Socom 4 (Playstation 3)

Socom 4 is a third person shooter from the same team that brought us the original titles on the Playstation 2, Zipper Interactive. Set in Malaysia you take command of a squad of Navy Seals with Commander Cullen Gray. On a ops mission to take out the native rebels "NAGA" and mercenary group called "Clawhammer." The story to be quite frank, is all over the map. I didn't really get into it that much or even understand what the point of the whole battle was all about. While not being as flashy or cinematic as say a Call of Duty experience, the game did have its action highlights in a more raw sense. To compare it anything, I would have to say it is more like Ghost Recon A.W. then anything. With the triangles on your squad and commands much the same as a Ghost Recon. The squad can be commanded with the d-pad and directed where to be positioned and regroup. It is not as executed as well in my opinion. There is no command to tell your squad to be silent and not shoot enemies. Half the time you end up telling them to run somewhere and someone will walk right in to your marker, making it very frustrating. Your team AI is nothing to brag about either, crossing your fire and getting in the way is a problem here. 


The enemy AI on the other hand is decent, they will flank you and spam grenade you to death in the later levels. Playing on the harder difficulties will take some patience and skill to master as enemies are very on point, and you will go down with couple shots. I have always like the more realistic approach to modern shooters were there is consequences for your actions. The game spans over 14 missions with all sorts of objectives to achieve as the commander, nothing really new here though. That is my problem with shooters there is not much really to expand when it come to objectives and narrative. A quarter of the missions you will take control of Fourty-Five, who is a stealth and recon expert. Playing as Fourty-Five does change the whole pace of the game and add some sneaking elements to the gameplay. For the most part were just trial and error missions. If you were spotted by an enemy the mission is over, you can not fight your way out. Makes sense, but on the other hand clashes with the main games style of play.


The graphics and overall presentation of Socom 4 is well done. The jungle atmosphere, while being most of the game scenery can get a little tiresome. The maps are well designed with a sense of distance and width, but for the most part are linear to the main objective. Explosions and smoke effect were awesome and brought the sense of the chaos at hand. The sound design is fantastic, well the guns at least. The guns sounds spot on and help bring the atmosphere of war together. I can't say that I even remember what the music in the game was really. Your typical war game orchestral themes you would expect to hear, but nothing that stood out to me or had me "humming" the theme at work. The chatter between the comrades is well done to bring the squad to life, and enemies would have some decent dialog too. The menu design was mediocre to say the least and kind of confusing. What was highlight as your selection to choose was way up in the top left corner and not what you think you were choosing. Just didn't make sense to me to pick a scheme like that. 


Before a mission you choose your load out. No different from any other shooter out there on the market. Pick a primary, secondary and two items for accessories. The guns unlock by picking them up in the mission and carrying in to the next, just a poor design choice really. Confusing to say the least. The guns that aren't unlocked are silhouetted upon choice and trying to remember which guns you haven't picked up can be just tedious when in the heat of battle. Each gun can level up to a maximum of 5 levels by killing the opposition offline or online. Unlocking all the way up to level 5 grants you the use of new attachments and sights. While this might seem standard in a shooter, it is not rewarding at all when I can just plow through the game and not even need any of that. Intel can be found in each map as a collectible, but we have all seen this before in these type of games. The Tarraco fruit is another collectible that can be found, one in each level to be exact. These pieces of fruit are well hidden and buried in side each mission. While being something original it is better then just finding the three Intel briefcases which has been done many times before.


