Los Havros

Following on from looking at the top 5 games to watch out for in 2010, I’ve been giving some thought as to what I should be playing next.  PixelJunk Shooter has been completed, as has Burnout Paradise.  I’m doing one last play-through of inFamous, and that should cover it.  I’m after something that I can get my teeth stuck into.

As far as online multiplayer goes, the extra DLC for Uncharted 2 has me covered, as does the ever-addictive Modern Warfare 2.  That also means that I don’t really want to be playing yet another FPS, so that means MAG is out the window for now.

Heavy Rain has been recently released, but for what it is, I’m rather hesitant to be dropping £40 right now on such a release.  Instead, I’ve turned my attention to games that have been out for a while and have dropped in price quite a bit.  I’m currently thinking along the lines of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed,  DiRT 2, Resident Evil 5, The Saboteur, and Call of Juarez.

What I want to know is, am I missing something?  Also, do you have any idea what you might be playing next?

Tags: Burnout Paradise, Call of Juarez, DiRT 2, Force Unleashed, inFamous, Modern Warfare 2, Resident Evil 5, Star Wars, The Saboteur, Uncharted 2

Had a blast playing some split-screen Modern Warfare 2 with three players (myself included). During a free-for-all there were complaints that I had the bottom half of the screen to myself, with the other two players just having a measly quarter each. Complaints duly noted, so I suggested we have a team death match with the pair of them squaring off against me. It was a whitewash.

I gave them such a pasting that they don’t really want to talk about it afterwards! Whilst I acknowledge that I’m no pro gamer, I do offer some tips so that your team functions: 1) actually communicate with each other so that; 2) you can actually flank someone, 3) you don’t both go down the same narrow alley as you’ll both be blown to pieces by a grenade, and 4) you don’t throw a flash bang grenade in close proximity leaving your team sitting ducks. That is all.

Tags: Modern Warfare 2, split-screen, teamwork, tips

In this brief discussion, I really am talking about ‘assets’ on game cases. And I’m not on about the artwork samples, so to speak.

A few weeks back, the Heavy Rain box art for Europe was unveiled, and it looked good.  The cover was elegant in its simplicity and resembled a piece of artwork itself.  Along comes the American cover version and you’ve guessed it… the lowest common denominator was used.  The marketers perhaps saw just a ‘boring’ origami crane in the rain.  The solution it seemed, was to put a woman with a wet, tight-fitting blouse on the front instead.  Puh-lease!  It insult’s everyone’s intelligence.

It may look like I’m slagging off Americans, but what I’m trying to get across is that whoever is responsible for this marketing decision needs to treat their audience with a bit more respect.  The game is solely aimed at an adult audience, but I thought we were going to get more maturity in games, not more smut.

Tags: box art, Heavy Rain, sex

A guest post by Robert Elliot of Button-basher.com.

For those old enough to remember, stereoscopic 3D gaming is nothing new.  Sega’s Master System was one of the first attempts of 3D gaming and came with a pair of very unsuccessful and unsupported 3D glasses.  Then there was the 3D gaming effort from Nintendo, the rather disastrous Virtual Boy came with 3D goggles that didn’t help enhance the 3D gaming experience at all.

Even after all of this, there’s still a sense recently that this is the first time 3D gaming has really come of age. The equipment we’re starting to see come out is fantastic and really impressive so people’s expectations have risen with regards to what they want from their 3D tech now.  It could also be the case that there is more of a hardcore games market that’s becoming more and more about HD graphics and is also looking for something new.  Perhaps it’s all of the publicity that 3D work is getting with the film industries renewed interest in stereoscopic film.

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Tags: 3D, 3D Vision, NVIDIA

Prologue

We’ve all been there.  Imagine this: You find yourself in a dark, foreboding corridor of some creepy facility with a torch that’s not as powerful as your average mobile phone’s ‘torch’ mode, casting a dim light into the distance.  Your head… hurts.  Must have been that [insert name of relevant: zombie/beast/abomination] you encountered previously who had a killer right-hook and fancied nibbling on your leg like it was a chicken drumstick.  You rustle through your medic pack and apply your last bandage.  That’ll keep you going for a while.  You hope.

The facility’s main alarm goes off, alerting any nearby creature with even a passing interest in human flesh to your presence.  Your heart beats a little bit faster, unsure of what’s to come.  In the distance you make out the silhouette of some 7ft tall creature who’s making good progress towards you probably due to a good-fitting pair of trainers it took off the last victim.  Shotgun out: let’s go for a head shot shall we?  Nice and easy.  *click*.  Oh dear.

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Tags: BioShock, Fallout 3

I’m always on the lookout for another FPS to play (and that’s not including all I’ve got left to complete in Modern Warfare 2).  And so I’m getting pretty excited about the new Medal of Honor video game.  Details are currently scarce, and there’s just that one image of a bearded badass dude, released a couple of months ago.  I’m intrigued.  I just hope it can live up to the expectations people are going to have for it.  There’ll also be the Modern Warfare comparison.  Explosive stuff.

Going a bit further, I’m interested about the mention of these mysterious so-called ‘Tier One Operators’.  Using these personnel, the new Medal of Honor has the potential to weave a powerful, multi-layered story alongside the mandatory solid gameplay.  Modern Warfare 2 provided this calibre of gameplay in spades, but the main story campaign was somewhat lacking.  Just some thoughts I wanted to jot down.  Share yours!

Tags: 2010, Medal of Honor, Modern Warfare 2