A New Creed

A friend loaned me Assassin’s Creed 2. I had never even played the first one, but I had heard the latest one was a major improvement over the first game that was a little repetitive. So I slapped the disc in and made a brief start.



I admit, I wasn’t entirely sure what the hell was going on. The main character Desmond had some backstory revealed. I don’t even know if this was a follow on from the first game, with Desmond being the main guy from that one. I got the impression he was, but I don’t know for sure. And whilst I was mulling that over there was all this talk of Animus and Templars and Christ knows what.

The game was pretty sweet in terms of giving out Trophies though. I had done nothing but walk out of a building and sit in a chair and I had been given two bronze and a silver before the credits had even rolled!



The levels I had a go on all felt very simplistic and designed to introduce me to the world and the controls. I didn’t find the controls particularly intuitive – the basics of running and free-running and jumping all felt like stuff that was too automated, and so subject to not behaving as I intended. The fighting also felt cumbersome, too. I hope these are things that will either improve or I’ll find myself adjusting too.

In terms of gameplay I was surprised that it appeared more like Grand Theft Auto, with there being an open world and various missions opening up that I could select. I thought the game was going to be more linear than that. So I went and delivered a letter, and punched some guy that wasn’t treating my sister right, and evaded some other guys and got my end away with some chick and then I called it a night and ended my first run at the game.

I can’t say I’ve totally warmed to it – not being anywhere near as impressed as I was convinced I was going to be for such a high-profile title that garnered great reviews. I’ll stick with it, though, and see where it takes me.

Braid's End

I finally finished Braid. Well, actually, I finished it pretty early in terms of traversing the levels, but really finishing it means collecting all the puzzle pieces. That’s a lot more tougher ask, no kidding around.

I have to admit that I was eventually sent scuttling off to a guide for one or two of the puzzles that, even when I found the secret of them, I had the feeling I would have never got there anyway so I didn’t feel too bad at having crumbled.



The ending itself was as much a puzzle as the main game, with there being a sequence involved in rescuing the princess whilst being chased by a wall of fire (frustrating, but perseverance paid off) which then was reversed and looked like the princess was getting away. Then more narrative devices stepped in and some of the curious phrases made the game somehow, suddenly be linked in with the first detonation of a nuclear bomb.

Once more I went online just to see what other people had made of it and, whilst there is no real conclusive explanation (for a game that is pushing itself to be art that does make sense and is not unexpected) there is the general vibe that the game is both a personal story of this man, Tim, trying to undo the mistakes in his life thematically linked in with the invention and detonation of the nuclear bomb that since had so devastating effect on the world.



That and somewhere in the mix was a sly subversion of staple platform games, like the complete rip of Donkey Kong, as above.

Whilst I have quite enjoyed playing a game with more intelligence than usually found, I can’t also mistake the fact that it’s a novelty break rather than the type of game I would like to play constantly. That the game was short and cheap also pitched it just about right. A full price title as confounding and pretentious as Braid isn’t something I am quite prepared to divest my time for, just yet. But, for a change, it made a nice diversion.

Puzzles To Unweave

Intrigue finally got the better of me and I took the plunge and bought the PSN game Braid. Having heard that it was a platform game that used the manipulation of time to wreak twisted puzzles, and that it was potentially elevated to a highbrow enough level to be considered ‘art’, I simply had to see it for myself.

And it was only £7.99.



Whilst initially simplistic-looking, with hardly the most amazing animation frame-rate for the action of its central character, Tim, there was something immediately interesting about Braid. The game starts at Level 2, for instance, and using brief paragraphs plots a tale about this guy Tim having somehow lost his ‘princess’ (the braid of the title being the bit of her hair that struck him as she turned to leave) and, seeking reparation and the capacity to undo past mistakes, the game exists as an extension of this idea, as it bestows upon the player the ability to ‘undo’ mistakes and events by reversing them, like rewinding a tape, to play them out again.

