Resident Evil 5 – Personal Thoughts

I’m pretty much almost through with the game, missing one last achievement: complete the game on professional, which I’m more than halfway through already.

But overall, Re5 was surprisingly more entertaining than I expected after playing through it. It’s one of those games that you can’t fully enjoy unless you own the game yourself, allowing you to play through it at your own pace.

I won’t go too far into details about the game as there are plenty of good reviews out there for the game, but I’ll just insert some personal thoughts and opinions on the game. Firstly, the game almost looks like an upgrade from re4, better graphics, better inventory system, etc. Essentially though this has transformed the game into an action game, with pretty much zero horror to me, which strays from the traditional style of resident evil,  it’s still very fun to play with. There’s a larger variety of weapons compared to Re4, as well as much more melee attacks, which I though was a very useful and nice addition. The usual “RE” style tactics and strategies apply, such as tossing flashes on parasite type enemies, special ways to kill enemies faster, as well as a lot of new tactics created from the new types of enemies and weapons, which makes the game more than just a no-brainer action game. The game is also very partner work based, allowing for co-op action to be a lot of fun if you have someone to play with. And this also presents the one main bad point of this game I can think of

In my opinion, the AI partner can be quite a pain, especially on professional, and can give you some frustrating times. You can get the AI staring at an enemy not shooting, or running straight into an enemy swinging an axe, which in professional is quite the game over unless you’re right next to the AI to save her, though in professional I doubt you wanna get hit anyways. In other words, you better be a good aim and fast reaction player to get rid of enemies first before the AI starts being an idiot.

But if you’re just in for a bit of fun and action, and you don’t have a human partner, don’t let the AI turn you off. The game is still very enjoyable. The achievements also seem to be very “gamer friendly”, in other words they aren’t hard to achieve at all. In fact i probably got 45/50 of them through just my first run through of the game without purposely noticing how to achieve them. Bottom line is, give this game a try if you can get your hands on it, you won’t regret it.

I’m fighting WWII with Jack Bauer!! – COD:WW First Impressions

Actually not really, it’s just that Kiefer Sutherland happens to be voicing one of the soldiers on your team, so yeah, for those 24 fans, you just might feel you’re fighting a war with him. But back on topic, here’s my first impressions of COD: World at War.

It’s very clear that this game has continued using the COD: Modern Warfare engine, and probably has built some improvements upon it. Everything feels very COD-ish, the layout of objectives, the movement style, the epic immersiveness etc. I have to say it’s exactly what I’ve been looking forward to, in a good sense. For those who agree in saying that COD:MW had nice epic fights, this is exactly it, except a la WW2, and the main focus this time is against the Japanese. Sound, graphics, gameplay, everything feels solid from finishing the first introductory level.

Unfortunately exams are starting, though I still gotta wait one more week till my first one, but I doubt I’ll be touching any of my latest games including this one. I just have to say this game has met my expectations, and I hope that opinion stays throughout when I play it in the future.

Good luck to all others with exams!

Far Cry 2 “Full” review

My friends complaint my review was given too fast without enough playtime. Hey, it was a “mini” review, supposed to be like that. Well, having played it for almost 10 hours, here’s my “full review”, which doesn’t change that much honestly, though i’ll point out more things.

Story – The story is that you are some person with military experience, I put it this way because you can select between several characters at the start to use, however I believe the story stays the same. This person has been sent to Africa to eliminate a person known as “The Jackal”, who has basically been fueling the war between two factions by selling them weapons. However things don’t go as planned, and you end up losing track of him, and have to start hunting for him again by working for the two factions, and hopefully discovering some connections to The Jackal at the same time. A typical storyline, but works for me nonetheless. I’ve still yet to experience the whole story of course, but for now it seems alright to me, fair for a FPS.

Graphics – The graphics in this game look quite good to me. For a game based with a slight sandbox theme (which I discuss later in gameplay), the graphics are looking pretty good. The effects of fire burning are one of the main attractions really, it’s fun burning stuff around randomly and watching the fire spread. But otherwise, a good score from the graphics department. NB: technical-wise, this game apparently has issues (at this point I’m writing this) with people using certain gfx cards and drivers, including random crashes to desktop and BSODs. Hopefully you aren’t one of them, but I happen to be a victim actually.

Sound – Somewhat of a mixed opinion for me. The downside is the music. I find it very boring and plain, and within half an hour of playing, I’m already hearing the same music over and over again, the nothing is happening track, the theres fighting going on track, and the loading track. That’s all I can remember.  But the upside is the sound effects, of say weaponry. Each weapons sounds unique, and explosions and all that sound good too. Speech is somewhat mixed, with some people sounding alright, and some sounding like text to speech converters. Overall, a slightly above average score from sound.

Gameplay – Okay here’s the main part. I have a mate who described this game as “GTA V: Africa”. Not a bad description actually, just take away all the random activities and stuff you know you won’t get in a FPS. You take missions and execute them just like in GTA. Drive to where the person giving the mission is, travel to the location, do it, end. This is actually a bit of a letdown to me in this game. With guard posts along the road every 30 seconds or so, which have respawning guards once you travel away form it a certain distance, can be an extreme pain. You end up having to take out random enemies repetitively until you reach your destination. Oh, and you vehicle is GUARANTEED to get shot up as well while travelling, which either forces you to repair your car or hop into another one. Another frustrating thing to do thanks to the guard posts. This just breaks the action flow in a FPS. Sure, there’s bus rides, but there are only stops available at the 4 corners and the center of the map, not too much use when the map is so damn big if you ask me. Also, enemy AI is stupid. They shoot in the wrong direction, stare at you without shooting, and the typical silly AI bugs you can get in a FPS are all here. However if you can get used to the reptitiveness mentioned above, then you may actually enjoy the rest of the game. The main missions can be quite fun once you reach the action part of things. Theres side missions and side things to do as well, to keep you occupied for quite a while should you need some extra activities to be done. Overall, another mixed opinion from gameplay I suppose.

