As I mentioned last week in the first Mashing Buttons podcast…
What’s that?
You haven’t listened to it yet!?
You should go rectify that, all the cool kids are listening to it.
…as I was saying I mentioned in the podcast that one of my favourite gaming genres right now is first person war/battle games such as Modern Warfare 2 or Killzone 2. So I’ve picked myself up a couple of other war games including Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising which I finally got around to giving a quite run last night.
The first thing that I noticed is that I’ve got a bunch of controls to get used to again. I’m not suggesting all games need to use the same control configuration but I wish we could all agree on a standard setting/configuration that can be selected to ease the transition.
The second thing that I noticed is that this game is freaking huge, compared to MW2 where you have some freedom but essentially a path to follow this is all open world so you decide how you get to your objectives. Take the high ground or crawl along the valley.
This then leads me into the fact that this feels a lot more tactical and technical. Rather than be directed by the storyline I’ve got to plan what I’m doing and command my squad. That’s all cool because I did that in SOCOM II: U.S. Navy SEALs… oh hang on? I sucked at SOCOM II! I don’t think it’s good leadership to just send your men in to die whilst you hang back.
The sound was interesting too because as you wander around the countryside the wind whistles past your ears and actually adds a lot to the atmosphere of playing.
Unfortunately for me whilst I might delight in hiding behind trees and in bushes whilst my men take out the enemy I realised that this is something that the enemy has worked out too and also spend their time hiding behind stuff. The bloody cheats!!! Actually now that I think about it I didn’t really see the enemy troops too much, upon engaging my first target I couldn’t actually see who was shooting at me which for someone more accustomed to MW2 can be quite frustrating.
I also found the getting to know your controllers and command system quite frustrating. It feels unnatural and when under enemy fire it’s not the best time to start popping up instructions.
Another irritating bit was that when you start your first mission they kick off with you closest to your third objective that I made the command decision to go have a look because you walk quite slowly. Upon reaching it there was no real instructions on what to do. I spent quite a bit of time staring at a stoopid truck with a missile on the back whilst my men wondered what I was doing.
That all being said I should point out I played for all about half an hour and most of that was spent staring at the truck and going through my commands to see if there was a blow that bloody thing up command.
There isn’t.
So our first date was at times an awkward affair but I’m not willing to write it off immediately, there was no love at first sight but we’ll do it again and I might even pay for Subways.
With those Command and Control games, it all comes down to how smart the AI is. I bought that “Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway” a few months ago and only played a bit of it. I had some of the same dramas, in that:
a. The command controls can make the controller fell a little bit cramped.
b. Just because I tell you to keep pouring fire on something, if say for example, the enemy starts coming around from the left, it might be a good idea to change you objective, but no;
c. I have to change bloody everything. It gets tiresome changing objectives in a firefight, and;
d. If I make a really dumb decision because of a control mistake, or just plain idiocy, and for example, send the entire platoon to attack a heavily fortified machine gun front on, it would be smarter for the AI to say something like “Do you really think that is wise Sarge?”, or “WTF! You can not be serious!?!” rather than, “All right chaps. Tally ho!”
e. Given the structure of the game, you seem to be able to get through it too quickly with simply outflanking everyone, and moving on. The Call of Duty single player map structure can be a little cramped, like “Why the hell can't I get around these trees and get the bastards from behind?”, at least you can randomly find yourself a little cut off and madly running around trying to stab all and sundry because you are out of ammunition, not just simply going through the motions.
f. This relates specifically to “Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway”, what the hell is it with all the cut scenes? It takes about five minutes of cut scenes just to get to the first mission, which is easy enough, and then its another cut scene. I do not care about story – Just give me a simple premise like, the Germans are evil and must be crushed – And I am on it. I don't want to see what the characters think, where they come from, and so on. I am a busy man, and I get so little XBOX time. I want to kill.
Either way. The game, like the rest of them, is back on the shelf until the end of the exam period in two months, when I might revisit it. If it still has not improved, it is going on EBay.
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Well I'm glad that your studies are at least taking precedence over your virtual killing for the time being.
Your 'D' point is an excellent although I'm sure knowing me it would backfire and my men would be questioning my orders constantly.
I will say though that the Operation Flashpoint environment is anything but cramped! You appear to have the run of the entire island so if you want to wander around the long way you are certainly welcome too (although I imagine there will be some time critical objectives further on in the game – remembering I've played about half an hour at this stage and haven't even completed the first part).
Did you play Modern Warfare on the XBox?
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