Singular Thoughts - Current Generation vs Last Generation

Browsing through forums over the years made me see more than just a few interesting things, one of those things that came to mind that I've seen a lot more than just recently is the argument of the current generation of gaming against the last generation. More appropriate figures would be the Xbox period of time (Last gen) against the Xbox 360 period of time (Current gen). With this argument in mind, that's what I'd like to talk about in this post.

While I'm sure a lot of people have argued for or against the Current Gen in this situation, there hasn't been a lot of people that actually have had convincing arguments against the Current Gen. In fact I really haven't seen any argument other than one : “The Current generation of gaming is all about graphics” and usually that's where the argument ends. That argument suggests that this generation of gaming sacrifices everything else for improved graphics, to which I personally and respectfully disagree.

Graphics are definitely the first thing most people look at, since it is for the most part the only visual thing to look at (other things to look at arguably are things such as text, or menu design), and in general it has improved the most significantly above the last generation of gaming, despite that, there are many new features in games nowdays that you didn't really see at all in the last generation. The most direct comparisons in this argument would come from sequels where the goal is to not only provide the next chapter of a series but also to improve it all around, there have been many more than just a few series that have been on both the current gen and the last gen, here are a few that come to mind.

Halo

Last Gen - Halo : Combat Evolved, Halo 2

Current Gen - Halo Reach, Halo 3, Halo 3 : ODST

From the last gen the Halo series hasn't really changed too much. It has improved on graphics, but for the most part it has kept what made Halo popular in the first place, which of course makes sense since for a lot of people it was the game that showed that the consoles can do shooters just as well, if not better by perspective, to people. There are many minor things that have been added to the series from the last generation however, such as the ability to have 4 player cooperative play, and the addition of 2 new characters for the third and fourth player in Halo 3. Dual wielding has come and gone as well, it is still around but there are different opinions amongst the development team about it. Halo 3 ODST of course also had the Firefight mode which wasn't in any Halo games previously to it. Finally it's technical fine tuning blows the last generation out of the water with nearly non-existent loading times save for a few to start the game up, and a now standardized but unique to the current gen menu system.

So with all of that said, I believe the Halo series has definitely improved on graphics but it remained the same, thus almost being the same experience as it was on the last gen.

Call of Duty

Last Gen – Call of Duty 2, Call of Duty : Big Red One, Call of Duty : Finest Hour

Current Gen – Call of Duty 3, Call of Duty 4 : Modern Warfare, Call of Duty : Modern Warfare 2, Call of Duty : World at War, Call of Duty : Black Ops

The Call of Duty series without a doubt has improved significantly in almost every way from the last generation to our current one. The first is graphics, Call of Duty 2's graphics were very good for it's time, and it was even slightly seen in 3 and 4, but in the end the series has improved on graphics greatly from then on, into games such as World at War, and Modern Warfare 2, and basically every Call of Duty game past 3. In regards to game play, the series has become more faster paced, but it also retained the feeling of Call of Duty 2 with things like tight controls that reacted very quickly, and recharging health; at the same time however with the complete change of setting that Modern Warfare took the series, it's guns still carried the same controls, but felt completely different with the change from bolt action rifles to fully automatic assault rifles. The story telling of the series has also changed with the games featuring high octane and thrilling campaigns rather than a more long journey that was seen more in the last gen, this is probably also the double bladed sword for the series however as the long campaign that was in past games was also very interesting, and fun to play through, at the same time being nearly 2 or 3 times as long as many of the current games in the series. The tone of both generation's games are noticeably different as well, with the current favoring a long lasting effect but quick and strong hit more akin to the duration of a movie rather than the last generation's memorable adventure. Finally, the multiplayer has dramatically improved as well mainly in selection, while in the last gen console gamers really only had Finest Hour, now every CoD game has expansive multiplayer which again has improved by implementing player advancement systems and unlocks as well as in game changes such as killing streak bonuses, however the game play modes for the most part other than war in CoD3/WaW have remained the same.

My final deduction is that the Call of Duty series has improved all around off Call of Duty 2, but it has added many things that completely separate current titles from 2 from the new change of scenery and graphics to story telling and additional game play modes.

