Battlefield 3

Whilst the Call of Duty fans frolic unknowing in their drunken stupor created by playing Modern Warfare 3 other members of the gaming community waste hours battling through much more detailed, much more tactical skirmishes. If you haven't guessed by now, I'm talking about Battlefield 3, the newest game in the battlefield franchise by DICE and EA. Battlefield 3 brings to the table what all Call of Duty games don't but still falls short on several planes. Does this make this interesting and uniquely fresh shooter another item on this years Christmas list, or is it yet another "unique" shooter?

Set in a fictional world of 2014, a war between the US and the People's Liberation and Resistance (PLR), Battlefield 3 contains a campaign which throws you into several locations all over the world. Only taking a few hours to complete (It took me two play sessions of about four hours each) the campaign does fall short of length, yet most FPS aren't known to have massive gameplay time. The story is shown in a series of flashbacks while you're being interrogated. Sound like Black Ops to you? That's what I thought too. Moving on, the interrogators are interested in your connection to nuclear weapons which the story is centered around. The ending if fairly climactic, though it seems almost a perfect place for a sequel. Most of the weapons in the multiplayer can be found in BF3's singleplayer. Obviously you can't customize any weapons during campaign, but are left to scavenge dead bodies for weapons and ammo. There is no co-op built in with the singleplayer. Co-op is provided in a separate cooperative mode which plants players in missions where they complete objectives and earn weapons to use in standard multiplayer. Battlefield 3's singleplayer is something they fail to ace. It feels a bit cliché and run-of-the-mill, still, it's a time waster, and a damned good one.

Multiplayer brings the epic battle to the massive scale. No game has felt this much like a real war since... Since... I really can't remember. The PC version allows for up to 64 (32 on Consoles) players to wreak havoc with a multitude of drivable vehicles, from jets to helicopters and from tanks to jeeps. There is a progressive level system with unlocks along the way. Four balanced classes help even out the battle, the assault class gains the medic's equipment and the support gets a light MG and ammo. Recons get sniper rifles and equipment to aid in intelligence gathering and spawning. Engineers blow up tanks and repair them, 'nuff said. Battlefield 3's maps are built with architecture in mind. No item is left untouched. The forests in the map, Caspian Border are rich and filled with great choke points as an example. Multiplayer never felt this natural, this good, since Team Fortress 2. Man, those were the good old days.

Battlefield 3 is the best looking game on the market in my educated opinion. Skyrim may have the environment and models down pat, but when a helicopter screams overhead, blocking out the sun while you're sprinting through the jungle, nothing can beat Battlefield 3, yet. The xbox actually doesn't run on the full graphical settings unless you download the HD textures. If you don't download them, this game looks like crap. It's not Battlefield's fault, it's yours. From what I've heard (Don't play on the PS3) the PS3 has the textures downloaded by default. Water textures look nice, the sun glares realistically. Character and vehicles models are sharp and beautiful. Explosions shake your screen and cloud it, making your experience all the more amazing. You can't compare this game to the COD series. The graphics are just too good in BF3, just too... Epic. Just remember, install those HD textures Xboxers.

Many games can have a sound engine. Mostly, that means it's bug free and runs the way it needs to. Battlefield 3 has more bugs than the other big brand shooter on the market today, but to me, it doesn't matter. All I can say is, "Frostbite 2 (drool), Destruction 3.0 (drool)". It's just that good. A new engine, Frostbite 2, the predecessor to Bad Company's engine allows BF3 to take the next flying leap into the gaming world. Destruction 3.0 allows that leap, making Battlefield 3 have a major difference compared to other shooters. Example:
Bob: "Damn! Those campers are sitting in that building the whole match! No one can touch them!"
Joe: "Hmmm... I have this RPG! I'll just make a hole."
(Massive explosion, then gunfire)
Bob: "We showed them noobs! Oh, crap! The building is coming down!"
If you gained the general message from the garbled text above, almost anything in Battlefield 3 may be torn and blown apart. This leads to door camping being useless. C4 gains meaning and jets can actually provide ground support. The Battlefield engine not only provides a support for the gameplay, the graphics but it changes the gameplay itself. Gamers be warned, bugs are plentiful, but it's a fine price to pay for such a great engine.

