stuff

• 5Dec 09

  Decapitatioooooon!!!

  Lets see. So today on Halo Waypoint the fancy guys at 343 posted up another episode of Halo: Legends. Or actually, just part of an episode. The episode titled "The Package" See a team of Spartans including our dear Master Chief looking through some Covenant ships for some important "package". What this package is isn't at all explained although I'm sure it'll be some cheap plot twist, like it actually being a character rather than an item. Anime loves pulling that kinda crap.

  It's kinda hard to review part of an episode since it's only part, but I can't say I like it too much so far. The part we're given is only about the first seven minutes and it all moves really fast. It suffers the same issue of the last couple episodes but to a greater degree in that you just don't know enough about these characters to really care for them. I couldn't give you the name of any of the characters to save my life aside from series mainstays, Master Chief and Kelly. According to the Halo wiki Frederick was there, but I didn't even notice. And the two newly introduced Spartans are such cannon fodder material that they make the marines in the game look like friggin' war gods.

  But yeah, they're flying around kicking ass in space on these flying machines called booster frames. They sorta look like a cross between a motorcycle, a rocket and a small plane. Don't ask me how they manage to remain firmly seated on these things in 0 g. I guess the seats have magnets on them or something.

  The episodes ends in the mother of all cliff hangers. The Spartans land in a ship and are ready to fight a big ass covenant armada and right as we're about to get to the first bit of real combat Waypoint is all like "LOL! Come back next week for the rest!!". Jerks. I don't really understand why they did this. They didn't do this to the previous two episodes. And from what I understand this episode isn't supposed to be any longer than the last two... soooooo...

  Lets see, what else. A good portion of the dialogue is cheesy, but i guess this comes with the territory for anime... But still, the Baby sitter had a better script. And I think the artistic design is needlessly complicated, especially the covenant ships. Their stuff is all about sleak and simple design. Not so much here. And I thought the animation for the elite's mandibles didn't look natural. Over all considering this is completely cg it's not as good looking as it probably should have been. Halo Wars' cut scenes were far more impressive, may they should have got those guys to do it.

  This piece is obviously set before the fall of Reach, yet it appears that the Master Chief is using a variant of the MJONIR Mark VI armor... but he should be wearing Mark IV. You could call it artistic interpretation or what ever and that you should only take the events to heart and just enjoy it. But you know what I think? I think it's bull **** and Casio should have put more thought into it.

  Speaking of continuity, why was the Master Chief not voice acted by Steve Downes? I'll let it slide and just say the Master Chief sounded different when he was younger... But if they don't get Jen Taylor to voice act Cortana for the Origins Episode I probably wont buy Halo: Legends.

  --------

  I rented a few games since last blog(not counting that games I beat one). There was Brutal Legend. Alright game. The story is definitely the most appealing part of the game, although toward the end you get the feeling that concessions were made. Gameplay wise it's, again, alright. Nothing that really struck a cord with me but nothing I really hated. The RTS gameplay was interesting but you generally could just stick with one stategy through out the entire game and it honestly felt sort of out of place in an action adventure game. And I found the bus escort missions to be a little annoying. I may write up a review. May not.

  Rented Assassin's Creed 2. Plays a lot like the original minus the repetitive mission structure. Not much else to be said, really.

  And I rented Left 4 Dead 2. Originally didn't intend to but on my trip to blockbust I couldn't find Dragon Ball Raging Blast and I didn't wanna go emty handed.... Soooo. It's like the original but with a respectable amount of content this time around. Again, not much more needs to be said.

  --------

  Other random stuff:

  -Tried some gamer fuel for the first time since 2007. Tasted just as good as I remember... But teh mastur chef is missed

  -Made my Christmas wishlist... shortest one I've ever made

  -Just a week away from the world premiere of Halo: Reach on Spike tv! Can't wait(unless it shows absolutely nothing about the game like most early game trailers these days

  -I'll probably be making a list of my top ten favorite games of all time... for the of of it.

  -Some what recently got mai huge HD tv in the mail that I won from Machinima

  -My gamerscore has now gone over thirty thousand! About equel to Vegeta's power level during the early part of the Frieza saga!!!

  • Posted Dec 5, 2009 1:47 pm PT
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• 2Dec 09

  The name of the game is I WIN!

  Just because I felt like it and it's something I always wanted to do, I'm going to list every game I ever beat that I can remember. When I say beat I mean completed the main quest. Basically, making it to the credits. Run away now if you aren't interested, this wont be short!

  • Aegis Wing
  • Ape Escape 3
  • Army of Two
  • Assassin's Creed
  • Assassin's Creed 2
  • Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts
  • Batman: Arkham Asylum
  • Beautiful Katamari
  • Brutal Legend
  • Call of Duty
  • Call of Duty 2
  • Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
  • Call of Duty: World at War
  • Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
  • Crackdown
  • Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII
  • Cyber Troopers Virtual-On Oratorio Tangram
  • Dash of Destruction
  • Digimon: Battle Spirit
  • Digimon: Rumble Arena
  • Dragon Ball: Advance Adventure
  • Dragon Ball Z: Budokai(Gamecube and PS2)
  • Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 2
  • Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3
  • Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi
  • Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2(Wii and PS2)
  • Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit
  • Dragon Ball Z: The Legacy of Goku
  • Dragon Ball Z: The Legacy of Goku II
  • Dragon Ball Z: Shin Budokai
  • Fable II
  • Final Fantasy VII
  • Final Fantasy X
  • Gears of War
  • Gears of War 2
  • Ghostbusters: The Vidoegame
  • Grand Theft Auto IV
  • Guitar Hero 2
  • Guitar Hero 3
  • Half-Life 2
  • Half-Life 2: Episode 1
  • Half-Life 2: Episode 2
  • Halo: Combat Evolved(xbox and PC)
  • Halo 2
  • Halo 3
  • Halo 3 ODST
  • Halo Wars
  • Indigo Prophecy
  • Katamari Damacy
  • Kingdom Hearts
  • Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
  • Kingdom Hearts II
  • Kirby: Nightmare in Dreamland
  • Kirby: Canvas Curse
  • Left 4 Dead
  • Lost Odyssey
  • Mass Effect
  • Metal Slug 3
  • Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes
  • Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
  • Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
  • Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence
  • Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops
  • Me and My Katamari
  • Mirror's Edge
  • No More Heroes
  • Okami
  • Pokemon Red
  • Pokemon Blue
  • Pokemon Yellow
  • Pokemon Silver
  • Pokemon Gold
  • Pokemon Crystal
  • Pokemon Ruby
  • Pokemon Sapphire
  • Pokemon Diamond
  • Pokemon Snap
  • Portal
  • Prince of Persia(2008 )
  • Rez HD
  • Rockband
  • Rogue Galaxy
  • Shadow of the Colossus
  • Sonic the Hedgehog
  • Sonic the Hedgehog 2
  • Sonic the Hedgehog 3
  • Sonic & Knuckles
  • Sonic Adventure DX Director's Cut
  • Sonic Adventure 2 Battle
  • Spider-man: Web of Shadows
  • Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
  • Super Paper Mario
  • Super Smash Brothers
  • Super Smash Brothers Melee
  • Super Smash Brothers Brawl
  • Super Mario 64
  • Super Mario 64 DS
  • Super Mario Sunshine
  • Super Mario Galaxy
  • Tales of Symphonia
  • The Bourne Conspiracy
  • The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
  • The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Pricess
  • The Simpsons' Game
  • The Simpsons' Roadrage
  • Tomb Raider: Legend
  • Undertow
  • Unreal Tournament 3
  • Zone of the Enders: The Second Runner

  Hmmmm... Thats a total of one hundred and nine. Thats a little disapointed. It felt like way more than that.

  It's still a big number I guess. It'll be one hundred and ten soon since i'll soon be beating Left 4 Dead 2.

  • Posted Dec 2, 2009 10:01 am PT
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• 22Nov 09

  Walking with Elites

  On Halo Waypoint yesterday an episode of Halo Legends dubbed "The Duel" was up free to view. It was interesting to say the least. The episode deals with an early part of Covenant history long before they started the war with humanity. about an Arbiter who's against the covenant. We learn why the Arbiter is a title of shame which is pretty. Sounds great but the execution could have been farbetter.

  Right of the bat I just wanna say, female elites, WTF? The Duel introduces female Elites through the Arbiter's wife and it's just weird. It appears female Elites are smaller, more delicate, have like dreads or something and have ****ing boobs... Wut de hell? This is about like when I watched Walking with Dinosaurs on Discovery Channel and getting to the part where they showed the mating habits of dinosaurs. Come on, no one watches Walking with Dinosaurs for hot Dino sex, they watch it to see the t-rex ****ing eat other dinosaurs. And Halo fans watched The Duel to see all the cool stuff Elites like to do when they aren't picking on humans, not to look at Elite boobs.

  I always figured female Elites look like Male Elites. I mean they kinda look like reptiles. Can you tell the difference between a male and female alligator? Or most any animal, really? It should have been like that. And I figured female Elites would be tough. Elites are a warrior race. They don't even have many scientist. In Elite culture your a failure if you don't even know basic combat.

  But I know exactly why they did it and it brings me to a new point. They tried too hard to make Elites relatable. What the guys at I.G. seem to not know is people don't want to relate to Elites. Trying to make Elite relatable is like trying to make Godzilla or Ninjas relatable. People like them because they kick ass not because they can identify with them. Regardless I.G. was so driven to make these character more human that they made the mandibles on them hardly noticable when out of armor using graphical tricks and all and they didn't sound as alien or monsterous as they did in the games.

  Speaking of graphics honestly they really weren't up to standard. Most of the time the animation was very robotic and stiff. I'd be willing to bet the character models weren't very detailed either although you honestly can't see it to well thanks to a filter that makes it all look like a water painting. Most of the budget seems to have went to making the Elite faces look convincingly human and making a few nice looking battle scenes.

  I.G. Tries to make to relate Elite Society to fuedal Japan but I think they took it too far. Elites that aren't in armor are wearing kimonos. The antagonist wears ninja esque armor and actually uses a more traditional metal sword rather than an actual energy sword like every other Elite in the episode uses including the Arbiter. Theres too much that seems too close to human culture than I'm comfortable with, really.

  As for the plot, it's actually alright, but theres just not as much stuff explained as I'd like. You never learn why the Arbiter doesn't believe in the Great Journey. The episode is short and so you don't learn much about any of the characters so their deaths really don't carry much weight on the viewer.

  The ending. I hated it. Right as you come from watching this spectacular battle scene the Arbiter has with a huge covenant armada(Theres Jackals, Grunts, Elites and even a Wraith and a few really cool giants hunter) he faces off against the main antogonist. Some cool elite guy with the fancy Samurai armor and impossibly huge metal sword. They stand in front of each other for something like two whole minutes not doing a single thing. Then they lunge toward each other and kill each other with their first attacks. The end. Litterally. The episode is over.

  No closure at all. They could have followed it up with some scene on how his death may have effected the other Elites or something or maybe the rest the covenant. Heck though, I'd have been happier if there was an actually fight that took place before they killed each other. The fight reminded of that bs series Sumarai Jack. People liked it and thought it was so cool since nothing ever happened and no one hardly talked in some episodes. I say thats bs and it was terrible just like the final battle in this episode. You can sit around and do nothing all day but it's not tense or exciting if you ask me.