It’s this facility that is also the basis of many of the puzzles, as there are some objects, like keys, that are impervious to time manipulation and so can be obtained using reversal techniques. It writes and reads more complicated than it plays.



It certainly does have a strange captivating quality. The levels basically involve collecting jigsaw pieces that you then piece together to form a picture – once that picture is complete (is it, perhaps, a memory?) that ‘world’ is also finished, though there’s not really much stopping you from going to other worlds ahead of completing the picture.

The music is good, there’s some clever twisting of Super Mario Bros. conventions (jumping on baddies heads, the princess being in a different castle at the end of a level – all like taking those staples and twisting them into something darker, more mournful), and there’s a poignant sadness that emanates through the game that’s hard to pinpoint. Despite the plot being barely tangible I am still keen to see how it ends.

The ending might be tough to completely get to, though. The puzzles are pretty obscure at times. I managed to fully complete the first two worlds with, I thought, some genuinely amazing leaps of ingenuity and logic. I haven’t resorted to using any walkthroughs or guides, and will endeavour not to, because the joy of the game is in ultimately working out what the solutions are and wanting to high-five yourself once it pays off.

Current favourite moments were using the jigsaw picture as an actual stepping stone for the level, moving it around, and for getting to the end of a level and having to rewind the whole thing back to the start in order to beat a closing door. Very cunning, very satisfying.

Grafting

I’m in a bit of a ‘downtime’ period with games at the moment. Basically this is because Final Fantasy XIII is on the horizon, now due to be released in a month’s time. Once that baby is out I am going to be all over it, full-time. And in between now and then there’s also some extra levels, downloadable, for Resident Evil 5 that I am also excited about, that are released mid-February.

So whilst I wait for those to hit I am ‘filling in’ time with World At War and Wipeout HD. ‘Filling in’ may seem a strange way of looking at it, but there’s no question that these are both games that will be dropped in favour of other stuff, but in the meantime there’s still Trophies to be gained and levels to unlock on them.



World At War is the real challenge at the moment, as I pit myself against the Veteran skill levels. I did the first couple of levels relatively easily – eventually getting awarded the Trophy for dying 20 times at that level a lot later than I thought I would have. However, I hit a brick wall when it came to the Russian sniper level, ‘Vendetta’.



The bit where there’s a sniper in the opposite building that I had to take out just proved too tough. One shot and I am dead? Jesus. And getting a bullseye on this guy, dodging between various windows, is hard enough – but even on the odd occasion I did get a hit I was told that I’d just grazed him, or injured him, making me think that I had to shoot him a couple of times at least to get through it.

Fuck that shit. For a bronze trophy? Not worth it. I’ll just press on to other levels and attempt them and see how far I get.

Wipeout HD is similarly tough at yielding easy Trophies. I just about managed to get through every stage, competing in every competition and earning a medal in each to get a Trophy for every stage. Now I have to try and get gold in all of them to get another Trophy which, I think, I can do – since the vast majority I already managed Gold in anyway.



I did start on the Fury side of the game I had downloaded as well, though, which is similar to the regular Campaign only littered with different tracks and different events – Detonators and Eliminations and Zone Battles, which all offer a nice variation on the previous games and, on the surface, do seem slightly easier in the sense that they are based more on skill rather than the haphazard craziness of competing against the AI competitors.

Neither of these games gives up their Trophies too easily, though. I suspect getting over 50% in both games will be a fairly big ask but whilst I’ve got this downtime there’s nothing else better to do, I guess.

Although that downloadable game Braid has caught my eye. . . Can I really cram in another game now!? And what about poor old Fallout 3, languishing untouched and unfinished? The completionist in me is bitterly disappointed in how easily seduced I have been, whoring myself around all these other games in pursuit of thrills and Trophies!

Liberation

So I finally got around to actually completing World At War! I say ‘finally’, when I’ve only had the game for just over a week! Yet having been mixing it up with co-op (online and local) I had been doing it piece by piece rather than my usual concerted, focused effort.

