There’s something suspect about the phrase with which the Bad Company sub-franchise is often associated, ‘tactical destruction’. It’s the ‘tactical’ bit, basically. ‘Tactical’ lends ‘destruction’ a veneer of complexity we’re not entirely sure it deserves. Being able to explode cars in people’s faces, or shoot fist-sized lumps out of concrete tank barriers, or level houses from the kitchen windows upwards is undoubtedly a thrill, but there’s not a whole lot of nuance to be extracted.

Talking up the first Bad Company, EA DICE explained to a baying public that its patented Frostbite engine would give players ‘total freedom to be daring and innovative, adapting to and tackling challenges in unexpected Battlefield-style ways’. A less sensational way of wording this – and thus of approaching the highly similar sequel – might be that players have ‘total freedom to blow up stuff to kill people or make them easier to shoot’.

Because that’s what the concept boils down to, doesn’t it? It’s the difference between there being something solid ‘twixt you and The Enemy (and you staying put) and there not being something solid ‘twixt you and The Enemy (and you running screaming for the horizon while The Enemy admires the cut of your trousers through an M95 rifle scope). It’s the difference between some bastard crouching in one corner of a bungalow, sub-machine gunning you as you enter, and you calling in a few favors with your good friend the F16 pilot, marking the camper’s hideout through laser beam binoculars and cackling as the entire building implodes in his face.

We sort of feel guilty for not really mentioning how good it all looks, but then, do we really need to?

We’re not saying this sort of free-wheeling topographical butchery is a bad thing, because as the above thumbnail sketches suggest it most certainly is not. Few games are as exhilarating, as surprising as Bad Company 2 online. One instant you’re enjoying a mental cigarette break behind a warehouse, the next somebody’s driven an APC right through the wall. Defending one of the game’s obligatory Important Crate-like Objects from a team with a field gun or two in the holster is as edge-of-the-seat as it gets, beleaguered infantry clinging to jags of door frame while those outside do their best to see through clouds of brickdust (incidentally, EA, some sort of infra-red visor would be a great multiplayer unlock, providing it’s appropriately balanced).

We’re just not convinced the ‘daring and innovative bit’ extends further than ‘now I’m in shelter, now I’m not, better do something about that quic – AARGH I’m dead’. Other games (indeed, other Battlefields (indeed, this Battlefield)) inculcate much the same mentality by laying out maps in such a way that every cluster of cover points has its rear entrance, its secret tunnel, its inconvenient overlook. Flattening the area with artillery shells might induce more in the way of manic giggles, but you’d be pushed to distinguish between methodologies from the outcome alone.

You’d also be pretty pushed to distinguish between Bad Company 2’s single player campaign and that of any other console shooter, fluctuating numbers of holes in the scenery aside. OK, that sounded a little harsh. You’d be pushed to distinguish between the Bad Company 2 campaign and that of any other enjoyable console shooter, then.

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As a rabidly hardcore fan of the original game, I feel almost duty bound to dislike BioShock 2. In about as much need of a sequel as the Mona Lisa, Ken Levine’s original creative work was a stunningly complete vision, telling a perfectly orchestrated tale of the rise and fall of one of gaming’s most memorable locations. The prospect of a purely commercially-driven sequel drew understandably hushed accusations of cashing in and selling out. Yet as hard as I’ve tried, BioShock 2 is simply too good a game to dislike. 

Initial interviews with new creative director Jordan Thomas suggested that the man had a rich appreciation for what made BioShock such a unique vision, but appreciation doesn’t always translate to ability, yet Jordan and his 2K Marin team have done the impossible and created a valuable expansion to the 2007 masterpiece. Set 10 years after Ryan and Fontaine’s war tore the city apart, BioShock 2 puts you in the boots of the original Big Daddy – a more manoeuvrable but conversely less tank-like build of the iconic lumbering goliath. 

Giving you access to the immense power of the Big Daddy of course demands a more threatening set of enemies and spearheading that threat is the scarred and dysfunctional evolution of the Little Sister – the Big Sister. Combining the grace and agility of the ballet dancer with a frightening arsenal of weaponry including an arm-sized syringe, the Big Sister takes a stern approach to sibling protection and strongly objects to your interference with the little sisters of Rapture, appearing regularly to make your life more difficult. 

