Modern Warfare 3 - Great or not?

I've been putting this off for a while now for a few reasons. I wanted to roll this around my head for a while before I put finger to key, and there was also Skyrim, 'nuff said.

So I played right through MW3 and played a quite a few solid hours of multiplayer, which is where I think I'll start. I like where multiplayer has gone in terms of class customization, especially with the kill-streak unlocks. I think it was a clever idea to have multiple kinds, each having their advantages and disadvantages. Otherwise, multiplayer was prettier on the eyes and just as fun as MW1 (I havn't played multiplayer MW2, only the campaign on PS3).

Now, lets have a look at the campaign. MW2 ended on a 'To be continued' note, but it ended with such an amazing bang that I felt satisfied to wait for the next game rather than have that desperate feeling to find out what's next. MW1 was amazing and has some solid shooter elements as well as some great gameplay sections, such as the sniper scene amoung others, but it didn't feature them heavily. MW2 took the envelope even futher and you even got to enjoy some ice climbing (I fell off the ledge so many times). Overall, MW2 was a fantastic experience.

MW3, obviously pushed it even further, but this time I didn't feel it. Don't get me wrong, some of the shooter locations were fantastic and gave me a real rush. MW3 is still a great shooter, but it's not the shooting that brought down the experience, it was all the non-shooting sequences.

Personally, this game made me feel like the series was getting full of itself. Like a guy being so cool he's more or less become a stereotypical black pimp with all the bling and wearing purple. Yeah, I didn't like that image either. Why do I feel this way? Here's a few examples of just completely unnecessary 'gameplay'.

The UGV sequence was also boring. Not not really fun to roll around in a robot mini-tank that is clunky to move around and can't really take the hits. Worst still, it's so rediculously overpowered that when my allies ran for the chopper, I mistook them for enemies as they came from the same place and I fired for a brief millisecond until I realized who they were, which was enough to fail the mission. I might also add MW3 suffered from some horrible checkpointing at times.

One part I really hated, and not because it was horrible to watch was the London truck-bomb sequence where the little girl stands next to the truck before exploding. When it switched to this cutscene, I had no idea what it was doing and stood there for about a minute not realising I had control. Then all I did was walk forward. Really? Why couldn't it just play out instead of cutting to some random person who I had no idea about. I get that it was meant to draw emotion, but it didn't for me because I was frustrated that it was doing this to me, again. Great cutscene? Maybe. Well executed? No. Did I feel it was needed? Definately not, I don't want to see that, bad enough it happens in real life.

Now some cutscenes are really good and I felt they worked really well, especially the submarine level, but by the time I got to the end of the game, I felt it was all overused and the ending sequence had no impact for me. All the bloat and cutscenes had washed out their impact and I was left feeling like I hadn't really fought Makarov at the end. It was just another quicktime cutscene.

Obviously some people will disagree with me, and I accept that. I don't play these games just to blow stuff up, that's what's multiplayer is for, I wanted a good story and some great action. The story was there, but the puffed up 'we are so cool' action ruined it. Next time you guys make game, don't be a bigot and remember, sometimes old-school shooting is king.

Skyrim - Happy Bear

Dear Diary

Today, I ventured high into the mountains through the blizzard and found this guy who won't die! I put like 10 arrows in him and bashed him over the head repeatedly like a crazed murderer. No seriously, I was totally a pshyco killer for a whole 20 seconds there. And he just kneels down and I bash and bash and then he gets up completely healed! It's like my mace is a soft toy and its making him laugh so hard he needs to take a break. So I ran away.

I found a cave with VAMPIRES! I really didn't want to be a vampire, all sparkly and crap, so I was very sneaky and sniped them with my awesome frost bow, that then ran out of charge. Worthless souls! I also managed to one-shot them through the eye again. Seriously, I gotta stop doing that, it's uncanny.

Trekked down the mountain and met Happy Bear! I tried to give him a hug, but he tried to eat my face. So I let him eat my mace instead. Went down the hill, killed some more bears and caught some bees. I killed a ghost-like man in this tomb underground. Got given a Saphire Claw which let me go deeper into the tomb. Went back up and jumped down a deep hole into another tomb.

Went trekking, killed lots of trolls and bears. Learnt how to raise the dead to fight for me. Pretty awesome power there.

I also killed a Dragon! It was awesome and I ate it and absorbed all its power! Well, maybe I didn't eat it but whatever. Lets see what tomorrow brings!

Skyrim - Welcome to...oh crap...

Dear Diary

After venturing to Skyrim and promptly getting a taste of Legion 'brutality', I managed to escape with this Legion fellow during a dragon attack. I'd never seen dragons before and they are pretty damn scary. So we escaped and we parted ways to meet up later at his parent's place (the dude still lives with his parents, what a dork!) but I took the long way around and met some bandits who got to taste my mace. I found a treasure map and went treasure hunting like a...medieval pirate? Found this old lady and snooped around her house. Found a secret basemet and stole some stuff, which kinda pissed her off. I didn't like her attitude, so I gave her a taste of mace.

