Thursday, 3 January 2013

Black Ops 2 Wii U - Review

Black Ops 2: Wii U edition

Why you'd buy Black Ops 2 on the Wii U if you own an Xbox 360 or a PS3 like I do is beyond me, but I decided to try it out on my new console because it's worth a shot, right?


Whilst the game really doesn't differ from the PS360 counterparts much (as with the PC edition, I'd assume) The Wii U version of Black Ops 2 has a number of bugs and glitches that are flat out crippling to the experience. I'll get to those in a minute, but I'd best go through the rest of the game first for consistency's sake. The Campaign mode is standard Call of Duty affairs - you play as a generic soldier called David Mason, and his father from the original Black Ops game, Alex Mason. Thoughout the campaign, you jump between post-Cold War sort of era (late 60s/70s ish) and the more futuristic 2025 missions. It works to break up the pace nicely, I have to admit - instead of being greeted with the same dullish brown corridor in a country that's clearly supposed to mimic a middle eastern location, the gameplay is kept fresh with nice grey corridors in some future compound somewhere. It all serves to follow the main bad guy through the years and attempt to explain why he wants to terrorise the rest of the world. Or America.

I can't really tell which one, because the story is so vague and there's so many things going off it's really difficult to follow exactly what's happening.  I suppose it's testament to how Call of Duty is, and always will be about following the icons and shooting things in your way. Whilst I'm not going to spoil the whole thing, it's a fairly generic sort of ending as you'd expect from Call of Duty but the small number of story-changing elements serve to be moderately intriguing, even if they are quite limited. You can get a number of different endings, but they're usually just compilations of cutscenes that play whether event X or Y was chosen in the campaign mode. They're not obvious, however, which is a rather nice touch - instead of having press A for ending X device, it depends on your actions in a certain event, which will become obvious after you've played, but it's interesting nonetheless. It can't really save the story on the whole, however, which sort of scrambles things up a bit by moving across various timezones and locations, not going chronologically like other Call of Duty games.

Unlike other Call of Duty games however, you get loads of admittedly rather cool gadgets, like the flying squirrel suits and other nice things that only seem to be used once or twice in the Campaign, which really is a shame considering that this is the only really 'new' bit of the game, and if they'd have managed to use them more, and more freely as opposed to the almost cutscene like uses of most, it might have been a vastly more interesting experience. Multiplayer has no such niceties and is just a copied and pasted version of the old CoD multiplayer from last year. And the year before. And the year before that. And the year before that... Whilst I've noticed no major problems with the game apart from the distinct lack of innovation on other consoles, the game on Wii U is damn near unplayable due to Activision only providing funds for an old toaster to use as the 'Black Ops 2 server'. Every five minutes I'm thrown out of a game because 'the server is unavailable' or that the game cannot migrate host in a game that was perfectly fine without a host migration, with nobody leaving or having their connection spontaneously give up on them to warrant said host migration.

Not only that, but it takes a ridiculous amount of time to actually find a match and half of the playlists might as well not exist, because you'll never find a game in them. Truth be told, the only times I've ever managed to find a game have all been when I've searched in the 'Team Deathmatch' playlist which as you'd expect is the most popular playlist out of all of them. Not to say that the other playlists have no people searching for games in them, however - there's plenty of people in each playlist, so I'm going to put it down to horrifically bad coding. Speaking of which, when you're in a game you'll often experience really bad lag issues, or the bullet hit detection will fail, so much so that I used 15 bullets, all of them hit but only 3 registered overall. That's inexcusable, and the thing is that it's random, so there's no way of knowing whether you'll manage to lose a gunfight due to a clearly broken game mechanic - I could get into detail about this being because Call of Duty runs on the age old Quake 2 engine that's older than the dawn of time, but there's not enough space for that in a single post. Heck, there's probably not enough space in 2 posts.

As for the actual multiplayer, I can't comment too much. It seems to run much smoother than previous games, and the weapons definitely feel more unique to one another, with the 'pick 10' class modification system actually proving to be a rather intuitive system for choosing your weapons and game modifying perks and all that. It's just a shame that the multiplayer flat out doesn't work at the best of times.