  In the end this episode kinda feels like someone was taking Halo and trying to make it into a cheesy samurai movie. But I don't see Halo fans or cheesy samurai movie/anime fans like this in the end. Samurai/anime fans are probably going to find the presence of monster aliens in the place of actual human beings jarring. The episode itself provides nothing the genre hasn't already seen. And Halo fans... Well you've already seen what a Halo fan thinks of it. It strays a bit too far from the spirit of Halo for my liking. Which is why you never heard me talk about the episode from a few weeks ago called "The Baby Sitter". It got Halo right and it didn't really shake it up too much like this episode did. I'd be more forgiving though if the characters and their motives were more fleshed out.

  At best it's an interesting take on the Halo universe. But it's a take I never want to see again. Not the same way it was presented again. At worst though this just feels like a dirty cash grab from Production I.G. I expected more from Mamoru Oshii.

  --------

  I was thinking about it a few days ago and I think I've figured out why I just don't like Call of Duty like I use to. I get why now. In the early Call of Duties the the battles were of a larger scale and thats because it dealt with World War II, a much bigger conflict. It was louder(I liked that. I swould to always turn up the volume playing Call of Duty 1 and 2. It got me more into it). You'd have all the guns going and turrets roaring drowning out everything but the yells of your comrades. Like the tag line for the first game "You never fight alone". You clearly were good guy. You were fighting the ****ing Nazis.

  With the Modern Warfare games fights are generally of a much smaller scale, naturally it's not near as loud. You generally have alot less allies helping you out, theres even a mission in Modern Warfare 2 where your fighting by yourself. And things are a bit more shady wait with the betrayal, the first mission in the series where the objective is to kill innocent civilians and teaming up with communists in the last level of Modern Warfare 2.

  On top of that theres alot more of those moments in Modern Warfare where the game tries to impress you with all these over the top scripted sequences. The earlier Call of Duties just felt alot more believable. And I've never been a huge supporter of the reward system, perks and killstreaks. I'd be more fine with it if there were playlist that took all of these out, but there isn't.

  I'm not saying these qualities make the new Call of Duty games bad, I'm just saying that these are qualities I don't much care for.

  --------

  Other random stuff:

  -Renting Assassin's Creed 2. So far I like it alot. Is it just me though or do the graphics seem a little below the original's par? I wouldn't be surprised if it has something to do with there being five different selectable voice tracks. Something has to give.

  -Been playing some of the new season of 1 vs 100. I like how they have an rpg leveling up system now.

  • Posted Nov 22, 2009 5:20 am PT
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• 15Nov 09

  Till the roof comes off, till the lights go out

  With much debating with friends and brooding in my secret lair I decided to pick up Modern Warfare 2.

  

  Urgh. It's alright. if you liked Call of Duty 4 and you want more of the same then you'll be happy with this.

  I guess I should start with the campaign. Beware of spoilers. I'll start by saying it confused the **** out of me. After completing it I talked to one of my friends who was more enthusiastic about it and even he didn't understand all of it. After than I checked the plot summary on wiki and I'm still confused. I've never really thought the Call of Duty series ever really presented the stories too well. It's always boring loading screen briefings, guys trying to talk to you while you're shooting bad guys and jerking the controller away for an actiony scripted sequence. No changes here aside from more confusion.

  First off, why did the Russians decide to take the White House? It's not really an important place for America's military. Was there important intel or something. Never in the game is this explained. I'm gonna go with the reason I had assumed before I even played and that is just for the shock n' awe. Thats Call of Duty campaign in a nutshell. Constantly trying to surprise and impress the player, especially with the scripted sequences.

  Next up, why did Shepard betray Ghost and Roach? I hear it's so he could be some War Hero or something but how would Roach and Ghost dying make this any more possible?

  In one of the game's later missions Captain Price launches a ICBM at the US from inside a Submarine at Russia. Ummm, Why? It explodes in the atmosphere causing an EMP or something causing all electronics in Washington to go out while the Russains and Americans are fighting. Price claims he's trying to end the war before doing this... So how did doing that help anyone end the stupid war? Honestly I think, again, for the sake of Shock n' awe Infinity Ward Decided to throw in a big 'splosion to impress players.

  Then the end of the game. Something about Soap and Price working with the communist villain guy to get revenge for a couple dead buddies or something? I don't know.

  Confusing plot aside the campaign is enjoyable at least. Infinite spawning enemies are finally gone making Veteran a plausible choice for human beings. Not only that but the sound track is a noticeable step up for the series standard. One of my friends pointed out that it sounded sorta like something from Pirates of the Caribbean and she was spot on as I recently found out the composer of the trilogy was on board for Modern Warfare 2.

  Unfortunately the campaign like Call of Duty 4 lacks such a basic feature as co-op, something even Treyarch was able to incorporate in the last Call of Duty game. To sort of make up for this Modern Warfare 2 includes a Spec Ops mode which is a collection of assorted missions using assets from the Modern Warfare 2 and Call of Duty 4 campaigns. Most of these missions involve players either killing a bunch of enemies or walking from one end of the level to the other. Hell, both sometimes. It can be fun, but it just isn't as fun or addicting as World at War's Nazi Zombie mode. Once you three star a mission theres not much motivation to play again if you even want to go as far as to three star it.

  Then we have the competitive multiplayer. Take Call of Duty 4, throw in awards for dying a bunch and you have Modern Warfare 2 in a cynical nut shell. Still, I have to give Infinity Ward props, this one seems a bit more balanced. While Kill streak bonuses would generally stack and overwhelm the losing team, Death streaks help to cushion the blows. Regardless, some of the killstreaks are just ridiculous.

  One killstreak allows the player to man a AC130 giving them more power than any player should ever have. I've only been able to use this once myself thanks to a care package and I was shooting the living crap out of the other team that were taking refuge in a building.

  Speaking of the care package it is a good addition to the multiplayer. After like four kills you can call in a care package which is a box dropped by some plane. The box will contain any number of possible killstreack bonuses like air strikes, the AC130 or a simple UAV. It's a great way to let lesser skilled player get a hold of some of the killer killstreak bonuses they may never other wise get to use.

  Despite my mostly jaded sounding views on the game Modern Warfare 2 is good. Like I said, if you liked Call of Duty 4 or World at War and want more of the same then get Modern Warfare 2. Just remember, it's more of the same and not much else.

  Which bring me to another point. I recall at a certain point prior to the game's release Infinity Ward wanted to have Modern Warfare 2 branch off and omit the Call of Duty title entirely. Why? It plays like a Call of Duty game. The campaign is structured like a Call of Duty game. The multiplayer is nearly the same as the last two. So Why take out the Call of Duty name? I heard some say it was because it was in the modern setting, but so was Call of Duty 4. What ever.

  Anyway, I think I'm done with the Call of Duty series after this . It's fun but considering I've gone through six of them in about six years, I'm tired of it.

  • Posted Nov 15, 2009 9:45 am PT
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• 2Nov 09

  Played you like a violin and cut your strings

  Hey peoples. Been a while since I last updated. My twenty first birthday happened a couple weeks ago. Weird how that number just keeps getting bigger. To celebrate I did the most original thing. Drink some alcoholic beverages. I know, crazy, right?

  Tried some whisky, some vodka and some beer. Thought it all tasted god awful. Tried mixing it with soda and orange juice. Still tasted pretty terrible. I hear wine's pretty good though. May try that next time.

  Aside from drinking myself into a stupor I got presents. Those are always fun. I got videogames and monies. Lets see, I got...

  Fable 2

  

  Star Ocean: The Last Hope

  

  And Tales of Vesperia

  

  Yeah, I've been wanting me some good rpgs. So far I've beat the living crap out of Fable 2. I've even earned most of the achievements(not counting those ones for the DLC). It was surprsingle short, or at least the main quest and theres not even a final boss. Still the conclusion is pretty cool.
  
  The morality system is kinda iffy on that game just because morality is pretty subjective and the graphics are barely a step above the original Fable(which I'm actually going to try to give another chance since I enjoyed Fable 2 so much). Otherwise though Fable 2 is a pretty good game.

  With Tales of Vesperia I'm pretty far into it, but I Have no clue how close I am to the conclusion. The last Tales game I played took me roughly sixty hours so I could very well be a ways off from finishing the game. So far I can sayI Like it more than Tales of Symphonia. The characters are more interesting the the plot is less predictable. As for Star Ocean, I decided to leave that for when I finish Tales of Vesperia.

  --------

  I got a Microsoft points card recently(birthday and all) and so I decided to finally purchase that Battledield 1943 I've been eyeing for the past few months.

  

  Unfortunatly it seems now that not too many of my friends are playing it. The guy I've playing it with these past couple weeks just got the red ring of death. One of the people I thought had it actualy just went to a friend's house to play it. And my other friends who have it are too busy playing Call of Duty 4 hyping up Modern Warfare 2.

  Aside from the battlefield I just rented Batman Arkham Asylum. It's pretty good. If you dig Metal Gear Solid you'll deffintely enjoy this. I haven;t beat it yet but the plot is surpringly weak. Not that thats a terrible thing I guess, it is a videogame. If nothing else there are alot of collectibles and stuff that expose more of the batman universe or what ever. The trippy scenes with the scarecrow are pretty cool.

  --------

  I Just recently got the new update for x-box live. The one thats coming Thursday. I'm not sure why Microsoft waitied till last Saturday to give it to me(I signed up for the preview program.

  So you know how the dashboard is now, right? Yeah, imagine that but exactly the same. I know, impressive, right? The difference now is they have a few new non game related applications you can download.

  Lets see, I'll start with facebook. It's kinda like facebook but worse. The facebook application doesnlt allow you to start of chats, you can't look through your current friend requests let alone accept any, you can't even look at your own wall, you can't update your personal information despite being able to look at it. All you can do is update your status, comment on your friends' statuses, look through your firneds list and look at photos.

  Nexts, twitter. Oh wait, twitter is a hunk of pointless garbage, why would I download that?

  Next, last.FM. It's like pandora on your xbox. I never used last.fm before so I have no idea if it works any different on your computer which brings me to my question - Why can't microsoft provide us with a web browser on the xbox 360? I mean if they want us to check out these pages we could at least view them with out missing features using a web browser. The Wii has a web browser, why can't the 360 have one.

  It's really not too important. I use my 360 gaming. But if your going to have features like face book and twitter around I don't understand the point of hyping these incomplete apps when they could just give us a web browser. Oh well, I'll at least enjoy Last.fm.

  Moving on from all that crap lets talk about the only impressive feature of the update; Halo Waypoint. It's a massive crazy database of awesomely awesome Halo stuff. This puppy has info on just about anything you want to to know about Halo. Plot summaries for each of the Halo games, novels and comics. Theres some odd stuff here and there missing but there will be weekly updates. You can also borwse alot of the Halo videas that have been hosted on live such as content put on the market place like vidocs and even the inside x-box features. All the videos are streamed so it never takes a toll on your hard drive.

  On Halo Waypoint you can also browse all Halo related market place content. Halo Waypoint even shows you how many of your friends are currently playing Halo games on x-box live(except for Halo 2). Whats also cool is that Halo Waypoint scans and keeps track of your progress on the Halo achievements(except the PC version of Halo 2). Currently I've got almost every achievements in all the Halo and so I'm a level fourty, the highest rank. You can also earn medals by earning particular achievements.

  THe career stat tracking impressive but also a little disapointing. I thought it was going to be like Bungie.net and track your games and kills and stuff as well. Unfortunatly this isn't the case. It's limited to just your achievements. Still, Waypoint will continue to get updates on a regular basis so hopefully the career stack tracking can be improves.

