RIP Beatz's XBox

Yes, this is gonna be the last video-game related post for a while I guess, as my XBox has passed on...
I was one of many recipients of the dreaded E 74 error message accompanied by one red ring in the lower right hand corner around the power button. While Microsoft does fix this for free (shipping and all) it's still gonna take about 2-3 weeks, which is about all the time I have until I leave the country and head for Korea (at which time I'll probably start a new blog dedicated to that).
So, it's been fun, but for the time being this blog is probably gonna be out of commission...*Single tear*

Megaman 9 First Impressions

I finally got around to buying Megaman 9 on my 360. This game was made in the style of the original 8-Bit Megaman games and is true to form, featuring silly 8-Bit graphics and music, back-to-basics gameplay, and even some cheesy still-image-based cinematic sequences. From what I've played so far (not much) it's pretty fun, just like the oldschool titles. And, true to it's predecessors it is DAMN hard! Like wow, hard! And I haven't even gotten to one of those sequences where you gotta memorize where the little gray blocks appear. Any Megaman fanboys out there should understand that reference.

Some of those guys are pretty ridiculous I gotta say...concrete man?

Megaman 9 features only the combat and movement elements included in the original: no charging your shot, no sliding around, just 3 little yellow bullets on the screen at a time and that's all. The game does features the series' first female boss though, Splash Woman! How progressive. Another wonderful throwback feature of the game.
Annnd, who can forget classic tunes like the password screen from Megaman 2, another wonderful throwback feature of the game.

I am aware that the game will be frustratingly difficult and require vast amounts of replaying and memorizing stages and bosses, but I'm ready to take it on, and kinda excited about it in a way I haven't been in a little while.

Funny how with all the power that the 360 holds one of the most exciting things is getting oldschool games, or in this case, new-oldschool games.

Stupid Xbox Live Gamertags

I've been compiling a list of stupid Xbox Live Gamertags while playing online. So here's the first entry in what will hopefully be another ongoing segment "Xbox Live Idiocy Revealed"

Here are the first 14 names I've come across that are totally dumb (in no particular order). To those with Xbox Live accounts, avoid these people as they are very stupid and do not deserve to interact with other people over any medium.

1. ThickatTheBasE
2. Z5 PuneJuice 5Z
3. ZOMBI the SKLFKR
4. Slap Happy27
5. joe mama pooooo
6. Dr PooBreath - Side note here, "Poo" is a fan-favorite amongst idiots.
7. SpreadThatAss
8. PooBreeze
9. skullfxxker469
10. butthole4bandit
11. Punknsk8rules - this one isn't offensive in the same way as the others, I just hate names like this..."sk8"...somehow that just makes me so angry...
12. Hickevilbstrd
13. cooterfaceman
14. HaLfR3Tard3d

Keep in mind that these are their names for EVERY game they play using their Xbox Live accounts. No dignity...I'm not saying every name has to be a literary reference or some such artsy thing, but seriously, stop putting "poo" and "skullfucker" in there.
...Jesus.

Some Screenshots and Another Achievement

I got another achievement in Halo 3! While it's kind of a boring one (only worth 5G too), I still felt compelled to post about it. It's called Too Close to the Sun and happened when I blasted this guy in a Banshee with a Spartan Laser.

Continuing on the theme of destroying Banshees, here's some shots of me bashing this guy in his Banshee with my Gravity Hammer.


The approach...


Trying to blast me.


So, we learned that one should not fly near the Chief when he's holding a hammer.

And just for kicks, here's a shot of me and an ally getting deeeestroyed from all sides.

Guess I wandered into a bad neighborhood.

Another Achievement and The Chief is Dead, Episode 1

I was playing this weekend's "Double EXP Weekend" today on Halo 3, which is "Team Melee", consisting of only melee weapons (Hammers and Swords), when I realized that the Chief dies in some pretty hilarious positions(I also unlocked a new Achievement, "Came...From..Behind").

I decided it was up to me to document some of these in the first of a (maybe) ongoing segment "The Chief is Dead":


Chief is ashamed of being dead and hides his head in his hands.


Chief flies upwards, well beyond the limits of the level Pit Stop.


I used to sleep like this (butt upturned) when I was about 2 years old.


Chief has had too much to drink and needs to "clean house" over the edge of this oil rig.


