Philoking.comfrom Jason Burns’ perspective…

I had a rough time with its predecessor, but it had enough good in it for me to finish the game.  I had seen some cool trailers for Bloodshot (Condemned 2) so I was pretty excited to pick it up last week and check it out, and I am glad I did, they took a mediocre game and took up a few notches in several areas. 

Onto the to the world of Ethan Thomas; an angry drunk and begrudging serial killer hunter! In take 2, the graphics are a bit better overall and they fixed one of my major complaints with the prior version: the constant darkness!  You could certainly adjust the brightness to suit your preference, but even when doing so in Condemned, it was a lot of work to make out objects on screen and required squinting and changing your focus from the task at hand.  Even though I still had to turn up the brightness, the darker areas seem to have a higher contrast with more detail, so playing those drab scenes in the sewers, basements, bathrooms, and alleys is way easier on the eyes.   Moreover, Bloodshot actually has some levels that are lighter and more visually aesthetic then the infested rot that shadows most scenes, like the FBI labs which is a nice change, even though it quickly fills with tar like sludge and delusional blur.    It’s still a very dirty game and I feel slightly sullied after playing.  The unsanitary bathrooms painted with blood and feces and rotten infested carcasses and garbage strewn everywhere, make me want to my wash hands when I let go of the controller.   Visual unsanitary, but I suppose it adds to the tone of the story.

My favorite Super creepy baddie!

The real upgrade in the game is the melee fighting techniques with combo and parry moves that add a great of texture to your combat.  Though some of these moves are prompted trigger pulls, it’s quite an improvement. 

The investigative techniques are still mostly the same, (camera, spectrometer, UV Detector, etc.), but now you get upgrades and new equipment as the game progresses, including armor.  There are more puzzle investigations that add texture to game play and to get a perfect score you have to answer all questions correct on the first try.  Which means you have to put a little more thought into your investigations this go round. 

The achievement scheme is a lot different and those investigations are a big part of getting your points.  You don’t just collect 6 birds per level and collect your cool 25 points.  There are transmitter collectable’s, player responses, and emitters all of which are required to be a top notch investigator.  There are 25 single player achievements and 13 multiplayer achievements, but you don’t get achievements for finishing anyone mission on any particular level.  For example, you have to get all perfects on all levels to get that achievement or your have to make gold investigator on each level to the gold achievement, etc. 

It’s a scary and entertaining game, better then the first, even though its caked with nastiness and the baddies are uber gross!  The boss in the doll factory (left) is toe-up!  You have to love a crazy clown chick with a psychedelic laugh that makes your skin crawl but somehow looks sexy in her dirty corset and striped stockings.   Even though she wants to kill you with the rotary saw blade lollipop she’s wielding you might feel sad to have to stick her head through the grinder…ewwww.  

Highlights

• A new melee combat system which includes offensive / defensive combo moves, grabs and holds, and death moves interacting with the environment, i.e., throwing a body through a TV.
• New environments like outside areas, labs and warehouses.
• New gear and forensics tools and a redesigned process for the investigation of the crime scenes that is all upgradable based on new scoring system.
• Many new items in the environment can be used as melee or throwing weapons like golf clubs, bricks, and exploding dolls.
• More gun play with weapons like the sub-gun and crossbow, but keeps the cool stun gun from V1.
• More accurate game play for difficulty levels, i.e., normal is actually medium and hard is difficult!
• All-new multiplayer modes like fight club “Circle of Death” add to the game after your story mode is complete and some texture to the new fighting system.
• Much more cohesive storyline keeping the same characters yet introducing new characters, new baddies, and new bosses.
• A killer creepy soundtrack enhancing the overall “fear factor”!

I wouldn’t recommend you play this game with the kiddos around, it almost gives me nightmares, certainly the heebie-jeebies. 

Kiss Kiss,

 
Dawngrrl Gametart

When the Boy Genius bought me a (pink) DS for Christmas in 2006, I blew through Tomb Raider, which is awesome on any platform, then spent a good chunk of my DS game time on the casual games like Brain Age, that test your basic IQ skills and serve up a myriad of Sudoku puzzles. I have canoodled with a few titles since, like World Championship Poker, King Kong, Over the Hedge, Pirates of the Caribbean, and of course Mario World and a walk down memory lane with A Link to the Past.  I popped in Call of Duty 4 and took it out a Friday night spin and I was really surprised with what can be done on such a small device. This popular Activision title was developed for the DS by N-Space, an Orlando based dev shop that is also pumping out Star Wars, The Force Unleashed, for DS later this year.

This is my first FPS on the DS and it could be critically dangerous in contrast as I am simultaneously soaring through the graphical superiority summarily paved by Crysis. Impossible comparison notwithstanding, I was pretty impressed. The graphics are nothing close to the crispy clear HD next gen shooters we play on the PS3 and Xbox 360 of course, but they are surprisingly good for 3D rendering squished onto 3 itty bitty inches.

So the gist of the story is actually a step or two away from the Papa versions, in that your missions are on a smaller scale and you don’t directly affect the outcome of the war. You play as several different soldier characters totaling 11 levels in all to complete the campaign, on missions varying from escapes to weapon detonation prevention. Some of the cool DS playability features are touch screen pick ups and bomb arming and disarming with flip panel wiring screens that ad a little bit of flair to your game play.

I was shocked by how good the sound and audio effects are; even the voice recording has a really high production quality and totally adds to the games class level. Over all I think that CD4 on DS is a really great game for its genre and platform, but the bigger question is would I play through it all? No. The game comes in a great looking and sounding package, but it just doesn’t deliver on play. 

• Uncomfortable controls. The D pad moves you directionally but your camera is touch screen, and your triggers are the left or right bumper. While in theory that might sound cool, your right hand is pretty much rendered useless because the touch screen isn’t yet accurate enough for this kind of navigation with fingers so you really have to use the stylus to get any decent control. This leaves either your ring or pinky finger for right hand trigger action or your left hand index finger to trigger, which is counter intuitive to our trusty console controllers we are used to, and difficult to balance the dpad moving on the same hand.
• Lots of inaccuracy on the movement. Tapping for scope view doesn’t always work right; neither does double tapping to remove it. This tends to get you off on vertical visuals of the sky of ground while you’re being riddled with baddie bullets which also adds to the games vertigo induction.
• I am not usually one to bitch about unrealistic shot per kill behavior, but I at least need consistency. Headshots are more effective, as it should be, but you can still hammer 20 or 30 rounds into a enemy soldier before he drops and other times, one shot in the foot will drop him like rock. The Boy Genius and I oft debate about this issue in gaming as a whole and I feel sure it would be the game downfall for his approval.
• It’s an FPS on a DS. There are just too many great games for the PC, 360, PS3, and even the Wii that offer such a great experience without trying to fit it into such a tiny area. One of the other big complaints is that the DS version doesn’t have online play which nowadays is bad news bears for the cyber social addicts of the gaming world.

The DS will never be able to complete for my FPS attention because the competition is just too stiff. Its my waiting room entertainment, my in-the-meantime distraction, and served up best by Brain age, poker, and Mario. Though for many, like the mini BG with his endless capacity for Pokemon, it’s their main attraction and if you are uber skilled with your touchscreen and trigger fingering - it might be your portable shooter dream game.  I feel sure that if it was my only system, I would give Call of Duty 4 DS a second date. 

Kiss Kiss

Dawngrrl Gametart