teh L33T n00b

It Pays To Be A Bully

2009-04-06T14:27:00.001-07:00

Sorry for the long hiatus of my posts; I've just been busy. Let me apologize with my review of "Bully: Scholarship Edition" for the Nintendo Wii

BULLY: SCHOLARSHIP EDITION
Developer: Rockstar North
Publisher: Rockstar/Take-Two Interactive
Consoles: Wii, PS2, Xbox 360

Rockstar has done it again.

Taking the fun destructive and blatent disregard for authority from it's signature "Grand Theft Auto" series and adding the humour and young rebellion of the schoolyard to create "Bully", a game where you play through a year at the New England boarding school of Bullworth Academy as 15-year-old delinquant Jimmy Hopkins, who is more-or-less abandoned by his inattentive mother and new step-father as they go on honeymoon during the game's duration.

Jimmy has a number of weapons at his disposal that are basically junior versions of those found in GTA, like stink bombs, fire crackers, itching powder, and, after the 3rd mission, a slingshot with unlimited ammo. Eventually, you can even move up to bigger items, like a fireworks rocket launcher after you take the Nerd's safehouse in the third chapter, and a potato cannon in the forth.

The game's story itself is also well told in cutscenes that pretty accurately show school life. Unlike GTA, where people who walk the streets are nameless, faceless, and occasionally voiceless AI, everyone in Bullworth has their own name and voice. The main characters are pretty good too. Jimmy himself is a tough, wisecracking smart guy who is discribed by others as 'sadistic' or a 'psychopath', but that's really only if you play him that way. As a nerd, I had a tendency to beat up the other bullies the most out of all the factions.

Speaking of, there are six main factions at constant battle with each other: Nerds, Jocks, Preps, Greasers, and Townies. The fighting goes as follows:
Nerds v. Jocks
Preps v. Greasers
Townies v. all kids attending Bullworth.

All factions will beat you up until you beat up their leader in a final confrontation and take command. The first one you become the boss of is the Bullies, when you beat the behemoth Russell in the first chapter's boss fight. Then it goes Preps, Greasers, Nerds, Jocks, and Townies.
Gary, the game's main antagonist, takes over nearly every group at some point, eventually leading all factions into warring with each other at the game's climax. He even takes the headmaster hostage and forces Jimmy into a final showdown with him at the top of the school's highest tower.

You also have a quote/unquote 'sidekick' named Pete Kowalski, who is meek, but that really just covers his sneaky and plotting mind, which Jimmy uses to his advantage. He starts as Gary's sidekick, but switches alligences after the first chapter.

Other groups of the game include the teachers of the school, the Bullworth Police, the Academy Prefects, the adult Townies, and, finally, girls.

Girls are mysterious creatures Jimmy doesn't really understand, but is always eager for a quick make out session (Well...unless it's Eunice. You'll see.). There are a couple times where you have to sneak into the girls dorm, but it's never really a hassel; each dorm room has a closet to hide in if their dorm advisor comes looking around, but trust me when I say that's probably the dullest part of the game when you're waiting for her to leave. Her voice is annoying too. I'm not sure if I can take another outburst of "Have you finished your homework girls?" or "You're in a world of trouble, young man!" when caught.

Quickly changing the subject before I kill myself from the memory, the town of Bullworth is a nice, large town, with lots of different places to explore. Initially, you can only go around the school grounds, but after Chapter 1, you can visit Bullworth Town, to the school's right, and the ritzy Old Bullworth Vale to the left. There's also a number of things to do in town, like bike races, running errands for students, cops, and adults, and even getting jobs that manifest in minigames like a paper route, mowing lawns, and, during winter, shovelling snow.

There's also a carnival in the Vale, where you can partake in more minigames and even go-kart races. If you win all 5 carnival races, you can go on to street races. If you beat all 3 of those, you can zip around Bullworth in your very own go-kart.

Speaking of, the vehicles of the game all work pretty well for a schoolyard sim. The first one you obtain is a skateboard, which isn't fast, but can get you from A to B. When you can get out of the school grounds in the second level, you can purchace a bike. My favourite model was the Aquaberry Cruser, and is the fastest of the purchasable bikes. You can also buy a moped at the Carnival with 75 tickets, which you get from playing games. The moped's the fastest bike, but be prepared to get in trouble if you don't wear a helmet while on it. You can even use the moped during races, but it kinda feels like cheating.

Kinda.

FINISH LATAA

Enough is Enough

2009-02-13T20:46:00.000-08:00

I have had enough of these mother ****ing samurais, on this mother ****ing platform.

With the first post of 2009, I take a look at the recent game, Afro Samurai. It's gotten quite a bit of hype, hasn't it? Don't believe a word of it. The only reason it received any was because of Samuel L. Jackson's starring in it (and he does do a pretty good job) and the popularity of the anime it's based off of. Take it with a grain of salt, my friend. It's quite horrible.

*First off*

It isn't anything but a button masher. It has absolutely no skill involvement, other than not standing around like an idiot. All you really have to do is slam the nearest attack button as many times as it takes to finish off the local baddies. And boy, will your thumb hurt afterwards. The usual enemy (in a pathetically stupid attempt to lengthen gameplay, I'm guessing) takes 15-20 hits before he even considers death an option (which is such a pain because there's about a dozen of them at each encounter and after you kill two, two more will almost always jump up to take their place). And that's just the usual grunts. When you go up to the ninjas and leading samurais, then you're talking a real pain in the neck, especially considering, that for some odd reason, they can dodge/block your sword like it's nothing. Although, they sure can't dodge your feet. Remind me, why do I carry this thing around again if I can only seem to hit my enemies with my slower, less effective feet.

*Secondly*

The gameplay is absolutely boring, unoriginal and unimaginative. X=light attack, Y=heavy attack, B=kick, RT=block. The only thing that really doesn't make it 100% typical, is the "focus" technique with the LT. Oh, and by the way, focus is just a fancy trying to sound original way of saying bullet time. Whoa there, buddy. Try not to be so radical with your completely out of the box ideas. You can slow time down, charge up a swing, and (hopefully) hit someone with and unblockable one-hit kill. And then there's the been there done that acrobatics that came straight out of Ninja Gaiden II. Oh yeah, and did I mention that it's kind of broken. If you do light attack in the focus, Afro sweeps his sword at such a stupidly bad angle, that it usually just breezes over your enemies head, making me once again feel stupid for even trying it.

*Thirdly*

It's repetitive. Because doing exactly the same thing over and over again is just so much fun. And why on earth does the game feel the need to show me the same tutorial five times. You know, if I was able to get it the first time, I don't think I need reminding everytime I come up to a wall run. Where does this game get off insulting my intellegence.

*Fourthly*

It's simply gratuitous. There's lots of mature bull that really has no place. Blood in a war game? Cool, that makes sense considering it's war after all. Blood in a sword fighting game? Well, we are using swords. Being a soldier trained to stomp your enemy's face in as a finishing move? Um, getting a little over the top, but what ever I can dig it. Slicing off somebody's hand at the wrist and having about 20 gallons of blood spray out like a fountain? Ok, now that's just ridiculous and plainly over the top. Oh, and somewhere in what I believe was the second level, I was "treated" to fighting topless, sword-fighting women. Now that's just plain unnecessary. LOWBROW ATTRACTION ALERT!!! Although, I will say this. The digital bosoms looked so hilariously fake that they actually kept me around for a little longer instead of quitting just for a bit of laughter. Feh heh.

*Final Thoughts*

All you can really do is take it for what it is. And the story it's showing me is certainly a lovely thing for sure. Too bad the terrible gameplay keeps me from even playing it through. Honestly. It's so horribly bad, that if you ask me, you shouldn't even look in this game's general direction.

Well, thanks for reading my review of the worst game I've ever played. This is The Blade, signing off.

The World At Large

2008-12-10T11:52:00.000-08:00

I think we can all remember one of last year's most popular titles on the market. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. After taking the conflict to modern times, what did they do for the next title? Back to WWII. "Ugh," I thought, "Isn't that getting old yet? Going through the same old missions, shooting the same old Nazis with the same old guns and the same old plot." Well lets just say that Call of Duty: World at War, would make an excellent finale to the WWII shooting genre. I'm going to warn you now, for there are going to spoilers.

