Star Wars: Empire at War

Star Wars: Empire at War is an RTS game developed by Petroglyph and was probably the first successful RTS based on the Star Wars franchise. And after playing through both the Rebellion and Empire campaigns, it's easy to see why. Petroglyph have managed to do a fantastic job of capturing the feel of Star Wars in an RTS format.

Stuff I liked

Persistent campaign

In a rare move for RTS games, SW:EAW actually features persistent campaign maps and technology tree. This has always been one of the things which bugs me about most RTS games. Generally, after completing a mission, you lose all your research or buildings for the next mission. This fundamentally doesn't make sense and is a pitfall which Petroglyph managed to avoid by having a galaxy map where you have your persistent campaign followed by missions consisting of land or space battles involving units which you built up in the galaxy map.

Granted, this approach is quite common now but I suspect it was a wee bit rarer when this game was first released.

Major heroes

SW:EAW also features the major heroes that you see in the original Star Wars trilogy and its a real blast to control them on the field of battle. Particularly so as the heroes tend to be quite powerful and able to turn the tide of battle single-handedly. For example, Darth Vader can use his force abilities to devastate both vehicles and infantry. In addition, his lightsaber automatically reflects a portion of blaster fire back at enemy troops. In general, the only time Vader is at risk is if you send him in on his own against overwhelming forces (and if you are stupid enough to do that, then you deserve to lose his services).

With that said, even if you do lose the hero, its not a big deal as the game will regenerate the hero after a portion of time. This is a good approach as it means that you won't worry about throwing your heroes into battle as you know that you can get them back and which then allows you to experience some of the cooler powers that the heroes have.

Death Star

Probably the most awesome thing about the Empire campaign is the Death Star itself. Near the end of the campaign, you get hold of the Death Star. And it is as awesome as you would expect.

Once you get the Death Star, any space battle you take it into starts off with a timer. Once the timer counts down to zero, that means that the planet is now within range of your Death Star. At that point, pulling down on the Death Star firing lever activates a nice video of your Death Star blowing the planet into a giant Asteroid Field. What makes this doubly awesome is that you don't automatically win the battle if there are still enemy ships around - instead, you have to defeat the remaining armada but now with the awesome backdrop of a recently destroyed planet.

Space battles

The space battles in this game are consistently awesome. After building up your fleet in the galaxy map, you then select a planet to move to. If there is an opposing fleet there, then battle ensues (normally, you would know if there is an opposing fleet or not as you would usually scout out the target first).

Once you enter combat, you don't actually bring your entire fleet with you. In any combat, you have a limited number of points to spend on ships (with bigger ships costing more points) and generally, your fleet is going to be much bigger than the number of points worth of ships that you can actually deploy. In practice, this makes the battles manageable as you are only controlling a smaller number of units.

Which isn't to say that there isn't any point in building a big fleet. As the battle progresses, you are going to lose units. As you lose units, this frees up some of your points which you can then use to bring in reinforcements from the main fleet. Its a good system which, in addition to keeping the number of units manageable, also adds an additional element of tactics as you consider which type of reinforcements to bring in.

Petroglyph have also done a decent job with AI in the space battles as the enemy ships try to maneuver to take advantage of any terrain. For example, some of the maps contain asteroid fields. Asteroid fields are dangerous to larger ships so your capital ships will want to avoid them. Meanwhile, smaller ships, like Y-wings and tie bombers, can maneuver through them safely while remaining hidden from sensors. As a result, the enemy often sends in bombers via asteroid fields which caught me by surprise the first time I encountered it.

Stuff I didn't like

Land battles

Unfortunately, the land battles are considerably less fun primarily due to poor AI. Although you have to contend with terrain, there isn't much in the way of environment hazards which basically means that land battles turn into a constant stream of enemies coming at you in waves until you destroy the factory that spawns them. Trust me when I say that it gets old fast when you have to repeat this multiple times for the various planets that you have to conquer.

