Here we have what is nearly identical to something we played a couple years ago. That isn't a bad thing at all, however, some more innovation would be nice. I do enjoy the Lego games quite a lot. The tried and true formula of play a level, break EVERYTHING, collect what you can, and come back later to finish the job works great for the games they are building. I'm just saying I am a little tired of it. Lego Harry Potter: Years 5-7 does offer a few additions that make the game more fun at first, but then become tedious.
Graphically, the game isn't a powerhouse by any stretch of the imagination. It does however have a lot more shine and is a bit smoother than it's predecessor. The lighting has been adjusted to work a bit better and the Lumos spell is actually helpful. Platforming is still hard due to lack of shadow beneath yourself to try and line up a jump though. The spells look good as they fly across the screen. The cutscenes look pretty good as you play through the story. The environments are also large and for the most part pretty good looking.
Speaking of sound, I would say that it is just like any other Lego game played. There are no words, just grunts and squeaks coming from the Lego people. The music is pretty good when it's there.
From a gameplay perspective you've pretty much played this game before. It uses the spell casting and basic platforming that the previous game used. There are a couple new spells to play with and some new character abilities such as Weasley Sticky Sneakers and the Aguamenti spell. There is also a dueling mechanic worked into the game that, while fun the first few times, gets repetitive and tedious fast. During the levels you will still go through and blast apart everything you can to try and get more studs to by some new characters or things of the like. There are a lot of things to collect so if you are a perfectionist this game will take you a while to complete. Each book or movie if you prefer is split into six levels giving you a total of twenty-four to play (the last book is split into two like the movies) and the levels are fairly fun to play through. There are still students in peril, gold bricks, evil wizards only blocks, and numerous other reasons to replay each level.
Honestly, I would love to say some more about this game, but there really isn't much that I can add to it. We've done it before, just in a different location. The small additions are welcomed but the formula is getting tired. I give Lego Harry Potter: Years 5-7 a 7/10. It will keep you playing for a long time if you're a completionist, but as I've said, we have pretty much played this before. See You Online.
Monday, November 28, 2011
Friday, November 25, 2011
WWE '12 On PS3
Well, another week, another game for me. This time it is WWE '12 for my PS3. I promise, I will have something 360 related up soon, I am thinking about Saints Row: The Third, but I need more money. Anyway, WWE '12 brings to the table a revamped wrestling game. Controls are easier, graphics are better, gameplay is faster. Everything has been changed and that is for the better.
Graphics wise this game is fantastic. I love how any of the wrestlers look while walking down the ramp. The movements are very fluid and attacks seem to flow naturally with hit detection far beyond what it has been in the past. Watching my dive over the ropes (or through them) is very satisfying. The game design actually attempts to utilize some of the TV show camera angles, which did throw me off at first. There are some hilarious glitches that I noticed like occasionally just falling out of the ring, and sometimes sliding across the screen when trying to climb the turnbuckle, but these are just minor things that I've come to know and love from WWE games. The other thing is that anything not a performer or arena does not look as good. Case in point, Alberto Del Rio's car in his entrance.
The sound is great. The actors are the characters they are voicing over and it is really almost like watching a broadcast. The announce team gets a little old after a while, especially listening to Michael Cole talk about himself when you fight against him, but he is acting like he does on TV so I guess it is to be expected. Hitting the mat sounds like it does on TV.
Gameplay is what sets this one apart from the other WWE games on the market. The controls are simpler than they have been in years and that helps to get newer players into the game a lot faster. There is still a fairly deep fighting system there, it's just toned down a bit so that we can all play a little easier. The creation system has many more options for you to play with including a new “Create an Arena” function which is pretty sweet. In addition to creating an arena you can create a slew of other things: a new fighter, a story, your own brand, an entrance, a move set, a titantron video, and create your own finishing move. Yeah, you want to customize, you can customize to your little heart's content. The road to Wrestlemania mode has been modified a bit which is great, except there is nearly as much talking and watching them do nothing during the story as there is on the shows. It does get pretty boring, but you can work through it with patience. There are some new moves you can use like comeback attacks for when you are getting beat down. They kind of offer a second chance and help to make the game more like the shows. Online has been a little tricky due to server issues but what I have played is nice and there are plenty of options. This year did not really add any new match types, but it did let you have forty man royal rumbles in addition to the other options. Finally, the matches are quicker and you get to spend a lot less time on your back mashing buttons trying to get back up.
