Black Friday And Holiday Gaming 0

by Adam Blue • Editorial

I spent most of the Holiday gaming. Borderlands DLC, MW2, NSMB Wii, Bad Company, Far Cry 2, and Midnight Club LA.

I completed NSMB Wii (except for some of the secret stuff) and I absolutely loved it. Like I said previously, not full of good secrets like previous games, but still a ton of fun and very challenging. If you value your relationship with anyone, don’t play multiplayer with them. Find someone off the street or an enemy.

Borderlands DLC…not really worth $10. At level 50, and content with that, it was a breeze. Plus, not really much new. Just a few missions and achievements. DLC needs cooler new shit to find, as well as leveling. I mean, with such a cool looking area and enemies, it really had no point to it. I did the whole thing co-op with Sean in two days. One day when we started, stopped when we were bored, and completed it the next day just to get it done.

Far Cry 2 is a pretty neat game. I originally played it on the 360 back near release, but found the controls to be terrible. On the PC, the controls are great. Problem is with widescreen. It apparently released broken – cropped like Bioshock – then they patched a fix. Too bad by then no one cared, because all they did was stretch the 4:3 on the sides. It looks bad. But playable. It’s also a game that requires a lot of time. I may need to just get through Crysis Warhead before getting to Far Cry 2. There’s a lot of traveling and atmosphere to immerse yourself in.

There has been some pretty wicked Black Friday deals out there. I apparently missed a $40 deal on Tekken 6 and the wireless fight stick. Damn. But at Walmart I grabbed Midnight Club LA with the DLC for $10. That was pretty much all of the shopping I did. Remember (actually, I’m not sure if I mentioned this), but I was recently laid off. I’m getting unemployment, which is actually good, but I’m not going to be buying games much. I got MW2 and NSMB Wii due to some selling and Amazon deals. GameFly is a lot of help for me, and with the continuing game dollars, I can still pick-up a game or two every once in a while. Actually, due to a Black Friday promotion, I got the new Motorstorm on the cheap.

And while I’m at it…

I would love to work in the gaming industry for a living. I’m not into developing (would like to someday), but love to just cover the industry. I’m currently looking for work in the IT field, but anyone out there that sees this babbling mess as worthy of a paycheck, hit me up. ;)

BlueGamer Weekly Twitter Updates 0

by Adam Blue • Twitter

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New Super Mario Bros. Wii Impressions 0

by Adam Blue • Editorial, Impressions

After Super Mario World there really wasn’t a good side-scrolling Mario game. We had Yoshi’s Island, Paper Mario, and Yoshi’s Story, but these weren’t classic Mario games. Yeah, a few of the 3D games have been good, but nothing like the classics. Finally Nintendo released New Super Mario Bros. DS which did a great job of bringing all that back…but I wanted something on my TV. Now we’ve got NSMB Wii and it’s awesome.

As awesome as it is, let me go over a few things it could have: A real world-map. NSMB DS and Wii do the Mario 3 style of sub maps of an over-world. Super Mario World had the huge over-world that was fun to explore. On top of that, it had crazy hidden levels to find, and other super extra-secret stuff like Star Worlds. The DS game didn’t have these mysterious places, and so far I’m not seeing it in the Wii game. Hopefully there will be some crazy secret places hidden throughout.

Other than that, Assassin’s Creed 2 started getting awesome with all the different things that you can do. After trying a bit of all the different things, I kind of fell back into boredom with it. I still love the story though, and I’m sure I know in my mind I won’t complete it since I’m going to different forums and reading the spoilers.

There’s not really much in gaming coming out for the rest of the year that I’m crazy about, so for the holidays I’ll probably focus on Modern Warfare 2 and NSMB Wii. Due to being a longtime GameFly member, I got a good deal on Bad Company, so I’d like to complete it before the sequel next year. If time permits, I’d also like to play through the GoW Collection on PS3 to snag the trophies. The games are good enough for multiple play-throughs.

