I haven’t played enough of Bloody Good Time yet to write a full-fledged review, but I’ve played enough of it to tell you that the title doesn’t lie. If anything, it undersells itself; I’ve had a pretty great time with it so far.

Bloody Good Time is the sequel to a game called The Ship. I’d never heard of it before this, so I can’t really compare the two. But the basic concept is this — In the main game mode, you’re an assassin. But you’re also a target.
You’re on a map with several other players online, and you’re given a name. You have to kill the person whose name you receive. Everybody else also gets a name. In essence, the hunter becomes the hunted, whilst remaining the hunter.

You’re not told who is after you, so you have to keep a keen eye out. You also must be careful not to expose yourself to your target… Keep your weapon and intent concealed until you get close. If you kill your hunter, you get extra points, but if you kill somebody unrelated to your mission, you lose points.

Points also vary with what weapon you use to do the deed. Weapons get more and less popular as the match progresses, so keep up and make sure you’re using some high-point-wielding kill tools. There’s a wide variety of said tools to choose from… There are flamethrowers, knives, rocket launchers, and even remote-detonating rodents. There are also traps set up around all the maps that allow you to dispose of your target with an environmental kill, not getting your own hands dirty.

You’ll also want to keep your actions hidden because of the guards… Guards are scattered around maps, and you’ll gain a “Wanted” status if they see you holding a weapon for too long (you get warned when they first spot you), or if they see you trying to kill somebody. Guards will then chase you down and taze you, resulting in lost points.

But this game isn’t just about killing and avoiding death — there are also special needs, human needs, that your character has. You’ll occasionally need to sit down and rest, grab a snack, or use the restroom. The facilities to please your needs are located around the maps, but you’re very vulnerable while you fulfill them. You’ll just be sitting there for several seconds, and you’re not able to stop mid-process… Once you start, you have to allow the character to finish. This spells trouble if you don’t time it right.

One thing you won’t want to buy this game for is the story — it’s pretty stupid. But it’s hard to say that’s unintentional. The story and characters seem purposely cheesy in a way that gives it a certain charm. In fact, right in the Steam description, it describes the characters as being “stereotypical B-movie characters.”

Bloody Good Time is only $5 on Steam, and is well worth it. It’s built on the Source engine, and has fairly low system requirements.

Related posts:

1. Red Dead Redemption – First Impressions
2. Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2
3. Review: Battlefield Bad Company 2 Demo

Being a huge Star Wars fan myself, stuff like this makes my ears perk right on up. This week on Steam, every day we’ll see a new LucasArts game go on sale. (Today, Monday, it’s The Force Unleashed: Ultimate Sith Edition. It’s only $7.50. Sweet.)
While I wholeheartedly recommend you pick up The Force Unleashed, as it is one of my favourite Star Wars games of all time (such a great story), make sure your computer can run it first. It’s pretty demanding, which is why I have the console version.

Also, throughout the whole week, the Star Wars Collection will be 50% off, bringing it to only $50. That’s less than one new game for 13 awesome games, with an individual price of $145.38. Huge savings there. Not to mention the fact that I’ve played almost all of those games, and they’re all pretty awesome, especially if you’re a fan of the Wars.

Knights of the Old Republic (or KOTOR), one of the most popular Star Wars games ever created, is in the Star Wars collection. It sells for $10 individually, but packaged with these other 12 Star Wars games, it’s $50. Also included is one of my personal favourites, Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy. I would pay $50 for just these two games alone, but with them you get a plethora of other titles, for only $50. Bound to keep you entertained for a good bit. Check out the Collection here.

If you’re only looking to buy one or two of these games individually, HOLD OFF! You could spend $50 to get all of them now, but if you wait, the specific title(s) you want to buy might go on sale by themselves, as The Force Unleashed is today. I would personally hold off until next Sunday (when the deal ends) to buy any of them. Unless, of course, you MUST have them now. In which case, I understand, but you’ll kick yourself in the leg later on when that one game you HAD to get early is super cheap.

I’m personally hoping for sales on KOTOR (so my brother can get it), Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast, and Battlefront II. (I played Battlefront II on my brother’s PS2 a while ago, and it’s a blast. I’d much rather have it for my computer, and it would be awesome if it was even cheaper than its current price of $20.)

