Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Multiplayer review

Infinity ward programmers attempt to escape missiles fired by their angry fans.

Life is bittersweet for Infinity Ward. On one hand, they've created the most successful first person shooter franchise of all time, earning billions and creating widespread hysteria within the media. On the other hand, they have become the Justin Beibers of the gaming world, hated by thousands of outraged fans who make constant, sardonic comparisons to the all holy Call of Duty 4: Modern warfare. The apple has fallen far from the tree and here's why.

The defining feature of CoD in the past has been it's electrifying multiplayer. There is no doubting that Infinity ward, before their collapse, created something completely influential. Customisation, killstreaks and a variety of attractive game modes made the first Modern Warfare original, incredibly addictive and vitally, competitive. It seems that the more you analyse the initial game, the more you find reasons to compliment it. Most importantly, it was innovative. It brought 'new' to FPS and if there is one thing that your £100 Modern Warfare 3 exclusive box set doesn't include, it's 'new'.

Firstly, it must be pointed out that the graphics and interface are almost completely identical to Modern Warfare 2. An unavoidable fact. Many will argue 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' but remember we're talking about a full retail game here. It begs the question, who would be willing to pay the ludicrous sum of £40-£50 if the game was just an oversized DLC? The changes are small but instead of improving on the game, they simply change it. New killstreaks are simply variations of old ones, indeed in their wisdom IW have opted to restrict players further by forcing them into a particular branch of killstreak. Meaning there are now offensive or defensive specific killstreaks. In order to complicate the game further they have added unnecessary, arcade-like gun improvements such as 'kick', which reduces recoil. Whereas previously perks were a life or death, success or failure decision to make on the part of your class, players are now patronised to the point where they can have every perk they need within a single class.

Game modes are the same, the guns are the same but look different and the maps are limited in quantity so the cracks are beginning to show. I don't think anyone will deny, the original Modern Warfare was great but a desire to return to their roots has resulted in IW shooting themselves in the foot. The tempered but boisterous attitude of the original was attractive for male audiences and in an attempt to recreate this you can now read 'A juggernaut is not so tough with a missile crammed down his throat' whilst your game loads. Personally I enjoy a game more when it doesn't feel like it was made by a sexually frustrated 13 year old drill sergeant.

If you're okay with the minimal change policy now associated with CoD then look no further. It's Modern Warfare 2.5, you'll get new maps and you'll have a whole set of new guns to play with (kinda) but for those who were hoping it might be a new or even better experience this year, you might want to buy 'Just Dance' instead. That's far more likely to get you off your seat.

4.3/10

Skyrim review

Brilliance always comes at a price. There's no doubting the humongous 'Skyrim' is an attractive prospect for any fantasy gamer. Bethesda's latest instalment stages one of the biggest virtual worlds ever created however a few weeks on and it seems that with great quantity comes great technical difficulties. Does Elder Scrolls V make the cut?

So an overall picture of the game at hand; it could be daunting for a humble writer to attempt to assess such a deep and complex experience within the space of a few paragraphs. In fact, I doubt very much that any external site on the web could successfully collect enough information to do the game justice. If you haven't got the point already, the game is massive. So big in fact, the map is comparable in size to a small borough of London.

The world
Perhaps the most perfected of all of Skyrim's aspects is the environment. A sprawling, hostile
world of strange creatures and breathing habitats. The trees sway with the wind, the rivers
flow with gravity, birds inhabit the clear skies and dragons emerge from hurricanes. It's breathtaking stuff. Even the most critical of us will agree, the place is beautiful and Bethesda should be congratulated. It's rare, if not unheard of for a world to be so damn immersive that a player can enjoy him or herself just by strolling to and from locations. As you wander off, the chances are some random occurrence will stop you in your tracks; a stag will fumble by only to spot you and dart away or the sun will set to reveal a lake riddled with fireflies (or glowbugs as they're known in the world). Even if sentimentality isn't your thing, this world is the stage in which your journey is set so it'll play a part in your experience whether you like it or not. Even the towns and cities have been skilfully designed and are bustling with citizens carrying out seemingly significant activities everyday. I want to be able to tell you there are glaring faults here, I want to be able to tell you this isn't the greatest interactive environment i've seen but I can't. If you have a problem with the domains of Skyrim, it's a subjective problem. You might argue the creatures and architecture are too close to Earthen reality to create the attractive charm needed within a fantasy game but most will disagree. It's a virtual world a gamer can get lost in.

