The War Has Just Begun

Amid the small collection of games I had picked up this month, I ended up renting two more to add onto the already hectic line up of games being played in my house. The games in question? Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 and, because I witnessed the endless lines of people picking this up, Call of Duty: World at War.

Now pictured here is Tanya (Jenny McCarthy), the Allied forces' Commando. She is starring along side an impressive cast in the recently released Red Alert 3.

I'll admit it, I liked Command & Conquer 3. I enjoyed Kane's Wrath (that doesn't sound right), but when it comes down to the Red Alert series, that is just a whole different ball game for me.

I mean I obsessed over Red Alert 2 and I played that to death! And when Yuri's Revenge was released, the obsession carried on for years after.

Anyway, this latest installment into the Red Alert series finds the Soviet forces on the losing end of the war (again). In a last ditch effort, several Soviets use a hidden time machine to travel back to the past where they kill Albert Einstein, a critical key in the Allied forces rise to victory.

The displaced Soviets return to the present to find that they were finally winning, pushing the Allied forces back until they were all but trapped in Great Britain. However, their joy was short lived as the Empire of the Rising Sun (Japan) declares war on the warring Soviets and proceed to attack their homeland while the vast majority of their forces are spread across the European continent.

Anyway, that is the story in a nutshell and things are no less crazier then they were in Red Alert 2. Although there isn't really any mind control tech (I miss Yuri's forces already... sort of). In a lot of ways, the Empire of the Rising Sun fits the gap that Yuri left behind quite well. I mean their commando is a pissed off school girl with some real power. Hell, I lost during just the second mission of the Soviet campaign because of her! They are indeed unique and their soldiers and vehicles aren't anything like what's in both the Allied or Soviet arsenals.

But even both of the original factions have gotten upgrades to what they bring to the war, which has left me trying to re-figure out which side I like better. It is also safe to say that a lot of tactics that I had during Red Alert 2 have to be rethought, due to the fact that some of the weapons from the previous game was taken out (bye bye Prism Tank!).

Next up is Call of Duty: World at War.

Man, I thought I was in a world of trouble myself on the day that this was released, because the lines were just endless! This actually came out about the same time as Mirror's Edge, so my mind began to race. I had thought that maybe all of those people were there for that game, which would be a mess for me because I did not reserve .

And I was wrong.

All of that madness was for the newest Call of Duty, which (as far as I can tell) is about what you could expect from a CoD game, or even from a FPS game these days. What I do like about this game is also what gives me a headache at the same time. By this I mean the split screeen co-op mode.

Games with co-op are good for me, because then I can recruit my girlfriend into joining the fight as well. That is what draws me to FPS like Gears of War, Halo and Rainbow Six. The same could be said for this game, which surprised me since CoD4 was not co-op.

But while that is all good and great, the split screen itself is just horrible! It isn't like the other games where the screen in cut in half. Rather, it has both players' screens together, but they do not fill up the screen. Does that make sense? Anyway, it is a pain in the ass even more so if you do not have a HD TV (like I do not). Why? Because then it makes it challenging to even clearly see where you are heading or even whom you are firing at.

Maybe I am far too used to the style of other FPS co-op games? Am I spoiled? I'd like to think not. I mean come on! I wonder who's bright idea it was to do things this way? Meh, anyway... other then that eye sore, it is fairly fun FPS that brings in some crazy firefights.

Anyway, time to stop writing here and get back to the gaming front over here. With all of these games around the house right now, I really have to get cracking before December rolls in. If not I may end up being submerged under a sea of games...

Fun times, that might not be...