The conclusion to a fantastic series will be aired tonight live on ITV1 and do you know what, it really has been a fantastic series. I have loved it.
I have often mocked those who watched the show in past years, believing I was 'above it' and that it wasn't 'real' music.
However, I have watched it closely this year and been very impressed with how watchable it really is. I've seen some neck-hair raising performances, genuine tension and excitement and had some right laughs too. I particularly loved John and Edward hanging on every week, loved Stacey's Queen performance - a song I'd never really heard and identified with them before and Joe's performance last night with a rough looking George Michael was sensational.
You might think, X Factor - pah! Well so did I, but it's proved me wrong this year and I hope tonight's final is as good as it can be.
Here's Joe and George Michael from last night.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - The Review
So Modern Warfare 2 came out with a huge amount of hype on Tuesday 12th of November 2009 and I have been playing it ever since.
I'm sure you have noticed that this is having a hugely adverse effect on this blog! I've decided that now is the time, after finishing the game on veteran (how cool am I?), to share my thoughts after playing it to death.
You could say this game has three very different aspects to it, there is the campaign mode, the multiplayer mode and the Special Ops.
Let's start with the campaign.
You're thrown in to the game at a military camp in Afghanistan and the game cleverly (or annoyingly to regular players) runs you through the basic controls such as how to shoot, how to aim, throw a grenade etc etc before launching you into it's first mission aboard a Humvee. From there on in, you're hooked. The graphics, the sound which is phenomenal on some levels, the set pieces which it loves, it's all truly stunning.
I was not long into my bowl of cheerios that Tuesday morning on release day when my character was dressed up to look like a Russian terrorist. He swaggered through Moscow airport pinging off hundreds of rounds from his LMG into innocent Russians in the most realistic representation of terrorism I've seen in a game and probably only will see in a game judging by the controversy it caused. Was it necessary? No. I think the story writers could have come up with much more compelling ways to spark a US Russian war and could have included a much more exciting mission as a result. But I am fairly sure they made quite a lot of extra sales as a result.
The plot is full of holes and I was left scratching my head as to how quickly this whole war seems to explode into life but then again, something more complicated would no doubt leave the majority of those who bought it scratching their heads saying: what does all this mean?
My biggest gripe with the campaign mode is some of the level design. The biggest sinner is the mission called "Wolverines!". In this mission you quickly make your way through a typical North Eastern American housing estate (big wooden type detached houses) and find yourself in a retail/leisure park with various fast food style restaurants. Now mid way through the mission, your Sergeant, Sgt. Foley, tells you that...
"Ramirez! I think I saw a Stinger on the top of Burger Town. Get over there and take out that helicopter!!"
I almost switched off at this point. It just reeked of badly thought out design. It had the phrase, "How can we make this level last longer to make sure the player sees all the pretty stuff we spent ages drawing."
For fucks sake Foley, thanks a lot mate. If you saw it then why didn't you pick it up on the off chance that we might have needed to use it.
Then it happens again and this time you run over to another building only to find that it's already full of US Rangers! What the hell? That was infuriating!
After a few more missions, I got to play what I now believe are my favourite missions in the game. They sit side by side and the first has you breaching and clearing an oil rig and rescuing hostages and then busting Prisoner #627 out of Gulag. They were simply fantastic, brilliantly paced and enough to make you want to play them several times over unlike many of the other missions.
The ending of the USA vs. Russia plot line was very abrupt, with the unbelievably annoying Cpl. Dunn who spends entire missions fannying about asking, "So, when we going to Moscow."
Ooh, I'm not certain Dunn me lad, but probably sometime in November 2011 just in time for Xmas I imagine. I am not excited at all about a sequel and the continuation of this story and I think it really needs to step a gear in terms of storyline.
The gameplay from start to finish is fantastic, there are enough little set pieces to make you feel like part of something much bigger than just a game but as with Modern Warfare 1, the story is exceptionally short considering just how much plot is packed into it.
Overall I really enjoyed the campaign and the majority of the missions. Some of them were a bit naff, pointless you might say. The two Brazilian levels were far too excessive and I think a minute long snatch and grab of Rojas would been much more effective than the frustrating sprint, shoot and flashbang your way through the favela. Which you do twice and believe me, on veteran this is insanely difficult. The last two missions of the campaign as well are very, I don't know, strange I think. But the campaign is still better than most, if not all games I have played.
