Modern Warfare 2 is a first person shooter set in the actions that followed those in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. As someone who doesn’t respond to overhype, threats or Activision very well, I was somewhat reluctant to playing this – given the chance that I might actually buy into all of the shit that’s on the Internet right now. Alas, I didn’t listen to myself and the game to be quite entertaining.

Let’s discuss some of the specifics of the game, shall we? This is a review, after all.

Modern Warfare 2 follows the story of multiple characters, ranging from an American infiltrator within a Russian terrorist cell to a highly ranked Scottish ex-SAS. I know that it may sound like a cluster fuck, but it’s all very nicely wrapped up. The story is somewhat up its on ass in messages from time to time, but the scope of it all is very interesting, even though it was probably Infinity Ward’s way of giving the entire world the finger. Don’t get me wrong, even though it’s all very pretentious (especially the middle of the game) the game presents itself in an extremely polished and structured way, switching between characters more frequently than Ron Jeremy changes his underwear.

Basically the story is about the US screwing the pooch in the first game, only to have it thrown back in their faces – like a circus clown getting a pie in their face. If the pie is a Nuke, and the face is their face AND balls. The setup of the story is doing a great job at making the pacing smooth, streamlining everything to near perfection with very few things interrupting the flow.

Now for the gameplay – it’s an FPS. You point the business end at whatever you want to make not breathe anymore and then you pull the trigger. Done deal.

Oh right, I suppose I have to elaborate somewhat… Right, what I really like about the gameplay is the fact that the variation from the last game has been ramped up, as with almost everything else. There are very limited vehicle sections breaking up the otherwise pretty exciting gunplay, small parts where you break out of character only to smear butter in your eyes and pleasure you in ways you didn’t think was possible.

Seeing as the developer, Infinity Ward, are very keen on keeping a solid framerate of 60 FPS up at all times, the gunplay is great. There is always something happening – explosions, flanking enemies and epic video game moments that will be remembered for years to come. Also, the smooth framerate really allows the controls to shine, the quick responsiveness going hand-in-hand with the overall quality of the game. It’s pickup and play at the get-go and I applaud it for that.

The online experience is not as fluid, though. The PC version is, as many of you might know, severely flawed and the peer-to-peer based server hosting is shit – so much for 60 FPS when you’re lagging like Michael J. Fox during an earthquake.

Now for the most important part of the review! The graphics!!!

They’re good.

Right, so there it is. Modern Warfare 2 is a great game, but I have a couple of problems with it…

First of all, the balance is off from time to time – the enemies are ridiculously good shots when playing on Hardened. Like silly good.

Secondly, I don’t know what to feel about the whole deal with breaking up the gameplay only to introduce a scripted event pushing the story forward. It’s good and all, but don’t you also think that it’s a bit frequent? It almost seems like they’re just improving upon the first one by just touching it up and making it happen more often. I don’t see anything groundbreaking about this, but it sure is pretty.

©2012 Noob Talk Gaming Community. All Rights Reserved.

The game takes place in Atreia, the world that was split in two… So there are two divine factions: elyos and asmodians. As the story goes there used to be one race and the world of Aion was whole. But then creatures that were suppose to protect Atreia rose against their god and decided to take full control over the world. As a result the Tower of Eternity connecting the world was shatered making the world split in two pieces. Those that were on Elysea stayed the same, but people on Asmodea started to change, due to the lack of sunlight. They grew fur on their backs and claws on their hads and feet. So these two races started hating each other and blaming for what has hapened.

The world

Now I want to start with the world itself. First thought that I got from seeing the picture of it was: bah… we’re worms. The planet looks like an apple eaten from it’s sides up ’till it’s core. And what’s even more fun is that you live on the inner side of it. So there’s the top – Asmodea, and the bottom – Elysea. By theory if you look up you’ll see the world of your hateful cousins and they can see yours. So basicly as long as you flip off up – you won’t miss.

