GameGuide

Shadow Complex is an Xbox Live Arcade game set in the near future, with you playing an everyman who accidentally stumbles across a terrorist base (American terrorists, for a change), and then goes about saving the world. It’s a game which I’ve been meaning to play for a while now. The fact that it has made it onto many “Best of 2009” lists, not to mention “Best Xbox 360 Game of All Time” lists had me intrigued.

Shadow Complex is without a doubt the most technically ambitious thing available on Xbox Live. While it’s not quite retail release quality (it could use some extra texture work, not to mention being about twice as long), it’s definitely worth the money.  Read the rest of this entry »

I have to say, when it comes to racing games I prefer to stick to tarmac. My absolute preference would be the Aussie V8’s, but there are no real options for this on the current gen consoles. GRID and Forza 3 are the two best road-racing games available, and DIRT2 puts forward a pretty insane game for four wheel off road racing. But I’ve never played a game where you only have two wheels.

So when it came to reviewing the latest in the MX vs ATV game, MX vs ATV Reflex, I was in virgin territory. Not that this was a bad thing, for one I wasn’t approaching the game with any baggage, negative feelings or over the top expectations.  Read the rest of this entry »

Whist strictly not my first foray into the world of XBox Lives Arcade gaming – my first being the free copy of Call of Duty that came with the Hardened Edition of Modern Warfare 2 – Alien Breed was my first time shopping for a game. Finding myself with only 800 MS Points did limit my choices however, as there seemed to be two price points, with 800 being the lower option. Alien Breed Episode 1 however seemed like a good choice, especially seeing it’s history.

I’ve been playing video games since the original Space Invaders in the late seventies, but it wasn’t until a decade later when I took my gaming addiction from seedy arcades to my bedroom, with the arrival of the mighty Amega 1000. Read the rest of this entry »

I really wanted to pick Batman, I really did but something was nagging at me about the choice. Despite its well crafted, dedicated single player story and the pure fact that the sequel will command one of my precious days of annual leave I couldn’t look past the lack of replay value. Two run throughs and an honest crack at all the challenges and there’s not much left in it. The Challenges, whilst being fun, are not DLC worthy by itself.

I have to eat my words about MW2, the match making is getting ridiculous and WTF were they thinking Akimbo Shotguns which make noob-tubes look like the choice of the elite. I knew it wasn’t going to take game of the year because despite being almost everything I want in a FPS they didn’t break the mold like with COD4. Read the rest of this entry »

For the last week month or so, the Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer experience has been plagued by a number of issues, across all platforms. Those issues have been targeted by a new patch, which Robert “fourzerotwo” Bowling states has gone live on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

Among the issues addressed are those nasty infinity ammo and Public “private” match issues on the Xbox 360 version, the Prestige hack on PS3 and the texture hack on PC. Also, the 1887 has been balanced on all platforms – now, you might actually stand a chance against an opponent wielding two of those.

Of course, most of us at GameGuide have since re-discovered the joy of old school Modern Warfare and are unlikely to got back to Modern Warfare 2 until next year. We’re hoping with another week of other people playing it, some more glitches will have been discovered and fixed.

OXM has published a bit of news that should put a smile on the face of many XBox owners; Microsoft has apparently confirmed a series of Xbox 360-exclusive titles will be hitting our favourite console over the first half of next year.

They go on to say that Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg confirmed that both Alan Wake and Crackdown 2 would receive 2010 retail releases in the first half of the year.

“Starting in January we have like a triple A exclusive title pretty much every month for the first half of the year,” explained Greenberg. “You’ve got Mass Effect 2, you’ve got Splinter Cell, you’ve got Alan Wake, you’ve got Crackdown 2…you’ve [also] got things like Fable 3 and Halo: Reach coming later that year. Those are just the exclusives.”

That’s quite a list and lends weight to Rhetspect’s claims that 2010 will be better 2009 for gamers.

I must admit, that I really did think that Modern Warfare 2 would be my game of the year. But after finishing it’s lacklustre single player campaign in only two nights there wasn’t much left besides the online play. Not that this was a huge problem, as with the original Modern Warfare, its real value (other than a great single player campaign) was in the online play, having played it solidly for two years. It was the game that I always went back to when I got bored of the new games, and the only thing that made it a little bit tiresome was that Infinity Ward only ever released one map pack.

So Modern Warfare 2 could have conceivable made the cut based purely on the online play, if only they hadn’t dropped the ball. Infinity Ward decided that rather than have an open beta testing stage for the online play, they would test in house. As such, they didn’t have the man power to put the game through as many hours of gameplay as they did with the original. The result is that they release a game whose online play seems to have more bugs than a new version of Windows.  Read the rest of this entry »

What a strange year this has been for games.

As far as I’m concerned, there hasn’t been one single game which has stuck its hand up and definitively said, “I am the game of the year!”.

On the driving front, Dirt 2 was a ton of fun, and Forza 3 proved to be the best racing game yet on Xbox 360. But, a driving game is never going to be my game of the year.

Batman: Arkham Asylum was a giant surprise, and a very good game. However, it just didn’t click with me in the way that would make it a classic game, though it came close.

Then there was Modern Warfare 2. The single player of that game, I’m really sad to say, will be judged a failure. The pacing was off, it was too short, the story relied on cheap thrills, and the overall execution just lacked maturity. The multiplayer is where it’s at with MW 2, but even that has been glitchy and unbalanced. It’s still a fantastic experience and a lot of fun, and I’ve sunk more days than I care to think about into it. But the games that hang around in my mind are the games that immerse me totally in a world and a story, and Modern Warfare 2 just didn’t do that.  Read the rest of this entry »

Panama Canal features a tight battle with abandoned industrial buildings, vehicles, large ships, and piles of debris everywhere with billowing smoke off in the distance as the surround forest rages of fire while the surrounding city is bombarded by enemy ballistics. The map has a four-flag setup, with two flags being more focused on vehicle warfare with IFVs and MBTs. The center flags are infantry focused and the team in control of either centre flag will get access to an attack helicopter or an AA vehicle, respectively.

Check out this gameplay preview and see both American and Russian forces fight for control of tactical points in the classic Battlefield “Conquest” Mode.

[BFBlog]

As reported on Kotaku, Microsoft has officially launched their latest effort to deliver PC games directly to users via the Internet. After creating a Gamertag and downloading the Games for Windows – LIVE software, you will have instant access to many popular titles. Read the rest of this entry »