Bo-Baton

Last year, my classmates and I in Game Technology II created a game in less then three weeks using Unity. My task, as well as my partners, was to create a level for the swinging rope mechanic as well as the overall level design. Take a look and see what you think.

Modern Warfare 3 vs Battlefield 3

(Disclaimer: I don't own the pictures)

Finally. After countless matches, countless times playing single player, and countless dead Russians or terrorists. I finally am ready to give off my opinion on which of the FPS behemoths is better.  Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 or Battlefield 3. Chances are you’ve heard many people say which is the better game and why. Well, that’s what I’m also doing.

Except I spend since the debuts playing these games because I wanted to give my best analyses possible.  But in the end their can only be one…

Now about me and Call of Duty. I’ve been a fan since the first game and I still consider the start of the Battle of Stalingrad to be one of the best moments in any game. Ever since then, each game has only gotten better and better. Then we suddenly were given Modern Warfare and all our minds were blown.

Call of Duty in modern era? Access to aircraft and bombs? A plot that actually is original and decent? Hell yeah this game series is awesome. To this day Activision’s Modern Warfare is one of the greatest games to ever come out and each sequel has only gotten better and better.

Now I’ll confess something. I’ve never played a Battlefield game. Never.  I knew of the series, but was never that interested in it. That was until I saw the trailer for Battlefield 3. I, like many, was hooked and wanted to know more about the game. What really stunned us all was the new Frostbite engine and how the game looked like it could seriously compete with Call of Duty.

Everywhere on the internet, the two games were being talked about and how much they were going to bring to the table of FPS’s. Both games have come out a while ago, but to this day there are still arguments on which are better. Well this is my opinion guys so let’s start.

   

1. Graphics

Call of Duty has always had stunning graphics. The level design of the multiplayer maps always managed to capture attention and during the main story, you’re going to have major epic scenes. With all the bombs, bullets, and explosions going on around you actually feel like you’re in a real battle.

The NYC levels are just awesome! The greatest city in the world is in flames and crumbling all around you. I lived half my life in that city and they captured the entire island perfectly. France and England are no slouches either as that Big Ben moment really hits you.

The only thing I may have an issue is with the skyboxes. I don’t know, they kind of seem less improved then before.

However, Battlefield 3 makes graphic look like life itself. Now I played this on the Xbox and I know that the graphics are tons better on the PC, but even on Xbox the game plays beautifully. Characters look better then Call of Duty and the environments are more detailed, especially when it comes to the desert and night levels. Best desert combat ever. And the weather? My god is it great. The sea and water are just so well done I think it might be one of the top ten water effects I've ever seen in a game.

And with the levels of Battlefield 3 so huge it’s like you’re actually in a living warzone. Character animations are the best and the customizations for your characters make them stand out well.

Winner: Battlefield      

2. Controls

Call of Duty, for the most part, has had an average control scheme. And that’s a problem. I keep wishing the controls would get better or different then its previous counter parts, but that’s not the case. The game feels the same as it did before. For some it’s a good thing, but after playing the same controls after 3 games you would think we would get something different.

Plus, sometimes the controls just seem a bit weak.

Battlefield 3 has a much better control scheme and it has to. After all, you’re not just running around on the field of battle. You’re flying jets and driving tanks!  When you move, you feel like you’re moving. Turning is much better and the animations, my god. The Parkour like gameplay you get when you jump or dive is a thousand times better than anything Call of Duty gives (Or Brink for that matter). Shooting works well and aiming is just as par as the aiming system in Call of Duty.

But the real credit goes to the vehicle controls. They do get some getting used to, but as you master them you start to feel like a real jet pilot or a tank driver. 

Winner: Battlefield 3

             3. Sound

If you have your own sound system, do yourself a favor and send it to the max! This game continues to capture the realistic gunfire and explosions that you would expect in a Modern Warfare game. But the best has to be the voice acting. Top quality work on this one and I give it full credit for the accent’s they put in for the Russians. Plus, Price is just a bad ass.

