We’re still in the early stages, but things are planned out, and progress is getting made. Expect more to be coming out in the near future.

On Friday Bungie released Generator defence…oh sorry I mean Network test 1, this is the last game mode featureing in the BETA.

Generator defence Network test 1 is just that, a test to see if the network can handle the stress of the new game engine. Essentially its like Team fortress 2′s Dustbowl or Modern warfare 2′s Demolition mode, 3 Elites need to take down 3 generators guarded by 3 spartans, when the round begins Shortsword fighters drop down audinace, basically power weapons, however at least 1 or 2 are in range of the elites to begin with resulting in the same thing that happens in Halo, rushing powerweapons

I sense a small fail in the explosion/aurdinace placement

Both the Spartans and Elites get all there loadouts meaning Spartans start with..thats right…the grenade launcher, however it seems rather ineffective here because the Elites can go uphill.

This is a Generator, the Elites need to destroy all 3 to win the round (in which the Elites become spartans and vice versa), These Generators are fragile, around 8 Melee hits can make it go boom, however they slowly regain health and can be locked down making them invunrable for 30 seconds.

Now heres Problem 1: Locking down, It takes 1 second to lock a Generator and it stays locked for 30 seconds, after that it needs a 5-10 second cool down before it can be locked again, that is far too short of a cooldown if you ask me, look at this picture of B, you can see a locked down generator poking out from the corner.

Now if all 3 spartans have shotguns (which one of their loadouts have along with guard) it would take a lot of skill and luck for the Elites to hold B, wait for it to finish being locked and kill it before a single spartan can lock it again, I say bring the cool down up to 30 seconds to make it more fair for Elites

Better view of a locked down generator

this review is short because theres not much to talk about,that and I complained about everything in the past reviews, so really lets put down all the stuff that I don’t like from all 3 game modes

-Warthog too strong armour wise

-Spartans can have a power weapon (grenade launcher) as a starter in 1 set-up

- Powerhouse has too many power weapons

-Sword needs to be harder to block or able to clash Hammer melees

- Guard needs a tiny bit of invunrablity after finishing

- Stalker camo needs to be worked so its not useless

- Generators need a longer cool down

-Banshee needs to be stronger armour wise

- Grenades blast lessened or range reduced

- Bloom reduced for a handful of weapons

- Plasma launcher needs to ether fire slower or be easier to dodge

Overall BETA review score: 8.5

The BETA is enjoyable with a few problems which are most likly going to be fixed or tweaked

Ka-BOOM!

-Tik

Invasion comes in two modes, Invasion and Invasion slayer, Unfortunatly due to problems involving trying to upload my pictures to my fileshare to add them to this your just gonna have to use your imagination for Invasion slayer

Invasion

This is your typical Assault gametype like Unreal tournement but just without the announcer going crazy saying stuff like “GODLIKE!”

It starts out with a group of 6 spartans split into 3 groups of 2 facing of 6 elites also with the 3 groups of 2 set-ups the Elites start with 2 classes like the spartans with 2 classes, the Elites get the Plasma rifle (now known in this as the plasma repeater) 2 Plasma grenades and the evade ability OR they can choose the needler, Plasmas and the Camo abilty, Spartans can choose between Marksmen which is 2 frags, sprint and the DMR (the predicesor to the BR with 12 shots and single shot) and the scout which is AR, Pistol, Frags and Sprint.

Those who remaber me hating the Stalker setting I take it back, it is incredibly helpful for the first 2 parts of Invasion and it seems to be tweaked slighty, so long as you crouch walk now its incredibly hard  see people camoed, and in this gametype its very important as Spartans have the range advantage while the Elites have the close combat advantage.

Elites have Evade and Plasma repeaters PLUS camo making them very tough to beat close range

if part ones is taken by the elites New Armour types, Weapons and Vehicles spawn, Elites just get an extra secondary to there stealth class and the Warrior class becomes Zealot meaning the Needler rifle is there primary, Spartans have there scout turn into a Gaurd class, baasically they get the standard guard, with the weapons the new weapon to make its debut in the BETA is the Spartan lazer…its pretty much the same as Halo so nothing to say about it, vehicles spawn as well, For the Elites they get the Wraith and Ghost meaning they dominate vehicle-wise at this point AND close combat though its all down to player skill at range now, the Spartans get the UNSC Warthog.

Here is my first complaint, the Warthog, the Wraith has been buffed up and is actually a force to be recconded with so thats fine, the Ghost is alot smoother meaning less cheap Ghost kills but the Warthog…For who don’t know the Warthog is a light attack vehicle, its basically a hybrid between a rover and a buggy with a big machine gun on the back, now its LIGHT armoured yet it can take 3 plasmas and still keep driving?

This warthog just survived 3 plasmas with a 4th about to turn it into the 4th of July

the Ghost is a light vehicle as well which brings to question the strenght of the Warthog, its gun has been weaked abit (or I had horrible gunners who knows) but its still ungodly strong in defence, However one good with the Warthog is hijacking, before you can hijack a guy and killhim before he even know what happens, however now when you hijack you automatically go in the drivers seat giving the driver a slim chance to get his ride back.