I was pleased that the last mission was given over to the Russian storyline. I fully expected the last level to be with Private Miller and the U.S. side of the war in Japan, but instead I was in the heart of Berlin, overthrowing the Reichstag. I thought the last level was pretty tough, particularly on the steps outside the Reichstag against a seemingly endless tide of soldiers and no clear means of advancing.



Still, eventually, I made it through and planted the flag and saw the end credits roll. And also got awarded a couple more Trophies, too. I have been pretty good at getting those along the way, as well – for the side missions like saving Roebuck, or shooting out the lights on ships in the nicely-done fighter plane level, ‘Black Cats’.

There are other challenges to go at, that I will be going at, though I still seriously doubt that I’ll ever make it through the whole game at Veteran level. And I note that many of the Trophies are only available if you buy the extra map packs – but at an extra £19.99 for the whole bundle (which is more than I paid for the game!) it’s a bit steep. I could buy a couple of whole new games for that from PSN, or from the Platinum range on disc!

Getting Along With Others

The more time I spend with World At War the more I appreciate and enjoy it. Perhaps the biggest hurdle I previously had was in comparing it to Modern Warfare, when it’s really an unfair comparison as it’s a different beast. It just took some co-op to show me the light.



I did play more co-op campaign with Mrs. Comet. She’s not as keen on this as she was the Spec Ops mode in Modern Warfare 2, but she’s holding her own some of the time. However, when she had gone to bed I decided I would try the online co-op and see how it was, and this took me by surprise. Getting into a game with three other people, and set loose on the campaign levels, it all made a lot more sense. Those open battlefields, and long slogs through multiple enemies that I had endured in Solo mode suddenly became headlong rushes into the fray.

Four times the firepower, and with each of us able to flank or provide covering fire as the others progressed, short work was made of levels that previously took a lot of effort when playing alone. (Certainly highlights how ineffectual the non-player allies are in the normal game!)



It was great fun. I played more levels than I expected and started getting rewards and awards and levelling up. I definitely prefer online co-op modes in general. I hope more games place more emphasis on this style of game, which I think they will.

I still need to go ahead and finish the game on my own, though! I still haven’t even done that!

World Warrior

So I've had Call Of Duty: World At War to take a good run at. Strangely, my brother-in-law was around the house when I put the game on and, since he already knew the game, he steered me towards the Nazi Zombies mode where we had a game of that together.



It was a fun addition to the main game that may, or may not, grab a hold of me a little tighter the more experience I get. The fact that it never ends doesn't immediately appeal to me, but maybe that will turn out to be an unknown joy. We'll see. In the meantime I got on with getting on with the main game, and the first thought that occurred to me was that this was BRUTAL. Seeing my friend get battered, get burned with a cigarette and then have his throat cut was a rather intense opening, so I was pleased to get a gun in my hand and get out there and kill some Japanese!



Problematically I kept comparing this game to the Modern Warfare games, and what was different about it and what I didn't like. The open battle spaces and the lack of clarity around missions was annoying - but then I have found similar thoughts creeping in when I have played the other games and it invariably irons itself out once you get used to what you're doing.

The game took itself up a notch with the beach landing, something of a staple of the WWII genre since Saving Private Ryan, this was a daunting opening from the foamy sea onto the bullet-strewn beach and very well done.



One thing the game does very well is generate the chaos of war. However, early criticism was in how easy it was to see the 'joins' of the game - soldiers standing around waiting for me to push towards the enemy before they were triggered into action. The artifice is apparent and ruins the immersion. Infinite spawning soldiers until I progressed to a particular point and cleared the area. The Modern Warfare games occasionally had similar elements, but they seemed more apparent here.

There was a surprise rounding off of my first gaming session, when after all kinds of battles and explosions the plot took a different tone as it went over to Russia. Myself and this injured sniper, working our way through the desolated streets, surviving and picking off enemies to complete an assassination was a more 'dramatic' and structured level that was a lot more gripping than what had gone on before.



