WTF: PS2 Still Outselling Xbox 360 / PS3
And here is the rest of it
Monday, September 3, 2007
Sunday, September 2, 2007
PC: Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 Review
GRAW is back and with yet another Mexican rebel slaughter, but are you prepared to hold your fire from slaughtering your own teammates for insubordination or has developer GRIN learned from their first iteration?
The first GRAW was chock full of terrible AI and glitches that would make even the most calm and silent person run out the door and scream profanities in 7 different languages. GRAW 2, however, promises to fix that by offering improved graphics, new settings, smarter AI and an easier squad control system.
Unfortunately, GRAW 2 offers nothing much in the way of a change of scenery from the drab tan color palette from the first game, but it does offer some spectacular effects and great graphics, but nothing next-gen worthy.
Unfortunately, the same can’t be said about the AI. Whilst it is much improved, there are still many key problems such as their lack of taking cover instead of standing around and waiting for orders and their inability to think for themselves. Aren’t they supposed to be elite, trained soldiers, not children who need a babysitter? I guess those soldiers are all occupied in Iraq, so the government decided to step up recruiting by getting people with bipolar disorder!
But the new CrossCom 2.0 is a great improvement over the original: you can now know where the soldiers will be positioned when you order them to move (you will see light blue circles under their new position), you can see what they see, you can even switch to different tactical modes such as Assault (Rambo warfare) or Recon (silent and stealthy) and of course it features everything from the first game, like the tactical map, but only better. At the beginning of every game, you can select your weapons (there’s a larger weapon inventory this time), different squad members and even multiple entry points.
The story takes place a few days after the first GRAW where you had to save the American and Mexican presidents from a military coup in Mexico City. This time around you have to help Mexican loyalists fight the rebels whilst trying to locate and disarm stolen nuclear missiles before they go off in the USA.
Most missions offer little other than going around a mostly linear path, killing and destroying things. It gets extremely tedious when your team starts dying because of their stupidity and having to constantly die because of the enemy’s extremely accurate fire and their overwhelming numbers. GRAW is also very slowly paced.
But that’s the selling point for some, such as myself, who greatly enjoy slow-paced, realistic, tactical warfare where the enemy can be anywhere and where you have to constantly take cover.
What most people don’t want are dumb-asses for squad mates. You will have to constantly micro-manage your teammates, tell them where to go and what to do, which is something that a trained soldier doesn’t and shouldn’t have to do. When they’re getting shot at, you’ll have to tell them where cover is. When an enemy tank approaches, you have to tell them to destroy it with their rocket launcher. However, GRAW 2 isn’t all bad, it offers hours of fun for the tactical FPS fan, and I myself enjoyed it. It is, however, not worth $50, and I would have preferred playing the game in an entirely different setting with non-linear paths.
Gameplay: 7/10 – [Add one point if you enjoy tactical FPS]. Basically consisting of going down a linear path, killing and destroying any enemies along your way and extracting to repeat the same process, however there is a lot of realism involved that tactical FPS fans will enjoy. No running ‘n’ gunning here.
Graphics: 8/10 – Whilst not on the scale of some of the newer games coming out, it’s still excellent and so are some of the effects.
Music: 6/10 – It gets very repetitive very quick, but it usually fits the environment.
Sound: 8/10 – Some great sound effects but nothing spectacular.
Replay Value: 5/10 – I don’t think the campaign is worth completing again as its nothing more than linear killing and multiplayer is pretty standard.
Overall: 7/10 – Its not at all a bad game, I personally enjoyed it, but for those of you who aren't patient enough to find cover or micro-manage your team, then it's not the game for you. However, if you enjoy realistic, tactical first person combat then get the game... when it drops down to at the very most $40.
Friday, August 24, 2007
PC: Spore Gameplay Trailer
As a little refresher from all the FPS-ing of late, here's the newest trailer from Maxis' most ambitious undertaking to date - the universe sim Spore. This huge game has players starting off with single-cell organisms and playing out any path of evolution through tribal culture, global domination and onto galactic exploration. Think Black & White, only on a galactic scale. Release TBA.
PC: Half Life 2: Episode 2 Demonstration
Demonstration video of Valve's upcoming sequel to Half Life 2's Episode 1. Episode 2 is set for release on October 9th 2007.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
360 / PS3: Wet
A modular animation system lets Rubi shoot her guns from any acrobatic state, allowing her to dispense pain pills in the middle of a cartwheel or while hanging upside-down from a steel ladder. Newbies can pull off such moves easily using a standard auto-aim, but the more advanced hit men can go manual and lock-on to different targets at once. (source)
You may be forgiven for thinking I'd expanded into porn, but you'd be sadly mistaken. Wet is Sierra Online's answer to Lara Croft, and it is set to hit in 2008 sometime. More after the jump.
The game's script was penned by one of the lead writers from the seminal television action drama 24, though the stylized look borrows just as heavily from cool-cat Tarantino tale Kill Bill. Rather than running down terrorists or sticking it to her ex-gang mates, Rubi is a government-approved mercenary, a legal gun for hire. As such, her assignments can be considered "wet works," an old Cold War euphemism for covert, special-op assassinations.
And she's certainly good at her job. Wet's action-packed gameplay lies somewhere between Tomb Raider and Prince of Persia, due in part to the fact that the sexy star totes dual-pistols and a samurai sword. She can leap all over the place, twisting her body in the air to avoid enemy fire, running along walls and kicking off objects to somersault over the heads of her enemies like a young Jackie Chan.
360 / PS3: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (again)
Some new screens, along with that amazing E3 trailer in full HD - after the jump. (and fingers crossed for that April 2008 release date...)
PS3: Heavenly Sword GDC 2007 HD Trailer
Okay, enough with the Heavenly Sword trailers, these guys just need to polish this game off and release the damned thing - before it stops looking next-gen and turns into a fuzzy, pixelated mess. Much like me on a Sunday. With Nariko. Mmmm.
PC / 360 / PS3: Medal of Honor: Airborne Demo Out Now
At least for those with a 360 or a PC. PC demo should be out (soon) here, and the 360 demo should be out anytime on XBL...
And here is the rest of it
PS3: Bioshock Coming to PS3?
After source code for the PS3 was discovered in the demo of Bioshock, just days after its release for the PC and Xbox 360, rumors are already swirling of its imminent release for the PS3. GamePro has more...
When asked if BioShock would be coming to PS3, our contact informed us that we'd be wrong to think the game wouldn't be released on Sony's console at a later date.
UPDATE: We can't name the source, but this individual is in a position to know. Still, the information can't be confirmed until 2K Games makes an official statement, and should still be treated with a grain of salt.
This new statement validates news from Tuesday, where eagle-eyed BioShock demo owners discovered a snippet of code listing both Xbox 360 and PS3 as consoles under a file setting.
It should be noted that BioShock uses the Unreal graphics engine, which supports select Xbox 360, PC, and PS3 games.
2K Games was not immediately available for comment.
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Tuesday, August 21, 2007
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