Battlefield 3 (Xbox 360, 2011)

Battlefield 3
Developed by DICE
Published by Electronic Arts
Released for Xbox 360 (10/25/2011)
Also on PC/PS3
Backwards Compatible on Xbox One

Battlefield 3 is the follow-up to the highly successful PC multiplayer first-person shooter Battlefield 2. After developing two Bad Company games that were specifically designed with consoles in mind, Battlefield 3 was a return to the series PC roots and the version released for consoles is a vastly inferior port when compared to its PC counterpart. That's not to say it's a bad game at all though as the console game can still be very enjoyable, so without further ado let's get into the 360 console port of Battlefield 3.

While the game does have a single-player campaign, it's more of an afterthought and you wouldn't want to buy the game just for the campaign alone. It's pretty much your standard fare for military FPS games, very similar to the Call of Duty campaigns with lots of action-packed scenarios and a couple standout segments, but ultimately quite forgettable. I played through the campaign back when the game was released and have only a few vague memories of it, but it was enjoyable enough for me to go through and earn all the achievements. The game also features six co-op missions, where you can team up with a friend and take on a number of different scenarios. These are good fun for a few plays and are something I wish the Battlefield games that followed would have expanded on.

The real meat and bones of any Battlefield title lies in the competitive online portion of the game. As stated before, this port had to make a lot of sacrifices in order to run on the consoles of the era. While the PC version of the game offers 64-players in a game, the console was only able to handle a maximum of 24-players. On a high-end PC the game runs at 60 fps, while on console the game aims to run at 30, though it will dip occasionally when the action or destruction is intense. The graphical fidelity took a pretty big hit as well when compared to the PC version, with textures looking ugly and low-res from a distance. The player count is the biggest downside of the console ports, considering that most of these maps were designed for a much higher player count. While DICE did modify the maps by having fewer capture points and keeping the action confined to a smaller area by changing the boundaries, some of the more open maps still feel a bit dull compared to others.

Battlefield 3 features four different classes to select from in online play: assault, engineer, support and recon. Each have their own specialty gadgets and a squad properly utilizing all four classes can dominate the playfield. There's a nice variety of weapons you'll unlock as you level up, and each gun can be customized using items unlocked by getting kills with that weapon. You'll get an assortment of scopes and attachments like suppressors to change up your weapons performance a bit. It's a decent system and makes the player progression feel somewhat meaningful. Overall the class system is mostly well balanced and it's fun using their various gadgets in different scenarios. Another feature introduced in Battlefield 3 are the squad specs. As you level up, you'll unlock perks that can be assigned to your soldier. These range from a slightly faster sprint, heavier suppression from gunfire and flak for increased resistance to explosions. Each squad member, of which you can have a squad of four, can equip a different perk and each player will receive the bonus. These don't stack so make sure you and your squadmates don't have duplicate specs equipped!

In addition to infantry combat, one of Battlefield's most distinguishing features are the vehicles. You'll be able to drive tanks, jeeps, hummers and LAV's on land. There are also scout and attack choppers as well as bomber and fighter jets for air combat. Select stages also feature boats you can use. With the size of many of the maps, utilizing vehicles is key to getting around quick. Certain vehicles like tanks and choppers can drastically change the tide of the battle in skilled hands. A knowledgeable squad on foot can make quick work of vehicles if they work together, so the vehicles are not terribly over-powered in the grand scheme of things.

The vanilla maps contain a decent variety of environments and for the most part are a solid bunch. Operation Metro has always been a fan-favorite, a map with no vehicles and lots of close quarter combat set in a subway station. Seine Crossing has always been one of my personal favorites, despite some very cramped areas and terrible spawn points. The map features tanks in close-quarter urban combat in downtown Paris. Grand Bazaar features the center capture point in the middle of an alley, providing for some pretty intense firefights. Caspian Border is easily one of the best maps in the game with a more wide-open classic Battlefield style, while the larger maps like Operation Firestorm and Kharg Island tend to be the maps where the low-player count hurts the most as they are quite huge and as a result feel a bit vacant. Noshar Canals is an awesome map set on some industrial docks, featuring one team spawning on an aircraft carrier and the other on land. This map gives both teams scout choppers leading to some fun action in the sky. Damavand Peak features a giant mountain with tunnels passing through it and scout choppers in the sky. Tehran Highway is easily the least favorite map, featuring a rather boring layout with very little destruction in the environment.

