Okay so I know that its been a while, but like I said I've been a little busy with school and finals. But since thats all done with I'm going to try and make more than up for it over winter break, so what do you say here we go.
MLG's logo even looks like a pro logo.
Now, most of us know what MLG is and that it's on the forefront of commercializing gaming, and for the most part their goals and means are fairly on track with the majority of the industry. However there are a few aspects of MLG that I think are a little misaligned. Its nothing that can't be changed just by a little logistics or better planning, but, change is needed nonetheless.
So first of all lets take a look at what MLG is currently doing, just to make sure we're all on the same page about this. So according to their website, the MLG is " the dominant media property exclusively targeting tens of millions of consumers worldwide who have a passion for playing video games as a competitive social activity". They also host over 750,000 matches on the Pro Circut and by online matches every month. Okay, sounds pretty good. Sounds like they have some pretty noble goals in mind. The question however comes into their implementation.
MLG should call in the expert for their implementation and logistics needs.
Gaming as a sport can not hope to hold up to football, basketball, or baseball simply because there are so many loyal die hard fans for each of those sports. They have been around for long time and have been integrated into a lot of family traditions like watching football on Thanksgiving after a nice big family meal. How can competitive gaming hope to compete with that? Now its not to say that its impossible but they need to do a couple of things in order to be able to hold their own.
The big thing that MLG needs to do is to host and sponsor open, and advertised tournaments on all consoles and PC's that anyone can enter from home. This would ultimately increase not only the awareness of their goal and their mission but also allow the "Average Joe" to be able to compete, very similar to the movie BaseketBall. This would increase their player base, and generate more traffic. By doing this they could not only host the small tournaments but they could also give out prized for these from the money generated from their advertising money, like 1000 Riot Points for winning a League of Legends tournament, or $20 to Playstation Store, or XBox LIVE Marketplace. I know that would motivate me to get off my butt and start trying out some competitive play, mainly because its usable. Is cash nice? Yes, but I already have a job and turning video games into a job takes away their fun.
For winning? Yes please!
The second thing that MLG needs to do is to encourage, and build their hosted tournaments into a way that truly captures the difficulty of being a good player in an ever changing environment. The best way to do this is the same way Arena, that old G4 show, did it: don't tell your players what their going to play until they pick up the controller. Now this isn't to say completely get rid of their old circuits for this exclusively, but instead open it up for a fun and unique experience that no other sport can deliver. Yes, scoring would be an issue, or would it? You can get points for being the fastest person to beat World 3 in Super Mario Brothers, or earn points for getting the most kills in Gauntlet Legends, or simply by landing your monkey ball in the center of the circle. Its really not as hard as you would be made to believe.
A third thing that can be done is MLG needs to have charity tournaments, where the players get close to nothing for winning but charities do, and not just Childs Play, not that they don't have a good mission its just that we as a community need to expand our influence, you know social acceptance and all that jazz. This also needs to happen not just during the holidays but around the year. By adding a single charity to donate, say 10% of their revenue and gift purse per tournament they could raise a ton of money for a lot of truly good causes and increase not only their awareness, but their players awareness and the awareness of the community as a whole. It would be a phenomenal thing to see, almost every other professional sport does charity work in some way, shape or form. So this is an almost crucial step into making MLG and professional gaming into an actual sport.
A very good goal, but lets diversify.
The trick is though to not just talk about it, but to actually do it. And the only way that something cant get done is if the players raise their voices and take it upon themselves to let it be heard. Once again, sorry for the absence, and till next time guys.
So first of all, sorry for not posting for a couple of weeks, I've been busy with finals and such for school. I promise I'll get you guys a couple of posts next week to make up for it.
Now onto what I wanted to say:
THANK YOU, 1000 HITS!!!
You guys rock, seriously. I know 1000 is a low number but its a stepping stone into something greater. So thank you.
So first thing is first, once again sorry about last weeks late post, and to supplement that I also would like to say that The Console War is a two-fronted event, the early side was the actual systems themselves and the second and later side is on games that are released on multiple consoles. Also I know that Movie Bob talk about it last week as well and I'm not copying him and his arguments, we just happen to have similar viewpoints and he just happened to beat me to the punch. So all respect to Movie Bob, I don't mean to plagiarize or steal your thunder.
But back to the topic. So Skyrim, yea. Needless to say this game is awesome. Probably one of the best that I have played in a long time. However, that does not mean its without its faults, like the non-sticky object movement function. Or maybe the RPS (rock/paper/scissors) food chain of the world. But all in all it is a great game.
Dovakiin.
So to any of you who have played any of the other Elder Scrolls games, Skyrim ones again takes place in the land of Tamriel, only this time in the Northern country of Skyrim. Oh also if you don't want to learn things about the game I would stop reading here and go pick up a copy before reading the rest. Back on topic now. Only this time its 200 years after the events of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. You see in the absence of the last great Dragonborn, Martin Septim (who turned into a Dragon, don't go flaming me for spoilers because everyone should know this already) the Human Empire has taken a turn for more or less the worst. The Elven Dominion has decided that Men are inferior to them and since decide that they need to be calling the shots for once.
Now the Thalomor, the Elves in charge of the Dominion, have decided that Talos, the first Dovakiin, or Dragonbron, should no longer be considered a divine, and as such have destroyed all of his temples and decided that any who worship him are to be killed, merely because a Man cannot become a divine. Theres also a civil war in Skyrim that conveniently happens to coincide with the reappearance of Dragons. Not like they could have made it so one happens and then the next, like oh no there's Dragons again lets kill those and then kill each other later. But it all falls on you, the last Dovakiin, to settle all of Skyrims problems.
Dragon from Skyrim.
Once again Skyrim is a sandbox RPG where you can go around and pretty much kill whatever and whoever you want with little fear of retaliation, because if they do you just yell at them. Seriously, you get mad and give them a little Foss Ro Dah, and argument over. So along with those sandbox reigns you have a go anywhere, do anything type of deal. Though Skyrim is considerable smaller than Cyrodil, ES4:Oblivion, you feel like you have more range of movement due to the fact that your a mountain goat and can climb almost anything. Also you never know when you'll run into a quest from a random stranger too.
Not only is this sandbox huge, there is a ton of customization. Think of a WoW talent tree for each and every one of your characters skills. This, if you can't tell, leads to some serious customization. The same fighting style can differ immensely, for example my Warrior specializes in Axe's and Heavy Armor, a friend of mine does Light Armor and Sword. Both are warrior and fundamentally the same just different executions. However the one downside is a complete lack of a stat system, which means no longer stacking Strength for some serious damage bonus/carry weight.
Fus Ro Dah is a meme now.