After the second area is taken by Elites both groups get 2 new armour set-ups and new vehicles, Elites get there Zealot replaced so here evade is now a jetpack, they also get a “chapion Zealot” whic is a Needler rifle, a Plasma repeater and stealth, and the gladiator which is evade, sword and plasma repeater, Spartans get guard with a shotgun (there origonal guard is replaced with the jetpack) ad the grenadier which is grenade launcher and the sprint abilty, the two vehicles are the Elites get Banshees and the Spartans get an old friend: the scorpion.

Ok next complaint, why do Spartans get the grenade launcher? its the second best anti vehicle gun minus the Lazer, PLUS its a good infantry killer.

Second why is the banshee so much weaker? yes yes its a light armoured air unit but somebody with an AR can beat one.

Amazing I have no complaint against the scorpion, its fire rate and damge has been increased but its health have been decreased (4 plasmas compared to the previous 7 in Halo 3). the Final objective in Invasion is the Elites must carry a core from inside the building to a waiting Phantom. basically if the Elites get the core outside the building you best hope your team are good because its normally all over, because of the weapons Spartans have a huge advantage indoors and the elites have the superority outdoors, also some Spartans have the dumb idea to wait where the elites take the core and campt that out, which works untill the Wraith, Banshee or stolen tank kill them all (trust me i’ve seen it happen).

I’ll hide near the goal point and wait for the core to come to me! I is genius!

My final complaint is that the game is to short maybe 5 minuetes per part, and unlike games like Team fortress 2 when the ELites capture an objective the time doesn’t add on, it just goes back up to 5 so if you captures the first objecctive in 1:25 you wouldn’t get 8:35 to win, you’d still have 5 minuetes.

Overall Invasion has a few bugs to iron out but its a BETA and thats what its for

Good:

-Intense gameplay

-Vehicles

-Elites now have more set ups

-new way to play Halo

-Seems something you MIGHT spend a good chunck of your day playing now

bad:

-Warthog way too strong armour-wise

-Grenade launcher as starter on Tier 3? Really?

-Elites go from close range to vehicle to open area superiority

-Banshee way too weak armour wise

Part 1 BETA score: 7.5/10

Part 2 BETA score: 8/10

Its defently improving but a few more bugs need to be ironed out but as i said, it IS a BETA.

Tune ín next week when I review Bungies last mode: Generator defence

Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea…

Or it WAS but of course since Microsoft hate Europe (Y’know, for no reason other then being across the ocean) it took my 7 hours to download a 1.15GB BETA…SEVEN HOURS! My friend in Canada downloaded it in 15 minuetes, my other friends in the US downloaded it in 30-2 hours….SEVEN HOURS!

Of course when I downloaded it good and proper It was time to try out the new Gametypes ,Armour and weapons.

When I looked at my Spartan (you can only edit your spartans in the BETA) I hid a smile as Bungie decided to paint all Default Spartans pink, after changing my colours to White and Red I Began to look at the preferances, some of them were no brainers

“Would you like Rowdy or polite players?” Polite…DUH!

“Would you like Teamplayers or Lone wolfs” Well I want to be CREDIT TO TEAM!

“Would you like People who demand teamwork or not?” Not, I hate little kids…

After setting my preferance I began to look at the playlists, As of now only Grab bag and Slayer pit exist, Generator defence and Invasion will be released later and I’ll say my impressions to those as well, Choosing Grab bag my first match was a form of CTF on sword base, Of course I chose the first class which was scout and had the sprint ability and my first game began!

Right of the bat 1 thought shone out “Crap, where the fuck is the sprint button?” After 3 deaths and no kills I swapped for the normally versetile Bumper Jumper for the new controler style Recon, after finding the sprint button and dying several more times trying to remeber that RB isn’t Melee anymore, its reload I began the check the other classes.

I tested out Stalker and found I loose my sprint but gain Invisibility for a good minuete PLUS a radar jammer, Good? well not untill I realise that its useless unless standing still AND the fact the distorsion effect is much easier to see in Reach, After deeming Stalker useless I tryed Gaurd, This effect made me invunrable for 5 seconds but made me unable to move and a 0.5 second cooldown before I could attack, none the less I deemed it “Extremly good when used right” Last I tryed Airborn, its good but the Jetpack is nothing special If i gotta be honest.

The two maps, Sword base and Powerhouse are interesting as well, although I will say in some gametypes in Powerhouse, Blue have th  distinct advantage, Nothing more to say on maps.

