I was just checking out some upcoming PC games on the Best Buy Canada website, and look what I found. Spore.
According to this page, August 31 of 2008 is the big day for this game. Most sites I’ve check have it listed as TBA 2008 or Q2 2008.
I finally finished the single player campaign of COD 4 last night (I’ve been playing multiplayer mostly). Be aware, this post will have…
So I’m going to start by saying that the game was awesome. Loved it. Can’t wait to play it again and try the arcade mode.
I also want to say that perhaps (at least for me) this year’s biggest game innovation is game length. Or should I say game shortness. I thought Portal was awesome and I beat it in one sitting. COD 4 took more than one sitting, but it wasn’t that long. However, the brevity works for it.
Rather than spending 40 hours playing through the same types of situations over and over, COD 4 was fresh every single level. Disabling a nuke on a sinking ship (reminiscent of Goldeneye), being the gunner on a helicopter, firing at terrorists from a A130 gunship, rescuing a pilot from a downed helicopter, crawling through a field as a sniper, stealth assassinating guards as a sniper, sniping from a building taking into account the wind, carrying a downed squad mate to the extraction zone (putting him down frequently so the both of you can get through your enemies), rappelling down a missile silo, taking out tanks, firing at pursuing trucks of enemies while driving like a maniac to escape on civilian highway, using C4 to take out some power lines to temporarily cut power to a secure facility, shooting and even rescuing a VIP on an airplane then jumping out of the plane.
The game was an adrenaline rush from start to finish. I consistently found myself saying out loud “Holy $h!t, that’s awesome!”
Yes, some people will get through the game quickly. I would recommend playing it on a harder than normal difficulty level for yourself. That makes the game far more intense, and it’ll last a little longer.
Also, I would not shy away from buying the game just because the single player is shorter than most. The multiplayer on Xbox Live is the only experience that rivals Halo, only there’s far fewer vulgar screaming 10 year olds.
What COD 4 does that’s better than Halo online is the whole leveling up system. In halo, you get armour. That gives you no competitive advantage at all. COD allows you to upgrade your weapons, and choose unique “perks” to customize your character. You can select extra life, ability to run further, more powerful bullets, better weapon sights, dropping a live grenade when you die. There are many many many different combinations that allow you to really create a character with the abilities that suit you.
Also, COD 4 has the party system, and lots of people are playing online, so you won’t have any problem finding a game. It’s not unusualy for me to see well over 100 000 people online at any given time.
In short, yes. Buy it and play it.
Has anybody played it on PC? Is there a good community playing it online on PC?
This is certainly not a new complaint/request, but I really feel like I should voice it as well.
NHL 08 is probably the best hockey video game of all time. It plays like hockey, it looks like hockey, and it’s so much fun. The stick control actually does put the user in control of what happens.
However, taking this game online is barely satisfactory because once you are playing it is excellent to play. However, trying to get into a game is a major frustration, especially the first time.
The very first time you go online with it, it wants you to read what feels like 300 documents. And it wants you to create an EA account. Why? I have an Xbox live account, that should be enough. Strangely, once you do that, you never see any of that stuff again. So at least that’s a one-off.
Next, if you select “Quick ranked play”, or one of the other “quick” games, it checks for rosters (and asks you if that’s ok). If there are new rosters then it downloads them (but again, asks you if that’s ok first). But it seems like you’ve already joined game while it’s doing this. So about 90% of the time, your opponent leaves the game because there’s seemingly nobody there. So then you must re-start your search.
No big deal right? Wrong. It seems like if does that whole “checking for rosters” for every single game you play (or at least until sombody doesn’t quit on you). So annoying. EA, fix it.
The other thing that should be included in NHL 09 (and indeed every multiplayer Xbox game) is the party system. For those of you that don’t know what that is, it’s the system that Halo 2 pioneered on Xbox live. It’s currently used in Halo 2, Halo 3, and Call of Duty 4. I don’t think there are any others.
The party system allows you to essentially create a custom lobby for you and your friends, and that party goes and plays game together all the time.
This would be ideal in NHL 09 (and indeed all games) since I frequently want to just play with one friend. Why do I have to do that whole stupid lobby system. The lobby system works on PC, but I think it’s usefulness on consoles is pretty lame.
Also, with a party system, then you and your friend could more easily take on another opponent together. Then you can eliminate all those other options for finding a match. There could be ranked, unranked, and maybe a “large-group” option. No more lobbies, no more confusion.
EA’s got the money to make their online games flawless. There’s really no excuse for not having a party system.
