Good news, everyone - you'll be seeing some current-generation game reviews on this blog in the near future.
The reason? I got a Nintendo Wii for Christmas!
Yep, I'm the proud owner of the Wii and two games besides Wii Sports (I could tell you which ones they are, but that would ruin the surprise that would come when I review them :)
It's nice to finally be on (or at least near) the cutting edge of current video gaming at long last. I'm looking forward to renting some games I don't have too so I can see all that this thing can do.
So anyways, expect (more) current game reviews in the near future, readers.
Monday, December 31, 2007
Sunday, December 9, 2007
The game so good, it held up its own review
Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction
Release Date: 2005
System: XBox (also available for the Playstation 2)
ESRB Rating: T (Teen) for Mild Language and Violence
Publisher: LucasArts Entertainment Company
First off, an apology to my readers for having not updated in months.
Now I bring you the reason for that lack of updating, the game that's been taking up all of my (very limited) free time lately - "Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction." Yes, it's a game so good that it actually delayed its own review. It's just that much fun.
"Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction" takes place in the near future, in North Korea. A mad dictator, General Choi Song, recently took over North Korea in a coup in which he killed his father.
Now Song has been caught trying to sell nuclear weapons to terrorists, and the rest of the world has decided to finally smack Song down for it, in the form of an Allied Nations (sort of like the real-world United Nations) task force. Its mission: bring down Song and his 51 closest allies, known as the "Deck of 52," who all have nice, fat bounties on their heads. General Song is the Ace of Spades in that deck, and his value is a cool $100 million. You play a mercenary - a soldier of fortune for who $100 million is too good a payday to pass up.
In this game, you can play as one of three mercenaries, each with their own strengths and weaknesses: Christopher Jacobs (an American who's slow, but can take more punishment than the others), Jennifer Mui (a Hong Kong-born Brit who's quite the stealthy type but gets hurt easier than anyone else) or Mattias Nilsson (a psychotic Swede who's a fast runner and loves blowing stuff up, but is about as innocuous as a strobe light in a darkroom). Depending on the merc you choose, the game might require some slightly different tactics. Most often, though, the only difference is in the characters' color commentary throughout the game, so my advice is to just pick the personality you like most.
The core of the game consists of contracts - missions that you take from the various players involved in the North Korean invasion. There's several sides you can take contracts from - the A.N., the CIA-backed South Korean military, the Chinese military, and even the Russian Mafia. These missions have a wide variety of objectives attached to them, from blowing up crucial buildings or targets to rescuing troops stuck behind enemy lines. Complete these contracts, and you get some nice money, along with some other benefits - like intelligence on where to find some of the Deck of 52.
Of course, the Deck of 52 is your main objective. You tackle these guys in ascending suit order throughout the game, from the clubs (state-sponsored criminals and the like) to the spades (Song's elite special forces), and each of the number cards and face cards can provide intelligence on where to find the biggest, highest-value foe - the Ace - in each suit. You have the option of either capturing Deck of 52 members or killing them - killing them is easier, but you get less money for your trouble than you would by capturing them.
Another factor to consider throughout the game is that you have to be careful about maintaining your reputation among these players - kill too many South Korean troops, for example, and the SK military will shoot you on sight. Of course, there's always ways to get back into the good graces of a side you've pissed off, whether it's killing enemy troops or even offering a hefty bribe (hey, money talks).
Mechanically speaking, the game works a lot like a military-themed version of "Grand Theft Auto III," but it comes off as much more polished. You get much the same perspective as "GTA III", and can even hijack vehicles, from cars to armored personnel carriers to helicopters. You also get a nice assortment of weapons to play with, from hand-carried assault rifles, sniper rifles and anti-aircraft missiles to massive tank-mounted cannons and wire-guided missiles.
And if all that bang-bang wasn't enough, you have the option of calling in fire support - everything from a laser-guided bomb to carpet bombing a whole area back into the Stone Age. Activating these fire support options is very easy - involving pointing a hand-held laser at a target, planting a smoke beacon or locking onto a target from satellite coordinates - and is often essential to completing missions.
What makes all this firepower even more fun to play with is the fact that just about every building and vehicle in the game is destructible, often going up (or crumbling to the ground) in spectacular fashion once they've taken too much damage. There's many moments in this game that will get action game fans' blood pumping in excitement, like raining artillery fire down on a cluster of buildings or hijacking a tank and running roughshod over everything in sight. Simple, easy-to-understand controls and the many options available to you keep the action fresh throughout the entire game.
The game does have a few minor flaws. One of the more major ones is that the physics engine is a little wonky when it comes to some vehicles. For example, very often, if you try to run over a small but indestructible obstruction - like a pile of sandbags - in an Armored Personnel Carrier, you end up with your APC sticking its front end 60 degrees into the air, making maneuvering quite tricky until you get out of there and costing precious time in combat situations.
"Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction" has to be one of the most purely fun action games released in recent years. Every action game fan should check this one out.
Score: 9.5 out of 10 (Good plot, lots of weapons and vehicles to play with, and great fun to be had throughout the entire game)
Release Date: 2005
System: XBox (also available for the Playstation 2)
ESRB Rating: T (Teen) for Mild Language and Violence
Publisher: LucasArts Entertainment Company
First off, an apology to my readers for having not updated in months.
Now I bring you the reason for that lack of updating, the game that's been taking up all of my (very limited) free time lately - "Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction." Yes, it's a game so good that it actually delayed its own review. It's just that much fun.
"Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction" takes place in the near future, in North Korea. A mad dictator, General Choi Song, recently took over North Korea in a coup in which he killed his father.
Now Song has been caught trying to sell nuclear weapons to terrorists, and the rest of the world has decided to finally smack Song down for it, in the form of an Allied Nations (sort of like the real-world United Nations) task force. Its mission: bring down Song and his 51 closest allies, known as the "Deck of 52," who all have nice, fat bounties on their heads. General Song is the Ace of Spades in that deck, and his value is a cool $100 million. You play a mercenary - a soldier of fortune for who $100 million is too good a payday to pass up.
In this game, you can play as one of three mercenaries, each with their own strengths and weaknesses: Christopher Jacobs (an American who's slow, but can take more punishment than the others), Jennifer Mui (a Hong Kong-born Brit who's quite the stealthy type but gets hurt easier than anyone else) or Mattias Nilsson (a psychotic Swede who's a fast runner and loves blowing stuff up, but is about as innocuous as a strobe light in a darkroom). Depending on the merc you choose, the game might require some slightly different tactics. Most often, though, the only difference is in the characters' color commentary throughout the game, so my advice is to just pick the personality you like most.
The core of the game consists of contracts - missions that you take from the various players involved in the North Korean invasion. There's several sides you can take contracts from - the A.N., the CIA-backed South Korean military, the Chinese military, and even the Russian Mafia. These missions have a wide variety of objectives attached to them, from blowing up crucial buildings or targets to rescuing troops stuck behind enemy lines. Complete these contracts, and you get some nice money, along with some other benefits - like intelligence on where to find some of the Deck of 52.
Of course, the Deck of 52 is your main objective. You tackle these guys in ascending suit order throughout the game, from the clubs (state-sponsored criminals and the like) to the spades (Song's elite special forces), and each of the number cards and face cards can provide intelligence on where to find the biggest, highest-value foe - the Ace - in each suit. You have the option of either capturing Deck of 52 members or killing them - killing them is easier, but you get less money for your trouble than you would by capturing them.
Another factor to consider throughout the game is that you have to be careful about maintaining your reputation among these players - kill too many South Korean troops, for example, and the SK military will shoot you on sight. Of course, there's always ways to get back into the good graces of a side you've pissed off, whether it's killing enemy troops or even offering a hefty bribe (hey, money talks).
Mechanically speaking, the game works a lot like a military-themed version of "Grand Theft Auto III," but it comes off as much more polished. You get much the same perspective as "GTA III", and can even hijack vehicles, from cars to armored personnel carriers to helicopters. You also get a nice assortment of weapons to play with, from hand-carried assault rifles, sniper rifles and anti-aircraft missiles to massive tank-mounted cannons and wire-guided missiles.
And if all that bang-bang wasn't enough, you have the option of calling in fire support - everything from a laser-guided bomb to carpet bombing a whole area back into the Stone Age. Activating these fire support options is very easy - involving pointing a hand-held laser at a target, planting a smoke beacon or locking onto a target from satellite coordinates - and is often essential to completing missions.
What makes all this firepower even more fun to play with is the fact that just about every building and vehicle in the game is destructible, often going up (or crumbling to the ground) in spectacular fashion once they've taken too much damage. There's many moments in this game that will get action game fans' blood pumping in excitement, like raining artillery fire down on a cluster of buildings or hijacking a tank and running roughshod over everything in sight. Simple, easy-to-understand controls and the many options available to you keep the action fresh throughout the entire game.
The game does have a few minor flaws. One of the more major ones is that the physics engine is a little wonky when it comes to some vehicles. For example, very often, if you try to run over a small but indestructible obstruction - like a pile of sandbags - in an Armored Personnel Carrier, you end up with your APC sticking its front end 60 degrees into the air, making maneuvering quite tricky until you get out of there and costing precious time in combat situations.
"Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction" has to be one of the most purely fun action games released in recent years. Every action game fan should check this one out.
Score: 9.5 out of 10 (Good plot, lots of weapons and vehicles to play with, and great fun to be had throughout the entire game)
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