Demotopia!
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Written by Giang Cao
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Friday, 12 February 2010 01:40 |
Spoilers dude!
As the reviews for Heavy Rain start pouring(!) in and hype starts, a demo has been made available for all to download on the PSN. Now, you all expect me to write up a demotopia, right? Wrong. I'm choosing to stay away from all the media hubbub, all the press and now, the demo. I want to come into Heavy Rain with a clean slate and no expectations (in a good way). An out-of-context demo that condenses(!!) gameplay, story and mood does not seem appealing to me, especially as a person who is already sold on the merits of the game. Something like Heavy Rain doesn't come very often and I just want to do it justice. |
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Written by The Easy Mode Staff
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Monday, 01 February 2010 16:59 |
Steve
If you were a fan of the original Battlefield: Bad Company or Battlefield: 1943, you'll already have a good idea of what to expect from the Battlefield: Bad Company 2 multiplayer demo. Playing like a hybrid of both, the game is Bad Company as you know and love it, but with some added refinements that DICE picked up when developing 1943. The end result of this feels comfortingly familiar, yet strangely alien.
Probably the most striking difference between the first game and the sequel is the graphical update, and Bad Company 2 is noticeably sharper and better looking than its predecessor, and everything seems to run just that little bit smoother. Aside from that, most of the improvements are relatively minor, and serve more as refinements to the formula laid down in Bad Company and 1943
Probably one of the smallest (but also the most welcome) refinement is that DICE seem to have resolved the clipping issues that plagued Bad Company; too often you'd find yourself getting stuck on pieces of the destructible scenery – pieces which were often just pebble-sized pieces of debris that any normal person would be able to just step over. This problem now seems to have been completely eradicated, and you are free to sprint around as you see fit.
The most notable change, however, is that DICE have restructured and rebalanced the whole class system, and this greatly changes the way the game is played; while most of the weapons and tech that made up the classes in the first game are still present, they've been shuffled around, which essentially results in you having to re-learn how to play the game. This blank slate approach frees you up to experiment with the weapons and classes on offer, and it's this experimentation that has long been the root of the series' replayability. There's something extremely satisfying about working out how to play the game in a way that best suits your playing style - it's definitely no accident that both Bad Company and 1943 still have extremely dedicated communities, despite the relative lack of gameplay modes to choose from.
In typical fashion, the demo itself exhibits this same minimalist nature, and gives you access to just one of the multiplayer modes – the rush mode –, lets you unlock a handful of weapons, and lets you play on only one of the games maps – the Alaska map. Despite this, you'll still want to keep coming back for more, and this is testament to how replayable the multiplayer is in Bad Company 2.
Mark
As Modern Warfare 2 loses a little of its shine every time I boot it up and the bad begins to outweigh the good, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is showing up at just the right moment. Even the demo was a sneak attack, launching an offensive on my Xbox time with extreme prejudice.
Native to the Battlefield series as a whole, the gameplay is much more varied than the Modern Combats, offering more support roles for those that just don't want to run-gun-die-run. As a matter Of fact, Tyler and I spent some quality time as medics holding down a building behind enemy lines, and when one would die, the other would revive him and vice-versa. In the absence of perks and crates and sentry guns, just being able to do things like hand out health, revive teammates, and repair damaged vehicles not only gives players more to do, but adds another level of accomplishment.
The BF:BC2 demo showcases what is for the moment the game's only multiplayer mode, which is exactly like the previous game's Gold Rush mode. While it is a lot of fun, I do wish that there were more modes to play like a Domination or a good old fashioned Deathmatch.
Two things that the COD series does have on Battlefield is how tight the controls are and how accurate the hit detection is. Sometimes the BF controls just aren't as precise as I wish they were, and coupled with the squishy gun play make some the firefights seem less than accurate.
