I've just finished my CoD3 review (well...that depends on when you're reading this) and re-written my CoD2 review as my opinions have changed a little on that. Now I'm fully prepared for CoD4 on Friday! Can't wait! Finnaly; Infinity Ward make Call of Duty again instead of who ever ruined CoD3.

Enjoy!

I've been displeased recently, to say the least.

First off, I played Oblivion for about 6 hours straight a couple of days ago (hey, it's addictive, you can't blame me) without saving, apart from the autosaves. Over this six hours of so I clawed my way up the Fighters' Guild all the way to the final contract, at the end of this contract a former Fighters' Guild member turns on you and tries to murder you, so obviously I had to murder him back, easy, case solved, now for my promotion to master of the guild! Huraah! But upon my return what was I greeted by? Why, I was kicked out of the guild for murdering a fellow brother! Stupid game, and I even double checked on a guide to make sure this wasn't part of the quest and no, it was not. Strangely though, the master of the guild told me if I went away and thought about what I did and got her some bear pelts - yes, bear pelts - she'd let me back in. Very strange and very irritating.

Secondly (you're all gonna hate me for this), I played some of the Halo 3 singleplayer - now it's hardly the worst game in the world but how everyone thinks it's so amazing is truely beyond me. Uh, it was so boring, all I did was walk around enclosed corridor like fake forrests and shoot little triangular umpalumpas that sounded like angry children with guns that make a sound less satisfying than that of a BB-Gun.

And last but not least, my final dissapointment is the news that Call of Duty 4, for one good at FPS's (that's me, just so you know ;)) is four hours long! Come on! How lazy can you get!? That's even shorter that Half-Life's Episode 2 for God's sake! Perhaps I'll get it anyway, for the multiplayer.

And here it is, at long last, my Orange Box review.

And I leave you with this: The catchiest song I've ever heard - the Portal ending credits. Oh yeah, sorry, the actual song doesn't start 'till about a minute into the clip - just bear with it.

At last, I have the Orange Box and I must say I'm mightily impressed as one should be with what IGN described as "the best deal in video game history". But enough about how damn fine the price of £45 is for five games, because that shouldn't be biggest reason on anyone's list for buying this wonderful collection of games.

The clever people can skip reading this next part:

Firstly: for those simpletons who don't know, the Orange Box comprises of 2004's classic Half-Life 2, the highest rated PC game in history (it recieved over40 Game of the Year awards), 2006's equally as good Half-Life 2 Episode 1, the continuation of the Half-Life story and the brand new Episode 2. Then there's Portal, which is probably the single most spectacular game I've ever played - the design of this 1st-person puzzle-based action-adventure is simply stageringly good. And last but not least we have Team Fortress 2, the multiplayer component to the Orange Box, which is, despite its name, the 3rd incarnation of the Team Fortress game.

Secondly, I'll explain the Episodes system. Half-Life came out in 1998 and is generally regarded as one of the greatest and most influencialfirst-person shooters ever. In 2004, Half-Life 2, the sequel, came out and was againhighly acclaimed. Then Valve, the creators, had a chhoice, they either make people wait 6 or more years to make Half-Life 3, or they used the same game engine as Half-Life 2 and make 3 much smaller games that, when combined, create Half-Life 3, thus keeping release dates within two or less years of each other. They chose the latter and released Episode 1, the first of the Episodic triolgy in 2006.

I've already completed Episode 2 and Portal and now I'm going back through the Half-Life's I've already played on PC. Then I'll have a good go at Team Fortress. My thoughts so far is that, like Episode 1, Episode 2 is too short but immensly good throughout and, although it has no new weapons, the few new enemies bring some new life into the series. Portal is too short again, but with the advanced challenges, time trials and fun game modes like "the least steps" or "the least portals" to entertain me it could last some more time.

So, expect a review quite soon, no more than a week I should think, I'll have another blog up when it's done and perhaps a history lesson on Team Fortress, as the game's past is some-what muddled, to say the least.

Bon Voyage mes amis!

Now I know this blog is more than a week late (I got it last Saturday - 22/09/07 or 09/22/07 depending on where you're from) but I've been tied up in my new toy...well, okay, tied up in Oblivion then. I'm very pleased with the 360, obviously, and even more pleased with Oblivion that I'm borrowing off Tom (that game has become my second life...actually, my real life is my 2nd life; Oblivion comes first). I'm not pleased with Call of Duty 3, however. Call of Duty 2's singleplayer was amazing, and the multiplayer good. With CoD3 it seems the singleplayer sucks and the multiplayer is the same. Actually, not all of the SP sucks and I've pinned it down to one problem: The American levels are awesome and the tank battles are a welcome change of pace but the British Commando levels are pitifully awful. Now I know that it's all about raiding supply lines and fuel plants and things with the SAS but now I can really see why the Jerrys lost the war; they keep leaving all their bloody explosive barrels next to their fortifications!

