Friday, 17 September 2010

Review: Halo Reach

Years ago, I posted an angry review about Halo 3. I didn't like it much but saw hope and potential in what was achieved by Bungie. Halo 3 was technically incredible but lacked the Halo feel and omitted a lot of features we all wanted to see at the time in 2007.

So, years later and here we are with Halo Reach. This is Bungie's final Halo game and you get the sense that they wanted to go out with a bang. For my money, this is the greatest Halo game I've played. It feels like the original Halo (which is good) and adds many new features to the mix. My favourite is Firefight mode. I'm a stickler for co-op and survival based co-op in particular. Firefight mode, which was first devised in last year's Halo: ODST, is insanely fun and addictive. I don't feel like I've even touched the surface of it either. You can alter any option you like and pretty much define the rules and content of your game to a precise idea in your head. Customisation, in every respect, is the key with Halo Reach.

Beyond Firefight, Reach delivers in all other areas. Matchmaking based Multiplayer feels even more polished and responsive than it did with Halo 3 and I suspect Halo: ODST (although I never played that one). It's fast at finding games but is still not quite as fast as the Call of Duty system. However, it's more sophisticated and essentially better. Any game mode you can think of is available and some you probably can't. Combined with the infinite potential for custom games, I'm going to go as far as to say that this is probably the most complete Multiplayer package I've ever seen in all my years of gaming online.

If the online side is not your bag then fear not. The Single Player (or 4 player co-op) Campaign mode is truly an incredible achievement by Bungie. I'm actually only half way through it, attempting Legendary (the toughest difficulty) in my first play through. However, I've seen enough to know this is the greatest Campaign of any Halo game. The word epic comes to mind. Every level is epic. There are no boring stages and you feel as if you could replay every moment again and again. I even loved the space combat mission.

The level design is excellent and the AI seems to be even more polished than before. No Halo game has ever suffered from bad AI though. Taking on an Elite in a one on one confrontation has always been the bread and butter of Halo for me. They are tough and always seem like a formidable, intelligent, adversary. So many games fail to achieve this sense of worthiness when it comes to the enemy's they throw at you. Even bosses in most games are nothing compared to just a standard grunt in this game. Bungie are simply the masters of AI coding.

Reach also offers the same Theatre mode and Forge mode we saw in Halo 3. Forge is improved and now allows for insane levels of design. You can essentially now make your own level. Your only limitation is the vast canvas of a map you get to use as your template for placing things down.

There really is nothing to fault with Reach (unless you're simply not into the Halo mechanic that is). Some have argued that the graphics could be better. Although this game is no Killzone 2 in the graphics department, the visuals are still excellent in my opinion. It's not until you go into Theatre mode and start zooming in on characters and vehicles that you realise quite how good the graphics actually are. Sound is also top notch, although I'm at odds about why Bungie decided to assign the sound of your weapon firing to a front 5.1 channel instead of the centre. It's no biggie though and you won't even notice this if you don't have 5.1 surround sound rigged up. 

In summary, this game is as close to a flawless product as a gamer is ever going to see. 2010 hasn't seen much in the way of particularly memorable titles so far but Halo Reach has changed that. For my money, this is not only game of the year but also one of the greatest games I've ever played.

Thursday, 10 June 2010


by The Critical Alien (on the iPad)

In my last blog post, I talked about trends. Well the iPad certainly is one. So I've got mine (have you?) and am now typing this up on it. I don't want to use this space to big this gadget up. I just want to make it clear that yours truly now owns one (and adores it).

The concept of an app (or widget in old speak) is nothing new. The rise of the iPhone in 2007 gave birth to, or at least propelled, the concept. However, no matter how good a game is on any smartphone I've always considered their screens to be too small to really get to grips with gaming on them. In my opinion, the iPad is much better suited for solid gaming. And so I've taken the leap into perhaps what is a new era, or at least platform, for computer games.

I'm going to talk about apps. Gaming apps. There are already some great ones available through Apple's App Store and so far I've been genuinely impressed, and surprised, by the calibre of these games. In this post, I'm going to list some favourites.