  Another cool thing about the stat tracking though is that earning certain achievements in the Halo games will net you some nice avatar awards in Halo Waypoint. I got all the ones currently available. You get a monitor as an avatar prop(a monitor like Guilty Spark), you can get ODST armor(comes with the helmet, can't were the armor without the helmet), ODST helmet, Recon Helmet and a jacket with a really cool shirt with a heart on it and a ODST and Recon helmet on it.

  

  The avatar awards were probably the best surprise of waypoint. I'm completely surprised, I figured Microsoft would just sell this stuff for ridiculous prices on the avatar market place. Frank O'Connor's influnece must be stronger than I thought

  I forgot to mention, Waypoint is just as involved in the Halo community Bungie to my delight. On the front page right now theres an interview with the creator of Halo.bungie.org and you can also find a section in Halo waypoints showing off a gallery of cosplayer and another of player created screenshots of worthogs in Halo 3.
  
  Halo Waypoint is pretty awesome. But it's something thats only going to get Halo fans excited, obviously. Pretty much the rest of the update is going to leave alot of people unimpressed except for those nuts who live and breathe facebook and twitter.

  --------

  Other random stuff:

  - I saw Land of the Lost(the new movie, not the old show or the even older show). It's awesome, I demand you watch it nao

  -The tracks that plays in the start menu for Halo: Waypoint is from Halo Wars

  -Last week I spent an hour looking for a video rental place that I've gone regularly. They go under a different name in the phone book than the sign on the fron of their *ucking building so I thought I was looking for a place I had never been to.

  -love hurts

  • Posted Nov 2, 2009 11:11 am PT
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• 8Oct 09

  I know what the aliens like

  So yeah, guess what I got like two weeks ago?

  

  Big surprise, right? I originally intended on making a blog dedicated to my thoughts on the game but between my computer screwing up on me and Gamespot eating previous efforts at a blog I've given up.

  I'll just try and express what I think about the game with much less detail for maximum time saving powers! In short, I thought it was good but not fatastic. It was pretty what I expected. A good but short campaign. Fire FIght is a nice diversion although the lack of matchmaking is disapointing and the games ending just because player leaves is a but frustrating.

  The music is fantastic though. Seriously considering purchasing the soundtrack. The story is interesting but you learn next to nothing about the color cast of characters, especially Dutch and Mickey.

  Again, just to be brief, the gameplay is pretty much a throw back to Halo: Combat Evolved. Although with the return of health packs it's arguably a step backward. While being reduced to all this may feel a bit lame at times it also is a breathe of fresh air to feel less than invincable for once.

  Regardless Halo has now been around for nearly a decade and I think ODST takes the core gameplay Halo has thrived on to it's limits. It's fun but I think Reach should take the series in a new direction in terms of gameplay. I've been a fan of this series for about six years and I'm still having fun. Hopefully unlike Pokemon and Call of Duty Halo can evolve and keep me coming back.

  Anyway, I'll probably get around to reviewing this some time. It'll probably be scoring in the 8 to 8.5. Good game but it's not for everyone. For a few reason.

  --------

  Speaking of Halo I got Helljumpers part 2

  

  Hopefully this series dives a bit deeper into ODST's cast. Anyway in this issue not much happens. The main characters find some covenant and fight em'. Ends in a cliff hanger. It feels like the heading towards something with these cool sneaky covenant guys but yeah... I'm kinda hating how cominc books contain little story at all. You have to collect a crap ton before you get much of anything. I think in this respect I prefer manga. They generally come with much more.

  I was looking through the dates for future issues and the finalpart of this is part story isn't suppose to come out till Novermber. Sheesh, ridiculous. The series has been going since like June and it doesnt end till November. A six part series and each issue is only something like eighty to one hundred pages. Yeah, after this I'm either done with Halo comic books or I'm waiting till series is fully released before digging into it.

  Well, at least this isn;t as bad as Uprising. Hopefully.

  --------

  I won an HD TV from a Section 8 contest held by Machinima back in late August. I intended to blog it but yeah, I never got around to it until now. It was pretty cool, you could see my gamertag up on the machinima facebook page and everything. It's down now though. Funny thing is I stil haven't got it. You'd be surprised how paper work you have ti fill out for free stuff. Oh well.

  --------

  I rented a few games these past couple weeks. Just for kicks. FIrst I rented Spider-Man Web of shadows and Ninja Gaiden 2.

  Spider-Man Web of Shadows is pretty fun. THe combat system is pretty impressive and you can upgrade you combat abilities for both your red and black suits.

  The game has a whole choice system thingy based on good n' evil. I've typically had mix feeling about games that do this. For example, in web of shadows I went through the entire game doing all the hero choices. Once I finished the game I wnet back to my last save to see how the game would play out if I made the evil choice at the end. Not to spoil any thing but Spider-man did a really mean thing yet I still got the good guy ending.

  Web of Shadows chooses the ending based on how many good choices I made. What I choose and why really didn;t matter. The plot doesnt really try to make sense of what I do. It just happens and the game goes with it. And so like with my example you can make choices that completly contradict what you'd been doing the entire time through the game and the game really makes no effort to acknowledge that.

  Also, your choices made in the game really don;t effect what you do. I checked through the game's achievements and there were no major boss character I didn;t fight on my first run. So you fight all the same major enemies through out the entire game regardless of how the story unravels. After beating it as a hero I went about half way through wmaking evil choices and everything was about the same except the cut scenes and who was giving me (the same exact)mission in a small segment of the game.

  All that aside, like I said it's still a fun game excluding some really annonying protection/escort missions. And I must admit the game has more of them than pretty much any other game I've ever played.

  May or may not review. If so It'll probably be a 7.5/10

  --------

  Ninja Gaiden 2. Yes, I rented that too. Not much else I can say. It was frustrating, not fun so I quit after I got to like the third boss.

  --------

  After Ninja Gaiden 2 and Spider-man: Web of Shadows I rented GHost Busters the videogame. You maybe surprised to learn it's alot like Gears of War it's only missing the cover mechanic. Which isn;t such a bad thing considering the contect. You're exactly fighting heavily arming monster popping up from the ground.

  Actually, it's sorta like Pokemon too, what with all the capturing of ghosts. And like Metroid with constant ghost scanning. And a little bit of Super Mario Sunshine with the sludge cleaning. We have a hybrid on our hands.

  Still I kinda wanna categorize it as a shooter what with the main gameplay focus being on shooting ghost with a laser.

  As fun as it all is though it's pretty short. About four hours. I was pretty disapointed to learn there was no co-op for campaign. There is however a collection of co-op games to play. It's all based on "campaigns". Each of these campaign don;t tell a story. Their actually just a collection of assorted objective on three maps per campaign. Theres like four or five campaigns.

  It's pretty fun, but good luck finding players. For the few days I played Ghost Busters I was only able to play one game with a full team. The multiplayer is 4-player co-op so it;s kinda sad I had so much trouble finding a full game or games at all.

  While Ghost busters is a fun game considering how short the campaign is and how difficult it is to play a multiplayer match I really wouldnt reccomend it purchasing it or at least not for mor than twenty bucks. It's a perfect rental though. And if this were a review I'd probably give it a 7.5/10

  --------

  Other random stuff:

  -I rented X-men Origins: Wolverine. It was surprisingly good movie. I reccomend checking it out.

  -I've been trying to rent Batman: Arkham Asylum but someone else seems to always beat me to the punch

  -I'm getting sick of competetive multiplayer gaming.

  -I've been having a frustrating time earning the "Vidmaster: Endure" achievements in Halo 3: ODST

  -I noticed that out of the seventy games I've played on the 360 only about fifteen of them were shooters. Really surprised me

  -I purchased the Last Remant. Not much else I can say. Haven;t got very far

  • Posted Oct 8, 2009 2:48 pm PT
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• 6Sep 09

  Hedgehog Day

  So I've been playin my Sonic the Hedgehog games on my 360 in anticipation of Sonic and Knuckles and in these past couple of weeks I managed to earn all the achievements in Sonic the Hedgehog 1, 2 and 3. Finally. The ones that I earned in Sonic the Hedgehog were the ones for beating the game in less than fourty minutes, for beating it without dying, completing Marble Zone Act 1 in less than a minute and twenty second and collecting all the chaos emeralds.

  

  For Sonic the Hedgehog 2 I got the achievements for completing the game in less than an hour, collecting all the chaos emeralds, going super Sonic and the one for remaining Super Sonic for an entire minute.

  

  And for Sonic 3 I finally got all the chaos emeralds. Yeah, I had already collected most of the achievements in that game a few months ago. Easier than Sonic 1 and 2.

  

  Before you go on telling me all about how Vash has all the mad skills, keep in mind that the 360 version of these games allow you to save at any moment of the game so much frustration, time and skill is saved.

  Still, it was pretty cool turning into Super Sonic for the first time in Sonic 2 and 3. Talk about making the old feel new. It's intersting to see the difference in Super Sonic's appearance. In Sonic 2 Super Sonic's eyes remain black. In Sonic 3 Sonic's eyes turn green(what Sonic's current day base form's eye color is). However in current day Sonic games Super Sonic's eyes are red.

  Anyway, I'm totally ready for Sonic and Knuckles later this week. It'll be nice to finally play it again after like twelve years.

  --------

  In non Sonic related gaming, I finally got this here achievement for Uno ---->For bluffing on a Wild Draw four twice in one match. Can't tell you how difficult it is to get that. Have to be lucky enough to get two Wild Draw fours in one round and, let alone be able to play them both when you don't need to without being challegned. So after two years I finally got all the achievements for Uno. That makes six completed games so far.

  In Gears of War 2 this weekend theres finally a new double EXP weekend. This weekend for Labor day there are extra Sire and every tenth wave is made up of nothing but Sires. For those who don't know or remember what they are, Sires are the big monster thingies in Gears 2 that are unarmed and just run at you like retards. Makes for the easiest tenth wave ever and easy experience.

  

  Yeah.... They aren't winning any beauty contests. The common tactic in killing them is chainsawing them. It takes way too much time to shoot them up and since they don't shoot back it's a waste of ammo. In wave ten though theres so many that everyone is chainsawing which commonly causes the frame rate to dip a little what will all the blood, guts and monster flesh being produced and laying around everywhere on the ground. It's pretty funny, actually.

  They did assist in eaning this cool achievement rite hur --->

  For completing fourty waves of horde on the Memorial map as well as achieving level fourty in rank. Yes, the Vashanator loves the little pics and numbers.

  --------

  I got Halo: Helljumper #1

  

  It's alright. Deffinitely seems better than Uprising already. Likable characters, great art work, fairly good wwriting. The main complaint I have for it though is all the ads. Eight of the thirty two pages are ads. Thats one ad per four pages. What ever. I've ordered the next part and it should be coming in any day now so I'll likely be talking about it in the next blog along with Sonic and Knuckles.

  Speaking of Halo, you guys should check out the live action Halo 3 ODST trailer, if thats something that interests you.

  Trailer

  Personally I thought it was pretty cool although I thought the Brute looked a little goofy. Still, pretty awesome. As a testament to my ultra Halo fandom I noticed a couple things that seemed... A bit off.

  Early in the trailer you see the main character seemingly training to become an ODST. However, you can't exactly enlist to become an ODST in the same way you would a marine or anything. You have to be an experienced veteran in combat. You can't just enlist right off the bat. So theres no such thing as a green ODST.

  Secondly, toward the end of the trailer you see ODSTs being dropped in the thick of combat - in open combat. But you see them all carrying sound suppressed SMGs. As I recall these models of the SMG are generally used for more secret stealthy operations. They aren't exactly standard issue. A sound supressor isn't going to do you much good in the more open warfare setting seen in the trailer. The MAFC assault rifle however is more standard issue and would have made more sense to have equiped...

