Techland’s western FPS Call of Juarez was one of my cheapie surprise packages. That is it was a PC game from a little-known Polish developer, distributed by Ubisoft and ported to 360. It was a minor hit but enough of one to warrant a sequel. The first game was also quite well made and attempted some simple and mostly effective innovations to the relatively staid single player FPS genre. It was $20 from Play-Asia and well worth that money. Here’s our review of that game
Flash forward to 2009 and Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, a prequel to the original game, is released mid year and gets reasonable scores and a PS3 version that’s been the bigger seller in Europe. Unlike the first game, there have been no sudden drops in price so I’ve had to *gasp* pay more than bargain bin prices for it (but still not quite full price).
So we follow Ray (not yet a mad preacher) and his brother Thomas, as they hear the Call of Juarez. You play as one or the other, getting to choose between them most of the time and have the other follow you anyway (though there’s no co-op for those of you to whom that’s important).
So far my impressions (of about an hour or so of play) are:
1- It’s seems a little lacking in soul compared to the first one.
It’s almost as if they made the first one and wanted to do something else, but Ubisoft was waving a cheque under their noses. Of course it is early days and may improve.
2- It’s buggy as all hell. 5 hard locks on two different 360s.
Our next Focus Test subject is, funnily enough, Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood. It’s an unusual focus test to be sure.
Halo 3 ODST is out, but I will probably wait until the weekend to pick it up.The multiplayer part of it is not essential as I have played all bar the three new maps in this collections when they were DLC. I do like the fact you can install them to your HDD, unlike Halo 3.
Although Activision doesn’t want you to know this but Wolfenstein is out on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. I am playing Wolfenstein and enjoying it despite the deafening silence from the Activision publicity department. The same people who want you to buy five different versions of Guitar Hero each year, a Call of Duty each year and dozens of previous id games, including Return to Castle Wolfenstein; don’t really care if you buy this game or not.
Even games that publishers know are crap get more marketing than Wolfenstein has had. Is it really that bad? No. It’s more to do with id being bought out by Zenimax, owners of Bethesda along with rights to any Wolfenstein sequels. Competition for Modern Warfare 2 may have some bearing but as the Quantum of Solace game was released almost simultaneously with CoD: WaW in 2008, it’s safe to assume Activision weren’t interested in spending money on advertising a game that only benefits Zenimax in the long run. It’s a pretty douchey thing to do and even EA is not going to dump Rage simple because they won’t be able to publish Rage 2.
So, Wolfenstein is a first person shooter set during WWII. But rather than the realistic and gritty approach of Call of Duty, Wolfenstein is set in a more fantastical WWII where Nazi’s are in possession of occult and supernatural weaponry. It’s almost like the spy adventures alluded to in the most recent Indiana Jones movie. Single player has proven to be fun but Multiplayer is like stepping back in time. Back to when Cher was young.
It’s a fun enough diversion but god it looks like an Xbox 1 game. A laggy Xbox 1 game. Go back to single player and the graphics are good to very good. It’s quite polished for the most part, apart from lacklustre voice work.
Also on the ‘box has been Shadow Complex, from Epic and Chair. A side-scrolling 2D Metroid/Castlevania style game. Yes, people have been peeing in their pants with anticipation of this, but I had mainly ascribed this to being grumpy fuckers who can’t play any game made after the year 2000 without complaining how things aren’t as good as they used to be. I’ve only had a quick squizzy but it’s a game that I can see many people (the explorer types) getting a huge kick out of. It’s 1200 points but it is worth it.
Trials HD is as good as it was in the Focus Test.
I’ve never been a huge Tomb Raider fan but I did get through most of Tomb Raider Legend and enjoy it for the most part. Underworld was cheap so I picked it up and have been going through it rather languidly. That is to say. I’m playing it because I have nothing else to play and I’m not really compelled by it.
Don’t get me wrong, its very well made and I’ve found it quite polished but I’m not champing at the bit to play it like some other games I’ve been playing this year (Fallout 3, Infamous and Red Faction). I think I’m over exploration and constantly falling, not to my doom, but down to a lower level that requires a lengthy hike to get back to where I was. So I’m done with it already (it was a cheapie).
