Move over, Master Chief

Few gaming franchises have the testicular fortitude to release a spin-off which does not include its posterboy. Bungie and Microsoft have just today launched Halo 3: ODST, which is essentially Halo 2.5, a side story detailing the events prior to Halo 3.

You play a rookie with the ODST (Orbital Drop Shock Troopers), sent into New Mombasa to clear it of Covenant hordes. The way the game plays is much more Halo 1 rather than 2 or 3; there’s no dual wielding, or use of equipment. There’s no Cortana-like AI guiding you along the way either, so it’s a very lonely and bleak game. Playing as a regular human soldier, you also feel much more vulnerable during the near pitch-black city sections.

One of the big complaints of the Halo series, and many other story based FPS games is how linear the gameplay is, i.e. you need to go through A, B, and C, before going to D, E, and F. ODST creates the illusion of being able to free roam using a hub world, where you then go off and unlock missions to further the story. This is all well and good, but you still need to do missions A, B, and C, before going on to D, E, and F. Oh well, at least with linearity, you never miss anything crucial.

The music is clearly Halo, but lacks any of the tunes heard in any of the other games, sounding almost like Halo meets Resident Evil; it’s haunting and fits the dark and brooding atmosphere presented to the player.

There is a new multiplayer mode, called Firefight. It is essentially a clone of Gears of War 2’s Horde mode, where you face wave after wave of increasingly tough enemies. I’ve not had a chance to play this mode yet, due to wanting to get the campaign finished though I will post my findings later.

All in all, a welcome addition to the Halo universe (much more so than Halo Wars). If I have to make one complaint, it’s that Bungie really need to work on their models for women because they look FUGLY. The female lead of the game is made out to be eye-candy amongst the ODST team, but Christ, lady looks like a dude!

Oh, also netted myself a freebie last night from Gamestation’s midnight launch. Only twenty or so of us turned up, and the store manager decided to reward our loyalty with a fetching ODST t-shirt. It’s superbly made and better than some t-shirts I’ve spent hard earned money on!

(Lack of) Size matters

My iPhone bluetooth headset arrived this morning and upon opening the box, I was rather surprised at how small the thing is:

In other news, I have officially become the unofficial IT guy at work. Today, I setup a new wireless network for two new credit controllers as well as their new PCs. I also repaired a dodgey wireless network in the showroom and pretty much take on all the random IT tasks which get thrown around. One of the new guys is actually a huge Halo fan so we spent most of the afternoon jabbering on about everybody’s favourite Spartan.

Appudaito!

Righty-ho, as promised this will be a mammoth update!

Career

As most of you have known for a while, I have left Kalamazoo for greener pastures at Volksvagen. I will be a marketing assistant as of Tuesday and have been promised to have a lot more responsibility. Apparently, they’ll be sending me to the Volkswagen factory in Wolfsburg, Germany as part of my new employee orientation!

I attended a second interview for a position with the Apple store a few days ago which was really good but very different from the norm (as expected of Apple I suppose). I met some really cool guys who were also in attendance, one of which has since added me on Facebook where we just chat about Apple. It’s really weird actually because I seem to have one set of friends who gush over Apple, and my other group of friends from my Handsworth days seem to really hate them, based on a rather drunken conversation in a bar last night. Anywho, if all went well then I may be doing some part-time hours for Apple at the weekend. People have called me insane for wanting to do a 7 day week but I figured that I spend most of my money at Apple anyway, why not work there and get a discount too?

Gaming

During my rather brief stint of unemployment, boy did I play a helluvalotta games! I beat Halo 3 on Legendary and unlocked most of the achievements with around 180 points left to go. Been playing loads of online games, maybe about an hour each day. I’ve experienced what gamers around the world have referred to as dumbass Americans spoiling the game for everyone; I was in a social match and some guy randomly says “I’m gonna find your mom and fuck her up the ass” to another guy during the match. I had to mute my mic due to my own laughter. Later whilst waiting in the lobby, I heard one guy say “I’m gonna play some Halo!” with another guy shouting “Haloooo!” afterwards. This has now become mine and Khang’s adopted, but still mocking, battlecry whenever we play Halo now. I have played some fantastic random team matches too, especially one where a guy had to go shut his dog up because it was barking at some Jehovahs witnesses that turned up at his door. He left for about 5 minutes, returned to pair up with me and we still won the match! He was duly added to my friends list and my preferred players list.

