Beating a Game

            “I beat the game!” This is an oft heard thing around gamers. “Have you played <insert latest game>?” “Yeah, I beat it three days ago.” Typically, “I beat the game” means “I completed the story.” But, what does it really mean to “beat the game”? Let’s take a look at a few of the meanings of “I beat the game.”

            First, as we said before, many people have come to the conclusion that completing the storyline in a game is beating the game. For these people, it’s more about getting the end rather than the journey itself. But that is how a majority of gamers play. For many, it’s no longer about how amazing the journey is. Rather, it’s how many notches they have on their gamer belt. If this is what you prefer, then by all means play that way. After all, it’s all about doing what you enjoy. However, can one really make the claim that they beat a game if they played it on casual/easy mode? Doesn’t there need to be a certain challenge in order to beat something? If I were to say, “I beat this bottle of water. I drank the whole thing over the course of a day”, people would look at me like I was stupid. If there’s no challenge, then there’s no victory.

            This brings us to another question. What about cheat codes? “I couldn’t beat this part, so I turned on invincibility so I could beat it.” Did you really beat it? In my opinion, using cheat codes is not beating the game. In fact, in my opinion, it is just the opposite; it is admitting defeat to the game. In essence, you are saying, “The game was too hard. I gave up and cheated.” So, if you used cheat codes at any time, you did not beat the game.

            Another meaning of “I beat the game” is “I played through the story on the hardest difficulty setting.” I am almost completely in this camp. For a long time, I was one of those players who played games on the default setting. After all, isn’t that what the game was tuned to? However, just recently, my roommate got me to try any and all games on the hardest difficulty. I am now addicted (I use this term loosely. See the last section) to playing all games on the hardest setting. When I complete a playthrough, I feel a sense of accomplishment again. It’s not just another notch in the gamer belt. It’s a victory. It is a moment to savor. It is a moment when you are standing on the proverbial mountaintop screaming (again, proverbially) “I did it! They threw everything they could at me and yet I accomplished the improbable task against impossible odds in the face of unlikely adversarial conditions!”

            For some, playing on anything harder than the default setting is too much work. Others see it as an addition to playing on the default difficulty to add more replay value. For me, it’s the meat and potatoes of the game. It especially makes me feel great when I beat a game on the hardest whose hardest setting is legen…wait for it…dary!

            Still, for others, “I beat the game” means that they got the highest award in every level. Take my recent post about Twisted Metal, for instance. A friend and I beat it on Hard difficulty. Not good enough for me. I had to beat it on Twisted difficulty. Once we were done with that, we realized that we had gotten Gold in every level except 3. So we felt compelled to get gold in every level. To some, this is beating the game. Achieving the highest standard in each level. Any part of me that is not in the last camp is in this camp. While I don’t feel compelled to beat every level at the highest standard, sometimes I do just for the extra sense of accomplishment.

            Others considered it beating the game if you complete all the achievements. After all, the developer made the game, and decided what achievements to include. So, if you get all the achievements, then you’ve done everything the developers want you to do, right? The neat thing about this thinking is that it includes all of the aforementioned ideas concerning beating the game. About half, if not more, of the achievements in video games are pretty much standard now. Beat a level? Get an achievement. Beat the same level on the hardest difficulty? Get another achievement. Beat the level at the highest standard? Get another achievement.

            Whether you think that getting all the achievements is necessary to truly beat a game or not, no one can argue with the fact that the person with all the achievement did beat the game. He accomplished everything in every camp, plus went back to do little odd jobs to get more. Too much for me, but kudos to the guy who does it.

            Another thing that comes to mind when someone says, “I beat the game” is, “Wow, you beat Triple H?” For those of you who are completely lost right now, that was funny. Triple H is a WWE wrestler, who at one point went by the handle “The Game”. So, when someone says, “I beat the game”…. Ok, hopefully you get it now.

            Lastly, I’ve heard someone say “I beat the game”, and mean that they got over their addiction to video gaming. (World of Warcraft specifically.) Video game addiction isn’t as common as some people would have you believe, but is more common than most people realize. If you are struggling with video game addiction, call somebody. I don’t know who to call, as I don’t think that there is a video game addiction hotline. (I just googled “Video Game Addiction Hotline”. The only things that came up were parodies of addiction hotlines. So, if you’re addicted, you’re out of luck. Cold Turkey, anyone?)

