Game Review – Battlefield: Bad Company

The Battlefield series has always been massive warfare; using realistic weapons (most of the time) and tactics to defeat the enemy forces. It is indeed a staple for the PC and now console multiplayer, what it lacked however was a barely entertaining single player. I love the single player experience and (at the time) didn’t have a good PC at the time so I didn’t play this series very much, and what I did play on demos bored me. However this new Battlefield game entitled ‘Bad Company’ will give this online legend a 1^st player focus for the first time.

You play Preston Marlowe who did something, at sometime, somewhere, to someone(s) that could have meant ‘X’ amount jail time for him. Instead of rotting in the hole somewhere, they put him to work by serving in the army, fighting a new war with an old enemy; the Russians. Marlowe get pared up with the army’s worst and least combatively trained ‘B’ or Bad Company; who only job is to die in the service of their country. Players will then meet their new best friends: Sweetwater (nerd with gun) Haggard (red-neck demo) and Sergeant Redford (military archetype). While Sweetwater and Haggard are in the same boat as Marlowe, Redford opted to B Company for a way out of his tour of duty quicker (if he’s lives anyway). While finishing up a crap mission they were lucky enough to survive, they discover that mercs known as the Legionnaires are operating with the Russians. These soldiers are the best of the best; and they get paid solid gold bars. It didn’t take these four long to get ideas in their heads; and thus starts their adventure of personal gain without getting caught by the U.S. army or killed on the field. Bad Company is a text book military FPS, complete with numerous gun types (from AN-94 to XM8), rocket launchers, explosives, tools and vehicles. Depending on what kind of shooter you’re used to, the transition we’ll be easy or annoying, but there nothing complicated here so it won’t take long to figure it out. The game gives you various objectives (kill enemies, destroy stuff, etc) to deal with, however it doesn’t care how you do it. For example; the army wants B Company to escort three tanks to their next mission. Of course to get there you all must cross a narrow stretch way, packed full of baddies wanting to give those tanks new ventilation holes, which simply won’t do. So you must figure out the best way to protect the war machines; do you climb into one of them and man the turret, or you stay outside with a repair tool and let the tanks do the fighting while you patch them up, you could even use the RPG you snagged a while back to give your attackers a taste of their own warhead. Players can do all these options (and many more) if they so do choose, but be careful, your opponents’ do not pull punches and will catch you off guard. Sometimes it’s good to go Rambo, but other times it’s better to be a team player. Speaking of which, your team will accompany you through most of the game and can’t be killed. That’s the good news, the bad? They have the aim of a blind, drunk hippie. If anything they make good distractions, but game leaves you to do all the fighting.

Which is irritating, but not the only irritant in the game. During the single player you can collect the various weapons off ammo areas or dead enemies. The then marks them as collected on a list – and that’s it. You don’t get to go back on the list and pick a weapon you’ve collected to use in battle (which would have been preferable); it’s just there to look at (lame). Why have an impressive array of weaponry if you’re only going to use a certain type of weapon once or twice per level (ultra lame). The game itself is the next thing a bring into question; it looks nice, sounds great and characters are solid but all and all it’s something I’ve seen before on more impressive games. There is nothing in Bad Company that truly wows’ me. Single player makes no mistakes, but it also doesn’t do anything to make me go back and replay the stage over and over again (which is something I do all the time, and why I’m always late with my reviews/post J). Even the game destructible environments’ are only an amusing gimmick; as it falls destroy everything, completely (i.e. houses, guard towers). My greatest ire stems from the multiplayer of Bad Company. Maybe it’s me, but it all seems to be more frantic and simplistic than the norm. It doesn’t help that the game comes with only one mode of play (combination of capture the flag and destroy the objective), and handled poorly. The multiplayer classes (Assault, Demolitions, Recon, Specialist, and Support) are terrible because the most of the weapons and gear for them are locked. They only become available after players level up, which won’t be easy. Chances are you’ll die in the first few seconds of play, if you spawn at the front lines. You won’t know where it’s coming from, or how they got a perfect shot while you got shotty at someone close range and get nothing, but death will happen - especially to Battlefield newbs(like me). Even when players get used to this multiplayer frenzied style, it still won’t help; it’s better to be lucky than good in this game. I could say more how much I hate the multiplayer, but I don’t want that to ruin the whole review for you all so I’ll just close this up.

