Crysis Review

Crysis
Developed By: Crytek
Available on: PC
Reviewed on the PC

MAXIMUM REVIEW…

What’s that one game you wish you could pop in to make your PC cry out in pain trying to render every drop of its awesomeness… if you said Crysis, then no shit; everyone knows this game looks sick as hell, but is it good?

Crytek is a German game developer known for making the best looking games in the business after their breakout game Far Cry showed people how to render the most amazing jungles anyone has ever seen. The only problem with Far Cry is, it wasn’t good. It was like a B movie, where this time around Crytek wanted to do a first rate summer movie blockbuster and for the most part they delivered. On the surface Crysis is the most amazing looking game on the market. From its dynamically destructible jungle to its perfect normal mapped textures, to some of the highest poly counts you will ever see on screen, Crysis will be the benchmark for games for a good while. This game is great but it comes at a cost, you need one hell of a rig. My personal rig isn’t bad, a GeForce 8800, 3.0 Core 2 Duo and 4 gigs of ram, and I had some problems running it turned up. Now with just some minor tweaks it runs great but not everyone has a rig like mine and it’s on the low end of a “gamer” PC. Now that, that’s out of the way, how is the game itself? Well it’s actually a fairly good and unique shooter.

The Nano Suit give you the ability to go invisible, run fast, jump high, or take a lot of damage, and switching between the functions is as easy as holding the middle mouse button and dragging to one of the suit powers on the select ring. It’s fast, intuitive and easy to manipulate. Each suit function serves a specific purpose and you will find yourself jumping in and out of different ones often. Outside of the Nano Suit and amazing visuals this game doesn’t do too much else that is new. It has your standard weapons with a little bit of an advanced twist, that’s about it. Also once the aliens show up you don’t even get any cool alien weapons. Oh wait… yeah, we’ll get to the flying squids later.

The first part of this game has you infiltrating North Korea in search of some captured archeologists whom the North Koreans are using to dig up an alien artifact, while the second half has you fighting off the alien invasion you let out. Cool in concept, maybe not so much in execution. Fighting the humans is fine, even if their AI could have used a little more time in the oven. The pseudo open world feel that Crysis has gives you plenty of opportunity to play with your various suit functions to find the best way to attack your prey, while the tight shooting mechanics make picking them off fun as hell. The driving in the game, while not the best, is passable as long as it’s done in third person, but once you get into a flying vehicle it all falls apart. The flying controls feel broken and often I found that the V-Tol you pilot didn’t do what I wanted it to do. The cars on the other hand worked well and helped move you through the massive environments quickly. There are also some boats but I only found myself using them when I had to, just because you can’t really use your Nano suit on the high seas.

All the islands you hop through are well designed in a linear fashion that doesn’t seem like hand holding. You would think that looking at tree after tree would get old, but they throw in enough bases, ports or small villages to keep it fresh. It wasn’t until the alien spaceship where I felt the design went off the rails. The ship is a maze of zero-g tunnels with no rhyme or reason until you stumble out the other end. The only cool thing about it is the frozen jungle that happens after, but getting there is so poorly done it almost breaks the game. This is only one section and it only lasts about a half hour but it feels like it takes days.

The story itself about the North Koreans finding the aliens and the world Crytek built with the Nano Suit is cool but a little on the weak side. Nothing really gets to fleshed out and you never get much of an attachment to the other soldiers you’re with. It’s not the worst story I’ve seen, but not the best either. A lot of the sci-fi elements they weave into it could have been fleshed out more and more of a personal story could have been told. You do get a sense that they care for each other but you never get to know any of the characters so in the end you don’t care much for them. Although the characters themselves are a bit one dimensional the talent behind the voices is quite good.