Combat
Somewhat of an Achilles' heel for Bethesda previously, has been the clumsy combat system as featured in both Fallout 3 and Oblivion. It's no surprise that it has come under intense scrutiny this time round. Clearly in this sense there have been drastic improvements. The combat, though not as slick or coordinated as a game like Assasin's creed, is now far more engaging. Almost self-consciously, the 3rd person animations have been honed to perfection. And now character models swing and are swung at with gritty realism, blood effects and a far more emphasised recoil. Improvement is not perfection though and if you really struggled to come to terms with the washy movement controls and health bars of Oblivion, you might have to think twice with this year's instalment. But the non-linear fighting system also works as an advantage; there is a sense of liberation to be gained from the unscripted nature of the combat, unlike with most blockbuster titles, the animations do not run in concordance with your opponent so in a strange way it can be more realistic, every fight is different. There's certainly no doubting that as you level up, it's incredibly satisfying to see the spoils of your labour acted out on the battlefield.

Inhabitants
Even the most lush and colourful environments are desolate playing fields without inhabitants to fill them. Let us, for a moment, pretend that Oblivion was nothing more than a taste of things to come. There were aspects of Skyrim's predecessor, which seemed to capture the imagination of it's players. Namely, the interactive quest experiences in which you would develop relationships with the in-game characters. The 'dark brotherhood' are a name to boot, most successful because of the intense levels of drama within their story lines and relationships, displaying rare levels of depth for a videogame at the time. Now Skyrim is the development of that, with the help of a dozen actors and a hardworking team of scriptwriters there are an uncountable amount of distractions and stories to enjoy. It can be as simple as approaching someone on the street, to sparing a coin for an Inn's bard but the sequences in which new relationships are created are incredibly natural and often quite exciting. The amount of dialogue is staggering and the potential consequences of your conversations can be anything from the creation of a feud to marriage. Quests are everywhere, players are skilfully led from one to another and will probably find a lot of enjoyment in the number of cults and guilds. Less so perhaps, from the main storyline. What should be the most rewarding and indulgent of Skyrim's paths happens to be a short and as a result unfulfilling experience. Perhaps this is owing to the quality of what was included, you're left with a slightly disappointing sense of anti-climax when you realise the mission is over. Strangely, this hardly detracts from the experience at all, as the game is so big that any one of the other large stories compensate for it.

Generally you'll find that humanoids are the most recurrent of NPCs but players will discover soon enough they are among the more boring of Skyrim's creatures. It's difficult at times to ride from one location to another without spotting a dragon of some breed attacking a helpless camp or to flee in panic as a bear emerges from behind a rock. To begin with, you are the prey and it's not until you have gained in power that you can truly engage with the wildlife as a predator.

Dragons are worth mentioning for their significance in all aspects of the game. Everywhere you go there is evidence of their existence, passing guards will moan about their straw huts being decimated or giants will be seen fleeing across fields in an attempt to save their mammoth herds. Not to mention the role you as the 'dragonborn' have in their existence. Spoiler alert, it's your job to kill them. The creatures are ferocious, they've been masterfully programmed, almost like birds they'll glide around swooping in to pick off enemies like worms and then if you're lucky enough to bring one down to earth there's the matter of their firebreath or snapping jaws to deal with. It's clear that dragons were a favourite game aspect for the developers and they stand tall as a highlight within the game.

Sound

It makes my dragonblood boil when good soundtrack or voice acting is forgotten amongst a game's success. Partly what makes Skyrim such a captivating experience is the remarkable use of audio throughout. The peaceful, often catchy melodies that play as you ride through villages and mountaintops are very reminiscent of the first elder scrolls game and the thunderous main theme, which was a great selling point is used sparingly and to great effect. It's moralising as you battle a dragon to hear the soundtrack bellowing out and what it essentially creates is a sense of epicness that frankly, most games lack. It's not only the music but the much improved voice acting, which makes the game so appealing at first. Although most will agree that after a certain amount of time, players will tire of the same accents and actors.

