Looking at: Shadow Warrior 2013

Hard Reset

The legendary Nobitsura Kage, highlighting SW13's melee focus

What happened to the FPS genre? It used to just be about gunning down waves of hellspawn mutant freaks while listening to metal music. Now it's all about saving America from villain X while pushing buttons and occasionally looking down iron sights for a split second. There aren't that many modern FPS games I actually enjoyed, so playing the 2013 re-boot of Shadow Warrior was definitely a pleasant surprise.

SW13 comes to us from developer Flying Wild Hog, the same people that brought us 2011's Hard Reset. FWG is clearly a company that has a reverence for shooters of yore, as both Hard Reset and SW13 are lovingly crafted homages to old school shooters like Quake, or Serious Sam. But do the old conventions still hold up in the age of the modern shooter?

Penis Joke

One of the few minutes of peace between the waves of foes.

The story of SW13 sees you as Lo Wang, a mercenary in the employ of the crime lord Zilla. Zilla has sent you to retrieve an ancient katana sword said to contain immense power. You get the sword and almost immediately everything goes wrong, with hordes of demons pouring out of portals and invading Japan. Thankfully one of the demons, Hoji, figures that Wang, along with the ancient sword Nobitsura Kage, should be enough to slay the demons, reforge the ancient blade, and free Hoji from his imprisonment.

While the story regularly takes a back seat to the action throughout the game, there actually is just enough of it to keep everything interesting and, more importantly, give context to your actions. You'll know exactly why you're going to a location and what the end goal of it is, and that's a step above other games of this type like Serious Sam or Duke Nukem (the good ones). The plot actually does evolve, introducing and explaining new characters, and while it's not exactly the highest caliber of writing it's far better then a game like SW13 usually gets.

A bit more divisive is the dialogue. SW13 is an incredibly juvenile game, never mind the fact that the main character's name is Lo Wang. There are jokes peppered throughout, ranging from simple turns of phrase and slapstick, to just south of racist pokes at Asian and American culture. It's a funny game, provided you can get on the same wave-length, and it's nice to see a game in this day and age willing to tell a joke without being afraid of some backlash.

Swords, Shotguns, and Sorcery 

Thanks to you, the world is in chaos.

Gameplay in SW13 hearkens back to the wave-based FPS shoot-em-ups of the mid-90's and early 2000's. You advance from arena to arena, taking on hordes of enemies at your own leisure, and when everything but you is dead you move on. Occasionally there's a mid-level boss or a simple puzzle to work out, but 90% of the time it's slashing or shooting hundreds of demons till the only thing that remains is hunks of gore everywhere. It's simple, easy to figure out, and a hell of a lot of fun when it all works.

Despite it's simplicity however, there is some welcome diversity to the mix. Lo Wang has access to a number of magical powers, both defensive and offensive through the use of his sword. Activating these powers is as easy as tapping a directional button twice then one of the mouse buttons. After doing it a few times you'll be able to activate it like a pro in the middle of battle, which is good because you'll need to more often then not. I have the healing and shield spells committed to muscle memory thanks to how often I used them.

My favorite weapon, the venerable crossbow.

SW13 is a brutal game, both in the amount of gore spilt everywhere and the actual difficulty of the game. Enemies can be absolutely tiring to take down, and some of the tougher fights feel like you're shooting at an actual sponge. This is my biggest issue with the game, is that to many of the demons you fight seem built to annoy rather then challenge. There's the shaman demon that constantly spawns in cannon fodder and creates a bullet proof shield. There's a charging bull enemy that can only be hit on the back, but turns around in the blink of an eye. Most annoyingly are the exploding suicide enemies, which remind me of the screaming headless bombers from Serious Sam in the worst way. Fighting some enemy types just becomes a chore, and you're only happy when it's over because it's finally over and you can move on. There are enjoyable fights, battles that make you use your head and out manned, but some of the fights, especially end of level fights, just feel like impossible slogs.

SW13's biggest saving grace is it's actual gameplay however. As I mentioned, there's a slew of spells to learn, but there's more the that. There's a full RPG upgrade system, with three paths for guns, spells, and passive upgrades, each with their own branching paths. Each upgrade tree has it's own unique currency too, allowing you to level at your leisure without worrying where to assign points. You'll constantly be upgrading, and that lends a welcome feel of advancement as you grow stronger.

The shadowy Hoji, your only friend throughout the game.

As for killing things, you'll utilize your collection of powers, along with your collection of weapons. There's nothing super standout, and all of the weapons are instantly recognizable. There's the classic revolver, SMGs, shotgun, crossbow, and rocket launcher to name a few. They handle well and there's a noticeable punch to the heavier weapons. There's a host of unlockable upgrades for each gun, including a secondary fire mode, provided you can find enough cash to pay.

The only really interesting weapon is the legendary katana Lo Wang wields. Melee combat is fast and furious as you swing with wild abandon, and whenever possible I'd ditch my guns to rip and tear the enemies apart the old fashioned way. Even better are the sword arts you can unlock, allowing for area of effect attacks, shield breakers, and other combos to make you feel awesome. The best moments in the game are when you cut your way through a horde of demons, coming out completely unscathed.

Old Style

Jokes are woven in, the most obvious being the collectible fortune cookies.

Graphically SW13 looks pretty good. There's a lot of work put into the style of the game, and it comes off pretty well. Locations are distinct enough that the levels don't all feel the same, and the texture work is decent enough. My biggest issue with how SW13 looks is it's lighting, which is problematically dark at the suggested gamma settings. It was never bad enough to ruin the game, but the flashlight was woefully underpowered and it made the darker levels harder to move around.

After the enemy balance, my biggest issue with SW13 is it's level design. It's abysmal at times. When it's just a series of corridors a la Doom everything works, but when you enter into a large, open area and are tasked with pixel hunting the one thing to let you move forward it gets tiring. Most annoying was one level near the end of the game partly shrouded in a poisonous cloud. I spent twenty minutes running around looking for the key to move forward while my vision was completely obscured. It's not that every game should have a compass permanently attached to the top of the screen, but some way to indicate where to go would've helped a lot considering the labyrinthine layout of some of the levels.