Honestly guys, this is the best WWE game I have played in a lot of years. Things are as the tag for the game says, Bigger, Badder, Better. There are a lot of options to create and play. Things have changed and it is definitely for the better. I'm happy to award a 9/10 on this one. See you online.
Friday, November 18, 2011
An older review I wrote - Lego Star Wars 3: The Clone Wars (360)
Lego games are everywhere as of late. That's not bad at all (huge lego fan here) but they are starting to wear a little thin on me. Every game is pretty much the same thing - smash bricks collect, collect money, find things, unlock things, and repeat. This is a great formula for the type of game but it is getting a bit old and tiresome. That said, the third iteration of Lego Star Wars takes place within the confines of the Clone Wars TV Series. The graphics are upgraded but the mechanics are still like they always have been.
First things first, graphically this game is great for a Lego game. The lighting and reflectiveness of the surfaces have received major upgrades. Surfaces are shiny like they are really made of Lego bricks and there is even minor (temporary) environment damage from lightsaber smashes. When standing against a wall with your lightsaber out it will spark off the wall and even make a noise like it's actively cutting. These are nice additions.
Gameplay is virtually identical to any other Lego Star Wars game out there. Level progression is pretty much the same. The cutscenes have had a lot of work put into them and are longer than past games have been. The trademarked humor is still there and I even found myself chuckling at Lego Jar-Jar Binks. I know, a cardinal sin but I couldn't help myself. I did however, find this game to be a bit more annoying due to some segments where both characters were apart and you were forced to actively switch between them to enable the other character to do something. There is also a little less direction than I would have liked in some of the levels. That's not to say I want to have my hand held the entire way, but an arrow once and a while would be nice. I'm not as familiar with "The Clone Wars" show, but the few episodes I have seen helped me get through some levels that I had some difficulty with. There are quite a few characters to unlock as you play, as is standard with Lego games. There are the main ones (Anakin, Obi-Wan, Asokah) and a few minor ones (The forgettable one-off clones and that traitor R2 droid that I can't remember the name of) which as always make replaying as someone you want to be more fun.
Sound is pretty much the same as any other Lego game. There aren't any words really, just grunts and whimpers from your Lego people. So...yeah.
All in all, this is pretty much the same package we've played so many times before that it is starting to get stale. I did have fun with it, don't get me wrong. I'm just getting bored of the same formula. Even though it merges two of my favorite things in Lego bricks and Star Wars, I'm going to have to go with a 7/10 on this game.
See you online.
First things first, graphically this game is great for a Lego game. The lighting and reflectiveness of the surfaces have received major upgrades. Surfaces are shiny like they are really made of Lego bricks and there is even minor (temporary) environment damage from lightsaber smashes. When standing against a wall with your lightsaber out it will spark off the wall and even make a noise like it's actively cutting. These are nice additions.
Gameplay is virtually identical to any other Lego Star Wars game out there. Level progression is pretty much the same. The cutscenes have had a lot of work put into them and are longer than past games have been. The trademarked humor is still there and I even found myself chuckling at Lego Jar-Jar Binks. I know, a cardinal sin but I couldn't help myself. I did however, find this game to be a bit more annoying due to some segments where both characters were apart and you were forced to actively switch between them to enable the other character to do something. There is also a little less direction than I would have liked in some of the levels. That's not to say I want to have my hand held the entire way, but an arrow once and a while would be nice. I'm not as familiar with "The Clone Wars" show, but the few episodes I have seen helped me get through some levels that I had some difficulty with. There are quite a few characters to unlock as you play, as is standard with Lego games. There are the main ones (Anakin, Obi-Wan, Asokah) and a few minor ones (The forgettable one-off clones and that traitor R2 droid that I can't remember the name of) which as always make replaying as someone you want to be more fun.
Sound is pretty much the same as any other Lego game. There aren't any words really, just grunts and whimpers from your Lego people. So...yeah.
