Playstation Home | Fun For a Price

Playstation Home is one of those applications that if you are a PS3 owner you have to try at least once, the premise is simple enough in that it’s a lot like the widely known SecondLife. Players are given the use of their very own avatar where they can choose the look they want, included is a standard apartment which can also be customized and decorated. While Playstation Home does indeed offer actual games to play the majority of them are mini-games that are good for a few minutes of killing time but not much else. On your travels you will discover locations that tie into movies like the Men in Black franchise along with the various games companies plugging popular titles like LittleBigPlanet, Resistance, Uncharted and even Bomber Man.

The busiest locations are parks and town squares where users can mingle and show off their wide variety of strange and wonderful costumes, avatars whiz past on all manner of vehicles ranging from bikes and cars to fantastic flying inventions that are sure to make you look twice. Animals also feature with dogs and big cats like tigers and lions taking the spot light, but they aren’t just kept as pets since players themselves can transform into the animal of their choice - which sounds like a brilliant feature except as with many other items on Playstation Home they have to be purchased by using real money through the PSN Store.

Once you realize how much money everything costs you can’t help but feel ripped off by Sony and it’s affiliates. A vast majority of the outfits and items you will see in the store and dotted around the world are licensed officially through everyone from Wrangler to Lucas Arts and while that sounds like and endless possibility of styles and looks at the end of the day it still reeks of a cash-grab.  It’s true most online games require payment for their DLC but I think Playstation Home goes above and beyond anything I’ve seen before. I kept noticing items and outfits from some of my favourite games showing up in Home’s many stores and it occurred to me that there should be a system in place that would reward Home users game related items if the server said they played that title. While it’s true I was awarded a Resident Evil ornament for having the game on my system it was a small drop in the ocean of games I’ve played since then and none of them figured into Home’s free available content.

I’ll admit it wasn’t all a big scam, users were genuinely friendly and there was a strong sense of community in many of the main areas. Groups of people gathered and chatted about this and that while others joined in activities with each other and the remainder busied themselves flying model air planes, exploring on foot or riding bikes. I can see the need and positive effects of having a strong social community based platform like Home  available for Playstation users but the price of the extra frills and thrills leaves a sour taste in my mouth. It’s worth giving Home a try if you haven’t - whether you want to kill a few hours or just socialize it really is fun while it lasts.

Fallout 4: New Vegas [DLC] [PS3 & 360]

Dead Money

This was without a doubt my favourite of the Fallout New Vegas DLC releases. Unlock all the other releases and indeed the main game Dead Money really makes you fight to stay alive. The DLC is set with the Sierra Madre Casino being the main backdrop of the proceedings, however you have to make your way through the streets of a nearby town before you can gain entry. The town is unlock anything you have seen before in the Fallout universe. Bathed in a strange red glow the town is covered in all kinds of dangerous traps, hazardous gas and is populated by a very creepy new enemy known as “Ghost People”.

When you first encounter the area you can be forgiven to think it looks like something from a Lovecraft novel, I’d be surprised if that’s not what the developers were aiming for. The story is a lot more engaging than I expected and if I was to sum it up I’d call it a mix between SAW and Oceans 11. most of your time will be spent in the streets cautiously navigating your way through traps and past the Ghost People, but that’s not all. At the start of the game you are knocked unconscious and when you recover you find that an explosive bomb collar has been attached to your neck, (think The Running Man) the collar is triggered when you come within range of certain speakers, this too makes the difficulty increase and really keeps you on your toes. As I already stated this was by far the best DLC in the pack, it was extremely hard and tests you right to the brink of sanity.

There are a number of characters in Dead Money that play key roles in you completely the game, the dialogue is rich and really well drawn out. What Dead Money does differently is an overhaul of pace and tension, it makes you carefully watch each step and think about your next move rather than carelessly wander through the game. I’d recommend the DLC for players who are at least at level 30, it will try and test you to the very end and once you start Dead Money you cannot go back to the Mojave until you completed your business in the Sierra Madre Casino. [9 out of 10] By far the best DLC going, a solid storyline with interesting characters and a whole new approach and pace to the game.

Honest Hearts

Before you set out to play Honest Hearts you need to remember to carry only what you need because the game caps our weight allowance at about 70 or 80, why? well because to get to the area where the game takes place you have to squeeze through narrow corridors and caverns. When you arrive you find yourself in the middle of Zion National Park, Utah of all places. This is where you quickly learn that Honest Hearts plays out a lot like a western complete with tribes and the kind of landscape you see in a typical Cowboys and Indians movie.

At first missions are kind of interesting and hold your attention for a while, but after that its easy to just forget about what you are doing and who sent you, you still get the job done but caring about why you were doing it really goes out the window. So the storyline is nothing special but the map and lush terrain makes up for it. Zion is a very beautiful place, helped of course by the fact that its waters and rivers have not been polluted by radiation and chemicals.

