Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Review – The Future of War is Awesome

Call of Duty fans have been taken on a wild ride through different game developers visions of warfare. The popular first-person shooter series hit a serious plateau during its Modern Warfare phase, which was followed by a dose of WWII scenarios and Black Ops campaigns. With the 2014 iteration of this annual shooter comes a welcome deviation from the well-worn formula. Sledgehammer Games has managed to throw on a fresh coat of paint and a whole bunch of Exoskeleton suits into the newest COD: Advanced Warfare.

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare takes games onto one of the best single-player campaign rides ever produced. As a member of the Marines, you and your closest friend embark upon a routine mission. However, your loyal ally loses his life in an explosive manner that’s shocking to witness. After grieving over a fellow fallen soldier, the father of your now deceased friend welcomes you to this all-too powerful Private Military Company – Atlas. The bossman at the middle of it all (which is performed by the always awesome Kevin Spacey) gives you access to futuristic gear and powerful allies as you’re sent to take down terrorist threats and protect the freedom of the U.S.

The character interactions within the single-player campaign are decent enough, but you won’t find yourself getting emotionally invested in anyone. The acting here is on par with that of your typical military thriller film, which means you’ll hear all manners of passionate screaming and patriotic speeches. Thankfully, the amazing visuals make your jump boosting allies and charismatic boss look…well, amazing. You’ll be in awe during each level due to the insane set piece moments (the explosion of a power plant is visually mind-blowing) and applaud the impressive audio throughout. The current-gen version of this COD sports the visuals needed to back such a multi-billion dollar series.

Advanced Warfare’s single-player campaign ranks among the best in the entire series. The presence of  Exoskeleton suits and its accompanying abilities given to you during each mission keeps things fresh. Boosting over obstacles, slowing down time to line up shots and even climbing up the sides of walls are just a few of the cool new action you can perform. One minute you’ll be riding on hover bikes while being chased by a helicopter and the next minute you’ll be stealthily picking off terrorists. Getting the chance to use your upgrade points to make your Exo suit and abilities even stronger is welcome. While the story itself is somewhat predictable and unmemorable, the missions themselves are all fun in their own way.

Once you’ve gotten through the amazing single-player campaign, you’ll most certainly make your way to Call of Duty’s tried and true multiplayer modes. The familiar modes are still present. The new “Pick 13” system (a slight change up from Black Ops 2’s “Pick 10” system) gives you the option to choose from a huge variety of customization options. It’s nice to see the game give not-so-great players the chance to be on equal footing with veteran players with this system. New players who aren’t capable of nabbing those scorestreaks can opt to attach more weapon customizations of exo suit abilities instead. The “Pick 13” system makes character customization more of a joy this time around.

The multiplayer modes still offer players a fast and fluid set of games fans have enjoyed for years. The addition of exoskeleton suits, smart grenades and other types of futuristic gear makes everything feel just a little differently. Matches now seem to fall into soldiers jumping all over the place and staying mobile to stay ahead of the other soldiers. The co-op survival mode is just as fun, thanks to its unpredictable enemy setups and all-around addictive team play. That being said, this is still a Call of Duty game so you’ll know what to expect here. The feel of the game isn’t dramatically different from its predecessors, so fans looking to come back to the series might not get too attached once again.

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is an excellent addition to a well-worn series. The incredible single player campaign, Exoskeleton abilities and always solid gunplay are all here. The plot itself is your typical Hollywood warfare material and the game itself still hangs onto a formula that’s hitting a state of staleness. All in all though, Advanced Warfare still does enough to change up the formula and give longtime fans a new take on war.

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 Images: Activision, Sledgehammer Games

Call of Duty: Ghosts Unveils Multiplayer and Adds a Dash of Eminem

Just when you think that Call of Duty couldn’t get any bigger, you’re reminded that it happens to be one of the most recognizable brands in gaming. So much so that the marketing is out in full force four months before the game is actually released. You know the game is big time when we get an hour-long live stream revealing the multiplayer elements of the game. Not only that, but one of the biggest rappers in the world, Eminem, has graced your game with a never before released song for its trailer. With Call of Duty: Ghosts due out in November, we are starting to get some more details about some new aspects of the game and from the looks of things, smiles are about to materialize on many a gamer’s face.

