Call of Duty - World at War [PC]

Developer: Activision
Platform: PC [PS3, Xbox360 available]
Genre: First Person Shooting

Alright! another Call of Duty game, which means you know how it's going to be. It seems like Activision is really fond of their typical system that they have been putting into every Call of Duty since the first one. And I don't know how much it would take to get D-Day out of their heads! Well, it's a good story, good world event to be talked about, but it gets pretty BORING after seeing D-Day in every first person shooting game - including newly released one.

However, it did get some elements improved - like, more gadgets to play with, more interactive squad mates, and so on.

This is going to be a bit short, because there's nothing much to talk about call of duty, plus I'm too lazy at the moment to describe everything in the gameplay section. It's Call of Duty, what did you expect?

The story, again, focuses on two soldiers which you will be playing the whole game. One is Private Miller, an infantry who serves US force, which will be fighting through japan isles. Another is Petrenko, a russian soldier who gets involved with the ring of steel - Berlin.

You will be switching between these two. However, as you play through, you might find it a bit confusing since they keep cutting from scene to scene with improper connection. And since you all know how the World War II ended, I'm going to skip the story.

GAMEPLAY 5/10

It's a first person shooting, It's call of duty, enough said. As we all know, Call of Duty never had an "opened-map" which gives you multiple ways to make your assault. Well, Call of Duty World at War DOES have ONE point that allows you to select between northern and southern route. However, both routes end up at the same place, same goal.

Oh, and they included one stage which lets you drive a soviet tank and run over German force. But that's about it.

The most valuable parts in this game would be both multiplayer mode and the minigame that comes after you have finished the whole thing - the Nazi Zombie stage (sorry I can't read German name they gave us).

In multiplayer, you start as low-rank private, which you will be making your way to the top. Getting higher rank, upgrading your stuff, choosing your perks, and so on. It was fun though.

The Nazi Zombie stage lets you fight wave after wave of zombies. As you can guess, you will be able to buy guns, fortify your building, unlock some new areas which don't really help because zombies are entering from every single way. If you don't know what I'm talking about, go play some zombie defense game on Newgrounds.com, that would do.

GRAPHIC 8/10

The environment is perfect. Everything is beautifully rendered and almost every detail was corrected. Everything looks fine here except the characters that still look a bit robotic. Movements are fine, facial expressions - failed.

Apart from the characters, this game should be your eye candy. Vehicles look real, buildings, well, didn't look so bad. Weapons are perfectly copied from real ones.

Lighting, shadow casting, and everything else - well, they look nice. Wow, this is such a vague review.

SOUND 5/10

It's not that epic when it comes to soundtrack. Gunfire was a bit crappy though, it sounded like someone shooting a popcorn at each other.

Alright, that would be my shortest review with not much detail. I might be reviewing this game all over again if I'm in the right mood, but I can't give you guys any promise. You can skip this one since it's not really a review. I had a bad day. Still, thanks for reading.

Until next time.

ANNO 1404 [PC]

Developer: Ubisoft
Platform: PC
Genre: Real-time Strategy

Well, I’m not sure whether the official name is ANNO 1404 or ANNO 1404: Dawn of Discovery. Either way, I still managed to get this game right after its release – sorry for being a fan for this series.

First look on this game, it seemed to be like other games in the series. However, when I got to try it, I was actually surprised by many new features along with improved familiar interface. It is, however, a bit difficult to learn if you are really new to this game.

ANNO 1404 (and all the ANNO game) require a lot of management and planning. You can’t just let the game run by. You will be forced to look at your market buildings every 20 minutes, check if your ships still sail on route, or even maintain the relationship between multiple factors – for you will need from them both trade lines and military assist. Forget all those quickly-end strategy games (Settlers, for example) because this game will take at least 20 hours of your time just to make one perfect colony. By perfect it means you have to rise till the highest point of civilization, defeat all your opponents (either peacefully or aggressively), and get respect from the Sultan who rules southern islands.

