Project Gotham Racing 4

Video: PGR4 my play video 1

Project Gotham Racing 4 (PGR4) is the race game that has interesting game system. You don't need to get first, but you have to get 'Kudos' that is a kind of score indicating how you drive a car cool. Car behavior is not real as well as GTR and FM2 (Forza Motorsport 2). Instead you can control DRIFT easily.

PGR4 has two new features for PGS3.

Motorcycle

This is the interesting feature. PGS3 is car race game, but PGS4 add motorcycles to us. Perhaps that is the reason why many gamers bought PGS4.

Developers tweaked their game balance very well, so motorcycles and super cars have the same condition, on a race. PGS4 has the Live Monitor feature that we can watch other online play through the net. In that, many 'motorcycle' players enjoy racing.

Gamers welcome this feature. 'Motorcycle' is success for game developers!

Dynamic Weather

I'm a programer, so this feature is more interesting than 'Motorcycle'. PGS4 has really excellent game graphics. You will see various weathers --- cloudy sky, rain and snow. In addition, PGS4 can change 'weather' while a race. That's really interesting!

To perhaps present this feature well, the world of PGS4 is not clear weather often. :D Or, PGS4 may represent the broken earth and 'Environmental Destruction'.

Anyway, Dynamic Weather is a good practice for shader. But most programers don't get a chance to implement this.

Town

Courses are famous towns --- London, Paris, Shanghai, Vegus and Shinjuku. The following video is replay in Shinjuku, Japan:


Video: PGR4 my play video 2

(This video contains Dynamic Wheather & Motorcycle.)

Perfect! What you watched is 'just' Shinjuku that I often go to. Developers did their best to present towns!

2.0 Feature!?

Review and Sharing become common features for games. PGS4 provides these features.

Review: you can get other players' screenshot & live replay, and can vote them. Screenshot is downloaded automatically to your garage. In live replay, you may add 'Tag' to these films.

Sharing: You upload your screenshot & your replay, and share them through the net --- Xbox live.

'Tag' may be new feature for games.

Car collection

It's really long road to collect cars in such car games. However, in PGR4, you can get a number of cars by 1 unlock. That is quickly system. It makes game speedy.

If you like car games, maybe you're playing the plural car games. Do you challenge to get all cars, in all games? PGR4 make your challenge easy a little. So I think that's kindly system.

Conclusion

I research many games, but I buy car games to enjoy myself. PGR4 is good as well as FM2.

BattleField 2 ModernCombat

BattleField 2 ModernCombat (BF2MC) is FPS optimized to home game console --- PS2 and Xbox 360 ---, and is different from BattleField 2 PC edition. You may think that BF2MC is a branch of BF2.

Because BF2MC is very simple game design, many users love this game. My game friends play BF2MC every night. This game doesn't provide enough single mode like Halo3. But, there is good multi-play. BattleField series is called "a multi-play game".

Why is BF2MC simple? Because BF2MC has easy weapon system. Most FPS provides many jobs and many weapons. And, gamers enjoy using 100% of them. But, that's complex. BF2MC provides only five jobs. A job equips five weapons. Players can change own job but can not change a weapon. Therefore, you don't need to plan a combination of weapons.


Video: Battle Field 2 Modern Combat my play video

0:00 – Single Play
3:10 – Multi Play

Single-play mode is poor and not core of this game. You may think this game mode is "extra". Single-play mode has many stages but that's legacy FPS by poor Game AI. One of interesting system in Single-play mode is HOT-SWAP. Players can change the current control soldier anytime.

Multi-play is good and the core of this game. Every map is exciting, but some maps is especially popular. BF2MC is not new game, but many many gamers connect to Xbox LIVE for BF2MC multi-play.

I am a member of a clan, in BF2MC. A clan is a group for a kind of multi-play. We can play by auto match making and clan match. Clan match is a big enjoyment of this game.

Well, I played BF2MC to get the following video. But, because I played this game after long absence, I was poor in the game. Deadful play･･･. :(

HALO3

HALO3 is an ace title of Xbox 360 and is known as the best FPS in game consoles. I have played this title many times. Very good! Very exciting! You may buy Xbox 360 to play only Halo3. There are excellent graphics, great story, very smart Game AI and exciting online.

Single Play

I think Game AI is one of best features of Halo3. Halo3's Game AI is certainly improvement from Halo2, which developers spoke about Halo2's Game AI in GDC.


Video: Halo3 my play video : stage 1 top view

Enemies' behavior is smart and is governed by a leader of a group, to shoot you. They use landform well to hide them from your shoot. Their behavior is smart, not mechanical. It's good idea to confuse enemies, because their responses are same as human beings. You have to play single mode as well as online mode.

Levels are very good. In single mode, enemies keep good points of landform to hide and shoot. But you may look at best point for counter attack.

Theater and Forge

Theater and Forge are really excellent. Many many users think these features are really excellent, and enjoy these every night. Implementing Forge means that users have great creativity, like MOD. These features will become common features of most games since now. FPS users (and gamers) like both of playing and creating. I think these two factors are the origin of playing. People create game rule and play it. That's human being's history. Card game and other traditional games indicate this theory.

In Halo3, we create new rule by Forge and share it in the net. Yes, in Halo3, you can share your replay, your screenshot and your Forge data with other players. Such features become common features these days.

Conclusion

This is the best game of the year. And you can enjoy this for a long long time. Even if your wife keep a close grip on your purse, you can enjoy a game for 3 years and greater by only Halo3 if you got Xbox and Halo.