I managed to get my hands on the new Mythic Map Pack for Halo 3, and having played them for a while now, I decided to share my thoughts with the world... or at least, anyone who actually reads my blog.  I actually got them from the Halo Wars Limited Edition.  Somehow, the EBGames near me got them sooner than everwhere else, and cheaper too, so I picked one up (can't play it until the NZ Xbox gets fixed, but that wasn't the point).

     The first of the new maps is Assembly, which is set in a Scarab Factory.  If you look up, you can actually watch the skeletons of Scarabs slide across a line and through a strange piece of machinery (not sure what it's supposed to be doing, but it looks awesome).  The map itself is reminiscent of Midship and Derelict from Halo 2, and is a symmetrical, medium to smallish map (that's a precise mesurement too!).  It plays very well for FFA and Team Slayer matches, and I suspect it would work well with most if not all of the MLG gametypes.  I haven't played any object games on it yet, but I would suspect it would work well as such.

     As much as I love it, I'm not a big fan of the Assult Rifle, so I have a hard time doing well in the current playlist, but the sightlines are truely exelent, allowing the player to stay below, with loads of cover, or on the upper pathways, wth a much better view, but almost no cover.  An aspect of the map that I really had to look for was the complexity.  It doesn't look it, and unless you really pay attention, you'll probably be navigating it perfectly without any problems in a matter of minutes.  While there are a lot of different paths and jumps, it all flows so well you don't really notice it.  The competative community has been bugging Bungie for a new map for quite some time, and Assembly fits the bill perfectly.

     The second map is Orbital, and it is set in the uppers levels of a space elevator, which makes it the first Halo 3 map in space.  In reading other reviews, I didn't really see Orbital as a map I would particularly care for.  It was often described as two "U" shaped passages overlapping and offset from one another.  I think it would be better described as two bases side-by-side, with two exits.  One exits to a higher pathway, and the other to a lower pathway, and both leading to the other base.  At the farthest point from either base (the bottom of the "U"), there is a massive elevator shaft, and those on the higher path can risk a leap across the gap.  Falure results in negative marks on your testing record, followed imeediately by death.  (Sorry, lame Portal reference) 

     The hallways are reasonably wide (enough for the ghost and mongoose on the default layout for the map), but are cluttered with boxes, and so provide substantial cover for infantry, and a challenging alternative for those that would rather drive.  This is the map I've played the most, mostly because it seems to show up the most in Matchmaking.  However, out of everything I've played on it, I think the most fun was the Neutral Assult (both teams have to get a bomb into the enemy base, the catch, there is only one bomb) or the SWAT (no shields, 1 headshot kills).  Given the linear feel of the tunnels, the Neutral Assult games were very much a push-and-shuve game, with the bomb moving back and forth, pushed by both teams, until it reached on of the bases.  The SWAT was particularly fun, as the massive amounts of cover and the high ground at the elevator shaft and stairwells opened a window for all sorts of tactics and manuvers, while not leaving enough dark corners to create a camping problem. 

     The third and final map (until the release of the other three mythic maps with Halo 3: ODST) is Sandbox.  Sandbox is, first and foremost, a forging map.  It looks very similar to Sandtrap, but the forging mechanics are similar to those of Foundy, with plenty of building blocks to work with, to create your own, maps, with a larger, more open space to work in.  However, that is not nearly the end of the forging possibilities.  In the center of the map, there is a floorstone that can be removed in forge mode to uncover a massive underground room that has been dubbed "The Crypt".  Picture Foundry, without the big prebuilt wall in the middle, or the rooms on the side, and you have the crypt.  It's big, and it's perfectly square, adding another good option for those looking for forging space.

