Posts Tagged ‘Reviews

04
Dec

threevue review: Halo 3

By Russ Crandall 0 Comments
Categories: Games and Reviews
Tags: ,


Mark:
I was never a very big fan of Halo, and this is the first version that I have really spent much time with. The main reason I got into it was because, being the proponent of social gaming that I am, the multiplayer capabilities of the game greatly appealed to me. I also loved that fact that Russ, Tyler, myself, and presumably, if someone awesome enough existed, a fourth person, could play together through the campaign mode. Those turned out to be my favorite aspects of the game: the relative ease and quickness with which one can join a group of friends in an intense session of hardcore pwning.

But, in the end, it is still just Halo. To me, all the hype that came along with it was more than it deserved. I feel that if this game came out at the time it did and was named anything but Halo, it would have drowned in a sea of Call of Duties, Bioshocks, Orange Boxes, and hell, even Gears of Wars. The graphics are nothing special, the run-and-gun playstyle is puddle shallow, and the pattern of spawn-shoot-melee-die-lather-rinse-repeat gets repetitive. Repetitive, I say. But it’s this same simplicity that makes it fun. The battles turn out to be quick, frantic, and with teammates playing together as a team, can turn out to be very rewarding.

90/100

Russ:
Halo 3 did the unthinkable - it didn’t fall apart under all that media hype. I know. Unthinkable. With improved graphics and a few (but not too many) additions, this game compliments and in many cases improved upon the two previous titles. The single player campaign neatly packages the story arch into a mostly-believable conclusion that is fairly rewarding.

What makes this game stand out is its incredible multiplayer. There’s a good reason it’s the most popular online FPS on the planet - the gameplay is so refined and deceptively deep that there is always something there to keep you playing. This is a game that people will be playing feverishly for five years. The problem is, if I was to slip this game into my console five years from now, I would get my ass handed to me so quick that I’d turn it back off again before you can say “gravity hammer”.

93/100

Tyler:
So much of Halo 3 is just more of the same (the same being all good things like tight controls, clean graphics, quality gameplay, ’splosions and a not-super-original-but-still-pretty-cool storyline). But when the game brings something completely fresh and unexpected to the table,  the quality of the those unseen aspects stand out head and shoulders above the rest of the title. I’m talking, of course, about the online suite that accompanies Halo 3’s slightly above-par single player campaign.

Like the COD and BF2MC titles, I purchased Halo 3

  • 75% for Multiplayer
  • 16% for Single Player
  • 9% for the Cheeves

I can just imagine the thoughts of other, single player-heavy game developers while playing Halo 3 for the first time. “Pthfff, this is it? We got this game beat!” And then what they thought after playing online. “It saves full, multi-angle videos of my last my last 25 matches/single player levels, and I can edit clips and share them? I can access an extremely detailed and up to date records file and stat tracking community site which covers my whole time online? A matchmaking system that incorporates practically every online multiplayer configuration imaginable for assured enjoyment with my friends? Fucking Heatmaps!?”

My sincere hope is that the best aspect of Halo 3, the multiplayer functionality, becomes the standard in online gaming. Cheers to the game makers at Bungie for setting the bar so very high.

91/100

02
Dec

threevue review: The Orange Box

By Russ Crandall 0 Comments
Categories: Games and Reviews
Tags: , ,


Mark:

I have yet to dive too deep into this game these games yet, but I’ve watched Tyler play it, and I’ve heard the entire world talk about it endlessly for weeks now, so I feel like I can throw a opinions your way.

First off, there is no doubt that the package is a great deal, as there is a lot of great gameplay all crammed on to one disc. It’s also very diverse. It says, “You like FPS’s? Here you go. You like multiplayer shoot ‘em ups? Here you go. You like puzzle games, well, let me just look…yup, got something for you, too.” HOWEVER, saying that it has “five games on one disc” is at the very least a bit misleading. It should be more like, “One game and four half-games,” or even, “One twice-extended game, and two half games.” Also, only three of the games on this disc are originals that we haven’t played before, and only one of those is something completely new. Half-life 2 and Episode One have both been out for a long time already, and Episode 2 is just more of the same. Team Fortress has been around for years on computers, and the Orange Box version has been stripped further than a chop-shop Cadillac. It’s only five maps and three game modes (none of which is Deathmatch). Portal is the only brand new thing that we’ve never seen before, but the fact that you can beat it faster than the 1-2-3 Kid beat Razor Ramon diminishes its value just a little.

