Friday, June 17, 2005

POTD: Summer in Missoula

Tuesday, June 14, 2005

Budget Priced FPS/TPS (Third Person Shooter) PC Game Recommendations

Far Cry – First person shooter with fairly open-ended game play. Lets you take them out quietly with silenced weapons or go in Rambo style. Fun vehicles to drive on the ground, water and even one to fly! The plot is a cross between Commando and Island of Doctor Morreou (sp?). Captures the feel of an action-packed monster movie perfectly, though the acting and story-telling are a little on the tacky side. Far Cry is set on a beautiful chain of tropical islands, using one of the best graphics engines out there. The levels are very expansive and full of plant and animal life, providing for the best outdoor environment in any game to date. The enemy AI is quite cunning at times, working together to outflank, surround you and generally hunt you down. Employing real-life combat strategy is highly advisable. The game is a major CPU hog though and the network code for multiplayer is deficient.

Halo - Port of the original Xbox "killer app". Tight alien-killing action with wonderful sense of style and great storytelling sparkled with humorous touches. Somewhat dated graphics are made up for with great artistic design. The action is complemented by an epic musical score, great voice acting and generally excellent sound design. There are a number of vehicles to drive and fly, the funnest being one the Warthog jeep. On the negative side, the DirectX 9 shader code in the game is very unoptimized, causing it to run doggy on even the most powerful of systems if you have the Specular Lighting effect enabled. This only affects the indoor levels of the game. I recommend turning the specular off altogether. Also, there are some questionable level design choices later in the game, making you repeat similar level sections over and over. I haven't spent much time with multiplayer, but it does seem fast-paced and fun, involving a good deal of vehicle action.

Chronicles of Riddick - The plot behind this game makes it a prequel to both Pitch Black and CoR the movie, chronicling Riddick's brief stint at the infamous Butcher Bay "triple-max" penitentiary, aka the place where he got his eyes "shined". The game actually happens to have a better plot than the CoR movie, featuring many twists and turns and the acting by Vin and others is very good. It also features one of the best graphic engines around, which at time rivals Doom 3, though the animation is not as good. The whole thing is presented in a very cinematic and immersive manner. In a nice change of pace from other FPS games, you can actually see your limbs and body, doing whatever they are supposed to be doing and there's a neat hand-to-hand combat system. The game play involves quite a bit of sneaking up on people and quietly (or not so) disposing them in creative ways, such as breaking their necks or blowing their heads off with their own guns. The stealth aspect of the game play is helped by the excellent, realistic shadows for you to hide in. The firearm combat in that game is actually not that great. The weapons just don't feel powerful nor accurate enough. The best of the bunch is a type of a "stun gun", which instantly knocks out the enemies for a brief period of time, allowing you to run up to them and finish them off with a boot to the face. Like most of my favorite games, this one also has a very good music score, comprised mostly of spacey ambient tunes with a Middle Eastern flavor. Chronicles of Riddick has no multiplayer mode.

Call of Duty - The WW2 FPS to get, as there are no equals. Very intense, cinematic action, stylistically borrowing a lot from Saving Private Ryan and Enemy at the Gates. Does a great job portraying the chaos of war with some of its epic battle scenes. You play for the American, the British and the Russian sides. The only things that bring down the experience is the linearity and scripted nature of the game and also, some of the "lone wolf" levels tend to drag on for too long and are not as exciting as the group battle ones. The multiplayer mode is very solid and popular.

Max Payne 2 - The game that introduced the world to the HAVOC 2 physics engine, which was later prominently featured in Half-Life 2. The physics add a lot to the surreal, cinematic shooting action done in the style of John Woo films and the Matrix. Watch the enemies get thrown backwards from your shotgun blast, realistically crashing into a china shelf in the kitchen, bringing it down and scattering broken dishes all over the floor. Watch just about every object getting shattered or sent flying in intense crossfire... all in slow motion. Yes, this third-person shooter features what's called a "bullet time", an effect that lets you slow down time around you and pull off all kinds of crazy dodges and other cinematic action moves. Though, after a while, the action does tend to get repetitive and the game is rather short. Another negative is the convoluted, "film-noir" inspired plot, full of pretentious narration by the main character that is outright nonsensical at times. No multiplayer.

