Student Life: Top Five Games

If cats were University students...

Being in my third and final year of University, means that in just a few weeks I’ll be thrown out into the terrifying real world. Consequently, I’ve decided to look back over my time as a student, and consider which games, released during my University career, have accompanied me through the last three years here. I’ve managed to boil what started as a rather long list of games, down to just five.

5. Gears of War 2 (Nov 08. Xbox 360) - Gears of War 2 has become widely regarded as one of the best games currently available on the Xbox 360, and with good reason. Featuring an intuitive cover system and addictive combat, I consider it easily one of my most enjoyed games of my time as a University student. With the additional ‘Horde’ mode and the ability to play through the entire campaign cooperatively with a friend, Gears of War 2 provides players with hours of bloody entertainment.

4. Left 4 Dead 2 (Nov 09. PC/Mac OS X/Xbox 360) - Having thoroughly enjoyed the original Left 4 Dead, when its sequel was announced at E3 in America last year, November couldn’t come soon enough. With more special infected, mêlée weapons and a whole new cast of survivors, the zombie apocalypse was made all the more fun. The way that the maps themselves adapt to suit the way that you are playing means that every match you play is a fresh experience.

3. Fallout 3 (Oct 08. PC/Playstation 3/Xbox 360) - Bethesda’s third instalment in their dystopian wasteland series, provided me with a worryingly engaging game. Emerging from Vault 101 two hundred years after a global nuclear war, the player sets out to find his father who inexplicably fled the safety of the vault. The open ended nature of Fallout 3 meant that decisions you make within the game have visible ramifications; within the first hour of the game, you’re given the opportunity to either defuse or activate a nuclear warhead in the middle of a town.

2. Grand Theft Auto IV (Apr 08. PC/Playstation 3/Xbox 360) - When Niko Bellic stepped off the boat as her arrived in Liberty City, I knew I’d be with him for a long, long time. GTA IV is undoubtedly one of the most engrossing video games I’ve ever played. Players take control of Niko Bellic, a likeable, if slightly shallow character, who has come to America to distance himself further from an ambiguous past in Eastern Europe. GTA IV offers an enormous and interesting storyline, and gives players fantastic multiplayer options ensuring hours of fun. The game is highly enjoyable and a must-have in any gamer’s collection.

1. The Orange Box (Oct 07. PC/Playstation 3/Xbox 360) - Containing five fantastic games in one bundle, Valve’s Orange Box is without a doubt the one gaming purchase that will always be affiliated with my time at University. I remember playing Half Life 2 for the first time whilst I was still living at Hardwick halls, and how Gordon Freeman’s muted journey comfortably distracted me away from pending assignments. Similarly, running through the Aperture science labs in Portal for the first time was an unparalleled experience, and playing Team Fortress 2 online has rewarded me with hours of enjoyment.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Review

It’s becoming harder and harder for games to make a name for themselves within the first person shooter genre without being subjected to an inevitable comparison to Infinity Ward’s seminal Call of Duty: Modern Warfare franchise. DICE, the developers responsible for the firmly established Battlefield series, have anticipated such a comparison, and consequently created a game that could persuade even the most hardcore CoD players try something new.

Enter Battlefield: Bad Company 2, a game that provides a full single player campaign and intense, addictive multiplayer combat. One of the first things to notice when playing BBC2 is the depth of detail within the environment. Previous Battlefield games have boasted about their fully destructible environments, and never before has this system looked as it does within BBC2. Other than a few instances of shadow clipping that I noticed on the Xbox 360 version, the game is perfectly rendered and ought to be experienced in HD to justify its beauty.

The campaign provides a well narrated story which, although a little clichéd, avoids condemnation by not taking itself too seriously. The very start of the game turns back time and players will find themselves fighting their way through Japanese troops on a Pacific island during World War 2. Soon enough a secret weapon is discovered that could have the power to eliminate a country‘s enemies. Back to the present, and Russia has begun slowly invading continents all around the globe. It now becomes Bad Company’s objective to find this weapon before it falls into Russian hands. The game offers plenty of refreshing environments in which to play, and the four members of Bad Company, though far from innovative characters, all compliment one another well.

