It had fast cars, intriguing storyline, and beautiful scenery. I’m sure a lot of people, like me, are really excited to return to Los Santos.
One of the most interesting things that I have to point out is the social commentary provided by Rockstar. One of the first things I noticed visually, right off the bat, was the state of the economy- homelessness, signs of stores going out of business, and a home foreclosed. There is clearly going to be an important role played by the current economic status of America, either through ambiance or plot, or both.
This is why I love Rockstar. They always include crucial aspects of our culture in their games. It will be interesting when we look back at their games 50 years from now and be like “Oh, I remember when things were like that” or, realize that some parts of humanity will never change…
Don’t forget to pick up Portal 2, if you haven’t already. You do not want to miss out on this game! The game is pure genius. Dark comedy puzzle game ftw.
As I heard the President’s speech on Sunday night, as he described the death of Bin Laden, I couldn’t help but picture the scenario in my head. It was all Call of Duty-ish, black ops stuff. I pictured the Navy Seals busting in through the windows with a variety of weapons: shotguns, umps, ak-47s, and a flash bang or two. I could imagine the firefight that took place: couches being thrown, pillow feathers flying around the room, tables being used as cover. I even pictured the last bullet, the one that killed him, being fired in slow motion, as the soldier firing it entered bullet time. Okay, this is sort of going to a dark place, by “video gameizing” a real person’s death (though a really evil person’s death), but it makes sense because we have already seen such a type of mission visualized.
That mission is The Bay of Pigs invasion in COD: Black Ops. You are sent in to kill Fidel Castro, but, to be historically accurate, you don’t succeed in the game. I wasn’t a huge fan of the latest installment of COD, but I did appreciate the fact that we were given the opportunity to play a historical mission. There are not many games (WWII games excluded) that let you do this.
Now, will we be able to play Sunday’s mission? Will the epic mission be visualized like The Bay of Pigs has? I think it would be really interesting to see America’s reaction to it- especially from groups that strongly oppose violence in video games or people that just don’t play video games at all but who are extremely patriotic.
Keep in mind that we tried to kill Castro a long time ago, so really that mission in a game didn’t come out until 50 years later. Will it be this long until we hunt down Osama in a game? Then again, video games weren’t around at the time either.
This is why I love video games. They can take us to places that no other medium can. This is a point I strongly believe in and will bring up again and again- but for now I’ll keep this post short.
I’ve learned, in my two decades of existence, that history repeats itself. So, we will definitely be seeing an Osama Bin Laden assassination mission in the future, but who knows when and where. And – dare I ask- will it be right or wrong?
P.S. I proposed the question with Modern Warfare 4 because Sledgehammer Games are already working on MW3, so they would be pressed for time to include it in that one. So MW4 seems like the next viable option. But, really, any game can come out with the mission; I only refer to MW because it is the most prominent game on the subject of “modern warfare.”
Have you ever seen a death so realistic in a game that it made you cringe? Nope? Neither have I. I’m sorry to inform you that you won’t be seeing it in this game either. What you will see though is the exact opposite- the crappiest death animations of this generation. Okay, so you might be wondering why I’m being such a jerk about something so small, so minute, so un-important. Why pick this little detail to point out among a sea of greater flaws??? Well, my theory is that when something trivial, like a death animation, is done poorly, it pretty much reflects the state of the rest of the game.
Even so, is this game worth picking up?
STORY = Awful
The basic premise of the game is that you are given 6 days to save a country, or a man, or both. I don’t really care because judging from just the first minute of cutscenes, the plot had “generic” stamped on its friggin face. I have to give it to Zipper though for trying to add some back-story to the commander, an attempt to puffup this flat character- it almost makes me want to care about the character, almost.
At the end of the day, it’s your typical ‘80s action B-flick, and you probably won’t have a clue as to why you have just killed hundreds of soldiers.
GAMEPLAY = Meh
For an exclusive third-person shooter sequel that is making its debut on the ps3 (as a full-fledged sequel), Socom 4 doesn’t really impress us with anything new. But, there are some elements that do stand out.
THE GOOD
+Tactical elements-> You are given 2 squads through most of the game (consisting of 2 soldiers). One squad specializes in close combat and heavy fire, the other in long range and silent weapons. You can command these squads to do different tasks. You can make your squad move to a specified position where your crosshair points or you can command your group to stick with you. Also, you can command your troops to kill a specified target. With these basic commands you can set up an ambush for an incoming convoy, or you can strategically place your squads during a firefight. Unfortunately, that’s about all you can do with them.
+Covert ops- >A lot of the missions are actually stealth missions. These are by far my favorite. You are given a meter that tells you how noticeable you are to the enemy. It takes into account the amount of light around you and how much noise you are making. It’s no Metal Gear Solid by any means, but the stealth is actually not bad and adds a different type of challenge to the game.
+”Bosses”- >The game does have bosses, sort of. Every couple of levels you fight some military vehicle that greatly overpowers you. A touch of the old days of gaming.
THE BAD
–Lousy AI-> Yes, this game has a bit of the ol’ retarded-AI syndrome. Often times you will probably have to give your commands 2-3 times to your squads before they actually get to where you want them. Sometimes when I gave them kill commands, they would stand behind an obstacle blocking their view and set up there, therefore not being able to execute the shot. There was also inconsistency is some of the stealth missions, though few. For example, sometimes I would get caught while prone in complete darkness, other times I could walk right next to an enemy and they wouldn’t notice.
–Not enough variety- >You can pretty much run-and-gun through the whole game if you like. The game really only has 2 types of levels- stealth and shoot everything you see.
–Weird grenade throw->Who taps for grenade throws nowadays?!? I was like wtf! Threw me off completely, not going to lie. (I’m picky sometimes aren’t I?)
–Horrible cover system-> Cover is called cover because it’s supposed to cover you- from bullets and such. Apparently not so much in this game. I actually died behind cover a couple of times. However, I appreciate the realism of having bullets go through thin objects and the effects bullets have on certain objects. Also, you can’t run and slide/jump into cover in this game, for some odd reason.
–Nothing new-> Besides the tactical squads, we’ve pretty much seen everything else in EVERY other shooter.
MULTIPLAYER = Pretty Cool
You can actually play this for a while. It’s not bad, but it’s not great. I know most people play Socom for the online aspect, and those people will probably not be disappointed. Playing a 32-player match is awesome. Personally, I didn’t have the same feeling as when I played past Socom games, but it was still fun.
GRAPHICS = Meh
So-so. Obviously it looks better than any other Socom game. The good thing is that the game runs smoothly and I never saw a leg fall through the ground.
AUDIO = Meh
Again, nothing special in this department. It still includes the option to have your squads transmission to be heard through your headset- which you have to have on- just because.
WHAT’S THE WORD:PLAY IT!
Whaaaat?!? After all that I’m going to recommend this!?! Well it so happens that I tried this game a different way also –with the ps3 move gun, AKA the sharpshooter. It’s a playstation move gun attachment. Instantly made the game more enjoyable. It turns it into an arcade shooter, sure, but that’s a good thing. Considering there aren’t many shooters out there supporting the move (Killzone 3 being the only other good one I can think of), this is worth trying out.
Kevin Butler shows off the sharpshooter:
If you are going to buy Socom 4: U.S. Navy Seals however, I would have to recommend the Full Deployment edition. You get everything in the move bundle, but also with the sharpshooter attachment and the game. When it comes to playstation move prices this is the best deal out there right now.
