Halos and Goblins

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Halo: Reach is officially launched on Tuesday, so I thought I’d take a look back at my time with the franchise – I can hardly believe it’s been ten years!

Halo

It all started way back in the days of working at Game, and the launch of the original Xbox. Halo was the big game of the launch and my manager at the time raved about it. I admit, I was unimpressed when he was telling me how the Pistol was the best weapon, and there were grenades that stuck to your enemies, and that one melee attack to the back of an opponent was an instant kill… But then I played it. Campaign at first, it was immense. I never really got on with other console First Person Shooters such as Goldeneye, Quake II or Perfect Dark on the N64 as they never quite felt right, but this did – the controls were sublime. Lugging an Xbox and TV to Craig’s flat was so worth it. Our Halo LAN sessions were never frequent, and there were only a few of them, but they remain a fondly remembered highlight of my life so far. Given that there were only eight of us playing, Sidewinder and Blood Gulch were probably not the best maps to choose, but man, those CTF games were epic, and it was incredible hearing the shouting and swearing come from the other room when we thwarted an attack and recovered our flag.

Up and down

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After all the excitement of last week, this week has been a bit more reserved, not a lot has happened and it's been very quiet. I was on a bit of a downer early on in the week, I expected it after the massive highs of last week to be honest. I picked up Burnout: Revenge the other day, it…

Quiet week

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It's been quite quiet, not only on here (which makes a change - I usually find something to write about) but also life in general. As such, I've not really got much to say. Still no luck on the job front, I've had a few interviews recently, and a few good looking prospects, but still no job to show for…

A killing spree? Me? No way!

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Continuing on from my raving about The Arena yesterday, I had a superb game yesterday afternoon in The Arena - One guy on our team dropped out early, but I was picking off bitches left, right and centre, camping the Hammer room with the Hammer and I got a fucking 10 kill spree. I'm pretty shit to be honest, I…
The Reach multiplayer beta is quite good fun

The Reach multiplayer beta is quite good fun

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Here's my one screenshot I've taken so far. I took advantage of the way Spartans hold their hands out when running against walls. Nice touch, that. At first I was a bit let down, or confused, maybe. All these new things to use such as Armour Abilities and the new weapons, but after a few games I found some sweet…
Looking forward to new Halo and new Street Fighter

Looking forward to new Halo and new Street Fighter

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These two games are sure to be amazing, and we get a taste of both of them in the next couple of weeks.

April 30th – Super Street Fighter IV is released.
May 3rd – The Halo: Reach Public Multiplayer Beta begins.

Although Super Street Fighter IV is pretty much just an expansion of the vanilla Street Fighter IV, the stuff it does add is looking really good. My favourite character ever, for one thing (Adon). I love what they’ve done with his theme. It was fuck-yeah-awesome already, now it’s just out of this world.

Old version:

Fuck-yeah-awesome new version:

As well as Adon, there’s new online modes, you can save replays at will (in vanilla SFIV you could only save your own replays if you were in the top 5,000 players, something I would never be capable of), and the old-school car-bashing, barrel-smashing bonus rounds are back too.

And new Halo, well, what can I say? The Reach Multiplayer Beta hits soon, and I’m really looking forward to it. If they can bring back some of that Halo 2 magic, I’ll be a happy chappy. I love how your Spartan is totally customisable, and will be unified across all game modes, I’ve been wanting that for years. And Jet-packs! I’ve been on about them since I saw an Elite fly past in Halo: Combat Evolved and I wanted to try one out for myself.

Goodbye Halo 2

Goodbye Halo 2

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Last night was the last time Halo 2 will ever be playable over Xbox Live. Personally, I didn't attend (I got rid of Halo 2 ages ago - I never envisioned a time when we'd play it again), but I have spent the time being devoted to Halo 2 in other ways. I've been listening to the soundtrack (thanks again…

More 7 on 7 fail

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Hehe, I forgot to do this again. That's, what, eight months in a row now? Anyway, it's not even like the Achievement is worth a whole lot of points, it's 0 Gamerscore, I JUST FUCKING WANT IT. I really need to put a note somewhere I can see it to remind myself. I spent most of last night playing the…