A Certain Popular FPS and A Little Reflection.

Hello and welcome to another fashionably late edition of Gamer_152’s blog, the only video game blog better than momma’s chocolate pie.

Call of Duty: The Hypening

Even in the current sea of releases every upcoming game out there rather predictably got their release slots well clear of this week so as to avoid being completely trounced by Call of Duty: Black Ops. I’m going to say now that the only Call of Duty game I’ve played all the way through has been Modern Warfare 2, and while I’m not as fanatically devoted to the series as many I thought Modern Warfare 2 was very good, and I have a respect for what the series has done. It’s very impressive just how widespread fanaticism of Call of Duty seems to have been ever since Call of Duty 4.

I’m usually surrounded by people who are pretty into video games so it’s no surprise that when Modern Warfare 2 rolled around there were people around me who knew about it, however this video game seemed to be more important to people than any other; it was as though on the day of Modern Warfare 2s release I’d woken up in a strange world where my insane enthusiasm for video games and the rest of the world had collided. I was living in university halls at the time with people who I’d class as your typical male university students. However, they all seemed to be very excited that morning about the release of Modern Warfare 2, even when their interests may have not otherwise stretched too far beyond drinking and parties. I went down to the bus stop and there were two girls there complaining about how sad their boyfriends to be excited about going out and getting a video game on release day. When I arrived at university it seemed either people hadn’t come in so they could play the game or were constantly talking about how they couldn’t wait to play it, many of them going home half-way through the day so they could boot it up. When I got back to halls an Xbox 360 and a TV had been set up in the common room and for the rest of the night, as I browsed forums full of MW2 topics I heard nothing but gun sound effects coming through my walls.

I didn’t feel quite the same sense of hype with Black Ops that I did with Modern Warfare 2 but according as Activision have proved Black Ops has been an inconceivably big commercial success. As was the case with Modern Warfare 2 I’ve been hearing scattered stories of how people only vaguely aware of the goings on in the video game industry felt it necessary to purchase Black Ops specifically. Hell, even the mother one of my housemates was aware of what Black Ops was. It’s a strange situation where video games have intersected mainstream entertainment in such a way that among some circles it seems to be that owning the latest CoD game is somewhat of a status symbol, and it’s a must-play game in the same sense that Avatar was a must-see sci-fi movie. The selfish little “These are my games, why should the mainstream get to play them?” part of me is a little upset with this, but just as is the case with motion control-based games everyone has the right to play video games. Although perhaps my frustration with Call of Duty's success specifically is partially directed towards the "Yo, this game is cool 'cause it's full of explosions and shit!" crowd.

Call of Duty: Black Ops

With such great expectations for Call of Duty: Black Ops if there was the tiniest thing wrong with it people were going to complain. Well, guess what? Yeah, it seems Black Ops isn’t a perfect game. According to Metacritic both Modern Warfare and Modern Warfare 2 received an average review score of 94/100, while Black Ops has scored an average of 89/100, and scrolling through the pages of most video game forums you can tell. From what I’ve read and seen this game isn’t as good as the Modern Warfare games but hell, this looks like a quality product to me. Perhaps this hyper-critical view of Black Ops that so many share has been caused by something more than just expectations though, perhaps it could be to do with the type of game Black Ops is trying to be.

Just looking at each of the games side by side it can be seen that Modern Warfare, Modern Warfare 2, Black Ops, and even World at War all use the same fundamental gameplay, so if the aspects around that core gameplay fall apart, it is a far more noticeable drop in quality than it otherwise would have been, as those failures contrast so sharply with what has come before. Sure, Call of Duty is by no means the first series for this to happen too but in classic Activision style there have been four CoD games in the past four years, and this highlights just how urgently CoD needs to innovate or die. There are so many good parts of Call of Duty, I don’t want to see it become just another Madden or Guitar Hero, but I know if this franchise can’t turn into everything it needs to be, Activision won’t be afraid of running it into the ground to squeeze every last penny out of it.

Mirror’s Edge

It took me about two years but yes, I finally got around to finishing and reviewing Mirror’s Edge. The game has its fair share of problems, and it was one of these problems which made me put the game down and just not return to it back in January 2009. Ironically when I jumped back into Mirror’s Edge things just got worse really.

So, yes, melee combat, the limitations of the first-person perspective, and the poor story don’t work to the games advantage, but I’m glad I went back to it. The first thing that hit me as soon as I returned to that game was how breathtaking the environments could be and how realistic all the blurring and camera offset looked. The way the game worked out a method of simply indicating your objectives in a realistic way was fantastic as well. It’s easy for a game that wasn’t a huge commercial success but had a few really good ideas to fall unto the radar of designers and artists when considering how to design the environments in their games. I hope that doesn't become the case with Mirror's Edge. I also hope EA come through on their promise of a Mirror’s Edge 2; even if that game has a lot of issues to sort out I might honestly play through a Mirror’s Edge 2 just to see more of that art style.

