Call Of Duty: World at War (360) – Review

With this iteration of Call of Duty flipping back to Treyarch, Call of Duty: World at War returns to the historical setting of World War II, this time focusing on two theaters of war that haven’t been explored in depth: the Russian invasion of Germany, and the retaliation of America on Japan.  While the game does little to change up the formula of the game (including keeping some of the more disliked elements such as infinite enemy respawns, while using the same experience-based approach to multiplayer as Call of Duty 4), the game is otherwise a decent and solid title

Call of Duty 2 (360) – Replay Impressions

So I’m going for what I think are easy Xbox Live achievement points in that completing Call Of Duty 2’s missions on the hardest, Veteran mode, should be relatively easy (60 points for each mission plus an overall bonus).

That was a huge mistake at least in that thought process.

I realize that for the computer AI to get a leg up over you, the player, it needs to cheat a bit, but I swear, just getting through the entire Russian campaign took a heck of a long time simply because there were so many points where you’d be shot immediately after poking your head around the corner because the game cheated badly with soldiers knowing exactly where you are as if I were playing a wall-hacked CounterStrike game.  Again, I have to say it is a matter of making it fair to the computer since once you’ve died, you now know where to expect the enemy and thus makes it easier to defeat them, but there’s also something to be said about the near-perfect aiming with machine guns at long range that makes me wonder how many tricks the AI is pulling here.

I’m similarly working through the harder levels on Gears of War, but it’s interesting how learning to use cover in Gears is helping me alot to think about some strategies on the more open points for COD2.

And it’s actually surprising that this game looks, well, poor, given what’s come out since, but more that it feels much more like a direct PC port or a game where the graphics engine was standardized among all consoles and PC and not given any spit and polish for the 360.

Call of Duty 3 (360) – Review

Continuing the popular series of World War II-themed first person shooter, Call of Duty 3, developed by Treyarch and published by Activision, pretty much stays the course from it’s prequels, adding a few small items to gameplay and story that generally make the game a bit better. Unfortunately, the game ultimately lacks anything really new or exciting to add to the current gaming market; I wouldn’t call it stale, but pretty much lackluster despite being a good challenge.

New 360 Games (Gears of War, Need for Speed Carbon, Tony Hawk Project 8, Call of Duty) – Initial Impressions

Finally got to my batch of new 360 games with an hour or so into each to get the feel of them:

Gears of War – Definitely one of the best looking games in a long time – all the detail that a game like Doom3 could provide but without being massively specular or reflective – more gritty like a war-torn land should be!   So far, I’ve yet to get the groove of the gameplay (single player for right now) but that could just be a matter of still being jet lagged.

Need For Speed Carbon – While I’m not 100% thrilled with the return to an “Underground” racing approach, they seem to have taken good elements from Hot Pursuit/Most Wanted along with the territory issues that were introduced in GTA:SA and also in Saints Row, and so there seems to be more than just racing going on – but it’s too early to tell on that.  The addition of the crew member with you during races may be rather interesting to see how it works out.

Tony Hawk Project 8 – Yay, no “wreck the city to win” type storyline – this appears to be just providing who you are as a skateboarder.  Only have done a handful of goals, but the system seems to be better this time around compared to American Wasteland.  And wow, Tony’s reaaaaally aged badly.

Call of Duty 3 – I’m liking the more impressive approach they’ve used in the in-game cutscenes (being in the truck as it blows up, watching your squad commander hoist you over a wall into the middle of a battle zone).  Plays the same so far as CoD 2, which is just fine for the most part, but it will be interesting to see what more they add.