LTTP: Call of Duty: World at War

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I had no interest in Call of Duty: World at War back in 2008. After the excellent Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, I did not feel the desire to go back to yet another World War II first person shooter. No offence to Treyarch, but this was before they found their footing with the Black Ops sub-franchise. I had little to no faith in their ability to deliver something that was comparable to Modern Warfare. And now, many years later, I finally played it and I was right.

I dusted off the PlayStation 3 Slim, grabbed our copy of Call of Duty: World at War and finished the campaign on Veteran difficulty for the very first time. It didn’t age well. The portrayal of the Japanese, the way the campaign was structured, and the over-reliance on numbers to build intensity made for a dated game. It felt older than Modern Warfare even though it debuted a year later. 

Kiefer Sutherland lent his voice Corporal Roebuck, a plot armor wearing grizzled soldier who didn’t even feel the need to wear a helmet. I found the American half the campaign ran out of steam very early. There’s only so many ways to say “The Japanese were fierce fighters who fought dirty”. I also had my fill of mowing down Japanese infantry as they charged at me while screaming “Bonzai!”. It got old. 

The Russian campaign against the Germans felt like it was most influenced by Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare campaign. There were moments of intrigue, and tension built as Reznov lead me through the war torn streets of Stalingrad. There was even a named villain. Reznov kept things relatively interesting with his speeches imploring his fellow Russians to continue the fight against the Germans.

Call of Duty: World at War was a very ugly game. The relatively high framerate made it playable, but it’s just a very unpleasant game to look at with its grimy textures and sub-720p resolution. Treyarch’s decidedly more gruesome take on Call of Duty resulted in a lot more blood and gore than other Call of Duty titles before and after it. While the techniques used to convey the violence of war was primitive, I found it somewhat effective. The combination of  gross visuals, death screams, and the discordant soundtracks worked to successfully deliver an uneasy sensation towards war. 

There was not much “fun” to be had with Call of Duty: World at War. Playing it on Veteran difficulty may have forced me to suffer through some excruciating gameplay segments for longer than I cared to admit, but outside of the one “Vendetta” mission, I struggle to recall other moments that I would describe as “neat” or “interesting”. At least this game had some redeeming qualities compared to the otherwise stale rendition delivered by Call of Duty: WW2. While WW2 was more playable and more appealing to modern tastes, it failed to deliver on the brutality of the war experience on a moment to moment basis; it didn’t evoke dread like I felt while playing through World at War. I wouldn’t recommend either, but if I had to choose one, it would be this one. 

Verdict:
I didn’t like it

Ratings Guide

Persona 5 coming to PS4 as well

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Persona 5 will make its Japanese debut on the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 some time in 2015.

I didn’t think it would. I thought Atlus wouldn’t be comfortable to develop for two platforms and port Persona 5 over to the PlayStation 4 after release. I guess I was wrong and Sony have made it easy enough to port to their latest console.

But why? It’s for the western markets. The PlayStation 4 will probably sail past 5 million units sold by the time Persona 5 makes its North American debut. I still have my PlayStation 3 hooked up but not everyone does. Many may traded in theirs in or shoved it into storage. If Atlus wants Persona 5 to make a meaningful splash in the west, it needs to be on the current generation of consoles.

Persona 5 is the last PlayStation 3 new release that I was waiting on. I still have a sizeable back log for the old console, so it will remain in my entertainment unit for quite some time.

Resident Evil Remastered Announced

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I loved the Resident Evil “remake” that Capcom made for the GameCube. It was an excellent modernization of the PlayStation classic and it was made legitimately spooky again. At the time it was the only Resident Evil game that I never played and it became one of my favorite Resident Evil titles.In 2015, we can all relive the magic with the announcement of the HD remastered version Resident Evil remake. The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions will run at 1080p, the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions will sport 720p and the PC version can run at whatever resolution it wants because it’s the the PC.

The polygonal characters appear fine but those pre-rendered backgrounds appear very grainy. It doesn’t look like they produced higher resolution versions of those backgrounds and simply upscaled the original GameCube versions.

I wonder how much this will cost. Will Capcom be crazy enough to charge $40 for the remastered version of a 12 year old game? Square Enix justified the price of Final Fantasy X|X-2 HD Remaster by including both of those Final Fantasy X titles in that bundle. Sony got away with releasing The Last of Us Remastered for $50 because they included all the DLC released for since the original game’s debut last year.

I’d pay $20 for the PlayStation 4 version.

Why now though? Why re-release the REmake after all this time? I suspect Capcom plans to revisit the franchise’s roots and make something less action oriented and more unsettling with Resident Evil 7. Perhaps Capcom wishes to gauge interest in this REmake.

LTTP: Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker HD

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Metal Gear Solid - Peace Walker Logo

LTTP or ‘late to the party’ pieces are opportunities for me to catch up and write about games I missed out on the first time around. They may contain spoilers.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of The Patriots was the last Hideo Kojima helmed game that I played. I played it once in 2008 and left it in 2008. I never revisited it because I felt MGS4 was a game that was meant to be experienced once. There was limited replayability because of the game’s heavy reliance on cutscenes. I enjoyed the wacky adventure for what it was and appreciated the fact that it was one of the last big budget games where the game’s director was allowed to go hog wild.

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