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Every once in a while, there’s a collection of fans from a specific area of gaming that have the talent and time to create some awesome theatrical content that is very convincing and what would turn out to be a fantastic production. This one I found from a friend posting on Facebook (thanks porkchop) and I have to say that I was really impressed with the trailer. It’s not a planned production, but for being a fan-made trailer, it’s gotta be one of the best. The original HD Trailer can be found on YouTube and is posted below. There is an interview on Shogun Gamer with the producers which is a nice read.

Well, I’m at my local GameStop waiting for Halo: Reach, and I’m seeing a good number of un-accompanied minors.  I thought GameStop was liable in enforcing age restrictions for games (since Reach is an M-rated game).  This is a little worrysome.

They also have us lined up here at 11:10p so they might release it early again like they did for ODST.  Too bad I really won’t be able to play it for a few days because of homework, so I’ll express my frustration in a spoiler: everyone on Noble Team except you dies during the campaign.

3D seems to be the new direction the video game industry is trying to pursue. So far, we have 3D TVs with PS3 supporting 3D game play and the 3DS.

Hawty McBloggy posted a video earlier today a YouTube video that actually lets you see 3D from a regular 2D video in a nice Reach Montage. You cross your eyes to get both images of the video to line up together, and then let your eyes naturally focus on the mixed image. The result: a surprisingly good 3D image. Now I’m just wondering how long it took this guy to record all the right angles, especially with the moving camera parts of the montage.
Remember to watch in HD. It’s easier to get the cross-eyes down with the higher resolution.

Yes, I’m still here. I’ve just been living under a rock while school starts this semester.

So I was watching Inside Gaming today and they always have “the best video ever” at the end of their episodes. In their latest, they have a clip of someone who animated the Scout and Soldier from TF2 to “dance”. The video they used is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TY476OfuCgg. There’s a newer version that adds some value to it. This guy definitely has talent. If you like TF2, I suggest you subscribe like I did.

In association with Podtacular, I have made a couple of ODST Achievement guides to cover most of the basic campaign achievements. I cover specific level achievements like Both Tubes and Wraith Killer and general achievements like Boom, Headshot and Dark Times. Most of them are up on my Youtube page available in HD, but there are more coming soon.

So while at MLG Dallas, I got the chance to play the new multiplayer mode introduced in ODST: Firefight.  Each level in Firefight is supposed to represent some playable area in the ODST Campaign, and there are a few with daytime and nighttime variations: perfectly excuse to use the Visor mode.  Also, who can resist killing onslaughts of Covenant, especially grunts.

As far as gameplay, many have compared Firefight to Horde mode from Gears.  Since I have not played any Gears multiplayer, I don’t know what that’s like, but I do know that everyone will have fun with it.  Covenant come in waves: 5 waves in a round, 3 rounds in a set.  After each round, different skulls come on or off, and as you get through the sets, the difficulty increases.  That covers most of the basics for Firefight.

A couple of things that are not clearly evident: Engineers are in a few of the multiplayer maps.  Engineers are covenant characters that go around and heal other covenant units giving them things like overshields.  As Shishka said, “If two Engineers are around you, you’re screwed.”  Another thing that came to somewhat as a surprise when I played is the different areas Covenant waves can come from.  Just when you think you know where they can come from, they come from somewhere else.  It takes a while to get used to it, but once you have the hand of it, good teamwork will keep you alive.  I found turrets to be a big help with another friend nearby helping fend off closing Covenant while you mow down waves that are off in the distance.  Be careful when the drop ships come though.  They will tear you up.  Hunters take a while to take down as well since you aren’t super soldiers with power weapons, so have one of your teammates go around and shoot it in the back while the others distract it.

I definitely hope everyone pre-ordered it or plan to get it, because this game is definitely worth the $60.

I haven’t posted anything in a while, and I mean to post this a couple of weeks ago, but I have been caught up with other things: work, trying to fix my Xbox 360, managing Podtacuar, etc.   Hopefully, my next post won’t be that far away.

About: On to the topic at hand, Portal: Prelude is a usermod for Portal, made by Valve.  It is an unofficial prelude to the game, not the one Valve announced.  The initial project was not a full fleged game, but rather a collection of user levels.  When the developers reached a dozen test chambers, the decided to turn it into a full mod.  It took the guys developing the game nine months to complete the mod.  If you want to learn more,  or want to download the game, go to http://www.portalprelude.com.

Game Play: I first downloaded this within two weeks of it’s release.  On my first time through it, I got to test chamber 19 and couldn’t figure it out.    Sad to say that I had to go to youtube to figure out there was a wall under the stairs, so that’s the only help I had to get.  It took me a long time to figure out how to get through the next chamber, so I never finished the mod.  After Windows RC1 came out, I reinstalled it and decided to take another crack at it.  It took me 6 hours to beat the game: an entire Saturday dedicated to Portal: Prelude.

