LAST BUT NOT LEAST

One of the most anticipated games of the year is the next installment of the Halo series, Halo: Reach. This game takes place as a prequel to the first Halo game that was released in November of 01. Instead of playing as the Master Chief, (like in Halo 1,2, and 3) you take the role of the sixth character on a Spartan III squad called Noble team. They are the badass group that the military sends on suicide missions and somehow finds their way home every time.

Not a lot of information has been released yet about the main campaign, but a few multiplayer videos, and trailers have been uploaded to youtube and various video game websites. After watching some of those videos, I could tell that the graphics were definitely amped up.

Of course, Bungie has made a few changes to the multiplayer and not just new maps, but actual changes. The first thing that I noticed about the multiplayer beta video i saw, was the fact that you can now have jet packs. Sounds kinda weird to have jet packs in a game like Halo, but the video i saw on youtube was kinda cool. Hopefully, like the Banshees, you can lock on to the jet packs with a rocket launcher or the new grenade launcher, to quickly destroy your flying opponent or you could just put on a jet pack yourself and fly after your opponent with a pistol, like in the video i have a link to.

Since most of the articles i have read about the new features didn't reveal too much about multiplayer, I had to go on pure observation of the videos on the official Halo website, youtube, and Xbox Live. After watching a gameplay video of the beta a few times, I noticed that a Spartan busted out a barrel roll. I immediately thought "its about damn time you can dodge." If your like me, im sure you get pissed when someone gets in a ghost and just trys to run over people the entire game. Now instead of trying to jump over them, you can now just roll out of the way.

One of the best features that I took note about, was the fact that you can now assassinate your opponent. Unlink in all of the other Halo games, when you hit the melee button while being directly behind someone your character goes into a animated assassination. In the older games your character would either hit the player with his gun or just straight up take a swing at the player, it just depended on what type of gun you were holding at the time.

Personally, I'm still on the fence about getting this game, just because I was a little disappointed with ODST.  I do have all of the other Halo games, so I will probably keep the tradition and get it anyway. The graphics look incredible, and I would like to see how the multiplayer works out with all of the "upgrading" Bungie made.

Borderlands

This is a pretty unique game. At first i was hesitant to try it out, but i was bored one day and just went for it. The main thing that kept me from getting it when it first came out was the graphics. They are not like most games these days, they are kind of look like a comic book come to life. Everything has some sort of shading technique or outlining to it and since I wasn't use to it at first it started to grow on me.

The gameplay is actually pretty good, which surprised me. For some reason i think that if i don't like the graphics the gameplay will be complete garbage.

At the beginning you get the choice of four different characters, (sort of like how you can choose classes and different species to play as in games like Oblivion and Fallout 3) which are a hunter, soldier, a berserker, and a Siren. Each character has unique powers and weapons only available for them. Sure its cool, but i can never choose which character i like most since all of them have certain abilities that i like. for instance the hunter can use snipers and has a crazy pet named bloodwig that runs around and kills people who attack you. the berserker is really strong with melee weapons and since most of the enemies run up on you that skill would come in handy. the soldier is really good with assault rifles and can throw down a turret if too many enemies attack him, finally the Siren, she is pretty much like a witch. she has an ability called Phasewalk. When she uses that she can run around in like fast motion and everyone else stands still. So naturally i had to think about who i wanted to use, and who i would have fun using the most.

I think the best feature of all though, is the multiplayer. You can have up to four of your buddies playing your campaign at a time. Since most of my friends already had the game they were much higher levels then i am, which brings me to my next point. If you have a friend with a higher level then you, he can join your game and pretty much dominate. The games difficulty works on how high your level is. at the time i was about a level 7 when one of my friends joined me game and he pretty much did half of my missions for me. every time he shot someone they would explode because his weapons were so strong. If you have friends that will help you out, like i do, they can drop expensive weapons for you to sell or keep until you can use them. In a way i guess its kind of cheating since you don't have to earn money if you have some friends willing to help you, but oh well some times you have to cheat to win.

Ultimate Team

FIFA 10  just recently released an update for a new game mode called Ultimate Team. For any guy who use to collect sports cards as a kid or still does, this is like a dream come true. It's essentially the same soccer game before the update, but now instead of spending money on players you spend tokens on six types of cards, bronze, bronze premium, silver, silver premium, gold and gold premium. The different colors represent the overall stat of the player, so a player with a rating of 75 and higher would be in a gold pack. The difference between the regular and premium packs are that the premiums come with three rare cards and twelve normal, while the regular only comes with twelve normal and one rare card. The cool thing about that is you don't always get players, you can also get, new jerseys, stadium perks like home field advantage, and healing cards that help you players recover faster.

