Years and Years ago my core group of gamer friends and I started a Tuesday night gaming experiment, we called it Battlefield 2uesdays; yep, you guessed it, we played Battlefield 2… and then when Battlefield 2142 came out we played that… and then we played Battlefield Bad Company 2… and then Battlefield Vietnam (the remake diversion)… and then we went back to playing Battlefield Bad Company 2. I’m pleased to report Battlefield 2uesdays is still going strong, only now we call it Battlefield Tu3sdays!

(I’ll start negative and then go positive)

Disappointment can be summed up with two words – Resource Diversion (ie. Campaign & CO-OP) – Because of this resource diversion we have a comma rose without the rose petals of health and ammo, a camouflage system that resets default camo every round, and tanks that slide around serious earth tone terrain as if gliding on happy yellow plastic tarp. Sit and ponder with me, a Battlefield with 100 percent of its resources devoted to multiplayer. Did you just wet yourself? You should have…

But the universe is more complicated than that and so is this review, I totally wrote the previous paragraph before playing any CO-OP, I have since then played a few missions of CO-OP, and dang it, I actually like it. Now, I still haven’t played any campaign, but if the trend of not liking something BF3 related before playing it and then liking it after you actually play it stays true, I’ll bet dollars to SOFLAM the campaigns not terrible either.

Moving on – I’m getting older so for a game to grab any of my steadily decreasing time/attention allotment, to rise above almost unavoidable redundancy, it needs to be special. Battlefield 3 makes me feel special, like some young special twenty something. I have to admit, even though the Dice guys are Swedish, and their nation hasn’t fought anyone since Napoleon, they’ve got some solid nuggets of brass and lead.

Vehicle combat, by itself a rarity, has punch, volume, explosion, and satisfaction. There’s nothing quite like a few minutes of intense tank warfare resulting in a steppe littered with smoldering hulks of less fortunate opponents. But there’s a nasty good balance to it all, because just as I’m smugly smiling from my tanks cupola an attack chopper will swoop down, unleashing hellfire and brimstone; that or I’ll get slammed with multiple rpg’s from multiple rooftops.

For some reason I drive tanks with assault class… should use engi class (repair is good, I’m smarter than that)… Stubborn German…

The point of my game reviews aren’t to give full on, multi-directional, HD perspectives, you’ve got IGN and Gameinformer for that; I haven’t even officially mentioned the word “multiplayer” till just now (and everyone else is right about it).

All I know is this, I haven’t bought MW3 yet… The End…

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Let me start this review stating the kind of video gamer I am. I mainly game on the PC and I play a range of games, from RPGs (The Witcher anyone?) to all types of strategy (Turn based, real time, hybrids), the occasional MMO (Rift and EVE Online ATM) and lastly I play the occastional FPS preferring multiplayer oriented ones. My current FPS of choice is Battlefield Bad Company 2. I’m not a fan of COD, though it is a decently put together game the selfish and frantic gameplay is not my cup of tea. I like team based complex FPSs that reward good teamwork (since I like to play with friends).

That leads me to this game. My friends and I are losing interest in BF:BC2 since we’ve all put 200+ hours into it and have been playing it since beta. So I heard about Brink and the teamwork based gameplay and thought that I would try it out and let my pals know how it is. Well I played for several hours yesterday and have to say that while the premise is good, the game is overall just blah. It has a few cool ideas and the setting is fun, but there is just nothing about it that really stands out so it just ends up feeling like another run of the mill shooter. Personally I think it has similar gameplay to say a Unreal Tournament game.

So nitty gritty. The graphics are good, character models and levels aren’t bad. I think the guy’s heads look funny but anyway… The customization aspect is nice, but to be honest not anything revolutionary. The most basic of RPGs allowed this level of customization for years. The weapons, which are arguably one of the most important parts of a FPS, are rather blah. There isn’t a lot of differentiation between them. One SMG feels very much like another. The ARs are very similar as well and the grenades are very underwhelming.

For those singleplayer people, you can play by yourself and get a decent storyline, but lets be honest, this is really just a multiplayer game. Even the singleplayer is meant to be played online. The story is decent, I haven’t finished it, but it is basically just do objectives with teammates, not much different than playing the multiplayer component. The only real difference is the videos before and after.

