Arnie Carver

With all of the media hype about the upcoming sequel to Gears of War, is it really going to be that good? First off, I wasn’t too terribly impressed with the first Gears of War.  The game seemed a bit on the generic side. The voice acting was good and the chainsaw bayonet was kinda cool. Everything else about it was just average. I thought the controls were a bit “clunky” and that for me is about the worst thing that can happen to a game. Most of the game seemed very repetitive. Hide behind a wall, shoot baddie. Run to next area of cover, rinse , repeat.  The driving mission was quite lackluster as well.   Maybe  Cliffy B  will  make some improvements for the second installment of an average game.

Arnie

Well, here I am with my first ever game review. I decided on Halo 3 simply because it rocks!
As a fan of the first 2 games in the series and a new Xbox 360 owner, this was a no brainer.
With all of the media hype, Halo 3 could have easily been a disappointment. It was absolutely
not.

The campaign continues with the adventures of “The Master Chief” John 117. The Arbiter,
Cmndr Keys, Sgt Johnson, Cortana & Lord Hood all return to play pivotal roles in Earth’s struggle
for survival against insurmountable odds. With the covenant, led by the maniacal Prophet of Truth
invading earth and the looming threat of the Flood, It’s time to finish the fight. The Halo series
story arc is absolutely the best I have ever experienced in a game series. Even better than most
movies & TV shows.

The controls are familar and easy. Halo 3 is graphically stunning, with lighting and water effects
the best I’ve seen to date. Sound and voice acting follow suit and are top notch. With such notable
talent as Ron Pearlman as Lord Hood and Keith David voicing The Arbiter. Another home run for bungie.

Where Halo 3 really shines is the multiplayer. Several gametypes including co-op campaign, slayer,
Capture the flag and much more provide endless hours of white knuckled fun. The ranking system on
Xbox live really helps to match you with other players of comparable skill. Anyone who’s played
games online knows what it’s like to be utterly squashed by someone far more experienced than you,
or vice verca. The ranking system really helps to minimize this.

All in all, I definitely recommend Halo 3.

Arnie

First and foremost, It’s awesome!
As a child playing my Atari 2600, never did I think video game systems would evolve
into what they are today. The reason I mentioned the Atari 2600 is that some of those
games are available through Xbox live arcade. Missile Command, Pac-man & Joust are all
available. They look just like the arcade versions instead of their Atari 2600 counterparts.
Wow, they bring me back.

There’s also games available from the 90’s such as Street Fighter II, Smash TV and Ultimate
Mortal Kombat 3. They even threw in some original Xbox titles such as Halo & Fable. All for
your downloading pleasure. With demos available for free you can try out the games before
you buy them. Not only do they offer classic game demos, but also for new games just hitting
stores. As anyone who’s ever owned a game system can tell you, some games may have great cover
art and advertising only to be a real stinker. It’s always best to try before you buy.

Not only are games and demos available through Xbox live. There’s extra content for games,
like multiplayer map packs and character skins as well. That’s just the tip of the iceberg.
There’s also PPV movies, TV shows and music videos available. Microsoft really hit a home
run with Xbox Live!

’til next time
Arnie

My girlfriend will not let her 7 year old son play any of the Halo
series games because she says their too violent. I can accept this, he’s
her son and It’s not my decision to make. What gets me is that he loves
to play the Star Wars Battlefront series and that’s ok with her. For
those unfamiliar with these games, the violence level is comparable.
Star Wars Battlefront and Halo are both futuristic sci-fi shooters
with virtually no gore or adult language. The content of both games
can be compared to the Star Wars movies. For those unfamiliar with
the Star Wars movies, how is Antarctica these days?

Now I know that he is not my child and it’s not my decision to make.
I’m ok with with this but I just don’t understand. After all I grew
up on Ozzy Osbourne and zombie movies. I can’t say that hard rock or
gore had any adverse effects on me or anyone else that I know. I’ve
even managed to make a career out of the latter.

Katie is a good mother and David is a great kid and I don’t see
anything changing that. Good parenting is hard to corrupt.
Music, movies and video games are all just entertainment. People
are responsible for their own actions. To blame a piece of fiction for
anyone’s misbehavior is absurd.

Arnie

I finally broke down and got one. I know It’s been out for a year and a half
or so, but I just got one. As a fan of the Halo series for Xbox, of course I
picked up Halo 3 as well, but more on that later.

Out of the box it was easy enough to set up. It came with all the nessessary
cables for component and HD. Also in the box was 1 wireless controller, headset,
2 games and a 1 month subscription to Xbox live gold. Not too bad for $400. The
controller felt just like it’s predisessor for the original Xbox with a few minor
changes. The old black & white buttons have been replaced with bumpers just above
the triggers. There’s also a new button, the big “X” in the middle is now a button
used to access the Xbox dashboard.

The dashboard is very easy to navigate and pretty self explanitory. There are
a multitude of features on the dashboard. Enough to keep you exploring and entertained
for quite a while. You can even hook up the Xbox 360 to your windows media center pc for
all kinds of extra goodies.

Well, I’m off to do some gaming. I’ll be back soon with game reviews and more fun stuff.

Arnie