"Sir? Where should we put all these barrels?"

"Spread them out evenly near those sandbags, those blockades and those tanktraps, leave all the others in a big pile in the barracks where all the men sleep. It'll be fine I promise."

Now I understand it when there's explosive barrels a-plenty in games like Half-Life and James Bond games and Timesplitters and things of that nature - they're supposed to be action films so it all works well. But when CoD tries to pass it's self off as "as close to war as you'll ever get", or something like that, the whole explosive barrels thing just seems stupid. And even worse is one driving sections where you must escape the fuel depo you planted charges on, it's like a really corny James Bond scene with cockny accents shouting at you and random explosions and things falling over and poorly acted screaming enemies flying through the air for no apparant reason. Just plain stupid.

Expect a review for that soon (and a re-write of my CoD2 review) and mabye, in a few years time a review for Oblivion. :)

I've got a new video up; a Call of Duty fan trailer. It was originally going to be for both 2 and 3, but I could only find good clips for 3. Take a look!

By the way, the music is Hans Zimmer's "The Rock".

So, this weekend I bid good bye to my PC and PC gaming as my birthday, and a 360, approach this coming Monday (24/09/). So, what has PC gaming done for me over these last...well, what must only be 2 years?

The Story:

I assumed my PC sucked. And it did, but not nearly as much as I thought it did. In Year 8 I borrowed Battlefield 1942 off a good friend of mine. My, I didn't know what I was getting myself into. I was amazed to find myself playing it on high graphics....which still sucked but "high graphics? My PC!? Wow!?" Anyways, after weeks of singleplayer I braved the online world. My first online PC game. I was alright, how lovely, but I wanted to go further. My first mod was becconing. So, I downloaded the acclaimed Desert Combat mod for Battlefield 1942 and I was amazed at the things people could do, a new world was oppened up to me. For the months that followed I busied myself downloading a new mod a week and playing around and seeing what could be done, and it became apparant that alot could be done. Then I bought Battlefield Vietnam. "Low graphics settings on BFV!? No way!"Suddenly I found myself on a quest for bigger and better hardware, I wanted Battlefield 2 desperatly and the only option was a better graphics card. My birthday came along, ah, the perfect time for bountiful gifts, so I bought myself the best I could afford only to find it didn't fit in my rubbish motherboard. I gave up. I lost hope.

Over the next 6monthes or so I busied myself with new mods and a few new games that my PC could actually play, to name the best; Age of Empires III, Rainbow Six: Raven Shield and Black and White. Then I got even more bored and started downloading demos for whatever the hell I could actually play. Then I found IT. Half-Life 2. New doors opened before me, but not a little door, great, grand huge wooden gates into a mighty chamber of holy gaming. I soon bought it only to be amazed at what the game could do on such limited power as my PC. Not only did I get Half-Life, but I got Steam and soon I was buying Counter-Strike and Day of Defeat but..."what's this?" No! Source games don't work online on my graphics card. How could this be!? I must play Day of Defeat! My new quest for hardware began and after monthes or searching I found a rubbish graphics card that to me was a mircale and lo and behold it worked! Hazaah! I played Day of Defeat solidy for weeks upon weeks. And that pretty much brings me to today. But what made me change? I was on MSN with Ben and Tom when they were descussing "what games are you going to get for Christmas?". Well, they listed many and I...I realised that Dx10 was the way forward and my PC was never to play a new game ever again. "Mum? Can I have a 360?" soon followed.#

What Have I Learnt?

Well, now I know far more about how games are made and after having ago a making my own mod, playing with Garry's Mod (which, by the way, deserves an incredibly honourable mention) and messing about with new skins, models and scripts. I've also discovered so many new good games, RTS's, tactical shooters and a love for online games (where before they just scared me).

So, over the next three days I will busy myself playing the best of the best; Day of Defeat: Source, Call of Duty 2, Rainbow Six: Raven Shield, The Movies, Age of Empires III and Dawn of War.

Here's another one of those games that everyone thinks is absolutely amazing that just...well...isn't. Now this multiplayer Beta isn't awful, nor is is good, it's just slightly better than average. It's a fun game and all but there's far to many things in it that annoy me.

