Reviews Thread

[BabeSlayer]

I finally found some time last night around 11pm - 230am to get in some real time on this game. What follows is a review of my findings.

First of from the get go you are struck with in your face badass mucho trip these guys are on. They pretty much act invinsible, and for good reason. I loaded up the campaign and the first mission was pretty standard training course. Once I actually got into the story it started off pretty dang cool incorporating some true facts about Somolia and some other conflicts America has been involved in, that it employeed the services of Private contracted security agencies. Of course it was topped off with 9/11 and the invasion of Afghanistan. That had me really excited for the story line thinking I might actually have an intelligent shooter on my hands, alas dissapointment was just around the corner. Once again a great idea was taken and turned into something mundane and purely average. So far with the story-line i'm become more and more non-impressed.

The gameplay however does not dissapoint. It is a fun fast paced 3rd person shooter style with a good amount of tactical thought needed. There are guys you face that you can't take just head on and you really gotta work as a team to take them down. The gun battles can get hectic and the guns fire very well. Using your partner is essential to victory in this game. A few complaints I have with the gameplay is the melee attacks need to be fixed. It seems to be just about rollling the dice if your gonna melee attack or not. Its kinda frustrating after you sneak up behind a group of foes and try to melee them out one at a time, only to have your gun accidently fire and give away your position and everyone turns and guns you down. Then of course your mostly retarded teamate (unless you have the privilage of playing with another human) will come over and try to revive you to the demise of the whole opperation. Team sniping is a great Idea, its pretty fun to pull off to but not usual in too many areas. It is employed intelligently however which i appreciate. The back to back is probably when the graphics and physics of this game really shine. Things slow down almost to a matrix style look and you are swinging around back to back with your partner downing foe after foe. It is some serious eye candy.

The dilouge between the characters however really distracts from me feeling like a badass while playing this game it borderlines on childish at time and there is some seriously lame comments made throughout the game. At times its just down right comical for example "Arlight fuck'os stay outa my way" "fucko's who says that?" That was an exerpt of a convo right before I took down an aircraft carrier.

The gun and gear custimization really adds to the game. You start out with some decent gear but beefing it up and then going into battle really makes a difference. You can change pretty much everything on the gun and really make it a work of art...literally cause you can gold and jewel encrust it to piss off your enemies even more. Kinda funny but cool at the same time. Changing the guns (or upgrading them) actually changes their physical apperance into to make it feel like your actually packing around a new piece of hardware and that helps engross you in the game. The masks are obviously a highlight of the game...i mean who doesn't wanna take on some terrorist while looking like a member of KISS coming straight out of the depths of hell to dish out death to those who fight against Democracy?

Graphicly this game has its ups and downs. It flows nicely and the graphics in parts are breathtaking, but then they drop the ball in some areas the animation (especially death animation for enemies) could have been better, i understand my gun is strong but when I can knock a dude 12 feet back with a shot to the chest but can't take his head off with it its kind of a annoying almost. Games would do well to take leasons from Soldier of Fortune...of course thats the only lesson they should take from that game. There are very few glitches I have noticed this far, usually when the two characters are interacting to pull each other over obstacles or whatever, but nothing major and nothing that distracts from the game.

Overall if your waiting for the game of the year, keep waiting. However if your looking for some fun fast paced co-op action and a pretty decent single player experience pick up this title and enjoy your badassness with a badass buddy. The co-op on this certainly does not dissapoint.

[Chelsea Lad]

Nice review, I saw that bit about 'fucko' on GT review. Pretty funny tbh

[Bunnytard]

I will write a halo 3 review.

[Chelsea Lad]

Does Call of Duty 4 really ‘Go Deep and Go Hard’ or is it more of a go deep and go take it back to the store type game? This review will show the highs and lows of the recent Infinity Ward production.

