Welcome...
This is the fifth edition of TheGamersHub monthly magazine. Each issue brings you the top reviews and news of each month about games and technology. The magazine will also include events that will be happening involving TGH and the community. We are still getting to grips with the magazine, so please feel free to give us feedback on improvements that could be made, or future topics you would like to see appearing in here by emailing: dan.h@thegamershub.net
About TGH
Set up on July 27th 2009 to provide news, reviews, articles, previews, blogs with a community aspect. We have taken big steps to get where we are today, which wouldn’t have been possible without you. The sites aim was to create a place for budding game journalists to get some experience in the industry and since then we have helped people all over the place to build a respectable portfolio which has lead to many paid freelance jobs in some big publications. We reach 100,000’s of people each month checking out the site and we help provide them with a unique string of relevant content. We have a team in the UK, RoI and the US who report news throughout the year and we have some big plans for the future.
This months issue is a big one. Usually the middling months of the year are a huge lull for those in the gaming community. Game developers have had their crunch time on the lead up to Christmas and Easter; and so with this relieved pressure, the whole industry takes a sigh and leaves gamers everywhere salivating for so much more. Typically as the years have gone by big games have launched themselves in this lull period to grab attention from dehydrated gamers. This shift has slowly made itself bigger and bigger, and now the only dry months of the year seem to come in June and July. Mostly in July. With one of our biggest issues yet, with a slightly revised layout to boot, we aim to hydrate your gaming senses by drenching you in glorious gaming goodness. Not only do we have reviews of Day 1 Studio’s Fear 3 and Vicious Cycle Software’s Earth Defence Force: Insect Armageddon, but we also have a look at one of the biggest games of the year, and one of this years most underrated games too. We are of course talking about Naughty Dog’s Uncharted 3 and Thatgamecompany’s Journey, both see you trudging across a desert, however one is a much more lonely experience, whilst the other is full of action and thrills and a tonne of gunplay. If that wasn’t enough we bring you the latest and greatest technology news, including a revival of the ‘70s with a USB Pet Rock. This months Events section is jam packed with First Person Shooter goodness following on from the incredibly popular FPS Week the site hosted over the last month. Having started in last months issue we finish off with seven other entries, ranging from Call of Duty to the Killzone series and downloadable shooters as well as a great opinion piece looking at the top ten modern FPS games. Whatever your thoughts on any of the issues raised in the articles this month we all hope you enjoy what you see and will come back for much, much more. -Starfox118
Staff: In-House:
Site Editor: Henry M - henry.m@thegamershub.net Assisstant Editor: Dan H - dan.h@thegamershub.net Tech Editor: Ryan P (Ryan.P) - ryan.p@thegamershub.net Media Editor: Lewis W
Team Ireland:
Resident Evil 15th Anniversary Uncharted 3 Beta Fear 3 Review
Wipeout retrospective.
News Editor: Dylan V (dylan365v) - dylan.v@thegamershub.co.uk Staff Writer: Robert D (Rob95D)
Team England:
Staff Writer: Joseph T - joseph.tyler@thegamershub.net Staff Writer: Robby D Staff Writer: Talwinder S Staff Writer: Vaughn H (Starfox118)
Team America:
US Editor: Anthony D (Anthony D) - anthony.d@thegamershub.net Staff Writer: Chris C (Chris C) Staff Writer: Nate D Staff Writer: Liam F
Burnout Crash Detailed Journey Beta Earth Defence Force Review
Fifa 12 Cover Revealed
Batman: Arkham City Cover
CoD: MW3 Spec-Ops Survival Preview
Ocarina of Time still has its bugs.
Gaikai: cloud gaming service
USB Pet Rock
Portal 2: Soundtrack Hacking. Is it acceptable?
As always you can contact the team for any queires at the-team@thegamershub.net or report any problems with the website or magazine to help-desk@thegamershub.net. As usual you can keep up to date with everything thats happening at TheGamersHub either via the website www.thegamershub.net or via the ever popular Twitter page @TheGamersHub. Happy gaming guys!
FPS Week Articles
Capcom Reveal Resident Evil 15th Anniversary Box Set Auhor: Rob95
Capcom have revealed a new Resident Evil box set for the 15th Annivesary of the series and it looks great! The box set includes a lot of different things related to the series such as: Resident Evil Directors Cut (PSX) Resident Evil 2 (PSX) Resident Evil 3 Last Escape (PSX) Resident Evil Revival Selection (PS3) Resident Evil Code: Veronica Soundtrack Resident Evil 4 Soundtrack 15th anniversary items: Pins And Stickers (STARS & Umbrella) Spacer for PS3’s Resident Evil 5 Or Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition The box set is currently exclusive to Capcoms store and can be found Here, also it seems to only be available in Japan at the moment which is unfortunate as I would definetly buy this if it was in Europe, although we could always import. The box set will set you back ¼7800
It all comes bundled in a special collectors case which also looks great!
EA and Criterion have finally announced their new Burnout project that we’ve all been anticipating: Burnout CRASH!. Just as the title implies, CRASH! takes the series back to its destructive root with the legendary Crash mode brought back to the forefront. As much as I loved Paradise, Crash mode was sorely missed. CRASH! will take advantage of the Autolog feature introduced in last year’s Hot Pursuit to simplify player interaction. On 360, Kinect owners will be able to play a team based mode using gesture controls… if you’re into that. Stay tuned for more info and watch for Burnout CRASH! in the fall.
Author: AgenBoth
This fall, two big names in multiplayer gaming release the latest entries in their respective series. Most gamers already have their favorite picked out, and “discussions” rage on between the two. For Playstation 3 owners there is third, dark-horse choice. No, not Resistance 3. While that series is fine, and has its fanbase, the most exciting things are happening over at Naughty Dog with their latest offering in the celebrated Uncharted series.
Launching at the beginning of November, Uncharted 3 looks to continue the series’ legacy of top-tier production, explosive set pieces, and characters that outshine a lot of Hollywood’s offerings. And that’s just single player. The biggest changes are happening in their mulitplayer component. While Uncharted 2 offered solid multiplayer, both co-op and competitive, it’s features didn’t set it apart quite enough to warrant attention away from other online beasts. For Uncharted 3, Naughty Dog looks to step up their game, and provide an experience that takes many of the popular elements of the best online shooters, and give them a distinct Uncharted feel. Now that the beta has started, we can see for ourselves just how well that’s shaping up. To note- there are a couple easy ways to gain access to the beta. A voucher is included with new copies of Infamous 2, and Playstation Plus users can download the beta as well. Since most people have a Playstation Plus subscription through Sony’s “Welcome Back” program, that’s the easiest way in. Getting started is a painless affair. It can occasionally take a couple minutes to get a full lobby, especially for co-op. From there, players vote for their choice of map, of which there are currently two. First, is the Chataeu. The map is mostly made up of the ruins of a large mansion, with some outdoor play space curling around. There are a few fixed turrent positions, each with a couple ways to get around behind. The inside of the building is full of holes,
both in the walls and floor, which alleviate choke point frustration. Along the outside are many instances of bricks and ledges, which players can climb up and around with little difficulty. Of course, jumping up the side of a building leaves you very vulnerable, so be sure to check your surroundings beforehand. The 2nd map is the Airstrip. This map showcases the most unique aspect of Uncharted 3’s multiplayer. When the match begins, a fleet of flatbed trucks race after a cargo plane heading down an absurdly long runway. One team begins among the trucks, the other starts inside the airplane. For the first few minutes of the match, players battle over getting inside the airplane. The trucks all move of their own accordweaving around and pulling up beside the plane. There were numerous instances where I’d jump off a truck, only to have it pull away at the last moment like some kind of deadly prank, resulting in my body rolling down the runway while getting run over by military vehicles. I could see it getting a little frustrating, but right now it’s just too funny. After a few minutes, the plane’s cargo door shuts and it takes off. There doesn’t appear to be any particular benefits to being in the plane, except the sweet taste of victory. The action then moves to an airbase, which is a straight-forward arena for the majority of the match in an industrial
Gameplay-wise, if you’ve played Uncharted before, you know how it handles. Movement is a little loose, but the animation is done so well you quickly get a solid sense of your abilities. Shooting is standard, no surprises there. The guns need some tweaking, and Naughty Dog is clear that they’re paying attention and making adjustments from player data. Melee combat has suffered, unfortunately, regulated to a single hit that may stun an opponent for a moment, but mostly just leaves you open for attack. Players are being very vocal in their dislike of the melee, so I’m betting we’ll see some adjustments. It would be nice to see the combo/reversalheavy single player melee adopted. As of now, melee only works from behind, where it becomes a one hit kill execution. Player loadouts and customization has got some big upgrades from Uncharted 2. As players level up, guns and gun mods become available, as well as perks. As of right now there’s not a huge selection of mods, just some clip upgrades and rate of fire boosts. The perk system in Uncharted 3 is based around Medals, which you earn by taking particular actions, like shooting someone as they’re climbing, head shots, and melee kills. The medals you earn quickly add up, and you spend them to use the perks you unlock and assign to your character. These can do things such as let you fire without having to reload, extra running speed, and some crazy things like teleport in a puff of smoke to a random spot on the map. Costume unlockables are handled by a randomdrop system. Every kill has a chance of dropping a treasure item, and when you collect a particular set of treasures you unlock outfits. On top of that, there are several perks available for one-time purchase before a match that, for a large portion of money (the same used to purchase permanent upgrades) you can spawn with a rocket launcher and other game-changers. This will probably be used more by higher level players with money to spare.
Surprisingly, for being a beta, there aren’t any major problems. Lag hasn’t been an issue, and any graphical errors are few and far between. The last multiplayer game I’ve played was Brink, so maybe I’m just happy it works. The only bothersome aspects are the small viewing areas if you play local splitscreen (which, by the way, allows to players to sign in their own profiles, a rarity for PS3). The levels are very detailed, and it becomes difficult to see the action without a sizeable TV.
Also, grenade throwing will take practice. Grenades are lobbed in a high arc, usually resulting in hitting above a doorway and landing back at your feet. Definitely different from Call of Duty’s fastball style. All in all, a good start. With a few tweaks, more content like weapons and perks, and a decent number of interesting maps, Uncharted 3 is set to become an easy choice for multiplayer gamers sick of military shooters. Uncharted 3’s beta continues through July 14th, and the game launches November 1st.
Author: Ipfisher
Beta
This sash acts as your power gauge, so to speak. The longer it is, the more frequently you can jump. This mechanic comes in to play much more often than I had anticipated and requires strategic use of the ability. During the beta, the game does a decent job of keeping that power charged and giving you opportunities to lengthen the sash, but it definitely has its moments if you decide to jump to often. The idea that you, the character, are entirely alone in this world is what seems to drive the title. I am absolutely in love with that concept. Demon’s Souls mastered the art of the lonesome game experience; the feeling of being wholly and entirely alone in a world full of enemies. Ico and SotC did it even better. Journey, howe ve r, does it a bit differently.
ThatGameCompany has a bit of a reputation for crafting new and unique experiences. After bringing both Flow and Flower to PSN, expectations are high for the next evolution in their formula. In case you didn’t know, that next evolution is taking the form of Journey, a lonesome wandering adventure towards an unnamed mountain. Really, that’s it. From the start of the Journey beta, you’re
given one destination: the mountain. The air of mystery surrounding Journey is really what drives the experience. You play a nameless, faceless birdlike humanoid with naught but a sash to decorate it.
What separates Journey from ThatGameCompany’s other titles is the inclusion of subtle online co-op. On occasion, you’ll be joined by other unnamed players and you’ll rarely be aware of their presence in the experience. There’s no matchmaking or lobbies, and no invites. It’s quite MMO-like in its execution. At any given time, another player could stumble upon you and join your quest. You can’t communicate, but the simple, common goal of reaching that distant point binds you together.
At first I was a little put off by this experience. The total seclusion I envisioned seemed more atmospheric than anything a co-op experience could offer. However, finding other players in the world does little more than remind you of just how alone you are. In terms of actual game mechanics, Journey controls like a dream. Everything has a floaty quality that fits the game’s aesthetic perfectly. Jumps are performed with a flourish and your character performs a graceful roll after a particularly long fall. In the beta, there’s really only one puzzle. You’ll encounter
a series of increasingly taller platforms that must be bridged. You’ll have to find all the activation points for each segment of the bridge. It’s not particularly difficult, but the presentation is what it’s all about. That’s really the crux of this entire experience: The Presentation. There’s an atmosphere on display in Journey that is rarely seen in modern games. The desolate landscape coupled with the sense of isolation and co-op experience is truly unique. What remains to be seen is whether or not this experience can hold up over an entire game. What we’ve seen is great in a small chunk, but we’ve yet to see how it fairs in a full length release. What other tricks do they have up their collective sleeve? We can only imagine.
Author: Joe Tyler
but there simply isn’t any surprises or scares that will stay with you once the story is over. Although I found the story to be rather predictable, and despite the fact that their were several missed opportunities to add some very interesting twists to the story. It was still a rather enjoyable story and kept me interested all the way to the end
Gameplay:
The original F.E.A.R was released back in 2005. Since that time, the series has built quite the cult following due to its unique approach to traditional FPS gameplay along with its honorific nature Now the third instalment in the series has been unleashed upon the world. But, is F.E.A.R 3 worth another week of sleeping with the light on? Or is best to lay this game to rest? Let’s find out.
Story:
F.E.A.R. 3 follows on from the events of F.E.A.R. 2’s startling conclusion, but returns players to the protagonist of the original F.E.A.R., the genetically designed supersoldier known as Point Man. The events at the end of F.E.A.R. 2 have triggered a paranormal catastrophe of biblical proportions in the city of Fairport, and Point Man is eager to make his way there and help out a former squadmate caught up in the chaos. However, Point Man is not alone. His homicidal and recently resurrected brother, Paxton Fettel, is along for the ride. Point Man may have put a bullet in his brother’s brain in the original F.E.A.R., but since when was a measly bullet to the brain supposed to permanently dispose of someone? The brothers form an uneasy alliance, but despite the tension between them, the story progresses predictably. There’s a pleasant sense of closure that goes with seeing the brothers confront the painful reality of their shared past,
F.E.A.R 3 is fear by name but not fear by nature. F.E.A.R 3 is not a scary game, not in the slightest. Whereas the first game was defined by its scares, scares that were present but perhaps a little more diluted in F.E.A.R 2, F.E.A.R 3 is for the most part, a scare free experience. There’s no horror here, nothing complimentary to the intensity and the claustrophobic paranormal terror induced by the first two games. It’s a definitive misfire, particularly when you have such great protagonists and enemies to play with. The solo campaign can be played co-op both split-screen and online and this is perhaps the best way to take on Alma and her twisted minions. As a solo experience, F.E.A.R 3 falls short but playing it with a friend, one as Point Man, the other Fettel, adds a momentum that’s missing from the solo experience. Co-op is what’s best, allowing you and a friend to take on the world with every inclination of ammo and telepathy available to you and yours. Of course, you can play the game alone as Fettle or Point Man, so either way you can get the full F.E.A.R experience from the hands of both brothers. However, one pretty big drawback for the campaign is that it is very short, depending on your skill level and what difficulty you choose to play on, F.E.A.R 3’s campaign can be finished in 4-6 hours and that is something that is very hard to forgive since retail games cost so much nowadays. Overall, I find the gameplay in F.E.A.R 3 to work very well, the addition of a co-op campaign via split-screen and online is a very welcome one and helps to keep the game fresh. Although the campaign suffers from a lack of horror and a short story, it is still a blast to play and will keep you entertained right to the end.