The surroundings are amazing in size, but not in texture. I was disapointed in the way it looked. Instead of being in the game or “feeling the game” your look at it like a painted picture. Now there’s nothing bad with that if you’re a fan of these drastic attemts to show you how “fantasy” the game is. I for one dislike it to the fullest.

Once again NCSoft allowed game designers do some weird shit with animals. Now you have Taygas instead of Tigers and Stiggs which are like human-rabbits… really scary shit out there.

Surprises

YES, YOU CAN FLY as a lot of rumors were going around. At level 10 you get wings and you can perform some minor aerial feats. It’s not meant as a way of transportation, but rather strategic advantage. Flying in allowed only in certain places, however gliding is possible everywhere. You can get your wings out whenever you want, but you have limited time of using them. If time runs out and you’re still in the air – prepare to embrace rushing ground to your face. There are quite few ways to increase the fly/glide time, but those things come with higher levels.

There’s a thing I haven’t seen before. You can paint armor and make items you’re wearing look completly difrent then what they are, i.e.: you’re wearing cloth armor, which looks like rags and then you make it look like a plate armor, but still have same stats. That allows you to create completly unique character appearance.

The game reminds me of Lineage 2, created by NCSoft aswel, which I was addicted to and played for quite some time back in the day. There’s a lot of similarities between these two, but I don’t find them so interesting anymore. I believe I might have been spoiled by another great title – “Age of Conan”. I’m not big fan of any MMORPGs since I finished with Lineage 2, but I liked AoC. Went to the top level with my char and to be completly honest – i’m not seeing myself reaching the top level in Aion. The difrence between those two is huge, but I won’t talk about AoC in this article.

Conclusion

If you feel the need to play some MMORPG, to grind and make friends with similar interests, then Aion might be your thing. But if you want richer experience, connection with the game and more adrenaline rushing through your veins than you ever had from playing MMO – there’s another title out there for you…

©2012 Noob Talk Gaming Community. All Rights Reserved.

The basic story of the game is that the character Desmond Miles was kidnapped by a company to use him as a test subject in the “Animus”,  a fictional device who can recall ancestral memories. With this device, Desmond gets to live out his ancient ancestor Altair Ibn La-Ahad in the so called Assassin Clan during  1191 in the Holy Land during the Third Crusade. He gets to relive all the events that happened to Altair and his allies.

Assassin’s Creed is a Action-Adventure game which the main goal of the game is to carry out different assassinations by his superior. He will carry out this by traveling to different parts of the world to reach one of the cities, and then find the Safe House where the player can start a mission. Despite being in the Safe House, the player needs more information of the assassination target, and has to carry out different missions, such as assassinations of different targets, pickpocketing, eavesdropping and also interrogation.

Side quests exists in forms of exploring and saving citizens from guards who harass them, and also killing different type of Templars and collecting flags. These side quests does not advance the story and are there for the fun (I loved these side quests myself)

Assassin’s Creeds main weakness is the combat system. It’s quite advanced and requires a lot of skill and patience (The normal button mashing technique doesn’t work as well here).

Apart from that there is nothing bad about the game really, but I wouldn’t rate it as the best game ever done. There are a few things that can be fixed till Assassin’s Creed 2, such as the combat system. But overall I would give the game a 4/5, being one of the best games for any system.

Can’t wait for Assassin’s Creed 2. Props to Ubisoft for making a game that beats out their awesome Prince of Persia series (Love those games too).

©2012 Noob Talk Gaming Community. All Rights Reserved.

On the last few years, soccer fans have been very disappointed by the PES titles. Starting with the little glitches of the game and ending up with the awful in game menu,  Pro Evolution Soccer lost it’s king of football title, leaving the crown to be taken by the FIFA series developed by EA.  Fortunately for us, Konami decided to listen to what the gaming community has to say, and after gathering a lot of resources from different forums, they finally managed once more to create a master piece.

