Beef Burger Pirates

So I finally beat the game at 5:00 this morning and thought I would let you guys know how I felt about the game.

First of all, it’s Halo so of course I loved it, lol. I played it on normal and I would say that it took me somewhere between 6 and 8 hours to beat which is a lot better than I was expecting seeing as how some people were saying they beat it in less than 6. I also didn’t get all of the audiologs, I only got about 10 of them. The audiologs are like the recordings you find in Bioshock where you listen to them and it tells you a story. The only difference is that in this game, they are all pieces of 1 big story which actually had me pretty interested and I kinda wanna go back and find all of them to find out what happens.

So to setup the basic plot (incase you didn’t already know), you’re an ODST rookie dropping into New Mombasa on some kind of mission.  On your way down, a covenant ship goes into slip space and fucks you up. You end up crashing into the side of a building and waking up 6 hours later. From here you must find clues as to what happened to the rest of your team. I must say that my favorite parts of the game were when I was playing the rookie at night time. It has a very different feel than the rest of the Halo games in that sneaking around is usually a good idea (especially on the harder difficulties). If your good you can sneak by almost all of the enemies at night which makes it kinda interesting. I also liked that the night time level is an open world type hub and you can pick almost any path to the next clue.

I’m sure you’ve all heard about the VISR mode. Once you flip it on, your screen gets brighter and all objects are outlined. Enemies are red, friendlies are green, weapons are blue and key items (clues, audio logs, health packs) are bright yellow. A lot of people were worried this was going to turn into another Detective mode from Batman: AA. They were worried that they were going to spend too much time in it and loose out on all the actual graphics. This was not the case for me. VISR mode I found was only really helpful if you knew you were alone or when you were fighting enemies in the dark. See the VISR mode not only outlines everything, it’s also your nightvision so when you flip it on it lights up you helmet like a firecracker and it makes it a lot easier for enemies to spot you at night. And as for the day time portions of the game, which are much more action based, VISR mode isn’t really usefull because it’s daytime and turning it on basically blinds you, lol.

Speaking of the daytime sections, these are activated when you find a clue in the nighttime portion of the game. When you find a clue it flashes back to the daytime and you get to play as one of your squad mates. Each ODST has their own speciality and the level usually focuses on that. One person is good with explosives, one with vehicles, one with sniping etc. These levels reminded me the most of previous Halo games. Your charging in, guns ablazin and there’s nothing wrong with that, hehe.

The graphics in the game still look great even though it’s running on the Halo 3 engine which was made over 2 years ago. Some of my favorite levels were the ones that opened right up and gave you a beautiful view and there are many points like this. If you play this game, make sure to stop and smell the roses eveyone once and awhile. It’s kinda like when you look through a window or when your in a glass tunnel in Bioshock and you can see out into the ocean and the rest of the city, it’s just really nice to look at. The music in this game is also pretty good. I’ve always like the music in these games and this one is no different.

So there you go. I would obviously recommend the game to everyone who likes a good story and shooters. Although I would play Halo 3 first

Hey everyone!

I’m pretty much done with my summer challenge. All in all, I think it was pretty good. I did beat a lot of games which was my goal, but not all. Crackdown wasn’t too much fun for me and I’m just not liking Banjo-Tooie as much as the first. Maybe I’ll go back and play them sometime, but right now there are other games I want to play.

I picked up a PS2 along with Final Fantasy XII, and I got my XBOX back from my brother and bought KOTOR, so I think I’m gonna start playing some older games. There are quite a few I want to play, but I don’t think I’m gonna put a time limit on it or challenge myself to beat a certain number of games, I’ll just play what I wanna play.

