Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway

Hello ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, transgender and ewoks alike!
 
Been awhile since I popped a blog out into the blogosphere (I used that term, shoot me later) and figured I'd do one now. As I sit here in anticipation for the plethora of comments I envision getting. We'll get straight to it then, no waiting about or delaying here people, I deliver the goods and I deliver them on time!
 
PS3 updates!

• Bought Uncharted 2 on release day, finished Uncharted 2 some days later, went to bed each night for a week afterwards dreaming of Uncharted 2. The game is a brilliant interactive, cinematic piece of entertainment that held my attention for the entire time I played it. Its crowning achievement for me is that it does a lot of what other games have done in the past, but it does them to such a higher level of quality and standard. Overall it just felt a lot more refined in many areas compared to similar games in the past and present. Worth putting the money down for I'd say.
• Still playing through inFAMOUS and fairly certain I'm coming close to the end of it. Just about 67% clear in the Historic District and I have to say it's another game I'm really happy with so far. From what I've played I've enjoyed immensely and as far as Super Hero style of games go it is one of the few that actually do things right. I do however imagine the quest to find every blast shard in Empire City will pose a problematic journey for me with hours of grinding cables and jumping across roof tops. But it'll be worth it.
• Got a few other games I'm playing through right now as well. Resistance 2, Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway, COD: World at War. All somewhat enjoyable in their own right if I do say so myself!
  
• I've begun down a dark path I'm not sure I'll ever be able to come back from. I've become a bit of a trophy hunting whore these days. As I said above the quest for the blast shards in inFAMOUS will kill me, but I want that trophy. Same with a number of trophies in Uncharted 2. I'll likely be doing the same with future PS3 purchases as well. Does it ever end? :(
• A little disappointed to see we'll never (for the foreseeable future anyway) be able to link our PSN ID and trophy lists to Giant Bomb. Sort of enjoy being able to show that stuff off, even if I'm not particularly amazing at gathering trophies, achievements and so forth. We can only hope

 
PC version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2! 
I promised myself I would try to stay as far away from including this controversial topic in any blog I write. But honestly the 'scandal' and so forth about it has got to such a point of hilarity I must now mention it. First things first though is an admittance of guilt for originally overreacting to the announcements made about the PC version of the game. I shake my head in shame at such behaviour coming from myself.  

In all fairness though the PC gaming community should have seen this coming from a mile away. They should have been prepared to hear their version of the game would be heavily changed to the point it feels like Infinity Ward and Activision have catered less to the PC player and more to the console player. And I personally don't see why people are so up in arms over this when in reality, PC gamers are in no real place to question the moral and ethical decisions of a company. Obviously I'm generalising here, not every PC gamer has a dirty moral fiber because we all know PC gamers have no moral fiber. It's why they all pirate games, right? :P  
 
The day when one developer and publisher team up and decide to have a more heavy handed approach to the PC community was bound to happen. People seem pissed Infinity Ward would be behind such horrible evil intentions toward PC gamers. But for crying out loud people have you all forgotten Robert Bowling's comments about COD4 on the PC?
 
It seems like Infinity Ward and Activision are slowly going out of their way to systematically kill off MW2's chances of success on the PC. I get the impression they would rather not release the game on the platform at all but are doing it anyway either out of sheer confidence that sales on the console will mean any piracy of the PC version equates to no major loss in profit. Or because simply they hope by taking such a heavy handed approach it may cause a shift for the better in the way the PC gaming community conducts itself. I'd like to think the latter is something that could happen, perhaps if other developers and publishers take similar decisions as IW + Activision we'll see more game releases on the PC at similar times to their console versions. I take no joy in getting a shoddy PC port almost a year after the console version.
 
If paying for DLC and a higher RRP coupled with things like match making and more account security is what it takes for the industry to consider showing the PC more love. Then I'm all for it. Because to be quite frank the way things are going now, I might as well change my alignment to Sony and just use my PC as a glorified storage device for porn and internet access. Although in hindsight that is really all it has ever been :P 
 
Giant Bomb Stuff!

