What I've been playing

Well, this week has been great for gaming. Just Cause 2 demo, Battlefield Bad Company 2 release, and the announcement of Portal 2. Excellent stuff.

The Just Cause 2 demo is a blast (pun definitely intended), Ive played for at least three hours already according to Steam and it is really good, hectic, crazy fun. You start off at the Reapers base, after a really cheesy cutscene with some really cheesy voice acting. First thing everyone must do is to get out your pistol, shoot a gas canister, grapple on to the top of it, and rocket it into the sky (making sure to jump of before it explodes). Free-falling in this game is a wonderful experience, you really get that immense sense of speed as you plummet through the sky and the whole island surrounds you in a quite astonishing vista.

Making sure to pull your parachute out before you hit the ground (and ragdoll in an unrealistic yet humorous fashion), you start slowly gliding over building, roads and cars. The real fun in this is that you can use the wonder that is your grapple hook to keep you floating  by grappling any object and reeling your self in to pick up speed and thus stay airborne. It's a great way to travel around  the map and beats walking or running.

Let's talk more about this grapple hook. Pressing F once and pointing at an object in the environment will propel you straight towards that object. Pressing F while pointing at an NPC will pull them towards you, and will at most times result in the phrase, "AHH, HE'S GOT ME WITH HIS WIRE THIING!!", which is downright hilarious. Now holding down F and pointing at something or someone offers some interesting mechanics. You can basically tether two things together with your hook. Tethering an enemy soldier to a car and then driving off is a classic example. This lends it self to some funny and interesting game mechanics.

Now as far presentation goes, they really delivered on this one, every thing is so vibrant and colourful. You really get the sense that this is a real island. This is especially evident when you're free-falling. I can't explain it, it's just something you have to witness to really appreciate. Eyefinity also helps make the experience 10 times better.

Well, in summary Just Cause 2 really feels like a buy for me. There just seems like so much to do, and so much to blow up as well.

Bad Company 2 is a great game. Not for its singleplayer of course, that was very mediocre, but for its multiplayer. Before I go on to say how much I love the Mutlitplayer for this game I want to talk a bit about how "meh" the singleplayer was. It started out alright, you're placed in WW2 on a secret mission to find some secret weapon that does a lot of damage etc. The usual stuff. At the end of the mission you die (akin to Call of Duty 4), then you're placed in Preston Marlowes' shoes once again. On a mission to find this secret weapon yadda yadda.

It's really quite boring, unoriginal, short and all those other degrading words. I plowed through it in what seems to be about 5 or 6 hours. The only redeeming feature being the Bad Company crew. They're all back from the original and they still make me chuckle here and there but the scenario they're placed in just doest... fit, for lack of a better word. In fact, I enjoyed the singleplayer of the first Bad Company so much more. It suited their personalities, they're all a bunch of army rejects who stumbled across some gold and they tried to find more, like the rag-tag group of soldiers they are. They're not hero's and they were never meant to be, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.

But anyway, moving on from that, the multiplayer is where it really shines. And the variation in maps is just brilliant, each having their own unique atmosphere and tone. There's the desert map, the snowy map, the forest map etc. Each with their own unique visuals. One thing I thought was really neat was the sandstorms on a desert map I was playing on. It sweeps in and out obscuring the battlefield, making it harder for you to find your target or offering some temporary natural smoke bomb. Great stuff.

All the multiplayer modes from the first one have returned, being only two that's hardly a surprise. Still doesn't stop it from being fun. There are slight variations such as squad rush and squad deathmatch, I haven't had a chance to play them yet but I'm sure they're great as I just finished up a game of Conquest. Which was surprisingly fucking awesome.

Oh lord, look at me. I could go on forever. Bottom line, Bad Company 2 is excellent simply for its multiplayer, don't really bother with the singleplayer unless you want to chuckle a few times in 6 hours.

Portal was updated a few days ago, an achievement was added, things got crazy. Valve ingeniously implemented an ARG involving radios and Morse code into the update which the "internet" solved in a day or two. Nevertheless, it was great marketing and yesterday Portal 2 was officially announced. With co-op to boot. I feel this is going to be a great game, like the first one. There was also mention of it being full retail price, which could mean another game is included... Episode 3, is that you?

I can dream.

Well, long post is VERY long. Now I must go watch Alice In Wonderland. Toodledo