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 !!!

Hardware Update - Bye Bye PS3 & Wii

 

The Wii – A novelty console, I had it for 3 years & have never completed a game. The only games I ever played was Mario Party 8 or Wii Sports with the kids. Yes it has Mario, Zelda & Umm What Else? I just could not get the hang of motion gaming, it was not me I just wanted a controller & an analogue stick to move my character & buttons to perform actions.

The PS3 – GT5 oh! Where art thou GT5? I got bored of waiting & picked up Need for Speed Hot Pursuit on the 360 instead. It’s a great machine, shame about the controller but I never turned it on, any multi-format release I would always buy for the 360. There are games on the system I would love to play like Uncharted, God of War, Metal Gear Solid but will I ever get the time?

The games that time forgot list is calling me & I plan to start with the Mass Effect games.

I have over 500+ games on my iTunes account, admittedly the majority are probably crap but even if 10% of those are decent purchases that’s a fair few game to play on the iPod. Going back down to the one console will make it easier for deciding what to play & purchase.

With the snow settling in for the winter I plan to get down & cosy with my 360 & ipod touch.

Fallout New Vegas - Completed

It's done, there is nothing else for me to do in the Mojave desert, no more quests or alternative endings. I completed the NCR & Caesar's Legion end game quests over the weekend. Total game time 140+ hours, a good healthy dose of enjoyable gaming. Yes there have been the bugs & console lock-ups along the way, none of which I have experienced in the last 50 odd hours of gameplay.

I hate the fast-travel system that does not really take you to the location you want to go. Example Caesar's Legion camp takes you to the front gate & you have to then walk all the way to his tent. Why is there no fast travel location for Lucky 38 but you have to go to freeside & then go through another 3 loading screens before you can get to your room. I hate the way companions will go charging off into the distance to attack the enemies whilst you are sitting back waiting to take a shot with your sniper rifle. You then need to go charging in after them so they don't end up dying (hardcore mode only). But equally I love the gameplay, the VATS, the levelling up perks (wish you could get them every level). I love the scary vaults & the way the game makes me jump when an unexpected enemy attacks.

I love the factions, choose your side, who do you want to go with? NCR, Yes Man, Mr House or Caesar's Legion? The sub-factions like Brotherhood, Boomers, Kings etc keep them happy or piss them off like I did the Powder Gangers.

But is is not just Fallout 3 DLC? Yes it looks the same and plays the same with slight changes but so is every sequel. The Assassins Creed games all play the same & it's the story that makes the difference. Fallout 3 story was a life experience, you are born, live childhood in the vault & then venture out. In New Vegas your a courier whose been shot & survive, what will you do?

If you have not played it yet I would say maybe wait until the bugs have been creased out, there are some issues with this game especially on the PS3 it seems (UGVM), even on the 360 I have had 3 or 4 game lock-ups & numerous graphic glitches but because I was enjoying the game I forgave these issues to continue playing.

On Fallout 3 I made the mistake of buying the DLC's straight away & by the last few I was sick of the game. So for New Vegas I will wait until the game of the year edition is released to play them or if they are reduced on a XBLA sale.


The game engine is old, used for Oblivion I think originally & then Fallout 3 onto New Vegas. Hopefully the new engine being worked for I assume the next Elder Scrolls game will be much improved & bug-free. I look forward to the next Fallout game which will hopefully include Vehicles, (surely everyone cannot walk everywhere?) & maybe even some element of co-op or on-line play. A cross between Borderlands & Fallout with some Rage thrown in would be great.

Now onto my list of unfinished games Halo Reach local co-op I think I'll start with you first.

New Game - Game Dev Story

It’s not FREE (or 59p) it’s £2.39 which in terms of iOS games is the equivalent of buying a Limited Edition console game. It has the one ingredient that most games don’t it is ADDICTIVE !!

Manage your own game company. Hire your employees, train them to develop better skills in programming, writing, graphics or sound. Take out contract work to develop tools of complete jobs. When you are ready develop your own game, choose a machine, a genre & game type & away you go !!

