Nick’s Picks: My Top Ten Games of the Decade

First and foremost, let it be known that am not a juggernaut gamer. When I say juggernaut gamer, I refer to the kind of gamer who will devote their every waking free moment to playing a game from start to finish. I have only ever done this with one or two games in my lifetime. I am the other end of the spectrum – a social gamer. Four out of five games in my collection are there because of a strong multiplayer element, and as such when I dedicate a slice of time to gaming, it is more likely to be a multiplayer session. I preface my list with this detail to establish a certain fact – there are titles that you’ll see on other ‘games of the decade’ lists that are absent from mine. These tend to be games driven around a single-player campaign, and my involvement with the game was purely as spectator, enjoying the game more as a cinematic experience. That having been said, I present my own top ten games of the past ten years. Instead of trying to rank them, I’m simply going to follow them back in time.
(And for the record, I have no earthly idea why this text is smaller than the rest. It shouldn't be, but the posting editor is one big bug that has given me nothing but trouble tonight.)

10. Fallout 3 [2008] for 360

This is a game in which I’ve barely scratched the surface, so in terms of describing the total impact of the game, I can’t make a true declarative yet. What I have experienced so far is nothing short of majestic. The Capital Wastelands are themselves a work of art. The levelling system is practical and in all technicality what you would experience in reality – a gradual learning of how to better use and maintain an arsenal of weapons and devices. The story unfolding before me is very compelling and unbelievably expansive; the designers really went above and beyond making sure every element of the game would be appreciated. I ventured into the underground railways, and it was a genuinely creepy experience. The truth of this game is that it encapsulates a world wherein there is the potential for so much story and exploration, and the designers made sure that we would be spending more time on this game than any other three combined. I haven’t touched the extra content yet, but I’m confident it will be just as engrossing as the main quests.

9. Gears of War 2 [2008] for 360

The Gears universe is one that hooks me as a military-science-fiction geek. You’ve got guys with guns. You’ve got an alien war machine bent on exterminating humans. While these elements are definitely not unique to this franchise, they do click together in a successful way. It goes without saying that the Gears franchise was one of the first to integrate a vital key necessary to victory in a firefight – taking cover. Gears 2 didn’t progress too much on game-play mechanics; structurally it is most of the same things, if just a little cleaned up. What Gears 2 brought was the Horde. Until this point we had been asked to wage war on our friends in death-match arenas, killing them repeatedly to prove our superiority. Now, we had an opportunity to fight with them, united as a whole against a greater tide of enemy aggression. I have very few memories of the multiplayer from the first Gears; overall it seemed a little shallow. But I do remember the Horde; the numerous sessions of six hours and beyond spent holding our ground from waves 1 through 50. Gears 2 helped introduce a new way of approaching multiplayer, and it’s something that a lot of newer games are adopting.

8. Left 4 Dead [2008] for 360

I remember long ago thinking “Wouldn’t it be a fun change of pace to play as the zombie instead of the gun-toting survivor?” A short while later my at-the-time roommate found and purchased Stubbs the Zombie, an Xbox original. While it was cute in its nostalgic style, it would be soon overshadowed by Left 4 Dead. L4D brought forth a much more visceral and genuinely frightening vision of the zombie apocalypse. These zombies have the realism of science on their side – a viral pathogen that kills the higher brain functions and turns the infected into a primal creature, a rage-driven monster. And while they may not conform to the more puritan Romero-esque supernaturally undead zombie, it doesn’t make them any less scary.

The cinematic touches are a huge part of what make this game a profound experience. Modern games are pushing hard to play more like interactive movies, and it’s definitely succeeding for many franchises, including this one. The L4D franchise also has a little trick up its sleeve. They are games that practically discourage individual campaigning – you want, and more often than not, require a second, third, and even fourth player to ensure that human competence determines the survivor’s actions.

I’m using the first game as opposed to the second one for the simple reason that L4D set the bar, and I feel L4D2 didn’t exactly exceed it. It introduced a whack of new weapons, health utilities and the melee option, but with new good came new bad – the human AI got dumber and the special infected are just as frustrating as ever. But the franchise is a definite landmark in terms of setting the stage of zombie apocalypse.

