Ok, time for the second part in my 5-part series of my top 50 games! Let the count down continue

#40 Halo: Combat Evolved (2003)

I had no idea that Halo was as big a game as it was when I bought it when it came out for the PC. I just heard from a similarly ignorant friend that it was 'really cool' when he bought it. I did eventually get it, and I thoroughly enjoyed playing through the original Halo's single player campaign. It was atmospheric, had a good story, looked great at the time, and had great combat. I've played through the game a couple of times, and from what I have played of the sequels they simply don't hold a candle to the original game, at least in the single player department. This is the only Halo game on my list, and easily the most deserving of those I have played.

#39 Dirt 2 (2009)

Codemasters are one of the few developers of racing games that I actually look forward to and buy. They are kind of what Tom Clancy's Rainbow 6 games are to FPS sims – excellent hybrids that straddle the fence perfectly between sim and arcade. Dirt 2 is the latest such game from Codemasters in its off road series of racing games, and it has driving mechanics that are pretty much a perfect blend of Sim and Arcade – the cars take damage extremely realistically, you need to slow down a lot for sharp corners, your car will skid and fishtail realistically, but your vehicle is always pretty easy to control. Dirt 2 is also a much more forgiving game that most SIMS thanks to the flashback feature, taken straight from GRID, which allows you do instantly rewind time if you crash. Pretty much a fantastic, gorgeous driving game with a brilliant difficulty curve and lots of fun events.

#38 Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell (2002)

My first real stealth game, Splinter Cell was intense and very challenging, but rarely frustrating and often very fun and thrilling. The first game in the series is easily the most unforgiving, in many missions you aren't even allowed to kill people – you have to either knock them out or sneak past them. This game wasn't about the combat at all, but more about how you could avoid it – if you get caught and are forced to go into hand to hand combat, or engage in a firefight, you are harshly punished – an alarm is sounded, too many of which will cause you to fail the mission, and all the nearby enemies will know you are there are will try to kill you. The unforgiving nature of the game is one of its biggest strengths though, because completing a mission without being caught is one of the most gratifying experiences I've had in my career of single player games.

#37 Call of Duty 2 (2005)

The first of three Call of Duty games on my list; Call of Duty 2 is probably the first game I ever bought on release day. This is back in the day when the series maintained some semblance of historical accuracy, and the loading screens consisted of a piece of paper with some writing on it. Call of Duty 2 was a polished, good looking first person shooter with no bad missions and lots of thrilling moments. It was also one of the first shooters to employ the now standard regenerating health, which makes it a kind of milestone in FPS history. The multiplayer wasn't up to the standards of other games in the series, but CoD 2 was a big step up from the original in terms of graphics and game design, which is more than can be said about recent call of duty releases.

#36 Tom Clancy's Rainbow 6 3: Ravenshield (2003)

The last 'real' Rainbow 6 game, Ravensheild retained all of the tactical, detailed planning and loadouts of the early games while moving to a more traditional fps view where you actually see the gun. It looked great for its time of release, and the missions where fun and exhilarating while still being methodical and challenging. After Ravenshield the series has started leaning more and more towards being an arcade game, which goes against everything that makes the Rainbow 6 games great - freedom to choose your own tactics, and a blend of realism and arcade gameplay.

#35 Cryostasis: The Sleep of Reason (2009)

easily the most surreal and slow-paced survival horror game I have ever played, Cryostasis remained intriguing and atmospheric all the way through. The games icy environment was rendered with such detail and authenticity that I had to wear a sweater while playing the game, regardless of the temperature in my room. The story is fantastic, and actually requires a bit of thought to figure out. The combat is slow and clunky, but it suits the frozen environment perfectly, making Cryostasis one of the best survival horror games of the past couple years.

#34 Batman: Arkham Asylum (2009)

When this game received rave reviews across the board, I simply couldn't buy into the hype. Definitely a "must see to believe" kind of game. Well, Arkham Asylum turned out to be a massively enjoyable game with expert pacing and tons of variety. For me the highlights were the hand to hand combat animations and the stealthing sections that almost played out like puzzles – but really, there weren't any bad sections of the game apart from a bit of backtracking here and there.

#33 Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun (1999)

The second RTS and second Command and Conquer game I ever played, Tiberian Sun was probably the only game I played for about a year, maybe more. It had the CIassic structure of a totally separate Nod and GDI campaign, and maintained much of what made other early CnC games so great – a great balance of base building, tactics, unit build orders and combat. It was insanely addicting and I found myself spending hours and hours in skirmishes against the AI. While it may not have been as original as other Command and Conquer titles, it was just as fun.

