Nocturnal Nick

So I went and purchase a copy of Battlefield – Bad Company 2 for PC the other day, almost exclusively to compare it to Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare 2. The results surprised me, both in how far the Battlefield series has come, and that I liked it more than what I consider to be one of the best first person shooters ever made (MW2)

The story isn’t quite as involved as MW2, though it had the potential to be. Essentially the introductory mission sees you playing a commando in WWII infiltrating a Japanese occupied island in the pacific, with the aim of discovering a “scalar weapon” (a prototype weapon of mass destruction). Without going into detail, and I apologise for those of you allergic to spoilers, the mission gets cut off half way when the weapon is activated, and you escape only to be engulfed by the effects of the scalar weapon. The rest of the game takes place late in the Cold War, and essentially involves you and the three other members of Bad Company being hired by the US military to find this weapon, buried under the earth somewhere since 1943. The Russians (USSR) are after the same thing, and so combat ensues.

The gameplay felt much more open than MW2, with wider terrain allowed to be traversed, allowing the player to choose their method of approach rather than being told, such as in MW2. The freedom felt good, especially given the need to pick good cover with BFBC2’s destructible environment.

Finding cover in this game isn’t just a matter of running up to something and crouching. You have to consider the firepower of your enemies and compare that to the strength of the cover around you. For example, if I was to hide in a thin-walled jungle-hut, I can’t expect to be impervious to armor-piercing rounds. That said, even a strong concrete wall will be destroyed if you’re up against a tank or two, sometimes bringing down the ceiling on top of you and eliminating the unrealistic feeling of safety that you have in other cover-based games.

As the story progresses, there are a few twists and turns, cool missions to mirror MW2’s ones (ATVS>Snowmobiles) and snide remarks from your comrades targeted at MW, such as “Nah, we better get in there and get it done before the marines send some sissies with heatbeat monitors on their guns” and “If I was on a snowmobile I’d waste your ass sarge!” – “Yeah, but snowmobiles are for pussies”

Overall, I’m impressed with the game. I’ll certainly be giving the multiplayer a go, but from what I’ve heard the BF maps are game mods are bigger and better than the MW2’s little tiny maps anyway, so thats where I’m sitting

[********--] (8/10)

Braid has, over the last few hours, changed my perception of 2D platformers. I went into it a little late last night expecting some interesting time-based puzzles. The game places you in control of who I can only assume (from text placed in books around levels) is Tim.

There isn’t an obvious background story, just a typical “Tim searches for the princess” platformer, though there are definitely subtle undertones of something more. Whether you walk away from this thinking whoever made it was on drugs, or was being really deep (or both) you’ll walk away with a definite feeling of achievement.

As for the deeper meaning, it has been interpreted (not entirely my credit) to be a metaphor for the discovery and testing of the nuclear bomb. Without going into it too much, there are a hell of references, but they are all so subtle to those (such as myself) that aren’t familiar with the intricacies of that particular piece of history. This surprised me as I was able to get through the whole game without picking it up, I was just plain confused.

Anyway, VERY well worth the $9.99 or 1200 microsoft points!

[********--]

I realise this is old news, not that it’s the point of this post to inform of their existence, but I never really saw 3D games taking off.
My first experience was playing Avatar on a 3D TV at a pre-release gathering. While it was fun, the glasses were an unwelcome addition and I didn’t find that it added much to the experience.

I have, however, since re-evaluated my position on such games, having read this top 10 list.

Mostly games that don’t really interest me, but one stand-out was Gran Tourismo 5 (Cue vapourware humour). How freaking amazing would driving a car in a 3D “cockpit” be? You could judge corners based on depth, you’ll know exactly when to brake naturally, rather than wrote learning the course, it’ll be easier to dodge other cars as you know exactly where your car ends and theirs starts.

Other possibilities listed are COD 6 and Bioshock 2, both of which would be great in real 3D, though stereoscopic would only be a step in that direction. I can imaging games like COD 6 would be even more immersive, imagine bullets whipping past you and thudding into trees in surround sound AND vision!

The one downside I suppose is that as the hardware needs to render an image for both eyes, thus effectively halving the graphical hardware available or, to put it another way, requiring twice as much hardware.

Maybe next generation console? Please? Pretty please with a cherry on top?

So I’ve been playing a HELL of a lot of Borderlands. Although I’ve only just gotten back to the part I’d reached with Richard I’ve been held captivated the whole way.

Its not often that you find a game that you play until you’re too tired to go on. Hell, I could probably do that in 5 or less!

• Borderlands

• Portal (even though it’s so short)

• World of Warcraft (For a while I was hooked)

• KotOR (Knights of the Old Republic)

• Pokemon (When I was 9 and had to hide my gameboy from parents)

There are probably more but these are just the ones I’m thinking of off the top of my head.

Oh wait!

• Halo 3 (I had good reasons to start after 10pm and finish before 9am)
• Freelancer (Still my favourite space-based adventure game)
• Mass Effect (To a lesser extent than most, but it was pretty fun)
• Zelda – Twilight Princess (and Phantom Hourglass)
• CASTLE CRASHERS (Soooo addictive 4 player co-op)

More to follow.

Post your own!

Today was a day full of audiovisual “fun”

Beginning with a few episodes of QI, then some Borderlands with Chris, followed by a trip to the mall to buy nerf guns (Which don’t seem to be available anywhere at the moment ) we found ourselves inside a tv/av repair store picking up a fixed HD recorder.

Shortly afterwards Faith came around and Chris and I installed her headunit.

First of all, if you’re to install a new wiring harness in any car, PLEASE PLEASE use the stock coloured wires! It just makes a lot more sense to the person installing the new one! Aside from that hiccough it went quite well, everything’s plugged in and working well (including an iPod adapter the glove box) and Faith‘ll come and pick the car up, hopefully overjoyed

After an hour of Borderlands (getting quite into it again) we’ve gone and partially installed the DVD/TV/HDD recorder at Chris‘ dad’s place.

Now Jamison (pulling in now) for dinner then home for more games

Oh and my Car is ready and waiting to be picked up. I’ll do so tomorrow morning

Right, well as I sit in my class paying the utmost attention I find myself hearing things that that I’ve heard before.

And so here I am folks. Reason for no posts has been a combination of illness and addiction to Left 4 Dead and Supreme Commander.

I know that its been a while since either game was released (L4D 2 is out almost everywhere and SupCom has a sequel in development with Square Enix ) but they are part of the set of games I missed out on because I was concentrating more on cars etc.

I bought some Shift jeans (kevlar infused thread) which mean that riding my bike in anything warmer than 20 degrees is now comfortable. I’m wearing them now, in fact, and I recommend them to anyone on two wheels (Draggin Jeans are another, more expensive, option)

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve co-bought a couple more vehicles too, Jared’s Bug Jive scooter, and Richard’s Yamaha Virago (currently in QLD). Both are a bit of a relief .cause it means they’re now self sufficient in transport. Speak of the devil, Jared’s just arrived complaining of hitting every red light. Unfortunately he can’t quite GET to 80 km/h, so he can’t really use the Eastern Distributer (the more efficient/less lights route).

So this is my first wordpress post, but at the same time, it’s just been my first ever Left 4 Dead experience.

The game itself is a good experience, though I imagine it would get really frustrating when team-mates kill you before you get to kill zombies. It’s also much more frightening in that the zombies run REALLY fast when they want to.
Meh, you’ve probably played the game before, so I won’t bore you that much more.

Suffice to say, I had fun. Lots of it. Now Jared just needs to get a mic.

Nick out.