gimpieman
06-05-2006, 01:08 AM
This being my comeback review from a good and easy holiday I’d like to point out the length of it. I really thought this game deserved the length but the real reason it’s so detailed is the fact I was so bored these past weeks I couldn’t help myself. If you're not the type who would read this much for a game that realistically you weren’t going to buy, I would advise you to at least skim through it a bit and take the time to look at the screenies and the message at the bottom. Either way enjoy and there will be plenty more from me in the future, especially with my new articles and some previews I have in mind. Enjoy my fellow dipshittians.
OK. I’ll admit beforehand that the mini series was an excellent take on World War 2…far better than Saving Private Ryan, BUT, haven’t the World Wars done enough for us by now? Haven't we been lurking on the edge of extinction enough? Haven't we had enough of fucking war games… *shifts eyes* yet? With having games like Call of Duty 2, Battlefield 2, Medal Of Honour and all their expansions it feels like a bandwagon with hundreds of elephants screaming to have themselves hauled along without any effort. Still a game is a game and none the less the one being talked about here deserves a lot being said about it, even when it feels as though the WW games have reached a point of saturation. Right when we thought that the world wars were skull fucked enough by developers that the games have had their bones dried by thoughtless plagiarists, Ubisoft has come out with another marvel in the dust. While there's no denying that the game is outstanding, one can't help but wonder if it's too soon for a GODDAMN SEQUEL!
Officially Brothers In Arms: Earned In Blood is one of the top World War II shooters around. Meet the men of the 101st Airborne and Sgt. Joe "Red" Hartsock. You'll lead him and his squads of paratroopers through some of the most intense missions of WWII as you fight for the liberation of Normandy. Well unofficially UbiSoft never makes many if not any "run-n-gun" games at all; so if any shooter games come out of this house then one better expect it to have battle tactics or stealth mixed in or else it would cramp their style. With the latest Brothers In Arms PC game, I can tell a lot of research went into making this game. History reveals itself that through the units you control and through the missions you take on one after another. EIB differs from other games in its genre for its ability to tell a story. The period immersion and attention to period detail puts this game way ahead of the competition as far as I'm concerned on the historical perspective.
In a nutshell the game has a decent length. One doesn't feel like being cheated after completing it (which I’ve felt many a time before). The enemy AI, unfortunately, is very clever: it realizes when a grenade is useful and takes cover a lot of the time. German AI is superior to the Americans; they know where the best shooting spots are (a "Pro" if you like a challenge). No stupid "where you point is where the bullet will go" shooting here. You have to use sights for accuracy (not really needed in a psychopathic mad team charge though. Lots of fun and a good tactic mix there). The gun settles whilst you hold it sighted. Crouching position is more stable than standing (obviously), but I was surprised to find NO prone position which is extremely unrealistic. Almost every army in the world knows that lying down is one of the fundamentals in infantry battle.
http://forums.zgeek.com/gallery/files/6/5/7/0/bia1_thumb.jpg (http://forums.zgeek.com/gallery/files/6/5/7/0/bia1.jpg)
Will you stop taking a dump? The fucking Germans are here.
I think what this game really brings to the table is its ability to make you feel that you are fighting as a part of a squad. The maps in this game are well thought out and well made. You can control fellow soldiers and tanks throughout the game and you can tell them what to do and where to go. You now have choices for taking numerous paths to reach objectives in maps which are how all "First Person Shooter" PC games should be made now. In COD you fight alongside squad members but have no control over what they do until you went BALLS FIRST into enemy fire. You can't tell them to move to a better firing position in order to provide cover for an advance or opportunity that you can see. You are still very much on your own, and it is this fact that makes those games fun to play but unrealistic at a basic level.
