Modern Warfare 2 Ultra HQ wallpapers

Modern Warfare 2 Ultra HQ wallpapers , ...
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Assassin's Creed II HQ wallpapers, screenshots and trailers

Developer :: Ubisoft Montreal Publisher :: Ubisoft Designer :: Patrice Desilets(creative director), Sebastien Paul(producer) Writer :: Corey May Composer :: Jesper Kyd Platforms :: PC, PS3, XBOX 360 Release Date :: November 17, 2009(US), November 20, 2009(EU)
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Far Cry 2 Walkthrough Videos

Posted by Gamer

Publisher: Ubisoft

Developer: Ubisoft Montreal

Category: Action

Release Dates

N Amer - 10/21/2008

Digital Download - 10/21/2008

Intl - 10/24/2008

Official Game Website


Description

Far Cry® 2 is the next-generation first-person shooter from Ubisoft, discover the real sequel to the award winning PC game. More than just a visual and technological achievement, Far Cry® 2 will make you take part in a brand new gaming experience. Discover one of the most beautiful but also most hostile environments in the world, AFRICA!

You are a gun for hire, trapped in a war-torn African state, stricken with malaria and forced to make deals with corrupt warlords on both sides of the conflict in order to make this country your home.

You must identify and exploit your enemies’ weaknesses, neutralizing their superior numbers and firepower with surprise, subversion, cunning and of course brute force.


Far Cry 2 Walkthrough Part1


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X-Men Origins: Wolverine Review

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As I sat down in a closed room this past February at the New York Comic Con, Raven Software lead developers set out and gave us the bold claim that “This is a Wolverine game that will not suck”. With it being based on the movie, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, it’s only loosely so, with nods to the characters comic book background. Raven Software looks to deliver an action game that is all you need to become the relentless Wolverine, and is it possible to consider this title about as fun as Spiderman 2 was back in the last generation? It comes close, but let’s take a look and see what exactly makes X-Men Origins: Wolverine worth your time.

Gameplay

Raven Software and Activision look to take the Unreal Engine and build the Wolverine game of our dreams. They succeed in some ways, bringing together a story from the movie and adding in their own special twist. Having seen the movie and played as much of the game as possible, you will have to realize that the game takes bits of story pieces from the movie and strings them up around the games own storyline. Raven Software was working on this Wolverine game long before it was granted the movie license and claims this is far from being a movie tie-in.
The opening of the game sees Wolverine aboard a helicopter with Team X that suddenly is attacked and brought down. Wolverine is suddenly skydiving straight towards an enemy gate and lands as if an asteroid just hit the earth killing the solider beneath him. If you didn’t get the fact that X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a ‘mature’ rated title, then you do now. Just after getting up you’ll learn two quick things about the game, you can use the environment to deal even greater punishment on your enemies. The second thing is you will learn how to lunge at enemies from across the map. This will help you tremendously in the later levels and it never gets old, even though it’s prone to spamming. This is also where you’ll learn your basic attacks using the X and Y buttons and how to grab enemies with the B button. As you continue through the game and gain experience, you’ll learn more of Wolverine’s special moves that’ll help you in combat.

You’ll notice that the game takes heavy inspiration from God of War and it certainly doesn’t try to hide it. This brawler is built around using a variety of combos and instant kill moves. While there are a lot of quick time events (QTEs), they are scattered and are few and far between. As you reach deeper into the game, you might notice that there are video logs akin to games like Doom 3 or more recently Dead Space, these video computer logs help bridge in the back story if you’re interested. There is also one new ability added to give the game a bit of depth, and with Feral Senses, activated by pressing up on the d-pad, you’ll be able to see hidden enemies, objects and where you need to make your next move.
Outside of slicing and dicing, X-Men Origins Wolverine draws in a bit of RPG elements to give the game some depth and at least some sort of replayability. As you level up, you earn skill points in which you can add to your collection of moves and upgrade for strength through the later levels. Even though the game lasts around a good 8 hours or so, you’ll find yourself heading back to that character menu to upgrade your health, claws and special moves because you’ll need it. There are such moves like Claw Spin, Claw Cyclone and more. An interesting addition is Berserker mode which when activated (using the B button mixed with the right trigger) gives Wolverine an insane amount of speed and strength, think of it as when Mario jumps up and grabs the shiny star to turn invisible and instantly knock over anything in his path.
As a side note you’ll also find collectibles throughout the game. Dog tags which are attached to dead soldiers will help you gain extra experience and help you level up faster. Action figures will unlock various costumes, so you’ll be able to wear the nostalgic yellow spandex for instance. Finally we have the DNA icons which will increase and heal your health, so if you’re in the middle of battle you can save one of these on the map for when you need it because there are times where enemies will flood the screen overpowering you to the point of frustration.

