What are you waiting for? A care package?
Greetings soldiers. In this post I will be discussing my opinion about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. MW3 is the 8th installment of the very successful Call of Duty franchise. It features a solo campaign story that picks up where MW2′s story left off, a two player co-op Spec Ops mode, and the ever popular Multiplayer.
Let’s start with the campaign shall we?
Like I said before, the campaign story picks up where MW2 left off, but I don’t exactly know much about MW2′s story considering the fact that I never played it. Based on what I have heard, though, the story makes more references to MW1 than it does MW2, but the way the story flows from MW2 is still flawless. In the campaign you constantly switch back and forth between USA troop Delta Team (usually playing the role of Frost) and disavowed Spetsnaz troop 141 (usually playing the role of Yuri). The campaign takes you through many waves of enemies using various weaponry featured in the multiplayer mode. The overall gameplay, concept, and appeal of the campaign was pretty enjoyable. Although, it didn’t seem like there was much innovation done gameplay-wise since MW2.
Now we shall move on to the Spec Ops mode.
Again, I never played MW2, but based on what I’ve heard, seen, and played, Spec Ops has seen some improvements since then. For starters, the mission mode is a two player co-op experience that’s very enjoyable. The only sad part is that you can only max at two players. In the mission mode you take on various missions playing the roles as the other side of the fighting line of the campaign at certain highlighted points in the story line. Even with only two players, though, I couldn’t complain concept wise, but again there are no gameplay innovations done at all. Next is the Survival Mode. Infinity Ward decided to add this mode to Spec Ops in order to compete with Treyarch’s famous co-op Zombie Mode (as if it has a chance). In survival mode you and optionally one other player take on endless waves of enemies (not zombies, regular enemies) on different maps that are also featured in the Multiplayer Mode. The more waves you defeat, the more support you get (such as weapon uprgrades, lethal and tactical equipment, air support, etc.). Overall, the Spec Ops experience is an enjoyable one where my no-life CoD expert of a little brother and I can work together without being competitive, but, again, there are no innovations gameplay wise which is always a disappointment.
Last but certainly not least is the Multiplayer.
The multiplayer is a lot like what you’ve seen in MW2 with a few enjoyable innovations variety wise when it comes to weaponry. Coming from a Black Ops standpoint (since that’s the only other CoD I’ve played) the overall concept, appeal, and gameplay is very enjoyable. The maps are a lot less camper friendly, along with the fact that few people camp in MW3 anyways. The weaponry system is much more to my liking than that of Black Ops. Instead of just buying something once you’ve reached a certain level to unlock it, you really have to work for it with the weapon level system. Then, once it’s unlocked, it’s unlocked. No using and accumulating currency to obtain items. The overall Multiplayer experience is much more to my liking than Black Ops was, but again, there are innovations that they even could of pulled from Blacks Ops that are missing.
Overall, I give Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 a 4.5/5 for a solid, successful, unchanging concept despite its lack of innovation even though there was room for it.
Christmas Review Bash 2011 coming soon! Featuring Sonic Generations, Batman: Arkham City, and Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon (movie).
Political Correctness? I don’t think so.
This is a problem most people deal with these days this time of year.
I, however, do not have this problem. A wise man once said, “Let’s spit in the face of political correctness and wish someone a Merry Christmas today!”.
So, on behalf of everyone here in the Mysterious M network, happy Christmas Eve and Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good……….er…………….uh………..wait………..I know this one……………..
………………..I knew that.
There’s a Soldier in All of Us
In the spirit of being a fan of Call of Duty (especially MW3), I’d like to share with you what is probably considered the best video game commercial ever.
Ladies and Gentlemen, The Vet and the Noob.
Review coming soon!!
Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop!!
Somebody walked into my math class today doing what everybody’s favorite mutant crustacean is known for. A little something I like to call the woop-woop-walk.
Ladies and gentlemen, Dr. Zoidberg.
My Questions……….
