Bodycount Demo Impressions: Due to Fail

First-person shooters come out year after year, each trying to do something new with them. There are the generic ones, such as Call of Juarez: The Cartel (read the review here) to jaw dropping graphics and gameplay, such as the Bioshock series. The demo of Bodycount, from the same people that made the critically acclaimed Black, came out today and I’m here to give you my impressions on it.

The story revolves around Jackson, a former American solider recruited by a organization called “The Network”, who solves the worlds problems when others can’t. This demo takes place in one of those areas.

Destructible environments? Black had better ones then this.

There was the promise of destructible environments in this game. I really don’t see that. There are many areas that can be destroyed, but they are severely limited in what can be destroyed. For example, there were places where a rocket or grenade would have destroyed everything. It’s true that fortified buildings should partially be standing, but what about the huts? The areas were destroyed enough to make me get the hell out of there, but it’s not the same. We were promised completely destructible environments. That’s not what Bodycount seems to be offering.

The AI seems to be all over the place in Bodycount. There were times where they all through grenades at the same time, causing the framerate to drop to almost nothing. There were also times where they just shot straight ahead at a a wall, completely ignoring me. I would restart the game and they would be absolutely fine, trying to flank me and constantly being on the move. These mishaps really took me out of the experiences I was supposed to be feeling. Especially when the AI kills their own teammates. What was with that?

There is a feature called “intel”, where the death of enemies spills out orbs for pickup. These orbs can be used to improve your Operative Support Button, which can call in airstrikes, give you a health boost for a short time, or deliver ammunition. Saving up the points and using them wisely is key, but the results of what I tried weren’t that satisfying.

The graphics are really sub HD. Everything looks pretty bland to me. The gameplay was also really generic, despite the OSB trying to spice some things up.

I can pretty much say that this game will be in the discount bin just a few months after it comes out. We all remember Brink and how that failed our expectations. This seems like it would be no different. It’s filled with empty promises. The graphics and environments are just bland, the gameplay is generic, and the AI seems very  glitchy. This one is doomed to fail.

Call of Juarez: The Cartel Review: Dead Island Better Not Suck This Much

I’m heading down the highway going 90 miles per hour. I can’t see anything. The motion blur is turned up so much that almost everything is blacked out. I get hit by a rocket, which somehow gets deflected with my windshield. I run over a traffic cone shortly after, bouncing straight ahead into a car in front of mine. It caused the car to explode, ugly fire erupting everywhere. The cone flies back hitting my windshield, causing the windshield to explode glass. Cars full of enemies shows up. My partners spray them for bullets. It takes more then five minutes to destroy  two cars. I end up rage quitting.

That was my first reactions of Call of Juarez: The Cartel. The first two Call of Juarez games weren’t the greatest  games ever, but they were very interesting. Just like film today, most forms of entertainment try to stay away from Westerns, but this series tried and to some success. They weren’t great, but they were fun. Call of Juarez: The Cartel completely stays away from there. No where is there any form of Western in it. It’s just your typical first person shooter. One of the worst I have ever played.

Storyline:

The basic idea is that there are three different law enforcement agencies trying to work together to save the day. Each works for someone else, at least with their own agenda. You get to chose which one you want to be. The plot remains the same, but each one gets phone calls from different contacts, each wanting them to do different things. It seems interesting, but it really is not. I also want to point out that it took me more then half the game to realize what the hell was going on. What I told you right there I actually had to go to Wikipedia to find out. The story goes all over the place. Anyways,  all that secret objective is is just a weapon for you two pick up, or a hostage to go up to and set free. That’s it. If you are playing coop, you have to try and sneak away from them to get the objective. However, most players are douches and continue watching you. They never leave you alone. In single player, they do the exact same thing. The AI never has anything to do so all they do is stare at you.

This game had a story?

Gameplay:

Take the generic first person shooters that we all hate, put that image in your mind, and make it time times worse. The gameplay is horrible. The AI is one of the dumbest I have ever seen. They stand there and litter you with bullets. They hardly move at all. The game is littered with bugs. Map markers are constantly disappearing before I even know which way to go. The game reset itself in the middle of the final mission all the way to the very beginning. They don’t just happen randomly. They happen all the damn time. The car sequences are just so messed up. Cars fly away at the slightest touch. Bullets seem to do nothing to my vehicle. I enter the car in one side and end up in the front seat driving, even though I just wanted to take a nap in the back seat. It’s just horrible!

Graphics:

The graphics are worse then shit coming out of most politicians asses. Not only to the character models and environments all look the same, but everything else is just plain crap. The animations are stiffer then a board. As mentioned before, the motion blur seems to have been turned up far too much. Everything is constantly going in and out of focus. The explosions look like the backfire of a car. They have almost no effect on anything. Grenades have to practically be in their mouths if you even want to hurt them. It’s so hard to shoot in such a hell hole.

These guns sounded like Nerf Guns, only less harmful.

