Call Of Duty: Black Ops Downloadable Content "First Strike" Review.

It’s been a week since the release of Call of Duty Black Ops' first DLC content, which was made available to xbox360 gamers only, and what an exciting week it’s been! Of course, we all knew that there’d be five new maps, meaning choosing the best one will be down to personal opinion.
Berlin wall. This is the first of the five maps. This map’s colours offer very little in the way of variety, with Treyarch’s usual brown, greys, and greyee-browns being made visible. Despite this, the map plays well, especially for Domination game type, with the B flag being situated in the middle of ‘no man’s land’ famously guarded by the Automatic Sentry guns, which feature in the game; making it very hard to capture. Furthermore, the map provides excellent vantage points, buildings surround the snowy ground making difficult paths, especially in high traffic areas. On the whole, this map is better suited to the Ground War playlist.
Discovery is our second multiplayer map, a snowy military base beneath the green shimmer of the northern lights. Discovery has some partly destructible bridges, making for some entertaining capture the flag. It is, however, a very slow map – especially whilst playing Team Deathmatch, and that combined with half the enemy team using Ghost, can lead to a very long and boring game.
Next is Kowloon. This map is set in Hong Kong and is great for all combat due to its high buildings and long paths. Two zip lines in the map allow the player the ability to travel from one side to the other, however travelling on these lines can expose you to to the enemy for an easy kill. Due to its small size, it is perfect for short range combat; however note that there are multiple long lines of sight. The player should be wary that there are numerous entrances to many of the buildings, including climbing over obstacles and through windows. The map also features several high rooftops and posts to snipe from. However Kowloon includes some very silly design, as the Domination points such as B, are positioned so that it is very easy to capture, defeating the point of having a B flag.
Stadium is the final map in the multiplayer category Stadium will seem the most familiar to all. An ice hockey complex, the colours on this map are very vibrant and happy, and I believe will prove to be the favourite map of many players! It's a map filled with winding routes through the main concourse, but it's also punctured by narrow corridors that lead to open windows where camp-friendly players are a little too protected from the high intensity action downstairs. It's a fast-paced map for sure, with some awfully risky spawns, but in the whole very exciting to play and may replace nuke-town for the favorite map on black ops position.
Finally: Ascension this is last, but certainly not least, Treyarch’s third map of the Zombie onslaught. There’s not much to say about this map. It is certainly the best zombie map so far, with new features being introduced such as; the ‘Gersch Device’, this is a "Black Hole bomb," that can be deployed very easily, it sucks the Zombies into another dimension, destroying them all, which give you a change to regroup with your friends. Also without giving to much away there are a few edition such as the Russian dolls that fit inside each other called Matyroska dolls, these are essentially cluster frags and also some other new perks. They have also substituted the dogs and the scientist for perk stealing monkeys, these are very annoying as they will steal
your perks with no refunds and they will also move the perk spawners. Unfortunately there is a lack of good places to camp at, but overall this is a very good map with good potential to get to high rounds.
On the whole, First Strike offers a lot to both competitive gamers, with some exciting new maps including the slightly larger than normal maps which can allow some sniping for those wanting a challenge. And offers a lot to newer gamers who are just after a bit of fun with the new zombie map which is a lot better to play then the other two maps and just a lot more enjoyable. On the whole i would recommend getting this downloadable content as it is well worth it!
Sorry for the extra long post i just wanted to fit it all in. Hope you enjoyed, and I hope it helped those PS3 gamers who haven't decided whether to buy it or not.

Call Of Duty: Black Ops STILL Has Problems!

