Review: Modern Warfare 2

Modern Warfare 2 was one of the biggest releases in 2009 and one of the most anticipated games in recent history. Building on its predecessor, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, this game continued with the present day setting and some characters remained in the game from the last one. The game focuses on two groups Task Force 141 consisting of Soap from the first game and Roach, the character you play as, as well as some others. The other group is Sgt Foley’s US Army Ranger squad, you play as Pvt James Ramirez when the story shifts to this group.

Like the first game the focus shifts from group to group allowing for tons of different environments from snowy terrains to deserts and more. The story is pretty intricate but isn’t too hard to follow, for spoiler’s sake I won’t go into the story very much.

The gameplay has definitely been made more fast paced as there are many chase sequences and parts where you slide downhill to make the game more like an action movie. In this respect the game does a great job of making you feel like you are playing an action movie and that is a cool feature that hasn’t been done this well in games in the past. The storytelling element is great and is a leap forward for games in the shooter genre.

There is a wide variety of weapons in the game and it is fun to see what kind of havoc you can wreak on the enemy with different weapons. Flash bang grenades are very useful for room clearing and grenade launchers on machine guns pack a nice punch. There are also sniper rifles, pistols, shotguns, and RPG’s. You can dual wield certain weapons, like the Glock 18, and this allows for more firepower but less accuracy.

One level that garnered a lot of attention before release was the “No Russian” level where a terrorist attack on an airport is portrayed. The level is disturbing but the option to skip it is there with no negative consequences to the player. While disturbing the level is important to the story and not put in just for a shock so I believe that it is a natural step forward in storytelling in games. An R rated movie with a scene like this wouldn’t be a shocker so an M rated game with a level like this really shouldn’t be that much of a problem.

The graphics are nice and polished and there are very few clipping problems or other things like that. The visual design is great incorporating all kinds of environments and all of them rendered beautifully. The weapons and equipment look fantastic and the sound design is good but not great, Bad Company 2 does a much better job capturing the sounds of the weapons in game. But even though the sound isn’t as good as Bad Company it is still very good.

There are some gameplay issues like M203 grenades that just don’t explode and grenades that roll way too much downhill, I appreciate the effort to make the grenades rolling on a slopped surface but it was taken a little too far at times. The single player game will take about 8-10 hours to complete, more if you are on a high difficulty level.

There are some other modes besides the story that will keep you entertained; special operations (or spec ops) are missions that take place in the locales from the game but are special objective-based side quests. There are 5 levels of spec ops missions and in order to unlock the next level you need to get a certain number of stars, you get more stars for the higher difficulty level that you complete a spec op on. Some operations need 2 players but most can be completed solo. All of these can be completed with a friend online.

The multiplayer is some of the best that the industry has to offer, there are a variety of modes but nothing too far out of the ordinary; capturing territories, team deathmatch, free-for-alls, and the like. You can create custom classes that you can outfit with different weapons and equipment that you receive for leveling up. You can also personalize your kill and death streaks, allowing you to have certain perks for going on a kill streak or perks to help you get back in the game after several deaths in a row. The team deathmatch games are 6 on 6, which is a reasonable number but some maps are bigger and could take some more players.

Overall Modern Warfare 2 is a fantastic game that takes the shooter to a whole new level. The story is fantastic and gripping, the gameplay is smooth and entertaining, and the game offers a wide variety of gameplay modes to keep the game fresh. If you like shooters this is an absolute must have.

(Note: I am changing the way I do my scoring, I found that the categories made it a little difficult to give credit where credit was due so now I am going to give a few pros and cons and an overall score out of 10)

Pros:

-Fantastic gameplay

-Great Multiplayer

-Stunning visuals

Cons:

-Some slight gameplay issues (like the dud grenades that happen too often)

