Robert's Ramblings

Evolution of Gaming, Xbox and PS3.

2010-09-21T09:19:00.000-07:00

I'd like to talk about the evolution of gaming. What I mean by this is the trends shown among newly released games. Among the Xbox, more and more titles are focussing their content on the multiplayer market, for example games like UFC undisputed would normally have been exclusively single-player while now has quite a lot of multiplayer content. Games like call of duty have always had multiplayer as their strength and so it is natural for them to stay this way. More and more games are coming out which are meant for live, and clearly this is because it is what people want.

My tastes in gaming have gone full circle. Now i enjoy a quiet bit of halo wars or campaign over stressful online play, but maybe that is my age catching up with me (20s..)..

I can't wait for the next step in gaming which I believe is the increasing immersion of the player into the game. This will start with 3D being on games, probably the PS3 first judging by what Sony are releasing. With the next generation consoles estimated in 2015 I hope to have a far more engaging and immersive experience then tapping buttons, hopefully it will be more like virtual reality though I know that was prophesised years ago and still has yet to come to fruition.

Remember to follow guys thanks, Rob.

Halo Reach

2010-09-21T08:27:00.000-07:00

Though I am probably more inclined to the call of duty series, the incredible storyline spanning several games has me hooked and I will definitely be picking up the latest installment: Halo Reach. I am excited by the trailers for the campaign shown, however it has been ruined somewhat for me by an incredibly loud and rude person on the tube, who ruined the ending for me while talking to his friend. I was comically trying to block out noise but, alas, it is ruined.

The thought of more than one spartan running around on my television is incredibly exciting, as in most of the halo series (disregarding Wars) Master Chief is the sole surviving Spartan.

Hopefully the multiplayer is good although it does look like they have ripped off Call of Duty quite a lot with the experience system and classes etc. Though I do not like games being too similar, the multiplayer rankings on Halo 3 were far too strange and broken to be usable for me, with 'boosters' and exploiters everywhere.

It is pleasing to see a game return to it's roots as Halo: Reach has, with health-based survival and the like, and I can't wait. Trailer below, remember to follow :)

Call of Duty

2010-09-20T11:06:00.000-07:00

I am an avid call of duty player and have been since number 2 came out in 2005 for the PC. After playing call of duty 4 for well over 10 days playtime in 2007-2008 I felt that it was the best multiplayer franchise ever created and that I would continue to buy their products forever. That was not to be the case.

I was crushingly disappointed by Call of Duty: World at War; the 'Last Stand' perk coupled with the fact that only a handful of weapons were usable meant that I was more angry than I was entertained whenever I played it, and so it took weeks to go back to modern warfare. I was still hopeful, however, that activision would listen to the feedback and make the next game, the inventively named Modern Warfare: 2, less frustrating.

This was not to be the case, with new perks like 'Commando', 'One Man Army' and the tactical insertion making it even easier for players to play the game in a way where nobody is having fun. 'Commando' was the one which made me ragequit (turning off my xbox in disgust) the most frequently. Infinity ward staunchly refused to patch any balance-related parts of the game, like these perks, losing my customer loyalty and respect and leaving me to feel like I am being milked for my money (paying £40 per game and £5 per month exclusively for call of duty games).

With the dawn of the long-awaited Call of Duty: Black Ops, I fear that they have made another frustrating buzzkill of a sequel. In the multiplayer trailer below we see that nothing much has changed with the multiplayer gameplay, with the same controls and weapons layouts. This is fine, if a little boring, but it is the alarming prospect of more annoying things like the exploding cars (seen at 0:56 in the video) that makes me think I do not want to play this game in fear of getting extremely wound up.

On a positive note I definitely will rate the game for the single-player campaign which looks fantastic and original in the time setting of Vietnam, which is wholly unexplored in first person shooters.

Check it out for yourselves below and tell me what you think, cheers, Rob.

Sorry for the delay

2010-09-20T10:38:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of posts, I have been working quite alot recently, getting on with writing a few articles. Recommend to your friends and follow me if you like them, thanks guys,

Rob.

2010-08-27T16:12:00.000-07:00

Hi I'm Robert and I am a 21 year old student in the UK, studying law at sheffield :)

Making this blog so I could share some of my thoughts and witticisms with the masses, and I will try to refrain from sounding too pseudointellectual since I have read enough blogs to know this is prolific.

Will be blogging on such varied things as my life/ politics/ current affairs/ scandals/ ufc/ football.

Thanks :)