7. Rainbow Six Vegas 2 [2008] for 360

Rainbow Six Vegas 2 has become a multiplayer staple for me, one I can come and go from without ever losing passion for the game. The campaign, as with most games, had its fun moments and equally frustrating parts, nothing substantially memorable. But like Gears 2, the game sticks with me for the multiplayer. Once again it is a team effort, working as a counter-terrorist fire team flushing the enemy out and picking them off one by one. There will be nights where I can’t summon the energy to want to hold out against zombies and alien hordes, but a small part of me never gets tired of killing a few terrorists.

6. Portal (Orange Box edition) [2007] for 360

People who know me know that I’m not a person who proactively buys every title that hits the shelves. The Orange Box is one of those situations – I didn’t have it until the summer of 2008, and I honestly had no idea what to be expecting from the games within.

Valve accomplished something distinct with Portal. They created a gaming experience that offered genuine creepiness without throwing any enemies at you. They did it through omnipresence. GlaDos builds on what you initially perceive as a sort of testing session, psychologically prodding you through the trials until you realize that you are a rat in a sadist’s death-maze. The moment you break free of the sterile environment, things become even creepier as you stumble across ominous traces of those who endured the trials before you. It’s the prolific emptiness that lets you focus on your mental state as opposed to your physical state. These days you have to do something truly unique to make a game stand out, and Valve did it.

5. Burnout Revenge [2006] for Xbox/360

I think it may be genetically programmed into the brains of men that we like cars. They are aesthetic and unique fusions of form and function; an innovation that truly changed the face of the earth. But there’s another thing that seems built-in as well – we like seeing things destroyed. Call it a morbid fascination with our potential for destruction if you will; cars exploding are one of those things that excite us. And this is pretty much a summary of what Burnout Revenge offers – the chance to destroy cars. The game is a damage-physics extravaganza disguised as a racer. The races are definitely fun; multiplayer is structurally limited to online and those experiences tend to be incredibly one-sided, but it’s still fun. This game is also one of the titles that has given me my most intense gamer-rage moments – the burning laps require you to complete a single circuit of a map in a set amount of time to earn a certain medal, and your only hope of earning gold is to accomplish two things at once – use every shortcut route in the map, and Don’t Crash. Where my record stands, I have yet to successfully merge the two concepts into a gold medal. But I’m not about to stop trying.

4. The Sims 2 [2004] for PC

To understand why this title is on my list, you need to know that I did not actually possess my own desktop computer until September 2006. From there until June 2007, through my final year of schooling, my most intimate capability for gaming came in PC form, and thus along came The Sims 2. I had played the first one on our home computer, and I found it addictive enough.

Games like the Sims are interesting in that when you take a step back and look at yourself, you realize that the game does nothing more than allow you to live someone else’s life, at the expense of time from your own life. And when you really hit yourself over the head with that fact, it’s easy enough to push the game aside. But at the same time, we are all a little voyeuristic, and the godlike ability to not only observe but control the actions of people satisfies that weird little lust. And when you allow the game to draw you in, you can start to find yourself caring about the people, and not just as peons under your thumb. That decision to start caring is what pushes you farther into the game, playing a family longer and through the generations.

Another reason we like games of this nature are because for most of us at some point, life tends to suck. In a simulation we can create the virtual-avatar, the replica of ourselves done in all its low-poly greatness, and give them the better life. Their lives aren’t truly as complicated as ours, but the mechanics of a relationship and a career seem to ease greatly when reduced to a series of skill-influenced challenges.

And like I said, this was basically the only game I heavily indulged in for the bulk of the 06-07 semesters and I still come back to it on occasion. I know that graphically and mechanically it’s very simple (so is Starcraft, which is unfortunately too old for this list) compared to any newer games, but sometimes less is more. Sometimes we don’t want a violence-charged shooter. Sometimes we just want to watch how life plays out.

3. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City [2002] for Xbox

Vice City holds a slot on this list for being one of those games in which I did my damndest to reach one hundred percent completion. My first open world experience, I did technically play a very tiny bit on the PS2 in first year university, but it was not until one of the summer-breaks home from school that I was able to offer many addicted hours of the day.

