GameLight - Hunted: The Demon's Forge

Official Site: http://www.huntedthegame.com/index.php/en/index

Source: Youtube Channel machinima

I saw the name on Steam a while back asking gamers to pre-order like many other games do so that they can build up hype and anticipation (also to get solid sales before actual launch) and it was a game I was curious about, but didn't pay much attention to.  Well, the game is about to have its release tomorrow and the main draw towards the game so far is the "innovative" co-op.  I'll admit that I'm craving for a good co-op game that I can play with my friend again as a lot of the games I play now he has no interest in.  We are patiently waiting for the release of Diablo 3 as our main co-op game to play ever since Guild Wars Factions from nearly 4 years ago (I played a bit of it last night and was reminded how fun it was).  I'm going to try to tempt my friend into getting it so we can play together.  So Hunted is an Action RPG with a unique 2-player co-op game mechanic where one plays the skilled archer while the other plays as the headstrong swordsman.  The game is played in a 3rd-person, over-the-shoulder perspective much like Dead Space, Gears of War, and Lead & Gold: Gangs of the Wild West.  Both characters seem to know how to use spells, but there must be limitations so that players would be forced to work together.  From the videos I've seen so far, I haven't noticed much "intuitive" co-op play yet as most of the clips shown has the characters just killing monsters around them.  "You watch my back and I'll watch yours" is pretty much what I get out of it, and there are tons of games already like that.  The games I play lately that involve a lot of co-op are Global Agenda and Battlefield: Bad Company 2.  I played medic a lot in both, and the role I play is definite and imperative.  But both characters in Hunted seems to be able to handle the situations themselves perfectly fine.  I'm not sure what to expect, but maybe I'll give the game a try.

VGCulture - Music - Lapfox TRAX

Official Site: http://www.lapfoxtrax.com/

Source: Youtube Channel lapfoxofficial

Renard Queenston (aka Adraen, Azrael, Furries in a Blender, Jackal Queenston, Kitsune², Klippa, Mayhem, NegaRen and other alias names) produces a lot of music.  Just check his website up above.  He works with mostly electronic music and creates a lot of chiptune hybrids.  His music is catchy, laid-back, and is very professionally composed, mastered and produced for all to hear.  Possibly one of Renard's most popular songs is one he did in one of his past album "Square Dance" called "Rainbow Tylenol" due to many video remixes done on niconico douga and youtube.  Here's one of my favorite ones:

Source: Youtube Channel guilhox

So what does all this have to do with videogames?  The dude that makes all these awesome soundtracks loves videogames, and he would like to do music for them for those looking for a musician.  Wouldn't you want his awesome music in your game?  From one of his other sites: "ON THE GWEEN: my audio design + scoring front. if you need audio or music work done for a video game or film or something, check me out, i might be able to tackle your needs."  So if you have any interest for having any music done by him, shoot him an e-mail at: lapfox@gmail.com.

GameLight - Shinobi (Nintendo 3DS)

I remember the first time I heard about Shinobi having a return on the Playstation 2 and how excited I was.  When I heard about another return after 9 years (not counting Nightshade) from a silent teaser video from yesterday, I felt the same way again filled with excitement.  The real teaser came out today:

Source: Youtube Channel IGNentertainment

The gameplay looks interesting from what its shown.  It reminds me of The Legend of Kage 2 and how it's been 20 years or so since its first game but keeping it in the traditional 2D side-scrolling gameplay.  The game will feature 3D graphics in a 2D environment with occasional moments where it goes into 3-dimension just like Sonic Rush did for the NDS game.  The art style seems to be cel-shaded like The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker and Okami.  I'm not sure if I really like that flat, pastel-looking model as the game's graphics for a Shinobi game.  Perhaps we'll get to hear more about the newest Shinobi game in the series at this year's E3.

GameLight - Ghost Recon Online

Official Site: http://ghostrecononline.us.ubi.com/

Source: Youtube Channel machinima

I can't say that I'm an avid fan of Ghost Recon out of all the other Tom Clancy games I play, but really enjoyed the futuristic setting, complexity and team-play for Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter.  Ghost Recon Online will be a free to play online First-Person Shooter by Ubisoft's new Free UPlay division (much like Electronic Arts' free2play games).  From the trailer, the graphics look decent, the environments are going to be more urban, and the gameplay is going to require more than just a quick trigger-finger.  I've already signed up for Beta and you can do by clicking on the link on the top of this post and click "Apply for Beta".  If it's anything like other Ghost Recon Games, the gameplay is going to be much slower and strategic rather than being fast-paced and reflex-based shooting much like other free online FPS games.  From the short few seconds at 1:08 in the trailer, it looks like there's going to be a capture point mode much like Call of Duty's Domination mode or Battlefield: Bad Company 2's Conquest mode.  Free to play games are really stepping up with big name franchises joining the scene.  I'm not sure what to expect out of this game, but willing to try it out.

VGCulture - Ace Attorney Live Action Movie

Source: Joystiq (Check Bottom)

Yesterday, there was a post by Kotaku speculating on a possible Ace Attorney.  I was excited to hear that, until I saw a post on Joystiq today on some possible pictures of the set they're filming the movie at.  "It's going to be a live action adaptation instead of an animated film?"  To say the least, my hopes were crushed.  Rarely, if ever, has a videogame adaptation movie turned out well in the history of videogames movies.  The problem is that the Ace Attorney has its charm in the animé style drawings with exaggerated expressions, eccentric characters with unique appearances, and very unnatural gestures and actions such as the excessive table slamming and Miles Edgeworth's high and might hand movements.  Still, I'm curious as to how the movie will turn out.  It will also be a bit weird hearing them call each other different names from the English adaptation of the game (though I know most of the main character's Japanese names already).

For those unfamiliar with the Ace Attorney series or known in Japan as Gyakuten Saiban (逆転裁判), it's a comedic adventure game with elements of mystery adventure and visual novels.  You play the role of Phoenix Wright in investigating murder cases and taking it to the courtroom where you must find the truth behind each incident.  The game has incredibly well written stories and the team that translated the game did a splendid job on interpreting the jokes and references to match the audience of Western culture.  The music is amazing and very memorable.  The game itself is engaging and very hard to put down.  The series has spanned to five games and have more coming soon with Gyakuten Kenji 2 (Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Miles Edgeworth) and Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney.

Source: Youtube Channel IGNentertainment

Honestly, I'm more excited with the release of those two games than a Live Action adaptation movie.

Sources:
-Kotaku - Is One of Japan’s Bloodiest Directors Working on an Ace Attorney Movie? 
-Joystiq - Rumor: Ace Attorney film set photographed

VGCulture - Steam Daily Deals

So I noticed this last week, but Steam has implemented "Daily Deals" rather than having to wait for Mid-week madness and Weekend Deals.  I thought it was a week-only thing, but Daily Deals is here to stay and give gamers a new discounted game each day.  Ubisoft week is this week too.  Out of the 105 sales on steam at the moment, I recommend Dark Messiah: Might and Magic.

Source: Youtube Channel UbiRulz

The game has a deep gameplay mechanic and challenging enemies to fight.  There are multiple ways of getting through an obstacle and multiple endings.  It's a truly rich Action RPG experience that should not be missed by those looking for a challenge.  Anyways, the daily deals was implemented so that even more traffic will hit the steam stores now.  Be sure to check back each day or you might miss out on that game you were waiting for to go down in price for a year.

