REGULAR VISITORS AND those who know anything about me at all will already be well aware of my general lack of…fondness for Halo. Nonetheless, being that there are only the Reaper, Charlie and myself making regular contributions at the moment, and Halo being one of the most successful and popular games franchises in the current gaming market, it seemed like a bad idea to cut them out completely. And, well, it seems that I am currently in the best position to muddle through. So here I am, back again with my take on the second chapter in this, most decidedly love it or hate it series.

I was rather critical of the first chapter, far more so than I really intended to be. And whilst I still feel my opinions were justified and correct from my perspective (opinion is a personal thing after all) I still made a genuine effort to offer a more impartial review. Unfortunately, I just couldn’t find anything at all about Halo that appealed to me. But my views on the first game are already documented and available of this very website for all to see so I don’t need to go over them again. But it’s important that I add perspective because the paragraphs to follow may come as a surprise to many.

Halo 2 improved immensely over the original both technically and atmospherically. The scripting was significantly better, with the characters being fleshed out far more than in the predecessor. Most notably the Chief himself, who was, not to put too fine a point on it, a right arrogant…so and so. He develops a more approachable and ultimately more compelling personality in his second appearance, moving away from the cheesy, gung ho “I’m going to save the galaxy” bs. He gains more of a grounded perspective, making him seem more likeable and less of a douchebag.

The plot, also, had a better flow to it, though a lot of that was ruined when the ending became, more or less, a repeat of the original game. Only the locations changed, and the introduction of a new playable character, the Covenant Arbuter, offering a slightly different perspective. I still wouldn’t go so far as to say I enjoyed the game, but I can at least say that I didn’t out and out hate it either. I’ve never been a particular fan of First Person Shooters at the best of times, and Halo 2 did nothing to draw me in and leave me with anything more than a so-so impression. And, again, I didn’t bother with the online play because that also has never appealed to me. I know that the online matches are a large part of the appeal for many gamers, but I’ve always been more interested in the main game so my impressions are always going to be based from that first.

It didn’t help that I was running a built for Vista game on XP Home either. I needed a number of home built and edited files to allow the game to even run on my rig, and faced a number of problems along the way from a technological stand point. Though this, of course, has nothing to do with the game itself, and could have been avoided by running the game under the correct OS, it didn’t exactly endear me towards it when I had to use the Task manager to close it down because it had frozen for the umpteenth time. Still, I do accept that that was my own fault and should be taken not as an attack on the game, but as a heads up to those who, like myself, still use XP and wish to play the PC version of the game.

Basically, Halo 2 is a lot like the first and will likely always divide the gaming world. Some will love it, others will hate it. Me? I was wholly under enthused and can say only that it wasn’t really bad, but wasn’t really very good either. As always, it would be best to decide for yourself. Just don’t expect to see me running through it again any time soon. Though it does offer 1000 achievement points which are attainable without needing a subscription to Live for online so…maybe.

Graphics: 8/10
Gameplay: 7/10
Audio/Music: 7.5/10
Plot/Scripting: 8/10
Overall: 7.5/10

P.S : WTF?!? Cortana went Emo. Hmm…

Emoness : 9.5/10

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THE YEAR IS 1962. God (sometimes also known by the more humble name of Stan Lee) is sitting in his office at Marvel publishing wracking his brain for a new idea for a super-hero. The Fantastic 4, the X-Men and a number of other previous titles are all doing well, having lead to a surge in demand for quality comic books. Fortuity shines on our intrepid hero and he glances across to see a spider making it’s way steadily up his office wall.

Forty-seven years later, this chance event had lead to arguably the most famous, most well recognised and best loved super-hero character in comic, television and film history. With dozens of off-shot comic lines, several reinventions and re-tellings of the original seventeen page short in what, at the time, was to be the final issue of Amazing Fantasy, and three smash hit films (even if the third was crap) to reintroduce good old Spidey to yet another generation. When you consider it like that, Spider-Man : Web of Shadows (in this instance for the Nintendo Wii) has a dizzying legacy to stand up to.