All in all, this is pretty much the same package we've played so many times before that it is starting to get stale. I did have fun with it, don't get me wrong. I'm just getting bored of the same formula. Even though it merges two of my favorite things in Lego bricks and Star Wars, I'm going to have to go with a 7/10 on this game.
See you online.
Follow-ups
Skyrim - Another fifteen hours in, still fantastic. I love how diverse and expansive the world is. Random dragon fights are still fun, but they do tend to get tedious sometimes. Dungeon exploring is so much fun, though I am getting tired of the same couple enemies underground. Spice it up a little bit Bethesda, but otherwise my impressions are the same. I'm keeping my score.
Modern Warfare 3 - I forgot to mention, I'm on PS3 with this one as well (I'm neglecting my 360, I know) Campaign was above average, but still CoD. I am now thoroughly desensitized to explosions and gunshots so I'm moving on to something else. Survival, Spec Ops, and multiplayer will keep me attached to this one for a while I'm happy to say. I am keeping my score where it is.
In other news, I will have a PS3 review (I know, I need to buy for my Xbox and PC soon) for Lego Harry Potter Years 5-7. I got it yesterday and haven't had a chance to start it yet. Give me a couple days.
See you online.
Modern Warfare 3 - I forgot to mention, I'm on PS3 with this one as well (I'm neglecting my 360, I know) Campaign was above average, but still CoD. I am now thoroughly desensitized to explosions and gunshots so I'm moving on to something else. Survival, Spec Ops, and multiplayer will keep me attached to this one for a while I'm happy to say. I am keeping my score where it is.
In other news, I will have a PS3 review (I know, I need to buy for my Xbox and PC soon) for Lego Harry Potter Years 5-7. I got it yesterday and haven't had a chance to start it yet. Give me a couple days.
See you online.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Skyrim Initial Impressions PS3
Well, I would like to have a full review ready, but alas, I do not. I do however have some impressions from roughly fourteen hours of game time. While only fourteen hours in, there is a LOT that I have done and can report on. I can safely say that in the time I have spent in Skyrim, I have not even begun to touch what is possible in the world. While not everything is gold plated chocolate funfetti cake, I can say that a majority of it is.
First, the graphics are impressive. I am playing on a PS3 for this one and it is gorgeous. The water shines and reflects much like I would expect it to. Trees move fairly realistically with the breeze and shadows move position throughout the day and even the night I noticed while I was waiting. There are some funny graphical glitches such as random Wooly Mammoth rains and the occasional getting stuck on grass, but these only distract a little bit. NPC's tend to move fairly naturally throughout the world but faces during conversation still look stiff and slightly inhuman. Your character model when in third person is much more fluid and natural to look at than seen in past Elder Scrolls games. The new engine Bethesda has created handles the world very well. You can literally look across a plain, see a mountaintop and say to yourself "I'm going there" and away you walk/run. Draw distances are fantastic though texture loading is problematic at times; for instance, I was running through a swamp and my land was flat and textureless for nearly a full two minutes. I have also ran into several points where I have some severe framerate issues. Generally they are extremely detailed areas (such as the circular area in Whiterun where you can go to the three areas of town) that are well lit. While not unplayable at these times, it is frustrating in such a beautiful world that generally runs very smoothly to be almost stopped while you are walking.
The game's sound design is possibly where I am most impressed. The voice work is great. The soundtrack is one of, if not the best, I've heard in a game in a very long time. I'm not the kind of person who pays much attention to the soundtrack but the one for Skyrim just fits perfectly with the world that has been built. It stays quiet and out of the way when it should and brings in a dramatic piece for when the action starts. The NPC voices from around the towns sound like normal day to day chatter of townsfolk. Several of the Jarls sound like they came straight from an action movie and there is even a couple characters with Batman voices. The characters are reasonably well written for as many as there are and the amount of dialogue they have.
The gameplay is standard Elder Scrolls with a few nice additions and tweaks. Quite possibly the biggest addition is the dragons. They are fun to fight and appear both in story and randomly throughout the world. I didn't spend much time with Oblivion but I knew you could make potions and enchant items. You can still do that, but there is an added bonus of cooking meals with your food you've acquired. You can also craft armor and weapons pretty much at will providing you are near a blacksmith post. You can harvest lumber for firewood and to sell, you can mine ores to smelt into metal ingots for crafting your weapons and armor. Side note - Random dragon encounters = awesome, adrenaline filled battles.