            So, whatever your definition of beating the game is, it really doesn’t matter what others think. As long as you are having fun, that’s what counts. So get out there and play games!

   - Woody

Twisted Metal (PS3) Review

          Back when I was younger, I remember playing Twisted Metal on Sony’s original Playstation. I was enthralled by the death match modes while driving cars. At that time, it was an original concept and not very well emulated by anyone. So, following my current trend of playing remakes and re-releases, I allowed myself to be suckered into playing Twisted Metal as released on the PS3.

          The first thing that needs to be said about this game is that it is not an old release that’s simply been rendered with better graphics. This is a whole new game that pulls from its old roots over ten years ago, and did a complete makeover of the series. If you’ve played the newest Mortal Kombat, you know what I’m talking about. Both games have taken the old story, and updated it, and released a whole new game.

          One of the things that I loved about this game is the offline 2-player co-op gameplay. You can play through the entire campaign by yourself or with a friend. Myself, I come from the school of thought that says that anytime I can play with a friend, it’s preferable to playing by myself. So, me and a buddy grabbed a borrowed PS3 and borrowed the game and started to play.

          My buddy isn’t really a hardcore gamer. But he is your average gamer when it comes to ability. He won’t drag you down in co-op gameplay, but he’s not on the first round of picks for online competitive multiplayer in games. So, we decided to skip the easiest difficulty and play it on the second difficulty, hard. We played for a few hours one night, and then finished it the next morning. Once we had beaten it on hard, we decided to try the “Twisted” difficulty. It took us several hours to beat that difficulty, but when we were done we realized that we had gotten a gold rating on all the maps except three. So we went back and got gold on all maps on the Twisted difficulty.

          The campaign overarching story follows a character named Calypso. Calypso hosts a tournament (again, think Mortal Kombat) where there are different events to play, each one driving a vehicle, and each one ending with you killing off all your opponents. The winner of the tournament gets a single wish granted. Fans of the old series will remember that once the wish is granted, it is in some twisted way that ends up killing the person that made the wish.

          The campaign is split into three sections, each consisting of five events plus a boss event. All three sections happen at the same time chronologically, but you have to complete one person’s story before advancing to the next story. You start off playing as Sweet Tooth, the demonic clown that has become the series’ banner. After completing his story, you become a man with a honorable goal of going back in time to save his father from death. Then, you become a sadistic, insane runway model who has aspirations of being the top model in the world.

          Even though you can not choose your driver in the campaign, you still have the ability to choose the car that you drive. Each car has strengths and weaknesses. Some posses more armor, and are capable of dealing damage by ramming into other cars, but at the expense of speed. Some are quicker, with lighter armor. Others are geared more towards their special weapon’s ability. Probably one of the most unique vehicles to play as is “Talon”, a helicopter who can use a magnet to grab cars, fly high, and then drop them.

          Even though the campaign only consists of 18 matches, don’t expect it to be over quickly. If you actually beat a match, it will take only about 3-5 minutes on average. But don’t expect to beat every match on the first try, especially on the hardest difficulty, and also especially the boss rounds.

          All the rounds in the campaign are not deathmatches either. The deathmatch is a staple of the game, but there are several variations. There is a “cage match” mode in which you must stay in a cage, or lose cumulative time on your grace period. If your grace period runs out, you start taking damage. Your goal is similar to deathmatch; kill your opponents before you die.

          There are a couple races in the game, too. In these levels, every car has a bomb attached to it. Once the first place crosses the finish line, the rest of the cars’ bombs are triggered, killing the other drivers. As you are racing, you may also kill off other drivers with your usual weapons.

          Another mode worthy of noting is the juggernaut modes. There are a few variations, but they basically boil down to one thing. You have a few enemies, and one semi with a trailer called the Juggernaut. The Juggernaut has more health and armor than any other vehicle in the game. Your goal is to kill all the enemies before dying. The unique thing is that every 90 seconds or so, the Juggernaut will spawn another enemy. So, you need to kill the Juggernaut to keep him from spawning more and more enemies.