There would be days when I wanted to push through campaign missions, and some days when it was preferable to just find a motorcycle and stunt until the bike’s damage tolerance maxed out and it blew up. I also remember Vice City being one of those games that the paranoid watchdog groups were attacking for the glamorization of murder and ‘turning kids violent.’ Video games do not make me want to conduct violence against my fellow man. The exact inverse is the truth - wanting to do so results in me going home and playing a video game where I can do that in a controlled and artificial environment. Games like this provide catharsis, the release from those emotional extremes.

What helps make the game stand out above San Andreas and GTA4 for me is the 80’s element. The neon, the fashion, the annoyingly catchy one-hit-wonder tunes on the radio, and the great big homage to Scarface permanently stuck the game in my mind.

2. Fuzion Frenzy [2001] For Xbox

Fuzion Frenzy was my first enjoyable party game, and noticeably non violent. There was very little variety in the game types, but playing with friends and family was always an entertaining prospect. I think the nonviolent nature leaves you in a better mood after finding yourself on the constant losing end of the challenges. Most of the time what made it a challenge was not so much the other players but the environment itself besting you. Until a lot of the good shooters came out, this was probably the game wherein we clocked the most hours.

1.Halo Combat Evolved [2001] for Xbox

And we come to Halo. To reiterate, I am a science fiction geek and by proxy a scifi military geek. Halo delivered. Everything I’ve ever loved about the genre came to fruition nine years ago in this now noticeably dated shooter. It’s presence at number one is coincidental for the timeline but intentional for my history as a gamer. Halo has an undying replay quality in my heart. Halo 2 was a half-baked handful of attempted improvements. Halo 3 was pretty and shiny but really short and featured the now unavoidable contagion that is the no-health-bar policy in games. In Halo you could stand in a room and spray death at your enemies and fall back when your shields fell. In Halo 3 you can barely peek around a corner without a jackal sniping you between the eyes. Master Chief got a serious downgrade in his armour between 1 and 3, that much is clear.

Halo falls into that ‘less is more’ category of quality. Comparing it to its successors, it is graphically plain, but it was 2001. That was top of the line graphics ten years ago. It’s laughable now, but for the loyal fans it is a huge part of the nostalgic feel. Multiplayer was a gem too. Warthog flipping in Blood Gulch. Rockets on Hang’Em High. We would play until our thumbs hurt, but you didn’t regret one second of that experience. The only game to come near it in my social circle as the killer app for multiplayer is probably Left 4 Dead, and there is still a huge gap between the two.

Halo didn’t just captivate the gamer in me. It hooked the scifi geek in me with its mythology. At the end of it all I could care less about the gameplay mechanics and graphics. I liked the universe. I’ve gone through geek epochs in my lifetime – junior high was my Star Wars era, high school that of Aliens, Predator, and with a propagating franchise, Halo has been a solid part of my life for the last ten years.

My Favorite Games of the Past Decade

Well, the 00's, the oughts (or as one really stupid person dubbed them, the "noughties") are winding to a close, and with the help of someone on Twitter, I started thinking of of the video games that could be branded as my "favorites" over the past 10 years. So the following 10 games are my top games of the decade; they aren't in any particular order, nor is there one game that could be considered my most favorite out of all of them, they are just 10 games that meant the most to me in this brief period of time.


Freelancer (PC) - A lot of people might not have heard about this game, but it was a game that was hyped up at E3 and then slipped under the radar after it's release in 2003. A lot of reviewers complained that due to do the takeover by Microsoft of developer Digital Anvil, a lot of ambitious features, like a persistent universe, ended up being cut. Despite this, I still love this game. I spent countless hours over 2003 and 2004 playing this space sim online with a small group of friends. As of this date, I can safely say that I have played Freelancer more than I have any other game on this list. A dedicated mod community increased the life of the game, with one very nice person adding in every single spacefaring vehicle from sci-fi movies and TV shows (yes, you can fly that stupid ship from Firefly). With a very cool artistic style and some of the best combat I have experienced in a space sim, Freelancer is a very worthy entry to my top 10.











