Army of Two Producer Comments on Modern Warfare 2's Airport Level

The airport level from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has easily been gaming’s most infamous scene of the year, whether or not it deserves it. EA Montreal’s Matt Turner, currently producer and writer for Army of Two: 40th Day, expressed both apprehensions about the scene and admiration for Infinity Ward.

"We wouldn't have done it, we didn't do it," he told CVG. "For me personally I think the alarm bells went off in a big way on that one because it was out of context. When the footage got leaked thousands upon thousands of people saw it on a clip not knowing what it was. I'm not saying they were overreacting but people were generating these pretty outlandish opinions even though they didn't know what the scene meant in the grand scheme of the game. You're playing a CIA agent, it's designed to show the atrocities... it's pretty awful and if you fail to see that side of it than you're not getting the whole picture. That being said, I thought it took it a little far; it was pretty out there. But I like seeing that they have guts like that."

"I say maybe they pushed it too far but in a way that's a good thing because the media of videogames is very young. We have to start pushing limits, making statements and seeing what kind of social and cultural relevance that we can have which hasn't really been nailed yet,” he continued. "I think [Infinity Ward] were pushing towards that direction and trying to make people experience something truly terrible. Whether they were successful or not I'll leave up to the players to decide, but I liked the fact that they were trying something new that people haven't done before. I think that's really gutsy and my hat's off to Infinity Ward for trying at least."

We agree that the biggest problem about the airport scene was the way it was revealed: originally in French and not in the greater content of the game. The writer for Modern Warfare 2 recently defended the move and said “the airport level was a risk we had to take.”