Game:

Developer: Cryptic Studios

Publisher: Atari

Available on: PC from Play, Amazon (UK Link | US Link)

Find out what we thought of the brand new MMORPG from Cryptic Studios, after the jump.

STORY: It goes without saying, fans of Star Trek will love this game. Cryptic have done a really great job at being totally inclusive with the lore. Whether you’re a fan of The Original Series, or Voyager this game will appeal to your geeky side. There’s a real Star Trek feel throughout.

Although the Romulan themed introduction is very reminiscent of JJ Abrams’ ‘Star Trek’ (2009) film, Star Trek Online is actually takes place in the same time line as all series and films, in the 25th century (approximately 30 years after Star Trek: Nemesis).

The Federation is once again at war with the Klingons (come on, how long could you see peace lasting, really?) – the Romulan home planet has been destroyed, and they’re in a state of disillusion, so you might want to stay out of their way!

The main storyline mission arc takes you through the entire Galaxy. Initially on the Klingon front, once you reach Commander you’ll venture out to the Romulan front and at Captain you’ll be in Cardassia. When you finally reach Admiral you’ll be facing the Borg themselves. Looking at these arcs I’m reminded of the ST Series in order: The Original Series facing the Klingons, The Next Generation with the Romulans, Cardassia from DS9 and finally Voyager vs the Borg. In-game it’s quite a gradual transition though and it really works. Like I said earlier, they’ve provided something for everyone. As a fan of Deep Space Nine, I couldn’t wait to board the DS9 space station! This game is so deep with lore, it’s full of boyish romances like this. The first time you get a ship that looks like the Defiant, or you take a trans-warp to Borg space.

One particular mission involves going back in time to assist the U.S.S Enterprise. Without spoiling too much, throughout the game you don’t directly get to meet any of the crew members from the original Star Trek, The next Generation, Deep Space 9 or Voyager, you do hear stories about them and possibly get involved.

Another tribute to the ST lore that pops up quite often, is the trouble with Tribbles. Anyone that’s seen an episode featuring Tribbles knows that these things self replicate at an annoying rate. In-game Tribbles give slight buffs to your character, so I tried one out. I can’t explain the surprising awesomeness of opening my inventory the next day, to find my single Tribble had multiplied into 5. Each with their own different aspects.

GAMEPLAY: One of the unique things about STO is that it takes place in both space and on the ground. These offer two completely different combat styles, and vast ranges of missions. Throughout the early levels, you gain NPC crew members for your ship. These become useful both on the land and in space, because not only do you have skill points for your own skill tree, but you also attain Bridge Officer skill points, to assign your crew with different abilities. This is a vital game mechanic – you might not become as attached to your NPCs as you would in other games, but you’ll sure as hell learn to love them for their skills.

Anyone that’s familiar with Cryptic MMOs will instantly feel comfortable during the ground combat. They have a formula that works, so they used it. It’s not the best combat system in the world – but it’s not terrible either. I found it quite enjoyable, beaming down to a planet for some ground combat every now and then – it offers a refreshing mixture of gameplay. Something different for a while. Saying that, I can see a lot of room for improvement here. One feature in particular would have took the ground combat from ‘okay’ or ‘fun every now and then’ to ‘masterpiece’ – and that would have been twitch-based combat. The ground combat is all 3rd person, and it’s actually not that dissimilar to Mass Effect (in a good way). There’s even very nearly a cover system. If Cryptic had allowed you to fire on mouse click, with real FPS/TPS twitch-combat, this game would really be on another level.

Space combat on the other hand, bodes well with traditional MMO style point-click combat. The verdict is still out on whether twitch-based combat works in space MMOs (see; Jumpgate Evolution / Black Prophecy). As you level up your character you get to chose a nice amount of skills, from a huge range of options, leaving plenty of room for unique playing styles. Ship choice is also fantastic. Within the three different classes of ships, you have a good number of ships to chose from as you level up.