GameLight - Guild Wars 2 - Engineer Class

It's been a long week and I don't feel like writing too much.  And so, I leave you with a trailer of Guild Wars 2's 7th class to be added to the list:

Source: Youtube Channel machinima

I was never really interested in Guild Wars and had bought and played Guild Wars Factions after years of a friend begging me to get it.  I bought it, played it for one summer with him and his friends and never really touched it again.  I got it because I was convinced by the Asian themed setting the game took place and the Assassin Class that suits my play style in RPGs.  I really liked the game, but unfortunately never finished the story.  I still have it installed hoping to finish it one day before they decide to take down the servers for the game.  Well, the trailers for Guild Wars 2 has slowly drawn my attention and made me consider buying the game.  I think it's looking great and it might turn out to be an entertaining experience.

GameLight - Hellgate Tokyo

Kotaku reported that HanbitSoft is ready to bring the resurrection of Hellgate back to North America this Summer of June-July.  What a lot of people may not know is that it's not going to be Hellgate: London and will be Hellgate: Tokyo.

Source: Youtube Channel Alternalo

Hellgate was planned to be a multi-part series spanning the story to different parts of the world.  I heard about Hellgate: Tokyo quite a while ago (over a year ago) and had hoped to see it brought over.  Hellgate: London was originally developed by Flagship Studios and was made up of ex-Blizzard employees and many other talented members of the game industry.  It was an ambitious game that broke away from how MMOs were generally made and captivated many players throughout the world, but struggled to bring any new content to the game.  There were problems with subscriptions, game breaking bugs, and a lot of repetition in its gameplay.  I've played the single-player campaign before and really enjoyed it, but could see much more improvement to it.  I'm glad that such a project didn't just die off when it had so much potential and was bought up by HanbitSoft so that the game could continue to grow.

Source: Kotaku - The Hellgate Reopens over North America in June 
Official Site: http://hg.hanbiton.com/Home/Home.aspx

NewNews - Crisis in the Game Industry

Playstation Network password change exploit

Playstation Network may be back up, but that doesn't mean we're entirely safe.  Something that Sony overlooked that has been exploited is the ability for the hackers to change the password of our accounts even after we changed it once already.  How?  By entering the email and birth date of the user's account to create a new password in case the user forgot what it was.  The problem is that the hackers that took the information from the PSN servers has all those information to do just that.  So sites and services to do that have been temporarily taken down until another method to insure user security is taken effect.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 leak
I didn't realize what happened this past weekend was a result of leaked information about Modern Warfare 3.  There was a series of very short video clips released by the publisher Activision which showed practically nothing but a few radio chatters and a night-vision look at a few cities being under attack:

Source: Youtube Channel machinima

What was exactly leaked?  Not sure, they're trying to cover it up as best as they can right now and using the opportunity of curious eyes of the internet by the leak to create hype.  I don't blame them as a leak can be very harmful to the market as it affects the faith of its consumers.  There is also a lot of conflict with how Activision ousted two important members of the original Infinity Ward team and caused much ruckus among the developers.  Along with the fan-boys of each side of EA games and Activision games fighting it out on the comment pages, forums and such, Activision is seen as the enemy in the industry by a lot of people.  Despite that, there are those who are still hoping for the best out of Modern Warfare 3 including me and do not wish for ill-will to ruin the honesty work that the remaining members of Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games are putting into the project.  There's also the speculation that this "leak" is a possible artificial hype planned by the Marketing department as they were prepared to show those few clips so quickly and readily right after the announcement of the leak.

Crysis 2 for $35 on Amazon
Speaking of Crisis, Crysis 2 is on a one-day special of $35 on Amazon right now!  My friend already got it.  And seeing how I'm trying to go back into Action Games and RPGs, I'm going to just borrow the game from my friend and play through singleplayer and a bit of multiplayer and move onto the next game.  I have spent the majority of my college years playing nothing but First-Person Shooters and think I should try to break from it and go back to other games I have yet to finish or start.  That doesn't mean I'm going to stop entirely.  I still play MAG, Medal of Honor, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 & Black Ops, Battlefield Bad Company 2, and occasionally I'll go back to Team Fortress 2, but I think it's time for me to get back to playing other games other than just FPS.  If you like FPS games, Crysis 2 is a game you have got to try out:

Source: Youtube Channel eavision

Sources:
-Gamasutra: Report: Sony Hit By New PlayStation Exploit 
-Joystiq: The Modern Warfare 3 leak, from Activision's perspective 
-Amazon: Deal of the Day - Crysis 2 for $35

NewNews - PSN is back up & Compensation revealed

So this isn't up to the minute NewNews as PSN went back up this past weekend (I logged in and checked, it works).  So I guess players can play online now, though I haven't tested that out yet since I was too busy playing 3D Dot Game Heroes and then I got Dynasty Warriors 7 yesterday.  Anyways, Sony has also revealed those free compensation games they were talking about before, and here it is (directly from Joystiq):

North American "Customer Appreciation Program":

"All PlayStation Network customers can select two PS3 games from the following list. The games will be available for 30 days shortly after PlayStation Store is restored and can be kept forever.
Dead Nation
inFAMOUS
LittleBigPlanet
Super Stardust HD
Wipeout HD + Fury

For PSP owners, you will be eligible to download two PSP games from the following list. The games will be available for 30 days shortly after PlayStation Store is restored and can be kept forever.
LittleBigPlanet (PSP)
ModNation Racers
Pursuit Force
Killzone Liberation

Not exactly what I was expecting, but at least it's something.  I was hoping that each user was given $10-$20 credit to choose the game they wanted rather than limiting to choosing 2 games out of the 4-5 available.  I'm thinking of getting inFamous and Dead Nation for the PS3 side while getting ModNation Racers and Killzone Liberation for the PSP side.  I don't really care too much about the PSP selections, but I guess getting inFamous is pretty cool since I wanted to try it (then again, it's available for $10 at Best Buy) and Dead Nation will be a fun co-op game to play when my friends come over.  There are other misc. compensation for services such as the music streaming and movie streaming programs.  You can read the rest of those on Joystiq's article on the bottom link.  I'm glad I got my account back and hopefully I'll be able to play some MAG, Medal of Honor, or Call of Duty: Black Ops tonight and find out if the online play is working alright.

Source: Joystiq - Sony reveals choice of free game downloads as part of PSN 'Welcome Back' program

VGCulture - E3 2011 Games looking forward to

The Electronic Entertainment Exposition (E3) is a big event for the Interactive Entertainment Industry that happens once every year and lets us peer into the future of what's to come and this year's E3 is less than a month away.  I had the privilege of attending last year's E3 2010 for the first time and I have to say that it was a magical experience (except when I got severely ill the 2nd day and had to sweat it out in the hotel the whole day).  A lot of people were rather disappointed with last year's E3 and didn't think too much of the games showcased, but I saw a lot of games I had interest in and bought some of them when they finally released.  It was a really fun experience and I'd like to go again one day once I'm eligible (only those in the game industry or press are allowed in.  I was an exception last year).  So E3 is coming around again this year and I have high hopes for the line of games for 2011.  Here are some select choices I'd like to see more of at E3 (In alphabetical order):
3DS Games - Fans of Nintendo and their portable systems are waiting for the games that make us want the system, and so we would really like to see some gameplay footages of games that'd make us want a 3DS.
Battlefield 3 - I started the series with Battlefield 2 and played it very sparsely.  But ever since Battlefield: Bad Company 2, I've had new found faith in the franchise and am looking forward to an amazing single-player experience as well as an exciting multiplayer mode.

