Halo ODST Limited Edition Unboxing
The Limited Edition Package:
The Back:
The Controller
The Box and Disc
Halo ODST – Toronto Launch Event
Here a a few photos from last night’s Halo ODST launch event in Toronto. Enjoy!
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read moreBatman: Arkham Asylum – Xbox 360
So we all know the deal generally licensed games generally completely suck well this isn’t the case with developer Rocksteady and publisher Eidos who made one a great game.
The game starts with Batman driving down to the Arkham Asylum with joker who is strapped into the passenger seat. Batmen along the Arkham Asylum security team escort joker down a long hall but wait the security systems is overridden by Harley Quinn and guess what Joker got away and takes control of the facility. The Joker enlists the help of all the prisoners and threatens to blow up bombs scattered across Gotham City should anyone come to Arkham. This leaves Batman with little choice but act alone however he can rely on Commissioner Gordon and any other loyal security guards he finds. Oracle is his trusty guide as she guides him through Asylum over the radio. Later in the game Batman heads to a Batcave he set up on Arkham years ago for situations like this one. Going to the Batcave was the smartest move for our trusty Bat by going their he finds out that the Joker is after the chemical called Titan which is produced in the asylum. Remember our friend Bane? Yes this is the chemical that makes him super strong powers however the Titan chemical is a beefed up on steroids version. Obviously Joker wants to use the chemical to create his own super army and then dump the waste into Gotham’s water supply. As you travel between buildings at the asylum you’ll notice all the plants have mutated and have started to take over the island.
Throughout the course of the game Batman fights and defeats several of his old archenemies and then is forced to return to the Batcave to create an antidote to the Titan Chemical and will use it to destroy the mutated plants. Towards the end of the game Batman is invited to Jokers party when you arrive to the party there are literally 20 or 30 prisoners who do not want to fight you but simply want to insure you are on the guest list for the party and guess what you’re the guest of honour. The Joker shows Gordon hanging in a corner and attempts to shoot him with a Titan filled dart but your boy wonder dashes in front of the dart and takes one for the team. Batman fights to resist the Titan chemical from taking over his body. The Joker feels defeated by this and then shoots himself with the chemical and heads to the roof top where he proudly displays his new figure to the news choppers flying around. Yes it’s that time, time for Joker and Batman to too battle where ultimately Batman defeats him. The joker transforms back to normal and is finally taken to his cell. The next thing you know Batman is flying off in the Batwig and Scarecrow rises from water and clutches a box that displays the word Titan on.
The overall story and game play just sucks you in from the opening cut scene until the final battle. The simplicity of the combat, detective mode, Riddler clues and story truly make this game stand out from the rest of the licensed games on the market. The combat in this game is very simple however it still provides a bit of challenge because you need to think of what move to use on your enemy since they could be carrying a knife or stun rod. The more enemies you knock down the more experience points you earn which allows Batman to upgrade everything from his suit, to new combo’s and finally to upgraded batarang. I had a blast using firing the remote control batarang at unsuspecting villains. Throughout the course of the game when batman can rely on Gargoyles to get around rooms and remain unseen from the enemies as this allows batman to swoop down and slide kick is enemies or land just behind them and silently take them down. Or batman could hang up himself upside down and swoop down grab the unsuspecting villain and disappear back up to the gargoyle with the now unconscious inmate. I don’t know how else to say it but the combat in this game just feels like batman but the only thing missing from the game where the bam! Poooow! That we were used to seeing in old Batman television show. One more important thing on combat, if you think you can enter a room of where several inmates are rocking guns and fight your way through. Think again, Batman has no chance to survive against guns in this game.
One of the first things you’ll notice in Batman in the outstanding voice acting, the cast features Mark Hamill as the Joker. Don’t get me wrong the rest of the characters have some great voice actor’s doing their parts, the Joker’s character just left me wondering who is doing voice acting because I loved it. Throughout the course of the game you will find audio logs that go into great detail explaining each of the characters.
