Friday 9 July 2010

Wow 100th View!

Thanks everybody, I only set this up on Tuesday so I'll try to keep the good reviews coming. Make sure you check back, as I'm trying to get a post in each day of the week (I take a break at the weekends)

Splinter Cell: Conviction Reviewed!

I know I said that I wasn't going to post on Saturdays, but my laptop ran out of battery and I wasn't able to post, so as I said, here's the Splinter Cell review.

This review is of the game called Splinter Cell: Conviction and personally, I think this game is on borderline great. There's a few things that Ubisoft could have done to improve, but all in all the game is great. First off the campaign review.

The Splinter Cell: Conviction campaign brings us back to Sam Fisher, who is still trying to find out what happened to his daughter. The first mission is played as if a training mission, and you are assisted by a person called Anna Grimsdottir or "Grim". You go through the campaign level, and you slowly get used to the game play, which while its not incredibly complex, it still takes a little getting used to. This game is all about stealth, which is why as you work through the campaign you unlock a variety of gadgets and weapons to add to your arsenal. Compared to other SC games you can equip an assault rifle, a pistol/silenced pistol or an smg. The weapons themselves all have attachments that you can unlock. You do this by completing challenges that you can do in campaign or the small list of multi player modes. You play through the campaign, working out the mystery entangled in Third Echelon. (Sam's previous employers, creators of the splinter cell program)

You get many gadgets throughout the campaign, including different types of throw able cameras, grenades, EMP Devices and grenades, and the sonar goggles. The Remote mine, is pretty self explanatory. You can throw the grenade silently, and when the enemy walks over it, BOOM!! Instant explosion. At first, when you first start, you get something called the mirror. You can use this to search under the door so that you can see who is in the room. To use the mirror walk up to the door and press A which activates the "Peek Under" action. You get a upgraded version of the mirror called the snake cam. The snake cam is basically the same, but it looks good and makes the game feel like a proper espionage game.

The Mark and Execute technique is new to the splinter cell series and it allows you to mark to the amount that your gun allows, so that you can execute the enemy quickly. This is done with good graphics that is like a cut scene that is inter grated to the game and makes the game look alot like a movie.

Flash bangs are useful in this game, this is because when you are spotted, you throw a flash bang and then the enemies are blinded. This helps because this game works using the "Last Known Position" meaning that the enemy will shoot towards where you where before you threw the flash bang meaning you can go around and finish everybody off one by one.


Sticky Cameras are useful when there is no door to use the snake cam to see in the next room. When you approach a room where the door is open or if their was no door in the first place, you can throw a sticky camera and use it to check the room before you enter. The sticky camera has two other uses, it can make a sound to attract enemies. I know what you are thinking, what would be the point of attracting the enemies to that doorway, well... the cameras other function is that when the enemy gets too close, BOOM and he's dead. Meaning that the Sticky camera also acts as a remote mine, cool huh?

Frag grenades. We all know what a frag is, so there isn't much point of going through this. Just so you know the frag grenades dint have a large explosion area, but can still be pretty useful at times.

Sonar goggles, one of the last gadgets you get in the game, but one of the most useful. Using the sonar goggles you can see through walls, and see enemies appear with a white outline, meaning you can set up a mark an execute through the walls. Another use is for when the enemy ( or you) throw a smoke. You can see thought the smoke while the less under equipped enemies can't. (When you get the goggles some of your enemies also use them, so dont think that this is the easiest way to kill/escape). The goggles can identify whether the people are civilians or enemies (There's a bit where there are a lot of civilians) so its easy to make sure you don't kill any innocents.

The EMP Device is a short range EMP that makes any electrical items around you stop working for 5-10 seconds. Thus giving you that chance to make it through a brightly lit room filled with enemies dark and you can deal with them nice and quickly.

The EMP Grenade is a useful device which, even though it has a shorter range than the EMP device, its of a much higher frequency, so the EMP detonation lasts longer. These are useful for entering a larger room that might take a longer time to traverse. The lights stay out longer letting you pass through, either stealthily assassinating enemies, or using the time to set up a mark and execute move to empty the room quickly.