Homeless chief can fall asleep in pretty much any position.


Conjoined-dead-Chief-myslexia.

More to come!
(hopefully)

New Halo Achievement!

I sat down with Halo today for the first time in a while and I unlocked a brand new achievement: Steppin' Razor! It was during a match of Swords on Guardian, I got 2 Triple Kills, 2 Sword Sprees, a +6 Kill/Death spread (alright, not amazing) and just generally did a lot of stabbing and slashing of my opponents.


Those 2 in the background were my kills, this guy is number 3. If you look closely you'll notice a grenade that he stuck onto my face...

There's me about to explode...


And...well, that kinda speaks for itself, no?


This was me approaching my final victim.


And victory!

A tale of betrayal and heartbreak indeed. Halo continues to be king, Resistance and Warhawk can suck on Master Chiefs sweaty, robotic (I think?) nuts.

Dead Space = Totally the Bomb, Also Good Demos and Apologies to The Last Remnant

The title of this post is essentially most of what I have to say. Dead Space is fantastic, I can't believe it's just been sitting in my collection, untouched, since December. The game plays a lot like Resident Evil 4, placing the camera behind you, but includes a few fun details (aside from the setting and plot etc) that sets it apart from its fellow survival horror title, albeit not the most recent. The powers include telekinesis, allowing your to move around large objects as well as using dead bodies and other miscellaneous items as weapons. Your character, Isaac, also has a "stasis" ability which slows down objects and enemies for a short period of time. Both of these abilities spice up the gameplay so that you're not just constantly walking through dimly lit corridors waiting for monsters to pop out at you...although that does happen, and it's totally awesome. Alongside all your wonderful abilities, your arsenal is filled with delicious energy weapons as well as a remote saw, a flamethrower, and a few that I haven't delved into yet. Each weapon and your suit is upgradeable, so you're constantly growing stronger in order to face new opponents. Dead Space also features areas of zero-gravity where you can jump around in full 360 degrees as well as deep space vacuums which put you on a limited air supply.

The game features awesome lighting effects, freaky-ass monsters, and a pretty hackneyed plot about alien-human hybrids that came from some planet, or were genetically engineered by humans, kinda like Alien Resurrection, a true masterpiece of cinema.

Honestly though, who cares when YOU get to rend them limb from limb?

Alongside Dead Space I recently downloaded the Resident Evil 5 demo AND the Halo Wars demo, both of which are pretttty awesome. However, I think Microsoft should allow for keyboards to be attached to the 360 in order to make Halo Wars better...worlds better.

As for the Last Remnant, I've put it on hold for a while due to an almost complete loss of interest. The plot seemed interesting enough but the choppiness on the battles, even after loading the game onto the hard-drive, is almost too much to take. I'll beat it later, sorry Square-Enix, you had better work out the kinks for Final Fantasy XIII or you're gonna be on the road to losing your fan-base.....

Tank-Related Halo Shots

So I was on Halo today and this happened...prepare for excitement.

Had me a killin' spree, highlighted in this Double Kill executed by myself with the assistance of my friend with Scorpion (pictured below):

Two of 'em in that Warthog.


Another angle...


Double Kill!


Eventually they bogged me down, but it took 5 of 'em.


The end of my affair.

Next up was a pretty sweet Double Kill that I performed on a couple gents going for a spin in a Wraith:

They took a wrong turn somewhere...


Chief beats his way into that Wraith to achieve a Double Kill with 2 Beatdowns, sweeeeet.


The aftermath.

Ah, Halo is still just as fun as ever.

Fallout 3 is Totally the Bomb...Diggity

Fallout 3 is truly as awesome as I had hoped it would be. First off, I have to ask if there has ever been a game where the player begins looking up at his father and various medical personnel after having been birthed?


Blastin' an enemy to pieces. I'd tell you what kinda enemy that is, er, was...but, well...you can see why I can't.

The game features an amazing post-apocalyptic Washington DC (referred to as the Capital Wasteland) that is truly giant and filled with such a variety of quests and interesting tasks to complete that the game seems to have no real end in sight upon first glance...and perhaps even second, third, forth......
My first endeavors took me around 30 hours and after completing them I realized I had barely even touched the main storyline. Another thing is, each one was truly engrossing, even if it meant wandering across the wasteland for 5 minutes to reach each destination.


