Bioshock, in pieces, was a fantastic game. It included a simple but interesting skill tree, classic FPS mechanics, and creative weapons. It featured a sectoral but open level design. It had interesting and intriguing characters and back story. It’s narrative was well presented. But for all these nice touches, they didn’t mesh. Maybe I’m over thinking it, but I believe being critical of anything exposes why it was so good in the first place. Bioshock does not come together as a single whole or as one work. First of all, it was a lackluster RPG. Some people argue it was never an RPG to begin with, They say it was a Shooter. So why were the guns so arduous to shoot? Why was the game 25 hours? The reason a Shooter lasts at most 13 hours is because shooting for another ten is boring. If it was a Shooter, it was poorly paced. Another problem would be, why did we have free form character building, considering the ‘twist’ at the end? If I was a slave, I would be more concerned with kindly doing what I was asked, not wandering around for ADAM. And if I really was a slave all along, why did I do so much wandering? Now, I don’t know how you played the game, but me, I got into an area and the first thing I did was loot and kill everything I could. I even waited for respawns so I could get more. The only reason I ever progressed in the game was because the loading screen was the last door I hadn’t checked. For a slave, I do a piss poor job.

This was my biggest qualm with the game. They throw this dumb plot twist at you completely out of nowhere, like they were arguing with you, got you to swear and shouted “ha I made you swear!”. You walk through the last door in the area, which get’s blocked off once you do, and Fontaine comes on your comm shouting (in a very bad accent) “You were a slave”. Seriously? I couldn’t tell, I’ve been farming ADAM, I wanted to shoot bees, when did I become your slave? Maybe the RPG/Character Building stuff was too add a bit of irony to the situation. Hey, check out our customizable game experience, but wait! You were a slave all along! Maybe that was the case, but I don’t think so. I think Bioshock was trying to hard to be what people wanted it to be, instead of what IT wanted to be. They wanted to be like System Shock, because people loved System Shock. But they wanted it to be like Halo, because people love Halo. How do we combine the two? Keep the open-ish world and RPG elements, introduce the straightforward gunplay and level progression from Halo, 9.0s here I come! Obviously, and this is true with all products, there were compromises. They needed to sell the game, after all. But the game betrayed it’s own ideas. It’s own design. The game was not that intriguing to me. The only reason I made progress was because I was looking for more ADAM. I wanted to make Big Daddies kick other Big Daddy ass… Eventually I made it to the end, but not because I was being compelled by Fontaine’s nasty voice. Because I was trying to do something for me. Max out my stats.

The ability to choose to kill or let live the Little Sisters also betrayed the concept of the game. Just because Fontaine never said “would you kindly kill her” that doesn’t mean it fits right in. Fact is, giving me a dilemma like that (and so many times) contrasts the fact that I’m supposed to be going forward, following orders. I shouldn’t be stopping to choose to help or unhelp anyone. Why am I given a choice if I am a slave? The irony? On top of all this, the ADAM and plasmid system makes it most obvious. Why is my person being turned into whatever I’d like, at whatever points I’d like if I was just told to go to ______ or to collect ______? Why am I not following orders if I really am a slave? I think all this was poorly delivered. You could argue, “well the type of game they wanted to make wouldn’t guarantee the player followed the tracks we set so you have to take it with a grain of salt. Make a huge bottle, but ultimately come out at one narrow end”. Or you could design the game to play the way the story and characters develop. Linear. Tied to a goal without the choice to do other wise. Narrow paths, blocked exits, obvious directions and markings showing where you need to be. Then, you could unlock everything at the end, make it completely open when you stop taking Fontaine’s orders. That way the gameplay would mirror the design of the narrative.

Let’s look at Half Life 1 and 2. People say the plot of these games are not nearly as good as other people have made them out to be. What people do not realize is that Half Life is not just another shooter with a line stolen from every 1970s sci-fi book. It’s a First Person game. Not just a First Person Shooter, but a First Person game. Want to know why the story is so confusing? Because you don’t know what Breen and the slugs have been talking about, what Alyx and Eli and Kleiner have been up to for the last 10 or so years, what Judith does in secret, or what the Vortigaunts can see. You don’t know because you only have a pair of eyes. No ability to travel outside of your body and magically see what everyone else is talking about. The gameplay mirrored the narrative. It was a first person narrative. You got from the story exactly what Gordon had experienced. The gameplay was linear and the story farfetched because there were holes. You weren’t around to see or find out what happened, because you were in a vent instead of floating behind some Commanding Officer in a plane telling his men to kill everyone in Black Mesa. That’s why you don’t understand why the military is out to kill you. The game was designed superbly, and because Bioshock couldn’t take a hint, Half Life not only remains as one of the only games to do this, but probably the best game that’s done this, and to this day, is groundbreaking.