I’ve beaten Gears of War on hardcore which was still as enjoyable the second time. The difficulty spike is a little cruel in places, where it was down to pure luck which got me through. General Raam at the end didn’t seem anymore difficult than the first time through on normal. I’m convinced the achievements system is broken in the game though; I have the recognition on each individual level on hardcore but not the collective achievement you should get at the end. Sort it out, Epic!

Eternal Sonata became a bit of a sleeper hit for me. I knew very little about the game other than it was a Japanese RPG based on music. I didn’t realise that it was also loosely based on Chopin’s last few hours of his life. It’s a wonderful game which had me glued to my 360 for pretty much 3 days straight but the ending left me cold, turning into a weird preachy spiel about morality. No thank you. The achievements are also borked since you get more points alone for doing one side quest/dungeon than you do for beating the entire game once! Having said that, it still doesn’t detract from the game’s biggest selling point which is the cel-shaded anime art style which has to be the best implementation I have ever seen. It looks glorious in HD and the demo on Live really has to be checked out.

Aber visit

Went to visit Aber for a long weekend where I stayed with James and Keiko. They have a lovely place next to the uni which looks to be a good deal given the facilities. Visited AnimeSoc where I caught up with Gérard and Ste and visited a few locales around the town. Nothing has changed though I couldn’t shake off the feeling that it wasn’t the same town as the one I had left. Many of the people I associate with Aber are no longer there and after this year, there will be virtually nobody there anymore that I’ll know.

Sammy-boy and Mr C.

Sam and Andy (no, I’m not speaking about myself in the third person, this is an Andy I know) paid a visit to Brum yesterday where we all had a good catchup. Sam and I tried out a new Japanese bento restaurant in the Bullring which was lovely; best miso soup I’ve ever had and I’ve had a fair bit in my time! I realy do miss these guys since most of my third year was spent loitering at their house not doing much, chatting over a cup of tea or coffee.

And that’s pretty much it in terms of updates. Expect more Apple related goodness since the iPhone launches on Friday.

Bet you can’t stick ‘em

Oh yes you can.

Halo 3 afterthoughts

It’s not everyday that a gamer gets to celebrate the launch of a AAA title which is why I’ve been talking about Halo 3 non-stop to those that will and won’t listen.

Khang and I went to the midnight launch for the game last Tuesday night at GameStation in Brum.  I’d never been to a midnight launch before and it’s certainly something every gaming fan should experience at least once in their life.  We were 35th and 36th in the queue and I even managed to get my photo taken with some poor employee in a terrible looking Master Chief costume (photo to be uploaded soon).  Being the fool who’ll do anything for to make others laugh, I decided to shout out “happy new year” at the end of the countdown to midnight and indeed it did get a number of laughs.  Then we had to join another queue to get our Legendary editions which took an absolute age, though I did get talking to one of the employees who had a cool Fullmetal Alchemist tattoo.  Once we’d acquired our spoils, we legged it back to our Warthogs, I mean cars, and made our separate ways.  I promised myself that I wouldn’t play the game until the following morning since I’d been at work all day and donated blood too.  Oh well, that plan went out the window because I went on to play 2 hours, oh dear…

The text below is pretty much spoiler free but if you want to be absolutely sure, don’t read it until you’ve finished the game.

Last chance…

Really, it is…

No turning back now…

So far, I’ve beaten the game on normal and Heroic difficulties.  Heroic was at first a huge step up from normal where even the first introductory level proved taxing but you soon adjust to the learning curve.  I’m very happy with what Bungie have produced, being the ultimate Halo game.  It looks gorgeous, the levels are well designed for the most part, and the vehicular combat is immense fun.

I do however feel like there’s something missing from the game.  Speaking to Mike, it’s missing a covenant ship/city level dressed in purple which has been a staple part of Halo and Halo 2 which makes this game feel slightly out of place.  We do fight inside High Charity though that’s Flood infected to the wazoo and is a real chore to play through in mine and most gamers’ opinions.  It’s worse than Halo’s Library level because the corridoors are narrow and confined making it difficult to move about.  The Flood also seem to have mutated and now have new forms with an annoying wall clinging sniper adaptation.

