Battlefield 3

Finally the long awaited Battlefield 3 has arrived! I started playing Battlefield when Battlefield: Bad Company 2 came out. A lot of hardcore Battlefield fans might say ‘no!’ to me but even though the campaign wasn’t that great the multiplayer was were that game shined. I don’t care what people say, Bad Company 2’s multiplayer was damn good and it was damn fun. I don’t care if it didn’t have jets in it, it was my first Battlefield game and it was epic. Anyway, this isn’t about Bad Company 2. I guess what I’m trying to say is that this game is an improvement to its previous games, I know I should be comparing this to Battlefield 2 more than Bad Company 2 but unfortunately I never played it. I know there are slight differences between console and PC versions of the game, for this review I will be talking about the Xbox 360 version. Again the hardcore Battlefield along with the PC community will be going crazy at me and may not even take this review seriously but it’s the platform that I play most of my games on. I did try to get the beta working on my PC. I recently upgraded my PC because my old one couldn’t run anything but sadly for some reason even after I downloaded the driver it told me to download it wouldn’t let me join a match. I would just sit there staring at a spinning circle on Battlelog.

One main thing about Battlefield that everyone loves is the graphics. I thought the graphics were really good in Bad Company 2 and when I heard they were stepping up their engine to Frostbite 2 I was really excited. I play Battlefield 3 on the console so obviously the graphics aren’t going to be superior, if you play console you’re just going to have to accept that and if you don’t you’re stupid. This is coming from a console gamer so don’t get too offended. Coming up to the release I was a little bit scared how the game would look and run on the Xbox 360. I heard a lot of crap from mostly PC elitists who have nothing better to do than to insult console gamers. I’ve played the game for almost 24 hours and I can safely say that you don’t have to listen to anyone who says this game plays terribly on console because it doesn’t. It simply doesn’t. I only ever found one recurring problem and I doubt it happened on PC was that there was sometimes a huge drop in frames per second during the single player. This only happened maybe four or five times throughout the roughly seven hour campaign. During multiplayer the only problems I have encountered was server lag and quick match problems, each of them I only encountered maybe around three times which is a lot less than what everyone else is complaining about.

The singleplayer is pretty awesome. I’ve only played this and Bad Company 2 and the Bad Company 2 campaign wasn’t that great so I didn’t have much to compare it to. I don’t want to compare it too much to Call of Duty because they really are different games and you’ll understand that more if you play a lot of video games. I installed the HD texture pack straight away so I haven’t don’t a comparison but I have seen one and there is a difference. There’s a difference in the small detail of things but there isn’t in the big picture if that makes sense. I would say, don’t play this game without the texture pack. There isn’t any reason not too and it does make a difference. It’s the small things that make a difference! Call of Duty campaigns rarely disappoint. I’ve played since World at War and I have played the COD4 campaign and I haven’t been disappointed by one yet. I’ve heard that the singleplayer of Battlefield 3 was just an excuse to show off the graphics. Even if it was they’ve done a good job. The dark knight in the city alone was really eerie. The whole singleplayer had a great atmosphere around it the whole time. Right at the beginning they make sure you see the handcuffs around your wrists which I thought was pretty cool once I got to the end of the singleplayer. My favourite mission was when you were playing as the Russians in Paris. That mission was really colourful and I really liked the gun I was given.

Now down to the multiplayer. This is what everyone is excited about and rightly so. Bad Company 2’s multiplayer was a lot of fun but it definitely wasn’t perfect. No game is ever going to be perfect but this one is amazing. One of my favourite things about this game is the animation of the characters. When you think about it, it’s a small thing but now I realise how huge and important it is. The animation of the Engineer reloading an RPG, Gustav or AT4 in Bad Company was god awful. In Battlefield 3 the animations are so smooth. The running animation is so realistic I find myself staring at other people in the game rather than doing anything. Of course, the thing that everyone loves in Battlefield are the jets. I’m just going to be honest here, I suck major nut sack at the jets. I can fly them but I fail sometimes and crash but most of the time I just can’t shoot anything else done with my god damn gun! 300 points doesn’t seem that much when you look at the little progress bar but the odds are against you when you are flying against a pilot who has flares, heat seeking missiles, the fancy map thing that I don’t know the name of. I got this game on the 31st of October. I preordered it so I have the limited edition with the code for the Back to Karkand DLC. I live in Europe so I had to wait a couple more days to get it. By the time I got it loads of people were already flying around with all this jet gear that I’m probably not going to get till Battlefield 4! Personally I shine on the ground with a gun in my hands, that’s the player I am.

