The original Dead Space is one of my favorite games to be released this generation, for good reason. It was a unique IP with an the interesting concept. Strategic dismemberment. The best way to kill Dead Space’s grisly, blades-for-arms space monsters was to shoot their limbs off.

It was gory, violent, and a hell of a lot of fun. Coupled the dark, foreboding corridors of the Ishimura and deadly, upgradable arsenal of industrial tools, everything came together perfectly to form a spine-chilling, adrenaline-fueled ride like no other.

Dead Space 2 sets out to build on all of this and manages to improve just about everything in the process. On top of that adds online multiplayer.

This time around, Isaac Clark finds himself on Titan Station, the Sprawl, an enormous space station in orbit around Titan, a moon of Saturn. Essentially a city in space, the Sprawl is home to everything from schools to apartments to a morgue filled with frozen stasis chambers. In the end, the Sprawl is a much more interesting place to explore than original game’s dirty, industrial mining ship, The Ishimura.

While the story is slightly more engrossing than the original, it still falls short of greatness. There were times where I was genuinely interested in what was going to happen next, but for the majority of my playthrough, the story was little more than a reason to explore new areas of the Sprawl and fight new types of enemies.

Visceral didn’t change a whole lot with the core gameplay in Dead Space 2. Everything good about the first game is here. There are a few subtle tweaks and upgrades, the most impressive being the completely overhauled zero-gravity gameplay. Where the original Dead Space had you either magnetized to the floor or jumping from point A to point B in a straight line, Dead Space 2 puts you in full control, letting Isaac float freely through the environment.

The zero-g sections are what really pulled the game together for me. The lack of combat (for the most part) is made up for by the mechanical dangers of the Sprawl that can reduce you to a finely ground paste in the blink of an eye. The large, open scale of these sections contrasts the tight, claustrophobic corridors of the Sprawl. Going back and forth between the two adds a dose of variety and contributes to the already superb pacing.

Hands down, the coolest new toy at Isaac’s disposal is the revamped telekinesis powers. In Dead Space, you could TK items and crates in order to pick up out-of-reach items and move the occasional barricade. Now, once you’ve severed a limb from an enemy, you can use TK to pick it up and launch it into your foes, impaling them, and often staking them to walls. Imagine a cross between Fallout 3’s Railroad Rifle and the Gravity Gun from Half Life 2 and you’ve got the basic idea. It makes ammo conservation much easier as well, considering that one or two well placed shots from an upgraded plasma cutter can take an arm off, which can then be shot back at the enemy.

As scary as it is at times, Dead Space 2 is an action game first, and a survival horror game second. While ammo may not plentiful, it’s far from scarce, and with a bit of strategy and efficient use of the new telekinesis power, I only ran out of ammo a handful of times during my eight hours aboard the Sprawl. Most encounters can be solved with the good ol’ Plasma Cutter or Line Gun. A few new weapons are added to Isaac’s inventory, the most notable being the Javelin gun, which impales enemies with the primary fire, and electrifies the javelin with the alternate fire, frying any surrounding Necromorphs.

In addition to the excellent single player campaign is an online multiplayer mode that pits teams of humans versus teams of Necromorphs. The humans are trying to accomplish an objective, and the Necromorphs are trying to stop them. Other than having an interesting concept, I couldn’t help feeling like I’d already played a better version of this in other games. The atmospheric, dark vibe of Dead Space doesn’t mesh as well with online multiplayer as I had hoped. In the end, it’s a fun distraction between playthroughs, but little more.

Dead Space 2 is better than the original in just about every aspect. Between fun, rewarding gameplay and a dark, frightening atmosphere, it never fails to keep the player completely engrossed in Isaac’s battle for his own sanity. It is a frightening, intense, action-packed experience that any gamer with a strong stomach should appreciate.

At first glance, Bayonetta seems like it has the perfect formula for the best action game ever. It’s got a sexy, badass protagonist, over-the-top combat, and to top it off, its creative director is Hideki Kamiya, the man behind the original Devil May Cry. All of these components have come together to make something truly special.

Bayonetta is simply an amazing action game. The level of polish never ceased to impress me. The combat system is the epitome of what every Devil May Cry game has strived to be and more. The combat animations are super smooth, flowing from combo to combo almost seamlessly. There is nothing more satisfying than watching Bayonetta toss her foe up into the air with a quick punch, fill him full of bullets, and finish him off with a gigantic, demonic heel made out of hair.