Related posts:

1. Star Wars MMORPG enters beta stages
2. The Next Year in Gaming
3. GridWars 2 – Cross-Platform Geometry Wars Clone

Red Dead Redemption was a widely-anticipated Rockstar game that hit shelves May 18th this year. Rockstar are the same guys that brought us the hugely popular Grand Theft Auto series, as well as Max Payne, the Midnight Club series, and others. Although it is a spiritual successor to 2004′s Red Dead Revolver, not much relates back to it, other than the western setting.

You play as John Marston, an ex-gangster in the early 1900′s who is being forced by government officials to hunt down and kill the surviving leading members of his former gang if he ever wants to see his wife and son again. As such, your overall mission as John Marston is to save your family and kill your once-friends.

I’ll start off on gameplay… Red Dead Redemption is, overall, a fantastic game, and a lot of its successes and high points boil down to the gameplay elements that hold everything together. I feel that this game is the first that has gotten down the formula of open-world gameplay down to a T. In-between missions, you can do just about anything… Ride around on your horse, start trouble in towns, and even play minigames (such as Texas Hold ‘Em, Five Finger Filet, and Liar’s Dice). It all holds the gameplay together perfectly and keeps things going, even if you’re not currently interested in the story.

But I think the thing that makes this one of the best open-world games available is the random events that occur. Indicated by a blue blip on your minimap, random events occur pretty often in the Red Dead world. These include men asking you to help them catch a thief to stealing a wagon for them, and sometimes to just duel in the middle of town. This really helps the game feel more alive than anything, and gives you something to do (or even just to ride around and look for) when you’re not playing a mission.

These random events, as well as other things in-game, will affect your honour. Red Dead Redemption has a morality system that’s based on how you act toward other people. This changes how people act around you. If you’re a generally good person, you’ll be treated with respect. If you go around shooting old ladies and robbing card dealers, your presence will be met with fear.

Aside from random events, another great gameplay element in Red Dead Redemption is the gunfighting. Gunfights can escalate to huge numbers and are always a blast. There’s a quick-aim system in place, which helps a lot in the midst of battle. You can also choose to take out specific body parts to reach a desired outcome. For instance, if you’re looking to hogtie a hostile, you can temporarily take him out by shooting him in the kneecap. This will put a damper on his short-term fire as well as give you an opportunity to get up close and throw the lasso. You can also just shoot their guns out of their hands if you want to avoid any bloodshed and have enough time to get away. There are so many variables in each showdown, which keeps the gunfights incredibly fresh throughout the entire game.

A feature that will help you achieve these accurate shots with time to spare is Dead Eye. The Dead Eye targeting system allows you to slow down time (think max Payne) to take out enemies with ease, or to make your aiming more precise to fit certain situations. There are three levels of Dead Eye — In level 1, time simply slows and allows you to get a shot off with a huge upper hand. Level 2 of Dead Eye has an auto-target system, in which targets are placed on your foes as your cursor runs over their body, and you can execute the shots with a button press. In Level 3, you are able to manually seek out and place targets on your enemy’s body, and again execute the shots with the press of a button. Level 2 is a bit of a pain, as it feels like you lose a lot of control in the transition (which, of course, you do), but once you get to level 3, you’ll feel like the best marksman ever born.

One of my favourite parts in this game is also one of the most often encountered. Horse riding. It’s an incredibly refreshing break from driving a car to get from Point A to Point B. The mechanics are fantastic and it feels incredibly authentic, at least with a controller. The running animations are also incredibly well done. All-in-all, it’s a whole lot more fun than driving a car around. It’s something different, and Rockstar pulled it off incredibly well.

Taking a trip with a companion is also a lot of fun. Just like in GTA4, the mission dialogue as you make your journey differs from time to time, meaning that each play-through of each mission may contain a slightly different conversation, and it makes me want to not throw the controller at the TV when I fail a mission that had a long transmit.

When it comes to multiplayer, Red Dead Redemption delivers very strongly. You start off online in a “Free Roam” mode, which allows you to hook up with other players and cause general mayhem with formed possies battling it out or just going around shooting NPC’s and avoiding the law with a character completely separate from your campaign.

