So Halo Legend episode "The Package" aired on Halo Waypoint. What happens after the mean cliffhanger from the week before? The Master Chief and pals run throw a hallway shooting aliens while some nice trademark Halo music plays. Fred stays behind to stall some Elites. As Kelly and the Master Chief progress the ship master starts scuttlings parts of the ship. Kelly throws the master Chief to the other part of the ship and is stuck in space.

The Mastchief retrieves the package which turns out to be Dr.Halsey(I told you guys it would turn out to be a person rather than an item or piece of equipment). The Master Chief and Halsey run into an Elite looking to restore his honor by beating the Chief in a duel. The shipmaster loses his patience, beams up said Elite before he can finish off the chief in what is probably the shortest sword fight in anime history and scuttles the entire section the chief and Halsey are in and runs away like a *ussy. Chief and Halsey use an escape pod while Fred and Kelly show up in commandeered covenant seraphs and before an actually chase scene can start a UNSC ship comes in and picks them up. They yack a little, the end.

The biggest problem with this episode from a hardcore Halo fan stand point is that none of the deaths of any of these characters carry any weight. The two spartans that die in like the first five minutes or less are brand new characters and die in rather pathetic deaths. This episode obviously takes place before the Fall of Reach so you know from the beggening all the other main characters wont die so theres no tension at all. You don't even learn the name of the two major covenant characters and only learn that one of them is looking for redemption for running away from another previous battle against spartans. The highlight is probably when Halsey keeps reusing memorable lines of dialogue from the games.

It's a very, very simple episode. Just a short little mindless thrill ride, really. While thats not necesarily a bad thing I think Halo Legends so far is just a lot of untapped potential. The series has the opprotunity to do things the games just don't get to. But these episodes seem to aspire to be little else that a short halo stories for a quick cash grabs. At this point I'm pinning all my hopes on the Origins and Prototype episodes which were the ones I was looking forward to most to begin with. But if they don't turn out well then I'm not buying the DVD.

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So I got to watch the Halo: Reach trailer. Pretty neat, not much else can be said. The graphics are defintely a satisfying step up. The mood seems to be pretty similar to Gears but the the trailer is pretty short so it's not as if wer get a good feel of things. For now I'll wait for the beta.

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Other random stuff:

-Modern Warfare 2 makes me want to burn down villages of babies. Also, I only need to earn three stars and five more missions and then I can be done with the game.

-Probably be reserving Mass Effect 2 after Christmas

-I've clocked in nearly fifty friggin hours on Tales of Vesperia and I still haven't beat it

-I had to post this using internet explorer instead of google chrome like I normally do since google chrome wouldn't let me copy and paste the part of my blog I had prepared.

I'm just letting everyone know that I'm still alive. I just visit my union every know and then, and mostly off-topic. I guess I'll write a life update. Right now, I have finished my freshman year at college. I've been on summer break for a month and just catching up on video games. Just got Rock Band Unplugged and Final Fantasy VII, good stuff. I'm still looking for a job too. I got one, but they want me to start next month. I'm trying to look for an earlier one, see what happens. Besides that, not much is new. Remember, I'm still alive everyone!

Windows Vista has come under alot of scrutiny since it's release over 2 year ago now, and from what i've heard and read - rightly so. However up until about a month ago, i personally have never had a problem with it. It runs fine, very compatable and a darn sight prettier than XP. However when your secondary reason for having a pc is gaming (the first being work....i swear) then you're bound to fall victim to it's glitchy nuances eventually.

I happen to be a big RPG fan, and Fable and KOTOR (Knights of the old Republic) happen to be two of the most highly rated RPG's in the last decade.......do you see the problem? As a serious gamer it's ....well....almost my ...duty to play one or both of these games, however as you will probably know, vista is not particularly friendly towards games which came out prior to it's release (KOTOR-2003, Fable -2005). And so the struggle begins:

"Google is my friend' forum board members tell me, 'update your graphics drivers' the 'newbies' sound, 'run in windows XP compatibility mode' everyone else is advising me.... brilliant, thanks alot, like i didn't know that myself - I think it's fair to say that if someone seeks help on a specific board of EXPERTS then they are going to know and will require more advanced help than that. Anyway a bunch of solutions(if only!) are suggested and not alot happens so your left wondering whether or not to go back to XP.

A few days ago I made that decision; I decided to go back to XP. I had the disk in hand, I was all ready to go ahead with the downgrade, when i realised 1 simple thing that was standing in my way....sure I can't play these games, and yes it's annoying but I found myself mesmaris.... YEAH RIGHT. The only reason i didn't go through with it was because I need microsoft office and unfortunatly my only copy (don't have the disk) is on my pc.

So you see my problem. I MUST (and i mean MUST) have office, it's imperative to my work, but I have not the money for it, nor a download limit capable of obtaining another copy via .....external sources.

What is one to do? Is it possible for me to both enjoy these games and meet my essay dedlines?

Damn you Vista, Damn you

So last week was my 3 year anniversary for being here at Gamespot, and not a lot has changed, from a forum standpoint that is. System wars is still the same, same debates and such. However, Gamespot as a site itself has changed greatly, and I don't think it'll ever be the same after the Jeff G incident.

