As most gamers already know, Call of Duty: Black Ops will be released on Tuesday, November 9th, 2010. I already have this pre-ordered, but I'm not really putting any rush on it so I just requested standard delivery so I should have it by the end of its launch week. The reason why I'm in no rush to get it is because it received so much hype, but from what I've already seen/heard I'm not too impressed yet. Maybe that will change when I get the game, but I doubt it'll change my mind much.
Anyway, let me get right into things. If you've seen the killstreak rewards video on YouTube or somewhere else you've already seen what I'm talking about. About 2 or 3 of them look decent, but the rest don't really seem that great. I don't know if it's just me, but I'm not really looking forward to this game as much as it's being hyped up to be.
Treyarch, the makers of World at War as well as Black Ops, is no Infinity Ward, to me at least. IW made Modern Warfare and Modern Warfare 2 for those who didn't know. Graphics-wise, I've been told by people who've played the leaked version of Black Ops isn't on IW's level, but the campaign gameplay is pretty decent and the multiplayer is pretty decent so far as well. I won't base my own thoughts on someone else's 'review' or whatever, but it certainly weighs on it.
World at War was a decent game, but both MW and MW2 were greatly better games, in my opinion. The only real thing in WaW that was awesome was the Nazi Zombies, which returns in Black Ops so I hope that adds to the game and doesn't just make the game.
As for the Black Ops maps, I've only heard about 2 or 3 of them so I can't speak on them all. From what I've heard (again, this is from someone I know has already played the leaked version of Black Ops) the maps are pretty decent as well. The one killstreak that stands out is the Blackbird killstreak. It supposedly shows not only the position, but the direction of where enemies are going and CANNOT be shot down. Now, I don't know about you, but there better be some sort of counter for this like MW2's Cold-Blooded and whatnot. It would be utterly ridiculous if there's no counter for it. I always say, you need to have balance in any game like this and if there's no counter, then there's no balance, making the game that much more uninteresting to some gamers like myself.
I really don't have much else to say so for the rest of us who will be getting the game legally we'll just have to wait until it releases and make judgments for ourselves.
Happy Gaming!
GeNiO
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Monday, June 28, 2010
Assassin's Creed II [XBOX 360/PS3] (2009)
First, let me say that I own both XBOX 360 and PS3 systems so that's why it's titled as so. There is a difference between the two games for both consoles, no matter how small. In the PS3 version, I believe there is just a few additional missions to do than the 360 version. I'm not positive on that, but I beat the 360 one a while ago and the PS3 very recently.
Let me say that AC2 is a HUGE step up from AC. AC had so much repetition in every mission and it got extremely annoying. Thankfully, Ubisoft fixed most of that. There is a good deal of repetition in AC2, but not as much and the gameplay is just so much better. With a new main character, new time period, new location, new supporting characters, and new and improved weapons, there's a lot of different ways to show off your assassin skills throughout the game. As with most games like this, you upgrade and improve over time from playing and AC2 is no different. I understand completely why that happens in sequels that aren't directly coming from the original games, but if they are directly from the original, you can't have it re-do what was already done. In a direct sequel you should already have the skills, abilities, and weapons that you acquired in the original, but make it so you can get stronger, faster, better, and have tougher/more enemies. I hope they do that with Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood coming out in November.
You play as Ezio Auditore and Ezio is really an interesting character. He has just about every quality you'd want in an Assassin. The game takes place in Italy and has a lot of beautiful landscapes throughout. I won't spoil anything for anyone who hasn't played the game or finished it yet so I'll just give my summary/review of the entire game. Anyone who has played it probably knows of the flaws it still has and it can get frustrating at times when you're doing something important and lengthy in the game. On that note, the game is a pretty long game to play so expect to sit down a few times for several hours all together. I guarantee it will be a good game if you play it, though.
Game Spot Score: 9.0 (Editor's Choice)
Critic Score: 9.0 (62 Reviews)
User Score: 9.3 (7,216 Votes)
My Rating: 8.5/10
Happy Gaming!