The combat section of the game has been adjusted a bit. You can now wield two one handed weapons at once, you can go sword and shield, or one handed weapon and magic, you could even go two handed magic if you want to. My personal favorite is to have a destruction spell on my left hand and a war axe in my right. I sacrifice blocking to have a ranged and melee attack. There are also new coup de grace moves you can do while fighting an enemy to go into a slow motion kill that always looks awesome. They have also added another magic that doesn't actually use any of your magica. It is called a shout and you earn them by finding dragon nests and unlocking the word of power. Each shout has three levels and they get progressively stronger as you unlock the different tiers.
Finally, the leveling and character creation have been overhauled. No more picking major and minor skills, deciding what sign you want, and what type of player you want to be before you've had a chance to play the game. Skyrim lets you play how you want to just like the games preceding it, but you specialize over time and use, not because you are forced to. Personally, I never used to use magic, now that I have a setup that I like, I am specialized in destruction and one handed weapons because I use them at the same time. You pick your sign by finding the corresponding stone in the wild and activating it. So far, I have found six of them. You can only have one active at a time, but you can change them at will which is nice. Also, Acrobatics and Athletics are gone. No more leveling up by jumping across the landscape. When you do level up you get to choose what you want to increase (magica, health, and stamina) and then you get a perk point. Perk points are used with the skills you use to unlock bonuses within the skill. For example, if you are smithing a lot of items and you level up you can put in a perk point to unlock the ability to make Elven things. These add some depth to your character and put the nail in the coffin to make sure every playthrough can, and usually will be different than your last.
The story is still there but as usual in the Elder Scrolls I have forsaken the story to run around and kill cities. I have completed the first act and it is a decent story so far. I am far more engrossed by the secondary story of the civil war happening in Skyrim. That has taken more of my time because I have to choose a side and watch and participate in the war that I am helping to end (I think). The backstory for the dragons and history of the world is rich and engaging. I did not find myself bored while listening to the characters talk about the various gods and how the dragons came to come to Skyrim.
In closing, though these are my impressions now, when I am only a bit into the game, I do believe that This may actually end up being my review. I have enjoyed the time I have spent in Skyrim and know without fail I will be spending many more hours hunting down a dragon to slay or the last ingredient for what I suspect will be a potion. I give Skyrim a solid 9.5/10. Fun though it is, the graphical issues will keep me from giving the ten. See you online.
First, the graphics are impressive. I am playing on a PS3 for this one and it is gorgeous. The water shines and reflects much like I would expect it to. Trees move fairly realistically with the breeze and shadows move position throughout the day and even the night I noticed while I was waiting. There are some funny graphical glitches such as random Wooly Mammoth rains and the occasional getting stuck on grass, but these only distract a little bit. NPC's tend to move fairly naturally throughout the world but faces during conversation still look stiff and slightly inhuman. Your character model when in third person is much more fluid and natural to look at than seen in past Elder Scrolls games. The new engine Bethesda has created handles the world very well. You can literally look across a plain, see a mountaintop and say to yourself "I'm going there" and away you walk/run. Draw distances are fantastic though texture loading is problematic at times; for instance, I was running through a swamp and my land was flat and textureless for nearly a full two minutes. I have also ran into several points where I have some severe framerate issues. Generally they are extremely detailed areas (such as the circular area in Whiterun where you can go to the three areas of town) that are well lit. While not unplayable at these times, it is frustrating in such a beautiful world that generally runs very smoothly to be almost stopped while you are walking.
The game's sound design is possibly where I am most impressed. The voice work is great. The soundtrack is one of, if not the best, I've heard in a game in a very long time. I'm not the kind of person who pays much attention to the soundtrack but the one for Skyrim just fits perfectly with the world that has been built. It stays quiet and out of the way when it should and brings in a dramatic piece for when the action starts. The NPC voices from around the towns sound like normal day to day chatter of townsfolk. Several of the Jarls sound like they came straight from an action movie and there is even a couple characters with Batman voices. The characters are reasonably well written for as many as there are and the amount of dialogue they have.