Which makes the appearance of the Death Star near the end of the Empire campaign all the more awesome as you can avoid the land battles altogether. :)

AT-AT walker

This is related to the land battles but one of the things I really didn't like was how weak the AT-AT walker was. The AT-AT is one of the iconic images from the Star Wars movies and all throughout the rebellion campaign, I had been looking forward to facing off against them. However, when I finally did see them - what a letdown!

The problem is that, although the AT-AT is great against other vehicles, its pretty much useless against infantry. In game, it relies completely on other units to defend it from infantry which meant that I was able to destroy most AT-ATs by simply swarming them with my own infantry instead of having to rely on my speeders. I can understand why this was done - for game balance - but still, it was really disappointing.

Closing thoughts

Overall, I really enjoyed my time with SW:EAW. It's a lot of fun - made all the more so by the fact that I'm such a fan of the Star Wars universe. With that said, I have to admit that without the Star Wars franchise, I wouldn't have enjoyed the game as much as I actually did.

The land battles, although providing some variety to the game, end up detracting from the overall experience of the game owing primarily to how weak the land battles are. Midway through the campaign, you just wish the land battles would end and although the game allows you to auto-resolve combat - the thought of losing so many units (and hence resources) from not taking control myself stopped me from ever using it.

Still, considering the amount of fun I had with the space battles, I have to give this game a thumbs up.

Fallout 3

Wow - after a long hiatus, I finally feel that I have played enough of Fallout 3 to give a reasonable opinion on it. I haven't finished the game yet (in the sense that I haven't completed the main story quest) but considering this is an open world RPG, I don't think finishing the main story is all that important (although I definitely intend to do so).

Stuff I liked
Atmosphere
Bethesda have simply done a fantastic job in creating a post-apocalyptic world for you to explore. From the opening cinematic all the way through to the music and graphics, the game not only feels like a wasteland but it also captures the feel of the original Fallout games perfectly. And this isn't just in terms of graphics or sound. What makes the atmosphere in Fallout 3 superb are little touches of how things are placed.

For example, in one of the museums is a demo of the vaults. Basically, it was built by Vault-tec so that they could show people the amazing new vault technology that they had developed. Inside this demo is a skeleton with a mop and bucket next to him. On the ground by his hands is a beer and a snack. Looking at that, you can just imagine the janitor sitting down to enjoy a quick snack just before the bombs hit. Little touches like this really make the game come alive.

VATS
Before I played this game, I really wondered how Bethesda would be able to pull off the VATS system in a real time FPS style. This really isn't an easy thing to do considering that VATS was a system initially designed to enable aimed shots in a turn based game. And I have to say that this is another area where Bethesda have done a good job. They have managed to capture the feel and style of VATS superbly.

Deaths
Another area where the game is hilariously funny are the death animations. I naturally picked the gory death perk as soon as I could and watching people explode into component parts when you get a sneak attack critical just never gets old. If you have played the original Fallout RPGs, then you would know that this is a holdover from those old games and I'm very glad that Bethesda included it in Fallout 3.

Stuff I didn't like
Party or tactical combat
All too often, it seems like your choices are to either have a group or to have tactical combat. Fundamentally, the game does give you lots of options to setup tactical encounters. You can sneak around and set mines. Or you could drop off a grenade in someones pants (which is hilarious).

However, all of those options become moot if you have a group. I have a high sneak skill so I can creep around undetected. My group (currently consisting of dogmeat and the Star Paladin) don't. What this means is that by the time I spot an enemy, they often spot dogmeat or the Paladin at the same time. At this point, dogmeat charges forward to engage in melee. Unfortunately, this also stops me from getting a clear shot so I have to strafe sideways until I can get a clear shot otherwise I end up shooting dogmeat in the arse.

The game tries to cater to this by allowing you to order your group to stay behind. Unfortunately, this isn't easy to do as you have to individually engage each one in conversation and ask that they stay behind. And then, when you want them to regroup, you need to individually engage each one in conversation and ask them to follow you again. Not fun.

