A review of some of the games that I recently played

Some time ago, I went to the city library to vote and I noticed that they even lend out video games. You can borrow games for a week free of charge and you can renew your loan as long as you want to provided that you go there: yet again another proof of the library being the pathetic government funded kid who despite having good toys no one wants to play with, but that's totally another story. Anyway, I started to try out some games and here's what I think:

Call of Duty Black Ops

The very start of the campaign mode is very intense fighting in late 80's which I thought, apart from being quite realistic, was very heavy and exhausting. Later on the story line shifts to future and gradually loses its coherence and attraction which is quite opposite to first Black Ops. Overall, it felt like the writers didn't have much to offer and the game developers focused their efforts on the action instead. I also tried the Zombie mission which were obviously much better than the first one but they tend to be pointless as there is not much advancement in these missions. Overall, the actions were improved but not to an enjoyable level ad the story sucked.

Heavy rain

I have never played any game like this which brings us to the fact that if Heavy Rain can be regarded as a game or not. It's more like watching a thriller e.g. The silence of the lambs with a good amount of suspense elements: The story of a serial killer dubbed as Origami killer and we follow a couple of characters who are chasing him. The player has the possibility of changing the course of the game by the decisions that he makes. That's all as far as playing is concerned and at the very end, the killer is someone who we least suspect. I read later that they are actually four alternative endings to the game and I just happened to see one (which was actually a downer) and since the identity of the killer of revealed, I really didn't felt like to going back and changing some of the choices to see the other endings. It was a good interactive movie to watch because of its story but the graphics have to be developed to a large extent. So if Activision had taken this story and made it instead of COD Black Ops II it would have been awesome.

Dark Souls I and II

I went for Dark Souls II since it swept a bunch of gaming awards but then I was advised to start from the first one so I got the box which had both of the in it. One the first one, I was directly pt off by how primitive and low level the graphics are so I dropped it quite quickly.






On the Dark Souls II, I found it very difficult to get going as the tutorial were not that good and it jumped directly to the difficult parts which was kind of frustrating. Also I had problem following the game direction as it was not clear which direction/mission you should go in somewhat indefinite space. Given all these, I didn't bother to challenge myself and try to finish the game which I'm sure would have taken much more than what I expected. Disappointing is the right word to express my experience with these two games.

Assassin's Creed II

In contrast to Dark Souls, this game is very straight forward and gradually grows on you and you get hooked up. The graphics despite being a couple of years old is amazing and the get to like your character little by little as it develops and gets better. The drawback is the whole thing can be easily cut into half and almost after half of the story, it gets repetitive and somewhat pointless. You have to basically the same thing over and over again. Some of the missions that are to challenge your jumping skills get very frustrating  specially toward the end when you are running against the time and you can simply get stuck at one point for a good while. Perhaps if you don't have time constraints as I did and if you plan to plan one short mission at a time or something, you wouldn't feel about it as I did but that strategy keeps you busy for a very good while, I promise you that, this game is very long but like I said, it is addictive. Well, I guess, there are worse addictions, right?

Battlefield 4

Surprisingly, BF4 didn't have much of small irritating issues that you normally see with EA games and much effort has been put in making fights as realistic as possible which was good. But unfortunately, like other BF games, the story was really bad, so bad that it discouraged me totally from finishing the game. Like other BF games, you get to ride different vehicles which is very cool but again, it can get so difficult at times at leads to frustration. The choice of weapons (some unlocked!) seems pointless as you really have much time to test the rifles and what not. The use of tactical weaponry such as land mine and C4s, despite being a nice idea per se, is at times very difficult and tricky. I didn't finish the game but as far as I played, the story sucked. I guess after all, it did not disappoint in being yet again another disappointing product by one of the most hated companies in the world.

Call of duty: Black ops

Here are the reasons that I like this game:

1. I have been waiting for a very long time for first person shooter game that involved action from Vietnam war.

2. There are references to almost all of my favorite movies which happen to be about Vietnam war: Apocalypse now, Hamburger Hill, The Deer Hunter and etc.

3. The premise of the story and its timeline is in particular very interesting as opposed to older COD which dealt with either WWII or hyper new modern warfare.

4. The music in the game i.e. tracks by CCR and Rolling Stones fit very well with the atmosphere of the game.

5. The suspension in the main storyline and the cliffhanger revealing that Resnov is Mason's alter ego at the end is just one of the brilliant elements in the writing of the story.

And that's just off the top of my head, will definitely get back to this.

Motorstorm

My brother was bugging me for quite some time to try this game, actually he was refering to Motorstorm II and I responded exactly like myself: reluctant to try anything new. ATT who was kind enough to lend me his game i.e. Motorstorm (and not II!) and I tried it and came back again exactly the way I am: I got hooked up pretty good. I guess the high speeding and high jumping and the dirt and dust as well as the close competition and racing on the edges and above all, a Grand Canyon landscape together with acceptable dose of rock music in the background, just cut it for me. It's pity that they haven't put more tracks like "Breed"; I would have been happy to see some from Linkin Park and bands in the similar genres. I think one of the success factors lies behind the fact that it has been developed by Sony and, man those Sony people know what's gaming about: the existence of PS3 itself is an obvious proof of that.

Now, while I am still not done with this one, I am really looking forward to get my hands on the II and many thanks to my master for this.

My first ever game console

Preface: My brother used joke about my father and say if he finds a side mirror in the street, he will go and buy a car to attach to it! I feel like I am more or less the same...in certain aspects though!

I bought my first ever gaming console some days ago, a PS3 of course, basically to check out the newly released game of "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2". Maybe I should admit firstly that I have been a COD junkie since a few years back. Anyway, if it wasn't for this game, I may have not bought that neither...maybe! When the package arrived, much earlier than what I expected, I didn't open it for days because I had given my TV for repair, a ----ing noise that has been bothering me for ages! I had everything in place last week, so I set everything up and...man, wild stuff! This thing is mind blowing...just what I needed indeed, and it may easily be that my not-so-preplanned-absences from here and there, is blamed on it...foget 'bout it!*

*I am very much hooked up with this phrase these days for no particular reason. As it is explained by Johnny Depp, who plays Donnie Brasco in the movie "Donnie Brasco": "Forget about it" is like, if you agree with someone, you know, like "Raquel Welch is one great piece of ass, forget about it." But then, if you disagree, like "A Lincoln is better than a Cadillac? Forget about it!" you know? But then, it's also like if something's the greatest thing in the world, like minga those peppers, "forget about it." But it's also like saying "Go to hell!" too. Like, you know, like "Hey Paulie, you got a one inch pecker!" and Paulie says "Forget about it!" And then, sometimes it just means forget about it!