Reilly2040's Blog

As is customary for MMOs, Star Trek Online is currently near to releasing its next major free content expansion.  However prior to its release on the live server (Holodeck), much of the content is currently on the test server (Tribble) so that the userbase can beta test the new content and find any critical bugs.

So I’ve installed the test server and had a sneaky peak at what to expect from season 2, and I’m really excited.

I’ve avoided playing the new storyline missions so as not to spoil everything, and I don’t actually have a Klingon character, so I can’t try that side of things (I really should start a new Klingon and slowly level them up although I’m already juggling my Tactical and Science alts).

However I have checked out the much-anticipated ship interiors and diplomacy missions.

The ship interiors are something players (especially the role players) have been after for a while.  Since the game launched, ships have always had bridges that you could visit, acting as a social area for you to interact with your friends in a private space.   Several variant bridges were available for you to choose from, and this customisation was later added to by adding more bridge packs into the C-Store.

However, now they’ve been revamped.  The bridges themselves remain largely unchanged, however now, where doors would be static, you have the option to visit the Captain’s ready room off to the side of the bridge.  A nice office area where you can display some of your gained accolades on the wall.  Head out and to the turbolift, and the doors again open, and you’re presented with the option to head to either Engineering or the crew deck.

These decks were great fun to explore.  The corridors looked spot on for a Federation starship, and from them you can visit various key areas of the ship including the engine room, sick bay, the lounge (a la Ten Forward) or even the Captain’s quarters.  At the moment they seem to be purely social areas to be explored for fun, but like a lot of the stuff early in the game, its easy to see where they’ll provide the basis for further functionality.   I know that various mini-games are being discussed, so you’ll be able to help research something in the science lab, or fix an issue in engineering.   I really hope these minigames do make it in, as they sound like a great idea.  And obviously once the interiors are in place, they can easily be used in missions, should you get boarded by Hirogen or someone.

Also expanded the game’s non-combat aspects are the new diplomacy missions.  These take two forms.  The first is First Contact missions, assigned by an Ambassador that appears in your contacts, they involve you meeting up with representatives who then beam to your ship’s conference lounge.  Once there, your job is to talk to the various representatives to gain an insight to their culture, before talking to their ambassador and trying to cement a good relationship with them based on that knowledge.

The second type of diplomacy mission can be found on the various social planets.  So far I’ve only tried the mission on Vulcan, but it involves a Romulan delegation arriving on the planet only to have the Romulan Ambassador’s life threatened and you must investigate and find the guilty party.

Both these types of missions involve quite a bit of reading, but they do break up the constant combat missions quite a bit.  They’re also a nice use of the social areas which until now have generally sat empty, and will give people a reason to visit planets like Vulcan and Risa that they might’ve ignored up until now.  Completing these missions gives diplomacy XP and will allow you to rise through the ranks of the Diplomacy Corps separate to the main ranks, with special perks unlocked as you go, so it provides nice alternative content.

There’s also a nice atmosphere to the new missions.  Seeing the ship’s observation lounge being used for the first contact missions worked well, and a nice touch was seeing your own bridge officers interacting with the visiting diplomats.

Both the interiors and diplomacy missions seem really well done to me.  I’ve had a quick play around with them, and I can’t wait until season 2 goes live and I explore them properly.  Obviously, with the test server I’m wary of trying out too much, as I still want some surprises for the proper release

Long time readers will know I always had a soft spot for Battlefield 2142 on the PC, being possibly my favourite online FPS game.

With some of my gaming now having shifted to the PS3 (in order to get the most out of next gen gaming despite my aging PC), the new Battlefield game, Bad Company 2 seemed like a logical purchase.

The multiplayer action is familiar for any fans of the series.  Conquest mode finds the player split into two teams, trying to capture and control various bases across the map.  The teams have a limited number of respawns, and the first to run out, loses.  So by controlling most of the bases, one team can force the other into a corner and pick them off much more quickly.

The other game type I must admit, I’ve not played as much, as I’ve been using the familiar Conquest mode to break myself back into the game, but it involves one team having to push forward, destroying a pair of terminals at each checkpoint to progress onto the next, while the other team holds them back.  Its been pretty fun when I’ve played it, but for now, the Conquest mode I find easier to get into (probably due to familiarity if nothing else).

