I'm A Bungie Beta-Tester

2011-04-04T16:12:00.000-07:00

Have fun playing Reach HAHAHAHA

I'm not one to brag, but I made Bungie's new beta tester program. Bungie were the developers of Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 3 ODST and Halo: Reach. Their 10 year contract with Microsoft has ended so they're now an independent company that can make any game they think of.

Seeing as how their previous titles are Halo, I'm eager to beta test their next game, as soon as I can fill out this survey....

*Note: Survey has been down for a month; Still down

Dead Space 1 Review Coming Soon

2011-03-21T12:58:00.000-07:00

A great survival horror adventure game

On Chapter 8 of Dead Space 1. Expect a review in the next couple days!

Halo: Reach Review

2011-03-18T09:02:00.000-07:00

Send me out, with a whimper

What was Bungie's last Halo game, doesn't live up to the Halo franchise at all.

Bungie said changes like Armour Abilities and Loadouts, would be a welcomed addition to the game.

They, were wrong.

Their are 600,517 people playing Reach right now at the time of this writing, compared to Black Ops 1,000,00 at all times, this is childs play. No, I'm not a Black Ops fanboy.

Campaign

This is you, a replacement for another SPARTAN who dies

You take control as Noble - 6 in this game, whereas in the previous Halo's, you were ass kicking Master Chief (AKA John-117). You meet up with your squad at the beginning of the game, which consists of Noble 1- 5 (Carter, Kat, Emile, Jorge respectively) whom you have no attachment to. See, this is where the campaign falls. In Halo's 1, 2 and 3, you had a relationship with the other characters whereas in Halo: Reach, everyone seems stale and just a suit of armour with no personality. *SPOILERS AHEAD* When all the other members of Noble Team died, I couldn't care less about them.

Another major downfall of this game is the missions, in Halo 1, 2 and 3, each mission further developed and ultimate story. In Halo: Reach however, each mission (or level) feels just like some time waster with one of the "main"-characters dying. What Bungie was going for with this game is the "balls to the wall" feeling. A feeling that the planet Reach would be burned and everything is destroyed. A feeling of desperation while battling the Covenant and a feeling of hope within the SPARTANS.

PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFT

Low and behold, you're still an ass kicking SPARTAN who never has the feeling of desperation (at least until the last level, which has you *SPOILERS* fight endless waves of Covenant alone while all your squad mates are dead and your last ticket off the planet left). So you see, it's a pretty mediocre campaign which feels like a campaign from Call of Duty (Get from point A to point B, kill everyone in your path).

Multiplayer

See the grenade explosion? In Reach it's basically a mini-nuke

Halo 1, 2 and 3 are known for their Multiplayer, a vast arsenal of weapons with a variety of game moods is awesome, and it's here in Reach. What Reach has is possibly the biggest downfall of Halo, Armour Abilities.

In Halo 3, Bungie introduced equipment. A one time use of power ups that you can find and use to your advantage ( A Bubble Shield, Radar Jammer, Power Drain etc.), in Reach, Bungie took that step further and made it so that you spawn with this Armour Ability, and can use it for the duration of your life (with cool down, of course). The 7 Armour Abilities are: Sprint, Evade, Jetpack, Armour Lock, Active Camo, Hologram and Drop Shield. While most of these are balanced, there's one that stands out like a sore thumb.

Armour Lock

No issue in Reach has sparked a bigger controversy in the Reach forum on Bungie.net then Armour Lock.

It grants the user invulnerability for a short time, becoming immobile and when you release the RB (the Armour Ability default button) it sends out an EMP wave that disables enemy shields and knocks out vehicles. Bungie designer Josh Hamrick explains it as

"It's kind of like a block. If your opponent closes on you with a shotgun or is about to land a melee blow or run you over with a vehicle, you can engage Armor Lock and become temporarily invulnerable. You can't move, aim, or shoot. You're stuck there, but you can't be killed. You can do that up to three times on one charge or you can do one sustained lock for a few seconds."

