The Billionty-Oneth Geek: Older Than 8 Since 1991

Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 is Activision’s latest entry into the bestselling Call of Duty franchise.  Developed by Treyarch Studios, the Black Ops subseries of Call of Duty games has been considered by many as the best of the COD games.  Whereas Black Ops 1 and 2 were direct sequels, BO3 seems only to be a spiritual sequel to its predecessors.  There is no direct or clear continuation of story from the previous entries.  Rather it takes the ideas of mind control and manipulation, and spins off its own story. It’s a futuristic world, where humans are infused with technology (much like Robocop!) and fight alongside and against robots.  This time around, you assume the role of an unnamed soldier, who together with your partner Hendricks and a CIA agent named Rachel Kane, track down a former Black Ops commander named John Taylor as he and his former squad appears to have gone rogue destroying CIA sites around the world.  The story will take y...

(Note: I wrote this back in March. I have no idea why I didn't publish it. I recognize that Modern Warfare 3 came out this past week so this seems sort of old. Sort of really old. But I might as well pump this out before I release my post on MW3... :) Amidst all the controversy and drama surrounding Activision and the Call of Duty franchise, developer Treyarch completed and released a fantastic new addition to the series. It’s definitely a franchise favourite for me. Since Modern Warfare , I’ve much enjoyed each release, but more so for the gameplay than anything else. I find that the thrills of COD games are similar to summer Hollywood blockbuster movies – they’re full of intensity and action, but rarely offer anything more than that quick thrill. With Black Ops , it feels as though they’re trying to create something deeper than just a straight-up shooter tied together with an end-of-the-world-type plot. The story this time around, seems more cleverly crafted, and is bet...

Instead of doing the normal review for Modern Warfare 2 , I thought I'd just post an email I sent to my friend Matt instead. It pretty much summarizes my feelings. I will add a few notes though. It's pretty much the same game as Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare , with a slight facelift and some new weapons. That's not a bad thing at all considering the first game was pretty effin' awesome. The most noticeable thing to me about the campaign was how much easier it was than the first one. There's not that same sense of urgency that you feel from the first game (remember all those missions that were like "you've got 10 minutes to finish this mission"?) which really allows you to pace yourself. Basically, if you've got a lot of patience, the whole campaign even on its hardest mode, will be a cake walk. So yes, I wasn't frustrated clearing the game on veteran mode as I was with the first game. Aside from that, I love coop gaming, and they did ju...

Released in the Fall of 2008, Call of Duty: World at War saw the series return to its World War II roots. The game was developed by Treyarch Studios and utilized the same engine borrowed from Infinity Ward who did Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare . I love World War II shooters so it was easy to enjoy COD: WAW . But I feel like the single player campaign in this game lacked the same punch felt in COD4: MW . None of the missions seemed to have the same degree of ruggedness and urgency. And because of this, the campaign did not seem as memorable. The campaign pits you off in two different scenarios. On one side you'll play as Private Miller, part of the American Marine Corps, against the Japanese army in the Pacific, while on the other side, you play as a Russian soldier named Demetri who aids the Red Army against the Nazi invasion. In keeping with the consistency of history, there's no real last boss or central figure that you're up against rather just the armies themselves (I...

In lieu of the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 this week I just wanted to do a small review of the first Modern Warfare game. I guess that's the problem with adopting a new system in the middle of its shelf life; I'm playing catch-up with all of the big releases over the recent years. Buy hey, I'm not complaining. I welcome all lower price tags! COD4: Modern Warfare originally came out in the Fall of 2007 and was touted as the best shooter (at least on console systems). The game has you playing as Sergeant 'Soap' McTavish who together with a squad of soldiers, travel around the world tracking down a terrorist named Zakhaev. Most of the levels you'll go through are "desert" levels of Middle Eastern cities, but you also get to travel around parts of Russia. The story is told basically only in the segments between each of the levels. For me, the story wasn't the strong point, it definitely has a cinematic feel to it, but let's fa...