Under the ST mask you can see the comfortably familiar MMORPG class system, with the three choices of Starfleet Career; Engineering officers being the tanks, Science officers similar to healers and Tactical officers managing the DPS. Your NPCs may also have different classes to yourself, so between you, you should be well balanced. Saying that, you’re not really forced into a class in this game. Just because you’re a Tactical officer, does not mean you can’t fly a Science vessel. It still works out fine. In fact, technically you could own one of each ship type, and chose style you want to play on any specific day.

Customisation has always been one of Cryptic’s strong points. Your not refined to simply choosing a character template in their games, you’re much more the designer. You can select from a number of races, or you can actually create your own. There’s no forceable reason for your character to look absolutely anything like anyone else’s. There’s also even a degree of customisation of your ships too. You can select Starfleet approved parts and mix them up, so your ship stands out a little. There’s even options to paint patterns on the hull if you so chose.

Space in this game is just so beautiful. It really is. Star Trek Online takes the view that Space is much more than a black backdrop with white specks. There are gas nebula’s and meteor clusters of all kinds, just as you’d expect. Every planet is uniquely ‘painted’, it’s all so artistic. Makes for a far better gaming experience.

Currency is a bit of a strange one in STO, since currency is not really used in the Federation, at least not in the sense that we’re used to, Cryptic had to get creative. There are energy credits, which can be spent on the Exchange (player based market system), and there are a few medals/reward currencies which can be spent at special Starfleet NPCs, primarily at space stations. All of which are earned by doing missions.

I won’t go into the mission system too much, because I mention it earlier. But another really cool little token to the very story-based mission system, is that you don’t have to physically travel to/from your mission-givers all the time, you can hail them from wherever you are. Of course, this is as it should be in a ST Universe, but compared to other MMORPGs, this is a really nice touch.

At the moment there are two playable factions in STO, there’s the Federation and the Klingon Empire. You initially start off in Starfleet, but once you reach level 6 you’ll unlock a Klingon player slot. Initially this affected the balance of Player vs Player combat, but now that the game has been out over a month, we’re seeing the player-base even out across factions. Cryptic plan to add two more playable factions in the future, the Cardassians and the Romulans. This should make for a very interesting dynamic.

PvP is very in depth in STO. A decision was made not to make the an open-PvP Universe. Whether you agree with this idea or not, the game isn’t as Care Bear oriented as you might at first suspect. There’s a PvP queue system, to jump into PvP at any time, as well as certain planets/systems that are PvP battle areas. In these PvP arenas there are different objectives; whether it be Team Deathmatch or Domination. These objective-based PvP arenas work well, but you will also receive missions in open-PvP systems, this will involve you getting on with your mission while avoiding any enemy Klingons that might be spoiling for a rumble. If you play as  Klingon in the Empire, while there are an ever growing amount of regular PvE story-arc missions, you’ll find you also level up a lot through PvP missions at the moment.

BOX SETS: STO offers a number of unlock-able in-game items. Some of which were obtain by pre-ordering, by purchasing from certain retailers, registering on the forums before a certain date, buying a lifetime account or a special edition box. This can get rather confusing for someone first buying the game. After playing for a while, I’ve come to the conclusion that the GameStop deal is actually the best bet. In this package you get:

The Uniforms are a neat touch, but the important thing here is the Red Matter Capacitor. You’d be amazed how many times this thing comes in useful during space combat. Pre-orders from GameStop also received the C-Class, traditional Enterprise ship, from The Original Series. Classic.

Saying that, I bought my copy from Play.com, and was very pleasantly surprised when I found the regular box set contains some postcard and a T-Shirt.

SOUND: STO has an unbelievably amazing score. This is one of the few games that makes me keep the music volume up loud. Even the user interface sound effects are good in this game, everything just sounds as it should, in the ST universe.

There’s also the occasional voice-over the Lenard Nimoy. His narrative takes you through the main story-arc of the game. Another nice touch for the ST fans.