As you’d expect the graphics are astounding, and the gameplay continues the now-traditional “accumulate points, gain levels and unlocks” style that previous Battlefield games and Call of Duty has.

New to this instalment of the franchise though, is a developed single player mode.  My previous experience with Battlefield was that single player consisted of a very restricted version of the multiplayer mode with bots.  Now though there’s a proper storyline that you play through.  They’ve obviously taken a leaf out of the Call of Duty play book here and its a welcome change.  I’ve not played through all the single player so far, but what I have played has been a lot of fun.

What the developers have done though, is tied the single player into the unlocks system, which is a nice touch.  As you play through levels in the single player, you can pick up new weapons off of recently-dispatched enemies.  As you find the new weapon types in each level, they get added to your available options in the multiplayer.  Its a nice touch, and a great added incentive to the single player.

Of course, the signature of the Battlefield games has always been the ability to use vehicles in the various maps, and that’s present and as well-implemented as usual with the expected array of jeeps, tanks and planes to keep players happy.  It also provides a welcome break in the style of play from Modern Warfare.

In Modern Warfare, I would frequently find, if the map was being dominated, that the game would descend into a cycle of “spawn-die-spawn-die”.  With Battlefield, as you can choose your spawn point at another captured base, its a welcome break when things are getting pinned down, to just choose to spawn at a further away point, or specifically, the original deployment zone.  Then its a simple matter of grabbing a tank and trundling in to do some damage.  Its nice to be able to pull back in this way and rethink your strategy when things are getting nasty.

One final feature that I’ve got to comment on, is the new destructible scenery.  Its a brilliant addition to the gameplay, that makes you think more about your cover.   There’s no more digging into a rooftop with a sniper rifle for the game, if someone can roll up in a tank and collapse the building around you.  Or hiding behind a wooden fence only buys you a minute’s breathing room as the hail of incoming fire starts picking it away.   From either side, its a fun change in the game that either forces you to think quickly and move, or allows you to clear out some prime camping spots when you’re getting pinned down.

The online stats are present in force as well.   The stats were an area I found a little disappointing in Modern Warfare, probably as I’d been spoiled by Battlefield 2142 previously.  Maybe I’m just being sad, but I find it quite amusing and fun to be able to check out all the details of my play time, right down to the number of rounds fired, and I wish more games would offer up these kinds of facts and figures, with a convenient web interface (MMOs especially).

I’ve been very pleased with the game so far, and can see myself sticking with it for a good while.  So far, my main niggles about Modern Warfare 2 (slow finding games in the lobby, and getting hammered in games) seem to be less of an issue here.

http://www.battlefieldbadcompany2.com/stats?persona=223206830&platform=ps3

When Star Trek Online came out, I first had a trial account (as I wasn’t sure if it’d run on my PC or not). Once that expired and I needed a full retail key, I went to Steam and looked at the options available. There I could get the game, or for an extra tenner, I could get a Digital Deluxe edition that came with various exclusive items such as Classic Trek uniforms and an NX registry prefix for my ship.

I’m a sucker for classic Trek, so I jumped at the chance to get those uniforms and went for the deluxe package.

In this month’s engineering report however, it was announced that coming to the C-Store (the in-game micro transaction store filled with various fluff like extra character slots, extra bridge designs etc) were some of the various “exclusive” items.  So not only would people be able to buy my classic Trek uniforms, but also appearing were items available in other collectors editions like the TNG and DS9 uniforms, Borg bridge officers (think 7of9) and the original Constitution class as a starter ship.

This has sparked a lot of discussion online, with many people feeling betrayed by Cryptic.   After all these items were marked as exclusive, and many spent extra on multiple copies of the game in order to get all the extras.

My own opinion though, is slightly different.  Once I realised there was a micro-transaction store in the game, selling various ship costumes, bridges etc, I kind’ve knew this was going to be coming.  My immediate reaction was that “exclusive” would mean “only for a certain period of time”, and that Cryptic would be throwing away a source of income by not allowing people to purchase these extras.

Now, if the extras had been, for example, a variant Cryptic-designed uniform, then it would be easy to just leave it as exclusive to whatever version of the game.  However we’re talking about iconic things, like the various TV show and movie uniforms.   Of course, people are going to jump at the chance to pay a bit extra to get them.  For myself, I know I’ll be straight onto the C-Store (once my PC is fixed or replaced) in order to get the bits and pieces I’m missing.