          After each match, you will be given a ranking based upon the speed in which you beat the match. There are four rankings; gold, silver, bronze, and no award. As an extra challenge there is an achievement for getting all golds, and another for getting all golds on Twisted difficulty.

          The graphics and sound in the game are not breathtaking, but there are more than sufficient. This game isn’t about a beautiful world; it’s about carnage. It’s about killing off other drivers in order to win your place at the top. With that being said, this isn’t a game for kids. There is gore and language throughout the game.

          All in all, it was a fun diversion for a few days. But now that I’ve beaten the hardest difficulty with all gold, there’s not much more to do since I can’t go online out here in Afghanistan.

   - Woody

Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary Review

            Throughout gaming history, there have been several games that have defined the future of gaming. In my opinion, gaming as we know it today started all the way back with Jump Man, who became the character we came to know as Super Mario. Moving forward in time, we come to Zelda, the first game to allow you to save your progress. Games tried to become First Person in the 70s with games like Maze Wars and Spasim. MIDI Maze featured PacMan style gameplay in first person in 1987, and was unique in that it allowed for multiplayer over a MIDI interface. In 1992 Wolfenstein 3D was introduced, and a whole new era of gaming began. Shortly thereafter in 1993, Doom came out, furthering the genre with the ability to play multiplayer. Then, in 1996 Quake hit the market. Finally a game that featured 3D modeling instead of 2D models in a 3D world. That same year, the wildly popular Duke Nukem also came out.

            In 1997, 007: Goldeneye was released for the Nintendo 64. For many people, especially console gamers, this was their first experience with a FPS. The ability to play deathmatches in 4-player split screen was amazing. The next year saw a couple of games released that built upon the FPS idea and took it farther in leaps and bounds. Unreal, whose engine is still used today to design games; and Half-Life, which remained popular well into the next century. In 2000, Perfect Dark was released as the spiritual successor to Goldeneye. I experienced my first co-op campaign in Perfect Dark, and was amazed at the split screen.

            Finally, in 2001, combat evolved. Halo was released for Microsoft’s XBOX, quickly becoming the flagship of the console. Featuring huge levels, an immersive storyline, cut scenes that were unrivaled, and intense gameplay, Halo became a favorite for LAN parties. I remember hooking up several consoles and playing multiplayer deathmatches with friends.

            The Halo universe took off. Originally designed as a RTS, Halo featured a futuristic war in which the covenant (a group of several different types of aliens from different planets brought together by religion) sought to enslave or destroy humanity, who was an affront to their gods. Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo ODST, Halo Reach, and Halo Wars all came about from the original success of Halo: Combat Evolved.

            Move forward in time 10 years, and we have the remastered re-release of Halo: Combat Evolved. Released as Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, this game is everything that I had hoped for when I played the re-release of 007: Goldeneye. The gameplay is amazingly the same as you charge around killing the Covenant (and eventually the Flood) feeling like you could take on the world with your recharging shields.

            This game brought a whole lot more to the table than just updated graphics, however. Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary incorporates the bonus skulls which have become popular in the Halo series. It also brought the Firefight mode, in which you fight to survive waves of enemies. It updated its multiplayer experience to be on par with other Halo games, allowing for a lot more customization of your avatar and for unlockables. Forge mode has been included as well.

            The game also features a unique ability. By hitting the “back” button (still called “select” by a LOT of people, even though it’s always been “back” on Microsoft consoles) you can have the graphics revert back to what they were 10 years ago. I played with this feature extensively. It was amazing to see the advances made to the game. Grass where there was just a carpet of green, leaves on trees, high resolution textures where there was just matte finish, and updated character skins are all amazing when seen in contrast.

            A little disappointing to me was the voice synchronization. I understand that they used the same track and just updated the graphics, but the timing was still as bad as the original. 10 years ago it was great, but with the advances made today, you think they would have tweaked that. Or, it’s possible that they left that there as a throwback. It really appears as if they updated the graphics, retexturing everything, and left the game as is. This is amazing yet slightly disappointing at the same time.

            Even though Halo: Combat Evolved was the first Halo game released, it is not the first part of the story. To get the full story chronologically you have to play the RTS Halo Wars, set in 2531, or 21 years prior to the events of Halo: Combat Evolved. Next you have to play Halo: Reach, which takes place immediately prior to Halo: Combat Evolved and leads directly into the story.

