I bought Halo 3 the other day: count me as number 5,000,001. I’ve been enjoying it: the story is intriguing. I’d say the third installment of Halo is, thus far at least, better than its predecessors.
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I like the Halo series: it’s a decent first person shooter game with a better than average story. I played the original Halo on the PC and Halo 2 on the XBox. I haven’t bought Halo 3 for the XBox 360, but I probably will someday soon. I’d probably rate both of the first two Halos at somewhere between 7 and 8 out of 10. Good solid games, nothing earth-shattering, but fun.
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I finished BioShock last night. I won’t spoil the game by revealing its secrets, but the ending was…a let down.
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| Title | BioShock |
| Developer | 2K Boston / 2K Australia |
| Type | First Person Action RPG |
| Platform(s) | XBox 360, Windows |
| Kelly Score ™ | 95 / 100 |
It was a great relief on a lot of levels to play BioShock after my rant about checkpoint saves the other day. In addition to being an XBox 360 game (also available on the PC) with unlimited saves, it is probably one of the best computer games I’ve played in a long while.
BioShock has it all: a fantastic and original story, brilliantly realized game mechanics, and stunning use of visuals and audio. The story is set during the post WWII era: your passenger plane plane crashes and you, the only apparent survivor, discover the entrance to a secret oasis…or what might have once been one. Rapture, an entire underwater city founded by a wealthy man with a passing resemblance to Howard Hughes, was founded on principles of moral and scientific freedom. Unfortunately, it seems as if something has gone terribly wrong…
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From time to time I feel compelled to preface a posting here by a reminder of what sort of person I am. I’ve been playing computer and console games for over a quarter of a century, heavily biased towards the computer “role playing” game, fantasy, and first person shooter genres. I’m more prone to like something like Deus Ex or Oblivion than Doom 3, although I enjoy both types of games. And Mario Kart or Katamari Damacy are right out.
In a nutshell, I like games with a strong narrative: something that could make a decent fantasy or science fiction book. Although I enjoy some twitch/combat games, that isn’t my forte. “Childlike” games with bubblegum graphics and mostly mindless plots do not amuse me very much.
Now I’ve set the stage for my rant, the basic thesis of which is: Checkpoint saves and their cousins, single copy saves, are evil. They suck. They drain all of the joy out of otherwise good games.
This requires a bit of explaining if you aren’t a computer gamer…
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| Title | Supreme Commander |
| Developer | Gas Powered Games |
| Type | Real Time Strategy |
| Platform(s) | XBox 360, Windows |
| Kelly Score ™ | 95 / 100 |
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| Title | Fable |
| Developer | Lionhead |
| Type | Role playing game |
| Platform(s) | XBox, XBox 360 (emulation mode) |
| Kelly Score ™ | 90 / 100 |
Lionhead games released a game called “Fable” (note: site uses Flash plugin) a few years ago. I dismissed it because a few folks who liked “goofy/cartoonish” style games thought it was a great thing.
I picked up a discounted XBox version of Fable over the weekend. Not XBox 360, but XBox- it runs under emulation mode in my XBox 360, though. This means that the graphics aren’t great. But after playing the game for (according to it’s in-game stats) a bit over 7 hours, I can say I truly regret not trying it sooner.
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I’ve spent another fun day banging my head against a brick wall. The light I’m starting to see is from the cracks in my skull…
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| Title | Tomb Raider: Legend |
| Developer | Eidos Interactive |
| Type | Third person Action |
| Platform(s) | XBox 360, Windows, Playstation 2, Gamecube… |
| Kelly Score ™ | 80 / 100 |
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I’ve been playing with my XBox 360 quite a bit lately. One of the features I enjoy is it’s online match up, content, and “game tracking” service, XBox Live.
I originally signed up with XBox Live when I bought my original XBox (I.E.: before I bought the 360). It was really a poor investment- I played the old-style XBox for about three weeks, and bought (and renewed!) a full year subscription to XBox Live. That’s two years of XBox Live, and I’m really only starting to use it now. You might be asking…what is XBox Live? And why would I care unless I have an Xbox?
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