I can appreciate that those who spent extra money are upset, and I know I was personally tempted to buy other copies of the game for the TNG and DS9 uniforms, but to me this was something that was inevitable so if I had bought the game, it would’ve been in the knowledge that I was just doing it to get them before everyone else (although I’ll admit I’m surprised it happened quite this soon).   With these kinds of things, I think you always have to assume that you’re only buying exclusivity for a certain period of time.   There’s a long history in computer games of exclusive items eventually turning up for purchase separately.

The exclusivity had been dubious prior to this as well, despite forum posters acting like this is a new thing.  Now, as I said, I paid an extra tenner for my edition, primarily due to the lure of classic Trek uniforms.  Yet not long after I got the game, this thread appeared on the forums.  Yup, my supposedly exclusive uniforms being given away with a magazine, via a website that anyone can access and get the uniforms from for free.  That thread in fact, is periodically bumped to ensure it remains on or near the front page, with other posters ensuring others get their free uniforms.   Cryptic allow the thread and the offer to continue, so it appears they don’t have a problem with it.

And there’s the Wrath of Khan uniforms.  Supposedly, you had to buy the Blueray editions of classic Trek, and yet a quick google will reveal the relevant code to get them.

Should I be shouting about getting a refund?  Possibly, but I got what I paid for, and enjoy just having the classic uniforms.  This way, other people that want to enjoy them, can as well.  To just moan that they’re not exclusive any more has a slight hint of wanting to appear special and better than others within the game.  For me, buying the deluxe edition was just a means to get a uniform I really wanted.

So, I’m not too angry about this, although admittedly that’s largely because it’ll just benefit me, due to the classic Trek uniforms already being freely available.  My items have long since lost their exclusivity, so from my perspective, this is just the others catching up (and I have to wonder, out of those complaining on the forums, how many used that website for the classic uniforms, and googled the Wrath of Khan code).

That all being said, I do think Cryptic could’ve maybe handled it better.  Primarily I do think the exclusives might’ve been better being things that were less iconic.  Cryptic-designed uniforms and starships for example.  The minute recognisable uniforms were in the game, there was always going to be a big demand for them to be more readily available.  However I can certainly appreciate that those same TV uniforms also made for a much bigger draw on the collectors editions.

I also think Cryptic have perhaps jumped the gun.  As much as I want the TNG and DS9 uniforms, I really didn’t expect to see them like this within the first year of the game.  And perhaps in the FAQs on the website, it could’ve been made clearer that the exclusivity was only going to be for a certain amount of time.

However, nonetheless, I look forward to the opportunity to login to the store and buy these extras.  There’s a lot of complaints online, but I strongly hope that they don’t influence the decision the release them in the C-Store.   After all, for those that got the TNG and DS9 uniforms in your boxset, at least I’m having to pay for them as well.  Everyone got my classic Trek uniforms for free.

Progressing through the game of Star Trek Online, sees you move from different galactic sectors.  Starting out at the heart of the Federation near the Sol system, as you gain levels you move throughout the galaxy encountering the Klingon systems, Romulan Space and others.

Having recently made it past Commander level and to Captain and now Admiral, I’ve moved out from the Romulan sectors and am now in Bajoran and Cardassian space, which means visiting one of the most iconic locations in the shape of Deep Space Nine.

As a big fan of that show, just flying up the DS9 was another of those great moments in the game.  And once docked, while the station interiors are obviously limited, they’ve still recognisable.  Wandering around the promenade feels great despite the limitations and like the Guardian of Forever, and the earlier Deep Space K-7, its nice to have these recognisable locations in the game.

Its an aspect of the game I really appreciate is the feeling of progress.  In all MMOs, as you progress you move into higher level areas.  However what I like about Star Trek Online, is how those areas give you the feeling of moving from the core of the Federation (Earth and Vulcan) to the outer fringes.  Its not just that you’ve moved to a higher level area, but I do get the feeling that I’ve progressed to defending the outer edges of Federation territory.  Of course, that’s probably helped by a lot of the game’s population hanging around the central Hub in the Sol System, so the higher levels don’t have as many Federation ships flying around.

I’ve yet to progress to Borg space, which currently represents the last sector of the game, but I’m really intrigued to see what the developers have done with it.  There’s a real potential to make it a dark, scary place to be, where you know you’re out of your depth and in trouble, and I hope they capture that, and like Deep Space Nine, its an opportunity to create a really iconic location.

