I quite enjoyed the last Call Of Duty game, Advanced Warfare, and Black Ops II was my favourite game in the entire series so I was really hopeful that Black Ops III would be another great experience.
In Black Ops II, I found that I enjoyed the story a lot more than the multiplayer especially with the option to change the outcome via decisions you make over the course of the game. With this new title I felt the balance had shifted in the other direction and when you’re not that into the multiplayer aspect of a game series, that can be an issue.
I fully expect to be in the minority here as I know the Call Of Duty series fast paced, twitch based, shooting is massively popular. It’s just never felt good to me. What’s on offer here for multiplayer is a solid set of maps (one of them even made my list of Top 30 Maps) and some new abilities/classes with which to play around with. In the wake of Titanfall and Advanced Warfare there is an added emphasis on movement, with the ability to jump boost along walls and gain some extra height quickly giving the game an even faster pace than before.
Story wise, this tale of futuristic espionage treads a familiar path – you and your team take on various groups of enemies, now also featuring robots/cyborgs, as you try to unravel a mystery with the C.I.A (your employer) at its heart. One thing I did like about the campaign was that it gave you the option to play as a male or female operative, which is pretty cool. Something I didn’t like was the fact the game ran separate versions of the campaign for online and offline story modes. So if you played offline, when you returned and were online there was no way (other than switching off your internet) to continue your game… madness!
Graphically the game looks good, as you’d expect and there are no performance issues that I encountered. The campaign supports 4 player co-op play as well so if you have friends that also have the game that’s a neat way to experience the story. Zombies mode returns and there is also a new mode called Nightmares, unlocked by finishing the campaign, that puts a different spin on the story and replaces the usual enemies with Zombies.
Overall I was a little disappointed with this instalment in the Call Of Duty series. Without an interesting story to compliment the multiplayer I didn’t feel there was enough there for me personally. In terms of the gameplay Black Ops III continues to evolve the series and brings some interesting ideas to the table but the campaign mode, while delivering something new with gender choice and co-operative play, also felt like a step backwards – especially after the way Black Ops II’s story played out. I suspect fans of the series will have loved it but there just wasn’t enough there to hook me in.
E3 used to be the pinnacle of the gaming calendar but it’s star has faded somewhat in recent years with events like Gamescom and The Games Awards stealing some of its thunder. 2015 is the year E3 made a comeback – lots of great announcements and two really strong conferences from Microsoft and Sony! And people have the cheek to say there are no games coming!! So let’s start with Microsoft. As you probably know if you’re reading this, I’m not an MS console owner so most of the exclusives weren’t of that much interest to me. A couple of the multiplatform games really stood out though. .
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RISE OF THE TOMB RAIDER
I really enjoyed the reboot of Tomb Raider a few years ago and this looks like more of the same. My only concern is that a lot of my enjoyment last time out came from Lara being inexperienced and seeing her develop through the story. Hopefully they can make the follow up as interesting.
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CUPHEAD
I’ve been banging on about Cuphead for ages and it still looks amazing! Although currently only listed for Xbox One and PC the game studio’s twitter account recently confirmed these were the initial platforms and they’d be exploring others at a later date. I’d love this on my Vita!
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THE LAST GUARDIAN
And so it lives! The most hyped, requested game of the last few years – seen at E3 2009 and then quiet until now, The Last Guardian looks gorgeous and sees you take on the role of a kid who teams up with a giant beast. Together you’ll solve puzzles and work your way through the story. .
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HORIZON: ZERO DAWN
I love Killzone and so when I heard Guerrilla Games were working on something fresh I was excited to see what they’d come up with. Then a few bits leaked about robot dinosaurs. Excitement levels were building but nothing could’ve prepared me for the trailer they showed. Wow. What a great style and look. A strong female protagonist who is hunting robot dinosaurs among the remnants of mankind. I’m in.
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UNCHARTED 4: A THIEF’S END
The absolute highlight of the show for me. My expectations were so high and yet Naughty Dog exceeded everything I’d hoped for. The graphics, the banter between characters, the set pieces… I could go on and on but set aside 7 minutes and watch the full clip above. Outstanding. .