‘gospvg’ was born, I hired a few employees, trained them and after a few contracts to get some cashflow decided to develop my first PC game a pirate adventure. You then have to wait for your staff to complete the process of developing the game, choosing the graphics artist & sound engineer. Iron out all the bugs. Then the dreaded reviews, have you just made a stinker or the start of a potential hit. 18/40 came the result, ok not bad time to release it the game. Then just sit back and wait for the first week sale figures. I sold 16,547 and came in 37^th, a few weeks later and total sales figures came in at 58,212 a bit disappointing for a first game but I did make a slight profit.

It’s time for GameDex – the annual computer show. I decide to give it a miss I want to save my money. Back to contracts to get some quick money & time to buy a console licence to develop a game for a wider audience. It’s Pirates 2 the sequel to my mediocre selling adventure game. This time the reviews are slightly better 22/40 and first week sales figures are 41,621 with total sales coming in at 127,421. Now it’s the global game awards, my Pirates game wins nothing. When you train your staff you can unlock different genres & game types. After a few years of developing for various consoles with a few million selling games I finally unlock shooter & war.

It’s now time for a FPS game, WAR is born. I release it on the Playstation and it goes on to sell nearly 9 million copies. I have now become a sequel whorehouse alternating between MECH my robot adventure game & WAR my million selling FPS game. It did not take me long to turn into Activision : (

WAR 5 lands me the Best Game award & WAR X gives me my highest review score or 39/40

You have 20 years to manage your company at which point the game will tally up your total. You can continue further but this will not add to your final game score. I ended up making 68 games & selling 523 million games !! with MECH being my highest seller at 33 Million copies.

It is one of those games that once you pick it up & start playing you will find it very difficult to put down, after a while it does become a bit boring because once you are use to the cycle of developing & releasing a game it then becomes a bit of a chore but 20 years is just enough for this to end it on. I’m now on my 2^nd play where I will be only releasing PC games and nothing else.

World of Keflings - Release Date

Yes World of Keflings gets a release date !!

Finally took them long enough !!

December 22nd 800 MS Points only on Xbox XBLA

Words with Friends - Beating the unbeatable

There are two players on words with friends that I have never beaten DBSnappa & Jochta. I came close to beating DBSnappa in the ugvm quarter-final game but lost out by a few points. Jochta I have never beaten until now :)

Words with Friends UGVM Tournament Final

The FINAL

Curiosity vs DBSnappa

Good luck !!

RESULT - DBSnappa won  509 to 310

Well done David you are the 1st UGVM Words with Friends champion. There will be another tournament in the new year possibly even a UGVM vs BETEO if we can get enough players.

Fallout New Vegas - Give me my 100g with SPEED !!

END GAME SPOILERS DO NOT READ

It’s been just over 2 weeks since my last FNV (Fallout New Vegas) post. It was time to decide who to go with so I went for Mr House which instantly upset the Legion. After finishing off a few loose ends in New Vegas which also made me hit the lvl30 limit it was time to go to Hoover Dam. An alert pops up warning you that there is no turning back from Hoover Dam. You are now on the end game path, after a few sequences it was the Legion vs NCR battle which I let them fight it out & took out the leftovers. The last fight sequence has you fighting one of the Legion’s general but my speech was at 100 so I just beat him on a speech challenge & game over. Watching the end sequence waiting for my 100g hardcore achievement to pop up. WHAT !! nothing, no 100g? Is it bugged? Annoyed I turn the 360 off in disgust and hit the Bethesda forums  and read ‘DO NOT LOOK AT GAME SETTINGS OR CHANGE LEVEL DIFFICULTY’ oh CRAP !! I remember showing my son how to turn Hardcore mode on/off. By looking at the setting and changing the values to show my son it turned off that achievement.

AArgh !!!