"There is also a knockback and EMP blast component. The longer you hold your Armor Lock, the more pronounced the effect will be. There are three different tiers - if it's just a short lock, I'll get a small knockback and a tiny bit of EMP up to the max level, which is a much larger knockback and EMP blast. It's really intended to say, 'hey, you better not mess with me, I'm extremely dangerous even though I'm trapped in here!' It's particularly effective against vehicles as well. Also, if you're stuck with a plasma grenade or have needles in you, they'll be knocked off when you engage Armor Lock."

So it basically has no down side to be invincible.

Another think that everybody hates? Reticule Bloom

Here's a quick demonstration on Reticule Bloom:

I'm not sure if you can see the annotations that explain it, but go to the actual video and it'll show you.

Bloom rewards players with timing their shots, resulting in a quicker kill. This feature however, was executed poorly. 9/10 the person who is spamming the shots will win.

The maps in Multiplayer are ripped straightly from Campaign, which has that dull "I've been here before" feel to it. Every other Halo game had Maps made for Multiplayer. Bungie stated that they would work on a map from a Multiplayer aspect to see if it works in Multiplayer, then put it into Campaign and try to make it into a Campaign level. I want my Campaign to be Campaign, and my Multiplayer to be Multiplayer.

Forge

This is the promo pic for Reach's Forge, an in game terrain editor

Forge was a very welcomed addition in Halo 3, and a very welcomed one in Reach. An item editor which you can create any map you want? Awesome!

Before Halo 3, only on a PC could you get that editor but now it's on consoles.

This has mind blowing capabilities with map makers making bigger and better maps then you couldn't even dream of in Halo 3.

...Or it's used to cartoon women out of spawners >.>

Theatre

Seeing Grenades in people's faces never looked so good

(Real English spelling ftw)

Another welcomed addition to Halo 3 and now to Reach is Theatre, a theatre like view at watching any game you've ever played. Here's the explanation from Halo 3 START AT 6:06

It's basically the same thing in Reach, with no new added features/

Audio/Soundtrack

The man behind the music

Marty O'Donnell is back for the soundtrack of Halo: Reach, which might be the best yet (my personal favourite is ODST's). A mixture of symphonys while playing the game goes that extra step into making the game feel a bit more deep.

The audio, is very nice in Reach. During an early Bungie Weekly Update, it compared the Halo 3 sounds of things to Halo Reach's sounds of that same thing, and the results were staggering.

Overall

While Bungie tried to take risks in their last Halo game before 343 Industries takes over the franchise, the risks were to great and didn't pay off. Bungie could fix up the game with a Title Update, but Bungie themselves said that Reach doesn't need one. You tried Bungie, but this game needs fixing,

Developers should listen to their fans.

7/10

Assassins Creed II

2011-03-18T07:49:00.000-07:00

Just finished AC:II the cliff hanger ending really killed me. I can't wait to play Brotherhood and continue the series.

Also, over this March Break i'm currently trying to beat Dead Space 1 which is as scary as hell.
That freaking tank is impossible to kill.

Shit My Dad Says (Don't Sue)

2011-03-05T16:26:00.000-08:00

Looking through the news, I found an article on an Egyptian who named his daughter "Facebook".

I read it out loud to my family when my Dad chimed in and said:

"That's two things a women can't show in Egypt"

Dead Space

2011-02-19T09:38:00.001-08:00

Dead Space 2 was just released and I want it SOOOOOOO bad now!
Still need Dead Space 1 though, I'll buy it through Steam

Baseball Practice

2011-02-18T19:56:00.001-08:00

Being on a AAA Baseball team is pretty cool, going to a couple tournys.

I love playing baseball

2nd Post

2011-02-17T12:43:00.001-08:00

This is totally not a forced post

1st Post

2011-02-15T17:35:00.001-08:00

The first of many, amirite?

Matt's Corner