LONGEVITY: When playing a new MMORPG, there’s often the feeling that the publishers have rushed the developers to release the title before it’s actually ready. The first few months usually have the vibe of an overwhelmed dev team. This is not the case with Star Trek Online. Maybe it’s because Cryptic are so accustomed to releasing MMO titles by now, I can’t say. What I can tell you is how impressed I am with the release schedule of updates. Cryptic are releasing regular patches with bug fixes and improvements (not that there are many bugs, which again is surprising for a new MMO). As you can see from the STO Release Calendar, there was a fairly big content update last week, and there’s one planned for next week too.

I think the most promising sign is that these content updates are for endgame material. They’re focusing on keeping the capped players entertained – something they’ve possibly learned from the mistakes of others in the industry (I’m reminded of Age of Conan launch troubles, among others).

With such a huge fanbase, solid game, and regular content updates, I can see STO being around for a good while.

VERDICT: A sexy graphics engine, awesome sound effects and musical score, Star Trek based lore, constant updates, planned expansions. All good signs of a great MMORPG in the making.

At the beginning, this game was looking like a 7/10. But like any MMO, you have to be a little forgiving of the first few levels to really give the game a chance. It’s hard to portray the expanse of content within just a few levels. After capping a Federation character and being well on the way to capping a character in the Klingon Empire faction, I feel I’m now capable of giving this game a proper review score that will give it justice.

Of course only time can tell how popular this game will become. The life of an MMO is unpredictable to say the least. But at launch, this game gets a very sturdy 8/10.

Ah and while we’re here, we would also like to state that in addition to the PlayStation Move Sony also unveiled the “PlayStation Move sub-controller”. Yes, you are correct. It is basically their version of the Wii’s Nunchuck.

As mentioned earlier, Sony did show off some games that will be using the PlayStation Move and although they were mostly “casual” games such as painting and fly swatting, we also got to see the Move being used in more “hardcore” titles like SOCOM 4 and LittleBigPlanet. The latter in particular looked like alot of fun and a really good use of the new controller.

It’s early days at the moment but it does look like Sony have put some thought into this little project of theirs, even if the controller itself does look rather strange. Going by what we saw at the conference the controller looks like it handles quite well and, more importantly, it seems very precise. Cynics will point out this is Sony’s way of grabbing a slice of that “casual” pie and while that is probably true, at the end of the day we can only judge the PlayStation Move on its merits and, hey, it looks pretty decent. Oh and am I the only one that couldn’t stop thinking “Wii HD” throughout the conference?!

Model:

Manufacturer: Dell

Price: ~£2,000.00

Available: Out now

Alienware have done it again with their most powerful portable gaming machine, the M17x. We recently got our hands on this gargantuan gaming machine and put it through its paces. Hit the jump and check out what we thought of the M17x.

AESTHETICS: Now let’s not mince words, this beast is absolutely gorgeous – and it is a beast – not for the weak, this laptop offers everything you’d expect from an Alienware PC. It’s a big, fat, gaming machine and we love it! The M17x weighs about the same as a small child, but it’s proud of that fact. Like a bodybuilder, the M17x shows off, with a bulky case that’s cut just right.

It’s hard to call this computer a laptop, because nobody in their right mind would use it as such. The M17x for all intents and purposes is a desktop replacement – a portable gaming pc. Don’t get me wrong because this is undoubtedly a good thing. No laptop could support the power the M17x carries, but we’ll get to that later.

The bulky-but-sexy ‘Alienware chic’ design is complemented by the crazy lighting system. I call it crazy, because the configuration is like nothing you’ve seen before – only Alienware would think to offer this amount of customisation. Not only can you adjust the colours of the badges on the back & front, the mouse trackpad, the ‘headlights’ (front fans), you can also set the keyboard to display upto 4 colours at once. So whether you’re in the mood for a rasta flag, or totally gaming blackout, the M17x can conform.

PERFORMANCE: There’s no question here about about whether the M17x can perform. This is arguably the most powerful ‘laptop’ on the market. It quite comfortably ran Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 on high graphics settings. MMORPGs with their high GPU calculations weren’t a problem either, it ran World of Warcraft and Star Trek Online like a dream.