The new heavy weapons are a mixed bag for me; I’ve used the gatling gun, the flamethrower, and the plasma cannon in the campaign mode and the missile pod in multiplayer.  The gatling gun and plasma cannon are very useful, taking down most enemies in 3 or less hits.  The flamethrower is borderline useless, with enemies aflame running towards you taking down your shield…  The missile pod feels no different from the rocket launcher so seems like a redundant addition.  The inclusion of equipment class items is also hit and miss, being able to only carry one at a time.  It would have been far more useful to have 2 slots or none at all.  The game’s length is questionable, taking me 10-11 hours to beat it on normal and a similar length of time to beat it on Heroic.  Bungie recommends Heroic for those who have played Halo before since it gives a more full-fat experience.  The ending is very satisfying, offering closure and hitting all the right buttons (for me at least).  There is an extra-extra ending when you beat the game on Legendary which is rather sinister though it could just be Bungie messing with our already fragile minds.

Multiplayer online is loads of fun.  I’ve never been a supporter of online gaming, citing that it removes that social element from playing against somebody in the same room.  Whilst I still believe that’s the case for the most part, I do believe that having the option to play against somebody halfway around the world is not a bad thing.  I’ve played 40 or so matches online now and usually come second or third in most of them.  The Guardian map is my favourite so far being one of the smaller selections.  Snowbound is my least favourite due to it giving an unfair advantage to whoever is on surface level as opposed to underground.  Crazy King/King of the hill is my favourite match type though I wish people would realise it’s not a Slayer deathmatch…  I just need to get everybody online to take part in a huge match now.

Halo 3 is a system seller like Zelda is to Nintendo and Gran Turismo is to Sony, a definite must-own title which gets 9/10 from me.

RIP Katsuragi

Sadly my dear goldfish, Katsuragi, died yesterday sometime.  It was struggling to swim properly Friday evening and the black markings only became more prominent.  I’ll leave Misato alone for a while to see whether being alone changes its behaviour or not; if it does then I’ll buy another of the same species as company.

I had an unexpected lunch today with Khang which was nice.  He got to see me attempt the last part of Halo on legendary which I still believe is retarded.  The Warthog would simply not land correctly; I must have tried at least 10 times to make the jump and land the car in the tunnel below but no dice, the Master Chief died each and every time.  Argh!

I’ve just won copies of The Fast and The Furious and Tokyo Drift on HD-DVD from eBay.  The grand total including postage sets me back £28 which I think is more than reasonable considering HMV charges £25 for these two titles alone instore.  I’ll be picking up the HD-DVD drive from Gamestation on Friday along with my Elite 360.  Can’t wait to truly join the HD revolution!

Where, oh where has my weekend gone?

Now that I’m working, I’m sure some devilish fiend out there is stealing my precious weekend away from me.

Anywho, what did I get up to in the last 48 hours? Saturday was spent in town shopping though I didn’t actually buy anything. I went to GameStation to place a deposit for a 360 Elite and whilst I was at the desk, Khang kindly reminded me to put down a deposit for the Halo 3 Legendary pack. £22 and nothing to show for it, at least not yet.

The rest of Saturday was spent playing Halo 2 on legendary mode. I’ve only completed Halo 2 on normal before and thought it’d act as a good refresher to prepare me for Halo 3. It still ends just as abruptly as it begins and it has its problems with game mechanics but for now, it’s still the definitive Halo game until part 3 comes out at the end of September.

Today was spent re-collecting all the costumes in Dead Or Alive Ultimate and going to see The Simpsons Movie. It wasn’t bad at all and like most people have said, it plays out like an extended episode. Having said that, the first half is definitely more entertaining than the second; Homer’s dumb-ass antics started to grate on me after a while but thankfully it’s a short flick.

Only 120 hours to go until the weekend’s upon us again…

Halo 3 update

It seems those lovely folks at Bungie have seen fit to include a flamethrower and incendiary grenades in Halo 3. New weapons are always good and apprently, they’re capable of taking down vehicles too.  Can’t wait to unleash the pyromaniac within…

The best limited edition console ever?

Coming out on Halo 3’s launch day (26th of September for us) is possibly the best looking limited edition console created by man (this title is/was held by the Sakura Pink PS2 found only in Japan).

I’ll be getting a 360 and HDTV setup soon enough since I’ve been missing out on the latest generation and originally, I was planning on getting an Elite 360. Whilst I wouldn’t use the enhanced features such as the larger hard disk, the black colour scheme is rather alluring. From the spec sheet, the Halo 3 360 is the Elite console but with a 20gb hard disk but it comes with an additional play and charge kit. Of course, the big downside to owning either of these consoles is that all existing accessories will not match aesthetically. I also assume it’ll be packaged with a copy of Halo 3 but then I do want to get that Legendary pack with the Spartan helmet thrown in. Decisions, decisions…