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).

NvGs? I thought that was a movie...

Hey BodyCounters. Sorry about my absence. Life’s been a bit hectic. *ahem* Without getting into the messy details, just know I’m back writing for no one else but you. (Ok, maybe for myself a little, but I swear it’s not a whole lot)

Now what I’d like to write about today is Modern Warfare 2. Yes! I know right. Excitement fills the air. (Just like on prom night, except you actually get to have a little fun. No thanks to conservative parents. Sorry Mom.) Anyway, as I’m sure you are all aware; there are three versions of the game. The stand alone hobo copy, complete with instruction booklet. (If you’re just going to buy it for the multiplayer, this is for you….and maybe me, but we’ll get into that a little later) Nothing special, unless of course it was bought for you by Nanni Smithers who on her death bed gave you the necessary funds to purchase said game. Tops out at $59.99.

The next edition of the game is the Hardened Edition. Ohhhs and Ahhhs ensue. In this one you get a metal case, an art book, and a code used for downloading the original CoD, topping out at $79.99. Yea Boi! This leaves the last but, (in a perfect cliché ladies and gents) certainly not least version, Prestige. Now let me explain something about this one first. Not only are you getting everything included in the Hardened Edition, but you’re also getting real NvGs. (for those of you who aren’t military or FUN literate, that stands for Night Vision Goggles) Really?! It even comes with a replica of ‘Soap’ MacTavish’s head to display them on when you’re not wearing them sneaking around your mother’s panty drawer. I mean, hey, alright…I bought the Halo 3 Legendary Edition and it was pretty sweet. But, c’mon. I was still in High school and still dating my first girlfriend. We all make mistakes don’t we?

What bothers me is the fact that it just seems like they’re afraid the game is going to fail by including a show offy product. Or maybe, just maybe it’s yet another item of geek fandom we just can’t live without. For $149.99 I’m going to try my best to live without it. There are too many hotly anticipated games coming out around then to drop that kind of cash. (Assassin’s Creed 2, Drake 2, just to name a couple.)

Seriously though, do developers need to attach things like that to games just to sell them? Or are they just trying to milk money out of us? I mean, say for example I tell you to take a crap. You’d be like there’s nothing exciting about that Josh, I take a crap almost every day and sometimes it hurts. Right…Now say I said you could crap with NvGs on. How much cooler did that certain activity become? My point. You see. Case Closed. We’ll see how they actually fare when it comes out. Who knows, maybe I’m wrong. But, all I’m picturing is Chad playing MW2 with the NvGs on, and the hilarity ensues.

"Current Affairs"

-Nick-

REVIEW: Crysis Warhead

North Korean soldiers on one side, Independence Day-style aliens on the other, and me in my patented nanosuit, smack dab in the middle, fending them off frantically with whatever weapons I have at hand. Humvees are exploding, aliens are falling out of the sky, and my pulse is skyrocketing. This is Crysis: Warhead, and it’s probably one of the most action-packed games I have ever played.

If the review seems a bit dated, that’s because the game actually came out in the fall of 2008. I bought it upon release, but neglected to play it because my computer setup wasn’t too great at the time. I recently purchased a new video card, and being a huge fan of the game’s predecessor Crysis, I fired it up to see how well it ran with the new card. The fast pace of the game and intense amount of action right from the start grabbed me immediately, and around 8 hours of playtime later, the credits were rolling.

The original Crysis was a huge release for the PC in 2007, and they followed it up with Crysis: Warhead, a standalone expansion which followed the same events of the first game, but from the perspective of a different character, “Psycho” Sykes, another member of the Delta Forces Raptor Team. Psycho is tasked with following a North Korean cargo shipment all over the island; originally suspected to be carrying nuclear weapons, Psycho discovers that the shipment contains a dead alien specimen that hasn’t self destructed. The game is focused on getting the specimen into US hands, or at least making sure the North Koreans don’t get their hands on it first. There is some minor backstory involved too, between Psycho and a former Delta Forces operative named O’Neill, who is now a VTOL pilot. O’Neill washed out of the Delta Forces program four years prior, and was replaced with Jake “Nomad” Dunn (the character you play in the first game). O’Neill now provides Psycho with support.

