Blowing away the biased competition!
Passionate gamer giving some much needed honest reviews & recomendations to the latest console and smartphone apps/games.
The West is back, and I hope its good!
Some of you may recall a game released on the PS2 and Xbox, in 2004, called Red Dead Revolver:
Rockstar decided to make a sequel a year after the original release, in 2005, under the working tittle 'Old West Project'. Now its only a couple of months away, under the moniker, Red Dead Redemption, and I'm itching for some Old West action.
With Rockstar in charge it can be one of my most rated or most hated games. See, I love Westerns, Tombstone, Wyatt Earp, Gunfight At The OK Coral, Dances With Wolves, The Good The Bad & The Ugly, Back To The Future III (yes I do seriously like it as a Western as well as >), Westworld and Blazing Saddles. Yes there is quite a few there but I love them, the open lands, the kill or be killed life style, the gun fights, the atmosphere of the west and the art of the gunslinger is just so damn enticing to me. I suppose its the same with my fascination with Sci-Fi, its escapism, a world I will never truly experience and one I find exciting and dramatic. It really is thanks to my father I suppose. His love for the Westerns was absorbed by me at a young age and it stuck.
With so much love for the Western genre am I setting my expectations for it far too high?
Short answer, no. I may have a love for the genre but Rockstar have a huge opportunity to make something far bigger than Grand Theft Auto. Not ingame map size, although it is possible, but in stature, critical acclaim and admiration. The west is such a full and dynamic environment to set a game in. Just think of all the Westerns you have seen, how many have not been deeply detailed, with rich characters? I cant think of any and that's the biggest seller of a Western. To be historically accurate and detailed as well as having a narrative that pulls you in and gets you caring for the characters. If Rockstar can pull this off, there is a possibility to open up a whole new gaming demographic. So far the Westerns we have been able to play have been OK at best on the current gen of consoles. The FPS's, Call Of Juarez and its sequel were playable games, but were missing too much atmosphere and background to be a triple A title and Gun was not much better.
But Gun developer Neversoft had the right idea.
Two words: Open World
Yes the world created in Gun is small comparable to the expectations of today and it was a shoddy port of the old Xbox version, but its a huge step in the right direction.
I want a world I can wander around, ride my horse through a forest, set up camp by a stream, hunt for my food and skins, come across a high-jacking or robbery, go to the local Saloon, enjoy the atmosphere, over hear drunken arguments over Poker, women even cattle deals gone wrong. These are all stalwarts of the Western and I hope to the gaming God(s) that Rockstar understand this and find ways of including it all and more. As I explained earlier, Westerns are always rich in character and have deeply detailed narratives that include a world filled with action and drama. If Rockstar can truly transfer all the aspects of successful Westerns to RDR the world that we get to play in will be huge, dramatic and breathtaking to be a part of.
Rockstars Pedigree
Rockstar has a legacy of producing quality products, but repeatedly they have used a certain type of humour in their story telling. Now I have enjoyed all of the previous GTA titles because of their humour, its what made them playable and unique, however GTA4 didn't have that same 'fun' factor for me. They made it more serious, tried to make the game more of a simulation than arcade game. For me, it didn't feel right for a GTA game, it still had humour but not in the same vain as the previous iterations. Which leads me to be slightly hypocritical. I think it will greatly suit the world of Red Dead Redemption. A gritty, hard world that's unforgiving to those not strong enough to survive.
With a world full of potential, I am completely hopeful that Rockstar bring the out the big guns for this game. The number of potential game mechanics available is huge. Think hunting to earn your living, becoming an outlaw and robbing banks and stagecoaches or even becoming a deputy to prevent these crimes. This game has the potential to blow all competition out of the water.
As you can see in the video below, Rockstar seems to be hitting the nail bang on the head.
Admittedly, without any hands on time with the game, we don't know how good (or bad) its going to be. So all of these trailers only seem to be whetting our appetites for the main course. But I cant help looking forward to this game, I'm already thinking of it as one my top 5 games of 2010. There's not much else for me to say regarding my opinion. I've made it clear I'm looking forward to it and that it has the potential to shock the gaming community with a game for exceeding any expectations any fans or critics could have ever had.
