Electronic Arts Titantfall Review

EA Titantfall Video Game Review

The upcoming MultiPlayer first person shooter from Electronic Arts publisher is Titanfall. The Video Game is based on mechs which you can use as your pets and fight with the enemies to destroy them all. Soldiers in the video game can wall run through cityscapes and can use friendly mechs for short period of time.

Expect to fight from rooftops, on streets using giant robots with awesome firepower. Titanfall promises a never seen and felt gaming experience before.

AC 4 The Ascension of the Jackdaw Glitch

Assassins Creed 4 Black Flag The Ascension of the Jackdaw Glitch

There is a glitch in Assassins Creed Black Flag. The glitch or bug happens on Great Inaqua Island. The glitch has other names too like Assassins Creed Fun With Portals and Assassins Creed Black Flag Boat Glitch.

AC 4 The Ascension of the Jackdaw Glitch

The Glitch or Bug in the Assassins Creed Black Flag Creates a giant hole where Jackdaw is standing. The Crew of the Ship Keep Hovering up in the air and the Boat Start to rise in the air too. Seems like a funny glitch.

If you want to try the glitch yourself just visit the location in the video game and see for yourself, before it gets patched up by the developers.

Assassins Creed 4 Black Flag Problem

Assassins Creed 4 Black Flag Problem

There is a bug/glitch in Assassins Creed 4 Black Flag which don't allow you to start the game when you are using windows 7 or newest windows 8. Some Assassins Creed 4 Black Flag Users will also notice black screen.

If this happen to you, just run the Assassins Creed Black Flag in Administrator mode and it will be solved. If not you might need to update your video card drivers. Just visit the vendor website and update to latest supported drivers.

Call of Duty 2 Review

Call of Duty 2 Review

Infinity Ward returns to the streets of Stalingrad, Normandy and North Africa in this epic World War 2 shooter.

I'll nail my colours to the mast right now; I'm a huge fan of the original Call of Duty game by Infinity Ward. While in gameplay terms it wasn't exactly innovative, it was the finest example of the scripted WW2 first-person shooter. The frenetic gameplay felt convincing, it felt as though you were in a gunfight rather than a shoot'em up and the historical settings were tastefully recalled in an emotive and sensitive manner.

So here we return to the similar themes with Call of Duty 2. Once again we get to play as the Soviets, British and Americans in various theatres of WW2. Each campaign is split into missions, with each mission further split into sections. As you complete each mission, more are unlocked, giving you a choice on the order of progression.

Tidal Flow

The game begins with the defence of Moscow and then moves swiftly on to the streets of Stalingrad. It's familiar territory here, with narrow destroyed ruins giving way to the occasional open space. Much of the British campaign takes place in North Africa during the battle against Rommel's Afrika Corps, though there is also a Normandy mission for the Desert Foxes too. Finally the American troops get to re-enact a D-Day beach landing and battle with German troops in Normandy.

The feel of many of the missions is different to the original game. There's more of an ebb and flow about them than merely just killing the enemy and taking positions. Often you'll capture a building or location and then have to fight off an enemy counter-attack, before going on the offensive once again. Once particular US mission has you defending the whole time and falling back to different defensive positions.

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

Another new element to play is the importance of smoke grenades; these can be used to great effect to block the view of the enemy, enabling you to move past particularly nasty MG42 nests and other infantry chewing choke points. I found myself using more regular grenades than in the first game too, often running up to buildings and throwing a couple in before storming in to take out survivors. There's a handy grenade indicator that appears on screen to warn you of nearby danger.

Talking of displays, the HUD in Call of Duty 2 takes a welcome minimalist approach. Much of the time you won't see any information when moving. Other times there's little on show other than a radar/situation awareness indicator showing objectives and friendly/enemy troops and an ammo indicator. There's no health indicator at all.

The Trooper

Which brings me on to the changes in the health system, which I'm rather fond of. There isn't a health bar, health pickups or lives in this game. Instead a dangerous hit to your character will make the edge of the screen bruise red and your heart-rate to become audible. If you take more hits in this condition then you're a goner and are swiftly taken back to the last auto-checkpoint. If you take cover and avoid being hit again for a few seconds you'll recover back to full health.

This system works remarkably well, meaning you don't need to worry about saving and loading. Returning to the previous checkpoint occurs smoothly and without much delay. The checkpoints themselves are well spaced, meaning you never have to repeat too much if you are killed. There are a few sections though where you'll have some particularly tough opposition and you might find yourself repeating the same part of the level a few times before you find the right strategy to proceed.

Afraid to Shoot Strangers

It seems though that this more forgiving health system has led Infinity Ward to ramp up the level of action in each level and it's not quite a success. In fact it leads to my biggest criticism of the game. All too often you reach points in the game that feel more like playing Serious Sam than Call of Duty. The wonderful careful shootout, hide, run, cover, shoot gameplay of the original seems to have been replaced by total adrenaline pumping madness at times. It's exciting, it gets the heart beating, but ultimately I found it less rewarding than the original game's more subtle gameplay.