So typically, the night after I make a blog post hoping for more Classic Trek fan-pleasing stuff turning up in Star Trek Online, look what I bump into.  Awesome

Sadly it went down a little easy, as long as you avoided the front of it whenever it fired.  You get special torpedoes which when fired straight down its opening, will damage it.  If you miss, you have to refill them, but with your fellow starfleet ships distracting the machine itself, it doesn’t give you too much trouble.   Its a great fun mission, but it would be nice to see the Doomsday Machine as more of a payoff to a questline than a single quest.

Its things like this that make tie-in games great.  Throwing in things that are blatantly fan-pleasing may be an easy move but there’s no denying its also hugely effective

This mission ticks all the boxes.  Miral Paris (daughter of Voyager’s Tom Paris and Belanna Torres) has been kidnapped by genetically-modified Klingons.  Said Klingons then use the Guardian of Forever to travel back in time to the 23rd century where they plan to use her human/Klingon hybrid-ness to cure the flat-head syndrome that’s blighted them since the days of Enterprise season 4.

Needless to say, you’re not standing for this, so promptly chase them to the Guardian and follow them back, where you team up with the original USS Enterprise (under the temporary command of Commander Spock, since Kirk’s elsewhere).

Its great fun, and it helps that this mission is also the payoff for a long running storyline that sees you through most of your Lieutenant levels, building up the motivations and the extent of the Klingons plan over an extended period of time.  All the fanboy buttons are hit, culminating in fighting alongside the original Enterprise (nicely making use of the fact that Cryptic had hired Leonard Nimoy to voice parts of the game).

So far there’s been few moments as great as coming down that hill to see the Guardian of Forever in the distance.  I’m looking forward to seeing more of these kinds of things throughout the game.  Obviously Species 8472 have now turned up as part of the main plot to the game, and I daresay the Borg will appear again, but the Next Generation stuff has been well-served by games over the last decade or so, so the Classic Trek stuff is very welcome indeed and adds something a bit fresher to the game (ironic given how much the Guardian of Forever pre-dates the Borg).

With that mission complete, I’m waiting on the next story arc from Admiral Quinn to kick in.  In the meantime I’m considering some sight-seeing.  I may take my trusty USS New Zealand over to DS9 for a look-see.  And I really should go back to K7 and have another wander around it to see what else is there beyond the contacts (who can just be hailed from the ship anyway).  I need some better equipment and I need to find someone who’ll sell me it.

So I’ve been playing the game for around a week now.   With my buddy key expired, I’ve gone straight out and bought the collector’s edition from Steam (since I figured a download retailer was the quickest way to a new key to get me back into the game).  I opted to pay the extra for the collector’s edition, since I can see me playing this game for a good while, and the Classic Trek uniforms called out to me (can’t beat Classic Trek.  Well, maybe DS9).

I’d mentioned in my previous post about how I felt like the game feels like a solid basis to build on.  So I thought now I’ve got a little playtime under my belt, I’d list some things I’d like to see happen in the game.  Now, I’m not that up to date on the developer side of things, so odds are on some of these are already planned, and I’m not by any means saying these are things I’d like in the short term, just as the game develops.

So in no particular order:

The Bridge

At the moment, the bridge doesn’t really do much.  You can select from a few different themes at the Starbase, but otherwise its just a private meeting room where you can chat to your mates.  The bridge for me represents an exciting opportunity for player housing in the game.  Ontop of the themes, allow players to by new (decorative) consoles for example, or select from a variety of Captain’s chairs.  Granted, the nature of Star Trek limits the bridge customisation a little.  You could fine tune the customisation to different colour schemes, chairs, console types etc though.

To open things up,  larger ships could add a Captain’s ready room to the bridge, which could easily be decorated with more personal items.  Throw in a couple of sofas, or fish like Picard had.  Desks, coffee tables, pictures on the walls all become possibilities that would look out of place on a bridge.

Above this, even larger ships could hang a conference room on as well.

Player housing was something I sunk a bit of time into in Star Wars Galaxies, customising my place on Tatooine.  I could easily see myself tweaking and re-tweaking my bridge and ready room in Star Trek Online.

