B3yond the Report 11.10.09: It's Modern Warfare 2 Day

Posted by Jon Seddon on 11.10.2009

What do we think of Modern Warfare 2 and how much can you really see with those goggles? We also check out the God of War Collection and examine the rumors of Killzone 3...



This week is Modern Warfare 2 week. I'm not one to succumb to the hype, but despite having it on pre-order I still had my backup plan to get out and get a copy at midnight. Anyway, rest assured, I'm won't let a set of night vision goggles color my view on the most anticipated game of the year. If you're already sick of hearing about it, then perhaps rumors of Killzone 3 might be more interesting

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Modern Warfare 2 Out Now

By the time you read this, the biggest entertainment launch ever will have either just happened or that title will still be held by Grand Theft Auto IV. I'm not sure what it's like Stateside, but here in the UK, the media and retail are working themselves up into a bit of a frenzy with even my local game store staying open to deliver the game to happy punters at midnight. This could work out rather nicely for anyone in the pub, just a few doors down, providing a distraction on their drunken way home. Either they can pick a fight with us geeks standing in line or perhaps join the queue and take their rage out on the PSN.

I received my copy of the night vision equipped Prestige Edition today and I've had a little time to play both the game and the goggles. Completely as expected, the game is absolutely awesome and the glasses; well I wouldn't want to have to rely on them to defend my homeland. It is though pretty bonkers standing in your back garden in total darkness and still being able to see. I got a couple of friends to model them for me - one of them looks like a psychopath and one of them doesn't.



As you're probably aware, the rest of your money for the Prestige Edition goes on Soap's plastic head (to rest your goggles on), an art book and a copy of the original Call of Duty, which is downloading as we speak. I really don't think it's worth the asking price, but the gimmick of the goggles will take at least a couple of week's to get old.

You will probably have your own copies of the game by the time you read this (and will probably be playing it, rather than reading this), but if you haven't then let me tell you that the single player campaign starts with a bang and just explodes from there. Do you like controlling mini guns? How about within the first mission? If you like blood splatter effects in your first person shooters, then IW have delivered the most convincing yet. Despite the game when studied hard looking low-res (and it doesn't run at 720P) in motion it's fluid, beautifully lit and just full of brilliant shooting action. Not entirely sure what magic IW wield but somehow what they're presenting just looks overall better and more exciting than any other FPS out there.

Just like the first game, I expect to be working my way through this pretty solidly this week, although I'll up the difficulty a touch to make sure I'm not done in 6 hours like the first game.



I can't wait to try out the co-op missions and of course I'll be dabbling with the multi player, so if you see me online, try to give me at least a chance before blasting me to bits.

As well as the game arriving, the reviews have also started to arrive with the embargo lifting this morning. Too early to say quite how high up the Meta critic scale it's going to end up, but you'd be daft to bet against it being one of the top games this year.

God of War Collection Comparison

With the God of War Collection out next week, it's time to compare the screenshots to see whether 720P is really going to make a difference. A couple of sites this week have been comparing and contrasting the PS2 version with the PS3 visuals. Bitmob had about the best sampling.

Here's some video footage:

Video Games | God of War Collection | Hydra Battle Gameplay HD

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

If you're not blown away by the graphical improvement, you're not the only one, but remember, you're looking at rather small screenshots and not a 40" HD moving image, which if it really is running at 60 FPS, should make the game look and feel a whole lot smoother. When I played God of War it was already looking better than it originally did, given that it was running on my PS3 upscaled to 1080P, running through an HDMI cable. Therefore, the difference for me will be the game will natively support wide-screen, be running as I said at 60FPS and will also hopefully support Dolby Digital 5.1 surround, although that hasn't been confirmed.

The other major reason to buy this disc is that it is chock full of Trophies with a Platinum available for both games. The release of this game, should it be successful, should be a wake up for Sony and other publishers to re-release their best games, taking advantage of the modern technology. Granted this wouldn't be sensible for a lot of games, particularly ones where the mechanics have dated so badly as to make them miserable play experiences, but I would welcome Ratchet and Clank, Team Ico and Devil May Cry collections.

Even in cases where the game mechanics have aged badly, there may still be scope to return to them and "remaster" them retrofitting modern controls and features. A good example might Beyond Good and Evil, that has terrible camera controls, but then that was a commercial failure, so don't expect that any time soon.

Killzone 3 confirmed?

Another month and another rumored confirmation that Killzone 3 is in production. This time via Eurogamer's German site which reported an interview on Dutch tv with animation director Jan-Bart Van Beek. Not only did he confirm the game was in production, but he also said that we could expect it as early as next year, although 2011 was more likely. Apparently, according to the translation on Six Axis, they weren't under pressure from Sony to get it out next year.