There are only a few problems with X-Men Origins: Wolverine. There is almost no replayability and the fact that there isn’t much content to further give you a reason to revisit the game. Of course, there is the hope that it will come in the form of downloadable content somewhere down the line. Aside from unlocking hard mode after beating the game or getting the extra level from pre-order, there isn’t much to look forward to after the credits roll.
With Wolverine and his regeneration ability you really won’t be seeing any “Game Over” screens unless you decide to somehow jump off the cliff during one of the levels. So, in essence there really is no way to kill Logan. Some of the early boss battles just have you jumping on the back of huge manufactured monsters and slicing their back till they bleed out. Not very exciting until you reach the highlighted boss battles like the Sentinel Mark I, Gambit or even the much-loved Deadpool.
Finally, the most obvious problem is the puzzles. Throughout the game you’ll run into a fair amount of puzzles and even one will have you scratching your head. This is where the Feral Sense ability comes into play greatly to guide you in the direction to solve these puzzles. However, sometimes things aren’t quite as clear cut as you think. So, in the end of it all you’ll find yourself doing things over and over again before the end result ends up being something so easy you’ll want to bang your head against something.

Graphics

The graphics definitely aren’t that bad for a game using Unreal Engine 3. It’s surprising to see how the engine is able to produce colors outside of brown and grey that we’re used to seeing from Gears of War. There is one scene in the trailer that shows Wolverine in a tub of water as he gets injected with the Adamantium to become indestructible that is about as cinematic as the game gets with high powered graphics. Outside of that, the engine seems to be able to handle the constant stream of enemies as nothing seems too out of the ordinary or jittery while the camera moves around to keep pace with you. Environments are nicely done and manage to convey what’s needed to get the job done, though the camera does get “stuck” here and there and finds itself in rather strange views. There’s nothing too out of place and all the characters are nicely rendered so you won’t notice anything strange.

Sound

Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, and even Danny Huston all came aboard to lend their voices to their respective characters. Raven Software made sure they weren’t messing around when it came to the likeness of each character, especially when Wolverine himself looks much like Hugh Jackman himself, so it’s pretty obvious the character needed to sound like him. Outside of that, everything feels as if it should be blasted through a surround sound system. The musical score is very light so you won’t hear much from it to even care about its presence. The only sound you’ll need to hear is the Wolverine’s claws slicing up those enemies left and right.

Plasma Factor

Blood. If this Wolverine game ended up getting a Teen rating from the ESRB, there would definitely be a thousand screams in horror as most movie-tie in games ends up turning into. It would be a shame especially since Wolverine is a character that is just dying for blood. However, when the ESRB announced that this game was rated M for Mature, a big grin ran across my face and was something that never went away even while playing the game for this review. The blood factor in this game is magnified ten fold upon the first cut of the enemy. The fact that you can also use the environment for your kills is another big plus. Throwing enemies against the electric vent or a sharp metal pole never gets old.

Conclusion

X-Men Origins Wolverine is a game you should definitely rent first if for any reason you’re unsure about whether or not to make the purchase. There are definitely things that will get even the most experienced gamer confused and frustrated. Besides all of that, X-Men Origins Wolverine is a fairly solid third-person action game thanks to the Unreal 3 Engine it’s powered on. You most likely won’t get bored by the constant stream of slicing and dicing dudes every single level. If you managed to pre-order the game and picked it up, you’ll at least get some replayability just from the challenge room level alone. Overall, X-Men Origins: Wolverine should be a great addition to your library if for the sake of achievement collecting alone.

Call of Duty: World at War PC Review

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Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare exploded onto the scene in 2007, absolutely overwhelming gamers with its expansive multi-player and a refreshing modern-day setting. However, Activision worked with Treyarch this time around and brought us back to the all too familiar war that many of us have learned about from the umpteen-thousand shooters that have come from it.

