Battlefield 3 or Call of Duty.

Call of Duty has been the purveyor of 1st person shooters; but now Dice is moving in on the title of top shooter. Battlefield has always been an up and down franchise. Dice has made drastic tweaks to find the right formula for the perfect shooter without copying Call of Duty. The Treyarch and Infinity Ward cash cow, Call of Duty, has only change slightly due to the fact that it was one of the first shooters to feature the aim down sight feature. This was what allowed it to be so successful with their minor tweaks and slight variations. While most people preferred the Call of Duty series due to their consistency, Battlefield has acquired a smaller fan base because of the amount of risks that Dice takes when developing a new game. Dice has continued to make drastic changes to the Battlefield series to find of what gamers want; but now Dice has promised that there will be no experiments, no risks, and no guessing. Battlefield 3 is a combination of all the things that Dice has learned after their many attempts to make the perfect shooter. They have promised that this will be their finest game yet. Call of Duty I expect will be the same game it has always been, with more weapons and better graphics. What I have seen so far looks pretty good; but I don't think that its going to be that much of a change. Battlefield on the other hand, is implementing the best cell shading and graphics to date. These improvements have been brought on by the new frostbite 2 engine; the most advance game creating software on the market. Battlefield just may de throne the Call of Duty franchise. I will give the campaign edge to Modern Warfare 3. Infinity Ward has always been good at telling a good story in first person shooters.

Socom 4: Multiplayer Guide

I have finally been able to resume my online multiplayer career for Socom 4. I played for a few hours and ended up with a few 30-2 k/d ratios. I am gong to tell you how to effectively improve your kill death ratio. Most people make the mistake of playing the game using a more run and gun approach. This is perfectly acceptable if you play Call of Duty or Halo; but playing Socom requires a bit more stealth and team work. Many people tend to run off and do some lone wolf type stuff. If this is your play style, try to make sure you know where your team is at all times. That way if you find a larger concentration of enemies you can inform your team of their position. Because of the slower turn rate in Socom, you are limited in the sense that you can no longer cover wide open spaces. You need to emphasis teamwork. If your team is making an advance it is a good idea to find a higher elevated area and keep you eyes open on your teams flank. This way you can pick off enemies that are laying in wait to ambush your squad. Using the natural environment for cover is an overlooked strategy. The grass and foliage can offer superb sniper holes. A good way to not be detected is to lay prone is tall grass preferebly on a hill. Make sure you do not stay in the sunlight. This will leave you exposed and open to counter sniping. Sticking to the shadows is very important. It greatly decreases your chances of being detected by enemies. Be careful though, When firing from a dark place your muzzle flash will be easier to spot. Even though the idea of the game is not to be seen, sometimes you need to be fodder in order for your team to succeed. When in a shoot out, make sure you actually use cover. I see so many people either laying prone or simply crouching behind something. When crouched you will not completely cover your body. This will lead to being hit in the head by stray bullets. So, to cover the basics. Don't run around on your own, stick to the shadows, support your team, and make use of the cover system that Sony worked so hard to develop. Hope this little guide helps you to up your game when playing online.

Brink Written Review

My little brother was stoked when he heard that there was a 1st person shooter with free running going to be released; He immediately pre ordered Brink. I looked up the game and didn't think it looked very good, so I tried to get my brother to get a different game. He was excited when he finally got the game and played it for hours on end before he let me have a turn. When the game started the unique character design and graphics impressed me and for a moment I thought that maybe this game would be a diamond in the rough. The games character models resemble those of team fortress 2 that have been slimmed down and given a more detailed look. The character creation is very nice and allows you to create your own character that you will play as throughout the campaign and multiplayer. The campaign is set in the future, where the ice caps have melted and the last of humanity lives on a floating city called "The Ark". This experimental island was only meant to contain 15,000 people; but due to the loss of land mass for people to live on, "The Ark" now holds 50,000. You choose between a group trying to escape "The Ark" or as the security company tasked with keeping these rebels under control. I was sad to see that there was nothing more to the story than that. There is nothing else whatsoever, your character is just a grunt and you must carry out orders from higher up. Everything was fine until the game actually started. You are given the inventory screen before the battle starts and you select your weapon and class. The four different classes are soldier, medic, operative, and engineer. When the game started I was given an objective, protect the so and so, simple enough. As soon as the mission actually started I was horrified to see that the game is plagued with stiff animations, unbalanced combat, and glitches galore. You give your squad a command and it does not actually affect whether you will win or not. The free running does not actually help you in any way shape or form. While you can get to a higher vantage point, you also lose the total amount of damage you can take, and which weapons you can wield. Enemies and allies alike spaz out at random times while simply walking they flail their arms. The classes are incredibly unbalanced. No class brings anything to the table as far as support. You won't need to change your class at all. There is a whole slough of unlocks including weapons, outfits, attachments and abilities. Unfortunately, spending the time to unlock these goodies is not worth the trouble. All in all, the game is fun but not worth the $60 price tag. While you can have some fun playing this title, you will not see anything that really catches your eye or revolutionizes anything. You will get frustrated by the crappy AI, and you will get pissed when you are killed after an unbalanced shootout. This game gets a 6/10 from me.

First Post

Hey there, If you have managed to come across this blog I welcome you. I hope you enjoy reading my posts and discussing them with your friends. For some reason the first two post were not published even though I could of sworn I saved them. Guess they got lost in the cloud of information that you are currently surfing. Well, I think I will tell you a little bit about myself. I am 17 and in the 11th grade at Minarets High School. My hobbies include playing video games online, listen to and performing music, and writing game reviews. I will have a review up by the end of the week on Brink. I will be at the Chowchilla fair all next week so if it gets published later don't get mad at me, I warned you. I am seriously stoked because Playstation network is back online. I can finally play Socom 4's online multiplay segment. I had just beaten the campaign when PSN went down before I could even check out the multiplayer. I must say that the game is not worth it if you are not going to play online. Socom 4 is definitely one of the great online shooters of 2011 so far. I will be attending the Flogging Molly concert on the 26 at the Rainbow ball room in Fresno CA. I cannot wait, and in case you are wondering who Flogging are, they a kick ass irish folk/punk band from LA. Give them a listen if you really love some music that you can really jig to. Incredible band, one of my favorites, I seriously cannot wait. Hope to continue this blog. Sorry about the rather dry post. There will be more interesting ones to come as more things worth talking about happen.