PS3
Call Of Duty 3
Backround:
Through the keen eyes of four Allied soldiers, Call of Duty 3 brings players closer to the fury of combat as they fight through the Normandy Breakout, the harrowing offensive that liberated Paris and changed the fate of the world as we know it today.
Features:
* ALL-NEW CLOSE-QUARTERS COMBAT
In a new feature for the Call of Duty series, close-quarters battle mechanics Bring you face-to-face with your enemy. Fight hand-to-hand, disarm traps, improvise explosive devices, and execute a host of other battlefield challenges that require cunning and swift reflexes.
* NOWHERE TO HIDE
Environmental physics let you destroy enemies’ soft cover hideouts, such as wooden walls, barrels and crates—forcing your foes out in the open. But watch out—they can eliminate your protection as well.
* CHOOSE YOUR PATH TO VICTORY
Flank your opponent, or hit him head on. Next-generation level design provides multiple attack routes that let you decide how to confront the enemy. Each choice you make requires you to use special tactics, from sniping and demolition to straight out frontal assaults.
* UNPRECEDENTED COMBAT OPTIONS
Execute parachute drops, armored assaults or SAS commando raids. Riddle battlefields with tank shells and explosives. Drive tanks to topple barricades and invade enemy emplacements.
* TEAM-BASED MULTIPLAYER WITH VEHICLES
Intense multiplayer functionality has been built from the ground up. Up to 24 players can battle it out as a variety of player classes, including riflemen, infantry, scouts, and others. Multiple-occupancy vehicles let you coordinate attacks with friends, driving while they fire a mounted machine gun from the turret. The game's wide range of vehicles include tanks, jeeps and motorcycles with sidecars.
splinter cell double agent
It's not easy to be Sam Fisher, the National Security Agency's elite secret agent. Sure, he gets to jet around the world to fabulous destinations, but most of his time is spent skulking in the shadows, waiting for a guard to pass close enough so he can snap his neck, or crawling through ventilation shafts to infiltrate one top-secret facility or another. Of course, Sam's hardships are a gamer's treat because Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell is a series that delivers excellent stealth action gameplay where you get to play as Fisher while he tries to save the free world again and again. With Splinter Cell: Double Agent, Sam arrives on the PlayStation 3 for the first time, and as you'd expect, this is a fine-looking game, though it's a paler imitation of the Xbox 360 version. Still, when it comes to delivering high-tech espionage and tense gameplay, it's definitely worth checking out.The fourth chapter in the Splinter Cell series gets its name from the fact that Sam Fisher has to serve two masters this time around. There's the NSA, his nominal employer, and a rogue militant group called John Brown's Army, which he has to infiltrate by posing as a recruit. This is a task made easier as Sam links up with the JBA while serving in prison for crimes that he most certainly did commit. But as intriguing as this premise is, it quickly becomes an afterthought because he'll soon be sent around the world to capture a supertanker trapped in the arctic ice, rappel down the side of a Shanghai skyscraper, and sweat under a hot African sun in the midst of a war-torn city in pursuit of your many objectives. Again, Sam must make like a modern, high-tech ninja armed with an incredible arsenal of moves--such as dangling upside down on a line and plucking a passing guard by the neck--and with the latest weapons and equipment.