It's been 3 months since the latest CoD game came out breaking all sorts of records, making over £400million pound in the first week. And after 3 months of many gamers loving the new, game there are still thousands of complaints a day because of the many problems that gamers are experiencing.
There are complaints of people being thrown out of games, games freezing, connection issues, problems trying to join friends, and other various problems. Even i have experienced problems with the games online mode which can be very frustrating especially if your playing well, or have done something exciting and want to view it in theater mode but then you get kicked out the game for bad connection and the video isn't available.
The Xbox360 PC and PS3 are all affected by these glitches but it's the PS3 that is worst affected.
Activison have released several updates and patches to try and overcome this but not all the problems have been sorted and I now believe that its very likely these problems will never be solved or in fact maybe they can't be solved!
Many CoD fans have been known to go back to the earlier games, statistics show that there are becoming less and less people playing Black Ops each day and more and more playing CoD 4,5 and 6.
The future of black ops looks to be going exceptionally downhill, but maybe a big patch could rescue the game? Or the new map pack, first strike (review coming soon) which is now out for Xbox360? Well who knows? Only time can help, but I really hope Activison sort it out as it's great fun to play online but only with a good connection or when playing with friends.

Dead Space Aftermath, Possibly the Worst Film Ever?

So as you will most likely know Dead Space 2 was out last week, unfortunately I haven't played it yet but hopefully I will be doing very soon as the first one was great fun and terrifying to play. Anyway, back to my post. Today I heard there was going to be a film about it so I looked into it. And my God it looks like the worst film ever, so corny and cheesy.

Dead Space Aftermath is the sequel to Dead Space Downfall, both of them are animated films and both of them look truly boring. I mean why ruin a perfectly good game by making it into an awful film. The trailer is extremely unrealistic, with a girl walking straight in front of the zombie/monster and not noticing it until it rips her guts out, this is a great let down after all the time and effort that Visceral have put into there game play. This film could have had so much potential and have been an extremely scary film but sadly not, oh well back to playing Amnesia I guess.

Hand-held Devices of 2011

The hand-held marketplace has been very similar for the last decade, but 2011 looks to change that, and here is what I think are going to be the top hand-held devices of 2011:

• The AppleiPhone4. The iPhone is a great seller still for Apple, and it is used by a lot of people for the apps. The app "Angry Birds," has had over 4million buyers making its producers a lot of money.
• The Sony PSPgo. This is basically just a new model for the PSP, not really worth buying if you already have a PSP but still a nicer design and slightly clearer game play and navigation.
• The Nintendo 3DS, this is the newest handheld console out by Nintendo, this is probably what I'm most excited about as it boast to be the first hand-held console to have 3D and even better you don't need to wear glasses!
• The classic NintendoDSi. Which we have all seen before, this sold nearly twice as many sets as the PSP this year.
• The SonyPSP3000, a slimmer upgrade for the PSP, supposed to have better graphics than the NintendoDS, and has included Skype software.
• The Sony NGP (stands for Next Generation Portable) This is basically the PSP2 with a few added features.

Looks like the marketplace for hand-held gaming could vastly change this year, I think the Nintendo 3DS will make the biggest difference.

Sony Unveils PSP2!

At a special conference in Tokyo, Sony company bosses revealed that they are in the making of the PSP2, it is to be called the NGP, which stand for Next Generation Portable. It is expected to be out towards the end of 2011, but there are no details to how much it will cost.

The device itself has a 5-inch OLED touch screen, as well as wi fi and built in 3g to allow the gamer to download games and other content. The design (182.0 x 18.6 x 83.5mm) includes a rear panel touch pad for some reason and a motion sensor. There is a camera on the front and on the back, it features the usual buttons for navigation and for the first time ever two analogue sticks.

Sony hopes that this will be enough to win over customers from the Nintendo, but I highly doubt that with Nintendos latest hand-held console, the Nintendo 3DS.

Nintendo 3DS will Revolutionise the Hand-held Console Marketplace

The Nintendo 3DS is going to be available for purchase in Europe on the 25th of March and may be a few days later for America. It will cost around £200.

So that's quite expensive for a hand-held device, but believe me, it's well worth the money.

The Nintendo3DS is the first hand-held device which comes in 3D, and not only is it in 3D but it is the first device the means you don't have to wear 3D glasses, you will still be able to have the whole 3D experience without the glasses! Sounds awesome!

The device includes two cameras, and two screens like the Nintendo DSI. The top screen will have a resolution of 800x240 pixels, the bottom screen will be 320x240 pixels. The new features include a slide pad, a motion sensor and a gyro sensor (which is similar to a motion sensor)

The console comes with a 2GB memory card and a 10cm 3DS touch pen. Its lithium ion battery can be charged either in the charger stand that comes with it or the AC adapter.