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FIREWATCH
I didn’t know much about Firewatch before E3 but having watched the trailer I like the art style and adding a bit of story to an exploration game is pretty cool. I’d probably need to play it before committing fully but I’m keen to see more.
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CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS III
I’m a little burnt out on Call Of Duty, despite the fact Advanced Warfare was one of the better entries in recent years. Having said that I’ve always favoured Treyarch’s Black Ops series and the fact that this instalment has a four player co-op campaign has piqued my interest. Should be fun!
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DREAMS
Dreams was very weird – I’m still not sure how much of it is a game but when a studio with the pedigree of Media Molecule (LittleBigPlanet / Tearaway) is behind something, I’m always willing to give it a shot. Have a look at the above to see what I mean, it’s difficult to describe but looks beautiful.
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NO MAN’S SKY
No Man’s Sky continues to impress and this was a nice glimpse at what you’ll be able to do in the game. Looking forward to discovering some planets and alien species! Still no release date but I’d expect it to be coming in early 2016 – surely we can’t have another E3 with No Man’s Sky there!
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HELLBLADE
I really enjoyed Heavenly Sword and Enslaved so Ninja Theory’s new game was already on my radar. Based around mental illness, it’s being made in conjunction with the Wellcome Trust – I really hope they manage to handle the subject sensitively while delivering a great gaming experience.
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MIRROR’S EDGE CATALYST
We’ve been waiting a while for this one! Mirror’s Edge came in at number 39 on my Top 100 PS3 games and the follow up looks to be a refinement of the formula that worked so well previously. The game is actually set before the original game so we’ll get to see more of Faith’s origin story.
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FALLOUT 4
Wow. Just wow. This one pushed Uncharted 4 all the way as my biggest/best showing at this year’s E3. I cannot wait to lose myself in this world. The graphics are a step up and hopefully there will be less technical issues than the last few titles. And they even threw in a free mobile game to tide us over! (IOS only for now, coming to Android in the next few months)
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DISHONORED 2
Dishonored 2 was another title that looked great and continued this E3’s theme of empowered female characters with the news that Emily Kaldwin from the original will now be playable with her own set of powers/abilities. Great news and a really cool series, I’m glad this is getting another game.
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METAL GEAR SOLID V: THE PHANTOM PAIN
The Metal Gear games have always been special to me. A mix of completely insane story and superb gameplay, the latest instalment looks to be more of the same as creator Hideo Kojima signs off on his last ever Metal Gear Solid title. It’s sure to be some ride, with a huge game world and plenty of memorable characters and I’m looking forward to getting my tactical espionage on later this year.
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UNRAVEL
Unravel looks like a super cute, cool title that sees you take on the role of a yarn feline. You’ll be going on adventures throughout the game world, which seems to be based around puzzle platforming. This is another one I’m hoping might come to Vita further down the line.
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MASS EFFECT: ANDROMEDA
I am a big fan of the Mass Effect series, which signed off Commander Shepherd’s trilogy a few years ago. Back with a new protagonist and a new set of worlds to explore, I can’t wait to jump back into the Mass Effect universe. Although it’s all new characters I do hope a few old faces show up 🙂
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RAINBOW SIX SIEGE
I’m really excited about Rainbow Six Siege. This is tactical first person shooter at its purest. 4v4, small environments and tense objectives. Each team is based around the best special forces teams from across the globe. This could be awesome – my only concern is how many levels the game ships with. If it’s only 4 or 5 this might not be worth the full price investment.
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STAR WARS: BATTLEFRONT
What can you say about Star Wars? The idea of a Star Wars game made by the people behind Battlefield pushes the right buttons for me. It looks and sounds amazing. While there isn’t a single player component, I imagine most gamers will be picking this one up!
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JUST CAUSE 3
Another game I enjoyed the previous instalment of and word on the (E3) street is that this is one of the best games being shown at the event, which is a little surprising but satisfying nonetheless. Rico Rodriguez is back, this time going home to the motherland to liberate the masses from another dictator.
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GHOST RECON: WILD LANDS
I really enjoyed the last Ghost Recon game. It wasn’t spectacular but what it did right felt good and so this surprise announcement was positive news for me. Hopefully it’ll have lots of variety in mission structure so the game has some longevity.
