Halo 4

This week's game review is that of Halo 4!

Halo 4 is the next game in the series featuring John-117, or the Master Chief. This game is developed by 343 Industries, the new developers of the Halo series.

The game is set 4 years after the events of Halo 3, set mainly of Requiem , the recently discovered Forerunner Shield World. 343 Industries has you fight new enemy types, known as Prometheans, a group of "advanced defense AIs" There are only three types of Promethean, but they are formidable enough when you fight them.

The campaign, while short, is enjoyable enough. for any average gamer, the campaign will take 5-10 hours on Normal difficulty. To find the collectibles and gather achievements on each mission will have you replaying the game several times. The story is coherent enough though one of the later missions really felt like a half hour filler.

The chief also teams up with Spartan IVs in the campaign, which was nearly a game breaker for me, as the Chief is meant to be "The Last Spartan" and a "Lone Wolf". However, the missions were varied enough, I actually needed the spartan's help.

The scenery is full of intricate detail and looks wonderful throughout the whole game. The soundtrack wasn't by the usual composers of the Halo series, but it sounds great. 343 Also seemed to have some trouble with the strength of the opponents in Normal difficulty, something I hope to see fixed in the future.

The Multiplayer has been given some time and thought, however. It has been separated into two categories  Spartan Ops and War Games, and it has been given a proper backstory for the first time in Halo's history. Spartan Ops is an expansion of the Campaign, however, you play as a Spartan IV rather than the Master Chief. War Games is the new name for competitive multiplayer, and contains all of the best gametypes from past installments, though I was unhappy to see some of the old game types not reappear in this sequel.

Altogether, I enjoyed this game and I give it a solid 4.5 out of 5 stars. The Multiplayer still has a few bugs and the game is a little too difficult, with ammo few and far between, but the game is a must for any old halo fans.

Finally, Here is my NaNoWriMo widget:

A very NaNo weekend!

Hello all! Welcome to another NaNoWriMo post!

Over the weekend, I have been able to achieve a much higher goal than last NaNoWriMo post! I am now close to the 10,000 mark and counting! I have so much story lined up and so few words! I never expected this to happen, to be completely honest.

The story that I am writing sprouted out of my brain and into my laptop first in February this year! I never expected it to grow so large. While I m once again under par for today, I am quite happy with my progress, and I aim to write more than par every day this month, in the hopes that even with off days, I will still win the competition.

Of course, then comes the hard work of editing the novel, and editing again before it is completed some time through next year. I hardly expect this story will stop at 50,000 words either, with the way that I am going. Anyway, here is the little widget that displays my word count:

Here is a sample of what I have written over the weekend:


To be a hired sword, Eikki needed to find a means of sharpening his long nlade. To be a
knife in the crowd, he would have to find a way to practice his skills. Eikki never was one for
stabbing another in the back. He was for fair fights with plenty of flashy sword-play. The life
of a murderer was a bad path to go down, and once you started, you couldn’t come back.
You had to see it through to the end, whatever the end may be. Who knew, though, when
Eikki would get a chance to confront the man? He would have to act as Judge, Juror and
Executioner for the justice system to even notice what was going on.

As you may notice here, I have a new character named Eikki! However, this isn't a new character. It's only Buck with a new name! I didn't feel the name Buck quite suited him, so I renamed him.

Finally, Halo 4 is out TOMORROW, so this week's review may be Halo 4! See you all on Friday!

Super Assassin's Creed III Review Post

Hello everyone!

As many or most of you guys know, Assassin's Creed III was released over the last week around the world. With Halo 4 a few days away, I really wanted to get this review out of the way.

I have been playing the single player for maybe 5 hours focusing mainly on the missions, and I'm about 50% through the game. However, I've taken a liking to the new weapons, such as the Rope Dart and the Tomahawk.

Add to this a solid story line with at least one extremely unexpected twist, and you have yourself a reasonable game. To fill it with a vast array of characters from the American Civil War, and the great voice acting just push this game a little further.

Conner also has new skills (moving assassinations, hunting) as well as losing old ones (Ezio's way with the ladies). These new mechanics, when brought into battle make for an interesting advancement from the previous games.

The multiplayer is also strong, however, the multiplayer story line isn't as prominent as in previous releases. There are two new gametypes, Wolfpack and Domination. While I haven't played the latter, Wolfpack is a nice addition to the previous gametypes of the series.

I must admit, when the game was first announced, I wasn't much of a fan, but as more details have been released over time, I have found myself wanting to buy, wanting to play. I am glad I did. I give this game 4 stars out of 5, as there are still a few bugs that needed to be fleshed out before the release of the game.

Finally, just before the australian release of Assassin's Creed III, Smosh released a song titled "The Ultimate Assassin's Creed III Song" Have a listen to it!

For those who are interested, you can keep up with my NaNoWriMo progress by watching this image here: 

This image will be at the bottom of every blog post made by myself this month! Stuart out!

Super Special NaNoWriMo post

Hello internet!

If you haven't read my previous post, (or Googled anything to do with writing), today, November 1 is the first official day of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month)! Of course, I am participating, as writing was the reason I started blogging, but now I mainly do it for video games!

Anyway, today, I actually had a HSC exam (the exams I'm sitting in a year) because I chose the right subject to do it today! So, because of this exam, I couldn't actually start writing until 4pm. I wrote non-stop for about an hour, however, and I am about to update my NaNoWriMo account! Because I love you guys, though, I have written 1,396 on day 1, and although I am likely to write more, I'm still 250 words off target (to win you need to write at least 1,669 words a day)

What's that? I haven't actually told you what NaNoWriMo is? Well, it's a writing competition where you aim to write 50,000 words in the month of November. Sound hard? It's actually relatively easy if you are into writing. The hardest competition I have participated in is the Rabbit Hole, which is 30,000 words in one weekend! It's safe to say, I quickly lost that one.