Multiplayer:
F.E.A.R. 3 tries some very interesting ideas with its multiplayer. Instead of offering up old FPS standards like team deathmatch or capture the flag, the game features modes like “F**king Run,” in which four players flee from a billowing cloud of black smoke dubbed the “wall of death.” It’s an intense ride that keeps you constantly moving and also goes against the concept in traditional multiplayer where you’re confined to a specific hunk of land. Another multiplayer mode that F.E.A.R 3 offers is called “Contractions”, where you and three other players defend a base from progressively deadlier waves of enemies. The twist here is that you have to go scavenge for supply crates in between waves and make it back to your base before it’s too late. To add to the modes increasingly difficult waves of enemies, as the fog thickens, the threats become much more dangerous. Players will find dangerous foes lurking in the fog including Alma herself. The two other modes, Soul Survivor and Soul King, involve possessing other A.I. characters and collecting souls for points. The multiplayer overall is surprisingly fun and does many different things that most traditional FPS games do not.
The Verdict:
F.E.A.R 3 is overall a very good game, the campaign was extremely fun to play and the story was decent. The addition of being able to play through the campaign in co-op helps to keep the game fresh and exciting as you tackle through the story on the increasing difficulty levels. The gameplay works very well for what it has to offer and the multiplayer offers some very interesting ideas while putting rather
unique twists on gamemodes that we have seen in previous games. Although the game falls short on the campaigns length and offers virtually no horror what so ever, F.E.A.R 3 is still a very good game. F.E.A.R 3 is now available worldwide for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC.
4/5
Now, series developer Sandlot has passed the torch to western developer Vicious Cycle Software, creators of Matt Hazard; Firemint acquired Infinite Interactive earlier this year. They were given the instructions to make EDF more appealing to western gamers, and to include online play. So what all does that change? First off, the aspect that has given EDF 2017 such a cult following was it’s personality. It was a straightforward summation of so many B-Movies of the 40s and 50s- with its giant insects, UFOs, and robot monsters- along with the Japanese flavor of the Godzilla movies. Insect Armageddon has lost a lot of that quirkiness, and I found myself laughing a bit less. Not to say the humor is gone; the total carnage is still very over the top, without any regard for collateral damage, and soldiers still run around saying the dumbest shit in the middle of a firefight. This time around the humor is more self-conscious, and when it falls flat it’s just not that funny. Then there’s the graphics. The original was not a looker. It depended more on the massive amount of enemies for any WOW factor, though this tended to Reviewing a budget game is a strange idea. Expectations are lowered, so it’s not natural to critique gameplay on the same scale as big titles, such as Gears of War. In truth, though, it makes it much easier to ask the allimportant question: Is the game fun? Back in 2007, I picked up Earth Defense Force 2017 purely on a whim. I was familiar with the “Simple 2000” line of budget titles from Japan, which always provided… unique games at a very comfortable price. EDF 2017 was an anomaly. It was a mutant. The controls were stiff, the graphics sub-par, and the gameplay was simple. Players took control of a personality-less soldier in a rinky-dink uniform going up against a tidal wave of giant insects, robots, and space ships. It was the most fun I’d had in quite a while.
drag the framerate to a crawl I didn’t think was possible with a modern game. This time around, due in large part to the online feature, enemies spawn in smaller groups. It’s a constant onslaught, but you’ll never see the horizon turn black with ants. Insect Armageddon uses the in-house Vicious Engine that, while it’s not going to impress anyone, is polished and runs smoothly. There will be moments, especially during the last chapter, where things get bogged down by the ridiculous amount of enemies, lasers, and explosions going off at all times. Players are given the choice of four classes, and each are unique. The soldier class is the most straight-forward- leveling him up makes you run faster, dodge farther, and gain access to some special weapons.
There’s a heavy class, which is obviously slower with high-impact weapons. The tactician class allows you to drop turrets, and the jet class has energy weapons and can fly short distances. As you progress, you level up your character, furthering your abilities as well as opening up more weapon choices. You’ll have to play through on harder difficulties to reach the highest levels. After playing through normal, a remix mode becomes available, which changes up the enemies that appear. There’s also the now standard Survival mode, which unfortunately doesn’t gain you any experience, so it’s pretty worthless unless you’ve reached the unlock cap and just want to shoot bugs. I’d comment on the online play, but I haven’t been able to get into a game yet. It could be server errors, or just a lack of others playing online. But I’ll always prefer splitscreen couch co-op. There’s a maximum of three players, and an AI buddy will fill in any gaps (they can also be turned off entirely if you want to go solo).
The AI is serviceable, never really getting in the way. Occasionally they’ll attempt to shoot at enemies through you, which you won’t really notice unless they’re firing rockets. Where EDF 2017 had about 150 “missions”, with few variations. Insect Armageddon has a couple dozen, spread over a handful of chapters. Like the original, mission objectives are simple to the point where you don’t have to think about them. It always boils down to going to a waypoint and shooting the hell out of everything, leveling city blocks along the way. It all sounds rather unimpressive, but it’s a very pure gaming experience. There’s no “epic” trilogy planned, no elaborate backstory to be told through novels and comics, and no tragic heroes-
basically it has no sense of self-importance that seems so popular these days. It’s a breath of fresh air. There’s definitely going to be varied opinions about EDF. Judged alongside it’s peers, Insect Armageddon comes up short on all fronts. But for the few things it sets out to do, it does them well. There aren’t any exceptionally poor aspects to game that drag it down. You could do a lot worse, and at a higher price point. Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon can be best compared to a summer popcorn flick. It won’t challenge anyone mentally or emotionally, and it’s not particularly memorable, but while you’re in it you’re having fun. If you’re not quite sure what exactly you feel like playing, Insect Armageddon is a very capable, fun game.
3.5/5
With the announcement of a new Wipeout game, Wipeout 2048, being released on PSVita as a launch title, it seems apt to take a look back at the series and see what makes Wipeout such a popular series that stands out from the crowd. 8
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Right: The cover for the PAL and JP region was very much a stylised affair. Made to resemble a high quality collectable Japanese Album, its clear that it was targeting a change in people percieved gaming.
Above: WipEout 2097 was the
second title in Psygnosis’ Wipeout series. Its grimey and gritty view of an industrial future coupled with a heavy techno soundtrack sealed this as a title to own on the PSX, and its N64 sibling, Wipeout 64.
Right: Wip3out (Wipeout 3) was
a departure from the current series staple. Instead of gritty industrial skylines it opted for a minimal and clinical look. Its soundtrack also slunk into the emerging minimal electronica and techno scene to paint an image for the series that the developer has never looked back from.
Wipeout was the launch game for Sony’s Playstation console, it was used as one of the main demo’s that was displayed in Sony’s brutally aggressive marketing campaign in bars and clubs (the Ministry of Sound in London had a Playstation room where people could play the console whilst listening to some MoS artists and enjoying a drink). Some say it was thanks to Wipeout that Sony’s Playstation managed to gain mainstream appeal, something that consoles of the time had really failed to do. Wipeout managed to present itself as a clean, sharp and stylised racing experience that married the chaos of Mario Kart with the visuals needed to show the Playstation as a modern, powerful a n d
desirable console. As Edge Magazine said, Wipeout was ‘all style, all substance’ the perfect example for the power of Playstation. The Wipeout series has moved from strength to strength with each iteration (except maybe Fusion) being more impressive than the last. Each game may have evolved the series but one thing it has never lost is its incredibly European feel. To put its European flavour into perspective, Wipeout was the EU launch title for the Playstation and didn’t see the light of day in America until two months later. In comparison the US market got Twisted Metal as their launch title, something that is quintessentially American in tone. Comparing the two games you can also see two completely different styles each suited to their audience. Visually Twisted Metal was dark and brooding with heavy metal soundtracks and big explosions; in contrast Wipeout was clean and stylised, with bright colours, airy tracks, clear blue skies and 90s dance music. To quote a friend, the Wipeout games are the ‘Eurotrash of racing games’, this statement fits rather well as it is a game that is all about celebrating the niche tastes of the European world. For a start the music used throughout the series reflects the up and coming trends in music. Wipeout Pulse was released in 2007 and yet one look at its soundtrack and you see techno and dubstep artists who have flowed into popularity in the last year or so. Artists like Booka Shade, Noisia and Skream are featured, and looking back through the games you’ll find many familiar faces such as Aphex Twin, The Chemical Brothers, Leftfield, Underworld, The Prodigy and more. The environments themselves in the early games take a futuristic spin on what could be rolling Italian hills or a futuristic European cityscape, in later games this art style is lost and instead replaced by a more universally futuristic environment (probably due to its now broader worldwide appeal).
The entire game idea itself is based on one of the most European sports around, Formula One. Not only is it similar to F1 in how the game is structured, such as a starting grid, repair strip (mimicking a pit stop), and that to find any progression through the games crushing difficulty curve you have to follow the racing line looking for oportunities to swiftly overtake your opponents. This is made all the easier with weapons to help stall foes, however that is not a similarity with F1 racing. The less obvious similarities come from track design. Following styles seen more in urban racetracks like Monaco, the courses feature twists and turns with slaloms and chicanes like many tricky and exciting racecourses. Plastered around the side of each track on billboards and side skirting are sponsors and companies just adding to that sense of realism along with crowd bays by the start/finish line. The crafts themselves are also somewhat like an F1 race car with their sleek designs and plastering of team names and sponsors on the side. Many people also unnecessarily compare the Wipeout series to the F-Zero series of games. Obviously there are many comparisons to draw
between the two, even the creator of the first Wipeout, Nick Burcombe, thought of F-Zero when he first saw the concept being pitched at Psygnosis. However for Burcombe it Wipeout was more inspired by Mario Kart than any other racing game. Wipeout was, and still is, a different beast to the futuristic racing found in F-Zero. F-Zero‘s gameplay is pure arcade, whereas the Wipeout series of games errs closer to the edge of simulation (albeit a simulation of a futuristic possibility). The environments of F-Zero are eccentric and crazy, just like the characters and crafts it offers the player; Wipeout offers the player a dip into realism, a chance to experience speed on a believable level. It turned racing games into a show of skill navigating the courses and using the air breaks, something that Nick Burcombe is completely unapologetic for, “The steering and skidding and weight and feel of the craft, I have no regrets at all – that was Wipeout.” The entire Wipeout series is completely different from F-Zero except for the fact that they share the same idea of futuristic racing, one is the Project Gotham of futuristic racers whilst the other is the Ridge Racer.
The Wipeout series has kept its appeal and a loyal fanbase for years. Its popularity was cemented by its infectious and powerful music that fits perfectly with the environments you are racing in and around. Although it had its low point with Wipeout Fusion, a title that was in fact developed by a different team than usual (the same team that went on to make the dull Quantum Redshift), the Wipeout series has kept a very high quality bar with superb visuals (WipeoutHDFury being a launch title for the PS3 and still easily the best looking game on the console) and superb gameplay, with tight craft control and improved weapon balancing with each title. Wipeout 2048 has revealed very little in terms of details but visually it already looks like it will keep up that extremely high bar the series sets for itself. It is known that it will feature a revised multiplayer experience with objectives for races, and it features all new tracks for the series too. Set four years before Wipeout the games environments are also set intertwined through the cityscapes, brining forward that Formula One feel found in earlier titles and modernising it to a believable future as opposed to where everybody thought the future would be in 1995. Wipeout 2048 is set to release alongside the Playstation Vita (formerly N G P )
and seems that it will keep every single part of Wipeout history that Studio Liverpool and Psygnosis tried so hard to build. If you also love the Wipeout series its worth checking out Psygnosis other racing series, that unfortunately failed to reach the heights of Wipeout, Rollcage.
Below: PS3 title, and first foray into HD, Wipeout
HD (and its later expansion Fury) brought the visual flare of Wipeout into a new generation of hardware. It boasted two lengthy campaigns (Fury’s being as long as HD’s) as well as the best tracks from PSP siblings redone lavishly in HD. It now even supports mind melting 3D.
Above: Both PSP titles, Pure and Pulse kept the
minimalist aesthetics found in Wip3out and Fusion and retained the feeling of speed and adrenaline found in their console forebares. The graphical leap between the two titles is also impressive for PSP hardware, living upto the series standards for crisp visuals.
Fifa 12 Cover Revealed Author: Anthony D
Batman: Arkham City Boxart Revield Author: Dylan365v
It is almost time to kick it around again with the soccer pros in FIFA 12. Today the cover athletes have been chosen for FIFA 12 and look to be a delight for Manchester United and Arsenal fans
On the left is Manchester United’s star striker Wayne Rooney and on the right Jack Wilshere of Arsenal. This will be Wayne Rooney’s seventh consecutive year on the cover. Not a bad combination, let us know what you think of the choices. FIFA 12 is set to release on September 27th in North America and September 30th in Europe for Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Wii and PC.
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment have revealed earlier today. Below is the shiney brand new box art you will see, well on the box when the game releases this October on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. What do you think of the cover art? I am liking it a lot better then versions that have been previously shown to be honest. Plus the blood on Batman’s knuckles is always a nice touch.
Wave After Wave
Everyone looks at Modern Warfare and the Call Of Duty franchise lately as nothing more than a multiplayer or a solid singleplayer experience. Many modes like ‘zombies’ and the superb Spec Ops in Modern Warfare 2 go unnoticed by I would say maybe around 70% of the purchasers of the title. Well, Modern Warfare 3 is trying t o change that by hitting the marketing hard with the Spec Ops Mode and the newly added Spec Ops Survival mode. Recently we sat down with Robert Bowling from Infinity Ward and Glen Schofield from Sledgehammer Games and got to play some of the new co-op mode.
