How did he do it?

Well, the insurgent lobbed a grenade down at the British soldiers, but the plucky Brit picked up the grenade and lobbed it back at him… as if he were playing a videogame.

“I remember thinking that if I didn’t pull this off, it was going to hurt,” he said. “But at that stage I was pretty much committed”, said Rifleman James McKie. I heard what sounded like a mini flare come from our right where I knew there were none of our guys, so I thought this was really unusual. We were in a high position on a compound roof. There was no way you could throw yourself off and not get injured, so I made a decision to pick up the grenade and throw it off the roof. My platoon has taken a lot of casualties. I really didn’t want to see anyone else get hurt.”

He then threw a smoke grenade down to give the soldiers cover as they made their escape.

Some will argue this was classic MW2 action, but I would argue that a real MW2 gamer would weep when they face a street of insurgents, without a local Dunkin’ Doughnuts to comfort them. No no, this was the work of a Battlefield veteran.

“I don’t feel particularly brave,” he said. “I’m not expecting anything from my comrades … I don’t want any thanks from them. I just don’t want them to get hurt.”

The game returns with an upgraded destruct-everything-around-you Frostbyte engine that made Bad Company such a compelling game. So compelling, even PC gamers wanted it.

The story revolves around Sarges “last” tour with the military. And what an end to his career it ends up. Moving from the snow to the sun and sand of Bolivia makes for a lush environment to shoot in. Not to say we don’t see snow in this game – it does show up. Add amazing graphics, sound design and the ability to tear down tree’s, towers and buildings and you have a series of epic battles. Each single player level is as open ended as you could possible make a single player campaign. Not ultra linear, but not so open that you get lost and confused.

Your AI team-mates are mostly good, though it would be nice to have the option of playing co-operatively. Having said that, the exchanges between your AI buddies is funny enough to keep you entertained with them alone. The engine is also so well designed that they never seem to get confused themselves, or manage to hurt your gameplay – like Modern Warfare 2 or Killzone 2 did on occasion.

This game is great on it’s own, but it really comes alive in the multiplayer arena. Vehicles, guns and obliterated buildings are the name of the game, all without compromising the amazing graphics or even more amazing sound design. As per usual for BF titles, this is a team-based warfare title based in a series of sandbox areas.

Some new weapons are introduced, but veterans get a chance to import the M1 Garrand and machine gun from Battlefield: 1943. A novel new idea is to include a controllable UAV, which is available on maps as a little control-point you stand at, before taking control of a remote controlled helicopter which can call in air strikes on targets. Incredibly effective… until you’re seen and shot out of the sky.

The usual array of upgrades and special abilities are available here, as is the ability to pick up the kit of fallen team-mates, allowing the play style to change from round-to-round.

If all of this sounds like an exciting array of online action that has been done before, keep in mind this game does what Bad Company 1 didn’t do, and any other console shooter hasn’t achieved yet. PC levels of skill. This game rewards you for being good. DICE themselves said they were surprised at the level of skill console players had on the first iteration of this game, and so upped the “hardcore” for the sequel to craft a game that not only rivals, but beats the hell out of Call of Duty or similar titles in the online warfare stakes.

You see, what this game has that no other game manages to achieve is what has been known since my first introduction to the series, as “Battlefield moments”. Moments that make you laugh, cry and wince all at the same time. Moments created only by a hugely open environment within an engine that actually works properly.

Exhibit A: A squad enters a room in a fairly destroyed building to plant charges on the objective. The timer counts down to the charges exploding, and thus winning the round for the team. Everyone clears the area and stands away from the building, allowing the enemies to enter. However, the four corners of the building are rigged with more C4 then American troops can shake a WMD at. As soon as the enemy troops, 9 of them, enter the room the C4 is triggered, killing most of them in the blast, but taking out the rest (and the objective) by collapsing the building in on itself.

Exhibit B (from singleplayer – not a spoiler but you may not want to watch it yet):

Yes, that was a dig at Modern Warfare 2.

Exhibit C (warning, foul language):

Even friendly fire is funny…

Exhibit D (from single player, slight spoiler):

The greatest thing he’s ever seen…

And a final, BF Moment:

So as you can see, this game is epic. Very epic. Far more depth lies here then in its closest rivals, and it’s not afraid to have a dig at the rivals, either. Which is refreshing. A fun, excellent experience every single time you boot it up. Undoubtedly, this title will suck the life out of you and tear you from loved ones. For MW2 to keep up pace with this, it’ll require a new piece of DLC every single week. Which just won’t happen. By comparison, MW2 feels pedestrian, MAG feels buggy and Killzone/Halo lack the epic feeling.

