In this shot I noticed a line of soldiers running into an enemy which had laid waste to all of their teammates. It reminds me of the end of a long session of CoD that I’m incredibly burnt out on, yet I’m too lazy to stop playing. I just respawn, run into the enemy, and die. Or I’m one of those douches that are really just talking on the phone and going through the motions. Don’t hate me.

If the game really had explosive planes, would people just kamikaze all the time? I think so.

I’m curious: What’s the next creative tactic/exploit you see coming? Or has something already started as I type this?

The Secret of Monkey Island - 800 ($10)

Madballs in Babo Invasion - 1200 ($15) 

WiiWare:

Ant Nation – 700 Points

Bit Boy!! – 600 Points

Incoming! – 500 Points

Virtual Console:

Secret Commando – 600 Points

Pulseman – 900 Points

Nintendo DSiWare:

Brain Challenge – 800 Points

EA announced 1943 as an XBLA/PSN digital download. Seemed kind of odd, especially at $15. But does it hold up? I mean, only 24 players, 3 maps, consoles first, and $15? Well, let me get into that.

I don’t think this game is dumbed-down for consoles. I think it’s dumbed-down for fun. With less players on a map, the action isn’t as frantic. There are only three classes to choose from which makes it pretty simple, and there are no unlocks to be seen. The weapons and items stay the same throughout your career. You do get promoted through the ranks, but that’s it. Although, there is a form of unlocking. If the community gets a certain number of kills (I think about 40 million) a new map is unlocked for the community. But that’s it. Is there enough here to keep this game going? Well, that’s where the actual gameplay comes in.

This is your standard FPS. If you’ve played the other battlefield games, then you’ll get it. If not, I guarantee you’ve played Call of Duty, and it is very similar. To break it down even further, there are two sides, USMC and IJN, up to 24 players, and you run around and cap points which you spawn from. You can even use tanks, jeeps, airplanes, and boats. The game also uses a unique ammo system where all ammo is unlimited. After your cache of special weapon ammo runs out, a timer appears in which notifies you when the cache has been replenished. It makes sense and allows the players to focus on combat rather than worry about ammunition. I have no complaints with this. Once the ‘death bar’ at the top runs out, that team loses. People focus on flags, but it’s the kills that matter. Depending on the teams tactic, capturing points will only help or hurt you. Pretty simple, yet fun.

I enjoy the gameplay and the controls, yet the controls aren’t as tight as Call of Duty. Flying a plane can be a pain, and I’ll bet you change the controls around. The defaults make no sense. Whether it be lag or just programming, their are a bunch of issues that have popped up. For instance, I shoot my rocket at a tank and strafe away, yet the rocket doesn’t fire until a second after. I then miss. After being on a roll with kills, missing a tank shot will only piss you off. Also dealing with rockets, I once shot a jeep full of players that was sitting at a flag. The rocket hit, the jeep exploded, but all that did was alert the enemy of my location. I died. I call BS. On the turn around, I’ll be in a close range fire-fight kicking some ass, then the douche in-front of me goes Quake 3 style and whips out his rocket, killing me. Close range. Rocket. I die. He lives. Now, this happens in all FPS’s, but in 1943, it’s common. Squads also pose a problem. Sometimes I’ll stay in my squad, and sometimes we’ll be separated. It’s pretty sad, because if my brother is on the opposing team, I know I’m screwed. But all in all, I hope they continue to tweak the code here.

And that brings me to another point: What they will continue to do. For a $15 game, the content is great. So any additional DLC they may bring us screams premium. I don’t mind that too much, but I hope it doesn’t alienate players. I do feel that way with Halo 3 and CoD5. But what would the DLC be? If it’s paid-DLC, I would hope it isn’t more powerful weapons. I’m thinking game modes, classes, etc. But maps make the most sense. And maybe after this next map is unlocked, we’ll receive another after a few more million kills. My number one concern is they’ll need something to keep people playing. And that concern comes from what it will be.

Conclusion: Buy it. At $60, I’d say no. But even with its bugs, $15 is a steal.

I’ve been playing the new Indiana Jones game on the Wii. It’s really not that fun, or just not for me, but I really want to know the story. I would say I’d keep it for the Fate of Atlantis, but fortunately Lucas Arts is doing good for gaming for the first time since X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter. I’m not sure if I can actually push through the rest of this game, but if I do I hope it gets better.