The online multiplayer was really tricky for me to do for this review, as you all know the Playstation Network has been down since the 20th of April. I had a chance to play some custom campaign with a friend on the launch day. Choose a level, objective, and the difficulty and go in and crack some heads with up to four players. Each map only has two different objectives choices One is to find and kill the commanders of the opposing force and the other is to gather Intel from the enemy. Setting up the game is like a playlist, choose up to four scenarios max and they will load out one after another upon completion. While only playing a couple of maps online you can always play them solo with your squad offline. For the most part they are just rehashes of the original campaign levels. I can totally see the fun in cranking up the difficulty and have 3 others join you, would be a descent experience. I also had a chance to play some online adversarial games too, which I was lucky. You can party out with friends a join a wide variety of modes. Classic Socom rules where you have one death a round, which I prefer. Standard mode with respawns and air strikes and custom modes from the developers are the other two options. I had a chance to play some suppression, which is your standard team death match. It ran solid and I can't knock it at all, though having only a couple hours online I can not fully judge it. There are no rewards or perk system to be seen besides leveling up your arsenal. While being more classic route, I still respect that decision. Not at all online shooters need that to "carrot on a stick" to succeed, should be all about the game play in the end. I haven't tried the game with the move so have no thoughts on that but if your a fan of Socom, without a doubt you will enjoy this game. 7/10  

Game Dev Story (iPhone)

In Game Dev Story you take full control of a video game company. Managing your workers and finances, taking control over the development of the titles you are making. Well some what. Like a little meta-game, you pick and a choose the people who work for you and train them. In the beginning of the game you pick your companies name, and intruduced to the secretary who will assist you in getting started. Startin off with only a couple employees you must hire workers, send out and add in paper or on the internet are some of the options. You must of course spend money on anything you want to do in the game like advertising and marketing. Money is key in Game Dev. Developing a game for the PC is the only choice at the start. If you wish develop for other consoles on the market you must buy a license negotiation for a high price to start developing for that platform. The consoles come out after years played in the game just like in real life. Some will be more successful then others and have a bigger share in the market, just liek in real life. They are all just spin off and renames of consoles past in gone, which I love. So clever.

The main core objective in the game is to own the market and pump out as many blockbuster games for the your fans. Creating a game is simple. Pick the platform you want to develop it for, pick the genre, the type of game and then the direction. When you are selecting the genre and type of game you are browsing through a list of different names. The names are presets or and the level carries over from a previous saved game, but you still only have five to choose from on each set. You select on two things you think will work for a game, and if the match you will upgrade the level of that type, say "action" and "ninja." It is sometimes hard to match two together, something on the list just wouldn't go with other things. They are also graded on how popular they are to your audience. You can unlock more genres and types by training your staff and here and there you will unlock new type. Hard to figure out how to do that really, which I didn't get. Once you combined more type you will receive bonuses and have more points towards the direction of your current game. In the direction screen is like stats for the game, good touch. Forty points can be attributed to a set of eight, ten point directions ie polish, realism, simplicity of the game etc.

Once direction is selected you have to choose a person to write up the story for you. This is where the game starts to come together. You can select an outside hire or someone that works for you. The outside hires will cost money but there stats are far better then your staffs, therefore can pump out more stats for the game. The stats are what makes the game, the game. Thats the whole thing you have to make these four stats from the people who work for you. Fun, creativity, graphics and music. The game will automatically make the game for you. The workers will just pop out the icons above their heads with the stat, and how many points go towards it. I like this cause it an easy way to just pick up and play on the go. The game plays just like I thought it would, very laid back and will ask you before doing anything major or important. Once the game is in full swing the percentage of completion will fill up. You will have to pick an art direction when the game is in alpha and music direction when the game reaches beta. Same as the start, you can choose an inside or outside hire for the job at hand. I always went for outside in most cases cause your staff will be not a skilled at first.

It takes time to accumulate money and get your team up and strong at first, but once you put in some time you will pumping out games one after another. A random salesman will come to your company and offer you items, which act as a boost for the game and cost thirty disks or research to use. The game your making can also encounter tons of bugs which have to be sorted out, and can delay your launch of the game. Great design, things like blackouts will also take away from you game stats due to lost progress. You will have to plan trips to the Gamedex expo where you will show off your titles and gain more fans, well more like just gain fans. Your games can also be nominated at the awards show. In which you have to play a mini game of stopping your name as the names appear on the screen. That was a neat touch, but think it be better if the game were just recognized for how good they are. On launch of the game you can name the game and then submit it and release the game. The game will be reviewed by four critics on a ten point scale, just like most sites/magazines around today. If your game reaches over thirty points your game will make it into the Hall of Fame.

