The April 2k6 issue of Game Informer had an article on Bungie’s new Forerunner game. Forerunner takes place in the Halo Universe on Halo Delta (speculation) in the beginning. At the end of Halo 2 the Covenant Elites (Generals) were betrayed by the evil side and have allied with the fictional United Nations Space Command. The theme of this game appears to be about the ancient Forerunner’s ark who built the 7 ringworlds. There were eight in Halo Combat Evolved, but Halo Alpha was destroyed. Halo Delta was activated to self-destruct at the end of Halo 2, but the player stopped the count down. Forerunner it should start at Halo Delta. Forerunner plot might be Master Chief racing towards the Ark on Earth or the Moon. The Forerunners are the advanced civilization ruling the galaxy and created the Halos long before. The space age technology came from Covenant throughout the 27 years at war with them.
Elder Scrolls IV 360Yesterday, I bought Elder Scrolls IV for Xbox 360 at Wal-mart. I didn’t talk to no one there knowing they don’t care (they got their own money) The #1 game for the console. Ghost Recon Advanced Warrior has better graphics, but Elder Scrolls IV is the most anticipated. It is also the first role playing game. I’ll be getting GRAW next month when I can afford this awesome first person shooter. Must own next month! Metroid Prime Hunters for Dual Screen came out yesterday. I’ll get it eventually. I decided not to get it now purely because I want GRAW sooner. GRAW is a first person shooter set in 2013 playing an army recognizance known as Ghosts taking place in Mexico City. It stands in for Forerunner.
Xbox PortableI saw Microsoft’s plans for Xbox Portable on IGN.com. Thought it was neat, but then thinking it wasn’t a necessity. I love consoles more than handhelds. I buy a Nintendo DS game every 3 months. Microsoft should use a SD media card (like Nintendo DS) in the XBP so it doesn’t have a battery problem. SD Cards will be 4 GB in 2009 when Xbox Portable comes out. It’s stupid to pay lots of money for handhelds.
Saving up for Playstation 3This year I’ll try to get a Playstation 3 with 60 GB hard drive myself by preordering. If this isn’t possible, I’ll add Athlon 64 X4 with socket 940 Nforce4 mobo to the Christmas list. Then I’ll pay Digital Garage to install it. I have an extra Biostar Nforce4 socket 940 mobo in my room left over when my PC wasn’t fried. I’ve gotten away with it on Xbox 360 two months ago and got gaming PC of my dreams. Planning to have $400 saved up before Thanksgiving. It’d help if I get money for my birthday which will help buy it. Whatever has the best score, I’ll buy first. No ones helping me. Purely a enthusiast hobby.
Upgraded Random Access Memory Also today I updated the Hellcat with an additional dual channel 1024 MB PC3200 because another gig of memory would make it faster despite the PC3200 and I suppose my theory was right. It was FREE!
What do I need a four core Athlon 64 for?
1. Better multitasking.
2. Faster audio compressing
3. Faster 64-bit Windows XP user interface
4. To have the fastest consumer CPU on the planet for 2 months period
5. Because I like computers and I want to show off the performance increase
Windows Vista Pro is retailing in January 2007. The beta of last month is 5.3.0860. Windows XP is 5.1.2600 when it came out in 2001. For me dual booting it with WinXP makes sense. I don’t want to abandon WinXP if I can’t run older games on Vista. I don’t hate WinXP that much.
My Doom 3 for Xbox reviewOkay, the latest game I am playing is the Xbox version of Doom 3. The difference between Xbox and PC (I own that too) is the graphics. Although you can tell it’s Xbox running on 733 MHz Pentium 3 with 128 MiB Geforce3 instead of an Athlon 64 X2 4800 with 256 MiB Geforce (7 series) 7800 GTX overclocked. It matters little because you got the joysticks. Doom 3 uses the control system that made the first practical first person shooter for console, Goldeneye 007 on N64, an absolute delight to play in it’s glory years. You trade the Z button for R trigger and the L trigger is for throwing grenades.
Course, everyone knows the game takes place in Hell! That’s true. It does take place in Hell. Go got your flame spitting skulls, grim reapers, pretty intelligent zombies, and that kind of stuff you find in 1982 version of The Thing starring Kurt Russell.
On to the game play. It is 22nd century at least when there are space marines. Since the main character’s name is Butch who sounds American…I’m betting he is an US space marine. Heck the “Sarge” is American. This game is very pro-American.
Now for the lunar first person shooter. The fact this game has next generation graphics (on PC) ported down to a current generation console with not too shabby first person shooter game play. Doom 3 is better than Doom 2. The most effective weapon in Doom 3 is the chainsaw. The chainsaw is an unmatched melee weapon in Doom 3. If you find a chainsaw, you’re very well off in this game. It is what makes Doom….Doom. Butch is right handed.
The game hasn’t gotten boring unless you’re great at it and play the novice level which I admit is geared towards for casual gamers almost like myself. The fact that a casual gamer can play Doom 3 is there. My parents don’t play videogames. There is veteran which is basically Doom 3 on notice level, but damage is much more and it takes more gun shots to drop an enemy.
After Half-life 2, Halo 2, Doom 3 is easily the 3rd best looking first person shooter on Xbox. It looks better than Halo because the engine isn’t build as a launch title. It was a proven concrete PC game. iD Software had lots of practice before down porting it to Xbox. A very professional port I must say.
The sound is lossy compressed, but is excellent quality codec wise. The game isn’t even supported by Pro Logic 2 or Dolby Digital and it sounds great. The grown and moans sound above average. The voice actors have been practicing their lines for sure! Highest quality moans in a videogame. The whole game is voice acted. Butch constantly get shortwave band messages over his shortwave radio. All the radio messages are understood well by any high school student. This game is definitely for young and old regardless of IQ. The directions are straight forward with some miscellaneous taunts to make it feel so adult-like. You got swearing taunting too making it feel kind of realistic. The whole game is obviously borrowing of the USMC recruits way of life.
Sometimes you have to save human survivors from undead creatures. If you save him….you’ll get an reward (like unlocked doors).
On a personal note. I looked at gamefaqs’s Doom 3 codes and got every locker number pad combo in the game because I don’t have time for messing around. Times a wasting!
The game does get harder. Butch faces enemies hidden in the shadows so mind myself not to be very careless with ammo. It uses Resident Evil’s famous dodge the undead feature because you’ll eventually run out of ammo and you better have some place to run before zombies eat yeah alive! That’s what the lockers are for…for some cushion because no body’s perfect and tend to waste a little more ammo than a veteran would. I am not perfect. Return to Castle Wolfenstine is also for Xbox, and it plays somewhat nicer. Game play has definitely an edge over the PC game with WASD, CTRL, C, spacebar and mouse. Same PC control setup done since Doom. The analog pad is nicer. I am no longer a hardcore PC gamer. I shifted from PC to console in the last 2 yrs. Most gamers admit they’ve done the exact same. PC games aren’t as much fun anymore.
