know when you might win sixty bucks down at the dog track and suddenly are able to pick it up and then you'll hate the fact that it got spoiled for you. Last chance. Non-having played Spec Ops: The Line readers, you get to leave now. Go watch Unskippable or Moviebob or something.

Okay, now that they're gone, blimey, how about that Spec Ops: The Line story campaign, right? I mentioned in the aftermath of Shooter Season 2011 that after Battlefield 3 and Modern Warfare 3 it now seems to be somehow de rigeur to have the token 'shocking moment' in a realistic modern shooter, and Modern Warfare 3's childsplosion needs to take a good, long look at Spec Ops: The Line, because that is how you fucking do a shocking moment.

In many ways it was an inversion of the established shocking moment trope. Modern Warfare got into the habit of making a shocking moment that illustrated the ruthlessness of the enemy and the resources at their disposal. It's supposed to make you hate and fear them and get you fully pumped to ruthlessly cockslap countless numbers of them for the rest of the game. The Spec Ops shocking moment, contrarily, is designed to make you hate yourself, and fear the things that you are capable of. ......