If you make a game that is Hall of Fame worthy you will be awarded with the chance to make a sequel for this title. Making a sequel is a great option to generate more sale, you can make the sequel on the platform of your choice, but fail to make it to the Hall of Fame again and that is it for that property. The art in the game is well done and very simplistic, cute would describe it well. The game has so much to offer and charm that remotely anyone interested in video games could really pick up and play this game, and get hooked. You will be sinking in time before you know it, a lot of management is involved when making things work at the beginning. The money can be frustrating, but with option to do there work like port games can help bring in more coin. The time limit on those projects is just perfect enough to balance it out from the main projects. The game will only go up to 20 years and then your scores will be saved, you can choose to play on but nothing will be recorded. The best game you sold will also be recorded in the high score in the main menu. There is so much more I could explain or talk about but its better to just play and see everything for yourself. Game retails for 1.99 now which is half the price I paid and worth every penny. It is in the Hall of Fame for me and can't wait for the sequel. 9/10

Gran Turismo 5 (Playstation 3)

Gran Turismo has always been the real deal when it comes to driving simulators, and GT 5 does not fall behind. Polyphony Digital has been developing GT 5 for several years with a little taste of Prologue in middle. The game finally came out at the end of last year and I have been playing it for hours on end. First i suggest something. The optional initial install for the game is a must to play this game or the menus will be "dirt" slow. When the game launched there were many problems with online connection and downloading updates, it was total mess. By the time all that was clear the online integration and community works just fine. GT 5 is a great driving game I have to say. I'm impressed with the interface, when I know a lot of people think down on the menus. I think it is laid out simple and everything is accessible from one local spot in GT Mode. GT mode is the career mode where you can either race as an a-spec driver or train up 6 AI drivers in b-spec mode. Both modes feature the same set of races and events. A-spec events basically have no tire restrictions when it comes to what you can use, where as b-spec the tire type is restricted.

The b-spec mode is a great addition to the whole career. Communicating to your drivers can only be done by either telling him/her to pace up, pace down, maintain pace, or pit. This is key. The AI driver will not make critical passes unless told to by you. The drivers have a hot and cold stat which basically plays as the nerves really. If the driver is too hot he/she will not perform to full potential and will lose strength quicker. If the driver is cold he/she will be too relax and tend to slow down gradually. Their strength and mental strength bars will drain based on their skills and experience earned by driving and winning events. In Forza 3's take of AI mode, "hire driver." The driver would just paid to race and based mostly stats on how you would drive the course. In GT 5 you control multiple drivers at a time, and take them up in experience and levels. B-spec is very handy when it come to driving endurance race, which you will need minimum of 4 skilled drivers. We all know how long theses races can take, up to minimum of 2-3 hours long a piece.

Both racing modes have a level cap of 40, which will take you a long time to achieve. A-spec is your typical race events and championships where you compete to earn xp and credits to purchase new cars and upgrades. The cars are classed into premium and standard, basically new car dealership and used cars dealership. This is a big deal to me. I love to race in the in-car view for the full effect of the experience, and all the standard cars don't have this view or proper damage either. In the long run it really didn't matter to me cause I was impressed with the premium cars and race with them the most. The models on the premium cars are the best car models in any video game to date, hands down. It is basically photo realistic right down to the rubber on the tires and the high beam are "on" indicator in the cars dashboard cluster. Amazing. Driving in the rain with the wipers on is something else too, just intense. The standard cars feature none of this, and are just really up-res car models from GT 4. The overall damage to the cars I found is very lacking to say the least, just poor. The cars will have dents and scraps on them, with no impact on the appearance of the car really. Coming from Forza where literally you can loose bumpers, hoods, and mirrors in the first turn. GT 5 coming out and saying it will have damage support, is disappointing to me.

