The Decline of the Modern Warfare Series!

Posted by Sam Steady on February 27, 2012

gamelitist.com

Call of Duty is one of those games that almost anyone with an Xbox or Playstation has. I got into Call of Duty when I went down to Game Stop and purchased a copy of Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare 1 nearly four years ago. This sparked a monster and I just could not put the game down. I went straight from Modern Warfare 1 to Modern Warfare 2. This game exploded on the market in 2010 and has completely changed the competitive and professional gaming community. Although this game was extremely fun and entertaining for a short while, it quickly got repetitive and boring. It was almost as if you felt like you had to play to keep up with the rest of the gaming world, but it just wasn’t fun anymore. Now with the release of Modern Warfare 3, everything has crashed and burned. The game is literally just a map pack for Modern Warfare 2. The graphics are identical, many of the weapons are the same and the game feels no different than its predecessor.

As I am sure many of you know, Infinity Ward is responsible for producing Modern Warfare games in the Call of Duty Series, while Treyarch is responsible for making all of the other games. Both of these are game developers that work for the publishing company Activision. Although both developers have positive and negative sides to their games, Infinity Ward has arguably the most popular games. Despite the popularity of their games, the production and maintenance quality of Infinity Ward’s products are very low. Although Modern Warfare 1 was backed up with good map packs and game support, they slacked off on Modern Warfare 2. I mean like they literally produced the game and than left it in the dust to fend for itself.

The game collapsed and turned into a hacker friendly, booster infested modded lobby disaster. Infinity ward abandoned the game and immediately starting working on their next release. Why did they do this? To make more money!

It is way more beneficial for them to release a new game and sell another couple million copies than it is to keep up maintenance on the online servers of an older game. For this reason, I believe that the quality of Modern Warfare 3 will quickly decline as Infinity Ward scrambles to make more money on their next release.

I personally prefer Modern Warfare games to other games in the Call of Duty series, but I still am well aware of the flaws in the games. I think that the reason I am more attracted to these games is because Modern Warfare 1 was the first Call of Duty I played and Modern Warfare 2 was the first “first person shooter” I became obsessed with. I did enjoy Black Ops, but it did not entertain me for long and soon found myself playing the game less and less.

When Modern Warfare 3 was released I held off from buying it because I was skeptical of the quality of the game and I did not want to waste my money. In the end I surrendered and bought a copy of the game. I enjoyed it a lot at first, but I got tired of it very quickly. I think I can credit this to my long gaming history on Modern Warfare 2, and because these games are so similar it almost feels as if I am playing the same game.

For me the game is still fun, and as of right now the servers are running smoothly and the lobbies are hack free and booster free thanks to the removal of the game-ending tactical nuke. Although I enjoy it, I don’t play it very often and when I do it is not for very long periods of time. It is hard to say what I will do when the next Call of Duty is released, but I doubt I will buy it right away.

This is just my opinion though. What do you think about the Modern Warfare series and Modern Warfare 3 in particular? Will you buy the next game when it comes out?

My New Laptop Is On Its Way!

Posted by Ryan Mori on February 27, 2012

My first personal laptop I ever got was a black Macbook, a couple years later I upgraded to a Macbook Pro. My birthday is coming up in march, and with nothing else I could think of that I wanted, I convinced my dad to get me a PC laptop. An Alienware x17 to be precise. I made this decision for a couple of reasons: 1. after seeing all the mods you could put on some of my favorite games on PC’s I’ve wanted to venture into the world of PC gaming. 2. The program I have for recording with my HD PVR doesn’t work on Macs, so I’ve been having to borrow my dads laptop every time I want to film something. 3. I don’t want to have to worry about wether something will work on my Mac or not anymore.

The estimated arrival is March 3rd, Saturday. So I was extremely confused when a big package from dell came today, but it turns out they just ship the carrying case separately from the computer.

It looks pretty sweet huh? Needless to say I am extremely excited about my new laptop and can’t wait to get my hands on it!

So I’m going to be new to the world of PC gaming, if any of you PC veterans, or Alienware owners are out there I’d love to hear from you!