………have been answered! Why? Because I found what is probably the latest and greatest in Christian Rock. Today, I’ll be talking about The Devil Wears Prada’s new album Dead Throne, but first, for the lot of you who have never heard of these guys (probably because you live under a rock), some artist info: The Devil Wears Prada is an American metalcore band from Dayton, Ohio. Formed in 2005, they are currently signed to Warner Music Group. The Devil Wears Prada is a Christian band consisting of members Mike Hranica (vocals), Chris Rubey (lead guitar), Jeremy DePoyster (rhythm guitar, vocals), Andy Trick (bass), Daniel Williams (drums) and James Baney (keyboards), all of whom are Christians. To date, the group has released four full-length albums, one DVD, one EP, and five music videos. Dead Throne is TDWP’s latest of these, and being an owner of (almost) all of it, I think Dead Throne takes the cake. In TDWP’s earler music they feature a lot of instrumental and orchestral sounds that are balanced between the heavy drums and bass and the high-pitched screaming. Also, they feature a lot of time changes and rhythm fluctuations that all together (with strange random lyrics) makes it almost sound like just a lot of loud noise. In short, I liked them, but only for a handful of songs. Dead Throne is a definite game changer. It features a darker, more mature and basic rock sound featuring more singing than I’ve heard on the other albums that maybe hardcore TDWP fans will find disappointing. In other words, if you’ve been in love with these guys from the beginning, you might not like Dead Throne. I, however, believe this to be my new favorite album. The instruments rock harder, the orchestral sound isn’t as overbearing, the lyrics are darker and make more sense, and the overall sound and appeal is just better. It actually sounds like hardcore music and not just noise. I am overall very impressed with this album and look forward to more like this (if not better).
Dead Throne by The Devil Wears Prada
Artist info courtesy of Wikipedia
…….It’s a pirates life for me, Gibs!
It wasn’t too long ago that I had the pleasure of watching Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. I must say it was quite different from the other three in both good and bad ways. One good way that it was different is that it introduced new core pirate legends such as Blackbeard and the fountain of youth; those have always been concepts capable of making good pirate movies despite the fact they never have until now. Another would be it’s soundtrack. It still contains that core Pirates feel that Zimmer has always done with the addition of the Spanish guitars to hint at the fact that England isn’t the only country involved in the Pirates story anymore. On the other hand, a down side would be that the story was set where it didn’t feel like a final chapter as much as it did merely an extra like Star Wars and the Clone Wars TV series. According to some reviews I’ve read that’s the way some critics saw it. It could have easily been taken that way by anyone who saw it, and I agree, that was not very fitting to be a final chapter. Why? Because I don’t think it is. A while back shortly after the DVD release of At World’s End, rumors had been leaked that not only would the makers be planning a fourth, but a whole new trilogy. After seeing On Stranger Tides, I am a firm believer of those rumors. Call me crazy, but I think we’re looking at a whole new trilogy to the Pirates saga, featuring a more sober, goal-oriented Jack Sparrow, which could be good or bad depending on the story, as well as a possible return of the Flying Dutchman. Besides, the things Angelica told Jack at the end could be more “lies”, and I’ve never heard of a pirate that would turn down treasure.
Start Thinking with Portals
I know it’s been a while, but I finally have something worth reviewing about again. Today I will reviewing the portal puzzle lab sensation that’s sweeping the nation, Portal 2. Portal 2 picks up where the first left off. After you “kill” GLaDOS in the first game, you’re taken to your relaxation quarters until the reserve power runs dry (and that’s when it starts to get good). The rest of the single player campaign is full of well done voices, humor, and plenty of challenges without making you throw your controller at your TV. However, even though it was much more creative, it was also a lot longer. I remember times when I got to a certain part of the story I would find myself doing 5-6 more chambers before actually getting to it, but once you actually reach the end, you get that “wow I just figured that out” feeling. This now leads to the co-op campaign. This story picks up where the single player story left off (in ways you’ll have to find out for yourself) with two robots working together in newly designed cooperation test chambers so that science can be carried forward in the absence of normal human test subjects. On the upside, it was the most innovative co-op experience I’ve ever had. On the down side, there wasn’t much plot to this rather short, wasn’t-as-hard-as-I-thought-it-would-be story. Overall, this is not your ordinary video game in both good ways and bad. Good as in more addicting than any version of Call of Duty you will ever play. Bad as in instead of a normal after school brain melting experience it’s a stay up all night figuring it out while drinking chocolate syrup through a straw brain stimulating experience.
I would give Portal 2 a 5/5.
How long will you let it burn?……
Album review time! In this review I’ll be expressing my opinion on the latest Red album, Until We Have Faces, but first some artist info. “Red (stylized as RED and R3D) is an American rock band from Nashville, Tennessee, formed in 2004. The band’s lineup consists of singer Michael Barnes, guitarist Anthony Armstrong, bassist Randy Armstrong and drummer Joe Rickard and are known for their Christian rock music while incorporating other sounds such as alternative rock, hard rock, heavy metal and post-grunge. Jason Rauch and Andrew Hendrix were the bands rhythm guitarist and drummer, respectively, from their formation. Hendrix was replaced by Hayden Lamb in 2006, who was then replaced by Rickard. Rauch left the band in 2009.” (artist info courtesy of Wikipedia) Until We Have Faces is the latest and greatest of Red, featuring Michael Barnes passionate vocals with a hardcore, heavy sound that has somewhat of a dark and ominous tone to it. Songs like “Faceless”, “Let it Burn”, and “Lie to Me(Denial)” show that Red is not only keeping their same basic sound but that they’re improving on it with shadowy drum intros that echo throughout the song and soft piano and string accompaniment. Judging by this album things are looking up for Red and I look forward to what they do in the future.