The gameplay is standard Elder Scrolls with a few nice additions and tweaks. Quite possibly the biggest addition is the dragons. They are fun to fight and appear both in story and randomly throughout the world. I didn't spend much time with Oblivion but I knew you could make potions and enchant items. You can still do that, but there is an added bonus of cooking meals with your food you've acquired. You can also craft armor and weapons pretty much at will providing you are near a blacksmith post. You can harvest lumber for firewood and to sell, you can mine ores to smelt into metal ingots for crafting your weapons and armor. Side note - Random dragon encounters = awesome, adrenaline filled battles.
The combat section of the game has been adjusted a bit. You can now wield two one handed weapons at once, you can go sword and shield, or one handed weapon and magic, you could even go two handed magic if you want to. My personal favorite is to have a destruction spell on my left hand and a war axe in my right. I sacrifice blocking to have a ranged and melee attack. There are also new coup de grace moves you can do while fighting an enemy to go into a slow motion kill that always looks awesome. They have also added another magic that doesn't actually use any of your magica. It is called a shout and you earn them by finding dragon nests and unlocking the word of power. Each shout has three levels and they get progressively stronger as you unlock the different tiers.
Finally, the leveling and character creation have been overhauled. No more picking major and minor skills, deciding what sign you want, and what type of player you want to be before you've had a chance to play the game. Skyrim lets you play how you want to just like the games preceding it, but you specialize over time and use, not because you are forced to. Personally, I never used to use magic, now that I have a setup that I like, I am specialized in destruction and one handed weapons because I use them at the same time. You pick your sign by finding the corresponding stone in the wild and activating it. So far, I have found six of them. You can only have one active at a time, but you can change them at will which is nice. Also, Acrobatics and Athletics are gone. No more leveling up by jumping across the landscape. When you do level up you get to choose what you want to increase (magica, health, and stamina) and then you get a perk point. Perk points are used with the skills you use to unlock bonuses within the skill. For example, if you are smithing a lot of items and you level up you can put in a perk point to unlock the ability to make Elven things. These add some depth to your character and put the nail in the coffin to make sure every playthrough can, and usually will be different than your last.
The story is still there but as usual in the Elder Scrolls I have forsaken the story to run around and kill cities. I have completed the first act and it is a decent story so far. I am far more engrossed by the secondary story of the civil war happening in Skyrim. That has taken more of my time because I have to choose a side and watch and participate in the war that I am helping to end (I think). The backstory for the dragons and history of the world is rich and engaging. I did not find myself bored while listening to the characters talk about the various gods and how the dragons came to come to Skyrim.
In closing, though these are my impressions now, when I am only a bit into the game, I do believe that This may actually end up being my review. I have enjoyed the time I have spent in Skyrim and know without fail I will be spending many more hours hunting down a dragon to slay or the last ingredient for what I suspect will be a potion. I give Skyrim a solid 9.5/10. Fun though it is, the graphical issues will keep me from giving the ten. See you online.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Gears of War 3 Review
I wrote this a while back, I just didn't have it posted.
Finally the wait is over. Gears of War 3 is upon us. As of writing this I have had this game preordered for eight months, played the beta, and salivated over every piece of news that comes out for this game. It is the conclusion to one of my favorite stories and a much bigger game than the two that came before it. The game is magnificent and I can say that the wait was worth it. That's not to say everything is perfect though.
First of all, graphically speaking, this game is beautiful. Epic took war and made it pretty. The environments are great looking. The texture work is awesome, even the water looks good. The interior designs are kind of flat and shades of the series past browns and grays, but the exterior environments are where the engine shows it's worth. There are some points where the textures pop in a bit and even an occasional slowdown when there is a lot of action, but these are minor offenses. There are more than grays and browns present though. The outside environments often have greenery and it looks beautiful. The suprise for me was that the women were not nearly as sexualized as I expected them to be. That said, they don't look like trolls and are smaller than the men and more curvy (which unless they were lady Arnold Schwarzeneggers I would hope so) and they move like women, but without the jiggle or sway that most video game women have. Blood spatter and splatter for that matter are excellent. Coating the screen where appropriate and leaking on the ground when needed.