As you can see from the trailer above for the multiplayer elements, there’s a lot of brand new stuff to dissect. First off, Eminem is providing the music with his new song “Survivor” to pump you up and take down your enemy. It reminds me of his song “Won’t Back Down” with Pink and I’m sure it will be played non-stop once people find the means to download it. One of the big things is seeing the dynamic maps, where you can destroy parts of the map or take out structures to distract someone, or even take out a whole squad. This will add a fun element to the destruction of environments and another thing to account for as you run around on all the maps. Another big part is seeing the fluid movements of your soldier as he (or she, we’ll get to that in a minute) can slide or hop over obstacles while still being able to aim and shoot. Being able to slide and jump back up to avoid a shot and take someone out then hop over a barrier to stab the next enemy in your sights will deliver a lot of multi-kills and satisfying killstreaks.

There is also a ton more customization when it comes to this new game, probably the most prominently marketed will be the inclusion of female soldiers. Yes, despite the last series that developer Infinity Ward did being subtitled Modern Warfare, Ghosts will mark the first time that female soldiers will be stepping into the Call of Duty multiplayer arena. You’ll also be able to modify more characteristics such as race and body type, plus the standbys like gear, clothing and of course, weapons, in order to make your multiplayer avatar your own. As many as 30 new weapons will enter this iteration of the game so expect to see a lot of new guns lying around waiting to be tried. A new class will accompanying this game called the Marksman Rifle, which is an intended hybrid of the Sniper and Assault Rifle class. This will allow those gamers with the option of using the scope or getting in closer for a semi-auto or one shot kill. There’s also another new, and potentially awesome, game mode is called Cranked. This mode borrows from the Statham movie and gives you 30 seconds to find and kill someone before you die. It’s effectively a game of tag where the clock resets when you take out an enemy. You’ll also get your typical multiplayer modes that have been featured in all the previous games but this one will be something to get excited about.

There’s a lot of stuff to get excited for an that’s just a small bit of what to expect from the new game when it comes to challenging and fighting friends online. The trailer above is from the one hour live stream that they did on Wednesday so check it out, there’s a lot of other great info about the game. Again, Call of Duty: Ghosts comes out on November 5th, 2013 on Xbox One, Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Playstation 4 and the Wii U. Also below is a fun trailer for the new collector’s edition. If anything, it’ll make you yell, “BREACH!” every time you walk through a doorway.

CCI 2012: Video Game News Roundup

Hey there, people. It’s me again. Comic-Con has been rather quiet when it comes to video games. Just like day 1, nothing much happened in that area of nerdism so I decided to combine day 2, 3 and 4 into one article.

A Mass Effect anime will invade our television sets soon

Mass Effect: Paragon Lost is an anime series which is set right before the event of Mass Effect 3. The plot centers on James Vega (voiced by the corny Freddie Prinze Jr.), telling the story of his team’s encounter with the Collectors aka the bad guys in Mass Effect 2. Here’s a brief description of the storyline taken from the official website:

Mass Effect: Paragon Lost is the prequel to the highly-anticipated Mass Effect 3 and follows the early career of Alliance Marine, James Vega. Vega leads an elite Special Forces squad into battle against a mysterious alien threat known as The Collectors. Stationed at a colony in a remote star system, Vega and his soldiers must protect the civilians from a ruthless invasion determined to capture the population for unknown purposes. Learn more about the Mass Effect universe with an unprecedented glimpse into the haunted past of Mass Effect’s newest hero!

If you ask me, I don’t really give a shit about the anime. Given how crappy the ending is, there is no reason for me to care. Plus, the animation looks pretty bad. We’re talking about “made using Flash by a bunch of middle-schoolers” level of disaster. Don’t get me wrong. Flash can look fantastic when done right, but Paragon Lost does not seem to be the case. But what do I know? Some people liked the ending. That includes our very own CheeseBadger, who is oh-so-sarcastic all the time. Maybe some of you will enjoy this. As for me, I’ll pass.

By the way, the anime is coming out in November this year.

Oh, there’s also this Mass Effect 3 DLC tease

Word on the street is that BioWare released a teaser. Some speculate it’s for an upcoming DLC. Apparently the story is set underwater and there will be Atlas’s (the Cerberus robot thingy).  I’m not holding my breath for this one. Here’s an interesting question: was that pun intended?

