Halo 3 Beta – @#$% – An informal Review

So the time has come for me to tell you all about the Halo 3 beta. Before I do, lemme give a little background (check here for more posts about games):

Halo came out originally for the Xbox. In short it quickly became one of the most popular games of all time. It revolutionized first person shooting genre on consoles, it had a epic storyline, fantastic graphics, addicting gameplay. A perfect storm of a killer-app (a software so great it proves the value of the underlying technology, in this case the original Xbox).

Halo 2 came out something like 3-4 years ago, again on the original Xbox. It was a fantastic game in it’s own right. It brought Xbox Live into the Halo equation as well as the fantastic concept of dual wielding guns (FPS games are all about innovation nowadays). It was a great game but not much more (in my opinion at least). The story was a bit more boring than halo 1, the multiplayer was not as unanimously loved by everyone but overall it was still the same fantastic game as number 1. Don’t get me wrong, it IS a fantastic game.

Now, Microsoft is bringing us Halo 3 4 months early (September release for the final game at the moment) in the form of a public beta. You can get in buy buying Crackdown (another good game) and downloading it through the main menu in Crackdown. It’s available for about a month between middle of May to middle of June. Thousands are playing already and about a week ago I bought Crackdown to get in on the action and report back here! So without further ado, here is my thoughts:

Halo 3 Multiplayer Beta

Introduction

I love this game already. I’ve played only for about 3-4 hours or so but minus the first 2-3 minutes of initial awkwardness from my longtime vacation from Halo in general, I quickly got my bearings back. This game is the same thing we’ve loved for years but shinier and BETTER. Everything I’ve loved about both of the last 2 games are present…. except now in beautiful Xbox 360 renderings. The movement is smooth, the graphics are vivid and detailed, the controls are natural, and overall it just feels really polished. To think that this is not the final version is just even more titillating (whatever that means!). I think this game is an instant classic before it’s even released. Great job Microsoft. Now, onto the specifics…

Look and fee

The Graphics are nothing short of next generation. I think they aren’t as shiny/grainy as Gears of War and thus there are a few complaints about that but I think the look and feel is perfectly appropriate considering how many people would bitch and moan if they changed the style of the graphics. After all, its not always about the graphical prowess and more and more lately, its all about the style. Case in point in Grand Theft Auto vs Saint’s Row. Still, the graphics are GREAT! A huge step up from Halo 2 ( I even did PIP on my TV and did a side by side comparison). I think a good way to put it is that, Halo 2 had such a good sense of graphical style that you don’t really notice the graphics aren’t the best in the world. Instead you just fill in the blanks with your head. Halo 3 fills in those blanks; so right off the bat you see this game you’re like “Oh, this is Halo 3? It looks kinda like Halo 2!” Until you see Halo 2 again, then you’re like “WOW, thats a LOT better!”.

Sounds

Not too much to say about this, music and sound effects have always been perfectly good in the Halo series, and nothing in this beta suggests otherwise. I noticed some more new “Death Groans” – which are the sounds you make when you get killed in different ways. Some are pretty funny. Sweet new iteration of the halo ambiance music too, can’t wait to hear the whole theme on like electric guitar or something!!!!#@!#

Vehicles

The mongoose is the new vehicle that I’ve seen in the game. It is like a small warthog. Faster, more maneuverable and as far as I can tell, only fits 1 person. Great for running flags I imagine, but not too useful for the smaller maps available in the beta. Everything else seems about the same. The Ghost looks cooler than before, but maybe a little weaker?

Maps

We get to play 3 maps in the beta. They are all pretty cool. My favorite is the snow one and my least favorite is the huge Valhalla though I’d admit I haven’t played that one as much. They are all very pretty, detailed, simple (and yet complex enough as well) enough to memorize and have fun playing after just a few games. I’m sure all the improvements with Xbox Live since the last system will make any big map mistakes bungie makes a non issue with Halo 3.

Weapons

The weapons are not really the focal point of the game. I mean obviously you shoot and kill everyone with weapons and whatnot, but this game feels more like they fine tuned all the weapons rather than created any drastic new ones. For instance, the Covenant/alien side was missing a decently powered, dual wield-able gun (the human SMG) and now they have it with the Spiker (2 of which is an excellent combo) Most of the other weapons are more or less the same, the assault rifle from Halo 1 is back and much more solid of a weapon too. I’ve got absolutely no gripes with Halo 3’s weapons. Spartan Laser? Yes it is as cool as it sounds.

