Battlefield: Bad Company 2

Battlefield is one of the longest first person warfare shooters on the market, alongside its younger rival Call of Duty.  The series has spawned many classics e.g. Battlefield 1942 (2002) ,  Battlefield 2 (2005) and Battlefield: Bad Company (2008). The most recent release is the sequel to the most recent game, Battlefield: Bad Company 2.

Bad Company 2 from first looks is already a very visually impressive game, thanks to the Frostbite engine 1.5 and continues to show the capabilities of the engine throughout play. The ability to completely level a building or forest is intriguing in itself, but when actually doing so you feel like the game will have more to offer than most shooters.

For a start the single player campaign mode continues on from the last game, opening up a new story ark revolving around “The Black Weapon” which the Russians are planning on finding and using again the U.S. The familiar faces of Bad Company, Preston, Sweetwater, Redford and Haggard all return to provide there comical personalities throughout the campaign. The campaign (quite literally) drops you into multiple environments such as snowy Russia, the rainforests of Columbia and the urban areas of Venezuela, through a selection of thirteen well designed missions.

An example of the snowy environments.

The campaign contains new collectible weapons also which you can find hidden or on from defeated enemies, there are also M-COM stations on each mission which must be destroyed by the player to earn an achievement or award. These collectibles add replay-ability to the campaign, and if you don’t happen to have access to the online capabilities, it gives you a chance to get the achievements you may have missed on the first play through.

Speaking of online……………

Online play is what most players purchase a Battlefield game for, or what they have likely heard about the most. Bad Company 2’s multiplayer has much to offer to the player, such as complete class customisation ranging from Assault, Medic, Engineer and Recon. With these classes comes a range of weapons and gadgets for the player’s role e.g. Recon class has “motion mines” which can give you and your team a “heads up” to what enemies are in a location or objective. The player earns point bonuses towards their class and overall rank. There are an overall of 50 ranks, which take longer to proceed through, unlike other games such as Call of Duty. Each rank you pass through you will receive new sidearms, abilities and gadgets such as the tracer dart. All of the unlocks will give you a tactical advantage at some point in a match.

Conquest on "Atamaca Desert".

The multiplayer comes with 4 game modes, Rush, which makes you and your squad, either defend or attack 2 locations with the objective of destroying two M COM stations, if the attackers are successful, two more M COM stations will be revealed pushing fourth the attack, until all are destroyed. The second game mode is your typical take and hold mode, where either team must raise their flag over three to four points over the map, the team with the least points at the end wins. The other two game modes are squad rush, where two 4 man squads, attack one point with either successfully taking it and finally Squad Death match, where four squads appointed with one vehicle, battle it out for the goal of 50 kills.

 Though there are only four game modes, the matches last longer than other shooters, for the tide of battle can be switched back and forth many a time. The player has a much larger role in multiplayer, attempting to “lone wolf” your way through a map, will likely get yourself killed a fair few time, though if you join a squad, look out for each other, supply and heal one another, you are more likely to successfully take objectives. It may be a more tasking approach towards a shooter, but it also gives a greater sense of achievement if you so happen to clear an entire enemy base or successfully fend off the opposite team while planting a charge.

Players swarming an objective on Rush.

If the regular features of Bad Company 2 aren’t enough for you, downloadable content such as the SPECTACT upgrades, which give the player new weapons, character skins and class challenges, or if you want to completely revamp your multiplayer experience, Bad Company 2-Vietnam is also available for purchase, this entails four new maps, 60’s period weaponry, vehicles and of course soundtrack.

Overall Bad Company 2 is a welcome change in the ever expanding web of FPS’, providing the most invigorating multiplayer many have experience to date, and yet again proves to be a worthy edition amongst the Battlefield Series. If you’re looking forward to the upcoming Battlefield 3, it would be wise to give Bad Company 2 a chance if you’re new to the series.

'Splosion Man & Limbo - Xbox Live Arcade

It’s only been until recently that I’ve begun looking into the different Xbox Live arcade games, and realising that there some massively enjoyable and entertaining titles on their such as Super Meat Boy and Toy Soldiers. I recently managed to get my managed to my hands the two award-winning arcade games ‘Splosion Man and Limbo.   

The first I’ll be reviewing is ‘Splosion man, developed by Twisted Pixel. The story follows the story of a science experiment “Splosion Man” as he attempts to escape the laboratory he was created in. The game follows the typical side scrolling, platform style with a suitable cartoon style visual. The player must navigate through 50 levels split into three chapters; the levels consist of altered difficulty from start to finish, relying on the player’s split second timing and navigation as you “splode” your character through different traps and puzzles, though the game eases you through the chapters with its comic humour and wit.  The single player can take up to 3 – 5 hours to complete depending how quickly you blast through the levels with an even more difficult “Hardcore Mode” to attempt afterwards or if you’re a perfectionist, finding all the collectible cakes on each stage and unlocking the avatar awards such as a ‘Splosion Man T-shirt.

An Example of the Side-scrolling Action of 'Splosion Man.