Here are some pics in lieu of me wasting any more time on Tomb Raider (click on the segment to see the full pic)
I’m waiting for Call of Juarez to show up and to see whether Wolfenstein is worth getting so I’m in a gaming-lite mode. I was ging through CoD4 SP again, this time on PC, but then the PC decided to lose my save game and I thought “fuck that.” I had a day off work this week so I popped in CoD2 (360) for a play of the SP campaign. Wasn’t feeling it but then I had played the single player manay times and the first half of the game has had a lot more playtime than the end of the game. Oh well.
So really Battlefield 1943 has been getting the most playtime though I’m starting to get a little frustrated. It seems 360 players locally are meant to be on local servers but this is not the case just yet and I find the one thing that dents my enthusiasm for online games is lag induced by a Host in another country. Last night the Japanese team were based in Japan. Awkward much? I must have been playing all seven 360 owners in Japan. And they were quite good.
Trials HD is likely to be purchased over the weekend. I’m working on a video ATM and Trials seems perfect to pop in and out of while I need to Render files.
We’re securing some more people to interview in our “The Developer” series in the coming weeks so stay tuned.
In this Post Red Faction: Guerrilla world, I am avoiding open world single player experiences in favour of the highly directed and cinematic Ghostbusters game. So far I’m having a mixed reaction to it. Against the prevailing wisdom, I’m playing on Normal which is relatively difficult. Coupled with a system freeze whilst playing hasn’t made a 100% positive impression.
But it does hold promise. It feels like Ghostbusters- which isn’t a natural fit for most of today’s most popular genres. It’s not a platformer, a shooter or a brawler. At least it isn’t where I’m up to. And at least someone learned lessons from Luigi’s Mansion.
What I’m liking:
- They got the Ghostbusting bit right and the Ghostbusters right
- Original cast providing the voices
- All of the music from the film is used and not just Ray Parker Jr’s song on repeat
- Gameplay is different from every other game
What I’m not liking:
-Cinematics seem lacking in cinemacity. They’re as lifeless as most ingame cutscenes. You know why. Animators are good at animating people, they’re not necessarily good directors, camera operators or editors.
-It seems the difficulty is a bit much on normal.
I’ll stick with it for a bit.
Battlefield 1943 got a bit more playtime. It’s a lot of fun to just dip in and out of. I missed most of the original Battlefield hype in 2002 as I wasn’t that thrilled about multiplayer gaming but I eventually played a bit of it and its expansions as well as Desert Combat in the lead up to BF Vietnam. So unlike many, I’m not reliving anything by playing BF1943, its a newish experience for me. I loved Bad Company and its great to see its engine being used with the ‘classic’ BF1942 maps. And boy does it work nicely on a console. I had BC on PS3 and I’m playing this on 360 can I can’t pick which one is better. I also believe EA is running servers for the game, WHICH HELPS A LOT! I only wish Activision would follow this lead on MW2.
Tomb Raider underworld arrived and I played about 10 minutes after installing. It should make for a pleasant diversion after Ghostbusters becomes too tiresome.
So after months of playing CoD WaW as my main multiplayer game at home (Killzone 2, Gears 2, Left 4 Dead or Resistance 2 didn’t really light my fire), a new game that I know will entertain me for a while has been released. I have purchased it for 1200 Microsoft Points and I have enjoyed the sweeping vistas of the tutorial level. Here are my impressions of the game so far.
Battlefield 1943- according to press releases and previews is a Download-only product shipping with three maps with the promise of more to come. Using the same engine as Battlefield Bad Company, it looks very pretty and sounds amazing.
You are greeted with the above image when you boot up the game and then asked to make an EA.com account if you don’t already have one. I must have about three lying about the place but made another just for the purposes of playing this game. You are given a few options- Jump into a quick match, play with friends, play the tutorial level or tweak your options. I elected to Jump into a quick game.
