Wed, 31 Mar, 10
Author:
Matt Gardner

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Games deals

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Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 £7.99 @ Play [Xbox 360 Games]

Tom Clancys Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 £7.99 @ Play [Xbox 360 Games]

Terrorists have taken over Las Vegas and Logan Keller is back to stop them…again….sort of, in this part-prequel, part-sequel to Ubisoft’s original. Yep, we’re back in Vegas, baby, and Tom Clancy’s excellent two-part series strikes gold again with its second instalment, building upon everything that made the first game such a mesmerising little shooter and topping it. Big time.

You can pick up a copy of Vegas 2 from Play at the moment for just £7.99, which will save you a couple of quid on nearest competitor Asda.

Playing the part of the high ranking Bishop this time around, Vegas 2 plays out around the story of the first game, featuring both prequel and sequel chapters that flesh out the story around Logan and his team and picking up where the original game left off, providing welcome closure following the cheeky cliffhanger of the first game. I won’t lie, you’ll get much more out of the story if you’ve played the first one; newbies are welcome, but to make the most of it you should probably try and play the previous title first.

The Vegas games share a fair bit in common with the Modern Warfare series, although it’s worth pointing out that you really need to be aware of your surroundings in Tom Clancy’s games. On the harder difficulty settings one false move really does mean ‘Game Over’ and you will probably die in Vegas 2 a lot as there’s simply no way you’re going to be able to charge in, guns blazing and screaming ‘Shake it, baby!’

There’ve been some changes: you can now run, which might seem a little odd for a Rainbow Six game but, trust me, you’ll need it to sprint from cover point to cover point, thankfully the frankly peerless cover system has returned, and there’s an all new experience system that gets carried across all of the game modes including single-player. The rewards aren’t quite as nifty as those in Infinity Ward’s shooter, but the cross-mode XP system is a wonderful idea. The multiplayer and co-op gameplay is exceptionally good with 10 new close-quarters maps, two new adversarial modes and slightly improved matchmaking.

Mind you, most of these points can also be said about the first game and, to be honest, Vegas 2 isn’t quite the leap forward fans might have been expecting. It feels like more of an expansion pack than a fully-fledged sequel but, that said, it’s still a damn fine game and a worthy addition to any FPS fan’s library.

Thanks to goonertillidie at HUKD

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Wed, 3 Mar, 10
Author:
Matt Gardner

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Games deals

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Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. £8.94 @ The Hut [PS3 Games]

Tom Clancys H.A.W.X. £8.94 @ The Hut [PS3 Games]

More goodness from The Hut. Today, using the voucher code PLAY10, you’ll be able to snaffle an extra 10% off of any Playstation daily deals you can find over at the big blue vendor. We already brought a few this morning, but we’ll be highlighting a couple more throughout the day, kicking off with combat flight-sim H.A.W.X.

If you fancy taking to the skies for some slick dogfighting action then head on over to The Hut where they have the PS3 version listed for £9.93, already nearly a good £5 cheaper than the nearest competitor (Amazon Jersey – £14.73). But with the added voucher code, you’re looking at a saving closer to £6, and nabbing one of the most fun games of last year for under a tenner.

Dubious acronyms aside (the title stands for High Altitude Warfare eXperimental squadron), this is a pretty good combat flight-sim. It looks good, plays great, and brings interactive Top Gun that little bit closer to reality, which is all we really want from a game like this really.

There’s a plot involving evil PMCs and a bunch of Communists, and there are some nifty touches with the ERS (Enhanced Reality System), which is basically just a ring flying mini-game to get you perfectly lined up for a shot, and the Assistance OFF mode, which sees the camera pan out for some death-defying manoeuvres.Tom Clancys H.A.W.X. £8.94 @ The Hut [PS3 Games]

I would say that you should go out and buy Ace Combat VI instead, but unfortunately that’s not an option for PS3 owners. However, H.A.W.X. certainly provides enough aerial entertainment for any fans of the genre. It’s particularly good for quick stints, and it’s arcade style takes some beating. Clancy fans should be wary, though, as it doesn’t quite manage to stack up against the high standards of previous series, but then this is a first instalment. Well worth a punt for this price.

UPDATE: Too late – you were too slow and missed this hot deal! Why not subscribe to our email updates or RSS feeds to make sure that doesn’t happen again?

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Mon, 22 Feb, 10
Author:
Lydia Low

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Games deals

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Tom Clancy’s Endwar £2.99 @ Play [PC Games]

Tom Clancys Endwar £2.99 @ Play [PC Games]

The PC incarnation of Endwar garnered a fairly mediocre reception and is probably not the best choice for a season real time strategy fan. However if you just fancy a dabble in the genre or you don’t mind taking a punt or bargain games, it may be worth a look. Play are currently selling the game for £2.99, just half what the next best competitor is asking (£5.99 from Gamestation). At the price of a sandwich it’s not a huge risk to take.

The game takes place in a future where the world is home to three superpowers: America, Russia and a unified Europe (I wonder what China is up to…) which make up Endwar’s three playable factions. The World War III storyline is interesting but sadly is little more than a backdrop with small influence on the actual gameplay.