Gameplay

World at War follows two separate plot-lines that focus on the battles in the Pacific involving the United States and the Japanese Empire, as well as in Eastern Europe with Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. You'll control Private Miller and Private Petrenko as you hop back and forth between their respective campaigns while war is waged around the world.

If you've played any of the other games in this franchise and/or if you're familiar with first person shooters at all, you know what to expect. In most of the scenarios, you will be on foot, advancing through fields, bunkers, trenches, blown out buildings and the entire WWII ilk. You'll have to lead your squad towards the all too familiar checkpoint marker and be given fairly generic objectives. I don't know how many times we are expected to take out AA turrets, machine gunners, and heed the obligatory “USE THE PANZERSHRECK!” commands that Call of Duty fans have been subjected to since the first game was released in 2003.

In a couple of scenarios you'll find yourself piloting a tank, taking out other tanks, which we have also done many times before. Normally I might complain about this monotony, but this is a World War II game. This is what happened, unless Treyarch wanted to fabricate history and add alien technology subplots. This is the same old war, but it’s still just so damn satisfying to shoot Nazis in their big heads.

All in all, there is nothing exceptionally new here, World at War is simply a very well executed first person shooter with almost no flaws in the game play. The default controls are very well laid out, but of course being on the PC, everything is customizable. With my Razer Lachesis, I mapped zoom, reload, grenade, special grenade and melee to a different button on my mouse. Most of this is just out of religious habit, but also I found that trying to mash “V” while being ambushed by a Japanese soldier proved unreliable, as I would often hit “C” which is used to crouch. I don't have to tell you what happened if I chose to crouch while being stabbed.

World at War also takes on almost exactly the same gameplay style as Modern Warfare. You will create an online profile and earn points by killing, capturing points and activating recon planes and unleashing air strikes upon your enemies. New in this release is the ability to unleash a pack of bloodthirsty dogs to locate, and often kill, your enemies. They are truly terrifying to hear run up behind you because it’s one bite, one kill for these pups.

All the familiar modes are here; Free for All, Team Deathmatch, War, Capture the Flag, Headquarters, Domination and Sabotage, where you will work with your team to try and bomb your enemy's objective. Back are the perks that you will earn as you gain experience points for your player profile. Camouflage will make you invisible to enemy radar which is one of the most useful ones in my opinion, as well as Stopping Power which will increase the damage your bullets do by 40%.

Call of Duty 4's multi player mode is largely the reason it was such a huge success, and World at War is no different. The maps are well designed with tons of places to hide, offering very wide open spaces to sprint across, and tight quarters where you will no doubt fear the Trench Gun. Earning points to level up RPG style will make you want to play a little longer each time you log in. You can also create several different customizable load-outs to adjust to your playing style on the different maps. It’s simply an addicting aspect of World at War's multi player mode.

Graphics

One word came to mind over and over again while playing World at War; polish. No, not relating to Poland. Like car polish. The visuals in this game are absolutely stunning, provided you have a decent rig to play it on. With a GeForce 8800 GT, Intel Core 2 Duo at 3.29Ghz and 4 gigabytes of ram, this game never choked while running at my monitor's 1080p native resolution. Your men's faces have the shine of sweaty, grizzly faced warriors, explosions glow red and orange with scorching flames and red embers will fall from the sky while you're duking it out amidst burning rubble.

The graphics engine used in World at War is the same as the one used in Modern Warfare. At this point, Treyarch seems to have optimized it to near perfection. The visuals are very attractive to look at, and while not as insanely detailed as Far Cry 2, there were instances where I thought the scenery looked a lot more attractive due to the gruesome, macabre nature of World War 2.

Sound

We've come to expect an amazing sound from the Call of Duty franchise and World at War does not disappoint. There are so many different sounds in the mix when you're in the middle of a fire fight and there are bomb shells exploding and tanks rumbling around you. This game should set a standard for this genre in terms of authentic and engrossing sound, and having a surround sound set-up only makes it better.
With the Americans, you'll hear Kiefer Sutherland narrate as Gary Oldman narrates the Soviet campaign in a convincing Russian accent. You can expect very professional and spot on voice-acting from these Hollywood heavyweights as well from the rest of the cast in World at War.

