This article discusses the first few reviews of Halo 4.
From a score of eight to 9.8 out of 10, it seems the critics like it. Phrases such as "awesome", "out-Bungie Bungie" and the words "343" and "nailed" in the same sentence.
Video with Jen Taylor, the voice of Cortana. She does all the narration in the video and it is a bit weird to hear "Cortana" talking about Halo.
Copy of the Live Stream with 343 and Major Nelson. One and a half hours with Infinity multiplayer.
Showing posts with label review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label review. Show all posts
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Gears of War 3 Review - Part 2
Continued from Part 1
Warzone: Same as Team Deathmatch, but with only one life. Matches tend to be quite fast in this mode
Execution: Similar to Team Deathmatch, but enemy players must be killed with an execution.
Capture the Leader: Each team has a leader and if that leader is captured by the other team, that player holds him as a meatshield and a countdown timer begins. Free your leader before the countdown ends or lose the match. If both leaders are captured, all countdowns stop.
King of the Hill: A ring opens up somewhere on the map and teams must move a player into that ring to capture it. Once captured, the opposing team must move into the ring to break the capture and then remain in it to capture it. Once captured, each “tick” adds a point to the team total. First team to 150 points wins the match. KOTH is my favourite mode, as deaths do not matter for wins, so my Kill/Death ratio of .3 (yes, that's 10 deaths to 3 kills) is not as much of a penalty to my team.
Wingman: Also another great mode that is less played. Four 2 man teams take the field and work to kill all the other teams. One life for each teammate. Points are awarded for kills, downs, etc. The team with the most points wins the match. Being the last team alive does not guarentee a win.
Horde Mode: This is the mode made famous by Gears. Five players work cooperatively to stand against up to 50 waves of locus beasts. Players gain money for kills and assists and then use that money to buy fortifications, targets, turrets, sentrys and silverbacks to help them keep back the hordes. Although you get some ammo at the start of each wave, you will have to scavange ammo during each wave. Getting to level 20 is fairly easy. Anything after level 30 is a challenge. There are various challenge modes that pop up which give bonus ammo and weapons (survive the wave without any player being killed, kill 7 enemies with chainsaw bayonet, etc) and each 10th wave is a boss wave. There is a bit of a persistant element to Horde mode as the amount of money you spend on each type of fortification is counted and the more you spend, the more advanced fortifications are available to the player in future games. A lot of fun, but be prepared to spend 1-3 hours to finish.
Beast Mode: I love beast mode. This is the other side of Horde mode. The players choose a locus beast to play and attack the AI which are set up as per Horde mode. There are up to 12 waves and each wave is timed. As the players complete a wave they are given more money which unlocks up to 4 levels of beasts, including the highest level, which includes the boss level beasts. Although you can lose a wave if you are not paying attention, it is pretty easy to clear all waves. High scores are based on clearing the wave with the fastest time. Being the bad guys is always fun, so this is my favourite mode due to the pure, animal carnage.
Conclusion: Gears 3 is a great game. If you enjoyed Gears 1 or 2, getting 3 is a no brainer. If you enjoy story driven FPS then you will love the campaign. Multiplayer has enough game types to appeal to everyone, even a crappy player with a K/D ratio of .3
Update: This weekend has an event running, Big Head Mode. It is similar to Team Deathmatch, except the head are bigger and all voices sound like they have snorted helium.
This guide provides a video walkthrough to the locations of all collectables (Spoiler Alert). It is so complete, you could just watch all the videos in order and get the story.
First DLC on November 1 - Details here.
Join me on XBox - GamerTag: Grusome11
Warzone: Same as Team Deathmatch, but with only one life. Matches tend to be quite fast in this mode
Execution: Similar to Team Deathmatch, but enemy players must be killed with an execution.
Capture the Leader: Each team has a leader and if that leader is captured by the other team, that player holds him as a meatshield and a countdown timer begins. Free your leader before the countdown ends or lose the match. If both leaders are captured, all countdowns stop.
King of the Hill: A ring opens up somewhere on the map and teams must move a player into that ring to capture it. Once captured, the opposing team must move into the ring to break the capture and then remain in it to capture it. Once captured, each “tick” adds a point to the team total. First team to 150 points wins the match. KOTH is my favourite mode, as deaths do not matter for wins, so my Kill/Death ratio of .3 (yes, that's 10 deaths to 3 kills) is not as much of a penalty to my team.
Wingman: Also another great mode that is less played. Four 2 man teams take the field and work to kill all the other teams. One life for each teammate. Points are awarded for kills, downs, etc. The team with the most points wins the match. Being the last team alive does not guarentee a win.
Horde Mode: This is the mode made famous by Gears. Five players work cooperatively to stand against up to 50 waves of locus beasts. Players gain money for kills and assists and then use that money to buy fortifications, targets, turrets, sentrys and silverbacks to help them keep back the hordes. Although you get some ammo at the start of each wave, you will have to scavange ammo during each wave. Getting to level 20 is fairly easy. Anything after level 30 is a challenge. There are various challenge modes that pop up which give bonus ammo and weapons (survive the wave without any player being killed, kill 7 enemies with chainsaw bayonet, etc) and each 10th wave is a boss wave. There is a bit of a persistant element to Horde mode as the amount of money you spend on each type of fortification is counted and the more you spend, the more advanced fortifications are available to the player in future games. A lot of fun, but be prepared to spend 1-3 hours to finish.