At first you start of with a all bronze team which the highest rated player is like a 50. It would be easier to have most of those people from the same nation of club because the chemistry would be pretty good and that would make winning games a lot easier, but mostly all of the players are from all over the world. After winning a few tournaments you should have enough tokens to buy a silver pack, or you could use gamer points from the Xbox Live Marketplace and buy a gold premium pack for 120 points. Thats what  did since I had a few points left over from a previous download.

this is how you set your formation and where you want your players to be

I found the best strategy I found was making sure that your teams chemistry is fairly high. Even if you don't have good players, as a team they will still play good. Since I already had had a few players from three different countries I used that as a template for my team. I run a 4-4-2 squad so that means I have four Spaniards four my defense plus my goalie, two Italians and two Americans for my midfield, one Italian and one American for my forward positions. So all of the people from the same nation or if you use a formation that most of your players like to play with your team will have a strong chemistry, which makes any team pretty much unstoppable. I currently sit 18-0 with four tournament trophies.
You can either play tournaments online against other ultimate team users or you can play offline against the computer (which is what i do because I don't want to mess up my perfect record against some online.)

This is an example of how to search for players you want to trade tokens or other cards for, it can get pretty detailed

The biggest feature about this mode is that you can actually trade cards with other people online. Its cool because you can take any card that you have a duplicate of or that you just don't want and sell it for tokens. There are two ways you can trade, first you can just straight up sell the card or you can offer another card plus some tokens. The second strategy might come in handy with some of the more expensive players. I checked some players a few days ago and I found the Wayne Rooney, (a English forward) was selling for 200,000 tokens. When I saw that I thought the guy was crazy since you only get a few hundred tokens for each game you win, but if you win tournaments then you get a little over a thousand. Even though you still find some outrageous offers like that its still a awesome mode to play when you get bored with the original modes.

Project Natal

Natal Sensor

I just recently found out about Microsoft's new product, Natal. The first time i saw anything about this was on one of the episodes of the tv show Smallville. I was really intrigued since one of the characters said it was on the xbox and i wanted to see if it was a real game. after a little bit of research I found that it was first announced at a video game expo called E3 in June of 2009. I must have been living under a rock in June because I didnt hear anything about it, and  if you havent, here it is.

Project Natal takes the technology of Nintendos Wii and pretty much puts it on crack. It is serious one of the coolest things i have ever seen for a video game. It is a sensor, camara, headset all in one. the best part of it is that it makes some of the xbox games no longer require a controller, now your body is the controller. So no more people getting mad playing games and saying "AH this controller is retarded, thats not the button i pushed" now is something goes wrong the persons body is retarded.

right now i think that they have 14 games that will be ready to go at the time of its release but most of them are not known to the public yet. the 3 main games that have been demoed are Ricochet, Burn Out Paradise, and Milo and kate. In Ricochet you have to hit balls at a wall to break the bricks, and is you hit the bonus bricks extra balls will come flying at you. this is the game that will make any person look goofy. which brings up the point if you are not a very out going person you prolly wont have fun playing this with a bunch of friends. the next game is Burn out.  this is a old racing game but it still would be fun with Natal. all you have to do is hold your hands out in front of you and place you right foot forward for gas. seems simple right, well in the jimmy fallon video the game looks like the turning would be very sensitive. for people who like racing games that might be what they have been waiting for. The last demo at E3 was Milo and kate. i wont talk too much about it because it was in my first video i had a link for. the feature i do what to talk a little bit about is the fact the Milo actually recognized the girl when she said hi. the technology with video games is absolutely crazy. the fact that at the end of the video Milo says "hey tomorrow is your mothers birthday" just blows my mind. sooner or later video games will be like the movie Gamer

Steven Spielberg at E3 2009 Promoting Project Natal

if any gamers have doubts about this new technology dont. the biggest thing about Project Natal is that Steven Spielberg helped to produce it, and he would not just put his name on the line for anything. with the exception of some of his earlier movies, most of his work is pretty impressive.

which is better, xbox games or Ps3 games????

There are a ton of great games for the Xbox 360, but occasionally the PS3 will come out with games that dont come out on the Xbox. Even though I have both systems this is the one thing that really pisses me off about the gaming world. It pisses me off because some of the good multyplayer games come out only on the Ps3, or some of the really good single player games only come out for the Xbox. Games like Socom Navy Seals would be more fun on Xbox Live instead of the Playstation Network.

