Google knows everything

So it turns out google really does know everything, a quick search for "Can you reheat sausages" returned plenty of helpful results which means I should now avoid food poisoning, let's just hope the google results where indeed correct. Although I feel fine. Always a plus :).

Now I'm well aware that it's unlikely that anyone will ever lay eyes on this blog, but I really wanted somewhere to write down my thoughts, such as the ODST review I did in the last post. You have to understand that as it was the first review I've written and I understand that it wasn't the best but hey, maybe someone will take something from it; who knows. Anyway I'll probably end up doing a few more reviews, I've got a number of games that I'd love to share my thoughts on, and it might help writing skills.

Anyway, in other news; It turns out that the Internet service at Storthes Hall isn't as bad as I first imagined, in fact when torrenting it actually gets a decent download speed (around 600 - 700 kbs) which to some may not seem very good. Until I tell you that I'm on a 2mb connection. Yeah. Unfortunately the halls are about 20 miles or so from the university, practically in the middle of nowhere which means decent Internet speeds haven't yet reached us.

Okay so I know this post has been a bit random with no particular topic but I want to try and update the blog at least once a day and this is what was on my mind :)

Until tomorrow,
~ Chris. xx

Halo ODST Review

Firstly. Is the game worth £35 based on content?

So anyone who hasn't yet picked up a copy of Halo ODST may well be wondering if the game is worth the £35 it costs (How much is that in U.S $?), and I'm sure you'll have read many reviews giving different opinions on the topic, and now I'm going to add my own to the mix :)

I'm sure everyone has seen a comment somewhere either on youtube or a blog that says that Halo ODST is just a glorified expansion pack that doesn't justify the price tag that comes along with it, and I have a very mixed opinion on this, depending on which way you look at it.

I think it's only fair to first look at what you get when you buy Halo ODST, you don't just get the new campaign and firefight mode, you also get all the maps for Halo 3, which complicates things a little bit. Without those maps you'd only get a three and half hour campaign and a new multiplayer mode, which almost certainly doesn't seem worth the price, especially when it seems that content could have just been available to download. And it's unfortunate that many people are actually only buying this for the same price, as that's essentially all you get if you already have the maps that where available via download.

And for those who hadn't downloaded the maps, the £35 price tags seems a lot fairer; each map pack cost around 800 Microsoft points (that's Heroic, Legendary and Mythic) which adds up to 2400 points. And how much would that cost to buy? About £15 as fair as I'm aware. So know that £15 off the price tag of Halo ODST and essentially that three and a half hour campaign as well as the new multiplayer mode now only costs £20. Now that seems worth it.

And Secondly, is the new campaign, as well as multilayer mode any good?

Of course this only looks at the content on the disk, not at how good the game actually is, so perhaps if you read on you'll get a better picture of how well you're money will be spent.

You have to understand that although this is essentially an expansion pack to Halo 3, it feels nothing like it's predecessor. It was a bold move by bungie to take the game in a slightly new direction, they've made the game much more realistic, and it no longer feels like you're invincible. The game now comes with a challenge. And yet it still feels familiar.

Now I'm not going to go into too much detail, although I've played through the campaign as well as firefight mode, my brain has already forgotten a lot of the details, so you'll have to forgive me if I'm a little sketchy here and there.

Story line

The story line follows multiple characters, you'll mainly play as the Rookie, looking for you're lost team mates, and as you play out the game you uncover clues which allow you to then play 'flashbacks', through the eyes of a separate character. As you play through the game the characters start to meet up, and the story line comes together.

So, story line. I think it gets a B+.
For me, this is definatly the best story line to a halo game yet. It's not brilliant but it's fairly close. Let's face it, 90% of people bought halo 3 for the online aspect. Can you blame them?

Game Play

No longer can you run through every level blasting your way through anything that appears in your path. Oh no, now you need to be patient, and careful, two words that probably don't enter your head when you think of halo. Whilst you get a shield, it won't last long. Once your shield has gone you start to loose health which doesn't automatically regenerate, instead you have to find health packs as such. Once you've lost all you're health, well I'm sure you get the idea.

The game play also feels a lot smoother that Halo 3, and this is very hard to describe, although it's esentially the same it somehow feels so much nicer and comfortable to play. The interface looks much cleaner and more efficiant as well, which helps a lot when you're playing through the game.

Another huge positive to take from the game is that the map is by no means small, in fact it's huge and you could easily spend a good hour just investigating the map, of course if you where to do this thoroughly it would take much longer, there's plenty to kill.