In Your Face Action
There’s no better way to describe the new Spec Ops Survival mode than hardcore, in-your-face action that does not stop until you put the controller down and scream, before pickin it back up again to try to outdo your last score. This is not Infinity Ward’s or SledgeHammer’s take on Zombies from Treyarch’s branch of Call Of Duty titles. This is its own little monster that players will come to love, because it takes elements from the Spec Ops and locking two players in an offline or online survival mode that literally has no end. It was disappointing at first to see it only be two players but once you get into it and realize that they are trying to keep that Spec Ops feel, you really come to respect it. From the beginning, we learned that the new mode will have its own progressive rank system just like the online multiplayer, and will in fact be displayed on your Call of Duty card on the right hand side of the lobby screen in multiplayer and in this new mode. It will display both and the current mode you are in will take precedence over the other, of course. It makes sense since Survival will utilize all the multiplayer maps (we got to play on Dome). No word yet if you can ‘prestige’ your survival rank, but it would be pretty cool. It is also good to note that the mode is available if players want to go at it alone via solo mode.
Spec Ops Survival Preview Author: Anthony D
You start out with nothing but a pistol (not sure of the specific pistol), grenades and flashbangs. You go through shooting anything that isn’t your partner (friendly fire is always on). Once a wave finishes, a total displays of your earnings for you and your partner. Kills, earnings and other aspects will affect the cash you earn. Once you get through one or two waves a gun icon shows up on your HUD which allows you to easily locate the crate for guns, where you can purchase and upgrade your guns with new sights and such. If you pick up an enemy’s weapon, it is automatically added to the ‘gun store’. After some more waves a grenade icon shows up, allowing you to purchase grenades and perks, such as Last Stand that allows your player to stay alive after being downed once. This works as a bar at the bottom of the screen and as you are shot more it takes longer for the bar to fill, so you can either take out an enemy if there are any in your area to get up quicker or wade it out while your partner freaks out and screams. Another perk showcased is Armor which has an armor icon show up (shield) in the middle of the screen at the bottom that turns red as you take more damage and eventually goes away. The Last Stand perk is one that all players will spawn with to give them an edge of sorts, after that though players will have to purchase them for $3000. After another few waves you will get the final ‘shop’ in the shape of an jet fighter. This is where you will buy killstreaks and turrets, grenade or machine guns (trust me you will need them – Juggernauts are a bitch, but we will get to that). New killstreaks for this mode is one where you can call in a group of SAS soldiers to help you out and also a separate one that allows you to call in a riot shield squad. This is all grand until you accidently shoot one of them (did it) and waste your killstreak. They last as long as they are alive and will of course die by friendly fire. The waves are infinite so you will need all the help, ammo and everything you can get in this insane mode.
Spec Ops..Survived… Sort Of
There you have it. We got our hands on the mode. We loved it and honestly cannot wait for the release. It will not replace the multiplayer for many gamers, but what they are offering compared to previous entries as a complete package this Call Of Duty might just be the most fun gamers have had in the franchise. This mode is a testament to the evolution of the series as a whole and it is great to see them coming up with great ideas like this. For all the hardcore online
Juggernaut B*tch
Spec Ops Survival isn’t your standard horde mode where they just throw the same enemies a t you in greater numbers. Oh no, this is ‘Let’s throw the same enemies and then flank them by air dropping and Juggernaut with a riot shield and call in two helicopters’ horde mode. Yeah, it is that insane at times. So as I iterated above, some waves will include nothing but helicopters that shoot at you unless you are inside. They are a pain the ass as usual, however, if
you got a trusty ACR you can make good work with them; also a Predator missile helps. The AI is fairly smart about taking cover and attempting to flank your position on a few occasions. Hopefully this carries over to the single player as well. Juggernauts are back, and not only pack a heavy machine gun like in the past, but this time they do shotguns, riot shields and other forms of player anger inducing rage fits that will befall gamers later this year. The game kicks it into high gear from wave 12 and on sometimes throwing on clusters of enemies and sometimes two to three juggernauts at a time. Just remember to go to the wonderful gun icon and pick up some ammo will you.
players, listen up. If you want a mode where you can practice your 2v2 skills with your partner or even hone your 1v1 and get a feel for the maps, Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games have done that for you and made it fun for everyone else in the process. This mode was t h e turning point for me personally. Preordered.
Legend of Zelda Remake Still has its Original Bugs Author: Ryan.p
For anyone who remembers the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time game on Nintendo 64, you will be surprised at how close the updated re-release is going to be. It is the same story, and in fact has the same bugs in the game as the original did. Nintendo delegated the development of the update to a fellow Japanese company called Grezzo. Grezzo programmer Moriya admits that the original intention was that the team working on the game would remove any bugs. But when staff complained, they decided to leave them in, saying that removing the bugs would take away from the game, adding ‘bugs are fun’ at the end of the statement. In the end, they had to compromise. They only removed the bugs that would ‘break the game’ in the update, but left in any that wouldn’t directly affect how the game worked. Grezzo hope that this means that all the original quirks of the game are still there, and also hope that it means gamers will share any glitches they find with their friends, which will add to the fun.
Some note glitches in the past have been: • Pausing and changing item mid-swing meant that u could capture a fairy and save a bottle in the process. • Using a boomerang and a backflip can get unlimited skulltulas in the underground grotto near Hyrule Castle Moat • Turning Epona into a remote control horse. If you play the new game and find any of these glitches (or any other ones in fact) let us know.
New Cloud Gaming Service: Gaikai Author: -Andy-
Let’s face it, the eventual future of gaming is heading to the cloud, right? OnLive certainly think so, as they are already succesful in the USA and coming to the UK later this year. However, just recently there seems to be a new name in the cloud gaming universe, called Gaikai. But what exactly is it? The official Gaikai website claims that: Gaikai is an open cloud gaming platform that lets gamers play the latest games (like Mass Effect 2 and Sims 3) instantly on any internet-connected device. No game downloads or installers. Just click and play. Gaikai accelerates digital revenue growth with a cloud-based distribution platform that powers the entire lifecycle of your direct-to-consumer business, from discovery to delivery. Gaikai’s gaming cloud is the world’s only open high-
performance interactive entertainment network for gamers, publishers, retailers, and affiliates. We’ve established 24 data centers in 12 countries, and we’re adding more all the time. We give publishers, retailers and affiliates more qualified customers, faster. And we deliver awesome game experiences through a stream, or via our patent-pending perceptive downloader technology. Gamers: Click and play instantly Publishers & Developers: Watch your game market itself Affiliates: Effortlessly add a new source of revenue Gaikai is all about enabling your gaming strategy, whatever it may be.
USB Pet Rock; Amazing! Author: Henry M
ThinkGeek.com sells the weirdest, most obscure tech products out there. So it is no surprise to me that you can purchase a rock that plugs into your computer via USB. Although completely useless, the USB Pet Rock is a must have for any computer user who loved the original Pet Rock of the 1970?s. In case you were not around during the pet rock phenomenon, let me give you the lowdown on this fad. An advertising executive from California named Gary Dahl came up with the idea to sell people a pet that was easy to clean up after and never misbehaved. The pet was a rock. According to Super70s.com, Dahl first had told his friends about his pet rock in which his friends at first thought he was crazy. But they soon realized the idea of a pet rock was a good one. Dahl then put together a Pet Rock Training Manual. Some of the topics included: “How to make your Pet Rock roll-over and play dead” and “How to house-train your Pet Rock.” I am sure Dahl had no idea how successful his pet rock idea would become.
Dahl designed a box made of cardboard designed to look like a pet carrying case for the rock that housed the manual. The package cost $3.95. He put his pet rock on stage for the world at San Francisco gift show in August of 1975. Around this time Dahl also created a press release to all the major media outlets. The pet rock was now a cultural fad. In October of that same year, Newsweek published an article on the pet rock. Neiman Marcus even carried them. Dahl’s fad creation even caused him to appear on Johnny Carson’s The Tonight Show. Dahl would become a millionaire selling pet rocks to the masses. On the page where you can purchase the product, ThinkGeek.com talks about wanting to duplicate Dahl’s success: ”And . . . well, we at ThinkGeek love performing famous experiments to see if we can duplicate the outcome. But we need your help.” ThinkGeek then tells you how you can plug in the USB Pet Rock into your computer at work where your coworkers will be certain to ask you what it does. When they do you can make up something that it does. No matter what you say the rock does, according to Think Geek, it will be greater than what it actually does which is nothing.
Valve Give Generously: Portal 2 Soundtrack Author: Starfox118
Valve are well known for being a company who give the fans what they want, except maybe details about a new Half-Life game. This Valve approach to marketing and promotion hasn’t changed, and to please the fans even more the have brought out the second part of the Portal 2 soundtrack. After the successful release of the first part of the Portal 2 soundtrack, only a month or so ago, part 2 has now gone up for your listening pleasure. Containing tracks like ‘Bring Your Daughter to Work Day’, ‘You Are Not Part of the Control Group’ and ‘Turret Redemption Line’ this soundtrack will bring back glowing memories of the middle portion of the game. Valve have also kindly put up edits ideal for ringtones and alert tones for
your phones and have shown that a third part of the soundtrack will be made available soon too! If this wasn’t enough Valve have done all of this for free! So now you have no excuse for not enjoying the delights of Portal 2, regardless of having experienced the magic of GladOS and Wheatley. Get yourself on over to Thinkwithportals.com and go download the first two parts of the incredible soundtrack for free!
Hacking: Is it Acceptable? Author: Ryan.p
And then there is the other side of the argument: when is hacking not acceptable? As long as the world relies on computers, there will be hackers exploiting the system in order to gain something from any number of unsuspecting victims. They do this by hacking into Personal Computers, Banks, building societies and the like and either purchasing things with other peoples money or just taking the money outright. Some people might hack int0 big companies in order to find out trade secrets that they can then use to damage that company in a global market. These kinds of Hackers are, in my opinion, scum. They are parasites of the cyber world, feeding off of other peoples hard work and not giving anything in return. But, Hacking is not a definite science. Hacking, in it’s simplest form, is taking advantage of flaws in a system. Using this analogy, anyone who has ever found a glitch in a game and used it to their advantage is a hacker. Anyone who has ever used a cheat code is a hacker. They are exposing flaws in the system, and
After a rather heated discussion with my Step-dad last night I have been asking myself a rather simple question: Is Hacking acceptable? Personally, i think that hacking is acceptable in certain forms. Example, I’m a mild fan of Anonymous and LulzSec. Some of the things that they do I find quite amusing. But then again, there is another type of hacker: the hacker that actively seeks to gain something from their hack. I have been a victim of this type of hacker, and feel that they deserve everything that’s coming to them. I’ve had 3 email accounts hacked, my Facebook account hacked twice and someone has made an attempt to access my bank details (but thankfully failed (woooo go Natwest )) So, when is hacking acceptable? Most hackers do it to expose secrets that various government groups are trying to keep secret, exposing
conspiracies and the like. Depending on who you ask, if you want to know this information, it’s your right to know it as long as no individuals are harmed. For example, if the FBI discovered a plot to kill the president, they’d obviously attempt to eliminate the threat. But if they eliminated the threat by killing the shooter, they might not want that to become public. They have thwarted an assassination, but not in a politically correct way. I personally would relish the thought of these ‘secret killings’ becoming public, as long as in doing so no individual was harmed. And technically speaking, if the internet is so easily accessible, then why keep these ‘ Top Secret’ files in a place that any expert hacker would be able to access them?
gaining something in the process. This is where my step-dad becomes a tad hypocritical. He believes that any form of hacking deserves a death sentence. Despite this, he has discovered a flaw in an online sail racing game (which shall remain anonymous for a number of reasons) that allows him to ‘Jump Pixels’. Basically, if you hit a pixel on a lump of land at exactly the right angle, you can ‘jump’ through that pixel, basically meaning that you can cause your sailing boat to sail through an entire continent (if you were so inclined). In my opinion, this is a small form of hacking, so by his own logic, he deserves a death sentence. He claims that ‘anyone can do it with enough practice’. Isn’t that true of hacking as well? Anyone can hack into a server if they wanted to, all they have to do is practice. Leave comments on this article and let me know your opinions. I personally have no quarrel against hackers who attack the companies as opposed to individuals. I only have a problem with hackers who make a living off of other peoples hard work.
Call of Duty: From Humble Roots to Hollywood Medal of Honor
The First Person Shooter has fast become the staple of modern gaming. What was once a genre made only for those with the nerves and mettle to navigate the dark catacombs of Quake, the eerie settings of Doom, and the tounge and cheek of Serious Sam; the First Person Shooter has grown itself into a multi million dollar industry. An industry so
set on giving the gamer thrills and set pieces alongside engaging storylines, it has seen it grow from dark bedrooms into peoples livingrooms. Its moved from small appriciation to mainstream appeal. This months TGH Events pays hommage to the genre and tracks its growth via the new figureheads of modern gaming.
Killzone Battlefield: Welcome to Vehicles, Squads and Mass Destruction Halo Downloadable FPS Games Top 10 FPS Games of All Time
Author: Starfox118
The Call of Duty series has gone from almost a blip on the FPS radar to this years biggest blockbuster, with each consecutive title outstripping the years biggest films in terms of revenue, and constantly breaking pre-order and purchase records around the world. Utilising an, extremely tired, tried and tested formula how has such a title with humble origins gone on to become the powerhouse of the FPS genre, knocking off Medal of Honor and Halo from the public top spot.
Infinity Ward, who were the chief developers of the Call of Duty games, was set up in 2002 after twenty-two members left EA’s Twenty Fifteen (2015 inc.) studio. After producing the Medal of Honor games for EA (most notably Allied Assault and Frontline), the two lead designers Vince Zampella and Grant Collier decided to set up their own studio and begin production on another franchise set in World War II. Zampella and Collier wanted to create a FPS game that echoed the mature tones found in the MoH series. Instead of going for gimmicks and gore they wanted to create a game based on soldiers experiences and the distress of war. Thus Call of Duty was born. CoD was a success on launch and received high reviews and reasonable market success, but it didn’t cause a storm in the world outside of gaming.
What made CoD so appealing was its deep story, focusing on the life of an individual soldier at war. The game was split into three campaigns that were interwoven together. One could play as an American, Russian and British infantryman. The American campaign starts properly in the Normandy invasion, assisting paratroopers and disabling tanks on the lead up to D-Day. The British campaign sees you taking part in Operation Tonga, a joint operation with the Normandy Landings and Operation Overlord, and leads you up through the twists and turns of disabling German battleship Tirpitz. Finally the Russian Campaign starts with the intensely bloody battle for Stalingrad and the journey from there to the battle for Berlin and claiming the Reichstag. Each of these campaigns follow incredibly important moments in WWII and, except for the Soviet campaign, they are all relatively unknown operations in comparison to what Infinity ward could have chosen. Call of Duty 2 followed largely the same formula as Call of Duty. Again you had a British, American and Soviet campaign, and again the ‘true’ stories you followed were largely smaller operations that occurred during World War II, although you do play part of the D-Day landings it wasn’t the landing that everybody will recognise. I say ‘true’ because although the events were taken from soldiers journals the majority of the action was embellished to make the game more interesting to play. Call of Duty 2 was again developed solely by Infinity Ward and published by Activision, and unsurprisingly went on to receive extremely high praise from critics. This time CoD2 went on to receive large commercial success, this is mostly in part to its launch timing. Coinciding with the launch of Microsofts highly anticipated Xbox 360, it was truly the first Next Generation FPS game and for many would have been their first foray into the world of High Definition graphics and visuals. When a game has that much marketing power, and is also fantastic to boot it would no doubt rocket into the spectacular.
Call of Duty 3 took a slightly different approach to the game. With Infinity Ward working on a previously unknown title (which became Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare), CoD3 was left to Treyarch games who had proved themselves worthy on spin off Call of Duty: Big Red One for Xbox and PS2. CoD 3 was the first Call of Duty game to be console exclusive, meaning the PC gamers missed out on not a lot. Receiving positive reviews all round, but nothing to the roaring success of the Infinity Ward titles, CoD 3 went on to sell quite well mostly on the back of the previous entries into the series. Call of Duty 3 did add vehicles into multiplayer for the first time, allowing players to drive Motorcycles with sidecars and German Panzer tanks, they also brought in ranked matches, similar to those found in the Halo franchise. CoD 3 was the last of the Call of Duty games to really focus upon the story of the individual soldier and their small efforts in the Second World War. The real change to the franchise came in 2007 with Infinity Wards fourth Call of Duty game, Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare. Greeted with immense success and astounding reviews this was the first in a series of a new brand of CoD games. Instead of the truthful and historical settings of World War II found in previous games, MW embraced a future fictional conflict between America and Russia, with Britain getting involved for good measure.
This fictional war led to some incredible set pieces being found within this game, be it the Ghillies in the Mist level stalking around the eerie town of Chernobyl or the rather close to home Afghanistan missions as an American soldier. Wo r r y i n g l y MW was set in 2014, a reality that isn’t too far away from becoming truth, especially with the current war in Afghanistan still carrying on until 2014. M o d e r n Warfare was the best selling CoD game at the time, and this was again largely down to the series earlier entries creating brand loyalty as well as word of mouth spreading its fantastic gameplay. Year on year the franchise grew, and with the inclusion of an updated multiplayer system Infinity Ward secured the series future as the online shooter of choice. With a perks system going alongside a revised ranked games system (that was found in CoD 3), MW managed to make playing multiplayer even more rewarding than just shooting your friend, or a stranger, in the face.
The perks added another layer to the gameplay, meaning the longer you played the better you were, not just in skill but in pure firepower too. In games like Halo the rankings only meant you were placed against players of similar skill, your weapons set still was the same and damage was still the same (something I personally believe to be a better set up), MW allowed for a mix up and an injection of freshness into what could have become a stale multiplayer experience. With eight games in the series this is going to be a long list of the games bit by bit. We’re onto number five now, which is Call of Duty: World At War. World At War took the franchise back to the World War setting and placed you in the shoes of an American soldier fighting in Japanese occupied territory, a Soviet soldier fighting on the Eastern Front and a one off mission playing another American in an on rails section. WaW was met with reasonably high reception from the press and it sold very well in general, but with more recent games in the series out it has faded into obscurity. Developed once again by Treyarch it was a more fitting example of how a Call of Duty game should be made, as opposed to their previous efforts. Gameplay wise the game featured a wide reaching narrative that spanned years of the Pacific campaigns of WWII. It provided more film based thrills and over the top sequences to create thrilling gameplay, moving entirely away from the truthful stories depicted in the previous WWII era CoD games. Moments in the American campaigns would have Japanese infantrymen rushing at you from the bushes screaming something in Japanese, or if that wasn’t enough action for you there were trench sections where you could burn soldiers with a flamethrower. Surprisingly this still kept its 15 BBFC certificate, like all the other CoD games. Other sections emphasised the lack of realism found in this title by having you and a group of four men defend a Feudal era Japanese fort from an oncoming barrage of Japanese forces
in waves interspersed with smoke grenades and multiple assaults. With this outing there were few major additions to the gameplay itself, multiplayer did see an increase of interest in the map packs program that Activision championed and the addition of Co-Op to the main single player campaign also made it a very desirable game. The biggest hit with both the mainstream and gamer crowd was the addition of Nazi Zombies. Unlocked after completing the game, it allowed you and three others to link up and survive for as long as you could against an oncoming hoard of Nazi Zombies. It was incredibly popular and was again featured on Treyarch’s fourth CoD game Black Ops. For many the Call of Duty franchise didn’t exist in their lives until the gaming beast that is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 came along. Infinity wards fourth entry into the Call of Duty series (although actually the 6th game in the main cannon), was a direct sequel to Modern Warfare, something which is entirely new to the series as previously they have been unconnected events all joined under the banner of World War. Receiving astounding reviews from almost every publication, and having a score on Metacritic of 94% this was the best selling Call of Duty game to date. Activision pushed this title for all it was worth, launching it with three different versions, to entice sales for the game further. You had your standard edition, your hardened edition and a Prestige edition which came with a pair of working night vision goggles. If the game alone wasn’t enough to win you over then the gimmicks they packaged with it could entice some newcomers into the franchise.
Critical to this games success, and how it became so immensely popular, boils down to its presentation. Done away entirely is any semblance of realism, instead opting for all out hollywood thrills and spills. Explosions are not scarce by any means and nor was controversy. The now infamous ‘No Russian’ level was met with disdain from the general press, deeming it as a murder simulator for allowing the player to choose whether they kill innocent civilians or leave them alone. Regardless of the actual lack of moral choice and issue in this section, which quickly reverted back to your standard CoD affair after a promising moral issue kicking it off, the controversy helped shift even more units of the game. Unsurprisingly this was the first game in the series to receive the full 18 certificate from the BBFC. The usual issue of brand loyalty brought over the old fans of the series who hadn’t already started jumping ship, and then word of mouth, and a heavy advertising promotion drew even more in. As much as many dismiss MW2 as being a largely awful CoD game in comparison to its earlier, tamer entries, one cannot deny that it brought new mechanics to the FPS genre. Multiplayer stayed largely the same as found in MW and WaW,
new perks were added in and a few more game modes. Nazi Zombies, was not featured mostly due to Treyarch not having anything to do with MW2’s development. Infinity Ward did however intergrate Co-Op into the game a via challenge mode that unlocked extra perks for the online multiplayer. This was by far the strongest section of the game, reverting away from the thrills and spills found in the summer blockbuster of a campaign, and opting instead for deep gameplay. Many levels echoed missions from the CoD4’s campaign or took elements from MW2’s and opened them out into tactical shooters. Modern Warfare 2 was also where map packs became a must own commodity for anybody who played online. Shops began to stock points cards so it was easier for your average consumer to go out and pick up these map packs and play online. The latest release in the franchise is once again a Treyarch developed game. Call of Duty: Black Ops is an entirely fictional entry into the series set during the Cold War. Pitched originally as a historical entry into the game not a single section of the game is based in realistic events, even within the covert black operations that supposedly went on. A sure sign that none of this is based with historical facts in mind is that many of the weapons aren’t actually accurate for the games setting, with one gun in particular having not been invented for some years later and others being much more powerful than they ever would have been. This is once again a game very much based in the cinema. A game designed as a game rather than a simulation, something to entertain rather than to provoke thought. Chock full of explosions and violence this is the second in the series to receive the BBFC 18 certificate. Focusing solely on an American soldier who has been captured by a government agency and tortured for the information he knows, the game plays out as a series of flashbacks explaining all that happened. Its a very interesting format for doing a game, and shows that Treyarch have really come on leaps and bounds over the years, however its a shame that the whole affair is just entirely unrealistic.
The reason for its intense popularity, making it officially the best selling Call of Duty game to date (although that title will no doubt be shattered by Modern Warfare 3), comes not only from its ease of accessibility in being very much like a film, but also from its heavy online reworking. Perks are still around, as is the general levelling system, but much more attention has been paid to it overall. Weapon balancing has happened, much to the displeasure of many MW2 fans, and an introduction of a one hit kill mode has also generated a lot more fans of the online arena. With the return of Zombies, Black Ops pretty much cemented its popularity with fans of Nazi Zombies in WaW. Now with more maps and a whole slew coming down via DLC, namely George A. Romero’s Call of the Dead. DLC is also a key component to Black Ops’ success as it seems almost every month a new pack is out and people can’t stop clambering over one another to get it fast enough. Each pack adds a new set of multiplayer maps and a new Zombie mode to the proceedings, just adding that little extra bit of longevity. A real test of how great the game is seen in the eyes of the public will be when MW3 launches, those who stay behind clearly aren’t just jumping from one CoD game to the next. So what changed? What made Infinity Ward’s humble historical shooter, designed to entertain and educate, transform from the film world equivalent
of a low budget one week release to a 2 month multi million dollar summer blockbuster? Largely it was just the change in gaming trends. The xbox 360 brought in a new and completely untapped market of new gamers who wanted realistic visuals to match their gameplay, and with CoD2 being there in the right time it meant it gained a huge fan base almost overnight. Part of its success came from modernising the series too. If it wasn’t for Infinity Ward feeling like they had done all they could do with the World War shooter, then many would not have switched on to the brilliance of the CoD games. A modern environment, and guns that are all largely exactly the same, seems more realistic to many and also more entertaining and relevant (I’m not exactly sure how something can be more relevant than World War II, but what do I know…). Modern Warfare 2’s marriage of cinema and gameplay is what cemented the franchise into the lives of the mainstream. Ultimately its evolution came from a change in trends, graphics and interests. Looking at it this way it seems Call of Duty’s phenomenal expansion was nothing special at all, indeed it all seems perfectly relative.
With Modern Warfare 3 launching on November 8th worldwide Activision are hoping to recreate the immense success they met with when they launched Black Ops last year. However after the collapse of Infinity Ward can it really live upto the hype? Now being developed by The left-overs at IW, Raven Software and Sledgehammer Games it could be an incredibly hit or miss entry. No doubt it will be filled with the thrills and spills that made the games so popular with the public but if the online isn’t up to scratch it will impact its success massively, as single player gameplay seems to be of no importance to the mass majority of CoD fans. With Battlefield 3 looming in the background Activision could be in trouble from the EA assault, who were previously the king of the FPS genre.
Author: Dylan365v
Medal of Honor has been around a lot longer than some gamers may remember. With it’s first title, Medal of Honor, releasing on the play station on November 11th 1999. The franchise has had roughly fifteen games to date, with the most recent being released in October of last year with a revamp in the series and the story focusing on the war in Afghanistan.
At least one game in the Medal of Honor series has been on every games device, except the DS (as far as I am aware). Over its many years the game has been developed by studios such as EA Los Angeles, Dream Works Interactive, 2015 Inc, TKO Software, Budcat Creations, EA Digital Illusions CE, Rebellion Developments and Netherock Ltd. The series has come a long way since 1999. Lets take a look at its history.
Medal of Honor, 1999:
Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, 2002:
This is the first ever Medal of Honor game there was, and to still one of the most critically acclaimed in the series. A joint project between EA and Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks Interactive was supposedly intended to be a spin-off of Spielberg’s 1998 movie, Saving Private Ryan. The game which tells the story of OSS (today known as the CIA) agent Lt. Jimmy Patterson as he takes on the Nazi in Northern Europe near the end of World War II.
A Gameboy Advance exclusive, Medal of Honor: Infiltrator sees you return to classic routes as the game resembles a lot to old-school arcade shooters.
Medal of Honor: Underground, 2000:
Medal of Honor: Rising Sun, 2003:
Releasing on the Playstation and the Game Boy Advance, Medal of Honor: Underground sees you play as French Resistance fighter, Manon Batiste. Along with the games release, members of the development team said they wanted to focus on making the game more intimate rather then on an entire military organization.
Medal of Honor: Frontline, 2002:
Now moving into a new generation on console’s, Medal of Honor: Frontline released in 2002 onto the Playsation 2, Xbox and GameCube. Not moving away from its roots however, OSS agent Lt. Jimmy Patterson makes a return to the game and the story actually takes place between missions three and four on the original game.
Allied Assault was the first MoH game to be developed for the PC. The story brings you on a journey with U.S. Army Ranger Lt. Mike Powell as he fights his way through Omaha Beach on D-Day.
Medal of Honor: Infiltrator, 2003:
Changing its ways slightly with this one, Medal of Honor: Rising Sun heads to the Pacific. Kicking off the game with the Pearl Harbour attack, there could have been no more of an epic opening, in my opinion. Taking on the role of Cpl. Joseph Griffin players must survive the Pearl Harbour attack and later head to Singapore on missions after being recruited by the OSS. Originally, Rising Sun was meant to be a two part game. The second focusing on Donnie Griffin, Joseph Griffins brother, who was captured by the Japanese. Unfortunately though Rising Sun part 2 was later cancelled.
Medal of Honor: European Assault, 2005:
European Assault sees Apocalypse Now screenwriter, John Milius, take to the reigns of writing the story and it is rather a good one. Heading to St. Nazaire, France, players raid Nazi submarine pens and then move onto many other locations including the Soviet Union, North Africa and Belgium. Also this game sees the return of Medal of Honor: Underground’s Manon Batiste as you have to rescue him from a Belgian farm where he is being kept prisoner later in the game.
Medal of Honor: Heroes, 2006:
A PSP exclusive brings back some of the main characters from previous Medal of Honor games. Characters such as Lt. Jimmy Patterson, Sgt. John Baker and Lt. William Holt all make a return to the game where they take on more of world war two. Also the game brings the story line that would have been Rising Sun 2 to an end, where we find out that Jimmy Patterson successfully rescued his brother from the Japanese.
Medal of Honor: Airborne, 2007:
Airborne was the first MoH of the ‘next generation’ consoles. Locations such as Italy, France, the Netherlands and Germany are all included. Starting off the game in style by parachuting into battle from a “Dakota” plane, leaves if up to players on where to start off the game rather then a certain start off point. Promoting a more open experience to the player.
Medal of Honor: Vanguard, 2007:
Vanguard was the first Medal of Honor to hit the Wii, but it was the tenth game in the franchise. Playing as Sgt. Frank Keegan you face battles in Operation Husky, Operations Neptune on D-Day and Operation Market Garden and later on in the game Operation Varsity as part of the 17h Airborne Division.
Medal of Honor: Heroes 2, 2007:
Being the totally opposite to the games name and in fact the last Medal of Honor to be set in WWII, this game is rather interesting. Unlike the original Heroes game, Heroes 2 does not have any previous heroes from games but takes on a brand new character, yes character not plural. So in that case it should be called ‘Hero’ again, not plural. The game however did one thing rather cool and that was it supported 32 players online. Unfortunately it was on the Wii and PSP so not everybody got to enjoy the experience.
Medal of Honor, 2010:
The 2010 re-launch of Medal of Honor sees the game step into a new era of war. The story takes place in Afghanistan and sees the player take on the roles of “Rabbit”, a DEVGRU operator, “Deuce” a delta force sniper, Army Ranger Specialist, Dante Adams and “Hawk” an AH-64 Apache gunner while facing the Taliban and Al-Queda in the sandy terrains of Afghanistan. The game received a mark of 74 on Metacritic and it has also been confirmed that there is a sequel to Medal of Honor in the works.
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Everyone who has a Wii should play Metroid Prime. Eveybody who has an Xbox 360 should play Halo. Everybody who has a PS3, should definitely play Killzone.
If there was a competition to determine which video game genre currently has the most game releases under it’s belt and is the most selling in the market, I’m pretty sure the First Person Shooter genre would take the crown. Followed closely by the Role Playing Game genre, if XBLA and PSN titles were counted, but that’s a slightly different story. Our focus today is upon the famous FPS genre and my focus in particular is upon one of it’s most unique and highest ranking franchises – Killzone. Currently, the hardest thing for an FPS game to
gameplay and graphical quality, but it’s to be different and unique. And this, in my opinion, is one of the most important bullets in the Killzone shotgun. Now, I know some gamers may differ with me on this, but hear me out, or read me out if you prefer, and then shoot me down in a blaze of glory with some interesting comments. Trust me, I won’t mind Now, let’s get us some KZ! The original Killzone title was released on Nov 26 2004 by the Netherlands based Guerrilla Games company exclusively to the PlayStation 2. The game was a commercial success and received an overall Metacritic rating of 70/100 from 67 reviews. Killzone was the PlayStation’s attempt to counter the recent Halo mania that hit the Xbox with the release of Halo: Combat Evolved, but did not reach quite that level of success. With that said, Killzone was successful in creating new Intellectual Property for the Playstation mark, and one that had much more yet to offer. A prime example of Killzone’s popularity being embedded into the heart of it’s fanbase can be seen in the popular fan made video – Killzone Extraction HD. It also succeeded in creating a harsh universe where war is gritty, hard, and horrible. The graphical depiction of each game is a staple for the franchise, and whether you have played Killzone or not, nearly every gamer is familiar with the image of the bright orange Helghast stare. Helghast soldiers are known for their thick grey/black armour, orange eyed helmets and military lifestyle. Not the most approachable of beings, they were once Humans of the normal kind until they were forcibly allocated to the harsh planet of Helghan.
Now for some Backstory...
Earth had reached breaking point after a nuclear based civil war and planetary resources reached exhaustion level (possibly World War 3). Earth’s remaining power house nations combined their left over industrial resources and wealthy governments to form a global scale leadership, the UCN (United Colonial Nations). This leadership ignited a global scale effort for planetary colonisation, which took the human race to the Alpha Centauri quadrant beyond the solar system (Sol). Here, two planets were found and later targeted for colonisation, Vekta and Helghan. Vekta was a lush, earth like habitable planet, whilst Helghan is an unstable world, consisting of a brutal environment containing electrical skylines, unstable storms and a toxic atmosphere. In 2128, these two planets became investments by the Helghan Corporation after the UCN (United Colonial Nations) decided to auction them. Over the coming decades, Helghast Corp and it’s population colonised Vekta and chose to deploy a prefabricated space station orbiting Helghan to manage automated facilities on the surface and help harness it’s rich energy and planetary resources. Orbital facilities began to grow around Helghan in the following years, and the Helghan Corporation made good profits from the production of energy on the Helghan planet, which was sold to ships passing through the system. Shipbuilding also becomes an industry of Helghan, and became the largest of its kind outside of Earth. In 2200, the First Extrasolar War breaks out in Alpha Centauri between the Helghan Administration and the United Colonial Nations. The Helghan fleet meets the UCN Navy over Helghan, but are no match for the superior UCA Navy ships. During the battle many of the orbital facilities surrounding Helghan were destroyed, including the main hub which was home to the shipbuilding and management of the Helghan industries. Following the war, the H e l g h a n Administration is dissolved and
the system is put under direct ISA administration. The planet of Helghan becomes the destination of many Helghan loyalists who leave Vekta to escape ISA occupation beginning in 2204 and ending by 2210. You see, the Helghast were basically a faction of humans. The planet’s harsh environment forced the Helghast to adapt and mutate so much that they can no longer be considered human. They became stronger, faster and more resilient than normal humans, and established nothing but resentment for the rest of humanity. Except for a small number of half-breed Helghast and trained troopers, they require a gas mask and air processing tank that creates air similar to that found on the planet Helghan. Settlements were set up on Helghan’s surface during 2215-2220, and by 2305 the settlers manage to develop a living on the planet. However, due to ongoing sanctions placed on the planet by the UCN and enforced by the ISA, Helghan went through an economic depression. This made its inhabitants more bitter towards the ISA and their collaborators, and allowed for Scolar Visari’s rise to power in 2347.
Killzone (PS2) November 2004 Rating – PEGI 16+
released
The original Killzone game told the story of the Second Extrasolar War between the UCN/ISA forces and The Helghan Empire. It is the year 2357 and Scolar Visari leads his people in an invasion on the neighbouring planet of Vekta in an attempt to take back what was once theirs and expand the empire. Jan Templar is the protagonist of this tale and becomes pivotal in ISA’s ground forces repelling the invasion. The games single player campaign ran for around 30 hours long (oh, I miss the PS2 era) and kept the narrative fresh with 4 playable characters, Templar (main character), Rico (major assault), Lugher (stealth element), Hakha (scout style) The title also offered a Multiplayer option supporting up to 16 players online and the option to play with bots (AI soldiers) with 3 different difficulty settings. Two player co-op with bots was also a possibility. Metacritic Rating – 70% (based on 67 reviews) Game Rankings rating – 73% (based on 80 reviews) Killzone sold over 2 million units.
Killzone Liberation (PSP) released November 2004 Rating – PEGI 16+
Picking up the story 2 months after the end of Killzone, Jan Templar continues his fight on Vekta to rid the planet of Helghast invasion forces. This is the only KZ title played from a third person perspective and supported 6 player adhoc multiplayer and 8 player infrastructure based multiplayer modes.
The player has a birds eye isometric style view and can easily see enemies approaching from all directions. Metacritic Rating – 77% Killzone Liberation sold over 700,000 units.
Killzone 2 (PS3) released February 2009 Rating – PEGI 18+
Set in 2359, two years after the Heghast invasion upon Vekta, ISA forces are now mounting an invasion of their own. ISA is on a mission to not only invade Helghan and confront the Helghast in their own home, but to capture Scolar Visari himself. Killzone 2 offers arguably the best Killzone experience ever, plus a new protagonist Tomas “Sev” Sevchenko (Rank Sgt 1st Class) is added to the mix. Jan Templar makes cameo appearance. The single player game (non co-op) runs for approx 8 to 10 hours and adds a smart cover system, vehicular gameplay and explosive on-rail segments. The multiplayer section (know was Warzone) is breath taking with 32 player support and a class based system. Players can earn points for promotions, more classes and weapon upgrades/attachments. Bots also make a return and can be added to the mix. Metacritic Rating – 91% Game Rankings rating – 91% Killzone 2 sold over 2.7 million units.
Killzone 3 (PS 3) released February 2011 Rating – PEGI 18+
Continuing seconds after the huge climax from Killzone 2, Sevchenko and the few remaining ISA forces begin the battle for their lives as they attempt to fight their way off Helghan with the entire Helghast Empire on their tails. New characters and an improved multiplayer package provide another stellar, edge of your seat action packed adventure, including Move support and full 3D playability. The campaign again runs from 8 to 10 hours long but takes the player through an array of conflicting scenery with snow based, jungle based and metallic junk based levels to boot. Further gameplay elements include the addition of well animated Melee moves, your AI partner resurrecting you when shot down, and Jetpacks. The multiplayer suite from KZ2 returns with a bigger bolder and more enhanced experience (up to 24 players supported). Classes based progression return, aswell as Bot based matchups and a new Operations mode allows players team up (online) and run through a 3 chapter story based adventure (including cut scenes and narrative).
Main MP Classes available – Engineer, Tactician, Marskman, Field Medic and Infiltrator. Metacritic Rating – 84% (based on 84 reviews) Game Rankings rating – 83% (based on 57 reviews) Killzone 3 sold over 1.7 million units. On a side note, expect a second hand-held version of a Killzone game to be announced in the future. This un-titles KZ addition is currently being developed by SCE Cambridge Studio’s for the PS Vita. The Killzone franchise has reached near the 7 million mark in sales, a respectable number for any console exclusive franchise, and Sony’s major staple in the FPS market. Killzone 3 only release a few months ago, thus expect this number to increase as we the year continues.
Killzone & I…
My personal story with the KZ franchise begun a year after KZ2’s release. I hadn’t touched an FPS title in a while and was primarily playing 3rd person titles (my favourite genre). Neither Halo, nor Call of Duty, nor any other FPS was able to coax me back to the FPS ring. Until I saw Killzone 2 in action at my cousins place. I always knew that when I did return to the FPS genre, then it would have to grab me with both hands and pull me in for good. Killzone 2 was my ticket back, and I was in love. Killzone gave me everything I wanted. Tight controls, heavy guns with visual and technical feedback, and above all else, intelligent AI in my squad and most importantly, challenging AI in my enemies. Pulling the trigger in a KZ game is a different take from pulling the trigger on most FPS’s, and I do not mean to bash other games, I’m just try to explain how Killzone is very Killzone and not a replica of other successful brands.
Most FPS titles offer a certain degree of enemy AI but most of them feel like a means to an end. KZ offers a challenge like no other in both the form of Bots and the campaign. Higgs (Helghast) dive behind cover, use it intelligently to fight and flank the player, and suitably keep moving around the environment to pose a realistic level of challenge. Killzone Liberation introduced a Gear of War style cover system to the franchise and this was later expanded into a fully fledged first person view cover system in Killzone 2 & then expanded further again in Killzone 3 to include extra elements such as sliding into cover and more enhanced blind fire/auto fire. From a sound point of view, Killzone easily ranks with the best of them. The
soundtrack adds to the depth of emotion, the desperate cries and shouts from your team mates initiate a well required feeling of panic, bullets whizz past with great finesse, and the explosions speak for themselves. If you want an action packed cinematic futuristic shooter with massive set-piece action, co-op offline gameplay, full 3D capability, motion based Move support, a cut scene driven narrative, trigger happy finger twitching gameplay, a unique universe to dive into and a multiplayer suite that’s second to none, then look no further. Killzone was my entry back into the FPS genre and after KZ2 I went on to complete 16 more FPS campaign’s (and some limited Multiplayer time investment) including Halo, Call of Duty, Killzone 3, Call of Juarez:Bound in Blood and a few more over the span of 13 months. Oh, and yes, the R1 & R2 buttons on my controller are a little worn out after that. I think my controllers hate me. The unique feel of the overall gameplay package is what really stands KZ apart from every other FPS franchise out there (and there are lots). For me Killzone isn’t so clean cut. You see, was it really the Helghast who begun this terrible tale of chaos and murder? Maybe, and maybe not. I mean, all the Helghast were doing was make progress. Wasn’t it the UCN/ISA who drew first blood out of political fear. Fear that the Helghast may become more powerful than expected, thus becoming a future challenge for power. How would you react if you were dumped on a poisonous planet and watched your friends, family and children die. Maybe this is the reason for the anger that burns behind every pair of orange eyes on Helghan. If the Helghast didn’t have a reason to fight before, then I’m certain what I saw at the end of Killzone 3 will only push the Helghast hatred even further. There will surely be a Killzone 4 on the horizon. And I request to I personally request to Sony and Guerrilla Games to please tell the story from the Helghast side. I’d actually like to play an entire single player campaign through orange eyes, but realistically, this would be an extremely unlikely case.
Author: Otakucho
The Battlefield series started with the combination the Stockholm based studio Refraction Games, Whom in 1999 Developed a First Person Shooter called “Codename Eagle”, and Sweden’s EA Digital Illusions CD (DICE) to bring you .
The series is very well known for introducing 6 man squad focused game play, large scale maps, and vehicles. With nice options on if you wanted to travel by land, sea, or even by Air. Battlefield wanted to give gamers a more realistic feel with environments that were able to be destroyed. Battlefield 1942 was created as the “ultimate multiplayer gaming experience around Christmas 1999 with the creation of the Refractor 2 engine”, as Lars Gustavsson discussed with Gamespot in an interview back in 2002. The single player element was consisted of 4 campaigns in North Africa, the Pacific, Western Europe, and Eastern Europe which allowed you to participate in some of the most notable battles as part of the “Axis” or “Allied” forces. Unlike most games Battlefield gave you a task but did not explain how it should be accomplished. The multiplayer introduced the “Conquest” mode where players would “capture” locations to rack up points to secure victory. There were two expansions that were released “The Road to Rome” which released in February 2003 with 6 maps that took place in Italy between the French and Italian forces and included some notable features. The German BR110 and British Mosquito fighter bombers, M3 Grant tank, a bayonet on the Engineer’s rifle for melee, the Italian Breda 30 and the British Sten SMG. Road to Rome received a 9.1 rating from IGN and a 8.9 from GameSpot. It was criticized
for not having new multiplayer modes, newer weapons (aside from the Breda and the Sten) and stability concerns. Even with these negatives players were happy with the new map designs. The second expansion “Secret Weapons of WWII” was released in April 2003 and brought 5 new factions which were given unique weapons that were made available by selecting that particular faction or picking it up off of a fallen enemy. 16 New Vehicles, 9 New Weapons, 8 New Maps, and a new Objective Based multiplayer mode. It was praised for the variety added to the game without turning people away from the original draw of the series and for having a “style all of its own”. It was criticized for its high price for an expansion, Also, some critics disliked the fanciful nature of many of the new weapons and vehicles introduced by the expansion. Some players felt “while based in historical equipment and encounters, nevertheless offers up a steroid-enhanced version of the regular game with plenty of new weapons that were on the cutting edge of technology (or merely on the drawing board) at the close of the Second World War.” according to IGN. Battlefield Vietnam was Developed by Digital Illusions Canada using the Refractor Engine, Designed by Armando “AJ” Marini, and released in March 2004. As the second of the Battlefield series this title was mainly influenced by popular Vietnam War movies. Built on a modified Battlefield 1942 Refractor engine, the game featured a revolutionary war between 2 sides whose relative military power, strategy, and/ or tactics differs significantly attempt to exploit each other’s “characteristic weaknesses”. The US would rely more on heavy vehicles while the Vietnamese relied more on infantry tactics. The overall game play was intended to reflect the actual conditions of the war, such as the “Sipi Hole” for the Vietnamese to represent the vast tunnel networks the Vietnamese used in the actual war and it seemed to be a good way to balance the game play.