The multiplayer is amazing but it isn’t perfect. I find myself getting spawn killed a lot, and when I say a lot I mean a lot. It could just be my fault and I’m sure some of them are but it just seems like it happens way too much. I could be really stupid and not realise that people are in combat and I shouldn’t spawn on them. They have taken spawn invincibility out of the game which I guess I’m happy about. In Bad Company 2 it was such a bitch and it would always cost me a kill. That is probably the only criticism of the multiplayer. I like the idea of the degrading vehicles. I don’t like the idea of vehicles regenerating health but when I heard what DICE said about it I felt better, to keep vehicles in the game and make them more of a core part of combat. It seems like they have taken out of decreased at least the recharge of the defibulators. I’m not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing in terms of gameplay but I like it. One thing I really praise DICE for doing is increasing the amount of points for capturing or destroying an M-COM. This really helps people actually go for the objective. I still get frustrated when nobody does it but it feels like more people are trying harder to get to the objective.

For some reason I can’t get into Battlelog and check out my stats. I’ll keep trying and get back to you if I can.

This game definitely has a lot of play time in it, much more than Bad Company 2. I will be playing this game a lot and I’m really looking forward to the DLC. This game is really awesome and there is no reason why you should be on the fence about buying this game.

I still rage in the multiplayer but I give it the double thumbs up, 9/10

By the way, I did a MW3 wish list a while back and I didn’t do one for Battlefield 3. The reason for that is because I wasn’t worried that this game was going to be a disappointment.

Team Fortress: Soldier

When I first started out with the Soldier I didn’t enjoy it, I couldn’t get the rockets to hit anyone and I felt so slow. After a while and a little practise I came back to the Soldier and now the Soldier is one of my favourite classes. He is the second beefiest class and, just like every other class, has the potential to do massive damage. I’ve had some of my best matches with the Soldier, going on rampage and killing everyone I see.

Just like the Heavy, the Soldier is a great class to have a pocket medic with and to Übercharge. The Soldier has a wide range of launchers, some better than others in my opinion. My personal favourite at the moment is the Black Box. It generates 15 health for every hit you get on someone. The downside is that you get one less rocket. As long as you keep reloading you should be fine. Anyway, we’re not hear to talk about weapons, you can watch the Taking One for the Team Fortress 2 videos that I link in every Team Fortress 2 class post.

Lets get on to strategies. The soldier is an offensive class so it is great for rushing, creating and helping pushes and invading Engineer nests. What a Soldier isn’t so good at is capturing points. The rocket launchers explosive radius can be hazardous to your health and you can take a lot of unnecessary health. You could always take out your shotgun but sometimes that just isn’t good enough so try not to capture if you don’t have someone else that can help you out.

You are a slow class so you are very vulnerable to getting backstabbed by Spies. Turning around and firing a rocket can be a good way to take out a Spy quickly, it shouldn’t be too dangerous. Now on to something I am not very good at, rocket jumping. I can give an explanation but I couldn’t do it to save my life. The idea of rocket jumping is pretty self explanatory. Using your rocket to get your character to up to heights that couldn’t be achieved normally. To rocket jump you have to jump and shoot at the ground at the same time. To reach even further heights you crouch and jump and shoot a rocket. To change direction you can move, jump and rocket or you can angle the rocket away from yourself to minimise damage. I’m sure you can find a YouTube video describing and showing you that is a million times better than text.

One quick tip, the Equaliser is probably the best melee weapon because you can get away faster when you’re health is lower but only when you pull it out.

