Arma II

Tired of Call of Duty arcady gameplay? Do you hate the little eleven year old kids screaming over microphones and mucking up teamplay? Maybe you should look into Arma II... Gunships scream over the battlefield, snipers position on hill tops as ground forces attack strategic locations. But, though the gameplay seems to be interesting, different and invigorating, as shall be shown, do the graphics and engine work and look well?

Arma II is probably one of the most realistic shooters created to date, with some flaws in it's intricate design. The gameplay is a lot more tactical and focuses almost totally on teamplay. With so many vehicles, weapons and two maps, one of which is about 225sq km, this game seems to have everything. That's obviously not all, Arma II contains a useful, powerful and amazing mission editor. This is definitely not a normal editor such as Halo: Reach's, this editor has the power to create scripted events, actions and enemy tactics.
Gunships screaming over battlefields? I wasn't kidding, this game has beautiful sounds and makes the atmosphere seem totally real. The sniper rifles have a normal amount of drop, which makes sniping at 2km from the battlefield actually challenging. The gun sounds sound a bit dull though, ever shot sounding the same, no matter what. Then again, most gamers don't care about sounds that much.

Graphics in this game are almost realistic. The option to be able to free-look and yet walk forward is great, and maximizes the amount of enjoyment you can get from the world. Sitting in one of the trucks in a convoy and looking all around you makes this game seem super realistic. The weapons are shiny and detailed, yet small things could have been changed: Weapon dirt, better muzzle flash, reloading animations. The helicopters are modeled quite well, but have strange hit boxes that don't match their shape. Dust and grime are kicked up from helicopter blades and from fast moving trucks. Worried that your budget computer doesn't have the power to hold up to such a game? The graphics can be altered easily and don't take away from the overall gameplay. At full graphics and maximum fog distance, the environment is beautiful, with grass and bushes. The view distance is truly insane, allowing you to spot and fire at targets from crazy ranges. Water is animated without flaw and looks great. Can an engine handle this?

The Arma II engine actually holds up such a game without too many problems. The game renders as fast as your computer lets it, FPS is definitely not a problem (:D Max graphics and I think I'm still at 60FPS atleast.) The main issue with this game is the bugs. A few times I've found myself wondering why my character had invisible hands. Or... was frozen to the ground... Or died after he got out of an unmoving helo that was in my own base. There are problems, but that is NOT a reason to skip out on this realistic game. Bugs though, in about five hours of straight gameplay, maybe show up once. They aren't that major, not gamebreaking at all.

Overall Score: 9.0

Fallout: New Vegas

*My greatest thanks for almost 20,000 views!*

Set in the aftereffects of a Globa Nuclear war fallout, Fallout: New Vegas is something different for most gamers. Fallout brings the classic RPG elements to the abandoned Vegas Strip. Now, the question many Fallout veterans may ask... Is this just a drawn out add-on that costs too much? Read on fellow wastelander, for this question and many others will be answered.

 Fallout: New Vegas has almost the exact same graphics and engine as the previous Fallout. There are minor tweaks, such as a better combat system that is more streamlined with aiming down the sights of your weapons (Finally!) and a not so over powered VATS. The engine runs smoothly and despite the rumors of the game being as buggy as the rear end of a zebra, I found only a few glitches and bugs. These few bugs were hardly anything to get annoyed with and I was greatly satisfied with the quality. Not to say I never found myself wondering why a certain important character had not appeared in my game... In the end I used console commands to port the man in. But compared to the amount of bugs in a game like Dead Island, Fallout: NV is perfect.

*Yes, that is a Barret. Yes. You may kill things with it.*

Moving on from bugs, and onto a quick topic, the graphics are the same. The new weapons have textures that may look higher resolution, but are essentially not. So, all in all, this game has the same look of Fallout 3.
The gameplay of Fallout: New Vegas is unique. Instead of hunting out enemies to kill, or money, you really want to be hunter for people to converse with. New Vegas really strains the fact that you are alone, except in highly populated areas like The Strip. The sense of accomplishment, or wonderment when you find a random NPC who, for example, is a cannible is great. It actually seemed like there were too many quests to complete and you'll need to play through the game multiple times to side with different faction for full playing quality. Fallout: NV does a great job of adding weird and interesting characters as always and of course, new problems to overcome. Oh! Did I forget to metion that you can modify your weapons with silencers, clip extenders and all that good stuff? Yeah, it's like ducktaping a scope to a magnum. It works and the result is awesome.

Wrapping this up, Fallout does have some flaws. Of course, the small bugs and possibly how easy it is for you to get caps (The ingame currency). The main thing that makes Fallout: NV piss me off, is the invisible walls that FORCE you to use the road that is totally overrun with really high level bastards... Now, I don't remember Elder Scrolls: Oblivion doing this, and that game was perfect. Take out the stupid invisible walls and other minor things and I would be very content.
So, do you buy Fallout, or is just a glorified add-on that costs $20 (At the date of this being written)? Yes, though the engine and graphics haven't changed, the addition of SO much stuff is tempting. This is certainly something that will destroy many hours of your long awaited weekends.

Overall Score: 8.5