Source: Youtube Channel IGNentertainment

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 - I'm not sure how I feel about this one since a lot of the original creators left (or were kicked out), but I guess I'm really curious about how they'll conclude the story after creating such high standards in the past two installments.  Here's hoping for a great game and for Activision to stop abusing their power over the development.
Dark Souls - I just finished beating Demon's Souls a 2nd time last week with a magician class and so I am very anxious to see what incredible new features will be added to Dark Souls.  Demon's Souls is such an engaging RPG that it's hard to put down.  Dark Souls will definitely be a game to look out for this year.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution - All I can say is "meh" as the game does look great and I have interest in playing it, but it's not a high priority listed game for me.  I hope the company is alright since I heard they were recently hacked (I don't think I applied to work for them, so my resume stuff should be safe, haha).
Final Fantasy XIII-2 - Not exactly excited as much as being reminded "hey, I bought FF13 the week it came out and I still haven't played it yet.  PLAY THE FREAKING GAME!"  Despite many negative receptions from the fans, I think I'll enjoy FF13.  Not sure about FFXIII-2 yet though, hopefully it'll be good?
Final Fantasy Versus XIII - I think all the FF fans are waiting for this one, and with good reason.  The graphics look amazing, the gameplay is more action orientated, and the story sounds decent so far.  I'm a Final Fantasy Fan, so I undoubtedly want to play though all of the games (or at least collect them) aside from the Online ones since I don't want to dedicate my life to playing them.

Source: Youtube Channel squareenix

Mass Effect 3 - I feel bad since I bought both ME 1 & 2 but have yet to play through them.  I bought it for PC, and haven't been playing it since I've been playing more PS3.  Mass Effect 3 will have multiplayer I think and I'm excited for that since it's a game series my friend really likes.  So it'll be a game we could go through together.  I've got to play the other two soon if I want to know what's going on by the time the 3rd one releases.
Metal Gear Solid Rising - I recently started getting into the Metal Gear Solid series (recent as in last summer) and am looking forward to an action game out of it.  I'm actually still working through MGS 3 and soon after 4, and I have still yet to play through 1 yet.  MGS 2 wasn't too bad and I beat it in a week (8 hours).  MGS 3 is proving to be much more difficult (especially since I'm playing on normal instead of very easy, haha).  From the gameplay they have shown for Rising so far, I expect it to be as well received as others in the series.
Ninja Gaiden III - Whaat?  The 3rd one is about to release?  I guess it's been a while since a new one came out, but I'm still working on the first one Sigma.  I guess I'd better finish the first and buy the 2nd!
Phantasy Star Online 2 - I am looking forward to PSO2 the most.  This is one game I would go out and buy on the first day and play for hours.  I'm not sure if I want to get it for PC or not yet, but it seems to be only for PC so far.  PSO2 is adding a ton of new gameplay elements and recreating everything that was great about the entire series back into this new iteration of the game.  I really hope we get to hear some news (perhaps a release date) for a North American release.  Until then, I still have Universe and Portable to keep me busy.

Source: Youtube Channel psobb12

Street Fighter X Tekken - Okay, so we keep hearing about SF X Tekken, but what about the other one that was announced?  Tekken X Street Fighter where the game plays like Tekken?  At E3, I'd like for them to show more gameplay and characters that's going to be in the game.
The Elder Scroll V: Skyrim - I'm ashamed to say that I didn't know what Elder Scroll was until Oblivion came out and I even have access to it now and still haven't played it yet.  Despite that, the videos shown for Skyrim was pretty amazing and inspired me to perhaps play Oblivion sitting on my shelf all this time.  This is one to look out for.  But in terms of RPGs, Phantasy Star Online 2 and Dark Souls take priority on my want list.

Now this is just ones we know of that I selectively chose to list.  E3 is about games we've never heard of getting their big announcement in the industry or the public and to showcase things that were rumored but not confirmed (such as Nintendo's new console.  What the heck is it going to be like?).  Well, less than a month and we'll have a lot of new games to look forward to.

GameLight - Brink

Blogger went down all day yesterday!  I took a short break from writing a post since there couldn't be anything done about it.  Anyways, Brink came out three days ago and I'm both excited and worried.

Source: Youtube Channel BethesdaSoftworks

What seems to be good:
-Co-op play looks rather impressive and has a lot of team-play involvement
-The jumps, slides, and stunts really does look cool and can be tactically used
-The weapon customization seems to have a variety of things you can change
-Class-based team play seems to be the main attraction to a lot players

What seems to be bad:
-A lot of players are complaining about the lag and multiplayer, must be server problems
-Sucks for Sony since PSN is down.  No one can play online on PS3
-Lack of content.  There's 8 maps, and campaign is mostly against dumb AI.  Nothing past that?
-Since it's team-based gameplay, the experience relies a lot on who you play with which is usually bad

I haven't played the game yet, but I am interested in getting it.  I'm probably going to get it for PC since I'm possibly going to get Crysis 2 for PS3 and Battlefield 3 near the end of the year.  I'm also still thinking of getting Homefront for PC, but I'm really trying my best to take a break from FPS and play more Action, RPG, and Fighting (and maybe some casual gaming).  But looking at a lot of videos, Brink really does look promising.  I just don't want to spend $60 on it when I have so many other games that needs to be beat.

VGCulture - Tekken Movie (done the right way)

Have you seen the trailer to Tekken Blood Vengence yet?

Source: Youtube Channel tekkenchannel

Remember a short while ago, there was a Live action Tekken movie that came out?  Yeah, I didn't bother watching it either.  Time after time, more videogame adaptation movies are made and rip the contents and glory of our favorite games with characters and stories that don't make sense to the game.  There are a lot of bad videogame adaptation movies but very few movies that use the basis of the games themselves to create the movie.  Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within seemed promising when it was announced (especially since it was live action), but it had little to do with Final Fantasy and did not deliver a decent movie in itself.  Too many directors are relying on the name of the videogames to create the hype and hope that it's enough to be successful.  Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children was really good though, but perhaps it made more sense to those who played the game (I am ashamed to say that I have the game for all these many many years but have not played it.  I still understood the movie though).  The movie didn't use the same exact graphics as the game (that'd be awkward), but it still had the characters, good writing, and a nice composition to each scene.  I'm hoping that Tekken Blood Vengeance will have that same amount of quality in the movie since it's using the same character designs as the game (yay, no live action).  Maybe I should watch the live action one to see how bad it was (I eventually watched "Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li" and yeah, it was pretty bad).

GameLight - Dark Souls (New Video)

I'm about to finish up the review for Demon's Souls from two posts ago.  So there has been a new video up for Dark Souls and it shows the many deaths within the game:

Okay, Youtube's share button is being stupid right now, so click here to watch the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqaysjKcw-g

Anyways, the game looks brutal and significantly more difficult than than Demon's Souls.  The game is announced to have its release on October of this year.  Till then, I'll be playing some more Demon's Souls.

NewNews - PSN Fully back up by May 31st

So according some blog posts and announcements from Sony, they're going to try to get everything operation by May 31st.  It seems they will be offering players 4-5 free games while being able to only to choose 2 out of them.  No solid confirmation on that for North America has been made yet, but it seems rather reliable news for Europe since it's been posted on their official forums.  I do kind of miss playing some games online for the PS3, but perhaps this break from online games will help me finish up some of my offline ones.  With the reviews I had last week, I did pretty well in completing some.  I understand that I haven't finished my review for Demon's Souls yet, but it's been pretty hectic on time and work for me the past few days.  I'll try to finish it tomorrow.  I need to get some rest for the rest of the night to prepare for tomorrow.

Source: Gamasutra - Sony: PSN Fully Online By May 31

GameLight Review - Demon's Souls

Official Site: http://www.demons-souls.com/home.html

Source: Youtube Channel NamcoBandaiGamesEU

Developer: From Software
Publisher: Atlus
Platforms: Playstation 3
Release Date: October 6, 2009
Genre: Action RPG

I took interest in Demon’s Souls when I heard it was one of the hardest games to come out for the Playstation 3. I love a challenge and I enjoy a good Action RPG. So in the summer of 2010, I saw a brand new copy of Demon’s Souls for only $20 and had to get it. Right off the bat, I was disappointed that it wasn’t hack ‘n slash orientated since the stamina bar limited my actions, there wasn’t music playing throughout the game, and the levels never changed. Luckily, I played on and came to realize everything that was so great about the game after beating my first real boss. All those things I was disappointed in at the start became key elements of what made the game so great. The game itself isn’t an impossible mission to get through, but rather a legitimate challenge that tests the player’s resolve. Demon’s Souls unforgiving nature only becomes that much more satisfying when the player is able to push through and overcome the challenges that they face. It is possibly one of the best Action RPGs I have played in a long time.

