Leveling Down

Ever sit down and think what your ideal engagement range for first person/third person shooter games is? I was musing over this thought myself recently after playing several of these games with some friends and thinking about why I’m excited for Modern Warfare 2 tomorrow. I noticed that most of my friends play differently, and for a shooter, there seems to be an ideal range that people prefer to engage enemies at. This “epiphany” may actually lead me to understand the primary reason why I am not a huge fan of hugely popular online shooters like Halo and Gears of War – my ideal range doesn’t seem to be handled the way I like.

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I had to laugh at espion4ge’s post last week detailing Halo 3: ODST’s kung-fu grip on his friends list. Last week’s release, combined with the out of this world reviews for the upcoming Uncharted 2 on PS3 got me thinking about what games are system sellers on the big gaming systems (especially because I’ve felt tempted to buy a PS3 lately, though I have resisted that urge for fear of death). Some of these games justify the very purchase of the system itself, which are “must have” games for their respective systems. Anyway, I only own a 360, Wii, and DS, but I did my best to compile these system sellers anyway.

Xbox 360

System Seller: Halo Series
Halo is basically the reason why Microsoft is still in the games’ market today. Halo and Halo 2 singlehandedly saved the original Xbox from turning into the next Jaguar or 3DO, and ODST just showed once again that Halo is as popular as ever. Love it or hate it, Halo sells boxes.

Must Have Exclusives: Gears of War Series, Fable Series
A lot of people who don’t like Halo love Gears of War, the original cover based 3rd person shooter. It’s bloody and full of machismo which makes it pretty popular. Fable 2 (and the recently announced Fable 3) are also incredibly popular for the wide range of choices they give the player: the quintessential western RPG.

Upcoming: Mass Effect 2, Halo: Reach, Fable 3

Playstation 3

System Seller: God of War III
People probably will disagree, and it’s bit a ridiculous since this game isn’t even OUT yet, but I think God of War III is PS3′s system seller. None of PS3′s exclusives can really compete with Halo’s grip on the gaming community, but God of War comes close. I know people who bought a PS3 just in anticipation of this game, and they’ve been waiting ever since. The time is near…

Must Haves: Uncharted Series, Little Big Planet, Metal Gear Solid 4, Killzone Series
PS3 makes up for its lack of a killer app with a bevy of very strong exclusives. Resistance, MLB: The Show, and Gran Turismo could all be added to this list. The Uncharted series is incredibly well reviewed and hailed as the next Tomb Raider, but for some reason, it doesn’t seem as popular (to me at least) as it deserves. And I still don’t get why Little Big Planet didn’t hit it big, but Sony’s trying to remedy that with the sequel.

Upcoming: Heavy Rain, Little Big Planet 2, God of War III, Final Fantasy Versus XIII
Note: I am more interested in Heavy Rain than any other game on the horizon, including Modern Warfare 2. Hopefully that game turns out better than the last game I was intrigued by did. I’m looking at you, Scribblenauts.

Anyway, it’s weird to start with 2nd and 3rd place, but 360 and PS3 are the “hardcore” systems. I’m sure I may have missed some exclusives. If I’m being honest, I actually think PS3 has more to offer in terms of exclusives. But Halo still trumps them all for me, plus I find Xbox Live so superior that I have no problem paying for it. I’m always checking out what my friends are playing, and it does a great job of building more of a gaming “community.” But to each his own…

Next week: Wii, DS, and PSP. Until then, what’d I miss? And please, if you own a PS3…tell me what’s awesome. I’ve only played MGS4.

cmfl3x has spent more time than me on the Firefight mode so he posted his impressions on it yesterday. This leaves me with sharing my impressions on the campaign mode for all of you today.  Having gone through the game solo on Legendary, as well as grabbed all possible solo play Achievements for it, I can pretty much say I have experienced what Halo 3 ODST’s campaign fully has to offer.