Buy this game. And buy it new. Second hand purchases miss out on a “VIP” code which entitles you to extra goodies, free.

Here is a video of whats happening.

Full list below.

Thanks to Chart-track [source]

1 CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 2 INFINITY WARD ACTIVISION ACTIVISION BLIZZARD
2 FIFA 10 EA CANADA EA SPORTS ELECTRONIC ARTS
3 WII SPORTS RESORT NINTENDO NINTENDO NINTENDO
4 MARIO & SONIC AT OLYMPIC WINTER GAMES SEGA SEGA SEGA
5 WII FIT PLUS NINTENDO NINTENDO NINTENDO
6 PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER 2010 KONAMI DIGITAL ENTERTAINMENT KONAMI KONAMI
7 FORZA MOTORSPORT 3 TURN 10 STUDIOS MICROSOFT MICROSOFT
8 GRAND THEFT AUTO EPISODES – LIBERTY CITY ROCKSTAR NORTH ROCKSTAR TAKE 2
9 UNCHARTED 2: AMONG THIEVES NAUGHTY DOG SONY COMPUTER ENT. SONY COMPUTER ENT.
10 WWE SMACKDOWN VS RAW 2010 YUKE’S THQ THQ
11 DRAGON AGE: ORIGINS BIOWARE EA GAMES ELECTRONIC ARTS
12 PROFESSOR LAYTON AND PANDORA’S BOX LEVEL 5 NINTENDO NINTENDO
13 MARIO KART WII NINTENDO NINTENDO NINTENDO
14 GRAND THEFT AUTO IV ROCKSTAR NORTH PLATINUM TAKE 2
15 FOOTBALL MANAGER 2010 SPORTS INTERACTIVE SEGA SEGA
16 NEED FOR SPEED: SHIFT SLIGHTLY MAD STUDIOS EA GAMES ELECTRONIC ARTS
17 RHYTHM PARADISE TNX NINTENDO NINTENDO
18 LEGO BATMAN: THE VIDEOGAME TRAVELLER’S TALES WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE
19 LEGO INDIANA JONES: ORIGINAL ADVENTURES TRAVELLER’S TALES LUCASARTS LUCASARTS
20 TEKKEN 6 NAMCO NAMCO BANDAI GAMES ATARI

Infinity ward may have come under some criticism for its reasonably short single player campaign but what can not be denied is that the multiplayer experience is refined to the point of insanity.

Visually the multplayer experience is on a par with the first games single player campaign. The sheer amount of debris and props on each level is stunning, there is nothing like defending a flag in an office building and seeing computer monitors and coffee cups wiz past you’re face as often as bullets. Character models in the past just looked like moving blurs but  are now detailed and even better; they react brilliantly to getting shot and blown up. The dramatic score is dropped from multiplayer apart from key moments of the battle but the sound affects of each level are top notch. Whether its the calm squelching of snow under you’re feet  on Derailed or the sound of rain beating off you’re blood soaked helmet on Underpass the sound does nothing but enhance you’re experience in every map. As for the weapons effects, well if you have heard the low boom of the Thumper or the scream of a predator missile you know that there spot on.

Why does snow make everything look cool

Gameplay wise the biggest change is the level of customization that you are afforded to you’re custom class. The most impressive of which is the Killstreaks , at certain points in you’re progression through the ranks you will receive points that you can use to unlock new KS rewards and you even decide in certain streaks what reward you use and at what time. For example after 5 kills in a row you can decide if you want to drop a sentry gun or if you want to piss death on someone face with a predator missile. This on top of the 7 or so challenges for every weapon and piece of equipment that return from the last game gives you a serious feeling of progression after every match you play. To add even more to that sense of achievement/progression is the new inclusion of Call signs. Depending on how you act in a match various badges and symbols get unlocked for you to customize you tag. It may seem like a novel idea that was ripped off from Street Fighter 4 but infact it really adds to that achievement feeling that brings gamers back for more.

The perks are much more balanced this time around and thankfully the Martyr perk is downgraded to a death streak and a difficult one to unlock at that. My favourite perks are by a mile Slight of hand and Bling. Slight of hand once maxed out is beyond useful when using light machine guns and Bling lets you  kit you’re selected weapon up to exactly the way you want it, heart monitor and Holographic site on any assault rifle or light machine gun is the shiznit.