*Story*
Half the game you play as Pvt. Miller in the Marine Core, who you find out at the beginning was a prisoner of war. A friendly squad saves you and you join them on their adventure through the various Japanese Territories in the Pacific. As you fight your way through history's first taste of guerrilla warfare you get to watch both your Cpt. and your Sgt. die. The other half, you play as Pvt. Petrenko of the Russian's Red Army. He's a convenient, "accidental" survivor of the Stalingrad massacre and so is his Sgt. Reznov, who just so happens to have a sniper rifle and full ammunition to give you. Oh yeah, and there's some third guy you play as on a mission where you work all the turrets on some bomber plane in the Pacific. But I don't care about him because there's no point in him being there. He has absolutely nothing to do with either story.

The American story is that of fear and anguish. Struggling through the Pacific only to see both your commanding officers die is a disheartening plot. But it has a nice ambiance to it. I enjoyed trudging through the woods, watching out for Tojo hiding in the bush, waiting for the right moment to jab his bayonet in my back. The characters came up a little short, however. I didn't feel much remorse when our Cpt. or Sgt. died because they're wasn't enough reason for me to.

The Russian half of the story (my favorite half mind you) is of anger and vengeance. Drag yourself from amongst your slaughtered brothers, brush a little blood off your coat, grab a rifle and start on the long road to Vendetta. Even though the only character you associate with in the Russian half is Reznov, he was much more enjoyable company and he saved my life three or four times. As I accompanied him through the German-captured territories I really felt his thirst for revenge. And I don't think I ever felt so moved by an ending (SPOILER ALERT) as when he let me raise the Russian flag.

*Gameplay*
Well... What can I say? Take the gameplay from CoD 4, turn back the clock a few decades or so and BANG! You've got CoD: WaW. Ok, so that's not entirely true. I think it had a nice variety of levels and some battles were much larger and explosive, but it was a rather similar variety to CoD 4. And they featured a level where you get to operate a tank, but if you ask me, it didn't really do anything for the game. I think I would have preferred to run through that level escorting other tanks. I also thought that level on the plane was pretty useless too. Sure, it was kind of fun, but it had nothing to do with the story. The only reason I could think for having these useless missions... can you say fan service?

*Multiplayer*
Now some have said that the multiplayer in CoD: WaW resembles CoD 4. Push that thought out your minds right now. It isn't like CoD 4, really it isn't. It IS CoD 4. It is the exact same, pain in the neck multiplayer that ticked me off in CoD 4. Now I really must say, it is fun at times. Unfortunately, luck plays a big factor (which no one else is willing to admit). And I'm the unluckiest guy to play the game. So I die, a lot, and find it pretty frustrating. So, I generally try to avoid playing it except on certain occasions when my blood pressure is nice and low.

*Final Thoughts*
It was a fun adventure while it lasted, but I don't think I'll be adding this number to my Christmas List after I return the rental.

Tanks for reading.
This is The Blade, signing off.

Web Gaming #1: MUGEN

2008-08-04T22:00:00.000-07:00

I thought every week I'd find a random webgame and play it so you, the reader, can know which games are good and which games are best to avoid.

This week: Elecbyte's "M.U.G.E.N."

M.U.G.E.N.

The engine allows anyone to create characters, background stages and other game objects through interpreted text files, graphics, and sound compilations. It supports various types of audio formats such as MP3 and MIDI initially, although it can be configured to play various audio formats via Winamp plugins, such as ADX and OGG, as background music during gameplay or at other points such as an introduction or the select screen. The engine allows for most of the same type of functionality found in most any commercial 2D fighting games, up to and including close recreation of those games' characters and gameplay. While the engine is set up primarily for fighting game development, several other game types have been developed using it, including shooter and platformer style games.

~Wikipedia Entry on MUGEN

MUGEN is a freeware game which is the free equivalent to a collaborative version of "Street Fighter II" made by fans of everything from 'the Simpsons' to 'Ranma 1/2'
Despite many of the characters looking out of place next to their opponents, the game still works well usually when Peter Griffin is beating up a 3D Super Mario.

There are a large number of websites, like Mugenation which offer downloadable custom content, such as characters, stages, tutorials, and screenpacks. My version is rather bland except for my custom menu choices, such as "Kick Some Ass" instead of "Arcade mode" and "F*** Off" for "Exit".

All in all, it's a fun game that's worth the 2MB RAR/ZIP base file download (but so is Weezer's "Pork and Beans" and is a handy little timewaster. Oh yeah, and it has 2-player multiplayer. :3

FINAL SCORE:

M.U.G.E.N.
Developer: Elecbyte (base game, 2001)
Publisher: N/A
Pros: Good support for downloads, easy and customizable interface, large user and creator base, and ability for 2-player co-op as well as your average 'beat the other guy up' gameplay.
Cons: Sometimes hard to share a keyboard (does feature joystick and PC gamepad compatability however) and no preloaded music, one preloaded character (Kung Fu Man) and 2 preloaded stages.

Overall Score: 8 out of 10.

Only Slightly Human

2008-07-26T20:32:00.000-07:00

So I recently played the demo for an upcoming game called Too Human. If you haven't played it or you just didn't pay enough attention, Too Human is a hack, slash and shoot RPG (I'll get in to that later) where Norse Mythology is 100% real, but with a heavy sci-fi over-coating. There's really more machine than man, which makes the name kind of ironic. If you don't know about Norse Mythology, well... look it up. And the reasons I call it an RPG: You play a hero, one of the many usual classes and you spend all your time killing to gain experience and new gear, you gain exp. to level up and you level up to use better gear. This has RPG written all over it.

Gameplay: You only get to play as the default warrior in the demo, complete with a sword and two pistols to start with. You can get more gear by killing and completing certain important tasks. The fighting was very fun. Ripping through an onslaught of enemy bots, slashing and blasting them up. Lots of fun to be had in that. But then I got to the first boss. First I had to destroy his shielding before I got to see his real health bar. Then I spent ten minutes hacking, slashing and shooting him, only getting about halfway through his bar when some one in my squad said to find a weak spot. "Ohhhhh. THAT'S what I'm supposed to do." I aimed for the most obvious one: his back. I was right. I jumped on to his back and for some reason I had to wait until after he tried shake me off before I could strike. If you ask me a SMART warrior would kill a giant bot that just took out half his squad in thirty seconds as soon as he got the chance. But that's just me. Of course I died a few times in the demo. Dying always sucks in video games. This is the one exception I've seen. When you die, everything moves in slow-motion, beautiful, tear-jerking music plays, a golden light shines from the heavens and a Valkyrie comes down to take you to Valhalla: the eternal resting place of all warriors. Truly an awe-inspiring sight.

To end my thoughts: It was fun and very cool. And I would definitely recommend you check out.
Thanks for reading. This is The Blade, signing off.

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars

2008-07-03T08:26:00.000-07:00

I have nothing much to say about this one so let's just dive on in.

Campaign: Or should I say lack of? All the Campaign missions are 3-step objective games with 20 minute time limits. All of which can be played as the humans or the aliens. Both sides however are practically the same with very little variation aside from name. The classes consist of Soldier, Engineer, Covert Ops(aka sniper) and Field Ops. Each class has it's own weapon and equipment setup. The interface of which is very user friendly, having weapons on the right bumper and equipment on the left. Not only does each class have their own setup but you can also change your primary weapon. For example, if you're an engineer, you can choose between the rifle and the shotgun. The campaign was fun over all, but very short. I clocked it at a mere four and a half hours on medium. Very short.

Instant Action: Quake Wars has an interesting feature called instant action (reminds me of Star Wars Battlefront) where you can go on a mission alone or bring some friends into a bot match. Here's the only problem. Literally all the missions in the Instant Action are the EXACT same ones as the Campaign missions. And the campaign didn't even have any cut scenes. Not really much of a Campaign now is it?

Multiplayer: All the missions from Instant Action and the Campaign. But online with other people. So things are going to be a little more dynamic.

Final thoughts: I don't really know what to rate it, but I would recommend it. It's a very fun game. I just have one question. What's the point of even having a Campaign without variation from Instant Action and Multiplayer and no cut scenes?

Thanks for reading. This is the Blade, signing off.

One is the loneliest number.

2008-06-05T15:19:00.000-07:00

Two can be as bad as one, but it's perfect for EA's Army of Two. Let me start by saying that trailers and commercials failed to excite me in any way. So I really wasn't looking forward to this one but I decided to give it a try anyway. You have been forewarned: Spoilers ahead.