Either I’m slowly getting on board with the Halo train, or the campaigns are just getting more enjoyable and better designed. Again I will reiterate that I have never been a big Halo fan, as I found the first two games’ storylines and campaigns boring. I even found Halo 3′s storyline and campaign to be somewhat bland, but decent enough to play through it. Unlike my minor enjoyment with Halo 3′s campaign, I actually enjoyed Halo 3: ODST’s campaign a lot.

The storyline for Halo 3: ODST is nothing to write home about, as it’s pretty non-sensical (the forced romance definitely had me groaning). What I do like about the storyline is that it gives the game more of a premise to play lots of varied scenarios through the  role of the non-speaking “Rookie”, an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper tasked with traveling around the deserted city of New Mombasa looking for clues on the rest of his crew. When you find a clue, it calls forth a flashback to the squad member associated with the clue and you get to engage in a “past mission” that the squad member participated in. Each squad member has a different type of expertise, resulting in varied and enjoyable missions.

The Rookie travels through New Mombasa at night, so he tends to play a bit more stealth-oriented (with the help of a “night vision”-ish mode), knocking out enemies that are sleeping or sneaking by powerful foes that are not necessary to engage. Other squad members may specialize in sniping, driving a Scorpion tank, etc., so you really get to experience a wide variety in Halo style gameplay through the playing of each squad member. To be honest, maybe it’s because I played through both Halo 3 and Halo 3 ODST on Legendary mode, but I couldn’t quite tell the difference between Master Chief and the ODST “Rookie”. Both had regenerating shields, but the “Rookie” also has a life-bar under his shield. On Legendary in either game you practically die by charging straight in anyway, whether you’re a Spartan or an ODST and thus I had a hard time noting the difference.

I enjoyed Halo 3: ODST’s campaign more than any other Halo game’s campaign. That may make me sound crazy, but the way that Halo 3: ODST’s campaign flowed from start to finish was pretty tight and varied enough that I never got bored. Its difficulty is also just right – I would say that ODST’s Legendary campaign is about as difficult as Halo 3′s campaign on Heroic. It may be personal preference, but I liked ODST’s smaller level design and more personal encounters. In Halo 3′s campaign you were simply running too long to get from one place to another and every few yards you would be thrown a dozen or so enemies to plow through in large open areas. Some complain that ODST’s campaign is short at 5-6 hours, but I enjoyed it more than Halo 3′s expansive and monotonous campaign.

For those that are just getting Halo 3 ODST for the Firefight mode and Halo 3 maps, don’t overlook the campaign. It’s certainly worth playing through, and stands tall as one of the three main pillars in the package. While you can play it co-op with 3 other buddies, I reommend playing through it solo since that really should be how the game is experienced. I can’t think of anything I’d want to change about it, except perhaps extending its length. Unfortunately, a short campaign seems to be the trend of most FPS games these days.

Bungie has long been famous for being able to create and recreate “30 seconds of fun” and has made that mantra the basis of all of the Halo games thus far. Firefight Mode, unique to the new release ODST, takes that mantra and applies it to a cooperative survival mode. It presents so many gameplay options that we decided to give it its own post. How does it stack up to previous survival modes found in Gears of War (Horde), Call of Duty (Nazi Zombies), and Left 4 Dead (Survival)?

Firefight definitely isn’t a perfect experience, but I prefer it to all 3 of the above. The basic premise: 1-4 players hold out against waves of Covenant troops until they are all dead. The major difference between Firefight and other survival modes is that everyone has a shared pool of lives and ammunition. You can’t “buy” weapons, ammo drops are relatively few and far between, and if you have a weak link, it will bring the whole team down by using up all of your lives.

Yet this is precisely why I love Firefight: you have to work together or die. That’s true for Left 4 Dead as well, but in Survival mode, things got so insane so quickly that it was tough to really have a plan. But Firefight rewards methodical teams (though aggressive teams can be successful as well). You also earn extra points by chaining kills and for kill streaks, so it pays to stay alive as long as possible and to be efficient. Sharing ammo also works very well too, it encourages a lot of team play and communication since you need to let the carbine expert know where they can pick up ammo etc.