Of the 16 Maps on offer I would put Afghan, Derailed and Karachi as the ones I look forward to the most. Karachi in particular is a mine field of tactical fighting. Each building has multiple view points of the streets and when playing Domination it’s just a Joy to behold. Afghan is the map we all remember from the trailer where FourTwoZero got knifed in the back and its open nature makes it a serious hazard for harrier and missile kills. While Derailed mixes indoor and outdoor combat with a horrible central placed B flag during domination that sees the snowy exteriors drenched in yummy human bean juice.

You Gota love that heartbeat sensor

I won’t go into the new game types except to mention that I’m not a big fan of the third person game types and that Domination is by far my favourite.

I was extremely cynical going into this game and maybe that’s why I’m so damn surprised by how excellent it is. Sure, I don’t feel like that when I get shot by a helicopter through no real fault of my own but the game is balanced enough to let me get sweet revenge on cheap bastard once I respawn with Missile Launcher in tow. So in other words its refined and balanced.

Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer is like Sexy time, often intense, rewarding fun that’s even better done with a team of strangers. That’s all you get, if you see me online you had better be staying frosty.

Gee the game looks so much better now that we have infinite ammo and can jump real high. Sigh. I’m sure Infinity Ward and Activision are real upset now that they have reclaimed land from the Pacific and built an Island out of pure money.

Video below.

Source [ Kotaku ]

This game is the sixth in the Call of Duty series (ignoring portable offerings and offshoots), the fourth by series creators Infinity Ward. With the next generation consoles brought about a new idea from Activision to milk this cow dry – give Treyarch (a relative unknown before being drafted) the engine IW build and get them to do Activisions bidding, while IW takes two-year development cycles on (so far) typically superior products. This means the consumer gets a new Call of Duty each year, keeping Activision happy, and gives IW a chance to work its magic on their engine and series, keeping them happy.

COD4 was a first for the series, not just because it was IWs first next-gen platform game, but also because it brought the series into the new age. No more World War 2 gaming, instead replaced with a strange hooah commentary on the current global climate. I say commentary, but this is the kind of political drama that would make Michael Bay proud. Explosions, guns and crazy madness all around. COD4s warfare often felt misplaced, particularly when hordes of enemies were rushing towards you screaming expletives in Russian or Iraqi, but without the excuses of being set in the future with an evil nazi-like regime (Halo, Killzone) taking over the universe. No, you and your characters were supposed to be subtle, effective elite soldiers for the British or American armies, despite the fact that anything going on in the game would usually cause global pandemic sort of stuff.

COD4 was a great action movie. It showed that the gaming industry has the clout to dish out dirt where Hollywood couldn’t, especially after the disappointing Die Hard 4. As a game, it was pretty good. On a technical side it was really polished. Graphically it didn’t set the world alight in the same way Crysis did, but it was still a fantastic looking game. The story was shallow enough to make it enjoyable – switch your brain off and just enjoy the action. The gameplay was nothing special. It had very clear lines as to when missions turned using triggers, which meant you could almost run through any level, and unless you died, clear it without killing anyone or doing anything. At one stage I cleared it in an hour, not taking loading times etc. into account.

Last year saw World at War, the Treyarch developed Vietnam story, based on the COD4 engine and essentially the same title with new maps, weapons and story. But the real shift is this year.

In-game violence has sparked concern from parents

Amidst rumours of a “futuristic” shooter, “sci fi” games and a slew of other development rumours coming out of IW, the game launched ended up being just a sequel to COD4. And why wouldn’t they do that? COD4 was a huge shooter, and remains one of the top online FPS titles on both consoles and PC. It would be fair to say that COD4 is to consoles what Counter-Strike is to PCs – a staple in online gaming. With that in mind they set about dropping the Call of Duty name and just calling it “Modern Warfare 2″, which later took back the COD branding, but the “Modern Warfare” bit takes precedence on the box.

Modern Warfare 2 takes place 5 years after the events of COD4. It takes the same queues from COD4, too. You play on two different factions in the same timeline, from the American and British side, meeting old familiar faces along the way.

The plot loosely bases itself around those pesky Russians we met in COD4, only this time they have a better plan for terrorising the world. Whatever about nukes, it’s time to split up the Americans and take ‘em down from inside. The linchpin for this storyline is a much-debated level in which you play a CIA operative working undercover with the Russians who decide to head off to an airport to gun it down. True terrorist style. Unlike a real airport, the response units are not that close and airport security is weak. In the end of the level where you gun down innocent civilians (some crawling in pain on the ground, some helping wounded, some rocking back & forth… you get the point), our evil Russians shoot you, an American. This causes uproar when the media finds out an American was involved – and thus leaving the door open for the Rooskies to use this uncertain time in Washington to go invade it.

This is a ridiculous plot line, but leaves the door open to some of the most fantastic FPS levels you’ll play in a single player campaign, including a firefight inside the White House.

