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Post by Seth Drakin of Monster Crap on Mar 14, 2008 17:49:17 GMT -5
6. Half-Life 2 Half-Life 2 is a science fiction first-person shooter computer game and the sequel to the highly acclaimed Half-Life. It was developed by Valve Software Corporation and was released on November 16, 2004, following a protracted five-year development cycle during which the game’s source code was leaked to the Internet. The game garnered near unanimous positive reviews and received critical acclaim, winning over 35 Game of the Year awards for 2004. Originally available only for Windows-based personal computers, the game has since been ported onto the Xbox, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 video game consoles. Taking place in and around the fictional City 17, Half-Life 2 follows the adventures of scientist Gordon Freeman. Dr. Freeman is thrust into a dystopian environment in which the aftermath of the Black Mesa Incident has come to bear fully upon human society. Freeman is forced to fight against increasingly unfavorable odds in order to survive. In his struggle, he is joined by various allies, including former Black Mesa colleagues, oppressed citizens of City 17, and the Vortigaunts. The game uses the Source game engine, which includes a heavily modified version of the Havok physics engine. Half-Life 2 has been critically acclaimed for advances in computer animation, sound, narration, computer graphics, artificial intelligence (AI) and physics. As of June 8, 2006, over four million copies of Half-Life 2 have been sold. Exact numbers for digital delivery service Steam and retail have not been revealed, but in general, the former accounts for 25% of Valve’s business and is significantly more profitable per unit. As of July 14, 2006, the Half-Life franchise has sold 16 million units. As of February 28, 2007, Half-Life 2 is the second most played online computer game (excluding MMORPGs), behind Half-Life, according to GameSpy. The original Half-Life, released on November 19, 1998, largely took place at a remote civilian and military laboratory called the Black Mesa Research Facility. During an experiment, researchers at Black Mesa accidentally caused a "resonance cascade" which ripped open a portal to an alien world, Xen. Creatures from Xen flooded into Black Mesa via the portal and started to kill anyone in sight. The player took on the role of Gordon Freeman, one of the research scientists involved in the accident, guiding him in his attempt to escape the facility. At the end of the game, Gordon was extracted by a mysterious figure colloquially known as the G-Man who "offered" him employment. Gordon was subsequently put into stasis by the G-Man. Half-Life canon dictates that Gordon Freeman either agreed or was not given a real option with respect to the G-Man's offer. Half-Life 2 picks up the story with the G-Man taking Freeman out of stasis and inserting him on a train en-route to City 17 an indeterminate number of years after the Black Mesa Incident. Official sources differ on the actual length of this intermission—a story fragment written by author Marc Laidlaw for the development team puts the intermission at 10 years, while Half-Life 2: Episode One's Web site puts this intermission as "nearly two decades" after the end of the events of Half-Life. At the start of the game, the G-Man speaks to Gordon Freeman as part of a hallucination-like vision as he is pulled out of stasis and placed on a train. Gordon exits the train to find that the world has been overtaken by an extradimensional military force known as the Combine. Gordon meets up with Barney Calhoun and sets out for Doctor Isaac Kleiner's lab while being chased by Combine Civil Protection, meeting Alyx Vance along the way. Once they've reached their destination, Kleiner attempts to teleport them to Black Mesa East: though Alyx arrives successfully, Kleiner's pet headcrab, Lamarr, damages the device when Gordon uses it. Gordon is briefly teleported to many places, most notably Dr. Breen's office (twice), who alerts the Combine to his reappearance. He finally materializes just outside the window of Kleiner's lab. Barney instructs Gordon to take the city's canals to get to Black Mesa East, where Alyx's father, Dr. Eli Vance, works. While navigating through the city's canals, Gordon is chased by the Combine on foot until being supplied with an air boat at a rebel outpost; by this point it becomes increasingly obvious that Gordon has a heroic, almost messianic reputation with the rebels and outlaws. However, the air boat is soon spotted by the Combine and pursued by a hunter-chopper assault helicopter. Using a salvaged hunter-chopper turret, Gordon manages to take down the pursuing helicopter. He arrives at Black Mesa East and meets Eli Vance and Doctor Judith Mossman, also rejoining Alyx. Alyx gives him a tool originally developed for handling hazardous or heavy materials called the Zero-Point Energy Field Manipulator (also known as the gravity gun) and instructs Gordon on its use while also introducing Dog, her giant "pet" robot. The lab is attacked by the Combine, forcing Gordon to escape along an old tunnel leading to Ravenholm. A Combine shelling has caused Ravenholm to be overrun with headcrabs and zombies. The last survivor, Father Grigori, helps Gordon through Ravenholm and ultimately leads him to the dockyards outside City 17. Freeman is alerted by Alyx via radio that Eli has been captured and is being held in Nova Prospekt. Gordon travels to Nova Prospekt in a dune buggy, helping to down a Combine gunship after meeting Colonel Odessa Cubbage at another resistance base; Cubbage gives him an RPG launcher for this purpose. The journey is made difficult due to Antlion infestation along the coast, but once Gordon kills their Antlion Guard master, the Vortigaunts are able to extract pheropods which Gordon can then use to control a number of antlions in the assault on Nova Prospekt. At Nova Prospekt, Gordon searches for Eli. Alyx joins with Gordon again, and together they find both Eli and Doctor Judith Mossman (revealed to be a Combine spy). Mossman creates a distraction and teleports herself and Eli into the Citadel, while Gordon and Alyx teleport themselves to Doctor Kleiner's lab. A malfunction in the equipment causes a huge explosion, which causes the time to slow down during the teleportation, contracting seven days into a few seconds. They arrive at Doctor Kleiner's lab a week after they left Nova Prospekt. During this lost week, the explosion has been taken as a signal to start the resistance, which has considerably strengthened, turning City 17 into a warzone. Gordon leads freedom fighters towards the Citadel to free Doctor Vance while Alyx helps Doctor Kleiner escape the lab. Later, Alyx briefly rejoins and accompanies Gordon in a battle to disable a Combine power generator, but is subsequently captured by Combine forces. After reaching Barney, Gordon shuts down a suppression device blocking access to the Citadel and brings down a pack of Striders. Gordon enters the Citadel through an underground passage. All of his weapons are destroyed by a "confiscation field", except for the gravity gun. An unexpected reaction with the confiscation field causes the gun's powers to be amplified, and using this Gordon wreaks havoc upon the Citadel. Gordon enters a containment apparatus, which brings him face-to-face with Doctor Breen. Doctor Judith Mossman is with Breen, and he summons Eli and Alyx, who are being held in similar devices. During the confrontation, Breen remarks that Freeman's services are "open to the highest bidder." As Breen threatens the Vances, Judith turns against him. Breen manages to escape to a "Dark Energy Reactor" at the top of the Citadel with the intent of teleporting himself away from Earth. Gordon and Alyx pursue him, and Gordon destroys the reactor, both to depower the Citadel and to prevent Breen's escape. This triggers a massive explosion in which Alyx and Gordon are imperiled. However, at the moment the reactor explodes, time stops. The G-Man emerges, commenting on Gordon's successful endeavors. He places Gordon back into stasis and leaves through a door of pure light. The game ends exactly as it began, in darkness. The story continues from this point in Half-Life 2: Episode One. Throughout the entire game, Gordon never speaks, the action is viewed through his eyes only (i.e., there are no cut scenes), and there are no discontinuities or jumps in time (from his point of view). There has been some criticism of these narrative holdovers from Half-Life, since they effectively limit how much of the backstory is explained. Due to the lack