Sunday, December 14, 2008
Hello. Today was a busy day. I went to the gym with my family in the morning. In the past few weeks, I've just been running on the treadmill and riding on the bike, but today I started doing some muscle building exercises.I tried doing the bench press. I managed to go up to 350 lbs. People who can bench press 400 lbs are beasts. That's the maximum amount of weight available for the bench press. At 300 lbs, I started to feel the strain, and at 350 lbs, my legs started shaking.
I also tried this machine where you have to lie down hold onto a bar with both your hands, then you have to lift the bar up until your arms are straight. The bar was attached to some weights, you you are basically pushing up the weights. I went up to 200 lbs, then my back got pain all of a sudden, so I stopped.
After we were done at the gym, we went to Bukit Merah to eat brunch. Then we went to the NTUC to buy groceries. Normally, my mother goes alone, and she gets just the basic necessities, and all the healthy food. Since we were there as well today, we got all the junk food.
When we finally got home, my father and mother went to sleep, and my brother started to use the computer. I have no idea what my sister was doing. Anyways, I just played Xbox. I played Call of Duty: World at War. I did the "Black Cats" mission again.
In the mission, you play as a gunner on board a bombardment plane, and it takes place at the Pacific ocean. You have to take out various Japanese ships and planes. I played it to get some Achievement that requires you to shoot out all the search lights on the Japanese cargo fleet.
Then my cousins came, and they bought Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe. The game is actually fun. I still have no clue how to pull off fatalities, but some of the other special moves are fun to use. For example, when you use Deathstroke, he can pull out his gun and fire it into his opponent's head. The Joker can use a zapper to electrocute his opponents.
These moves may not sound like much, but they are satisfying as hell to pull off. I also like some of the new features like "Klose Kombat", "Free Fall" and "Test Your Might".
"Klose Kombat" allows you to pull your opponent close to you, and both of you will exchange a series of blows. You can dodge your opponent's blows and follow up with a devastating counter.
"Free Fall" is basically what its name suggests: You fight an opponent while both of you are free falling. You can exchange blows, and both characters will struggle to get on top of the other as the ground approaches. The one that ends up below gets smashed into the ground.
"Test Your Might" isn't exactly a new fight mechanic; it's more like a contest between who can press buttons faster. On character will throw the other towards a wall, and then he will charge into his opponent. They will then run through a series of walls while both players spam buttons to determine the outcome of the struggle. It may not change the game much, but it is visually impressive, especially when you pull it off with characters who have super strength, like Superman and Scorpion.
We played the game for a while, then we played other games like Guitar Hero: World Tour, Call of Duty 4 and Halo 3. At about 6.30pm, we all went to Lau Pa Sat for dinner. We ate for until 8pm, then we went back home. I got my second complimentary issue of Time magazine. I just received the first issue two weeks ago. So Time is out twice a month? I didn't know that.
I said that I'll be posting my thoughts on Call of Duty: World at War today, so here it is:
The Good.
1) Story
While the story of World at War is no where near as good as that of Call of Duty 4, it is still quality stuff. You play as three different soldiers, Private Miller of the United States Marine Corp, Private Petrenko of the Red Army, and Petty Officer Locke, who is the plane gunner who is was talking about earlier on.
The story takes place in less discover areas of World War II, including the Makin Island Raid, the Battle of Peleliu and the Battle of Berlin. The story is well written, with unexpected plot twists and moments that will amaze you.
Call of Duty 4's story was said to be better than that of most major blockbusters of the past few years, and while World at War's story isn't as good as that of its predecessor, I would still pick its story over the stories of many movies.
2) Weapons
There are many new weapons in World at War. Of course, there are all the guns from the WWII era, but there are several new types of weapons. There is now a class of "deployable" weapons. These weapons are like portable machine gun turrets, and they can be set up onto a wall to give you greater accuracy. There are also new throwable weapons like mortar shells, and you can radio in air strikes, artillery strikes and naval bombardments.
The weapons look good, and they feel good to use. Heavier guns cause more vibrations on your controller, while smaller weapons with silencers cause little vibration. It is also really satisfying to watch your weapons completely devastate the enemy.
3) Graphics
Call of Duty: World at War is running on the Call of Duty 4 graphics engine, so you can expect the graphic to be good. Water and fire looks especially good. When it rains, the clothes of characters in the game look realistically wet. Same thing when they walk through water. We grass and trees are set on fire, the beautiful looking fire will spread.
Attention is paid to the smaller details as well. When characters are set on fire, their skin and clothes become black, and when a grenade goes off beneath a character, they will be flung into the air, and their limbs will get blown off.
4) Audio
As expected of a game from the Call of Duty series, everything from voice acting to the sound the weapons make is top notch. The voice samples used in the game can get a little repetitive at times though, as the audio pretty much plays in a loop. I cannot count how many times I've heard a Japanese soldier yell the word "Banzai".
