Game Reviews

Sniper: Ghost Warrior

Written by lukavelic
Tuesday, 31 August 2010 07:41

Developer: City Interactive
Publisher: City Interactive
Platform: Windows, Xbox 360

Release date:

NA June 29, 2010
EU June 24, 2010

Genre: First-person shooter
Modes: Singleplayer, Multiplayer

Rating: ESRB - M

Platform reviewed: Windows

Graphic settings used: High

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Introduction:

Sniper: Ghost Warrior is a low budget FPS for the Xbox 360 and PC developed and published by City Interactive. It was released on June 24, 2010 for the PC and June 29, 2010 for the Xbox 360. The game is based around the roll of a highly skilled military sniper who is sent into the fictional country of Isla Trueno in an attempt to help the rebels fight against the force who has overthrown their government. It's a pretty familiar scenario from cheap Hollywood movies...

The good:

Graphics:

Overall graphics are pretty good for a low budget title like this. Vegetation has been done really nice and it is effected with wind and rain. It adds so much to the gameplay. Weapons are pretty detailed, although not as a AAA title like MW2 and BC2. Rough edges on vehicles and pixelated shadows, on the other hand, take away the feel of realism and could've used a bit more polishing before launching the game.

Sniping:

The main thing in this game is sniping, as you can see from the title and introduction. And damn, it is great. The bullet is affected with gravity, wind and supposedly, Earth's rotation as it said in the Training mission (but I doubt it). There is also bullet penetration through objects and humans. But put that all aside, the best thing about sniping is... Bullet cam! Yes, they included it and done it great. For almost every headshot you get, you activate the bullet cam where you can see the bullet coming out from the barrel and traveling to the victims head, all in really smooth slow-mo. Another nice features is, if you can't handle all that factors you can choose the Easy difficulty and have red dot telling you where the bullet will go.

The bad:

Artificial Intelligence (AI):

For the most, this is a game breaker in this game. Enemy's and friendly's are like headless chicken. They are running around shooting without ever taking cover. A lot of the times they get stuck and block your path so you can't finish the mission without restarting and hoping they won't do it again. Ruins the game completely.

It says it's a sniper game!:

A 3rd of the game is just run n' gunning where you are given the role of a soldier with an M4. Unlike the sniper part, this one is terrible. I had a lot of trouble killing anyone with the stupid automatic rifle. It appears that it doesn't even shoot straight. I shot guys directly in their chest and it didn't register a hit, in fact, the bullet went like 3 feet left of them... ADS loses it's purpose when it is almost the same like hip firing.

Physics:

The vegetation physics are good, but human... awful. When you get a guy with a .50 cal, sometimes he just falls to the ground like his brain shut down and sometimes he flies away like he was hit by a truck going 80MPH...

Facial expressions and details:

Characters here talk like robots with their mouth always doing the same, up/down motion. Also, everyone's face is the same, you can't make difference between characters by their face, but by their gun (sniper/m4)...

Story:

Seen 100 times in movies and other games. You know the end when you're half way through the game. There is no that feeling from MW and MW2 which makes you play whole day just to find out what happens to someone.

Glitches:

There's a lot of them. You can walk through 1/3 of the trees in the game. There are places from where you can't get out all throughout the game. If you want to finish the game without replaying missions, you won't make it because of the glitches.

Final words:

This could've been a great title, but with it's glitches and stupid AI, the game becomes completely unplayable. It should've been delayed, now no patch can save it. Not worth your money. It's not even worth downloading. Only recommended to sniping addicts.

Scores:

Graphics: 8.0 - Vegetation has been done pretty good but with crappy shadows and vehicles, you lose the feel of realism.

Playability: 4.0 - Everyone who manages to finish the game with its glitches, stupid AI and everything else should be given a medal.

Re-Playability: 1.0 - Only sniper addicts will try to play it again.

Overall: 4.3 - Not a title I would recommend... Only for gamers that had multiple days of gameplay in Sniper Elite.

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Last Updated on Tuesday, 31 August 2010 07:41

MLB 10: The Show

Written by thebigb82
Monday, 30 August 2010 13:59

Game Title: MLB 10: The Show

Release Date: 02/03/10 North America Only

Developer: SCE San Diego Studio

Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment America

Genre: Sports/Baseball Sim

Platforms: Playstation 2 Entertainment System, Playstation 3 Entertainment System, Playstation Portable

Install Required 5gig

Trophy Information: 2 Hidden, 27 Bronze, 11 Sliver, 3 Gold, 1 Platinum

Players: 1 – 2

“Batter, up!”

MLB 10: The Show is the fifth instalment of the long running playstation baseball series. There are several modes to choose from, mostly standard for sports games, single game, and franchise. However, there are addition modes to this game, Road to the show, which I will go into later and the Home Run Derby.