The sniper assassination was bloody hard, though! The scope seeming to wobble and veer around whilst I'd tried to work out who the hell I was supposed to be taking out in the first place. I think it was as much luck than skill that saw me clip the guy and make a run for the river as the place exploded around me. Still, job done. I called it quits there for the night, impressed enough to consider it a game I might get a lot out of.

Wiping Out

I’ve been spending my gaming time (whilst I wait for what seems like forever for Call Of Duty: World At War to arrive) playing Wipeout HD. Even on novice level, I am now reaching the stages where my skills are starting to be stretched. Although really it comes down to one particular course – Sebenco Climb – which is proving to be a real pain at getting right.

About halfway through the stages, there’s a race on that particular course that I have been unable to get a gold medal for. Every other race, tournament, speed lap and time trial and the rest have all been done to gold standard, so it’s a bit of annoyance.

Practice will get me there, I am sure. I am still experimenting with the right vehicles for the right courses, but mostly still enjoying myself. Meantime I was dipping into the Racebox to play Zones and Eliminators and other various courses - I even did 99 Speed Laps to get a Silver Trophy!

Bejeweled Wipeout

In a surprising, and unpredicted, twist I went and bought some games from the Playstation Network. The first was Bejeweled 2. Mrs. Comet and I have both spent many an hour playing the 1-minute version of the game on Facebook and for a few quid I figured the game might be an interesting diversion to have the full works for.

It didn’t escape my attention that it also had a little Trophy pack along with it, which certainly sweetened the deal!



The game was as I expected, with the Puzzle Mode section being the only surprising and interesting addition. The fact that you can hint your way through any difficult ones does somewhat alleviate the challenge, mind – but the Action game is also pretty challenging in itself. The game is there now, anyway – easy to access and affording a mild diversion. It might keep Mrs. Comet happy anyway – although it might also prevent me from time with the PS3, too! Time that I could be spending on. . .



Wipeout HD, which I splurged out on and bought from PSN, including the extra Fury Pack. I do like a good racer, and Wipeout HD reminds me a bit of the PS2 game Jak X, being both an extravagant and fast racer with weapons, but also including different game styles and challenges to work through to progress.

Time Trials and Speed Laps certainly appeal to me, and the weirdly-hypnotic Zone games (where you can’t stop accelerating and each lap increases the speed as you try and survive as long as you can) are very enjoyable. Thankfully the controls were easy to pick up, but probably hard to master – again, something that appeals.

I did take my rudimentary skills and basic experience online to see how it was. The online racing was quickly handled to get you straight into the action, which I liked. And though I got absolutely trounced (sometimes even getting lapped!) I still had a good time. Now I’ve tried it and seen it I’ll leave it alone until I improve – then I’ll show them what I am made of!

End Of War

I saw to the end of Modern Warfare in a fair old slog of a session and had a pretty good time with it. There was nothing quite as knockout as the Chernobyl levels, but there was still a lot of great daring-do and sieges and assaults to keep things spectacular and lively.

Something Modern Warfare did better than its sequel was create that sense of belonging to the group you are fighting with – Price and Gaz and the other guys became familiar names and allies in the frenzy of bullets and bombs and that feeling of being part of something, of being an important figure in the unit, really got conveyed.



The plot was less blockbuster than the sequel, but still felt cinematic and more dynamic. The last assault on the nuclear facility was exciting stuff – particularly when the countdown before detonation kicked in. And the ending car chase was spectacular, and the climax on the collapsing bridge gruelling. Price desperately sliding the gun over as a last gasp attempt to win the day totally nailed the spirit of his character, and also made me appreciate the significance of Soap remarking “This belongs to you, sir” when he handed the gun over in Modern Warfare 2 as they were re-united.



