Halo Reach

Bungie Bangs
This is Bungie"s last game and as expected they went out with a bang. This is by far the best Halo and the most content rich than any other halo. The campaign has brilliant storytelling, Beautiful visuals (Night time on reach is stunning)and the hardest halo campaign yet and dont expect to have it easy with friends because each player you gain the higher the difficulty scales.

Firefight is Fun!
Firefight makes a return from ODST and now has matchmaking. Firefight is highly addictive, i have found myself playing more firefight than the campaign. The firefight maps are great, my personal favorites being beachfront and corvette. Firefight offers loads of customization this time around. If you want to be invincible and go on a grunt massacre you can or maybe you want to test your skills and go against hunters and elites with just a magnum and a sniper, the possibilities are massive.

 Armor Upgrades Add to Addiction
The multiplayer is better than ever with loads of armor customization that you earn with credits which can be earned in campaign and multiplayer(Your custom also appears as noble six in campaign. New game modes like invasion bring freshness to the multiplayer and the armor abilities are a great additions(JETPACKS!!!). I'm kinda bummed that there are not that many new original maps and most are remakes of old maps. Of course thats not bad thing a glad the brought back these maps(Ivory Tower).

Forge for the Innovative
The last and greatest addition is forge world, the ultimate map creation tool on any console. Forge world is a massive area for you to create whatever kind of map or gametype you want to make. Im looking foward to what master forgers are going to bring to the community. Kudos to bungie and there final outing to an amazing series. Bungie proves that they are one of the gretest game devolpers ever and they love their fans and community and we love them to.

Art/Animation: 10/10
Story: 10/10
Gameplay: 10/10
Overall: 10/10

Pros: Typical fun online play, fun story, lots of new things that are a hit!
Cons: Some of the same old maps, miss some of the old things changed around.

Alan Wake

Different From Every Game
Over the break I actually didn't get as much time as I thought I would to lounge around and play this game. I put work before it instead since my boss offered me the extra hours haha. I have played it as far as chapter 3 in the game though. I must say that overall this game is pretty impressive, and not the usual type of game I play, and seems different from any game really.

What is so Likable
What is so likable about this game is that for one, the graphics are simply beautiful. This game has really pushed the envelope, and it being a scary game, it really adds to the creepiness. The game has the best story of any I have played, so good in fact, that it is the main component of the game. This is because Alan is a writer in an escape to a small town. So far the story is kind of unraveling as you play and you find missing pages to Alan's manuscript throughout that eerily tell the outcomes of events to happen. The other really cool part about this game is although it follows a traditional linear level design, it still feels like you are in an open world, very few games accomplish this as well as this one does I think. I also have lived in Washington for awhile (where this game is based in) and they really captured the creepiness of how it feels to be out in the woods at night there.

What Could Be Better
This game seemed like it was almost so focused on the story, that it detracted a little from the gameplay. I would find a random radio, a TV, or a manuscript and it would read or play on for a good two and a half minutes. In game time, where you seem to be on the go, it feels like an eternity. The other thing is that it seems to get a little repetitive at times. It seems like I am ALWAYS running through the forest from something to find something and that's about it. I always come across an abandoned house that sometimes looks the same, or an obvious off trail I should follow to get a powerup, that usually isn't the best thing in the world like a flare gun to ward off dark spirits. I also wish that I could use a first person mode to shoot at things, the third person shooting is ok, but I feel it needs something and I don't know what.

Hooked
So far the game has me aching for more, and I usually finish about a chapter a night in my break time among homework. It is great because the "chapter" sense gives the player a recap of what happened in the story. Very smart, and something I often wish more games did, because it is hard to follow a 16 hour stretched out story in one sitting. I suppose it can get annoying that I can't skip the recap video when I do play through say two chapters, but that is small potatoes.

Overall: 9/10
Graphics: 10
Gameplay: 9.5
Story: 10+

Pros: Really solid story, awesome attention to detail, really unique game.
Cons: Bit more level depth, less time on things to stall upon to keep flow consistent.

Red Dead Redemption

If You Play Games, You Must Play This Game.
I actually purchased this game on it's release back in May, but since I still play it, I think it deserves a review, or does it? I honestly find it hard to say what I don't like about this game. I really geek out to gritty Clint Eastwood westerns and the Grand Theft Auto series. So when you combine the two, you basically make the best video game ever made. The video game Gun had originally stolen my heart on this, but then this game came through strongly on the 1upmanship.

Cons Few and Afar
I will name the cons to the game, even though they don't detract from it much. I thought it was a little silly for a lone gunman to collect flowers around the frontier. It was a real time consumer as well if one collected all the different types and quantities. The other thing that was kind of cumbersome was how it would cut to a cinematic every time you would skin an animal instead of just saying you collected a skin. It was worse how you would go into town to the trading store and have to sell everything and buy everything one by one and not it large quantities. At first the game was kinda fun in that it was so vast and how so much to uncover, but it can actually get annoying to ride a horse to long lengths around the great frontier. Luckily though the game had a warp where you could set up camp and get transported anywhere on the map. The one other thing is I thought the story was good, but could have been better. Gun had this game beat on that aspect. I also missed how there wasn't any Indians like there was in gun, or a bow and arrow. There wasn't swimming like unto similar Rockstar games. Lastly, although the graphics were phenomenal, the characters eyes still have that weird buggy look that hasn't been quite nailed in games yet.

