Fable 2 is the very latest addition to the Fable series. Unlike many shooter games of the current era, Fable is based in a time where guns are still very much a basic tool, and haven’t evolved into huge war machines. Fable 2 is based 500 years after the original Fable setting, but the technology still hasn’t advanced much but castles have appeared all over the world.

Gameplay

In the game, money can be obtained through doing quests and also by taking on jobs including Blacksmith, Woodcutter and Bartender – anything that would be typical of that era. Each job allows you to level up thus being able to earn more money as the game progresses. Economics also comes into the equation as, when stores have surplus or deficit stocks, you can sell your products for more or less respectively. ‘Relaxing’ is also an important concept in the game, given as exploration, in which the player explores to find out hidden areas and pick up new quests. There is even a feature called the ‘breadcrumb trail’ which means that, even if you are in the middle of a quest, you can go off and explore and the follow the breadcrumbs back to where you were!

The game also features a co-operative mode, via Xbox live, where other players can drop in and out at any stage.

The Review

Lucky for those of you trying Fable II without playing Fable, you’ll be pleased to hear that you don’t need to know a single thing about Fable to enjoy the game! With it being set 500 years later, there’s not a lot of continuity. And, for female gamers, there’s the opportunity to choose between a male and a female character, rather than being limited to the single choice as in the previous game.

Perhaps the best bit about the game is the huge level of exploration that can be done; perfect for those who just want to take a look around and just know what’s out there! You also form a strong emotional bond with your dog that accompanies you throughout your travels, so another plus for those of you out there who like Sims 2 Pets but need a little more excitement in a game!

Best Bits

• Exploration is massive; you can literally wander around for hours and still see things you haven’t seen before!
• Lots of funny scenarios
• Varied questing
• Good graphics

Halo 3 is the third instalment in the Halo franchise. Halo is perhaps one of the most popular and best selling games in the world for the Xbox 360, with Halo 3 taking $300m in its first week alone, and there are plenty of good reasons why!

Gameplay

Halo 3, like the other Halo games, is a first-person shooter which has the player fighting off a wide variety of alien enemies in order to on foot, and in vehicles. Halo 3 is a step up from Halo 2, in the sense that it is possible to dual-wield weapons and pick up usable items known as equipment. Set in the 26^th Century, the game is based on an interstellar war between humans (led by the United States) and a collection of alien forces known as the Covenant.

Single player follows a campaign style gameplay through 9 levels, thus completing the whole storyline set up by previous versions of the game.

Multiplayer mode is perhaps one of the best parts of Halo 3 as, after completing the game, it adds a whole new bit of fun to it and allows for the formation of clans, and playing with (or against) your friends. The campaign from single player can also be played in co-operative mode with 2 players on one Xbox, or 3 players via Xbox Live.

The Review

Compared to Halo 2, the developers seem to have got some bits straightened out in it; for example the narrative seems a lot more detailed and easy to see what’s happening and the ending isn’t such of a cliff hanger compared to previous versions! Halo 3 loses the secondary stories of Arbiter and the Elites, and focuses solely on Master Chief, for a much more intense and enjoyable game than previous releases.

Many gamers were worried that Halo 3 just wouldn’t live up to its immense reputation, but these anxieties were put to rest when a multitude of game review websites and magazines gave consistently high scores for the new game, and decided that the game included the ‘winning strategies’ that the other Halo games had included, just modernised it to keep up with growing competition from other developers.

Best Bits

• Truly immense storyline
• Online play is excellent fun; adds a new dimension to the game
• The map editor allows you to make maps do the most psychedelic of things!

The second part of the Call of Duty range is Call of Duty 2. Released in 2005, the game hasn’t aged much and is still great fun, and a great game to play!

Gameplay

Single player follows the same campaign-style setup as many games of its time, with the player being able to play as Private Vasili Ivanovich Koslov, Sergeant John Davis and Corporal Bill Taylor.

The three main campaign settings that the player takes on are set in North Africa, Battle of Normandy with the finale in the Crossing of the Rhine. The North Africa campaign sees you playing as the British soldier, Sergeant John Davis, fighting against the Germans taking on their HQ and strategic points they hold. The Battle of Normandy part of the campaign allows the player to take part in D-Day at the assault of Point-De-Hoc, and goes on to destroy strategic points in the German line-up. The final main campaign section, the Crossing of the Rhine (playing as an American), which is another round of anti-German fighting, it would seem, that ends with you having to defeat 2 German Tiger I’s.

Single player mode is relatively easy to complete in the easiest setting, but when you increase this you have to get a lot more tactical in order to win the game, or you just get blown away!

Multiplayer mode isn’t as great as the later versions of this game, mainly due to the capabilities not been in place when it was released. None the less, it does feature a useable online-multiplayer system for PC gaming and for Xbox 360 gaming. Here, players can choose to be American, British or Soviet soldiers to take on other players, on many different maps available from the campaign locations featured in single player mode.

Popularity

Call of Duty 2 has been met with good reviews from the gaming community, with the following excellent ratings:

• Metacritic gave the PC version 86/100 and the Xbox version 89/100
• IGN gave the Xbox version a highly respected 9/10
• A Gamespot reviewer gave it 8.8/10 (and 10/10 for sound!)

A rather amazing figure released by Douglass C. Perry stated that 77% of people that bought an Xbox 360, also bought Call of Duty 2!

Best Bits

• Very aggressive computer enemies.
• Really makes you feel like you are in there in the war.
• Multiplayer good fun.
• Varied campaign.

Call of Duty 3, released in 2006, was the third instalment in the Call of Duty line. Like Call of Duty 1 and 2, Call of Duty 3 is set in World War II, but has taken a big step up compared to its ancestors. It has been released for all third-generation consoles, including the Wii!

Gameplay

In single player mode, you play 14 missions, playing each section of the campaign from different viewpoints of the armies involved. Call of Duty 3 takes you from the American campaign, to the British campaign, to the Canadian campaign, before finally ending on the Polish campaign.

Multiplayer mode features a huge variety of features that can be adjusted by the game’s host. On Playstation and Xbox, Call of Duty 3 separates the matches between ‘player matches’ and ‘ranked matches’. Player matches allow the host to invite players into the game to play with them, whereas ranked matches are based on puts the individuals, or teams, up against other individuals or teams with the same ranking to ensure a fair game. Player matches don’t contribute to the ranking of the players, but ranked matches (obviously!) do.

In Call of Duty 3, there seems to be a much greater emphasis on multiplayer matches, with the players being able to choose between battles (the basic idea where the player with the most point wins), team battles (two teams play against each other and the one who annihilates the other team first wins), war (taking control of a flag before moving on to get the next one), capture the flag (2 varieties of) and headquarters (team must posses the radio to win).

Call of Duty 3 for Wii

Call of Duty 3 Wii release has sparked much debate within the gaming community about its right to be there. Games such as this haven’t had a history of making it to the Wii, but it does seem to be as close to being in the heat of the battle as we can get at the moment. The controls for it aren’t quite 100%, but they almost make you believe you’re there.

Also, Wii’s were never particulary built for graphics it seems, so the trade off between the game controls and graphics have had to be accepted, but it seems to do it just fine!

All in all, a very good game no matter what console you get it on.

Best Bits

Here are the most notable features of Call of Duty 3:

• Very fast, enjoyable action.
• Story very believable; sucks you in.