  Just saying. It still doesnt detract the from the entertainment from the trailer and I'm pretty sure the trailer isn't really canon anyway. Who cares, right?

  • Posted Sep 6, 2009 9:24 pm PT
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• 19Aug 09

  Ten things i wont miss in ODST

  Halo 3 ODST is taking the series in some interesting new directions. Directions that require a certain amount of sacrifice of particular trade marks of the series. Sure, you may miss the Chief running mad at what would certainly be any other man's doom or being able to shoot two guns at the same time. But I personally look forward to bidding farewell to some of the series main stays. Heres a list of missing features ten that I wont miss....

  10. Bad four letter words

  

  Yeah... I had to really dig to the bootom of the barrel lower in the list. But in Halo 3 you could only make a three digit service tag. Alas, that limitation exists no more! The service tag can now be four digits!!! Oh mai

  9. Halo 3 DLC

  

  Again, bottom of the barrel here. But Halo 3: ODST will include all of Halo 3's DLC on disc. So for people like me, we just got to free up rougly a gig off our hard drives. Hooray!

  8. Master Chief

  

  No offense to the good ol' chief but I doubt Bungie really intended enemies such as the Hunters to feel mildly threatening. However thanks to the ODST enemies may trully feel much more threatening than ever before and thats something I look forward to. Halo at a more human perspective; no0t to mention more challenging.

  7. The Yellow Brick Road

  

  Okay, so linearity will not be complately gone from ODST, with the flash back sequences playing more like a typical Halo levels. But the segments where you play as the Rookie in New Mombasa at night will take place in an open environment letting you find the clues in what order you like taking routes you choose. It's an interesting and new direction for Halo and I very much look forward to bucking tradition in favor of the vast new city to explore.

  6. Flash Lights

  

  It wouldn't be at all surprising if you weren't aware, but you could use a flash light in each of the Halo shooters. In fact pressing up on the D-pad(in campaign) would turn it on. But you really didn't need it much. However, a good chunk of ODST's campaign takes place at night and while a flash light would be handy, you've got something better.

  

  VISR mode. Not only does it make your view a bit more bright and clear but it also highlights points of interest, allies, enemies and weapons. Nifty, right?

  5. The Battle Rifle and the Magnum

  ODST wont include that battle rifle you've clung so close to these past two Halo games. And it wont include that disapointing magnum either. Instead you'll be packing the automag which takes the physical form of a pistol, all the power and range of a rifle(and the scope to boot) and a firing rate that makes the carbne look like a turtle. Much like the Halo 1 pistol; a pocket rocket.

  

  Salivating yet?

  4. My eyes!!

  Remember the flare? Just in case you don't, heres a reminder...

  

  Yeah, that flare. Since there is no deployable equipment in ODST there will be no flares. I know, awesome, right?

  3. The Flood

  Okay, so the game isn't out and nothing is set in stone yet. But it's fairly safe to assume there will be no flood. The game take place before Halo 3 in New Mombasa, Africa. In Halo 3 they had to glass half the continent in order to expunge the flood infestation. So considering that in Halo 3 the continent wasn't already glassed up it's safe to assume the flood hadn't payed earth a visit prior to Halo 3.

  And I wont complain. I don't really find flood a particularly fun enemy fight. They don't employ any sort of intelegent tactics. They run at you with no regard to their own safety. The challenge in the flood is not that they fight intelligently, they just mob you in hordes. They are essentially zombies - the lazy game developer's dream enemy(no offense Bungie).

  The flood have served as an interesting plot device and a nice diversion, but levels dedicated to them(Cortana and the Library) have proven to be less than fun. It was crap that they got into Halo Wars. Just give us at least one game to bask in the glory of no floodiness

  2. The Jerk Store

  Yes, it's unfortunate that there is no competitive multiplayer for ODST. Especially considering fall damage is back. But theres one bright side to this. The Jerk Store is closed. No more douche bags ruining my Halo fun. No more kids that have bad parents. Just me, my friends and waves of Covenant. Sorry jerks, this store doesn't need you in stock. Yes, I just said that...

  1. Cortana

  

  You know, Cortana use to be pretty cool. She'd hack covenant crap at your covenience, she has big boobs and she was blue. Did I mention she has big boobs? But leaving her at High Charity was by far the biggest mistake the Master Chief ever made. Beacause through out Halo 3 Cortana constantly sent you odd messages that would consume your hud and make you walk at a turtle's pace while she said things that made not a lick of sense. And you can't skip these scripted sequences even if you've beaten the game.

  "I am your shield, I am your sword", "This the way the world ends", "I Have defied gods and demons". Hey, it's cool you were able to occasionally pull a Fall of Reach quote out of your ass evert now and then. Yeah, thats cool Cortana, but what the hell does that have to do with whats happening in the game? Whats that got to do with you for that matter?

  Oh and when you save her she acts all hunky dorey. As if nothing odd had been going on. Probably this part of the story that bothers me the most.

  It doesn't help Cortana at all that what was probably the worst level in the series was named after her.

  • Posted Aug 19, 2009 3:00 pm PT
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• 5Aug 09

  Hmmmm

  I'm going to type stuff today.

  So I was wanting to wait till I got my copy of Halo Helljumpers to blog, but it seems I'll be getting that significantly later than expected.

  First though, Dark Corners. Dark Corners came out last week and what can I say? It's pretty good. Fifteen dollars for seven maps and a new campaign chapter, you just don't see deals like that on the Live market place these days. I envy the people who hadnt bought any DLC prior for the fantastic deal they got in the All front Collection containing the Flash back, Combustible, Snowblind and Dark Corners map packs for a mere twenty dollars. If you've got Gears 2 and don't have the DLC yet - get All Fronts, NAO!

  Anyway, So far I think my favorite map is Nowhere.

  

  I've always been a sucker for pretty maps. It' plays quite well with Horde though. And it was nice to be back at home in War Machine. The rest of the maps played quite too. Although I can't say I'm too fond of the aethetics of Highway. Never have been a fan of any of the Locust themed environments. At least theres a cool Brumak that trots by every now n' then.

  As for the campaign level, I thought it was pretty cool. You can sneak around with dom in some goofy Theron Gaurd armor or go guns blazing in a blind rage over the death of poor Maria. Guns blazing is like any other Gears level but with more lever pulling. Sneaking is kinda interesting nothing too complex, but it's different and it's always nice to have some variety. There was a funny moment during the sneaking part though when I was pulling a lever out of sync with DOm and Marcus just yells, "We've got to pul lthe levers at the same time!!". The grubs that were only a few feet away seemed to not think that was odd.

  It was double EXP weekend so I managed to rank up quite a bit. Almost ten full levels up, in fact. Oh, and I got lots of achievements too.

  

  The colorful blocks make vashkey happy . Thats two hundred thirty five gamerscore right there, baby.

  --------

  In other Gears spiffyness, I got the new Gears of War novel, Jacinto's Remnant.

  

  Can't say I'm as impressed with is as I was with Aspho Fields(which was ****ing awesome book), but it's still good. Defintely worth reading. I think it left to many questions unanswered though. I'm not sure How Gears 3 can follow it up. Theres a surpringly low amount of Locust in the book, with them never showing up again in the book after about half way though. Most of them seem to have been wiped out after the flooding in Gears 2. The main enemy of the CoG in Jacinto's Remant seems to be the Stranded but they do seem half as cool an enemy for a game than the Locust.

  Still, I think theres certainly enough room in the story for another novel before Gears 3 comes around. Heck, maybe Gears 3 could be a prequel.

  Lots ointeresting stuff in the book though, like learning how the Chainsaw beyonet was though up(or even that it hadnt even been made until a good time after the Locust emrgence). You learn more about Hoffman, prescoot and alot of cool stuff.

  --------

  I also just recently got The Halo: Graphic Novel. Finally.

  

  It's interesting. The first story, "The Last Voyage of the Infinite Succor", is easily the best, depicting the Spec Ops commander investigating a commandeered vessel. the art in the story is fantastic and the story actually make up the bulk of the Halo graphic novel. The second one "Armor Testing", depicts a spartan testing the MJOLNIR mark VI armor that the Master Chief uses in Halo 2 and 3. It's kinda cool, funny and the art's pretty slick.

  The next one, "Breaking Quarintine" follows Sergeant Johnson as he escapes the flood infestation in Halo: Combat Evolved. It's actually not half as cool as it sounds. It's only about ten pages long and all you really see Johnson do is shoot some flood, walk down some halways and go up an elevator. Theres no dailouge(the guy who made it was from Japan and didn't know any English). The Art is alright, but it's still a pretty boring story. Preffered leaving Johnson's escape to my imagination.

  The last sory is, "Second Sunrise over New Mombasa". It shows the human side of the invasion of planet earth that was depicted in Halo 2. It's interesting but ultimately you don't really walk away from the story knowing anything you didn't already from the games. All of this is followed by a cool collection of art work from artist at Bungie and other spiffy people.

  Over all, the Halo graphic novel is alright. The best of it is in the first couple of stories and the art collection, but this really is something only for the fans. If nothing else, it's far better than Halo: Uprising. Hopefully though, Halo: Helljumpers sets a new standard for Halo comics.

  --------

  Almost forgot, I got to talk to Frank O'Conner - director of the Halo development group. He was answering question to fans on halo.bungie.org regarding Halo: Legends.

  Frankie wrote:

  I wrote:

  Will we learn of what happened to Cortana between Halo 2 an 3 while she was held captive by the Grave Mind? I always thought it was odd she turned out just fine after sending so many transmissions during Halo 3

  Hmmm.

  I can has cookie now?

  • Posted Aug 5, 2009 2:31 am PT
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• 11Jul 09

  Am I not BUNGLEY enough for the BUNGLE club?

  Yesterday afternoon Bungie awarded players with the elusive Recon armor permuatation for accomplishing certain tasks in Halo 3 in the Bungie versus the World playlist during Bungie day(July seventh). None of these tasks were made public aside from beating a Bungie team until yesterday. It was practically down to luck to get Recon unless you could find Bungie employees in the playlist, which was like finind a needle in a haystack considering there were only four Bungie employees online at any given time and the playlist was almost played by two hundred thousand players at any given time.

  Despite this and against all odds I won Recon!

  

  I don't know exactly what I did to earn it, Bungie didn't even notify the winners. You just have check for yourself. It was kinda funny, I was in a party with some friends and when I saw it as I was flipping through my armor variants and when I saw it I yelled, "I GOT RECON!!". Most of my friends thought I was joking at first.

  We played some grifball in matchmaking later and I thoroughly enjoyed hearing the enemy team talking about me via proximity chat, getting killed an unusual amount of times and getting sent friend requests and messages being asked how I got it... Made me feel important

  All gloating aside I'm extremely happy an honored that Bungie gave me the armor. Thanks Bungie!

  • Posted Jul 11, 2009 3:18 am PT
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• 9Jul 09

  Buy Moar Duty!

  Hot off the heels of the success of World at War and in time to bring everyone up to speed before Modern Warfare 2 kicks terrorist ass in November comes Buy More Duty!

  

  Buy More Duty is a package that rivals that of The Orage Box in value, containing the award winning games, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: World at War. Not only that, but it also contains Call of Duty 4's Variety map pack and Call of Duty: World at War's cleverly named Map pack 1 and Map packs 2, at no extra charge!!

