May schedule plus new additions

Two new things for the blog plus what's in May

1. Nostliagaming- A look back a games of yesteryear

2. -Summer Reading list- A summer only event, a bi-monthly look at some of the worst, and best of graphic novels

May Schedule

Dead to Rights:- Retribution

Summer Reading list Wanted-5/7/10

Iron Man 2

Nostaliagaming: Stubbs the Zombie

Summer Reading list Kingdom Come- 5/21/10

Red Dead Redemption-

METRO 2033

Metro 2033 is a 2010 survival horror game based on the 2002 online (then in 2007 printed) novel of the same name by Russian writer Dmitry Glukhovsy. The game follows the setting of the novel by putting you in the boots of young “Artyom” in the post-apocalyptic subway tunnels of Moscow simply called the Metro. How people ended up in the Metro is never explained though through conversation and observation we are to assume nuclear war. Because of the war the whole city is unlivable not only because the air up there is toxic and all the usual stuff likes radiation, but monsters as well. However that doesn’t stop some people. So people have gone done into the tunnels of the Metro. But all is not safe in the tunnels as mutants frequently find their way down there; bandits frequent the tunnels killing anyone who crosses into their territory. Young Artyom’s quest begins with him trying to find a way to protect his home station from a new threat simply called the “Dark Ones”. You must then find a path through the Metro encountering many people, don’t worry about learning their names they either die or leave you soon enough. As well as you going outside and experience the nuclear wasteland that once was Moscow.

You begin with quite simple weapons, a makeshift submachine gun, a revolver, and a knife, but you can pick up more weapons along the way including a double barrel shotgun, a AK-47 clone, and a pressurized gas gun the fires arrows. You can only carry two main weapons as well as a sidearm, throwing knives, a knife, med kits, and pipe bombs. But you’ll really only need the AK clone, Automatic shotgun, and the revolver as the other weapons are too ineffective or ammo is too far and few between. You can also find Military Grade ammunition which is used as a currency in the Metro or as a more effective kick to your weapon. You can also use the Military Grade ammunition in stores at the stations along your path to buy new upgraded weapons with things like scopes, better stocks, etc, but you’ll find you’ll never have enough to get what you want, so just use it in combat when you’re in a pinch. Due to the harsh climate that much of the Metro is in, you have to carry around a gas mask with you at all times. But you must also collect filters for the mask as each filter gives you about 15 minutes of clean air symbol by your watch which has a timer. Complicating things is the fact that your mask can be damaged as well as destroyed in combat making things very hard if you’re nowhere near a spare mask. If you find yourself in such a position you have about 10 seconds till you suffocate and die.

You come across a variety of enemies throughout the game both mutant and human. First the mutants come in about a few varieties, the Nosalis is the most common variety which often attack in packs, Lurkers which are fast and agile creatures which burrow through the Metro, on the surface you’ll encounter two special kinds of mutants, the Demon which is a winged monster that takes a lot of ammo to kill, and the Librarian which is a ape like creature that is quite durable as well as strong. You’ll also encounter human enemies in the Metro, like bandits who kill, rape, and pillage throughout the tunnels. Two factions whom you’ll meet are the Communists and the Nazis, two forces fighting for control of the Metro in the same vein as World War II. You’ll have to cross there frontlines to continue your journey and have to fight them both to survive. Also you’ll come across too types of “creatures” that are neither good nor evil. One is simply called the anomaly, a ball of pure energy that fry’s anything close to it regardless of its intentions, and other supernatural entity called ghost, the psychic remains of people who have died in the tunnels which kill upon touch, but unfortunately they use this device for only one level and do little else with the idea.

This game is neither good nor bad but stuck in some sort of limbo. The game offers a decent story which they pad out with good effect. The game at first tries to go for creepy with dark foreboding tunnels and corridors complete with creepy monsters, but it quickly goes for a Half-Life 2 feel with its weird monsters and science fiction. The game is one of the games that you really can only play at night and/or in a dark room, as light tends to glare out the TV and making combat and basic navigation a real bitch. All in all it’s a decent game and worth a rental.

The Good

· Decent story

· Decent graphics

The Bad

· Too dark

· Forgettable characters

The Ugly

· Tries to go for creepy but gives up halfway in

Written by Historiagamer
Edited by Josh

Images from
www.giantbomb.com

Just Cause 2

Just Cause 2 is the sequel to 2006’s Just Cause by Avalanche studios. The first one was plagued by bugs and control issues, though it had a certain charm to it, with its b-movie acting, the ability to blow lots of shit up, and its attitude. The game took place on the fictional Caribbean island of ‘San Esperito” run by a pretty generic South American dictator. The game put you in the shoes of a black ops agent named Rico who works for an organization simply know as “The Agency”, Rico is put in the pursuit of overthrowing the regime and putting in a more U.S friendly one. Helping you in this quest is your boss, a man named Tom Sheldon (think Bruce Campbell in Burn Notice) and blonde named Maria Kane (think Jenny McCarthy in Red Alert 3), these two frequently give you story missions as well as Intel. To achieve the goal though you must also work with two factions to bring down the government, a cartel and a guerilla force. Though promising, the game lacked polish and felt rushed into the market.



Just Cause 2 once again puts you in the role of Rico as you once again attempt to overthrow a dictator but this time on the fictional island of Panau in Southeast Asia. This time around you’re given the task of first finding your old boss Tom Sheldon who was on the case previously, but has since disappeared. The story once again keeps the B-movie charm feel that the first one had. Given this task you must work with 3 factions who give you missions as well as Intel, a Che-Guevara-esque guerrilla army called the Reapers, a criminal cartel called the Roaches, and the Ular Boys who stem from the Ular tribes on the island who wish the island to be isolationist.