The game itself looks and feels like a real baseball sim, the baseball players from the MLB teams look like real life counter parts, the stadiums are wonderfully re-created to look like their real, only downside is the crowd, when you hit a foul ball you notice that there several reused sprites, a whole. There is plus sides though, the fans will get up and try to catch home run balls and sometime you get a comical view of some of them falling out of their seats trying to reach for a grounded foul ball. The player animations are brilliantly done, fielders will dive and make stops and outfielders climb the wall to attempt to rob a home run. Even the batter animations are done well, like if you swing at a questionable pitch, your batter will walk away like he is muttering to himself “Why did I swing for that”

In addition, when you are playing a night game, the sun slowly sets and you can see the shadows across the pitch, it looks good. Even afternoon games as it gets later shadows start too crept in. This adds to the feel that you are in the game for the long haul, it’s a nice touch.

The presentation of the game is good too; however, it does seem that the commentary team have not had any new lines in 3 years. I am still hearing them repeat stuff from MLB 08 and they also do not seem to update their stats, they will not tell you who won the last World Series past the ’09 season, which is a shame considering it is a sports game.

There are some new additions this year, the return of the Home Run Derby and also the addition of the Futures Game to the All Star Weekend experience. The Home Derby its self is much like it is in real life, you can control one or all of the 8 players and the highest amount of home runs go through and so on till a winner is found.

The Franchise mode is easy to player; you can choose your favourite Ball club and lead them to World Series glory. You can either take control of your team in their matches or manage them in the manager mode and let the AI duke it out.

The main part of the game has to be the Road to the Show, there have been some new additions to this year title, including a pitcher warm-up and training modes and a new Catcher mode, which allows you to call the match from behind the plate. This is a good addition in practice but it can get boring.

You start of in the minors, you can either choose your club or go through the draft, the later is not the complete draft, so do not worry about sitting there waiting for your name to be called. You will then be placed in the AA affiliate for your club and you have to work your way up the ranks, from bench warmer to starter to superstar to hall of framer. Points are awarded to you for doing well in a game, hitting a home run, stealing bases, double etc. but you will be punished for silly mistakes. Also, if you decide to go off, steal bases without permission, and keep failing, expect to be sitting on the bench. There are some issues with the manager punishments; I had experience where the third base coach said steal second base, which I failed to finish the game to find the manager had put me on the pine for stealing without permission.

There is an multiplayer element to this game (unfortunately as I imported it I can’t play mp, don’t know why) but from what I can tell there are online leagues and challenges, 1 on 1 games, the normal assortment for online mp on a sports game.

In Closing

MLB 10 is a brilliant game; it re-presents the world of baseball well. There are some minor issues, like the commentary team not having any new lines, but those are only minor issues compared to whole game. Graphically its not pushing the limits of the PS3, so this is not an Uncharted 2 style graphical marvel but it is a great looking baseball game.

Of course as baseball games go, even with it’s graphically tweaks, its still the same game it was a few years ago. For MLB 11, SCEA will really need to push out the boat to keep in front of the MLB 2k series.

Scores

Graphics 7.5 – Wonderful shadow effects, good player animations and real life baseball players from the major leagues.

Presentation 7 – Good stat overlay’s and good live game day experience, only lacking newer lines on the commentary and previous history from season’s past

Sound 8 – Fantastic sound, stadium effects and crowd chanting.

Playability 8 – Can be picked up and played by anyone, there is a practice mode to help your batting skills, so all round easy to play

Re-Playability 7 – As with all sports games, it can get boring after a while, just hitting as ball game after game, it can be broken up with management but in truth you might put it down after a while.

Overall 7 – Good solid baseball game for any fan of the MLB, road to show is better this year so you can take your rookie to the heights of greatness. Might of scored higher in overall score if the commentary was updated.

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Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising

Written by thebigb82
Saturday, 28 August 2010 14:10

Game Title: Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising

Developer: Codemasters

Publisher: Codemasters

Game Engine: EGO Engine

Release Date: October 6th 2009 NA, October 8th 2009 EU

Genre: Tactical First Person Shooter

Platforms: Playstation 3 Entertainment System, 360 Entertainment System, PC

Platform Reviewed: Playstation 3

Install Data (PS3): 4.2 Gig space required

DLC: 2 available on PS Store and MS Market Place

Patch Information: Currently ver 1.02 is available

Trophy Information: 14 Bronze, 19 Silver, 3 Gold, 1 Platinum

“As close to war as you ever want to get”

That is the tag line on the back of the box, it plainly describes what you are going to get with Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising hereby shortened to OF:DR.

OF:DR puts you in the shoes to two squad commanders in a War with the Chinese PLA, one is a Spec Ops team called Saber 2 under the command of Lt Mulholland and Dagger 1 Bravo under the command of Sgt Hunter.

It gives you two different perspectives of the conflict on the fictional island of Skira, it allows you to first be put behind enemy lines, on a smaller island first then as the Dagger team a full-scale invasion of the main island.

