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.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2

I bought this game when it came out and I loved it. Me and my friends would role in a squad raping everyone. We had plans for world domination, we would all have our class that we played as, it was very organised and it worked well. The game is extremely different from COD and if you like first person shooters and you’re getting bored of COD this is a great change. Eventually my friend persuaded me to come back to Modern Warefare 2 because he didn’t like it.

Admittedly, the single player isn’t as good. The storyline lacks the imagination of the Call of Duty series but that doesn’t mean it’s bad. The game itself looks amazing, the landscapes are beautiful. The single player might not be as good as other FPS games but there are definitely parts of the game that you won’t find in any other FPS. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 makes up for the single player with it’s multiplayer. The multiplayer is by far the best online experience I have ever encountered. Sure in Call of Duty there are loads of options and game types but you won’t find the maps, and the cooperation of the players in this game. The game doesn’t focus on kills and deaths, more so on points gathered. I enjoy games like this because you don’t get so frustrated when you die or become a different player when you’re on a massive killstreak. Instead of building up kills you are encouraged to gain points by either repairing vehicles, destroying vehicles, planting bombs, defusing bombs, healing, reviving, giving people ammo etc.

This brings me on to the classes. The multiplayer is divided into four different classes, Assault, Engineer, Medic and Recon. As an Assault your goal is to rush into the battlefield and kill. Killing isn’t everything, dropping ammo packs will also give you points, when another player is low on ammo they can resupply by walking over it. As you may have guessed, you can only use assault rifles as an Assault. As an Enginerr your job is to drive the vehicles. The vehicles being, tanks, quad bikes and helicopters. As a Engineer you can have a gadget, a drill that allows you to repair vehicles and this also gives you points. You can only use sub machine guns as an Engineer. As the Medic, your objective is to heal and revive. Healing works in the exact same way as resupplying as an Assault. Reviving brings people back from the brink of death and can potentially give you a lot of points. The Medic can only use light machine guns. I usually hate LMGs but they are really good in this game. As the Recon you are supposed to take people out to aid your fellow players on the battlefield. In my opinion there are only three good snipers in this game. They are all bolt action, the others have horrible sights and are semi automatic, one is full automatic. As a Recon you can call in mortar strikes and throw motion mines which help your team mates. Sniping in this game is insane. The sniping in this game is like no other. It’s not like in Call of Duty where the snipers are basically used like M14s. You actually have to snipe, you have to think as a sniper and when you get that kill from across the map, it is extremely rewarding.

Another thing that puts this game above others is the use of vehicles. You can drive a range of tanks, helicopters, quad bikes, boats, jet skis and humvees. The vehicles like tanks and helicopters can dominate if put in the right hands but if you aren’t an experienced pilot of gunner you are not going to last in a vehicle. Experience does play a key role when lethal vehicles are involved. Another great thing in this game is the UAVs. Instead of just calling one in, you use a stationary computer to fly it around, call in Hellfire strikes and shoot enemies if you have the right specs.

This game is severely underrated in my opinion and a lot of games are taking credit for things that Battlefield: Bad Company 2 have brought into the gaming world. Homefront for instance the Parrot Drone is pretty much the UAV in Bad Company 2. There is also a version of Conquest and Rush mixed into one game type in Homefront. I don’t know the name because I have no intention of playing Homefront, I haven’t heard great things about it even though I was excited for its release. Conquest in Bad Company 2 is when you capture flags and Rush is when you destroy things called ‘M-COM’ stations and move up the map when two are destroyed and repeat. Homefront act as if these things are new but they aren’t and now Homefront are taking credit for it when Bad Company 2 have already done it.

I have recently started playing this game again and I am loving it. Battlefield 3 is coming out and I am very excited for its release. The online can only get better.