Of course, I’d also like the ability to actually sit on that centre seat

Multiple Uniform Slots

One of the nice features in City of Heroes is the ability to accumulate extra costume slots, and then switch between outfits at will.  The existing uniform designer in STO ticks most of the right boxes for me in terms of the different uniforms that can be created (although I do hope that eventually the exclusive uniforms like TOS and TNG make it into the C-Store and become micropayment fodder).  You can currently save particular looks and reload them at will, although you have to first visit the tailor, and then pay to switch uniform.  It’d be nice to have a number of pre-defined slots for your favourite uniforms (at least for your Captain.  The Bridge Officers could remain reliant on the tailor).  I know you can currently have a second slot for your “fleet” uniform, so presumably this is something that’s in the works (I guess extra uniform slots could be another candidate for micropayments, but a couple of free ones would be nice).

New Races

By this I don’t necessarily mean just new alien types for Starfleet officers (although obviously they’re good too, and easier to implement), but bolstering the existing Federation vs Klingon game with race-specific campaigns and ships (Romulans being an obvious candidate) makes sense.  Saying that, given the development time required to produce a new race, its range of ships, and although the mission arcs related to that race’s plotline, I could see this being more along the lines of a larger, paid expansion.

More Story Arcs

I’m now a Lieutenant Level 10, and the one thing that’s jumped out at me is that only really Admiral Quinn has been offering me missions that build into a story arc so far.  Sulu and the others seem to just give out the more general, easily generated missions that you can use to build up your xp, rather than have an underlying plot you can get your teeth into (although its possible I’ve written those contacts off too early and missed a plot arc coming in later).  So one thing I’d like to see in these early Lieutenant levels is maybe one other Admiral giving you missions that have a storyline to them.  City of Heroes was again quite good at doing this kind of thing, so I’d imagine it’ll be on the cards at somepoint.

More Ships From the TV Series

In fairness to the devs, this is already pretty well catered for.  The Constitution class was a pre-order option, and the Constitution class refit, Danube, Miranda, Defiant, Intrepid, Galaxy, Akira, Nova and Sovereign are all in the game (can’t remember if I’ve forgotten any).   So a hopefully easy win for the devs would be including a few of those ship classes that didn’t make it in currently.  Excelsior’s an obvious one, the original Stargazer, Steamrunner and heck even the NX-01 are candidates.  They could easily map to existing class tiers, although players would maybe have to turn a blind eye to an NX-01 holding its own against a Miranda but there’s no reason they couldn’t be added to add a nice bonus into an update package (regarding the NX-01, the in-game canon could just say its a new ship based on the old hull for nostalgic reasons or something).

That’s all just a random wishlist.  Of course, there’s various other tweaks I’d like: bugs fixed, elements of the interface cleaned up, but I know these will all happen with time, especially as its early days yet for the mmo, with patches turning up every few days to fix the gameplay issues as their found.  From playing City of Heroes, I know some of this kind of content is very much a long term (first few years) type of thing, but that’s fine.  I’m having fun playing the game and figuring it out as it is, so the point is more to bring in interesting new features as the game matures in order to keep the existing player base interested.

I’ve followed the development of this game for a while.  Regular readers will know that I do like:

a) Star Trek

and

b) MMOs

so really, Star Trek Online was a no-brainer for me.

Sadly, then the minimum specs came out, and I realised my PC was very much scraping the bottom of the barrel and may not run it (AMD 64 3800, Nvidia 7900 GS, 2Gb RAM).  Fortunately a friend came to the rescue and passed on one of his 5 day demo keys so I could see if it would run.

The initial game download was a hefty 8Gb, however once that was done, I was able to get the game up and running.  Despite my iffy system spec, with all the settings at minimum (barring resolution which I’ve got at the lowest 16:9 setting rather than the lowest 4:3), the game runs surprisingly well.  Granted, there’s the occassional thing that takes a second to render, but so far its playable.  I wouldn’t want to head into too busy an instance though as that might push my luck.   I do have a better graphics card on order however, so that might let me make things a little quicker (and a shade prettier).

The game itself, I’m really impressed with so far.  It combines ship-based action with ground-based away teams.  So you’ll find yourself embroiled both in starship combat in outer space, and then beaming down to talk to colonists or beaming over to a ship you’ve just rescued to mop up straggling boarding parties.  It really adds something to the game, and I love having these two separate aspects to the gameplay.