Yes Man Speed Run
I WANT my 100g so time for a speed run, The YES Man quest is the quickest path to take for a speedrun. I started with a female character & put all my special points on agility & luck, picked up a stealth boy from the school. Got the snowglobe from the graveyard and went North for New Vegas to get Benny. I used the stealth boy to get past the Deathclaw area, before I got to Vegas I levelled up & chose the Black Widow perk. Then to the Topps and a meeting with Benny, the Black Widow perk gives you a few more speech options which allowed me to kill Benny in his sleep. Along the way I had also picked up the snowglobes , sold them to the robot at Mr House & purchased Naughty Nightwear which gives you +1 luck. With this on I went gambling at the casino’s on Blackjack and won nearly every game. I ended up getting banned from all the casino’s which unlocks an achievement and walked away with approx. 80k in caps. Then I went and purchased the implants & back to Yes Man. To save time I ignored all the factions & told Yes Man that the President can die. Then over to a substation to install a mod & on to Hoover Dam. On any level up I had along the way I took my speech up to max & by now it was at 100. I got past the last guy on a 100 speech check and unlocked my 100g Hardcore achievement. Total time played approx. 9 hours.

I then reloaded my DECISION TIME save point and completed the quests around Jacobstown & Black Rock. I also picked up the last two followers to unlock another achievement. The last few days I have been completing the damage challenges & healing challenges to unlock those achievements. I’ve now got those bar the heal 10K with food. I now have the NCR or Legion quests to complete & the followers side quests. At level 20 I got the wasteland explorer perk which shows me all the locations so even if I 1000g the game OCD will kick in and I will need to visit all locations inc a couple of vaults.

‘Dead Money’ dlc is released on the 21st December for 800 MS Points it takes you to a place called Sierra Madre an extravagant resort which has the greatest casino in the world. You also encounter the ghost people who live around this casino. I’m not going to be buying any dlc for this game instead I will wait till the game of the year edition is released next year to play all the released dlc.

Until then back to the Mojave to help the NCR kick the legion’s arse !!

Words with Friends - Analgias

Only a few days a go my latest highest scoring word 'Sculping' was played against HarpingOn. Now I give you 'Analgias' which if my limited medical knowledge is correct means a lack of pain. But I think Gary felt the pain when I played that word for 125 points.

Fallout New Vegas - Time to decide

I’ve been wanting to write a lot about the Fallout New Vegas, initially I had ideas of a daily diary but I did not want to spoil the experience for anyone who reads my posts so cancelled that idea. In my post below I have given a brief summary of the first few hours of play, do not read if you have not played the game yet.

After nearly 95 hours of gameplay I think now is a good time to do a quick update. The game does not have the hand-holding fallout 3 introduction and chucks you straight into the story. You are a courier who has been shot, your delivery has been taken & you have been left for dead. Lucky for you a passing robot comes to your rescue & takes you to the town of Goodsprings. Here the doctor removes your bullet & you are given time to heal & recover. If you have played Fallout 3 the control method is exactly the same with a few minor adjustments.

Once you are on your feet, the doctor gives you a quick check & you get to choose your SPECIAL points & TAG Skills. You are also given an option to choose Hardcore Mode (This has you looking after a few more things like H20, Food & Sleep but the biggest change is that stimpacks now heal over time). Time to question the doctor about what, why & who shot you? Then came the looting, this is the man who has just saved my life & how do I repay him? By nicking everything in his house to sell back to him for caps. Looting, Prospecting, Scavenging or Stealing call it what you want it’s a big part of the game & you need to do it to get caps to buy better weapons or armour to use. After buying a few stimpacks from the good doctor & using his sink to drink some H20 I then popped out to see the town of Goodsprings. It looked like I had stepped into a western movie set, wooden shacks, tumbleweed rolling down the hill & Brahmin chewing grass. I then question the townsfolk to find out more information about my attack & hear about the problems they are having from a group called ‘Powder Gangers’.

After completing some simple basic quests including a nice training quests which shows you some of the new features of the game it was time to help the townsfolk get rid of the ‘Powder Gangers’. The town gathered together, armed & nervous ready for a showdown, the Powder Gangers came running into the town guns blazing. Bullets flying everywhere. Bang !! Bang ! a town settler has just died next to me. I grab my gun and lock on using ‘VATS’ to take down a Powder Ganger, now for the next guy my AP is out I can’t use VATS. Do I want to go charging into a group of 4 enemies with no AP? How will my health suffer? Will I die? I use a stimpack (which will now heal me over time) & go charging in, shooting freestyle (without vats) bang, bang!, bang !! & BANG !!! they are all dead & my health is ok. I survived. Up pops a confirmation box informing me that I am now vilified by the Powder Gangers. What? Factions, this game has factions you have to choose who you want to help. I had the option on this quest to side with the Powder Gangers instead of the townsfolk but I did not & by helping the townsfolk, the Powder Gangers hate me which means they will shoot me on sight. You can if you want reload your save file & try to go for a neutral option, in my case I didn’t & carried on.