•  If you haven't seen it already then check out the topic explaining changes to the moderator team on the site. Changes I'd say we're all in agreement are for the better :)
• We are in discussion about new mods as I type this. Well not exactly as I type this but we're discussed it, there may be more on that sometime soon. These things are always slow to finalise as there is always so much to discuss. To increase your chances of becoming a moderator on Giant Bomb, go visit your local Site Rules & FAQs topic today! Check out the guides in that topic, learn from them, put them into practice and become a good, productive and helpful user around the site.
• The Community Spotlight has some great content in there created by users for all of us to enjoy. I suggest you all pop over to it and look through the great stuff on offer and while you're there give ZombiePie a big thanks for keeping that topic in great shape.

 
Cheers for reading folks, as usual comment and critique below. Just remember one thing, if this turns into a nasty discussion just about MW2 on the PC I will weep at having to close down my own blog :(
 
So please don't make me cry!
 
Hamz, XOXO

Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway is the third rendition in the realistic WWII FPG series. It follows an Allied soldier (Squad Leader) named Matt Baker through the brutal and epic mission, Market Garden. Unlike most WWII shooters, BiA:HH follows only one mission throughout the whole game, but that doesn't mean its short. I spent about 12 hours in BiA:HH, and it was an entertaining and addictive expierence the whole way through. What makes it different from other WWII shooters though, is that it enforces the player to suppress, flank, and then kill the enemy. These three steps can help you out in every situation in the game, and using your commandable squad units, it can be very strategic and intense (albeit difficult sometimes too). Suppressing the enemy is as easy as shooting at them indirectly. Machine guns like the Thompson or MP40 are very useful for this. A circle above every enemy squad unit will start out red, but as you suppress them , it'll slowly turn grey. Once they are fully suppressed, you can freely move your units, or yourself, around the battlefield without having to put up with very much incoming fire. That leads to flanking. Flanking is maneauvering your men around to the back or side of the enemies location and firing at them when they stand non-protected without any cover. You can also do this yourself ofcourse, and it can be difficult sometimes later in the game, but its worth it for the rewarding achievement. Below, I wrote a review of the game split up into 3 categories. These categories are: Gameplay, Presentation, and Story. Please enjoy reading. :D

Gameplay

BiA:HH is one of the few WWII games these days that stay challenging and fresh 100% of the time in the campaign. At the beginning of the game, after finishing a very short tutorial, you'll be killing large numbers of nazis and face new kinds of threats very soon. The game doesn't BS around with realism. If something happens in real-life that was very difficult, the game will also be very difficult in that part too, no matter what part of the game your in. Theres still a difficulty curve that climbs higher and higher as you get closer to the end of the game, but you won't ever be relaxing once. This has always been a trademark of the series, and BiA:HH is surprisingly easier than the previous iterations in the franchise, but newcomers will notice the challenge faced throughout the game very quickly. You cannot play through the game like it's Call of Duty or Medal of Honor, run n' gun type of playing is absent in BiA:HH, and even Easy Difficulty will force you to take this route. Thankfully, a well-working cover mechanic in the game will help you out alot. The previous BiA games were so much more difficult (especially Earned In Blood) most likely because of the lack of a cover system. BiA:HH finally fixes this problem and the game is alot more fluent and enjoyable with this implemented. Destructable cover is fully featured too, so don't expect to hide behind a picket fence long, because machine gun fire can rip it to shreads. Even things like sandbags aren't guanteed cover, as grenades and bazooka fire can destroy those.

