Thanks for your input and interest so far, I hope these reviews are coming in handy.
Friday, 4 November 2011
Next Week's Review
On Monday I will be reviewing Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception and on Friday I will be posting a review of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.
Thanks for your input and interest so far, I hope these reviews are coming in handy.
Thanks for your input and interest so far, I hope these reviews are coming in handy.
Battlefield 3
Let me start off by saying that a very high specification PC is required, I'm a tech geek when it comes to computers and this seriously pushes my PC to the limits. So this is just a friendly warning, ensure that your PC is capable of running this game.
Anyway, lets get this review rolling.
I will begin by saying I've been a fan of this series since Battlefield 2 many, many years ago, and don't get me wrong, the Bad Company Series has been fantastic, one of the major additions to the game is the destructible scenery, but they never felt as fun and immersive as Battlefield 2, but when Dice announced they were in production of Battlefield 3 and they were doing a totally dedicated PC version I couldn't wait. And I must say the game does not disappoint.
Everything that has been added to the series over the years has all been integrated into this one game. One of the major additions to this game which has really stood out to me is the character animations and weapon attachments, for example, when you run and jump over a wall, the characters legs come into view and the camera tilts as if they are actually pushing off the wall, and with the weapon attachments such as flash lights and laser attachments, if the are pointed directly at another player, that player's screen gets filled with glare, this therefore allows for these attachments to be used as an advantage, not just to increase the stats of your current weapon.
With the PC version supporting up to 64 players, the map sizes are unbelievably large, to walk from one side of a map to the other would probably take the best part of 10 minutes. In a full server this area would be filled with player controlled jets and helicopters flying over head, with armored vehicles scattering the land with players in combat filling the areas in between.
The graphics on this game are amazing to say the least, from the dust in the air to the glare from the sun to the beams of light shining through the broken glass of a window. The Frostbite 2 engine really shows itself off in the destructible scenery, I was in a combat situation on a train and my stray bullets were taking chunks out of the seats, revealing the wire frame underneath.
When walking through one of the cities within the game the lighting effects really emphasizes the environment, if I were to take a screenshot of one of the buildings and put it beside a real life image I think it would be hard to identify which was from the game.
Game play wise the game really exceeded my expectations, I expected the multiplayer to be fantastic but the campaign and the coop to be be a little plain and boring, moving from one firefight the the next, but I must say the single player campaign is told very well, using Hollywood styled cinematography to give it that Bourne Identity feel to it.
Although the Cooperative Mode is quite short consisting of only 6 missions, it really utilizes the game mechanics to its full potential, the only disappointment is that it only supports 2 players.
Rating: 10 out of 10
Anyway, lets get this review rolling.
I will begin by saying I've been a fan of this series since Battlefield 2 many, many years ago, and don't get me wrong, the Bad Company Series has been fantastic, one of the major additions to the game is the destructible scenery, but they never felt as fun and immersive as Battlefield 2, but when Dice announced they were in production of Battlefield 3 and they were doing a totally dedicated PC version I couldn't wait. And I must say the game does not disappoint.
Everything that has been added to the series over the years has all been integrated into this one game. One of the major additions to this game which has really stood out to me is the character animations and weapon attachments, for example, when you run and jump over a wall, the characters legs come into view and the camera tilts as if they are actually pushing off the wall, and with the weapon attachments such as flash lights and laser attachments, if the are pointed directly at another player, that player's screen gets filled with glare, this therefore allows for these attachments to be used as an advantage, not just to increase the stats of your current weapon.
With the PC version supporting up to 64 players, the map sizes are unbelievably large, to walk from one side of a map to the other would probably take the best part of 10 minutes. In a full server this area would be filled with player controlled jets and helicopters flying over head, with armored vehicles scattering the land with players in combat filling the areas in between.
The graphics on this game are amazing to say the least, from the dust in the air to the glare from the sun to the beams of light shining through the broken glass of a window. The Frostbite 2 engine really shows itself off in the destructible scenery, I was in a combat situation on a train and my stray bullets were taking chunks out of the seats, revealing the wire frame underneath.
When walking through one of the cities within the game the lighting effects really emphasizes the environment, if I were to take a screenshot of one of the buildings and put it beside a real life image I think it would be hard to identify which was from the game.
Game play wise the game really exceeded my expectations, I expected the multiplayer to be fantastic but the campaign and the coop to be be a little plain and boring, moving from one firefight the the next, but I must say the single player campaign is told very well, using Hollywood styled cinematography to give it that Bourne Identity feel to it.
Although the Cooperative Mode is quite short consisting of only 6 missions, it really utilizes the game mechanics to its full potential, the only disappointment is that it only supports 2 players.
Rating: 10 out of 10
Friday, 28 October 2011
Batman Arkham City
This is the one week review of Rocksteady's Batman Arkham City, this is generally my initial thoughts and opinions on the game to help people who are interested decide whether this is the game for them.