Highlights: While Portal only takes me an hour to beat, Portal: Prelude took me 6 hours, so Prelude is definitely harder and longer.  I would say that Prelude is at least 3 times more difficult than the original game, especially since in the first test chamber, you are up against turrets.  It also requires a lot more thinking about how to get things done and figuring out where your next objective is.  I’m sure at least one third of my playtime was figuring out where or how to get to the next objective.  The last two test chambers are by far the hardest levels of the game, which makes sense, but the thing that makes it hard is going back and forth between the two test chambers.  There are some tricks to making levels easier that I looked up after I beat the game, but it is still very difficult.  Just when you get to the end of the game, you get to play for an extra hour going against GlaDOS.

If you enjoyed Portal and want something more challenging, Portal: Prelude is an excelent mod and you will enjoy it.  Only downside to the game is that there isn’t an English translation for the commentary mode.  The cake is a lie?

Well, I just played the beta for this game, and I have to day, it’s one of the funnest games I’ve played.  I already like it even though it’s in beta and I see this game going far.  The stage looks really nice, but the avatar facial expressions could use some work.  I really like the Amp function and how you can go through different actions.  That made a good part of the game for me.  For a live game, it’s done really well, and Chris, the host did an excellent job.

Now I missed about half of the questions and some of them were just plain no brainers, but overall, I think the quality of the questions are pretty good.  I think they need a bigger library of harder questions for when there are lower numbers of mob members, but again, it’s in beta.  One other thing I’d like to see is the ability for the One to interact with the host if they have a mic.  Other than that, excelent game merging online gaming and live tv.

Well, the first day of e3 has passed and I have to say that I’m pleased with most of what I saw.  Now I was at work all day, so I had to come back and watch replays on IGN, which, in and of itself, wasn’t that bad.  Now I’m specifically talking about the Microsoft presentation for the XBOX 360, since that’s my primary interest in e3.

Starting off with new game announcements, Left 4 Dead 2 looks very promising especially after the success of Left 4 Dead.  New weapon items will definitely change the game play into a nice melee combat combination instead of just a zombie shoot-’em-up (which is still exciting to play).  With big successes with their first game on the console, I don’t see them backing out of it anytime soon.  Personally, I like PC gaming more than console, and I own L4D through Steam, so I am really looking forward to the game, whether on the console, or the PC.

Now for the Beatles Rock Band, I don’t see it being much of a hit other than the fact that you now get to play the Beatles’ songs.  Granted, the fact that they opened up the presentation will probably turn more heads than if they weren’t there, but it’s not an item I’m looking to buy.

Alan Wake: how do you classify this?  Interesting game play and storyline is sure to make this game unique.  Looks like a FPS with a twist, but not enough information to tell anything more for this game.  This is definitely something I’ll keep my eye on.

Now onto my Halo rant of this post.  Halo 3: ODST definitely takes a new view on the Halo Universe and alters the game play in a way that will hopefully open up the storyline more.  One of the things that has really held the Halo franchise back, in my opinion, is the fact that the whole story is linear, and there’s no way to deviate from the story or make up your own path.  With that said, I hope there aren’t too many flashbacks in the game, and that it stays somewhat centrally focused, instead of hopping from one ODST to another.  The new HUD is going to change gamestyle play from what it has been in previous games, requiring a little more tactics than people are used to.  Onto the new multiplayer mode, Firefight kinda sounds like COD’s Nazi Zombies, but you are just fending off a ton of Covenant.  Didn’t hear much about this, but I’m hoping it turns out well when released in September.

OK, now we all know that Halo was too good of a franchise to give up, and it’s no surpirse Bungie had a Top Secret project involving Halo.  Now I remember somewhere reading that Bungie would do a prequel to Halo, and that’s what they have done with Halo Reach.  Now I could rant on all day saying that I called this move, but with how little we got in the teaser, I’m not sure what to expect from the game.  Now if you have read the books, you will know about what happened to Reach, so now I’m wondering what kind of game this is going to be.  It will most likely be a FPS, but what will the storyline be like, how are the Spartans involved, etc.  Lots of room for speculation, so we’ll just have to wait for more.

The XBOX Dashboard: Personally, I liked the old dashboard better over the NXE dash, but you take what you get.  Now I’m a college student and I spend a good majority of the time at my computer, so it seems like these extra features they are adding on are kinda pointless.  Granted, I see a lot of people using last.fm for maybe things like parties or such, but Facebook and Twitter?  How involved does XBOX Live have to be to take over the computer?  Next thing you know, you are going to have the ability to have Google on your box (Microsoft probably wouldn’t allow that though).  Granted, the cool factor may have some role here, but if you are too lazy to get off the couch and type a couple of lines, then there’s something wrong.  Now I do like the fact that XBOX will link your Facebook to your Gamertag, and that would be a good way to find your friends that you didn’t know had an XBOX, but I think I’ll stick to my computer.  Now I’m not saying that they are bad additions, I just think it’s not that practical, especially when you have them on your phone, the ultimate mobile device.

Project Natal is perhaps my most favorite thing out of the presentation (other than the Halo stuff, of course).  Now the demonstration of the device seemed to point out that they are still working out kinks, but it looks very promising.  Future games will be very exciting if this technology proves to be what XBOX advertises it to be.  But with no release date, there’s no way to tell when this will be available and how developers will be able to use the technology in their games.

On a final note, I’ve never heard of Metal Gear, so I don’t know what to think about it, Forza I don’t care for, because I like Burnout and NFS more, and when can I get Pokemon on my XBOX?