The funniest thing last week was between Penny-Arcade and Kotaku. Giant Bomb did a review of the new Tony Hawk, Kotaku posts it and advises they haven’t got their copy yet. Penny-Arcade slams them for waiting for their review copies instead of buying it like everyone else. Kotaku then defends themselves by saying they are waiting for the copy they ordered.

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Bad Company 2 Beta Impressions 1

by Adam Blue • Impressions

I’m in the BC2 Beta, which is on the PS3… unfortunately. I seriously hate the DS3 for first-person shooters. Not only do you have to create a claw-like paw for maximum control, but your thumbs are also in an unnatural position placed upon a convex thumb-stick. I guess if you’re used to the Dual-Shock you get it, but if you got yourself familiar with the 360 pad, you’d understand how natural it is. I’m done with this rant. Moving on. Also note, I’ll make comparisons to the Call of duty franchise since it is the top played game, despite its lack of many available features in other games. In the end, maybe I should realize CoD is a simple and easily rewarding game which makes it attractive to the masses.

Simply, this game is great. It would definitely pull me away from any current Call of Duty. For a brief rundown, you have vehicles, destructible environments, and squads. I love squads, which have been a Battlefield staple for sometime, but strangely absent of any recent Call of Duty games. By being in a squad you have a chance to gain more points and order commands. Vehicles are also a nice addition to any game, as there is distance to be traveled – but by being in a squad you can respawn near them.

Unlocks are reminiscent of previous Battlefield titles. You unlock different weapons, attachments, and other upgrades. Not as extensive as Modern Warfare 2 (which I hope won’t be a problem), but in coordination with vehicles and destructible environments, there are still many variables here.

One known tactic across all objective based games – camp in a corner by the objective to destroy any offenders. Nothing wrong with it. It works, and rewards the player with easy kills from impatient players. But in BC2, if you happen to be camping in that spot, a simple explosion will destroy that section of the building – or the whole thing; now time to form a new strategy.

The game plays a little different that CoD as it is slower paced, which I prefer. Now, it’s no ArmA or OpFlash, but it’s definitely not arcadey. All in all, it feels like regular battlefield and any fan of the series will be appreciated of it. The graphics are amazing as well, and even the sound. As much as I dig MW2 surround sound, this is a tad more realistic.

I still have much more time to put into the beta. But from this alone I will get them game come March of next year.

Games On/Not On The Plate This Week 0

by Adam Blue • Editorial

I just finished the MW2 campaign, and while mediocre, some of the surroundings were enthralling to a point. I think FPS’s need more of this, but not when you’re pretty much on-rails. I also received Assassin’s Creed 2 yesterday, but the game feels too much like the first. It’s slow, monotonous, and the controls are too much than they need to be. I mean….you have to hold down the r-trigger and A when parkour-ing around like a monkey. After playing both inFamous and Prototype, I can’t really go back to the AC controls. It’s just too much when it doesn’t need to be. The story here is great though. I might just chug along just for that. But at times slow, boring gameplay moments occur just to move the story along which, for me, breaks the pace of the game. New Super Mario Bros. hasn’t arrived yet, so I might just stick with AC2. I’m salivating for some plumber though.*

I’ve also been digging a little into Crysis Warhead, and a thought came over me. I would prefer playing on a gamepad. I’m kind of disappointed it has come to this, but maybe I’m just digging gamepads more. I will still stand by the Mouse and Keyboard for RTS’s, but for FPS’s, the analog dead-zone plus the use of look and strafe can still achieve accurate results. It’s just done in a different manner.

Speaking of PC, I have the Red Alert 3 Premier Edition that includes a beta code for C&C4. Unfortunately, there;s some bug or error that won’t allow me to download the beta. So I sit here in wait, crying while clutching my Chrono Legionnaire (got that from the Red Alert 2 Special Edition).

