Purely Review

Guerilla Games, you have done so many things right with your series. Killzone 2 was a masterfully crafted piece of art. It did a better job at conveying what the true horrors of war are than most games based on actual wars. Having never fought in any real battles I cannot say from experience that Killzone is more realistic but stepping onto the brutal battlefields of Helghan and watching scores of troops being relentlessly massacred by the enemy troops while the sound of gunfire and death are forever permeating my eardrums creates a much more real image of war than Call of Duty ever has. The Killzone games have consistently reminded me of Saving Private Ryan, which , in my opinion was the greatest war film of all time due to its unwavering determination to show the true horrors of the Second World War and the truly epic execution of said goal. Killzone 2 was genius and after seeing its tremendous set up for the sequel I awaited eagerly awaited to see what the developers would deliver with Killzone 3. Well all I really have to say is: Guerilla know how to create an atmosphere.

Killzone 3 takes place just after the assassination of Scolar Visari, the leader of the Helghast. His death brought in a new surge of militaristic patriotism for the Helghast as they all rally together to extract brutal revenge of their beloved leader’s assassins. The ISA forces have been broken and are in the midst of a full retreat, Helghan politicians are arguing over who Visari’s heir will be and in the midst of this, a small band of surviving ISA soldier fight to their last breath trying to stay alive under the relentless onslaught of their Helghast pursuers.

Killzone 3′s plot has had a noticeable amount of attention paid to it after the rather empty story that accompanied the predecessor. The game focuses less on pure gratuitous carnage and more an atmosphere and plot which is definitely a step in the right direction. The story has you take control of Sev, our ISA buddy from the first game, as he battles to lead the last few surviving ISA troops in a desperate attempt to escape Helghan having given up hope of winning the war. The game is set over a 6 month time period and early on breaks up the story by jumping back and forth between the start and end of this period before levelling out once the story is fully established. The campaign has you going to all sorts of varied environments such as sneaking through a murky swamp, silently eliminating all the Helghast there, to launching a full scale assault on an arctic weapons plant. Despite the locale variations, the single player campaign is unfortunately much shorter than that of Killzone 2 but every second is on display in a whirlwind of adrenaline culminating to an epic final battle and the conclusion of the game and the series, or so we thought….

Yes Guerilla have fallen into the unfortunate trap of not knowing when to stop. When I finished Killzone 3 I was actually quite surprised at how intense and chilling the ending was once you absorb the full scale of what has just happened and that would have been fine for closure until a post-credits cinematic revealed there will clearly be another Killzone game. Honestly Guerilla, I love what you have done but you don’t need to do any more. Killzone 3 ended perfectly well and you should just let the series end as the epic monument to first person shooter that it is.

The controls are lifted almost unaltered from Killzone 2 with a few minor changes such as the ability to slide into cover and subsequently vault over it. You can now carry a 3^rd speciality weapon like a LMG or Rocket Launcher to accompany your assault rifle and pistol. There are also plenty of vehicle sections in the game and a few overpowered “fuck you!” weapons scattered throughout just to add a bit of variety to the already diverse missions. One of my personal favourite features is the brutal melee where you effectively perform an extremely gratuitous execution on the enemy when in melee mode. One complaint I have is the ability for your AI comrades to revive you if you are killed. Granted they aren’t always able to for various reasons but it still makes the campaign a little patronisingly simple at times. Still, can’t have everything.

Visually the game has taken a noticeable step up and no doubt the 3D makes it even more impressive as is continually boasted in all the magazines. I was still sufficiently impressed by the 2D visuals though and felt it added to the whole “war is hell” atmosphere that’s been present since the last Killzone game. I am being genuinely series, this is probably one of the most immersive atmospheres since Bioshock and that is saying something. The phenomenal voice acting performances by Ray Winstone, Malcom McDowell and Brian Cox coupled with the titanic sound track help make the game the piece of art that it is.