The gameplay is largely similar to that in Crysis and Far Cry – you’re given a primary objective (and at times, several secondary objectives) and a wide-open space to play around with. Barring one or two missions (where the objective is down a set path, or you’re indoors like an aircraft carrier or mineshaft), you’re given free reign to finish off your objectives in whatever direction or manner you want. Assaulting an enemy base? You can approach stealthily and take out the North Korean soldiers with your silenced submachine guns. Snipe them from over a kilometer away with a Precision sniper rifle. Slap a pack of C4 onto a Humvee and drive it into the base and detonate. There are tons of possibilities, and that’s the point of the game – the freedom is there for you to do nearly whatever you want. It really is the thinking man’s action game. Enemies range from regular North Korean forces, elite North Korean special forces who wear knockoffs of your nanosuit, aliens flying around in their suits, and massive exosuit aliens who can take you down with a swipe of their claws. New weapons include a micro SMG that can be dual-wielded, a two handed SMG that is excellent at close range, and EMP grenades that disrupt nanosuit and alien function.

GOOD: Action-packed, balls-to-the-wall gameplay, the new weapons pack a huge punch, better focus than the original game, nearly perfectly paced, a great addition to the series.
BAD: Even with the optimized engine, it can be strenuous for a lot of computers, can be a bit difficult even for FPS veterans, the multiplayer component is not that great.
BOTTOM LINE: If you like first person shooters on the PC, you have a decent rig and somehow you haven’t picked up this little gem, then I really recommend you go buy it now. More than likely you can pick up a retail copy or purchase it over Steam at a reduced price, seeing as it’s nearly a year old.

We don't have a scoring system in place, not yet at least, but for now, I can give it a score out of 5, which will be 4.5. This is a game I absolutely recommend.

PS: I'll be doing a really quick Audioboo later today regarding the high and low points of the game. Hopefully it'll help readers/listeners make an informed decision!

We're up and live on the iTunes store (well, kinda)!

So we've signed up for the very cool, very new Audioboo service, which is basically like audio Twittering, run by a few dedicated souls in the States. We get to record 5 minute podcasts on our iPhones, and upload them to Audioboo, who in turn have been kind enough to create a podcast on iTunes for us!
While this is not the true podcast, we intend to use Audioboo as much as possible, when we're not all together, and we have a very quick subject to cover. We love the service, and the idea behind it!
Here's the link for our Audioboo podcast, right HERE. Subscribe today!

PS. Don't worry when you click that link, it'll automatically open up your iTunes (or ask you if you want to) and then take you to our page in the iTunes store.

Prototype

For the longest time I have lamented that there were really no decent free-world super-hero themed video games for the consoles. And along came Infamous and Prototype. Being an X-box-specialized gamer, the latter drew my hand for practicality’s sake.



Prototype is a pandemic-themed sandbox game, set in the heart of an alarmingly detailed Manhattan Island. You take control of Alex Mercer, a man who has suffered memory loss at the hands of corporate genetic experimentation. In turn he is infected with a bizarre viral entity. Mercer, being part of the 0.001 percent of humanity who apparently doesn’t turn into a feral monster when infected, has his own unique set of symptoms – superpowers that visually manifest in a spawn-meets-Venom manner. His arms can turn into monstrous melee weapons, he can scale vertical surfaces with almost no difficulty, and in a process that hints at some deep-rooted sociopathic history (a history the game doesn’t particularly explore) Mercer can absorb anyone – a terminal process – in order to mimic their appearance.
As you progress through the game you unlock memories that form a rather jumbled but structurally cohesive whole to the back story behind the infection and Mercer’s involvement.

The game begins in a manner I see fairly frequently in melee-based games – you are dropped immediately into the game to learn the controls through plot-relevant conflict, rather than a paced and patronizing tutorial.
Activision has a history of New York-themed gaming – their hand in the Spider-man franchise has no doubt given them the time and experience to perfect the 3-D map of Manhattan Island down to the buildings and the trees in the sidewalk. The city is under military control and every bridge off the island has been sealed, confining your movement to the island. But there is more than enough room to explore, and as the infection spreads through key hotspots, the chance for action increases.

Prototype brings to city-based melee something the Spider-man games never really accomplished – the thrill of traveling on the ground. As you upgrade Mercer’s powers through experience-points earned in the process of campaign missions, you unlock various boosts to his stock powers, as well as stronger and fancier ways to dispatch your enemies. The results are nothing short of satisfying – sprinting faster than traffic down the street, leaping stories into the air, and an exhilarating process of going instantly from ‘sprint down the sidewalk’ to ‘sprint straight up the side of the building.’ The element of parkour gives the game its brilliance. Mercer can scale buildings, leap between skyscrapers, and a few upgrades in, glide between destinations.
Graphics-wise, the city and landscapes have clearly been given the strongest focus, but the characters haven’t been completely written off. They reflect a level of graphic quality we have come to expect from this style of game. Mechanically the controls are fairly simple and with minor practice the attack moves become second-nature.



