Try getting a podcast where the three of us like something and I’ll show you an internet forums where people can discuss opposing views rationally. Today sparks fly as usual as we look at Wolfenstein and Battlefield 1943.
Where’s the love you ask?
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.
The recent E3 show revealed the existence of several games to be released later in 2009. One of these was the sequel to 2008′s smash hit PC/ Xbox 360 shooter, Left 4 Dead.
Rather than fans of the original jumping for joy at the prospect of a full-blown sequel (these are Valve fans- they’re used to a more deliberate timeline for releases), the many fans of L4D are in fact running a petition to focus their anger on what they see is Valve’s ditching of L4D1 so soon after release.
There are two ways you can look at this…
The first way is how the fans are seeing this. LFD is not even cold in its undead grave, with only a few minor DLC releases and here’s Valve trotting a full (priced) sequel in a year. It means they’re either pulling an EA/Activision and moving to yearly updates to franchises- which rarely has an upside to quality whilst at the same time inducing gamer fatigue faster- and going from the altruistic company that many PC gamers imagine Valve to be into another money hungry company.
It took 10 years to go from Team Fortress to TF2. In 2009, we are still waiting for HL2: Episode 3 (more than 18 months after episode 2). TF2 is still getting updates (free ones) two years after release). Hell, even Day of Defeat is still getting updates alongside TF2. So people feel Valve will abandon the free stuff and long term support of their titles.
The other beef is the splitting of the community between those playing L4D and LFD2. One thing online games need in order to thrive is a lot of people. Its what makes TF2 memes more recognisable than Quake Wars: Enemy Territory. Well, if you split the L4D community between those playing the sequel and those playing the original- they will have less people to play with. The problem with that argument is L4D is not a game that requires a lot of people to play, and in a smaller, more dedicated gaming community, you’re more likely to find people more serious gamers, better games, etc. Did TF2 players start a petition of the original L4D pilfering their player base?
The other way you can look at this is : COOL! More LFD! Yippee!
If it were an Activision title, I would be worried about the quality. I still have enough trust in Valve that L4D2 will be worth the price.
Read C1.com’s review of Left 4 Dead
Focus Test for L4D
Reviewed on PS3. Developed by Guerrilla Games. Published by Sony
Killzone 2 has come. Let there be rejoicing in the streets. It is far better than the PS2 original. But it is not perfect. What the hell?
Ever since the notorious “target renders” of E3 2005, Killzone has had as many people waiting for it to fail as they have been willing its success. KZ2 falls somewhere in the middles, not because of its graphics, which are gorgeous, but for its gameplay, which is very good, but not great. For all the shading tricks and spectacular lighting, there’s a solid, if pedestrian game underneath. If only the design could match up to the presentation, we’d be onto a winner.
So now that the legion of PS3 fans with no sense of humour have gone off to post on NeoGaf, we can talk turkey. If the intro paragraph makes out I didn’t enjoy Killzone 2, its because my last experience of the game was rage-quitting whilst trying to beat the game’s final encounter. Overall, I’ve liked the game a lot but its not the be all and end all that many, including Sony, were hoping for. It ranks along CoD 4 and WaW as the best shooters on PS3 but it doesn’t eclipse them in my view (as a CoD fan, so make of that what you will).
So let’s talk about how it plays. Its a first person shooter where your character, Sev is a sergeant in the Space Marines plays alongside an AI NPC, even though there’s no co-op. Rico- loud mouth black guy; Natko, sarcastic Marcus Fenix- the teenage years and Garza, a guy with a cap. You run, you have melee, can jump (slowly), zoom in and have one rifle and one pistol. It plays like a slightly slower version of Call of Duty, which is the standard of how to do FPS control on consoles if you don’t have a lead character whose name rhymes with Pasterchief.
For the most part you can summarise the gameplay as mainly consisting of either:
1- Kill all the enemies in a locked area .
or
2- Keep moving forward in order to reach thresholds that stop enemies from spawning ad infinitum.
What Killzone does well, it does very well. It just doesn’t throw you many surprises. And most of those are in cutscenes. But when you’re in control of the game, you can almost feel deja vu as there’s nothing in this game that feels unique to Killzone. That’s a shame. Its doen well, just not particularly innovative or original. I don’t say those as a criticism, just as an observation after playing this game. Its a short game (My stats said about 7 hours, but I doubt that tracks the bits I had to replay so let’s say 8-9 hours).