Endwar is something of a curiosity: a strategy game that is better on consoles than PC?! However it’s no surprise when you consider that the game was designed for consoles before later being shunted onto Windows as an afterthought. On consoles the voice control felt truly innovative and was so well implemented that many players found that they didn’t even miss their mouse. On the PC however, the control system feels somewhat redundant and the game as a whole, a tad tame. There’s an ocean of RTS games, all jostling for attention in the world of PC games and sadly Endwar is a bit of a weak wet fish.

Thanks to darkone777 at Hotukdeals!

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Wed, 6 Jan, 10
Author:
Matt Gardner

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Games deals

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Tom Clancy’s EndWar £4.99 @ Play.com [Xbox 360 Games]

Tom Clancys EndWar £4.99 @ Play.com [Xbox 360 Games]

Tom Clancy must be rolling in money. I bet he has a fountain in the middle of his platinum swimming pool made out of jelly babies that spurts Dom Perignon. If he does own a mansion made from Rolex wristwatches, then it partly thanks to games like this: serious-minded combat sims that nearly always have a certain degree of accomplished design to them, and this RTS is no different. EndWar is described by Ubisoft as a ‘real-time tactics’ game, and it comes with a twist: you can order your troops around with just your voice.

If you like the idea of ushering around platoons of battle hardened soldiers by twanging your vocal cords around then you’ll be pleased to know that it’ll cost you less than a fiver, if you own an Xbox 360 that is. Play.com is currently offering this version of the game for just £4.99, saving you almost £5 on the nearest competitor (ShopTo – £9.85). Hit the link below for more:

Taking place in the same classic Clancy universe as Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six, EndWar is essentially all about the war to end all wars: World War III. You have the option of taking control of the military might of one of three different factions – Europe, the US or Russia – and steering them towards victory. You get reports of other nations engaged in the global conflict and even the Pope makes an appearance, just to give off the impression that this is no isolated struggle.

Much like every other RTS on the plant, you get to control a number of different types of military units:, specifically riflemen, engineers, tanks, transports, gunships, artillery, and command vehicles. Moreover, each unit will increase in efficacy as they fight, meaning that should your men survive, they will be much more efficient the more battles you stick them in.

Of course, RTS games just don’t work on consoles, that’s always been the case right? Wrong. EndWar changed my mind on this one. For the first time ever I found myself not really missing the mouse, and all because of the game’s voice functionality. It’s wonderful to see a great idea that actually works like it’s supposed to, and I had great fun bellowing orders into my headset. The voice recognition is superbly implemented, but also supported by a context sensitive controller layout that is highly accessible and provides an excellent game interface when used in conjunction with barking commands.

EndWar has its flaws, most of them coming from the fact that were it not for the voice command option the game would be pretty damn unassuming. But the fact that you can sit there in your recliner screaming attack orders into your headset (just like I imagine they totally do in real life) makes this game most certainly worth a punt. Sure, it’s fairly derivative, and the skirmishes are pretty basic and simple affairs, but it’s an RTS that works…no, wait…works well on a console. Now that’s something so rare that it’s got to be worth a fiver!

Thanks to Rhys135 at HotUKDeals

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Mon, 21 Dec, 09
Author:
Matt Gardner

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Games deals

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Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. £9.99 @ Play [Xbox 360 Games]

Tom Clancys H.A.W.X. £9.99 @ Play [Xbox 360 Games]

Ever dreamt of recreating Top Gun on your TV with you at the sticks? Well now you can with Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X., a dog-fighting sim in much the same vein as the popular Ace Combat series, although with Clancy’s name plastered over everything and US jingoism seeping from every pore. Set in the same mirror universe as Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter series, it takes everything you know and love about Clancy games and adds a pair of wings and a shed-load of missiles.

If your fancy grabbing yourself a copy and scorching through the skies over Rio de Janeiro or taking down terrorists over Washington DC you can pick one up from Play.com for the bargain price of £9.99, which will save you a tasty £4 on the nearest in-stock competitor (Coolshop – £14.00).

H.A.W.X. stands for High Altitude Warfare eXperimental squadron, although the title of the game is somewhat of a misnomer as the squad gets disbanded at the start of the game and the protagonist – one David Crenshaw – signs up along with a bunch of his mates for a shifty Private Military Corps. The first part of the game sees you taking on a bunch of missions as an airborne mercenary before a classic patriotism vs. profit intervention turns everything on its head.

The combat is pretty fun, and there are some nice additions to your average combat flight sim: the ERS (or Enhanced Reality System), for example, is essentially a jumped up targeting computer that, when you’re chasing a particularly fiendish pilot or striving to escape a missile, will illuminate a bunch of hoops for you to fly through to best fulfil your objective. Additionally, by turning the flight assistance OFF (the mode is capitalised), the camera zooms out into a third-person action perspective and you can pull off all manner of high-G turns and death defying loops and rolls.

Unfortunately, I just found myself really bored by this game. The story isn’t as good as that in Ace Combat 6 and, for a game that came out a good year or two later, the graphics are pretty average. It could simply be that as I’ve played Ace Combat to death I’m just too maxed out on combat flight sims, but H.A.W.X. doesn’t really do enough to grab my attention. That said, it’s very good for a quick pick-up-and-play, and the arcade style of combat, along with all of its bells and whistles, is fun in small doses. For a tenner it might be worth a look if you’re a fan of the genre, but Clancy fans be warned: this doesn’t really stand up to the series standards set by GRAW and EndWar.

Thanks to whizzkid from HotUKDeals

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