Far Cry 2 (2008) - more fun.

Important safety tips:

1. Do not fire a RPG while standing in dry grass.  While watching the resultant destruction you will be caught in the brushfire.  
2. After creating explosions - for example in a roadblock - wait before charging in to mop up.  The heat will cook off ammunition crates.  This is handy unless you are caught in the explosion, then it is not so handy.
   
3. Far Cry 2 is one of the few games I have played where effective recon is handy during game play.  You have the tools, use them.
4. Remember, the night time is the right time...for destruction.

Not safety tips:

1. Running over gazelles with a Jeep does not cause damage to your vehicle.
   
2. Shooting zebras doesn't really do anything except waste ammo.
3. As far as I can tell there are no crocodiles or hippos in the water so don't be afraid to splash around.
4. Try to unlock as many of the safe houses as early as you can - some of them have pretty kick ass weapons laying around.

I'm enjoying what time I've had with the game.  I think I might actually have to pick this one up. 

Far Cry 2 (2008)

I was finally able to rent Far Cry 2 - oddly enough continuing my Ubisoft kick.  I've only put in a few hours but I have to say that I'm enjoying it.  Then again I have a soft spot for mercenaries, gun running, and Africa.  I also ran over a herd of gazelles with a truck.

I'm gonna get some more game time in before I have to return it.  I'll write more once I've gotten more game time in.

One cool thing about the game mechanics is fire.  Rather, setting things on fire.  I created a brushfire by lobbing a Molotov.  To my surprise the fire spread, a tree caught on fire, and I caught on fire while standing there staring like an idiot.  Neat.

Prince of Persia (2008)

The Prince of Persia series is a pretty good one but one that I quickly lost interest in because - frankly - I suck at platformers. The jumping and dodging involved usually gets me to a point where I can't make one jump and get frustrated and extend to the game my middle digit.

The current Prince of Persia was kind of a fluke. I rented it because Far Cry II wasn't on the shelf and I wanted something different to play. Prince is challenging but not punishing platformer, with a fairly decent story, and some stunning art design. All in all a good game. If you're the kind of person who only picks up a controller once a week then you'll be glad to know that Prince is forgiving. Yes, there's acrobatic derring-do but the controls are pretty simple and if you miss your jump then you're automatically brought back to life at the last piece of solid ground your character was standing on.

I was, and still am, impressed by the graphics and art design. The game is cel-shaded but not. That doesn't make sense but Prince doesn't have that paint by numbers look that earlier cel-shaded games had. Sweeping vistas, etc, etc, etc. There are one or two moments of vertigo as you sprint across beams and walls. Pretty neat actually.

I also really dug the characters. The Prince - standard vagabond rogue - and Princess - scrappy, no nonsense whose brains are in her head and not in her tits - are both solid characters. The voice acting sold me. The Prince had just the right amount of smary self-confidence disguising a painful past. The Princess had just the right amount of scrappy yet slightly vunerable but not storybook useless - she actually has a couple of sarcastic lines about princess stereotypes, "Yeah, gee, I don't know what I would do if you weren't here. Probably curl up in a corner and cry."

Prince of Persia is pretty short - I think I finished it in about fourteen (?) hours. I don't know if that's worth $60 but it's definitely worth renting or picking up for someone who takes their time with games.

Battlefield: Bad Company

Whatever your feelings are about EA Games they do make some polished quality games.
Battlefield: Bad Company is no exception. I've really been enjoying the online mode even though there aren't too many options for missions - i.e. Deathmatch, Conquest, etc. - but this doesn't bother me too much because more often than not I end up playing Team Deathmatch anyway.

How does B:BC compare with Call of Duty 4 and Rainbow Six Vegas 2? As far as story goes B:BC has the most enjoyable storyline. It's more along the lines of Kelly's Heroes than a Tom Clancy potboiler or other modern military mumbo "evil dictator has a nuke" jumbo. It's fun and I found myself laughing more often than I do during comedies. One of favorite lines so far has been,

Sweetwater: But that place is heavily guarded.
Haggard: Well we're heavily armed!