The Island itself is a massive 200km island, with every little detail put in, however when the game was released you could not explore the island outside of your mission, you could wander but you would be miles form your mission and you would fail, Codemasters later added a DLC which gave you Island Explorer.

There are some issues with the PS3 version, graphically it’s inferior to the 360, with one being the grass, on the 360 it’s lush and realistic on the PS3 it looks like a PS1 game, which is somewhat shocking considering the engine this game was made on was in-fact jointly made between Sony and Codemasters. There are some other graphical differences between the two platforms; some like the grass clearly stand out.

That does not take away from the game in anyway, while the grass looks terrible the rest of the graphical detail is perfect. Like the invasion mission as Dagger 1 Bravo, it looks wonderfully detailed.

The game is very tactical, meaning, you just cannot run down a hillside all guns blazing and expect to win. You need to think before you move, scoping out the area, this game really makes you think as the commander.

The realism doesn’t stop there, the gun’s in OF:DR have an firing arc, not like the COD games where a bullet will travel in a straight line, on OF:DR you need to aim and aim well, because the PLA are deadly accurate.

The controls do take some time to get used to, you have a command screen, which branches out to even more commands, and it can get to be a hassle when all you want them to do is move to a house and lay down suppressive fire on a PLA MG nest. This side of OF:DR is a curse as it is a blessing, you want to have full command but it could have been made a lot simplier by borrowing from Rainbow Six or Brothers in Arms.

The guns themselves also have selective fire, to make it more realistic also it helps save on ammo, there are gun caches dotted around the map to help you. However, it’s finding them, you will most likely end up using a downed PLA soldier’s weapon, which ammo always seems to be around.

Back to your squad, on the lower difficulty settings at a checkpoint, your team come back to life, but on hardcore, they do not. Meaning you will have to ensure their alive and well with the limited medical kits you have. Unless you want to be Rambo and finish it on your own, which on some missions is near on impossible. This adds to the team element of the game and the motto “No Man gets left behind” springs to mind.

Multiplayer

There is a full multiplayer on OF:DR but it is very lacking in its content, it takes elements from the single player. Therefore, its squads against squads, but with it only limited to 8 players and in an ideal world 4 v 4 it gets tiresome.

Meaning you can fight an whole MP match and never see another person, the AI bots whom are on the map tend to stay put and never move unless ordered to by the overall commander, you can play it like a chess game in theory but the MP of OF:DR is very poor at best.

There are some plus points, on the vehicle maps, the vehicles have limited ammo, meaning they run out. Not like BF:BC2 where you can be spawn raped by Helicopter, on this game, the helicopter can spawn rape you but it cannot do it forever.

The main aspect of the OF:DR MP experience is found in the Co-op mode, you can do the whole single player mode with 3 other people or you can do some co-op maps against the PLA or you can as I said go on a jolly around Skira.

The Co-op as I said is the main selling point of the Multiplayer experience, you will get bored very easily with the AI bots and the limited 8 player online. Whereas the co-op gives you an chance to do those annoying missions in the single player with a buddy or do the co-op missions that are pre-set.

In Closing

OF:DR is a pure tactical shooter and by all purposes, it deals with realism while other tactical shooters work on team work alone. OF:DR has a very limited Multiplayer for a game of its size, which in truth is disappointing. Codemasters should of made it smaller maps with no AI Bots and 12 to 16 players. It’s sad that it was limited to 8 but the co-op does make up for it in some way.

If you like to be in full command of a squad of players who will follow your orders without question and want a realistic shooter to go along side the arcade shooters of COD and BF then is game should be top of you list.

Scores

Graphics: 7.5 – Does look wonderful in places, but with the grass looking like it came from the PS1 era its quite shocking. Overall, the graphics are terrible but could be better.

Playability: 7.5 – Can be confusing to people who never played a tactical shooter and it does have a steep learning curve, the easier difficulties are more forgiving.

Re-Playability: 7 – It’s good to pick and play, but other time with a limited MP and only a few Co-op modes to choose form, you will quickly tire of it and move onto something else.

Overall: 7 – A very good game, it does justice to the Tactical First Person Shooter genre but when stacked up against its arcade competitors it’s deeply and sadly lacking.

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Last Updated on Monday, 30 August 2010 14:03

Resident Evil 5

Written by Illoominator
Sunday, 04 April 2010 15:32

Platform: PS3, XBOX 360, PC
Developer: Capcom
Online: Co-op + Competitive
Released: March 13 2009
Age rating: 18+

Many of you will know the Resident Evil series from earlier titles. Many regard the latest game as a disappointment and embarrassment to the series. Many see the game as a glorified action thriller. Many – including myself – however, have spent hours and hours sat on the sofa with a mate who lives God knows where, lining up the laser bang in the centre of the head of an infected, flesh-hungry ‘zombie’. So much bad rep for so much of an amazing game. And I’m going to tell you just why, if you haven’t already, you should buy this game.

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Last Updated on Sunday, 04 April 2010 15:35