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-E-N-E-M-Y-
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  • Monthly Blog: Number Four

    Hello to all, it has been a while since my last blog, and it is about that time for my monthly blog so let's get started. The New Xbox Experience, I think it's really cool. Around the first couple of days after its launch I was having trouble checking stuff out, I kept getting the "Invalid Code" or "Service Error" pop up, but now it is working just fine. I'm sure most people like the avatars, they're great and all, but what I like most is the party chat (which goes up to eight people) add-on. It definitely helps when you're playing Gears 2. As for Gears of War 2, I'm liking it a lot. However, there are a few things that need to be fixed. For instance, the chainsaw can get a little ridiculous at times. Another problem is sometimes you're in the waiting room for several minutes, and I don't really mean like seven to ten minutes, I'm talking around 30 to 40. Nonetheless, Gears 2 is a really great game. I have unlocked all of the achievements without glitching them, and yes I know, I have no life.

    Yeah that's me, big ears and all

    Onto more gaming. Recently, I played the Left 4 Dead demo and it was awesome. I think it is safe to say that Left 4 Dead will probably be the last game I purchase this year. Yeah, so I just bought a PlayStation 3, haha not really, but my cousin did and she lives like seven minutes away from me. I got to check it out, it took me a little while to get used to the controller, but I eventually got used to it. While I was there we played Call of Duty: World at War, it was pretty good. The only problem I had with it was that the graphics were horrific, and not just on the PS3, but the 360 as well. I could have easily mistaken them for PlayStation 2 graphics. I have not been all that active with other games, or gaming sites, or pretty much anything since Gears 2 came out, so today I decided to check for new news for upcoming games and I found out a few interesting things out. In Assassin's Creed 2, Altair can swim. Supposedly Gears of War 3's story has been completed but the game has not yet been designed. Also with Gears of War, well Gears 2, some images of one of the maps for DLC were leaked. There were a few other things but nothing too interesting to post.

    That is a lot of juice

    In other news, I'm still jobless. I guess Florida does not like me. Thanksgiving is a couple of days away, not doing anything special, just a small family dinner. Onto music, I'm not sure what types of music any of you listen to, but if you like Hip-Hop then you should check out kanYe West's new album 808s & Heartbreak, it's a terrific album. If you like alternative rock, you should check out The Killers new album Day & Age, I like it a lot, but hey I'm weird so you know. Onto Sports, a lot of news lately, for instance McNabb being benched, Matt Cassel soon to be the new New England stater for years to come, the Titans losing, oh yeah and did I mention my team, the Atlanta Falcons are 7-4. Who's Michael Vick? I don't know because Matt Ryan is doing a terrific job, him, Mike Smith and of course the rest of the team and coaching staff. Anyway that's it for now later everyone.

    Posted by -E-N-E-M-Y- 11/25/2008 6:22pm comments: 10

  • Gears of War 2 Review

    Gears of War 2 -- 10

    Difficulty: Hard
    Time Spent: 20 to 40 Hours
    The Bottom Line: "Masterpiece"

    GameSpot's Written Review | GameSpot's Video Review

    The Good

    Awesome story that draws you in - Outstanding online multiplayer - Plenty fun and unique weapons to use - Finishing moves are satisfying - Great soundtrack     - Achievement tracking is helpful - Voice acting is top notch - Great bosses - Horde mode is exceptionally great.

    The Bad

    Some people may experience technical issues.

    Yeah, they're bad

    When people hear the words Gears of War three things usually come to mind, chainsaw gun, online multiplayer, and game designer Cliff Bleszinski. But what is really Gears of War? Gears of War is a Sci-Fi Third Person Shooter, by Epic Games. Gears of War takes place on the planet Sera which has been overrun by a seemingly large enemy called locust. In Gears of War you took on the role of Marcus Fenix, a COG soldier imprisoned for treachery. His friend Dominic Santaigo gets him out of jail, and the journey begins. The mission was simple, to kill the locusts with the resonator, and save humanity from extinction. Obviously, something goes wrong and the resonator fails, so you end up using the Lightmass Bomb which is supposed to be a lot stronger than the resonator to say the least. However, things were not easy, why? Because the great locust general Raam was in the way of the Lightmass Bomb. In the end Raam was defeated and the Lightmass Bomb was deployed, giving the COG a much needed victory on their side. That brings us to Gears of War 2.

    Gears of War one was nearly perfect, but Gears 2 exceeds expectations and cannot be called anything less than flawless. Gears of War 2 takes place 6 months after the deployment of the Lightmass Bomb. The locust are back, they're meaner than ever and they're sinking entire cities. In Gears of War 2 you take on the role as Sergeant Marcus Fenix the returning hero of Gears of War one. You will be assisted by best friend Dominique Santiago, and other returning squad members. With humanity at the brink of extinction and their back against the wall, they take one final stand to save the last sanctuary in the city of Jacinto. One by one all of the cities around Jacinto sink, leaving the COG with nothing to do but to take the fight to the locust, to their territory and fight to save humanity as a species.

    Graphically, this game looks amazing. The people at Epic did a phenomenal job, everywhere you look, every single environment, vehicle, character, weapon, whatever the image, everything looks simply amazing. The great thing about it is that in Gears 2 there's so many different locations, whether it's online or campaign, so you really get to see some really cool and unique environments that you'll remember for a long time. You ride quite a few different vehicles, and all of them look great, but no spoilers here. Characters, whether they are good or bad they all are so diverse looking. You could easily get the feeling that you're playing Mass Effect with all of its diversity. I know I said this twice already, but there is no other way to put it, the game graphically, looks flawless.

    If only you could hear what this sounds like

    The sound, most of the sounds of the game have been changed from Gears one to Gears 2, but first, let's start with the soundtrack... ...it's amazing, especially the cinematic parts, you know the cut scenes. I don't want to get to much into it so I don't spoil the game, so let's just say that Epic did a wondeful job. As for the weapons, vehicles, and environments, they all sound great and better than in Gears one. Whether it's the sound of the Lancer, a King Raven, or even the sound of cover blowing up from an explosion, it's all great, everything just sounds right. A lot of people say Mass Effect's voice acting is the best they've every seen, but I would have to go with Gears 2, and it definitely helps that their facial expressions are perfect. All in all I'd have to say that the sounds in Gears of War 2 are amazing, top notch, a masterpiece, I would go on, but I think you get the picture.

    So a little about the gameplay, Gears of War 2 is a Third-Person Shooter. The idea of the game is using tactics and using cover to your advantage, while trying to kill large amounts of enemies at a time. The health system is in the center of your screen, it's a COG symbol with a locust skull in the middle, the more red it gets the sooner you need to get on cover and let your health regenerate. That's basically the idea of the game, now all you need to do is add some characters and a great story. In Gears of War 2 they do just that. The story in Gears 2 is definitely longer, and more interesting than the first. Many said that the people at Epic games were taking a big risk by making the story more deep than the first, meaning that the story is at a more personal level. In Gears one the idea of the story was to kill the locust. In Gears 2 part of the story is trying to defend Jacinto, which is humanities last hope. The other, more deep/emotional part of the story is trying to find Dom's wife Maria, who's been missing for years.

    In Gears 2 there is this thing called Watercooler Moments. What that is, is that every minute or so there is something cool or unique going on to keep the player from getting bored. Cliff has mentioned this in a few videos, and let's just say he stayed true to his word. Since I'm talking about gameplay, I will mention the technical issues. This is the only problem that I came across while playing the game, and I have to say it's inconsistant. What I mean by that is that not everyone will experience it. For example, someone may be on a cover and one of their squad members will completely spazz out trying to get on the same cover. Now another person playing may be at the same exact spot, do the same exact thing and nothing will happen. So that's why I don't see it as a big deal and consider it very inconsistent.

    Try beating Horde mode on Insane

    The controls for Gears of War 2 are very simple, and will take a newcomer around a half hour to learn the controls. After that they will be playing like a pro. If you have already played Gears, then the controls will feel better than before and will be like a second instinct. As I said before the idea of the game is to use cover as you can and kill a lot of locust. To get on cover you go near it, press the A button and ta dah, you're on cover. What's next shoot and kill the enemies, to look over the cover so you can aim you simply push the Left Stick up. Then to aim at the locust use the Right Stick, then when you are ready to shoot the locust push down the Right Trigger and you'll shoot. After you've killed all of the locust just pull back on the Left Stick and you'll get off of the cover. It's that simple, to learn the rest of the controls I suggest you read the manual.

    Replay Value, there are many reasons why you will be popping in Gears of War 2 five years from now, or until Gears of War 3 is released. The main reason is due to it's online multiplayer. Gears of War was such a huge success due to its online gameplay, and Gears 2's online multiplayer has been greatly improved. With the new 5 versus 5 the game will be that much more challenging. However that's not it, there is also new characters, returning characters, re-done returning maps, new maps, new weapons, returning weapons, new modes, returning modes, finishing moves, new finishing moves, picture taking, online co-op, bots, and Horde mode. There is so much Gears 2's online multiplayer offers. I don't want to say to much about the multiplayer because I don't want to spoil the game. But Horde mode is where you and up to 4 other players take on up to 50 waves of locust, each wave will contain more locust and they will become more powerful. You can play on any difficulty and any map, so have fun. Well that sounds like enough, don't you think so?

