Nothing in the gaming world generates more fervour than a brand new Halo game. About 14 months in the making, Halo ODST (which stands for Orbital Drop Shock Trooper) has arrived to fill the gap between Halo 3 and the upcoming Halo: Reach.
Halo ODST is decent value for money as it includes a brand newcampaign for up to 4 players, Firefight mode – which is the Halo equivalent of Hoarde mode in Gears of War 2, the Halo 3 multiplayer maps including 3 new and exclusive maps, and exclusive access to the Halo: Reach multiplayer beta when it becomes available.
Forget about Master Chief, Halo ODST has nothing to do with the giant Spartans, you play as a generic character known as Rookie for the most part, but story narration takes place through a series of flashbacks. In these flashbacks you get to play as several team-mates as you piece the whole story together on the way to its inevitable conclusion. It’s a detour from the linear nature of the Halo series and a welcome one at that. Although even at the end of the campaign I found myself wondering about the significance of a couple of missions in the whole scheme of things.
I finished the solo campaign on normal in about 5 hours and I would expect to add another couple of hours on for Heroic difficulty playing alone. That’s short, but there’s excellent longevity in Firefight mode as you and up to 4 friends can battle wave upon wave of covenant forces.
Graphically the game much resembles Halo 3 although I thought the faces of the human characters looked a tad last generation at times. There’s a couple of very dark levels towards the end of the campaign too but overall the environments are bright, vivid and detailed in true Halo form.
Halo ODST breaks new ground for the series and if you’re a fan who’s waiting for the as yet unannounced release date (at least a year away) of Halo: Reach then this will keep you very happy until then.
It’s hard to believe that EA’s Madden NFL 2010 is the 5th Madden release on the Xbox 360. Each incarnation has built upon and improved on the previous. Madden 2009 made the series and the sport itself accessible to the masses – so how much room has the latest release got to move?
Scrolling through my list of played games on my Xbox 360 and the amount of Achievements I’ve got in each, last years Madden NFL 2009 is right up there in the top 5 due to its highly generous boosting of my Gamerscore. I think I’d probably played about 3 matches for about 200 easy points, and many more as time progressed.
So, because I’m a hoarder by nature and a self-admitted Achievement whore (especially when they’re easy), it was with great glee that I slipped the latest annual release of EA’s NFL simulation into my console.
The grin of anticipation was soon wiped off my face however. Wiped off my face by some smart-arse designer, sitting there in his ergonomic chair, chugging back Red Bulls and Doritos, who thought it would be a great joke to make even just one Achievement in Madden NFL 2010 an absolute nightmare to earn.
I played through my first game and lost, but that’s ok, surely I would hear that comforting, familiar sound of a bevy of Achievements coming my way. Nothing. That’s strange. Maybe I need to set all the options back to default and try again. Nothing. There has to be something wrong here. I set the game length to 7 minute quarters…nothing, nada, zero, a big fat bolo.
So, I decided to check through the list of Achievements to see if there was some bizarre requisite for picking them up. That’s when I discovered that most of them are team specific and/or player specific goals. ‘Use linebacker XXX of team XXX to make 15 quarterback sacks in one match (Normal difficulty, 5 minute quarters)’ is a typical (if slightly exaggerated) example.
You bastards!
Anyway, my achievement whore rant aside, Madden NFL 2010 is a sublime NFL experience with some very nice improvements over last years effort. The flashy presentation has a slightly more subdued feel to it – the opening cinematics focusing on the heart and dedication of the players and the idea that you don’t just watch NFL – you LIVE and BREATHE NFL Football. The in-game presentation has been streamlined and choosing the appropriate formations or more importantly understanding the formations so to make an informed decision seems easier due to the larger diagrams and scrolling selection method.
EA have gone out of their way to make this not only as close to playing as you can get, but also capture the essence of ‘gameday’ itself from the pre-match build up and half-time analysis to the after match round-up and statistics. If you’re playing the Franchise Mode then you get a great TV style show giving you a weekly rundown on how your team is doing – this is a fantastic inclusion that brings the realism home like never before.
Basic gameplay remains the same from previous years but there are a few excellent improvements to enhance the experience. While the character/player models are of the same excellent quality as always, there are significant new motion-captured animations which, while you might not notice them individually, all go into making the game more realistic as a whole. New to the series is the inclusion of gang tackles and fumble pile-ups just as you’d see in an actual game. Fumble the ball in a tackle and you can expect seven 150kg guys throwing themselves from a height on top of you – good luck with walking away from that! Yet another nice touch is the “chain guys” (I don’t know the official term, but this is as good as any) that run on the field and measure if a play comes too close to getting a first down.
Even if you’ve played previous Madden games, you should complete the Madden Test before venturing out on the field or online. This gives you a series of tasks to complete, both offensive and defensive, in a virtual arena and gives the game some idea as to where your skill level is at so it can adjust the AI accordingly. It will also use this ability setting to match you up with others at a similar skill level in the online environment. There’s no fun in going online and getting spanked by some American NFL fanatic with a scoreline that looks like an Indian cricket innings.
