Blog Archives
Review: Ghost Recon: Future Soldier
Let’s be honest, the Ghost Recon series hasn’t really made any major splashes in the gaming world in recent years. Average storylines and mediocre gameplay, as well as sluggish AI and laughable multiplayer, have haunted the franchise for a few years now. That is until Ghost Recon: Future Soldier was announced. The teaser trailers and Gunsmith demonstrations alone had the gaming community and Ghost Recon fans foaming at the mouth. So, the question is, did Ghost Recon: Future Soldier deliver?
Improved Campaign and Smart AI
Ghost Recon: Future Soldier’s campaign is the best yet in the series. The story takes you around a not-too-distant-future Earth, rescuing CIA agents, assassinating African warlords and making sure coups play out to the Western world’s advantage. The Ghost Recon squad-of-four format has remained, with the lead player playing the part of Kozak, an American born tough-nut soldier with Russian parents. Kozak is the rookie of the group, but his bio assures us he’s anything but green. The rest of the four man squad is made up of your usual specialists – Ghost Lead, 30K and Pepper. Someone at Ubisoft deserves a pay rise for this game, because the AI system has been massively improved. Squad members can now manoeuvre into position on their own free will and won’t get spotted or engage targets, until you give them the go ahead. This has removed the laborious task of having to plot a destination for your squad to move to, or have them following you around like lost puppies. Enemies also show more guile in combat, focusing fire on targets that are dishing out the most punishment and spotting their comrades corpses more easily.
Before each mission, a briefing of the task ahead is given and you are able to pick your equipment and load out accordingly. Here, Ghost Lead gives you a few tips on what weapons and attachments to use for the mission, but it is entirely up to you how you go about it. I found that checking the mission’s challenges before picking my weapons helped make it easier to decide what to pick. Challenges are a set of 3 objectives, plus a 4th weapon challenge, unique to each mission. These add extra challenges (hence their name) to make the missions more varied. By completing challenges, you unlock new guns and attachments to play around with in future missions, so they are worth trying to complete.
Gunsmith
Gunsmith was the reason many people went out and bought a Kinect and Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. Sadly, although using the Kinect and Gunsmith together does make you feel like Tom Cruise in Minority Report, it is a pain to keep getting into position in front of the sensor, just to customise a gun. After a few tries the novelty wears off and you find yourself using the controller instead.
In terms of customisation, Gunsmith is incredible. The player has options to change the Optics, Gas system, Trigger, Underbarrel attachment, Side Rail attachment, Barrel, Muzzle attachment, Stock and Magazine. This presents the player with an array of customisation capabilities for each and every weapon. For example, a shotgun can be customised to be a fast moving, quick loading close quarters weapon, or it can be lengthened, making it less manoeuvrable but better at dealing damage at range. This makes levelling up your multiplayer characters all that more important and addictive.
Multiplayer and Gameplay
The 3rd-person camera angle makes the cover system essential and lifesaving. Anyone who doesn’t use the cover system effectively won’t survive for long and will find this game frustrating on multiplayer. The cover system is there to help. A quick press of a button and your character will “snap” into cover, be it against a wall or behind a crate. The best way to move around the battlefield is, when in cover, to aim at another piece of cover nearby and hold the cover button. This then makes your character sprint straight for that new destination, jumping over obstacles as necessary, making it much harder for an enemy to target you. The cover system works very well both in the multiplayer and the single player game and the movement controls are also easy to grasp.
Combat is a good mixture of run-and-gun action and strategy. Weapons with low control will ride up when continuously fired, which means you soon learn to burst fire to control your aim. Once you have mastered firing the weapons, the next thing vital in multiplayer is teamwork. There are no game modes where the sole objective is to kill the opposite team. Conflict, the main game type, is a mixture of old school team deathmatch and objective based gameplay. By introducing constantly shifting objectives on the map, the Conflict game mode has seemingly removed the curse of the camper and made players move around the map, engaging targets as they move around the battlefield.