I also like how Firefight handles progressive difficulties. Most people are familiar with the “skulls” from Halo 3 that introduce extra levels of difficulty. Firefight is broken up into three divisions: Sets, Rounds, and Waves. Each Round consists of 5 Waves and 3 Rounds make up a Set. Even though the game never ends, as far as I’m concerned every team’s goal should be to finish the 4th Set.

There is a logical progression to the addition of difficulty skulls in the game. Each Set has the same number of rounds, and each round is associated with a certain skull. Round 1 always has “Tough Luck” activated, Round 2 adds “Catch!”, and Round 3 adds the gameplay changing “Black Eye”. Round skulls reset at the beginning of each set, but after the first set, new skulls are permanently added: “Tilt” in Set 2, “Famine” in Set 3, and “Mythic” in Set 4. So by the time you reach the 3rd round of the 4th set, you will be playing with all 6 of the main Firefight skulls on: Double health enemies with bullet deflecting shields will be throwing extra grenades and dodging yours while you need to punch them to regain health as they drop weapons with limited ammo! (This is why I consider Firefight “complete” after the 4th set, plus you’ll get an achievement on heroic difficulty or above).

I find the 3rd round of any set the most fun, because “Black Eye” forces you to melee enemies to regain health. That really changes the way you have to play the game, and forces you to get your hands dirty instead of sitting back in relative safety, which I find to be a huge adrenaline rush. There are 8 different maps to play on, each with their own unique chokepoints and advantages/disadvantages for your team, and they all are pretty fun in their own right (some involve fighting Wraiths/Banshees to up the difficulty).

The biggest drawback to Firefight is that it can get pretty draining, it can take upwards of 2 hours (or more) to complete 4 sets, or you can do it in an hour if you’re efficient. I haven’t even gotten around to all 8 of the maps yet, and I’ve already put 6-7 hours into Firefight. It’s draining in a bad way - by the time you get to the 3rd or 4th set, you are exhausted and that makes you careless. I guess that makes it even more like a true survival game…but I might just be getting too old for that kind of stuff. Also, if you don’t have good teammates, the game can be a real drag, so make sure you play with people who you work well together with. Lucky for me I have a solid team!

I’ve already played this more than I played Horde and Survival combined, and in an hour or two I will knock Nazi Zombies off the list as well. We’ll talk about the single player campaign tomorrow, but as far as I’m concerned, if you like Halo gameplay in general, Firefight mode by itself will warrant purchase consideration. When your whole team is out of lives and is depending on you to take down 5 brutes by yourself to complete a set, you’ll feel like a real Orbital Drop Shock Trooper.

So Halo 3: ODST, was “dropped” at my door at 12:39 PM Tuesday. This is my second release date delivery (free for Amazon Prime members) and frankly I’m pretty impressed. Now, espion4ge and I are by no means being paid by Amazon despite professions of love in the past, though if anyone affiliated with Amazon is reading this, please feel free to pay us!

Anyway, a timeline of my Halo 3: ODST release day experience (9/22):

12:00 Midnight – I am freaking out because Amazon still hasn’t sent me a delivery confirmation, but I breathe easy when I see that for release date deliveries sometimes the tracking information comes out late.

2:37 AM – Amazon sends me a shipping confirmation (btw, this was bought entirely with funds from Amazon trade-ins)

7:03 AM – Amazon sends three e-mails filled with promotional credit ($15 for video games, $5 for MP3s)

8:46 AM – I check my e-mail and receive the previous e-mails

10:45 AM – UPS leaves package at my front door

1:30 PM – Package received. Happiness ensues.

Meanwhile, while all this was going on, Amazon dropped the price for ODST to $51.99. Was I going to be cheated out of nine dollars? Well this is what happened yesterday (9/23):

4:18 AM – Amazon sends me a promotional code for Sgt. Johnson in Firefight (pre-order bonus)

10:24 AM – Amazon sends an e-mail saying I will receive $9.00 due to their “pre-order price guarantee”

12:25 PM – My gift card account is credited with $9.00.

Talk about customer service!