10 years in Rapture has seen political upheaval, and from the ashes of Andrew Ryan’s extreme objectivist philosophies has risen Sophia Lamb with a fiercely socialist agenda. More than simply a re-skinning of antagonists, Lamb’s collectivist ideals have given birth to an entirely new culture of beliefs and concepts that go against everything Ryan stood for, and in design terms that equals new environments and boss characters. That’s not to say that the drastic shift in values has discarded everything Ryan stood for – his DNA was woven so deeply into Rapture’s architecture that even 10 years on from his demise, the clashing of cultures is consistently evident.

Big Sister is watching you.

As with the original game, Rapture is clearly the star of the show. Obviously a significant amount of the original’s appeal was in discovering and uncovering Rapture’s mysteries – a sensation that sadly can’t be repeated once you are familiarised with its secrets. What BioShock 2 does manage to succeed in doing however is creating a perfect addendum to the first game, expanding on ideas that Ryan’s Laissez-faire capitalist society simply wouldn’t accommodate, such as religion and collective responsibility. The new characters sit comfortably alongside the likes of Sander Cohen and Yi Suchong, furnished with their own objectives, ideas and of course shortcomings.

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The future's bright?

After teasing the internet rotten last week, Ubisoft’s whisked the dustsheets off a new Ghost Recon game. Specifics on Future Soldier are in short supply right now, with naught but a press release to chew on, but the mere thought of a third tour of duty for Scott Mitchell (assuming he hasn’t fielded a desk job) and co is enough to make us wet the bed.

So what do we know about the title, right now? Well, we know it’ll offer “cutting-edge technology, prototype high-tech weaponry, and state-of-the-art single-player and multiplayer modes” – standard issue features for the battleworn tactical shooter series. But we’re also told that it’ll “go beyond the core Ghost Recon franchise and deliver a fresh gameplay experience, with an unparalleled level of quality that will excite long-time fans and newcomers alike”.

Good news? Sure. The last Ghost Recon was more of a refinement than a reinvention of its predecessor, and it’s high time Ubisoft started pushing some boundaries. But here’s a speculative caveat: the mention of “going beyond the core” and “newcomers” makes it sound a little like the publisher is courting the mainstream market.

We’re pretty down with the mainstream – hey, we review Wii games – but we’re fond of Ghost Recon’s more authentic, less accessible approach to urban warfare, and we wouldn’t want it to go soft. Financial realities presumably dictate that the Future Soldier team branch out from the franchise’s tightly wound fanbase; we just hope they’re able to create a truly scalable product, one which won’t skimp on intricacy and challenge for the layman’s sake.

This is the game soldiers relax with between trips to the Middle East, Ubi. Don’t turn it into Ravin Rabbids.

Press release over the leaf. UPDATE: You can find the announcement trailer on VGTV.

UBISOFT® EXPANDS TOM CLANCY PORTFOLIO WITH TOM CLANCY™’S GHOST RECON: FUTURE SOLDIER™

***

Exclusive Multiplayer Beta Available This Summer

For ongoing updates about Tom Clancy™’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, please visit: www.GhostRecon.com

1. Quickfire Q&A: Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Hands-on time with EA Digital Illusions CE's second big native console Battlefield. Let the question mark bombardment commence!...

Halo: Reach factoids have been popping up all over the place like decloaking Elites, thanks chiefly to the chaps at Edge and Game Informer but also, somewhat less officially, to EB Games, who let slip a few gameplay screenshots on Wednesday morning. You know what this means, readers? It means Whining Season has officially commenced.

We’ve had a good old gander at the material, and we’re ready to throw down a gauntlet or two. Brace yourselves for some serious subheadings.

What’s hot…

Six Spartans is a bit ridiculous now, isn't it. The Covenant really should have called in sick.

The return of the Elites

We got on well with the Brutes in Halo 3. Which is to say, we enjoyed blowing their shields away with our battle rifles and grenade-tagging the suckers to screaming submission. But for all their secondhand camo cloaks and jet packs the Brutes never quite lost the status of thuggish Covenant middle-management – glorified bully boys, giddy with excitement at their newfound prominence within the caste structure. For a game as solemn, as elegaic as Reach, we need an enemy we can respect. And with the Elites, it’s all about respect.

Crysis-style power-ups

Bungie is good with gizmos: slightly ludicrous though they appeared in concept and execution, the Bubble Shield and Grav Lift proved to be fantastic, highly tactical additions to Halo 3’s campaign and multiplayer. Reach tips its hat to Crysis in the form of recharging, one-at-a-time “armor abilities”, transforming your Spartan into a speed freak or a tank at the touch of a button. We like it. We also like what it implies for the game’s environments, which will probably need to be both larger and more abundant in secondary routes and landmarks to accommodate the greater range of run-gun possibilities.

