Best Shooter Nominees - Golden Joystick Awards 2011 – Call of Duty: Black Ops, Homefront - Part 1
To say that the shooter genre is the spine of the video game industry would not be too far from the truth. One could raise the argument that other genres are just as important, though seeing how the fastest selling game of all time was Call of Duty: Black
Ops, we will just have to ignore them till their time comes.
The nominees for the best shooter are:
Call of Duty: Black Ops
Good enough to earn a nickname BlOps, Activision’s first person shooter earned rave reviews from critics, scoring an average of 90% when it came to the scores. It earned over $600-million after just five days following its release.
However, the game was criticised by gamers, especially on the PlayStation 3 console. PS3 users complained that they had been given an inferior version of the game.
Yet, the astronomical figures which the game boasts, both in terms of players who play on a daily basis as well as the amount of matches played, mean that the game is surely one of the favourites.
Fans of the Call of Duty series are surely going to make this their top pick to go on and win the award and with no interference from critics, it seems that BlOps is already a firm favourite.
Our verdict: Seeing how BlOps is a multiplatform title, one can expect it to earn plenty of votes. A strong favourite to be voted the Best Shooter of 2011.
Homefront
Alternate timelines can be liberating, yet extremely tricky at the same time. Developed by Kaos Studios and published by THQ, Homefront earned itself a reputation for being a very raw war experience.
Civilians were shot in front of their children, prisoners were brutally executed and a whole host of other equally chilling acts were shown for the gamer to see.
The game is set in an alternate timeline where North Korea invades the United States of America and it is up to the player, who is an Air Force pilot, to save the day as he teams up with the resistance.
While the game looked slightly rough around the edges visually, with graphics which looked slightly outdated, the gameplay was solid. The weapons felt real and had weight about them and the drama created in the game was immersive.
The multiplayer was solid in its own right as well. It did things differently and tried to combine the vehicular combat of Battlefield and the Killstreaks reward system of the Call of Duty games, with its own original take on both.
When it comes to actually earning votes from fans, it may not score that high, as only a core band of players actually still play the game or attach themselves to the title enough for it to win.
Our verdict: Although it is another solid shooter which has the advantage of being a multiplatform title, there is little hope for Homefront to walk away with the title. Though credit must be given to the drama-filled title which dared to be different and
actually take risks in a slowly stagnating genre.
Readers can continue reading about the nominees for the Best Shooter category in the next article:
Best Shooter Nominees - Golden Joystick Awards 2011 – Brink, Bulletstorm– Part 2
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the editorial policy of Bettor.com
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