Call Of Duty - World at War

Call of Duty: World at War throws out the rulebook of war to transform WWII combat through a new enemy, new tactics and an uncensored experience of the climatic battles that gripped a generation. As U.S. Marines and Russian soldiers, players will employ new features like cooperative gameplay, and weapons such as the flamethrower in the most chaotic and cinematically intense experience to date.

General Features

• Call of Duty 4 Technology – Built using the Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare engine, Call of Duty: World at War utilizes a bedrock of technology that delivers jaw-dropping visuals, while empowering players to employ elements like fire to affect the dynamics of the battlefield. Players that attempt to harness the power of new weapons, like the flamethrower, will find themselves capable of burning away environmental elements that give cover to a camouflaged enemy, leaving a charred battlefield – and their foes – in their wake
• Coordinated Assault and Support – For the first time in the franchise, Call of Duty: World at War introduces co-op, bringing fresh meaning to the No One Fights Alone mantra. Call of Duty: World at War co-op features up to four-players online, or two-player local split-screen, allowing gamers to experience harrowing single-player missions together for greater camaraderie and tactical execution. The title also incorporates traditional multiplayer components such as challenges, rankings and online stats into the co-op campaign for deeper re-playability and advanced gameplay
• New Theaters of Operation – Players fight as U.S. Marines and Russian soldiers facing enemies – some new to the Call of Duty franchise – that employ lethal new tactics and know no fear, no mercy, nor the rules of war. Epic conflicts are fought on multiple fronts, playing through the climactic battles of WWII in the grittiest, most chaotic and cinematically intense experience to date
• Innovative Multiplayer – Multiplayer builds from the success of Call of Duty delivering a persistent online experience for more squad based interaction. New development with party systems allows an intimacy with squad based combat never before seen in Call of Duty. Combined infantry and vehicle missions add a new dimension to the online warfare and offers more PERK abilities
• Cinematic Quality Graphics and Sound – Treyarch's award-winning sound department returns with effects that add to the already immersive cinematic intensity of the Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare game engine

Genre: First-Person Shooter
Local Play: 2 Co-Op
Online Play: 4 Versus

Also Available On: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, Wii, Nintendo DS, Wireless
Release Date: November 11, 2008

Devil May Cry 4

Devil May Cry 4 Review

The PC version also happens to be the best.

Smashing demons with flashy, extended combo chains has been Devil May Cry's draw since the original came out on Sony's PlayStation 2 back in 2001. For any PC gamers out there, you probably haven't been following along since then. Devil May Cry 3 did come to the PC in 2006, but the game didn't exactly make a smooth transition to the platform. With Devil May Cry 4, which came out on PlayStaion 3 and Xbox 360 this past February, Capcom has done a much better job bringing the franchise's blistering action gameplay to PC with smooth graphical performance, a new difficulty setting, and a turbo mode to speed things up even more.

If you're totally unfamiliar with the series, here's how it works. The game's overall structure isn't all that complicated. You walk into a room, the exits are blocked, and enemies spawn in. Your job is to use all available offensive options to deplete their health bars and snag the orbs that drop once they're vanquished. The higher the difficulty setting, the more damage they can absorb. Stringing together combos without taking damage, completing levels quickly, and snagging as many orbs as possible increases your score at the end of a level, giving you more points with which to buy additional moves and combos.

To break up the standard grunt slaying is the occasional boss fight and some light platforming and puzzle sequences, and not all of these work as well as the standard DMC monster killing action. While the boss encounters are entertaining and can vary depending on difficulty setting, with a few you wind up fighting the same creature three times, and considering they're all behaving according to pre-set patterns, the experience loses its appeal rather quickly.

Nero's a great fighter, just not much of a character.

The puzzle sequences aren't all that complicated, but they are annoying in some cases (fountain maze, disappearing platform section, mist warping in the forest), preventing you for no good reason from engaging in the much more enjoyable combat. And considering the jumping isn't all that precise, some of the hopping sections are even more frustrating.

Those issues take a backseat to the gameplay, though, which works well whether you're playing as series staple Dante or newcomer Nero. Dante retains some of his fighting styles from DMC3, now able to swap between Trickster, Swordmaster, Royal Guard, and Gunslinger on the fly. He's a highly versatile character in this respect, capable of instantly adjusting to whatever types of enemies happen to be assaulting him, giving him better dodging, blocking, sword-swinging, or gun-related abilities. With a few new weapons, like Pandora that transforms into rocket launchers and flying missile platforms depending on when it's used, Dante's gameplay is never boring.

Nero plays quite a bit differently. Like Dante he brings swords and guns to battle, but his most unique feature is Devil Bringer, his glowing blue arm. With this thing he can snatch enemies from afar and perform powerful grab moves which differ depending on the enemy type. Standard scarecrow enemies are simply body-slammed but some, like the game's ice demons, are flung around and smashed into the ground several times, damaging others in the area and acting as a sort of impromptu shield.