After 3 years, I have encountered many great people, good posters, rabid fanboys, and of course, idiots. So 3 cheers for me, for surviving System Wars 3 years and running!

Crysis... wow...

I will begin with a side note - I built a computer recently to get back into pc gaming. I went and bought very high end parts such as a GeForce 8800 GT and hoped that games like Bioshock and FEAR could bring me back to pc gaming and justify the fact that I had spent nearly $1000 on a computer. And while both games were great entertainment, I still had the lingering thought that I could have had a nearly equal experience on the Xbox 360 that I already owned. I mean the difficulty of patching, updating, and installing games onto a pc is always slightly frustrating - whereas on the Xbox 360 it is just a simple matter of inserting the game disk and you are instantly playing. Also a lack of (oddly satisfying) achievements instantly made me feel like I was playing on an inferior system in the past. And I still believe that a much better experience with Bioshock can be had on the Xbox 360, but, Crysis has most definitely justified my recent spending spree and Reinvigorated my passion for PC gaming.

Crysis has the most interesting new feature of any game I have played in recent memory. It introduces the Nano-suit, a powered armor suit (think halo's mjolnir armor) that can enhance the performance/abilities of the player in a few key categories. The suit supports Maximum Speed, maximum strength, maximum armor, and a cloaking system. You can switch between each one at the press of a button but you can only use one at a time and each one depletes power from the suits main energy reserves. So, while sneaking around completely invisible is very fun it does not last for forever and you must find a place to hide and recharge before you run out of power. the same goes for things like maximum armor and speed, you are invincible for a couple of hits or fast for a short burst, but afterwards you are very vulnerable until you suit has time to recharge. This system makes you feel like an unstoppable force, but if you don't think smart and fast a few KPA soldiers can take you down in a matter of seconds, so while you may be the ultimate force you are not unstoppable.

The story revolves around an alien invasion, but I won't say much more to avoid ruining it for people who haven't played it yet, but you play as a US Special Forces squad member who is parachuted onto a remote island in the middle of the ocean to rescue a few scientific hostages. The North Korean Army invades the island to try to take over the unearthing of a mysterious power source buried under the island, but the Koreans seem to have run into some trouble and it is your job to figure out what is happening on the island as well as rescue the prisoners. You guys can play the game and figure out the rest.

Crysis also has some of the most beautiful graphics I have ever seen. The jungle looks absolutely fantastic with swaying tree limbs, realistic shadows, and awesome lighting in general. But the jungle is not the only thing that looks great; the alien ships and the aircraft carrier you board look absolutely fantastic and really blew my mind. For example, when I escaped from the alien ship for the first time a cut scene kicked in and the graphics were so amazing that I didn't believe that it was running real-time and I actually thought that it was a high quality prerendered video until all of the sudden the framerate stuttered momentarily and brought me back to the realization that "yes, this was running on my machine!".

My system specs are as follows:

Core 2 Duo E4500 - 2.2 GHz, 2mb L2 cache, 800 MHz fsb;

2 GB PNY DDR2 677 MHz;

BFG GeForce 8800GT OC 512Mb;

160 GB 7200 rpm HDD;

Integrated sound

BFG 650 watt SLI certified Power supply

Intel 945GCCR main board ( HAHA I know, it was $25 so shut up!)

I was able to run the game on my desktop with all settings turned to medium, with the exception of textures, shaders and motion blur being turned to Very High at 1024x768 with 4xAA. I found that the framerate could be much higher at 1024x768 with 4xAA than 1280x1024 with no AA and looked about the same on my pretty lame 17" Samsung monitor. Also, on my hp laptop I was able to run the game on low settings around 20 fps at 800x600 (dv9207us – GeForce go 7600 256mb, core duo 1.73 GHz, 2 GB ddr2 667) but with overclocking I was able to achieve about an average of around 31 fps. So, crysis seems to like my overclocked settings more than any other game and probably showed the highest performance increases of any game on my laptop

Also the multiplayer is very fun and also quite strange to get used to. All of the nanosuit powers are available to each player and it is interesting to see how each person tries to use a different method to win. Also each level is carefully constructed and very pretty. My favorite level being the fully rendered aircraft carrier, complete with a full flight deck and very expansive interior network of chambers.

So, to sum this all up, crysis is innovative, very fun, has great graphics and is a game that cannot be missed. And I really can't wait for the sequel. So this is a message to crytek - PLEASE MAKE THE SEQUEL!

.Well!

.Moooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

It's been a long time!
I remember saying that i would be active this year!
I guess i couldn't keep hold of that promise.
I do apologize.

Y'know..
School work, etc.
It's hard.
And i'll give my profile a huge make-over soon! ^.~

Anyway.
I'll update soon!

Have a picture!
I'd like to call it..

.Smile! =D

Ta!

.Leon!