Duder, It’s Over

That’s this week’s blog done and dusted. Thank you all for reading and commenting. Good luck, have Vietnam.

-Gamer_152

Hello and welcome to another fashionably late edition of Gamer_152’s blog, the only video game blog better than momma’s chocolate pie.

Call of Duty: The Hypening

Even in the current sea of releases every upcoming game out there rather predictably got their release slots well clear of this week so as to avoid being completely trounced by Call of Duty: Black Ops. I’m going to say now that the only Call of Duty game I’ve played all the way through has been Modern Warfare 2, and while I’m not as fanatically devoted to the series as many I thought Modern Warfare 2 was very good, and I have a respect for what the series has done. It’s very impressive just how widespread fanaticism of Call of Duty seems to have been ever since Call of Duty 4.

I’m usually surrounded by people who are pretty into video games so it’s no surprise that when Modern Warfare 2 rolled around there were people around me who knew about it, however this video game seemed to be more important to people than any other; it was as though on the day of Modern Warfare 2s release I’d woken up in a strange world where my insane enthusiasm for video games and the rest of the world had collided. I was living in university halls at the time with people who I’d class as your typical male university students. However, they all seemed to be very excited that morning about the release of Modern Warfare 2, even when their interests may have not otherwise stretched too far beyond drinking and parties. I went down to the bus stop and there were two girls there complaining about how sad their boyfriends to be excited about going out and getting a video game on release day. When I arrived at university it seemed either people hadn’t come in so they could play the game or were constantly talking about how they couldn’t wait to play it, many of them going home half-way through the day so they could boot it up. When I got back to halls an Xbox 360 and a TV had been set up in the common room and for the rest of the night, as I browsed forums full of MW2 topics I heard nothing but gun sound effects coming through my walls.

I didn’t feel quite the same sense of hype with Black Ops that I did with Modern Warfare 2 but according as Activision have proved Black Ops has been an inconceivably big commercial success. As was the case with Modern Warfare 2 I’ve been hearing scattered stories of how people only vaguely aware of the goings on in the video game industry felt it necessary to purchase Black Ops specifically. Hell, even the mother one of my housemates was aware of what Black Ops was. It’s a strange situation where video games have intersected mainstream entertainment in such a way that among some circles it seems to be that owning the latest CoD game is somewhat of a status symbol, and it’s a must-play game in the same sense that Avatar was a must-see sci-fi movie. The selfish little “These are my games, why should the mainstream get to play them?” part of me is a little upset with this, but just as is the case with motion control-based games everyone has the right to play video games. Although perhaps my frustration with Call of Duty's success specifically is partially directed towards the "Yo, this game is cool 'cause it's full of explosions and shit!" crowd.

Call of Duty: Black Ops

With such great expectations for Call of Duty: Black Ops if there was the tiniest thing wrong with it people were going to complain. Well, guess what? Yeah, it seems Black Ops isn’t a perfect game. According to Metacritic both Modern Warfare and Modern Warfare 2 received an average review score of 94/100, while Black Ops has scored an average of 89/100, and scrolling through the pages of most video game forums you can tell. From what I’ve read and seen this game isn’t as good as the Modern Warfare games but hell, this looks like a quality product to me. Perhaps this hyper-critical view of Black Ops that so many share has been caused by something more than just expectations though, perhaps it could be to do with the type of game Black Ops is trying to be.

Just looking at each of the games side by side it can be seen that Modern Warfare, Modern Warfare 2, Black Ops, and even World at War all use the same fundamental gameplay, so if the aspects around that core gameplay fall apart, it is a far more noticeable drop in quality than it otherwise would have been, as those failures contrast so sharply with what has come before. Sure, Call of Duty is by no means the first series for this to happen too but in classic Activision style there have been four CoD games in the past four years, and this highlights just how urgently CoD needs to innovate or die. There are so many good parts of Call of Duty, I don’t want to see it become just another Madden or Guitar Hero, but I know if this franchise can’t turn into everything it needs to be, Activision won’t be afraid of running it into the ground to squeeze every last penny out of it.

Mirror’s Edge

It took me about two years but yes, I finally got around to finishing and reviewing Mirror’s Edge. The game has its fair share of problems, and it was one of these problems which made me put the game down and just not return to it back in January 2009. Ironically when I jumped back into Mirror’s Edge things just got worse really.

So, yes, melee combat, the limitations of the first-person perspective, and the poor story don’t work to the games advantage, but I’m glad I went back to it. The first thing that hit me as soon as I returned to that game was how breathtaking the environments could be and how realistic all the blurring and camera offset looked. The way the game worked out a method of simply indicating your objectives in a realistic way was fantastic as well. It’s easy for a game that wasn’t a huge commercial success but had a few really good ideas to fall unto the radar of designers and artists when considering how to design the environments in their games. I hope that doesn't become the case with Mirror's Edge. I also hope EA come through on their promise of a Mirror’s Edge 2; even if that game has a lot of issues to sort out I might honestly play through a Mirror’s Edge 2 just to see more of that art style.