of cut scenes, the player never directly sees what has happened in Gordon's absence. Ultimately, it is not clear to what extent Gordon exists as a separate character outside of the player's influence. Since the start of Half-Life, Valve has made sure that the player's and Gordon's experience are one and the same. An example of Valve's player strategy is shown during the scene in Eli's lab. Investigation of certain props (most notably the newspaper board) triggers Eli to give some explanation to their meaning and history, thus indicating that Gordon presents emotions that the non-player characters can detect. The ending of Half-Life 2 is also very similar to that of the original: after completing a difficult task against seemingly overwhelming odds, Gordon is extracted by the G-Man. Gordon is smugly congratulated and told that further assignments should follow. The fates of many of the major characters, such as Alyx, Eli, and Judith, go unexplained. Very few of the questions raised by Half-Life are answered, and several new ones are presented. The identity and nature of the G-Man remains a mystery. A number of these issues are addressed, however, in the sequel games, Episode One and Episode Two. The environments in Half-Life 2 are varied, ranging from the generally Eastern European-styled City 17 and the zombie-infested town of Ravenholm, to the coastal Nova Prospekt prison and the massive Combine Citadel. Viktor Antonov, the art director of Half-Life 2, being a Bulgarian, spent his childhood in Bulgaria, wrote that Eastern Europe was favored as a setting for the game as it is capable of depicting a combination of both new and old architecture, creating a city with history; "gothic themes associated with Prague and vampires" were also overlooked in favor of a different aspect of the region. The game's setting sees frequent appearances of Cyrillic letters on signs and graffiti (written in Bulgarian spelling); this has led some to argue that City 17 is in fact a Combine-altered Sofia, Bulgaria. Old cars scattered throughout the game are Soviet-made and used to be commonly found in Eastern Europe, such as Moskvitchs, Zaporozhets, Trabants, Volgas (GAZ-24), Latvias (RAF-2203), and GAZ-53s. During the game, Gordon comes to a coastal Resistance settlement called New Little Odessa; Little Odessa is the nickname for the Russian community in Brighton Beach, where many ex-Soviet immigrants settled (the original Odessa is a major city located on the coast of Ukraine). Father Grigori has a name common in Slavic Eastern European countries, an accent that is stereotypically Slavic Eastern European, and has been identified as a clergyman of the Orthodox Christian Church, the predominant religious institution found in many (though not all) Slavic Eastern European countries. Half-Life 2 differs from many other FPS by incorporating elements of survival horror, most notably in the Ravenholm level. The anguished atmosphere of this is akin to the likes of Silent Hill, combined with a large and intricate level design. In Half-Life 2, player takes on a role of Gordon Freeman, as in original Half-Life. Armed with numerous weapons he has to make the way through a series of levels, encountering both human troops and hostile alien creatures. As in Half-Life, the gameplay is broken up with a series of puzzles; however, Half-Life 2 includes physics-based puzzles. For example, one puzzle requires the player to either turn a seesaw-like lever into a ramp by placing cinder blocks at one end, or to stack the cinder blocks into a crude stairway. The use of physics extends into combat with the gravity gun. This unique weapon plays a crucial function throughout the game, granting the player an unprecedented amount of creativity in its use, such as picking up and throwing objects at enemies, holding objects indefinitely for use as makeshift cover, grabbing medikits and ammunition from out-of-reach places, pulling plugs, returning enemies' grenades, building makeshift bridges, making crude stairs out of crates, flipping over an overturned buggy, or manipulating objects through Combine forcefields. Vehicles are another major gameplay addition. The player has the ability to drive two vehicles during the single player campaign; an air boat, which Gordon uses to navigate through the "Subzero" canal network, and a dune buggy which Gordon uses to get to Nova Prospekt. The air boat is initially unarmed, but is later mounted with a Combine weapon from a downed hunter-chopper. The buggy is armed with a Tau Cannon that functions very similarly to the one found in the original Half-Life. It, however, does not overload if the secondary fire is held for too long. The game also integrates tutorial-like tasks in the storyline itself and includes on-screen instructions on game controls (but no longer includes separate tutorial levels featured in the original) to allow familiarization of the game’s mechanics and weapons for players as they go. Several such examples include an early incident in the game where a Civil Protection unit orders the player to "pick up" a tin can and "throw it" into the trash can, and Alyx Vance’s introduction of the gravity gun at Black Mesa East, which incorporates an impromptu game of "catch" with her robot, Dog. Although Gordon battles through much of Half-Life 2 alone, he is at times assisted by allies. For the most part these are human members of the resistance, but Gordon is also helped by Vortigaunts, who have the ability to recharge his HEV suit's battery, and later Antlions. This latter insectoid species is new to the Half-Life universe and is encountered first as a fiercely territorial foe, but is later co-opted into acting as an abundant and obedient ally through the use of a pheromone pod, nicknamed "bugbait". At several key locations, Gordon also meets up with, and fights alongside, more significant non-player characters like Alyx Vance, Barney Calhoun and Alyx’s robot, Dog. Many familiar enemies from Half-Life return in this game, such as headcrabs, barnacles, and headcrab zombies. However, the majority of the game is spent fighting the Combine, who wield large military forces against Gordon and the people of City 17. Combine forces are varied and consist of modified humans, biomechanical creatures, robotic weapons, including the use of headcrabs as biological weapons. In many locales throughout the game, the mysterious G-Man can be spotted watching over Gordon. Before the player can investigate further, G-man disappears into the environment. Several of the weapons featured in Half-Life 2 are carried over from Half-Life, including the trademark crowbar for melee fighting, and the conventional firearms of a SPAS-12 shotgun, a .357 Colt Python, a crossbow that fires molten rebars, and a AT4 RPG launcher as well as the tau cannon, an experimental particle weapon that is mounted on the dune buggy. Several new weapons are also introduced: an MP7 submachine gun, a 9mm USP Match, the AR2 Combine Overwatch pulse rifle; 'pheropods' which grant control over Antlions, and most significantly, the Zero-Point Energy Field Manipulator, or gravity gun. Half-Life 2 was released without a multiplayer component, and was instead packaged with Counter-Strike: Source.[38] This changed on November 30, 2004, when Valve released the Half-Life 2: Deathmatch component on Steam for US$9.95. Like other deathmatch games, the aim of Half-Life 2: Deathmatch is to kill as many other players as possible, using a variety of means, in either free-for-all or team matches. The player spawns with a gravity gun, a pistol, a sub-machine gun, and grenades. All weapons included in the single player portion of Half-Life 2, with the exception of the pheropod (bugbait), are available and scattered around the maps. Players can be killed in a number of ways, including gunfire, explosions, or through contact with physical objects traveling at high speeds. Half-Life 2: Deathmatch's February 17, 2005 update introduced a new map (dm_steamlab) and three new weapons that had been missing from the game previously, or cut before it shipped. This included the crowbar (for human player models) and the stunstick (for combine player models), and the SLAM, or Selectable Lightweight Attack Munition, a real-world weapon which can either be thrown and detonated or planted on walls to produce a "tripwire" laser which detonates the device when in contact with an object or person. While the Xbox release of the original Half-Life 2 contains no multiplayer component, the re-release of Half-Life 2 (packaged as The Orange Box) for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 includes Team Fortress 2 and Portal, in addition to Episodes One and Two.