     There is a third layer to Sandbox, and for me at least, I have saved the best for last.  The Skybox.  It's a massive grid in the sky, that can only be reached by a teleporter in forge mode.  To give you an idea of how massive it is, a guy by the name (well, Gamertag I would hope) of Cocopjojo, measured it.  The end result was a mesurment of the largest ground map in Halo 3, Avalanche at ~300m, and a mesurement of the Skybox at ~350m.  Yes, it's that huge.  The other side to this, is that trying to pass through the grid (I.E. falling off any map build in the skybox) kills you, allowing you to build floating maps akin to Guardian and Epitaph.  My only complaint is that you die even if you're in a Banshee or Hornet, which means no flying between the ground and the skybox.  Also new in Sandbox are a few interesting Froge objects, including a golf club that works like a gravity hammer (seriously, you can kill people with a golf club now), as well as a golf ball, and a tin cup so you can build an entire course!

     Each base is designated by one of the new "dynamic lights" you are given in forge, as well as some colored pillars.  This brings me to yet another awesome Forge object in Sandbox, the killball.  It is, rather simply, a large red-orange ball, that kills you when you touch it.  You can use it to block of certain paths, kill people who think they've gotten outside your map, or just throw them at your friends in Forge mode.  While the outside of Sandbox looks similar to Sandtrap, I do not advise trying to drive in circles around the edge, and expect to survive like you could in Sandtrap.  The towers along the edge of the map will give you a few moments notice before killing you almost instantly via a massive laser shot from the top of each one.  The default layout is incredible as well, and has multiple vehicles, and a simple base at either end of the map.

     Overall, this has got to be the best map pack avaliable so far, well worth what I paid for it, and I get Halo Wars as a bonus!  Oh wait...

     The Fallout series is a long lived one, going back to 1997 with the release of the original game, developed by Black Isle Studios.  A few years ago, Black Isle Studio sold the intellectual property rights for the game to Bethesda Softworks.  This sparked quite a bit of tension with the fans of the original, for fear the Bethesda would ruin the game, or make it to far different from what it used to be.  One of the most common fears, was that Fallout 3 would be, "Oblivion with guns".  Now personally, I would absolutely love Oblivion with guns, but that is far from what Fallout 3 ended up being.  Between a completely different stats and level system, and the V.A.T.S. combat system, the only similarities lie in some parts of the interface and the controls.  Having played the game for nearly 40 hours now, I feel I can write a decent review, although a plot synopsis would be impossible, as I'm only about one-half through the story, and only in one of the possible branches.

     First off, the graphics.  As with most Xbox 360 games (and I will be reviewing the 360 version, because my computer can't run the PC version, and I have no will to own a PS3, long story) the graphics are impressive.  However, these really shine from the view distance.  You don't really notice it durring your time in the vault, but when you step outside for the first time, and stagger to the edge of what used to be a scenic overlook, the beauty of the game really shines.  The graphics really fit the setting, and every little detail, even from that first amazing view, tell an amazing story.  The shelled out houses, the cars with the paint burned off, mail boxes hanging open, with the flag broken off, lying on the ground nearby.  Every detail is perfect, except one.  The animations.  Sad is really the only good word for it, as the incredible player character model nearly ruins the experience when playing from a third person view, as it seemingly floats or skates across the rubble and rough terrain.  Fortunately, the rest of the animations are far better, and the first person view is honestly a lot easier an, in my oppinion, more fun to play from.

     The sound effects are good, although great would be an overstatement.  The guns sound a little under-powered, and the explosions look better than they sound.  This is not to say that they are bad, they just aren't as impressive as the graphics.  What is impressive is the voice acting.  Fallout 3 probably has the best voice acting of any nonlinear game I've ever played.  Almost every character has a different voice, and each voice perfectly fits the character's personality (which I will expand on later).  The radio stations are also impressive, and really add to the immersion, although I wouldn't play through the entire game with them on, as you're likely to end up with the same song or recording repeating after a while.  The environmental sounds are also imressive, although subtile.

