I know GRAW 2 came out in 2007 and that its taken me this long to rent and play through it, however I think the wait was worth it. In a time where the FPS rules everything, GRAW 2 was a great diversion for me set with the 3rd person perspective. I guess I just felt the need to change it up a bit. I was knee deep in finishing up FEAR FILES and playing through Bioshock for a second time when it hit me, "I need a change." GRAW 2 filled a void; a void for squad tactics, running and gunning...and tanks. The graphics are lush, story tight and virtually no hiccups in multiplayer. I actually enjoyed this installment of the series better than the first one, which received higher scores than the sequel in virtually every magazine I read a write up in. For me, GRAW 2 was a great switch foot and a enjoyable game all at the same time.
This may sound jaded, but GRAW 2 got me, well wanting more FPS action after I plowed through the story mode. It did exactly what (deep down) I wanted it to do. Make me want more first person face shooting. I was Joansen...hard. So I picked up yet another rental, this time in the form of Frontlines: Fuel of War.
I have to be honest, I picked this one up thinking It was going to be just another ho-hum run of the mill FPS that I would beat in one session flat (as I've been known to do in the past). Wrong. This game is good; and when I say good I mean like 4 out of 5 points good. High end graphics with virtually no texture problems or pop ins? Check. Great sound track? Check. Intense situations only extreme amounts of fire power can get you out of? Double check. The developers of Frontlines not only brought their A game but pounded you on top of the head over and over again with it.
Two things I like a lot about this game is: The weapons and the SFX. The weapon variety may not be deep, hell I think there are only 5 or 6 gun types through out the whole game. However, they are rich mechanically and feel extremely real. Which brings me to my next point: Sound FX. The sound effects are intense and feel right. The machine guns sound powerful, rocket launchers intimidating, tanks robust and even the pistols sound spot on. I like my SFX loud and brutal. But thats not to take anything away from the explosions, rival soldier chatter you hear in the foreground, ambient nature sounds etc. The SFX are great and submerge you into the story line perfectly. One last quick point I want to touch on is the multiplayer aspect. Now, I haven't delved to hard into this section but have gotten my hands wet a smidgen. There are different modes in which you can play, i.e. your standard death match, team based death match etc. However it also introduces things like Drone matches and single player "old School" matches where its one versus one. All in all it reminds me of Counter Strike a little bit, which can be a good thing and a bad thing. I felt that my online matches got repetitive after a while, meaning I was doing the same thing over and over again: shooting dudes in the face. I'm not complaining but if they want the online to be on par with the likes of COD4 and Gears of War they need to introduce a little bit more variety come Down-loadable Content Via XBOX Live (Maps, guns etc). All and all I had a lot of fun with this game. Its a great game and gets a recommendation from yours truly, give it a whirl. 4 out of 5.
My last game I want to talk about is non other than the highly anticipated, highly delayed game entitle non other than Army of Two.
This is the most recent rental, so I don't have much to say about it just yet. I'm still grinding through the single player campaign, but I do have some preconceived thoughts on it. Its good, dont get me wrong however the mechanics are rough. There is allot to do with your partner which brings me to my biggest and most binding point: You need to play this game cooperatively (co-op style for the laymen). This game was built in and around playing through the campaign with a friend via Live or system link. Thats why I think the mechanics when playing through it single player style are under developed. I'm not saying that the single player campaign isn't good, cause it is, however as stated above it would be 10x more fun with a partner running and gunning with you spitting profanities, using tampons to heal each other and the occasional Wu-Tang conversation (play the game and you'll understand the Wu-Tang reference). Thus far the game is fun, looks good and is a solid 3rd person shooter. The look and feel of AO2 is comparable to Gears of War, which in my book is a damn good thing! 3.5 out of 5.
Well, for now Im tied up with Army of Two. Hopefully when the old birthday comes around this Thursday I'll end up with some new games to stick my meat hooks around. Until then, game hard.
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