I'm sure most people assume that Killzone 2 is a certain bet, but you can't be sure of anything in these uncertain times. Whilst Killzone 2 was the supposed killer app for PS3 it received mixed reviews and perhaps just broke through the million sales mark. That was when PS3 had a smaller installed base and as far as brand familiarity it's probably up there with any first party name.

I would be cautiously enthusiastic about a third game as I found Killzone 2 to be ultimately a brief and disappointing experience. Despite a rather long development cycle the single player campaign felt rather rushed with only one or two moments of genuine thrill. I never played the multi player game as I really struggled with the floaty nature of the controls, which actually convinced me for a while that I couldn't control FPS games on PS3.



If you can't get enough of all that moody music from the last game, you may like to know that you can now purchase the soundtrack on iTunes.

Wii saved the PS3

A little bit of business analysis between the games news.



This week market research group DFC intelligence published a report entitled, Is it Time for the PS3 to Shine? According to the report, Microsoft focused all of it's attention on winning against PS3 and completely missed the charge of Nintendo. I don't think many people would argue about that, but what they postulate is that, "The main danger Sony faced was that the Xbox 360 would become embedded as the system of choice. Instead consumers flocked to the Nintendo Wii. The Xbox 360 had solid sales, but they have not been enough to give Microsoft anywhere near a breakout market position. In many respects, Sony was saved by the success of the Wii."


It's difficult to say whether sales of Wii harmed Microsoft or helped Sony, but I think we've ended up in a pretty healthy situation. The 360 does have a lead on PS3, but it's not as dominate as to let Microsoft take it's foot off the gas. Essentially, Sony has kept Microsoft pushing hard and Microsoft has in return stripped Sony of most of its arrogance this generation. For it's part the Wii might have saved the industry from a devastating crash this year, helping to keep publishers in the black, as long as they have a catalogue that appeals to this fickle demographic.

I don't think Wii saved Sony and it is now Nintendo who will have to try harder as this generation starts to return to normality with the hardcore calling the shots again. Let's all hope that motion controls don't give too much power back to the casual audience.

Little Big Planet News

Little Big Planet celebrated its first birthday last week and the guys at Media Molecule thought they would celebrate with some free stuff starting with a birthday cake costume. They were also making a fuss about the return of the really rather cool space suit costume which is also free. Perhaps it was free a while ago and is free again as I've got it and I haven't made a habit of buying stuff for Little Big Planet.



Despite continued strong support by the developers and the community the chance of a sequel in the near to medium term seems pretty slim. In an interview with Critical Gamer level designer Danny Leaver said, "We'd never want to do that. That'd be the most counterproductive thing you could do I think."

That might well be the case, but you can't continue to create new tools and content unless you can also turn this into a constant and rewarding revenue stream and perhaps that's where Little Big Planet PSP comes in, which will be released next week. I've already talked about the shortcomings of the portable version in a previous B3yond the Report, i.e. no multi-player. In it's own way though the PSP could well make for a better game, especially as a single player experience. I always struggled with playing this ultra cute game on my big butch console, but more than that the levels usually take just a few minutes each to complete which is perfect for the pick up and play nature of my PSP. It seems that the critics like it as well with some very high scores including a 9 out of 10 from the super mean reviewers at Eurogamer. According to reviews the controls have been tweaked to improve the actual platforming experience, which was always the weakest element of the first game and you still get the ability to play, create and share. Win, win, win!

And finally...GT5 better sell well

After years of silence it seems head honcho at Polyphony, Kazunori Yamauchi can't stop talking about their Gran Turismo series. Obviously, he saves all of his best quotes and reveals for car magazines and this week he revealed to Autoweek that Gran Turismo 5 has cost $60 million to make, which is right up there as one of the most expensive games ever made. I have no idea how much it cost to make make Forza 3, but GT5 better be extremely good to justify spending that much money.

Selling a million isn't going to be good enough if they want to make a return on that investment, but I guess they expect to start seeing real profit when GT 6 is released, which will benefit from not having to build a game engine from scratch. Yamauchi confirmed we'll see a sequel and also said we won't have to wait as long this time.



When quizzed on Forza 3 he said he'd played it but thought that it wasn't a proper simulator, which hopefully means that the unreliable handling of the Prologue edition has been improved for the full release.

Asked why we can't have the game now and he said that SCE marketing people control that, so now perhaps we'll get it as soon as they decide rather than when it's done.


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It really might be worth not bothering with the PSN store this week unless your a big fan of Military Madness, which originally came out on the TurboGrafx-16 in 1990, but now is on PS3 and can be yours for $9.99. Numblast keeps it company and provides number puzzling for a slightly more palatable $4.99. I don't think either of them are going to set the world on fire.

If you haven't bought Trine yet, then you may be interested in the demo that's out this week and contains the first two levels, which should be enough to help you decide whether it's your thing.