Now take a look at Shadow Of The Colossus. Everything about SotC was designed to push certain feelings and ellicit certain reactions. Why was the world so big? So you would feel small. Why were the Colossi so colossal? So you would feel helpless. Why was their no music outside of the fights? So you would feel lonely. Why was the colour so monotonous? So you would feel sad. Despite having an open world, there was next to nothing to do besides go to the next colossus. Why was there a never a direct route to getting to them (besides the first)? So you could see how much landscape there was, so you could see how insignificant you are. This game featured 3 story cinematics. The starting, the middle, and the end. Somehow, this game pushed more story, more consistently and more powerfully than any game I can think of before it and after it. Players who weren’t paying attention and who didn’t finish it passed it off as being empty and lacking any story at all. How does that explain the wikipages? The discussion that go on every night on some forum about it’s plot and it’s meaning? The game had a very healthy amount of plot considering dialogue was at a minimum and the only two conversations are between the main character and Dormin, and the shaman and his gaurds. The world and the experience and visuals told the story. Wanders deteriorating through out the game, the doves appearing by Mono, the statues counting down, the ruins strewn about the world, all of it told a story, thousands and thousands of years in the making. SotC is the perfect example of design and focus. Made with a purpose and it achieved so much more then people give it credit.

But for whatever reason, the broken Bioshock is selling millions and topping the rankings. I had fun turning the Big Daddies on eachother, I won’t lie. Hacking sentries was cool. The propaganda was funny. But, like I said earlier, seen in pieces the game is fantastic, but as a whole, it failed. Bioshock looked nice. It was well dressed in it’s novelty world. But deep inside it, where it all began on paper, it’s design failed.

I often visit my friend’s house and his kids are often there, playing on the Wii or playing outside like kids do. I decide to bring it upon myself to show them the games that I grew up on, and well, I thought to give them Super Mario Bros. to play. They started the game, I leave for a minute and come back to check on them. They already lost and said the game sucked. Well, I thought to myself, maybe the younger generation is just not use to the controls and such. So then I gave them Super Mario World to play, they got slightly farther, which to my surprise I always thought Super Mario World would be easier for them, instead they just quit just as fast.

Let’s step forward, same place, but now I got one of my younger buddies with me as all my friends tend to hang out at the same place. We were playing Altered Beast on the Genesis and all the kids gathered around and the questions of the fucking hour was “what’s that?”, “what’s going on”, “who’s that”, “why did you do that?” etc. I never asked what the hell was going on nor do I intend to, games like Altered Beast are something you play for the action and that’s it. But the kids were not satisfied with the reasons to us playing, but then let’s give them the controller and well the same result as above, they died quick and then hated the game. This scene continues on with several other old games that were just pure action.

Now what’s the point of this story? Well these are the same kids who are growing up thinking that Rayman Raving Rabbits and Guitar Hero are the apexes of gaming; now don’t get me wrong, I really have nothing against these particular games, it’s just I don’t see them as shining examples of what video games truly are. Their father, who doesn’t actually know much about video games, also tends to get them shovelware, which they tend to enjoy as well. Now I know, gaming is all about the fun and as long they have fun, it’s all good right? But then what happens when they grow up?

Indeed, that is the real question here. If kids are thinking that these are the best of the best, then they will grow up thinking that this is the best of the best. And what does that show to the industry? That the shovelware is actually good and therefore must continue to be made. But that’s not what I’m really worried about, it’s just that these kids are also going to grow and eventually become game developers themselves, oh not all kids but some of them will. And well, the generations below them might suffer from the video games they make.

But, maybe, I’m just blowing it all out of proportion and shouldn’t be worrying at all, but let’s take the example what the kids a few years older than them. There’s also a bit a problem, mainly that they think First Person Shooters are the only genre available and the Halo series is the greatest FPS ever – now don’t get me wrong, I may not actually like Halo but I will acknowledge it as a good game – it’s just that I think there are better FPSes out there. Now we’re getting into the mindset of mature games are the only good games and that’s a problem. When these prepubescent punks are filled with blood, guts, and testosterone; it’s going to make them bias toward other types of games.

So, what to do? Well, if you’re a family man or woman, then at least try to think about what you get for your kids, guide them away from just playing one type of game and help them explore the multiple genres and game types. The same could go if you have a little brother or sister, but don’t go around shoving your favorite game down their gullet, because it won’t work. Kids these days need to know there is something else out there, to expand on their taste for video games, because if they don’t, then the generation below them is going to see a grim outlook on video games.

For the most part, the graphics are still somewhat the same, there is a slight upgrade, but I still think the original graphics are still good. I know they updated the sound as well, to me it sounds all so much clearer and of course there are the squawking noises some of the characters make when you perform actions, like jumping. If it annoys you so much, there’s always a console command to get rid of it. The only complaint I have is there are no longer any gibs and guts flying all over the place, instead you just get vaporized. I believe this is due to certain countries having something against guts – since this game is international.