But I'm pretty sure the question on everyone's minds is: What are the Major quest lines? Well beside the story quest, aka stop the Dragons from taking over Tamriel again, and the subsequent end of the world, Skyrim offers more Major quest arc's than Oblivion did. Most notably there are The Companions (Warriors Guild), College of Winterhold (Mages Guild), Thieves Guild, and yes, of course The Dark Brotherhood, only much much less cool. We've also got a civil war that I mentioned before, oh, and the problems of every Jarl in Skyrim.
The main storyline though, is where the fun is at. Not only do you fight more dragons than the number of times someone said "Dragonball" in Dragon Ball Z, but you also acquire some really cool shouts, like Clear Sky's, and Fire Breath. You also get a chance at seeing a familiar organization from the rest of the Elder Scrolls series, a trip to the past, and an actual Elder Scroll. Thats right, an Elder Scroll. The first one to be an integral part of any of the games so far in the series. Oh also, Summon Dragon.
So many dragons you even get to wear them.
The weapons and armor is really good looking, though if you choose Light Armor and make your own you're kinda screwed. Also the enchanting system is really awesome, you essentially have to destroy an enchanted item to learn its secret, then after you do that you get to put it on any applicable items. Some enchantments can only be put on certain items, this is to prevent people from tossing chameleon on everything for a 100% invisibility and kill everything, you know, what you did in Oblivion. These new craft systems are very fun, and a great way to level up, so never look past them as a possibility.
No more Ninja in a living room in Skyrim.
Followers make their way back into Skyrim, only this time they don't die like a match in a hurricane. They actually do damage, and they will heal out of combat, rather rapidly in fact. You can get them fairly easily, all you really need to do is join a guild and get to the top, do a favor for a Jarl, or just hire to local drunk at the tavern, or in one case beat a guy within an inch of his life. It is very beneficial to think before you get into a situation when choosing your followers however. For example don't take an archer inside a cave, or don't take a Warrior if you're a Warrior too, they would just get in the way.
So all in all Skyrim is awesome. Bethesda said that they were gonna do a few new and fun things for Skyrim and they delivered on all accounts. It really makes me happy to know that there is a game company that still takes all of their games seriously and doesn't rush them. However the game isn't perfect, *cough* stat system *cough*. Though I am very excited to see what kind of DLC gets introduced in the near future. But for now Skyrim gets 9 Dragons, and one Fuss Ro Dah, out of 10. (Thats a 9.5/10 for those who don't speak Dragon.)
Okay so yea I'm a little late to the fight here on this one, but that doesn't mean that I'm behind. So you probably know that by "The Console War" I mean the debate about why to buy what on which console, or even which console to buy if you're just now getting into it. Yea, this issue has kinda been beaten to a pulp before so it feels like beating a dead horse but sadly enough its something that me and my friends still argue about. But I will do my best to also modernize the argument a little bit to keep it fresh.
Also sorry about the delay between posts but the semester is coming to a close so that means that homework is getting a bit tougher and more involved, oh and Skyrim.
Okay so as well all know in November of 2005 the current generation of video game consoles launched starting with the XBox 360, then following next November with the Nintendo Wii and Playstation 3. Now even with the years head start on them the 360 was having some trouble dealing with all the hype that the PS3 and Wii were generating. Yea it offered the newest and easiest form of online play; yea it boasted a graphics core on par with an Alienware; yea it offered a great backwards comparability with launch (although not extensive, and it still isn't extensive), but even with all of these things the PS3 and its Blu-Ray player, and the Wii with its motion controls still sold out for months.
Now I don't know about you, but I remember people camping outside of Best Buy for a week trying to get their hands on a PS3 or a Wii when they launched, and then turning around and selling them on eBay for almost double the price (my brother did this, gotta love free game consoles). I also remember Game Stop not being able to fill their Wii pre-orders almost 6 months after the system had released. With all this going on it was almost certain that the 360 was going to loose the console war. But the truth was far from it.
People camping outside of Circut City get interviewed.
Yes, the 360's launch was much less hyped and there was a lot less drama that went along with it. That doesn't mean that it failed, you see when the PS3 and Wii were launching the 360 unleashed its first exclusive, Gears of War, which I covered earlier, and that, coupled with Achievements, was what saved and secured the 360's position in this generation of consoles.
The PS3 however, boasting not only a Blu-Ray player, but a comprehensive home entertainment setup, and free online play in one system was quite a magnificent piece of hardware. For those of you who don't know/remember the original 60GB had a full array of camera card inserts on the front of the system, along with an HDMI output on the back, to guarantee that their customers got the greatest experience they could possibly have, for the low low price of $799. Yes the PS3 was by far the most expensive, but it was also the most versatile.
A vintage image for ya.
Lets not forget the Nintendo Wii either. Motion controls, avatars that can transfer from game to game,a wholesome family experience. The Wii was definitely able to compete with the best of them. Built around not only bringing the family together but also encouraging kids that exercise is fun and healthy. The other thing that the Wii boasted was the fact that it was the cheapest of the three starting at $299. So with Nintendo's name behind it and other great things like promises of a new Mario Kart and new Mario Parties, plus Zelda games, it's no surprise that the Wii was able to keep up with the 360 and PS3.
However for some people they were already biased on their decisions and what they were going to buy because of the last generation. However for other people, like me, a careful decision had to be made because $300 was a rather large investment for a gaming console. Things that had to be considered was how was each system built? How would they accommodate your needs? How much would you use its features?
For me, and from what I saw, I made my decision on the 360 for a couple of reasons. The 360 was more designed toward having a great gaming experience, and nothing else. With the Achievement system you could compare your progress with that of your friends and XBL had a great system for match making and voice communication going on. It's absolutely NOT because I didn't like the PS3 or the Wii, its just because the 360 fit me, my personality, and my play-style best.
Another reason I got a 360. Damn I miss this UI.
The sad thing is all of the hate that had existed between them at the start of it still exists today between some people, even though some of these people own at least two of the consoles. Yea I get that you have some video game franchise allegiances, but that doesn't mean that others are inferior. It all boils down to one thing, personal preference.
How we treat people who have a different opinion from ours.
You cannot advance video games in society if we as a community of video game enthusiasts don't band together and get over our petty arguments. We have to realize that something like this is stupid because it boils down to arguing about your favorite color and why its better than all the rest. Just remember this the next time you go out to your local video game store to pick up Skyrim (which if you don't have it buy it) and see someone standing next to you buying it for a different console. Or when you and your friends are arguing over why you bought what game for what system, remember that it just comes down to personal preference.
Okay so I was going to do a Harold and Kumar in 3D review, but I just wasn't feeling it. Long story short its good, better than the 2nd, not as good as the first and the 3D is worth it, mainly because they go over the top and it defines the movie but not in a preachy Avatar sort of way. If you want to hear more feel free to leave a comment or shoot me an email at moldbreakerz@gmail.com and we can talk.