Team Fortress 2: Pyro

The Pyro is one of the best starter classes. The flamethrower can kill relatively easily. It is often said that the mantra of the Pyro is W+M1, which is so true. A newcomer to Team Fortress 2 can do alright with the Pyro with no strategy but with a strategy, the Pyro can be an essential class to any team.

So, down to the meat of the Pyro. His or her, we’re not sure unless there has been some news that I don’t know about, if so comment! His or her main strategy is, ambush. The Pyro’s flamethrower doesn’t have very good range yet it is very powerful. Using flanking routes, a little bit like the Scout can benefit your team immensely. Especially if you have the Backburner which gives you 100% crits if you flame your enemies back, it is extremely important to attack from behind, especially if you need to take down a Heavy.

A more supportive strategy is called spy checking. This is very important when protecting the objective or your Engineers nest. Spy checking involves you puffing or full on flaming your flamethrower in areas that are vulnerable to your team, for example a capture point, the intelligence in CTF, an Engineers nest or even spy checking around a Heavy and his pocket Medic to make sure they don’t get killed when making an important push.

These tips are more for fighting against other players and helping your team mates with your compression blast. The compression blast is a blast of compressed air that can either push enemies back, reflect rockets and other projectiles and extinguish team mates that are on fire. Pushing your enemies back can be extremely helpful, even if you die it’ll give time for other team mates to push the enemies back even more. It is most effective if you push a Medic away from his Heavy. The Backburner uses a lot of fuel when using the compression blast so use it wisely. Extinguishing your team mates is extremely important. I can’t even count the times I have ran circles around a Pyro to try and get his attention to put me out and I die. Extinguish team mates, it makes you more useful and you get points for it.

One last tip, if you are going head to head against a Pyro, keep your distance and get out your shotgun, unless attacking from behind and you have the Backburner or if you catch him off guard, burn him up. It is harder to burn a Pyro because of his/her protective suit.

Team Fortress 2: Scout

The Scout is one of the hardest classes to master. In the right hands he can be a death machine and be a key part of a team. The scout runs very fast. This coupled with his shotgun which can only do extreme damage at close range make a great team. His pistol can be used at longer ranges when needed. The Scout captures points twice as fast, this makes killing a secondary task, the job of the Scout is to be on the objective at all times. This coupled with a Pyro would make a great objective couple.

The scout is also one of the weakest classes, at 125 Health he is very vulnerable to any hits he may take, especially if he gets hit by a crit, it’s very risky to go out and capture points. Use of different routes to flank the enemy will make you more successful in taking out enemies and then eventually capturing points. The Scout also has some good secondary items that replace the pistol, e.g. Milk will heal you and anyone that hits the enemy when they are drenched with the Milk. Crit-a-Cola gives your weapons crits for a limited time to cause some extra damage, maybe to help take down a Heavy. Bonk will make you invinsible for a short amount of time, the draw backs are that you cannot shoot, capture points or pick up intelligence. This can be useful for getting past sentries and enemies. Maybe not so much for CTF as engineers usually put their sentries in the intelligence room and by the time your Bonk runs out it’s probably too late.

In conclusion, as the Scout your primary goal is to capture points, attack weaker classes that you can take advantage of with your speed and double jump e.g. snipers and catching engineers out in the open without the protection of their sentries. If attacking other classes, flanking is the best option.

Team Fortress 2

I have recently been getting into more PC games, partially so I could play with friends and partially because every game developer decided to release their games all at the same time at the end of the year. Anyway, I upgraded my piece of crap computer to a better one, not exceptionally good but pretty good to do what I need it to do, I’m not a PC gamer so I’m not going to shed out ridiculous amounts of money on a computer.

My friend told me that I must get Team Fortress 2 because it’s ‘amazing’. I remember seeing this title in a store a long time ago, probably when it just came out and I thought it looked pretty damn awesome but I never played it until a few weeks ago, and I have to say this is  one of the best multiplayer experiences I have ever had. Team Fortress 2 is so much fun despite the high learning curve of each class.