From here, you can take the battle to one of several different kinds of play, one of which is a gang shootout. This particular gametype begins with both teams in a faceoff in the center of a town. You draw your weapons simultaneously and quickly try to take out the other team. The last man/men standing represent their teams in victory, all of whom get an XP bonus. After this, you begin a typical team deathmatch kind of gameplay, but with certain elements that still help to differ it from the competition. For instance, you can still use Dead Eye in multiplayer, although it’s a bit dumbed down. There’s no slow motion, but the auto-target system is in place, allowing you to quickly acquire several targets on an enemy’s body before they’re able to aim down their sights. This is incredibly useful.

Through getting kills you get experience points. With experience, you’ll level up. Your higher level will unlock you things, such as new horses. A faster ride can give you a huge advantage in the midst of battle (especially if you intend to flee).

Overall, the online play in this game is one of many elements that will force me to play it for a long time to come.

Now, if you haven’t been able to understand this yet, Red Dead Redemption is absolutely gorgeous. The immense attention to detail that the designers paid is astounding, down to the fibers in clothing and individual strands of hair. All of the animations are also excellent, and it has a very life-like feel to it.

There’s also an immense amount of variety from location to location, which always keeps things interesting throughout your multinational journey across the lands. Each town has a distinctive layout to it, with recognizable NPCs and unique buildings that really allow you to easily memorize each location. I love that.

But good graphics and gameplay can easily be torn apart by poor audio design decisions or recording issues. Fortunately, there’s none of that here. All of the audio in Red Dead Redemption is top-notch, down to the piano tunes that boom through the saloons as you drink yourself unconscious.

As far as voice acting goes, I’ve heard almost nothing as good as Red Dead Redemption in the past. Rockstar has always been known for having great voice acting, and Red Dead takes it a step further, I feel. All of the characters are incredibly believable, and I’ve actually been quite sad to part with a few of them due to the personalities they develop as you spend time by their sides.

But one of my favourite bits of audio gold in this game is the ambience as you sit in the wild at night. It has a very immersive feel to it. It’s all very realistic and well-done. If you have a surround-sound system, this is a game you’ll quickly be able to appreciate.

Overall, I have to give this game the highest possible score. It blew me away around every corner and I don’t find myself tiring of any of it. The replayability is through the roof, with the online play and the morality system to make sure this one stays in your collection.

If you enjoy third-person shooters at all, this is a game to pick up. A video game that has distractions in and of itself (comprised here of many hours of texas hold ‘em) is more than worth it’s salt.

Keep an eye out for a video review soon.

10/10

Related posts:

1. Red Dead Redemption – First Impressions
2. Review: Battlefield Bad Company 2 Demo
3. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Review

The original Kane & Lynch game, entitled “Dead Men,” came out late 2007 to much critical insult and generally negative reviews, both among popular outlets and individual reviewers. It was praised for its cinematic stylings and fun multiplayer game types, but bashed on a constant basis for outdated gameplay and lack of depth/polish. Many reviewers agreed: It would have been a decent game if it had been worked on a bit longer. It had potential, but failed to live up to it.

Well, Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days is looking to patch up the title after three years since the initial release. The second iteration focuses more on gritty realism and, without a doubt, looks to improve gameplay elements that were so frustratingly used to advise against purchase back in ’07.

They released a new trailer today for the second game, and I’ve gotta say… It looks pretty sweet. You can check out the trailer at the bottom of the post, but first, allow me to delve into it a bit…

Now, I’ve never played the original, mainly because of the bad reviews. It doesn’t seem like something worthy of my money, and so I haven’t picked it up. But going off nothing but the reviews, it seems as if the second game has improved a good bit above the first, which is evident even in this trailer.

There are tidbits of what appears to be gameplay shown throughout, mostly at the end. The cinematic quality of the trailer is fantastic. One thing that bugs me, however, is their censorship… I’m fine with censoring your trailers. I’m even fine with you adding content to the trailers, knowing that it will HAVE to be censored. But be consistent with it!
Through the trailer, several “bad words” are bleeped out. Except for at one point, when one of the characters manages to scream out “DON’T F*CK WITH ME!” after throwing an explosive. This came directly after like, two or three bleeps, so it confused me a good bit.

Past that, the gameplay actually looks pretty fun. It looks like it has a pretty good cover system, which is important in any game that relies even a little bit on cover. The sound is also superb throughout. Great-sounding gunshots and breaking glass plague this trailer, along with cinematic “swoosh”s that help carry things along.