One issue I had had with Killzone 2 was regarding the two warring factions. In Killzone 2 I genuinely felt bad for the Helghast having read some of the back story leading up to the war and seeing them as more of the victims of oppression being punished for trying to take back for what is theirs and this disturbed me as I was sympathising with a faction that was clearly modelled after Nazi Germany. Come Killzone 3 however and all sympathies are lost as Guerilla transformed the Helghast from a wronged nation into merciless brutal murderers devoid of all ethics and morality in terms of how they treat their prisoners. This shift made me wonder if Guerilla had noticed that others might feel the same way I did regarding the gas-masked nation and hastily tried to fix that for fear of backlash if it was interpreted wrongly by one of the ignorant masses in modern society. Either that or they wanted to show to true extent of social breakdown at the loss of their beloved leader, who knows.

Time to wrap up this review then. Despite its rather insultingly short campaign, allusions to an unnecessary sequel and revive system removing some of the games challenge, Killzone 3 is still one of the best shooters out there especially with the option of co-op campaign. Overall I find it to be a big step up from its predecessor. While Killzone 2 delivered what little plot it had to an excellent standard, it did it with such an excess of mindless gratuity and unnecessary profanity. I am happy to say Guerilla handles the mature themes much better in this instalment with more focus on making it plot appropriate and less on trying to horrify parents. Overall Killzone 3 is a masterfully crafted piece of art rivalling some of the best shooters in the industry and is a perfect end to an epic series; until Killzone 4 comes along to ruin it…

We live in an era of shitty rip off sequels, abandonment of genres, remakes and of course, the crown jewel in the death of virtual creativity, franchises. I don’t mean creative franchises like Blizzard Entertainment who at least mix up the gameplay to an acceptable level every game. No I mean companies like Nintendo or EA who literally remake the same game every year and slap a new number on it and this has gone on for so long that when they finally try something new, they realise their creativity is all gone and we get games like Metroid: Other M in to drive a stake through the heart of the series. However, there is one franchise which, despite its bumpy history has managed to surprise me several times especially with its most recent incarnation and that is the Call of Duty series. Yes Call of Duty has gone through a long history of both good and bad and maybe I should give a rough summary of my opinion of the series before I continue: 1+4 were good, Modern Warfare 2 was a clone of its predecessor and 2,3+5 I honestly did not give a shit about.

Now comes a new year and with it we get Black Ops which is neither the old man World War 2 era or the moody adolescent Modern Warfare era. Instead it is more like a young child prodigy taking place somewhere around the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis and such so still has plenty of room for controversy in case parents need to make sure they can kick up a fuss after giving it to their 12 year old as a baby sitter. Black Ops manages to balance gameplay and plot very well which is something I really have to admire about a franchise game as they usually find that sort of thing too much effort. Anyway I suppose I better break this review down into the various elements that make up the game.

One thing that stood out for me more in this game than in Modern Warfare 2 is that I actually liked the character I was playing as more than my team which I had a real hard job doing in Modern Warfare 2, possibly because they kept getting killed off. When playing as protagonist Alex Mason I do genuinely find him to be an interesting if rather confused individual while in Modern Warfare 2 I was too busy swearing at Sheppard for executing Ghost than I was lamenting my own characters’ deaths. As I always feel plot and characterisation is very important in a good game it was a nice surprise to find myself actually admiring the characterisation of some of the protagonists.

The plot itself is a twisting knot of secrecy, cover-ups and conspiracy theories all culminating to an exciting conclusion which I must admit, I didn’t predict which is another point in the game’s favour. The gist of the plot is you play as a special undercover agent performing the most secret of Black Operations so the American Government can have full deniability. After all, the wake of destruction and mutilated corpses left behind you after the mission is done probably won’t be noticed by anyone. Yes parts of the plot are a bit silly and a stealth game may have better suited but its Call of Duty, if it wasn’t an action-packed, cocaine-induced, shooting extravaganza it might lose sales which would be the end of all life as we know it. There is also another plot line about your character being involved in some massive conspiracy involving a set of mysterious numbers so the game flashes back to Mason being strapped to an interrogation chair while a mysterious voice demands the same thing over and over again to no avail.

Gameplay has been lifted virtually unaltered from Modern Warfare 2 except now you can do a sprinting dive in order to feel more awesome when running for cover. The guns of the game of course reflect the guns at the time; a load of shit. Some of them are laughably bad while others like the Olympia shotgun just look so awesome when they shred a guys hand off in a lovely visceral display. Yes there is dismemberment but only to the extent of one limb per person which isn’t very fun when you hit a rebel with an RPG only to see him sink to his knees clutching the stump of just one arm but I can’t say I expected much more.

