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God of War 3 (PS3)

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God of War 3 is Sony’s latest installment in their acclaimed God of War trilogy. For those unfamiliar with the series, it takes place in a time when Greek gods ruled over earth. You are Kratos, a fierce Spartan warrior who has been betrayed by the gods of Olympus and seeks vengeance against Zeus and anyone else foolish enough to stand in his way. This third installment is the culmination of events from the first two games and picks up with Kratos heading up to Mount Olympus to finally get his much needed payback. Does he get his revenge? If so, is it a worthy conclusion to all of the epic events that have lead up to this point? read on….

GRAPHICS (10/10)

Right off the bat, I will start with what attracts people immediately about this game, which is the game’s phenomenal graphics. This is perhaps the best looking console game I have ever seen, with the only other game even coming close to it being Uncharted 2. The graphics in GOW3 do an amazing job of recreating Ancient Greece. While playing this game, one really gets the feeling that they are treading though all of these Greek ruins. The level of detail in each environment is mind blowing. While most games are somewhat rooted in reality, it is a real accomplishment to create an incredibly immersive game that is based strictly on someone’s imagination- whcih is exactly what GOW3 does.

Perhaps the single most impressive thing about this game graphically is the character model for Kratos. The level of definition on Kratos’ model is just stagerring. When he picks something up, his back and shouder muscles flex appropriately. everything from little drops of blood on his shiny armor to scar tissue on his face and torso are vrought to life in graphic detail. As amazing as the art desing for this game is, it would be nothing without the incredible execution that is seen in the game’s graphics.

STORY (9/10)

The story in this game is excellent. Fans of the previous games and fans of Greek Mythology will really eat this one up. I won’t get into any of the plot points, but I will say that GOW3 does an great job of tying together all of the elements from the first two games and wrapping them up nicely. Kratos is still as vicious and brutal as ever which is perfect for all of the mythological beasts, gods, and demigods that he is thrown up against in his quest for vengeance. The game’s ending has come under a lot of debate, but personally I thought it was a very fitting and satisfying ending to an already unbelievalbe series. My only gripe is that I am sad that it all had to end.

GAMEPLAY (10/10)

As anyone familiar with the previous installments can attest, the gameplay is fast and furious. While many of the core combat elements remain unchanged, there have been new additions and tweaks that managed to improve upon the already intense combat system. Like previosu games, Kratos gains additional weapons to use in his quest. Unlike the previous games where the additional weapons fall short of the default blades, the addiditonal weapons in GOW3 are actually very useful and each one comes in handy for specific encounters.

Like the previous games, this game features some of the most violent and brutal action seen anywhere. Having played some of the most graphic games ever released, I must say that the GOW series definitely takes the cake as far as graphic violence is concerned and this latest installment just raises the bar. While I’m not a violence whore by any means, there is just something very rewarding about dispatching a group of challenging enemies in the most painful ways imaginable. Nothing says payback like decapitating an enemy with their own weapon.

REPLAYABILITY (8/10)

As great as this game is, there is no multiplayer component. Aside from the single player campaign, the only thing left to do is fight in one of the combat arenas or complete miscellaneous challenges. The campaign mode is great but I’m guessing that the average person probably won’t play through the entire thing more than two or three times at most. I tried out some of the challenges and the combat arena and as much as I enjoyed the game I don’t really see these things holding my interest for too long. I would rather play through the campaign a few more times. The bottom line is that unless you are a die hard fan you probably will not get too much replayability out of this game past the campaign mode.

OVERALL (9.5/10)

This is the final installment in the trilogy and supposedly it is also Kratos’ swan song. After playing through all three games, GOW3 is a truly fitting end to the series. While the first two games had a vision that was somewhat limited by the constraints of the PS2, this game isn’t held back by any technological limitations and it clearly shows. The scale of this game is, for lack of a better word, epic. As overused as that word is nowadays, there really is no better fitting word to describe this game.

The epicness of the game is perhaps most evident in the scale of everything. From the game’s opening in which you are riding on the back of Gaia ( one of the Titans) and leading the charge of Titans climbing Mount Olympus, the game grips you and never really lets go until the game’s conclusion. It is not uncommon to encounter bosses and characters that occupy the entire screen and in some cases multiple screens. Seeing the trilogy’s conclusion play out on such a grand scale is a truly fitting ending. There is a ton of polish and attention to detail that went in to making this game and it definitely shows. This is a game that every gamer should at least play through one time just to get the experience.

