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The quiet before the storm

By: The Almighty Bobfish Category: Games, N64, News, PC, PS2, PS3, Wii

Well, our regular subscribers will have surely noticed that it’s been a little quiet in GR land the past few weeks.  But fear not, we have not forgotten you, our loyal minions of return minionness.  It5’s gotten back to that time of year when everyone, even we, your review writing lords, have a lot to deal with.

At present, our duties consist of :

1) Shouting at the TV

2) Shouting at each other

3) Shouting at ourselves

4) Eating cake

And E) Sleeping in the garden

However, come the other side of the new year, bot the Reaper and I will return with an impressive line up of both new and old games for you to sink your teeth into.  I don’t want to go into too much detail about our little secret project, but I can assure you it is something on a scale not previously considered.  Something that has been made possible only now through the keen application of Ebay, an old CRT Television and a lama called Steve.

We will also be briinging you Fallout 3 for both Playstation 3 and PC, Siren Blood Curse, Rainbow Six Vegas and several more titles that you may still be uhming and ahhing about that we can, perchance, inform you correctly about.  Both the good and the bad aspects.  Watch this space my loyal minions, thine faith shall be rewarded.

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COD of WAW: Chains of Nazombies (seriously)

By: Jedireaper Category: Call of Duty, PS3, World at War
Hello folks and welcome to my final review before the festive season. With December 25th coming up, most of you gamers are probably wondering what game you should ask for (or get) next. Well, this is one game that is sure to be on your gift list.
The last few months has seen the release of some major titles, be it Little Big Planet, Far Cry 2, Call of Duty: World at War, Dead Space, and most recently; Resistance 2. I’m not here to influence your decision in any way as all are great games. However, I am here to give my opinion on the new Call of Duty - okay its not so new anymore but can it beat COD 4?
The short answer is a little bit of a maybe - it is a yes/no situation. Call of Duty 4 brought the First Person Shooter genre to gun-playing, and atmospheric nirvana, bringing in nostalgic value for me as i could almost compare the game to GoldenEye on the Nintendo 64 (see my COD 4 review), and if it wasn’t for the low replayability, that game would have rocked. However if I was going on about COD 4 for this entire paragraph, I apologise, but that should just show how much I appreciate the game. Anyway back to COD:World at War…
World at War has a very engaging single player campaign, again from two perspectives as before in COD 4, but in this case the two perspectives are not connected by an interlinking storyline with the events happening in one place affecting the other. You play an American Marine, and a Russian Soldier. Both stories start off considerably well, with the American side of the conflict based in the Pacific, and the war on the Japanese.
It is quite a progressive story, jumping years at a time. There is some squad moments and a good narrative but its nothing ‘Brothers in Arms: Hells Highway’ hasn’t pulled off more successfully. And the only problem I have with the war on the Japanese that is it has been done before - quite well in fact; in ‘Medal of Honour: Rising Sun’. Yes, Medal of Honour: Rising Sun may not have been as good as this game in the sheen and fluidity department but I think it was more fun, and I just felt while playing through the American perspective on COD: WAW that I was treading familiar territory. (Might I also add that MOH: RS also had almost all the features this game has online, including online and split screen co-op - I remember me and a friend spent a good few hours playing this game on co-op, and I especially remember this one level that involved an elephant ride. We spent hours trying to kill the blasted elephant, it was really funny. The music when you rode on it was funny too.)
The Russian story is more classic and straight forward gaming, by which I mean; you know your enemy. and everything is familiar, a throwback to the greatness that COD 4 was. Nothing will surprise you here (except a falling pillar on the second last level), and I think I enjoyed these missions more. Not because they were easy (which they weren’t), but because who doesn’t love blasting Nazi’s.
The level design, while very dark and grey in contrast to the vibrant greenery of the Pacific islands, was more somehow satisfying and, I don’t know, it reminded me of all those war games I’ve played. Still at the very last moment of the story, wounded and possibly about to die, you crawl forward and haul the Russian flag over Berlin, and you get that sense of pride and a tearful remembrance for the men and women that died for liberty. You actually felt like you just fought the whole war and boy that pride as the Red flag flutters is a sheer joy.
I enjoyed this game far more than COD 4 when it comes to making you feel for the war and get all emotional at the end. (When you play the game you’ll know what I mean.) Anyway about the other features and attributes - COD: WAW uses the same game engine and control design as COD 4 (why change something that isn’t broke?) and has some lovely visuals. The gun battles with the old WW2 (World War 2) weapons are made all the more nail biting as their inaccuracy comes into account. which makes the online fairer on newbies than COD 4 was online. This game I believe also has some very nice game modes. My favorite being Nazi Zombie, which puts you back into the boots of American GI’s and pits you against hoards of Zombies for points to get the best weapon. (I have lasted to round 12 thus far online, but I know someone who made round 20.) However what got me about the sound track is, although i can appreciate the attempt of trying to distance itself from the classical scores of the MoH games, is simply put “out of place” the freaking music just doesn’t always fit with the emotion it should be trying to draw from the player. Again that is just my opinion, as for most of the game, I was at a point where I got so sick of the electro, rockish score that I turned the music off completely. Good new is the weapons feel, shoot, and sound as they should.
The Verdict - Call of Duty; World at War is more enjoyable over the COD 4 game, with trophies to keep you going on the single player, and the online mode. Meanwhile some may argue that stepping back to the WW2 setting has ruined the new direction COD 4 took. This is, in my opinion, not true. WAW is a fine addition to the COD series and I expect great things from makers Treyarch, and Infinity Ward (COD 4 maker) in the future.
The Score -
Graphics - 9
Gameplay - 10
Sound/Score - 7
Plot - 8
Replayability - 9
Final Score - 8.6
Award - Best Online Shooter.
Award - Best Mini-game (Zombie Nazi).