The main game modes are rush and conquest. Conquest mode will have several capture points spread about and whichever team holds more control points the longest wins. It's a simple game mode but helps keep the action focused and objective oriented, so you're never really stuck wondering what you need to do next. Rush mode will have players on either the attacker or defender team. The attackers attempt to arm and detonate two stations while the defenders try to stop them. Once both stations are destroyed a new set will spawn further down the map. If the attackers advance through several rounds of this they win, but if they run out of deployment tickets the defenders win. Some maps work better in conquest and others in rush. Damavand Peak has the central capture point located within the mountain in conquest while in rush mode the map plays drastically different with a section where you base-jump off the top of the mountain. In rush mode Tehran Highway is actually a pretty fun map while the conquest variant is a bit weak.

In addition to conquest and rush, Battlefield 3 also features team deathmatch, squad deathmatch and squad rush. In the deathmatch game modes, the maps are sectioned off into small areas so you never have to walk to far before you die (or if you're better than me, maybe you'll shoot some people first). While I feel like an above-average player at the conquest mode, many of the skills that work well in that mode don't transfer over into deathmatch style gameplay. I personally never liked this mode in any of the Battlefield titles as it takes out all of the vehicles and sprawling maps the series is known for, but I understand why DICE felt the need to include it due to the massive success of the Call of Duty games at the time. The gunplay and controls aren't quite as tight as the Call of Duty titles so if you're really into deathmatch modes I'd suggest just sticking with Activision's titles.

Getting into an online match is simple as is getting into a squad with your friends. There's an option to just join in the first available match or there is a server browser where you can pick the game you'd like to join. It's great to have this option and it'd be nice if more console games would give you options like this. One thing to note about the Battlefield 3 servers, later on in the game's life span EA decided to start renting out servers to players, allowing them to create their own map playlist and also moderate the match to an extent. Unfortunately you'll be team-switched or killed by a server moderator if you do something they don't approve of and being at the will of these control-freaks can sometimes prove a frustrating experience. I've been killed and switched teams for shooting a server owner too many times among many other silly shenanigans. For this reason I tend to always look for official Dice or EA servers as you won't have anybody kicking or switching your team on you.

The sound design in the Battlefield series has a track record for being fantastic and Battlefield 3 is no exception. The explosions and gunfire all sound great, and the attention to detail in the sound department really shines through all the way down to the bullets that miss whizzing by your ear. This is one of those games where you will suffer if you play without the sound on loud and clear. For the best results play it on a surround sound speaker setup or some high-quality headphones. You can't always rely on teammates to spot out the enemies for you, so it's best to actively listen as you'll hear the footsteps of an approaching enemy often before you see them.

Another feature new to the Battlefield franchise are the blocked off sectors in the enemy deployment areas. You can no longer wait right behind spawn points and shoot players as soon as they spawn in, at least not in their main base. It's still something that can and will happen on regular flag spawns or spawning on your squad-mate, but this does at least somewhat help a little with spawn camping which was a huge problem in the Bad Company games. There's nothing like dying as soon as you spawn in to motivate one to do something other than play video games!

Battlefield 3 is far from perfect and over its existence has a been a host to numerous bugs and glitches. The map Operation Metro has a glitch where you can hop into the ceiling and fire down on players all while they can't even see what shot them. This is an incredibly annoying glitch that some of the nastier online folks love to pull and shame on DICE for never fixing this in one of numerous updates to the game. Tehran Highway also had a well-known exploit where players could get on top of the highway and fire down on players. The only way to access the highway was to stand on top of an MAV and fly yourself up there as there were no air vehicles on this map. This issue was later resolved by DICE in a later patch. Another big change to the game was the nerfing of the attack helicopters. Initially, both the pilot and the gunner had their own set of flares, and a coordinated chopper team working together was damn near impossible to take down. Pretty early on the game's life-span the developers removed this from the gunner seat, making it much easier to take down helicopters with lock-on rockets if you just simply spam them.