Anyway, I'm just going to throw this in here to test it out:

And here is an extract from my "novel" out of the work I have written so far today:

Emily’s television flicked black and burst into colours as her Xbox powered on. EmiBomb has logged into Xbox Live. A quick button press and she would be playing her favourite game, Knuckleplex – The Last Civilisation. She would feel free of any burdens carried by her and she would be immersed in her gaming world, immune to her surroundings.

It was good to talk to you again! Tomorrow night, I review Assassin's Creed III! The latest game in the Assassin's Creed series! look out for it!

Friday Nights are for Gaming

Hello everyone! I'm here with more gaming news (I'll mix it up soon, I promise)

I finished Halo 3: ODST (or rather, watched my sister finish for me) finally! This is a very interesting take on the halo franchise, where instead of playing as a legendary Spartan, you play as an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper (ODST). This game is a semi detective game, in which you wake up 6 hours after drop and must roam the city of new Mombasa to find clues to the rest of your squad's whereabouts. Finding a clue triggers a flashback mission where you play as a squadmate until you eventually link up with your squad and complete your main objective.

This game holds a strong campaign, but the multiplayer is just Halo 3's whacked on a second disk. Props to Bungee for an interesting side game, but they could have worked on it a little more. 7/10  (9/10 for campaign, 5/10 for multiplayer)

I picked up Assassin's Creed: Revelations at EBGames for around $35, on an impulse. I was never going to play this game after the bad reviews I've heard from my friends and the internet, but I felt compelled to complete Ezio's story before starting Assassin's Creed III.

As a strange fan of the series, who never really liked Altair, the segments which you have to play as him don't phase me too much, just so long as it doesn't effect Ezio in any way, which it doesn't apart from learning crucial information about the Apple of Eden.

The multiplayer is tougher than I expected, with no sepperation between ranks, which pulls the overall experience down, but this has to be the second game I've played where the multiplayer is fleshed out properly (the first being Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood), given a story. It's relatively easy to find a game on Xbox, though I have heard it can take up to two hours on PC.

Anyway, I'm satisfied with my recent gaming ventures, and I will hopefully be able to bring you something new soon!

Friday Fun

Hello everyone!

I went shopping yesterday for 3 hours. You know what happens when I'm in a shopping centre for so long? I convince myself to buy something.

This time, I bought Alice: Madness Returns. It's a twisted game, showing Alice's story from a more mature perspective. I haven't started playing yet (I was too scared last night when I got home) but I've seen a couple videos on YouTube of this game.

You play as Alice, a psychopath, as you travel through wonderland, murdering all your favourite characters! Why? Her house is burnt down and her family is killed. Alice loses it and Wonderland is twisted by her broken mind. She must find a way to fix it... Or something like that.

When I bought the game, I found out that it comes with a free copy of it's prequel, American McGee's Alice. This is to provide backstory to the second game, though I'm not sure its necessary. I think it's just a free bonus!

However, I bought the game preowned, so I may not be able to retrieve my free copy of the Alice. I'm going to try anyway, so I'll probably let you know in the next post.

This video is the launch trailer for Alice: Madness Returns, just to show you a bit of what it's about better than I can explain it!

We Are Live From Blogger

Hello once again!

We have returned to blogger in an attempt to mix things up! the perfect day for it too!
As many of you (don't) know, I recently bought an Xbox 360 and I'm slowly expanding my gaming collection. Well, today I bought Halo 3, preordered Halo 4 and bought a 3 month subscription to Xbox Live!

Anyway, We'll be covering a variety of Things here, including gaming, reading, music and movies! I'll be covering most of the gaming side of things, with posts all about the games I pick up and play, whether I like them or not! Also, you will be able to find me online as I play though different games such as Halo, Portal 2's Co-Op campaign, etc.

Not only did I preorder Halo 4, I got the limited edition and it came with a sexy poster which is flattening on my bedroom floor. When that comes out, it'll be around $90 more for me, but I can afford it so I'm quite happy to pay for a bunch of extra stuff.

Seeing as I did go out and spend money on Xbox Live, I redeemed my 3 moths straight away and started playing online. I think I got a rough 2 hours of online play earlier. Anyway, if you wish to play with me (and lose) you'll find me as CorruptedCheese. If you wish to play against me (better idea), fair enough, I won't judge you. I will, however, scream at you through the television. Good thing I don't have a mic.

Anyway, I have been a fan of the Halo series since early on and I have played every game, so I think it's fair to say I know what I'm talking about when I judge the games. To be completely honest, while some reviews have said Halo Reach was too short, I quite liked it as a game and the missions were long enough (about 30 minutes each). The plot was predictable, but that's because you already know that Reach will be destroyed at the end of the game. The ending is quite sad, but the game is pretty nice and tidy. 8/10

Halo 3, it has to be one of me least favourite of the Halo games. The campaign is short (6 hours) but it's about as lengthy as Reach and Halo 1 or 2. The creepy flood infecting the deceased is quite creepy and it scares me every time I see it happen. For this simple thing (should have been there from day 1), I give this game 6/10.

Hopefully Halo 4, under the development of a subdivision of Bungee names 343 Industries, a group focusing solely on the development of Halo games, can live up to its predecessors and surpass some of them. I'm looking forward to playing it with a release date of November 6, I'm really looking forward to this one.

Finally, here is a video I found on YouTube, (It is pretty old) but, enjoy!

Also, Carrie, I hope you don't mind that I made the first post?