GeNiO
Let me say that AC2 is a HUGE step up from AC. AC had so much repetition in every mission and it got extremely annoying. Thankfully, Ubisoft fixed most of that. There is a good deal of repetition in AC2, but not as much and the gameplay is just so much better. With a new main character, new time period, new location, new supporting characters, and new and improved weapons, there's a lot of different ways to show off your assassin skills throughout the game. As with most games like this, you upgrade and improve over time from playing and AC2 is no different. I understand completely why that happens in sequels that aren't directly coming from the original games, but if they are directly from the original, you can't have it re-do what was already done. In a direct sequel you should already have the skills, abilities, and weapons that you acquired in the original, but make it so you can get stronger, faster, better, and have tougher/more enemies. I hope they do that with Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood coming out in November.
You play as Ezio Auditore and Ezio is really an interesting character. He has just about every quality you'd want in an Assassin. The game takes place in Italy and has a lot of beautiful landscapes throughout. I won't spoil anything for anyone who hasn't played the game or finished it yet so I'll just give my summary/review of the entire game. Anyone who has played it probably knows of the flaws it still has and it can get frustrating at times when you're doing something important and lengthy in the game. On that note, the game is a pretty long game to play so expect to sit down a few times for several hours all together. I guarantee it will be a good game if you play it, though.
Game Spot Score: 9.0 (Editor's Choice)
Critic Score: 9.0 (62 Reviews)
User Score: 9.3 (7,216 Votes)
My Rating: 8.5/10
Happy Gaming!
GeNiO
Modern Warfare 2: Resurgence Package Map Pack
With my summary/review of the Stimulus Package map pack comes the newest map pack review/summary: MW2's Resurgence Package Map Pack. This map pack, again, comes with 3 new maps and 2 old, CoD4 maps. These maps are Trailer Park, Carnival, and Fuel for the new ones and Vacant and Strike for the CoD4 ones. This map pack also isn't too bad as far as the actual maps go. Trailer Pack is just that, a trailer park map. There are a lot of trailers close or connecting to each other so most of the map is close quarters fighting unless you play Hard Core TD. Then it could end up being a slower paced, using the entire map match. I enjoy this map especially when I'm playing with a squad otherwise it's a little difficult at times. Carnival, again, is what it's called: a carnival map. This map can be confusing at times, to me at least. For some reason, a lot of the areas seem to blend in with the player if they aren't moving or aren't in front of something that's a completely different color. I don't mind the map, but I usually play with a squad so it makes it more enjoyable. Fuel is like an abandoned oil refinery/drilling site. It's a fairly large map with several areas to fight it out. One thing that's annoying at this point is there is a glitch where players can go into the rocks outside the map and not be seen. It can get annoying, but there's ways to find those players. People are catching on quickly with that so hopefully it gets patched soon. Vacant is a decent map, but some complaints I hear are that people played it so much in CoD4 that they don't want to play it that much in MW2. I don't mind it as I'm fairly decent on that map, but others don't feel the same. Strike was another semi-favorite of mine from CoD4. They revamped the colors/lighting in all of the CoD4 maps so they look a lot better and some maps have additional areas added on for MW2 so look out for those.
That's the end of my summary/review of the MW2 Resurgence Package Map Pack. Overall it was a decent map pack and I've heard they're going to release at least one more map pack. I can't confirm nor deny that so if you can, let me/us know. I'd really like to see Broadcast in MW2 from CoD4. I always liked that one when they released it.
Happy Gaming!
GeNiO
That's the end of my summary/review of the MW2 Resurgence Package Map Pack. Overall it was a decent map pack and I've heard they're going to release at least one more map pack. I can't confirm nor deny that so if you can, let me/us know. I'd really like to see Broadcast in MW2 from CoD4. I always liked that one when they released it.
Happy Gaming!
