Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Hello. Let's continue from "yesterday's" post. We played Halo: Combat Evolved on the Xbox. This is the original Halo game. You know, the one that changed the way people looked at shooting games. I have not played this game for like four years, so I was really surprised when I played it.The most noticeable difference here is the speed of the game. In Halo 2 and Halo 3, your character moved slower than most other game characters, so the overall multiplayer experience was much slower.
In Halo: Combat Evolved, the multiplayer feels more like Counter Strike. You move reasonably fast, and the animation of some weapons are similar to those in Counter Strike. For example, when you take out the pistol, your character twirls it by the trigger guard, just like in Counter Strike.
The weapons in Halo: Combat Evolved are satisfying as ****. The pistol is a beast. For of you who didn't know, the pistol in Halo CE is considered one of the most unbalanced guns in gaming history.
It takes only two shots to the head and three to the body to kill, and it has a zoom feature that allows you to kill someone halfway across a map with it. Unbalanced, but awesome to use. The Assault Rifle feels good to use as well. As you fire it, the vibrations on the controller are really strong and intense, making the gun feel super powerful.
We played a bit of Marvel Nemesis, then we played Bridge, and then mahjong. Joel went to play DotA on Battlenet after a while, then he left at 4am because he was going somewhere else later on. We continued playing mahjong, then we played Bridge. I was damn lucky for some reason. I kept getting Kings and Queens and Jacks and Aces. There were two times when I got three Aces in my hand.
Soon Sebastian's sister woke up to get ready for school, then we decided that it was time to sleep. We slept in Sebastian's room, and Yeow Boon slept by himself in Sebastian's computer room. I woke up at about 9.30am, then I went to pack up my Xbox. I played PSP for a while, then I went to take a shower in Sebastian's bathroom.
The bathroom is really cool because it's inside a cupboard. You open the cupboard doors, and there's a bathroom in there. There's also a window in bathroom that allows you to look outside, but people from outside can't see you because the mirror is tilted at an angle.
After everyone was awake, we played a few more rounds of mahjong, then my father came to fetch me. The rest of them went to eat their lunch, then they were going to meet Ethel for basketball. Since I sprained my ankle, I probably wouldn't be able to play, so I went home.
Once I got home, I had to go and pick up my cousin from school because my grandmother was at the polyclinic having a check up. So I went to pick him up, then I brought him back to my house since there was no one to take care of him at my grandmother's house.
I played Spider-Man 3 for a while. I borrowed this game from my cousin, so I have actually played the first few missions before at his house. However, while I was frustrated by the unforgiving difficulty of the game during my previous play through, this time I realised that the game is easy, and it is actually quite fun.
Anyways, I got a few cheap Achievements. The kind that requires you to smash 25 objects or swing 50 times from a pole. I also got an Achievement for defeating the Lizard, boosting my Gamerscore past the 13 000 mark. Now I think back of the times when I was satisfied with having a Gamerscore of 3000 points, then I laugh. lol.
I downloaded the Resident Evil 5 and Ninja Blade demos. Both are surprisingly small in file size [less than 500MB] despite the stunningly beautiful graphics both boast.
Resident Evil 5 DemoThere is also an incredibly low amount of ammo available for you to combat that large an amout of zombies. In most games that feature tons of undead, the pistol usually has unlimited ammo, so at least you have a weapon, albeit a weak one.
In Resident Evil 5, the pistol only has 30 ammo, and the shotgun has 6 ammo. Once you run out of these, you are screwed. To make things worst, the zombies take like 3 shots to die. And as far as I can tell, the bosses take like 50 shots to die.
Also, your health is really weak. A normal zombie can down a third of your health just by hitting you. I know that this will make the experience more intense and difficult, but there is a difference between difficult and ****ing impossible.
However, despite the difficulty, I still completed the demo. I completed the first level by just camping on some abandoned bus. The normal zombies can get onto the bus, but the big boss zombie cannot. I completed the second level by pure luck.
Ninja Blade DemoOnce you get into a building, you get to fight some enemies. You have access to four different weapons; three melee and one ranged. There's an all rounder sword, a fast but weak sword, and a slow but damaging sword. There's also a shuriken that creates a tornado where ever you throw it.
When I first tried out the combat, I was stunned by the graphical detail. When enemies die, they explode into a shower of blood and light. When you destroy vital parts of your enemy, the game goes into slow motion, and the camera zooms in so that you can see every detail of the damage done to your enemy.
Most importantly, this game isn't as hard as the Ninja Gaiden games. Sure, some people may play Ninja Gaiden due to the difficulty, but most people avoid it for the same reason. When I play Ninja Gaiden, I always feel the tension, because I don't know where my enemy is going to attack from, and also because one wrong move could mean death.
In Ninja Blade, the enemies aren't that hard, and they can be seen long before you actually attack them. Your character has a generous amount of health, and his health is tough enough to ensure that you don't die to quickly. If things look bad, you can still use a health pack to heal yourself back to maximum health.
After hacking and slashing through a group of enemies, a giant spider monster attacks, and you have to press another series of buttons to evade it. The next part is when the game went from being "cool" to being "holy shit awesome!!" to me. After leaping out of the building, you freefall down the side of the building, killing enemies that get into you way.
Once you reach the bottom, you have to run down a bridge to get to the spider monster. It shoots a series of shock waves towards you, and you have to dodge them while running towards it. When you finally fight it you have to use the heavy sword to destroy its armour, then you have to destroy its legs. Once you've damaged it to half health, the demo ends.
