It really seems to be quite popular to hate on Activision and Infinity Ward nowadays. Honestly, I have no idea why. I mean, it’s not like the CEO acts like a complete jackass to his customers’ faces or that they decide to jack up the price because millions of lemmings would gladly give their bank information if asked.
Now, it really is nothing when gamers make fun of developers and publishers. We tend to do that a lot when anything doesn’t go our way.
When otherdevelopers and publishers join in on the fun? Well, that’s pretty awesome.
However, when those aforementioned developers and publishers are in direct competition with your target of scorn? Now that, my friends, is pure win.
I believe I’ve wasted enough of your time. Here’s a classy PSA put together by our friends over at Dice and EA.
Sometimes, Big Daddy protective duties extend to comforting Little Sisters when they buy rip-off DLC.
Hello there. Did you buy Bioshock 2? I bet you did, because it’s a great game. I’ve not played very much of it myself, but what I played was very good.
Did you buy the Sinclair Solutions DLC pack when it was released on your online marketplace of choice? You did? Did you not think that download was suspiciously tiny when you bought it? That’s because, as 2K themselves confirmed, the Sinclair Solutions pack is already on your Bioshock 2 disc, fresh from the shelves of your local retailer of choice.
Congratulations, you’ve just paid money for things you technically already paid for when you walked out the shop.
BUT IT’S OKAY. 2K have totally justified it. Have a read of this:
“The way our engine and game structure works is that people need to have the exact same content for people to play together. One of the challenges with post-launch content for MP is that it can split the player base, and we want to avoid that whenever possible. For this content, creating the DLC package the way we did allowed for us to not split the player base — so whether you purchase the new content or not, you can still play with your friends.
I know some of you have strong beliefs about DLC, and I’m not here to sway your opinion or convince you to buy our stuff – if you like what we’re offering, I hope you get it and enjoy it. If it’s not your speed, enjoy BioShock 2 as we released it.”
“Splitting the player base”? 2K’s reasoning is that because this downloadable content (that’s not really downloadable, but whatever) is on the disc, every player is entitled to it…as long as they buy it. This is how regular, genuinely downloadable downloadable content works too – every player can have it if they buy it. So the player base is split regardless.
I think 2K should invest in teaching their spokesfolks (new term, coined right there) the benefits of internal monologue; if they said to themselves that putting the DLC on the disc doesn’t split the player base, I have a feeling they’d have gone away to think of some better excuses before opening their traps.
Yippie, Infinity Ward has decided to grace us with a map pack almost six months after Modern Warfare 2 was released and almost 3 months since I gave a rat’s ass. The ridiculously titled “Stimulus Package” that they’re CHARGING you for (someone at Infinity Ward doesn’t know what a “Stimulus Package” is apparently) contains only three new maps and a repackaging of Overgrown and Crash from CoD4.
And they’re going to charge you $15 for the honor of owning it.
Are you freaking kidding me?
Modern Warfare 2, I’ve stuck by you through most of the crap. You’re a great game, mired in online glitch-hell. Now, after all of this BS, you’re going to charge me $15 for 3 new maps? I don’t think so.
This is where we part ways. Goodbye Modern Warfare 2, I hardly knew ya.
Why should you read this article? “Yoshifett Buys a PS3, Moves To Dark Side” How boring is THAT going to be? What could you possibly gain (aside from a few grins and perhaps even a literal “lol”) from reading my account of my PS3 acquisition and subsequent usage? Haven’t you heard this story before? Aren’t the internets (which happen to be, as most of you know, serious business) full of these sorts of articles? “I bought a PS3! Read my stupid dumb face article!” is a common headline these days. Why would you read my specific account? You should skip this one, right?
No, you shouldn’t. You should continue to read, and I’ll tell you why.
I have a story. No, I have a damned parable about the perils of fanboyism and the triumph of quality gaming over prejudice. This is not a narrative you’ve heard before. This is a pathetically epic story of a man’s irrational battle with his imaginary demons.
When I was just a lil’ tyke, back in the sweet-ass late-‘80s, I used to ride my sister’s pink scooter (shut up, I know you’ve done lamer things to play video games, especially when you were ten) over to my friend’s house every day to worship at the altar of the NINTENDO ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM. You know? The one true system. Even at the tender age of ten, I understood brand loyalty all-too well. Though I had an Atari, I never felt any real attachment to it. While Nintendo was my first true video game love, Atari was more like my first true video game stripper.