So I didn’t follow or show any interest in Batman Arkham Asylum during the development cycle, I only started to gain interest when Walmart Canada advertised the game on the Xbox dashboard for 38.88 and so all other Canadian retailers followed suit. I lined up outside at our local retailer and I am so glad I purchased the game. It was a great experience for $38.88 however I strongly need to point out that I would have not spent $60 plus on this game. Did lowering the price on this game for the first 3 days of launch increase sales? I think it did. Overall if you grew up watching or reading Batman comic’s you owe it to yourself to play this game. If you truly want to experience what it would be like to be Batman, Play Batman Arkham Asylum.
read morePrototype – Xbox 360
Picture this, the game starts with a character named Alex mercer laying on a morgue table, he wakes up and all hell breaks loose. He fights his way out of the GENTEK facility and escapes the military and settles upon a rooftop. From high atop a building Alex sees New York city is filled with mutants and he discovers he has abilities that give him enormous strength, speed, agility, weaponry and the ability to consume people to gain their appearance, memories and abilities. In order to regain his health he must consume people, take their appearance, memories and clothes. He searches out his sister Dana who will lead him on missions to find out what exactly happened to him and New York City. During the course of the game Elizabeth Greene escapes the GENTEK facility and takes control of the infected people becoming their master in the process. During the first face off with the military chosen one Captain Cross he injects a suppressant into Alex that takes away Alex’s power. Alex tracks down Dr.Ragland who develops a cure for him and a weapon to use against Greene.
A Leader Hunter kidnaps Dana and that leads to Mercer tracking down the hive. This leads to a Greene vs. mercer showdown and Alex injects the formula into Greene. Later on in the game Alex is contacted by an unidentified contact who explains the how the virus came to be and about Elizabeth Greene. Back in the 1960’s the government tested the virus in Hope, Idaho which was designed to target predetermined races. Something went horribly wrong and Greene was the only survivor her genetic code was rewritten. Blackwatch took her son and then proceeded to nuke the town. Alex finds out he was a doctor at GENTEK and took the virus as insurance but Blackwatch caught him and he dropped the virus in Penn Station unleashing the virus on New York City. Blackwatch shoots Dr.Mercer but the virus consumes his body. Alex and his contact assist the military in putting the Bloodtox biological agent underground in order to drive the hive above ground for a fair fight. Elizabeth Greene emerges from the sewers as a big ugly monster. Alex defeats her and then consumers her. Alex than goes after Dr. Raymond McMullen for answers, he tells Alex about his history with GENTEK and then when asked about Hope, he commits suicide. The leader of Blackwatch Randall is ready to destroy Manhattan with a nuclear bomb. The contact and Alex meet, the contact turns out to be Cross.
Alex has to attack a military base and consumer Colonel Taggart and then he can in get access to the USS Ronald Regan where the nuclear bomb is being held. Once aboard the USS Ronald Reagan Cross reveals himself to the Supreme Hunter it’s time for him and Alex to battle for once and all. Alex than destroys the Supreme Hunter and then takes the bomb and fly’s it over the Atlantic Ocean where it donates. The blast radius hit’s Alex and his remains wash up on shore, he than consumes a bird and the game ends.
As you can tell there is a deep and confusing story going on, I thought I understood everything until the end when the details emerged about Alex. The voice acting in the game is decent. If I had to sum up Alex in a sentence it would be someone who seeks answers and vengeance and he does not care who he kills.
The combat in this game is very average at best, I couldn’t tell you the name of any of the attacks, I just pressed the buttons on my controller and people ended up dead. My favourite part of this was just walking into a crowd of people at Times Square and killing them all!. This game hands out experience points (XP) like McDonald’s hands out Big Macs, just too frequently. The reason for the abundance of experience points is that upgrades are oversaturated. There are far too many upgrades that are completely useless in this game. I would have preferred less XP points and fewer kick ass upgrades instead of 100 upgrade options. We have a super human and a city full of people, how does he gain his health back? The answer is simply just consume any random New Yorker to regenerate your health bar and that gives Alex access to that persons memories. By consuming military personnel he gains access to their weapons, tanks and helicopters.