Got to the town, took peoples stuff and got sent on this quest to retrieve a golden claw. I don't know, somebody's idea of a stupid joke but I went along with and and found this creepy temple in the mountains. Killed bandits with awesome archery (I keep shooting them through the left eye because I'm uber-uncool). I must have super powers, because I could see dead people...and kill them too!

Anyways, long boring quest cut short, found door, guessed combination not realising I had the code on the claw. Found cool stuff and left. Jumped off cliff and returned claw for money. Then went up into mountains and learned how to cook. Fought Wisp Mother and won (after 10 tries, I was only level 4). Went through caves and climbed mountain. Now I'm lost and running around in a blizzard.

It's awesome!

IWBTF!!! Why do you do this to me?

I am raging. I re-found IWBTF which stands for I Wanna Be The Fangame. I really don't wanna play The Guy (yes that's his name) on his quest through %*#^&@^ HELL!

Seriously, this game is so bloody rediculous. I found myself in the original PokemonTM house and you need to go down the stairs, BUT WAIT! Try to touch the stairs and YOU WILL DIE. If you shoot the stairs, THEY GET SUPER F-ING BIG AND SLIDE ACROSS THE SCREEN! If you don't stand in a specific place within 0.8 seconds YOU WILL DIE! Then, when I got past that bit and went downstairs, a flying stool jumps out and YOU WILL DIE! So you jump onto the tv and jump over the trigger spot and fall down where the bookcase turns and falls down above you and YOU WILL DIE! This continues when you get outside, where you get massive giant Pokemon fly across the screen randomly. If they touch you, YOU WILL DIE! You'll see this screen a lot:

Do you see a trend yet? And there are over 100 rooms apparently. And you know what's worse? It the kind of game that says to you, "You can beat me, come on. HAHAHA I KILLED YOU. But no, seriously, you can beat me, you know how to, just do it. Oh, you got past that bit, see! You can do it, now for the next bit, HAHAHA I KILLED YOU AGAIN! You didn't expect that random flying object did you?"

You can beat this game, it is so simple that you know you can. But it's not going to make it easy for you. And when you fail, you know it's all your fault for not being good enough.

See, making you rage will do one of two things, rage to be better, or the other...quit.

Dead Space 2

I've had Dead Space 2 for a while now. I played it before my super-awesome computer upgrades and it ran really sluggish on the lowest settings. I also got to a very difficult point in Chapter 15 or so which was made even harder by my poor framerate. So I ragequit...indefinately.

But I've come back and running in beautiful max graphics; though the rendering on my 3D monitor is awful and gives me real headaches, so I've not been playing in 3D. Probably why Nvidia says the game is 'Not Recommended' for 3D; some newer games just weren't designed with 3D in mind, but that's for another post.

Now I love Dead Space to the point of fan-dom. It's one of my all-time favorites and I've played ALL of them. I've bought all the movies, read all the comics, played Dead Space 1 twice and also played the Wii prequel, which was very decent for a Wii game. I loved it so much that I pre-ordered the special edition and got a mini plasma cutter. Awesome!

What I most love about Dead Space 2 is that they took an appropriate change in pace. The first game was about the scares and the horror, because it was new and nobody knew what they were getting into. This time around, it's more action orientated but still with the horror and gore. Oh man the gore is horrible. This game really just wants to show off how many different ways it can kill you.

So far, I really don't have anything to complain about. The level design is solid and the story is mostly comprehensible, especially since your not meant to really know what's going on until later in the game. Here's a little preview of just how intense this game can be sometimes.

The Thing

Watched the remake/prequel of the 1982 move of the same name; The Thing is a pretty gorey movie but aims for the more horrific scenes to scare you, rather than the usual jump-out-at-you scares. I have already watched the $15 million, 1982 version made by John Carpenter, so I had a decent idea of what events needed to be in the prequel and how it needed to end.

Unlike the original, all the monsters were clearly done with CG, which was disappointing compared to the horrific puppetry from the Carpenter version. Although computer generated graphics are getting extremely realistic these days, there is just that sense that it's not real when thay create something like this. The reason why the Carpenter one is scarier is because they were real puppets and props and you could tell.

So I won't spoil too much, but overall, the movie was a decent stab in the right direction, but it suffered like the Carpenter version, focusing so much on the gore and horror that it built up little plot investment in the characters since there are quite a few of them and many don't last long. In some scenes it felt that when a character died or became a 'Thing' I had no idea what that person actually did.

In all, it tried to be as good at the Carpenter original, but it followed in his footsteps far too much and suffered just as much as the original did. It's simply a case of, it's nothing new at all really. If you're gonna watch this movie, you're going to watch it for the gore. I did have fun watching it, but I doubt I'd watch it again as most of the scares are one-time affairs.

It scrapes in at just 3 out of 5 stars for me.

I also found this remake of the 1982 'The Thing', happily portrayed by Pingu the Penguin. Enjoy!