  Thats TWO GAMES in one box and a bunch of maps!! Twice the duty, twice the fun!! But thats not all, pre-order now and you'll have half the weapons already unlocked! Which means you wont have to play the game as much!! Not only that but if you preorder at select retailers you'll have an entry to a drawing where if you're lucky you'll get to play a game of Field Tournament fashion Up and Down on the Ground Manja Flanja Blanja Banja Ishka Bibble Babble Flabble Doma Roma Floma Boma Jingle Jangle Every Angle Bricka Bracka Stacka Two Ton Rerun Free for All Big Ball with Cliffy B!

  

  Did I mention he eats puppies? What a swell guy.

  All this only for the Price of roughly one hundred and thirty five dollars. Now I know you may be a little uncofortable with the price, but it's a good deal. You see, right now Call of Duty 4 is fifty dollars and it's map pack is ten, so thats sixty right there. Then you take World at War and thats sixty and it's two map packs are ten dollars. You add all that up and it's one hundred and fourty dollars. You save five dollars with Buy More Duty!

  The good version of Buy More Duty will hit retailers this fall on the x-box 360, PS3 and PC. Crappy half assed edition will also release this fall on the Wii, Nintendo DS, PSP and PS2.

  Keep this up and we might get the long awaited Guitar Hero: Duty hits the Fan.

  

  • Posted Jul 9, 2009 1:14 am PT
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• 5Jul 09

  The Apocalypse is here

  You've read the title right and you've read it well. The end of the world is nigh. It's unstoppable, like a hulking behemoth of doom. It cannot be stopped, will not be stopped. All you can do is pray for a swift mercy killing.

  But Vashkey, you ask, how did you come to this conclusion? Well, it all started in the all too familiar realm of Halo 3. A harmless videogame... Or at least thats what it may seem to the eyes of the innocent. But it is a land of endless bloodshed and war.

  The particular battle ground this tale takes place in, Valhala. I had been cruelly murdered in cold blood twice by the accursed blue team right out of spawn. After, I could feel the beast within. It said, "pick up the sniper rifle". Despite being a weapons I rarely ever use I followed the order...

  And this happened.

  

  Yes, it may seem like a normal Halo 3 screen shot but I assure you theres some that doest belong here.

  

  Still don't see it?

  It's this thing ---->

  Yeah, all humorous melodrama aside I never ever get Sniper Sprees. Never. Like, I just looked it up on my bunge.net profile and apparently that was my first sniper spree ever. And it's not as if I'm a bad Halo 3 player, my k/d spread is .99 it's just that I hate the sniper rifles for three reasons.

  1. I feel that they are cheap. In pretty much every shooter I've ever played the sniper rifle will kill in one or two shots at most.
  2. They just aren't mai **** I prefer up close and personal, in you're face confrontation. It feels alot more rewarding. When you kill someone with out Mr.One-shot-nub-gun it means you were straight up the better player.
  3. .... I suck with the sniper rifle...

  To better get the point across here are some interesting Halo 3 Vash stats. I mostly play social match maiing. According to my social stats I have more kills with the Halo 3 pistol than the sniper rifle. Thats right, that Halo 3 Pistol. And yes, I'd take the pistol any day over the sniper rifle.

  Almost every weapons I have less kills than the sniper rifle with is either because I can't find the weapon often enough to use it regularly(such as the Carbine and the tank) or because I typically shoot and follow it with a finishing melee attack(like the mauler and plasma pistol).

  Now that I've got a sniper spree who knows whats next? A rampage? Maybe a killtrocity? Or perhaps even a sharpshooter? Whats that, I shouldnt hold my breath? What do I have to do to get that med- Ah ha ha ha ha, you almost got me there!

  --------

  In other boosting me ego news, I got this shiny achievement in Gears of Wars 2 for reaching the rank of 25! Thanks in part to a double EXP weekend and some grinding in Annex and Horde.

  

  Whats next on the Gears 2 agenda? Nothing until the Dark Corners DLC hits the Live market place. Played so much Gears 2 this weekend I'm burned out for now. But I must tip my invisible hat to epic for a job well done on title update 4, than did a darn good job. We've come a long way from the buggy launch the game had. Now I can't blame Epic for making a broken game when I get my butt kicked.

  To all those who did, thank you for having the patience for reading though this ego filled blog. If I were a game I'm sure you'd have 1000/1000 GS by now. The DLC achievements though? We'll see.

  • Posted Jul 5, 2009 2:41 am PT
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• 23Jun 09

  If you can dodge a laser, you can dodge a ball!

  Howdy people, so hows it going? It's been longer than I had anticipated since last blog. I don't know whats happened. I had original planned on doing an E3 blog, but I opted no to. I mean whats the point? You guys knew what happened and I'm sure you've got a pretty good idea what I want.

  Of course theres the ODST. I'm glad to see Crackdown is getting it's well deserved sequel with 4-player co-op support and a much needed competetive multiplayer. Aside from them and all the Metal Gear thats about all I'm wanting.

  Sad news though, Kinfdom Hearts 358/2 Days comes out on September. How is this sad? ODST also comes out on September. I'm on a tight budget and I just don't have the money both, so unfortunately I wont be getting the new Kingdom Hearts game. Or not right away, anyway.

  As for the reasoning for getting ODST over Kingdom Hearts, come on... I don't even like the DS. I'd be forking over about two hundred dollars for something I'll be done with in less than a month. I'm getting it, but not at launch. ODST on the other hand I'll be playing since I actually have people to play it with.

  --------

  So I've been buying games on the cheap here lately and I think the first one I bought since the last blog was Mass Effect.

  

  Spiffy, right? Some of you may already know I gave it a shot back in 2007. Didn't dig the menu happiness and user unfriendliness. I thought I gave up too easiuly last time though and my friends seemed to have had fun with it so I gave it another go and this time I had alot of fun.

  Most of the enjoyment was from Mass Effect's rich back story. Really, Mass Effect has an unusally rich universe for a first entry in a game series. And the confersation tree system is pretty cool. I don't want to dwell too much on the game, but Intend to type up a review eventually.

  --------

  Sonic the Hedgehog 3 came out on Live arcade a few days ago and I could resist for just five bucks. I actually didn't get to play too much of Sonic 3 back in the Genesis days. If I remember right my step brother wasnt too keen on sharing that partical entry in the series.

  But justice has been served and I got to not only play, but beat the game. Surprisingly easy compared to Sonic 1 and 2. It's about as fun as the others if not a little more since it's a bit easier. What I don't gget is Knuckle. All he does is annoy you through the entire game. You never fight him and were it not for everyone telling me about it I would have never guessed he and Robotnik were working together, the game never shows them together.

  I'm aware the game was cut short because of deadlines and was followed up by Sonic and Knuckles but still, in Sonic 3 Knuckles just seems like a worthless addition.

  I've been trying to find matches online and theres not a sould around which I found was odd since even a year after Sonic 2 hit Live Arcade you could still find someone every now and then. Finally I just played local multiplayer with one of my friends and I think I know why no ones playing. The multiplayer in Sonic 3 sucks. The multiplayer levels are small and just loop. Instead of racing to the finish you try and see who gets the most laps. It's not bad but after Sonic 2 it's just a step backwards.

  Overall I found Sonic 3 to be pretty good, but Sonic 2 was better.

  --------

  Finally, I got Far Cry 2 just a few days ago.

  

  Honestly, so far I'm not digging too much. And it's not really a bad game, I guess just a combination of things in the game that I just don't like. The character feels heavy and almost seems to struggle just jumping. It kinda feels like a clunky Call of Duty.

  I'm really not too fond of the graphics either. The graphics seems a bit low res, similar to the Orange Box's Hal-Life 2, but the draw distance seems worse and I hate the color scheme. Just a bunch of brown. Nothing but brown. Grass and fire often wont be visisble on screen until your winthin about twenty feet of it.

  It seemed very odd until I installed it. The game is only about 4.5 gig. Most every other game I've played is about six or seven gig.

  I hear the game tries to be more realistic by having guns wear out and jam on you after enough use and that you have to have a steady supply of medecine because character has melaria. I already knew about the Melaria and thought maybe it'd just be a minor inconveniance, but all that on top of it's initial impression... Things don't look good for Far Cry 2.

  I was so displeased that I just went and played some Halo 3 and Gears 2 to get it out of my mind. At least the game has a robust map editor. I've seen alot of awesome things, such as a roller coaster and a replica of Jurassic Park.

  I'll Try to keep an open mind. After all I'm only a few hours into the campaign and I haven't actually tried the competitve multiplayer yet. But I really don't like what I've seen so far.

  --------

  Bungie just started a new playlist in Halo 3 for summer called "Action Sack" full of bizarre and fun game types. So I've been playing more Halo than I had expected. I think my favorite game types are sumo and run for cover. Sumo is a gametype where teams duke it out one a piece of land in the sky, trying to topple each other using the Gravity hammer. Run for Cover is a game type where one team snipes and lasers the other team from the sky box while the team on the ground tries to get their VIP to scoring areas.

  They're both a blast, personally I prefer Sumo but I seem to be pretty darn good at Run for cover. I've gone a full match as the VIp with out dying. You just gotta serpentine. I've had some very close calls though.

  Vashkey's awesome match

  

  

  If you can dodge a laser, you can dodge a ball! Try it out sometime if you have all DLC.

  • Posted Jun 23, 2009 1:32 am PT
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• 21May 09

  Ew, Raging Blast all over my Orange Box!

  Om nom nom nom

  So like I said last blog I've been renting games. Fun, yes. Plenty of time has passed since last blog. Between then and now I've finished The Bourne Conspiracey and I really can't say much more about it here that I didn't already say last time. The gameplay remains consistant throughout. The only thing that really changes things up is a single diriving segment. Other than that its full of it's hard hitting hand to hand combat and acceptable gunplay.

  The driving segment isnt really a big deal. The game kinda points you in the direction you need to go, you drive and thats it. it's nothing really special but it's not bad or anything. It kinda felt slow, but I had been also playing Burnout around that time so that could have altered my peception of speedy car gameplay.

  --------

  After that I rented Prince of Persia. Not that old one or the last gen one, but that one that came out last year. It kinda feels like a mix between Okami, Shadow of the Colossus and some other game I've never played. Your in some nearly deserted huge kingdom cleaning it up of corruption with some sexy chick that help you out all the time.

  The game is mostly about pulling off fancy impressive acrobatic gameplay while making your way to some boss so that you can clean the area you just explored up after beating the local baddy. Theres a sort of path that each boss kinda controls and you just kinda push into it so by the end of the game you've fought each of the four bosses like nine times.

  It's a fun game, minus the whole fighting the same guys over and over crap. It's faily legnthy too. To the point where if I had atually bought it I really would not have regretted it. Supposedly you can beat it in less than twelve hours but it took me about seventeen. I took my time. regardless the game decided to award me with the achievement for beating it in less than twelve regardless as well as the achievement for not having your side kick save you more than one hundred times although I'm posisitive she did. I guess it's glitched, I wont complain.

  Theres alitt more I could say about the game, but I'm to impatiant to. Just look forward to a review as I plan to do one eventually.

  As for what else I've rented, there was Skate 2 and I didn't like that. Wont talk about it. Currently renting Lego Batman. What more needs to be said? It's Lego Batman. The games I've actually been trying to rent turns out to have been stolen. I wanted to rent Fallout 3, Fable 2, Spider-Man Web of Shadows and James Bond 007: Quantum of Solace, but apparently those games have been over due for months.

  So theres really nothing good left to rent on the 360 at my local video rental store other than what I've already talked about. And thats why they went so long with out getting new games. because they just get stolen.

  --------

  So Mirror's Edge has been on the cheap as of late, so I picked it up.