Here are some games I would like to play:

PS2/PS1:

Final Fantasy VII (could someone lend this to me? i dont wanna pay 70 bucks, lol)
Final Fantasy VIII
Final Fantasy IX
Final Fantasy X
Final Fantasy XII
Devil May Cry
Devil May Cry 2
Devil May Cry 3
Zone of the Enders
Zone of the Enders 2: The Second Runner
Fatal Frame

XBOX:

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Prince of Persia: Warrior Within
Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones
Halo: Combat Evolved
Halo 2
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2

Thats about all I can think of right now. If anyone has some suggestions for either systems, let me know!

So I’ve decided to take a page out of Justin’s book and do a summer challenge for myself. There are a lot of good games coming out between noe and xmas and I wanna beat a lot of games this summer so I can either A) buy new games or B) replay some of my old games while waiting for the new ones to drop in price. Here are the games/DLC I wanna beat before September 21st:

Xbox 360 Games:

- Condemned 2: Bloodshot

- Overlord 2

- Devil May Cry 4

- Crackdown

- Left 4 Dead

- Half-Life 2: Episode 1

- Half-Life 2: Episode 2

DLC:

- Prince of Persia DLC (Possibly replay the game)

- Overlord DLC (Possibly replay the game)

XBLA:

- Banjo Tooie

- Penny Arcade Episode 2

- Splosion Man

- TMNT: Turtles in Time Reshelled

DS:

- Overlord: Minions

- 1 other game (possibly a Castlevania game)

Wii VC:

- The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask

So it looks like I have my work cut out for me, lol. Wish me luck!

So as many of you may have noticed over the weekend, the site had some big issues. I thought id post just to let everyone know what was happening. The most common Issue was that people could not stay logged in, or when you would try to log in you would be taken to a blank white page, and left there unless you refreshed or went back. The reason this was occuring was due to corrupt cookies being sent when the page was loaded, this then resulted in no one being able to log in for more than 1 page refresh. Meaning if you looked at a topic, or even hit the refresh button it would log you out.

The problem was nothing me or justin could really fix, because it was in the software Informe uses to host these forums. I had to E-mail them and get them to look at it directly (since they dont allow us access to it). Hopefully this doesnt happen again, but its nice to see they fixed it so fast.

Happy posting again all!!!

Well at the beginning of May i set a challenge for myself to play more 360 games and to get to 15k gamer score, and it may have taken me until the last day of may, but i did it! I ended up beating 5 360 games and 1 arcade game, so i will provide my thoughts about the games that i beat.

First i beat Mirrors Edge, i had got it on sale for 19.99 and i think it was well worth that price. The game was pretty entertaining, but near the end was frusterating as hell, i ended up doing the not using a gun achievement, which probably made it 10X more frusterating lol. Overall is was worth the 19.99, but i wouldnt of have spent more then that on it.

Next i beat Mass Effect, most of you guys have already beat mass effect, so i wont say much about it other then i really enjoyed it, i ran into a couple of glitches, but they were easily fixable. I cant wait until the sequel!

This month Space Invader Extreme came out for live arcade, i have been wanting it for a long time on ds, so i got it on 360. The game is awesome, i loved every minute of it, i found the difficulty to be perfect, and it was fast paced and exciting. The only gripe i had about the game is that you cant continue in co-op, so you have to beat the game on 1 play through, with shared lived, which is very hard to do.

I ended up playing Dark Sector next, the game is very average, and by the end i was bored of it. The best thing about this game is that it was $9.

Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts was next on the list, this seems to be a game you either love or hate, and i loved it. The game is basically a series of challanges were you need to create vehicles to perform the challange. I loved it, it promotes thinking outside the box and trying different things out (theres always a faster way to do something). If your feeling creative and looking for some fun i highly reconmend trying out this game.

Lastly i beat Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. I really enjoyed the story and thought it was much better then World at War (although i think WaW multiplayer is much better done). The single player missions varied so much, you go from sniping, to maning a gun on a plane, to protecting a fellow soldier, to full out battles, your never really doing the same thing twice, which i loved. I can see why this game is loved by so many people, and i am very excited for the second one to come out now.