            Then comes Halo 2 and Halo 3. If you want a little side story, you can play Halo: ODST which technically takes place between Halo 2 and Halo 3, but doesn’t deal with the main story. Instead, you become an elite human soldier called an “Orbital Drop Shock Trooper” (hence the letters ODST) as you explore the city of New Mombasa trying to discover what happened to your teammates.

            Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary follows the story of the original. It begins with the ship “The Pillar of Autumn” just having made a jump through space. We find out in future games that they had just jumped from a planet called Reach, a massive naval base, where the covenant had just wiped everyone out. In this jump, the covenant was able to follow them, and end up boarding the ship. With the destruction of Reach, there is only one Spartan left. Enter Master Chief Petty Officer John – 117, known affectionately simply as Master Chief.

            Coming out of the jump, the Pillar of Autumn is close to a massive ring known only as a Halo, where the series gets its title. In the first level, you are tasked with the care of Cortana, an AI that gets implanted into your helmet. You fight your way through the ship to the escape pods, where you escape to the surface of Halo. Once there, you try and find out the secret of this huge ring, and end up discovering that it is a huge weapon of some kind. This starts a race against the covenant. The Covenant inadvertently releases the Flood, aliens who inhabit the bodies of others. You find out that Halo is a weapon designed to wipe out all sentient life in the galaxy, and thus stop the spread of the Flood. You end up destroying Halo, and in a memorable last level are outrunning explosions in a Warthog, and amazing dune buggy type vehicle.

            Playing this game was a fun blast back into the past. With the updated graphics, it also allows you to play the games in chronological order without feeling like you are taking a step back in time. Even though I had beaten Halo: Combat Evolved, I had to beat Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary because Bungie included achievements this time around.

            Playing this game made me look forward to the release of Halo 4-6, the “Reclaiming Trilogy” which promises to be even more of the action game that we all love, and finish out the story.

   - Sapper Woody

Prototype 2 in Review

   I picked up Prototype 2 on the recommendation of a friend, having never played Prototype 1 before. One of my main concerns with picking up a sequel without having first played the original is coming into a story without knowing the background of what is going on. Fortunately, in Prototype 2, there is a video that will give a synopsis of the first game, and it brought me up to speed.

   Prototype 2 takes cues from a host of other games. Basically, there was a viral outbreak that infected a whole city. Most people that get infected generally become zombie-like in nature, although some exhibit super-human abilities.

   The virus has been developed by Gentek, in conjunction with the paramilitary group Blackwatch. In the story leading up to Prototype 2, Alex Mercer has been blamed for the release of the virus. In the second game, you play as Sergeant James Heller, a soldier who blames Mercer for the loss of his wife and daughter to the virus. In the opening sequences, you confront Mercer only to be infected yourself and develop some rudimentary powers.

   Throughout gameplay, you gather new powers from enemies by “consuming” them. You also get the chance to upgrade your existing powers the same way. Upon completion of certain objectives you can gain new mutations, which help you to travel, hunt down enemies, or make some encounters easier.

   This game is very reminiscent of Spiderman 2 in its gameplay. Being able to jump very high (extremely high later on), being able to run along and up walls, and being able to glide for a while make the free roaming sections feel almost the exact same as Spiderman 2 with better graphics and in a different setting. Traveling the city is actually fun in and of itself, and can be rewarding with collectibles that will upgrade your powers.

   Missions throughout the game get a tad bit repetitive, but since you are having fun you don’t notice so much. Missions basically fall into a few categories: sneak into a facility to kill someone, hunt someone down, clear out an instance, or gather boxes dropped from helicopters before they can be recovered by Gentek or Blackwatch.

   Along the way, it becomes unclear who the “bad guys” are. There are several twists in the story that keep you guessing as to who is really trying to save the city, who is trying to pull a political maneuver, who is trying to create an “evolved” army, or if everyone is just self serving. Because of a betrayal, you are constantly on your guard from anyone who tries to aid you in the game.

   The game deals pretty well graphically. You aren’t blown away by amazing scenery as you spend all your time in a war-torn, zombie-infected city. But the attention to detail is there and you’ll notice is subconsciously. There are a host of different character models for all the different infected humans roaming around, and at times I estimated that there were at least 50 on my screen at once.

