Reviews

I just watched Tae Guk Gi… One of the few movies that ever made me cry. If you like Saving Private Ryan; only with a story – hell if you like any movie; you owe it to yourself to watch this. Rating: 9.8/10. This coming from a guy that gives movies on average 4/10.

The basic premise is that two brothers are unwillingly enlisted to fight in the Korean war. The movie follows their journey; and the decisions the older brother endures to make his younger sibling return home.

The cinematography is excellent; as are the special effects. And the plot… well… was enough to make me cry :p

When I first saw the previews for Battlefield 2; and even the ensuing reviews; I was anticipating the game to be a clone of “Desert Combat” with improved graphics. For those who don’t know, “Desert Combat” was a mod that was developped for Battlefield1942, and featured much of the same characters/weapons/vehicles/settings that are found in BF2. The mod development team eventually joined up with the original BF1942 devteam, and started work on BF2.

Well, I’m both happy and dissapointed to report that I was wrong. Happy, because this game is not the clone I anticipated it to be. It is very much distinguishable in both graphics, streamlined gameplay, and additions that were carried out. I’m also dissapointed because this game was published by EA. Also known as the “evil gaming corporation inc.”

So what’s new? We all know that the graphics are better. But like its predecessor, this title is ressource-hungry. Despite that, it works smooth (on medium settings @ 1024×768) on my Athlon2600 with GeForce6800 and 1GB RAM. The only hickups I’ve ever seen were as a result of lag. However, I do find that the default drawdistances are a little too short.

The controls are also much tighter when you’re as a soldier now. It feels like a true FPS. This is unlike beforehand, whereby the first-person mode felt like you were floating on air. That said I can still snipe someone on the other side of the map with my standard soldier rifle.

Another improvement is the streamlined communications. “Streamlined” when describing gameplay is usually a code-word for “dumbed-down”. Not so here… Whereas before one sent pre-defined voice communications through the unsightly and confusing F-Keys, its now done via a radial-contextual-menu. Easy to grasp. Quick to execute. There’s also voice-chat in the game now as well, though some servers have it disabled.

The game also features a new dynamic: heat-seaking weapons. Helicopters, planes, soldiers and SAM sites can all launch these missiles that will chase a target after having locked-on to it. The target can either evade the weapon through maneuvres, or launch countermeasures. The matching HUD locking-system and audible warnings are well done and add to the immersiveness.

Another addition is the added bonuses of being Engineer/Medic/Support. When in vehicles, the engineer will automatically slowly fix the vehicle. The medic will automatically heal anyone else in the vehicle, and the support will automatically rearm everyone. Its a nice touch.

Speaking of which: medics are much more useful this time round. So much more so that they make them a worthwhile class. As medics, you can heal yourself and others near you just by your presence, drop medical packs for others to heal instantly, and revive fallen comrades. Each time you heal/revive someone, it also counts towards your score which makes it that much better.

On that topic: the scoring system is improved. You are rewarded for having helped kill someone, even if you didn’t deliver the final blow. If you’re piloting a vehicle while your partner blasts away with the attached MG, you’re rewarded for his successes. It’s a small change that really helps the gameplay and make people behave in a more teamlike fashion and less selfishly.

You may have heard of the command mode. Each side is split up into squads (that players form themselves; and invite others into) that are commanded by a commander. Squad leaders can tell where their squad mates to go; and request supplies (medical stuff/ammo) from the commander, as well as artillery strikes and a UAV to pass over (revealing where enemies are in small area). It renders the game, for those who would want, more like a squad-based RTS. Fun!

All in all this game is a big improvement. There are downsides however. Only 16 maps. Sure, the maps are large and elaborate; but it can get repetitive. Furthermore, the menu system is extremely slow to deal with. I suspect its because they chose to have a video running in the background at all times. This makes selecting servers to play with a painful process.

Finally, you can’t skip over the beginning intro videos (Play on Nvidia! EA! Dice!). This also gets on my nerves. That said, its a fun game!

PRO: Fun Multiplayer Gameplay. Rewards teamplay.
CONS: Few maps. System hog. PAINFUL MENU SYSTEM.
FINAL SCORE: 80%

Similar Titles: UT2k4, Tribes Series, Battlefield Series.

Made by Ubisoft Romania, Silent Hunter 3 fulfills the [WW2 subsim] niche that has begged for a decent title for so long. It does virtually everything right: solid graphics, deep and dynamic strategic gameplay, RPG elements, wealth of built-in educational ressources, interesting missions, etc.

There are few sub sims out there. The last few to come to mind are “Sub Command” and “Dangerous Waters”, both from Sonalysts. Essentially the Tom Clancy’s of the gaming world: more like an anal manual than a work of fiction. They are fun, but the deep but somewhat obscure and convoluted gameplay is bound to irk most players. SH3, on the other hand, is rather simplistic and easy to pick up. The realism setting can be changed to count in additional factors, such as fuel levels etc. The graphics in this game are far superior than that of Dangerous Waters [which was just recently released], which is the saving grace for those that are more interested in Shoot-em-ups.

That said, the texturing within the game is somewhat dissapointingly of low resolution, and there are no options to change any advanced graphical options. The resolution is also fixed at 1024×768. Not too good. Furthermore, nothing is editable once in-mission. You have to exit to the main menu to do anything. The ingame sound is decent, but nothing spectacular. As ships sink to the bottom of the abyss, they emit metal-crushing sounds… which is a nice feature, but one which would of been much more appreciated if it wasn’t the same .wav file(s) all the time.

There are other niggles. The game features a “Naval Academy” to “teach you the basics”. Their idea of teaching you however comes in the form of instructions on the loading screen, leading up to simplistic missions. Once in mission, there’s nothing you can do to back-reference what was instructed. Not too good.

The gameplay is pretty good, though can get very slow at times. The game has two ways of going about: a dynamic campaign, in which you start off with one of two U-Boats, and then go from random mission to mission. This is the brunt of the game, and is well executed. You get points for accomplishments, which can be used to buy a new ship, upgrades, weapons, insignia and/or crew. Sort of the “Need For Speed Underground” of the submarine world with its modding capabilities. Cool. Crews gain experience. Very cool.

The missions are all excellent. Whatever action may lack in the dynamic campaign (and realistically so), the missions more than make up. Before you know it, you’re within a convoy of 20 merchant ships with tons of torpedos. Or, you’re running away from multiple destroyers. The action is absolutely fantastic in these tidbits: you hear the pings of the ships against your hull, depth charges blowing up around you, steam pipes blowing in your ship. It’s pretty awesome.

Details are abound. When you leave the harbour in the beginning of a mission, you notice the city behind you with all its rendered buildings. The periscope blurs up and distorts the view from the water when it is raised from a submerged state. The water effects are great: waves roll about, they reflect accurately the surroundings. The sky shifts on a 24 hour cycle. There are weather effects (rain, so forth). All your men engage in some kind of animation at all times, though I wish they seemed less plastic. The dials are all illuminated in a cool manner. There are bloom effects. The list goes on. It isn’t the prettiest game out there, but it is a very decent-looking one.

There is also a multiplayer mode via ubi.com. I have yet to try it.

Overall, I have but the highest praise for this title. It offers something that the gaming genre has somewhat lacked: deep, dynamic, engaging, strategy games. This title isn’t for the bang bang shoot-em-up types. They’ll just be bored at the very idea. But if you enjoy something a little deeper, a little slower perhaps, something that’s unique every time: go for this game.

Pros: Rewarding. Dynamic. Deep. Fun.

Cons: Tutorials (“Naval Academy”) leave alot to be desired, could use more graphical/audio variety.

Mark: 88%