Commanding your squads in BiA:HH couldn't have been easier. Clicking the right mouse button on the mouse lets you move around a circle on the map, which designates where the selected squad will move. You won't be doing very much micro-management at all though, as the squad soldiers are smart enough to automatically suppress the enemy, take cover, and let you know about the current situation of the battle. They'll even tell you if their not in a very good spot. This isn't perfectly done actually, since there will be multiple times when your soldiers will run right into the middle of enemy fire, even for simple commands, so the AI can be hit or miss in that kind've situation. Enemy soldiers are fairly smart in BiA:HH, but they aren't as smart as they were in the previous titles of the BiA series. They might flank you sometimes, other times they might surprisingly surround you with grenades, while other times, they might just run right into your machine gun fire. The AI overall, isn't a problem in BiA (it can actually be very good), but it can still be an annoyance at times. The squads you will be commanding aren't just any riflemen squads, they can be bazooka teams, base of fire teams, and even assault teams (which throw lots of grenades). You can tell these men when to do specific things, like to fire a rocket at an enemy encampment, but they can miss alot more times than you'd think they would.

The difficulties in BiA:HH are Easy, Normal, Verteran, and Authentic (you get this once you beat the game). Authentic can be brutal, expecially since you don't have very much of a HUD, but it just adds to the expierence if your into that kind of stuff. The game also rewards you with a medal for every mission you complete on Authentic, with makes it much more viable to do. Other than commanding your men and fighting with them, the game keeps things fresh by allowing you to command a tank, and also fight by yourself in specific moments. These parts of the game can be just as fun, and they don't lose any of the challenge within the core parts of the game. Commanding a tank can be very fun, especially since you can drive over numerous different kinds of cover, along with blowing a whole bunch of stuff up (including enemy tanks:)). The parts of the game where your alone (or with one other computer-controller character), can be the most difficult parts of the game for some. If you go through these parts too fast, you'll find yourself ambushed and killed. What I found pretty weird, but intriguing, was that these parts of the game can be very well taken out of a horror game. The atmosphere is amazingly well done in BiA:HH and the very first part of the game is like this. Gearbox (the developers), definitely gambled on this choice, but since it was thoughtout and well executed, it fits great into then game and I hope more parts like this will be in the next BiA game.

Story

The plot in BiA:HH is authentic and very engaging. It might be a bit slow at first, but ½ way into the game, it can have some unexpected twists and turns that make is awesome. Most of these happenings, are very depressing and sad, but they still fit very well into the story. The game sums up what happened in the previous titles of the series, in a cinematic, but if you want the best expierence from the storyline, play Road to Hill 30 and possibly even Earned In Blood too. BiA delivers on an emotional, chilling story,and what more can you ask for? Its not MGS standards, but I found some parts of the game to be very memorable.

Presentation

The graphics, sound, and voice acting are all very well done in BiA:HH. The graphics, first of all, do look a bit dated (the game was in development for awhile), but something about them have an artistic but also realistic vibe to them that makes the game much more immersive. The enviroments look good, surprisingly even more at the night sequences, but the character models are what make BiA:HH shine. Every soldier is very detailed and your men all have finishing touches to make them look just like their real-life counterparts. The animations are also very polished, some of the best in it's genre actually. The sound is very nice. The game on a 5.1 surround sound system with high volume can make it seem like your right in the middle of the battlefield, something that few games can make you feel these days. As for the voice acting, it's very good for most of the main characters, but some people might not match their specific voice, but it's nothing major. Gun sounds crackle, and they sound great no matter what enviroment your in, they feel very much like their real-life counterparts too.

Verdict

BiA:HH is yet another WWII game from Gearbox that stays engaging for even people that thought WWII games are all the same. If your sick of the numerous WWII games out there, its still worth checking out Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway. It's loads of fun and history junkies will get into it too. The strategic elements just add more to the expierence and since you've also got some basic multiplayer, along with the ability to play through the game on 4 difficulty levels, it's worth 60 bucks without a doubt. 4/5 Stars For more reviews from me head over to the Pre-Launch Blog of TheBigPenguin.com (a new media site I'm helping create). Don't forget to comment below :)

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TBP Update

TheBigPenguin.com, in a way to get more users, we will be having a chatroom open for all three E3 conferences, along with an after-show podcast, AND another chatroom open for the stage demos going on on Gamespot's Live Coverage going on the next day (we might change to another site's stage demos, PM us any recommendations). We will also be be updating TBP with E3 news too, along with information from our users. I will be relasing more info. for this event soon, so stay tuned :D (If you have an questions, for us or the TBP podcast, send me a PM or comment below).