The game play is the exact same thing and they haven’t changed a thing, after all, why mess up such a great game? You run, you dodge, you jump, you shoot, you get fragged – all there is to it. To somewhat of my surprise, bunny hopping is in the game as I always thought it was some sort of glitch with the engine but instead it is now encouraged. If you played any another “tactical” shooter before, well you’re going to have a very hard time with this one as it is a completely play style. This game is all about reaction and quick thinking, there’s no time to hide behind corners, it’s time to be constantly on the move and learn how to do split second aiming. There is a bit more skill involved when playing clan arena or duels as then you have to predict what your opponent is going to do next.

Speaking of skill, Quake Live will try to determine the best of your skills when you first start up. Go through a minute obstacle course which consists of jump, rocket jumping, and then bunny hopping to determine your initial placement, and then you have to fight Crash. You know from the first game, the pipsqueak you can frag a million times without breaking a sweat? Yeah well, prepare to get your ass handed to you by her as her difficulty changes on how you play. After all that, you have your skill placement and Quake Live will determine for the most part what games will be best for you. Which is great and all since you won’t be fighting anyone too high or too low for you to handle.

Like I said before, the maps and weapons have been slightly tweaked to better balance them. With the maps, some of the of satanic imagery and such have been replace with giant billboards that say either Quake Live or an advertisement – after the game is free but they still need money. The ads within the game are not inhibiting in anyway so don’t worry; if you are any veteran quake player, you’ll be going way to fast to even notice them.

Since this is a completely multiplayer experience, there’s the online community to look out for. If you read one my of previous articles, you would know I had some sort gripe against the online community in every online game except Quake III and I am so glad the friendliness is still there in Quake Live. Of course there’s the occasional asshole here and there, but the community as a whole is still good – as in good outweighs the bad. Of course, it might different on where you live and since now it is open to the public it might change.

Of course there are some small gripes about one of my favorite games ever, but can’t really pass true judgment since it’s in open beta. For one thing, to actually play, most likely you’re going to have to wait in line to actually do it. Depending on what time of the day it is, it might range from hundreds to ten-thousands of people waiting in line, so it takes anywhere from five minutes to an hour just to get to play. Another thing is, you can’t really start your own server nor have a private one between you and your friends – which I believe is currently being added. Of course, like I said before, there’s just something wrong when I play Quake and there isn’t any flying gibs across my screen. All are really nitpicky stuff and the game is still in beta.

Overall, if you’re a fan of Quake III go play it; if not, go play it anyway – it’s FREE. This game is good, fun, and fast; there is really no need for commitment and there is really nothing to lose besides a measly hour of your time getting it setup. It’s a fun game with a large active community, so I hope I’ll see some of you on the fragging grounds.

F.E.A.R. 2 starts out half an hour from where you finished in F.E.A.R. 1, so there is a great continuation in the storyline from another point of view. I personally admire the approach from a different angle, but it handicaps the story. The story in F.E.A.R. 2 is much like the first, in the way that it essential is the first. The whole storyline from F.E.A.R. 2 is essential F.E.A.R. 1 but without a backstory, and that really ticks me off. There isn’t much new content to low and behold.

Remember the creepy atmosphere in F.E.A.R? Well it’s half there. The game itself is creepy but only at some parts, like the elementary school. The elementary school is probably one of the strongest points in F.E.A.R. 2 because of the way Monolith designed it. When you enter the elementary school, the design is exactly like a school would be, and the creepiness stems from the fear of a place you knew to be safe, is no longer safe. Also, you have to admire that Monolith inserted some drawings Alma made and put them on a wall, it adds a really nice touch.

One of the things I really loved about F.E.A.R. was the dark atmosphere and the crisp sound effects that made you paranoid about every little detail. Does that still exist? I don’t think so. There are dark parts in F.E.A.R. 2 but the game itself is nowhere are dark and spooky as the first was. F.E.A.R. 2 prides itself in pop-up scares, while the original F.E.A.R. prides itself in a creepy environment.

F.E.A.R.  is first person shooter series, so let’s talk about gunplay. The good news: guns in F.E.A.R. 1 have been fully redesigned, and there have been more guns added. The bad news: All the interesting guns are gone. No more air missile gun, and you only get to use the particle cannon once in the game. I feel a bit ripped off. Not only the guns though, the enemy AI seems to have less personality. In F.E.A.R. 1, when you engaged enemies they’d be yelling things like “oh shit” and “fuck where did he go”. Instead we get some closed mouth push overs that seem to have no regard for each other. It’s a shame really.