Battlefield 1943 is now available on XBLA. Unfortunaltey, no one can play it. Or at least, using the product is limited. I downloaded the demo to give it a shot, but I haven’t had the privilege as of yet. I’m surprised there hasn’t been a real BF game since 2142 and in all reality, 1943 doesn’t necessarily fill that void. 24 players is fine, but not as much as I would like. Frontlines: Fuel of War, is an excellent BF clone created by the team that made the Desert Combat mod. I’m not sure why, but people are just simply looking over this game; yet it’s fantastic and morphs the formula into what it should be today. Speaking of Battlefield, the idea of Heroes scares the living daylights out of me. It’s free, yet a pay-to-play at the same time. I don’t know how long I could go without buying my upgrades . . .timed upgrades . . . and I certainly do not want to.

I’ll end this by saying Red Faction won as best sandbox game between the three that were just released. Protoype, inFamous, and Red Faction. In the next podcast I’ll delve deeper into this.

While expected, I am interested in the PSP Go. I do not like the physical media in a handheld. Especially with movable parts. Right there you can cut out load-times (I presume…) and save space.

…and really, that was it. I’m glad E3 was in full force, but these shows really only shine when it’s new console season. But apparently, Microsoft still has until 2015.

This weekend I played through a lot of Raiden Fighters Aces. I’m a SHMUPS fanattic, so no complaints here. A genuinely fun game. I had this one Gamefly’d but chose the keep it option…just to be waiting another full week for Gamefly to send me out two games. Is it even worth it if I go a full week without a game? Well, Sean got back on Gamefly and had Mercs2 sent to him so we can do some co-op. Some of those timed driving missions are just insane. And the game is just buggy…I had to clear my cache, start up the game, not choose to download update, and then I get an achievement I earned last year. All I can say is, I want a Mercs 3, and I want it to look good. Just Cause 2 might beat you to it.

Sean and I tried doing a Bluecast tonight, but it just didn’t have the feel to it. If you are a hardcore gamer, great speaker, and aren’t afraid of dolphins, shoot the Blugamers a line and let us know you’re interested in being a part of the show. I would like to pay you…but I’m not even getting anything. I’m actually paying to keep this site up.

Saturday I received Wolverine from Gamefly. Sunday, I beat it. It wasn’t a short game, but it was slightly repetitive. I will let that slide since the combat system is awesome. Now, I also found it to be easy, but that could have just been the fact that I really mastered the controls; playing it two days straight drills the moves into your head. This is a game that’s just worth playing. It’s everyone’s favorite, Wolverine, and you get to do what you want to do with him. I’m glad Activision let Raven get away with all the gore, since the movie is rated PG-13 and a T-rating could have possibly bumped up sales numbers (not sure how factual that occurrence is, but it’s just a guess since Fox did it with the movie). Definitely play this one.

E3 is this week. There’s a few things I’m looking forward too, mainly some new IP for Sony and Microsoft. In regards to the recently announced PSP Go, I’m hoping there’s some way to transfer the already purchased UMD’s into digital format which would then be toes to my PSN ID. That idea is already a rumor…a rumor that went along with the PSP Go rumor. So, there is a possibility there.

IMO, Sony is in a position where they realize their arrogance wasn’t getting them anywhere, and I want to almost say that Microsoft is getting there. Sony’s intent with the PSP Go is to delve into the market currently owned by the iPhone, and, as soon as Ninteno gets it’s head out of it’s ass, the DSi. Portable digital download gaming. The only one left? Microsoft. They did announce the Zune HD. Most likely in preparation for E3 since announcing the device there wouldn’t make sense, but some gaming features would. Live Arcade titles on the Zune HD, or a whole new Microsoft gaming handheld. I can’t wait to see what happens.

P.S. Looking at my gamercard, the games shown were completed in that order. I jumped from one to another, demolishing them. You can add Killzone II in there right before World at War. It was a fun game, but not worth the hype.

I saw the Wolverine movie, which I didn’t care too much for, but the game is fantastic. Now, I’ve only played the demo, but it is pretty much what I want from a Wolverine game. Very gory, many moves, very climatic. I also like 3rd person action game to have the ‘leveling-up’ element, and from what I’ve seen, this game is doing it well. But, it’s what I expect from Raven Software. They are a good development studio.

This weekend I LANed with a couple buddies of mine. We are big RTSers, so that’s pretty much all we did. First StarCraft, then WarCraft III. Playing War3 got me into the Dawn of War mood. I like the micromanaging of the heroes, but I also like the micromanaging of the hereos and squadmates from Dawn of War. I’m goign to try to get the guys to play DoW with me next time around. I also found a race unlocker that allowes you to have a single expansion installed, but inputting the other games’ keys unlocks the other races. This way I don’t need to have four games installed.

Twitter is huge. There are a lot of people in the gaming industry I’ve been able to follow and I really enjoy this. You can fins my Twitter here, and I’ll be adding a Twitter box to this site.

Here’s what I’ve been playing:

RA3 Uprising
Wheelman
R-Type Dimensions
Retro Game Challenge
Matt Hazard

Hopefully you’ll be here from me soon…