Zombies mode has returned but as with its ancestor back in World at War the thrill dies after about 2 games although all my friends seem to find it so enjoyable for hours on end. Maybe I am just boring in that regard but it really doesn’t entertain me for more than a few attempts especially when you have to put up with the characters spouting off the same cheeseball catch phrases every 2^nd zombie kill.

Multiplayer is a big improvement from Modern Warfare 2′s although still has the problem of too much grind, not enough fun but then some people feel its a status symbol to be on max prestige or whatever so Activision are just accommodating the angsty mainstream community while grind in most other games is to accommodate the angsty shut-in community. There are new modes such as a wager mode where you gamble in-game currency on unique and extremely entertaining matches. There’s the standard Call of Duty multiplayer experience with a more advanced and better designed load out customisation and, for the first time in the series, the ability to take a split-screen guest online. While I have never used it I personally feel it is an extremely useful feature because not only does it give you and your mate something to do but it also reassures you to know that there are other Call of Duty players who actually have real life friends and not just people they met online.

All in all the game is considerably better than Modern Warfare 2 which was just a coat of polish added to Call of Duty 4. It appeals to the demands of the community hence the online guests and zombies mode. The plot may not be the most realistically conceived war plot but its execution more than makes up for it. Easter eggs are abundant throughout the game giving the real nerds something to enjoy. The unimportant things like multiplayer and visuals are done to a good standard so overall I am happy and can happily say that this is the best instalment in the franchise besides obviously Call of Duty 1.

The Witcher (Enhanced Edition)

Players: 1
Platforms: PC
Publishers: CD Projekt, Atari
Developers: CD Projekt RED STUDIO

Released in 2007, the graphics in this release from CD Projekt were gorgeous for their time, and while having aged a bit, still looks great. The music does a wonderful balancing act, setting the mood perfectly, but not overpowering the sounds of battle. CD Projekt was even kind enough to include 2 audio discs with the game, that has all the beautiful game music, and even songs inspired by the witcher sound track (which I have all downloaded on my MP3 player).

The graphics still look fantastic, even 3 years after release.

Immediately once you take control of Geralt, you get a taste of the battle system. It takes a bit of getting used to at first, but after a while, timing your combo attacks becomes second nature. Then later on, learning to integrate your Signs (what passes for magic in The Witcher) becomes a second challenge, but is easily mastered. After getting a good feel of the battling system, it was fun to make Geralt land a flurry of attacks on his enemies, and blast them with fire. Unfortunately, it wasn’t fun enough to cover up one of the biggest problems with this game. While chain attacks and instant cast magic is there to make you feel like a fluid fighting machine, the fact that all parries and dodges were rolled out by the RNG made the whole system feel a bit clunky… like the second I took ahold of the character, he lost a lot of his fighting edge. I wanted to be able to do a flourishing pirouette and strike my opponent’s unprotected area, but anything aside from standing in one spot, chaining attacks, feels forced and clunky.

However, despite the problems with the battle system, this game still has an area that really shines: the story and NPC interaction. The story is a series of twists and turns, trying to force you to make decisions on who your friends are, and who you’re going to cross swords with. At several points in each chapter, your decisions alter Geralt’s fate for the subsequent chapters, making your choices extremely important. Don’t worry, this isn’t your typical “good and evil” morality system. Most decisions you make are deep in the gray, making you feel like you’re trying desperately to search for the answer that gets the least number of people killed. The majority of the time, I found myself wanting to try out every answer just to see what happens. And not only are the choices intriguing and thought-provoking, but they drive forward a storyline that keeps you guessing until the end.

A momento of a night of “role playing.”

I feel obligated to mention, there are some bugs with the game, even after EE was launched. I had a lot of issues with the game crashing after about 3-4 hours of continuous gameplay, and most of the crashes occured during saves. I know not all players had this problem, but I did and I know that many others have as well. If you decide to play, make sure to save often.

So at the end of the day, if you’re just looking for another hack-and-slash dungeon crawler, you should probably keep moving. But if you love a story-driven RPG as much as I do, this is definitely a must-have for your library.