Another significant change in Madden NFL 2010, well at least I think it’s the game and not me that’s changed. I found Madden 2009 quite simple – even on normal difficulty and had regular three-figure scorelines in my favour. But after a couple of dozen games in Madden 2010, I’ve won about 3 matches, and even they were buzzer beaters.
Graphically, the game is generally superb. There’s amazing attention to detail from the playing field to the active crowd who hold up relevant banners and seem to have a never ending selection of random animations. However there are some significant glitches – none of which effect gameplay, but stick in the mind nonetheless. Things do tend to get a little crispy at times, definitely noticeable in the hair of some players. Modern LCD and Plasma TV’s seem to accentuate this at times – for those of you familiar with Adobe Photoshop, it’s akin to cranking up the unsharp masking on a picture. There’s some unfortunate but funny glitches too – as players on the sideline chat to coaches using phones that have mysteriously disappeared, leaving them talking and gesturing into their hand. It’s crazy to think that this wasn’t picked up by beta testers, but as mentioned it’s more humorous than anything.
At the end of the day, Madden NFL 2010 sees the peak of the series on this generation of consoles. The gameplay isn’t going to get any better. But the progression of the series is no doubt headed down the path of making the game feel as much like controlling a live game as possible. – and it might take a new generation of hardware to realise this dream.
Pros: About as good as it’s going to get this generation. Captures the realism like never before with TV show styled game and franchise summaries.
Cons: More accessible through user-friendly in-game menus, but the ramped up difficulty wreaks of contradiction.
You have no idea how hard it is to write a review of a cricket game without applying a heavy layer of groan-worthy double-entendres and busting out 12th Man or Richie Benaud quotes by the dozen.
There have been a number of cricket simulations throughout the years, most of them fiddly and awkward affairs that relied on the gamer having a fairly solid knowledge of the game, the rules and the unique terminology surrounding it.
Brian Lara Cricket was probably the most accessible and therefore successful game but Transmission’s Ashes Cricket 2009 changes the playing field altogether with a simple and well thought out control method that feels perfectly natural to apply.
Ashes 2009 includes all the official rosters for the current English and Australian cricket sides as well as other national teams such as the Black Caps and Proteas which are available and playable in non-Ashes modes of play. While the players are all present in name, their likenesses certainly leave a lot to be desired. I recognised Ricky Ponting, just, but to be honest he looked like some generic gaming character who had killed Ricky, eaten him and decided to wear his face as a meat mask.
When I chose the Black Caps, I had absolutely no idea who the player representing them was – he was wearing white, with a black cap, so I suppose that’s a start.
Let’s just say that if you’re looking for player likenesses as seen in EA’s FIFA or Madden then you’re going to be bitterly disappointed – and the character models in the crowd are even worse. But don’t let that put you off playing Ashes 2009 because you’d miss out on a really well made title in terms of gameplay.
As you would expect, it definitely pays to work your way through the tutorial before diving into a match.
Sir Ian “Beefy” Botham and Shane Warne talk you through the basic shots and why/when you should play them. Botham comes across as calm and patient in the tutorial, but Warne starts to get a little bitchy if you keep failing to complete the current task – which really does make you try harder just to stop him repeating himself and shut him up before he pulls out the lovely hair he’s had replaced strand by strand.
The tutorial will show you how to play front and back foot attacking and defensive shots which is as simple as pressing RB or RT, one of the face buttons to choose the shot type and the direction using the left stick. You briefly get to see where the bowler is placing the ball so you can choose the appropriate shot.
The bowling itself is just as simple; face buttons choose the type of delivery and pressing a shoulder button will allow for three different variations of that delivery. Initiating the delivery brings up your standard power/timing meter and pressing the face button in the sweet spot will obviously throw down the ideal bowl.
While all this is happening, the left stick guides the direction and length of the delivery. It sounds complicated when put into words but in practice it works seamlessly.
For the most part, fielding is all taken care of by the AI and you get a nice little picture-in-picture of the active fielder doing his thing. If you see there is a chance of a run-out then you can simply override the fielder and choose which end to throw to. Catching is a completely manual affair and extremely rewarding due to its high level of difficulty.
If a catch is on then the camera zooms in to the catching fielders perspective. Looking up at the ball, you will see it has a red halo around it which means there’s no chance of taking the catch. Wait a bit and the halo will turn orange, meaning there’s a chance of catching it and then on to green for what seems like a split second, which is the sweet spot for making the catch stick. Get it right and it’s a genuine fist-pumping experience.
Just as in the real game, success in both batting and bowling is based on your level of confidence as much as it is on skill. If a batsman misses a handful of balls or hits them straight to a fielder then his confidence level will drop and pressure will mount to start scoring runs often forcing a careless shot selection.
It’s the same with bowling, get hit for a few boundaries and finding the ideal line and length becomes harder. It’s accurate little intricacies such as this that makes a big difference.