The game featured a nice variety of tanks, choppers, air craft, and even a nifty Vespa for the Vietnamese side. There were a number of modifications available for download which added a few maps, new weapons and even a mortar launcher. Critics seemed to be happy with the graphical improvements, vast selection of maps, vehicles, weapons, and online multiplayer. They were really only unhappy with the lack of intelligence given to the enemy AI who would “often ignore the player even while being attacked”. Battlefield 2 was developed by DICE with a little contribution by Trauma Studios and released in June 2005. This title released with 4 expansions, which included DICE’s 1st Console Release Battlefield 2: Modern Combat. Battlefield 2 featured strategy and RPG elements involving battles between the US Marine Core (USMC), China, and a fictional Middle Eastern Coalition (MEC). This was the first modernized battlefield title taking place in different fronts, as the Middle East and China are being invaded by US and EU forces, and the United States is being invaded by Chinese and MEC forces. As well as the pioneer for Squad based FPS gaming with an integrated Voice-over IP (VOIP) system. Each team was allowed up to 9 Squads per team that were automatically assigned a number and name for identification. Battlefield 2 was mainly a multiplayer game with a single player mode with 3 difficulty levels. Both modes had the same game maps and used the conquest game mode. Single player allowed 16 Non Player Characters (NPC’s) and multiplayer allowed 64 players. This game introduced Progress in the game is made via promotions which allow additional weapons to be unlocked. By playing the game on ranked servers, players are able to add to their global player statistics. These statistics are used to award promotions and other achievements. The Primary focus of Battlefield 2 was to reduce your opponent’s “Tickets”, which represented an army’s ability to reinforce their position on the battlefield, and Control Points which were Battlefield 2’s “spawn points”. There were 2 Game play modes Conquest and Cooperative. The only difference between the two modes is that Cooperative includes computer controlled players, whilst Conquest allows
only human players. Results from Cooperative mode do not count toward global player statistics. The weapons in this game were restricted to what particular class the player chose before they would spawn. The classes were put in 2 categories Heavy Class (Assault, support, and anti tank) and Light Class (Special Ops, Sniper, Engineer or sapper, and Medic or Corpsman). There were about 30 different Vehicles all based on real-life vehicles used by the militaries of different countries. There are 15 maps for play but only comes shipped with 12. The maps are very diverse ranging from swamps, urban areas, to an unfinished dam.
Battlefield 2 gained widespread approval from critics including 5 stars from pretty large reviewing organizations. With its increased popularity and positive feedback stating, “Its finely tuned maps and balanced game play prove that you CAN improve on perfection.” it was honored Game of the Year and sold over 2.2 million copies worldwide within 1 year of release. Battlefield 2142 is the fourth game in the series Developed by DICE Stockholm using a modified Refractor 2 Engine to bring a PC and yes MAC release in 2006. This title opened up new categories of vehicles and weapons not seen in Battlefield 2 and introduces the “unlock system” which enabled players to
choose a new unlock every time they achieve a new rank instead of having to purchase the item. This release has a “booster pack” expansion which added new maps, unlocks, and vehicles. Battlefield 2142 has 2 game play modes Conquest and Titan which can be played online in multiplayer maps without using mods. Both modes support up to 64 players per server depending on the server set up. The single player mode of conquest consists of a maximum of 16 players of which 15 are NPCs. The game features 4 different playable “kits” which can be selected at any time. They were a combination of the kits of battlefield 2 to allow more customization of the available classes. Each kit contained a basic weapon, secondary weapon, and a knife (and introducing obtaining dog tags for each player you kill with a knife). The player is able to gain rank, options, and equipment by gaining points in game. Now with the new unlocks system players now can better customize their particular kit to make it more effective as they gain ranks. Each class has 2 unlock able weapons and 1 passive unlock which is an upgrade to the
soldier’s helmet having different functions. The benefits of one soldier’s helmet upgrade would also be shared with their squad mates. The new Titan mode’s objective is for 1 team to destroy the opposing team’s Titan, which are massive heavily-armored, flying warships. As the force fields are up during the first part of a battle, players must fight to control the anti-Titan missile silos scattered about the battlefield on the ground. Titans can be moved around the battlefield, but only by the team’s Commander. Each Titan can defend itself and contribute to the fight on the ground with 4 antiground guns and 2 anti-air guns. Moving the Titans were known to cause latency issues, so some players prefer not to move them at all. After the shields are down, there are two methods to destroy the enemy Titan. One way is to simply remain on the ground and hold the anti-Titan missiles until they wear down the hull. Another quicker alternative is to board their Titan using “assault pods” launched from an APC (Armored Personnel Carrier), After the shields are down, there are two methods to destroy the enemy Titan. One way is to simply remain on the ground and hold the anti-Titan missiles until they wear down the hull. Another quicker alternative is to board their Titan using “assault pods” launched from an Armored Personal Carrier (APC), air transport, Titan, or spawn beacon, spawn on your squad leader, or land an air transport on a Titan as a mobile spawn point. Battlefield 2142’s “booster pack” Northern Strike contained ten new unlocks, three new maps, two new vehicles, and a new game mode called Assault Lines. Assault Lines mode is similar to Conquest, but with a couple of major differences. Conquest maps feature the PAC as the attacking force with the EU defending, whereas Assault Lines reverses the roles. In Assault Lines, the APCs on Port Bavaria and the Goliath are spawn points for troops, much like they are in Titan mode, however the Goliath may not be stolen by the other team. The PAC home base cannot
be captured until every other base on the map belongs to the EU team before they can begin claiming the base as their own. A new interesting addition to the title was in-game advertising provide by IGA worldwide, which was featured in Battlefield 2. The system wasn’t really to accepted by a lot of players since it was considered Adware. Battlefield 2142 generally received positive reviews from game-rating communities but lower than those of its predecessors. Consumers of the game (particularly Mac users) were quite disgruntled due to the game’s very buggy initial release. EA released a patch which resolved most of the game’s bugs, but didn’t seem to please the players “lag issues when boarding Titans”. Battlefield Bad Company, released in June 2008 By DICE introduces the newly Developed Frostbite Engine, and was designed by Patrick Bach and Tobias Falk Exclusively for Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. Bad company is a fictional war between the USA and the Russian Federation where players fight against the Russians, Middle Eastern Coalition (MEC) and Legionnaire mercenaries. This title brings back destroyable environments, and Introduces a single player storyline campaign to the series. Multiplayer maps take place in Europe, in the fictional Eastern European country of Serdaristan, and an unnamed fictional Middle Eastern country of the MEC in a city called Sadiz, which is located somewhere on the Caspian Sea. The game is set in a newer future war and follows a 4 man squad from “Bad Company of the 222nd Army Battalion”. Players can hold one primary weapon which each has its own secondary, along with a combat knife, grenades and other picked up explosives and devices. Players start with 100 health, which i s reduced by damage. Wounded players heal by using the LIFE2 auto-injector. Interesting enough almost everything is entirely
destructible but bullets cannot go through most walls. Multiplayer supports 24 players, and Gold Rush was the only mode included in the initial release. Attackers vs. Defenders scenario in 8 initial maps with objectives for the attackers to destroy the defender’s “Gold crates”. and proceed further as more of the map opens up. The Attackers would have a limited amount o f spawns to either set a charge or just simply destroy the 2 crates at each base, while the defenders have an unlimited amount of spawns and have to well, defend the crates and exhaust the attacker’s spawns. Later on in august 2008 a free download package was released to add Conquest mode with modified versions of 4 maps. In October 2008 a map pack featuring more conquest maps and trophies for both offline and online play. The game has 25 ranks each from the US army’s ranks and credits were awarded for ranking up used to unlock weapons, except for the weapons included in the “find all 5 program. The “Find All Five” program is a way for players to unlock specific weapons. The game’s official website includes promotional events that give the player codes for unlock able weapons. Unlock credits are not granted with every rank. A particular selection of five weapons may be unlocked only by ranking up to Rank 25 or by purchasing the Gold Edition. Battlefield: Bad Company received positive reviews. Professional reviews for the game have been very positive, A large portion of praise went to the game’s realistically destructible environments, impressive weapons, variety of game play and vehicles, and its “extraordinary” multiplayer game play. Criticism was mainly on a sluggish opening and graphics as well as the “inflexible AI that requires lessons”. Battlefield Heroes was released in June 2009 by DICE
and
Easy Studios using the Refractor 2 Engine for PC as their 1st Free 2 play title. Battlefield Heroes is a cartoony style initially developed by DICE and now is being developed by Easy Studios. It is a break away from the usual First Person Shooter and is a Third Person Shooter. The game is only multiplayer online and features a modified conquest mode where each team has 50 lives and 1 flag at the start of the round, the longer the flag is held, the opposing team’s lives will decrease. The two armies are “National Army”(Red base and flag) and “Royal Army”(Blue base and flag). On June 26, 2011, hacker group LulzSec announced that they were able to hack into Battlefield Heroes and steal screen names and MD5-hashed passwords of over 550,000 beta users. According to the staff nothing was compromised and as a result of this breach BF Heroes was taken offline pending investigation. The game has been called “Fun, frantic, and free but not unfortunately flawless” it has had mixed ratings and reviews and from what I’ve noticed has actually been rated one of the lowest among its predecessors. Battlefield 1943 was released in June 2009 developed by DICE using the Frostbite Engine as an online multiplayer Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network digital download exclusive release. Unlike 1942 this release takes place only in the Pacific Theater of Operations of WWII. Players can choose either the USMC or the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) with up to 24 players on 3 classic battlefield maps. After players collectively reached 43 million kills their console versions were given access to 1 extra map and 1 new game mode. The game play modes were Conquest and a new game mode called “Air Superiority” which was
part of the 43 million kill unlock. The Air Superiority mode was basically a dogfight TDM. There are only 3 Classes in this version and 4 types of vehicles. Each team’s base has 2 single man fighter aircraft. There is an airfield for either team to capture where a 3rd plane was available for the capturing team to use. According to the game’s development team, accessibility and value were the main reasons the game went digital as opposed to a retail launch. At the time of the Xbox Live Arcade version’s release, issues with server joining and statistic recording functionality were reported. DICE’s Gordon Van Dyke and EA responded to the situation, noting that the player volume was higher than expected and server capacity was exceeded. Battlefield 1943 was the top selling Xbox live arcade game of 2009 and it moved over 270,000 units in 2010. In addition to having the best sales ever on the first day it was released, Battlefield 1943 went on to become the fastest selling download-only game after the first week. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 was released in March 2010 using the Frostbite 1.5 Engine. The game is mainly a squad-based online FPS based in a modern warfare setting. The Single player mode continues the story from bad company as the character “Preston Marlowe”. The game begins in October 1944, as a group of US commandos infiltrate an Imperial Japanese Navy-controlled island in the Sea of Japan as part of “Operation Aurora”. They secure a Japanese scientist who was working on a secret scalar weapon codenamed ‘The Black Weapon,’ and escape the island on a submarine. However as foreshadowed by the scientist’s warnings the commandos witness the weapon being fired and perish from a resulting tsunami, sparking a myth within the U.S. Army. Each mission is broken up into objectives often with cut scenes to “simulate” the style of films”. Each weapon in the campaign is considered a “collectible”, there are also sensor stations that players can find and destroy which can be recorded in the campaign stats. The multiplayer is class based with the usual 4 classes of prior Battlefield games, certain weapons are universal between the classes while others are class specific. New items and unlocks are awarded by earning experience points which are gained by performing actions to assist in the victory of the player’s team. Certain Bonuses to the base number of points can be gained under certain circumstances, such as headshots while defending or capturing. There are 15 vehicles including new additions the UH-60 Black Hawk, a quad bike, a four-man patrol boat, a personal watercraft, a ZU-23 mounted on a BMD-3
armored personnel carrier, and a UAV helicopter (a Northrop Grumman MQ-8 Fire Scout) controlled via remote computer terminals. The maps are set in South America and Alaska near the borders of Russia, similar to those seen in the single player. Players can use party chat as well as VOIP. The dog tag system from 2142 was also implemented into this title, and to beef up security PunkBuster anti-cheat program was implemented. A new game mode, Onslaught, was released where up to four players cooperatively face endless waves of computer controlled enemies. Senior Producer Patrick Bach said the mode would “Challenge the elite players with new experiences to improve their performance online.” Battlefield Bad Company 2 also released a Vietnam Expansion pack in December 2010. The expansion pack contains 5 new maps, 6 new vehicles, and 15 new weapons. The fifth map, Operation Hastings, was planned to be unlocked when the playing community reached 69,000,000 team play actions (revives, resupplies, assists etc.) on each platform. While it was unlocked for PC in December 2010, the map was released early on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 as a “new year’s gift” from DICE. It also includes 49 contemporary music tracks which can be listened to via an in-game radio as well as new voice over’s for both American and Vietnamese forces, based on authentic communication from the Vietnam war. Ten new Xbox Live achievements/PSN trophies are also available to unlock. The game has received highly positive reviews praising the improvements
made from the first Bad Company. A lot of the positive feedback was for Bad Company 2’s multiplayer, but a lot of negative feedback towards the single player, critics felt the single player was “predictable” As of March 2010, 2.3 million copies of Bad Company 2 had been sold in Europe and North America. By May 2010 it had sold more than 5 million copies, which had grown to “almost 6 million” by November. Battlefield Online was released in March 2010 for Korea Developed by DICE and published by Neowis games and Electronic Arts. The title uses a modified Refractor 2 Engine and is a remake of Battlefield 2. Not too much has been said about this particular title aside that it has shown support for up to 100 max player battles. Battlefield Play 4 Free was released in April 2011 by DICE and Easy Studios using a modified Refractor 2 Engine as the second free 2 play Battlefield game for PC. Instead of going Third Person Shooter, this title goes back to First Person Shooter and features a modern warfare setting. This title is a combination of Battlefield 2 and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 for low end machines. The game supports up to 32 player’s per battle, choosing either Russia or US. The game starts up from your web browser where there you can customize your player as part of the registration. So far it has 4 maps, 16 vehicles, and 4 classes. Battlefield 3 is the highly anticipated Game being released October 2011 Developed by EA DICE using the brand new Frostbite 2 engine. The title features Single, co-op, and multiplayer modes
(64 player on PC and a lower amount for consoles). The game will feature maps in Paris, Tehran, Sarajevo, Sulaymaniyah, New York, Wake Island and Oman. As a whole, combat will take place in urban streets, metropolitan downtown areas, and open landscapes suited to vehicle combat. Single Player mode you will play as a USMC Staff Sergeant deployed along the Iran-Iraq border leading a 5 man squad on a mission to locate and rescue a US squad investigating a possible chemical weapons site. Brief shots from the campaign trailer depict an aerial view of a war-torn city, a column of M1 Abrams tanks being attacked by cluster munitions, and an aerial dogfight between US and Russian fighter aircraft. Multiplayer mode features the return of classbased game play, with four classes: Assault, Support, Engineer and Recon. The abilities of the Frostbite 2 engine will be utilized, with the Engineer’s flashlight able to blind other players, and concentrated LMG fire blurring the vision of suppressed players. Several game modes have been announced: Conquest, Rush, and a new mode, Team Death match. EA announced an open beta beginning on September, 2011. EA CEO John Riccitiello stated that Battlefield 3 is aimed at competing with the Call of Duty series. John states “A game that last year did $400 million dollars in revenue on day one. Battlefield 3 is designed to take that game down.” EA is planning on spending over $100 million dollars on a marketing campaign for Battlefield 3. Pre-orders of the Limited Edition of the game grant access to a DLC pack called “Back to Karkand”, a reference to the “Strike at Karkand” map (a popular BF2 map), to include four maps and several weapons and vehicles brought over from Battlefield 2. In the UK, a limited edition of Battlefield 3 called the “Physical Warfare Pack” is being sold at select retailers. The pre-order features exclusive access to weapons and items, including a light machine gun, sniper rifle accessory, and armorpiercing ammunition. Also included is launch day access to the DAO-12 semi-automatic shotgun, which other players can unlock through game play, as well as the “Back to Karkand” map pack.
