Frontlines: Fuel of War

I recently rented Frontlines: Fuel of War from GameFly.  It’s a first person shooter game set in the near future where the Western Coalition (US/EU) are fighting Red Star Alliance (Russia/China) for the last few oilfields on Earth.

The graphics for this game were well done, but still had some serious glitches.  There were times where I see bad guys (and vehicles) just pop into the environment.  I also noticed a number of guys, vehicles, weapons, etc. just hanging in space.

Another glitch which doesn’t fall under the graphic area is that I captured a checkpoint in the game and then fell through the world.  I fell into some black hole and my character died. It was a little annoying, but I started right at the checkpoint I had just captured.

The game play was fun and easy to pick up.  There were some other neat weapons that you got to play with like flying and ground drones.  Both of these drones allowed you to stay safe and attack the enemy.

The game was easy, probably a little too easy.  I died at least once on each level, but never had problems finishing the level.  I played through on the normal difficulty setting and was amazed that there was an easier setting. There was also a more difficult setting, but I did not play that one.

I enjoyed the game.  It was a fast game to play through.  It was probably about 6 -7 hours worth of playtime for the single player campaign.  There was a multi-player which I did not play.

The game attempts to be (from what I can tell) Call of Duty 4 and falls short.  There are some alternate weapons which make up for the glitches and other short comings.  I give Frontlines: Fuel of War a 7/10.  It’s a rental, not a purchase.

give up

I am giving up on Mass Effect.  

I went to play it the other night and immediately got frustrated with the battle controls. I sat there trying to decide if I should try again or move onto a new game (Grand Theft Auto IV).  I decided to toss in the towel on Mass Effect.  

I may come back to it in the future. But for now, I am moving onto something else. 

*Click on the image for a larger version (This is bk2204’s image).

I have been playing CSI: Hard Evidence for Xbox 360.  I rented this game from GameFly.  I got it for the easy 1000 achievement points.   

The only real story in this game is that you are a new CSI tech and work with the other CSI techs from the show.  You solve a series of five crimes.   The cases are not difficult to solve.  As long as you take your time (or follow a guide - like I did), they are a piece of cake. 

There isn’t much to the gameplay.  You basically move the cursor around the screen (with a controller) and click on things.  It plays much more like a PC game than an Xbox 360 game.  I wish they would have tried to make this better (maybe auto-aiming to some of the discussion options).  

CSI: Hard Evidence: Screenshot

The graphics are awful (just look at the images here).  I don’t think that they even tried.  The male CSI cast members look almost like the real people.  The female cast members don’t look anything like the real actresses.  I had no idea who Sara Sidle was until she started speaking. 

This is a very slow-paced game.  There is a lot of going back and forth from one scene to another.  They also used the same locations in a few instances (The Luxury Suite was used in two cases).  I was just thankful that I could skip some of the pointless cut scenes.  

For this game, I used a guide (Game Pressure CSI: Hard Evidence Game Guide).  Yeah, I used it.  Since I only rented the game for the achievement points, I was only interested in finishing the game.  I still followed the story (and found the evidence myself), but I used the guide to make sure that I stayed on task and finished quickly.

CSI: Hard Evidence: Screenshot

The achievements for this game are also stupid.  You get a 200 point achievement for finishing each case.  You don’t have to find all of the evidence, or the insects, etc… You just need to finish the case.  They could have made achievements for finishing each case, finding all of the evidence for each case, finding the insects for each case, not using any hints, etc… To me, the development team added achievements as an afterthought (and only because they are required on all Xbox 360 games). 

There is no co-op or multiplayer play.  That just wouldn’t make sense. 

I have not finished this game yet.  I hope to start (and finish) the final case tonight.  I was able to complete a case a night for the past four nights.  I want to finish the game and mail it back to GameFly. I also want to get back to Grand Theft Auto IV (or Mass Effect). 

I would only recommend this game for getting the achievement points.  The graphics are awful, the gameplay is slow and tedious.  The cases are not difficult to solve at all.  Don’t buy this game, if you want to play it, rent it.

I give the game a 4/10. 

* Click on the images above for larger versions.

Grand Theft Auto IV

Grand Theft Auto IV came out today.  

I just picked up my copy.  The guy at GameStop told me that he was completely sold out (for walk-ins).  I didn’t believe him until two other people walked in (who didn’t reserve it) and were denied.  

I originally wasn’t going to get this game, but I caved in.    I have really gotten into the Sandbox games like Crackdown, Assassin’s Creed, and Viva Piñata. I kept hearing that this game has a great story. 

I just hope that I do not feel let down.  I had great expectations for Army of Two and was really let down (except for playing co-op with Brad).  GTA IV has (2 - 4 person) co-op in it.  Maybe if the game is really good, Brad (or Lee or Dave) will get it and we can play together. 

Assassin's Creed on Xbox 360

Ugh.  I am so annoyed with Assassin’s Creed right now.  

I went through the Assassin’s Creed Interactive Maps to try to find all of the templars (all 60 of them).  I’ve managed to find 59 of them.  I must have missed one or thought that I got one and didn’t.  Now, I need to head back and go through them all over again.  

The last time, it took me a few days to do this.  I am not looking forward to doing it again, but I am so close.  I know that I am going to go through the entire map again (until I find the last one). 

All of this for a 40 freakin’ achievement points.