• 19Nov 09

  Batman Review

  I've been playing batman Arkham Asylum in last couple of days so today I'm gonna review it.

  

  Although superhero games really aren't my thing and I was never into comic books as a kid, I have enjoyed the last few "Batman" movies and I had very high hopes heading into my time with Batman: Arkham Asylum. I've heard nothing but good things about the gameplay and after playing for a solid three hours, I began to realize what all the gamers were raving about. I was starting to really grasp the highly fluid, dynamic, and intuitive nature of the battle system; I was enjoying each of the characters more and more, and although the backtracking was getting to me, I was rapidly becoming a big fan of the inherent pacing. And then, I played even more, and discovered great stuff: you won't spend too much time beating on baddies; you won't become bored searching around for clues in detective mode; you won't always be looking for new and inventive ways to take on large groups of armed enemies (stealth, anyone?), and you won't be wasting too much time climbing, gliding and performing general platforming movements. No, it all just gels. That's the mark of a great action game that implements a variety of different elements, in my honest opinion:

  See, everything just comes together to feel seamless. Nothing feels disjointed. The very moment you feel as if you've gotten your fill of one particular section of the game, you conveniently move on to another section, where you will be doing different things. The game isn't outrageously deep, but due to this excellent blending of different gameplay elements and pacing, it doesn't have to be. It simply feels like a complete, polished production and at the same time, it rarely lets up on the intensity and general fun factor. Let's deal with the movement and camera mechanics first- some may complain that the camera sits too close to Batman when simply wandering around and exploring, and while I'd normally agree, it didn't seem to hinder my view or progress in any way. Shifting to zoom mode is as simple as pressing the Z button, and searching around while in detective mode (activated by pressing the X button) is easy and smooth. When you enter battle, the camera zooms out a bit to give you a more all-encompassing viewpoint, which works wonderfully well.

  You do have control over the camera's angle, but not how close or how far it sits, which is only a minor inconvenience as far as I'm concerned. And now that I've mentioned the combat, it's time to attack it (pun intended): really, this is a highly accomplished system that allows for invention and encourages experimentation; the new abilities you learn are all effective and very cool; and the controls themselves let you dive right in and kick serious ass from the start but they still require practice for ultimate mastery. Being able to string together combinations on multiple enemies and looking ahead to possible issues when getting swarmed is invigorating. There's both strategy and dexterity involved, and it seems as if every last encounter is both challenging and richly satisfying. There's quick strikes, countering, the Batarang that can keep enemies off-balance, special throws, chain moves, and the crowd-pleasing move where Batman finishes off a foe on the ground. Oh, and let's not forget the stealth options, which are relatively simple and easy to execute but again, oh-so-satisfying.

  The only complaints I have are small. I don't like the fact that the platforming seems just a touch incomplete; Batman can't jump to a ledge while shimmying along another, for example, and there seems to be just a slight hesitation and/or delay during some of the platforming movements. And as I hinted at before, there is a good deal of backtracking within Arkham Asylum just because the story will require it, and you'll also come across new items that will make you want to return to certain areas. In that way, it reminds me of an old Resident evil title, only without the requisite fetch-and-use routine. I also kinda hoped for more out of the Batarang, but outside of that, it's tough to find fault with Batman's gameplay. All of it just feels so polished; the combat is beautifully done and a joy to behold, and the superb voice acting coupled with insane characters always seems to keep your interest, even during downtimes. Perhaps the best part? Batman looks, sounds, and acts like a total bad-ass. In all reality, what more can we ask for? Rocksteady Studios has done their job and they deserve props for this particular production. Well done.

  Also I am obssessed with this song from David Guetta and yeah I am exited because I will get my hands on Left 4 dead 2 in next couple of days.

  Goodbuy for now.

  • Posted Nov 19, 2009 1:53 am PT
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• 20Oct 09

  Operation Flashpoint Dragon Rising Review.

