Halo 3 is a popular first person shooter. It is the third installment in the franchise and quite arguably the most popular. Halo 3’s main issue was that it felt a bit too little too late. It is a great game, don’t get me wrong. Gameplay is smooth, storyline is gripping, [...]]]>

Halo 3

Halo 3 is a popular first person shooter. It is the third installment in the franchise and quite arguably the most popular. Halo 3’s main issue was that it felt a bit too little too late. It is a great game, don’t get me wrong. Gameplay is smooth, storyline is gripping, online multiplayer is fabulous without much of the complaints of Gears of War. However it just felt like maybe a year behind it’s competition.

Gears of War 2 replaced Gears of War, which in turn replaced everything Halo. In fact, Halo 3 was released after Gears of War and I played it for maybe three weeks then went right back to Gears. I can never play Halo again. I have grown to accustomed [...]]]>

Gears of War 2

Gears of War 2 replaced Gears of War, which in turn replaced everything Halo. In fact, Halo 3 was released after Gears of War and I played it for maybe three weeks then went right back to Gears. I can never play Halo again. I have grown to accustomed to Gears that anything else just feels wrong.

Gears of War 2 is quite an upgrade from Gears. There are more multiplayer maps and the maps themselves are on a larger scale. The whole game itself has been scaled upward. This is a great thing. New additions to gameplay include chainsaw battles, moveable cover, meatshields and some new heavy weapons. Even the campaign takes place on a much larger scale. Once again kudos to Epic. Gears of War 2 was great.

I saw was because it has been plagued by the bastards that play this splendid game online. Yes every system has a flaw, and it’s always human. The idiots that are allowed to play online amazes me. First off, why are there so many pre-pubescent children playing a game that is rated M. Parents … what are doing? Those ratings are there for a reason. I don’t want to play a game and have some kid screaming obscenities in my ear when he glitches and and still manages to only get 1 kill per round. I say it again .. why are you parents not moderating your children? My other issue with people is this incessant need to cheat in a video game. Gears was terrible with the cheaters, but Gears of War 2 took it to a whole new level. The glitchers don’t really get away with much anymore after numerous patches by Epic. However the laggers will forever prevail.

Lagging in Gears of War 2 is apparently the easiest thing in the world to do because everyone and the granny knows how to do it. Everyone has their own custom made lag switch that they use to cause everyone in the game to lag. Of course the host doesn’t lag himself, but everyone else in the game suffers. The worst is when someone does the standby thing where everyone in the game is unable to move except the host and you just see yourself running endlessly in one spot. The host is free to as he pleases and a long string of headshots usually follows and you find yourself dead and you never even knew what happened. Well done Epic.

Gears of War 2 has slowly gotten on my last nerve. There are too many cheaters out there. Every single game is laggy and I don’t even have the option to host my own games. I am forced to die over and over again because some punk has to prove their self worth by cheating to win at a video game online. This is a sad world we live in. Hopefully Gears of War 3 will address these issues because Epic is slowly losing it’s foothold on the number one spot on Xbox live.

Gears of War has been my favorite game since it’s first release in 2006. It was a relatively unheard of, well at least I hadn’t heard of it until I saw a preview of the game on X-Play. From that first look I knew it was a game I had [...]]]>

Gears of War

Gears of War has been my favorite game since it’s first release in 2006. It was a relatively unheard of, well at least I hadn’t heard of it until I saw a preview of the game on X-Play. From that first look I knew it was a game I had to play. Honestly I wasn’t that impressed by the preview that I saw. The graphics were spectacular, the gameplay looked very interesting, a definite purchase and play.

I have to admit I was originally a Halo fanboy. That is probably why I felt that way. I mean … the game was in third person … MADNESS!!! So I played Halo 2 religiously for about 2 months until November came. By then I had all but forgotten about Gears and fate somehow landed me in BestBuy 2 days after the game was released in the U.S. I had heard rumors of Gears being sold out in many stores, but somehow, this out of the way Best Buy had at least 6 copies just laying there. I also just happened to have a $50 gift card my friend Miriam had given me for my birthday in August. Lucky me!!!!

I quickly snatched the game, ran to the counter … but then remembered I was there with other people and I had originally gone to buy a microwave  with the gift card. Somehow I managed to convince Shannon to buy the microwave (seeing as we were and still are roomates), and I was free to purchase my game. I ran to the counter as quickly as I could while carrying a video game and a microwave, paid for everything ….. then had to wait for my friends to finish perusing Best Buy seeing as I had no other means of getting home, and public transportation while lugging around a brand new microwave at night didn’t seem very appealing.

About an hour or so later, I was back home, bristling with anticipation with my new game. Of course I had to plug in the microwave first to warm some food, but that didn’t take too long, and I was soon popping Gears of War into my 360.  The trademark Microsoft and Xbox 360 shows as the game starts up and I of course have to watch the intro movie. Wow!!! I was somewhat impressed. I quickly loaded the campaign and began my ongoing Gears addiction that I have yet to overcome. The campaign was incredible ….. the storyline was a bit cut and paste but I didn’t care. The gameplay had me hooked. Third person shooter … increbile!!! Kudos to Cliffy B and the Epic team for making a game that was, as the Doctor would put it, BRILLIANT!!!!!!!!

The real thing that got me  was the online multiplayer .. at first it was terrible. Absolutely terrible. I felt I had some measure of talent, but I could not for the life of me do anything right. My win/loss ratio was painful to look at, and my kill/loss ratio was even worse. Eventually I got the hang of it …. the host team wins … period. The host was God in Gears. Why? Because the host was almost always on a ridiculously poor connection. Every game was laggy. It lagged even in the loading screens and menus. Really annoying.