One of my bigger complaints is the lack of in game stats and the ease that everything is unlocked. There is no staying power in the game. I still play BF:BC2 because its fun, but also because I get cool stats to look at and there are still guns to platinum. With Brink, everything is unlocked within 10 hours and while there is a decent amount of experimenting to try after it is all unlocked, since there is no in game stats and no crazy high levels to get there is less incentive to play. For instance, in BF:BC2 I have played well over 200 hours and I still have about 5 levels to go to get to 50. It isn’t my only incentive to play, but it gives me a little something to work towards.

Anywho, its not a bad game, but I doubt I’ll be playing it that much and I really don’t expect the online community to stick around.

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Yesterday my friend Dan gave me a Gears 3 Beta invite code, we united our powers later that night.

I got “double buried” (a term I invented to describe death by double barrel sawed off shotgun) and curb stomped a lot and somewhere in between these events Dan started calling me something altogether different; instead of “Kenuchfleck,” my normal handle, he started calling me “Ken-flo.”

It made my noobishness not seem so bad, the new nickname that is, especially when I decided to use the OP’d double barrel myself…

Update: Even with the double barrel I still stink…

So maybe it isn’t as slick as COD, nor does it have destruction 2.0, and yes, Crysis graphics are about three generations beyond. That said, Homefront is definitely better than Medal of Honor and if Homefront misses the mark I believe it more accurate to say it’s aiming for something altogether different, which truth be told, is just fine.

The Story – Red Dawn Redux

Some might declare Homefront’s plot improbable junk but compared with COD’s Manchurian candidate and Battlefield’s gold crates I find Homefront’s plot to be the most believable of the three. I mean, the specter of inflation, gas prices on the rise, and social unrest all play into the hand of the cataclysmal. (Did anyone catch the Wolverine reference?) The escalation of world events retold via 61 newsclippings scattered throughout the game was actually one of the things I enjoyed most. They helped paint a fantastic, yet probable scenario as to how we got from here to there; very very good fiction.

So, I felt the campaign was short but good, the story really couldn’t support anything of length. The mission set pieces were fine and mostly memorable. All the campaign cheevo’s are possible, worth a playthrough or two but the legs of the game are multiplayer…

Mulitplay – Surprised by Depth

Pros:

- With format, menu, and challange cues taken from COD, I found myself happy and familiar with offerings both old and new.

- The kit selection is like BF2142, with different slots for different things, I dig it.

- Battlepoints (BP) are cool, your prowess is rewarded with call-ins and character buffs – counter strikish.

- Maps are real big, lots of places to hide yourself.

- Guns are great (the Diablo SMG ftw; it’s also one of the best video game gun variants I’ve seen in years)

- Sound effects are fantastic, better than COD, M-16 has a snappy sweet semi auto action groove!

- Great environmental art direction, reminded me of a cross between Terminator Salvation, Jericho, and The Road.

Cons:

- This is a perfect game for squads, yet there are no squad options, this sucks. I don’t have any friends so I haven’t done this but I assume setting up an xbox live party squads you up, but I dont’ know for sure.

- Almost a hundred cheevo’s tied with “partying up” which is lame, I don’t have 16 friends to party up with to unlock those blasted cheevos.

- Game can look fugly, xbox 360 pushed to the max. Team USA comes off as a bright green looking dudes, real easy to see

- No destructible environments. Once you get used to Battlefield you just lament the fact that your M1A1 gets snagged on rubble.

Favorite gameplay moment:

- No bigger heart-pounding moment than when I hit Threat Level 5. I was on foot with low ammo and charging headlong into the enemy with time running out. It was simply awesome!

Bottom Line:

I liked the game, not a long haul type of game, but good non-the-less. If you’re looking to score this off of Ebay be aware that you need an online pass to play multiplayer beyond lvl 5, it’ll run you about $10.

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The following is a minimalistic, spoiler filled, rant/kudos dissection fest featuring COD’s latest offering, Black Ops, for the Xbox 360. Before I get to that though I just want to say how much I loved the interactive main menu! Breaking your bonds! Roaming the room! The computer terminal! That guy in the window who becomes a zombie when you switch over to zombie mode! Brilliant! Okay, now lets get to those scatter gun thoughts of mine.

