Far Cry 2 first impressions

 For too long has the corridor shooter been the only shooter. A corridor shooter is intensely linear, with only to directions to proceed in: Forward or backward. While the corridor shooters were great last-gen, with Halo and Half Life, they are getting a bit stale now. Hopefully, they will soon be replaced by the sandbox shooter. Games like Crysis and Far Cry 2 encourage you to make tactical decisions about things that are far above the corridor shooter. Rather then deciding, say, should I go left or right, you think about things like the time of day or whether you should let this character die or backstab faction A to do jobs for faction B.

The core difference between a corridor shooter and a sandbox shooter is that in the sandbox shooter you can play it your way. You could opt to make hit and run raids with a vehicle, or make a distraction with remote controlled mine and take your objective with little trouble while the guards are investigating. I hope that Far Cry 2,which allows you to do all these things, becomes the prototype for the genre. 

 Far Cry 2 takes place in Africa, and you play as one of 9 mercenaries from foreign countries. Your brought in to take out the arms dealer know as The Jackal, but that soon goes wrong when your character contracts Malaria. You eventually find some pills, and after a brief tutorial you are flung into a war torn Africa. The UFLL(United Front for Liberation and Labor) and the APR (Alliance for Popular Resistance) are tearing the Savannah apart with constant fighting.

The towns are all under ceasefire, but you will  find plenty of guard posts hanging around the Savannah. 

 Far Cry 2's open ended gameplay flow like this: Get a mission, which are available at almost every point of interest. Find a vehicle, and walking is not an option. Most missions can easily take place 10 miles away from where you received it. Then you have to scout the opposition, marking points of interest on you map. Then you have to formulate a plan. The worst approach is to go in guns blazing. Then,after getting past the guards, you finish up the mission and find a new one.

The gunplay in FC2 is different than most titles.Hip firing is totally and completely inaccurate, so you have to look down your iron sights. This system works well, and it cuts off all those stupid run and gun things we are used to using.Most enemies can take about 5-10 bullets, though one snot to the head kills instantly. Some of the new mechanics are great though. First is fire. Fire is no longer just a lame effect confined to one small area. It spreads quickly through the dry grass,and tactical use of it really helps with an assault. It can go inside buildings and is even affected by the wind. When used properly, fire will force you enemies out of their cover or alienate them from the fighting.

The other cool thing is that enemies no longer just walk around. They have to eat, sleep, patrol at certain times, clean their weapons, check for ieds and socialize.

Far Cry 2 is incredibly innovative and just comepletely amazing. expect a full review soon. 

GTA 4 first impressions

 GTA 4 is here, and it's everything its cracked up to be.  Even though you play as illegal-immigrant Niko Bellic, the real star of the show is the city itself. Liberty City is an unbarred satire version of New York City. People behave exactly like they do in New York: Pissed off and on a Mission! Rather then get your license plate number when you hit them, they flip you off and start attacking you. All the landmarks are in place along with the boroughs (although they are all under different names). 

 One of the most talked about parts of the new Gta is the gunplay system. You pop in and pop out of cover at will, and can even blind fire. You can now free aim, but this is sort of finicky as it requires you to half pull the trigger. This as stupid as it sounds, and I think it would have been better off as a toggle option somewhere in the menu or something.  Combat is pretty thrilling , but the police chases are really the highlight here. Its now radius based, so you might need to get a qaurter mile away from a cop before they stop chasing you. You can't kill them either, as all that does is raise your wanted level. 

 The driving is very good, but its all to clear these are not sports cars. Just jacking the first one you see will often get a ride that simply does not want to turn using a powerslide. At higher speeds they bounce along realistically, and will occasionally flip over. There's no "press rb to flip" option, so your pretty much hosed once they flip. The cars also take damage realistically and wont just explode out of the blue. You can shoot out of the car to, which is pretty cool.

Dark Sector First impressions

Dark Sector has really been a long time in the making. It was the first announced next gen game,but back then it was a sleek sci-fi shooter rather then dark and gory game it is now. The core of he gameplay is very similar to Gears of War: Spirt from cover to cover and pop out occasionally to shoot at enemies. Your health regenerates a bit slower, although you have more of it.  You tend to fight more enemies, and with no squad these are quite a challenge. However, the game gives you a quite interesting tool: The glaive. This little three bladed death frisbee is allot like a boomerang that decapitates people. It returns to you within a few seconds of throwing, and will glitch through walls to find you. If an enemies is hit by the glaive, they most commonly lose a limb. 