Campaign: In the campaign you play as either Elliot Salem or Tyson Rios. I played as Salem. You two start as a couple of army rangers in training. In training you will learn every single aspect of gameplay mechanics for the rest of the game. After training you're sent off to fight in the war in Simole. There you meet Clyde, who is a real prick. And right after you kill his bounty for him, while he sat back and watched, he takes all the credit and money. What a prick. Then you get picked up by some company called SSC who hire you as a pair of contractors. You go through quite a few wars and missions only to find out SSC was helping the enemy all along. They set you up to accidentally kill a U.S. senator. You fight back, clear your names and kill SSC leader, Dalton, and his little lackey, Clyde. I recommend you play on medium or high, because low is absolutely insulting as to how easy it is. Even with the weakest weapon configuration I could come up with, the enemies were still just dropping like flies. I like how you can change around your weapons in the middle of the mission. It makes experimenting with weapons easy. It was an overall fun campaign. If you can though, play with a friend. The AI of your partner can be pretty stupid. A lot of times I got downed he either stood there in enemy fire, or he dragged us both into it.

Versus: In versus mode two teams of contractors are both after the same objectives. You fight not only the enemy team, but also some NPC's like in the campaign. The goal is to gain as much money as you can by the end of the match. You get money by killing NPC's, the enemy team and most of all, completing objectives. You can find these odd dispensers where you can use some of your money to buy weapons and armor. Just save some to stay ahead of the enemy team. Oh, and spawn-killing is extremely occasional.

Final Thoughts: I liked it and I would definitely recommend it if you like action. There are a lot of jokes that Rios and Salem are gay for each other. I really don't get a gay vibe from them... most of the time anyways. There were a few things hinting towards that. Once I did the appreciation thing right after we slaughtered a bunch of enemies and Rios said, "Salem, Salem, Salem" in a very musical tone. My reaction: >_< Please stop talking now. My over-all score, 9 out of 10.

Thanks for reading. This is The Blade, signing off.

The Sims: Castaway and More

2008-04-10T13:00:00.001-07:00

My birthday was last Thursday (No, the LITERAL last Thursday, not the one on meme forums like 4chan and the bigot-owned Encyclopedia Dramatica) and I received a total of $60 plus a new Wiimote for my Wii. 2 things were bought with this money: The Sims 2: Castaway for the Wii and a sonic screwdriver from ThinkGeek.com (read my latest post at my personal blog).

The Sims 2: Castaway is an offshoot title of the main Sims 2 game (I own the GameCube copy). Castaway itself is the stripped-down console port of an existing Sims 2 expansion pack called "Castaway Stories". Due to the fact modern consoles can not run actual expansion packs, game developers are forced to create entirely new games set in the world of main one, the Sims series and Guitar Hero II to be precise targets of this. While not bad for them, it squeezes the cash from us, because no one except for a complete retard (eg: me) would shell out $50 bucks for an expansion pack for a console game, because all it ever is is the same game with a few new added bells and whistles. In some games, things are lost. In console version of the Sims 2, there were 2 play modes: a story/career mode featuring your created sim (and your mate's sim if you did 2 player) going through completing objectives to fill his/her life meter because if they don't, they'll become some drugged-up parent in the suburbs wondering "WTF just happened?!", and a free-play mode reminiscent of the first Sims game for the consoles (my console at the time was a PS2). I didn't see it coming, but retrospectively it was to be expected, but all the children were somehow missing from the Sims 2, both in story and free-play mode. Well, that brought out the acne-ridden Hulk so to speak and I was about ready to twirl a tank Super Mario-style into Maxis' head offices, but luckily someone slipped a sedative into my Mountain Dew Code Red and I calmed town.

Anyway, the Sims 2: Pets did the same thing, only with story-mode and free-play clumsily mixed together. If you took care of your cat/dog/sim/thing then more people moved into the neighborhood (including Hilary Duff and her pampered pooch, whom by brother locked in a room by herself while the dog destroyed the Duff Mansion just for the fun of it). Now the Sims 2: Castaway throws free-play totally out of the window in-favour of a psydo-story driven game. Your sim, in my case my character, boy genius Gavin DeMilo, is on a boat with as many as six people on it. Everyone gets totally sloshed and starts singing kareoke (by the looks on their faces, it looks as if Gavin attempted "Bohemian Rhapsody" all by his lonesome without accompaniment). The good ship Simplicity shakes about and while fishing, they all fall off of the boat (for some reason, your fishing rod is not in your inventory at the game's start, making you to have to build one from bamboo and vines). Gav washes up on the first island, called Shipwreck Island, and begins foraging for himself, befriending chimps who gather for him and making shelter and inventing useful items like torches and axes and girls made out of sand (they won't nag for you to come to their mother's unless you build one).

In time, you can build a one-man raft to travel to Airplane Island, the second island were your crew (if there is any) resides. You assemble a rag-tag tribe of sorts and all of them can pick from 4 tribe duties: cook, fish, forage for supplies, and forage for food.

....

And that's it. That's as far as I've gotten.

SO, let's talk about the Sims movie, shall we?

As I told you before, Fox Studios has bought the rights to a film based on Will Wright's brainchild, the Sims, with John Davis producing and ol' who-cares directing. According to my sources, the film will be a drama. The main character finds out that Pleasantville, the first neighborhood on the Sims 2, is actually part of a massively played video game. The game also features characters from the Sims titles, including the Goth and Newbie familes, and Don Lathario from the Sims 2. While it doesn't seem interesting, I like to see that a game-movie finally has them realize they're in a game.

FINAL SCORE:
The Sims 2: Castaway (Wii, PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, PC [titled Castaway Stories and is an expansion pack])
Pros: In-jokes to previous games, fun dialouge, unique idea (came out before the Lost video game), good music
Cons: Difficult camera angles, annoying NPCs, crazy goals.
Score:
7.5 Out Of 10

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The story of Soap.

2008-03-05T14:05:00.000-08:00

So, after about a month or so of hearing, "Halo 3 sucks all of the sudden for no other reason than Call of Duty 4 is better", I decided to rent it and try it for myself. Spoilers, there will be spoilers.

*Campaign* Let me just start off by saying that it's definitely better than I thought it would be. My original thoughts were that it would constantly repeat the boring "Duck for cover but pop up for a split-second to shoot something" formula. It was actually very lively and fun. It wasn't boring for even the slightest second. You switch a few times between the British SAS soldier, Soap (what kind of name is that?) and the US Marine Sgt. Jacskon. Oh, and you get to see through the eyes of some kidnapped soldier right before he gets a bullet through the face on national TV and you also get to work some sort of cannon on the side of an aircraft. My point is that with all the perspective switching the game is always interesting. My favorites were of course Soap and Jackson. They actually get to interact with all the other characters of the game. At some point though Jackson dies and his marine buddies and the SAS squad that conveniently had Soap team up for a joint mission. Speaking of the characters, don't get too attached to them. They die in the end. I was just starting to like them and then came a car chase/ gun fight and they die while protecting me while I was injured. Then the credits have Griggs (a.k.a. one of the two black marines I saw in the whole game) rap in the end. I'm not quite sure what to say about that. And right after the credits there's an Epilogue Bonus Level which caught me off guard, scrambling for my controller as bullets starting whizzing by my head. Over all I liked the campaign. But it felt a little static. The AI don't really make that many different decisions and this just makes me feel like I'm doing the same thing over again.

*Multiplayer* The multiplayer is a lot of fun. But it's almost just as frustrating as it is fun. The spawn system is REALLY messed up. In half the games I played I get spawned in the near vicinity of an enemy who finds and kills me within about five seconds of being alive. A few times I even got spawned literally right in front of the enemy helicopter who proceeded to give me more than my daily recommended dose of bullets. Even more frustrating than that, I once got spawned (and I am NOT joking when I say this) two inches from a LIVE GRENADE! Next thing I know my jaw has dropped more than it should and I've lossed my controller. And in the midst of my shock and confusion the ever enjoyable kill-cam plays. The kill-cam is useful when you're left wondering, "How did he kill me?", but all other times it's just insulting. You take a shotgun blast to the face and the kill-cam chimes in, "Oh, by the way, here's how he killed you."