So if so much has been taken away from F.E.A.R. 2, what has been gained? Well for one, the graphics. The graphics are amazing and surprising realistic, though a subject to grain filters and a bit of bluring, F.E.A.R. 2 still presents itself extremely well. Secondly, F.E.A.R. 2 has gained mech battles, and I wish I was making this up. There are parts in the campaign that have you entering mechanical suits to destroy your foes. The experience is awesome, even if it doesn’t fit in with the general F.E.A.R. understanding. Thirdly, we have a better cast of secondary characters, because unlike F.E.A.R, your teammates actual have a personality and are worth something. Lastly, the ending. The ending of F.E.A.R. 2 is unexpected and somewhat unique, and all I can say without ruining the ending is that F.E.A.R. 3 will be very, very interesting.

Bottom line? F.E.A.R. 2 is a great game, but it’s more generic than F.E.A.R. 1 was. You have less horror undertones and more action. The story isn’t very well drawn out, and you get ripped off a bit on the gun variety, but all-in-all the game presents itself with many redeeming features.

F.E.A.R. is in fact not a horror game, but a first person shooter with paranormal and horrific undertones, you’ll run into the occasional freaky occurrence here and there but it’s more shooter than anything else. That being said, the game is still pretty creepy with random occurrences of ghosts or demons popping up and voices being heard. However you don’t feel this creepiness throughout the game, actually when you are in combat, you feel none of it, the paranoia becomes fun for a while.

The scariest or creepiest parts of F.E.A.R. lie completely in the sounds, and the lighting. Even when you are not in combat there is intensive music playing, and often you’ll find yourself jumping at bit at sounds of yourself moving and sounds of the environment. There were many times throughout F.E.A.R. when I jumped because of my own shadow, it’s unnerving.

The combat is your standard FPS configuration: run, duck, shoot, rinse and repeat, but F.E.A.R. does have some notable weapons. Aside from the regular submachine gun, the usual pistol, and the typical shotgun (which you will use a lot), there is a particle blaster, a repeating air missile gun (my personal favourite), and a nail gun. The gunplay is fun but horribly repetitive, and it’s very possible to become bored of the firefights by the end of the game. Monolith does occasionally through in a mech or a super solider fighter here and there but it’s again the same kind of fighting.

The graphics are good for their day and age, though there are some performance issues like frames per second drops during graphic intensive times, but overall F.E.A.R. plays well. The environments are overly repeated and sometimes it feels like the developers simply copy and pasted parts to make a level. However, one thing this game does excel at is it’s level design, there are times (often in later levels) where the path isn’t so clear, and you have to look around a bit more to find the right way to go, but this is vanquished by the linearity of the levels, there is only one path, and if you stray from that path you will either a. die, or b. hit a wall.

Despite all of the game’s flaws, the story is wonderful, even if it is broken up into minuscule pieces until the end of the game. This was something I had a problem with, there was no even flow of story coming. Throughout the levels you’d find pieces of data that act as background information for the game but you never really get a full blast of what’s going on until the end of the game.

If my judgment sounds straying it’s because the game has lots of up points and down points. F.E.A.R. is a great game, but with some fixing it could be much better. Overall I’d call it an average title, so if you have nothing else to play, you can pick up F.E.A.R. and not be disappointed, but if this game was still at retail value I’d say it wouldn’t be worth a full buy. I heard F.E.A.R. 2 is more polished than F.E.A.R. 1, so I will have to check it out and report back.

Admit it, you’ve noticed the plethora of space marines tromping around in your favorite vidya. They are white, bald, gritty and probably don’t wear helmets so as to improve their peripheral vision, lower their wind resistance and generally improve their bad-assery rating. Every once and a while you may get one who is vaguely ethnic, or has some hair, but for the most part, they are all the same. And for a good reason.

Simply put, space marines kick ass.

What’s that you’re saying? You like to play a character with some personality? Too bad. Space Marines are too buff and manly for personalities. If anything, games like Gears of War 2 would be infinitely better if the namby-pamby feelings were ignored. On the flipside of course, if space marines are too bad ass (ala Haze) their dialogue becomes stunted and painful to listen to.

The best space marine games will either have no dialogue or dialogue that borders on satire. The new Matt Hazard game exemplifies this with the hilarious Will Arnett channeling his inner action hero to berate the game that he himself is in. In the silent protagonist category, we have people like Nathan Hale from Resistance 2 or Master Chief from the Halo series. In both cases, the soldiers are subjected to the horrible realities of war and are being attacked on all sides by an unstoppable enemy. Nathan Hale also suffers from a disease that will render him dead before he can even save the planet. Do you hear either of them bitching about it though? No fucking way. Why? They are too busy being badass.

