New release this week : Enemy Territory: Quake Wars

This game looks a bit like someone took Battlefield, Gears and Team Fortress and tossed them into a blender. Out came Quake Wars.

It is a class based game of two opposing teams, humans vs. the aliens and includes vehicles and emplacements. The game setup is basically an attack and defend style. One side attacks while the other defends.

There are 5 classes:
Soldier / Aggressor Basic infantry, gets more health and more available weapons.

Field Ops / Oppressors Can place and fire indirect weapons such as missiles, cannons, mortars and howitzers. Can also use colored smoke to call in more fire. Humans can give out ammo packs. Aliens place temporary shields.

Medic / Technician Heal and revive teammates. Uses a defibrillator to revive. Medics can pop smoke to call in a Supply Station with health and ammo.
Technicians inject fallen human soldiers and cause them to become a “Spawn Host” and makes a new spawn location. Medics can destroy spawn hosts.

Engineer / Constructor Place anti-vehicle, anti-personnel, anti-artillery turrets and trip mines. Can repair vehicles and turrets. Can build certain objectives and outposts. Also gets a grenade/plasma launcher which is unique to this class.

Covert Ops / Infiltrator Can hack enemy deployed machines and objectives. Can steal enemy uniforms and take on the name and appearance of another enemy and use back stabs to kill unknowing “teammates.” Covert Ops also has Smoke Grenades and a Third-Eye camera to create a small radar. Infiltrators have flyer drones to scout out and annoy the enemy.

There are a few more specifics to each class, but those are the basics.

Vehicles include:
Light Vehicles such as single man vehicles
Medium Vehicles for driver, gunner and possible passengers
Heavy Vehicles such as tanks
Very Heavy Vehicles are heavy walkers and mobile command posts
Aerial Vehicles like hover planes and helicopters
Amphibious and Naval Vehicles include armored personnel carriers and armored boats

Here are links for Weapons:
Weapons Overview
Special Weapons and Items
Weapons Damage Details

The strategic elements of the game make it look to be a blast. The early reports say this game is a ton of fun, but there are some complaints. What I’ve read so far leads me to believe the graphics, animations and sound are not on par with the latest technical successes such as Call of Duty 4. However, most everyone will agree that it’s always about the gameplay. I don’t mind graphics and sound a year or so behind the curve if the fun is in the core mechanics.

Some won’t like the complexity. You won’t just dive in, run around all lone wolf and be able to dominate. It’s going to take teamwork and strategy. Some don’t have the brain for it, and truth be told, I’m glad they’ll stick to Halo and COD. I’m tired of them screaming, singing and shouting obscenities into the mic anyway.

If the online component works well with little lag and an easy way to get a game, this thing has some serious potential.

More General Info

Enemy Territory : Quake Wars Official Site
Official Community Site
Forums

It’s no secret that Grand Theft Auto IV just came out, and this sucker seems to be a huge hit.

How huge? Check out 360 Voice, one of my favorite 360 gaming pulse sites. People sign up there to have a blog auto-generated by their live status. Check an example one out here.

Anyway, they compile their data for which games are most popular, and I find this data to be pretty accurate when looking at the other numbers out there. Not total numbers, but each games’ popularity in respect to others. I’m sure the data isn’t perfect, but it’s pretty good to get an idea of how popular a given title is.

I’ll let the numbers for yesterday speak for themselves:

GTA IV
32,430 gamers (UP 24,148)

Call of Duty 4
5,629 gamers (DOWN -3,712)

Halo 3
4,086 gamers (DOWN -2,365)

I happened across a reviews site, Test Freaks, and check out their 360 section. I had forgotten about an awesome demo I played a while back for Devil May Cry 4.

This is a definite pick up for me, as soon as time allows.

Review summary from Test Freaks :

The advanced graphics and techniques together with the visuals giving an attention to detail delight players as they explore new and exotic surroundings. Gamers state that Devil May Cry 4 with its superb action and style is a unique experience. Most reviewers state Devil May Cry 4 with its extraordinary action sequences highlighted by smooth controls and slick animations are all designed to amaze players. The actions are both stylish and beautiful. Though some reviewers find there are frequent repetitions in the environments and the fights, thus discouraging.

Devil May Cry 4 Reviews

Gaining XP and working with your buddies has never been this fun. The shared XP on Co-Op Campaign is great and the AI provides pretty good competition, especially when they spawn right around the corner from you. Running through the Co-Op Campaign with a friend for the second time on Realistic netted almost 30,000 points and an additional RANK. For you Achievement freaks out there, the multiplayer achievements seem to be the easiest to get on Team Leader and straight Death Match.
Arnett Out!

Well I have jumped back online with this game and I am proud to announce that the Multiplayer seems to be running very well now. I am not sure what was causing all the issues in the beginning, but the issues seem very rare now. Good gameplay and good matchmaking make this game worth playing.

Arnett Out!

Here is a great overview of the 4 up coming maps that will be available for CoD4, April 2008

Well, any fan of the Rainbow Six series will be happy to know that this game picks up right where the first Vegas left off. Technically speaking, Vegas 2 is happening in parallel with the first. While the Vegas One team is searching for Irena in Mexico and then Vegas you are searching for the other Terrorists associated with Irena in different parts of Vegas. The Ubisoft Montreal Team has woven a good web to tie these two games together.

The gameplay is almost exactly the same as the first incarnation, with the exception of a RUN button located at the Left Button position and the AI seems to be much better than the first. The XP has been tweaked and I like that the Co-Op games share the XP with the other players.

Overall, I am very happy with this game, the Campaign is awesome, the Terrorist Hunt is better than before and the Multi-Player seems to be just as good as the first time around!

Well you all know that I am a Call of Duty 4 fanatic. So in keeping up with my persona, I put together a great song (How Far We’ve Come, Matchbox Twenty) with of coarse a great game. Check it out, turn it up and let me know what you think.

Well I’m sure you hardcore Call of Duty 4 fans are aware that the new maps are on their way. We still have yet to get a confirmed release date of anything except sometime in spring. I have heard a date of April 3rd, but have yet to find anything to confirm this. So we just have to figure, sometime in spring.
The map-pack that we will be able to download consists of 4 maps. They are going for a range of play from close quarters to one massive out door map. The names of each map are, Chinatown, Creek, Broadcast and Killhouse. Chinatown is an old map that has been redone and updated from CoD2. Creek is a massive outdoor map that will be ideal for those snipers out there. Broadcast consists of the TV station section of the campaign of CoD4 and last Killhouse is a close and personal map sure to get your blood boiling!
Check out all the maps and other aspect of the up coming downloads at all of these sights, TeamXbox, IGN and Gamespy.
Also expect to dish out 800 Microsoft points to down load the maps.

Thanks again for reading
Junkyard129

Well the maps are getting a little closer. Take a look at this sneak peek of China town, a close quarters map that is sure to get your blood pumping. Other maps that will be on the Map-pack also are Broadcast and Creek . We are still looking for the DLC to be available in spring, so that is a 3-month window, but I am definitely excited.

Also in the video they mention that there will be 3 maps to down load. I have emailed and confirmed with Robert Bowling that there will be 4 maps to download, as soon as I have the title of this map, you will also!

So take a look and let us know what you think.

Watch it NOW