But the main reason people are getting hyped up about this is simply the 3D, 3D without glasses could revolutionise the electronics marketing. I can't wait to see this!

Gears Of War 3

Gears Of War 3 is going to be released for Xbox360 in Autumn of 2011. It was supposed to be released on April the 5th but had to be pushed back a bit.
The beta version comes with the Bulletstorm game epic edition. This will cost the same as the normal version of Bulletstorm and is available on Xbox360, PS3 and PC. The bundle will be out on the 25th of February in Europe and 3 days before in the USA.

Gears of War 3 Beast Mode.

Without playing the beta version there is little that can be said about Gears of War 3, but there is a small amount of game footage and a few trailers that we can watch to get a bit of information about the game. It looks to me like there could be some elements of Halo in there from the Dust to Dust trailer (which is a classic Gears of War trailer that you should check out) The trailer shows a big monster pop out of the ground and kill some lambent (the aliens your fighting) this reminds me of the flood in Halo which just seemed to ruin the game and annoy the gamer. But hopefully that won't happen to Gears. Also following the sequel's online gaming there has been a new addition of a game mode called "beast mode." This is where you seem to be in control of the monsters from the campaign. But still this is shrouded in mystery, I guess we will find out more when the beta edition is out in February, be sure to stay tuned to find out the latest information about GoW3.

Assassins Creed Brotherhood Chest Capture on Pienza (Review Of DLC)

So this is a quick look at the new downloable content brought out by Ubisoft for Assassins Creed Brotherhood. The content includes a new map which is called Pienza which features in this video and a new game type called chest capture which is basically capture the flag, so enjoy, and thanks for watching.



The downloadable content was out on thursday and is free for all gamers.The game mode chest capture is a nice edition to the brotherhood game and can provide more variation in the multiplayer but to me it wasn't as good as I had hoped. But the map is brilliant! I love it. One of my new favourite maps!

New Xbox360 Controller By Razer Out Now!

New Razer Contoller

So this is the first look at the new Xbox360 controller by Razer. Razer has come up through the ranks in the last couple of years to establish its position as a serious competitor in the gaming market, they have earned huge amounts of money with in the PC gaming community and now they have come to try and take over the console market, starting off with this new Xbox360 controller that is available for pre ordering nowx

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Extra button on Razer Controller

So what's so good about this controller?
Well first of all as you can see it has an extra button on the back, so there are a total of four buttons and two triggers, these buttons can be assigned to represent any other button on the Xbox controller. This means you could be knifing with one of the buttons and going prone with the other, whilst the other two remain as normal, giving you an advantage over your enemy in first person shooters.
I'm not sure you can see this from the picture but the sticks resistance can be individually customized. This means you can make it more sensitive or less sensitive, so this will be good for being able to keep control on those tricky corners during driving games. And also you may have noticed that the D-pad looks different, this is apparently superior to the previous controllers D-pad, but Razer are still working on perfecting their D-pad.

Sounds brilliant, what's the catch?
Well the problem is the cost the controller is going to be around £35-45. We still cant be sure on the price at the moment but this is a rough estimate, this isn't that much more expensive than a current standard Xbox360 controller.
To conclude, this looks like a great edition to the gaming network and could revolutionise the controller market as it gives you a huge advantage over your foes. I think its well worth the extra money and cant wait to buy one myself. Hopefully it should be in my possession by February, but there is still no confirmed release date. We will just have to wait and see.
Thanks for reading, feel free to ask any questions, but at the moment there is a lot we don't know so don't expect a solid answer.

First Strike Map Pack For Black Ops.

Yes, it’s that time again! With Call of Duty’s latest instalment ‘Black Ops’ losing interest to many CoD fans, Treyarch have recently announced the release of the game’s first map pack, titling ‘First strike’ and to be honest, the name says it all. The map is set to release on 1st February for all Xbox 360 users, because of the fact that Microsoft struck a deal with Activision for the exclusive content to be on the Xbox first, which is all fair enough when Xbox users have to pay for online. There is no confirmed release date for the PC or the PS3
The map pack will retail at 1200 Microsoft points as priced by Activision. This is about $15 or just under £10. This price may seem a little too much for some; however 1 extra map is included this time around, (4 online maps, instead of the normal 3) along with the all important zombie map that will again "freshen" things up.