-Anthony

I've got about 25 Xbox 360 games on my shelf that I haven't touched. Let's see how many I can do in one sitting if I just play up to the first achievement. I'll be updating this post along the way.

I know I'm gonna have a hard time putting some of these down after the first achievement pops, but hopefully I'll stay the course and get a feel for most of them.

Game 1: Viva Piñata: TIP. First achievement 37 minutes in, for taking 10 photos. Seems like most of the "real" achievements would have taken too long. Man, I could have spent all day playing this game. It's starting to get its hooks into me pretty bad. So goooood.

Game 2: Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway, another colon game. First achievement 8 minutes in, "suppressive fire." Didn't really get much of an impression of the game, except the presentation seems really good. Liked the intro movie. Achievements seem to be structured to reward you as you learn the game. Just the way it should be.

Game 3: The Bourne Conspiracy. First achievement, 11 minutes for completing the first chapter. Super satisfying melee combat, haven't fired a weapon yet. This game should be a sweet action flick type ride. Highly polished, by the looks of it. Would really like to play some more.

Game 4: Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars. Took 25 minutes to complete the Boot Camp. Seems pretty solid, I haven't played a C&C game since the first one in 1995, and I didn't get too into it back then. I definitely recognise the aesthetic, though.

Game 5: Amped 3. First bummer, achievment-wise. Early 360 title, no established achievement etiquette. Had to grind the build mode achievement for 30G after playing for 45 minutes and realising that it wasn't going to happen organically. Not a bad game, though. On any other day, I would have stuck it out.

Game 6: Prince of Persia. Wow, that was fast. 2:30 in - 10G, seemingly for watching the opening cinematic. This game looks gorgeous. Must play later. Almost feel sort of cheated now.

Game 7: Lego Indiana Jones. 20 minutes to finish the first level. I've played so much Lego Star Wars with my kid now that the Lego games are second nature to me. Love the Indy setting. I'll probably introduce it to junior sooner rather than later.

Game 8: Need For Speed Most Wanted. Man, that was a lot of work for 10G. It took 70 minutes to beat Sonny and get the first achievement. This game is old. Obviously rooted in earlier generations. The framerate is way too sluggish ever to get a decent sense of speed. I like that the cars have weight to them, though.

Game 9: Medal of Honor Airborne. Three achievements in three minutes, just getting pushed off the plane and trying to make the landing. Easy as pie. Got as far as firing my gun before i hit eject. Gun mechanics seem solid enough.

Game 10: Splinter Cell: Double Agent. I've never played a Splinter Cell game before, so the 6 minutes I spent in the training exercise were kinda baffling, really. Got an achievement, there's 40G more for completing the other training mission. Still, that's enough for today. Nearly half way through the pile.

Not long after I posted my last blog post I managed to complete Call of Duty: World at War on Hardened mode.  I felt that the story probably wasn't as strong as the storyline in Call of Duty 4 and the the difficulty was all up and down like a yo-yo.  I found some levels on Hardened extremely hard while some parts I found really easy.  I've now unlocked the Nazi Zombies mode and I'm going back through the game again on Veteran difficulty.  My only beef with Veteran difficulty would be that once again you are a grenade magnet.  Same thing happened in CoD4.  You'd take cover behind something and then instantly about 3 grenades would appear for you to frantically lob back before you died.  I've yet to complete CoD4 on Veteran mode and I'm guessing CoD:WaW will be the same.  I've been playing a lot of multiplayer on World at War though.  I'm up to lvl 31 right now but I'm finding it very difficult as most people are sticking in hardcore hours and have unlocked all the best weapons and perks.  It would appear that the STG-44 is the weapon of choice online, something you have to be at least lvl 43, I think, to be able to use.