     The real difference between Obivion and Fallout 3 is the V.A.T.S. combat system.  If you don't know, V.A.T.S. allows you to pause the game, target specific parts of a character or creatures body, then watch the action unfold like a scene from the matrix, in slow motion with plenty gore and some epic camera angles.  The slow motion is executed really well, with some effects chosen seemingly at random, and the more dramatic effects (such as the matrix style, slow-time-and-follow-the-bullet-while-rotating-the-camera thing) saved for killing blows/shots.  It really adds some stragegical depth to otherwide mediocre gunplay.  Which, to be honest, the combat in Fallout 3 really is.  The gun fights play like a standard shooter game without V.A.T.S., but are still fun.  However, to keep the character from being a time controlling demi-god, V.A.T.S. uses action points, which regenerate quickly, but force you to rely on twitch reflexes as much as careful thought.

    Of course, what would combat be without awe inspiring weapons and armor with enough spikes to gore a small army?  Fallout 3 fills that requirement, with everything from standard "Pre-war" clothing, to power armor that looks surprisingly similar to the armor used by a Storm Trooper... and don't worry, you can get armor with spikes.  The weapons are incredible as well, allowing you to used everything from a pool cue to a high-tec Power Fist pmumatic glove as melee weapons, and still providing standard pistols and machine guns.  However, there are more than those two types of weapons, energy weapons and big guns.  The idea behind energy weapons is critical hits are fatal (usually making the target melt, crumble to dust or dies in some other, equally dramatic fashion), but ammo and repairs are more expensive, and harder to find.  Big guns are lots of fun as well, with everything from a Missle Launcher and Minigun, to the ever-popular, Rock-It-Launcher, which allows you to load just about anything you can find into a giant tube then fire it at someone.  In one of the pre-release videos one of the developers used it to kill a raider with teddy bears, TEDDY BEARS!!! 

     However, ammo for most weapons is hard to find, the obvious exception being the Rock-It-Luancher (TEDDY BEARS, he killed her with freaking TEDDY BEARS!!!  Okay, I'm done.).  Because of this, melee weapons are usefull, even to a gun slinger, and as more than a backup weapon.  There is no reason to waste ammo on a mole rat when you can just bean the thing in the head with a baseball bat and watch it fly.  The other thing you have to worry about, with both weapons and armor, is the state of disrepair they are in.  A weapon slowly deteriorates as it is used (read: fired/swung), and will eventually break if you don't get it repaired.  Same goes for armor, except it only takes damage when you get hit.  To get your weapons or armor repaired you can either, find someone who can repair it for you, usually at a rather steep price, or repair it yourself.  However, in Fallout 3 your character does not have access to a magical hammer with which he can fix even the most complex weapons, but rather will require another similar or identical weapon to used for parts.

     This brings me to the massive amount of choice you are given.  I could delve into the choice given to you on a regular basis, such as what weapons to use while watching your ammo usage, which path to take, above ground through the super mutants, or the longer route through the metro tunnels, or something similar, but I'm going to stick with the bigger choices.  The first I'm going to cover is also one of the most obvious, shoot, or talk.  Most of the quests you take, or things you do, can be solved through conversation.  This applies to the evil side of things as well, are you the kind of evil person who would kill everyone for the sake of simplicity, or are you the kind of evil character who would rather leave them alive so long as they are usefull.  Of course, you can also play a good character, or walk the line or anything else, but where's the fun in that?  In fact, the choices you make, no matter how trivial they may seem at the time, usually has some effect on the main quest, even if it is just through your Karma (good or evil) level.  Another major aspect of choice in Fallout 3 is that of your speciallization.  Your character can only reach level 20, which will only give you enough points to perfect four or five skills out of the twenty or thirty.  You could try to put some points in everything, but then by the end of the game you wouldn't be very good at anything.  Picking your core skills, and then later what you want to be better at, will strongly affect the way you play the game.  To end this topic, I'm going to quote the notes I took to write this review, "It's nonlinear, now much more choice/freedom do you need!".