Au th
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When gamers think of the quintessential multiplayer shooter, Call of Duty is generally top of the list. Modern Warfare, specifically, is credited with revolutionizing online multiplayer as we know it. Before Activision’s blockbuster took its throne, however, there was another king.
Halo: Combat Evolved put the original Xbox on the map. Even before the advent of Xbox LIVE (a revolution in its own right), Halo ushered in a multiplayer mindset new to the console gamer. LAN parties were nothing new to PC gamers, but gathering Xboxes at a friend’s house for Team Slayer on Blood Gulch changed the lives of gamers everywhere for the better. There’s a degree of strategy to the combat of Halo which is still present today. Mixing plasma based weapons with more familiar firearms made every gamer develop their own perfect two gun combination.
To The Internet
In the Fall of 2004, Halo 2 was released to the rabid
masses alongside Microsoft’s Xbox LIVE network. According to Bungie’s Chris Butcher : “For Halo 2 we had our sights set very high on networking. We thought about the great LAN parties you can have with Halo: CE and decided to try to recreate that awesome experience of having all your buddies over to play, but using Xbox Live instead of having to lug consoles and televisions around.” Needless to say, it was a bit of a success. So much so that when Microsoft decided to pull the plug on the original Xbox LIVE servers last April, a small contingency stayed online for nearly a month. Fan opinions span the spectrum on Halo 2. One will say it’s the best while others well condemn it to the bowels of FPS hell. No matter how you look at it, there’s no denying the title’s impact. It is, without a doubt, the title that singlehandedly brought online multiplayer into the mainstream console market.
The 360 Saga
In what was meant to be the next evolution of the series, and a new revolution in online gaming, Halo 3 hit the 360. Diehard fans of the series loved it, but it lacked the impact of its predecessors. The multiplayer was again the highlight with one of the series’ strongest map lineups and a solid set of new features including The Forge and replay/file sharing. Developed by Ensemle Studios, Halo Wars took the series out of its fast paced shooter atmosphere and gave it much more tactical edge as an RTS. Asking a legion of shooter fans to drop $60 on a console RTS definitely seemed crazy back in 2009. One would think that those two demographics wouldn’t overlap much. However, Halo Wars hit the 360 hard. Not only was it a solid console RTS, but it was also a great addition to the Halo universe. Halo 3: ODST was a bit of a departure for the series. Rather than jump into the Spartan armor of the Master Chief, Bungie sent us out as one of the many Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, the “special forces” of the UNSC’s Navy. Stepping away from the comforts of the Spartan armor brought gamers back to the days of health bars. Halo 2 introduced regenerating health and, since we’re not rolling with Master Chief, that luxury is absent. As it turns out, this serves as bit of foreshadowing and got everyone prepped for Reach. Halo: Reach brought the entire series around full circle; back to the beginning of it all, the fall of Reach. This, of course, meant that we all bid farewell to the modern technological comforts we’d all grown to love namely, the return of health packs. At the same time however, we were treated to the series most epic entry to date. Where some might consider Halo 3: ODST to be a dry point, Reach is widely considered a revival of the series: An evolution occurred within both the single and multiplayer. Needless to say, Reach was a high point for Bungie to make their departure.
World Domination
If Halo’s hold on the world was limited to video games alone, it wouldn’t be considered the juggernaut that is today. Books, comics, action figures, and the long rumored film adaption have created a multimedia franchise that is very rarely matched in scope. Things like Rooster Teeth’s Red vs. Blue, a machinima series set entirely in Blood Gulch, are prime examples of the level of respect and dedication fans have for the brand. It may not set annual sales records but when a new one launches, it’s legendary.
Author: Rob95
Downloadable FPS games have been around for sometime now and they are growing ever more popular, there are games such as Modern Combat Domination, Battlefield 1943, Section 8, on PS3/Xbox360 and then there are games such as Counterstrike Source on PC and now there are even FPS games on Iphone such as Nova 1 and 2.
Why Do Downloadable Games Sell And What’s Their Average Prices:
Downloadable FPS games are becoming bigger and bigger and one of the main reasons behind this is there price. Downloadable FPS games are much cheaper then retail FPS games and the main reason been they don’t have as much content. Single player downloadable games such as Battle Los Angeles cost around $10 seeing as they don’t have much content besides a short campaign but online FPS games such as Section 8 can cost up to around $15-$20 the reasons been that they carry more content and they have a online mode to give the game replay value. Another reason downloadable games sell well is because for the price of $10-15 what else could you spend your money on? a Call Of Duty map pack is $15 and some people believe the sound of getting a full game like Section 8 that is pretty unique might attract them more then just getting a few new maps for a game they have been playing for the past few months.
Online In Downloadable Games
One thing that is critical for a downloadable online FPS to succeed is the community Some online downloadable FPS games still have a decent amount of players on them, I bought Section 8 when it was on sale a few months ago and I was able to find a match very quickly as a good amount of people still play that game. One game which I believe still has a big community is Battlefield 1943, Battlefield games are nearly all about the multiplayer and this is one of the most fun downloadable FPS games and you never have to worry about lack of players online because there’s always a good few on. Some other games don‘t have much of a community though, Cellfactor Psychokinetic Wars released on June 1st 2009, I remember playing the demo and thinking it was a fun game for the price as it was only $10 so I decided to buy it, the game only had a handful of maps but I didn’t even mind that what I did mind was that the main thing the game had going for it was that it had a online mode, well I tried going online but I only ever found one match and that had lag! I’m not sure if the game is the same on XBL but on PSN It got boring quick as all you could do is play against bots.
FPS’s On The Go!
Downloadable FPS games are quite popular in this day and age and now they are available on the go with devices such as Iphones and Ipads having there own downloadable FPS games on the App Store. One of the most known App Store FPS games would be Nova/ Nova 2. Both Nova games have single-player and multiplayer modes and not just Bluetooth multiplayer you can actually play the game online against friends which is great. One of the most popular FPS games on iPhone and iPad is Call Of Duty Zombies (Shocker isn’t it!) This game is practically the exact same as World At War zombies on PS3, 360 except for the graphical downgrade and to be honest the graphics are still good. The game is a lot of fun and has most likely sold a ton like all other Call Of Duty’s have.
Popular Downloadable FPS Games!
Some downloadable FPS games are more popular then others, here are a few popular downloadable FPS games and details on them. Battlefield 1943 (PS3/Xbox360/PC) Possibly the best downloadable FPS I have played so far BF1943 released back in 2009 and was giving very high reviews getting a Metacritic of 84. The game cost 13.99 at release and was a online only game, it featured three maps and one unlockable which was unlocked when all players worldwide reached a certain amount of kills together. Each map was quite big and all had vehicles to help you get around such as cars, Planes, boats. The game still has a big community and is a lot of fun to play and if you haven’t checked it out yet well your in luck as it’s going to be free with the PS3 version of Battlefield 3. Section 8 (PS3/Xbox360) Section 8 released back on September 11th 2009 for Xbox360 and then released on April 15th 2010 for PS3. The game got quite good reviews getting a Metacritic of 72. The game cost $15 when it released which is reasonable because it had a single-player campaign which lasted roughly 2-4 hours and a online multiplayer mode with a good amount of players. One unique thing in the game was the spawn system, you as the player were able to choose where you wanted to spawn on the map and you shot down from the sky at high speed crashing into the ground, probably one of the coolest ways to spawn in a game I have seen.
The game is quite good and has became cheaper now and still has a decent amount of players on it. Blacklight :Tango Down (PS3/Xbox360/PC) Another Popular downloadable FPS game Blacklight: Tango Down released back on July 7th 2010 on Xbox360, July 14th on PC and October 26th on PS3. It’s an online multiplayer FPS with a variety of different game modes and also has a 4 player Coop mode. The game cost $15 at launch and the game received average reviews getting a Metacritic of 66% Modern Combat: Domination (PS3) Modern Combat: Domination released January 18th for PS3 and the game got average reviews getting a Metacritic of 67% ( I think it deserved higher to be honest!) The thing that set it apart from other downloadable FPS games was that it utilized the Playstation Move and surprisingly it worked well! The game still has a decent amount of people on it from time to time and if your looking for a reason to play with your Playstation Move this might be fun for a few hours. N.O.V.A 2 (iPhone) Both N.O.V.A games first released on Iphone and were both well reviewed by many sites. Both have online multiplayer which is a great addition to a Iphone game, they are also some of the biggest games I have ever downloaded on Iphone with N.O.V.A 2 been 580mb in size! N.O.V.A 2 features twelve campaign missions and up to ten player online with over a dozen weapons, ten online maps and five game modes, that’s a lot of content for a downloadable FPS game on a iPhone.
Advantages Games
Of
All
Downloadable download ( less then 2gb I believe) If downloadable
These days some companies take advantage of the idea of been able to put their games up as downloads, Activision is one company who took advantage of this in a good way. Back in November 2009 Activision released Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 which was destined to be a success no matter what but they did something that helped them sell the limited edition more then probably expected. They included Call Of Duty Classic in the Hardened and Prestige Editions of the game and also released it for $15 on the PSN Store. COD Classic is a pretty good game and seeing as these days there are much more Call Of Duty fans some of them including myself decided to pay the extra money to get the Hardened Edition and get to experience this game for the first time. I believe COD Classic sold quite well and the main reason behind that again is because it was downloadable., if Activision had of released this on disc separate to MW2 even for $2030 or so I doubt it would of sold well as many people would think it’s pretty pointless as MW2 would be available at the same time. By packing it in with MW2 and selling it in the Hardened Edition for $10 extra it helped increase money made by MW2 and also by putting it up as a download for $15 some people who missed out on the Hardened edition might decide to buy it, plus it’s a small
games didn’t exist then Activision would maybe have made a little less then they did from MW2 and also would of made no money from Cod Classic as they couldn’t of released it as a download. Another thing I like about downloadable games not just FPS is that there are probably some Game studios who want to make games and probably don’t have enough staff to make a full fledged game and a downloadable game is the perfect way for them to do what they want to do. I mean I’m not sure but I’m guessing the people who made games such as Modern Combat, Section 8, Blacklight Tango Down enjoy making FPS games but probably don’t have enough on their teams to make a $60 game so they turn to downloadable FPS games because it’s the perfect opportunity for them to do what they want and it’s not as much work as a full fledged game, also they can sell it at a reasonable price. I also believe downloadable games are great because say the developer of a game such as Section 8 wanted to make a full fledged $60 game and didn’t have the funds, they could make a small Downloadable FPS like they did with Section 8 to help raise money to get in new workers at their studio and to fund bigger projects.
We Love Downloadable FPS’s!
All in all downloadable FPS games are great, their reasonably priced, they offer a decent amount of content for the price, they are available on all platforms PS3/360/PSP/Iphone/Etc, they also give companies chances to make a little bit extra by reviving there older games and re-releasing them on PSN/ XBL such as Cod Classic/ Medal Of Honor
Frontline. Downloadable FPS games are going to keep getting bigger and bigger as the years go on and at the moment they are selling well and some of them have great community’s such as Battlefield 1943. I’m sure that we have yet to see the best of downloadable FPS games and I can’t wait to see what new downloadable FPS’s release in 2011 and years to come. If you haven’t yet check out the rest of our FPS week articles, we have one on the history of FPS games, one on the Call Of Duty series, one on the Medal Of Honor Series and one on the Killzone series and they are all great! So be sure to check them out.
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Gameplay, story, and overall fun were all factors. however it is TGH opinion and we would love to hear what our readers believe are some of the best FPS titles. We only wanted to put one game from a game series in just so the list wouldn’t fill up with certain FPS game series so if one game from a series isn’t in it could because another game from the series was chosen instead.
10
Bioshock
Bioshock released back on August 21st 2007 in North America and August 24th in Europe, the game was developed my 2K Boston and published by 2K Games. The game was then brought to PS3 on October 17th 2008 in Europe and October 21st in North America. The game received critical acclaim with the Xbox and PC versions both getting a Metacritic of 96 while the PS3 version got a Metacritic of 94. The game won numerous awards from a host of different sites including IGN. One thing that blew people away about Bioshock was the opening, the opening to the game is considered one of the best game openings to many people. The player known as Jack in the game is in a plane which goes down in the Atlantic ocean, Jack is the only survivor of the crash and the game starts with you in the water surrounded by flames and your wrecked plane. There is a island
with a lighthouse on it which you head to and inside you take a elevator which brings you down to the underwater city of Rapture. The opening really is amazing as straight away people were wondering what was going on and what they had to do as there plane had crashed. One of the reasons Bioshock is on this list is because the game plays great as a FPS by allowing you to use guns and also Plasmids, Plasmids were shot out of your hands and there were many different types such as electricity, fire even telekinesis. The main reason I believe Bioshock deserves a spot on our list is because of the story, many FPS games have around five hour campaigns with average stories and the rest is multiplayer focused but not Bioshock, Bioshock had a long interesting story with great characters, great twists, amazing locations and much more
First Person Shooters have become the industry’s bread and butter genre. Each of the big three have a platform exclusive FPS title. Metroid for Nintendo, Killzone for Sony and of course Halo for Mi c ro s of t . To finish off our FPS week we have gone and listed what we feel are the top ten first person shooters of all time.