#32 Race Driver GRID (2008)

The second Codemasters racer that falls into the same non-category as Dirt 2 – a brilliant blend of Arcade and Sim racing mechanics. It featured lots of different events on different tracks in different countries, with a good number of different vehicles that all handled a bit differently. The damage modeling was even more impressive with GRID because it came out well before Dirt 2; nothing changes a race like having your car get a bit damaged and becoming difficult to control – unless you use the flashback feature to rewind time and avoid the damage in the first place. A highly original, highly polished racing game that pretty much set the standard for what racing games could, and should, be like on the PC.

#31 Dawn of War II + Chaos Rising

Dawn of War II + Chaos Rising (2009/10) – If you know me at all, you likely know that Relic is my overall favourite game developer thanks to their fantastic post-game launch updates, recognition of fan feedback, and their continuous drive to innovate and drive the industry forwards. Each game they release is drastically different from the one before it, and the same holds true for Dawn of War II and its outstanding expansion Chaos Rising – they have almost nothing in common with the original Dawn of War. Its more of an RTS RPG hybrid than anything else, borrowing more gameplay mechanics from Mass Effect than from most RTS's. DoW II features a mediocre campaign, but the one in Chaos Rising is a lot better and works both as an RTS and a RPG, which is a pretty impressive achievement. The multiplayer is also fantastic and super intense; I have spent at least 200 hours on the multiplayer of Dow II and Chaos Rising. A brilliant game with an even better expansion, DoW II is a game that moves the RTS genre forwards in a interesting and welcome direction.

Games at the bottom (or top, depending on how you look at it) of my list are games i liked, and maybe did some things extremely well, but either had some problems or didn't do enough to make themselves stand out from the competition. I changed the order of the games ranked 20-50 around a LOT while making this list, and the games in this blog (50-41) all ended up being relatively recent, i think the oldest game in this blog is from 2005! But thats just how it went.

So without further delay, i present to you the first (or last) 10 of my top 50 pc games!

#50 Grand Theft Auto IV (2008 )

while many of the design choices annoyed the hell out of me, I do recognize Grand Theft Auto IV as a great game because of its writing, characters and mission variety. It was frustrating as hell and a pretty poor port, but the city felt alive, and the game had substance and personality, which is more than can be said about most games released these days. Even though I mostly bash this game on forums, I think it's incredible, just not nearly as incredible as it could have been because of a few design flaws.

#49 Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box (2008 )

When I first got my hands on this game it was like a drug, I couldn't stop playing it, the sense of speed was incredible and the steady stream of rewards made playing the game extremely gratifying. It also proved to be insanely annoying thanks to the amount of traffic and confusing city design that proved to be more frustrating in its open nature than novel. Still a very fun driving game, and a great port for the PC, just a bit too frustrating at times with the higher level races.

#48 Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (2006)

The first of 6 Tom Clancy games on my list, GRAW found a fantastic balance between arcade and simulation fps gameplay. Squad commands and the HUD are very streamlined, but you still have lots of tactical options – the overhead map view means the game can almost be played like a RTS at times. The gunplay is excellent, and the levels are challenging and generally fun. Sadly your squad mates have poor ai and pathfindng issues, and the long gaps between checkpoints mean that the game is more difficult than it should be. Still, it's a visual feast and probably has the most realistic small-object physics of any game I have played.

#47 S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky (2008 )

Easily the weakest of the Stalker games, Clear Sky maintained much of the atmosphere and charm of the original, but it somehow managed to be even buggier. I couldn't even finish the game on my first playthrough because of a bug! The faction system was cool at times, but often it was broken and caused you more problems than anything else if you sided with any of the factions in particular. It was brutally difficult and full of broken quests, but it looked absolutely incredible and was still, at its heart, a Stalker game, with all its subtle charm and creepy atmosphere.

#46 Risen (2009)

One of the biggest surprises of 2009, Risen proved to be an excellent, immersive RPG with the most charm and character I have seen in a game since Morrowind. The first act was brutally slow paced, and the combat was pretty mediocre, but its great story and RPG mechanics made me fall in love with the game. Exploring was satisfying and dangerous, the writing and dialogue was actually pretty good a lot of the time (even though all the characters looked like their faces were carved from wooden blocks), and there was a fantastic sense of progression as you rise from a vagrant who washed up on the beach to one of the most important people on the island.

#45 Saints Row 2 (2009)

This game would be much higher on my list if it was a better port – Volition really knows how to embrace the concept of a sandbox game; there is so much freedom to do crazy stuff it this game that its hard to imagine, yet the core mechanics of driving and combat remain very solid. The side quests/mini games are a ton of fun, the missions are varied, and the humour truly outrageous. Unfortunately it looks and runs like ass, but if you get it running well, you will have a vast amount of fun with this game.