I'd give the campaign mode 8/10. There is a lot of room for improvement.
So, onto the multi player. This is where the game excels. The multi-player mode is massively indepth, there are so many weapons, attachments, challenges, levels, title, emblems etc etc that you could play this for months and months if not years and still not get through the vast amount of stuff here that the player has available to consume.
Every game is different which is why it is so appealing. There a large number of maps with one or two crap ones admittedly (Afghan in particular is beyond frustrating) and there all a lot bigger than Modern Warfare 1's maps. In some cases though I found myself running around big open spaces for ages thinking, where in God's name is everyone?
I am only just scratching the surface of multiplayer and I have been on it a month now.
As for the Yanks, the abuse, the 10 year olds who call you gay. Just mute them. As for the experts who can see you a mile away with a pistol well chances are you won't play them as when it loads up a game for you it now matches you to similarly skilled players which is much more enjoyable.
This section of the game definitely deserves a 10/10. It's truly immense, well balanced and there has been so much effort put into this section of the game.
Now the Special Ops has the feel of a late addition to the game but is absolutely fantastic. I think the appeal of this for me is playing through these very small missions whilst talking to your mate and sharing the experience. And my absolute favourite experience of this game was playing the "Estate Takedown" Spec Ops mission on Veteran difficulty.
There is a big country house which you have to clear and then defend from enemies. Now, included in these enemies, there are about five or six Juggernauts. For those of you who have played it, then you will know just how brilliant and feared the Juggernaut is and for those of you haven't well, believe me he takes some killing.
We cleared the house pretty quickly including quite a few of the aforementioned juggernauts and then equipped sniper rifles and took out the last nine or ten standard soldiers from afar before we both glimpsed coming in at speed through the front door our last enemy, yes you have guessed it, a big grizzly Juggernaut with one intention - killing us. I think "Giddy" is a good word to describe the atmosphere over the headsets! "There's a Juggernaut coming up the stairs! Shiiiiiit!!".
I felt like a 10 year old again and it was brilliant.
My fighting partner was taken out so I had to hit the Juggernaut with everything I had and down he went. It was truly awesome and is still talked about now.
10/10 for Spec Ops.
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 gets a 9/10 from me. There too many tiny things wrong to stop this from being the perfect game.
And I leave you with this jammy sod on multi player using the newly added throwing knives...
I'm sure you have noticed that this is having a hugely adverse effect on this blog! I've decided that now is the time, after finishing the game on veteran (how cool am I?), to share my thoughts after playing it to death.
You could say this game has three very different aspects to it, there is the campaign mode, the multiplayer mode and the Special Ops.
Let's start with the campaign.
You're thrown in to the game at a military camp in Afghanistan and the game cleverly (or annoyingly to regular players) runs you through the basic controls such as how to shoot, how to aim, throw a grenade etc etc before launching you into it's first mission aboard a Humvee. From there on in, you're hooked. The graphics, the sound which is phenomenal on some levels, the set pieces which it loves, it's all truly stunning.
I was not long into my bowl of cheerios that Tuesday morning on release day when my character was dressed up to look like a Russian terrorist. He swaggered through Moscow airport pinging off hundreds of rounds from his LMG into innocent Russians in the most realistic representation of terrorism I've seen in a game and probably only will see in a game judging by the controversy it caused. Was it necessary? No. I think the story writers could have come up with much more compelling ways to spark a US Russian war and could have included a much more exciting mission as a result. But I am fairly sure they made quite a lot of extra sales as a result.
The plot is full of holes and I was left scratching my head as to how quickly this whole war seems to explode into life but then again, something more complicated would no doubt leave the majority of those who bought it scratching their heads saying: what does all this mean?
My biggest gripe with the campaign mode is some of the level design. The biggest sinner is the mission called "Wolverines!". In this mission you quickly make your way through a typical North Eastern American housing estate (big wooden type detached houses) and find yourself in a retail/leisure park with various fast food style restaurants. Now mid way through the mission, your Sergeant, Sgt. Foley, tells you that...
