“Well, it’s free”. That’s what keeps running through my head. See, Alien Swarm is a hard game to review or criticize, not because it’s anymore subjective than your average video game, but just because it’s free. Anything negative you have to say about the game is immediately countered by those two magical words. It’s too short? It’s free. Too hard? It’s free. Too focused on the multiplayer aspect? It’s free. You can see where I am going with this. So for the sake of the review, I will pretend that this is one of the many, many games that show up on XBLA/PSN for the usual price of 1200 MS Points or whatever.
From this writer
So what’s wrong with Crackdown 2? Surprisingly, despite the score tacked on at the bottom there, not a whole lot. As a standalone game, it’s pretty great. As a sequel though, not so much. The first Crackdown was one of those games that split people into two groups. There were those that saw the flaws and found the game to be repetitive, short and lacking content. And then there were those who realised that it was more than the sum of its parts. Crackdown 2 should have been an opportunity to fix what was flawed and improve what was already great. It does both of those things. But not on a large enough scale to count as a good sequel.
Skate 3 has probably the best difficulty and learning curve of any game I have played this generation. It’s a bit of a tall claim to start the review with, but allow me to back it up. You don’t rack up XP, you don’t get better equipment, you don’t unlock new abilities; everything you can do in the game, you do it simply by practice. So if something seems out of reach or impossible, it’s not because you haven’t grinded (pun intended) enough, but simply because you aren’t good enough. Yet. And that’s where the difficulty curve of the game comes in. Skate 3 is one of those few games where the challenges are balanced in such a way that when you end up nailing them, it feels like an accomplishment, and when you end up failing them, it feels like its always within grasp.
“Two men enter, the better man leaves. The lesser man is respawning, and that’s Halo.”
At its core is a simple game built around three simple things – guns, melee and grenades. Sure, there have always been extras thrown in, but strip it down to basics and those three are the only things that have ever mattered in Halo. Earlier, if you were good at those, you were good at the game; it’s been that way since Halo: Combat Evolved. Not anymore.
Where do we begin? Do I put this one up against the previous Splinter Cell games, or do I take it as a standalone game with barely a passing resemblance to the series whose name it bears? It’s a tough question, but let’s face it, the Splinter Cell series has a pedigree unlike most games out there. So let’s get both out of the way right at the start. As a Splinter Cell sequel, the game is an abject failure. Forget about the name, it’s not even the same genre anymore. As a standalone game, it does a little better, but in trying to please both the core Splinter Cell fans and trying to bring in the Call of Duty fans, it ends up doing neither very well. Jack of all trades and master of none – that phrase sums up Splinter Cell: Conviction better than anything else I could write.
This is how it used to be. No, no, stay with me. It’s not another one of those “Gaming was so much better in 1980/1990/2000 than it is in 2010″ rants. What I am trying to say is that this is how post-release content used to be. Developers used to make actual add-on campaigns instead of one-hour side missions and pointless costumes. But then somewhere along the past five years, what used to be the norm pretty much became extinct, and what used to be the modding community’s job became legitimate DLC to be sold for loose change. Dragon Age: Awakening makes an excellent case for why the old way was better.
Let me recount some of the ways I have died in Battlefield: Bad Company 2. I died when a house fell on me. The game rather cheekily called it ‘Death by Destruction 2.0′. I got run over by a toy chopper, which was pretty embarrassing. Some smart ass Engineer killed me with the repair tool, and after the game, he unnecessarily sent me a message thanking me for helping him out with an Achievement, assuring me it was quite “lol”. Personally, I didn’t really see the funny side, but let’s roll with it. The point I am trying to make is that you will die. A lot. But what makes Battlefield truly unique is that its one of those rare multiplayer games where regardless of how much you suck at it, you still end up having fun.
War is AWESOME! Don’t give me that look; you know it’s true. As a video gamer, we know that better than anyone else. Sure there are games like Armed Assault and Operation Flashpoint, which try to show that the battlefield is a brutal and unforgiving place, but thanks to the efforts of games like Call of Duty and Army of Two, we know the truth. War is awesome. You get to kill foreigners (preferably of a different skin colour or at least of a different ethnicity) with tons of cool weapons, you get to go to all of these picturesque locations (and blow them up) and you get to watch huge explosions as the laws of nature bend to slow down time so you can fully appreciate them. There is the slight inconvenience of getting shot, but if you hide behind a table or a rock, your body regenerates and heals itself. What’s not to like about war?
Yes, in case it isn’t obvious, Army of Two: The 40th Day is from the school of stupid when it comes to war. And it seems to be aware of it and remains blissfully uncaring. I guess the developers realised that it isn’t possible to yank the subtlety chain after you have destroyed the entire city of Shanghai in the opening cutscene and decided to just roll with it from there on. And it works, in a way. So we have the two protagonists – Salem and Rios (whose names I had to Google to find out even after finishing the game twice. Yes, the writing and characters are that forgettable), who land in Shanghai on some sort of a mission and some bad guys just happen to start bombing the hell out of the city soon after that. And that’s pretty much it.
I think my favourite bits of Left4Dead were its moments of tranquillity that came between the bouts of carnage. The brief periods of time where you were grabbing ammo, healing team mates, swapping weapons and preparing for the horde you knew was coming. Every one of those moments felt like the climax of a great zombie film and even the fact that it happened so often never seemed to make them feel repetitive. Problem was that despite these moments of brilliance, I always felt that the game was lacking in content, depth and variety. Left4Dead 2 brings all three to the table along with a mountain of dismembered bloodied zombie corpses.
Looking back upon the Halo trilogy, I have come to realise that the whole series is about moments. Yes, there is the wide open level design, the superb combat balance, the brilliant AI, the space opera storyline and kick ass multiplayer mode too. But what really stands out over the past 8 years of Halo are the moments which stay with you long after you have played the game. Some of them are designed set pieces (the beach landing in The Silent cartographer) while others are of your own making (“accidentally” sticking your co op buddy with a plasma grenade when he is making a run for the Scorpion Tank). The point I am trying to make with this trip down memory lane is that what makes Halo 3: ODST great is that it’s like a highlight reel of the past 3 Halo games.
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