So Call Of Duty Black Ops 2. This particular franchise is one of the most successful franchises out there. Everywhere you look people give it high marks. But when you look into it the reasons are a little unclear.
Character- Well...they exist? The issue with this franchise is that they try and formulate characters for the player to care about and they fall flat. The bad guy is motivated by a reason that makes sense but is so overdone that it makes him less of a person and more of just the antagonist. The player characters also get put through the ringer a bit and never gain a lot of personality. The reason for that might be varied but they are just the exact same character as we've seen in every COD game to this point.
Plot- There was one? This is another problem with the game itself. They fill the game with cool looking set pieces but the plot just doesn't appear to make a big appearance. The plot itself is a massive problem with most of it being summed up as bad guy wins. I might be one of the only people bugged by this but throughout the game the bad guy seems to have DFCS or Developer's Favorite Character Syndrome. He is always ahead of the player for no better reason than the plot requires it. Spoilers. At one point in the plot one of your guys betrays you. Why? I have no idea it makes no sense as to why he should or anything in the plot. This doesn't excuse the part where this terrorist guy has enough people to wage full scale war with TWO global superpowers. That doesn't happen. It makes no sense and screams bad guy of the current generation instead of legitimate threat.
Appearance- It looks like every COD game. No real change since they released COD 4. 0 points for that and irritation from me. I don't understand why they don't do anything to the game play visuals while many others are.
Multiplayer- While I will say this one has my favorite maps since COD 4 there is no real innovation. They are still playing off of the success of COD 4.
Accessibility- Well its the same game as it has been for years. Nothing new and therefore nothing to talk about.
Odds and Sods- The technology that they show in the future time are cool. The strike missions are an interesting idea but it fails miserably. The controls are terrible and the A.I. bad. There is no need for the piece. In addition the fact that different completions of objectives can change the story is another interesting idea. Unfortunately it doesn't work. I don't know where many of them are and it felt forced in. Zombies has taken another hit as they continue to make it over. The problem with this mode is that the developer keeps trying to make it bigger and better when it was perfect at the outset.
In summation- A good, if lackluster addition to the COD franchise. Plenty of decent elements but best played and then forgotten about. Its not going to change the world or make most people care. Also I have apparently discovered that the people in charge of innovation over at Treyarch just aren't good at it.
Hambone out.
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Halo 4
So Halo 4. If you have an Xbox, barring a couple of my weird friends, you own this game. You have probably beaten this game as a point of fact. Well let's get right on into this bad boy.
Characters- Well here is a place that Halo has never been a big fount of characters and good characterizations. Halo 4 doesn't do a whole lot to dispel this notion but the Chief continues to be a strong character despite, and almost because, he does a lot of minor elements that demonstrate just who he is. A great example of this is when he is going to go after the big bad of the game and he stands up to the captain of the Infinity. There is just a quiet confidence in himself that really comes through in this scene. Cortana shows up again and her slow degeneration gave me a lot of laughs throughout the game. Especially when she causes the crash of the ship that the Chief stole. Unfortunately the rest of the characters within the story aren't really portrayed very well. The commander and the Spartan Palmer show more in the Spartan Ops mode but given that it is a weekly episodic thing it is difficult to say much more about them. That is the problem with a one man army type story. The antagonist characters of the Didact and to a small extent the Librarian character are flat and scream plot point. Not character.
Plot- The plots of the Halo have an advantage over many other games by actually being able to track down what the hell they are trying to do. At its surface it is the Chief against the Didact but on a deeper level it is about the Chief trying to keep the last member of his team, Cortana, alive. It is well done and it is a nice change from the normal stories of games like this. For some reason, possibly due to a lack of concern the Covenant show up again. This wouldn't be an issue but it isn't explained well enough. Are they there because they are salvagers and that's why they shoot at the chief. Or is it something else. More telling why they show up would have been nice. But I can go popping grunts any time.
Appearance- Ok hands down this is probably one of the best looking games I have played in a long long time. I might actually suggest that it is the best looking of all time. It took a long while into the campaign until I had gotten to the point where I realized that the cut scenes were digital and not made the same way as Transformers or something you would see in a high valued Hollywood blockbuster. The sounds of the game are awesome, despite my original consternation at the altering of things that I had thought sacred of the series. The shotgun sounds like a thunderclap and the assault rifle sounds beefy. Everything about the game's appearance would get top marks if I actually rated things.
Accessibility- Simple and easy to get into. I had some difficulties getting my head around the new changes to the change to the control scheme. Changing crouch to B was an interesting choice and even though I didn't like it at first when I thought about it I realized that there was really no better button to use there.
