Metal Reviews

Good luck!

In other news, Zad five minutes into Crysis: Meh.
Zad ten minutes into Crysis: FULL STRENGTH! KAPOW! YEEHAH!

Great game.

That really sucks. My friend got his Elite a few months back and it red ringed on him not even a week into owning it. And this couldn't of happened to you at a worse possible time. The next few weeks is the best few weeks for games ever. If all works well, maybe some Fable 2 online?

Finished Half Life 2 last night! Not as good as the first.

Well supposedly, if you do this "x-clamp fix" correctly, it has a 90% success rate, so I'm optimistic that I should be up and running by the end of the weekend. Hells yes to some Fable II online, as long as you promise not to kill my wife and kids when you visit.

You getting Gears 2 also? That's another one I've got on pre-order. If so, we'll have to give the Horde mode a spin.

Really? I found HL2 much more consistent in its entertainment and mood, HL1 always turned me off once I got to the alien planet.

SPOILERS

I preferred the survival atmosphere of the first to this whole 'freedom-fighting' thing the second has going. Fine, the part towards the end when you're travelling around in the combine base is effective, but only until you get the improved gravity gun. It felt like some crappy Star Wars game then, zapping all the soldiers was easy. And that end sequence is weak and too easy, especially the 'oh, ffs' ending. The boat and jeep sections were overlong, and the combine themselves weren't as good an opponent as the original special forces. Meh, I could go on... the new aliens/zombies are rubbish and feel contrived, the shotgun's not as fun, the weird alien weapon is a big step-down from the last game...

'Acquired' episode one today, we'll see how that plays out. Maybe I'm just too experienced a fps player, but I never once felt as excited as I did in HL1, even with moments like when the striders first appear or you throw stuff around with the gravity gun.

Episode 1 is cool, but I think Episode 2 is much, much better.

I agree with all of that. Half-life hasn't aged well, but back then it was the best thing ever. All of the surprise cinematic-style moments were incredible, like being dragged by enemy soldiers and thrown into the trash compactor, awesome. The first game never felt like it was too long, I always wanted to keep playing, even though I had little idea what was happening in the story. I was eleven, after all. The second game dragged on after the prison part, it was a long grind at the end just to finish the game, and the super gravity gun part was cool, but really stupid.

About Episode One, it's really, really ,really AWESOME. It's very short, but so full of action that it doesn't really matter. Episode Two is basically the same thing.

The best thing about all four games, though, is when music slowly starts playing and you realise something fucking awesome is going to happen, like in the first game when you take an elevator to the surface and soldiers start dropping down from helicopters and all shit breaks loose.

YES! There were no moments even comparible to them in HL2. Read good things about eps 1 and 2, so hopefully they'll be good.

Already pre-ordered Gears. And I promise not to kill your family if you promise not to kill mine. That seems fair enough.

I don't get how people can like Gears of War (2) when there are infinitely better shooters out there. It just seems like an incredibly bollocks concept released tens years too late...

Have you played it at length? I really don't see how its like everything else, there's plenty enough differences and I had a blast playing. And that's coming from someone who's played many of the famed shooting franchises (Halo, Half-Life, Call of Duty, etc). That's just my opinion though.

On another note, I fixed my 360 today!!!!

Fable II here I come! DW, our gentleman's agreement not to kill each other's families is in effect. Are you getting it on Tuesday?

Well, I don't know what shooters you're talking about, but what's great about GoW is the arcade game-feeling. You know, when you're outnumbered and you're blasting your way through ridiculous amounts of enemies, that and the art direction, music and just the general atmosphere, it's awesome.

EDIT- Oh, I forgot to mention. I'm playing Mount & Blade right now. I've only played for about an hour, but I'm totally hooked. It's like a mix of Morrowind, Sid Meier's Pirates and the Total War games. I love this game.

Tuesday afternoon, around 4:30 ish.

And on the Gears of War note, it's really not like anything I have ever really played before, you say it's 10 years too late. I never played anything like it 10 years ago.

Super Metroid on the Wii VC. I think the Metroid games are a little overrated, personally. But I still like them a lot.

Next month I'll probably pick up either Wave Race 64 or Super Castlevania IV (probably Wave Race, since I already bought two SNES games on VC this month and I'd like to see how the Wii handles N64 games). Y's Book I And II is also a possibility sometime.

Even though IMO Gears 1 was a boring turd, even I, a PS3 fanatic, has to admit that Gears 2 is fucking awesome.

Nearly finished Command and Conquer Renegade, a much better shooter than I expected.

With regard to Gears, I'm not even really a fan and I can admit that it's pretty original/new. The cover system is unlike anything that came out before it and it's pretty much revolutionized third person shooters (see: GTAIV).

I'm pumped for Fallout 3. It makes me sad that I don't have enough time to play all the great games out there...I'm having trouble finishing up Oblivion and I want to start Mass Effect again but that probably won't happen.

Fable 2 comes out, well now. Too bad none of the local stores are doing a midnight opening, or I would be there now. IGN gives it an 8.8 out of 10. IGN UK gave it a 9.5 out of 10, and IGN AU gave it a 9.3 out of 10. So in other words, it's pretty damn good methinks.

Heh heh, I just got back from one of those midnight openings with my copy in tow. More out of convenience so I don't have to go get it tomorrow when I get home from work and bring my daughter with. I'll wait till tomorrow when I get home to delve into it. The Live Co-op isn't going to be available until later in the week via a patch I believe.

Yeah, should be out soon. I hope so anyway becasue offline co-op isnt suppose to be that good.