     The characters in Fallout 3 really make the choices harder to make as well.  I found myself passing up chances to be evil, simply because I actually felt bad about doing it.  I've noticed that the first time people play through the game, and are given the chance to try to blow up the city "Megaton", they become more and more hesitant the longer they wait to do it.  I think this is because every single character in the game seems to have a unique personality, with the exception of the few fill-ins in a couple of the cities (1-4 max, depending on the size of the city, some don't have any at all), and a couple of beggars that sound scarily similar. The personalities all seem well thought out, and seem to fit the characters both in looks, and in their back story.  The varrious characters also interact better, and while conversations aren't as prevailent as they were in Oblivion, I'm not sure that's a bad thing ("I saw a mud crab the other day.", "Nasty little things.", "Goodbye.", "Goodbye.", walks over to the next person and repeats).

     As I've mentioned before, your actions affect not only the here and now, but the world and story as a whole.  The game has multiple endings, and which one you get is completely dependant on your actions durring the rest of the game.  The background, or history, for the game is time-tested, and just as good this time around as it was in the first two games, excellant.  The main story is solid amd enjoyable, but I won't spoil any of it. 

     While the game world is smaller than Oblivions, you can't walk for half and hour and find nothing like you could in Oblivion.  Every five minutes you will find something interesting, be it a groupd of raiders, a trade caravan, a group of supermutants, or any number of non-combat related features such as an abandoned house or a ghost town.   Every detail works in the games favor, reinforcing the feeling of being in a post-appocalyptic Washington D.C., from the interactions of people and creatures, to the radio stations and scenery.  Also, the world map is deceptively small, given that the entire city of D.C. has a massive network of subway tunnels you can use to get from place to place, if you can figure them out. 

     Having sung Fallout 3's praise, I now feel obliged to move on to the bad part of the games, and my usual nit-picking.  First off, the games biggest, and possibly only, downfall is in the bugs.  Most of them are problems with scriped sequences, such as one quest where a character is supposed to walk up to another, say a few lines then shoot and kill them, but instead walks up, says their lines then misses their shot and neither character will talk to you, or the other character fall dead anyways.  Most of these either don't mess up your game, or can be solved by loading the autosave that was made when you entered the room, but they are still annoying.  My other major complaint is that, once you finish the game, you're done.  The only way you can keep playing is to load a save made before you started that last sequence.  My last complaint is with the rubble heaps in D.C.  If they had made them imposible to climb I wouldn't have minded or noticed, but no, they had to use the dreaded invisible walls.  WHY BETHESDA, WHY?!?!

    Over all, I am very happy about my purchase, it was worth every penny.  Hopefully, Bethesda will be able to get some patches out soon to iron out some of the bugs, but until then, safe often.  I would definately advise the game to anyone considering it, assuming they want either a ddep RPG with some action, or an action game with strong RPG elements.  Anyone looking for a slower RPG or a pure action shooter is going to need to look elsewhere.  For the latter, see my review on Left 4 Dead.  For the former, check out my Mass Effect review.  If you would prefer a good sports game over either, please GTFO!  Sorry.....  Anyways, hoe you enjoyed the review, I'll probably be writing another on whatever game(s) I get for Christmas, and possibly one for Civilization IV.  I will also be posting about a game called Dwarf Fortress soon, but will probably not write a review, as it's a little to complicated for me to be doing so just yet.

     My appologies for any spelling errors, my spell check doesn't want to work right now.  I'm also sorry for the lack of pictures, but until I get a decent capture card, and probably a decent desktop, I won't have acceess to screenshots of any Xbox 360 games. 

     Seeing as I've been slacking off a little on my reviews, I will be writing two this time.  One for Mercenaries 2, and the other for Mass Effect.  Speaking of which, my main excuse for the lack of activity here is my computer.  Since the fan died I can't play much more than ten, maybe fifteen minutes on Mass Effect before it overheats, and I have to let it cool for half-an-hour.  This obviously makes playing it a little tedious, although as my review will soon show, it was worth it.  This will also be my first post to introduce pictures.  I would have taken them myself, but my tv capture card is messed up, and my computer can barely run Mass Effect without a screen recorder in the background.  Anyways, on with the reviews!