Red Dead Addiction
The pros to this game will be hard to summarize because there was so much, and so much to the online play as well. Fun mini games, unlockables, horse racing, shootouts, side missions and accomplishments. The graphics I practically drooled over in this game with my jaw open. The rolling plains, epic sunsets, sweeping vistas, textures, waterfalls, animals and the physics. It was fun to compare scores with friends and other players with an elite membership to the Red Dead Social Club. The game is so addictive it is almost like a drug. So hard not to pop it in and play instead of do homework like a student should. The Grand Theft Auto series didn't quite nail the online play, but this game did. I love love love playing it online, and it has great rewards to when you rank up, fun co-op and great variety of games.

I give this game 10/10 overall.
Pros: Almost all things are pro, especially all the DLC
Cons: Very few, but could use a tad bit better of a story, and could shorten some lengthy things.         

Just Cause 2

More is Not Always Better
Let me start by saying that this game is very addicting, and very fun...but it does lose its appeal a bit after a while. Why this is is because the game is HUGE and overwhelming. While this is cool to have over 400 square miles of real time sandbox fun, the game got a little redundant. The missions always started out the same, taking over the different factories and blowing them up was fun, but there are so many on the map, it just feels pointless to even try getting them all as well as collectibles. I think what this game needed was a little more variety.

Funnest Item in ANY Game
However, this game was a win in sooo many ways. The grapple is just about the funnest item in any game I have ever used, and you can do so much with it. It honestly made me feel like every game should have one. Parachuting at any time was also really fun too. Granted neither of these add to any realism, but who cares, it's a game and it was a blast! However I found myself grappling and parachuting more to get around the map more than anything. The way the cars handled sucked big time, and the heli-drop extraction could take you anywhere on the map, but took too long which I think both play a critical role in open world games. Also the camera is always in the wrong angle with every vehicle you use be it planes, helicopters, cars, or motorcycles and even parachuting. It got really agitating to not be able to see and constantly adjust the camera with the analog stick. I also thought it was annoying to skip a cinematic and get a loading screen every time you want to get an item drop and that you can only buy one item at a time and only one in quantity. 

A Good Game, a Weak Story
The game was really fun, but I really think what really would have made it shine was a decent story. The story was, well, weak. A lot of the voice acting and dialogue could have used some work too. There were honestly times characters said, go in there and download the information and blow up the factory. Once and a while the main character would make a quip or joke to how simple it sounded, almost like it was an in game joke how bad some of the dialogue was. Did they not have decent writers for this game or what? The grand theft auto series has the best games because each mission varies so much and they have a rich story and make you feel like a character taking over the city. I never really felt as if I was taking over this country and ultimately just felt like a worthless grunt mercenary.

Rating
Overall out of 1-10 I would give this game...
Visuals: 8
Animations: 9
Music and Sound FX: 8
Story: 5
Overall fun: 8.5
Pros: Smashing and destruction galore, cool grapple and parachute to work with, huge open world that looks beautiful.
Cons: A lot of redundancy, lack of good story and character depth, annoying quirks like vehicle operation and item drops.

Need for Speed: Shift

Shift is Leaning Towards More Realism
Need for Speed generally doesn't disappoint for a fun racing game. The games never generally establish a real driving simulator like Forza or Gran Turismo, but I think that is more of the appeal for me. I like the arcade style, while still keeping it real enough to give the player the feeling of being in a genuine race.  Although, this game still proved to be a great getaway from homework for the average college student like me.

N4S Always Has Surprises
This game really scores good ranks among me, but disappoints in ways too even though I bought it. The Need for Speed games are always fun because I never know what features the new game has. The older games leaned towards a bit of a story, maybe even an open world, and street racing. Whereas these newer titles are going more the track racing route. I liked a lot about this game because it kept it simpler than the others because it was more about the racing. However, I think that because it was so simple, it took away more of the arcade element that makes this game so fun. It lacked a lot of the different racing modes the old games had and strictly had battle races (which was stupid because you didn't win the rivals car), drift, and strictly racing. They took out the speed attack, hot pursuit, street tracks and jumps, and drag racing.

Need for Nostalgia
I personally kind of missed the open world, the build up your persona and knock out racer story, and the customization on the vehicles. They really limited what a person could upgrade on the cars, and that was a real downer for me. I could spend half an hour just customizing one car in the old game feeling like a designer. Now, they really just let you pick from 2 things, and a paint color or a default racing design. I really didn't like that feature because I like having a car of my own. I also thought selecting items on your car such as rims or paint was rather annoying because it did not show what it looked like on your car through the menu unless you apply it. This was not so in previous games.

Online Play is Awesome
The game is redeemed however because it has an excellent and fun online playability for Xbox Live. It was fun to compare races I had done with friends and how some achievements on the track or race I didn't have a friend had or vice versa. Or the online racing battles really added more to the competition and I liked it a lot. I still just wish that my car could be a little more unique instead of looking so similar to everyone else's. I also wish there were a few more cars to choose from instead of 12 or so from only about 4 classes.

Rating
On a scale of 1-10 I would give this...
Visuals: 9.5
Animations& racing AI: 9.5
Story: 0
Game-play: 9
Overall Fun: 9
Pros: Great competition and tournaments, fun AI and visuals, fun to try for track achievements and compete online in different modes.
Cons: Strays from their arcade fun and took a too simple racing track route, no story, got rid of too many good things like racing modes and car customization.