Call of Duty: Ghosts Reviews

I’m not going to talk about the dog.

Well, I mean, obviously I am going to talk about the dog. I’m sort of doing it now. But what I mean is that I’m not going to fixate on talking about the dog. Because yes, there’s a dog, and yes, you get to control it thanks to an in-game system that actually tries to explain how you can be playing as a human and then suddenly you’re in remote control of your family pet.

And sometimes it’s played for laughs, and other times it’s used to grasp that low-hanging emotional fruit – because everybody loves dogs. Thing is, the dog’s really not that huge a part of the gameplay, no matter what the marketing guys tell you.

No, what I’m more interested in is how all videogames are drawing together, trapped within the event horizon of the ultimate videogame, a beige paste formed in large part from the Tom Clancy, Star Wars and GTA labels.

Ghost Dog

CoD: Ghosts takes the crazy-mad set piece nonsense of every Bond movie ever, and chucks in the OMG-worthy giant scenery destruction mayhem of Battlefield 4. The sheer variety of multiplayer modes and definable multiplay classes and loadouts is heading down the obsessive road of Paradox’s Wars of the Roses, and the alien-fragging co-op modes build on the proud tradition set out by games such as Left 4 Dead and Payday.

But yeah. Ghost Recon. I mean, there’s an obvious right there in the title, of course, and the feeling  that you’re not quite sure if it’s supposed to be a single-player-focused shooter or mainly MP. But the dog (which I’m not going to talk about) has the same kind of ‘guest star’ status (or gimmick status, depending on how mean you’re feeling) as the War Hound. The main thing has to be the name, though. It’s… well, it’s a little close, you know? It’s not even like they’re separated by much in the way of concept and design. Our heroes venture out from the relative safety of their base into the wilderness, and encounter an elite group of soldiers called the Ghosts. You sort of want one of the heroes to say “Oh yeah, I know you guys, from those Tom Clancy games, right?”, to which they’d have to say “No, we’re totally different. We’re a secret black-ops unit who focus on stealth and camouflage to defend American interests worldwide, and they’re…well…”

Gameplay-wise, you can’t shake the feeling that Infinity Ward just wanted to chuck everything into the pot. However, the ingredients shelf is the same one used by every modern shooter in recent history. So if you’ve seen it in another shooter, there’s bound to be a moment in Ghosts that does it again. It’s all done in a pretty enough way with competent voice acting, all glued together with plenty of wild gunfights that very much look like you’d expect from a game in late 2013, at the gateway between two console generations. There’s an episode set in space, another beneath the sea, and plenty of collapsing buildings and a soupcon of vehicle combat.

Time To Run And Gun, Ghosts

Actually, it all works very well once you get over the fact that the developers have just nicked everyone else’s ideas (or even rehashed their own). The stealth mechanic works much better than it has done in previous games and heavy weapons feel suitably meaty. Co-op missions can be played solo if you’ve a hankering for a little more offline action once you beat the campaign, too. In fact, there’s very little to really complain about. Infinity Ward are pretty good at this stuff.

There was a little worry that the campaign mode was going to feel too short, but it certainly took me longer than the touted four hours to beat, and I enjoyed returning to the OTT action movie vibe you always get with CoD games. The story – which revolves around a federation of South American nations who rise up and challenge the USA’s world dominance in an explosion-happy way – is surprisingly strong, with a decent focus not just on masses of gunfire and hairy men talking about their Lima Zulus, but on family and friendship. Which, admittedly, is something many other games have delivered too, but it’s done well.

So this time we wont crave constant innovation when our annual COD has all the stuff in it to make it pretty darn fun. But if you can't help but peal back the layers in search of it then you will find two new multiplayer modes in Ghosts. These are called Squads and Extinction. Extinction is a kind alien invasion cleansing scenario with some Left 4 Dead style trimmings but instead of zombies we are taking down Aliens.

COD Ghosts Extinction

CoD is often regarded as the worlds go to FPS. Because of that it will continue to walk the same ground that made it the biggest selling FPS, until everyone stops buying it. And that’s really the message here. Yes, it’s this year’s CoD. No, there’s not really anything here that you’ve not seen in other CoD games, let alone anything really innovative.

But there is plenty of it, and it is delivered to a high standard and it is fun to play. And this should really be the yardstick, right? If you think it should be changing and improving in new ways then you know what to do, but for now you will get more of that CoD formula that the world craves so much. Activision have a billion dollars on day one that says they know what they are doing.

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Forza Motorsport 5 Car Pass And Gameplay Trailer Unveiled

Forza Motorsport 5 developer Turn10 has revealed the game's Car Pass.

The Car Pass is effectively a season pass, designed to add over 60 new DLC cars to the Xbox One launch title...

Forza Motorsport 5 will be releasing monthly car packs with ten new cars in each pack. Car Pass owners will be able to access all of these for a discounted price.

Each car downloaded will be fully customizable and will come with “a full Forzavista experience”. Players will be able to walk around the car, check out the interiors, start up and rev the engine, and learn all about the model's history and performance statistics.

Fans interested in the new cars on offer in Forza Motorsport 5 can check out the game's virtual showroom, which is updated every Wednesday with new cars that will be playable upon the title's November 22nd launch.

Last week, Turn10 also unveiled a new gameplay trailer showing the Ferrari F12 Berlinetta in action around Belgium's iconic F1 circuit; Spa. You can check it out below.

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Sapphire Radeon R9 290 pictured and ‘tested’

We are very close to the official launch of the Radeon R9 290, a slower sibling of R9 290X.

Chinese forums are always worth a check before major announcements. Today a member of Chiphell forums posted a first preview of Sapphire R9 290 graphics card, including some photos and two 3Dmark tests (here we go again).

Performance varies in both tests, while R9 290 is actually slower in 3Dmark 11 by 3%, but outperforms GTX 780 by 9% in 3DMark Fire Strike.

The leaker claims that the score should actually be better in with the AMD card, the lower score could’ve been caused by unsupported drivers. That’s partially a reason why GPU-Z cannot read the data correctly, at least it read the clocks right.

3Dmark 11 (Extreme Preset)
AMD Radeon R9 290 vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780





3Dmark Fire Strike (Extreme Preset)AMD Radeon R9 290 vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780

 

Sapphire Radeon R9 290

Sapphire’s R9 290 looks exactly the same as their 290X, that includes 6+8-pin power connectors and missing CrossFire fingers, but that’s not surprising of course.

We are pretty much familiar with the rest of the design. Sapphire was the only manufacturer to put more stickers on the cooler, rather than only on the fan. The label clearly states that we are looking at non-X model, which is also confirmed by the stickers at the back. You can also spot the BIOS switch, proving that R9 290 will support Uber and Quiet modes too.

If you somehow missed the specs of this card then let me make a short recap. R9 290 is based on Hawaii PRO processor, which sports 2560 Stream Processors (290X has 2816). The number of ROPs is still 64, but Texture Units were reduced to 160. The R9 290 is also using 512-bit interface with 4GB GDDR5 memory, which is a very good option considering the price (which is expected around $450).

AMD Radeon R9 290 will be released on October 31st.

Source: Chiphell

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I Am The Night - Batman: Arkham Origins Review

Batman: Arkham Origins was always going to come under intense scrutiny, as series’ creator Rocksteady allowed the franchise to leave the nest under the guidance of Warner Bros. Montreal. This is the studio's first full debut and it’s certainly got some large bat-shaped boots to fill in order to live up to the series’ rabid fans spiralling expectations.

Prequel to the Sequel

First things first, I'll set my stool out. I was among the majority who hailed Arkham Asylum as a masterpiece; it was an excellently stitched together game in the metroidvania mold that perfectly encapsulated that smooth arc of skills, unlocks and abilities in a way that few games ever do. By the time you’d got to the end of that title you truly felt like Batman, with every skill and utensil aiding you in one way or another with your incessant crackdown on crime. The asylum itself was a compact joy that encouraged discovery while never feeling too sprawling or chaotic, and the story was focused, exciting, and best of all, felt like an actual comic book.

While I was in the majority with my opinion on that title, sure, when it came to Batman: Arkham City I was firmly in the opposite camp. Something about it just didn’t entirely click with me, and it wasn’t until playing through Arkham Origins that I truly realised its faults.

As indicated in the title, Batman:Arkham Origins is a prequel to the previous titles, set five full years before the events of Arkham Asylum, during the midst of winter, Christmas Eve to be precise. The titular Batman has only been donning his crime-fighting garb for a couple of years and is still a relative minnow in the Gotham world, so to speak. It’s refreshing to get a look at the caped crusader before he was chums with Commissioner Gordon, before the Joker had made his name and before Edward Nigma had ever taken the Batman for a fool. Many people are still unwitting to the Bat’s existence, although they’d be hard-pressed to deny it by the end of this rip-roaring tale.

For years Batman has battled with muggers and street thugs, but Arkham Origins represents his step up to the big time, as he attempts to hunt down the nefarious Black Mask. The narrative itself is as straightforward as it comes, much to the game’s benefit rather than to the player’s chagrin. Black Mask runs a hugely successful underground criminal empire, but has noticed the rumblings of Batman’s upcoming emergence and puts a hefty $50million bounty on Batman’s head. Cue eight dangerous assassin’s queueing up to find the Batman and claim his life on a suitably blustery winter’s evening.

In truth the plot is really no more complex than Mario hopping and skipping his way through eight castles in search of Princess Peach, but the point is it doesn’t be any more than that. Arkham City’s story in comparison I found to be a sprawling mess of excuses to trudge from one location to another; an antidote here, a bomb there, or a gang of civilians need saving. It merely came across as a convoluted way to get you to haul yourself across innumerable locations and fighting countless villains, a storyline that was there for no reason other than to get you to move.

Arkham Origins does away with this unnecessary fluff, giving you solid momentum from start to finish. You know there’s eight assassins between you and Black Mask, and in delivering an action-packed comic book tale it takes some beating in my opinion.

I looked out into the thick darkness of night. I was sure I had been here before.

The city itself is much the same as that seen in Arkham City, although larger and incorporating a segment of traditional Gotham City. Hands down one of the weakest aspects of Arkham Origins is the city setting, it was pretty poor in Arkham City and it’s managed to be worse here. The atmosphere is fantastic and some of it looks great, but beyond the superficial there really is little to it. It feels like this was such a great opportunity to expand on Arkham City’s template, adding civilians, traffic and more to give a truly open-world environment; the much-maligned ‘living, breathing city’ if you like. The 'Christmas Eve', 'public safety warning', 'stay indoors' schtick is a paper-thin narrative to ensure they didn’t have to bother with any civilians. As it is it feels like a glorified collectathon hub, funneling you to the overworld’s dungeon-like interiors.

The Riddler’s secret packages are still enjoyable to find but the sheer wealth of them ensures than it can be quite a wearying experience by the end, I can’t help but shake the feeling that they’d be better off with half as many riddles that were twice as well thought out. Nevertheless the joy of flying round the city is still hard to resist, and many a time I’ve realised I’ve no clue where I’m heading, just enjoying the game’s movement mechanics.

When it comes to the dungeon-like interiors I mentioned above, this is where Arkham Origins excels over Arkham City in almost every way. The interiors are varied, challenging, beautiful and make smart use of all of your gadgets to find their secrets. Sneaking through Gotham City PD or aboard a sea-vessel that makes the Titanic look inviting is a joy, and presents the gamer with many more memorable moments that I won’t go into detail here. Of course Arkham City had great moments like the shark in the torture chamber, while Arkham Asylum was inundated with fantastic moments such as Croc-man in the sewer, but Arkham Origins more than holds its own with both of Rocksteady’s finest.

One criticism that can most definitely be levelled at Arkham Origins is a lack of innovation; if you were starting to tired of the Arkham mechanics at all during the last outing then this may be a struggle for you to push through to the end. It’s clearly been a tricky tightrope for the team at Warner Bros. Montreal to balance on, weighing up what people enjoyed so much about the first two titles with adding new elements. Any minor change to the successful formula would be leapt upon by fans, and this certainly ends up being the case in one or two situations.

Counter Productive

Nearly every single unlockable is the same as in Arkham City, there’s literally almost nothing new gadget wise to get excited about. The linear skill tree keeps some of the later upgrades hidden, but experienced players in the series will still know exactly what to expect along the way. This level of predictability can make the game feel a little staid and dull, but to counteract this Warner Bros. Montreal has introduced a wickedly simple and user-friendly advancement system that ensures you learn to get the most out of your fighting repertoire than either of the previous iterations in the series.

One of City’s downfalls in my opinion was the sheer wealth of options it threw at you so very early in the campaign; it was great news for the pro-choice crowd but there was also the growing sense that you were being inundated with more tools than you knew how to use. The drip-feed here is nigh-on perfect for introducing people to the series, and the increased aggressiveness of the AI positively forces you to get to grips with everything at your disposal. I am far far from a veteran expert of the Arkham series, and so when it came to previous iterations I rarely used the cloak stun, bat-grapple pull, the batarang or the explosive gel mid-combat, but here I found uses for all in fight after fight. The combat is still very much the same, relying heavily on counters a la Assassin’s Creed, notching up bigger combos for better moves and quicker reactions. It also has that added bonus of a Batman game that no matter how badly you scrape through a fight, you still make Chuck Norris look like Octodad, as smooth counters and slick gadget use truly make you feel like a superhero. There's nothing better than prowling the city's rooftops looking for your next unsuspecting prey before nosediving off the skyscraper, snowflakes rushing past you as you land on a bonehead's skull with a satisfying crack. 

Graphically the game looks as good as we've come to expect from the Arkham series, no more no less. Some hugely impressive looking and varied environments jar slightly awkwardly with the at times generic and bare city, but there's no denying the allure of Gotham City has been authentically recreated. Seeing the bat-signal projected into the sky above you still makes you feel like the ultimate badass, and no amount of developer shake-ups can change that.

On PC the game obviously comes into its own, the snow effects in particular look fantastic if you can crank them settings up. Batman: Arkham Origins has the fortunate advantage of actually running better than its predecessors, which should great news for those of you with slightly older rigs that may have been worried about the prequel's performance.

The Bat is Back

Clocking in at around ten hours or so for the main campaign, Arkham Origins isn’t the longest title around, but it would be a disservice to ignore all the other features available to you. Finding and doing everything in Gotham City may take you well past the 20-30 hour mark, and that’s not including the wealth of combat arenas and predator events that give the game fantastic longevity in the combat department. Some of the sidequests and missions are a touch on the repetitive side but when it comes down to it, it’s still a joy just playing as the Batman.

Arkham Origins may have a few niggling faults that fans of the series may feel detracts from the experience; it’s slightly buggier than we’ve come to expect and villains aren’t all top-drawer, but Warner Bros. Montreal can’t be knocked creating a great game out of a truly intimidating situation. Well worth a pop to tide you over until the inevitable ‘next-gen’ Batman unfurls its wings.

Source: game-debate.com

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Need For Speed Rivals System Requirements

 The Need For Speed series has been the high-octane racing franchise of choice over the last few years, giving you vast American sprawls to burn rubber in as you race, chase, stinger and cause all around chaos.

Need For Speed Rivals is the latest game to come out of the series, and expands yet again on the previous games, with classic cops and racers gameplay augmented with eleven carnage-inducing high-tech gadgets. So without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, start your engines and see if you meet the Need For Speed Rivals System Requirements...

Need For Speed Rivals Certainly Looks The Part, But How Will It Run? Need For Speed Rivals Certainly Looks The Part, But How Will It Run?

Need For Speed: Rivals Minimum  System Requirements

OS: Windows XP 64bit

CPU: Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz or Athlon X2 2.6 GHz

RAM: 4GB System Memory

GPU RAM: 512MB Graphics Memory

GPU: Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT 512MB or AMD Radeon HD 3870

DX: DirectX 10.1

HDD: 30 GB Free Hard Drive Space

Need For Speed: Rivals Recommended System Requirements

OS: Windows 8 64bit

CPU: 2.4 GHz Quad Core (Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4 GHz or Athlon X4 620)

RAM: 8GB System Memory

GPU RAM: 3GB Graphics Memory

GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 or AMD Radeon HD 7870

HDD: 30 GB Free Hard Drive Space

Well, those are  pretty some hefty requirements, but if you look at how good the game looks in motion it's no surprise! While the minimum requirements aren't staggering, it's still going to need 4GB of memory to get up and running, as well as whopping 30GB free HDD space. 

The classic and reliable 8800 GT (Mustang) rears its head again in the minimum specs, but the leap up to recommended specs is a significant one. A hefty quad core processor and and nearly top of the line GPUs such as the GT 660 and HD 7870 ensure that your system will have to be no slouch to get this game hitting fifth gear.

As the next-gen consoles hit we have been seeing a string of recommended system requirements that have got many PC gamers worrying, including Battlefield 4's system hogging specs and the now-delayed Watch Dogs' 6GB minimum on RAM.

Source: game-debate

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Battlefield 4 beta feedback: what’s changing before launch

Battlefield 4 beta players have done their jobs, according to a list of fixes and tweaks DICE plans to make before launch. Good job, Battlefield 4 beta players! In the blog post, DICE’s Vincent Vukovic thanks the testers and describes how the beta’s “key findings” will be addressed before October 29—several of the bug reports relate specifically to PC optimization.

Chief among the issues are low framerates and stuttering. “Rest assured that we’re using the information we received to optimize the performance for the launch of the game,” writes Vukovic. “We also released three game client updates and a number of game server updates during the Beta to address some of these issues and to gather more information to ensure a smoother launch.”

Also at the top of the list are bugs that cause stalls on the loading screen and unusually high CPU usage for dual, quad, and six-core processors. “This was a true Beta,” writes Vukovic, “And as such all the crash reports that were generated during this period will actually help us make a better game.”

A “true beta,” of course, being a real testing phase and not a demo in a beta’s skin—sounds like DICE senses that some learned cynicism needs to be massaged out. Along with technical fixes, the developer promises gameplay tweaks—largely adjustments to weapon stats such as damage and rate-of-fire—and says it’ll keep scrutinizing and tweaking after release.

The BF4 beta is now over, but only a little under two weeks remains before the release. Can DICE get it running smoothly in just two weeks? Will the word “levolution” stick? Tune in next time for the shocking launch conclusion!

Source: pcgamer.com

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Assassins Creed 4 System Requirements

Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag: is Ubisoft's next instalment in the hugely successful Assassin's Creed series, with the latest offering set in the violent colonies and on the pirate ships of the 18th Century Caribbean.

With this cross-generational, next gen title looking pretty impressive, we spotted the Assassins Creed 4 Black Flag system requirements and wanted to share them with you so you can check to see if you can run it...

Assassins Creed 4 System Requirements Assassins Creed 4 System Requirements

OS: Win Vista SP 64bit, or Win 7 SP1 64bit, or Win 8 64bit

CPU: Intel Core2Quad Q8400@2.6 GHz / AMD Athlon II X4 620@2.6 GHz

RAM: 2GB System Memory

GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 260 / AMD Radeon HD 4870

GPU RAM: 512MB VRAM with Shader Model 4.0 or higher

DX: DirectX June 2010 Redistributable

HD: 30 GB

AUDIO: DirectX Compatible Soundcard with latest drivers

PERIPHERALS: Windows-compatible keyboard and mouse required, optional controller

Assassin's Creed 4 Recommended System Requirements

OS: Win Vista SP2 64Bit, or Win 7 SP1 64Bit, or Win 8 64Bit

CPU: Intel Core i5 2400S 2.5 GHz / AMD Phenom II x4 940 3.0 GHz or better

RAM: 4GB or more system memory

GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 470 / AMD Radeon HD 5850

GPU RAM: 1024MB VRAM with Shader Model 5.0 or higher

SUPPORTED GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 260 or better, GT400, GT500, GT600, GT700 series or AMD Radeon HD4870 or better, HD5000, HD6000, HD7000 series

GRAPHICS DRIVERS: Latest Geforce drivers tested: 320.49 for all series. Latest Radeon drivers tested: 13.1 for Radeon HD4000, 13.4 for Radeon HD5000 and above.

As is usual with laptop versions of these graphics cards, they may work with AC4 Black Flag but are NOT officially supported.

Looks like they're after a quad-core for minimum, which may concern quite a few people still running a dual-core but, as we covered on Monday, AC4 is looking like it could pack a real punch graphically.

The official requirements have now been removed from their original placement on Ubisoft, suggesting perhaps that they may still be subject to minor changes.

We will update any possible changes as soon as we know any more.

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NVIDIA Release Suspect CoD: Ghosts System Requirements

These are by no means conclusive but NVIDIA has seen fit to release the system requirements for Call of Duty: Ghosts on its official website and they don’t make for pretty reading.

NVIDIA obviously has potentially ulterior motives for releasing meaty specs like these so pick up that salt shaker and grab a hefty handful…

Call Of Duty: Ghosts Will Apparently Require Some Grunt If These Specs Are Anything To Go By Call Of Duty: Ghosts Will Apparently Require Some Grunt If These Specs Are Anything To Go By

Call of Duty: Ghosts Minimum System Requirements

OS: Win 7 SP1 64bit / Win 8 64bit

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8200 2.66 GHZ Processor / AMD Phenom X3 8750 2.4 GHZ or better

RAM: 6GB of System Memory

HDD: 50GB Hard-Drive Space

GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti / ATI Radeon HD 5870 or better with DirectX 11 support

AUDIO: DirectX capable audio card

Call of Duty Ghosts Recommended System Requirements

GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780

On first impressions these system specifications look patently ridiculous. For a game running on a modified version of the same IW Engine as Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, the shift up from an NVIDIA 8800 GT to a GeForce GTX 550Ti is bordering on the absurd. Most telling is NVIDIA recommending a GPU that comes in at roughly half the price of the ATI Radeon HD 5870, with the clear intent of making its cards seem the more attractive choice.

The CPU requirements thankfully aren't on the same scale that we've seen in the Ubisoft titles but we are seeing the forced shift over to 64-bit OS's again. On top of this a hefty 6GB of 

RAM could see many having to bung a few sticks into their shopping baskets.

If these figures are in the right ballpark then we truly are seeing a generational leap in required power, particularly after the revealing of Watch Dogs hugely demanding system requirements.

Of course we'll get back to you as soon as we hear anything more concrete about Call of Duty: Ghosts system requirements, as we have a feeling they might need a little alteration once an official source crops up...

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