My first 4 minute MACHINIMA video. Hope you like it. The Pinkertons respawn at the end. Music by Isaac Hayes. He’s the Man!
I’m heading out on Thursday morning to pick up my reserved copy of GTA when I get home. It was nice a nice touch that EB Games called me twice to let me know of the game launch at midnight Monday. I don’t think I would have headed out at night to pick up a copy like I did with Halo. Even though I am a fan of GTA, I’m a bigger fan of Sci-Fi Shooters like Halo. Man! This is a huge game for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC for 2008 and is already driving sales for the consoles. Especially the Xbox 360 in Europe. I also predict GTA IV will drive PS3 sales higher in the US. GTA IV looks fantastic with improved graphics and a modern vibe and unlike San Andreas, the game will cover a smaller area. It will mostly encompass Liberty City, about the same size as New York city which is pretty damb big. The game unlike past GTA games is set in modern day with the latest pop culture and modern influences. Sounds like a must have for any game collection. I wonder what GTA controversy will come from this release. We will probably see very soon with game players and tech people digging around in the game. I can’t wait to get into this one!
Check out the GTA IV commercial from Europe. Stylish!
-dude
DigitalPh33r on Machinima.com works hard to make episodes of “It’s a Wonderful Live” using Halo 3 and Xbox Live. DigitalPh33r ’s videos are well thought out and hilarious. Lot of tongue in cheek humor about playing Halo on Xbox Live. He describes to a Tee, the butt-holes we have to deal with playing Xbox Live on a day to day basis. If you play Halo 3 multi-player your in for a treat. This is one talented Machinima maker from British Colombia putting in lots of time on his computer making videos for all of us to enjoy. Check them out on Machinima.com now. You won’t regret it!
Oh yeah, I do think he deserves the Recon Armor awarded to him by Bungie more than the guy hit on the head by the traffic cone.
-dude
The new Legendary maps are great. Better than the Heroic map pack in my opinion. I was surprised by the size and beauty of Avalanche. I really like the map for large team multi-player. Ghost town is cool also. Easy to get lost in the beginning playing this one. Players who memorize the layout and positions of weapons will definitely have a huge advantage on the board during rumble pit games. One of my new favorites is Blackout! A remake of Halo 2’s Sidewinder. It’s the same oil rig you fought on that was partially lodged into the ice. You’ll fight on a new rig, same layout, at night positioned over an ice flow somewhere far north of the equator. See you on XBOX Live.
-dude
Cool Vidoc by Bungie!
This video shows what the Legendary Map pack for Halo 3 is all about according to the developers at Bungie. I think those new maps kick butt! Happy butt kicking!
-dude
Action RPG, Project Offset…
If there was one fantasy RPG/FPS game I really want to play it would be this from the Project Offset team. This small band of project developers began developing their own game engines a few years ago. A very talented band that grew from a few people to a dozen over the past couple of years to create something new and special. This game looks fantastic! I believe it could rival the best RPG’s and FPS’s out today, or even surpass them. These guys could give Oblivion and Halo a run for the money! Check out the Project Offset website and show your support and buy a T-shirt from Cafe Express. I know I did.
http://www.projectoffset.com/game_overview.php
-dude
Yes, I own and love my PSP. Do I buy alot of games for the system? No. Have I been disappointed by some of my past game purchases for the system? Yes. If there is a game among few that are great for the PSP it’s God of War: Chains of Olympus. God of War for the PSP is a must for your collection.
I have always wanted to play the God of War games but couldn’t. Why? I don’t own a PS2. I was planning to buy a PS3 system sometime, but when they lost backwards compatibility I thought whats the point. Now, with the release of Chains of Olympus for PSP I couldn’t resist. I drove down to an EB games in Virginia Beach on release day and picked up one of the last 3 copies they had on hand that wasn’t reserved. I didn’t pop it in my system right away. No, I waited for a great free moment to play it when I wouldn’t be bothered. I flew out on Southwest airlines 2 days later and popped it in after reaching our cruising altitude. The intro music and graphics were great. The back story captured my attention and wasn’t confusing in the beginning even though I hadn’t played the series before or even followed it. Of course the beginning of the game reminded me of the Spartans in the movie 300, one of my favorites.
I proceeded to play the game. Hack and slash all the way against a multitude of enemies in a large and enjoyable environment. I couldn’t believe how fast the first boss battle had begun. Although it was just a mini-boss the challenge was there. After wiping out fat man on the second try now go the spoils of battle. What! Wait a minute! I couldn’t believe my eyes. Is this a video game or a movie? Chamber maidens in the treasure room waiting for master to satisfy them? Geez! I’m really glad the old lady in the seat next to me isn’t hearing this since I’m wearing headphones. I become embarrassed easily. Two naked sex slaves lying on top of one another with an extreme closeup of their tah-tah’s. Oh my, I thought to myself. This game kicks butt! Would I let a little kid play this game? Hell no! Rated M for mature isn’t just for blood and gore anymore. Game developers are pushing the boundaries of games like studios have been doing for the past 20 years for film. Alright! Gaming is coming into its own as a full entertainment medium.