SPECIFICATIONS: This model comes in three base colours, Black, Red or Silver.

(These are Dell’s recommended hardware specs. These can be down/upgraded on the website, price will be affected).

A couple of areas this laptop could be improved in are hard drive space and weight. The hard drive disk was kind of disappointing for a gaming computer, but I understand the weight is unavoidable – it’s a trade-off we make for the power.

VERDICT: In all honesty, the weight of the M17x is the only aspect keeping it from getting a 10/10. This is by far the best laptop I’ve ever used, nevermind gamed on. If you’re into LAN parties this could be especially useful, due to the portability. If your computer never leaves home though, you may consider getting an actual desktop PC – there may not be much difference in specs at the moment, but you do gain the option of upgradability.

If you’re looking for a new computer, and you’d appreciate some portability… Buy one! (UK Link | US Link).

Game:

Developer: Visceral Games

Publisher: Electronic Arts

Available on: Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 (reviewed on Xbox 360)

Dante’s Inferno, widely named the God of War clone, perhaps starts a little on the back foot with some members of the gaming community dismissing the game before they have even given it a fair shake. I first played Dante’s at the Eurogamer Expo 2009, just after I had played the awesome God of War III demo. To say the games were similar would be a huge understatement! I remember thinking at the time if I had been told Dante’s Inferno was a special level in God of War III and that you had been fighting as a different character, I would have wholeheartedly believed it. The controls, the enemies and game mechanics seemed identical at the time. However that whole experience was based on a couple of short sections taken from game, it would be slightly unfair to judge Dante’s Inferno based just on them. Well, now the full game is here and, with it, a chance to give a more informed verdict. Does it rise proudly from the depths of hell or is it just damned forever? Read on for the full review.

STORY: Dante’s Inferno is loosely based on the poem Divine Comedy which sees Dante, a veteran of the third crusade, return from battle to find his fathers villa torn apart and his beloved Beatrice murdered. To make things worse Dante arrives just in time to see Lucifer drag his beloveds innocent soul down to hell. The story is told using a mixture of formats with the epic moments using pre-rendered cut-scenes, the not so important moments using the in-game engine and, finally, animated scenes showing Dante’s past.

The story telling in Dante’s Inferno is certainly a strong point mainly down to the way it is told. The transition between the different ways in which the story is told is smooth and I found it to be the most unique and interesting part of the game.

GAMEPLAY: Dante’s Inferno is an action game that will see you hacking, slashing and quick timing your way through hordes of hells dark minions. For the most part the action is reasonably good but never threatens to be great.

Dante has a couple of weapons at his disposal through out the entirety of the game, the cross he carries allows him to project holy light at his enemies from ranged whilst the scythe (claimed from the cold hands of death) enables the crusader to get in close with a wide range of melee attacks. Both weapons are bound to different buttons to allow for a quick change of attack during combat to rack up the combos and finally punish or absolve Dante’s foes. Once enough beating has been dealt out executions and, in some cases, quick time events take place to add some cinematic quality to the combat. I am a fan of well placed quick time events that keep the action going but for the most part in Dante’s Inferno the events are boring and re-used far too often to thrill past the first or second time.

The cross and scythe can be upgraded through holy and unholy talent trees. The scythe is Dante’s unholy weapon of choice and therefore new attacks, combos and improvements to the scythe appear in the unholy tree, whilst all upgrades for the cross are kept on the other side in the holy tree. Dante will have many opportunities through out the game to punish or absolve his foes and in doing so gain some souls to spend on new abilities. Punishing enemies of course gives unholy souls whilst absolving souls will redeem holy souls, at first I was mixing it up giving points to both tree’s but I soon got bored of the repetitive absolving of souls as it instigated a button bash event even on the smallest of foes. For most of the game I swiftly punished my enemies to save my fingers the trouble and to get on with the game.