  

  It's the one game of 2008 that I wanted to play that I never got around to(well, other than MGS4, of course). I have to admit it was always the game's art direction that always had me interested. Sure the first person platforming gameplay was really interesting and proved to be potentialy fun fro mthe demo, but the game was just pure eye candy.

  And I have to admit this is the one situation where the pretty screwed me over. Not to say the game isn't good, but it takes a lot of commentment to really get the most out of this game. The game is all about the flow, trying to find a good path to your destination and executing the best manuvers to get there.

  This can be hard as the game really never tries to hard to point out a good let alone the best path to getting to your desitination. with the press of the B button your view will imidiatly go to the desitionation but not the path. So if you are walking and decide to press the B button to see where you need to go, prepare for disorientation as it's not rare that you imidialy face a wall where on the other isde in the destination.

  The game has what is called runner vision where key objects to getting to the destination are red, but these are alot less common than they are in the first level and it typically only objects that are near by so they don't exactly point you to the right direction until your already on your way.

  Another issue is the combat. Every now and then you'll be faced with armed enemies. Indivdually these guys arent much of a problem but later when you can be up against the likes of squads, it can be frustrating even on easy difficulty. While you're incouraged to avoid confrontation all together, it difficult when you may not know where you need to go and frantically looking while being shot at.

  There hand to hand combat which is mainly just about repeatedly pressing the right trigger in the enemies face until they die and shooting which isn't much different than most games. You don't start any level carrying weapons so you have to disarm them from enemies, which can be more difficult than it should be. In order to disarm you have to press the Y button just at the right time while someone is trying to melee you in close range combat or sneak up from behind and press Y. While it may not sound hard, the opprotunity to stealth disarm someone is rarely presented. Slo-mo help make frontal disarms a bit more easy, but often times when you do slow mo it's just frustating as guys around you just slowing shot you up while your trying to disarm some guy. You shouldnt carry guns since your mobility is limited and you can't even reload. which is lame and annoying.

  The controls are also some what awkward. In order to prefer action you use the left bumper and trigger. The trigger for lower based actions, the bumper for higher actions. Stringing high and low actions can be uncomfortable. Most people I know, myself include just uses their index finger to pres both of these button, so it's hard to press one quickly after and another. A solution could be to use your middle finger to use the trigger, but this isn't comfortable.

  For people play shooter regularly Mirror's Edge can be confusing and annoying. You can't reload your gun and if you try out of habit you'll likely accidentally activate slow-mo. Same for trying to activate context sensive actions. And unfortuantely you can't customize the controls. You can select different control schemes, but there aren't things you'd probably want to change.

  Really, Mirror's edge is most fun when you've got levels memorized and good paths figured out. In other words, to get the most out of this game you need to play each level over and over again. So in some ways it's kind of old school. But I really don't like that.

  Mirror's Edge isn't a bad game. It's just require lots of dedication to get to the fun part. It's rare I ever ask this, but DICE, please dumb it down a bit for us normal human being next time. On the bright side you can unlocks concept and promotional art work to view in the extras gallery.

  --------

  I've started playing the Orange Box and I finally got around to playing through and beating Half-Life2 Episode 1 and 2. Both pretty good despite a few frustrating points, just like the original Half-Life 2. I enjyed it enough to where I hope Episode 3 is released on the 360.

  Other Orangey Box activity include Team Fortress 2. been playing that and I really enjoy it. I've been getting a bit tired of Halo 3, so I guess TF2 will be taking it's place till ODST.

  --------

  Speaking of boxes that are orange I got Dragon Ball Z season nine!!

  

  So I've finally have the entire Dragon Ball Z series(minus a hand full of movies). Watching this part over again, I'm starting to think Mr.Satan is totally gay for Majin Buu... Okay, maybe not, but It's funny anyway. Interestingly the filter that made Super Buu sound super evil is gone. So now he just sounds kinda evil. And Transformed Super Buu sounds like Raditz. Pretty lame.

  On a another Dragon Ball related note, NamcoBandai just anounced a new Dragon Ball game for the Xbox 360. Dragon Ball: Raging Blast... Wait... Is that and innuendo? Umm, anyway apparently it's being developed by those guys who did those Tenkaichi games so I have to say I am a little disapointing. I was hoping for a Burst Limit 2.

  Still, the Tenkaichi games were alright(I guess) and I would really like some more Dragon Ball on my X-box. So I'll take the bait, for now.

  • Posted May 21, 2009 8:30 am PT
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• 9May 09

  Military of a Couple

  I've been doing so much more gaming lately than I had expected. For the most part I've finished up with Left 4 Dead. Been done with it for a while. Still need to mop up a few of the achievements, like headshotting a witch which I can't do for the life of me. I've got my A liscense in Burnout Paradise and I'm not in a hurry to upgrade it one more time and I'm at the point in the game to where all the hidden objects are a pain in the *** to find. Only need to find like two more billboards and like four more smashes.

  Shortly after posting last blog I got the x-box live vision cam that was bundeled with a copy of You're in the Movies. You're i nthe movies isn't the type of game I'd normally get. But with the vision cam it was on'y twenty dollars. I've got to admit though, the game is surprisingly fun. then I noticed by the fourth movie I made in the game(which really are more like trailers) that it's kinda repetitive. I swiftly went through and hoarded all the achievements and I'm ready to get rid of the game, it wasnt why i bought the camera after all.

  A nice little feature of the camera though is that you can create your own gamer pics. Right now mine is a picture of Goten. Pretty cool.

  --------

  Those games arent the ones thats had my attention though. my local video rental store finally got a decent selection of games. so intead of wasting loads of cash on games I'll likely be renting a few for the next month or so.

  First I rented Army of Two. It's a pretty decent game. I'm not going to go over the story of a year old game but the gameplay is sort of an odd combination of Gears of War, Left 4 Dead and the typical mmo rpg.. It's got the team focus of Left 4 Dead, alot of the same gameplay element of Gears of War and an aggro system like an MMO RPG.

  It's pretty interesting as you'll mostly fight most battle using the aggro system to have one guy draw all the attention while the other sneaks and flanks.

  I found the controls some what awkward. Unlike most every other shooter the context sensitive button here is the A button. And if your doing some like shotting a turret or driving a vehicle, instead of pressing the A button again to cancle your activity you press the B button. It takes a while to get used to it and once you do you'll get mixed up when you switch to a different game and there are no alternative button lay outs.

  I also find the difficulty and what is suppose to be normal(called contractor here) to be unusually difficult. The friend I was playing with eventually got frustrated and gave up before we finished(which ironically made things easy as the computer controlled ally is more responsive to my commands...). By the end of the campaign I was pretty certain I never wanted to touch the sequel.

  But once I was done I was able to take it down to easy and just start achievement looting. And it was pretty fun. The campaign was on the short side(what game isn't now a day), fortunately on the market place there was free DLC that contained two new campaign levels. Some level with no apparent connection to the over all plot and an alternate ending. Surprisingly they weren't half ***ed add ons. They had full new fully voice acted cut scenes and measured up well to the rest of the game.

  I didn't really play much of the multiplayer which wasnt a big deal. When I saw that it was limited to 2 Vs 2 I was pretty bummed. Regardless it's pretty interesting. Matches have ever changing objective. Once you've completed one another starts and this continues till the match ends. While this is prety cool and fun, 2 vs 2 is just underwelming. Yes, yes I know it's army of two, but come on. Gears 2 and Halo 3 have game types where there are more than just two teams of two players. If your not gonna give us bigger teams at least give us more teams.

  Even though matched only require four player I had a surprisingly tough time getting enough players for a match to get started. I think I waited like ten minutes searching. And about half way through the match when my team mate quit the match automatically ended. It's no wonder the game is deserted. If all it takes for a match to end is one person to quit then I doubt people are gonna keep playing.

  Despite all my *****ing, I actually enjoyed Army of Two. It was a good if at least a decent game. Based on what I played I'd give it a 7.5 or an 8. It's a fun game, but the campaign is so short and the multiplayer is so dead and limiting that I'd say that at best it's the perfect rental. I was thinking about it though and had it been released by in like 2005 or 2006 people would have called it a classic. I look forward to the sequel.

  --------

  If you guys haven't heard Gears 2 is getting new DLC. I've been hearing it called so many things it's annoying, but essentially it's seven maps and a new campaign level. You can either buy it off live for twenty bucks or buy it at retail with twenty bucks. The retail version also includes the Snow Blind and Combustible map packs(to make idiots, such as myself, feel stupid for buying the map packs), a poster, a vidoc, a premium theme and a game guide.

  I'm pretty much in it for the new campaign level. I really don't play much of the multiplayer outside of horde. I was really excited... Until I found out it wasn't going to come till July 28th... Practically the end of Summer.

  --------

  After I took back Army of Two I was hoping that Spider-Man: Web of Shadows would be back. That wasnt the case. So it was between Ninja Gaiden II or Bourne Conspiracy, a game I knew nothing about. Thanks to NG 2's notorious difficulty I went with Bourne Conspiracy. And it's surprisingly fun.

  It seems to be a fighting game/shoter cross over. You often get into a side scrolling fighting engagement. It's nothing complicated, you use the Y buttong for slow heavy attacks and X for fast weaker attacks and block with A. And while it's all very simple it's made satisfying through take downs. Take Downs are bassically insta wins. Take downs are perfomed by pressing the B button and you can perform take downs once you've filled up the adrenaline bar to a certain point. Once you've anneciated a take down you're treated to a cool litlte mini cut scene of the main character beating up the enemy in a very violent way, such as slamming lem into a blunt object. The take down beats any enemy instantly unless it's a boss. And from what I've played Take downs are essentially in beating a boss, it's just takes many more.

  It's not very sophisticated and I can't really say it's screams great gameplay but they're very entertaining and emmensely satisfying to watch. Like wise, this take down system is also present in the gunplay. Supposesdly there are also driving segments(what game doesnt have these now a day), so it's quite the genre bender. From what I've recently read about the game, it's only around four two six hours long. There is no multiplayer either, so it's a good thing I rented the game instead of buying. Regardless, it's quite fun.

  --------

  At my local video rental store they are also trying to sell off some of their older, less popular games. Dragon Ball Z: Sagas was ones of these, so I decided to pick it up.

  

  I've heard some pretty bad things about the game, but for three dollars I figured it was worthing checking out. It's pretty much the only Dragon Ball console game I've yet to place since Atari/Infogrames aquired the license. I've finished the Saiyan saga, and I can't really say it's great, but I wouldnt say it's as bad as some people say. But it's still not great.

  It's sorta like a cross between Dragon Ball Z: The Legacy of Goku and the Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi series. Like the Tenkaichi games you're roaming around in a 3d world and like the Legacy of Goku, it's an action adventure game. It's a good concept thats poorly executed. The camera is in a fixed position. You have no control over it, so it some times gets caught in part of the environment and it's not unccomon for the enemies to be off screen. The camera never turns arounds, so if you back track you wont see anything more than like five feet in front of you.

  The combat it's pretty bare bones. You can do punch and kick combos. Theres apparently no different between a kick or a punch when in comes to speed in execution or damage, so it really makes no difference which one you do. You can go to stores and purchace new abilities but so far the only usefull one I've got was a teleport technique. Seems like it all you need in a boss fight. I was having trouble with Vegeta but then I starting usping teleport, would get behind him and open a can.

  So the combat really doesnt require much strategy. The graphics aren't in any way impressive. Character appear stiff and don't move their mouths when talking. Particle effects look pretty dirty and the game itself doesnt appear to clear. Kinda wish I had bought the x-box version since they are upresed on the 360.