Sure, there are improvements I would like to see. By introducing a command system, allowing you to perform complex troop manoeuvres in battle. Still it takes sometime to get the hang of it. My squad command wish list would require a whole new review, but this is not the time or place for that. However the Ubisoft team has found a way to help with the character interaction. In the previous BIA: Hill 30; it was hard to identify with characters, as they'd somehow magically resurrect themselves into the next mission if they had been killed in the previous engagement. You felt like you led a squad full of Jesuses (or should I say Jesae). At least this time a message comes up telling you that you were absolute shit and failed miserably, and either revive the soldier and continue the storyline, or try the map again and not have anyone be killed. There is an overall decent plot to the game. The intervals are long but this is only an annoyance if you are having troubles (i.e. dying constantly) at the start of levels (chapters).
Talking about the command system you have to watch your soldiers and not to make some stupid commands like telling your soldiers to attack a turret (no matter how sadistically fun it proves to be). Also if you just expect to run to a whole bunch of Germans and expect to kill everyone, trust me you will die in sea of lead fire. It annoys me to fucking death that I have to baby-sit the other computer generated people though. One can not focus on one's objective because he/she has to take care of the squad. Luckily AI are pretty intelligent and the use of squad tactics is essential and efficient to say the least but playability is lacking. The enemy always knows where you are and seems to be able to shoot through the things you cant, sorry… no hiding in this game. Your troops, on the other hand, do not have the experience or wisdom to learn about coding errors as much as you do. Most of the time the tanks cant even figure out where the enemy is and will expose themselves to fire without reason. Still this game is a hundred times harder than Hill 30. Germans actually have a brain, and use teamwork of their own. You could be sitting around with your team-mates, playing with your dicks, when a German 2-man team either flanks you or heaves a grenade into the middle of your team, killing you all while you masturbate. The enemy also turtles up if it finds a good cover spot, and runs the fuck away when a pineapple lands near them, extremely realistic in the sense that they might actually run into the open to get themselves away from the grenade.
http://forums.zgeek.com/gallery/files/6/5/7/0/bia2_thumb.jpg (http://forums.zgeek.com/gallery/files/6/5/7/0/bia2.jpg)
Hmm I should be killing people...but those clouds are really pretty today.
As I mentioned earlier, the AI has been cleverly made but still has its faults. Another problem I found was with the American side (now I wonder what they mean when they say that this game is a bit "too" real). You tell your team to use a SUPPRESSED ADVANCE TO THE FUCKING COVER yet they sometimes go off to chew the grass and their dicks get shot off from behind them. Very goddamn infuriating! This can mean you end up with little or no friends through no fault of your own. At several occasions one has to do a huge chunk (nay! a whole damn chapter!) by oneself. Not at all fun in the slightest! Your dear soldiers are hopeless shooters (not like the Germans at all) most times. They can only kill if the Germans are stupid enough to walk out of cover, and that doesn't happen often. On many occasions you have to kill all the German troops all by yourself by using your whole team as a diversion. They will not always find the best shooting spots either. You tell them to move and put suppression on a point but at times they just hide around the corner and do nothing even there is space for them to help out
Yet again the ‘too real’ aspect pops up again. There is no crosshair for aiming in general, unless you go for a shoulder aim. The shooting is not accurate and shooting at the same person 10-20 times is bloody difficult. Weapon aiming is extremely poor, even when you use the crosshair, the bullets go where they want and not where you want them to. This is a case of ‘insanely impossible weapons handling’ so the game suffers from being "too" realistic?!?. Actually, the guns respond to their actual life counterparts so much more accurately than any WW2 shooter I can think of. This is especially the case with the M1 Garand, where you will have the enemy dead-to-rights in your iron sights, pull the trigger and see your shot piff nowhere close to your target. The K98 doesn't seem to suffer much, so you really want to try finding one of those rather than suffer with the Garand, shiiiit, I can hit stuff better with the BAR on full auto than with the Garand. Any soldier with the weapons proficiency of ‘Red Hartsock’ or ‘Matt Baker’ from Hill 30 should never have made it to the U.S. Army, let alone scouts. But at times the enemy AI is so high that the enemy soldiers simply refuse to die, even if God himself shot them with the K98.