Overall, Battlefield 3 is far superior than any shooter on the market at this date. That is part of the reason I denies myself the act of reviewing Modern Warfare 3, it's just not different than MW2. Graphics, engine, multiplayer are amazing. Singleplayer, though fun and not missing the, "Oh! Shit!" moments everyone loves, is not that great. Then again, who ever bought a Battlefield game for the singleplayer. PC players be warned, if you're looking for a Steam friendly game, looking away. BF3 is only available as direct download from Origin, EA's new online store.

Overall Score:  9.5

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

 Vast mountains, beautiful rivers and swishing trees? Yep. Skyrim. If you ever read my review of Oblivion which was posted a year or so ago, you'll realize that these sort of games, open world RPGs are my overall favorite. Many people may feel that games of this scape are too large, and don't allow for a good story (What? Really? No.), but I strongly disagree. Now, this game is nothing like the Fable games, or anything like a game of that class. Skyrim has more finesse and is filled with a LOT more epic moments and places. Skyrim also allows you to build your own story, look, everything. Your destiny is yours to control. Want to be a nameless, evil assassin, kill of kings? A gallant warrior rooting out all things evil? Or possibly a sneaky thief with tricks up his sleeves? You can be all that and more.

(My first dragon battle and eventual kill)

 The first thing to realize about Skyrim is that the game is not centered around the main quest. There are what seem like hundreds of side quests and that's not including the random miscellaneous quests that are given by NPCs. If you're not a quest guy, this game still holds miles of terrain for you to explore. The geography switches smoothly, from harsh, snow whipped plains and mountains to open grasslands and forests. Then from the snow and grass to rough hotspring landscape that is bleak and barren. No matter where you travel, the amazing graphics draw you to some new place. I found myself on an important quest when I saw a random windmill. The next thing I knew, I was miles away and battling for my life against some evil bandits. How I got there and where six hours went, I don't know.

Things have been fairly evened out from previous games. I no longer am struggling against seemingly weak enemies at the highest level, as in Oblivion. Skyrim does scale some foes to your level, but others are capped at different points (Ex. You're level 49, enemy is 30.). The scaling did lead to me falling dead many times with giants at a low level. They instantly scale to a super high level and I do believe they stay there (Pro Tip: Don't mess with a sleeping giant. Unless you are above level 20.) 

  The combat has been upgraded to a more realistic and useful setup. You may now dual wield swords (Oh. Yeah. Awesome.), or mix it up, with a spell in one hand and a sword in the other. Any combo works well and in battle, seems right. Sure, it still feels like you're swinging a Nerf sword, but the magic system is much better. Dual weilding spells makes you feel like a Badass. Archery feels the same, but a bit smoother overall. Back to the swords, they do feel like Nerf swords. Hitting enemies doesn't really stagger then and in real life, blood would be EVERYWHERE. Still, the kill animation added to Skyrim do hold up for this flaw, making you forget the sad battle beforehand as you skewer your enemy. 

 Skyrim's engine seems to be holding up well for such a big game. I haven't found any game breaking flaws, except for the one quest... Where the quest item literally fell through the floor. With to way to get it back, the quest is forever in my quest log. The NPC's haven't crashed on me, the game hasn't made enemies disappear. My items haven't gone missing, but my face has... The Arch-mages robes and masks don't mix. Bugs wise, I haven't seen much. The new 1.2 patch did add reverse flying dragons, which was an obvious bug, but I have full satisfaction that this will be fixed within the near future.

 The game's story (Main, side, lore, everything) is fully fleshed out. There are no inconsistencies that I have seen. The plots are scripted with beauty and the lore written with love. If you are even wanting to know more about the Elder Scrolls universe, you can dive into the mounds of in-game books! The only problem with the storyline, was that all of the faction quests seemed to be very short. The dark brotherhood left me with loneliness. *SPOILER* The entire guild died. Except for two people, leaving me to be leader of a small shadow of the real brotherhood. Happy? Nope. Oblivion's ending was much better. At least I had a much cooler base of operations there. The mages guild also looked to be really short. I found it strange that a newcomer to the guild stepped up to be the Arch-mage just after being with the guild for a short while. There were other, more high ranking people there. I didn't really do anything that epic either, just kill some Thalmor dude and avert some unknown danger... The most promising storyline was actually not the main, which is extremely short (At least in the time I played.). The best, seems to be the thieves storyline. It has a totally unexpected traitor, where as in the brotherhood's case I had a feeling that someone would rebel.

