Xbox Live Arcade has to be one of the greatest things ever invented. Today I have spent hours with a friend playing various XBL Arcade games. The system is just so well done. I just love how easy it is to browse the available games, download a demo, play the demo, and then buy the game if I like it. The library of games in the arcade is pretty good. I have been playing Marble Blast Ultra, Uno, and Geometry Wars quite a bit lately. All of those games are just so incredibly addicting even though they are so simple. With games on the way like Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, Sonic, and RoboBlitz I am sure I will continue to get a lot of use out of the Live Arcade.
Category: Games
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter is the third game in the Ghost Recon series. Each of the games has improved over the original, and this one is no different. With new gameplay mechanics like the Cross-Com, a much improved cover system, and breathtaking graphics, Advanced Warfighter is a worthy sequel and a true next generation game.
The story takes place in modern day Mexico City. In the game you play as a man by the name of Scott Mitchell who is the captain of an elite light infantry unit called the Ghosts. You are there to provide security during a meeting between the leaders of the United States, Canada, and Mexico. It is during this time that some Mexican insurgents decide to attack the meeting in an attempt to come to power. They kill the Canadian prime minister and the US and Mexican presidents disappear. Your job, among other things, is to locate and rescue the US and Mexican presidents.
You won’t be fighting alone for most of the campaign. You will have three teammates which you can order around for the majority of the missions. You can order them to attack, fall back to you, and move into certain positions. While the way you command them is not exactly deep or provides a lot of control, you can still be pretty effective with your squad. Your Cross-Com allows you to see what one of your teammates sees, allowing you to get multiple perspectives of the battlefield. Unfortunately, the squad AI can give you a bit of a headache sometimes. While they are usually pretty good at shooting enemies, it’s not too uncommon to find your teammates exposing themselves too much instead of properly using cover. For the most part they do try to use cover whenever possible though.
Besides your three teammates, some missions give you other assets to control. One of which is a UAV which you can order around the level. The UAV can detect enemy troops and mark them on your HUD. Since you can die pretty fast in this game, knowing where the enemies are and planning your next move is essential, and having a working UAV helps greatly. Occasionally you will also have a tank or helicopter gunship. The tank can not only be used to attack enemies but it can also be used as cover while it moves. The helicopter is also pretty good and moving and striking targets on the ground quickly. During a few sequences in the game, you will actually get to fly around in the helicopter and use the machine gun on the side to take out huge groups of enemies. While these sequences are not too challenging, they are a lot of fun.
Because a single good shot can kill you in Advanced Warfighter, the game has a slower pace and more tactical feel then other action games. That is not to say that the game is dull; it is filled with fierce fire fights and big explosions, but it does require more thinking then some other games. You always want to lean around corners before going walking out in the open, and always fight from behind cover. Since the levels are pretty large (many city blocks for each level), there are usually multiple ways to get to each objective. Most of the time just taking a different route will end up in a totally different experience. Enemies roam the map, also making sure the game never plays exactly the same way twice.
The amazing graphics are probably the first thing you will notice when you load up this game. The amount of detail in objects and the size of the city are staggering. During the game’s many helicopter rides, the city buildings and streets stretch out for mines in every direction. Sometimes you can see areas filled with fire or smoke from all of the fighting that has been going on. These sequences do a great job of making you feel that you are in a real city fighting in a real conflict. Mexico City just looks absolutely beautiful. Advanced Warfighter is easily the best looking game on the Xbox 360 console. The HDR lighting is used to great effect in all of the games missions, which range from early morning, afternoon, and dusk. During some of the afternoon missions, the sunlight can get so bright that it actually makes it hard to see. The character models are some of the best that I have seen. They are all extremely detailed and look very realistic. They also animate in a very believable way. The only negative thing you can say about the graphics is that things will sometimes “pop” into view when leaning around the corners. This does not happen often, but can take you out of the game for a moment when it does happen.
The audio in the game is also great. All of the guns sound different and extremely clear. Explosions and tank and rocket fire sound great as well. The game also muffles the sound when explosions go off around you. The music in the game is also pretty good and comes in at the right moments. The voice acting, while not amazing, is convincing.
While the single player game is great, the multiplayer is what’s going to keep people playing. The game features three ways to play multiplayer: local play, system link, and over Xbox live. There is a large selection of game types to choose from. First, there are the excellent co-op missions which are a blast to play with your friends. Then there are the more standard game types you are used to like capture the flag and deathmatch. Besides those default settings, the game allows you to customize your game to play the way you want to. The multiplayer experience is extremely addictive and plays very well. I definitely expect people to be hooked on this game for a very long time.
Overall, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter is a great game. Offering an intense single player campaign and multiplayer matches which will remain fun for hours at time, Advanced Warfighter is a great complete package and sets the bar pretty high for the inevitable sequel.