Levels range from Japanese castles, to downtown, and even demonic worlds.

Where the level design does redeem itself somewhat is the style of the levels. Each level is filled with things, making them feel alive and lived in, or as the case may be, demonic and long forgotten. Even better is that a large portion of these objects explode, and parts of levels seem designed to allow for massive chain explosions. Everything from cars to AC units, to random unattended fireworks stands are just waiting for you to shoot them. You'll need to be careful, however, as I've lost count of how many times I exploded myself in the heat of combat.

Overall sound design is perfectly fine. Lo Wang's voice actor seems to be doing a piss-poor impersonation of an Asian, somewhat fitting for a guy from Texas. None of the voice actors are bad, but none of them are particularly standout either. As for sound effects? The guns mostly sound punchy and weighty, save for the SMGs which sound appropriately yappy. Explosions are bombastic and heavy enough, especially when chained together. Enemies sound menacing and evil and there's a particularly satisfying amount of swishes, squishes and crunches as you reduce them to piles of goo. Music is a mix of techno, generic metal, and pan-Asian classical, all remixed appropriately.

Good Fortune

Almost every situation ends poorly for you.

Overall, Shadow Warrior is somewhat hard to actually recommend. On the one hand, it's a rare breed of game, a classic no-holds-barred shooter that puts action front and center. These types of games only come once in a blue moon, and even more rarely are they actually worth playing. Serious Sam 3 was two years before this, and even since SW13 there hasn't been any other shooter like it.

On the other hand, it's a deeply problematic game. It's RPG system is deep, but flawed, especially trying to save money for weapon upgrades. It's shooting is fun, but enemies are annoying and tiring to fight. Graphically it looks great, but the levels are maze-like and hard to progress through. It all averages out to be pretty good, but only if you can put up with the bullshit.

Shadow Warrior 2013 is a game for an audience that doesn't really exist. It's an old school shooter that's to new-school, and a new-age shooter trying to be old. It's the successor to a game no one really knows about, and the spiritual successor to games that don't exist anymore. It is a fun game, especially if you want a little more action and a little less dialogue in your shooter, but it comes with a hefty word of warning. Once you dig into this game, you might just be hungry again in an hour.

Looking at: Call of Juarez: Gunslinger

Old Legend

This being a Western tale, you'll spend most of your time in the countryside. 

The Old West, despite being an absolute kickass backdrop for any story, hasn't really gotten the love it deserves in video games. Sure, there's Red Dead Redemption, one of my favorite games of all time, as well as a handful of other games, but they're few and far between.

Hot off the heels of it's disastrous, and racist predecessor CoJ: The Cartel, Gunslinger is looking to return the series to it's gun totting, tobacco spitting, Wild West roots. Is this a tale worth listening to?

Long Winded

Duels require concentration, and a quick trigger finger.

The framing device for Gunslinger is that of a long, long story being told by legendary bounty hunter Silas Greaves, who stopped into an innocuous bar for a drink and ran into some fans. Silas has an odd penchant for mistaken identity, with his actions often getting attributed to other more infamous names. The story device works well enough, and is actually woven into the game with the sets changing as Silas remembers, or mis-remembers minor details. Ladders fall into place magically, and caves appear from nowhere. At one point there's a break in the action because Silas gets up to pee. It's an entertaining yarn that feels right at home in an old pulp-fiction book.

You'll run into a laundry list of Wild West heroes and villians, and almost every chapter is capped off with an interesting boss fight. You'll face down Jesse James, Billy the Kid, Butch Cassidy, Sundance Kid, and many more in your journey. There are collectible "nuggets" of truth you can find throughout the game that offer actual stories of what happened to all these people. It's a wide roster and it's exciting to see so many infamous stars of a wild time. At the very least Gunslinger is a well researched game.

Six Shooter

Special characters get an animated intro, including one mean-ass shotgun.

It helps that Gunslinger is also an incredibly satisfying shooter. Shooting is smooth and precise, allowing you to line up shots with ease. There are only a handful of guns, unfortunately, and this being the wild west most guns only hold a handful of shots. That means your shots need to be precise, a facet further emphasized by Gunslinger's scoring system.

For whatever ludicrous reason Gunslinger is meant to be played like an arcade shooter, assigning you points based on your actions. Nail a headshot, that's 100 points. Nail that headshot from a good range? 200 points. Do it in slow motion while you're enemy is running? 500 points. Scoring consecutive kills will increase your multiplier too, meaning that at the end of a good firefight you'll be earning points like it was going out of style. Aside from an arbitrary measure of you're skill, these points also contribute to leveling you up.

There are three paths to choose from in Gunslinger: the pistol wielding Gunslinger, the ranged rifle specialist Ranger, and the shotgun and dynamite blasting Trapper. As you upgrade these paths you'll unlock perks to outfit your character with, as well as a number of special weapon variants that can really change how you play. It's all very light and linear, but it fits well with the game and makes scoring points mean something.

Returning from Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is the idea of duels. Like any classic Western tale these are short, violent, and tense as all hell. You'll need to focus on the enemy while also moving your hand into position and listening for the countdown. Gunslinger mixes up the formula a bit by making each fight unique from the others. Some enemies will dodge after pulling iron, some won't move at all to unnerve you, and at one point you'll even have a three-way Mexican Standoff a-la The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. In each of these you'll have the option to wait until your opponent pulls their gun and killing them honorably, or getting the jump like a low-down dirty bandit. It's a minor choice, but can affect your score.

Home on the Range

Combo-ing trick shots results in a better score, and a more satisfying kill.

Being inspired by dime books and pulp fiction, Gunslinger opted to go for a cell-shaded comic book style. It's not Borderlands, but plays more closely to the likes of actual Western comic books that were popular in the '40's and '50's. Characters are cast as larger then life, often towering and armor clad. There's plenty of detail, everything from random clutter lying around the towns, to rock formations and wilderness. It's all rendered well enough thanks to an updated Chrome Engine 5.