Angry Birds HD

Based on the popular iPhone app, this is an incredibly good little game. It's extremely addictive and based on a simple premise; to sling shoot birds via
multi-touch with the aim of penetrating defences and flattening those evil pigs. It's war against pigs and birds and about as brutal as any Wii game. To me, this game represents pure old school gaming goodness but, combined with the flawless tech that drives the iPad, it seems new to boot. This is pure gameplay combined with great, uniquely responsive touch technology on an incredible LED screen.

PInball HD

Another example of a gaming staple but one that greatly benefits from the merits of its platform. This is a brilliant pinball game and comes at a time where pinball as a gaming genre has surely been tilted out of the scope of consoles and the PC. It's really a perfect pinball game and better than any measly Xbox Live Arcade or PSN title you might find that boasts balls and the odd flipper.

Plants vs Zombies HD

A PC game brought to the iPad. This is a classy app and certainly got me reevaluating what ingredients are needed for a great game. It's just simple base defence in the form of plants you select and place in a yard repelling a zombie horde hell bent on busting your garden fence.

Worms HD

This is a games blog and no one reading it needs any introduction to
Worms. If you do, I suggest a visit back to Google. I was very impressed by this particular version of the Worms template. All the coolest weapons are here, along with multiplayer options and enough customisation options to keep teams varied. The key is the iPad's screen and, again, the intuitive nature of multi-touch for a game like this. A match made in heaven perhaps. WASD style is the way Worms evolved but I was able to very quickly adapt and now simply love playing Worms in this new way.

This is really just a little report on my current gaming time with the iPad. All I know is that I've been gaming on this more in the last week than I've been riding into sunsets on Red Dead Redemption. I've been iPadded.

Monday, 29 March 2010

State of Gaming: The Flow of Rehashes

Firstly, follow me on Twitter you fools. K thx. 

I'm currently playing Heavy Rain, which I've completed twice, and Final Fantasy XIII on the PS3. Occasionally, I'll step into Left 4 Dead 2 on PC. So does this mean I've finally signed up for the SDF? No. What is does mean though is that it's clear to me now that Sony are the only ones attempting to push gaming to the next level. Heavy Rain is simply incredible, and in many ways ground breaking. Final Fantasy XIII on the PS3 is technically impeccable. Due to the Blu-Ray format, it can be played in full HD goodness and with full Master DTS sound. The 360 version, all three discs of it, falls very short in comparison. As a game, FFXIII is just a bit of escapist fantasy. I love it because I don't take it seriously. I let the HD goodness fill my room and blast me into an alternative world (whilst muting the dialogue).
Personally, I'm starting to cotton on to Sony's master plan: push hard for the true HD gaming revolution and mammoth sized Blu-Ray content. This is the only way to move forward. It gives developers scope and vast space to play with. Now I'm no PS3 fanboy. I just follow the trends and roll with where it's at. The 360 still has the edge online, for sure, but what does that really mean when all you're doing is playing Modern Warfare 2 with 15 people? The battlefield is shifting.
In stark comparison to Sony's attempt to push HD, Blu-Ray, and 256 player warzones (MAG), we have what I like to call the Western Gaming Establishment. Now these guys just don't seem to want to budge and right now we're seeing rehash central. 
I was going to review Dice's latest offering for PC, PS3, and 360. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 to be precise. The problem is, I can't say a lot about it. The truth is that I'm starting to lose the will to review rehash titles and this is one. They come and go again, they offer no great advancement, and in some ways they even seem to be a step backwards.
You see, I'm a PC gamer at heart. If you read my blog posts, dating back to 2003 when I was a nipper, this fact isn't that hard to suss. This latest generation of consoles though has clearly blurred the line between PC and console gaming. The problem I find is that I'm now looking back to the days before this happened. When the PC was leap years ahead of console technology developers seemed to work harder at harnessing the PC hardware. Nowadays, they port it across nine times out of ten. These ports are subject to console limitations, such as ram limits, and it really shows.
Bad Company 2 is a quality game. It's a step forward from the extremely flawed original. I loved it for a few weeks. However, within those three or four weeks I was basically bored of it. It has a console sense about it. For instance, the maps are tiny compared to the PC exclusive of Battlefield 2 from 2005. The controls are clearly designed around a controller first, mouse and keyboard second. The PC centric stuff, such as the server browser, and player limit, are also clearly afterthoughts. 
Sure, Destruction 2.0 is incredible. This is a system that sees every building brought down into rubble and every annoying fence knifed wide open. This is unfortunately where the innovation ends though. 
In terms of the core combat, nothing has advanced that much since BF2. In 2005, this was the cream on the cake. In 2010, it feels five years old to me. Energy bars essentially. You snipe a guy in the chest and he never quite dies. It's all about headshots. This is fine though. All I'm saying is it's based on aged code. 
What really is a joke is the gun selection. In an efforts to rival Modern Warfare 2, which wasn't that bad, Dice have attempted to implement a gun unlock progression system. Sadly, it makes no sense. Why are all the initial guns basically miles better than the stuff you unlock? It's important for starting guns to be good but surely not the best in almost every class! I'll accept that scopes etc do give you a sense of expansion though. The problem is just that there is little to no incentive to bother unlocking guns and when you do you're just downright disappointed. 
Bad Company 2 is basically a good FPS. PC gamers have embraced it due to the horrible lack of high-end online FPS games currently out there. You know something's wrong when your steam friends list consists of people playing Counter Strike: Source and, in some instances, CS 1.6. This game has at least brought a new title to the table. For how long though is anyone's guess. 
I'm becoming less and less interested in games that don't seem to shift the envelope. So here we are playing BC2 in 2010. We have destructible buildings but far smaller maps than BF2, no jets or warships, and half the amount of players? Something doesn't add up. 
People joke about stuff like PSN Home on the PS3 but at least it's new and ambitious. I'm all about advancement. Rehashes are the enemy of gaming folks.  They set a nasty trend and are designed to be rolled out, hyped, and sold to the masses.  

