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Operation Flashpoint: Red River Initial Thoughts

2 Comments 06 July 2011

Operation Flashpoint: Red River is not Call of Duty. Hailed as a tactical, fire team based shooter that requires more thinking than trigger pulling, Red River aims to bring reality to gamers that are used to being able to get shot a dozen times and still direct a danger close air strike, all from the comfort of their own couch. Having just returned from beautiful Helmand Province (sarcasm yes, however, it does have its moments), Afghanistan, I was naturally drawn to this game simply because it’s modeled directly off Operation Enduring Freedom (even though they say its “Tajikstan”). Now that I’ve got a little over five hours on the books, I feel it’s the right time to spew out some initial thoughts, and hopefully address arguably the two biggest questions surrounding Codemasters’ latest shooter: Is it realistic, and is it actually fun to play?

PC, PS3, Reviews, Xbox 360

Review: Red Faction: Armageddon

No Comments 18 June 2011

RFA plays like the spunky, lively brunette who you keep calling and making plans with, and you’re too busy having fun in the moment to worry about anything long-term. That’s Armageddon. Completely engaging and without guilt. The antithesis of most female twenty-something Catholics.

Glitchoris BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front)

Don’t shelve this one for a rainy day – pick it up and play right now. It’s not redefining the FPS genre, but it’s just too damn good to pass up.

Apology

Playing through RFA a couple times changed the way I played the game – which isn’t to be confused with how I played the game. The first playthrough found me walking into a new area, blasting everything to high hell (most probably with the singularity gun), and then figuring out what I was supposed to be doing. But each successive hour during the second playthough I found myself walking into a new area, spending a brief second or two recording the placement of structures, and then blowing everything to high hell. However, this time around, I was able to analyze the environment and gage where I needed to go according to the structures.

Part of me thinks this change isn’t any big deal; we all get better at games the more we play them. I just think the larger part of me was impressed that Armageddon played this large of a role in my thought process. I admit: I underestimated RFA from the beginning – and I’m extraordinarily pleased that I was wrong.

Smooth

Darius Mason, the protagonist, is not your typical shoot-first, foul-mouthed hero. He doesn’t necessarily contain an absurd amount of depth, but he actually plays like a normal human being in his spot would: fairly realistic with a hint of sarcasm. This was one of our concerns with Bulletstorm – the characters were so transparent that after the first few acts, when they started to mature, even the maturation was transparent.

While Armageddon is a departure from Guerrilla‘s open world mode, we don’t feel terribly boxed in by our environment; it’s actually quite the opposite. We are able to obliterate and reconstruct with ease, and after a short few hours of gameplay, the entire process becomes second nature.

Final Thoughts

We hope that Volition doesn’t sit too long before offering either more content or another installment. The story is definitely there, as most narrative arcs normally are, but we’d drop cash for more content, more guns, more forge nova talents, and more pure fun.

One aspect of the game that we wish would have been included, however, is a dual player co-op story mode. The multiplayer scenarios are definitely fun, but to run through the tunnels and magma pools with a good friend would add hours (I’m talking back from the bars at 2 am hours) of fun. We may not remember playing the hours, but if we did, we’re sure they would have been hilarious.

PC, PS3, Reviews, Xbox 360

Red Faction: Armageddon Mid-Game Thoughts

No Comments 16 June 2011

With today’s media climate as it is, with Weiner bringing sexty back and Tracey Morgan speaking out against anybody not straight, it’s nice to play a video game that is exactly how it’s advertised.

For your viewing pleasure:

Now, did you see that big fucking spider thing pop up like three times? You get to drive that thing! And shoot people. It’s great. We also are pretty sure you saw the protagonist rebuilding a walkway with his left arm “forge nova.” You get to do that too!

Here’s how the game started out for us. You know when you have just one thing to do? It happens about once or twice a year. Everything else is already done or can’t be started, and that leaves you with one measly little chore for the day. These are the days where you only have to put on pants for like, maybe, fifteen minutes? Then you go back to your pajamas and t-shirt as if annoyed that being dressed like a grown-up is more contagiously shitty than the black plague.

Well, that was yesterday for me. And my one thing was to put in some game time for RFA. And for the record, I didn’t start playing until about 4pm. I’m a lazy sloth at times.

I honestly think Volition coded crack into the game. I couldn’t put the controller down. Seriously, I completely forgot the Mavericks were playing the Heat in Game 5 of the NBA Championships. I’m a moderate NBA fan, but only because I like to watch theatrics of professional sports. Then I didn’t even watch the end of the game where apparently Lebron James pulled a Chris Angel and vanished in the fourth quarter.

Now that the introduction is through, here’s the rest of my neural firings.

More Playtime
Creative deaths. Part of me wishes we could transplant the environmental deaths of Bulletstorm with absolutely everything else from Armageddon. Then we’d be all set. I hammered a guy into a twenty-foot gas tank only to watch him bounce off. I would have enjoyed the explosion.

Epic battles. One of the pleasant surprises of Armageddon is the sheer amount of killing that takes place in a short amount of time. Headshots are fun – but erasing twenty people from God’s red Mars in under five seconds dwarfts that.

Secrets. I know I sound like a fucking five year old just discovering the joys of bombable walls in the original Legend of Zelda, but I can’t deny I would spend hours blasting shit up that doesn’t make sense just for one minute of ecstasy of finding something buried.

Less Playtime
Asshole CO’s. Every CO in the game is a stereotypical Patton. Nobody can be right going against the commanding officer. It’s more than played out, and this seems to be the norm for FPS’s these days. Oh well, can’t have it all, can we?

Fatality sans blood. Armageddon doesn’t really employ blood, and that’s something we definitely want to see. It doesn’t need to be spurting out of every orifice…ok, it needs to be spurting out of every orifice.

Final review up by the end of the week – probably Saturday morning.

PC, PS3, Xbox 360

No Comments 05 September 2010

Part of the fun of writing for Glitchoris is that we only review games we feel worthy of being reviewed for our audience. Now that may sound pretentious, which it is, and completely elitist, which it is as well, but God didn’t give me all the time in the world. He gave me a small one bedroom apartment, an Xbox 360 and enough money to pay the rent. And buy a beer or five.