Black Comments by Kristan Reed

@SuperU123 - if you order over the internet , you can more often than not get it a few days before release. Mine arrived from play.com this morning, hence having played about 3 hours of it already.

"@krudster

How can you guys say how well it runs before it has been released?"

Erm, he wrote the review so probably got some final code from EA? That would be my guess.

Ah.... Blimey... had my head in the sand too long. Should have done the same. !

Cheers,

"why is every other lead male in a videogame called Jack these days?"

24. That's why.

Cracking game thorough enjoyable,

Put in 2 hours last night on xbox version, pity about the lack of 360 support. Same with psyconaught, wish MS would put there arse into gear.

"...stand the fuck off kellar!"

hehe.

mine is final. afaik and moreso cud see NO widescreen option in game.

An over-rating in EG? Has the world taken an unexpected twist?

6/10 - max.

Historically, I can't think of one game where the PS2 version has been superior to the Xbox version, so I would go with that. But then Criterion have refined the Renerware engine so much that the differences are getting smaller (a la Burnout Revenge).

@dravenclarke

http://games.teamxbox.com/xbox/1297/BLACK/

They seem to think it supports widescreen.

EDIT: +2 for making me chuckle BTW.

So, as good as Halo then?

Black is the new Halo.

I'm really disappointed with this game. The pacing is terrible, where checkpoints are very far and few in number. I get the feeling this was done to try and make the game appear longer than it actually is (no multiplayer) through continuous death. The whole thing about destructible environments is trash, what is breakable is pre-defined and no more than you would expect from any other FPS.

Hats off to Alex Ward though for making us believe the hype!

Is it 480p?

@peterfll - the only two games i can think of which are better on PS2 than on Xbox are Metal Gear Solid 2 Substance (very glitchy visualy on Xbox) and Timesplitters 2 (Xbox version has a very washed out colour palette in comparison to the PS2 version)

Not as good as Red Faction then? Nuff sed.

I've played the demo, it looks stunning on both xbox and ps2 (you wouldnt believe how good they've managed to get the ps2 to look).

The only bad thing i've heard about this game (Which puts me off) is the lack of save points (apparently you have to finish a level, which could take over an hour) before you can save.

Not played full game yet, so dont know if that's true. If it is, im not buying.

@Stormflood_UK

See my previous link, apparently it is.

Yes is it Widescreen ffs!

Holy crap!! EG gave Red Faction 9/10!!

Was that during the great PS2 FPS drought of 1904 or something?

Blowing holes in the ground was fun enough but aside from that RF was pretty mediocre. I enjoyed the tech demo more than the game because at leats that had plenty of rockets to blow holes in the ground with.

I played it on PC admittedly, where it had some stiffer competition.

kanga - thanks.

Regarding save points - the game is never so difficult to make it feel a burden to replay sections. The game lets you off enough as it is by providing a sort of "last ditch" recharging health system so that when you're really in trouble you can always run off and catch your breath, recharge those last two bars of health and most likely pick off the guys you need to. Medipacks are sensibly scattered around, and you can carry three full first aid kits which recharge the health bar to the max.

Seriously, if you can't play through this game without quicksave, then what next? Racing games with quicksave? It'd simply be a much worse game with zero tension if you could just run around quicksaving.

Red Faction has brilliant, fully customisable split screen multiplayer. The single player might be a little weak though. Great game.

Gylo, you're living in cloud cuckoo land if you thought the game world would or could be fully destructible. So much of the game world is deformable (permanently, I might add, across massive maps) and virtually half the things you see can be blown up or mangled in some way. What did you expect?

Regarding save points - the game is never so difficult to make it feel a burden to replay sections


Yeah, but what if I dont have 2 hours (over exageration) spare always to finish a level? What if i'm close to finishing level and i'm called out, or have to go to work, etc.

Cant be arsed with that kind of thing personally, shame 'cause the demo was fun and looked stunning.

I don't like quicksaves but Black should save your progress at a checkpoint (which are placed quite far apart).

Agreed, not being able to save at the checkpoint is silly.

first!


oh....

Did anyone proofread that before it got posted??

My copy of Xbox Black came this morning from Gameplay.com and I can confirm that it is a very enjoyable game, but not without it flaws though which come in the form of a lack of check/savepoints and some less than brilliant A.I. Still seeing things blowup in an over-the-top fashion is compulsory viewing and the game plays better than most other FPSs I've played and is up there with Halo.