Despite the game's issues and obvious downgrade from the PC original, Battlefield 3 is still an excellent shooter and still stands as a fun game to play today. Major credit to EA for keeping the servers up after all these years, and it goes to show that if the fans support and actually play a game enough then there is a chance that the servers can be kept up and running well beyond the game's shelf life. I've never had trouble finding a game on Battlefield 3, and that's really kind of amazing considering the game was released seven years ago! A Wii U port of this game was also planned, but was cancelled before it ever hit retail shelves.

Final Verdict: Battlefield 3 is an excellent online competitive first-person shooter. Though the game has a fair share of bugs/glitches and is a big downgrade from the PC version, even on consoles the ambitious Frostbite engine separates this game from the majority of its competition.

Battlefield 3 Premium Pass

The Battlefield 3 Premium Pass will grant you access to all of the DLC maps. It can be purchased digitally or in a physical copy if you pick up the Premium edition, though if you buy it second-hand the codes will likely have been used. The game received a decent amount of additional content, including five different map packs each with four maps. There was Back to Karkand, Close Quarters, Armored Kill, Aftermath and Endgame.

Before going into the content I would like to state that there are two glaring issues with Season Passes, particularly in regards to online-only content such as this. First of all is the obvious fact that you have to pay almost full retail ($50!) price in order to get all of the maps released for the game. The second issue is that it fractures the game base, as obviously not everybody is going to get the extra maps therefore it goes without saying that there will be fewer players in the servers for the DLC maps at any given time. I'd almost rather they just charge $100 upfront for the game and give everybody access to all the maps, ensuring a decent player-base for the added content.

As of today I haven't been able to find any active servers running any of the DLC maps with the exception of the occasional Gulf of Oman, which is a shame as there were some really fun maps tucked away in some of these map packs. Back to Karkand, the frist batch of maps released for Battlefield 3, was a tribute to fan favorite maps from the PC classic Battlefield 2. The four featured maps were Strike at Karkand, Gulf of Oman, Sharqi Peninsula and Wake Island. This was an excellent group of maps and a great fan-service on behalf of DICE. The maps were all faithfully recreated but added in some perks of the Frostbite 2 engine.

The second map pack was Close Quarters, and this one ditched the normal vehicular combat for all infantry battles taking place in tight areas. DICE likely did this one both due to the overwhelming success of the Call of Duty games and the popularity of the vanilla Battlefield 3 map Operation Metro, which played out similarly being a map with no vehicles. These maps were all good fun and introduced a lot of destructibility on a smaller scale. Close quarters would also introduce the gun master mode, which played a lot like gun game from Counterstrike.

The third and fourth DLC for Battlefield 3 were Armored Kill and Aftermath. Armored Kill featured four gigantic maps, with Bandar Desert being billed as the biggest map ever seen in the Battlefield franchise. These were great fun on PC on a full 64-player server, but with the small player count seen on the console version these maps felt too vacant. Aftermath had four maps set right after an earthquake hit and had some pretty cool maps that I haven't seen in rotation in years. The final map pack was Endgame, which featured four more maps and introduced the capture the flag mode. Endgame wasn't bad but I think most fans were ready for a new Battlefield game by this point.

Final Verdict: The Battlefield 3 Premium Edition grants you access to some solid maps, but unfortunately due to the age of the game you'll rarely ever see any of them in the server rotation. Don't stress yourself getting the premium upgrade and just get the base game instead.

Purchase Links:
Buy Battlefield 3 Premium Edition (Digital) - Xbox Marketplace
Buy Battlefield 3 (Digital) - Xbox Marketplace
Buy Battlefield 3 (Disc) - eBay

Related Links:
DICE - Official Site
Electronic Arts - Official Site
Battlefield 3 - Metacritic
Battlefield 3 - GameFAQs
Battlefield 3 Achievement Guide - Xbox Achievements
Battlefield 3 - True Achievements

Shadows of the Damned (Xbox 360, 2011)

Shadows of the Damned
Developed by Grasshopper Manufacture
Published by Electronic Arts
Released for Xbox 360 (6/21/2011)
Also on PS3