General concensus after my last blog post would be that Dead Space is the way to go out of the 3 games I have still sitting in the celophane untouched.  Seems like the logical choice too as I really don't want to get into Fallout 3 untill I've finished the Shivering Isles exspansion for Oblivion.  I just don't think its a good idea to have 2 or 3 RPG's on the go at any one time.  Specially as I still have to complete Fable 2... which reminds me... I haven't played that since my 360 red ringed, my guy probably has a shit load of money now.  Binman88 commented on my last post about Brothers in Arms and how he just couldn't get into it.  I got my copy on the stength of the demo.  I thought the demo was really good and I was hoping for more of the same out of the full game.  I heard there was some kind of wierd back story about a cursed pistol but apart from that I'm kind of new to the series.  Brothers in Arms just reminds me of an old PC game I played once called Hidden & Dangerous.

Seen that the new Burnout patch and cars have been released.  I'm really wanting to get back into that game again however I heard the patch wieghs in at a whopping 850MB +, which if your like me and have a release 360 console with a 20GB hard drive, isn't great news.  I'm seriously begining to run out of space and I refuse point blank to pay Microsoft £120 for a 120GB hard drive.  I think the price of the 360 hard drives are unbelieveable.  Considering your that standard PC hard drive will cost you a mere fraction of that for 120GB of storage.

So there, I am standing in best buy.  Today is payday... and  I really should be saving toward next month's rent and not counting on my tax rebate getting in by then.  But no.  There it is, Fear 2... I hadn't realized it was realeased. But no, I decide I don't need it.  Save your money.  You have Killzone pre-ordered.

When what to my wonder should appear but Brothers in Arms: Hells Highway limited edition for 50 bucks.  I know nothing about the series.  "Wow," I think to myself, "50 dollars is cheap for a collector's edition" My inner monologue doesn't actually read the difference between the words "collector's" and "limited"

A generic WW2 shooter you might say?  I don't know, I haven't played it yet.  But I gots me a 6 inch action figure of a WWII soldier and that is pretty damn cool.  I still have Call of Duty: World at War rented... I shouldn't have bought it... but yay for impulse purchases... guess I'll see.  That was a lot of ellipses.  What is the plural of ellipsis?  is it just Ellipsis?  Am I even spelling Ellipsis correctly?  Word up?  no red line.  cool.  No matter, I've got one and a half hours of gaming to do before I have to drive to Emmett to eat dinner with the parents.  Worst case scenario,  l'll trade in the game towards Killzone and keep the action figure.  action figures are sooooo much cooler than figurines (Capcom... take note... 90 bucks is a horrible price for a crappy bunch of extras in the Res 5 special edition).

To celebrate the birth of 2009, I will make a simple bulletpoint list of games that I beat in 2008. There is no real order here but still.

• Army of Two
• Mercenaries 2
• Rainbow Six Vegas 2
• Fallout 3
• Grand Theft Auto IV
• Duke Nukem 3D
• Castle Crashers
• Doom
• Wall-E
• Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
• Crackdown
• Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe
• Call of Duty 3
• Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway
• Soldier of Fortune Payback
• Gears of War
• BioShock
• Quantum of Solace
• Battlefield: Bad Company
• Smash TV (I guess)

Not the biggest list in the world but still, it made me realise that I still have loads of games to finish. Never got around to the first Saints Row again for example. Condemned 2 and Far Cry 2 get honorable mentions for being games that I got far in and the save corrupted. It will still take a few more months to go back to Far Cry 2, all that driving to do again!

But still have a Happy New Year and stay safe.

So let me get the Sports one out of here. I have not played any except Madden 09 and NHL 09 and this one is a nob brainer. NHL 09 is the shit, period. It improves upon everything, has fantastic modes and great graphics. It is challenging, but has amazing controls. Do yourself a favor and pick this up, unless you hate hockey of course which I don't see how you could...
Madden 09 was ok. it was just like all the other Maddens and i am not a huge football fan, but I bought it because it was the 20th collectors edition or whatever and I needed a football fix. However there is no challenge really. All I do is pick throwing plays and execute those because I really don't know how to play and running plays get you no where...and when you can get away with that, then there is a problem...