Grand Theft Auto

Last Gen – Grand Theft Auto 3, Grand Theft Auto : Vice City, Grand Theft Auto : San Andreas

Current Gen – Grand Theft Auto 4 and DLC expansions

Both generations have kept the main principle of being a open world game with a story of crime in mind, but with that the current generation has vastly improved on that vision. The graphics between SA and GTA4 are almost indistinguishable with GTA4 coming out ahead and looking much better, while admittedly it's graphical power was hampered for details everywhere else, that hampering has always been a part of the GTA series. With that aside, GTA 4 looks fantastic, it easily lives up to and rivals most current gen games. In terms of game play, the gun play in GTA 4 is much easier to use than it ever was in any GTA game, while locking on is still much easier than manually aiming, the improvements on the manual aiming system makes it usable if the player desires to use it. Handling of cars and other vehicles in GTA 4 has also improved in a number of ways from the different feels and handling of cars themselves, to the feel of the car when it's applied to the realistic weight of the world with GTA 4's engine. While that aspect is not the greatest for doing things that require precise exact handling (which is rare) it's unique enough to enjoy which helps in overcoming the challenge to adapt to it. The story telling of GTA4 also separates itself from the past entries of the series, while the GTA series originally had a very overdramatic portrayal of crime life, GTA 4 features more normal characters than the rest of the series, although this story telling way is slightly seen in GTA: SA, it is really emphasized in 4 with the main character and the rest of the cast, yet at the same time it isn't changed deeply enough to have a huge difference, I personally thought it was very similar to the past GTA games until I thought about it. Finally multiplayer, while definitely not the high light feature of GTA 4, it has competitive multiplayer and cooperative modes that the series originally did not.

Overall I believe the GTA series has gone a long way, like I said while it's kept it's original principles of being an open world game at heart, the power of the current generation really allowed it to really push those principles much further.

With these 3 popular series as examples, I believe there's more than enough things over than the improvement of graphics for the current gen to be the next step up from the last gen. There's also many more examples of games that have improvements such as these, and while not every game is great, for the most part many games of the current gen are many steps ahead of their predecessors, and I for one, hope that they continue this way to forever have something better than the last.*

*also in the future I may be doing more compare and contrasts of the last and current generation.

Possible Blog

I originally was going to post something about Dead Space 2 but I decided against it, instead I will talking about a possible new blog that I will be working on along side Singularity.

Singularity will primarily remain my personal blog but I also want to do another blog that will be more for entertainment purposes, but at the same time require minimal effort to maintain so I can focus on my attentions on getting Singularity more out there as well as improving my skills as a writer. In any case, I will possibly be releasing the blog soon after revising a few details about it, and it will have a link from here of course.

List of Spoiler Warnings

Spoilers ruin games, that's the bottom line that I believe, however at the same time, many things that can be considered spoilers also make interesting things to converse and read about. So to that end, I will be talking about things that can be considered spoilers, but I will also give enough warning for people to turn away if they don't want to see a spoiler.

I will be categorizing spoilers into one of three groups :

Light Spoilers – This will be a majority of reviews, and other topics that briefly mention things such as a game's general story, length of the game, or vaguely introducing a noteworthy character who is unmissable (either by player choice, or plotlines) , or are the main character themselves. Topics with Light Spoilers will not be marked.

Moderate Spoilers – This type of spoiler is somewhat more of drastic than light but not as severe as heavy spoilers, the types of spoilers this category would consist of are light mentions of a character or subject that isn't immediately or nearly immediately introduced to the player.

Heavy Spoilers – These are the story ruining spoilers which can be a number of things such as a character's death, event that takes place on a certain level, the revelation of a character that is intentionally hidden, or any sort of specific character developments that occur.

Warhammer 40,000 : Dawn of War 2 - Chaos Rising - Review

An additional, and popular faction in the Warhammer universe, as well as a new and much more intriguing story make Chaos Rising a great expansion, and even a fantastic game on it’s own.

Warhammer 40k Dawn of War 2 Chaos Rising is an expansion to the well received RTS game Dawn of War 2, it adds a huge amount of content, making the game even more appealing than it was before.

The first and probably the most obvious inclusion that comes with this package is the addition of the Chaos to both the single player and multiplayer game modes. These evil servants of the dark gods of the Warhammer 40k universe were former members of the Imperium, but were turned either by the corruption of chaos energies, or willingly allowed themselves to be corrupted in a lust for power. However the humans aren’t the only units in the legions of Chaos, they are also supported by Daemons sent by the dark gods to aid them, these evil creatures take the place of more traditional members of a faction, and are generally stronger than the standard Chaos Marine, however like everything in the game, the units are balanced fairly well, and the Chaos will still have to fight their hardest to harvest blood for the blood god.