10/10

Review: Batman: Arkham Asylum

Okay so I have a LOT of catching up to do, I just got really lazy. I have a ton of games to review and most of them are fantastic so you all probably already know about them. I’ll start this with one of the best games of 2009, Batman: Arkham Asylum.
This game was hyped up because it wasn’t a simple cash-in on the movie The Dark Knight the game has its own original story that sees Batman facing off against familiar faces on Arkham Island after the Joker takes it over. The game itself is around 6-7 hours of playtime but significantly more if you find all of the hidden Riddler trophies, chronicles of Arkham, patient interview tapes, and solve all of the Riddler’s riddles.
The first thing I want to talk about is the voice acting; Kevin Conroy plays Batman as he did in the animated series and it many other iterations of Batman and he does a fantastic job as always, for my money he is the voice of Batman. Mark Hamill (yes Luke Skywalker) portrays the Joker and gives one of the greatest performances I have ever heard, he mixes the insanity and the playfulness of the character so well. The other actors all do a good job but Conroy and Hamill stand out.
The gameplay is varied as you will fight opponents head-on and you will have to sneak around to take out armed henchmen who you can’t just charge up to. To fight opponents there is a free-flow combat system where you basically mash X and keep pointing your thumbstick to the next opponent, you get score multipliers for your combos and these points go towards upgrades to your armor, new combo moves, and upgrades to your weapons and gadgets.
All of Batman’s standard arsenal of gadgets are there; batarangs, grappling hooks, (no shark spray though) as well as some new gadgets like the cryptographic sequencer which allows you to overload security panels across Arkham to gain access to new areas. Pressing the left bumper pulls up “detective mode” which looks similar to Superman’s X-Ray vision. Objects of interest will appear in orange to make them easier to spot.
One key element of the game is sticking to the shadows when there are armed opponents around. You can rip off vent covers and crawl through ventilation shafts, or open up panels on the ground to crawl around under your enemies. The most important thing however is grappling onto gargoyle statues that will keep you hidden from armed henchmen and will give you a place to strike from. You can do an inverted takedown of an enemy that passes under a gargoyle that you are on, you can glide kick and knock down an enemy, or do any number of other things from that vantage point. This really makes you feel like Batman, striking fear into the henchmen every time you silently take one out. Their mental status will go from calm, to nervous, to terrified and their heartbeat will rise. All of these details serve to make the game a more complete experience.
The graphics are amazing, Batman will take damage to his suit that will remain there until the end of the game, the cut scenes are gorgeously rendered and overall the scenery looks great, very little pixilation and no delay on loading graphical assets.
The story is nice and original bringing in many rogues gallery characters like Scarecrow, Riddler, Killer Croc, Poison Ivy, and Bane to name a few. There are also riddles that give nods to popular characters that aren’t in the game like Two-Face, Penguin, and Catwoman. All of the characters are perfectly realized and the patient interview tapes help to solidify the cruel and insane nature of Batman’s enemies.
One of the best parts of the game are the encounters with Scarecrow where Crane’s gas sends you to his domain where he is a giant in the middle of the scenery and his eyes are light beams that constantly search for you. If he sees you he kills you so you need to avoid his glance by hiding behind objects and moving when he isn’t looking. There are some great images and his realm captures the character perfectly.
The game is fantastic but there are some minor issues that should be addressed. The game isn’t level-based so you can’t go back and replay a particular part without replaying the whole game from the start, that can get frustrating and it is even worse because the saves are all automatic so you can’t save in a bunch of slots like you can in an RPG to make your own levels.
Besides some minor issues the game is incredible, the best Batman game by far and one of the best comic book video games around. A sequel has already been announced and the first teaser is out. Hopefully the second game will allow us to see some other big characters that were only hinted at in this game like Ra’s Al Ghul, Catwoman, Two-Face, and Penguin along with a myriad of other minor characters. But for now you can’t beat this quintessential Batman experience.
Gameplay: 10
Story: 10
Replay Value: 9.5
Graphics: 10
Overall: 9.9

Review: Halo 3: ODST

It’s been about two years since Halo 3 came out and since then Halo fans have been waiting for a new installment in the franchise. Halo Wars came out but lacked the traditional gameplay instead focusing on an RTS scheme. But now Halo 3: ODST has come out and it is everything that Halo fans have been waiting for.

ODST comes with two discs; on the first one is the campaign mode and the brand new firefight mode. The campaign follows a group of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers (ODST’s) scattered in New Mombasa during the Covenant invasion just before Halo 3 begins. You are a nameless, faceless rookie who is attempting to figure out what happened to the squad and try to regroup. Along the way you will come across beacons where other ODST’s have been and you will find an object that will trigger a “flashback” of sorts (it is a flashback of the memories of the other ODST’s not you) then you will play as that trooper so you play as most of the squad at one point or another.

The gameplay is varied and is slightly different than Halo 1,2, and 3 because you are no longer the Master Chief. You will have to be a little more strategic and killing enemies is harder. You don’t jump as high or run as fast and this adds a terrific element to the game, it reinforces the character change. You can still board enemy vehicles and carry turrets so it keeps the popular features while adding some new weapons and equipment. You will initially have a scoped and silenced SMG and a pistol that is similar to the Halo1 pistol with the zoom mode. All of the familiar covenant weaponry is there too so Halo fans will be at home with the weaponry.