Shadows of the Damned brought together the collaborative efforts of Suda 51, Shinji Mikami and Akira Yamaoka. Suda 51 was responsible for such titles as Killer 7, No More Heroes and Killer is Dead. Shinji Mikami was the director for classics like the original Resident Evil, the 2002 remake of Resident Evil, Resident Evil 4, God Hand and Vanquish among others. Akira Yamaoka is best known for composing the Silent Hill soundtracks along with some other old Konami classics like Contra: Hard Corps. Given the credentials of those involved this is quite an impressive group at the helm of Shadows of the Damned. You definitely have to give EA credit for going outside their comfort zone to publish this title as its not everyday you see a western publisher affiliate with eastern developers like this.

The Resident Evil 4 influence can be felt immediately as the behind the back camera perspective and controls are very reminiscent of that title. The player takes control of Garcia Hotspur, who is a wise-cracking macho man not unlike a Mexican Duke Nukem. Garcia takes a venture through Hell in an effort to rescue his kidnapped love Paula who has been captured by the lord of the underworld. The dialogue and action are often ridiculous, perverse and profane so if you're offended easily this is probably not going to be the game for you. Just as a small example, your pistol firearm is called the boner. At one point in the game, the talking skull (named Johnson) which possesses your weapons calls into a 1-800 sex line and the gun increases in length turning into the big boner! The humor is hit or miss, but there were several instances where I was genuinely laughing. I'd imagine the younger you are the more you'll connect with the humor.

The visuals are well done throughout the game, presenting some very detailed surroundings. The level layouts are quite linear, featuring all kinds of twisted imagery throughout and the enemy design is appropriately gruesome. Levels are a mix of real world type settings with a sort of nightmare vibe going on throughout while others are more traditional depictions of Hell. Throughout the game you'll encounter areas of darkness which will consume Garcia if he stays within them for too long. There are candles hanging about that can be shot to vanquish the darkness. The candles have live goat heads next to them on the mantle, the type of stuff you'd only see in a Suda 51 game. Later levels will introduce other methods, some temporary, in order to clear out the darkness. The game builds around this feature quite a bit, with several enemies and switches that can only be shot while consumed by darkness.

Like most Suda 51 titles, there are numerous efforts to break up the action and add some diversity. There are a few stages that play like a 2D horizontal shoot 'em up, with your character portrayed as a paper cut-out flying to the right. Other levels will have light puzzles you'll have to solve in order to progress. The majority of the game will see Garcia blasting demons who will drop white gems upon death. The gems can be spent at shops to buy ammunition, alcohol (which grants health) or even red gems at certain vendors. The red gems, which can also be found hidden throughout the game, can be used to purchase upgrades for your weapons or character. Finally, there are also blue gems you'll pick up as you progress the story which will provide new weaponry or boost your existing guns.

While Shadows of the Damned is considered a third-person shooter, it doesn't feature any of the cover mechanics the genre is known for these days. You have a roll maneuver for evasion and your melee attack is not the most effective, so you'll most often be using your firepower to stay alive. The weapons are are a decent bunch, and even though there are only three guns there is a bit of variety between them. You have the Skullshot, which performs basically like a shotgun that fires skulls. Once upgraded you can load up to four skulls at once or even launch a skull cannon projectile. The boner is your standard pistol which will eventually gain a special shot type that will stick to enemies and explode when shot. The third gun is basically your automatic weapon. It fires teeth and can eventually be armed with multiple barrels and lock-on shots. Though the weapons initially fit into the typical pistol, automatic and shotgun template, they eventually come into their own once you've amassed enough blue gems. Certain enemies are more vulnerable to particular weapons and I found myself using them all pretty consistently throughout the game.

Unfortunately all of the cut-scenes (of which there are many) are unskippable, which will become an annoyance to those doing repeat playthroughs of the game. Luckily checkpoints tend to occur after lengthy scenes, often preventing the player from having to watch anything too long upon restarting sections. I've always found the over-the-shoulder aiming style of the later Resident Evil games a bit awkward, and this is prevalent in Shadows as well. It's something you'll likely warm up to over time, but initially lining up shots can be a bit of a pain. The whole red gem upgrade system seemed a bit unnecessary, as there is no way to restart with your obtained upgrades after beating the game so you'll have to start from scratch every time. I would've rather just had the guns perform at max efficiency without all the upgrading, but I suppose that may have rendered the game too easy.

The achievement list for Shadows of the Damned is pretty straight-forward for the most part, I thought it was worth noting that the difficulty related game completion ones do not stack so those looking to 100% the game will need at least three playthroughs. In closing, if you're a fan of Suda 51's other works then you'll most likely enjoy this one too. Shinji Mikami fans looking for the next Resident Evil style game may not dig it quite as much as he was only credited as the creative producer while Suda was the creative director for the project. The game was released to mostly positive reception from critics and gamers, but performed poorly in sales for EA, at least partially due to not knowing how to market a title of this nature. While I personally find Suda's later work on the 360 a bit more enjoyable, I'd still say Shadows of the Damned is easily worth a look if you're even slightly interested.

Final Verdict: Shadows of the Damned is a third-person shooter where you traverse through Hell, blasting demons along the way. The game packs a humorous punch with loads of style and is worth checking out if you love old grindhouse b-movies.

Purchase Links
Buy Shadows of the Damned (Digital) - Xbox Marketplace
Buy Shadows of the Damned (Disc) - eBay

Related Links:
Suda 51 and the Rise of Grasshopper Manufacture - Euro Gamer
Grasshopper Manufacture - Official Website
Electronic Arts - Official Site
Suda 51 & Shinji Mikami Interview - YouTube
Shadows of the Damned - True Achievements
Shadows of the Damned Achievement Guide - XboxAchievements

Alternate Cover for NTSC-J Region

Vampire Rage (XBLIG, 2010)

Vampire Rage
Developed by Tricktale
Released for Xbox Live Indie Games (6/2010)
Also on Windows Phone

Vampire Rage is a vertical bullet-hell shoot 'em up, a genre that is no stranger to the Xbox 360. Rather than piloting a ship like in most traditional shmups, in this title you play as a floating vampire out to revenge the death of his woman. Unlike many vertical shooters, this one is locked in widescreen view so there's no options to support monitor rotation, but the playfield is wide and takes up the screen as opposed to being cropped. As far as I can tell, the game was only released for the Xbox 360 and the now defunct Windows Phone platform. The development team was comprised of only three people and with this taken into consideration, Vampire Rage is quite competently put together and is a game worth checking out for shmup fanatics.

Your character sprite appears a bit large but the game grants you a generous hitbox and even though it's not clearly defined it never was a problem during gameplay. Similar to most modern shmups, you have two rates of fire, a spread shot while tapping the fire button and a focused laser shot when holding it. Your rate of movement also slows while holding the fire button, making it a bit easier to sneak around some of the tighter bullet spreads. Unlike most shooters, the game doesn't feature a bomb to save you in times of panic, but to compensate for this you have a sword attack that will reflect bullets in addition to damaging any enemies within its radius. The sword attack will only reflect the pink projectiles, so you can't just send everything flying back. The sword can be used as frequently as you need but there is a brief recharge time required after each use. If you use the sword amidst a large number of projectiles, you'll form a vortex that acts like a bomb and will damage all nearby enemies. The sword is a cool feature though it does tend to make the game a bit on the easy side, especially on the normal difficulty.

The graphics and presentation of Vampire Rage are definitely above average. The menus are all easy to navigate and the in-game graphics are composed of high-res art rather than the normal pixel art you'll normally see in shmups. The backgrounds will frequently repeat themselves throughout the levels, but what's there looks good. The enemies are a variety of demon type things, and there's a decent variety of them between stages. There are brief story segments offered before each stage with accompanying artwork that definitely looks a bit amateur but gets the job done well enough. The biggest issue with the game is that there are only three stages on hand. Each stages ends with a boss battle and the levels themselves are of decent length but the entire game can be completed in about 10-15 minutes. The game states that the story is to be continued at the end but with the game being eight years old at the time of this review it's unlikely that the sequel will ever see the light of day. I really feel like the game could have used another two or three stages, but I'm sure the developers have their reasons why corners had to be cut.

