Splinter Cell: Conviction Demo Hands-On

Sam Fisher's much anticipated return to kicking ass and taking names, all while cloaked in shadow, is close at hand. On March 13th, just 3 weeks away, you will be able to take control of this super agent and dive head first into the fray. Until then, the demo will give you a taste of things to come. This has been my top anticipated title of the year so I am really taking a close at this game and dissecting every piece that I can. So without further adieu here are my impressions of the demo.

It's pretty apparent from the onset that this demo is just a sliver of the full game. A short cut-scene prior to gaining control of Fisher is really unnecessary in my opinion, but this is because it's a demo and the gameplay here is the main draw for me. After a brief glimpse of the controller layout I am in control of my old digital friend again. A short tutorial tells you what button to press to move into cover, perform a hand-to-hand kill, and then mark and execute. In less than a minute I had taken out 3 guards with ease. Now, my first reaction to the cover mechanic was "Cool." I could move between areas of cover while relatively close to a guard. However, as I kept doing this I wanted to test a few things. I found out that timing was everything. While staying hidden is pretty easy when ample cover is available, guards are not stupid and motionless. They move their heads, and change their field of vision all the time. If I watched closely, I could slip by a guard whose stationary but looking the other way. If timed wrong, I was detected immediately and fired upon. This held true throughout the demo level. Some areas of the level don't provide the best cover, and when guards are walking about and looking in all directions, you have to start using your other skills. Which brings me to the mark and execute feature.

First off, you can't just mark and execute baddies willy nilly. You have to earn this perk. Take a guard out sneakily with a hand-to-hand move and you will earn some stripes. It's completely bad ass to watch Sam in action when you pull off some of these moves. It's important to note that the system is dynamic without being overpowered. For instance you only get 3 marks with your pistol and 2 with the MP5 or shotgun. Plus it's too easy for guards to go out of range right before you hit the execute button and since there are more than 2 or 3 guards in the vicinity, you won't always be able to clear the room in sequence. Which is great, because it makes you think in a more tactical way. There is so much variation here, that I literally played through the demo 10 + times and never once had the same exact experience. Not only that, when guards get alerted to your presence you have 1 second to take them out before their buddies take notice and come after you, and they WILL continue to look for you even if you disappear from sight. This portion of the AI is pretty impressive, because even if the guards know what area you are in some of them won't run right in to your crosshairs like mindless zombies, instead they will take cover and wait for you out of sight. If you get to impatient and go looking for them, you can get owned real quick. An advantage that Sam has to augment this somewhat is the "Last Known Position" system. If you're detected by a guard and then you move quickly, a silhouette of Sam will appear in ghost-like fashion and give you the ability to flank while they stay fixated on your previous spot. Nonetheless this doesn't last long before they start looking elsewhere.

So to sum up, I really like the demo. The guns and aiming system are solid, the controls are responsive, I dig the clever mission objectives displayed on in-game objects and walls, Sam moves and feels right during combat and stealth movement, the gadgets are really cool (especially the sonar goggles), and the replay is incredible for a demo. Some might think the game is too hard at first, and I admit I did too, but after a few trial runs I was thinking more about how differently to achieve my goal, rather than just sulking in defeat. I'm hooked on this one already and can't wait to try the full game, co-op, and deniable ops and then do it all over again. Get ready people, Sam Fisher is back.

Just Cause 2 Preview

How was the demo of Just Cause 2? In short, A BLAST! As the picture to the left indicates, explosions are a big part of Just Cause 2. Let me rephrase that, MULTIPLE explosions are a big part of JC 2. I am happy I gave this one a try. The description said I would have hundreds of weapons, 400 square miles of terrain and a parachute so hitting the download button was a reaction more than a thought. The demo weighs in around 1 gigabyte and gives you a 30 minute timer to do as much damage as you can. The first time I loaded it up I started to get that sinking feeling that this was going to be a flop because the cutscenes were so cheesy and overdone. Your character's callsign is Scorpio and the lady talking to you has a terrible accent. Seriously, do yourself a favor and blink while it plays out. After my introduction I was dropped onto a mountain island with a pistol in hand. The object of the game is to cause as much chaos as you can by destroying government property. Simple. The demo immediately introduces you to the explosions. I began shooting everything with a red star painted on it and I was impressed with the physics engine as oxygen bottles were shot up they would take off and explode a few moments later. I soon picked up a SMG and some frag grenades, but that was nothing compared to what I learned next. Scorpio has a grappling hook that shoots out of his left arm, Bionic Commando style, and can be used in interesting ways. For instance, you can quickly traverse the terrain by just shooting your hook in front of you and letting it reel you in. The best part, it latches on to everything, even helicopters and people! More on that later.

