The second thing that made this year great was gaming. This year was amazing for gaming, especially if you’re a PC gamer. I felt like the last two years were awful, and I even bought some awful games too, mainly because there was hardly anything else. Talks of the death of PC gaming were starting up again, but as usual, it was nonsense! The year started off a bit slow, but ended really well. Here’s my take on the ups and downs of gaming in 2011:

January was a slow month, but that’s normal. Dead Space 2 was released, which seemed like a good game, though I never got around to finishing it. I’ll have to give it another shot when I get the time.

February gave us

• Test Drive Unlimited 2 - I looked forward to this game because I liked the concept. I didn’t like the first game because the driving model was awful. I got in to the private beta for this game and unfortunately, the same thing as the first – great concept, awful driving model.
• Bulletstorm - Before this game came out, the developers made a fake game, mocking how Call of Duty is just another run and gun corridor shooter without any thought. They said that Bulletstorm would be different and of course I was interested. Unfortunately the game ended up being an immature disappointment and just like the Call of Duty series it mocked, another corridor shooter. Normally I don’t mind simple shooters, after all, why mess with something that works? But they tried to make the game feel different and failed miserably. It just felt like a Halo game with magic tricks.

March actually had some promising titles. Some were disappointments and some were better than expected.

• Dragon Age II - first off, I’d like to mention I haven’t actually played this game and I never finished the first one because I never had the time to. When I finish the first game, I’d like to try Dragon Age II but I’ve heard many fans of the original express their disappointment (how many times will I use this word in this post?) with the sequel.
• Homefront - I was skeptical about this game because I was still salty about Black Ops being a terrible game after it promised so much. And that was BEFORE I take into consideration the performance bug that they took 4 months to fix. Unfortunately Homefront wasn’t that great either. The multiplayer looked fun, but I didn’t want to spend my money. The singleplayer was terrible. I felt like the game treated me like a baby all the way until the end. I can only image they were trying to instill a feeling of teamwork, but they failed at pulling that off.
• Crysis 2 - I enjoyed the singleplayer of this game. I think the multiplayer tried to rip off Call of Duty a bit, but it seemed fun anyway. But the singleplayer was the best part for me. It was one of those fun shooters where you get from A to B and kill everything in your way. I like originality, don’t get me wrong, but sometimes sticking to a fun formula is just as good.
• Need for Speed Shift 2: Unleashed - The original Shift wasn’t that bad. It had better graphics than Forza 3 and a slightly more realistic driving model. The same applies to Shift 2. The graphics are nice (important for a simulation) and the driving model leaned more towards realistic, as opposed to arcade-y. Overall I probably wouldn’t recommend it to a casual racer or a hardcore sim racer, but somewhere in between.

The only game worth mentioning in April is Portal 2. Can you believe this game came out in April? It feels like only yesterday. If you liked Portal 1 you’ll like the second one. For some reason I felt Portal 2 was the perfect length. I got tired of it towards the end, no idea why, but it ended just as I was about to say “I can’t be bothered”. Strange.

In May the most disappointing game was Brink… I know I wrote a good review on it, but I think I wrote it too soon. The game was very promising, I loved the movement system and it seemed fun… Except it was lame. The maps didn’t make any use of the movement system, the A.I. was horrible, no one played it online, the weapons all felt the same… The list goes on. If I’m allowed to take back one review per year, I’ll take back this one. The Witcher 2: Assasins of Kings came out as well, and it seems like a great game, but the controls and the way it teaches you to play sucked. I still want to finish it though, it looks like a deep RPG experience with a great storyline, which is always appealing to me.

June brought Alice: Madness Returns (looks fun, but I never spent the time to finish it) and F.E.A.R. 3 (boring and short). But of course, in the spotlight was Duke Nukem Forever. It finally came out and I know it wasn’t going to be the greatest shooter of all time. In fact, I had pretty low expectations of it – I just wanted it to be a fun corridor shooter. Couldn’t even pull that off. The game was awful, with poor level design, weak feeling weapons and stupid A.I.

