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Battlefield: Bad Company is Good Company, a review

Posted on August 27th, 2008 by MASA.
Categories: Gaming, PS3, Review, Xbox360.

Welcome to Bad Company, Soldier!

Soldier? More like cannon fodder. The 222nd, Bad Company, is the “expendable” portion of the military made up of the leftovers and troublemakers that the Army bunches together rather than throw them into prison. It has the highest mortality rate of the whole army.

Which explains why the the division is only made up of three rejects (You [Preston Marlowe], Haggard, Sweetwater) and a Sergeant (Redford) who rather go fishing. The game opens with some wisecrack jokes and some great humor (a reoccurring theme in this game). After you are introduced to everyone, you hop on a truck and ride off to your next position. Redford proceeds to tell you everyone’s backstories. Haggard, the not so bright demolition expert, got transferred to B-Company because he blew up an army ammo cache and the officer’s latrine, Sweetwater was “promoted” to the position because he uploaded a virus into the military’s secure network and Redford was transferred when he made a deal with the army to have his term shortened in turn of leading B-Company.

So you’re driving down the road, with a helicopter that flies over you head going the opposite direction and Sweetwater starts to get tense. Suddenly, the whole area gets bombarded, and DICE gives you a first look at the explosive power of the Frostbite engine, which allows 90% of the terrain to be destructible.

And then you die. Game over. I rate this game, a 5/5!

Oh wait, you aren’t dead. Just sleeping/fainted. The game takes this opportunity to teach you the basics as a series of “Are you okay? Look up. Look Down. Shoot those Barrels. Bounce Around. Duck. Make me a sandwich.” Maybe that last one was improvised.

What’s Single Player really like?

Well, to put it in one word, fun. This game makes sure you have a good time playing it. The humor fits the situation and rarely feels forced. The game wants you to blow stuff up. Make a mess, they don’t care, they will probably be dead anyways. Run in, guns blazing, blow up everything. While the list of levels are short, they are very large and free roaming. And the game gives you a list of collectibles (guns) and gold bars, which are like the Halo 3 skulls. Everyone is getting tired of the army, until they find their first gold bar.

“Wars are fought for a number of reasons, and sometimes, if the one they gave you isn’t good enough, you might need to find your own”

From there on, we pretty much carry out A-Team style in the most bad ass way. The game doesn’t require you to find your own medic in single player, nor does it require you to heal your teammates (who are invincible). Enemy AI is decent, player AI is pretty strong, but unless I missed something, I haven’t really found them actually killing the other guys (normally I do it before they can).

I think my favorite parts of Single Player was blowing stuff up, the locations, the characters, and the dialog. The story was great, too, but DICE gave away some of it already during their advertising. So you can pretty much figure out what happens up until you get the first gold bar.

How’s Multiplayer?

Out of the box, there is only one multiplayer gametype, Gold Rush. Gold Rush is like one flag CTF with two teams; Attackers and Defenders. Attackers have limited respawns and can get more by destroying gold crates by either arming a crate or just shooting at it. The Defenders have to protect the crates by taking out the Attackers and defusing the bombs placed on the crates. If the all the crates are destroyed the Attackers win, if the attackers respawn bar is completely depleted, the Defenders win.

DICE recently released a Conquest mode, which I’m not a huge fan of. Basically, get more CPs than the other team to win.

All your stats are available online, with the exception of how much more EXP it takes until you rank up. As you rank up, you receive credits which you can buy new guns with.

“Now that’s what I call an explosion!”

The graphics in this game are great, they are very detailed, from far away and up close. The music fits perfectly with this game. It doesn’t suddenly break out into techno while you are trying to sneak into a base or something. Explosions are really explosions, not some crappy blast. If you want boom, they got it. The multiplayer maps are very nice and open with quite a few places for cover. It’s fun.

“It’s like a real live palace. It’s like uh..uh…”

But it’s not all perfect. The game has a few bugs that look better in a list.

• Snapshot system is broken
• Sometimes, you can end up running up stairs and right through the wall.
• When jumping up terrain, you can lag between when you pressed the button and when your guy jumps
• You can get killed by nothing
• When you drive a vehicle and get out, sometimes you get out right in front of it. And if you were driving fast, you will die.
• Some objects will be magically floating
• When you want to play on a specific map, the game often chooses a different one
• Sometimes, teammates won’t show up as friendly until after you shoot them.
• Friends very rarely end up in the same squad or team

Multiplayer on some maps can be annoying. One of the Gold Rush maps, Harvest Day features infinitely respawning tanks that respawn instantly. It’s annoying if you are defending as very few people play as demo man. Also, there is very very very little splash damage to the point you would think there isn’t any at all. Respawns take forever in multiplayer.

All in all, you would game is pretty much standard from any other military combat game, right? Wrong. This ain’t a serious military shooter, but that doesn’t mean you won’t enjoy this game.

If you are thinking about purchasing the game, you might want to rent the game first or maybe play the demo. I rate it a 4.5/5.

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Force demo is Unleashing next week

Posted on August 16th, 2008 by MASA.
Categories: DS, Gaming, PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii, Xbox360.

The new Star Wars game, Force Unleashed, will be “unleashing” onto the PS3 and the Xbox 360 marketplace August 21st. According to LucasArts, the demo places you in the TIE Fighter Construction Facility level that has been taken over by a Jedi general named Rahm Kota. Your mission? Kill everything (though you aren’t a crazed killer [the game isn't as dark as it sounds]).

Not only that, but LucasArts is also throwing a tutorial level into the demo as well (which according to them, is very important [not that any other demo we've played has not had a tutorial level in it]).