Discovery - An Antarctic German research station, abandoned from World War II. There are going to be lots of open ground, meaning this might be the first actual map where you can snipe effectively (not to say that you can’t snipe on a map such as Array for example) This looks like a medium/large sized map.

Kowloon – Inspired from the single-player campaign based off of Kowloon city in China. It's a rooftop map. There are lots of windows, however there is little information about this map and there are no images.

Stadium – Hockey rink in north-eastern United States. This looks like it could be a new favourite for most Black Ops players. Again, another medium sized map, with lots of visible obstacles for cover. Its believed that this is going to be one of the most attractive maps in the series to play on, simply because of the colours and buildings.

Berlin Wall – Takes place at Checkpoint Charlie. A battle between East and West Berlin. To be honest, this is a medium sized map with lots of buildings circling a courtyard, which kind of makes me wonder if it’s going to be a little bit like ‘Block’ from Call of Duty 4.

Ascension – The newest zombie map. There haven’t been any details released about this map, however the word ‘ascension’ may be able to give us a clue, it’s a mystical belief that ascension is when somebody (like Jesus) ascends into heaven. Hmmm, you may think! However there are rumours that this may be set in Dallas where the famous assassination of John F. Kennedy took place. Who knows? We’ll have to just wait and see.

Well that's all the information we have for the time being, but will hopefully get more information near the time and for any PS3 owners there will be information up here once is it is available on Xbox360, so come back in February for the full low down of the newest maps and whether they are worth the money.

Assassins creed brotherhood online multiplayer problems.

People have been disappointed with the online on the latest assassins creed by ubisoft. They say there are many problems. There seems to be 3 main problems and I have 3 simple solutions.
The first problem is how long it takes to find a game. Their is nothing you can really do about this except test your connection, but it tends to be the servers fault and their seems to be nothing you can do. I advise backing out and retrying.
The next problem is peoples huds or part of their huds keep disappearing. For me my ranking, number of people chasing me and chase meter all vanished which made playing very hard. To overcome this you should check the settings on the game menu simply press start then go to options, then hud then make sure dynamic hud is off and everything else seems normal. If it still isn't working try turning your console on and off this seems to work most of the time if not be patient and try again tommorow.
The final problem is a complaint about the gameplay. The problem is that the character takes longer to stun somebody than it does to assassinate somebody, this means as your trying to stun them they have already assassinated you. To overcome this I recommend a simple solution, instead of trying to stun them straight throw down a smoke bomb (obviously you will have had to select this ability before hand) then as they are coughing in the smoke you stun them and walk away victorious.
And that's seems to be the main problems for assassins creed. If anybody has any more they want looking into feel free to leave a comment. :) thanks for reading.

A late Christmas day post on the multiplayerness of the new game: Assassins Creed Brotherhood

As I missed my post yesterday I thought I would do it today anyway.
Christmas is about sharing, giving presents, and spending time with your loved one; friends and family. So what better for ubisoft to bring out than assassins creed for Christmas which is two player?
Right?
Wrong. Despite the name assassins creed brotherhood the game is still one player. Ubisoft has installed new online gaming for their latest game but this is also one player and lacks in fine details. It seems that the time taken to find a game is a very long process but when you find a game it's amazing and great fun to play, as you sneak around trying to kill your target whilst running from somebody assassinating you. This is all fun as long as your hub doesn't strangely vanish for the game. But otherwise the online is a great addition but still not two player online unless you play on separate consoles in a party.
Even though the game disappoints with deceiving the gaming community by not delivering multiplayer it is still one of my favourite Christmas games (along with call of duty black ops, which will soon get a review of it's own) The campaign for Brotherhood is brilliant and the game play is truely brilliant. But the story line, without giving any spoilers, is similar to the other two assassins creed games and is quite short but still the game is a definate competitor for SINGLE player game of the year.
Thanks for reading i will soon be uploading some game footage and some post from Call of Duty Black Ops