The main story at times can be quite humorous complete with Ninjas, humorous stereotypes, a floating whorehouse and even WWII era super weapons guarded by 100 year old Japanese solider (who for some reason has modern tech). The game takes itself seriously though which makes it even more enjoyable to play. The main story is kind of short all in all, but it makes up for it in requiring you to play side mission and earn X amount of “Chaos” to continue which you earn by completing missions as blowing stuff up. You have a lot of tools at your disposal, from a multitude of vehicles to an arsenal of weapons, and even a grappling hook that returns from the original. Though this time around you can grapple to anything not just vehicles, you can do walls and even people which you can then grapple to a wall trapping him for a few seconds or your car and drag him along. A fun thing to do is when you’re on a mission to protect a car you’re not driving is to grapple any pursing cars to the road and watch as they flip. You can break a few laws of physics, like when you're hurtling towards the ground you normally would use your parachute to land softly, but here you can just grapple on the ground when you get close enough and you'll rocket towards the ground and land safely.

All of Panau looks impressive, they managed to do quite a fine job with it and the entire island’s local ranging from snow capped mountains to the lush jungles and even hot dusty desert. All of which look amazing and crisp, and there is plenty of stuff to blow up, from military, naval, and air bases to towns and cities, all of which have a variety of explosive materials for you including fuel tanks, radio towers, generators, and satellite dishes, all of which explode in
spectacular form, with a nice looking fireball and a loud boom!




The game does have faults though. The controls can be finicky at times, as sometimes you wish to grapple an enemy to the wall, and you end up on that wall. The size and multitude of things to do can be a problem to someone who is not used to sandbox games, as it can be overwhelming.


Just Cause 2 is a massive step up from the original while still managing to keep the charm. The graphics are better, as well as more detailed. Though a little big to some people, it feels more complete and fulfilling than the first one did.



The Good
• Fun as hell
• Nice graphics
• Humorous at times
• Lots of explosions
• Lots of things to do

The Bad
•The story is kind of short

The Ugly
• Controls can be finicky
• Some gamers might find the amount of things to do overwhelming

Written by Historiagamer

Edited by Josh

All Images from www.giantbomb.com

Battlefield: Bad Company 2

First a little back ground, The Battlefield series of games has had a prestigious history, staring in 2002 with the hit Battlefield 1942 the game has had two expansions and two spin offs one in the 1960’s Vietnam War and the other in the future with Battlefield 2142 which had an expansion of its own. The Battlefield series switched to a modern setting in 2005 with Battlefield 2 (Modern Combat on consoles) with 3 expansion packs.

In a change of pace EA decided to make a console only game called Battlefield: Bad Company (2008) this time with a single player story attached. This story tells of an American four-man squad caught in a fictional war between the U.S and Russia, as this story progresses the squad decides that glory and a shiny medal is not enough and decide to go after a huge stockpile of gold. This game continued the series multiplayer focus as the single player was quite short though your squad mates were quite memorable, with your two days till retirement commander Sergeant Redford, Private Sweetwater a intelligent city boy who only joined to pay for college, serving as a comic foil to Sweetwater is Private Haggard a Texas country boy who is quite the pyromaniac, lastly is the player character who is Private Marlowe who is the new guy and the player character. This game did quite well and recently acquired a sequel in March of 2010.



First off Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is an impressive game, not only is it fun as hell single player but also with its equally entertaining multiplayer. The story as well as the multiplayer have been added to as well as polished compared to the first Bad Company. The single player continues the story of Bad Company, with the squad once again fighting for their lives against overwhelming enemy forces. All of your squad returns once again, but his time around the Russians are searching for a secret World War II era Japanese super weapon and Redford, Sweetwater, Haggard, and Marlowe have been tasked to make sure they don’t get it. This game takes the humor of the squad mates and makes it better this time around; they accomplish this by adding depth and chemistry to these characters which works 100% as I found myself laughing at the dialogue between them several times during the campaign. This campaign takes place mainly in South America as your quests takes you from the jungles of Bolivia, to the cold mountains of the Andes, to the deserts of Chile, and on as you fight Russian forces fighting to find the weapon first and local militias payed off by the Russians. All of which looks impressive and behaves impressively with all the sounds and sights being equally impressive, make a complete impressive experience.






















This game excels in several game play areas, first the graphics are impressive as each environment looks quite well and vibrant. It also acts impressive with the physics of explosions being quite impressive and detailed. The physics of this game are a big strong suit as you can pretty much destroy anything with EA DICE’s FROSTBITE engine making all that destruction possible. The sound’s of this game as equally vibrant and detailed with gunfire being loud and crisp and even echoing indoors with explosions being loud and clear. Speaking of guns, over the course of both the singe and multiplayer you acquire an arsenal of guns ranging from pistols to rocket launchers. These weapons all look and behave quite well as you use them to shoot your way through your adversaries.






















The multiplayer, just like the single player is done quite well. Bringing back Rush and Conquest modes form the last Bad Company this time around has streamlined it with 4 classes instead of 5. Another feature that has been added is add-ons to weapons such as red dot sights and scopes, and other gadgets like more body armor or bandoliers. These new additions add for a more complete feeling multiplayer than past Battlefields. All in all if makes a really fun experience.


The Good
• Fun as hell
• Great characters
• Great visuals
• Fun multiplayer

The Bad
• N/A

The Ugly
• Doesn’t answer the ending of the first game

Edited by Josh Everett


Images from
www.gameinformer.com
www.gamespot.com
http://planetbattlefield.gamespy.com/

Review Schedule for April

Subject to change

Bad Company 2

Just Cause 2

Metro 2033

Splinter Cell Convection

Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood