ghostrecon-tingey Reviews

The Book of Boba Fett: Chapter 1: Stranger in a Strange Land (2021) Season 1, Episode 1

Bad direction, not long enough, and not enough of what we wanted to see

[3/10 · 29 December 2021]

This episode was plagued by a lack of time in almost every area. In the few points with an abundance of time, the episode tended to drag.

Pros:

• good to see Boba Fett again
• kind of got to see him escape the Sarlaac
• Familiar sights

Cons:

• Boba Fett did not get to do much
• Boba escaping the Sarlaac got 63 seconds of screen time
• Nobody wants to see shirtless Gamorreans

What I think most people, if not everyone, wanted to see was how Boba Fett escaped the Sarlaac. There is part in a book or comic in legends of how he did it, where he tricked another captive (who had been there so long that he thought he was the Sarlaac) into getting the Sarlaac to ignite his jet pack. Here, Boba punches through an intestinal wall and the next thing we see is him punching his way out of the sand. And I guess the Sarlaac is dead because it doesn't move or try to attack Boba or the Jawas or the Tuskens that come find him, but we are not shown it dying or Boba killing it. His entire escape is not shown, as Robert Rodriguez seemed to think him punching his way out of the sand would be enough. More time was spent on showing Boba being led or dragged through the desert than escaping the Sarlaac. Because that's what people wanted to see.

The fight scenes were incredibly slow, Boba got knocked out 3 times throughout the episode (it may have been more, but I stopped counting after 3) and he also spent an incredible amount of screen time in a bacta tank.

Overall, yeah, it kind of showed us stuff we wanted to see, but it felt almost insulting. It was like they knew what we wanted to see and gave us barely enough to say "there, we did it", but they didn't want those things to get in the way of all of the walking and talking. But maybe it'll get better. Maybe they'll show more later. If so, I will absolutely change my rating accordingly. But as it stands now, 6/10.

The Mandalorian: Chapter 13: The Jedi (2020) Season 2, Episode 5

That was it?

[1/10 · 28 November 2020]

I may be one of the few who didn't enjoy this episode, but I will give you positives first. I liked seeing Ahsoka again. I liked that Dave Filoni got to direct this episode. I did not like how this episode, the one we were waiting to see since the summer, followed the same formula as the others, except it had Ahsoka so it was slightly better. Every episode has the Mandalorian meet someone who will help him if he completes a side quest for them. Then they can't really help him, so they send Mando to another planet. We were told by Bo Katan that the Mandalorian needed to bring the Child to Ahsoka. But she doesn't want to train him, which I guess it's ironic-now a member of Yoda's species is told that they can't be trained after Yoda said the same thing to and about Anakin and Luke. She agrees to, however, if Mando helps her (again, the formula). When he does, she tells him, sorry, not gonna help you. But, you guessed it, go to this next planet and maybe someone will help you. And the episode itself felt just very lackluster, compared to the buildup. It's a different actress for Ahsoka, so I'm still bothered by that, since Ashley Eckstein had the role for 12 years. We start with Ahsoka revealed within the first few minutes-face reveal and character reveal. She's on a planet fighting faceless bad guys and we don't know why she's there or what she's doing, and this is only kind of answered by the end. They don't give us much in the episode, but they think that through a couple name drops, that they can keep us watching for the next episode that will ultimately follow the same formula. This new Ahsoka did not help them except by telling them to go to a new planet and it gave us Baby Yoda's name. They gave us a "lightsaber" fight between the new Ahsoka and this other woman who was using a Beskar spear, which isn't technically a lightsaber fight. Really, that scene and when Mando met Ahsoka were the only things of note in this episode. Really nothing huge, they just baited the next episode and hoped that that would make this episode good

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009 Video Game)

Best Call of Duty game and one of the best games of all time

[10/10 · 16 June 2014]

I rarely give out 10 stars for anything. If I do, it means I really like it. Needless to say, I really like this game. When I first got it, I didn't really want to play it. I was not interested and wanted nothing to do with it. I was only playing it so that I could see what the big deal was about. Then I actually played it and discovered it to be one of the best games of all time. I realized why everyone liked this game so much.

Everything about this game is amazing, from the campaign to the multi player, to the special ops, to the soundtrack--everything about this game is done to perfection.

Campaign

There is not a single dull moment in the campaign, unlike Modern Warfare 3 or Ghosts. Some levels are more exciting than others, but that is not to say that some levels are unexciting. Each mission has a purpose that relates to the ultimate objective of finding Makarov and each moment of every mission is relevant. Each level is exciting in its own unique way, whether you're fighting the Taliban for control of a school in the deserts of Afghanistan, or locating a downed Russian satellite in a snowstorm in Russia, or clearing the Russians out of a neighborhood in Virginia, each mission gives the player a new experience unlike any they have had before.

Modern Warfare 1 set the foundation not just for Call of Duty, but for first person shooters. Infinity Ward took that success and the foundation set by MW1 and raised the bar for Call of Duty, shooters, and most other video games with Modern Warfare 2. This is the first time in a video game that I can think of where the continental United States was attacked like it was in this game. The Russians attack the United States because the main terrorist Makarov killed an undercover CIA agent at a massacre in Moscow, putting the blame on the Americans. As a result, restaurants are destroyed, neighborhoods are invaded, and worst of all Washington D.C. is attacked. The White House is under siege, the Washington Monument is being destroyed, and entire buildings are in ruins. There has never been a game to portray concepts and ideas like this.

All the while, recurring characters from MW1 like Captain Price and Captain Soap MacTavish are part of a Task Force sent to find Makarov. They find out where he's hiding and when they tell the head of the Task Force, General Shepherd, he takes the Intel and kills 2 of the members, sending Soap and Price on the run. Up until this point the entire game has been different and a step up from MW1 with new characters and new ideas. Instead of playing as Soap, you play as Roach who is under the command of Soap. Once Shepherd kills Roach, you take over the role of Soap who is under the command of Price. This is an homage to MW1 while still retaining the elements to MW2--Soap and Price working together again for 2 final missions. They take down an entire base of traitorous American soldiers and then go after Shepherd. Soap is stabbed, but pulls the knife out of his stomach and throws it at Shepherd, which kills him and leaves Soap critically injured. Nikolai picks up Soap and Price, stating that the Americans will be looking for them, which sets the stage for Modern Warfare 3. This game gave the players the Call of Duty they had been waiting for and the ending left them wanting more.

Multiplayer

The multiplayer for Modern Warfare 2 has shaped multiplayer for many games to come. This is the first time that I'm aware where you can create a class, which includes primary weapons, secondary weapons, 2 types of grenades, and perks. You personalize the class to your needs and you unlock more weapons and sights as you level up. The ability to customize not only your weapons, but your character with special perks was groundbreaking and is now being used in other Call of Duty games and in games like Halo. The only downside is when you're playing with friends who have unlocked everything and you're just starting, they slaughter you when you're trying to level up.

Special Ops

The special ops section is a new feature that creates co-op missions. Some of them are related to missions of the campaign but have the player doing different objectives, some are in the same locations as missions from MW1, and others are in completely different and never-before-seen locations. There are 23 missions, which gives the players a variety of missions to choose from. And since each mission is in a different location, and gives the player a different objective, and does so under varying circumstances (quiet stealth missions or all out fighting missions), it doesn't allow room for a dull moment.

This games is flawless. The campaign raised the bar and has yet to be exceeded, the multiplayer revolutionized multiplayers as we know them today, the special ops were amazing, the musical score was fantastic, and the characters were likable. Not just the best Call of Duty, but one of the best games of all time.

Call of Duty: Ghosts (2013 Video Game)

Not just worst Call of Duty--worst game I've ever played

[2/10 · 14 June 2014]

The only thing stopping me from giving this game a 1 out of 10 is that the space level was fun. Nothing else about this game was even remotely fun. Many people give Call of Duty a stereotype that they're all the same and it's just shooting people to kill time to make the levels long enough. That only holds true for this game. I love Call of Duty. The Modern Warfare games are some of my favorite games and I enjoyed Black Ops, but honestly, after Modern Warfare 3, I didn't expect much from the next games, but I always gave each new installment a chance. I did the same with this game, but instantly regretted it. This game was absolutely awful. The story was horrendous, forced, and poorly executed and the multi player was the worst I've ever seen in any game.

Campaign

The good thing about Infinity Ward games was that each one added something new, no matter how small. MW1 had went from WWII to modern day and we got to see what our military is going through in Afghanistan. It had new weapons like Javelins and Stingers, it had all out fighting missions and enough stealth missions to balance them, they had ghillie suits, a nuclear bomb, and nuclear missiles, which had never been done before.

MW2 took it one step further. It had all out fighting missions and some stealth missions, it had Javelins and Stingers but in different circumstances, it also added the Predator Drone and had the player fighting in the United States. You were fighting in neighborhoods in Virginia and in Washington DC. The sight of the Washington Monument, the White House, and Capitol Building under siege hit home for the players and made us identify with the Rangers. It also threw in that twist ending that set up MW3, had new weapons and sights, amped up the multi player, and added specials ops. MW2 built upon the foundation that MW1 set and raised the bar not just for Call of Duty, but for all first person shooter games.

MW3 didn't add very much, but it had you fighting all over Europe as well as America. You were in New York, India, Africa, Europe, Siberia, and Saudi Arabia. That's one of the elements that is needed to make games great: location. You're all over the map in the Modern Warfare trilogy and even in the Black Ops games. In Ghosts, you spend most of the time in California in the exact same place doing the exact same thing. Every level is either the same as the one before it or the same as a level from a different Call of Duty game, just worse. The introduction is ridiculous and unrealistic, the flash back is unnecessary and only there to make the game long enough, the cliffhanger ending is irritating and has been done before in so many other games that when you see it here, it's just annoying. And its an attempt by the game makers to have their audience keep buying their games, which they won't after this.