In the last quarter of the game the amount of mutants and military on screen becomes instantly stupid and frustrating. You die constantly wandering what retard level designer decided these final missions had to include the amount of AI on screen and because Alex became confused on what to do next because the user is too busy smashing buttons in order to try and stay alive.
I wasn’t bothered to play any of the side missions prototyped had to offer.
Overall the first three quarters of prototype was a good experience and the last quarter of the game is an utter frustrating experience which will surely cause you to curse a few times as you wander how you died. There are many points throughout the game where you go hell yeah that was fun and the next minute you are scratching your head. I don’t think Prototype is worth a purchase but if you have a gamefly, gameaccess or blockbuster account and you have nothing to play be sure to rent it.
read moreWhat Sony needs to do to continue to gain ground on Microsoft and Nintendo
So the wildly rumoured Playstation 3 Slim and price drop to $299.99 was finally announced in late August. We saw the August NPD sales figures show that the Xbox 360 only sold just more than 5000 hardware unit’s compared to the Playstation 3. This is a small victory for Sony who faces an uphill battle to regain the glory they had with the Playstation 1 and Playstation 2. Could Sony finally outsell the Xbox 360 in September 2009? I think so.
Top 5 things Sony needs to do to continue to drive sales and regain its glory.
- Improve online services – First and foremost Sony needs to improve the download time for system updates and game updates. Next they need to improve the in game XMB currently when I press the PS button on my controller I have to literally count to 5 before anything loads and viewing my friends list? I need to wait for it to populate. Next on the hit list would be a little featured called parties or even the ability to voice to chat with other people who are in different games than you. These features sound simple and easy to implement for Playstation network users. I feel that Sony is always going to lag behind on Microsoft in terms of Online service because Playstation network is Free and Xbox Live is $60 dollars a year. Yes developers, programmers, servers and an operations team cost money how can Sony invest the amount of money and personnel required to bring the Playstation network up to speed? Simple answer is I don’t think they can. Would you pay a premium for an Xbox live type of service on the Playstation network? Simple answer is yes I would
- Community – Can someone direct me to where I can find the PlayStation Community? After 2 and half years as PlayStation 3 owner I still can’t them. If they are out there, they aren’t as publicly visible and noticeable as Xbox Live’s Major Nelson, Trixie360 and Jadelive. Is it the podcasts? The blogs? Major’s minute on Xbox Live? The gamer spot lights? Or is it the outstanding community events Jadelive organizes for the Canadian community. Or how about a strictly mature Canadian community for Playstation 3 owners? Maybe that’s the golden idea, Start up a Playstation Canadian community. These simple factors are key for someone like myself and Sony needs to do something quickly about it.
- Quicker turn around on game development – It just seems that Sony’s Japenese go to developers are slower than Microsoft’s go to developers in North America. Were several years into this generation and we still haven’t seen a Final Fantasy or Gran Turismo title. However North American developers like Naughty Dog and Insomniac are producing quality triple a titles in a 2 to 3 year development cycle.If I think of either title I think of the PlayStation brand. When I think of Microsoft I think of Halo, Gears of War and Forza.
- Gran Turismo 5 needs to come out this fall – 5 years in development by Polyphony Digital studios and we still don’t have a release date. Gran Turismo is icon in terms of driving simulation games in the video game business. I still remember Gran Turismo on the Playstation 1 that contained 3 or 4 discs. Simple fact is this far into the console generation we haven’t had a Gran Turismo but we’ve had Forza 2 and Forza 3 is coming out in October 2009. That’s just over 2 years to develop a new game and most importantly what will be a quality triple A title. When I think of Playstation I think of Gran Turismo.
- Improved online site functionality, features and user experience – Navigating to playstation.ca and I don’t see a link to sign into my profile. That is just completely wrong and a really bad user experience. I can’t view my friends list or send messages to my friends list. Also the Playstation network store is completely separated from my online profile and I have to download a separate application? Can you say horrible user experience. Someone in Sony HQ needs to take control of the PlayStation brand and ensure the right arm talks to the left arm.
So there you have it those are the 5 key things Sony needs to do in order to regain the glory of the Playstation brand across the world. Can Sony invest enough in these tough economic times to get the Playstation Network up to par? Time will tell.
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