I also got fed up of having to empty half a clip into an enemy soldier to make him stay down. I know it's not an ultra-real game, we'll leave that to the mod makers, but it's a bit galling to put two bursts into the stomach of a German paratrooper only to have him get back up. Fine, he's not quite dead yet, I understand some folks will survive being blasted like that, but leave the poor bugger on the deck - I doubt he'd want to get up and fight some more.

Silly Season

There are also a few silly moments that make the game seem like Operation Wolf. Most of the time the game feels authentic, the squad-based action being some of the most fun you can have on PC at the moment. But there are times such as when you're on a truck that is destroyed by a bazooka every time you turn a certain corner.

So you find yourself trying to line up the sight pixel-perfect on this one corner of a building ten or fifteen times until you get passed it, only to find the same problem at the next corner. Or there's the moment in the British campaign where you have to take control of an anti-aircraft gun in what seems a very silly minute or two.

The Pretties

Technically it's not the most impressive game engine around at the moment. If you want to wave your noodley appendage around based on the impressiveness of your rig you're better off with something like F.E.A.R. But that's not to say Call of Duty 2 isn't pretty. Infinity Ward shows here that there's more to a great looking game than mere engine horsepower.

The design and artistic direction of the game is peerless, and with the higher texture settings the game looks wonderful. It's pretty scaleable too, meaning most gamers will be able to join in the fun and make it look good too. Neat touches such as the smoke grenades, lighting and explosions add to the graphical splendour and are coupled with some of the best sound effects you'll hear.

But I don't want to be too harsh here. When Call of Duty 2 works, which most of the time it does, it's more fun than most shooters you'll find. The atmosphere is electric thanks to a stirring orchestral score, the ebb and flow of the battles, the chatter of your AI squad-mates, the crashing sound effects and the fast-paced action.

Project Gotham Racing 3 Review

Project Gotham Racing 3 review

Next generation racing courtesy of Bizarre Creations...

The launch of Xbox 360 has seen both extremes of games journalism. There has been the gushing fantasy of sites and magazines so in Microsoft's pay that you can't trust them to tell you the time, let alone that EA is the world's laziest and cynical publisher of Xbox 360 games.

Project Gotham Racing 3 Review

At the other end of the spectrum are the jaded cynicals, they want to prove what serious and intelligent journalists they are. The shortcut to this, rather than getting into games in any depth is to give a very low score, much below what everyone else gives a game. It doesn't really matter if we haven't played the game much, or understood it very well, we'll give it a low score and we look great.

Well let me lay my cards on the table right away. I've been pretty damn excited about the launch of Xbox 360 and most in particularly Project Gotham Racing 3. I got into gaming to have fun, and the by-product of that has been that I've got a career talking about games, but at the very centre of this is fun. And believe me, Project Gotham Racing 3 is a whole lot of fun.

From Here to Eternity

The first impressions aren't great though, the menu system is a little clunky to say the least. Yet once you've got an idea where everything is hidden, it's plain sailing from there. The centre of the game for the single player is the career mode. Progression though the career will be familiar to anyone who's played the previous games.

The career is split into sections; each section of between two and seven races features a theme, such as a location or style of racing. The most common events are straight races between you and several AI cars. But there are also timed runs, breakthrough and hot laps where it's you alone on the track, cone challenges to test your control and eliminator where a competitor is removed from the back of the pack at the end of each lap.

What all these game modes have in common is trying to earn kudos. In straight races it's not that important, winning is all that counts. Other events mark your results based on how much kudos you've earned, for example by sliding through cone gates. Some events require you to earn kudos to progress, say for earning time on the rapidly diminishing clock.

Tried and Tested

Whatever the goal of the event the way to earn kudos is the same. Skidding, sliding, overtaking, breaking, taking the racing line, not crashing, drafting etc. all earn kudos. Stringing combos together will earn you even more kudos as long as you don't crash into a barrier before you've banked the points.

It's a tried and tested formula and works well. I'm not one of those players who goes all out to try and get kudos maximums, only to complete the event. But with a selection of difficulty levels ranging from steel, through the Olympic medal colours to platinum, there's a challenge there for everyone.

Interestingly the game takes an unusual route to car selection in that, prototype cars aside, all the gleaming automotive porn is available right away, you just have to earn the credits to buy them. And as each event's challenge is based on the car you pick, you can in theory play the whole single player career with one car.

Collect'em Up

It's worth collecting plenty of cars though as some are better at events than others. For cone challenges it's much better to get a tail happy beast like a TVR Sagaris. Whereas if time was of the essence I always plumped for the sure-footed brilliance of a Lamborghini Murciélago 6.2, its four-wheel drive keeping the car glued to the road.

Cars are placed in garages, when each garage is full, another is unlocked. These gorgeous locations show off the car models superbly as you are able to walk around, admire the cars and even take pictures. My favourite is actually the second garage unlocked, the converted barn. Walking around the garages also shows off the game's superb lighting model, of which, more later.