Overall, Skyrim is a exceptional game. It blends the deep experience of a... For the lack of a better word, a simulator and the levels and content of an RPG into one sweet, soft, cute, fierce and powerful package. This is probably MY game of the year. Yeah. I just went there and it's not even the end of December. Skyrim is worth it's price, for all the time I've put in it, I've at least doubled what I usually play with a game.
 Overall Score: 10.0
For more awesome Skyrim screenshots directly from me, go here!

Minecraft

 I visited Minecraft months ago, when it was in it's stages of Beta. Back then, this game was rated 9.0, in an unofficial state, since the game wasn't truly released. Now, with Minecraft released I'm revisiting it.(Well, I never stopped playing. This is an amazing game.)

 Minecraft is an indie game built from the ground up and it couldn't have done better. Over the course of several builds launched before release the public was allowed to play Minecraft. This let the devs add content and fix bugs with community input. Going into this review, I won't touch upon graphics, or this games engine much, as both are unique to this game. The graphics wouldn't live up to current standards, but they're not supposed too. The engine has bugs, but the devs have them fixed within weeks.

 When you normally jump into a game world, the first thing you see in front of you, is your end goal. Minecraft takes a different approach, dropping you into a world where you can build, destroy and do anything. There is no real end goal, unless you count defeating the final "Boss". With so much content added before release, Minecraft turned into a shining game. No longer can I compare another video game with Minecraft. It's on a planet of its own, in a great way.

 Minecraft works off a basic system, break blocks, which you can then place, with some exceptions. At first, this is all it offered, then it came out with Survival mode, adding tools and weapons to help survive against creatures which spawn every night. Not only did this add more play time to Minecraft, it made it a challenge, what every real gamer wants. With each update, there were bugs, but at the next update, they were always removed or at least hidden.

 With hundreds of items and blocks, Minecraft is in no way limited by content. Recently Notch, the main dev and creator of Minecraft, released The End. The End acts as a realm to combat the final boss, the Enderdragon (OMG. Yes. This game has a dragon in it!) Another realm, the Nether, a hellish zone with appropriate land forms and terrain was also added a while back. NPCs and their villages added a new spice to the game and of course... Multiplayer.

 Multiplayer for Minecraft is an experience totally it's own. Building castles and towns with friends is something that you can't beat in any other game. Though it contains more bugs than singleplayer, multiplayer is much for entertaining. Though setting up a server may be a hassle for some, it pays off. There are plenty of third-party mods which also boost your multiplayer experience, but do detract from the feeling of vanilla Minecraft. So if you're a gamer who can't live without his friends to play with, do not fear.

Overall, Minecraft is a game for almost everyone. The engine, graphics and gameplay lead it to be a game that can't be compared to another and make it stand out with a gleaming shine. Bugs don't mean much in this game, as the devs are great about repairing any problems. Minecraft does have one of the biggest, or THE biggest community for a single game. Just buy it.

 Overall Score: 9.75
Yes. It's almost the best game ever created.

Dead Space 2

Guest Reviewer: Luke T.

            Dead Space 2 is the sci fi, horror sequel to Dead Space. Dead Space 2 takes place on a space station where Isaac (the main character) is being held in a mental hospital after the events of Dead Space. You are awoken right around the time the shit hits the fan, necromorphs are overrunning the space station and once again Isaac is called to battle with these monsters. I don’t want to spoil the the story for you but trust me, it is awesome and from start to finish Dead Space 2 keeps you on the edge of your seat. Some people don’t think they can be scared by a video game but if any game can scare you this one will. The thing that scared me the most was the feeling of vulnerability as I walked down the dark halls, you never know when a necromorph is going to burst through the wall or ceiling, or when one of the mutilated bodies on the ground comes to life and attacks you.

            The graphics in Dead Space 2 are not amazing but very good. Whether it be the excessive gore or some of the epic views the game holds I was never disappointed when it came to the graphics. The graphics for character models are extremely well built. For example, the necromorphs disfigured bodies are very detailed, and the bloodied carcasses of the inhabitants of the city are quite realistic.