My Russian Alter Ego

Posted by Ryan Mori on February 24, 2012

As my about me page will testify, I was born and raised in Santa Barbara California. So why does my Xbox live avatar look like a Russian war veteran? and why does my info say I live in moscow Russia? And most importantly why is my avatar saying Russian profanity?

My about me page will also tell you that I enjoy acting, and actors must have an array of accents in their arsenal. So to perfect my accents I practice them over Xbox live, just to make it a little more fun. One day while I was playing Nazi Zombies (and practicing my Russian accent), I found myself in a group with a kid who believed I actually was Russian. Normally when people believed I was of another country it would end there, but this kid invited me to a party with some of his friends. I expected to enter a lobby full of “squeakers” marveling over my Russianness, instead I entered a lobby full of chill mature gamers. They all quickly accepted me and had no doubts about my Russian claims.

There have been some close calls though, since they think I’m so awesome, they are always inviting me to parties. And if I’m already in a party, they will join the one I’m in, so I will quickly have to switch to a Russian accent and hope the other people in the party won’t say anything. Another problem is I have to pretend I know how to speak Russian every time they ask me how to say this or that in Russian. I got by by saying things that sounded Russian, but I needed a better solution. When I saw the book Dirty Russian I knew I found gold.

Now, every time they ask me to say something in russian I randomly flip through the book and say a couple phrases. Not only does the book tell me how to speak Russian, it also tells me what it’s like in Russia. So when they ask me about Russia I can actually tell them some truth.

I will undoubtably post more about my Russian alter ego (who unfortunately needs to be named Ryan due to my gamertag) in the future. If anything major happens concerning him and his friends I will post an update as soon as possible.

What do you think of my Russian alter ego? have you ever fooled anyone on Xbox Live in any way? Let me know!

Lookout for More Explosions, Bank Heists and Totaled Cars with the Release of Grand Theft Auto 5

Posted by Sam Steady on February 24, 2012

GTANet.com

Grand theft auto is one of those series that just never gets old. GTA games always brings new and creative ways to kill people and blow things up and provide countless hours of entertainment for gamers such as myself. For this reason, when Rockstar announced the release of GTA 5 I was extremely excited. I am hoping that this release will bring back much of the functionality that GTA 4 lacked, such as the ability to fly planes and drive tanks. It seems like the plane feature was removed with the release of GTA 4 because Rockstar feared gamers might simulate the events that occurred during 9/11 due to the fact that the map is a mock up version of New York City. You can still fly a helicopter, but it just isn’t the same.

This next release takes place in Vinewood, Los Puerta which is modeled after Hollywood, Los Angeles. GTA is known for its lengthy storyline and its free-roam map, so I am expecting a lot from the graphics and map layout. Vehicles, weapons and characters are all different, but the overall feel of the game seems very similar to GTA 4. I am hoping that this release will live up to its predecessor and will not just feel like an add on to GTA 4. The game’s release date is not yet given, but it should be out by summer.

I know I am always excited for more opportunities to blow up police cars and terrorize civilians, so for me this is definitely a game I will buy, but what are your opinions on this game? Do you think it will live up to the success of GTA 4, or will it be just another game in the GTA series? Let me know in a comment!

What Was Bungie Thinking When They Released ODST..?

Posted by Sam Steady on February 23, 2012

Kotaku.com

Ok I will keep this short and concise; Halo ODST (Orbital Drop Shock Trooper) was not good. It is the one and only failure in the Halo series. I have decided I would condense all of my distaste for the game and put it into one list.

1. There was no online PVP matchmaking…

Why would you release a full game like Halo, which is known for its online game play, without its own matchmaking??

2. The story was boring and did not have any interesting character to relate to.

3. The only “multiplayer” aspect of the game was the Firefight mode, and even this did not have its own matchmaking.

Firefight is a stage based survival game. Even this was also ruined for me because of the “endure” achievement which required four players to make it to an extremely high level to unlock. This took my friends and I hours to get, and when we finally did achieve it we were ready to never play firefight again.