I actually thought about ditching the party altogether. The problem is that there are enough instances where you come up against groups of supermutants that you sometimes really do need the extra body count so that the enemy can shoot at someone else instead of directing all their fire at you.

Stupid AI
Bashing a Bethesda game for bad AI - I bet you never saw this coming...

As with other Bethesda games I have played, I'm a little underwhelmed with the AI. In particular, one incident stands out in my mind. At the time, I had dogmeat and Charon in my group and while wandering around the Capital Wasteland, I came across a large raider base. What made this raider base impressive was the fact that they had somehow managed to capture a super mutant behemoth and trap it within some kind of electrically charged cage.

So what does Charon do? He charges into the cage and takes on the behemoth at point blank range. Despite the fact that he is normally perfectly happy engaging enemies at long range with his combat shotgun. Despite the fact that the behemoth is stuck in there and can't come out.

At this point, it doesn't take a genius to work out what happens next. With the amount of hitpoints that a behemoth has, it was able to flatten Charon before we were able to kill it. I thought about reloading but in the end, decided that the stupid twat deserved to die and just kept on going.

Story
Bashing a Bethesda game for its story - I bet you never saw this one coming either...

In some ways, its a bit unfair to pick on Bethesda for this. It is well known that their strength is in creating a fascinating open world for you to explore. In fact, in previous Bethesda games I have played, I have always enjoyed the game more when I deviated from the main story. But at the end of the day, this is an area which could be improved and they should continue to be called on it until they get it right.

Controls
I played Fallout 3 on the PC and in some ways, I wish I had played it on the X360. The issue is that the controls are clearly optimised for a gamepad and the PC version does occasionally suffer as a result of this.

For example, you can assign weapon hotkeys so that you can access different weapons quickly instead of having to go into your inventory each time. Unfortunately, you are limted to only 8 hotkeys - the numbers 1-8. What happened to numbers 9 and 0? The answer is obvious when you look at how the hotkeys are setup around the eight points of the compass which nicely correspond to what the X360 gamepad can handle.

What annoys me about issues like this is that there is simply no reason for the developer not to allow you to use the number 9 and 0 on your keyboard. Its not like they are being used for anything else and even if they were, keyboard mapping on PC games would easily resolve the issue.

Game Breaking DLC
I bought the GOTY edition which came with all the DLC. Initially, I was planning on playing the DLC much later but I accidentally stumbled across the Operation Anchorage DLC while wandering around. Seeing as I was there, I decided to go ahead and complete the DLC.

One of the items you get after completing Operation Anchorage is Chinese Stealth Armour. This armour is awesome in that it acts like a permanent stealth boy provided you are sneaking. At first, I was having a great time sneaking around and headshotting mutants. However, I very quickly realised that the armour actually breaks the game as it becomes too easy to sneak.

Case in point, I now have 200 stimpacks simply as a result of most enemies not having a chance to damage me (and my meager reserves of bloodpacks and ice-cold nuka colas being enough to deal with the minor damage I do get).

Closing Comments
I have to admit that, despite the large number of complaints I have listed above, I do like Fallout 3. It is a good game and it deserves a thumbs up from me as well as the critical acclaim which it has received.

However, one thing which I realised as I played through Fallout 3 was that I really miss the turn based group combat of older D&D games. I really miss those old RPGs where it was really important to have a balanced group able to handle a multitude of situations instead of 1 uber PC who can handle everything. Those kinds of RPGs have a very different feel to them and for me, come closest to the days when I was playing pen and paper RPGs.

After I finish with Fallout 3, I intend to play through Hitman: Blood Money on the X360 (which I borrowed from a friend) but after that, I will probably go buy Temple of Elemental Evil (or maybe go through Icewind Dale).