The music in this game takes the intensity of war to a new level. Every piece of music, from a classy, somber orchestration to intense, driving electronic sounds amplifies your senses. World War 2 never sounded better.

Plasma Factor

Most people would jump right in to World at War's multiplayer mode because of its robustness and customization, and that’s something we've come to expect, but the game's single player mode surprised me the most. It is a true work of art from start to finish. The level of immersion in this game is unparalleled. You'll spend about as much time on this as you did with the single player mode in Modern Warfare, which I feel is a little short, but you can never have too much of a great thing.

Conclusion

Treyarch managed to perfect the WWII shooter here, focusing on less popular battles and providing some top notch narration to pull you through the trenches and bombed out buildings in Eastern Europe, and through the islands in the Pacific. Not only is the single player mode satisfying, but Call of Duty 4's multiplayer mode is back and is only getting better. This is without a doubt, one of the best multiplayer first person shooters that has been produced in a long time and will keep you glued to your computer screen for quite a while.

Obulis Review

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Obulis, a puzzle game from IonFX Studios and Meridian4, promises gamers a fun time as they attempt to solve various puzzles. Explore different locales as you attempt your way though the many levels the game has to offer. The most pertinent question is: does Obulis drag you into its gameplay or make you pull your hair out in frustration?

Gameplay

Obulis has gamers chart their course as they make their way through a variety of game worlds. There are over 150 levels that master require mastering, complete with several “overworld” maps through which gamers must make their way. To advance through the various paths that are available on each map, gamers must solve a variety of puzzles that breakdown to simply placing a colored ball into its correspondingly colored container.

Obulis can best be described as a puzzle game that involves correct processes. Differing from other games that follow this formula, Obulis takes it a step further and accounts for momentum. This adds difficulty and thought as players attempt to place the correct ball in their proper places.

The basic method of solving a puzzle in Obulis involves dropping the properly colored ball in it's corresponding container. This can be done through a variety of methods. Don’t expect just a basic game of pinball as you attempt to drop the ball in its proper place, instead, gamers are met with a wide variety of in-game devices that further complicate the puzzles.

Obulis places a lot of emphasis on timing. Whether you are on a simple puzzle or one of it's more difficult brethren, expect to find yourself attempting to properly time a shot from a crossbow, catapult or even a cannon. On top of properly timing the shot of one of these devices, you must also take into account the momentum of the objects as you release a chain to drop the ball. While all of this may sound very basic, you may find yourself very frustrated.

While the easier difficulty levels of Obulis can be solved without much difficulty, expect to lose sleep over the more expert puzzles. Even if you should get the proper order solved, timing and momentum will also play a large factor in solving a puzzle. This can be especially frustrating as you attempt to place multiple balls in a variety of containers throughout the playing area.

Graphics

The artwork in Obulis is a force to be reckoned with and can be appreciated by any avid puzzle gamer. Each stage is beautifully drawn and contains vivid colors across a variety of environments that will keep you captivated until the end. If only the same could be said about the lackluster game map, then IonFX Studios would have certainly set a new standard.

Sound

From the clink of the balls to the firing of a cannon, Obulis has provided crisp, clear sounds that will keep your ears busy as you attempt to solve each puzzle. While there could have been more variety in music, it is not very noticeable as you are concentrating on solving the puzzles.

PlasmaFactor

For some gamers, the high level of difficulty in Obulis can add another layer on top of an already interesting puzzle game. If you find yourself easily solving most puzzle games, then having to account for momentum will be sure to keep you going at a puzzle until the end. For other gamers, however, this added difficulty may be too harsh and could even lead them to skip some of the more difficult maps.

Conclusion

Obilus has combined a variety of elements that helps move you along through it's world. While entertaining and well thought out, some of the puzzles within Obulis will have novice strategists dropping their keyboard and resorting to other means of entertainment. Those that enjoy an additional challenge, however, will find the added element of physics to be a refreshing test. Overall, Obulis is an excellent puzzle game and will keep even the most advanced puzzle masters busy for quite some time.

Plants vs. Zombies Review

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While best known for their casual gem-swapping game Bejeweled, PopCap Games, will undoubtedly gain notoriety for their new “tower defense” style game, Plants vs. Zombies.