Join www.killermovies.com/forums/ and discover a new world of online socialising. From discussions about comics, books, games and films to Role Playing in any manner of variety. There is something for everybody.

Hope to see you there..

PSN ID: Jedireaper

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Give Yourself An Edge With These Controllers

By: Charlie Jones Category: Gaming Accessories

modded controllers

Recently I came across a company that produces and sells unique modded controllers for gamers, and I thought I’d give you guys a heads up on them.

The company is called Evil Controllers, and they offer modded controllers that give the player a significant advantage when gaming.

For example, they offer the only undetectable Call OF Duty 5 Rapid Fire Controller available to consumers. The controller has been modded to give the user rapid fire abilities, that are undetectable to COD5 — an obvious and significant advantage to the player. Now, if you had recently heard that updates to COD5 online rendered such controllers useless — that is true in most cases, but not for the controllers sold by the people at Evil Controllers. In fact, it made their offering the only viable option for those with a hunger for rapid-fire.

So maybe you don’t play COD 5? Evil Controllers also offers modded controllers for other popular games too. Some of these games include GOW, GTA1, COD4 and more. If you know a hard-core player of any of these games, a modded controller could be a huge hit in the way of a Christmas gift to them.

One more thing I want to mention is that Evil Controllers offers five different Halo 3 Rapid Fire Controllers! Halo 3 is my game of choice, so I’ll probably buy one as a little gift to myself, and later post about all the fun I have with it!

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KILLZONE - Futuristic Nazi’s? Yaay!

By: Jedireaper Category: KILLZONE, PS2

“My people, sons and daughters of Helghan; for many years we have been a broken nation. Shunned. Oppressed. And conquered by those those we sought to escape! Twelve years ago I asked for time…” and that’s how Killzone’s intro kicks off, sending us into a frenzy of OH MY GOD amazing! Although the intro cinematic is one of the best I have ever seen, and boasts some of the finest animation and very good voice acting from Brian Cox as Scholar Visari, it is still only a cinematic, nothing to get excited over- though the almost Scottish undertones make Brian Cox all the more believable as Visari, the diabolical leader of the Helghast people, or should that be Nazi’s in space? Does this mean the game is any good? Sadly, you’ll find out here…

The game’s story is generally intriguing, with enough substance to keep the player occupied through-out the entire game, as you set out on a mission for General Vaughton, as a Captain Jan (Pronounced:Yan) Templar to locate a spy called Hakha, and to escort him to the Space Defense platform in orbit.

However things do not always go as planned. On the way however, you run into Jan’s old girlfriend; Luger the assassin, Rico the Heavy Weapons and loud mouth, and of course the spy Hakha, who is an ex-Helghast. While the story certainly is very well thought out, sometimes you would wonder if maybe the developers creating the story watched the A-Team a little too often. Those of you who play or have played the game will certainly know what I mean.

Anyway I don’t want to spoil the story for those of you who have yet to sample this game in any way so I will not let loose on the exact details. The game does have quite a good narrative through-out and certainly some of the dialogue is almost as witty as such that is found in TimeSplitters: Future Perfect, with the most biting dialogue between Rico (BA?) and Hakha (Murdock?).

The graphics are also very nicely done, definitely pushing the PS2 to its absolute limits.

The level of detail is surprising for a PS2 game, although there are some rendering issues with close up items looking low resolution, where the game is still catching up with onscreen events- the developer claimed the PS2’s hardware wasn’t up to the spec required of it, technologically undermined by the X-box. Though, tracer bullets, smoke, highly detailed environments, blood, explosions, shoot-outs and weapons are all very believable.

The gunfights are hectic, fast paced, and mechanically well done, with the enemy AI dealing with you fairly well, though in some cases it is quite forgivably dumb. Its as well as could be be expected for such an ambitious game. The varied ways in which you can choose your path through levels by selecting the different characters. Jan is the general route, Luger is the stealth route, Rico is the freight train through the Helghast ranks. Hakha is the one who can get behind enemy laser grids etc. You get the picture? No? Well tough. The first person character animations are good, very good, from climbing ladders, hopping low walls, to the amazing reloads. Its all good.

Sound design is quite good, with each gun sounding resoundingly satisfying, and definitely your usual FPS gunfire, certainly sounding that they pack the punch that it actually does. I do however like the soundtrack. The online mode is definitely something to talk about, including the split screen multiplayer against bots. The BOTS actually do react like REAL players… cool!

All in all, a good rout through the Space Nazi’s of KILLZONE. Anyway; lets get down to the Final Verdict before I fall asleep on my
keyboard.

The Score-

Graphics: 8
Gameplay: 8
Sound Design: 8
Story/Plot: 8
Replayability: 8

Final score: 8 (Bronze)

Awards: Jedireapers “Favorite PS2 FPS” award

Final Words-
Killzone is definitely worth it to see the story play out, but by no means is it a Halo beater as people had labeled it to be, nor can it truly be compared to Halo… duh different console. And with the release of KILLZONE 2 coming early 2009 (February?) it should be picked up for a quick play through. And until KZ2, I haven’t got anything better to do than write this.

www.killermovies,com/forums

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