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Freelancer (2003)
Not free enough.
At first glance you may think Freelancer is a gem. A game that gives you lots to do with the ability to do anything you like and your in space. Not in some forest or in some big city. Just space. Lot's to do out there, eh? Not really.
From my experience. You can't be anything you like. If you want to be a trader, you can't. Sure, you can trade. But it feels very hollow because you can only buy the small freighters which don't hold as much as the massive ones you see out in the systems. And to make real money you have to go on very long trips to other systems all the way across the universe. And you don't get the title of trader either. Just freelancer. That's all you are in this. I know, it's silly because that's what the game is called. But i'm asking for a little more depth here. Say you want to be a space pirate and play through the game that way. You know, stealing stuff, causing the government all sorts of headaches. And if you meet up with the end game enemy you can go on a quest to beat them with just the pirates. Sounds anti-climatic but read on and you might not think so.
Being a freelancer isn't all its cracked up to be in Freelancer. About 95 percent of the missions are seek and destroy missions. The people who are hiring you will give you a way point to go to and kill some rebels. And the missions don't vary either. There are assassination, capture a VIP, destroy or capture specific cargo, and destroy weapon platforms mission types. There are even a few missions that even have you destroy space stations. What I have just listed is pretty much all you get from bars and job lists. Seriously, that's it. Destroy, destroy, destroy. No delivering packages or people and no escort missions. It's kill everything.
I've heard people say this game is hard, but it's actually easy as pie. With the exception of the later levels where the enemies get real tough. But aside from that you shouldn't have any trouble beating down foes. Because they generally aren't as strong as you and for the most part, they're dumb. A lot of your foes will travel straight at you. Sometimes they'll get smart and have one of their own act as a decoy so the other can fire at you. But you have to wonder what they're doing because for someone who is being followed by two fighters, they should take a lot more hits than they do.
Freelancer suffers from having too many NPCs to voice. Much like Oblivion and Fallout 3. It has a stellar cast of voice actors such as Jennifer Hale, John Rhys-Davies, George Takei, Christopher Lee, Kevin Michael Richardson, and it even stars Ian Ziering as Trent. Who doesn't really do a good job, but he was OK some of the time. But outside of these people you'll start to hear the same voices over and over again. You can even get the sense that this was suppose to have different accents because you hear words like "mate" and "Oi". And every one of these people are boring. They don't even try to have emotion. They just say the lines and that's it. And this is where Ian isn't at his best. He sounds so much better when his character is talking to Jennifer Hale's character Juni but coming up to some dude in a bar and they sound like robots. Hell, the robots sound better than these people. Least they have a reason to be like that.
Story was kinda intriguing. If it wasn't for the overall bad voice acting and the tons of destroy missions I have to sit through, it'd be even better. Story basically goes like this. You are a survivor of an ambushed space station which was destroyed. You find yourself on planet Manhattan and you meet up with members of the Liberty Security Force Duke and later Juni. Which brings me to another problem with Freelancer. right from the get go your practically working for the LSF. Kinda limits the options doesn't it? Anyway, you come across this artifact and suddenly your being hunted by Liberty and later Rheinland forces. As it turns out. Aliens were slowly taking control over the space colony governments to thin the human population so they can wipe humans out.
The graphics were OK too. Framerate was excellent even when their was heavy fighting going on. There was at times looked like 20 or more ships fighting all at once and the framerate kept up nicely. The effects of the lasers were nice and the view of space was good.
The best part about this that I can think of is just exploring space. Take a break from the killing and going to all the corners of space you can. You'd have to be a die-hard to do it. But if you want something else to do. It's something. And it'd be neat since you don't go to every system during the single player campaign. Unless of course you did that in the middle of it. But like I said enjoy the view because it's pretty good.
A large chunk of this games faults has to do with Microsofts buying Digital Anvil and firing the lead guy leaving the number two man at DA to run things. Apparently Microsoft wanted it done in a certain time frame and it was hurried which lead to a lot of stuff being left out. But it is what is.
Shin sangoku musô 4 (2005)
Fun if you have a friend to play with.
I've probably spent more hours on this game and this series than a human being should have. I've played the series since Dynasty Warriors 2 came out for the PS2 and it had its ups and down.
This is basically a mindless hack and slash. It's kind of fun to complete the actual objectives like Zhuge Liangs prayer for wind at the battle of Chi Bi but all of it is not necessary. As soon as you start cutting down officers you'll be turning the tide of battle in no time. Getting officers better weapons is a bit of a challenge but not much. And once you do get them you have a better chance of surviving chaos mode and the later levels of hard mode.
