Advanced Warfare Impressions

Hi guys,

I have now had Advanced Warfare(or AW as I will be referring to it as) for a few days now, and have put a good number of hours into the game, so I thought it was time for me to bring my initial reaction of the game to you, though I will only be talking about the multiplayer side of the game today, you will learn about what I think of the rest of the game in my full review later this month! Also I have played AW on the PS4 so that is what I will be referring to. Let's start with the most obvious change in the CoD series history, the exo suite, for from reading about it or watching some footage of the multiplyer you will not fully understand what a difference that the exo makes. I know going into playing for the first time I was quite anxouis that the movement would be hard to control, and I wouldn't be using it much, however within a few matches I came to the realisation that this game really is the comeback year for CoD. The movement, I find, is pretty easy to pick up, as long as you remember that you can only exo boost every 3 seconds, and you have 2 boosts, so you can boost twice, but then wait 3 seconds for one to regenerate, and another 3 seconds for the other boost to regenerate. Any time you are in the air(quite  alot) you can press sprint in any direction and you will boost in that direction. While you are on the ground you can boost any where in the 180 degrees behind you, so left, right and behind.
       With all of the new movement, how are the maps? Well, they are just as amazing as the movement, you never feel like you are to far from the action, this feeling is amplified by the fact that you can traverse the map very quickly. There is alot of verticality to all of the maps, but I haven't come across many if any people camping in hard to reach spots. The rate of progression is very nice, and though I have played in 2XP I am already at level 30! There are the new supply drops, which though very fun when you earn one, they are too random to be anything more that a side fancy. Which is a real shame because the system of random loot, is a very appealing one, especially as you can do just as well, with the standard weapons, they just maybe aren't quite right for you, but there is probably a variation out there to suit you!
     Moving on to the weapons, they are all highly satisfying to use, from the 12 hours or so I played of Ghosts, all the weapons had no personality to them. Where as in AW there are so many weapons which feel like they do something different from the rest, you have the BAL-27(OP? Yes!) which shoots the first 5 or so bullets at a slower rate of fire. You have the AK-12 which is a nice all round weapon, but doesn't exceed at any one thing. You have the HBRA3, which has a rather slow rate of fire, but you feel like each bullet is packing a noticeable punch, but don't try to take it into a close range engagement. Moving on the the SMGs, I have only really used the KF5 and the ASM1 a little, the KF5 really does feel like a pole apart from the ARs, and though all SMGs need a buff they are still usable in the right scenario now. With the increased rate of fire and approximately 10% increase movement speed while holding an SMG, you feel totally different from when you are using an AR. And the ASM1 is a modern take on the Tommy Gun, which is an absolute blast to use.
      You then have the most diverse create-a-class system to date, the Pick 13 system, it is the same as BOII's pick 10 system, but this time score streaks count as one point, so for me(someone who doesn't go on many kill streaks) I am running with a UAV and Carepackage, and going into the fray with one more perk. Speaking of score streaks, you can now tweak your streak to how you want it to be, there are about 6-7 modules you can attach to a score streak, each of which adds to the score you must earn before you earn said streak, so for me I am running UAV with player direction and support(progress towards the streak carries on after death) and a Care Package with Better Odds and Support. This means that I am guaranteed to earn at least 2 score streaks per match. The depth with which you can customise your streaks to be how you want them to be is really amazing, and don't worry, you can only add support to a hand full of streaks, and non of the high streaks!
      Now we have talked about all the awesome things in the game, let's talk about the very low number of things that I don't like with AW. It really boils down to two things, firstly there are some pretty bad spawns, I have spawned in the line of sight of enemy players, I have spawned on the exact spot on which I just died, though this hasn't annoyed me as much as I thought it would. The game is just so fun to play that these occasional free deaths don't really bug me. The other annoying thing I have found(though you should note again that all my thoughts are before any patches have been released) is occasional severe frame rate drops and extreme lag, these session last for between 10-20 seconds, in which time I reckon I was getting about 5 frames per second! Such instances occur too often for me to dismiss them as nothing, but it is possible that the issue was fixed in the patch on 11/11/14. One last note, the reason I haven't spoken about the new game modes in AW, I due to the fact that I have only been playing Hardpoint, so you will know my thoughts on Uplink and Momentum in my full review!
That just about wraps us my impressions of Advanced Warfare, it is very very good, I would highly recommend anyone picking it up, whether you are a CoD veteran or new to the series, this is the time to get into it!
Thanks for reading,
Ed
P.S I'm back!
    

