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Just want to stop in and say that I have finally beaten Call of Duty. Let me just tell you that I enjoyed every minute of it. It was a very long and difficult road to Berlin but we did it. Hopefully, I will have a Call of Duty review up soon for you peeps. I have already started playing MOH: Breakthrough and Rising Sun, I’m not to excited about either one after playing Call of Duty. Well I hope all you Snackbarians will have a great weekend.
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Ok so I have been in a deep state of gaming these past few days. I have been engulfed with Call of Duty and MOH Breakthrough non-stop. I have finally made it to the Russian part of Call of Duty, and let me tell you its freaking intense. The game is beautifully made, with great graphics, sound, and storyline. The game is just wonderful so expect a review soon. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same about MOH Breakthrough. Although, Breakthrough has gotten better in some aspects, it’s not in the same arena as Call of Duty.
It was unfortunate to hear the Halo 2 rumors to be false. I was one of many hoping and praying that it would have a surprise release for the holiday season. So again we must ride on this long journey to April for its release. Until then, I’m planning on getting MOH Rising Sun tommorrow, along with Crimson Skies. Speaking of Crimson Skies, we should have a guest columnist doing a review on Crimson Skies soon so watch out for that. Peace!
Hello to all my fellow Snackbarians out there in gaming land. It’s me, your host with most, Pretzel giving you a quick rewind of last weeks events in the gamin world. Before we get started let me extend a huge congratulations to Glokkpodd84 for winning our messy gaming area contest. If you’re interested in winning some cool stuff here at Snackbar, then stay tuned in to our forums for the next big contest. Who knows Pickle might throw in a free lap dance!
The entire gaming industry is gearing up for a huge holiday season this year as shoppers start getting their wish lists prepared. This past week was a huge week for gaming with a great titles being release on all consoles. I for one had the opportunity of getting a copy of Rainbow Six 3 for the Xbox, as well as securing a copy of Call of Duty for PC. Along those lines Tony Hawk Underground, WWE Smackdown: Here comes the Pain, Empires: Dawn of the Modern World, Rogue Ops, Gladius, Kill.switch, and Final Fantasy XI were all released this past week. I’m sure I left some titles out, but hey there’s so much coming out right now.
In other gaming news, Microsoft has added some more content download for the crazy driving title Midtown Madness 3. In this edition of the download you are given new car packages and models, new tracks and bonus material. Xbox hit it big time in Europe, releasing their Xbox bundle for 139.99 Euro duckets. That bundle comes with an Xbox, two months free of Xbox live, Halo, and Midtown Madness 3. WOW!! What a deal! So you UK gamers make sure you put that down on your wishlist for this holiday season.
With the release of a huge amount of games this week, the big title on deck is the long awaited True Crime: Streets of L.A. With so many people awaiting this title since the dissatisfying release of GTA:Vice City, many gamers are expecting a lot from this title, I found out through my investigative reporting, that True Crime will have a Snoop Dogg playable character. His character will be rolling in a Snoppdeville, looking for some thugs to push around. So I’m sure that’s a little extra bonus feature that this game will have along with the many others.
Expect titles such as True Crime, Mario Kart:Double Dash, Medal of Honor: Rising Sun, Counter Strike: Condition Zero, and many more to hit stores this month. Along with many new games expect the PS2 Eye Toy to hit stores soon as well. The Eye Toy is a new peripheral that uses motion tracking to place the gamer IN the game while allowing a certain level of interaction. Console peripherals don’t generally generate blockbuster sales so it will be interesting to see how this one pans out.
Something that I have awaited a long time to get has been none other than the action figures of Master Chief himself. Bungie is set to release two models of Master Chief, one green (equipped with a Rocket Launcher), and red (equipped with a shotgun), an Elite soldier, and a ghost vehicle this week. Trust me folks this is something that is going to rule, you can purchase these models at your nearest EB Games store, or online at bungie.net.
In Snackbar news, Cone has been ripping it up with V2. I myself am thankful to have someone so dedicated to this site like Cone. He really cares about you the regular gamer, and wants to be able to give everyone a great community to hang out and have a great time. I also want to give a great big shout out to Pickl , and Dots for working hard to keep this site going. Also, I would like to thank EB Games Huebner for always hanging out here, and giving us a great place to buy games. And finally, I would like to thank the you, the gamer (Snackbarians), for staying faithful to us, chillin with us and hanging out. Without you this place would be nothing. Want to give a quick reminder that Matrix: Revolutions will be out this Wednesday, make sure you guys check out because I’m planning on seeing it like 3 times that day. Peace out!