Vampire Rage offers two difficulty modes: normal and rage. Normal mode starts the player off with five lives while in rage mode you'll start with only three. Normal mode is good for beginners or those who just want to see the game and rage will definitely be enjoyed by those who welcome a challenge. There is also support for local two-player coop gameplay, allowing the second player to join in anytime throughout the game. The game keeps tabs on your high scores and at one point offered an online leaderboard, but with the age of the game and the deletion of the indie games marketplace this feature is no longer functioning. I really enjoyed Vampire Rage and would have definitely been interested in the sequel but unfortunately it appears the series will never continue as the developers blog hasn't been updated since 2012. The game is incredibly short but I still found it to be a worthwhile experience and one I come back to play again every now and then.

Final Verdict: Vampire Rage is a short game but well worth a look for shmup fans. It's good fun batting bullets back at enemies with your sword!

Related Links:
Tricktale - Developers Blog

Asteroids & Deluxe (XBLA, 2007)

Asteroids & Deluxe
Developed by Stainless Games
Published by Atari SA
Backwards Compatible on Xbox One

Asteroids was originally released in arcades way back in 1979, so with this in mind it's understandable that the gameplay is incredibly simple. You control a little ship that you can rotate using the stick and movement is initiated with a throttle button. You also have a button to fire and a "hyper space" button that will randomly teleport your ship to another spot on the screen. Using hyper space is risky as you could teleport in right on top of an asteroid. The goal of the game is to clear each screen of asteroids, which break down into smaller chunks each time you shoot them. Occasionally a UFO will appear on the screen and will try to eliminate you with projectiles which when shot down will net you a nice point bonus. Shooting anything in Asteroids gives you points and at every 10,000 points you'll receive an extra ship. You start off with three ships and once you lose those, it's game over and you start from zero again (this is before games offered continues remember). The game offers a two-player mode, but this is only alternating and not simultaneous play.

Asteroids was an absolute smash success in the arcades in its time and really helped solidify the Atari brand. While the game is about as old as they come, the gameplay is timeless and its simplicity makes it easy to enjoy in quick bursts by anybody really. One thing that never transfers to any home port is the brightness of the arcades vector monitor display. You really have to experience it firsthand but the monitors were really something else on these vector arcade games, featuring an image that shines so brightly it almost feels like its burning into your retinas.

Asteroids Deluxe was originally released in arcades in 1981. It's very similar to the original but with a few new features to justify the "deluxe" in the title. You now have a shield button which can save you in a pinch but wears out with extended use. In addition to the saucers from the original title, there are now killer satellites that break apart when shot and come flying at your ship like a kamikaze. It's a decent sequel that definitely ramps up the challenge level if the first one wasn't hard enough for you. Again, the game was displayed on a vector monitor on the original dedicated arcade machines, and this of course never transfers over to home ports.

The Xbox 360 port combines both Asteroids and Asteroids Deluxe into one package. Each game can be played in their original arcade form or the "evolved" version with new graphics but familiar gameplay. Both the arcade and evolved modes also offer the "throttle monkey mode" which ramps up the difficulty and speed of the game if you want an extreme challenge. Unfortunately, in evolved mode the explosions that occur when the asteroids are shot is way too flashy, making it hard to see the trajectory of the smaller rocks. This unwelcome effect definitely has an impact on the gameplay, and for this reason I found the original arcade versions much more enjoyable on both iterations of the game. If you just want a nice home port of Asteroids I'd recommend this game, just beware that the "evolved" versions aren't all that great. If you're just looking for easy achievements stay away from this one, as only the most dedicated Atari fans will likely unlock the full set.

Final Verdict: The arcade ports of both Asteroids & Deluxe games are solid, though the "evolved" versions feel like more of a downgrade than anything else. Worth checking out if you dig the original or just want some old-school arcade action.

Related Links:
Buy Asteroids & Deluxe - Xbox Marketplace
Asteroids & Deluxe - GameFAQs
Asteroids & Deluxe - True Achievements
Asteroids & Deluxe Achievement Guide - Xbox Achievements