I have to say, I was blown away by the graphics on the what I saw next. My jaw dropped to the floor, so astonished at the sight that greeted me. It was amazing. Words cannot adequately describe this game. You have to experience it for yourself. But here’s a spoiler:
So it seems every man and his dog is playing Battlefield 1943 and EA’s trusty 286 server can’t hold up to the strain. EA is promising to remedy the situation and has ducked out to Best Buy to see if they can get another NIC. Until then, its best to think of the game in this way- At least PC gamers can’t play it yet.
A rather social weekend meant cleaning our house first. In turn gaming was low on the list but that didn’t stop me getting a few rounds of World at War during the double XP weekend. Also I managed an hour of GTA: Chinatown Wars on the plane ride home until the wind buffeting the plane became so intense that I couldn’t hold the stylus straight enough to tattoo my newly recruited Tong members.
Also another stab at GTA: The Lost and Damned. I take back my earlier comments, it does seem dated in comparison to the new sandbox games. Well, it feels slower (pressing A to move faster than a crippled turtle is kind of absurd) than games like Infamous, Crackdown, et al and just clunkier overall. The DS game is just more fun. The story of the bikers is interesting to watch as the sociopath leader Billy unleashes havoc, much to the dismay of Johnny- the playable character. Johnny just wants to keep things on a business level. All of this mayhem interferes with all of the drugs, loose women and grand larceny.
Red Faction Guerrilla- a game I wasn’t overly impressed by during our Focus Test of the demo- has turned out to be a fair bit of fun. Red Faction was the game I bought with my PS2 back in 2001 and was a game I have fond memories of, memories that the sequel was not super kind to. So open world Red Faction seemed to be a rather desperate move on the part of Volition, whose Saint’s Row games aren’t the most polished GTA rips there are. But despite implied uses of the same tech as SR, Red Faction looks pretty nice considering YOU CAN BLOW UP ALMOST ANYTHING!
As someone who has an affinity for audio in videogames, I was slightly shocked to find that the game booted up with all of the audio options set to 0. That’s right after the intro videos- there was no sound at all. There is even a switch to disable the sound in the menu options.
It’s as if RF:G is the game Mercenaries 2 wanted to be. After initially deciding to pass on the game several things happened- I finished inFamous and decided I didn’t want to play Prototype, I have nothing new to play after Ghostbusters (which is meant to be rather short), it was on special, I’d heard other site’s podcasts banging the drum about how much fun the game is and lastly and most importantly my wife bought it for me as a present while I was out of town.
So it sounds like Lost and Damned will get the boot while I concentrate on Red Faction and Ghostbusters. Expect ‘Now Playing’ articles for both over the coming weeks.
My recent DLC binge netted me the Lost and the Damned and the CoD World at War Map Pack 2. I had intended to skip the GTA DLC since I had not come close to finishing GTA IV before getting sick of it and moving on to fresh gaming pastures. I think the reason I got it was some need to use up my Internet Bandwidth quota since 25GB a month goes a long way if you aren’t into Bit Torrent. Infamous also made me feel that going back to the slower moving GTA IV engine might be a step backwards but I tried it anyway.
I like it so far. I’m only a few missions in but it seems to be a nice take on Liberty City without feeling like a simple retread of IV.
The storyline with the bikers seems a lot easier to get into, less introspective than Niko and Roman, played less for laughs and more for drama. The guys of the Lost MC are fucking assholes of the first order but they make great videogame characters. Of course as a member of a motorcycle gang, you will be riding around on a hog for most of the time and unless you preferred these in GTA IV, they take a while to get used to riding these and firing a shotgun at the same time. Its also got that custom GTA difficulty about it but then I’m finding I’m enjoying it in this post-infamous world.
Johnny Klebitz, your hero for want of a better word, is a little more obviously fucked up thank Niko. He’s a biker and he just wants to keep to business. The leader of the gang, Billy, has just come out of rehab after being busted and is aching for action, such as starting turf wars with rival gangs etc. This being a GTA game, there ares no tea parties, group hugs and wondering if this is what its like When Doves Cry.