I love the way this game looks. I have never seen a game that looks cartoony and fun yet so amazing and hard. Most of the classes actually take skill to master unlike in COD when anyone can have at least a small amount of success. If you’re one of those douche bags who run around with Ghost, Second Chance and a noob tube then this game might not be for you.

Each class is made up of a primary weapon, a secondary weapon and a melee weapon, some classes have more things, the Engineer has another two spots to create and demolish buildings and the Spy has an extra slot for disguises. Each class is different in it’s own way, they all wield their own weapons. The Soldier has a rocket launcher, shotgun and a shovel, the Scout has a Scattergun (shotgun), a pistol and a baseball bat, the Pyro has a flamethrower, a shotgun and a fire axe, the Demoman has a grenade launcher, don’t worry, it’s not like the noob tubes in Call of Duty, the grenades don’t explode on impact unless they hit someone, a sticky bomb launcher which can be detonated at anytime and a whiskey bottle, the Heavy has a mini gun, a shotgun and his fists, the Engineer has a shotgun, a pistol, a wrench, a PDA to create buildings and another to demolish. The Medic has a syringe gun, a medigun which heals people and a saw. The Sniper has a sniper rifle, a sub machine gun and a sword. Finally, the Spy has a revolver, a sapper which destroys buildings, a knife to backstab and finally a book of disguises.

These are all the vanilla loadouts of the classes, these slots can be change to different weapons, e.g. the Scout can change his secondary to a jar of milk or different energy drinks, the Demoman can have a range of different swords. There are a lot of items that I’m not going to go into because it would take forever.

Even though there is a learning curve on this game, there is a class for everyone. My favourites are the Scout and the Soldier. The Scout is definitely one of the hardest to master along with the Spy. The easiest is the Pyro, you’ll often hear people say W+M1, the mantra of the Pyro. If you play this game you’ll understand.

One thing I love about this game is that it is so balanced, there is nothing in this game that I’ve really gotten worked up about or that’s made me rage quit, in fact, I don’t think I’ve ever raged quitted from this game. I have shouted at my monitor because of Spies killing me a lot but then I stop and realise that the Spy class is really hard and either they are too good or I’m not playing right. Obviously Jesus made a really good comment on this game, ‘The moment you start making your vanilla weapons looks bad is the moment you have an unbalanced game.’ This is so true and Team Fortress 2 doesn’t fall into the unbalanced category. I still use the vanilla Scattergun for the Scout, I used the vanilla rocket launcher for the Solider for a long time, I use the vanilla syringe and medigun for the medic.

This game was recently made F2P, you may be called a F2P noob when you start, somehow I didn’t. A lot of people complained that they bought the game the day before it went F2P but to be honest, it’s worth the $10 or £10 or €10. There are a bunch of benefits to upgrading to a premium account, you can trade with other players, get more inventory space, that was the big one for me. I went into the store and found a cheap item that I wanted and bought it, it cost me 74 cents to upgrade my account. I have hardly covered anything in this article, maybe I’ll do another one on each class, discussing strategies and ways to play each class. There’s no reason not to try out this game, it’s free!

Portal 2

I have to admit, I wasn’t the greatest at the first Portal, it took me a little longer than some people, not like 5 hours longer or anything but it was a different story regarding Portal 2. I finished Portal 2 a couple of days ago and have been meaning to write about it. I finished it over 2 days. The first day I was so excited I played it for like 8 hours straight. The next day I polished it off in 2 hours. Gameplay wise it was approximately 10 hours or so and what a 10 hours it was!

It’s amazing how much content you can squeeze out of the Source engine and it still looks up to date with current games. It doesn’t look as amazing as games like Crysis 2 or anything but no one plays Portal 2 for the graphics, you play it for the gameplay and I think this is a perfect game to explain how I am trying to look at games currently and in the future. A lot of review sites review games based on gameplay, graphics, sound and longevity but I want to add another factor that people don’t seem to take into account when rating a game, how fun it is. All the other factors are still hugely important but I think the fun factor trumps them all and that’ll play an important part in this review and others to come.

Portal 2 takes place years after the first Portal. Aperture Laboratories are overgrown with nature and you have just come out of stasis. GLaDOS is dead. As you progress through the game the laboratories are slowly rebuilt. Portal 2 is even more funny than the last one in my opinion. With the addition of Wheatley, voiced by Stephen Merchant and Cave Johnson, (every line he has is hilarious) voiced by J. K. Simmons there are more hilarious quotes than the last. And of course GLaDOS, voiced by Ellen McLain, comes back in the sequel who is equally funny if not more.

Now into the meat of the game, the puzzles. In the first one there wasn’t too many puzzles. I believe there were 19 test chambers and more puzzles when you escaped. In Portal 2 I think there are 41 test chambers, that sounds way too much but I think there are 22 in the first section then 19 later on and that isn’t including puzzles when you escape… I think. Don’t hold me to those numbers. Basically there is a crap load more puzzles to solve in Portal 2. I don’t know what it was, maybe because I had played the first one and knew what I was getting into or Portal 2 was easier but I zoomed through the singleplayer. I got stuck on 2 or 3 puzzles but I solved them in the end. Most importantly I didn’t use a walkthrough! In Portal, if you get stuck all you got to do is keep on moving around the test chamber until you see the puzzle in a different way. I did that (and stayed calm and didn’t throw my controller across the room) and I ended up solving puzzles I got stuck on and it feels pretty good when you’re stuck on a puzzle for 45 minutes then suddenly you get a brainwave and you solve it!

I know I can’t complain because Portal 2 is a lot longer than the first and it could be because I played it a lot on the first day but I really wish there were more puzzles to solve! I hope Portal 2 is supported with a crap load of DLC. And I haven’t had a chance to play coop yet, hopefully that will take up a lot of my time.

There isn’t much else to Portal other than voice and gameplay. It’s a really fun game. The puzzles aren’t too difficult that you get frustrated and you never feel as if it’s the games fault. I was really pleased with the ending of it too but I won’t ruin anything. If you haven’t played it, go play it. It’s a different game to others and it’s a lot of fun even if you aren’t shooting at people.

Battlefield over Call of Duty

I haven’t posted anything in a while so I thought I’d talk about something that is kind of important in games right now and will be later on this year. Lately I’ve been a lot more interested in Battlefield: Bad Company 2. I bought the game when it first came out and I immediately fell in love, I played a lot of COD near the end of MW2 and pretty much played COD over Battlefield most of the time, only going back for a game or two. Now I’m back in and really excited for Battlefield 3 and not so excited for MW3.

For me it’s the gameplay, I do enjoy arena games like Halo and COD but I love the open battlefields and realistic gameplay that is showcased in Battlefield. I understand that games like COD may take more gun skill to drop opponents and complete objectives but in Battlefield you have to work together, I mean it’s like real war! You have to revive to keep ticket numbers up, give ammo, spot people etc. There are a lot of games that I want for example, L.A. Noire, Portal 2 and games that haven’t come out yet like Skyrim but I haven’t been feeling the same way about MW3. The engine has hardly been upgraded since COD4 and I’m not a graphics whore! But seriously, the Frostbite engine has was upgraded from Bad Company 1 to Bad Company 2 and now they are upgrading it again! That shows that DICE aren’t looking for a game to crap out every year whether it’s ready or not, they want to take their sweet time making a quality game. Who knows, with Sledgehammer helping Infinity Ward on the campaign and Raven Software takes care of the multiplayer, we could see a great experience in online gaming, but I wouldn’t get your hopes up.

I know it sounds like I’m crapping on the Call of Duty franchise which I am and not very subtly but I do love Call of Duty no matter how much it angers me sometimes. In fact I am getting into it a little more thanks to Machinima Respawn posting competitive gamebattle matches and the Call of Community which just passed really got my hyped up to play Call of Duty.

I’m not sure if I’ll get MW3 but I’m not going to say no straight away. I know if something sells why stop selling it but I hope Activision one day see that enough is enough and do something about the franchise.

Crysis 2 Tips

• Crysis 2 isn’t like other FPS games. It’s not like COD where you just run around shooting people, I’m not saying that you don’t need a strategy to do well in Call of Duty but all it is, is you and your gun and nothing else. In Crysis 2 you are equipped with a nanosuit which possesses nanosuit abilities. This leads on to my first tip, use all of your nanosuit abilities. You can use one more than the other but it is important that you use all of them. If you don’t use all of them you are going to get beaten time and time again.
• A lot of people might not think this but I do, this is a very important tip, do not get distracted by the awesome water animation. On Skyline, I once sat in a corner to recharge and I got distracted by the water dripping off my visor and I was stealth killed. It might not seem like a big deal but you could be about to collect your 7th dog tag.
• Understand the maps. This one can apply to all first person shooters but in Crysis 2 it is especially important. If you are low on energy you’re going to need some where safe to recharge, you don’t want to be caught with your pants down in the open.
• Never shoot whilst cloaked. A lot of people didn’t know this one at first but if you shoot whilst cloaked it will drain all your energy, this goes for grenades and melee too. Handguns are the only weapon that doesn’t completely drain your energy. An easy way to switch out of cloak rapidly is to switch to armour, you’ll probably be getting into a gun fight anyway and it protects you from other enemies around you.
• This one applies to other first person shooters but again, I think this one applies more to Crysis 2 because of the nanosuit. Choose your modules wisely, they can help greatly with your nanosuit.
• A lot of people don’t like the idea of cloaking too much in Crysis 2. Some people say it’s like camping or it’s noobish or some people just aren’t used to it but it’s not. The game has given it to you, use it. If your opponent isn’t using it you’re already one step closer to killing him and not getting killed by his team mate.
• Watch Crysis 2 videos. Before I got Crysis 2 I drooled over it watching commentaries and tips videos. It will improve your game even if you don’t realise it.
• Finally, play the game. With experience you’ll know what the best attachments are, what the best modules are etc. Over time you’ll also know what cloaked enemies look like and understand the maps more.

Crysis 2

Finally I have my hands on this game! I instantly fell in love with this game. It was a something different! After years of playing COD and after a few weeks playing around with Halo: Reach I needed something different and Crysis 2 is a breath of fresh air.

The campaign is great. The story line is complimented with amazing graphics. Light pours over scenery like water over rocks in a waterfall. The music is amazing, getting Hans Zimmer in on the job was a good choice. The campaign plays a little like a Call of Duty campaign but more complex because of the nanosuit capabilities. Campaigns and singleplayer modes in video games are becoming less and less important as players are more interested in multiplayer and pwning noobs but the singleplayer is a must in this game, even if you don’t care about the plot you must play it just to see how amazing the world looks. In some parts of the singleplayer it can be a little ‘stop and go’. A lot of the times you are required to sneak around cloaked and with the restrictions of the nanosuit it requires you to stop for a second to recharge. I don’t think this is a bad thing because it adds to the suspense in some parts of the game, will you be caught or can you make it to the elevator?

The singleplayer may look amazing but I think people are more interested in the multiplayer. It’s nothing like anyone has seen before and I  must say, I’m hooked. The multiplayer is so good, for me, it may have surpassed the best multiplayer I’ve ever played. Sure you can count on Call of Duty to make a decent, reliable multiplayer that will last but what have they done different since they started making Call of Duty games, they haven’t taken a risk. Halo can make a decent multiplayer too, with loads of different game types but none have created a game like this. It’s a challenge to get good scores in this game, it’s not one of those games where you party up with ten people and chat and play, you have to be concentrated or you will fail. It’s not like Homefront which is a noob friendly game. The multiplayer has introduced some great things that could be used in others, dog tags. The dog tags are a great way to eradicate camping. You must walk over their dead body and pick up their dog tag (callsign in Call of Duty) to start your killstreak or dog tag streak. I call it that but I don’t think it’s the official term.