Like DMC, Bayonetta’s combat is a fluid combination of ranged gunfights and intense melee fighting. The more complex combos are extremely tricky to pull off and require near-perfect timing, but always reward you with some absurd, over-the-top animation. The pure absurdity of the combat is hilarious.  Bayonetta summons demons from hell to devour her foes… with her hair! Her hair, which is also her clothing, opens a portal to hell and takes the form of an enormous demon that beats the living hell out of bosses.

Rather than blocking, Bayonetta expects the player to dodge incoming attacks. Pulling the right trigger at just the right second triggers “Witch Time”, which slows down all of your enemies for a moment, letting you get in one or two of those killer combos. This system makes the combat a lot more fun. There’s nothing quite as fun as slowing time at just the right moment and unleashing a huge combo or torture attack.

There are quick time events, but they aren’t implemented in an annoying way. I don’t mind mashing on the X button fifty times if it means that I get to summon a giant demonic crow made of hair to peck out the eyes of my foes or throw an angelic minion into the iron maiden and crush him to death.

Building up combos fills up Bayonetta’s magic meter which, when full, lets you unleash “torture attacks” on your enemies. These high damage attacks let Bayonetta summon torture and execution devices such as iron maidens and guillotines to punish your angelic foes. These are some of the craziest attacks in the game, and they are extremely entertaining to watch.

Different weapons are unlocked as you play through, and they can change up the pace and style of the combat dramatically. Bayonetta always has two weapons equipped at once; one set of ranged weapons attached to her heels and one being held. Mixing and matching weapons is a great way to find a combat style that fits the way you want to play. The player is able to swap between two custom weapon sets during combat, which adds another level of fluidity to the action. Encounters and the tactics required to survive them are changed up often, and I loved being able to quickly swap between a short range, high damage weapon for taking on the big, tough enemies and a fast, long range weapon for dealing with the weaker, more numerous foes.

The bosses are simply incredible. Not since God of War 2 have I been so impressed with the scale of a boss battle. For example, in one of the fights about half-way through the game, you fight a wind-based boss in the middle of a raging tornado, dodging rocks, riding pieces of debris, and avoiding fireballs all while trying to inflict damage on the monstrous foe. Most of the bosses are so large that Bayonetta actually can run along their arms and legs, inflicting damage at weak points before jumping to safety. Also worth noting are the boss fights with Bayonetta’s rival (and dare I say equal),  Jeanne. These are the most fast-paced fights and they require sharp reflexes and lightning fast combos, but are some of the most fun encounters in the whole game.

The story sequences that break up the action feel like they get in the way more than anything else. The story is fairly uninteresting, which is a bit of a let down considering how excellent the rest of the game is. The jokes fall flat, and there is almost no character development. I can’t remember watching a single cutscene and actually being interested in the story. But, when it comes to a game like Bayonetta, you don’t play it for the story. You play it for the action, and thankfully the insane action is where Bayonetta shines.

Bayonetta took me around fifteen hours to beat, which is about twice as long as the average action game. Even after fifteen odd hours of hacking, slashing, and hair-demon summoning, I still found myself wanting more of Bayonetta’s addictive combat and insane style.

The over-the-top combat paired up with impressive visuals and ridiculous combos and finishing moves combine to make one of the best action games this generation, and earning Bayonetta her place beside Dante and Kratos. While it may not do a lot of new things, Bayonetta’s near perfect combat, stylish visuals, and intense boss fights make it one of the greatest games of its kind, and an instant classic. Bayonetta is one of those timeless games that you will be able to go back to years from now and it will still feel fresh. I cannot recommend Bayonetta strongly enough, and fans of the action genre owe it to themselves to check this one out.

This review is based on the Xbox 360 version of Bayonetta provided to us by SEGA.

"Nice to see you Jim. You been working out?"

“2 Player Reviews” is a series of articles in which two members of the Wing Damage staff separately review a game, so as to give our readers multiple perspectives on the subject matter.

Player 1 – Jonah “spambot” Gregory

Player 2 – Luke “masterlookas” Jahnke

In comparison to most other superheroes, Batman is a pretty complex guy. He is one part genius detective, one part silent, stealthy ninja, and one part total henchman-punching badass. So it is pretty easy to understand why developers in the past have had such a hard time capturing the Caped Crusader in videogame form.