Negatives

I feel a particularly strong urge to pour all my malice into this paragraph, as despite the game having many great assets, here there are also colossal negatives to match. Let us start with the worst of them, being the glitches. Yes, the glitches and bugs are so numerous that every single player without fail will be gritting in frustration as they watch hours of gameplay slip through their fingers. At times, quests, including the main ones are blocked from completion due to curious technissues such as NPCs changing race or profession. You'll find yourself stuck at times, or riding through mountains, running on thin air, replaying entire sessions in order to progress and the list goes on and on. What must be appreciated is that a game this big will never be exempt from bugs and such but if money had been allocated into fixing them in time for release, the levels of angry backlash that are threatening to crash the internet could have been avoided. This problem alone is going to detract from every player's opinion and it is often just short of soul-destroying to see your hard labour and progress hindered by something that is in no way your fault.

You can't help but feel that the auto-save feature could be used to much greater effect. It's typical within a dungeon to fight to the end only for a final boss to send you back to the last save point; the beginning of the dungeon. The save functions are entirely at the disposal of players, so it is partly your own responsibility to make sure this doesn't happen. Still, when you're deeply engaged and concentrating on the game it can be difficult to avert your attention, or remember.

Verdict

Despite it's drawbacks, if you're lucky enough to have a bug-lacking experience, this game will impregnate your real life and slowly devour it from the inside. You can't help but feel given the immeasurable size and beauty of it all, we could look back on Skyrim as an all time great.

A year's worth of food rations - check

Portaloo - check

Hydration drip - check

You're ready for the new world.

9.7/10

(Super) Scribblenauts review

It was only fair that we should provide alternatives to the overly publicised mainstream titles (not pointing fingers... Infinity ward) and 'Super Scribblenauts' is exactly that.

5th cell had an idea; it was 2007 when the small company had gathered the support from 'WB. Interactive' to develop what would ultimately become one of the more highly anticipated of handheld games. Scribblenauts. So let me explain why it's here. The general principle here is that you can create anything, you're given a writing pad and on it whatever you write will come to life. Each of these objects being interactive and therefore interactive with each other. Daunting? Yes. Impossible? No. At the time of it's revealing, the gaming world was in awe. And now almost five years later we're playing a sequel. The only question now, was this ingenious idea well executed?

Scribblenauts 1 was a tantalising prospect. From the various trailers and demonstrations we saw dragons fighting robots and rode unicorns through space, it appeared every bit as joyously unrestricted as we'd hoped. When the game hit the shelves however, there seemed to be an air of slight disappointment. A few rookie errors, such as the wrong mapping of controls, boring level design and replication of models seemed to steal from what should have been the handheld title of the year. The sequel, Super Scribblenauts is very much a stitch up job and designed to be everything that Scribblenauts the original, wasn't.

Why was this not the first game? I'm so glad you asked, because three hours of playing and i'm hooked. If like me, semi-colons excite you, then you'll excel in creating imaginative and sometimes worrying fantasies. Even with that said it really is an all-rounder, the game for once does appeal to all ages and is about family-friendly enough to be a worthy christmas present for 7 year olds and 70 year olds alike. The idea is to collect starites, which are effectively your character 'Maxwell's' crack cocaine. In order to collect these, you must use your imagination and combine it with the scribblepad in order to uncover the solution. The standard example is that the crack, your starite, is stuck in a tree. In response to this you could create a hatchet and cut it down or if you were more imaginative you might create a beaver in the hopes he would eat the tree... eventually. The possibilities are endless, but as long as Maxwell gets his fix, you unlock more content.

So where the first game faltered, the second one is masterful. With the inclusion of adjectives, many more objects and models and a charming new interface full with new nintendo-esque music it's finally the full package. Even with that said, the single player can sometimes be lacking in addictive value, which is important for a handheld title and the hundreds of glitches throughout especially during the 3rd and 4th level sets are infuriating. It's not going to take from you as much time as Pokémon would for example. At a glance though, it really is mesmerising and worth owning if you don't have the first. Such an innovative idea should really be appreciated, especially when, despite the shakiness of the campaign, it is at times absurd fun. Ultimately, the game could still use some further expansion but is enough of an improvement on it's predecessor to be hailed a success.

Is it worth buying? If you don't own the first one, certainly yes but if you're shopping for the sequel, I wouldn't bother.

7.6/10