(We’ll update this post as soon as we find the teaser on Youtube.)

The Last of Us introduces a new, bearded character

The trailer shows Joel, Ellie and the new character getting into a building after fending off the zombies, or whatever they’re called. I mean, technically speaking, they have some fungal infection in their brains or some crazy ass shit like that. That part isn’t so zombie-like, but since they’re acting as if they’re high on bath salts, we’ll just refer to them as zombies. They’re crazy, and I think they eat people. Let’s not pretend they’re anything other than zombies, aight?

Anyways, this mysterious figure, Bill, handcuffs Ellie and points the gun at Joel. The men get into an argument as Ellie breaks free to hit Bill with the steel pipe she was handcuffed to. Joel stops her after the first hit and the three talk things out. In short, Bill is the typical “trust nobody” type of guy who’s reluctant to help the protagonists in zombie movies. He’ll probably end up being eaten because he’s not a team player. Now all we need are some token (insert stereotypical minority ethnicity here) guy/gal, a dumb blonde, and a dickish beefcake to make the most predictable zombie video game ever. I am still intrigued by the story though.

More Resident Evil 6 details

Yoshiaki Hirabayashi, Resident Evil 6’s producer, has released more details on the game.

• Jill and Claire will not be in the game. Claire will be mentioned.
• You can switch camera to your character’s right or left.
• For those hardcore players, the hud display can be switched off.
• Weapons are scattered throughout levels. No purchases are necessary.
• You no longer have worry about your AI partner’s inventory. He/She will pick up various items based on his/her needs.
• Swapping items is possible when you’re playing online co-op.
• Weapons are not individually upgraded. Instead, you upgrade weapons, among many other skills, through the allocation of skill points.
• As of current, the game is not going to support Playstation Move.

Capcom has also revealed the voices behind the main characters:

• Leon S Kennedy – Matthew Mercer
• Helena Harper – Laura Bailey
• Chris Redfield – Roger Craig Smith
• Piers Nivans – Chris Emerson
• Jake Muller – Troy Baker
• Sherry Birkin – Eden Riegel
• Ada Wong / Carla Radames – Courtnay Taylor

I swear to god Laura Bailey and Troy Baker were in every single thing that came out in the last twelve months. Both of them played the Boss in Saints Row The Third (Caucasian female and male respectively), as well as different supporting roles Mass Effect 3 (Laura as the asari lieutenant at the beginning of Priority: Thessia, I think, and Troy as the notoriously comical Kai Leng), and many more. Just look at their IMDB profiles yourself. Here’s Laura’s and here’s Troy’s.

They’re both quite attractive. Just saying…

A Deadpool video game is coming out…

And surprisingly, he’s not voiced by Nolan North, or is he? Oh wait, he is. All that I care about is Deadpool himself actually showed up in Comic Con to announce the game himself, and that was awesome.

The game is being developed by High Moon Studios and will be published by Activision. Anyways, here’s the teaser:

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The gameplay itself doesn’t look particularly interesting. It’s seems like another third-person hack-&-slash / shooting. Perhaps the witty dialogue may just be the game changer. Who knows? It’s too early to tell.

I hope you’ve enjoyed our Comic Con coverage. Big shoutouts to all of you who read the articles. I know it sounds corny but you are the reason why we’re doing this. We don’t get paid. Please keep following us on Facebook or Twitter (or start now if you haven’t already done so) for more pop culture opinions.

Call of Duty Black Ops 2 Announced! Where My Nazi Zombies at?

November 13th, 2012 – You will probably not see Dr. Kronner and I for a week after that date. Via Gamespot, the announcement that came to the surprise of exactly no one was released and it is that Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 is announced to come out in November, just in the usual CoD launch window that Activision always delivers on to make sure their Q4 numbers are spiked.

So what can we expect from this game? Probably more of the same. Let’s be honest, Call of Duty is becoming the Madden of first person shooters. The differences are pretty miniscule between each individual series. By that, I mean the Modern Warfare series and the Black Ops/World at War series. Both are developed by Infinity Ward and Treyarch respectively, and I honestly prefer the single player of the MW series over Black Ops. However, I will say the multiplayer of Black Ops and the Treyarch team is superior. That and it has nazi zombies which is simply the best party game amongst our group of friends since Goldeneye and WCW/NWO Revenge or Smash Bros or Mario Kart. So with this game, what I’m looking forward to is seeing what improvements they have done to multiplayer, new modes, guns, all that jazz. Of course the maps. As long as I don’t get more maps like Cracked or Hanoi, I will be a happy dude. I almost said happy camper, but that would just make me be a dick.