Freedom Fighters (PC) - Another sleeper hit from 2003, Freedom Fighters won me over with its simple squad based combat, epic orchestral score by Jesper Kyd, stylized visuals and Red Dawn-inspired storyline. The idea that your actions in a different mission could affect what you were doing at the moment was something that appealed to the strategic side of my brain, and setting up traps for the dirty Commies with my squad was always fun. Even as a lifelong Canadian, I couldn't help but shout "AMERICA!" when the main character, Chris Stone, lowers the Soviet flag from atop a landmark and raises the Stars and Stripes.









Uncharted 2 (PS3) - Easily the best PS3 game I have ever played, Uncharted 2 quite honestly sets the bar for visuals, voice acting, writing, storytelling and overall fun factor for a console game, and if the single player wasn't epic enough, the game has a robust and addictive multiplayer component. Not only that, but we have a bevy of characters to care about, especially Nate Drake, our hero. Uncharted 2 is really an embarrassment of riches, and other companies should look to Naughty Dog for inspiration now.














The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion/Fallout 3 (PC/360) - *gasp* How dare I put two games in the same spot? I dare. The two games are similar enough, made by the same developer and I love them both so much that I don't mind if they share the same place on my list. Two epic open-world RPGs by Bethesda, two games that have sucked so much time out of my life (easily into the hundreds of hours).












Company of Heroes (PC) - Not much of a summary required. Not only my favorite RTS game of the 00's, but my favorite RTS game of all time; you command WW2 troops and you blow shit up. Fully destructible environments, period-accurate vehicles and weapons, and a cover system developed by the amazing Relic (creators of the Warhammer 40K franchise) make this game an awesome single player experience and a long lasting multiplayer experience. Relic does all they can to keep the game they released in 2006 up to date and stable, as if making a game that changed the face of RTS games today wasn't enough.















New Super Mario Bros (Nintendo DS) - A strange departure, as compared to my previous entries, but God I love this game so much. It hits the nostalgia nerve, but at the same time never stops being fun with new gameplay elements, a bouncy soundtrack and cool new environments. This is one of the few games where I went back and did everything: found every alternate route, unlocked every path, caught every elusive golden star. I was very disappointed that the sequel ended up on the Wii only (which isn't as fun, in my opinion) but I will still fire up my dusty DS and play my favorite levels from this game once in a while, and feel like a kid again.












Far Cry (PC) - A shooter that was ahead of its time in just about every way, Far Cry did its best to make me feel like a beaten down hero in a B-movie who is outnumbered, outgunned and fighting for his life. Visually, it was just better than anything that came out around the same time (yes, even better than Half-Life 2) and the AI would be unmatched for at least a few years. Yeah, the trigens brought it down a bit, but the overall game, the dedicated mod community, and the lasting fun I had playing the single player campaign over and over make it one of my favorite games of the decade.











Call of Duty 4 (360) - One of the most fun, addictive and engrossing shooters I have ever played. The multiplayer itself I have spent over 100 hours playing (I have a handy little leaderboard that tells me that) and the single player is no slouch either - as epic and over-the-top as a season of 24, with just as many twists and turns to boot. All games post CoD4 look at its example when crafting their multiplayer component now; even Uncharted 2 slapped on a persistent perk and weapons upgrade system, to keep the players interested.











Rome: Total War (PC) - There is a common theme running through my games, mostly with how much time they have sucked out of my life, and next to Freelancer, Rome: Total War stands as one of my most played games of all time. A big evolution in the series after Medieval, Creative Assembly tried to make the epic turn-based/real-time strategy game a little more accessible for the average gamer, while still keeping most of the depth for the hardcore fans of the series.













Grand Theft Auto IV (360) - It was a process of elimination for me to decide which GTA game would make it on my list, but in the end the choice seemed obvious (at least to me). Rockstar took all the minor enhancements from the previous games, threw in some amazing new stuff, blended it all together into one giant immersive environment and released one of the greatest games of all time. Sure the story is a little meh, and the characters really over-the-top but still trying to be serious, but the fact that Rockstar made this living, breathing city, and then improved everything the previous games were mediocre at (gunplay, driving, combat) lets me overlook those tiny foibles.