Well I guess I'll start by explaining the basic storyline. As the game's name implies the game takes place in Arkham City, which is a super prison situated within Gotham City. Arkham City is ran by a scientist known as Hugo Strange, who as usual has his own personal army. The game begins with Bruce Wayne (Batman for those who don't know) protesting that all these criminals being situated in the same place, left to their own devices is not a good idea, this is when Strange's military forces turn up and capture Bruce and throw him in Arkham, Bruce then breaks free and is able to make it to one of the rooftops where Alfred (Batman's trusty butler) sends Bruce a pod with all his Batman Gear. During his escape Bruce learns of a plan that Strange has known as Protocol Ten, not much is explained about Protocol Ten at the beginning, all Bruce knows is that whatever it is will commence in around 10 hours. Batman makes it his mission to find out what Protocol Ten is and stop it, encountering all the biggest super villains of the Batman world.
The Gameplay within Batman is pretty similar to the first game, for those who haven't played the first game, it is alot of fist fighting combat, but it feels and flows nicely. Using a combination of direct attacks and counter attacks you can string together a combo multiplier which unlocks special take down moves to use within the current combat situation.
With the game being based around a Free Roam environment the movement system has been redeveloped from the first one, which pretty much allows for close to continuous gliding around Arkham City, doing the Augmented Reality Side Missions you can unlock better Grappling Hooks which help with travelling around the city.
Gadgets wise, as you progress through the game you gain access to more useful and interesting gadgets. Ranging from an Electric Charge gun that allows you to gharge electrical devices to get through certain doors, etc, to a Weapon Disruption device which allows you disable enemies weapons without them knowing, which gives you the advantage in a gun fight.
In terms of Graphics it's about on par with Arkham Asylum, which isn't a bad thing at all, because the graphics of the first game were ahead of its time. The cinematic use the same rendering as the gameplay graphics so there is no lose of immersion within the game.
Speaking of the the cinematics, the voice acting and the character movements are very impressive and the storyline is told rather nicely.
I am currently around 40% progressed through the game, after playing around 2 - 3 hours each night for the past week. I would say that this game is quite impressive, personally I'm not a big Batman fan, but I'm quite enjoying both the storyline and the gameplay. The only down point I can identify so far is the repetitiveness of the combat, which after a couple hours of playing takes it's toll and I lose interest. I always return to the game a little while later ready to continue, I think a break is needed every couple of hours just to ensure that you still enjoy the game rather than feeling like you're just persisting through the fight just to progress the story.
Overall this is a pretty sound game, I would highly recommend it to most people interested in a good story driven game with very well thought out and polished gameplay features.
Rating: 9 out of 10
Well I guess I'll start by explaining the basic storyline. As the game's name implies the game takes place in Arkham City, which is a super prison situated within Gotham City. Arkham City is ran by a scientist known as Hugo Strange, who as usual has his own personal army. The game begins with Bruce Wayne (Batman for those who don't know) protesting that all these criminals being situated in the same place, left to their own devices is not a good idea, this is when Strange's military forces turn up and capture Bruce and throw him in Arkham, Bruce then breaks free and is able to make it to one of the rooftops where Alfred (Batman's trusty butler) sends Bruce a pod with all his Batman Gear. During his escape Bruce learns of a plan that Strange has known as Protocol Ten, not much is explained about Protocol Ten at the beginning, all Bruce knows is that whatever it is will commence in around 10 hours. Batman makes it his mission to find out what Protocol Ten is and stop it, encountering all the biggest super villains of the Batman world.
The Gameplay within Batman is pretty similar to the first game, for those who haven't played the first game, it is alot of fist fighting combat, but it feels and flows nicely. Using a combination of direct attacks and counter attacks you can string together a combo multiplier which unlocks special take down moves to use within the current combat situation.
With the game being based around a Free Roam environment the movement system has been redeveloped from the first one, which pretty much allows for close to continuous gliding around Arkham City, doing the Augmented Reality Side Missions you can unlock better Grappling Hooks which help with travelling around the city.
Gadgets wise, as you progress through the game you gain access to more useful and interesting gadgets. Ranging from an Electric Charge gun that allows you to gharge electrical devices to get through certain doors, etc, to a Weapon Disruption device which allows you disable enemies weapons without them knowing, which gives you the advantage in a gun fight.
In terms of Graphics it's about on par with Arkham Asylum, which isn't a bad thing at all, because the graphics of the first game were ahead of its time. The cinematic use the same rendering as the gameplay graphics so there is no lose of immersion within the game.
Speaking of the the cinematics, the voice acting and the character movements are very impressive and the storyline is told rather nicely.
I am currently around 40% progressed through the game, after playing around 2 - 3 hours each night for the past week. I would say that this game is quite impressive, personally I'm not a big Batman fan, but I'm quite enjoying both the storyline and the gameplay. The only down point I can identify so far is the repetitiveness of the combat, which after a couple hours of playing takes it's toll and I lose interest. I always return to the game a little while later ready to continue, I think a break is needed every couple of hours just to ensure that you still enjoy the game rather than feeling like you're just persisting through the fight just to progress the story.
Overall this is a pretty sound game, I would highly recommend it to most people interested in a good story driven game with very well thought out and polished gameplay features.
Rating: 9 out of 10
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