*Final Thoughts* Call of Duty 4 is an excellent game and definitely worth the 60 bucks. But I have to give it a 7 out of 10 because the spawn system is so frustrating. And if you remember I gave Halo 3 an 8 out of 10.

Thanks for reading. Blade signing off.

Wii Come In Piice

2008-02-20T12:36:00.001-08:00

Sorry for not posting in...ever, but I'm back with my review of the Nintendo Wii.

Now, I got the Wii, maybe a month ago. It came with one game, WiiSports, and one Wii remote, or "Wiimote". The first game we played was Bowling, and we had an incredible amount of fun. My grandparents and I quickly decided it was our favourite game on the system. Then we attempted Golf; much, much much harder, but was still sort of fun.

A couple of days later, my Grandmother went to GameStop and bought a new game, WiiPlay, that came with a free Wiimote and she also bought a second Nunchuck. WiiPlay was not as FUN as WiiSports, but some of the games were entertaining. Games included a shooting gallery (throwback to Duck Hunt on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), an update of Atari's "Tank", a sort of Neon Pong game, a Fishing simulation, and a game where you raced cows and maneuvered obstacles by jumping over them and hitting scarecrows for points. Plus, when you clicked on the Miis in the main menu, they moved depending on where you clicked. Clicking their face caused them to shake their heads, and clicking their arm made them wave to you. I'll let you find the rest on your own.

My grandmother is going to the local Hollywood Video store to rent some new games for consideration. If we like them, we'll by them from GameStop. If not, well, them's the breaks!

FINAL SCORES:

Wii Console: 9 out of 10. (Excellent!)
Pros: Unique controller, ability to play GameCube games without buying adapter, exellent graphics, better Internet support than previous Nintendo consoles.
Cons: Trouble controlling the Wiimote at times; not all games are good. We've only played 2 out of 5 from the Wii-Series.

WiiSports
Publisher: Nintendo
Score: 9.5/10
Pros: Fun games, great for parties or just hanging out with friends, great use of the Mii system, and good use of the Wiimote.
Cons: Some games are hard to control with the Wiimote, like putting in Golf (seems too sensitive)

WiiPlay
Publisher: Nintendo
Score: 8.5/10
Pros: Great graphics, fun games, great Easter Eggs.
Cons: Complicated controls on some games,

Blogged with Flock

My parachute is stuck.

2008-02-17T21:05:00.000-08:00

So now it's time to review Medal of Honor: Airborne.

Let's start with campaign... The campaign is pretty good. A wide array of combat situations. And it's pretty fun. Although the second to last level is just frustrating seeing as how there's about 50 snipers in rather obscure and hard to find places. And I'm not quite sure if the campaign is historicly accurate anymore. I don't seem to remember the nazis having a giant tower made of concrete and an elite branch of storm troopers that wore gas masks and carried around MMGs. Oh well. It's still a rather fun campaign.

Now onto the AI... Your friendly AI are just as useless as ever. I mean I know that not every soldier on the field can make smart decisions under pressure, but they can't be THIS stupid. I can't tell you how many times I've had a guy run in front of my gun as I'm firing and yell at me for it. The only time I ver see them get a kill is when they steal one from me. Seriously, the one and only use they have is being the occasional distraction when a tank rolls in. The enemy AI also realize how stupid your alies are and will, on the most part, shoot you alone.

Now about the weapons... There is one of every weapon on each side of the war. An SMG, an automatic rifle, a rifle, a sniper, and a rocket launcher. Pistols too but you can only use the German pistol when you play on the Axis side in multiplayer. The only weapon that isn't on both sides is the shotgun which of course belongs to the Americans. There are also three types of grenade: frag, stick and some other grenade with a name that I don't remember that's used for tanks. You must upgrade each and every one of these weapons three levels. But don't fret, you can upgrade at least one all the way in a mission if you use it enough. You just don't get a hold of rockets and tank grenades except for certain levels. For all the other weapons you pick it up and you then have access to it at the start of every mission from then on. All the weapons are pretty fun but I've got to admit, the campaign becomes almost insultingly easy once you get your hands on the shotgun. That thing obliterates just about everything. Everything except the gas masks. The first one I encountered (on easy difficulty mind you) took eight shells to the face at close range before he went down.

Best played without other people... I didn't think I'd like the multiplayer in the least. But it's actually pretty fun. I thought it would be duck, shoot, duck, shoot. But it's pretty lively. I just think it's unblanced. The odds just seemed to be stacked really high against the Germans. Most, if not all, of the American weapons are over powering to thier German counter parts. Not only that but the Americans parachute into the match just like in the campaign and can land just about any where (including next to the German spawn area) with a sniper or a rocket launcher and force the Germans to go down an extremely frustrating highway known as Spawnkill Junction. And THAT is not what we like to call fun. And some guy on XBox Live had the nerve to say that all is fair in love and war... Ok, 1: if that was love I'd hate to see war. And 2: last I checked this wasn't war, it was the multiplayer function of a video game. And I thought multiplayer was suppoesed to have both sides with an equal chance to win, leaving the challenge based on skill. And it takes zero skill to spawn kill.

Thanks for reading. This is the Blade, signing off.

Tony Hawk's Massive Failure

2008-01-13T19:53:00.000-08:00

Hey, all! Since Acs posted a new review, I thought I would too. The game is "Tony Hawk's Project 8" by Neversoft and published by the first independent game developer, Activision, for the PlayStation 2. While not exactly NEW, it is rather recent. The game is a departure from the past 3 games in the fact that, while there is a story ("Career") mode, it does not have cut scenes with your player and your skater has no voice. The game features one new feature, that being the "land the trick" function when in special mode, which is basically "Focus mode" from THUG 2 and THAW. The difference between "land the trick" and "focus" is that in "land the trick", your camera goes yellow and closes up on your board, and you can push different joystick directions to make your feet go a different way, doing a unique trick when you get the hang of it.

Other new things are new pros to skate as, such as "My Name Is Earl", "Underdog", and "Alvin and the Chipmunks" star Jason Lee, skating out of semi-retirement to help the player during the second level. Unfortunately, the game takes a major departure from previous Tony Hawk titles in the fact that you can only play as 2 characters in free play at the games beginning (Tony Hawk and the Custom Skater), as opposed to being able to play as every pro AND Custom Skater like all the others. Speaking of, the Customization is very small and you have to choose between 3 presets: Punk, Urban Youth/Thug, and an 8 year old kid...or a midget...
My sister had a major problem in THAW to where she couldn't play as a girl in Story Mode due to the kiss at the end. She was further infuriated by the fact that you couldn't even make a female skater PERIOD in the Create-A-Skater option in Project 8. Oh, sure, you could play as a female Realtor, but that was about it, and still you had to complete the second level to get her.

Many hallmarks of the series have been removed for no reason other than "realism", chiefly Create-A-Park, which was my second favourite thing after character creation. The create a trick function introduced in THUG has been taken out, as has the "FREAK OUT!/Board Throwing" moves from THUG 2 and THAW. As a teen with severe anger management problems, this really pissed me off. I did my own FREAK OUT! move and chucked the game case into the rubbish bin.

There are MANY worse games you can get than Project 8, but I find it to be severely disappointing. It has nothing in common from the past games other than being the second-latest in the Tony Hawk brand, the newest being Proving Ground for the Wii, 360, PlayStations 2 and 3. If I ever get my Wii and get to try Proving Ground, I'll let you know how it stacks up. My current favourite games in the brand are Tony Hawk's Undergrounds 1 and 2. As Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw said, "I could say it appeals to die hard (*dubbed over*) [TONY HAWK] fans only, but I can't really recommend it to them either". My advice to Neversoft is to not fix which isn't broken, I guess. The past 3 titles where HUGE successes, and fans clamored for more of the same, but you had to get all real like EA Games' "skate." and dumped your loyal (usually drunk) user base in favour of the die-hard skate enthusiasts who demand realism. Either return future games to form or axe the franchise and start a new one, perhaps with MTV's Rob Derdrek or Ryan Sheckler. Then you can ruin someone's gaming credibility OTHER than The Hawk's.

FINAL SCORE:

Tony Hawk's Project 8 (PS2, 360, GameCube, PSP)
Neversoft/Activision
Pros: New skaters, good graphics, realistic physics engine.
Cons: Removal of all good content, bad customization, goofy characters, limited choice in character selection at beginning.
Score: 2.5 out of 5.