            The combat in Dead Space 2 is intense and satisfying. One thing I loved was that there was no HUD, your health display is a row of bars on your back and your ammo is displayed right above your weapon. When you bring up your inventory it doesnt pause your game instead it projects it directly in front of you and leaves you vulnerable to enemy attack, I think this adds a nice bit of realism to the game. Almost all of the weapons in the game have a primary and secondary use, for example the line gun can fire a wide powerful shot or it can place a mine on the ground, things like this make it so you have many different ways to approach a battle.

            Overall I think this game is definitely worth its price and it is as fun as it is scary. It has a deep and very interesting story, it has very fun game play, and last but not least the graphics are awesome. So if your looking for a great scare or some fun get this game, once you start to play you wont be able to stop until the game is finished then you’ll have to play it through again.

Overall Score: 8.5

Killing Floor

 Now, before I start this review, I'd like to hint that I have something really, really, REALLY awesome coming up. Oh. How I love dragons. ;)

 Killing Floor, a Left 4 Dead rip off, you might say? Not really. Just because it's a horror, and has things that look like zombies, it's not based off Left 4 Dead. This game is an interesting build from the people (Tripwire interactive) who have now created the new Red Orchestra game.

 Killing Floor is, for one, a game that does not really include zombies... or, the normal kind. These are mostly referred to as Specimens. Though server Specimens seem to echo the Left 4 Dead zombies, like the Bloat, a huge, fat, and bile spewing Specimen, you can't really mark this game down. Take Dead Island for example, it ALSO had a fat, exploding guy of sorts. Moving on. The game also does not run the same. Killing Floor lets you select one map and then battle out against waves of Specimen which increase in number and difficulty. There is NO really storyline for this game, unless you want to look on the Main Data Base for all things Killing Floor. Killing Floor also allows you to go to a trader between waves, who will let you buy and sell weapons. You will not really find weapons around the map, but a few do spawn, though rarely.

(Yup. That's a Christmas themed event. They also have Halloween. :D)

 Killing Floor's graphics look great for a horror survival game. The tone seems gritty, which is totally awesome. While you are dead, your spectator cam looks as if it came from the early model of recorders, with old style effects everywhere. The models of guns and equipment look fine, but the character model's animation looks the same. Not a bad thing... but come on, maybe the guys with gas masks can move the mask around when the player stands still. There are numerous weapons, and seven classes to go with them including: Firebug (Pyro), Commando, Sharpshooter, and Field Medic. The classes gain boosts with their class weapons, and discounts from the trader. It really seems like a solid system and when you get bored of one class, you still have six more to play.

 Killing Floor is a great game to play with friends. Alone, it gets boring, but it's not called a co-op survival for nothing... The game has perfect atmosphere, and the totally British survivors calling for money, heals and spouting jokes is aways funny. The graphics are great for this sort of a game, not for a COD game of course. The engine I didn't talk much about, but it's quite solid also. The Specimen are coded nicely. Don't buy this game if you are easily scared. It's a horror after all.

Overall Score: 7.5

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

Halo: Reach

   This review was quite late, due to the fact that this game was so awesome I completely forgot to review it. Here it is. Halo: Reach, in it's amazing glory and epicness.

   Halo: Reach is a fusion of great multiplayer and equally great singleplayer. Starting with singleplayer, the Bungie team has edited some things. The most noticeable of which, is the story is set on Reach. This lets the player take in the dieing human life on the planet, instead of seeing it from the perspective of indestructible John, Spartan-117 from Halo 3. The graphics have been upped immensely and now look easily better than any COD game, explosions and bullet trails look beautiful. At one point, the game lets you take control of a space craft and you proceed to battle baddies in the final frontier. The AI has been upgraded, as usual in every Halo game. Pushing towards the main idea here, all this and a driven storyline filled with moments worthy of "Wows", the singleplayer is awesome. Over the course of ten missions you follow the path of Noble 6, a Spartan whose appearance will actually change with your multiplayer/singleplay character. The voice acting is perfect, with accents being flawless and not too over the top. The story is moving in it's own way and at the end, I really felt sorry for those digital souls who lost their lives fighting a losing battle. The singleplayer is definitely top notch.