Here's some more videos from Rockstar showcasing the game:
So I'll leave you with this.
Just think if its really a Western Story, and not just a game set in the Old West, it will be a more impressive work than any GTA have been.
Red Dead Redemption will be released at the end of April on PS3 and Xbox 360
A lazily programmed WWE close cousin, or a Fight Night beater? We shall see....
UFC was born in 1993 and began as a single-event tournament to find the world's best fighters irrespective of their style and discipline. This sounds like an awesome idea and most people seem to think so as its quickly becoming the most watched competitive combat on TV.
So as the premise for a video game, this should be pretty good. With that in mind, a franchise that has been run successfully for the past 16 years and has grown to immense popularity shouldn't have a problem. Especially with the previous successes of WWE and Boxing in video games over the past 25 years.
Was I ready to let THQ's sports games into my gaming life now?
With all the WWE games THQ have published, I was not looking forward to reviewing this. I have not enjoyed many Wrestling games the last one was probably Wrestlemania on my original Gameboy in the mid 90's. In my honest opinion the last 4/5 years of sequels have had sluggish controls, simplistic AI, and were very repetitive with slow and clunky animation. Yes, the graphics have improved greatly, but those of you who have read my reviews from previous sites know I am really hard on all aspects of a game, not just how the graphics have got better this year. I need real change for yearly updates. For example, the character models do not ever seem to move around on the canvas properly, they look like Michael Jackson doing the Moon Walk for Hogans sake! So hearing about the game over the last couple of years, my thoughts have not been overly positive.
Was I ever surprised...
Now I am not a particularly hardcore fan of UFC. I watch it, I enjoy it like most sports on TV, so I know some of the faces and names in the sport and the first thing you notice is the accuracy of the character models. They really are photo realistic: blood, sweat (and probably tears) have been recreated with such quality and precision its quite an achievement, especially since Fight Night Round 3's next gen appearance many games are still being left in its graphical (and gameplay) shadow. The sweat and blood sprays realistically, blood stains the mat and if cut severely enough, blood drips on to the bodies of the fighters in a very authentic way.
Keeping with the graphical side of the game, the facial damage can look a bit too much after a couple of taps. However, this is basically bare knuckle fighting, (yes they wear gloves but come on!) skin will split very quick under these conditions, so with that in mind it looks remarkably realistic, feels appropriate in the game and if you've watched a competitive bout, quite authentic (some of those match ups are bloodbaths). Knock-outs look great, albeit a little extravagant with the mouth guards flying of in all directions, but that just adds to the enjoyment of the knock-out punch/kick.
The body damage amazed me. Real-time body damage and stamina level is shown on the fighter (just like in FN:R3) when your fighter is tired he will breathe heavily, and will move more sluggishly, if he has been kicked in the legs repeatedly he will start limping. This greatly affects how the fight will play out as you wont be able to move around the octagon as fast as your opponent which could end in disaster.
Admittedly the facial damage engine has pre-set cuts/swelling/bruising so all faces will look very similar at the end of a fight and I am going to admit that it can seem exaggerated, but is that such a bad thing when you look at the full damage engine?
No way did that punch hit me!
Physical presence in a game environment is a 'pet peeve' of mine. A hit is an actual connection between the two opponents graphically as well as the wire frame physics driven skeleton. Is that such a difficult thing to ask of a developer, especially with the power that is now available on the current gen consoles? Not for the guys and gals behind UFC 2009. Every part of the fighters body has a physical presence that will interact as it should. No punches disappear into faces up to the wrist, no kicks miss completely but still end up in a knock out. It even surprised me when I threw a left arm hook while the opponent mirrored me and threw a right arm hook and the fists collided! The opponents punch hit me square on the chin while mine was deflected to his forehead. Yes these are little details for the majority of gamers, but its all about realism with these games now and the developers have no excuse for lazily programming their games.
Never before have stats in a sports game mattered so much.
This leads me to the fighting and physics of the game. There are 3 discipline for each type of fighting:
Standing
Kick Boxing
Boxing
Muay Thai
Ground
Judo
Wrestling
BJJ
Every fighter specialises in one discipline in each style, e.g. Boxing and Judo. You will have to level them up during their career by completing certain training requirements under the tutelage of various UFC fighters and coaches which will unlock more powerful moves and hits.