Final Score – 8.2/10

Name: Lead and Gold: Gangs of the Wild West
Platform: PS3/PSN – Download only
Players: 2 – 10
Publisher: Paradox
Developer: Fatshark

Lead and Gold: Gangs of the Wild West is a 3rd person online shooter.

The real emphasize of the game is on team based tactics and goals. There’s no room for a lone gunman on Lead and Gold and you might find yourself outnumbered and out gunned if you pursue on your own initiative, leaving all gang mates behind. Staying close to other gang members isn’t just about number’s, the nice developers at Fatshark threw in a few goodies that they called synergies, that trigger when you pass or stay close to other members of your gang. These range from increased damage to better accuracy, a very handy trick to turn the tide in your gangs favor.

Staying true to the team based shooters, all players are divided into two gangs blue and red. Plus the usual variety of game modes including shootout, an all out no holds barred gang vs gang death match, with the gang with the most kills coming out as the victors and Robbery, where one gang defends gold bags and the other tries to steal them and take them back to their drop off zone.

Another gameplay ploy to instill co-operation in gangs is that members carrying objects, such as gold bags, cannot return fire and it falls solely down to other team mates to protect the “runner” or should I say walker, as when you pick up an object, gravity becomes another obstacle as a players slow down due to the weight of the object being carried.

Other than different team goals there really isn’t any difference in playing in either gang. All players can select from the same four characters, Gunslinger, Deputy, Blaster and Trapper. Each does have it’s own primary weapon, synergie and an unique ability. Making for a nicely varied array of playing styles and it’s here that Lead and Gold shows of one of it’s best aspects. It’s not just about a different look or gun from one character to the next, you really do have to learn that for instance, the trapper, with a long range rifle and side arm, is no good at the forefront of the conflict. As the Trapper you will find yourself holding back usually at high ground and picking off enemies with well placed rifle rounds. If the ‘Sniper’ feeling you get as a Trapper doesn’t take your fancy and getting into the thick of things is more to your liking, then the Gunslinger, with his fast and accurate sidearm, may be your choice. Whichever character you do choose will not only determine the way you play and synergies you pass onto fellow gang members but will also come with a unique ability. The Trapper for instance has the ability, you might have already guessed, to set traps in the likeness to a bear trap. Once stepped on it prevents enemies from moving or firing as they struggle to free themselves. Time is of the essence though, as the enemy won’t stay crippled in the trap forever just long enough for a quick gloat and a few well placed side arm rounds.

In the beginning you will more than likely find yourself face down in the dirt, blood pouring from various bullet holes, cursing your over eagerness to get into the thick of a fire fight however with Lead and Gold’s unique spawning system you can find yourself thrown straight back into the fray. Albeit after a short ten second interval. Any member of your gang, including yourself, can carry your teams flag, which they can conveniently pick up at your games home spawning point. This allows any dead players, on that team, to respawn wherever the player with the flag happens to be on the map. What’s really good about this is, if a flag happens to be with a player that is more than capable you could end up pinning down the over gang with reinforcements sent straight back to a position of great advantage. The down side to this is, you can be thrown straight into the cross fire before you have a chance to catch your wits however there is a nifty little button you can push to change your respawn position back to the home spawn if needs be.

There are downsides to Lead and Gold. The map variations for what is a completely online game are ok in their own right but there’s only 6 maps to choose from and you soon find yourself fighting over the same positions as you where a few hours ago.

The characters while in their own way unique only work if your team has a variety and after more than a few hours online you’ll find that certain characters are favored by players. It really does start to lose it’s fun when it looks like attack of the clones rather than a wild west gang fighter game. That said, there are instances where variety is mixed and you come up against good competitors and the game is fully enjoyable.

All the problems or limitations can be overlooked as for £11.99 it’s far cheaper than any new PS3 games that hits the shelf however the real problem, one too big and too important to overlook, is it’s popularity among gamers. There just are not enough people playing to stop what is a good budget 3rd person wild west shooter from fading away.

In the end Lead and Gold looks destined to be forgotten, a shame really.

Graphics: 7.5/10 – Do the job of presenting the wild west, some nice effects but nothing ground breaking.

Sound: 7/10 – Again does the job mostly you don’t notice it which means a good job was done.

