Posts Tagged ‘Ubisoft’

Going in to Call of Juarez: The Cartel to review for Play Devil I was expecting very little. Having previewed it already for another site it sounded like a somewhat soulless attempt by Techland to move their Western shooter to a modern setting and cash in on its broader appeal. What I was met with was something far more surprising.

Before I begin to tell you why I enjoyed Call of Juarez: The Cartel, I feel it is important to point out that it is not a great shooter. It feels unfinished, characters pop in to and out of existence constantly, it has a colour palette that makes enemies impossible to see, there are visible cracks in the environment and the whole experience is so linear that there is literally a dot that guides you (often poorly) through the game. Indeed if I were to assess this on purely a technical level then I would be inclined to say that it is the worst first person shooter I have played this year. But, and this is a big but, I really like it.

There is a lot Call of Juarez: The Cartel does that is rare to see in a game of this nature. Each of the games three protagonists has their own back-story and agenda and while they work together it is a strained alliance. A revenge obsessed LAPD officer (with a penchant for hookers), an FBI agent who wants to protect her gangbanger brother and a DEA agent who is up to his eyeballs in debt and suspected of betraying an investigation it to the eponymous Cartel. These disparate personalities are all thrown together to form a task force, and the seeds of mistrust are instantly sown.

It is the mistrust and ulterior motives that the game immediately capitalizes on. As a game designed for three-player cooperative play, each of the characters is instantly charged with spying on the others. This means attempting to complete any objectives outside the taskforce’s own must be done in secret. These tasks are generally quite simple (picking up a wallet for example) but offer important experience points to gain extra weapons, if caught however it is the others who are awarded prize. It doesn’t really work in the AI controlled single player game, but it adds an interesting dynamic to the multiplayer that pulls in the narrative’s distrust.

These different objectives and levels of play are equally present in the main tale. At times a character is sent away from the main team. In the story while separated their actions play in to the other’s suspicions, but when playing co-op this leads to some nice asymmetry of play, such as one player offering sniper cover to the others as they make their way through a crowded club.

The Cartel also does some bold things with its pacing. I could sit here and bemoan gaming for its lack of options for interaction, shooting is all too often all they offer. But while The Cartel is undoubtedly gun heavy it does add a lot of variety to what could easily have been a mindless shooter. Interrogation, escapes, escorts, tailing suspects, questioning, fist fighting and undercover work are all dotted through out the story, never in enough measure to get dull but always building on the narrative to give texture and a sense of connection.

As I said, Call of Juarez: The Cartel is far from perfect, in fact at full price I would struggle to recommend it to anyone, but when the price drops this is going to be a title you should give serious thought to returning to. There are undoubtedly better examples out there, but with its theme and all of its twists and turns, there are distinct similarities to be drawn with The Wire. True it is feels like it is a rejected story arch from the HBO series, and one that has for some reason been cowboy themed, but it is still surprising and offers a far more engaging plot than most of its peers.

We did it, two shows in one month. Darren and I are back in the saddle and ready to take you on an hour of gaming and sandwich exploration.

Kicking it off with heaven and hell, we visit the KFC Double Down (pictured above) and the problems with Japanese sandwiches. Darren reveals his new found love of Robot Unicorn Attack in what we have been playing, while I do some quick hits on a number of my recent distractions. News features a few choice topics from the last two weeks, which I hoped would enable Darren to engage in conversation about contemporary games. I wasn’t very successful. Games as art is the subject of our main discussion. Inspired by Robert Ebert recent post that declared they could never be, we talk at length about the merits of games and where we think they sit within the spectrum of art and design. And, as always, we wrap up with Darren’s Old Games.

Enjoy the show, please leave comments if you have any and feel free to get in touch if you have any suggestions or questions for us here at DoFuss. Remember to check back for the next show in two weeks.

Being a foreign language teacher I cant help but view this with cynicism. But time is my biggest barrier to study and this makes it possible to study while commuting, so I decided to give it a shot.

It breaks lessons down into manageable sections using range of practice techniques. Lessons include writing, listening and word recognition and a number of other exercises. Perhaps the lack voice recognition fortunate considering the trouble it has with writing recognition, but you can record and compare you voice with the ‘games’. It prioritises some dubious words, kill before buy for example. Also lessons are inconsistent. Frequently key words are not introduced until the practice sections, which is tough if this is your only exposure to Japanese.

It stresses that it is best to practice with native speaker. It’s right. But even if you can’t this still proves a reasonable starting point for study.