Also, despite me saying I’d had enough of WaW with a PC playthough, a 360 playthough and months of multi on both systems, I got the extra maps anyway. And because I’d been away from the multiplayer for so long, I immediately sucked more than a Wii game called Let’s Tidy Up After Ourselves in the NPD top 10. But after relearning not to suck, I’ve started to enjoy the new maps and not just stick to the three zombie maps. We have Corrosion, which seems to be some sort of refinery level where its Soviets v Nazis; Banzai, aan outdoor jungle level with a wooden bridge, waterfalls, tunnels and bamboo huts; and my favourite, Sub Pen, a really nice US verses Japan level that’s small and intimate but large enough for small or medium size groups.
Its interesting to note how in both of the map packs released for WaW so far, Treyarch have shied away from the larger tank based levels which were the more popular ones in CoD3. The tanks in WaW are just irritating since they dominate the levels and the anti-tank options are limited. The jury is still out on dogs but they are preferable to fucking helicopters, which is what I dread most about the upcoming Modern Warfare 2.
Just as a site update: The site has had fewer updates due to my work moving offices this last week. My studio is in disarray so there’s nowhere for us to record a podcast yet. Hopefully we can have something for you by next week. The first one might be a tad echo-ey.
After returning from a holiday and trying three different local stores, I finally found a copy of inFamous. This morning I have been having a great time playing it and feeling kinda sad for Prototype. Its also killed any chance I had of ever replaying Crackdown. Infamous is better in some ways. Its making Protoype look like an also ran and Uncharted 2 look limited by comparison. Sly Cooper 4 Infamous also has its problems, such as really ordinary animation but overall its probably the best PS3 game so far this year, easily eclipsing Killzone 2 for fun.
Its a free roaming game set in an open world where you play as a guy who has suddenly developed all of these cool powers, mostly to do with Electricity. You don’t shoot guns, you discharge electricty and you consume electricity in order to fire off more electricity. The guy’s got some serious rubber shoes on his feet and its a lucky thing his head is shavd otherwise he’d be a dead ringer for one of the Jackson 5 circa 1974. Infamous has everything Crackdown has apart from a Halo 3 beta invite.
So if you like Crackdown like controller1.com’s very own Cameron, you will like infamous. So what does Infamous do better and what does it not do as well?
Better than Crackdown:
Movement and climbing is so easy and therefore fun. You don’t feel like you’re fighting the controls (as you do in the god-awful-to-control Prince of Persia). It manages to make Assassin’s Creed movement seem clunky (which was one of its better features) and now I feel Uncharted 2 will feel more restrictive during its platforming sections after the total freedom afforded in Infamous. Of course, restricting movements to paths is a gameplay decision. Infamous doesn’t make platforming difficult since its not a platformer- you just need to get places and the game doesn’t make it too hard to do that.
Story: The actual storyline is more involving that Crackdown’s simple “cleaning up the streets” mantra. It also has fantastic comic book style cinematics (even if they are just a modern version of those flat cardboard rod-puppets children have)
Not as good Crackdown:
The in-game animation is really, really ordinary. Even bad in places. Combat is a bit less fun (at least initially). This Sly Cooper in a new skin. Really. Not a bad thing but oh boy is it obvious the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
You have the time-trials and equivalent of the agility orb hunting as well, though they are more neatly integrated into the story, rather than just being collectibles. So play this while we wait for Crackdown 2. I would hope the guys at Ruffian games have a good look at this
This is really the best PS3 only game since MGS4 (yes better than KZ2, Resistance 2, Little Big Planet, Singstar AB- huh?). If you have a PS3 and don’t have this game yet, what are you waiting for and if you don’t have a PS3, it means you haven’t played this, MGS4 or Uncharted. I hear there’s a price cut brewing around the launch of Madden 2010
I’m currently on holidays with the wife. To sate my gaming desires whilst on the road, I’ve bought my DS Phat with GTA Chinatown Wars and my PSP 1000 with God of War: Chains of Olympus. Of course, I can’t charge the PSP battery enough so that CoD CoO can update the PSP’s firmware (one nice thing about the original DS and the Lite is that you don’t have to worry about this bullshit). So Chinatown Wars is the game du jour.