   The enemies that you actually fight do get a bit repetitive as well, but again you are having fun so you don’t notice it too much. The killing animations are pretty varied, so even though you are fighting the same enemies time and again, each fight has its own feel to it.

   The sound in the game is decent. Nothing stands out, but then again nothing feels out of place. The voice acting is pretty good, and I didn’t notice any lip-syncing being off. But then again, most of the time someone is talking they have a helmet on. But even in the times when they didn’t have something covering their face, it was spot on.

          The controls are natural feeling. It is easy to get the hang of running up a building, jumping as high as you can, and then gliding. You even get the knack of when to “air dash” to renew your glide time, and you can’t simply fly forever. Combat flows naturally, and is often a hectic time as you are fighting infected and Blackwatch at the same time. It is not uncommon to have a dozen or so Blackwatch shooting at you, while having a helicopter or two overhead, and still fighting a half a dozen infected. Even with all this, it still flows naturally. I really have to tip my hat to the designers on that one.

   The game overall is a blast to play. I found myself playing for hours on end and not even realizing how long I’d been playing. I am now longing for a third release, and am contemplating going back and playing the first.

   - Woody

Gears of War 3 Horde Mode

   I bought Gears of War 3 about a month ago. I hadn't played GOW or GOW2, but it came highly recommended, so I decided to pick it up. I have yet to play very much of the campaign, but I got sucked into the Horde Mode pretty quickly.
   Horde mode is a survival type mode in which you fight waves upon waves of enemies. Each wave is a little harder than the last.
   This mode consists of 50 waves of enemies, with basically 5 sections consisting of 9 waves then a boss wave. After you beat the first boss (wave 10) the enemies get a boost of 2x health. After the second boss (wave 20) they get a boost of 2x accuracy, in addition to the 2x health. After the third boss (wave 30 (get the pattern?)) your party begins to take 2x damage, in addition to the other handicaps. After the fourth boss, all three of those handicaps bump up to 2.5x.
   Once you start the game, you have to decide where to build your command post. The great thing about this game is that there are different fortifications that you can build, and later upgrade. At first you can only build caltrops (little spikes that slow enemies down and hurt them as they pass through), but eventually you can build auto-sentries, manned turrets, decoys, and finally buy the coveted Silverback (which we've found to not be worth the amount of money you spend on it; it's better to buy other fortifications and leave the Silverback alone). You can eventually upgrade all of these fortifications to be stronger, more accurate, etc.
   After working on "normal" difficulty for a couple weeks, me and 3 others finally beat wave 50. We started on Hardcore difficulty tonight, but only made it to wave 10 after about 2 hours of play. We'll continue trying tomorrow. I hope to get another player, as you can have a total of five people playing cooperatively on this mode.

   - Woody

Lord of the Rings: War in the North Review

         After being burned on past Lord of the Rings games, I was hesitant to pick this one up. But it was $30 at my local PX (that’s Post Exchange, for all you non-military out there), so I decided to give it a chance. I wasn’t disappointed at all.

          This game follows a different group of warriors during the time of the Lord of the Rings when Frodo is taking the ring to Mount Doom to be destroyed. Unlike other LOTR games however, this group doesn’t follow behind the Fellowship, and it doesn’t exactly copy the Fellowship’s standard party. Close, but not quite.

          This story takes place in the northern part of Middle Earth (go figure) and follows a human ranger, elven lore master, and dwarven warrior as they chase down Sauron’s right hand man who is trying to conquer the northern territories of Middle Earth. Along the way, many characters from the main storyline make cameo appearances, but they do not fight alongside you.

          You get your choice of character, and then AI (or a friend or two if you’re lucky) take control of the other two. So you always have three characters fighting at any time. Along the way, you are occasionally helped out by other NPCs, including Elrond Halfelven’s sons and a couple of Dwarfs trying to use a weapon to destroy some Orcs. The problem with the AI is that they aren't all that bright. They are like hunter's pets win WoW on aggressive. They see a mob, they fight it. No discretion in targeting at all. Also, they aren't smart enough to stay behind cover. When the elf makes a protective sphere that enemy arrows can't penetrate, and that also heals the party, they don't stay in it. They walk towards the enemy instead of using ranged attacks.