A popular contention is that the silent protagonist allows the player to transport themselves into the game, using the hero as their own avatar. Whether or not we have hero fantasies, we usually have asskicking fantasies. In a society where fighting is largely discouraged, it feels good and masculine to be able to be competitive and make other people feel bad about themselves. Single player campaigns allow us to save the world while an increasing emphasis on multiplayer with indepth scoreboards and stat-tracking systems allow us to display our prowess to any who would look.

Our societies as well tend to value intellect over pure brawn. There was once a time when those with the most physical strength ruled, but those times are long past. Of course, an emphasis on one thing always breeds another, which is undoubtedly what gave rise to the popularity of the UFC, and similarily, sports themed video games. And, lest we forget, you can find plenty of muscly bald white guys in the UFC, WWE, NFL or any other sporting association you can name.

Will we one day be able to get a good story in a First Person Shooter? That depends. Some would contend that Half-life has already achieved this. That being said, that seems forgiving seeing as they use the same cutscenes and set pieces that any other FPS uses. The story in these games comes at a cost. If you use a cut-scene, you put a halt to the action, which is anathema to those who want to rock. It may also force you to develop the character, which you may have no intention to do. Presenting story elements during gameplay makes little logistical sense as you should be focused on asskicking, not the history of some ancient race. One must also imagine being in the shoes of a space marine. What would you want to hear in battle, orders or the cause of the recent malhovian uprising? Needless to say, if someone was yapping my ear off, i would shoot myself in the head (so as to disable the headset, not to kill myself. My health regenerates anyways, no biggy).

Perhaps the only problem with the Space Marine is the continuity across story lines. All space marines have rifles, regenerating shields, com-systems, etc. This effectively serves to make the genre stagnant but paradoxically reliable. Space Marines in this sense are the new World War 2 allies. You fight the same nazi’s with the same garands and the same medics. Is this bad? Perhaps. Will it change? I sure hope so. The time will soon come when being a badass space marine will lose its charm. Until then, keep on buying the same game, and enjoying it.

The real appeal to play this game would not be the story but rather the gameplay. The gameplay is indeed unique, as you do not use a gun at all. Instead you get to hack and slash your way through enemies in first person perspective. For someone like me who plays every FPS ever just to go around meleeing everything I see, this was indeed a game for me. The melee is simple, move around, jump and attack – nothing much to it. Of course there is variety in weapon choices, or rather people choices. Can’t switch weapons, since you are the weapon, but you can take control of different people who have different styles of fighting and abilities. Every person you can ‘brainjack’ in the game has their own unique way of fighting, traits and abilities. But, before you can go taking people’s brains, you have to defeat them, which can be very fun.

Even though with all this jacking around, combat will get repetitive, like in every FPS ever. The controls for this are also a bit difficult, the Dreamcast controller was never really ergonomically designed to my liking, and so playing a First Person game on this thing is a bit difficult at times. The game does make it easier by having a lock on ability so you can just circle strafe your enemy to death; either that you can actually jump over people and get behind them to strike with extra damage. Besides the repetitive gameplay, there are also the repetitive enemies. For the most part, you’ll be fighting the same enemy, even if it is a different looking opponent – it’s the same enemy. There’s a simple formula to defeating every trooper in the game, basically what I just said a moment ago; circle strafing plus jumping over head equals success, that or simply block, attack, and repeat. Either way works, if you’re lazy, block then attacking is the way to go because you can literally block every attack in this game no matter how huge it is, maybe except for any boss fights.

The level design also tends to be tedious and well, boring. The graphics are on par with the current times, but any prepubescent boy who likes their polygons too much will probably hate it. Even though the level designs themselves were boring, they were boring in a unique ways – as in, most levels did not look like each other. The reason for that is because, in the game, you actually travel around the world to find your objective. The sound and music within the game wasn’t really particularly memorable either. Actually now thinking about it, I can’t even remember if there was music in it or not – so either I can’t remember or the music is just mediocre. It’s easy to remember music and sound when it’s either good or bad, but if it’s just in between then it’ll just be forgotten.

Truthfully, the only appeal the game has is the game play itself. Playing through it, I didn’t really care for the story or characters, just the gameplay itself; but if you’re the type of person who does, you might like it, maybe. The most fun within the game is just basically running around slashing folks up and that was good enough for me. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys meleeing in FPSes, FPSes in general or simply want something a bit different for their Dreamcast.

]]> http://giantenemyblog.com/maken-x-the-first-person-slasher/feed/ 0 http://giantenemyblog.com/gears-of-war-2-review-2/ http://giantenemyblog.com/gears-of-war-2-review-2/#comments Thu, 08 Jan 2009 12:00:10 +0000 NaruZap http://gamerblag.com/?p=2818

Gears of War 2, "breaking news: skulls look awesome"

So you powered through Gears of War in a day or two with your friends on co-op (or by yourself, you poor lonely soul) on an energy drink rave with spare time on your hands. What next, an old question with an old answer, the sequel.