DICE do not take themselves too seriously in BBC2 and it’s obvious that they are not trying to cater to the same sort hardcore demographic that have latched onto games like Modern Warfare 2, and in light of this, provide gamers with much appreciated doses of humour (a concept completely absent from every CoD game conceived). There are often full of tongue in cheek stabs at Modern Warfare 2. Most memorable of which was when an argument broke out amongst the four members during a cut scene and one yells something along the lines of “Next thing you know, they’ll be sending in a bunch of dorks with heartbeat monitors attached to their guns.” Alluding to the mission in Modern Warfare 2 which requires players to sneak around enemies with the assistance of such a device. The best way to compare the BBC2 and the Modern Warfare single player campaigns, would be to liken it to the contrast seen between Saints Row 2 and Grand Theft Auto IV.

The BBC2 campaign, on normal mode, takes a meagre five to six hours to complete, do not worry though, as inevitably you will spend most of your time on the multiplayer game modes. Though it may seem that at first, having only four game modes and ten variable maps that there will be little variation within the game modes, it is the way that these maps each unfold as you progress through a match and the weapon and gadget unlocks that will pierce their addictive claws in you. Matches can last anywhere between five minutes and half an hour. Of the four game modes, Rush will be the most popular. It involves two teams, one attacking, one defending, fighting to destroy or save a select few ‘M-Com Stations’. If these are successfully destroyed, the teams will be forced across a map where they will begin fighting in a new expanse of terrain.

I can already tell that the BBC2 disc will be stuck in my Xbox 360 for a pretty long time. The presentation of the game is in a league of its own and the multiplayer creates a constantly changing environment that will inevitably keep you pinned on the edge of your sofa.

9/10

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Demo Impressions

Drifting slowly toward the snowy ground on my first play of Dice’s newly released Battlefield: Bad Company 2 demo on the Xbox 360, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. ‘Just another modern war game,’ I thought. How wrong I was!





The demo throws players into a skirmish between Russian and American soldiers at Port Voldez in Alaska. Once in, you will be assigned either to the attacking or defending team, and it becomes your objective either to destroy or defend various M-Com stations.

Much like previous Battlefield games, there are several classes to play as, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. I was put onto the attacking team, and for my first few lives, I stuck with the sniper, scanning the map from a convenient hilltop. I was quickly spotted and killed, and decided it was time to change tactics and went right into the action as a medic, following my team mates down the hill toward the fray. The first thing I noticed was the sheer scale of the map. It accommodates for vehicles and infantry alike and doesn’t make a chore out of travelling toward the objectives.

The fully destructible environments create a very genuine feel to the game. I’ve been hiding away in a building only to have my position exposed after a tank shell annihilates one of the walls. This forces players to always check their surroundings and heightens tension within the game.

Once the first objectives are successfully destroyed by the attacking team, the map will then shift, forcing the defending team to fall back to another set of M-Com stations. This happens a further two times, meaning that players will have to consistently adapt to new surroundings every game.

One problem I have discovered is that synchronised deaths are all too frequent. On several occasions I have gotten into a dogfight with an enemy, and we‘ll both kill one another. I’m not sure whether this will be left in or not, but it can make for very frustrating gameplay if you are particularly close to your objective.

Similarly to its predecessor, BFBC2 rewards players with points for kills and teamwork, and these points go towards unlocking new weapons and equipment. Only a few of these items are available to unlock in the demo, but even getting these was great fun.

BFBC2 looks set to be a great release for 2010 and certainly a contender for one of the best multiplayer games of the year.

Procrastination ftw

I sit here nursing a pretty severe hangover, shying away from the ever-increasing pile of work that I should really be getting on with. Yesterday our lovely bosses took all of the staff out for a meal and drinks. It was a really great night out, although Jen is still stuck in bed, occasionally yelling 'I want to die!' which says a lot for how she's coping.