From the Jason Statham inspired Joker, to the leader of the pack Prophet, each cast member has a great voice. All the sounds are top notch; it has nice bassy explosions and superb ambiance. One of my favorite things is the voice when you switch between your suit powers. In this robotic, beefy tone it shouts out MAXIMUM POWER or MAXIMUM SPEED, and makes you feel so bad ass. You would think after several hours of hearing this over and over it would get annoying but for me it didn’t. Thankfully Crytek gives you the ability to turn it off if you want, but why would you? My only gripe, and it’s not just this game, is the North Koreans don’t speak Korean! They do speak it if you’re playing on the hardest difficulty level but it shouldn’t be a difficulty option, it should be a sound option. I hate when you play a game and a foreign enemy is speaking English, it just takes you out of the setting a bit.

Overall, if you’ve got the rig, you owe it to yourself to get this game; its fun, unique, amazing to look at and solid all around.

Story: 6.0 -- Gameplay: 8.5 -- Graphics: 10
Sound: 9 -- Replay: 8 -- Fun factor: 8

Overall (not an average): 8.0 out of 10

 

-TuxedoKatsJoe

 

Battlefield Bad Company 2 Review

Battlefield Bad Company 2 Review
Developed By: DICE
Available on: Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC
Reviewed on the Xbox 360

Who’s Bad?

The Battlefield franchise is one that found its roots in the PC community giving some of the most massive air, land and sea battles in 1942 and expanding into modern day with Battlefield 2, years before Call of Duty Modern Warfare was a thought in Infinity Ward/Activison’s mind. When Microsoft and Sony entered the next-gen war, the Battlefield franchise migrated from PC community to masses of couch killers with Battlefield Bad Company. The first Bad Company was a great leap forward for shooters, giving vast open land and the ability to blow the shit out of everything around you. This isn’t the first to do this though, Black came a few years before with the idea that blowing shit up is fun, and it fucking is. Unlike Black’s more cosmetic damage system, Bad Company used it in a much more of a tactical way. Some son of a bitch dug in that building laying down sniper fire like a mother fucking? Load up that M209 and lob a grenade into that bitch to blow up his cover, and most likely send him flying arms akimbo. The first Bad Company had a great foundation but the lack of solid direction due to its large scale made it a little hard to stay focused on objectives. Also its destructive system, all be it fucking sweet as shit, wasn’t as versatile as it could have been. Fast forward to 2010 and DICE delivered Bad Company 2, a break neck roller coaster ride with the sole objective to dethrone Modern Warfare 2’s current dominance on the modern military shooter market.

The overall story line part Red Dawn, part A-Team, and partly disjointed. The wacky team we came to know and love, for better or worse, from the first BC is back but a little more reigned in. Gone are some of the annoying constant jokes and replaced with a better pace of jokes and serious moments. The melodrama is just that, its standard video game fare, not breaking any boundaries but also being satisfying at the same time. DICE wanted to deliver a Michael Bay type experience not only in its awesome explosion filled gameplay but its simple popcorn friendly story. The downside to this is it doesn’t give you much attachment to the characters in the game. Also the simple plot line doesn’t make for a gripping or engrossing story you get in a game like Uncharted or GTA.

The baseline shooter mechanics in BC2 are nothing less then perfect. The controls are precise and the singe player has a very forgiving lock on when you snap the iron sites to your face, letting you feel a little more like a bad ass if you’re not to good with the analog sticks. What DICE does well is mapping the buttons to the controller in a sensible way, so switching from ground combat to vehicle combat doesn’t feel clunky or tacked together. Gone is the health syringe from the first BC and in is the duck and cover regenerative heath system most games have adopted. This is both good and bad because you don’t to worry about annoying antiquated health pickup but at the same time, cover doesn’t stay intact for long so most of the time taking cover doesn’t seem to matter. Also the indicators that show you’re getting hit seem to be delayed. There’s a red overlay that creeps in from the edge of the screen, but I found sometimes it doesn’t show up or it has a delay, showing up after I got my ass to cover.

The maps in the 6-8 or so hour campaign are much more linear then its predecessor, funneling you down a path, but at the same time giving you a little room to experiment in your fire fight. Just like other pseudo open world games like Crysis, this more straight forward approach is nice, making the game feel a little more structured but at the same time there are too many moments where the game design felt rushed and unpolished for a linear experience. One moment leading up the games climax has you chasing after a plane through an underground tunnel. This could have been hectic, after all your squad does holler at you to hurry, making you feel like you need to get there before it leaves the runway. Instead of giving you shit to shoot while a timer ticks down, the game gives you a straight shot through empty concrete tubes with nothing to shoot at. This scene could have been done better as a few second cinematic rather then the minute or so section where you control the character. If the section had some obstacles or enemy NPC’s to take down, the section would have been a much more satisfying penultimate moment.

The enemy and team AI is done well, for the most part, but your team seems a little useless most of the time. They move through the levels, return fire, and never get bogged down or stuck, but at the same time they hardly ever kill anyone. I guess DICE wanted the player to feel like the ultimate John Rambo bad ass by letting you kill every guy between you and your goal, but if that’s the case why give me a fucking team at all. Also, if the game has a squad like this one does, why in fucks sake is it not co-op? There is no reason why the other people in your group can’t be controlled by another human player, and the many amazing looking co-op games like Gears of War and Resident Evil shows that it’s not a hardware issue. There is a mission where you do a solo mission in a frozen wasteland and have to duck into building to warm yourself up before you freeze to death, but they could have built it in a way to have your co-op team doing something else. Seriously, co-op people, and damn it devs don’t skimp on the split screen mode. People like sitting next to people, gaming is a social activity after all.

The world is a gorgeous landscape full of the most destruction you’ll see short of Red Faction Gorilla. Every building can be blown to bits and most can be leveled all together. The level design jumps between land and vehicle combat a lot so you move from place to place, seeing something new around every corner. There is a trade off sadly where the textures seem a little lower resolution then they are in other shooters, and the model work is a little lacking in the poly count department. When you weigh the pros of being able to level entire buildings versus the con of lower graphic fidelity, I’ll take airstrikes for 1,000 Alex. The lower resolution wasn’t a major issue, you wont need a paper bag to take this one home, but it does show the frostbite engine has a slight bit of a but-her-face.

On the other hand the sound is some of the best I’ve heard in any form of entertainment. The bullet impacts, the wizz of rockets and the deafening explosions are more engrossing then a few more polygons on a broke down Buick could ever be. When a rocket is a near miss, your sound cuts out and rings in your ear giving you a sensation of tread mark inspired glee. Every gun not only sounds unique but sounds like it’ll fuck shit up to boot.

Overall this was a satisfying shooter with great core mechanics and a fun ride. It doesn’t re-write fps games as we know it but it does what it does, and it does it well. It’s a little on the short side, as most shooter are, not so short you feel it’s over before it started. It’s brisk pace and constant switching of play styles help to keep this fresh. Outside of the single player is a bulky multiplayer suit that also gives players plenty to come back to. It gives you standard online modes that most games give you and something other games don’t do by adding in lots of vehicles to play with. Add in a level up system, unlock system, 24 player battles, and the full destruction system, online is a fucking sweet experience to go along with the satisfying single player excursion. This is a must buy for shooter fans and those who are over the MW2 hype.

Story: 6 -- Gameplay: 8.5 -- Graphics: 8
Sound: 9.5 -- Replay: 9 -- Fun factor: 9

Overall (not an average): 8.5 out of 10

-TuxedoKatsJoe

Bioshock 2 Review

Bioshock 2
Developed by: 2K
Available on: Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC
Reviewed on Playstation 3

I like it when you call me Big Daddy!

When Irrational Games first introduced gamers to the world of Rapture in 2007 we were all taken back by the amazing 1950’s art deco world under the sea. Rapture was so full of character from its visuals to sound to atmosphere, but I felt what kept it from being amazing was its slightly sloppy gameplay and clunky mechanics. When 2K said they were going to take us back to Rapture using a new development house, everyone’s first response was... why? We saw Rapture, we experience the world, and we didn’t need to go back. Well we were wrong, sort of. Everything that was bad about the first seems to be addressed here and 2K turned an average shooter with amazing atmosphere into a good shooter with good atmosphere.