If the single player levels weren’t enough for you, the game generously offers a  2 - 4 player co- op mode, with another 50 levels ranging in difficulty depending on how many players are in your party. The multiplayer relies on team work as it does timing, though you may have you retry levels a fair few times, it an immensely fun experience for the players. If you’re not willing to pay the 800 Microsoft points for the game, play the trial and decide from there, but it’s worth every penny.

Now to the more solemn and sinister game “Limbo”, Limbo, developed by Playdead Studios. The game follows a young boy’s journey for his sister through the disturbing, perilous, black and white land of what can only be presumed to be “Limbo”.  The game is also a sidescroller but holds a massively different atmosphere compared to “’Splosion Man”. The game play consists working out complex puzzles ranging from having to climb a tree to snap a log off in order to cross a river ,avoid a giant spider or navigating a spinning room whilst avoiding falling into a buzz saw. Though the game appears to be a creepily innocent at first but you begin to notice there’s a fair amount of disturbing visual’s in the games background or the fate of the boy if you fall into many of the games traps.

One of the Disturbing Visuals from Limbo

The game offers up to 24 chapters, spanning through different environments such as rooftops, forest and factory. The game lasts up to  2-3 hours depending how carefully  you play through, or if you’re feeling even more adventurous ,trying to find the 10 collectible  eggs scattered throughout  the game or even the unlock able avatar awards such as a “Creature from Limbo” Avatar accessory. . Though the game only offers a campaign, it would be wrong to say the game has no replay ability, because it does, the mere details on the artistically designed environment are enough to draw any player back. Limbo will cost you 1200 Microsoft points,  a high price, but if you unsure, coax yourself by playing the trial.

Overall these two games prove that, if your fed up of the current retail  games and are feeling  the need to play something  arcade and  different , pick both or at least one of these games up for an enjoyable and fresh gaming experience. 

Portal 2 Review

With the massive success of the original Portal released with The Orange Box back in 2007, it was only a matter of time before a fully fledged sequel was released and it was officially announced March 5th 2010, one delay later and Portal 2 materialized onto Xbox 360, PS3 and PC on April 18th 2011.

From the start of the game you realise that this game is going to be wider and more ambitious than its predecessor. The story begins where you left off…….

(Spoilers begin here)

Your character “Chell” wakes up yet again after a prolonged sleep in the Aperture Science Enrichment Centre and is approached by personality sphere known as “Wheatley” (voiced by Stephen Merchant), he then leads you through the decaying and destroyed and overgrown test rooms of the facility (thanks to the players actions in the first game) and eventually leads to a reunion with GLaDOS, who you “murdered” in the last game. After swiftly separating you and Wheatley she proceeds to put you through testing yet again, until Wheatly yet again finds you and manages to take over the facility with your help and expose himself as the main enemy of the game instead of GLaDOS who now resides within a potato battery. After a large fall you and your vegetative A.I. work your way through the remnants of a 60’s style test site accompanied with the founder of Aperture, Cave Johnson (voiced by J.K. Simmons), you finally manage to escape the test site and have a final showdown with Wheatley, leading the GLaDOS replacing herself as the main A.I. and you finally escaping the facility.

(Spoilers end here)

The Reunion

As you can see the story has a lot more to look out for than its predecessor, and a lot more background to specific characters in the story, and many interesting Easter eggs linking to other valve games.

With a new game, must come new functions and boy, Portal 2 doesn’t disappoint. The tests in the game begin with your typical place portal in on one wall and another on another, but as the game goes on these mechanics are drastically changed with the introduction of lasers or “Thermal Discouragement Beams” that are directed using cubes,  Hard light bridges used to navigates through portals without falling and blocking objects, Repulsion Gel which allows you to bounce and jump higher than normal, Propulsion gel which allows you to move faster than normal, Conversion gel which allows you to place portals on any given surface and excursion tunnels which allows you to levitate. These different elements bring a fresh and a more challenging side to portal, which leads you too really to start “thinking with portals”. The overall campaign lasts around seven hours which is yet again significantly larger compared to the original Portal.

One of the many Test chambers.

One big element that was kept under wraps during the development of the game was the Co-operative multiplayer. Not only is the co-op multiplayer a difference from your typical co-op, it makes sure you need to rely on one another to get through the test chambers, instead of having two portals you now have four, boosting the possibilities of how to get through a stage which is pretty challenging and enjoyable on its own. You have the choice to play as the “Cooperative Testing Initiative” in the form of two robots “P-body” and “Atlas”. The player is able to use microphone support or if they do not have one, simple character commands such as highlighting an area to place a portal, or to reward a player for specific actions and hug or high five. The multiplayer is based in and around a “Hub World” and the players can select from 5 different sections, and can then work together and solve the 8 test chambers within each section. The multiplayer can typically last between 3-5 hours depending on how well you and your partner work together.

Big Hugs for a new and innovative multiplayer.

Overall, this long awaited sequel has proved to be much more enjoyable and tough, it holds many more features now that it is a standalone game and shows more intelligence than the most frequent point and shoot games we are so familiar with today. The only negative point about the game would be the occasional graphical errors, but this doesn’t take anything away from the game play, hopefully if a sequel is created, it will be within the Source 2 engine.