Honorable mentions
Rock Band 2 (360)
Gears of War (360)
Call of Duty: United Offensive (PC)

OMG OMG OMG

Readers, you won't see me for a while. Why? In three hours, I am going to pick up my copy of Modern Warfare 2, and there is a good chance that it will eat up a lot of my time. Don't worry, I'll be back.

- Baljot

Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising review

First, let me apologize for our long absence. Everyone has been busy with school, new jobs, or new projects, but I'm back and I've got this review for Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising, the sequel to the hardcore military sim released back in the day. Operation Flashpoint puts you in the boots of Marines fighting on the fictional island of Skira, based and modeled after a real life Japanese island named Kiska. The Chinese have invaded for oil, and the Russians (who own the island) appeal to the United States for help. The US sends in the Marines.

Dragon Rising is the second in the series, and the hardcore controls and interface have been streamlined and simplified for the current generation, and to make it easier to translate to the consoles (the XBOX 360 version is the one I am reviewing). Everything about the game is made to seem slightly more true to life - weapon sway, bullet drop, the ground shaking even from distant explosions. Every piece of equipment that your squadmates are using is accurately rendered on their bodies. Your team calls out enemy positions and manoeuvrings, bullets whiz past your ear like cars on the speedway, missiles pound into the ground like the fist of God punching the Earth - the game is really well built and immersive. Everything about the game is meant to bring you into the experience.

The game revolves around the Marine's mission of harassing and pushing back the Chinese off the island; the objectives can variate from assassinating key members of the People's Liberation Army, assaulting and capturing an airfield, bringing down a key command structure, rescuing hostages, and other situations that could be pulled from real life. The game progresses in a day-by-day structure, and you perform a few missions per day, playing as different Marines from different companies, performing different roles. You could be playing the role of an infiltrator, or an assaulter, or a support team - it all depends on the mission.

Visually, the game may seem bland, but the engine is competent, with terrain deformation, building destruction, and great particle and explosion effects. Some complained that the game looked "bland" but this was mostly because of the setting, a grassy volcanic island. The modeling on the characters and weapons was excellent and realistic. The terrain deformation and building destruction is not arcade-y like other games (namely Crysis and Battlefield: Bad Company); it takes a lot - like an arty strike - to bring a building down!
Sound was definitely the strongest point of the game - the distant shouts of Chinese, the thumps of artillery and the vibrations of explosions, gunshots that reverberate through your entire sound system, and the death rattle of your teammates - all brilliant. Whoever did the sound engineering for this game deserves an award.

The difficulty and realism of the game is something that might turn off most gamers, and that is why I - and most reviews - should stress that this game is really for people who are fans of the military sim genre. Even though the game is slightly more simple than its predecessor, it is still very hard. I played the game on Normal, and it was still intensely difficult, and often frustrating at times! On Normal, you still get quite a few assists - your teammates will respawn at checkpoints and your injuries will be instantly healed, once an enemy position is called out, it will appear on your HUD's radar, and the HUD itself is comprehensive and informative. On the harder difficulty modes, these assists get taken away, and in Realistic (the hardest mode) you have no HUD whatsoever. Sometimes your team AI is as dumb as mud, and other times they manage to pull of shots that would never be able to. This inconsistency sometimes makes it frustrating for the average armchair Patton who wants to formulate strategies with his AI counterparts.
Overall, I found the realism to be a bit welcome after playing very arcade-y games like Call of Duty 4; a shooter that made me use my mind was a refreshing change of pace. Calculating shots at a great distance, using terrain and buildings to the best advantage, enveloping enemies using a flanking team, it was all quite fun. Some might find the realism a bit off-putting, especially times when you equip and load an anti-tank weapon like the Javelin or Queen Bee, and it takes 6 or 7 seconds of you standing out in the open as you load a round into the launcher. Very tense, especially when you're facing off against a tank!

The best part of the game is definitely the co-op - you basically play the mission as you would in single player, except the host plays as team leader, and your co-op partners replace your team. It's so much better because a human player is able to instantly respond to your commands, work in tandem with your strategies, and generally it's a much less frustrating experience.

