Crysis 2 Demo Impressions

As many of you know, the Crysis 2 multiplayer demo for PC finally went live early this morning. Having had some time to play through the two maps and game modes available as well as grab all the unlocks, here are my thoughts.

To preface, the Crysis 2 multiplayer is nothing like the original's. While not a lot of folks played the original Crysis' multiplayer it was nonetheless highly innovative and somewhat ahead of its time with an unprecedented level of weapon customization and a rather unique control point system called Power Struggle involving capturing resource points to fuel development of super weapons and vehicles for use in taking more points on the extraordinarily large maps.

Crysis 2 is nothing like this. Crysis 2 takes the nanosuit system of the first as well as a more refined and stripped down version of the weapon loadouts, adds the new nano modules (think of them like perks), adds character persistence (with an XP based unlock system), downsizes the maps quite a bit, caps matches at 6v6, and brings back more traditional modes of play such as team death match (called Team Instant Action) and a slightly modified king of the hill (called Crash Site where each hill is a crashed alien pod that only lasts for a short period time before it explodes before a new one is dropped in a random cycle of preset locations). From what we've learned thus far, these two modes seem to be the only ones announced. I would hope for there to be more, or more specifically for there to be a refined version of Power Struggle, but I won't be holding my breath.

State of Games Part II: The Modern Era

My name is Sergio Ortiz and I play video games.

Last week I took some time to examine the origins of video games and more importantly the origins of their relationship with society at large. Now while games have advanced leaps and bounds since the early arcade and home console era of the 1980s, much of society's view towards them have not. Here in the modern era of gaming, beginning in the 1990s and continuing through to the present, understanding the continued relationship between gaming culture, video games themselves, and the public at large will require a more in depth examination of the modern era as a whole.

State of Games Introduction and Part I: A Brief History

My name is Sergio Ortiz and I play video games.

A simple enough statement. As a statement, it tells people two things about me, my name and something I do. Now when people read that or hear that, instead of envisioning me playing video games, they tend to imagine something else entirely. They tend to see in their mind's eye a guy who whiles away his time mindlessly staring into a dark glowing abyss of bleeps and bloops and pixilated images of fantasy violence and nothing more. Or at least that was the case when I was a youth.

Nowadays, with games being a far more omnipresent medium, people tend to conjure up images of annoying teenagers or men-children talking loudly at virtual worlds that, to onlookers, appear entirely devoid of purpose or meaning. While video games have indeed become a generally more potent figure in the public conscious, as far social norms go, the stigma experienced in its earliest days still exists and often thrives, especially in light of such inflammatory situations as the now well talked about Fox News/Bulletstorm incident.

As such, I am here to talk about the state of games, and specifically why is it that in an age where progressiveness and tolerance are taught first, such a rich and promising artistic medium as video games is still treated like the dirty, childish step-cousin of cinema, television and literature. As a gamer, I have spent much time thinking about the state of games and I wish to share with you some of my thoughts on the matter.

Sheet 10 Podcast Episode 1: Metagames, How Do They Work?

After a week's worth of writing and preparation, we're finally ready for our official launch of Sheet 10. To celebrate we've recorded and uploaded our first episode in an ongoing series of podcasts (which you can expect to find every Friday). In this cast we discuss the week's news in gaming, touching on the recent Bulletstorm incident, the rising prices of PC games, the brilliant Dead Island trailer, Dragon Age's new live-action web series, and much more. Later in the podcast we shift gears into our focus discussion on the leveling metagame in recent competitive mutliplayer shooters. And we wrap it up with a quick brief on what you can expect from us in the following week (If you don't want to wait, read more after the break)! So start listening!

Sheet 10 Episode 1: Metagames, How Do They Work?:

Introducing...

Sergio Ortiz.

Video gamer, tabletopper, and writer. I started off gaming at a young age, beginning with platformers and racers at the age of two and slowly climbing the ladder up through shooters, adventure games, role-playing games and, ultimately, to strategy. I've played on PCs, Macs, nearly all the Nintendo consoles, Sega Dreamcast, PS2, Xbox, PS3 and 360. As an enthusiast, I've found that games offer far more immersive experiences than other artistic mediums and, as a writer, I find the work that goes into the building of a game and its narrative utterly fascinating.