B:BC doesn't take its self too seriously and that allowed me to have fun even at a higher difficulty level. Playing isn't punishment or profanity inducing - okay it induces profanity but it's more along the lines of, "FUCK YEAH!" than "FUCK YOU!" Part of the fun is that things blow up real good. I've developed the habit of blasting holes in walls instead of using doors. Hey, it works. I've also learned the joy of ferreting out snipers by reducing cover to bits with a well placed mortar attack.

Game control is standard FPS controls. There's not much in the way of a cover system a la RS: Vegas but you don't really need one. COD4 needed that because the game was punishing.

I'm not saying B:BC is the end all be all for FPS but for a summer diversion it definitely fits the bill. Whatever problems I could have with B:BC can be remedied by playing the other FPS out there.

Rainbow Six Las Vegas 2, There Will Be Blood, and I'm not dead just working.

Apologies for the long delay in posting folks. Nothing too earth shattering to report lately. Just a lot of work and tooth pain.

Have two quick reviews:

Picked up Rainbow Six Las Vegas 2 and yes, Virginia, it is awesome. It is also hard as all get out even on the regular difficulty. I prefer this game over Call of Duty 4 but the combat is completely different. You can't charge the enemy apeshit in Vegas 2. For one -If you do you will blasted into little chunks of meat with scraps of fabric and hair stuck to them. For two - there's not a melee attack. The cover system is just my style and I like the shift from FPS to 3PS when you take cover. The graphics and the sound are awesome - especially on the new speakers. I like the level design - there's enough variation to keep things interesting. One gameplay factor I like is the fact that a second player can pick up and play either the story mode or "Terrorist Hunt" - track down and eliminate all the terrorists on the level. I haven't put it to the test yet but the next time me and the lads hang out and game I think we might give it a shot.

There Will Be Blood is one hell of a movie. In a way I am amazed that it's by the same guy who made Magnolia & Boogie Nights. There Will Be Blood is nearly Shakespearean in its scope. Daniel Day Lewis seems to have taken a new direction in his acting - that of the insufferable bastard - and it works. Apologies to sound cheezy but this movie plays like a meditation on the evil that men do - to themselves and others. Perfectly paced and stunningly filmed There Will Be Blood is a real movie - a real cinematic experience. Instead of some gruelling "War is bad." NPR totbag movie or some totally insipid rom-com or gornographic throw away There Will Be Blood nails you to your seat and keeps you there. A movie like this has renewed my faith in film. Now I just have to watch No Country for Old Men.

Assassin's Creed, Kane & Lynch: Dead Men, and Fresca.

After a good chunk of game time with Assassin's Creed and an another block of time with Kane & Lynch: Dead Men this weekend. When all is said and done I should have picked up Kane & Lynch.

Assassin's Creed is a great looking game that is fun and exciting to play but there's not really anything to do after a couple of hours. The story is the only thing keeping me playing truth be told. The problem I have is that there's really not much substance to Assassin's Creed gameplay wise. You enter a new part of the city, scout out the View Points, rescue citizens, beat information out of a few folks, run a few timed missions, pickpocket, eavesdrop, head to the Bureau, get the assassination mission, go kill the target, escape the guards, get back to the Bureau. You do that for each hit - 9 hits total. The first couple of times it's fun but after awhile - to paraphrase - "I think to myself is that all there is to Assassin's Creed?" I'm gonna give it another shot at least to finish out the story but my heart's not really in it.

Kane & Lynch: Dead Men is quite possibly one of the meanest games I have ever played. Parts are profanity-inducing difficult but that's not what I mean by "mean". Kane & Lynch plays like one of my favorite violent crime movies. The characters are just straight up bastards, psychos, sociopaths, and degenerates with no redeeming qualities. Add in a pervasive sense of depressing, violent stoicism and you've got a happy Josh.