Another thing that instantly became apparent was the addition of changing weather patterns, Zion not only gets showered in rain storms it also has a star filled sky at night that will make you stop and stare the first time the sun goes down. Included with the natural beauty is all manner of tribal art and murals, you see them scrawled and painted onto walls and cliff faces and while its only a small item of detail its the kind of thing that makes the game all the more special. It’s not all wine and roses though, what Zion has that I don’t like is roaming swarms of Cazadors that seem to spawn in the most random locations, and except for a few other varieties of beasts that’s really all you will find. It’s a shame they didn’t put in some new animals or mutants because if anywhere on the map would benefit from such things it would be Zion. All in all its an okay DLC pack, it has its faults but you do receive an even higher level cap and Zion is the perfect place to visit when you just want to get away from the dry dustiness of Mojave. [6 out of 10]

Old World Blues

This was one of the oddest DLC’s Fallout has ever received, even in terms of the alien encounters in Mothership Zeta this still wins in terms of weirdness. Old World Blues plays a lot like an old cheesy science fiction movie that probably cost the price of the game to make. It’s all very strange yet kind of exciting at the same time. You wake up after what seems like a serious operation to find your brain along with other body parts have been removed, but by who or what? Well as crazy as it sounds by a bunch of robots. These plucky piles of scrap metal are inform you that you can get your organs back by doing specific tasks for them, there are all kinds of mini missions that thankfully take up a lot of time so you do actually feel like you get your moneys worth from the missions and story alone. The game is set in huge crater that’s been sealed off from the outside world, its called Big Mountain and as you explore it you start to see that it’s where much of the technology featured in the game was developed.

It’s full of secret test labs and facilities to pillage and plunder, once you can get past their occupants of course. Old World Blues features a great mix of enemies that challenge even the most accomplished players. Robot scorpions and robot dogs are some of the foes you will find roaming through Big Mountain, along with yourself there are also test subjects armed with guns and melee weapons and as you may have guessed they are bent on annihilating you. The DLC’s strong points are its heavy on new items and weapons, the humour and wackiness is seriously off the scale, Big Mountain is fantastic to explore. All that aside there is always one DLC pack that seems to suffer the most from bugs and freezes and this time around it’s Old World Blues. I lost count how many times the game slowed down to a snails pace, most of the time it was a specific area of the map and reloading a previous save fixed it right up. Even with the dire freezes which drove me crazy countless times Old World Blues is fantastic, the dialogue is beyond hilarious and its all very challenging. [8 out of 10]

Lonesome Road

This DLC ties in a lot more than the others in terms of the games main story. In a nutshell you are offered a quest by one of the original couriers who didn’t take the job that you did, this courier calls for you to traverse the dangerous terrain of an area known as The Divide in order to learn secrets about your past. And so coaxed with such an offer you set out into The Divide and as usual cannot bring a companion with you. The story is not that great and you can tell that they tried to do something gigantic but it really didn’t pan out, I found myself losing interest and my concentration diminishing as the game went on. It’s in no way a safe location, The Divide is home to many death claws who's razor sharp claws will tear even the highest level characters into shreds in a matter of seconds. Along with “the wildlife” there is a new enemy that resembles the ghouls and carries serious heavy firepower.

They aren’t too hard to defeat and raiding their remains nets some nice hardware and items which can be sold once you leave the area, thankfully unlike all the other DLC packs you can leave The Divide whenever you chose. This works great because you can sell off all the spoils you find and top up on health or ammo whenever you are lacking in it. Just like Honest Hearts I wouldn’t buy it for the story, I’d only buy it for the extra level cap and the challenge of making it through this new volatile area of the Mojave. [5 out of 10] Uninspiring landscape, flat story and dialogue, only worth it for the extra level cap small change of scenery.

Gun Runners Arsenal

When you first see this DLC it’s easy to get excited for the wrong reasons, it promises a lot of extra weapons and never before seen items. However many of the weapons ion the pack are already in the game, the difference is they are tagged with GRA and come with mods that their counterparts don’t have. The problem here is you can only use GRA mods on GRA guns, while one gun might be the exact type unless it’s from the DLC pack you can’t use the mod on it. Luckily not every single weapon falls into this category and some are new previously unseen weapons. While most come premade a few come in the form as weapons you craft at workbenches and the like. While it’s a decent enough pack if it hadn’t have come with the Ultimate Edition I wouldn’t go of my way to buy it separately because the game already has so many items and weapons that these don’t make too much of a difference.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (Revisited) [PS3 & 360]

I first played MGS4 in 2008, back then it had just been released and having played all of the previous titles in the series I was very anxious to get into the game. Now in 2012 Konami have decided to make a few changes. When MGS4 was originally released it came with Metal Gear Online which was and in my eyes one of the best multiplayer games ever made. Times have changed and Konami have closed the servers for the game making it a relic of the past.

