50 cent Blood on the sand

Mission 1 I'm supposed to die tonight
Start a new game, choose wether you want it to be invite only or open to xbox live for co-op pay.I choose the hard setting.You have to choose a sidekick from a bunch of rappers.
The scene is set with 50Cent on stage, as he comes off he gets a call from someone saying that he is out 10 million and some money did not come through.50 Cent goes to a man called Kamal and threatens him asking for the money.Kamal gives him a priceless diamond encrusted skull to stop 50 Cent from killing him.On the way somewhere Kamal tells him that in the unnamed country gansters own the city.They are ambushed, the driver is killed and 50 Cent takes the wheel, eventually under heavy fire the car crashes and a firefight errupts.A woman seems to be the leader and she steals the skull.
Left and right sticks are the usual movement and camera, view is third person.Back is the objective button.Pressing A near suitable walls or vehicles puts 50 Cent into cover.While moving pressing A dives and rolls.Holding Left trigger sights down your weapon.Directions on the D-pad select weapons.We come to a wall we have to climb and you get your a.i. partner to help you boost up it.we are shown how to melee kill, when you melee an opponent you go into a little timing min game with ultra violence. Basically press B when told to take down the enemy.Crates are filled with money and spread around liberally.You can smash through certain types of barrier by pressing BPosters on the wall can be collected for points and probably achhievements.Again the two man theme is used to lift a heavy shutter door.
cut scene shows us talking to the skull man, whoever he is, he isn't Kamal, Kamal is the bad guy.50 cent wants some better weapons to go after the woman who stole the skull.Whoever guy tells us about a weapons dealer called Raoul who can help us for the right price.Bullet time is introduced by pressing Y.
Enviroments are satisfactory, nothing stunning, so far I am thinking a cross between Army of two and the Club. The score system is similar to the club, with a countdown between kills of multiplier, suggesting speed will be rewarded, along with points for headshots etc.Most reminicent of the club are the little bullseye targets littered around as hidden collectibles.
Raoul has agreed to meet us in a courtyard.When we get to the courtyard he is there, Raoul tells us that he can get us whatever we want. He also tells us to trust noone.
Unamed guy calls and tells us to meet him at a strip club.
I die for the first time and there is two button presses and a long load between getting back into the action, not impressive.already we are re using the enviroment as we have to go back through the courtyard and blow open a wall that we saw earlier. Now we have c4 and can plant it to blow it up.I think the handler guy is called Anwar.
We come to a payphone and can call Raoul for weapons. The money we have been picking up so far comes into play as we have to buy weapons. I buy a machine pistol and don't have the cash for anything else. We can also buy taunts and new melee kill moves.
We are amubshed in the street again and make our way through a buuilding towards the strip club which we can now see in the distance. Given away by the neon girl sign.We come to a courtyard and a tank appear, we have to shoot all the enemies and get close enough to the tank to plant C4 on it's side.Through the courtyard exit and that is mission 1 over.

Mission 2 Get in my car
At the strip club we meet Azi who is a fan of 50 Cent. Azi has issues with Kamal, he cut up his whore. 50 Cent plans to deliver the booze to Kamal that Azi is forced to do every week as part of his protection racket.
This is a driving section, we are in a humvee type vehicle.The a.i. or co-op player controls the guns. All I have to do is drive.We get points for runninf over soldiers and jumping ramps. There is an endless supply of jeeps with guns on top harrassing us. We are escorting a convoy of trucks, however we spend most of the time separeted from it.All we have to do is survive and have fun, not the best driving section in a shooter ever, but at least it doesn't last long enough to outstay it's welcome yet.

Mission 3 Candy Shop
We are now going into Kamal's heroin operation on foot now, trying to find a back way in.We are told that this used to be a shopping mall before Kamal took it over.We see Kamal for the first time, cardboard cut out henchman killing bad boy.The girl turns in a helicopter up and gives Kamal the skull and they leave in the helicopter.Azi tells us where they are probably going, it is close by and we follow.when you are in cover on say a pillar the controls seem a bit fiddly as to which side of the pillar you pop out on.Checkpoints are a little too widely spaced as well.You have to be actively looking in the direction you want to point out of when you duck out of cover to go that way, it's quite a strange idea as it brings nothing to the game but frustration.more reuse of same environments here, ok we are above the mall hall but still in the same place.We follow Kamal for a bit and then inexplicably helicopters turn up and start shooting what seems like random targets. I think these helicopters belong to Raoul and Anwar has paid for them to assist us, though I could be wrong.Only new development here is that parts of the building seem to be falling down to prevent us from getting to where we want to go.After a rather protracted shootout in the lobby of the building we get outside again and find Kamal leaving in a helicopter.buying better guns here really helps as the accuracy of the guns improves no end. I was beginning to think I was a poor shot until I realised that it's the guns that are inaccurate.for the first time we have to open a gate and pull as switch.

Mission 4 Straight to the bank
50 Cent is captured by the mercenaries. Their boss called Carter wants 50 Cent to help.Gold bullion is being moved through the city, 50's role is to take out communication stations and Carter's men will do the rest. If 50 helps he will get 2 million worth of gold and Carter will help him with Kamal. Of course it looks like Carter is planning to double cross 50.just noticed texture load in for the first time here. Is this unreal engine?We are ambushed after leaving Carter and have to fight our way through.Now we are at the construction site and have to blow up communication stations so that Kamal can't call for help when carter attacks his bullion convoy.The communication stations are little desks with equipment on top sitting out in the middle of the construction site. I don't know about you, but that is the ideal storage space for delicate radio equipment.Now we have to kill Kamals snatch teams??Next we have to blow up a crane for no apparent reason? Oh we have to make a bridge to progress.
Carter turns up and a passing van is blown up and the bullion is here. Carter Double crosses 50 and makes off with all the gold and no location of Kamel is given.we have to fight his helicopter using a rocket launcher.

