Call of Duty: World at War will be coming out in about a week. You can visit the official site here. I have both the PC and Xbox 360 betas, and since there are a lot of games coming out this holiday season, I feel like I should give my impressions on how good I think the game will be so you don’t have to waste your hard earned money.

First off, I also played the CoD 4 beta, so have a little insight on how close the beta is to the release version of the game. Also, I have no doubt in my mind that the campaign for CoD WaW will be remarkable, but if you’re interested in the multiplayer, there are some things you might find interesting.

Lets start out with the graphics. The graphics engine in CoD WaW and CoD 4 are…the same. I would say from playing the beta that CoD WaW does look a bit more polished, but no milestones were achieved in this department. At times I felt like I was playing a CoD 4 mod, much like how Day of Defeat Source is a mod of Counter Strike Source.

Graphics aren’t necessarily the most important thing in a game. To me, gameplay is much more important. After playing both the PC beta and Xbox 360 beta, I feel that the game is much more suited for the PC. I say this because there is a lack of variety in the weapon category. I don’t mean that in a sense of weapon models, but what they are capable of. To me, it seems like there is several short range and long range weapons that work wonderfully, but no good mid ranged weaponry. In CoD WaW, the mid ranged weapons are the rifles, which have limited ammunition, and if you couple that with lag and controller joysticks, it can be quite challenging to kill someone on the Xbox. When I was playing the Xbox beta, I felt more comfortable using a Thomson with an ACOG scope. I didn’t have this problem on the PC though because it is much easier to aim with a mouse and keyboard.

Also, the perks from CoD 4 have been carried over into the new CoD, and also more perks have been added such as the “Toss back” perk. This perk allows you to pick up a thrown grenade and reset the timer so you can toss it back without getting blown to smithereens. Although I still hate killing someone, then sprinting into a grenade because of their martyrdom, I think they did a good job. Another thing they did was replace the 7 kill streak bonus, instead of a helicopter you get a pack of rabid dogs! Some people think they are overpowered, but I feel like it was a nice touch. It’s always fun seeing one of your dogs lunge for the neck of an opposing soldier.

Overall I think that I like the CoD 4 multiplayer more than CoD WaW. I am a fan of modern warfare, not the over-used genre of WWII. So if you’re thinking about getting this game on release, maybe you should rent it first to make sure it’s what you’re looking for. Hope this helps!

Not all gamers like RPG’s (Role Playing Game). I used to think that I was one of them. I considered myself a hardcore online warrior. That all changed one fateful vacation. I was trapped in a desolate state called Vermont, and I had no internet to play xbox live. I was going through withdrawal, and I needed my gaming fix. Luckily there was a place to rent xbox games (I think it was a log cabin or something). I decided to rent Fable, since I had heard such good things about it.

This was my first time really getting into an RPG. I loved how my character developed before my eyes, and the gameplay was good enough to hold my attention all the way through the storyline. Because Fable was such a good game (in my opinion), I believe that they can’t screw up Fable 2…..or can they?

Many people were dismayed when Fable was initially released. Not necessarily because the game was bad, but because there were some features that many people expected to be in the game, but were not implemented. This time around, Peter Molyneux and the people at Lionhead Studios are going balls out (so to speak) to include as many new features as possible.

One feature in this game is a dog (mans best friend) that you CANNOT control directly. You can however, control the dogs actions through the way you interact with it. The reasoning behind not letting the player directly control the dog was to try to create a feeling of love or companionship between it and you. I think that this was a good idea, because I have heard of people becoming emotionally attached to their pikman to the point of restarting the game if they lose too many in a mission. This feature will definitely add depth to the game.

Fable 2 will also have ONLINE multiplayer. Players can play through the story together, and the main hero (I’m assuming player one) will determine how much gold/exp that player 2 will get. You can play coop, then immediately take the same character you were playing online coop with, and play single player.

One major issue I have with the game is the one button combat system. Most of your attack will be delivered by pressing one button. I fear this can lead to repetitive game play, even if there is an abundance of animations. For example: you press X standing behind an enemy, and you do a sweet attack that destroys the back of his head! Cool animation! But honestly, I believe that the novelty of a variety of animations cannot make up for a one button combat system, but I will reserve my judgment until I play the finished game. Also the spells have changed a bit since the first Fable. There will be spells (fire based and lightning based for example) that you can use in two different ways. You can do a direct target attack, or and area of effect (AOE) spell. The AOE will do damage to enemies all around you, while the direct attack only hits one target. They have also done away with the spell menu from the first Fable.

Overall I would still say I’m pretty psyched for the games release. It comes out in the US on October 21, 2008. I hope this entry helps you decide if you would like to try this game out.