You won’t see ridiculous K/D in this game. The tops of the leader board are scores usually something like, 20 – 4. A lot of people say that beginners will have trouble starting out but I’ve got to say, I’ve had a lot of early success with this game. I don’t think it’s because I’m amazing at games but because over the past couple of months when I was drooling over this game, I watched countless videos on YouTube about Crysis 2. Tips, how to’s, commentaries etc. When I was watching those videos it was clear that the key to success in this game is how you use your nanosuit. A lot of people say, “I rush a lot in Call of Duty so I use armour the most,” this person will not be very successful in this game because he isn’t using his nanosuit to it’s full potential. To be good at this game you must use all aspects of your nanosuit well. I’ll be posting a tips article on Crysis 2 multiplayer.

Just Cause 2

I know this game isn’t exactly new but I don’t think it’s been getting the recognition it deserves. GTA has always conquered the open world game genre. I don’t mind that because GTA IV is one of my favourite games, I love walking around and beating people on the street with a baseball bat, I really do but after a while beating people up on the street loses it’s fun factor. That’s where Just Cause 2 comes in. The game isn’t perfect but it’s still just as fun as when I picked it up when it first came out last year.

You play as Rico Rodriguez, the Agency’s secret weapon. The guy who gets things done. You are sent to a fictional island in South-East Asia called Panau. An island that used to be allies with the US until the leader dies and his son takes over, Pandak ‘Baby’ Panay and cuts off all connects with the US and introduces a harsh dictatorship. Three gangs fight for land in Panau, the Ular Boys, a tribe who fight against foreign influence, the Roaches, an organised crime syndicate and the Reapers, a revolutionary group. During the game you fight along side the three gangs, doing missions for them and destroying military and government equipment. One thing I love about this game is that life goes on with the gangs. You’ll be driving around Panau and you’ll see a gang fighting for what it believes in and you can join in and help.

This game doesn’t play like others. It encourages you to explore and discover the huge island. One of my favourite things in the game is ‘Chaos’. You must cause a certain amount of Chaos before the next Agency mission is unlocked and the story is progressed. To gain Chaos, you guessed it, you must cause chaos. Destroy any government equipment and you gain Chaos. By collecting weapon, vehicle and armour parts in the form of boxes and causing Chaos you can complete different settlements around the island. This will cause even more Chaos and earn you money. By obtaining the weapon, vehicle and armour parts you can upgrade weapons, vehicles and your health. The vehicles that I’m talking about can be obtained from the Black Market Dealer. You are introduced early on in the game and from the Black Market Dealer you can get weapons, vehicles and you can be extracted to previously discovered locations.

Once you’ve completed the game, it encourages you even more to go around the island and try and reach 100% of game completion. This is called Mercenary Mode. The world is huge and there is so much to discover. The island looks amazing too. As you explore the island of Panau you’ll discover different climates and terrains, from lush jungles to deserts to snowy mountain tops, all which look amazing. You can explore the island in different ways, by car, (which in my opinion is the worst way to get around) by boat, by helicopter or by plane. In my opinion you won’t drive a better car than in GTA IV, the cars in the game feel so realistic but one thing that GTA IV is missing is planes. You have no idea how much fun you can have with a plane in Just Cause 2. Feel like a commercial airliner, hop over to Panau’s International Airport and hijack one. Maybe you want a small fast plane that’ll zip around Panau’s financial district? Go for the Pell Silverbolt 6. Or if you’re feeling adventurous take a trip to the military airport and get a jet… with rockets and a huge gun.
I’ve saved the best part of this game for last, the grappling hook. The game wouldn’t be able to function without that thing. It allows you to do so many things that you can’t do in other open world games. It gives the player so much freedom and not to mention fun. You can grapple onto cars, planes, helicopters, buildings and people and so much more! In combination with the parachute you can slingshot your way across the island which is a very effective way to travel in small distances.

The game might be a lot of fun but it has it’s downsides. The voice acting is absolutely atrocious. I was so happy when I finished the game, partially because I knew I would hardly have to hear the characters speak again. The developers should be ashamed but they’re also lucky, if the game wasn’t so good I probably would have snapped the disc by now. Running around different settlements trying to find weapon, vehicle and armour parts is a little annoying but I can live with it. Again, the game makes up for it with the other aspects of gameplay.

If you haven’t played this game then go and play it because it’s amazing.