And the final part of the package is the Zombies 'mini game' that's spawned a massive amount of support from fans since the days of World at War, and has a bigger community than most other AAA titles, which is impressive in itself. Much unlike the Black Ops 2 incarnation of Zombies, which feels like a bit of a dud in comparison. If you've never played the Zombies mode before, it's like your typical horde type mode, zombies come at you in waves, you kill them to gain points which can be spent on opening up new areas, better weapons so on and so forth. Black Ops 2's only real contribution to the mode is the introduction of a new 'Tranzit' mode, which is extremely vague in what you're supposed to do. Yes, it's the biggest map thus far in the history of Zombies, but it's still just a load of smaller maps sellotaped together with a bus that will allow you to move between them. Of course, you can run between locations without the bus, but you'll likely get savaged to death by a particularly annoying creature that spawns out of nowhere and proceeds to remove your face.

My main issue with this particular game mode is that it not only does nothing to innovate, but also leaves absolutely no clues as to what you're supposed to do, which was alright for the optional easter eggs in earlier games, but certainly not for the main portion of the game. As a result, it's very inaccessible for newbies to the series, and incredibly confusing for anyone who's not scoured the internet for clues regarding the mode prior to playing it. Of course, it does add buildable items to the mix, which are all rather average and don't really do anything to change the game up at all. Again, there's no hints as to what goes with what and where you can build it, it's all trial and error which is pretty poor in a game where you have to start all over again if you simply get caught off guard by a zombie that you couldn't quite take down because you were sellotaping a fan to a tyre or something. Again, that's another complaint - there's absolutely no way to even guess what's being built unless you've done it before, so you don't know what you'll need to find to be able to build something. For instance, to turn the power switch on in one portion, you have to build the power switch itself, which you'd think is simple, but one of the parts is a generic zombie arm (because apparently you can't turn the switch without the zombie arm attached) and so you have to literally hold the Y button over anything that vaguely looks like an arm in the hope that it's the one that you're looking for. Not any arm will do, it's just one specific one that looks no different to the others. That's annoying.

So, overall impression on Black Ops 2 aren't very good. Yes, it's probably in part due to the fact that I played the Wii U version of the game but at the end of the day, the game should not be released unless it's functional and the best it can be, regardless of the system it's on. A rather glaring issue that I should note along with this is that the framerate occasionally and somewhat randomly drops from a steady 60+ to below 10 for no reason, sometimes sustained periods, on all game modes. As a result of these kinds of issues, and the general lack of innovation across the board I'd highly recommend that you avoid this game like the plague, or at least until they fix the blatant issues with it. Which they won't, because Activision would rather Treyarch dedicate their time and resources to making (urgh) paid DLC.

Final thoughts:
Some interesting ideas, but a greatly missed opportunity and horribly broken finished product means you'll have more fun skimming the disc down a driveway. 

4/10


Oh, and a little sidenote too - I forgot to mention the Wii U Gamepad functionality in this review. Because there is none. Apart from being able to play on the little screen on multiplayer co-op whilst someone else uses the TV, there's really no gamepad support at all. The touchscreen doesn't even work in menus, and the only real thing it does normally is display your minimap and/or mission objectives, thus showing that this is nothing more than a tacky port.

Thursday, 1 November 2012

Black Ops 2 delayed?

There's some debate and speculation as to whether Call of Duty Black Ops 2 has been delayed on Twitter at the minute, with the picture above being the source of confusion for many Call of Duty fans.

So, is it true? Has Black Ops 2 been delayed? Short answer - no. This particular image is fake, or so David Vonderhaar's twitter account (@DavidVonderhaar) says:

"Oh Internet. You so crazy. And apparently bored. And will apparently believe anything you read hacked up in Photoshop."
So there you have it, Black Ops 2 isn't delayed, though there is some speculation as to whether the game will still be released due to potential legal issues that are supposedly arising though this close to release I can't really imagine the game being halted due to something like that. Still, watch this space for more updates on the situation

Sunday, 30 September 2012

Halo 4 Updates and News! September pt1

Here's a bit of a catch up on all of the Halo 4 news that's made itself known on the internet in the latter bit of September. All of these Halo 4 videos don't actually have gameplay, but there's definitely news there to be listened to in a very easy-to-listen format. Enjoy!

Halo 4 - Valhalla returns | Valhalla Remake | Ragnarok leaked | Mantis gameplay leaked



Halo 4 - Flood Playable in multiplayer war games infection (flood) mode!




More Halo 4 Gameplay news to be added soon!

Thursday, 20 September 2012

The best handheld game, ever.

Alright, that's a bold statement to make, I agree. Maybe it's not the absolute best handheld game out there, but it's definitely high up there on the 'great games' scale, and funnily enough it's not widely recognised by people as such.

What is this game, you ask? One of the Mario games? Nope. Sonic? Nope. Metal Gear Solid on the PSP? Nope.

