In the run up to my last week where i can still genuinely put "unemployed" as my status on Facebook, i.e: the weekend, i was graced by a visit from Jay. Apparently he's getting a bit of time off next week as well due to an up and coming exercise down in the Falklands. (Was i supposed to mention that or is it a national secret?) Anyway, as he is the only person with access to the current generation of games consoles (bar the PS3) that i see on anything like a regular basis, his visits mostly comprise of us trying out some games. This weekend i finally got to grips with Halo 3, had another decent bash at Wii Sports and had a quick look at both Army of Two and Wii Fit.
HALO 3 
Possibly the biggest launch of any game, Halo 3 also had the biggest hype surrounding it in the history of gaming. I throughly enjoyed the trailers for it, especially the live action ones, (which can be viewed here:
www.halo.msn.com), however after being slightly disappointed with Halo 2 i really wasn't sure what to expect from Halo 3. The Zero Punctuation review (find it yourself) only added to my doubts.
So when i finally got around to playing Halo 3 itself what did i find. Well the graphics have been improved upon from the second installment but that is a moot point when it comes to anything released on the PS3 or the x-box 360 as everything i have seen has been damn pretty. Loading times are vastly improved as well, but then i play Battlefield 2 quite a lot on my PC and connecting to servers on that is like sitting through an advert break without the adverts, so anything seems quick by comparison. But what about the actual game? Well there are several things i like, first is there seem to be more friendlies and enemies running about on this outing, obviously the Covenant and the UNSC both though they'd better commit more than a handful of soldiers at this end point in the conflict. However Covenant forces seem to have lost their edge. Let me explain, in the second game one of the alien species that make up the coalition of races of the Covenant (who call themselves the "Elites", how modest of them), got bored of being portrayed
as two dimensional evil characters and decided they wanted to join the good guys team. They were the generally stronger and faster than most of the other Covenant forces you encountered in the Halo games. They were smarter too. Their place has been filled by the "Brutes", which as the name suggests are big, strong and tough but generally slow and not that clever. The other races making up the Covenant, bar the massive blue hedgehog monstrosities that like to tip over tanks and eat grenades for fun, seem to be there solely to get under the feet of everybody else.
One of the biggest pluses of this game over the last one is that they've made the vehicles able to soak up a bit more damage than they used to. (In the first game they made the drivable vehicles indestructible, in the second they made them blow up if people sneezed at them.) In fact the driving sections are the most enjoyable bit of the game, especially if you played it like i did in two player co-op mode. This is because you can roll out in whatever vehicles there are available (typically jeeps), crew them up with friendly troopers and generally cause havoc convoy style! Heading an armoured column is also fantastic, "tanks beat everything!" The flying sections aren't that great on this outing and although the inclusion of an ATV type vehicle is a fun addition, in practice you end up wishing you were driving in a Warthog Jeep (the greatest video game vehicle of all time) instead.
Another annoyance is the occasionally confusing level design, especially in the worst parts of the game, the Flood levels. I have never been a massive fan of the Flood (a sort of weird hybrid of zombies and the face huggers of the Aliens movies). In both the first and second games the Flood bits were more of an annoying chore than apart of the fun and although the equivalent levels were generally better in this game they were still a bit "meh". Especially after getting lost in them for the 20th time because every infected rotting flesh coated corridor looks the same as any other.
All the old weapons are back, including the old assault rifle from the first game. However for some reason they've decided to cut the old 60 round magazines in half and limit you to a 32 round clip. It's a minor annoyance, but it does make you reload twice as much as you used to which can get a bit trying a times. The shot gun seems to also have suffered from these military cut backs and will now hold 6 rounds as opposed to 8. The addition of portable "power ups" such as the bubble shield, land mines and energy shields are fairly entertaining however there were hardly any times me or Jason actually used the things. The new brute grenade is rather good and the new flame thrower is horrifyingly effective. You can also rip machine gun turrets off their fixed tripods now This is fun the first couple of times but it slows you down a lot and you end up dropping the thing out of sheer boredom when traveling from A to B. The best weapon by far is a huge hammer full of energy powered killing goodness. However you only get very limited ammo for the thing (good job real hammers don't have "ammo" other wise i'd never have finished putting up those shelves in the attic) and the only way to replenish it is by replacing it with another one taken from a fallen enemy. It seems that alien B&Q either charge far too much for them or have only very limited stock as only a handful of your enemies are found carrying one. Its a minor quibble but finding the odd replacement battery for the thing would have been nice and added greatly to the fun. (When i say fun i mean accidentally on purpose smacking Jason in the face with it. "Jon that thing is an area affect weapon!" is now one of Jason's catch phrases.)
