One of my absolute favorite titles ever is Call of Duty - World at War.  I got this for Christmas from my sister, and after I got my butt kicked through it twice, I discovered online play.  I love online play - and this game is exciting.

I just read an article saying that Call of Duty - World at War just sold over a million copies, which isn’t completely verified yet, but WOW.  That franchise is quite possibly one of the best ones out there in the war-shooting-battle category.  What you got for us next, boys?

Thanks, GoNintendo!

As Gametrailers said, “This is turning out to be one hell of a day.”  I cannot wait to play this.  We’re still TBA on the North American release date.  As soon as I know, you’ll know.

Wikipedia’s entry on Disaster:  Day of Crisis is actually pretty good.  Check it out.

We’re putting together a huge list of all of the releases that are up and coming, and one that really caught my eye was a game called Disaster: Day of Crisis by Monolith Software.  On first look, for some reason I assumed it would be some great crisis management game or something like Trauma Center: New Blood. It’s not really anything like that at all - it’s a first person shooter with a pretty interesting story line.

From IGN’s review of the title:

Survive nature’s most devastating catastrophes in Disaster: Day of Crisis, a panic-inducing survival game for Wii. When a wave of natural disasters pummels the United States, a rogue special forces unit takes advantage of the chaos and seizes a nuclear weapon. Players race a car down a mountain to escape a roaring pyroclastic flow, dodge toppling buildings during a devastating earthquake and swim for their lives in a raging flood. No matter what happens, fight to survive.

Nintendic, in their always-great-articles fashion, also posted some info on the game:

As we’ve previously discussed, Disaster: Day of Crisis’ protagonist is Raymond Bryce, a retired US marine who is called back into action to deal with SURGE, an ex-military terrorist with plans to seize a big-ass wad of nuclear weapons. And things get personal when he realises that said group have also kidnapped Lisa, the sister of a best friend lost in combat during his time in the marines.

Not only will Ray have to deal with the threat of SURGE, but also of a variety of life-threatening natural disasters (earthquakes, tsunami, volcanic eruptions, floods) - and all in 24 hours across D: DoC’s 23 different stages. Much of the time you’ll be rescuing hapless citizens in order to build up Ray’s survival expertise, which gives him the strength to take on the game’s toughest of areas, but developer Monolith Soft also promises on-rails driving and shooting, as well as intense quick time events that make plentiful use of the Wii Remote and Nunchuck’s motion-sensitive controls.

Looks pretty interesting to us!  Unfortunately it’s going to be a little while before we see it - US release isn’t until December 31, 2009.  However, make sure to check out the screenshots, as it looks like a thriller.

The good folks over at Nintendic posted an article a few days ago about Call of Duty 5, and the support of the Wii Zapper! The developers at Treyarch are using the Call of Duty 4 engine, and it sounds like they’re going to make this Wii release rock.

From the Nintendic article:

Call of Duty 5 on the Nintendo Wii, reports GamesTM, will see the first-person shooter returning to the era of World War II, specifically in the Pacific theatre, the location where America entered the war to battle against the Japanese. The opening scene sees a Japanese commander stubbing his cigarette out into the eye of a prisoner. Your fate is to be similar, but for the arrival of help just in the nick of time - the catalyst for a daring escape in the opening portion of the adventure.

Treyarch goes on to explain how Call of Duty 5 Wii will stand up better next to games on the PS3 and Xbox 360 like no other game on the console before it, and that it was all down to the work of “frickin’ smart” engineers.

Also commented on was the use of the Zapper, and how it has some limited functionality:

“…We’re going to be supporting the Zapper and, I don’t know how familiar you are with the Zapper personally, but you lose about five or six buttons on that controller, so it’s very challenging to make a Call of Duty game that functions well. We’ll be doing some unique stuff with co-op gameplay, too, but we’re not ready to talk on that yet. I honestly think you’ll see what we’re taking the Wii very seriously.”

We take the Wii very seriously as well here at WeKnowWii.com, and we can’t wait to see what these “fricking smart’ engineers have developed!

After playing Medal of Honor: Vanguard, this looks like an exciting FPS!

The folks over at Gamasutra have posted a great article about the upcoming game, The Conduit, which will be a first-person-shooter released in Q1 of 2009.  High Voltage, the developer for this game, is using its’ proprietary
Quantum 3 gaming engine to bring some serious gaming and “squarely establish the Wii as a true next-generation gaming platform.”  Well, we’re definitely looking forward to that!