July didn’t have anything that interested me, so on to August where the most important game (for me) this year was released. Deus Ex: Human Revolution. I actually had high expectations for this game. I mean, if you’re going to make a Deus Ex game, why bother unless you’re going to do it properly? I was a bit worried that it would be ruined because they wanted to make it for all platforms, which meant pleasing those console kiddies, but in the end, the game turned out fantastic! My only two complaints were that the boss fights were unnecessary and lame and all four “endings” were awful. Otherwise the game stays true to the original in both story and gameplay.

In September we had:

• Dead Island - I was skeptical at first, but I’m glad I bought this. First off, don’t compare this to the Left 4 Dead series. Second, the game isn’t that much fun without friends, so get some friends. After about 2 hours of gameplay, I didn’t really care about the story and the game was a bit buggy at first. But you learn to love this game anyway because it’s actually a lot of fun to play, despite its flaws. I have to admit this was one of the pleasant surprises of this year.
• Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad - I never played the original much, but I knew what I was getting in to if I were to buy this game. It’s a challenging tactical shooter that I wish I spent more time on, but I didn’t purely because of college, work and another multiplayer game that I’ll mention later (though I know you know what it is).

October and the rest of the quarter was really good. Here’s what stood out for me October:

• Rage - I don’t know why some people are disappointed with this game. I didn’t expect much from it and I really enjoyed playing through it. I could see areas where it could of been improved, such as graphics and it’s open world concept, but honestly, it wasn’t that bad.
• Forza Motorsport 4 - I’m sorry, but as the owner of both, any argument as what is the better game between this and Gran Turismo 5 has been decided. Forza 4 I feel is the better game, I always feel compelled to play it, it feels like a much more complete experience and anyone who likes cars can pick it up. I love GT5 but it feels like it’s missing that ‘spark’. I’d be friends with GT5, but Forza 4 has a much more varied personality and she looks great too, which is why I’d be in a relationship with her. (Sorry, but if you’ve made it this far in this post you deserved that).
• Battlefield 3 - This is the reason I’m not playing any other multiplayer game. I can’t get enough of it and despite my hate for Origin, EA’s greed and the way Battlelog works, this game is amazing. The singleplayer and co-op seem ‘meh’ but the multiplayer is why you buy this game. After the pile of crap called Bad Company 2 I was worried this would end up being terrible as well. Fortunately, it ended up being a real PC game and dare I say it, it might even be my Counter-Strike replacement.

November was hit and miss for me. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (or, if it were an Apple product, Modern Warfare 2S) was one that I didn’t bother with and won’t be missed. You have to be a real pubeless fanboy to buy this game at full price and then say it’s good. They made no effort at all to make this game any different. Skyrim was a hit for me. I finished the main story but there are still so many side quests to complete. My only complaints about this game is the combat feels clunky, the interface sucks (on all platforms) and it seems a bit repetitive at times.

I also played Need for Speed: The Run. I think it took me about 4 hours to complete. So yeah, don’t get that. Serious Sam 3: BFE I got for around $25. It was the worst Serious Sam game ever made, but playing the co-op with friends was still fun. Definitely worth $25, but I don’t think I could play it more than once. The game didn’t have that many enemies in the beginning and a lot of times we were running around trying to find where to go next, which isn’t really Sam’s style. Also didn’t get any cool weapons until later in the game.

December didn’t have anything new but that’s okay because the rest of the year had some great titles and gave me loads more games that I need to finish. Overall I’m happy with the way everything turned out. Of course I didn’t mention every game that came out, you can find a list on Wikipedia, I only mentioned the titles important to me. With that being said, I think 2012 has it’s work cut out. I’ll be amazed if 2012 ends up being another great year in gaming. I can’t think of anything that I’m looking forward to except Guild Wars 2 but I don’t even know if that will be released this year. Either way, I have enough to keep me occupied for the rest of the year anyway.

If you made it to the end of this post, then happy new year to you

Now that that’s out of the way, on to the review. I normally don’t review games this quickly, but I feel I have played enough of Brink to write about it. So here goes. As usual, the review will be on my Amazon reviews as well.

