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Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 02/27/2021
Posted in: Microsoft Consoles, PC Reviews, Xbox. Leave a comment

Publisher: Electronic Arts

Developer: The Collective

Release Date: 08/18/2002

Rating: Teen

MSRP: $49.99

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For starters, I’m no Buffy buff. I never watched the show growing up, nor did I as an adult. That’s okay though, as there are many great video games based on movies and TV shows that are fun without needing to watch the material it is based on. Buffy seems like this kind of game at first. While it’s clearly geared toward fans of the show, I have no idea what’s going on in the story. You are basically trying to stop some evil vampire spirit from ending the world. That’s literally it. You chase him around as he possesses various characters from the show. It’s dull and rather uninteresting and the game is also poorly written. Buffy’s one-liners get old as all five of them repeat constantly throughout the game and so do the one-liners from the enemies.

That’s just the beginning. Buffy has an array of acrobatic moves and they are actually quite good for such an early 64-bit era game. The animations are well done and the combat, when it does work, is pretty awesome. Buffy can punch and kick and execute enemies with a wooden stake. She also has Slayer Power which allows her to add-on some powerful moves at the end of combo chains. This, again, seems great on paper, but it’s poorly executed. While the animations are nice there’s constant knockback and you can’t interrupt the enemies’ attacks. This is the key flaw in the entire combat system. There’s no dodge button, no parry, and no way to counter attacks at all. You just have to take it and fall down and get back up, but some enemies will stomp you, and then multiple enemies join in and you end up dying and losing health over cheap gameplay mechanics. The game is just very cheap all around.

Another issue revolved around this is the terrible jumping and extreme distance you get knocked back at. This leads to cheap deaths off cliffs as some of the fighting areas are tiny and are not designed around how far Buffy can be thrown. I would make it to the end of a level and die just because I got picked up and thrown off of a cliff due to the poor level design. It’s everywhere in this game including platforming segments that shouldn’t exist here. I never finished the game due to the second to last level having so many cliffs of death, tiny arenas, and platforming woes that after the 7th time dying from a cheap death I put the disc back in the box and shelved it. I’m not missing out on much anyway.

If that isn’t painful enough the level design is boring and trite. You walk down boring brown or gray hallways, fight a few enemies, flip a switch, and move on. The level design is just bad and every location is so uninteresting. A foundry, a high school, a sunken church, all just blandly designed. At least the character models look decent and the voice acting is all right. This also leads to healing and other items which leads to the biggest flaw this entire game has, and what I think, completely breaks it. All these other things would be doing if you didn’t have to execute every enemy with a stake. You can knock them down to no health and they won’t die until you execute them. This leads to more cheap deaths as instead of them dying when their health is down you then have to break through their constant blocking, get knocked around more, lose more health, just to get in an execution. They will not die unless you have a stake or the glaive. Enemies block every single move you do, making combat take way longer than necessary, and they also shouldn’t take so long to die. For a beat ’em up enemies should have more balanced health bars.

There are also items like holy water, hellfire, and a super soaker that contains both. This is a completely useless tool as it depletes within seconds and requires fonts to replenish and only a few levels have them. It’s mostly used just to take down certain force fields. Seriously, what a waste of time and effort. And that’s pretty much all Buffy has to offer. Some decent combat and animations are all the game has going for it but is horrendously broken with terrible gameplay mechanics throughout the entire game.

I honestly can’t recommend this to anyone unless you are a Buffy fan, and even then you aren’t missing out on much at all. The story is boring, the level design is uninspired and bland, and the game is nearly broken thanks to poor design decisions.

Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 04/20/2020
Posted in: Mac, Microsoft Consoles, PC Reviews, PlayStation 2, Sony Consoles, Xbox. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

Publisher: Rockstar Games

Developer: Remedy Entertainment

Release Date: 10/14/2003 (PC), 11/25/2003 (Xbox), 12/02/2003 (PS2)

MSRP: $49.99

Rating: Mature

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Max Payne 2 was released a little over a year from the original and a surprising amount of fat was cut from the original. It’s the same game, but more refined and updated and feels more tightly woven than its predecessor. A lot of problems were fixed, but new ones arose as well. The narrative continues right after the first game with Max still trying to avenge the death of his wife and child, still trying to get to the bottom of The Inner Circle, and a new love blooms: Mona Sax.

The game starts off similarly to the first game, we get some weird trippy dream sequences, but they aren’t nearly as awful with zero platforming this time. Once you are in control of Max you can instantly feel the difference. He has more weight, his animations are smoother, and gunplay overall just feels punchier and sharper. More weapons were introduced with many old ones coming back. The new M4 and Kolishnokov weapons are a great addition, but unnecessary. One assault rifle is good enough as well as the addition of the HP5, but the Ingrams do just fine for a sub-machine gun. While the older weapons pack more of a punch the new weapons just feel like they were added just to add to the weapon count, less would have been fine. A new dedicated projectile button has been added so you can throw grenades and molotovs without equipping them.

Bullet Time has been refined and fixed as well. Max can now spin around in a 360-degree motion while dodging and the bullets impact harder and there’s less of a delay when you shoot. There is also better feedback on enemies when hit as they stumble more and drop their weapons so you know they’re dead in bullet time. Max can also stay lying down while continuing to empty a clip so the delay in getting up doesn’t make you completely vulnerable as the first game did. The difficulty has been dialed way back and I died a lot less than in the first game. All these great fixes and additions make Max Payne 2 the better of the two games already.

When it comes to level design, Max Payne 2 has more interesting levels like a creepy funhouse, a sprawling mansion, a construction site, and some apartment slums, but there’s a lot of backtracking and I feel the overall scope of the game feels claustrophobic. The variety is better, but you explore those few areas longer and I just feel I wanted to see more of New York inside this noire world Max lives in. Also, gone are the boss fights so the game feels better paced and I felt a tempo of gameplay going that the first didn’t have. However, the game is much shorter clocking in at 4-5 hours. There aren’t any collectibles or anything like that so once you fly through the game it’s over and there’s no reason to ever go back honestly.