Of course, with any Tom Clancy game, there is always an element of stealth for the sneakier gamers. In the single player campaign, stealth is necessary for most missions, but online it is a choice. The Recon class has a built in augmented camo feature, which means when the player is still for long enough, he is turned almost completely invisible, making it hard for the enemy to spot you. The different equipment and well-designed maps means that there are opportunities to flank the enemy and sneak up behind them, making for some awesome stealth kills. Players can also gather intel on enemies by using a variety of different equipment. UAVS and sensor grenades mark nearby enemies on the teams HUD and tactical map. The tactical map is useful in getting around the map and co-ordinating with your teammates. Click on an objective on the tacmap and a sat-nav like path will be drawn to it on your HUD. Doing this also shows your teammates what you plan on doing in an instant, meaning flanking the enemy is all that much easier.
Guerrilla Mode
Guerrilla Mode is a wave-by-wave game mode with a twist. On wave 1, and every 10 waves, the HQ that you are defending shifts to a new location and, prior to waves of enemies attacking you, you have to clear the HQ of guards. After each wave, equipment and weapons are dropped so that you can stock up ready for the next round. Killstreaks are earned by staying alive through certain amounts of waves and drastically improve your firepower to tackle vehicles and multiple enemies in latter waves.
The Horde Mode formula for this game mode does provide a welcome distraction from the single player and multiplayer games. With a variety of different maps, each with 50 waves of enemies, and the fact you can play with up to 3 other friends online, means Guerrilla Mode increases the replay value of this game tenfold.
The Good
The campaign storyline made for some challenging gameplay and the fact you can play the entire single player campaign with up to 3 other friends online is a massive bonus. Being able to test guns in the firing range before multiplayer matches is also a nice feature.
The Great
Gunsmith takes this game to a whole new level. The amount of research, detail and customisation capabilities make Gunsmith a fantastic partner for the single player and multiplayer game modes.
The Awesome
The multiplayer game types, accompanied by well-designed maps, balanced weapons and an addictive level-up system means this game will be in my disc drive for a while to come.
The Not So Awesome
The Kinect capabilities have a huge novelty factor and, whilst fun, serve no real practical purpose, which is a shame.
Assassin’s Creed III: A New Age, A New Hero
When the first trailer for Assassin’s Creed 3 came out, there was mass speculation to who the tomahawk-wielding protagonist was. Many people rightly pointed out the obvious hints pointing towards him being of Native American heritage. Low and behold, the clues weren’t red herrings. Here’s what Ubisoft have to say:
“Set against the backdrop of the American Revolution in the late 18th century, Assassin’s Creed III introduces a new hero, Ratohnhaké:ton, of Native American and English heritage.
Connor has a few weapons in his arsenal.
“Adopting the name Connor, he becomes the new voice for justice in the ancient war between the Assassins and Templars. Players become an Assassin in the war for liberty against ruthless tyranny in the most stylized and fluid combat experiences in the franchise to date.
Trees can make great vantage points
“Assassin’s Creed III spans the Revolutionary War, taking gamers from the vibrant, untamed frontier to bustling colonial towns and the intense, chaotic battlefields where George Washington’s Continental Army clashed with the imposing British Army.”
Ubisoft also released a short video about the new hero:
Battlefield 3 – Three new expansion packs announced
DICE have revealed that they will be rolling out three themed expansion packs for Battlefield 3.
The new packs, which will all be digital and not distributed by disk, will feature brand new modes, vehicles, weapons and environments.
Here are the details released by EA:
Battlefield 3: Close Quarters (June, 2012)
“In Battlefield 3: Close Quarters, players are dropped into a frantic, infantry-only theatre of war. Frostbite 2 high definition destruction makes the environment come alive as everything from furniture to plaster gets shot to pieces. Players will feel the intensity of the world exploding around them as rubble and broken pieces pile up on the floor, while tight level design and vertical gameplay create a highly competitive environment.Battlefield 3: Close Quarters also introduces new weapons, assignments and unique dog tags to bring back to the base game.”
