Well, we all had a lot of laughs on Thursday, didn’t we? We fooled a few of you, but it was all in good fun. With that out of the way, I had some time yesterday to really sink my teeth into Just Cause 2. While the demo did give me some pause, I was willing to look past my reservations and give the game a go. It turns out that second guessing myself in this instance was a good call, because so far the game has been excellent. While the story is non-existent and the voice acting borders on offensive, the freedom that the game allows you is nothing short of revolutionary.
For those of you who haven’t picked the game up yet, you’re basically dropped into a massive island playground after a couple of requisite missions and you’re left to your own devices. When I say this island is huge, I’m not exaggerating. I stole a helicopter from a mountain top military base and flew it all the way into the capital city; all told, the trip took me twenty minutes. So, with a sandbox on such a massive scale, how does the game allow you to move around so easily?
Continue reading The Freedom of Movement
Welcome to a new edition of GameCop vs LameCop vs PsychoCop. It’s about time, huh? 
Last night, I stayed up ludicrously late to beat Assassin’s Creed 2. It was one of those things where I knew I was closing in on the end of the game, and was willing to do whatever I had to in order to see the end. Fortunately for me, the game is a blast, and has easily become one of my favorites for this past year, if not one of my favorites of the generation.
It’s the New Year’s Edition of What Are You Playing, so let’s get to it.
The holidays are coming up. The games are coming out. And here we are, with all these new toys to play with. What’s more important, though, is that some of us are going to have lots of time on our hands to play them next week, due to the wonderful thing known as Thanksgiving break.
Though they might have been slightly overshadowed by the walking titan we know as Modern Warfare 2, two rather large games are making their presence known this week. One of them is a title that has had some silly controversy around it, and another is a sequel to a less than stellar but promising original IP that might turn into something more. I’m speaking of Left 4 Dead 2 and Assassin’s Creed 2, of course.
One of the more interesting parts of each fall and winter is the decision about which games are worthy of purchase, and which are more up the rental alley. And let’s be honest, there’s nothing quite like the anticipation that leads up to a release of a game that you’ve been dying for. Whether I’m attending a midnight release (which doesn’t happen so often these days), picking up a game during lunch or after work, I love the build up before a new video game.
I’ve griped about it plenty before, but I’m really not liking the places that downloadable content is headed. Sometimes it’s done well and is worth the money, like the Halo 3 maps or the Fallout 3 extra campaigns. But other times, it’s done quite poorly, such as the Prince of Persia “DLC” that is really the true ending of the game.