Life and Leisure. Tech and Toys.

I got a chance to check out two demos last night. Battlefield: Bad Company and Civilization Revolution.

Battlefield: Bad Company - This highly anticipated game stunned me with it’s beautiful graphics and a single player mode that is usually overlooked in past renditions of the Battlefield series. The destructive environment and vehicles is refreshing since you can’t do any of that in Call of Duty 4. I did however have issues with the controls. I really think the guys at Infinite Ward knew what they were doing when they designed the COD4 control scheme. In comparison the Bad Company controls seem a little awkward. What hallucinogen would convince you to put the accelerate button on the left-trigger, and the brake on the left-bumper? The AI was a little irritating as well, I felt like they would always see me before I saw them. Maybe they have better vision than I do. I think it’s partly due to the fact that the blades of grass are blocking my view but they see right through it. Overall, I’m pretty excited to rent this game when it comes out.

Civilization Revolution - If you’ve played a Civilization game before then most of this isn’t new to you. I however haven’t played anything from this series for a long time, back when I was an avid PC gamer. What was funny about this game was when I started playing the game my girlfriend got really into it. The controller eventually ended up in her hands, giving her full control of my Egyptian city. So from an observation stand point the graphics were cool and the controls and tech ladder weren’t too complicated for a casual gamer. However, when it came to battling she couldn’t successfully take down Athens which was heavily defended. This is a decent demo because of it’s length. You can play for a good hour even though its just a demo. I am also looking forward to getting more playing time for this game as well.

So overall this week had some pretty strong demos including Roogoo the new Xbox Live Arcade puzzle game.