The weapon upgrades include a suppressor for vastly reducing the audible sounds that shooting a gun would usually produce.
The reflex sight provides you with an extra mark for the Mark and Execute move.
The Laser Sight makes aiming the weapon easier.
2xScope adds range to your weapon and also allowing you to see further. This is the same for the 4xScope, which just adds extra zoom.
Hollow Point ammunition adds damage to your weapon.
Match Grade Ammo adds accuracy to a greater range, allowing you to Mark and Execute more distance targets.
Extended Mags add more ammo.
Gun Stock improves the stability of your weapon during long bursts of fire.
All in all the equipment and the weapons upgrades greatly increase the power that Sam Fisher wields.

The Campaign, is very good with a compelling storyline with a twist that not many SC fans would expect, the game also uses a good aiming system and the Mark and Execute adds to the belief of the one man army that is the splinter cell. The campaign gets a 9/10 for me.

The Multi player is also good as there is a whole separate Campaign for two people to play through. A quick synopsis. Four Russian EMP weapons have been stolen and are going to be sold on the black market. Third Echelon and Voron (Russia's Third Echelon) both send one agent to find them. These agents are Archer from Third Echelon and Kestrel from Voron. These are the two characters for the Co-Op story. This is the same set up as the campaign.

The other game modes include Hunter, where you have to eliminate all the enemies in a sweep of the map. Getting detected means that enemy reinforcements arrive increasing the difficulty.

Last Stand is a defence game mode. You defend an EMP Generator over waves of rounds, getting increasingly harder after each level. The EMP starts off with 100% health (obviously) after each round that the EMP keeps more than 75% the health will go back up to 100%, when it go below 75% its health will go back up to 75%, when it go below 50% it will only go up to 50%. When it get to 25%, it would only repair itself to 25%, meaning that not only the rounds get increasingly harder, the EMP takes damage over rounds.

Face off is a one on one between agents, but enemies of both players are thrown into the mix. You earn points for killing enemies and lots of points for killing the other player. The other thing is that when you get detected by any enemies the other player gets your last known position.

This next game mode is a mode that CAN ONLY BE unlocked through UPlay.
Infiltration is what you think it would be. The rules of infiltration apply to this mission meaning you cannot get detected. You have to eliminate all the hostiles without being detected.

In all the co-operative game play you can revive your partner meaning that you can always get your partner back, but only if you can get to your partner in time.

This games very good, the campaign being better than the multi player, but even though I say that the multi player is still very good. The campaign is the one of the best splinter cell's so far as its the only one that I've actually completed in a few days because of the gripping storyline. This game gets a 8/10 and is a must buy for anyone who likes any stealth games.

Games Im gonna play over the summer

I don't know about you but I've got a whole list of games that I'm gonna attempt to finish over the summer on the Xbox 360.

1. Halo 3 ODST : I have finished this campaign before, but only on heroic difficulty, so I'm gonna team up with a group of friends and go and finish the fight on Legendary.

2. Modern Warfare 2: I'm level 70 9Th prestige and I haven't even finished the campaign on the highest difficulty, I got past Favella and then got bored so i need to finish this.

3. Crackdown 1 and 2: Nearly finished Crackdown 1, fighting the Shai Gen, but getting distracted with all the AGILITY ORBS I still need to collect. Theres also the fact that i still need to climb to the top of the Agency Tower, but I need to level up my agility before attempting this. Its fun with teaming up with a friend and attacking the remain gang members.
Crackdown 2. I haven't bought this yet but I want to get it just so that I can fight the new enemies with 4 friends. This is good because its gonna be so much easier to set up squads and use teamwork effectively.

4. Cod 5 Zombies : Even though I think that Cod 5 is a boring game, the zombies mode is fun when you have a long time to get up to a high round. I mean, my highest is 30 on Der Rise, but that's just because we had to quit as it had been going on for hours, but that was in the week, so hopefully now we're on holiday we can get much, much further.

5. Forza Motorsport 3 and Need For Speed Shift (Plus DLC's) : I've finish the NFS campaign, but i bought all the DLC available, (which i believe are the Exotic Car Pack, and the Ferrari Car Pack) and I'm attempting to mop up all the other achievements. With Froza Motorsport I bought it mainly because i had finished NFS, and now, starting the campaign I can see that the game would have been worth it.