A new update on MGS4 completely removes all traces of the online, which basically means no menus leading the player to a dead server. It’s not all just cuts though, Konami have added a feature where you can install the whole game in one segment making for a smooth playthrough.

While that’s a handy thing to have the real difference now is that the game finally has trophy support! for years gamers called for trophy support on MGS4 but time and time again were told it would never happen. So spurred on by the trophies to hunt I decided to go back to MGS4 to find out what trophies they added and if trophy support really can breath life into an old game, but not just that I wanted to see if years later it was still as powerful as it had been all those years ago.

The story of MGS4 is one of the most complex and sometimes confusing stories I’ve ever tried to follow in a game, whereas I do know the history of the MGS universe and the pieces fell into place every now and then, that wasn’t the case for my boyfriend who watched a lot of the cut scenes and found it all very confusing. It is a good story, don’t get me wrong there but if you don’t have previous knowledge of the other games you can be easily swept up in a wave of confusion. The dialogue still sounds really well done and it rarely seems to get tiring listening to the story unfold, helped of course by the hugely cinematic visuals and over the top action and combat sequences.

Visually the game still stands up to the more recent games on the market, things like running water and smoke look fantastic and grass moving in the wind makes you stop and take a look. Without giving too much away of the story when Snake encounters chilled weather conditions the snow blowing through the wind caking his sneaking suit and camouflage still looks as realistic as always. For it’s time MGS4 was one of the best looking games on the Playstation 3 and even now you can be forgiven to think it was only released a week ago. It’s Konami’s highly stylized attention to detail that really makes the game shine both in terms of visuals and in audio. Of course it has its moments of quirky strangeness and oddness, Konami like many Japanese games developers have always been a little quirky when it came to their representations of western culture and character development.

Controlling Snake can be a task at first but the game does everything in its power to teach the player how to manoeuvre efficiently enough to survive on even the most brutal of battle fields. It’s no secret that Snake is a little worse for wear, he resembles an old man on the box and that’s exactly who you play. I remember when I first saw Snake like that and immediately thought he looked ridiculous, I’m still not a fan of the look but as you progress through the game you unlock facial camouflage that mimic characters from the game one of them being snake in his younger years. It’s the little tricks like that which make the game memorable, obviously the developers knew the hardcore Metal Gear fans wanted to see the Snake they knew and loved so with the camo equipped that’s the look they get. Another strange little addition is an iPod which can be used while you play to hear podcast segments and music tracks from previous MGS and Konami games. I’ve always said a portable music player like that would be more at home in a Grand Theft Auto game but so far Rockstar haven’t implemented such a gadget.

For playability it scores top marks because you really do feel like not only are you a part of something big but that you yourself are the one determining how it all plays out in the grand scale of things. It is a very in depth story and at times the video cut scenes can be a little overwhelming but there is never any rush in a mission so you can take it all at your own pace. The emphasis on all MGS games is stealth, Snake as the name suggests is a sneaky slippery character who uses his terrain and equipment to infiltrate enemy areas and strongholds.

To aid Snake in his slipperiness he is decked out in the latest sneaking suit which not only masks the sounds of heavy footsteps but can adapt to the environment by mimicking textures such as grass and concrete. Another new feature is the solid eye, a state of the art eye patch that gives the wearer night vision capabilities/radar and an enhanced view of Snakes surroundings. Along the way he encounters enemy troops and all manner of super soldiers or bosses, sometimes cunning is not always the only way to do it, but when heavy firepower is needed there is no shortage.

One of the main characters in the game is an arms dealer named Drebin, he and his creepy monkey (he has a monkey that wears silver pants, smokes and drinks soda) are tied in with you as you go through the game. Guns and ammunition can all be bought off of Drebin at any time by simply going to the pause screen and navigating through the generous list of hardware. Depending on your play style you may only ever use a standard pistol and combat knife but should you chose to there are a number of rifles/sub machine guns/rocket launchers and much much more, all of which can be modified with things like silencers/grips and scopes.

I always go for Snakes standard gear which basically means a silenced pistol and combat knife, sometimes just using a tranquilizer gun seems to do the trick better but then like I said it all depends on your intended playing style. You could just buy the biggest and baddest guns and blast your way through the game but you would be missing out on the games intended pace and style, jumping out of the shadows to grab an enemy soldier by the throat never gets old. Whether of course you knock them out of go for the jugular, its still all up to the player.

I enjoyed my time going back through the game and I was surprised how much of the story and gameplay I’d forgotten. In a way its a good thing because it helped see the game all over again just like it was the first time around. There is a lot of incentive to go back and replay the game again as you can stack save data which means items and weapons you unlock carry over to a new game. I came away from the game with eight trophies in total but at the end of the day the real prize was experiencing the action and excitement again. The only bad thing I can say about the game is some of the cut scenes can be heavy going to the point where you forget you are playing a game. I like my games to be 90% real time playability and the rest to be taken up by video, MGS4 doesn’t just blur the line it completely decimates it.