Gears of War Two, oh boy! Who doesn’t love the great Marcus Fenix, war hero or Augustus Cole the loveable and muscular ebony soldier of brute force….and Dominic Santiago their Hispanic friend. Oh yeah and Baird that really smart white guy, that almost every FPS has, like half-life and Gordon Freeman, or Call of Duty 4 and the entire British army SAS (Special Air Service) team. For all you Halo fans thinking about Master Chief, remember, he MAY be a black guy under that Spartan helmet.

So Gears of War leaves off after the lightmass (bomb) offensive from Gears 1 that apparently failed. The lightmass bomb didn’t pack quite the punch that the COGS had in mind. Yea a ton of Locust died but who cares about a few Locust casualties? Those guys were sent on suicide missions anyway. The unfortunate and dangerous thing is that a big piece of the Locust army is still intact, big enough to destroy the last human bastion of Jacinto anyway. Jacinto…sounds like a city that belongs in Final Fantasy 7.

So the storyline in Gears 2 is noticeably improved due to Epic Games hiring professional writers to spruce it up. However although a nice storyline is important, the Gears one is within acceptable bounds, not too awful, although it did leave a lot of questions unanswered and a giant cliffhanger at the end, it is part of a trilogy so no loss of points for the game there.

The graphics for the game are one of the best. It is a compliment to people who don’t have good amazing graphic video engine PC’s. Epic really took advantage of the 360’s hardware. The sound is pretty good, yet nothing amazing, the melancholy moments have the appropriate music and so do the blood-pumping action sequences. The voice acting is good, as expected, and most of what comes out of the characters mouths are not only tolerable, but funny. I would like to cite that when Ben Carmine says “Eh, stand up like a man!” when he revives an ally, it is for some odd reason incredibly hilarious. Perhaps it’s the fact that he’s a rookie and he’s speaking in a condescending manner to veteran fighters.

The controls are pretty much what you would expect to have in Gears of War 2, its standard to Gears 1. It’s easy to take cover, roadie run, fire, and aim (from behind cover as well as blind shoot). The button layout is easy to memorize especially if you’ve played Gears 1, it’s the same really. The game play is also very similar, and slightly repetitive. The driving segments are torturous if your hand isn’t steady and you will be finding yourself cursing the Gears vehicles. Basically you have your guys, fighting the enemy guys in usually open spaces with covers such as boxes and railings and you can take aim by sticking your head out of cover or blind shoot from behind cover if you want to be cautious. The wall glitch in the cover system has been fixed and now you can bunny hop from cover to cover and move forward while pushing back enemies. However there is one small issue with the cover system, when you roadie run and you touch a cover spot even slightly, most likely your character will jump into that cover spot as if he was magnetized to that spot. You can lob a grenade pretty easily and with good aim, however in multiplayer mode it is very obvious to the enemy players that your about to throw a grenade with the aiming system on it that makes you spin it around before throwing (so for that surprise smoke grenade you want to wreak havoc with you should probably blind lob it). More on the multiplayer will be written later on. One more thing I would like to add about the game play is the co-op, like in the first one, makes you restart the chapter segment if either player dies. Personally I think that the living player should be able to play through the segment and have the dead player revive at the successful finish of that segment.

The weapons and items have been expanded on in Gears of War 2. The Mulcher machine gun is a handheld machine gun that deals out massive waves of bullets that will mow down your enemies, considering you don’t overheat the blasted thing. The addition of a flamethrower is definitely nice, now I can serve up my locust extra crispy! Yum! New Locust types were of course added to the game, with new little abilities that you will find out about soon enough.

The AI in the game is pretty fair. The level setting doesn’t really affect the AI method of fighting much, but it really controls the amount of fire you can take before being downed or dying. Anybody who has played an FPS and can beat it on normal with no problem can play Gears on Hardcore without breaking much of a sweat. However on Horde mode (which is where you and your friends face 50 waves of oncoming and increasingly more difficult locust) when you break through wave 30 even if your settings are on casual, you may get a little jolted.

