Jigsaw's Blog: My thoughts on games (and other stuff)

Demos: Magicka, Bulletstorm, Crysis 2 & Breach

It is not very often that I play four different demos in the same day, but that is how Tuesday panned out.  On the PC, Magicka released and I’ve been looking forward to it for quite a while now. I promised myself after all the holiday Steam sales I would not by any new games until I finished at least a few of those so I just played the demo for now.  So, if you don’t see on Xbox Live check Steam as I’m probably trying to finish stuff up there so I can get to Magicka.

A demo single player demo for Bulletstorm released today.  It struck me as odd that a game that they keep talking about co-op for does not have any co-op in the demo. Then I started playing the demo. It has a very Gears of War feel to me.  Not that feeling like Gears is bad thing but since the rest of the game was just not that fun I don’t see a reason to get it. I’m not a fan of playing the same levels over and over so I just can’s see enjoying it for any length of time.

I got a chance over the last week to demo Breach for XBLA Ratings.  You can see my full review on the site (here), but I will say that the more I play it the more I’m enjoying it.  It started a little slow and I almost wrote it off but I’m glad I did not because it has really grown on me. The Convoy game mode is really fun and the destructible environments never get old.

The final demo for the day was Crysis 2.  I played a couple matches on my lunch break and it was pretty decent.  Then, in the evening we got a full team of guys from AGErocks.com playing and it was a blast.  It is fast paced but not so fast it is all twitchy. The matchmaking did a nice job of getting our squad on the same team when we joined a match already in process when the next round started and it lest you customize your loadouts while it searches for a match.  These little touches are really nice and allow for more time playing and less time in the menus. There are quite a few customization options and upgrades for the weapons and armor abilities. It was nice that they start unlocking pretty quickly. Plus, as you use an ability it unlocks a stronger version of it.  Like getting 25 air stops unlocks the advanced air stomp.  It would be nice if there was a tutorial explaining all the armor abilities but after playing with them for a while they start to make sense.  All of the armor abilities are tied to your energy bar so you can use them all at once but only for a short time. Or, use one at a time for much longer.  I was not planning on picking up Crysis 2, but if there is a solid group of AGErs getting it I may as well because the demo is a lot of fun.

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