Reach can handle up to 40 on-screen light sources, in contrast to Halo 3's two or three.

Bigger but not too big

Numbers are a much-abused weapon in the fanboy arsenal. Right now, for instance, there’s a lot of ballyhoo among the PS3 faithful about how the 256-player MAG is da biggermost online FPS everer, and so forth. While Halo has always gone heavy on modes and auxillary content, Bungie has never been in the business of feature overkill, and nothing’s changed with Reach. Online matches are still limited to 16 players – cosy affairs in which a man can be reasonably sure of walking two feet from a spawn point without taking a bullet through each of his major organs.

Which is not to say the game won’t offer more: Reach can handle double the AIs per area that Halo 3 can, we’re told. But the onus, as in past Spartan sequels, seems to be on providing more stuff to do within existing parameters, rather than piling on the bullet points.

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Battlefield Bad Company 2 saw a burst of somewhat unexpected sunny publicity last year thanks to Infinity Ward’s decision to scrap dedicated servers for Modern Warfare 2 on PC. DICE’s Gordon Van Dyke was quick to reassure official forum posters that his game would tick all the boxes on server support, to considerable applause.

Bad Company 2 online has more going for it than a sound network backbone, of course. According to producer Karl-Magnus Troedsson (whom we accosted at a recent preview shindig), the franchise’s approach to team play “has always been deeper” than that of most rivals – and remains deeper today.

Asked if there was anything he felt other multiplayer shooters were doing wrong, Troedsson replied: “Well I wouldn’t say ‘wrong’ – I don’t want to judge people, other games like that. But for us – multiplayer, online play, we’ve been doing that since Battlefield 1942, and to us it’s open environments, it’s sandbox, it’s team play.

“Because team play – what we’ve done in Battlefield for a long time is team play,” he went on. “You play as squads, you play teams, it’s very important. A lot of the other shooters are still actually in team deathmatch mode – they have tons of different game modes, but they all one way or another are just people playing to get the maximum score.

“This game is deeper, and Battlefield has always been deeper, and that’s due a lot to the gameplay. Like for instance you can heal each other, you can give each other ammo, you can revive each other – we’ve got the shock paddles in now.”

We find this claim a little dubious, to be honest. Among other current generation highlights, Killzone 2, Left 4 Dead and Gears of War have all done compelling things with player revival, healing and ammo sharing. 1942 may have been a trend-setter, but Battlefield faces stiffer competition nowadays. What do you think?

The game’s out on 2nd March in North America and 5th March in Europe.

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Singularity is what happens when crackpot Cold War sci-fi and gritty contemporary realism have a punch-up. Brought to you by Wolfenstein dev Raven Software, the game takes place on a mysterious Russian island facility with a highly volatile temporal signature. Besides shooting people in the face, players can manipulate time itself with the imaginatively titled Time Manipulation Device, tapping into the facility’s dark mid-century past. FPS Gamer recently lent its lungs and ears to a roundtable discussion with Activision’s Kekoa Lee-Creel. Results below.

FPS Gamer: So how does it feel to be working on one of Activision’s few original properties?

Kekoa Lee-Creel: As you said, Activision doesn’t do new IP often so it’s a huge deal for me, I’m really glad to be working on it. I worked with Raven on Quake 4 as well, and they’re a fantastic team, so I’ve got a good new IP, I’ve got great marketing behind me, and I’ve got a great development team, so I’m pretty psyched. It’s a big deal.

And it’s been crazy, but the thing about Singularity is that it was brought in by Raven when it was just a demo – they did this prototype of it, to show the concept. They wrote out the concept, they brought it into Activision and they showed it off, and Activision bigwigs were pretty impressed by the whole thing, and they thought this is going to be great.

So they tested the concept, and it was one of the highest-testing concepts in Activision history, which is a pretty big deal – we’ve had some good concepts come through. So that’s what led to the greenlight, so it’s not trivial, it’s not something they would have taken on lightly, because it’s a pretty big investment.

FPS Gamer: How important is new IP to the industry?

Lee-Creel: I think it’s absolutely critical. I personally am a hardcore gamer, I like playing things that I haven’t played before. I think if the industry doesn’t invest in new IPs, good ideas, then we’re really going to be playing the same game over and over again in a few short years when everything dies off.