But at any rate, this past weekend was a big weekend for me, well kinda. This past weekend was my first anime convention. And let me tell you it was a blast. I've never had so much fun or felt so relaxed at the same time, despite standing in combat boots for almost 18 hours a day. I really did enjoy it, and I got some great pictures too.
He's Dr. Roxxo and he does cocaine.
So I know what some people might think: "Oh, an Anime convention, what a nerd. That's not cool, I'm never gonna do that". That is completely 1000% not the case. I have never meet a more accepting group of people than I did at the convention. Everyone was very nice, courteous, and the best part is we all had something in common from the moment we stepped foot inside the door.
Not to mention the fact that some of the panels were absolutely hilarious. Friday night we went to one called The Organ Trail, yes I do mean Organ and not Oregon, which was a zombie version of The Oregon Trail. The panel was originally supposed to be a live action game but due to complications it turned into an audience wide team playing the computer game. Great times were had from killing off Snookie, to seeing Derp the zombie be the only other survivor on our great cross country trip. There was also Cosplay Chess, a Dating Auction, a Zelda panel, and even a panel devoted to flaming peoples favorite Anime. And panels weren't the only thing that was going on there either.
That's a big hammer.
Saturday night there was the cosplay competition. This was where con-goers, who choose to, could enter in their costumes to compete with other con-goers for fabulous prizes. There were a lot of fantastic costumes in a lot of interesting categories from just costume, swimsuit, skit, stage performance, and even the judges choice. Then on Sunday morning came the AMV contest, which I regretfully did not go to, even though I heard it was hilarious.
Nebraskon hosted a plethora of great guests as well, everyone from Keith Silverstein, Starrk in Bleach and Shen in League of Legends (also got his autograph), to Chris Sabat, Vegeta in Dragon Ball Z, and even Stephanie Young, Nico Robin in One Piece. An all star cast that was truly unique and hosted a great number of interesting panels, which I regret that I could not go to, oh well, next year. Its a great way for both them to meet their fans and their fans to meet their favorite voices.
The Champ!
Other random events took place, along with random shouts and random acts of random. Like the people dressed as the duo from Adventure Time running through the hallways yelling "What time is it?" That and even the giant duct tape amoeba shouting "One of us", "I choose Cthulhu", and "Joooiiinnnn ussss".
In addition to this I got a ton of amazing photos which I've posted on both facebook and on imgur. I'll throw some links down below. All in all it was a great time from all the people dressed as ponies, to the cosplay chess, the old spice man, and even the Nerdtron raves on both Friday and Saturday nights. Speaking of Nerdtron they're having their own convention and they do what the do for a great cause, check em out at: http://nerdtron.net/
Ponies.
So to all of those who went I'll see you there again next year, if not at another convention I go to, which I'll post here. So kids, till next time.
So I was at Best Buy the other day, yea I know sellout whatever, but I was picking up my copy of Captain America on Blu-Ray, which is awesome by the way if you haven't gotten it finish reading this post and go get it, when I noticed a display advertising last years Madden on sale for 1/2 off (don't know if it was a local deal or what). But this really got me thinking about how ridiculous sports games really are. I mean we pay $60 for a brand new game every year that pretty much consists of a roster update. There has to be something that can be done about this problem. Thankfully you have me here and together were going to fix it.
Now, as far as I'm concerned, the whole sports in video games has been around for along time, Excitebike, Duck Hunt, and Tecmo Bowl ( I had to) are all very good examples of very early sports games. Now times have changed a little bit since they have came out but they are still sports games. The big difference now is when those games came out people played them because they were new and interesting, now people buy them for only the reason of having to have the latest and greatest. Fortunately for my own sanity I have not gotten into the whole sports games fad and do not plan on it.
I'm sure we all have fond memories of this.
Still why are they so popular, well look back at my post on Call of Duty and what its caused. With the dawn of the new generation of games, i.e. better graphics, online play, and tournaments, this type of game has become more popular. People are willing to go out and spend their money buying them because their friends are going to get them and they want to play with their friends. Game Studios found something that works, and they're exploiting it.
Now I know that last week I said that games like Call of Duty should be applauded because they found a good marketing strategy and a good core experience that will keep people coming back to play their games for years. But why is it so different with sports games? Its like I said earlier: you pay $60 for a roster update, something that should be a yearly patch, or a monthly patch. These games will rarely add new features but once every 3 years and quite honestly the multiplayer experience almost never changes. The biggest things that change are the following: 1) The roster gets updated, 2) The graphics get slightly better (oh yay now i can see my players sweat stains), 3) The rookies get added in with new stats. That's it, three things, don't look for much else.
For the love of all that is good don't buy it.
However there is a solution that can we as consumers can do to help fight this problem. Actually I have more than one solution, but some are just better than others.
First, we can proceed to hunt down every last person who buys a sports game every year. Once we find them we herd them into a giant walled city for them to live in and not spread their affliction of uselessly buying sports games. While they're living in there we select a few people at a time and start them on a intense rehab program that involved watching hours upon hours of Hannah Montana and being shocked every time they think of next years Madden, or NCAA title. And once the rest see that their friends are leaving they will start to act in a similar manner and not buy a yearly sports title, thus curing them of their psychosis. Slightly cruel, but it should be pretty effective.
Second, we can form a massive lynch mob head for EA Sports' studios. When we get their its time to light your Molotov's ladies and gentlemen because this building is going to burn. Its like Queen Myrrah said: "Cut of the head of the snake and the body dies". The head is the game studios, burn it and they will no longer spew their yearly excuse for a $60 Frisbee. Less cruel, more fun, still effective.
You know you want to.
Lastly, and the most plausible one of them all, we limit ourselves on how often we buy these games. For instance instead of buying them every year, we only buy them every other, or every three years. This is honestly the best way for a couple of reasons. The game studio still gets to make their yearly abomination but they don't get the pleasure of giving it to every american gaming console. Also, if you only buy a copy every 2-3 years you still get the new content and graphics, but it will be all the better because you've had to wait for it. And the biggest reason that this is the best option is because no one will be blaming me for the tragedies that will ensue if either of the former should occur. Everybody wins.
If this was an actual achievement I might try playing it.
So I guess long and short is just don't buy into the sports games every year. The games don't evolve very fast, there's really not much new that is brought to the table, and honestly, it's kind of a waste of money. So not only help yourself from this terrible decision, but also help your friends with it, remind them next time that they decide they want a new sports game, ask them is it really worth it? Till next time.