Now for the multiplayer mode review section, oh good. Let’s start off by saying that it may take you a bit longer than you are usually accustomed to, to find a match. The pairing system for the Gears multiplayer will take a while to find suitable teammates and enemy players for you. Also the Gears system, although it looks for “an opposing team of similar skill” you will find yourself paired up with players that could kill you in a minute. The maps are pretty nice if not repetitive in feel. There is a nice little flashback map pack that is sold with Gears 2 which takes maps from the first game and incorporates them into Gears 2. this should appeal to anybody who enjoyed those old maps. There are standard modes of play in Gears 2 multiplayer: Territories, Elimination, Horde, and Wingman. Each of these modes has a subsection. Territories mode has submission, annex, and king of the hill. Submission is a capture the flag mode, where you must take an NPC character back to your team’s base (yes the NPC will struggle against you). Annex and king of the hill are well, territory capture modes, the team that controls the areas for the most amounts of time wins. Elimination mode has Guardian, Execution, and Warzone. In Guardian there is one team leader on each team and the players of that team will infinitely respawn until the team leader is killed, after that it’s a slaughterhouse. Warzone is a standard team death match game, and Execution only lets you kill enemy team players with one shot kills and execution moves. Horde as explained earlier is when AI locusts spawn in waves (that total to 50) and your team must stand its ground through each wave of ever increasing difficulty. Wingman is basically a game for those who have close friends or like two-man teams. In Wingman there are five teams of two that compete in a classic death match style.

Take a long hard look at this thing, Itll be responsible for 80% of your deaths in Gears of War 2 Multiplayer

The main comment I have about Gears 2 multiplayer is the amazing overpowering of the Lancer. The game should be called Chainsaw of War. The constant chainsaw spamming makes it hard to have a smile on part of the time in most multiplayer death match games. The chainsaw doesn’t even stop being revved if you shoot the wielder (without downing him).

If you didn’t get chain sawed by that huge guy behind you, his friend with the shotgun will finish you off with a shot to the face, which is a nice nostalgic kick back to Gears 1 multiplayer where shotguns ruled with iron fists. Planted grenades, they can be very helpful and very annoying. They are hard to spot if well hid so be careful when raging into the enemies base, you never know from what angle you could explode at any given moment. Also do not plant YOUR grenades in obviously seen places. Although you cannot set them off yourself by walking by them, your enemy can certainly shoot them, and blow them up in your face if you’re near them and the grenades are sticking out where they can be shot. Another big tip, watch out for torque bows, these are commonly used in Wingman. The torque bow when fully charged is a one hit kill if you get directly hit by it. If you see a torque bow user, do not attempt to sniper him unless you are sure you can make the shot. Stay under cover and make your way around to the bow handler, and take him out with a good chainsaw or fist melee. These are basically the ground rules for multiplayer to keep in mind, especially when against seasoned hardcore players.

All in all Gears of War 2 is a solid FPS that will keep you entertained for a long time. Playing the solo campaign on different difficulties and playing co-op mode will ensure a high replay value. Multiplayer mode is very fun to play with friends, and Horde mode is just a blast! Beat all 50 waves and get a swanky achievement too! This is a definite buy in my opinion but if you don’t care about multiplayer, or are new to shooters, rent it and see what you think. I give Gears of War 2 (the wife hunt) ((lol couldn’t resist cracking a joke about Dom)) a bloody 8 out of 10

The story begins with your average FBI agent named Ethan Thomas who has been after a mass serial killer known as “The Match Maker”. While on duty, Ethan encounters The Match Maker, who throws Ethan out of a three-story window. Later that night Ethan wakes up at his apartment not knowing what has happened. Still weak from the fall, Ethan is told, by a man named “Vanhorn” that he has been framed for the death of his partner. He also gives Ethan information about his past and how it connects with the total chaos within the city.

The has you running from the cops and abandoning all connections with the FBI while retracing your steps in a corrupt city filled with cracked out civilians. When I said that this game is scary, I meant scary as in the levels are based off of real buildings and environments.  Condemned has a little bit of every thing from investigating crime scenes, crisp next gen graphics that are stunning, and acquiring new weapons like the stun gun; which adds a cool feature that I’m calling the crack and stack system, where you are able to finish off the enemy but preforming lethal blows that will have your stomach turning. One of the main highlights of Condemned is the stare and tear engine which will leave you asking yourself, “Did i really see that?”

Another major pro to the game is that almost every item can be used as a weapon, such as a 2×4 on the ground with nails protruding from it. You’ll also find other useful weapons such as a sledge hammer, crowbar, and fire axe. Now don’t get me wrong there are ranged weapons – I mean, you can’t be an ex-cop and not own a gun or five. Now that we are on the subject of gun play, I must start off by saying that it’s almost flawless. In combat it is very important to have the melee and ranged fighting flow together smoothly and that’s exactly what Sega has done with this game. At one point in the game you are searching a rundown mannequin store. As if that wasn’t creepy enough during the level you will catch tiny glimpses of the mannequins moving, I know right? Farther through the level you reach a part where the mannequins appear behind you every time you turn away!

Condemned was more or less pushed to the side as the 360 got older, mostly because of the releases of Halo 3 and Gears of War. However, Condemned has garnered a cult following by gamers everywhere.