The first thing that strikes you from the moment you start the game is the user friendly interface (which now is actually friendly). Although the old black and pink color scheme remains,  menus are better organized,  also giving the player more control over the team’s tactics or line up formation.

Once you start the game, if you do not really look for small aspects that really matter you will get the feeling that this is just an ordinary soccer game. But it’s always the details that make the difference. Thanks to the remodeled graphics engine, the players, the pitch and everything else looks more realistic than ever before. Animations are more lifelike, and the players resemblance  is astonishing. Also, some work on the interaction with the ball has been done, adding even more on the scale of realism.  One more noticeable thing is that the in game character do not only look like the football players in real life, but they also have the same attributes like them (shooting,speed etc)

One thing that could have been improved ages ago in PES is the free kick system. Sometimes it feels like you have no control on them what so ever. I don’t say that the targeting  in the old FIFA versions was good (aim a circle and shoot the ball exactly in that direction), but Konami could have come up by now with a brilliant idea on how to improve it, especially that many players have complained about this. Also the penalty shots have been changed a little, it’s just a minor change between the camera angles when the player executes it,the view now  being normal( from above/side ). I don’t really know if this affects the game in any way but as long as it’s something different from the other versions, in a game like this it’s a good thing.  Speaking of penalty shots, I was quite surprised to see that the AI players do miss A LOT.  Let’s face it, it’s not acceptable  to miss like 2-3 penalties in a game,  thing that happens here quite often even when playing against well known team. What’s more, is that the opponent players just rush to you when you have the ball. Well that’s the idea you may say.True, but they rush in high numbers, sometimes 4-5 players grouping near one man,and simply acting like a wall, stopping the opposition. (speaking of men.. I really want to see a PES version with women) .Maybe a little more tweaking on the AI would have helped a little. Some minor adjustments could have been made on the commentators as well. They seem to be argued with one another as they never engage in dialogues, one of them does not even speak so much, making the presentation rather boring sometimes. One thing that was funny to encounter during playing was players simulating faults (did not see it in previous versions).  Of course that the referee does not leave that act unpunished so if the AI players try to get away with it, they will be booked. Looking forward for a version where they will kick you in the chest with the head.

That’s about all that can be said about PES 2010. I only presented the things that are less/more different than the other versions, I am not going to talk about the principles of a football-sim game because everyone has played or seen on TV a football match.

©2012 Noob Talk Gaming Community. All Rights Reserved.

The second thing that bugged me was the lack of choices you had in a game like this. All missions get down to: pick up a rifle and eliminate all the enemies. In some games they allow you to drive a tank, or shoot a machine gun from an airplane… but that’s all there is. Let’s face it WW2 wasn’t only based on infantry.  The last reason would be the lack of team work.   I am tired of all these hollywoodian heroes that defeat an entire army on their own. So I asked myself is this all that video games have to offer ? immortal heroes and lack of co-op?  That’s how I came across Battleground Europe.

Most of you have not even heard of this game so far, although it has been around for 7 years from what I’ve been told, and for a MMO ( YES it is a MMO) that’s quite an impressive age. So what makes this game special ? Well for the beginning it is only playable online ( a monthly subscription is needed), and because of this you will be shooting at human players and not AI controlled ones that move around based on don’t know what scripts.

A tip for those of you who want to play: get in a squad (a form of clan / guild ) as you don’t stand any chance fighting alone, and you will also get bored.  I know most of you will say by looking at the pictures that the game is old.. the graphics are lame and so on, but who cares about graphics here. There will be a major change in the game also soon, the graphic engine will be upgraded and it will bring a 21^st century look to it. The changes that will be implemented will be presented in a preview of this game.