Duder, It’s Over

That’s this week’s blog done and dusted. Thank you all for reading and commenting. Good luck, have Vietnam.

-Gamer_152

I like "blops", I will use that from now on.

" I like "blops", I will use that from now on. "

@mnzy said:

"I like "blops", I will use that from now on. "

"

@mnzy said:

"I like "blops", I will use that from now on. "

 

Blops has to be the worst acronym for a game since...well...EVER! "

I prefer Bops to Blops.

The quality of Black Ops is undeniably high - but whether it's the game people wanted to play is another matter entirely. It's strange sitting in multiplayer lobbies and hearing people discuss the games shortcomings. I even heard one gentleman state that "It's not as good as World At War" which left me in a state of mild paralysis. 

" @Jonny7892 said:

"

@mnzy said:

"I like "blops", I will use that from now on. "

 

Blops has to be the worst acronym for a game since...well...EVER! "

I might have to pick me up codblops "

good read.  
 
i beat Mirror's Edge a coupla months ago and for some reason i had no problem with it like i had when it was brand new. i didnt mind the learning curve or the shitty combat, it all made sense and felt amazing

Mirror's Edge is an amazing looking game, to bad the combat was tedious. Also, your momma's chocolate pie fucking sucks^^

" The quality of Black Ops is undeniably high - but whether it's the game people wanted to play is another matter entirely. It's strange sitting in multiplayer lobbies and hearing people discuss the games shortcomings. I even heard one gentleman state that "It's not as good as World At War" which left me in a state of mild paralysis.  "

Call of Duty is to Activision what Madden is to Electronic Arts. Still, ha! Did I just read codblops. Okay, yeah, it seems like a pretty decent video game. I've heard a lot of praise for the single player. Activision also released GoldenEye 007 on the Wii, different developer, still a very decent package. They're on a roll.

Only things I liked about Mirror's Edge was, the music, the clean environment. I liked to look at the dystopian city. And the sometimes but interrupted fast speeds you can go at when running. Everything else could have been a step up from what it was. The first time I saw the game, I was amazed by the graphics. It surprised me because it was around the time I played Killzone 2 and I thought Mirror's Edge in many areas looked better.

" @Jonny7892 said:

"

@mnzy said:

"I like "blops", I will use that from now on. "

Blops has to be the worst acronym for a game since...well...EVER! "

I might have to pick me up codblops "

"I prefer Bops to Blops."

" For me the best thing in Black ops was the story. I actually understood what happened in this game. Though the story was a tad too epic at times (like jumping from a moving truck to a moving train and so on).  In modern warfare 2 I really didnt get the story. The story in that game seemed to be almost an afterthough. I do understand that maybe the engine required so much work that the story itself suffered because of that.   I am probably in the minority of players because I dont play the multiplayer but only the single player campaign so for me personally Black Ops was a big improvement. "

"the worst is still ME. Mass Effect ? Mirror's Edge? what are we talking about?!  Or "GeoW" and "GOW" for that matter... 'cringe' "

" good read.   i beat Mirror's Edge a coupla months ago and for some reason i had no problem with it like i had when it was brand new. i didnt mind the learning curve or the shitty combat, it all made sense and felt amazing "

" Mirror's Edge is an amazing looking game, to bad the combat was tedious. Also, your momma's chocolate pie fucking sucks^^ "

" @Sweep said:

" The quality of Black Ops is undeniably high - but whether it's the game people wanted to play is another matter entirely. It's strange sitting in multiplayer lobbies and hearing people discuss the games shortcomings. I even heard one gentleman state that "It's not as good as World At War" which left me in a state of mild paralysis.  "

Yeah, that seems to be the case.  Modern Warfare 2 was the game they wanted while Black Ops, every bit as good if not better than MW2, was a different direction than what people expected it to be and it put people off a little bit.  Happens all the time in movies and music.  While it was the quality people want, it wasn't the style they expect. "

" Call of Duty is to Activision what Madden is to Electronic Arts. Still, ha! Did I just read codblops. Okay, yeah, it seems like a pretty decent video game. I've heard a lot of praise for the single player. Activision also released GoldenEye 007 on the Wii, different developer, still a very decent package. They're on a roll. "

" Only things I liked about Mirror's Edge was, the music, the clean environment. I liked to look at the dystopian city. And the sometimes but interrupted fast speeds you can go at when running. Everything else could have been a step up from what it was. The first time I saw the game, I was amazed by the graphics. It surprised me because it was around the time I played Killzone 2 and I thought Mirror's Edge in many areas looked better. "