  What is something of a blessing in disguise is that the cut scenes are just a brief and some what vague summary of what happened in that part of the story. Good thing though since all these Dragon Ball games have been going through the exact same story over and over. I was kinda worried about it at first but at this point I'm willing to take an original story for these games. I'm tired of going through the same exact plots over and over again and fighting the same exact guys.

  I haven't finished the game yet. To busy playing fun stuff but so far the only thing I actually like is the box art. It's not the worst Dragon Ball game ever, but it's not the best either. Not by a long shot.

  Speaking of Dragon Ball though, I got season eight of Dragon Ball Z.

  

  Pretty cool, right? No? Well, you didn't have to be so mean about it. Anyway, Now that season eight is out of the way I only need season Nine and I'll have all of DBZ. Yay!

  This blog was way longer than I had anticipated.

  • Posted May 9, 2009 3:09 am PT
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• 28Apr 09

  Left for Bread :P

  Oh mai gush! Look at dis!

  

  Thats right, after eight ****ing months of waiting(which is also a year and eight months after the first issue) Halo Uprising #4 has finally come out. Was it worth the wait? Lol, **** no. I'll admit though, it came out better than I had expected.

  And I made a guest appearance!!

  

  Yes, my name is Ritche. No this isn't an official reference to me. Just an awesome coincidence, kinda like the Ritchie in Pokemon, although the Halo Ritchie is terrible insignificant...

  For those wondering about Uprising, it's a throw away story. It has it's moments, but it's pretty average. Despite being on the cover of each issue the Masterchief is of no importance to the over all plot. He's just kinda there killing covenant and stuff.

  Thankfully Bendis and Maleev wont be a part of the next comic book series, Helljumpers, so there is hope.

  --------

  Since I've been talking about Kai last couple blogs I'll talk about the last two episodes that aired. In Episode three we have the fight with Raditz. I really liked it except for the part where Raditz and Goku are killed which recieved a stupid amount of editing. The hole that was in Goku chest has turned into a giant bruise and alot of the blood from the scene was cleaned up.

  As for the forth episode, it was basically episode 6 of DBZ. Everything seemed to be in tact. No cutting of scenes. Pretty much everything seemed the same aside fro mthe regular remastering and cropping stuff(although I can't say for a fact, episode six isnt ingrained in my memory). Heck, I think I even heard a few tunes from Z.

  --------

  So I got a couple of games last week for relatively cheap.

  Burnout Paradise..

  

  And Left 4 Dead..

  

  I'll start with Left 4 Dead. Right now, the game seems alright. I've played through all four of the campaign, which took longer than it should have since most of my friends didn't seem up to playing the game. Each campaign was around an hour though, so theres not much there. Most of my time in the game has been spent replaying the campaigns in an effort to earn the achievements which has been a more difficult task than it probably should be.

  It took me three tries before I got akimbo assassin(beat a campaign using only pistols). The first time I used a stationary tureet which screwed me over and I don't even know why I didn't get it on the second try. the game just decided my pistols werent good enough, I guess.

  When I am able to get friends to play people generally don't seem to cooperative. I was trying to get the Man vs tank achievements and despite constantly reminding my team mates to let me kill the tank they'd just run over and auto shotty it in the face. Once I tried getting the achievement for beating a campaign with out alerting a witch. Toward the end of one of the campaign the ai director spawned a witch in front of a latter I had to climb to finish the level, for ***** and giggles. I managed to sneak past it but my ai team mates werent so lucky.

  I eventually got the achievements, but my experience with the game has been very much like these frustrating situations. I wasnt even able to get a full party to play versus mode with me till today. the game is fun and all but I'm sorta wishin I had just gone with Mirror's Edge instead. Left 4 Dead requires that you have good team mates in order to get anything out of it and my friends just haven't really been up to playing it. And it's so low on content. I'm glad I got it for only forty bucks.

  Burnout on the other hand has been a blast with and with out friends to play with me. It's like Grand theft auto, minus the thieving of cars. You just go around a city completing challenges with plenty of other side quests to complete such as smashing billboards and finding super jumps.

  I really like the way you get certain vehicles. Once you've completed so many challenges specials cars will roam around the city and if you take them down they're yours. It's like a twisted car version of Pokemon. If only there were more cars you could earn with this method. My only complaint really is that after a while the slowmo crash scenes really get annoying. When I'm doing a tinmed event theres nothing more annoying than wasting like five seconds of my times watching myself crash in slow-mo. It's pretty cool, but it get really annoying some times.

  Tomorrow I'm going to be getting Virtual On on XBLA, I'm pretty excited. I'm also going to be getting an x-box vision cam. I just found them going for twenty bucks and bundeled with a game, so I figure why not? Plus, Burn out is compatible with the vision cam. So look forward to my thoughts on that. I might also review Burnout and Left 4 Dead... I really do like reviewing.

  • Posted Apr 28, 2009 11:40 pm PT
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• 9Mar 09

  All Units

  So last week I got the magical Halo Wars Limited Edition...

  

  Sparkle sparkle

  And now that I've played the hell out of the game I can say what I think about it so far. Keep in mind that Halo Wars is the first rts I've ever played(go on, call me a noob), so my standards for the game were based on bassically the same standards I have for all games. Be fun and give me reason to play after the initial first run.

  I beat the campaign and for the most part it's pretty good. What I liked most about it is that most of the missions have you doing pretty different things. Almost none of the missions feel similar. Halo Wars probably has the most varied single player experience I've played in years. Which is totally awesome.

  My only complaints for the campaign really is that the pacing for the story wasnt all that great and to be honest the characters aside from the arbiter and spartans just werent really that interesting. Everyone pretty much fit into some very familiar archtypes. As for the story and pacing it just fealt like things were kinda zooming on by before you could settle comfortably.

  In other words you sorta undertsood what was going on but some of the finer details were hazey, kinda like Halo 3. After beating the campaign I watched the theater mode(Not to be confused with Halo 3's theater mode that lets you watch gameplay. This theater mode allows you to watch cut scenes) and after that I went and got my facts straight on Halopedia(nerdy vash is nerdy).

  The campaign supports 2-player co-op and I was kind of concerned how exactly this would work. For the past few days I've been going through the campaign with one of my friends and I'm glad to say it works. It's not perfect, but it works and it's certainly not bad.

  How it works is typically a mission will start out and you and your buddy both get a part of how ever many units there are(and if one player so chooses, they can give their units to their friend). You both share bases and budget, how ever. Assuming your playing with a friend and not some random retard this can open doors to strategies that would be harder to pull off on your own. For example one mission has you repairing a part of a space ship while simultaneously fighting of Covenant ifantry on the ship. What I did was take all the cyclops and repair the ship while my friend took everything everything else and fight the covenant aboard the ship. The missions were much easier when we split up the tasks this way.

  Besides the co-op, the mission variety and the adjustable difficulty the campaign will have you coming back in form of skulls, black boxes and campaign scoring. Skulls are alot more trickier in Halo Wars than they were in Halo 3 or 2. Not only are they hidden in a certain part of each level, in order for them to even show up you must complete certain tasks. For example to have the skull in the first level to show up you need to kill one hundred grunts(this is the most difficult skull to get in the campaign as a matter of fact). Black boxes on the other hand stay in the same location in the campaign, so you need not worry about having to complete special tasks.

  As for campaign scoring system the game will grade you based on performance will gold silver bronz medal and other stuff like that. Your score is based on how quickly you complete the mission, if you complete any of the special side quests and if/what skulls you have activated during the mission(the skulls can make the experience harder, easier or just goofy like scarabs shooting rainbow beams and grunts exploding in confeti).

  Now that I'm done talking about the campaign mostly I guess I'll adress one question that some probably ask. Does it feel like Halo? I'd say thats a definite yes. All the weapons make the exact sound effects they did in the older games. Most of the covenant races make an appearance, save for the drones which is made up in tenfold by the first ever in game appearance of the egineers(besides, who liked the drones? really? ). Almost all the familiar USNC and Covenant vehicles make an appearance. Both the USNC and Covenant make some smack talk in battle which is pretty cool.

  I'd say that Ensemble did a great job making it feel like Halo. Almost all the new units fit in perfecty, especially the Locust. The only ones I don't really like are the Vampire and the Cyclops. It's bassicly a flying needler. As for the the Cyclops it's really not that bad, but why would the UNSC discontinue giant mechs? Because supposedly they did.

  The soundtrack, it's awesome. I love it. I'd say it's the best sound track in the series after Halo 2. What more can I say? I'll likely buy the sound track. And for the graphics, I guess their okay. Theres not much I can really compare them to. This is the only console(or just RTS) I've ever played. I mean, things arent extremely detailed, but why would tiny on screen units be detailed? If anything is impressive though it's the animations. The battles going down on the ground aren't just these continually recycled animations, if you look closely some times theres some real hand to hand combat going down between these tiny spartans and elites and it's pretty cool.

  Speaking of spartans, thats one little disapointment I had with the game. With the very first trailers and even near launch doccumentaries you led to beleive that you were going to lead an army of spartans in the game. And when I say army, I mean somthing like maybe twenty(there were around twenty five spartans during that part of the time line). What ends up really happening is that most of the time when you actually do have spartans, it's just three of them. The only time you get any more than that is in one mission where you get nine spartans. You start the mission with three spartans, then at the last like five minutes you get six more and thats the most spartany it gets.

  Also, before the launch of the game Ensemble talked about a leader unit in the game, a Brute Chieftain. I figured because of this the Brutes were going to have a role in the story... Well, turns out not so much. Theres one mission where you fight some Brutes at the beginning for like three minutes. Thats it. Thats all the Brutey you get in your Halo Wars. The Brute Chieftain is merely a Halo Wars hero unit for the multiplayer. Something tells though the Brutes were meant to have a bigger role and were cut due to time constraints.

  Oh well, when you dig to deep into Halo you start finding things you wish you never had.

  I almost forgot to mention, the game comes with a sort of time line mode. You can unlock events in the time line by finding black boxes and winning skirmish games with each of the leaders and winning skirmish games on each map. The time line details mostly events that happen during and around the events of Halo Wars for the most part. Most stuff regarding the characters. It also helps put some perspective on how long the events of Halo Wars takes place. It feels like maybe two days, but according to the time line the game's events happen in a the time frame of about a week.

  Then there are certain events that are detailed in the time line that have you scratching you head such as when the Brutes took over the role of the Elites in the covenant, which happens over twenty years after Halo Wars.

  Okay.... Now I'm mostly done with the story and campaign... I think.
  
  For mutliplayer... Theres not much I can tell you except I suck. I suck really bad and I doubt thats going to change any time soon. I typically like building up my forces. And I havent really learned how to repel some of those rush strategies. So I lose, alot. Hopefully I will get better.

  Okay, now that my suckatude is out of the way I can atually talk about what the multiplayer is like. It reminds me of Gears 2, but not quite in a bad way. It's similar in that theres not enough game types but theres a good amount of maps. The game only has two modes. standard skirmish and death match. I refuse to turn my x-box to get a proper explanation and the instruction booklet seems to not have anything regarding it so I'll try and explain it from memory. From what I've played of the multiplayer skirmish seems to be a normal match where you just try and destroy the enemy base/s and units. Death match seems to be the same thing but you start off with a ton of resources and fully upgraded units. You can play these in varations of 1v1, 2v2 and 3v3.

  I'm not sure why the game couldnt come with a free for all mode. And concerning game tyes two just doesnt seem like much. I'm not familiar with RTS that much but I could see game types from Halo working here to such as capture the flag and king of the hill.

  The lack of game types though is almost made up with the abundance of maps. The game ships with fifteen maps which is more than I've seen any console multiplayer game ship with aside from maybe Unreal Tournament III.