MLB 10: The Show (PS3)

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Good baseball video games are tough to come by. Even the best developers have fallen victim to junky control mechanics or wonky baseball physics. Like many other sports games, once a developer finds a control scheme that works, it is best to just stick with it and tweak it as required with each new version. The difficult part is finding solid control mechanics to use. Fortunately, MLB 10: The Show has this in the bag. With a few other baseball options on the market now, is this truly the best one? read on…

GRAPHICS (10/10)

Although EA Sports has trademarked its slogan “It’s in the game”, it should really consider leasing that motto to Sony for this game. It is amazing the amount of detail that made it into this game. It is amazing to see Derek Jeter come to the plate and do his little shimmy before getting in his batting stance or seeing an outfielder dust off his uniform after diving for a ball. There are just counteless minor details that baseball fans will just eat up.

The graphics themselves are pretty spectacular also. The players actually look like the players and not some crazy CGI rendered images of players. Often times player models will look good when up close or at the plate, but show that same player waiting on first base and he suddenly looks mildly deformed. This is not the case with MLB 10 where all the players look realistic all the time. The stadiums are all perfect replicas of their real life counterparts. If you’re playing at Fenway the Green Monster is brought to life with lush detail. Everthing from the billboards to the scoreboards to the players just screams authenticity in this game.

GAMEPLAY (10/10)

As pretty as the game looks, this is what it all really comes down to. Fortunately, the game more than delivers in thsi department. The game utilizes the same tried and true pitching mechanics that require you to push the proper face button to select your type of pitch, then use X to aim the pitch and determine how hard it will be thrown. Batting is also fairly simple as you use “x” for a contact swing or square for a power swing. I have never once used the quare button while batting and I haven’t had any problems connecting with X. Regardless, these control interfaces are by far the best ever created in a baseball game. Other games (such as MLB 2k10) use different control schemes and they wind up falling flat due to the high margin of error involved with the inputs.

The only gripe I had is with the fielding and how players dive for balls. For example, when you are using the shortstop and you are chasing a liner that your guy could easily pick up, sometimes the game never initiates the animation for the player to scoop the ball up, resulting in your player being on top of the ball and it rolling between his legs into the outfield. This is especially frustrating when you have a double play perfectly set up only to be robbed by some shoddy hit detection which prevented your player from picking up the ball. While this is not a gamebreaker, it is very frustrating. There were so many times when I would have pitched a perfect inning only to be robbed by a bobbled ball that results in a 2 run RBI. Maybe this is omething that can be fixed with a patch, but for now its just the way things are.

SOUND (7/10)

The sound of the games is actually pretty good. The crowd roars loudly whenever something exciting happens. The ump’s voice is distinguishable as he calls out strikes. The crack of the bat echoes through your speakers when a batter makes contact. All of he sound effects are great and really give off that stadium vibe.

The one thing that brings down the audio portion is the horrendous commentary. For the most part, the commentators are fairly decent. There are a lot of times when they will add their 2 cents at the worst possible times. If you ever strike out, you will most likely get an earful about it from the commentators as if they were the batting coaches. Its bad enough to strike out but then to hear the commentator ripping you about it just makes things so much worse. there were seriously times when I wanted to just walk up to their booth and punch them, they get that irritating.

ONLINE (7/10)

The online games I played were pretty lag free, but not completely. For a game like this, one second of lag can mean the difference between winning and losing. I can’t count the number of times I would’ve had a strike out only to fall victim to lag resulting in my pitch being slow and getting crushed out of the park. it is just too difficult to hit or pitch when you are fighting lag at the same time. I’m sure people with really good internet connections can probably play this game online without any problems but when I played I always fell victim to lag.

OVERALL (9/10)

This game is a must have for nay baseball fan out there. Unfortunately it is only available on PS3. This is one of the few PS3 exclusive titles that make 360 owners green with envy. When compared to the baseball offerings on other systems, MLB 10 smashes those hands down. The learning curve for this game is fairly steep, but once you start to get it down it is one of the most rewarding gaming experiences around. MLB10: The Show is by far the best console baseball game I have ever played, perhaps even the best sports game I have played.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (Xbox360, PS3)

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With the insane success of Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, it was inevitable that a game would come along and try to challenge COD for its throne. EA games has been touting its latest installment of its popular Battlefield franchise as the Modern Warfare killer. While both games are very similar, BF:BC2 has made some adjustments to its formula to try and one up its competition. Whether or not these changes truly make it a better game than the current champ is probably a matter of preference of who happens to be playing the game. While BF:BC2 is an excellent game, I’m willing to bet that most people will still prefer Modern Warfare.

GRAPHICS (9/10)

The graphics in this game are very detailed. Everything looks crisp and colorful with a nice variety of environments. The last game suffered from a constant haziness to the graphics but for the most part that has been cleaned up in this game. The destructable environments really shine through as every detail is visible as buildings are reduced to rubble in seconds. There are other efffects in here, such as snowstorms, sandstorms, and smoke that are all executed to perfection. The team at DICE did an excellent job creating realistic looking characters and backgrounds for this game and it really adds a lot to the overall package.