So my forays into Modern Warfare seem to be at a close – aside from whatever online action, or Tropy attempts I make, I have seen and done the lot. War isn’t quite over for me, though. . . I spotted Call Of Duty: World At War was cheap enough to warrant a purchase and I’ve got it ordered. WWII beckons!

Now A Veteran

Quick note to state/brag that I finally finished Modern Warfare 2 on Veteran mode. I thought it would have been tougher, but I actually rattled through the last two levels pretty bloody quickly.

The section in the Afghanistan caves was one I was dreading but it turned out to be a lot easier than I anticipated. I'm not saying it was easy, just easier! Hanging back picking off the majority from a decent vantage point, and then flanking the shield guys or lobbing over a grenade. It all worked beautifully.

The last dash boat race chase after Shepherd was pretty tough going, mind. But once that was done the last scrap (brilliantly dramatic stuff) was as easy on Veteran as it was on Recruit.



So that was that. A couple of Trophies earned and, more importantly, a genuine sense of achievement. I'll no doubt go back through the game on an easier level, this time hunting out more items of intelligence that I need to collect, but otherwise my focus now turns to the first Modern Warfare, to see how the prequel plays out. Hooah!

Almost A Veteran

The long, hard slog through ‘Veteran’ mode of Modern Warfare 2 continues, and now I am within touching distance of the finish line with just one more proper shootout level and the climactic final confrontation. I happen to remember that this last level was a bit of a bitch just on ‘Recruit’ level, though, so I know it’s not going to be a walk in the park.

Christ, ‘Veteran’ level has not at all been a walk in the park! It basically involved dying a lot, trying to get to the next checkpoint, and then struggling through some nightmare scenario to get to the next checkpoint, and so on.

I had a bad time with the latest two levels I got through. First was the level at the safehouse, where protecting a computer whilst information got downloaded was a horrendous section – as was the subsequent flight from the safehouse to the perceived rendezvous with a rescue helicopter.



(That this level was capped off by the shocking reveal of a betrayal by a senior officer was brilliantly done. Seeing it unfurl again I was actually a little moved – the reaction of the character Ghost, when he realises what’s happening just a fraction too late, has actually stayed with me. And the chilling payoff as my character’s body is dumped in a pit and burned was brilliantly effective. Some games have the power to dazzle, and shock, and intensely scare – but I can’t recall a cutscene holding so much power.)

The level after this was even worse, mind. The run through the airfield, through a warzone of battling sides, any of which would happily train their guns on me. Now that was a fucking bitch to get through.



I don’t ever want to re-visit it again on ‘Veteran’ level. In fact, I don’t think I’ll ever attempt the game again at this level – though its brevity and dramatic impact will probably mean I might just kick back and play it through at an easier level for the joy of it. I’ve thought similar things about Uncharted 2, but Modern Warfare 2 is probably possible to be done all in one sitting.

War Rages On

I’m battling on two fronts now, with both Modern Warfare and Modern Warfare 2 on the go. The first game I have now taken to the point of nuclear attack – where my guy was involved in a daring shock and awe assault on a Middle East city only for them to set off a nuclear detonation that could not be escaped.



I had heard about this sequence prior to playing the game, such was its infamy. Where you are forced, as a player, to wake up in the wrecked helicopter and crawl to the outside where the giant mushroom cloud and ghastly silence await. There you can but crawl on the floor a bit, breathing in the toxic wind, until finally your character collapses and is pronounced dead. Point is: There’s no escaping a nuclear blast.

Again, Modern Warfare has shown itself to be rather classy at delivering genuinely impacting moments such as this, which certainly lend the game a lot more heft. It still has some annoying battle sections (it seems to take a lot more bullets than it ought to for an enemy to die!) but I am totally engaged and actually taking my time with it, rather than rushing through, to try and appreciate it more.

Elsewhere, on Modern Warfare 2 it’s been getting tough. But then it needs to get tough for me to earn some Trophies. Mrs. Comet and I finally managed to get the ‘Echo’ sections of Special Ops unlocked, and made an attempt at each of the three missions there. We didn’t make it through any of them. Those bloody Juggernauts!