Beyond Good & Evil

Beyond Good & Evil is well known in the gaming world as one of those games which received critical acclaim but was under-appreciated when it came to sales. I recently managed to get this game as part of the Ubisoft promotion on Steam recently where they sold four games (BG&E, Far Cry, Dark Messiah of Might & Magic and Il-2 Sturmovik) in one package for just USD10. A pretty good deal by any standard!

The game itself is an action adventure game where you take on the role of Jade, an intrepid reporter. Jade lives on the planet of Hyllis which is under attack by the DomZ. Hyllis is protected by the Alpha Sections, another alien race, although the battle is not going well as the people of Hyllis are slowly dwindling. However, there is a sinister secret behind the Alpha Sections which our intrepid reporter hero is determined to root out. I'm sure it'll come as no surprise for you to hear that the Alpha Sections are not what they seem (partly because of the foreshadowing in the paragraph and partly because this element of the story is widely publicised).

The game itself can only be described as an action adventure game. Although no particular element stands out as being exceptional, the game manages to mix together combat, stealth, hovercraft racing, fighter combat and platform elements into an extremely fun and engaging package. The disparate elements of the game, which differs so much from the 7 seconds of fun repeated ad infinitum model of shooter games, somehow come together really well in to a fun package. In this case, the whole really is greater than the sum of the parts. It also makes the gameplay hard to describe in a nutshell although I think the best description comes from the IGN review which says "It's Zelda for grown-ups, without the annoying fetch-quests."

What does stand out is the level of intelligence, humour and charm that permeates the game. During the course of the game, you will have one of two different companions with you to offer you assistance. The interactions between Jade and her companions are really quite funny and the developer must have had a great time poking fun at different action hero cliches.

My only real complaint against the game is that the controls and gameplay are really more suited to a gamepad than to a mouse and keyboard. Unfortunately, I don't think the developers put a lot of effort into the PC port as the game really shows its console roots.

Other than this minor gripe, this really is an excellent game and well worth checking out. A definite thumbs up from the Meister.

GRAW 2

Another game which I got on the cheap recently is Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2. GRAW 2 is another tactical FPS in the Tom Clancy franchise. The Ghost Recon series is based on the premise that you are a soldier in an elite squad of special forces unit called, surprising enough, Ghost Recon. As a member of the elite Ghosts, you are generally sent behind enemy lines on missions where utmost secrecy is required (hence the Ghost designation). What makes the GRAW series different from earlier Ghost Recon games is that GRAW is set sometime in the future which opens up funky new technology for your elite units.

Storywise, the game picks up right after the events of GRAW. In short, Mexico and the USA are about to sign a joint security agreement which will allow the US to officially send troops into Mexico. Certain rebel elements aren't happy about this and try to disrupt proceedings via the use of some stolen nukes. The US aren't going to let anything disrupt the signing of the joint security agreement hence the Ghosts are sent into Mexico on a black ops mission to deal with the rebels and the stolen nukes.

Like Rainbow Six: Vegas, GRAW 2 is very much focused on tactical gameplay. If you want to succeed, its important that you move your team into position before opening fire on the enemy. And just like R6:V, this equates into great gameplay particularly when you evaluate the situation and successfully plan out how you and your squad will attack the enemy. Although this is a good game, there are a couple of issues which prevent it from becoming a great game.

First off, GRAW 2 is surprisingly easy. Even on the hardest difficulty setting, I found myself breezing through the singleplayer campaign. Provided you take your time and play strategically, the enemy just doesn't provide much challenge. In fact, the only time I found myself challenged on the singleplayer campaign was when I was replaying the game and trying to get headshots using minimal number of shots fired for a higher score. The extra time it takes to aim for the head and not miss means that I'm exposed for longer and hence more likely to get shot.

The other problem with the campaign is that it is unbelievably short. Granted, this is just a guess, but I estimate I completed the singleplayer campaign in six hours or less. This is frankly piss poor considering most other FPS games are in the region of 8-12 hours. To be fair, I knew this going into the game as most reviews did comment on how short the campaign is.