[floatleft]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/bf1942sww2/cover.jpg[/floatleft]Have you ever wondered what World War II would’ve been like if it spanned for 10 to 15 years longer than it did? It’s interesting to think about it, but I really think that this game pretty accurately presents what could have been. I also think it was quite interesting that on the day BF 1942 Secret Weapons was released, the History Channel was presenting a documentary on the Secret Weapons the Nazi’s were developing during the war. Fortunately, the war was over before those weapons were put to use. For example, the fighter-bomber, “The Horton HO 229,” was an actual stealth bomber that the Nazi’s were developing that had the capabilities to reach New York and back to Germany with a massive payload of bombs on a full tank of jet fuel. It was a good thing they never actually finished the project. The design of that same fighter jet spawned the design to many of the U.S. designs of stealth fighter jets today. In case you were wondering, I just thought I would throw some of the History Channel knowledge to you Snackbarians out there. All in all, this game has a good amount of positive aspects to add on to the BF 1942 series.
EA decided to go ahead and add some creative elements to the soldiers on the battlefield. A really cool addition to the weapons mix was the Remington Auto 5 Shotgun. You can definitely run around a corner and take someone’s head off. Another weapon which I love to use is the Gewehr 43. This sniper rifle has gone semi-automatic baby. Instead of waiting to reload after every shot, you can set off several more rounds and cause more damage from afar. Speaking of reloading, sometimes it’s hard to find an ammo depot nearby. In this case, you can pull out your trusty knives and throw them at your foe. That’s right folks, SLICE AND DICE!! There are many more weapons that EA has added to your arsenal, but I’m just listing my faves.
[floatright]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/bf1942sww2/ss03_thumb.jpg[/floatright]Let me just go into the vehicles that were added to the madness of BF 1942. AAWW YEAH PEEPS, this is where it gets insane!!! Now, I’m not sure that if the war even spanned for another 10-15 years that anyone would’ve ever invented a rocket pack. I mean, I wouldn’t put it past the Nazi’s to develop something as crazy as that. The rocket pack is really cool to use when you want to make a quick getaway. It’s also good when you want to cause some damage from a high point. The rocket pack freaking rules over all. EA went crazy with adding more vehicles by adding jet planes, stealth bombers, a Harley Davidson with a gun-mounted sidecar, an amphibious jeep, and powerful tanks. Did I mention that there is a commando raft too? Powerful tanks? Well, these tanks aren’t your ordinary tanks; think a Sherman tank with a mounted rocket launcher canopy or a Flakpanzer, which is a mobile Anti-Aircraft weapon that causes mass damage. All the new tanks are much faster, much more maneuverable, and can sustain much more damage before blowing up. Now, the rocket jets are different story. These planes are super hard to maneuver and way to fast to cause any damage from ground forces. The Natter rocket plane is way too fast. It banks too fast and gives you no time to react. The bombers are also very difficult to maneuver. When you bank, it flips you upside down, and it makes insane wide turns. But it does let off multiple bombs at one point, as a bomber should. I personally liked the old war birds like the P-51, the Messerschmidt, and the Spitfire. They are fast, maneuverable, and damage effective. Now, before I move on, let me mention one of my favorite additions to the series. THE ONE AND ONLY…C-47 CARGO PLANE!!! First off, I’m the biggest 101st Airborne fan of all time. The C-47 flies like a dream. It carries a mounted machine gunner position and it’s a mobile spawning point. This is a great tool to use especially when the enemy’s across a huge body of water. I just love being able to spawn over enemy territory and parachute out. DEATH FROM ABOVE!! Umm, did I mention you get to guide freaking rockets to the enemy’s base? YEAH!! Freaking Noobs will never know what hit’em!
