I was putting off COD 5. It's been there for months, sitting there on the shelf, baiting me. "Put aside the thoughts of your grandpa fighting the Germans in WWII, old wars are entertainment now" it was saying.
I discussed this issue with my grandma a while back, when another high profile WWII game was released. She was oblivious of the fact that past wars pass as entertainment these days in games, TV and films; a nice easy way to kill time. Juxtapose that with the thought of her working in the factory, assembling weapons that were used by my Grandpa and his fellow soldiers to kill other men simply because they happen to be a thousand miles apart, and you maybe begin to see where I'm coming from, and why I'm not such a big fan of games of this ilk. Anyway, that's a discussion for another time.
COD 5 is pretty much at the pinnacle of modern FPS games, I fail to see how it could be improved. It ticks all the 'old war' FPS boxes ... where next? Inevitably COD 6 which should be a Modern Warfare 2, but where next for Treyarch and their old weapons? I shouldn't complain, this franchise along with Guitar Hero keeps me and my Activision siblings in a job.
Gameplay wise, for me COD 5 was a slog at times, however I enjoyed the city based levels a lot more than the countryside trench ones. Unfortunately it suffers from that old nutshell, the death (through grenade or otherwise), and retry. I lost count of how many times the protagonist eats a grenade, or dies at the hands of one of the hoard of unlimited respawned Germans until a trigger box is reached, then retry. Honestly I don't see what purpose these retries serve, if not to prolong the time it takes to complete the level.
If it wasn't for the achievement points, and the fact that I got it for free I doubt I would have played COD 5, even though I thoroughly enjoyed COD 4. It's not in the same era, sure, but it's not even in the same league.
Saturday 23 May 2009
Wednesday 13 May 2009
Plants vs Zombies: Concluded
Popcap have done it again.
After the casual masterpiece that is Peggle, Popcap have released Plants vs Zombies, another attempt to steal all my spare time. And it worked.
Plants vs Zombies is fantastic. The game has rock-solid mechanics, is polished to a massive extent, has a sense of humour ... and taps into a very popular meme, namely zombies. What more does any game need?
Popcap's twist on the classic tower defence genre gives the player an ever increasing amount of plants to defend their house from waves of different types of zombies. Each different type of zombie has it's own distinct personality and skill, from the bog standard brain-eater to the Michael Jackson-esque dancing zombie who resurrects four of his pals with a Thriller-esque pirhouette, and as with the zombies, each plant brings something different to the table.
The game is played out on a 6x6 grid, and the currency used to 'buy' plants is sunlight, which drops from the sky, or can be generated using sunflowers, and mushrooms in later levels. This introduces a new mechanic to the genre, and gives PvZ a unique twist. As well as placing your plants, keeping an eye on any approaching zombies, and collecting any coins dropped, the player must also watch out for sunlight to collect. It's frantic at times, and completely brilliant.
One tiny criticism is difficulty, or lack of. As always, Popcap's learning curve is second to none, but as you play through the game you never get the feeling that a level is close to impossible to complete. In my whole playthrough, I only failed twice (on the very last level), but I guess this is what happens with casual games. Once completed, the game continues to give, with a whole host of new modes and minigames.
Let me repeat myself ... Plants vs Zombies is fantastic, and after reading the credits I can't believe it only took four people to develop. If only all games were like this.
After the casual masterpiece that is Peggle, Popcap have released Plants vs Zombies, another attempt to steal all my spare time. And it worked.
Plants vs Zombies is fantastic. The game has rock-solid mechanics, is polished to a massive extent, has a sense of humour ... and taps into a very popular meme, namely zombies. What more does any game need?
Popcap's twist on the classic tower defence genre gives the player an ever increasing amount of plants to defend their house from waves of different types of zombies. Each different type of zombie has it's own distinct personality and skill, from the bog standard brain-eater to the Michael Jackson-esque dancing zombie who resurrects four of his pals with a Thriller-esque pirhouette, and as with the zombies, each plant brings something different to the table.
The game is played out on a 6x6 grid, and the currency used to 'buy' plants is sunlight, which drops from the sky, or can be generated using sunflowers, and mushrooms in later levels. This introduces a new mechanic to the genre, and gives PvZ a unique twist. As well as placing your plants, keeping an eye on any approaching zombies, and collecting any coins dropped, the player must also watch out for sunlight to collect. It's frantic at times, and completely brilliant.
One tiny criticism is difficulty, or lack of. As always, Popcap's learning curve is second to none, but as you play through the game you never get the feeling that a level is close to impossible to complete. In my whole playthrough, I only failed twice (on the very last level), but I guess this is what happens with casual games. Once completed, the game continues to give, with a whole host of new modes and minigames.
Let me repeat myself ... Plants vs Zombies is fantastic, and after reading the credits I can't believe it only took four people to develop. If only all games were like this.
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