GeNiO
Modern Warfare 2: Stimulus Package Map Pack
I know I'm late on this, but it's been a while since I've written anything on here so I'll start it back up with the MW2 Stimulus Package Map Pack. This Map Pack included 3 new maps along with 2 maps from the first Modern Warfare, Call of Duty 4. The new maps are Bailout, Salvage, and Storm while the original maps are Crash and Overgrown. Personally, this map pack wasn't that bad. All 3 new maps are fairly decent maps once you get use to them and Crash was one of my favorites from CoD4 and Overgrown was a 50/50 map for me, meaning that half the time I did well and the other half not so well. Bailout is basically just an apartment complex with a street running through the center. I would say that most of the action happens within the buildings and coming from or going to the buildings. I rarely see any major firefights happening in the street, but there will be some from time to time. Salvage is a smaller, snowy junkyard. It's actually not a bad map as long as you have a decent team and depending on what mode you play (I play Hard Core Team Deathmatch most of the time so it's a nice map to be on). Storm has a bunch of warehouses and different sized buildings in a rainy setting. This isn't a bad map, per se, but it's not the greatest. Some good matches happen there from time to time. Crash, if you don't know already, is part of an urban area with a crashed helicopter right in the middle. Like I said above, this was one of my favorite maps in CoD4 and since they revamped the graphics/lighting for MW2 I love it even more. A lot of good matches go down here. And, lastly, Overgrown, if not known, is pretty much like a grassy village with a dried-out riverbed going through the middle. A lot of people tend to snipe on this map, but if you know the map well you know how to get around without getting sniped. I don't mind this one, but it can get frustrating sometimes to play on.
Well, that was my summary/review on the Stimulus Package Map Pack for Modern Warfare 2. Post some replies if you want to discuss, agree, disagree, add on, etc. Let me know what you think about the entire map pack as well as what you think of each map.
Happy Gaming!
GeNiO
Well, that was my summary/review on the Stimulus Package Map Pack for Modern Warfare 2. Post some replies if you want to discuss, agree, disagree, add on, etc. Let me know what you think about the entire map pack as well as what you think of each map.
Happy Gaming!
GeNiO
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Modern Warfare 2 (2009)
If you play video games, chances are you've played Modern Warfare 2 at least once. For avid gamers like myself and many others, this was a much anticipated game, but did it truly meet expectations for the hardcore fans of the first Modern Warfare? My answer is yes and no.
I say both because in some areas it definitely met my expectations and/or surpassed them, but in other areas (some extremely important, key areas) it did not. Let me first go over the negatives from what I thought of MW2.
Lack of Demo/Testing
This was probably one of the biggest things Infinity Ward screwed up on - not releasing a demo for actual gamers to test and find anything wrong. A demo would have most definitely have led to the discovery of the many problems and vulnerabilities that MW2 had on the XBOX 360 at least. Within the first month after release, there were a few glitches that had players running rampant and really making the game hard to play and annoying to try to play. I think that it turned away a lot of players for a little while before it was patched. I think the first glitch was the "javelin glitch." I don't really know the full extent of this glitch, but it obviously had something to do with the javelin and it was obviously abused. Thankfully, it was patched. Another glitch was the unlimited grenade launcher ammo. This is one of the worst things in MW 1 + 2: noob tubing. They were then given unlimited ammo for a short time and they went nuts with that and then it was patched. There were other glitches, but I haven't been playing that much to really know what they were, but I think they were patched so that's a good thing.
Again, most, if not all, of these could have been fixed if only IW released a demo for testing, but it didn't happen so problems arose, players became aggravated, and MW2 got a little less playing time for some like myself.
Camping
Well, this was in MW as well as MW2 and it's almost impossible to completely get rid of. "Camping" refers to players who simply sit in one place for the majority of the match or until they are killed and move somewhere else to camp and just shoot whoever comes around a corner or whatnot. It was really annoying in the first MW and still is in MW2. I really wish there was a fix for this, but I don't see how there could be.
Noob Tubing
"Noob tubing" refers to players who use the grenade launcher attachment on any weapon that can all the time or the majority of the time. I understand when you first start off and all you have for an attachment is the grenade launcher, but using it almost every match is just retarded and unnecessary. I really think that that should be limited or removed from online multiplayer matches. The latter would be best, but I doubt it will ever happen. It's especially unnecessary and annoying in Hardcore Team Deathmatch. In this mode friendly fire is on (you can shoot, damage, and kill your own teammates), higher damage (opponents usually die within a few shots like real life instead of having to empty an entire clip and they still live sometimes that's evident in the regular team deathmatch modes), and limited HUD (Heads Up Display) so there really is no need for noob tubing.
