jVolks.com » first person shooter

Rainbow Six: Vegas 2

Jonathan Volks — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 02:26:21 +0000

Jon’s Initial Review: I haven’t played a Rainbow Six game since Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear. A lot has changed since those days. Not just the graphics and AI, but the feel of a first person shooter has changed. What I noticed most about the advancement of Rainbow Six series was how more real it has become. When running you feel like your actually running, with heavy breathing and gun movement. When shot the screen blurs just enough where you feel stunned and something really happened to you. The realism is pretty intense.

I’m finding the story a little difficult to follow, perhaps its because I’ll play for a few hours and then come back to it a week later so I forget who the different characters are and who I’m hunting. But the customization of your character is extremely detailed. With advancement you can gain new body armor, new weapons and new clothing. Its not just a choice between 4 or 5 pieces, there is a lot to choose from. More Review to come after I beat the game.

Information Below Provided By EBGames.com

Publisher: UbiSoft
Developer: UbiSoft
Platform: PC
Category: Action, Shooter, Tactical
Rating: Mature 17+; Blood, Intense Violence, Strong Language

The Story: Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 – the sequel to the award-winning next-generation first-person shooter – returns to Sin City. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is your last chance to rescue America’s sexiest city from an escalating terrorist siege that will force you into heart-pounding action from beginning to end. The best are back and this time winner takes all.

Points of Interest:

Ubisoft Montreal Returns – Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is back in the hands of Ubisoft’s Montreal studio, creators of the award-winning and highly acclaimed Rainbow Six Vegas, to ensure that ending to the Vegas story is one you’ll never forget.
More Vegas – Sin City is back and bigger than before. Explore all new Vegas hot spots as the environment changes from dusk to bright daylight to dawn, creating a visual experience that is as challenging as it is breathtaking.
More Multiplayer – The highly acclaimed multiplayer mode in Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas has been upgraded to include 11 new, smaller maps that force more intense face-offs, 2 new adversarial modes, more rewards, and easier access to matches using the improved and intuitive matchmaking system.
Unprecedented Customizable Experience – Create your own identity that stays the same in both single player and multiplayer modes and progresses as you do. Reap the benefits of your single player rewards in multiplayer and vice versa.
Vastly Improved Co-op mode – Turn single player mode into co-op mode at any time, just by jumping into the game. Now your friend can jump into your single player game and help you without any change to the story. Single player maps and storyline were created with co-op in mind, which means every map has multiple entry points and the story is the same.
Improved AI – AI is more challenging than ever. Now, the terrorists are equipped with thermal vision, night vision, and shields – not to mention a multitude of varying reactions – all of which are guaranteed to give you a new playing experience every time you go into battle. As you progress within the game, you’ll only be able to outsmart your enemies by taking advantage of intel opportunities, such as thermal scanning, and tactical strategies, such as leapfrogging.
New Weapons and Armor – Take down the terrorists more effectively using 11 new weapons. New camouflage, clothing and gear allow you to take customization to the next level.

Minimum System Requirements:

Disk Drive :		4x DVD-ROM

DirectX :		9.0c

Hard Drive Space :		7 GB

Operating System :		Windows Vista / Windows XP

Processor :		3 GHz Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon 3000

RAM :		1 GB

Video Card :		128 MB DirectX 9.0c-compliant, Shader 3.0-enabled video card (NVIDIA GeForce 6600+ / ATI Radeon x1300+)

Crysis: Warhead

Jonathan Volks — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 02:22:02 +0000

Jon’s Initial Review: I bought this game only a couple of days after I completed Crysis. I’ve only been playing for a couple days and it plays a lot like the original. I like the new vehicles and the twin submachine guns which adds for an additional fun. The story is pretty good, except I am a bit confused on where I am in the story compared to where Nomad was in the original Crysis. The multiplayer is fun also. I haven’t played a ton with the multiplayer but enough to see that I enjoy it. I’m getting owned a lot but thats expected. I’ll post a more detailed review once I finish.

Information Below Provided By EBGames.com

Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: Electronic Arts
Platform: PC
Category: Shooter
Rating: Mature 17+; Blood, Strong Language, Violence

The Story: Action on the other side of the island is more intense, the battles are fierce, and the mission protocol is no longer “Adapt to Survive”. As Sergeant Sykes, now you must adapt to dominate the battle. Twin SMG’s blazing, seizing new vehicles, or going stealth, the action and the victory is on your terms.

Points of Interest:

Pulse-racing new installment from 2007’s PC Game of the Year*: Play as Sergeant Sykes and experience a whole new side of the battle. A standard combat mission behind enemy lines becomes critical when you discover your enemies have captured something of vital importance to the ensuing war. It’s down to you to retrieve the cargo, at any cost.
More explosive and dynamic minute to minute game play: new customizable weapons, new vehicles, new photorealistic locations to explore, and a fully interactive war zone to dominate.
Enhanced human and alien AI: Intelligent enemies, bigger challenges, and all-new ally squad support.
Includes Crysis Wars, an expanded new multiplayer experience with new online modes and 21 maps including seven all-new maps to battle it out against other players.
Crysis Warhead is a standalone release and does not require ownership of Crysis to play.