Max Payne 2 is a memorable ride. The story is still told in those awesome comic strips, and I feel at the end of the game we get to know Max and Mona well enough to understand their characters and want them on screen more. Their love story is a great centerpiece for this Mafia revenge tale and it makes Max and Mona feel more human. There’s still a cliffhanger at the end of the story, and a third Max Payne game didn’t come until a decade later, but what we get is one of the best single-player shooters of the PS2/Xbox era. It’s tightly compacted and solid and while its short, sometimes that means quality and that is rare even to this day.

Max Payne

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 04/18/2020
Posted in: Android, Game Boy Advance, iOS, Mac, Microsoft Consoles, Mobile Reviews, Nintendo Consoles, PC Reviews, PlayStation 2, Sony Consoles, Xbox. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

Publisher: Gathering of Developers

Developer: Remedy Entertainment

Release Date: 07/23/2001 (PC), 12/06/2001 (PS2), 12/12/2001 (Xbox), 07/16/2002 (Mac), 12/16/2003 (GBA), 04/12/2012 (iOS), 06/14/2012 (AND)

Rating: Mature

MSRP: $49.99

Also Available On

Bullet time. While The Matrix made it popular amid pop culture, Max Payne started it all in the video game realm. You play as a cop, Max Payne, who is framed for murder of another NYPD cop. Your wife and newborn child are also murdered and you are trying to get revenge on the people who did it. The story isn’t anything amazing, but Max Payne’s voice actor, and the well done writing, keep you hooked long enough to find out what happened behind the scenes. The game is told in a comic noir graphic-novel style and it suits the game well. The cut scenes are imaginative and different, and don’t look cheap or like the developers were trying to take short cuts.

Outside of the story, the gameplay is all about shooting because that’s literally it. Max runs around with various weapons such as Barrettas, Ingrams, shotguns, grenade launchers, Molotov cocktails, grenades, and assault rifles to mow down the Mafia and corrupt cops. Bullet time is the main gameplay element here and when activated Max does a jump dodge in the direction you move and you can see him dodging bullets in real-time. This is actually a mechanic you must master as most situations require you to use it to stay alive. You can’t stand in one spot or you will be dead in a few hits and there’s no cover system. I had to quicksave every 2-3 minutes as well because the game is so difficult. It’s cool to jump dodge around a corner, but once Max lands there’s a delay in him getting up and you are completely vulnerable to gunfire. I had to make sure I jump dodged behind cover or across a hallway so I wouldn’t die the second the bullet time finished. You can also activate bullet time and just run your meter down so you can run and gun with it too.

There are very few scenarios in which you do more than press buttons. One scene has Max driving a crate crane around an area, but it’s nothing special, and there are some interactive objects that trigger comic cut scenes, but 95% of the game is just shooting. The weapons themselves feel good and I felt I had to switch up weapons depending on the situation to make my life easier. The locales are varied, but they are a bit too stale and boring for my taste. They don’t quite capture the noir feeling of the comic cut scenes, but there is one level early on called Ragna Rock that was a gothic cult house that reminded me a lot of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines, so that’s a good thing. The game really does feel like a first-generation PS2/Xbox game, but it’s very polished. The game flows nicely, but the difficulty is all over the place, you will die dozens and dozens of times in this game.

The visuals are clean and look nice even 20 years later. I installed a texture upgrade patch and some other things to make the game upscale to 4K nicely and play on modern hardware, and it looks pretty good. Even in the original, the facial textures are nice and very realistic, and the over aesthetic of the game stands out over most shooters of its time. The voice acting is great, and I finished the game in about 7 hours. After you finish it there’s literally nothing else to do as the multiplayer mode was scrapped. It’s a fantastic single-player game that holds up well even today despite its insane difficulty and unbalanced gameplay. The story isn’t anything special, but Max is a great character to dive into and it makes for a fun evening.

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 08/03/2019
Posted in: Microsoft Consoles, PC Reviews, PlayStation 2, Sony Consoles, Xbox, Xbox 360. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment
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Publisher: Ubisoft

Developer: Grin

Release Date: 05/03/2006

Rating: Teen

MSRP: $59.99

Also Available On

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Ghost Recon has always been a part of my childhood as it was one of my dad’s favorite games. While we only had the inferior PS2 versions, they were kind of fun to play and really challenging. The slow pace of crawling through enemy territory and deciding the best way to take them all out without dying after 3 shots could sometimes be quite rewarding especially since this is what the series was popular for. GRAW carries this over on the PC version specifically while the Xbox 360 version is faster paced. I personally think this is a much inferior version and the slower pace feels dated and boring.

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After so many Ghost Recon games, it was exciting to get a new game in the series on the brink of brand new technology. While the PC version sure looks great, it uses a slightly different engine and is in a first person perspective rather than third like the Xbox 360 version. Everything just feels completely different such as enemies not staying tagged with the orange diamonds and this became a real big problem. You get a drone in this game but it’s tied to a tactical map rather than viewing it in real-time overhead. You can use basic commands to send squad members to an area and take out enemies, but you’re so blind and the angle of the camera for the map is really strange and distorts your perspective. Many times my men died because I didn’t know what was ahead and unless you play at a snail’s pace you’re going to die a lot.

That also goes for your character. Two or three shots and your dead and the checkpoints are so infrequent and spread apart that it leads to many frustrations. The PC version should have a manul quick save feature and it doesn’t. The character walks like a geriatric on a crutch or sprints as fast as a turtle. The maps are bland and void of any type of action or ambiance. Just plain walls, silos, warehouses, and blown up cars. Once I did get a few bad guys tagged I would send my guys out, but stray too far and the tags disappear which is really pointless. Just on the training map alone, I died maybe 6 or 7 times because it’s just so hard to see what’s coming up in a large open map. I need something like, I don’t know, my drone’s tags to stay up and I see where every bad guy is and either skip some or avoid certain areas.