#44 Gears of War (2008 )

A fine example of a polished, well made and well paced third person shooter that simply doesn't do enough to make itself stand out. While the combat in Gears is fantastic, the middle section of the game lacks memorable moments, and much of the game is overly linear. Still, there are some sweet boss fights, and it looks really good on the PC. It's a high quality port, and there aren't really any 'bad' missions in the game – I really hope gears 2 makes its way to the PC eventually.

#43 Red Faction Guerrilla (2009)

Essentially A more polished, more destructible but less varied version of Saints Row 2, Red Faction Guerrilla is ALL about breaking and blowing stuff up. It has some fantastic game design that always keeps it from being frustrating although it is still fairly challenging a lot of the time. The story is essentially non-existent, but the great combat, fully destructible environments and generally fun gameplay make it a prime example of how good a sandbox game can be if the emphasis is on sandbox gameplay, not driving from point a to point b to complete linear missions. (hey, i thought the protagonist in the PC version was bald! Must be a console screen)

#42 Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 (2005)

Scoring Extra points for being so similar to Band of Brothers, the first brothers in arms game is still the best because of its clear focus on tactics and immaculate historical accuracy. While the FPS view makes is look like any other WWII FPS, it really is a deep strategy game more similar to Ghost Recon than Call of Duty or Medal of Honor. The character development is a nice touch; there is actually a story in this game that is very similar to that of Band of Brothers – you will grow to care about many of the characters, and when they die it's actually a tangible loss. Unfortunatley the gunplay was rather lacking (most rifles felt like pop guns), and the difficulty was somewhat inconsistent, but regardless its a high quality tactical shooter.

#41 Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (2010)

The latest, but not the greatest, multiplayer focused fps from DICE. The singleplayer campaign was merely average, but the multiplayer is pretty much up to the standard of the series, but with a much faster pace and smaller maps. Its a lot of fun, and the emphasis on teamwork is great, but some weapons seem misused or overused, and some maps in Rush mode seem to heavily favour either the offensive or defensive team, and are often full of awful bottlenecks. Still, the weapon unlocks and character customizations are great, and the vehicles make for a much more varied experience than what is found with the more recent Call of Duty offerings. Easily one of the better competitive multiplayer shooter that is currently very popular online.

First of all, is the forward slash really necessary in the name of this game? Does it really add anything? Anyways, my latest game purchase was Split/Second, and while it may seem like a generic racing game (which in many ways it is), I had a few reasons to buy it. First of all, I have no racing games currently installed on my computer, and decided that an arcade racer would be good after playing Dirt 2. Secondly, Split/Second has two player split screen on the PC, which is a big plus for me since I am one of the few people capable of taking advantage of such a feature.

The only reason i've been able to get away without buying a console is that I can really easily hook my computer up to my TV, put the speakers on the top of the TV and use a plank of wood to put my keyboard/mouse on which acts as a controller. It's very comfortable to game on, and when I have friends over and we feel like playing games, it works perfectly. With Split/Second, I can hook a second keyboard up to my computer and it acts as a second controller, so two of us can play a game split screen using the TV just as comfortably as if it were on a console.

So far the game has proven to be very fun and addicting, it's not all that deep or difficult but it's very fun and intense. I bought it to play with friends and it serves this purpose very well, all the close misses from power plays and generally insane races make for a great party game, and when I feel like a quick adrenaline fix its really easy to pop in and play a quick race. The driving mechanics are pretty good, and the power plays are really fun to use. The fact that it's locked at 30 fps is really annoying, but luckily the game runs perfectly for me on the highest settings, which is great considering some people with ATI cards have been suffering from performance issues on the higher graphical settings.

With my next blog I will be starting my "top 50 pc games" series, mainly because i'm bored but also because the top 10 games blog I made a long time ago is very out of date and needs to be changed. I've been working on the list a fair bit and I have the ordering pretty much finished but I want to do a good job of explaining why I chose the games I did, obviously some of the choices may seem odd or out of place, but I will do my best to explain why I chose those games and not others that may have a better reputation.

There will also be a quite a few of obvious omissions that would normally be on a list like mine; I am only including games I have either finished or played to such an extent that further play would not change my opinion of the game. Games that I have started but not finished like half-life 1, Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines, KOTOR and System Shock 2 are going to be absent from my list not because I haven't played/disliked the games, but because I haven't played them enough to form an opinion of the games based on at least one full playthrough. I intend to play all these games in the future but for various reasons, mostly technical, I haven't been able to finish them thus far.

My first blog in the series, games ranked 50-41 in my list, will be released sometime early next week.