If you enjoy long cut scenes or just prefer to press “skip” then all of that shouldn’t be too much a problem, though at times during a cut scene you have a limited amount of seconds to press a button to glimpse a flashback from one of the older games. I found out afterwards there is a trophy for missing none of them which goes back to why I don’t like it being heavy on cut scenes. Other than that its absolutely perfect and offers countless hours of fun and excitement. I’m giving Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots a 9 out of 10, I revisited the game because of trophy support but in the end got something a whole lot better.

Saints Row The Third [PS3 & 360]

Steel Port for the taking! welcome back to Steel Port the home and city wide stronghold of the Saints. In Saints Row 2 the gang successfully annihilated their enemies that came in the form of gangs and police, with all of their rivals out of the way they have become superstars to the people of the city. Think sponsored energy drinks, clothing and jewellery lines and you have the picture. Right from the get go you find yourself in the middle of a bank robbery that goes wrong and you have to regain your image and power from an international  crime gang known as the Syndicate. Much like GTA and Scarface the story concentrates on your characters rise to power while of course all the chips are stacked against them.

Saints Row and Saints Row 2 offered huge expansive maps that gave the gamer a virtual playground to explore and a city full of inhabitants to terrorize, this latest chapter of the series follows the same formula except right away I noticed some changes. Terrorizing the public is actually encouraged and there are a number of stunts and tricks involving unsuspecting members of the public that will boost your experience points and respect on the street. It' starts off small like streaking through crowds of people but then elevates into various types of assault and hooliganism. That’s not to say its not fun! it’s all there for a reason and it can be a lot of fun driving the AI crazy.

Saints Row The Third is about a lot more than just mere pranks, after all the city needs to be reclaimed and its up to you to do it. As the leader of the Saints you are given a jaw dropping arsenal of weaponry and tools to get the job done. Strangely enough the developers decided to give players a lot of the high end gear early into the game instead of making you really work for it. In most games that would affect the games lifespan but not here, even when you do get a ridiculously powerful assault rifle or machine gun you can always upgrade it later when you have enough cash on hand. If you don’t want to use the obvious firearms stash you can go for something a bit more unique like a dildo, a chainsaw or if you don’t care about collateral damage a fully functional reaper drone unit – this rains down explosive damage on anyone or anything unlucky enough to be within range.

As with most sandbox games vehicles and cars play a big part in the game, obviously because without them getting around such a huge open world would take too long and kill the pace of the game. There are all manner of vehicles all over the gaming world and jacking them has never been as much fun, see a police car you want and with a few button pushes you will be kicking your way through the windscreen and sitting in the drivers seat in no time at all. The vehicles control better than they ever have in any SR game before, each car or truck etc moves and reacts as you would image it would, weight and speed are all carefully taken into consideration. If you don’t feel like using a set of wheels you can always go for air travel, there are plenty of planes and helicopters around just waiting to be stolen and as the game progresses all manner of futuristic jets and bikes start to show up.

The city itself is not as impressive as I’d hoped for, it looks good and a lot of the buildings are interactive serving as safe houses and stores but its a very flat location that really needed something other than skyscrapers and rows of houses, I get that Steel Port is that kind of town but something more bumpy or out of the way really would have enhanced the game. Instead you are seeing a stream of endless buildings and stores. The stores are there for a reason though, you can fully customize your character in all manner of outfits and trinkets available to the player, don’t have the cash for it? rob the store next door then speed off ..lose the pursuing cops and return to make your purchase. The shops were always one of the strong points of the game for me, what girl doesn’t love trying on an endless amount of clothes and jewellery even if its virtual? from suits and dresses to furry cat suits and dominatrix outfits SR3 has it all. It doesn’t just end there, you can ink your character up with tattoos and go for a little cosmetic surgery should the mood take you.

It’s easy to take a step back from a game like this and not play it on the grounds that it might be a little too crazy but if anything the game plays to suit your style, you don’t have to run around the streets beating someone to a bloody pulp with a dildo, you don’t have to surf a cop car naked ..but its fun if you decide to do it!. And that’s what SR3 delivers in the bucket loads, its ball outs unadulterated over the top fun that never really gets old. There may not be a lot to see in Steel Port as like I mentioned its kind of bland but there is a lot to do, pretty much every aspect of your character can be upgraded or modified. You can have plastic surgery at any time to change the look of your character, if you connect to the online community you can then download premade characters from other players. You can mod your cars with the obvious enhancements like rims/tinted glass and then there is the less obvious like armour and nitros. As you gain experience in the game you can spend your points on unlocking physical abilities like better strength/running/fighting styles and so on making it easier to dominate the streets.

If you don’t want to go it alone SR3 offers one  of the best and most fun co-op modes I’ve ever seen in a game. You can jump into a friends game and carry out random acts of insanity or violence like the good lord intended or you can help each other out in missions and mini games as maybe the developers intended?. Whatever your choice of action the co-op really stretches the lifespan and adds hours of playability to the game. I used the co-op quite a lot and never ran into any issues or glitches on either side of the connection.