As much as I dislike using the word “metal” as an adjective, I simply cannot think of a better way to describe Brutal Legend. How else do you describe a game set in a fantasy world inspired by classic heavy metal album art? With it’s impressive 107-song soundtrack, cameos from heavy metal icons such as Ozzy Osbourne and Lemmy Kilmister, it’s impossible to describe Brutal Legend as anything but metal.

Being a Tim Schafer game, it’s pretty much a given that the writing is top notch. The metal references and inside jokes are good for a laugh here and there. All of the dialogue is very well written, and expertly preformed. Jack Black is Eddie Riggs. He fits the part perfectly, and his enthusiastic performance is really what makes the character so lovable.

The variety of metal cameos are just great. Lemmy Kilmister plays a badass bass player with a sweet hat (so, he pretty much plays himself), and the dialogue between him and Eddie is some of the funniest in the game. Ozzy Osbourne also does a great job as the “guardian of metal, ” but I would have liked to see a bit more of him.

From the moment you step into the shoes of Eddie Riggs, you are immersed in all things metal. Trapped in an alternate fantasy universe where demons control the earth and most of the human population toils their lives away in slavery, Eddie is tasked with leading Ironheade, the human resistance (the extra “e” so you know they mean business). He recruits the head-bangers, builds the stages, directs the battles, protects the tour bus, and kicks plenty of demon ass. In short, he’s the road crew for the resistance.

The gameplay is a pretty mixed bag. Split between open world exploration, 3rd person action and, most notably real-time strategy, Brutal Legend tries to be a lot of different things all at once which hurts the overall experience. It’s not that any of the specific gameplay styles are bad, but none of them are great, either. It feels like Tim Schafer was trying just a bit too hard to keep Brutal from being pigeonholed.

The main focus of Brutal Legend’s many gameplay styles are the explosive stage battles, the backdrop of which are huge rock concerts. The stage is your base and where all of your units spawn. If your stage is destroyed, it’s game over. Your resources come in the form of fan geysers spread throughout the map. Playing a “fan tribute” solo near one of these creates a “merch booth” on the geyser and directs the fans (resources) to your stage. The more merch booths you have, the faster your fanbase grows.

Ironheade’s metal themed units range from the basic head-bangin’ infantry to the mighty fire breathing Metal Beast. What’s unique about Brutal Legend’s stage battles is the interaction with each individual unit. Each unit has a unique attack that they can preform with Eddie. For example, when Eddie teams up with the Head Bangers, they form a mosh pit around him, knocking enemies out of the way. These “double team” attacks are what make the stage battles really fun.

One of the best things about Brutal Legend is it’s setting. Every area of the game looks like it was ripped from a classic metal album cover. Fire rains from the sky, jagged mountains reach up toward space, and monuments to the great titans of metal are scattered across the land. Everything is on a very over-the-top, epic scale.

While the combat is pretty basic, it still manages to be fun. The “A” button attacks with the battle axe, “B” blocks and “X” attacks with the guitar. The variety comes in the form of the guitar attacks, which electrify or burn enemies from afar. There are a few guitar/battle axe combo moves, which help keep the combat interesting. Sadly, you can only decapitate so many emo kids before things start to feel repetitive.

As I played through, I never really felt like I was doing anything new or original. After a while it feels like the same old hack and slash gameplay that’s been done a thousand times before, but with a heavy metal paint job. Sure, the RTS elements are fun, but with only a handful of stage battles, by the time I really fell into a groove and started to kick some ass, the game was over. It doesn’t make the game any less fun, just a little disappointing.

This brings me to my biggest complaint with Brutal Legend. Even though I completed about a third of the side missions, unlocked most of the hidden songs and searched the land for various other collectibles,  I reached the end credits within roughly 5 hours.  I imagine a 100% play through would take maybe only an hour or two more. Even if there is some after game content, this is simply too short for a single player campaign.

The high point of the game is the music itself. The soundtrack boasts an epic 107 tracks from every sub-genre of metal, (and believe me, there are a lot of sub-genres of metal) everything from Def Leopard to Dethklok.  If you’re a metal head, your favorite band is probably represented in Brutal’s epic soundtrack (unless you’re an Iron Maiden fan, that is.) At the start of the game, about 35% of the songs are unlocked. While most of the tracks are unlocked as you play through the story, there are 23 songs hidden in relics throughout the world known as buried metal.