Audio:

The voice acting is just plain sickingly. This game is supposed to take place in Mexico, right? I really couldn’t tell, which is partly why I was so confused on the plot. They all sounded the same, with no accents at all. It was like listening to a bunch of robots try to yell at each other. The guns all sound the same. The music is probably the best feature about this game, and even then it completely sucks. The music starts playing at the most random of times, and it doesn’t even remotely match what is going on on the screen. A set of drums started to play, almost great

Multiplayer:

What multiplayer? This game has only been out a couple of weeks and already is the community practically dead. I couldn’t even test out this portion of the game. Nobody wants to play it so why review it?

Behind every gang war, there are clones with guns.

Overall:

This game isn’t just unfinished. It was doomed to die from the very beginning. To the crappy story to the never-ending glitches, Techland should be ashamed of themselves for making such a horrible game. This game better be horrible because they were focusing so much energy on Dead Island. I’m very tempted on cancelling my preorder of Dead Island until further notice.

Score:

2/10

Only because of the very basic idea of a somewhat good story. That’s it.

Fruit Ninja Kinect Review

Fruit Ninja Kinect, the first Kinect arcade game ever to be released on the marketplace, is here. Did it set the bar, or just fall flat?

Single Player

The object of the game is very simple. Slice as much fruit as you can, using both of your arms and sometimes your legs. Depending on what mode you are in, there will be different objectives, power ups, a time limit, or more. Fruit Ninja has no storyline. It doesn’t even have a campaign. All it has is three different modes where all you do is slice fruit. There is the Classic mode, Arcade mode, and the Zen mode. Classic mode is simple. Get your score as high as you can while not letting three fruit fall down the screen. It’s a simple idea, but sometimes very difficult. Arcade mode has a time limit of 60 seconds, but you an let as much fruit fall down as you want. There are bombs and other obstacles that reduce your score, while some other fruit are sliced to your advantage. Some slow down the fruit, some increase the amount of points you get for a certain time. Zen mode is trying to get as many points as you can in 90 seconds without bombs being in the way.

There are challenges. It picks a random mode and gives you a score to beat. The more you beat, the harder they get. It’s a nice feature but I feel it falls a little flat. There are unlockables, such as new blades or backgrounds, but they are merely for show.

As much as I don’t like what the game is about or what it does, it does a great job showing what the Kinect can actually do. You can spin your arms around, move your legs in a weird motion, and it will capture it every time. They nailed it. That’s a incredible feat, considering the many Kinect games now that have failed to do so.

Multiplayer

There are two offline modes to the Multiplayer. There is coop which allows you to work together with a partner to get as many points as possible. There is also a competitive mode that allows you to gain points for yourself, while also trying to hit other fruit to reduce your opponents score. It’s a lot of fun and really shows that this game is meant to play with other people and not buy yourself.

Audio/Visual/Replayability

The sound effects are cute and interesting. The visual style is the exact same as it was on the Iphone or Ipad, which I actually liked a lot better then the Kinect version. I feel that this game is just one to pop up at parties. There is no way I would turn this on at any other time.

Final remarks

Fruit Ninja Kinect is kind of expensive at it’s 800 MS price tag. I think it should be 400 MS or less, especially since I would play it for an hour or two and never touch it again. This game is great for both children and adults, but it’s clearly aimed towards children. This is a great example of what the Kinect can do. However, it’s very childish. The Kinect has yet to show us what it can do in the adult games. I, for one, can’t wait to find that out.

Final score

7/10

Video Games and Anime: Boobs Too Big or Not Enough?

With Catherine released not too long ago, the world was hit once again by Japanese culture. One of Catherine’s selling points was the boobs on Catherine. The other Katherine had almost no boobs at all. Which one would you choose? Are her boobs too big, or do they need to get bigger?

 

A perfect example to explain what I’m getting at is Ivy from Soul Caliber. Games get bigger, better, and more lifelike with every new game that comes out. Ivy changes with each new game she is in. With each passing year, her boobs get bigger. Her bust seems to multiply with each new game. How she holds them up? I have no clue.

Entire franchises are based on sex. Some games give their character’s big boobs just so it can sell well. The games can range from horrible to eye ripping bad, but what do they all have in common? Massive amounts of cleavage, so much that it will make you water. Some other series that are based on sex is Dead or Alive, which created a gaming engine solely for the giggle in their breasts! Other games are Bloodrayne, Rumble Roses, Elder Scrolls, and the ever popular Leisure Suit Larry.

My point is that “sex” sells. The world realized that with Lara Croft. Her endowments were made by complete accident, and it turned out to be one of it’s biggest selling points and helped make Lara Croft one of the video game industries most well known stars. It’s not simply a video game issue, though. I don’t think that the market is getting out of control. Almost every anime in Japan has at least one girl who has boobs bigger then her head. Should America change this trend, or keep it going?

From the perfect bodies to bigger boobs then you could imagine,  video game companies really know how to keep you interested. Games like those previously stated, however, seem to also have a similar effect on women. Catherine’s boobs were a obvious selling point of the game. However, despite that, women absolutely loved the game. My wife watched me play through it and she is almost done with the game herself. She loves it, despite it being targeted towards men.

 

Are these few examples a case where the gaming audience is being changed by marketing teams? Are they making us think that “Bigger is better'”?