Note: This is not an in-game vehicle. This is user created material in the photo.

   There are two modes which are different than the normal multiplayer versus competition.  Forge mode allows you to build anything imaginable, from fortresses in the sky, to space ships. Ever wanted to make your own map that makes it on the online game modes? Now you can. Reach's forge mode was boosted to a higher level than Halo 3's, which lacked some thought. This forge mode is easier to use, more fun and a lot more creative. Even if you're not the best builder, forge is fun. The next game mode is firefight. This mode can be played in ranked lobbies in Xbox Live but focuses on team work to destroy limited waves of enemy forces. It is a mix between multiplayer-campaign than is welcomed by most. It gives Halo a new way to play, if anything starts to get boring.

   The normal multiplayer consists of several playlists with different gametypes for all styles of gaming. The gaming is amazing, with a perfect armor customization feature. This feature lets you customized all aspects of your spartan, from chest, to visor color. Even down to knee pads. The only downside to multiplayer is the slow leveling at higher levels, though this seems to be the way that Bungie compromised for having no prestige option.

Overall Score: 9.5

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood

 The third installment of the Assassin's Creed series, not counting the online game, Project Legacy. Assassin's Creed Brotherhood brought something to the table that none of the other Creed's contained, Multiplayer. It had a short storyline as usual and took Ezio to Rome. "This was bound to be a great game", I thought, but was I correct?

   Singleplayer will be touched upon first. There are a few new combat implications, the crossbow, which is probably the coolest long range weapon of stealth ever. The development team also created the use of the hidden gun while using swords and hammers seen in the picture above. The poison blade has gained the ability of long ranged poison, which is pretty awesome, but overshadowed by the more powerful and quicker weapon of destruction, the crossbow. The base combat has been upgraded to be faster and a lot more awesome. This sometimes makes combat too easy, making it feel like your swatting a group of flys instead of elite guards. Assassinations stay in the same basic concept, though you dont start out with your hidden blade from Assassin's Creed II, you have to buy it from Leo. The additons of the Assassin recuits lets you train them and use them to battle foes on the field. After training them long enough, they can become full fledged assassins, which are almost invincible. The game gains a lot from these awesome assassins.

As every Assassin's Creed game has been for me, once you finish the story mode and complete any side quests, it becomes boring. The same is true for Brotherhood. Though the storymode is amazing and gives you a feel of living Ezio's deadly life, it is extremely short, as mentioned before. There are more side quests than in Assassin's Creed II, but in an overall feel, Brotherhood seems like the same game. The only differences between Brotherhood and #2 seem to be a slight graphics upgrade, multiplayer and a different story, combined with a few new weapons and a different combat setup. It is still worth it's cost for the singleplayer if you're a fan of the series.

The multiplayer has a few modes, Wanted, Manhunt and Alliance. If you get the free DLC you also gain Chest Capture mode. There are variations of a few modes, resulting in a hardcore mode. Multiplayer though is a lot more enjoyable than singleplayer. Duking it out with serveral friends, or participating in a ranked match against battle hardened foes who are constantly owning you give Brotherhood a new edge. There is a normal level up system with perks, abilities, death and killstreak rewards and character customization that are unlocked at various levels. This leads players to have a reason to play, if not for just plain old fun. The graphics, if it's not just me, seem to be better on the character models in multiplayer. This is probably because lots of Brotherhood singleplayer models were salvaged from #2.

 Overall Score: 8.0

More E3 Coverage: Battlefield 3

Hello everyone!

 I've got something special yet again, some Battlefield 3 gameplay. This game is the one thing I'm counting on to drown MW3 in it's dust. Battlefield 3 is probably one of the games I really cant wait to have it come out. Here is a link to over 15 Battlefield 3 gameplay videos. Awesome huh?

 Battlefield 3 Gameplay E3 2011

Battlefield Bad Company 2

 Battlefield Bad Company 2 is one of the most visually stunning games of it's time. The visuals pop out of the screen, the characters have perfectly created models, and crisp looks. This game takes what Modern Warfare 2 has given the community, fast paced destructive action, and makes it way better. Bad Company 2 makes it so much better, I hate to say it, but it was far greater in value and awesomeness than any Call of Duty game.