What’s New? Items, Stats, Ranking, MORE!

This is where Halo 3 really ups the stakes…

Items are what the mysterious X button now activates. So far there is the portable jumper, the bubble shield, and the energy dampener. They all do exactly what it sounds like they do (a portable “push upper”, a shield that blocks all fire but allows people to pass through, a field that kills all shields). I kinda think that these are things that are gonnna be a real treat for the advanced players when they start to really get used to having them around. When you suck, it’s not super easy to find great uses for these items right off the get go but after a while you definitely start to get a feel for how powerful these assets can be to your CTF team for instance or other gameplay modes.

Another really cool feature is the stats - in short you can go to bungie.com and see your ranking much like in some CS servers out there. You can see the games you’ve played, your score for those games, what weapons you used, games played, times played…etc. From your rankings you can also explore the rankings of other players which is really cool because it gives the game a much more involving feeling. It creates meaning to how well you do and allows you to see your improvement in numbers. Very cool. If they can really master this area, this type of feature could really revolutionize online gaming for consoles by stealing even more of the players’ mind share even when they aren’t on their console.

Ranking is similar from Halo2 but the user experience seems to be much improved. You are matched up much faster, the menus and pop-ups are all lightening fast, and the ranking system is very simple and clear. I didn’t actually do too much halo 2 on live but this is definitely nice.

Bottom Line

This game is awesome. It’s ready to be released as it is and including the few bugs and annoying factors it is probably already one of the best games on 360. To think the final game is going to look and feel even better (provided MS actually makes use of whatever data they are gathering from this beta) is very exciting to me. I play this almost everyday for at least like 15 minutes and honestly, its great fun! If any of you are on Halo 3 beta, FIND ME my gamertag is “AoKUSA Vash“.

Have fun all and enjoy the screens below!

Also a song with Halo in the title: OH YEAH!!
Halo by James D. Stark

8 Games that will turn the wheels of history!!

2007 is slated to finish very strong in video game releases. Several high profile games that have been shown off for the last 2 years the major conventions (like E3) are finally coming to release and will truly demonstrate the much touted power of the next generation consoles. For this reason I do not include any Wii games in this list as fun as they are (don’t hate me). The following games are games that will move the industry forward in some way or another. They aren’t “just another shooter” or cookie cutter RPGs. These are games will make HISTORY! Without further ado!!!:

#7 Blue Dragon

At first Glance Blue Dragon is nothing more than an extra shiny cartoon RPG. Take a look at who is behind this wonderful looking game you you’ll double take:

Hironobu Sakaguchi – Writer for the first 5 Final Fantasy games.

Akira Toriyama – Character designer of Dragonball cartoon and manga as well as Dragon Quest video games.

Nobuo Uematsu – God knows how many beautiful scores and soundtracks Nobuo has cranked out for the Final Fantasy series in his lifetime.

Still, the game is already released in Japan and has recieved tremendous positive feedback and can possibly be considered the sole reason for the 360’s decent performance n Japan. The WORLD CHANGING part however, is that this game will be the first good JRPG (japanese RPG) to be released on any Microsoft console and its success could begin the deterioration of Square Enix’s love affair with Sony and Nintendo/exclusion of Microsoft. Lack of lengthy RPGs has long been a major lacking in the Xbox department and Blue Dragon is here to change that.

Those of you with an Xbox 360 – Plug that baby into the internet and download the trailer for this game. It’s almost like 3 minutes long or something but it really shows off the artistic style of the game, the emotional voice acting, and all-star music. Check it out! In case you can’t here is one from YouTube!

#6 Half-Life 2: Orange Box

So this game already comes as a GREAT steal if it’s priced similarly to the other next gen games ($60) because its really like 5 excellent games in 1.

Half-Life 2 – Very commonly known as the best sci-fi shooter of all time, HL2 is making its way into both Ps3 and 360 consoles after living on PC (and original Xbox) for almost 2 years! This game is an instant classic as it incorporates an amazing physics engine with unprecedented graphics for it’s time.

Episode 1 – Don’t know too much about this game other than that it is the continuation of HL2. It incorporates a few new features (minor) and maintains the quality of the main series.