9
Duke Nukem 3D
When people tell you to think of a badass video game character probably the first to come to mind for most people is none other then Duke Nukem. Duke 3D released on many different consoles and some releases were in different years to others but it’s first release was back in 1996. The game had almost everything in it, awesome weapons, aliens, funny quotes, a badass main character, great controls and a brilliant multiplayer mode. When Duke released it was quite rare for games to have a multiplayer mode and that was on of it’s big advantages as it had a fun and addicting multiplayer mode. The game also featured a co-op mode which allowed you to play through the single player campaign with a friend.
The levels in Duke Nukem 3D took players all over the place from outdoors and indoors to through rendered streets, military bases, deserts, flooded cities, space stations, moon bases and Japanese restaurants. The game caused huge controversy which actually helped boost it’s popularity, the game was accused of promoting murdering and Pornography. In one stage the player enters pornography stores with posters that were X rated which many people were not happy with. The game is considered to be on of the most fun FPS games ever and we believe it deserves a spot on our list, now if only Gearbox could of made Forever a bit better.
8
Battlefield 1942 / Battlefield: Bad Company 2
I should only pick one game from the series but I couldn’t choose! So it’s been narrowed down to two Battlefield games, Battlefield Bad Company 2 and BattleField 1943, I will talk about 1943 first. Battlefield 1943 is a downloadable game and it released July 8th 2009 on Xbox 360 and July 9th 2009 for PS3. The game cost $15 when it released and included three maps which were all quite big, a fourth map was unlocked after the community reached a certain amount of kills all together. The game featured two different teams, the Japanese and the Americans, each had three classes to choose from but the weapons were different in either sides classes. The game also had vehicles which are pretty common in Battlefield games but are a lot of fun, there was planes, boats, and cars. Two of the main reasons this is tied for a spot on the list is because of the price and of course the gameplay. The gameplay in the game was very good, for a downloadable game a lot of effort was put in to make this a great game and it paid off, the game feels great to play and is a hell of a lot of fun especially when your doing good. As I said above one of the reasons it’s on the list is because of the price and the reason behind this is that the game cost $15, this game is amazing for $15 I still play it from time to time it has a big community and is so much fun every time even though it’s the same few maps over and over again, it never gets boring having dogfights in the air, or trying to shoot down some planes, or even driving around with your friends trying to capture flags. This game is some of the most fun iv got out of $15 and that’s one of the reasons it’s tied for a spot on the list. The second game that is tied for 9th is Battlefield: Bad Company 2, BFBC2 released on March 2nd 2010 in North America and March 5th in Europe for PS3 and Xbox 360. The game received very strong reception from Numerous sites with the PS3 and Xbox 360 version of the game getting a Metacritic of 88% and as of November 2010 the game was closing in on six million sales! There are a few reasons why this game is on the list including the graphics, the destruction, the gameplay and the online. First off the game featured stunning graphics, all the maps in the game looked gorgeous and the game boasts some of the best graphics in a FPS to date. The game also featured destruction which was also pretty amazing allowing you to blow away cover and demolish buildings and watch them collapse on top of the people inside of them! The online in the game was also great featuring 2-24 players in huge maps with a ton of Sniping spots, vehicles, buildings for shelter, and much more. The game has a great community which is still going strong and is a lot of fun online especially the ranking up, as you rank up you unlock new guns, and more that gives the game some customization. The game played great on and offline and was a lot of fun also, the online is definitely the most fun in the game though, it’s a great squad shooter and is a good game to play with friends.
7
Wolfenstein 3D / Doom
Wolfenstein 3D and Doom are both huge games in the FPS genre, they should be huge seeing as there the games that popularized the genre, although they were not the first FPS games many people consider them to be the first FPS’s to be made right. Both games released near enough each other with Wolfenstein releasing first in 1992 on May 5th followed by Doom on December 10th 1993. Wolfenstein followed the story of a man named William trying to escape a Nazi stronghold. The last chapter is known as Die Fuhrer Die! The player must fight through Nazi soldiers and get to the bunker underneath the Reichstag where he finds Adolf Hitler himself which you get to fight! The main reasons Wolfenstein is on the list is because not only did it practically start off the FPS craze it’s also a great game to play, a lot of fun and highly controversial seeing as you get to fight Hitler, did I mention he has Gatling guns? Well yeah he does! Doom is also a great game which is the reason that it’s tied with Wolfenstein for a spot on the list. There are a few reasons it’s on the list one of them being the games selection of weapons. Doom was known for it’s weapons as it had such a variety for back in 1993, there was pistols, chainsaws, plasma rifles and more. The game also had a lot of mods which increased the fun of the game. The game was also highly controversial for the amount of blood it had in it. Doom was critically acclaimed and became one of the most popular games around at the time of it’s release. Doom and Wolfenstein were both great games that changed the FPS genre and those are the reasons why we believe they deserve to be on our list.
5
6
Quake
Quake released June 22nd 1996 in North America and released on PC, the game was also ported to consoles at the time such as the Sega Saturn and the Nintendo 64. Quake is considered as many peoples best FPS game of all time and one of the main reasons been that it was one of the first games to really have a good multiplayer mode. Quake’s Multiplayer was very addicting and the best thing about it was that the game was online, now days that’s not that big but back in 1996 a game been online was pretty sweet! The game also featured a single player mode and guess what? It was co-op! the game also had clans which are one of my favorite things in online shooters as you get to meet a lot of cool people and make some friends on the game while also challenging other clans to matches. The game didn’t allow you to choose your guns like you can in games like Call Of Duty but that was one of the fun things about it because when the match
started everyone would go running for the best guns and chaos would occur but it was a lot of fun especially when you got the most powerful weapons. The game featured a few game modes but the most popular was Deathmatch which was just everyone out to get each other! One thing that people loved about Quake is the mods, the game was easy to mod which could make it even more fun then it already was unless the modder tried to cheat, people still play the game Today and new mods are still been created! That’s 15 years after the game released,. The game is now so big that it has it’s own event called QuakeCon. QuakeCon holds tournaments were players play ID Software games especially Quake and has been going on since 1996, Bethesda owner of Quakes developer ID Software also show off some of their new games at the event and this year they are showing off games such as Rage, Skyrim, Prey 2 and more.
Half Life 2 (+ episodes)
I can see many people been disappointed that Half Life 2 isn’t higher on our list but there is so many good FPS games that it was hard to decide which deserved to be where on the list, although we knew It had to go in the list somewhere as it’s so amazing. Half Life 2 released back in November 2004 for PC, Episode 1 then released June 2006 and
episode 2 released October 2007. Each game received great reviews with Half Life 2 and Episode 2 getting a Metacritic of over 90% while episode 1 scored 87%. Half Life 2 followed the story of Gordon Freeman who has now become one of the most beloved video game characters by many people. Half Life 2 had a lot of great things about it but one thing that stood out to me was the Gravity Gun which was introduced in Episode 1. This gun was probably one of the most unique guns in videogames and everyone was talking about it at the time, the gun allowed you to pick up objects from your surroundings and shoot them at enemies, it’s basically one of the coolest guns in videogame history! The game sold millions of copies and in October 2007 Valve released what is possibly the best value for money package ever, they released The Orange Box which included Half Life 2, Episode 1, Episode 2, The amazing puzzle game Portal and the highly addicting Team Fortress 2 all for $60, now that’s value! Half Life 2 is known as one of the best games ever for it’s great gameplay, unique weapons, brilliant characters and these are the reasons we believe it deserves a spot on our list.
3
4
Goldeneye
What’s there to say about GoldenEye, I think the game makes nearly every top 10 FPS list, the game is loved by so many people the main thing behind this was it’s multiplayer. GoldenEye released for N64 on August 25th 1995 and like most games on this list was met with critical acclaim scoring a Metacritic of 96%. As I said above the main reason people loved the game was the highly addicting multiplayer, the game featured 4 player split screen and it was one of the first split screen games
Halo
Halo: Combat Evolved released November 15th 2001 and received critical acclaim, the games Metacritic is currently on 97% and Halo is known as Microsoft’s best exclusive along with the likes of Gears Of War. For 2001 Halo was an amazing game, the graphics, the gameplay, the story, the main character, everything was just perfect and many fans around the world including me loved it, Halo was probably the best Xbox game followed by Halo 2. I could not believe the first time I played Halo seeing as the PS2 and Xbox were relatively new we had not seen a ton of games with amazing graphics yet but Halo blew everything away, I first realized how good the game was on the second mission which is actually called Halo, you start on ground in a grass area and make your way across the bridge and I always remember playing that mission for the first time and killing my first enemy and then getting my first vehicle and driving to meet up with my squad. The gameplay was also amazing and the game was one of the first FPS games I played which I really enjoyed. As I mentioned above the campaign was
great and so was Master Chief the protagonist of the Halo series, Master Chief is one of my favorite gaming characters of all time and that’s all because of Halo. The games campaign was a decent length first time through, Once you finished the campaign in the game it also had a multiplayer mode which supported system-link for a max of 16 players. If you didn’t want to play like that you could play 4 player split screen and it was great. Halo: Combat Evolved is one of the best games of all time to me, I only own a PS3 but I always thought of getting a Xbox for the Halo series. When Microsoft revealed Halo 4 at E3 I actually got so excited as I absolutely love the series. I honestly think Halo will be the only reason I ever consider buying a Xbox as I love everything about the games.
everyone really enjoyed. People used to play the game for hours and hours and never got bored of it, the only bad thing about the multiplayer in the game was Odd job because he was so small and hard to hit although most people didn’t pick him unless they wanted to annoy people! GoldenEye was one of them games you could play over and over again with your friends and never ever get bored of it even though you were playing the same maps and with the same people day in day out. Goldeneye was most peoples first real multiplayer FPS and also their favorite to date and that’s why it’s on our list.
2
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
The Call Of Duty series was always a fun FPS series but in 2007 that all changed with the release of Call Of Duty 4. Call Of Duty 4 developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activison to me is hands down the best FPS game on the current gen of consoles, many people will disagree saying games such as BFBC2, Killzone, even MW2 can match up to it and I say no. Cod4 had got to be one of the most addicting games I have ever played for so many reasons, the story in the game was quite good and one of the best to simulate a war with great fire fight sections throughout the campaign which also had one of the coolest endings in a FPS in a long while. As I said the campaign was great but the game was absolutely amazing online, to think this game came out in 2007 is crazy, I did not buy it until 2009 and it was probably in the top 3 games I played that year. The game featured sixteen maps online and also had one map pack which brought that up to twenty, each map was unique all of them were great fun and I rarely ended up having to play a map and started complaining that I didn’t like it. One thing that kept people playing was killstreaks, all my friends would be competing to see who could get the highest kill streak and we were always trying to beat each other, the game gave rewards for every few kills you got as well, three kills got you a UAV which showed you enemy locations, five kills in a row gave you a air strike and seven in a row gave you a
helicopter, the only bad thing to come out of kill streaks was that it made people do a lot more camping then usual which was annoying. Another thing that made me keep coming back to the game was the challenges, there was a ton of challenges to complete and if you completed certain ones you could even earn golden guns which everyone wanted! The main reason I’m putting Call Of Duty 4 on the list is because I rarely get addicted to a game like I did with this, everyday for a few months I played the game online with a bunch of friends and we used to play ranked matches leveling up but we also played lots of private matches making up or own game types and I honestly think it’s some of the most fun iv had since I started gaming, as of now Call Of Duty 4 is one of my favorite games of all time and my favorite FPS of this generation and that’s why it’s on our list.
1
Timesplitters 2
I can see a lot of people been quite annoyed and shocked by number one but all I can say is have you played the game? Well if you have you would know why it’s first. Timesplitters 2 released in October 2002 for PS2, Xbox and Gamecube and received great reviews getting a average score of 91.6% on PS2 while the Gamecube and Xbox versions both were above 88% The game received great praise from a few sites with IGN saying it was the best multiplayer FPS on PS2 and Gamespot said it may very well be the best split-screen multiplayer-focused first-person shooter ever created. The game had absolutely everything a FPS needed at the time. The story may not of been great but was some serious fun when playing it in co-op with a friend also, the four player splitscreen was definitely the most fun I have ever had with videogames, also the game had the best set of characters in a multiplayer mode I have ever seen, it had gangsters, zombies, monkeys, robots, gingerbread men, snowmen, clowns and so much more crazy characters. The multiplayer had a host of different game modes such as deathmatch, team deathmatch,
capture the flag, and more. Probably the best game mode was known as Virus, in Virus one player started off on fire, the fire was green so you could tell who it was and that player had to run into other players to infect them as well. The aim was to survive for as long as you could and be the last man standing, it was very fun when you played four player split screen and you each helped each other fighting off all the AI controlled infected. The multiplayer in the game could last forever but if you ever did get bored and didn’t want to do the story there was also a challenge mode with a host of unique fun challenges with bronze, silver and gold trophies to be unlocked which would give you new maps in the multiplayer and also new characters. I’m not sure exactly how much but I do believe the game had over 60 characters to choose from and the majority of them I liked. Timesplitters 2 truly is the best FPS game I have ever played and I see no reason why it shouldn’t be at the top of the list, the game was the most addicting game Iv played and I played it for around 4-5 years. It had the best set of characters in a FPS game, some of the best multiplayer maps, a fun co-op campaign also, the game had some great music in it. The game was just perfect and I believe it deserves to be number one on the list.
Honorable Mentions Crysis Unreal Series Medal Of Honor Series Fallout 3 Half Life 1 Left 4 Dead Halo 3 Killzone 2 Resistance Fall Of Man CounterStrike Metroid Prime
When is the next issue of TheGamersHub Magazine? The next issue of TGH magazine will be released 5th September 2011. This will be our sixth edition of the magazine and hopefully with all the feedback we recieve from you, it will be improved even more and so we always are aware off what our audience would like to read. As TheGamersHub Magazine is a new introduction for the site, please bare in mind we are still getting on our feet with it. If there is anything you would like to see appearing in this magazine or just want to give us feedback please email Dan at: dan.h@thegamershub.net For advertising in the magazine please contact Henry at: henry.m@thegamershub.net
Issue: No.5