The game also features a new Visor mode that outlines enemies in red and allies in green, it also shows key locales and acts as night vision. But this does have a downside; the goggles make it hard to see if you are playing a level during the day. The “X” button toggles the goggles on and off. There are health pickups like the other games and most of the gameplay and features are the same. You will drive a variety of vehicles and fire a variety of weapons. There are weapons caches throughout the map that will show up on your map.

The game’s campaign is good but a lot of the replay value will come from the new firefight mode. This mode allows you and three friends to battle waves of covenant foes ala Horde mode in Gears 2. You get points for destroying enemies and enemy vehicles, you are given 7 lives and if you pass a wave you get an additional life. You can play this mode online or local however if you want to play online there is no matchmaking so you need to invite friends to a game and this is disappointing. The mode is great and challenging, classic Halo fun.

The second disc includes Halo 3 multiplayer modes, matchmaking, custom games, and forge mode. The disc comes with all map packs including the Mythic map pack and this allows the player to play any multiplayer game. The game is basically Halo 3 without the campaign mode. This is good for someone like me who never got around to downloading the map packs and couldn’t play certain game types.

The game is a great addition to the Halo franchise and hopefully Halo: Reach will be like this. With a fun single player campaign and awesome multiplayer modes this game is a must have for any Halo fan. I would highly recommend.

Gameplay: 10

Story: 9

Replay Value: 10

Graphics: 9

Overall: 9.5

Review: Mass Effect DLC-Pinnacle Station

The second piece of DLC for Bioware’s Mass Effect is entitled Pinnacle Station and is a nice change of pace from the main game. The basic idea is that Commander Shepard is invited to an elite training facility called “Pinnacle Station” run by Admiral Ahern of the Alliance. The station is simply a large simulator that allows you to play four different combat modes over three different maps for each mode.
The combat modes are straight forward; survival has you and your squad trying to survive as long as possible, it is time based not wave based like Horde mode in Gears 2. Capture has you and your team capturing 3 points around the map and the quicker you do it the better your score. Time Trial has you eliminating all of the enemies on the map as quickly as possible. The last mode is hunt, you gain time for every enemy you kill and you are trying to kill as many as possible before the timer runs out.
The maps are mostly based on locales from the main story of the game; there is the underground section of Liara’s dig site, a section of Virmire, a warehouse similar to the enemy bases in the main game, and the only unique map, a volcanic setting. You are competing against the best scores of the other combatants on the station but their scores are usually pretty easy to beat. There isn’t much in terms of story to the DLC but it offers a nice combat simulator that caters to replay value and you can try to topple your own best scores so it’s fun.
It has been criticized for being very different from the main game because it doesn’t add any new alien species (like Bring Down the Sky did) and it didn’t add any new worlds, just a space station, but I think that it brought a nice combat element to the game that allowed the good combat system to shine. Most RPG’s don’t have traditional shooter elements like Mass Effect does and this allows the game to pull off a piece of DLC like this. Overall it wasn’t a bad piece of DLC and it’s fun for what it is, 800 MS points isn’t a bad price so I would recommend this to Mass Effect fans.

Review: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled

Turtles in Time is one of the greatest and most remembered arcade beat-em-ups of all time, it had good action, a variety of enemies, and a good variety of scenes to play through as the turtles were warped through time by Shredder. This arcade classic was ported to the SNES and the Sega Genesis (although it was called the Hyperstone Heist on the Genesis) and is widely considered one of the best games of all time. So when Ubisoft announced that they were going to be remaking the classic arcade title in honor of the turtle’s 25^th anniversary this year I couldn’t wait to see how it would come out. It was announced that the game would feature new 3D graphics but that the basic gameplay would stay the same and up to 4 people could tackle the game cooperatively. The game was released today on Xbox live and PSN and it does not disappoint.

The new graphics are nice and stylish, they have good texture but they deviate only slightly from the original game. The foot soldiers and other enemies look exactly the same and the turtles have a look that is more reminiscent of the 1991 turtles and not the current turtles (although Splinter looks like he does in the new cartoon) You will still need to use the same visual cues to see where the wrecking ball is coming down in the first level and things like that.

The gameplay, which was always the best part of the game, is still stellar and it hasn’t been changed at all. You still have two attacks, a jump button, and a jump attack. You can also pull the left trigger to reveal an exclamation point that shows where your character is if you get swarmed and lose track of where you are on the screen. The pizza power ups are still there and they include the health pizza and the pizza power up that starts you spinning and it will knock down any enemies around you. You are given 9 lives and if you lose all of them you can restart the level you are on with 9 new lives but you’ll lose your score for the game. The music is the same but the dialogue has been re-recorded so the “shell shock” won’t be the same voice you are used to.