From the article at Gamasutra:

High Voltage says players will take the role of Secret Service Agent Ford, mastering an extensive weapon set and the “All Seeing Eye” device to “defeat enemies, solve puzzles, and unravel the game’s mysteries,” with each action designed to take full advantage of the Wii’s unique controls.

Eric Nofsinger, High Voltage’s Chief Creative Officer said something that we were finally very glad to hear someone say, despite all of the press about Wii being a ‘casual gamer’s game’ and we thank him for it.  Eric said that “too many Wii owners have been told that the Wii is a casual platform with no room for serious games or top-tier graphics. With The Conduit, we intend to prove that theory wrong by providing gamers with the kind of title they imagined back when the platform was first announced.”

Thanks for that, Eric.  We cannot freaking WAIT to play this game!

Lately I’ve been playing the heck out of Medal of Honor: Vanguard by EA Games. MOH-V is the tenth installment in EA’s series of World War II first person shooter games, and I’ve been enjoying it immensely. You play Corporal Frank Keegan of the 82nd Airborne in MOH-V, and the game is a mix of emotion and skill as you cut around corners, firing brief half-second bursts as you pop your head above the walls long enough as to not get hit by snipers.

First things first, the bad stuff (in this editor’s humble opinion, of course…)
MOH-V has at times some pretty muttled graphics - I found this specifically on some of the long distance views, and in a lot of high contrast light situations. I need to qualify that statement with the fact that this happens on just a few occasions. Overall, the graphics are fine - and where I have complaints about a few scenes, I also have major praises for many of them. One sparkling example of this is in the last mission, with a sniper rifle weapon upgrade; when you place the rifle’s scope to your eye, the view is absolutely stunning and beautiful - as beautiful as a war-torn landscape could be, I suppose, but still crisp, clear, and full of graphic detail of the surroundings.

The other negative thing I have to report, again in my humble opinion, is the length of the game. It’s too short! For the amount of time that I blew through the game, I was ready to get in the car and go purchase the previous installments!

(the Damage Indicator shows you from which direction you were hit, and displays red)

Missions:
For Medal of Honor: Vanguard, you navigate through several missions that take you from beaches to warehouses, to trenches and row house fighting, nearly hand-to-hand at times (and that’s if you DON’T get a punch or rifle stock jab in - there are lots of opportunities). The Italian and German soldiers are tough in all levels of difficulty, and the game is exciting.

The missions are:
Operation Husky, the attack on Sicily
Operation Neptune, the attack on Normandy
Operation Market Garden, fighting in Holland behind enemy lines
Operation Varsity, which was the largest and most successful campaign in history

Multiplayer
There is a multiplayer component to this game as well - play through several types of games, including

• Deathmatch
• Team Deathmatch
• Capture the Flag
• King of the Hill
• Scavenger Hunt

(the X means that is an Allied soldier! Don’t shoot!)

Weapons
Medal of Honor: Vanguard has a large selection of weapons to master. The German MP40 submachine gun and Thompson submachine guns; single shot K98, Enfield, and M1 Garand rifles; the STG 44 and BAR (Browning Automatic Rifle); stick and pineapple Frag Grenades; the Colt 45 pistol, and the very excellent and powerful M9 bazooka. You can also man an MG 42 machine gun nest, which is awesome in firepower, but very difficult to aim. Think quantity and not quality with these.

Movement
Moving around with the wiimote and nunchuck is actually quite intuitive, despite the reviews that other sites have given this trait. Your weapon is trained (pointed) with the wiimote, and the joystick on the nunchuck moves you around. Top button on the wiimote makes you stand up and jump, and the bottom button has two levels of lower maneuvring - squatting and crawling. One of the best features of MOH-V is the ability to crawl around a wall, sneak your head out, and fire. Pressing A on the wiimote makes your character stop moving and use the iron sights on weapons. This is how the accuracy component comes into play.

Medal of Honor: Vanguard is well worth picking up. It has very exciting and grabbing action - you’ll be breathing quietly in your own living room trying not to let the enemy know you’re waiting outside the door.

Check out Medal of Honor: Vanguard at Amazon.

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