I am usually extremely decisive about my purchases, i do the research, look at my budget, and buy accordingly. I had planned on upgrading my computer in two phases this summer, first the GPU, then the CPU. Yesterday was the day i had planned to go and buy a new GPU, and i still didn't know what i was doing for sure. I had three options, all with distinct advantages and disadvantages: get a HD 5850 now and spend all my money on it, then avoid spending money until my first paycheck from my summer job, get a HD 5830, which would be significantly less powerful but would cost over $100 less, and finally my third option, which was to not buy anything and wait until i had more money.

Feeling stressed, i checked out the NCIX website before heading to the store, and low and behold, a Powercolor PCS+ 5850 was on sale for $309 dollars, already cheaper than any of the other models by at least $20, and it included Modern Warfare 2, which i never did buy but have contemplated repeatedly.

http://ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=52255&vpn=AX5850%201GBD5-PPDHG2&manufacture=PowerColor

I quickly left the house, went to the bank and deposited some cheques i had received for my birthday, then drove off to NCIX to get one of the three cards that were in stock. Upon arrival, i was relieved to find that no one else had bought one of the cards. I ordered the card, but to my dismay my debit card was missing. Dammit, i must have left it at the bank! I ask the store to hold the card, rush back to the bank, thankfully my debit card is still there, i quickly drive back to NCIX and pick up the card. Victory at last!

Installation went really smoothly, and the card itself is amazing. I was originally planning on getting a GTX 470 since i'm a nvidia fan, mainly because of the driver support and nhancer, but my current power supply was too weak to support the card. I was a bit concerned that i would have trouble with the PCS+ variant of the 5850 since it sucked up more power than the reference version, but it seems to run just fine, and at unbelievable temps! The after-market cooler seems to be really well designed, it idles at 25-30 degrees celcius, and rarely cracks 55 degrees under load. Its very stable, and is easily the most impressive ATI card i have owned. I still dislike the Catalyst control center, but i'm managing just fine so far.

Now for game performance results:

Just Cause 2 - max settings, 4xAA/16xAF, 1600x900: avg fps = 55 (first benchmark, dark island or whatever)

Battlefield: Bad Company 2: Dx10, max settings, HBAO on, 4xMSAA, 16xAF, 1600x900: fps = around 45

Assassins creed 2 - max settings, 4xAA/16xAF, 1600x900, avg fps = around 40, mid 30's in busy sections of the city

Crysis Warhead - combination of high/very high (gamer/enthusiast), 4xAA, 1600x900, avg fps = around 35, higher/lower depending on location

Dawn of War II - Max settings, AA On, 1600x900, avg fps = around 50

CoD: MW2 - max settings, 4xAA, 1600x900, avg fps = around 90 (multiplayer)

Those are all the games i've tested so far, and in each case a massive improvement over my 9800GT.

The card has performed so admirably that i don't think i will bother upgrading my CPU with my current motherboard, instead i'll likely save my money for a new mobo that supports DDR3 ram and i7 cpu's.

Ok, so the card came with Modern Warfare 2, you may have noticed that i rated it a "8.0." Well, i didn't pirate it, i played through the singleplayer campaign at a friends house and checked out the multiplayer/spec ops mode. So i have played it a substantial amount, i think its good, but not as good as CoD: 4.

After playing Bad Company 2 so much, i'm having a hard time getting into the multiplayer, its clearly inferior, and caters entirely towards twitch kids or those that exploit some of the weapons like the grenade launcher. Its fun, but not much more, i think its pretty much a step backwards from CoD 4, by no means a bad game, just not as good as it should/cloud be.

Well final exams are over (YAY) and summer work is about to begin (BOO), but I have a bit of time before I begin working, so i've finally had a chance to put some time into my two latest game purchases: Assassins Creed 2 and Just Cause 2.

I was not a big fan of the original Assassins Creed at all, so I was reluctant to go out and spend my hard earned pennies on a sequel when I disliked the original, like with Bioshock 2. Finally after everyone screaming about how much of an improvement it was over Ass Creed 1 I decided to go and buy it, DRM be damned. First of all I haven't had any problems with the DRM so far, I am directly connected to a fairly new router so losing connection during play simply doesn't happen. I was also concerned about my current rig not being able to handle it, but to my surprise it runs just fine on the highest settings with 4xAA. It doesn't look all that impressive technically, but it is by no means ugly; as long as you don't scrutinize the visuals it looks fine.

As for the game itself, i'm really glad I ended up buying it because I'm actually really enjoying it. It still has some of the problems that the original had, which I will go into more detail with later, but overall it's a ton of fun. The biggest improvement by far is the less rigidly designed progression system; the first one became a grind after a point because it was so rigidly structured and repetitive, but Assassins Creed 2 keeps things very fresh throughout, and your always learning and being introduced to new gameplay elements. The story seems much better paced, and the economy system is great, the ability to buy weapons and armour is one of my favourite additions.