Besides Sony, who encourage developers to do big things, I believe that Valve are about the only pioneers left out there. Steam is generally embraced nowadays and stuff like Left 4 Dead 2 has a calibre to it that  cannot be denied. I'm hoping Half Life 3 is coming along because I can imagine it will be a real trend setter. Time will tell and in the meantime I'm left hoping for greater things to come for gaming than what we're currently seeing. Battlefield 3 maybe... hmm.

Monday, 15 February 2010

3 months later... Hello!

Its all been fairly quiet since November and with work and my personal (gaming) life taking up most of my time, I've not really had the motivation to put hand to keyboard in Open Office. Still, 3 months later here I am ready to share my opinions once again. Prepare to not care.

2009 – A Review
I've been trying to write an intro piece for this section, the “Best of '09” however everything seems to generic and forced. Therefore I have taken the decision to jump right in. Instead of your usual categorised (and generally rigged) awards I'm just going to summarise a few of the games I played in 2009 and why I feel they are worthy of some playtime.

Starting chronologically
Mirror's Edge
I completed this game in one sitting for two reasons:
The first, because this game is incredibly short. My first play-through took me around 5 and a half hours. Don't get me wrong, there is a fair bit to do but in a game where the player character is constantly running, you're going to get things done fairly quickly.
The second reason? Its bags of fun. I remember renting this as I was unsure of whether it was worth the price tag of £39.99. Given its length I'd have to say no, however when I picked it up 3 months after release for the sum of £10 I felt like I'd committed daylight robbery. The story is fairly decent (if not predictable) with the bland looking back drop brought to life through the simple use of colours. Add that to an extremely smooth game-play experience with well mapped controls and you have a game that seriously should have been given more praise than it was.

Killzone 2
The Playstation 3's Halo killer. I quite enjoy how Sony are still trying to murder a near 10 year old game... Still, this is the closest they've come.
Akin to an action film, explosions and death are just a part of the Killzone 2 roller-coaster. You're not going to find an epic story, character depth or emotional scenes worthy of Hollywood blockbusters but you will have fun. Yes the controls are weighty but once you get used to them you'll wonder why you ever complained (and I have to wonder why as Bad Company 2 doesn't seem to be getting a rap for it). Its also visually one of the best games the Playstation 3 has to offer and packs one of the few multi-player modes I've bothered trying out on the PS3. Its an almost complete package and although repetitive at times, does just enough to keep you going.