Thursday 8 July 2010

Major Games Released This Week!

Every Friday Im gonna post the released games that came out this week on all platforms so check up each week for what I think:

First this week I have Crackdown 2, available solely on the Xbox 360. This game is about an island called Pacific City, but its had a few upgrades since the original. The City has gone back into turmoil with new gangs reeking havoc across the area. But this time the gangs are not your only enemy. Real time Worlds (the producers of Crackdown) have introduced a new type of enemy which, i believe, is the first time mutant lizard people that only attack at night have been introduced in a police game. The demo, which I played before release gave me 30 mins to gather enough info for me to do this review. But, just like I did in Crackdown I just went around and collected agility orbs. The graphics are the same thick outlined, sort of cartoon graphics, but just with a little bit more pixels that make the game look alot better. The vehicles drive much easier, and after my demo ran out I, for some reason, went straight back to Crackdown. This game is probably worth getting, I'm giving 7/10 for giving me another reason to trek back into pacific city and get rid of a few more gang members while jumping around like a frog.

Other games released this week are:
PC:
These are The Mystery Of The Crystal Portal 2 which is a puzzle game
Elven Legacy Collection, another puzzle game
Crusader Kings: Complete Pack, yet another puzzle game
Pro Cycling Manager Season 2010: Le Tour De France, a sports game.

Nintendo Wii:
Toribash: Violence Perfected an action game
PokePark Wii: Pikachu's Adventure and yet another Pokemon game for nintendo released.

Alan Wake Review!!!

Today I'm gonna review Alan Wake. But first I'll do a synopsis of the storyline for those who haven't heard of it. Basically you are a writer called Alan Wake, who writes horror/adventure books.First you have an encounter with the darkness in a dream which is actually your tutorial. You go to a place called Bright Falls and you seem to be going on holiday (Don't worry no spoilers). You meet people, go to your house and then all the lights go out. I'll leave it there so I don't ruin the storyline.

The basic idea of the game is that you fight darkness with light, and you do this usually with a flashlight (As you progress you get more powerful ones) and a revolver or a shotgun. You have to break down the defences of the "Taken" (Yeah a pretty bad name for an enemy) by shining the flashlight at them. When you have them vulnerable you can then dispatch them pretty quickly with the revolver or shotgun. A nice little addition to the game was the introduction of the flare-gun, flares and flash bangs. When you're in a bad situation (and I think its better to save these just for this) and you're surrounded by 5 or 6 taken, but theres still some distance between you, the flare is your best friend. You can use the flare to slow their approach and also take down their defences at the same time, meaning that you don't have to waste your precious batteries for your flashlight. This also gives you some breathing space, although the "Flare and Run" technique is used quite a lot in this game by people who wanna finish the game in 3-4 hours tops.

The flare gun is the most powerful gun Ive seen in the game so far, (I'm only 3/4 through the campaign) and that's why you barely ever get it, and when you do, prepare for A LOT of the Taken to be around the next corner. The flare gun is useful for long range or short, this is because any Taken that gets caught in the light will be thrown away as if it was nothing. Picture this. Theres a line of v.strong fallen sprinting (or walking as fast as they can) towards you. But they're all standing close together. Hit the middle one with the flare gun and the fights gonna be either them all dead, or one or two with no shields. Useful right?

The flash bang is powerful and good for when you're getting hacked to pieces by Taken who are standing right next to you. You're about to die and instinctively throw a flash bang at you're feet. If you're lucky (as there is a small delay as you would expect from a grenade) the flash bang will go off before anymore of the Taken kill you. Thus the flash bang explodes and kills the 3-4 taken that where surrounding you. Very lucky.

With all these tools you must think that this must be a breeze. You're wrong. The game is still difficult, offering puzzles that you have to complete and Taken that work as a team. The AI is good, especially when you've got someone else with a flashlight and a shotgun. When you encounter a Taken boss its quite difficult, as its not only going to be a boss. No its not as easy as that. Usually he brings about five of his strongest friends with him, so you have to be fast, show some intelligence and some good shooting as you don't get cross hairs. This is only campaign so don't expect some weird multiplayer like one person's Wake and the rest are Taken.But there is an opportunity that Remedy and Microsoft Game Studios missed here. 4 player co-op waves of Taken getting harder and harder, but each level you pass you get to go to a new zone where theres more ammo and equipment. Sounds a bit like COD 5 zombies eh? but it would have been even better. If anyone from Remedy reads this make it DLC PLEASE? It has the opportunity to improve the game tenfold.

