The first thing you will notice is that you don’t know what the hell is going on. Codemasters have tried to create a game that homages retro arcade shooters such as Time Crisis. In games like these, the story is not a big component and so I would have forgiven Bodycount for having a simple or even dull narrative. However, Bodycount’s story is so bare that I still don’t know who my enemy is, who ‘The Network’ are and most astoundingly, what my character is called or even looks like. I genuinely believed I was fighting aliens until one of them became the main antagonist and sprouted an English accent. The story is so thin that it becomes a hindrance, with radio chatter telling me what is happening to people I didn’t even know existed and mid mission briefings revealing the enemies’ motives when I don’t even know who they are.

This lazy approach is also found in Bodycount’s level design. The game unashamedly re-uses levels, making the player start from the end and work back to the beginning. Eventually, the levels become a bit more varied with the introduction of the enemy bases. However, these bases all look and feel alike and use the same entrances, the same staircases and the same locked doors. It’s a shame because it looks like a lot of time has been spent designing the enemies and their buildings. The first time you enter a base is a tense experience, with the heavy white and red colour palette a stark contrast to what you’ve previously seen. Unfortunately, as different as these bases look, the player must still unlock doors, press buttons and do exactly what they do in every other level.

Thankfully, a lot of work has been done with the gunplay. Most of the guns are satisfying and feel and sound like they have a weight behind them. Bodycount uses a novel leaning system when the player aims: instead of being able to move and aim, the player must stand still and move the thumb stick to duck, dodge and lean. While strange at first, it is a natural fit for a game that wants to imitate the old arcade shooters. Killing enemies is also satisfying with collectable orbs being dropped from downed units. These orbs provide power-ups that enhance your killing spree, including an invincibility shield, a deadly pulse wave and an air strike. All the killing is dampened, however, by the atrocious A.I. that makes soldiers shoot in the opposite direction and sometimes simply ignore you.

If you thought the multiplayer would be Bodycount’s saving grace, you would be wrong. There are three game types: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch and Co-Op. Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch are plagued with matchmaking problems (it took forty minutes of waiting in the lobby before a game started). While waiting I heard other players’ stories of having to wait over two hours to get a game going.  This isn’t because Bodycount doesn’t have a large player base, it is because the online component itself is buggy and full of problems. While waiting for a game the lobby became full twice and all players had pressed ready, but the game still wouldn’t start. Every player had to leave the lobby to let it switch host (the lobby doesn’t say who is hosting the match) for it to finally work.

When a game finally starts things do not improve, shooting human opponents in Bodycount is not as satisfying as shooting the A.I. and it is hard to tell when you are near death. Too many times I was rushed to the re-spawn screen without even knowing I was about to die. In addition, the multiplayer maps are trimmed down versions of the single player levels, which makes the process feel even more repetitive.

Co-Op is where you will have the most fun; you must survive twenty waves of increasingly more difficult enemies. With no story to worry about and a friend watching your back, Bodycount shows what it could have been. Surviving wave after wave is always a tense and brutal affair and is by far the most fun thing in the game. Yet with only a player cap of two and no split-screen support, it is a wasted opportunity. The shattered and smashed guns that float behind the multiplayer lobby reflect exactly what Bodycount’s multiplayer is: broken.

Bottom Line: Bodycount feels like the middle child. It can’t compete with its older Bulletstorm and Call of Duty brothers and doesn’t have the allure of its younger, Indie sister. Instead, it tries to become a combination of the two, with nice graphics, good sound, great shooting mechanics and novel features such as the leaning system and kill rewards. However, by trying to morph into its competition it loses its own personality: Bodycount becomes a soulless game riddled with problems, but if it had tried a little harder at being itself it could have really shone. 

If you like blowing shit up, you’ll be able to experience the carnage in the Bodycount demo. Codemasters has revealed this morning that their upcoming title from makers of Black, have released a single-player demo today on Xbox Live. The demo is set in the early stages of the games African missions and you’ll assume the role of a Network Operative.

You’ll be responsible for tracking down a warlord while equipped with an explosive arsenal such as the G36 SMG, Super 90 Shotgun, grenades and proximity mines. By completing skill kills like headshots or other types of kills you’ll earn more Intel for a higher score at the end of the mission. A demo for the PlayStation Store will be available shortly.

Bodycount releases on August 30 for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Codemasters has announced that they will be releasing DiRT 3 worldwide on 24th May. It will be released on the HD trifecta: PC, PS3 and 360. Expect double the amount of tracks than DiRT 2, and more off-road racing events. Rally content will account for 60% of the game’s career mode, with Rally stages being set across three continents. Finland, Kenya, Norway and Michigan are some new highlights of those, apparently.

Codemasters has slapped some rough dates on GRID 2, DiRT 3 and Operation Flashpoint Red River. Red River and DiRT 3 will be released between 1st April and the end of June 2011. However, GRID 2 will be released in 2012. Bodycount is still down for a summer 2011 release. The company is also brewing a new IP for 2012 that uses version 2.0 of the EGO engine.

Codemasters has revealed that the long-awaited patch for F1 2010 is in submission over at Microsoft and Sony. Both companies will run the patch through their approval processes before releasing them into the wild. The patch will be available for all three versions of the game; on PC, PS3 and 360. It will address some issues with the game, such as corrupt game saves and problems with pit-stops.