If you've played any of the Splinter Cell games prior to Double Agent, you'll quickly find yourself at home with the new game because the basic moves and strategies remain the same. Where Ubisoft changes things up a bit is in the way the story unfolds; Sam often has two competing priorities demanding his attention. There are the tasks that the JBA wants him to do, while he also has to keep the NSA happy. This is indicated by a trust meter at the bottom of the screen. If Sam fails an objective for one group, the respective trust meter falls accordingly. Often it's possible to keep both groups happy. For instance, in one mission, Sam has to knock out a radio antenna for the JBA, but before you do so, you can use it to transmit a message to the NSA. On rarer occasions, the game tries to present a moral conundrum by giving you competing objectives. An example of this is when you're told by the JBA to execute a civilian prisoner. Doing so would put you in the JBA's good graces, but it would also make you a bit unpopular with the NSA. Still, it's easy to make up with one side or another by accomplishing many of the secondary objectives in the game.You score higher if you can get through a level without ever being detected or raising an alarm, though much of the time, you can play aggressively and take out guards somewhat brazenly. And in a game like Double Agent, it's hard to resist the aggressive route because being able to sneak around in the darkness and whack people like an assassin is so much fun. You can whip out the silenced pistol or advanced rifle that Sam carries, snap necks, use the knife in creative ways, and more. One of the coolest kill moves involves swimming underneath arctic ice, coming up below a guard atop the ice, shattering the ice to plunge the guard into the water, and then smoothly stabbing the guard in the heart. It's such an awesome sight that it never gets old.
Getting through the single-player game will take about eight to 10 hours, but the majority of the replay value can be found in Double Agent's impressive multiplayer gameplay, which builds on the spies-versus-mercenaries mode introduced in earlier Splinter Cell games. Basically, a match can pit three players playing as nimble spies against the other three players who are playing as heavily armed mercenaries. The spies have no weapons but are armed with high-tech espionage gear, and their job is to hack into certain computer terminals to steal their secrets. Meanwhile, the mercenaries have to do everything they can to prevent this from happening. What makes the multiplayer in Double Agent better than its predecessors is the focused nature of the map design and the further differentiation of the spies from Sam Fisher.
Like in the single-player game, spies are played from a third-person perspective. However, the spies in multiplayer are a lot faster and nimbler than Sam. They also have their own moves, like being able to jam the mercenaries' weapons. While unarmed, the spies can still take out mercenaries if they can sneak up behind them and get them in a choke hold or can land on their heads. To play as a spy, you've got to think and move fast because stealth is your major advantage over the mercenaries. However, the moment you try to hack into a terminal, the alarms will go off, which means that the mercenaries will come running your way. The mercenaries, on the other hand, are a bit more mobile than before. You play as the mercenaries from a traditional first-person shooter perspective, but now you can rappel down lines and slam spies to the ground with a head-butt or with your rifle. It makes for a tense, fast-paced cat-and-mouse game. Double Agent's multiplayer is further enhanced by a cooperative mode that lets you play with others as spies against mercenaries controlled by artificial intelligence. Additionally, there are rewards for long-term play, which come in the form of unlockable outfits.Earlier Splinter Cell games in the series tended to look better on the Xbox than the PlayStation 2 since the series was built around the more powerful hardware of the former. Because current-generation consoles are comparable in power, it's not surprising that the PS3 version of Double Agent looks almost as good as the Xbox 360 version, though there are some issues. For instance, the PS3 version lacks some of the complex lighting and shadowing effects that were put to great use in the Xbox 360 version, immersing you in the gloom. Meanwhile, night vision lacks the warm, glowing amplification of lights seen in the Xbox 360 version, and the PS3 version doesn't have some of the 360 version's particle effects, such as smoke plumes. Both versions also suffer from long loading times, as well as a struggling frame rate at times (which struggles a bit harder on the PS3). The good news is that both versions still feature the unmistakable voice of Michael Ironside as Fisher and the voice of Dennis Haysbert as Fisher's NSA boss, Irving Lambert. As you've come to expect from the series, the voice acting is solid, as is the music, which amplifies when things get hairy and retreats once the coast is clear.
Though it's not quite as sharp as the Xbox 360 version, the PS3 version of Double Agent is still a great game. Ubisoft has managed to craft a well-rounded package that features the series' signature stealth action gameplay, along with a rich and enjoyable multiplayer suite and some impressive visuals. And while Sam likes to grumble a lot in the game about how he's getting too old for all of this, Double Agent proves that there's plenty of life left in the franchise.