How these elements come together is a little different. This is yet another example in my personal history with Activision where I have to question the developer’s understanding of balance.
Mercer carries around this virus, and in tandem with the military control of the city, he has become the country’s most wanted man, hence his need to camouflage. You engage the world and their awareness through a detection meter – if it redlines, you’ve been seen, and the military opens fire. Even the simplest of actions can trip detection – any superhuman movement through a populated area will do. Attacking anyone usually speeds up your reveal, to the point where armed soldiers and strike teams rally to exterminate you. Escaping them is on some occasions no simple task, but one tight enclosed alley and the consumption of a hapless civilian later, you’re off the radar.
The real show of imbalance comes in the campaign missions, particularly in the boss fights. For a boss fight to be practical, the enemy needs to be tougher, but your character has to have some edge. In Mercer’s case, that edge would be the speed and agility. There’s one simple problem: the hunter-mutation enemies are for all intensive purposes exactly on par with Mercer for physical speed and agility, and when they unleash an attack pattern, there is no option to block. Combined with the fact that in sprint, the game will automatically leap over debris and off certain angled surfaces, it becomes a near-uncontrollable process of running circles around an enemy, waiting for it to center itself so you can release yourself from the wall and attempt an attack in the two seconds of vulnerability the enemy offers. Checkpoints provide relief from the multi-phased battles, but in the end there’s a certain tediousness and potentially controller-throwing rage fuel from these battles that offset the greater fluidity of the game.



I’m not saying it’s difficult to have fun with the game. The free-roaming itself is very entertaining. But the free-roam in Prototype lacks a very specific something that the GTA series and the later Spider-man games all offered in droves – stuff to DO. Here, in free-run, you can journey to the infected hotspots and battle various mutating humans and their nastier counterparts, the hunter variants. Beyond the proper campaign missions, that’s it. You’re limited to absorbing people, wandering the map looking for landscape tokens, or scaling a tall building and stepping off to a gut-twisting plunge… where you land without any damage at all. When it’s a 90 story fall, Mercer is apparently Superman.

My final word with Prototype is simply that there was so much the game could have been that fell short. The free-roam concept is perfect for Spider-man – stopping crimes of all shapes and sizes. For Mercer, it’s a constant process of trying to enjoy your powers without dicing a pedestrian and drawing the curious, though rather dim-witted, glances from the soldiers patrolling the island. Being the anti-hero is what stacks the game against Mercer, and though the environmental interaction is nothing short of brilliant, there aren’t enough activities in the free roam world to provide a necessary relief from the halting and frequently frustrating nature of the harder campaign missions. I definitely recommend playing the game, but if you’re a more emotionally controlled gamer, you’ve been warned that by the end you might find yourself replacing a controller.

-Nick-

Rest in peace, King of Pop

The big news today was the death of Michael Jackson. He passed away at age 50 after lapsing into a coma, which was the result of cardiac arrest which occurred earlier today. 

Personally, I was saddened by this news - though Jackson had become increasingly bizarre and strange in the last two decades, I had remained a big fan of his music, and was glad to see him get back on his feet recently and announce a series of huge concerts in Europe. 

I won't comment on his personal issues, or the scandal and controversy that surrounded his life at all times. I do hope, however, that people recognize the passing of an icon, an entertainment titan, and truly, the King of Pop. 

Do We Really Want Motion Sensing?

Project Natal … are we really ready for you, I mean do we all really want to go from work to sitting on our couch playing games with a controller, or do we really want to come home from work and start playing game like an inhanced paint program and start moving around some more and not play games like Call of Duty, or Halo, or Fable, or Fallout 3. I mean is motion sensing really what we all want? I think that everyone thinks it’s kind of cool for parties and stuff but that’s really about it because I really hate playing Wii Sports by myself. I think Project Natal will be a great feature or accessory but I think Microsoft really needs to think this one through and put their money to their OS and to better quality XBL and to their game studios of course. As for the other companies keep it up but keep making games with controllers too. Please… As Stephen Colbert said about Project Natal “ if a child has a skate board, and has the skill to ride a skate board, no longer has to ride a skate board”

-Chad

Left 4 Dead 2: The Return of Angry Fan Boys...