And the graphics look fantastic! Honestly, even though I’m aware most of this is probably pre-rendered, it all looks great. The clothing has amazing detail in it, and the environment around our characters looks amazing (especially one part in the trailer, where they’re in a kitchen. Everything in there looks freakin’ beautiful).

One thing that still confuses me is why IO Interactive went from the clever stealth series Hitman to a blatantly over-the-top action series such as Kane & Lynch. Put more work into Hitman 5!
That aside, this game really does look pretty sweet. This is one that I’ll probably sit on for a bit before getting it, to see if it’s been improved, but when it comes down to it, I could see myself getting this game.

After some searching, I can’t seem to find this trailer on Youtube, and can’t get the GT.TV video to embed correctly, so just click here to be taken to the trailer.

Related posts:

1. Review: Battlefield Bad Company 2 Demo
2. Lord of the Rings: Conquest Trailer
3. Call of Duty: Black Ops Trailer Debut

Yesterday, we reported that Half-Life 2 had been confirmed for a Mac arrival. Well, with today’s weekly Wednesday Steam update, we saw that release.

I’ve been playing it almost nonstop since it was put up. Half-Life 2, HL2 Episode 1, and HL2 Episode 2 are all available for download on Mac OS X. It runs smooth as ever, and even has a few other improvements…
There is now cloud saving, allowing you to play on a Windows machine, save, and then pick up where you left off on your Mac. Or however you want to use it, like if you’re formatting your computer. Your save will be safe. This is something I’d been hoping for, and I’m really happy that they’ve taken the initiative to include it.
Another change is small graphical updates. I haven’t really noticed them, but then again, I haven’t played Half-Life 2 in a year or so.
And the final change is achievements, giving you another reason to run through again. (Does this help you justify it to yourself? As if you needed to.) There are 33 achievements available in Half-Life 2, 13 in Episode 1, and 22 in Episode 2.

On top of all of that, Valve has also pushed out a Mac-exclusive HL2 and Portal update, just a bit ago. For HL2, it fixes some font issues the game was having and also a crash that was occurring.
Portal’s update brings about better performance with the particle rendering on lower-end GPU’s and “made acid pits more performant.” All of these updates have come out for Mac, and seeing how HL2 was just released for the platform today, it makes me feel as if Valve is really sticking by its oath to make Mac OS X a tier-one gaming platform. They’re already showing the community great attention and fixing bugs as they come. Mad respect, Valve.

This was an incredibly exciting release for me.. Half-Life 2 is one of my favourite games of all time, and I’m happy to be able to replay it in my preferred operating system. This also gives me hope for next week’s update.
I’m really hoping that they finally budge and release Team Fortress 2. TF2 is a fantastic online first-person shooter that I would absolutely love to play. (Can’t play it on my Windows partition unfortunately, because of some wifi issues that prevent me from having a constant connection.) Or even Counter-Strike: Source. In fact, I think I would prefer that, just for the nostalgia. Either way, I hope next week is a great update, and not like last week’s uneventful Valve-less update.

Also, if you haven’t purchased The Orange Box yet, do that now. If you’re a Mac gamer, four out of the five games are now available, waiting only on Team Fortress 2. It’s the best deal in all of gaming, and I recommend it more than just about anything else.

Related posts:

1. Half life 2 for Mac Steam!
2. Almost All Valve Games Now On Mac
3. Steam for Mac Released – First Impressions

Mac users of the world rejoice, the best shooter ever created is coming to the Mac, to make some noise!

It’s official: Valve has given confirmation of the release of Half Life 2 on the Mac version of Steam!

Starting tomorrow the game will officially be available for purchase.

Valve being Valve, they made the announcement in style, by presenting the addition of Half life 2 for Mac Steam, using a trailer video, that shows a half life interpretation of Apple’s 1984 ad, that was used to introduce the Mac to the general public. We have to admit, Half life never looked better.

In case you are from Mars, have been living under a rock, or been lost in the dessert for a decade or two, half life 2, is the most brilliant creation Valve has ever released, a shooter with a chilling story, and is situated in one of the most compelling universes ever created for a game! I know, I sound like an advertisement, but it is the truth.

Don’t take my word for it though, just have a look at a recent PC Gamer reader poll, and you will quickly find that even with today’s hot shooters, using the latest technology, Half life 2 is still considered to be the best game for PC ever created. Not bad for a game dating from 2004.

