You guys have GOT to check out 'Brothers In Arms' fucking awesome shit! feels like a mix of metroid prime hunters, call of duty and gears of war! As I keep playing i'm very shocked the DS can handle this.

Check out Transformers:Autobots/Decepticons currently playing through the Decepticons game (god bless Lord StarScream) and damn is this shit awesome another game that is a testament to good programming on the DS its GTA esque but with a nice combat system and production values having alot of fun with these ones check them out.

The trailer for it looked really impressive and then yesterday while looking for a copy of Raw Danger I stumbled on it at Gamestop. Hopefully I'll have some time to put into it (BiA) in the next week or two, because right now I'm trying to play through Disaster Report and then I want to play some Raw Danger.

Fuck, and Adventures of Darwin comes out this week, too. Not a good month for the ol' wallet :(

> You guys have GOT to check out 'Brothers In Arms' fucking awesome shit! feels
> like a mix of metroid prime hunters, call of duty and gears of war! As I keep
> playing i'm very shocked the DS can handle this.
>

YUPPERS on that one. I originally was going to ignore it as BiA is like SOldier of Fortune (which is like kinda Rainbow Six) where it focuses on strategizing teams and one bullet you die which is just fucking aggravating. I learned this sucker plays just like COD2 but in a Gears of War type 3rd person style with a few other similarities so I gave it a go.

Visually and aureally blows away Metroid. Game has long draw distance, high detail, destructable walls and entire structures. Frame rate is kept consistant which helps as it can get damn hard on some stages. Audio is top notch with the sarge bitchin out orders left and right as blasts, mortar, gunfire and music plays on. The controls are spot on and smooth, a bit less fast/twitchy than Metroid so it handles smoother. THe life bar is like COD2 so it's pressure sensitive with a recovery if you can get out of the line of fire before it's too much. Grenades are the most intuitive I've seen using the dpad left/right to aim that way and then the panel to touch the icon then drag up a meter which cross hairs on the top screen where it'll pop...release and blamo. :P

Game is not insanely long, but it's not that easy on some stages at all. You start on normal, unlock 2 higher levels so normal is really 'easy.' Game will take you I'd guess 6-10hours depending how much you get waxed, but the harder modes will take longer, and it has up to 4P local multiplay too. Oh and there are some unlockable weapons and a nicer tank too on completing normal.

I hate to say it as I am no fan, but IGN has a very fair review of it which ended in a 8/10 which very well hits the good and few crap points to it. Check it for details.


...also picked up Sim City DS same day and it's a blast too. VERY well handled, has a nice learning curve to it, and quite a lot of options. If you're into SC titles it's like a nice hybrid mix of much of 3K and a bit of 2K thrown in.

> YUPPERS on that one. I originally was going to ignore it as BiA is like SOldier
> of Fortune (which is like kinda Rainbow Six) where it focuses on strategizing
> teams and one bullet you die which is just fucking aggravating.

You do realize you just likened Brothers in Arms to Rainbow Six and Rainbow Six to Soldier of Fortune, three completely different games with completely different play-styles and game designs, right?

Yes I do, point was there were elements each of those had I didn't like...mooshed it together. SoF as with the one on Dreamcast, you took 1 bullet it was over. Then on Rainbow Six you could take a few hits, but it was overly boring and slow paced with too much strategy and planning, and pre-planning involved for my taste. And then BiA I understood reading up was that you played a bit like CoD, but had to often control and intervene with like 2 squads you'd control having them do various things to manipulate the outcome of a battle.

I prefer the standard be part of a team or be a lone agent with a gun type war/ww2 type fps.

> > You guys have GOT to check out 'Brothers In Arms' fucking awesome shit! feels
> > like a mix of metroid prime hunters, call of duty and gears of war! As I keep
> > playing i'm very shocked the DS can handle this.
> >
>
> YUPPERS on that one. I originally was going to ignore it as BiA is like SOldier
> of Fortune (which is like kinda Rainbow Six) where it focuses on strategizing
> teams and one bullet you die which is just fucking aggravating. I learned this
> sucker plays just like COD2 but in a Gears of War type 3rd person style with a
> few other similarities so I gave it a go.
>
> Visually and aureally blows away Metroid. Game has long draw distance, high
> detail, destructable walls and entire structures. Frame rate is kept consistant
> which helps as it can get damn hard on some stages. Audio is top notch with the
> sarge bitchin out orders left and right as blasts, mortar, gunfire and music
> plays on. The controls are spot on and smooth, a bit less fast/twitchy than
> Metroid so it handles smoother. THe life bar is like COD2 so it's pressure
> sensitive with a recovery if you can get out of the line of fire before it's too
> much. Grenades are the most intuitive I've seen using the dpad left/right to
> aim that way and then the panel to touch the icon then drag up a meter which
> cross hairs on the top screen where it'll pop...release and blamo. :P
>
> Game is not insanely long, but it's not that easy on some stages at all. You
> start on normal, unlock 2 higher levels so normal is really 'easy.' Game will
> take you I'd guess 6-10hours depending how much you get waxed, but the harder
> modes will take longer, and it has up to 4P local multiplay too. Oh and there
> are some unlockable weapons and a nicer tank too on completing normal.
>
> I hate to say it as I am no fan, but IGN has a very fair review of it which
> ended in a 8/10 which very well hits the good and few crap points to it. Check
> it for details.
>
>
> ...also picked up Sim City DS same day and it's a blast too. VERY well handled,
> has a nice learning curve to it, and quite a lot of options. If you're into SC
> titles it's like a nice hybrid mix of much of 3K and a bit of 2K thrown in.
>
>

I dunno if I'd say it's visually improved considering you only have so much screen size/resolution to work with. Basically you get the Sim City 3000 graphical tile sets in all their various stages of evolution as time marches along. Movement is limited to 2000/SC1 with the pixel cars traffic on the streets and little else. I've seen the jet, boats are present, and you'll get various monsters/disasters drawn in and moving nicely. The menu system is very clean and easy on the eyes, intuitive, tells you in text too all you need to know.

Honestly the only real 'issue' I guess you'd say is working within the limitations of the system itself being the smaller screen, and when you get a really loaded city that it'll scroll slower than a blank slate, but it even did that to a degree on PCs too so no bfd.