shooters

Battlefield: Bad Company 2--the good, the bad, and the ugly

Military-based action games have become the first-person-shooter staple thanks to franchises like Call of Duty. We've seen attempts to capture the same experience before, but Battlefield: Bad Company seems to do the best job at tackling the genre with its own take on things.

We've been playing Bad Company 2 for a while now and enjoy some things, but dislike others. Does it have a leg to stand on, or does it rely on too many elements that Modern Warfare 2 has seemingly perfected?

Dan: As a potential rival to the juggernaut that is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the equally awkwardly named Battlefield: Bad Company 2 certainly looks the part. It has a collection of multiplayer games, a semi-throwaway single-player campaign, and the long-standing provenance that comes from being an offshoot of a well-liked classic game series.

And, in fact, this buzz-heavy shooter is very well-made and has much that catches our attention. It's main claim to fame is wildly destructible environments, which is a press-release-like way of saying many of the actual buildings and structures in the game can be brought down by rockets, bombs, and other high-powered attacks.

Certainly that destruction mechanic was engaging enough to keep us roped into a single-player campaign that started off strong with a gripping WWII raid, but soon fell into shopworn cliche (and unlike the similarly cliched Modern Warfare 2, it lacked the frenetic energy to keep us from asking too many questions)--at least for a few hours.

But the main attraction is the online multiplayer, and on this count, the game both hits and misses. The ability to bring a building tumbling down on someone's head makes for battles that feel different almost every time, and the mission types stay far away from the typical team death match shootouts, making this a a must-try for fans of military first-person shooters. … Read more

Imagine November without Modern Warfare 2

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 had a huge November, selling more than 6 million units for the month. But in a recent interview with G4TV, Microsoft Xbox 360 Product Manager Aaron Greenberg said that it would have been a much different month without Infinity Ward's blockbuster hit.

"November without Modern Warfare 2 would have looked very different," Greenberg told G4TV, responding to a question about what the month would have been like.

But just how different is up for debate. Modern Warfare 2 was a major hit. It was a title that doesn't come along … Read more

The enemy has made landfall

Coast Defense Free is a fun, no-cost preview of Coast Defense, a straightforward arcade wargame with some similarities to castle-defense-type games. Your objective in Coast Defense is simple: gun down waves of enemies as they advance on your bunker, from infantry (with bazookas or rifles) to tanks and troop transport trucks. The interface has you looking out from your foxhole, with enemies charging from left to right across a beach--and you can tilt your device right or left to scan the entire beach (close to twice the width of your screen). You aim with your left thumb, with a touchscreen … Read more

Doom, Command & Conquer revived for iPhone

Welcome to today's episode of Recycling Old PC Games for Fun and Profit. Our first contestant: Doom Classic, the first-person shooter that spawned a thousand imitators, several hundred ports, and one horrendous movie.

Next up: Command & Conquer Red Alert, the real-time strategy classic responsible for a massive drop in global productivity.

In my youth I was a tremendous fan of both games, so it stands to reason that I'd welcome them to my iPhone. However, neither is getting a permanent home.

Let's start with Doom. While id Software's official port offers a pixel-perfect recreation, the game is 16 years old--and it shows.

Indeed, juxtaposed with Doom Resurrection, a made-for-iPhone game with 21st century graphics, Doom Classic looks positively ancient. It plays that way, too: You can't even jump.

Part of this is personal bias: I don't think FPS games work well on small screens, especially when touch controls are involved. For me, Doom Classic feels cramped, confined, and seriously out of date.… Read more

Playing Eliminate Pro can eliminate your money

Popular iPhone gaming developer Ngmoco released Eliminate Pro yesterday, its much-anticipated, online, first-person shooter. This well-polished "free" game features smooth looking graphics, onscreen controls that are fairly effective (no match for a controller or keyboard/mouse setup, but that's to be expected), a number of power ups to improve your weapons and armor, and five playable maps. In-game kills and winning matches earn you credits you can use to buy new weapons and armor. There are eight armor types, five weapon types, and items to buy like armor designs (skins) to give you a new look. The … Read more

Your mission: Stay alive

Alive 4-ever is a top-down, double-joystick, zombie-themed shooter with strong RPG elements and rich, gritty visuals and sound. The interface will be familiar to fans of other games with twin "virtual joysticks": you push one joystick to move and the other joystick to shoot, and you can tap touch-screen buttons to reload and swap between your one- and two-handed weapons. The display tracks your score, health, ammo, and time elapsed as you traverse dramatically lit, gore-filled levels, gunning down a variety of zombies--from your generic lumbering brain-eaters to speedy zombie dogs and "special" zombies that many … Read more

Hands On: Mortal Kombat...er, Blades of Fury for iPhone

Let's just come right out and say it: Gameloft is rapidly becoming synonymous with "kick-ass iPhone games."

That's a personal opinion, but the developer's credits include some of my all-time favorites: Console smash Assassin's Creed, GTA clone Gangstar: West Coast Hustle, Guitar Hero clone Guitar Rock Tour 2, Madden clone NFL 2010, and even the lovingly remade PC classic, The Oregon Trail.

Now comes Blades of Fury, an arcade-style fighting game that, in true Gameloft cloning style, could best be described as Mortal Kombat (or perhaps more accurately, Soul Caliber) for iPhone.

Blades serves … Read more

Browse Craigslist and play a new Modern Combat FPS: iPhone apps of the week

I recently heard about a trick for iPhone 3GS owners who have the latest version of the Yelp app. Yelp, as you probably know, lets you search for restaurants or other services and read user-written ratings and reviews. I've noticed that the Yelp app particularly comes in handy when I'm on vacation: it lets me find out right away what the locals think about a particular restaurant without having to find out for myself. But a hidden feature in Yelp for iPhone 3GS owners has been revealed recently that adds a whole new dimension to Yelp ratings.

Make … Read more

Physics-based motocross and a zombie survival shooter: iPhone apps of the week

Apple recently announced that September 9 will be the date of their 2009 iPod event. For the past four years, Apple has hosted these events in San Francisco to unveil its latest generation of iPods. This year, there has been much speculation at rumor sites that Apple will introduce camera capabilities to its iPod Nano and iPod Touch media players. Many sites are also posting that we will see iTunes 9 with rumored social networking features. As with all things Apple, you can never know what its going to announce at the event, but as we get closer to September … Read more

Shooter fun on rails

Galactic Gunner is a fun, challenging, and well-designed arcade shooter with a quirky sense of humor and excellent production values. You don't pilot a spaceship but instead play the role of a gunner--so in this shooter "on rails," the action unfolds in front of you, as you must quickly tap the screen to shoot at fast-moving targets, whether asteroids, test drones, or enemy turrets and fighters. Not having to control your ship doesn't mean Galactic Gunner isn't challenging: because you're scored on both accuracy and the number of targets destroyed, you have to time … Read more