Battlefield 3: Armored Kill (Autumn, 2012)
“Following the tight infantry gameplay of Battlefield 3: Close Quarters, DICE will releaseBattlefield 3: Armored Kill that ups the ante for vehicular mayhem as only Battlefield can do. Featuring new driveable tanks, ATVs, mobile artillery and more, Battlefield 3: Armored Kill also delivers huge battlefields for an all-out vehicle assault, including the biggest map in Battlefield history.”
Battlefield 3: End Game (Winter, 2012)
“The fourth expansion pack will ship in the winter but details remain tightly guarded.”
Although no official pricing has been announced yet, it seems the new expansion packs will follow suit with the Back to Karkand pack and be priced at around 1200 Microsoft Points or £11.99 .
Are DICE being generous with 3 expansions in the space of a year, or are they trying to expand an already deep multiplayer?
Darksiders II Limited Edition free upgrade for all pre-orders
THQ have announced that all pre-orders on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC ofDarksiders IIwill receive a complimentary upgrade to the Limited Edition version of the game.
The Limited Edition version of Darksiders II will include a code to unlock the first single player DLC, Argul’s Tomb, for free once it is released., as well as the standard retail game.
Darksiders II is scheduled for release on 29th June, 2012.
Tempted by this generous offer? Perhaps this is the way forward for pre-order incentives…
Assassin’s Creed 3 Trailer – Launch date announced
Assassin’s Creed 3 is set in America during the Revolutionary War, stepping away from the European backdrop of the previous Assassin’s Creed titles.
With a new setting and a new era, it was only fitting that a new hero would step into the Assassin’s Creed timeline.
A few hints come up in the trailer, possibly pointing towards the main character being a tomahawk-wielding arrow-shooting Native American.
Also in the trailer is the free running system, which is ever present in the previous titles. However, it seems running branch to branch through beautiful forests will replace the urban finesse required in a market bazaar.
Ubisoft proudly boast that this Assassin’s Creed will be the best yet, “with a development cycle of over three years and twice the production capacity of any previous Ubisoft game”.
With the release of the trailer came the announcement that it will be hitting shelves on the 30th October, 2012. This implies a European release date of the 2nd November, 2012.
It will be available on the Xbox 360, PS3, PC and also the Wii U.
Excited about Assassin’s Creed 3? We are. Better start sharpening your tomahawk...
FIFA 12: The Pro Clubs Debate
Now, I’m a big fan of the FIFA series of games. Those of you who follow my posts and the Podcast will know that I am an avid supporter of the FIFA franchise (only once did I slip over to the Pro Evolution Soccer darkside). Every year I get excited about the prospect of a new FIFA game and what features they’ll introduce, what gameplay they’ll fix from the last game and whose ugly mug will be plastered on the front of the box. With FIFA 12 it was no different. I can sing the praises of the FIFA 12 game; I believe it is EA Sports best attempt yet at a “football simulation” and there are many promising factors about where the franchise is heading in the future in terms of gameplay. However, one minor thing still haunts me to this day. The source of many debates and hot-worded Xbox Live Messages revolve around this question, ANY or No ANY?
Personally, my Pro Club plays with an ANY (to those of you who are clueless, an ANY is a player nominated to control the rest of the team that aren’t your online friend/s). Obviously, this shows that I am in favour of people on Pro Clubs playing with an ANY. My argument for this is as follows.
- Mano-a-mano – Two teams with an ANY are going head-to-head. The ANY’s individual skill, the team’s ability to work effectively as a team and the team’s tactics go head-to-head. It’s about that sense of gladiatorial competition, the right to say that you are better than the person you are playing.
- Ridiculous AI technical ability – If you play Pro Clubs, you probably know how I feel. A team without an ANY has a striker up front. The ball is situated in their own penalty box. Said striker puts his hand up to call for the ball. A seemingly bumbling defender swivels on a six-pence and delivers a rocket of a pass, flat trajectory and all. Said striker gratefully takes the once in a lifetime pass into his stride and is on the counter attack immediately. Wash, rinse, repeat.
