Crysis (PC)
Almost didn't bother with this at all because my PC in no way comes close to the recommended hardware spec, and for a game that has had a lot of hype surrounding the spectacular graphics the engine is capable of it seemed kind of pointless for my humble system. The game ran fine at low quality but the gameplay didn't really hook me. The different modes of your nanosuit are interesting but for some reason I never found myself drawn into the kind of gameplay that all the reviews are gushing about, quickly switching modes on the fly to attack enemies then leaping away over buildings or anything like that. It just seemed like Far Cry with extra powers, wandering round a tropical island that largely looks the same all over and killing soldiers.
I will go back and play it again on hard (where the AI is supposed to be very smart) but on normal I found it a little dull. I need to figure out whether that's down to the mood I was in or if it's something about the game itself.
Blacksite (360)
This game had a second demo put on Live this week to show off more areas of the game. Neither demo is really impressing me. The game borrows some of the squad mechanics from Rainbow Six with some of the themes of Gears of War (squad of soldiers against aliens), but without ever being as good as either. Maybe I'm just burned out with regards to the FPS genre right now.
One bit that annoyed me in the new demo was when I saw a person ahead, looking out of a building. I switched to the sniper rifle and fired several shots at him, none of which connected. When I moved a little further forward a scripted event kicked in which had him killed by an alien attack. Considering I only had a few sniper bullets that left me feeling a little cheated. But in general neither demo has left me interested in the game, with it seemingly falling well short of the best FPS titles released this year.
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