Thus, when companies like Sega attempted to challenge the mistress of my video game puberty, the first signs of ugly fanboy rage appeared, much like unsightly pubescent body hair. I decried Sega’s chances for success, and even though I had no idea what “decried” meant back then, I was decrying like crazy. I knew, I FREAKING KNEW, that Nintendo ruled all, and that everything they did was by definition better than what everyone else could ever dream of doing. When Sega fizzled out, I wasn’t surprised nor worried. In other words, do you remember how cocky Patriots fans were before the New York Super bowl loss? That was me, and Nintendo was the Patriots.
If you’re still reading this article (and I know you are because you’re awesome – keep those sideburns, by the way), you’re probably wondering “What in the hell does this have to do with buying a PS3?” What does it have to do with that? EVERYTHING! According to my memory, I was similarly dismissive of the so-called “PlayStation” when it came out. It looked like something that old people would’ve bought and never fully understood, like a cheap DVD player. Then, it seemed, overnight, Sony was dominating the console war and the runner-up was not King Nintendo, but Microsoft.
From that moment, my hatred for Sony knew no bounds, obeyed no commands, and slew many women. I couldn’t believe that stupid CD player thing for Grandpa was beating my beloved N64/GameCube. I felt that Sony was a violent predator that had inappropriately assaulted the video game world in its red-light areas. It had destroyed an icon. My god was in ruins, and I lost my way.
The Xbox got a pass, largely because of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Fortunately for Microsoft, not only was my childhood being ruined by Nintendo’s demise, George Lucas was humping the Star Wars mythos like my dog on the leg of a stranger. Knights of the Old Republic wiped away so many bad memories, I ignored the fact that Microsoft, just like Sony, was just a corporation trying to get in on the gaming market and make Nintendo obsolete. Freakin’ Jar Jar.
Finally, I was fully committed to the Xbox 360. I had settled down with a nice girl, and there was no way that I was giving her up just because every few months she broke down, started to cry with RRoD red rings around her eyes and had to go home for a few weeks to “recover.” People tried to show me that “Hey, the PS2 is fun too!” or “The PS3 will have awesome games soon, buy it for $599 at launch!” but I was completely unwilling to look at that cold Sony bitch. She was an ex-lover I never had in the first place.
Finally, though, after reflecting upon all of this nonsense, I decided to buy a PS3. Why? WHY?Because I was an irrational fanboy who was missing out on a buttload of cool games because of a grudge that started twenty years ago when I wore multicolored shorts and neo shirts featuringMario!!!
I like my PS3. But I won’t bore you with that story. I have a feeling you’ve heard it before. Don’t you feel like your life is better for having read this article? I know it is for me.
It appears Sarcastic Gamer has pulled off the impossible: we’ve reviewed one of the biggest games of the year before it’s even out, thanks to some lovely people at Sony. Yup, God of War III touches down in just over a week but we’ve played it through from beginning to end and are ready to spill more than a centaur’s open wound.
Brace yourself for the honest, spoiler-free review!
God of War III, for the uninitiated, is the you-don’t-say sequel to God of War II, picking up directly where the second game left off, with Kratos clinging onto compost-y titan Gaia as she clambers her way up to Mount Olympus, to seek his final revenge on the gods for the two games’ worth of torture they’ve put him through. His main target? Grand-pappy of the Olympian gods and pappy of the man himself, Zeus. As with the titles before, GoW III “borrows” heavily from a big fat book of Greek mythology. And by “borrow”, I mean “essentially rip the pages out, chew them up, burn them and scatter the ashes”; pretty much everything inspired by the ancient folklore is destroyed, smashed to pieces or generally just ruined in some way, usually by Kratos’ blade.
As you’ve probably guessed, it’s business as usual with GoW III, mashing away at Square and Triangle to decimate the various legions of mythological creatures and undead minions with your twin Blades, flicking the right stick about to leap out of harm’s way like a demented gerbil, and grabbing aforementioned minions with Circle to delightfully rip them in two (which gets you a Trophy first time you do it; fo’ serious). On top of all that there are more of the epic boss battles God of War is expected to deliver; and when you start the game on the back of a giant as it climbs up Mount Olympus, you don’t really need me to tell you if it lives up to the promise of games gone before. Neat.
Kratos didn't appreciate the parking ticket left behind by a particularly brave attendant.