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At least giving commands is rather simple as using the mouse wheel or number row tells your guys to stop, follow, attack, or carry out commands set on the map. However, the AI is weird as sometimes my guys would pop people I never even saw and then not engage on tagged targets I told them to attack. They would just stand there and stare and sometimes get shot up and tell me that the target isn’t reachable. With all of this combined, this makes for a buggy and frustrating mess of a game that doesn’t exist on the Xbox 360 version. The snail’s pace alone isn’t fun and is boring and bland and takes away all the character and amazing pace of the console version. Why Ubisoft tried to make the PC slower is beyond me as I wanted the 360 version just with better visuals maybe? Even the art style is completely different despite most of the maps and missions being the same.

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Overall, GRAW on PC is a huge let down as Ubisoft thinks we want a slower more boring game? It feels more like Rainbow Six than Ghost Recon and carries with it too many of the issues from past Ghost Recon games. Get rid of the slow pace and animations, make the AI better, and stop making up crawl around a massive map trying to pick off-targets. It’s just not fun at all. Some people may love this, such as those who actually like boring tactical shooters that play at a crawl, but GRAW on PC just doesn’t cut it and shouldn’t exist when a superior version exists on Xbox 360.

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Mortal Kombat: Deception

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 05/16/2019
Posted in: Gamecube, Microsoft Consoles, Nintendo Consoles, PlayStation 2, Sony Consoles, Xbox. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment
37546-mortal-kombat-deception-premium-pack-xbox-front-cover

Publisher: Midway

Developer: Midway

Release Date: 10/04/2004

Rating: Mature

MSRP: $49.99

Also Available On

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The very first game I ever pre-ordered. I have never been more excited for a game in my life. Watching gameplay trailers on a PC from 1997 on a 19″ CRT monitor while I stash away allowance bit by bit to get the Premium Pack for PS2. 2004 was an exciting year for gaming and for Mortal Kombat. With Deadly Alliance receiving mostly positive reviews, but a lot of criticism from reviewers, Deception turned everything to 11 and added interactive arenas, more game modes, online fighting. Yes, the online part was the biggest selling point of Deception.

This is the direct sequel to Deadly Alliance. Quan Chi and Shang Tsung have failed to take over and Onaga The Dragon King has decided to rise from Outworld and claim everything as his. A man named Shujinko is now the game’s lead (the first of many to come in later games) who must stop the Dragon King and reverse the actions he made during the Konquest mode that helped give Onaga his power.

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Let’s talk about Konquest mode first as most people will dive into it right away. It’s awful and should never have existed. It’s an expansion on Konquest from Deadly Alliance in which Raiden just walks along a path and each “level” is a training tutorial for all the characters. This is an adventure mode where you get quests, find the treasure for the Krypt, hidden secrets, and find out the back story to Deception, as well as meet many MK fighters and surprises. Sounds great on paper right? Well, it’s horribly executed as one of the worst attempts at a free-roaming RPG/adventure hybrid I’ve ever seen. Shujinko runs around in supersonic fast forward motion, the realms are void of any life, they are terribly laid out, and the worlds rely on a grid system to figure out where every secret and item is. The problem is that the map is useless with no actual grid on the map so you run around for 10 minutes trying to find D2 or H8 only to realize it’s locked away and you can’t go there until you complete the Konquest.

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That’s the main downfall of Konquest. Quests aren’t logged and the entire game has to be played with a guide. It would take dozens and dozens of hours to figure everything out yourself as locations to solve quests and even chests are incredibly cryptic or specific. Some chests with Krypt keys only appear at certain days of the month and times and you would never know without a guide. You can meditate to make time move by faster, but this whole entire game mode is just frustrating, messy, and irritating. Doing the actual main quests are fine as there’s always a large green pillar of light pointing where to go, but talking to a random character and getting a one-sentence quest saying to find a gem is not how quests should be done.

On top of all this, the worlds are terribly laid out. They try to force a look onto each realm such as Chaosrealm having magic portals that project to you various little floating islands that are “chaotically” made up and don’t make sense. Orderrealm is just a giant circle floating in the sky with “order” to the layout and it looks nice and dystopian. It’s a little corny with the way the worlds are represented, but it’s kind of cool to finally explore these areas despite there being nothing to do in them. The visuals are also abysmal as this looks like an early PS2 game that launched, even a little worse than that. Horrendous textures and models, awful voice acting, and laughable animations. It looks like an amateur game developer made this in a weekend.

Outside of Konquest is when things are much better when you actually get to fighting. If any game were to use realistic martial arts it’s Mortal Kombat. This fighting system and this era of games aren’t most peoples’ favorite. The realism is nice with some good animations and each character having two martial arts and a weapon style. You can branch into these styles with long combo strings, but that’s where the issue lies. This realistic slower fighting style is in contrast to the fast-paced action of the 2D games. The characters look like stiff plastic dolls and the combat is all about memorized combos. It’s fun, and it works with Mortal Kombat, but it’s also not the best way to play these games. The slower fighting pace means more strategy is involved and a new Breaker system has been added to quickly get out of combos.

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The interactive environments are some of the coolest features of Deception as they are basically fatalities within a stage. There are yellow lines that indicate when a player can get knocked out and take damage to a new tier and red lines that will kill the player. The arenas are large enough to where a game of tug-of-war always ensues and it makes playing tenser, especially online. Do you just knock them into the trap or play with them so you can do a fatality? Speaking of fatalities, each character has two unique ones and some are great and some are lame. Li Mei, for example, has two fatalities that are just boring. Super punches to the chest and you explode? Yawn. Kick your head off? Seen it before. Some others are rather runny and unique, but there are also Hara Kiris that allow the loser to do a fatality on themselves taking the glory away from the opponent. Whoever inputs there code first gets to take the fun.

