PAGE 24 • GO! MAGAZINE
THE BULLETIN • FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2010
gaming Close to perfection
TOP 10 XBOX 360 The editors of Game Informer rank the Top 10 games for November: 1. “Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood,” Ubisoft
For ‘Call of Duty,’ year of controversy ends on high note with ‘Black Ops’
2. “Fable III,” Microsoft Game Studios 3. “Rock Band 3,” MTV Games 4. “DJ Hero 2,” Activision 5. “Call of Duty: Black Ops,” Activision 6. “Castlevania: Lords of Shadow,” Konami
By Adam Biessener Game Informer Magazine
7. “Super Meat Boy,” Team Meat
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ou can’t keep “Black Ops” out from under the microscope after the high-profile departure of the creative minds that drove the “Call of Duty” franchise at Infinity Ward earlier this year. Can Treyarch come through with a blockbuster hit in the vein of “Modern Warfare,” not just a by-the-numbers off-year title like the studio has churned out in the past? Yes and no, but “Black Ops” is the best game Treyarch has made, and a hell of a good time no matter how you slice it. The series has always hung its single-player hat on creating spectacular moments that players remember for years. It didn’t matter if you couldn’t remember the name of the faceless army ranger you’re playing as, because oh my god they just dropped an EMP on the White House! “Black Ops” flips this equation around. The story is coherent, and the characters are more than cardboard cutouts. I wanted to keep playing to find out how the plot ends up, not just to see what crazy situation is around the next corner. On the other hand, as “Black Ops” makes gains in characterization and storytelling, it loses spectacle. Far too much of the roughly seven-hour campaign is spent running through the same pop-and-
8. “NBA 2K11,” 2K Sports 9. “Dance Central,” MTV Games 10. “Need For Speed Hot Pursuit,” Electronic Arts McClatchy-Tribune News Service
Weekly download McClatchy-Tribune News Service
“Call of Duty: Black Ops” includes a finely crafted multiplayer setup. shoot motions we’ve been doing for years. Be sure to stick around after the credits; the best bit of the game is hidden there. The campaign puts players neck deep in the close-up brutality of combat. Limbs shatter disgustingly as bullets rip apart flesh and bone. Gore flies in all directions. In one uncomfortable sequence, the player has to torture a restrained prisoner. This is an emphatically mature game (in the ESRB sense, anyway). Everyone should make their own judgment on what they are comfortable with, but “Black Ops” crossed my personal line in its bloody depictions of violence, particularly the torture sequence. I wasn’t able to compartmentalize it as enjoyable cartoon violence
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New game releases The following titles were scheduled for release the week of Nov. 14: • “Game Party: In Motion” (X360, PS3) • “Zumba Fitness” (Wii) • “Deca Sports Freedom” (X360) • “Zumba Fitness: Join the Party” (X360) • “Pac-Man Party” (Wii) • “Create” (Wii, PC, PS3, X360) • “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1”
‘CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS’ 9 (out of 10) PlayStation 3, Xbox360, PC Activision, Treyarch ESRB rating: M for Mature like I have with so many games over the years. None of this carries over to online play, where the faster pace fosters a certain detachment from the violence. For my money, Treyarch has crafted the finest “Call of Duty” multiplayer game to date. The maps are fantastic and offer great variety in size, aesthetics, verticality, and paths. The core design is largely unchanged;
(DS, X360, Wii, PC, PS3) • “EA Sports Active NFL Training Camp” (Wii) • “Marvel Super Hero Squad: The Infinity Gauntlet” (PS3, Wii, DS, X360) • “DanceDanceRevolution” (Wii, PS3) • “Jillian Michaels Fitness Ultimatum 2011” (Wii) • “Namco Museum Megamix” (Wii) • “Shawn Johnson Gymnastics” (Wii) • “Naruto Shippuden: Dragon Blade Chronicles” (Wii)
it features the same modes, perks, and a similar arsenal to “Modern Warfare.” The action is as responsive, technically impressive, and engrossing as it has been since Infinity Ward pioneered it three years ago. The fan-favorite zombies mode returns as well, with players cooperating against the undead hordes on two vastly different maps. It’s tough to hate on something as skillfully executed as “Black Ops.” “Call of Duty” remains the smoothest, most approachable first-person shooter out there, and I had a blast playing it. On the other hand, it’s disappointing that Treyarch’s much-hyped hugebudget entry in the franchise feels like “Modern Warfare 2.5.” I’m happy to get a refined update. This year, anyway.
• “EA Sports Active 2” (PS3, Wii, X360) • “Apache: Air Assault” (X360, PS3) • “Pro Evolution Soccer 2011” (Wii) • “Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood” (PS3, X360) • “Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon” (Wii) • “The Sims 3” (Wii) • “NBA Jam” (X360, PS3) • “uDraw Studio” (Wii) • “Dood’s Big Adventure” (Wii) — Gamespot.com
‘DREAM CHRONICLES’ Reviewed for: Xbox 360 Also available for: Nintendo DS, Windows PC, Macintosh, iPhone/ iPod Touch From: KatGames/Hudson ESRB Rating: E for Everyone It’s entirely fitting that “Dream Chronicles” got lost this fall among the sea of big-ticket Xbox Live Arcade games that released around it. “Chronicles” is a hidden-object game — which, for the uninitiated, presents players with mostly static environments and tasks them with finding items hidden within the scene that help complete whatever task is needed to advance to the next scene. At that, “Chronicles” does fine, mixing in object hunts with the occasional light puzzlesolving diversion and wrapping it inside a story that, while kind of incomprehensible, is engaging in a strangely soothing way. But object hunts are an odd fit for a system that operates on the strength of a controller rather than a mouse, and while “Chronicles” cleverly lets players “peek” into the scene with the triggers, using a joystick to move a cursor around will always feel awkward. “Chronicles” also is too short and too easy to command the same asking price as “Super Meat Boy” and four tables of “Pinball FX 2,” to name only two recent XBLA games that provide more value and take much better advantage of the system’s strengths. — Billy O’Keefe, McClatchy-Tribune News Service