Speaking of fighting, despite the fact that Chaos is the addition to the game, it is to either no one or everyone’s surprise that they are the primary antagonists of the new single player campaign. Set about 1 year after the events of Dawn of War 2, as the characters attempt to cope after the events of the original game, a mystery occurs; a formerly prosperous planet Aurelia that  had been assaulted and thought to be destroyed by the warp, returns, and the Blood Ravens receive a signal emitting from it at which they proceed to investigate.  It doesn’t take too long for things to turn sideways, and the events that follow thrust the Blood Ravens into a full scale war against the forces of Chaos. On this second tour of duty however many things have changed, the only thing that remains the same are the characters of the first game reprising their roles.

Despite being the same people, Chaos Rising goes leaps and bounds to improve upon the personality and involvement of all of the characters in your squad, and the treatment is even applied to your Force Commander somewhat. Many of your squad mates will speak their mind, and give tactical advice based on the mission, this is greatly altered by how the mission is going, and there are a few different ways it can go with the inclusion of choices. While many of the choices are fairly black and white, or rather corrupted and pure, the choices that would lean you towards corrupted are fitting, because they are truly evil and cruel to perform and more align you to the side of Chaos rather than the Imperium of Man. As your squad mates have developed a trust for their commander, they may not enjoy committing such acts but will allow it, and in the end the acts corrupt them as well.

Besides the outcome of simply being evil, there are also benefits for being corrupted that can be unlocked in the way that additional skills or abilities are unlocked by allocating points into a stat path, this is probably one of the most alluring parts of the corrupted side, as there are many powers of corruption while only one pure benefit. Even still, the pure ability for each character is powerful in it’s own right, and either side won’t disappoint. There are of course, stat path expansions for all of the characters which further increase the customization of the first game, as well as new war gears including a new and powerful level of rarity, and a level cap increase to level 30. Despite all of this it won’t be very hard for the player to get to the cap before the end of the game.

There are numerous additions to the cast of Dawn of War 2, mostly on the Chaos side, however the Blood Ravens do have a ally in Jonah Orion, a librarian who joins them, and provides a new point of view, as well as being a powerful fighter himself. While he’s not the toughest member of the Blood Ravens, he has the potential to specialize in almost any stat path in the game, and have a completely different playing style depending on the selected path. His skills and abilities that are altered depending on the chosen tree are drastic in comparisons to the other characters, making him a highly customizable but still fun new character.

As of course with the first game, there is the multiplayer component as well. Multiplayer is largely unchanged but rather improved with the addition of Chaos playable forces, the forces of Chaos themselves have a fairly high amount of customization starting with the hero selection screen proceeding into actual game play. Each of Chaos’ 3 hero units dedicates themselves to a particular god of Chaos which strengthens certain upgrade paths, and limits others, such as the Plague Champion who will be able to build shrines of Nurgel but will be unable to build shrines to Khrone or Tzeentch. They all have unique benefits that greatly change play styles, but also compliment their hero’s already distinctive play style; for example, the Shrine of Nurgel allows the Defense specialized Plague Champion to heal their units, and reinforce if heretics are worshipping it, this allows them to further fortify a position and take on an attack.

Chaos Rising has also added two new hero characters to The Last Stand, the Hive Tyrant, and the Chaos Sorcerer. These heroes like the others have their own abilities that separate them apart, such as the Hive Tyrant while being a impressive brute of force on his own, can also call upon minions with the appropriate war gear to assist him. While the Chaos Sorcerer can take hold of a enemy and use them as a ally for the battle. In the end the Warbands of Chaos still fit right in with the other races, and are a welcome addition to the Dawn of War 2 family.

All in all, Chaos Rising is a fantastic expansion to the Dawn of War series, and while I wouldn’t entirely recommend it as a stand alone it is definitely possible and worth it if you want to just see all of the additions of Chaos that it has provided, but it’s strong point is still taking a great game, and putting massive additions to it, creating a interesting, and vastly improved campaign, and a improved and even more diverse multiplayer experience.

Concept Implementation - Great

-Improves upon Dawn of War 2’s already fantastic focus on the action of RTS games, also successfully plants the Chaos faction right in with the original 4.

