And now for News!
With all the buzz surrounding the Halo: Reach Beta, it’s kind of hard to not talk about it or Bungie. There’s some pretty big news just recently released about a while ago that I didn’t get to for my début, and I apologize for that, forgot all about it. But better late than never they say! Back to the point; Bungie recently announced a new 10 year partnership between them and Activision Blizzard. An interesting prospect indeed, what with the whole Infinity Ward fiasco still going on. From what they’ve said on Bungie.net, Activision does not own Bungie in any way, nor do they own any of the Halo franchise, as it’s technically still owned by Microsoft. (Thank god!) Bungie is still independent and Activision is simply publishing the next Bungie title to be released after Reach. Which they have yet to announce, but we can expect that sometime after Reach’s release.
Now this still worries me because, as stated above, the whole Infinity Ward thing is still being sorted out. Bungie claims that Activision will have little say in matters of game development, but I don’t know if we can trust them to stay on the sidelines and trust Bungie with what they are doing. More on this as information becomes available.
Next, we come to a two pieces of PS3 news. Hooray! Told you I’d share the love. I’m not greedy. Sony recently announced via the Playstation Blog that Final Fantasy IX will be “coming soon” to the Playstation Network. Unfortunately I’ve never been able to get into the Final Fantasy series, as I’ve never owned a Playstation. But I have played through a good chunk of III and IV on my DS, and a bit of VIII at a friend’s, and I did thoroughly enjoy them. So I can honestly say that this would interest me… if I owned a PS3… But alas, I am too poor.
Also, everyone’s favorite hacky sack is back! That’s right; Sackboy is returning via Little Big Planet 2! Developed by the same team that made the first Little Big Planet, Media Molecule, Little Big Planet 2 is promising to be a special treat. The tools and mechanics used to create custom levels will be changed in some ways, and now, you can even make your own games. Everything from shooters to RPG’s to racers; if you can think of it, you can make it. This seems a bit of a stretch, but we’ll see as they release more info and when it releases.
I’ll pass on the exact release dates as soon as I find out!
Review time YAY!
I know I did the Reach Beta Last week, but there is just so much to talk about! The Invasion Playlist finally released on Friday the 7th, and I’ve played the crap out of it. It’s actually a fascinating gametype that is built around some fictional elements of the Halo story. The Elites are invading a ship boneyard, where the UNSC dismantles and re-uses the parts of old ships, and are trying to steal the navigation data via a Phantom hovering over the map. The Spartans have to defend the data core at all costs. More easily said than done. The Elites are bigger, faster, stronger, have better shields, more health, and powerful weaponry. Now before anyone starts screaming about how Bungie broke the game because of this, read on.
While, yes, the Elites are technically more powerful than the Spartans, they get plenty of ways to balance the playing field. They get excellent weaponry (especially late-game), usually start on the high ground, and are a good bit smaller and more nimble, making them harder to hit. Also, the Elites have to go through three timed stages of combat to win. If the Spartans are able to hold the Elites back for the set amount of time in any one of those three stages, the Spartans win the entire game.
But that’s not all; there is also a slayer version of this game. Pretty much works the same, except there are territories to secure instead of the objectives which will drop power weapons and vehicles fifteen seconds after a team captures one. As the game goes, the loadouts and weapon drops become more powerful, and first to 100 wins. Nice and easy. Personally, I must say that Invasion and Invasion slayer are my favorite gametypes thus far.
Now the last thing I want to quickly cover here, because I gotta stop myself or I’ll just end up talking about Halo: Reach all day, is the new gametype just released this past Friday (the 14th); Generator Defense. The games’ objective is for the Elites to destroy three generators placed on the map and for the Spartans to defend them. I’ve played a bit and find it fun, but its only 3v3. I personally enjoy large team fights. Also, it’s a little difficult to guard three objectives when you only have three people on your team, and vice versa, when you’re attacking. Generators Alpha and Charlie are fairly open, and therefore not difficult to destroy, but Generator Bravo is inside a building and if all three Spartans defend it, it’s not an easy time for the Elites. Especially considering one of the spawn points for the Spartan Team is just around the corner from the generator. No lie, not an exaggeration. It is literally just around a corner, about ten feet from the generator. Not good for the Elites, which all spawn across the river hundreds of feet away. Anyhow, I still find this game lots of fun, though not as fun as Invasion, and look forward to playing it with friends, so as to coordinate an effective defense and attack.
Whew, we had a long one this week. Next week there may be a short bit about Reach again, but it ends on the 19th, so if you can, get in and join the rest of us! We’ve got cookies! Look forward to a new game for review and also some new news. As usual, please leave a comment or send me a message at purecascade@hotmail.com. I will be happy to answer any questions you all may have.
See you next week!
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