Call of Duty – Black Ops
The game, Call of Duty – Black Ops, arrived today (release day), after me ordering it with just one day to go…I forgot until pretty late. Demand can’t have been that high or just massive overstock, I don’t know. However, I can’t really say if I am impressed or not. It’s just another Call of Duty with the obligatory extras that keep the game “fresh”.
I played through a few levels of the single player campaign. The was an “entertaining” glitch on the first level at about the half-way point which caused two teammates to appear on a roof. As a result……stuck. Woohoo. Restart and, at least this time, it was fine but, after seeing that, my attention was waning.
After a couple of levels, I decided to call that quits and go to play zombies. Zombie Nazis from World at War are back and a lot of fun.
Maybe more of the classic online modes will be a bit more entertaining, only time will tell. I just hope it’s engaging enough the game doesn’t get left gathering dust. Regardless of how much it’s played, you can bet on being sucked in and doing it all again on the next release.
Anime, Games and TV Stuff
Since my holiday, time has just disappeared. So much to do, what appears to be no time. Last weekend I attended Japan Matsuri in London, Japan away from Japan, somehow that is already a week ago.
So… anyway, lots in the world of Anime, Games & TV.
Tokyo Game Show 2010. I’ve not really had any time to watch all of the footage, but, things of note;
- Devil May Cry
- Kinect Sports
- Last Guardian
- Tekken Tag Tournament 2
- Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2
visually more impressive than the first and I’m assuming the story continues where the first left off - Deus Ex: Human Revolution
I really hope that Trailer is the game engine rendering live, but I highly doubt it
Several upcoming blu-ray releases, a notable non-anime is a double box Death Note: Live action. Blu-ray Anime include;
- Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood – Volume 2
- The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
- Eden of the East
- Eureka Seven movie
- Rin (US only)
- D Gray-Man (US only)
thankfully my import PS3 has arrived for a couple of those.
- K-On ended
- Highschool of the dead ended (although seems open for a 2nd)
- Mitsudomoe ending (2nd season suggested to start January 2011) currently on Crunchyroll
American TV picks up again for me for the next couple of months as well, so I feel its going to be busy.
There is also MUCH more that I am interested in from each of the above, but there are not enough hours in the day.
Call of Duty: Black Ops – Multiplayer teaser
Today, I saw a new teaser trailer for the next Call of Duty game, Black Ops.
Similar gameplay to the previous games of course, along with some new additions. I saw a crossbow with exploding darts as well as what seemed to be an exploding remote controlled car. There also seemed to be some sort of knife..that was detachable??
Seems like the footage was all from the Xbox, lets hope there is an equally good PS3 version.
Cant wait.
Day of Defeat: Source – Now on mac
Out of nowhere (well I havn’t seen anything recently) Day of Defeat: Source is released for the mac. Originally one of my favourite games, after Counter-Strike (which has actually made it to the bottom of the games I own on steam so far) but I preferred it to TF2 (now top, but there are a few missing) we will see if the game has been destroyed or improved but the updates that have been pushed into the other Orange Box multiplayer titles.
Looking over the achievements, MOST of them seem very easy, just play for a while and you will get them, a lot of Get X kills with Y.
With this games release, that’s it for the Orange Box titles (Team Fortress 2, Half-life 2, Half-life 2: Episode One, Half-life 2: Episode 2 and Portal). Well, HL2 deathmatch isn’t available yet, can’t wait for this. HL2 deathmatch is required but most/all? total conversion mods. Dystopia & SourceForts (TFC on the Source Engine) being two a played frequently. I am not sure if the process for mods on OS X will be a simple one, however it should defiantly be far more simple than a full game engine.
PlayStation Plus
Announced at E3, PlayStation Plus is a new subscription service to the PlayStation Network.
At release, I subscribed a year, costing me £39.99, the same as an Xbox Live Gold subscription for the year (from Microsoft directly). So, what did this get me (me personally, which I now own and have downloaded, not everything it offered)?
Free Games (usual price in brackets)
- Little Big Planet (£19.99?)
- WipEout HD – PS3 (£13.99)
- Destruction Derby – PS one (£3.99)
- Fieldrunners – minis (£3.99)
- Age of Zombies – minis (£3.99)
Game Packs
- Killzone 2 Game pack (£4.79)
Other stuff
- An orange icon next to my name
What would I have purchased even without the subscription?, well just WipEout HD. I would not have got the minis or PS one content att all, if I didn’t own a PSP though. I really don’t like looking at those graphics, stretched to 1080p on my 42″ television.