The full game releases September 16th for the Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, DS, PS2 and PSP.

Spike TV will be running a dedicated night to the release of the new game (much like they did for Halo 3).

Stay tuned.

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Strongbad’s Cool Game for Attractive People Episode 1 comes out next week

Posted on August 5th, 2008 by MASA.
Categories: Gaming, PC, Wii.

TellTale Games announced that SCG4AP episode one will release on August 11th for both the PC and the Wii (via the WiiWare store). The episode costs 1000 Wii Points (or $8.95 for PC).

If you are buying PC, you can preorder it now, and get it when it comes out.

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Telltale Games to produce new Wallace and Gromit series

Posted on July 24th, 2008 by MASA.
Categories: Gaming.

Featuring the hilarious duo of claymation, Telltale Games (makers of the revived Sam & Max series and the new Strongbad Game) announced today that they will be working on another new series called Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventures. Very little is known about the new series, and Telltale is planning to go into more detail this Monday (also the rumored day that Strongbad’s Cool Game For Attractive People will release).

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Games for Windows Live is now Gold for free

Posted on July 23rd, 2008 by MASA.
Categories: Gaming, PC.

Microsoft announced yesterday that Games for Windows that are a part of Games for Windows Live (used to be called Vista Live) will work like they had the gold version of that subscription.

Originally, if you had Xbox Live Gold, you would have Games for Windows Live Gold as well, and you could use the same gamertag, and your gamerscore and achievements would be combined on your PC and your Xbox 360.

Now, you don’t have to pay for a Games for Windows Live Gold Subscription, you can play with all the features of Gold for free.

If you don’t have an Xbox, and play a Games for Windows Live enabled game, you can play with gamers on the Xbox version of the game, and can play in Matchmaking games that use TruSkill (which still has flaws).

This doesn’t mean that Xbox Live Gold Subscriptions are now free. This only applies to PC games.

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Nintendo denied from appeal against Anascape, still fighting

Posted on July 23rd, 2008 by MASA.
Categories: GCN, Gaming, Wii.

Anascape, the company that claims that they “invented” controller buttons (analog buttons on a remote control [which seems to only apply to game companies]), won another suit (filed in 2006) against Nintendo late 2007.

Recently, Nintendo was rejected a request to appeal by the US District Judge of Texas for the above case ruling that would force them to pay $21 million or risk of getting blocked from selling any WaveBirds (the wireless GameCube controllers), regular GameCube controllers and the Wii Classic Controller.

Nintendo is currently taking this to the Federal Circuit court, where they hope they can win.

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Bungie Day Gamerpics and Theme revealed

Posted on July 6th, 2008 by MASA.
Categories: Gaming, Xbox360.

Whoops! Microsoft released the Bungie Day gamerpics and themes a day early. What was meant to be released on Monday got released today.

Below are the gamerpics from Bungie day last year, and the ones for this year.

And the new theme:

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Sony removes PS3 firmware update 2.40

Posted on July 3rd, 2008 by MASA.
Categories: Gaming, PS3.

Today, Sony pulled the PlayStation 3 Firmware update 2.4 after complaints arose over the update bricking player’s machines. Sony claims that this was because of a “limited number” of calls related to this problem and this conflict generates a “low volume” of support calls were made, and Sony wants to please the general audience that is PlayStation 3 owners.

Translation: “We screwed up on Version 2.40 and we know about it because we got a bazillion calls within the first few hours. We decided to pull the version and provide a working version later on”.

Sony, a limited number is a number. You could have just said, we recieved some phone calls with customers that are having this problem. Just give us a working Version 2.40, thanks.

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Why 7/7 is the best for Halo fans

Posted on July 3rd, 2008 by MASA.
Categories: Gaming, Xbox360.

Last year, Bungie day meant cheaper maps and free themes and gamerpics.

But that was last year, who cares about Halo 2 maps packs being cheaper? That’s right. No one. No worry though, because Bungie is giving Halo fans a lot more cool stuff. This year, Bungie (fans of 7) is going to be giving away:

• 7 gamerpics that you can only download Monday only (same as last year)
• Cold Storage (yes, that new map they just announced will be free on Monday. Seriously, a free map!)
• And the Legendary Map Pack will be worth 600 Microsoft points (a drop in 200 Points!). It still includes the free 3 month subscription to Bungie Pro (this offer will not be available after 7/7)

For those who haven’t seen Cold Storage, there’s a picture of it on this post. Cold Storage is based off the Halo: Combat Evolved map Chill Out. To top everything off, Bungie produced a ViDoc called “And on the Seven7h day…” which is available on their website (via this link).

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Nintendo removes all hope for homebrew Wii apps in newest update

Posted on June 16th, 2008 by MASA.
Categories: Gaming, Wii.

If you like the idea of using a Wii for homebrew apps, then you better not install the new Wii System Update, at 3.3. Nintendo is trying to hide this update under the guise of a new Mii Channel bug fix, one that would allow a player to move a Mii from the Mii Plaza (the default area for the Mii Channel) to the Mii Parade (the one that allows you to share Miis). This is problematic!

The update also includes functionality that will delete any modified save files that are “unauthorized” because they could “impair gameplay or the Wii console” itself.

If you are a homebrew fan or someone who wants Linux on their Wii, DO NOT INSTALL VERSION 3.3 of the Wii Menu Software.

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Spyro and Guilty Gear coming to Xbox Originals

Posted on June 11th, 2008 by MASA.
Categories: Gaming, Old School, Xbox, Xbox360.

According to Major Nelson, Guilty Gear XX Reloaded and The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning will be on Xbox Originals next Monday for 1200 MS points.

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