Beyond ‘neat’, though, is how good it all looks when you do get round to the messy stuff. If you’ve played the God of War III demo, cast your mind back to how tasty that all looked and then scrunch those delicious memories up and throw them in the imaginary trash can of your mind.
Since the creation of that demo, the development team at Studio Santa Monica has touched up pretty much everything; every last leap and bound around the screen is smeared with a lick of blur, detail on characters is phenomenal and to top it all off everything is silky smooth in motion, even when the number of characters on-screen runs into the double figures.
Oh, and the gore is delicious; skin tears and cuts, guts fly and blood spits out everywhere. Needless to say, keep the kids out the room – something only the series’ signature sex scene cares to point out in what has to be the most unlikely thing you’ll hear in the bedroom; namely two Greek harlots pointedly telling the player it’s for “Mature Audiences Only!” Thank you ladies, I hadn’t realised that in the previous few hours of stomach-tearing, entirely obviously completely suitable for children hack-and-slashing.
Aside from ripping everyone to bits with Kratos’ Blades (and a number of other weapons picked up in the course of the storyline, including a massive pair of gauntlets shaped like lions), God of War III is no different from its predecessors in offering up a number of puzzles to tax the brain a little, just to give it some time to catch up with the amount of awesome that probably came on the screen before. They’re varied enough to be fun diversions for the few minutes they last, the highlight involving arranging an area like an M.C. Escher illusion to enable water to run along a flat platform as if it was sloped.
Take all this hacking, slashing, puzzle-solving and epic-boss-battling and you’ve got a formula for success: in other words, you’ve got another brilliant God of War game, but on PlayStation 3 everything’s turned up to 11 and the game blows the player away just that little bit more.
Don't lose your head! (hurhurhur)
But as it’s a God of War game, it comes with God of War problems. The ghastly beast that is the Quick Time Event rears its ugly head and crops up in just about every scrap Kratos gets himself into. When it’s demanding a hammering of the Circle button to try and win a clash of blades, that’s fine. But when you’re trying to take down a cyclops and the button prompts change each time you screw it up, it can be a little irritating.
In the event of death, or happening to make an accidental leap into a bottomless chasm, it’s more often than not Kratos will be resurrected reasonably close to where he was before. It’s just a shame that the checkpointing seems to be pretty fragmented at times and the really, really difficult bits of the game insist that no matter how far through it a player may be, they have to do the whole thing again if they slip up and happen to die. Because they should be better than that, right?
Those little issues aside, there’s not much to complain about when it comes to God of War III. The repetitive hack-and-slash nature might not appeal to some but it’s hard to say no when the formula has worked so, so well for the games that have gone before.
As a testament to the kick-ass nature of the best PS3 exclusives, it’s up there with Uncharted 2. With repeated plays encouraged BY new unlocks post-completion (including Arkham Asylum-style challenge rooms), there are far worse ways to spend quality time with your black behemoth.
We’ve already reviewed Battlefield: Bad Company 2’s single player offerings and found them to be good, but not great. That’s okay, because, since when have you ever bought a Battlefield game for its single player offerings? If you said anything other than “never” then you and I can’t be friends. Sorry, it has to be that way, because when you say the word “Battlefield” to a gamer, they know what’s up and it isn’t a focused, single player experience.
So, how does the sequel to Bad Company stack up? The game simply runs smoother than it’s predecessor. The gunfighting is better, the in-vehicle fighting is better. The lag is non-existent, for the most part. Frankly, DICE has simply outdone itself and has produced one of the best multiplayer shooters, not only in their esteemed history, but in all of gaming. Period.
There are a couple of changes from the previous Bad Company game that have really kicked this game up a notch. First off is the marking of enemy players by hitting the Back (360) or Select (PS3) button. What this does is let everyone else in your squad see an enemy that you see by either placing an arrow over their head or display a graphic over the enemy vehicle. This is a fantastic addition for two reasons, first it highlights enemy snipers, making it hell on snipers who like to camp certain spots on a map. Second, if a teammate kills the guy you’ve highlighted, you get 2o xp. This xp bonus is huge and rewards players for playing like a team.
The second big addition is the way they’ve changed the leveling system. In the original, when you leveled up, you obtained a point that you could use to unlock whatever you wanted. In BFBC2, you have two tiers of leveling, first is your overall rank which nets you general weapons and specialization unlocks, and the class specific unlocks that require you to play as that class to net points toward class specific unlocks. While you’re not as able to pick and choose your own path, the two tier system gives you more to do, which encourages players to try all of the classes, thus encouraging a wider diversity of players in a game.