We come in peace.

2008-01-11T22:47:00.000-08:00

Hope you all had a good Christmas and New Years. I got some new video games. So over the next few weeks you can expect some new reviews... But no promises.

Let's start off with BlackSite Area 51.
Let me just say that there is very little to complain about in this one. The story is pretty interesting, the weapons are fun (especially the default assault rife, but more on that later) and the gameplay manages to stay moderately interesting.

Campaign: The levels are definitely interesting. They sure don't repeat them self. The squad commands allow for a little strategy. How I wish I could send troops where I please in other games. Though your best bet is to just have them back you up while you charge through with your super awsome assault rifle. I will admit however that your AI companions are more competent than the ones in other games and actually manage to help you at times. The only thing I guess you could complain about is how every thing you need is extremely conveniently placed when you need it. Just as an example, there was a part where a giant alien thing called a spore tower landed and started spitting out alien squid-dogs and the only thing that could kill it were rockets. After a quick look around I found a fully-loaded rocket launcher. Well, at least it's easy to find ammo.

Weapons: The assault rifle in this game is the most balanced weapon (the gun itself is balanced) I have ever seen. Accurate enough to take out snipers and powerful as well. The pistol is very useful as well. Fast, accurate and can do alot of damage in the right hands. The sniper takes a little more skill than other guns. While useful it is the game gives you no extra clips. You can only carry two more clips at any time. These two factors combined make it so ammo is scarce. I did not use the plasma rifle very much. It takes about three shots to kill an enemy soldier, shoots really slow, only holds five shots to a clip and takes long to reload. I wouldn't recommend it. The spray gun is basically a shot gun. And according to an achievement I got called "Geometry Kills", the shots can bounce of a surface. So if you got your degree from smarty-pants university you can bounce shots to pull off kills from around the corner. Ten shots to a clip. A very fun weapon to play with. Finally the rocket launcher. The only use it has is when you need it.

This is one of those games that only like for campaign and have no interest in multiplayer. So I can't honestly review the multiplayer aspect of the game.

Well, thanks for reading. This is the Blade, signing off.

If You've Got The Poke Balls

2007-12-14T22:04:00.000-08:00

Ah yes, the pokemon game series. I've always liked the pokemon games because they're fun and the first video games I've ever played. They also gave me my first doce of what I like to call "Gamer's Frustration". I made a good bit of progress and turned it off only to realise that I forgot to save it. I proceeded to moan and groan only to turn it back on and find out that I actually did save it. My feeling of annoyance quickly turned into embarrassment. And Then I got to the boss battles where you oh so close and then the coward uses a health potion and you pretty much have to do the battle all over again. And of course pokemon always did feel sort of like an RPG. First off, there's a ton of grind. What grind you ask? Well just look around you. You run around training your group of monsters to be the biggest baddies around so you can senselessly beat everybody and there brother. And once you've beaten them you get money so you can buy more poke balls so you can catch more pokemon so you can have a bigger, badder team so you can beat more people. It just goes in that circle until you beat the game and decide to restart it. Second, the fact that the whole point of an RPG is to play as something that you're not. I'm pretty sure that none of us here is an actual pokemon trainer. The series started off in the Kanto with Red, Blue and Yellow. Then Johto was introduced with Gold, Silver and Crystal. Hoenn came afterwards with Ruby, Saphire and Emerald. Then there was a remake of Kanto in Fire Red and Leaf Green. Then came the Mystery Dungeons Red and Blue. And finally came Diamond and Pearl with Synto (correct spelling? I dunno). I didn't really play in Synto or a Mystery Dungeon. I keep forgetting to get a Mystery Dungeon and there's no way I'm coughing up to get a DS just so I can enjoy two or three games. Which is also my reasoning behind not getting a Wii. But enough about that. As fun as the pokemon games have been with your controlling of cute and cuddly monsters of death, there's just something missing. I'd like to see the game from the perspective of the pokemon. Oh sure, Mystery Dungeon did that. But it was still basicly the same thing. You go around and train using turn-based combat. And if you want to sort of "capture" a fellow pokemon and have them fight along your side. The same concept, only you get to be a cute and cuddly monster of death. I'd like to see some good old fashion pitched combat brought about by mashing buttons (sorry to sound abrupt). And what's up with the thing about only being able to know four moves? Getting all the moves would me really nice, ya know? That would be an interesting game.

Well, thanks for reading. This is The Blade, signing off.

Pic of the Day for 11 December, 2007

2007-12-11T18:14:00.000-08:00

That aboot sums it up right thar...

I'll be doing a pic of the day every day from now on.

Cheers,
~Toby

Hello, Jericho.

2007-12-08T21:51:00.000-08:00

I recently heard one of my favorite game reviewers talk some serious trash about Clive Barker's Jericho, and I decided to try the demo just to see how much it sucked. So I entered this "horror" game expecting it to be terrible. By the way, thier attempts at scaring you just basicly turn into blood, blood and more blood. Just like every other horrer game and horrer movie these days. Seriously, the only time I found myself in the least bit scared was when I turned the corner, zoomed in and got a lovely view of the first enemy's uncovered buttox. I'd like to thank the Jericho game designers for this disturbing image that has kept me awake many-a-night. But enough about that. As much as I didn't want to like the game (1, I'm not a big fan of horrer games and 2, I heard it was bad) I actually found it sort of likable. I found myself having a little fun with these ugly zombies that wore knight's armor. Some had axes on thier left arm that acted as shields, some had dual blades and some had crossbows. They were definitely interesting foes. But thier AI only had the option of attacking head on. Seeing a little strategy would have been nice. Speaking of strategy your two friends seem to have the same set of options. Unless you give them orders, which they don't really follow that well in the heat of battle so ya have to give it to them before hand. Or else they're just gonna do what they want. I just tell them to hold and moved them on ahead through the level. Never a single time in the Demo did the camera leave the first-person view. Not even in the cutscenes. I thought this was kind of cool and not something that I've seen before in a game.

So overall It wasn't the best game I ever played and not the worst. At least give it a try ya know. Well, thanks for reading. This is The Blade, signing off.

AnimeRaider has just joined your party!

2007-12-05T12:33:00.000-08:00

Hey, g4mr5! Toby here!

Big news: Anime website AnimeRaider.com has joined teh L33T n00b as a partner or "party member" (MMORPG joke). The partnership will first begin with Acs posting a review of Devil May Cry 4 for the XBox 360 (largely because AnimeRaider has the Devil May Cry anime availible to watch).

Also, we will be getting a Sub-forum on the AnimeRaider forums for the blog where you guys can post and ask questions. Who knows? Maybe we'll answer them in the blog!

On Friday, Acs and I will post the first teh_L33T_n00b podcat (was podcast, but I typed it wrong, and the name stuck). It will feature some background music and a commercial for the teh_L33t_n00b making of documentary: "A Day in Infinate Lives: teh_L33T_dcumntry"

Well, I have to go.

Cheers!

~TM

Recieving New Maps

2007-11-20T21:39:00.001-08:00

Bungie has said that there will be no new updates during the week of Thanksgiving... They lied... A new update has shown up on bungie.net. It's all about the first map pack for Halo 3. It includes Standoff, Rat's Nest and Foundry.

Standoff... It reminds me an awful lot of Coagulation from Halo 2. It's got the same basic look. Now it has two massive satelites in the back ground. And from what I hear it has the same basic setup of one base on either side of the canyon, each complete with vehicles and a turret.

Rat's Nest... It looks very similar to the campaign level "Crow's Nest". And it will probably have similar combat style, close quarters that is. It also includes an open up area that contains a helipad complete with pelican.

Foundry... Not much to say for this map. The default version that is. This map has a massive amount of stuff you can do in Forge. From what I hear you can delete every thing that makes up the map and start from scratch. Not just the standard setup. Sounds like a lot of fun.

For more information go to http://www.bungie.net/News/content.aspx?type=topnews&cid=12983

This is The Blade, signing off.