For the first time in the Call of Duty franchise Infinity Ward has finally added an epic storyline to the game, which is easy to follow and although it is totally fictional there are some elements in the game that could be related to non-fiction events. You play as both a US Marine and a SAS soldier, however there is a much larger emphasis on the SAS story than the US Marines in the game.

For the SAS missions you take control of ‘Soap’, a soldier new to the regiment and eager to show what he can do. At the start you under take a training mission and first meet Captain Price and ‘Gaz’, two characters you will grow to be very protective of as the levels increase. For two missions you take control of Captain Price, as you travel 15 years in the past to the non-fictional place of Pripiyat, Ukraine. Without giving too much away, this mission involves you sneaking through Pripiyat with your silenced M21 sniper rifle. Before you reach the hotel and have to assassinate one of the bad guys!

Captain Price, in one of the first scenes of Call of Duty 4

You play as Sgt Jackson for the US Marine missions, with Vasquez your commanding officer. These missions are basically run, shoot and take cover as you are thrown into a typical Middle Eastern setting with a load of ‘towel heads’ pointing AK-47’s in your direction. These missions can cause quite a lot of difficulty, and they perhaps show the first glimpses of the down sides to Call of Duty 4.

So what are the downsides? Let’s get them out of the way first. One, the story is very short and if you only go though it on regular difficulty it will only take you around 6 hours. Try it on the hardest difficulty and it will take you around 10-12 hours – obviously depending on your skill level. Secondly, the checkpoints are random which is very similar to Halo 3’s style and there doesn’t seem much logic to it. You can get through half a mission without getting one checkpoint, causing you to start from the beginning when you die – a very frustrating experience.

Other than that, Call of Duty 4 is all good, good, good! The realistic weaponry, which includes the M9, M4A1, M5 and the M21 and they all look equally very nice and real. The game play is up to Call of Duty standards, as usual, and you will always be on the edge of your seat (or even on the floor if you’ve already fallen off) whether you are trying to get 15 seconds in the training mission or trying to beat that incredibly difficult extra level, Mile High Club, on veteran!

The graphics are of the highest standard. You can be crouching next to a tank and you will see the heat waves bouncing around the tank, or maybe your sniping a terrorist and you can see each blade of hair from the guys moustache before you slowly pull the trigger on your controller. Perhaps you are in such an intense fight you can’t stop to notice the splendid visuals but when you pull the pin from your smoke grenade to give you that extra cover from the ‘towel heads’ and you see the smoke rising above the houses – you’ll realise what a beautiful looking game Call of Duty 4 really is.

The graphics are a visual treat

Like all games Call of Duty 4 has downsides, but unlike most games it has more great points than bad. Yes it may be short, and perhaps there are a few annoying glitches and the checkpoints can be a pain, however when you look and study the good points it is quite clear they out weigh the bad ones. This game is sure to keep you gripped and if the single player doesn’t do it for you the multiplayer certainly will. This is one game that every console gamer should own, it really shows what next-generation consoles can do.


Graphics – 9.7
Sound – 9.8
Game Play – 9.5
Story – 9.5
Replay Value - 9


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It's a bit old now, and I posted it on the COD4 forum about a month and a half ago? Do what you like with it here. It's not a great review I can do better, I might do a COD2 and COD4 one over the weekend if I feel like it

[V2olcom]

Do a COD2 one. More people need to buy it, I totally regret selling my copy.

[Bryce]

I think I might try to write a Bully review when i get done witht the game

[baklan]

The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles
Reviewed by XBox 360 Games at TestFreaks.
Score: 9.4 out of 10

When I play videogames, especially now on the Xbox 360, I get a big feeling of satisfaction out of beating them - and in the instances where I've earned every Achievement, I couldn't be more proud and thrilled! One game finished as I move onto the next one - but this wasn't the case when I finished Oblivion last year - instead of feeling that excitement, I was sad. There is no game, or game world, like Oblivion, and for it to actually be finished was something I hated to admit. I wanted to go back to it on many occasions, knowing that there could be so many more hidden items out there. Luckily, Bethesda is always one to please their fans and they've gone above and beyond the call of duty with the first official expansion to Oblivion, Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles.