Better then the visuals is the sound design of Gunslinger. A special honor goes to veteran voice actor John Cygan who provides the voice work for Silas Greaves. Cygan nails the aging hero feel of Greaves perfectly and carries the lions share of the story by himself. Not to say the voice acting is bad anywhere else, and all the main characters turn in great performances.

The sound design is equally great. The guns sound bombastic, grating, and metallic like real old West guns should. These were tools meant to be used and they all sound as good as they feel, making the shooting that much more satisfying. Gunshots cling and clang off various surfaces, and even when there's no shooting going on the soundscape really helps to immerse you in this old Western tale.

Fistful of Dollars

Right before death you'll have the chance to dodge one last bullet. Do so successfully and you live that much longer.

All that said, Gunslinger regularly reveals it's obvious budget title nature. List price for Gunslinger is ~ $15, and it's constantly obvious that it was never meant to be as good as it turned out. There's only a handful of characters to cut down on voice actors, with most character's narration being delivered by Greaves as part of his story. Even then, none of the characters have animated lip-synch, and they shift around to cover this. Levels are short, and the entire game can be cleared in about 3-4 hours. There's new game plus, and an arcade score-attack mode, but there's just not that much game here.

Gunslinger is a game indicative of it's own subject matter. Gunfights in the old West were short and brutal, but made for great stories. In that vein, Gunslinger is a very, very short but enjoyable experience that weaves a good yarn. It is a budget title and other better games exist, but this is definitely a tale worth listening to.

Image Sources:
http://www.vgblogger.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/20/Call_of_Juarez_Gunslinger.jpg

Looking at: Enemy Front

Gold Old Days

You'll need to use precision shots and high explosives to dislodge the Nazi threat

It used to be you couldn't swing a grandpa around in the air like a club without hitting a WW2 game. They were everywhere, in every genre, completely saturating the market like Zombie games and MOBA's do today. By far the most popular was the venerable first person shooter, a trend that transcended subject matter. WW2 shooters gave birth to franchises like Call of Duty, Battlefield, and Medal of Honor, to name a few.

Over time fads fade away however, and by the mid 2000's shooters had switched over to more modern conflicts, like the Gulf War of early 90's or the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East of today. The last truly note-worthy WW2 shooter was likely COD: World at War, an incredibly underrated entry into the series that remains one of my favorite COD games of all time.

It's a bit strange then that someone would try to revive this once guaranteed money-maker, but in June of 2014 CI games tried just that with Enemy Front, calling it the "first modern WW2 FPS game". It's modern alright, and it certainly takes place in World War 2, but does it live up to the legacy of the greats, or does it land like a dud?

Different Front

Enemy Front tries to have a cinematic tone, but often falls short

Enemy Front's biggest attempt to try and distance itself from it's progenitors is in it's choice of locales. Rather then replay the tried and true battles like Normandy, the Pacific, or the Eastern Front, EF turns it's sights to the unknown battles of Eastern Europe. You'll flip back and forth between fights in Poland and Norway, with a central focus around the Battle of Warsaw. It's a nice change of pace, but honestly, one 1940's bombed out village looks like every other 1940's bombed out village, regardless of nationality.

The plot sees you in control of Robert Hawkins, an American war correspondent that takes the "war" part of that very seriously, and never heard the phrase "conflict of interests". Rather then just report on the war, Hawkins decides it's more fun gunning down Nazis and blowing up factories, and while I question his journalistic integrity, I understand where he's coming from. It's to bad, then, that his outlet for this destruction happens to be this game.

The plot is... there? It's hard to say really, because there wasn't anything to grab on to. You'll do a level during the Warsaw uprising, then flashback to another story somewhere else, then repeat over and over. There are really only, maybe, five characters, and no villain save for the endless Nazis that stand in your way. It's very similar to the old Medal of Honor games in this way, where the plot only exists to ferry you from battle to battle.

One of the game's many, often hilarious glitches

Pop Guns

There's a lot of detail in the levels, from realistic shattering glass to small items lying around.

Taking place in a different battlefield means using different guns, and EF's armory contains some of the weirdest and rarest weapons from WW2. There are the old classics, like the MP40, Kar. 98, or the Mosin Nagant rifle, but there's also the inclusion of weapons like the incredibly rare De Lisle silenced carbine, or the WZ .28 auto rifle. There's very little noteworthy about these guns, but it's a nice touch and further cements EF's desire to be different.

Unfortunately, while the attention to detail on the guns is nice, how they actually handle is less so. Aiming feels fine mostly, I suspect, thanks to the Cry Engine EF is running off, but the guns don't have any weight to them, and don't feel that fun to shoot. WW2 weapons were forged from wood and steel, made for warfare and loud as hell. Why then do all of my rifles sound and feel like cap guns, and my machine guns feel like a kid's toy? A shooter lives and dies on it's weapons, and the guns on offer in EF just aren't fun to use.

Lost Platoon

Ragdoll physics transcend warfare.

Rather then the old linear levels of FPS's past, EF's levels are wide open and give you the opportunity to sneak around. There are limited stealth tools, and occasionally sneaking can save you from a costly firefight. Or, it might if the stealth wasn't absolutely abysmal. This is not a stealth game, and should never be played as such. Most of the time I immediately abandoned stealth in favor of a proper shoot out because that was more fun and worked better. Enemy AI handle well enough, flanking around and using cover, and stealth felt like a waste of time. There's no leaning option either, something that should be included in a stealth game.

Enemy Front is a confused game, trying so hard to be the WW2 FPS games of yore while also trying so hard to be a completely different game. There are brief moments of nostalgic brilliance hearkening back to Medal of Honor or Call of Duty 2, but these are brief as you slog your way through generic enemies and boring levels. There's no denying the joy of killing Nazi scum by the dozens, but there are better, albeit older, ways of scratching that itch.


Image Sources
http://www.steamunlock.com/uploads/posts/2014-06/1402743094_enemy-front.jpg

Looking at: Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction

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그 괴팍스러운 미치광이
geu goepagseuleoun michigwang-i

http://s.pro-gmedia.com/videogamer/media/images/xbox/mercenaries/screens/mercenaries_1.jpg

Air strikes are effective, and fun as hell.

