Gears of War 1.6

of course, i am being flippant of Gears 3 with that title... I guess, when Gears 2 came out, i expected more.. but i got gears 1.5... so when Gears 3 came along, i at least expected a bigger jump... but ultimately, it was another slight improvement.. but the same game really. I am not sure what i am expecting or if i am being an over demanding gamer, but gears sequels havent wowed me as much as the first game did. Gears of war blew me away and changed my perspective on third person shooters. it defined many games after its release and has been a huge success.

but in my world, i wanted a little more from each of the sequels and have been a bit disappointed by them.

Now that is not to say that Gears 3 is a bad game. It is a solid title with definitely the best graphics and visuals so far, it just missed the mark for me. Possibly because of timimg.. I started playing it directly after space marine and it was quite a jolt to go from one to the other. Both games are about big chunky marines delivery millions of heavy duty rounds into waves of enemies... but Space Marine felt very epic, serious and, i guess more grounded than gears. To go from a game where the dialogue is meaningful and has serious deep undertones to Gears of War 3 and "wooo yeah! F**k! Boom! Nice!".. it lost a little something to me.

I don't know what i was expecting but i did enjoy it overall. Stupid hard end of game boss (getting frustrated with those now), some incredibly cheesy moments that broke the fiction for me (if you have played up to the stadium, you will know what i am talking about. If you haven't yet, you will know it when you get there), but some solid gameplay and a few really nice levels saved it.

the submarine pen was the best set of levels i thought.

Probably an Act too long and the final cutscene was... an interesting end to the trilogy but hey. At the end of the day, its dumb fun, blowing stuff up and if you don't want anything too serious, then go for it.

6/10 from me but most people i think would give it 8to 9 out of 10. Wrong timing for me and strange expectations :)

Time to finish Alan Wake and Halo Anniversary!

Space Marine!

I recently completed Space Marine. And I have to say, I was impressed. Not by the gameplay so much which was competent but nothing new or amazing but by the atmosphere and scale of the world they portray. Those of you who know me will realise that I have a weak spot for epic space battles, future war and gritty visions of a dystopian future. Also, little plastic models that you collect and paint. My vision of this world was faithfully recreated with a ton of atmosphere, Depth and most surprisingly to me, Believability. The characters have weight, but seem to be agile in a believable way. The Scale of the world blew me away to the point where I would find myself looking up at tall buildings, war machines and off into the distance for minutes at a time. Hats off to Mark strong for the voice acting. In fact, most of the cast did a great job. Every line felt meaningful and heartfelt and I was swept up in the fiction very quickly. All in all, I could probably fault the game on repetition or the fairly shallow combat but actually, it was really good fun. If you love the universe it is enough to keep you going and turns out to be a very enjoyable game. 8/10 

:)

Now where was I?....

...Ah yes! Videogames!

Well, it’s been a hectic few months and I have been neglecting this blog.. but for good reasons.

In the past few months I have…

Got Married

Been Made Redundant

Found a new job

Had a Honeymoon

Started a New Job

rediscovered Minecraft

Ok, so the last point is not as valid as the previous ones BUT, I have still been gaming as much as I can. You see my studio was closed down by the company that runs it and I was forced to look elsewhere for jobs. This meant a lot of research and time spent investigating the history and products of the places I was interested in. A colleague and friend of mine runs a website called Gamercast and she has been focussed on writing articles for it. This has inspired me to get back to my game blog and keep it up to date.

In short, since September I have been playing Space Marine (Finished, loved it) Batman Arkham Asylum (not finished) Viking: Battle for Asgard (completed 100%), Crysis2 (just started), Osmos, Gears 3, Halo Anniversary, Hydrophobia and Alan Wake. A viking friend of mine and I recently took on the challenge of RESI 5 Co-op… and we completed it! It was actually a lot more fun than I initially gave it credit for but probably the worst ending boss I have had to deal with in a good long while.

So that means I have managed to take 3 more off my list recently since finishing Deus Ex and from a Gamerscore point of view… I am nearly at 100,000! :D

I will now post separately the updates for the games I have finished… before going on to my current quest… Alan Wake!

More to follow!