Bad Company was a great single player experience for me, story-wise anyway. Generally though; the game as a whole was just average; full of missed opportunities, plain/unimpressive combat, and hell-spawn multiplayer (sorry, last time) holds this title back. I’ll give EA credit for trying but I hope the sequel will be at least 5 times as better as the original or I’m just going to give this a pass. Bad Company get’s an average score of a Sliver rating.

Game Review - Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King – Only just the beginning

When it comes to video games I’m some-what a purest; meaning I only buy games that come in a box (or a Gamefly envelope). Before, I thought all those console ‘download service’ games weren’t worth the time or the carnie based points to buy them. However when I saw Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King as a preview on Game Informer, I knew this was going to be something good. Admittedly I forgot about it for a time, but it only took one review of the game to jog my memory (and excitement). So were my good vibes justified; in a word yes. So much of a yes that I might have to change my opinion on such games from being just rewritten, reworked games from the past to something more credible. Before I move into the game, I confess that I’ve never played the Crystal Chronicles series of Final Fantasy. I thought it was stupid. So my take on the story is a little fragmented, but in the beginning of the game three characters find themselves a castle town, minus the town. They been on the run since their old home was destroyed by a force called ‘miasma’ (A force that has been taking care of in the first Crystal Chronicles, I’m assuming anyway). These three: one old knight, one chancellor/court magician, and one little aire apparent (the main character) of the bygone kingdom must now rebuild what they lost in this new land. Simple, right? Well in final Fantasy nothing is as simple as it appears, especially for a king - which is you.

This is not a RPG or action game, it’s more a like a micromanaging simulator with a little strategy added. If non-twitching isn’t your thing then stop reading this and go play Halo, however if you give this game a good hour you may be pleasantly surprised. Now the king has a power called ‘Architek’ which allows players to build building instantly; a useful skill but not a free one. Players need to get ‘elementite’ to use the power and the only places to get the stuff is where the monsters live (of course). Normally player would just gear up with the big, baddest weapons, armor and magic available and go tearing into the wild; bring back enough treasures to choke a moogle. However… Kings don’t do that sort of thing; they delegate jobs like to more expendable ‘heroes’ of the realm and My Life as a King is no different. Check the adventurer’s stats, tell them where to go and sit back while they do all the hard work of grinding monsters for you. Next day they bring back any elementite, treasure, and funds for you to use at your leisure, sweet deal. Where players come in though is pimping out your kingdom, and while it is busy work it’s also exciting create your own kingdom from the ground up. Each structure players choose (or not to choose) to build will affect your home and the people around it. For example; later on in the game, you’ll have the ability to build mage academies. In which will not only give your adventures the option to become mages, and make future defenders of the realm near the academies more intelligent (thus better mages), but they will provide a scenic bell tower chime every morning, afternoon and evening in the kingdom (which does nothing really, but sounds nice). Academies are only one of many building the king can form; but it’s up to the player to decide ‘what’ go’s ‘where’ and ‘how many’. There is only so much room in your kingdom and in order for you to survive and prosper you must keep both your citizens safe and your soldiers happy. Heavy is the head that holds the crown.

This game is simple looking, but very beautiful. Which has always been Nintendo’s greatest visual strength; (in my opinion) they can’t compete with PS3 and 360’s realistic graphics. The Wii was built for colorful, expressive art style; the sooner more 3^rd party developers figure this out, the better Wii games will become (visually anyway). The game’s tutorials are also very simple to understand, clearly explaining the less than pulse-pounding functions of the game. I have to say though my favorite thing about the game is the charm of it. Not once was I bored doing practically the same thing in the 7-10 minute intervals that counted as the in-game days. I always wanted to hear what the villagers had to say, even though they tend to repeat themselves. And when the adventurers head out to their latest dungeon I’m always excited to see the results (being good or bad). Of coarse that’s just me, to another gamer all this may just seem to be a striped down final fantasy tactics mixed with Sims element. Which it is, but it doesn’t making any less fun and at a cheap price, it’s a great find for Wii owners. Players can even invest more money into the game by buying new avatar skins, useable races, high level dungeons and upgraded buildings. Totally optional, but they do keep things interesting. If more downloadable games are like this (creative & fun) then I have nothing to worry about for future titles. However despite how enjoyable this title is to me personally, I can only give it a Sliver rating because at the end of the day this game will only appeal to a certain crowd, not the majority of gamers. The features that make it great are also what holds’ it back.