The sound work is pretty alright, the voices of the characters are very well done. Marcus still has his trademarked growly yell and Dom is still a whiney b*tch. Anya and Sam are both very well done. The voice work has a kind of tone that shows the actors do seem to care about their respective characters. The weapon sounds are good with mulchers sounding much heavier than a lancer. The snub pistol sounds almost like a bb gun in comparison to pretty much any other weapon in the game. The chainsaw on the lancer cutting through flesh is appropriately brutal as are the other executions in the game.
The gameplay is where I feel both the most improvements and the most problems are with the game. The single player campaign is long enough and kept me entertained for roughly ten hours on Normal. While playing alone I could tell that the game was designed for two and even up to four people to be playing. The team AI was fairly intelligent at times, and there were other times where I wanted to try and push Anya over a cliff. The enemies were relentless and would stop and pop just as efficently as I could which made me have to either have a backup plan when I went into a fight or change tactics on the fly to try and get beside or behind the enemy while my allies stayed pretty much where they were. Epic has added a kick move when climbing over walls so you can jump on your enemies instead of trying to shoot around the cover they are hiding behind. The end of the campaign provided an ending that most gears players should be happy with.
Multiplayer is better than ever. The host advantage is essentially gone now with the addition of dedicated servers. Players have a spawn immunity keeping them safe for a few seconds after spawn. Epic only shipped with ten maps on disc but the ten we have are pretty great. Thrashball offers a stadium to play in where you can shoot down the scoreboard, Trenches has a dust storm. The levels offer something unique in each one for the most part. My complaint is that the Gears of War multiplayer strategy of charge, roll, shotgun is still pretty much the norm and main way people play online. It saddens me that this is how we play this game. That isn't to say that you can't kill your enemy from across the level with a boomshot or pretty much anything else, just the predominate strategy is the same as always. There is also a casual mode for players under level five to try and get some playtime before being thrown to the dogs in standard matchmaking. There is also a new match type added called Team Deathmatch, which is essentially the Gears of War Warzone mode but with more than one life. So, it's a lot of fun.
So, Gears 3 is wonderful. I love the game and play it daily. The graphics are great. The story ends and Epic did a great job taking us on such a rollercoaster ride for the last game. I am giving this game a 9/10. See you online.
Finally the wait is over. Gears of War 3 is upon us. As of writing this I have had this game preordered for eight months, played the beta, and salivated over every piece of news that comes out for this game. It is the conclusion to one of my favorite stories and a much bigger game than the two that came before it. The game is magnificent and I can say that the wait was worth it. That's not to say everything is perfect though.
First of all, graphically speaking, this game is beautiful. Epic took war and made it pretty. The environments are great looking. The texture work is awesome, even the water looks good. The interior designs are kind of flat and shades of the series past browns and grays, but the exterior environments are where the engine shows it's worth. There are some points where the textures pop in a bit and even an occasional slowdown when there is a lot of action, but these are minor offenses. There are more than grays and browns present though. The outside environments often have greenery and it looks beautiful. The suprise for me was that the women were not nearly as sexualized as I expected them to be. That said, they don't look like trolls and are smaller than the men and more curvy (which unless they were lady Arnold Schwarzeneggers I would hope so) and they move like women, but without the jiggle or sway that most video game women have. Blood spatter and splatter for that matter are excellent. Coating the screen where appropriate and leaking on the ground when needed.
The sound work is pretty alright, the voices of the characters are very well done. Marcus still has his trademarked growly yell and Dom is still a whiney b*tch. Anya and Sam are both very well done. The voice work has a kind of tone that shows the actors do seem to care about their respective characters. The weapon sounds are good with mulchers sounding much heavier than a lancer. The snub pistol sounds almost like a bb gun in comparison to pretty much any other weapon in the game. The chainsaw on the lancer cutting through flesh is appropriately brutal as are the other executions in the game.
The gameplay is where I feel both the most improvements and the most problems are with the game. The single player campaign is long enough and kept me entertained for roughly ten hours on Normal. While playing alone I could tell that the game was designed for two and even up to four people to be playing. The team AI was fairly intelligent at times, and there were other times where I wanted to try and push Anya over a cliff. The enemies were relentless and would stop and pop just as efficently as I could which made me have to either have a backup plan when I went into a fight or change tactics on the fly to try and get beside or behind the enemy while my allies stayed pretty much where they were. Epic has added a kick move when climbing over walls so you can jump on your enemies instead of trying to shoot around the cover they are hiding behind. The end of the campaign provided an ending that most gears players should be happy with.