Graphics

Demon’s Souls has a European Medieval style art to it that sets it apart from a lot (and I mean A LOT) of Japanese RPGs that have released in the past.  The environment is simply magnificent and really sets the atmosphere of the game.  Details to a level, such as distant mountains and an entire city below the towering castle, are notable in the game.  They bring the breath taking castles and harrowing caves the designers imagined to life.  There are a lot of dark areas in the game which is used to create the paranoia of not knowing what is coming.  There are times when objects and pillars get in the way of the player’s view and it’s becomes a real problem when fighting enemies or near high cliffs.  I also noticed that there were many times in the game where the frame rate drops and the graphics starts to skip or lag.  This might be due to poor optimization and the processor not being able to keep up with the heavy information.  This isn’t the first game From Software had this problem, and it can affect the gameplay at crucial moments within the game (especially during multiplayer).  Some of the effects are rather poor too such as the lighting and shadows reflecting off textures in the environment and characters.  Although the voice acting is top notch, it would have been nice for the animators to go the extra length to animate the NPCs and player’s character’s face so that everyone isn’t a wide-eyed puppet.  For the most part, Demon’s Souls has what it needs to create an immersive world with good level designs, excellent art directions in character concepts and monster creation, deliberate choices to darken levels, but could have gone a bit farther to make the game even more polished in its graphics (bringing life to the faces, fixing the graphics lag, etc.).  Graphics: 8/10

Audio

As I mentioned before, I was disappointed with the lack of music playing in the levels.  What I realized later was that there were many enemies that jumped out of unexpected places.  Using the audio as one of the key factors to creating the atmosphere and gameplay is something I wasn’t expecting out of the game.  The sound effects and voices of the enemies are very distinct and require the player to really focus on their surrounding to survive the environment.  When music does play, such as in boss battles and in the Nexus (the central stage for the game), the music is very subtle and ambient as sound is still important when fighting a boss or those in the Nexus.  The soundtracks are alright, but they’re not ones I would listen to often outside of the game other than the Title theme and the Maiden in Black theme.  Both the music and the sound effects do a great job of creating the atmosphere in the environment and creating the paranoia and directional cues of enemies for the gameplay.  The voice acting is a bit awkward sometimes as there are eccentric characters that the player encounters; however, the intonations and connotations of the voice acting is a rare treat with incredible personality to them.  If only more games could have such professional voice acting in them (though I do enjoy the terrible voice acting in Dynasty Warriors games, it makes it more light hearted and humorous).  Aside from that, I would’ve liked more compositions such as the title theme and the Maiden in Black theme as those were the most memorable and enjoyable to listen to.  Audio: 9/10

Gameplay

If you’re looking for a deep story and intimate character relationships, then you might be disappointed as the game focuses all its energy on the gameplay.  I would still suggest trying the game out as it might surprise anyone since it’s full of surprises.  The first notable aspect to the gameplay was the stamina bar.  The stamina bar allowed me to do about 3-5 regular attacks at a time when I first started the game.  This meant that I had to choose my attacks and approaches carefully as any actions such as a block, a parry, a dodge and such will eat a portion of my stamina which may leave me open to attacks if I run out.  This wasn’t too new as I’ve played games with similar game mechanics before (Monster Hunter, Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia).  With the limitation on how many attacks I could chain, how I approached enemies and what equipment I wore and how I attacked changed consistently throughout the game as new monsters and obscure situations adjusted the way I played.  For one thing, you learn how to play the game mostly by failing.  You will die, a LOT.  It is part of the gameplay and you actually get used to it after a while.  You become more cautious, you learn from past mistakes, and you receive a satisfaction that other games rarely give after completing a difficult task.  Something that I was a bit upset with in the beginning was that the levels near changed.  Enemies will be in the same locations and their actions are generally the same, but situations change and so the gameplay does.  When critics and players were exclaiming that “Demon’s Souls is the hardest game in our modern age of gaming”, they mean to say that it’s challenging and not impossible.  In many parts of the game, it’s not so much difficult as it is challenging in that you have to play smart throughout the game.  Multiplayer is unique in that it happens without notice.  Players can offer to help other players in co-op while they’re playing their own game as well as being able to invade other players in their games and kill them.  I can continue forever with the description of the gameplay, but there are key elements that make this game so entertaining.  The game’s difficulty provides a challenge, multiplayer adds unexpected events, and various events make for a unique and enjoyable experience each time the player decides to log on and play.  Gameplay: 10/10

Replay Value

This can be debatable, but Demon’s Souls has a high replay value in many ways.  A player can choose to go through the game many times over and unlock every secret, ability, event, weapon, and everything else with one character.  A player could create the strongest build and constantly fight other players (PvP) by invading them.  A player can try out different classes and experiment with different builds to play through the game (PvE).  There truly are numerous things to do in Demon’s Souls and the player can reach a Soul Level of 712.  Demon’s Souls reminds me a lot of Phantasy Star Online Ep. 1 & 2 on how it has a similar structure of having only 4-5 main areas to go, but an extended amount of ways to play them.  My desire to continually play the game is similar to that of PSO as if there always seems to be something new to explore, find, and play in the game.  On the other hand, some players may find it pointless to play the game again a second time as the levels do not change, the enemy AI does not change, and the main goal does not change.  What I find special about replaying the game is that a different class or build made me play in an entirely different way (first play through: hunter, second play through: magician), I found things that I didn’t notice before, and the challenges differ on the types of weapons and spells I use.  This isn’t even mentioning multiplayer which can drastically change the way the game is played.  I’m almost done with the game on my play through as a magician and I already plan to try out a priest and a thief.  I’m already up to 100 hours of game play which hasn’t happened in a while for any game I’ve played recently (last two games I achieved such long hours are Team Fortress 2 and League of Legends).  If you want a game that will last you a while, I would go get a copy of Demon’s Souls right now. Replay Value: 10/10

Overall

I am very happy with my purchase of Demon’s Souls.  You could get the game for about $20 now.  I have not had this strong of a desire to consistently play a game night after night for a while, and I do not regret putting in the hours to play it.  It’s truly an amazing experience and a breath of fresh entertainment to have a game so difficult but not broken (it will feel like it sometimes when you get killed in one hit).  Demon’s Souls is a solid Action RPG that has the player teetering on the side of their seats throughout the game with brutal consequences but unforgettable victories (especially against other players).  Demon’s Souls is quickly becoming one of the greatest games I have played and should not be missed by any hardcore gamers.

Overall: 9.25/10

GameLight Review - Cladun: This is an RPG!

Official Site: http://nisamerica.com/games/cladun/ (Check it out, it's interactive!)