The Fevela level shown is one of the more impressive moments we've seen

This game will take you through a plethora of environment types. Snow and ice open the game, with a fun but pointless ice-climbing mission, followed soon after by downhill snow-mobile jet-ski fun. After this you hit the urban world of Fevala, dusty terrain of Afghanistan and of course, the soil of America itself. Each level is fully realised and the mission design is much better then COD4. No more wondering where you’re supposed to go here, as the levels are straight forward enough to guide you through, but not so linear that it’s boring and unimaginative.

The graphics are a step up from COD4 undoubtedly. There’s a lot more polish here, but make no mistake, this is very clearly the same engine and game as COD4. Which makes it pretty awful in terms of value-for-money. Not just that, but I cleared it first time ’round on “regular” difficulty in about 3 hours. Forget whatever the media are saying about 5, 7 or 10 hour gameplay here. This is a short one, by anyone’s standards.

On top of this, the game is based on an engine that is by no means new, interesting or technologically astounding. There has been a lot of time to polish this engine down. Graphically they’ve achieved this, but even now, after two initial patches, certain parts of the game fail with awful ragdoll effects and a huge amount of clipping (where a character falls “through” the environment). To top it off, there are sections in the game where you place C4 on a wall/door and blast through. When you do this, the game goes into bullet-time mode for a few seconds so you can pick off your enemies, leaving the civilians alive. Shooting people in the face will do nothing in some instances – which raises a larger issue about how accurate hit boxes are in an online game…

To compensate, Infinity Ward have put in a challenge mode called “Spec Ops” which can be played alone, or with a friend. Most levels are taken directly from the single player, but tweaked for the spec ops mode, but there are a few new ones and some specifically designed for co-op. This extends the longevity of the game for sure, but definitely doesn’t make up for the price tag if you don’t plan on going online. Spec Ops, according to IW, will be expanded later with DLC missions. No word on price, or when we’ll get them.

There isn’t much to talk about in terms of new weapons or features. It’s all very familiar. To replace the brilliant AC-130 mission in COD4, Infinity Ward took a new path with introducing a predator drone loaded with missiles that can drop down onto enemies in certain situations. This makes life easier when bogged down in a firefight against a bunch of enemies who are in close proximity. It also helps when a tank is nearby!

All in all this game is great fun. As a single player experience it’s good. Like I said, it’s the best action movie around right now. As a game though, it lacks a lot of features. It’s mindless, dumb, short but cool. It’s saving grace is Spec Ops and online, but if you’re not into challenge modes and don’t have broadband, this game will be lost on you. If it’s just the story mode you’re after, you’ll survive with renting this game for one night.

Look out for our multiplayer rundown soon.

Well if you were one of the 1 million hit by the Live ban hammer then I bet you’re taking him a whole lot more seriously right now. Coming the day after Modern Warfare 2 landed the mass banning is sure to leave a lot of people in Ireland and around the world ”major” pissed off (haha I’m a genius).

So who is effected? Well obviously anyone who went and modified their box to play illegally downloaded games or at least that’s the idea, what the big M probably didn’t take into consideration is the preowned market where retailers rarely if ever open up consoles to check for modification. So if you bought you’re console 2nd hand or if you ARE going to buy one for xmas make sure it is tested with a live acc or you could be giving yourself or worse someone else a disappointing pressie this year. Remember it is the console itself that is banned not just the hard rive or user acc.

As you’re probably aware illegal gaming is not the only reason gamers will modify a console, many folks have modified the unit to use larger Hard Drive’s as the over priced and relatively small nature of the official Xbox 360 HD’s just aren’t enough for some people who use the console as their main media hub.

Here is what they had to say on the matter.

“Our commitment to combat piracy and support safer and more secure gameplay for the more than 20 million members of our Xbox LIVE community remains a top priority. All consumers should know that piracy is illegal, and that modifying their Xbox 360 console to play pirated discs, violates the Xbox LIVE terms of use, will void their warranty and result in a ban from Xbox LIVE.

“The health of the video game business depends on customers paying for the genuine products and services they receive from manufacturers, retailers, and the third parties that support them.”

So what’s you’re take on it?

Today, more fun arrived, but as an antithisis to the bloodshed in Call of Duty, we got Eyepet – Sony’s high definition, real-world(ish) version of a modern Tamagotchi. In the next few days we’ll have a full review of this incredible piece of kit!

Check out the cute box it arrived in…

All contents spilled out

Inside the box

OMG! HOW CUTE! HE POPS UP!

Side of the box

Front/top, with little holes so your camera can breathe.