Well, since I'm starting a gaming blog, I figure the best place to start with is E3. This is really just a wrap up of some of the big titles that we heard about at E3.
Fallout 3
Fallout 3 is the latest in the Fallout series and takes place in a post apocalyptic Washington D.C. Everything has been ravaged from a nuclear war, and people have moved themselves into giant underground vaults in order to protect themselves from all types of ugly creatures and characters that live in the wasteland outside. You are a resident of vault 101 and one day your father wanders outside the vault for an unexplained reason, and it is up to you to go find him and discover why he left.
Fallout 3 will feature the SPECIAL (Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, and Luck) system found in the original Fallouts. This time around, however the game is played from a first person perspective with a third person, over the shoulder camera option. The game can be played as a normal FPS, or you can use the games unique VATS system in order to pause the action and select individual body parts as targets. There is a heavy emphasis on survival and finding and collecting basic necessities is essential.
Why you should be looking forward to it:
It’s an open world FPS from the makers of Oblivion, what’s more to want? With intuitive character customization and many new implementations like VATS and the survival aspect, this game could end up being the next big First Person Shooter of this generation.
Why it might suck:
I don't think that anything will make this game outright suck, but there are a few concerns. The fast travel system may kill the whole survival aspect since you can quick warp anywhere you want if you run out of something. More importantly, it looks as if Bethesda stuck with the skills from the first one which may cause problems since "Small Guns" was a skill. This could potentially make most characters feel generic since there is no specialization in SMGs, Pistols, Rifles, etc...
Link: http://fallout.bethsoft.com/eng/home/home.php?fbid=DZN4p
Let me just say that this game is definitely "M" rated. The screenshots do show intense amount of gore, so be warned.
Brothers in Arms: Hells Highway
This game is set during operation Market Garden, the largest, and most disastrous, airborne operation in history. The 101st airborne jumped into Eindhoven and attempted to take the town. They were told that the operation would be quick and easy since all the Germans had were "Old men and boys." These estimates, however, were terribly wrong. At the time of the invasion, the Germans had several highly trained infantry divisions with the support of Armor stationed in Eindhoven. You play as Staff Sergeant Mathew Baker during this massive airborne assault.
As the Staff Sergeant, you have three squads to control, and their strategic placement and deployment are key. This game places a heavy emphasis on tactics and strategy, as opposed to the "run and gun" action seen in most Shooters today. Certain cover points will be destructible depending upon the material it is made of and what it is being shot with. The game will cover a large scope and all of the people and places have been modeled to be as historically accurate as possible.
Why you should be looking forward to it:
This game looks to be the epitome of strategic game play in a first person, historic setting. The AI is brilliant and the graphics and effects are truly stunning. The squad commands look intuitive enough to make for fully controllable squads, but without getting bogged down in micromanagement.
Why it might suck:
The main problem is with the suppression meter. The suppression meter is a pie chart that appears above the enemy positions, telling you how suppressed they are. For a game that places such an emphasis on realism and accuracy, this system seems cumbersome and unnecessary. It really breaks the flow of the experience.
Link: http://www.hellshighwaygame.com/index.php?p=home
This is a war game and is "M" rated. I don't think that the website shows anyting too bad, but do be warned.
Mercenaries 2: World in Flames
This game is set in Venezuela, which has been taken over by a power hungry Oil Tycoon. At the beginning of the game, he screws you over on a job, and now you must show him that no one double crosses the Mercenaries and gets away with it.
Mercs 2 features fully destructible environments, and when I say destructible, I mean it. Every building, car, vehicle, tree, and set piece is completely destructible. "If you can see, you can blow it up." The game is an open world sandbox with five different factions. The play between these factions is very interesting since depending upon how much they like, they may sell you things, give you support options, etc... Every vehicle is hijackable as well, with the implementation of a hijacking minigame which differs in difficulty depending on which vehicle you are trying to hijack.
Why you should be looking forward to it:
It’s an open world game where everything is fully destructible. I'll let that soak in...
O.K. but seriously, we've all been playing GTA and thought, "Man I'd like to blow that up." Well now you can. The open world setting does look impressive and the Havok physics engine is sure to delight. This game also features 40+ airstrikes from artillery to a mini nuke.
Why it might suck:
Simply put, it may suffer from the problem that many open world sandbox games suffer from: It gets boring. This is caused by a lack of mission variety, mostly, but also by other things like repetitive game play, and no progression. Now I'm not saying this game has those things, but many a sandbox game has come out and quickly been swept under the rug due to it quickly becoming old and boring. This game has a lot of promise, but also a large area to suck.
Link: http://www.pandemicstudios.com/mercenaries/index.php
That’s all for now, but I will be putting up more reviews and coverage soon.