The starship-based stuff reminds me a lot of a simplified Starfleet Command.  The ships are presented as slow-moving, with you having to take into account your different shield sections and weapon arcs when in combat.  You get control of your power balance, allowing you to favour your shields, weapons or engines as appropriate, and your bridge officers (as you recruit them) give you special abilities which can employ in combat such as a more powerful torpedo blast, or jamming enemy sensors.  As a big fan of Starfleet Command I’m enjoying these sections a lot.

Beaming down, you assemble an away team of your bridge crew and assorted redshirts and find yourself in familiar MMO territory running around maps, collecting items from boxes and crates, and using your weapons and special abilities to combat whoever might be in your away.  The advantage here is you have your AI away team for support, and they’ll use their own special abilities, or attempt to move into flanking positions as appropriate to give your side an advantage in combat.

For a Star Trek MMO, to be honest, the Starship sim side of things would’ve been enough for me.  But by adding in the ground-based stuff Cryptic have worked hard to capture the complete feel of a Star Trek adventure.  By adding it in, it allows you to explore colonies, and when visiting Earth you can dock in the main Starbase, and wander around purchasing upgrades and acquiring new missions.   The two styles of play feel well integrated to me and help make the MMO stand out (although I know that starships and their combat were also in Star Wars Galaxy, and its aspect of multiplayer ships is something I’d quite like to see added at some future point as the ship-based side of things becomes more developed).

One aspect of the game I’ve quickly come to love is that it feels more cooperative than a lot of MMOs I’ve played.  By this I don’t mean forming teams or parties, but more generally.  In most MMOs I’ve played there’s been the aspect of killstealling, whereby a player interferes in anothers combat, resulting in the XP being much lower for the player that started the encounter.  Its generally frowned upon as it slows the rate of levelling up for the “victim”.  Here random players taking part in each other’s missions and combat seems actively encouraged.  For example, two players entering a sector on the same mission will find themselves automatically sharing that mission.  So if the mission is to blow up 7 Klingon ships, a Klingon blown up by either player will count for both.  Similarly when beaming down you will find away teams can seemlessly consist of several real players and not just your usual AI bridge crew (although you do get a choice to refuse).  Its a system that I’ve so far found quite successful and adds to the feeling that its all one, big, happy fleet.  Granted it could be open to abuse, by players entering a mission and hanging back, letting others do all the work and reaping the rewards, but overall I think its a good idea, and the prospect of the odd player abusing it is less important than the cooperative feel it adds to the game.

Overall, while admittedly I’m not that far into the game, so far its striking me as having a lot of promise, and I can see myself getting really hooked on it, as I get into it and start figuring out the various aspects of the gameplay.  I also think, importantly, it seems like a solid basis.  To an extent, on launch it can be a little early to judge an MMO, and its only really after the first few updates have tweaked things, and added in the content that they couldn’t quite get ready in time that you start to get a bigger picture for where the game is going, however my feeling is that so far this game is offering a lot of fun, while also showing plenty of options for expansion in the form of new playable races, the obvious new sectors with associated missions, new ship classes and abilities.  There’s a lot of promise here, and I think I’ll definitely be sticking around for a while.

I love the Metal Gear Solid games.  Metal Gear Solid was one of the first games I bought with my PS1, and after holding out on the PS2 for over a year, the release of MGS2 had me running out to the local branch of Game.  So now I’ve finally got a PS3, MGS4 was a must-play.

Following on from MGS2 (Metal Gear Solid 3 being a prequel that filled in some of the backstory) the action picks up several years later.  Snake is suffering from accelerated aging as a result of being a clone, but is pressed back into action when Liquid Ocelot finally resurfaces.

For people familiar with MGS2, you’ll find yourself in familiar territory.  The plot is fantastically complicated.  I hadn’t played the MGS games in years (thinking about it, possibly a good 8 years or so), so trying to remember everything that happened was a bit of a struggle.  I’d played the game through a lot, so most of the stuff about the Patriots I could remember, but I eventually had to cave and check wikipedia to figure out who Sonny was for example.  The other stalwart of the series is the long cutscenes.  In Metal Gear Solid 1 every boss took about 20 minutes to die, as they had to tell you their life story first.  In Metal Gear Solid 2 the cutscenes got even longer, especially in the later parts of the game as Raiden starts to find out about the Patriots and Arsenal Gear.