The best way to experience Brutal’s epic soundtrack is through the “Mouth of Metal,” a playlist-like upgrade for the Deuce that lets you select a specific song, create a custom playlist, and sort the music in a variety of ways, such as genre and alignment. What I really love about the song selection isn’t necessarily the tracks themselves, but how many of the songs tie directly into the theme of the current mission.

As you drive the deuce through a burning arena and meteors fall all around you, “Through the Fire and the Flames”  by Dragonforce blasts from Eddie’s speakers. It really ties the whole experience together. A game about metal, with a great metal soundtrack, and songs that suit the action during every mission.

Brutal Legend is an enjoyable game, if not an entirely unique experience. The writing is wickedly funny, and the inside jokes and metal references make it a must play for any metal head. But at only 5 hours or so, It’s not exactly worth the $60 price tag.

I am a sucker for shiny things that I do not need. When I saw the first pictures of the special edition “The Beatles: Rock Band” guitars, I decided that I needed one. I ended up picking up the John Lennon Rickenbacker 325 because its design was the closest to the Rock Band 2 Stratocaster that I was already comfortable using.

The Rickenbacker 325 was one of the most recognizable guitars played by John Lennon, and MadCatz totally nailed the look and feel of the classic axe. From the faux-wood neck to the chrome plating around the whammy bar, this is by far the most detailed Rock Band peripheral out there.

Picking up the guitar for the first time, the first thing I noticed was the lack of rounded edges around the body of the guitar, making it a little uncomfortable in comparison to the Rock Band 2 Strat. Otherwise, the guitar is a complete blast to play. The effects switch is more subtle and less likely to get bumped while you’re playing, which was one of my biggest complaints with the other Rock Band guitars. The strum bar feels just slightly tighter than the Rock Band 2 Strat, which for me make the super fast strumming sections a bit tougher to pull off.

The guitar has an overall sturdy feel. Unlike some of the previous Rock Band equipment, I’m not constantly feeling like I’m going to snap it in two every time I activate overdrive.

My two biggest complaints are focused on the start and back buttons. The back button is placed just out of the reach of my palm, so in order to activate overdrive, I have to either tilt the guitar or reach down with my little finger. This isn’t really a big issue for those who prefer to tilt the guitar to go into overdrive, but I almost always use the back button, so the button placement makes things a little awkward

My number one complaint is the start button, and the fact that it barely works. It takes about 10 seconds of holding the button down for it to actually pause the game. The same goes for the 360 guide button. I have to press it as hard as I can for it to open the guide, and it only actually works about half the time. Hopefully this is only an issue for my guitar and not something anyone else had to deal with, but it is still very disappointing, especially after the exceptional performance of the Rock Band 2 Strat.

Altogether, this is the one of the best fake guitars I’ve played. The $100 price tag was a bit too steep though, especially when the $80 Wireless Stratocaster is available pretty much everywhere. If you’re a hardcore Beatles fan, though, it is worth it to be able to play with such an accurate, detailed representation of Lennon’s famous guitar.

There are few games as unique and downright strange as the original “Ecco the Dolphin”. It was really hard, it had a very eerie atmosphere and most of all, it had an insanely weird story. “Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future”, the fourth and final title in the Ecco series, manages to retain all of the difficulty and eeriness of the original series and makes a perfect transition from 2d to 3d.

The visuals are nothing short of awe inspiring, and like nothing else on the Dreamcast. The ocean world is rendered so beautifully, I found myself getting sidetracked from my current objective because it is just so much fun to swim around and look at things. It’s all in the details. Like the tiny barnacles on the back of an enormous humpback whale, or the little specks of sand that are stirred up when Ecco skims the ocean floor.

The story is all kinds of strange. It’s the 30th century, 500 years after dolphins revealed their sentience to humans and dolphins and Humans have decided to co-exist and explore space. At some point, a mysterious foe called “The Foe” decided to destroy Earth, and Ecco is one of the guardian dolphins that must protect the planet. The Foe goes back in time, and takes the Noble Traits of ambition, intelligence, compassion and humility from the dolphins. Each trait was bound to a glowing globe and scattered across the planet, and Ecco must find all of the globes in order to save the future. It was interesting to see how the future changes as each trait is restored.

