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I couldn’t have been more thrilled to reprise the role of Staff Sergeant Matt Baker of the 101st Airborne Division in Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway. After all, it’s been years since a truly great WWII shooter has graced the market. And while the genre has definitely been over-saturated, I’m always willing to make room for one more in my collection if it’s of the stature of the Brothers in Arms series.
I grew up hearing the phrase, “If you have nothing good to say, don’t say anything at all.” all too often. But there’s no way I’m biting my tongue this time. The entire time I spent playing Mercenaries 2, I was trying to overlook the bugs and flaws in hopes that the core game would shine through. But even that leaves a lot to be desired since the main components are lacking severely on about every level. Mercenaries 2 is a front-runner for being the most disappointing game of the year.
Every year post-E3, I like to write about the event and talk about all the things that got me excited. For one reason or another, I didn’t get around to it this year. That’s not to say that I wasn’t paying attention - I had a browser window open with streaming video of each of the big three press conferences as they happened. And that’s not to say that there wasn’t anything significant to talk about. Believe it or not, Sony impressed the pants off me this year! Not only did they have a lot…
I don’t play many fighting games, although I have in the past. I spent many, many quarters on Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat back in the day, but when things started getting crazy complex, I lost interest. Trying to remember 25 hit combos and countless special and finishing moves for dozens of characters isn’t something I consider fun. When I first experienced the Soulcalibur series on the GameCube with the release of Soulcalibur 2, it was like a breath of fresh air. The combat was a little more grounded, in that no one could…
If you guessed Geometry Wars, you’re absolutely right! This past Wednesday, Xbox 360 gamers were treated to yet another top notch exclusive title on Xbox Live Arcade - Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2. Everything that brought GW success and popularity is fully in-tact, but every aspect of the game has been tweaked to as close to perfection as possible. With the exception of the absence of an online multiplayer mode, GW2 kicks ass on every level and will definitely satisfy fans of the series.
For one reason or another, I never spent as much time playing drums in Rock Band as I would have liked. Mainly, the addition of the fourth member to the Brett household. But also from a technical standpoint, the Rock Band kit isn’t exactly a work of art. Sure, it does the job. But it’s too light and very loud out of the box. As I await the arrival of my dual neoprene pads, I started wondering if I should have just held off and waited for Rock Band 2. Then E3 rolled around and my…
While my history with the Battlefield series has its ups and downs, my experience with Bad Company has been on the up side of things from the get-go. While many things have changed, it still feels very much like a Battlefield game. Even the single player campaign plays like a multiplayer game - when you die, you don’t have to restart from your last checkpoint, you merely re-spawn and pick up where you left off. It’s sort of odd, but it beats constantly re-doing things. I’m now heavy into the multiplayer end of the game, and…
I’ve had mixed emotions towards the latest installation in the Battlefield franchise, Bad Company. Mostly due to my history with the series. I played Battlefield 1942 to death. Battlefield Vietnam saw quite a bit of action on my old PC gaming rig as well. By the time Battlefield 2 came out, my PC was a bit behind the times and struggled to keep up, so I didn’t play too much. After jumping the PC gaming ship, I picked up Battlefield: Modern Combat when it was re-released on the Xbox 360. I had some fun with…
Over the past month or so, I’ve found that my schedule has taken a more hectic and unpredictable turn. Obviously, having a baby around really shakes thing up and it’s pretty hard to plan anything. Whether that be an outing on the weekend, or simply planning to catch up on some TV or gaming in the evening. Whatever I end up doing, I need to be able to drop it at any given second. I’ve found this taking a strange toll on how I play games. I feel like whatever time I have to play…
I had been thinking about reviewing Mario Kart Wii since I picked it up a few weeks ago, but didn’t really have much to say about it. The first time I sat down to write a quick draft, I started the title with, “Mario Kart Wii is More of the Same…” Hold the phone! This seems all too familiar. The following day, Ryan Davis (formerly of GameSpot) over at Giant Bomb wrote about Mario Kart Wii and totally hit the nail on the head. The bottom line, is that Nintendo has stopped evolving their successful franchises,…