So after a short intro to controls and what not, the demo timer started and I had 30 minutes to see what I could do. This is when I realized just how big this game is. I was on a mountain side and when peering over the edge I saw everything below was tiny and a bit blurry. So at the direction of the woman's voice I opened my map/info screen by hitting select on the controller. The map was huge! There are a number of points on the map that indicate settlements or unknown areas for you to explore. So I set a waypoint and made my way up the mountain. 20 minutes later I had come across a government relay station, shot a bunch of commandos, and was about to blow up the whole place when I got my first 'Whoa' moment.

The grappling hook I had was largely unused up to this point. I did whip a few guys with it and pulled one foe off a roof, but when the mini-gun toting helicopter started laying into me I aimed, fired (LB button), and quickly found myself dangling from the bottom of the chopper. I swung my character around onto the nose of the bird and shot the passenger. Then I was greeted with an icon to hit Y to enter. Oh yes. I threw the pilot out and got behind the stick. The controls for the chopper were almost a replica of the controls in GTA IV. Quickly I began to line up the scattering baddies on the ground when out of nowhere I was being shot down by another chopper that flew in. I started to go down, but again an icon on the screen to hit A for parachute caught my eye. In short order I was free falling towards the ground when I hit A again to deploy my chute. Lazily I floated off the side of the mountain, but strangely I wasn't being greeted with a 'Return to area!' prompt. Instead, I just kind of went where the wind took me. I came across a highway, I stole a car after landing on the roof James Bond style, I drove to another spot on my map, and did the same kind of thing as before but my timer ran out before I could really make any progress.

My appetite was wet now, so a second romp through the island gave me a nice preview of things to come when this game hits the streets March 23rd. In short, I was able to commandeer a tank of sorts and cause massive damage to a military installation with its cannon and machine guns. All in all, the game was a lot of fun and reminded me heavily of Mercenaries, GTA IV, and a few other action games out there. The developers did a fine job of crafting a fun game with really no limitations on what you can do. I ran over trees in my tank, drove off of cliffs, skydived, blew up a bunch of shit, and got rewarded for doing so. But while the game is certainly fun, its only 1 player and it loses some points with me there. The camera can get a bit crazy to the point of nausea-inducing and the controls aren't always responsive, but those are minor complaints. Two things set JC 2 apart from other action titles, the grappling hook and the re-usable parachute. This and the massive scope of the game makes for tons of fun for a long while. If you haven't played any of the games this one gets its inspiration from, you will be blown away by Just Cause 2, if you have played Mercs, GTA, and the like then this will be a great addition to your library.

Till next time!

Game Zombie News

Ok zombies. I missed posting yesterday for the first time since I started this blog. Which is why I invited some friends to post here on Game Zombie but I got dissed. On with the post!

Cool Stuff
Ghost Recon Future Soldier Wallpaper
Modern Warfare 2 Mythbusters release another video


Game News
NHL 2K11 is a Wii only exclusive this year
Halo Reach Multiplayer Trailer Revealed

Awesome new Splinter Cell Multiplayer trailer. (drool inducing) Open in browser to view.

IGN gives five reasons why they are excited about Project Natal.
Gamespot is giving away 50,000 multiplayer beta keys for upcoming racer Blur. (I got mine!)
Sony's big announcement? SOCOM 4 is coming to PS3
Crysis 2 screenshots are looking so good your screen might melt. Can you say upgrade?
Just Cause 2 Demo was released for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC (via Steam). (Look for my preview)
Modern Warfare 2 Map Pack sneak peak? Dtoid boys sure think so.

Other News
Ex-Infinity Ward employees sue Activision over, you guessed it, money.

Just for Zombies
Werewolf Ninja game with a cool name! Vox Populi, Vox Dei. It's gotta be cool! It is. Try it.

Closing Comments
Well I have begged and I have pleaded but obtaining a PS3 so I can play God of War III is just looking like a bleak mission with no chance of success. *snif* At least I can look forward to playing some other games, but the reviews, videos, and screenshots of GOW3 are going to be hard to resist and will therefore make my plight that much worse to bear. So comment people! At least make this blog seem interesting enough for a comment so that my spirits may be lifted. Thanks!