 The destruction of scenery in this game is beautiful. It should be way better in Battlefield 3, which is coming out this year though. Anyway, the destruction is amazing. Blowing a building to bits with C4, or a 'nade launcher can't be more fun. Each weapon has different amounts of terrain destruction power, but the tanks and helicopters seem to have a lot less explosive power than they should. A tank round should be able to tear through a house and do major damage. In Bad Company 2 it does around the same damage as a grenade launcher. Helicopters NEED to have more destructive power, as their missiles are very deadly. Yet the less potent rounds seem to be Dice's way of trying to balance vehicle warfare between on foot warfare. I could find this is be done a lot easier if they would have just added something like more powerful rounds, but then give a more powerful rocket launcher that could possibly lock-on without tracer darts.

 Moving on to one of the less important issues of this game. Singleplayer is pretty cool. The storyline is not anything amazing, Russians have a super weapon, bla bla bla. The AI aren't that smart, and building destruction isn't important. Singleplayer turns into a small shootem up game with a bland story. There are a mild assortment of different locations, and enemy types and every once in awhile you come across a different objective other than, "Move up and kill stuff,".It's nothing I would recommend as a must buy, luckily multiplayer picks up the game and makes it superb.

 Multiplayer consists of Conquest (A capture the point style of play), Rush (Blow up a bomb and move to the next bomb), Squad Rush (Rush with less people per team), and Squad TDM (Team deathmatch). With a large assortment of maps, and the different modes to play on, it makes the replayability high. On different consoles the player count changes, on Xbox the player cap is 12 per team, for a max of 24 players a match. As I only own the game for Xbox, that's what I play at. Though I believe the max cap for PC is at 64 in a match. Which is completely awesome and makes the frantic action in this game almost 3 times more epic. Multiplayer lets you play with all the guns you could need, and scopes, perks, equipment, and secondary weapons. My main annoyance in this picture in this equation is that the scopes are only usable is you let go of one perk. All the vehicles in the singleplayer are in multiplayer, and are extremely fun to use against real opponents. In truth, Multiplayer is this game's only hold on it's good reputation. I loath the singleplayer.

Overall Score: 8.5

Assassins Creed Revelations

Hello again!

 Just wanted to throw out a few amazing Revelations trailers and gameplay from E3 2011. Have fun! This seems to be an amazing game, and I will be waiting for the realease of this great title!

 Assassins Creed Revelations Trailer, E3 2011

And guess what will be returning form brotherhood... Multiplayer! Oh yeaah!

Assassins Creed Multiplayer Gameplay (Cam), E3 2011

 Some more trailers:

Assassins Creed Revelations Intro and Gameplay E3 2011

Assassins Creed Revelations Ezio's Journey Interview E3 2011

Grand Theft Auto 4: The Ballad Of Gay Tony

 Are you tired of blowing stuff up on normal Grand Theft Auto IV? Do you want more rockets? New weapons? New cars? More awesomeness? You need look no more. For $20, this game is just about the perfect GTA add-on.

   Remember, this isn't a new game. It's still Grand Theft Auto. Nothing has been changed drastically except that new things have been added. There are some new character animations which I prefer over the normal GTA and which look a lot more realistic. Blowing stuff up is still the main idea, and what better to add to GTA than a APC. Exactly what the community has been waiting for since The old GTA titles. And if you think that's awesome already, then think again, because the Buzzard has been added. A light attack helicopter with chainguns, and (OMG) Fully automatic rocket launchers attached to it. This helicopter would probably be the reason I bought the add-on.

The Buzzard

   There is, of course, a new story mode. But it's fairly short compaired to the original GTA4's story line, and is not that interesting. The characters are funny, and most of them want to kill you as usual. You cross paths with most of the main GTA4 characters including Niko, Roman, etc. This leads to cutscenes that are interesting to watch, since you are from a different view point than you were with Niko.

   More vehicles have been added, which is completely awesome. And also more weapons, including the SAW, P90 submachine gun, the C4, and much more. For a $20 value though, I wouldn't buy this unless I really would want to play with the new items and vehicles, or am a huge GTA fan. The amount you get is a bit little. Yet the quality is good enough to warrent a still ok score.

Score: 7.0