Barring the somewhat mixed reviews describing the game as being too expensive for what it is for some people ($60 for a 4-5 hour campaign, a Horde mode,and 3 new multiplayer maps), Halo 3 ODST most likely still had phenomenal day 1 sales. How do I know? Just look at my online friend list the night of Halo 3 ODST’s release!

I’ve been slowly making my way through the campaign so far, and I’m actually digging it more than previous Halo campaigns. I’ve yet to figure out why besides its accessibility, but I’m sure after more time with it I’ll know. Still, I admit that I am somewhat shocked to see the “foothold” it has on the 360 community. I’ve yet to play a game where I look on my friends list and everyone online is playing the same game. The only other game that has potential to dominate my friends list on release day like Halo 3 ODST is Modern Warfare 2 - but even then, Halo seems to be a more uniting game for 360 owners than Call of Duty.

A recent poll conducted by OTX indicates that only about half of the Halo 3 ODST purchasers plan on picking up Modern Warfare 2, although I’m surprised that almost half of them are interested in Assassin’s Creed 2, a sequel to a single player game I found a tad repetitive. I guess I’ll just have to see on November 10 what happens to my friends list that night, so don’t let me down Modern Warfare fans!

This friends thing really is some good viral advertising for 360 games as well. I’m glad I’m a part of the club that is playing this game on release day, and if I didn’t have it, I would feel totally left out seeing everyone playing it last night. Here’s to hoping for some good Firefights and online multiplayer in the immediate future…

Oh, and don’t forget to download the free Halo 3 ODST Premium Theme if you haven’t already!

I’ve said it again and again, but I never really enjoyed the Halo campaigns. But after seeing this recently released Halo 3: ODST Live Action trailer, all I could say was “Holy Shnikes!”

Now I’m totally pumped for the game, so all I gotta say is the marketing team that came up with this ad did their job. This trailer has not only made me forgotten that I’m not a Halo fan, but I would now go see this movie in the theatre if it was made into a full-length feature film.

I think the trailer does a great job of humanizing the ODST, and practically turns the disadvantage of not being able to play as the Master Chief into somewhat of an advantage for this game. Something like this couldn’t have really been done with Master Chief since he was basically a super-hero (and maybe that’s why I never liked him too much – he lacked character). If the protagonists of the actual ODST game echo even some of what I’ve witnessed in this trailer, I’ll be more than satisfied. After all, this ODST trailer tugs at my Band of Brothers’ heartstrings. Day 1…<sob> day 1…

In a previous post, I wrote that I was a bit skeptical about how Halo 3: ODST might turn out. But watching this recently released ViDoc Bungie put out has started getting me more excited about the game.

Basically, I am a sucker for a good science fiction story. Despite the fact that they have been sometimes being convoluted and confusing, I have really enjoyed all the Halo stories so far (even Halo Wars). I think the Halo universe is a sci-fi universe that deserves to be fleshed out through other stories like Star Wars, and this video makes it look like Bungie is trying to do just that. I love the idea of an entire squad with unique and memorable members, who you meet briefly in this video. Unfortunately, I think you’ll be split up from them most of the time, but hopefully they will be characterized well.

Anyway, a bunch of things excited me about the video so I’ll just list them out:

1. The squad I mentioned above

2. The suppressed SMG and pistol. If you can take down enemies without alerting their comrades, even better. It’s also great to see the zoom come back on the pistol.

3. The use of the term F.N.G., which I was introduced to in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

4. What seemed to be a firebomb grenade

5. Amazing looking graphics

6. Nathan Fillion. Yes, I am a geek, but Firefly and Dr. Horrible are both awesome so Fillion in a Halo video game = mega-awesome. Also, Tricia Helfer (from Battlestar Galactica) is voicing a character as well.

Anyway, not that it was ever in doubt, but I’ll almost definitely be picking this at or around launch. I hope Bungie delivers, and this ViDoc has definitely whetted my appetite. They are supposed to be releasing more, so hopefully those are just as good. Only 1.5 months to go!