The third problem is the multiplayer. Just like with R6:V multiplayer, the multiplayer portion of GRAW 2 is disconnected from the singleplayer. However, for GRAW 2, the disconnect is different in nature. The problem with R6:V multiplayer was that it felt like a different game from the singleplayer campaign as it devolved into a run and gun game. The problem with GRAW 2 multiplayer is that it is literally a different game.

You see, the problem arises because the multiplayer portion of the game was developed separately from the singleplayer portion. And it really shows. For example, cover is a hugely important part of the singleplayer campaign. But in the multiplayer mode, the cover mechanism is missing. Another example are weapons with sniper scopes. In the singleplayer campaign, you need to hold your breath to aim properly. In multiplayer, again, this mechanism is missing.

The problem with this is that the gameplay in multiplayer feels completely different from the singleplayer. Having said that, you have to give credit to the developers of the multiplayer portion as, unlike R6:V, despite the differences from the singleplayer mode, multiplayer doesn't feel as much like a run and gun game. The biggest reason for this is probably the fact that the maps in GRAW 2 are relatively large and not set indoors which means that a proper strategy is still more important than a fast trigger finger.

Despite the above problems, I do have to say that this is a good game. Considering that I got it for only $120 (second-hand), the fact that it has a short singleplayer campaign isn't such a problem. Overall, a thumb's up from the Meister - but only if you can get it for cheap!

World of Goo

The second indie game I've been playing recently is World of Goo. I purchased World of Goo on Steam several weeks ago for a pittance during one of the weekend deals (quick aside - I love that Steam gives a heavy discount to a different game every weekend!). As with all the best indie games, World of Goo is a puzzle game (in my experience, the best indie games are generally in the puzzle genre where creativity can make up for less resources to spend on flashy graphics and special effects) based on physics and was highly rated according to metacritic.

The objective of the game is to guide your Goo balls through the level and, in most cases, to the waiting pipe at the end of the level. The difficulty is that between you and the waiting pipe are a host of hazardous traps which are instantly lethal to your Goo balls. Your only advantage is the uncanny ability of your Goo balls to shoot out strands of Goo which they can use to stick to each other. The end result is you trying to build gravity defying structures with your Goo balls in an attempt to get them to the waiting pipe.

After a couple of levels, the game starts to introduce special Goo balls with different abilities. Some Goo balls can be picked up and repositioned after you place them down while others can float. Some Goo balls will stick to surfaces like glue while others have a hard body and won't be destroyed by spikes.

To be honest, World of Goo is so unlike every other game that its hard to describe this game in words. If you really want to understand what this game is like, your best bet is to jump onto Youtube and scope out some videos of the game in action.

What really makes this game stand out is the incredibly creative situations and puzzles you find yourself facing over the course of the game. Unlike Braid, the game never feels too challenging in that you rarely ever get completely stuck. Very often, even when you fail and your Goo structure collapses upon its own weight, you learn enough to try again using a slightly different structure or technique. And even if you do get completely stuck, the game offers you 12 level skips so you can just keep going even if you do have trouble with the odd level.

A fantastic game which is well worth checking out if you like stretching your grey matter when you play games.

Braid

I've been spending a lot of time playing casual/indie games recently, mainly as its hard to play "hardcore" games when you can only game in 10-15 minute increments. The first of these games I've been playing is Braid which was on sale on Xbox live recently.

Braid is a casual 2D platform puzzler developed by Jonathon Blow. In Braid, you play the role of Tim who is searching for his princess. Tim's relationship with the princess is never fully explained - all you really know is that Tim made a mistake which resulted in the princess being snatched.

In some ways, the game is reminiscent of Mario Bros. Enemies are comprised of goombas which you can kill by jumping on their heads, man eating plants which rise from sewer tunnels, deadly traps which you need to jump over and even the infamous "the princess is in another castle" line at the end of each world. However, the key differentiator and key gameplay element in this game is the ability to control time. At any stage in the game, you can rewind time so death isn't much of an impediment in this game. Which isn't to say the game is easy.

