Battlefield holds a special place in my heart.  One which I can trace all my online gaming back to, so when I play a Battlefield game I have high expectations.  Lately I have also had some relatively high disappointments as well.  Battlefield Bad Company 2 released an online mulitplayer demo recently which allows players to play 1 map and attack and defend from each side.  There are plenty of tanks, helicopters and small vehicles to drive and lots of places to hide.

The first thing you will notice about the demo is the chaos.  I don’t know if I play MW2 too much but I feel like there is so much going on on the map that I don’t know where to begin.  I feel like the backdrop to the map also camouflages the enemies to the point where you don’t see them until they are right up on you.  The second issue I take with this game is the stiffness of the controls.  I feel like my player is on rollerskates running around on the map.  I am unable to take corners very well and it takes me 2 attempts to get into a doorway.  The weapons all start out with iron sites as well with the exception of the sniper rifle and due to the lack of smooth atmosphere I feel like shooting someone is like performing surgery.

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This Review is by HCG Member-ZANATAR

Premise – Human Covenant war prior to the Halo trilogy.

Fighting to preserve the human race from utter annihilation from an alien force known as the Covenant. Real time strategy based game designed so you can build your army and conquer.

The Good -
Good story line for the campaign with excellent quality video cut scenes. 
CO-OP campaign available for extra added fun. 
Easy to use controls.
Very fun online play with optional character use including three human and three Covenant options.
Each online race option has its own special abilities making for a more strategic setup.
Characters in the game perform just like in previous Halo games. 
Most gamerscore is easy to get. 

The Bad - 
Limited ability for building.
Buildings build one at a time on any specific build site, making it take longer to build multiple buildings. 
Limits in your view of the game.

The Ugly -

Can’t really think of anything that was bad enough to put here.

Final Thoughts – I loved this game. It’s positive qualities definitely outweighed the negative. I would recommend this game for anyone who enjoys an RTS style game.

Let’s get something out of the way. This is a game about 50 cent. If you don’t like 50 Cent’s music, G-unit, vulgarity or Gangster Shootouts, this probably isn’t the game for you. Just making that absolutely clear. If you do want to play this game, I suggest you take the same method I did and check your brain at the door, you won’t be needing it. Thinking is actually going to hurt the experience. If you think too long about a game based around 50 cent trying to chase down a skull covered in diamonds all over the Middle East, well your going to get confused and probably develop a headache.

50 didn’t get paid for his last show (apparently his music is very popular in the Middle East) and the diamond covered skull he was given for compensation was abruptly stolen. You’re going to have to help him get it back through gameplay that is easily described as Gears of War meets The Club covered in a thick layer of 50 cent. You’re playing 50 cent, you’re listening to 50 cent, and your AI or co-op partner is often heard shouting about 50 cent. “Yeeaah, Go Fiddy’”

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Sega may be back on the rebound with it’s latest Sonic The Hedgehog title.

With recent releases of Sonic games including Sonic Unleashed being relatively mediocre it’s nice to see the genre trying to improve upon itself.  Sonic and the Black Knight puts our favorite blue hedgehog in medieval times during the fantastical reign of King Arthur.  Sonic is summoned by Merlina, the daughter of Merlin, to assist in taking down the immortal and equally evil King Arthur and his loyal Knights of the Round Table.

The game consists of the same fast-paced 3-D racing seen in Sonic and the Secret Rings, instead of using the Wii-mote to control Sonic’s back and forth movement, you use the nunchuck.  With your left hand controlling his forward, backward and side to side movement your right hand is left with the Wii-mote to “sword fight”.  The game actually pulls off the sword fighting quite well, though the pace of the game can be slowed down quite a bit while engaging in battle.  The controlling of Sonic is rather straight forward and seamless.

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A lot has been said about the Flower experience for the Playstation 3.  The game itself is a downloadable title priced at $10.00 (US).  There has been debate on whether the title is actually a game or an experience but that’s not what I want to talk about with Flower. 

What I found with the Flower game/experience is that there is so much truth to the concept of Flower.  Propelled by the wind, you move petals that in turn bring life to more flowers and carry them along in the wind with the first petal.

The world in which you navigate is dark and drab.  It’s your job as the wind is to bring light and life to the environment.  The more areas that you revive, the more areas become available for you to bring life to.

Isn’t that a Christians mission?  To allow yourself to be propelled by God to bring light and life to dark and dead areas?  To collect believers and work together for the common goal of bringing more life wherever it is you travel?

It’s actually quite a simple process.  There isn’t debate, the flowers don’t try to convince each other to follow, they simply arrive and lead the rest.  By example we do this with love and light given and guided by God.

“You are the light of the world. A city located on a hill can’t be hidden. Matt 5:14

I am a sucker for a good strategy game. There is a part of me that yearns for the days of yesteryear when I spent night upon sleepless night toiling away at classics like “Shining Force” on my Sega Genesis, and later “Suikoden”, “Suikoden II” and another classic, “Vandal Hearts” on the PS One. Though I have mourned the loss of turn-based strategy games I’ve found a somewhat less exciting haven in realtime strategy gaming. I don’t play them often, and when I do it is mostly on the PC. For whatever reason it is just too difficult to design a really fun RTS for a console.

Just a couple weeks ago I was listening to a few podcasts mentioning a new game released by Capcom called “Age of Booty”, previously known by the title, “Plunder”. Having heard mention of this game over and again I decided to give the game a try one night after a short Fallout 3 session. What I intended as a short diversion turned into 3 late night hours of RTS fun.

I download a lot of demos for the 360, and most of them don’t last 10 minutes let alone spending my precious MS Points on an upgrade to the full version. If a game doesn’t grasp me quickly, it doesn’t get played. That is what makes “Call of Booty” special. Is it a perfect game? No. Is it fun and worth a look? Yes.

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Finally the PS3 has my attention.  I wasn’t a big fan of the Socom series before as I did not have a Playstation 2 however I heard some great things about the online play which prompted me to go ahead and buy Confrontation.

The Socom series could easily be compared to the Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (G.R.A.W.) series.  The game is played in the 3rd person view, soldier versus soldier combat.  The emphasis is on tactical maneuvering and working together as a team.  Socom Confrontation is an online only multiplayer game and can be downloaded via the Playstation Network or purchased at your local game store bundled with the Official Playstation bluetooth headset.

The graphics in Socom are decent, there is not much that is mind-blowing but it certainly is not sub-par either.  What is really well done is the sound and the ease of control.  Each gun sounds realistic and each shot feels as real as the sound it makes.  Socom also uses the rumble feature of the Dual Shock 3 so making the upgrade is recommended.

There are a total of 7 maps available, each map is scalable to the size of the party you are playing with.  Some game modes allow up to 16 players on each team while the comfortable games are played with 8 players on each team.  The Playstation Network does host the ranked games while a player match is hosted by the game creator.

There is also clan support which allows you to recruit and fire players in your clan and of course play clan matches.  Socom Confrontation is an exciting and addicting experience.  It certainly is a reason for gamers to buy or keep their PS3’s.  There is a good amount of lifelike military violence and a very slight amount of language. 

This game is fantastic and is highly recommended for any PS3 owner looking for a good game for their Playstation 3.

Buy/Skip/Rent:

Buy