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Hello. I am back after 2 months off my blog. I have been really busy due to work and family commitments. Of course, I got totally obsessed with Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4 as well. As writing this, I completely forgot I did not write a review for CoD3 which I need to do to compare it to CoD4. I will write one after this. CoD3 was produced by Treyarch / Pi Studios. Infinity Ward who did CoD2 is back for CoD4MW. CoD3 was somewhat a big disappointment compared to CoD2 (which I gave it a 10). Now looking at CoD4, it is a much relief to see the franchise did not spiral down. I am sure that Infinity Ward had something to do with it as well since I have to say they did one heck of a job on CoD2. Unlike CoD3 plagued with bugs and issues, CoD4 was done well so far.

As in all CoD games, it is a first person shooter. All previous CoD games were based on one theme in which they were based on the historical battles in Europe of World War 2. CoD4 came out as a refreshing new theme but the same engine. My guess is that there are way too many games based on WW2 and franchise was getting stale on the WW2 kick so Infinity Ward decided to go with a more modern day shooter to refresh the series. This is a much welcome change as I am sure I am tired of killing Nazis and using nearly ancient weapons. Sure WW2 shooters were great but much like what we as a society tend to do: it was over done. So enter CoD4 Modern Warfare where we can use the modern day weapons in modern day conflicts. Using M-16s and AK-47s assault rifles to HK MP5s and M4A1s to RPGs and Javelins to get to the final objective: killing the rogue group that wants to destroy the free world as we know it today. Infinity Ward lets us use night vision, .50 cal sniper rifle, claymore mines, C4 explosives and airstrikes. We get to use FIM-92 Stingers to take down Hind-E gunship helicopter. And that is not the best part. You also can be the gunner on a AC-130 gunship, arguably the best close air support the US Air Force have in their arsenal. Now how cool is it to use modern weapons and ride in choppers in the comfort in your own home?

The story takes place in a time where Russian Ultranationalists and a terrorist group collaborate to take down the Free World. Some unknown Middle East country has a coup where the president is executed on live TV. Now the US sends in the US Marine Corp to take back the country and take down the leader of the coup. This is all a ruse to have the world attention to focus on the Middle East in which a Russian Ultranationalist leader take over a ICBM (Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile) complex in the Ukraine. Without providing too many spoilers, you are to prevent them from changing the world for worse and hunt them down like the dogs they are. Simple and easy… ok maybe not that easy.

You as the player will get to play as an SAS commando, USMC Corporal, USAF AC130 gunner, and in a flashback play the SAS group leader when he was younger which provides the origins of the mastermind of these terroristic acts. In the game play, you can return grenades as we did in CoD3. Instead of meleeing we can now stab the enemy silently. A new feature they added is that you can now run unlike traditional shooters you go at the same pace. In Rainbow 6 Vegas, it depends on how much armor you have on that dictates your speed in multiplayer.

As for the AI, as usual in Veteran (hardest difficultly), the enemy has pinpoint accuracy and knows you are coming before you know which corner to take. I play only Veteran in which I am there for getting achievements points and I like a challenge. Yes I do not agree with their idea of veteran difficulty is to sup the AI up to cheat but how else would it be a challenge? The easier difficulty such as recruit, you can charge into a platoon and wipe them out and laugh at them how they could not shoot a side of barn and wonder if Russian/terrorist training is really that poor. Do that in Veteran and you will be in a bodybag within 2 seconds and wonder if these guys are on drugs or cyborgs with lightning fast reflexes. Oh yeah, to spice up the challenge even further, one level has a time limit to reach to your objective. Time limit you say? Yes a time limit. This is where I sacrificed many cats for their nine lives. Most levels, I could breeze thru without dying too much but when the time limit is in play, you decision making and accuracy is put the test. I have died more than 100 times in one spot and what sucks is that the checkpoints do not get activated if you do not reach a certain area at a certain time. Now I could be playing on an easier difficulty in which I have plenty of time to spare. On Veteran, I have 8 minutes to save the United States where the terrorists are insanely awesome. On recruit, you have 12 minutes which is plenty of time when the terrorists are laughably stupid. But hey, it is a little different rather than wait forever to get to the objective. I am sure in the real world there are times when commandos have time limit to complete their objectives but the commandos are better than the terrorists. Or are they? To quote a US Navy SEAL from a documentary “The bad guys are just worse than us.” That is not true on Veteran in this game.