GAMEPLAY 9/10

Totally addictive (for those who love this kind of game). You can either participate the long-run continuous play without any literal ending, or take a challenge in scenario mode. You can also play the story mode which gradually take you from the very beginning to the end of era. However, I’m going to talk about continuous play only – since most of the fun is there.

The continuous play, obviously, lets you play continuously. You can set your own goals here, although you can still play after your tasks are completed. Thus, it is pretty addictive. For those who seek easy-going play, you may set everything to easiest level – like, huge island, cheerful trade partners, starting with huge amount of gold, etc. Nevertheless, if you are one of those who demand more contributing play that requires more serious planning – choose the hardest difficulty! Set “corsairs” to maximum strength, start with little money in your vault. And by hardest difficulty, it’s freaking hard.

Unlike many other strategy games (except Settlers, again), you will have to gather almost every resources by yourself – either cultivate or purchase from other players. For example, if your people long for properties like carpets or books then you shall provide them what they want. However, there are no stuff like “mine here and get a book!” On the other hand, you will have to set up a paper mill – which has to be placed on the river, which will gather surrounding trees and turn them into paper. You will also need Indigo for printing, which can be farmed in southern region. Now you can either colonize one of the southern islands with capability of growing indigo, or you can just import it from some other places. Once you have both materials, the book maker will start making books in his building. Do you see how complicate this game is?

But that’s why it is so fun and addictive. You will have to plan very carefully. You have limited space on an island, plus that no island can grow every material. Usually, an island would be capable of farming three or four types of material (sometimes with extra slot which you can put seed in it and make the land capable of that certain material.) It means you have to set up on multiple islands in order to operate every productive facility.

And it surely takes a lot of money. Someone told me that it is nearly impossible to gain money in this game. They are all wrong. Money can be extremely easy to get if you have good flow and strong trade lines. Yep, trade lines. You will have to set up trading agreement with other players(computers) and let them do the money talk. Some region will give a very high price for certain goods. And if you can produce those goods, you will get rich in less than 10 minutes.

However, I feel that this game only aims for fans who already know how to play ANNO. Although the tutorial teaches you all the basic, you still need some advance techniques to take your city to the final era. And no, they didn't really teach you how to do that. So, I deduct 1 point.

GRAPHIC 10/10

Absolutely perfect. I don’t really want to use Settlers as my example this often, but since both of them are from the same developer, so, ANNO 1404 has different graphic style. Unlike Setters, ANNO provides you with more realistic graphic including the scale of people and buildings. Ships can be a bit funny but who cares? The game offers you beautifully rendered environment with every detail imaginable – from water refraction to vegetation transparency (if you have DirectX 10). It is simply amusing to just watch things go by in ANNO.

Especially, the ocean. Since ANNO 1701 which was released a while ago, ANNO’s ocean was always perfect. Waves, splash, track, everything in the water is perfect. Perfect! (I couldn’t come up with other word). Please have a look at more screenshots on http://www.gamespot.com and you’ll see what I meant.

The animations are also nicely captured (or programmed). Each building has its own repetitive loops of action when you zoom in. Still, moves look real and sound effect was amazing – like they get all the detail, squeezing sound in cider farm for example.

I’m not going to talk about shadow casting and lighting since you will be looking with bird-eye view. However, everything in this game casts shadow that looks perfect. Fast graphic card is highly recommended to play this game at maxed out setting.

SOUND 7/10

Despite that nice environmental sound, background music can be pretty boring after times. This game doesn’t have many soundtracks. Soon you’ll find yourself listening to the same song over and over, though the BGM changes due to your location (northern-southern). There are songs that make you feel encouraged or enthusiastic. However, they can get you to sleep as well.

REPLAY? 10/10

If you are a big fan of strategy game then you won’t get bored of this game. Maps are randomized every time you started a new game, which means you will always get different island in each play – both geographically and naturally. I got and island full of natural minerals like Brine and Iron in my first game. In my second game, they’re all gone and leaving me only 7 mines of raw iron (damn).