In case you were wondering what the video trailer looks like, I have added it below for your viewing pleasure.

Related posts:

1. Half-Life 2 for Mac Released
2. Almost All Valve Games Now On Mac
3. Steam for Mac Private Beta Leaked

All Points Bulletin (henceforth APB) is an upcoming MMORPG like no other. Instead of grinding for hours on end and doing quests to level up, you hit the streets GTA-style.
It’s a cops-and-robbers kind of game, where you get to choose which side your character is on and duke it out over the ‘net.

It looks really interesting, and it’s something that I’ve been excited for for quite a bit now. The one thing I’ve been wondering about is the pricing plan, and how they would work it out.
Well, the folks over at Realtime Worlds have now revealed that to us, and I’m quite pleased.

I’ve never been a WoW player, but I’ve heard friends complain about how they paid for a month’s worth of gameplay, but only got the chance to play for a couple of hours throughout the entire month. Well, Realtime Worlds is looking to implement sort of a “pay-as-you-go” payment scheme for APB.

They say that 20 hours of gameplay will cost $7, while unlimited play will be a flat $10 fee. I, for one, will start out with the $7/month fee and see where it goes from there. (Even the unlimited play is cheaper than WoW.)
I think it’s great that they’re giving people options like that, and I very much believe that this kind of respect for their users will make their wallets explode in no time at all.

They also mentioned that there will be social districts where players can customize their players, socialize a bit, make custom clothes and whatnot, all without paying a dime toward their monthly gameplay fee. The clock only starts ticking once you jump into the meat of the gameplay, with the shooting and the killing.
This is really neat, because if you like to spend the majority of your time away from the violence, peacefully socializing and designing things, you won’t have to pay a penny while you do that. You could do it around the clock without suffering any payments.

Plus, every purchase of the game gets 50 free hours of gameplay. That’s… A lot of time to play, just for buying the game.

Personally, after watching some videos and reading some stuff about it, I cannot wait for this game, and I’ll be one of the first in line to buy it. And now that I know how awesome their pricing plan will be, I’m all the more eager.

Related posts:

1. Capcom reveals 2011 titles
2. Steam Holiday Sale – Off To An Awesome Start
3. Star Wars Fans Rejoice For Steam’s LucasArts Week

If there’s anything that I love more than a great game, it’s a great game with committed developers. MAG is an online first-person shooter that supports a massive 256-player game size, making for incredibly large-scale battles.
I haven’t tried it out yet, but it looks fantastic, and I’ve been following the news on it since the game was announced. A lot of the news has been posted on the Playstation blog, where developers and Sony update gamers on the happenings of the console. The developers for MAG (Zipper Interactive, former developers of the SOCOM U.S. Navy Seals series) have been updating the Playstation blog quite often, with news as well as gameplay tips.
They’ve involved with the community, and I love that.

Just tonight, they’ve made a post announcing upcoming downloadable content for their popular online shooter. The best thing about the announcement is that the DLC will be completely free, and will be hitting the Playstation network next Thursday, March 25th.
It’s not often you see free downloadable content, so it’s an absolute joy when you do. (Another recent example of this is Battlefield Bad Company 2′s upcoming map pack, which will be free. An example on the other end of the spectrum is the upcoming map pack for Modern Warfare 2, which will be a whopping $15.)

The DLC will include new weapons (three light machine guns, as well as a flashbang grenade, which… Well, quite frankly, I’m not sure why that didn’t come with the game. Pretty basic element of an FPS), as well as two new uniforms to give you more customization options and more tactical camouflage options.

Their post on the Playstation blog also says,

“The best part of the Trooper Gear Pack? It’s just the beginning of our ongoing commitment to MAG. In the coming months, you can expect to see plenty of other add-ons and goodies that we can’t quite tell you about yet (but know you’ll enjoy).”

This is great news, even for me, somebody who has yet to pick this game up. These guys sound really committed to making MAG a better game over time, which is fantastic. They’ll also be holding a double experience promotion, starting March 25th at 3am (eastern) and ending March 28th around the same time. Basically, if you sign on during this time and play a few matches, you’ll earn twice the experience points that you would normally earn.
Pretty neat.

[Post on Playstation Blog]

See larger image MAG (Video Game) List Price: $29.99 USD New From: $13.88 In Stock Used from: $5.35 In Stock Release date January 26, 2010.