In the end, Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising is a competent, fun, albeit sometimes frustrating military shooter, but it's one that I would definitely recommend to the sim crowd.

4/5

Firefight vs Horde Mode - A few key differences and why I think Firefight is better

Last night, with a few friends (including DBC's own Nick), I got to test out Firefight, the new co-op mode included with Halo 3: ODST. Essentially, Firefight is you, and 3 other ODSTs, facing off against wave after wave of Covenant aliens. 5 waves = 1 round, and after each round, the skulls being used against you change. So one round, the enemies might be using Blackeye (melee to regain your stamina) and then in the next you might have Tilt (enemy shields deflect bullets). The skulls are the biggest variant in the gameplay, since the turning on of a certain skull will probably force you to change up your strategies. After the fourth round, you have a quick one-minute bonus round, which is basically you firing on dozens upon dozens of grunts with all the skulls turned on, for extra lives.
Oh yeah, you and your team share a pool of lives. If you die, you can respawn (unless the Iron skull is turned on) but it costs you and your team a life. Luckily you get rewarded more lives for surviving a round, and doing well in the bonus round, but if you're not careful and go all gung-ho, you can run out of respawns pretty quickly.

Anyways, I thought I would outline a few key differences between Firefight, and Gears of War 2's Horde mode, and also show why I think Firefight is better in a couple of ways.
Skulls - In Horde mode, the only way the difficulty ramps up is that after the 10th round, the enemies become stronger and do more damage. In Firefight, one random skull can make you discard your entire strategy and try to adopt a new one. For example, Tilt might make a camper using the pistol and sniper rifle rethink his strategy and go for energy weapons instead. Blackeye means you have to get up close and personal in order to regain your stamina. This kind of quick adjustments and improvisation keeps the game interesting and fresh.

Variation - By your second playthrough of Horde mode, you can accurately predict what enemies you'll be facing off against in what wave. Because of that, the game becomes rote and mechanical. In Firefight, the enemies are very much randomized; you know that in the first wave, you'll see easy enemies like Grunts and Jackals, but after that, it's anybody's guess. We were fighting against Hunters in the second wave, and they kicked our collective asses.

Enemies - Horde mode had plenty of enemies, but I had always hoped they would make a few maps that would include some of the larger enemies of the game, including Reavers, Brumaks, and maybe even a Corpser. In Firefight, pretty much anything from the single player game is in the mix - Grunts, Jackals, all kinds of Brutes (including the incredibly hard to kill Chieftain), Hunters, Drones, and enemies in vehicles, which from the maps we saw, included Ghosts and Wraiths. Also, the enemies in the later waves become ridiculously overpowered (one of my few faults with Firefight), like the Grunts with fuel rod guns, or how they can throw three or four plasma grenades with incredible strength and accuracy in the span of a few seconds.
Vehicles - I mentioned vehicles earlier, and they are a huge draw in the Firefight mode. One of the maps we played, Lost Platoon, is a big open Savannah-type map, and Nick and I spent the first 10 minutes of Firefight just roaming in the Warthog, mowing down everything that moved. You do get half the points than you would if you made the kill on foot, but still, the experience is a whole lot of fun. Horde mode, because of the small maps, and well, crappy vehicle control in Gears 2, has no vehicles. However, I don't fault Horde mode for that.

Teamwork - Now teamwork is definitely a big idea in both games, but I feel like Firefight just does it slightly better. Because you are all working with a collective pool of limited respawns, it helps to prevent one of your players from going Rambo, because you can chastise that person for being so reckless. The enemies are much, much tougher than in Horde so teamwork is essential to bring down the bigger guys like Hunters and Brute Chieftains. There is no reviving of downed teammates, so there isn't any of that residual anger of "Why the fuck didn't you revive me dude", which, trust me, I felt a lot of in Horde mode. In Horde mode, after every wave, there is brief after action report that summarizes points and kills by each player. Because of this, Horde mode becomes a competitive game so that a person can see their gamertag at the top of that list, which is what leads to lone soldier, Rambo behavior. In Firefight, your individual points and team points are listed in the HUD, but the team points are much bigger and more easily visible than your points. Bungie is making a point here - it's the team that's important, not the individual. There is no after action report after each wave - you do get a breakdown of your points and kills, but only once your entire team has died.