GTA:CW is Rockstar Leeds making a 3D GTA game from a top down perspective. Its got all the colour, edginess and humour of a full console version without the feeling that something is not quite right, as was the case with the two PSP iterations.
Your stylus is used appropriately, to manage your menu items, emails, GPS map, etc and the traditional dpad + buttons used for driving, moving and combat. This being a DS game, there has been an attempt to add stylus gameplay into the mix, such as using touch screen actions in minigames- such as hot wiring cars.
It works, mostly. Maybe its because I’m sill playing on the original DS, but I’ve found using the dpad to be somewhat painful after a short time. The game is still fun, but jeez it is hard. Its not easy to pin down why, but I found myself having to replay missions again and again.
Happily, the makers have taken one of many people’s criticisms of GTAIV to heart. If you fail a mission, you see the mission briefing (skippable, of course) and then you have the option to skip the travel to the missions by pressing select. Hallefuckinglujah!
So if you’re going to make your game hard, at least make retrying easier. Thanks Rockstar Leeds. Theeds.
After a few relatively game-lite weeks- I’m playing a bit more regularly. I’m off on a vacation in a fortnight’s time (the site will still have updates) but in the meantime I’ve had some fun with a few titles.
The Club, subject of a recent focus test, is a silly score-attack shooter. Take PGR and Tony Hawk and make it about shooting and you have The Club. If you’re not a score attack junkie, you might find there’s not much for you since multiplayer doesn’t have a thriving community and the single player is a few hours at best. Its a repetitive title to be sure, but once you start playing, you’re there for longer than you’d expect. It’s not ugly, but there are much prettier games on the market. Its also being referenced left right and centre “oh, its like The Club.” Hey, great, you used a commercial flop as the basis for your big title. Its like how those in the know reference Kill/Switch as the game that Gears got much of the stop and pop actions from. I recommend renting this for giggles, or buying it outstandingly cheap (which should not be hard)
Of course, the big game in this post is the PS3 exclusive title inFamous, from Sucker Punch, makers of Sly Cooper games. Some say InFamous is just Sly 3 with a new skin. I can’t say that for sure since, although I own Sly 3, I haven’t played it for more than 30 minutes. InFamous has a far grittier aesthetic but you can see a lot of Sly Cooper in this game. Apart from Sly Cooper himself.
It also channels the ghost of Crackdown. A few days after this post goes live, we may have some news of Crackdown 2. My sources assure me its in the works. My sources also assure me that you can’t catch Swine Flu from a toilet seat unless an afflicted piglet used it previously. If you liked Crackdown, you should also have a ball with this game. I like Crackdown, and from I’ve played of the demo, this is a fun substitute. Our next Focus Test podcast features this game so give it a listen (links at the right of the page).
There’s climbing up buildings, jumping, popping a zap in the asses of the baddies. Its got it all. And ANGST! Games need more whiny bitches as the protagonist. Of course, I can’t play the full game for three more weeks since it doesn’t get released here before I go away for my break. The zinger is, this game comes out at the exact same time as a another similar game, Prototype.
Prototype is a multiplatform gamer from Radical, the makers of Hulk games and before that, some Simpsons games a few years back. They know their open-world blow shit up routine. Prototype is a gorier version of the Hulk game from all accounts. Its the release of Infamous and Prototype that has clogged the net with Prototype verse Infamous blogs. “Which is better? Which should I play first?” I don’t really have any interest in Prototype just at the moment so we shall see what it is like once its released.
I had decided earlier in the year that I would like to replay the single player campaigns of the Call of Duty games. Apparently the original game is being released as a downloadable title soon and if it does, I could have all 5 games on my 360. Which would be nice. I’ve been replaying the most recent, World at War, in single player mode. My first run through was on PC and this time, its on 360. I think WaW get’s trashed a bit too much for not being made by Infinity Ward, but I found it a highly enjoyable game in its own right. CoD4 is still better but the differences are enough to make it feel like a different game, and close enough to keep the CoD4 whore in me smiling.