The weapons are a dissapointment, they are all rather slow and revolves more around the old “Fire some AR shots, Melee” Except the Melee has been made extremly overpowered, 3 AR shots and a Melee = Instant death where as in Halo 3 it was half followed by a Melee, its just not on also some of the weapons are incredibly overpowered, like the Focus beam and the Grenade launcher, however this is one of the occasions when Gaurd truly shines, sure if they hit your shield when there red blinking they die but if your infront and you see a beam or grenade aimed/fired at you, go into Gaurd mode so your teamates kill the attacker and pick the weapon up, Its like the Senternal role in Final Fantasy 13! Except in Halo! and not as good as the Final Fantasy 13 one!
This is a short first impression as not alot has been given to us However when Invasion and Generator defense come out I’ll post a news post on that

So the Pros of the BETA

-Decent balanced map

- Looks great

-Personal preferances

-Good armour set ups (bar 1)

- Has more game modes showing up

the Cons

- Microsoft hates Europeons

- Melee Overpowered

- Some Weapons overpowered

- Stalker Armour setting next to useless

-not a BETA you’ll be playing sunrise to sunset due to lack of current content

- Pointless armour upgrades

-only 4 v 4 thus far

BETA rating: 7.5/10

Its good but theres a few things pulling the BETA down, but then again its a BETA so its probitly better so that the true game gets a higher score.

-Tik

a few days ago Valve released its long awaited The Passing campaign, is it worth the $7 on the 360? is it good? what’s it about? well lets take a step back for a moment here.

A little bit after the release of Left 4 Dead 2 Valve released the Crash course campaign and was a major dissapointment to most of the people, almost as big as a dissapointment that Team fortress 2 has yet to be updated on the consoles.  the campain conssted of 2 levels, no new guns and reused areas. now, fast forword a year and you have a superior DLC pack.

First most it pays homage to the origonal Left 4 Dead in terms of level design, Dark, close quarters for the most part, those who belive the new special infected steal the show in the main maps are in for a surprised as those who are familer to the old 4 infected are able to be more deadly then some of the other specials (thats not to say the Jocky, Spitter and Charger are useless as theres a few sections dedicated to them as well).

Second most you actually interact with the origonal survivors from Left 4 dead…or 3 of them at least as one of them died to save the other 3.

The story of the death of one of the origonal survivors untill the next Left 4 Dead DLC is as follows:

Franics, Zoey, Bill and Louis escape the military (for whatever reason) and begin to head south however, during a fight near the bridge Louis got himself wounded (presumibly by a Tank) and Bill was mortally wounded, In order to save the other 3, Bill ordered them to get onto the bridge while he stayed below to raise it, if you look by his dead body you see he must of crawled over to the main generator and gaurded it untill he died of his wounds as he is tightly cluting his M16 (which you can pick up) .

As The Passing is cannon it is clear Bill is never coming back in any possible Left 4 dead games unless his player model is used for community levels, its also clear that the origonal surviors (Zoey especially) are incredibly hurt by the loss of there friend.

Now with the good its time for the bad, one problem is (for us europion players especially it seems) the dedicated servers on the 360 version still lagg terribly, Valve have stated it would be lagg free now but this is pretty much a lie on there part

Second is that you can’t play as any of the origonal survivors, that have new soundfiles for community levels but minus modding you can’t play as the characters, I personally would love to choose between 8 of the survivors, i mean who doesn’t want to see Ellis and Zoey’s love affair? or Francis and Nick nearly coming to blows with each other constantly?

Finally the fanallie is rather week its the same “find X gas cans and fill up Y to win” Sure the cans are far away but Theres Zoey and Francis with Shotguns/Rifles and Louis with a big ass machine gun, its not that its overpowered its the fact the horde is so small even on expert that its pretty much neigh impossible for you to get hit by the common infected.

So, The Good

- Much better then crash course

- New weapons Golf club and M60 (Campaign only)

-Only 1 witch in the level (wearing a brides dress, points for origonality)

-Get the meet the Origonal survivors again

- Added the mutation gametype

-good for all Infected

The Bad

- Finalle is too easy in Campaign

- Bill dies

-Servers still lagg unless local

-No ability to play as the origonal surviors

The funny

- New lines

-Francis and Nick hating each other

-Ellis loves Zoey

- “Rochelle and the biker dude sittin in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!”

- Level makes great “WTF” moments

- Ellis refers to Team Fortress 2 like Louis refered to Counterstike in the origonal

-Cruel, Cruel joke involving a Jukebox and the Bride-Witch

-Valve secretly take the piss out of Microsoft forcing the price for the 360 version “$7 for an under the river tour? from Con man to con man I say, Bravo Mr Reymond, Bravo.”

Nintendo has officially announced the new release date for “Metroid: Other M”. The game was originally slated to kickoff the Summer season after the release of “Super Mario Galaxy 2″ but instead will end off the busy season with a new release date of August 31.

The Radioplay is expected to premiere in Episodic chapters this Summer, just in time for Other M’s release. More details shall be updated later on as the project progresses in development.

Yeah, well, I was thinking about Magic at the time.

On a site I report horror game news on, Rely On Horror, we recently had an interview with the game’s producer, Steve Papoutsis, who was very kind and informative with his answers. Read the interview there.

THEY ARE REAL!!! ;3;

…Totally made one of these, oh Google and fad creating…