Outside of combat, you can play Puzzle Kombat which is just Street Fighter Puzzle with MK characters. At the end of each round there is a fatality unique to the player, but getting your power level up means you can perform a special move that each character has. It can be played online as well and is super addicting and can be a game on its own. The last mode is Chess Kombat which is one of the most unique modes to ever grace a fighting game. Just like a game of chess, you can pick which character is what piece and you play chess, but instead of just knocking a piece over you fight it out MK style. Each piece gets a certain amount of health so pawns of the least amount of health. It’s a great twist that adds more skill to the game and can also be played online. It’s a ton of fun and I hope this mode returns to future games.

Besides the Krypt where you can unlock various stuff for fans like promo videos, behind the scenes art, and various goodies, there’s not much else. Online play is incredibly smooth with a full lobby that you can talk to other players in, challenge players, and you have a win/loss ratio next to your name. I never had any connection drops and playing online extends the longevity of the game tenfold.

I also want to talk about the new characters. Since MK4, Midway has had trouble adding interesting new characters and that trend continues for the third time. Dairou and Havik are just boring awful characters that don’t have any personality or soul. They feel forced and I’d rather have a classic character put in than these two.

Overall, MK: Deception is a fantastic fighting game that is only hampered by slower combat, and a horrible Konquest mode that must be played to unlock half the game’s roster and extra costumes. Puzzle and Chess Kombat are excellent modes that add dozens of hours of fun, and online play is always welcome.

Note: As of May 31, 2014, you can no longer play Deception online due to GameSpy servers being shut down. Even then, not a single person played this online past 2006-2007. As Armageddon and other fighters came out Deception’s user base quickly fell after the first 18 months and never went back up. Get a buddy to play next to you instead.

Far Cry Games Ranked Worst to Best

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 11/17/2018
Posted in: Blogs, Microsoft Consoles, Nintendo Consoles, PC Reviews, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Ranked Worst to Best, Sony Consoles, Wii, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

256px-Far_Cry_Vengeance_-_Box_Front9. Far Cry: Vengeance – 2006

Vengeance was a weird experiment for the series and was exclusive to the Wii. The game engine was downgraded and crammed into a weak console and just didn’t work. The controls were awful, and the game just felt like a PS2 game, to be honest. It was ugly, clunky, glitchy, and was just not fun to play. I can only recommend this game for people only curious and want to have something to laugh at.

220px-Far_Cry_2_cover_art8. Far Cry 2 – 2008

Far Cry 2 had some big shoes to fill, especially after 4 years since the first game was released. What we got was a generic game filled with not much to do and a boring world to play in. The shooting was good and there were some fun moments, but overall the game was so boring to me and didn’t quite change enough to make this game feel like an amazing sequel.

Best Version: PC

download7. Far Cry – 2004

The first game isn’t the best in the series, but it was mainly remembered as a technical marvel back in 2004 and crippled PCs like no other game before it. The insane draw distances, textures, and lighting effects were stunning for its time and the massive multiplayer maps were revolutionary. The game wasn’t remembered for its story or characters and was also bashed for its terrible stealth gameplay, but this is a fun game to go back to.

Best Version: PC

download (1)6. Far Cry: Instincts – 2005

Instincts was the first console outing for the series and it was well praised as both a technical achievement and well-rounded stealth gameplay and intuitive controls. Originally released for the Xbox and later upgrade to the Xbox 360, Instincts is just a solid game all around. While it still didn’t tread the story and characters path like later games did, the core gameplay is solid and is still one of the best shooters on Xbox.

Best Version: Xbox 360

220px-Far_Cry_4_box_art5. Far Cry 4 – 2014

Far Cry 4 was too little too late for the series and tried to be too much like Far Cry 3. The game looked fantastic on its updated engine for next-generation consoles, but it was mostly boring and had awful characters. The “Ubisofty” gameplay was ever prevalent here and held the game back with formulaic item hunting and boring fetch quests. Honestly, this game is probably my least favorite in the whole series and is incredibly forgettable.

Best Version: PC

220px-Far_Cry_Primal_cover_art4. Far Cry: Primal – 2016

Primal actually tried the change the entire game for the first time by going back to prehistoric times. It seems drastic and over exaggerated, but it helped the series break free of the typical formulaic “Ubisofty” gameplay and tone down the bullet heavy gameplay with spears and ancient weapons of the past. It is incredibly fun and different from the other games despite still not treading too much new territory.

Best Version: PC

220px-Far_Cry_3_PAL_box_art3. Far Cry 3 – 2012

This is by far the best game in terms of story and characters. The main villain is memorable and vicious and the overall premise of the game just keeps you hooked. This was the first time Ubisoft changed up their game engine and started using next-generation effects and expanded the gameplay to what we see in Far Cry today. It was a well-rounded game with good stealth implementation and tons of action and things to do.

Best Version: PC

B1IxW7FOSeS._SY445_2. Far Cry 5 – 2018

Far Cry 5 is the culmination of the entire franchise and perfects it and pushes it towards a new medium and that’s an FPSRPG. The missions are more organic and pop up as you explore rather than a map marker hunter type of experience. The story and characters are further advanced and this is the most story rich game since Far Cry 3. The game looks beautiful, plays well, and has so much to do and is just a great shooter.

Best Version: PC

220px-FC3_Blood_Dragon_Cover1. Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon – 2013

Blood Dragon is an interesting game as it was a side project and was made on a low budget. Using actors from the 80’s to voice the characters and having an 80’s action movie vibe the animations to the guns themselves just ooze personality, and I honestly wish we’d get a sequel. I never had so much fun in the series as I did with Blood Dragon and it shows that drastic experimentation can work in the series and in games in general. This remains most fans favorite in the series.

