Halo 3 - Monster MVP

 With the recent freebie of Halo 3 on games of old on the 360 my youngest son the MONSTER has been using my gold account over the half term week to rack up the stats.

He was very chuffed that he managed to get a MVP on a recent deathmatch.

I could only dream of being that good my reactions times are snail pace so I tend to avoid all online shooters.

Completed - Halo 4

Another adventure with Master Chief, flying pelicans, riding mechs & driving tanks. All to save earth & cortana. There is a lot more story & emotion in this game compared to the previous three. The game shows you more of the character of Master Chief & the relationship with his AI, Cortana. I won't go any more into the details or spoil the story.

343 studios have done a very good job taking over Bungie, it remains to be seen if Master Chief will become a yearly mascot or other games will be released in the halo universe.

I thoroughly enjoyed the flying level, it's Star Wars inspired ducking & diving around the obstacles. They could make a game just on that alone or to please me how about a game with the mech. I still think the mech is weak but we were playing on legendary difficulty so I am going to do something that I've not done in a long time. Play the game again !!

This time on normal difficulty, exploring all the maps to find the collectibles & enjoying the vehicles in the game.

Abbas will confirm I get very attached to my vehicles especially the tank, mech or pelican. Thus when they are taking out by a wraith I would rage & charge in to kill the wraith with grenades.

It's not master chief but the vehicles that make the halo universe so enjoyable to play. Master chief just gives you a character to follow his adventures.

We know this is the start of a new trilogy so I'm looking forward to the next adventure with Master Chief .... & Cortana.

Halo 4 - Tank beats Mech

Whilst defending UNSC Infinity from attack you get to control a mech !!

Oh yes !! I thought !!

The control works well but it just does not seem satisfying enough to me. It needed long range missiles instead of grenades. The design needed to be more beefier like the mechs in Lost Planet.

In a previous level you get to control the tank, now this is still the vehicle for me in Halo. Slow, yes but very very powerful.

Looking forward to seeing what other surprises Halo 4 shows up.

Halo 4 - Hello Master Chief

I know after completing AC3 I said I would return to Uncharted 2 but the lure of Halo 4 was too great & I have started playing the main campaign on local co-op with Abbas.

The story so far starts with Cortana losing her mind & the Chief is adamant he wants to save her. The game feels like a Halo game & it's good to finally play with the Master Chief again after ODST & Reach.

The Covenant are obviously back but there is also a new foe in the Promethean. These enemies are more challenging and brings a nice fresh challenge to the Halo universe.

Without spoiling anymore of the storyline infinity awaits !!

Halo Anniversary - The party is over !!

We decided to play again after our last attempt ended in the game freezing just after we had reached Captain Keyes.

Arriving in the hanger bay I took out the surrounding grunts & elites & Abbas then went down to the lower level to take out any enemies.

And then it happened again the game froze AARGH !!!

Seriously what the F**K !!

We both looked at each other and said forget it we can't waste any more time on this bug filled pile of crap.

If this is what 343 Industries can make them I'm worried about Halo 4

Tomorrow I will start Gears of War 3 with Abbas instead.

New Logo - Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary

New Logo - Handkerchief

Old Logo - Adventuring Forever

Time for a new logo not because I have completed Skyrim, far from it I think I will be playing Skyrim for many months to come but because recently I started Halo CE Anniversary with Abbas on local co-op & fancied a logo change

Halo CE Anniversary - Checkpoints

Surely the whole idea of checkpoints is that when you restart the game you start from your previous checkpoint?

This works well when playing a level and both Abbas & I meet out deaths, the game takes us back to the previous checkpoint but when you first load up the game instead of taking you back to your last checkpoint it takes you back to the beginning of the chapter.

Usually we would finish a chapter and then turn off for the day but whilst playing The Truth & Reconciliation level we managed to rescue Captain Keyes & activated the last part of the level "Shut up and get behind me... Sir" & then the game froze whilst I was killing a grunt. We had to take the disc out to get back to the dashboard to reload the game & it took us back to the start of the level !!

