Battlefield 3 Video Review

Okay, I'm going to start making a video review for BF3 so keep an eye on the MGR channel for when I post it.

Modern Warfare 3

Genre: FPS/Action
Platform: PS3/Xbox 360/Wii/PC
Overall Rating: 4.9/5
Graphics: 7/10

Game-play: 15/10

Story: 6/10

Soundtrack: 6/10

Price: Varying depending on platform and retail method. 

The award-winning FPS franchise Call of Duty is back with their latest installment, Modern Warfare 3. Set immediately after the events of Modern Warfare 3, you play as a wide range of characters and factions based in the world war initiated in MW2.

The series returns with a wide range of new features and improvements. This includes a new "Spec Ops: Survival" mode, based of the "Nazi Zombies" mode from Black Ops and World at War. The objective is simple: survive. As you kill waves of opponents you earn cash which allows you to buy weapons, equipment, perks, and air support (including a team of computer controlled Delta commandos. In Spec Op: Survival you can play either solo or with a second person.

The multiplayer is also significantly different from Black Ops, with the maps having less choke points has more paths to choose from. These can slow the gamplay down like in FFA with the bigger maps, but otherwise work better than in the previous CoD title. The MP is quite fast paced, and often quite frantic, particularly in modes like Team Deathmatch and on the smaller FFA maps. Unfortunately the hardcore modes do tend to be a bit campy since respawns have a rather long timer. There is also the introduction of a new mode called "Kill Confirmed" where after killing an opposing team-member the player (or a team mate) must confirm the kill by picking up the dog-tags dropped upon death, and "Team Defender" where one team controls a flag for points by having it held by a player while the other team try to take it by killing the flag holder. Think of it as being similiar to king-of-the-hill, with the hill being a flag (sort-of).

 Killstreaks have now been removed from the game and replaced with "Pointstreaks". These function similarly to Killstreaks except now following objectives and getting assists will also contribute. With the Pointstreaks comes Strike Packages which allow each of your classes to have different rewards for going up the Pointstreak ladder. These come in the form of the Assault Package, the Support Package, and the Specialist Package. The Assault Package provides offensive rewards and reset upon death (like the traditional killstreaks). The Support Package provides defensive and supporting rewards and do not reset upon death. The Specialist Package allows you to accumulate perks (going 2, 4, 6 and upon 8 you get all the perks, and at 25 you can call in a M.O.A.B. These allow each class to be focused towards a different play style. It also helps focus the

There also has been the introduction of weapon proficiencies. As you use a weapon you will increase and this unlocks weapon attachments, camouflages and proficiencies. Proficiencies improve a certain aspect of the weapon including recoil, stability, cover penetration and allowing for 2 attachments. 

Another rather large change is the way that the guns handle. Both Black Ops and MW2 (though particularly MW2) had notably absent recoil and almost laser-like accuracy from rifles when the player aimed down the sights which many players found annoying. This however has been changed with weapons having idle sway when ADS is engaged, and all weapons actually have some level of recoil and inaccuracy (which makes pinning the trigger less of a viable option).

The perks have also been reworked for better balance. For example with several of the over-popular perks being separated, i.e. Ghost is now Blind Eye and Assassin, Sleight of Hand has had the traditional pro variant moved to a separate perk, etc.

One of the let downs of the game were the maps, while they were enjoyable and well suited to the fast-paced, enemies-at-10-feet-away style of FPS, they were lacking a sense of size and I found even the bigger maps smallish and undeserving of sniper rifles. Perhaps I have been skewed by the massive maps of BF3, but I still think that sniper rifles really don't belong much in these sized maps and unfortunately as a side result, we end up with sniper rifles being used for just quick-scoping, while being a neat skill,IMO is really abusing the properties of how sniper rifle are coded.

The campaign is unfortunately not as enjoyable as the multiplayer, but it does provide the same high-quality campaigns we have come to expect from Infinity Ward. The characters are both realistic and emotive and provide an enjoyable 10 hour campaign. The Spec Op missions are also enjoyable, but can get boring quick for some.

The soundtrack for MW3 is also quite impressive for a mainstream FPS, featuring a wide range of instrumental soundtracks which will play at certain points in missions as opposed to the whole time. This made the emotional scenes in the campaign really come alive, and makes the last minutes of a multiplayer match seem all the more frantic.

On the PC side however things aren't looking quite so great. The PC release has been received with quite some critism, with the matchmaking being poorer that console, and many servers being classed as "un-ranked" due to strict rules by Activision. Also, there has been some complains about the FOV being locked at 60-65. While this works on console since consolers sit so far away from the TV, it's not so good for the PC, so many have had issues with it.

Despite these hiccups, it is easily one of the better games of the year, and definitely on par with Battlefield 3. Albeit, in a different manner

Break's Over

Okay, I know I have been absent for a while and the website has been really dead, but I will start making more reviews now both MW3 and BF3 are both out. Hopefully I can make both a video and written review of the game. Let's just hope FRAPS doesn't decide to throw a hissy-fit.

Cheers.

Backwards Compatible

When there is a lack of new games to review, I'll try to review some older games in the segment called "Backwards Compatible". Yes, the name is from the television program "Good Game", but until I can get a better one, it will have to do.

