Crysis: Warhead

Scroll down for a Crysis Review in the next post.

Crysis: Warhead is not so much a sequel, or even and expansion, it's actually more like a gigantic patch with lots of stellar (excuse me for using that word) DLC. Except that it's completely stand-alone, and too much of an improvement from the original game to be a patch.

You play as Sgt. 'Psycho' Sykes in a parallel story line to the first game, but on the other side of the island. Although the storyline isn't memorable, it's enough to propel you through the game with moderate interest. The game play is tuned to just short of perfection, improving AI and general game flow from the original. Two new weapons include the dual-wield able SMGs, which replace your standard pistols while packing an amazing punch at close range. The other weapon is another prototype that doesn't require a lock-on to fire, which is fun for killing everything on a level in around 3 mins. The suit still functions the same, with minor tuning, and most of the guns have better skins, along with the enemies and vehicles. Two new vehicles are fun, but you don't use them more than once. The campaign runs around 8 hours, without dying once or getting stuck anywhere.

The game itself is optimized ten-fold over the original one, it runs better and looks better at the same time, but when cranking it up to max it still takes a monster to run. Shadows are more shadow-y, and the anti-aliaising even looks better. Other than that though, it doesn't look much different from Crysis.

The balance issues from the original are also mostly resolved, which makes the game much more enjoyable. You won't find yourself doing try-and-die fifty times in a row.

If you bought it at the store, Warhead gives you Crysis: Wars for free, which is the multiplayer element. Unlike the last game's multiplayer, Wars is actually a great game. It's two new modes, team free-for-all and plain FFA are fun, but those get old after several plays. The old mode, Power Struggle is polished and improved to the point that it really works well, where as the original's multiplayer was lackluster and boring.

Warhead really is the game that Crysis should have been, and if Crytek is smart they'll give the original Crysis a makeover and release both games-in-one for $50, for people who didn't play the games the first time around.

9.3/10 for improved game play and graphics, new campaign style, good multiplayer, amazing price of $30, still takes a beast of a system to make it run well
What I'm playing: Mass Effect PC, Crysis: Wars, TF2
Games I'm into: L4D, Mirror's Edge

Crysis: The Complete Pack review!

Ah, Crysis. That game that your computer won't run. I hear it's all just flash, no real material, and that it's game play is uninteresting. Is that actually the case? Quite the contrary, actually, as Crysis and it's counterpart Crysis: Warhead deliver stunning visuals and exciting game play. I'll go over Crysis first.

Crysis puts you in the suit of a super soldier, on a mission to rescue archeologists on an tropical paradise. You fight Koreans with a squad of other super soldiers like you, although most of the time you're a lone wolf, so don't get me wrong; this is no tactical shooter. The suit you and your chumps are wearing has several different features, an armor mode, which lets you absorb more damage, a speed mode, which lets you move much faster, a strength mode, which lets you, well, be strong (to jump higher, and throw things farther), and a cloak mode, which renders you invisible for a limited amount of time. The effectiveness of these modes are all based around your suit energy level, which recharges moderately fast but also is spent as fast.

The gunplay in Crysis is somewhat different that most games, the guns feel heavier, more realistic, and all around more awesome. But that doesn't stop you from dying more than ever. The difficulty of the game waxes and wains, as sometimes you'll be able to breeze through enemies like a tank, other times you'll find that you have to try and die ten times before you complete an area.
Amazing physics and great visuals really complete the game, and I know you're saying "yeah, on your computer", but I have no dream machine, I was able to run everything on medium with a dual core 2.6 ghz, and nVidia 256mb 7600gt, and it looked great.
The story of the game is interesting enough to keep you captivated, and although it's not a very original idea, it's still fun. The game play ranges from person to person combat, stealth action, survival, jet flying, car chasing, massive tank skirmishes, sniper wars, and a number of other innovative mechanics.
My only complaint is that just as you get the hang of it, you're onto the next thing.
I finished the campaign in around ten hours, minus load times and reloads due to dying, around eight and a half hours. The experience is short and sweet, at worst; lackluster and frustrating, at best; pure genius. I hear there is a map editor somewhere in there too.

Check back for a complete Warhead review in several days.

8.6/10 for innovative game play, amazing graphics, map editor. Frustrating at times, un-original story, unbalanced combat.
What I'm playing: Crysis: Warhead, Mass Effect
Games I'm into: Left 4 Dead, FarCry 2

What Blew my Mind at E3.

This post was originally posted after the Electronic Entertainment Expo event, but due to some technical difficulties it is only being published as of now.
-TJ


Alright, Jimmithen's back from summer hiatus bliss to cough up another foray into gamin' with the whole E3 biz. People can say what they will, E3 may be going downhill, but I gotta say, this year the show delivered, and no one delivered better than Microsoft. With a linup headlined by such titles as GoW2 (which actually impressed me, though not so much when Marcus and Dom talked, damn crappy dialogue), Fable 2, Resident Evil 5, and my personal favorite out of the fantastic 4 (did that on purpose, sorry guys), Fallout 3. Now, for the oldschools who played the originals, or one of the two, you can skip to the end of the article, because you already know what I'm talking about. To be continued in next post.

