Posts tagged xbox 360

This game just help me hit 28,000 achievement points!!!

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GEARS OF WAR: JUDGEMENT [review]

*possible spoiler alert - curby look away*
So, I didn’t even know I needed a new GoW game until I played this. The Grub War had ended, closure had come to Marcus and his friends…now they had the long journey of rebuilding ahead.
If I’m being totally honest, I don’t even LIKE Baird - I think he’s annoying!
However, I tried to keep in mind what the developers at Epic originally stated with the teaser of this game; “We weren’t ready to move on to a new franchise, the universe of GoW is too much fun!”
LIKES: Having a new set of (quite interesting) characters to fight Locust with is great. You can tell they have to delve into their backgrounds fairly quickly, but it’s more refreshing than rushed. I especially like Paduk…he adds so much flavor to the overarching UIR/COG civil war that’s been going on since before Eday. You get to learn why so many of the Stranded hate the COG, whereas in the original 3 you were just left to your own conclusions. And then there’s the obvious; the weapons are much better, and the scenery is gorgeous. So far I think the Markza is my fav weapon. I also really liked the leveling system - adding ‘stars’ as currency pushed me to play better, take more risks, and play through with more of a go-big-or-go-home mentality! Then of course there’s the unlockable campaign that lets you play as Baird parallel to Fenix’s final mission in GoW3.
DISKLIKES: Going back to the guns…I hate it when games do PREquels that display better tech than the originals, for me it takes away from the story. Also, did anyone else notice that there were no epic levels where you had to pilot something huge? Total buzzkill! I also couldn’t stand the controls; no heads-up to choose your weapons (not to mention you only got two guns instead of 3) and placing grenades took a while to get used to. Overall the game felt a little lacking, like they either ran out of time or just didn’t care about the finer details. Having two campaigns is nice, but having a richer single campaign would’ve been better.

Overall if you’re into Gears you should pick this up. And if you’ve been thinking about getting into it, obviously you have to start with this now. Try borrowing it from a friend though, you can finish the main chunk of it in one evening.

[ LAN because we CAN ] #1: My Setup

∆ Today was spent NOT watching the 100th CFL Grey Cup game, but instead, pwning many n00bs and leveling like a crazy person. Also I consumed a lot of food, too much probably…

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HALO 4: The Review

¶ Okay, I think I’m ready to do this. I followed the FUD series, I hit the midnight launch, and just finished every game mode available *phew*

Forward Unto Dawn: It needs to be said that you pretty much need to watch the five-part web series (on Machinima Prime) in order to understand one of the *new* main characters in this game. While I’m not a fan of cross-platform storylines, what it did for online shows overall is great.

Infinity: Changing one of the most hardcore elements of the franchise is a tricky move, I mean, Halo basically invented ‘multiplayer’ as it is today. But giving it background, and depth, adds a whole new level of enjoyment for me. Even justsayingthat matches take place on the starships holodeck is a nice touch. It really helps add extra sauce to an already amazing dish. The same little nuances can be found across all the match-types; “infection” is now “flood” where you literally become the much hated zombies (as opposed to just turning green). Slayer is treated like a training center for new Spartan IV’s, where they rise through the ranks depending on how well they perform (as opposed to the credit system, which really didn’t have anything to do with anything). The only major downfall is that, unlike past games, we couldn’t port over our Waypoint info into our character. Like after 7-ish years of playing we have to start over :P

Spartan Ops: This is the games golden nugget (for me at least). You always see these guys in the background of the campaign, and play one in Infinity, so why not see what they do when they’re not training! Each week a new episode, which comes with a short film and five missions for you to play through - all running parallel to the campaign! And again, it’s so nice that your performance here also adds to Infinity. What this does is, and I don’t think people realize this, but you’re actually playing through this game as TWO characters; Chief and your SpartanIV (remember Halo2 with the Arbiter???)

Campaign: I want to give this 10/10, two thumbs up, five outta five…but I can’t. And that sucks for me to say. The story is incredible, the graphics are jaw dropping, the gameplay itself is a thing of beauty. But…there were too many moments when I didn’t feel like I was playing a Halo game, but just some generic war-style FPS. The main villain seemed forced, especially with his oversized ship and deep slightly robotic voice…he was too similar to something out of MassEffect. The unexplained army of Spartans, and sudden resurgence of Covenant, which are only explained with “a lot can happen in four years”, I mean I know I need to play/watch/read through everything but c’mon. And the end, as much as it got my heart pounding, seemed a little lackluster, but that’s only because I’m used to Bungie leaving us on the edge of a cliff.
I DID however like how high of a pedestal they’ve now put Chief. I’ve always thought of him as being THE hero, of every video game, in all of the UNSC, throughout all the games in the franchise…there was something special about him besides the fact that he was a huge half robot soldier. Now he’s like a super-sayan-robot-captain-america-……..guy!

Overall: I love it. And will probably end up selling all of my non-Halo Xbox games just so I can continue to play through the series.

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HALO 4: [campaign] First Impression 

It’s been five years since we last got to hop into the green and orange helmet of the Master Chief, and I thought that the pickup was brilliant. I didn’t mind the armor upgrade as much as I thought, but I miss the silly intro as to why we needed it that Bungie used to do. In fact, I missed a lot of the little nuances or ‘easter eggs’ that Bungie was famous for. Maybe I’m just not far enough into the game, but it definitely is missing that flare that the rest of the series had. It FEELS like we’re restarting with something new…even the introduction of the alien planet, your first mission, all of it is VERY similar to the first encounter with Halo. Almost as if 343 did it as a nod to us saying “we know where we come from and we want to honor that” so in that sense I really enjoy it. 
Then there’s the other part of me that hates the Prometheans…more than the flood. They’re super annoying to kill, and just feel like something a Microsoft employee thought of while making Windows 8…that makes sense to me it doesn’t have to make sense to you.   
I played for about 5hrs lastnight, and found myself taking 2 breaks to jump into a little multiplayer or “Infinity” mode. That should say something. With every other game I wasn’t even able to eat until I had finished the campaign. I don’t know…this just feels different. It’s the little things that bug me, like different sound effects, but the big things that I LOOOVE…like incredible cinematics and a much deeper storyline.