Difficulty - Once you get used to what enemies are going to show up, and what the main camping points are in each map, Horde mode isn't all that difficult. Just three of us managed to make it to wave 50, on Hardcore mode. Last night there were three of us, playing on Halo's Normal difficulty, and we were having a tough time. Granted it was our first time playing, but even once we got in the groove of it, facing off against the big enemies or against a horde of Grunts bearing plasma grenades made us very wary. The combination of the toughness and number of enemies, the weakness of your own character (remember, you are playing as an ODST with a health bar, not an invincible Spartan), the randomness of the skulls and the variation of enemies, Firefight is freakin' hard! But that's what makes it fun. Keep the game varied, unpredictable, and just slightly too hard, and you'll have a perfect co-op experience.

Which is what Firefight might be. Perfect might be too strong of a word, but this certainly is the most fun I've had in a co-op experience all year (at least, until Modern Warfare 2 comes out). We'll post more updates as we play more maps, and I believe I'm about an hour away from finishing the single player campaign of ODST. Once I'm done that, and we play the three new Halo 3 maps that are included with ODST, I'll post a review on this site. Hopefully we get a chance to talk about it some more on the next podcast (though only Nick and I bought the game out of the 5 of us, I hope that changes soon).

- Baljot

iPhone Games: Geodefense Swarm

I'll just quickly throw a plug towards Critical Thought Games, makers of the wildly popular iPhone game Geodefense. A cross between the simple gameplay of tower defense, and the aesthetic of Geometry Wars. They've just released a new game on the App Store, called Geodefense Swarm. What's new in this game is a hex-style board that is almost completely open, and it's up to you to create a pathway for the enemies to follow. The game moves at a much faster and much more difficult pace than Geodefense, which was very hard to begin with.
99 cents on the app store. Click on the link, it'll take you right to the iTunes page!

New episode of the Body Cast is up!

Or it should be, very shortly. It's a short affair, as there are only two of us and we aren't talking much about games. Enjoy!

PS - If it isn't on iTunes yet, you can download the episode direct from here.

I'm the goddamn BATMAN - "Arkham Asylum" demo impressions

The demo starts with a cutscene of the classic Batmobile (none of that fancy Army-grade Humvee/Tank hybrid) racing through Gotham with Batman driving, and the Joker gibbering away in the passenger seat. Batman screams past a sign that says "Hitchhikers may be escaping patients" on his way to Arkham Asylum - this is a good indication of how much fun this demo was.

Joker (voiced by the great Mark Hamill) allows himself to be captured, and once inside Arkham, manages to escape and wreaks havoc on the guards and staff. Batman chases after him, and has to deal with the patients who have been let loose, and the cadre of super-villains that Batman himself put away - a quick IMDB check at the voice cast shows that this list includes Mr. Freeze, Two-Face, Killer Croc, Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, The Riddler, Bane, and the Penguin!

Well, let's get down to demo impressions - firstly, the visuals are top notch. The game implements the Unreal Engine 3 (something that I make fun of often) but utilizes it well - character models are top notch, and the environments are really detailed. The voice acting is also well done, as expected - most of the actors have portrayed their respective characters for many years. The dialogue doesn't seem at all clunky - perhaps this crazy idea of hiring actual professional writers might become common practice.

The gameplay is a lot of fun. The game is a combination of a brawler and adventure/puzzle game; at times you are beating the snot out of Arkham's worst denizens, and other times, you are solving mysteries, as Batman has to protect his reputation as the world's greatest detective. In conjunction with Commissioner Gordon and Oracle (Batman's version of Chloe O'Brien) Batman tries to track down the Joker through the massive Arkham complex.
You use a combination of counters and strikes to take down the various baddies, and they are brutal and efficient - there is a plethora of animations and moves so it doesn't seem like you're playing the same God of War-esque battle over and over again. Batman grabs the legs of the man kicking him and punches him in the face, somersaults over his enemy and kicks him in the back, knocks his enemies to the ground with a slap of his cape and punches them in the back of the skull for a ground takedown.

