Vietnam vet derides Black Ops release as "very tacky"

Vietnam veteran and Winnipeg resident Ron Parkes has hit out at the release of Black Ops on Remembrance Day.

"I think it is very tacky to include the distribution of a graphic war-based game like this during a week that we are supposed to be honouring those who have fallen to the conflicts this game depicts," Parkes told the Winnipeg Free Press, via Kotaku.

"Remembrance Day is not a consumer advocate's day and this company is clearly using the date as a marketing strategy."

Parkes spent three months in Vietnam in 1965; it was no picnic, he added.

"War is always a miserable experience and the movies or video games depicting these wars never really do catch how bad it really is," Parkes said.

"War is a whole different scenario then regular life. You live and breath it everyday you are there, and sometimes those memories, good and bad, still catch up to you."

Black Ops released earlier this week to large interest, with over 1 million logging into Xbox Live to play the game in the first 24 hours of release.