  

  The action in Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising is far different from the kind of shooter action you've seen in other video games. It's more faithful to reality than other "simulators," such as Ghost Recon or Rainbow Six. Bullets and other projectiles behave as they would in real life, dropping due to gravity over distance. Bodies don't have health bars; a single shot can kill you if it's in the right place, and wounds to different parts of the body will affect the specific things those body parts do. Get shot in the leg, run slower; get shot in the arm, have trouble aiming. Reloading is slow, too, as it would be in the real world.
  
  Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising does its simulation really well. It's a challenge, but the kind of challenge a lot of gamers—including this one—really enjoy. Having to think about what you're doing instead of just running and gunning is an appealing alternative to most of the shooters out there. But the other big consideration of the game you'll have to take into account is tactics. This isn't just about running from cover to cover, but rather getting your four-man squad from place to place without getting killed and while successfully and efficiently executing your mission.

  This is the first place Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising starts to break down. You're given control over all kinds of orders that a real-world squad commander would have at his disposal. Telling your troops where to go is only the beginning; you can define their rules of engagement, what kind of formations they attack in and much more. You're given all of these commands through a radial menu that responds to where you are aiming at the moment. But the menus' design leaves a lot lacking. It's tough sometimes to figure out just what submenu holds the command you need at the moment, and it's especially tough when you're under fire.

  To be honest, I usually just found myself telling my squad to follow me, in hopes they would take care of themselves and stay out of my way. Wrong. My teammates constantly stand in front of me while I'm firing on positions or take up positions in front of the cover I told them to get behind. At close range, they're pretty terrible, too, walking right up to enemies and allowing themselves to be shot for no good reason. In one mission, we had to attack the control tower at an airfield and kill the mortar spotters within that were harassing our armor. I sent my guys in with an "assault building" command, thinking they were smart enough to kill anyone they found inside. Apparently they weren't, and when I got inside, I was shot by the enemy soldier that my teammates were standing right next to, doing nothing about. Maybe they made friends when they got inside, I don't know, but it wasn't the only time my troops had problems with close-range detection.

  The poor teammate AI is likely the result of simple incapability on the part of the developers, but a lack of attention to detail is the only thing I can blame the rampant bugs on. Many times, a killed enemy will continue to just stand there, not going into their death animation and lying on the ground. I walked right up to them, and they were, in fact, dead—I guess I didn't realize I was using "turn into a statue" bullets. Other bugs affect the mission objectives: A couple times I could not progress because the game had decided I didn't complete an earlier objective (which I did or else I wouldn't have been allowed to move on to the next one) and kept failing me out of the mission. When I hit "load last checkpoint," it kept taking me to the point after those "uncompleted" missions, never letting me go back to try and fix something.

  Aside from those failures of execution, I did still really enjoy playing the game. I just wish there would have been more of it. Eleven missions feels pretty skimpy, even if some of them can take up to an hour to complete. And while I enjoyed the design of the missions individually, I would have liked more variety or more of a feeling that I was taking part in some grand story. Instead, it feels more like what it is: a series of disjointed missions in a large war.

  The original game did more to explore a storyline, and put you in some really unexpected situations. Specifically, I'm thinking of the mission that put you behind enemy lines with no help, and you had to make your way across many miles of terrain without engaging any of the more superior forces. I felt like I had options, as you should in an open-world game. Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising often feels too guided and scripted.
  
  Having the mission editor that the PC version does would have made a huge difference. The developers said it was impossible to include due to technology and disk space, but Far Cry 2 did it with a very robust engine. I can only hope that DLC gives me more things to do with the Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising engine, since I do like the game very much. But bugs and glitches, combined with some spotty AI, really bring the experience down a few notches. Too bad, because we need more games like this, to give us some perspective on just what kind of hell war truly is.

  • Posted Oct 20, 2009 10:33 am PT
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• 19Oct 09

  Level up!!!

  Hey I am now level 15 known as Nobunaga's Ambition ,also I will write Operation Flaspoint Dragon Rising in next couple of days.

  Goodbuy till then!!!!!
  

  • Posted Oct 19, 2009 10:41 am PT
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