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HITMAN
A full on reboot of the Hitman games was unexpected but a good move in my opinion. After the previous title, Absolution, was the most accessible yet it makes sense to revisit the earlier adventures of Agent 47. The idea of targets appearing for a short time and then disappearing altogether is fascinating, if a little daunting!
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THE DIVISION
The Division has been floating around for a good few years now and while the main topic of conversation in the last few days has been the visual ‘downgrade’ (has there been one?) it still looks good to me and I’m excited to check it out when it finally gets released.
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DEUS EX: MANKIND DIVIDED
Deus Ex: Human Revolution was a pleasant surprise a few years ago so a new title following on the story of Adam Jenson is very welcome. And boy, does it look good! Hopefully the game will retain the freedom of the previous title and we’ll be able to approach missions however we like.
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So there you go – what a year. It’s been a while since I had such a great bunch of games to choose from. It was really hard to narrow it down at all – titles like Batman: Arkham Knight, Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, Persona 5 and Need For Speed all looked great and of course the returning FIFA will be excellent I’m sure. So what did you guys rate? What was your favourite trailer and what are you most excited for?
Destiny is the first title from Halo makers Bungie since they moved to Activision and started work on multiplatform titles. Touted as having a ten year lifespan and being the pinnacle of online co-op games, it certainly had a lot to live up to. A successful alpha and beta gave players a sneak peek at what to expect both in terms of positives, like gameplay and negatives, such as the repetitive play areas. So how does the final product hold up?
Right out of the gate the biggest positive for me with Destiny is it’s great art style and the look of the environments. Certainly on the PS4 the game looks gorgeous and creates a real feeling of scale which adds a lot to the experience. Whether you are on the Moon, Earth or Mars you’re in for a visual treat. Another positive is the handling of the weapons, which feel weighty and fun to use. I mainly used Pulse Rifles for my playthrough and found them to be effective, with some good additional benefits depending on upgrades etc.
As well as choosing weapons you’ll also need to select a race and class. The race is largely unimportant but obviously the class decision can affect what abilities/powers your character has, so choose wisely! There are a variety of abilities to use and these are also upgraded as you go along. It’s a wise move to break up the powers into classes as it means you won’t have all powers available to you in one playthrough. One thing I was disappointed with was the fact that there was no alternate dialogue for different races. On one occasion another character was explaining the basic beliefs/characteristics of my own race to me, without any awareness that I would already know all that information. It just breaks what little immersion has been built up during the lacklustre story.
Unfortunately Bungie don’t seem to have included a great deal of material for the story – while the campaign missions are fun at times it really did feel like the developers missed an opportunity to flesh out the amazing new universe they have created. There were several characters I would’ve liked to have known more about that appeared in one or two cut scenes and then were never seen again. More story content has been promised in future DLC but while I enjoyed playing through the campaign it all just felt a bit lightweight. Also while the mission areas look amazing it can be a bit disheartening to continually be dropped off at the exact same point on a planet everytime you go there. It really would’ve broken the gameplay up to spawn in on the other side of the map, for example.
Online co-op is a huge part of Destiny, with the developers expecting you to always have two other people to play with at all times. If you don’t you can still play but the game will spawn in two other totally random online players to join you. This can lead to some disjointed moments when playing solo as the people the game matches you with might be a much higher level than you, which can skew the action slightly. It’s not a huge problem, it just doesn’t create the vibe that they were aiming for.
As well as campaign and side missions, Destiny also has an addictive competitive element. Taking the form of various traditional modes (Team Deathmatch, Area Capture etc.) the game’s multiplayer can be both fun and frustrating. I really enjoyed the way the game is balanced to cater for normal weapons, ‘special’ weapons and character abilities. You are constantly earning XP for playing in matches and it is a really solid multiplayer offering – which I suppose shouldn’t be a surprise coming from the people that made Halo!