Battlefield 3 has pretty realistic sounds as well. In fact, both Modern Warfare and Battlefield sound perfect together…only one little thing. I hate the voice acting in BF3. I really think they could have gone a lot better with it then they did. But one thing that they really do well together is the vehicle sounds. Still, I love voice acting. And I don't want any ties in this game so credit goes to COD.

Winner: Modern Warfare 3

            4. Single Player

I really like Call of Duty’s single player. Why? Because unlike other FPS’s army stories that are focused on terrorism or a war that’s happened in history, Modern Warfare actually has an original plot. Sure some events might be inspired by previous ones in real life, but did any of us expect General Shepard's betrayal in MW2? Or the backstory of Makarov? Not to mention Soap’s death in MW3!

And the impacts the story gives you such as the falling of the Eiffel Tower, the Big Ben explosion, and the last level when your killing Makarov? Just epic.

This is an epic tale that will make you want to replay all three games over again.

Battlefield 3’s single player…is just not good. Really not good. I really didn’t think they were trying with this one and it kind of shows. I don’t know anything about the characters, the story just confuses me the moment it starts (And I get what they’re trying to do, but A. COD Black Ops did it already and B. So did Black).

I don’t know if they were focusing so much on the Multiplayer that they didn’t want have that strong of a single player, but either way. This is an easy one.

Winner: Modern Warfare 3

       5. Multiplayer 

This is the big one everyone has been talking about. As usual, Modern Warfare 3's is godlike. All the things we’ve come to expect from Modern Warfare in terms of Multiplayer are there. Awesome matches, new perks and weapons, and an excellent range of maps.

One thing I really find cool is the new Kill Streak system. You can choose to have one based on your kills, like before, but now you can also have on based on your deaths. What I also really like is the new level experience. Where the more you use your weapon, the better it gets.

What is also great is the other co-op missions and the Survival mode like game. The Co-op missions were tons of fun and I and my friends played them all night long when we got the game. I especially like the ones where on player is the shooter on some sort of vehicle or sniper position and the other has to go around shooting and moving to the objectives while his partner protect him. That’s awesome gameplay experience right there.

And then there is Survival mode. This is when you and a friend have to last as long as you can against bigger and deadlier waves of enemies that range from common soldiers, to dogs, to Juggernaut armored enemies. Each successful repel gives you money that you can use to buy ammo, perks, armor, and more. You’ll spend hours a day on this experience and never stop playing it.

Again, just the multiplayer experience alone is enough to make you have this game.

Now to Battlefield 3. Big maps with huge teams and huge guns. That’s just what you can say about this game. Each map is very well designed and very big. Enough to fit 50 players even. Matches go on for a long time and you’ll have plenty to do with the huge amounts of vehicles post everywhere. Teamwork is definitely needed for this experience as you cannot win this game on your own, you will die a lot if you don’t stick close to your teammates.

It sounds like a really good experience…but there are flaws. One, you will need to really spend a lot of time on this game to get more equipment. If you thought being a noob in COD was bad, this is much worse. It took me nearly forever to get enough credits to buy better equipment when nearly everybody was killing me every five seconds because I was so poorly equipped. At least in Call of Duty, you had some balances to help you out. I give credit to all the customization and the Battlelog system Dice made.

But there aren’t as many types of games you can play on these maps and the only one that really made me play was just Conquest. Modern Warfare as a lot more to offer. And while Battlefield 3 does have Co-op missions, they just don’t feel as good as Modern Warfare’s does.

Winner: Modern Warfare 3

OVERALL WINNER: MODERN WARFARE 3

So yes, both games are good. However, once again Modern Warfare is the king of all First Person Shooters. Everything about this game is great and this is the side I choose in the war between the two games.

We are gamers and we are legion.