SR3 is also one of the best games for DLC with extra content seemingly flowing from the developers on what feels like a monthly basis. I’ve bought most of the first wave and it really did add  lot to a game that in my eyes already had everything. The DLC scenarios are just as wacky and zany as the main game, in the main game its all about your rise to power while the DLC is all about having a blast.

Visually the game looks quite lush, its not the most stunning game out there but it does have a nice modern look and feel to it, compared to the first two SR games its a huge improvement. The sound isn’t bad, everything sounds like it should from engine revs to clips of various handguns and rifles being unloaded. The music in the game is solid and features bands like The Deftones/Amon Amarth/Otep/Mastadon/Job for a Cowboy ..but who are they? Metal. If you want something a little less brutal there is always Feeder/Motley Crue/run DMC and Bush to name a few, whatever your taste its got a great selection.

I find it very hard to say anything negative about SR3 because there is just so much in the game and everything seems to go together perfectly, it provided me hours of non stop fun and it seemed to go from strength to strength as the story progressed. The missions didn’t feel too repetitive but maybe could have done with being a little more challenging. There are gang members from the various factions you’ll face on most street corners and even something as simple as fighting to take back turf is enjoyable and doesn’t get old when you consider the different ways to dispose of them.

You don’t have to be looking for a filler before Grand Theft Auto 5 to buy Saints Row The Third, its one of the best sandbox titles available to date and for the price offers almost twice as much gaming content than anything else in the same category. I’d highly recommend the various DLC packs too,  they aren’t too expensive and add some fun extras to the experience. It’s easy to peg SR3 as just another GTA clone laced with immaturity and pranks but its a lot more than that, underneath all the craziness its a solidly built game with more than enough missions/collectibles and mini games to meet the demands of any gamer. I’m giving Saints Row the Third a well deserved 9 out of 10 – its losing marks for the rather flat landscape, but other than that its perfect.

Playing Catch Up: Gaming [ps3]

I have been ridiculously busy over the last few months (year?) and haven’t posted since February. I’ve been working on countless shows and gigs shooting all kinds of bands and events all over Dublin and elsewhere. As for gaming the summer has made it take a serious backseat but with the coming winter months down the line I’ll be getting back into gaming soon. And because as everybody knows the games companies always try to flaunt and flog their biggest titles for Christmas I’ll be adding a bunch more titles to my collection. 

I’m looking at the list of games I’ve reviewed versus those that I’ve actually played and so far the ones that have been played and lack a review would be the following:

Batman Arkham City
Assassins Creed Revelations
The Sims 3 Pets
Battlefield 3
Modern Warfare 3
Skyrim
SAW 2
SSX
Saints Row  The Third
Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare
Fallout New Vegas: Old World Blues / Honest Hearts / Lonesome Road

Along with those I should be buying the following when they are released and reviews should hopefully follow:

Grand Theft Auto 5
Borderlands 2
Hitman Absolution
Aliens Colonial Marines
Assassins Creed 3
Far Cry 3
Metro: Last Light
Sniper 2: Ghost Warrior

Modern Warfare 3: first day impression

Another big game gets released and as a first day buy I thought I’d write yet another first impression, again this is not a review as that will come later. Most people seem to gravitate to either BF3 or MW3, it usually ends up in you either love one and hate the other. After playing both all the way through the campaign and through the multiplayer I have to say I do recommend both games but for different reasons – in a nutshell BF3 has the better multiplayer and MW3 has the better single player campaign. Popping on MW3 today I wasn’t at all surprised to see an almost identical start and menu screen to the previous modern warfare title, giving it the benefit of the doubt I went right in and started the campaign.

The game continues right after where MW2 left off, and to be honest I didn’t really like the first few missions because they were trying too hard to shock and awe me with all kinds of over the top scripted events. It’s fine to have one or two in there but having so many in one mission just makes it too unbelievable to think you really could do what was being done on screen, the rest of the campaign does have similar events but they are a bit more believable and for a Call of Duty game that’s saying a lot. The controls handled very well and I saw no real differences between them and what was used in the previous games, even if you aren’t familiar with the game the controls are easy to pick up. The weapons handled pretty well and looked realistic but firing an RPG didn’t feel right, my character barely flinched as it rocketed away.

In past Call of Duty games I never felt too engrossed in the story or in the characters but this time I found I was paying a lot more attention to the characters and really liked how they dealt with the story. While the first few missions are based in the States the next remaining batch are dotted around locations such as London, Somalia, Germany, Paris and Prague, maybe I found it easier to relate to the game because I felt closer to the European cites portrayed in the game than in the States. As for the maps themselves and the overall design I was very impressed, familiar cities of the world looked brilliant and I noticed it was less closed than I expected. Instead of just having to run through a street in a straight line it gave me the choice to cut through buildings or shops, I liked that they put all of that in and it helped keep the game more interesting and certainly less linear.