In detective mode, you get a sort of thermal view of your area, in which enemies are lit up in red, and all the pertinent information about them is displayed in your HUD - what kind of weapon they are carrying, what their heartrate is and how scared they are of you. It may seem like useless info, but game's dynamic AI will make sure that you don't have the same encounter twice, and this helps to decipher the enemy's actions. For example, an enemy with a shotgun won't fire blindly from a distance at Batman, he'll try to close the gap while his buddies cover him with assault rifles - and these enemies are unbelievably accurate with their guns. Even Batman can only take so many bullets.
The more terrified your enemies are, the more erratic their actions become - they'll start to bunch up, negating the benefits of their guns, allowing you to drop in their midst and take them down, or they'll start to fire wildly at the slightest sound near them, making it easier to sneak up on them in the other direction.
There are a variety of ways you can take enemies down as well, whether you want to glide in and kick them in the head, or suspend them up in the air, fall through some glass and collapse on top of them, pull them off a ledge as you hang below, or just quietly take them down with a choke-hold. The combat is really fun, and I found myself reloading the big fight at the end of the demo (with 5 baddies in an open room) over and over to try different strategies to take them down.

This game has definitely become a must-buy for me, and I would recommend that everyone check out the demo. Word of advice - the PC version of the game is 20 dollars cheaper, and also has achievements and gamepad support, but it's been delayed til late September so that they can add Physx support. Unfortunate, but for some, it might be worth waiting for.
Arkham Asylum arrives on XBOX 360, and PS3 August 25th.

- Baljot

With all the games we own played out, we find ourselves in a quandry

So Aaron and I decided to break out of the funk of just going through the motions and playing Call of Duty 4 over and over by purchasing Battlefield 1943. I had heard some positive things about the game, and seemed like a pretty cool shooter for 1200 Microsoft Points. After a half gigabyte download, we jumped into a game pretty quickly and started up the action.
The game is pretty simplistic - the only game mode is point capture; you use various weapons/vehicles to achieve your objectives, and you can form up squads with friends, or join open squads with random XBOX Live or PSN users. There are three kits/classes - Infantry (a short range class with submachine gun, a repair wrench and a rocket launcher), Rifleman (a long range class with a semiautomatic rifle, rifle grenades and a bayonet) and Scout (a sniper class with a sniper rifle, semiautomatic pistol, and satchel charges). Each class has its own nuances and subtleties to learn so you can play them well.
For some reason, the only map we could play was Wake Island (the free map that was unlocked when the community reached 43 million kills), but I didn't mind. The amount of time we spent on the map meant we could learn all the points, the placement of vehicles and anti-aircraft guns.
We played with two mutual friends, and found the squad mechanics pretty easy to work around, though weirdly squad invites work through XBL's invite system, rather than being in-game.
The visuals are pretty decent - the engine is that from Battlefield: Bad Company, meaning that almost all of the buildings, trees, sandbags, towers, bunkers, hangars and bridges are destructible. This adds a pretty awesome element to the game - order an air raid on the Airfield in Wake Island, and you can drive up a minute later and see the entire place in rubble and on fire. It looks different from Bad Company though - 1943 has a stylized, colourful look, as compared to the cold, greyness of the Eastern European landscape of Bad Company.
The game has some pretty awesome "HOLY SHIT" moments, whether it's dodging tank fire by running into a building, only to have the building blow up around you, or having a fighter plane chasing down your jeep, only to zip over your head and crash into a tree, or pulling off a successful sniper shot from a kilometer away.

We'd have to play more maps to get a definite opinion on the game, but so far, it's definitely one of the best XBLA games I've ever downloaded. I would absolutely recommend the game for purchase!

Holy crap, we made it into the iTunes store!

Thanks to the combined efforts of all of us here, a certain member's credit card and Jellycast, we have now arrived on the iTunes store! You can visit our iTunes Store URL HERE, and subscribe to our brand spanking new podcast.

First episode is up; only Nick, Josh and I managed to record one, and we record on a plethora of subjects - Diablo 3, shit movies, is Kane and Lynch a good game or not, and many more.

Hopefully you guys enjoy, and appreciate the effort it took to arrive here (not much really).