My first issue with the game, was before it was released. There were multiple DLC’s for preorder that were exclusive to certain retailers and you got a different one depending where you preordered from. If it was something cosmetic, like the skins, then that would be fine. But some DLC’s also had weapons, which affect gameplay. I don’t like this new trend in the gaming industry, but it’s not like any of the publishers will listen to I guess I’ll have to live with it.

Brink is actually a multiplayer game with co op. The fact that the game has co op might suggest that there is a singleplayer campaign. There is, sort of. It’s not a scripted story based campaign, it’s just you versus bots. This isn’t too bad as the cool thing is, you can open the game up to the public, or to friends, and people can join to replace the bots on your team. This is really nice, in fact I’d say it’s the preferred method of going through the campaign. The AI in Brink is absolutely awful! It’s pretty much all up to you to do the objectives and, depending on what point you are on the level, the enemy AI can either be too easy or too hard.

This is a game that must be played with other people and thankfully, you can have human players on both sides, thanks to the free play mode. Free play lets you create or join a custom match. The levels are the same ones in the campaign, except there are humans, instead of bots on either side. The bots can fill in for humans until the server fills up. In free play, you can also set custom match settings, in case you want to mix things up a little.

Another reason to play with humans is the team play aspect of the game. Whilst you can easily head to a command post, change to the required class (more on classes later) to complete the main objective, you can’t do it on your own, especially not with a team of bots. Usually only one class is needed to complete the main objective, but without a medic, you’d be dying all the time, or without a solider you’ll run out of ammo a lot. There isn’t much room for tactics, though, it mostly just involves grouping up and storming an area together. Whilst this may seem dull, there is plenty of action going on and no one is ever bored, not even medics as there’s always something to do. The game lets you set objectives for yourself via an objective wheel, it’s a really slick and smooth interface that’s done really well. My only gripe with this, is that the objectives aren’t always clear. For example, the objective might say “guard the door”, but what it really should say is “plant explosives on the door” or “guard the soldier who plants explosives on the door”. Fixing that, would make it perfect.

The classes. There are four of them; Soldier – refills ammo for themselves and team mates, can also plant explosives on objectives. Medic – pretty obvious, this guy buffs themselves and team mates health. The medic can also heal and revive team mates and do the same for the VIP in “Escort” missions.  The Covert Ops can disguise as enemies, just like the spy in Team Fortress 2. The covert ops guy places “hack boxes” on objectives and must be protected whilst he hacks the objective. Finally, there is the Engineer. This guy can plant mines and turrets and buffs weapon damage for themselves and team mates. For objectives, the Engineer can disarm explosives planted by enemy soldiers, and disarm enemy mines spotted by Covert Ops. Only Covert Ops can see enemy mines. The Engineer also heals vehicles (non-drivable) in Escort missions. When you start the game, you make a character (that can play all of these classes) to level up and customize.

Customization seems limitless. There are countless ways to configure your appearance, weapons and abilities. There are 20 levels in the game and each one grants you one point to spend on your abilities. Abilities can upgrade the skills of each class as well as skills for all classes. Your appearance can also be customized with different clothing and the game, cleverly uses the players’ character models in the cutscenes, which I thought was pretty cool. Weapon attachments can be unlocked from the challenge mode. Challenge mode doesn’t take long however, so you’ll end up having all of the weapon attachments in no time. I have no issue with that either, but you end up finding attachments you like and putting almost the same ones on all your guns. All the guns in the game can be customized and you select a default one (one that you will spawn with) for a primary and secondary weapon. You can change your weapons at any time from a command post. There are also three different body types that determine what weapons you can use and how you move. The fast body type has low health and can only carry light weapons, but moves and climbs really quickly. The medium, my personal favorite, has medium health, can move almost anywhere and can carry light and medium weapons. The heavy body is the opposite of the light. Lots of health, but fat and slow, however, he can carry heavy weapons.

