Henk van de Goor's Bloggers@large

Back on my feet again after that nasty A/H1N1 hit me. But enough of that. Thursday night I downloaded Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2. Now, I am a great fan of the previous installment of the game (Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare), but I skipped Call of Duty 5 ("World at War") as it was set again in the Second World War. COD4 to this day remains the game I play the most (multi-player). Before that I played SOF2 (Soldier of Fortune 2) almost religiously and I even was in a "clan" for a while. Anyway: the single player storyline of COD4 was is still one of the most immersive I ever played. It was is as if I was am in the game. The characters and the missions you play are great and the AI is though enough to enjoy (i.e.: no easy kills).

I didn't pay much attention to the announcement that there was going to be a sequel to COD4 MW. Last weekend however, I noticed how Usenet got flooded with posts of COD MW2. This last week I was to sick for it anyway, but Thursday night I picked out one of the pirated copies that seemed to work, downloaded it and installed it. I have been playing it (single player) for hours since then.

There is a lot of controversy around the PC version (which I will get) and it's mainly aimed at the multiplayer part. From what I gather there is a lack of dedicated servers, lack of support for matches larger than 18 players, and inability to vote towards kicking or banning cheating players immediately.

The game uses Valve's (Steam) anti-cheat system instead of PunkBuster. But - low and behold - it already got hacked the day after it came out. Which is off course one of the main reasons I don't like playing online that much as I used too. Cheating is one of the most annoying things when it comes to games.

Anyway: I love the game so far. Many twists and turns in it. One of the levels - "No Russian" - made my jaw drop. It is the only level in the single player mode you can actually skip. It - reportedly - was also cut from the Russian version of the game as it involves a very nasty terrorist attack with a twist.

If you're into spoilers, watch the video below and you'll understand what the fuss is about. Personally I didn't fire a shot in this level except when being shot at.

Conclusion: not revolutionary new gameplay, but a damn good sequel. Loads of new weapons and yet again an immersive - and controversial - storyline. I am definitely going to buy this game (just like I did with COD 4 MW). I just love the fact that I have a chance to play it first before spending my money.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2: "No Russian"

I have been playing this quite some hours now. This stuff is seriously addictive :-)

I’ve been a huge fan of the Half-Life video games series, ever since the original came out in 1998. It set some new standards in storyline and also graphics (altough it basically uses a modified Quake engine). I remeber how I hugely enjoyed the opening scene for Half-Life with its cinematic effect and how it pulled you right into the game (something I only enjoyed again when playing Call of Duty 4). Half-Life 2 expanded in this and it even had a better storyline and looked great. I always thought that it might be worth making a movie out of it (and I’m not talking about yet another Uwe Boll FUBAR movie).

So the fact that some fans decided just to do that is just great. They used simple techniques but I think the result is just cool!

Anyway, here is the video: Escape from City-17 part I:

I have been playing some great next-gen PC games lately (the biggest reason why I bought my new PC). This week I installed two games: Assassins Creed (AC) from Ubisoft, and Frontlines Fuel of War (FFW) by THQ. The games are 100% the opposite of each other. Frontlines Fuel of War is a first person shooter (FPS) set in 2024 and is mostly a Battlefield 2 clone, whereas Assassins Creed is a third-person stealth game taking place (mostly) during the time of the Third Crusade in 1191. So the contrast between the games is pretty big.

As to be expected from a 'stealth game' the emphasis lies upon finishing your missions without getting noticed. If you played any of the games from the Splinter Cell franchise, you probably know the genre. I won't bore you to death by explaining then storyline in-depth, but in this game you need to assassinate (duh!) 9 subjects. All of them in different places set in a medieval Palestine.

It took me some time to get used to the keyboard lay-out (the game is originally a console game) but I like the gameplay and - as to be expected from a DX10 game - the graphics are really stunning. Motion is fluid and it is almost as if you're watching a movie. Just look at the videos below. I would rate it at a 8,5 out of 10.

Frontlines on the other hand, is just your average FPS with lots of cool extra vehicles and options. It looks good but it isn't as cool as Assassins Creed or, to name another game in the same genre: Call of Duty 4 (COD4). I would rate it a 7,5 out of 10.

Anyway: just check out these video clips from AC:

Ok, ok, I need to stop raving about my new PC, but it is awesome and it does play games like no other PC I have owned - period. So let's talk about one of the games that I am playing at the moment; Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare or COD4 for short. Guys: this IS by far the coolest FPS game I have ever played. This game was made for me. It is fast paced, has great graphics and most important: immersive action. Playing the game is just like being in a movie: I do not kid you. I have never experienced somthing quite like it.
In this game you play several characters both from the SAS and the USMC. As such you go on several missions that are intense and really realistic.

The coolest thing is that you really feel part of the game: right at the beginning you get flown in over sea in a storm to land on a freigther ship to recover clandestine nuclear materials. The ship gets blown to pieces and starts to sink fast. You have to run for your life to get out and literally jump into the back of a heli, which you barely make. Man, that was intense!

But even more stunning is the part where you are in a helicopter, just after resqueing a female Apache chopper pilot and their is a nuclear explosion! Oh my... I have never before felt more like being in the middle of it. Just awesome!

Also unbelieveably cool is the part where you become a thermal imaging TV operator aboard an AC-130 gunship. It is just like all the cool footage you have seen on TV from the first Gulf War: you can use a gatling gun and some awesome other guns to level the area around the good guys.

In short: get this game if you really like FPS games. This is the best! Just check out the video's below and judge for yourself (all footage is in-game! I can vouch for that!).

COD4