Hello once again, seeing as it tis the season for Zombie themed bar crawls, Halloween parties, and Haunted Housing I figured I'd give my advise to staying alive till next year. Now these times can be difficult but we must always remember a few simple rules to abide by when fighting off hordes of the undead, and quite possibly the teen fakers as well.
They only want to hug.
1) Never for get the shotgun.
It is always important that one must be prepared, and nothing says prepared like a 12 gauge slung over the shoulder. I do understand that the shotgun has been over-romanticized in popular zombie media and on ever zombie survival guide but honestly why shouldn't it be? I mean nothing says badass like a gun that can blow a hole in not only 1, 2, 3, but up to 4 targets with a single slug. Where can I sign up. Just remember though that this puppy has one helluva kick to it and is not advised for young children, unless your fighting children zombies, then don't forget to kneel down to conserve ammo and get a better headshot.
2) Avoid spending too much time in major cities.
This one is pretty obvious if you ask me but it still needs to be said. Major cities mean one thing: lots of people. And a lot of people turns into a lot of zombies so its obvious that the biggest concentration of the zombie horde is going to be sitting in a major city. Now thats not to say to avoid them entirely, quite the contrary, major cities are where all the supplies are, ammo, food, stress relief targets, but you just gotta be careful. Just don't forget to get plenty of those supplies before you leave, remember efficiency is the key.
3) Travel in groups.
This one is a pretty non-standard way to do things. Most people will argue that you build an attachment and won't want to help your friends when they start craving your flesh. I say that if you do develop that bond the less likely that the time will come that they will get a craving for your flesh. Now a group of 20 can really waste your resources so you should try and stay down to about 4 - 8 people, enough to cover your ass and not be a burden. Also make sure these people are your close friends and have a good sense of humor to make surviving the horde even easier.
Left 4 Dead got it right, groups are key.
4) Stay mobile.
Every zombie movie says this and they say it for a reason. If you stay in one place its like putting a silver platter under your ass and saying to the zombies: "Here I am!! Come get me, I'm fresh and I taste good." However when your always on the move your more comparable to meals on wheels, only your wheels don't deliver. Also the advantage to staying mobile is you get to see the world, no matter how apocalyptically ravaged it is, think of it a photo opp at the Grand Canyon one day and swimming in the Atlantic the next, ahh the good life.
5) Impenetrable Fort.
Okay if you absolutely feel the need to bunker down just make sure that you're in someplace absolutely safe, like the side of a mountain, behind a 2 ft. thick steel door. Seriously though make sure that your personal bunker meets 3 qualifications: well fortified, able to see out, and see whats coming, and rig the place with traps. Think of it like this, a fence all the way around your steel and concrete palace with a minefield 50 ft. deep. Any zombies dare to come close just sit back and watch the bits fly, but don't forget to replace the mines or else wave 2 will surely be having brain soup for supper.
6) Chainsaws Suck!
Contrary to popular belief chainsaws are not your best friend when getting in close with the zombie horde. Mainly because the way chainsaws work, Its a rotating blade. Yea it can cut skin like butter but think of it like this, you need to start the chainsaw and how many regular old people know how to run a chainsaw? You need to have gas and oil to run the chain saw, why would you waste precious fuel on killing the horde? My suggestion is to simply use a giant meat cleaver, yea the bones may be tough to cut but with enough force you'll never even notice.
7) The Right Gun for Every Situation.
Now I know that I said shotguns were great idea but their not always the best, or even the right idea. For example a shotgun is ideal in a situation where your in close with a lot of zombies but what happens when you get in confined spaces and you are trying to escape the way you came? Well try a flamethrower. Or if there a ton of zombies that you need to take out fast? Well throw a Molotov or use a machine gun to thin their ranks. Never forget that sometimes is can be better to just blow a leg off with a pistol than to waste a shotgun shell on a single zombie.
Be prepared.
8) Take a Book.
Now this is pretty much counter productive to just about every zombie movie ever but think about it. Your going to need a way to kill some time and I suggest reading. The only thing you need to read is a little bit of light so you can kill a bored day by doing so. I know that I'm going to bring my library with me because why not? Books work fine no matter how many times you use them, they never jam and if your in a pickle you can throw some of the heavier ones at the zombies as weapons. Plus you never know what the currency will be in the New World Zombie Order and you may just be one of the few people with a book to read. Just don't get too into the book that you forget to watch your back.
9) Lights Out!
Now yes, light is a nice thing to have, during the day. But remember even zombies can see, how else could they find the best place on your neck to munch on. So at night, light isn't the best thing unless you're actively looking for something/someone. Yea all of the horror games and movies show the survivors as people who can't live without it but the truth is the human body can adjust to different situations, such as low light. For example has anyone ever laid awake at night not being able to sleep? Well you know how the room becomes more profound the longer that you are awake. This is because your eyes are adjusting to the low light level. So long story short you don't need it and you probably don't want it.
10) Keep your wits about you.
We all know that zombies are really just looking for deadly human brain hugs and that your job as a survivor is to keep that from happening. Now its time to make sure that you use your brain to keep from being brain salad. So use it, thats what the zombies want it and you got it. Its a game of capture the flag only your flag is your best weapon against the horde, just don't loose it because if you do its game over forever.
So just remember that next time there is a zombie apocalypse to keep to these simple rules and you'll be just fine. Happy Halloween everybody!
Okay so this is a topic that's honestly a little touchy for me, mainly because I have some very strong, and very mixed feelings about this. This weeks topic is what I like to call: "The Call of Duty Effect". And the only reason that it gets that name is because of Call of Duty's impact on the FPS genre. And its impacts were drastic, almost to the level that you would call it a singularity, almost.
Now no matter who you are there was a very obvious turning point in who played and payed attention to video games at about the time that the latest generation of consoles launched. Online gaming has been made easier and more convenient, partially because of wireless adapters on all current systems, and due to good design and some nice UI's the way we navigate a system has also improved, anyone remember holding the "A" button on the game cube to get to the system menu?
Hold it, hold it, there you go.
But you're still probably wondering what Call of Duty did specifically. Well in 2007 we saw a nice little man named Price and his 2 bff's Gaz and Soap, hunt down terrorists in an attempt to advert WW3. This game was called Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Yea yea yea, you all know that right? Okay good, but the real question is what does that mean and where does that come into play? Well CoD4 was one of the first console based shooters to introduce a leveling system that gave the player perks and bonuses to playing the game and using specific weapons, it became extremely addictive, and very easy to play. But also because it was a shooter a lot of people felt as if they could play it easily without looking like a dork for playing for hours on end online. Long and short is it gave players a reason to continue playing, and was "cool" enough that people weren't afraid to be seen with it on their TV's playing online.
Start of a Revolution.
