I’ve decided to write about my gaming experiences each week. Since I tend to play several different games at a time, it makes it hard for me to “review” most of them after I’ve finally completed one. So, in-between getting into my full reviews, I wanted to offer up my thoughts on games I’m recently playing but haven’t completed. Or in this case, a game I have beaten but played over such a long period of time I can’t really give it a full review. I will of course be writing with the intention of leaving out spoilers.
Medal of Honor: Warfighter
Recently I completed the game Medal of Honor: Warfighter. The most memorable parts of that game for me were the driving levels. They were beautiful, graphics wise. Some of the cities you drive through were very pretty but mostly it was just the traffic you drive past, and the people walking on the sidewalks that made it feel alive and wonderful. You do race through traffic as you chase down the bad guys. What was really cool about it was that the way it played seemed like you were really chasing a smart driver. Swerving in and out of traffic, slowing down at different turns but then speeding up so you couldn’t really tell which direction they were gonna go. This also seemed to change randomly if you failed the event previously and had to start over. Yeah, I failed a couple times, bite me.
The shooting scenes were cool also. Typical shooter stuff but awesome nonetheless. Breaching doors was pretty cool because you get to decide which tool you want to use for the action. A shotgun, a couple different types of bombs; you have several choices once you earn them.
I was expecting the game to be more story-driven after reading many opinions on it. The game is really cool but it didn’t have a lot of actual story in my opinion. It was a little disappointing because even the music video by Linkin Park had me totally interested. That was beautiful. Another disappointment was that I never got to hear that song until the finishing credits of the game. That was okay because the music in the game was just fine. I just really liked that song and was hoping to hear it during the game.
I understand what people meant about the game being more story-driven. The story itself is still the typical military FPS kind of thing, capture or kill terrorists. However, in this game you get to know the individual soldiers on a more personal level. While there’s not a lot of story to them, you know their family, how many kids they have, if they’re married. This gives you a better connection to the people you play as.
You play as a few different characters throughout the game, switching between them on different levels. The ending of the game was really beautiful and it did bring tears to my eyes. I’m a sap though, whatevs.
Need For Speed: Most Wanted
In the past week, other than completing Medal of Honor: Warfighter, I started playing Need For Speed: Most Wanted. Talk about a game with absolutely gorgeous graphics. I get blinded just by the reflection from the roads, it’s insane.
The photo above isn’t very good and definitely doesn’t show off the games graphics but I haven’t taken a lot of screenshots yet. I just thought this was really cool because I actually drove over to this part of the world from that city in the distance.
I like how you get new cars by finding them out in the open world. It’s not like they made them all super easy to find. And it really helps contribute to the open world feeling. I love just driving around, getting used to the power of the new vehicles I’ve found.
That reminds me of one thing that’s been driving me nuts. The controls are so slippery! I used to love the high sensitivity of driving analog, but in this game its had me pretty frustrated. Mostly because of another thing I noticed. I can’t tell if this game is supposed to be a racing sim or an arcade racer. You drive super fast, and the game definitely offers a wonderful sensation of speed, but you crash when you hit a car even at 50mph, maybe slower. It drives me nuts every single time. I always think why am I not just smashing through these cars?
I’m not talking about accidental driving that makes me crash. I wouldn’t be so bothered by that. I’m talking about speeding along and just rear-ending a car that brings you to a complete halt in a smashing manner. Of course some of the crashes are super cool looking. I’m not complaining that I’m crashing in a racing game. It’s just that most arcade racers allow you to smash through cars, maybe slowing you down as you continue on. In this game you can’t freaking hit a car without getting smashed, unless you’re in a tank. I did find a pretty nice truck that doesn’t get immediately demolished in a slow rear-end accident.
The reason this is so noticeable is because you smash through telephone poles, mailboxes, whatever is out on the sidewalks. And that is a beautiful sight man. Mailboxes and newspapers flying up at your screen as you speed along, completely blocking your view for a split second. You smash through so much of that, but then if you hit a car you come to a crashing halt.
Sadly the game chugs on my computer. It’s another one of those I can’t believe my computer can play this game thoughts. Even with settings lower there are times where it chugs along. But it definitely plays better on lower settings. I hate having to lower settings. You miss out on a lot of glorious scenes because of it. It’s still beautiful though on lower settings. One of the funnier things that’s noticeable with the graphics settings lower is that you don’t get blinded by the sunlight and reflections from the road, making it easier to race.
There’s lots of fun stuff that rewards you for driving around the world. Big jumps that take you smashing through giant billboards. The jumps are my favorite thing so far. Speed camera’s that capture how fast you’re going are everywhere. I think I’ve actually spent most of my time just driving around the world, not even doing races. There is a little more reasoning to that though. The game is hard.
Since it seems to be a mix of sim and arcade racer, it makes it really hard to race through. It’s an attitude thing I guess. I want to race at full speed and take crazy hand-brake turns but it doesn’t work out that way. I crash all the time and the AI racers just dominate me. But if I try to drive smarter, I can’t catch up to my opponents. At the speeds I’m driving at, it’s hard to tell where the heck I am and where I’m going sometimes. I imagine it might be easier on a PC that can handle the game at full graphics though. And you have to stay on the road, you can’t just speed over sidewalks, the game slows you down. So it has me confused a bit.
I only have a few hours played on the game, so hopefully I’ll get better with more practice. That’s usually how it works. I’m just surprised at how weird and difficult the game is so far. It’s definitely tricky being stuck between sim and arcade racer.
The game crashes to the desktop for me a lot. Yeah, it sucks. I’ve only tried a couple of the Most Wanted races but almost every single time I want to enter the race, my game crashes. This is a different kind of race where you face one rare car, once you beat it you get to use it. These cars are really good and hard to beat. Lowering the graphics settings has made me able to enter a race, but it’s not 100%, I still crash on loading the race up. It’s very frustrating but I only have myself to blame for not having a better PC I suppose.
One thing that has frustrated me more often than anything else is the cars I come across that are only available from the cash shop. Yeah, they don’t even try to hide these. They put these totally awesome looking cars right out in the open so that when you drive up to it, you get the “open store” button prompt. Ridiculous. And they’re everywhere!
All that said, I really enjoy the game so far. I’ve gotten a couple of cars that I was surprised were even in the game. One that looks like a little go-cart but goes super fast. Another that looks like a giant go-cart. Makes me laugh. Both are very cool. And you do get real cool cars without having to go to the cash shop.
First Impression: Amazing Spider-Man
I received The Amazing Spider-Man from Gamefly the other day. I’m really enjoying it so far, with a couple of hours into it. It’s really fun, the combat is crazy badass. The combo’s you pull off are awesome even though they’re basically from button mashing. It’s cool even though it’s button spam; you end up doing different finishing moves and stuff from the same button combinations.
The controls have been quite frustrating at times.