I think we can make the last mission, though. We did take out ten Juggernauts before it all went tits up, so I’ve got hope there. Meanwhile I have taken on the ‘Veteran’ level of the Campaign game – spurred on by the fact you get silver trophies every level or so. You have to bloody earn them, mind. The Favelas and the Gulag sections stand out as being ultra tough, but I did manage to get through.



The thought that I may actually get through the entire game at the hardest difficulty the game has feels like a long way off – there’s a lot of hard shit between me and the finish, I know – but the luxury of generous checkpoints make it seem not completely impossible. It’ll certainly keep me busy for the time being trying.

Older Modern Warfaring

So my copy of Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare arrived and, late in the evening, I slipped the disc in and got stuck in. Having completed Modern Warfare 2 recently it was odd to go back to the original, seeing some of these familiar characters and their origins - but mostly the old game slipped on like an familiar glove as the controls were the same and there was little difference in the quality of the graphics and sound. (Barring the compass direction control, rather than the distance point the sequel uses to steer the player to goal points, which was a definite improvement.)

I was very impressed by the beginning. The opening level on the ship, boarding and attacking, taking the intelligence and then making a run for it as the thing began to sink was terrifically engaging.

And that this was then followed up by the credit sequence where you, as some captured middle-east president, were driven through streets where militia were violently taking over before 'you' were executed on camera was startling and brilliant. Best credit sequence in a game by far! And this was further succeeded by a rescue mission for Nikolai (who I recall features in the sequel) which took place in Night Vision.



Night Vision in the sequel is barely used at all, so this felt fresh and exciting. So there was much to be positive about, but then I do have some gripes. The marine missions were less enthralling. These were more scattered and frustrating than the firefights I was accustomed to in the sequel. Clearly the sequel learned how to structure the warzones and attack formations - in this original I found myself caught out and shot to bits because I wasn't clear about what I was supposed to be doing, or where I was supposed to be doing it.

I guess you could argue it conveys the chaos of war!

I rounded this first session off in a helicopter, in the 'Death From Above' chapter that was familiar to me from playing a similar version of this level in the Special Ops mode in Modern Warfare 2.



There was a fun and almost gleeful nastiness about this, from the commentary of the guys pleased and impressed scoring big hits and killing many enemies in direct hits. I definitely get the impression Modern Warfare has a bit of political bite and satire about it that I didn't feel existed in the more blockbuster, powerhouse sequel.

It still bugs me that even this Game Of The Year Edition (I don't know how it differs from the original version) doesn't have Trophies though!

War Trophies

On the Trophy front Modern Warfare 2 is going pretty well for me. There’s a lot of easy-unlockable stuff you get for just working through the game, which I did on an easy level. There are Trophies to be earned for getting through the thing on harder levels which I have not yet done, but I am sure I will get around to it.

Trophes for some of the more skilled techniques have also been well-completed. Stuff like getting through the ‘Cliffhanger’ level without being spotted or killing anyone, or sneaking up on someone and killing them without knowing, or killing a bunch of rappelling enemies in one hit. . . I’ve done all that kind of stuff, which is pleasing.

Better yet, Mrs. Comet and I have acquitted ourselves some more to the Special Ops and, whilst I still haven’t unlocked all the levels, we have made some good progress at completing the earlier levels on higher difficulties. I had to do one of the Alpha levels ('Evasion') on my own since it was easier than having someone else trailing along and trying to synchronise sniping attacks with. I managed it at Veteran level though. Three stars! Get in!



I did order Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare as well. I spotted it for £17, the Game Of The Year edition as well, which I thought was too good a bargain to turn down. I did check it out, however, and learned that there are no Trophies to be acquired for this game, which is massively disappointing. I thought I would have had a nice haul to gain there but it’s not to be. Oh well. . . I guess I’ll just have to settle for the game itself turning out to be fun to play and not worry about Trophies!