Fallout: New Vegas

Fallout: New Vegas

Genre: FPS/RPG

Platform: PS3/PC/XBox360

Overall Rating: 4/5

Graphics: 8.5/10

Game-play: 9.75/10

Story: 7/10

Soundtrack: 5/10

Price: Varying depending on platform and retail method.

The Fallout franchise returns once more with Fallout: New Vegas. Set in the post-apocalyptic setting of New Vegas you play as the Courier. The story follows your path to find the man who shot you in the head, buried you in the Mojave (pronounced: Moh-Hav-Eh) wastelands, and return the favour. But to do that, your going to have to track this dirt-bags ass all the way across the wastelands and into the New Vegas Strip itself. 

The game returns with everything known and loved from the previous Fallout games and more. This include the V.A.T.S system, the weird and wacky perks and the guns, lots and lots of guns. One of the new features of New Vegas is the weapon modification which give a wide variety of weapons even more killing power. These range from a simple sniper scope for the Varmit Rifle, to a high powered laser recycler for the laser RCW (i.e a laser sub-machine gun). My only problem was the time it took to walk to new locations.

Fallout: New Vegas returns with a whole new set of perks set for any play style. For those of you unfamiliar with the Fallout series, perks are like abilities or skills that are acquired ever second level, they all provide both good characteristics and bad ones too, so no perk is a typical "must". While there are the fan favourites like Mysterious Stranger and Bloody Mess, there are a whole new set of perks which have their own pluses and minuses. Personally my favourites were Rad Child (radiation sickness gives you health regeneration) and Bloody Mess (all enemies have a greater chance of exploding when critical'd). The V.A.T.S system was flawless, providing another alternative to normal FPS gameplay by allowing you to auto-aim a particular part of the body and letting the game use a percentage to see if you hit them, this was a feature I used very often, particularly as the anti-materiel rifle is hard as hell to use on multiple targets due to the recoil. The enemies also were very fun to kill, especially with high damage weapons which have a large chance of gibbing them.

The graphics were okay, New Vegas had some pretty good graphics, especially with the facial animation, which I had to say were really good, where you determine a characters feelings from the subtle facial expressions, rather than the over top ones normally found in-game. Also, the render distance for the Mojave Wasteland was very impressive, I found that at no point did the game have to stop and pause while it loaded except from entering and leaving buildings. The only problem was that in crowded areas like the Atomic Wrangler (a really popular bar/casino) I did start to have frame rate issues when I was playing on Ultra. 

The soundtrack in Fallout games are generally exceptional, having great songs that both fit the timeline and are great to listen too, but in New Vegas I found myself disappointed, for all the radio stations seem to loop rather frequently and with a rather disappointing song list. I really did get tired of listening to Mr. New Vegas tell me about the same town burning down over and over again. I would suggest just getting your iPod or opening iTunes to your own playlist(s) of songs instead.

Overall a very high quality game of the standard I expect, and receive from, Bethesda Studios. Easily one of the best games of the year.

Dragon Nest

Dragon Nest
Genre: MMORPG / Fantasy
Platform: PC
Overall Rating 3.5/5
Graphics: 7/10
Gamplay: 6.5/10
Story: 8/10 (Note this score is relative to most MMORPGs and should not be used to compare with other games like the Witcher or Mass Effect)
Soundtrack: 6/10

Dragon Nest is the new MMORPG by Nexon America, who are known mostly for their games Maplestory, Combat Arms and Vindictus (not available in Oceania). Dragon Nest is a branch from your normal RPG, for instead of using your mouse to do everything, Dragon Nest makes full use of both keyboard and most with an FPS/Fallout style keyboard layout. The gameplay is both fast-paced and action packed in a way which is rather surprising for an MMORPG.

The combat system is easily the main selling point of this game, the very natural controls make combat almost instinctive and adds more depth than most games of this class. Each class plays quite differently. The Warrior class is all about the combos, your attacks are both fast and quite destructive, allowing you to rack up high combos and the skills are an extension of this style most allowing skillful players high combos in their 50s. The Archers are all about damage from a distance. They are both fast and agile allowing players to demolish enemies from and quickly disappear before the aggression is returned. The Sorceress is a master of wreaking elemental destruction on the battlefield, she uses her powers to inflict elemental attacks for massive damage. The Priest is both a healer and a fighter. Being able to cast healing spells, buffs, and has the highest pool of health. The Priest is able to take a kicking and keep on ticking.

The graphics are extremely good for an MMORPG. Though don't let this phase you, for on the low-medium settings this game could probably be played on your average dual core with a 500MB graphics card. Though turning this game up to max will require you to have a decent computer. The art style is similar to borderlands with the cell shading on some character models.

Though, unfortunately, this is still is in an open beta phase so there is a level cap at 24 and there is a lot of content to come. Still for a game in Beta, I'm pretty impressed

First!

Testing, testing. Anybody reading this? (Probably not). So this is going to be my blog for mostly game reviews but, I'll hopefully be able to configure this so you lot can start your own discussions. (Maybe I'll just post an empty post and the first person to post can decide the topic.)