Episode 2 – Been waiting for this for ages as some of the movies show some new AMAZING uses of physics such as Farmhouses EXPLODING and whatnot. Looks cool! More episodic content through Xbox Live? Probably. Sweet.

Team Fortress 2 – Probably the longest delayed game in the whole world. Team Fortress was originally a fan favorite in terms of military squad/role based shooters. TF 2 surprised the world with it’s cartoony look and action packed game play. Get ready, this ones gonna be major.

Portal – Probably worth the whole $60 by itself, Portal must have been made by some of the world’s smartest people. I can’t quite describe the concept. Actually yes I can, but I cannot do it justice. Just watch this video. Portals GALORE! This part is probably what makes the Orange box on this list – Pushing existing game types to the next level, thereby reinventing an entire genre and bringing a completely unprecedented level of game play to customers. Thats huge!

#5 BioShock

Much more than your average shooter. From what I’ve seen BioShock combines an amazing first person shooter concept with a historical yet futuristic yet fantasy-esque scenery with the same demented horror an imagery as the Resident Evil series. I’ll try to paint a picture, with words….Mad Scientists escape to underwater refuge, create a utopia base on DNA alteration and scietific progress of the most horrific type. Society collapses, freakish mutants run wild in the underwater world. Enter you. Who knows who you are but you’re there for a reason. You fight anything from little girls, to massive monsters, to demonish mutants. Can’t kill a certain dude? Alter your DNA and shit, maybe make a living beehive out of your hand and use that to your advantage. Or any number of other awesome alterations. Or use your cleverness t reprogram security systems to help you or pit several enemies against each other while you watch an then finish off the survivor. It is an incredibly ambitious game and upon first hearing the level of ambition in this game I was incredibly skeptical but after seeing some of the game play footage, I am totally sold.

Disgusting…

#4 Lair

This game looks amazing. It is a ps3 exclusive. The premise you ask? Dragons. Killing people, killing other dragons, killing huge monsters, attacking castles. I simply cannot comprehend how the AMBITIOUSNESS of this game is even this generation. After watching some of the videos and seeing what the ps3 is truly capable of, I am truly convinced that Lair is going to truly next generation. The graphics are beautiful, the game play looks dazzling, involving, complex but not overly so, strategic, and vast. I mean I could just keep listing adjectives, or I could show you a video of this monster of a game in action. I can’t wait to play this on my friend’s ps3 and if the system ever gets enough of these types of games for me to actually shell out the dough to buy one, I’ll definitely pick this one up.

#3 Halo 3

What do I even need to say about this game? This is going to be the biggest drop of the entire year no matter what happens. Actually, between this and the next game on the list, they’ll probably make more money than the rest of these combined….Actually I have no data to back that up but I feel like that’s probably true? Lets take a quick look at what’s new with Halo 3 and what it brings to the “court”

New weapons: Between the spartan laser, the halo 1 battle rifle, spiker, improved needler? There should be a lot new stuff about this game that will make it even more fun than before. There’s a few weapons that are so big in fact that the camera shifts out of 1st person view and into 3rd person!!!

Graphics: From what i hear, they are simply beautiful.

New vehicles: Updated vehicles and one new mongoose! Its looks like the warthog but smaller and faster? I saw this video too of the car driving over this spot of light that makes it jump over this building!! Amazing. They can pretty much throw shit at the game and the players will love it.

Items: I’m not sure about the details but the commercials show Master Chief throwing down a gernade that immediately expands into a huge shield. It looks pretty. There was this huge mystery over what the X button would do but apparently it has something to do with all the new weapons they are putting in the game, which i know nothing about.

First Halo game on the Next Generation system!! – This is MAJOR!! First halo game on a console that is actually already good without halo! Microsoft is definitely on the right track

#2 Grand Theft Auto 4

There is very little information out on this game right now but given RockStar’s amazing track record at delivering games that take the system and the genres to the next level, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if this game turns out to be one of the best of all time. Best for me? I can still play on my 360 because for the first time Xbox is recieving GTA at the same time as a Sony product. This is big news. You can be sure to bet that RockStar will be edgy but lets hope that they don’t get carried away like with San Andreas, hot coffee anyone? I read a quote somewhere by someone on the GTA4 team saying that comparing GTA4 to GTA3 will be like comparing GTA3 to GTA2. That is quite a statement. Lets hope they weren’t participating in the Sony Attitude of “overpromising”. Nevertheless, Grand Theft Auto 4 will be one of the best games ever made. I’ll bet on that!