Gameplay

The idea behind Plants vs. Zombies is simple: protect your house from an invading horde of zombies by planting a variety of plants to stop them. While simple at first, conquering each level in adventure mode will unlock a new plant which will assist in the slaughtering of the new breeds of zombies introduced after every round. The further you progress in adventure mode will unlock the mini-games, puzzle mode, survival mode and the zen garden.

If you've played tower defense, or even if you haven't, getting a handle on the gameplay is simple. You have six rows in your yard in which zombies will invade while you must sow a variety of plants to stop them. You'll start out with a limited crop early on, but that is all you need when you encounter an un-diversified beginning horde.

Players (or Planters) will most likely find themselves not losing their home to the enemy until several levels in. The learning curve is extremely low, even for someone (me) who has not played a tower defense before. Even if you struggle keeping the zombies away, you have a huge line of defense waiting in the back if you're fauna end up falling: lawnmowers! Lawnmowers will eliminate an entire remaining row of zombies which most players won’t find out until the latter levels because of the game’s generous learning curve.

After a fairly effortless introduction with the game's first couple of levels, you'll soon have to amp up your tactics as more challenging elements are introduced. Night falls and you'll no longer be able to use the sun loving plants to which you're accustom, and you'll no longer be able to collect falling sunshine. Mushrooms are introduced into the fray and as you progress further, zombies will start to invade your swimming pool and you'll have yet another avenue to defend. You'll come across gravestones and fog which make your fight more difficult, but you'll be rewarded with new plants to combat these new elements. However, your limited number of seed slots hampers your tower selection, adding another degree of difficulty.

After you’re bored with adventure mode, you can try your green thumb at the mini-games. You'll be able to bowl a selection of walnuts to fight off the zombies, play a slot-style game in which you're gambling for different plants with which to do combat, and even access a mode in which the zombies themselves have pea-shooters for heads so they can have a long range battle with you!

While it is quite fun zipping through the levels, one can't help but grow tired of the reward system in adventure mode. You'll earn a new seed to plant to combat the one new enemy type that is thrown at you, and the process simply repeats after every level. There are honestly several seed types that you will never have to, or want to plant. Sooner or later, you may find yourself yawning with adventure mode, with no real desire to complete the game.

Graphics


With clean, simple and cute graphics, you won't find anything particularly ugly about this game, nor will you find anything outstanding. The colors are solid and sprites are well drawn. You won't find any gruesome Resident Evil or Left 4 Dead style zombies here, this is more of a game that wouldn't offend your 70-year-old religious grandmother. The visuals in Plants vs. Zombies definitely serve their purpose, although they really could have benefited from some high definition production a `la Alien Hominid. In this day and age there really is no excuse for having an 800x600 native resolution. I understand that PopCap Games probably wanted this to be available on a wide range of hardware, but the year is 2009, and the resolution is 1920x1080. This game would have looked great in 16:9.

Sound

The only notable thing in the sound department that may strike your nerves is that it sounds like PopCap ripped the Facebook chat pop sound to use as the seed popping noises that are all over this game. You're going to find yourself Alt-Tabbing back to your browser the first few times you play this game if you are a frequent user of the social network site. Other than that, the sound effects are simple and clean. The grunting and growling of the zombies as they approach are, well...cute. You'll get a snippet of Michael Jackson's “Thriller” as a familiar dancing zombie dances toward your house with his crew. The music is very unassuming but does not get repetitive despite the limited selection.

PlasmaFactor

PopCap Games managed to produce a simple and addictive game that won't take up too much of anyone's time. Not only that, but being priced at $9.99 doesn't hurt either. Value is the keyword here, and if you're like me, you'd need a break from all the FarCrys, Halos, WoWs, and Call of Dutys that take up so much of our time. Simply having a game that you can jump on for 5 minutes before work is a pleasure in the world of more complex and time consuming epics.

Conclusion

Plants vs. Zombies is a very fun, mildly addictive strategy game that is well worth the price of going to the movies these days. Don't expect a game with the depth of Portal because it isn't here. However, if you're tired of that life leeching MMORPG that you're playing, Plants vs. Zombies might be your refresher.