    Well, it's not, there are other reasons to play the game several times. In the campaign there are many paths to choose from, so on a second or third playthrough you can choose a different path and can see something new. Trust me you don't want to miss anything in this game, Watercooler Moments remember. Now another reason that actual kind of goes with the choosing a different path is the 41 collectibles. They are similar to COG tags from Gears one. Another reason is that there are 4 different difficulties, Casual, Normal, Hardcore, and Insane. Casual is for the lesser skilled players, and then Insane is for the top notch Gears players out there. The last thing for replay value are the achievements, which vary from many things, for example collecting all 41 collectibles is an achievement, and probably the most difficult to get, Seriously 2.0 which is getting 100,000 kills. Luckily, you can get most of the achievements in any mode. Also, new in Gears of War 2 is achievement tracking, which is very helpful.

    All in all Gears of War 2 promises to be a worthy addition to the series, and easily places itself in the top 5 of games on the Xbox 360. I'd personally say it's number one, but that is my opinion. Whether you're playing with your friends down the street or somebody in a different Country, it brings you close to thousands of people across the globe, and lets you have a great experience with them. Anybody who owns a Xbox 360 should without a question purchase this game. With a great story, fun gameplay, and plenty of replay value there is no reason not to get this game. Oh yeah an grab a jacket, it's going to be a cold winter.

    Posted by -E-N-E-M-Y- 11/03/2008 5:59pm comments: 19

  • Gears Two

    First off, I would like to say that I have finally got passed level 20, good luck with that Volcomstoner. Moving on, Gears of War 2 is just around the corner. I'm sure many are wondering if Gears 2 will live up to it's hype, and after seeing around 27 minutes of gameplay I have to say I am disappointed. However, I really am excited to see what the whole game has to offer. The video does contain spoilers, but if you're willing to watch it then click here.

    Gears of War 2 11/7/08

    I am not going to state the parts I thought were pretty cool, but I will state that there are definitely technical issues with the game. At 3:40 Marcus roles backwards and onto a rock. Between 4:43 & 4:47 it kind of looks like the whole squad is levitating, at 6:12 - 6:20 Baird is clearly having a lot of trouble getting on cover. At 6:46 - 6:56 Cole is trying to get past a cover that Marcus is on and instead of going around it, he runs in place right in front of it. And last (at least from what I saw), at 9:02 - 9:18 a locust gets downed and ends up on top of a car. Now that definitely is disappointing to me at least, especially after hearing Cliff saying that they are just polishing and polishing up the game so there are no technical issues, and clearly there are many.

    Posted by -E-N-E-M-Y- 10/27/2008 7:49am comments: 11

  • Moving: Part Two

    The move is finally over, I have to say I am surprised that my family and I lasted as long as we did at my grandparents. Luckily for me I had a couple of things to keep me occupied while we were there. The first and most important item was my laptop, the second was I bought Madden NFL 09, and the third was that there is a Halloween carnival right behind my grandparents house.

    Obviously I was on my laptop the most, whether it was watching tv on it, or writing stuff, or GameSpotting it up. As for Madden, I used to be really good at the game, but then the Falcons lost Michael Vick and I was stuck with Joey Harrington. Joey is not good at all, so I didn't play much of Madden 08, and then 09 came around. I knew the Falcons drafted Matt Ryan, but I still wasn't getting Madden. However, it's close to about halfway through football season, and I really wanted to play Madden so I bought it. I'm pretty good at it, but not as much as I used to be. Now about the carnival, I would have gone to it more, but it's mainly for little kids and teenagers around 12-15. So it's kind of lame. My cousin (who's 20) wanted to go, so she asked me, and we went. The only reason why I'm bringing this up is because it was probably the funniest part of my vacation. We were about to leave the carnival, my cousin kind of fell into a hole in the ground, and I guess she sprained her ankle. Now the reason it was funny is because she parked her car about a mile away from the carnival, because she didn't want to pay for parking and we had to walk back a mile while she complained about her ankle. She made it seem like she was going to die, it was hilarious to say the least.

    As for the "getting a job" I didn't have much of a choice were I wanted to work. My family, most of my family, wanted me to work for Publix, so I guess that's where I'm going to be working. Anyway, thanks for reading my blog, you must have been really bored to do such a thing. I just have to say I apologize for the sloppiness of this blog, but I have until 10 and were are moving our stuff in the new apartment, and the internet does not work there so I had to post this now. Anyway, later.

    Posted by -E-N-E-M-Y- 10/17/2008 6:38am comments: 7

  • Moving: Part One

    The big move is over, well, almost over. We (my family and I) moved all of our stuff to our new apartment. However, our apartment was not ready so we had to put our stuff in the garage. The only bad things are, we're only halfway done with actually moving stuff, as soon as the apartment is ready we have to take all of the stuff out of the garage and move it into the apartment. The second part is we're staying with my grandparents, and chances are things are not going to turn out to well, but hey, I could be wrong. As of now things are good, but it's only day two. Now that were are pretty much done moving I can look for a job, hopefully I can find one. If I cannot find one then I'm pretty much screwed, and I'll have to work in the family business. Not that it's bad, but I just want to do my own thing. Anyway that is part one of my blog, later.

    Posted by -E-N-E-M-Y- 10/10/2008 3:56am comments: 8
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