But why is that such a big deal? Well because the standard rep to online gaming prior to this was people sitting in their parents basements playing WoW for hours on end. Now obviously that hasn't gone away, but a new rep for people playing video games is the 20-something sitting in a college dorm room, or apartment, playing call of duty all night. So why is that bad? Well like any other stereotype its not an accurate representation for either people who play Call of Duty or people who play online video games.
But again, what did CoD do wrong? Well in short nothing, in fact they did more things right than they possibly could have done wrong. They built a good game that kept people playing, in fact I think that the people at Infinity Ward need to be applauded more than anything else. The people who are to blame here is society. And before you get the angry lynch mobs and come to burn my house down because I suggested that a single person isn't to blame you might want to hear me out. When I grew up, this was the 90's, the norm was to go outside and throw a ball around, or hit each other with sticks, baseball bats or other blunt instruments. However now its much more normal, partially because of the current level of technology, for children and younger generations to sit inside and play a video game. Needless to say this is a bad thing to older generations, they didn't do it and frankly just don't understand it.
This would've never happened 10 years ago.
So CoD comes into play with this because it is one of the first games to streamline video games into a more norm approach to gaming. For example at work the other day me and a couple coworkers were talking, one of the girls made a comment saying "If my boyfriend is playing CoD then I just leave and see other friends." Now, knowing her, and having half a brain, I could take a guess and say that her boyfriend isn't nearly as into the video game scene as someone like me. However thats exactly the audience that CoD targeted, and they hit them on the nose.
Taken at Call of Duty XP, this kind of proves my point.
There are a few positive things that came out of this "Call of Duty Effect" though. One of which is the MLG, or video games equivalent of the NFL to football. I think that this is a pretty cool idea, though I would like to see more regional competitions and some minor leagues for people who play recreational like me. Another thing that came out of this was just a larger acceptance of video game culture. Now I know what I said earlier about society being the one that condemns video games and the usual arguments of "if society condemns it how can society accept it" may fall into place here but the thing is when I was a kid even wearing a Mario T-Shirt was like slapping a giant red "NERD" sticker on them.
This kid would get "NERD" tattooed on his forehead.
One of the biggest things to come though is the general acceptance of video game conventions. Not only does this help to drive more people to these conventions who already play video games but also helps to spark the interest in people who don't by seeing this on things like MSN or Yahoo! News. It's even at the point in time where people are becoming more excited about events like this happening. Hopefully this will lead to a general acceptance of other such conventions in the future like a gaming convention (not video games) , anime conventions, and even just a general nerd convention. Not that these don't happen but they are still considered something that is "socially awkward" by society, mainly because society doesn't understand them.
So long and short a lot of both good and bad things have come out of The Call of Duty Effect, and I my hope counts for anything, I hope that only good and positive feedback, and a general understanding from society comes out of this. Also you never know, maybe we'll start to see Call of Duty acting as a gateway for the most unsuspecting people to get into even nerdier thing such as comic books, role playing and manga. Also I know that I got a little off from just the FPS genre, but thats just kinda were things went. But till next time, keep on rockin.
Okay so this whole idea of superhero movies was brought on by a commercial I saw last week advertising Green Lantern coming to DVD last Friday. It also reminded me of how much I felt dirty for enjoying Green Lantern, as a stand alone movie it was good, however calling it Green Lantern is like slapping DC across the face with sweaty jock-strap while riding off into the sunset upon a Nazi tank. Needless to say some superhero movies aren't exactly a good thing. But with that little tangent out of the way lets get on with the show.
In 1978 Richard Donner shocked the world with the first major motion picture superhero movie: Superman. Yes that classic movie staring none other than Christopher Reeve as the wondrous man of steel. Movie going audiences everywhere were shocked, wowed and otherwise overly excited about his dawning on the big screen. And thus launched a flurry of carefully created superhero movies, that until the year 2000, had a good heart but were ultimately underfunded, with a few minor exceptions.
In the dawning of the new millennium, fresh off the shoulders of movies such as Blade and Mystery Men we see the dawning of a new era of superhero movies. This new era was designed to include all generations from getting the younger kids involved in superheros and comic books, to giving the older generations nostalgia from their child hood of trading cards and $.05 comic books (you know that the value of things has gone up when you can't even find a cents key on your keyboard). The thing is: it worked, mostly. The 21st century hit the ground running with movies like X-Men and Spiderman. So it should be no surprise that Marvel had control of the first big time superhero sensation and Stan Lee spared no expense to capitalize on this.
I'm sure we all remember this.
The times it seemed were going well, however as fate would have it there were sharks in the water. For every good movie that came out there was at least one bad. With such travesties as Hulk, X-Men: The Last Stand, and Blade: Trinity lurking in the midst, its no surprise that the genre had gotten such a bad rap from A LOT of film critics.
But in 2005 a light was turned on at the end of the tunnel with the dawning of Batman Begins, Christopher Nolan's reboot of Batman movies with Christian Bale as the caped crusader. This light only got brighter with titles like Watchmen, Kick-Ass, and Iron Man 2, which, despite being a superhero sequel, was quite good.
Now this year, 2011 we see such movies as Thor, Captain America, X-Men: First Class and the debauchery that was called Green Lantern, 3 of 4 are good which for superhero movies is a win in my book. That and all the buzz about next years movie based on The Avengers and the third of the new generation of Batman movies the future only looks better.
Stan Lee makes all the pain of bad superhero movies go away.
But lets get into what we all want to hear about: my opinion. Now if you ask me letting big name Hollywood directors and Actors just romp on and make superhero movies is a mistake, but if that never happened then we would never have even the good ones. However a good idea would be to get the creators of such superheroes involved in the making of the movies, oh wait, Stan Lee, riiiigggghhhhttttt (ever notice how Marvel movies tend to be just better).
Back to the whole Green Lantern thing, sorry I know I said I was done by I just can't get the horror out of my head. It's a classic example of a movie that if it was a purely unique idea would have been great but it wasn't so it was bad. And when things like this happen its not necessarily the fault of one person every time, but it does boil down to three major categories: Actors, Directors, and Writers. For Green Lantern it was a combination of all three. The execution wasn't very good and with all the cheesy one-liners you could tell that they spilled Ryan Reynolds all over the script. Ryan Reynolds couldn't decide if he was playing a fun loving Hal Jordan, or a Hal Jordan who was so pissy about everything going wrong in his life that he came over as being way too serious, and Martin Campbell gave him no help, quite literally NO HELP (probably because he was too busy counting his presale money and planning what size of yacht to buy next).