As for my complaints, they are relatively minor but still worth mentioning, the combat is still a bit dodgy and largely unchanged from Assassins Creed 1, it's fun to watch but a bit broken, you can simply parry while your opponents circle around you, then counterattack and kill them one by one each time one of them takes a swing. At least now there are some beefy guys who you can't block the attacks of to make things a bit more interesting. The platforming, while still pretty good, has the same problems as it did with the first game, if you need to fine-tune your actions the controls can be awkward, and sometimes you will take a unexplainable backwards leap from the top of a building if you hit the free-run buttons in the wrong order. Other than that it's great so far, i'm very glad i bought it after all.

Just Cause 2 is pretty much a silly sandbox game that can be a lot of fun, but is also capable of being pretty annoying. First of all i'll say it's a technical marvel, it looks great, especially considering the scale of the game, and it runs pretty well on my aging hardware. Even though you are given lots of tools for fun, the missions are most easily completed by running in and shooting everyone. The car-chases are the highlight, especially the between-mission ones where the police are chasing you and you are switching between cars and trying to evade them. It's not a game i'll put a lot of time into, but is good for messing around with if i'm in the mood for light entertainment.

I'll copy nutcrackr and post my Bad Company 2 stats, i've still been playing it a reasonable amount and have put about 2 and a half days into the multiplayer segment of the game. I've unlocked all the weapons for all the cIasses so I don't feel as compelled to progress as I once did, but i'm still having fun trying to get insignias. My favourite cIass by far is engineer, it's an incredibly diverse cIass and i've got a bunch of different builds for different circumstances. Medic is probably my least favourite cIass to play as, but man it's so easy to get points playing as Medic, i've put the least amount of time into playing as medic of all four cIasses, yet I have almost as many points playing as medic as I do as engineer, even though i've spent more than twice as much time playing as engineer. I think I had like 6000 points one game playing as medic before my award score was factored in! All from dropping med kits and reviving people too, I only had like 10 kills that round.

I will be reviewing Splinter Cell: Conviction at NGN so stay tuned for that, I should be blogging more regularly now that i'm done with college until next fall.

Well, today I got up, wrote a 1500 word term paper, went to turn on my computer for some Bad Company 2 only to find something terribly wrong had happened. The first thing I noticed was that the task bar was missing, although my icons and rocket dock where still there (it wasn't the explorer.exe problem). On top of that, there were about a million errors from nhancer and other video driver dependant programs telling me that I needed to reinstall my video drivers.

I go into my computer and try to reinstall the latest drivers, but it says I have to wait for the current driver instillation to finish. Wait, what? I'm not installing any drivers. Maybe it's a virus – my speciality. Viruses always go into "System Volume Information," which is where your computer stores system restore points, so you can just wipe that whole section out and remove the virus. Before I do this, I open the task manager to see if there are more tasks then usual which often indicates a virus – nope – fewer than usual actually. And my antivirus program is still running, but It didn't give me any warnings. Very odd. I try removing the display drivers through the control panel – this works, I restart my computer and try and install the video drivers again. Nope. I find a way to access system restore without the use of the start menu (ctrl+esc wasn't working), but I get an error saying that "system restore cannot protect my computer, please restart your computer and try running system restore again." I go through all the procedures to make sure System Restore is turned on properly – it is. Restarting the computer does not help.

Next I assume there must be a problem with windows, so I try a repair install – it messes up half way through. Now I can't get into windows at all. I'm thinking it's another hardware problem, but I haven't had any BSOD's, and my computer has been completely stable over the last several months. I try pulling out the two pieces of ram that were the newer versions of 2 sticks I had die on my earlier this year. Nope - Guess it's time for a fresh install of windows – but I can't access any of my files, so all my game saves will get deleted.

I then make the decision to get Windows 7, I was planning on waiting until the summer when I upgrade my CPU/GPU, but if i'm going to do a fresh install of windows, I might as well upgrade now. I hated Vista, and was reluctant to upgrade because I heard it was similar, but I want Just Cause 2 and dx11 support for when I get my GTX470, so I knew I was going to upgrade eventually. The entire install process was extremely smooth, i'm used to installing XP off a first-generation dell windows XP service pack 1 disk, its takes ages then I have to update to service pack 3, install audio, video and network drivers. Windows 7 did all that automatically, so I was very impressed by the install process. I was also thrilled to find out that it saved my old windows folders so all my game saves are intact. I'm very pleased with it so far and look forwards to getting used to it in the near future, and i'm also insanely relieved that it was a software problem after all.

Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising Review

For those too lazy to read the review, its a brilliant expansion that fans of Dawn of War II will love, the campaign is a really big improvement, Chaos Marines are very fun to play as. Reinforces my love of Relic.