          The game isn’t quite “visually stunning”, but the graphics are definitely not sub-par. The worlds are beautiful, just not breath-taking. The maps are familiar to any LOTR fan. Even though they are new locations, they are very similar to locations played over and over again. A city under attack takes the place of Gondor. A dwarven city besieged by Orcs takes the place of the mines of Moria. Mirkwood is a beautiful location, home to a wizard and also a spider queen. All in all, the areas were refreshing in that they weren’t exact copies of former LOTR games, but yet they still had that LOTR feel, and followed the pattern of other LOTR games.

          The characters, like I said, don’t exactly follow the old mold. But they are close. The ability to spec your characters using talent points in different trees really helps there. There is a human ranger whose main ability is his bow. But he can also use dual weapons, a two-hander, or a sword and shield. He has the capability of going into stealth and dealing massive damage from the shadows. He’s kind of a mix of a hunter (with no pet) and a rogue.

The dwarf warrior is the “tank” of the game (complete with a taunt), but he can also use two-handers (like any good dwarf) and can use crossbows to great effect. He can instantly revive others in the group (if specced right) and can add armor bonuses. Think a Paladin/Warrior mix.

The most perplexing of the 3 is the elven lore master though. She is supposed to be a support caster with healing capabilities. But I found out that if you spec her right, she is an amazing tank with the most armor, and is capable of dealing massive melee damage. The way I played her was basically a battlemage.

The game is beset with minor glitches that don’t affect gameplay, and a couple big ones that do. Snowblind has released patches to fix these, however. The one I ran into most was some text staying onscreen instead of fading off. It was out of the way, so it didn’t bother me much. Another one was actually useful, and kind of funny. While I was playing the caster, the dwarf would either teleport or run really, really fast towards the enemy to hit them. A major glitch that I am glad I didn’t run into is definitely a game breaker. It happens when you complete a quest but the game doesn’t recognize that you did, and so you can’t move forward. Only thing to do in this case is start over.

The game took me about 20 hours to finish on Normal difficulty. I made it to character level 22. Once you beat it on normal, you unlock a second playthrough on heroic, and then legendary. Each time you start a new playthrough you keep your level and gear, allowing for many repeated playthroughs. There is gear to collect, and sets to be matched. So the gear-whore in me wants to play it through over and over to get the best sets for each character. Higher level playthroughs also grant better gear.

The gear is color coded into what has become the standard. White for regular common gear, green for good quality, blue for rare gear, and purple for epic gear. In the normal playthrough I believe that I only received two pieces of blue gear, a lot of green, and a ton of white. In the beginning of the heroic playthrough I got lucky and found a purple piece for my hands, and then got a purple bow for the ranger. But other than that, the best gear is obviously reserved for the legendary playthrough. Reading online, many people play the legendary over and over to achieve their sets; which as I said, I can easily see myself doing. Especially to help my friends play.

Gameplay is your basic hack-n-slash. One button deals your regular attack, while a second deals a strong, slower attack. What was nice was the addition of a “Hero Mode”. As you deal damage, an invisible meter is filling up. Once it’s full, a visual indicator tells you to use your strong attack. Once you do, you are in hero mode, and deal extra damage. You stay in hero mode until you are staggered, as long as you keep hitting things. While in hero mode each hit adds to a multiplier, and if you are in hero mode at the end of the fight, you get a huge xp boost. I managed to get my multiplier up to 127 while fighting spiders in Mirkwood.

This game isn’t exactly a must have, but it’s fun. All in all, it’s a good game that either LOTR fans, or loot-based RPG fans will enjoy.

- Woody

Video Game Review: Goldeneye 007 Reloaded

          Upon putting the disc in my 360, I was expecting to hear the familiar music of Goldeneye. Instead, I heard a James Bondsy soundtrack that was a little amped up. Reminded me of the theme to “Evil Genius”.

          I started a new campaign, and selected not the easiest, but the second easiest difficulty. After all, I beat the original on the hardest level; how hard could it be?