I give CoD4MW a 10 out of 10. After seeing what Infinity Ward did with CoD2, it was a much needed boost for the franchise. CoD4 is available on all platforms and PC. As of writing this, I got 980 points out of 1000 for the achievements. There is a bonus mission in which I am stuck in which I have 1 min to get to the hostage. Well I gotta keep trying but I got sidetracked back to playing R6V. I will go back to this game for sure since it has a great replay value.

I am really glad Infinity Ward decided to stick the points towards single player where most games balance it for single player and multiplayer. I am decent when going online but I often get my butt handed to me by 13 year olds. Hey, I am not a pro at this and I got a day job. I recommend this game and would not be surprised that CoD4 would be the Game of the Year.

Happy New Year to all. It has been a while but I have been busy. Too many things to work on and with my company bought out, lots of thing to take care of before the transition. Hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas and New Year’s.

All I have to say it is about damn time for this game to come out. Now having played Gears of War and Rainbow 6: Vegas during this past year, I thought it would be hard top those games even though it is Halo. If you have read my past reviews, GoW and R6V were ranked high in my book. R6V was by far the best game and should have received the 2007 Game of the Year. Yeah GoW was good but R6V was that much better. But I am digressing… Bungie.net likes to make their games go into trilogies such as Marathon (prequel to Halo) and it went thru three games. They also made Myth and that went onto a trilogy as well.

Halo 3 is the final chapter of a war fought by Spartan 117 John, otherwise affectionately known as Master Chief to the fans of Halo. To understand this hype and the story, you will need to understand what happened in the previous two games: Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2. His companion is a computer AI named Cortana. She provides him info throughout both games but less than so in the final third game.

In the beginning, we saw Halo: Combat Evolved which was the launch title for the original Xbox. Halo CE become the biggest phenomenon. I for one did not care at the time. I played it once with my friend, Brian, and we basically said it sucked without really playing the story only to have played multiplayer. It pretty much made my decision to get the Nintendo Gamecube instead of the Xbox. Halo CE opened into the story of the Convenant (a conglomerate of six alien races waging war against the humans in the distant future. Humans were losing. We see that humans fleeing from the Convenant accidently stumble onto a ring world planet called Halo. They crashland on it to flee the Convenant. We follow Master Chief from escaping and evading to mounting an assault on Convenant on the Halo planet. During this story, we see humans view Halo as a secret weapons cache left by another alien culture so long ago. Halo is deemed as the Conventant sacred artifact that will lead them to the great journey. We later learn in Halo 2 the great journey was death. Neither of these were correct assumptions as we find out later in the game it is a weapon of mass destruction on a universal scale for one reason: to fight another species called the Flood. The Flood is a parasitic species which adapts the dead of any other species (Human and Covenant) to their species. In a sense they are a virus that spreads and the only way to stop them is to destroy the possible hosts (AKA kill all living beings in the universe) in a way to starve the Flood. In the end of Halo CE, we destroyed Halo so it wont be fired and see Masterchief stranded in space . In the process we destroy a Convenant armada, we blew up the Halo ring planet, watch good people get sacrificed.