Overall this is a fun shooter with some nice weapon handling and an impressive art style. The content on offer is, sadly, lacking in depth or variety in the long term but as a title to play through and then delve into multiplayer, Destiny will keep you busy for several hours. It certainly feels like a grind at times but the core gameplay is solid enough and coupled with a ‘roulette’ style weapon unlock system should keep you coming back for more. I feel that Bungie have delivered a great foundation to build on but the story itself is lacking, which I hope will be addressed in the next Destiny title.
Earl’s Court in London was once again taken over by gamers as the hugely popular Eurogamer Expo hit town.
With a wealth of games on display and the first UK showing of Sony’s new handheld, the PSVita, it was set to be an exciting show.
So without further ado, here are the titles I managed to get my hands on:
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TOM CLANCY’S GHOST RECON: FUTURE SOLDIER
A few E3’s ago this game looked like a futuristic warfare shooter where you would be using lots of gadgets to take out your enemies. While this is still the case to an extent, the game this most reminded me of was SOCOM 4 – no bad thing. Definitely a solid third person shooter, I’d certainly be interesting in playing through this if the story is strong enough.
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BATTLEFIELD 3
I make no apology for the fact that I *love* the campaign and online of Battlefield: Bad Company 2. Battlefield 3 is from the same makers but is the sequel to Battlefield 2, as opposed to Bad Company 2. Which means it’s more realistic and less like Kelly’s Heroes. We played the online beta (which releases to everyone on Thursday 29th September 2011) and I have to say ‘wow.’ Once I’d got used to the changes (the recoil kicks especially) I had a great few rounds. Graphically great this is definitely a step up from any other shooter out there.
* ‘BATTLEFIELD 3’ : GREGHORRORSHOW’S BEST IN SHOW – Eurogamer Expo 2011*
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CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 3
Spec Ops was the only thing I got a chance to play – they had the game set up with headsets so you could communicate with your partner and the whole experience was great fun. The game looks really nice and while it doesn’t have the realism of Battlefield in terms of recoil etc, Modern Warfare 3 will be lapped up by fans of the series.
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INVERSION
Inversion is one of those games that hit me out of leftfield when I first saw footage of it earlier this year. It certainly looked interesting and the gravity based gun play seemed like it could be fun. Unfortunately while this may turn out to be the case the gameplay on offer here didn’t really sell me on the game. Not to mention the fact that graphically it was quite poor, with lots of jagged edges and pop in. Fingers crossed the full game gets more polish before release.
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JOE DANGER: THE MOVIE
I really enjoyed Joe Danger and the follow up plays it safe in terms of gameplay, with great stunts and lots of combos. What changes here is that not every level is bike based – there are mine carts, skis and more besides as Joe shoots scenes for a film. Brilliant fun and with the game moving to XBox 360 as well even more people will be able to enjoy it.
*EDIT* Been told that Joe Danger isn’t confirmed for XBox 360 – so we’ll have to see what platforms are confirmed.
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RAGE
Rage is one of those games that just never excited me. It certainly looked great but coming on as a cross between Fallout and Borderlands I wasn’t sure whether I would end up picking it up – there are only so many post apocalyptic shooters I can play… But having got my hands on it I’ve changed my mind. What impressed most was the enemy AI, the fact they ran for cover and scurried away to protect themselves was very cool. The shooting felt strong and I liked the vibe of the game. This has gone from a maybe to a definite play.
* ‘RAGE’ : GREGHORRORSHOW’S MOST PLEASANT SURPRISE – Eurogamer Expo 2011 *
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AWESOMENAUTS
Awesomenauts is a downloadable, 2D online battle game in which you take control of one of a selection of cartoon mercenaries. The gameplay is objective based and was good fun for a quick blast. Each character has their own abilities and can contribute towards the goal of destroying the enemy base (while also defending your own). Not sure if I’ll pick it up but if you like battle arena games, this is something different.
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SAINTS ROW: THE THIRD
The trailers for Saints Row made the game look like a fun open world title and after getting a chance to try it out I can confirm this is indeed the case. Running around shooting random people and dealing with the cops/enemy gang members when they showed up left me with a big smile on my face. The only problem I have is that the game didn’t do enough to convince me to pick it up so I’ll wait and see before making a decision.
