Mercenaries 2 World in Flames - Review

I must admint, I was excited about the hype for the second installment of the game. Having played Merc's on the orginal Xbox to the end, I was looking forward to re-living my life as a merc on the XBOX 360 console.

Story: -- Pretty simple story, you are 1 of 3 merc's, who will work for anyone with money in Venezuela. You are then double crossed, and now you seek vengence, see simple

Visuals: -- These aren't the best that they can be, but they are still pretty decent. The landscape is impressive.

Sound: -- Here is where I have a problem, usually the voice doesn't relfect the action. Here is an example, I fell down a hill, took damage, and my merc said "I hate getting shot". I know this may be simple and petty, but hearing this over and over again, coupled with the standard voice re-runs, it gets pretty old, quickly.

Gameplay: -- I am not sure where to begin, the game is just to easy, your health regenerate's. The current game design dictates the reason why your health has to regenerate, because when you die, you will have to start the contract again from the start, there are some checkpoints between missions, but they only go so far.

My biggest disappointment was the capturing of targets, in the first Merc, you had to clear the area, knock out the target, call the chopper for extraction and then finally load the target in the chopper. This was refreshing and difficult. In Merc's 2, here is all you have to do, capture a car, drive all the way to the target, get out and "subdue" your target with a button press. Then your target disappears, no need for a chopper extraction.

Good points on the game, the world is large, all building can be blown up, C4 becomes your friend very quickly, bikes and boats are now in play. There is more options for Air Strikes and Drops.
The driving engine, is great and is very responsive.

Overall, If you are coming from Merc's 1, you will notice these changes, if not these changes can be ignored, and the game can still be enjoyed. It looks good and fun to play.

Gameplay = 6
Visuals = 8
Sound = 6
Game Now Score = 6.6/10

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed - Review

Star Wars fans around the world rejoice.

From the get go you can tell that this is going to be a fun game, using "the force" to pick enemy's up and send them flying to their demise is, well FUN.

The story of the Force Unleashed is defiantly its strongest point, a story which in many regards is better than some of the star wars films of late.

Visually the game is also impressive, with fantastic lighting effects and character models, true eye candy for all action game fans.

The sound in Force Unleashed is good, along with great performances from the majority of the voice actors. This is a big budget game and it shows.

The gameplay in Force Unleashed is fun, however over time it does tend to feel repetitive. My biggest issue with the game is its pretty ordinary boss fights, they are not very interesting. At a little over 6 hours of gameplay this game is short, even by today's standards.

Its great fun, while it lasts.

Gameplay = 8
Visuals = 8.5
Sound = 7.5
Game Now Score = 8/10

Battlefield Bad Company - Review

Bad Company is a first person shooter that is trying to be the leader of the pack but fails pretty badly.

Yes the visuals are good and the cinematic's (mostly) look great and one could argue the story is funny, not that I found it funny at all.

There are too many problems here for me to recommend. Firstly the actual gameplay is pretty bad. The AI even on the lowest difficulty are ruthless, so bad that you could be 1 mile from an enemy and just see him on the screen and he will spot you and still be getting you for damage from that far, I mean really, what a joke.

The actual movement is also sloppy and you will often find yourself stuck for a split second before sorting out the ordinary controls.

The graphics in Bad Company are good but not great. What this game has got going for it is that you can blow stuff up. Can't find a way into this building? Just blow the side of the building up, presto, instant access.

Overall this game is a bit of a drag. I have no idea why this game is popular online. My experience with the multiplayer action was shocking. If you want to play some FPS multiplayer stick with Call Of Duty 4.

Gameplay = 7
Visuals = 7.5
Sound = 7
Game Now Score = 7.1/10