Maps
Honestly, most players have a large problem with the maps in MW2 and, quite frankly, they should because they're horrible. There's only a few good maps and the rest of just plain horrible to play on. IW really dropped the ball in that area. I truly hope that they release a map pack soon with better maps so that people can really enjoy this game.
Now, onto the positives.
Maps
Yes, there are some good maps and those ones are actually really fun to play on. My favorite is probably Terminal. Terminal takes place at an airport and has an airplane attached to the loading dock and an actual terminal with all of the details you'd find in a normal airport. Favela is probably another favorite of mine. Favela is pretty much just a bunch of buildings and alleyways set in Brazil. Depending on the players and type of game you play, this map can be really fast paced and a lot of action. Highrise is pretty cool as well, but you have to know the map and play in certain modes. It's just that, set on a highrise building with 2 buildings on both sides. A good bonus to this map is that you're pretty high off the ground and if you fall, you die. There is a way to get off the building, though, so if you haven't found it out yet, look around in a private match by yourself and move around the map to figure out good points to post up in heated battles and where to move to gain important ground on enemies. Invasion, Karachi, Rundown, and Skidrow are probably right in the middle of my favorites and least favorites. Invasion is set in a city in the desert and can have some great street fights. Watch out, though, the buildings can be a very advantageous point to pick off enemies not paying attention. If you're good enough, you can move from building to street/building and take out enemies quickly. The streets are where the most action happens for the most part, though. Karachi is another desert town, but this one requires a slightly different approach. The streets are where the most actions happens as well, but with more tactics if you're good and want to win. Rundown is just a rundown village in Brazil. This map can get really crazy when the heat of the battle starts to erupt. You're going to be fighting from pretty much every angle because there are ins and outs to various buildings and locations that you have to pay attention to or you're going to die. Quarry is an okay map, but it's really frustrating to play on most times. It's just a large quarry that has a lot of ways to get to different areas so you also have to pay attention on this map as well. Not only are there tall buildings where snipers can pick you off from across the map, but there are many nooks and crannies for campers and for enemies to pop around the corner from and take you out. I can say that the capture the flags matches are probably the best matches for this map. Skidrow is an urban map with a few apartment buildings to run in and out of and a couple of streets to stay off of for a prolonged period of time unless you want to get shot. A lot of people don't like Wasteland, but I don't mind it because I am a pretty good sniper and it's perfect for long range fighters and snipers. It's basically an open field from Chernobyl and there are areas where if you stay too long you die from the radiation. Derail and Afghan are similar maps to me because they can be used for sniping or closer ranged fighting. Both maps have areas to snipe from as well as areas to get in close combat. Estate is a rough map to play on because it's basically one large cabin at the top of a hill and a few structures at the bottom. It's good for matches that you have to capture the cabin, but besides that, it's rough to play on. Sub Base is rough, too. It's just that: a submarine base. There's snow and a few buildings to go in and out of as well as some smaller open space to run around. I'm not a fan of it, but don't mind it when playing with a decent team. Rust, Scrapyard, and Underpass are probably my least favorites. Rust is the smallest map and, if playing a larger mode, very fast paced and the highest action. There's literally no place to hide from enemies if you need to recover health or for the campers. There's one tall structure in the middle with a few objects along the sides so there's really nowhere to go but to fight the enemies straight up so expect to die quite a bit unless you manage to kill them before you get shot, which is pretty difficult to do for a long time. Scrapyard is a map that I don't like at all. Even though it's called Scrapyard, there's only a few beat up planes in the middle with a few buildings around the edges. You can pretty much be shot from any angle and doesn't mark off any type of sides. Underpass is also a horrible map. It's just a rainy, broken down underpass map with a few buildings and a lot of areas to camp and hide out. It's also one of my least favorite. I don't think I missed any, but that's a quick overview of the maps and what I think of each one.