Navigating your way through the various levels is not hard. In fact, most of the time, you can skip all the puzzles and run straight through to the exit. However, if you want to complete the game (and trust me, you will want to see the incredible yet bittersweet final level), you will need to collect all the jigsaw pieces by solving all the puzzles. And, boy oh boy, are the puzzles hard!

The words "fiendishly difficult" don't even begin to describe how challenging the puzzles are. Each of the worlds has a different take on the time mechanic and trying to solve all the puzzles seems near impossible without the help of youtube and game FAQs. But despite the difficulty of the puzzles, once you work out the solution, you can't help but be amazed by the creativity of the designer.

The game doesn't boast much in the way of replayability. Despite this, the game was well worth the $80 I spent on it. A definite recommend if you are looking for something to stretch the old gray matter.

Gears of War 2 - singleplayer

Two years after the release of Gears of War, Epic Games have given us the sequel to their stop-n-pop tactical action masterpiece. And although the juxtaposition of tactical and action may seem strange - it applies perfectly in this case.

So far, I've been mainly playing campaign so my comments will focus on the singleplayer and co-op campaign mode. Multiplayer commentary to come in a later post.

The short version of this is - Yes, Epic Games have delivered a fantastic sequel worthy of the GoW franchise. And just like before, if you like action games and own an X360, you owe it to yourself to buy this game.

Story
The story picks up shortly after the end of the original Gears of War. By the end of the first game, you were able to kill the bad guys, bed the hot girls, cause mass destruction (using that funky new missile technology I talked about in my original review) and basically save the day. Actually, you don't get to bed any hot girls but hey, three out of four ain't bad (kinda like a modern Bond film, really!).

Unfortunately, that new missile tech doesn't actually kill off all the Locust (fancy that, military intelligence screwing up. I never would have guessed that would happen...). All it seems to do is really piss off the Locust as they are now launching an all out offensive against Jacinto, humanity's last remaining bastion of civilisation and beacon of hope for all humanity. Reinforcements are low and hopes are grim. Basically, the Locust are one step away from wiping out all humanity and playing Dance Dance Revolution on our grave.

By this point in the narrative, the COG (Coalition of Ordered Governments) has its back to the wall and has to resort to desperate measures if humanity is to have any hope of survival. The COG does the only thing it can do. It takes all remaining soldiers and launches an all out offensive against the Locust stronghold.

What a brilliant idea! I'm sure the Gears will only run into minimal resistance as they attack the Locust stronghold. After all, all the Locust will be surrounding Jacinto. Take that Locust! All our base are not belong to you!!!

And this is basically where the game starts. Reprising the role of Marcus Fenix, your job is to take your squad and attack the queen inside the Locust stronghold. Along the way, Dominic Santiago will be looking for his wife and, surprise surprise, the two routes actually converge. Over the course of the campaign, you will kill the bad guys, bed the hot girls, cause mass destruction and basically save the day again. Well, three out of four ain't bad right?

One of the design goals for GoW2 was apparently to make it "bigger, better and more badass". And you really see this come through in the campaign. In addition to the campaign itself being significantly longer, Epic Games have taken full advantage of advancements in their Unreal Engine technology. There are several scenes during the campaign where you are literally facing off against a Locust horde - something they were unable to do in the first game due to the limited number of locust the graphics engine could put on screen.

The other big thing that Epic Games tried to do with GoW2 was to make the storyline more emotional. This is basically where Dom's search for his missing wife comes in. During the course of the campaign, various cinematics detail Dom's and his emotions as he searches desperately for his wife. Unfortunately, the absolutely hammy script and godawful acting prevent you from actually feeling any of the emotions which Epic tried to invoke (although admittedly, the scene where Dom finally succeeds and actually finds his wife is done quite well).

To quote from my first GoW review - Story has always taken second fiddle in action games so I suppose its no surprise that GoW(2) didn't buck the trend.