The multiplayer is the main reason a lot of people will buy MW3 and given its popularity between both casual and hardcore gamers I can see why. I’ll admit that having played the multiplayer online for a few hours I do enjoy BF3’s multiplayer more, it’s simple really MW3’s is more of an arcade shooter laden with perks and bonuses while BF3’s is more gritty and has a more urgent sense of realism to it. There is no shortage of guns and equipment in MW3 online, I started off with a fairly standard pistol and submachine gun and had no problems gunning down players unlucky enough to cross my patch. The perks are all back as are the missile strikes and attack helicopters, I didn’t much care for these in MW2 but it didn’t spoil my most recent experience.

There was a lack of campers and that definitely helped keep me playing, even random running and gunning seemed to be few and far between. The maps were ok but I only played 5 or 6 of them and I’m sure there are still a lot more to see. All in all the online multiplayer hasn’t really changed that much but it’s changed enough to keep fans of the series busy and happy. Spec Ops mode was the main reason I bought the game because I enjoy having the option to play offline in split screen, again this didn’t disappoint. The missions in Spec Ops are fun and there is a new survival more that I enjoyed, it’s early days yet but I’m sure I’ll like the rest of the content Spec Ops have to offer. So the main question would be is Modern Warfare 3 worth the price tag? As a first day buy and as a first impression I’d have to say yes, fans of the series will love it and I’m really looking forward to reviewing it soon.

Rage: game review (ps3/360/pc)

When the makers of the iconic Doom and Quake series set their sights on a modern day shooter they may have set them a little too high because while Rage has its good elements the main problem is it looks too good ..or at least it’s supposed to, the truth is a little more colourful. It’s extremely rare a game will slant my opinion on it in such a short time and I never in million years thought Rage would be the one to do it but my initial response to the game was that of surprise and not in a good way. Rage starts like many shooters in a post-apocalyptic world where you as a survivor must do what you can to make the world a better place, by that I mean shoot and blast your way through the hordes of scavengers and bandits that rule the wastelands with mad max like brutality.

The reason this time for the earth being such a mess is an asteroid has impacted and changed life as we know it, the remaining people who are left over are either organized gangs of bandits and mutants or regular people trying to make a life for themselves, you on the other hand have been secretly stashed away in an underground bunker as a sort of failsafe or last chance for the earth but the life support system has malfunctioned and the rest of your comrades have all died. The world of Rage is brutal and just as you emerge from the bunker you are immediately set upon by wastelander bandits, saved by a stranger you then have to repay him by doing little odd jobs around the area and that to me is the whole game a series of odd jobs that don’t really pertain to the furthering of any cause or even story because while Rage doesn’t lack much on the shooter side it seriously lacks a proper story or sense of progression.

Before Rage was released I keenly followed many stories and articles about how it would play and above all how it would look, many sites and magazines talked about the super textures it would feature making it one of the most advanced and realistic looking games on the market. I’d heard a lot about the textures and did expect a very lush looking and vibrant game, while the character animations do look fantastic and very life like the game itself suffers from the worst popin I have ever seen and probably ever will. The popin I’m referring to is a constant shift of focus and clarity when your character moves or looks from one direction to the next, while most games have a certain amount of popin Rage goes above and beyond the call of duty. The first thing I saw in the game and it looks stunning was the sky ..it would since it unlike the textures is just painted in but once I looked from one corner of the screen to the next it took about five seconds for the graphics to load up properly so all I saw was a blurry patch of ground or wall. While you would expect it’s a temporary thing it really isn’t and lasts the whole way through the game never even letting up for a second, the reason is simple current game consoles can’t handle super textures because the internal readers are not fast enough so naturally Rage suffers – I’d not call it a game breaker but at the same time the popin was so bad I felt the need to quit many times. Soldiering on through the game it took about three hours of playing until I felt immersed enough to making a difference. Given the game had such a huge install file with mind numbingly bad popin it did have some redeeming features so I do think it deserves a review and if like me you do give it a chance you might just like what you find.

So what makes Rage different than other similarly styled shooters, it’s a mixed bag really while it does have the usual fire and forget simplicity there are some interesting things that Rage does better than its rivals. Rage plays like a mix of Borderlands and Fallout, the gaming map is not huge and sadly even if you do find something to explore you really won’t find anything off of the beaten track which is a shame because the game comes across as an open world shooter when really it’s not. You can jump into vehicles made from beat up scrap metal and that will get you around faster but if anything it hammers home the fact that the world is restricted in its size, there are of course some plus sides to being able to use vehicles. Available in the game are a series of races which can be done once you have the appropriate vehicles and mods, that’s right you can modify your vehicles to make them more resistant to damage/faster/and even kit them out with guns and missiles and while all that sounds like fun it can be until you realize the actual races are a piece of cake to complete.