Later

A look at the original Deus Ex Part 2

Though this was dead, huh? Nope, this is part 2 on my reasoning on why Deus Ex is the game designer’s bible. Now, last time I talked about the setting of the game and how it played an overall part of the plot. Now, I’m going to talk about the plot itself and how it’s paced so well.

The game starts off with the player, JC Denton, who is a nano-aug agent for the UNATCO. After your usual tutorial level you get to play a few missions that tie around the Gray Death virus. This is a good start for the game as we get to know what the character’s role is in society and we learn the starting parts of the main plot. We also get to meet JC’s bother Paul who is working with NSF, a group who want to secede from the US and are stealing the vaccine for the Grey Death Virus. It’s here we get our first twist, Grey Death is a man-made virus and JC’s superiors are using it so that only the elite receive the vaccine, leaving the poor to suffer.

This moment shows just how much power corporations and the rich have in society while the poor are forced to suffer as I mentioned in my first part. To make things worse for JC, he learns that both he and Paul were outfitted with a kill switch that will kill them in a day. JC rushes to save his brother as well as get rid of the kill switch. From here JC is then labeled as a traitor and his own kill switch is activated.

Here the lines between friend and foe start to blur as the organizations have people that want to help or kill JC. After being captured, JC is contacted by something named Daedalus who is part of the organization Majestic 12, leaving another organization that plays a role in the growing conspiracy of the Grey Death.

Eventually, JC finds out that the Grey Death was made by the Illuminati, but after meeting their leader, Morgan, it turns out that the Grey Death was only to be used by augmented people and not everyone. Majestic 12, the organization that saved you, use to be part of the Illuminati until it’s leader, Bob Page, used it to make it for all people. After stopping Majestic 12 from getting alternate means of repurposing the virus, you learn that Daedalus is an AI born from ECHELON.  Just as Daedalus is about to gain control over Majestic 12’s communications, Page unleashes his own AI, Icarus. The two AI’s merge and create Helios who controls all global communications.

This is when things get climatic. Page plans to use Helios to merge with it and become a god of machines to control all network communications of all levels. JC must defeat Page and then choose what to do with Helios with each organization demanding their result. JC can either:

1.       Destroy Global Communications, which puts the world in a Dark Age, but nobody controls the world

2.       Bring the Illuminati into power and control the world

3.       Denton can merge with Helios and rule the world alone as a benevolent dictator as an all knowing god.

The story is full of conspiracy and thrives on the themes of technology and morality. Trust and a desire of finding the truth, throw the player into an ongoing struggle to complete the game and find the ending of the story. And the pacing is great. The way that you start off just dealing with terrorist to ending with you possibly becoming a technological god.

The story is long, but not rushed. Every moment of every scene is played out perfectly and when you get to the end, all the connections come into place and you see how what happened before has affected you now. This is perfect storytelling with each choice and decision affecting this story so much that you’ll see the responses of your actions. It’s better than even Mass Effect or any other game. You have to play it to really experience it.

I’ll touch more on Deux Ex later, if I haven’t convinced you to get the game now, you’ll be getting on the next part.

We are Gamers and We are Legion.

Top 10 games of 2011

Disclaimer: None of the pictures are mine

Happy new year! Yes, I’m back this time I promise to be more attentive to this blog as I was before. Well I’ve got a lot to do, still need to continue that Deus ex thing, I need to do that comparison between Battlefield and Modern Warfare, and there are lots of other things to talk about too.

But for now, I’m going to do another countdown. I’ve played a lot of games last year and while some of them I didn’t review, I did play a lot. So this time I’m going to give you all what I feel were the best games of 2011.

10. Portal 2: While not as good as Portal 1, the game was definitely a much anticipated sequel that was worth the wait. The portal gun and its puzzles were still awesome and the G.L.A.D.O.S. storyline was okay, even if it had a few weak spots. But by far the best was the multiplayer. I think everyone can agree that that alone was worth buying this game. Amazing graphics, fantastic gameplay, and a funny psychopathic AI made this game worth its money.