The English voice actors will never get better in this series and will always be hysterically bad. Pronunciations of Wei's Supreme Ruler Cao Cao and his son Cao Pi will never get old. And in this one there are 3 different types of bases. Defense, Supply, and Attack. And each time you get into these you'll hear some knucklehead speak up and try to sound as if he isn't intimidated by your assault. These scenarios generally end up with you kicking said persons ass even before he finishes his sentence. You'll also hear hilarious battle cries like "We can win this!" and "Now is the time to attack!". You'll mostly hear these when the commander of the enemy army who is all alone being kicked around the battlefield by you and your allied officers.
My biggest complaint about the series is the lack of improvement. Sure, characters and levels do change. And that's not bad, unless it's DW6. Which dramatically changed basically all the characters for the worse. But Dynasty Warriors 3 had a create an officer feature. They have since taken that out. That could have been something good. Something else to improve on and have fun with. But nope, it was thrown out. I'd like to see Koei put that back in future installments and run with it.
Anyway, like I said not much substance to this game. Just a mindless hack and slash. I find it better having a friend to play with. Might be hard finding one of those unless that friend happens to be a huge fan of this very average series.
Army of Two (2008)
Best played with Two.
I didn't have as high of expectation as some people when it came to Army of Two. I seen it online a few times read about how cool the weapon customization was. That was pretty much it. Then after I got my PS3 in January of this year my cousin wanted me to get it. So after watching a few videos of it and talking it over I caved and picked it up along with a controller. The game for me cost $20. And the way I see it, that's a bargain.
So as we were playing it I really started liking it. It was really fun playing with a friend. The enemy A.I. isn't too spectacular. They'll do a few smart thing here and there but overall the lot of them are incredibly stupid. No matter what difficulty you are playing. Most enemies would do foolish things like run out in no mans land only to get gunned down.
I did like the team aspect though. Me and my cousin had to constantly rely on each other to get through an area and that was great. That's name of the game (quite literally). It was a lot of fun doing that and it seldom got old. Army of Two is best played with a friend. Playing with the A.I. is frustrating. You have to issue him orders and keep an eye on him. With two people playing it's easier to keep tabs on each other and a lot of the time have faith in the others abilities. With the AI, it's babysitting.
The story is nothing to get excited about. It has some interesting bits but for the most part is not really that important. The two heroes names are Rios and Salem. Their Army CO and PMC CO is Dalton. These two go on missions and while doing so there is a lot of story going on elsewhere. Like troop positions being compromised and a bill that would privatize the military. A couple of twists but nothing you won't see coming. The missions while long there are few. You can probably beat this thing in about 6 hours or less.
There is even a feature called mid-mission shopping. No lie. The game asks you if you want to shop right in the middle of mission. Even sometimes while your being shot at. Just a complete head scratcher there.
The guns were a letdown for me. They were making this out to be a feature that had tons of customizations. Which is somewhat false. Like say for some guns they had 3 different barrels to choose from, some had just 2, or 1. Army of Two even had firearms with no customizations at all. OK, maybe they had the "pimped" one which fell short too. You couldn't choose to pimp your gun the way you wanted to. Some guns were silver, others platinum or gold. It would have been nice if you could have picked the one you wanted. Another problem was that if you wanted barrel number 3 for your main machine gun you are going to have to buy number 1 and 2 just to unlock the third.
Army of Two is a solid game. Nothing uber spectacular about it and nothing too god awful. If you paid twenty for it bring in a friend and have a blast. It's mindless fun.
Command & Conquer: Red Alert - Retaliation (1998)
This is the first C&C i've played.
Retaliation is essentially the Red Alert expansion packs with full motion videos. The two sides are the Allies and the Soviets set in a universe where Hitler was killed by Albert Einstein. Albert unwittingly changed the events of history by doing that. Because since old Adolf is 6 feet under the Soviets are free to build up their empire. Sparking another war.
The game comes with two discs. One for each side. You get briefings from Carville on the Allies side and Topolov on the Russian side. Alan Charof and Barry Corbin give good performances and provide some comic relief. As best they can really. There is always this camp feeling when it comes to stuff like these. But I believe C&C was always head and shoulders above the rest that used FMVs. Topolov's office is probably the coolest set i've seen in a C&C game. It has the dusty look like you see in the X-files TV series and I was always a big fan of that.