For a start this "next-gen" bullet penetration. Next-gen huh? Well, I certainly remember Day of Defeat: Source doing that in 2003. The bullet penetration in CoD4 isn't even good though. Sometimes it's useful and it makes suppressive fire all the more worthy of being used but the fact that every damn gun in the game can shoot through a concrete wall is rediculous. Okay, an LMG can shoot through a wall, a probably a rifle firing 7.62 rounds like the AK47 and mabye, just mabye rifles firing the 5.56 round like the M16 but I seriously doubt that a damn MP5 with its tiny 9mm rounds can pierce a concrete wall. Not only does every gun go through walls, but all anyone ever seems to do is strafe along the side of corridor walls emptying a whole clip in to them on the off chance some one is on the other side.

My next problem is the fact no one actually plays the proper game mode, the one where you have to take strategic points. Instead, every server is TDM and that might suit some people just fine but to me it has no structure and therefore is just a bunch of gun-ho crazies running round in circles shooting each other down. Now that's all well and good when you're playing Unreal Tourament or Quake but the slow game-speed of CoD just doesn't suit it very well. Another thing that annoys me incredibly is the absolut lack of spawn protection, you might spawn next to your team mates but quite often you'll spawn ontop of a grenade, under an enemy gunship or in the path of an airstrike and it's just plain annoying and an example of lazy programming.

That said, however, I've recently been playing alot of CoD2 online on my PC and, although I used to despise it, is actually very good, even on TDM as there seems to be alot more structure and thinking behind the maps and by the people that play the game. So then, why is that the CoD4 multiplayer is so poor in comparison?

Now I've been a bit harsh. It is actually quite fun when you get a game, or even a round, where you're not striked by one of these plaguing annoyances. I especially like calling in airstrikes and seeing the jets and calling in helicopter gunships and the like, that's a really nice edition. I'll think I'll end on that good note before I explode into another rant.

Hey all. The Orange Box achievements are here. There's still 1000 points to be had but 99 achievements to do it in. I don't really like that though. You never get more than 25 points for any achievement and most of them are about 5 each. That's a bit unfair, you've bought 5 games so there should be 5000 points, or atleast 3000 if you count HL2, ep1 and ep2 as the same game. Anyways, they seem easy enough so I should be getting all of them, save for mabye a couple.

Take a look!

Okay, well, mabye that's an exageration; the singleplayer campaign is still a waste of money but the multiplayer is absolutely amazing...or at least it is with friends.

On 08/09/07 to the 09/09/07 I had the best night (and, to be more accurate, morning) of gaming in my life. I played GoW online with my brother and Tom. Awesome. Now I'm going to say this now to get it out of the way - the online sucks on your ownwithout friends, where-as I've been playing Day of Defeat online on my own for about a year now, Gears of War just isn't good on your own with a bunch of strangers who are most likely gonna be mute anyway. The best games are with your friends.

So, at 9:00 we (my brother and I) went online to find Tom. Where was he!? Nevermind, so Joe showed me the ropes of the game on that map with all the busted up cars in the middle of the street. It wasn't exactly hard to understand. Then Tom came on, wonderful, so we had me and my bro vs him. This was okay, but not much fun as it was uneven. It was funny when Tom was amazed at how Brothers in Arms style I was playing the game, he had the sniper and I was putting fire on him to keep him down while Joe moved round his flank with the shotgun. He wasn't pleased. Then a randomer joined and we got a proper game going. It wasn't until my Brother's friend Akram joined that it got really fun though. We were on that perculiar map with the rooms full of gas that you have to switch off, Tom and Akram vs me and Joe. This is where it got really fun.

Ah, but the night was still young and it wasn't until Tom and Akram were on the same team as Joe and I that it really got going. We were invincible! Even these clan guys we we're against couldn't beat us. So, it got to something like 1:30 and Tom and me needed some sleep. So ends the great night.

Oh, and I forgot to mention the Scottish chav who told us he "knock us out" amongst some explicit mouthing-off. At first we just kicked him and then he came back like ten times so we let him in, then just did Devvo impressions to frighten him off and it worked.

Oh, why did it have to stop? Fun. Fun times.

Ah yes, one last leaving note. Afterwards Joe said to my Dad, "In four hours [Sean] has become better at[Gears] than we have ever been...and we've been plaing it since last Christmas." Well, mabye another exageration there, but for four hours of learning and 1st on the leader board quite often (save for some guy who was from a clan who beat us all into the dirt) I'd say that's pretty good.