4. The graphics seemed to be a step back from Halo 3, and were in no way anything special.

5. The weapons were limited, the functionality was limited and the maps were short and boring.

Overall, this game had no unique features and did not hold my interest for long at all. I felt as if Bungie coped out and released this game simply for profits, and did not think about their fans at all.

Let me know in a comment what you thought about ODST. Did you like it? Did you hate it? Tell me why or why not!

Lets Play: Halo Anniversary Edition

Posted by Ryan Mori on February 22, 2012

Following my new post framework, Wednesdays will be lets play days. Where I will play a certain game and talk about my experience.

Just look at that title screen. Doesn’t it make you want to play a Halo game? Well it should, because Halo is simply amazing.

For those of you that don’t know, Halo Anniversary Edition is a polished and modernized version of the original Halo: Combat Evolved. This is the first Halo game released by the franchises new permanent designer 343 industries. Even though 343 Industries is a branch of Microsoft as Bungie is, I am a little worried of where they may take the Halo universe. But I digress, Halo Anniversary Edition is essentially all the same programming from the original game, just with improved graphics. Some might say this was lazy on their part, but I believe it is much better that they kept it the same rather than trying to changing it.

Since I was short on time I started on the second level, one of my favorites. One thing that caught my attention is that even in the first halo they really had the driving down.

The driving is extremely smooth and the cpu gunner works very well. In this play through I got through three levels, and one thing that kept sticking out to me was how funny the primitive animations looked with good graphics. Because when 343 Industries redid the graphics they didn’t redo the way things moved. So character movements are very un-detailed and it just seems so out of place with these graphics. One thing that really brought back many memories of the original Halo was the death animation. Anyone who has played Halo: CE remembers how no matter what angle your body hit the ground it always ended up doing the same spin and landing in the exact same position every time. I laughed each time I saw this animation during my playthrough.

Elites are by far my favorite alien in the Halo universe. One thing I’ve always missed in the later Halo games is hearing the aliens talk in their native tongue. While playing through, I was very pleased to hear “Wort Wort Wort!” (my favorite elite phrase of all time). The typical weapons I used throughout my play through was the magnum pistol, and either the plasma rifle or plasma pistol. You always hear people talk about how good the Halo 1 pistol was, and yes it is a very good weapon. But I do believe the hype created about it is mostly from comparison, because I dont even think Halo 2 had a pistol and Halo 3’s pistol was garbage.

Hunters are my second favorite aliens in the Halo universe, they are simply badass. So I was very disappointed while playing through because they were extremely easy to kill. Hunter fights in other Halo games were the perfect combination of difficulty and fun; it took strategy, planning, badass maneuvers, and pure luck to defeat hunters even on the normal difficulty. But in the original Halo you could take both hunters down with a single plasma pistol. So in original games, you win some you lose some.

Now, I’d say about half the reason I love Halo games, is because of the story behind it all. 343 Industries won major points with me by adding terminals (like in Halo 3), but unlike Halo 3 these terminals didn’t include text that pertained to Halo’s backstory, they contained cinematics that pertained to Halos backstory. I simply love them, here are a few screen shots of them.

As you can see all the ones I saw on my play-through had to do with 343 guilty sparks. As I typed that I realized the significance of 343 Industries name, very clever.

If you have any thoughts of Halo or games in general, leave a comment!

Thats all for the first installment of Lets Play, next wednesday I will be playing Call of Duty Black Ops: Nazi Zombies.

Assassin’s Creed: Review of Unique Multiplayer Experience

Posted by Sam Steady on February 22, 2012

TheGameFanatics.com

Assassin’s Creed is one of those games that revolve around a complex story mode and does not focus on the multiplayer aspect of gaming, or at least that is how it was up until Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood. When the idea of a multiplayer side to Assassin’s Creed was announced, I was very skeptical. I did not know how they would incorporate specific unique aspects of the game such as free running or the move by move combat style that you use against the NPCs in the story mode.

Even though I had my doubts, when Brotherhood came out I was awed by the multiplayer. Not only did it have the beautiful and fluid graphics that all Assassins’ Creed games have, but the game was fun and exciting. The character design was incredible, there were a variety of different Assassin’s to choose from and they were all diverse and had signature moves. Even though the multiplayer was very fun and different, it still had some problems. Things such as a poor matchmaking system that took forever to connect and an extremely limited number of game styles prevented the game from staying entertaining for long.