EXTRA

PRO:
- Achievement system would make you play longer. Once you achieve something, Gems are given. Gems can be used to exchange extra in-game objects: colors; coat of arm; decorative buildings (not free); portraits; etc.
- The game sucks you in

CON:
- This game is difficult and very long. You might have problems trying to master everything or just to learn few basics. However, once you get it clear, it’s fun.
- Due to large map and a lot of details, loading takes VERY long time.

Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood [PC]

Publisher: Ubisoft
Platform: PC (PS3, Xbox360 available)
Genre: First Person Shooting (with RPG element!)

So I got Call of Juarez yesterday, now I've finished the game once. I've never played or known about the first Call of Juarez that was released quite long ago though. And I'm certainly not a big fan of the age of cowboys, gunslingers, saloon, and all those stuff.

However, I found it pretty amusing playing this game, thus, it changed my attitude towards wild west a bit.

The story takes place on three brothers who survived after the civil war between southern confederate army and the north. You will be playing two of them: Ray and Thomas McCall. The McCall brothers fled from the battlefield and decided to become outlaws, discarding all the past they were serving the army. There you will meet your forever-annoying enemy, Colonel Barnsby who will follow you to the end.

The story is very deep and touching at some part. It ultimately gave me a sense of progression and developing relationship among characters. It's also full of cheating, betrayal, love and hate: Ray who is deeply jealous of his brother getting along with Melisa(Merisa?); Thomas who seems to have everything better that his big brother except the muscle; William the priest who seems to be the only one learning and trying to prevent the brothers from getting deeper; Juarez who sets them up since the beginning; and so on.

As I said, the story here is almost perfect. Every chapter you go through has something connected with other chapters - so don't skip the cutscenes!

GRAPHIC 9/10

Very rich environment, nicely detailed textures, great special effect. Call of Juarez offers you a pleasurable graphic which you won't get bored of. It reminded me of Unreal Engine 3 though (probably Ubisoft uses it again.) Lighting and shadow are completely outstanding. Of course, this game won't beat Crysis (neither other games can) but still, it is very beautiful and requires very low spec. I ran this game on XFX GTS250, 4GB Ram, Core2Duo E4500 and guess what, I never really faced any frame rate reduction. The game was so smooth, yet so astonishing.

However, 1 point was deducted due to that it can be pretty dizzy at some part. The sun effect can get you killed eventually. They make it realistic by exposing you to a very bright light every time you turn to face the sun. It's actually nice though, but as I said, it can be annoying during an intense gunfight.

Still, the graphic is great.

GAMEPLAY 8/10

The game offers you a semi-open world. After finishing some specific mission it will allow you to roam the enormous wasteland, buy some gears, or help someone who posted their requests at a weapon store.

You can select between Ray and Thomas at the beginning of each chapter. Both of them have two different gunning styles. You can wield two pistols and be specialized in close range by playing Ray - who will be equipped with two pistols, one either regular shotgun or sawed-off, and a dynamite. And he can carry the portable Gatling gun in the last chapter.

But if you prefer sniping at longer range, play Thomas. Thomas can equip long range rifle, two pistols as well (but can wield only one at a time), and the most accurate bow this world has ever known. He can use his Lasso to get to a higher spot like buildings or trees.

The game also features "Concentration Mode" which allows you to finish your enemies very easily. By killing certain amount of your opponents, the gauge on the upper right will be charged. Once it's fully charged you will be able to activate the Concentration Mode. Again, the two brothers have different, yet similar, modes.

Ray's Concentration Mode needs you to drag your mouse over multiple enemies. When the time's up, Ray will unleash a storm of bullets - sending them to eternal depth.
Thomas' Concentration Mode will require you to hold the left mouse button and keep pulling back your mouse as if you were pulling the, I don't know the word for that trigger on the back of revolver. Anyways, Thomas' mode will automatically aim for you, so just keep on pulling.