Beast Mode: I love beast mode. This is the other side of Horde mode. The players choose a locus beast to play and attack the AI which are set up as per Horde mode. There are up to 12 waves and each wave is timed. As the players complete a wave they are given more money which unlocks up to 4 levels of beasts, including the highest level, which includes the boss level beasts. Although you can lose a wave if you are not paying attention, it is pretty easy to clear all waves. High scores are based on clearing the wave with the fastest time. Being the bad guys is always fun, so this is my favourite mode due to the pure, animal carnage.
Conclusion: Gears 3 is a great game. If you enjoyed Gears 1 or 2, getting 3 is a no brainer. If you enjoy story driven FPS then you will love the campaign. Multiplayer has enough game types to appeal to everyone, even a crappy player with a K/D ratio of .3
Update: This weekend has an event running, Big Head Mode. It is similar to Team Deathmatch, except the head are bigger and all voices sound like they have snorted helium.
This guide provides a video walkthrough to the locations of all collectables (Spoiler Alert). It is so complete, you could just watch all the videos in order and get the story.
First DLC on November 1 - Details here.
Join me on XBox - GamerTag: Grusome11
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Gears of War 3 Review - Part 1
There are numerous good Gears of War 3 reviews out there, such as this one from Gamespot or this one from IGN. I thought I would write my review with the assumption that the reader was already a fan or has read another more basic review. I will take more about the multiplayer aspects.
Background
Firstly, you should know that when I am playing a console FPS, I enjoy the more story driven ones such as Halo or Gears. I save what I consider the more serious FPS for the PC. Also I am a fan of the series. I played and enjoyed Gears 1 and Gears 2. If you enjoyed Gears 1 and/or Gears 2, then you will enjoy this one as well. The campaign is high quality and well written, similar to the first two. I found the final boss battle to be well balanced. In Gears 1, I had the hardest time killing RAAM, even after going online for hints. Gears 2 seemed too easy, I killed the final boss on the first try (although this may have been the difficulty setting). Like Goldilocks, Gears 3 was just right (on Hardcore).
Multiplayer
Connection: I live a bit out of town in a rural area and my access to high speed internet is through wireless. My connection is probably at the high end of wireless when it comes to speed and realibility, however not on the same level as most of the people accessing through cable. Yet I get good connections 99% of the time. Although I prefer a list of servers that I choose, my experience with the 360 and Gears 3 matchmaking has been very postitive. The system lists the number of persons online for each game mode and the number in your region. It will then find matches and connect to the best one. This process usually takes 1-2 minutes, depending on the number of people playing that game. Occasionally it can take 5 minutes for me, but I am sure that is due to my connection andthe low number of players playing that mode. Anyone in North America with a cable connection should connect within 2 minutes or less.
Player Maturity: Everyone is familiar with the high pitched, squeaky voiced, homophobic 13 year olds found in console FPS games like Halo. Thanks to the mature rating of Gears 3, I have yet to run into one. Unfortunately this is replaced by the 22 year old who taunts you constantly for "sucking". However, I prefer this to being taunted by someone who's balls have yet to drop.
Game Types
Team Deathmatch: Standard Team Deathmatch with 20 lives per team. The maps in Gears 3 tend to be smaller, making it easy to get back into battle quickly on respawn (something I do a lot). Even small, the maps provide plenty of opportunity to flank. Matches are intense and very enjoyable with the majority of people playing this type of match, making it easy to find a match or change teams if you are getting skunked.
Continued in Part 2
Background
Firstly, you should know that when I am playing a console FPS, I enjoy the more story driven ones such as Halo or Gears. I save what I consider the more serious FPS for the PC. Also I am a fan of the series. I played and enjoyed Gears 1 and Gears 2. If you enjoyed Gears 1 and/or Gears 2, then you will enjoy this one as well. The campaign is high quality and well written, similar to the first two. I found the final boss battle to be well balanced. In Gears 1, I had the hardest time killing RAAM, even after going online for hints. Gears 2 seemed too easy, I killed the final boss on the first try (although this may have been the difficulty setting). Like Goldilocks, Gears 3 was just right (on Hardcore).
Multiplayer
Connection: I live a bit out of town in a rural area and my access to high speed internet is through wireless. My connection is probably at the high end of wireless when it comes to speed and realibility, however not on the same level as most of the people accessing through cable. Yet I get good connections 99% of the time. Although I prefer a list of servers that I choose, my experience with the 360 and Gears 3 matchmaking has been very postitive. The system lists the number of persons online for each game mode and the number in your region. It will then find matches and connect to the best one. This process usually takes 1-2 minutes, depending on the number of people playing that game. Occasionally it can take 5 minutes for me, but I am sure that is due to my connection andthe low number of players playing that mode. Anyone in North America with a cable connection should connect within 2 minutes or less.
Player Maturity: Everyone is familiar with the high pitched, squeaky voiced, homophobic 13 year olds found in console FPS games like Halo. Thanks to the mature rating of Gears 3, I have yet to run into one. Unfortunately this is replaced by the 22 year old who taunts you constantly for "sucking". However, I prefer this to being taunted by someone who's balls have yet to drop.
Game Types
Team Deathmatch: Standard Team Deathmatch with 20 lives per team. The maps in Gears 3 tend to be smaller, making it easy to get back into battle quickly on respawn (something I do a lot). Even small, the maps provide plenty of opportunity to flank. Matches are intense and very enjoyable with the majority of people playing this type of match, making it easy to find a match or change teams if you are getting skunked.
Continued in Part 2
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