Gameplay
The gameplay in the first GoW was, to be perfectly honest, superb. In fact, it was so good that, even if Epic didn't make any changes to the gameplay, they could still probably release GoW2 and have a best seller on their hands. Luckily for gamers everywhere, the people at Epic Games aren't quite as lazy as I am and have made a host of tweaks to the gameplay mechanics.

One of the most noticable tweaks is with the cover system itself. With the original GoW, it was quite easy for Marcus to accidentally slide into cover when you were actually trying to roadie run past the cover. In Gow2, although it does still happens occasionally, there are much fewer instances of accidentally jumping into cover. Which is great as I signed up in order to fight the locust, not the controls...

Epic Games have also introduced lots of new toys for you to play around with. Unfortunately, most of the new weapons don't really shine until you get into multiplayer or co-op mode. The problem is that you can only carry two guns. In singleplayer mode, this means that you invariably choose one long range weapon and 1 short and medium range weapon. For long range, I generally prefer the sniper which means my other weapon will generally be the lancer (and its awesome chainsaw - after 2 years, I still love that chainsaw animation!!). Admittedly, this may just have been a problem with my preferences, but I definitely felt that the sniper and lancer combo gave me the best chance of surviving any situation.

However, if you play the campaign in co-op, the new weapons really start to add flavour. At this point, you can grab the other weapons safe in the knowledge that your partner can cover any shortcomings in your weapon pairing. For example, at one point during the campaign, I was armed with the sniper rifle and flamethrower while my partner had the torque bow and lancer.

Our tactics were generally for one guy to go forward and draw fire while the other guy gave covering fire. So if he moved forward, I would stay back with the sniper rifle and headshot any enemies attacking him. Alternatively, if I moved forward, I would use the flamethrower from behind cover (the constant stream of flame from the flamethrower means that it is very effective when blindfiring from behind cover) to burn enemies while safely behind cover. This would force the enemy out of cover and allow my partner to hit him with the torque bow. All in all, a great strategy which worked really well for the most part (we were playing co-op on Insane difficulty).

Of the new weapons, my favourite is without a doubt, the flamethrower - not because it is the most effective but because it looks the coolest. Unfortunately, as a close range weapon, it isn't as good as the lancer (with its instant kill chainsaw). However, the flamethrower just looks awesome. Whenever you use the flamethrower on someone, you first see them light up as they burn. And then if you get the kill using the flamethrower, the dead body is just a charred husk. Too freaking cool!!

Graphics
Again, Epic Games have raised the bar for graphics quality on the X360. Despite being on the same hardware, there is a very noticable upgrade in graphics from the original Gears to the sequel. Possibly, the upgrade in graphics is really noticable because the game is a 3rd person shooter so you really see Marcus (and the characters have an incredible amount of detail on them) up close in lots of situations.

The campaign has also been specially designed to show off the strengths of the Unreal engine. Throughout the campaign, you end up in some really wacky situations which you suspect the developers only thought up so that they could take advantage of the new features of the Unreal engine. Having said that, the lighting effects in this game are incredible. There are a couple of areas where the game is pitch black except for a light from a nearby vehicle or from Jack (your friendly robot AI whose main job is to open doors).

Summary
Another great game from Epic Games and it really looks like they have created another must-have franchise on the X360. Come the end of the year, I would be very surprised if GoW2 didn't pick up several awards in the various gaming publications (although there are some very good candidates this year - its been a good year for gaming).

As with the original GoW, if you like action games and own an X360, you owe it to yourself to buy this game.

Gears of War

Developed by Epic Games, Gears of War is a 3rd person tactical shooter and represents a departure from the style of their previous Unreal Tournament games. Unlike the UT series, GoW is very much focused on cover. If you aren't in cover, then you are probably either dead or dying. However, unlike other tactical shooters, the game is very fast paced and plays out like an action movie. This game is easily one of the best action games ever made.