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STARHAWK
It was more than a little disappointing to find that the hands on with Starhawk was ground based as opposed to in the sky or being multiplayer. Regardless, the action was solid and fairly enjoyable, though it was reminiscent of Red Faction, without the comedy destruction. I’m still looking forward to this but I don’t think this demo would have sold many people.
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BINARY DOMAIN
This almost took my Most Pleasant Surprise award but was pipped at the post by Rage. Looking very much like Vanquish, Binary Domain features a nice bit of squad interplay in that you can issue commands but also have conversations based on which members you included in your squad. Fast and loose shooting is the name of the game in this title and you’ll be ripping through evil robots on the way to, what I expect will be one of many, boss battles. Definitely one to watch out for if you liked Vanquish.
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PS VITA
Well I got to *see* a Vita – unfortunately the queue was so long that we’d barely moved after 15 minutes and with time running out we had to make an executive decision to get out and see a few more games instead. It didn’t look as big as I’d heard it described, which is a good thing and although I was viewing from a distance the screen gave a pretty clear picture. Would’ve loved to have actually played one but sadly it wasn’t to be… yet!
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So there we have it, lots on show and plenty of stuff to play. One of the bigger surprises for me was that Bioshock: Infinite didn’t make any sort of appearance – seemed weird for one of the biggest games of next year.
Overall the Eurogamer Expo goes from strength to strength – now I need to start planning for next year 🙂
Singularity was another of those games I’d been meaning to get around to for ages. Then on my first play through I encountered a horrible corrupt save bug that meant my PS3 reset itself every other time I hit a checkpoint in the game.
After deciding to cut my losses and just restart the game, I blasted my way through the couple of hours I’d lost and was back up to speed in no time.
Hopefully that is an issue that won’t affect many people because other than that Singularity was a pretty smooth running game.
It’s made by Raven (of Wolverine fame) so unfortunately my pet hate of having no subtitle option rears it’s ugly again but that certainly isn’t a game breaker.
Singularity tells the story of Captain Nathaniel Renko, a military investigator sent as part of a squad to check out a weird electromagnetic surge originating in Russia.
I won’t touch on the story any more than that as the game had some very nice plot twists and interesting mechanics.
Graphically the game looks ok – I wasn’t particularly blown away by it – and the controls handle well enough.
Singularity is similar to Bioshock in that you have one hand wielding a weapon and the other using a power. Rather than plasmids, in this case it’s the TMD (Time Manipulation Device) which allows you to age or revitalise items (such as broken staircases/bridges etc) or even people if you wish.
The TMD also allows you (at certain pre-scripted points in the game) to open up time rifts and travel back in time. This leads to some great game moments but, as with anything time travel related, can mean the story becomes fairly complex.
Overall, Singularity is a good game. My bugged first attempt at playing it didn’t discourage me enough to put me off the game and I’m glad of that. This is a competent shooter with a decent story and some really nice plot moments.
Wolverine Origins was one of those games that I picked up ages ago with the intention of playing it not long after.
The trouble being that a whole heap of other great titles came out and shunted Wolverine down the pecking order.
With the hacking of the PSN taking online play out of the equation, Wolverine was one of many in my game backlog to benefit from the downtime.
The clue to the story is in the name of the game, with this telling the story of how Wolverine came into being before he became one of the X-Men.
Graphically the game looks good and the cut scenes in particular have a great resemblance to Hugh Jackman. Origins isn’t a stunning looking game but, bearing in mind it was released over 2 years ago, it can still hold it’s head up against some of today’s titles.
The gameplay is fairly straight forward and is reminiscent of God Of War or Dante’s Inferno. It’s a button masher for sure but you have the ability to level up your attacks/combos etc.
Unfortunately I found the game to be plagued with bugs/glitches. A lot of them weren’t too troublesome – Wolverine getting frozen in an animation (taking no damage) for example meant a reset of the game. The game occasionally froze up completely, which was fairly annoying but again not a gamebreaker.
Sadly neither of those were the worst of my troubles, as I discovered a problem that did turn out to be a gamebreaker. On one of the puzzles that required the use of weighted platforms I just couldn’t get over quick enough to the next platform before it returned to it’s original position.