There are three gameplay modes the first is the classic story mode, the second is the survival mode where you are only given one life bar, and the third is the quickplay which allows you to play any level that you have previously beaten. There is local and online co-op and up to 4 players can play the parts of all the turtles. The ability to play 4 player online and local co-op is one of the strongest selling points in the game because playing the game with friends was always a lot more fun than playing alone, although the game is still fun solo. All three game modes are available online and local for multiplayer and single player.

Ubisoft has done a fantastic job of recreating one of the best arcade games of all time and the 800 microsoft points (or about $10) are well worth it. I would highly recommend

Gameplay 10

Story 10

Replay Value 10

Graphics 10

Overall 10

Review: Fallout 3 on Xbox 360

Nuclear holocaust is one of the most frightening thoughts in the modern world and the game Fallout 3 gives us a look at what could have happened if history had unraveled in a different way. The Fallout universe diverges from ours after WWII, the technology advances but the 1950’s mentality sticks, robots and fusion cars are staples of the world by the mid 21st century. However the Cold War did not end in 1989, instead it continued until it reached a culmination point in 2077 where China shot off nukes at the US and in about 2 hours the world as we knew it was gone. Fallout 3 takes place 200 years later in the wasteland that is Washington DC. You play as dweller of Vault 101, around your 19th birthday your father leaves the vault and you are forced to follow.
This is where the real gameplay begins, you have the option to traverse the massive open world that is the Capital Wasteland, doing good or wreaking havoc, the choice is yours. But anyway you play it the wasteland is a dangerous place to live; you will encounter bands of raiders, ruthless mercs, feral ghouls, super mutants, mirelurks, deathclaws and the enclave (the remnants of the US government) to name a few.
To combat these foes (and keep you alive) there are a wide variety of weapons, armors, food, stimulants, health packs (called stimpacks) and other things to find so it’s a good idea to open every cabinet, desk, box, and footlocker in a given place to stock up. All of these items can be sold for caps, the currency of the future. You can then use caps to repair equipment, buy new weapons, ammo, or anything else you want to, the choices are vast.
The combat is unique in that you use the VATS system (Vault Assisted Targeted System) to fight enemies. You can fire weapons with the right trigger using a crosshair but the VATS system lets you decide where to shoot your enemy to try and deal the most damage. It also slows the game down and lets you strategize, when you press the right bumper it enters the VATS screen and the enemy is zoomed in on. The game pauses and you can toggles through targets on the body of the enemy and each part has a percentage that shows the likelihood that your shot will succeed.
Your Pip-Boy 3000 (a wrist computer that acts as the pause screen) is essential to the game and it is where you do all of your interactions such as equipping weapons, using stimpacks, and listening to audio tapes. You can also listen to radio stations and sometimes “Three Dog” of Galaxy News Radio will reference you and your exploits. You actually get to meet him in the course of the main storyline.
One thing that the game does exceptionally is show how America never left the 1950’s and everything that is still standing in the wastes is a throwback to the 50’s. Even the hairstyles of the characters and the clothes mirror the styles of 1950’s America. This helps you get immersed in the game’s fantasy timeline and it makes everything seem more possible because of how close it is to reality. This game really makes you wonder what would have happened if the USSR hadn’t collapsed and the major world powers fought a nuclear war. It is a rare “deep thought invoking” game that while it does make you think it is still fun and simple.
The game features an experience system, just like any RPG, and the max that you can get to is level 20. Along with the experience system is a karma system that acts as a good/bad meter, helping people gets you positive karma while hurting people gets you negative karma. There are different achievements for reaching xp levels with a certain type of karma so it’s up to you. The scale of this RPG is one of the biggest I have ever seen, you can spend hours just traversing the landscape and checking out what is left of Washington and its surrounding areas. Discovering locations on the map and exploring can be very lucrative so every now and then just get lost and see what you can find.
I could talk about the story and the sidequests for hours and literally write a book detailing my experiences with this game but that is an experience that is best left to each individual gamer. The story itself is solid and you actually feel like you are making a difference when you save a town from raiders or find a home for a little boy who has just lost his parents.
The game performs well technically with load short load screens (relatively for an RPG) and very little framerate slow up. The environments are impressive from a distance but can be blurry up close, however that is to be expected in a game that has this much content. The night to day transition is nice a fluid and the pace of the day seems to be just right, it isn’t real time but the days don’t zip incredibly fast.
Overall Fallout 3 is a fantastic open world game that incorporates stellar gameplay with an awesome story, an incredibly vast number of plot choices, and a convincing post-apocalyptic world. I would highly recommend this title to anyone that has the time to commit to it because you won’t want to put the controller down once you pick it up.
Gameplay: 9.5
Story: 10
Replay Value: 10
Graphics: 8.5
Overall: 9.5