There are 3 ways to win a fight; Knock out, Submission and by Decision after 3 five minute rounds.
Each fighter has an abundance of stats to improve and compare, and these actually matter, literally. If your fighter is an effective Kick Boxer, but a weak ground fighter, and goes up against an exceptional Judo fighter, you will need to keep the fight standing otherwise you will likely lose the match to a submission move that you will not be able to counter. The stats are such an important part of UFC career mode, they really do determine the type of strategy you need to use. You will have to carefully decide what ones you want to improve or ignore as you will win or lose depending on the strength of your stats.
Knock out wins are awesome, the mouth guards fly, the eyes role and the breathing changes. The animations really do show the pain of the sport. Submissions are one of the easiest ways to win if you have your stats maxed in this area. The animations look great when you try any of the submission moves against your opponent.
I have really got to applaud the physics of the game that allows for such varied fights. One fight could go the distance, the next will be a knock out in the 3rd round, another could be a submission in the first and even a knock out first punch/kick in the 1st round! This allows the game to be a reactive as the sport is in reality. However, knock outs do seem more frequent than in the actual UFC fights on TV, but most of the fights now seem to be ground work fights which could be quite boring. So really its forgivable, after all, its a video game and its meant to be enjoyable.
Unique controls....
The controls are quite complex, but to be fair, they have to be. The amount of different moves that are part of a UFC fighters arsenal now really need to be available to you. The face buttons are your usual right/left punch, right/left kick combinations with the shoulder and trigger buttons being the modifiers for blocking and power hits. The analogue sticks are used excellently in conjunction with the modifier buttons. The left analogue is all your octagon movement, clicking it allows for running and flicking in any direction will side step, back away or jump towards your opponent. The right analogue controls all grabs, clinches, ground work moves and submissions in a really intuitive manner. For example, a 12 o'clock to 3 o'clock movement on the stick, while on the ground, will move your fighter in a clockwise motion around/over your opponent on the canvas. Yes there are many combinations to learn, but not having these options available would have left the game feeling very shallow.
Create a fighter you say?
The modes available include; Classic Mode, Career Mode, Exhibition and Online.
Classic Mode is great. It has some of the classic match ups in the recent UFC history. Before the actual fight you see some interviews filmed before the match ups and have a commentary from a hot female presenter. She explains you have to win the fight in a certain way with a specific fighter to unlock a reward. These rewards seem to be clips from the actual fights, which are awesome.
Career mode gives you the chance to work your way up the rankings in 5 different weight categories with your own fighter. No camera game face unfortunately, that seems to be EA's baby at the moment, but the amount of options that are available are deeper than most. You need to choose your fighting styles, name, age, location, home town, weight category, height, nickname, skin tone, tattoos and many more.
Again as previously touched on, its stat heavy fair in the career mode and up to 10 sets of stats need to be edited with the allotted points that are issued at the beginning of your career. The training is simulated so no mini games for us to play, but you do have to calculate the right amount of training and rest between your fights so that you improve enough but aren't shattered for your next match up. There is an email area where you are contacted regarding rankings, new coaches, sparing partners and sponsorship deals. This career mode can seem to be a very deep and detailed mode for the average gamer. Not many will be happy with the amount of things you have to go through between fights but I would rather complain about too much going on than too little.
If I am to be critical of the career mode, I will have to point out the lack of customisable intros before the fights, no training mini games, no fighter rivalries/personalities, quite a bland UI and a feeling of it just filling space between fights. However, these problems are something an update could change quickly enough and having a game engine that allows for spectacular fights like it does, this game shouldn't be rated unfairly.
The Exhibition mode is where the game hits its stride. All UFC fighters (more than 80 top names) are available from the get go and allow for some interesting match ups. I know for a fact a few of my friends will be having a UFC title knock out competition with this, on the night preceding a UFC Pay Per View event on TV with some beers and snacks at hand as it will definitely get everyone in the mood for the UFC fights to come.