Related posts:

1. Details of Killzone 2 DLC – Flash and Thunder
2. Star Wars Fans Rejoice For Steam’s LucasArts Week
3. Team Fortress 2 Hitting Mac Tomorrow

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

Fans of the Metal Gear Solid game, are in for a pleasant surprise, because Sony will be launching a brand new Metal Gear Solid bundle, in June 2010. This “Peace walker Entertainment Pack”, will consist out of a PSP 3000 in a completely new shade of green, for the United States, called Spirited Green. But that is not all, it will also come with special in game extras like uniforms, logos  and special features that are exclusive to this bundle. The extra content, can be unlocked early on, while playing the game.

The entertainment package will include: The Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker game, that was hand-crafted by series creator Hideo Kojima, a downloadable cinema voucher for a yet unknown movie (valid for citizens of the United States only), and a 2GB Memory Stick, for saving game scores, images and the likes, to free up the memory of the PSP itself.
The game itself will start where the previous PS2 game: Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater ended, and will deliver a brand new story line and scenario, based on the developments that unfolded in Metal Gear Solid 3 .

There will be two entertainment packages released; one for the US and one for Japan, that are certain to be totally different from each other, like always was the case with other bundles, Sony has released before, but looking at the US package its promising to be a hot item for fans of the Metal Gear Solid series.

The Peace Walker entertainment pack is going to cost $199.99 and looking at the demo of the new installment to the Metal Gear Solid series it is well worth it, not even taking the extras into account.

So if you are a fan of the Metal Gear Solid series, June is going to be an exciting month for gaming.

See larger image Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker (Video Game) List Price: $19.99 USD New From: $10.00 In Stock Used from: $4.99 In Stock Release date June 8, 2010.

Related posts:

1. Infamous Super Mario Clone Coming to Nintendo DS
2. Indie Games To Check Out
3. 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa: Game Trailer

As one of the greatest shooting games ever made, Call of Duty Modern Warfare seemed to have it all; great graphics, an exciting story line, awesome gameplay, and cool multiplayer features. Now after high anticipation and much excitement Activision has finally brought us Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 which has completely blown away the original Modern Warfare game. Modern Warfare was full of dramatic moments, action packed scenes, and intense game play, Modern Warfare 2 has brought this back and made it 10x better. The graphics are amazing, the story is awesome, and the multiplayer gameplay is to die for. Also newly added in Modern Warfare 2 is a new campaign mode called “Spec-ops”, which has received a lot of attention since the games release, and is a great new mode for the game.

Storyline

The storyline of Call of Duty Modern Warfare pretty much starts off where the events of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare left off.

Even though Zakhaev, the ultra-nationalist Russian leader, has been permanently dealt with, his lieutenant, Vladimir Makarov has managed to get control of Russia’s military forces and is now an even bigger threat to the world then his predecessor ever was. International intelligence agencies have received credible, actionable intelligence that Makarov is aggressively extending the reach of his influence well beyond the borders of Russia.

This has caused a huge dilemma in the international community, resulting in the deployment of an elite multinational task-force codenamed “Task Force 141″, consisting of Navy Seals, Delta Force teams, CIA and British SAS units. If playing the single player campaign mode, you play as Sergeant Gary “Roach” Sanderson, whose mission is to eliminate Makarov and his henchmen at any cost, regardless of where the battle takes place.

Cooperative “Special Ops” Mode

Special ops features independent missions similar in design to the “Mile High Club” epilogue mission from Call of Duty 4. These are “campaign inspired” missions which are not directly related to the story of the campaign itself.

This great new mode allows you to pay in solo mode, split screen with a friend, or go online for the full experience in two player co-op warfare, giving you and your friend a chance to go on many challenges together. Special ops mode encourages you to learn tactics and maneuvers to successfully complete your challenge.

There are five special ops mission groups with a total of 23 missions, each of which can be played at different difficulty levels of regular, hardened, or veteran. One to three stars are assigned after successful mission completion, with the number of stars awarded based on the difficulty level chosen. More missions are unlocked as the player earns more stars.

Some of the Special Ops scenarios include capturing an enemy compound, one player providing air support from an AC-130 gunship while the other player conducts ground operations, seek and destroy operations and even a snowmobile race between the two players.