Hope you like fighting this guy...

Another technique useful for Nero is his sword's charge-up ability, called the Exceed system. By hitting the right button just after a sword swing you can increase the sword's damage output, and with the correct power-up you can even max out the charge. So, theoretically, if you're good enough it's possible to have a fully charged Red Queen for nearly every swing. Good luck getting that timing down, though. It's not easy. If you really get in trouble, you can also activate Devil Trigger mode for added damage and a slow health regeneration effect.

Instead of Dante, Nero's the star of the show this time around. He gets wrapped up with the mysterious Order of the Sword, a religious group with suspect intentions, chases after his love, Kyrie, and battles demons for around the first half of the game. Then things transition over to Dante which, given how differently he plays, is a little jarring. Once you're no longer able to access the Devil Bringer's reach ability, you're going to have to readjust your combat tactics pretty significantly. To be forced into it right in the middle of the game is a little odd.

Crysis Warhead

Crysis Warhead Review

Crysis Warhead is the videogame equivalent of a summer action movie, and while it's more action-heavy than its highly acclaimed predecessor, it still retains its brains. Like Crysis, Warhead is a sandbox shooter that gives you large amounts of freedom as to how you approach each tactical situation. And there are plenty of tactical situations, because Warhead seems aimed at those who felt that Crysis was a bit too slow-paced and cerebral at times. But while it doesn't quite match the over-the-top insanity of a Call of Duty game, Warhead does prove that Crytek can deliver an intense action game.

Warhead is a companion game to Crysis, with a story that runs concurrently to that in the first game. An alien artifact has been discovered on a tropical island, and after the United States and North Korea race to seize it, an alien invasion erupts, flash freezing the island and putting the world at risk. The difference is in perspective; you now get to play as British Sergeant Michael Sykes, aka Psycho, the blowhard from the first game. Warhead takes place on "the other side of the island" that Crysis takes place on. If you played that game you already know the beginning and the end, so what matters here is the journey.

The opening cinematic establishes the kind of character Psycho is, and the kind of game Warhead will be. With aplomb, he leaps off of cliffs into moving trucks, manhandles North Koreans, and generally sneers at danger. Warhead is a much more cinematic game than its predecessor, partly due to third-person cutscenes (they were totally absent in Crysis), but also because it feels like Crytek openly borrowed a page or two from director Michael Bay. This goes right down to the overwrought emotional scenes to the driving musical score full of Japanese takio drums and soaring movements.

Like Crysis, the heart of Warhead is its combination of sandbox gameplay with the nanosuit, the high-tech body armor that can give you superhuman strength or speed, or cloak you from detection. Used correctly, the nanosuit lets you basically be the alien Predator from the movies, and the open nature of the levels means that you can dictate the terms of the battle. It's a blast to hurl grenades at long range at a squad of bad guys, then use speed to close the distance, strength to pick up a survivor and hurl him into his buddies, and then to finish them off with a few rounds of rifle fire. You can cloak and sneak right up to your opponents, or have them follow you only to cloak and then change direction. It's all up to you. Combine that ad lib style of gameplay with the generally smart AI, and each play-through of Warhead can be completely different.

The grenade launcher is your new best friend. Seriously.

The emphasis is on large battles, whether you're assaulting a beach resort full of North Korean troops, barreling down a road in an APC and shooting up the villages you drive through, or defending a group of soldiers from alien assault. Crytek reduced the downtime between battles to a bare minimum; you're often no sooner out of a fight before stumbling into another one. And sometimes, you might even drag one fight into another. That happened quite a bit during the alien levels, when the aliens attacked me with numbers that forced me to engage in a running battle. I'd have one group chasing me only to stumble into another. And, yes, the alien battles in Warhead are a lot tougher than they are in Crysis. Gone are the short, linear sequences; now you're in the sandbox with the aliens, so it's a fast-paced cat-and-mouse game of shoot, move, and cover. The aliens dart around; they like to pelt you from a distance. There are also some new alien types, including a new shield alien that protects his buddies; you have to take him out first in a fight, which isn't easy.

You get some new toys; my favorite is the six-shot grenade launcher that provides some personal artillery, as well as a submachine gun and equipment like antitank mines. Still, for the most part, many of the weapons remain the same, though the lower difficulty levels now allow you to automatically pick up ammo by walking over it, which is more user friendly. And your most potent weapon remains your nanosuit; used smartly, you can survive just about any situation.

Bring your thermal underwear.

While shorter and slightly less epic than Crysis, Warhead still provides a fun ride. Crytek definitely learned some lessons and have applied them to Warhead. I also like how Crytek has a lot more fun with the frozen paradise that the island becomes once the aliens freeze it. There are definitely some memorable scenes, like when you're piloting a hovercraft and hitting jumps off of frozen waves. Or how the brittle, iced-over jungle shatters when the bullets fly in a firefight.