I have been lucky in that I have not experienced any game breaking bug as reported by Gary on UGVM but I have had the game freeze on me twice whilst going through a door loading screen. I was very worried about buying this game because of the developer Obsidian & the stories of bugs. The game is obviously broken & bugged (just search on google or read UGVM for the many reports), it’s disappointing to see a game released in this condition & I’m surprised there has not been more of an uproar by the gaming media. But I am glad I purchased the game on release I am throughly enjoying it so far.

Goodsprings was now safe & it was time for me to move on. My work here was done. The next 90+ hours had me helping out other towns with their problems, making difficult choice’s on how to treat a particular faction & selling anything I came across to amass my caps. The main storyline has you deciding on if you want to go with the NCR, Caesar’s Legion, Mr House or Yes Man (go it alone basically). I am now at that point where my character is now on level 30, gun & energy weapons are 90+ on skill & lockpick & speech on 100. I have 2 companions with me to back me up in a gunfight, in truth one of them probably gets the shot before me. I have a few small side-quests to complete & I need to go shopping for some SPECIAL implants.

Then I plan on creating one save file (multiple copies) on which I can choose one faction to complete the game & then reload to choose one of the others. The time has nearly come for me to decide. Will I go it alone? Align myself with Caesar’s Legion, help Mr House or let the NCR control the Mojave?

Words with Friends - Sculping

My previous highest scoring word was Futz for 111 points. Initially I was trying to play for a TW word and then saw the two DW's. So 'Sculping' for 115 points. Earlier in the game I played another 7 letter word 'Wordages'. Hoping that I can now play one of the TW's to win the game.

Carcassonne - Arpad Elo

Arpad Elo - a Hungarian-born American physics professor who created the 'ELO' rating system to show the 'relative skill level' of a player. The screen to the left does not show my highest ELO, I managed to get to 1540 & then came "THE FALL". It's inevitable that in this game of luck you will lose some games, unfortunately being so far ahead in the leaderboard with a high ELO means when you lose it's going to hurt.

First against Jochta, losing by only 2 points but a drop of 32 points on my ELO. Ok I still have 1508, that's not too bad.

Worse was to come in the next game by losing to my son (the torment of "Yes", "Get-In", "Dad, you are crap. You came last"). Another drop of 32 points, leaves me now with 1476.

I then lost a further 2 games to to end on 1412.

By this time my arch-nemesis the evil Dr Lufferov had taken the lead.

The losing streak had to end at some point & a couple of wins against Dr Dolittle & LPFigwort has seen my ELO rise to 1425. But James has also been winning games and has extended his lead to 1471.

I now need to try and catch him up but the danger that is faced by both of us is that if we lose a game, it will be a 32 point drop on our ELO but if we win against anyone lower on the leaderboard we will only gain a few points. I'm hoping he cannot catch up to my high ELO of 1540.It's only a number but Arpad Elo knows that I had to win quite a few games to get to that number.

Some links on Arpad Elo
Rating System - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elo_rating_system
Arpad Elo - The Man himself - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arpad_Elo

What no logo?

In a previous post I said "Only games that I will buy on release qualify to be a logo"
Today I have just bought Call of Duty Black Ops & Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, but both of these games have not graced with a website logo. I had no intention of buying either game but COD:BO for £24.99 is too good an offer to miss & I will enjoy the online multiplayer action when I get round to playing it. For AC:Brotherhood Abbas is running through Fallout New Vegas and with his birthday coming soon, he asked & I said ok why not. So to amend my statement "Only games that I am eagerly anticipating the release, will qualify for a logo" So World of Keflings, when are you getting released?

But for the moment I am still wondering the Mojave desert completing side-quests & discovering new locations. Because the main storyline branches I want to get to a point in the game where I can create a save file & keep to brach out one way & then reload to go the other way. This will save me having to start the game again and play another 50+ hours to try the other branch.