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Post by Seth Drakin of Monster Crap on Mar 14, 2008 17:54:26 GMT -5
Countdown Update
125. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets 124. Silent Scope Complete 123. SSX 3 122. Madden NFL 2005 121. Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis 120. Star Wars: The Clone Wars 119. Darkwatch 118. The Lord Of The Rings: The Third Age 117. The Simpsons: Hit And Run 116. Rainbow Six 3 115. Madden NFL 08 114. Blitz: The League 113. Mafia: The City Of Lost Heaven 112. Dungeons And Dragons Heroes 111. WWE Wrestlemania 21 110. World Soccer Winning Eleven 8 International 109. Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell 108. GUN 107. NHL Hitz Pro 106. Top Spin Tennis 105. Rocky 104. TransWorld Surf 103. Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy 102. MechAssault 101. Legends Of Wrestling II 100. NCAA March Madness 2005 99. WWE Raw 2 98. Brute Force 97. Metal Slug 3 96. Fahrenheit aka Indigo Prophecy 95. NCAA Football 06 94. Stubbs The Zombie In "Rebel Without A Pulse" 93. Midnight Club II 92. Showdown: Legends Of Wrestling 91. The Punisher 90. Dead Or Alive Ultimate 89. MVP Baseball 2005 88. Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup 87. Shenmue II 86. Blinx: The Time Sweeper 85. GoldenEye: Rogue Agent 84. Fight Night Round 2 83. Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition 82. The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction 81. NASCAR 2005: Chase For The Cup 80. Evil Dead: A Fistful Of Broomstick 79. Timesplitters 2 78. Def Jam: Fight For NY 77. Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy 76. Burnout 2: Point Of Impact 75. Evil Dead: Regeneration 74. MVP Baseball 2004 73. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 72. Fuzion Frenzy 71. Armed And Dangerous 70. Destroy All Humans 69. Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance 68. Red Dead Revolver 67. Amped: Freestyle Snowboarding 66. Fight Night Round 3 65. Gladius 64. NCAA Football 2004 63. Indiana Jones And The Emperor's Tomb 62. Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon 61. Forza Motorsports 60. Thief: Deadly Shadows 59. Godzilla: Save The Earth 58. Unreal Championship 57. Lego Star Wars: The Video Game 56. Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne 55. Tony Hawk's Underground 54. Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 53. Freedom Fighters 52. Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II 51. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 50. The House Of The Dead III 49. Max Payne 48. Tony Hawk's Underground 2 47. FlatOut 2 46. Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy 45. Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks 44. Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age Of Heroes 43. Timesplitters: Future Perfect 42. Tony Hawk's American Wasteland 41. X-Men Legends 40. Project Gotham Racing 2 39. Spider-man 38. Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 37. Spider-man 2 36. The Chronicles Of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay 35. Soul Calibur II 34. Ninja Gaiden Black 33. Mortal Kombat: Armageddon 32. Beyond Good & Evil 31. Mercenaries: Playground Of Destruction 30. Ninja Gaiden 29. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith 28. Star Wars: Republic Commando 27. Grand Theft Auto: Double Pack 26. Mortal Kombat: Deception 25. Amped 2 24. Crimson Skies: High Road To Revenge 23. Deus Ex: Invisible War 22. Dead Or Alive 3 21. Star Wars Jedi Fighters II: Jedi Outcast 20. Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath 19. Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time 18. Burnout 3: Takedown 17. Star Wars: Battlefront II 16. ESPN NFL 2K5 15. X-Men II: Rise Of Apocalypse 14. Jet Set Radio Future 13. Star Wars: Battlefront 12. Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory 11. Doom 3 10. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas 9. Psychonauts 8. Fable 7. Jade Empire 6. Half-Life 2
Next five clues are:
* Arbiter
* Dagoth Ur
* Darth Malak
* The Exile
* The Flood
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Post by Seth Drakin of Monster Crap on Mar 14, 2008 20:01:01 GMT -5
5. Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic II: The Sith Lords Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II The Sith Lords (KotOR II) is a role playing video game released for PC and the Microsoft Xbox. The Xbox version of this sequel to Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic was released on December 6, 2004, while the PC version was released on February 8, 2005. It was developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by LucasArts. The game takes place five years after the events of Knights of the Old Republic, in a time when the Jedi have been nearly exterminated by the Sith. The player's character, a former Jedi Knight exiled from the Jedi Order, is referred to as "the Exile" or "Jedi Exile." Throughout the game, the player's character restores a connection to the Force while, with the help of non-player character companions, trying to stop the Sith. The player makes choices that turn the Exile to either the dark side or light side of the Force, and travels to six planets to either help or hinder the Republic's efforts to bring peace and stability to the galaxy. While The New Essential Guide to Droids refers to the Jedi Exile as "her," the player chooses at the game's beginning whether the Jedi Exile is male or female.[6] The Exile's backstory reveals that the character served under Revan during the Mandalorian War and ordered the activation of a devastating mass shadow generator at the climactic battle over Malachor V. The deaths that ensued created such a substantial "wound" in the Force that the character was forced to sever all connections to Force, and the Jedi Council ordered the character exiled from the Jedi Order. As the game progresses, the Jedi Exile rebuilds a connection to the Force and creates unusually strong Force Bonds with other characters and places. Among the characters who join the Jedi Exile are Kreia, who acts as the Exile's mentor in a manner akin to Obi-Wan Kenobi or Qui-Gon Jinn;[1] pilot and ex-assassin Atton Rand; Mandalorian War veteran Bao-Dur and his droid remote; the criminal droid G0-T0; and the Sith apprentice Visas Marr. T3-M4 and Canderous Ordo (now identified as "Mandalore"), both featured in the first game, also join the Exile's team. Other characters join the Exile's party only under certain conditions. HK-47, who appears in the first game, joins the quest if the Exile collects and uses the parts necessary to reactivate it. The Wookiee bounty hunter Hanharr joins if the Exile is aligned with the dark side of the Force; Hanharr's competitor, Mira, joins if the Exile is light-aligned or neutral. If the player's character is female, Mical the Disciple can join the player's quest, while Brianna the Handmaiden joins a male Exile. Enemies include Darth Sion, Darth Nihilus, and Darth Traya. New playable locations include war-ravaged Telos and the orbiting Citadel Station, Onderon and its jungle moon Dxun, Nar Shaddaa and Goto's orbiting yacht, Peragus, the starships Harbinger and Ravager, and Malachor V. Korriban and Dantooine from the original game are revisited. The Ebon Hawk, the main character's ship in the first game, is also the player's transportation in this game. In