Halo Wars Preview

 

Bungie’s Halo franchise has been a huge hit on the Xbox and the Xbox 360. The shooter has sold millions of copies and has captured the fingers and thumbs of almost every Xbox 360 gamer. Now Bungie has set their minds on a new type of game. An RTS. I love Halo 3 but I never thought that Halo would turn into an RTS/Strategy game. 

Even though I never thought this would happen doesn’t mean that it won’t be a good game. The game will take you 20 years before the Halo 1 but you will still be fighting the Covenant aliens. In order to supply your army there will be no villagers like in Age of Empires or Farms like in Battle for Middle Earth. Instead Bungie approached this for more like modern times. You will have to wait for you supply drive to come in. So in order to get more supplies you must stay in the game long enough. You also must command you troops more interactively. As an example you have to tell you troops when to take cover, when to fire, and when to do everything.

The A button is the basis for the game. If you move the cursor over a unit and press A that unit will be selected. If you double press A then you select every one of those units on the battle field. Lastly if you press and hold A you can do a ‘click and drag’ to select all the units in the box. The game will feature a circle menu that come up when you click a building or a unit. The game is focused strongly on combat but you can use the D pad to jump back to your base for a quick defense build up.

This game looks very promising and i will hope to have a full review of the game when it comes out on October 1, 2008

Too Human Set For Release!

Silicon Knights has announced that the highly anticipated game Too Human will be released on August 19, 2008. The game will be coming to only the Xbox 360. Silicon Knights also has a Too Human sequel in in the planning set to release around 2010. I will hope to have a full review of Too Human 1 when is comes out on the 18 of August.

Too Human Preview

The are a lot of great MMOs and RPGs out there that have captured the love of millions such as World of Warcraft, Guild Wars, and Lord of the Rings Online. Another type of game that is very popular is the action games. But as anyone ever combined the two types of games? The answer to that now is yes. Too Human is a combination of an RPG and Action.

Too Human will have 5 different classes from which to choose from, they are Berserker, Champion, Defender, Bio-Engineer, and Commando. The Berserker is an all attack class with high melee damage but low armor and HP. The Champion is a well rounded class with middle ranged HP, Armor, Melee Damage and Ballistics. The Defender is the tank of the game. He has the best armor and a lot of HP. The Commando is your nuker who accels in firearms and explosives. Last the Bio-Engineer, he is basically your healer. He uses nano technology to heal and also do combat damage.

The max level cap in Too Human is level 50. As you go through the levels you can get hundreds of thousands of different weapons and armor sets. The story behind Too Human is set back thousands of years ago before the time of Atlantis and before the Ice Ages. This video will give you the whole story.

Well there is the history for Too Human and some of the story line. I am looking forward for this game to come out. The release date has not been told to the public but Silicon Knights has ensured that one has been set. Too Human will becoming out only on the Xbox 360. When the game comes out I am going to try to do a full review of it.

Motion Sensitive Xbox 360 Controller

The Xbox 360 is one of the greatest probably the best console on the market right now. With its great online play and good graphics the 360 has captured the hearts of millions of gamers. Now Microsoft’s newest device (this is only a rumor) is a motion sensitive controller. This controller is supposed to look like this.

These are some of the features that the controller is expected to have when it is released.

“an LED sensor on the front accelerometer and gyroscope … that can detect tilt and motion, rumble motors, wireless two way data communication with the 360 [and includes] a built in Microphone for Xbox Live and voice-activated games.”

As you can see the controller will have great new features and some enhanced features on the old controllers. This controller will be something that all 360 fans will be anticipating and hoping a very quick release. The only thing that I am worried about is having it be released too early and having the controller not work right because of the hurry.

Games for Windows Stops the Magazine!

I am sure all of you have heard about the Games for Windows magazine and some of you probably have it yourself and you might have some of the games they make like Age of Empires 3. It is a great magazine and has tons of subscribers. Despite all its success the magazine has announced that it is going to close up the shop. GFW is going to stop its printed magazine and go to just being an online source. The source will located at http://www.1up.com.