Weapons
In MW2 there are different weapons with different attributes then the first MW, but there are a few that remained the same, but also had different attributes than MW. Because I mostly play Hardcore Team Deathmatch it really doesn't matter which gun you choose because they all do the same thing pretty much. I usually run with the Scar-H or the ACR for regular maps and a sniper rifle for the long range maps. Besides the different weapons in MW2, there's not much else different from the first one. There still is the BS of having to unload a full clip and the enemy still living in the regular Team Deathmatch modes as was in the the first MW, but I take care of that by playing Hard Core TD.
Well, that's just a summary of the good and bad of MW2 and many players probably know all about everything I mentioned from playing the game, but it's good to write down somewhere to figure it all out.
Since I enjoy and play many other games, I don't think that this was the greatest game, but I definitely think it was one of the better ones.
My Rating: 8/10
GameSpot Rating: 9.0/10 (Editor's Choice Nominee); Critic Score: 9.3/10 (74 Reviews); User Score: 9.0/10 (9,115 Votes)
Happy Gaming!
GeNiO
I say both because in some areas it definitely met my expectations and/or surpassed them, but in other areas (some extremely important, key areas) it did not. Let me first go over the negatives from what I thought of MW2.
Lack of Demo/Testing
This was probably one of the biggest things Infinity Ward screwed up on - not releasing a demo for actual gamers to test and find anything wrong. A demo would have most definitely have led to the discovery of the many problems and vulnerabilities that MW2 had on the XBOX 360 at least. Within the first month after release, there were a few glitches that had players running rampant and really making the game hard to play and annoying to try to play. I think that it turned away a lot of players for a little while before it was patched. I think the first glitch was the "javelin glitch." I don't really know the full extent of this glitch, but it obviously had something to do with the javelin and it was obviously abused. Thankfully, it was patched. Another glitch was the unlimited grenade launcher ammo. This is one of the worst things in MW 1 + 2: noob tubing. They were then given unlimited ammo for a short time and they went nuts with that and then it was patched. There were other glitches, but I haven't been playing that much to really know what they were, but I think they were patched so that's a good thing.
Again, most, if not all, of these could have been fixed if only IW released a demo for testing, but it didn't happen so problems arose, players became aggravated, and MW2 got a little less playing time for some like myself.
Camping
Well, this was in MW as well as MW2 and it's almost impossible to completely get rid of. "Camping" refers to players who simply sit in one place for the majority of the match or until they are killed and move somewhere else to camp and just shoot whoever comes around a corner or whatnot. It was really annoying in the first MW and still is in MW2. I really wish there was a fix for this, but I don't see how there could be.
Noob Tubing
"Noob tubing" refers to players who use the grenade launcher attachment on any weapon that can all the time or the majority of the time. I understand when you first start off and all you have for an attachment is the grenade launcher, but using it almost every match is just retarded and unnecessary. I really think that that should be limited or removed from online multiplayer matches. The latter would be best, but I doubt it will ever happen. It's especially unnecessary and annoying in Hardcore Team Deathmatch. In this mode friendly fire is on (you can shoot, damage, and kill your own teammates), higher damage (opponents usually die within a few shots like real life instead of having to empty an entire clip and they still live sometimes that's evident in the regular team deathmatch modes), and limited HUD (Heads Up Display) so there really is no need for noob tubing.
Maps
Honestly, most players have a large problem with the maps in MW2 and, quite frankly, they should because they're horrible. There's only a few good maps and the rest of just plain horrible to play on. IW really dropped the ball in that area. I truly hope that they release a map pack soon with better maps so that people can really enjoy this game.
Now, onto the positives.