addition to technical changes — such as more combat animations and interface scaling — The Sith Lords includes several changes from the original game's features. In Knights of the Old Republic, if the player acted in a way contrary to one of his/her companion's alignment, the player would receive a verbal berating with little consequence. In The Sith Lords, the player's influence over another character can determine whether sub-plots will develop, as well as increase both the party members' and player's statistics. Influence can be gained by performing actions that a party member approves of. For light side-oriented characters, such as Bao Dur, this can involve sparing someone's life. For dark side-oriented characters, such as HK-47, influence can be gained by violent acts, such as inciting a mob to violence. Influence is lost in a similar manner. The player can train party members to use the Force depending to the gender of the character, and to choose the Exile's Jedi class at the game's beginning. With the exception of the droids, Mandalore, and Hanharr, every party member can be promoted to a Jedi class, although their powers do not develop as far as the player's or other initially Force-sensitive characters. Training the crew to become Jedi requires both time and for the player to act in a manner consistent with the involved characters' alignments. Methods to train the crew involve using pacifism to influence Mira and training with the Handmaiden. However having a confrontation with some character usually leads to the same goal. There are more upgradeable items, and devices to carry out upgrades, in The Sith Lords. Additionally, the player can create various items — such as upgrade items, explosives, and implants. T3-M4 acts as a mobile workbench for creating upgrades and computer spikes, and the Disciple (only available to female player characters) can carry out the functions of a lab station.
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Post by Seth Drakin of Monster Crap on Mar 14, 2008 20:08:38 GMT -5
4. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, or simply Morrowind, is a single player computer role-playing game developed by Bethesda Game Studios, and published by Bethesda Softworks and Ubisoft. It is the third installment in The Elder Scrolls series of games. It was released in North America in 2002 for Microsoft Windows and the Xbox. Well-received publicly and critically, selling over four million copies and winning more than 60 awards, including Game of the Year, Morrowind holds an average review score of 89% from both Metacritic and Game Rankings. The game spawned two expansion packs for the PC: Tribunal and Bloodmoon. Both were eventually repackaged into a full set containing all three, Morrowind: Game of the Year Edition, which shipped on October 30, 2003 for both PC and Xbox. The story takes place on Vvardenfell, an island in the Dunmer province of Morrowind, which lies in the empire of Tamriel and is far from the more civilized lands to the west and south that typified Daggerfall and Arena. The central quests concern the deity Dagoth Ur, housed within the volcanic Red Mountain, who seeks to gain power and break Morrowind free from Imperial reign. Morrowind was designed with an open-ended free-form style of gameplay in mind, with a lessened emphasis on the game's main plot. This choice received mixed reviews in the gaming press, though such feelings were tempered by reviewers' appreciation of Morrowind's expansive and detailed game world. Like previous entries in the series, Morrowind is primarily a first-person (with the option of playing in 3rd person) RPG, playing from a character's eye view in a 3D environment. The player controls one character, though various NPCs may join the character temporarily. Morrowind begins with the player imprisoned and in the midst of being set free. A well-received tutorial depicting the prisoner's release moves the player through the process of character creation. The player is successively asked questions by a fellow prisoner, an officer, and a bureaucrat as the player is registered as a free citizen; choosing, in the process, the player character's name, gender, race, birthsign, and class. These affect the player's starting attributes, skills, and abilities. In a throwback to the Ultima series, the player has an opportunity to answer a series of moral questions to determine their class. The player character's proficiency with a skill is increased either by practice or training. Practice involves performing the specific actions associated with a given skill, which gradually raises the character's proficiency in that skill. Training involves paying cash to NPCs in exchange for immediate proficiency increases in that skill. To practice using armor or weapons, the character must use them in combat. Weaponry skills (viz. Short Sword, Long Sword, Axe, etc.) affect the character's chance to hit. Armor skills (viz. Heavy Armor, Light Armor, Unarmored, etc.) affect the defensive strength of the armor. To practice a particular school of magic, the character must cast spells within that school. Morrowind, like its predecessor Daggerfall, makes a distinction between "attributes" and "skills"; skills being those individual proficiencies in particular schools of magic or with particular armor classes, and attributes being broader proficiencies, such as "strength" and "endurance", which are either tied to important features unconnected to any skill, (viz. Health, Magicka, evasion chance, etc.) or improve the efficiency of a wide variety of skills. Strength, for example, improves the damage of any physical blow dealt by the player character. Attributes, however, are improved only when the player levels up. The player levels up their character by leveling up ten individual skills from their major and minor skill lists. Each time the player levels up their character, they select three attributes to augment as well. The player is better able to augment attributes related to their skill set, as each level gained in a particular skill adds to the multiplier by which the attribute is augmented. The simplest melee attack, a chop, is performed with a left click. The slightly more complex slash and thrust attacks are performed by clicking in unison with tapping a directional key[22], though by turning on the "always use best attack" option, they can eliminate the moving element, freeing them to focus on the combat. A melee weapon's damage potential is rated for each of these attacks. Reviewers found little value in choosing between the three types of attacks for most weapons, and an option is available to always use the best attack, which is recommended. Hidden arithmetic modifiers, applied to each combatant's skills, determines whether or not the attack hits. In the game's original release, the player was given no indication of the amount of health left in their enemies, and no indication of the strength of their attacks. Reviewers took the absence badly, wishing for more visible feedback. Bethesda eventually added enemy health bars in patch 1.1.0605, released one month after Morrowind's initial publication. Morrowind, following the tradition established by its predecessors in The Elder Scrolls series, attempts to establish a completely free-form world, with no constricting boundaries on the player's actions. From the beginning of the game, the