Michael_Z_Freeman
Michael joined
Been playin' since Doom, Quake and all the other FPS's. Got into development with the release of Unreal Tournament (~1999) when I made an unreleased "scanner" model complete with button animations which I imported into the engine. Battlefield 2 hit me really big in around 2007. That led me onto the Battlefieldsingleplayer.com community. Then I discovered GTA and the other sandbox games (more out of interest in the genre than being a huger player of anything other than Battlefield). Then I started going back to my roots. MAME and the classic arcade scene. That's where it originally started for me .. playing with my little brother on arcade games in seaside arcades in the 80's. Still much to learn there in terms of game play - instant fun ! Joystick and two keys to hit very hard. No confusing high concepts, just good 'ol simple fun. There's a lot of development these days that could do with that kind of "just give me the fun" treatment. I also like cheese.
Reviews (0 - 10 of 23)
After using this mod it brings to mind that cat meme image ... "Crytek. Why you do this?". I don't know why I never noticed the first time I played Crysis 2 (without these mods) how everything is blurred out, colours dumbed down and more. This is not an effect exclusive to Crysis 2 as I've noticed over the years many games where the shader effects and post-effects bring my system to a crawl all for the "prize" of having everything blurred out like some monster Gaussian blur. Games like The Division are mercifully free of such silly visual effects. But back to Crysis 2 Blackfire's mod and the HD textures mod. Now my game has sunlight in it. Life ! I'd recommend anyone put the effort in to try these mods. BTW if you can't find the HD textures mod it is available for download on Moddb. The only problem I've had so far (I played a couple of levels) is when turning on SMAA in the HD textures mod I got a DLL error. Apparently this is a common Sweetfx error but I could not find a fix. Apart from that these mods are outstanding, practically giving Crysis 2 a whole new lease of life.
Standard Crysis Warhead map. But standard in Warhead is BADASS ! It's more of that Crysis action you've always loved. So far I did not encounter any game breaking bugs. I played all of the first level. The level may be familiar , in ways I won't reveal here, to many veteran players ! Altogether just a really nice experience. No frills or "signature" moments where fleets of jets fly over head (at least not yet) but it doesn't need it. Just that classic Crysis action. You can't beat a classic !
FFS, at last ! This is basically the infamous Blitzkrieg Mod in COH2. In fact I think some BK veterans are involved in it. I've tried a few "tuning packs" (why don't Relic just call them "mods" ?) over the years but the doctrines were never right or just did not work. Here combat is devastating. Newbies should start it on normal difficulty and get used to the various upgrades and style of play. The mod has some interesting weapon descriptions. For example I never knew the STEN could use the same ammunition as the MP40. The language style is correct as well, heavily injecting the atmosphere with that 1940's spirit. WE FIGHT ON !
Good but frustrating mod (at time of review). I would have given this an 8 or 9 but it has major bugs that seem to have been a problem for a while and are not getting fixed ...
1. Regular crashes to do with "temp.rec" (recorded game).
2. A mysteriously self altering file that needs to be replaced every so often with Steam verify. Otherwise crash !
3. A mysterious exit to desktop which happens sometimes leaving the COH1 application backgrounded.
4. Single Player missions marred by crashes and missing textures.
There are maps that are stable and play very well but sifting the good one's out is a frustrating process.
Someone please fix this mod ! It's a very good mod !
Very interesting mod and a good companion to Blitzkreig. It's not a huge mod but what there is in it is very high quality. The map design is sublime with a lot of attention to detail and a good feeling of being in the olive groves of Crete. The doctrine trees are not that extensive but that makes sense in overall simpler but focused approach. Some of the doctrine upgrades could be improved. I found myself always using artillery doctrine when playing as British but maybe that was just my play style. So don your sun hat and prepare to fight in the intense heat of a remote island in the med !
From the team that bought us various Battlefield 2 mods over the years (Black Sand Studios) we get Modern Combat. I gave 8 because of lack of new voice acting but that's just complaining really as we get a lot more besides. Lot's of maps set in the present time. Well thought out Marines (I have not played the Chinese yet). Loud punchy sound. Actually the American voice acting from vanilla COH does not sound out of place here from some reason. I'm not sure if the Chinese have Chinese voices (don't think so) but voice acting is probably the most difficult thing to do for a mod I would guess. An interesting approach here is being able to have amphibious vehicles and beach assaults. The "sea" is really a shallow lake but it works very well. Best moment. The sound when I fired a TOW missle. AWESOME !
There have been many player made Crysis levels over the years. Many of them very good, but few have gone to the effort of doing full voice acting. I can only assume that the voice actors here have gone onto bigger things. Your character's voice is Hollywood grade voice acting. So this is definitely worth reinstalling Crysis for or picking it up on Steam.
With a big nod to the legend that is AIX2 which is also the mod its built upon, this mod adds a lot of new models and sound effects. Some of the fighting in it with 64 bots on a fast machine (yes, BF2 just loves a powerful CPU, especially the AI) is the most fierce I've seen in BF2. Even approaching Project Reality levels of ultra violence. Fight !
I was first attracted to this because I fell in love with the Forgotten Hope mod (Battlefield 2), especially their Africa maps, and wanted to play something similar in CoH. But player be warned ! 1. This is really a completely different game to CoH, and 2. Maybe the mod does not come with quite enough warnings about how unforgiving the game play can be (hence I gave it an 8, not 9). You need to learn how the mod works and I was desperately trying to remember things I've read in books like Chester Wilmot's "Tobruk" and other tactics like A/B/C lines of defence. This is probably a good sign, but to start with being overrun and annihilated by countless numbers of Rommel's tanks can be dispiriting to say the least. After a few more goes I managed to defend against tanks but lost on Victory Points.
There is only one Doctrine but the tree is interesting and adds something to the game play. The mod includes interesting vehicles and some impressive sound effects. Currently there is a lack of Africa maps but some can be obtained by downloading the Blitzkrieg map pack. This review also applies somewhat to vanilla Blitzkrieg but BK Africa will certainly appeal to fans of the North Africa WW2 campaign. Just remember that this is a totally unforgiving mod ! Actually on that point, a tip for beginner BK Africa players ... use high resources for your side when starting a Skirmish map with the AI. In fact the mods devs recommend medium to high resources which took me a while to spot.