Battlefield 1942 - Soon to be overshadowed by its first, highly-expected true sequel, this ultra popular online FPS is set during WW2, pinning the axis against the allies, in up to 64 player action involving different character classes and numerous aerial and ground vehicles. The game play is actually fairly easy to get into, because of its arcadish nature, which turns off realism buffs. This is definitely not a sim game. BF1942 can be found for about $15 new right now. Probably the best reason to get it at this point is a free "total conversion" MOD called Desert Combat, which does away with most of the game's original content and sets it during Operation Desert Storm, pinning US troops against the Iraqi army. This mod also disposes of many shortcomings found in the original game. The publisher was so impressed with this free "fan-made" MOD, that they hired the people responsible for it.

Joint Operations - This mostly overlooked online FPS supports an unprecedented 150 people playing on one map. The action pits the US troops against a few imaginary enemy forces in a near-future war. I personally have not played it, but it sounds pretty good, as described by the rabidly loyal fan base, who swear by it over other, similar games.

Alien vs. Predator 2 - Having been released in 2001, this one falls into the "oldie-but-goodie" category. Thankfully, having nothing to do with the horrible movie, this FPS lets you play as all 3 of the galaxy's deadliest creatures. Yes, there are 3 different single player campaigns, each with some radically different game play styles. The Colonial Marine, while lacking in physical attributes, is equipped with night vision, a motion detector and some major, alien-tearing firepower. The Predator, with his thermo-optic camouflage and highly specialized vision modes and weaponry, is a stealthy, high-tech hunter who has turned killing into an art form and enjoys collecting various trophies, such as skulls. The Alien Xenomorph is a different animal altogether. Guided by the instinct to protect his queen and hive, this semi-sentient creature makes up for its lack of technology with tremendous speed, the ability to climb walls, ceilings and to leap great distances. Its claws, jaws and tail can slice, dice and chew through its enemies before they know what hit them. All that a Xenomorph has to do to restore its health is to feast on its victim's warm flesh. The action for each character is tied together by a surprisingly decent, interconnected plot, which makes you want to finish the game with all three. I never tried the multiplayer, but it sounds like it could be really fun.

No One Lives Forever - This is another one for the "oldie-but-goodie" category. This cult classic FPS features a plot and characters inspired by everything James Bond, which delicately lampoons the famous spy series. It takes place in a whacky, late 1960's spy movie world, where you play as the beautiful Cate Archer, a young Scott of aristocratic descent, orphaned in childhood and becoming the professional thief renown as "The Fox". After being captured by the authorities, our heroine is promptly recruited by a British spy agency, who was very impressed by her abilities to break through the toughest security measures, athleticism and sophisticated intellect. So, now Cate travels all over the world, spoiling the evil plans of dictatorships and various super-villains. The tongue and cheek plot and setting don't distract from the seriousness of the action, as the game play is rather involved and sophisticated, making you look for the best approach to each situation, often resulting to stealth and high-tech gadgetry, though there is plenty of shooting to be found here as well. The settings range from East Berlin, to a sunken ship, to a big orbital space station, which are all populated by various colorful and interesting characters.

Freedom Fighters - This third person action game takes place in an alternate reality, where the Soviet Union still exist and in fact, is more powerful than it has ever been, pushing out capitalism all over the world and isolating the United States. You play as a New York plumber, turned rebel during a Soviet invasion of the East Coast. The game gives you limited command over a squad of 8 fellow rebels and you better learn how to utilize them if you want to survive. Luckily, the squad interface is very streamlined. Freedom Fighter has good looking graphics and great artwork. The war-torn New York City environments are well-done and atmospheric.

Hitman Contracts - Never played it, but Hitman 2 was pretty cool.

The Suffering - This third-person combination of survival horror and fast-paced action is not for the squeamish or the weak of heart. It takes place on an island housing a notorious maximum security prison with a very bad history. As our "hero" arrives, the island gets isolated from the mainland by a storm and invaded by forces of unspeakable evil. Each demonic invader is based on some method of torture or execution, which makes for some really creative enemy designs. The environments, consisting of the prison complex and other locations on the island are all interesting and very spooky. The action is fast-paced and brutal, letting you utilize a number of melee weapons, as well as guns. Over time, your character actually gets covered in the blood of slain enemies.