---

Mercenaries 2: World in Flames

     Before I say anything else, I must first point out that this game was very aptly named.  Despite what you may read elsewhere, the explosions are beautiful.  The graphics in general may not stand up to some of the games coming out in a month or so here (Gears 2, Fallout 3, etc.), but the explosions are amazing.



     Unfortunately, I couldn't quite find any pictures that really showed a MOAB or Mini-nuke well, but that would kinda kill the feeling you get dropping it yourself anyways.  Some of the other graphics were impressive as well, but for the most part they were pretty standard, nothing ground breaking.  While I'm at it, I'll go ahead and finsih my complaints before I continue on to the praise.  There are a few glitches, things like floating money and the time I fell through the floor of the map.  But for the most part, my complains lie with what isn't in the game, rather than what is.  First of all, the lighter and leaking gas tanks on vehicles were both removed.  I can understand the need to do this to save processing power, and that the lighter would have been a pain to use, but they could have at least given us a flame thrower!  Something that bugs me and apparently everyone else is the lack of different lines.  If you've played the game for an hour or two, you've pretty much heard every non-story related line.  My other major complaint is the removal of splitscreen, I was really looking forward to that, and if anything had broken this game for me, that would have been it.  If you browse the web enough you will hear loads of complaints about stupid AI and easy melee kills.  This is a load of crap.  You can kill someone in a single melee, but if you couldn't the melee battles would consist of you running up to the guy and hoping you could mash "B" faster than the AI.  The AI in the game isn't great, but most of the challenge isn't from fighting individual units, it's from fighting large groups, while a tank flanks you and a helicopter rains large explosive rounds on your head (then proceding to blow the crap out of all of them with a huge bomb...). 

     I think that's about it for complaints though, this game is amazing.  The graphics are good, the explosions are increadable, and the arsenal is huge.  By this I don't only mean the number of different weapons, but the firepower of each one as well.  You'll love that RPG, but you'd be more than willing to ditch it once you find your first Fuel-Air RPG.  Those Bombing Run and Artillery Strikes may seem strong early in the game, but once you've unlocked the MOAB, bunker-buster, and another little friend I won't mention, for fear of spoining the game, they seem to pale in comparison.  My only complaint about the airstrikes is that most of them are called in VIA smokes.  Once you drop a smoke for a MOAB you had better run till your legs fall off or you will die with the rest. 

    Another thing I'm loving is the different mercs.  They each play differently, Mattias regenerates health faster, Mui can run faster and Jacobs carries a rediculous amount of ammo.  Despite having mostly the same lines durring the story scenes, they all have different lines when performing various actions.  The choices you make effect the game world at the end of the game, and at the same time restrict where you can and can't go without being attacked.  Hijacking vehicles is a lot more interesting in this game too, and makes the game a little more believable for me, by making it easier to hijack vehicles you have experiance hijacking.  The animations for hijacking some of the vehicles are absolutely hillarious as well, and besides, it's strangely satisfying to beat the guy in the huge tank unconsious without having to fire a shot.



     The story is corny, but still funny.  It is almost identical for all three characters, so you know you aren't missing anything important because of your character choice.  The whole game revolves around you character getting revenge on an employer who not only didn't pay, but had you shot in the butt too.  The game is a little short, but if you take your time and get all the side missions it will last longer, and destroying Venezuala will be that much more fun afterwards.  The game is still fun even after beating it, although you have to set your own goals and missions for the most part.

  That pretty much concludes my Mercenaries 2 review, now on to the Mass Effect review...

---

Mass Effect

     Mass Effect is a very story driven game.  In fact, I would go so far as to say that without a story, Mass Effect would suck, miserably.  Fortunately, that is not a problem, because not only does Mass Effect have a story, it has a story to rival Star Wars.  Of cource, this is to be expected, seeing as Mass Effect was made by the same people who made Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, another game with a great story.  With most games, my next sentance would describe who the character is, and what his motives are, and so on and so forth.  Unfortunately, that's a little difficult to do in a game in which you pick that yourself.  You can pick from a few different origin's and back stories, then develope your character further as the game progresses.