Source: Youtube Channel MachinimaTrailer

Japanese Name:
 -クラシックダンジョン 〜扶翼の魔装陣〜 Kurasshiku Danjon ~Fuyoku no Masōjin~
 -Classic Dungeon ~Assistance of the Devil Formation~
Developer: System Prisma
Publisher: Nippon Ichi Software America (NIS America)
Platforms: Playstation Portable (PSP)
Release Date: September 21, 2010.
Genre: Action RPG

At first glance, Cladun: This is an RPG! looks like a gimmicky retro wannabe presented in its pixel art form and optional 8-bit music.  After a few hours into the game, I quickly learned that the game had a deep and intuitive system for powering up the characters to unleash all sorts of crazy builds.  What I imagined to be 3-7 hours of killing enemies and moving on to new games because a 30+ hour quest in collecting various items, building a powerful grid to maximize my attack power, and having an obsession collecting all the gold that flies out of monsters upon killing them.  Cladun takes the traditional Rogue-like dungeon crawling with modern action games and RPG elements to create an entertaining, portable game that is sure to last hours and hours of gameplay.  With the ability to create your own characters, customize stats and abilities, and run through a randomly generated dungeon, there always seems to be something new to do each you pick it up.

Graphics
The graphics were rather unauthentic to the retro style pixel art when I first started the game, and it was mainly due to the fact that I started this game right after I beat Half-Minute Hero which was more closer to what pixel art looked like for character sprites.  Well I quickly adjusted to the graphics as it turned out to be a comfortable style for the type of gameplay where everything is in a tile format.  Also, having the graphics be pixelated made it much easier to customized, create, and fine-tune characters for those existing and original ones.  The sprites for the enemies are distinctive and unique.  Their elements were according to the color they embodied which made it easier for the player to counter them with the right weapon or spell.  I do have a problem with monsters and environments such as bushes covering up traps since those are the main causes of  the deaths of my characters rather than the monsters themselves.  It could be part of the game design to remind the players to be more careful, but it is rather bothersome. Graphics: 8/10

Audio
I love 8-bit music and I've listened to them since the early Nintendo days, but the 8-bit versions of the music in Cladun is really annoying and monotonous.  With that aside, the composition, recording, and performances of the real musical score is amazing.  It's catchy, gets the player in the mood of the game, and it's memorable.  For a PSP game, I'm surprised they went as far as having a live recording of all the instruments.  The composition is a simple structure, but the performance is lively and simply addictive.  I particularly love the ones with Violin leading the song.

Source: Youtube Channel asukacrystalrose


Source: Youtube Channel asukacrystalrose

I didn't like the music in the beginning (I didn't get to these two songs yet) but I grew a liking to them more and more as I played on and it really brought out the RPG out of this game for me (I like RPGs with good music).  I didn't know actual musicians went to the studio to do the recordings for the game until I got to the end credits of the game.  The sound effects are alright with a bit of cartoonish "whoosh" sound rather than realistic "blade through air" humming sound.  Some of the most important sound effects that made the game satisfying is the sound of collecting gold and the tone you hear when a character levels up in the result screen.  Audio: 9/10

Gameplay
This entire game was full of "meh" in the beginning (as in music, graphics, story, and gameplay) but kept getting better.  In the beginning, it felt like any other dungeon crawler like Izuna: The Unemployed Ninja and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon except it was live time rather than turn-based.  The fun started when I understood how to use the Devil Ring system and made my characters significantly stronger.  I would spend a lot of time just experimenting and planning before I went on a few more dungeon runs.  How the game works is that a linear story is told along the way.  Set dungeons are given to the player to go through before moving onto the next which reveals the next part of the story.  The story is basic and not necessarily important, but it moves the game along and I felt that it made me appreciate the characters more.  Besides going through the main dungeons, there's the option of going through "Ran-geon" which is randomly generated dungeons that the player can go through to find items, gain experience points, and collect gold to get their characters stronger to face the main dungeons.  The player can try to get to the 99th floor of "Ran-geon" as the main challenge, but I don't know what you would get since I never could get past floors 30-40.  The main game is pretty basic.  I didn't like getting slowed or losing all the items I found after dying, but I think it was the Devil Ring system, loot collecting, leveling, and rewards that made the game fun since there's so much to experiment with and to explore.  I think frustration was part of what made succeeding so satisfying.  Gameplay: 8/10

Replay Value
Part of the gameplay is the replay value, and I was writing all this under gameplay but had to separate it right here in order to have something for Replay Value.  After beating the main part of the game, you can access "New-geon" which is similar to "Ran-geon" but with a lot of twists in it.  The starting level of the enemies will be your character's Attack+Defense power / 4.  Players can also jump floor levels depending on the gates they go through.  So as you can tell, there's a lot to do in the game.  Some floors can be unforgiving and have traps littered everywhere which can kill your sub-characters fairly quickly; however, times when you've defeated numerous high leveled enemies and escaping back to the main area "Arcanus Cella" and seeing your characters raise 5-10 levels in one run through is so satisfying that you'd go back in the dungeons once more.  There are 5 classes to choose from (Warrior, Dragoon, Merchant, Guardian, Mage), but I found Dragoons (High HP) and Mages (High Mana) to be most useful ones and often ignored all the other ones.  I didn't get to try out Multiplayer since I don't know anyone with this game (or a PSP for that matter), but allows competitive and cooperative play.  The game can get frustrating with overwhelming monsters, excessive traps, and losing all the items you collected through the run because of a small mistake, but the rewards with taking chances make the experience well worth the risk and feels very satisfying.  After beating the main part of the game, more content is unlocked for the player to play through.  Cladun is one of those games that starts off simple and constantly gets better throughout the game.  The game can feel a bit repetitive or somewhat of a grind when you can't get through certain areas in the main dungeons and it's also frustrating running into traps, getting slowed, or getting raided by 30 enemies in one map in "Ran-geon" and "New-geon".  For the most part, the game has been a very entertaining game whenever I had some free time.  The hardest part for me now is trying to quit the game and moving onto new ones, because I know I'll miss playing it. Replay Value: 9/10

Overall
Cladun: This is an RPG! was an unexpected gem for me and I didn't imagine that I'd like it that much.  Looking back at my review for Half-Minute Hero, I probably should have given the audio a 9/10 instead of a 10/10 since I realized that there were only a few songs I really liked despite the sheer amount of tracks the game had.  In some respects, I enjoyed Cladun a little more than Half-Minute Hero.  Cladun is not for everyone as some gamers like strong storylines, epic adventures, and a feeling of a journey.  Cladun is more like a ton mini-quests for the player to par-take.  It focuses a lot on its gameplay and systems that allows for infinite replay value.  Cladun is not as main stream and so many gamers may have missed it.  If you can find it for less than $20 and want an entertaining Action RPG to play on the PSP, then I highly recommend picking it and giving it a go.  Overall: 8.5/10

As a side note, Cladun 2 came out in Japan in March.  If there's a chance that it comes out in English, I'll be sure to check it out.

GameLight Review - Call of Duty: Black Ops

Official Site: http://www.callofduty.com/blackops

Source: Youtube Channel CALLOFDUTY

Developer: Treyarch
Publisher: Activision
Platforms: Playstation 3, Xbox 360, PC & Wii
Release Date: November 9, 2010.
Genre: First-Person Shooter

Pros:
-An intriguing story told in a different manner than most within the Call of Duty series
-Lots of customization in multiplayer that offers a lot to experiment with
-The ability to play 2-player cooperatively for zombies and for online play
-Item acquisition and levels are much easier to obtain

Cons:
-Lots of problems in both single player and multiplayer
-Single player lacked polish and were filled with flow breaking events
-Multiplayer suffers from lag, a limited number of maps, and numerous bugs
-Extra DLC cost $15 each adding up to $30 total (enough to buy another game)

The game is filled with bugs, questionable design choices, and frustrating gameplay in both single-player and multiplayer which eventually brings me back to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.  Despite these setbacks, Black Ops is still able to deliver a daring story and an exciting competitive multiplayer that has me coming back for more.  The addition of allowing a second player to join multiplayer online and co-op in zombies along with a currency system which simplified item acquisition made it much easier to overlook the tarnish in graphics and notable lag.  For those deciding whether to get Modern Warfare 2 or Black Ops in its current time, I'd say it's okay to buy and play both as there's enough difference to enjoy each one in its own right.