Oh and the game supports widescreen...

Apparently the AI in Black is of such quality that the enemy is never seen to be running into walls or jittering their animations. That's according to Edge.

"Thanks to Criterion's otherworldly technical ability to pull off graphical effects that wouldn't look out of place on next gen machines and some truly inspired set-pieces, BLACK is the most progressive and exciting shooter to emerge on the console platforms for years."

I dunno, but from what you write, I can name atleast 5 (console) shooters of the past 2 years that are better. Oh well. :\

"Well, Mr Blerk, you're certainly entitled to that view - and it's an interesting one. But, tell me: what's better than this on the PS2?

TimeSplitters? Nope.
Killzone? Bwaha
MOH? Come now.
Cold Winter. Meh.
/gives up. "

Isnt that more a problem for the ps2 (lack of good fps games)? I mean, your basically saying; 'Console A hasnt had a good game in catagory B, and this might still be shite, but its by far the best. 8.0'. It could still be shite. :\

But then again, what do i know. Havent played this yet, so i dunno if its good or not.

I think the best thing you can do is try it Xerx3s, then you'll know for sure :)

Perhaps, but that would mean that i would have to spend money on it while i dunno if it ll be to me taste. Wait next month is march isnt it? (....)

/notes big red arrows on his calendar pointing to march.

Having played the PS2 demo of this it definately does seem like the best of the bunch. Even with the terrible controller it was very playable as a FPS. However I will be a picking up the Xbox version thank you. FPS on a PS2 just does not work well with the dualshock controller.

So is it a rental (weekend game ?) or buy, I need to trade my SOTC by Monday, or my 10 days will be up ! what to do ???

Hi Skalzey
I did and I have, ( bought SOTC ) that's what I'm going to trade.
Cheers.

You can devote a weekend to this game and finish it. There's little inscentive offered for doing every single secondary objective which would take longer.

seems something is missing in this review....black ops mode and CUSTOM SOUNDTRACKS!!!!!!!!!! great game, very impressed so far.

"Remember that hectic section in the prison in the middle of Half-Life 2 ... Well imagine that level of onslaught for the entire game"

Aww, that was my least-favourite bit of HL2. I was glad when that annoying bit was over.

Everything I've read about Black makes me think it's not the right game for me. Distantly-spaced checkpoints (that don't even save the game) are the last straw. I agree that saving whenever you want removes tension... but I do require checkpoints to be intelligently placed before any big set-piece moment of action, and certainly no more than 10 minutes apart.

Also, amusing to see the review covered with java animated ad banners for Black all around it... (Well, amusing until it made Firefox crash, anyway)

"So its like any other shooter only less content and more graphics?
Pass."

Pretty much what I was thinking. If they have such a great engine and game design why not give people enough to keep them satisfied? £40 for eight hours of enjoyment works out at around £5 per hour, which is really taking the piss unless it is literally the best playing game ever made. Which I'm sure it isn't. Short games are my pet hate.

From the article: "Regaled in pleasingly stylish (but achingly earnest) flashback"

To me that doesn't make gramatical sense, it should be:

Regaled in "a" pleasingly stylish (but achingly earnest) flashback. Either that or flashback should be plural (flashbacks).

Having read all the comments, it sounds like it's more of a renter, than a buyer.

I've just played the xbox mag demo, I quite liked it (although it's questionable if someone could take many, many, many hits to the chest even with body armour on).

"Having read all the comments, it sounds like it's more of a renter, than a buyer. "

Deffinitely. Why pay £40 for the experience when you can pay £3?

"Thanks to Criterion's otherworldly technical ability to pull off graphical effects that wouldn't look out of place on next gen machines and some truly inspired set-pieces, BLACK is the most progressive and exciting shooter to emerge on the console platforms for years."

woah, it's PS2, right? for years?

hypegamer.net?

all this needed was gore.

all that impressive shooting ..beautiful even...but no gore :(

/bathes in entrails

/scrubs with blood

no multiplayer !!! WHAT!!! NOOOO MULTIPLAYER :(
WHAT? NOOO MULTIPLAYER ... what a useless game.. shame on black!

No multiplayer aside does this support co-op?

no

Doen anyone know if this game works on the 360??

no

This review is surrounded by a frame of Black advertisements. Won't sway me at all though, everyone knows this is a renter, a fun one-day diversion, nothing more. An 8? Not in my opinion, its far too short and shallow. Didn't quite live up to the hype.