SPOILERS AHEAD

1. “The struggle for humanity is a war without end. And war……war never changes”. (Fallout 3)

This quote pretty much sums up the entire game. The Capital Wasteland has turned into a post apocalyptic war zone. Super mutants are everywhere, the water is poisoned, people are mutated etc. This all happened because of war. Even after people have seen the outcomes of war and what it can do, they’re still fighting, they are still at war with each other. You try to help, you try to fix the Wasteland but it’s no use. Like the quote says, the struggle for humanity is a war without end. We will always be struggling for humanity. It’s a war. And war…..war never changes.

2. “The Cake Is A Lie” – Portal

The Cake Is A Lie essentially comes down to the fact that the thing motivating you throughout the entire game was nothing more than a fictitious motivator. Throughout the game you were promised cake when you completed the game. Glados, the voice guiding you through the game was always telling you about cake that you would have. Although, in the end of the game it is discovered that there was no cake. You were misled. The phrase became so popular that it’s used in every day life. For example, one can say, “I was promised extra pay but the cake was a lie”.

3. “A Man Chooses, A Slave Obeys” – Bioshock

Do I really even have to explain this one? This quote says so much about our generation as gamers. The entire game you don’t even realize it but you’re mindlessly listening to some fellow named Atlas. You’ve never met him, you don’t know who he is, you just trust him. You have no good reason to, you just do. Whatever he tells you you’ll do. What does that say about us as gamers? We just follow blindly? We just hope that the outcome will be ok? In the end it turns out we get screwed over because Atlas isn’t who we thought he was. If Atlas had told us to kill a city of innocent people would we have? How far would we have gone for him? We were acting as slaves, we were obeying. A man chooses, a slave obeys.

4. “Welcome To America” (GTA IV)

Welcome To America Niko. Niko is fresh off the boat from eastern Europe. He dreams of a life of prosperity and change. Although, the America Niko experiences is one filled with crime and harsh living conditions. Niko ends up back in a life filled with violence and killing. Due to the life Niko leads in America it leads him to believe that this is all there is out there. To him, this is what America symbolizes, murder, violence, crime. There’s just no escaping it. Killing, corruption, violence, welcome to America.

5. ” War has changed. It’s no longer about nations, ideologies, or ethnicity. It’s an endless series of proxy battles fought by mercenaries and machines. War – and its consumption of life – has become a well-oiled machine. War has changed. ID-tagged soldiers carry ID-tagged weapons, use ID-tagged gear. Nanomachines inside their bodies enhance and regulate their abilities. Genetic control. Information control. Emotion control. Battlefield control. Everything is monitored and kept under control. War has changed. The age of deterrence has become the age of control… All in the name of averting catastrophe from weapons of mass destruction. And he who controls the battlefield… controls history. War has changed. When the battlefield is under total control… War becomes routine.” (Metal Gear Solid 4)

The very first time we are introduced to Solid Snake in Metal Gear Solid 4 we are greeted with an optimistic view of the future of war. The way we fight wars is truly stunning and as each side looks to gain the upper hand we are met with technology of such cunning ability that we can’t tell what type of a monstrous machine future conflicts will become. As Snake famously says, “When the battlefield is under total control… war becomes routine.” Will war really become so frequent that we will come to expect it around every corner? Snake lays it out in this quote that when you truly sit down and think about, you might begin to feel a slight shiver down your spine.