So as I said before, some German soldiers never die unless you do it from a specific spot. In the last battle I played, I kept shooting a soldier in the fucking neck AND face and all he kept doing was grabbing his neck, turning around 3 times and then shooting back. So much for the ‘accurate’ game. Another shooting flaw is not being able to shoot through the MG slot in the sandbags. Even with a sniper rifle, you can smash the shit out of the mouse with your trusty index all you want but you can’t kill him even though you can see his face (grinning like an idiot).
http://forums.zgeek.com/gallery/files/6/5/7/0/bia3_thumb.jpg (http://forums.zgeek.com/gallery/files/6/5/7/0/bia3.jpg)
Im private Durwood thats T-Bone. Me and my mates are just playing with our dicks till we get a command or something...
The new additions to the game itself, like the M3A1 Grease Gun (haven't gotten to use it in the SP mode yet), the Greaser seems to never be featured much in games. Call of Duty 2 actually had one on the loading screen, but it was stupid since you never even saw one in single player mode. The German Para FG- 42 has also been included. One has a scope and the other doesn't. Plenty more of German armour and some horses too which I found peculiar. There are no smart bombs; no laser guided missiles. You are not John Wayne and you cannot kill 27 Germans with one shot from your Colt or Carbine unluckily. Also to pour sacks of salt in the wound, you cannot use the 88's or the smaller cannon, not even the mortars, and you can’t move the toothpick sized MG42 even though it’s renowned for its portability. Then there is no grenade down the hatch feature anymore. This really pisses me off as the panzerfausts (rocket launchers for you non-aryans)are always placed (by idiot game makers intentionally) in spots where tanks spawn TWO METRES AWAY to fire purdy artillery up your rectum till its as big as a water mains. Not only that but you have to rely on the fact that your team will not pick up a panzerfaust when its needed. So, do the tough work (the stubborn and frustrating work actually) yourself…theres nothing else you CAN do really besides turning around mid-level and massacring your ten man squad then quitting in glee.
A new lighting engine casts a lot of jagged shadows over the game's bombed-to-shitspread urban environments. The graphics are sharper and crisper and you can hold your weapon more steady now than you could in the first "Brothers In Arms" PC game. The audio has remained the same with excellent voiceover work. Although personally I believe that the language used in the game stays correct for battle, it might prove a bit too strong for some but I know none of you ZGeekers have weak stomachs so you’ll probably enjoy it more than despise it. The environment sounds and the AI voiceover is of amazing surround quality and it’s very satisfying watching the ‘invincible’ Germans go down like a sack of onions with all those moans in 5.1. They give a real lifelike rigor mortis stiffening when they go down. There are commands given in typical military jargon and EIB is much better in this sense then its predecessor. It is a very nice change of pace with the commanding officer talking with Hartsock as more of a recollection than actually "being there". Hartsock gets emotional at times, and choked up, and it adds to the dialogue. Not many games can boast having a good dialogue, but this one can. The Germans speak actual German, the Americans speak American, and funnily enough, you can actually hear the enemy approaching if they happen to issue a command.
There are the typical objectives in the game: the likes of planting bombs, delivering documents etc. and you have to do them in a certain amount of time which adds an extra edge/agonising pain to the rounds. Some people run servers as 'deathmatch' only. On the multiplayer mode you might find low server rates a problem, but they will probably increase with time. The big addition to the multiplayer side, however, is the all-new Skirmish Mode, which gives players a greater amount of flexibility over the game settings. Rather than competing against other human opponents, the 10 objective-based games let you and a buddy cooperatively play 5 games as Americans and 5 as Germans. You'll be able to change a number of specific settings, including the skill levels of your foes in several areas. Upping their tactics ratings will make them smarter and more aggressive in their movements (not that you really need to), while lowering their accuracy rating will make them less likely to hit you. Should you die, you can instantly choose to be another person who is left in your squad... if you are the last one; you have a choice to call for reinforcements so you don't sacrifice your position.