P.S. Can we have monthly roster updates? I mean seriously.
I was glancing through the website for the Spike TV Video Game Awards today. Noticed some interesting things about the Game of the Year nominees.
Now I own all the nominated games (for game of the year), and they’re excellent. However, I hear Super Mario Galaxy is possibly the best Mario game ever, which alone should give it a nomination. It’s nominated for best Wii game, but not Game of the Year. Perhaps it has to do with the release dates of the games (however I think it was out one week before Mass Effect, or at least the same week).
The VGAs have been accused of being a popularity contest in the past, and I’d say that critisism holds true today. Aside from The Orange Box, all those games had big marketing campaigns. Of course, that doesn’t explain why Guitar Hero III isn’t on there.
Also, other games that I own that could easily be nominated, Call of Duty 4 and Assassin’s Creed.
And on another side note, are racing games just out of style now? Forza 2 is a very impressive simulation racer.
I’m not sure when or what it was, but some time back I stopped following news about Assassin’s Creed. I saw the screenshots and I saw the demos at the conventions. It looked good. But there was something about it that just seemed to me like it would never happen the way they were presenting it. It was similar to many games, but different enough that it was still doing something new.
Anyway, I forgot about it. Which was easy since there’s Halo 3, COD 4, Mass Effect, Bioshock, NHL 08, and The Orange Box. I could easily save myself a few bucks and not buy it. But Best Buy had a deal. COD 4 and Assassin’s Creed bundled together for $90. I re-checked the reviews of Assassin’s Creed, and decided it was worth the money.
I admit, the game started a bit slow, but that didn’t last too long.
At first, I played it how I would play any similar game. I found guys, and button mashed to kill them. It was fun, but no big deal really. Then the game forced me to change my tactics. It forced me to play like an assassin. Hiding in plain sight, attacking targets unknowingly.
Now the game is so awesome. It’s open-world-like, but not overly. And there’s even spots where the graphics and the scale made me say wow out loud. Remember the first time you played Halo and the environment’s scale really jumped out at you? Same thing, when I saw Jerusalem from a nearby cliff.
My character now has counter attacks that make me jump out of my seat. There’s a lot of them too, they don’t feel like scripted actions yet. They kinda feel like moves out of a Kung-Fu movie.
Basically, everyone needs to give this game a shot. It’s BETTER than you think it is.
I’m not a super huge fan of guitar hero or anything, but I know people who are into it. But this is the video review of Rock Band. Somebody I know get this so that I may try out the drums.
If you notice my gamercard in the sidebar, you’ll see that last two games I’ve played are Halo 3 and The Orange Box.
Yes I pre-ordered both from EB Games.
Yes I know, I really shouldn’t pre-order. I did anyway, and here’s why: At least there’s less of a chance of me not being able to get the game on the first day.
I’ve heard all the horror stories about EB Games and similar game retailers about not fulfilling pre-orders. Let’s not forget the Xbox 360 launch. I got hosed on that deal, but at least that was a hardware thing. I can understand that.
But when it comes to printing DVD discs with games on them, supply should never be an issue.
I pre-ordered the Halo 3 Limited Edition. I did not receive it. EB Games didn’t get enough of that SKU. They had plenty of the Legendary Edition, plenty of the regular version, but not the one I pre-ordered. At least I could settle for the regular version, which I did. I was angry, but I quickly forgot that when I put the game in.
Enter The Orange Box. Also pre-ordered at EB Games. When I show up yesterday to pick it up, they’re shipment was all French discs. Perhaps it’s not their fault. Maybe it was Microsoft, the EB Games manager, maybe just the UPS guy. Nevertheless, I cannot continue to pre-order through EB Games.
Buying a brand new game that I’m excited enough about to pre-order should not be the single worst experience of my week everytime I pre-order.
Is it just me or is texture streaming an issue with the Xbox 360 or the Unreal Engine, or both? Two of my favorite games, Gears of War and Bioshock, both use the engine (I’m only speaking of the Xbox 360 versions) and both have texture streaming delays at times. At first, I didn’t notice any in Bioshock because I was too freaked out to walk at full speed.
So what’s going on with these streaming delays? We are still in the early stages of this console generation, and I can’t remember seeing these issues on the first Xbox until Halo 2, which basically pushed that system to the absolute limit. I know that some developers are still learning how to program for these systems. However, the Xbox 360 has been released to the public for nearly two years now, and you know the developer boxes have been out even longer. So is it the engine? What’s going on and why is this still happening?