There are other options for single player games, you can set up any of the multiplayer type events and play them against AI cars or you can take part in time trials. There's also a mix of multiplayer and single player with the online career, where you choose events in a similar way to the regular career, but take part against other racers online.

Replay Failings

The races against the clock do highlight the failing of the games replay system. Like many racing game fans I like to watch replays, especially from time trials. However this is not possible in PGR3. Time trials and races on custom tracks do not let you watch replays. It is possible to watch solo runs by creating a street race with you as the only player, but otherwise replay choice is limited.

Ironic really, given how we are treated to the ability to save and watch replays from multiplayer races. I can see why, when we use the custom route creator this is not possible, the replay camera system must be manually created for each circuit by Bizarre. The route creator itself is one of the game's disappointments. Sure, it's easy to use and create circuits and point to point events, but the results are somewhat disappointing.

22 Acacia Avenue

Why? Firstly because the areas in the game are much smaller than we are used to in PGR games. London, in particular, uses a very tiny part of the city, really limiting choice. I really do hope that London at least is expanded soon with some downloadable content, because there's really not enough of it. The boundary is limited from Embankment station, to Parliament, Buckingham Palace, Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square. Unlike MSR there's no Leicester Square, no Millbank down to Lambeth Bridge and no chance to cross the river to the south at all.

In contrast there's a generous helping of Tokyo and Las Vegas. New York too is a little limited. Long courses are possible because you can cross the two bridges in either direction, but there's only a limited selection of roads at either end. If PGR3 had as big a play area as the previous games it would seem perfect, but the tracks do seem limited compared to that first brilliant Dreamcast game. The second problem with the route creator is that corners are indicated by pale yellow arrows that can be hard to see compared the bends on Bizarre's own tracks.

The Nurburgring is back, and it's a bumpier and trickier version than we had in PGR2. Purists may scoff as its not entirely accurate, but it has been designed with multiplayer racing in mind. The F1 circuit has been included too, and combinations of the old and new circuit make up for some very long races.

Top Gear

Project Gotham Racing 3 is one of the most realistic driving games I've played. No, it's not about physics, clearly the handling model is an arcade one, albeit one with plenty of convincing depth. The reason it feels so real is the superb in car view. Each vehicle has had its interior lovingly modelled and the results are very impressive.

Usually when racing games take up so much screen real-estate with a car interior it feels limiting, but the details and design of PGR3 somehow keeps one's eyes on the road. Some head sway has been added and combined with the incredibly lighting and bumpy roads it feels so very natural.

The handling has been tweaked since PGR2 and is a real joy. There's a clear difference between cars and most people will have to experiment to find their favourites. Bizarre has done a great job in making these super cars accessible yet giving each its own character. Okay there's still the situation where you'll see people driving cars too fast for them and messing up, Xbox Live is full of kids trying to tame the Ferrari Enzo and failing. But PGR3 succeeds in providing a handling model that feels real, even though you know it isn't. It's like someone doing a brilliant impression of George Bush, rather than being the real president, it feels more convincing.

Built for Online Fun

And since I've mentioned Xbox Live lets take a look at the fun to be had with the game online. The real joy to be had in the game is playing with friends on Xbox Live. As I said earlier, you can even save replays of your moments of glory against rivals online. There are some interesting game modes on offer for online play including team based events.

I would have like to see more though, I'm surprised that Bizarre didn't formalise Cat and Mouse, a game folks made up for themselves to play on PGR2. Hosts may also find a lack of control, there's no option to limit the car class as there was in the second game, meaning that some co-operation is required from players. You can create games that are for your Xbox Live friends only though.

However the net code itself is superb, I've not experienced any lag during play, only the occasional echo through the headset. PGR3's strength lies online and it’s the best way of experiencing it. If you don't have Live then you're losing out, but then if you don't have Live, why bother with Xbox 360?

Greased Lighting

Finally let's look at the game's graphics. Before the game was released there were plenty of flame wars on games forums about the game's frame rate. Some people will only accept 60 FPS as a minimum. For them, PGR3's 30 FPS doesn't cut the mustard. The final game though, through motion blur, looks as smooth as any racer you'll play. It really doesn't move wonderfully.

There's so much detail to see too. The textures on the buildings are very detailed indeed, perhaps too detailed considering the speed at which you'll be passing it. I'd have accepted a little lower detail for more streets in each city. There are also the occasional odd gaps in buildings, where it seems some polygons are missing. The much vaunted animated 3D crowds look really good, though again you'll not see them much.

It's the lighting though that's the most impressive element of PGR3's graphics. To really see the game in full glory you have to use the in car view, where you're treat to the game's high dynamic ranging (HDR) lighting on full. Coming out of tunnels into sunlight blinds you, every change of natural sunlight as you drive past buildings creates such a natural look to the game. The lighting in PGR3 is the real graphical star and lends a photo quality to the proceedings. It's just such a shame (and a massive oversight) that you can't output the photo mode pictures to jpg format to share. Because with lighting this good you'll take some really gorgeous shots.