Quick Hit Review of Shellshock 2: Blood Trails

Back in 2004 a game was released for the PS2, Xbox,and PC titled Shellshock: Nam ‘67 developed by Guerrilla Games the same developer of Killzone 1 and the most recent Killzone 2, and published by Eidos of Tomb Raider and Hitman fame. Much like Killzone, Nam ‘67 was hyped as a gritty,realistic,war game. Just like Killzone the game didn’t live up to the hype due to clunky gameplay and bad cutscenes. It is now 2009 and Eidos is attempting to redeem the woes of the first game.

                “What do you mean a different developer?”

Since Guerrilla Games was too busy working on Killzone 2 Eidos enlisted Star Wars:Renegade Squadron and supposed Star Wars: Battlefront 3 developer Rebellion to make the sequel to Nam ‘67 titled Shellshock 2: Blood Trails. All I have to say based off of their performance on this game is that I am worried for Battlefront 3.

        “The Equivalent Of A Straight-To-DVD Movie”

If you have ever seen an awesome movie and then seen the straight-to-DVD movie where the plot sucks, there are no ties to the original film,and it is just ridiculous in a bad way. This game is the equivalent of a straight-to-DVD movie.

            “Survival Horror? You’ve got to be fu*#@ing kidding me”

The first Shellshock was a war game and if you pick up this game without having checked online sources like IGN or GameSpot you will be sorely disappointed with what you find in this game. Shellshock 2 Blood Trails is not at all a war game but a survival horror game. Wait survival horror WHAT THE FUCK! ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME! Well you play as some army dude who’s brother is among the ravening zombies who are tearing everybody in Nam apart whether they are GI or Cong. And there is this whole operation Whiteknight and nobody cares. This game is a piece of steaming crap. It is BS that there is a game on the 360 that is uglier than Dead Rising a game that came out three years ago. There is not a single good thing about this game. It so bad that I am ending the review now.

This game gets a 1.0 out of 10 this piece of crap should be avoided at all costs.

Quick Hit Review-Lord Of The Rings: Conquest Review

“One Ring To Rule Them All“

Pandemic Studios the development studio behind Star Wars Battlefront 1 & 2 (and possibly 3) is back to the Battlefront type of game with Lord Of The Rings: Conquest for the PS3 and 360. Conquest is basically like Battlefront 2 in that you can play two campaigns, one is a light campaign and the other is a dark. With the light side going through the three movies and the dark side goes through an alternate storyline of if Frodo never destroyed the ring.

“Almost Exactly Like Battlefront II”

The only difference between this game and the two Battlefront games is that it’s Lord Of The Rings. But that’s not such a bad thing since Battlefront I and II are great games. One of the best things about this game are the two campaign’s mostly due to the fantastic VO from Hugo Weaving, also as in BF 2 there are cutscenes from the films in between missions. In addition to that there are hero’s you can play as if you get a certain amount of kills or are the MVP of the game, there is the Instant Action mode in which you can play any game type on any map.

“Repetivo”

One of the flaws of this game is that it gets repetitive pretty quickly so this is not a game that should be played for a long period of time.

Closing Comments

Lord Of The Rings Conquest is a fun game that is repetive and sometimes frustrating that could’ve been better than it’s Battlefront counterparts. The only people who should get this game are fans of the Franchise. I give this game a 7.5 out of 10

Hits

• Fun Game
• Great VO
• Evil Campaign FTW
• Killing Hobbits is a Blast.

Misses

• Game Gets Repetitive
• Sometimes Frustrating
• Embarassing Multiplayer

That’s How We Roll In The Shire.

Brothers In Arms:Hells Highway Review

World War II games are very common in today’s video game market and alot of them are good and bad this is the case with Brothers In Arms:Hells Highway for the Xbox 360 and the PS3 there are good and bad things about this game, but overall it comes out good.

In BIA you play Matt Baker and the game revolves around your squad and how everything in the game affects Baker.You can definitely compare this game to the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers. An example is the way the missions are introduced and also the general tone of the game feels like the lost episode of Band of Brothers.

The Quick Hit Review

The whole hitting point of BIA is to literally put you in Baker’s shoes in every way you will learn things that you never knew if you’ve played any game in the series, and you’ll learn new things if your new to the series yourself. Another part of the game is giving the player total control and rewarding them for this. The tactical commands work out mostly with you sending one team a certain way to distract the enemy and commanding the bazooka team to turn those German’s into little bits of red sauerkraut. But there will be times when your soldiers will jump over objects when they can safely run around in it or just standing in the open and you will suffer for this. Some of the rewards said are the action cam kills in which you shoot someone in the head or have an explosion go on near them the action camera will slow down everything for a few seconds. The other reward is the gore, this game along with SoF:Payback is one of the goriest games for the next gen consoles. You will shoot some enemies from a distance and when you pass their bodies you can notice they lost a leg or arm, I shot someones hand off with a machine gun. Another example is a scene where you go into a room and peoples arms are off there was even a guy with a side of his stomach missing. With all of these good things I’ve said there are bad things about this game, the A.I in this game isn’t the best you will alot of times be able to take them out without having to use the tactical commands. The graphics in this game are bad in many ways there is texture pop-in all throughout the game and this game has that “look” of the Unreal Engine that was in games like Mass Effect, Blacksite:Area 51, and others. Maybe if this game ran on the source or even havok physics engine it could help when you can’t take cover behind certain things.

Pros

1. GORE! GORE! GORE!
2. Good Story
3. Closest To Band Of Brothers Game

Cons

1. Texture Pop-In
2. Bad A.I.
3. Some Places Can’t be used for cover
4. Teamates make dumb mistakes

7.0 out of 10

I recommend this game to World War II fanatics, fans of Band of Brothers, and shooter fans.

And at least this isn’t a sci-fi shooter.