Category: Uncategorised

Answering the Call of Duty

It’s quite apt for the Call of Duty/Modern Warfare series that I myself have been ‘off the grid’ on this blog for most of April.  So what have I been up to?  If you were to say wasting countless enemies and blowing stuff up, then you wouldn’t be too far from the truth.

I’ve previously mentioned dabbling with Modern Warfare 2 and moaning about how difficult it has been.  So much so I even came up with my own tips on how to complete ‘Loose Ends’ on veteran.  As it turns out, after I’ve kept chipping away at the game, I’ve mastered most aspects of it.  It’s now really fun and I can pretty much hold my own against anyone.  I still struggle with some of the more challenging special ops though.  I don’t really see myself completing them all.

So what does a gamer who is new to the Call of Duty series do next?  Hungry for more sublime action, I decided to get Call of Duty: World at War.  Yes, the game will be two years old this November, but I told you I was new to the series!  I’d always fancied getting World at War, but it had always been too expensive.  So, I just waited for it to come down in price and with a little help from the invisible hand it was mine for about £17.99 ish.  Sweet.

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How to complete ‘Loose Ends’ on veteran

Updated October 2010

So, you’re making good progress on your veteran play-through of Modern Warfare 2.  It’s all going reasonably well until you hit ‘Loose Ends’ like a brick wall.  Whatever you try and do, you just can’t get through it.  I’m talking about the part where you’ve got to run to the LZ from Makarov’s safe house.  So I’m going to give a few tips so that the mission will should be as painless as possible, as I found all other content on the internet to be pretty much useless.

I restarted the mission three or four times, and was stuck on this mission for days.  So whilst I can’t call myself an expert, I’m pretty well-versed in this mission!  If you’ve got any tips for this mission or anything else you’d like to add, please share!  In the mean time, here’s my guide:

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The Saboteur

The Saboteur is one of those games that was always on my radar.  Released in early December, however I was already engrossed with Assassin’s Creed II and Modern Warfare 2 so The Saboteur got put on a back-burner.  It gets to March and I’ve been putting the finishing touches to completing Burnout Paradise and inFamous.  So, what next?

I compiled a list of what I was thinking of playing next and eventually decided to spend my hard-earned cash on The Saboteur and Call of Juarez.  I wanted to tackle Call of Juarez first, but I found it hard to get into.  It’s basically a FPS Western, but I’ve felt a bit saturated with a lot of FPS games recently.  Besides, I really like my third-person shooters and action/adventure games.  So The Saboteur it was…

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Voucher codes for PSN game

Hello everyone, as I mentioned previously, I had hoped to get some codes for a PSN game.  I’m delighted to announce that I’ve got 6 voucher codes to give away for a new puzzle game called Switchball.

The voucher codes are as below:

QHMQ-FGBN-E4BD
5T9P-52BQ-BK6K
ETBE-H8BA-PTH4
NQJ6-P2B8-G35C
M9FQ-FNBB-G6C5
P86B-3TBR-QT32

Once they’re gone, they’re gone!  Update: They’re all gone!  Once you’ve used a code, could you kindly reply to this post?  That’s all I ask.

Instructions on how to redeem the promotion code:

1) Sign in to your PlayStation®Network account.
2) Visit PlayStation®Store via your PlayStation®3 system, PSP™ (PlayStation®Portable) system, PSP™go system or Media Go for PSP™ on your PC.
3) Select the [Redeem Codes] icon from the [Store Top].
4) Enter your 12 character promotion code and select [Continue].
5) Promotion codes are case sensitive and must be entered exactly as displayed.
6) Follow the on-screen instructions to redeem the promotion code.

New round of The Game begins

You may have heard of ‘The Game’ from PlayStation. It’s a vast array of online mini-game challenges for your PC or Mac – ranging from old-school arcade games to hard to guess quizzes. The site is here at –  www.PS3-TheGame.com

I’ve been contacted from PlayStation, and this is what they’ve had to say:

The Game is a global game between two teams, Team A and Team B. We launched it back in January and since it has been played by thousands of people globally fighting it out in either Team A or Team B, creating their own leagues, their own challenges and generally having a lot of fun. The first round ended a couple of weeks ago with Team A scoring on the top of the leader board and ultimately winning the Game.

We have Facebook pages for each teams, where you can meet the team captains and other players.

Team B – http://www.facebook.com/thegameteamb

Team A – http://www.facebook.com/thegameteama

I’ve been told that there’s a PS3 game voucher up for grabs, so I’ll see if we can arrange a giveaway of some sort.

