WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2011 Review

Summary

Smackdown vs. Raw 2011 is one of many in the WWE franchise. it is developed by Yuke’s media creations and published by THQ. I would say it is very similar to any other WWE game. You can create your own characters, storylines and you can play the road to wrestle mania mode just like in 2009 and 2010, however, in 2011 you have a new mode called WWE universe mode which is basically just the same as picking a match type and playing it, the only difference is whatever you do has consequences for example if I was Triple H and I had the WWE championship and the number one contender for that championship was John Cena, he might come and attack me after one of my matches.

Gameplay (Single Player)

I have to say the gameplay in this game is very slick and fast paced. You can tell that Yuke’s has made some drastic changes to the game that seem to be all for the better. The only downside to this years Smackdown vs. Raw game is the fact that unless you set up your multiplayer (which I’ll get to in a minute) then you will get bored rather quickly after completing all of the road to wrestlemania modes because in WWE universe it just sort of repeats itself over and over again! other than that the single player is pretty awesome.

 

New game modes

Like I said in the summary, Yuke’s have made some pretty drastic changes and added new modes into the game this year. The first change in the game is the revamped road to wrestlemania mode. This year instead of just going back to a still image of your locker room each time you finish a match or cut-scene you go backstage and get to roam around, the feature is alright but the thing that kept on bothering me about this game is the fact that all you can basically do is walk around picking fights with other wrestlers, speak to the general manager when he/she wants to talk to you and the only time you can go out to the ring is when you have your match.

The next big change that you will notice is the new WWE universe mode which like I said in the summary is just a new way of picking your matches or having the computer pick them for you and whatever you do has consequences. The most annoying part of this game mode is the fact that the only you can unlock characters is by Mr McMahon coming out of at the end of your match and sending another wrestler out and if you beat them (which is very likely if you have it on easy) you unlock them this happens a lot when you first start the game and I found this very tedious to go through. 

 Gameplay (Multiplayer)

This year for the multiplayer section of the game, you had to put in a one time use code to activate the service which you should get on the back of the instruction manual. NOTE: YOU CAN ONLY USE THIS CODE OUNCE! SO MAKE SURE TO BUY A BRAND NEW COPY OF THE GAME NOT A PREOWNED COPY! I found this annoying after using my code I started to play the multiplayer and found that it was really laggy, now, I know this might have been the connection speed of the match host’s console however it could just have likely been the game itself therefore I only played about two online matches.

Graphics

No matter how much I have bashed the actual gameplay of this game I have to say the graphics are great! the wrestlers look more life like than ever and I was really taken-aback at how much effort Yuke’s had gone to make this game look as real as possible so thumbs up to them for that!

Sound effects and music

As I am a musician as well as a gamer, this is a huge part in any game for me. I have to say that the sound effects sound really realistic unlike 2010 where the sound effects got delayed. The in-game music is obviously going to be decent. However, as well as having the in-game music this year you had the option of uploading your own music from your playstation music section. I loved the idea of this at first but when I actually uploaded  a song to use for my created wrestler the music drowned out the crowd noise and the voice of the ring announcer, this really took me out of the game to be honest.

Final opinion

My final rating for this game is 6/10. although the game was a huge improvement on Smackdown vs. Raw 2010 it still had it’s downsides.

 

Battlefield 3 ships 12 million copies

Link to article

My opinion
This is great news for EA and battlefield fans because this means that there is likely to be more games added to the franchise in the future. For ounce I honestly think EA are actually more ahead of the game than Activision (Never thought I would say that) if you don't want to read the article listen to my podcast for the audio version plus my opinion. 

Skyrim PS3 lag still an issue after patch

Link to article

My Opinion
Considering the news about the petition to ban skyrim in the U.S. I read on the podcast last week I still can't believe that there is still more bad news to do with this game! this news has actually really annoyed me and made me consider not even getting the game because of this exact issue. I mean, lets be honest here, if you are going to send out a patch to "fix" and issue with a game then you would think that the patch would actually do what it was set out to do! instead it looks to me that this patch has made the game worse! if I do get this game I will be sure to mention this and the petition in my review when or rather if I complete the game.

Call of duty: World at war review

Storyline

Call of Duty World at war is one of 2 call of duty games set away from the modern warfare franchise and is developed by Treyarch and published by Activision. There are two main characters that you play throughout the game Private Miller and private Petranko, Private Miller is a U.S. Navy soldier fighting the Japanese army and Private Petranko is a Russian red army soldier fighting the Germans.

Gameplay (Single Player)

The gameplay is very slick and when I played it I didn’t notice any glitches or moments of freezing during the game. Also, the characters are very life like and believable considering it came out in 2008. Some of the levels are a bit too short and it could have been more beneficial for some of the levels to be combined that involved the same main character. However, sometimes the rest of your team would get in the way and would be a hindrance rather than a help. I also found that both main characters stories started off the same way weapon less and surrounded by the enemy which I must admit was a little disappointing considering how well the game was hyped on release.

Weapons

On the weapons side of things it was a lot better and kind of showed me what the weapons were like in World War 2 which is where the game was set. My favourite weapons were probably the bayonet, deployable machine gun and flame thrower because they delivered the most damage to the enemy and therefore gave me the most satisfaction.

Graphics

The graphics in world at war are very impressive and look very realistic. It actually made me feel like I was in a real war!

Gameplay (Multiplayer and zombies)

In world at war Treyarch introduced a new element to the game called Nazi zombies which is unlocked at the end of the game. This is probably the hardest part in the game; it certainly caused me the most stress! For those that haven’t played world at war before Nazi zombies starts off with you just having a pistol and you can buy guns with the money you earn from killing zombies and rebuilding barriers, there is also a room that can be unlocked that contains a “Random Box” which as you probably guessed by the name gives you a random weapon (Some good, some bad) Zombies is by far the most enjoyable part of the game. The online multiplayer is obviously a huge part of the game but to be honest I don’t think it lived up to the expectations set by Call of duty 4 so I didn’t really play a lot of it sorry.

Final opinion

My final opinion of this game is that it is OK but not as good as I thought it would be after playing Call of duty 4 to be honest I didn’t think that call of duty’s standards would go down but seeing as it wasn’t developed by infinity Ward I wasn’t really that surprised.

I rate this game 7/10

Petition created to ban the elder scrolls V skyrim in the U.S.

Petition to ban elder scrolls V skyrim

I have just found an article on PCmag.com stating that some idiot has decided to create a petition to ban the latest elder scrolls game skyrim in the U.S.! I find this appalling and hilarious at the same time because how can some random man decide to ruin the united states gaming experience just because of some controversial scenes in a video game! what gives him the right to do that? I mean lets be honest there are a lot of other games that are a lot more controversial games that he could have gone for like grand theft auto 4 and the airport scene in call of duty: Modern Warfare 2. but of course he decided to try and ban a 15 rated game just to get some stupid media attention! I will be getting skyrim when I get a chance and intend to complete the game no matter how long it is. if you want the audio version of this opinion listen to Gary's Gamer podcast episode 25 

Got any comments on this article leave them at the bottom of this post or email me at gary.cunningham190@googlemail.com

Peace out guys and for the second time today

Happy Gaming

Gazza

New Rainbow six game coming in 2013

Rainbow six developers have said that they are working on a new rainbow six 2 sequel due for release in 2013. They have decided to call the game rainbow six patriots, news of the games arrival had already been leaked on the internet according to developers Ubisoft Montreal and Ubisoft Toronto, however this doesn't matter to fans of the Tom Clancy games because they have been waiting a long time. I think that 2013 is a little late and it should be bought out in 2012. Surely it would be a little bit out of order to keep the fans of the game waiting so long? the game will come out on Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC.

I haven't completed Rainbow Six Vegas two yet so when the game does come out it looks like I'm going to be one of the last people to get it although as it's coming out in 2013 I should have enough time to finish it. hopefully!

Don't forget to listen to episode 25 for more in depth coverage and opinion on this news

Peace out and happy gaming.

Gazza

Another review coming your way soon

Yet again I must apologize for my long absence over the last few months but I have been very busy with my music. To make it up to you though I am going to be working on another review over the next few days. I have recently recorded episode 24 of Gary's Gamer Podcast but because I have changed my podcast server I need to upload all of the other episodes onto the new server and it is taking forever but as soon as that's done I'll have episode 24 and 25 up on there too because I'm going to do that over the weekend.

Peace out and happy gaming as always
Gazza

Uncharted 3: Drakes deception painfully long loading times

It turns out that the highly anticipated uncharted 3 Drakes deception has hit a very big brick wall. It turns out that some people that have bought the game have been complaining about the game taking too long to load! Some people have even said that ounce the game has finally loaded the level hasn't actually loaded properly so Drake spawns in an odd place.

I am so annoyed at this news! I mean if you promote a game as well as naughty dog (the developers) have then you would expect for problems and glitches like this to be non existent! I am really disappointed that this game of all games is the one that has problems that basically makes gamer's unable to play the game. However, the most annoying thing about this is the fact that both uncharted 1 and 2 didn't have any problems like this!

Hopefully naughty dog sort out this problem pretty sharpish otherwise they are going to lose a lot of money on this game.

My podcast will be back over the weekend maybe sooner!

Hi guys, I know I haven't been posting in absolutely ages I have been really busy with my music and school work and the podcast and blog has slipped my mind but I promise you that there will be a new episode of the podcast up by the weekend. my podcast provider has changed www.garysgamerpodcast1.podbean.com because my old one is shutting down.