A good opportunity for some extra souls comes in the form of famous people from the past that pop up every now and then, seemingly waiting to be judged by the crusader. Opting for punishment will cue a quick execution sequence, where as absolving will start a sort of “rhythm” mini-game where souls must be caught as they pass through a cross. The mini-game is a nice bit of fun away from the hack and slash action but it begs the question, why not include a mini-game for punishment? Another point to note is that the talent trees have tiers which are unlocked as Dante gains experience points. You would think that the higher the tree goes up the more powerful the abilities become but didn’t seem to be the case here. I was surprised to find the abilities available higher up such as an addition to the magic pool were tame and boring compared to some of the abilities found in the first few tiers.

Another good way to improve Dante as a combatant is to equip him with relics. Dante has three slots to hold relics which are found through out the game and they can improve Dante’s ability to fight in a number of ways with some absorbing a small percentage of incoming damage whereas others reduced the amount of magic consumed on attacks.

There are a decent number of differing opponents in the game to test Dante’s skill in combat with each requiring a different approach. Smaller enemies are just plain annoying as they take far too many hits to go down whilst larger enemies seem to take just the right amount of beating before an execution can ensue. For the most part enemies can be taken down with little fuss as long as Dante is agile on his feet dashing around to avoid attacks and striking at the right time. When the action gets a little hot Dante can activate a generic God mode called “redemption” which makes the crusaders attacks unblockable for a short period of time. The redemption bar is fuelled by attacks and does take a while to fill up, so it should be used wisely. The bosses in the game offer up slightly more of a challenge with special attacks and large health pools, the battles on show aren’t always spectacular but are mostly solid. The Lust and Lucifer encounters stand out with the latter bringing a some what epic end to the game, whilst the King Minos encounter is definitely one to miss.

To break up the combat puzzle sections are included but there is nothing revolutionary here. Some of the puzzles do need a bit of thought whilst others are gauntlets against time that have players rushing but never really have them puzzled, pardon the pun!

As a whole the gameplay is solid but never really pushes the envelope, there is definitely room to improve things here.

GRAPHICS: The art style in Dante’s is definitely adult oriented with a dark theme which is expected for a game that takes part in hell. There are nine circles of hell and as a “treat” we get nine flavours of more or less the same setting. There are some stand out settings like the gummy walls of gluttony but everything else seems to have been textured using a very dark grey brush.

Dante doesn’t do too much to brighten up the game and for a lead character he looks distinctly average, more should have been done to make the crusader stand out, all he does is add to the grey.  Technically the graphics are average for this generation of consoles and no where near the beauty found in games like Unchcarted 2 and the upcoming God of War III. The pre-rendered cut-scenes offer a glimpse of what the game could have looked like but they soon disappear like Beatrice’s soul down into the circles of hell.

SOUND: The sound in the game is well presented and believable, it’s one area where the high production values are most evident.Voices match their characters well, with special mention going to John Vickery who produces a pretty good performance as Lucifer. Each descent further into hell is matched with fitting music to give scale to the world and make you feel like Dante is on an epic journey.

LONGEVITY: The game is pretty short clocking in at around 6-8 hours on an average playthrough which is roughly the standard for this type of game. EA are hoping to lengthen the life of the game with downloadable content which will offer co-op play and customisable challenge rooms. The DLC will keep fans of the game busy a little longer but only the most hardcore will find any true longevity from Dante’s Inferno.

VERDICT: Dante’s Inferno is a solid action game that tells an interesting story. The game never pushes the envelope in any respect and at times is bogged down with repetitiveness. That being said, the gameplay is solid enough and offers a decent overall experience which includes some enjoyable boss battles.

If you own a PS3 then Dante’s Inferno is a decent warm up for God of War III but for Xbox 360 owners this is as good as it gets, well for now anyway. Maybe it’s time to invest in one of those sleek black boxes?!