After posting that quick Prey gameplay video the other day, I figured it would be fun to post an old trailer I have sitting on my pc from E3 1998. It’s pretty cool to look at how far games have come in such a short amount of time.
So, I got back from the beach today and one of the first things I did was download the Prey demo. I have been looking forward to this demo for a long time. Not only because the game looks pretty awesome, but I wanted to see how it would run on my pc. Fortunately it runs pretty damn good with high settings. So I just have to decide if I want to get this on Xbox 360 or on the PC. I played some of the MP in the demo and am not sure if that is something I would want to play with a Xbox 360 controller. Anyway, I decided to take a quick video of some of the demo. You can watch the video below. If you want to grab the demo, click here.
Condemned: Criminal Origins is a brand new game from Monolith. In the game you play as an FBI name Ethan Thomas who specializes in serial killers. The game opens with you investigating the murder of one of the serial killers you have been after. Unfortunately, things don’t go as planned and you are quickly on the run from the police, determined to prove your innocence.
The game’s main draw is its intense visceral hand to hand combat. The game features mostly hand to hand weapons like metal pipes, 2x4s with nails sticking out of the end, sledgehammers and fire axes. While there are guns in the game, they are very rare and only have a few shots in them. The combat is pretty simple to learn since you can only block or attack, but fighting requires a good sense of timing to properly block blows and attack back with your own. The fighting itself is great. It really feels like you are laying into people and it looks extremely brutal. Unfortunately, there is not much depth when it comes to the combat and it gets stale towards the end of the game.
Weapons in the game are classified by range, speed, power, and defense, though it is a bit difficult to tell the difference between some of them. Picking the best weapon can be somewhat of a guessing game as the game only tells you if a weapons power, defense, speed or range is greater or less then the current weapon you have. It also does not mention how much the difference is between the two weapons. You can also only carry one weapon at a time. You also have a stun gun which you can use to stun opponents and grab their weapon while they are stunned. After you fire it, its battery automatically recharges after a few seconds. The stun gun becomes an invaluable weapon later in the game when you are facing off against multiple opponents.
Every once in a while there will be a break in the action while you investigate some of the crime scenes. You will walk into an area and be prompted by your “instincts” to take out a forensic tool and look for clues. The correct tool automatically comes out, so all you really have to do is look around the environment for the clue you are supposed to find. While it is simple, it can be pretty cool at times. Most of the plot is discovered from these sequences, so they are definitely interesting even if it is extremely easy.
Most of the gameplay takes place in very run-down environments. From a subway station to a library, every environment in the game looks like it has been neglected for years and is falling apart. All of the environments are extremely dark and do a good job of giving off a sense of fear. Unfortunately, none of the environments are very interesting to explore and there is not much you can do while you walk around them. Occasionally you will wander into a door that you need to cut your way through with a fire axe, or fence with a padlock that you need to smash off with a sledgehammer, but that is pretty much it. Also, it is extremely easy to get lost in many of the levels since everything looks pretty much the same because of extremely repetitive use of textures. When you get lost there is no map to help you find your way, so you will find yourself wandering around until you stumble across the door you need to open.
Graphically the game looks extremely good. The lighting effects in the game are absolutely great to look at and the environments are extremely detailed. The characters look realistic and animate beautifully. The fighting animations of the enemies in the game are especially good. Enemies will stumble backwards when you hit them with a heavy object or come running at you, swinging wildly in the air. All of the animation looks fluid and very realistic.
The AI in the game is also pretty impressive. The enemies are extremely aggressive, though they do occasionally hide so that they can catch you off guard. Sometimes they charge at you while screaming some pretty nasty stuff or hide and wait to ambush you. They will also attack each other, which can be fun to watch. Enemies will see weapons in the environment and pick them up if they don’t have one. The AI does a good job of keeping the fights brutal and intense. One problem with the AI is that after the first few hours, the AI becomes pretty predictable. They have a few cool tricks at their disposal, but after an hour or so you have already seen them all.
The sound in the game is pretty average. There isn’t much music except for some ambient stuff here and there, but the sound effects are excellent. Every smash with a weapon sounds disgustingly realistic. The voice acting is also pretty convincing.
The biggest disappointment in the game would have to be the storyline. To sum it up, it’s awful. A lot of the real important stuff, such as why everyone is going crazy, is boorishly explained during loading screens instead of in the game. The ending is also pretty anticlimactic and underwhelming.
But still, Condemned: Criminal Origins is a pretty fun game to play. It does a great job delivering a good looking first-person melee combat game. It’s just the more you play it, the more you will wish it had a deeper plot and a more robust combat system to keep it much more interesting. So if you are looking for some fun melee combat and don’t mind its short length and underwhelming plot then go ahead and pick up Condemned.