Prototype Review

Posted by Gamer

Open world games seem to be popping up more and more these days. In the development world, they are probably the most exciting things to create. No matter what kind of world you find yourself in, it’s always fun to explore it and that’s what every gamer does when they first throw in an open world game, you explore it and climb to the highest building in the area like you own the world. That’s the case with Prototype, the newest open world game from Radical Entertainment. In many ways, some compare it to Sucker Punch’s, inFamous, which is an interesting topic for conversation but not one we’ll delve into much here. We’re here to talk about Prototype a completely new IP in the industry and something that actually manages to do things differently for once. Let’s take a look.

Gameplay

In the case of Prototype, a viral outbreak has the city running rapid. The military is doing its best to control the situation but things just get out of hand before they get better. The game opens up on Day 18 of the viral outbreak with 100% of the population infected; however that’s not where you actually begin the game. This is where the game fails before it even begins.

You play as Alex Mercer as he tells the story of the events of the breakout as it happened 18 days ago. He is a man with no memory and wakes up in a morgue wondering what the hell is going on. You find yourself holding a power that you have not yet realized the potential of. Alex is unfortunately at a loss as to how he got these powers. His mission? Find anyone who had an involvement in creating the monster that he is. The game teases you into thinking you’re beginning as this powerful antihero on a revenge plot to find out what and who you are. You are dropped into the game with all of you’re powers in tact giving you the chance to mess around in the world before taking them away like taking candy from a baby, cliché phrase but it’s literally how the game works.

If you manage to get a hold of the Xbox 360 version of the game, you will be mighty pleased by the controls and how easy it is to control Mercer. In the beginning it’s easy to control your character because you only have so few moves to learn and remember. However, as the game moves on and you start to upgrade and purchase new abilities the list just keeps getting bigger and bigger and it becomes more of a challenge to keep up. The game, however doesn’t force you to remember every move, this is why the radial sub-menu is there to help you select which move is the right one for you and the mission you have on hand.

New moves are earned from using experience to purchase them and upgrade your abilities. If brought up, a radial menu by pressing the right bumper; slows the game down allowing you to make your next decision on which move you’re going to use next. Outside of using your own abilities to wreck havoc you can use conventional weapons like machine guns and rocket launchers dropped by enemies as well as eventually hijacking helicopters and vehicles for even more damage points.

The biggest selling point of the game has to be Alex’s ability to “consume” or absorb anything in his path. By pressing a specific button combination you can easily regain your health and the memories of unsuspecting victims to give you the advantage in your mission. You’ll be doing a lot of this as you reach deeper into the game and find yourself in an overwhelming position. There are times where the difficulty is sneakily bumped up a bit to keep you on your toes once you start fighting more and more infected enemies. Consuming also has its benefits by allowing you to take the disguise of the person you just consumed. This will help as you sneak into military bases and try to uncover the secrets of the viral outbreak and where you’ll need to head next.

Another big thing that you’ll notice about the game is your detection-meter. You are obviously a target that the military is trying to search for and kill. If you get anywhere near a military presence, your meter will turn yellow and if you do things that get their attention the meter will build up and if it hits red be prepared to be pummeled with gun fire and rocket launchers from every possible angle. The only way to escape it is to run away as fast as possible until the meter drops and you’ll hear on the radio that military has lost track of you. The game certainly doesn’t get any easier as time passes, and the city starts to become a rather perilous place to be.

The game is described as an open world title; it isn’t exactly as open world as you might think. Manhattan has about 200 orbs flowing around specific landmarks that will end up unlocking an achievement if you manage to collect them all. The city unfortunately ends up looking the same everywhere you go, and outside of those landmarks nothing else looks very desirable. Outside of that there are optional side quests like timed missions allowing for races on top of buildings or consuming a certain number of pedestrians before the time runs out. The game isn’t shy about exposing its “Mature” rating, the language and blood throughout the game is quite pleasing and something that harkens back to Gears of War.

It will take around a good 10 hours or so to complete the core story for Prototype. After the ending credits, however, the fun doesn’t stop there. You can easily return to Manhattan with all of your upgrades and abilities in tact. You can either play through the main story again or stick with the side missions and optional objectives. Mercer is a nicely designed character that manages to take to the parkour adventure of the game and it feels good. The game surprisingly manages to hold up pretty well framerate wise with all the crowd’s enemies running around onscreen. Crowds and enemy animations don’t collide much with each other. Enemy AI is ok for the most part and despite jumping up in difficulty a few times on certain boss battles.