Pure Football will include 230 footballers (including 17 legends) and 17 international teams. Players will be able to create their own customized athlete who can progress through the campaign mode to test themselves against the world’s best. The game will also support local and online multiplayer, 4 vs 4 for the former and 1 vs 1 for the latter. At the moment Pure Football is slated in for a May 2010 release date for the Xbox 360 and PS3. Oh and Steven Gerrard will be the “cover star”.

A quick look at the launch trailer (which can be seen below) and it would appear that Ubisoft have taken some inspiration from the likes of FIFA Street and SEGA Soccer Slam, especially in terms of the art style. Let’s just hope it turns out to be a decent 5-a-side football game, something to compliment the likes of FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer.

For all your Pure Football news head on over to the PureFootballBlog, the best unofficial source on the internet. Alongside us, of course!

Check out the trailer below and, as usual, let us know what you guys think. Oh and remember, the Halo Reach multiplayer beta kicks off on May 3rd 2010!

When asked why the infamous sex scenes almost never made it into the final cut Asmussen stated “It was… a debate between me and several of the story writers. I was like, ‘I’d rather not have it in there at all”. When further quizzed as to the point of the scenes themselves Asmussen said “You asked a very fine question, and I felt sort of the same way. What is the point? If we do it, it has to have a point.”, Which makes us here at Godisageek wonder what changed between God of War 1 and 2 to warrant this crisis of conscience.

Asmussen went on to explain that in the initial God of War the sex scenes did actually serve a function (they did? we must of missed that). “In God of War, it was there to show that Kratos was a “man’s man,” It was like this guy, he gets what he wants, and you learn that right at the beginning of the game. It was a really important tool in establishing that.” (Ahh I see it all makes sense now…..no wait!).

With God of War II the developer says that the scenes were included because we the gamer loved it so much (damn straight) but as God of War III began to take shape Asmussen began to get the feeling that “It became one of these things where we’re damned if we do, and we’re damned if we don’t”.

After much thought Amussen and the team decided the scenes could stay as long as they were given some purpose or meaning in the context of the game. “We make it more than it’s been in the past, but we also give it more of a purpose,” he said. “It’s not just you going in there, finding some corner and having sex with somebody. It’s something that guides you through the story. You get information and more than just a fluff moment” (we reserve judgement).

Asked if he was worried about the message he would be delivering to female gamers he responded with “Women like sex too… ” (that they do ) and went on further to say that the women in the development team had a hand in the development of the story behind the aforementioned sex scenes.

“I definitely think about the female audience when I think about violence against females, though,” he added. “We always try to do (the sex) in a way where the woman had a choice, and we wouldn’t want to do something like a rape scene or anything like that. I get what you’re saying, but violence against women is something we definitely avoided.”

In the end not much was mentioned about what these sex mini-games would entail but we’re assured that Kratos would get the chance to get down and dirty with a Goddess as well as a couple of other lucky ladies.

Game:

Developer: Dice

Publisher: EA

Available on: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC (reviewed on PC)

After the last “proper” Battlefield game being centred on a futuristic setting (BF2142), this new entry into the franchise continues where Battlefield 2 and Battlefield: Bad Company left off. Bad Company is a much improved version of an already existing game, everything has been tweaked and improved but the true essence of Battlefield has remained intact; the character unlocks, achievements and the fantastic squad based gameplay. Read on for the full review of the beta.

GRAPHICS: This is what makes Battlefield so special, from the word go, you are immersed in an environment which feels like you are in the actual battlefield. From the juddering movement of when you run, or tracer rounds flying over your head, everything here is meant to mimic reality; only being in an actual battlefield might be more real.

When you first play, it takes some time getting used to, as there is purposeful blur to movement, explosions, but this only adds to the effect, and doesn’t take away from the game itself. What makes this game special is the way you can actually blend into the background. The artistic style and the way all the terrain can change and be moved by explosions or gunfire can help or hinder each side, and your class type uniform does that too. So being a recon is actually of use since the tree like camo outfit really does help you compared with a red beret that stands out a mile.