For example, without any of the traits, the dolphins become mindless animals and humans eventually become extinct, but once the dolphins have Intelligence and Ambition (without any of the other traits) they become aggressive, driving the humans from the sea and conquering all other sea life. It isn’t until all of the Noble Traits are restored that the future can be restored and the Foe is Defeated.

Ecco the Dolphin’s gameplay made the perfect transition from 2d to 3d. A few moves, like a quick 180 degree turn, have been added to make it easier to get around, but altogether, Defender of the Future plays almost exactly like the Genesis versions of Ecco.

Another feature Defender of the future shares with its 2d counterparts is an unforgiving level of difficulty. The puzzles are so difficult I found myself taking wild guesses at the solution until I stumbled onto it, or often had to resort to a FAQ.

The combat is no easier. Most enemies can take some big chunks out of your health bar, and there are a lot of hazards in the environment. On top of all this, Ecco needs to come to the surface for air every 60 seconds or so, adding another level of complexity to the puzzles.

If you liked the original Ecco games, I highly suggest dusting off the ‘ol Dreamcast and giving Defender of the Future a try.

"Viva!"

Blowing things up has, and always will be fun. “Red Faction: Guerrilla” is, at its core, a game about blowing stuff up. Volition’s mastery of the sandbox genre, combined with the incredible amounts of destructive freedom delivered by the Geo Mod 2.0 engine make for a stellar experience.

Volition’s experience with open world games is very apparent here. The map is intuitive and easy to read, the controls are very tight, and the game has a very high level of polish.

Placed in the generic, shaved head of Red Faction’s protagonist, Alec Mason, (not to be confused with prototype’s generic shaved head protagonist Alex Mercer) the player is charged with freeing mars from the oppression of the Earth Defense Force  (not to be confused with the other Earth Defense Force). Volition did a good job of making the player actually feel oppressed by the EDF. Their checkpoints are everywhere, their scouts constantly patrol the roads, and they will come down on you in a heartbeat.

The only way to effectively fight the EDF is hit and run guerrilla attacks. Run in, blow something up, run out. Staying in any one place for a long period of time is a guaranteed way to get yourself killed. Each time you, a colonist, or a Red Faction member dies, the peoples morale is slightly decreased. Morale is gained by completing guerrilla actions, blowing up EDF property and destroying propaganda. Higher morale means more ammo in Red Faction supply crates, more frequent guerrilla reinforcements, and most importantly, it means that colonists will be more willing to fight alongside the Red Faction.

There are six sectors of Mars to liberate from the EDF, and each sector has its own unique feel to it. From the slums of Parker, to the rolling grassy hills of the terraformed Oasis, Volition managed to bring a lot of variety and color to the Red Planet. Each sector has its own set of story missions, side missions (called guerrilla actions) and high value targets. Everything you do effects the world around you, either dropping the EDF control level, raising morale, or both. I was happy to find that there were very few dull missions throughout the single player campaign, and there was enough variety to keep me playing to the end.

Pretty much every building, wall, supply crate, bridge and vehicle can be blown up, smashed or torn apart at the sub atomic level by Alec. There are few things more rewarding than watching a six lane bridge crumble into a mess of rubble and debris thanks to a few well placed shots from the nano-rifle and a crap-ton of remote charges. Buildings explode and crumble into ruin just as you would expect them to. A few strategic remote charges on the load-bearing beams and a good swing or two of Alec’s trusty sledgehammer are generally all it takes to demolish a building.

The weapons and vehicles are a literal blast to use. Remote mines, rocket launchers, Gauss cannons, and rifles that tear matter apart at a molecular level are just a few tool of the trade. The vehicles range from tiny mars rovers to enormous industrial walkers that can plow through a building without even slightly slowing down.

Aside from the lengthy single player campaign, Red Faction also features  online multiplayer. Although I only played a few matches, I was very impressed by the games ability to handle 16 player online matches in such a destructible environment with little to no lag.

“Red Faction: Guerrilla” is by far my favorite game of 2009 so far, and i strongly recommend a purchase, and at the very least a rental.