 Chopping someone's head off with it is a bit finicky though. I don't know whether hitting someone in their neck or  their head will trigger it, and its nowhere near as satisfying as hitting someone anywhere else. The glaive is actually really easy to use, and is easily your weapon of choice, but only because it makes the game too easy. Since 60 or so percent if hits with it result in death,  and it functions almost exactly like a gun ( just aim and hit RB ), you end up breezing through firefights. The game tries to make it less of a firearm and more of a super death frisbee with after touch ( slo-mo that makes the camera follow the glaive and lets you guide it )  and power throw ( cheesy timing minigame ). Both of these are optional, but are so good you feel guilty about using them.

 Hopefully the complaints will resolve themselves later into the game (I'm only halfway through).

World of Warcraft first impressions

WoW. Not only is this an abbreviation for this game, it also describes it's size. The title is quite literal, this game is actually a world, at least landmass wise. It's probably larger then the states.

So Wow is an mmorpg ( massively multiplayer online role playing game) and the best one out there. I can't really sum up the experience vey well, so here's an overview of the game. You head out as your chosen race and class to complete quests. Most of them involve killing a few specific enemies or a boss level character, and the rest tell you to talk to someone or deliver something. The game is so huge you would feel completely lost if you were did not have some sort of objective, and the huge amount of quest fulfill that.

Another large part of the game is gear. While finding some cloth armor or an average battleaxe will occur every few enemies, a real nice piece of gear is a real rarity. I just found my first green (uncommon) item at level 10! Most itmes you find some useless crud like a dry scorpion eye worth a few copper.

The next part of this addicting formula is the combat. It feels really hectic at the higher levels, and this is great. While most monsters you have to kill rarely pose a threat, if you get careless you can easily be swarmed and taken down in a matter of seconds. This creates an environment of tension and excitement, and carefully creeping around to avoid being attacked by too many creatures feels like a minefield! Sometimes you have to assault a dungeon and this changes the rules. Rather then picking your fights in a huge canyon, you are up close and personal with a range of beasties in a claustrophobic environment.

WoW is an experience that cannot be described with words. Well, maybe one: Wow.

Metroid Prime 3 first impressions

So I just rented Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. It's not really what I was expecting. In the past, Metroid was a side scroller with allot of shooting. So then the Gamecube comes out the game not only makes the switch to 3d, but to a fps. Most fps's control by moving the left stick and looking with the right stick. Not Metroid! Our off all the first person shooter's I have played, that game was the hardest to control. You to hold a button just to look around! Everything else was fine, but the controls were just so bad.

Well, now the inevitable Wii version is out. I was fairly impressed with the basics of the game, with the player sort of manipulating objects with realistic motions. You would twist things with a twist motion, pull them out by actually pulling out... The problem being that this only works one some objects, like controls panels where it only manages to be annoying and imprecise. But rather then move your hand around pick up objects, which would be quite amazing and immersive, but no. Quite like the speech craft mini game in Oblivion, it just feels tacked on.


Besides that minor flaw, everything else holds up fairly well. Combat is well handled and fun, and an intuitive control scheme for your grapple beam feels nice when fighting shielded enemies.

Metroid Prime is set to be the game that Wii owners have been waiting for since that rather bland Red Steel came out. I will try to review it soon.

Wii first impressions, part 3

This is the last one, I promise. Anyway back to the the impressions

Super Mario Galaxy

I'm not really that far, so I cant talk. But so far, the game has been: Amazingly spectacularly awesome. If you own a Wii, get this game.

Wii sports

Besides being a tech demo, Wii sports is a blast. Golfing is great, Base Ball is merely meh, Boxing is fun when it works, and bowling is great. The whole things feels just a little half baked though, but its free, so who cares!

Soul Caliber Legends (rented it two days ago)
Complete Garbage.


And thats the games. The console is fairly fun to use. Using motion sensing to operate menus is fun but impractical, and the virtual console has some real winnzers on its hands. I like the whole Mii system, and I think Nintendo needs to get rid of individual save profils on each game and adopt a unified system using a Mii, much like the 360s gamer tags. Over al the system is fun, and the motion controls are not perfect but will probably get better. They are great now, if a bit buggy.

Wii first impressions, part 2

Well, sicne I have already talked about the console itself, I will now go into some undetailed impressions about the games I have rented or own.