Back to the movement – something I’m sort of impressed with, but not. I’m impressed with the way it works, it’s so smooth and it feels natural when vaulting over a something or climbing up onto things… But I’m disappointed that they did not make good use of it in the game. The three things that make Brink stand out from the crowd are; myriad of customizations for your character and weapons, team play and the movement system. The movement system is nice, but I was a bit let down, that most of the maps play almost like any other shooter. I was hoping the movement system would spice it up a little.

The presentation of Brink is good too. The menu system is clean and crisp and very simple and easy to use. The in game objective wheel is also incredibly simple. The story in Brink, is that the city, “The Ark” is getting overcrowded and there is a plague spreading throughout the city. Or something like that. Truth it, not only is the story unimportant in this game, when you play the levels, especially the one with the shopping mall, it doesn’t seem like such a bad place! Still though the graphics look decent, a cross between the colorfulness of Team Fortress 2, mixed with the grim reality of a war. Not that you’d notice, the pace of the game can be pretty quick some times, but this is generally the case with most shooters.

Despite having quite a selection of guns a lot of them feel the game. All the pistols feel the same, all the SMG’s feel the same etc. I wish there was a little more variety. Having said that, this is counter-balanced by the attachments that really let you make a weapon your own. I’ve already mentioned the customization that’s possible for the guns, using them though, is just as good. They pack solid punches, even the pistols, but don’t expect too much variety, despite how much you can modify each one. Also don’t expect anything new here, there’s no “super cool” weapon. Whilst the guns may not be based on anything real, you have your standard shooter arsenal here, save for rocket launchers.

In conclusion, after 2010, I was skeptical about preordering a shooter, since all of them seem to be console ports these days. In the end, I’m glad I bought Brink, it’s well worth it. It’s biggest flaw is the awful AI, but that is remedied by playing with humans. I’ve seen some people complain that the scoreboard does not show kills/deaths, just XP earned and some people have complained about this. I personally don’t care, for once! I really feel compelled to be a team member in this game rather than trying to rack up the most kills. After all, the game is designed in such a way, that that’s the only way to win. There is a section in the game for DLC, and as of the time of writing there isn’t any yet, but hopefully they will add new levels. What I’m hoping for are levels designed to make better use of the movement system, if they did this, then that would be the icing on the cake. But in it’s current state, and despite the AI, which doesn’t really ruin the experience, the game is a lot of fun and has restored my faith in not only FPS games on PC, but PC gaming in general. Just a little. If you haven’t already, buy this game!

I’d give this game a 9/10.

Motorola Atrix 4G

I thought this was pretty cool. This definitely seems like the future of true mobile computing, being able to carry your data and programs anywhere on a small device. Then being able to plug it into anything and the OS will instantly change to reflect whatever input and output devices it’s connected to. It’s almost as if bringing back “dumb terminals” lol!

The only downside to this, is that it’s on AT&T. Otherwise I might of considered getting this one.

Tegra 2 Gaming on Motorola Atrix 4G and LG Optimus 2X

Both these phones have some impressive specs – including dual cores. But the main point here is nVidia’s Tegra 2 graphics. As you can see, the frame rate is incredibly smooth. But that’s not the only impressive thing. With these phones, you can play multiplayer games cross platform! So if I’m on my Android phone, bored in the doctor’s waiting room, I can play against my friend on PS3! I’ve been waiting a while for cross platform multiplayer gaming, but I never knew it would start with mobile phones. I hope this develops further and we get to see many more games released.

Motorola Xoom

Nothing special about the tablet itself. What makes it great is that it’s the first tablet running Android 3.0, aka Honeycomb. The OS made just for tablets. I have to say, it’s a slick looking interface and I’m very tempted to buy one. But I know I don’t need one. Here’s a video that would make anyone drool:

Honorable mention: BlackBerry Playbook

I can’t find the video right now, but there was one on Engadget where they had the Playbook running Quake 3 (demo mode), a 1080p video, a picture slideshow and some music playing all at the same time with no slowdown! I found this impressive. They showed all four apps running side by side and all of them were running smoothly. It got a little choppy when they were trying to open each app, but hey, this would even be impressive on a desktop PC! Of course, it being a tablet I still won’t buy it. That, and BlackBerry is quite lacking in apps compared to other platforms. But still, a very competitive product RIM has here.