After sampling the minigame “pleasing” the maidens, I continue my way along hacking and slashing deeper into the game unlocking and expanding my powers. The cut scenes are informative and enjoyable to watch without intruding into my play. Killing the bosses is challenging and fun, and the puzzles. Yes, the puzzles are also enjoyable as a side note from the main reason I’m playing the game. What is that you may be asking? We play to take off heads, rip out eyes, and brutally inialate anything that gets in our way using Cratos’ brute strength and Blades of Chaos! This is one of the most brutal games I have ever played! It’s very satisfying to play and easy to save along the way. Once you save your game in one of the shimmering streams of light you encounter along each level it’s easy to pick up where you left off.
I’m really excited about picking up the first 2 games for the PS2 and giving them a whirl. I have always loved Greek mythos and have always been drawn to games of that sort. I guess I’ll have to get a used PS2 sometime from Craiges list and get my hands on a few copies of the past games to really appreciate the franchise in all its glory.
Do I recommend this game? Hell yes! If your looking for a supurb handheld hack and slash puzzle game then this is it!!!
Pros: Graphics, Sound, Gameplay, Puzzles, Mini-games, Charachters, Cut-scenes.
Cons: Story is good, but alittle hard to understand as a whole.
Ever wonder how those Halo players making machinima movies put their guns down?
Here is how to do it:
Push in both controller bumpers, the left stick, the A button, and down on the D-pad for 3 seconds and that it! To bring the gun back up just pull a trigger.
It won’t work in XBOX Live however. Only in multiplayer or campaign modes locally. Have fun making movies with the gun out of the way.
-dude
Standoff, Foundry, and Rats Nest are all free to download on XBOX Live as of 2am last night. Get to downloading! I knew these maps would eventually become free thanks to the swell guys over at Bungie. They are now hard at work developing other new maps for Halo 3 multiplayer. In the works are reworked and reimagined maps from the original Halo: Combat Evolved, and Halo 2. A few of the new maps are Avalanche and Blackout.
Avalanche is a retooled version of the orignal Halo multiplayer map Sidewinder. You remember! It’s that very large ice field map you ran around in with your friend trying to find one another. The icey Avalanche map should be awesome with 16 player Xbox Live matches.
Halo’s Sidewinder. If only I had held some LAN parties.
The new Avalanche. No, its not a truck.
The other new map is Blackout. A re-do of Lockout which is one of my favorite Halo maps of all time. I love the feeling playing Lockout with the snow falling so softely whilst smacking people to the ground with the butt of my battle rifle. Blackout should set a new gameplay mood for you too. It will probably become a new Halo 3 favorite.
Halo 2’s Lockout.
Blackout, my new favorite? I think so. Probably. Yeah!
I apologize about the low quality. It was rerecorded from a video tape. Enjoy!
I had read a very interesting article at Extremetech that really made me think. Yeah, I invest in stocks, bonds and cd’s to make my money grow. I had always thought to myself…”self”, “how could I make money investing in the video game industry?” The video game industry? Go to your room and give me your checkbook! You suck! You can’t make money with video games. Oh yeah? Billions of dollars are floating around this sector of business and I might as well make some money with it since I devote lots of time. I love this industry, but could not nail down where to put my money. Hardware? Software? Distribution? Ah yes, Distribution! What do I mean? Should I go out and invest in Gamestop shares? Absolutely not. Not after reading the interview with Alex St. John. Alex was a Microsoft “PC game evangelist” before founding his own company Wild Tangent in 1998. Alex says that in a few more years consoles will be gone in favor or PC gaming. Why is this? This sounds absurd some may say! Yeah right, your high!
Absurd? Not really. Lets look at why consoles are so popular in the first place? Why? Their affordable, easy to create content on since each console has the same hardware and software “innards” unlike everyones PC. No need to worry about how much memory you have, the operating system, or how powerful your graphics card is. What do those game requirements on the side of the box mean? Who cares when it comes to console games. So if consoles are so great why am I emphasizing an article about how consoles may be on their way out in 5 -10 years from now? Game distribution! That’s why.
Wild Tangent Orb
We have all been saying for years that brick and mortar stores like EB Games will eventually be on their way out as online speeds, content, and micro-payments grow. Everyone is already doing it on the PC. PC’s have a huge head start over the console. There are clearly more games for consoles on the shelves than there are for PC’s nowadays than 10 years ago. Why? More downloadable content for PC’s and consoles are trying to play catchup with online systems like XBOX LIVE. So why should I invest in a company like Wild Tangent? They see that something has to break here with online distribution for PC’s and they have a nitch in the market for distribution that I believe could be bigger than XBOX LIVE, Game Stop and the like. It may even surpass them all. Does this mean the extinction of console games? I really don’t think so because consoles will always remain more affordable to the consumer than PC’s and are very powerful. I do think distribution systems like Wild Tangent can realign the industry however. This is where I’m going to put my money.
