Mafia 2 review

While Mafia 2 came out a while ago I have only recently got to play it and what a game, I could not stop playing it. I am reviewing the Pc version so if you had any problems with other platforms you won’t find them in my review.

The story of mafia 2 is very good it follows an Italian called Vito Scaletta who moved to America as a child, he quickly becomes involved with crime with his friend Joe and is soon arrested and sent to the war which features as the games combat tutorial. After that Vito gets involved with the Italian Mafia and takes part in various mafia tasks, and that’s all I am saying.

The graphics I found were very good even when I had to turn the settings down 2K have brilliantly modelled the huge variety of cars, it’s a pity that there is no cockpit view but you can’t have everything and the crashes have a real punch to them.

Another great thing about mafia 2 is the sound especially the voice acting which is superb all the characters sound believable and while there are only three radio stations there is a wide variety of period songs and news broadcasts hailing the arrival of take away restaurants and the Credit card. The guns also sound great.

The fighting system is solid and acts like a cover shooter, while you can’t blind fire which is annoying it works well and even on easy you will still need to regularly take cover and the fact that your health doesn’t replenish to full until you drink or eat something makes every fire fight have some consequences. The fist fighting system is alright I never got annoyed with it is just a bit basic there is a light hit and a hard hit and if you click three times there is a combo and that’s about it however most of the time you can avoid fist fights by whipping out a tommy gun and shooting them in the face.

Mafia 2 does come with some problems as there isn’t anything to do outside missions other than drive around and kill random people so the game can be over quite quickly as you will only have the missions to play not that their short. Also during missions the checkpoints are widely spread out which becomes frustrating when you have to fight the same people over and over again. And the ability to close doors in your house/apartments is a small feature and having the door push you back is kind of funny to watch.

Overall Mafia 2 is a great game and one any fan of the films such as the Godfather or the Sopranos should buy this game, 9/10. Sorry the review is late, if you have any ideas on what I could review next them please leave a comment either here or on my you tube account where you can see what is new on the blog. Next review is probably going to be either Assassins creed Brotherhood or Metro 2033 as both of them have sequels on the way.

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E3

 Assassins creed revelations

Assassin’s creed revelations at the E3 press conference were amazing with a game trailer and demo which looked fantastic. The demo is set in Constantinople and were see Ezio using his traditional weapons and also some other which I won’t spoil see the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UxiJ_D7n9Y revolutions is at about 20 mins into the vid.

More assassins creed revolutions and indeed other games coming soon.

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More assassins’ creed revelations, desmonds story:

On the assassins creed YouTube site they have released a short teaser trailer for Desmomds side of the story so we know he is in the game but we couldn’t get much out of it only that he appears trapped inside the animus mainframe which is this big futuristic area with huge white walls. Also they have released an off stage version of the E3 demo but there is no commentary which I missed from the other two demos from the previous games. You can see the videos at their YouTube assassinscreedUK

gears of war 3:

full single player demo:

If you frequently uses YouTube and watch IGN’s videos you will know that they do E3 live commentary’s where they have someone from the production team of a game and talk about it and have a look at an extended version of the demo. This is the same with gears 3 and the single player demo looks amazing.

I’m not going to give too much away but the demo is set in this city and your fighting a lambent lethiathan you will have seen in gears 2, the demo also shows some new weapons and to find out that in parts you can play as Cole or Baird which is very cool and allows you to view the story and situation from their perspective. Check out the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efYjoNaEA5c

More E3 stuff coming up including modern warfare 3 (more game demos) and Halo Anniversary (IGN live commentary). So comment and subscribe to my YouTube and twitter.

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Modern warfare :

 gameplay demo 2:

The opinions of modern warfare 3 have been divided some can’t get enough while others just say it looks the same as the others. Well another gameplay demo has been released and you can see it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSF6w6mwYes

The demo though is a shining example of what call of duty is about huge set pieces with on rail segments and a great soundtrack, in the demo I noticed some small improvements such as the ability with some weapons to change scopes on the battlefield and it doesn’t look like Crysis 2 the second scope is on the weapon. From the looks of things you will still be able to control things like predator drones similar to MW2 and much of the HUD seems unchanged.

I think that it may be time to end modern combat and travel to something a bit more unknown similar to what Black ops did maybe World War 1 or other theatres. And if you want more E3 check out these sites:

E3: http://www.e3expo.com/

IGN: http://uk.ign.com/

Halo Anniversary:

 E3 live commentary:

 

Soon the tenth anniversary of halo combat evolved will be upon us and to celebrate Bungie is releasing Halo Anniversary which is a remake of the original complain but with new graphics, to check out the Ign live commentary visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FyEB5FhA8Q

The campaign will be the same story but Bungie are hinting at similar things to other halos such as skulls and there will be online co-op, but the multiplayer is where it is changed where old maps return and some new ones are introduced.