- The sense of being cheated - I may be the only one, but whenever my Pro Club plays a team without an ANY, Lady Luck seems to err on the side of the AI. It’s as though the AI has it’s own pride, it’s own hunger to win. So, low and behold, bounces start going against you, the referee appears to be on the opposition pay-roll, the post and crossbar start to look that little bit thicker. It’s nice that EA Sports have included this sense of having the “rub of the green” in the game, as a modern game of football does, but sometimes the coincidences stack up into an all too common occurrence, game after game.
- Inhuman reaction times – The AI has a faster processing speed than a human brain. When that ball is rolling over the line, an ANY’s brain has to process the image of the ball and then tell the correct finger to depress the correct button at exactly the right moment. The AI sits back, smokes a cigar, maybe catches up on its correspondence, knowing that it has the processing capabilities to deal with the panic. Hence in those button-bashing panics, the AI has the upper hand over the human ANY player.
- AI, Master of the defence system – The new defence system EA Sports introduced in FIFA 12 was supposed to introduce “Tactical Defending”. Basically, you were supposed to jockey the person on the ball, waiting for the precise moment to stick a foot in and take the ball from him. Every gamer had to learn a new way of playing and defending in FIFA 12. However, a team without an ANY do not have to worry about this (unless their Virtual Pro is a defender, of course). Instead, the AI, master of the new defence system, constantly maintains the optimum position to defend a situation, doesn’t react to step-overs and other flicks a human defender may react to (which would open space for the attacker), but instead sits back and thwarts carefully laid passing movements. With 5 at the back, this wall of master defenders looks nearly impossible to penetrate.
- Masters of the air – Not only does the AI have amazing defensive skills, it also has the uncanny ability to out jump even the tallest attackers, winning headers 90% of the time. Pair this with their inhuman ability to spot a pass and then make it, all in a split second, it adds up to quite a formidable counter attacking weapon.
I could go on with more reasons, but I’d end up ranting myself into an early basket case. I have thought about how EA Sports could balance the Pro Clubs game mode in a fairer way. I used to think that making a player play as an ANY in the Pro Clubs mode would solve the problem, but that would drive some players away from the game. Instead, I think a search filter option would benefit the balance of the game. This would allow clubs with an ANY to search for games with other clubs playing ANY and vice-versa, thus restoring harmony and fair competition to the Pro Clubs world. Hopefully, EA Sports will listen to the gaming public before making any decisions on FIFA 13. Who knows, they might even take away the “Be a Goalkeeper” mode. Oh well, one can dream I guess.
Review: Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer (Xbox 360)
Writing this review is hard for me, as it involves me having to eat a huge chunk of humble pie. It’s common knowledge that I hate the Mass Effect franchise and absolutely loathe the games, but something in the recently released Mass Effect 3 demo made me change my mind (and eat said pie) – multiplayer.
Whilst the multiplayer in Mass Effect 3 borrows it’s genetic makeup from the Horde mode template (fight back waves of enemies with 3 of your pals) it does introduce some rather exciting and re-playable aspects that other games have not considered. Firstly, the RPG system used in the multiplayer is a great idea. Most modern multiplayer games, such as Call of Duty and Battlefield use levelling systems to keep the player hooked. What Mass Effect 3 does is allow the player not only to level up in a conventional way, but to choose in what way their character is improved (be it a quick boost to your overall shield or a power upgrade for your Singularity power). Experience points (or to you and I, XP) are earned by killing enemies, completing objectives and basically surviving the 11 rounds and getting your armoured butt out of that hell hole. XP is then spent on upgrading your powers, which differ with each class and race.
That’s another thing about the Mass Effect 3 multiplayer; you have characters, much like a conventional RPG game. Within each class category (e.g. Sentinel, Soldier, Infiltrator etc,) you have 4 different characters of different race and sex. However, you only start out with a few of these characters unlocked. With these characters, you have a few customisation options to make you stand out a little bit within your squad of 4, such as armour colour and fancy pants lights.
In terms of unlocking new characters, this is done in the same way that you come about new weaponry – unlock packs. By completing objectives in multiplayer missions you earn credits, which can then be spent in the store. The store contains unlock packs, which, when bought, give you a random set of goodies like extra ammo clips and Medi-gel (Especially good if you die often) – very much like a pack of trading cards. With a more expensive pack, there is a higher possibility of gaining rare weapons and characters. Rare weapons are obviously more effective in taking down enemies, so saving up that little bit extra to get a better unlock pack really is worth it.