What Green Lantern made me do
You know an even better option to making these movies better would be for big time movie studios to make an open contest taking in fans concepts and screenplays (if they have them) and choose 15 they like the best and have a fan vote to, wait for it, GIVE THE VIEWERS WHAT THEY WANT. Because ultimately that is who is paying the bills for the movie, the viewers and a lot of Hollywood tends to forget this. Also we could go ahead and throw in an open casting call to fill these roles, because its not that big and well known names are a bad thing, but they're not the best thing to use when trying to fill a character that was a major part of our childhood, i.e. Nicholas Cage in Ghost Rider. Yea, a few people like Robert Downy Jr. can get away with it. But I can't be the only person who thought of Steve Rogers as being portrayed by The Human Torch, or the guy from Push.
Oh hey look Captain America, or better know as The Human Torch.
Now I'm all for Hollywood making these movies, but if you go by everything that I say they need to have a severe leash on some parts of them, thats right Ghost Rider, looking at you, and give more freedom to the intellectual property holders because, here's an idea, they're the ones who made it good in the beginning. So long and short when you go out next Tuesday and buy your Blu-Ray/DVD combo packs of Captain America: The First Avenger, just like I will, enjoy it, but remember to think about which superhero movies are worth the money you spend, and which ones just leave your DVD/Blu-Ray player with a swanky after funk that you just can't get out of your house.
So first I want to apologize about all of the Gears of War posts so far but this will be the last one for a while, that I plan on of course. Also I apologize for the delay, I've been a bit busy. But in addition the usual spoiler warning goes into effect with this post. So here we go.
Last week we saw the launch of Gears of War 3, and also the end of the franchise. With this end comes a lot of questions, and a lot of answers, but not only about the storyline. For example Gears of War was a franchise both every unique and very familiar all at the same time, whether it was the unique cover based, third-person shooting or the underlining story of the game, where there are two sets of primary dominant species on Sera, the Humans and the Locust.
Today I'm going to dissect the second of those impacts, the story. For any of us who have read the Gears of War novels by Karen Travis you know that there really is a lot of back story to this universe. And just by looking at the first game, before the back story became as big as it is now, we can tell that it is just hinted as to how big it could be. The first Gears of War book, Aspho Fields, was released almost a month before the second game. Aspho Fields, for those who don't know, covers the events leading up to the development of the Hammer of Dawn and ultimately how Marcus, Carlos, and Dom became Gears. This is coincidentally the first time we meet Bernie, Carlos, Adam Fenix and Helena Stroud. Like I said a lot of back story.
Aspho Fields by Karen Traviss
All 3 novels were written by Karen Traviss, and coincidentally so was Gears 3, I personally tribute her the reason that Gears 3 had such a focus on its story. BUT the big point here is that if it were not for Karen Traviss would we have the Gears of War story we have today? Probably not, mainly because she did do so much of it, even if Epic decided to hamper her creativity by adding limitations to her stories and forcing a lot of major elements or events to occur (which probably did happen).
Why is this important though? It's important because Gears of War has a rather unique story to drive it, like I mentioned earlier, there are 2 dominant species on the planet. It's almost a classic war of technology vs. nature, actually I lied, it IS a classic war of technology vs. nature. On one side we have the COG with a very high tech military, including a satellite weapons system, and on the other theres the Locust, whose vehicles are quite literally subterranean animals with saddles. But then we add in our secondary humans, the Stranded, they almost act like a morally grey middle ground, same goals as the COG but a lot more lawless.
Saddle Up
So to me the 3 initial factions act upon basic human nature, the nature to advance, the nature to survive, and the nature to conquest. Where we have the COG, Stranded, and Locust respectfully. I draw this conclusion because of what each faction ultimately stands for. While the war itself is almost a message telling us that if we want super advanced technology we can't forget about where we come from as a species. Nature is something to preserve because it is scary. I mean for example there are plenty of things that can kill a human, from a spider the size of your finger to a bear 3 times the size of you.
For example, this could kill you.
This historical value of the Pendulum Wars in Gears can also teach us a valuable lesson. The lesson here is that fighting over fuel is just plain silly, as is a huge land grab or even a small disagreement. The COG and the UIR fought mercilessly for almost 100 years to end up being attacked by an enemy that quite frankly didn't care. One of my favorite quotes from the game is where Adam Fenix says "What if our next enemy doesn't think like us? We need to be prepared for a situation where this is the case." This quote really hits home the fact that no matter what you need to be prepared, and both the COG and UIR were not.
So next we enter the Lambent, they are quite literally a parasite upon the world, like a giant mushroom that can also infect people. Very similar to the green goo in Killzone 3 encasing the entire world in poison. The Lambent represent a more feral side of human nature, one that doesn't really conserve or care, it just consumes all in its path. There is a lesson to learn from the Lambent however, be mindful of your actions and their repercussions. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, and people need to be mindful of this.
The appropriate reaction to this is "Awwwwww"
Now I'm not trying to shove a political lesson down your throat our teach you some big humanistic lesson, because frankly I don't care, I also don't actively try to preserve nature. All I'm trying to make a point here is that sometimes it pays to take 2 seconds to critically think about a situation before just jumping right in and trying to solve the problem.
Okay guys, here it is: My review of Gears of War 3. And just because I can I'm gonna go ahead and throw one of these in here:
Obvious warning is obvious.
Okay so now that thats out of the way and those who don't want to know anything about what happens have left I can get on with it!.
So if you remember, last week I kinda covered what happened in Gears 1 and 2 for all those who either couldn't/too high to remember or who were too lazy to go play it through themselves. Well it turns out that most of those events were deemed "unimportant" by Epic seeing as they didn't end up in their "Previously on Gears.." video. So eh, be glad I posted it or hate me for wasting your time.
Gears 3 on the other hand starts off with a flashback, Marcus in prison, only this time Anya releases him. After going out side tou fight Locust in a dream about how Marcus' father, Adam, "died". Waking from the dream Delta squad is called to action stations, this is where we meet Jace. We go outside to see Labment stalks surrounding the ship. Prescott lands, after a mere 18 months of being on vacation from saving humanity, and brings with him news of Adam. The Lambent attack, people die and remember that GIANT FISH? Well this time its back, only now it glows in the dark. Needless to say you gotta kill it, so lets take these things called Silverbacks, exosuits with a machine gun and rocket launcher, or in other words: fun. You serve fish Medium Rare and cut to Cole and Baird.
Samantha Byrne
Jace Stratton
Cole and Baird were sent to look for supplies along with Clayton Carmine, the badass older brother, and Sam Byrne, some badass female gear who tries to act like she's not a girl. They visit Coles home city of Hanover, and eventually his old stadium where he has a cinematic moment of famedom for old times. Then onto the bridge to see Stranded Locust, and Tickers in crates, which is how they kill the Lambent Leviathan. Act 2 goes through some clean up of the wreckage to find Delta squad and get to Prescotts dying ass to see why he came back. Turns out there is a research base called Azura where Adam Fenix is working on a Lambent killer so we set off to a place called Anvil Gate. And on the way we dodge Locust attacks and Queen Myrrah and here skank ass as Cole so adeptly puts it.
