Adam's Blog

A few years back, a very popular gaming company named Valve created one of the best physics-like game named Portal. They are also the same people who created the legendary Half-Life Series along with the very addicting Team Fortress 2. Portal is a physics game where you go through what seems like endless chambers trying to move to the next elevator. You get a gun called the Portal gun in which you can shoot 2 kinds of portals to enter in another dimension to get across the map. It is kind of hard to explain how it works, but I especially encourage you to check it out. I got it with the Orange Box for Xbox 360  and it is only $20. Also, you won’t get this until you get to the end of the game: The cake is a lie!

On Wednesday, February 24th, Nintendo had their World Summit conference where they announced and talked about all kinds of new stuff. From what I have seen, this is going to be a pretty good year for Nintendo. All kinds of juicy news came from the World Summit, such as release dates, gameplay videos, and even a new DS. First off, Nintendo introduced a new DS, the DSi XL which is basically an oversized DSi. Personally, I think they are making way to many versions of the DS and this is just getting a little too much overboard. Some of the big announcements were 2 release dates for major titles releasing for the Wii this year, Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Metroid: Other M. Super Mario Galaxy 2 will be released on May 23 and Metroid: Other M will be released on June 27. Along with those announcements, Nintendo also released some gameplay from Metroid: Other M and Super Mario Galaxy 2 that look absolutely stunning. Since I got my Xbox 360 for Christmas, I haven’t played my Wii as much, but this is going to bring me back to playing a little more and I am looking forward to the what Nintendo has to throw at us this year.

I have been having my Xbox 360 since December and I have absolutely loved the experience thus far. I have the Xbox 360 Elite with the 120 GB Hard Drive and a subscription to Xbox Live Gold. The first thing that I liked about the Xbox 360, is the nice dashboard. It is easy to navigate through and use. Also, the avatars you can create for your character are a lot better than the Mii’s you can create with the Wii (sorry Nintendo). The Xbox Live marketplace has a good selection of games and avatar accessories. The ability to use Last.FM, Twitter, Netflix and Facebook is really nice too. The one thing I do not like is the inability to sync music from the Mac. Yes, this is Microsoft we’re talking about, but just about anyone could buy this system and it would be nice to add a feature for this. If you are going to get an Xbox 360, Xbox Live is an absolute must. With XBL, the experience you have for the Xbox 360 is so much better than without it. I have to congratulate Microsoft on actually doing something right and hope they continue doing a good job with it.

The first time I really got into Call of Duty was when I started playing on a server with a few friends around May of last year. I was on a laptop running Windows playing Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare at the time, but now I am finally reliving the memories on the Xbox 360 version of the game. Comparing to the latest game in the series, Modern Warfare 2, there are a bunch of changes, some little and some big. First off are the maps in Modern Warfare. I absolutely love the maps in Modern Warfare because they are not so big and not so small. The menu in Call of Duty 4, in my opinion, is a little uglier and more cluttered than the one on Modern Warfare 2. One of the thing I do miss from Call of Duty 4 that isn’t in Modern Warfare 2 is some of the guns I used take longer to get. That isn’t a bad thing, per say, but it was nice to have my favorite guns at an earlier level. The multiplayer was definitely more stable and not as full of hacks as Modern Warfare 2 has at this point in time. All in all, this game is a really good game and definitely something to play around with if you have been stuck on Modern Warfare 2 these past few months.

About a week or 2 ago, Microsoft released some really popular Xbox 360 games as Platinum Hits and put them at a price of $19.99. One of these games, which I was really interested in getting, was Fable II. I was was hesitant to buy it because, compared to the other games I have, it wasn’t particularly the same. However, I am really glad I made the choice to buy this game because it is a very fun and addicting game. Fable II is a fantasy-like RPG game. The game takes place in the land of Albion, which I believe is based around somewhere in Europe, and you are either a good person or a bad person. That’s your choice, of course. You travel all throughout Albion to different towns and places and complete quests given to you by Theresa, which is the leader of the guild you are in. I am guessing that is what the storyline is because that’s what it came to me as. You also have a dog in the game who follows you around and it tells you if it found either a treasure chest, silver key or a spot to dig. As annoying as it may be, if you ever get to a point in the game where you don’t have the dog anymore, you will realize how important it is. Alongside all the action, you can buy almost  any house, shop, or any other building in the game. If you buy one of these buildings, you can set a rate of interest you receive money at. You can also get married to almost anybody and to about as many people as you like, it is quite simple.  This game is definitely worth the investment, and if this sounds like a game you might like, I suggest you go get it and see all that I explained and more.

The third game I have for the Xbox 360 is The Orange Box, which is a collection of 5 games made by Valve. The first one on the list is the famous, Half-Life 2. I have begun to play this a week or two ago and have loved it ever since. THe main storyline is quite simple, escape City 17. This game doesn’t really have a map, or any kind of guidance whatsoever. So basically, you are on your own. As much as I like maps and things like that, what makes this game funs is that you have to think yourself on what to do next. It has a pretty decent story line in the sense of time. If I remember correctly, the game is 15 hours long. It is definitely worth the buy, especially for The Orange Box, which is only $20. This game definitely lives up to its title as one of the best games ever created.

There is a party game that is completely free of charge based on the former 1 vs. 100 show. It has basically the same game rules as the TV show and there is a different primetime game you can play every night. Sometimes there is actually an emcee, Chris Cashman, who talks during some intermissions. The rules of the game are simple, you can either be “The One”, “In the Mob”, or “The Crowd”. Chances are, you are always going to be in the crowd, but you do have a chance to get in “the mob”. If you are in the crowd, you are just like most of the other people, you can answer questions and get points for answering correctly and in a fast time. If you are chosen to be in “the mob” you are able to play against “the one” along with 99 other mob members. However, once you get a wrong answer, you are not able to participate with the rest of the mob, but just for your own personal points. If you are chosen as “the one”, you have to answer every question correctly, or you walk away with nothing. If you are not sure about a question, you can choose to trust the mob, trust the crowd, or trust the top 10 players. If you get it right, depending on how many mob members get it wrong, your prize goes up. The prize is Microsoft Points. It is a really fun game, but not something you can play for hours and hours. It is free to download from the Game Marketplace on the Xbox 360 and there is a schedule as to when games will be going on. Check it out!

One of the second games I bought for Xbox 360 is Halo 3: ODST. Like Modern Warfare 2, Halo 3: ODST has a pretty short campaign, but still very fun. The story is a prequel to the previous game, Halo 3. The main story of the game is that you land in this city being invaded by aliens and you have to trace down all the beacons left by one of your teammates. On the side you help your other teammates battle a whole group of aliens in a certain area. Towards the end you have to go find your captain in an underground part of the city and bring back an alien engineer with you and get off the planet. The controls took me a little longer to understand than Modern Warfare 2. This game also comes with a Halo 3 multiplayer disk so you can play on Xbox Live against your friends. Overall, it is a good buy and I highly recommend this game.