Perhaps the developers were trying to make the racing segments accessible to everyone but what they did was make it much too simple to pose an actual challenge and I would have completed them all if not for the game doing something really annoying which I’m about to address. I can name a few games which close certain aspects or mini games once you reach a certain part of the story but the scale Rage does it is unacceptable. Near the end of the game and without warning games like racing get closed down so you can’t compete in them anymore and if you were after 100% game completion you will have no choice but to replay the whole game again, while that might not sound like a big deal I found plenty of trophies/achievements were unattainable for that very reason. The mini games when playable can actually be a lot of fun, featured is Tombstone (a sort of digital chess with lashings of violence) 5 finger filet (think bishop in Aliens with the knife on the table and you got it) Strum (a miniature version of Guitar Hero) and one of my favourites a card game which relies not only on skill but on you to find and collect the many game cards hidden all over the game. While these mini games can serve as a distraction from the main game the missions themselves are so repetitive and uninspiring that there really isn’t a lot to be distracted from in the first place.

From start to finish the only mission that really stood out for me involved being a contestant in a game show where your very life was at stake, you win cash by staying alive and getting kills but with hordes of mutants trying to stop you it’s not easy. There are of course other missions that show a glimmer of hope but I found the more I tried to enjoy the action the more something else would crop up making me feel like I was accomplishing nothing and if I was no one cared. While there are some interesting characters expertly voiced the story seems to go nowhere and when I did feel a change of pace it turned out the game was over with one of the shortest and most abrupt endings I have ever seen. Even with the extra missions offered from random characters and from notice boards the lifespan of the game is far too short to make a serious ripple compared to other games that offer a similar campaign but more diverse multiplayer, Rage does have a multiplayer but again it’s limited because its mainly all about driving around shooting the competition so don’t expect the usual run and gun deathmatch fiasco because it’s not there.

Like many shooters you will find to progress you need better guns and ammunition and Rage doesn’t let you down here because not only can you acquire all manner of guns you can also build and modify gadgets that can be used to exploit the enemies weakness or simply kill them. By doing jobs you earn money but you also find money on downed enemies or hidden across the game map, the money can then be used to purchase guns/etc but better than guns were some of the various gadgets you can build such as explosive radio controlled cars/gun turrets and little robots that follow you around blasting everything in your way. It’s these little gadgets that make the game different than other shooters but for the traditional shooter fan there are plenty of rifles and machine guns to keep even the most frag happy busy throughout the game – budding robin hoods will also find the crossbow very useful. The bandits and thugs you face do make up a big part of the game and there has been a lot of thought and work put into keeping them rather unique and interesting, the ones that stood out for me were a group of Russians who were obsessed with technology so they had all kinds of traps and weapons at the ready. Something Rage implements well is the reaction of an enemy when wounded or shot, some are very fast and will dodge or jump out of the way when you attack but when you do hit them they stumble or grasp the wound in the way you would expect if it were real life.

Other than the human element you also come across mutants throughout various areas of the map and while most of them only take a few shots there are some that merit the extra special attention that only a whole bag of ammo and a rocket launcher can deliver. I expected the game would have a nice healthy amount of bosses and super enemies that would really bring the game into its own but I counted a very small few and even the ones I did meet were easily defeated in no time at all, I could have sworn I’d seen clips of bosses that were never put into the finished game and given how bad the popin was I’m not surprised. Rage at its core tries to be an excellent game offering a unique experience but the closer I looked the more I saw that held it back from greatness, there is a certain degree of unfinished product that radiates from Rage that probably wouldn’t have been so obvious if the game hadn’t been so hyped up in the first place.

Painfully numbing popin aside Rage does look visually near perfect to anything else on the market, the physics engine works brilliantly and given how demanding the visuals actually are it’s the little things like water and dust that really make your jaw drop. Racing along through the wasteland in a beat up wreak of a car with dust and debris flying is an enjoyable experience, the terrain when properly visible does look astounding and even the cut scenes are beautifully rendered to the point where you forget you are playing a game until of course you step out of the car and start going through the game on foot again and notice the sharpness and clarity popping in and out. The world of Rage is less laid back than it feels, the people who you think you are helping or are helping you have a real knack of lulling you into a false sense of security but once you leave the safe zones you are back in bandit country and they will make your stay there very short if they spot you. The game environments both inside and out are highly detailed and give you a lot to look at, there is a real sense of thoughtful construction in many of the buildings and complexes I just wish I could have viewed them without graphical errors. The main things I liked about the game were the complex character movements/model animation and the ability to upgrade all of your weapons and gadgets. As a traditional shooter Rage works perfectly but it’s not and the developers made no secret of trying to embed a story with added desperation so once you did get into it you expect a lot more especially from the ending, it’s a lot of fun shooting down whatever tries to kill you but garnishing it all with a story that goes nowhere ruins the flow and leaves the player feeling cheated.