Multiplayer is better than ever. The host advantage is essentially gone now with the addition of dedicated servers. Players have a spawn immunity keeping them safe for a few seconds after spawn. Epic only shipped with ten maps on disc but the ten we have are pretty great. Thrashball offers a stadium to play in where you can shoot down the scoreboard, Trenches has a dust storm. The levels offer something unique in each one for the most part. My complaint is that the Gears of War multiplayer strategy of charge, roll, shotgun is still pretty much the norm and main way people play online. It saddens me that this is how we play this game. That isn't to say that you can't kill your enemy from across the level with a boomshot or pretty much anything else, just the predominate strategy is the same as always. There is also a casual mode for players under level five to try and get some playtime before being thrown to the dogs in standard matchmaking. There is also a new match type added called Team Deathmatch, which is essentially the Gears of War Warzone mode but with more than one life. So, it's a lot of fun.
So, Gears 3 is wonderful. I love the game and play it daily. The graphics are great. The story ends and Epic did a great job taking us on such a rollercoaster ride for the last game. I am giving this game a 9/10. See you online.
Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Welp, another year, another CoD. I like that they finished the Modern Warfare story arc finally, but it's still pretty much the same game I've been playing since '07. I got it yesterday, put about ten or so hours in it and I can say that I'm not impressed by anything that it does up to this point. That said however, I am happy to say that I am indeed having quite a bit of fun with it. Single player campaign is fun so far, lots of explosions and insanity (per the CoD formula) and lots of bullets flying around. Sometimes I almost feel that the craziness gets to be overwhelming, but then it's over just as quickly as it began. My biggest complaint, it's pretty much the same thing as Black Ops, and essentially every other Call of Duty out there.
The graphics are good; not great, but good. The engine is aging and it shows a bit. They did tighten it up and add in some updates to make the textures and lighting better, but it does look fairly similar to last year's Black Ops. It does well when there are a lot of enemies and allies on screen at the same time. Mixing in some explosions and smoke and I did not notice a slow down at all yet which is fairly impressive in my opinion with all the insanity on screen. The sound quality is very good. Weapons sound deep and gunfire is less Hollywood style, and starting to lean towards a slightly more realistic sound which is nice. The character voices do tend to get tracked underneath the other effects, which is also a more realistic approach and I approve. If you have a problem, play with the subtitles on and viola! Problem has been solved.
The gameplay is where this game shines. Controls are tight and very responsive. Infinity Ward seemed to have fixed the knife attack so you actually have to be fairly close to get it to work. (could just be I suck, I'm open to that opinion) The single player campaign is standard fair, it follows the pattern set up by its predecessors I have no emotional attachment to anyone so the "hard" moments don't really do much for me because at this point, I just don't care. After killing hundreds, probably closer to thousands of soldiers, meaningful deaths just don't have the resonance they should.
Multiplayer however, is where Modern Warfare 3 shines. The modes are the same as always, except we also have Spec Ops mode instead of Zombies. Matchmaking works well as always, the maps are pretty fun and varied. There are some slow times getting matches together but I feel like that is probably because the game is still new and there are a lot of people trying to get on at the same time. The leveling system has become even deeper than it was before as well. You level up as always unlocking new weapons and perks, but so does your weapon. The more you use your weapon, the more options will be available for you to customize with. This will help add many hours to multiplayer gameplay because of all the work that needs done to unlock what you want. The strike packages are also a nice added system to the multiplayer. You pick one of three strike packages and that molds your killstreaks to what you want to do. Wanna go in Rambo style? Go with Assault and pick your attack oriented killstreaks. Just beware that when you die, your killstreak count gets reset to zero, so you have to work hard to get up to that eighteen kill reward. The support however doesn't have their killstreak reset upon death. So, while they may get fewer (or more depending on the player) kills, they can achieve their top reward fairly easily providing they get the kills. Deathstreaks also show up to players who are having a hard time. They give a small boost to try and help get a player out of a rut and get them back to killing instead of dying.