Now the most important thing for RTS games, especially consoles, is the game play. For this game, it wasn't so bad. The maps were kinda small and there wasn't a huge rush to to do anything. You can handle just about everything efficiently with not a whole lot of problems. The side bar is a staple of the C&C series and helps a great deal with the creation of units and buildings. I remember a shortcut that build that last unit you created. That helped a lot when you wanted to create a ton of infantry.
Of course Frank Klepacki, the composer for all of the old titles does a wonderful job with the music. I still listen to C&C tracks to this day.
The main problem with Retaliation is what I believe to be more of a hardware problem. When playing in skirmish mode, the computer likes to rush. And when one AI opponent does. Lag ensues. That is if you're lucky. Sometimes it even freezes.
Other than that, this game is a pretty enjoyable experience. And I got to give it props for making me aware of one of the most awesome video game franchises ever. For those that want to play this game. I suggest getting the PC expansions of Red Alert. You can view all the old videos of Carville and Topolov on youtube now and you can avoid the troublesome lag.
Dune 2000 (1998)
Neat little gem.
This is a remake of a Dune game made a long ago. This now has FMVs to give you mission briefs and further the story. Controls are a lot better too. Since this is from Westwood it uses the C&C engine which is great.
I'm a huge fan of strategy games and Dune 2000 is no exception. I love the fact that you have to create concrete so you can build your buildings without the worry of getting damage by the sand and wind. It may not seem like much but it adds to the strategy and gives it kind of a unique feel to it. Also beware of the Sandworms. If you ain't paying attention your harvester will become a snack and before you know it, you are out of funds. The Sandworms like the concrete, add more strategy and uniqueness to the game.
The only problem I do have with Dune 2000 is that all the basic units like the trike and the tank all look the same with only minor changes in the stats. Sure there are some unique units like the Freeman and the Mammoth Tank. But it wasn't enough for me. Nevertheless, it is a good little game.
Biohazard 4 (2005)
One of the best and yet, bizarre RE games to date.
Resident Evil 4 changed the series forever. It changed the way the game was played. Which isn't bad. The camera angle immerses the player into the environment and also provides the free aim. No longer do you have to boringly point the gun at something to shoot it. Now you can choose whatever part you wish to shoot. Makes some fights interesting.
Some folk say this game lost the survival horror aspect of the series. I hate to break it to them. There hasn't been a scary survival RE game since the first one. Resident Evil 4 is the scariest RE game I have played. I'm serious, for the first half of the game I was so freaked out my cousin next to me barely touched my shoulder and I nearly jumped out of my skin. Now as the game dragged on it kinda did lose the horror aspect. But that isn't a major biggie. I'll tell you why. Its not a big deal because this game is that long. After a while you tend to get used to just about everything the game has thrown at you.
Survival aspect is still there somewhat. To my knowledge, you can't buy ammo in this game. Just the guns. Which means if you're a bad shot, waste your ammo, or for some reason you want to discard your ammo. Well your are out of luck. But you can buy guns and lots of them. Not to mention upgrades. Now that kind of deludes the survival part of Resident Evil but by the time you get to have yourself a little armory in your attache case. You shouldn't mind a bit.
Now for the more bizarre stuff. The merchant. The guy who you buy your arsenal from is everywhere and always one step ahead of you. Some might see this as ruining the survival horror experience (like they know). I see it as another form of the item box we've seen in the past. Also the guy reminds me of the Spiv from Medieval 2. They have the same MO. The spiv actually tried to get your attention though. He'll say "Hey!" or "wait" in a low tone of voice. Just thought I should mention it.
Dialog and voice acting. The villagers sound cool and the zealots creepy. Both of those are good. Its when you hear Leon and everyone else that has conversations with him. Now i'm not saying that the Resident Evil series has been perfect in this. Far from actually. But damn, do they have to make it so damn stupid? If you played the game you know what i'm talking about. The parts are hilariously bad.
On to another thing. Why is it that when the bosses really want to kill Leon. They turn into hideous creatures and try to kill him that way. I know it'd be anti-climatic or something like that if they didn't. But its just silly sometimes. Take Salazar for example. He rambles on about how he's going to kill Leon and blah blah blah. No seriously, this guy just goes on and on about killing Leon. Not all at once mind you. Just when Leon makes progress. Anyway, when you finally corner the little ugly bastard, Salazar and his mutant bodyguard willingly absorb themselves in this giant flower creature thing and become a monstrosity. I'm not sure why they thought it was a good idea to do so. But it just seems a bit pointless to me.