Gameplay: 8/10 – Some nice new variations such as the spawning system.

Fun Factor: 8.5/10 – the novelty of a wild west shooter, plus it’s varied character’s style of play.

Longevity of play: 3/10 – Lucky to find more than one game going on in each mode usually you can’t play some modes.

Players: 1
Platforms:PS3, Xbox 360, PC
Publisher: Activision
Developer: Radical Entertainment

The ground shakes. The citizens tremble, despite not knowing what befalls them next. The military is tracking this event and moving towards the location in the hopes of stopping it. But by the time they get there, it’s too late. The citizens of New York have been wiped by the most evil and powerful force imaginable.

A game delay.

Such a phenomena would happen many a time in the development of Prototype. The hype train kept chugging it’s slow path and people held their breaths that the world would be saved by this game. Now, it’s here. Our saviour. Maybe.

You are Alex Mercer, a scientist with the dress sense of a street punk who has been infected with a virus known as Blacklight and now can kick all kinds of ass. Your mission is to find out who made you the way you are and make him pay.

The controls are much like the Spiderman game series, with (on the Xbox controller) X and Y attacking, B grabbing, A jumping, right trigger for running and other buttons for targeting and selecting your powers. Although some combos are hard to pull off, this is a very good control scheme. The game itself also behaves like Spiderman, particularly Spidey 2. You can run and climb up walls, glide acroos buildings and do massive jumps, much like the man of spider. The setting also helps, and if you’ve played the open-world Spidey games, you’ll like this.

The main drawcard of Prototype is that you are an ass kicking machine with loads of super powers to massacre military, monsters and Dave Everyman with. Early powers including plain ol’ strength, giant claws that would make Wolverine jealous, a giant shield and the ability to shift thy shape. Consuming people not only gives you health, but also their identity. Hide for long enough and you can come back out with a new skin. Those military won’t know what hit ‘em.

Consuming people can also, sometimes, give you their memories to unlock on the Web of Intrigue. Consuming certain people at certain times can unlock more of the plot, though not necessarily the game, and brings you closer to finding your man. I’m gonna be honest, a lot of the WOI entries were very unsatisfying. The best ones came from the main story missions, which gave me a lot of backstory and information. Thank you.

The story is pretty lame. It’s one of those games that doesn’t really explore the motives of your individual missions, has some pretty tame concepts at the beginning, and just ditches and forgets about past concepts and characters. When you get to what happened to Alex Mercer before the events of the game at the end of it, it’s not worth it.

The graphic are also pretty rough. Low textures abound, and that dreaded pre-loading also. There’s a lot to take in on the screen, though, with a massive draw distance and sweet special effects. Gore has surprisingly been toned down. You’d expect this game to have buckets of blood and limbs flying everywhere. But this game was banned originally or something.

The learning curve of the game is pretty good. The military start off with mere footsoldiers, then start bringing in copters and tanks. They also develop technology specifically for use in fighting back the infection. And you. The infection itself also holds a bigger presence the more the game goes on.

To combat both of these armies, you gain evolution points, or EP, for killing, consuming and completing. The EP you gain flows at a very steady rate, and so do the price of the upgrades. Both go up at various stages of the game, but you always feel like you are getting stronger and better at a comfortable rate. This feels very satisfying and thus makes up for the crud story.

Side missions are pretty basic, but they get the job done. Most of them boil down to consuming or killing, but there are also a few jumping, racing and basejumping missions. The best ones force you to temporarily take the side of either the military or infected in a massive battle. Though hard, these are very fun, and it’s nice to stop killing one side for a while.

Other people have literally called this game a prototype, claiming that there have been one hundred and one glitches in the game. Apart from some occasionally retarded enemy AI, I think of this as a polished game and contender for open world game of the year. Supervillainy has never been so much fun.

Graphics: 7/10
Sound: 7/10
Difficulty: 6/10
Glitch Factor: 9/10
Pure Fun: 9/10
Length: 8/10

Total: 8.5/10

Players: 1
Platforms:PS3, Xbox 360, PC
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Obsidian Entertainment

Nowadays, we have technology that can be started and used pretty much instantly, but a long time, the world relied on steam power to use transport and other appliances. It was indeed powerful when it got going, but it took a while, required a lot of resources and you could still see it quivering when it was at full power. This is the best way to describe self-proclaimed “espionage RPG” Alpha Protocol. It’s good when it gets going, but man does it take a while.