One thing that stands out even from the beginning is the option to choose what you want to be. You can fight in the air-force, navy, or you can be in the infantry. If you choose infantry you will have the opportunity to maneuver a tank, or an ATG/AA ( anti-tank /anti aircraft weapons). Of course that you can also chose to play the role of a rifle-man, and as you gain a new rank new weapons will be available. Don’t be scared… it doesn’t take that much until you can access all hand weapons of the game (this includes the mortars,  light machine guns, submachine guns etc) . Unlike other MMO’s , here it does not matter what gear you wear because gear is virtually inexistent. You just choose to play as a character and that character comes equipped with it’s weapons/equipment . So you won’t see guys flashing around with their +20 damage items that they bought from different sites, because that can not be done here. All there is to do here is gain a new rank, and kill the opposing force.

The game relies on different campaigns, each of them lasting several weeks.  A campaign is won by a side –Axis or Allies – when one of them manages to occupy most of the map. The map is pretty accurately made, along with all the elements in the game, as the development team has spent ages modeling every tank, weapon and so on to match the reality as much as possible. Tanks for example have weak points, just like the real ones from WW2. Walking around on foot takes forever, as the map is huge, but that’s why we have trucks that can carry people or even planes that carry airborne infantry.

The game itself is very strategic, as players must choose wisely what town or base they should attack next. There is a limited numbers of supplies so you can’t just die and re-spawn all the time. The ones that pull the strings over the map are the players from High Command office. Any player can join the HC no matter of his current rank. So how exactly do you occupy a town ? Well that’s easy. At the moment every town has a numbers of bases in it. In order to fully occupy it, players must capture all those bases, that being done by waiting a few seconds on a pre-defined spot ( radio tables). This capture method will be changed soon, I will present the new method in the preview.

I say it once more, if you start playing, get a squad, being a lone wolf here won’t take you anywhere, and you will miss most of the fun. Of course once you get in a squad there will be someone to tell you what to do and where to go, but let’s face it that is how army is … if you want to be the one giving the orders you have to keep on fighting and gain the knowledge needed for that.  See you on the battlefront !

©2012 Noob Talk Gaming Community. All Rights Reserved.

Enough with the criticism (more to come soon), it is time to get down to the things that really stand out in this game. Like the other games in the series, Dragon Rising amazes with the degree of realism. You do not have to be hit by a full round of bullets to bite the dust. Some hits to just make you bleed while some can end your life instantaneously.  The graphics also help when it comes to realism, although I am not a keen fan of all this HDR stuff I must say that the visual elements here are quite well done.  Just like in reality, the bullets change their altitude, tending to fall towards the earth once they are fired, so you must take some variables into consideration before starting an attack.  Having a draw range of up to 35 kilometers, you may often find yourself admiring the landscape, forgetting  about the enemies that are closing  in. Of course, the player will get back to reality once a gun is shot, as the sound of the weapons are very accurately made (quite loud). You have total freedom over how exactly you accomplish  your objective, you choose where you are approaching the target from and how you deal with it. Your team mates also influence the mission is being carried out. Being a tactical shooter, you can tell your troops where to go what exactly to do. And here you have a quite a lot of options available: from establishing the way of engagement to hiding spots and attack formations.  This is quite good for a game like this, but it has a downside as well. Team mates’ AI is pretty bad (not that the enemies are some kind of geniuses). If you do not tell them where to go or what to do,  they just stay in a spot, even if they under enemy fire. I would have expected them to flank alone or to find some cover if the commander is not able to hand out orders, but it seems it is not like that.

But of course, that can be solved in an easy matter: the multiplayer co-op. There, the Ai squad members are replaced with real people, that making the task easier . The two other multiplayer game modes are Annihilation (team deathmatch) and Infiltration (destroy/defend different objectives), but it seems that others may appear some time soon.   One other thing that should be mentioned about the game would be the map editor, a really useful tool that allows players to create their own missions.

Many fans say that this is not the actual sequel to the old Flashpoint game, mainly because the Bohemia interactive (the real developers of the old series) have split up with Codemasters, and they also  came out with their own game (Arma II), but all in all, Dragon Rising is a game that deserves some attention  and time .

©2012 Noob Talk Gaming Community. All Rights Reserved.