Moving from the single player campaign to multiplayer and things look up. While there’s nothing original in multi either, its just about perfect in its implementation. You can pick a server and jump in. And it works great. In the rounds I’ve played, I noticed no lag (I’m assuming servers are hosting the game rather than peer to peer- god please Activision host servers for the next CoD game) and the gameplay was fun for anyone to be able to jump in and enjoy the game. Most of the servers available to me featured a constantly evolving playlist within each map. You might have capture and hold, the 5 minutes of assassination, 5 minutes of search and destroy and then Team Deathmatch until the timer runs out.
Unlike R2, where it was a game Insomniac concentrated on co-op and multiplayer at the cost of a mediocre single player experience , Killzone 2 pushes the single player into the spotlight yet manages to offer a fully featured and polished multiplayer component. KZ2 multiplayer is obviously going to be the game to beat on PS3 multiplayer for a while. Its likely to be where you find all your friends on PSN at the moment.
So we all know the graphics are fantastic but the game’s sound is fantastic. The effects are top notch with DSP effects that make this the best sounding PS3 game at the moment. Metal Gear was good, Uncharted was better but KZ2 raises the bar higher still. The music score is suitably epic with the cinematics utilising a full orchestra (though not during ingame for some reason). The voice acting is good but the script is on a level of Gears of War 2 silliness. So if you found “10 shitloads” to be laughable, then you might find KZ2′s cheese to be of a similar bouquet.
So you see, this is a video game for the Playstation 3. So if it doesn’t walk on water, sell 19 million copies in a week or shift 3 million consoles, it doesn’t make the game any less enjoyable.
Controller1.com rating 3/3 (its not perfect but its a very good game you need to play if you own a PS3. Give the Dark Knight Blu Ray a break)
I don’t usually have much of an up-to-date PC gaming machine. Over the last few years, I’ve only really had a work PC that was semi recent. My latest work PC is a screamer with a 1GB videocard, that also thankfully restarts itself when some new games get busy and has firewalls blocking everything but WoW, CoD4 and Steam. So I’ve been playing Day of Defeat Source, which is a remake of the original DoD. I hear there’s another graphical revamp of DoD (though I’m not sure if its official or unofficial) in the works.
Reviewed on PS3. Developed by Insomniac. Published by Sony
Not being a pro site, C1 doesn’t have to try and rush reviews of games in time for the day of release. Although this review goes up just in time for the release of another big PS3 FPS it must be said that Resistance 2 was lost in the late 2008 Holiday release rush and for good reason. It offers absolutely nothing compelling over Gears of War 2, Little Big Planet, Fallout 3 or Call of Duty World at War. The sequel to the PS3′s first million-seller, R2 improves on the rather ordinary original in very slight ways, concentrating on online multiplayer modes and delivering an adequate gameplay experience. Merely adequate.
The game follows the protagonist of the first game, Nathan Hale, who has now found a voice in a n adventure with actual cinematics rather than a concept art montage. In this alternate history where the Earth was invaded during WWII, we have ridiculously anachronistic technology (the “cobbled together from the alien tech” argument makes absolutely no sense) such as Xbox1 vintage headsets, advanced projectile weaponry and vehicle design straight out of Starship Troopers. In the few levels set in smalltown America of the era, there’s less atmosphere than Fallout 3.
As far as the game itself, R2 continues with the rather ‘gamey’ and gimmick-laden weapons of the original. The controls are ok and none of the usual criticisms of the DS3 controller and FPS game really hinder your progress. But the level design, cheating AI and general difficulty (played on normal) made it a very frustratiing experience overall. I can sometimes swear occasionally during gameplay but the number of times I involuntarily utter the words “Fuck Off” after yet another cheap death might make anyone watching me through a hidden webcam think I have Tourette’s syndrome. It takes me back to Jak II (another developer). I made it halfway through the single player campaign before rage-ejecting the disc from PS3 (the boss battle against the Swarm if you must know).When the AI isn’t raping you, the level design instills a feeling of deja vu. You feel as though you’ve been here before. It’s like visiting a McDonald’s in a different city. It looks and feels exactly the same even though you’ve never been there before.