Ok now for 3rd Person games. I said Gears 2 was not going to be in the list and I am keeping my word. So here it goes. Oh and also, i have played PoP and I still have it from gamefly, but even though I liked what i played, I still have not played enough of it and I don't really want too, just is not my game. So that will not be included either.


Note: Ok so BiA is technically a FPS. It goes here for me though because I never played that game in 1st person. I was always behind cover in a 3rd personn view so it, too me, was more 3rd then 1st.


Fable 2
Dead Space
Saints Row 2
Too Human
Ninja Gaiden 2
Brother in Arms HH
DMC4
GTA4
MGS4



So pretty much those are most of the 3rd person games I have played this year. Now I know it is a lot, but I can honestly say I liked all of those. So this will kinda be a long read, but I will try to shorten it. I also just want to say that my number 1 3rd person game is Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2. That game I loved to death and was my 1st real 1000/1000. I can hoenstly say I could pick that game up and get hooked again, but I don't want too.

9th Place: Too Human. OK. A lot of people bagged on this game and honestly it let me down too. I only had been wanting it for 2 years or so, but I enjoyed it. It was not horrible, but it had its flaws. I played through the damn thing 6 times and got to level 35 I think and I enjoyed it for those 6 times. However, crappy story, ok graphics, repetitive levels and enemies, really brought this game down. i hope the second will fix those problems and improve and be what it really could be: A great RPG on Norse mythology.

8th: Dead Space. OK, I have not beaten this game yet, but I am really close, it is just looong. However I love this game. It really is not scary, but the creepy environment is done well and the blood is amazing. Most weapons are useless, but can be fun to use at times if you are bored. There is nothing really bad about the game, but there is nothing really good that makes it stand out that much either. I am enjoying playing it, but I don't see myself playing it again for a long time. What it does though, it does it well. I can honestly say I really like and enjoy this game.

7th: BiA:HH. I have never played a Brothers in Arms game before this one. Now let me say this, BiA Does WW2 right. It was gritty, strategic, and made me feel like i was in WW2 and i think it portrayed it the best out of any WW2 game. I felt sad when people died, they were a Band of Brothers. I just really like this game, but it had its flaws and felt too repetitive at times. Also your teammates could be really smart or just plain dumb.

6th: GTA4. Now, i never really had played a GTA game before this. I rented SA and played GTA 3 at a friends house, but I was to young to know what too do, I just knew it was bad, which made it fun. Now GTA4 took the serious route and I think it did it well. However, having friends call you to do something boring like play pool or go bowling and then saying no because you are busy only the have your friendship go down the asshole, really made it un-fun at times. Driving was too realistic and I mean, just too hard to do for certain chase/stalker missions. Characters were great though and the graphics were amazing. The city felt alive, but in the end there just was not that much to do. hardly and customization options and lack of activities, just made this game not as fun as it could have been.

5th: DMC4. I love the DMC games and let me tell you, the first time I played it was when the 3rd one came out and my dad randomly bought it for me. Boy was that game a bitch. It took me 2 years to beat. What kept me was that stupid worm boss with the hearts. After I stopped playing for about a year I picked it up and beat the damn thing. it is true if you stop playing a game for a while then come back you will be insanely good...except for music games. DMC4 was great. Nero was pretty cool, graphics were well done, fast paced action, and a decent story. I mean it was a DMC game. however, I was a little confused with where it placed in the time line, as far as I can tell it is before two, but after the DVD series (which blows hard by the way). I enjoyed the game a lot and I cannot wait for the next one. This one was just a little bland and that really hurt it in the end.

4th...

You will just have to wait and see, I think you guys will be shocked with my top 4. :)