Phones I Might Get: Droid Bionic or HTC Thunderbolt

First of all, I’d like to mention that these aren’t the only two phones I would buy that were at CES. The other two that I’d consider are the Motorola Atrix 4G and the LG Optimus 2X. Both have Tegra 2, dual cores, 4G and great specs, but unfortunately both will be on AT&T. AT&T isn’t the best network here and with all the iPhones on the network slowing it down even more I doubt I’ll have a great experience. Which brings me to my next point, I might switch to Verizon.

I’ve heard good things from about Verizon from friends, co-workers and general opinions on the web. With the iPhone coming to Verizon, I’m a little worried about network bandwidth being eaten up, as I know a lot of iPhone users are only on AT&T simply because it was the only choice. But on to the actual phones. Both the Bionic and the Thunderbolt have 1GHz CPU’s… Which is plenty of speed now, but with 1.2Ghz CPU’s and dual cores coming out, I feel like by the end of the year I’d be behind. Having said that, the 1GHz in my Nexus one is incredibly quick and snappy and I don’t do a whole lot of gaming on it anyway. I still haven’t decided which of these two phones I’d like, so I guess I’ll have to wait until they are released and can get a hands on try.

One final note – the two carriers I was planning on switching to were Verizon and Sprint. I would have preferred Sprint, but the only new phone they introduced was basically a baby Evo 4G with a slide out keyboard. Not enough new stuff for me to really want to switch.

Anyway, here is some info and pictures on both the Droid Bionic and the HTC Thunderbolt. Both of which will be on Verizon’s 4G LTE network. Can’t wait!

Bad Company 2

This game wasn’t so bad when it came out, I’ve forgotten it’s technical issues because they have mostly been fixed. It feels like this game has been around for a while but believe it or not, it came out early this year. For an FPS it lacks the smooth movement and controls that I’d like for a foot soldier,  but vehicle combat is great. The DLC’s for this game were awful except for Vietnam which was worth the $15. The guns sound and feel better to use and the levels are well designed. The one thing that would sway me towards a more favourable opinion of this game would be if it had MOD support. It’s sad to see a Battlefield game without community content.

Civilization 5

I’d never played a Civ game before but my God I regret it. Civ 5 is very addictive and I found it surprisingly fun! It’s a complicated game but well worth putting in the effort to learn it.

Medal of Honor

This game will never be remembered for anything. It will be in the bargain bin at Gamestop one day and some kid will be say “they made a modern themed Medal of Honor?” This is an awful end to a great franchise, the game itself was pathetic. But at least we won’t remember it, since this game added nothing new to the genre,  gaming or the series.

Call of Duty: Black Ops

This was another awful release this year. The stuttering issues that plagued it upon release was pathetic. It just goes to show how important testing really is. All of this could have been avoided if they had bothered to make a quality product that actually worked. Not only that, but it seemed only the PC version had issues which just proves that more developers are shunning the PC gaming community. Though I haven’t done my review of this game yet, here is a preview of what I’m going to say:

“Somehow managed to beat Medal of Honor as the worst game release for 2010. Another CoD console game clone for pubeless kids. I regret this purchase.”

This is yet another decent franchise Activision has managed to ruin and unless the next CoD game has a demo they won’t get a chance to get my money.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit

For me, this is the biggest pleasant surprise of the year. I was expecting another lame console game added to the series. Instead I got a fun arcade racer that goes back to the roots of the franchise. Social elements in games are quickly becoming a fad but it’s done so well in this game to breed competition and fun at the same time. If GT5 was delayed again, I would not have cared if I had this game.

Gran Turismo 5

Oh boy. The big question has been answered: was it worth it? Well, yes and no…

If you had something to feed your racing game addiction, especially if it was Forza 3 or Shift, you may find GT5 not as amazing as the development time would suggest. On the other hand, if this is all you’ve been waiting for and don’t know of anything else, the game is really good.