Graphics
Many people complained about the graphics, and I honestly don't think it's the most important aspect in a game.  I do think that certain design choices in graphics is incredibly important if it affects the gameplay though.  I noticed some of the problems players had with the graphics such as extremely pixelated shadows, some textures were blurred and archaic, and a lot of the models weren't as smooth as previous installments in the series.  My problem with the graphics were all the colors, shadowing, textures, and models were mostly dark, muddled and ambiguous.  This was something I didn't like about a lot of the older Medal of Honor games and some of the early Call of Duty games since it impeded on the ability to find your way around the environment, look for cover, or spotting enemies.  Thankfully, the entire game doesn't suffer from this problem (especially in multiplayer when it really matters).  The game is also horribly optimized as it can barely run at all on my computer at the lowest settings (which is why I got the PS3 version now)  The graphics are decent enough to make for an enjoyable experience though.  It's neither incredible nor is it horrendous.  I only hope that future Call of Duty games will have distinguishable models, cleaner textures, dynamics in contrast and color, and make it easier on the eyes when playing.  Graphics: 7/10

Audio
I know I have been spoiled by Medal of Honor's (2010) spectacular audio, but I will do my best to judge with unbiased views as possible.  The musical score wasn't too bad and they're recognizable, but they're not memorable.  I don't really expect First-Person Shooters to have music that I'd hum to anyways, so I don't judge too harshly on music for audio.  The voice acting was pretty incredible as it really brought the characters to life.  I was happy to see the return of Viktor Reznov from Call of Duty: World at War in which Gary Oldman returned to do the voice for once again.  The voice talents really brought the story together as the story is told through various flashbacks between the main character and the people he interacted with.  The guns weren't very impressive in sound and my friends and I joked a lot about getting shot by something that sound like pellet guns or party poppers; however, the recordings for each gun is distinctive.  Like many other FPS games, such as counter-strike, it can be used to a players advantage on how to counter the uses of each gun.  In fact, one of my favorite sounds is the "click" of a suppressed shotgun since it's something enemies can't hear!  Like the graphics, the audio was decent and was enough for the game to be enjoyable.  Audio: 7/10

Gameplay
I actually didn't like the story of the campaign at first since it was jarring and the flow of it was broken many times.  But near the end of the game, the story pulled through and made everything previous more important and have some sort of significance to the conclusion.  Part of the disconnected transitions in the story was due to the gameplay.  There were many events in the campaign that felt unnecessary and halted the flow of the game as the player would have to stop to play some sort of gimmicky side game.  The triggers in the game were pretty obvious too which often caused glitches, a break in the flow of the game, or just made the player feel out of place in the game.  There were times when the player couldn't continue unless they were at a certain spot, killed a certain enemy, or perform a certain task and was not told to.  Medal of Honor (2010) also had this problem and really affected the experience.  Multiplayer is much like many other FPS games and struggle through similar problems such as lag, spawning in front of enemies or having enemies spawn camp, and broken team balance where all the high points are on one side while all the low points are on the other.  There are of course some positive points to the multiplayer.  There a lots of combinations and customizations to work with, a 2nd player can join in, challenges can be taken like quests and give players a special objective to fulfill while playing each time, the currency system makes getting the weapons you want easier, and leveling isn't such a grind anymore (not that it really matters other than unlocking the ability to buy an item).  The maps feel very limited, and there doesn't seem to be any particular map I really liked.  Getting more maps means paying $15 for each map pack.  The decision to do such a thing was most likely the publisher and not the developers.  The modes are like the ones from previous games.  Deathmatch can be fun, but it can also be very frustrating.  Team-based modes such as capture points are usually one sided, but it can get pretty exciting when both teams do very well.  Players take a bit more hits than Modern Warfare 2 before dying, but it doesn't seem like it if you're going against players who know what they're doing and get single-shot kills off you.  As anger inducing as multiplayer is, I still go back to play it (especially with a friend over).  Gameplay: 8/10

Replay Value
The graphics in Black Ops isn't as nice as Medal of Honor, the team play isn't as encouraged as in MAG or Battlefield: Bad Company 2, and the gameplay isn't as unique as say Halo 3 (I can't say "Reach" since I haven't tried that one yet) or Crysis 2, but it has the aspects that keep players coming back for more.  The game is still much easier to pick up, learn and play than most FPS games which is more welcoming to players of all skill levels (and it shouldn't be of all ages since there's so many parents complaining about their kids playing these games).  The Prestige concept rewards players by taking a big risk of resetting to level 1 and working their way back up again.  It really tests the player's persistence, skill, and ability to progress.  The ability for a 2nd player to join in for online multiplayer is one of the big ones for me and for many others since friends who usually come over don't have to idly sit and watch or take turns handing the controller over and can instead join in and enjoy (or suffer) the game together.  There are times where I do have to take a break for the game since it's just too much playing constantly and wanting satisfaction because it's hard to get.  Call of Duty: Black Ops, despite many problems and tarnish from its predecessor, is still a ton of fun and can be played for a very long time.  Replay Value: 10/10

Overall
Even though I'm giving Black Ops a slightly lower score than Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and Medal of Honor (2010), it's still the game that's more often played than the other two due to the fact that it's the only game I can play mutiplayer with when friends come over.  I do think that Black Ops is fun, but I think it could've been better (without charging players $30 for the extra content).  Singleplayer isn't something I'd like to play over again, but I really enjoyed the story.  Zombie mode is a fun distraction from multiplayer once in a while, but it's not something I'd play for long durations.  Multiplayer is still infuriating on many levels, but it can be very enjoyable at times (especially with a buddy).  Black Ops could have been better, but it's a solid game for any FPS gamer to play.  Overall: 8/10

GameLight Review - Medal of Honor (2010)

After yesterday's post, I played some Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and was reminded of why I took a break from it.  As I mentioned in the review, the game's experience is dependent on your team mates.  I lost most all my matches last night because of those team mates.  Those who only care about killing goes up and does get the most kills, but also died the most and used up most of the team's tickets while not fulfilling the objectives.  Squad mates complaining players to stop playing sniper and rush forward just bugged me because I was a sniper and was the one getting the most capture points, defuses, and squad assists.  Afterwards, I logged onto Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and played a few good games with the last one with me getting the winning shot.  Today's game review will be a sort of mix between Battlefield and Call of Duty.

Official Site: http://www.medalofhonor.com/

Source: Youtube Channel medalofhonor


Developer: Danger Close (Single-Player) DICE (Multiplayer)
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Platforms: Playstation 3, Xbox 360 & PC
Release Date: October 12, 2010.
Genre: First-Person Shooter

Pros:
-Beautifully presented graphics that is both dynamic and easy on the eyes
-Incredible sound engineering with the best recordings and output of audio in any FPS
-Encourages players to work together with specific designs to the maps
-Immersive gameplay with a moving storyline

Cons:
-Program specific triggers and events in Single-player breaks the flow of the game
-Weapons and maps are unbalanced and/or bugged/exploited
-Game's experience for team-specific maps are dependent on team mates
-Limited number of weapon customization, modes, and maps to play on

Medal of Honor (2010) surpassed all expectations out of me as I've never really had any interest in the series due to its dark muddled color schemes, trigger-specific gameplay, and clunky controls for competitive multiplayer.  Medal of Honor has been out for 7 months now and has sold approximately 5 million copies which does not beat the sales of Call of Duty: Black Ops, Halo: Reach, or its own game Battlefield: Bad Company 2.  Despite quickly ignored after the release of Black Ops, the game is a fun shooter that truly had me on edge through the campaigns and kept me excited during multiplayer matches.  There are many aspects that make the game great but is hindered by problems that eventually discourages its players to leave.  Despite minor set-backs, I was happy with my purchase of the game and hope that the series sees as much quality as this one did with resolution to the problems it had before.