Jason Young, CEO of Ziff Davis Media and parent of the 1up network says, ”PC gamers and marketers have made the online space their home. There are 10 million World of Warcraft subscribers, 15 million Steam users, and when online and digital distribution is taken into account, DFC Intelligence reported that people spent more money on PC games than on any other platform last year.” “It’s a natural move for us to refocus our resources and talent to the online space, in order to reach the PC gaming community where it truly lives.” Added Simon Cox, VP of Content for 1UP, “I am very excited to refocus our vision for GFW to online and reinvigorate it with new life. GFW has always been a stellar publication, and it will now be able to grow in more ways than ever before in content and audience. I think GFW fans and 1UP Network users will truly love our enhanced online PC coverage and the features it will now be able to offer them.”

Well there you have it that pretty much sums up why GFW is transfering to an online network rather than printing. Changing to online source does end the longest gaming magazine in print. The magazine formerly know as Computer Gaming World lasted for a total of 27 years. Now that is over. I would just like to thank the GFW magazine for making a great source for PC games, hardware, and software information. Thanks a lot GFW!

Technology in Schools

Well I don’t know about you but in my school we never seem to have up to date computers, software, or other technologic devices. This really bugs me because they are teaching us things about the software that is old and out of date. This is most visible in the computers and the programs they teach. One example is my Visual Basic teacher is using VB 2003, it is now 2008. He says that he is only allowed update his software every 10 years. Also his computer always dies on him so he has to take it to the repair shop to get it fixed. Last time his computer was out for about 2 weeks. Well that is it for the negative things because there are some positive things as well. For example my science teacher just got this new thing called a smart board. It is really cool because instead of having to have his computer up at the front for power points he can just turn on the projector and the computer will send a signal to it to have the presentation be displayed. He can then use a smart pen to just tap the board to go to the next slide. Some other features with this object is he can draw and type while he is doing to power point. So if he wants to give us an illustration he can just draw it. That is really the only thing that is something that I would consider technologically advanced. If you have anything that your school has or you wish it had post it in the comments section.

This is a SmartBoard, as you can see it is very easy to use because this little girl is using it.

The Force is Unleashed!

Star Wars has been a major phenomena in the American culture and across the world. From the movies to the games everyone loved Star Wars at one point. Lucas Arts’ newest game is called Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. In this game you will see a whole new side of the Star Wars games. Usually you will play as the Republic or the Rebels in games but in the one you will play as the Empire.

The character you play as is Darth Vader’s secret apprentice. Your mission is to travel around the galaxy and kill off the remaining Jedi. The game is set in between the Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. It explores the aftermath of  Order 66 and the evolution of Darth Vader. I have also learned that you will be aided by a sidekick named PROXY who is a prototype holodroid with amazing abilities and a beautiful Imperial pilot named Juno Eclipse. You will battle powerful force wielders including a Zabrak warrior named Maris Blood and General Rahm Kota. Some of the planets that you will visit are Kashyyyk, Felucia, and Racus Prime.

As you move through the story line you can upgrade 4 core force powers. They are Force Push, Grip, Repulse, and Lightning. You can also combine all of your force powers  to create ultra-destructive combos never scene before. Some examples of this are instead of just Force pushing enemies into walls you will Force push them through walls; and instead of Force griping your enemy and throwing them aside you can force grip them in mid air, zap them with lightning, and then throw them to the ground only to explode like a bomb! Now I don’t know about you but that just sounds sweet!

This game will be out for Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, PSP, and Wii.  In the Wii you will have a 2 player duel mode with 5 maps that is not included in Xbox, or PlayStation. The game will be coming out on September 16, 2008 in North America. You can learn more about the game and watch the trailer at this link.