     What is pretty much set in stone, is that your character is a part of the crew on a prototype ship called the Normandy.  As you quickly discover, your mission was more than it appears (sorta standard sci-fi story, but it does get better, I promise!) and you are really here to be tested for enty into a semi-undercover law enforcement group, the specters.  As can be expected, the mission does not go as expected, and things just get worse and worse for a while.  However, not too much later things improve, you become a specter, are given the Normandy to track down a rouge opperative and the game quickly becomes rather open ended.  I'd say more about the story, but I don't want to ruin it for anyone who reads this. 



     Despite what you will hear from most people, the combat in Mass Effect is great.  The lack of an ammo system actually improves the game greatly, and the addition of tech skils, like disabling enemy weapons, and biotic skill, things similar to force push and such only makes it more interesting.  Something else about the combat that really impressed me is the level of control you have over your allies.  You can range from pausing the game every ten second to issue moving and targeting orders, to letting them do their own thing, and only giving orders when you need something specific done.  I tend to stray closer to the latter, more because I get to drawn into the game to remember that I can pause it sometimes than anything else. 



     Another thing I enjoy is the Mako, your moon rover of sorts.  Whenever you land on a planet, you use the Mako to explore it.  At first this seemed to only be a method of traversing large distances faster, but as I started finding planets that were so cold I couldn't stay outside for too long without being killed, I realized a second value to it.  I didn't figure out why the thing had big guns on it till later though.  I had just landed on a planet, identified two anomolies and was heading for a third when my screen shook a little and something behind me roared.  It startlyed me and I turned around quickly, only to find more snow, seemingly untouched by anything other than the Mako's tires.  Then I turned around... I was thinking, as I turned, that I had just run over something, and it had made a weird noise, but when I finsihed turning and a huge worm shot out of the ground (if you've ever read the Dune series, or played the Battle for Dune PC game you know what I mean) and knocked me flying.  Suffice to say, the next thing I saw was the loading screen.  I'd love to be able to say that I loaded, learned from my past experience and killed it, but I can't.  I learned, just not enough.  Yes, I died again.  The third time was the charm though, and I finally killed it, although it took me ten minutes, enough ammo to kill the population of a small country, and the majority of the Mako's shields.  I drove a little further and got into another fight, although this was simply and ambush by a much weaker force, and I dealt with it quickly.   I guess the point of this whole paragraph was to say,
A.  The Mako is AWESOME
and B. DO NOT THINK YOU ARE SAFE IN IT!!!!!



     My last words on Mass Effect have to do with the story telling.  The way Mass Effect tells it's story is both revolutionary, and strangely familier.  Each and every cutscene is beautifully rendered, the camera angles and increadably drama, the characters are voiced better than many animated movies, and the choreography just adds even more to the experience. Amazingly, that isn't even the most impressive part.  What sets the game apart is the way that every conversation you take part it, no matter how short or insignificant, has had equal attention paid, and looks it!  Every conversation, wether a side quest, a major story, or even just asking for frickin directions was carefully crafted and looks easily as good as the rest.  To back this amazing storytelling is a feature called the Codex, which is the equivilent of a Mass Effect encylcopedia.  Every race, every creature, the how-things-work pages for ships, guns, everything, it has all been fully fleshed out, and it all interlocks seemlessly.  To be honest, it works so well I'm surprised I haven't seen a corny internet religion pop up based around it.  Some of the more important pages even have voice-overs in and of themselves!

     And with that I reach the end of my dual review post.  I appologize for the lame pictures, but it's the best I can get at the moment.  As a side note, the Mercs review is based on my experiance with the Xbox 360 version, and the Mass Effect review off the PC version.  I appologize for any misspellings, but I'm tired, and it all seems understandable to me, so I'll leave it as it is.  My next review will probably be on one or more Half Life 2 mods, but I will probably wait until I can get a screen capture tool that uses a little less than half my CPU to write them, so I can add video and pictures.

 -Insert Corny Signout Line Here-