In Metal Gear Solid 4, there is, at least, one new innovation in the cutscenes.  A pause button, and its so very welcome.   I remember playing MGS2 and thinking “I’d better switch it off in 5 minutes” only to hit a cutscene and be trapped until it was finished (or risk having to go back to an earlier save).  In MGS4, if you hit a cutscene (and some of them are incredibly long – on completing the game, I was sitting for about an hour watching the various cutscenes at the end of the game) you can at least pause it to nip out to the loo, or if you’re replaying you can skip them entirely.

To help make the briefings more interesting, there’s also a really nice level of interactivity.  While the main characters are chatting, you can flick to alternate security cameras, or even to the Metal Gear that follows you around in missions and then drive it around the area.  Its a really nice feature, that helps underline just how nice the graphics are as these highly-detailed cutscenes are just being rendered on the fly with the graphics engine rather than the pre-rendered scenes you used to get in games.

However, while the cutscenes can sometimes give you the feeling you’re watching the game rather than playing it, what about the gameplay itself?

Well, its classic Metal Gear Solid.  Enphasis remains on stealth, but with a few new wrinkles.   As opposed to the contained environments of Shadow Moses Island and the Big Shell from the previous games, there’s a much bigger feeling of openness in the areas in this game, and the ways to avoid being detected aren’t always as obvious as a result.  Whereas previously there would be a convenient stack of boxes to hide behind, now the scenery doesn’t always lend itself to obvious hiding places.  To help compensate though, Snake’s got a new trick in the form of a suit which can automatically change to appropriately camouflage against whatever surface you’re standing beside.  Its a nice, dynamic system and again, you can see the camouflage patterns remaining on Snake’s outfit even through the cutscenes which is a nice touch.

The soliton radar from the previous games is absent this time, replaced by a new invention of Otacon’s called the “Solid Eye”.  Taking the form of an eyepatch, it provides a new radar system, which while it doesn’t provide the cone of vision of the old radar, does come with various settings, including night vision.  The only limitation though, is that using things like night vision will run down its power, leaving you without a radar until it recharges.  Also, having the solid eye means that Snake looks that much more like Big Boss, which is a nice touch.

In addition to the solid eye, you also have your own Metal Gear following you around which adds another aspect to the gameplay.  Normally its invisible, however you can activate it and use it to access areas Snake is unable to access on his own, or sneak past enemies that Snake wouldn’t have been able to get around.   I must admit, playing the game on easy, I didn’t use it a whole lot, but I can see how it could be very useful on the higher difficulty levels, and on my second play through I’m determined to try and get more use out of it.

It goes without saying that the graphics in this game are fantastic, however there’s also a real atmosphere to what’s going on.  Whether you’re trying to sneak around the war-torn middle east, follow someone around a city or the climatic fight against Liquid Ocelot these things are perfectly realised, with the final fight especially having a real epic and dramatic quality that you’d expect from the series.

As the conclusion to the Patriots (and most likely Solid Snake’s) storyline, its also nice to see all the returning characters.  Most of the MGS cast turn up throughout the game, and Vamp’s storyline from MGS2 is picked up on.  However, brilliantly there was also the return to Shadow Moses Island in the fourth act. There was a real nostalgia buzz to being back in those familiar locations and it all builds to you getting to control Metal Gear Rex, which amazingly still works despite the kicking it took in MGS, and then fight Ocelot who’s in MGS2′s Metal Gear Ray.  Complete fan service, but so much fun and one of my favourite sequences from the game.

All in all, I really enjoyed the game, but that was always going to be a given.  I’m keen to go back and replay it on higher difficulty levels so I get more out of the gameplay now that I’ve seen the cutscenes and know the story.  While a side of me still prefers running around facilities like Shadow Moses and the Big Shell to some of the open areas of this game, there’s a lot of new aspects to the gameplay here that I’m looking forward to playing with more.

I am wondering, if we can expect an expanded edition like MGS2 Substance.  I always loved the VR missions and that kind of thing.  And if they added in some trophies that’d be good.  Having played a few games on my PS3 now I missed them popping up.

Originally I really wasn’t going to get Modern Warfare 2.

Initially I was put off by the RRP.  £55 is a heck of a lot of money for one game.  Thankfully most places are selling it for more normal prices.