player is put in a world where they are left to roam, steal, quest and explore, without necessarily following the main quest. On the opposite extreme, the open design of the game permits one to complete it in under fifteen minutes. Lead Designer Ken Rolston, asked prior to Morrowind's release what he thought were the "core, untouchable design elements" of the Elder Scrolls series which "set them apart from other games", responded immediately: "Free-form experience." In Rolston's view, the game's central plot is a chance to introduce the player to a cross-current of conflicting factions, background themes, and to the characters of the game, rather than the primary focus of the player's experience. "Every TES game has to let you create the kind of character you want, and then do the things you want. We would never have a TES RPG force you to be a certain character or go down a certain path." To allow for this behavior, Morrowind, in addition to creating an extensive main quest, provides detailed discursive quests for a variety of factions, including various guilds, religious organizations and aristocratic houses, in addition to side-quests found by mere exploration. Even the main plot itself may be attacked in a number of directions. There are, in the words of critic Craig Lindey, "a very specific set of central plot points within this main plot. But the plot points are partially ordered: seven high level tasks must be completed, but their constituent sub-tasks...can be accomplished in any order, and this is repeated for the sub-tasks involved in those sub-tasks." The choices the player makes in their performance of these tasks thus become methods of character interpretation; a set of dramatic tools establishing the player's newly created self-identity. According to Gamasutra's Matt Barton, some have argued that these changes put Morrowind closer in spirit to the original D&D tabletop game, where players take a more creative role in their play, and where players are left to decide for themselves the "right" action. This is a view paralleled by Rolston, who has stated that "The goal of every TES game is to create something that resembles a pen and paper RPG on the computer." The sheer number of quest possibilities, combined with what developer Ken Rolston identified as a lack of "narrative urgency", left many critics dissatisfied with the main plot. Ken Rolston later stated that the main quest might have been presented with greater force, in the style of the game's successor, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, without losing the free-form design of the series, but such concerns were not addressed prior to Morrowind's release. The central quests of Morrowind concern the demigod, Dagoth Ur, housed within the volcanic Red Mountain. Ur has used the Heart of Lorkhan, a small, heart-like artifact of great power, to make himself all-powerful, and now seeks to drive the Imperial occupiers from Morrowind. In his quest for power, he blights the land of Vvardenfell and corrupts the minds of the weak. The player begins fresh off a boat from the mainland, freed from imprisonment by the string pulling of a distant and obscure emperor. At this point the player is under no obligation to follow through with the main quest, and may instead choose to take part in regional politics, to explore or adventure, or to pursue minor side quests. As with previous entries in the series, a particular emphasis in the design and execution of the game lays upon the freedom of the player. The plot soon reveals that the player is a re-incarnation of an ancient Chimer hero, Nerevar; the Nerevarine. As the player moves through the main storyline, he/she begins to take on characteristics of the Nerevarine, all the while learning more of the tumultuous past of Vivec, Nerevar, and Dagoth Ur. After receiving the support of the Great Houses and the nomadic Ashlander tribes, the player comes to be called "Nerevarine", and plots an assault on Dagoth Ur with the help of Vivec, one of the three living Tribunal gods. Now facing Lord Dagoth, the player breaks the Heart of Lorkhan with Kagrenac's tools, destroying the source of Dagoth's power and, if willing, killing Dagoth Ur in the process. Red Mountain is cleared of blight, House Dagoth falls, and the player is congratulated for his/her efforts by the Daedric prince Azura. Morrowind takes place on Vvardenfell, an island in the Dunmer province of Morrowind, far from the typically European lands to the west and south of Daggerfall and Arena. Along with graphical improvements, one of the most obvious differences between Morrowind and the earlier games in the series is that Morrowind takes place in a much smaller area than the previous games. While Arena featured the entirety of Tamriel as an explorable area, and Daggerfall featured sizeable portions of two provinces of Tamriel, Hammerfell and High Rock, Morrowind includes only the "relatively small" island of Vvardenfell within the province of Morrowind. The change was a result of a conscious choice on the part of the developers to feature more detail and variety in the game. Whereas Daggerfall and Arena's dungeons were randomly generated, each area in Morrowind was specifically detailed, and each item specifically placed. As a result, reviewers were generally impressed with the game-world's variety, as this maintained the perception of an "enormous" game-world. The game area expands to Mournhold on Morrowind's mainland in the Tribunal expansion, and to the island of Solstheim to the northwest of Vvardenfell in the Bloodmoon expansion. Morrowind's developers, rather than developing the common Medieval European setting of fantasy games, chose a more eclectic route, taking elements from Egyptian, early Japanese, and Middle Eastern cultures, with Middle Eastern architecture cited in particular for its major influence on Balmora's Hlaalu architecture. Executive Producer Todd Howard felt that the use of Morrowind as a backdrop was integral in the development of the game's style. While admixing some elements of the Imperial culture so typical of fantasy to retain familiarity, Morrowind's dark elven setting "opened huge new avenues for creating cultures and sites that are not traditionally seen in a fantasy setting". The development team also gave particular credit to the Ridley Scott film Gladiator, high fantasy, The Dark Crystal, and Conan the Barbarian as influences. The game has over 300 books (not counting scrolls). One particular compilation of the text runs to 1,241 8.26'' by 11.00'' sheets of paper. PC Gamer weighted the in-game text as equal to 6 standard-size novels. Many of these books provide long, serial stories, and provide hints as to the background and history of the game. One critic in particular, Phillip Scuderi, remembered Morrowind for its great literary richness. To him, the in-game literature and its integration within the game was Morrowind's "most original and lasting contribution to the history of games", one that would place it beside Planescape: Torment as one of the most important games of all time. Such themes are echoed in other responses to the game, such as that of RPGamer's Joseph Witham, who found a story "discreet" in its progression, with a dungeon-crawling feel, standing alongside a "whole world of unique history" with books forming the greater part of the player's interaction with that world.