Something which it does in spectacular style.

From the city spanning opening, punctuated by an extremely famous piece of classical music (which I of course have forgotten the name of) and a Spidey that is decidedly more aggressive than we are used to seeing him, to the fist full of alternate endings. Dictated by your decisions at key moments in the story, you can influence not only the final outcome of the game, but also some of the more important events along the way as well.

You have a meter that shows your general leaning either towards the “good” traditional red Spider-Man, or the “bad” black Spider-Man. We were promised during early development of the game that, for the first time, we would actually b given the opportunity to play Spider-Man as an anti-hero. Or even an outright villain, and I’m happy to say that, for once, the pre-release claims were right on the money. Not just little acts of selfishness, but outright cruelty, such as (spoiler alert) during the battle with a symbiote infected Wolverine. Upon defeating him you are given the two options of how to proceed, and if you choose the black option Spidey lifts him above his head and, literally, rips him in half at the waste. Dropping him back onto the floor in two pieces.

I could go into great detail of the plot and game mechanics, but personally, I think the game is so well made that it needs nothing further. The more important part of a review, after all, is the simple question of whether it’s any good or not. And the answer is a resounding, explosive YES. The game is absolutely amazing, and as far as I’m aware is identical to the Playstation 3 and X-Box 360 release in everything except graphical complexity. Certainly the games rooftop opening is exactly the same and I am now looking forward to playing the HD version as well to compare the two.

Spideyness: 9.5/10

Graphics: 9/10
Gameplay: 9/10
Audio/Music: 9/10
Plot/Scripting: 9/10
Overall: 9.5/10

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I’m sure y’all have been wondering that since, for all intents and purposes, it’s most decidedly a member of the current generation of consoles.  Though it may not have the raw power of the home gaming systems, the Playstation Portable is still far and above the most powerful handheld released to date.  Noticeablly more powerful than we were originally told, it runs circles around it’s forefather the Playstation 2, games being “inferior” to Playstation 2 counterparts because of reduced disc space rather than the inner gubbins.

So yes, where be the Playstation Portable reviews I hear you cry? Or is that just my neighbour after a night on the lash? Whichever, the point is that, thanks to the very nice man at my local gaming store, henceforth known as the very nice man at my local gaming store, I can now link my Slim and Lite (I have a classic as well, but don’t ask why) PSP to my TV for sound and video output.  This means I can now take high quality images of the screen and, when I come across another, capture live video feed as well.

Basically, there’ll be PSP reviews coming soon.

Watch this space.

Your loyalty will be rewarded…with cake

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"What Kind of Explosive Garbage is this!!"



Wow, after playing the main game for only thirteen seconds I had
already decided to return the game to get Bad Company instead, and boy
I am so glad I did.



Firstly I want to get one thing straight; I am a fan of this first
Mercenaries on the PS2. It was one of the best games I had ever
played, and amazed me to no-end. Even the initial demo was really
cool, and you could blow up EVERYTHING, well almost. All the military
vehicals, helicopters, tanks and weapons were a joy to play with in
that 'Playground of Destruction!' and you could see elements of Star
War Battlefront within the gameplay, and certainly it was used by
pandemic as part of the coding for the game. This made the game a lot
of fun. Though that goes without saying that the game had faults. I
mean what game doesn't have mistakes, unfinished levels, and wierd
glitches (such as being catapaulted across the make-up of Korea in a
helcopter after I tried to carry a fuel truck on the winch, strange)
though all games have their short-comings; the GTA series has always
had strange gltches, and wierd happenings (planes falling out of the
sky) But now...



...what we have here is an utter load of tripe and a classic case of
Electronic Arts producing games because they know that the fan-base
will snap it up. Such as the poor Goldeneye: Rogue Agent game. (EA,
obviously, still have a lot to learn about fan pleasing, over money
squandering)



Mercenaries had changed production companies early on in its initial
development and was purchased from Lucas Arts by EA, and I was
thinking that maybe it would be another turn-around title for the
gaming giant; much like Bad Company, Dead Space, and Fifa have done in
2008. But no... the sad news is; the game that, and apart from GTA IV,
was one of the games I was most looking forward to playing, was a huge
let-down.



