http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special_reports/uk_troops_in_afghanistan/ - UK Troops in Afghanistan

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-10974198 - British soldier killed in Afghanistan

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11367931 - UK troops leave Helmand's Sangin

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1313923/9-US-troops-killed-Afghanistan-helicopter-crash-2010-deadliest-year.html - Nine U.S. troops killed in helicopter crash as 2010 becomes deadliest year of Afghanistan war

NEGATIVE VIEWS OF GAMING:

Despite being very popular since the 1970s, videogames were not taken seriously by academics until 2001. Before that time they tended to be seen as a children’s medium and looked down upon as examples of ‘low culture’ - with simplistic storylines and stereotypical characters.

Comments from Mrs Cole

Ben,

You have some interesting information on here at the moment. Start to also look at how war is reported in the news and the links between realism in games and the reality as presented in news broadcasts. Remember though, that even the news is a constructed production which will have an angle or view that it is trying to present to the auidence.

Think about issues that could arise with children thinking what they are playing in games is relaity and the distortions that could occur.

The War in North-West Pakistan is an armed conflict between the Pakistani Armed Forces and Islamic militants made up of local tribesmen, the Taliban, and foreign supported criminals disguised as Mujahideen (Holy Warriors). It began in 2004 when tensions rooted in the Pakistani Army's search for al-Qaeda members in Pakistan's mountainous Waziristan area (in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas) escalated into armed resistance.

Clashes erupted between the Pakistani troops and al-Qaeda's and other militants joined by local rebels and pro-Taliban forces. Pakistan's actions were presented as its role in the War on Terrorism, and had connections to the war and Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.

Information Of Modern Warfare 2

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is a first-person shooter video game developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 video game consoles and the Microsoft Windows operating system. Officially announced on February 11, 2009, the game was released worldwide on November 10, 2009. It is the sixth installment of the Call of Duty series and the direct sequel to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, continuing along the same storyline. It was released in conjunction with two other Call of Duty games: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Mobilized for the Nintendo DS, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Reflex, a port of Call of Duty 4 adapted by Treyarch for the Wii console. In addition, a comic book series based on one of the game's characters was also produced, entitled Modern Warfare 2: Ghost.

Modern Warfare 2 has received very positive reviews from various gaming websites, attaining a 94% aggregate score on Metacritic, with praise stemming primarily from its in-depth multiplayer component. Upon its release, the game sold approximately 4.7 million copies worldwide in 24 hours. On June 15, 2010, Activision confirmed that the game had sold over 20 million copies worldwide, making it the best-selling game of all time in the UK, and the second best-selling game of all time in the US

Information On Call Of Duty 4

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is a first-person shooter video game, developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii video game consoles and the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems. The game was released in North America, Australia, and Europe in November 2007 for video game consoles and Windows, was released for the Mac in September 2008 and was released for the Wii in November 2009, given the name Reflex Edition.[1] It is the fourth installment in the Call of Duty video game series (excluding expansion packs), and is the first in the Modern Warfare line of the franchise, followed by a direct sequel, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. The game breaks away from the World War II setting of previous games in the series and is instead set in modern times. Call of Duty 4 was in development for two years, and it uses a proprietary game engine.

The story takes place in a fictional near-future, where a radical leader has executed the president of an unnamed country in the Middle East, and an "Ultranationalist" movement starts a civil war in Russia. The conflicts are seen from the perspectives of a U.S. Reconnaissance Marine and a British SAS commando, and are set in multiple locations, including the Middle East, Azerbaijan, Russia, and Prypiat, Ukraine. The multiplayer portion of the game features various game modes, and contains a leveling system that allows the player to unlock additional weapons, weapon attachments, and camouflage schemes as they advance.

Critically acclaimed, the game received an aggregated score of 94% from both GameRankings and Metacritic. The gameplay, multiplayer, and story received particular praise, while criticism targeted the failure of the game to substantially innovate the first-person shooter genre. The game won numerous awards from gaming websites, including IGN's Best Xbox 360 Game. It was the top-selling game worldwide for 2007, selling over 7 million copies by January 2008, and over 13 million by May 2009.[2]