          I am greeted with a Call of Duty style tutorial. Grab a weapon and shoot some targets. No jumping right into the dam this time. It was your standard shooting range. Shoot the targets. Now aim and shoot them, showing the auto aim feature. A new addition was utilizing cover, and using the aim button to lean out of cover to shoot.

          Vaulting, sprinting, ducking: they’ve made Goldeneye into COD:007. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing. I can’t play the old Goldeneye anymore with the old control scheme. Go back and try it; see what happens.

          After the tutorial, I am greeted with a familiar mission: use the dam to infiltrate a weapons manufacturing facility with 006. Upon starting the mission, I see that the first little area has a layout almost exactly like the original. I am liking this so far. The graphics are great, and I feel like Bond.

          As soon as I am past the tower, however, the experience changes drastically. I am not saying that I am upset; I just don’t feel nostalgic anymore. I get in the passenger seat of a truck, and there is a rail sequence. Obviously my driver is retarded, for he ran into a gas truck and killed us both. The screen filled with a familiar dripping of blood. Back to the last checkpoint…

          At the end of the first level, I was happy to see that they added a parachute to Bond this time around. I always felt bad for him in the original, just jumping off the dam. Then the amazing happened. After being ambushed, he jumped without it anyway!

          Roll opening credits. Parents be warned, the typical swimming silhouettes of women in the background that are a trademark of Bond are very detailed this time around.

          In the beginning of the second level (facility, of course), I am greeted by a classic Goldeneye moment: crawling through the vents and killing a man using the toilet. The restroom is a lot dingier this time around, however. Looks more like a truck stop toilet.

          The facility is nothing like I remember it. The father I get into this game, the less nostalgic I am becoming. After a few minutes into the level, I am bored. This is just another shooter with an old story. It doesn’t have anything to add, and it’s too far from the original to keep my interest. I feel a little let down.

          All in all, the game isn’t bad at all. Graphics are great, sound is great. But I was expecting Goldeneye 007, and I got COD:007 instead.

X-Men Destinies in Review

I have come to be wary of any Marvel licensed title. As fun as the first X-Men: Legends was, their reusing of the same old formula quickly got stale. Now, the comic/X-Men love in me keeps playing these games, but I long for something new. After reading the back of the case to X-Men: Destinies, I thought I had found it.

Create your own mutant and choose his powers? Count me in! Fight alongside or against the X-Men? I gotta have it!

However, upon buying this game, I quickly realized it wasn't what it appeared to be. You don't actually create a mutant, you choose one of three characters with their already predetermined backstories. You get to choose from 3 power pools as your base, which basically correspond to tank, ranged, and melee striker. After choosing these pools, you get to periodically choose a power to add. You get two choices, and the one you don't choose is lost. You get a total of your basic attacks (which can be upgraded to combos), and three more powers (two active and one passive).

There are four slots you can customize using "x genes". You can choose your uniform, attack gene, defense gene, and utility gene. The costume has no bearing unless you equip all three genes that match the costume, limiting you greatly in efficiency. The genes have some use, but don't impact gameplay much.

Gameplay is the same old formula, except this time you aren't leveling a group of four mutants, you are by yourself, occasionally joined by either X-Men or Brotherhood mutants that are completely computer controlled.

All in all, this is just another X-Men: Legends clone with a couple new things thrown at you. If you are a hardcore X-Men or comic book lover, you'll enjoy this game. Otherwise, if you've played any other X-Men game or either Marvel: Ultimate alliance games, just stay away from this game. It's the same thing.

   - Sapper Woody

An annoying Skyrim Glitch, and the Fix

So, I was doing good, making my Death Knight class. He is amazing, but that's another story for another time.

Basically, I joined the college of magic, and had a student test spells on me. The game glitched, and I was invisible! At least, I couldn't see myself. But everyone else could. All that had happened was I didn't have a character model anymore. It was so annoying, especially since I spent the thousands of septims to make my ebony armor and look the part of a death knight.

I searched online, and could only find a fix for the PC version, which was basically to enter the console and enter a command to change your character model.

However, I finally tried the shout "Become Ethereal" and it made me actually invisible. Once it wore of, I was back to normal. Pretty disappointing, Bethesda!