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Post by Seth Drakin of Monster Crap on Mar 14, 2008 20:15:36 GMT -5
3. Halo 2 Halo 2 is a science fiction first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie Studios. Released for the Xbox game console on November 9, 2004, the game is the sequel to Halo: Combat Evolved. After its initial release, Halo 2 was the most popular video game on Xbox Live, holding that rank until the release of Gears of War for the Xbox 360 nearly two years later. By June 20, 2006, more than 500 million games of Halo 2 had been played and more than 710 million hours have been spent playing it on Xbox Live; by May 9, 2007, this number had risen to more than five million unique players on Xbox Live. As of May 9, 2006, Halo 2 is the best-selling first-generation Xbox game with 8 million copies sold worldwide. As of September 25, 2007, Halo 2 is the fifth best-selling video game in the United States with 6.3 million copies sold in the US alone. The game features a new game engine, as well as using the Havok physics engine; added weapons and vehicles; new multi-player maps; and a continuation of the storyline from Halo: Combat Evolved. In the game, humans, who have developed faster-than-light travel and colonized hundreds of worlds, have been engaged in a war against a collective of genocidal alien races, the Covenant. The player assumes the roles of Master Chief and the Arbiter, and fights enemies on foot or with a collection of alien and human vehicles. Critical reception of the game was generally positive, with most publications lauding the strong multiplayer component; at the same time, the campaign was the focus of criticism for its cliffhanger ending. A Windows Vista version of the game was released on May 17, 2007. It was developed by a team at Microsoft Game Studios who are referred to internally as "Hired Gun". Game developer Pi Studios produced editing tools for this version, which allows users to create multiplayer maps. Halo 2 is a story-driven action-shooter game with a first-person perspective. The game features an expanded range of vehicles, as well as other gameplay changes compared to its predecessor. In the original Halo, health and shield bars are visible on-screen. In Halo 2, the health bar is no longer visible; instead, shield regenerates quickly when the player is not taking damage. Halo 2 features more than fourteen human and alien weapons, many new to the series. Certain weapons can be dual-wielded, which allows the player to compensate for reload times, while sacrificing accuracy and the ability to use grenades for raw firepower. The player can carry two weapons at a time (or three if dual-wielding; one weapon remains holstered), with each weapon having advantages and disadvantages in different combat situations. For example, most Covenant weapons eschew disposable ammo clips for a contained battery, which cannot be replaced if depleted. However, these weapons can overheat if fired continuously for prolonged periods. On the other hand, human weapons are less effective at penetrating shields and require reloading, but cannot overheat due to prolonged fire. The player can also carry a total of eight grenades (up to four of each type: plasma and fragmentation); however, grenades can only be thrown when single-wielding. Another new ability found in Halo 2 is the ability to board enemy vehicles that are near the player and traveling at low speeds. The player or AI latches onto the vehicle and forcibly ejects the other driver from the vehicle. The game's "Campaign" mode offers options for both single-player and cooperative multiplayer participation. In campaign mode, the player must complete a series of levels that encompass Halo 2's storyline. These levels alternate between the Master Chief and a Covenant Elite called the Arbiter, who occupy diametrically opposed roles in the story's conflict. Aside from variations in storyline, the Arbiter differs from Master Chief only in that his armor lacks a flashlight; instead, it is equipped with a short duration rechargeable form of active camouflage that disappears when the player attacks or takes damage. There is four levels of difficulty in campaign mode: Easy, Normal, Heroic, and Legendary. An increase in difficulty will result in an increase in the number, rank, health, damage, and accuracy of enemies; a reduction of duration and an increase in recharge time for the Arbiter's active camouflage; a decrease in the player's health and shields; and occasional changes in dialogue. There is a great amount of hidden content within the game, including easter eggs, messages, hidden objects, and weapons. The most well-known of the hidden content are the skulls hidden on every level. The skulls, which can be picked up like a weapon (or "ball" as in the '"Oddball" multiplayer gametype), are located in hard-to-reach places. Many are exclusive to the Legendary mode of difficulty. Once activated, each skull has a specific effect on gameplay. For example, the "Sputnik" skull found on the Quarantine Zone level alters the mass of objects in the game; thus resulting in explosions being able to launch these objects across larger distances. Skull effects can be combined to provide various new levels of difficulty and/or novelty. Unlike its predecessor, Halo 2 allows players to compete with each other via Xbox Live, in addition to the original game's support for split-screen and System Link multiplayer. Halo 2's Xbox Live mode offers changes from earlier online first-person shooters. Traditionally, one player sets his or her computer or console up as a game server or host, specifying the game type, map, and configuring other settings. The game software then uses a service such as GameSpy to advertise the game to the world at large; other players choose which game to join based upon criteria such as the map and game options each host is offering, as well as the ping times they are able to receive. In Halo 2, however, Xbox Live players do not choose to host public games, and they do not specify individual maps and options to search for. Instead, players select playlists that are geared to different styles of play. For example, the "Rumble Pit" playlist offers "every man for himself" game types, and "Team Skirmish" offers 4-on-4 team games, which are primarily objective-based games like Capture the Flag. Bungie occasionally deletes the unpopular game types and adds new ones. The Xbox Live servers create games automatically from the pool of players that have chosen each playlist, choosing a game type and map automatically and selecting one player to serve as the game's host. If the Xbox console hosting the game resigns, the Xbox Live service automatically selects a new host from among the remaining players so the game can continue. Players can create small parties with their friends and/or clan and enter games together as teammates in Team based games. Players may also set up games for their own party to their own specification, and invite others into that game from their Friends and Clan lists; however, these games are not made publicly available. For fairness and balance reasons, certain gameplay aspects from the Campaign mode are disabled or missing in Multiplayer: an example is the absence of the hand-held Fuel Rod Cannon and the removal of the Banshee's fuel rod cannon. Technical lead designer, Chris Butcher, commented on the development of Halo 2's multiplayer in Edge, a British gaming magazine, in January 2007. Responding to a rash of subsequent news articles, Butcher clarified his position on Halo 2 multiplayer. He noted his original intent with the game, but he also reiterated disappointment. "For Halo 2 we had our sights set very high on networking," Butcher said. "We thought about the great LAN parties you can have with Halo 1 and decided to try to recreate that awesome experience of having all your buddies over to play, but using Xbox Live instead of having to lug consoles and televisions around. Going from having no Internet multiplayer