The game is not pretty to look at. Not ugly but not particularly impressive for a first party effort. Compared to the Ratchet and Clank, MGS or Uncharted games on PS3, this game looks nearly as ordinary as some third party movie lisence games. The visuals seem very flat, with really ordinary lighting in most levels. It does look slightly like a Wii game with higher poly models. The visual style is bland to say the least and derivative of so many better games. The sound is not up to the usual standard of a developer of Insomniac’s standing with nothing sounding crisp. I found the radio effect on voice particularly annoying. A guy who’s standing in front of you and not wearing a headset speaks to you as if you’ve picked him up by accident on HAM radio. What’s worse (and somewhat illogical), this radio voice is 3D and moves when you pan the camera. …. the fuck?
OK, so the clinical singleplayer and merely adequate presentation must mean that the multiplayer is fantastic. Well, no. It’s OK, but suffers from a lack of real direction as to what you’re meant to do and where your enemies are in relation to you. I jumped into a game and found it relatively easy to start killing foes so kudos to the online system, but after a while it was apparent that the maps were so big (R2 is one of those games that shows that more people per server, whilst a nice technical achievement, doesn’t make for a better game). I ended up in the last 5 minutes of the round wandering around with minimal health looking for someone to either shoot or put me out of my misery. There’s apparently a coop campaign that’s supposedly completely different from the normal singleplayer but I will never ever find out if its any good.
Insomniac have usually made games I have found very accessible and loved, but there’s something about the Resistance games that just doesn’t gel with me.
Controller1.com rating 1/3
Reviewed on Xbox 360. DLC also available on PC. Fallout 3 game required. Fallout 3 also on PS3, but without DLC.
Developed and published by Bethesda.
Our first DLC review on c1 and its Fallout 3′s first piece of DLC, Operation Anchorage. F3:OA is a side mission for the game based around the Outcasts you may have seen around the map. You agree to use your Pip Boy to interface with an old Virtual Reality pod and voila, you’re transported virtually back to the campaign to oust Chinese Army occupation of Alaska before the Balloon went up.
The DLC is a lot more linear than the rest of the game and more action oriented. Its more Mass Effect than Fallout. You take nothing in and take nothing out, so you can’t loot corpses since your vanquished foes vanish along with any weapons and ammo. You have ammo dispensers and health dispenses dotted around the map, not always where you need one and since you can’t carry meds, it does change how you play fairly significantly. You can’t go into a fight, shoot, heal, shoot heal. You have to heal when you see the dispenser and hope you can make it through the few throttled areas with enemies aplenty without dieing.
There’s a boss encounter at the end but if your speech stats are high enough, you may able to avoid altogether in a rather bizarre way. At the end of the simulation, you unlock some booty that you can return to at any point (though i’m not sure if items respawn- i’d doubt it). There’s nothing in the booty that you can’t get elsewhere but its nice to have it all in once place.
The other thing the DLC does is remove the level cap, so its definitely worth doing if you plan to do everything in the game. The actual F3:OA mission is not all that great and made me stop playing F3 once I was done. I would say its essential only if you are planning on doing EVERYTHING. There two more F3 DLC packs scheduled in the next few months but I think I’m done with this game. The levels here should take around 3-4 hours which is not bad for the price but you just need to know that it doesn’t play like the rest of the game.
Controller1.com rating 2/3
Killzone 2 comes out this week. I hated Killzone 1. It was so try hard yet failed to make any positive impression upon me, its gameplay wasn’t anything special and its level design merely adequate when it didn’t suck. There were no highs and no particular lows but it was middling in every way. So I’m going to buy Killzone 2 when it comes out later this week.
I’m not a heavily invested in PS3 fanboy so there’s no particular reason why I cling to KZ2 as the PS3 saviour and poo poo any contrary opinions with such anger that counsellors will have a field day. The first game was just a fairly ordinary game so I don’t hold out hope that Killzone will be game of the year since, graphics aside, there’s no indication that Guerilla have done anything majorly different this time around. Time will tell.
So why am I buying this? Its a shooter, a genre which I obviously enjoy (if you’re reading this, then you’d have a fair inkling of this fact) and there isn’t much competition from shooters in the first half of this year. And its a well received one. Yes, there are lots of platitudes being spouted about this game, but I’m guessing they can’t be completely wrong. 80% plus on review sites is a decent indicator. And truth be told, its the comments about this game not being innovative, just doing the FPS very well that actually intrigue me. We have Left 4 Dead, Gears 2 and Call of Duty World at War late last year- all very good shooters. Even though Resistance 2 was not great, it is certainly playable. But there’s a bit of drought of these games in the early part of the year. We are promised Halo 3: ODSTDSTDTSTD and MAG later in the year, and probably a new Infinity Ward shooter. But who will fill the gap till then?