Queen Myrrah
After picking up Dizzy and getting to Anivl gate to meet up with Hoffman and Bernie, and Islander with a few screws loose in her head. The locust attack, followed by Lambent and oh joy our favorite thing in the world: a Lambent Berserker. If you thought the Berserkers had some bad mood swings the Zerker makes them look like a well behaved child in 16th Century England. After the Zerker blows up we see what is going on with Azura, and how to get there: by submarine. Delta goes off to get fuel from Mercy, where Dom's wife Maria is from, and Char, the first place to be destroyed by the Hammer of Dawn. In Mercy some bad shit happened and we now have Lambent humans, oh the humanity. Something else happens that I won't tell you as to not ruin the moment. Next door in Char we meet up with some Griffin guy, voiced by the one and only Ice T, who runs a Immulsion factory there, needless to say he doesn't like the COG. Myrrah attacks and everyone gets pissed and leaves to find a submarine to take to Azura.
After fixing the sub up and having a nice fun little moment of fishing with rocket launchers we get to Azura, and let the revelations hit the fan. I won't ruin all of them so don't worry. Delta proceeds to turn off the Malestorm generator that protects the island in order to land some backup from former enemies UIR state Goryasna. You climb a tower to get to Adam Fenix where our favorite Queen tries to stop you while she bitches that despite working on the Lambent problem for twenty years he has had no success and she wont let her "people" die. After wiping out the Locust guarding Adam you reach the top of the tower and proceed to turn on the "Weapon" which is like a giant microwave emitter that combusts Lambent cells all over the planet. Turns out the Lambent are actually a parasitic mushroom that kills its host because its not a very good parasite. Long and short you stab the Queen, watch Adam die and see Carmine Live/Die (come on, did you really think that I was going to ruin this one?).
Clayton Carmine: Professional Badass
The only downsides to the campaign is that they figured that you would have read the books before playing the game, which makes sense but not everyone is a reader (Insert plea for a Gears movie here). They also seem to forget that killing Lambent takes up a lot of ammo and that more ammo boxes would really help. Also if anyone seems to recall your favorite non pistol/Lancer/Gnasher weapon and you decide to pick it up, just be smart and conserve ammo, or you will run out. The large ammo boxes no longer fully restore your ammo to max, or even give you ammo on all guns so it forces you to play smart. The Retro Lancer makes its debut in Gears 3 and its does give itself a good showing. While its melee is really good and powerful, aiming with it while shooting feels like trying to steer a charging Rhino while being attacked by a chimpanzee. The Hammerburst and Longshot also both take on a new feature; The Hammerburst shows off its Iron Sights while the Longshot brags a non zoomed focus where you click RS to zoom on in.
Delta fighting the Lambent.
The Silverback and Civilian Loader both control rather similarly but the both boast a melee attack that can hardly be called effective, or at least under fire. Two new "turret" weapons make an appearance: the One Shot and the Vulcan. The One Shot is just that, a high powered sniper rifle that probably shoots bowling balls where the Leveler is a 2 man gun that is fast on the feet but needs a second person to load.
Now, no matter what you thought of the campaign you do have to give them props for everything else, more multiplayer based achievements, community events, 4 player Co-Op, and Berserkes in Horde mode. Thats right, Berserkers in Horde mode, also did I mention that they come in the Lambent variety too? Overall all of the multiplayer is really good, people just need to learn how to not leave the damn game after dying one time.
As I said before Horde mode had a total overhaul where you can build barriers and turrets to help defend yourself against attack, or you can save your in game money to buy ammo and weapons, unless the enemies are being generous and drop theirs on the ground for you to loot. You get money for every point you earn and thats how you get upgrades to your turrets and weapons, and even a second life. Every 10 waves there is a boss fight that can range from anything from a Brumak to a Zerker (fun). Every so often you'll get some Lambent and Locust and then its a 3 way fight where you still want to get in close and personal just so you don't loose any chances to make money. Now opposite to Horde is a mode called Beast mode. In Beast mode you play as the Locust to kill humans. Now thats an interesting twist, you play as the underdogs for once, wait, wait, in the whole campaign don't they always complain that Locust are so much "more powerful" and "better equipped" than humans? Well Beast mode doesn't feel that way. This may be because you're timed, and all the barricades are pretty much fully built with auto-turrets. Its pretty fun, but its also pretty hard, yet again making you think.
Lambent Berserker
Overall Gears 3 is a great way to end a great series. Going out on a high note on almost every aspect of the game, with stress on the almost part. The graphics and sound keep up from the last games and like I said the gameplay is almost the same. However I do thoroughly enjoy it and will keep playing it for a while yet to come. Gears of War 3 gets a blood-gushing 9 curbstomps, out of 10.
Next week we are going to be given a game that will end an era of our lives (and not like Halo where they claim to have ended it but Microsoft then announcing another trilogy). Of course I'm talking about Gears of War 3. Now for those of us who are unfamiliar with the Gears of War franchise Gears is a video game trilogy which takes place on the planet Sera where a horde of creatures, The Locust, from the bowels of the planet has arisen to fight humanity and seize the planet. This being after humans have been fighting each other for near 100 years in what was called the Pendulum Wars. The last remaining group of civilized society is called the COG, the Coalition of Ordered Governments.
In Gears of War 1 we are introduced to our rather overly disgruntled group of heroes: Marcus, Dom, Baird, and the Cole Train. Marcus is a war hero of the last war who was sent to prison for abandoning his post to attempt to rescue his father, is the main protagonist. Him and Dom have a very distinct history, I'm not going to get into it mainly because the books are just hard to cover since they jump around so much, all you really need to know is that Marcus, Dom, and Carlos (Dom's older brother) were childhood friends. Dom is desperately trying to find his wife which is a prevalent factor in both games. Baird is some sort of mechanical super genius, a natural engineer if you would. This comes in handy as he fixes almost anything that breaks that Delta Squad come across. Cole is a former 'thrashball' super star who turned to military service on E-Day, when the locust first emerged. He acts all tough but he really is the squads teddy bear.