North Korea is the whacky next door neighbor of world politics. They're always getting up to something crazy, be it threatening the world largest military power, claiming they have missiles, or getting really upset about a second-rate Seth Rogan comedy. The entire county is one non-stop comedy of errors and if it weren't for the atrocities committed to their citizens they'd be an absolute laughing stock and an international joke.

Who am kidding, they are anyway.

Despite this, DPRK has rarely been represented in the world of video games. Perhaps it's because one game featured them, and did such a great job that no one else wanted to even try.

파괴의 놀이터
pagoe ui nol-iteo

http://www.the-nextlevel.com/media/xbox/mercenaries/mercenaries1.jpg

The AI will dynamically fight battles against one another, letting you join or ignore them at your discretion.

Like the title of the game suggests, you play as one of three mercenaries from Executive Operations hired to enter North Korea in the midst of a second all out Korean war. Your task is to take out General Song, the newest dictator, as well as the Deck of 52, comprising of Song's 51 lieutenants. That's really it, the plot never goes anywhere else and there's never any twists, which kind of works to the game's favor. It reinforces the idea that you are a mercenary who's only in it for the money. You don't have a personal vendetta against Song, hell you don't even know him personally until the final mission. He and his men are just objectives for you to complete, and nothing else.

That's not to say Mercenaries is devoid of story. In order to progress through each of the four chapters of the game you'll need to interact with the various factions at play in North Korea. The UN and China are the two biggest players, with the UN looking to stabilize the region and China looking to add NK as the newest Chinese province. South Korea is in play, backed by the CIA who almost certainly has ulterior motives. Finally, the Russian mob is hanging around making trouble and selling equipment to the highest bidder. All of these, plus the DPRK forces will stand in your way, and often working for one faction will displease the others.

재미와 이익을 위해 촬영

jaemiwa iig-eul wihae chwal-yeong

http://images.gameskinny.com/gameskinny/5c270d150d94e305d0d19b627477fe97.jpg

Mattias Nilsson, one of the playable character, voiced by the awesom Peter Stormare

You don't name your game "Playground of Destruction" without offering something to blow up, and sure enough there's destruction in spades to be found in Mercenaries. Every building can be leveled, ever city block reduced to ash. Battles have a huge, bombastic feel as bullets whiz past and bombs create craters in the ground. Best of all fights are largely organic, and just traveling from one location to another can spill into a huge running battle that will keep you busy.

To facilitate this endless destruction is an alarming array of weapons and vehicles. Each faction has multiple vehicles to choose from, ranging from simple jeeps and humvees, all the way to heavy tanks and armoured personnel carriers. There's also helicopters to allow you to easily traverse the bumpy terrain of NK and clear enemy positions with ease.

Also supplementing your equipment is the various support options available from the various factions. The UN or China can provide you with access to their artillery systems, allowing you to completely decimate an area with the light of a flare, while SK and the Russians provide you numerous different equipment drops for a re-arm in the field. It's unfortunate that the system for requesting these ordinance is so clunky and unintuitive, because you'll find yourself using them a lot.

Graphically Mercenaries is just another victim of that mid-2000's attempt at 3d. Like most PS2 or Xbox games it doesn't look horrible, and there are enough details to make looking at it bearable, but there's no denying that it can't even compete with games like Doom 3 or MGS 3 from the same era. Where Mercenaries does stand out is it's use of explosions and destructible terrain, both of which are masterclass and unmatched even today. Destructible terrain on that scale became what Pandemic Studios was best known for until their closure in 2009.

큰 바보 재미
keun babo jaemi

http://www.game2k.cz/data/images/games/m/mercenaries_playground_of_destruction_ps2_6.jpg

You'll sow a path of destruction in your quest for Song.

Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction isn't a life changing or genre defining game. By all account's it's a second-rate third person shooter that barely stands up to it's own contemporaries. At best it's a bizarre North Korean knock-off of the GTA franchise, albeit with slightly more explosions and slightly less swear words. Despite all of this, Mercenaries does remain as one of my more favoured games of it's type and one of the better games from the sixth gen.

There was a sequel a few years later for the next generation of consoles, but it didn't have nearly the same feel to it, and likely aided in the eventual demise of one of the better EA developers. Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction is a simple game, with a simple premise, and a shitload of explosions, and that's just fine with me.

Looking at: Doom 3

http://static.giantbomb.com/uploads/original/1/13692/927361-doom_3.jpg

Dark at the End of the Tunnel

Witness the wonders of science, until it tries to kill you.

I've mentioned how much I love the Doom games. To me they're the epitome of perfect shooters and, albeit with some modification, still a lot of fun today. But the Doom games didn't stop at two. Back before it was popular, and way before publishers fucked up naming conventions ID software decided to reboot Doom and give the original Xbox one hell of a send-off. This was, in a lot of ways, what the original Doom games were meant to be, even if we didn't realize it at the time.


Welcome to Mars City

The classic Imp, in it's natural environment.

Like the original games, Doom 3 takes place in and around Mars City, a research station located on, where else, Mars. Unlike the originals, and much to some people's dismay, Doom 3 actually has a plot to give your actions context.

You are a new marine arriving on Mars to replace part of the existing guard detail. After a short introduction you're given your PDA, a flashlight, and a mission to find a missing scientist. You find the good doctor as he's trying to send out a message, only to accidentally avoid the opening of a portal to hell. For some reason you're not immediately zombified so you, being of sound ass-kicking mind, decide to kill some demon spawn and get off station.

As you progress the story never really changes, it mostly just a barely connected string of events to lead you through Mars. You'll need to re-link radio relays, check in with the few survivors, and find security badges and audio logs, all while killing a shitload of demons. The story never goes anywhere, and there's no real twist. You know the bad guy is evil literally the first second you see him, and none of the characters ever change.

That's fine though, because if you're playing a Doom game for the plot you're doing it wrong. We're here for the sweet satisfaction of blowing apart hellspawn and, sure enough, that's here in spades.