Both are great demos, and I think anyone with access to Xbox Live should download them. The Resident Evil 5 demo will be coming to Playstation Network next Thursady latest, and the Ninja Blade demo is Xbox 360 exclusive, so it can only be downloaded off Xbox Live. Anyways, videos of both demos coming tomorrow.
Some news:
-The Sims 3 release date is now in question. It was originally scheduled for a February 20th release, but now European retailers are being told to expect a delay.
-Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe has shipped 1.8 million units. The next Mortal Kombat game is already in production.
-The mobile category of the Independent Games Festival competition was completely dominated by iPhone/iPod Touch games. 11 out of 14 games were iPhone games, and the remaining 3 were a Nintendo DS game, a Flash game and a Java game. The PSP didn't win a single award.
-Despite the various claims and arguments, the final verdict of music based video game sales in 2008 has arrived. In 2008, Guitar Hero World Tour sold twice as many units as Rock Band 2.
-Hellgate: London will not be shutting down its servers after all. It will remain open as a free to play game.
-Many people were pissed upon completing Fallout 3 due to the fact that you cannot explore the wastelands after the final mission. This will be fixed by a patch coming in March for the PC and Xbox 360. Playstation 3 owners aren't getting the patch for some reason, so they will still be stuck with the ending.
-Fallout 3 "Operation Anchorage" expansion is now available on Xbox Live Marketplace for 800
.-Sony is still an asshole. Not only did they shoot down IGN.com's PSP2 rumours, they also actually took the time to flat out insult the site. Here is a quote of what they said:
"Clearly, being a quiet time of year, many, what we thought to be credible websites, are making up stories about PSP2, and how it allows you to teleport across the globe, travel through time, and will be powered by the horns of baby rhinoceroses," Sony explained. "Hopefully, you can sense a mild tone of sarcasm, which should hopefully indicate how 'on the money' IGN are. Needless to say, we don't comment on rumour or speculation, but this is nonsense."
Wow, Sony. Just wow.
-There is no photography in Dead Rising: Chop til You Drop, which is coming out exclusively on the Wii. I don't think the game will be as good as the original one on the Xbox 360.
-LittleBigPlanet gets patched to 1.08, two free Chinese New Year costumes come with the patch.
-Flower will be available on Playstation Network on February 12th for US$9.99.
-Developers Lionhead Studios has confirmed that there will be no PC version of Fable 2, which released exclusively on the Xbox 360 last year. The only way to play it will be on the Xbox 360.
-Banjo Tooie will be available on Xbox Live Arcade in early 2009. It will probably cost 1200
.-A patch has been released for the PC version of Grand Theft Auto IV. The patch enhances the game's graphics, fixes Xbox 360 controller support and even adds support for driving wheels.
-Game Developers Conference 2009 [GDC 09] will commence on March 25th. Nintendo President Satoru Iwata will be delivering the keynote.
-There is quite a number of publishers who will be showing off their games during Comic Con 2009, which takes place during February 6th-8th. Here is the list of publishers and games:
- Activision-Blizzard: X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2, Prototype.
- Atari: Champions Online, Ghostbusters: The Video Game, The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, Ready 2 Rumble Revolution.
- Codemasters: Fuel, Damnation and Overlord 2 on Xbox 360. Overlord Dark Legend on Wii. Jumpgate Evolution on PC.
- Electronic Arts: Spore Galactic Adventures, Godfather 2, Dragon Age, Burnout Paradise, Battle Forge and Battlefield Heroes.
- Konami Digital Entertainment: Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game, Blue Dragon Role Playing Card Game.
- Namco Bandai Games America: Afro Samurai, Dynasty Warriors: GUNDAM 2, Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 4 (with tournament), Splatterhouse, We Ski, Snowboard and "much more."
- SouthPeak Games: Velvet Assassin on Xbox 360. X-Blades on Xbox 360 and PS3. Roogoo: Attack on DS and Roogoo: Twisted Towers on Wii.
- TC Digital: The Chaotic TCG.
-The upcoming MotorStorm: Pacific Rift patch will fix saves and bugs.
-Developer Ensemble, the creators of Halo Wars, is already looking into expansion packs for the game.
-Developer Harmonix met their target of having 500 Rock Band/Rock Band 2 songs by the end of last year, and this year they want to kick it into overdrive. The targeted size of the Rock Band song library by the end of 2009: 5000 songs. Yes that's three zeroes behind the 5. Damn. If they manage to do that, I will be ****ing amazed.
-Grand Theft Auto IV is the top selling game of 2008 in Europe and North America, much to the surprise of everyone. It sold 13 million copies there alone.
-A new trailer for Final Fantasy XIII has been released, featuring actual game play.
-Keiji Inafune, Capcom's media relations representative, confirms that Capcom is working on new Dead Rising and Lost Planet games, and Capcom is thinking about multiplatform, meaning that they might be on both Xbox 360 and PS3.
-Dawn of War 2 beta now available for download to all.
-A recent error by Microsoft allowed the gold plated Lancer, which is only available on the Collector's Edition of Gears of War 2, to be available to everyone on Xbox Live. It is now being fixed, and everyone who downloaded it will have it removed, so that it remains exclusive only to those who bought the Collector's Edition.
-Mirror's Edge DLC has been delayed to February 2009, but a PS3 exclusive map, "Synethesia", will be available on January 29th on Playstation Network for free.
Ok, I'm very sleepy now, so I am going to sleep. Be amazed by the logic of my previous statement. Ending off, see you tomorrow.
posted @ 6:12 PM
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