E3 2014: What To Expect

Hi guys,
 The time is nearly upon us, the time when all players unite under the banner of proud gamers. I'm sure you are aware that I am talking about E3, the global trade show where we are treated to an insight of what we will all be playing later this year in into the next! So I thought I would give all you internetians a run down of the games we know will be at E3, and the ones I suspect will be there. Without further ado let the predictions commence:

  Battlefield Hardline: If you have kept your eye on my site recently you will have read my thoughts on the announcement trailer for the next Battlefield game. If you haven't had a chance to watch the trailer then you can rectify your mistake at the EA conference(which is live at 8:00 PM on Monday the 9th of June) where the trailer will be officially released. Bearing in mind the trailer has already leaked I wouldn't be surprised to see some extra gameplay to be able to show something new for everyone who has already see the trailer.

  Destiny: This game is probably my highest anticipated game of the year(because we don't have many facts about BF Hardline), so I can't wait to see what new Destiny we will be receiving. I believe new Destiny gameplay will be shown off during the Playstation conference at 2:00 AM UK time on Tuesday the 10th of June. Bungie are absolute masters of feeding us enough information to stop us going insane but not enough to stop you coming back for more. I believe and hope that E3 will start the beginning of harder facts coming out the doors of Bungie, but for that, we will have to wait.

  Assassins Creed Unity: This year all Assassins Creed fans are being treated to 100% more Assassins games coming from Ubisoft, yes that is right we will be getting one AC game for last gen consoles, and then Unity will be gracing the walls of next generation owners. Last year at E3 Ubisoft dropped the non to small bomb shell of naval combat on us. That led on to be an integral part of the game, so what will they be treating us to this year? I wouldn't go in expecting as much of a game changer as the naval combat, but I would like to see the introduction of a new gameplay mechanic that we haven't seen before. What ever we see, it will be at 9:00 PM on Monday the 9th of this very month!

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare: As with every E3 for as many years that I have seen, Activision and this year Sledgehammer Games will show of 1-2 single player missions for us to watch in irritation that they haven't shown us the thing that everyone buys the game for, the multiplayer. I would really like to see Sledgehammer games burst out of the fence and show us a multiplayer match played directly from the show floor. No matter what we are show it will with a doubt be at the Xbox conference which is on at 5:30 PM Monday the 9th of June!

  The Division: Last E3 the crowds were stunned into silence when we got our first look at The Division at Ubisofts conference, ever since then the information scene has been desolate. This scene took a turn for the worst when it was announced that the game was being pushed to 2015, I suspect we will be seeing this game on our shelves around this time next year. Delays aside, E3 should signify the start of the trailer tirade that Ubisoft are known for, which isn't always a bad thing. We should be seeing a brand new demo at the Ubisoft conference(which is on at 11:00 PM Monday the 9th of June) and maybe get a solid release date, but I doubt that immensely!

  Batman Arkham Knight: This game was announced out of the blue only a few months ago, but within hours of it being announced it had shoe horned it's way into many people top games of the year list, mine included. I am fairly confident in saying that we will be seeing more of this game in less than 2 weeks let's hope Rocksteady have got some awesome battle arena gameplay to show us!