Minimum Specifications:
Disk Drive: DVD Rom Drive
DirectX: 9.0c
Hard Drive Space: 15 GB Free
Operating System: Windows XP/Vista
Processor: Pentium 4 @ 2.8 GHz or Equivalent
RAM: 1GB (1.5 GB on Vista)
Video Card: 256MB (nVidia GeForce 6800 GT)

Crysis

Jonathan Volks — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 22:29:28 +0000

Jon’s Final Review: I love this game. The best feature about it is that you decide how you want to attack an enemy stronghold or patrol. What I mean is when coming up on an enemy controlled roadblock, you decide if you want to stealth kill them, go in guns blazing or try to avoid them altogether. Personally, most of the time I went in guns blazing cause that’s how I am but sometimes I found it in my better interest to sneak around a roadblock.

The descision making also occurs on how you are going to get to your waypoint. Do I take the indirect route along the beach with less patrols or do I follow the roads and possible run into road blocks. The game doesn’t have complete openess as it trys to force you going some ways by putting cliffs and mountains in your way that you can not get around.

I prefer to play games mostly for their story. The story in Crysis revolves around a team of US Delta Force Operators infiltrating a North Korean controlled island in the South China Sea. The Delta Force Operators use special Nano suites which can increase their strength, speed, armor and even cloak. These features are very cool and add as an extra feature than other first person shooters. The story eventually turns into more Science Fiction when Aliens arrive. A cool part about that is when you fight the aliens in Zero G.

The graphics for Crysis are amazing except it takes a beast of a computer in order to play it. My former computer could not run it but my latest Gateway can with a Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT and 3GB of Ram. The audio quality is pretty good and the sync of the voice to the actors is pretty good as well. The physics in the game are excellent as well. Take a machine gun to a tree and the tree falls over where you shot it. You can also blow up a post holding up a roof and the roof will fall down toward the missing post.

Conclusion: If your computer can handle it then I highly suggest getting this game. The graphics are amazing and the story is engaging. I’ve recently just bought the “parallel” story called Crysis: Warhead and I am looking forward to playing it. Crysis 2 has been announced and I am looking forward to getting that as soon as it comes out and to continue the story.

Information Below Provided by EBGames.com

Publisher: Electronics Arts
Developer: Crytek Studios
Platform: PC
Category: Action, Shooter
Rating: Mature 17+; Blood, Strong Language, Violence

The Story: Earth, 2019. A team of US scientists makes a frightening discovery on an island in the South China Sea. All contact with the team is lost when the North Korean Government quickly seals off the area. The United States responds by dispatching an elite team of Delta Force Operators to recon the situation. As tension rises between the two nations, a massive alien ship reveals itself in the middle of the island. The ship generates an immense force sphere that freezes a vast portion of the island and drastically alters the global weather system. Now the US and North Korea must join forces to battle the alien menace. With hope rapidly fading, you must fight epic battles through tropical jungle, frozen landscapes, and finally into the heart of the alien ship itself for the ultimate Zero G showdown.

Points of Interest:

A unique three-act structure forces the player to use real-time armor and weapons customization to adapt constantly to an ever-changing world.

Encounter a frightening and totally original alien species—they use their senses intelligently and work together to present the most challenging enemy yet in an FPS.

Control of a variety of land, sea, and air vehicles including trucks, tanks, boats, and helicopters.

Explore a living, dynamic world where earthquakes, breaking ice, landslides, and tornados pose an ever-present threat.

32-player multiplayer with real-time armor and weapons customization, plus an all-new multiplayer mode that combines player modification and tactical objectives.

Emergent gameplay means that in-game actions affect future outcomes and give each player a unique experience.

Highly robust and easy-to-use mod toolset allows players to create their own expansive levels for both multiplayer and single-player modes.

The CryENGINE 2 engine delivers the most realistic environments, spectacular special effects, physics game engine, lighting system, and enemy Al.

Minimum Specifications:

Disk Drive: 8x or faster DVD Drive
DirectX: DirectX 9.0c/10 compatible
Hard Drive Space: 12.0 GB or more free space
Operating System: Windows XP with SP2 or Windows Vista
Processor: Intel P4 2.8 GHz or faster (3.2 GHz for Vista) / AMD Athlon 2800+ or faster (3200+ for Vista) / Intel Core 2.0 GHz or faster (2.2 GHz for Vista)
RAM: 1GB or more (1.5 GB for Vista)
Video Card: Video adapter must have 256 MB or more memory and one of the following chipsets: ATI Radeon 9800 Pro (ATI X800 Pro 256 MB for Vista); NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT 256 MB or greater Multiplayer requires 1 disc per PC and a broadband Internet connection.