Maps
Yes, there are some good maps and those ones are actually really fun to play on. My favorite is probably Terminal. Terminal takes place at an airport and has an airplane attached to the loading dock and an actual terminal with all of the details you'd find in a normal airport. Favela is probably another favorite of mine. Favela is pretty much just a bunch of buildings and alleyways set in Brazil. Depending on the players and type of game you play, this map can be really fast paced and a lot of action. Highrise is pretty cool as well, but you have to know the map and play in certain modes. It's just that, set on a highrise building with 2 buildings on both sides. A good bonus to this map is that you're pretty high off the ground and if you fall, you die. There is a way to get off the building, though, so if you haven't found it out yet, look around in a private match by yourself and move around the map to figure out good points to post up in heated battles and where to move to gain important ground on enemies. Invasion, Karachi, Rundown, and Skidrow are probably right in the middle of my favorites and least favorites. Invasion is set in a city in the desert and can have some great street fights. Watch out, though, the buildings can be a very advantageous point to pick off enemies not paying attention. If you're good enough, you can move from building to street/building and take out enemies quickly. The streets are where the most action happens for the most part, though. Karachi is another desert town, but this one requires a slightly different approach. The streets are where the most actions happens as well, but with more tactics if you're good and want to win. Rundown is just a rundown village in Brazil. This map can get really crazy when the heat of the battle starts to erupt. You're going to be fighting from pretty much every angle because there are ins and outs to various buildings and locations that you have to pay attention to or you're going to die. Quarry is an okay map, but it's really frustrating to play on most times. It's just a large quarry that has a lot of ways to get to different areas so you also have to pay attention on this map as well. Not only are there tall buildings where snipers can pick you off from across the map, but there are many nooks and crannies for campers and for enemies to pop around the corner from and take you out. I can say that the capture the flags matches are probably the best matches for this map. Skidrow is an urban map with a few apartment buildings to run in and out of and a couple of streets to stay off of for a prolonged period of time unless you want to get shot. A lot of people don't like Wasteland, but I don't mind it because I am a pretty good sniper and it's perfect for long range fighters and snipers. It's basically an open field from Chernobyl and there are areas where if you stay too long you die from the radiation. Derail and Afghan are similar maps to me because they can be used for sniping or closer ranged fighting. Both maps have areas to snipe from as well as areas to get in close combat. Estate is a rough map to play on because it's basically one large cabin at the top of a hill and a few structures at the bottom. It's good for matches that you have to capture the cabin, but besides that, it's rough to play on. Sub Base is rough, too. It's just that: a submarine base. There's snow and a few buildings to go in and out of as well as some smaller open space to run around. I'm not a fan of it, but don't mind it when playing with a decent team. Rust, Scrapyard, and Underpass are probably my least favorites. Rust is the smallest map and, if playing a larger mode, very fast paced and the highest action. There's literally no place to hide from enemies if you need to recover health or for the campers. There's one tall structure in the middle with a few objects along the sides so there's really nowhere to go but to fight the enemies straight up so expect to die quite a bit unless you manage to kill them before you get shot, which is pretty difficult to do for a long time. Scrapyard is a map that I don't like at all. Even though it's called Scrapyard, there's only a few beat up planes in the middle with a few buildings around the edges. You can pretty much be shot from any angle and doesn't mark off any type of sides. Underpass is also a horrible map. It's just a rainy, broken down underpass map with a few buildings and a lot of areas to camp and hide out. It's also one of my least favorite. I don't think I missed any, but that's a quick overview of the maps and what I think of each one.
Weapons
In MW2 there are different weapons with different attributes then the first MW, but there are a few that remained the same, but also had different attributes than MW. Because I mostly play Hardcore Team Deathmatch it really doesn't matter which gun you choose because they all do the same thing pretty much. I usually run with the Scar-H or the ACR for regular maps and a sniper rifle for the long range maps. Besides the different weapons in MW2, there's not much else different from the first one. There still is the BS of having to unload a full clip and the enemy still living in the regular Team Deathmatch modes as was in the the first MW, but I take care of that by playing Hard Core TD.
Well, that's just a summary of the good and bad of MW2 and many players probably know all about everything I mentioned from playing the game, but it's good to write down somewhere to figure it all out.
Since I enjoy and play many other games, I don't think that this was the greatest game, but I definitely think it was one of the better ones.
My Rating: 8/10
GameSpot Rating: 9.0/10 (Editor's Choice Nominee); Critic Score: 9.3/10 (74 Reviews); User Score: 9.0/10 (9,115 Votes)
Happy Gaming!
GeNiO
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