Enter Halo 2. This was the game that sold me to the dark side of owning the Xbox console. We see Master Chief is back with the Human population on Earth with his fellow Marine buddy, Sgt Johnson who is the second survivor of the previous Halo encounter. To get on the insight on what transpired between the end of Halo CE and beginning of Halo 2, you need to read the Halo novels. We also see the Convenant Commander (gold Elite) is disgraced only to become the Arbitor which the player is able to control in certain levels. We see the introduction of another race joining the covenant: the Brutes. In the end, we see the Halo (and others) are primed to fire but waiting the final command from The Ark which happens to be on Earth. We also see Master Chief is on the enemy ship that arrives to Earth to finish the fight. He left his trusty AI Cortana back with the Gravemind (who we now know as the commander of the Flood) which tookover the Convenant city called High Charity. A Convenant civil war broke out that divide the Elites and the rest of the Convenant.

For Halo 3, UNSC (United Nations Space Command) is a shadow of it former self as the Convenant as it was unable to repel the invasion. Humans are mounting a guerilla warfare against the invaders on Earth as the invaders look for the Ark. They recover the Masterchief at the beginning of the first level since he crashlanded from the Convenant ship he was back at the end of Halo 3. So begins the fight to the finish this war with new allies: the Elites. Yes, the Elites splintered off and now realized the Profits (Covenant Leaders) are liars leading the Convenant to oblivion. The Arbiter and Master Chief join forces for the final showdown.

Enough of the story, onto the game. The controls are a little different hence why I hear some people who were good in Halo 2 are getting the snot beat out of them in Halo 3. They changed the reload button to the right and left bumpers so you can individually reload each weapon in your hand if you have those weapons you can dual wield. As for the character, Bungie decided not to go with switching back and forth to the Arbitor and Master Chief. Arbitor is reserved for your friend as a co-op. Co-op can be using Xbox Live (first time for the Halo franchise and obviously copied from R6V and GoW) or the second controller. You have up to four players in co-op of the campaign. The levels of difficulty are standard: Easy, Normal, Heroic, and Legendary. I finished the campaign on Normal in about 9 hours. For those who do not know, Legendary is by far the toughest. Enemies are more plentiful and intelligent and your shields basically nonexistant. Fun right? Yeah right. I went thru level 1 after dying more times I can count. I launched into level 2 realizing too late I need to bring more which means I have run around and ferry weapons before I hit the checkpoint. Sure you can flank them but with 15 to 1 ratio, odds are you will not live unless you bring nice cache of weapons which unfortunately you have to painstakingly grab weapons back and forth. Or you can bring your buddy so he can be cannon fodder and you can flank them. I suspect Legendary forces players to get co-op help. Or at least make it easier. If you have three other players, it should be enough to go thru Legendary.

As for weapons, Halo 3 also bring back the original assault rifle from Halo CE, all the weapons from Halo 2 and newer weapons (big surprise there). For humans, we have the Spartan Laser (one shot, one kill for anything but very limited ammo.) and the Marine missile launcher. You can rip the turrets (much like Far Cry) but instead of unlimited ammo when it is stationed, you have 200 ammo left. You have the flame thrower that never made in Halo CE (but was available later on Halo CE for the PC version) and Halo 2 (also available on the PC version).

Enemies are more fearsome and plentiful. Flood infection forms are more plentiful than before. And Bungie (those bastards!) dropped a nice surprise, the infection forms invade all bodies whether living or dead; whether human, covenant, or flood (if the body is not destroyed). So you walk into a room full of corpses and if they are not flood, you cannot simply “dispose” of those bodies until they become infected but you have to kill them once they are infected and then dispose the bodies. You can basically smell ambush here but the problem is that you cannot do anything but run to a corner and face them all firing everything you got and throwing grenades like there is no tomorrow. And that was on Normal. I am dreading Legendary.

As for the levels, you find some levels remincint to Halo CE. For example, I find that the last level of Halo 3 was much like the last level of Halo CE. You drive the warthog before the place decides to go nuclear. Good news, there is no timer unlike Halo CE. Bad news it is easier but remember I was playing on Normal not Legendary yet. Much of the story seems to end in sadness as there are more deaths and betrayals.