God Of War II
I used to sit in dark rooms at all hours of the night engrossed in games. Now that I do it professionally, I sit in lighter rooms, with a pad of paper and a pen (Pilot Precise V5s with black ink. In case you're wondering). Reviewing a game is not like playing it for fun; reviewers spend so much time looking at every aspect of the game and thinking about why the developers made this choice or that decision that it's pretty hard to enjoy the gameplay. When I start to have fun, I dissect that fun and figure out what about the game is causing me to enjoy myself. It can suck the joy of gaming right out of a person, and while it's not waiting tables, it's not as fun it may look from the outside. That is, until you get a game like God of War 2.
This is a title that relentlessly wants to entertain you. While some games might take your breath away in one or two interesting sequences, God of War 2 provides those drop-dead-holy-crap moments every 15 minutes. Simply moving from area to area can be more awe-inspiring than some of your favorite cut-scenes in other titles, and this goes on for 10-15 hours. The game will absolutely not let you walk away without feeling both amazed and breathless. While I tried to maintain some kind of detachment so I could write a solid review, Kratos made me drop the facade of judging the game and just strap in for the ride. "Are you not entertained?" the game seemed to ask after every bravura sequence, and I have to admit, I was.If you're even half a fan of this sort of action game, the title won't let you stand by and look at it passively. It makes other PS2 games look like PSone titles, and it makes this feat look easy. Why isn't every game this good?
Give them nothing. Take from them everything
Kratos became a god at the end of the first game, and I don't think I'm spoiling anything by pointing out that it's hard to design a game around someone who is already that powerful. In that regard, God of War 2 suffers from sequelitis: the developers find an excuse to take away much of Kratos' power in the first hour and then introduce the item he needs to quest for to get his godly status back. It's all a little contrived, and I hate when games give you superpowers at the beginning of the game only to take them away. It's a cheap way to make the beginning more impressive, and even Kratos feels weak for players used to his full array of powers from the last game. Luckily, the opening sequence is an epic fight with a Colossus, so it's hard to stay mad.
Kratos is one of those people who can face any situation and fight his way out of it, and that sense of competence, violence, and force of will makes the God of War titles a male-centric experience. We all wish we could solve our problems with violence every now and again, right?
The combat system returns from the first game, which is a good move. The controls are intuitive and in just a few minutes of practice you can pull off some sick combos and juggle attacks. The red orbs retrieved from fallen enemies allow you to upgrade your weapons, adding some strategy to the proceedings. I went straight for maxed-out Blades of Athena and then upgraded Typhon's Bane for my long-distance attacks, I never got around to really messing with the sub weapons, though; while the magic attacks are useful for long distances or crowd control, Athena's Blades will be the best weapon in almost every other circumstance.
The button-press fatalities are back as well, and each enemy has some very painful looking ways to die. Even though the game throws mob after mob of enemies at you, combat is so primal and powerful looking you'll welcome each opportunity to try out new moves. It's a testament to how well the attacks, animations, and controls work together to make sure even by the end of the game you're not bored with slicing through hordes of baddies.
Which is why God of War 2 succeeds where other games fail: even when you get distracted by a cliché from the tired racks of action game design, the actual gameplay, story, and graphics makes up for the slightly rehashed feeling of many of the twists and turns of the story. The puzzles, for instance, are standard Tomb Raider or Legacy of Kain fare. You drag many stone blocks from one area to the next, and when you see a locked door it's safe to say that you'll find a large enemy to fight for the key around the next corner. Add in the fact that ancient Greece seems to be powered by giant gears and levers you'll be constantly moving, and you have some tedious moments in the middle of the game when battle takes a back seat to the run-and-solve-and-backtrack-and-collect style of play.
Soon enough you'll be back in the thick of things, marveling at the long draw distances on a PS2 game and looking forward to your next meeting with a Titan or some other mythological figure. If you know your gods and myths you'll see some familiar faces. When you first lay eyes on the man being disemboweled by a bird and realize it's Prometheus, it's just the beginning of the cameos from the gods and mortals that populate Greek myth.
Most of which I picked up from the Homer-inspired episode of Duck Tales—but I digress.