Assassin’s Creed Review

Assassin’s Creed as been a great hit with console gamers and now just recently on PC as well. The game starts out as you being a guy named Desmond. You were kidnapped and taken to a high tech facility. You are being put on a machine called an Animus. The animus is a machine that lets you recall the memories of your ancestors. In this case Desmond is the ancestor of Altair. Altair was an assassin during the crusades. He is a member of the Assassin’s Creed which is where the game’s name comes from. So you are in the animus and they first put you through a tutorial so you learn how to play the game. After the tutorial you are put right in to the game. Altair is supposed to get a treasure in some caves. In doing so he disobeys 3 of Assassin’s Creed’s rules. When they find the treasure they are caught, Altair and one other escape but one is killed. After the the master learns about the rules he broke Altiar is demoted. You lose all of your weapons and special abilities.

So the objective of the game is to move up the ranks again and keep a war from being started. You will travel to a number of different cities like Damascus and Jerusalem. Here you will do things like pick pocketing, eavesdropping, interrogations, save the citizens, and finally assassinations. When ever you do the assassinations you move further into the story. You open up new parts of cities and other things. When you complete objective your memory bar (in the top left) gets larger. The memory bar is basically your health bar. 

The fighting parts are definitely the parts that make the game fun to play. When your social icon turns red then you can hit the LT button (Xbox 360) and go into fight mode. It this mode you can hold in RT to block the attacks and press B at the right time to counter the attack. The counters can be anything from just throwing your opponent to the ground to stabbing them in the foot and swiping your sword up to thier head. Another feature that I thought was very cool was the ability to climb very tall building and dive off of them into carts or hay. Although this is very unrealistic it is still fun to jump of of huge buildings for fun. The coolest feature I think is the hidden blade that Altair has on this left forearm. This is your assassination tool. You can use this to sneak up on guards or if you want to civilians. But I don’t recommend doing this because you will fail if you kill to many of them.

This is a great game for anyone who likes games with a lot of killing in stealth or in public. This is also good for people who like the times of the crusades. The graphics of the cities are very good and it feels like you are actually there. I am giving this game a 5/5.

Hopes for Guild Wars 2

  The Guild Wars games have become a huge success since the Prophecies was released back in 2005. The many campaigns and most recent expansion (Eye of the North) has given GW the ability to say they have over 5 Million active players right now and still growing. The reason for this success has a lot to do with the game’s no monthly fee. It is also because of their releases of new games very fast. This will all ways give the gamers something to look forward to, but NCSoft and Arenanet have announced that the Guild Wars games are over and they are now working on a completely new game called Guild Wars 2. This will offer at least 4 new races, these races are the Sylvari, Asuras, Norn, and the Charr. I don’t know if the races in GW 1 will still be playable or will be eliminated. The one things probably most GW players are hoping for is not just an expansion that is the same game with just a little tweaks. They want a completely new game that includes all of the old things but adds new things to the game that make the experience much different than that of the old games. I am expecting a great game to be created and there are some things that I am hoping they put in the game that wasn’t in GW1. The first thing I want to see is adding a jump feature to the game. This would be a great thing to add to the game. Second is adding a larger skill bar. This would be very beneficial to the gamers because you would be able to have many different types of skills equipped at all times, and if you are like me you have tons of skill that just sit there because there isn’t enough space on the bar. Lastly, I would like to see a great improvement on the capacity in the storage. The storage now can only hold I think 30 items. This is not enough because you storage is use for all the characters you have created. This is hard to manage and you will end up tossing things that you want to keep because of the lack of space. With these simple add ons and improvement I think the game will be a lot better. I have Guild Wars Prophecies so if you want to see me in the game my three characters are Znerf Argon, Illuvatar Argon, and Melkor Argon. You can just send me a friend request and we can go questing or just talk about the game.

Happy Easter!

Hello everyone, I hope that everyone had a great Easter day and spent sometime with some family and ate some chocolate.