There was a time, not so long ago, when I trusted Capcom to deliver high quality, fun to play games. That trust, however, has been betrayed by the Grin Studios developed Bionic Commando sequel for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The unnatural, frustrating control scheme and environments that force the player on a single, linear path teamed up with the simply brain-dead A.I. make Bionic Commando a painfully broken experience.

The part of the game that should be the most fun, the swinging, is most often the source of frustration. The control scheme feels cluttered and imprecise, which is especially frustrating in a game that asks far more precision than the controls allow. Another complaint I have about the swinging is how little of an effect your momentum has on how fast you swing. Regardless of where you jump from or how fast you’re going, you will always swing at the same speed using the same animation. This takes a lot of the fun out of jumping from the top of a building and swinging from a pole at the very last second.

Bionic commando clocks in at around five hours which, by today’s standards, is not nearly long enough to warrant a sixty dollar purchase. The short campaign makes the single player experience feel gimped, especially since by the time you learn all of your combat abilities, the game is over.

The combat is mediocre at best. The bionic arm spices things up a little bit, letting the player grapple an enemy, then swing in for a quick kick to the face. The gun play is simply bland and feels like any other third person shooter.  The weapons are uninspired and really bring the combat down as a whole.

The levels are incredibly linear and if the player tries to break from the path, they are faced with instant death. The game rationalizes this by calling the area that you can’t enter “irradiated zone”, but this really just comes down to lazy level design.

Bionic Commando boils down to a short, shotty game that feels like it was rushed out the door. I don’t understand why Capcom would allow thier name to be afixed to this game. I sure know I can’t stand having it affixed to my game history.

"Beautiful, Despite the Malaria"

We all have those games that we miss the first time around. With the busy release schedule of modern gaming, no one has time to play everything. That is why we at WingDamage present to you “Fashionably Late Reviews“. This is our series on games from the current generation of consoles that we may have missed on their initial release, but have gone back to experience now.

You are dropped into Far Cry 2′s fictional African country at the height of a civil war with a very clear objective: eliminate the Jackal, the notorious arms dealer that sold weapons to both sides, igniting the conflict.

The African Savannah captured in Far Cry 2 is the perfect example of an open world done right. Dotted with unlockable safe houses and guard posts, the living, breathing world of Far Cry 2 is so expertly crafted that it becomes a character itself.

It can be as brutal and merciless as any of your AI enemies, and can be a more powerful ally that any of your NPC companions. Knowing how to use the deadly African landscape against your enemies is the key to success in Far Cry 2.

For example, starting a grass fire on a windy day can be dangerous if you don’t take time to think. Starting a fire in just the right place so that it burns through an enemy camp, efficiently killing your enemies inside can be very rewarding. In that same way, starting a fire that gets prematurely snuffed out by rain, or blown in a different direction by the wind, revealing your presence to any enemies in the area can be an extremely intense, frightening experience, and these are the kind of moments that make the game memorable.

At the beginning of the game, the player selects one of a handful of various mercenaries. All of the mercenaries available (other than the one that the player selects) are used as NPC “buddies” in the game. One of the first missions you are given will have you rescuing one of these mercenaries who, in turn, becomes your first buddy. You will always have a best buddy and a second best buddy (in the game. I can’t speak to your personal life -The Editor).

Your best buddy will provide you with optional objectives to subvert faction-given missions, provided he doesn’t get shot in the process. When subverting a faction mission with a buddy, it generally doubles the time spent on the mission, but some of the coolest moments in the game are during these special missions. Your second best buddy is there to rescue you whenever your health is depleted, which is something that happens quite a bit.

Although your ultimate goal is to kill the Jackal, most of the missions are given to you by one of the two waring factions; the UFLL, and the APR. You soon learn that neither faction is just in their actions, and that the ongoing conflict is hurting the country. There are no good guys or bad guys in Far Cry 2, there are just people. People with their own agendas and motives who won’t think twice about screwing you over. And believe me, they will.

There are a lot of interesting missions that can be given by factions. Although the basic mission objective is generally to either destroy thing “A” or kill person “B”, you never run out of ways to get the job done.

The game never discourages the use of any tactic during a mission. If you want to storm the legion fort with a shotgun and rocket launcher, go ahead. If you think the best way to kill the target is by shelling him from a mile away with a mortar, feel free. Just be ready for his troops to follow the smoke from the shell and hunt you down. I never once got bored with the mission structure. There is a certain pride that I felt as I watched my carefully planned attack unfold perfectly.