After a frustrating 40 minutes or so I ended up looking on youtube and discovered that the platform was no longer fully extended – which was why I didn’t have enough time. After a reset it happened again until I managed to avoid the glitch on the fourth attempt.
Other people I’ve spoken to that have played the game didn’t have as rough a time as I did with the glitches but this game also fell foul of one of my pet hates in gaming – no subtitles.
As a gamer who plays when his small children are in bed I can’t have the volume very high but also can’t have headphones in case they call out. Quite how deaf or hearing impaired gamers are supposed to enjoy the joy is beyond me and in this day and age it shouldn’t be something that’s missing from a game.
Wolverine is a decent enough game that is certainly worth a play through, unfortunately the problems I encountered meant after the first few hours it felt too much like a chore to get through.
Last years Call Of Duty game was a bit of a fun mess with regards to the single player campaign but early reviews of Black Ops seemed to indicate that Treyarch had tightened up the story in the latest instalment. So is Black Ops a better gaming experience?
The answer is undoubtedly yes.
Firstly let’s take a look at the single player portion of the game. You take control of Alex Mason for the majority of the time, with a few cameo levels in which you control other characters. Certainly there felt like a lot less switching of characters than in Modern Warfare 2 and when you started each mission it clearly stated who you were before it began.
Those of you looking for a realistic interpretation of the special forces would probably be better served by Medal Of Honor (or if you fancy something older Rainbow Six Vegas) because this is Hollywood war plain and simple.
The set pieces are great, with lots going on around you but at times there can be too much happening and it’s tough to know what you are supposed to be doing.
Often the game design is flawed with regards to waypoints etc. One example is the infamous Vietnam level – I’ll save you all some time by explaining, as this took me almost an hour to stumble across 😮
Essentially you need to make your way down a hill that has a few barricades for protection on. Your colleagues lead the charge and as you follow them down a waypoint marker appears at the bottom of the hill in the trench. So you would presume you need to get to the marker, like you do in the rest of the game. Your buddies are shouting out about ‘improvising’ and you’re faced with an infinite amount of oncoming enemies.
Hey wait! Didn’t they mention that the barrels have napalm in them? Ok no problem I’ll just shoot the barrels… No? Ah cool, I’ll use one of these grenade launchers to blow the barrels up… No? To trigger the next scene and end this madness you’re expected to run up to the barrels and press square to stick a mine on it, slice it with a knife and roll it down the hill. The effect is very cool but I was past caring.
Why on earth didn’t they put the markers on the barrels rather than the trench? Why not make the dialogue clearer? Have them actually say ‘Mason, we need to roll these barrels down onto them!’ Having them say ‘We need to improvise’ just doesn’t cut it – damn, I did improvise. I tried everything I could think of to get down to that marker in the trench. It’s just shoddy and not expected of such a huge title.
That’s not the only problem but I’m not going to list the issues. Needless to say at times Black Ops was frustrating as hell and it soured the single player experience for me.
Don’t get me wrong I enjoyed it and it is a step up from Modern Warfare 2 but really those are school boy errors, without which this could’ve been an even better game.
Also as a side note I found the shenanigans after the end credits veered too close to bad taste for my liking. Just felt like it didn’t need to be in there with those characters.
On the multiplayer front Treyarch seems to have taken Modern Warfare’s huge offering and trimmed it down. Losing the fat and keeping the best bits while also improving it in their own way.
Sure I’m still getting my ass handed to me but I’m having fun while doing it and I certainly feel more competitive than I ever did in Modern Warfare 2.
Also you earn points per round which can be used to unlock weapons, rather than weapons being tied to your level/rank. This is much better as it lets the more casual gamers pick and choose their weapons more easily.
There is no doubt that the Call Of Duty franchise goes from strength to strength with Black Ops taking $650m in its opening week. More importantly than that though is the improvement in the game itself. While I still prefer both the single and multiplayer of Battlefield and Killzone, Black Ops is edging towards that territory. Treyarch have done a great job despite some fundamental flaws and the ball is now firmly in Infinity Ward’s court to see what they can come up with for Modern Warfare 3.
Black Ops is as close to a 9/10 as you can be without getting one. And the reason it doesn’t get one is solely the bad design in places. Without those frustrations this would’ve easily ranked higher but the breakdown that bad design causes in the campaign mode can’t be overlooked.
