Con report and little change to reviews

I realized my last two game reviews were more using the traditional 7 as an average type reviewing mechanic. While I could go back and give Punch out a 7.5 and ODST an 8 or 7.75 under the old system I realized I'm gonna keep slipping back into that. That being the case, from now on I'm gonna review games with 7 being the average like most places do. I've gone back and changed ToS:Dawn of the New World's and Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts's scores to reflect what it would be under the new system. Sorry about that but this will keep me giving scores the way that feels natural instead of constantly having to argue it in my head and I won't have to remember I'm working with a 5 as an average system. I admit the 5/10=average is more mathematically correct but I'm gonna do it the way that feels right.

Anyway, no game review today but I will talk about my trip to northern Maryland (Towson Maryland to be exact) for Tiger Con. It was put on by the college anime club and I think it was the 2nd or 3rd year they had had it. It was in Towson University's University Union (aka their Russell House and sadly their Student Union looked nicer then ours) so it was basically a Nashi Con level anime con (though it was free). It was a 2 or 3 hour drive, a bit much maybe for such a small con but I had nothing else planned and I sorta wanted to compare their con to Nashi Con. I heard about it from a webcomic I've been recently following called Erfworld that I like a lot. I actually met the guy who writes it and got a picture of him as well as an Erfworld button for a dollar.

The drive up was annoying due to heavy traffic and a multitude of roads that merged and split constantly near the Baltimore area but I finally got to Towson and once there found the con quite quickly (their campus has signs all over the place telling you where buildings are) and they had a garage next to the student union so parking wasn't a problem either. I got there around 2 or 2:30PM since the only morning thing I wanted to do was a Left 4 Dead skit and happened at 9AM, there was no way I was getting there that early (when I got there I found it had been canceled anyway) so I slept in and left at 11:30 or so. It was on all three floors of the building (though there was only one room on the third floor being used) and I spent most of the time on the second floor where the majority of the action was. They had the dealer's area in the middle of the second floor with con rooms ringing it but they had extra dealers and artists (no official artist alley as far as I saw) spread throughout the con. I liked the placement of the main dealer's room but I didn't like how they sorta flung everyone that wouldn't fit all over the place, makes me feel like I might have missed a few dealers. It was at the main dealer's area I met Rob Balder (the Erfworld guy) and they had a few other things including a guy selling all the generic comic book stuff stuff like overpriced Magic cards and dice.

Considering it was a one day con and I was only there for 5 or 6 hours I was happy to make it to 4 panels. The first one I went to was one on webcomics but it was pretty dead. There were like 4 or 5 people there to start off with though a few more came in as it went on. Some Narutard who was there for the next panel literally wasted 5 or 10 minutes talking about Red vs Blue and kept talking about it after the panel guy got it back on track, I wanted to smack him.

After that I saw the the Erfworld guy had some music concert so I went to check that out. Apparently the guy writes his own nerdy songs and sings them (one of them was apparently big on Dr. Demento). His songs "Goth Chick", "Gamer Funk", and whatever the last one he did were good, but the stuff in the middle fell a little flat (A song about nethack for example even though I'm almost positive no one in the audience had played it before). He had a song about his ex girlfriend who was a crazy furry, it was a little awkward to hear but still kinda funny.

After exploring the con area a bit I wondered back into the room where the concert had been and they had a panel that was kinda interesting. They had a group of four people that were members of the college club and the audience was supposed to give them topics and the panelists would go on and rage about it. It was pretty funny and a solid panel that Nashi Con could easily use in theory. One of the chicks doing it had to comment on everything even if she hadn't seen it or played it and she got on my nerves a little bit but it was a good panel overall.

The last panel I went to was by far the most popular, it was a Geek Stand Up Comedy thing and I was amazed that every single one of the guys I saw up there was actually funny (I got in a little late and missed the first guy). I don't think it was just random local Watarus though, they had one guy that had gone to 30 different states and some of the others had done other shows as well. Most of them talked about nerdy stuff but it wasn't shit like obscure Japanese references in some anime you've never heard of, they talked about the 360 and making fun of con goers and stuff. The people here easily outnumbered everyone in the other three panels combined.

After this there wasn't anything else I wanted to do (I would have checked out the Batman is Awesome panel, but I would have to wait til 11:00PM or so just for it to start and I didn't want to get home super late) so I took a few more pictures and left. It was raining hard and the traffic was still bad at 8PM but I managed to get home safetly.

Oh, they also had a game room (that was actually big enough to walk around in!) with Smash Melee and Brawl, Street Fighter IV, Power Stone, and a few other games but you could tell they had just gotten people to bring stuff in like at Nashi Con as many of the TVs were too small and of all different brands and quality.

Overall I enjoyed it but don't think it was worth driving 3 hours each way. I have 10-15 pictures but I'm not gonna stretch the page to post them (when only 2 or 3 people read my blog) so if you care just IM me asking for them.