Evil Dead: Regeneration 7.0/10
Half-Life 2 9.5/10
Area 51 8.3/10
Reservoir Dogs 4.5/10
Gun 8.6/10
Indigo Prophecy 8.2/10
Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil 8.8/10

I know it's the 9th of Jan, but i haven't been able to post this since launch... anyway.  I didn't get it at Toys' R US (even though I got my pre-order from there).  I waited 14 hrs at Meijer and was 1st in line out of 8 spots, I was soooo happy.  We got to wait inside and watch TV and all that good stuff, 20min break every 2 hrs.  It was pretty laid back, we watched some movies, and I knew a couple kids from school.

okay.....11:59p.m...... almost there......cart of Wii's is being pulled out.......I can feel it...... 

So the manager comes out, tells us to get ready.  Me (being first) goes to the cashier, first in line.  I get out my $300+ and I'm so pumped!  I pay, receive the Wii and Zelda, hold up the 2 glorious boxes for applaud.  I went home that night with pride (cheesy i know, but who cares).  I hooked it up as soon as I got home.  What a great day...

I had been waiting for the Wii since it was announced and was called Revolution.  I'm just so happy that I could be a part of Nintendo history and be 1st in line at that!!  It's just... so cool that I actually did this.  I'm a diehard Nintendo fan and have never participated in a launch before (i was too young).  I was finally able to take part in a game system launch.  I'm really really really thankful for this.

So... that's my story of my Wii camp-out and I hope you get your Wii soon too

Okay.  To stop these ignorant Rev controller topics, particularly "Rev controller is the eyetoy or Rev controller is the Nintendo power glove", I shall givereasons why the Nintendo Revolution controller is a completely seperate, and ultimately superior entity to either of these.

Rev controller:  Features back port so developers can customize the thing in any way they seem fit
Rev controller:  NOT motion-sensing like current products,it percieves motion, AND  depth, AND position.
Rev controller:  Can go into a Gamecube controller-esque shell (like some type of flawless voltron transformation)
Rev controller:  Is styled after a remote, something everyone in the family is comfortable using.
Rev controller:  Has the ability to virtually become an in-game object or concept.
Rev controller:  Wireless.
Rev controller:  Comes with fine plastics more intune to the PSP.
Rev controller:  Comes with "nunchaku" attachment that includes a joystick and shoulder buttons.
Rev controller:  Nintendo reports that it still has quite a few secrets to be revealed about it.

Now, to further my arguement, here are situations that use the Eyetoy, the Powerglove, and the Revolution Controller:
EYETOY:
After setting it up ontop of your Television set, you can get arrays of neat mini-games to play on your television.  In some mini-games,  the Eyetoy shows you in the middle of wacky scenery and can sense where your arms are flailing so any flying objects coming that way get bounced away.
POWERGLOVE:
Enjoy classic NES games and become the ultimate NES "Wizard" with this classic atrocity! Ever wanted NES buttons on your wrist?  NO?  Okay then.  (Honestly, it was a bit terrible)
REVOLUTION CONTROLLER:
Using the Nunchaku attachment packed-in seen below, you command link around Kakariko village with the Joystick.  Want to annoy the chickens?  Launch bombs with the shoulder buttons.  After doing the thing with the thing and saving the thing to help the girl thing, tons of crazy critters amubsh the village. When you lock on to the enemy, the joystick on the Nunchaku can still control your direction, but the controller now controls the depth, motion, and position of the sword.  After the the enemies are dead dead dead, go over to the river and the controller can become a fishing rod for link to catch fish, It can help you gain the most precise aim with link's bow or hookshot.  Tread water with it... 
ANOTHER EXAMPLE:
Let us pretend the world got flipped upside down, and they remade HALO 2 on the Revolution, to include some revolution-specific features.  Aiming would be made that much realer (oooh, sniper rifles!), the sword would be given new consideration, Jabbing forward with the controller would cause the gun to slam into anything infrom of you.  moving the controller upwards would result in on-the-fly weapon switching.
THIRD EXAMPLE:
Resdent Evil 4 remade for the revolution would be great.  the nunchaku joystick and the A/b/x/y buttons would be used when Leon is investigating eerily quiet areas and picking up ammunition, but when you press down the top shoulder button, Leon draws his knife thats slashable via moving and aiming the controller.  Map different weapons to directions on the D-pad.  Tap the handgun direction and you can actually aim at the enemies with the REV controller.  Tap the bottem B trigger and Leon will stop aiming and assume a position to run for it.  All in quick succession.    

POINT IS, the Rev controller can function as a run-of-the-mill controller whenever it wants to.  but it can take something you've done before, like sword battles and in-game fishing, and turn it into a more interactive experience.  We all know about the crazy FPS capabilities (EVERY developer that tried the Metroid Prime demo using the REV controller were blown away by the pin-point accuracy.  You DON'T have to flail around to effect on-screen action (wrist movements can do for any task) but expect options to change wrist movements to flailing around.

For (almost) every known detail about the Rev itself, consult http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Revolution

Look what they did to Bomber Man!  This a raping of many gamer's childhood's, including mine!  'Edgy', pfff, 'Mature', pff!  Thanks PoP Warrior Within, Shadow the Hedgehog,  GTA III.