Driver: San Francisco Demo Impressions

Is Driver: San Francisco going to be any good?

Driver, a game that redefined what racing game genre, came out years ago on the Playstation One. It had amazing graphics for the time, great controls, and a storyline that would rival the cop shows that were going on back in that day. Years flew by, with every other year or so a sequel coming out. They changed the formula very little. Why change something that was already so great?

Driver: San Francisco was announced awhile back. People kind of groaned because the Driver before sucked butt. San Francisco was Ubisoft Reflections chance on bringing the series back to life. It seems that it just might work.

A few months after the events of Driv3r, it is revealed that Tanner and Jericho survived the shootout at the end of the game. Jericho is transported to San Francisco in the back of a prison truck and Tanner follows him there. Jericho escapes, overpowers the guards, and hijacks the truck. Tanner pursues. Getting stuck in a alley, he is forced into the front of a tractor trailer. The crash leaves him in a coma, where the game takes place.

One of the games latest, and most key feature, is what is called shift. It allows Tanner to shift from car to car and continue the mission that way. Car about to die? No problem. Just switch to any car in your vicinity. However, be warned that it’s not unlimited so be careful. You recharge by doing stunts, driving into traffic, and just being as destructive as possible. Shift can be ungraded to be more distant. Think of it as a Google Earth in terms of how it works. Just find a car you want, click, and its yours.

The game is said to “return to the roots”. It’s true. With that comes top notch controls over the cars. I feel like I’m actually driving it. The cars have a variety of weights to them rather then every car feeling the exact same. Getting out of the car returns in this game, but I’m not certain to what extent that will have later in the game. It just feels tacked on with shift now in play. However, the game can be finished without ever having to use shift. I’m assuming a achievement will go along with that.

Playing through the demo I noticed something that shocked me. For the first time ever in the Driver series, there are licensed cars. There are over 120 of them in the game, ranging from golf carts to muscle cars. They all felt exactly as they should, from the look right down to how it sounds and handles.

The sounds of the cars is top notch. I turned up my speakers at one point only to see that when I revved the engine, the floor vibrated. It left tingles all throughout my body.

Multiplayer is now available for the first time, but seeing as it wasn’t in the demo, I can’t comment on that at this time. At this point, however, only two modes have been announced. Trail Blazer, which allows you to follow a AI-controlled car for points, and Tag, which is exactly what it sounds like.

The demo was excellent. It looked great, ran nicely, and left my wanting more. I am definitely adding this to my wish list for this season, which seems to growing with each passing day.

Just Five Great Examples Of The Downloadable Content Out There Today

Downloadable content is almost a must in today’s gaming community, providing fans with a little more of what they have come to love from their games. Some add characters, new maps for online play, or a complete story-driven experiences providing many more hours of gameplay. With almost every game having DLC nowadays, these are just some of the many examples of great downloadable content that is offered.

 

Borderlands: The Secret Armory of General Knoxx

Enter Borderlands. The game that literally took everyone by surprise and is owned by RPG and shooter lovers alike. The Secret Armory of General Knoxx made the game a whole lot better. On top of raising the level cap, it added new enemies, some amazing weapons, and some great locations. The story was average, but it did fit well with the rest of the game. It was funny and was a lot of fun.

Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare

Rockstar did the unthinkable and created Red Dead Redemption, a game set in the West complete with horses, outlaws, gun fights, and a whole lot more. They went a step further a few months later and released the Undead Nightmare, a zombie filled extravaganza. Everything was zombified, right down to the animals and whores. Adding in hours of gameplay, it was the perfect thing to keep fans from moving on to other games. I recently started playing this game and actually put down Catherine in hopes on finding the Four Horses of the Apocalypse. Yeah, that’s right. I just said that.

 

Fallout 3: Broken Steel

When everyone reached the ending of Fallout 3, they were pissed off. They spent countless hours on all the quests only for the game to end. Their pain was healed when Broken Steel came out. It offered challenging new quests, with decisions that could completely change the Wasteland for the better or worse. It took you to the less known places in the Wasteland, but that’s one of the reasons that made it so great. It showcased more of what the game had to offer, while offering a few new locations to keep you interested. All DLC needs to have the same effect that this one did.

Mass Effect 2: Shadow Broker

One of the best parts of the Mass Effect series was figuring out who the Shadow Broker really was and what he did. Shepard meets up with some old allies as he goes on a mission to find out who he/she really is. It is exactly what every Mass Effect fan wants. It’s three hours of complete heaven, facing off against leagues of enemies. It was the first step in setting the stage for Mass Effect 3. It was perfect in just about every way. Great pacing, epic battles, and a story that kept you on the edge of your seat until the very end.

 

 

GTA IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony

What better way to keep everyone talking about Grand Theft Auto then to make it centered around a bodyguard for Tony Prince, proud owner of the biggest gay nightclub in Liberty City. Gay Tony was slipped in right under everyone’s noses. It was packed with what makes the series so great. From bringing back parachutes, to golden helicopters, to one of the greatest cast of characters in any video game to date, The Ballad of Gay Tony is definitely one of Rockstar’s babies and one of the video game industries finest.