Multiplayer = Great

- Dolphin diving is fun! Now, I don’t use it to avoid death, I just use it to dive into the first flag I see during Domination games like everyone else, it’s hilarious…

- My PHR clan tag scratched into my gun is cool, this is cool, I’m surprised at how cool it is, I wonder why it’s so cool…

- The levels are multi-layed, multi-routed, much better than MW2’s

- Love the double mag attachment allowing for super fast second mag reload. I’ve been sitting on this idea for years, glad to see someone think of it as well…

- The fact that kill streak kills don’t count towards the next kill streak reward is flipping fantastic. Keeps you from constant attack helicopter flybys, which is fine by me…

- The contracts are just okay, but not cool, they should be cool like Halo Reach, but again, they’re not cool. Low war buck amounts make you not even care to set yourself up with one…

Campaign = Good

- If you don’t suffer an epileptic seizure while watching load screens you’ll enjoy the campaign. I started closing my eyes to avoid headaches during said load screens…

- Loved the espionage cold war era the game took place in, a time when info wasn’t immediate and needed to be obtained the hard way, not by simply perusing wikileaks…

- Really graphic chocking and knifing sequences done by the player, makes you wish for a clean, fast, non-gratuitous kill factor, they made me feel weird, I don’t want to feel weird when I jam my games…

- Good storyboard throughout except the end, which was total fail. Basically you destroy your arch enemy in an underwater soviet base which you also destroy and then you need to swim to the surface and when you emerge from the water you’re surrounded by friendly destroyers, and a lame rock track, and a lame one liner…

Zombies = Fair

- The presidential zombie level is great though, not fair. There’s much fun with those guys at campaigns conclusion, which unlocks this particular level of zombie slaying action…

- I never seem to know what to do, wish they had in game hints to tell you what in the world is going on. Like, what do you do after the power is turned on? For the life of me I still don’t know…

- Wish you could use your perk setups while in zombie, that would make me a for sure zombie killer, but I usually just get zombie killed…

- There’s nothing like zombies to bring people together, have generally loved my split screen time with family and friends, even if we somehow end up dying by round 4…

Conclusion = Hurrah!

Thus ends my brief review of Black Ops, which is in no way exhaustive, fair, or balanced. I believe this game is a good purchase only if you get it for a couple bucks off, and if you’ve got some friends to jam with…

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In short, Reach is the best Halo game Bungie’s ever made, but I know you’ve already heard that from every other reviewer on the planet so I’m going to skip repeating that stuff and tell you what I think misses the mark.

To be blunt, the campaign’s emotion is all out of sync, the cut scenes, to be honest, don’t even come close to gathering the type of emotion released by the pre-launch Reach commercials of Spartans leaping threw air with pistol and bomb in hand. Yep, so the game will end and secretly you’ll be wishing they’d ended it with some awesome live action video short that time and time again, stretching back to Halo 3, has been blowing your mind.

My next complaint is about firefight because firefight achievements are not cool. How am I supposed to get 1,000,000 firefight points without making some sort of lame modified map using rockets only and slugging out 750 Elite kills over the span of 40 minutes. That and there isn’t really any reason to play all the firefight maps but your favorite because each map no longer has its own achievement like ODST did.

Last but not least, my personal favorite, for God’s sake do infected mode the right way with the Flood as the infected character skins, a no braaaaaainer…

And that dear reader is about all the complaints I can muster…

P.S. The thumbnail image is me getting blasted:)

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My John Marston’s awesome. He wears the Legend of the West outfit, uses dead eye to shoot dudes off horses, and once killed a grizzly with nothing but his bowie knife. His long arm of the law is the double action revolver.

Red Dead Redemption’s redeeming features are sweeping vistas, a good cowboy storyline, dialog that’s never a bore (at least when Marston’s doing the talking), and assorted moments of pure cowboy bliss, such as storming the mansion in Tumbleweed. Also, I just can’t tell you how much fun riding a virtual horse is, that is, until you accidentally shoot it in the back of the head while riding during multiplayer. Honorable mention goes to the audio, I once was playing during a thunderstorm with my surround sound on and couldn’t tell the difference between the thunderclaps in my living room and those outside.

Still, let it be known, in my opinion the games not worth paying full retail. But I suppose if you haven’t much going on this summer it’s not a bad one to pick up.

The things I didn’t like about the game are as follows.