Oh I am not even done yet with my review. It get better. Every damn vehicle is destructible. Yes even you can destroy the pesky Ghost dropships. You can blowup the Scarabs as well. Scorpion tanks dont die under one blast from the Wraith’s mortar. They added a 4 wheeler which is fast but useless. The Covenant has a chopper and prowler. The newest thing is the Hornet which is the equivalent to the Ghost. It is a little fighter craft which can hold its own against the Ghost and ground targets.

Anyways… Here are some tips to remember when playing legendary:
1. Spray and pray means you go home faster in a body bag. Assault rifle and SMG are useless except to quickly dispatch the flood infection forms.
2. Plasma pistol and rifle combo works Brutes as it did on Elites in Halo 3. There are a couple of catches, though. Plasma pistol discharge will shoot straight (no more homing capability) and if you charge up the shot, you drain the battery in a hurry so you need to shoot when you get the full charge.
3. Needler is your best friend for Brutes, Brute Captains, and Flood. But Bungie toned down the homing of the needles and instead of 80 needles you carry to reload your weapon, you carry 76. I do not know why Bungie did that. Oh yeah, you cannot dual wield the needler. That is the big downer here since you can carry twice the payload and unleash twice the firepower in Halo 2. DAMN YOU BUNGIE!
4. Keep your allies alive and armed with better weapons. The AI is smarter and with the right weapons, your work is cut out. For example I armed my men with the rocket launchers and sniper rifle, so let the slaughter begin.
5. Be patient. Fools rush in and they come out deader than a doornail.
6. Take cover. Not even for a second you sit out in the open. Get to cover ASAP. Or have fun dying.
7. If you can flank’em, they ain’t expecting you and it means you can kill them faster.
8. If they are sleeping or their back is turned, it is much better to melee them for a quick kill and quieter. Going in guns ablazing sounds the alarm and more enemies you can encounter.
9. Use the right weapons for the enemies encountered. If you bought the guidebook, read it since it gives you lots of helpful hints.
10. Use those grenades. Use them all. You can replenish from the fallen. No need to save them. Hand them out like Halloween candy. You have 4 types of grenades and you can carry 2 of each.
11. Remember each strength, weaknesses, and range of every weapon.
12. If you see a turret, always use it when possible. Do not rush to it, follow tips 5 and 6 to get to the turret. And once you are done with the turret, always rip it off to carry with you. Just like RAM on a computer, you can never have too much firepower.

I finished the Halo 3 campaign just a little over 9 hours on Normal. From what I read, it sounds about right. I started on Lengendary and I died pretty quickly. The default weapons they gave you are crap. You gotta go kill or trade with your allies. Overall I enjoy this game despite the long wait. So far it is good but on the whole, but I have decided what number to give… Stay tuned as I try my hand on Legendary. Level 1 already completed…

Well, after 1 month of being out of action, the gallery page is now working. The past two days has been a pain. Once I upgraded to the latest Gallery 2.2.2, I ran into the dreaded 404 Page not found. After conferring with the people who is hosting my site, the gallery is back to its old self. Now I need to upgrade this blogging application called Wordpress…

For the last 3 months since I got back from in June, I have been hitting the ground running. In that period up till now, I have packed and moved into my house, battled the builder to fix things in my house, get the amenities needed for the house, change addresses, go back to China again for 3 weeks, battle the builders again, finish cleaning up my stuff in my parents house, unpacking stuff in my house, throwing away stuff, received 4 more new projects after getting a glowing evaluation. On top of that, my webhost provider decided to upgrade the PHP which broke my gallery on August 17 in which I was about to leave Shanghai at that time. Talk about another problem I do not need right? Right. Then at work, I had to get my project ready for a company board meeting and the news projects are already behind schedule. Wonderful. Well as they say, when it rains it pours. Loads of fun there. In salvaging of what;s left of my free time, web maintenance was on the list of being sacrificed. Now I admit I was being lazy because I simply did not want to deal with it. I have twenty-one, yes twenty-one meetings I have to attend during my work week. Now due note my work week is far from the ordinary. My normal work hours are 11AM-5PM and 7PM-2AM. Yes it sucks.