Eventually I began hosting my own games. I would host games all day long simply because I refused to play on someone else’s host. Not to mention all the glitchers out there who insisted on crab walking, weapon sliding or lag switching. It was only then could I enjoy Gears the way it was meant to played. Back then I had a 8/1MB internet connection and when I hosted everyone was happy. No complaints about lag from anyone. People all the way in the UK were complimenting my hostiness!! I felt it was my duty to provide a proper lag free server to play Gears of War.

So that is the culmination of my obession with Gears of War. The was only able to give up playing Gears of War when Gears of War 2 was released.

I cannot get back into Halo. I simply cannot. I tried but I just can’t. I played ODST for 2 days and put it down. It’s not that it’s a bad game … it’s just that I’m too caught up with Gears. There are too many things about Gears that [...]]]>

Gears vs Halo

I cannot get back into Halo. I simply cannot. I tried but I just can’t. I played ODST for 2 days and put it down. It’s not that it’s a bad game … it’s just that I’m too caught up with Gears. There are too many things about Gears that I appreciate more than I do Halo.

It’s just a completely different type of game. Halo is all run and gun, whereas Gears is more about taking cover, getting up close to the enemy and getting that critical shot off. I think Gears has more finesse than Halo. The shotgun battles are epic, no pun intended. Halo’s shotgun is an amazing weapon, but it does pale in comparison to the gnasher shotgun in Gears. With that said, I am putting Halo down for good. No more denial. I am and will always be a Gears addict.

I will play Halo Reach when it comes out though. I hope they change enough to make it worth the wait. Until then I’ll be on Gears. Gamertag VC Frozen.

Anyone  familiar with anime is sure to know the name Yui. She is a popular J-rock is a Japanese singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and actress. She is currently signed to Studioseven Recordings and attached to the talent agency Stardust Promotion. A full biographical sketch can be viewed on wikipedia.

I first learned of Yui [...]]]>

Yui

Anyone  familiar with anime is sure to know the name Yui. She is a popular J-rock is a Japanese singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and actress. She is currently signed to Studioseven Recordings and attached to the talent agency Stardust Promotion. A full biographical sketch can be viewed on wikipedia.

I first learned of Yui from watching Bleach. Her song “Rolling Star” was featured as the opening theme for the fifth season of the anime. One of my favorite tunes on my iPhone, along with “Again” featured as the opening for Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood.

After only a brief forage into the newest Halo game I must say I am pleasantly satisfied.

Of course I am a bit biased being that I am more of a Gears addict and Halo 3 never really held my attention for long. However ODST does live up to the [...]]]>

Halo 3 ODST

After only a brief forage into the newest Halo game I must say I am pleasantly satisfied.

Of course I am a bit biased being that I am more of a Gears addict and Halo 3 never really held my attention for long. However ODST does live up to the Halo franchise.  It is solid and the multiplayer is top notch. I was only able to play one game online but it was fun.

The online multiplayer looks and feel exactly like Halo 3 which is a good thing. I am sure there are some tweaks that I haven’t noticed as yet, they do label it as new multiplayer after-all.

A definite buy. Especially for those of us who for whatever reason traded in their Halo 3 already.

Hagane no Renkinjutsuhi … Fullmetal Alchemist. Arguably one of the quintessential anime titles of my generation. I remember watching the series for the first time Sophomore year in college. I got to episode 7 and could not continue. It was just way too dark and depressing. About two years later, my [...]]]>

Fullmetal Alchemist

Hagane no Renkinjutsuhi … Fullmetal Alchemist. Arguably one of the quintessential anime titles of my generation. I remember watching the series for the first time Sophomore year in college. I got to episode 7 and could not continue. It was just way too dark and depressing. About two years later, my interest in Full Metal surfaced and I watched it for the second time. I was barely able to pry myself away from it. Maybe I was too immature before to fully understand the depth of Fullmetal, but I got it this time. It was still dark and depressing, but still hopeful. Plus the law of equivalent trade has some meaning to our lives in that we always end up sacrificing one thing to gain another. Fullmetal alchemist is truly about despair but I do not want to ruin it for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet. If you haven’t stop reading this and go find it on ebay or netflix.

Fast forward several years, and Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood comes out. A re-imagination of the original series which promised to stick to the original. Apparently the entire second season of the first series was not part of the manga storyline. Wikipedia excerpt:

During the development of the anime, Arakawa allowed the anime staff to work independently from her, and requested having a different ending from the one in the manga. She said that she would not like to repeat the same ending in both media, as well as to make the manga longer to work more in the development of the characters. When watching the ending of the anime, she was amazed about how different the homunculi creatures were from the manga and enjoyed how the staff speculated about the origins of the villains.

Also while this anime is supposed to be closer to the manga than the original, it has some clear differences, including but not limited to:

• The introduction of exclusive characters (Isaac McDougal, the Ice Alchemist)
• Earlier introductions of characters
• Different settings for the first episode

But I must say what a a job. I can’t wait to see how it all plays out!!

Tequila

Kahlua

Welcome to my video game diary. I had originally intended to use this blog to showcase my talent as a web designer. I installed WordPress and started typing away and before I knew it I as blogging about video games, which just happens to be my recreational activity of choice. You [...]]]>

My Pic

Welcome to my video game diary. I had originally intended to use this blog to showcase my talent as a web designer. I installed WordPress and started typing away and before I knew it I as blogging about video games, which just happens to be my recreational activity of choice. You can find reviews of games I have played as well as other random and useless trivia.