Metro 2033 Impressions

I'll admit that I am generally a big fan of atmospheric eastern-European games like Stalker and Cryostasis, so unsurprisingly I was pretty excited for the release of Metro 2033. I wasn't deterred by the mixed reviews it received from critics, since Cryostasis received mostly negative reviews, I was however worried about reports of bad performance and lots of bugs, especially the performance since Cryostasis gave me such much trouble in this department.

Luckily it runs great on 'normal' settings, which you can see from the screenshot above still looks really good. I can't think of any other games that scale as well as Metro, on high it looks incredible, on normal it still looks great, the only thing removed is the volumetric lighting and particle effects, the fantastic textures and shadows are still present. I love all the steps taken to make the game immersive, I turned off the crosshair to remove the HUD entirely (except for when changing weapons), you have to look at your watch for information about gas mask filters, and your objectives are viewed by pulling out a clip board and a lighter. The improvised weapons are also great, you can often see the amount of ammo you have by looking at your weapon, which is pure genius and totally removes the need for a HUD displaying how much ammo you have left.

I'm also enjoying the story so far, very well told and intriguing, lots of interesting characters. It's a nice change of pace that you have people with you a lot of the time, especially compared to the crushing isolation of Crystasis. The gameplay is very survival-horrorish, the combat is a bit clunky but not in an irritating way, it just makes the combat more intense, especially when there are five monsters charging at you and you are trying desperately to cram shotgun shells into your gun before they get you. Scrounging weapons and ammo is lots of fun, although sometimes it's hard to know if you should switch weapons because there aren't any weapon stats available.

Overall I'm not sure if I'll enjoy it as much as I did Stalker: CoP or Cryostasis, but I'm very glad I got it and look forwards to playing through the rest of it. The detailed environments and sound effects and steps taken to immerse you in the world are the highlight, the combat is good but can get a bit hectic, and the story is very promising.

Ok, I've been meaning to write a blog about Bad Company 2 for a while, but teh laziness has prevented me from doing so. Basically I think it's a great game, but, imo, it could be a lot better if a few small changed were made.

I started off with the singleplayer, there were a couple of cool missions like the one in the Andes where you needed to run from house to house to stay warm, but ultimately it was pretty bland and uninspired. I loved the variety of locations, and some of the writing was decent, but the missions themselves felt somehow lacking, despite the variation in gameplay and setting.

I fell in love with the multiplayer in the Beta, and while that same joy is still there, I actually think the game has taken a step backwards in some ways from the beta. My first complaint is that the K/D ratio is displayed really prominently in the scoreboard. This means that you will probably be obsessing over your K/D ratio instead of trying to help your team win, which in some cases means doing stuff that could make you dead. The beta just showed your score, which makes perfect sense, given that supporting team mates and completing objectives is just as important as killing enemies. I've been in a number of matches where one or both teams make no effort to work together and instead run off and hide in a corner trying to make their K/D ratio go up.

I also don't remember Medics being as powerful in combat, in the beta they were at first given a crappy MG and the healing pads, so they get used to reviving downed team mates early on instead of gunning down enemies and using the class purely for the LMG's. Now, each class has to unlock their standard item, and I've noticed that Medics are absurdly numerous in many matches, in one Rush match in the night woods map where there aren't any vehicles, the defending team just made a impenetrable wall of medics hunkered down with ammo and health supply crates. It was a massacre. Bad Company 2 actually reminds me a lot of a FPS version of World in Conflict, which is my favourite multiplayer game of all time, and I think DICE needs to look to this game for balancing ideas. How about there can only be so many of each class on a team – 4 medics, 4 assault, 4 engineers, and 4 recon players on a 16 player team. Force the teams to work together – in WiC, there was a brilliant framework of players supporting players – Air players could decimate tanks were vulnerable to anti aircraft vehicles, so the friendly heavy tanks would need to go in first to take out the enemy AA guns, but the tanks were vulnerable to enemy helicopters, so you needed to have a support player bring along AA vehicles to counter the enemy choppers – it all fit so well together, and make the game super fun and intense without ever being unfair.

The auto balance is also totally broken, some players will just switch to the winning team no matter what, making that team even more powerful, creating some absurdly single-sided matches. I also don't like how the levelling/unlocking system is totally disconnected, other than for a few random items, you play each class and get unlocks based on the amount of XP you have earned for that class. It has nothing to do with your overall level – why not make each class level up separately like in DoW II? Wouldn't that make more sense?

Anyways, server, lag, and balancing issues aside, the game is pretty great and generally very fun online, the maps are brilliant, the unlocks are exciting, the game runs incredibly well on high settings in DX 9, and there is a ton of incentive to keep playing. I've found my multiplayer fps for 2010.

