By Alexander B. Huls
Call of Duty is moving on up to the Middle East side
It seems that the deluge of World War II first person shooters may finally be coming to an end. One of the most successful of the WWII FPS out there, the Call of Duty series, is calling it at a day after three installments and going modern. Not a bad move, especially given that the series started to feel like it was having trouble finding historically-based missions to sustain a full game. I will say, WWII will be missed. This may sound strange because I know war is war ultimately, but somehow there is a certain idealism associated with World War II. Unlike the situation now, it seems like back then it was a bit clearer what people were fighting and sacrificing themselves for. Anyway, that aside, I am curious as to how Call of Duty: Modern Warfare will transfer itself to a fictional modern conflict. Based on the trailer, the game looks a lot like Battlefield. Hopefully though, CoD: MW will step things up a bit, and bring the same “oh crap, I’m in over my head! Oh man, my best friend just died, and even though he confessed to me last night he slept with my wife back home, I realize now that he’s gone that I still love him and forgive him, and I never had the chance to tell him” insanity that made the other Call of Duty games so great. We’ll see how things turn out as more previews are released and we get a better idea of what the game will really be like.
Somebody must have seen an early screening of Hot Fuzz
A while back I reported on a snazzy Western game called Call of Juarez. Well, IGN has gotten a look at the game, and posted a handy dandy preview of it. Now, some things sound lame. But before I go further, I will readily admit that I am not a huge fan of stealth games. I’m either too violent or too impatient an individual (or both), because I prefer my games to involve me blasting the crap out of everything I can, as fast as I can. Screw realism. Sneaking is for bitches. A real man comes right at you and shoots you in the face. When I beat Splinter Cell: Double Agent, I honestly felt I deserved a cookie for actually making it through the game. Anyway, the reason for this endless diatribe is that apparently CoJ will involve two playable characters, one of which has to be sneaky, and mainly uses a whip and a bow. Boo. Thank goodness there is the second character: a gunslinger-turned priest, who turns back to slinging guns. Clearly this is the character I am going to play (though I suppose I’ll be forced to play the other one as well. Sigh). It also sounds like the game throws in a couple of other nice Western touches, including brothels (well, I may be desperately hoping for that), a duel-mode, and horse riding. Personally, I hope there is a multiplayer duel mode so I can show all my friends that I’m better than them in every way. Including videogame gun handling. I’ll show them varmints!
I guess it didn’t go the way of other short-lived fads like POGs, Furbies, Tamigotchis, and sequin jackets …
Apparently Pokémon is still hot. The newest edition of the series sold one million copies in just five days. Huh.
In case you didn’t already know that I was looking forward to it …
It has now been announced that a Fallout 3 trailer will released June 5th.
On a side note, has anyone else noticed that trailers from the gaming industry these days are starting to take on the same kind of significance as movie trailers?
People will give out plaques for anything these days…
Like to commemorate Lara Croft’s “birthplace.” I’m not entirely sure why the plaque is blue. Rumor has it that they were considering a life-size bronze statue, but they were worried about it being top-heavy and falling over. And dogs peeing on it. Okay, I made that up. Dogs don’t really like peeing on bronze.