Multiplayer Mode

The multiplayer mode in the 2nd version of Modern Warfare is outstanding, with the only downside being on the PC version of the game since dedicated server support was removed, thereby eliminating the ability for mods or user-created maps to be used, which has angered many PC gamers.

What I love the most when playing in multiplayer mode are the Kill Streaks. Everything is pretty much the same as in COD4 when it comes to kill streaks with the exception of several hot new features. There are new Killstreak rewards which unlock weapons drops and air strikes. To be exact, there are 15 different kill streak rewards which can be unlocked by the player. Some of these new rewards is the ability to receive a supply drop after achieving four kills in a row, calling in a missile strike after five kills, you can even call in an AC-130 gunship to strike death from the skies after achieving 11 kills.

Players also are given substantially more options when it comes to customising their multiplayer experience with new character classes such as Ranger and Overwatch, as well as some bonus unlockable classes like Riot Control. In addition, you are now able to unlock the option to create your own classes, which opens up endless possibilities of new ways to enjoy this great mode.

Since COD4 some of you may have noticed that you are walking around like you have a huge bag of rice on your back, well, this is because the great developers at Infinity Ward have added more realism to the game; this way you would walk and run at a more realistic pace, but after about 5 minutes you will probably get used to this and won’t even notice it. Another thing which has added quite a bit more realism is Frag Grenades, which are my personal favorites. The explosions have been toned down a bit compared to COD4 but this really does make it much better, it also means no more spawning then dying.

But what have I not mentioned about Modern Warfare 2 yet?      Guns… Now no need to get overly excited, but I love the guns in this game, for primaries there are: 9 assault rifles, 5 sub machine guns, 5 light machine guns, 4 sniper rifles, and the Riot Shield. All of the primaries (except for the sniper rifles) have 10 different weapon customizations (scopes, gear, etc..) to choose from. There are even more, secondary weapons, we have: 4 machine pistols, 6 shotguns, 4 handguns, and 5 launchers!

Now that is a hell of a lot of fire power for one game, and all you bad ass gamers love it! This gives you so many ways to customize your profile (weapon and perk preset) and then gets straight into the game and start killing that one guy who complains all the time.

We all know that COD4 had some networking issues, these have all been resolved by now, and something much better has been added. Remember in COD4 when a guy couldn’t take being killed over and over again and left the game, only to find that he was the host and the entire game ended for everyone?
Well no more, the new in-game host migration feature gives you a small pause while it looks for a new host, you than get a 5 second countdown so you can get ready to start exactly where you left off!

Now as maps are concerned in Multiplayer get ready to be lost, many of the maps are very big, but great fun to explore and find all your new sniper spots, but do not worry as with the large number of players that can fit into a match (up to 18) you will never find yourself on a corner with no enemy’s.

Campaign Mode

We have covered the cooperative and multiplayer modes, and now it’s time for the long awaited campaign mode! The campaign mode takes you through several exotic area’s including Rio de Janeiro’s favela’s and through the cold terrain of Russia. Campaign mode still had me dazzled with the falling ceilings, exploding walls, and other scripted events. Not only where they well timed, but the graphics where absolutely impeccable. Infinity Ward and Activision decided to keep co-op out of campaign mode this time, and honestly, after playing through I couldn’t agree more. The dialogue is best suited towards 1 person and not 2, for example, on one of the first levels Makarov betrays you and ends up shooting you after you have helped him through the entire level. That one moment would only suit one person, if you deployed another player into that scene it would have ruined the atmosphere it had created.

Campaign mode only takes around 6 hours on average to complete, but since the very first Call of Duty game, the campaigns seem to be getting shorter and shorter. With multiplayer mode, however, I think we can forget that one downside about the game, because the rest of it is so well done, even if I did complete it in a day or two Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 still stays within my top 3 games for my console.

Bottom Line

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 easily gets into the must have category of video games as it is the finest game in its genre. It offers an unmatched first person shooter experience, an excellent story mode, slick mini missions and an unparalleled multiplayer experience. Anyone who considers themselves a fan of first person shooter has definitely got to pick up a copy of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2.

See larger image Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Video Game) List Price: $29.99 USD New From: $16.99 In Stock Used from: $10.00 In Stock Release date November 10, 2009.

Related posts:

1. Call of Duty: Black Ops Trailer Debut
2. Call of Duty 6 (2D Remake) – Well, This Is Interesting
3. Review: Battlefield Bad Company 2 Demo