Bloody Brilliant

Your flashlight is great for illuminating your impending demise.

Being a 2005 shooter and not a 1998 shooter, Doom 3 was rather evolved from it's predecessors. Most notably was the full 3d aiming, something the previous games sorely lacked. Not that it matters much, since most of the time you'll be spitting out lead like it was going out of business, but it is an overall smoother experience the the originals. Also, there's jumping and crouching, which are also a series first.

All of this just facilitates the shooting, which is great. Each of the guns has a distinctive and weighty feel to them that gels well with the overall experience. Particularly the shotgun, which sounds as nasty as a shotgun should, and solidifies why ID are the kings of great gaming shotguns. Not to say the other weapons don't feel great, like the vicious chainsaw, the rapid-fire machine gun, the ominous minigun, or the hilariously overpowered BFG. Best of all you can carry all of these at the same time and switch out at your leisure, something most modern FPS games have annoyingly done away with.

Of course, what good are guns if there's nothing to shoot them at. The entire roster of classic doom enemies are here, from the lowly zombie and zombified soldier, to the terrifying Cacodemon or the rocket slinging Revenant, or the towering Hell Baron. All of them rendered in horrifyingly glorious 3D and with full lighting.

All of this is thanks to the Id Tech 4 engine which, at the time, was revolutionary. It's still not a bad looking engine, especially when properly applied, and it does a great job of creating the atmosphere in Doom 3. Even better, on the PC version there's the Sikkmod, as shown in all of the screenshots here, that make Doom 3 look great.

Doomed from the Start

Try not to loose your head in the madness of Mars City.

I love Doom 3, and I loved it when it came out in '05. Strangely though, there are people that call it the worst Doom game of the bunch, save bizarre Doom .Wads. I think these people are wrong, and also kind of missing the point of Doom 3.

See, Doom 3 leans more towards horror then it's predecessors. Like I said, the game is shrouded in shadow, and you'll need to rely on your flashlight to get through. There's also jump-scares a-plenty and hidden ambushes throughout. All of this seems in contrast to the original Dooms, which had you whizzing around at the speed of light killing hordes of monsters with reckless abandon.

Except that, in their own way, the original Dooms were also horror titles. There's no denying the scary visage put on by the demons, and the feeling of dread that the sight of a zombie, let alone a Spider demon or Cyber Demon can conjure up. And the original Doom's had jump scares to, or the closest approximation to jump-scares that Doom could render. Go back and play Doom 1&2 and try counting how many times the game spawns enemies behind you after you flip a switch, you'll probably loose track.

Doom 3 isn't as good as the original Dooms, and that's fine because on it's own it's an incredibly enjoyable game. The shooting is tight, the graphics were top notch, and it's all very fun to play. It had an expansion pack that added co-op and brought back the double-shotgun, as well as a less then stellar remake a little while ago. There was also the movie, but we don't talk about that.

Doom 3 is a great game, fun to play and challenging in a way that's not found in many shooters now a days. It's a throwback to a bygone era, and forges it's own path while doing so. A remake and a sequel, and an all around fun time.

Looking at: ARMA 3

http://arma3.com/assets/img/misc/arma3_facebook.jpg

This is War

ARMA contains volumetric fog, dynamic weather, and some gorgeous vistas. 

First Person shooters are, without a doubt, one of the most genres of games available. Regardless of the platform, regardless of the subject matter, FPS games are guaranteed to sell. Series like COD, Battlefield, and Halo regularly dominate the multiplayer scene with their fast paced gameplay and tight action. So is there room for an anti-FPS? A game the eschews all the genre norms and goes in the opposite direction? There seems to be, and ARMA 3 is living proof.

ARMA 3 isn't a good shooter, nor is it a functional RPG, racing sim, open-world adventure or "hiking sim". It's a combination of all of these and more into one functional, realistic, and occasionally hilarious package. It's the cure for the common COD, and the game Battlefield wishes it could be.

Long ARMA of the M72 LAW

The battlefield is often best observed from several kilometers away.

At it's core, ARMA is nothing more then a toybox of very advanced, very lethal toys. ARMA is the grown-up version of playing army men in the school-yard during recess. It's a completely open, largely unscripted experience that just lets you do whatever you want with the tools provided. Sure, there is a straight-faced military sim here, one that demands adherence to realism, but all that sort of flied out the window when you deal with a sniper by blowing his entire building sky high, or create a giant heart out of flaming car and tank wrecks.

The base of ARMA is, like I said, a military sim, and mechanically it sticks to that with a death grip. This is a military simulation, not a FPS game. Hell, even calling ARMA a "game" seems like it undersells the serious nature of it. The realism in ARMA is absolutely staggering, with things like realistic ballistics, fifteen different movement stances, or it's intricately detailed map of the Greek islands of Altis (Lemnos) and Stratis. It goes deeper then that, down to the actual basics of gameplay, with things like item weight affecting your movement speed, which also makes you tired, which makes aiming harder. If it seems like it would factor into real life, then ARMA 3 probably has it somehow.

It does still play like a shooter, at least that's the closest approximation of what ARMA feels like. You'll still move around, aim your weapon, and pull the trigger. That's the familiar, sure. Where it starts to feel different is how you move around, how you aim your weapon, and how you pull the trigger. Everything is realistic to a fault, and it's easy to get frustrated as the game tries to adjust to being a game and being a simulation at the same time. It's hard to explain in words, but play ARMA 3, then play any other shooter and you'll understand immediately. This is not a game for shooter fans, and liking ARMA means dealing with it's many flaws.

Danger Close

ARMA 3 isn't free of some...weirdness.

Chief among these flaws, at least for me, has always been how ARMA 3 handles. The controls aren't bad, as much as they're convoluted. But everything just feels...sluggish. A lot of that has to do with two things happening at the same time:
1) The adherence to realism, meaning that walking around with 75kg of equipment will make you move slow; and
2) The game rendering your character in 3rd person, even in 1st person.
You're not just a floating head with a gun in ARMA, you're an actual character, digital flesh and all. That means you can, and likely will, trip over yourself. The simple act of moving through a door can sometimes prove challenging, and the lack of a jump command can mean that sometimes you'll get stuck in the scenery with no way out. In fact, it's really easy to absolutely brake ARMA, simply by moving around the terrain. It doesn't really know how to handle vertical movement, so the smallest drop can result in a broken leg, and falling off a building can cause you to bounce off the ground like nothing happened.