SOUND: You hear and feel everything, sounds are vital in this game. As your side either speaks Russian or English, it’s imperative to pay attention to where sounds and chatter are coming from, as you can use this to your advantage when locating the enemy nearby. Even when someone is behind a wall, their resupply chatter, or their cries for assistance on their in game radio-comms will give their location away.

In Battlefield, you can hear everything, every bullet that crosses your head, every explosion, every footstep, but rather than being an array of confusion, which it is at time, it’s actual one gigantic battlefield harmony, if you were to sit back and watch (or listen), just maybe you could imagine yourself at the concert hall, listening to a symphony orchestra?

Every sound has purpose, and the purpose is to benefit your side on the battlefield to win the game, so using effective headphones is imperative. It really puts you in the middle of the battlefield and the only thing left is to play.

GAMEPLAY: The core game play is almost identical to all the other Battlefield games. A map or terrain is divided into two sides, and both sides fight for control. There are different twists to make the game more interesting, like in “rush”, you can only take two points, before you unlock another two points and the battlefield move to a different area. However, generally speaking nothing has changed.

Unlike Titan mode in BF2142 which was completely different, you won’t find anything new here, just the good old fashioned two sides fighting it out.

Camping is the biggest problem in this game, or any Battlefield game for that matter. That being said, everything in this game is destructible, from the buildings to trees to vehicles to walls. So it’s actually quite a challenge to find a safe spot without getting blasted to pieces from random tank rounds or mortar fire. Also, unlike previous Battlefield games, lying prone has been removed from the game, so the best that you can do now is crouch. This is actually quite annoying if you are a seasoned veteran, however you get used to it fast and isn’t really a problem as it does make it easier to see your enemy.

The other big improvement is the spotting system, every time you see an enemy you can spot them by pressing Q. This will put an orange identifier on them for about 5 seconds so the rest of your team can see them, even if they run behind a building or try to hide. You actually get points for doing this and one of your team-mates kills that person while he’s been spotted.

Lastly a noticeable difference is that there is no health bar. When you start dying your screen starts going red with blood. This actually adds to the effect of being on the battlefield, just a shame we can’t actually feel the pain, but that is coming I’ve heard What makes this system good is that your health actually regenerates slowly, almost like it would in an MMO, so you don’t need a medic to be by your side pampering your wounds. Which makes you wonder what the point of a medic is? Apart from the benefit of chucking out tons of med packs and reviving fallen comrades, they actually have some of the meanest fully auto firepower with their light machine guns in their arsenal. It’s not as effective in close quarter FIBUA, but very deadly elsewhere.

On a sour note, getting knifed is extremely annoying and almost comedy. Sometimes you will come across a player and you will shot at least 20 rounds into his chest, and with one sweep of the knife he kills you in one go. There have been times when players have taken out five people or more, just by one-shotting with knives. Either the knife is overpowered or weapons are underpowered. A knife should be a last resort or only effective from the back as first strike, but not the “I win button” that it currently is. Makes you wonder how many knife kills the Americans actually got in Iraq, and then when you equate them to Battlefield, you will notice an inconsistency. For a game that is trying to be as realistic as possible, this is one area that needs serious improvement.

LONGEVITY: This game is designed for multiplayer, and you would be a fool to think otherwise. So regardless of the single player mode, as long as the maps are interesting enough to keep people playing, and the unlocks are useful enough to make it worthwhile levelling, then at least a couple of months for the casual player, and considerably more for the hardcore Battlefield fanatic. When you do eventually attain the highest rank, unlock all the weapons, attain all the badges and pins, and tire yourself out on every map, then there isn’t much left except for clan based games maybe?

VERDICT: Overall a welcomed improvement on the Battlefield series and fantastic taster of what is to come. Modern Warfare 2 could have some competition on its hands!

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is releases in North America today and in Europe this coming Friday (5th March). Stay tuned to GodisaGeek.com for the full review, coming soon.

The first demo footage of the feature will be available at this years Game Developers Conference later this month so keep your eyes peeled.