However when the footage of the now-infamous airport level was released, I was really put off.  In a way, that was a testament to to the developers, but for me it was too realistic, and I had no interest in playing something like that.  I don’t mind playing games like GTA or the like, because I’ve always viewed there being an almost cartoony aspect to a lot of the violence.  However Call of Duty has always prided itself on its realism, and for me they got it too right, and it felt a little to much like they were trying to generate some controversy.  I didn’t see why it couldn’t have been a cut scene.  Yes, the ability to completely skip the level is built into the game, and you’re prompted about it when you start a campaign, and again before the level itself, but to be honest, if you do skip it, it derails the story, as the events in that level are pretty vital to what happens next.

However, despite this, I’ve still ended up with the game.  I’d played it at someone else’s house, mostly split-screen multiplayer and enjoyed that part of the game immensely.  With most of my friends buying it and raving about the online play, I was starting to crack before I was finally bought the game as a gift.

So outside of that level?

Well, the game is brilliant.  The single player storyline carries on well from the first game, and is filled with great characters, and epic moments.  Visually, its stunning as well, and the storyline seems designed to take advantage of the visuals and effects the next generation consoles can offer.

There’s also a Special Ops mode, which can be played either solo, or cooperatively with a friend or online.  It presents a series of challenging missions, all of which have the roots in the single player campaign, but they provide a great way to get a quick fix with more of a focus to them than the regular online modes.  There’s a great amount of variety in the missions, with the mission where you’re at the sub base defending your position with sniper rifles and claymores being a personal favourite.

The online play is, of course, what is going to get the most milage in the game.  There’s a wide variety of game modes, and the now-standard system of levels and unlocks is in place.  You’re able to unlock a wide variety of weapons and equipment, not just through gaining levels, but also through completing a series of specific challenges, which really add to the experience of the online play as you’re not just running around trying to kill other players or capture a flag.

Overall, I really love playing the game online.  The basic Team Deathmatch has been my game of choice, as I quite like the idea that not all the other players are trying to kill me.    However it has to be said, the online play swings wildly between incredibly fun, and a complete waste of time.

The infrastructure in place for the online play is excellent.  The maps are varied, the selection of equipment and challenges extensive, and the killstreak rewards add a lot to the gameplay.  However I’ve found game balance can be a real issue.  Its not unheard of to have a team of level range 18-30 in against a team of range 50-70.  There doesn’t appear to be anything in place to mix things up depending on the players own abilities.

It also doesn’t help that I’m not brilliant at these games.  I enjoy them, and I think I can be passable at them, but when it comes down to it, my reflexes and hand/eye coordination is no match for most of the people playing this game.   A large percentage of the online playerbase is incredibly, incredibly good at this kind of game, and have been playing it a lot, so now they now know all the maps like the back of their hand.  This means if you’re a new player, or not as good, then online play can just be an exercise in frustration as you spawn-die-spawn-die in a never-ending loop.  It does mean that some days playing Modern Warfare 2 online is just an exercise in frustration, and I’ve ended up quitting the game more than once as a result.

To be fair, that’s not a problem with Modern Warfare 2.  Its an issue with all these types of games.  I remember my one attempt to play the first Modern Warfare online.  The game had been out for a good while, so the rest of the player base was really established.   After 5 dull minutes of constantly watching respawn timers after being repeatedly killed, I quit and never bothered with the online play ever again.  However, saying that, online play is where a lot of longevity for these games is now, and when you factor in the cost of the game, that’s an issue worth considering.   In an ideal world it’d be nice to see some level-restricted game modes added for example.  World at War did this by having a Bootcamp option where only people level 1-8 could play, in order to let them get started without being sniped by level 70s and I thought it was a great idea.

Despite the ups and downs of online play though, I still find myself drawn to it, as when you manage to end up in with a decently matched group, its so much fun.   And for those days, when you just can’t be bothered with online play, then you’ve got the option of the special ops, or the single player.  Or heck, if you still want that online experience without the constant respawning, there’s the option to play the single player campaign co-operatively with people online, so there’s loads of gameplay options.

Modern Warfare 2 is a brilliant game.  The only real issue I’ve got with it remains that airport level, however everything else surrounding it is incredibly well crafted.

But when will they do a version of Nazi Zombies for it?  That was the best part of World at War.  :D