One thing I'm curious about is how accurate the review was in this week's Newsweek. The author said that the game was somehow more humanizing... The main character has more personality, there's a friendship element, and characters who are wounded show more signs of being human...
It could just be that the guy's an overly nice guy like me (I can't bring myself to be a dictator or sacrifice citizens in Civ games) and reading too much into it.
But if he's right, I'd like to see how humanization affects games. Would it lead to more of a sensitization to violence to counter years of desensitization... would it lead to even more desensitization as players ignore the sensibilities brought up... or for the most part, do most people have a clear emotional line between games and reality?
I've often thought the reason "horror" movies have turned into comedies where people root for the killer is because of lacking character development and creation of character sympathy, so I think theoretically video games should work similarly... not that I think games or movies lead to violence- just desensitization.
Just food for thought. Somebody let me know if the character development really does make the game feel different, if you would though.
And here's the link to the review I mentioned:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/135372