For the weekend, if I still don’t have Mario, I might go back to Frontlines. MW2 is making me want to go play the superior online FPS. The single-player on that is pretty wicked too. From Chad’s previous post, I’d like to play through Frontlines again to earn the rest of the achievements.

*I could have deleted that sentence but it is funny. I have no fetishes for plumbers. Although…

What do you think? Gamer Score / Achievements 2

by Chad Blue • Forum Talk

Well people usually don’t discuss things here. No one usually comments at all. Either you are not reading these posts or you are and just not replying.

But I will ask a question anyway and hope to open up a discussion.

What do you think about “Gamer Score” or “Achievement” points?

I think they have ruined gaming.

What Modern Warfare 2 Does Wrong 2

by Adam Blue • Editorial

I initially liked the idea of no party-chat in most matchmaking games. This way, the whole team can talk and strategize.

LOL

Who the fuck am I kidding? This is Modern Warfare 2!

Now I have to listen to these people. Half the time I’m being called a n****r, the other half a f*g. Usually since I’m playing with my bro in a party, it’s just us as a squad strategizing. Now, we have to try to communicate over 50 Cent blasting in the background, or hearing a delay of the game through someone who sits two feet from his sound system. This ruins the experience and pretty much confines Sean and I to Ground War. Games turn out to be spousal arguments which are over nothing; only continuing to one-up the other – to have the last word.

Again, I see IW’s intention with this – and I originally agreed; but it fails miserably. At least give us the option to make squads and have squad chat. Frontlines and Battllefield allowed for this. I would think they’d figure out the crap people have to go through. Do they not care? Trying to spark another controversy? How much does it suck to not have your party get into the game, and not hear from them because it switched over to game chat, only to figure it out in-game, where a quit is a loss? Big suck.

Aside from The Party Chat debacle, how about Spec Ops? I feel I’m alone. But what the fuck is so fun about that game type? You just…shoot people. Nazi Zombies, from Treyarch’s World at War, was a zombie survival game type that allowed for weapon upgrades and monetary strategy. And I’m not sure if this is a problem with the people I play with, or for everyone, but sometimes the network blows. We’ve played a few games where the opposing team’s latency gave them the upper-hand. Only to switch hosts a little too late for a win. Not sure why Infinity Ward is developing ass-backwards, but allowing me to have a title representing my name that goes by ‘Joint-Ops’ with marijuana leaves around that only feeds the jump-on-the-bandwagon-that-never-was crowd, is not the kind of game development I like to see.

The core game is still fun, but poor game design as a sequel. Can’t wait to see what Treyarch has in store! Future Combat?

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Modern Warfare 2 Impressions 1

by Adam Blue • Impressions

I’ve spent pretty much most of the day playing Modern Warfare 2. As far a single-player, besides the spectacle that is the story telling and flashy graphics – it’s pretty boring. I didn’t care for CoD4 either. Maybe something to do with WWII weapons is just more fun for me? Either way, I’m maybe five or six missions in, and I feel I’m just going through the motions. Follow this waypoint and kill people along the way, then follow this waypoint and kill people along the way. It’s too fast to be enjoyable, and removes all suspension of belief as a military shooter when enemies just keep appearing. I don’t know…it’s just that it’s extremely popular and I don’t get it.

But that type of game-play translates well online. The whole Call of Duty online experience that started with CoD4 is back with some improvements. They are great improvements at that, nothing I can really complain about. So far, perks seem more of a preferred play style over being better than others. Hopefully it stays that way.

In the end, I still feel Call of Duty 5 is better. There’s something about the physical game-play and the atmosphere. I miss zombie mode as well. I hope the support is there too as the forums for WaW were awesome. You could level up your forum profile as you progress through the game. There was also a WaW iPhone app that allowed you to track your game stats. It really felt like there was a persistence to your Call of Duty 5 experience. Will IW be offering this? I’m not holding my breath.

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