What should I play next?

Following on from looking at the top 5 games to watch out for in 2010, I’ve been giving some thought as to what I should be playing next.  PixelJunk Shooter has been completed, as has Burnout Paradise.  I’m doing one last play-through of inFamous, and that should cover it.  I’m after something that I can get my teeth stuck into.

As far as online multiplayer goes, the extra DLC for Uncharted 2 has me covered, as does the ever-addictive Modern Warfare 2.  That also means that I don’t really want to be playing yet another FPS, so that means MAG is out the window for now.

Heavy Rain has been recently released, but for what it is, I’m rather hesitant to be dropping £40 right now on such a release.  Instead, I’ve turned my attention to games that have been out for a while and have dropped in price quite a bit.  I’m currently thinking along the lines of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed,  DiRT 2, Resident Evil 5, The Saboteur, and Call of Juarez.

What I want to know is, am I missing something?  Also, do you have any idea what you might be playing next?

In Brief: Teamwork is key

Had a blast playing some split-screen Modern Warfare 2 with three players (myself included). During a free-for-all there were complaints that I had the bottom half of the screen to myself, with the other two players just having a measly quarter each. Complaints duly noted, so I suggested we have a team death match with the pair of them squaring off against me. It was a whitewash.

I gave them such a pasting that they don’t really want to talk about it afterwards! Whilst I acknowledge that I’m no pro gamer, I do offer some tips so that your team functions: 1) actually communicate with each other so that; 2) you can actually flank someone, 3) you don’t both go down the same narrow alley as you’ll both be blown to pieces by a grenade, and 4) you don’t throw a flash bang grenade in close proximity leaving your team sitting ducks. That is all.

In Brief: Localisation gone loco?

In this brief discussion, I really am talking about ‘assets’ on game cases. And I’m not on about the artwork samples, so to speak.

A few weeks back, the Heavy Rain box art for Europe was unveiled, and it looked good.  The cover was elegant in its simplicity and resembled a piece of artwork itself.  Along comes the American cover version and you’ve guessed it… the lowest common denominator was used.  The marketers perhaps saw just a ‘boring’ origami crane in the rain.  The solution it seemed, was to put a woman with a wet, tight-fitting blouse on the front instead.  Puh-lease!  It insult’s everyone’s intelligence.

It may look like I’m slagging off Americans, but what I’m trying to get across is that whoever is responsible for this marketing decision needs to treat their audience with a bit more respect.  The game is solely aimed at an adult audience, but I thought we were going to get more maturity in games, not more smut.

3D Gaming Revolution

A guest post by Robert Elliot of Button-basher.com.

For those old enough to remember, stereoscopic 3D gaming is nothing new.  Sega’s Master System was one of the first attempts of 3D gaming and came with a pair of very unsuccessful and unsupported 3D glasses.  Then there was the 3D gaming effort from Nintendo, the rather disastrous Virtual Boy came with 3D goggles that didn’t help enhance the 3D gaming experience at all.

Even after all of this, there’s still a sense recently that this is the first time 3D gaming has really come of age. The equipment we’re starting to see come out is fantastic and really impressive so people’s expectations have risen with regards to what they want from their 3D tech now.  It could also be the case that there is more of a hardcore games market that’s becoming more and more about HD graphics and is also looking for something new.  Perhaps it’s all of the publicity that 3D work is getting with the film industries renewed interest in stereoscopic film.

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There’s just never enough bullets

Prologue

We’ve all been there.  Imagine this: You find yourself in a dark, foreboding corridor of some creepy facility with a torch that’s not as powerful as your average mobile phone’s ‘torch’ mode, casting a dim light into the distance.  Your head… hurts.  Must have been that [insert name of relevant: zombie/beast/abomination] you encountered previously who had a killer right-hook and fancied nibbling on your leg like it was a chicken drumstick.  You rustle through your medic pack and apply your last bandage.  That’ll keep you going for a while.  You hope.

The facility’s main alarm goes off, alerting any nearby creature with even a passing interest in human flesh to your presence.  Your heart beats a little bit faster, unsure of what’s to come.  In the distance you make out the silhouette of some 7ft tall creature who’s making good progress towards you probably due to a good-fitting pair of trainers it took off the last victim.  Shotgun out: let’s go for a head shot shall we?  Nice and easy.  *click*.  Oh dear.

Continue reading There’s just never enough bullets