to developing a completely new online model was a big challenge to tackle all at once, and as a result we had to leave a lot of things undone in order to meet the ship date commitment that we made to our fans." Halo 2 takes place in the same science fiction universe as Halo. According to the story, humans have colonized numerous worlds due to the development of faster-than-light travel. Twenty-seven years before the beginning of Halo 2, the outer colony world of Harvest was destroyed by a collection of alien races, called the Covenant. Since then, the humans and Covenant have been locked in a bloody war, with the UNSC forces continually losing major engagements. The Cole Protocol was created in the hope of preventing the Covenant from discovering human population centers, particularly Earth itself. However, shortly before the events of Halo 2, the Master Chief heads to Earth after destroying a Covenant fleet to ward off an impending Covenant attack on humanity's home planet. The playable characters are the "Master Chief Spartan-117", one of the few surviving super-soldiers of the SPARTAN-II project; and the Arbiter, a disgraced Elite Commander turned into a holy warrior and serving under the Covenant's Prophets. Throughout much of the story, the Master Chief is assisted by a feminine artificial intelligence construct, Cortana, who resides in a neural implant and is connected to his MJOLNIR battle armor. The Master Chief is also assisted by the Marines of the UNSC ship In Amber Clad and its captain, Commander Miranda Keyes, who is the daughter of Captain Jacob Keyes (captain of the Pillar of Autumn during Halo: Combat Evolved). The Arbiter, meanwhile, is assisted by the varied races of the Covenant and the Special Operations Commander, Rtas 'Vadumee. The Covenant are the story's antagonists, although due to the action shifting between the Master Chief and his Covenant counterpart, the Arbiter, these enemies are sometimes allies. Playing an antagonistic role in the later stages of the game to both sides is the entity called Gravemind, a Flood intelligence of unknown motives. The story of Halo 2 is told through in-game dialogue as well as cutscenes; the back-story to the game can be found in the game manual. Taking place shortly after the events of the novel Halo: First Strike, the game opens with the judgment and torture of a former Covenant Elite Commander, who is being punished by his fellow Covenant for failing to stop the destruction of the ringworld Halo by human forces during the events of Halo: Combat Evolved. It is revealed that the Covenant's interest in Halo lies in the religious belief that the activation of Halo would bring about the "Great Journey", which would allow them to follow the ancient Forerunners to the "divine beyond". As the Elite Commander is tortured and branded with the mark of shame by the Brute Chieftain, Tartarus, a recognition ceremony is held for the humans Master Chief and Sergeant Major A.J. Johnson, who receive awards aboard Cairo Station, a MAC (Magnetic Accelerator Cannon) gun platform orbiting Earth, alongside Commander Miranda Keyes. Soon after the commencement of Master Chief's ceremony, a Covenant fleet jumps out of slipspace near Earth. The Covenant proceeds to send boarding parties towards a battle cluster of MAC stations. These boarding parties are secretly carrying explosives designed to take out the MAC guns that protect Earth from attack. After repelling the initial Covenant assault, the Master Chief locates and disarms the Covenant explosives with the help of Cortana, while the flagship of the Covenant fleet speeds past Earth's defenses and heads toward Earth itself. Master Chief and Cortana join the UNSC ship In Amber Clad, which is en route to New Mombasa to deal with the Covenant flagship. Meanwhile, the disgraced Covenant commander has been given a chance to redeem himself as the "Blade of the Prophets", the Arbiter. His first mission is to silence a heretic who doubts the Prophets' teachings, in turn starting the Arbiter along a path which ultimately results in him doubting his own beliefs about Halo. Before reaching New Mombasa, Cortana decodes transmissions revealing that the flagship they are after carries the High Prophet of Regret, an important Covenant figure. The UNSC successfully repels the Covenant invasion force spread through the city, and the Covenant ship begins preparations for an emergency slipspace departure to an unknown destination. As Regret's ship disappears through the Slipspace portal, Keyes thrusts her ship after it, just before the portal closes and destroys the city with a massive shockwave. On the other side of the portal, they discover a second Halo installation dubbed "Delta Halo". Despite the Covenant's own ideas about the rings, Master Chief and the crew of the In Amber Clad know that the rings are actually weapons that if activated would wreak devastation on a galactic scale. Master Chief goes to the ring's surface to take down the Prophet of Regret while Keyes and Johnson attempt to secure the Index, an object the Covenant is after which can be used to activate Delta Halo. The Chief succeeds in killing Regret, but is then attacked by a Covenant fleet and eventually captured by a mysterious tentacled creature. Seeds of discord are further sown within the Covenant when the Prophets decide to grant the Brutes the job of protecting the Prophets instead of the traditionally favored Elites. The Prophets of Truth and Mercy send the The Arbiter to retrieve the Index on Delta Halo. The Arbiter manages to obtain the Index before the humans do, but he is then betrayed by Tartarus, who reveals that the Prophets ordered him to kill the Arbiter. He takes the Index and shoots the Arbiter down into a hole in Delta Halo's library. The Master Chief and the Arbiter meet upon the release of the Flood, a race of parasitic creatures, from Delta Halo. A mysterious and intelligent Flood creature called the Gravemind has captured them both and teleports the Arbiter and Master Chief to separate locations in an attempt to prevent The High Prophets from activating Delta Halo. The Arbiter is sent to an area on Delta Halo, just outside the ring's activation center. There, the Arbiter discovers that the Brutes have massacred many of the Elites and most of the ruling Elite Councilors, betraying the Elites by the order of the Prophets. Having finally realized the truth about Halo and the Covenant, the Arbiter rallies his surviving fellow Elites and leads an uprising against the Brutes. Master Chief finds himself aboard the Covenant Holy City High Charity, a gargantuan mobile space station that serves as the Covenant capital city, and pursues the remaining Prophets. During his mission, he finds himself in the middle of the erupting Covenant civil war between the Brutes and the Elites. After capturing In Amber Clad, the Flood, led by Gravemind, arrive at the city and begin to consume and infect the populace. The Prophet of Mercy is killed by the Flood, leaving only one remaining Prophet, Truth, who escapes on a Forerunner vessel hidden in the core of High Charity. The Master Chief stows away on board while Cortana stays behind in order to detonate the In Amber Clad's engine reactors to destroy Delta Halo and High Charity in case Tartarus activates the ring. Tartarus does indeed activate the ring, but the Arbiter with the help of fellow Elites, Sgt. Johnson, and Keyes, manage to stop the firing. However, the unexpected shutdown causes the ring to send a signal out to the other remaining Halos, sending them all into a dangerous "standby" mode so they can be remotely activated from the Ark. Meanwhile, the Forerunner ship that Master Chief has stowed away on approaches Earth. The remaining orbital forces are in the middle of another battle with Covenant ships. On Cairo Station, Lord Hood contacts the Chief and asks what he is doing aboard the Forerunner ship. He replies, "Sir, finishing this fight," ending the game with an abrupt cliffhanger and setting the tone for Halo 3.