Don’t get me wrong, let me say to you, ditch the gamepad and get a wheel. The driving model is fantastic and definitely the best racing sim on any console. Because 90% of a racing game is the driving experience (in most cases, Forza 3 I would say 80ish) this game is still worth buying. Unfortunately the game doesn’t feel as polished as it ought to be.

What’s wrong with it? The AI sucks. There isn’t any. They are glued to a rail track. Your car is made of rubber and theirs is made of rock so if you hit them or vice versa, you bounce off them and maybe spin out. They don’t even notice you’re there.

The car list isn’t that great. Forza 3 and Shift have much more variety. GT5 is padded with Skylines and Vettes. Oh and no Porsche.

Whilst we’re on the subject of the cars, they only bothered to model about 20% of them as “premium” cars. That equates to about 200 out of the 1000+ in the game, which in my honest opinion is quite pathetic. The premium models look amazing, the standard models look okay, but when you pay close attention to detail you’ll notice they aren’t as of high quality. For a game where you’d be moving faster than running pace, you probably won’t notice it and it won’t bother you as much. The same applies to the track environments, but this is less important. Overall it won’t detract from the game experience, but considering the development time I’d ask for a higher standard. Graphics play quite a large role in realistic games as they help to make the experience more believable. I wish Polyphony Digital realised this.

Fallout New Vegas

This was basically Fallout 3 but with a different story, characters weapons and location… And it was brilliant! Fallout 3 was good and New Vegas was just as good, if not better. This was one of my favourite games this year.

Final Fantasy XIII

This was another surprise. I’ve never really played a Final Fantasy game properly before so this is kinda my first one. I actually liked it, it has a complex story and gameplay has a bit of a learning curve, but it teaches you in easy to digest stages. I’ve had a lot of fun with this game but I still haven’t finished it. I think it’s going to be a long game and right now I am playing GT5, but I can’t wait to get back into this game again and will definitely play through all of it.

Despite a few good games released, as a PC gamer and an FPS fan, I felt disappointed this year. Times are really tough when developers forget about PC gamers. There are a few games I am looking forward to next year but I’m still very skeptical, but here’s hoping that 2011 will spawn some games that I’d like.

Now, I don’t know if I should mention this in my review or not, it certainly has affected my enjoyment of the game so far, but I’m sure it will be fixed in the future. It’s so sad that games are released unfinished and untested these days. But I don’t think it’s fair, especially with the state of the economy right now that developers and publishers are almost stealing money from us! I’m amazed at how gaming websites like IGN and Gamespot can rate some of these awful games so high. Gametrailers.com, a site I usually trust gave Black Ops 9.3! It’s nowhere near worth a 9! Black Ops was truly the Windows Vista [Me/95/insert buggy Windows release here] of game releases.

With that said, my collectors edition GT5 has been shipped. I hope this game is more enjoyable than the other crap games that were released with year. Though looking at EA and Activision’s catalog, that won’t be hard to achieve.

Bad Company 2, Modern Warfare 2, Medal of Honor… All these games have one thing in common – they were released too early and they’re cookie cutter games. Generics. All of them have, when they were first released, had bugs that should have been fixed before release. Another thing they have in common – they made their projected release date. It seems that with any game being published by a large corporation such as EA or Activision, the developers are just trying to make the release date, instead of delivering a quality product.

Of course, I’m not asking for another Duke Nukem, though it’s unfair to say that, since the game isn’t even released yet. But I would rather wait for a quality release than something that’s released on time. So to Polyphony Digital, please try to ignore the upset fans, they’ll buy your game anyway, just make sure you deliver an excellent product.

FPS games were made for the PC. If you go on any reputable gaming site and find a top 10 list of FPS games of all time, I guarantee the majority of the games will be made for PC. There is a reason for this – they have features in them that have been perfected over the years since the original Doom and Wolfenstein 3D. Over these years the FPS genre has evolved and standards have been set. These are like “unwritten rules” for FPS development. I can understand wanting change, after all, change can be good. For this reason, I must give IW (Infinity Ward, the developers of this game) some credit.