On to Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising. I will be reviewing this game at NGN fairly soon, so I won't go into too much detail, but overall it reinforces my love for Relic. It fixes all the major problems of DoW: II – especially the singleplayer campaign, which while repetitive and shallow in the original is now insanely fun. It has gone even further down the action RPG road, but it does it really well, keeping the great tactical gameplay but ditching the short, repetitive missions that made DoW II such a grind towards the end.

The Last Stand mode, added in a free DLC a while back, has been buffed up with 2 new heroes, and I'm having lots of fun with that mode again having given it a break for a while, now I get to play as a Chaos sorcerer and summon doppelgangers (clones of the enemies that fight for me) and consume them for health when I'm dying. It's always fun working with two teammates to find ways and strategies of getting past the wave that meant our demise in the last round, it feels just as fun as it did when it first came out.

I never really got bored of the competitive multiplayer in DoW II – in fact, I was playing it a lot the week before Chaos Rising came out – and something strange happened – I got good. Really good. I don't know how or when exactly it happened, but I started winning pretty much every game I played. I finally figured out how to do really well with the Orks – I played one 2 vs. 2 game where both my team mate and my opponents team mate dropped. It was 1 vs. 1 with A.I on either side – I fought hard, retreated my units early, played as well as I had ever played – and won, against what turned out to be a veteran with a very high TS rank.

Before this... happened, my win/loss ratio as the Orks was 12/21. By the time the update hit, it was up to 27/22. Then the update hit – and to my great horror deleted my stats in their entirety – all but the ranks for the individual races, possibly the most meaningless statistic in the game. Since then I got Chaos Rising and have been playing as Chaos online – and man o man do I suck. I have played 8 games – 2 I have won, the rest I lost. Since the update deleted everyone's trueskill rank, which the matchmaking system bases games on, the insane pros are being pitted against poor average players such as myself. This has resulted in me losing my attitude of 'I kick ass,' but the game never stops being fun. I think these micro-management heavy RTS's are my favourite games online because whenever you lose – it's completely your fault. You screwed up, did something you shouldn't have, and in this way every single match is a learning experience. With online FPS's, you can get totally screwed over by things out of your control – getting spawn killed, having a cooked grenade land by your feet – I hate these things. For this reason, I don't think I could ever enjoy a game like Bad Company 2 as much as I enjoy games like DoW II and World in Conflict.

Didn't mean for this to turn into such a long blog, so if you're still reading by this point, I say get Chaos Rising for sure if you liked DoW II, it you hated DoW II because it has no base building etc. this game won't change your mind, but if you like Action RPG's like Mass Effect, and are interested in getting into, or at least trying RTS's, DoW II + Chaos Rising would be a fantastic way to do it.

March is going to be absolutely crazy as far as game releases go, I cant recall another month in the last few years that has as many high caliber games i plan on purchasing.

The beta for Battlefield: Bad Company 2 pretty much blew me away, the sound effects and emphasis on teamwork is really fantastic. I love the destructible environments, and the sound design is probably the most impressive i have ever encountered. I've been looking for a proper online shooter for a long time, and it looks like i have finally found it. Day 1 purchase for sure.

Dawn of War II is a game i still play today, and i'm really looking forwards to this expansion. Relic has a fantastic track record with expansion packs, Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts is probably the most impressive game expansion i have ever played, and it sounds like Relic is going to do a great job on improving the campaign that was good but repetitive in the original DoW II, as well as updating the already fantastic multiplayer with new maps and modes. I'll hopefully be reviewing this game at NGN, and will pick it up as soon as i can.

This game looks really good in previews, like a cross between Stalker and Fallout 3, and the fact that is being developed by a team that splintered off from the original Stalker devs gives me great hope. I have a bad feeling that it will feature Cryostasis styIe performance - aka horribly inconsistent - but i'm hoping this isn't the case, since it looks wonderfully detailed and immersive. I'll get this as soon as i have time to play it.

I cant say i was a big fan of the original Assassins creed, it has some cool ideas but the repetative gameplay and awkward combat really put me off. I've heard only good things about the sequel, so i'm eager to get my hands on it when it finally arrives on the PC this month. I don't think i'll be buying it right away, but i will get it eventually for sure. From the looks of things there is a lot to like about this game.

Ok, this is a game i'm really not sure about. I tried the beta, and even though it seems like the kind of tactics-heavy RTS i usually love, i just couldn't get into it. It doesn't feel like a CnC game, it doesn't feel like a proper Relic ****micro management RTS... it feels like it has no identity of its own (kind of like The Sabetuer). I'm probably going to get it anyhow, i'm sure i will like the campaign and maybe i can get into the mp, but i'm extremely skeptical.