I've been utilising various forms of procrastination over the last week. I've felt sick, had to work at the nightclub, written a few articles for the student paper, and of course, played the Battlefield BC2 demo on XBL.

The first time I played the demo, I was completely unsure as to what my objectives were, and I drifted to the ground, found my feet, figured out a few of the controls, and set off down the snowy slopes of Alaska. However, my brain-matter was the only thing that made it to the bottom. Quickly changing tactics after a respawn, I suited up as a sniper and hid behind a couple of rocks, peeking out every now and again to get a few kills. And the rest, they say, is history. Every time I turn on my console, I just have to play a half hour of that demo. The map is jaw-dropping. The sheer scale of it is perfect. Not too big for 20 or so players, but not too small either, and I love the way that you're rewarded with more of the map when the objectives are completed.

It's the only recent warfare game that has a feeling of 'war' to it. My limited experience with games like MW2 is that there will always be tactically driven gamers, who will capitalise on the game's flaws. So far, I've not seen one person acting like this, although I expect that it will just be a matter of time!

I also played a bit of AC2 yesterday. Although many may think otherwise, I feel that there is still too much of a focus on collection missions. Being a bit of an impatient gamer, I flew threw the game doing the odd side mission here and there, but concentrating mainly on pushing the storyline along. Playing the game yesterday made me realise just how much stuff I've missed out on. I have got something like 15 feathers, and I only had 1 of Subject 16's memory-things. I hadn't really made much use of the weapon upgrades or anything either. So, yesterday I found another 6 memories and a few more feathers, but had to stop before I began thinking I was playing the original.

The new paper comes out on Friday. I've submitted a motion-controller-rant, a Mass Effect history and a summary of things to come in 2010. My motion-controller-rant did turn into a bit of a Wii bashing, purely because I want to instigate some sort of feedback, I don't care if it's bad! Having written for the paper for the last five months, I have only receieved one email which said: "I like you're article."

Anyhow, we have possible future tenants looking around our flat today, so I better get on with tidying up...and possibly some Uni work later.

Oh, and Forza 3 is on it's way after finding a delicious £20 note on the floor on the street 2 nights ago!

Friday Night

I arrived at the club on Friday night at 10pm [an hour before the upstairs dancefloor was set to open] and started preparing for my first ever club night! My heart was racing! I put out a bunch of swag for people to take at their will - Badges, stickers, sugary sweets! And began turning on all the kit; the lights, my laptop, smoke machine, the amps & mixing desk. And as soon as I was up there my nerves were replaced with an overwhelming excitement. Until I tried playing a song. The sound was terrible; the bass was completely swallowing up the songs, the graphic eq had to be changed to levels that I KNEW were too extreme to be normal. I began panicking, and ran downstairs to find my boss and get him to have a look at it.

He couldn't determine the problem and said that it must have been down to my laptop. I insisted that it couldn't be, as I'd set it up exactly the same way as I always had done. After about 20minutes of floorshaking rock songs, I discovered (with the assistance of my boss & the downstairs DJ) that in my nervous haste I had plugged the RCA cable into the Phono input, which apparently is designed to deal with vinyl players, and thus pumps up the bass. So, after a nifty switch of cables, the sound was back to normal and the night began!

Throughout all this fuss my hopes of the night had somewhat diminished. I know it sounds unreasonable, but sometimes if you've been planning something for so long, and the first moments don't quite go to plan, you feel resigned to feeling that the rest of the night will follow in much the same vain! However, it didn't. The first hour was pretty quiet, but, you go to any nightclub on a Friday in January and it'll always be quiet for the first hour or so.

People started creeping in, and standing around, drinks in hand, mouthing to the words of whatever song was playing, and then, when it was busy enough I threw on a bunch of songs to get people moving about! And hell did they do that! From 12am to 3am people were up and about dancing around, screeching along to the songs and throwing themselves into one another! It turned out to be a really great night! Admittedly it wasn't crazily busy, but it's really not the time of year to attract hundreds of people! I haven't actually seen my boss since Friday, to talk about it, but I'll go into work next week and see what he thought! All I know is that to me, it felt like a great night, and almost everyone stayed until the end!