The online community, though rather small, is very friendly which I found surprising for a shooter... you join a server and instantly you get "hi" "where you from" "let's go" etc...Of course I’m sure some of you don’t give a shit about other players like me so the ignore function is always handy. If you don't wish to play this game online, another added bonus is in addition to solo missions, you can play a quick skirmish. Skirmishes are always a great add-on to a game if you just want a quick action scenario to mow down krauts.... in the skirmishes you also command a squad and have a proper objective. The soldiers use profanity though the roof in both the missions and even in multiplayer which is something I found relaxing as it really makes you feel like you’re in the army.
http://forums.zgeek.com/gallery/files/6/5/7/0/bia4_thumb.jpg (http://forums.zgeek.com/gallery/files/6/5/7/0/bia4.jpg)
"rollin' in my Benzo...poppin some honkies."
The game rates higher than other games of its genre in some other, not too important matters. But there is no excuse and no reason why game developers with today's technology can not make open ended maps for PC games now. It was really unacceptable to see that the lazy developers of "Infinity Ward" didn't do that with "Call of Duty 2". You can't even enter most buildings in the maps or use most alleyways or streets in the towns. You can't control any fellow soldiers in the game like you can in Brothers In Arms.
The game has some very high pros and at times very stupid and frustrating cons. The amazing accuracy and realism coupled with a good plot and beautiful audio override the AI’s inability to solve many problems. There is a mixed response for this game in the popular and snobby communities. Actually more of it has happened because of the high expectations from the Ubisoft clan, especially after the awesome game Far Cry (the one thing they kept from Far Cry is the predetermined save feature, which was the only thing in Far Cry I personally hated to death). Still it’s worth the money if you are into war games because it has a genre of its own...well almost. The game is an up for ultra high enemy AI and historical perspective. Those who think that the shooting without crosshairs and rebound tactical bounce of guns is too much to take might consider their tastes for quake 3 as this is as real as it gets without doing it for real.
P.S: Just to finalise, I’d like to chuck in a few more words here so I can reach 3,000. It is such a nice round number and I’d be pissing off Avatar in the process as he worked really hard on his awesome Guild Wars review :p. So a shout out to the most awesomest zGames editor The Avatar…NOT FORGETTING the ever sexual Twitch. You two have held this forum together even though no-one reads it. A salute to you both. It’s an honour writing for the 13th best IT site in Australia.
OK. I’ll admit beforehand that the mini series was an excellent take on World War 2…far better than Saving Private Ryan, BUT, haven’t the World Wars done enough for us by now? Haven't we been lurking on the edge of extinction enough? Haven't we had enough of fucking war games… *shifts eyes* yet? With having games like Call of Duty 2, Battlefield 2, Medal Of Honour and all their expansions it feels like a bandwagon with hundreds of elephants screaming to have themselves hauled along without any effort. Still a game is a game and none the less the one being talked about here deserves a lot being said about it, even when it feels as though the WW games have reached a point of saturation. Right when we thought that the world wars were skull fucked enough by developers that the games have had their bones dried by thoughtless plagiarists, Ubisoft has come out with another marvel in the dust. While there's no denying that the game is outstanding, one can't help but wonder if it's too soon for a GODDAMN SEQUEL!
Officially Brothers In Arms: Earned In Blood is one of the top World War II shooters around. Meet the men of the 101st Airborne and Sgt. Joe "Red" Hartsock. You'll lead him and his squads of paratroopers through some of the most intense missions of WWII as you fight for the liberation of Normandy. Well unofficially UbiSoft never makes many if not any "run-n-gun" games at all; so if any shooter games come out of this house then one better expect it to have battle tactics or stealth mixed in or else it would cramp their style. With the latest Brothers In Arms PC game, I can tell a lot of research went into making this game. History reveals itself that through the units you control and through the missions you take on one after another. EIB differs from other games in its genre for its ability to tell a story. The period immersion and attention to period detail puts this game way ahead of the competition as far as I'm concerned on the historical perspective.
In a nutshell the game has a decent length. One doesn't feel like being cheated after completing it (which I’ve felt many a time before). The enemy AI, unfortunately, is very clever: it realizes when a grenade is useful and takes cover a lot of the time. German AI is superior to the Americans; they know where the best shooting spots are (a "Pro" if you like a challenge). No stupid "where you point is where the bullet will go" shooting here. You have to use sights for accuracy (not really needed in a psychopathic mad team charge though. Lots of fun and a good tactic mix there). The gun settles whilst you hold it sighted. Crouching position is more stable than standing (obviously), but I was surprised to find NO prone position which is extremely unrealistic. Almost every army in the world knows that lying down is one of the fundamentals in infantry battle.
http://forums.zgeek.com/gallery/files/6/5/7/0/bia1_thumb.jpg (http://forums.zgeek.com/gallery/files/6/5/7/0/bia1.jpg)
Will you stop taking a dump? The fucking Germans are here.
I think what this game really brings to the table is its ability to make you feel that you are fighting as a part of a squad. The maps in this game are well thought out and well made. You can control fellow soldiers and tanks throughout the game and you can tell them what to do and where to go. You now have choices for taking numerous paths to reach objectives in maps which are how all "First Person Shooter" PC games should be made now. In COD you fight alongside squad members but have no control over what they do until you went BALLS FIRST into enemy fire. You can't tell them to move to a better firing position in order to provide cover for an advance or opportunity that you can see. You are still very much on your own, and it is this fact that makes those games fun to play but unrealistic at a basic level.
Sure, there are improvements I would like to see. By introducing a command system, allowing you to perform complex troop manoeuvres in battle. Still it takes sometime to get the hang of it. My squad command wish list would require a whole new review, but this is not the time or place for that. However the Ubisoft team has found a way to help with the character interaction. In the previous BIA: Hill 30; it was hard to identify with characters, as they'd somehow magically resurrect themselves into the next mission if they had been killed in the previous engagement. You felt like you led a squad full of Jesuses (or should I say Jesae). At least this time a message comes up telling you that you were absolute shit and failed miserably, and either revive the soldier and continue the storyline, or try the map again and not have anyone be killed. There is an overall decent plot to the game. The intervals are long but this is only an annoyance if you are having troubles (i.e. dying constantly) at the start of levels (chapters).
Talking about the command system you have to watch your soldiers and not to make some stupid commands like telling your soldiers to attack a turret (no matter how sadistically fun it proves to be). Also if you just expect to run to a whole bunch of Germans and expect to kill everyone, trust me you will die in sea of lead fire. It annoys me to fucking death that I have to baby-sit the other computer generated people though. One can not focus on one's objective because he/she has to take care of the squad. Luckily AI are pretty intelligent and the use of squad tactics is essential and efficient to say the least but playability is lacking. The enemy always knows where you are and seems to be able to shoot through the things you cant, sorry… no hiding in this game. Your troops, on the other hand, do not have the experience or wisdom to learn about coding errors as much as you do. Most of the time the tanks cant even figure out where the enemy is and will expose themselves to fire without reason. Still this game is a hundred times harder than Hill 30. Germans actually have a brain, and use teamwork of their own. You could be sitting around with your team-mates, playing with your dicks, when a German 2-man team either flanks you or heaves a grenade into the middle of your team, killing you all while you masturbate. The enemy also turtles up if it finds a good cover spot, and runs the fuck away when a pineapple lands near them, extremely realistic in the sense that they might actually run into the open to get themselves away from the grenade.
http://forums.zgeek.com/gallery/files/6/5/7/0/bia2_thumb.jpg (http://forums.zgeek.com/gallery/files/6/5/7/0/bia2.jpg)
Hmm I should be killing people...but those clouds are really pretty today.
As I mentioned earlier, the AI has been cleverly made but still has its faults. Another problem I found was with the American side (now I wonder what they mean when they say that this game is a bit "too" real). You tell your team to use a SUPPRESSED ADVANCE TO THE FUCKING COVER yet they sometimes go off to chew the grass and their dicks get shot off from behind them. Very goddamn infuriating! This can mean you end up with little or no friends through no fault of your own. At several occasions one has to do a huge chunk (nay! a whole damn chapter!) by oneself. Not at all fun in the slightest! Your dear soldiers are hopeless shooters (not like the Germans at all) most times. They can only kill if the Germans are stupid enough to walk out of cover, and that doesn't happen often. On many occasions you have to kill all the German troops all by yourself by using your whole team as a diversion. They will not always find the best shooting spots either. You tell them to move and put suppression on a point but at times they just hide around the corner and do nothing even there is space for them to help out
Yet again the ‘too real’ aspect pops up again. There is no crosshair for aiming in general, unless you go for a shoulder aim. The shooting is not accurate and shooting at the same person 10-20 times is bloody difficult. Weapon aiming is extremely poor, even when you use the crosshair, the bullets go where they want and not where you want them to. This is a case of ‘insanely impossible weapons handling’ so the game suffers from being "too" realistic?!?. Actually, the guns respond to their actual life counterparts so much more accurately than any WW2 shooter I can think of. This is especially the case with the M1 Garand, where you will have the enemy dead-to-rights in your iron sights, pull the trigger and see your shot piff nowhere close to your target. The K98 doesn't seem to suffer much, so you really want to try finding one of those rather than suffer with the Garand, shiiiit, I can hit stuff better with the BAR on full auto than with the Garand. Any soldier with the weapons proficiency of ‘Red Hartsock’ or ‘Matt Baker’ from Hill 30 should never have made it to the U.S. Army, let alone scouts. But at times the enemy AI is so high that the enemy soldiers simply refuse to die, even if God himself shot them with the K98.
So as I said before, some German soldiers never die unless you do it from a specific spot. In the last battle I played, I kept shooting a soldier in the fucking neck AND face and all he kept doing was grabbing his neck, turning around 3 times and then shooting back. So much for the ‘accurate’ game. Another shooting flaw is not being able to shoot through the MG slot in the sandbags. Even with a sniper rifle, you can smash the shit out of the mouse with your trusty index all you want but you can’t kill him even though you can see his face (grinning like an idiot).
http://forums.zgeek.com/gallery/files/6/5/7/0/bia3_thumb.jpg (http://forums.zgeek.com/gallery/files/6/5/7/0/bia3.jpg)
Im private Durwood thats T-Bone. Me and my mates are just playing with our dicks till we get a command or something...
The new additions to the game itself, like the M3A1 Grease Gun (haven't gotten to use it in the SP mode yet), the Greaser seems to never be featured much in games. Call of Duty 2 actually had one on the loading screen, but it was stupid since you never even saw one in single player mode. The German Para FG- 42 has also been included. One has a scope and the other doesn't. Plenty more of German armour and some horses too which I found peculiar. There are no smart bombs; no laser guided missiles. You are not John Wayne and you cannot kill 27 Germans with one shot from your Colt or Carbine unluckily. Also to pour sacks of salt in the wound, you cannot use the 88's or the smaller cannon, not even the mortars, and you can’t move the toothpick sized MG42 even though it’s renowned for its portability. Then there is no grenade down the hatch feature anymore. This really pisses me off as the panzerfausts (rocket launchers for you non-aryans)are always placed (by idiot game makers intentionally) in spots where tanks spawn TWO METRES AWAY to fire purdy artillery up your rectum till its as big as a water mains. Not only that but you have to rely on the fact that your team will not pick up a panzerfaust when its needed. So, do the tough work (the stubborn and frustrating work actually) yourself…theres nothing else you CAN do really besides turning around mid-level and massacring your ten man squad then quitting in glee.
