Call of Duty Black Ops 2

You might be forgiven for thinking that you don’t really need a preview of Call of Duty: Black Ops II. Isn’t it just the same old stuff as Black Ops and Modern Warfare 1 to 3, but with a soupcon of sci-fi twist? Well, from the footage shown at Microsoft’s E3 Press Conference, that was our first impression too: here’s another stroll through funnelled levels, popping bad guys at they stick their heads out of cover and watching as a lot of things explode with minimal levels of interaction.

Want heavily-orchestrated, cinematic firefights? You’ve got them. Want a turret section where you shoot at enemy drones? You’ve got it. Want a chance to deviate from the path that’s already been established, or a game where you’re not simply following some guy with a follow beacon attached? Sorry, we can’t help you here.

However, with a bit more time behind closed doors at E3, that first impression is beginning to change. It’s not that Black Ops II is a vast departure from the Call of Duty formula, but it’s a game that shows an awareness of the criticisms of Black Ops and Modern Warfare 3, and a willingness to take a few risks this time around. Whisper it, but Black Ops II might be the most interesting Call of Duty since the first Modern Warfare appeared five years ago.

Dual Narratives
The interesting bits start with the plot. Black Ops II takes place over a period of fifty years, with two storylines that follow the genesis of a new villain during the 1970s and 1980s and his attempts to trigger a new world war in 2025. The hope is to make the narrative more engaging, and to make the antagonist, Raul Menandez, more than just another cackling terrorist to be gunned down.

While you might be horrified by what he does in the near-future sections of the game, you’ll at least understand why he does it, What’s more, the story branches. We’re given to understand that levels and outcomes will differ depending on your performance in certain scenarios, and on which characters you let get killed and which you save. We’re promised that these won’t be superficial changes, either, but changes that will affect the whole way you experience the game.

More importantly, though, this is a Call of Duty that wants to give the player a little more choice. We’ve seen two chapters of the game in action. In the first, David Mason, son of the Black Ops’s Alex Mason, is charged with getting the president to safety in the midst of an assault on downtown Los Angeles.

It’s typical, breathless Call of Duty stuff, with helicopters crashing everywhere, enemy troops spilling from trucks, ready to be gunned down, and the most interesting aspect the use of drones on the battlefield, both against you and under your control. One segment has you tackling stumpy, tank-like walkers with a grenade launcher, while another has you guiding tiny aerial drones with the aid of a wrist-mounted remote control.

It’s spectacular, albeit predictable stuff, but even here there are signs of a desire to open out. At one point you have a choice between sniping at enemy troops from a damaged bridge or grapelling down to engage them at close quarters. Meanwhile, a section where you fly a futuristic VTOL fighter turns out not to be yet another turret sequence, but a proper flight sequence where you have a degree of freedom to zip around the Los Angeles sky. We’re told that you can fly anywhere you want within the confines of the area, though failing to focus on the objective at hand will lose you the mission.
Strikeforce Unveiled
It’s the second mission that proves really interesting, however. Named Strikeforce, it’s one of a selection of missions that will enable you to leave the game’s traditional first-person combat and take a more strategic overview of the battlefield. You have a time limit and a series of objectives, and it’s your job to make sure you complete them, in whatever order, before the time runs out, You can send in troops or drones using the overview UI and play the whole mission from that point of view, or switch instantly to any unit’s first-person view and lead the charge physically as you might in any regular Call of Duty scenario.

Or for those who really don’t want any strategy, you can play the whole mission as a straight FPS. We wait to see how these exercises in tactical action work out in the finished game, but they show a willingness to push the boundaries of what Call of Duty can do. Plus, you can actually fail these missions, leading to more of the branching that we spoke about earlier.

It’s easy and not-a-little fashionable to be cynical about Call of Duty, and Modern Warfare 3 pushed the orchestration so hard that at times it felt barely interactive. With Black Ops 2, however, we have a Call of Duty that seems to want to push things further. We just hope the final game measures up.

Stuart Andrews

FiFa 13

Fifa 2013

The game play we thought could never be improved after playing F.I.F.A 2012 as that was by far the best football game we had ever seen up until now but EA Sports have done the impossible and made this even better. The players are now much more free moving as well as the passing being far more accurate to the users controls than we ever thought could be achieved. We do not want to spoil the game too much for you so we will leave this review there with the final thought being if you love football and football games you will not be able to live with yourself if you do not get this game because it really is that good!
The Game Reviews Team rates this quality football game as one of the best of all time.
The Price for this game is rated as Standard for this type of game.
The game is available on the following platforms:
Xbox 360
Playstation 3
Nintendo Wii
Computer/PC/Laptop

(MOH) Medal Of Honor WarFighter

The Game Developers Conference is all geared to become the plan where EA reveals its marquee first-person shooter of the year. Just last year it was Battlefield 3 and a memorable 15- minute demo that had everyone captivated. In comparison to Battlefield Medal of Honor: Warfighters did not quite have the same bearing but for all the shooter fans out there, it did have them gushing in awe as to the possibilities there were.

In the first Medal of Honor, you will play as Tier 1 operatives. What is different this time is that the cohort will comprise of people from all over the world than just U.S. Fighting unanimously against a global terror threat, countries will unify forces and bring in a multinational touch to the game. The other important thing is the "authenticity", as all the missions in the game are based on real time world events so the player can genuinely be a part of something that feels true and real.

The story starts off with where the last Medal of Honor left with Preacher returning in a pivotal role. The game's creative director, Richard Farrelly, stated that the game will offer a peak into the personal lives of these Tier 1 operative including how their job affects their families. While it is yet to be seen how this unfolds but it looks very promising. Bringing in an emotional perspective into the action warfare brings in a sense of empathy and that tends to work quite well with the audiences as one saw in Hurt Locker.

Our demo revolved around a mission in the Philippines, with the US Special Forces joining hands with their Philippine counterparts to combat local terrorists. The mission takes off in a huge, open building that has been flooded with water. This part was exactly what one expects from a contemporary big budget first person shooter movie with serious fight sequences and big explosions that would rock the foundations of any building. Another interesting aspect was the door breaching whereby you have the liberty to open doors either by kicking them, using CC4, or first throwing in a flash grenade. We saw how hostages were rescued using the flash bang with the now mandatory slow motion breaching sequence where you can pick off frazzled terrorists and rescue the hostages.

Multiplayer option is a focal selling point of the game as it attracts many avid gamers. Goodrich laid down some very interesting insights about the game. He stated that they're taking a leaf out of the FIFA series and appealing to the people's sense of nationalism. In all there will be 12 International Tier 1 operatives from 10 various countries, including the US, UK, Germany, Australia and Poland. The players will be representing their country in the game's "Blue on Blue" mode, which is really good guys vs. good guys. The previous trailers for the game focus on the nearly superhuman abilities of Tier 1 objectives, so when Goodrich says how the game would settle debates as to who would win in a Batman and Superman fight!

The game is all set for an October 23 release worldwide with the Limited Edition available across the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. From what we saw Medal of Honor: Warfighter stays within the military shooter domain but what the developers are trying to achieve needs to be given due credit as it is nothing less than inspiring.