Demon's Souls
This is what games should be. Described as impossible by some, I'd choose to call Demon's Souls “Unforgiving” in that although everything is painfully hard, there is always a way forward. I spent the better part of 2 days trying to get past the first 2 levels, it recently took me 2 days to complete Bioshock 2.
Yes the learning curve is steep, yes the enemies are powerful but so are you. This game combines some of the best things about RPG games (stats, weapons, armour, magic) and brings them all together in a way that actually effects your play style. Being a jack of all trades ala Final Fantasy will not help you win easily whereas a more methodical approach to character building will reap rewards in the long term. Try this game, even if its just for 2 days.

Uncharted 2: Among Theives
My game of the year and the only game I've ever purchased at midnight. Taking features from great games such as Tomb Raider and Gears of War is one thing, but to combine them so well with cinematic influences from the Indiana Jones series makes this game stand out amongst the crowd. Yes its an obvious comparison but its all there and it doesn't try to hide it, instead it uses the general themes of treasure, girls, guns and betrayal to its advantage; building on the first game whilst making every new feature its own.
The multi-player's quite good too...

Left4Dead 2
Not an add-on, not an expansion but a bloody worthy sequel. I enjoyed Left4Dead, clocking up around 50-60 hours of overall playtime. Since release I've clocked up nearly 80 hours on this game and with the large variety in campaigns, new weapons and interesting game modes its not hard to see why.
Scavenge is probably my favourite addition, akin to versus mode in its team vs team approach the games are shorter and rage quits generally don't destroy any semblance of fun. It requires a great sense of teamwork in a shorter time and can inspire some hilarious moments. Jockey'ing people off roofs has never been so much fun.
One improvement? A ratings system so rage quitters can be punished for their sins.

Honourable mentions: Resident Evil 5, inFamous, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Demigod, Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time.

So rounds up my review. No doubt I'll get flamed for a) Only owning a pc and PS3 and b) For not buying Modern Warfare 2, though from my previous posts I'd say its fairly clear why I didn't...

As for the next post, hopefully it will appear sometime before April. Maybe I'll be venting about the colossal disappointment that was Bioshock 2 (for me at least anyway). Until next time.

Wednesday, 10 February 2010

Oh look, a Bandwagon, .. 3 .. 2 .. 1 .. Jump!

The Modern Warfare 2 Review

by Robinson09

plus a quick take

So here it is, the most highly anticipated game of all time. Causing controversy that makes GTA look like a sequel to viva pinata, and selling a truly astronomical amount of copies (1.23m units in its first day in the UK), this game has really taken the world by storm.

I have a unique angle to the game, in that I am one of the very few who never actually played the first. Admittedly, I had a quick bang at the multiplayer at a mates and also owned World at War on the PC, but i had yet to experience that much loved single player campaign so praised from COD 4.

The first comment I'd like to make was the price. One of the first (of a few) reasons this game became newsworthy fodder was the fact that its producer, Activision, had decided to market the game at a £54.99 price point, about a £15 mark up on most game releases. This raised the eyebrows of many, seeing Activision really milking the franchise for all its worth. In my opinion retailers were never going to sell at that price point, with most settling on a £44.99 position. Much was my surprise then when I can pick up this game (again, the most highly anticipated game of all time) for a measly £26 on launch day. In fact, due to some cheeky sainsburys staff discount cards being thrown around, my copy was £22.10! It was a truly incredible price drop, like I'd never seen before for video-games. I mean, if they'd dropped the price to just £35, a fair few people would have be delighted, but to take a full £30 from the RRP on release day is just crazy.

