Halo 3: Heroic Map Pack

DLC for Halo 3

Halo 3, this year’s knock-out punch game, while closing the story of the halo trilogy, the Bungie team is still expanding the Halo universe by adding three new multi-player maps via downloadable content.

Now before you go throwing your temper-tantrum about how DLC is never free, the price for these maps seems reasonably fair at 800 Microsoft points.

Now talking more about these maps. The first of the three maps is called standoff or as the Bungie team referred to it as Bunkerworld. Think beaver creek, but with vehicles and 4000 feet wide satellite dishes. Two bases, each with machine gun on the top of each base. This map is great for any flag game variant, bomb variant, or any game really. 2x2, 4x4, even 8x8 plays great on this map Steve Cotton says.

The second of the proclaimed Heroic Pack is a map that takes its inspiration directly from the campaign level Crow’s Nest. Rat’s Nest is set indoors a level setting that has yet to be done by Halo. With a pelican (no you cannot man the Pelican) dominating the level, there are many nooks and crannies to hide in. With all these hiding places it seems like this level is an ideal place for a Zombie game.

The final level of the new map pack, Foundry, is the map I am the most intrigued about. Christopher Barrett said that this level was designed to be a forge level. This is a map of legos, meaning you can stack anything on anything, move around anything, really you can do whatever you want on this map (forge wise).

With this new release dated for December 11^th it will make a great Holiday gift to one of your gamer friends or just your-self.

skate.

skate.

Going head-to-head with the Tony Hawk franchise created by Neversoft, comes EA’s new game skate. EA has brought new game-play mechanics to the very bland world of skating. Using the new Flick It system, differing greatly from the button mashing of Tony Hawk, allows for a very smooth experience of skating. The Flick It system is very simple, to do a trick all you have to do is take the right analog stick pull it down, then flick it back up to do an ollie. More advanced tricks require more complicated uses of the analog stick.

The world of this game takes place in the vibrant, life-like city of San Vanelona, a very stereotypical west-coast, skating city, with steep roads allowing for extreme death-nearing speed, skate parks dotting the city, and numerous plazas to bring chaos and mayhem to the people and cops who roam the area. With all of this you will not have a problem finding a place to skate.

At the beginning of this game you find at your skater suffers a painful injury. Through this you go into surgery and plastic surgery, and you can choose your appearance. The create your own character system is very detailed. You have the choice about how far you want your chin to stick out, or how thin or fat your nose is. Your appearance can vary greatly, and being able to pick what clothes you want to wear furthers the customization of creating your character, having choices of name brand clothing such as Volcom, Zero, and DC. You also have a wide choice of decks, trucks, and wheels for your skateboard; although for these you have to unlock most of the boards, trucks, and wheels through the sponsorships to have the most eye-catching skateboard.

Throughout the game you have many tasks to achieve the cover spot of two magazines. These tasks include photo shoots, video clips, death races, S.K.A.T.E. challenges, and contests. This is very cool in how you can choose your tasks. Although later in the game it starts to get pretty repetitive. Most of the time the photo shoots have you jump a certain thing while nailing an easy set of tricks. During the contests it seems like you have paid off the judges, since you win that easily. The races appealed to me, not because they were difficult but because you were able to go really fast down a long concrete hill filled with obstacles, cars, pedestrians, and bumps. Too bad there were not as many races as I would have liked. Now the video shoots are what really killed the game for me. You have thirty seconds to complete three tasks. You have to find the location yourself to shoot it too, which allows for more diversity. For me I could never find a great location to shoot these and to get the tasks they assigned done in thirty seconds. The S.K.A.T.E. challenges start off pretty easy they start to get very difficult later in the game. Facing pros such as Paul Rodriguez, Ali Boulala, and Danny Way, tend to get challenging because they perform advanced tricks, which you then have to hit, like a game of H.O.R.S.E.

The most painful things in this game were how often you bailed at the tiniest bump, this gets extremely annoying almost to the point where you want to slam the controller down, stomp on it a few times, and set it on fire. Also the camera angle is also annoying. The camera is at a view of where it looks to be your filmer’s camera, I do not know if you can change the view but try if you get this game.

This game is alright being that this is a new IP. Although I did not enjoy this game to much, it is worth a rental if only to enjoy the new Flick It system and the amazing life-like of this game.

Guitar Hero III

Guitar Hero III

How often do you catch yourself, hands outstretched strumming an invisible guitar, to the latest hard rock song? Designed by the guys over at Neversoft, Activision, and Red Octane, Guitar Hero lets you cure this craving of air guitaring to a whole new level.

With a new wireless guitar peripheral, with a detachable neck, lets you rock out easily in more places than before. This comes in the most easily recognized guitar, the Les-Paul. The Les-Paul comes in a slick black exterior or an eye catching white, depending for which console you buy it for. Not only do the guitars come in different colors, but you can further customize these with interchangeable faceplates. I chose the pastel yellow, Sex Pistols.

Along with an amazing new guitar, this game comes with new features, including new songs, boss battles, and online capabilities. The songs in this third generation game are more difficult and take more skill to beat. Numbering at 74 songs this can be quite a journey, to help you out on this tough trek of skill, sweat, and luck to become a Guitar Hero, comes easier use of hammer-ons, and pull-offs. These allow you to pull off solos with more ease.

The boss battles in this game are, well, just really disappointing. They were not needed and hinder your way to becoming a rock legend.

The song choice of this game is very broad. The earlier sets have songs from mostly the 70’s and 80’s, Slow Ride by Foghat, Paranoid by Black Sabbath, and Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll by Blue Öyster Cult. With songs like Before I Forget by Slipknot, Stricken by Disturbed, and the almighty behemoth of a song Through the Fire and Flames by Dragonforce appeal to the newer Hard Rock Genre, during the later sets. With 74 choices of songs, with more on their way via downloadable content, you should be happily satisfied with this game for a while. If the songs do not keep your attention, the new online play allows you to battle others across the world, pair up and become a dynamic duo, or just whip some people in the face-off mode.

Although this game was not what I expected it to be, it is worth a buy.