Sledgemeyers

I've been using 7 for a few months now and it's the best rendition of Windows in a long time. Cheers, everyone!

First of all, I'm completely taken back right now.

If anybody is actually right and the plot of Gears 3 reveals that Adam Fenix knocked up the queen to make the Locust, I will probably never play an Epic game again. So far, the story they're setting up with the Locust being indigenous to Sera is much better and has a much deeper social commentary. And as we all know, it works, because the human's migrated to Sera for immulsion amoung other things.

Plus, human's can't evolve from immulsion due to rustlung. Ka-durrrrr.

I think Gears 3 will take the "humans are the bad guy" approach and reveal some things we'd expect and wouldn't to us as well as the Gears. Imagine Marcus finding out the Locust have been killing the infected (rustlung/lambent) due to a greater threat and discovering the Locust have been here all along... which we can all guess, but for some reason the Gears have yet to speculate. I can easily see the Locust only assualting the people due to a conflict over immulsion... either because it's dangerous or because they need it. THOUGH, if you notice, the Locust have no major machienery that need immulsion. If they'd actually use it for better purposes they'd be a bigger threat.

Plus, it's been set up already that the government know a bit more than the troops, not to mention that rustlung could be worse than expected. In the beginning of the game Dom or Tai asks if rustlung is contageous to which Marcus replies, "I'd rather not take my chances." How would Dom react if he was posed with the question of killing the Locust despite them quanantining his wife for the better of everyone? It's really the only route I could see for him, because the wife story is done and him being angry in the third would just be lame.

Jeff may be an MK fan boy, but he certainly recognizes that the last three games sucked, right?

That alone, gives this review some significance and probably accuracy.

To Prelude My Tale

   Recently, a friend of mine left me with a couple of his games, due to his Xbox 360 being on hiatus somewhere. I don't have every Xbox 360 game, so I was pretty happy to get a couple of extras, especially oldies (or launchies?) such as Call of Duty 2 and Perfect Dark Zero.  Lucky me... I was given the opportunity to start playing through Call of Duty 2 again, in hopes of getting the 'easy' 1000 gamerpoints. As we all know, it was a launch title for the 360 back in '06. I'm sure some of you are probably screaming, "Jesus, why didn't you already beat that game?" Well, I did. It just so happens that in the two years I've been playing 360 though, I got a new gamer tag. After playing this, I regret that decision soooooo much.

   By the way, I don't mean to bash Call of Duty 2 entirely, this is simply serving as a reference to how far current-gen (360, PS3, Wii) gaming has come. Some people may not care to put some older games in the trey and check out what's changed, but after seeing this game I definitely am willing.

Putting One Foot Into Hell

   I pulled the disc out  of my friend's case joyously, giddly like a school girl for being sure I enjoyed this game at one point. I'm pretty sure I was giggling girlishly for some reason, really. Then, I fired the game up and clicked New Game, ready for World War II and the 'fun' of it's chaos. 'Fun' is in quotes.

   Now, at this point, the loading screen is doing it's thing and bringing me up to speed and the little videos are going along and showing me cool stuff. I'm pretty sure as of yet that this game is going to be easy as balls and I skip all the crap. Once the loading finished, I'm left with the tutorial level and the surprise of how ugly this game is when compared to newer titles. The textures look like a game of Tetris close-up and come off as blurry from afar and the "high definition experience" only adds to that really. Maybe it is or isn't because I have a 72" HDTV, but regardless, I can see imperfections easily. It's not a big deal, but seriously, if you compare this presentation to some of the newer titles... wowzers. I've also been playing Gears lately and comparing this and that is like chodes and cocks (pun intended?).

   It just kills me just how far presentation has come for a console. Maybe I was too ignorant with all my other systems, but I never noticed just how much developers (looking at you Infinity Ward) go in terms of pushing hardware and changing things to cater to the console and it's generation. You can tell now that this title is a launch title and that IW has gained experience since then.

Come On Buddy, Give Me My Points

   As I continued and rocked the tutorial portion... well, how can't you rock that part?

   Oh, nevermind. As I continued on, the crappier stuff became more apparent. I'm not sure if it's more of a reflection onto Infinity Ward or the launch title, but the terrain looks like poopy anushole. It's more-so revealed in the second Russian level, where you blow the Nazi building up, but uh... just look at it.  It's all jaggy and craggy and generally crappy looking ground all around. I also noticed something that isn't really a big deal, but explosions aren't active. They don't make terrain change at all... it's just static. Which is weird to me now at this point because I see games like Fracture and Mercenaries taking an environmental cue and I wonder why nobody did the terrain killing sooner. Especially this title would've used it nicely and gained more praise, seeing as how it's one of the first on 360. (then again, Infinity Ward doesn't even have environmental damage in COD4, maybe they're just not diggin' it).