SOUND (10/10)

BF:BC2 has some of the best sounding guns in any game period. Whether you’re unloading clips from an submachine gun or sniping rounds from a 50 cal, the gunshots all have an incredible depth to them. You really get a feeling for a weapon’s power and speed by the sound that emanates with each shot. Explosions are also very well done as a large boom is often followed by the sound of metal crashing or bricks crumbling. Mass destruction never sounded so good.

The voice acting is top notch also. the characters are all well acted and each voice is immediately identifiable with the character it came from. I wish there was a bit more music used in this game, but
other than that the sound is definitely top notch.

STORY (7/10)

I know people don’t really play these games for the story, but sadly BF:BC2′s story was severely lacking. It never really made much sense as it all seemed to just set up the next action piece. I never really felt threatened by any scenarios in the game as I have in similar games, mainly because there really wasn’t too much context setting up each piece. It is just shoot, take cover, boom, rinse repeat.

While the lackluster story is definitely forgiveable, the developers managed to butcher one of the things that made the first BC game so much fun- which is the squad’s interactions with each other. In the first game, the one liners and jokes flew about as often as the bullets did. I don’t know what happened, but the humor is definitely neutered in this game. While the characters are still cool, I only really liked them from my experiences with them from the previous game. Maybe they were trying to make the game more serious, but the banter between squad mates is definitely lacking in this latest installment, which is regrettable since not only was it one of the highlights of the first game, it is also what set it apart from so many other shooters.

GAMEPLAY (9/10)

The gameplay is fairly smooth throughout the entire game. There are some control changes from the traditional FPS military controls, but for the most part the scheme is almsot identical to the COD franchise with a few minor exceptions. The game’s missions span the globe, taking you to various locales like jungles, deserts, and frozen tundra. There are a few unique gameplay elements that are introduced with regards to the elements. for instance in one of the snow stages you must constantly try to find fires to warm yourself or you will visually succumb to the effects of hypothermia. In one of the desert stages, your vision is obscured by a sand storm. Small touches like this help to give the game a much needed shot of originality.

One of the biggest draws of the BF series is its destructible environments. There is no such thing as ‘safe’ cover as a shot from an enemy RPG can obliterate the wall you happen to be hiding behind. This happens very often and it adds a new strategic element not found in most shooters. The idea that cover is always temporary seems to keep the gameplay fresh and exciting as you can never really camp in the same spot too long once the enemies know you are there. Despite all of the changes to this game from the previous installment, it is good to see that these destructive elements are still in tact.

MULTIPLAYER (8/10)

While the campaign mode is a great deal of fun, what is being promoted as the game’s bread and butter is its multiplayer component. the multiplayer is unlike any other, which can be either good or bad depending on your perspective. The online gametypes are fairly limited, as the only featured game modes are: Rush (similar to bomb gametypes in which one team must detonate charges at specific locations while the other team defends), Conquest (similar to territories game types), and Squad Deathmatch (like Team Deathmatch only it pits 4 squads of 4 players against eachother). The multiplayer here is definitely teamwork oriented, meaning that unless you are playing with friends online you probably won’t have the greatest experience.

Where COD:MW2 allowed you to just hop into a game and run and gun your way to the top of the scoreboard, BF:BC2 defintely requres some serious strategy. Not to say that MW2 does not, but when was the last time you coordinated an attack with ANYONE on MW2? The multiplayer also features an extremely steep learning curve which can be discouraging for new players.

There is also an overabundance of snipers in any given gametype. Unlike other games, BF:BC2 doesn’t require players to hold their breath when sniping, making the scope very stable at all times and resulting in sniping being almost too easy. I’ve fallen vicitm to many veteran snipers who simply know all of the good camping spots and will sit there and just pick people off all game. As there is no real kill cam, it can be hard to determine where the shots came from, resulting in some pretty frustrating matches. Factor in the fact that most teams are comprised primarily of snipers doing this exact thing and you can see how the fun is easily ruined. While these issues aren’t exactly gamebreakers, it makes learning the game and the maps very difficult to newbies or even experienced gamers who are new to BF:BC2.

OVERALL (8/10)

The game is very fun, yet surprisingly I found the campaign to be a bit mroe fun than the multiplayer, which is rare for me. While this game has been promoted as the Modern Warfare killer, I still prefer MW2 over this. BF:BC2′s multiplayer isn’t very user friendly and is nowhere near as fast paced as MW2. Some people may prefer this slower, more tactical style but I found myself looking at the loading screen repeatedly after I was spawn sniped. While the multiplayer is definitely on the right track, they have some work to do and many things to improve on before they can legitimately challenge COD for the FPS shooter title.

This is a great game, but if you are getting it mainly for the multiplayer component I would suggest only picking this up if you have other friends who you can plpay online with. The learning curve is steep enough without having to handicap yourself by playing with randoms. You definitely need a few friends on here so you can watch eachother’s backs. The single player is excellent, but it is a bit too short to warrant paying full price for the game strictly for its campaign mode.