"Ramirez! I think I saw a Stinger on the top of Burger Town. Get over there and take out that helicopter!!"
I almost switched off at this point. It just reeked of badly thought out design. It had the phrase, "How can we make this level last longer to make sure the player sees all the pretty stuff we spent ages drawing."
For fucks sake Foley, thanks a lot mate. If you saw it then why didn't you pick it up on the off chance that we might have needed to use it.
Then it happens again and this time you run over to another building only to find that it's already full of US Rangers! What the hell? That was infuriating!
After a few more missions, I got to play what I now believe are my favourite missions in the game. They sit side by side and the first has you breaching and clearing an oil rig and rescuing hostages and then busting Prisoner #627 out of Gulag. They were simply fantastic, brilliantly paced and enough to make you want to play them several times over unlike many of the other missions.
The ending of the USA vs. Russia plot line was very abrupt, with the unbelievably annoying Cpl. Dunn who spends entire missions fannying about asking, "So, when we going to Moscow."
Ooh, I'm not certain Dunn me lad, but probably sometime in November 2011 just in time for Xmas I imagine. I am not excited at all about a sequel and the continuation of this story and I think it really needs to step a gear in terms of storyline.
The gameplay from start to finish is fantastic, there are enough little set pieces to make you feel like part of something much bigger than just a game but as with Modern Warfare 1, the story is exceptionally short considering just how much plot is packed into it.
Overall I really enjoyed the campaign and the majority of the missions. Some of them were a bit naff, pointless you might say. The two Brazilian levels were far too excessive and I think a minute long snatch and grab of Rojas would been much more effective than the frustrating sprint, shoot and flashbang your way through the favela. Which you do twice and believe me, on veteran this is insanely difficult. The last two missions of the campaign as well are very, I don't know, strange I think. But the campaign is still better than most, if not all games I have played.
I'd give the campaign mode 8/10. There is a lot of room for improvement.
So, onto the multi player. This is where the game excels. The multi-player mode is massively indepth, there are so many weapons, attachments, challenges, levels, title, emblems etc etc that you could play this for months and months if not years and still not get through the vast amount of stuff here that the player has available to consume.
Every game is different which is why it is so appealing. There a large number of maps with one or two crap ones admittedly (Afghan in particular is beyond frustrating) and there all a lot bigger than Modern Warfare 1's maps. In some cases though I found myself running around big open spaces for ages thinking, where in God's name is everyone?
I am only just scratching the surface of multiplayer and I have been on it a month now.
As for the Yanks, the abuse, the 10 year olds who call you gay. Just mute them. As for the experts who can see you a mile away with a pistol well chances are you won't play them as when it loads up a game for you it now matches you to similarly skilled players which is much more enjoyable.
This section of the game definitely deserves a 10/10. It's truly immense, well balanced and there has been so much effort put into this section of the game.
Now the Special Ops has the feel of a late addition to the game but is absolutely fantastic. I think the appeal of this for me is playing through these very small missions whilst talking to your mate and sharing the experience. And my absolute favourite experience of this game was playing the "Estate Takedown" Spec Ops mission on Veteran difficulty.
There is a big country house which you have to clear and then defend from enemies. Now, included in these enemies, there are about five or six Juggernauts. For those of you who have played it, then you will know just how brilliant and feared the Juggernaut is and for those of you haven't well, believe me he takes some killing.
We cleared the house pretty quickly including quite a few of the aforementioned juggernauts and then equipped sniper rifles and took out the last nine or ten standard soldiers from afar before we both glimpsed coming in at speed through the front door our last enemy, yes you have guessed it, a big grizzly Juggernaut with one intention - killing us. I think "Giddy" is a good word to describe the atmosphere over the headsets! "There's a Juggernaut coming up the stairs! Shiiiiiit!!".
I felt like a 10 year old again and it was brilliant.
My fighting partner was taken out so I had to hit the Juggernaut with everything I had and down he went. It was truly awesome and is still talked about now.
10/10 for Spec Ops.
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 gets a 9/10 from me. There too many tiny things wrong to stop this from being the perfect game.
And I leave you with this jammy sod on multi player using the newly added throwing knives...
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