Red Steel (rented)

Red Steel is extremely different then any other shooters out there. To start with, it's controls are... strange. There exactly hat you would expect them to be, so you use the wiimote to look around by turning it to the edge of the screen, and the nunchuck handles using things like reloading and opening doors. It's extremely immersive, but in a bad way. Even though the character you play as is a trained bodyguard, you feel like a civilian whenever you try to aim. The cursor tend s to jump from one side of the screen to the other, and you will often see your gun vibrating really fast, due to some technical glitches. Overall, it feels 's like Red Steel has potential... but, like many aspects of the game, that's has been squandered.

Excite Truck ( rented)

This game started off impressive. Tilting the remote to steer feels great, and works well. But after that quick tutorial telling you how to accelerate and steer, the game go's downhill. Some extremely unclear motions, and the fact that almost all tricks are performed by motions, forces the game downhill. It might be easy to pull off the most basic stuff, but anything else will kill your hands. Seriously. A misunderstanding about the controls scheme made my hand hurt. The controls are just that bad.

Super Mario Galaxy

Wow. And I don't type this sarcastically. This game amazing. Some of the concepts presented steel the show from other, more classic, Mario elements to the point where it makes the game feel like a new franchise.

You may recall Prey. This game had a long development time, and never really fulfilled on it's promises. It's main gimmick was that you could flip around gravity. This was extremely interesting, and was occasionally delivered upon by shooting at enemies on the ceiling. Super Mario Galaxy is remniscent of this game by involving gravity, and unlike Prey, it really feel's great.

In Super Mario Galaxy you shoot from planet to planet, but not in the way presented in game's like Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect. Here you go from sphere to sphere by finding a launch star, and shaking the remote will shoot you to the next area. I have to go now, so I will continue this tomorrow.

Wii first impressions (part 1)

Well, as announced in this post's title, I now have a Wii! It's not exactly mine, my Dad payed for it (unlike my 360, which took about a year of saving) but I can still use it. I have had it for a few weeks now, and my impressions are mostly mixed.

The main flaw is the games. Third party's seem to be focused more on spamming the console with games then creating a solid title. I can't blame them though, as the Wii has a very large installed user base. And that use base is rapidly expanding. The nature of developing for the Wii is very different. The controls tend to be on the extremes. So moving might work, but anything else you might end up throwing a controller. And there seems to be a sort of balance in implementing motion controls. Have 3 or 4 that are used fairly regularly, and your game will be plagued by those controls rather then enhanced. Likewise, pure motion control schemes don't fair very well either, unless they are uniquely suited to that particular game. But motion controls can be a powerful tool of creating immersion when used correctly, as evidenced by Red Steel. It's controls take a bit of getting used to, but they do the job and greatly increase immersion. Unfortunately, everything else was either generic or just plain bad.

But motion controls are at their best in Nintendo's games. In Super Mario Galaxy, the Wii-mote is shaken to execute an attack. This is an ideal setup, as they are not used for much else and constantly tie you into the game. On a side note, Super Mario Galaxy rocks, and go get it. A review will be up sometime soon.

And they are also on display at their finest in Zelda. Also used for attacking, they are effective but not as good as in Galaxy, as they carry out different attacks with similar motions.

I'm running out of things to type now, so I'll make this a two part. Or more. Anyway I will try update tomorrow.

Halo 3 first impressions

I'm so tired. I waited in a line for two hours to secure my copy of Halo 3, and I played it for seven hours straight in a mix of multi and single player modes. While I am not far enough in to post a review, I can tell you that Halo 3 is,by all means, an amazing game.

Halo 2 had the worst ending ever, but Halo 3 picks up right where that left off. From the second the cut scene ends, any halo vet will feel right at home. The combat is improved with melee's being boosted, but it still feels like the Brutes usurped the elites not only in some of the more trivial duties but also in hoy they move and fire, they just act really similar. The single player mode is really great with four people, and the only real flaw is that it's pretty short.

The multi player mode however, is where I spent most of my time. The mix of twitch gunplay and light strategic elements reeled me in and kept me hooked for 3 or 4 hours. The way the gun's all fit together, with each one having a role, it's one of the best multi player games I have played. It won't vary too much from the beta though, so you might be a bet weary of thiose thre maps.

With all this stuff going for it, Halo 3 is a strong candidate for game of the year, and many other awards.

XIII first impressions

The first thing you will notice about XIII is the art style. It look's like a graphic novel,complete with little pop up windows and BLAM BLAM sound effects when guns are fired. They look a bit too rendered to really blow you away,but they are pretty nice. So XIII is an fps where your character plays an amnesiac assasin like ex-military thing. I'm not really far enough into the game to know what exactly he do's, be he seems to be ex-military. The basic gameplay is fine, even adding innovations into the mix. Your character can pick up chairs,broken glass, and bottles and use them to knock out enemies. It also adds a certain rpg-like stlye of play to the mix, with your character picking locks and healing himself through a somewhat easy to use menu.