This time you step into the diving boots of a Big Daddy and hunt down a bitch of a woman who stole your Little Sister and made you shoot yourself in the head. It sounds odd, but in the context of the game it makes sense. The ability to play as a Big Daddy seemed questionable at first but once you get your hands on this hulk of a man, its bad ass, until you start to encounter enemies. The first thing I noticed is you don’t feel like a bad as mother fucker like you think you should. Your character seems a little weak compared to the normal humans in the world and real weak compared to the bigger foes you face. Sometimes you will die in a matter of seconds if you’re not careful and step out into fire. This makes playing as a Big Daddy a little pointless. You get the same experience you got when you were just a normal man, with the exception of the big ass fucking drill on your arm.

Other then how weak you feel the additions to the game make up for it. Gone is the pipe dream mini game and in is a color timing events that gets quite hard in the latter parts. Also each hack has a blue section that if you land in it you will get a bonus depending on what you’re hacking. This adds for a nice reward system and makes you feel like you’re being reward for your actions. Outside of the hacking system change they also gave you the ability to use your plasmid powers and guns at the same time. The addition of this makes for faster paced battles and also lets the game add more enemies to an area without it to feeling overwhelming. The little changes refine the game instead of reinvent it, making for a very rewarding experience.

The game itself looks just like the first one. This is not a bad thing, you are going to the same place after all and there is no reason why it should look different, but at the same time you have that deja vu sensation when you play it. The art deco environments set it apart from any other game and the authentic music that fills the world make you feel like you’re in a surreal new world, a nice change from most modern set games. There’s tons of detail put into the architecture and character design, and because you’re a Big Daddy the new underwater sections mix things up but also tend to be uneventful. The PS3 version of the game isn’t as nice looking as the other two, the textures are a little lower res and there is a strange depth of field effect that blurs out distant objects, but it doesn’t look convincing it just looks bad. Outside of some bland textures and noticeably bad looking water the versions are comparable to each other.

New to game is a multiplayer package. It’s your standard fare and nothing to draw you away from other shooter, and most likely will be forgotten in a few months. Bioshock is a game that no one felt needed multiplayer, so the inclusion is a little strange.

Bioshock 2 is a game that if you loved the first one you will love this one. Myself I didn’t like the first game all that much and some of the more boring parts that hurt that one hurt this one too. The second is faster paced and filled with a little more action, and I felt the story was a little more interesting this time around, but overall I came away feeling it was just okay. If you care more about the atmosphere it’s worth a buy, but if you want a bad ass shooter with a multiplayer that has staying power I stay stick to a rent or wait for it to drop in price ‘cause this just aint it.

Story: 8 -- Gameplay: 7.5 -- Graphics: 8
Sound: 8 -- Replay: 7 -- Fun factor: 7

Overall (not an average): 7.5 out of 10

-TuxedoKatsJoe

Heavy Rain Review

Heavy Rain Review
Developed By: Quantic Dream
Available on: Playstation 3
Reviewed on the Playstation 3

This game made me cry.... But that’s not a good thing

Sony’s first big blockbuster of the year, wetting the taste of gamers everywhere, is Quantic Dream’s story first, who cares about gameplay approach of Heavy Rain. Set in a, I think modern day but hard to tell because of the oddly placed futuristic Minority Report rip off detective side element, Heavy Rain asks the question can video games make people cry? I don’t get emotional over movies or books, so to me that question is kind of dumb, but it’s even more so here. The ham handed dialog and average to downright bad voice acting didn’t help to draw me into the world QD was trying to craft. Coming off of their critical and commercial flop Indigo Prophecy, QD tried to re-write everything we as gamers know about playing a game, in an attempt to tell a story that not only is cliché and tired but full of plot holes to boot.