Or will we just go back to playing CoD4?
Two system exclusive demoes were released onto their respective systems late last week. One was for the first big 360 only game of 2009, Halo Wars and the other was for Sony’s Great White Hope, Killzone 2. Halo Wars demo we will Focus Test soon, but since I plan to buy the full KZ2 game, we aren’t go FT the demo. Here are some impressions of the Killzone 2 demo. Let’s preface this by saying I played 2/3 of the original game was unimpressed to say the least which is why I’ve not boarded the hype machine for the sequel. Good looking doesn’t mean great games, especially when the developers, Guerrilla Games, have yet to prove they can make something fun.
The demo starts off with you attacking a beach held by Helgast troops, then you move inside. Then some slo mo opera happens and you see a video trumpeting the high review scores the game has received so far (the game’s been in the can for a while, possibly held back so to avoid cannibalising sales from Resistance 2). See the picture below for a taster
More about the actual demo, though.
The good: Its pretty. Its got some very nice lighting effects. The score is magnificent and the sounds mostly great (if a little muted).
The bad: People laughed at Gears 2′s “10 shitloads” dialogue and it looks like KZ2 is trying to go down the same path. It’s just generic .
Gameplay: the demo doesn’t do anything you have seen a bazillion times before but I think it does it ok. It’s just not very responsive to control though.I’m actually less enthusiastic about the game since playing the demo but I hear its mostly good and I think I need a shooter. Fallout 3 is kinda shooter but not quite.
Fallout 3 got a good going over this past weekend (up to level 11 and around the 22 hour mark- not counting many many restarts. I had a few issues where I would find a new area, went exploring and then found i wasted two hours on an area where I have to trigger a mission elsewhere first. So after a while I decided I would just map the thing. I literally spent about 3 hours walking around the map so that I can now fast travel anywhere and get to a location with a minute or two. I really want to go onto another game but F3 just does everything that Mass Effect didn’t.
One thing still bothers me about Fallout 3. There are many places where people make homes in various places that are still habitable. But no one has cleaned up. The war was years earlier yes people have lost many things: love ones, their homes and it seems their brooms.
Reviewed on PC. Developed and published by Valve
The original Day of Defeat was a free WWII mod for Half Life and after Counterstrike was one of the few mods to be successful enough to be bought up by the makers of the originating game (as happened with Counterstrike and Left 4 Dead). In 2005, the game was ported with semi upgraded graphics to the Source Engine, though with only 4 maps at launch though others were added intermittently. At some point, spurned on by the success of Team Fortress 2, DoD: S received a mini makeover with a film grain effect and killcams straight out of TF2 (yes Call of Duty did them first but these are literally the same as TF2′s down to the sound effects and the ability to take screenshots). Now you have nemeses and can gain revenge on those who kill you too much.
The game is a really simple class-based game with two teams (one German, one American). Most maps are simple capture the flag deals, but with a very fast paced capturing system compared to the eternity it takes to capture a control point in a Battlefield game. Other maps involve demolishing enemy installations (tanks, anti aircraft guns, etc) but basically its a “shoot and respawn until the map runs out of time” game. There’s a simple, yet deep game here that’s been keeping a loyal band of people still playing in this PC shooter environment ruled by the trio of CoD4, TF2 and L4D. People use grenade launchers and there’s no nasty n00btube comments like there would be in CoD4.
It doesn’t hurt that the Source-engined version of this game is over four years old and will run on almost any PC still in circulation. On a modern machine it looks ok but you may be missing the graphical OMFG you get with Crysis. Call of Duty 1 and 2 were bigger sales successes yet I can’t find a game on my ISP’s servers. There’s that typical Valve feel to the way it works and sounds, with the nasty touch that when you lose a round, the winners have about 10-15 seconds where they can kill any enemies still alive with impunity. Ouch!
So here’s the question- why has there never been a sequel to this and why not a console port? CoD WaW’s success proves there’s still a large market for good shooters, even WWII ones. I guess the new Wolfenstein will just have that Nazi-hunting FPS market to itself this year.