Weirdness indeed...

Like so many other simulations, ARMA 3 also tends to forgo common "fun" elements for realism sake. Death comes swiftly in ARMA, and you'll rarely know from where or why. Being a realistic game, your character can only take, at most, a couple of shots before going down, and the densely packed terrain means you'll have issues seeing your target. There's a learning curve in ARMA steeper then most other games, and it's easy to get frustrated with it after the twentieth time dying from some unknown cause.

ARMA isn't a forgiving game on your computer either. This game is a beast to run, and if you want to keep up you'll probably have to pony up for a half decent rig. My machine is no slouch, especially after my recent purchase of a high end graphics card, and I still have problems running it occasionally. ARMA is a game you can benchmark with, and it'll make your system sweat.

"Think you can hit that?" "Let's find out" BOOM

ARMA 3 has so many different ways to position your character you're head will spin.

Contrary to everything though, ARMA is still a game that you can have fun with. There's a singleplayer campaign that'll teach you the basics, and it offers enough enjoyable moments to stay fun throughout. But the real meat of ARMA is in it's modding and multiplayer suites. This is where ARMA really shines and where you'll likely find the most enjoyment.

Let's start with the modding scene. Where other games seem to be moving away from modding, or actively discouraging it, ARMA was built to be modified. It comes loaded with an editor that's both incredibly complicated and yet simple to use. With no training at all any player can easily construct simple firefights and rudimentary missions. Spend some time with it and you can build entire campaigns, or new multiplayer modes. Best of all these can be shared on Steam workshop for others. The main campaign may only last a few hours, but there are hundreds upon hundreds of downloadable missions available through the Workshop, ranging from co-op missions, a randomized campaign for constant replayability, and so many more there simply isn't time.

Multiplayer though, that's ARMA's true strength. ARMA's multiplayer offers so many different ways to play that there's bound to be something you'll like. Enjoy classic deathmatches or point-capture missions? That's here. What emergent gameplay with dynamic events? Oh yeah. Want Player-VS-AI action? yup. There's even a mode called Zeus, where one player becomes a god and can affect the game, during gameplay allowing for truly bizarre moments of unscripted madness.

The world is huge, and filled with places to visit...

That's just what's built into the game. Like it's predecessors, some of ARMA's most popular game modes are ones created by it's community. A particular favorite of mine is the Wasteland mod, splitting players into three warring factions that kill each other while scavenging for survival. This brings me to one of my favorite stories from ARMA. Me and my friend were driving around, minding our own business when we were accosted by a helicopter gunship. We managed to evade the gunship and, in a stroke of luck, we found a ground-to-air rocket launcher. We tracked the helicopter until we were in range, locked on, and took the shot. The gunship went down like stone as we laughed our asses off at our accomplishment. These types of unscripted dynamic events are what ARMA was made for.

The most fun you'll ever have with an M16

To bad it's ultimately empty.

ARMA 3 is still a hard game to actually recommend to people. On the one hand it's an incredibly fun experience, especially online with other people. On the other hand, it's a difficult to use and psychotically unfriendly game to actually play. It's better then it's predecessor for sure, and it's much more stable to boot. Bohemia are also very involved, and their roadmap for ARMA's development in the next year or so is exciting to say the least.

ARMA 3 is a game worth trying if you're tired of common shooters. It's a game worth trying if you're looking for something the feels familiar, but offers so much more. It's a game worth trying if you want to see just what that fancy new graphics card can do. Lastly, it's a game worth trying if you've ever wanted to blow up a helicopter but can't afford the rocket laucher/helicopter/ federal prison sentence. ARMA 3 is a giant toybox, filled with fun, but it's covered in jagged edges and demands you earn your fun.

Looking at: Far Cry 4

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The Late, Great, Far Cry

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One new addition is Far Cry 4's drop-in, drop-out co-op. There's also Honey Badgers. 

I mentioned in my look at the Far Cry series that Far Cry 3 was, and still is, one of my favorite shooters of all time, right up there with Doom 2 and COD: Modern Warfare. It's an incredibly enjoyable game with a huge open world, tonnes of activities to keep you busy, a well controlled upgrade system, and one of the more interesting stories in recent shooters. I've played FC3 several times now and I still enjoy every moment of it.

I also mentioned in that article how I was afraid for the Far Cry series. Ubisoft has had a recent trend of massacring it's PR, and it's shoddy handling of the once great Assassin's Creed franchise shows what can happen when they attempt to annualized a series. Far Cry 4 is, technically, the third Far Cry game in as many years, with FC3 in 2012, Blood Dragon and 2013, and now FC4 earlier this year. Thankfully Ubisoft haven't announced a new Far Cry game yet, but we'll wait and see. As for FC4? It doesn't ruin the franchise, but the seeds are certainly planted.

The Familiar

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Hunting remains largely the same, but beware enemy hunters that turn the wild life against you.

Anyone who played FC3 will be instantly familiar with FC4, mostly because they're essentially the same game. It's still an open world shooter with tonnes of activities to keep you busy, a well controlled upgrade system, and one of the more recent villains in recent history. That last one has changed a bit, and I'll explain later. There's really not much different then FC3, and this is one of the most annoying things about FC4. It's all the same,

I'd like to state right now that I didn't not hate Far Cry 4. That is to say, I sort of liked it. But I mostly liked it because, at it's best, it was just a newer, slightly better version of Far Cry 3. When Far Cry 4 was really, really good, it's because it was just apeing the things Far Cry 3 did really, really good. It was incredibly fun to unleash a wild animal on a group of unsuspecting enemies, just like it was in Far Cry 3. It was thrilling to sneak through a camp and systematically take down targets one by one, just like it was in Far Cry 3. It was a blast hunting down that dangerous animal to complete the upgrade I'd been working so hard on, just like -you get the point.