Multi player

Multi player was terrible. This is the first time that only two people can go on multi player. Not just for online play, but for local play. Only 2 people can play each other at once, for team death match, bots, and extinction. Some of the best parts of Call of Duty are the multi player where people can have fun by killing each other. What use is it when a group of friends get together and only two people can play at the same time? That's not fun.

I don't know why Infinity Ward took the Bots idea from Treyarch, but they did and they completely butchered it for Ghosts. The bots are ridiculously hard, even on Recruit difficulty. Recruit on this game is like veteran on Black Ops.

Extinction seemed like Infinity Ward was trying to combine survival with Gears of War aliens. You just go around and destroy alien hives with weapons that do nothing against nearly indestructible aliens. Why they sprung for this and Bots instead of spec ops and survival is beyond me.

It's like they didn't even try with this game, but recycled levels and ideas from past games and made them worse. Do not waste your money or time on this game. It is not worth it

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2011 Video Game)

Good game by itself; bad game coming after Modern Warfare 2

[7/10 · 14 June 2014]

This review will mostly focus on the campaign. For me, the story is the most important aspect of anything. By itself, MW3 was a pretty good game. It had some fun levels, good multi player, and decent special ops. I will say that I thoroughly enjoyed survival and the 2 New York levels, but that's about it. Here's why:

Campaign

When MW2 ended, there were 5 loose ends that needed to be tied up: 1) Soap was injured; 2) he, Price, and Nikolai were on the run from the Russians and from the Americans because they had just killed a high- ranking (albeit traitorous) American General and wiped out an entire American base; 3) General Shepherd's Shadow Company was still out and fighting; 4) the war was still going on; and 5) Makarov was still out there.

Of those loose ends, only 3 were wrapped up: Makarov was killed in an epic duel between him and Price, the war ended when President Vorshevsky met with the US President for peace talks, and Soap apparently recovered from his wounds, which ended up being redundant when he was killed off later. This game made 2 mentions--mentions! not plot lines--of how Price and Soap were on the run: Captain Macmillan said he was "on everyone's s*** list" and Sandman said "Uncle Sam's got a kill/capture order on your head." Those are the only mentions of Price, Soap, and Nikolai being on the run. And at the very end, Price works with the Americans, no questions asked.

They also add a Russian named Yuri to the disavowed Task Force who apparently hates Makarov as much as Price. There is no real need for this character other than to say that Makarov was in Pripyat in 1996 with Zakaev and that he detonated the nuke in 2011. If Infinity Ward wanted to tie the three games together, they didn't need Yuri. They could have had Makarov explain in all when talks to Price. The fact that Yuri was there meant the player would not be able to play as Soap. My favorite missions in MW2 were when you got to play as Soap after not being able to play as him for most of the game. It really was just like old times like Price said, for him and Soap and for the player, who would not have had that experience since MW1. Playing as Soap in this game would keep that going. There was no need to bring in Yuri and they just killed him off at the end anyway.

Aside from that, some of the missions, like the New York missions were pretty fun. I also liked where Price and Yuri infiltrated Makarov's stronghold and the last level where Price killed Makarov (that level was awesome because that was the first time the player got to be a Juggernaut, but the armor got destroyed halfway through and proved to be way more vulnerable than the enemy Juggernauts in Special Ops). The European missions were pretty fun, but not as well done as they could have been. The first mission in Germany had no real objective--you were just killing people to kill time until the level was long made enough. The England mission was not very good because instead of allowing you to see the sights of England like Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, or the London Eye, the game took you through the back alleys and subways of England, ending near Big Ben when a random and unnecessary nerve gas was introduced (and never resolved. You see the nerve gas hitting England and France, but it's never explained if it is contained).

Special Ops

The survival mode was awesome. It was like Nazi zombies but with actual militants, choppers, and Juggernauts. You could get to level 20 before the forces started to get overwhelming instead of wave 7 like zombies. It forces you to use strategy and apply defense mechanisms with explosives, turrets, and air strikes. No complaints there.

The actual special ops missions left a lot to be desired. They were basically the missions of the campaign just backwards and some were even repeated. There were also a lot less missions than in MW2, so they were sort of fun at first, but then got boring because of the lack of variety. And every 5 seconds Overlord would repeat his orders and say them in as many words as possible.

A word on the game as a whole, the developers tried to make the game more like MW1. MW2 was good for many reasons but mainly because the developers recognized how good MW1 was and they built on top of it. MW3 tried to be like its predecessors instead of doing something new. MW1 was groundbreaking because it was one of the first games that showed what the titled implied: modern warfare. It had updated weapons, sights, graphics, an AC-130, Stingers, Javelins, and it had a nuclear bomb and two nuclear missiles that the player had to race against the clock to stop. MW2 took it one step further with more guns, a better story, funner levels, awesome special ops missions, great characters, a nuke going off in the atmosphere, Predator missiles, the Stingers and Javelins in different settings, and a huge plot twist. MW3 had nothing new to offer. It had the Predator for 2 levels for about a minute, it had an AC-130, and just a lot of the same things. Nothing new to offer.

All in all, a good game by itself, but not so good when it's coming after MW2