I would like to point out that even though I’m referring to Heavy Rain as a game, it is not a game. They call it a game, you need a PS3 to “play” it but this is not a game in the traditional sense. This is a movie, a 6 hour long, boring and poorly told movie. Every so often you get to press a button when it prompts you to on the screen, and you can guide a conversion sort of how you choose, like you can in games like Mass Effect, but unlike Bioware’s amazing sci-fi tale, this one has almost no gameplay. The little that is here is hindered by a bad locked camera reminiscent of the old school Resident Evil games, some of the worst controls ever, and game ending bugs.

The biggest problem by far is the controls. To walk you have to hold R2, sort of like a gas pedal, then you use the left stick to steer your character. This in itself is a little awkward, but place on top of that a camera that tends to change angles when you really don’t want it to and you have yourself a game that sends you walking in circles when all you want to do is face the fucking door. The omission of a 3rd person over the shoulder camera is mind boggling. I guess they wanted a “cinematic feel” like the Resident Evil games have, but the camera placement isn’t interesting or well planed out. On top of the bad movement controls and camera, is the implementation of six-axis shake. Dear God stop putting six-axis in games, it’s fucking dumb, STOP IT! I love that in Uncharted 2, Naughty Dog took out the six-axis balance mechanic because it didn’t work and Sony only put it into their controller to try to adopt a MiiToo attitude toward the big N. Every time I got into an “intense” hit the correct button battle, and the six-axis logos showed up on the screen I felt so dumb shaking my controller around and couldn’t wait for another boring conversion to stop the waggle-fest.

Not only is the shake it control scheme retardedly gay, the hold multiple buttons for seeming simple actions is equally more so en-gay-ging. Just to walk up a hill you have to hold one button until it prompts the next, then continuing holding the first and the second, then maybe a third, then you can let go of the first when a forth comes up and now hold that one, FUCK I JUST WANT TO WALK UP THE DAMN HILL!!!! I don’t think the developers have every played a game and felt games are less about fun and more about telling a poorly written, poorly acted story.

The voice actors in Heavy Rain bring a huge amount to the blandness of it all. The major problem is they are not American actors, but they are playing American characters. This wouldn’t be a problem if they just cast talented actors capable of covering their native accent like Hugh Laurie of House fame, but when you have actors that can’t block out their natural accent it comes off as laughably bad. I had to chuckle every time someone said origami killer, drawing a long a sound. I can’t just blame the actors for this, even though they were real bad, the badly written dialog didn’t help much either. Place on top of that a plot hole that tries to throw you off the path of the killer but using a cheap “what you didn’t see” cinematic at the end of the game to try to cover up a big hole in its story just makes for bad writing.

The major culprit is the bugs that fill this game. There was a game ending bug that hit me right at the end. My character got stuck in a hole that was about 2 inches deep and I had to replay the chapter because he just wouldn’t step out of it. Other things like glitchy characters teleporting around makes for a game that feels unpolished and rushed to get out on the shelves so Sony has something to fill the void left by the amazing game of the year title Uncharted 2 from last year and until God of War 3 hits March 16th. Not only is the game full of visual bugs, it is plagued by sound issues too. Sometimes sounds cut out and other times sounds didn’t trigger all together.

Heavy Rain is being praised as original by many outlets, but from day one I was not impressed. The lack of gameplay is lazy and the stuff that’s there is just QTE that have been part of games dating back to Dragon’s Lair in the arcade in the 80’s. The story is boring, littered with plot holes, and the killers reason for doing what he’s doing is really fucking stupid. All of the characters that inhabit the world make questionable and unrealistic choices and did not draw me in at all. The visuals are nothing special, bland average looking environments that for the most part are only the size of a big room with some limited outside sections. The fact the game was patched day 1 was a bad sign. I would hate to play the game without the patch after seeing the glitches that were present after it was “fixed.” I recommend stay away from this one, or at most rent it like I did so you don’t feel like you wasted 60 bucks on a 6 hour long bore fest.

Story: 4 -- Gameplay: 2 -- Graphics: 8
Sound: 6 -- Replay: 3 -- Fun factor: o

Overall (not an average): 2 out of 10

-TuxedoKatsJoe