The Redemption of Rico Velasquez 
 
Killzone 3 is one of those games that can be looked at in one of two ways. One group of people will look at the game and pass it off as a barely improved sequel that is not worth their hard-earned money whereas others will see it as more of something they enjoyed the hell out of. I'm pretty sure I fall into the latter group. I only finished the campaign yesterday so I might not have had enough time to let the whole experience sink in but it reminds me a lot of when I finished Call of Duty 4 for the first time. The pacing is almost perfect, the story I can take it or leave it and the action is just as explosive. I hate to use the term but this game is a thrill ride in almost every sense of the phrase. It also has to be one of the best looking games I have ever played and the stealth mission which takes place near the start of the game showcases this perfectly. The flora and fauna of Helghan seen during this mission is, in equal parts, weird and wonderful. The fluorescent  reds and oranges look like something you'd see in a deep sea nature programme. The only disappointment is that you only really see this sort of wildlife once, but that's not to say that the rest of the game is ugly, the final sections of the game are another graphical exhibition. The facial animations are great as well, you can really see the characters smiling, wincing and raising eyebrows. I think one of the main improvements from the previous games people wanted to see was the characters, they were underdeveloped and could have been ripped from any low-grade action movie. Another problem was that Killzone 2 created one of the most hated characters in video game history in Rico. He was an over-confident, gung-ho bastard who got teammates killed and couldn't stop himself from swearing with every other word. It seems Guerrila took onboard some of the criticism of this particular aspect of the previous game and decided that Rico shouldn't get away with his order disobeying ways without a bit of ribbing and most of this comes from the gruff presence of Captain Narville. Although many people, including myself, were hoping Rico might meet an (un)fortunate end in KZ 3 this feels like the biggest compromise Guerilla could have made without people questioning their integrity and in the end Rico does sort of redeem himself. With that potential hurdle passed Guerilla now had time to let the story take the driving seat and hopefully finish the game strong. As I said previously the story is pretty average and it's not helped by the intro sequence debacle. The intro to the game starts you out as what you think are two Helghast soldiers going to execute a pair of ISA soldiers, you walk through a mountain top facility and learn the basics of the controls and finally reach the execution chamber where Stahl (played with glee by Malcolm McDonald) hands you a ridiculouly large gun and is shocked to have it turned back on him by what is revealed to be main character Sevchenko. The game then hops back 6 months earlier to just after the events of KZ 2. The problem arises when you play through this section again later in the game but events don't happen as they did originally. The main parts are there but the details are completely different. I can understand why Guerilla changed it, it have been boring to play through the same tutorial twice and it may have raised suspicions if you had heard Rico's and Sev's voices in the intro but this raises the question; why have that intro sequence in the first place if they knew they were going to have to change it? This the only real gripe I have with the game and isn't that important but it would be nice if they had a little more respect for the fiction. However, and this is a big however, this game has an amazingly brave and well executed ending, probably one of the best I've seen in a long time. 
 
The adventures of the silent courier continue 
 
Last time I wrote about Fallout: New Vegas I had only played about 2 hours and it had made a strong impression on me in that short time. Writing this now I have played about ten times that and, while I'm still enjoying it, the game's problems have begun to rear their ugly head. I rarely experienced the bugs which plagued Fallout 3 so when I read about them I counted myself lucky and hearing that New Vegas suffers from just as many glitches I hoped my lucky streak would continue, unfortunately this was not the case. To date I have suffered nearly 10 hard crashes and have encountered one bug which has kept me from completing a quest. Personally I can't see how it's possible for a game to be released in this state but maybe it's just the engine itself that's broken. Technical problems aside the game still has some issues that I'm not sure about. Firstly, it seems as if all the damage being done is coming from Rex my cyber dog companion. Stronger enemies such as Deathclaws are impossible to kill due to the low damage coming from every gun in my possesion and the fact that they brush Rex aside with ease. I'm level 23 (I think) and my weapon's DPS is usually in the mid 80s but it seems that the strong enemies just absorb this with their Damage Threshold. I don't know if there are any Fallout: New Vegas experts in the community but any help would be greatly appreciated. I hope by the end of my Fallout experience I will have overcame these problems because I really, really like the universe and the complex story threads that Obsidian have developed. 
 
'Epic' Games 
 
Bulletstorm and to a slightly lesser extent Gears of War occupy a part of the gaming spectrum which is vilified by certain 'gamers' which see these sorts of games as being immature and only furthering the sterotype of the average game playing person (I refuse to use the word 'gamer' twice in the same sentence if I can avoid it). It seems Epic excels in creating or being involved in the creation of these games and it has me wondering whter these games still have a place in this modern era. I think the problem with these games is not their content but the way it is marketed. Everything is 'awesome' and 'badass' and this belies the depth that some of these games have, not in the story telling but in the gameplay. Gears of War singlehandedly created a genre in their adapted cover system and the multiplayer is probably one of the best online experiences to be had the 360 but people can't see past the silly image attached to the games. There is something to be said for dumb action but it doesn't need to be shoved in our faces every two seconds. Please Epic don't just appeal to the lowest common denominator, you have talents beyond developing the best way to chainsaw ugly ass aliens.