#1 LittleBig Planet

This is a strange one to make the list but is perhaps one of the most impressive games I have EVER seen. In case you are not keen on the video game market (as I try to be = P) , there has been a recent trend in focusing less on the technological prowess demonstrated with the game and more on the fun, simplicity, and originality that made us all fall in love video games in the first place all those years ago. The perfect example of this is the Xbox Live Arcade. Here is a library of over 100 original or remade games that all scream “I’m simple and fun, I don’t require 20+ hours to beat/enjoy, I’m inexpensive!” instead of “I am the newest thing that technology has to offer, I was made using a multimillion dollar budget, my FPS is slow even for a next gen system, I’m gonna charge 10 dollars more!!” Xbox Live Arcade is massively successful and has often been known for allowing the serious gamer’s kids, girlfriend or wife to play some low involvement games and thus get some good involvement in the gaming as well! I think its a fantastic trend.

ANYWAYS… LittleBig Planet takes the simple game, but also puts a present day spin on it. Keeping the extremely simple game, LBP incorporates social networking, the power of the internet, user-generated content, blahdy blahdy blah, and is a modern game with a simple concept with enough bells and whistles to keep players entertained for literally FOREVER. The same way YouTube revolutionized online video, LBP will revolutionize these mini games. It is only available for the ps3 through the marketplace… DOH!

So what the hell is this master concept I keep talking about? You and up to 3 friends play through a 2.5D world/level full of interactable objects and events. Your cute little characters have almost limitless possibilities in customization and the levels are completely user generated which means a double limitless game! OMFG. Like before, I won’t feebly try to describe the concept any further when I can show you right below!!!! This game is going to rule, and I may have to get a ps3 some day to join in the fun.

#0 Mass Effect

All the build up and now we are finally here…Unfortunately, I’m going to build up a little more. I’ve played a shit ton of games in my life but without a doubt my favorite of all time is definitely Star Wars: Knights of The Old Republic. This game is amazing in its own right in almost every way. The length is very appropriate, the story is epic, non linear, and original with MANY twists and turns to boot. You can choose to be good or evil which will completely change the way the game turns out at EVERY point in the game! BioWare is the company that created this game… They’ve been missing in action since KOTOR came out a few years ago and I think this is what they were working on.

Mass Effect.

“The game takes place in the year 2183, with the player assuming the role of an elite human soldier named Commander Shepard. The story revolves around an ancient alien prophecy stating that, every fifty thousand years, an alien race comes to the galaxy to harvest all organic life, and the time of their return is approaching. As the first human Spectre – sworn defenders of galactic peace – Shepard’s mission is to halt the advancing armies of a legendary agent gone rogue. Shepard will lead an elite team across hostile alien worlds and discover that the true threat is far greater than anyone imagined. “

This game looks and feels a little like Knight of the Old Republic when you first see the videos, but there is a difference. This game is TRULY next generation. Instead of conversing and choosing speech by reading text, you look at the face of your dialogue partner and read his emotions right off his rendered face. The dialogue is so fluid in fact I can hardly beleive that the whole game can be like this! The fighting system looks so unbelievably cool, and original. It seems to combine recent evolutions in squad based combat, turn based combat (?), and first person shooter elements all into one monstrously cool LOOKING game. I hope this area doesnt fall through as it is incredibly important. The graphics are truly incredible and are definitely the most beautiful I’ve seen on the web anywhere, for any game for any system! The world is enormous too as you can travel from solar system to solar system within your galaxy and from planet to planet in each solar system! I mean to tell you the truth the whole game is so damn AMBITIOUS that I’m a little afraid that EVEN BioWare won’t be able to pull it off though. However, I am an optimist so I’m sure it’ll happen.

Please take a look at some of these amazing videos and tell me what you think!

Well that concludes it everyone! These are the 8 most important games of the year according to yours truly. Please let me know what you thought of this article! I spent a ton of time on it but it came easily because its my passion . Enjoy and happy playing!

BTW Enjoy this magical music!
You And I Both by Jason Mraz