You play as Michael Thorton, the newest recruit in the secret spy agency named Alpha Protocol. Your first mission is to head to Saudi Arabia and kill the leader of a terrorist cell that recently blew up a jet airliner. Soon after, however, things go awry fast, and Thorton becomes a rogue agent, hunted by his country. In order to clear his name, he will have to get to the bottom of the whole mystery.

The introduction is pretty good. You get a good amount of initial skill customisation with which to create your own specialised James Bond-alike. Go for the stealth skills, gun skills or aptitude with gadgets? You get to decide, and the effects are noticable even as soon as you step into Thorton’s shoes. Or not, because he’s barefoot uin the first chapter.

Just who can you trust? Oh wait, that’s you, you can trust you.

Thorton must be drugged in order to be taken to the AP facility, in order not to reveal it’s destination, so he wakes up in the medical bay and decides he needs to get out. You start creeping out, meet your first guard….and then things go downhill rapidly.

To say the AI in this game is bad is to say the sun is kind of warm. Not just bad as in braindead either. Sometimes you’d swear that the government plots to train psychic soldiers was real. You could be as quiet and discreet as anybody possibly could be, and he’ll just suddenly turn around and turn Mike into lead pie. Other times, they’ll just stand around like complete idiots while their companions are dropping all around them, even in the middle of a firefight. Appaling, especially in 2010.

Mike’s movement isn’t much better. Cover is especially finicky, as it’s hard to tell the guidelines between what is cover and what is just scenery. Although the camera works fine, Thorton occasionally has trouble turning around. Shootouts are also shoddy, at least in the beginning. In truth, it’s just horribly inaccurate, too much so. You might end up firing a few clips just to take one man down from any sort of distance. As his skills improve, the shootouts get better, but most will likely give up before they get that far. For good reason, I might add.

The overall presentation is sub-par indeed. Graphics are likened to that stem power metaphor at the start of this review: the textures have to pre-load a lot, and there are still a lot of shading issues, particularly with Thorton’s face, but it just manages to look like a next-gen game. SFX and voice acting is passable at best.

This is a totally original kick, right?

It might seem like I have nothing but bad things to say about this game, but there is one big saving grace in Alpha Protocol: the story. The globe-trotting antics of Agent Thorton will stick with you long after you press that power button off. The plot is grand in scope and feels that way, and the characters are all pretty memorable. But is it a good tactic to remember these people? How best should you treat these people?

Instead of a morality system, Alpha Protocol’s main storyline changing mechanic is a character relations system. Michael has a lot of options in terms of communicating or dealing with other people in this game, which is supposed to have great repurcussions for the rest of the story. And it does. Whatever decisions you make in this game do have effects on how the rest of it pans out. Most likely, you will have a vastly different experience between playthroughs if even one person likes or hates you more than someone else. As one of the only games to do this, it definitely receives top points for innovation.

But while the story really does need to be experienced, the actual game leaves a lot to be desired. The gunplay and stealth is rubbish to start off with and elevates only to average, the AI is atrocious and it takes ages for the game to get any good. When it gets good, it stays that way for the rest of the game (and the game is quite long) but you’ll need to be a pretty patient gamer to get that far. A missed opportunity.

Graphics: 7.5/10
Sound: 7/10
Difficulty: 6/10
Glitch Factor: 4/10
Pure Fun: 7.5/10
Length: 8/10

Total: 7/10

MEDAL OF HONOR
Frontline | Rising Sun | European Assault | Vanguard

“Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle hardened. He will fight savagely” – General Dwight Eisenhower

The Series
The Medal of Honor series is regarded as the best first person shooter series of all times. It has gained numerous awards, with the Guinness World Records naming it the “Best Selling First Person Shooter Series” in the Gamer’s Edition for 2008.

Four titles are available on the Playstation 2 console, all including different plots and features. You usually play as a soldier that completes the majority of missions by himself, sometimes with a human player or in a small squad of AI soldiers. Objectives must be completed without death, using assorted WWII weaponry including the M1 Grand, Thompson and different German arms. Extra weapons such as a Basooka and explosives are available to the player.