The GT shop is where u can wash your car if its dirty or change your oil if you have put some major kilometers on it. Most the other modifications like changing rims and purchasing a race model of your car can only be done only with the premium cars. So basically anything that you can see, can't be done with the standard cars, besides maybe a on generic side skirt or over-sized wing. The racing modification is pretty sweet. I have two of the same Honda Civic Type R's and when I changed one to have the racing model, it changed the interior and exterior all out creating a new in-car view basically. That I was not expecting. The tune shop is where you can do all your modifications to the cars engine and exhaust and what not, same business as usual for a GT. On premium cars you can add a carbon fiber hood to some cars and take out the glass to replace with a lighter material. The car customization feature to me is still way behind what Forza has done with changing every little piece of the car exterior and then painting or layering with decals to boot. The AI racers in the game seem to be a little on the slow side, as in not smart. The just basically hold their line and that is that. Yes there are more cars on the track this time. Up to 16 in some cases, but just not enough "simulation" about them.

The track selection is huge like usual, with tons of real tracks from across the world and classics from the GT franchise. The night time feature is one of my favorite, driving around with the headlights on and seeing the cars instruments working is where its at. The tracks are modeled very well, if you watch a replay or your b-spec driver drive around it is almost photo realistic to me. The game is very polished all together and runs at a solid frame-rate for the most part. Some screen tearing here and there. The other mode to talk about is challenge mode. They set me up with tons of challenges in different type of driving styles really. You can chose through NASCAR, WRC, Top Gear and others. These modes I found are pretty easy to blow through and get some good experience and credits. The only thing is some of them are awful, they make you drive hurting cars that are just not fun to drive. Like the VW station wagon van thing, wtf. I still wonder why they modeled all these garbage cars, and there are a lot of them. Instead of digging into the catalogue off 700+ standard cars and fully modeling them out. The rally stuff was the one I had the most fun with, different change of pace and looks and controls spot on. The license mode is same as usual, put you through basic and advanced driving techniques. They are optional really, you are not required to do them to race certain events like previous games in the series. More for trophies and bragging rights.

The online component is pretty confusing at first. The community tabs are where you can look at your friends profile and see what they have completed in the game, look at their pictures, write on their wall, and just gift them parts or cars. This is done in a clean fashion and easy to see right in the GT mode. Getting online with some friends can be tricky I found. If I wanted to get into a game I would have to go and create a room and name it and a friend would have to search it out, not well done to be honest. If i go to my lounge i can invite my friends to race around, but you cant just match make a game like that. Which you should. Instead you just drive around with your friends. They recently updated the online to incorporate xp and credits for racing online, which helps out. They also allow you to set the perimeters for the race, like HP rating and what not. The games are hard to get into and when you do sometimes waiting for people to finish their race sucks. Even before the race you can go out and just do laps, which is okay to test out your car but no good when your trying to get a serious race going.

The best addition so far would have to be the online seasonal challenges. I love this, or at least did. When it first came out they posted up new events for you to race in. Theses consists of five new race events in which you would have to pick a selected car, and only use what perimeters they let you. Then you would have to tune the car and race around in an "over take" format style race to win the race. They are very challenging to do, but the true rewards is huge xp and credits bonuses. They have rolled out five so far, and closing them when the expiry date comes. I say I use to like this cause they cut out the restrictions on tires and HP. Now you can just soup the car up and put the best tires on and blow away the competition, takes away the raw challenge for me. All in all I think GT 5 is outstanding driving simulator for sure, I wish they would have done so much more with it with all the time they spent on making the game. Hopefully next time Polyphony Digital will tune up this racer to be something unbelievable. I still love it though. 8.5/10