As you may know, BFBC2 did have a MP demo that was released about a month before the game shipped. There was a lot of criticism leveled at the demo regarding overpowered snipers. Let me just reassure you that this is simply not the case in the retail version online. There doesn’t seem to be much that has changed between the demo and the retail release regarding the sniper class, but the ability to “highlight” distant enemies with the Back/Select button and most player’s understanding of the importance of counter-sniping has really helped keep snipers in check. It is rare to find a sniper racking up big points in any match online. That is a good thing, because snipers suck.
In Battlefield: Bad Company 2 you get three main modes, Squad Deathmatch, the titular Conquest mode and the renamed “Rush” mode. All three play superbly although I found Squad Deathmatch and Rush to be far more compelling than the chaotic Conquest mode.
Squad Deathmatch is pretty straight forward. You and three buddies face off against three other squads in small, focused maps. One tank will also spawn for the groups to fight over and against. The first team to 50 kills wins. This mode requires a lot of teamwork to win and if you’re looking for a pure shooting experience in BFBC2, this is where you’ll find it. No objectives, no helicopters, heavy tanks, gun emplacements or any of that, just you and your buddies against the world.
Conquest is the staple game mode made famous in games like Battlefield 1942, 1943, Vietnam, 2142, Battlefield 2, etc.. There are key points on the battlefield and you simply have to get close to one long enough to capture it. I just don’t find this mode compelling on the home console version of BFBC2. Things get extremely chaotic over these larger maps and for the most part, lack the structured teamwork of the other two game modes. This mode is great for lone wolf players, as you don’t need much teamwork to succeed in Conquest, but it does help to have friends watching your back. Of note, there’s far more vehicles in the Conquest maps than in Rush, so vehicle junkies will love Conquest.
Rush. Ah Rush. Previously known as Gold Rush in the original BFBC, this is the perfect online game type. Two objectives, one team defends the objectives while the other attacks. It doesn’t get any easier. This mode is just a blast. My one complaint is that on most maps, there aren’t enough vehicles, meaning that you’ll often do a lot of running toward your objectives. The mode has one really big difference from the first game and that is Destruction 2.0. The Destruction 2.0 is the ability to completely destroy certain buildings in BFBC2. This has fundamentally changed how this mode is played, and it is for the better.
With the new “Destruction 2.0″ it’s not always necessary to infiltrate an objective, set the charge and then defend the position until it explodes. Now, you can just shoot the crap out of the building with explosives until the walls come crumbling down, destroying the objective without having to get anywhere near it. This new dynamic changes how you have to play defense and leads to a more dynamic give and take in the game.
Gripes?
Well, EA has had a TON of problems with their servers which means spotty connectivity and anger management issues for the consumers trying to play the game. On more than one occasion, I have been booted from the game and unable to reconnect. On other times the party we’re in will just drop people out of the party and the game, the screen will go black and you’ll get booted to the main menu.
Another gripe is the spotty matchmaking. In a lot of the games I’ve played, we’ve had 7 or 8 players facing off against 4 or less players. This is simply inexcusable, especially after EA claimed that their spotty server issues were a result of a overage of players playing the game at the same time. If so many players are playing, why can’t I find a full match to play in?
The last gripe is that if you do have to back out of a game, you lose your squad. This means that if you get into a game and you’re playing 7 v 1, you either have to play until you win, which sucks because you won’t get much out of playing against so few players, or you have to back out and find a new match, meaning that you’ll have to reform your squad. It’s not a big deal, but it’s made even more prominent by some of the balancing issues I’ve seen.
Honestly, these gripes are small and by no means dissuades me from highly recommending this game as a buy to anyone that reads this. The multiplayer is great. Period. I can recommend this game for the multiplayer alone and be satisfied. It’s better than MAG for PS3 gamers and it offers a fresh experience for the Modern Warfare 2 die hards.
Check out Battlefield: Bad Company 2 it is worth it.
*Author’s note: EA sent a copy of BFBC2 to this writer for review purposes. I’ve played the crap out of multiplayer, fully levelling up my medic class and I’m one unlock away from finishing out the Engineer and Assault class… I’m still working on the Recon class.
The Heavy Rain Endings Guide does not just show you all seventeen unique epilogues for the game, but also details the decisions you need to make over the course of the game that will cause that epilogue to happen.