Graphics
The graphics for Medal of Honor is simply magnificent and a huge difference from previous installments within the series.  This was the video that got me interested in trying out the game:

Source: Youtube Channel medalofhonor

The models are clean, the colors are dynamic and is easier on the eyes, the textures are sharp and beautiful and the effects are amazing.  Something as simple as explosions from grenades were a spectacle to see during multiplayer with every detail to environment debris, smoke, the lighting from the fire, and the audio tops it off making it as realistic and immersive as possible.  There were parts of the game where textures went haywire and glitched out of the models in mountains, the sky, or trees.  The found the HUD to be pretty unique with a nice futuristic feeling color and lighting effect similar to Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter series.  The points display is similar to Call of Duty and presents itself in a clean semi-neon text.  The HUD is really nice in that its information is straight forward and also doesn't take too much of the screen making for efficient use without being a hindrance.  Graphics: 10/10

Audio
Possibly the first thing I immediately noticed when I tried the game on PC during open beta was the sound of the guns.  They sounded so powerful (I have headphones on when playing) and close rather than just being a recording of a gunshot.  I'm not exactly sure what the sound engineers did for the audio, but the reverb from explosions, gunshots, taking hits, and voice acting were all incredible and possibly the best I've ever heard out of a FPS game.  It might be just me, but I think the programming and recordings for the sound effects in multiplayer is different from singleplayer.  Single-player doesn't have that bombastic effect in the gunshots as it does in Multiplayer.  I loved it so much that I went out of my way to buy an audio processor so that I could use headphones with simulated surround sound on my Playstation 3.  The sound of a shotgun, machine gun, and especially sniper rifle never sounded so good in a videogame before.  Audio: 10/10  (By the way, if you play with headphones on and have a strong bass, getting shot is pretty scary which I felt added the effect to multiplayer.  An incentive not to get shot = sudden loud thump noise of bullets hitting the body).

Gameplay
The singleplayer and multiplayer were developed separately by two different teams and will be judged as such starting with the singleplayer.  I really liked the singleplayer, but not without some complaints.  Some of the events are cinematic-style scenes which tends to drag on sometimes, especially if it's not the first player through.  The firefights can get pretty exciting, but it comes to a complete halt when a programmed trigger is not activated.  This can be frustrating when the player doesn't know what would be causing the game not to continue with the story.  An example is when one of the scenes mission was to get to the building inside, the allies AI crowds around the door, but no one can get in.  Luckily, I've faced weird bugs such as these before in videogames and looked around the rest of the area and found one lone enemy hiding in cover facing the direction I came in from.  The game continued after I killed him.  This isn't a matter of realism, but a basis for game design and the flow of gameplay the player experiences.  I ran into these sort of problems several times during the game and it really killed the suspense when the game was building up tension.  There were many events throughout the campaign that were really pushing the player to be more alert and constantly participating in the action.  The story is told through several perspectives and really brings the player back around to the main characters.  I think there's a possibility that I liked the campaign of Medal of Honor a little more than Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and Call of Duty: Black Ops as MoH truly kept me on edge and holding my breath throughout the entire game.  The campaign can also be played on Tier 1 mode which I guess is a super hard difficulty challenge.  The game was hard enough on normal, I'm not sure if I can get through the whole game on Tier 1 mode.

Source: Youtube Channel medalofhonor

Multiplayer is a different experience from the singleplayer (of course) but has its own entertainment values.  Multiplayer is typical two sides versus matches with 4 game modes.  I've only played the capture point and death match modes as those are the most populated.  Players can choose from three different classes, each with their own loadouts and equipment choices: Assault, Special Ops, Sniper.  The capture points mode and other modes are dependent on team play and are such reliant on the type of players you get matched up with.  When you get on a good team, the experience can be quite exhilarating and satisfying with you and your team mates rushing the front, watching each other's backs, and deploying team specific perks.  The game can be a horrible experience too though with more reasons than one.  Having bad team mates can make for a one-sided fight since players will rush to their deaths on their own thinking they'll just respawn and kill some more like in Call of Duty (which is fine for deathmatch actually).  There's also the problem of how players spawn.  In capture points, enemy players that have played enough will know exactly where you and your team mates spawn and can literally camp in an area where they can kill you the second you spawn.  This can be behind your own base or in the fronts where they shoot in the general vicinity of where you will spawn.  Some of the maps also causes players to funnel through the same area which makes it easy to spray and pray on anyone through through that path.  If it's not a gunshot, players who were already spawn camping would have enough kills to call on mortar strikes on your team's spawn point and get a few good kills.  The weapons have to be unlocked by leveling the class you played through a match by earning the points.  So if you continually suffer and not play well, leveling will be a problem (wasn't too bad for me).  Even with items unlocked, weapons are limited and few.  The good thing is that there's not such thing as a useless weapon as all weapons are powerful (even pistols).  Problem with that is some of the weapons are overpowering, and sometimes I like it because of it.  Besides playing sniper (my favorite class), I would play special ops with a shotgun that can instantly kill anyone close OR mid-ranged.  The shotgun's reach is so ridiculous that I've gotten kills across the map with about 3-5 shots before.  I've gotten scores such as 32 Kills and 9 Deaths using a shotgun before because of how amazing the reach and power is (keep in mind that I play casually and am not very good at First-Person Shooters compared to most players online).  The game really can get exciting and fun when everyone is playing fairly.  But there are just too many design flaws, bugs, and exploits to deem it fair, consistently enjoyable, or even bearable when you're getting killed repeatedly from your spawn point.  Gameplay: 8/10 (it would've been a 7/10, but the incredible audio, awesome sniper class and overpowering shotgun convinced me to give an extra point).

Replay Value
This portion is debatable and can vary from player to player.  The game doesn't have that many modes, maps, or weapons, so the main experience is dependent on the people you play with (which usually turns out to be bad).  Some players might get bored after unlocking everything as their incentive to play was to unlock items.  Others might get turned off by the problems the game suffers from as described above.  Most players I see online range from about 2000-4000 points of experience with a select few at 1000 or 8000.  Those who have high experience points are often more than not ones who spawn camp racking up to 30-50 kills with 1-2 deaths.  And what happens when one person does it?  Their whole team joins in, making it difficult to near impossible to flank.  With the Playstation Network still down, it's very uncertain what the future of Medal of Honor's online play is going to be like.  The last few times I logged on, there was a max player count of about 1000-5000.  The singleplayer was fun, but I would mainly replay it through tier 1 mode to test my skills.  Even if I felt like playing multiplayer, it would be once in a while.  I usually play deathmatch now if I want to play since the team-based ones can be infuriating with bad team mates.  It's pretty difficult to recommend the game now for its multiplayer as its population is dwindling.  I'll probably still play the game once in a while, but it's difficult to make a decision to do so each time I get free time since I have a large backlog of games.  Replay Value: 7/10

Overall
If you can find the game for less than $20 and you enjoy military-themed FPS games, then I recommend playing through it for the experience.  No other FPS has such detail and quality in its audio and realism as Medal of Honor (2010) (thus far).  And if you're like me not liking previous Medal of Honor games as much, don't worry and give this game a chance as it's a huge difference from its older installments.  With an exciting single player campaign and a broken yet entertaining multiplayer, the game should be tried out by all FPS players at least once.  Overall: 8.75/10

GameLight Review - Battlefield: Bad Company 2

This week is going to be kind of like a GameOn event in that I'm going to be doing game reviews all week.  I finished through three games last week and wanted to review two others I finished a short while ago.  They are somewhat old, but still relevant now (meaning it's still worth picking up these games and playing them).  I have three First-Person Shooters (FPS) and two Action Role-Playing Games (ARPG) lined up for this week's game reviews.  Today, I'll be reviewing Battlefield: Bad Company 2 for PC.

