First Thoughts & Computer Woes

Today I come to you all from not a computer, I come from an Xbox. Through a series of unfortunate events, the laptop has stopped working, and my attempts of re-installing the OS at this point of time have proven fruitless. However, I then realized that I have a chatpad and (regretfully) Internet Explorer on the Xbox. I put 2 and 2 together, and begun the post. It won' be quite as pretty as my old, MS Word typed ones, but it will get some content out, with minor spelling errors.

Since we're already on the Xbox, why not talk about their games while I'm at it? Namely, Halo 4. I won' lie, I was originally agaimst a sequel. I wamted it to die with the Covenant, but quickly I saw that they weren't just milking the old cash cow, but had brought some new ideas in as well.

I haven't completed the campaign just yet, but I have played through a good chunk of ot, and gotten a bit into War Games as well. Its apparent to me that what is happening now is not just a revival, but a shift towards a new direction. Normally, I'm heavily against milking a story, but Halo has something more to it. Halo's got a whole, vast, lore and universe surrounding it. Master Chieft is just a man, but he is a soldier. Soldiers just don't fight one fght. Sierra 117 is a lifer, and his end is not in sight.

So far, Halo 4 is dragging in the feeling of Halo, the quintessential needs of it (that big battle feel and boop, boop, beep before a game starts) and puts it in a new situation. The plot is heavy and thick. Its, at this point at least, possibly more Halo than some of its predocessors.

I look forward to cpleting the game, and giving a more full review, and hopefully, on an actual computer.

--Santa

E3

So, its like a week or 3 after E3, and I’ve finally found the time to stop trading, and talk about some of the things I found interesting! We’ll be doing this in chinks, via game, with 2 in the Spotlight, and then a few just for notes.

Pikmin 3.

It’s happening! Oh god, it’s happening! YES! YEEEEES! This is, except for HL3, probably the game I’ve wanted to see most. I did a whole post on my secret lust for the little flower people, but it’s actually coming! YEEEEEES! Oh, wait…. It’s only on the Wii U. And, according to Gamestop, the pre-order price is… $99.99…. excuse me while I go flush out my childhood dreams.

Personally, I feel that this new installment into one of my personal all-time favorite franchises should be on both systems, so I still have an excuse to keep my old Wii lying around. I really don’t want to go out and buy a new console for… pretty much a one use wonder. I only use my Wii because I feel bad for it, and I’m too lazy (and it helps that my Xbox broke) for Netflix, which I’m not proud about either. Pikmin 3 is a game that I will watch with begrudgingly high interest, since I want nothing more to play it, but nothing less than to buy it.

Watch Dogs.

This is a game that I’ll bet most of you didn’t notice, and it’s a shame. If anybody’s seen Person of Interest, it gives off the whole “Big Brother” vibe, but it looks almost like a cross between a modern day Assassin’s Creed and Grand Theft Auto. This is extremely relevant to my interests.

To give a recap of THIS TRAILER, what you see is a man, a contracted killer I presume, possibly working with the US Gov, possibly freelance, is out about going onto his mark. He has the ability to do numerous things, including hack people’s cell phones, tell their age and occupation, tell the likelihood of violence (useful for a fight), and can also cause havoc with other technologies (like when he turns off everyone’s cell phones.) Inside, he gets information on his target, and goes to wait for him out in the rain, and when he’s crossing through the intersection in his car, he changes the lights. Yes, this man is like Solid Snake inside of Sam Fischer. He goes in to finish the job by “sending a message” and killing his mark. A wild chase ensues by the police, and you get away safely by controlling a drawbridge to go up, and you make a sick jump. Yeah, this is by all means relevant to my interests.

Other Objects of Note.

We have the introduction of Smartglass by Microsoft, and later on the introduction of the “Surface” which I will admit is also quite relevant to my interests. The Microsoft factor as I’ve always referred to it, is to build off of ideas around it in the form of “see iPad, make one better.” However, this isn’t always the case, I do remember the Zune/iPod wars, and we all remember the winners.

There is no news on HL3, but in other news (and this is completely E3 unrelated) keep your eyes open for a possible TF2 update this Friday, with the 7 new items, there’s a lot of speculations that this is the “Meet the Pyro” update, and its just it time for summer!

I’m thinking that Halo 4 looks interesting, and I’m also thinking the new South Park game may be fun. I have no idea if I’ll buy them but I’m keeping them on the shortlist.

--Santa

Xbox: How do You Keep Dragging Me Back?

I have to admit that over the last year, I have moved away from my Xbox. I haven't properly payed my Xbox since the beginning of the year, when I was still on my Honeymoon with Skyrim. But, I just can't seem to forget about my 3rd true gaming love. I was able to let go of the GameCube in a couple of seconds to get the Wii, I swapped the Wii for the Xbox without one tear shed, but now with my transitioning from PC from Xbox, I'm slowing down. I admit, it may have something to do with the fact that running TF2 on my computer makes the things shake with fear, but I think there's two titles that are still holding me back.

For those of you who guessed by looking at the picture, my first game should come as no shock. Halo 3 remains in my all time top 5 games, (which I will probably talk about at a later date) I played Reach, although I feel it had the same problem that Skyrim had. Skyrim was better than Oblivion in every single way Graphics, storyline, attack features. Everything was an improvement. But, the character was gone, and I no longer felt that special spark that I got from the raging at SWAT or getting Red Team on Avalanche. I missed the stupid guards who would want to attack because I wore m Gray Cowl, but if I took it off a second before they were to attack me, they'd ask me how my day was going. I miss that stupid charm.

So why am I excited for Halo 4? well, this is why. Go ahead and click the link to the pretty YouTube video, I assure you it'll get you going too. I will miss the Covenant, that's for sure, but I just can't help and feel amazed by the graphics, the overall feel of movement  that the game generates. I have personally felt that Video Games look pretty enough for the last few years, what we're going to see instead are dynamics. Improvements in movement, textures, differences in the bricks of houses, and maybe different sized trees. Maybe I'm just a bit too hopeful, but I do see a new realm beyond our current generation of games, everything can get better. Hit the page break to continue our heated discussion.