Flak Tower bonus level reveled for Nintendo Wii
Sniper Elite video game

As part of the build up to the launch of Sniper EliteTM on Nintendo Wii in Q2 this year, exclusive...

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Strictly come sniping in Sniper: Ghost Warrior

When it comes to multiplayer shooters, there is always that one guy. You know the type, he's been playing the game for a criminally long time, and all he does is camp out in some spot and snipe people from across the map. Sneaky jerks.

I'll admit it, however, sniping is one of the most satisfying ways to make a kill in videogames. It is that all powerful feeling knowing you are the god that rules over the battlefield, parsing out judgment to those who dare waddle before you, albeit halfway across the map. Until someone stabs you in the back, it is one of gaming's most glorious feelings.

What I'm getting at is that sniping can literally be the best part of a FPS. Considering this, there really hasn't been a game that makes sniping the primary focus. Beside the Silent Scope series, to be a sniper is usually just relegated to one of many class or weapon choices. This is where Sniper: Ghost Warrior comes in. Blending elements from many different shooters and stealth games, Sniper: Ghost Warrior ties everything together through the theme of shooting people from a distance.

Follow the jump to look down the scope of my hands-off impressions of Sniper: Ghost Warrior.

Sniper: Ghost Warrior (PC, Xbox 360)
Developer: City Interactive
Publisher: City Interactive
To be released: TBA

The impression I first had about Sniper: Ghost Warrior was that this was going to basically be the Polish-developed version of Silent Scope. I'm entirely wrong, as Sniper: Ghost Warrior is a mostly traditional FPS  heavily focused on sniping elements, so anyone who has the most basic of FPS sniping skills would feel right at home here.

Breaking it down, being a sniper in Sniper: Ghost Warrior is a whole lot more than just plunking yourself down in a guarded spot and making kills. The game sets you up in fairly open levels, and you'll be tasked to dealing with the enemies in a very stealthy manner. For example, the level that I was shown, a night time recon mission in a jungle, it was important that the player stays in the shadows and makes their shots count in a thoughtful and planned way. If an enemy sees their comrade go down, they are going to find you very quickly, so it's important that groupings of soldiers disperse a little bit before making shots. There is no auto-regen, so if you want health, you'll have to book up into the hills to find health kits, and plenty more enemies may be waiting for you.

When the scope is lined up onto an enemy's scalp, there are many things to take into account. For example, every bullet has gravity, so the farther you shoot, the farther it is going to  fall. The player character breathes, so the cross-hairs will move up and down with each breath, and the heart rate will change how easy it is to aim. Wind, too, will make a major impact on where the bullet ends up. Easy mode makes this a lot easier, as a second reticule will wobble around below where you are aiming, showing the true stopping point of the bullet. There is also a focus mode for players to fall back upon, so enemies slow down and the aiming is that much easier.

Oddly, it was the fact that enemies can actually see you and respond realistically that was the most impressive element to Sniper: Ghost Warrior. Playing a stealth game and knowing all that stands between you and death is an enemy vision cone that in no way represents real human sight. The great thing about Sniper: Ghost Warrior is that the “vision cone” of the game is insanely huge, so even though you might be hundreds of feet away from an enemy, they are more than capable of seeing you through a crack in a fence, or from across a canyon. It's a weird little element of the game that I found to be very impressive, something that was oddly and easily realistic.

Couple the enemies with the stealth system, and the game begins to feel more like Metal Gear Solid than a traditional FPS. There are three terrain types, and each one has different benefits and ways to cross. Open Field, Tall Grass and Trees/Bushes all offer their own amount of coverage. Sometimes you'll be crawling through streams and under buildings, so staying out of sight is the best course of action.

Oddly, City Interactive has made the decision to break up the sniping elements with a much more standard shooting “Assault Mode” every few levels. These usually entail rushing into an enemy base or stronghold and blasting away everything that moves. It looks just like every pretty much every other FPS I've seen and played, and I'd be worried that they could be tacked on. With about 70 percent sniping and 30 percent assault, I'm concerned that these Assault missions might just get in the way of what players really want to do. Hopefully I'm wrong, and they stand up to the rest of the game.

The plot, for there is one, is pretty standard stuff. There is a regime change in some island nation in South America, and you are some American hero saving the day. Standard, but at least the game looks  good. I was shown Sniper: Ghost Warrior on a laptop running Core i7, and while it was chugging a little bit, I was promised that on a game focused rig it would run just fine, as will the 360 version. Graphically, the game is built with the Chrome Engine, the same one that designed Call of Juarez, and while it is no Crysis, I have to say the game looks pretty damn luscious.

Multiplayer I was not shown, but City Interactive will be making announcements on that soon. With both sniping and assault missions, I suspect the multiplayer will build off of these for less standard modes than death match. Expect more objective-based and

Finally for the good and the bad news. The bad news is, well, Sniper: Ghost Warrior is a short game. If you really know what you are doing, missions can take between 15 and 20 minutes, with the whole game lasting only 8-10 hours. Before the confirmed DLC, that's only 16 missions. While this is a drag, that only takes single player into account, and dulling the pain a bit is a more budget price of $39.99.

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Science!: Sperm Battles And Bad Fathers

Science makes water flow uphill.

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Review: Diner Dash 5:BOOM!

Diner Dash 5:Boom! explodes with new content, but it's still the same Dash series you know and love.

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Capcom Officially Reveals Enker, Punk, And
Ballade For Mega Man 10

As the risk of turning into an all-Mega Man blog, I feel the need to revisit the recent revelation that Mega Man 10's secret Robot Masters are the Mega Man Killer bosses from the Game Boy Mega Man titles as Capcom has officially announced their upcoming presence in the game. It's nice to see them finally depicted as full-color sprites after all these years. Special Stage 1 will be available the week of April 5th. For Special Stage 1, we...

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eveals-enker-punk-and-ballade-for-mega-man-10.html

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Just Cause 2 video game released this week - free
roaming action game arrives March 23rd in North America and March 26th in Europe

Just Cause 2 will ship to retail this week across North America, Europe, Middle East and...

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Rosy Retrospective: Duke Nukem 3D

Duke Nukem 3D earned a special home in many PC gamers? hearts with unique real-life settings, quirky humor, and oh my god you can hit the pool balls and they actually move that?s the coolest thing ever.  At first glance, so much about the Duke Nukem 3D experience should have aged horribly.  The BUILD engine [...]No related posts.Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

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Command & Conquer's Kane Didn't Anticipate
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SimCity Deluxe Preview

Fans of SimCity will be delighted to know that the mother of all city simulations will be returning to iPhones this summer with the upcoming release of SimCity Deluxe.

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More of those helpful WarioWare D.I.Y. tutorial
videos

With less than a week left until WarioWare D.I.Y. hits retail, my curiosity for the game has grown tremendously each passing day. More than the main game itself, I'm curious to see if I have what it takes to make a halfway decent microgame. Probably not.

These tutorial videos from Nintendo are certainly helping, though. Last week, things started off relatively easy. This week, however, Nintendo has delved into what they call intermediate territory -- this is where my mind starts turning into purple slush.

In the tutorial above, we get a quick look at music creation in WarioWare D.I.Y. and how the tools can kind of do their own thing with limited input from the player; after the break, there's a lesson in creating AI. As a die-hard fan of Mario Paint, it delights me to see so much repurposed art here.

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