EA improved on maps by a huge margin by adding more obstacles, advantage points, and much more room to boot. The graphics still stay true to the BF 1942 feel, and a lot of the rough parts are smoothed out. Buildings, scenery, weapons and vehicles are much more attractive. Movements and the such have been the same since the beginning, so don’t expect any changes. EA really just wanted to add some spice to the mix with exotic weapons, vehicles, and environments. Overall, this game freaking rules and has been a great addition to the series. I was highly pumped to see many people greet this expansion pack with open arms. If battles get too intense for you sometimes, then you can always go back to old conventional warfare. Playing Secret Weapons is great fun with the original feel of BF 1942. I recommend all who enjoy the BF 1942 series to get this expansion, as it really is a great addition to the series.
[floatleft]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/freedomfighters/cover.jpg[/floatleft]Have you ever considered what the world would be like if Russia would have won the Cold War? Let’s go a bit further, what if Russia had started to spread their Communism all over the world? Well, in the case of this game, Communism makes an abrupt visit to the United States. Freedom Fighters takes us into the life of an ordinary hardworking American who is forced into the life of a rebel soldier trying to take back an invaded New York City. The great thing about fighting this war is that you don’t have to fight it on your own. As time progresses, your experience is measured by your charisma level. The higher charisma level you have the more people you can recruit to fight with you in a battle. And believe me, these volunteers will be more than happy to fight with you.
This third person shooter has a unique method of choosing weapons, giving commands, and soldier placement. This is not your ordinary detailed squad-based management game. It does not have the command menu like Rainbow six which it lets you choose different precise actions. And this is certainly not a specific pin-point location movement management game either like Ghost Recon. FF is a simple three command squad based game. You simply tell them to defend, attack, or scout. All three ways will have each member of your team attacking the enemy without being told to do so. You can move each player individually, one by one by simply pointing your aim arrow and designating a position there after. If you choose not to control them individually, each member of your squad will follow you like body guards. You can command up to twelve recruits and each recruit carries one of three weapons, a pistol, an AK-47, or a shotgun. I prefer to recruit those with the heavier fire power. You can recruit has many people as you want depending on your charisma level. If your charisma level is at 5 then you can recruit 5 people, and so on and so forth. You are only allowed to carry two primary weapons, three explosives, other handy weapons like a wrench, and a medi-pac. Each item can be selected by scrolling through an item menu during game play. Weapons range from sub-machine gun, an unmounted machine gun, an AK-47, an RPG, frag grenades, revolver, glock, C-4, and the special Molotov Cocktail. The movements of the characters are simple and straight forward. Reloading is automatic along with aiming and mission objectives. One complaint that I have with the controlling is the manual aiming when throwing Molotov cocktails and grenades. Throwing explosives becomes a huge challenge because you find yourself taking too much time calculating distance. If you put too much of an arch on it, the grenade will find itself falling on your head. If you don’t put arch on it then it falls a foot in front of you. Finding a happy medium was quite annoying during a heated battle.
[floatright]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/freedomfighters/ss04_thumb.jpg[/floatright]EA decided to give FF a small hint of GTA when designing this game. I mean, playing in the streets of New York, camera movements, the whole third person shooter action just reminds me of GTA 3. The graphics are a little above average compared to GTA 3. FF and GTA 3 are almost alike with shadows and good lighting and some destructive environments. The buildings have depth and very good texture. Backgrounds are incredible with beautiful skylines and tall enormous sky scrapers. The AI in FF is a little rough around the edges, but overall decent. Enemies will fire if they see you, and they will run and call for reinforcements. Every once in awhile you find a soldier at point blank range crouching in front of you pretending to hide from you. That’s always pretty funny. One thing I found pretty ridiculous was the helicopter explosions. A Russian attack helicopter would hover around mowing all of us down constantly. Every once in a while I would find myself with an RPG. Every time I would blow that thing up it would just disappear. No magnificent explosion with a blaze of glory, nothing. No parts falling from the sky, nothing. It was dull, however, it would take about 5 tries to hit that thing. The helicopter would dodge anything you shot at it.
Overall, I thought EA did a great job making this title. I enjoyed the entire storyline of taking back New York and building a rebel army. I especially enjoyed every last objective of every mission. Raising the Stars and Stripes!! To complete each mission you had to take back certain locations and raise the American Flag. I thought that was a cool touch to the game. This entire game reminds me of the movie Red Dawn with Charlie Sheen, Patrick Swayze, only the game was in the city. Freedom Fighters has a “WOLVERINES!!” feel to it! If you’ve seen the movie then you understand what I’m talking about. I truly enjoyed playing this, I suggest for those of you with a passion for war and squad based games to try this one out.