The series is broken down across eight posts:
The first posting is a description page that shows you were the real decision points are in the game; if you’ve played the game, it seems like every decision might impact the ending. Not true! There is a short list of events that occur that changes how the end plays out, and they’re all listed in the first post.
Posts two through eight are broken down across the seven major paths the game can take. These not only contain the actual video endings, but show you the decisions you need to make in order to make that ending happen should you be going for your platinum or the “All Endings” gold trophy.
Make sure that you read them in order, from the first to the last, as they are in chronological order on the easiest way to backtrack and get all the endings!
Now, listen up. The next few pages are so full of Heavy Rain spoilers that the American Association of Spoiler Free Gaming has deemed the following article “absolutely chock full of effin’ spoilers”.
If you’ve beaten the game and are planning on going for a platinum trophy run or just want to see all the separate epilogues without having to playing another 10 hours or so to unlock all of them, then this article is for you.
Make sure you start at the decision guide and go from there; these postings are in chronological order to get the endings.
The Heavy Rain Endings Guide does not just show you all seventeen unique epilogues for the game, but also details the decisions you need to make over the course of the game that will cause that epilogue to happen.
The series is broken down across eight posts:
The first posting is a description page that shows you were the real decision points are in the game; if you’ve played the game, it seems like every decision might impact the ending. Not true! There is a short list of events that occur that changes how the end plays out, and they’re all listed in the first post.
Posts two through eight are broken down across the seven major paths the game can take. These not only contain the actual video endings, but show you the decisions you need to make in order to make that ending happen should you be going for your platinum or the “All Endings” gold trophy.
Make sure that you read them in order, from the first to the last, as they are in chronological order on the easiest way to backtrack and get all the endings!
Now, listen up. The next few pages are so full of Heavy Rain spoilers that the American Association of Spoiler Free Gaming has deemed the following article “absolutely chock full of effin’ spoilers”.
If you’ve beaten the game and are planning on going for a platinum trophy run or just want to see all the separate epilogues without having to playing another 10 hours or so to unlock all of them, then this article is for you.
Make sure you start at the decision guide and go from there; these postings are in chronological order to get the endings.
The Heavy Rain Endings Guide does not just show you all seventeen unique epilogues for the game, but also details the decisions you need to make over the course of the game that will cause that epilogue to happen.
The series is broken down across eight posts:
The first posting is a description page that shows you were the real decision points are in the game; if you’ve played the game, it seems like every decision might impact the ending. Not true! There is a short list of events that occur that changes how the end plays out, and they’re all listed in the first post.
Posts two through eight are broken down across the seven major paths the game can take. These not only contain the actual video endings, but show you the decisions you need to make in order to make that ending happen should you be going for your platinum or the “All Endings” gold trophy.
Make sure that you read them in order, from the first to the last, as they are in chronological order on the easiest way to backtrack and get all the endings!
Now, listen up. The next few pages are so full of Heavy Rain spoilers that the American Association of Spoiler Free Gaming has deemed the following article “absolutely chock full of effin’ spoilers”.
If you’ve beaten the game and are planning on going for a platinum trophy run or just want to see all the separate epilogues without having to playing another 10 hours or so to unlock all of them, then this article is for you.
Make sure you start at the decision guide and go from there; these postings are in chronological order to get the endings.
The Heavy Rain Endings Guide does not just show you all seventeen unique epilogues for the game, but also details the decisions you need to make over the course of the game that will cause that epilogue to happen.
The series is broken down across eight posts:
The first posting is a description page that shows you were the real decision points are in the game; if you’ve played the game, it seems like every decision might impact the ending. Not true! There is a short list of events that occur that changes how the end plays out, and they’re all listed in the first post.
Posts two through eight are broken down across the seven major paths the game can take. These not only contain the actual video endings, but show you the decisions you need to make in order to make that ending happen should you be going for your platinum or the “All Endings” gold trophy.
Make sure that you read them in order, from the first to the last, as they are in chronological order on the easiest way to backtrack and get all the endings!
Now, listen up. The next few pages are so full of Heavy Rain spoilers that the American Association of Spoiler Free Gaming has deemed the following article “absolutely chock full of effin’ spoilers”.
If you’ve beaten the game and are planning on going for a platinum trophy run or just want to see all the separate epilogues without having to playing another 10 hours or so to unlock all of them, then this article is for you.