Spec Ops mode has two options now. There is survival and missions. Survival is the new thing that Modern Warfare 3 brings to the table and it is wonderful. Survival is single player or multiplayer and the goal is to, well, survive. You face endless waves of enemies until you die. Simple premise. I've found this mode to be my favorite because it gives me a rush when I barely make it through a wave and only have 30 seconds to race around the map to the ammo resupply area and then run to the explosive resupply area while making a stop to see if I can get any support from the support shop. It's all a lot of fun. Mission mode is pretty much the same fare as Modern Warfare 2's Spec Ops mode. There are various missions you have to complete: hijack a plane, run an obstacle course, stop a nuclear reactor from exploding. They all offer different levels of difficulty rewarding the player with one, two, or three stars depending on the level.
So, in closing, I enjoy Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. It ends the story arc well, even if it is pretty much the same thing as the ones before with a few added bells and whistles. I am happy to give this game a respectable 8/10 in my opinion. See you online.
The graphics are good; not great, but good. The engine is aging and it shows a bit. They did tighten it up and add in some updates to make the textures and lighting better, but it does look fairly similar to last year's Black Ops. It does well when there are a lot of enemies and allies on screen at the same time. Mixing in some explosions and smoke and I did not notice a slow down at all yet which is fairly impressive in my opinion with all the insanity on screen. The sound quality is very good. Weapons sound deep and gunfire is less Hollywood style, and starting to lean towards a slightly more realistic sound which is nice. The character voices do tend to get tracked underneath the other effects, which is also a more realistic approach and I approve. If you have a problem, play with the subtitles on and viola! Problem has been solved.
The gameplay is where this game shines. Controls are tight and very responsive. Infinity Ward seemed to have fixed the knife attack so you actually have to be fairly close to get it to work. (could just be I suck, I'm open to that opinion) The single player campaign is standard fair, it follows the pattern set up by its predecessors I have no emotional attachment to anyone so the "hard" moments don't really do much for me because at this point, I just don't care. After killing hundreds, probably closer to thousands of soldiers, meaningful deaths just don't have the resonance they should.
Multiplayer however, is where Modern Warfare 3 shines. The modes are the same as always, except we also have Spec Ops mode instead of Zombies. Matchmaking works well as always, the maps are pretty fun and varied. There are some slow times getting matches together but I feel like that is probably because the game is still new and there are a lot of people trying to get on at the same time. The leveling system has become even deeper than it was before as well. You level up as always unlocking new weapons and perks, but so does your weapon. The more you use your weapon, the more options will be available for you to customize with. This will help add many hours to multiplayer gameplay because of all the work that needs done to unlock what you want. The strike packages are also a nice added system to the multiplayer. You pick one of three strike packages and that molds your killstreaks to what you want to do. Wanna go in Rambo style? Go with Assault and pick your attack oriented killstreaks. Just beware that when you die, your killstreak count gets reset to zero, so you have to work hard to get up to that eighteen kill reward. The support however doesn't have their killstreak reset upon death. So, while they may get fewer (or more depending on the player) kills, they can achieve their top reward fairly easily providing they get the kills. Deathstreaks also show up to players who are having a hard time. They give a small boost to try and help get a player out of a rut and get them back to killing instead of dying.
Spec Ops mode has two options now. There is survival and missions. Survival is the new thing that Modern Warfare 3 brings to the table and it is wonderful. Survival is single player or multiplayer and the goal is to, well, survive. You face endless waves of enemies until you die. Simple premise. I've found this mode to be my favorite because it gives me a rush when I barely make it through a wave and only have 30 seconds to race around the map to the ammo resupply area and then run to the explosive resupply area while making a stop to see if I can get any support from the support shop. It's all a lot of fun. Mission mode is pretty much the same fare as Modern Warfare 2's Spec Ops mode. There are various missions you have to complete: hijack a plane, run an obstacle course, stop a nuclear reactor from exploding. They all offer different levels of difficulty rewarding the player with one, two, or three stars depending on the level.
So, in closing, I enjoy Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. It ends the story arc well, even if it is pretty much the same thing as the ones before with a few added bells and whistles. I am happy to give this game a respectable 8/10 in my opinion. See you online.
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