The online mode similarly has all fighters available and you can even use your created fighter. Having played the online mode only briefly I cant fairly comment, other than it seems to run smoothly enough (only slight Trans-Atlantic lag) and has an interesting ranking system I would like to explore at a later date. The few games I played were tough and required a lot of strategy. Do I go for the ground'n'pound? Or do I keep the fight standing? What about submissions? This game requires you to think, button bashers need not apply.
Its amazing that the developers have spent so much time on this game in an industry which has been saturated by developers who rush games out that are buggy and end up with scores which they don't deserve if the time and effort was really put in. Kudos to Yukes, Zappa and THQ for spending time perfecting a game and giving the gaming community something to enjoy.
I'll give this a 8.5/10
A tightly programmed game, fun to play, nice to look at, but not without its faults, it should impress a lot of people.
This will hopefully sell amazingly well as I would like to see some improvements made in the career mode for the next UFC game, but will the control system prove to complex for the average gamer and put them off? I really hope not, as if you give this the time it deserves, it can be a very enjoyable game.
This is not COD5, this is COD: WAW. Taking this into account, I consider WAW to be an EXPANSION PACK rather than a stand alone game. There are a few improvements, but in all honesty, it’s COD4 in a new skin.
The multiplayer is the same as before, albeit with a few additional perks and game modes. The best addition in regards to the multiplayer is the availability to choose the regions in which you search for a game, Default, Local or Locale only (thank fuck, not so many laggy transatlantic games!).
The main new additions to the game are the Co-op missions. Now in my opinion, all next gen games should have Co-op catered for from the get-go. A large contingent of console/pc gamers are online now and it is worthless making a game without a full online mode incorporating Co-op, because lets face it, competitive multiplayer games are getting tiresome with all the cheats out there (but that’s another article for another time). The Co-op in WAW is not complete, as there are a few campaign missions that cannot be completed in Co-op, a small problem to be honest. For a lot of gamerscore whores who want to get a few of achievements with a group of friends, it’s annoying (see Halo 3 Co-op*) as you can complete the Co-op on veteran but not get the game completion achievement!!
The graphics, as expected are good; it is using the COD4 engine after all. The maps look the part, large, filled with foliage or corresponding debris. Penetrable cover makes a return (if this disappears I will definitely have a shit fit, one of the series saving graces) and it does feel good, and amazingly realistic again, aiming your Tommy-Gun at a beach hut and taking the enemy troops out from behind their cover.
The new addition of the flame thrower is a fun weapon with all the flammable environments, but its not anything compared to the fire propagation in Far Cry 2 or even Alone in the Dark. The vehicles (more like 1 type of Tank) are ok, the look and controls of them are reasonable, but could have been so much better. I was looking forward to some large maps with people carriers not only the odd Tank, like in COD3.
The worst parts of this game for me are the lack of a British Allied campaign in a reasonably good story and a huge lack of originality. The campaign missions are well scripted, even though there is no British perspective (same old American version of world history), and amazingly acted by the vocal talents of Kiefer Sutherland and Gary Oldman. In regards to the originality of the game, it’s a tough one for people to get their chops around: First of all, the WWII shooter market is completely saturated after possibly 13 odd years of different FPS franchises. Secondly, the lack of new innovations in this iteration of COD simply confirms the fact that this is merely an EXPANSION PACK, it is just COD4 in a new skin. And finally, the blandness of the campaign. Playing through WAW, I felt no adrenaline rush or real interest for the characters as I had in COD4.
I did enjoy my play through of COD: WAW. I haven’t really had many games with the Co-op mode, the few I did play were enjoyable, especially with the ‘Death Cards’ activated (these are collectables you can find in the campaign game that activate cheats in Co-op). Also the Zombie mode, which is unlocked upon completion of the campaign, is a very enjoyable mode, think GOW2 Horde, with the continuing levels getting harder.
The Zombie Nazi mode is probably the best part of WAW for me, as they have used the classic foot dragging Zombie, instead of the sprinting-like-fuck Zombies of certain games/films. You use a grenade on these Zombies, body parts fly off. If they lose their legs, they will still drag themselves to bite your ankles! This mode is something that seems to have been really concentrated on by Treyarch and I’m impressed. I still think it should have some more options, e.g. more maps, weapons etc. but it’s a really solid part to an above average shooter.