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Various Ramblings:

Ok, i've had the last two weeks off for the Olympics since i live in Vancouver and all the students are needed for volunteering and slavery and such, although i'm not taking part in any of that nonsense. I've had a lot of schoolwork to do over the break, which predictably i've left until the last minute, because i've been busy not doing anything. I was supposed to go see Womens Snowboard Cross early last week, but the standing room tickets were cancelled because of horrible weather and a lack of snow. I would have had to get up at 5 am though, so i wasn't too disappointed.

I finished Call of Pripyat at some point in the last week (cant remember when, i've lost track of time), and i can confirm that it is the best game in the series. There were some really cool bits towards the end of the game, and the story was actually fairly interesting and easy to follow compared to the previous Stalker games. I'm sure i'll replay it at some point because i enjoyed it so much, but that probably wont be for a while.

So after finishing CoP, i was shocked to find that the massive pile of unplayed games i had accumulated over the last few months had finally been finished. I've been wanting to replay Dragon Age and Mass Effect 1 and 2, so i decided to start another ME 1 playthrough so i could go straight through both games as a Renegade character since the saves for my original Renegade character were lost. I was startled at how different the game felt, and decided that i actually prefer the first Mass Effect to the second because of the immersion and the focus on the story, although i do recognize Mass Effect 2 as being a better game overall because of the mechanics.

I've also started playing Dawn of War II online again, this time Two vs. Two, and my god, i must be a magnet for pros because every second match i play seems to be against super-veterans who squash me and whichever teammate i have withing minutes. I had a really good game earlier today with one of my old DoW II friends where we managed to wipe the floor with two players who were way higher rank and true skill (the rank given to players based on their skill level) than us, which was immensely satisfying.

I also finally reinstalled TF 2 today since i haven't played it in a while and there have been a bunch of updates since i last played. TF 2 will be nice after the super-competitive world of DoW II, and i look forwards to diving back into it tommorow - my schoolwork can wait a couple more days!

I was having a hard time believing that the new Stalker: Call of Pripyat is actually better than the original Shadow of Chernobyl. There were just so many great moments and little details that made me fall in love with the game. I really wanted to get Call of Pripyat as soon as it released, but finding proved very difficult indeed. Finally, I lucked out and found it at a local store (EB games if I'm not mistaken). I've had the opportunity to play it a fair bit, and yea, I can confirm that in most ways it is better than the original, and probably the best game in the series.

What gets me with the game is that I'll sit down with the intention of playing for 30-40 minutes, play for what feels like that amount of time, glance at my watch and be astounded to find out that 2 and half hours have passed. It happens every time I sit down to play. I recall the original Stalker having the same effect; the atmosphere makes it super-immersive. Speaking of the atmosphere, it is true; the fantastic atmosphere that the series is known for is back after its absence from Clear Sky. It may not be quite as thick as it was with the original, likely because of the familiarity, but it still creepy as hell wandering through an abandoned building with only your flashlight and unreliable pistol.

The first area reminded me of a fair bit of the first area in Clear Sky, I was a bit worried at this point, but after I got to the second area, I started to get impressed. You arrive in a crowded building full of other Stalkers talking happily amongst themselves, it seems safe and homey, and then you step out of the building into the pitch black night. The door bangs shut behind you, the driving rain and wind makes it impossible to see very far with the feeble beam of light produced by your flashlight. Just as you start walking, a bright flash of lighting reveals a pack of mutant rats charging at you frighteningly fast. You pull out your rusting AK and start firing – then it jams. Great little non-scripted sequences like this one occur frequently, and these encounters are what make the Stalker games really special. The menus, repair/upgrade systems and quest systems are massively improved, the side quests are actually worth doing, and the bugs are pretty much absent. I did encounter one bug that forced me to revert to an earlier save game; an emission was coming, and when I went to the cover the game told me to, the door was locked and there were two stalkers stuck in the door. Other than that it has been great though, and I'm loving every minute of my adventure in the zone.

I find a take a lot of screenshots when I play Stalker games, even though some aspects of the visuals are dated, it still manages to look incredibly realistic at times, almost startlingly so. I'll post the 7 screenshots I think do the game justice, I'm running in DX 9 with all settings as high as they will go.

Sunrises are not only gorgeous - they also mean that the long, horrifying night is over

I was able to pass through this minefield safely after a pack of mutants ran over it and set them all off

A eerie hallway in a massive abandoned cement factory

During the night you will often need to navigate during lightning flashes

I will occasionally rub my eyes in disbelief at a particularly convincing indoor area

It may look gloomy on the outside, but inside Stalkers drink and trade stories of mutant-hunting and artifact-finding

The fact that these buildings are devoid of life makes exploring them a very disconcerting act