Game Play - Great

-Playing the Chaos will seem familiar and different at the same time. While everything else is largely unchanged, the new additions to the single player and multiplayer are fantastic.

Presentation - Good

-The storyline is much more interesting this time around than the first, however there still is no addition of any tutorials for any races besides the Space Marines.

Graphics - Great

-All of the new units look just as good as the old ones, and the forces of Chaos look as dark and threatening as they should.

Sound/ Music - Good

-The voices of Chaos Marines on the field is unmistakable and unique, while most of the sounds in combat sound the same, there is enough added to make the sound distinguishable. Music on the other hand is largely reused, but as it is reused it retains the same quality, maybe not the same amount of excitement however.

Singularity Score : Single Player - 3, Multiplayer - 2

Overall Score - 23/25 Great

The Game Review Criteria of Singularity

The goal of my scoring criteria is to award a game for it's technical merits, rather than it's entertainment value. The reason for this is because what people think of entertainment, including myself, are greatly different from one another, and simply saying a good game is “fun” is usually not sufficient enough to get people to want to play it. Furthermore, I am unable to get games as easily as normal companies that specialize in reviews, and in general, reviews are not Singularity's specialty. It is however something I would like to have mainly to give certain praise to games that deserve the praise.

With that said, here's how my scoring system will work out :

Concept – The rating of how well a game's main concept is implemented, concepts are not genres such as action RPG, but rather single ideas that a game wants to get to the audience above everything else, this of course means concepts can range from simplistic and broad things to something very specific, such as the shooting in Halo, against the feel of being an assassin in Assassin's Creed.

One more note about concepts, this part relies on the game to make it's concept clear, if the game's concept is not clear, or the developers of the game state the game's concept themselves, then these factors will also change what the Concept is rated on.

Game Play – This score is based on how the game handles all of it's main controls, and features such as shooting, movement, dialog, and more, all of which are dependent on the game itself.

Presentation – Storyline coherency, tutorials, and other things such as noticeable bugs, all of which would affect the overall appearance and flow of the game.

Graphics – The quality of graphics in their own style. For example Persona 3 Portable on the PSP would get the same score as God of War, as they both have different art styles but they both produce fantastic graphics for their styles, on the opposing side ; dynasty warriors 6 would get a average score as the models are good but everything else is fairly bland, even though dynasty warriors keeps it's own style.

Sound/Music – This score deducts the quality, and placement of various sounds, and musical elements of the game.

Scoring System : All of the scores (per catagory) are based on poor (1) to great (5), all of them adding to a total overall score with the total possible of 25 points.

Overall Scores :

1-5 Poor

5-10 Below Average

10-15 Average

15-20 Good

20-24 Great

25 Exceptional

Introduction to Singularity

My name is Alyssa Rizzo, and I'm happy to welcome you to my blog, Singularity. This blog's aims are not to be a premier source of gaming news, reviews, or any sort of subject that websites with more man power and more talent are able to do much easier. Instead, Singularity strives to be more of a hole of generalities in gaming, from news to thoughts, to reviews, and possibly even just lists; my goal is to provide my personal view point on many things that the gaming industry talks about, or has created.

About Myself

Speaking honestly, I don't have much professional writing experience, most of what I do have was done through wiki editing, and some articles I wrote for the Examiner, and at the same time I don't have any professional game industry experience at all. I do however believe I would be able to write interesting posts about various aspects of gaming many people don't think about very often, and at the very least I would like to provide a unique (maybe not always accurate) view on gaming.

What Makes Singularity Unique?

Well like I said before, I aim to provide my own personal opinion on a aspect of gaming that I believe would be interesting to read about. I have also tried my hand at creating a Review Criteria that focuses more on rewarding a game for it's technical merits rather than the level of entertainment it provides. Furthermore I have added a special feature on each review that provides a ratio of the game's Single Player gameplay value against the Multiplayer gameplay value, I understand that this value is probably the most opinionated part of the review, so in return the value itself has no effect on the game's overall score.

Site Classifications

I will be using different types of headings to classify what sort of post is what, as well as having “clever” titles for the said headings.

A Singular Thought – Rantings, Random information, ect.

More will be added as I further expand the things I write about.

What's in the works?

I will mainly add things based off comments, however if the blog becomes popular enough I plan on having a future blog specifically for posts related to Star Wars : The Old Republic, depending on how devoted I am towards the game.

Thank you again for taking the time to look at my blog, and I hope to see you around again soon.