You see, they decided to experiment with Modern Warfare 2 and try to make it more like a console game. Before the game was released, many PC gamers rejected it because of lack of dedicated servers. Dedicated servers have been in FPS games forever and until home users can buy epically fast Internet connections there’s no reason to have games hosted on individual player’s computers/systems. This is why every FPS game has dedicated servers. Many PC gamers, via Twitter, forums etc tried to tell Infinity Ward this, but unfortunately they didn’t listen. As a result, 4 out of 5 games you get into whilst playing the multiplayer for this game, you will either experience lag or hackers or even both. If this game had dedicated servers, lag would significantly be reduced, servers admins would be able to ban cheaters. It’s also worth noting that this game uses VAC instead of PunkBuster. PunkBuster is a much better anti-cheat system when implemented properly. So thank you to Infinity Ward for reminding us that dedicated servers are better than peer to peer hosting. I hope other game developers learn from this.

If you do end up playing the multiplayer, the best way to get kills is to be as lame as possible. For example, the tubes. I wouldn’t mind tubes if the damage they did was reduced. It’s too easy too use them, hence why they are nicknamed “n00b tubes”. All you do is simply point in the direction of your enemy and click. You don’t need skill to use them. You don’t need skill to knife either. In many FPS games, the knife or similar melee attack is a backup weapon, for when you are in a pinch, can’t reload or have no ammo left. In Modern Warfare 2, it’s role is a primary weapon, which isn’t the way it’s supposed to be. Why spend time aiming for someone’s head, when you can just press one button and get an instant kill? This game does NOT reward skill at all!

The game is also somewhat schizophrenic in that it can’t decided if it wants to be a realistic military shooter or an arcade game. I realize it can be hard to strike a balance between realism and fun, but MW2 tries to mix two extremes together and fails. For example, for realism you’d hold your breath to steady your scope. This is fine, especially if the game was slower paced, but then it turns around and includes things like “perks”. Perks are similar to power ups, some enhance your weapons and others make you sprint for longer etc. Power ups belong in games like Quake 3, Unreal Tournament etc, not a realistic shooter.

Movement is also an essential part of the game. The movement feels clunky and it takes too long to do things. For example, if you swing your knife and then try to shoot, it takes forever to finally pull your gun back out and shoot. If you are new to FPS games, you probably won’t notice the delay, but it’s incredibly frustrating and pointless. It’s not real, it’s a game and it should feel like one. Another reason to believe this was made for console/casual gamers is that you have to climb over a wall. 99% of FPS gamers, unless they are severely disabled or are using a gamepad know how to crouch jump. I don’t need the game to tell me to press space, then put my gun away for two seconds whilst I have no control over my character as he climbs over a wall. I can jump myself!

There are so many things wrong with the multiplayer it would be too long to list them all here. There are (if only a few) good things about this game. The XP and leveling system is great. It rewards you trying out different weapons and items and this makes for a great way to learn your favorites. The weapons are also good too, each one has a different feel to them and they all have their own characteristics that make them unique. They also have many attachments which guarantee that you’ll find some combination’s you’ll like.

The singleplayer isn’t that great either. The singleplayer involves you getting from point A to B whilst the game spawns waves and waves and waves of enemies at you. The only way to stop this, is to find a break in the action, move up to the next point where, once again, the game will spawn more waves and waves and waves of enemies. This is mind numbingly repetitive and designed to impress little console kiddies with too much Kool-Aid in their system.

The Co-Op however is a slightly different story. It’s actually a lot of fun to go through it with a friend and is probably the better part of the game. It’s a shame there aren’t many more levels for this. Speaking of which, the add-on content isn’t great either. I don’t just mean the DLC (which you have to pay for, not worth it). I’m also referring to the lack of MOD support. It’s been almost a year since MW2 came out and already it’s going to be replaced by many (that can afford to, of course) by the next game in the series, Black Ops. Why will MW2 be boring and outdated in about a month’s time? Black Ops? New Medal of Honor? No. The reason is lack of MOD support or map making tools. This is one of the reasons games like Half Life, Counter Strike, Quake 3 and Unreal Tournament last longer than a year. These games are platforms for bedroom nerds and small game studios to experiment and bring something meaningful to the community. Instead, IW and Activision opted for a cash cow.