The New

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Elephants can be ridden into battle, with hilarious results.

That isn't to say Far Cry 4 is devoid of new additions. For one, it's hero, Ajay Ghale, is decidedly better at being a super soldier then Jason Brody was. This time around you start with the ability to slide, use sidearms while zip-lining, and cook grenades before throwing. He also has several new abilites that put him ahead of Brody, like the ability to fire sidearms while driving, and moving corpses out of sight. These two come pre-loaded, and don't require unlocking, which is for the best since they're both incredibly useful throughout the game.

Unlockable skills this time around are arraigned into only two trees: the Elephant, focusing on offense and syringe mixing; and the Tiger, focusing on stealth and firearms usage. Rather then unlocking once a level, you now save up unlock points and gain skills as you wish, with higher end skills costing more points. It's a nice change up, and there are enough useful skills peppered through that it's worth it. Skill acquiring has also been slightly re-worked, and I rarely found myself waiting around with unspent skill points like in FC3.

FC4 uses most of the same guns as FC3, to little surprise, but does boast a few new additions. This time around there's a designated side-arm slot specifically for one-handed weapons. While this seems annoying at first, it's purpose makes sense, especially given the ability to shoot while driving, and you quickly get used to it. Besides, it's really useful after unlocking the one-handed grenade launcher, a weapon so hilarious to use I saw little reason to ever be apart from it. There's other great new weapons, like the Autocross rapid fire silent crossbow, the .700nitro double barreled hunting rifle, or the LK-1018 lock-on rocket launcher.

 Where the weapon selection really shines is FC4's host of signature weapons. All of them require certain conditions be met, and earning a signature weapon is a great reward. There's the silent variation of the AK47, a one-handed flip-cocked version of the shotgun, a fully automatic pistol with an insane firerate, or a 400-round machine gun that never gives up. All of these are great, and working towards unlocking them is a good way to experience the world of Kyrat.

Kyrat, Land of 1000 Mountains

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Kyrat is a pleasent change from the lush Rook Islands.

An idiot once said of Far Cry 3 "Like Skyrim with guns" and while that ridiculously stupid statement meant nothing for FC3, it seems rather apt for FC4, at least as far as Kyrat is concerned. Rather then FC3's lush jungle island, Kyrat is located in the shadow of the Himalayan mountains, is a decided...far cry from Rook Islands. Kyrat is a cold, and desolate place, evoking obvious imagery of Nepal and Mongolia. There are temples scattered around, and holy sites from the local religion. It's a spiritual place, one that begs to be explored.

That is, until you try to actually explore it. Rook Islands was mostly open, and used hills sporadically to break up the terrain. Kyrat is mountainous, and allows only the occasional open field or body of water. While this is a great change, it makes traversing a real pain. I spent more time trying to figure out how to get to my destination, than actually going there. Even with the addition of a grappling hook it's annoying, since the hook is contextual as hell. Thief had the ability to deploy and use ropes at will, and that was released in 1998. Blessedly, there's still the ability to fast-travel to certain sites, and the wingsuit can be purchased only a few hours in rather then halfway through, but traversing Kyrat remains one of the more annoying parts of FC4.

The spiritual idiot, and his shrieking partner

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Like Red Dead Redemption, FC4 features dynamic events to keep the world alive.

Speaking of annoying, let's talk about FC4's plot and characters. They're terrible. Ubisoft continues to not be able to write protagonists, as Ajay Ghale's motivations are even worse then Jason Brody. As Ghale, you are sent back to Kyrat, you're homeland, to spread your mother's ashes as her final wish. Your mother was part of The Golden Path, a group of rebels attempting to overthrow the dictator. Ghale is kidnapped, and finds himself rescued by The Golden Path, then gang-pressed into becoming a super hero for them.

Here's the thing, Ghale has no reason to get involved, beyond "It's my parent's fight, so now it's my fight". It's not like he's searching for his lost parents. His father is dead, and he knew his mother his whole life, so that's not the reason. The Golden Path rescues him, then tells him if he wants to fulfill his mother's wish he'll need to fight. Except that he doesn't, because he's just a tourist, and the military has no problem with him.

SPOILER WARNING: SKIP TO THE NEXT PARAGRAPH
It's made even stupider by the "secret ending". At the beginning of the game, you're told to wait while the villian makes a phone call. If you actually wait, he comes back, you spread your mother's ashes, and you go home. The entire conflict is pointless, and Ghale has no reason to fight.

Worse then the story are it's characters. The Golden Path is led by Sabal and Amita, two people so forgettable I had to look their names up on the wiki. Sabal is a backwards thinking patriot that wants to return Kyrat to it's spiritual roots, and Amita is a business minded leader that oozes that old "I'm a woman in a man's world, so I must fight" trope so much it's annoying. Neither of these two are interesting at all, and having to choose which of them to support is like choosing math class or geography, they both suck.

Then there's the supporting cast. Longinus, the biblical minded arms dealer is probably the most interesting, just because his performance is so over the top it becomes magical. Bhadra, Amita's daughter(?) who's some sort of goddess reincarnated that's never given a back story. Willis Huntly returns for a short while to be a complete asshole American sterotype. Finally there's Yogi and Reggi, two stoner idiots that represent the worst version of drug culture, and everything they say is terrible.

Love and Hatred

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Interactions with Pagan Min's army does a good job of showing how evil they are.

Then there's the villains. There's Pagan Min and his three liutenants: Noore, Yuma and Paul. Noore is the weakest of the bunch, being the whiny curator of the ancient coliseum, but her backstory is interesting enough and her motivations make sense. Paul is an interesting character, a man that will talk with his wife and daughter about mundane "dad" stuff, while slicing a hostage's head off and feeding it to dogs. Yuma is a freaky bitch that likes to use psychological horror to scar her prisoners, and is just overall really, really scary.