A solid 7.6 on our Weird-Shit-O-Meter.

So I’m really glad to be part of it, and I’m really glad that other people are doing it as well. Even if it hasn’t always been met with the most substantial financial success, like there are other games out there that came out this last year, and they’re great ideas and I’m really glad they were made, and they’re fun and different.

FPS Gamer: Ray Muzyka from BioWare once told us that new IP rarely makes its money back straight away, but becomes profitable over time.

Lee-Creel: Sure, initial investment’s the big difficulty, initial investment to start an IP. Obviously they can take years of iteration to get it right, to really feel out the things that make it unique and special. So that’s a pretty substantial undertaking, it’s a risk, and it’s just money kind of “going”! But I think the pay-off is definitely there. There are plenty of franchises that have been built off a mildly successful first title, that have ramped into something hugely successful, and I think it’s a worthwhile undertaking.

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So we weren’t planning on posting screenshots today, but when Rare’s community lead Mike Wilson popped up with side-by-side comparison snaps of Perfect Dark on Xbox Live Arcade and the original game, we couldn’t say no. Wilson would have pulled his Sad Face if we had. I’ve never actually seen Wilson’s Sad Face, but he’s from Rare, so I’m guessing it resembles Gruntilda off Banjo Kazooie. Ugh.

Joanna Dark isn’t currently wearing a Sad Face. She’s quite the alluring one in fact, thanks to the Xbox 360’s graphical chutzpah. That PVC-trimmed physique no longer looks like it’s been hacked from foam packaging blocks with a pair of half-melted plastic scissors.

We heart Blade Runner homages and vapid facial expressions.

Cassandra DeVries has also been to the beautician, though in her case the transformation isn’t sufficient to induce manly trouser pangs. Here she is before:

From cardboard dummy...

And after:

...to Hilary Clinton.

And how about a high-def version of weenie B-movie accomplice Elvis? Wax on:

From flying hexagon...

Wax off:

...to flying saucer.

To compliment those pin-sharp character models, each and every one of the game’s future spy weapons has been reskinned. Out with the old Falcon 2 pistol:

From Tetris L-shape...

And in with the new:

...to Bond movie death implement.

Check out the official site for more.

Thanks, Mike. The game’s coming out in early 2010.  If it’s a match for Serious Sam HD, we’ll pronounce ourselves well-pleased.

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Activision’s Kekoa Lee-Creel has a few cautionary words for developers of new game properties. Basically, you shouldn’t expect your spark of originality to explode into a system-selling trilogy overnight: these things take time. Not to mention cold hard cash.

“Initial investment’s the big difficulty, initial investment to start an IP,” Lee-Creel told FPS Gamer during a preview showing of Raven Software’s Singularity, a gloomy, temporally disordered shooter for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. “Obviously they can take years of iteration to get it right, to really feel out the things that make it unique and special. So that’s a pretty substantial undertaking, it’s a risk, and it’s just money kind of ‘going’!”

“But I think the pay-off is definitely there,” he continued, presumably to the intense relief of Activision shareholders (not that they’ve got much to worry about these days). “There are plenty of franchises that have been built off a mildly successful first title, that have ramped into something hugely successful, and I think it’s a worthwhile undertaking.”

Lee-Kreel thinks Singularity has a decent shot. “I worked with Raven on Quake 4 as well, and they’re a fantastic team, so I’ve got a good new IP, I’ve got great marketing behind me, and I’ve got a great development team, so I’m pretty psyched. It’s a big deal.”

Having seen the game in action, we’re inclined to agree. Stay pumped for the full interview this week. Singularity’s out in Q1 2010.

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The Killzone franchise is five years old today, and Eric Boltjes, Mathijs de Jonge and the rest of Guerrilla Games are accordingly sinking into mattresses of purest purple cotton-candy nostalgia over at the official site. The grimy shooter series has returned to headlines for other reasons of late, with the second iteration swiping a Golden Joystick and no less than three nominations for Spike’s Video Game Awards 2009. An appropriate time then to slip off those rose-tinted goggles, strap on some glowing Helghast varieties and do a little retrospective whinging.

I loved, and still love Killzone 2. Rather fortunate, that, as I spent close to 100 hours with it in the hysterical two or three months before its release. But the game had, and still has some definite shortcomings, and recent tidal shifts in the waters of first and third-person shooting have made one of these shortcomings especially evident.