Considering everything I just said, if you are considering buying this game, my advice to you is don’t. There are much better games coming out soon and this game will soon be forgotten or regarded as “just another FPS”. You will NEVER see this game in a top 10 FPS games of all time list on ANY gaming site. Even as a fan of this genre, I’d have to give this game a 6.5/10.

I like the Splinter Cell series but I wouldnt really call myself a fan. I finished the first game and played the others but regrettably never finished them. I don’t think there is any other game series that compares and don’t even think about mentioning Metal Gear Solid! It’s nowhere near as good as the Splinter Cell series. The latest installment doesn’t really take the genre anywhere new, but it manages to appeal to both fans and newcomers to both the series and the genre. Very few games can claim that.

If you are new to the series and this is your first time then the storyline won’t make any sense at first, however the game makes good use of cutscenes, great voice acting and scripted scenes to unravel the story. Those familiar with the story will have some questions answered.

The gameplay is a little different from the previous games as it seems more streamlined than before. You don’t get as many fancy gadgets but you do get some pretty cool ones, like the sonar goggles which really help. What hasn’t changed from the previous games is that careful planning and patience are always rewarded.

One of the new features is the “execute” feature. After performing a special move like a melee attack, you get to “mark” targets or enemies. Each weapon has a different number of targets you can mark and some are upgradable to add more. Once you have targets marked, you can perform the execute move at any time. Sam (the character you play as) will then take down all the targets in range in a really cool slow motion way. At first I thought this was gimmicky as it seems unrealistic, but the more you use it, the more you feel like a badass. After all, you can  clear an entire room full of enemies in one move. Which its quite an achievement for our main character, since he’s just an old man with no body armor and nothing but a silenced pistol! Targets aren’t limited to just enemies either, objects like explosive barrels can also be used to cause death and destruction.

The cover system is also pretty well done too. Just look at a wall or sandbag or whatever and hold the cover button. You can also move from cover to cover and peek out to take a shot at enemies. The control system is really intuitive too. When hiding behind cover you can wait for an enemy to walk by and them press a button to silently take him out. You can also use the same button to say, pull an enemy out a window when hanging from a ledge.

Hiding behind objects aren’t the only way to be sneaky. Like in the previous games the darkness and shadows are your friends. When you are in the cover of darkness the screen turns black and white. It returns to full color when you get back in the light. This ends up bring incredibly intuitive yet a very simple way of making the player aware of their surroundings.

If you are about to be seen by an enemy an indicator on screen points to the enemy that spotted you. If you are actually discovered the indicator turns from white to red and all of a sudden everyone knows where you are. Most of the time this isn’t preferable but sometimes you can use it to your advantage. For example, if you manage to get away after being spotted a silhouette of your last known position appears and enemies will close in on this position. You could then use it as bait to take them all out. How you do this is up to you.

Sometimes the AI can be a little stupid, walking right by you when they should have seen you, but they are still smart enough to keep you on your toes. In the end it’s all about the experience, if you’re looking for a straight up action game, despite the epic gunfights you might be disappointed. Like I said earlier, the game rewards patience and planning. Even though the game is short, you’ll want to replay it just so you can try the different guns and gadgets or find other ways to get through a level.

This game is definetly worth the money, I’d score it a 9/10.

There hasn’t been a game that has impressed me since Half Life 2. Since then the gaming industry has been spewing out the same shit over and over again. Sure there are some good titles like Mass Effect 2 and Bad Company 2, but they will never be an epic release like Half Life 2 was.  Mass Effect 2 was way too short and Bad Company 2 epically fails at originality.

I’m selling the 360 as well because Forza 3 also fails. It’s just Forza 2 wrapped up in shinier graphics. Like I said, the same mediocre shit. In fact, Turn 10 could actually be the gaming equivalent of Apple – all they did was wrap up an old product in something shinier and called it “new”.

Maybe in a years time or when the next generation of consoles are released I will return to gaming, but for now, I will have to find something else to pass the time.