Odds and Sods- As usual with a new Halo we see bunch of new guns. The forerunner weapons I could take or leave, preferably leave, but they don't give you enough ammo for them to really make them count. I played through most of the game with a Lightrifle because it was the only gun I could reliably have ammo for. Now I understand the story reasons why. But it screamed to me that the developers were just widely proud of their weapons so those are the ones we see much more. I say I didn't like the new weapons and that is perhaps a bit strong. I wasn't entirely sure the Lightrifle did more damage or less when scoped. The design on them was cool but I don't know that the game really needed a fourth weapon that does that kind of scoped precision damage. Especially because the DMR and the Battle Rifle return in the game. They said that the lack of ammo was to encourage people to experiment and what it really did was to make the game slow down while you hunted a new gun down.
Multiplayer- Works well enough but it works just like COD. Of course this is praise. I think that Halo does it a bit better. One of my friends doesn't really care for the COD system and I can understand his problems with it. I agree with many of them despite debating the point on a regular basis. The unlocking of armor types and stances and things is cool because it allows for almost unlimited customization of your Spartan and it creates that connection with the online character.
Characters- Well here is a place that Halo has never been a big fount of characters and good characterizations. Halo 4 doesn't do a whole lot to dispel this notion but the Chief continues to be a strong character despite, and almost because, he does a lot of minor elements that demonstrate just who he is. A great example of this is when he is going to go after the big bad of the game and he stands up to the captain of the Infinity. There is just a quiet confidence in himself that really comes through in this scene. Cortana shows up again and her slow degeneration gave me a lot of laughs throughout the game. Especially when she causes the crash of the ship that the Chief stole. Unfortunately the rest of the characters within the story aren't really portrayed very well. The commander and the Spartan Palmer show more in the Spartan Ops mode but given that it is a weekly episodic thing it is difficult to say much more about them. That is the problem with a one man army type story. The antagonist characters of the Didact and to a small extent the Librarian character are flat and scream plot point. Not character.
Plot- The plots of the Halo have an advantage over many other games by actually being able to track down what the hell they are trying to do. At its surface it is the Chief against the Didact but on a deeper level it is about the Chief trying to keep the last member of his team, Cortana, alive. It is well done and it is a nice change from the normal stories of games like this. For some reason, possibly due to a lack of concern the Covenant show up again. This wouldn't be an issue but it isn't explained well enough. Are they there because they are salvagers and that's why they shoot at the chief. Or is it something else. More telling why they show up would have been nice. But I can go popping grunts any time.
Appearance- Ok hands down this is probably one of the best looking games I have played in a long long time. I might actually suggest that it is the best looking of all time. It took a long while into the campaign until I had gotten to the point where I realized that the cut scenes were digital and not made the same way as Transformers or something you would see in a high valued Hollywood blockbuster. The sounds of the game are awesome, despite my original consternation at the altering of things that I had thought sacred of the series. The shotgun sounds like a thunderclap and the assault rifle sounds beefy. Everything about the game's appearance would get top marks if I actually rated things.
Accessibility- Simple and easy to get into. I had some difficulties getting my head around the new changes to the change to the control scheme. Changing crouch to B was an interesting choice and even though I didn't like it at first when I thought about it I realized that there was really no better button to use there.
Odds and Sods- As usual with a new Halo we see bunch of new guns. The forerunner weapons I could take or leave, preferably leave, but they don't give you enough ammo for them to really make them count. I played through most of the game with a Lightrifle because it was the only gun I could reliably have ammo for. Now I understand the story reasons why. But it screamed to me that the developers were just widely proud of their weapons so those are the ones we see much more. I say I didn't like the new weapons and that is perhaps a bit strong. I wasn't entirely sure the Lightrifle did more damage or less when scoped. The design on them was cool but I don't know that the game really needed a fourth weapon that does that kind of scoped precision damage. Especially because the DMR and the Battle Rifle return in the game. They said that the lack of ammo was to encourage people to experiment and what it really did was to make the game slow down while you hunted a new gun down.
Multiplayer- Works well enough but it works just like COD. Of course this is praise. I think that Halo does it a bit better. One of my friends doesn't really care for the COD system and I can understand his problems with it. I agree with many of them despite debating the point on a regular basis. The unlocking of armor types and stances and things is cool because it allows for almost unlimited customization of your Spartan and it creates that connection with the online character.
Monday, November 12, 2012
Back again.
Ok I am really terrible at this, I'm back again though I can't guarantee for how long. I'm going to try and shift things around here at the Randomness. Over these past few weeks I came to a realization. I play a lot of games and once I get around the fact that I'm playing the game for fun I analyze the things that are going on within it. So long story short I'm likely to start working reviews on here about once a week. Now given the fact that I'm a poor as hell college student and don't have much money these reviews will jump around between a lot of the things that interest me. We'll go from recent games, first on the docket is Halo 4, to older games, to anime things. Why? Because I'm the one with the blog control and I have the power.
Should be fun,
Hambone out.
Should be fun,
Hambone out.
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