Dead Island

If you need anymore proof that videogames can classify as art please consider this trailer for Dead Island. This game looks beautiful in every sense: there’s awesome visuals, a moving soundtrack, but more importantly zombies. From what I could find the game is supposed to be a sandbox shooter style game with RPG elements. It is set on a tropical island where (now I’m just guessing here) zombies attack. The game’s official website is still under construction and there seems to be no release date as of yet. Until then however I will be salivating, waiting for the next morsel of features to be released. For more details watch this space.

Last Played: Red Faction

Armored Core V

I just found out in the form of a teaser trailer that there is another Armored Core game on the way! The mech fighter is set to launch in Japan some time this year and will invade North American shores some time 2012. However, this time around the game is going to have some changes. The most noticeable of these is smaller mechs and a focus on stealth and terrain tactics. Supposedly smaller mechs open the door to more options available while completing a mission. A player can now either use the presumably more intricate terrain (as the terrain from previous Armored Core games tended to be quite flat in my opinion) to their advantage in order to turn the tide of a battle or skip the battle completely as is implied by the new focus on stealth activity as mentioned above. I’m not sure if I like this change. The old formula of giving your mech the biggest guns possible and seeing what dies first was the most fun for me. I have a feeling that even though stealth options are available to me I would still opt out to go in guns blazing. In my opinion game developers at From Software should spend their energy on creating more interesting and dynamic environments instead of ways around battles which they may have done anyways if the screenshots on their website are of in game locations.

Also intriguing is the introduction of a new type of multiplayer. This game type is said to be co-op based with two teams of five mechs facing off against each other in tactical warfare. How it works is a commander is assigned and they oversee operations from a command screen only they can see. The other four team members follow the orders given by the commander to complete the match’s objectives. This sounds like it could be a lot of fun. I am definitely looking forward to this one. There is a link to the game’s debut trailer below

For more information on Armored Core 5 watch this space.

Last Played: League of Legends

Review: Black Ops

**Warning: Thar Be Spoilers Ahead**

When I first heard of the release of Black Ops I was extremely against the idea of shelling out another 60 bones for a game when I was still grinding through the upper prestige levels of Modern Warfare 2. It looked to me to be a quick money grabbing gimmick or more of an expansion to Modern Warfare rather than adding any really new, innovative content. Despite being resolute in not buying it I was eventually convinced by one of my friends to purchase it because we had no games that our group would all play together anymore. As a compromise I bought it on boxing day when it was cheap and I could salvage some of my pride.

After playing the game for a couple of hours I was some what relieved to find that I had not wasted my money as I first feared as some of Modern Warfare’s short comings are fixed in this game. First of all the system for unlocking weapons is completely changed. Instead of having to reach a certain level to unlock the particular gun you like they are more or less all available from the very beginning and, after playing through a few matches and gaining “COD Points”, you can use purchase your favourite gun pretty quickly. This fixes the problem of getting into a match and being instantly annihilated by higher level players with better equipment. Camouflage for the guns is also purchased in this way as well as the new feature to put a created emblem on your rifle as well as the ability to scratch your clan tag into the side of your rifle. The second shortcoming that was fixed was the imbalanced maps. Modern Warfare’s maps tended to encouraged campers and snipers. Anyone who was quick on the draw could find a corner and blow anyone away who came into view. Black Ops fixes this by limiting the number of spaces that would be conducive to camping, and anywhere that could be a good perch has it’s view restricted so someone can’t simply watch vast amounts of space from cover. Another feature which I particularly liked was the contracts that players can purchase: If you are feeling lucky you can spend your COD points on these contract challenges which, if you complete them in the allotted amount of time, return more points and some experience. Similar the Reach’s daily challenges these help break up the potentially repetitive game play by giving players something else to do. The horrible re-spawn system has yet to see any form of improvement.

Most players buy Black Ops for the multiplayer and I would say that is a good policy to stick to because the single player is crap. I spent little over an hour playing the single player campaign and it was the most ridiculous, over-the-top thing I’ve ever seen. The start of the story has you hiding out in a café with some chums discussing how it would be best to keep a low profile so Castro, whom you’re there to assassinate, won’t catch wind of your operation. They then proceed to shoot up some soldiers, the café patrons, and presumably the entire Cuban police force only moments after uttering these words. After blowing up the downtown area of the Bay of Pigs the player proceeds to break into Castro’s estate and guns him down, or so they thought, and in the escape things get even more over the top as they hijack a military plane in order to escape but the runway is cut off by a group of trucks. So naturally the player heroically dives out of the moving plane and runs over to an Anti-Air flack cannon and uses it to blow up all the trucks on the runway allowing his comrades to escape. He of coarse is captured. After doing this bit I chuckled to myself and then put the controller down to do something else. I’m not sure what went wrong but my theory is that Treyarch in their panic to fill Infinity Ward’s shoes tried to create something epic but overcompensated. Really the only thing that is half tempting me to play the single player again is the achievements that I can get from it.

In summary if you are considering buying Black Ops but are on the fence here’s what you do: If you are buying it for multiplayer because you like Modern Warfare then do it. The changes Treyarch made to the game add to the experience and are extremely satisfying. If, however, you don’t like going on Xbox Live and prefer to run through a story driven adventure save your money for a better FPS.

Last Played: Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty