Fallout 3 DLC (PC and Xbox 360): The Pitt

The second Fallout 3 DLC was released not too long after Operation Anchorage, and because of the flawed, if not very disappointing first expansion, there was a mixture of 'maybe this one will be better' and 'the first one sucked, this one will too'. I was actually thinking a bit of both; it would be nothing new for game developers to not learn from their mistakes. But, out of pure loyalty (if anything) to Fallout, I went ahead and bought it.

Firstly, YES, this one is NOT a linear, FPS styled 'go shoot enemies and blow stuff up' set of missions. Free roam is most certainly an option with this one, thank goodness. It is set in the devastated remains of Pittsburgh which wasn't nuked in the war, but instead has been plagued with radiation-related disease, slowly turning inhabitants who are exposed to the air and water for long enough into 'Trogs', a goblin-like type of Feral Ghoul. Unfortunately, those exposed are slaves, or 'workers' for a large band of raiders. So basically a fellow called Wernher comes along and tells you about the Pitt, you get to go there (sneaking in dressed as a slave) and take part in a revolt in order to get the cure from the raiders' grasp and save the slaves. I won't go further into the storyline, but it's been well put together without a large backstory, and it doesn't drag on or go by too quickly either. There are, like all Fallout DLCs, three missions, which are all in the style of normal quests and none of them really fall below standard, though they are fairly brief. A highlight for me - and most likely for Oblivion fans - was fighting in 'The Hole': an obvious remake of the Arena from Oblivion, with opening speech and all. The hardest challenge of the expansion is an optional mission which is collecting pieces of steel from the Trog-infested Steelyard, 100 in total. Finding all 100 will prove difficult but there is a reward for every 10 you find, these rewards include new armour and weapons, the best of these being the awesome Metal Blaster (a Laser Rifle which fires about 6 shots at a time with huge damage) and the Tribal Power armour, which is similar to the boss' armour with different effects. Even if you're not after the achievement for finding all the steel, these should be incentives alone. Where a majority of the DLC proves to be not much more than your ordinary playing of Fallout, I think the steel-searching and the Arena give it an extra something which Operation Anchorage didn't offer.

Once done you'll be able to return home with your new goodies, having chosen your Good or Evil ending. It's certainly improved upon the previous expansion, and has given just as good weps, but there's still some excitement missing. The new scenery is a nice change but, in all, the Capital Wasteland is real Fallout environment. I give 'The Pitt' 6/10 for an enjoyable experience, but I say again: Bethesda still haven't fully nailed it.

Fallout 3 DLC (PC and Xbox 360): Operation Anchorage

This is the first DLC that Bethesda oh-so-kindly released for good ol' Fallout 3 which was, I believe, necessary after the somewhat disappointing abrupt end to the main storyline, which I won't spoil for those who haven't completed it. However, like the Pitt, it doesn't continue with the storyline AFTER the final quest, so it has to be done when you're still playing through the game, which can be annoying if you had finished it before the expansion was released. Oh well....

What has attracted criticism from a majority of the people buying this expansion, including myself, is that this works NOTHING like the rest of Fallout - there's no Wasteland, there's no 'survival' theme, no radiation-poisoned animals, nothing like this. It's unfortunately based too much on your everyday FPS, linear missions and all. Fallout 3 was built to be a massively varied game, so focusing on just shooting stuff (and you ONLY shoot stuff in Operation Anchorage) makes it seem far worse than it is. The scenery looks good it must be said, the sound effects of blizzards are very convincing and the snowy, mountainous backdrop is great, but it's simply not enough. Because the whole scenario is based in a US Army simulation, bodies disappear and people 'warp' through doors, making the whole thing seem a lot less believable. Without packs of Giant Radscorpions or Deathclaws jumping at you from nowhere it hugely lacks the deadly and dangerous feel of a much more believable Wasteland.

There are 3 quests involved, and these are zero-complication 'go kill stuff' missions. There are no side quests because of the linear landscape which allows for no free roam, so once you've done the quests it's done and that's the end of it. I suppose you can't blame Bethesda for these things seeing as being a soldier you wouldn't be allowed to run around a war area killing who you like, but then maybe this just means the whole thing shouldn't have been made if it was going to abondon Fallout's traits entirely. The good points I can make are the goodies you can grab at the end of the quest, bringing home a Gauss Rifle (amazing), a Stealth suit which makes you invisible when you crouch and the Winterised T51-b armour, with almost the highest damage resistance in the game and a somewhat lucky scripting error by Bethesda meaning it almost can't degrade.

So Bethesda didn't make a great start with the expansions. If it weren't for the decent weps to take back to my comfy ranch in Megaton, I'd say it was a complete waste of 800 MS Points. You might find this DLC mildly fun if you're REALLY a fan of generic FPS games, but I won't go further than 'mildly'. 4/10, a big disappointment for one of my favourite ever games.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

18 months and roughly 18 million sales later, I FINALLY bought CoD4. It's won countless awards and has gained enough rep to be babbled about by 11 year old Floridians more than Halo 3. It's been said to be the best Call of Duty of all time, and although I don't generally believe that the vast majority has to be right, I thought with so much biggin' up there may be something awesome about CoD4. So I headed to the old Cex store and bought a second hand copy.

As I do with every game, I started off by playing the campaign, and my thoughts were in the exact same way as they were when I first played WaW; 'Well this is isn't too bad... Ok this isn't getting much better... is the whole game going to be like this?'. This was worrying, as WaW's campaign didn't turn out great... at all. Nonetheless, reminding myself of its 94% ratings from the very magazines that I trust and Gears of War 2's improvement during the campaign, I persevered. How did it turn out? Somehow, through unimaginable odds, WORSE than WaW's. Now, if I have any readers out there (which I doubt for the record), I imagine I just lost them all. Yep, I hated just about every minute of the campaign, nothing EVER happened that could vaguely stir up some kind of 'hell yeah' feeling, nothing got anywhere near intense, I was bored for a good 3-4 hours of playtime. Liking the modern environment is surely opinion-based but I have simply no idea how people could prefer samey, metal guns which aim for you with bloody stupid laser-sights and then miss horrifically with burst fire (thinking of the G36c right now...) instead the at least likeable WWII guns which had some character and vintage factor. The storyline is nothing original - a war with Americans and Britain against the Russians and Iraqis? What an original idea! - and because of this nothing was ever gripping enough to make me really want to beat the campaign. There's also a ridiculous amount of enemies and too many situations in which enemies will constantly spawn for about five minutes which makes it seem like you're some kind of invincible war hero on a anti-Commy kill spree, rather than the game being a modern warfare realistic - and realistic being the operative word - simulation. Lastly, the graphics, which somehow won an award, are hugely overrated. How were they awarded for a game with graphics not much better than PS2? Open your eyes; Halo 3 came out a whole year before Modern Warfare and they still blow me away.

Of course, what I should be commenting on is what made CoD4 so popular for the most part: the multiplayer. Once again, I set my hoped high because of the popularity and about 70% of my Live friends playing it religiously and whoop-de-fuckin'-doo here comes the disappointment again. Don't say it's because of me moving from WaW to an earlier installment; not only because I expected it to have fewer perks, weapons etc but because I'm also constantly told that CoD4's multiplayer is superior. Well, I couldn't agree with you... LESS. Nothing stands out to me whatsoever, the maps are boring as hell and don't allow for strategy, and the only thing I find enjoyable is sniping on Overgrown (lying down in the corn field wearing a ghillie suit makes you just about invisible, which is brilliant). How do you people play this game for so damn long?

Overall score is 2/10. Sniping's good fun, especially with the Barrett .50 cal rifle which is one of my favourite weapons ever, and there's the occasional 'this isn't so bad moment' but there is NO reason for all these people believing this game was crafted by the hands of God. Massively overrated and a huge letdown.