My Overall rating of the game is at least an 8/10. Could have been scarier (BTW I haven't been on nightmare mode yet so i might be completely wrong) and there's no wave style 4 player co-op. But this game has a great storyline, a good combat system, although the dodge can be hard to master. Good AI. A good all round game. Defiantly worth buying, but not right away, its just not at that level that's a must buy like COD. But remember the game is good, and just because you haven't heard about it much compared to Halo Reach or Medal of Honour doesn't mean its not popular. Just buy the damn game.

Next post: An update of this weeks new releases and if there looking good or not.

Wednesday 7 July 2010

My First Post!


Hi!
I'm Tom and I'm here to give you exciting honest reviews on the latest and biggest games from the Xbox 360 and the PC. First off Sniper: Ghost Warrior. Sniper : Ghost Warrior came out on the 29Th of June and is solely available on the Xbox 360.



Sniper : Ghost Warrior has frustrating game play which I struggled to get to terms with. What I'm trying to say is that don't play this game like MW2. Listen to what your partner say to do, because if you don't you're just gonna get shot down by deadly accurate
terrorists wielding assault rifles. The campaign, or what I've played so far, has a more than linear storyline to what any sniper game has to work with. I mean its like this: Go there . Sneak around the back . Get to the high ground . Kill the leader . Run away before you get machine gunned to a pulp.
The graphics are very good, and the bullet cam is enjoyable to watch. I mean whats better than to snipe a guy and then be able to watch the bullet thump into his head without anyone noticing. The only problem is when you're in a fight with more than one terrorist. You start the ability that slows time, you line up a headshot, you shoot, and you're ready to shoot the next one when the camera slows down and you watch your shot. The ability runs out, and you get mowed down. This doesn't happen a lot but when it does you get so frustrated that you want to throw the game out the window.
Back to the graphics. Its picture perfect. The graphics are at least on par with MW2, or even better.I cant fault them. The jungle is very well done showing us the vastness of the area that isn't available for you to traverse. This should have been more free roam. They had the
power to make it more for the intelligent player. There was so much more that they could have
done with the grappling hook. They could have made more than one route to take in every mission.

My rating for the campaign is 7/10, just for the fact that the headshot cam and the graphics put it at least on par with the other war games available. The things that let this game down are the linear game storyline, even more annoying commands that you have to follow to the last syllable.

On to the multiplayer. The multiplayer is very good. But there isn't many snipers to choose from. Its got no way that I've found to play with my friends on the same team, I either end up getting me on my own with a bunch of strangers, with my friends shooting us down as soon as we spawn or we get half of us on one team and half on the other. This is frustrating because the main reason I bought this game was because we were going to play multiplayer, split into 2 sniper-spotter teams and go up and set up choke points along the map.
Another thing that makes me want to throw the disk (and my Xbox) out the window is the complete overpowering of some weapons and the others that cant even kill with one bullet. I can understand the under powering of the M4 Carbine on MW2 but I think that snipers are supposedly used for "One Shot One Kill". But the 4 classes available, the "Heavy Recon", the two different "Light Recon" and the "Recon" classes don't offer one shot one kill torso shots except
the "Heavy Recon", but if the other person is using the "Heavy Recon" class you
still need 2 shots.( Unless you get a good headshot)

Overall the multiplayer gets another 7/10 from me mostly because of the frustrating fact that its near impossible to try and get 3-4 people who are friends into the same team. So unless you have no friends to play with, the multiplayer's not for you.


The Game gets a menial 6/10 for the disappointing multiplayer and the even more vexing campaign. I don't recommend getting it straight away, but it might be good to buy it pre-owned when you've got nothing else to do.


Next Post: Alan Wake. Remember. Stay in the light. Trust no
one in the Dark.