Halo 3: ODST

Today I slept in late, a lot later then I should have since I need to get up early tomorrow for my trip to the Towson Anime convention "Tiger Con". I really wish the cons I go to would stop naming themselves in a manner that makes one think it's a furry convention. It's a small local con hosted by a college anime club so I expect it to be on scale with Nashi Con. My next entry will include a review of the con as well as of a game.

Speaking of games, today's is Halo 3:ODST for the Xbox 360. I've spent the last 2 or 3 days playing both the campaign and the Fire Fight mode and am ready to render my verdict.

Halo 3 ODST

Overall:

This is Bungie's latest game in the Halo Universe (do they have any others nowadays?) and set between the events of the second and third games. It's a FPS like the main Halo games but you play as an "ODST" (Orbital Drop Shock Trooper) instead of the Master Chief or the Arbiter. Basically the guys in black armor from the 2nd and 3rd games, they're better then regular marines but not as good as Spartans. You play various members of an ODST squad that got separated when they dropped into the city. You play as the voiceless "Rookie" in a hub world consisting of the city at night and find evidence of the battles your comrades had during the day (you were knocked out upon landing and missed the day time action) which triggers flashback type events where you play a level as different ODSTs. It also uses a more Halo 1ish system of health with a recharging shield but non regenerating health (instead of both being regenerating like in Halo 2 and 3).

Pros:

If you like the combat of the Halo games you'll like this as there hasn't been any huge changes from how things function. One change that I know a lot of people are going to like is that there are no Flood levels, not a single one or even a hint. Bungie finally got the hint that people hate playing them. Most of the Halo weapons we all know and love are here and they let the ODSTs use the big weapons that before only the Spartans, Elites, and Brutes could use. They don't really explain this, but if suddenly you couldn't use the hammer and the brute shot that would be sorta lame. Bungie tried experimenting with how they do the story telling, mixing it up and letting you tackle the flashbacks (for the most part) in the order you want even if this gets a little confusing chronologically. Another plus was that they finally threw in the Engineer species of the Covenant from the books and other assorted associated Halo media. I think they were mentioned in the 3rd game's manual but you get a new bad guy to play with. Firefight is a welcome addition to the game and what I think you'll see people coming back to in the long run. Obviously taken from Gears of War 2's Horde mode, Firefight pits you (and up to 3 friends) up against wave after wave of enemy troops. Every once in a while they turn on a new skull to make it harder and you play until you run out of lives (you start with 7 for the whole team but every 5 waves you get more). It's fun and a nice multiplayer activity that probably won't get turned into competitive bullshit and something you can just play while chilling with your friends. The game also comes with a disc containing all the Halo 3 multiplayer maps and updates so anyone who has fallen behind on that can quickly catch up (though you have to play it from the extra ODST disc and not your Halo 3 disc which might actually be a plus for those running low on 360 hard drive space).

Cons:

The chief complaint you hear about the game is that it's short. This is a true and valid complaint as you can beat the game in one (relatively long) sitting. Another problem I had with the game was that the Elites do not show up whatsoever. The Elites at this time in the canon are still fighting the humans and they're more fun to fight then the brutes so I really have no idea why Bungie didn't put them into the game. The lack of Elites naturally leads to a lack of Energy Swords so fans of that weapon will have to go without. Speaking of weapon disappearances the BR (Battle Rifle) is missing entirely. This isn't really addressed in-game as every other human weapon is present and one would think in a city full of soldiers that at least one or two would have their standard weapon of choice. I heard that the director for this game didn't like the gun personally but that's just something I heard and may not be true (though if it is it's a pretty crappy reason for it to not be in there). The only complaint I had with firefight was that I wish they just threw harder or more numerous waves of enemies against you instead of activating skulls (like having to melee enemies to get your stamina (aka shield) back). That's a fairly minor complaint though as it doesn't take away much from the game. I did find the characters to be not very memorable and there were a few plot holes in the game (why was there a huge enormous Drone Hive under the most heavily guarded human area in New Mombasa 6 or 7 hours after the attack?).

Overall Rating:8.75/10

Closing Remarks:

How much you like this game is gonna depend largely on how much you like the FPS Halo games so you'll probably already have a good idea whether you're gonna buy this or not. I like Halo's combat system so this review might not be applicable to those that are not as big of fans. Regardless I think Bungie has done a good job trying some new story telling mechanics and while the characters aren't terribly memorable the story was more about the fear, hopelessness, and terror of having no safe haven now that Earth had found and invaded. A lot of people liked the new jazzy music and it was nice, but I also sorta missed the Halo theme and the rock music so I'll call that a draw music wise. Sixty bucks for a short single player game, a horde mode, and multiplayer maps might be a bit much (and if you don't have Live definitely wait for the price to go down) but the game itself is very fun and enjoyable.