The combat, like the rest of the game, is very open ended. There is never a “right” or “wrong” way to enter a battle.  I had the most fun sneaking into an enemy camp with a silenced MP5 assault rifle, a dart rifle, and a silenced pistol. Wiping out an enemy camp before anyone knew i was there was really rewarding. The straightforward approach can be just as fun, though. Using the flare pistol to start a grass fire, and  waiting until the fire hits an ammo pile, sending bullets every which way, taking out a majority of the enemies, then, when the fire dies down, mopping up the stragglers with a shotgun. Those are just two of the hundreds of different ways to approach a combat scenario.

Your weapon load out consists of a primary, secondary and special weapon slot, as well as a machete. There is a lot of variety in those three categories. Primary weapons consist of mid-sized weapons such as sniper rifles, assault rifles, and shotguns. Secondary weapons are anything that will fit in a holster, such as pistols, SMG’s and I.E.D.’s. Special weapons are the largest of the three categories, and consist of rocket launchers, light machine guns and the infamous flamethrower.

The weapons are unlocked at arms dealers located in various areas on the map. To unlock a weapon for purchase, the player needs to complete a mission for the arms dealer. These missions always have the same objective; hunt down and destroy a supply truck somewhere on the map. These missions unlock 2-4 of the available weapons at a time. As fun as it is blowing up a truck with an I.E.D (improvised explosive device) or sniping the driver from long range, After two or three times, this structure starts to feel stale and repetitive.

Once a weapon is unlocked and purchased, upgrades for that weapon are unlocked as well. These upgrades only come in two forms: accuracy and reliability. This is where i feel the weapon system needed a lot more depth. Sure, an accuracy upgrade would be great for my AK47, and the reliability upgrade is nice to keep my weapon from jamming, but what about an upgrade to lower the recoil on a light machine gun?

The player can also purchase bandoleers and med kits to upgrade the amount of ammo or first aid that can be carried, but they have no effect on the performance of a weapon. Having only a few upgrade options seemed surprisingly lazy for a game with an otherwise large amount of depth.

Another interesting aspect of the game is the constant malaria that the player has to deal with.  Throughout the entirety of the game, you will suffer malaria outbreaks every 40-60 minutes of real time. As long as you keep a supply of malaria pills on hand, it won’t be a problem. Once you run out of pills, you need to find a contact in the countries large underground movement to supply you with more of the medication.

There is online multiplayer, but it is nothing special. It has classes similar to Call of Duty 4, with the ability to gain experience and level up, getting new weapons, gear, Etc. The multiplayer map editor is a cool addition to the online aspect of the game. It lets you create custom multiplayer maps and gives you access to a crazy amount of items to set in the map. For me, the map editor controls were really unwieldy on the 360 controller, so I didn’t spend much time with the editor. An imaginative person with a lot of spare time could probably make something really cool.

Far Cry 2 adds up to about 25 hours or so, and is worth playing for every second. I’ve never had a game make me feel like such a terrible person, and at it’s climax, make me feel more human. That’s the only way I can describe how the game ends. I’ve never been so emotionally invested in the outcome of fictional people. With most games, the ending is the culmination of everything you’ve done throughout the game, in Far Cry 2, the ending is your chance for redemption.

I cannot recommend this game highly enough. Its few flaws are outweighed by the vast amount of things the game does so incredibly well. It’s worth a purchase, and at the very least a rental. Trust me, it’s an experience that you won’t soon forget.

]]> http://www.wingdamage.com/review-far-cry-2-xbox-360/feed/ 1 http://www.wingdamage.com/gamer-time-halo-3-exrtravaganza-tourney-this-saturday/ http://www.wingdamage.com/gamer-time-halo-3-exrtravaganza-tourney-this-saturday/#comments Wed, 29 Apr 2009 23:38:17 +0000 Luke Jahnke http://www.wingdamage.com/?p=1433

This Saturday, Gamer Time will be hosting a Halo 3 Tournament in Snohomish, Washington. The tourney will run from 8-10 pm, and is open to all ages. The buy in is $5, and the winner will receive a $30 store credit. We will be playing with standard slayer (free for all) rules.

We hope to see you there!

For directions, click here!

http://its-gamer-time.com