So in recent news from the gaming community, I find out that Left4Dead 2 is what everyone is talking about. I read the forums to see what the people think and I decided to voice out my opinion today. Apparently there is an online petition going on to delay this game’s release. Now I am a little confused here because apparently Valve is a company that likes to take their time on their games. We have to realize though that their games are a great piece of interactive entertainment software in which I love to indulge myself in, but this petition is about delaying the game when people say that Valve takes too long making games and now they want to delay a game that a lot of people are excited to play. Yah I hope you are as confused as I am. Second, and this one really “chaps my hide”, they want it to be free, yah let me say that again, they want it to be FREE! This is because the gaming community believes that there wasn’t enough content release in the first Left4Dead. Plus the fact that Valve has a history of releasing their content at ridiculously great sales boggles my mind. Is it because of this that the people expect Valve to do this, to release a game for free? People, making games is a business not something that we get for free, I mean can you really expect a company to do something like this and not expect to make a profit? I read on the forums all the time “I’m a loyal player of your games” and “I have been playing your games for years”. This is simply the most retarded thing I’ve heard. You mean to tell me that all you play is Valve games and that’s it, nothing else. In which you deserve a free game? I think not, in which case it sounds to me that these people almost think that they should be compensated for playing a game that was GOOD but didn’t have enough content. In which case I then deserve to be compensated by Capcom for Resident Evil 5 oh wait I bought SF IV so never mind… All I am saying is that Left4Dead 2 is a completely new game, that has a completely new way of playing it, in which will be charged full price for and will be released on its own time. I want this game and I am thankful for Valve for making this game and building it up even more so that way I am not stuck playing a modded version like Brainbread… just buy the game people and STFU cause we all know you’re going too anyway.


-Chad

Top Gear is BACK!

On June 21st, popular British car show Top Gear returned to the airwaves with a bang - huge shocking surprises, an epic race by train, motorcycle and automobile from London to Edinburgh, and a leader on the Power Lap board. 

Check out the "coming up this season" for Season 13:

Let's just say I'm really looking forward to this season of Top Gear.

My Muscial Sole

Hey all you Bodycounters, it’s time for another meeting between you and I. It’s ok to like it….yeah, just like that. Creepy-ness aside, I actually came to tell you about this A-Mazing band of Swedes, The Radio Dept.. I’ll give you the details first. They’re from Lund, Sweden and the play a style of music known as Shoegazing. (For those of you who don’t know what Shoegazing is, I’ll enlighten you.) Shoegazing is a style of music that first hit the scene in the early 90’s, late 80’s, in which guitar effects were key. So much in fact that because they didn’t move at all during performances, as they were focusing on their effects pedal, the media called them “Shoegazers”.

On to the actual band itself. The Radio Dept. consists of Johan Duncanson, Martin Larsson, and Daniel Tjäder. They’ve released only two albums thus far however; there is a lot of “unreleased” content floating around the interwebz. I’ve fallen in love with this band; the guitars distorted and light, the vocals are barely intelligible. But, it all seems to make sense. Their new album, Clinging to a Scheme is set for a September 2009, release. The second single off it is Freddie and the Trojan Horse. Look them up; I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Cheers,

-Josh

Sony Press 2 and Idiot Gamers

Sorry for being so late. Work is a killer. Won’t happen again, I swear. Part two of my coverage of Sony’s Press Conference is only going to cover the two things I found the most interesting. The PSP Go, and of course Gran Turismo Mobile.

The PSP Go is a brand spanking new version of Sony’s little handheld the PSP. (duh right?) It does have a few differences of course. (Go on techno-geek. I’m enthralled) Apparently, Sony thought it would be a great idea to make the Go a bit smaller than the original. And when I say smaller, I mean about 50% smaller in comparison. And it doesn’t have a UMD drive. YES, that’s correct, no UMD drive. Instead it has 16 GB of internal flash memory which can be extended more. I guess all the games are going to be downloaded now.

Right on, no more buying used games! Way to ruin game retailer’s business operations. Not entirely sure how the trade in value is going to be handled for this system. Oh well, we’ll see. Now don’t get your panties in a twist if you own a PSP already. They’re not going to just stop supporting the others. (At least the 3000 model)



But, here’s what really makes me hop aboard the rage train. Price tag. $250.00 USD. GTFO. Seriously? I could buy a Wii for that much and get a game to go with it. (Not that I would, that system blows anyway.) I’m hoping for a price drop. You dig?

Anyway, the saving grace after that little episode was the announcement of Gran Turismo Mobile. The game looks great for being on the PSP. The game will feature over 800 cars; roughly 100 more than Gran Turismo 4 as well as the notable addition of Ferrari (a red Enzo Ferrari can be seen in the trailer). Multiplayer is running through Adhoc. Fun.