Graphics

Prototype is a hard game to judge on the graphics front. It isn’t exactly astounding or a graphically powerful game to look at. Manhattan itself is nicely designed and all the landmarks are there and replicated with much detail. The city itself is pretty detailed as well and although it doesn’t differ much as you explore, you probably wouldn’t care to take a gander at anything once you get your glide ability and find yourself literally surfing around the city. The game has its own style and because of that you get a feel for the viral outbreak that’s going on and why the art direction is the way it is.

The game’s physics engine is something I would scratch my head at. If you watch a building collapse for the first time, you would notice that it practically looks like your playing on the Playstation 2. A little more effort could have gone into making things a bit more realistic at least for a game that has you destroying everything in its path.

Sound


You’ll manage to hear everything as usual here. Voice work is rather bland and doesn’t exactly capture your mind if you’re looking for something mind blowing. There isn’t much emotion other then the fact that you know you’re in it for revenge and pretty much the script sticks to a one string emotion that carries throughout the rest of the game. Radio chatter lets you listen in to what the military is doing and lets you keep track of when they’re calling in for a strike team and you’ll have to remember to kill the person calling in before it happens. Mercer himself is nicely done but again a rather bland character that doesn’t make you feel involved in the storyline.

Plasma Factor

The bonus for the game? The ability to consume your victims, the fact that you are stuck with being the bad guy helps in this situation. Consuming anything in your path allows for health regeneration and memory regeneration essentially. It’s what keeps the game moving and what hopefully keeps you happy.

Unfortunately, combat ends up feeling like a button mash contest to see where you’ll end up in the end of it all. As you learn new abilities you’re going to be learning new button combinations once the situation presents itself. This is where the feeling of being overwhelmed comes in after being attacked by waves and waves of enemies before you can manage to run away from them. The military certainly doesn’t make any qualms about hunting and killing you.

Conclusion

Prototype manages to keep one word in mind, satisfying. While it will manage to annoy some at times, especially when the difficulty ramps up, the option to just explore the world will ease your mind from the trials and errors of the main campaign. You will die a lot, especially once you start getting overwhelmed and have no idea what you’re doing. Prototype has enough unique abilities and missions that it’ll keep you busy and interested for the time being while waiting for something else to pop up. In the long run, Prototype is an interesting new IP and is certainly welcomed in an industry that always seems to lavish in the sequel realm.

Battlefield 1943

Posted by Gamer

When Battlefield Bad Company released it sparked new interest in the series particularly because of its new engine, the Frostbite engine, created by the developers at DICE. The game garnered a lot of attention thanks to its characters and story that pulled you in and kept you around waiting for you to blow everything up. The series itself has been known for its multiplayer offerings and has been delivering on that front for many years. In Battlefield 1943, the game pits Imperial Japanese forces against the might of the American military. You’ll be fighting in the Pacific jumping from island to island capturing as many villages as you can to declare victory for your team.

Gameplay

There isn’t much of a learning curve when it comes to the Battlefield series. Basic control functions are easy enough to figure out and you should be fighting for your life in no time. Most of the features in the game will feel at home to Battlefield veterans, there is a reinforcement bar at the top of the screen based on the amount of players in the game. As you die and respawn the bar goes down and when the bar is depleted the game ends. Each game is decided by player count or by your team capturing all the flags on the island. Every map has 5 capture points and you and your squad mates have to work together to capture all of them while defending them at the same time from the enemy. To make things interesting there are 3 different skill sets you can choose from before you spawn in the match. You have Riflemen, Infantrymen and the Scout and this works for both teams.

The Riflemen carries your standard rifle with a grenade launcher equipped and several grenades. Your Infantrymen carries a small submachine gun with rocket-propelled grenades as well as a wrench to fix broken vehicles. The scout is equipped with a sniper-rifle, pistol, sword and remote explosives. Though you’ll have access to an unlimited amount of ammo you still have to reload your weapon based on the amount of ammo you have on you. You can spawn near your friendly capture points which shift the action constantly. You have to think on your feet quickly otherwise you’ll be killed almost instantly. The bonus to the game is the ability to fly planes and take off from either your base on land or off the battleship which is not too far off shore. Controlling the planes is rather an interesting experience. The planes take advantage of both control sticks and it should be noted that you are better off switching to third-person view when you’re in the air. With the planes, you can drop bombs on your unsuspecting enemies and even dogfight for control of the air. Be careful, anti-aircraft weapons are on the ground and your enemies will be taking advantage of them so don’t be surprised if you get shot down. Make sure you get enough practice with those planes, otherwise you’ll find yourself scrutinized by your teammates.