AArgh !! Friggin nearly finished the end of the level on Legendary difficulty !!
RAGE QUIT !!

New Game - Halo CE Anniversary

Anniversary? Where's the party? I was not invited !! Oh! you have given me the re-release of the first game with a lick of paint? Is that it?

Um yep basically that is it, Abbas wanted to play the game again because it has co-op this time around. This will now be my third time playing this game ZZZZZzzzzzz. Oh!! sorry I drifted off... like I was saying this will be my third time playing this game. I first completed it on the PC & then again a few years later on the xbox.

Third time lucky I guess, it has local co-op & playing on legendary difficulty provides a difficulty spike. The lick of paint makes the environment look nice & you can go back to the old school graphics by pressing the back button if you want but I'm a graphics whore so will stick with the new look.

We completed The Pillar of Autumn & are part way through the Halo level before life intervened to force us to switch the game off. It's been a while since I have played a local co-op game with Abbas (Splinter Cell Conviction) & his game style has not changed, charging off into the distance whilst I take my time to look at the surroundings & take out enemies with my sniper rifle.

Next week is half-term & I have a few days off, I think in the next 10 days we can finish off the remaining 8.5 levels of the game? Now that's a challenge !!

Halo Reach - completed

I purchased the game on release & we (Abbas & I) have only just completed the campaign on local co-op. No we are not that bad that it takes us 3 months to complete a 10 hour campaign but I was distracted by Fallout New Vegas & Abbas by Assassins Creed Brotherhood.

Halo Reach campaign just could not compete with the single player experience of those AAA titles (albeit FNV is buggy)

SPOILERS-IF YOU HAVE NOT PLAYED THE CAMPAIGN DO NOT READ AHEAD

Maybe if it had been a Master Chief title, we would not have neglected it, anyhow 3 months after release we completed the campaign

It's strange playing this game because you already know how it is going to end. Let me correct that you know how it is going to end if you have played Halo.

It is also Bungie's last Halo game. They have now moved on to pastures new teaming up with Sequelvision (Sorry Activision)

Back to the game, the story then does not surprise much. You are Noble 6 a Spartan and the newest member of Noble Team.

You are on planet Reach & are sent to investigate a nearby disturbance only to discover that the covenant have arrived. From here begins the inevitable destruction of Reach along the way you will fight Grunts, Hunters, Elites, Ghosts, Wraiths & in SPACE

Yes in SPACE, easily the most memorable level in the game you are flying in space piloting a sabre & fight off covenant forces. This level instantly reminded me of two games I have played in my younger days. Starfox (SNES) & Star Wars (N64) I was just waiting for Fox & his crew to turn up to provide support.

Near the end of the game you are introduced to Cortana and must transport her to the Pillar of Autumn. Your next moments of play become somber because you realise how the story will now move onto Halo and that this will be the last Bungie produced Halo game you will play

After you have delivered Cortana to the Pillar of Autumn & they safely leave Reach.

What follows is one of the most memorable moments in video-gaming for me.

The last stand Noble 6 vs the Covenant
How long can you survive?

Eventually the inevitable will happen & you will die. Your helmet falls to the ground and Reach is being destroyed in the background. Years pass & the planet begins to live again.

Looking forward to seeing what Bungie will do next. But more importantly what Microsoft will do now with Halo?

Rumours of a Halo 10 year anniversary release next year? What will happen to Master Chief? Is it not time now for Halo 4?

Whatever happens Halo Reach was the fond farewell from Bungie & deserved to be played without interruptions from any other games. For that I can only apologise & for punishment I will go and play Halo ODST Nnnnnooooooo !!!

Halo Reach - Firefight King

Another good session on firefight, easily by far my favourite mode on Halo Reach matchmaking.