The overall pattern of the Halo games should really be commented on. For some reason each and every game is just about the same as the last one. The levels go (in all 3 games): Opening "under siege" level, sneaky sniping level, driving section with some bits on foot level, tank level, Flood Level, Run for it/ Drive for it! level - End. It would have been nice for the designers to stray from their tried and tested formula for a change as you do at times end up looking at the screen and thinking "i did this bit in the last game already!"
What was excellent and earns Halo 3 points over its forebears, was that instead of two identical characters being used in two player co-op mode they finally got around to having the second player playing as an actual character rather than an unexplained and cut scene none featuring clone of the first players character. Player 2's character is one of those ex-Covenant "we're good guys now" Elite aliens called The Arbiter. He's likable enough i suppose and the cooperation between an alien and a human who had previously been trying to kill each other is a great message for the kids and a refreshing change from the xenophobia that seems to proliferate video games. (Go on
IMDB and have a look at who did the voice acting in this game, you'll be quite impressed! - Apparently the guys at Bungie are massive Firefly fans.)
So all in all Halo 3 isn't a bad game, it has a lot going for it, however it doesn't live up to the hype. You don't get to play any of the bits that the trailers showed and rather being the final battle for Earth you end up spending most of your time on yet another Halo (a massive ring shaped space station from which the games series takes its name) or on a big 6 sided star thing called the "Ark". (It builds Halos apparently.) The great big thing in the advert turns out to be just big portal creating thingy.
(*SPOILER ALERT!*) Oh and the Master Chief (The games main character) doesn't die. Check the post credits video after completing it on legendary mode. (So what was that advert all about then?) Looks like we can at some time expect a Halo 4.
I just noticed i got through i review of a Halo game and only mentioned the Master Chief twice! That much be some sort of record!
Wii Sports & Wii Fit.(I think i've done Wii Sports before but i like it so i'm going to write about it again damn it!)
Who came up with the name "Wii" anyway? Does have a meaning in Japanese or something? However despite its s
tupid name and the consoles on paper utter shite'ness when compared to the graphical behemoths the 360 and Ps3, the Wii has turned out to best the most flat out fun of the three. Wii sports is great. You can play tennis, bowling , boxing (knackering), golf (the best one in my opinion) or baseball (that rounders to all us none US types). All of them are fun and fairly easy to get the hand of. Apart for the baseball for me. Apparently even Jay's little sister Alice can hit the ball for a home run easily , where as i can't even score a point. In fact Wii sports would swing a purchase out of me if i had the spare cash. I was also able to have a quick go on Wii fit. It looks, interesting... Me and Jason went for a virtual jog, however about half way in i worked out the instead of running of the spot i could just wave the Wii controller up and down and achieve the same on screen results, which is probably exploiting the game a bit but the day i get fit playing video games is the day i get a job and do something with my life! (Which is this coming Monday if anyone is interested!) One main thing to consider to a
ll the neigh sayers of Wii Fit is that the exercises are actually quite tough, and i quote:
Jon: "So is that Wii Fit thing any good?"
Jay: "The push ups exercise made me cry."
The push up exercise made a fully fit member of the British army cry! DEAR GOD! I think that ends the arguments right there. Obliviously the department of health should provide them for every home in an effort to get us all fit and healthy for when a resurgent Russia tries to invade.
(And finally.)
Army Of Two.So a games developer has finally latched on the the fact the most people (not me i'm all alone these days...), have at least one friend and that we enjoy playing games with two player cooperation modes in them. Thus we have army of two. It looks, as Jason and Kennon were playing it while i cheered on from the side lines, like a fairly standard first person shooter. The game is about two mercenaries making money out of the war on terror and generally killing people. You can "bling out" your gun which is just as entertainingly vulgar as you might think it is and the main characters do seem a little fond of sharing a parachute. Which they do at every given opportunity. However i cant comment any more about it as i haven't actually player it myself, although i will say that the watching Kennon desperately trying to fight off suicide bombers while Jason helpfully lobbed in a grenade or two was very entertaining to watch.
Next week: My First Day & Colchester Summer Ball.
After 6 long months of unemployment how am i finding the transition into the work of full time employ. Pretty easy actually. Yes i miss the huge amount of time to do my own thing that not having a job had and yes i do have to get up earlier in the morning, but you know what? Work really isn't that bad. Once you get to know it anyway. The first to days were by far the hardest though that was mainly down to the fairly complex computer system i am now relatively competent at using and the sheer volume of procedural documentation i had to read through. So what is it i do exactly? I hold the very exciting title of "Registration Assistant" and basically means that when someone on the Social Care Register (its a register of social carers in case the title didn't give that away), changes their name, martial status, address, work place, job, qualifications, favourite colour or dies than i am the mug that has to go onto the computer system and update their entry with said information. It also means that i have access to and huge amount of people's personal information the practical upshot of which is the i know my cousin Al's ex's middle names. If i were to become an identity thief i would be an extremely good one!