5) Flamethrower
It is totally over-powered since it has unlimited ammo, and it is pretty much a one hit kill weapon, but that alright. It's good to be able to feel like a god some times.
6) Co-operative play
This is new to the Call of Duty series. There is now a co-operative story mode that supports up to 4 players online and 2 players offline. While this takes away many of the cinematic moments that can only be felt by playing alone, it is fun playing with it friends.
7) Nazi Zombie survival
You only get this mode after completing the game. Basically, you and up to three other friends are stuck in an abandoned house, and you have to survive an infinite waves of Nazi zombies. You have to gain points to access more powerful weapons. In order to gain points, you have to do things like repair barriers and kill zombies. It's a blast when playing with 4 players.
8) Scale of battles
Call of Duty 4 focused on taking the players from one small scale fire fight to another. In World at War, players are thrown into huge battlefields. It does feel epic, and it does feel like a real war, but it can get confusing at times. There are many times when I found myself wondering into invisible walls and other barriers because it wasn't clearly indicated where I had to go to next. Still, it is cool to be able to play through these battles.
9) Tank
In Call of Duty 4, there were no vehicles that you could drive. In World at War, you get to drive a tank. And the tank kicks ass. It has a powerful main cannon, and as if that isn't already enough, it has a flamethrower as well. It's awesome to pilot.
10) Multiplayer
It's basically Call of Duty 4 multiplayer with different weapons, maps, and kill streak bonuses. It isn't a bad thing though, since COD4's multiplayer pwned so hard. The multiplayer in World at War is great.
11) Attack dogs
This is a kill streak bonus that replaces Call of Duty 4's helicopter. Get 7 kills in a row, and you get to call in the attack dogs. They are much more dangerous that the helicopter. With the helicopter, it is still possible to hide in building, but with the dogs, there is no hiding. Once you hear that ominous barking, you'd better pray that the dogs are on your team and not against you.
The Bad.
1) Characters
In Call of Duty 4, the characters were memorable, and you actually cared when they died. In World at War, no one really cares about the characters, and no one bothers if they lived or died.
2) Few cinematic moments
In order to have co-op, World at War kept the amount of cinematic moments to a minimum. Too bad that it was these cinematic moments that made Call of Duty 4's story mode superior to World at War's. I can't even think of any memorable cinematic moments in World at War, but everyone still remembers watching that atomic bomb go off in COD4.
3) Grenades
The enemies throw them incredibly far, and they throw them with incredible accuracy. And no matter what difficulty you are playing, grenades are BAD.
4) Veteran difficulty
If you thought that the Veteran difficulty of COD4 was difficulty, try it out in World at War. It's near impossible.
5) Short single player
The story mode is good, but it can be completed in less that 6 hours. And when I was done with the story, I was still craving for more. This is an issue with every Call of Duty game, but I was hoping that the story would at least be a little longer this time. Disappointment.
6) A.I
They are stupid. It is not uncommon to see an American soldier standing right beside a Japanese soldier, but the Japanese soldier decides that it is a smarter choice to shoot at you, although you are a hundred meters away. And the American soldier doesn't bother shooting the Japanese troop either, instead he just stands there. The A.I allies will also not advance until you lead them forward.
7) Glitches
This is the first time I'm encountering this many glitches in a Call of Duty game. There are times when you get stuck in invisible barriers, times when enemies get half their bodies stuck into the ground, and times where grenades don't explode after you've thrown them.
8) Doesn't feel like a complete game
I have no idea why. When I completed the game, I was expecting more. I guess we can say that the ending is kinda abrupt.
9) World War II
The genre has be explored in video games so much that it isn't even that exciting to play through anymore. Note to developer of the next Call of Duty game: We all want modern warfare back.
10) Title
All previous Call of Duty games, whether they had subtitles in their title or not, we always numbered. We all clearly know that there a COD1, COD2, COD3 and COD4. Then comes Call of Duty: World at War. Wait, so is this the fifth Call of Duty game, or is it a side story? So is the next Call of Duty game going to be called COD5 or COD6? To make things even more confusing, Call of Duty 4 was on modern warfare while Call of Duty: World at War is on WWII, so there is no link at all between the games. Can't they just number the games normally?
Overall, Call of Duty: World at War is a good game. It has a great single player and multiplayer, and the Nazi Zombie mode is really fun. If you are a fan of the Call of Duty series, this is a must buy for you. If you have never played Call of Duty before [even after COD4? wtf.], then you might want to buy it, because even through you might not like the story mode, there is an incredibly addictive multiplayer mode.
The post is already kinda long, so I'll leave the Fable 2 review for another day. Tomorrow, we will all know Spike TV's Game of the Year 2008. I'll also be embedding some of the the new trailers that will be shown during the Video Game Awards. My dad wants to use the computer, so I have to stop now. Ending off, see you tomorrow.
posted @ 11:30 PM
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