The actual gameplay in the multiplayer is refreshingly different. Although it does just involve waves of enemies coming at you, with a few “search and destroy” type objectives thrown in for good measure, the game works well. A full game, if completed properly, lasts for about 25 minutes. In these 25 or so minutes, you are presented with a decent variety of different enemies, ranging from your lowly grunt foot soldiers, to massive mechanised battle machines. This variety of enemy means you really do have to work with your team mates, even before the match begins. Thinking ahead and strategising about what classes and powers complement each other really does add more flavour to the multiplayer experience.
A few issues I do have about the gameplay is the movement and cover system. The cover system works 9 times out of 10; however, there are moments in the heat of battle where you are automatically snapped into cover for no logical reason. This usually results in a premature death. Moving about the map can sometimes feel a little sluggish and sprinting in a straight line is an art form you have to learn to master. Apart from these niggling issues expected from a beta, everything else works spectacularly well. The aiming system works as it should, with shots being registered correctly. I haven’t had any issues yet with lag and the host migration works well when a host leaves the game.
Overall, if you’re still sceptical about the Mass Effect universe, as I was, you should just try the demo for yourself. Even if you just play the multiplayer for Mass Effect 3, you won’t be disappointed. Who knows, you could be pulling a chair up next to me, sharing my delicious humble pie.
Mass Effect 3 is scheduled for release on March 9, 2012 (EU) and March 6, 2012 (USA).
Darksiders II preorder bonuses revealed
THQ have announced a range of pre-order bonuses for Darksiders II.
Players who pre-order the game from GAME and Gamestation will receive the ‘Death Rides’ pack. Featuring multiple exclusive side-quests, this pack allows the most fearless adventurers to explore more of the Maker’s Realm and Dead Plains and earn additional experience and loot. Aid an ancient Construct, battle The Bloodless and retrieve Karn’s lost treasure in around two hours of unique game play content.
The ‘Angel of Death’ pack will give you an edge with a unique set of enhanced armour with an angel inspired design as well as a pair of upgraded matching scythes and an exclusive visual trail for your companion crow Dust. This pack will be available in UK & Ireland – retailer tbc.
People who pre-order the game from Amazon will get to ride into battle with increased speed thanks to the ‘Deadly Despair’ pack. This unique pre-order offer adds an additional speed boost for Death’s trusty steed Despair, allowing players to travel across the vast world even faster than before. This perk is a permanent increase that will last throughout the game.
Darksiders II follows the exploits of “Death”, one of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, in a weaving tale that runs parallel to the events in the original Darksidersgame. This epic journey propels Death through various light and dark realms as he tries to redeem his brother “War”, the horseman who was blamed for prematurely starting the Apocalypse in Darksiders.
Darksiders II is scheduled to be available for console and PC on 29th June, 2012.
For more information visit www.Darksiders.com.
The Gamebit Podcast, January 2012: The One Where Alex and Josh Talk for a Bit
We’ve been hilariously bad at trying to get the regular podcast together, so here’s Gamebit Editor-in-Chief Alex Matless and contributor Josh Lavery talking about games for a bit.
We honestly promise we’ll be back with a proper one soon.
Review: Forza Motorsport 4 (360)
Ever since Microsoft sold the now-shuttered Project Gotham Racing developer Bizzare Creations to Activision a few years ago, Turn 10’s Forza Motorsport series has become Microsoft’s flagship racing franchise, and 2009’s Forza Motorsport 3 quickly cemented its position as the best racing sim on any console.
With the much-delayed PS3-exclusive pretender to the crown, SCE and Polyphony’s Gran Turismo 5, being something of a disappointment, it’s time for Turn 10 to show everyone how it’s done with their Next Big Thing™, Forza Motorsport 4. But is the Top Gear-heavy, Kinect-ready, Autovista-rocking title any good? Hit the jump to find out. Read the rest of this entry