Firstly lets talk about graphics, or lack of it. I mean the game was
released on both x-Box 360 and PS3, yes I have played both versions,
and this is the kind of graphical quality on a game that I might have
come to expect from a regular PS2, or even back in 2006 on the next
gen consoles during its early days. Not in 2008. I mean you have to
see this crap to believe it. All I can say kid, is don't believe in
these screen shots, they misslead. The main character models are the
only things that seem to be HD, shiny, and anything close to good
rendering.



The gameplay is okay, if a little shabby. The control system for the
first Mercenaries was perfect, and my motto is don't fix something
that ain't broke (something Activision seems to know well with its COD
series, and Crytek UK, formally known as Free Radical Design, the
developers of the TimeSplitters series of First Person Shooters, and
the hugely under appreciated Haze.) Anyway the controls have been
revamped, but not in a good way. Natrualistic controls seem to have
been up-rooted in favor of an overly complex mess of 'which button
throws a grenade?!', and 'how the hell do you change to the other
weapon I'm carrying?!'. Disappointing. And then there is the in-game
PDA, and the rest of the interfacing with the game world. It gives me
a headache just thinkng about it. EA have screwed up the PDA into this
big Logo of the game, I mean why be so subtle; they may as well paste
the EA symbol im BIG RED LETTERS onto the in game buildings, cars, &
tanks. Infact there of no-sign within this load of rush work, of the
far superior game that this one sequals. To be totally honest, the
controls suck.



Though I will admit that the open ended gameplay, and the ability to
go anywhere is probably this games only redeeming feature (and its
bargain-bin price) but with so many games that follow the same
formula; GTA being the best example, this is nothing more than a
tiresome clone. A rip off, a clone of a game that needed no
improvements, yet Pandemic were only so happy, under EA's guidance, to
add and distort what was initially looking like a promising game that
had three years of development time, yet it looks like something
thrown together at the last minute. What gives? However something
slightly suprising is the sound engine.



The sound design, considering the rest of the games' quality is
something; by which I mean that this is your average sound design of a
game that just can't cut it standing next to the likes of the previous
Mercenaries, or Bad Company, and not even close to standing with GTA.
Amoung all the wrong turns and short cuts it a sound sound engine
(forgive the pun) it does, like Ronseal, exactly what it says on the
tin. In other words... its fine. Nothing wrong with it, nor anything
especially interesting.



However what got me was the games story; it centres around the plot of
(which ever one of) the Mercenaries characters getting shot in the ass
by someone who betrayed him/her and is about revenge. I thought it
would have been a funny plot, but the joke just doesn't work, none of
the dialogue is memorable, nor is my bothering to tell you the rest of
the lame plot. I mean, just go buy Bad Company if you want to blow
something up. It is a better alternitive. Or even go and fork over €60
for a second hand PS2 and Mercenaries and have a ball. Why not get GTA
San Andreas while you're at it....



The Verdict- THIS REVIEW SPEAKS FOR ITSELF, I'm totally disgusted with
this game, and I feel ripped off by EA once more.
"EA! theres a ticked off gamer here!"



The number game:

Graphics- 3
Gameplay- 4
Sound Design- 7
Plot/Story- 2
Replayability- 7

Score- 4.6



Final Words- I'm not proud to admit this, but this game contains a fun
co-op online multiplayer in which the entire game can be played
together with another Mercenaries 2 owner, especially fun with a
friend. Possibly the best feature of the game.



Author Note- This review is entirely my opinion and I have been
completely fair in my scoring and have tried to keep a balance to it.
However, even though my review was un-biazed by the corporate media,
and I have been completely honest in my opinion there will ofcourse be
those who do not share my opinions. That is the trait of we humans, to
make our own decisions on things. Thus I urge you to try Mercenaries
2, do not rely justly on my thoughts.

Happy Gaming!!

-Jedireaper

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