So, there is a lot of gameplay this Box that is Orange, but Call of Duty 4, with only a single game (actually two games if you use the OB’s logic) offers much more replay value. But, it is a step in the right direction for companies to give us more virtual bang for our very real buck.

89/100

Russ:
I won’t go into detail about how this is the best bang for your buck on the Xbox 360. I won’t tell you how for $60 you get five awesome games, including three Half-Life 2 games (Half-Life 2, Episode One, and Episode Two, totaling about 25 hours of story-rich gameplay), a mind-bending puzzle game (Portal) and a solid squad-based multiplayer game (Team Fortress 2). And I won’t tell you that its box art is ridiculously dumb.

Instead, I’ll just tell you to spend your hard-earned $60 on this game and never look back. The Half-Life 2 saga is worth the price of admission alone - there is no FPS experience so thought-provoking as this masterpiece. And the achievements are really original and fun (and they have a great progress-tracker, too). Granted, there are too many driving parts, but it’s forgivable. Portal is an interesting few hours, but its re-playability is a little low. Team Fortress 2 hasn’t seen much play on my system, but I will get to it eventually. Even if it ends up sucking, I still got my $60 out of the game.

96/100

Tyler

I don’t even want to write about this game. It’s like reviewing sex. We’ve all heard about it, we all know what it is. Guess what… it’s awesome (from what I hear). I’m pretty hard pressed to find faults in it, but I guess anything can be made better. Here goes…

I hate that The Orange Box didn’t come out two to three months ago when I was so hard pressed for games to play I rented Vampire Reign and Hour of Victory. Seriously though, there are only two things that I can knock TOB for. One is that the source engine is starting to show its age a bit, especially with graphical powerhouses like Gears of War, COD4 and Crysis running around out there. Valve does so much with level design and visual style that I can only imagine what cutting edge graphics added to the already genius presentation would yield. Also, the driving controls are awkward. I wish it was a standard: R Trigger- Gas, L Trigger - Break, L Thumbstick - Steer, X - Exit. Portal is sublime and TF2 is the most excellent online only Team based FPS ever. And there you have it, aside from those two minor slip ups, the box is completely flawless. My game of the year.

99/100

21
Nov

threevue review: Bioshock

By Russ Crandall 1 Comment
Categories: Games and Reviews
Tags: ,

Mark:
At the top of a long list of games that I have started but never finished lies Bioshock. That’s not to say that I don’t like it, though. I love it. The thing is that it takes commitment to play. It is such a deep and involved game that it’s impossible to pick up, crank out a few levels, then move on. Every time I play this game, I want to make sure that I can concentrate on it 100%. I need to have a lot of free time, I need it to be quiet, and if possible I need it to be at night. There is so much to this game in every aspect: the story, the setting, the music, the characters, and so on, that to miss any part of it due to carelessness would be a tragedy.

The game as a whole is fantastic, but my favorite aspect is the story. It’s like a great book where I’m constantly wanting to know what happens next and can easily spend hours on it just to watch the plot unfold. It’s also difficult. Sure, there are different difficulty settings, but even on easy it is a challenge. For me, this is almost game that I would rather watch someone else who is really good at it play and enjoy it from a distance. I’m always so afraid that I’m doing something wrong, or I don’t have the right powers or weapons equipped that I’m going to ruin the whole game. Sometimes that gets frustrating, but that’s the point. Just like the main character, you are thrown into a deadly and terrifying world and have nothing to depend on but your own instincts.

91/100

Russ:
Although I don’t agree with most of the reviews out there (the ones that say that Bioshock is a “whole new experience”, “transcendent”, or “open-ended”), it is a great game. Gorgeous and haunting, every little detail is really impressive. The story itself is great, if not a little shallow - how many times did I just know that I wasn’t going to be able to go straight where I wanted, because I was going to have some task thrown at me right at the last minute? The controls are responsive, the battles frantic, and the atmosphere is unmatched.

But I sorely miss multiplayer or really, any sort of add-on to the single-player story. It’s so short that after playing through it, my only option was to play through it again. It’s been a month since I played through it the second time, and I’ve already forgotten about it - I just have fuzzy warm feelings relating to it.

