Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway Comments by Kristan Reed

That's pretty poor. Sounds exactly the same as the originals. Will opt out of this.

Glad I cancelled my pre-order the other day...

I just pre-ordered (on the PC)

I loved the 1st 2 so more of the same with better graphics is fine by me

plus I will never get tired of virtually firing an m1 garand..dont know why..I think my brain is broken

@demian08
"The game is critisized for having repetitive mechanics? There is not a single great game which is not built solely on repetitive mechanics; super mario, halo, ico. Games by nature consist of a set of consistent laws; you can critisize these laws of being fundamentaly flawed, but not of being used repetitively."

Ah, philosophy. There's a world of difference between the "standard" level of repetition all games have and a game that feels repetitive from early on. For example, after you get your first star in Super Mario Galaxy you don't think, "great, now I have to grind out another 59/119 stars". It doesn't feel like a boring chore because it's immediately fun and the challenges and worlds are varied enough that you don't focus on the fact that it's basically 1) enter world 2) get star 3) goto 1. Now if every world was just a slight variation on the previous one, same graphics, same basic layout, same actions required to get the star then SMG would have felt repetitive quite early.

The games that postpone that sense of "man, I've been doing the same thing for hours" are the real gems, this can be done in many different ways, a change of scenery, change of enemies and enemy attack "patterns", change of pacing or simply through timely plot progression. It's all in the timing; one or two enemy emplacements too many before something "new" happens and the illusion is shattered and find yourself thinking, "man, I've been doing the same thing for hours".

I could carry on but instead I'd recommend people read what Kristan says here rather than just leaping on his use of the word repetitive (my emphasis):

"The game's biggest problem is simply a crushing lack of variety. Set over ten chapters, by the time you're four or five chapters in, the sense of grinding repetition really sets in, with the only major difference being the setting. With the enemy permanently set up in predictable formation in front of you, it really does just become a case of picking off the cannon fodder, blasting through weak defenses, flanking and repeating until bored."

From the sound of that I'd imagine that this game would feel repetitive far sooner than SMG, for example, by its very nature it's slower; you are forced by necessity to move at the games pace you move up a bit, you have to stop, find, fix, flank and finish (from the first game IIRC). If nothing else the slower pace gives the player more time to focus on the overly repetitive nature of the game.

Edit: My brain is a bit scrambled ATM.

I am renting this from the local vid store. Excellent fun, not frustrating either.


First BIA I have played. I notice the first two are out as a double pack for the wii, would it be worth buying?

Personally I think this game is excellent, but I enjoyed Full Spectrum Warrior too.

So, it is exactly the same as the (tedious, linear) original, then. Where you had to put in a cheat to switch the ludicrous 'suppression' indicators that both gave away every foe's position AND how long you had before they'd pop out to start shooting at you. Hell, even with these off, your squadmates would still somehow know when the Nazis were about to pop out again.

I am surprised that in three years they've basically made the same game yet again.