A new lighting engine casts a lot of jagged shadows over the game's bombed-to-shitspread urban environments. The graphics are sharper and crisper and you can hold your weapon more steady now than you could in the first "Brothers In Arms" PC game. The audio has remained the same with excellent voiceover work. Although personally I believe that the language used in the game stays correct for battle, it might prove a bit too strong for some but I know none of you ZGeekers have weak stomachs so you’ll probably enjoy it more than despise it. The environment sounds and the AI voiceover is of amazing surround quality and it’s very satisfying watching the ‘invincible’ Germans go down like a sack of onions with all those moans in 5.1. They give a real lifelike rigor mortis stiffening when they go down. There are commands given in typical military jargon and EIB is much better in this sense then its predecessor. It is a very nice change of pace with the commanding officer talking with Hartsock as more of a recollection than actually "being there". Hartsock gets emotional at times, and choked up, and it adds to the dialogue. Not many games can boast having a good dialogue, but this one can. The Germans speak actual German, the Americans speak American, and funnily enough, you can actually hear the enemy approaching if they happen to issue a command.
There are the typical objectives in the game: the likes of planting bombs, delivering documents etc. and you have to do them in a certain amount of time which adds an extra edge/agonising pain to the rounds. Some people run servers as 'deathmatch' only. On the multiplayer mode you might find low server rates a problem, but they will probably increase with time. The big addition to the multiplayer side, however, is the all-new Skirmish Mode, which gives players a greater amount of flexibility over the game settings. Rather than competing against other human opponents, the 10 objective-based games let you and a buddy cooperatively play 5 games as Americans and 5 as Germans. You'll be able to change a number of specific settings, including the skill levels of your foes in several areas. Upping their tactics ratings will make them smarter and more aggressive in their movements (not that you really need to), while lowering their accuracy rating will make them less likely to hit you. Should you die, you can instantly choose to be another person who is left in your squad... if you are the last one; you have a choice to call for reinforcements so you don't sacrifice your position.
The online community, though rather small, is very friendly which I found surprising for a shooter... you join a server and instantly you get "hi" "where you from" "let's go" etc...Of course I’m sure some of you don’t give a shit about other players like me so the ignore function is always handy. If you don't wish to play this game online, another added bonus is in addition to solo missions, you can play a quick skirmish. Skirmishes are always a great add-on to a game if you just want a quick action scenario to mow down krauts.... in the skirmishes you also command a squad and have a proper objective. The soldiers use profanity though the roof in both the missions and even in multiplayer which is something I found relaxing as it really makes you feel like you’re in the army.
http://forums.zgeek.com/gallery/files/6/5/7/0/bia4_thumb.jpg (http://forums.zgeek.com/gallery/files/6/5/7/0/bia4.jpg)
"rollin' in my Benzo...poppin some honkies."
The game rates higher than other games of its genre in some other, not too important matters. But there is no excuse and no reason why game developers with today's technology can not make open ended maps for PC games now. It was really unacceptable to see that the lazy developers of "Infinity Ward" didn't do that with "Call of Duty 2". You can't even enter most buildings in the maps or use most alleyways or streets in the towns. You can't control any fellow soldiers in the game like you can in Brothers In Arms.
The game has some very high pros and at times very stupid and frustrating cons. The amazing accuracy and realism coupled with a good plot and beautiful audio override the AI’s inability to solve many problems. There is a mixed response for this game in the popular and snobby communities. Actually more of it has happened because of the high expectations from the Ubisoft clan, especially after the awesome game Far Cry (the one thing they kept from Far Cry is the predetermined save feature, which was the only thing in Far Cry I personally hated to death). Still it’s worth the money if you are into war games because it has a genre of its own...well almost. The game is an up for ultra high enemy AI and historical perspective. Those who think that the shooting without crosshairs and rebound tactical bounce of guns is too much to take might consider their tastes for quake 3 as this is as real as it gets without doing it for real.
P.S: Just to finalise, I’d like to chuck in a few more words here so I can reach 3,000. It is such a nice round number and I’d be pissing off Avatar in the process as he worked really hard on his awesome Guild Wars review :p. So a shout out to the most awesomest zGames editor The Avatar…NOT FORGETTING the ever sexual Twitch. You two have held this forum together even though no-one reads it. A salute to you both. It’s an honour writing for the 13th best IT site in Australia.