Jack Krauser to me is completely random. Now I am not sure if a book was out before this game to explain things or what. But this guy just seems like a completely random idea the developer came up with. Apparently Jack has a past with Leon in that they were both in Special Agent training or something and Jack apparently dies in a helicopter crash. He's a badass, no doubt about that. But they could have some random person that has no connection to Leon and still get the same effect.
The treatment. Now this is anti-climatic. Just a simple procedure that doesn't take a person with a degree to operate. And what's funny is after its done you walk up to the computer and press the check button. Leon will say "I'm not sure how this thing works, but i'm glad its out.". Now I know you can look at it like he had nothing to lose. But its just a silly moment.
That's about it. My Pros and cons of the game. In short, I think its a fantastic game but its not perfect folks. It has problems. Some of which I hope that they fix in Resident Evil 5.
Company of Heroes (2006)
Certainly one of the best RTS games of all time.
This game is excellent. To me, not even the mighty Starcraft holds a candle to CoH's greatness. Now that may be the extreme amounts of pepsi and coca-cola talking. Or even the lack of sleep. But damn it, that's how I feel right now about this game.
Company of Heroes is just too damn fun. In the single player campaign you are the commander of the either Able or Fox company. Your mission is to fight key battles and win back France and crush the Nazi forces while doing so.
Now in this game you don't have to really worry about collecting resources. How you get resources is you capture points dotted around the map. Each containing a certain resource and just how much you will get. Whether it be large or small. You must defend these points if you want to mass a large amount of wealth to build armies and bases.
Speaking of which. You must use infantry squads to great effect if you are to succeed in battle. Engineers are your main go-to guys if you want something built. You need tank traps? You got it. Land mines? Sure thing. Barracks? Alright. There are also riflemen squads. These regular troopers are probably your backbone of your infantry force. They are reliable and are able to do some things that engineers can do given that you are in commanding the right expertise. More on that later. There are other unit types such as the sneaky sniper and the machine gun crew, who just love to turn enemies into swiss cheese.
If you need to support your troops well then vehicles you will need. We got the ever reliable M4 Sherman and the Half Track transport to get your troops safely across the field of battle. And several more to choose from.
The fight never stops once first contact has been made with the enemy. You must fight tooth and nail to gain territory and weaken the enemy before you finish him off. obviously, strategy is important. You can't just bum rush a MG42 crew hiding out in a building with 5 squads of infantry. Doesn't always work that way. And if it does work that way, well it shouldn't. You could opt to sneak up on the building and drop a grenade in there depending on whether you are pin down or not. You could also shoot them out with a sniper.
Command is highly valued. You have 3 commands to take up. But you can only choose one. Each with its own pros and cons. There is Infantry, Airborne, and Armor. I prefer either the Airborne or the Armor. While the infantry can bring in random battle groups to your base and supply you with Army Rangers. The Airborne will let you drop troops, anti armor crews, and supplies in your field of view and you can also level incoming enemy waves using P51 Mustang strafing runs or bombers. Its up to you. I favor the Armor command since I have seen the awesome power that is the calliope. This thing is basically rockets hooked up to a Sherman. You need to clear of path? This is a good way to do it. Also you are allowed the Allies Pershing Tank. This thing was designed to put holes in German armor.
Oh and remember, the Axis have 3 commands of their own. They are just as devastating with the likes of the V2 rocket, the 88's, and the fearsome Tiger Ace.
Anyone who is a fan of RTS games get this game if you haven't already. Move it soldier.
Freedom Fighters (2003)
One of the more, overlooked games this past decade.
Let me tell you a little story of how I came upon this awesome title. I was at a video game renting place. And I obviously was looking for a game to rent. Now, I have rented just about everything there. Except for Freedom Fighters. I looked at the case and read the description. And on the cover it said, From the makers of Hit-man 2. Sold.
I went back to my place and was instantly floored by the music on the menu screen. Not sure why, but I was. I'd spend a long time just simply listening to it. Jesper Kyd does a phenomenal job as almost always. Freedom Fighters was the game that got me paying more closely to music in games than ever before.
Freedom Fighters has you in the role Chris Stone. Not the most original of names. But no biggie. Anyway, you are suddenly thrust into conflict as the Soviets begin their invasion. The idea of their invasion is, Take New York and you take the entire country. It kinda backfires. Instead of the US falling to its knees. The entire country rallies around the New York rebellion and your actions. But all the action takes place in New York City.