Official Site: http://www.battlefieldbadcompany2.com/

Source: Youtube Channel Games

Developer: DICE
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Platforms: Playstation 3, Xbox 360 & PC
Release Date: March 2, 2010.
Genre: First-Person Shooter

Pros:
-Interesting Storyline with an entertaining Single-player Campaign
-Squad-based multiplayer distinguishes itself from other First-Person Shooters
-Class-based loadouts adds a special dynamic in team-play
-The game offers a lot in content, gameplay, and replay value

Cons:
-The experience in multiplayer relies heavily on the team you're on and playing against
-Lots of off-putting moments such as object contact lag, spawn killed, and dumb team mates
-The many things that you can't kill but can kill you (vehicles, rockets, grenadiers, snipers, etc.)

This review is long overdue with it being out for over a year and two months exactly now; however, it doesn't change the fact that Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is still an exciting game for anyone who like team-based action games to enjoy now with the Vietnam expansion and weapons DLC still offering gamers something new.  The first Bad Company may have gone under my radar when it was released, but I'm glad I had the chance to get the sequel during the Christmas holidays when I did.  With a full fledged Single-player campaign, an extensive multiplayer mode with four classes to choose from, various maps, and tons of unlockable items, the game is still worth picking up as we wait for the release of Battlefield 3.

Graphics
First and foremost, I have to say that the developers did an incredible job optimizing the graphics for the PC.  I have to put the graphics down in order to have a smooth gameplay experience, but not so much that it hindered on the beautiful landscapes and effects of the game's graphics.  The environment within the game is simply breath taking from the large background terrain to the tiny debris that flies off a door when breaking it down.  Though the developers go for a more realistic look to the art style, they kept the design for the game in mind and worked around the colors of the units, objects, and terrain.  The dynamics in color, lighting, and contrast worked really well and was comfortable to the eyes as well as distinguishing objects around the player from melding in together too much into a messy amalgamation.  The animation is nice for the most part, and the destructible environments worked really well with the graphics for the debris.  Smoke and debris does slow the game down for me once in a while, but I'm hoping to still be playing the game when I get a nicer computer (I play on a laptop currently).  My main complaint on the graphics would be more due to the network in how there is quite a bit of lag in bullet contact, distance, and hit-box sync with the models in multiplayer.  Graphics: 10/10

Audio
I found the music to be unfitting and awkward in many parts of the singleplayer as well as loading screens for multiplayer.  They're distinct, but not incredibly memorable.  For the most part, it was okay and kept scenes from being silent.  The sound effects were decent, but nothing that stood-out and blew me away.  I do have to make an exception to the reverb sound from an explosion.  It causes your character to go deaf for a few seconds before sound normalizes.  The programming is pretty good and very important when you're trying to flank on an opponent who's firing at your team mates.  The most satisfying sound to hear is the beeping of points whenever my med packs heal a group of my team mates.  Audio: 8/10

Gameplay
I didn't know that the game had a Single player mode.  Perhaps the first one had it, but I never heard of Bad Company in the Battlefield series until the sequel came out.  The single-player campaign feels very different from Call of Duty's gritty environment of war and chaos and takes the story a bit more lightly with humor, movie-like action scenes, and a cast of eccentric characters you team up with.  The single-player is pretty action packed, bringing the player from one spot to the next with fire fights, tank battles, and vehicle raids.  The single-player last much longer than I expected and delivered an entertaining experience, but there were a few missions that felt more like a chore when traversing from one place to another in long distances.  Multiplayer is a bit harder to describe as the experience can differ from time to time.  My first experience with multiplayer was really good.  I teamed up with a friend and worked as a small squad in capturing objective points.  I've mainly played medic and have unlocked all there is for that class.  I noticed that there's a great deal of lag in processing bullet contact, kills and such.  I've knifed players and had them stand there frozen for 3-5 seconds before showing that they have been killed.  I would shoot a whole clip of bullets into an opponent and they would sometimes survive with not a single hit landed on them.  Aside from that bit of annoyance (which doesn't happen all the time) is the team you play with.  Since I played with a friend, we were able to carry out objectives a lot more effectively and watch out for each other; however, I have play many times on my own with random players and they would kill the experience for me.  Medics run past my dead body while trying to kill someone with their Machine guns, assaults run off on their own to kill enemies while the team's bases gets armed and blown up, snipers just sit there waiting for an opponent to come by instead of throwing radar to keep an eye out for enemies, etc.  This video would be very useful to watch before playing for anyone on Battlefield: Bad Company 2

Souce: Youtube Channel GamerSpawn

It also explains a lot of the game mechanics in those short 9 minutes.  There can also be the infuriating events of constantly getting killed the second you spawn ANYwhere on the map, but I believe a lot of the problems I've mentioned is applicable to many other FPS games.  So there are, of course, good points about the game.  The squad-based gameplay forces players to cooperate with their team mates as trying to go at it on your own will likely result in a failure or excessive deaths.  The problem is that many players go into Bad Company 2 thinking that it's similar to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.  By having players die a lot, it encourages them to stick with the squad.  The distinct classes adds a nice dynamic to the game since it does something similar with the squad-based teamwork by having players focus on what their classes excel at to fulfill the mission rather than rushing up the front lines to try to get some kills.  There is a lot to unlock for each class and thus a lot of items to mix and match which changes the type of position your character plays for the team.  I personally loved playing the medic, mainly due to the blaring fact that most people don't do their jobs as medics in most games let alone this one.  Being able to tag enemies was also a welcome function since maps were huge and players looked small from afar.  I'm constantly mashing on the "Q" key when I'm up against a huge group.  Put everything together, and the game can get pretty exciting when both teams work really well pushing the lines and working together.  The feeling of "belonging in a team" is similar to MAG on the PS3 in how it creates a special atmosphere for working with your team rather than running off on your own like in Call of Duty.  The game can be just as bad though when you have bad team mates and you're up against a solid team who are working cohesively together to get the job done.  I really like playing Battlefield: Bad Company 2, but sometimes I get turned off by uncooperative mates and bad matches.  Gameplay: 8/10

Replay Value
This is subjective since people all treat multiplayer differently in this game.  My friend started to play the game a lot less after unlocking most all of the items in the game.  I offered the idea of getting the expansion for extra unlockables and content, but even I questioned whether I wanted it or not at the moment.  I'm not quite sure how strong the replay value is, but I still have the urge to play more since I've unlocked all of the items for medic, but haven't touched the other three much yet.  I'm up to 22 hours of gameplay so far, and I think I might play later today since I haven't touched it in a while (been playing a lot of offline games).  While the maps do sort of get too familiar after a while, I feel there is a lot to offer players with the dynamics of the classes, items, people you get matched up with, etc.  After a while though, I do take a break from it as I can't stand the reliance on team work when I've lost 7 matches in a row due to team mates who don't want to stick together.  But for the price the game is selling for now (generally $20, I got it for $7), it's well worth the purchase and will last long enough for those waiting for Battlefield 3.  Replay Value: 9/10

Overall
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is a unique experience that most FPS games don't offer and is well worth the purchase for those who are looking for a more team-based experience in their FPS games.  The game offers hours of gameplay experience with lot of items to work with, large maps with vehicles at your disposal, and a class-based system that is sure to change the way you play each time you log on.  Though the set-backs from lag, random explosion deaths, and infuriating team mates who don't know what they're doing can be frustrating, the addition of single-player mode, the joy of getting multiple kills in one spawn, and the major victory from a team effort of well coordinated players can be a satisfaction that no other FPS game can offer.  Overall: 8.75