There is plenty of add-on game content this week with 2 new and temporarily free maps for Brutal Legend, an additional quest for Dragon Age: Origins and a new two new characters for Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2.

The library of digital PSP games is further expanded this week with 11 new titles, including Dissidia, Ghostbusters and Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron and there's also a demo for Motorstorm: Arctic Edge.

Next week might be a whole lot more interesting when much loved XBLA game Braid arrives on the store. Till then spend your time and money on retail games.

Full list at the PlayStation Blog

PlayStation at Retail

I probably don't need to really bother listing what's out this week as you've all just gone and bought Modern Warfare 2. If that's not your thing, then it's slim pickings. If you have a PSP you could check out Badass Rumble. The AC/DC Track Pack was expected last week, but might make it out this week, but I'm not too sure many people are waiting for this, especially as it was out over a year ago at Walmart.

PS3
Rock Band: AC/DC Track Pack (possibly)
Modern Warfare 2
Buzz! Quiz World
Dragon Ball: Raging Blast
Chaotic: Shadow Warriors

PSP
Kenka Bancho: Badass Rumble

PS2
Dora the Explorer: Dora Saves the Crystal Kingdom
Rock Band: AC/DC Track Pack (possibly)
Pro Evolution Soccer 2010

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What I've Been Playing

I've not played very much this week or at least not that much I can really talk about, which makes it sound like I've been playing loads of really cool games that you won't be playing for ages. That's not the case, but when I'm playing so many games that I'm going to review, I don't really want to say too much about them here. Obviously, I've been playing Modern Warfare 2 like mad today, but I've already mentioned that.

Band Hero. Initially I thought this was just teeny pop songs and so avoided it like the plague, but on closer inspection it contains some decent songs. This might actually be the most enjoyable band based game since Rock Band 2. I never really liked the track listing on Guitar Hero 5 or Smash Hits and whilst the Beatles was good, it was over in a few days. This game has 65 tracks and lets you play games you've downloaded and games off the other Hero games discs, as long as you pay the fee to transfer them to your hard drive.

It basically has all the improvements from Guitar Hero 5, including the improved graphics and the ability to play any combination of instruments. Whether this is for you is entirely down to whether you want more rhythm action and/ or love the track listing. I for one love playing a bit of Jackson 5, Bowie and Lily Allen.

What we haven't loved is how unreliable the Activision drum kit has been. The original kit came with Guitar Hero: World Tour and that lasted for about 9 months, but since then the cymbals seem to become unresponsive every 2 or 3 weeks to the point that drums become unplayable on expert. We're about to give up after the third set of cymbals and no we're not going to buy the Band Hero Set. The Logitech drums however might just find their way home for Christmas.



Dragon Age: Origins. According to many this is the real deal when it comes to RPGs this year. If you're not of the beardy bent, then a first look at this game might cause you to double take as graphically it looks straight out of PS2 era. Once you've had a period to adjust the the angular characters and really flat lighting you can start enjoying what looks like might turn into a really compelling adventure.



Whilst there's a lot of choice when it comes to your chosen race, the actual amount of initial customization on offer seems limited to games like Oblivion, but that's not really the strength of the game.The hook for me with this game are the Origins stories. Each of the 6 race types in the game has their own separate story which unfolds over the first 2 hours of play. That's key to me, as I'd really like to see each adventure, but I only have time to see one of the them to completion. I plan on starting the game with a few characters and then continuing my quest with the one I prefer from the initial familiarisation quests. To start with I have picked a Dalish Elf, who are a race, in this mythology live in isolation away from the dominant humans. Combat looks like a Bioware action RPG with lots of flailing of limbs and a comical amount of blood that seems to cover your character long after you've finished the battle.

I'm not going to make any more headway with this game till after Christmas, but I think I've seen enough to make it a must play game for the winter months of January and February and if the DLC continues it could last as long as Fallout 3.

Borderlands. This is now my co-op game of choice. My brother and I have put a few hours in during the past week and it's got all the hallmarks of a great game, despite our best efforts to work against each other. To start with you feel hideously undergunned and each enemy seems to take a crazy amount of hits before it goes down, but eventually you start to get better guns and unlock your character's special ability, which in my case is the hawk. Despite a few hours play we haven't got very far, but I love the art style, the general presentation and the idea of an endless amount of weapons to sort through. We're actually stuck on quite an early mission at the moment and we must have spent about an hour trying to put down this one character that seems to regenerate shields faster than we reload. It didn't help that, as I said, we completely failed to coordinate our attacks. However, given a break and time to discuss strategy we were itching to get back into the action, but Thursday is co-op night and before then I'll be playing DJ Hero.

WWE Smackdown vs. RAW 2010. My review is up and can be read here.

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Next week I'll have my DJ Hero verdict and be giving more impressions of Borderlands and Modern Warfare 2. Who knows what Sony will do to upset my carefully laid plans.