Typical wasteland sight, you could probably rent out that train-car for 600 a month in the city.

The combat system is an excellent mix of good old-fashioned FPS style combat with an interesting system in which the player can select different parts of the enemy to attack while time is essentially frozen. The system is called VATS and allows for the player to cripple the different parts of their enemy (head, arms, legs, etc.). Basically, time freezes, you zoom in on the enemy and it displays the percentage of hitting each particular body part. You then choose which sections you wish to attack and depending on how many Action Points you have, you proceed to attack however many times. Make sense? It's totally sweet, allowing for the player to utilize their FPS aiming skills like in any other comparable title while storing up Action Points for those all too important death-dealin' blows. The look and feel of the VATS system is similar to Fallout 2, making it nostalgic for those players who fell in love with that game years ago. Oh yeah, also, when you kill an enemy in VATS mode it has a totally sweet slow-mo sequence of you blasting them into little tiny pieces (pictured above). It truly never gets old. The game has all sorts of depth beyond the combat, featuring lock-picking, computer hacking, a vast array of speech decisions that affect the outcome of your various quests and just general interactions with people and a grandiose amount of items to play around with including foods, drinks, drugs, weapons, armor and the occasional fun extra like a bobblehead doll that enhances your abilities.
My description barely scratches the surface of what the game has to offer, so if you have a PC, an Xbox or a PS3 (even though the Xbox and PC versions are designed better, ha!), I highly recommend grabbin' yourself a copy. Assuming, that is, you have nothing to do for the next month or so.


VATS system in action on a particularly large enemy. This guy was a cupcake in the game actually. Hear that Super Mutant Behemoth? You taste delicious with chocolate frosting and rainbow sprinkles.

Anyway, I could go on and on about how incredible the game is and how everyone should get it and play it and make sweet love to it down by the fire, but I think I'd rather just keep playing it.
I'm sure you know how to surf the interwebs anyway, go find out your own info.

Also, your dad in the game is totally Liam Neeson, ha!

World at War Looks Pretty Sweet

Ah, the fall season is always so generous with good games. I looked a bit at Call of Duty: World at War, and it looks tight, here's a little gameplay for ya. While the video is blurry and doesn't exactly showcase the graphics to their fullest, I'm sure they're great, just take a look at that screenshot. Watch closely, at about a minute and thirty seconds into the video you get a look at a nice lookin' double barrelled rifle situation. That won me over, personally. Also, at about three minutes in you can see the graphics a bit better. You can also just take a gander at these screenshots, you can see some pretty sweet lighting effects and some very pretty scenery, if you think of "pretty" in a...violent sense. game is also going to feature vehicles in multiplayer and co-op gameplay modes, two things which I have found lacking in Call of Duty 4. Any reason I can't play split-screen with my friends online? Didn't think so. Here's the Wiki on it if you want additional info.

Anyway, it's goin' on my ever expanding list of stuff that I want.

New Gun in CoD4

I picked up Call of Duty 4 again today and unlocked what is now my new favorite weapon, the G3 rifle. It's semi-automatic and quite powerful, perfect middle-ground between a sniper rifle and an automatic assault rifle.

Also, "Headquarters" is totally the game mode to rack up experience.

I'm still waiting on Infinity Ward to put together a comprehensive stat-tracking system. Seems to me if Bungie has such a great online companion to Halo, Infinity Ward should be hoppin' on that train.

Highlight of the Week (10/5 - 10/12)

This week's highlight comes from a Team Snipers game on Narrows. It's kinda weak though...we lost, nothin' super cool happened, but here's some cool Sniper Kills and a funtastic Grenade Stick that I got.



Linin' up the shot, 10x zoom.


Sniped!


Grabbed a Killing Spree about halfway through the battle.


Here's the toss...


Gotcha, running towards that lift isn't gonna help.


Stuck!


Here's a pretty sweet Double Kill via the Sniper Rifle.
First shot...


Following target #2...


And Double Kill!


Notice the X made by both of our Sniper Rifles missing their marks.


Grenade landed right behind him and...


See, told ya it was kinda lame. What can I say, this wasn't a good week for Halo. I have made great progress on Super Mario Bros' though...World 8!

Victory is in my sights...