Everybody Get Up…
…because it’s time for my first album review! In this post I will be sharing my opinion on the album One by Planetshakers, but first a little artist background. Planetshakers is a Christian youth movement that began as an annual conference and grew into an international ministry and large church in Melbourne, Australia. The conference was born out of Paradise Community Church in Adelaide , South Australia by Pastor Russell Evans. Planetshakers expanded, and in 2004 moved to Melbourne to begin a church ministry (originally called Melbourne City Church). Planetshakers also has its own bible college which is located in several campuses throughout Australia. In the album One, there is a fine blend of unique sounds and lyrics unlike any worship music I have ever heard before. With tracks like “Get Up”, “No Compromise”, and “Dance Now” featuring such a unique blend of hardcore guitar and keys sounds together with anointed lyrics that are sung with such a passion like I have never heard before, One is the best bet for the Christian music listener who is looking for the upbeat, hardcore, above-average contemporary worship sound. I would highly recommend this to anybody believer or otherwise.
Post-Holiday Review Bash Part 2
In this continuation of the post-holiday review bash I will be discussing my opinion on Call of Duty: Black Ops, Rock Band 3, and the Tritton AX720 universal gaming audio and chat headset.
Call of Duty: Black Ops
As it came closer and closer to Christmas time I was beginning to grow a little bored with Halo Reach, and with all the feedback about this being so much better I just couldn’t help but pick it up. In Call of Duty: Black Ops you start out as a guy named Mason, a military man who’s been through a Russian prison where they program your brain to be able to receive and obey commands and crack the location code of the sleeper cells planted throughout the United States. You are strapped to an electric where all you can do is use the TV placed in front of you to navigate through the menus. Bonus: There is also a computer behind you in the back of that room; see if you can figure out how to get to it. This leads us to the campaign. In the campaign you play as Mason, who has been hired to eliminate communists leaders and aid the CIA in capturing the Soviet military leaders in order to figure out where the detonator broadcasting station for the sleeper cells are. I won’t really go into any more detail about the story to avoid spoiling it. The campaign is very long and challenging and a lot of fun to play. However the story is kind of complicated and hard to follow, so you might find yourself getting bored every now again just because you don’t know what’s going on. Unlike most other adventure/shooter games that just show you to beat these baddies and get to this checkpoint without dying, Black Ops simulates what would really happen in a war zone experience by requiring you to really listen to the characters and think on your feet to avoid spending hours going in circles or dying at the same spot every time. At the same time this is both a plus and a minus; it adds to the challenge and gives you confidence when you know what to do. However, if you’re not paying attention it can be really frustrating trying to figure out why you can’t make it to the next objective without getting gunned down by who-knows-who. Next is the cooperative Zombies mode. Zombies mode is nothing more than your ordinary firefight/escalation or whatever you want to call it mode where you survive endless waves of Zombies and earn credits to open doors and perform certain tasks to make it easier to survive to the next wave. They to put a side story behind the origin of the Zombies for this mode but other than that this mode is nothing special compared other shooter games. Last but not least is the Multiplayer. For those of you who are used to Halo and never really played Call of Duty, allow me to be the first one to tell you that it is a bit of a steep difficulty step that can result in some minor frustration at first. For people in that category I would suggest the combat training mode. Combat training is a multiplayer mode where you can get a feel for the experience by playing matches against the computer on the difficulty of your choosing. This was a rather good idea on their part; they obviously had people like that in mind when they thought of that. For those of you have played previous Call of Duty titles and are actually pretty good, I would say disregard combat training. In multiplayer you start out with three preset classes to choose from (as you level up you’ll eventually be able to make your own classes). Little success can be drawn from these presets, but it’s all you have until you level up. One thing that is both a plus and a drawback about the multiplayer is the integration of currency. Once you unlock something you still have to pay a certain number points to obtain and use it. On the plus side, this gives you a sense of motivation, but it can also be rather frustrating when you just unlocked a classified weapon or perk and you don’t have enough points to buy it.