Another interesting part is the gun duel which will be your "boss-fight." I'm not going to spoil this, but telling you that it's very interesting - so go check it out.

REPLAY? 0/10

Nahhhhhh. As I mentioned, the game is quite short. I finished the game, normal difficulty, in 5 hours. 5 hours! without finding all the secrets though. To me, I don't really feel like playing the whole thing over just to see thing from another perspective. But yeah you can play another round as another character if you want, but that's all about replaying this game.

There are some secrets as I mentioned, all of them are in-game pictures and real photographs taken from real place back in that time. The pictures contain sub-story, actually just some conversations between the brothers. They are funny though.

Anyways, the Multiplayer mode doesn't look appealing at all. In fact, is there even anyone playing?

SOUND 5/10

AGAIN, like most of my review. I have no comment on sound and music because they are just average. I like the southern accent and the native indian dialects though.

Prototype [PC]

Prototype

Publisher: Activision
Platform: PC (PS3,Xbox360 available)
Genre: Action


Well, I bought this game about a week ago and now I have to stop playing it. I was a bit surprised by seeing many reviews of this game with 8+ score.

The game seems very interesting when it was on commercial spot. However, when it comes to reality, this game is just nothing but a combination of Spiderman and Grand Theft Auto's elements. This game offers you an open world where you can run, jump, fly, whatever across the city of New York.

TO FIND SAME BUILDINGS OVER AND OVER.
TO FIND SAME MISSIONS OVER AND OVER.
And so on.

This game gets old very fast, probably one of the fastest ones. You start with, exactly, nothing special about your character. Then you would have to fight your way through to unlock new abilities, either by consuming people who have memories about you or finish repetitive missions.

Exactly, missions are very repetitive and vague. Here's the list: Kill marked target; Destroy base; Stop infected monsters from attacking. Then you come back to freely roaming the city which you can pull out your wolverine-like claws and cutting people in half - just for fun.

Moreover, this game actually leaves nothing for you to keep playing to the end. Since abilities you would use most often are unlocked since the very beginning of the game. You will find yourself unlocking Claws, Hammer fists, and that's all. Claws, obviously, are meant to be use when you fight with human enemy - or even infected ones. Hammer fists, yep, for tanks and other armored units. You can grab stuff and throw them whenever you want. If you like running around an killing passerby like freak, go get Prototype.

The only thing that kept me playing was the open world feature. I rarely engaged a mission since they are all the same. So after 2 days of playing properly, I started getting on a game just to run around and please my own desire for gore.

I can't really tell you whether the main plot is good or bad, because I never played deep enough to know the whole truth about Alex Mercer (main character).


GRAPHIC 6/10

The graphic is actually OKAY. Just okay.

The lighting is fine. The textures are pretty. Shadows casting was a bit weird. However, I found that buildings and environment are somehow lazily rendered. Many details were missed. And since the whole town has only blocks of buildings, you'll get bored of the graphic - sooner or later.

Special effects and camera works are nice though.



GAMEPLAY 5/10

It's bland. Really. You control your character like many other games. WASD, aim with your mouse, attack with left click, charge attack with right click, etc. There's nothing special about how you run around New York City.

You control Alex Mercer with multiple transform abilities. You can apply highly defensive armor to yourself and lose some movement speed as penalty, or mount a ferocious blade to cut through everyone standing in your way.

The missions and other major features are, too, nothing special as I mentioned. The game is repetitive and now I'm typing repetitive as well. I just couldn't find proper word to explain how repetitive it is! Oh god! Repetitive!

Camera angles can be buggy and annoying, occasionally - when you fight helicopters, for example.

There are also minor goals and secrets just to keep you playing. Guess what, that's all. EP (Evolution Point) is the only reward you will get. Yes, they also keep your record for no reason.

SOUND -/10

no comment. :D

Well, this is just my quick review cause I have to go out. I will come back with more detail on this game later. Hope my review could help you decide whether to buy this game or not :D