There will also be improved damage modelling, AI driver behaviour and wet weather. More wheel controllers will be supported too. The PC patch will allow the game to be run on DX11 and adds Eyefinity support, which allows the game to displayed across three monitors.

Codemasters has confirmed that the European free-to-play re-launch of The Lord of the Rings has been delayed. Apparently, the reason for its delay is so that Codemasters can prepare for what they assume will be a “massive increase” in players. The delay means that Book 2: Ride of the Grey Company and the Free to Play Store will now be released “later than expected”.

“We are really pleased with the performance of the game and excited about the response to Free to Play from our players,” said Rowland. “Given the complexities and challenges faced in the preparation and implementation of the new store to work within our infrastructure, we feel more time is needed to deliver the high level of service our players have quite rightly come to expect.

“As a result, we have decided to delay launch to ensure that we can support the massive increase in players that we are anticipating and deliver them a Free to Play experience like none other.”

Codemasters has officially named the next game in the Operation Flashpoint series. It’s called Red River, and should be released sometime in 2011. It’s in development over at Codemasters’ Southam studio. Apart from that, we don’t know what to expect.

Codemasters has shown off a new video for Colin McRae’s DiRT 3. The video shows everything you have come to expect from the series; mud soaked rallying, race course racing and exploding cars. Well the last one was a bit expected, but we love it when a plan comes together. Apart from the video, nothing else about the game has been announced. There’s no dates and no platforms, but expect PC, PS3 and 360. Here’s the video:

MMORPG Dungeons & Dragons Online will become free-to-play in Europe from next month. Folks over in North America have been playing the “Unlimited” free-to-play version for a while, but now it’s officially going to be free in Europe. European players can play the game with the US servers right now to get a sneaky peak at what it’s like. Turbine will be taking control of European operations from Codemasters Online.

Codemasters has released a pre-alpha gameplay video of Bodycount for E3. The video shows some dudes with miniguns, lots of killing, muzzle flash and bullets flying everywhere. For a pre-alpha video, we were fairly impressed. The game’s looking promising and will be released on the PS3 and 360 during Q1 2011, so Guildford Studio has a healthy amount of time to work on it. Here’s the video:

Warner Bros. has confirmed that The Lord of the Rings Online is going free-to-play this autumn. The move is part of a major update for the game by its developers, Turbine. The model will basically allow gamers to play for free, but will charge them for expansions, quest packs, items and account services. There will also be a VIP program that will allow players to get unlimited access to all of the game’s content for one price. A beta of the new version of the game will start on June 16th. More information about it and the application process is available at http://www.lotro.com.

“Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment is bringing quality games based on The Lord of the Rings to multiple platforms, and the franchise’s expansive adventure story lends itself perfectly for LOTRO free-to-play, giving a wide range of players the opportunity to experience the game,” said Jeff Junge, Senior Vice President Online Games and Digital Games Platforms, Warner Bros. Digital Distribution and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. “We are focused on expanding our game franchises onto new digital platforms to maximize quality experiences for gamers worldwide and LOTRO’s new model is a great leading example of this.”

GamesAid have unveiled the “GamesAid Triple Pack”. Retailing on the PS3, it will include Tomb Raider: Underworld, SEGA Superstars Tennis and FUEL. GamesAid is a UK games industry charity for children and young people. The pack goes on sale on the 25^th June for £29.99. All profits will go towards GamesAid charities.

Andy Payne, Chairman of GamesAid, said: “Not only does this triple pack raise money for our charities, it also raises awareness of GamesAid at consumer level. We now look forward to retail getting behind it and giving it the push it deserves.”

Ray Maguire, Sony Computer Entertainment’s UK Managing Director, stated: “We are delighted to be supporting GamesAid in this venture. It’s good for the industry as a whole, and we’re proud to be involved.”

Codemasters has officially dated International Cricket 2010. It will be released on the PS3 and 360 in the UK on Friday 18^th June to coincide with the NatWest Series between England and Australia this summer. The game includes official players and grounds, and you’ll be able to partake in full tests, Twenty20 games and instant tournaments.

Codemasters has announced that Indian firm Reliance Big Entertainment has agreed to acquire a 50% shareholding in the company. They will accompany the existing investor Balderton Capital; whom first invested in Codemasters back in 2005.

Reliance Big Entertainment’s gaming division;  Zapak Digital Entertainment will oversee the Codemasters investment. They are the largest gaming company in India, with connections to online casual games, massively multiplayer online titles, gaming cafes and physical distribution of gaming software. They also own Jump Games, a mobile game development and publishing company.

Rohit Sharma, CEO of Zapak, said: “We are excited to partner with Codemasters and believe that its very strong technology, development and distribution presence will complement our global gaming portfolio. Additionally, Zapak’s global strength in mobile gaming will enhance Codemasters’ ability to fully leverage its attractive franchises such as its racing and cricket games.”

Rod Cousens, chief executive of Codemasters, said: “The opportunities arising from this partnership are truly exciting. This is great news for our development and publishing teams. Reliance and Zapak have immense resources and will help us realize the full potential of our game coding and online excellence across so many platforms, and especially in the world’s fastest growing markets. The future of Codemasters has never looked brighter – it’s a whole new game.”

Tim Bunting, Balderton Partner, said: “We are delighted to welcome Reliance as our partner in Codemasters and gratified by the confidence in Codemasters that Reliance’s initiative represents.”