Now on to my gripe for the day. Idiot Gamers. What does it mean to be a idiot gamer? I’ll clue you in. One who pretends to know what is going on in the video game world, but really has no freakin’ clue. These are the same people who think that Mario is grown up Luigi and that Yoshi is his dog. Seriously now. I had a guy talk to me about Infamous’s multiplayer. *facepalm* Another thing that has me buy my first class ticket to Rage City, is when people ask me about games then shoot down my opinions immediately.

“What did you think off Fable 2?”

“I thought overall is was a pretty decent game, especially for a sequel. Although Molyneux’s ideas sound better on paper. (I did explain he said that himself) I thought it was a pretty solid title all together, it does get a little repetitive. Especially if you’re a mage.”

“Well, I don’t have a next gen system. I’ll tell ya, that game has nothing on Atari. MAAAAAAAAAANNNNN, all these games suck compared to Atari.”

“Ya….because E.T. was so great.”

I wanted to invade his space and pong him right in the pac-mans. Anyway, that’s all I have for now. Until next time.

Cheers.

-Josh

The first sample Bodycast is UP

Chad and I found a free half hour in our busy schedules of gaming, and since the previous day I had managed the difficult task (not so difficult) of recording Skype conversations, we decided to record 10 minutes of sample audio -- kind of a test for when Josh, Aaron and Nick would be available. We ended up talking for 26 minutes and most of it is gobbledygook (nah, it's all good!). Listen to Chad's inane thoughts on Mirror's Edge multiplayer, my struggle with the pronunciation of "mobile" (the ones that babies use), our useless conversation on Call of Duty: World at War and the games that were the biggest surprise for us at E3. 

Episode 1, part 1, can be streamed here.

Parts 2 and 3 can be streamed here and here, respectively. 

Enjoy!

-- Baljot

Left 4 Dead Left Behind?

So less than a year after the original game, Valve announced at E3 that a sequel to Left 4 Dead 2 was slated for release in a few months. In the game: new campaigns, new special infected “boss characters”, new characters, a new focus on melee combat and weapons, and obviously a brand new setting based around New Orleans. Very shortly after the announcement, and seemingly predictable to everyone except the people at Valve, there was a huge backlash and eventual boycott for what was termed “an unneeded sequel”.

If you don’t understand why there is such nerd outrage, it’s because the average development cycle for a Valve game lasts around half a decade. Half-Life, arguably their biggest game ever, didn’t get a sequel until 2004, nearly 6 years after its release. Team Fortress 2 was nearly vaporware until its release in 2008, nearly a decade after the release of the original mod for Half-Life. So for Left 4 Dead to get a sequel almost exactly one year after its original release is odd for a development company like Valve.

The other side of the nerd rage is the lack of content that was packed into the disc and the amount of content that was given to the players post-release. Left 4 Dead was priced as a full-price game, but had the content of your average expansion pack. Post-release, it was patched in with free downloadable content (which was nice) but the amount of content was minimal, at best (you get one new mode which is basically Horde mode from Gears of War 2).

Now Valve claims that the sequel for Left 4 Dead will have a lot more content than its predecessor, but how much can we believe this claim? I love Valve as a developer, but they are barely trustworthy. Their own firm release dates are never met, and Gabe Newell’s “fantastic and futuristic” episodic content system is long forgotten. He promised “6-8” months between the Half-Life 2 episodes – it’s nearly two years after the release of The Orange Box (and in it, Episode 2) and we have seen hide nor hair of Episode 3.

Over 25,000 people have now signed a petition on the Steam forums boycotting the release of the new Left 4 Dead, pledging they won’t buy it. Internet petitions rarely work, but I hope Valve can take notice and at least realize that in the current economic climate, where video games are considered a luxury item, they can’t charge full price for a game that is nothing more than a half-price expansion pack!
You know whom I blame for this? The console crowd – who oftentimes have more money than sense (no offense guys and gals, it’s the truth). Console folk are gouged when it comes to downloadable content – map packs and extra stuff post release is just considered part of a patch (free of course) to PC players. So the idea of an expansion pack (usually ranging in cost from 25 to 35 dollars) is alien to the console people. Valve is taking advantage of this, because they know their biggest sales for Left 4 Dead 2 will be on the XBOX360, easily.

That’s what makes me sad, mostly. A developer like Valve, who is in neither any dire economic situation or has a history of this kind of gouging, bilking their fans. It’s disloyal. It’s mean. It’s almost Activision-y.

-       - Baljot