Best Version: PC

Medal of Honor Games Ranked Worst to Best

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 11/17/2018
Posted in: Blogs, Game Boy Advance, Gamecube, Mac, Microsoft Consoles, Nintendo Consoles, PC Reviews, PlayStation (PS1), PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PSP, Sony Consoles, Wii, Xbox, Xbox 360. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

220px-Medal_of_Honor_2010_Box_art13. Medal of Honor – 2010

Reboots are usually good for a game franchise as it allows new ideas and advances the series to new heights, but sometimes it’s not successful. Medal of Honor was a hyped up generic military shooter where you play as Tier 1 specialists in the Afghani war, and it was a bug-ridden mess. The game was also ugly, stale, and just felt like a total Call of Duty rip-off. This was easily the worst game in the entire series.

Best Version: PC

MOHRSbox12. Medal of Honor: Rising Sun – 2003

Rising Sun was riding on the success of Frontline and it’s new found glory with console gamers, but what we got was an ugly rushed mess of a game. Rising Sun tried to show us the frontline in Japan, but what we had was just some dated gameplay and some of the worst level design the series has ever seen. I don’t know what happened within a year, but the development rush is obvious here.

Best Version: Xbox

MV5BYjM3OTNkMzItMzRmMS00N2Y5LTk4MzUtYTU4OWUzYzlmNDJmXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNzg5OTk2OA@@._V1_11. Medal of Honor: Airborne – 2007

The first game in the series to try and reboot it with little success. Using next-generation hardware, the game looked impressive but used a weird multiplayer map style layout and open-ended objectives that just led to the generic level design and frustrating gameplay. The guns were highly inaccurate, and it was ridiculously difficult and plain boring. It’s clear that this series just can’t hit the reboot stride correctly.

Best Version: PC

220px-Warfighter10. Medal of Honor: Warfighter – 2012

Warfighter was a slightly more successful game with the new modern warfare formula with a much more entertaining campaign and better visuals, but overall it still felt generic and pointless in a bloated military shooter scene.

 

Best Version: PC

Medal_of_Honor_Vanguard9. Medal of Honor: Vanguard – 2007

Vanguard is a much-forgotten game in the series as by the time this came around Modern Warfare was already out and the next-generation of consoles was in full swing and no one cared. Using an old engine and gameplay, Vanguard was the last in the series to use the typical Medal of Honor WWII formula. The game wasn’t awful just super generic, boring, and just standard affair that we have seen before.

Best Version: Wii

220px-MOHFbox8. Medal of Honor: Frontline – 2002

Frontline was the first game in the series on consoles, and this game is one I have fond memories of. I remember the opening scene just blew my mind and was incredibly cinematic for the time. Sadly, there was no multiplayer, but at the time I didn’t care. It still wasn’t the best game in the series, and it was clear the less powerful consoles held the series back some, but it was a good start.

Best Version: Xbox

Medalofhonorsheroes7. Medal of Honor: Heroes – 2006

A strange game stuck in a weird time. The next-generation consoles were already here and Heroes stuck to a gameplay style designed for handhelds and the Wii. It was a decent game and felt good on each console it was on, but this was a generic as WWII shooters come. Even the production values were lacking on a dated engine and gameplay.

Best Version: Wii

220px-Medal_of_Honor_-_European_Assault_Coverart6. Medal of Honor: European Assault – 2005

European Assault was not so much overlooked but overstepped. Everyone was starting to wane with the WWII shooters and European Assault was a mildly generic form of the genre that played well but didn’t add anything terribly new to wow anyone.

 

Best Version: Xbox

220px-MoHH2BoxArt5. Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 – 2007

Heroes 2 was a rushed sequel, but somehow improved upon the first game and continued to use the dated engine and gameplay style of its predecessor. This and Vanguard were the last of its kind and were washed away with the new generation of consoles and graphics that just made everyone forget about these games.

Best Version: Wii

download4. Medal of Honor – 1999

The original isn’t always the best, but it was really impressive on the PS1 back in the day and helped pave the way for modern FPS games to this day. It was a little clunky and basic, but did its job well and is still fun to play to this day.

 

220px-Medal_of_Honor_-_Underground_Coverart3. Medal of Honor: Underground – 2000

A much-improved game over the first one, but was released right when the next-generation of consoles was out and was kind of overlooked by the PS2, Dreamcast, and GameCube. It looked amazing on the PS1 and added a totally new campaign, but everyone was mostly over this generation of consoles by now.

Best Version: PS1

Medal_of_Honor_-_Allied_Assault_Coverart2. Medal of Honor: Allied Assault – 2002

The game that made Medal of Honor was it was and released just before its console debut. It looked fantastic on the PC and was followed by two expansion packs. AA remains many players favorite game in the series for its PC specific greatness such as solid controls, visuals, and scope.

 

PacificAssaultBox1. Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault – 2004

My personal favorite game in the series due to the sheer cinematic quality and visual flair of the game. It was the last PC exclusive game in the series but felt and played amazingly well with a fantastic campaign and fun multiplayer. Medal of Honor, sadly, reached its peak early on, but it did it well and with a bang.

 

Call of Duty Games Ranked Worst to Best

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 11/02/2018
Posted in: Blogs, DS, Gamecube, Mac, Microsoft Consoles, Nintendo Consoles, PC Reviews, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PSP, Sony Consoles, Vita, Wii, Wii U, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

220px-Black_Ops_318. Call of Duty: Black Ops III – 2015

At this point in time Call of Duty had already gone way off the deep end and the futuristic warfare and yearly releases were becoming a joke. Black Ops III has the absolute worst campaign in the entire series and the multiplayer is a joke. While zombies are quite enjoyable, it’s not enough to justify a purchase. The AI is insanely stupid, there’s zero challenge, and the environments, story, characters, and weapons are all generic, boring, and poorly designed. The cinematic moments are gone, the maps are stupidly generic, and it feels so bloated and on life support.

