BulletStorm... It's raining fun

Well based on my title, both the game and my opinion of it are kind of given away. I'm going to do the review anyway... because I can... so suck it.

Bulletstorm is a new FPS (First Person Shooter) by Epic Games and People Can Fly. I've been home on break and all my friends are doing something fun with their lives, so Call of Duty: Black Ops has been kind of lackluster for me. I picked up Bulletstorm on a whim because it was called the "Epic Edition."

Story: The story for Bulletstorm is a hybrid of uniqueness and every game you've ever played. Basically you're an ex-space-military guy who was screwed over by his commanders and went rogue with his team. There's some huge bounty on his head and in a drunken stupor, he tries to take down the "prize ship" of the army he used to be a part of. (Yes, I know that's a dangling participle, deal with it) You crash land on some planet that in some kind of weird civil war. There's a moderate sized collection of cool guns you pick up during the campaign and a "leash" that lets you pull stuff around. Honestly, nothing particularly great, but still enough to keep me interested,

Gameplay: This is where Bulletstorm shines. I picked it up like I would any other FPS; aiming down the sights, melee-ing at close range. You know, the usual. After picking up the leash and realizing I was being graded on my shots, I realized the normal way wasn't going to be good enough. Now I'm running around kicking people into spikes, shooting them up in the air then blowing their legs off, shooting them in the balls so they beg for mercy and finishing the job with a headshot. Yeah, these are all real things in the game and you're rewarded for doing them. The game was suddenly particularly fun.

Upgrading the weapons increases this feeling. When I got to steer my sniper rifle shot into a guys head, drag him around the area I tagged him, then pulled the trigger to set off the explosive in the bullet, I had to pause because I was laughing so hard. I forgot how much fun games could be.

I didn't try the multiplayer yet because I don't have XBOX Live connection at the moment, but from reading the description, they take the campaign and design segments just like it. You're rewarded for ridiculous team combination ways of interesting killing. If you have a group of friends to play with, I imagine this is disgustingly fun to do.

Visuals: The game was also really nice to look at. The world they created was filled with exotic plants, waterfalls, and buildings. It was all coated in blood in some parts, which made it feel a little more grim and real to the war going on, but still interesting to look at. Besides it being a very "pretty" game, one ting I noticed was a great connection to size. Things designed to be very big monsters or mining equipment felt HUGE compared to my human sized character. Mountains and waterfalls felt like they'd take days to get around. I was impressed with how wall People Can Fly kept their feet on the ground with the world.

Overall: When it really comes down it, you want to know if you should buy it, right? If you commonly play FPS games and have gotten bored with the usual games, go out and get Bulletstorm. If you're new to FPS games, go get Bulletstorm and see how fun they can be. If you're hugely amused by boner jokes and interesting curses... go find a friend who has Bulletstorm and watch them play. You'll laugh your ass off. I'm happy with my investment and if you'll excuse me, I'm about to use this 4-barrel shot gun to blow a guy's legs off and then kick him into a mutated flytrap.



I'll get back to you once I get HomeFront and try that out.

Call of Duty: Black Ops. First Strike Map Pack

As of midnight (more like 2am PST) Feb 1, 2011, TreyArch released the first DLC for Call of Duty:Black Ops with their map pack called "First Strike." The name is a call back to the beta version of the game which was CoD: First Strike before being switched to Black Ops.

It features five new maps: 4 multiplayer maps and 1 zombie map
I'll go through each map and how I like to play it briefly. Since I just prestiged, the style might change but this is how I'm handling it for now...

Multiplayer Maps first.
Discovery. The largest map in the pack by far. Discovery is apparently a research post in Antarctica. It has some very (VERY) long sight lines that would be great for a sniper. I personally suck at sniping so I tend to avoid this option. In its place I like to take an SMG runner class and try to wreak havoc on the snipers and then run on to the next one. The problem is finding enough cover running from one post to the next without getting my head blown off.

Kowloon. The smallest of the maps and the only one featuring useless zip-lines. There really isn't a wrong way to play this map. Pick whatever class you're doing well with for the day and go with it. Watch for claymores and people camping around corners, but otherwise just go for it. I think it is the most even map in the pack when it comes to player vs. player interactions

Stadium. Honestly I haven't gotten to play this one too much as it always gets out-voted for the others. From what I've experienced, it definitely plays the run-and-gun players against the LMG extended clip players. There are plenty of opportunities to weave in and out of buildings and around corners, but there are also plenty of places to dig in and fire away from cover. Depending on your aim that day, I'd play accordingly.

Berlin Wall. I started out with a deep hatred for this level. It was recently become "tolerable" at best. Tons of buildings filled with elevated windows spelled certain doom for a player like me. I am not very patient and tend to get excited when I finally see someone mookin' around that I start to spray away and give away my position, only to be met with return shots from every angle I can see.

Zombie Map
Ascension. I've only played this a couple times now. It is HUGE compared to Kino Der Toten and "Five." I played with two people and it was really difficult to find success. The hell hounds were replaced with these little space monkey bastards that steal your stuff and throw back your grenade. I'm not crazy about playing in Black and White until the power is turned on since my vision in B&W is apparently God-awful. Still working on finding the Pack-a-Punch machine; I've seen a few videos on where it is, but I didn't make it that far.

All in all, it's a nice addition to the old maps, especially on objective based games. In TDM it is pretty much business as usual. Let me know your opinions...