Story
GoW is set in the beautiful world of Sera. Unfortunately, Sera has been at war with the Locust, a race of subterranean creatures intent on the total annihilation of mankind, for the past 14 years. Humanity has not been faring well in this war and post-apocalyptic is probably the best description for what Sera now resembles.

You take on the role of Marcus Fenix - a Gear in the COG military (COG being the Coalition of Ordered Governments). Marcus starts the game in jail, having been court-martialed for deserting his post in a futile attempt to save his father. However, as mentioned above, humanity has really not been faring well and the COG needs all the help it can get - including from traitorous soldiers.

The games campaign starts as you are freed from prison by your old war buddy - Dominic Santiago.

The game itself focuses on the COGs desperate attempt to win the war against the Locust with some funky new missile technology. However, before the missiles can be used, the COG needs targeting data. Which is where you come in. Your job is to basically find and deploy the Resonator, which will map the Locust tunnels. Naturally, things aren't quite that simple.

All told, the storyline is nothing special. Its just serves as a backdrop for all the shooting action to follow. Story has always taken second fiddle in action games so I suppose its no surprise that GoW didn't buck the trend.

Gameplay
Although the storyline isn't much cop, the gameplay is superb. The basic mechanics are very much "stop and pop" and you spend most of your time running from cover to cover, occasionally popping out to shoot at the Locust. Although cover mechanics have been used in various games before, none of them (or at least, none of the ones I have played) have managed to pull it off quite so well.

The games AI is good enough that you really feel that you are taking your life into your own hands when you pop your head out to shoot. As such, you are constantly on edge when you play this game.

Unlike other shooters, GoW also makes the reload into a minigame. Pressing the reload button activates the Active Reload system. Basically, its a timing minigame - if you can stop the moving bar in the Active Reload zone, you end up reloadng faster (and your bullets can also do more damage if you get a perfect Active Reload). However, if you mistime your reload, you end up jamming the gun which means you take even longer to reload.

The Active Reload system is a great idea and adds even more adrenaline when you play. The Active Reload isn't difficult to pull off - however, when you are in the thick of combat, with bullets and explosions going off around you, it becomes very easy to screw up the reload. Which really makes you sweat as you are stuck with an empty gun until you can unjam it!

The game also offers multiplayer co-op. Basically, one of you takes on Marcus Fenix (the protagonist mentioned above) while your friend (either sitting next to you or playing over Xbox Live) takes the role of Santiago (the guy who busts Marcus out of prison). The co-op aspect really adds another dimension to the game where you can setup traps for the Locust - with 1 guy drawing the Locusts attention while the other guy runs and flanks them.

Graphics
The graphics in this game are superb. While I don't have any screenshots to show you, you can easily find lots of them online. Whats amazing is that the game looks even better when you see it in motion. I have no idea how they managed to get such detailed graphics to run in realtime - but it definitely raises the bar for other X360 games.

The graphics themselves are very visceral. One of the main weapons that you use throughout the game is the lancer - which has a chainsaw in place of the bayonet. After any battle involving the chainsaw, you can expect to see body parts lying all over the place (with some of them still pumping out blood!). The graphics showing the chainsaw in action are especially gory. As you cut the locust in half, blood sprays everywhere (including a nice big red splatter on your screen!) - the animation for this is superb and never gets old!

Sound
The sound, as in any shooter, is incredibly important. Luckily, GoW gets this spot on as well. When you fire your gun, or rev up your chainsaw, the accompanying sounds really make you believe that you are holding a lethal piece of weaponry.

In addition, other sounds are also done extremely well. Wander past a dead corpse and you can hear the flies buzzing around. Your teammates are constantly talking and giving feedback on either what they are up to or where the enemy Locust are. Similarly, the Locust are constantly hissing and doing the exact same thing your squad are - ie giving feedback on where we are!

Summary
Released in November 2006, the game has already won numerous awards from the mainstream gaming press - and with good reason. If you like action games and own an Xbox 360, you owe it to yourself to buy this game.