Review: Prototype on the Xbox 360

Prototype is a good open world game that utilizes superpowers pretty well and has an interesting plot line to match. The game follows the story of Alex Mercer who wakes up in a morgue in New York and has no idea who he is or why he has superpowers. The military is after him and there is a virus loose in the city that is mutating the populace. Alex soon realizes that he has the ability to “consume” people and take their memories he sets out to find the people that made him what he is and find out who he is and what is going on. The main story line is told through a series of flashbacks as we see Alex talking to a mysterious man on day 18 of the infection. After some narrative the game flashes back and you play through Alex’s story. You have the choice to either continue the main plot progression or go on a number of side quest type missions. This is where the open world element comes into play, it is very much like the Spiderman games where you can go to the main story or side stories, or you can just run around the city. I played the game on normal difficulty and it took me about 10 hours to complete just the main missions so there is a good amount of content.

Now on to the gameplay itself, Alex will gain a number of powers and all of these can be upgraded in the menu of the game. For every opponent you kill you get EP (Evolutionary Points) and these can be put towards the upgrades. There are upgrades for your powers, movement, combat, survivability, weaponry, and vehicle use. On my first playthrough I had plenty of upgrades that I couldn’t purchase by the end of the game but if you play through the free roam element I’m sure there is enough EP to upgrade fully. These powers and other upgrades are really cool and become essential later in the game. Some of the best are the glide move, the groundspike, the longshot with the whip which lets you hijack helicopters from a distance. But the most essential power that you have is the ability to “consume” and become anyone in the game, if you want to pilot a tank then you can consume a tank commander and you will know how to drive the tank. You can also use this to fool enemies, if you consume a soldier, for example, and then walk up to a military base no one will suspect and you can get in close without being fired at. This has a lot of uses but if military personnel see you as Mercer you need to duck out of sight and turn into someone else to lose them or they will continue to attack even if you look like someone else, there are also detectors and certain enemies that will know who you are even with a disguise. But consuming people also restores your health and you will need a lot of that. When you buy the critical mass upgrade you can continue to accumulate health past the max and then you can use that to unleash a “devastator” attack. This attack takes some time to charge but it is a massive attack that will take out or seriously cripple all opponents in about a 20 foot radius.

The control is nice and fluid for movement but switching between powers can be clunky and annoying, the mechanic is that when you press the left bumper a wheel screen comes up (like in Mass Effect) and you select what power you want to enable, this itself is fine but it doesn’t pause the game like in Mass Effect, it slows the game down for a brief period then the game goes back to full speed so you need to be quick and that is annoying. It was also more difficult to find the right weapon when the pressure was on, if they had an option to put your four favorite powers on the D-Pad that would have been great. There is no block button but if you have armor or shields equipped it will automatically engage if you are being attacked. This is a little annoying because certain enemies can beat you to a pulp in a corner and with no block you keep getting knocked over so you can’t attack and you get stuck. The left trigger locks on to targets but I found that when there were big boss battles it locked on to the smaller targets a lot and it really should stick to the boss unless you manually switch it so that could have been improved.

The graphics on the CG cut scenes are absolutely gorgeous, especially the opening cut scene but the in-game graphics can be pretty mediocre at times, perhaps this is a side effect of the massive amount of info on the disk but many of the textures on certain buildings and people got blurry and pixilated at seemingly random times, however regardless of how crazy the action got the frame rate never slowed up so that is really good. For the most part the city and characters looked impressive and there was no lack of blood and gore so the graphics were good for the most part.

The game has a lot of replay value because of the new upgrades and the side quests, after the main story ends you can still free roam the city which is a nice touch. Overall the game is satisfying on all accounts, the graphics are good for the most part, the gameplay is solid mostly but it can get unfair at times, and the story is good but slightly tough to follow at times. What this game does well is the integration of superpowers which is something that has not been done very well in video games to date. I would recommend this title.

Gameplay: 8

Story:9

Replay Value:9

Graphics:8

Overall: 8.5