Halo Reach - Commendation Bronze

Managed to meet my target of getting a Bronze on a commendation, obviously it was in firefight "Earn a multikill"

I have a few more in firefight that are close to going to Bronze "Kill an enemy with a heavy weapon" Rocketfight anyone? Also "Kill a specialist class enemy"

On Multi-player I'm quite a bit away from getting a bronze "dispatch a foe using close quarters combat" is probably the closest, I need another 32 kills which could take me a while.

Halo Reach - Commendations

Commendations are awarded by performing certain actions example 'Assistant' - earn an assist in multi player matchmaking. I don't think these unlock anything? Not sure? but you have a few rank levels Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold & Onyx rank. Currently I have 2 Iron in multi player matchmaking and 7 Iron ranks in fire fight. Hopefully I should be able to get some of these up to Bronze level by next week at least in fire fight anyway.

Battlefield Bad Company 2 vs Halo Reach

Kevin (gunthergloop) has been discussing on ugvm the merits of Battlefield Bad Company 2 vs Halo Reach, singing the praises of Bad Company 2 and the frustrations of Halo Reach. Thus to keep him happy we agreed to play an hour of Bad Company 2 followed by an hour of Halo Reach. After a 450mb multi-player update I finally joined the squad with gunther, antime & mightyminiman (surely past his bedtime).

It's a shame that Bad Company 2 does not offer you different game-types if you have more than 4 players at least with HR you have various gametype depending on the number of players in your lobby. Anyhow back to BC2 Conquest mode was chosen & it was agreed that I will play a medic. Which meant going around dropping med packs, reviving dead soldiers & getting the odd kill.I decided to stay with the squad & this actually worked quite well in that if they fell I was there to either take out the enemy that shot them & revive them back into action unless they were killed by a tank, in which case I was next to be blasted  AArrgh !!!

In BC2 you get points by obviously shooting enemies but also for lots of other actions, being a medic I would get points for squad heal (using the med packs I drop), reviving fallen soldiers, spotting enemies & of course killing them. In the first game I managed to get the highest score in the squad but we still lost the round. I did ok but I did not have the satisfaction of killing a ton of enemies, howwever I played a crucial role in reviving my fallen comrades for them to go on a killing spree. We then played a further 2 games of conquest & winning the last game. I featured again in the top half of the score sheets on both games. I am still not sure about BC2 it needs more game modes compared to HR but unlike HR I was actually useful as a team player albeit by being a medic. Communication played a big part of the squad matches because we were all together it was useful to shout out where enemies were & if a tank was approaching. BC2 was on my sell pile but I think I will take it out & put in back on my game shelf, it's an FPS game that I'm actually half-decent at playing.

Next then Halo Reach, the new kid on the block we had obviously a better turn out approx. 7 of us I think and decided to try Invasion, there was no pre-lobby discussion on how to best approach the match or what skill to choose so we went in guns blazing to fairly easing take out the first section, advancing to the second was more difficult because the enemies made use of vehicles to destroy us when we were spawning. Eventually we managed to complete the second stage but getting into the core room was a challenge in itself let alone taking the core, obviously we lost. Another couple of games of invasion had us performing slightly better especially when defending but we never managed on attacking to take the core. Maybe it’s the number of players 7 or 8 it’s difficult to communicate? but next time I think we need to plan in the lobby who is going to do what instead of going lone wolf.

To end with we had a quick game of headhunter which is basically shoot an enemy, collect a skull & run to the nearest destination point to deposit the skull. It’s football with guns !! great fun & one of my favourite modes. Again though even with smaller teams of 4 there was no communication at times the team was scattered but we did manage to win albeit not by completing the 25 total but by the time running out & us having more skulls than the opposition. Depending on the game-type that is played my performance varies from being crap in slayer to good in firefight.

