Saturday, August 18, 2012

Combat Arms Review

Combat Arms is a first person shooter developed by Nexon game studios. Nexon is a South Korean game studio that released games such as Dungeon Fighter, Mabinogi, and Maple Story.

This attempt at a first person shooter is good, better than most. It is free to play, with some premium item that can be purchased with NX, or currency for Nexon games that can be purchased with real life money. These include special versions of in game guns, and fancy uniforms.

Among the game modes, there are 'Team Death Match', 'Free for All', 'Capture the Flag', and other first person shooter staples. Fresh game modes include 'Blood Money'.

'Blood Money' is a game mode that pits to teams against each other, one team defends a bank while the other tries to break in, and steal all the gold. On the map made for this game mode, it is almost a constant occurrence of spawn camping. Spawn camping is where one team will camp at the others spawn point, and kill their opponents.

Another unique game mode is fire team. Players enter a single team for cooperative missions against computer AI enemies. This serves as then games campaign mode, as each mission has a story behind it, they all have objectives that must be completed.

Another mode is 'Infection' where all players spawn, and then a few seconds later one player randomly changes into a zombie. The match goes until all humans are infected, or the time limit runs out.

There is also a mode called 'Spy Hunt'. Where one player becomes a supper spy, and the others must hunt him down. Weapons include all the typical guns you see in games that have modern era combat. Melee weapons include, among other things, sickles, which are unique. Players will often spam equipment like health packs, or turrets.

The game has very little connection problems, or drops if any at all. One of the only annoying features is the voice chat, which does not have a hands free mode. However, this can be over looked by playing with friends and using Skype to chat with them.

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 is a first person shooter released by Infinity Ward. It is the sequel to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. It is the one of the many games in the call of duty series.
Starting with Modern Warfare, Infinity Ward ditched the World War II aspect, to focus on games that grip closer to current events. Modern Warfare 2 is set after Modern Warfare and introduces a new character.

The player starts teaching some rebels how to shoot. Then afterwards the player is sent to run a course.

The speed, and precision of the accuracy of the player, helps the game purpose the difficulty level for the player. This difficulty is completely up to the player though. After this, the player is sent on various missions.

Eventually the players' actions will cause a war between America, and Russia, with an actual Russian invasion. War with Russia, and Arab nations, as a side note, is the most common themes for shooters these days.

Guns are nothing different either. Weapons range from M9 pistols to Vector Submachine guns and M4 Carbine. The enemies also have the traditional HK G3s, and Ak47s. One of the most popular levels in the game include a snowmobile chase, with a single pistol to defend yourself .

The game also travels to Brazil so we gamers can look at the festivals, and shoot them up for the sake of our entertainment. The multiplayer portion of this game has many static game types, nothing new.
There is a leveling system though, which goes to show the amount of time someone has played, and their skill level. Match making is flawed though as it will often place a level one against level fifty's or something similar.

Being a Call of Duty game, it also brings along the constant connection interruption problems and the host migrations. Also included is an arcade type game mode. Players go up against waves of enemies in set missions. As players beat a mission, they get a star. They receive one star for each difficulty level they beat, totaling three possible starts per level. As players earns total stars they unlock more levels..

Saturday, August 4, 2012

Mario Kart 64 Video Game Cult Classic

Mario Kart 64 is a cult classic among video games. It was originally planned with the title Super Mario Cart R but the name was changed for various reasons. There are a total of eight playable characters, and fourteen power ups within Mario Kart 64.

Mario, Luigi, Bowser, Toad, Yoshi, Bowser are old characters. Ditching KoopaTroopa and Donkey Kong Jr. from Super Mario cart, Nintendo brought in Wario, and Donkey Kong. Originally the game's creators were going to use a MagiKoopa instead of Donkey Kong.

The characters are arranged in weight classes in Mario Kart 64. Peach, Toad, and Yoshi make up the light Weight class. They have the highest acceleration and top speed in the game, but they tend to slide out more. The light weight is recommended for use on race modes only. They are a bit out classed in battle mode of Mario Cart 64.

Mario and Luigi make up the middle weight class. They have the perfect mix of both light weight and heavy weight classes. This makes the middle weights the best choice form beginning players.
The heavyweight class consists of Wario, Donkey Kong, and Bowser. These Karts are the slowest but have the best handling and ramming abilities. They come in handier for the Battle mode rather than the other modes.

Power ups are as follows; Bananas and Bunch of Bananas can be shot in front of or in back of the player's cart and leaves the peel in place until someone hits it and spins out. The Boo power up, which is named after the Mario character Boo, this power up ghosts the player so they can't be affected by rival's power ups or some hazards on the courses. It allows the user to pass right through other karts and retrieve an item from an opponent.

Fake item boxes closely resemble the genuine ones spread throughout the course. The only difference is that the question mark is upside down and inverted and if someone is to touch it will stop them momentarily.

Green Shells and Triple green shells are a projectile round that will bounce off walls, and are line of sight weapons. Warning these may hit the user. Red and triple red shells are projectile weapons that home in on the person in front of the user, or if the user is in first it'll travel through the course till it hits the next available racer.

Mushroom come in single or triple bundle and will give the player a speed boost when used, word of caution during the boost period steering will be close to unresponsive so it's wise to use them on straight-aways.

Golden mushrooms, give the player unlimited amount of boosts for a short period of time. The star makes the user invincible accept to certain track hazards, hitting other karts will send them flying. The lightning bolt power up will turn everybody accept the user super small.

Having a strategy between character selection, and using power ups will help the player be more successful in Mario Kart 64.