Delta Squad - Baird, Cole, Marcus, and Dom
The game starts with Dom rescuing Marcus from prison to help him on a mission to drop a sonic resonator inside the locust tunnels. From there we meet a man named Hoffman. Turns out, because you can't resist dramatic tension, that Hoffman and Marcus have a rather colorful past. Marcus was in Hoffmans' unit when he abandoned his post to look for his father, so Hoffman has a tiny bit of a grudge. Here we also meet Anya, the only woman that's left in the world. She's the voice that you hear in the back of you head the entire game, literally the entire game. So after fighting through Jacinto and reaching a place called The House of Soverigns, the COG capitol, we are introduced to Cole and Baird. After we meet them and get the sonic resonator they fight a female locust on steroids called a Berserker, how the Locust reproduce I have no idea.
From here we meet a group of stranded who say they have a Truck for you, you just gotta go get it and fuel it up, oh and did we mention that there is flying bats (the Kryll) that will literally cut you in half if you walk in the dark? Good thing we have flashlight, oh no flashlights? Well too bad, deal with it. So we get the piece of junk beater, drive back, fight some more locust, rescue Baird and Cole and get back to our objective: Going to an abandoned imulsion, fuel, mine to place the resonator. Yay for exploding monkeys. So Delta fights their way through the refinery, Dom and Marcus through the upper part and Baird and Cole through the sewers, more "Ahh, Shit!"'s are to be had and they place the resonator. Then its back to the surface to find out why you fail.
On the surface Hoffman contacts Delta with bad news, the resonator didn't work (because Baird didn't make it) and it turns out that Marcus's fathers bots have mapped more of the tunnels than the resonator did so its up to Delta to get the targeting data. Marcus and Dom go to the Fenix estate to find the data that the COG is looking for. But that's not all they find, they also find the entire locust horde having a BBQ outside the estate, needless to say Marcus expresses his one feeling: being pissed off. They clear the house, get the data then off to the (Cole) Train station to get on a train to blow up the Locust tunnels. There on the Train they encounter General RAAM, the big bad Locust General. They kill him, launch the Lightmass Bomb, more aptly a missile, into the Locust tunnels. They do this, everybody celebrates, we won the war, games over.
General RAAM
However 6 months later we find Delta in yet another similar situation, only this time Jacinto is going to fall to the Locust. Turns out the Lightmass didn't do anything, save for kill the Kryll, and only made the Locust even more resolute to kill humanity.
The COG and Chairman(Furher) Prescot, being desperate, decide to attack first. So after Marcus, Dom and Tai (an islander that is tougher than a rock and more shamanistic than a Wow player during his weekly raid) rescue a hospital from the Locust, by literally destroying it, they head out of town to the Derreck Docks. It is here we meet the Dizzy, and Betty, one of the many Redneck powered land assault platforms the COG has in its arsenal. As you make your way to a place called Landfall you are given plenty of opportunities to mow down Locust in a turret to help kill time on the ride. Outside of Landfall you must get out to kill some new Locust called Tickers, little walking bombs that like to run up to you and nom your face off with explosions. So you gotta escort Betty on foot. 300 tickers later you reach the cemetery and set off to The Hallow, but not before being attacked by Skorge, a Locust general that dramatically wields a Two-Headed chainsaw. Tai and Dizzy fight him while the rest of Delta go underground to find what is sinking cities.
Dizzy, Maria, Tai, and Skorge
Once underground we navigate a series of tunnels to find out that the Locust are actually taking human prisoners to work as slaves in their mines, or to rape them horribly, nobody knows. Aboard on of the tunneling machines you run into Tai again, only hes all cut up from his fight with Skorge, Marcus hands him a shotgun which Tai returns the favor by shooting his head off. So further down the tunnel we run into a wall that suddenly disappears, what could it be? After a giant loop we suddenly encounter the city of Landfall, again, underground, along with a GIANT WORM. This is where Marcus Screams out the most ridiculous line in the series to date: "Anya, its a Giant Worm! They're sinking cities with a giant worm!" Hooray for terrific writers! In the sunken landfall Delta meets up with Cole and Baird again, and gets trapped on top of a building and has to fight for evac because the COG's plan failed, yet again.
Yes Marcus, we know.
After getting evac Delta shows how truly bad ass they are by getting eaten, by the GIANT WORM. They go travel through it to cut its hearts to pieces, kill it and end up having to chainsaw their way out of it proving once again that all of life real problems can be solved by cutting it in half.
Hoffman once again contacts them with a "Special" mission for Delta to investigate an old research lab where they learn of the Sires, children taken from their parents that were turned into locust like creatures, only this is before the locust ever came into the picture. It raises the question of did humans create the locust? Probably, we really are that dumb you know. So after fighting through the facility we run into Razor Hail, quite literally knives raining down to cut you to pieces, well not knives but hail that is as sharp as knives. So dodging from cover to cover to survive the little encounter Marcus and Dom work their way back to the tank where they proceed up the mountain to make their way into the Hallow.
Once inside Delta runs into a group of stranded who says that they have seen Maria, Doms wife, and that she was with some dude named Stu. So after finding the camp ground empty they leave to take a boat to the Hallow to continue on with their mission when they encounter a GIANT FISH!! Yes, a GIANT FISH and a GIANT WORM are in Gears of War 2. The GIANT FISH, named a Leviathan, quickly is cut into sushi and Dom and Marcus land at a boat dock next to the Hallow. From here they travel down the highway where they run into a group of cells. Dom stops to see if Maria is in any of them. Turns out she is, and she is also malnourished and dies in Doms arm, *inset sadness here*. Dom and Marcus now go on a murdering rampage to kill every Locust lay eyes on.
A GIANT FISH
Once in the heart of the Hallow they set off a beacon to notify Gears topside to come down and help them clear out a nice place to kill Locust. They run into Baird and Cole, see a giant palace for the Locust Queen, and head there immediately. Inside the palace Marcus finds a terminal with a recording of his father on it, and plans that the Locust are going to flood the hallow to stop the Lambent (glow in the dark Locust), Cole goes on a rant about how the locust are all whinny ass bitches and how the COG is gonna layeth the smacketh down. Now its off to see the Queen and Skorge, epic fight with Skorge while the Queen escapes. In pursuit, Delta escapes on flying horses with Skorge in pursuit.
Once back in Jacinto Delta informs Hoffman and Prescot of the Locust plans and they set out to sink Jacinto before the Locust can so they can catch them off guard. Shit hits the fan, Dom and Marcus get on a Brumak (giant walking tank of a Locust) and start killing everything they see. The Brumak makes it to the center of Jacinto, yet again hooray storytelling, and goes Lambent. Delta pulls out their satellite lasers, The Hammer of Dawn, and yes I will say it, the drop the hammer. Brumak goes BOOM, city sinks, and you hear Adam Fenix's voice say "No, what have you done."
So that's Gears of War so far in a nutshell. Gears of War 3 comes out next week and all indicators point in the general awesome direction with plenty more "Ahh Shit."'s ahead. So my advice get it, should be a good time. Next week: Gears of War 3.