I just hope that the next month will go even better!

A Succesful Trip to Subway

I was in town today, going around a bunch of local tattoo studios and alternative clothing shops putting up yet more posters! I'm convinced that soon there will not be a single person here that does not know the name of my DJ night. However this is not the interesting point of today's story.

The interesting point is that today I went into Subway for the first time since the 'incident'. Though it may not seem like a great deal to some that may read this, it was an incredibly awkward moment for me. So, about a week ago, I was doing very much the same as I was today; going around a very snowy town with a bunch of posters and flyers, and putting them up in various establishments. Once done, I figured I'd treat myself to a subway sandwich. So, I head off toward Subway listening to Opeth rather loud. It's worth highlighting that it was perhaps a little too loud: I couldn't hear anything that was going on outside of my head, so that when I did finally approach the Subway door, I could've sworn there was no one else nearby. I opened the door and stepped up into the shop, and earphones still in, move my hand to close the door behind me - naturally going to grab the door handle. Only, all of a sudden there was a man behind me also coming into the shop. A man with my hand placed on his crotch. There was a tremendously awkward pause before either of us reacted. He then backed away and exclaimed something or other, I'm not sure, I still had my headphones in. And I tried to say "Oh! Sorry!". However, we all know the trouble everyone has controlling the volume of their voice when they have earphones in, so for all I know I could have just whispered it at a very creepy volume, or instead yelled it at him. Either way, I made a point of going to a different Subway today and ensuring that I had my iPod switched off before going in.

Just one of those things.

2010 Survival Goals

I've had a peruse around a few other blogs and noticed quite a few people had decided to make 'New Years Resolutions'. I thought that I might follow suit and list a bunch of stuff that I will actually HAVE to do this year in order to survive. More of a 'to-do' list than a collection of resolutions!

University Work

So this is the main focus of my days at the moment. I just started my final semester and I have only 5 Assignments and 2 Exams before I (hopefully) finish University and graduate. I suppose my goal regarding Uni is to actually graduate and be happy that I did the work that I could! Yeah, sounds reasonable enough!

A New Home

As I'll be leaving Uni, I will no longer be eligible for student accomadation. Although I'm currently living with my girlfriend in a comfy little flat, as it's subsidised by the University, it means that we'll both have to move out in May. From then on, it's out into the big wide world we go! I'm not looking for anything particularly exciting, something cheap and cheerful. Another flat like the one we have at the moment would be nice, although we'll have to look into getting our own furniture and stuff!

Job

Although a full-time student, I do have a part-time job, working behind the bar at a Night Club, and of course I'll have my DJ nights to bring in a bit of extra cash, but this alone will not be anywhere near enough to cover tax, rent, bills and living costs. Once a graduate, I'll have to start thinking about getting a job that will just pay the rent and keep me alive! Once comforatbly based, a search for a career will begin. Unless of course I somehow manage to dive straight into a career placement. I think that this will involve a few more visits to my Career's advisor at Uni. *sigh* I just want to start working! I'm sick of education! Haha. I'd like it if I could somehow wriggle my way into a games retailer. Although I've heard bad things about them, I would still rather work in a line of retail that would interest me. Plus, spending the last 2 years working in various night clubs, I feel like I've dealt with just about the worst people imaginable!

Books

Studying English Literature for 3 years has it's limitations. For instance, I have not read a book for pleasure since studying for my GCSE's. (Back when I was about 16...I'm now 20) Once graduated, I'm going to try and get through a whole PILE of books that I have wanted to read in the last 4 years. This includes graphic novels!

That's all I can really think of at the moment, other than getting through that massive pile of games [which was mentioned in my last couple of posts.]

Oh, and my DJ night begins this Friday! Very nervous for it now, as it seems that a lot of people are (hopefully) going to be there! Scary stuff!