Many of these issues were addressed with the release of Assassin’s Creed Revelations. This game has many more game styles, better character customization, more maps and a better feel. The matchmaking system seems to be improved, but I still feel like it lacks the speed of other games. Despite these problems, the game is still very revolutionary for multiplayer gaming. I have never had this much fun playing a combat style game that is not a first person shooter. I think Ubisoft is heading in a whole new direction with its games and it will be exciting to see what they release in the future.

Do you like the Assassin’s Creed Multiplayer? Why or why not? Leave a comment letting me know!

How All Video Games Should Be More Like Dead Space 2

Posted by Ryan Mori on February 21, 2012

From now on, I will be following a loose framework for my posts, days that start with “T” are free post days were I can post whatever I like.

This post will have nothing to do with the game-play, story, or general awesomeness of Dead Space 2, instead it will be entirely about it’s achievements.

I for one enjoy the achievement system on the Xbox 360, and as you can see I have a pretty respectable amount of gamer-score. But as you can also see in “completed” game section, Dead Space 2 is very lonely… It is a good thing I finally got that last achievement I needed for Dead Space 2, because prior to this weekend I didn’t have every achievement unlocked for any game. Now when I say more games should be like Dead Space 2, I’m referring to the kinds of achievements in that game. All of them were fairly doable, no achievements were impossible to obtain and on the flip side, you didn’t get achievements for turning the game on, and yes I have played games were you got an achievement for exactly that.

Most of the achievements pertained to gameplay aspects, which you could easily get just by reading what the achievement was, and then altering your playing strategies to get said achievement. There were achievements in which you had to find secret items, normally I would have to look up how to do all of these achievements online, but the maps on Dead Space 2 are not too intricate and I found almost all the secret items I needed after a couple run-throughs. Another thing I appreciate about Dead Space 2 is that they didn’t have any achievements that you got from the multiplayer. When games make achievements that you must unlock in multiplayer matches, they just become chores that dampen your multiplayer experience, this would have been especially true in Dead Space 2’s case because I didn’t care for the multiplayer very much. Now, all games have that one achievement “Beat the game on the hardest difficulty” and Dead Space 2 is no exception.

Dead Space 2 has one of the hardest campaign of any game I have ever played, the only games that come to mind as being harder are the Halo games on legendary, and Twisted Metal (2012). But one thing that is different, is that Dead Space 2 doesn’t make you want to throw your controller across the room and rage like legendary Halo games do. The main thing that make Dead Space 2 hard is that on the hardest difficulty there are no checkpoints and you can only save three times. This seems like a daunting task, but once you get your strategies down it is very doable. Anyway, the main point I’m trying to make is games need to lighten up a bit with the difficulty of their achievements, and become a bit more like Dead Space 2. Achievements should be challenging, but not impossible, and easily obtained with some time and effort put towards it.

Now, what do you think of achievements and their difficulty?

Mass Effect the Movie??

Posted by Sam Steady on February 21, 2012

screenrant.com

I was quickly scrolling through game related news, when I stumbled upon something extremely interesting. The massively popular video game series Mass Effect is being turned into a feature length film. Although this is not the first popular game to take this route, it may be the first to actually succeed. When Bungie attempted to convert Halo into a feature film it was a complete failure. Although they released intriguing teasers for the movie, it was never finished due to money issues and it left many fans hanging.

In this case, Mass Effect seems to have more funding, better special effects and all around a more professional feel. The movie will be staring Commander Shephard’s male voice actor, Mark Meer, and will follow him on his quest to take down the story’s main villain, Saren Arterius. The move definitely seems like something worth checking out. Although I have never been a huge fan of Mass Effect games, I think it will be interesting to see how this movie turns out.

What is your opinion on this release? Do you think it will be good for the Mass Effect series, or will it just bring down the legitimacy of the game? Comment and let me know if you’re going to watch it when it is released!

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