91/100

Tyler:

Two paragraphs are not enough to cover this game but, here goes. Bioshock sucks you in to a world that is jarring and unfamiliar and yet plausible and realistic at the same time, this is done by expert use of credible detail. Intuitive controls, historical accuracy, a dark atmosphere and a twisted storyline make Bioshock a game that is quickly pick-up-and-playable while at the same time mysterious and interesting. My favorite thing about this game is the story/setting… talk about a departure from the usual FPS fare. Also, I like the random encounter system in regards to enemies, a feature that really does make no two playthroughs alike. Cons: slightly paper mache-esque character models look a little out of place compared to the detail afforded the environments.

Some games are so good, that they almost shouldn’t be replayed (online or otherwise); Bioshock is one of these games. Going through it one time is such a rich and layered experience that any retry weakens the significance of that first journey. When was the last time you played a game that made you think, really think so that after you turned it off you went to sleep dissecting the philosophy behind the characters, tried to figure out their though processes and what made them the way they were? I think the thing the Bioshock has over any other game out there this year is its originality. I know I constantly knock Gears of War but, c’mon, there’s more creativity in the first 5 minutes of Bioshock than whatever the whole trilogy of Gears will be like… I know this for a fact. As much as I enjoy COD4, will I be loving all over it 5 years from now? No, I’ll be all about COD7: Future Blahblah, games like that are awesome but eventually become replaced by successors. The experience of Bioshock (like the first time I played MGS or Resident Evil) will stay as poignant and stirring as it is right now. I just can’t tell you how awesome it is not to be shooting terrorists, nazis, aliens or zombies for once.

97/100

19
Nov

threevue review: Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

By Russ Crandall 0 Comments
Categories: Games and Reviews
Tags: ,

Mark:
When I first learned that the next game in the Call of Duty franchise was going to ditch the tried-and-true WWII settings of the previous Call of Duties and make it “Modern Warfare” game, I got a little nervous. I’ve seen combat-based franchises in the past venture into the modern, or sometimes future era of warfare. They end up being cheesy and unrealistic (why is everyone convinced that there will be mechs in the future?) and doing the opposite of what they are intending to do; breath new life into a franchise.

Thankfully, COD4:MW nailed it. They created a modern-based game with updated weapons and storylines, but maintained the classic gameplay and feel of the earlier COD games that I love so much. Although I bought the game mainly for its online mutliplayer, the campaign mode is quick, exciting, and rewarding. The multiplayer is deeper than any online shooter yet, and, other than a few redundancies, the maps are well put together, balanced, and reward skill. The main feature lacking from this game is what will keep it from getting a perfect score from me: the lack of online splitscreen multiplayer. To some, including us at threevue, this was a huge blow to the potential of the online gaming experience. Hopefully we’ll see it in the future with some downloadable content, but I’m not holding my breath.

96/100

Russ:
Fall 2007 will forever be known to me as the season of incredible FPS games. With Bioshock, Halo 3, The Orange Box and finally Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare all being released in these past few months, I haven’t touched a non-FPS game in what seems like forever. This game has some of the most incredibly realistic graphics I’ve ever seen - it is truly an immersive experience. When I play the Middle East-based levels, I really feel like I’m there. And the multiplayer ranking system is very deep and rewarding, with RPG-style elements and customization. Its single player story is a little over-the-top, but it’s forgivable.

For me, COD4 stands (just barely) ahead of its peers in many ways, but has two missing elements that really stand out. Those two elements are co-op play (both online and off), and split-screen online multiplayer. Halo 3 touts both of these features effortlessly, and then some. The only upside to these missing features is that it enhances your experience, forcing you to think in a “me-vs-the-world” viewpoint at all times, which is quite fun (but also a little anti-social, I guess).

95/100

Tyler:
There is no game that has come out this year that I looked forward to more than COD4. That said, there was no game that came out this year disappointed me more than COD4. Now hold on…I don’t want you to think I mean it’s terrible, because it definitely is not. You can a little be disappointed in something and still love it immensely. I just expected too much, and from that (get ready for cheesiness) I learned to love COD4 for a new set of reasons separate from my prior assumptions. In my view, that is far more difficult a thing for a game to do.

No game…ever, has made me feel as tense, frantic and utterly drenched in the feeling of combat as Call of Duty 4. It almost feels like Infinity Ward got Taliban insurgents in on the project just so they could nail the authenticity from both sides of the firefights. The single player unfolds just as I expected, with epic battles and intense scenarios. The more important aspect of the game; multiplayer, does almost everything right except for the lack of split screen online multiplayer, as both my colleagues stated above. Man, this is just an awesome game.

93/100

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