In my opinion games like Socom would be so much better on the Xbox, because all of my friends dont have a PS3. That is why I get multyplayer games for the Xbox and single player games for the Playstation. Since the PS3 has better graphics due to the fact that it can be hooked up to a tv via HDMI cable (which allows my system to have high definition sound and picture) i like having games like Assassins Creed and Fallout on the pS3. it just seems that multyplayer games drop the graphics a bit to add more room for online play. thats not true in some cases but in most games there are a few glitches in the graphics. Although the new Xbox systems can use a HDMI cable, i dont think that the quality is  the same, but ill talk about that in another blog.

One the most amazing games i have played in awhile is Heavy Rain which is only for the PS3. in this title you take control of four separate people, 2 detectives, a photographer and a killer. your job as the detectives, of course, is to track down the killer and bring him to justice, and the other two people are tied into the story as you progress in the game.

 I know this blog is suppose to be about Xbox games only so here it is. Heavy Rain is made by the same developers who once made a similar game for the Xbox several years ago called Indigo Prophecies. both games have a similar storyline where 2 detectives search for a killer, and as the killer you try to prove you innocence. Since this game did come out on the original Xbox, the graphics are a bit sketchy and the controls are not as smooth as they should be. other than that overall it is still worth getting based on the story and creativity of the game itself. which brings me to wonder if the game developers chose the PS3 to fix some of the bugs they had the first time around. Visually this game is fantastic, as you can see from the picture on the right. the graphics are that good throughout the whole game. the best part of all is that the controls are very  smooth, even in the fighting scenes.

Scene It ?

 So i recently got a new game called Scene it? which is a movie trivia game for the Xbox 360. it sounds gay but its actually pretty fun, if you like movies and think you know everything about them this game is for you. It has a ton of achievements for any type of gamer. Whether your a hardcore gamer or just want to chill with friends and play a game just for fun, Scene it? is a great game. 

the main reason why i wanted to get it was because my Supervisor at my work told me a little bit about it and he said that the game comes with these crazy looking controllers that really make the game fun. which mad me really made when i went to Gamestop the other day and found out that they have been discontinued for some random reason.This game surprised me a little bit, since I'm not really into those types of games i was hesitate to buy it. but i maned up and just went for it. I thought since i like watching movies it couldnt be too bad. the creators (in my opinion) did a good job with a few aspects of the game, graphics and difficulty.

Graphics

It is a bit cartoony but it adds enjoyment to the game. for example if your not doing to well the host will say something stupid and make fun of you, but because he is a cartoon he does it in a goofy way  which makes it easier to forgive him, opposed to a more realistic character making fun of you which would just make someone mad and want to quit playing.  The graphics are still pretty sharp and and movie clips(depending on the type of Tv) are in High Def.  i would give the graphics a 9/10

Difficulty
some game modes are pretty difficult like Sequential. in this mode you have a list of like six movies from different years and you have to put them in the order of which came out first. sometimes they have movies range from the 30s to current year, it thought it sounded pretty easy when my Supervisor told me about this mode but when i tried it i was mistaken. other game modes are a lot easier like POP Quiz. in this it will be focused on one actor, which makes it pretty easy if you have seen some of their movies. for difficulty i would give it and 8.5/10

over all this game is pretty fun. if you like to get a lot of achievements or just like to play for fun this game has over 2,800 questions not including up coming downloadable content, so you never get the same question twice and if you do, well you must be playing it too much.
 for an over all score i would give it a 9/10.

Mass Effect

So I recently bought Mass Effect 2 and it is amazing. Everything about it really is flawless. The graphics are ridiculously good, and the story line is pretty deep for a video game. In the first Mass Effect you play as a human soldier for the Alliance Army in the year 2183 and your job is to make sure that humanity isn't totally whipped out by an alien race called the Reapers. Essentially it is a suicide mission that most really good action packed movies are about. Which I think makes for a really good game.

One of the key features i loved is that the decisions you made in the first game affect how people react to you in the sequel. It takes the saved game data, (if you have completed the first game) and transfers it over. i have know idea how it works but it does. At the end of the first game you can choose to save the Alliance council members or let them die and have a humanity take over. Since i had already beaten the game as a "Good Guy"I let the council die. So in the Sequel I went back to the Citadel, which is were the council resides, and i was labeled as the human who let the council die, and most stores wouldn't give me business until I proved that I made the right choice. So every major decision i made actually had a consequence. Since I haven't tried to start a new game without using my old game data I'm not entirely sure how the game would play out.

 Another feature I found out about was in a article I read in a monthly magazine I get called  GAMEINFORMER. The article said the game has over 40 hours of gameplay. Which is crazy to think about because thats like almost a day and a half of nonstop gaming. The best feature of all in my opinion is when you finally beat the game you can start over and still use the same character and continue to buy equipment and upgrades to make the ultimate soldier. If you love to play role playing games for the 360, Mass Effect is a must have.