9. Mortal Kombat: This game really saved me this year. Despite my intense dislike for Marvel vs Capcom 3, this game made the year in fighting genre’s work out for me. What I love about this game is that it mixes both new and old styles that make everyone enjoy this game regardless of what era you started playing it. It’s a really great remake of the series and I can’t wait to see more blood and fatalities to come out in the next MK tournament.

8. Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood: The reason I don’t have Revelations on this chart is because I have yet to play it. I’ll get around to it eventually, but I think it might be too late for a review. Still, Brotherhood was something that I underestimated. I thought it was just an expansion pack or something short, but I got Assassin’s Creed 2.5. Ezio is now one of my favorite characters of all gaming history. His story as an assassin and the details that effect history are just brilliant. Add in some great gameplay elements and you got a golden one.

7. Total War: Shogun 2: This game I played really late. I never was a fan of RTS (except ones like Starcraft and Dawn of War), but when I heard so much hype about this I decided to give it a try. I never wished to be Japanese more than when I played this. Most war games in Japan are centralized around the Sengoku Era so seeing a game in the Onin War was nice. I had fun playing it (even if I sucked at it) and I’m sure many people who bought this game did as well.

6. Cod: MW3/Battlefield 3: Now I’m a big Modern Warfare fan and the third game did a perfect 5/5 in my book. However, I’ve never played a Battlefield game before so I was interested in comparing these two. I’m not done with Battlefield yet, but I can see why so many gamers love this game. Both are so similar and yet so different. Nevertheless, both of these FPS’s have achieved much with their games and have had much impact on the gaming community.

5. Catherine: Holy crap did this game freak me out. It’s creepy art and story, the simple yet challenging puzzle mechancis, and the awesome music. My God this game was so awesome. I still play it every chance I get and I really think people need to play this game because you will have tons of time to play it. Hell, I haven’t even finished Rapunzel yet! Plus, it was nice to see something different from Atlus that wasn’t from the Shin Megami Tensei series.

4. Deus Ex: Human Revolution: This game was so much fun. Despite its ending flaws, this game made me feel like I was playing the original again. It’s such a good game and I still play it (Despite beating it multiple times) while challenging myself to make things harder and harder. Meeting the studio behind this game has also made me realize just how much effort went into something this big and awesome. This game deserves respect and I hope to see more from Edios sometime soon.

3. Mass Effect 2: Come on, you know me right? You really didn’t think I would put this up here? I bet you’re surprised it’s not number one. Despite my undying loyalty to Bioware and the Mass Effect series, I still can’t say it’s better than the next two games. Still, this is a game everyone needs to play. Designers, writers, programmers, artists, level designers and more. This is one of those games that come one in a lifetime that you love and treasure so much. I’m already pre-ordering ME3 when it comes out and when it does I’ll have a lot to say about it.

2. Batman Arkham City: As a Batman fan, I marked out when I played Arkham Asylum. This game, I just lost it. This game is just amazing. I couldn’t really find any flaws in this game at all and the way the characters just play themselves is enough to make any Batman freak just go nuts. Plus, this is the last time you’ll ever hear Mark Hamill play as the Joker so this is even a collector’s item for many. If you don’t have this game, get it now.

1. Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: There is no contest. There is no way in hell this game can be ignored. This is just godlike. It’s like if The Beatles went on a world tour with Chuck Norris as a bodyguard. IT’S THAT AWESOME! I can’t even review it, because all you hear on how awesome this game is is all true. The story, the gameplay, the art, the level design, the backstory, everything is just good. Next to Mass Effect 2, this is a game you must study if you want to be in the gaming industry. This is a game everyone can learn from especially if you want to make RPG’s like me.

Those are my top 10. Hope you enjoyed.

We are gamers and we are legion.

later