Warhawk PS3

[Teho]

You may be used to thinking England being expensive, but trust me. Norway is normally expensiver. I actually buy a lot of my games from amazon.co.uk instead of from some local shop. You can often get titles that are only 6 months old or so for less than £20 there, while in the shelves here you can spot two year old games still at full-price, £40 and above.

It's too bad that you can only import duty-free here if the item is worth less than £17 before tax, else I'd have bought just about everything from there.

But about Warhawk. I didn't get to play it that much yesterday either, but did try a few games. This time I watched for any framerate slowdowns, but didn't notice any. If there are slowdowns in this game, they can't be that common. I haven't experienced any lag either yet. But I haven't played any of the really huge 30-40 player games either, as they are usually all on the official servers and are almost always full. That's my biggest complaint so far actually, if you want to play ranked games and progress from your initial 'recruit' rank, you have to play ranked games on those servers and you can sit there and try to join one for ages without getting in. Hopefully that's an issue they've noticed and are doing something about.

The gameplay itself is pretty fun. There aren't that many modes to play, most you've seen before of course like capture the flag and zone control. But even in a regular team-deathmatch you can still capture bases and score that way too, aquiring a spawn point and vehicle base in the process makes this a worthwile thing to do, which is a nice twist on the usual all-out deathmatching. But though there aren't that many modes, there are many different setups to play each mode in. While the mode is deathmatching the setup can be 'dogfight' for example, meaning everyone's in aircrafts.

Also it all seems very well balanced. noone is ever quite king of the hill no matter what vehicle they're in, there's always some type of weapon, turret or other vehicle that is effective at taking it out.

And the game is multiplayer only, yes. But it doesn't have to be online, it also supports LAN games (who ever has a chance to LAN consoles?) and up to four players splitscreen. There is also a learning curve, related to controls mostly. Basically there are four basic ones you need to get used to switching between, and even then they have variations. The ground based vehicle controls have slight changes based on whether you're in a jeep, tank or turret for example. The aircraft can switch between hovering and jet mode on the fly, each being a very different set of controls which definitely is confusing before you get used to it. I ended up just starting a local game so I could experiment with the various vehicles without being bothered by anyone.

All in all I think this was worth the purchase. It's cheap, but it doesn't have many modes, not that many vehicles and not that many maps, so the price is just about right. And reviewers are giving it pretty good scores all around too, while the other hyped-up titles like Lair and Heavenly Sword aren't doing so well. So something is definitely right about this title.

[Sharingan]

About the limited amount of maps and vehicles, surely they're intending to expand that via future patches?

[Harrison]

while the other hyped-up titles like Lair and Heavenly Sword aren't doing so well.

Heavenly Sword has been getting some very average reviews, but the reviews all seem to mark it down because they don't like the style of game play, rather than saying it is a bad game. Edge for example criticized the amount the projectile weapon system is used within the game, but as it is a key part of the game I think that cannot be seen as a negative aspect of the game. So if the review doesn't like that game mechanic they are not going to enjoy the game. It's like film reviewers who are reviewing a Sci-Fi film and clearly don't like the genre.

[Sharingan]

I'll still buy Heavenly Sword, in spite of the average reviews so far - it just seems like the kind of game I'll enjoy, and that's enough for me.

[toomanymikes]

I played Heavenly Sword on demo and I wasnt too impressed - the combat seemed quite forced while i prefer more fluid playing styles like devil may cry. Saying that its possibly the most visually impressive game on the system and thats saying something! I may wait until the price drops before picking it up.

You may be used to thinking England being expensive, but trust me. Norway is normally expensiver. I actually buy a lot of my games from amazon.co.uk instead of from some local shop. You can often get titles that are only 6 months old or so for less than £20 there, while in the shelves here you can spot two year old games still at full-price, £40 and above.

...

All in all I think this was worth the purchase. It's cheap, but it doesn't have many modes, not that many vehicles and not that many maps, so the price is just about right. And reviewers are giving it pretty good scores all around too, while the other hyped-up titles like Lair and Heavenly Sword aren't doing so well. So something is definitely right about this title.

That sucks about the price Teho - I thought we were bad! Would you say that it is better than Resistance fall of man online because I love that.

[v85rawdeal]

I don't think I am going to get the game, primarily because I do not get online enough to make it worthwhile.

However, that may change in the future, and I might fork out for an internet connection!

[toomanymikes]

I went ahead and picked up Warhawk this morning. First impressions are good but there are a few niggles that get to me about it:
The system of joing games is flawed - it shows up all games on line whether or not they are full, so you can spend a lot of time trying to get into a game that is already full with players.
If you download it you dont get a manual so you have to find out all the controls etc as you go. Not too good if you getting shot at from all angles but you dont know how to shoot back!
Apart from that its really good. I have only played it for about 15 mins so I will get into it tonight when my gf and child go out to visit her mum. Is it worth the money? Time will tell...