  I've been hearing people complain about how the game only has two playable factions. I'm not sure why this is such a problem. But I guess this is some what remedied by the fact that there are six different leaders, each leader having a handfull of unique units and speacial leader powers.

  With the two races and six leaders one will probably ask, is the game balanced? Right now I can't say for certain. Like I said I'm new to RTS, so I probably havent learned all the counter tactics. Right now things seem mostly balanced. The covenant's max population is ten more than that of the UNSC but UNSC units are generally more powerfull. The main problem seems to be though that rushing for the Covenant seems too effective. The covenant leader is an actual unit(the UNSC one isn't actually there). And while this may present a problem as the covenant leader can die(I forget how you respawn them but I know you can), it presents a significant advantage for rushing.

  See, the Covenant bases come with a teleport pad that teleports any units to the leader. So it makes rushing much easier. Fortunatly former Ensemble employees formed Robot Entertainment and will be supporting Halo Wars, so if there are so unfair advanges they'll likely iron them out with a patch.

  And thats all you need to know about the actual game at this point, really. If I had to rate the game on a scale from 1 to ten, one being bad, ten being awsome I'd give Halo Wars an 8.5

  Gameplay - 8

  Graphics - 8

  Sound - 9.5

  replay value - 8.5

  I'd reccomend it to the hardcore Halo fans. The ones that care about the lore. I'd reccomend it to people interested in the RTS genre but haven't gotten into it. I'm not entirely certain it's for the hard core RTS fan, but if they came expecting a top of the line RTS game I'd doubt they'd be be happy with it, but they'd be over expecting if they thought Halo Wars was going to be the best thing ever. Ones thing is for certain though, Halo Wars is a good game.

  Just in case anyone was wondering about weather the limited edition is worth it, it really depends on if you want what it comes with. First of all it comes with the Halo Wars game(of course). Then theres the six leader cards which are pretty much meaningless. Then theres The Spirit of Fire patch which is cool, but I don't know what to do with it. I thought it'd be like a normal militar patch or somthing that I could sew onto somthing but it's like a huge hunk of plastic. What ever.

  Then we have the comic book, Halo Wars Genesis. I was fully expecting it to be a half assed rip off thrown in. I read it, it's actually alright. The story is better and more meanigfull than I had expected, but the art work was actually worse than I had expected. Not that it was bad, I was just expecting somthing on level with the Halo Uprising series. But I'll take this over Uprising any day since Beth Noto didnt just copy in game environments and character models like Alex Maleev.

  Then we have the Honor Gaurd Wraith and flaming warthog(the latter you actually get for reserving the game, not getting LE). Both are pretty cool and as one should probably expect, they don't perform any differently than the regular Warthog and Wraith. But theres something very, very lame about them You have to activate them in the same menu you activate skulls. The anoying part about activating skulls is that unlike Halo 3 you can't activate them in the pre-game lobby. You have to press start after you game starts then sort through a menu and activate what you want, But the really lame part about it is that if Im not mistaken you can not activate any of this during multiplayer.

  So yeah, no showing off your cool Wraith or Warthog to your friends.

  Lastly you get the Mythic Map pack for Halo 3. I'd talk about the maps, but I've already typed enough for one day. I will just say that the Mythic map pack is pretty much the reason you would buy the Limited edition. The leader cards and the patch are pretty much meaningless to anyone over the age of twelve. While Halo Wars Genesis is alright I certainly would not have got the limited edition for it alone. And considering I can't show of my shiny flaming worthog and honor gaurd wraith, whats the point?

  Limited Editions is just for people who want the Mythic map pack early and those Halo nuts who actually got the Legendary edition of Halo 3.

  And that people is all I have to say about Halo Wars. Tune in next time for my take on the Mythic map pack.

  • Posted Mar 9, 2009 3:27 pm PT
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• 2Mar 09

  Hill Contested

  So Yeah, I figured I should probably go ahead and post some of the screen shots I made for the two different Mythic Map pack contests like I said I would before Halo Wars comes out and consumes all my free time.

  I'll start with the screen shots I made for Covenant themed contest.

  

  ^As you may recall this is the one that got me runner up

  

  

  

  

  

  

  And the following ones are the screen shot I entered for the ODST themed contest...

  

  

  

  

  I hope you guys enjoyed looking through them.

  • Posted Mar 2, 2009 6:00 pm PT
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• 27Feb 09

  Jackal got jacked!

  So not much happened this week, just a bunch of random stuff.

  I guess the recurring theme though was contests... I entered a crap load of contests this past week. Alot of publications have been holding contests, often times the prize being the yet to be released Mythic map pack for Halo 3.

  Bungie held it's own ODST screen shot contest. So I went through the campaign, took some real good screen shots of ODSTs if I do say so myself. Of course I didn't win. Oh well.

  I also entered on a few other sites, such as halo.bungie.org's two contests(one has yet to end), ready up live's, Planet xbox's, joystiq's as well as some others....

  One contest I entered in particular was Halo 3 Mythbusters' which was a covenant screen shot contest. I was one of the runners up, which was kinda painfull. I thought there'd be more than one winner as they said they had codes, but they ended up only having one.

  Heres the picture I submitted that got me runner up though.

  

  I spent hours getting the best screen shots I possibly could for both the Bungie and Halo 3 Myth busters contests, so I'm thinking about posting a blog here showing off all the neat screen shots I took in Halo 3.

  In the end it appears as though I'll likely have to pick up the Halo War Limited edition that I just recently finished the payment for the pre-order. Not that thats a bad thing, on top of the mythic maps it comes with a nifty comic book, but I would have liked saving myself twenty dollars.

  --------

  Recently I've mostly been playing Halo 3. I originaly intended to lay off it for a while, but one of my friends recently got layed off so before his Live subscription runs out we decided we should play some Halo 3 together. It's been fun for the most part, but it seems as though some dark entity in the deepest corners of the Haloverse has been denying me of that thing I call fun...

  I was playing the team capture the flag double xp weekend yesterday for example and apparently I was the only one who knew that the capture the flag playlist was about capturing the flag. Me and my friend were the only ones who even touched the enemy flag in out one match last night. It was devastating as I had dragged the flag all the way into our base. I would grab the fly walk a few steps and die. Then respawn and repeat the process. By the time I was able to drop the flag into the base no one would grab the flag and take it to the capture point. The flag was in our base for goodness sakes. I was litterally yelling.

  

  Ihad not been that angry playing a game since I was forced into that racing segment in GTA IV. Anyway, the enemy team almost returned their flag that was in OUR base until I saved day.

  Regardless, we still lost. 1 to 3.

  I'll be glad to take a short break from Halo 3 when I get Halo Wars.

  --------

  After having the game for well over a I year I finally decided to beat Undertow. The campaign is pretty fun. And the co-op is awsome. Oddly though Undertow is the only game I've ever played that I did not care to find out what the story was about. I skipped every cut scene except the ending and I gotta say it still seem quite uninteresting. I beat it though, which didnt take to long.

  Me and one my friends decided to try and get the achievment for winning a ranked conquest match. My friend thought the game might be deserted enough that we might get matched up together. Surely enough we were able to get matched up twice, no problems and we both got the achievement.

  I knew Undertow wasnt big but I thought that since it was free for a period of time there be at least a decent sized community. The game is devoid of any activity.

  Which is a shame since it's actually a pretty fun game.

  • Posted Feb 27, 2009 5:10 pm PT
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• 17Dec 08

  Hope Ran to Deep

  So as you all may know, I got Gears of War 2 a little over a month ago. I've had plenty of time with it and as you may or may not already know, I even did a review on it.

  But honestly, I don't think that did the game justice. I want to give a more in depth look at the game. Not all that I feel about the game can be properly expressed in a review where I try to keep my personal feelings out and have a more unbaised look at the game.

  Gears of War had a pretty big fallowing for a new IP. Somthing comparable to that of Metal Gear or Halo. Alot of people enjoyed it and there was alot of hype and alot of expectationst for the sequal. So naturally I was expecting a falling out from a small portion of the fan base.

  It happens with all big games. I saw it happen with Kingdom Hearts when Kingdom Hearts II came out. I saw it happen with Halo when it's sequels Halo 2 and Halo 3 came. And more recently i saw it happen with Super Smash Brothers' fanbase with the release of Super Smash Brothers Brawl.

  When you take somthing with a big fallowing and give it a sequel, not everyone is going to be happy. And it can be for any number of reasons. The sequel can either stick to close to the beaten path or stray to far away from it. With a sequal you normally get some gameplay tweaks and no matter how big or small they may be, you're likely going to anger someone.

  However, Gears of War 2 is a very interesting and some what different spin on this routine.

  I will first state that I beleive that for the most part, Gears of War 2 is largely better than the original game. The gameplay remains solid and there have been some additions that make it all the more fun. The campaign is longer and has a much better plot. The production values are all top notch and about as good as it gets on the 360. And the multiplayer is much deeper with real matchmaking, ranking, more game types and more maps.

  But there are some flaws. And they arent just little things. These flaws can pretty much destroy the game for alot of people.

  This has been made clear by the fact that for the past three weeks Gears has been doing nothing but slipping further and further down the Live activity charts, and it's a brand new big game. I would imagine this may be soul crushing for some of the guys at Epic, seeing games over a year older trumping there months of hard work.

  Of course, to get to the point, the multiplayer just wasnt well put together. It wasnt tested properly. And this was an issue with the original game, but it wasnt near as bad. Already there have been more glitches discvered within this game than I have ever seen in a 360 second only to Sonic the Hedgehog(2006). These glitches range from accidental and out of the blue to exploitable. The latter pretty much scaring anyone who isnt low enough to stoop down to doing it themselves away from match making. Although even then with the long waiting times to get in a match, you'd be hard pressed to keep at it.

  But how does having a terrible multiplayer make Gears 2 bad, you may ask? It doesnt, I'd say, but it really kills the replay value. Sure, the campaign may be great, but it just doesnt have the staying power of a great multiplayer.

  And in a day in age where games regularly cost sixty dollars, your going to want your money's worth.

  With all that said, Gears 2 hasnt just had the regular falling out with a small portion of it's fanbase, it seems all but the most hard headed fanboys have jumped off the band wagon.

  Even my circle of friends that I use to play the original game with on a daily basis seem to have pushed it away like a red headed step child. Even the most hard core swearing it'd be the best.

  And really, this time I really don't feel sorry for the game. This is a very different case. With a game like Halo 3 the fans that dropped off really didnt have much reason other than, "it was hyped and there for it sucks" and "it's not Hal-Life!".

  People have valid complaints here. We paid Sixty or more dollars. Even the most run of the mills shooter do a better job in handeling game testing. It was bad enough in the original game. And Epic didnt even patch up most of the problems in that game. So why should we beleive that they'll do much better with the sequel? Just this week, rather than giving up a fix or anything they throw out some downloadable maps for ten bucks. I certainly hope they don't expect much sales.

  In short, I'm very disapointed. There was no excuse for this. This was a sixty dollar game. Epic is famous for quality shooters shuch as Unreal Tournament, developed the game and Microsoft with it's large amount of resources was the publisher. They had everything they needed to make this a working game. Instead we got a pile of glitches.

  And now that I've got the bulk of the game's achievements theres not much preventing me from selling this game. I've already beat the campaign on all difficulties and got all the collectables. I'm done with the fun part of the game. Sure, it's good, but when your competition is Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4, good just isnt enough to stay in the box for more than a couple weeks.

  • Posted Dec 17, 2008 6:09 pm PT
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