Some of the reviews I read knocked the game because of the controls but they work for me. The reason they work for me is because they are Io Interactive controls. The game plays very similarly to Freedom Fighters with a radial inventory, the same squad command icons and controls, and desperate run & gun combat. Personally I think the combat kind of kicks ass and if you can use your squad effectively then it makes survival much easier but not by much. Expect to die...a lot. The amount of firepower that sometimes is directed towards you is daunting at times. While trying to escape a Japanese high rise through the front door gave me pause. I sent my squad out first and hung back lobbing smoke and frag grenades and picking off any SWAT who stuck their heads out. I still got picked off and had to restart the scene several times. Another level is based in a nightclub and makes for some awesome gunbattle action what with strobes, smoke, pumping techno, gunfire, and hordes of fleeing patrons screaming in Japanese. This is the kind of game where you can clear a path in the crowd by mowing them down to get a clear shot on your opponent. I noticed too Lynch executes the wounded - cops, gangsters, and civilians alike - if he gets near them. It's actually kind of disturbing but another detail that makes the game so effective.

Of course I have to mention the Jesper Kyd score - yes, yes we all know I heart Jesper Kyd. It's a really bad ass score - even for him. While Hitman had a slick ambient assassin score and Freedom Fighters had an epic "Let's kick Commie ass." score Kane & Lynch has an "I am a bad man doing bad things." score. Don't know what I mean? Imagine that you and your crew are rappeling down the side of skyscraper after getting into a gunfight on the roof. You set explosives to blow out the glass and proceed to machine gun everyone in the room. Got it? Okay now what music is in your head? Probably something pretty similar to Kyd's score for Kane & Lynch.

Kane & Lynch is one hell of a game but in all honesty it's not a blockbuster, there's not a lot of gloss and glitz to the game. I give it a bit more slack because I view it as a training wheels game for Io on the 360. Sure they made a version of Hitman: Blood Money for the 360 but it was just a glossier version of the PS2 version - actually the 360 version looks so much better I was surprised at how rough the PS2 version looks in comparison. It's not a sophisticated example of tactical squad combat at its best. If you're into hardboiled crime/action movies where everyone is pretty much violent, cruel, bitter, and emotionally scarred then you'll enjoy Kane & Lynch.


Oh yeah and Fresca is pretty good even if people think it's an old person drink.

"Time to get your crayons and your pencils!"

Got a run down of stuff this fine Friday:

• Ctl+Alt+Del has a pretty funny comic about the state of affairs this game season. There are just too many games being released at once.
• Assassin's Creed won the "I only have enough money for one game" battle versus Kane & Lynch. I am - so far - totally in love with the game. I could get all gushy and doe-eyed but you really need to play this for yourself. My current fantasy is renting a theater for a day and playing it on a massive screen - there are moments of this game that are so big that they practically demand a large screen tv. I am also going to load my scores for The Mummy, The 13th Warrior, and Lawrence of Arabia because I am a geek. And?
• Have you noticed that this Thanksgiving is one of the more serious and violent as far as movie releases go? Don't get me wrong I love it but y'have to admit that it's a bit strange. Where's my Ice Cube family comedy? Shouldn't Robin Williams be wrapping my heart in his big furry monkey arms? Don't you want Robin Williams to warm your heart? Yes. Yes. You do.

There was more but I got hungry then ate a snadwich and forgot what I was going on about. Have a good weekend. Don't bother calling - I'll be playing Assassin's Creed.

Jesper Kyd scores Assassin's Creed.

The title of the post says it all.

Jesper Kyd is one of my favorite composers. Ubisoft is one of my favorite game companies.

News like this totally makes my day.

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Las Vegas.

You can be pretty confident that when you see Tom Clancy in conjunction with Ubisoft you're gonna be getting a good game. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six is no exception. Solid gameplay, excellent AI - both friendly and enemy, excellent graphics, great sound design, and smooth control. Really no complaints.