For the first time in a long while I have not been sucked into the hype for a big triple A game.
I just wasn’t excited about Modern Warfare at all – a mixture of not getting on with the first title and a general disappointment from the multiplayer footage I’d seen.
Upon firing up the single player mode I was struck by how good the graphics were and after a quick run through the training camp I was on my way.
The campaign mode sees you take on the role of several characters and while the story is full of big set pieces, the lack of depth in any of the characters you control leads to a sense of confusion at times.
This is also one of the games biggest weaknesses – without any sort of attachment to any of the characters it was difficult to care about what was going on as I worked my way through set piece after set piece.
The set pieces themselves were great when they worked but on the whole were another weakness in my opinion.
Take the snow mobile ride. Now I know someone who did it in one flowing attempt and thought it was amazing. It took me 3 or 4 goes to nail it – on one occasion failing right on the last jump as I wasn’t going quick enough – and was just a disappointing pain in the ass. 😦
I just feel sections like that should be very hard to mess up, not knocking into one tree kills you (as realistic as that is).
Overall the single player is a bit of an enjoyable mess, with a story that is all over the place.
But no-one is going to be buying Modern Warfare 2 for the campaign mode… it’s all about the multiplayer.
And it’s a pretty good experience.
It’s been patched 4 times in the opening two weeks after release which I think may be a record – and it certainly struggles at times.
I’ve been kicked off because ‘the server is full’, disconnected from lobbies, been unable to party up, got stuck in doorways, had the cpu move for me when I was trying to stay still and had general connection issues.
Having said all that the actual gameplay is polished, and while it took a while to get used to the speed of moving (having been used to the slower Killzone 2), Modern Warfare 2 is fantastic fun online.
They have incorporated some features from other games and improved their own stuff from the previous installment.
The best thing for me are the Deathstreaks, where instead of being rewarded for killing opponents you get a bonus for dying. Very helpful if you’re having a bad round or just starting out. 🙂
Modern Warfare 2 is a vast multiplayer experience, with a ton of unlocks and perks to get over time. It’s a rich and deep set of abilities and weapons, which will keep you busy for a while to come.
As an overall package though Modern Warfare 2 is a lopsided beast.
The single player lacks any depth and would be no great loss to skip and the multiplayer, while fun and engaging, is extremely glitchy and suffers from connection problems.
Better than I thought then but not quite the second coming everyone was raving about.
With the advent of online gaming and the wonderful ability to enhance already bought games via updates/patches I had hoped games developers would be putting a lot more thought into their products and planning DLC/features to liven up games.
While this is true for many developers a worrying trend is arising among the rest culminating in Prototype being released this week broken.
And I don’t use the term ‘broken’ lightly. From what I can gather online at the install screen before the game loads up it tells you that you don’t have enough free disk space no matter how much you delete! 😡
The solution, according to Activision’s help page, is to delete a few things or try installing a different game (?!). Eventually you’ll do something to make it work. Sweet Lord they’re not even sure exactly what you have to do.
But they will be releasing a patch to fix it asap.
And there ladies and gents is my problem with all this.
Now I understand that mistakes happen and that a patch may be required to fix it but games are being released littered with bugs (Alone In The Dark, Fallout 3 etc) and then being patched to fix ’em up later (or not in the case of Alone In The Dark :lol:).
I mean look at this video, he’s supposed to be able to climb that rope!!!
But this is different.
It’s not an in game bug – this happens when you install the game. BEFORE. YOU. START. 😡
How could this possibly have not been spotted by the people who’ve been testing the game out.
In this day and age it’s a disgrace this sort of thing could happen – I’ve heard of games freezing up etc but never have I heard of a brand new game that you can’t actually play at all!
I was really looking forward to Prototype and I won’t be boycotting the game or anything like that but it’s made me wonder whether the game will be full of bugs as well 😦
I don’t know who is to blame – the people making the games or the publishers trying to rush them out onto shelves but we shouldn’t be expected to buy a broken product that’ll be ‘fixed with a patch asap.’
GregHorrorShow 