Being a FPS (First Person Shooter) each Medal of Honor title must include a good HUD (Head’s Up Display) and realistic view of the battle. The majority of titles have this, with the exception of the early games such as Frontline and especially Rising Sun. The graphics for Rising Sun is poor but it makes up for it in the AI bots available in four player combat. Graphics and detail increase with new titles, especially European Assault and Vanguard which use the older games to build on the detail.

Game Information
Published by Electronic Arts, the Medal of Honor series started in 1999 on the original Playstation platform. The games generally has a single player campaign, offline multiplayer modes and an online capability. They have been released on every platform, with new releases still arriving on the latest consoles.

Which is the Best?
After playing each individual games multiple times, I’ve found that certain titles have good and bad traits. It’s very noticable on the older and newer games, because the latter can learn from any mistakes.

My favourite game from the four available on the Playstation 2 platform is Medal of Honor: Vanguard which features excellent attention to detail, completely different health system and the ability to choose whether or not to pick up weapons. I especially love parachuting out of aircraft, allowing me to decide where I land and giving me the best view of the battle.

[Image: medal-honor-european-assault-1.jpg]
European Assault

Recommendations
There are Medal of Honor games that are better than their brothers. After revealing my favourite of the series, Medal of Honor: Vanguard, I would have to recommend to any FPS player. If you’re into the realism and details, Vanguard is for you. However, if you’re more of a party player, then Rising Sun is designed for four players with the added 8-bot capacity and the ability to choose weapon packs and the range of maps.

Frontline is widely considered the best in graphics, with a smooth framerate and details but it lacks gameplay. With gameplay I mean how you play and what is available for you to do. European Assault is very much the same as Vanguard, without allowing you to run and there’s no skydiving – which is why Vanguard is my choice.

So if you’re considering buying one or two from the Medal of Honor series, I would recommend…
Medal of Honor: Vanguard (for single player)
Medal of Honor: Rising Sun (for multi player)

Other Reviews
Frontline
GameSpot: 9
IGN: 8

Rising Sun
GameSpot: 6.4
IGN: 8

European Assault
GameSpot: 7.6
IGN: 8.1

Vanguard
GameSpot: 5.5 (come on!)
IGN: 7.2

Players: 1
Platforms: Playstation 3, Xbox 360
Publisher: Square Enix
Developer: Square Enix

Obviously, this game is the big blockbuster for Square Enix this year. Final Fantasy 13 is the newest installment for their flagship franchise, and is probably the most controversial to date. Burning quickly through the story, the game will run about 35-40 hours. For those who are interested in the side missions, or just completing the Platinum trophy, you’re looking at another dozen hours at least.

The music, while not the typical Final Fantasy fare, is absolutely beautiful. Very well orchestrated, and each piece blends perfectly with the surroundings. Voice acting was decent… not fantastic, but decent. It didn’t suffer the same issues as FF10 did, with the horrid lip syncing and bad translations, and most of the dialogue was moderately believable. There were some issues with cheesy lines on occasion, and some lack of proper inflection, but it was far from terrible, and actually had its moments.

Graphically, everything looks amazing, from the backdrops to the character detail. Even in-game cinematics look like they could almost be CGI. Facial expressions tend to be a little stiff, but that’s easy to forgive with the sweeping landscapes surrounding that one minor flaw. Definitely one of the most beautiful games of the year.

Combat starts off very slow. The first two chapters of the game are essentially mashing of the X button over and over again, while the game tries to ease you into the system that’s been completely built from the ground up for this game. After the second chapter, it picks up quickly, allowing for customization and strategy, focused more on real time gameplay than any of the installments before it. As you progress, each character will gain access to the 6 combat roles, each with their own set of special abilities (Sentinels provoke and tank damage from enemies, while Ravagers focus on pummeling the enemy with elemental spells, and Medics run your typical cleric duties of healing, rezzing and clearing debuffs).

Since you are only given direct control of the party leader, your job boils down to delegating roles during combat, while the AI picks the specific attacks to use. While outside of combat, the player creates up to 6 Paradigms for their party, which are a set of roles for each party member to switch into upon command. Later in the game, combat starts to become fast paced and frantic forcing you to constantly switch paradigms.