What did strike me as odd was in-game advertising. I don't mind advertising at all in my games - it adds a level of realism I can appreciate. What's peculiar is the fact that are ads for the DVD of 28 Weeks Later which just came out. The game was released last November. I'm not particularly sure how this happened. There was a download update when I first put in the game in. Quite perplexing.

Now I'm interested in how long it will take for in-game advertising to tailor itself to my gaming preferences.

Ubisoft is throwin' rocks!

This game looks pretty damn cool:

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2

Dear Ubisoft,

I love the games you make. They are the bestest in the whole wide world next to Eidos and Rockstar.

xoxo,
Joshua



Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 is a pretty awesome squad/high-tech combat game set in a near future where the uber-ass kicking Ghost Squad have to stop terrorists in Mexico from fuckin' shit up with nukes. Of course all knowledge of the operation will be denied.

I played a Ghost Recon or two (?) for the PS2 and they were pretty good shooters but I wasn't hooked. Back in March a bunch of us went down to the convention center and checked out the gaming offshoot of SXSW. I saw GRAW2 being played by the Frag Dolls on a big ol' fancy TV. Needless to say it looked awesome.

I've been trying to rent a copy for quite some time and was lucky enough to snag a copy a few days ago. I'm having a good time though the difficulty does seem easy on normal or at least was pretty easy until I got to this level last night and got hosed.

I like how easy it is to control the other squad members or various support vehicles. Toggle between them using left and right on the D-Pad and then up or down to issue orders. Even better, the squad doesn't need constant handholding - they take cover when they need to, hit what they shoot at, and pretty much act like AI should. I haven't had anyone get stuck on a wall - cough like in SOCOM cough - or had to run back in order to keep someone from running around in circles. The only mistakes that have happened have been mine - i.e. tossing a grenade and bouncing it off a telephone pole back into the area the squad is taking cover. Whoops!

The graphics have spooked me out a few times with their realism. You have the option of playing GRAW2 as an FPS but the 3rd Person is an over the shoulder "you are there" cameraman angle. I really like the 3rd Person but at times when the lighting, angle, and action are just right it looks like something off the news. Combined with great sound effects, responsive and simple controls, intelligent AI, GRAW2 is one hell of a combat game.

On the downside it's short and the music gets a little "dun dun dun" now and then but that's not a big deal with the "Turn Action Music Off" option. Not quite Stranglehold short and I'm not finished yet but I get the impression that there's not much left to the game - another mission or two. While there is one long mission of urban combat I look forward to playing again I don't know if the game has that much replay value. We shall see.

I suggest picking up GRAW2 if you're looking for some intense squad action. Final review pending.

Upcoming game releases.

There are a wicked reta'd'ed hella bunch of games coming out this fall. Here's a couple of trailers and teasers that you might dig. I sure as hell do.




This game has everything that sells a game for me. I guess it'll do until someone gets off their ass and makes Freedom Fighters 2.



And here are two of the best commercials I have ever seen:







I was never part of the Halo fanclub. In fact I have never played any of the series. I was - and to a certain extent still am - a die hard PS2 fan. These two commercials have sunk their claws into me though. I'm gonna pick up Halo 2 to see what the fuss is about and get up to speed.

I will freely admit that the upcoming Kane & West is a little more my style than Halo:




And finally there's the game that has Amanda jumping up and down with glee:

The trailer for Splinter Cell: Conviction

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction XBOX360 only?

I was checking the news on www.gamespot.com and noticed that Ubisoft has released word on the newest installment of Splinter Cell. Unfortunately the game is not going to be released on the PS3, "The bad news for PlayStation 3 fans is that it's an Xbox 360 exclusive." . Double Agent was released for the PS2, PS3, and XBOX360 so I don't know why it wouldn't be another cross console release.

The article - here's the link - makes it sound pretty damn cool and makes me want to look into Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed. The idea of it set in DC and having to blend in with crowds a la Hitman makes me a little giddy.

It's things like this that almost make me want to buy a XBOX360. Damn it.