Whether it’s a quick 5 Over match or a full Test Match, Ashes Cricket 2009 caters for you. As the name would suggest, you can even play every ball of every test match in the Ashes Series if you’ve got a bit of spare time on your hands.
You are able to ’simulate’ a number of overs at any time, which seems to calculate your progress on your average run-rate at the time of choosing to simulate. This negates earning trophies, achievements and unlockables though, so be warned.
There’s online play too, but to be honest I’ve struggled to find opponents even at peak traffic times.
There’s no denying that Ashes Cricket 2009 is the most comprehensive cricket sim on the market. It looks average at best but the core game mechanics have been pretty much nailed.
Pros: All the intricacies of the game are here, including psychological advantages, but they’re presented in an accessible manner where some other developers would have complicated things.
Cons: The overall style of the menus and pregame graphics are reminiscent of a 5 year old title. Online support and presentation is dull at best.
I knew nothing about Ninja Blade before it arrived on my desk, but judging a book by its cover/title I feared the worst. Years of substandard, carbon copy, hack & slash ninja games has made me more than a bit cynical about the genre. Ninja Blade does have some interesting points of difference however.
A parasitic alien invades Tokyo, turning people into all manner of freakish monsters hellbent on destroying the city. Ballistic weaponry is useless against them, so a team of Ninja are tasked with containing the spread of the parasite. You take control of one of these Ninja, Ken Ogawa.
Gameplay follows the slice-em-up nature of Ninja Gaiden interspersed with the quicktime events in the style of God of War. As you traverse the buildings and corridors, carving up minions, you will encounter enormous boss enemies. In these battles, you need to work out ther patterns of attack and complete timed button presses to perform spectacular attacks and finishing moves.
As frenetic as this action is, and it is non-stop, the novelty does wear off before long which makes Ninja Blade well worthy of at least a rental.
Battlefield 1943 is available only via download on Xbox Live, PlayStation Network and PC. As the industry takes a turn toward bigger and better downloadable digital content, EA’s Battlefield 1943 proves that downloadable games are more than just a quick fix of dumbed-down gameplay.
This online-only shooter caters for up to 24 players in typical Battlefield squad-based action. There is no single player mode, which means you either play with friends or with strangers online. Whether it be tackling the enemy head on, sneaking around the flanks, or driving one of the many vehicles which include Jeeps, tanks, boats and even planes, there’s something here for everyone.
Graphically there is the odd glitch, but nothing that detracts from the actual enjoyment of the game itself. The 3 maps are taken straight from Battlefield 1942 and both them and the Battlefield gameplay formula are still great fun despite being around 7 years old.
Atonly 1200 MS Points to download, Battlefield 1943 is the best value for money you’ll come across this year.
For those of you who have played the excellent Wario Ware on the DS, Rhythm Heaven is going to slide right on like a well worn glove. It’s weird, quirky, simple yet challenging, incredibly addictive and downright brilliant.
Played using the touchscreen and stylus, Rhythm Heaven only uses two simple actions to control everything in the game – a tap or a flick of the stylus in time to the accompanying music. Games are in the form of mini-games that tier up in difficulty to a ‘remix’ level before moving on to the next set of challenges. These can require actions such as playing table tennis, keeping up a soccer ball, taking photos of racing cars or slicing vegetables as a ninja dog. As the name suggests, you do all this in rhythm to the equally quirky music.
Games like Rhythm Heaven really make the most of what the DS has to offer. Forget the awkward, cut-down and compromised ports from the larger consoles, it’s original and addictive games like this where the DS proves its worth.
In the words of Bob Dylan – “The times they are a changing”, and that rings true for the gaming industry too. Shadow Complex marks a milestone in the calibre of game available as a 1200 point download only on Xbox Live Arcade.
This 2D side-scrolling adventure/shooter is an enormous game that will require many hours of exploration if you want to see everything there is to see. Even from the very first level you will come across blocked-off areas that, while you might not need to visit them to finish the story, you’ll want to come back and see what they reveal when you earn the weapons necessary to open them up.
Shadow Complex looks incredible as it zooms in and out of 2D action and 3D cut-scenes seamlessly especially when you sneak up on unsuspecting enemies and dispatch them in various hand to hand combat moves.
If this is the future of affordable gaming then the future of gaming is in very good hands. Shadow Complex is a shoe-in for XBLA game of the year.
From Harmonix, Electronic Arts and in close association with the one and only Apple Corps comes what is possibly the greatest Beatles collection ever. It’s not the most comprehensive collection, but in Beatles Rockband you can play along to over 33 original master recordings with more available to download.
The game is presented fantastically and the visuals are faithful to the Beatles in every stage of their whirlwind careers.As you do well in the game you earn historic photos of the Fab Four and unlock actual venues, starting with the Cavern Club and progressing to such notable venues such as Shea Stadium and Abbey Road.
It goes without saying that The Beatles Rockband requires a set of Rockband instruments to play and any will suffice, including Guitar Hero guitars. But if you want to really get into the swing of things then special The Beatles Rockband packs are available too.
Title: Halo ODST