Insert Title Here

2007-11-17T00:23:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone. The Blade here and guess what. I finaly got Halo 3 working right. I'd like to thank the XBox support line. They didn't help me fix the problem but they did point me in the right direction. I fixed it while on hold for the umpteenth time. And for some strange reason I feel the need to revise my review of Halo 3. I'm not going to start over completely. I'm just going to hit a few key points that I missed. I realize that everyone is too busy actually playing it to give care, but I'm basicly doing 'cause I feel like it. *Spiolers*

First off, let's get a few things straight. Halo 3 is not (nor is Halo 1 or 2) perfection. Honestly I'd give it an 8 out of 10. Mainly because "Boss Battle" was pathicly easy and extremly anticlimactic. Seriously, could anyone beat the boss of Halo 2 even if they were standing still? Absolutly not! The guys at bungie could have done WAY better with that. Like maybe actually getting to fight this Gravemind thing. Next issue is the AI. OK, yeah. Bungie did make the AI smarter. But only for the enemies that is. The marines are just as stupid as ever in this game. Need proof? If you do you obviosly haven't been paying atention to there behavior. They toss grenades just after you kill something,(that took out your shields by the way) and blowing you to bits. They drive you into walls while Wraiths are trying to blast you. They shoot at the Scarab when there's a Banshee or a Ghost on your tail just about to kill you. One good thing about them is there aim. Give the guy in the passenger of your vehicle a rocket launcher and you'll be in good shape in just about any spot (so long as you aviod those pesky walls).

Few things I'm a bit tired of. One: Complaints about the campaign being short. While it is kind of short I still think it's lots of fun as long as I avoid that one level crawling with flood literally everywhere. Two: People who say Half-Life is more original and there only explination for this is that the flood are just head crab rip-offs. Oh puh-frickin'-leaze! The whole idea of "Alien creatures take control of and mutate humans" had been done a hundred times over before Half-Life did it! Everything has! I'll admitt that it does earn originality points being able to play as mute (or so I've heard, never really played it). But I'd like to hear some other details of it other than "We did this first!". And Three: People who say the multiplayer of Halo 3 excuses the problems of the campaign. Wait a sec... I thought this game was "perfect". Does a "perfect" game need excuses? I should hope not. "Please excuse this piece of perfection for partially sucking." Doesn't make a lot of since if you ask me.

Well, I guess I'll see you later. And thanks for reading.

Teh tag of teh l33t

2007-10-27T22:36:00.000-07:00

Hey. This is The Blade here. Toby has informed me that some people have been requesting my XBox Live Gamertag. Well, here ya go. My XBox Live gamertag is as follows: ACS Blaid. Got it? Good.

There ya have it, my XBox Live gamertag. This is The Blade, signing off.
And remember, there's always room on my friends list.

teh_733+_411-'733+'_6109_p05+

2007-10-24T18:43:00.000-07:00

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About Time

2007-10-22T16:36:00.000-07:00

Hey party peoples, I'm back! Did ya miss me?... Yeah I didn't think so... Anyways... Guess what I finally got around to doing? That's right! My Halo 3 review is here. Fairly worned, HUGE spoilers ahead. Do NOT read if you haven't played or beaten the game yet. Sorry it took me so long to do this. I wanted to get the full Halo 3 experience. What I mean by this is that some of the best features aren't working what so ever. I can not view my saved films, bring up my forged maps, play custom games that I make or download any of the above. I don't know what the problem is. But for some reason whenever I try there is this thing where the countdown is supposed to be that says that I am restricted from using player-created content. Sucks, doesn't it? $60 for the most anticipated game EVER and I'm stuck playing a watered down version. I could watch films in the Beta version. What's the deal? Is it the system? The disk? My XBox live gold acount? If anybody can help me I'd REALLY apreciate it. I've sent an E-mail to Bungie, but I can imagine there pretty tied up with E-mails right now.

Now then, on with the review. Let's start with the campaign. Now, I've heard a lot of complaints about the campaign. Lots of moaning and groaning that it's too short and there's too much back-tracking... So what? It's still really fun to play over and over agian. Plus if you do something that's just so awsome and will probably never happen agian you can watch it in saved films. You can even take a snapshot and put it in your file share to show off to your friends. And if you ask me I think the back-tracking adds a touch of realism to it. And it's not like you go back through with the same enimies with the same vehicles and the same weapons atacking you in the same spot. No. It's very different when you go back through. Now about the difficulties... Easy: WAY too easy. The only reason you want to bother with this dificulty is because it's how you get the ODST helmet for the spartans (more on helmets and armor later). Normal: Tougher than Easy but you should still have few problems. Beat it and you get the EVA armor for the spartans. I don't care what anybody says abou the helmet, I think it looks good. Heroic: Pretty tough. You might just want to go through on Normal and Easy just so you can use a little strategy in most situations. Beat it and you get the Flight armor for the elites. Legendary: O.M.G... This is just about IMPOSSIBLE! It takes like 30 tries just to get passed any given part. Either use some strategy or you fail miserably every single time. Beat it and you get the EOD armor for the spartans. There are 13 skulls hidden throughout the levels. They can be turned on in the campaign to make it tougher and more of a challenge. Also if you get them all you get the Hayabusa armor for the spartans. If you have no clue where to look, relax. Go to Youtube. Tutorials can be found there. How do you think I found them? Also hidden throughout the levels are 6 terminals that, when accessed in th right way, will get you the Marathon Man achivements. Tutorials on them can be found as well.

On to Multiplayer. It's just as fun as ever. However now we have some new toys to play with. The new weapons, equipment and vehicles are very fun. Also, the Magnum is a very decent weapon in my opinion. I've managed to kill men armed with Assault and Battle Rifles with it. Dual Magnums or and SMG on the side can be very deadly in the right hands. Plus since pretty much nobody usese it I get it all to my self most of the time. Kind of like the Hammerburst from Gears of War. I love all the new maps. But my favorites are definitly Sandtrap and Valhala. I just wish I could use my old strategy in Valhala. You know. The one I mentioned in my review of the Beta. Anyways, the game types are pretty fun. Although I hate one-sided VIP. It takes only 3 minutes because the VIP doesn't have an overshield and it's ALWAYS a tie unless one of the teams is lowsy. Not a huge fan of Shotty Snipers either. But I won't vetoe it. Every now and then I have some fun in it. Know what game I really want to play? Infection. I haven't gotten to play a single game of Infection yet. I don't know which category it's under. If some one could tell me that too I'd apreciate it as well. One more thing, Ninja ball is THE best kind of Odd ball game. Now I'm sure you all know by now that you can customize your spartan or elite by both color and armor variations. Even though the elites look nicer than ever I still have a spartan. And I change him around every now then. I don't use the Hayabusa helmet (I don't like my spartan looking like power ranger) or the EOD helmet (I just don't think it looks that good). I enjoy making different spartans. I think it's fun. Also, Bungie can keep thier Recon armor and thier Flaming Hayabusa helmet. I don't really want either of them. And just so you know, they aren't going to give it to you. So stop putting up screen shots of messages written in weapons begging them.

As awsome as Halo 3 is it's missing certain things. No, not guns on the Mongoose. That's what the passenger seat is for, stop complaining. I personally would like to set up some AI's in a multiplayer level. You know, a bot match. That way you could do some training or just go on a slaughter fest. Also I think the Pelican and Phantom would be awsome for Big Team Battle. Dual Energy Swords just because it would look cool. And something I would personally love, being able to pick up a Jackel Shield when you have a dual-wieldable weapon.

By the way, Master Chief does not die. Some people think he does, but he doesn't. After the credits you see inside of the half of the ship with the Chief and Cortana in it. He gets in a cryo-tube and she disapears into the system to send out a distress signal. Also, if you beat it on Legendary the ending is an extreme cliff hanger. You see the half of the ship floating towards something. All of the sudden a star can be seen of the horizon of this strange sphere. You can clearly see it now. It is a planet. A planet that appears to coverd in machinery of some kind. The music gets really dramatic. Could this be leading to yet another sequel???

Well, thanks for reading. Now if you'll excuse me I'ma go get some rank. This is The Blade signing off.

Bungie = Indie

2007-10-07T11:03:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Undead Ed from The3Eds for this news:

KIRKLAND, Wash. — Oct. 5, 2007 — Bungie and Microsoft Corp. today announced a plan for Bungie Studios, the developers of Microsoft’s “Halo” franchise, to become a privately held independent company, Bungie, LLC, in which Microsoft will hold a minority equity interest. As part of this transaction, Bungie and Microsoft have forged a deep and long-term development and publishing relationship focused on the continued success of the “Halo” franchise. It is also the intent of both parties to expand their partnership to include new IP created and owned by Bungie.