There was a stiffness, a general clunkiness of 3rd person movement that annoyed. All I want to do is walk up the stairs, in between the railings, to the front door, before the rancher’s daughter gets shot darn it. Then there was the default snails pace walk speed which guarantees you’ll never want to walk. And the multiplayer, I just don’t think it’s great. The open roam will see you recycling the same six gang hideouts again and again. I mean, I can only do Pike’s Basin or Fort Mercer so many times. I suppose there is a lot to do if you get a posse going on, like taking on other posse units that are sharing your free roam session, maybe I lack the creativity to exploit that which is actually awesome. The team based games are great, okay, and terrible all at the same time. Some guys rock your socks off and usually have their friends with them, which makes for backing out of games to find a different server an often occurrence because the skill level match maker is on vacation (yes, I had some very rough rounds last night, hence my vitriol).

In conclusion I foresee myself playing Red Dead Redemption for another week or so, enjoying it, and reselling it on Ebay for something respectable before the price starts nosediving towards the thirty dollar mark, which, by the time of this article, hasn’t happened yet. Which goes to show there might still be room in this semi auto world for a six gun man, at least, for a little while longer…

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Let’s get the frustrating out of the way. The single player pillar of MW2 is garbage, absolute Micheal Bay over the top garbage. Time and time again you’ll find yourself in unbelievable situations that can be solved only with an equally unbelievable amount of bullets. Also be prepared to die, again, and again, and again, and upon death be subjected to death quotes which are to long to read before the respawn timer is up and are frustratingly bad in the first place. For instance, there’s like 5 JFK quotes and then a whole batch that make you feel like Patriotism is for blockheads; they round out the quotes by throwing in a Dick Cheney for good measure.

Then there’s the franticness, which is frustrating, even on hardened difficulty, most SP levels crawl slowly by. I’m not a fan, it’s not fun, it’s a pain, only if I’m really hard up for gamer score will I ever attempt these levels on Veteran. It’s just that there’s so many angles to keep track of and no “hugging the walls” cover system to help make quick peeps around corners. The SP has a few select moments that rock like the snow blind mission and the oil rig hostages but overall the journey is full of fail which brings me to something full of win, MW2’s; Spec Ops.

This is Co-op gold, I’ve now got help taking care of all those angles! Spec Op’s is the second pillar of MW2 and is separate from the single player. So, you can’t redo those SP missions that I was telling you about which is fine, because the offering of mission snippets you get with Spec Ops is robust, featuring all kinds of different objectives, time limits, and scenarios. Each Op has three stars of difficulty for a total of sixty nine possible stars whereby unlocking an achievement. One level I tried at the second star rating, had you and a buddy defending this platform against 4 waves of infantry with a few truck and jeeps mixed in, it was awesome and the kind of “frantic” I enjoy. I’ve only played  a few of these Op’s and they rock. I’m holding off on doing the majority of them till I can enjoy them with a friend.

The final pillar is MW2’s multiplayer which is undoubtedly the most frustrating and fantastic thing in the game. Everything is better than the original, the killstreak rewards are awesome, the perks are refined, the guns are cooler, the attachments steller, and everything is, dare I say it, balanced! I carry around a Stinger missile launcher as my secondary weapon and am always on the ready to knock the enemies Cobra’s, AC130’s, and Pavelow’s out of the sky. Post match I love hearing the guys complain how their ten kill streak reward crashed to the ground ten seconds after they called it in. I love it! The maps are great with Scrapeyard probably being one of the better MP maps around. The ranking up takes time and has legs, there’s so many ways to get bonus points that it makes it really addictive. Every gun and piece of equipment has challenges and rewards for those challenges. I can’t sing the praises of the multiplayer enough. The only negative for me is the franticness of the multiplayer slightly echos the SP campaign. You will feel like a loser if you haven’t killed anyone within three seconds of spawning. Indeed you ‘ll be losing if you don’t because more than likely you’ll be dead in three seconds. Don’t feel bad if the person I just described is you because it is me as well. In order to prolong my life from two seconds to three I’ve built my perk set around detection and evasion. Hopefully some day I’ll be good enough to have a K:D ratio of 500!

My conclusion is this, man this game’s difficulty curve is high and frustrating but good grief it’s addicting, you’ll have no regrets if you pick this one up…

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I like it when cynical people write reviews, they tend to be blunt and honest.  If I buy this game early, like tomorrow’s release date, I’ll add some of my own cynical thoughts…

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