Far Cry 2 Video

It's not letting me embed the video so here's the youtube link.


Enjoy!
Edit: It works now
-TJ

What I'm playing: Halo 3, World of Warcraft, Starcraft

Games I'm into: Mirror's Edge, Farcry 2, Gears 2, Rock Band 2, (lots of 2's)

I love the whole world!

This great game adaption of discovery channel's commercial is Ahwsum. And did you hear?? DIABLO III was announced today in Paris! My life has ended. :)

See more funny videos at CollegeHumor

What I'm playing: Team Fortress 2, Company of Heroes
Games I'm into:Left 4 Dead,

Battlefield: Bad company

I have this great video here for everyone of EA's new title that became available today, Battlefield: Bad Company for Xbox 360.

Video courtesy of Ctrl+Alt+Del
EDIT: Okay the video isn't working so here's a link to CAD's blog post with it embedded.


What I'm playing: Team Fortress 2 (I got the new flare gun!!!)
Games I'm into: Left 4 Dead. I am so darn exited about this game that I will explode when it comes out. Let's type some of these for it's honor: !!!!!!!!!!! Exclamation point toast!!!!!!!!!!!!

P.S. There are a lot of other humorous videos about BF:BC over at gamevideos.com. LINK!

Summer Inactivity

In case you haven't noticed, we are going inactive over the summer. Thanks for reading!

What I'm playing:Company on Heroes, Battlefield 2, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfart
Games I'm into: Mass Effect, GTAIV, Rockband
Games you should check out: Synaesthete

Everyone's special. Or not?

I have recently heard a rumor about the Xbox 360's upcoming firmware patch. The rumor I heard was that you can install games and run them without the discs on your 360. Of course, this is Microsoft we're talking about, so there is going to be some kind of copy protection. It might be something ridiculous, or just a CD code. Maybe you'll have to register your "gaming library" to your 360, not letting you trade in games or borrow them from friends. Sound familiar? Unless you have been living under a rock, this is like the PC gaming storyline these last few years. These two worlds are getting closer, and closer, and closer, to the point that at this rate in 3 years, you'll be shopping on Newegg.com for an nVidia 16000 for your XboPC. Not cool? Or is a good thing? It seems like a good thing to me, as it makes everyone's hardware reflect their surroundings and personality. If you know what I mean. On the PC side, we have been getting closer in the software world rather than the hardware world, and I don't just mean 360 Ports. Take wake-on-LAN, for example (although a rather bad example it is) which let's you turn on your computer from any thing plugged into your computer's network card, similar to the way one would turn on their Xbox. I am using an Xbox 360 controller for quite a few of my games. It can't be too long until the 360 and the mother of all platforms become one!


The PS3 is pretty much a combination of the PS2, Wii, and the PC. SIXAXIS motion controls, otherwise standard controller layout, and beefy hardware. The sleeknes comes from the PC too. The Wii is the only special thing out there (besides the PC) and it is currently lacking on the visual and online side of things. Everything else is in between. I don't know there the PS/Xbox controller comes from though. Hmm. Maybe it's the wake-on-LAN thing. If I bored you or offended you or spelled bored wrong, I'm not really sorry. This is just my opinion!



What I'm playing: Company of Heroes
Games I'm into: Mass Effect, Beyond Good & Evil

Dark Void

I apologize for the recent lack of posts, we have been busy with our summer lives. But I have traveled back from the mortal realms into the video gaming realm, and upon my arrival, I looked at Capcom's Dark Void. This game looks pretty intense, mostly because all of it takes place on cliffs. No, not the tops of cliffs, the sides of them. And the sides of big alien ship-thingys. Considering you have a jetpack, that shouldn't be a problem though. But they have to spoil all that flying fun and give us more fun with climbing fun. The climbing/booster pack combination looks pretty cool, add a gun in there and we might just have an awesome game!

I'm posting a video here courtesy of Giant Bomb




What I'm playing: Audio Surf, Company of Heroes
Games I'm into: Dark Void, Mass Effect, Left 4 Dead

Beyond Good & Evil 2 Trailer

Here is the BG&E2 first trailer/gameplay video. I hope ya'll like it!
Also, Mass Effect PC came out today and I am so super CyKeD! It looks so good, with updates to everything and hotkeys (awesome!) for anything you want! And everything else is different too. This isn't just some 360-PC port. This is another game!



We recorder our most recent NewsPodcast and I hope to have it up shortly.

What I'm playing: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords
Games I'm into: Mass Effect PC and Left 4 Dead