Anyways, on CallofDuty.com, the reveal shows that it will be tonight on TNT for the NBA Playoffs so I’m sure I’ll update this article tonight once the trailers hit YouTube and the such. Activision in the UK actually jumped the gun before taking down the splash page for the new game by apparently showing the Los Angeles in ruin, not unlike NYC in the last MW game. Other places like China, Japan, and Afghanistan were shown too so like always, this will be a global affair. Again, we await more details to come out so stay tuned to this post once we get more info.

So it’s basically Terminator and Skynet. That’s cool. Maybe some Cowboys and Aliens. Maybe not that cool. Am I playing it? Child please.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2? Yes, please, I want to go to there.

You knew it was going to happen. Apparently Activision does not want you to know it is going to happen but hey, we are going to take the news and run with it. Gamespot is reporting via GameBlog, a French gaming site, that Black Ops 2 definitely does exist. Apparently they stumbled upon some screen shots from the Amazon France site that showed it was ready for preorder before the site decided to shut the page down. Obviously, those sneaky French gaming bastards screen shot the evidence to tell the rest of the world. Of course, they also ended up getting a warning from the French division of Activision demanding the news would be pulled. GameBlog refused and then Activision has decided to blackball them from media events and pull their advertising. Over a game they are probably going to announce soon. Hell, it’s Amazon France’s fault anyways. They just wanted to get their preorder money’s worth before the Euro collapses.

I will say that I mildly dislike the single player on World at War and Black Ops, but the multiplayer experience is definitely better on these games. Why? Nazi Zombies. So yeah, this will be bought for the multiplayer because it still remains the game that most of us writers play and swear at each other constantly. Anyways, this is a boring post so below is my favorite kills/kill streaks. Also, Dr. Kronner loves getting a hatchet to the face in Sticks & Stones.

X-Men: Destiny – Behind-the-Scenes Trailer and Cover Art

Heading to living rooms soon is the somewhat anticipated X-Men: Destiny. While I do look forward to this game, I won’t be lining up for it or anything. Don’t get me wrong, I love the premise and the gameplay looks adequate. But usually when I play an X-Men game I want to play as an X-Man(or Woman). I may be a little picky here, so let’s just say I will be picking it up when it comes out, but my expectations aren’t huge.

CoD: Modern Warfare 3 Trailer

I love Call of Duty. I am aware how repetitive it can get, and that it’s mega-popularity disguises the fact that we play the same damn game every time, but it’s just sooooo addictive. So naturally, just like Madden, and any sports game, Activision needs to continue the cash cow and decided to tease the new game with a trailer in preparation for E3 and the November 8, 2011 release date for Modern Warfare 3.

Now, the reason I’m posting this article is because the developer is Infinity Ward. With all due respect to Treyarch, who developed World at War and Black Ops, the Modern Warfare series is all Infinity Ward and it is the superior developer. The single player is better, the multiplayer is better, the game feels cleaner…after all – they started the series.

Now Treyarch did give us Nazi Zombies so I have to give props, but in comparison there’s a reason why I’m excited for this game. After the trailer, you should be too.  Until  TheBustedBoxes blows your head off while hiding in a corner waiting for you. But then the excitement returns with a hatchet to Dr. Kronner‘s back. So really, it’s a wash and we’re back to full joy and glee.

Gamer Preview: ‘Spider-Man: Edge of Time”

I can easily say that I was a huge fan of Beenox and Activision‘s Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions where you played four different versions of Spider-Man in a level based adventure. It was a nice change from most Spider-Man games that have come out in the last decade, especially when giving players the chance to play as Amazing Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2099, Spider-Man Noir, and Symbiote Ultimate Spider-Man.

The game was good, not without a few issues, but overall I had fun playing it. But the best levels were easily Amazing (Noir was great but repetitive) and 2099 in my opinion, so I’m quite excited to hear the news that a sequel to Shattered Dimensions is coming out, and will focus on these two characters exclusively.