All in all though, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is a timely and welcome addition to the FPS space. For those of you burned out on Modern Warfare 2, play this demo. You'll love it. |
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Written by Tyler Miller
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Thursday, 04 February 2010 15:04 |
If you are reading this before playing the demo for Alien Vs. Predator, then consider yourself lucky. You get in on Tyler's Pro-Tip of the week. So here it is.
IN AVP - DO NOT PLAY AS THE COLONIAL MARINES
You're gonna get gutted if you do; with your puny load out of an assault rifle, motion detector and pistol (awesome, thanks). Meanwhile, your enemies are aliens that can turn invisible, see every spectrum of color and light, crawl on the ceiling at 50 mph, eat brains for health and spill acid blood upon death. It seems like they bought in to the Halo style of not aiming down the sights (admittedly, you might want to stick with the ol' spray and pray method of compbat in this game, though) and keeping the wepons spread out around the map from the begining of the match-- as opposed to letting you pick your loadout. Not exctly my favorite type of FPS.
My biggest problem with the demo is that it's only free-for-all deathmatch where as a team-based game-type feels like it would have been better at instilling in players the species dependency that I thought was the a big part of the game's essence. One thing you realize soon in the demo is that you will need to stick together, and that it will take exactly one match playing as a lone Marine in multiplayer to make you drop the class and switch to Aliens or Predators forever.
The controls function surprisingly well, I'm surprised to say (aside from the fact that you still can't customize button layout). The only real problem that I faced was getting in to these strafe-offs while playing as the Alien trying to spear an enemy (that class is all melee). You can circle around each other trying to deliver the killing blow only to be shanked to death by a Predator idly watching from the rafters. Getting to hard-to-reach places is pretty easy for the Predator now that he moves though the levels with a pretty snappy pace using the targeted jumps.
Oh, and it looks amazing! I mean, it's artisticly pitch-perfect for the Aliens/Predator movies we all know and love (I'm only talking about the movies made prior to 1988. You know, the good ones). The architecture and atmosphere are sooo creepy and errie, it makes you feel uncomfortable to be in the environment. Again, I just feel sorry for the Marines who can't make use of the ledges, catwalks and skylights that are perfect vantage points for the other species.
In the end though, I think I'm a little more excited about playing this game in either team deathmatch or the single player mode (unless there's a co-op?). Whatever happens, the game is on the right track. I can't wait to see what they do with it.
Oh, and what the hell does focus mode do? And what is shriek used for?!
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Written by Tyler Miller
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Thursday, 14 January 2010 00:02 |
After getting over my initial disappointment at this game not being a Noah's Arc Sim, I jumped in to the online demo for Army of Two: The 40th Day with some level of excitement. While the first release in what I can only expect to be the gripping saga of Salem and Rios was pretty ho-hum, I liked the fact that it focused on co-operative play. I mean, in what other game can you find a button reserved solely for post-firefight fist bumps?
Unfortunately in this post-Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 world that we live in, the good intentions of the folks at EA Montreal just don't replace the absolutely sluggish controls. I hate to say that this one thing can ruin what might be an otherwise standard co-op shooter, but it really does boil down to that.
If you are part of the 90% of gamers out there who have played COD, Assassin's Creed, Fallout 3 or any of the Uncharted games, then you know what responsive gameplay is. And if you know what it is to play with relatively good accurate controls are it is very hard to spend much time with Army of Two.
Aside from the laggy control, things like the plot, graphics and "acting" of this sequel are decent. The co-op elements have been juiced a little-- you now have the ability to make snap-decisions mid-game which will decide episode outcome. For instance, in the demo you are initially trained by a fellow mercenary for most of the trial. By the end you recieve a message over your headset to either kill this nice guy who just offered to buy a round after the mission, or put one in his ear for some extra dough. The cool thing is that the first player to hit the "yes" or "no" button is the decider, Player 2 just has to go along with it. It all carries out in cutscenes, but it's cool tweak to throw between to poeple playing online.
Should you check out this demo? For sure, it can't hurt to give it a play, but I would say your time would be better spent replaying Uncharted 2 than with this one, folks.
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