Speaking of Call of Duty: World at War, i have been playing a fuck ton of this online and am really enjoying it, we need to set up some 4 player zombie runs and get all of us doing some team battles online!

Well thats all for now, time to think of a june challange!

It’s time again for a fun filled blog post, because it’s Sunday night and nothing is happening at work!

 So this was my weekend to work the 2-10:30 DUTY SME shift because the other night SME’s are all on vacation. Needless to say I don’t like it. I woke up this morning at about 9:30 and heard the sound of my mom cleaning the living room carpet. I knew it was a mistake to ask and I probably should have ignored it, but I thought I would ask anyways, so I did. Turns out Buddy had liquid pooping all over the living room carpet. I got dressed and walked outside and sure enought, there were brown trails all over the place. It was like he was making a damned treasure map, but ran out of “ink” part-way through. I sorta ignored it and let my mom clean it, because I was tired and felt a little sick. I felt bad after though, oh well. After surveying the issue I went back into my room and flipped on the PC cause I knew I would not be able to get back to sleep. My Dad soon came over and took Buddy outside for a walk…and he did NOT poop…WTF!!!

I continued browsing the web for awhile reading various game/comic sites until I got bored and felt the rumble in my tummy that usually means I’m hungry. I walked to the kitchen, and nothing seemed to catch my eye…nothing I could make quickly anyways. I had a craving for meat. So I went to BK and got a Sausage and Cheese breakfast sandwhich with some hashbrowns and a coke. I am sorley regretting that decision, because: A: I am trying to diet and B: it’s been a week and a bit since I had any kind of hardcore fast food and right now my stomach feels like it is cursed and trying to implode.

After I got back from BK, I decided to watch some DragonballZ. I am currently in the Namek saga if you care to know. After watching about 4 episodes, I got up and started to gather objects to build a blackade from the kitchen to the living room. My Mom and I had decided that if Buddy was going to be drawing treasure maps, it may as well be on the kitchen floor where we can clean it. I have a door in my room, so we used that, as well as a large piece of wood thats been on our deck. Together they created an effective barrier, that I’m sure Buddy didn’t appreciate. After this, I showered up and my Mom drove me to work.

Now, I had been dreading going into work today, mainly because I checked my email from home and saw that an email went out asking analyst to check with the DUTY SME before taking any breaks or lunches. This usually means that it has been stupidly busy and I did not like the thought of that. Once I got to work, I saw that it had calmed down, and as I’m sure you can tell, it has been a slow night.

I always hate working on the weekends, mainly because its the weekend, but also because there is NO gaming site that updates their content on the weekends. This means that I have nothing new to read. I would play my DS or read a book, but I need to be constantly watching my screen to make sure nobody is trying to message me or that nothing bad happens…which is why I’m writing this blog post, lol.

Anyways, hope that wasn’t too boring. Although I don’t really care as this was more for me than you.

This week has been crazy busy…School is seriously kicking my ass..its hard.

Everyday I’m up at 07:00 and at school until 10:00. I get home at 11:00 and I have 3 hours before I have to go to go to work where I get home at 11:30pm…and I have to go straight to bed…3 hours a day goes by really fast when you have to do all your normal day to day stuff like EAT, and take long poops and stuff.

I got my first quiz back and got 95%!!  Didn’t get 100% though, and 3 other people in the Class did (out of like 50 people).  So…I could do better..

I just finished my first assignment for my Comp Sci class…It isn’t due for 2 weeks so i’ve got it out of the way early (since I do all my homework at work)  but I’m very skeptical that I’ve done everything right.  I really want to meet my prof and sit down with him and pick his brain..but my class is correspondence so I don’t know if I can set up the time to meet him.

I’m really scared I won’t be able to learn everything I need to on my own..especially since I can’t seem to find the Text book I bought for this course a few years ago…

I had a lot of fun at Mike/Tash’s social…almost forgot what it was like to go out and get trashed out of my face…It was awesome!