Overall – I’m afraid it will be too hard to go into every feature of gameplay, you can always read a full written review on a gaming site. But I suppose having given the game a chance and played more, and experiencing the fun parts of it, I’ll still be able to give this around an average of 8.

Fall 2008 for the gamer

And as with every year’s fall, a lot of awesome games are to be expected to hit the gaming market. This year, theres much more sequels and continuation of series, rather than brand new innovative games, though there are a few out there. For those who don’t know, I’m a shooter fan, so most of my interests lies in the upcoming shooter titles, though honestly most of the hyped games ARE shooters.

Firstly, titles that I must play:

Red alert 3

Having been a long time fan of the red alert series, there is no doubt i must get my hands on this one. Apparently the normal soviets and allies will be back, along with a new faction known as the empire, which is pretty much based on Japan in today’s world. There also seems to be a much more stronger focus on naval warfare. A must for the fast paced RTS fan.

Far cry 2

Far cry 1 was one of those games that set a new bar for quality, with a typical storyline about some scientist going nuts and causing mutants to appear. Far cry 2 will apparently have a totally unrelated story to far cry 1. Basically you are sent into a war-torn Africa to stop some big war conflict going on. Personally the setting seems much more attractive to me, I’m kinda sick of the mutant/zombie nonsense in shooters. However this is definitely worth the attention for any shooter.

Call of duty 5

Call of duty is returning to its WW2 roots for its fifth installment into the series. Well its voice acting is going to feature 24’s Kiefer Sutherland, and watching the trailer will definitely ring a bell as you hear his distinct voice which sounds exactly the same as when he acts in 24. A promising title after all this series has had to offer in the past.

Gears of war 2

Yes, as I am a x360 owner, I am clearly looking forward to this. It continues the story from 1, so expecting you are playing the right games for a x360 owner, I’m assuming you know what this is about. Otherwise, better pick up your copy of 1 and start getting ready for this.

Tomb raider underworld

Apparently, ever since the new style for tomb raider came out for the pc (first one was legends I believe?), I’ve taken an interest in the series. This upcoming ones features Lara looking for Thor’s Hammer. Somehow this game is said to properly feature the “next gen Lara”. Let’s see what the game has to offer when it is complete.

Prince of Persia

I have played all 3 titles for the 3d releases of the game, namely sands of time, warrior within, and the twin thrones. However this one will be different, featuring a totally new storyline, new next gen graphics style, and a very different fighting system. The prince will have a female partner as usual, this time with her supporting him with magical powers in both fights and acrobatics. Definitely worth checking out.

Games that are interesting, but i will await reviews

Saints Row 2

Another gta style sandbox shooter, except with a much heavier gangster base story. I played the first one and enjoyed it quite well, however somehow I have doubts about how this next one will end up performing. Hopefully it turns out to be more fun and interactive, as some parts of GTA 4 were somewhat repetitive and quite the letdown.

FEAR 2

Some of you might be thinking what this is doing down here when im a shooter fan. Honestly, FEAR was pretty fun with the slow mo and effects at the start, but the whole thing got a bit too repetitive with all the expansions, along with one of the most confusing and in my opinion, pretty crappy storyline. So I’ll have to see what the new one has to offer first when reviews are around.

Mirror’s Edge

This is one of the brand new games of this fall. Its a unique idea where you are this package delivery person in a dystopian world, where apparently people get watched a bit too much. So you do these deliveries for people who don’t want to be watched in such a way I think. Its about jumping around with acrobatics and a lot of interesting moves….you might want to check out the trailers of this game around, the concept is hard to describe. However it seems slightly lacking with the action for me, and the first person seems to get a bit confusing at times. Guess we’ll see how this turns out.

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And there you have it, that’s my take for games that catch my eye this fall. Theres still plenty more games that are interesting though are not my type necessarily, such as left 4 dead on x360, fallout 3, resistance 2 on ps3 which i don’t own though, etc. IGN has a nice list of interesting games this fall if you want to check out more games coming out.

And in other news, heroes season 3 is airing tomorrow in US! I actually only continued with second season because of someone….but we won’t go there. However the theme of the third season captures me: “villains”. I just love villains in a show like heroes, so I guess I’ll continue to watch this series.

Starting Afresh

And so, with this post, I will once again commence blogging activities.

Other than this blog starting afresh, looks like I’ll be getting a fresh new pc as well, a somewhat powerful one at that too. Farewell to the days of, ok gotta tune down the settings as I install a new game….MAXIMUM ALL THE WAY UNDERSTAND. And so, heres the parts list as follows:

E8500 3.2Ghz
Western Digital SATA 500GB
2GB Kit DDR2 1066 G.Skill-PI
ASUS 512 MB HD 4870

Corsair HX-620
Antec P182
DFI LanParty Dark LP-DK-P45-T2RS Plus DDR2
TRUE120E heatsink
Thermalright HR-03 GT

Nexus Real Silent 92mm
Scythe Slipstream 1200rpm fan

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The seemingly random listing arrangement is just for shopping convenience, listed in groups of which parts can be bought at which shop. Also, the idea to get a new 22inch has been scraped, decided to stick with my silly old 17inch for now. I can always add in the 22inch later anyways.

Can’t wait to get my hands on this and start playing Crysis Warhead! And on a finishing note in accordance with gaming, I’ll be posting soon on the gaming side for fall 2008!