Read the entire interview here http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2277507,00.asp and decide for yourself. See the forest for the trees!
One of the cool aspects of the latest Halo game is the interchangeable and unlockable armor. Everyone wants the coolest unlockable items that you may only get by playing lots of Halo 3. The most rare and inaccessible armor can only be given to you by Bungie, and some armor can only be accessed by Bungie employees. Some of the coolest armor accessible to the normal everyday Halo 3 player could take several hours to get by playing the campaign in Heroic and Legendary. Players must complete campaigns, levels, achievements, or collect skulls.
Spartan MJOLNIR Variants
Helms
Shoulders
Chest
The famed Bungie Employee flaming armor.
Question:
Do the different armor variants Spartan or Elite change gameplay or protect your character better during multi-player?
Answer:
No! The armor is only aesthetic in value.
Thanks for reading.
I just purchased the Dazzle Platinum Video capture device from Pinnacle. It usually sells for around $89 new, but I found one at Tigerdirect for about $44 refurbished. I began capturing old video tapes of my flying and my time in the military which worked great. The only problem was I use windows Vista home premium and Pinnacle video studio isn’t completely compatible with the operating system. The Pinnacle web site has a patch 10.8 for Vista to make it more stable but I still had problems. I was able to capture unedited video and make a mpeg or wmv file just fine and the quality was good. I was however, unable to burn a DVD with the DVD creator or use the video editing program successfully. After spending an hour editing and adding effects to one of my flying videos the file lost sound and wouldn’t let me create a new edited file with subtitles and transitions. I think I’m stuck using another video editing program like Windows movie maker or Roxio after using the Dazzle device to capture with. Pinnacle video studio has more effects, fonts, and multi-layer video capability for your video editing pleasure. Comparatively, you’ll be satisfied with just about any other video editing program out there if you only have a Vista computer. Overall, the refurbished version of Dazzle was a great deal!
Dazzle is a low cost way to capture video using RCA composite cables or S-Video. There are no component or HDMI capture capability as of now. If your just capturing some old video tapes or copying your Halo multi-player tournaments on Xbox 360 then this is a good cheap way to go. I’m going to use S-video, composite, RCA and sound outputs on my HDTV to capture XBOX 360 video on my laptop computer. I’ll be posting some video soon on this site. Judge for yourself on the video quality! Thanks for reading.
Question:
I am currently a Gunnery Sergeant Grade 2 with total EXP of 67. Why can’t I upgrade to officer rank unless I have at least 150 EXP? That’ll take forever! It says I need at least 150. What the heck?
Answer:
Your highest skill level in any Ranked play-list must be at least 10 to upgrade to officer. Play more ranked games!
This is a common question about the Halo 3 ranking. I also have not reached level 10 skill level. I like playing lots of unranked games like rumble pit. I like being a Sergeant and will wait to upgrade for awhile.
This isn’t a review as much as a forethought. I am going to get the new multi-player maps today. I know they have been available since December and since I’m a die hard fan I won’t wait and see if they’re going to become free. I’m cheap, but not that cheap. All new maps seem to be made for massive big team battles: Standoff (outdoor similar to Blood Gulch), Foundry (indoor massive hanger/cargo facility), and Rat’s Nest (indoor and outdoor landing pad airport).
I love large outdoor environments to splatter people on. Blood Gulch from the original Halo was fantastic. Now that was a map! Two bases, a balanced set of weapons and vehicles all smacking together at high speed. Of course back then there was no Xbox live to have large multi-player matches. My friend Pogo and I would just sit around all night drinking scotch, shooting each other on that very large map with sniper rifles from all angles and locations. I just didn’t want to lug my big black Xbox to peoples homes, connecting it, playing all night, lugging it back home, then reconnecting it.
Blood Gulch from the original Halo. I miss that map!
Where was I? Oh, large outdoor multi-player maps. Halo 2 had an interesting remake of the Blood Gulch map. More vehicles, you could fly, more weapons, retooled bases, better graphics, and oh yeah Xbox Live! Now that is a frag fest! I loved playing on Live with 15 other players. Now, the games were shorter with more explosions than when just my friend and I played alone and with more players the games had less dramatic endings, but that’s all good.
I am now very much looking forward to Standoff. I have heard the map is not as large as Blood Gulch but is very similar. The environments from what I have seen look stunning. Great artwork! It is large and open so sniper fans like me will love it I am sure. I’m not the best sniper player out there, but I do enjoy a hearty team sniper battle! Oh crap! Wait a minute this map doesn’t have sniper rifles! What the hell? Maybe that’s good? I’ll find out and let you know! Limited vehicles with this map too. I had read they only allowed the Warthog and Mongoose. Maybe they have something here.
Standoff looks like fun.
I have to give Bungie and they’re design team credit. They know better than anyone in the industry how to craft game-play. I’ll be writing a small article about a tribute to the original Halo maps indoor and outdoor sometime soon. I’m looking forward to playing all the new maps on Live. See you there.