But anyway onto the game. I was as excited as this kid as the game loaded up, having heard so much about the original, and knew I was in for a treat as the introduction movie ran, with voice acting and a musical score worthy of a Hollywood movie. And then I'm thrown into the Afghan warzone, apparently teaching the local Afghans some soldier skills. The graphics are glorious, I just couldn't stop looking around and taking it all in. I move through the small 'training' section that signals what your difficulty should be (I chose hardened - more on that later) before suddenly (albeit predictably) all hell breaks loose. Within minutes I'm in the back of a military Jeep, shooting the crap out of pretty much anything as we flew down a street (think black hawk down); the game moves so fast at points, your literally getting shot at from all directions and it really does feel intense.

As I mentioned earlier, I chose the 'hardened' difficultly level. Many COD players will be familiar with the system, and the kudos that come from completing on veteran (a feat I dare not attempt), but even on hardened, this game is hard. You will die, and you will most likely die alot. Often, you won't even know where the shot came from before you're down on the floor, blood pouring down the screen. However, whilst in most games relentless death frustrates me, it seems different in MW2. When you die, there's a short blood screen and then a fast load straight back to the previous checkpoint. This is seamless and quick, and with generally well placed checkpoints, you never really have to redo too much.

The difficulty is also where my first gripe comes however. There seems to be a slight lack of balance between the levels. For example, I was breezing fairly swiftly through the first few levels, with a regular amount of failure, but then hit the 'favela' level, which really seemed to turn it up notch. I died so many times I lost count, and frustration really started to kick in. For a Brazilian shanty town, there seemed to be an almost ridiculous amount of resistance, akin to some kind of crappy tramps military base.

Anyway back to the positives. Almost every level comes with a breath-taking set piece with many showing real innovation from the designers. They really are totally awesome and really show how the game is a step up from your regular run and gun FPS. The levels are also well designed and varied, with locations including Afghanistan, an oil rig, suburban America, a snowy place and an airport.

Now would be a good time to talk about one of the other reasons this game has been so controversial. The third level of the game has the player actively taking part in a terrorist attack, with the four perpetrators (including the player) committing mass murder. There is truly a sense of horror during this scene and it is perhaps unjustified. Although you are warned multiple times about the intensity of this scene, it still just doesn't seem right in a video-game. 

All in all then, a solid FPS. I didn't really dabble with the online side of things though and I get the impression that's really where the party's at.

Alien's quick take:

I've played enough FPS games over the years to know when one comes along and does something differently and Infinity Ward's MW2 clearly doesn't do much new. It's essentially the same old game. This is CoD in every respect and I don't think I need to add much to what Robinson has said about this title. All I will say is that I simply loved the MP for the first few months. It then just got stale somehow. Unlike CoD 4, it wasn't a new experience and therefore the thrill didn't stick for as long as it did in 2007.

If I'm honest, I'd be lying if I said MW2 let me down though. It delivered the MW fix and that's really all we wanted isn't it? The MP is still up their with the best of them too. World at War was a non starter online for me due to the poorly designed maps and vehicles. If I want those I'll hit Battlefield

The main thing to discuss about MW2 MP is the plethora of new kill streak rewards. It's basically air-strike city. Call in the Pave Low buddy! I wasn't happy to see the spamming initially and felt the raw arcade skill of CoD 4 had been reduced to harrier whoring. It does grow on you though (although I still think the chopper gunner is a joke). Due to the map design and carefully designed anti-air perks, things aren't as chaotic as I feared at first. The reality is CoD 4 will probably seem lacking in this department now with its measly three pre-set support options.

Single player isn't the reason I play CoD. Not since CoD 2 have I cared. When I played CoD 4 back in '07 and realised its SP greatness I was shocked. I loved it like we all did. However, I wasn't expecting this again with MW2 and didn't receive it. It's workable and I kinda liked the whole "betrayed by the man" dynamic. I'll accept it was about as original as your average Seagal movie though. It's also just pretty short.  

I want to discuss this game more in a pending post I am putting together on the latest grim pattern that seems to be developing in the gaming industry. I think for now I'll just keep it at that. All in all though, MW2 certainly gets a thumbs up from me.

Thursday, 4 February 2010

Still alive!

It's been a good while since anything new hit the blog. If you've been standing by, in hope for some great new post, then I apologise. I guess we've all been too bust binging on MW2. However, fear not! I intend to roll a few new posts out in the next few weeks covering some of the most pressing gaming developments.