War77Machine

This post relates to: New Xbox Experience, Left 4 Dead, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Fallout 3, Fable II, Gears of War 2, Call of Duty: World at War

10 days to be exact. But I needed a break from blogging to concentrate on my assignment work for college and among other things. a.k.a. COD5, GOW2, Fable 2 and Fallout 3.

• I got COD5 two days early (12 Nov) thanks to Play.com sending me it the previous day and the game arriving through the post, the next day. The game is awesome! I have just completed the campaign on normal, it is about as long as the COD4 campaign, but I found it more exciting with a bigger battleground to wreck havoc on in the final mission. Expect a review for that when I have time for it.
• GOW2 also came early by one day. This game is a major improvement over the first GOW. The campaign is a lot more fun to play through, the multiplayer is bigger, better and more badass and those cool finishing moves are a joy to pull off! I have done the campaign on casual and I am about half way through the campaign on normal.
• Fallout 3 has been on the back burner for a bit I am in Rivet City at the moment, doing quest and other sorts of interesting things.
• So has Fable 2 as well, I just played it today in fact. I've just got up to the part where you have to build up your renown so that the Reaver (The Hero of Skill) will speak to you.
• Finally Left 4 Dead is on the horizon, I played the demo and liked the frantic pace that you must play the game. That is a must buy for me. Also the New Xbox Experience is just around the corner, about a week I think, I don't know, I haven't been keeping track of when it's getting released. I have mixed feelings about the whole new experience concept and the avatars (Mii's, but with more customisable features).

That's all for now. Expect a Fallout Review some time during next week. Well it is nearly next week at the time of typing this in the UK.

See you all later.

War77Machine.

This post relates to: Fallout 3, Gears of War 2

I got Gears Of War 2 today. I got it at around 12:00 Noon. Don't know why I got it a day early, but Play.com sent it yesterday and their estimated delivery was 3 to 5 days after it was posted. A couple of people of my friends list have got the game early too.

I will just summarise what I have done so far in the game:

• I have played up to about Act 4 in the Campaign.
• I played Horde for a bit where me and four other guys got up to Wave 4, which is okay I guess for our first time.
• Also I paired up with my mate and went through the first Act in Campaign in Offline Coop.

As you may have guessed, I got a lot of people on my friends list messaging me asking how I got it a day early.

Overall I think the game is 3 times better than the first Gears Of War from what I have played so far.

I was planning to do the Fallout 3 Review today but that will have to wait until the weekend and then the weekend after that I will do the GOW2 Review. After this week there is COD5!

Holy Shit! As Carmine would say. We are in for a busy month.

See you on GOW2!

War77Machine.

This post relates to: Fallout 3, Gears of War 2

4 more days until...


See you on Friday!

War77Machine.

P.S. The Fallout 3 Review will be uploaded on Thursday, so check it out!

This post relates to: Fable II, Fallout 3

I am very much in love with Fallout 3 at the moment, even though I haven't had much time to play it today, I still love it! I am at the Atom Bomb in Megaton at the moment, I haven't done any thing other than have a quick look around the shacks and stalls. For the review I am going to do what I did for the Fable 2 review, I am going to play it for about a week to get to know the game and then I will review it.

So yeah this is kind of a short blog, I don't know if I will blog any time in between this one and the Fallout 3 review.

So, I will see you all later.

War77Machine.

This post relates to: Xbox 360, Xbox, Fable, Lionhead Studios Ltd., Fable II

The World Of Fable 2 is a vast, charming and stunning achievement. The streets of Bowerstone have busy with activity and the wilderness between each community is filled with the chance for exploratation. You start the game off as a little child, starving to death on the streets with your sister. Until a startling event happens that turns your world up side down. Now you are a strong, young man, you are ready to step out in to the world of Albion...

With the exciting storyline out of the way, the game play in Fable 2 consists of working your way from town to town helping the people with tasks and choosing whether to do it the good way or the evil way. In your travels between these towns you will encounter creatures or humans that will attack you. To combat these foes, you have Hand to Hand Combat, such as Katanas, Cutlasses, Maces and Axes. Long Ranged Combat: Crossbows, Rifles and Pistols and Shock, Inferno and Raise Dead as examples for Magical Attacks. These attacks are mapped to the X (Hand to Hand),Y (Long Ranged) and B (Magic) buttons. This allows for a basic and simple strategy for a plan of attack and you can easily link up the different attacks for a different situation, it's a system tthat is very easy to use. If you happen to die, which shouldn't be very often, then you will recieve scars from your lost battle. The death system is very forgiving and all you do is come back alive exactly from the place you died, but with some experience lost.

There is a lot to do in Albion, the game gives you that freedom of exploration. You can get married, have protected or unprotected sex with your wife (or husband), if you choose the later, you could have a little child of your own. There are properties to buy like shops, pubs, houses etc. That you can earn money from by renting out the houses, selling the products from your purchased shops. There are plenty of side quests to do that will earn you moeny and one of the most important aspects of the game called "Renown". This mechanic is determined by doing good or evil things. Like if you kill a lot of people, other people will hate you or if you stop some bandits, people will want your autograph. You can persuade the citizens of Albion to like or hate you by using the expression wheel that lets you choose different actions that express your feelings such as make people laugh, scare people, be rude to them, flirt with them and many others. These mechanics also change your appearance by which path you choose to go down. Finally, the way that you can level up your character is by collecting experience orbs that burst from downed enemies. When you get enough of these orbs you can level up a part of one of the available skills.

The graphics in Fable 2 are pretty amazing, the environments are nicely done, from the busy streets of the Bowerstone Market to the luss green wilderness, it gives you that immersive feeling that you want from an RPG. The character models look great and are very detailed and believable. Although there are a couple of graphical issues that hinder from it being perfect. Like AI characters going through closed doors and dead enemies glitch like crazy if they land on some thing other than the ground. But those are the main issues I had with the game.

Audio has never been a problem for LionHead Studios. Ever since the first Fable for the original Xbox, the music has been beautiflly composed to fit every mood and environment in the game. This is some of the best audio, that you will be able to find on any game.

There is offline online co-op for you and a partner to do whatever you want, where you want. All you do when you want to play some one online, is go up to a orb that floats around the world (This represents another person playing in their own game) and interact with them. You can send them an invitation to your game, send them a gift, view their stats to find out more about them or kick them from your game.

Fable 2 can last up to 30-40 hours if you find every thing that this world has to offer and there is a lot that will keep you occupied for a long time.

In conclusion, Fable 2 is a fantastic game in it's own right and to me it was totally worth the wait.

Score: 9.5/10