So far there have been no additions to this since release, however I do recall reading somewhere, this would not be a weekly thing like the rest of the games on the PlayStation store, but this would be a monthly update. Looking at what I’ve got so far it a bit meh.
Although the collection has been slim so far, I am still on the fence as to whether or not there will be a renewal, obviously being 1 year away things are likely to change.
Under the Account Management -> Transaction Management -> Services List, it seems to suggest that both WipEout and Little Big Planet expire at the end of the year, when my PS+ sub expires..really hope this is not the case.
What else?
Automatic updates. I find it strange this is a paid feature, but that’s not the point here. I downloaded WipEout HD and upon opening it told me there was an update. Instead of doing it then I decided to leave the update and turn off the console. 2 days later I come back and it asked me to download this update. I would have thought, during this 48 hour period, the auto-update might have done something.
COD MW2 – Resurgence Pack – Out Now
Another map pack is now out. Again on the slightly pricey side, but its not that bad.
5 additional maps. 3 new, 2 from Call of Duty 4;
New maps – Carnival, Fuel & Trailer Park
Updated maps – Vacant & Strike
The PS3 download for all 7 different versions (depending on the number of the box spine) comes in at a fairly reasonable 346mb. Thankfully I have my new 2.5″ drive to put into my PS3 as soon as I can be bothered to backup my current data.
Not much to say on these yet as I haven’t played them first hand, only seen videos, might post an update in the near future if I can get some playing time in.
Metal Gear Solid: Rising
I can’t believe that I missed this. It’s also quite an achievement for this to even be possible at the moment, billions of possible actions. This is on a completely different level to rag-doll physics, which was awesome when I first saw that.
Heres the trailer. Watch the whole thing, but specfically 1:45 – end… and I HIGHLY recommended watching @ 720p.
I have a feeling it will not quite live up to my expectations and I’m expecting the Xbox version to be somewhat crippled in comparison but…amazing.
Counter-Strike: Source – Now on Mac
It seems the Steam store is having problems at the moment, frequently showing 0 games available on the Mac and not showing anything under New Releases & Top Sellers, this doesn’t however change the fact that Counter-Strike: Source is now available.
It’s a fairly large download, much more than I expected, over 1.5gb, as I would have expected several shared resources with other Source based games.
This seems like a fairly big title so at the moment I am not expecting anything more on the store, even though this doesn’t appear under the homepage of the Mac section yet either.
E3 – Filled with wow…
This years E3 really does seem to be the best to date. Lots of stuff all round, much more than I am even going to mention in this post. These are just the things that are my personal favourites.
Sony
- 3D gaming with a demo of the upcoming exclusive, Killzone 3, expected February 2011.
- Move (even though I feel it is a bit gimmicky)
- LittleBigPlanet 2
- PlayStation Plus
- Portal 2, properly done for the PS3 & the trailer looks to have much more physics details
Microsoft
- Kinect – previously Natal. Lots on this as well, including some titles.
- Gears of War 3
- 360 Slim, built-in wifi & disc-scratching technology
Nintendo
- 3DS – 3D gaming without glasses
- The return of many classic nintendo characters
A wide range of games (non console exclusive) were also there
- Call of Duty: Black Ops
- Mortal Kombat
- Sonic
- Dead Space 2
- F.E.A.R 3
- Medal of Honor
- Quantum Theory
- Crysis 2
- Silent Hill 8
I think, in time, I might add a bit more on some of these individually along with screenshots etc.
This weeks Steam disappointment.
Only 1 indie release this week, with a very low price at that. Fortix.
Can you reclaim your ancestors’ land? Evil forces have taken over the once fertile land of Fortiana. You are the only one who can storm the castles and claw it back from the hordes of dragons. Experience a new type of strategy and arcade game. Fence off parts of the battlefield to corner your enemies. Collect catapults and power-ups to besiege the fortresses and take on dragons. But beware! As you progress through the levels it gets harder and harder. The fortresses become much larger and the monsters more vicious. Can you emerge victorious and reclaim the land of your ancestors? You are knight Fortix, the sole hope for the desolate and tortured land of Fortiana to become the fertile land that it was before.
Another game I am unlikely to get. Really hoping Valve will be making another late release of titles this week, this one was a bit of a joke really.
Maybe due to E3?