I tried very hard to like Rage and as a shooter alone it did satisfy, my biggest advice would be to play the game and ignore what little story is there that way when nothing gets resolved you will feel less cheated. I did however like how the weapons handled and loved how powerful and solid they felt, every impact is reacted to and you can sense the carnage you are dishing out. There is a nice escalation of difficulty between the different enemies and you will find you have to adapt and become creative with combat manoeuvres in order to not get overwhelmed by the attacking forces ahead and around you. Having gadgets and creating gadgets is something that I felt made a big part of the game especially when I got to the last few missions, deploying sentry turrets and bots definitely saved my skin more than once. The rate at which enemies will adapt and avoid your bullets is truly frightening, not only will they duck or leap out of the way they will dart up and across the ceiling scaling their way either to safety or right up next to you ready to pounce with the deadly precision of a king cobra. Car mode in the multiplayer can have its fun moments but I really would have preferred some maps on foot with the possibility of death match or capture the flag, given the developers history with games like Doom and Quake you would not expect that to be too much of a tall order. What they did do however was include a co-op mode which although doesn’t pertain to the actual campaign mode itself it does let two players stand together in a battle to get the most kills, it’s a diversion but not much of one because it gets old quick.

Rage tells me a lot about the developers of the game, they avoid a strong story element and instead opt for a heavy handed shooting experience that while a lot of fun is too brief. The game controls well and the mechanics are solid and feel like they do what you want them to do but I seriously doubt they tested the game and if they did its unacceptable to ship it knowing the popin was so bad , some people suggested it would work if the popin was patched but as part of the games core it can’t be patched without gutting the engine and rebuilding it from scratch. The characters and people you meet along the way are realistic and help give the game a heightened sense of reality but at the end of the day none of them do or say anything too memorable meaning you will forget it all very quickly. It may have won a whole host of awards at shows like E3 but I feel it was unfinished and lacking depth in the story department, you may argue that shooters don’t need stories but you can tell they were trying to implement one at the start and when they reached the middle they just gave up leaving the player unsatisfied and wanting. Rage could have been one of my favourite games of the year but it has too many problems that can’t be fixed with a simple patch so I’m giving Rage a 6 out of 10. I’d not recommend it for retail but it’s definitely worth a rental, think Mad Max mixed with Borderlands ..a side helping of Fallout all served up on a bed of Doomsday and you have Rage.

Battlefield 3: day one on the frontline

This is not a review for Bf3 so don’t expect my usual high polished professionalism and attention to detail (really don’t), there will of course be a review soon enough – this is simply a brief description of what I experienced on my first day playing one of the most anticipated games of all time. Firstly I heard a lot of negative remarks about the single player campaign so I honestly didn’t expect a lot right there ..wrong. the campaign is actually very good and does tend to draw you in very quickly. The first few missions were kind of mediocre but after about an hour into the campaign it got very fast paced and very involved. The visuals in the campaign were absolutely stunning, the lighting and smoke effects were jaw dropping.

A perfect example was one of the levels set at night where I could see enemy flashlights ahead piercing through the smoke and darkness, it was hard to snap to action when the visuals demanded so much attention. The friendly AI is for the most part pretty good and they don’t seem to hog the spotlight too much leaving you with nothing to shoot. the enemy AI can be quite brutal at times but I find many shooters to be brutal until you learn the basics. The missions did seem a little linear with a lot of scripted events but it was never enough to make me complain. In short the single player campaign is not half as bad as some reviewers have previously stated, linear or not its a whole lot of fun packed full of heart pounding moments and fire fights.

Ok onto the multiplayer, the reason why many people will get the game in the first place. Guns and lots of guns! there is no shortage of weaponry in BF3, anything I used from rifles to handguns all looked and sounded very authentic with a lot of upgrades to unlock. The first time I tried the online I got blown to bits after about one minute, I quickly respawned and jumped back in to see what would happen next. Looking around the main staging area I was treated to having the option of jumping into a jet / tank and even a little jeep, naturally my curiosity got the best of me so I climbed right into the pilot seat of the first thing I saw with wings. Staying in the air was not an easy task, I stayed airborne for a minute or two but inevitably lost control and crashed into the ground. The controls for aircraft are straightforward enough but keeping them in the air is a whole other story, this was to be expected and I’m glad they didn’t simplify it for the sake of reaching a bigger audience – if you do screw up you can always parachute to safety.

Anything on wheels was easy to drive and I found tanks especially were fast and strong enough to push forward without too much flack. The maps for the game were absolutely brilliant with so many buildings and areas that the possibilities for strategic combat were pretty much limitless. I found the first few times I played with random people it was much harder to gain any ground or get kills, when I joined a match with some friends that all changed. Given the maps are so large you can of course go and do your own thing lone wolf style but if you want to last longer sticking to your squad and working as a team is the way to go. Like I said this is just a brief  summary of my first play and though brief I’d already recommend it as the best shooter I have ever played – full review coming soon.