Overall Call of Duty: Black Ops is a good addition to the franchise, but it’s hard to say whether it’s the best of the franchise because there isn’t very much that’s new. I would give it a 4/5.
Rock Band 3
Rock Band 3 is the latest addition to what I believe is the greatest music game series since the original Guitar Hero (since they were both made by the same people). In Rock Band 3 you are, once again, the leader of a band that wants to hit the big time and go straight to the top of the charts. When you first start Rock Band 3 you will be asked to customize your band in order to get things started. One of the band customization settings they brought back is assigning stand in characters. However, unlike Rock Band 2, you can’t assign certain characters to specific instruments, so either you’re going to have to switch out stand in slots like crazy until you get it just right or you’re going to have to deal with it. One thing that they have improved on is character customization. They have added many options to face, body, and clothing customization which can be a lot of fun to explore and a bit overwhelming, so if you have characters from previous rock band games that all your friends know and love and you plan on recreating them, it can be a bit of a frustrating process as it may take 2-4 tries to get it just right. Another new concept added to RB3 is cut scenes and character interactive menus. These new added concepts help give your characters more personality and gives the game more of an authentic rock band experience. Speaking of the rock band experience, let’s talk about the tour mode. This mode has been completely changed since RB2 in a sense that RB2′s tour mode had some unnecessary things. In RB3′s Tour Mode, or should I say Road Challenge Mode, you do just as the new name implies; you travel the globe doing nothing but playing the setlist of your choosing in order to complete a specific challenge and get paid and get famous. Another new perk to RB3 is the elimination of currency; once you have it unlocked it’s yours, no catch, no middle man. However this does kind of subtract from the authentic rock band experience which is why I’m surprised they did this. One thing that does add to the experience is the integration of being able to gain fans and accomplish what would be tour specific goals in any mode on RB3, even online quickplay. Now for the greatest new feature that adds the most to the authentic rock band experience: PRO Mode. Pro mode for drums isn’t much special since all you do is change some of the pad notes to cymbal notes (apparently the configuration for that is so easy pro drums is automatically integrated on every rock band song out there). Guitar and Keys are a different story. It actually teaches you the basics of learning the instruments and it can help you learn and play the songs fairly quickly (depending on whether or not you have previous experience with the instruments). On a different note, one of the drawbacks to RB3 would be no more competitive modes which can be a big letdown to some people since competition is what had originally driven the entire music game genre in the first place, but I guess they decided to lean more towards the party play aspect of music games which I am okay with (besides, my guitar skills peaked a long time ago; I’m not nearly as good as I used to me). Another minor drawback would be the elimination of some key character customization options such as two-color hairstyles and color changing special instruments (Skeletone, Fallen Angel, Axecutioner, etc.), but like I said, I can learn to move pass that. One last drawback would be RB3′s almost unsolvable lag configuration. Unlike RB2 and RB1, Rock Band 3 has a very weird lag configuration that I don’t know if it can be fixed. I’ve tried all three methods of calibration and still haven’t got it just right for my standard CRT TV. However I still find it playable (5 stars on Free Bird Expert Guitar hello?).
Overall I think Rock Band 3 to be the best of the franchise with all of its new features and a great setlist to boot; even though some drawbacks were somewhat crucial I can learn to overlook them. I would give Rock Band 3 a 5/5.
Tritton AX720
The Tritton AX720 is a surround sound gaming headset that can be used for PS3, Xbox 360, and/or a PC/Mac. This headset was recommended to me by another owner of this headset, GLW, and for those of you who know my situation gaming wise, I just couldn’t resist. The first negative I noticed when I saw it in on the shelf was the price tag, but I was able to overlook that once I got home. Initial setup is a bit confusing and can be a wired mess, but once I turned in on and fired up Call of Duty: Black Ops, my jaw dropped. The sound quality was so good I couldn’t even tell that it was just headphones. Then I figured, “hmm…if it was this could for a shooter, what would it be like for a music game?”. So fired up Rock Band 3. The sound for it was also exceptional. The only drawback to it was that it created even more of a lag to the unsolvable lag I already have (see Rock Band 3 review above). So if you’re going to use them for a music game, either turn off the Dolby Digital setting, or just deal with the weird lag. One last piece of advice before I wrap this review up: DO NOT USE WITH KINECT!! It hurts and can be very frustrating when they fall off every two minutes.
Overall this headset works really well and was worth every penny. I would recommend it to the most hardcore gamer, the most casual gamer, and to the gamer who has no insulation in their basement and all they want to do is play Rock Band 3 all day with the TV at full blast (for those of you who were wondering yes that is my situation).