Which brings me to my next point. Ammo conservation; Unlike Halo 3, ammo becomes exceptionally rare, in fact at times theres barely enough to get you through. Some players mght find this annoying, I quite like it ~ you have to be careful, choose which weapons to use on what. Don't waste a spartan Laser on a grunt for example, and the same applies in revers; Don't take out every single Brute you come across with a pistol. You need your ammo.

The last thing to talk about is the VISR in halo ODST. (I think that's what it's called, it's very late :P). This is essentially an enhanced night vision, it's very usefull to use when you're playing on darker levels, however it also alerts you to anything of interest; Such as the hidden clues which guide you through the story line.

So the game play is good, definalty an A from me.

Whilst here and there could be a few improvements (which i'll cover at the end of this article), overall it's brilliant to play, a step up from Halo thee and very enjoyable.

Online experience

Now I can't judge this 100% as I've not had a good run at firefight mode, but it looks promising. For those who don't know what Firefight mode is, it's basically the same as Horde from GoW2. You pick a map and play with up to three (?) friends fighting off wave after wave of enemy. Each level consists of five waves, and there are five levels to work your way through.

Although I've not had a good play with this I'm going to rate it at B+. I can't give it an A without playing it properly, but from what I have played of it, it looks brilliant. And if it's anything like Horde mode from GoW2 then I'll be very happy indeed.

Negatives

It would be unfair to only include the positives from the game, and trust me there are some negatives as well.

Firstly, when you're playing the game you can still jump about 5 feet into the air, I know this is halo, but I'm an ODST now, I want to feel like a human, not an invincible human on steroids. Maybe I'm being a little pedantic, but the next one is definatly justified.

Firefight mode. Why for the love of god can I not choose to search for games on xbox Live instead of having to join just friends, there needs to be a matchmaking option for this, and this for me really let the game down a lot.

Overall

So overall it's a difficult game to access. For those who don't have the map packs available for download, it's worth buying ODST, and the game gets a B+ from me. However; for those who already have all the downloaded maps, it will feel like a rip off, and I think bungie know this, so in that scenario it gets a C-. Already got all the maps? Don't want to spend £35 on a few new missions? Wait for a month or so and let the price come down. It's a brilliant game, it's just the price that can let it down for me.

Once again, apologies for any mistakes, this isn't the best review, I might polish it up tomorrow. But it's 2:30 in the morning and I need some sleep :)

~ Chris.

2D Side Scroller

Okay well it appears I have to create a 2D Side Scroller game using XNA 2.0 :). For next Thursday I have to have come up with a back story for the game (about two paragraphs or so to share with the group) so it should be fun. Won't start this for a while as we'll actually be creating levels in UT2004 first which sounds just as much fun (y).

If anyone has any ideas feel free to share them in a comment, I'd love to hear them, but I'm gonna start coming up with some ideas for the story, characters and actual game content in a few minutes whilst my xbox downloads some updates. Unfortunately I have a few new books I need to read through (Although buying these isn't nescessary thankfully), so it looks like a trip to the library may well be overdue.

In other news I also had my first lecture today (in Writing Software which is a seperate Module to the above) where we talked about using Java and a program called Blue J to create simple Java programs, I'm just hoping any software they encourage us to use works on linux ~ If not I may have to go back to Windows. No one wants that. ;)

~ Chris.

All the way from Huddersfield

Well I've been here for about a week and a 3 days now (4 days in 25 minutes ;)) and I decided I'd keep a sort of 'online journal' whilst I'm here. I also need to keep a blog to post everything that I'm doing in university so I thought I might as well have somewhere I can keep track of everything in relation to my course, or just random thoughts that pop into my head :).

I should probably give a bit more of an introduction to whom I am etc, so my name is Chris and I'm currently living in Huddersfield (Storthes Hall) and am attending Huddersfield University doing the Computer Games Technology Course. I've not a lot to talk about in my first entry as we've not really done anything yet, apart from play Unreal Tournament 2004, which was fun ~ but it turns out I suck at it :).

Anyway, I have my first lecture tomorrow so I'll be able to post a bit more then, when I've actually done something. However, on a side note, I've just uploaded my new website (http://www.phpbox.co.uk) it's nothing special, just a kind of 'portal' to sections of the internet that I reside upon.

That's all for now, shall post tomorrow,

~ Chris.