Bungie’s critically acclaimed Xbox 360® exclusive “Halo 3” achieved $300 million in global sales in its first week. Released on Tuesday, Sept. 25, “Halo 3” is the fastest-selling video game ever and already one of the most successful entertainment properties in history.

“This exciting evolution of our relationship with Microsoft will enable us to expand both creatively and organizationally in our mission to create world-class games,” said Harold Ryan, studio head for Bungie. “We will continue to develop with our primary focus on Microsoft’s platforms; we greatly value our mutually prosperous relationship with our publisher, Microsoft Game Studios, and we look forward to continuing that affiliation through ‘Halo’ and beyond.”

“Working with Microsoft was great for us, it allowed us to grow as a team and make the ambitious, blockbuster games we all wanted to work on. And they will continue to be a great partner. But Bungie is like a shark. We have to keep moving to survive. We have to continually test ourselves, or we might as well be dolphins. Or manatees,” said Jason Jones, Bungie founder and partner.

Bungie’s management retained the services of Don Leeds, senior managing director of B-Hive Global, LLC, to assist in the structuring of the deal and negotiating on their behalf. Bungie will remain in Kirkland, Washington, and is always looking to hire excellent talent.

About Bungie

Bungie was founded in 1991 with two goals: to develop games that combine brilliant technology, beautiful art, intelligent stories and deep gameplay, and to sell enough of those games to achieve its real goal of total world domination. Over the past 10 years it has produced games such as the “Marathon” trilogy and the first two “Myth” games, hailed as classics by critics and gamers around the world. Bungie’s “Halo” franchise is an international award-winning action title that has grown into a global entertainment phenomenon, selling more than 18 million units worldwide, logging billions of hours of multiplayer action on Xbox LIVE®, and spawning action figures, books, graphic novels, soundtracks, apparel and more. The critically acclaimed “Halo 3”, released on Tuesday, Sept. 25th 2007, is the fastest-selling video game ever, achieving $300 million in global sales its first week, making it one of the most successful entertainment properties in history. More information on Bungie can be found at http://www.bungie.net.

False Alarm!

2007-09-27T19:56:00.000-07:00

OK, everyone! Acs and I have agreed to put this behind us, so now he is back on team. Ashley will still be coming, but we have no idea when.

Anyway, Acs has already completed Halo 3 and will be posting a review tomorrow or sometime this weekend.

Also, I know have a Facebook now, which rox meh sox. I already have many friends via my Email and AIM Buddy Lists, so thats awsm. In fact, check out Erin Fitzgerald's profile picture:

Hehehe...classic...a pervvy Wookie. Han Solo comes in with a spray bottle and sprays Chewie with it "BAD CHEWY! BAD CHEWY! YOU DON'T TOUCH HAN'S FIANCE THERE....unless she's passed out, which then I'll join you" X^D X^D

Anyway, I decided each week I'll post a piece of GAMR FANART for your viewing pleasure. I have yet to discuss this with Acs, however. I'll ask him tomorrow at lunch.

Gotta go, sleeptime!

Hasta manana,

~Toby M.

PLAYER: Acs Blade - TERMINATED

2007-09-26T12:11:00.000-07:00

**Breaking n00z** Acs Blade has been fired from teh_L33T_n00b for "being a complete dee-dee-dee". He had what I call "Spartan Rage" (anger that surfaces when playing Halo games, causing you to get tickeded off at anyone/anyone who interupts you or attempts to have a talk with you).

We are now looking for a suitable replacement (hopefully with a better temper). My choice, currently, is my friend Ashley, who may soon being posting as Nabooru.

Hasta La Bye-Bye

~Toby M.

The Time...is Now...

2007-09-25T13:33:00.000-07:00

Well, the time's finally here! Halo 3 arrived on store shelves last night at 12:00. and promptly sold out 5 minutes later. Acs Blade will arrive later to give out a short review of his experiances so-far.

Also, the teh_L33T_n00b podcast will be here soon, and we are aiming for recording it this weekend. The podcast will have 4 versions: a full video version embedded on the site via YouTube, a Downloadable video version via Putfile, an embedded Audio-only video embedded on the site, and Downloadable version of the Audio one as well.

The n00b podcasts will run anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes on video, but substantially longer with Audio-only shows, which will begin as soon as Acs gets a mic.

Well, that's all for now.

TTYL

~Toby M.

Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

2007-09-20T14:55:00.000-07:00

Hey, all. Toby Mobias here on teh_n00b. You may have noticed some stuff we have added to the site recently, namely the countdown to Halo 3. We have also added several new videos and clickamajigs, including a photocube. Tonight or tomorrow, I'll be adding an mp3 player to the site so you can listen to mine and Acs's favourite songs.

As you know, we now have Josh "Common Game" Asa from Las Vegas as a writer, and soon we'll have Ashley, aka Nabooru, writing for us. Acs and I know Nab personally (she goes to our high school and we eat lunch with her everyday).

In gaming news, I'm playing an online game called "Project: Rockstar" by a woman named "kerb" from England. The game is very simple: You are a manager who could possible lead an unknown band to superstardom. You create your own band, name it, and assign members, each having different qualities, including Charisma, Stamina, and, most importantly, Talent. I have 3 accounts on Rockstar: Billy Shears (The Lonely Hearts(Rock), Ty Poole (Children@Play(Ska), and Dyl Black (Nazz(Solo Pop). I reccomend you at least try P:R. It can get irritiating when your band members commit suicide (take in-game 'Holidays' when they become depressed), it's an otherwise fun game. When you get to a high enough level, you can start a record label. I'm only at about level 2, so I have a design studio to make custom album covers.

Well, goto go. It's dinner time. I'll ask Acs to come on tonight to post sum'thin'.

Hasta luego,

Toby Mobias

Common Game has Entered the Blog

2007-09-14T20:36:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, I am Common Game. Now, I'm a writer! Woo!

Anyway, to start on my review.

Game: WWE SmackDown vs Raw 2008

The game hasn't come out yet, but all I can say is that it looks pretty awesome already. It has a new way of gameplay and has a cool hardcore moveset, i.e. chair leg drops, flaming tables, and bashing weapons on the head. It's really antcipated and you should play the game. I guarantee, it will have you playing for hours.

Common Game, signing off.

Heeee's HEEEEERE!

2007-09-14T20:26:00.000-07:00

Hey, TobyMoby here. First off, my good friend Josh "Rob Van Ed" from The3Eds will be joining us on the podcast. Remember, if you wanna be a member of teh_l33t_n00b, just email Acs or myself at our respective emails, or at our joined email at teh_l33t_n00b@yahoo.com.

Also, starting soon, Acs Blade and I will be hosting a podcast via TalkShoe. We'll have a call-in number (provided by TalkShoe) and you can join in the fun!

FYI, we may experiance a change in format here at teh n00b. We will still talk about video games, but try to add a bit more into our posts, such as technology, anime, manga, and blog-worthy news. We'll still be teh_l33t_n00bs, but the thing will be much more rounded.

For the first time in teh n00bs short history, we will be hosting a skinning contest. If you would like to design a skin for our blog, you can send it to us for us to review at the blog email address from above.

And now it is time for the YouTube video of the week!

This weeks video: "Super Mario Tesla Coils" by thegeekgroup.

Ra-stick'em-ha-ha-ha-stick'em,

Toby Mobias

User Error

2007-09-03T19:45:00.000-07:00

As a guy that likes to play Halo 2, I like to play Halo 2 online. However... 90% of the games I play I get bad team mates and weird stuff happens. I toss a frag and it lands right next to the guy. Boom! His shields are still up. He tosses a frag, it lands 5 feet away from me. Boom! I go flying! W.T.F?! And you know the battle rifle? I was informed that 3 head shots would kill some one... It takes me 6-8! But then I turn around and get shot in the back with 2 battle rifle shots and I fall.over.dead! One time I picked up a shotgun (for those who don't know the shotgun kills someone at close range). Then I pick up enemy movement by the door. I walk over and when he comes in I blast him in the FACE! Still movin'. Then second blast followed by a third! He runs out the door. I toss a frag and he FINALLY dies. Again, W.T.F?! Stuff like that happens to mae all the time in Halo 2 online and I.AM.SICK OF IT!!! I'm gonna go ask someone at Bungie or somethin' 'cause it is REALLY annoying!