So ya, thats what my life has been like these past 2 weeks…its been pretty crazy…but I kinda like it (except for the part about the no video games…I haven’t played a game in almost 2 weeks..and that sucks)

So I bought the latest Fable 2 DLC today “See the Future” which promised us a glimpse at what the future of Fable is. The DLC didn”t really deliver in that sense. You do see into the future, but its more of what will happen to your character, not the world. Other than that, the DLC was ok. You get some new outfits, including a King outfit, crown and all, as well as costumes to become a Balverine, Hobbe and Hollow Man. When I say “become” I don’t mean you actually transform, it’s just ur character in a suit. There are also some new hair/makeup styles and potions to change the look of your dog which include Huskey, Dalmation and others that I can’t remember, lol.

Other than the few items listed above, there wasn’t really anything new. Enemies were all re-used or re-colored and there was no cool looking armor or weapons added. I also wish they would add some new magic abilities or a system that let you decrease the time it takes to charge higher level spells.

I beat the DLC’s main story in about an and a half, but I never went through the colloseum, which is just a side thing anyways. If you didn’t like the Crucible, don’t bother with the Colloseum. There was one cool part about it where you get to go back to a certain location from the first game. I did enjoy that, but I won’t spoil it in case anyone else plays the game.

All in all, I would say it was just barely worth the 560 points it cost to buy the DLC. If you are a Fable fan, definately get it but don’t have high expectations.

Well with the recent sales at EB, i decided to pick up mirrors edge as well. It took me about a day to beat it (around 6 hours played). I picked the game up because it was a cool concept that no company has really tried to implement before. The story was blah, it was very typical rescue your family story.  The game was very fun during the running sequences where it almost felt like a racing game on foot.  The biggest problem in the whole game was combat. Eventually it came down to finding cheap tactics to separate them and kill them 1 on 1. Combat probably wouldent of been as frustrating if i had used guns, but if i wanted to play a FPS i wouldent of been playing Mirrors edge. The other common problem i found was not knowing where to go. It would take me a long time to find the series of jumps i needed to make to get away, and when im running from the cops, spending 15 mins wondering how to jump up a couple floors kinda takes away from that expirence.

Overall it was a fun game to play, and its cheap enough to warrent a buy now. I definitely dont think this is a must play, but if your bored and wanting to play something different, then mirrors edge might be for you.

I dunno why it took me so long to play this game, ive owned it for almost a year now. I thought it would be overwhelming because of the amount of planets, and the amount of side quests in the game. Well damn was i wrong, this is one of the best RPGs ive played. It has all the great aspects of any other rpg, and almost none of the flaws. Firstly i will compare the game to the stereotypcial rpg.

Key points mass effect does better

- No grinding, i mean not 1 second of grinding

- Tons of optional side quests, with actual stories

- 50/50 gameplay split between optional and main quests, encouraging multiple playthroughs

I love the blend between third person shooter and rpg. it felt like i was killing stuff in gears of war, except earning expierence to get cool new abilities. which is awesome. The world is not overwhelming like i first thought. each system has only 1 planet you can land on. so each sidequest tells you essentially which planet to go to. Also the maps help a ton if your ever lost. The graphics are well done, and the in game cutscenes look awesome. I also loved all the different aliens races.  Lastly the story which usually makes or breaks every rpg, and in mass effect theres really only 1 word for it, and its epic. Of course there were some cons, but the list is short. the optional planets start looking the same after a while, theres only like 4-5 different types (ice, fire, forest, sand). also the load times are kinda annoying when your doing a lot of traveling, but thats expected with how huge the world is.

I dont like giving a game a score, cause i wouldent know what to compare it to. its a unique game that was fun to play from start to finish. It took me just over 25 hours, and i did about 90% of the side quests. I definitely wanna replay it, and i would recommend it to anyone who likes shooters, rpgs, or anything sci fi.