November has been crazy with games coming out left and right. Add on the fact that we've been lazy and busy with updates so there's a lot to write about. Here we go:
Halo3: Wraps up the story with campaign. AI has improved to the point where you don't have to drive! Given the option to play with up to three other friends on live to run through the campaign, if you're trying to beat legendary, go with the friends they don't walk into your line of fire... as much hopefully. True to Bungie's style there are lots of extra things to do like find skulls and hidden terminals throughout the campaign to keep you exploring the levels after you've run through them to find all the hidden content. If you're stuck and admit you cheat a little here and there, there's a gazillion youtube videos on how to find everything. To keep the replay value of campaign even higher you can run through each level with different settings from the skulls turned on and even arcade style point scoring. As you don't get points for assisting it can make for some hetic kill jacking between friends. Definitely gives the game a different feel and spin.
Multiplayer is a more of the Bungie matchmaking we've come to expect as the standard for gaming in an online party with xbox live. It really is the standard that most of us have come to expect other games to meet. More on that later. You just sign in, invite your friends you want to play with and choose a type of matchmaking list. The list isn't super diverse as a lot of the gametypes in the game aren't in a matchmaking list.... yet. Lets hope Bungie updates and rotates lists frequently enough to keep people interested. Overall if you enjoy a shooter, or have ever liked a Halo. Give it a go. Strong Buy
Guitar Hero 3: New wireless guitar is pretty sweet. Its heavier, wireless, the neck comes out for transport and it all runs on two AA batteries. The guitar overall has more of the PS2 guitar hero II feel. The buttons aren't as clicky and there's two ways attach the strap to the guitar. I like this guitar a lot more because the Explorer guitar was X shaped and would get uncomfortable during longer periods of play.
The game itself is a more polished high def version of the game. The animation has been cleaned up a bit and the HUD has been modernized to fit the current music. Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on the audience, the window to hit the notes has been expanded to the point where I've though I've missed notes and still gotten by as if i nailed it. Definitely is more forgiving to the new player and its much easier to hit the streaks of notes but the timing is a bit different to the hardcore Guitar Hero 2 faithful. Going back and forth between the games is not recommended unless you're rather quick at adjusting as GHIII can destroy you GHII timing.
Verdict: If you truly loved GHI or GHII you'll enjoy GHIII. If you're wondering what the craze is, get the game and join the millions who love emulating a rock star. If you actually play guitar or a musical instrument and wonder what the point is, give it a try maybe you'll like it maybe you'll still hate it. Lastly the reason people play this instead of actually learning guitar is similar to the reason people shoot people in a video game and don't actually go out and shoot people with guns in real life. There's also no significant learning curve, you can rock out within minutes, try that with a real instrument.
Orange Box: Best investment for your 60 dollars out there. Gives you a chance to play through the whole half life 2 story and the newest part of the story. Half Life 2 is an amazing game and for anyone who hasn't played it on PC this is a great chance to see the story first hand on your 360. Besides that there's a game called Portal included. It's wickedly entertaining and provides a thinking game with skillful manipulation of the character. The game is also rather humorous and makes it difficult to put down unless you get frustrated with some of the later puzzles. Team Fortress 2 had some teething pains and updates have been issued to tone down certain play styles like bunny hopping ( jumping around the map instead of running around like a normal soldier) and the online matchmaking hopefully has improved. Unfortunately if you're used to Halo style matchmaking where it is rather effortless games that rely on an xbox setting up and hosting a match can become infuriating as games stop in the middle if the host leaves and the game doesn't automatically find someone in that game to host the rest of the game. It is also difficult to find games that are open because by the time you actually manage to join the game has either started or isn't available. It is a uniquely balanced game with very amusing classes and hilarious animated characters.
Verdict: Strong Buy. So many games for the price of one! Long play value.
Call of Duty 4
Where to begin. I have mixed feelings about this great game. Campaign is short but great if you don't play it on the harder settings. Call of duty uses its traditional if you cross this line it'll trigger the next event style. It flows nicely if you play it on the normal difficulty and play with that attitude. If like me, you're more of I'll hang back and defensively kill everyone before moving forward ala any of the rainbow games, on the higher difficult settings the enemies don't really stop coming, there's an endless supply. If you truly want to enjoy the Call of Duty 4 story, play it on normal and push forward ALWAYS and you'll get the game the developers intended. Overall the campaign is relatively short but is done well. Where the game excels (for the most part) is in multiplayer.
In multiplayer there is a system similar to halo3 where you rank up in the game by earning experience points and get military rankings for each level. Along with that system there's challenges to meet which along with ranking up enables you to unlock new guns and attachments and abilities called Perks. Some of you newer players might complain that its unfair that the better players get the better guns/weapons/skills. How are you supposed to fight them on an equal playing ground. That is somewhat alleviated by the fact that once you kill someone you can always take their customized gun and the game balances parties somewhat. It is a rather ingenious way to make players want to keep playing to unlock everything. There are lots of weapons, attachments, perks and challenges to meet. This game will be competing with Halo3 for the sheer number of hours gamers will spend on Xbox Live. The only major shortcomings i have with the game are: The party system is still harder to use than Bungie's. In order to coordinate with friends i like being able to see how they're doing in a game so i have an idea of the time it'll take till they're finished a game and can join my party. This is a feature in halo3, not cod4. Parties are frequently broken up or people are dropped at the start of a game destroying your party. Who wants to wait 20 mins for those who made it to finish their game before trying again. After games finish sometimes parties are broken again. If the party leader tries to leave a game right after it finishes his party doesn't come with him. He has to reinvite everyone. COD4 is a relatively new game so its also experienced and still experiencing some Xbox Live growing pains. Sometimes I can't log onto Xbox live with the game even though i can sign on with other games. Infinity Ward is aware of the problem and they have been trying to work out the problems with Xbox Live. Lastly the host issue. COD runs similar to Team Fortress in that one Xbox is the host of the game. If that host quits.. game over. It would be nice if the game could automatically find the next best host and let the remaining 11 players finish the game. Also gamers leave the game regularly and the teams are balanced because matchmaking automatically sticks people onto the understaffed team.
Verdict: If you like shooters with a compelling story BUY! COD4 and Halo3 will both be played online for a long long time. Serious replayability.
Super Mario Galaxy:
If you own a Wii, buy this game. It will be a staple game for the Wii. It uses the Wii's control scheme well, it doesn't feel gimmicky. The actions and button presses/shakes match and make sense. It's classic Mario 64 with a very clean framerate and shows what the Wii can do graphically given the time and attention necessary to do it. The game so far is more of the standard Mario fare, kidnapped princess; go save her; fight Bowser. Added to the game are some new mechanics such as shooting from planetoid to planetoid and running around them. Warning for those who nauseate quickly and haven't really tried the 3d gaming aspect. It can be a bit disorienting the first few minutes you play trying to get around or chase objects in a 3d perspective especially if you're running to the southern part of the planet and end up running upside down. After your brain adjusts to the game camera's view of Mario it truly is an entertaining and fun game.
Verdict: Strong Buy.
Upcoming games to look at: Assassin's Creed, Mass Effect
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