Without divulging any spoilers about the story line, the game’s story and characters are… hard to believe. The most relatable character in the game is probably Sazh, and possibly Lightning. Everybody else seems like a cliche from a bad anime, stepped right into a story full of half-explained intrigue, topped with a dollop of Deus ex Machina. It’s not to say that the story is BAD, so much as it just leaves a lot of things unexplained. There are plot holes a mile wide that even its extremely dry and repetitive Datalog (The log entries that record every bit of information you would ever come across within the game) can’t seem to fill.

Sazh’s frocobo is the most amusing member of the game’s cast.

At the end of the day, a game is more than the sum of its parts, and while it’s nice to read about each individual section, it’s also nice to get an overview of how the game feels… or should feel.

As it’s been said by plenty of review sites, this game is linear. Incredibly linear. “Shoot me out of a cannon down a narrow hallway” linear. This isn’t bad in and of itself, but in Square Enix’s attempt to create an epic Role-playing Game that does away with the excess the genre has come to know as “standard”, it’s lost something. It’s lost a spark… something that makes an RPG truly shine as a diamond in the rough.

What this game lacks is connection. Sure, you get this connection between each character, you follow on their journey, you have to save the world, yadda yadda. But you never really get the connection to the world itself. It ends up being miles upon miles of endless corridor filled with baddies, and zero interaction with the world itself. There’s no connection to Cocoon, maybe the slightest of connections to Pulse, and aside from that, you’re just hurdling down the paths of storyline at rocket speed, completely bypassing anything that makes the game come alive and really shine as a role-playing experience.

Players: 1
Platforms: Playstation 3, Xbox 360
Publishers: Sega
Developers: Platinum Games

Bayonetta is sexy, over-the-top, unadulterated fun. It wraps up the old DMC design in a curvaceous new package, and enhances the flash factor by about 200%.

You play the game as Bayonetta, who is an Umbran Witch… a society of magic users who draw power from the moon, make pacts with demons, and watch over the dark half of the yin/yang balance that is ascribed to such games. On the other side of the pond are the Lumen Sages, their Light-watching counterparts that make pacts with Angels… who look just as demonic as the demons do.

For over a dozen hours, you trek your way through a convoluted mess of a story that has something to do with looking for a set of “eyes” that has something to do with watching over humanity and/or resurrecting the “creator.” Though you fight for the darkness, you always get the feeling that you’re still the good guy, because you’re constantly being attacked by angels at every turn, though none of them really tell you why, except for the occasional mentioning of Bayonetta not yet being strong enough. Strong enough for what, exactly? Well, you don’t really find that out until the last two chapters of the game, and even when you do, it still leaves you scratching your head, wondering what the hell actually happened, and why.

A witch’s work is never done

Fortunately, this game is not about the story. It’s about the pure baddassery you get to unleash on the heavenly host with extreme prejudice. Bayonetta has a plethora of combos, and a myriad of weapons you get to unlock as you progress through the story. But don’t worry about getting lost in the wake of it all, because while skillful use of the combat system is rewarded, button mashing and judicious use of the dodge button will still typically get you through most of the battles. And if you feel the desire to go back and improve your battle rankings, you can choose any chapter you previously played, and go through it again with everything you’ve already unlocked. To top off this sexy hack-and-slash sundae with a luscious cherry, not only is there a solid trophy lineup, but a plethora of unlockables, including harder difficulty modes, and special characters.

Yes, this is a bazooka. And yes, you get to strap it on your feet.

The PS3 version has, rightfully, gotten some bad press, concerning being subpar to the xbox360 version. Supposedly it has some extra screen tearing and frame rate drops that aren’t present in the 360 (a certain area on chapter 15 has its frame rate about cut in half). However, the differences overall are pretty minor, and with the recent addition of a patch allowing you to install Bayonetta to your PS3 hard drive, there are no longer any issues concerning excessive load times, which were originally the biggest concern for this port.

Overall, the game has its flaws, but it’s pure fun, on crack. It’s fast-paced, rewarding, and has a ton of replayability. And now with the recent install patch, the differences between the two versions are minor enough that there’s no excuse to skip over Bayonetta on the PS3, whether or not you’re a fan of this genre.