  - Sapper Woody

Video Game Review: Modern Warfare 3

So, as a Call of Duty fan, I did my duty and bought MW3 as soon as it came out. At first, I felt like I was playing MW2 all over again. Then the game went into some amazing areas that I thought were incredible, if unrealistic. Specifically, I was enthralled by the level where you play as a security guard on a jumbo jet, and the jet starts to crash during an extended firefight. As the jet is plummeting towards the ground, those inside expeience zero gravity, and you are floating around in the jet while stil engaged in a firefight. Then the jet levels out, and you regain gravity just in time to see the back half of the plane ripped off as you hit the ground.

All in all, the single player experience is very similar to MW2, with the action being more unrealistic, yet at the same time more intense.

Multiplayer is a retooled edition of the past COD games, although the kill streak system has changed for the better. Instead of choosing your regular kill streak rewards, which require a certain number of kills without dying to activate, you may now choose from three types of kill streaks. One is basically the same; get kills without dying, and be rewarded with poweful things to get even more kills. The second are "support" rewards. These rewards don't require you to get kills without dying, jut a certain number of kills total. These rewards are more geared towards helping out the team; UAVs, body armor, etc.

Then there is the "Specialist" kill streak rewards. This is arguably the most powerful kill streak reward tree, as it allows you to get more perks. You choose your main three perks like normal, then you choose three more perks to get at 2, 4, and 6 kills. If you manage to get 8 kills without dying, you are awarded all the perks you have unlocked so far, making you a powerhouse killing machine. I have seen video footage of people getting 8 kills, then going on to destroy their opponents. Of course, if you can get 8 kills without dying, you are pretty much destroying your opponents already.

Of special note is that the kill streaks recycle during your lifespan. That is, in the past, once you got your highest kill streak reward, you had to die in order to get them again. In MW3, if you get your highest kill streak reward, it starts over. You can actually get a helicopter, etc, multiple times in one life if you are good enough.

Another note is the MOAB, or "Mother Of All Bombs". In MW2, one of the kill streak rewards you could choose was the match ending nuke, awarded at 25 kills in one life. In MW3, you don't get to choose this as an option, but if you manage to get 25 kills in one life, then you get the MOAB. This kills everyone on the opposing team, but does not end the match. This is only awarded once per life, however. Getting 50 kills does give you another one.

All in all, MW3 is what we've come to expect from the MW series, with a few nice additions that set it apart from the rest.

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Review

I loved Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. I loved Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. And now I love Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

First thing that greets you when you start up the game is the amazing graphics. I thought Oblivion was amazing when I first turned it on, and Skyrim did not disappoint me with the way they stepped it up. After almost 24 hours (non-consecutive) of playing this game, I am still enjoying it, and trying to accomplish so much. The sandbox style of gameplay is no stranger to the Elder Scrolls series, and Skyrim only takes it to the next level.

One thing that adds to Skyrim's sandbox style that was missing in Oblivion is the addition of sidequests that you can obtain from the various factions (called "guilds" in earlier games) that have no bearing on the story, but can earn you cash. Granted, these quests get a little repetitive (I can only steal the same item from different houses so many times before it gets old), but they are there, and there are several different variations within the different factions.

The plot is pretty good so far, but I'll be honest, I haven't beat the game yet. I am still too preoccupied with trying to get my heavy armor, shield toting warrior closer to invincibility and gaining rep with the Companions (fighter's guild); and also having my sneaky assassin/thief run the Dark Brotherhood (assassin's guild) and rise in ranks among the thieves' guild. If you want a plot summary, go to wikipedia. They've got one there.

The leveling system is much better than in Oblivion as well. You gain levels by leveling any skill, with the higher leveled skills affecting your level more so than the lower level ones. Each level gained grants you a point to spend in perks, which allow you to be even better or perform better feats with your skills. This allows for greater skill diversity and actual customization instead of using Oblivion's way, where once you leveled all your skills you were the same as everyone else.

Overall, this game is amazing. I was going to give this game some numbers, then I read my friend's post at http://www.zeroand09.com/2012/01/my-rating-system.html and decided to forego the number system, as he has. But, if you like RPGs, you will not be disappointed with Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

Also, look for my next post on how to Break the Game. Zeroand09 hates those posts, but I can't help myself. I've had the game for only a week or so, and already I've "broken" it.