Your actions in some areas can affect other areas. You will notice this on your first mission. You have to get C4 in one area, go to the other and blow up the snipers so you can get into the police station. This sort of thing is repeated throughout the game. One of the more common goals is to destroy a helipad to stop attack/transport choppers or destroying bridges to prevent further reinforcements. Doing both of those vastly decreases the difficulty of the area you are on. It does get a little tiresome though having to do it all the time. And I understand why they have the player do it because I would imagine the Reds have more than just one helicopter pad. They also try to mix it up a bit by having you rescue POWs and some civilians caught in the middle. And that is fine. You complete the level or area by raising the flag in a particular building or spot. Some see this as some political thing. I see it as just a way to end the level and move on.
Another neat thing about Freedom Fighters is the squad commands. They are fairly simple. You have 3 commands: attack, defend, and follow. Just tapping the keys will tell one rebel what you want him to do. Holding it tells your entire platoon or squad. I usually put these guys to work around heavy machine gun emplacements and have them cut down any unfortunate Soviet Sap who feels a bit more brave than the rest. But every now and then I get creative and have each of my squad-mates line up single file along the side of a car to maximize the firepower a bit. Some may see this command thing as something rushed or far too simple. But when you need to clear a room on a hard difficulty setting they are your healthiest bet.
There really isn't a diversity of weapons. Americans don't have their own stuff with the exception of the Spas-12, pipe wrench, Molotov, and the revolver. Everything else is acquired from the Soviets. In a war zone such as this. I would expect a little more than that.
There is no blood. I reckon that's another flaw. It brings a little cartoon feel to the game. I know its not meant to be the most ultra realistic looking game ever. But from the makers of Hit-man 2. I expect to see some blood at least.
No lip animations or hardly any at all. May not seem like a big deal but a lot of times you get to see the characters faces clearly and its just plain weird having them talk and not seeing anything moving.
Overall its a exceptional game. I've played it on the PS2, Xbox, and my PC. Each time was still a good experience.
Killzone (2004)
A Halo killer this is not.
I wonder who started that "Halo Killer" phrase and just what they were thinking. I imagine that person has gained the disgust of Halo and Killzone fans alike. I also imagine that this person has gotten over it now since this is 2008 after all.
Anywho, the game. Killzone for whatever reason was hailed the aforementioned nickname. And it really didn't deliver. I believe part of it was caused by the hardware itself. This game is arguably one of the better looking games on the PS2. And that's just it. This game looked great and I don't think the PS2's hardware could take it. Now if it was released for the Gamecube or Xbox. Things probably would have been different. Obviously, Killzone 2 shouldn't suffer from this problem.
Through a few hours worth of play I noticed that there is some frame rate issues and the artificial intelligence seems to not be intelligent at all a lot of the time. The multi-player I wouldn't even bother with. It felt kinda slow at times and is of no comparison to what the first Halo had to offer, let alone Halo 2. The bugs people talked about are clearly evident too. Environment and even enemy pop-ups do occur. I even seen one guy fall through a flight of stairs as I was about to hit him. And so far, i've ran into a couple of types of enemies. And by couple I mean about 2 maybe even 3. If your going to live to the that stupid nickname "Halo Killer", you damn sure better have a good variety of enemies.
What this game does have is a pretty decent story. Yes, its another one of those "humanity is at war with a fairly superior opponent" games. But what they do with that concept, they do reasonably well. I also like the guns for each side. The point of view is cool. I even liked when the guy climbed up a ladder. Seriously, I don't believe I have ever seen that in a FPS. I mean I seen them go up ladders. But that's just it, they go up. They don't climb up. Reloading was kinda neat too. Took a little while but that's how you would probably reload in real life under those conditions. The only problem I found with that is when you shoot someone with like say the shotgun underneath the helghast primary machine gun. If you have an extra shotgun round it reloads automatically. Which can sometimes screw you over. I hate that, its not needed and for a game that puts quite a bit of emphasis on realism it should not be that way at all. The sound was exceptional. Only some of the characters voices bugged me. But the music and the sounds of guns blazing were awesome.
Killzone doesn't have the AI, multi-player, and frame rate that Halo had. Not to mention all the bugs. That's why it's no "Halo Killer". What Killzone did though is get a bunch of little things right and that was enough to get by. With Killzone 2, Guerrilla will be able to live up to the hype.