Best Version: PC

220px-Call_of_Duty_Modern_Warfare_3_box_art17. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 – 2011

The last entry in the Modern Warfare timeline was a huge disappointment. The campaign was a boring generic slog, the multiplayer had lame maps, and it didn’t distance itself enough from the last two games. It was the same weapons, the same type of maps, menus, and multiplayer setup. There just wasn’t enough here to make the series stand-out anymore and this marked the beginning of a steep decline for the series. While it’s playable, it’s not fun or memorable at all.

Best Version: PC

220px-Call_of_Duty_Roads_to_Victory16. Call of Duty: Roads to Victory – 2007

While enjoyable for sure, the game is very rough around the edges and was released during the end of the tiring World War II craze that ran for over 10 years. Everyone was tired of it, Modern Warfare was about to come out, and the PSP wasn’t a great system for shooting games. It was a very generic and forgettable Call of Duty experience and wasted the portable opportunity. At least it had some fun online multiplayer but was short lived.

220px-Call_of_Duty_Black_Ops_II_box_artwork15. Call of Duty: Black Ops II – 2012

Black Ops II dropped the ball for this new timeline. The first game was amazing with great cinematic moments, fun multiplayer maps, and a whole new Vietnam War feeling to it, but Black Ops II tried to shoehorn a silly story into generic gameplay and some very boring multiplayer maps. It was a huge disappointing mess and marked the end of this timeline. It’s playable, but there’s no redeeming value to this game that makes it stand out.

Best Version: Wii U

220px-Codfhbox14. Call of Duty: Finest Hour – 2004

The very first console Call of Duty game. I remember getting this for Christmas in 2004 and was so incredibly excited. Console gamers could finally play Call of Duty, however, Finest Hour was far from the series finest moment. There were huge technical problems, the game felt like a step back for the series, and the campaign was generic and forgettable. It at least had some fun online multiplayer, but it was a good effort.

Best Version: Xbox

Call_of_Duty_3_Game_Cover13. Call of Duty 3 – 2006

A surprising console-only release, Call of Duty 3 was the third game in the original timeline and was better than most people expected. While it didn’t look that great it played fairly well, felt like classic Call of Duty, and was fast paced and fun. It was very forgettable, however, and was at the tail end of the WWII craze that everyone wanted to die. There was something strange about this game as it felt dated, yet somehow still cinematic and fun, and had decent multiplayer as well.

Best Version: Xbox 360

220px-Cod2bre12. Call of Duty 2: Big Red One – 2005

Riding on the financial success of Finest Hour, Big Red One turned out to be a much better game, yet didn’t get as much attention. It had a cinematic and well thought out campaign and was much more enjoyable this time around.

Best Version: Xbox

220px-Call_of_duty_ghosts_box_art11. Call of Duty: Ghosts – 2013

Ghosts was a more boots on ground return to the series and felt a little closer to the original Modern Warfare series, but was too little too late. The additions of canine partners and some great cinematic moments just weren’t enough, including the first game in the next-generation cycle of consoles. The multiplayer was decent, but it felt like it was stuck in limbo and trying to be two different games at once.

Best Version: PC

220px-Advanced_Warfare10. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare – 2014

Advanced Warfare tried pushing big name actors to sell copies, and Advanced Warfare had some awesome cinematic moments, but the story and characters were garbage, and the multiplayer was extremely unbalanced due to the jetpacks and weird futuristic gameplay. It looked really good, as it used a brand new engine for the series, but it was just too weird and too much of a departure from what fans loved.

Best Version: PC

220px-Call_of_Duty_-_Infinite_Warfare_(promo_image)9. Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare – 2016

Infinite Warfare has received more flack than any other game in the series, but it’s not the worst. For a series receiving so much resistance and backlash, it did some different stuff in the campaign that was quite interesting. Some of the characters were actually quite interesting and I cared about them a little which was odd for the series. The multiplayer was a generic feeling, as usual, but the campaign was a nice change of pace and the experimentation was a breath of fresh air for the series.

Best Version: PC

220px-Codbox8. Call of Duty – 2003

I never got a chance to play this until much later after release, but in 2003 this game was a graphical powerhouse, extremely cinematic, and set the standard for historic shooters. The campaign felt realistic, varied, and had some memorable moments. It was later released on consoles but remained exclusive to PC for nearly a decade. It gave PC gamers a proud reason to be so as this game would have crippled consoles back in the day.

Best Version: Xbox 360

Call_of_Duty_2_Box7. Call of Duty 2 – 2005

Being a port for Xbox 360 from a 2-year-old game was risky, but this game helped sell Xbox 360s and looked fantastic on the system. On PC, as it was exclusive for, was a great sequel to an already great game. It pushed hardware to its limits, had some fun exciting cinematic moments, and decent multiplayer. It took everything everyone liked from the first game and expanded upon it, but it was a little more forgettable this time around.

Best Version: Xbox 360

220px-Coduobox26. Call of Duty: United Offensive – 2004

United Offensive is one of the best games in the original WWII storyline as it was intense, extremely cinematic, and felt varied and kept you on your seat. I played the campaign straight through and I usually don’t do that in this franchise. The game had an incredibly cinematic and tense campaign, probably one of the best in the entire series, and was highly overlooked. Everyone was gearing up for CoD 2 and United Offensive was sort of mulled over, sadly it was never ported to consoles.