Battledfield Bad Company 2 Demo Hands-On

Developer DICE is probably one of my favorite game developers over the few years. Their Battlefield series has been highly regarded by gamers and their release of Battlefield 1943 for Xbox Live Arcade was a stellar addition to the downloadable games arena. Prior to that, and out of left field, they released Mirrors Edge which, in my opinion, was completely under-rated by the critics.

After that pleasant build up of good mojo I will now give you my impressions on the multiplayer demo currently available. First and foremost and what I noticed was the way the color schemes mute the intensity level. You might be scratching your head at that last comment, but from the game menus to the trees and the vehicles I noticed the contrast level immediately changed my mood from hyped-up to calm and collected. The effect continued as I chose the Recon class and was placed on the battlefield. Right away the Port Valdez map seemed to swallow the screen. It just seemed massive. Thankfully vehicles are still a mainstay in Battlefield. A few of my teammates jumped into an Apache helicopter and took off while I scoped the landscape and tried to get my bearings. From what I could tell we were on defense while the opposing team was attacking. 3 control points were easily identified as A, B, and C with the objective being to keep the enemy from setting demolition charges and blowing up the control point. This is different than past BF games where simply holding the point for a period of time garnered your team some points. Now the game has changed to make defending a control point critical. As I ran around the map the controller layout was simple and soon I had sniped my first enemy, changed to my pistol and shot another. The match lasted a while and the enemy team repeatedly attempted to drive a tank into our base. We lost one of the control points, but held on to the others. In round 2 my team was on the offensive and as I parachuted into the landing zone I saw a few vehicles waiting for our use. The ATV caught my eye first and I sped down the hill towards the enemy base. I died attempting to infiltrate a control point but on my next respawn I was the gunner on the tank and we mopped up for awhile before being blown up. When the match ended my team won and as is typical of multiplayer games these days, I was presented with XP that went towards a progression level similar to Halo or COD. All in all the experience was solid and played in classic Battlefield fashion with some new twists. I later learned that the game type I played was called Rush. Basically the Russians are attacking the Port defended by the Americans and their are 3 areas with control points. Once an area is overrun the attackers move to the next set of points. All of the action is regulated by a certain amount of respawn tickets assigned to each team. If your team runs out of tickets, game over.

Battlefield Bad Company 2 gamer reactions have been a mixed bag. What I found interesting is that a lot of people thought the game was just 'ok'. I have to say that the demo is just that, a demo. It's a preview of the final product. As demos go, I would say download it and give it a shot. No one brings you massive battles on great maps quite like the boys at DICE do. I'm going to reserve my final verdict on this until the game releases and I get a crack at the full monty.

Aliens vs. Predator Demo is Boring

I decided to try out the AvP multiplayer demo yesterday, and honestly I was bored with it after 10 minutes. It's missing something I can't quite put my finger on. I tried playing a few matches as a Predator and as an Alien. Truthfully I didn't even try the marine because, lets face it, the AvP theme here is the draw not the puny humans. The predator starts with his claws and nothing else. I got pummeled by alien players and shot up by marine players a number of times before I finally gave up on finding a shoulder cannon some where. I did like the different vision modes the predator had and the cloaking feature was ok. In the end though, I just couldn't get into his abilities. Alien on the other hand was decent fun. They can run super fast in short bursts, and the ability to climb walls is wicked if not nausea inducing. The alien attacks were simple, light and heavy, and if you got close enough you could grab the other players and perform an instant death move. Overall I just couldn't get into the multiplayer. It all just felt really drab and lacked the oomph I was hoping for. I hope the singleplayer mode is much better than this. I know its just a demo, but the release is a month away and so far its multiplayer features are lacking. Its a shame because the AvP franchise really deserves a solid game.

Battlefield Bad Company 2 Demo: 2 Million People Can't Be Wrong

EA is reporting that over 2 million downloads of the Battlefield Bad Company 2 multi-player demo have gone across Xbox Live and PSN in the 5 days it has been available. That's pretty impressive. A number of MW2 fans are also Battlefield fans. I might download the demo and give it a whirl but honestly my zombie brain can only digest so much. Between MW2, Splinter Cell, and Ghost Recon this year I might just eat my controller. On top of that Activision just had their annual meeting and staying true to their formula announced another Call of Duty game this year by Treyarch (World at War)! So is anyone out there playing the demo for Battlefield? What do you think?