One of the other things I noticed was just how real the gunfights felt. Some of them will really feel real, and you will end up playing exactly like you would in real life. One of the best examples of this is when your character get's in a room that cna't be forced open, and some enemies try to kill him. In a cutscene, they come and open fire on the glass windows to the room, but they are bulletproof. The cutscene ens, and they run off. I expect them to open the door and get a chair to use as a weapon, but no one comes. I equip my machine gun and run outside of the room. Immediatly I was cought in crossfire, and was taknig hit's from everywhere. I kill one of the gaurds with the gun, and run around and flank the other gaurd. In mot games, I would have just shot them both. But XIII has hit a sweet spot in the health. You will have to take cover, but not exxeecsively. If a gaurd manages to unload a clip on you, a qaurter or more of your health is gone.

And while I play XII, I realize that it only cost 4 bucks. And this is the bargain of the century.

Mlb slugfest:2004 first impressions

I'm no Baseball fan. I never really learned that much about the rules, and I never cared for it. So, I was confused as heck when I popped this game into my 360's drive(it's a backwards compatible game), as there was no tutorial. I hit the quick start button,picked a team, and went onto the field to play. I got struck out once, and had the other two out's when they caught my hits.

I had no idea what the heck the controls where,how to start a season, and how to do anything else. And, while I hope that these initial impressions are not my entire experience with this game, it's probaly gonna be like that. It seems like they wan't you to read the entire manual just to start. I wonder what the developers were thinknig when they decided not to include a tutorial. It was probaly somethnig along these lines"Who needs a tutorial? Everyone knows how to play baseball!" And while that may be true, you need a tutorial for the controls. They have got a billion control schemes and layouts in the manual, but who's gonna read that? I did, but still had no idea what the hell was going on.

I think I can fairly say that sums up my experience with Slugfest:2004 until now.

Graw 2 first impressions

Just rented Graw 2, and I am officially impressed. The game do's a great job of making you feel like captain Scott Michel. I t also, like many tom clancy titles, do's a good job of making the enemies realy feel alive. They will flank, use distractions, and in general be effeceint. You sqaud will get kills, and they sound like real people to.
That's not to say the game do'snt have its fair share of flaws, but the only really major one is the look sensitivity. It is really,really slow. If I have a sniper, and you are out in open running, then I should be able to shoot you! Besides this frustrating flaw, Graw 2 ( Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2. kind of a mouthful, is'nt it?) semms to be pretty good. I mght get a reveiw up later in the week, but as stated earlier, I" m renting the game.

Pokemon Pearl/ Blacksite area 51

This is not a Pokemon Pearl reveiw. I just wanted to report that the difficulty has turned out t be fine, it is a lot harder then the preveious entries in the series though. The gameplay remains pretty much unchanged, and even the desighn of the cities is the same so far. What seems really odd is that some Pokemon will suck ( they don't even know a damage move) until level 8 or 9 ( about two hours worth of playing). Besides these gripes with the game, I am really enjoying my copy of Pokemon Pearl. It is definetly a cut above the rest of the Pokemon games. I will probaly have a reveiw of it up within the next couple of days.

So anyway, a new demo just got released over Live for Blacksite Area 51. I have played through it several times, and I am glad to report that it is coming along nicely. One of the innovations of this game, morale, I found do'snt matter very much. They only get a couple of kills, so who cares if there scared out of there wits? ( the sqaud, but you wil probaly get spooked to!).

Pokemon Pearl first impressions

I just got got Pokemon Pearl, and I am feeling two things: frustration and a sense of accomplishment. The frustration comes from Nintendo screwing up the difficulty, at least on the starting zone. In the previous entries, newly caught Pokemon were good for one or two battles before they had little or no health. Now they last for one battle, if that. If you and a wild pokemon fight, the wild pokeman does more damage, gets more critical hits, and pwns better then your pokemon. But when you kill one , you get a greater sense of accomplishment. So it is an even trade off. But in the next game, there should be adjustable difficulty settings.

This is the series first puting to the Ds, but it is not very different then the normal ones for gba. It's use of the touch screen is not very inituitive, but it is a fun gimmick to screw around with. the graphics are somewhat better, but they look sort of corney. No one complained about the origanals grahpics, but these have lost any and all style in them, just making them a step back from Ruby's.

This is not a review, jsut a glimpse of what the game is like. I usually make reveiws when I am a good way thrugh the game but I just started this one.