If you have any questions or thoughts they comment and I will try to answer them.

Halo 4:

 

If you watched the ign halo 4 video you will know that while there isn’t much info on 4 we can tell that the halo series should be in good hands with 343 and that strange object in the trailer is “defiantly not human”.

Halo 4 will start between the events of halo 3 and 4. And a lot of change has gone into the game especially the chiefs suit which in the trailer has rocket boosters sort of like Isaacs in dead space 2 and the one weapons we saw which appears to be a mini grenade launcher which looks as if it will deal out a lot of pain.

Metro last light

aims to fix it:

4A games said at E3 that metro 2033 was a “flawed masterpiece” and said what they are doing to make sure last light is 50 times better than the previous game. If you want to view it in detail then go to http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/articles/117/1170829p1.html

Multiplayer will feature how 4A will do it is unknown but hopefully it will be good

KEEP WHAT WORKS:

• ·         The moody atmosphere
• ·         Still playing as Artyom
• ·         The survival horror aspect
• ·         Stealth

FIX WHAT WAS BROKEN:

• ·         Annoying stealth problems

• ·         Glitches such as getting stuck in walls

MAKE IT LOOK AMAZING:

• ·         Make it the best looking game on consoles

These are all promises and with little gameplay footage we will see if they fulfil these promises when it is released in 2012.

And that’s E3 finished while it finished on the 9^th I live in England so news is often late. I hope you enjoyed this segment and if you want to see more stuff like that maybe the game academy awards. I tried to get as much done as possible but there are still other games that I didn’t cover such as mass effect 3, battlefield 3 and much more.

Please comment on what you want covered and follow me on twitter for latest updates.

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Halo 4 releases

Its official there is going to be a halo 4 it was announced today at e3’s press conference and as far as I know will not be made by Bungie instead it will be 343 industries which if you don’t know is the internal halo studio at Microsoft. In an interview the President of the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft, Don Mattrick said that the game is the “beginning of a new trilogy” hinting at more halo games after this one. There is a trailer out now, view it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TC2yMKMENdg

However I am not sure if another trilogy is a good thing it almost feels like Lost after season 5 just stop!! And I don’t know what will be new when reach felt like they hit maximum, we will see.

If you have any questions or concerns about halo 4 please comment and I will do my best to provide an answer.

info found at IGN: http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/articles/117/1172941p1.html

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Shogun 2 total war review

The creative assembly’s total war games have gone through some turbulence with empire and Napoleon total war, but shogun 2 changes all that and puts the total war franchise back towards greatness by going back to the old ways of hand to hand combat that made the game what it is.

The basis of the game is still the same you chose a clan which at the time is relatively unknown and you build up your forces and attack rival clans to eventually become the shogun. Along the way you will use diplomacy to forge alliances and trade agreements with other clans and use espionage, while in the older games there were the annoying diplomats and princesses there are only characters such as ninjas which act as spies and assassins, the diplomacy screen can be accessed at any time and any clan can be chosen, making the pace of diplomacy faster allowing you to focus on conquering other nations.

Similar to empire and Napoleon you don’t have to just attack the stronghold of a region you can capture/ raid provinces which could be farms or ports to force your enemy out of there castle town giving you more decisions on where to battle, for example if you have an army with lots of cavalry then you might want to choose a flat area so your horses can run faster.

The graphics are amazing although you need a powerful computer to run it which is a pain, a pain for me as my quad core 64-bit operating system couldn’t hack it and had to be set to the lowest setting for it to run smoothly, even then it still looks good. The fighting looks better with proper 1 on 1 battle with choreographed movements by actual sword masters.

The sound of the game is great with authentic music that goes with the Japanese setting, and changes as the game changes from being calm and soothing during peace and then louder during war, and the voice actors are brilliant at conveying emotion and have Japanese accents which adds to the immersion.

The multi-player for total war games has been standard for the genre but now the multiplayer has been vastly improved by the inclusion of avatar conquest where you create your general and are presented with a map of japan and you chose where to fight, create your army and battle either one on one or in teams, however I didn’t get to play it much as it takes forever to find players and connect and then it can get laggy.

Overall the game is fantastic and is a must buy for any total war fan, I recommend if you are new to the franchise then buy Rome total war or medieval 2 as they are my personal favourites and are generally easier to master. My final verdict for shogun 2 total war is a 9/10 it can’t be a 10 because of some multiplayer issues and AI issues which a lot of reviewers have covered which is apparent in the early stages of the campaign where your allies just move their armies around there provinces. But it is still a must buy. If you want another good review of the game I recommend watching angry Joes at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5PIIOY2KS4

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