Call_of_Duty_World_at_War_cover5. Call of Duty: World at War – 2008

World at War was a call to long-time fans and something to really look forward to. They made a huge risk by bringing you back to WWII, in the Japanese theater, and somehow creating one of the best games in the entire series. It was really looked over and a lot of fans never played this because of the WWII roots, but the campaign is spectacular and had some awesome moments as well as weapons and beautiful locales.

Best Version: PC

220px-CoD_Black_Ops_cover4. Call of Duty: Black Ops – 2010

Black Ops was the one and only good game in that timeline. The campaign was exciting, cinematic, had a crazy story and characters, and the multiplayer had some fantastic maps and great new era weapons. The brand new Zombies mode pretty much kickstarted a whole new series in the timeline and became the most popular multiplayer mode in the entire series. It’s seriously the last amazing game in the series and playing this reminds us why.

Best Version: Xbox 360

220px-Call_of_Duty_WWII_Cover_Art3. Call of Duty: WWII – 2017

Another great risk, and desperate attempt to get people back into the series, the game followed Battlefield’s step and went back to their roots. WWII was a fantastic attempt at everything from a beautiful new next-generation engine, cinematic gameplay, and interesting characters. While the campaign lost steam partway through, it’s more enjoyable than most of the game in the series and reminds us what Activision can do when they are actually inspired and put some thought and love into a game.

Best Version: PC

220px-Call_of_Duty_4_Modern_Warfare2. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare – 2007

The game that really started it all. It revolutionized first-person shooters on consoles as well as multiplayer that almost every military shooter has copied since. The careful detail to level design, cinematic moments, characters, and pacing was something Infinity Ward were masters at. The multiplayer is also something everyone has copied for the last 10 years and it’s clear why. The maps are perfectly designed, memorable, and a blast to play.

Best Version: PC

220px-Modern_Warfare_2_cover1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 – 2009

Why is this the best in the series? It took everything that made CoD4 amazing and stacked on top of that, plus the series hasn’t done something like that since. It’s sad to see a series lose steam to fast, but MW2 took risks and controversy proudly and even made some of the best multiplayer maps ever created in a game. It was perfect with well-balanced weapons, a fun and fast-paced campaign, and a multiplayer mode that hasn’t been as good since.

Best Version: Xbox 360

 

Silent Hill Games Ranked Worst to Best

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 10/27/2018
Posted in: Blogs, Mac, Microsoft Consoles, Nintendo Consoles, PC Reviews, PlayStation (PS1), PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PSP, Ranked Worst to Best, Sony Consoles, Wii, Xbox, Xbox 360. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Silent Hill is one of the scariest video franchises of all time. It’s also one of the most developmentally challenged as the series has fun into numerous struggles, cancellations, and hard development cycles. From the very first game, the series set the groundwork for survival horror games and scare factor ever since. This is the best Silent Hill games ranked worst to best and the best versions when appropriate.

270812b9. Silent Hill: Downpour – 2012

Downpour is by far the absolute worst game in the franchise, as it’s just abysmal and unplayable. The game is ugly as sin for starters, has awful controls, and tries to introduce a large open world design with awfully frustrating puzzles to unlock fast travel spots, more enemies than you have health, or weapons for, and the level design is so bad and frustrating, not to mention the boring story and terrible characters. This game just should not have existed period.

Best Version: PlayStation 3

220px-SH_Book_of_Memories8. Silent Hill: Book of Memories – 2012

At least playable, Book of Memories was a Vita exclusive that threw the series into a Diablo-like clone and did it poorly. Boring combat, uninteresting story elements, no characters, and shallow game design. The game wasn’t scary, wasn’t interesting, and the entire game felt like the first level. I can only imagine curious fans trying this out.

220px-Silent20027. Silent Hill 4: The Room – 2004

The worst game in the main series by far, The Room took out all the elements that made the series memorable. Sure, the controls were still frustrating, the combat was wonky, but the scare factor, insane monsters, and memorable environments are absent. It feels like a generic experience and wasn’t scary or tense at all. It also had confusing level design and awful puzzles.

Best Version: Xbox

!!eBgcH!EWM_$(KGrHqV,!hME0fcp2rRcBNQujVvkmQ___16. Silent Hill: Shattered Memories – 2009

An interesting reinterpretation of the first game, Shattered Memories was a spin-off that was actually quite interesting albeit easy. Using your cell-phone camera as part of the gameplay, and running away from things, it was a cinematic experience, but still not very scary. It was a weird departure for sure, but an interesting project that any Silent Hill fan should try out.

Best Version: Wii

220px-Silent_Hill_Homecoming5. Silent Hill: Homecoming – 2008

While not most fan’s favorite game, I quite enjoyed it as it improved on a lot of elements that plagued the series. It had better combat, scary moments, and an interesting world to explore, it was a little more action-oriented, but it felt good to play and wasn’t as bad as most people say. It’s very entertaining and worth multiple playthroughs. It took the best of all the elements and tried to make them into a good experience.

Best Version: PlayStation 3

220px-Silent_Hill_24. Silent Hill 2 – 2001

This game was a massive hit as it pushed the PS2 to its limits and was one of the most highly anticipated games of that generation. It was scarier, bigger, and had more complex puzzles than ever before and had interesting characters. There are many memorable moments in this game it has a lot of replay value. It didn’t improve on controls or combat much, but it made a decent effort. One of the scariest games I have ever played for sure.

Best Version: Xbox

511o6avlQ7L.AC_SX215_3. Silent Hill: Origins – 2007

Origins didn’t get as much attention as it should have, as it was the last game in the main series that was good. It was a PSP exclusive, at first, and looked fantastic and was extremely scary. It’s actually the scariest game in the series next to Silent Hill 3. It featured horrifically claustrophobic environments, insanely grotesque monsters, and improved combat and controls. It’s one of the most underrated game in the series and it’s a shame.