It’s a good game, but not the game it could have been. But really, Infinity Ward spoiled us with COD4.
If you look at WAW as a stand alone game, it’s a slight fail, but as an expansion pack it’s a reasonable game.
7/10
*I wish I didn’t have to use Halo as a reference, but the Co-op was one of the few positives.
I am in no way a retro gamer. I was born in the mid 80's, into a working class family. We didn't have too much but we did have a very old gaming console.
It was a Sonix/Soundic home video game system.This simplistic console gave hours of fun with the standard variation of Pong (Hockey/Football, Squash/Handball, Tennis/Table Tennis) but also had an amazing shooting game using an excellent pistol/rifle light gun, this is probably why I have an unhealthy enjoyment with target shooting. ;)
This is my first memory of gaming. Its a humble beginning to an amazing world of gaming in the years to come. Others had the ZX Spectrum, the Commodore 64 or moving forward to the NES and Sega systems. These humble beginnings enable the gamer to appreciate any new and rule challenging game designs, the ones that push the boundaries and not necessarily the graphical boundaries (which is unfortunately the main focus in this day and age). I did have a SNES, mainly for SF2, Starfox and a MechWarrior game. I missed out on the PS1 until its last year where I became addicted to MGS, a PS2, Xbox moving up to the present day. A Wii (which has now been sold), a PS3 (hardly used for gaming I'm afraid) and the main machine I use, the Xbox 360. I did dabble over the years with some PC games, mainly Star Wars ones as i could never get on with FPS mouse control, a joystick was my main controller of choice. In all honesty, I believe I'm a well rounded individual in regards to gaming, I have played all types of games over the years and I pride myself in not going always with the hype, but with my own likes and dislikes.
These unpretentiousbeginnings are something that the current generations of gamers do not have. This humble entrance into the gaming past-time has gone and with that we have the birth of a gamer we could do without. The Gaming Chav.
Now I am not a person to ridicule or attack someone for their likes and dislikes. I like to engage the person in a conversation, gather the particular reasons for their opinions and see if I can change their mind or even accept that the person has, in fact, changed mine. I have conversations like this with many of my online friends over xbox live, in particular, Kraven, Tiq and Peace. In these discussions we have all our own likes and dislikes, but do not force them upon others. Something is in common between us all, we were born before or during the 1980's. Now I'm not being Ageist but it seems that any gamer under the age of 20 is more likely to be a member of the Gaming Chavs.
Now the Gaming Chavs are individuals who act more like the Borg. Hear me out. The GC's, as I will call them, all have the same opinions but also split in different directions of fanboydome for games consoles. For example (delete as appropriate):
Halo RULZ it is the best thing EVA
GOW is better than GOW2
PS3 sux ass/rulz
Xbox sux ass/rulz
Wii sux ass/rulz
But they all have the same attitude:
YOU ARE WRONG AND THEY ARE ALWAYS RIGHT
And they will endeavour to change your mind with the insesent "your wrong dude like so wrong" or "halo rulz fullstop!"
Resistance, as they say, is futile. Well in the GC's eyes anyway.
I have PREFERENCES, but I will never be so immature as to be classed as a GC. These individuals may be die-hard fans, but they have no real love or passion for gaming, only the latest fad or overly hyped poor quality game. Having been brought up with the games that are not flashy, but were challenging and interesting have enabled the old school gamers to develop well rounded opinions that have value, not one dimensional arguments from the GC's.
I am really, really grateful of M$ as the new NXE dashboard update enables party chat. Now I don't have to listen to the whining teens moan about how Epic failed with GOW2 or how Halo is the most amazing thing to grace a console. This gives a really bad name to the gaming community, because in any social group it is always the minority that cause the group to have a bad name. We, as mature, well informed and passionate gamers really need to make our cause known. I really hope this doesn't get any worse, as not many people are aware of how close and mature this community of gamers can be.
Truthfully, I can't see it getting any better, what with the current opinion of American gamers getting ever lower (I have a few good American friends online, but it seems that most of who you come across are GC's) and a new breed of British ignorant fools who seem to be getting more and more present over xbox live.
I have hopes, small hopes, but hopes that this terrible situation can be recovered.
We as gamers do need to stand together and try and resolve this now!