  At this point, I also noticed how terrible the shooting mechanic and difficulty was on Veteran. The enemies can kill you much easier then you can kill them. It's so terrible when you see that Call of Duty 4 opts for better accuracy and more sheer numbers of enemies when pumping up the difficulty, rather then "cheap" kill tactics.

So, the new teaser is out. We all know, we've all seen it... or at least I hope so.

It's pretty apparent that this sucker is going to be a Halo 3 campaign expansion or another telling of events surrounding New Mombasa's destruction and excavation. Not to mention, you'll probably be an ODST (Orbital Drop Shock Trooper). I'm not arguing that. I'm pretty positive though, that this is going to be a serious telling of alternate events contained in Halo 2. Better yet. Hey, I think I know why!

Now, to more fully prepare myself for the release (regardless of it being next year), I decided to put me some Halo 2 and Halo 3 in and check out the stories to refresh myself.  What I found is that Halo 2 is by far, the most, ridiculous game ever created. The story, fundamentally is fantastic, but if you look closely you'll notice it's pretty much the definition of "awesome" and "cool" or heck, better yet, "cheesy action movie". I mean this sucker is just bleeding with 90's action movie syndrome.

I remember a little while back seeing the E3 trailer for Halo 2 and some of the teasers and loving everything. Not only because of the anticipation, but because this game was looking to be a very serious, wonderful story equipped with everything I would hope for. I've read quite a few of the Halo novels and loved all of them, and this game was looking to be a pretty fantastic sequel... by the looks of it.

Of course, as we all know, Halo 2 turned out great; yeah. But it could have been a lot better, you know it. Only portions of the E3 trailer made it through in little ways and Bungie's approach on "taking-our-time for perfection" was ridiculously speeded up by Microsoft to create what we all see today. Even more so, it (well, Microsoft, I'm sure) helped to, like I said, make the game more like a cheesy action movie to cater to the fans and new gamers. I'm not going to get into that, but it's there, yeah, really, for real.

In saying that, I'm pretty sure Bungie wants to make this game as a response to that Halo 2, as a way to put a nice serious tone and some good detail into what muddy stuff was already in the previous game. I only say all this because, well, it's what I would do. Actually, I'm sure it's what anyone would do given the chance.

I'm pretty excited due to this fact because I really didn't like the "action movie" kind of Halo 2. I wanted to see the story unravel like the original or Fall of Reach...not like First Strike.

Coming to an end, I'd just like the say that Master Chief and his companions may be a strong characters and may be able to be exploited for some cool action moments, but the best is when they are taken from these obvious cliche roles and cast into deep, serious situations that mix sci-fi, action, thrill, and existentialism. I'm hoping this expansion will recover Halo 2 in a way, and stay true to the canon like the orignal and three, without getting too stuck up it's own asshole.

The monkey's out of the bottle guys.

http://www.destructoid.com/halo-3-recon-will-be-a-standalone-retail-game-106999.phtml

As we all know, Pandora does not go back in his box, he only comes out. This is crappy, wish I wouldn't have read that article because well... I feel as though this is a major disappointment on the Halo front. It being stand alone and all.

Weiiiiiiiiiiird. Sheva kind of looks like Selena from 28 Days Later.

<3

I'm going to imagine this is going to be a bit more tactical and GRAW-like, despite me also believing it's an expansion type of deal. I can perfectly see the Superintendent acting as a cypher with tactical data and helping you out along the way.

I love this new hero though, looks awesome. I've seen people claiming he looks like the Chief, but if you read and pay attention to the other elements in the universe, this is fresh as can be. The ODST's are awesome too, the best thing to command other then the chief.

Anybody else think his gun looks like a P90 with a silencer or an extended type of barrel?

Haha, the blades are still better than the XMB system even when they suck. It's just so bland and thoughtless... no real, accessible design taken into consideration.

As for the new Dashboard, I'm pretty excited. It should be pretty sick... especially with all the new information that's going to be communicated through the different panels and how everything relates now. If you pick a game, all the shit you want for it pops up. Fantastic.

Interesting. I'm on my first... though I inherited it from a friend... his 360 red-ringed, so I sent it in and kept it, heh.

Xbox 360 Controller: $40.00
Converse Chuck Taylors: $60.00

Throwing your controller across the room and diving on it with your feet, due to Call of Duty 4's Veteran difficulty being nearly suicidal: Priceless.

True story. This game's fantastic though. I really haven't felt as good as I did for beating a game since uh... it's been a long time actually. Anybody notice how fantastic the game's difficulty system scales? I remember playing Halo 2 on Legendary and getting stuck on the sniper parts because of how automatic and cheap death is at them. This game challenges you with sheer numbers and new points of entry for them though, not relying on the bots having super-human aim. I love it.