Finally, there's Pagan Min. FC3's Vaas was lauded as an excellent villain, but people were upset that he didn't receive enough screen time, and was killed off halfway through. Min, however, is fantastic, a mixture of ego, violence, fashion, and delusion all rolled into one purple suit. His connection with Ajay is unique, and despite attempting to destroy him, he regularly calls Ajay just to have pleasant chats. He treats Ajay as a son, and talking with him is usually the highlight of the game. All of this is no doubt thanks to the always wonderful Troy Baker, who does a great job of bringing Min to life and making him seem evil and intriguing at the same time.


Not Far Enough

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Spiritual journeys will pit you against demons as you uncover Kyrat's past.

Far Cry 4 isn't a bad game. There's a lot to love about it. What it is, is a bad sequel, and a bad Far Cry title. One of my favorite things about the Far Cry series was how different each game was from it's predecessor. Far Cry was an ahead of it's time sci-fi 80's action flick, Far Cry 2 was a deadly serious gritty Africa simulator, and Far Cry 3 was a huge, open toybox letting you stick C4 on a pig for fun. Far Cry 4 is just Far Cry 3, tweaked and re-worked. Far Cry 4 would be a great game, probably one of the best modern shooters, if only Far Cry 3 didn't exist.

Like I said, it's not a bad game, but there are numerous bad elements to it. The story and characters are annoying, and the cutscenes unskippable. Hit-detection at long-ranges is faulty, which makes sniping a crapshoot. There are a variety of bugs, ranging from the hilarious to the annoying. The world of Kyrat is interesting, but annoying to explorer. There's an odd abundance of insta-fail stealth missions and terrible tailing missions a-la Assassin's Creed.

All of this aside, there is a great game in Far Cry 4. An incredibly open toybox waiting for you to explore and exploit it. It's just to bad that the great game is Far Cry 3.

Looking at: Insurgency

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A Counter Strike

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One of the more popular levels, that hearkens back to Counter Strike in the best way.

Right of the back I should say that I'm going to be making a lot of references to Counter Strike here. That should come as a huge surprise, seeing as how Insurgency started off much the same way Counter Strike did. Thay're both based off Half Life mods, they both focus on tactical shooting gameplay, and they're both really damn fun to play. 

Insurgency, as I mentioned, started life as a mod for Half Life that was sort of Counter Strike, by way of ARMA 2. The basic feel of CS is certainly there, it's short matches, quick deaths, and single life mean that players need to plan and work together as a team. Each team starts in their own base, and must make their way through the level, either killing the entire enemy team or accomplishing the map's objective. It's simple and familiar gameplay that a lot of gamers are pretty used to in their online shooters. 

A Different Kind of War

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Moments of explosive action punctuate periods of quiet planning.

Where Insurgency sets itself apart is it's approach. Rather then Terrorist VS Counter-Terrorist, we're thrown into the much murkier waters of the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts of the early 21st century. No team is necessarily the good guys here, with the Insurgents trying desperately to protect their homes, and the US security forces coming across as complete uncaring assholes, there to do a job and leave. This is a much darker game then Counter Strike, and while it wisely doesn't go to into detail about the various factions, you get a good sense that everyone is just trying to make it through the day. There are as many swears being put out by the game as there usually are by the players, and it's a decidedly grimmer approach than most shooters of this nature. 

The shooting itself is a very tactical affair. Like Counter Strike or ARMA, your character is incredibly vulnerable, and it's rather unlikely you'll survive more than one or two shots, regardless of where you get hit. Death comes swiftly here, and staying put for to long is a death sentence. You'll need a combination of twitch reaction time, and careful planing to win the match. Thankfully Insurgency has a few things that set it above other like-minded shooters. 

Smart Bombs

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Insurgency's weapon mod system allows you to make a mockery of classic German engineering.

First is it's controls. They're great. It's a simple layout, with everything being crowded around the WSAD keys for quick access, and everything is recognizable. What I really like is the inclusion of leaning and sliding. Leaning is a mechanic that way more shooters should use, and it's a great thing here. You'll learn to check corners, only exposing the slightest bit of yourself as you move, and the learn is wide enough to allow you to look out of corners easily, without much repositioning. As for sliding, it's something we've seen a lot in recent shooters, with appearances in Far Cry 2,3, and 4, as well as Bulletstorm, Crysis, or Dishonored. It allows you to quickly move into cover and dodge enemy fire, as well as just looking like a badass. 

The second thing Insurgency does well is it's weapons. All of the weapons are realistically modeled, and they have real weight to them. Gunfights are bombastic, crazy, and loud, and really feel authentic, especially with tracer rounds going off every once and a while. Creative Director Andrew Spearin has said the game is based off his time serving with the Canadian Military in Iraq, and I get the feeling these firefights are modeled with experience. There's a great variety to the weapons too, which changes based on faction, squad, and class. The weapons range from WWII leftovers, like the MP40 SMG, the M1A1 carbine, or the Mosin Nagat sniper rifle, all the way to modern weapons like the AK74, Beretta M9, or the M16 rifle. All of these feel and play different, and it's a good challenge trying to figure out what weapons work best. 

The third thing Insurgency does right is that it's smart. Everything about it is designed with an obvious eye for how a good shooter is played. Taking cover is intuitive, and easy. Weapon attachments have tangible uses, all of which is well explained. There's a variety of different gameplay types, each playing different from each other. The levels encourage both long range engagements, and moment-to-moment close quarters combat. The HUD is minimal, yet still provides the necessary information. Everything about Insurgency is just smart. 

The Long War

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Scopes are great, but smoke and dust will often obfuscate the levels. 

Insurgency is a classic arena shooter, the kind we rarely see these days. There's no meta-game grind going on, matches are self contained and all the content is available from the start. It's the kind of game you play at a LAN match, with a bunch of buddies in a basement somewhere just for kicks. 

In a world constantly dominated by crappy, mass produced shooters that focus on everyone being a super soldier, it's nice to comeback down to earth with a game like Insurgency. It's not quite Counter Strike, nor is it ARMA 3, and it's miles away from COD. Insurgency is a refreshingly different game, that's just familiar enough to work.