Rational Geekery

This week I’ve finished two of the autumn’s hottest games.

Gears of War 2 and Far Cry 2 - both sequels to hugely popular games of which I was a big fan.

GOW2 improves on every aspect of the original. Additional weapons and tweaks add greatly to the gameplay.

The campaign is longer, prettier and scarier. My bro-in-law - a huge, huge Gears fan - claims that the franchise has moved into the survival horror genre, with scenes of brutality, gore, and torture. I think he has a point.

The combat is sublime, with the Lancer (the game’s primary assault rifle) feeling more precise and powerful. Of the new weapons, my current favourite is the Mulcher, which is capable of tearing through waves of Locusts.

Indeed, if “waves” of enemies is your bag, you can join up with pals (online or splitscreen) and take on up to 50 waves of increasingly brutal Locusts in a new game mode called Hoard. Along with the improved multiplayer system, the fantastic campaign and Hoard, Gears 2 makes for an outstanding game. 10/10

I’ve played much more Far Cry 2 than Gears, simply because the campaign is h.u.g.e.

Spanning over 20km of jungle, river, dessert and townships, the game plays rather like a mixture of the first Far Cry (think crawling through the beautifully rendered undergrowth and jumping out on unsuspecting goons), and Grand Theft Auto Four (think “sandbox gameplay” and lots of missions, side-missions, and travelling).

The combat is a little loose. But you soon get used to mixing it up a little, with rifles, machine guns, rocket launchers, mortars, silenced pistols, RPGs and the famous machete.

A couple of noticeable improvements from the first game (which, incidentally, is developed by an entirely new team): No longer are you the charisma-less Jack Carver, and no longer is the game marred by the pointless mutant “Trigens”, who ruined the first game for me.

This time you’re a mercenary in an unnamed African state (Congo?). You play both sides of the civil war in an attempt to locate and kill a notorious arms dealer. The story is one of greed, desperation and double-crossing bastards.

It’s a joy, if not quite the killer title that Gears proved to be. 9/10

BTW. Both games have stunning graphics and sound. Tomorrow I’ll get chance to play Call of Duty 5, so I’ll be able to decide which has the more impressive visuals. The style and ambition of Gears trumps FC2, which is somewhat let down by pop-up and poor texture definition. That said, FC2’s use of lighting and weather effects have to be seen to be believed.

Currently enjoying (XBOX 360)::

Far Cry 2 - 8/10

Gears of War 2 - 10/10

Call of Duty Demo - 8/10, looking forward to trying out the campaign in Co-op. Will have to wait until Xmas. Have to leave some things to Santa.

Left 4 Dead - TBA (only just downloaded, but look sharp)

My boy is playing through the demo of Rare’s Banjo Kazooie on the 360.

I loved this game on the N64. The graphics and the game-play were sublime.

I haven’t played this version but again, the game looks absolutely gorgeous.

Also the Call of Duty 5 BETA is available for all to download from XBOX marketplace (prior to this it was invite-only), and it’s pretty sweet.

Whatever is left of the government’s reputation for protecting data took another hit today as news broke that a memory stick, containing the usernames and passwords for a key government IT system, has been found in a pub carpark.

From The Guardian ::

The Mail on Sunday said ministers had ordered the emergency shutdown of the Gateway website - which covers anything from tax returns to parking tickets - while experts checked to ensure people’s private details were not compromised.

The loss of the memory stick is another embarrassment for the government in a long series of data mishandling incidents which began with the loss of the entire child benefit database.

Members of the public can register on Gateway to access hundreds of government services including self-assessment tax returns, pension entitlements and child benefits.

The key reason the government proposed the National ID Card scheme in 2005, was to unify the major IT systems (forget counter-terrorism, that’s a red-herring and the cards would do little or nothing to help agents track suspected terrorists). This would mean that if a civil servant were to lose his/her logins, or - heavens forbid - goes rogue, all your data could be harvested.

Hmmm….

On Vodafone.

The Carphone Warehouse has the pricing up for Pay-As-You-Go iPhones. Prices start at £349.99 for the 8GB, with a £10 top-up each month giving you 500 free minutes.

Unlimited data is quoted, with the usual “excessive usage” caveat.

I just picked up The Wire*, Series 5 on DVD from Woolworths for £25 in store.

Online (at Woolworths) it’s £24.90 + free delivery.

At Amazon it’s £27.98.

At Play.Com it’s £27.99.

Well done Woolies. I always check Woolworths for special offers, but never really considered them for new releases. My Bad. I saw some great DVD deals in store (especially TV boxsets), although the game prices were much less competitive.

*BTW The Wire is absolutely awesome, so if you haven’t seen it - GET TO IT!

These Star Wars games always promise a great deal, which gets geeks such as myself all moist and jittery, only to let us down at the last minute.

To be honest The Force Unleashed is about as good as could be expected. 3rd-person adventure games are - with a few notable exceptions - usually pretty drab compared to a thundering FPS or sports sim. TFU does have an interesting storyline (you’re a Sith apprentice working for Vader) and the combat isn’t that bad. You have the usual ’saber mechanic, but also various force powers such as that crazy lightning that so crippled Luke in Return of the Jedi.

However, while the game is well executed, it still fails to engage. Maybe it’s me, but I don’t feel part of the action in a 3rd-person perspective shooter. Gears of War gets around this with over-the-shoulder zoom and the incredible cover-mechanic, and GTA4 delivered because it was just so much fun, but in the main these sorts of games just wash over me without ever really pulling me in. It’s a shame really, because I was a huge fan of Tomb Raider 1 & 2.

I had a quick play of the Mercenaries 2 demo on the 360.

As best I’d say it looks like a beefed up GTA4, without any of the narrative invention or humour. It’s a sandbox 3rd-person shooter that’s seems to have taken the Pepsi Max ads a little too seriously. The mechanics are clumsy and the targeting is rubbish. All style, no substance.

A very average title I won’t be buying.