Thanks for listening.

Time to crackdown.

2007-08-21T06:38:00.000-07:00

Time for something that's not Halo. Crackdown. The game Crackdown is similar in gameplay to the Grand Theft Auto games. Difference is, you're a cop. Did I mention that you get super human abilities? Through out the game you can upgrade your strength, agility, acuracy (guns), driving and explosives. How you ask. By killing gang members with these skills. Except agility. There are agility markers all over the city that you can get to upgrade your agility. Each time you level up a skill you do this shock wave thing that blows away anything near you. As you progress your skill levels you'll notice your armor and a overall appearence changes. The hardest skills to upgrade are driving and explosives (untill you get a grenade launcher). It's a fun game overall. But on the hardest setting it's frickin' hopeless. On medium you run out in the middle of a bunch of guys and kill 'em all no problem. But on hard you better run fast and take cover. The three gang bosses are tough just to get to. You have to fight your way through a ton of bad guys. Especially if you walk through the front door (which I highly recomend NOT doing). Unfotunately the final boss has no side or back door open. Only the front. In short the game is perfect if you like the following: guns, the ability to choose your character, jumpin' from rooftop to rooftop, cool cars, slaughterfests, challenges, explosions and the ability to smash the bad guys with a bus.

Thanks for reading. This is The Blade signing off.

2007-08-10T21:39:00.000-07:00

As a follow up of my Halo 3 Beta review I'm gonna talk about the original Halo. (Warning: May contain spoilers if you haven't played it yet but intend to) First off, it was a fun game. Unlike most games, any weapon could be deadly (in the right hands). Even the Assault Rifle (as inacurate as it was) could be usefull. You just have to use it at close range. I thought the pistol in Halo was better than the pistol in Halo 2. It may not have been as fast but it was fast enough and more powerfull. I liked to use it and the shotgun in the flood-infested levels. The shotgun was reloaded a lot faster in Halo than in Halo 2. I didn't play it on multiplayer a lot so I couldn't memorize the maps like I did in Halo 2. The maps certainly looked like fun. Except a couple (one really big icy level that I thought was too big and a map filled with teleporters and hallways that was too dificult to navigate). I preferred the Banshee controls in Halo than in Halo 2. I just though they were better and it was easier to do ariel acrobatics at top speed. The controls of every other vehicle improved in Halo 2. There was one thing I didn't understand. How did Sgt. Johnson make it back? He was in Halo 2 and said something about it being classified. I geuss we'll never know. *Shrugs*

Well, thanks for reading. This is The Blade signing off.

MC = Master Chief

2007-08-07T18:48:00.000-07:00

Okay... It's a bit late in the game to be writing a review for the Halo 3 Beta. But Toby asked me to so here it is.

First off... the graphics were awsome. The fact that they were gonna get better blew my mind. I personally think that all the maps were fun to play. Valhala, however, was my favorite. I had a strategy for that map that worked pretty well. More on that later. I liked all the weapons, but the spartan laser (Or as me and my XBox friend called it the spartan cannon) was a bit difficult to use. I found that the Assault Rifle and Battle Rifle made an excellent combination. The Carbine and Needler were more more powerfull (Especialy the Needler). The Assault Rifle was definitly better than it's original form in Halo. I think the SMG's were a bit more powerfull than in Halo 2. Now, about those new items... I think they added some much needed strategy to the game (Everyone else has abandoned strategy for a rocket launcher).

That brings me back to my strategy... In Valhala I'd arm myself fairly well, grab the Tripmine, hop on a Mongoose and drive over to the enemy base. Once thier I'd get off the Mongoose and plant the mine under the enemy Warthog so they couldn't use it. If they hopped in the mine would blow, and if they tried to blow it up themselves it would take out the hog. No matter what they did they were strandad. One time I got over there and the hog was missing. I was like , "Huh, it must not have spawned or something". The second I thought that... It came barreling 'round the corner straight for me. "Oh ****!" I quickly drove 'round a rock for cover then hopped off. They come around the rock shortly afterwerds. In desperation I tossed down the mine and ran to the other side of the rock. A few seconds later... nothing. "****! It didn't work! I better get my gun ready." All of the sudden BOOM! "Triple Kill!" It was fun while it lasted. But it was only temporary. I did notice one similarity in the Beta and Halo 2... I kept getting hooked up with bad team mates. The kind that blow up the Warthog YOU were gonna use just so the enemy can't have it. The kind that gets slaughtered even though they have snipers, turrets and the new missle pod. But what are ya gonna do about it? *Sigh*

Thanks for reading. This is The Blade waiting for Halo 3 to come out and signing off. See ya next time.

2007-08-07T16:38:00.000-07:00

Hey guys. Toby here. As you are most likely aware, my friend the Blade will be contributing. When, exactly, is up to him.

Anyway, both the Blade and I started high school here in Georgia. I know, it's way to hot to be at school, especially taking P.E. in an un-airconditioned Gym. Me and the Blade have no classes together, so that kinda sucks. But we've been able to eat lunch together with some other friends who I hope will begin to contribute.

Just a friendly reminder, Halo 3 will be released in the USA on Sept. 25th! the Blade will soon be posting a review of the Halo 3 beta that came with Crackdown for the XBox 360.

Asta!
~Toby

Enter...the Blade

2007-08-06T18:24:00.000-07:00

Hi. I am The Blade, a friend of Toby's. He was nice enough to let me join his blog so I can talk/rant about my favorite video games. Let's start off with a not so recent game that is still fun game to play. One of the first shooters I played, Star Wars Battlefront II.

are a bit better, but it's still pretty much the same game I left on the PS2. All around the game is pretty fun. I especially liked the ability to keep fighting even though you're carrying the flag. You certainly didn't get that ability in the Halo games. Conquest was my favorite game mode; it was the perfect combination of slayer and land grab. I liked to put as many soldiers in a game as possible and just run around with a blaster slaughtered and I'm the one I originally had this game for the PS2, but I got it for my 360 a little while ago. The graphicsshootin' it up. I didn't much care for the space combat. It got repetitive after a little bit and the computer soldiers seemed to be able to do advance movements I couldn't. Where's the fun in that? I'd rather go on a suicide mission to invade the ship myself. Also there was one big problem: No matter which side you chose, your allies were morons that couldn't keep a post for 5 minutes. I gotta run from one side of the field to the other the whole time just to keep an even amount of posts on each side. And along the way I gotta be like some kinda Rambo and kill like 500 guys so we don't lose. And when we go down the heat falls on ME! These idiots are jumpin infront of my gun, losin' posts, gettin' yelled at! *Sigh* It's still pretty fun to go around killin' tons of droids (like these so called elite clones are gonna help) on my favorite levels.

Well, thanks for listening. See ya next time.

the Bloggosphere has been PWN'd

2007-08-06T14:13:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone. I'm Toby, the main writer of 'teh L33T n00b', my new gaming blog. If you'd like to write for 'tLn', email us at teh_l33t_n00b@yahoo.com.

Also, I would like to find someone with a good voice to to an audio/video podcast for teh L33T n00b. If you want to audition, plz use the email above.

Let's get to it:

From Variety.com:

20th Century Fox has acquired feature rights to the life simulation computer game "The SIMS" from Electronic Arts, and has set project up with Fox-based John Davis.

The five-year-old franchise is the best selling PC game in history, with worldwide sales topping 85 million, bringing in over $1.6 billion. Pic will be a live-action version.

Steve Asbell is overseeing the project for Fox with SIMS Studio head Rod Humble managing the creative property for Electronic Arts. Brian Lynch will script; story is under wraps with talent yet to be named.

"'The SIMS has done an interactive version of an old story, which is what it's like to have infinite power and how do you deal with it," said Humble. "Given that that's an old story, you can imagine how easily that would translate to traditional story telling."

Davis' most recent projects include "Norbit," "When A Stranger Calls," and "Eragon."

Lynch scripted and helmed upcoming "Big Helium Dog," and penned "Scary Movie 3," and is managed by Benderspink.

...

Is it just me, or does anyone else feel smarter reading this? It just seems stupid, especially seeing it live-action. What, will the audiance be able to control the actors with a joystick and keyboard emedded in the chair? WTF?

OK, well, that's all the news-worthy game stuff at the moment. Keeps it locked for more updates!

~Toby