Read up on the thoughts, insights and game-related rants from the man himself!

• 28Dec 09

  Halo - Only Smaller.

  After reading about them in the latest issue (# 200!) of GameInformer, I was intrigued. For a while now, I have been thinking how cool it would be if Lego licensed Halo-themed sets, and then you could build warthogs and banshees and all that good stuff from your favorite childhood toy. Well, those lazy bastards at Lego decided to pass on the opportunity, but the folks over at Mega Bloks took the reigns and did the deed! I present to you, Halo Mega Bloks:

  http://www.megabrands.com/en/kids/halowars/

  Yes, the Halo Wars continue on the small scale, as Elites and Spartans wage war right on your living room carpet. So far there are six main sets - UNSC Turret, Ghost, Warthog/Covenant Turret, Hornet, Scorpion Tank and Hawk/Banshee. There are also two magnetic Spartan II action figures- a green one with an assault rifle and a red one with an energy sword. In addition to all of those, I have already spotted an exclusive white ODST magnetic action figure at Target.com, and a special # 7 and # 8 set on Amazon.com.

  I went to Toys R Us and decided to buy a couple of sets, because dammit I wanted to. I went with the first three - UNSC Turret, Ghost and Warthog with Covenant Turret - and I have only built the UNSC Turret so far but am in the process of building the Ghost. I also got the two Spartan figures - I didn't really know how they were different until I actually took them out of the box, but I don't really consider them part of the series because they are just large action figures and not on the same scale as the rest of the sets - I actually kind of wish I had bought another set instead, but they are still pretty neat I suppose. I was a little disappointed that there was no Scorpion set at Toys R Us - there was a large empty spot beside the Hawk and Banshee set so perhaps they were sold out.

  My initial impression...well, I don't know yet, They are pretty cool I suppose - the sets are every bit as good as a Lego set, but I was a bit disappointed that you don't get to build the characters - they are one-piece figures with moving parts. Each set comes with decals, but I recommend you consider gluing your structure together before you put them on because some of the vehicles don't hold together real well, and decals go across multiple blocks. But, if you want to stick it out with unglued parts too, then thats cool - I honestly don't feel like trying to keep these decals from tearing while I pull this whole thing apart and glue them piece-by-piece back into place.

  There are some small complaints I have regarding the continuity of the sets. Firstly, there are no UNSC soldiers present - and really there should be more of them than there are Spartans, even if this is set during Halo Wars' era. Secondly, this one set I have includes three Spartans and three guns - but one of the Spartans is seated at a turret, so...Should he still have a gun too? I mean, I can't have a Spartan dual-wielding a shotgun with something else! Also...What about grenades? Shouldn't there be a ton of grenades laying around on my battlefield as well? Ah well, small potatoes I suppose.

  But if you can get by the minor quirks, what we have here is a pretty cool set, for fans of Halo and building blocks alike. I am thinking about collecting the entire series, if I can...

  In other news, I got the entire series of LOST on Blu-Ray! Huzzah! (Gonna be paying on those for a while...)

  ~ Ovi

  • Posted Dec 28, 2009 8:38 am PT
  • Category: Games
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• 24Dec 09

  Yuletide Gaming

  First of all...Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, whatever you are celebrating. On to the blogging.

  Yesterday, or rather two days ago, I decided to buy both Gears of War games and the Orange Box. I haven't gotten to play any GOW yet, but I did try out Half-Life 2 a little bit, and while it has a very good story-telling thing going and looks like it will turn out to be a pretty bad-ass game, I have a few small complaints from my first hour or so of gameplay:

  1. Gordon has no feet, or arms, or body for that matter. He is just a floating orb in our plane of existance. I guess this is a pretty neat thing if you think about it, because it makes the whole first-person experience a lot cleaner, but I feel like I am playing as a camera more than I am a real person. This is odd because the game uses the same exact system as Portal, and in Portal your main character has legs and feet when you look down.

  2. Too many pointless objects. Trash litters the floors in this game, and while you can pick up just about anything that isn't bolted to the ground and stand on any object, most of these things are rather pointless and serve no real purpose other than to just lay there. You can throw anything you pick up, but again there is no real difference between throwing a suitcase or throwing a beer bottle. There are also these soda machines you can get three sodas out of. What do they do? Absolutely nothing. You can throw some stuff and break it as well, but then honestly what good will a shard of beer bottle glass do you when Gordan won't even try to wield it like a weapon?

  3. The game has no real sense of direction. I was lost in the starting area for much of the time I was playing, trying to figure out where the hell to go next. I had to keep listening to the same conversations and that loud, overbearing guy on a loop, and while it did really fit with the dictator-ian atmosphere, it got annoying after a short while.

  4. I feel like I am constantly being chased or scolded in this game. From the moment you walk off of the train, there is a guy waiting there with a club, and if you get too close to him, he will follow you and start beating you. From then on, this goes for any of these guys you run into - they will just be standing there and if they don't like the way you look at them they will begin chasing you down. This is also pretty annoying, and I am hoping that this sense of being chased doesn't go on for too much longer or carry on throughout the entire game.

  I also finally decided to watch the 'It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Christmas Special', which I got a few weeks back but didn't want to watch until the season was over and it was the last minute till Christmas. It was pretty good, very worth getting if you are a fan of the show. I am hoping that they don't put it on the next DVD season release though, because that would seem unfair to people like me who have bought this stand-alone DVD. I didn't watch the extras yet though, so I may do that later today, I dunno.

  Alright well...I didn't mean for the complaints to be the main part of this entry lol but I just wanted to mention that I got the GOW games and OB, and wish everyone a Merry Christmas.

  ~ Ovi

  • Posted Dec 24, 2009 11:21 pm PT
  • Category: Games
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• 21Dec 09

  Phail Star Universe

  It seems to me that mmos shouldn't be cross-platform. Why? Because they can't seem to get everything worked out with billing and subscriptions. You would think that if you subscribe to a game on your console, that you can just as easily unsubscribe, but in the case of Phantasy Star Universe, there is no way to unsubscribe from the game on your console. No, instead you have to actually CALL Microsoft and have them cut off the otherwise endless subscription.

  I don't want to sound like a **** really I don't, and I am just happy that I was able to resolve the issue. But when you release a game on multiple platforms, SEGA, don't you think you could at least work out all of these minor details first? Not only did this cause me trouble, because I had to search around on the game's official XBOX page just to find out how to do it and it wasn't so easy a caveman could do it, but it also tied up one of Microsoft'sXBOX service reps for a couple of minutes. And really, that third party shouldn't have had to get involved in this matter at all, but they did because you didn't take efficiency into consideration when you released PSU on the 360.

  And it isn't just SEGA that has had problems with mmos on consoles. Sony and Squaresoft made one picky-ass game with FFXI, so picky that I bought the damn thing three times on three different mediums (PS2, 360, PC), and I still couldn't get the **** to let me subscribe to it.

  Maybe this is just some sort of sign, a sign that maybe monthly-fee MMOs aren't supposed to be on gaming consoles?

  • Posted Dec 21, 2009 11:59 am PT
  • Category: Games
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