Best Version: PSP

220px-Silent_Hill_video_game_cover2. Silent Hill – 1999

The original has been difficult to top as it revolutionized the survival horror genre and pushed the PS1, controversy, and parents to their limits. The dark ominous fog, silent ambiance, and nasty monsters are just something you have to experience. The controls and combat aren’t great, but to experience this masterpiece is something that helped establish the PS1 as a great as a console as it is.

download1. Silent Hill 3 – 2003

Not only is this a fantastic looking game, but it’s the scariest game in the series and has a great story and characters. It haunting, and hard to finish, and sadly the only game I couldn’t get through growing up. It starts off intensely frightening and never loosens its grip on your soul. Silent Hill 3 is very memorable and will leave a mark on you for sure and scar you for some of the most horrific scenes in video game history.

Best Version: PS2

 

Halo Games Ranked Worst to Best

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 10/25/2018
Posted in: Blogs, Microsoft Consoles, PC Reviews, Ranked Worst to Best, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Halo is one of the most well-known franchises of all time, even to non-gamers. It was a revolutionary entry in the FPS genre and single-handedly kept the Xbox afloat, and even still does to this day. The game is more than just shooting aliens with cool weapons, but the entire world of Halo has deep rich lore that reaches far out into the universe with many characters and timelines. Comics, novels, short films, fan-fiction, the list goes on as to how far Halo’s story and universe has spread. I myself have read the comic series and would love to read the books one days, but what started it all was the games. Here is every Halo game ranked worst to best.

220px-Hw2_coverart9. Halo Wars 2 – 2016

Sadly, Halo Wars 2 couldn’t expand upon the great idea of a real-time strategy game in the Halo universe. The original was already fairly mediocre and was left in the dust by bigger PC heavyweights at the time, and Halo Wars 2 just delivered a buggy boring experience that is hard to care about. The balancing is off, the story is lame, and the characters just really don’t matter here. It’s still the very basics of RTS at its core and doesn’t expand beyond that.

220px-Halo_wars8. Halo Wars – 2009

While slightly better than its sequel, Halo Wars was decent fun when it was released but didn’t reach the popularity the other games did. It was very basic, formulaic, and didn’t expand upon the Halo universe in any significant way. Even the Definitive Edition couldn’t really save the game. It’s fun and a good game for RTS newcomers, but veterans will scoff at its infant like gameplay and tactical gameplay.

81kBcvv9h5L._SY679_7. Halo 3: ODST – 2009

My least favorite game in the shooter series. It’s boring, uninteresting, and was offering nothing new to the series at this point except a boring large open area that acted as a hub. It felt devoid of life and was so dark and plain. It honestly took me several tries to actually want to finish this game, and thankfully it’s very short.

image6. Halo 5: Guardians – 2015

With 5 Halo games, you’d expect that at this point the formula would be down pat and we’d get an epic memorable experience and fantastic visuals, sadly we didn’t get any of that. Halo 5 is a generic, boring, and unbalanced slog of a game that has dated visuals and unsatisfying multiplayer. It’s enjoyable for one playthrough, but even then you will be thinking about older Halo games while you play this. The environments all blur together with generic sterile steel walkways, garages, and boring lifeless environments. Not to mention the same damn enemies we have been fighting for a decade.

220px-Halo_4_box_artwork5. Halo 4 – 2012

Halo 4 was entertaining, but it changed so much from the original trilogy that it made a lot of fans mad. The memorable environments, cut-scenes, and interesting characters are pretty much absent, and the game looked dated as it was one of the last Xbox 360 exclusives released. It would have been better to hold onto it and release for a launch title for Xbox One and improve upon it. The multiplayer was good (as it is with every Halo game) but the campaign just felt so generic. I honestly can’t remember the game at all and can’t recall a single moment, it’s completely blank in my head. That’s definitely not a good thing.

220px-Halo_-_Combat_Evolved_(XBox_version_-_box_art)4. Halo: Combat Evolved – 2001

The first game isn’t at the top as it’s not the best. It lacked online multiplayer and felt simplistic compared to later games. It had some memorable moments, and of course, introduced some of the most recognizable characters and enemies in gaming history, and helped establish the Xbox as a solid gaming console. The game had revolutionary multiplayer and put a stamp on console FPS gameplay that was made fun of for years by PC gamers. Halo is a fun, yet dated, game and should be played by anyone who missed out on it.

220px-Halo-_Reach_box_art3. Halo: Reach – 2010

Reach was an exciting time for Halo as it was a spin-off, but better than ODST. Everyone was excited for Halo 4, but it was far in the horizon. We got to play as a new team, and it had an interesting dialog, and fun new gameplay elements and great pacing. This game also has some of the most popular multiplayer modes and maps to date. It was a massive hit when it was released and for good reason. It wasn’t a reboot, but enough of a twist to make the series lemony fresh again.

220px-Halo2-cover2. Halo 2 – 2004

This is probably the most popular game in the entire series as it was the first online Halo game. It took the industry by storm and was one of the largest entertainment launches in history. I remember seeing on the news, hearing about it, and every nook and cranny of the internet was buzzing with videos and articles about the game. People were paid to train others on how to play Halo, real-money tournaments formed, and the campaign is one of the best in gaming history. It’s a phenomenal game, and sadly the game hasn’t been topped.

220px-Halo_3_final_boxshot1. Halo 3 – 2007

Most people would pick Halo 2 as the top of the series, but Halo 3 is the most refined, balanced, and memorable game to me. It looks amazing on its Xbox 360 debut and was a larger launch than Halo 2. It featured some game-changing multiplayer modes, weapons, and had an amazing campaign that I personally enjoyed more than Halo 2. The story was interesting, Cortana and Master Chief’s characters were evolved and constantly moving forward, and it was just a fantastic shooter. Halo has yet to reach this point of greatness since, but Halo 3 has large shoes that need to be filled.