The most important lesson learnt though from playing both games though is that communication is KING

Halo Reach - Campaign

Finally started the campaign on Legendary with ActionAbbas, I am now noble six, the gung-ho spartan who goes charging in, kills a grunts & then blam dead !! It's lucky I have a re-spawn point in my co-op partner oh wait he's dead too, bugger back to the previous checkpoint then, it's tough on legendary. Winter Contingency is the first level in the game, some nice Avatar style cut-scenes and you are now investigating why some army troopers have disappeared, the reason? surprise surprise it's the covenant. Nothing special in this level really the usual take out the covenant in the area, still took us 39 minutes but I think that was more to our approach of charging in, killing a few & dying. ONI Sword Base is the next level, a research facility is under attack & you have to go defend it. There are too many and you fall back into the building only to be ambushed by some more elites, after clearing the area you have to go activate an anti-air gun which is off-line, lot's of enemies around the area so it's quite tough to get to the control room to activate the gun.Back to the base then to clear out any remaining enemies, a cut scene then informs you that the elite's who ambushed you were after some notes about artefacts, oh well I hope they enjoy reading them. That's all I've done so far next level Nightfall has you starting with sniper rifles so should be fun :)

Halo Reach - Multiplayer Roundup & UGVM Feast

Time for a quick update on Halo Reach. Since release day I have only being playing matchmaking & have yet to start the campaign. On Friday I had a very good ugvm pmg (planned multi-player gaming) session with approx 15 players online !! Possibly the best turnout for a gaming session since Burnout Paradise. We played various match types from Slayer to Infection but I still prefer head-hunter or capture the flag game types these seem to bring the best out of me. The younger members of ugvm MightyMiniMan & ActionAbbas obviously showed the older generation how to play the game but we did ok for old-timers at least some of us did :) I'm now a Sergeant Grade 2 but I don't really think my skill level has improved at all I am still averaging about 5 or 6 kills on a slayer match but I perform much better on fire fight. I also by accident managed to unlock quite a lot of the fire fight achievements by joining manofkent on a custom fire fight with unlimited health to get up to 1 Million points and various smaller achievements along the way. A bit disappointed about getting these without really trying but there is always the high score challenge for me to beat. I have still not decided on which is my favourite load-out but I tend to favour the Jet Pack. Hoping to start the campaign soon which should provide some challenges.

Halo Reach - New Game

Picked up the game in the morning on the way to work,on hindsight  I should have booked the day off work because reading & listening to everyone talk about the game made me jealous. However just after 9pm kids & wife in bed asleep and time for me to finally play the game.

Checked the friends list and 13 people on-line with all but 1 playing Halo Reach, so matchmaking it is, the interface is much easier to use now, I like the friends list on which you can click to join the game they are playing. A quick game with Buckskin on Invasion & I'm showing my true skill in that I get 1 kill & 10 deaths, good start then. A few games with Skim we play as a team on a game of Headhunter Skulls, you have to shoot anyone who has a skull, collect the skull & take to the area marked on the map to score a goal. Great fun & one of my new favourite game types. I scored 5 goals.

Next time to try out firefight with Skim & Buckskin, gametype is called sniperfight. So the first thing I do is drop that weapon for a needler, the map waterfront is very good in that there are quite a few locations you can get an advantage over the incoming enemies. End result? 45 Kills & 11 deaths !! Oh yeas read those stats & see the screenshot baby !!  

Next we tried some team games like Slayer & Bomb Assault, both of which I was rubbish at, back to firefight then. There are daily/weekly challenege's (Press the Start button to view them) that if you complete award you with credits. I wanted to complete the challenge to kill 100 enemies in firefight, this awards you with 1000 credits. I need to learn how to do assassinations, there is a daily challenge which gives you 250 credits. You are awarded credits after every match you can then use these credits in the armoury to upgrade your character armour. Time for another screenshot, yes I'm boasting but when have you know me to be good at any on-line shooting/driving game?





The game obviously has a lot more than just matchmaking, forge world looks amazing & I'm looking forward to seeing what maps are made, a new variant of duck hunt would be interesting & I may even try to create a map myself. The campaign mode I hope to start this weekend until then I will be on-line every evening from 9pm so come challenge me in firefight only :)