Mission 5 Disco inferno
50 tortures the wounded Carter and is told where kamal is.The old citadel??We see Raoul offer someone a job, I presume it's the helicopter pilot. Has anyone told these people the rocket launchers and burning helicopter crashes are not particularly survivable.The environment has changed to a rocky mountainside with an old castle on top.The castle is also an old outdoor theatre.50 asks Azi to send some hookers over as a distraction. He also sets off a bomb in a bus to distract the guards.There is a large shootout in the grounds of the castle which is quite fun.We then get inside the the theatre.The theatre is burning due to Azi's rather over enthusiastic bus bomb.The environment is well done here.One thing the game tends to do is get the jump on itself, instead of letting me find out that the way to the stage is blocked by flaming debris the mission objectives pop up before the scripted damage occurs to the enviroment that blocks the way.
mention of the enemies and a.i. must be made. There are only about five character models for the enemies, ones in yellow shirts, ones in red shirts, oh and blue shirts too. They carry a specific weapon, like shotguns, rocket launchers, grenades, machine guns. Each enemy type only uses that specific weapon and does not vary at all.The a.i. is very predictable, they will run to the same spots, never really try and flank you and pop up from cover at set time intervals that could be timed with a stopwatch.
We get to the stage and watch a cut scene. Kamal is giving abuse to his girl.He tells her to go get the chopper and then 50 confronts him.using grenades is a fairly hard task as 50 seems incapable of throwing them quickly enough to avoid being shot to pieces, you can't blind fire a grenade, which is a shame.We make out way down through the seats of the theatre.Ammo pick ups are for specific guns denote by colour.when we finally get to the stage we are told that Kamal is running to the roof.When we get to the roof Kamal gets in his helicopter, knocking out and leaving for the dead the girl.We now have to fight the helicopter again, shooting it around five times with a rocket to bring it down.

Mission 6 Amusement park
Looks like Kamal is dead in the wreckage of his helicopter, though I am not exactly unsuspecting of him turning back up.Raoul turns up in a helicopter which I suppose is being driven by Carters pilot from earlier.50 lets the woman who stole the skull come with him in the helicopter rather than have her burn to death in the rapidly collapsing theatre.She tells 50 that her family is held by a man called Wilder and she has to work for him, if 50 can rescue her family she will tell him where the skull is.We find ourselves inexplicably on a helicopter using the mounted gun. This is an on rails section exactly the same as those found the the GRAw games. You can still zoom in with the left trigger and get a better view.You can also fire a limited number of rockets at times of the game's convenience. Oh sorry you get them for completing scenarios, which are bonus objectives like kill the rocket launchers dudes in under 20 seconds etc. These scenarios have been popping up all over the game.You get to shoot men, cars, aa guns, tanks and other vehicles. Then a final showdown with another helicopter.

Mission 7 Gunz come out
We land the helicopter because there are aa guns, why didn't we have to land them for the other three we shot earlier.Anyway, on foot we have to go to an AA gun and then blow it up with C4Once that is done the helicopter comes in and blows a hole in the walls so we can get in.We find ourselves in a market place.Which we fight through and into a arabic city.A helicopter boss fight again ends the mission.

Mission 8 I'll still kill
50 Talks to Anwar and asks where he thinks Wilder will be keeping the skull.Anwar has no idea.We now have to enter Anwars crib. sorry that was a freudian slip, though I am sure that Anwar is going to be the big twist, and that he is the real bad guy.Big fight to get into the building from the huge courtyard, big fight inside the hall of the building.Then we get a cut scene showing 50 finding the skull, only it's an ambush, doors slam shut and baddies appear surrounding 50 with guns to his head.Anwar appear and is in leauge with Wilder to bring 50 here. Seems that Wilder wants 50 dead for some reasons and tells Anwar that the skull is his if he kills 50, he then hands him a gun.The scene restarts with us under heavy fire. Killing Anwar is as easy as any other enemy, which I like, I didn't like it in other games when lead characters seems superhuman in an attempt to make a boss encounter last longer.The girls name appears to be Leila. Oh this is a new development, can you see how surprised I am. There are shutters controlled by switches, if we hit the switch all will open at once, which will somehow make life hard for Leila. She tells us not to do it. Our co a.i. tells us to make the choice? A branching path? Non-linearity in a corridor shooter? Somehow I doubt it, but I will choose not to open them.We confront Wilder and he again has us outnumbered and a gun to our head. Leila phones up and turns out to be double crossing us also.50 cent is shot at point blank range and only survives due to his bulletproof vest.Getting up 50 shoots the goons and again we have another helicopter battle.This time when we shoot it the helicopter in cut scenes does damage to the building and moves from side to side. It moves to three different spots with waves of soldiers in between. This section really needed three checkpoints as it's a ridiculous difficulty spike and an obvious attempt to lengthen the game.

Mission 9 Gotta make it to heaven
We see 50 cent blow up a bridge for no apparent reasons and drive a humvee through a huge wooden door.Then we are out in the desert, on the trail of the skull apparently.This is a motorstorm like chase through the desert on the trail of a truck which has the skull.For a final section it's very easy and seems impossible to fail.Anyway that's the end of the gamea cut scene shows 50 getting the skull from an injured Leila and he leaves her in the desert alone.

That's the first playthrough over. Got 610 achievement points and it took about 10 hours.
All in all, not a bad game, just average through and through, unapologetically. I don't regret the money I paid for it. I will probably play it through co-op when I get time.