Do you feel lonesome tonight, Sev?

If you’ve been keeping up with our reviews, you’ll know it’s a great season for cooperative gaming. (So great, in fact, that we’re going to publish an editorial on the subject in the next couple of weeks – but I digress.) Following in the footsteps of Insomniac’s Resistance sequel, Modern Warfare 2 and Uncharted 2 have boosted their respective co-op components from humble campaign add-on status to that of a full-blown separate mode. Left 4 Dead 2 is busily reaffirming the marvellousness of the original game’s signature four-players-against-the-world dynamic. I am utterly gutted that I didn’t get to grade New Super Mario Bros Wii, that peerless provoker of beery retrohead camaraderie. And all this occurs against a backdrop of mighty advances in multiplayer gaming generally, with the MAG beta asking unheard-of feats in team (or rather, army) management, and Demon Souls carving a wild, uneasy line between roguelike and MMO.

In that context, Killzone 2’s strictly solo ten levels feel a little bloodless, despite its artery-ripping graphical excess. This game needed co-op – needed it like a daffodil needs sunlight, Jade Raymond her hair straighteners or David Jaffe his sedatives. Its war-ravaged, multi-storey maps and the find-fix-and-flank nature of its action would have suited team play right down to the bullet-scoured earth.

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I'm too young to die!

Poor old Left 4 Dead. Just over a year old, and already consigned to the backseat of history by Valve’s uncharacteristically headlong rush to sequel-dom.

Well we’re not quite ready to let go, chaps – as befits the PC version at least. Here are some reasons to put off uninstalling the original zombie co-op FPS for a few months longer.

Because Left 4 Dead wasn’t broken, hasn’t been fixed.

Bit of an obvious point, this one. Left 4 Dead is still utterly, utterly fantastic, and worth experiencing alongside its younger sibling. Those soggy North American forest, industrial and residential maps aren’t getting any less gripping or well-balanced. It’s a whole five quid cheaper than Left 4 Dead 2 on Steam, too.

Because Valve’s keeping its word as to downloadable content.

OK, they took their sweet time bringing out Survival mode, the new “Crash Course” campaign and Versus functionality for the original maps, but Valve seems to be building momentum on the DLC front. We downloaded a 4v4 matchmaking update only a week or two back. Watch this space.

Because Left 4 Dead now boasts hundreds of custom maps and campaigns.

There are plenty of prolific would-be Valve employees out there, it seems. This writer’s favourite custom maps include Claustrophobia, a cramped, two-storey Survival arena featuring some stunning broken wood geometry and shadows, L4D Dust 2, for all the Counterstrike freaks in da house, and Who’s Laughing Now?: The Evil Dead Cabin, a bastard hard homage to Sam Raimi’s stuffed-crust B-movie classic. Hunter Training is great for putting a little extra spring into your pounce.

Custom-campaign-wise, you might want to consider this Silent Hill remake, or this sequence ripped from Resident Evil Outbreak File#2. Cream of the crop, though, is Death Aboard, which takes you from the depths of a prison to a gloomy dockyard and onto a precariously balanced ship. Fans of the surreal should check out Night Terror and its daring hot-air balloon rescue. Gadzooks.

Because you can stuff all the original game’s content into the sequel.

Those lynch-pins of the underground code-breaking scene at L4Dmods have figured out how to transfer all Left 4 Dead campaigns (and, excitingly, custom campaigns) to Left 4 Dead 2 – well ahead of the release of Valve’s official SDK.

Hold on though, doesn’t this make the first game rather redundant, we hear you protest? Ah, my son, but you’ll need a fully paid-up, squeaky-clean legit copy of both games to pull the trick off. Plus a bit of technical know-how, naturally. And the patience to endure a fair few non-crippling bugs. Hit the link for a tutorial, and check out the video evidence below.

Because Zoey is way fitter than Rochelle, innit.

Look, let’s not beat around any bushes here (after all, one of them might contain a Boomer). If we had the chance to leap into the sack with either of the Left 4 Dead ladies, it’d be pasty girl-geek brunette Zoey all the way. Rochelle’s too respectable for our unhygienic, society-averse tastes. She’s a TV producer, for God’s sake. Plus she wears a Depeche Mode T-shirt (admittedly it’s got a stencil of Gordon Freeman on it). Stupid establishment chick.

So what’s keeping you glued to the original Left 4 Dead, oh well-informed reader?

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