WAS PLAYING: 50 Cent: BLOOD ON THE SAND

It’s a now playing- but really it’s was playing. 50 Cent’s first foray into videogames a few years back was a bit of a hit, selling over a million G-units. The sequel was kinda of a no-brainer for publisher Vivendi. But after the merger with Activision, Blood on the Sand was cut loose (as was Ghostbusters and Brutal Legend). THQ picked it up and while it’s not GOTY it’s a harmless fun time gosh darn it.

Speaking of no-brainers- here’s the story: 50 Cent is stiffed by a promoter on a Middle Eastern tour and thinks he can be reimbursed by some maguffin skull. The pursuit of this blinged out skull is why you, a rapper, are shooting people in an unnamed Middle East warzone.  Either way, It’s just a flimsy way to stick 50 cent and his posse in the middle of a war. 50 Cent and one of his sidekicks (nee bitches) run around busting heads, popping caps in bitches’ asses and generally swearing like motherfuckers. It’s also rather well made and put together with full knowledge that the story is dumber than network programmers at Infinity Ward.

Swordfish have done a good job on the gameplay, settling a third person action somewhere between Gears of War and The Club. The gunplay is well-executed and the presentation is pretty top notch- the game runs at a fairly consistent 60 fps (on 360 a, at least) and yet still manages to have a pretty high standard of artwork which almost no one else has managed to achieve this gen (Infinity Ward, which their idiot savant network programmers, at least have good tech and art). The sound is a big flimsy since it’s made up of gangsta rap from Mr Cent and friends thought there is at least the option to have a purely instrumental soundtrack if you prefer. 50 and co are a pretty verbose lot and so by the time you get to actual in-game sounds, there didn’t seem to be much will left to make the game sound any good (things like smashing a crate and having a pretty obvious wait until the right sound effect played)

Alll in all, as this was a cheapie, I enjoyed the two or three hours I played of this game in the lead up to MW2. It obviously is blown out of the water in terms of quality by Uncharted 2 and Modern Warfare 2, but the game is cheap and more importantly, a fuckton of fun. It also doesn’t have dedicated servers or lean.

Tags: 50 cent, swordfish, THQ