Robot Wars: Extreme Destruction on the Gameboy Advance.

I'm guessing that's either a look of confusion or disgust on your face right now, in which case - shame on you! RWED on the GBA (acronyms LOL) is quite frankly one of the best games of it's era, and even today too! Whilst it's definitely not the best game it could have been, RWED definitely encompasses everything a Robot Wars game should be. On top of that, despite a very small number of modes the game still manages to be entertaining to this day, 10 years later or something - that's an achievement in itself.

Of course, being on GBA it does have its graphical limitations. And by graphical limitations, I mean it's about as soothing on the eyes as shards of glass. Don't get me wrong, it's not the worst out there but it's certainly not the best and in any case the robots at least look recognisable. It's not beautiful, but pretty much full 3D with a damn good physics engine on the Gameboy Advance is incredible for the time. Incredible, I say!

Most of my sheer delight playing this game may come from the nostalgia of Robot Wars (I still watch it daily!) but I have to say it's even great fun for people who know nothing about Robot Wars, sure you won't get the whole 'You unlocked Chaos 2' thing (2 time Grand Champion) but it'll still be a blast to play through nevertheless.  You'll blast through said game in an afternoon if you're half decent at it, but the replayability is what really draws me back to this game. The fact that you'll never meet a made-up robot (as you would in the console games) in any of the modes minus multiplayer if you still have a link cable, or indeed build your own and enter it in the main contests, means that everything just works. It feels like the Robot Wars game that Robot Wars should always have had.

Especially compared to the console ports, the game is incredible - I can't sing it's praises enough! If you go back and play the old console/PC games now, you'll know that they're buggy, don't work right, look silly... granted, they're fun but a true representation of the show they aren't. The GBA counterpart isn't either to some extent, with no visible damage on robots unless you count a certain polygon glitch and no mid-round fixing of the machines. As a concept and a game it works fantastically well, but just imagine if someone were to develop a combat robotics game using a proper physics engine for the PC...

Now THAT would definitely be worth throwing some money at!
-Flag Captured

Wednesday, 1 February 2012

Tiger Bread? You're having a Giraffe, right?

Giraffe breadhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16812545

Not all news these days is bad news, sometimes you get those genuinely funny bits of news like this. Basically, the retail chain Sainsbury's recieved a letter, saying "Why is tiger bread called tiger bread? It should be called giraffe bread. Love from Lily Robinson age 3 and 1/2". 

This made me chuckle. It proves that not all major retailers are heartless, money-grabbing organisations. Well, it might still be, but it just shows that they can have a laugh every once in a while.

Wednesday, 10 August 2011

Flag vs the Media

You know Britain? Yeah, the place that's just had the riots. Well, the media have had an absolute field day with it, and guess what's to blame. Videogames - clearly, every single person who went out and destroyed stuff because  they felt like it and wanted to loot stuff plays video games like Modern Warfare and Grand Theft Auto and they all simultaneously went out to be violent at the same time. No, that's nonsense. Videogames have NOTHING to do with this at all - it's simply people being idiots because they're opportunists.

It would be brilliant if some of these newspapers actually read this, because it's discrimination against a certain group of people by saying that, or even suggesting that videogamers are violent people. Because of this, there's people that now avoid me if I wear a 'space invaders' shirt simply because I play videogames and will therefore take great pleasure in punching them square in the face, except I won't because that's just a preconception you're getting in people's heads.

But still, I could condemn the papers too much. I would leave it here for good, but it's inevitable The Daily Mail's going to go bash another group of people soon, so yeah...

Tuesday, 9 August 2011

I condemn a riot.

Alright, this has gone on far too long now. These riots are quite frankly ridiculous, but to be honest, I could see something like that happening with the most senior people in our Government on holiday at the SAME TIME.
David Cameron's come back home from his holiday and seems pretty annoyed that he's had to come back, and whilst I can understand why, he shouldn't have put himself forward to be prime minister if he wasn't prepared to do what he has had to do.
These rioters are terrorists. They're destroying homes, shops, cities, and so on - They deserve no sympathy whatsoever and need locking up for life - I've seen people on the news who've lost everything because of these idiots, and in all honesty, I think we need stronger security measures. Yes, get riot police to block them and try and get arrests made, but this is an attack, not a bit of an out-of-hand protest. If the rioters aren't taught a lesson, they'll try and get away with more and more, and eventually there'll be something close to a war going off, if they aren't stopped completely and swiftly.

To be honest, I hope the rioters grow the hell up and turn themselves in.