Ok so in all fairness Condemned didn’t really do anything that we haven’t seen before, but not saying that that’s a bad thing. Bringing back the basics for a good solid first person shooter is just what needed to be done, and Sega hit it right on the money. All in all I’ll leave with this: if you are looking for an affordable game of great qualities, then go to your game store and join the horde of fans that have been hypnotized by the intriguing and heart stopping story of Ethan Thomas.

In Doom? You played THE DOOMGUY. THE DOOM GUY.

Let me tell you a bit about the Doom guy. He has been into hell twice. One time was a cheap trap, one time he VOLUNTEERED.

Both times he ruined Hell. They gave him a stairway back to earth just so he’d stop destroying everything.

Now, since you’re playing the role of someone for probably the entire game, is it too difficult to assume playing Character X is inherently less fun than Doomguy?

Let’s throw out an example before I lose you guys, you have a choice to fight horde of gun wielding baddies that are probably up to no good. Who do you want to play, fat slow peace-loving hippy who can’t aim for shit, or athletic space marine who can kill bitches? Shit yeah, I’m going as the space marine. I don’t care if he’s generic, because hippies suck.

The game gives you control of someone, and that someone and his weapons are programmed to do X damage when you hit things. You have a certain amount of health and you can go a certain speed. These are the “Stats” you’ve got to play with. Can you change them? No. But the game is going to be balanced around this character more than anything else. Is the guy you’re playing slow? Expect him to absorb more hits and/or have stronger guns, or have him fight less enemies.

Here we go. Math. I love math. This is simple, so even those of us who don’t love math can follow.

Your character is F strong, and F depends on X (speed), Y (constitution) and Z (damage dealt). A character who is F strong can expect to fight enemies that are G strong. Difficulty comes from comparing F to G.

That’s not too bad, is it?

Ok. Now let’s talk about the good stuff. How much fun are you going to have in this game?

Well, this is entirely objective, so let’s start small. Let’s assume G is that fucking PERFECT difficulty for you.

Ask yourself, are you more OK going faster, taking more damage or doing more damage?

Going fast is fun. There’s an entire genre (racing) pretty much centered on that. Dodging is great.

Doing damage is fun. Ratchet and Clank was fucking awesome and the entire appeal was pulling the trigger and seeing shit fly.

But taking damage? That’s not fun. If you take damage, you made a mistake. I’ll admit that the game needs to make it hard to avoid taking damage, but come on: I don’t want to play some slow ass that can absorb bullets like a champion. If you’re going to ramp up the difficulty on this game, making your character more durable is not the answer.

But what is the answer? Well, taking damage and going fast are independent, but why take damage when you can run faster than a lion?

I’m getting tired of games that let you take damage, in fact they nearly expect it. What I want to see are more games that make you go fast.

Dodging is inherently more fun than getting hit. Think back to your dodge ball days, you know this to be true.

Games need to up speed. I know it’s not unrealistic to see a human running faster than a car, but fuck you it’s not realistic to take on entire armies by yourself, and its not fun taking out one person at a time before hiding behind cover.

Don’t skimp on the weapons. In an FPS they can make or break your game.

Don’t make it too easy. I’m not playing your game for the story, jackasses.

And don’t assume I can take damage. And oh yeah, THIS MEANS HEALTH REGENERATION IN COVER. That’s basically infinite health. Know when single player FPSes were superior? When they were called Doom clones.

Doom was fantastic. And your character couldn’t take that much damage either. At least, on higher difficulties, anyway. Know how you took out hordes of demons? Running. Dodging. Killing. Having blasphemous love for that Super Shotgun. Not taking damage because you’re going as fast as a lion. A lion with a BFG.

Sure, some games play better with health regeneration. What I’m saying is that those games? Not as fun. Unless you’re the kind of guy that enjoys being hit (and by all means keep that to yourself).

Now, I’m not talking about multiplayer here. Regenerating health makes some sense in multiplayer. Not a lot of it, and I preferred killing and dying to the opportunity to “show them online” with an overly conservative play style and an inflated K:D ratio.

What I am talking about is single player.

And what I’m saying is that they need to go faster. A lot faster. You can skimp on the BEAUTIFUL LANDSCAPE and the HOLY SHIT THERE ARE LIKE THIRTY JILLION POLYGONS ON THAT ENEMY OVER THERE. That shit costs money. When was the last time you played an FPS and said “Golly gee, this environment sure is beautiful”?

I never did. I hope you never did.

If I wanted to see art and beautiful landscapes, I’d download a painting. There’s virtually no risk. When was the last time you saw someone get busted for torrenting a Picasso work?

But the last time I talked about how much of a badass was? Its been too long. Well, not really. But that’s because I replay DOOM almost religiously. And if you haven’t? Do so. Think of the next 6 hours you’ll be spending on this game as your gift to Doom. He just wants to see everyone be a man and a half.