Let us get one thing straight right off the mark: this is not Oblivion in slightly different terrain. The missions and quests in Shivering Isles are not a rehash of adventures that will feel all too familiar; instead, Bethesda have created all-new missions and dungeons that have features unseen in Oblivion and that are much more story-oriented. For example, hidden within the Southern edge of the Shivering Isles (I'll discuss the actual realm and why we're there shortly) you'll find an ancient abandoned temple. Once you get inside it comes to light that it's been infested with ghosts, all looping through time and repeating their greatest moment of failure again and again as they are overrun by the Knights of Order. Unable to physically touch the ghosts, good or bad, you'll need to find a way to help defend the temple and free the ghosts from the curse... Read more

[Chelsea Lad]

CALL OF DUTY 4 MAP PACK

After the, surprisingly on time, release of the Call of Duty 4 map pack on Friday we have had just over 24 hours to sink our controllers into the latest update. They cost 800 MS points (Xbox 360) but are they worth it?

Broadcast is set in the TV Control room from the single player mission 'Charlie Don't Surf' (perhaps one of the most exciting and breath taking missions out of them all) however there are a few modifications to make the map more multiplayer friendly. However, although the changes have made this map better there are also a lot of terrible downsides to the new map. First off the map has grown a huge amount since the single player version. There are now, what seems like, a thousand different alley ways and corridors to pass through in the main building which often leaves you lost and isolated from friendlies and enemies a like for minutes on end. This is as you would expect extremely frustrating!

The signature room in the 'Charlie Don't Surf' mission is still there (the area with all the TV's, computers and desks) however in the multiplayer map this is unfortunately rarely used. Instead enemies seem to solely fight in the entrance of the building, which is still good but it is disappointing that the map wasn't designed to make most of the fighting done in the central control room.

This was a map I was looking forward to a lot, and was disappointed when I first studied it. IW have said they wanted this sort of feel to Broadcast but unfortunately this isn't for me and I try my best to skip it when it comes around.

It is a shame that most of the fighting in Broadcast doesn't commence in the Control Room

The second map is Creek, at first I was also disappointed by this map. It felt very busy and difficult to avoid the snipers, however after a few tries I have begun to enjoy it more and more. The snipers are a pain in this map, just like Overgrown. Though if you know how to flank them then they can be easily used for extra and easy kills. The cave is a great way to flank them and really adds to a great looking environment. I even managed to spot a few spider webs up on the deck of an old creeky house!

Creek, the snipers dream - or is it?

The third map is Carentan and this map is a classic! Used in both of IW's previous Call of Duty titles, Call of Duty 1 and 2, it is now implemented into Call of Duty 4 - but this time it has a Chinese theme! This map plays beautifully in all team games, just like it did in the World War II days! The attention to detail is amazing just walking into the various houses in Carentan will leave your eyes sparkled by the authentic Chinese varses and decorations. This is truely a legend of a map and is one of the best in the new pack.

The final map is Killhouse. It was disapointing to hear that this map wouldn't be available in the map rotation in the new gametypes (which only plays the new maps). Instead you have to find it in 'Team Tactical' or 'Cage Match'. I have yet to play this map in a public server due to this however I have experienced it with a few mates in a private match.

It is certainly a good map and despite its small, combact design it is still suitable for snipers and of course shotguns and SMG's a like. It reminds me of an indoor Shipment but don't worry, just because it is indoor it doesn't mean Choppers and Air Strikes can't hurt!

Overall the map pack is worth the 800 MS points, I left Broadcast disapointed but this is just my opinion. Plus the extra 3 maps make up for my discontentment!

[BabeSlayer]

chelsea you've put together a few great reviews thank you.

[BabeSlayer]

Baklan I think many people feel the same sentiment witht that game, thanks for the review