So I finished Black Ops. I know I'm a bit behind the times but I'm not a huge FPS fan. In the interest of gaming journalism however, I thought it appropriate to pick up the controller and play one of the most highly anticipated games of all time.
Ofcourse it was brilliant. Story was bit mental, but who's playing the campaign anyway? Well me... because I'm shit at online gaming. Like I said, I just don't do FPSs. When I see the enemy charging at me, I just panic and end up shooting at the sky. So the solo campaign then was fantastic. To keep me interested it had to be. But I don't want to focus on that.
I've been thinking (yes, again!) about how to judge a sequeal or continuation of a franchise. Black Ops is tipped for game of the year, but does it deserve it? There are a couple of things a sequeal should do. It should take what the original did well and make it better, while scrapping or tweaking what wasn't so great. It should also push the series further with say, a new gameplay feature or mode. Developing the story ofcourse is important too, but specific to gaming is all the above. Does Black Ops do all these things? No, no it doesn't. I played Modern Warfare 2 (and I'm not interested in 'who developed what'. If it's called Call of Duty, it's a Call of Duty game!) and Black Ops feels like just another Call of Duty game.
Ofcourse it was brilliant. Story was bit mental, but who's playing the campaign anyway? Well me... because I'm shit at online gaming. Like I said, I just don't do FPSs. When I see the enemy charging at me, I just panic and end up shooting at the sky. So the solo campaign then was fantastic. To keep me interested it had to be. But I don't want to focus on that.
I've been thinking (yes, again!) about how to judge a sequeal or continuation of a franchise. Black Ops is tipped for game of the year, but does it deserve it? There are a couple of things a sequeal should do. It should take what the original did well and make it better, while scrapping or tweaking what wasn't so great. It should also push the series further with say, a new gameplay feature or mode. Developing the story ofcourse is important too, but specific to gaming is all the above. Does Black Ops do all these things? No, no it doesn't. I played Modern Warfare 2 (and I'm not interested in 'who developed what'. If it's called Call of Duty, it's a Call of Duty game!) and Black Ops feels like just another Call of Duty game.Consistantly a high standard yes, but a development of the series? No. It seems to me Infinity Ward / Treyarch have found a formula that works and are complacent with it. I'd like to see something a little different for the next game please.
Which leads me nicely onto Assassins Creed (yeah, not done yet). I love Assassins Creed. What a bloo
dy good series of games! I'll admit the first one was a little underwhelming. It had potential but repeatative gameplay prevented it from being truely great. Then along came Assassins Creed II, everything a good sequel should be. It did everything I metioned in the previous paragraph (I won't repeat myself, I've waffled on enough already). And just resently, along came Assassins Creed: Brotherhood, not a proper sequeal I must mention, but more like a massive DLC. I'm playing it at the moment and am quietly impressed.
Which leads me nicely onto Assassins Creed (yeah, not done yet). I love Assassins Creed. What a bloo
dy good series of games! I'll admit the first one was a little underwhelming. It had potential but repeatative gameplay prevented it from being truely great. Then along came Assassins Creed II, everything a good sequel should be. It did everything I metioned in the previous paragraph (I won't repeat myself, I've waffled on enough already). And just resently, along came Assassins Creed: Brotherhood, not a proper sequeal I must mention, but more like a massive DLC. I'm playing it at the moment and am quietly impressed.There. I'm done.
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