 The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt: Now that we know that this  beast of a game will be released on February the 24th of next year, it is unlikely we will be seeing any more of this game during the period of E3, however there is a possibility that we will get another trailer, or maybe even a gameplay walkthrough! This game probably won't be appearing at any of the conferences, so keep your eye of any videos coming from CD Projeckt RED's doors.

  Dragon Age Inquisition: I must admit to never having played a Dragon Age game, but ever since Mass Effect 3 changed my perspective on how a game can tell its story, I have been eager to play any other games from Bioware. I would really like to see some more gameplay for this game. When the game is being released in October it wouldn't be too much to expect to see a sizable chunk of gameplay shown off at EA's conference.

  Evolve: This is one of the few games that I have gone from very little excitement to one of my top 3 games coming this year. The scope of the game is truely asstonishing, and I can't wait to get my hands on it. I have never played games similar to Left for Dead so this game will be an introduction into a new genre of games, and I am waiting with baited breath for the game to hit our shelves. No matter how good the game will be I expect to see this game making an appearance at E3, maybe we will see it at one of the 2 main conferences(Microsoft and Playstation) but we may just get some over the shoulder gameplay taken from a demo on the show floor, though we don't even know if we will be getting our hands on that!
  So that brings me to the end of my run up to E3 2014, as always the star of the show will be the games that we haven't yet seen at all, so no matter your console preference you really should tune into all of the conferences, I know I will be!
 On one last note, I would like to list the games that I hope will be at E3, but we don't know a single damn thing about them, Mass Effect 4, Bioshock 4, Elder Scrolls VI, Fallout 4 and The Next XCOM Game.
Thank you very much for reading if you are planning to be vocal about your thought through out E3 please bear in mind that this expo is for gamers all together, not just fanboys and fangirls of one console.
Ed
What games are you looking forward to seeing? Let me know if the comments!

Run up to E3 2013: Part 3

Hi guys
This is the third and final part of my run up to E3, as this will be going live on the first day of E3. The three games I will be covering this time are, Call of Duty Ghosts, Drive Club and Killzone: Shadow Fall. Right, let's get into it.
   

First up under the spot light is Call of Duty Ghosts, this game is the 10th instalment in the franchise and one which I think this could be a defining moment in CoD history. The main reason why is the fact that it will be available to buy on the next generation of consoles(PS4 and Xbox One). This is a massive step forward in terms of the graphics we will be experiencing, we have already been told that the game is set in the near future with futuristic tech. Non of which you will be able to use. No you will be forced(for some unknown reason) to use modern day(2013) weapons. There is the possibility though that the game will be the same rinse and repeat formula from previous games. I can understand that to a point, but I think that infinity ward have been given an opportunity to make the first CoD for Next Gen consoles, and I really hope the don't pass up on it, by making the game the same as previous years.

This is Drive Club, a game which has every possibility of stealing the title of Best Driving Simulator straight from the head of Gran Tursimo. Yes this is a game that looks better than any car game currently available. Which you would expect from a game working for a console like the PS4. Since its announcement at the PS4 announcement, we have heard very little about this game. All we know is that it had hyper cool graphics, and there will be a heavy social feature in built. Other than that we know nothing! I am pretty comfortable in saying that this game will be shown of at Sony E3 media briefing.

Last but very much not least Killzone Shadow Fall, this game looks beautiful. End of. There is no doubting the graphical qualities of this game. Every since it was first announced at the PS4  reveal, I have been waiting for E3, for many reasons. One of which is this game, it was probably the longest demo for a game at the reveal, and by god did it make an impression. There have been 3 killzones before this one in the main series and all of them have got very good write ups from critics. I have never had the pleasure of playing one of these games, but this may well be my first! This game will also be in all lightly hood featured at Sonys E3 media briefing, and I can't wait to see what they have in store for us.

      As I am writing this the Microsoft media briefing is about to start. Well I say good luck to Microsoft, because I really think they are going to need it.

Thanks for reading

Ed