The options looking at the grander scheme of things are limited. You don’t have a single-player campaign to introduce you to anything and only two multiplayer modes. 1943 is a pure downloadable multiplayer experience. The game supports up to 24 players and if you are able to gather 16 of your friends you can easily form up a private match. Outside of that you’re only option is to jump into the public matches. The game doesn’t exactly shuffle its options for you and with 3 maps, you’ll likely be seeing the same map during the next round. When you’re inside the maps, players can join up into squads of up to 4 to help in battle. What this also helps with is the ability to spawn with your squad mates in battle and receive special bonuses for helping out fallen friends. You can even select certain objectives for you and your team to make a run for. Achievements are limited but the game does have its own reward system and ranks you based on experience as you level up. The ranking system, however, doesn’t exactly provide any advantages or bonuses.

During the first 3 days of launch, the game was greatly hindered by server issues. Though, thanks to care from the developers, those have been fixed and you should be able to find a room quick enough instead of having to wait for an hour before getting into a match. Also amazingly, during the first week, the game surmised a kill count of 43 million unlocking a special 4th aerial map with unique variants making for a dog fighting special event. Each map has an air-raid bunker that allows you to call in for an air-raid to drop bombs and give for massive damage on the enemy and even eliminating an entire village leaving to being a pile full of flaming rubble. You should know that your main bases can’t be captured so you’ll always have at least one spawning point and it’s just a matter of fighting for control of the others. It’s easily safe for novices to take in the game considering its regenerative health, though that is balanced out by how easy it is to get killed with no help thanks to the long reloading times.

Marking players with red or blue icons on the top of your head makes it hard to coordinate ambushes and park yourself in a sniping position. Though it does help when you’re on the crowded battlefield just running in guns blazing. Outside of its problems, Battlefield 1943 is an easy game to get addicted to and you’ll find yourself wondering where the time went at the end of it all.

Graphics

Battlefield 1943 runs on a modified Frostbite engine, and comes with all the sights and sounds you would expect from the year 1943. There are some dazzling sights like the ocean floor if you’re in the air, as well as, the explosions on the ground floor just after an air raid. All the maps are fairly detailed with structures and environments surviving well in a heavily server loaded environment. There doesn’t seem to be much drawback and when you find yourself inside a 24 player match, there is little texture pop in outside of walking a long distance and coming up on your destination, but that’s to be expected. Explosions are nicely rendered and pop in and out as they’re supposed to and realistically.

Sound

Everything sounds as it should, explosions go off and you’ll hear them in all their glory. The most hilarious part of it all seems to be the louder then life screams when someone dies. Air-raid sirens are clearly heard for all so you’ll want to make sure you run for cover so you don’t die in the process. The only music you’ll hear throughout the game is the main title sequence which can get tiring after while considering you’ll be hearing a lot of it while you’re waiting to jump in a game. Outside of that everything seems to be pretty much in order and you won’t have any problem getting sucked into the experience before realizing a few hours have passed by.

Plasma Factor

Battlefield 1943 should be an easy buy at $14.99 and offers just enough content that you’ll be coming back for more. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was downloadable content in the pipeline for a future release. More maps would certainly be more desirable at this point as many of you have probably exhausted them by now. The planes are a considerable bonus to the gameplay and while tricky at first, are satisfying in the long run as you drop bombs on your nearby enemy capture point. There are many ways to play the game and if you manage to be in a squad with your friends it makes thing much easier to fight and not get killed so easily.

Conclusion


Battlefield 1943 manages to capture your attention and keep you around for a while. Despite its flaws there is still that good feeling inside when you manage to have a successful dogfight protecting the skies and protecting your team for the win. Don’t let any harsh criticism of the game push you away from trying it out at least once. The game lacks content, but it certainly doesn’t lack heart.