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Post by Seth Drakin of Monster Crap on Mar 14, 2008 20:22:56 GMT -5
2. Halo: Combat Evolved Halo: Combat Evolved (commonly, Halo or Halo 1) is a first-person shooter (FPS) video game developed by Bungie Studios. The first game of the Halo series, it was released on November 15, 2001 as a launch title for the Xbox gaming system, and is considered the platform's "killer application." With more than five million copies sold worldwide as of November 9, 2005, Microsoft released versions of the game for Microsoft Windows (developed by Gearbox Software) and Mac OS X in 2003, and the surrounding storyline was adapted and elaborated into a series of novels. In Halo's twenty-sixth century setting, the player assumes the role of the Master Chief, a cybernetically enhanced "SPARTAN" super-soldier. The player is accompanied by Cortana, an artificial intelligence who occupies the Master Chief's neural interface. Players battle various aliens on foot and in vehicles as they attempt to uncover the secrets of the eponymous Halo, a ring-shaped structure. The game has been called "easy to learn", and has been praised for its "engaging story". Many game magazines have praised Halo as one of the best and most important games of all time. The game's popularity has led to labels such as "Halo clone" and "Halo killer", applied respectively to games either similar to or anticipated to be better than it. In addition, the game inspired and was used in the fan-created Red vs. Blue video series, which is credited as the "first big success" of machinima — the technique of using real-time 3D engines, often from video games, to create animated films. As a first-person shooter, Halo has a gameplay fundamentally similar to that of its peers, focusing on combat in a 3D environment, and taking place almost entirely from a character's eye view. The player can move around and look up, down, left or right. The game features vehicles, ranging from armored jeeps (Warthog) to tanks (Scorpion), alien hovercraft (Ghost) and even an aircraft (Banshee), all of which can be controlled by the player. The game switches to the third-person perspective during vehicle use for pilots and mounted gun operators; passengers maintain a first-person view. The player character is equipped with a damage-absorbing energy shield, in addition to hit points. The shield's charge appears as a blue bar in the upper-right corner of the game's heads-up display. When the shield is fully depleted, the player is highly vulnerable, and further damage reduces the character's health level. However, the shield will recharge if no further damage is sustained for a brief period. Halo's arsenal consists of weapons from science fiction. The game has been praised for giving each weapon a unique purpose, thus making them useful in different scenarios. For example, plasma weapons need time to cool if fired too rapidly, but require no reloading. Instead, players are forced to discard them after depleting their batteries. In contrast, conventional firearms cannot overheat, but require reloading and ammunition. All weapons may be used to bludgeon enemies, which allows a player to silently kill opponents without alerting other nearby enemies. Players may carry only two weapons at once; thus, a strategy is required when using and selecting firearms. The player can carry up to eight grenades at a time: four fragmentation and four plasma grenades each. Like the game's other weapons, the two types of grenades differ; the fragmentation grenade bounces and detonates quickly, whereas the plasma grenade adheres to targets and takes longer to detonate. A controller button assigned to grenades eliminates the need to holster firearms before throwing. The game's main enemy force is the Covenant, an alliance of alien species. Their forces include Elites, fierce warriors protected by recharging energy shields much like the player's own; Grunts, which are short, cowardly creatures, usually led by Elites, and who often flee in terror instead of fighting unless an Elite is present; Jackals, which have highly durable energy shields attached to their arms; and Hunters, large, powerful creatures with thick armor plates that cover the majority of their bodies. A secondary enemy is The Flood, a parasitic alien life form that appears in three main variants. Infection Forms, the true form of the Flood, are fragile, but often travel in swarms; they do little damage individually, but the swarms often number in the hundreds. Combat Forms result from humans and Covenant Elites who are infected by Infection Forms, and have hideously deformed bodies. Bloated Carrier Forms serve as incubators for new Infection Forms, and when wounded or near a potential victim, they explode to damage other nearby life forms and to release their spores. Battling the Flood, the Covenant, and the player are the Sentinels, robotic drones designed by a race called the Forerunners. Sentinels lack durability, but use powerful beam weapons and are immune to infection by the Flood. The artificial intelligence in Halo has been favorably received. Enemies take cover and use suppressive fire and grenades. Some enemies retreat when their superiors are killed. The player is often aided by United Nations Space Command (UNSC) Marines, who offer ground support, such as manning gun turrets or riding shotgun while the player is driving a vehicle. Because Halo was released before Xbox Live, online multiplayer games were not officially supported. The game instead uses local Ethernet or "system-link" that supports a maximum of 16 players. This setup was a first for a console game, but was often deemed impractical by critics. As Halo lacks artificially intelligent game bots, LAN parties are needed to reach the game's 16-player limit. In addition to five customizable competitive multiplayer modes, two players may co-operatively play through the game's campaign. Halo's multiplayer components were generally well-received by critics and is widely considered one of the best multiplayer games of all time. Although the Xbox version of Halo lacks official support for online multiplayer play, XLink Kai, XBConnect and GameSpy's Xbox Connect packet tunnelling software provide unofficial ways around this limitation. The Windows and Macintosh ports of Halo support online matches involving up to 16 players and include multiplayer maps not in the original Xbox release. However, co-operative play was removed from the ports because it would have required large amounts of recoding to implement. On March 15, 2004, Gearbox Software released Halo: Custom Edition for Windows, which enabled players to use custom-made maps and game modifications. The PC version also had online play, meaning you could play with people without physically being with them, as in the case of the LAN parties. Halo takes place in a science fiction universe created by Bungie Studios specifically for the game. According to the story, the overpopulation of Earth and the realization of faster-than-light travel have caused the human race to colonize other planets. A keystone of these efforts is the planet Reach, an interstellar naval yard responsible for building starships, and a hub of scientific and military activity. A secret military endeavor, dubbed the SPARTAN Project, was established on Reach to create an army of biologically-engineered, cyborg "super-soldiers". Thirty-two years before the beginning of the game, a technologically advanced collective of alien races, the Covenant, began to attack human settlements. Declaring humanity an affront to their gods, the Covenant launched a holy war against the human race. The United Nations Space Command experienced a series of crushing defeats, and, although the super-soldiers of the SPARTAN-II Project fought impressively against the Covenant, they were unable to turn the tides of war. To prepare for a mission to discover the location of the Covenant homeworld by boarding one of its starships, SPARTAN-II soldiers were recalled to Reach for further augmentation. Two days before the mission was to begin, Covenant forces attacked Reach and destroyed the colony. A starship, the Pillar of Autumn, survived the onslaught and initiated a random jump to slip space (similar to hyperspace), hoping to lead the enemy away from Earth. The titular Halo is an enormous, ring-shaped artificial space habitat/planet, which (according to Bungie Studios) has a diameter of ten thousand kilometers. Halo sits at a Lagrange point between a planet and its moon. Centrifugal force created by the rotation of the station provides the ring's gravity. The player character is Master Chief Petty Officer John-117, one of the few (see Halo: The Fall of Reach and its sequels for more information) surviving super-soldiers of the SPARTAN-II project, and the main character of the story. Accompanying the Master Chief is the Pillar of Autumn's feminine artificial intelligence construct, Cortana, who resides in a neural implant connected to his battle armor, codenamed MJOLNIR Mark V. The Pillar of Autumn's captain, Jacob Keyes, is also a major character. Playing an antagonistic role in the game's events is 343 Guilty Spark, an eccentric artificial intelligence responsible for monitoring and maintaining Halo's systems. The story is presented through an instruction manual, scripted events and conversations during the game, and in-game cut scenes. The game begins as the Pillar of Autumn exits slip-space near a mysterious ring-shaped space station, called "Halo" by the Covenant. A Covenant fleet attacks and heavily damages the Pillar of Autumn. Jacob Keyes initiates "The Cole Protocol", a procedure designed to prevent the Covenant from learning the location of Earth. While Keyes prepares to land the ship on Halo, the Master Chief and Cortana escape via an escape pod, which crash lands on the ring. Keyes survives the Autumn's crash landing, but is captured by the Covenant. In the second and third levels of the game, the Master Chief and Cortana gather human survivors and rescue Captain Keyes, who is imprisoned on the Covenant ship Truth and Reconciliation. Once rescued, Keyes orders the Master Chief to beat the Covenant to Halo's control center and to discover its purpose. The Master Chief and Cortana travel to a map room called the Silent Cartographer, which leads them to the control room. There, Cortana enters the systems and, discovering something urgent, suddenly sends the Master Chief to find Captain Keyes, while she stays behind. While searching for his commander, the Master Chief learns that the Covenant have accidentally released the Flood, a parasitic alien race capable of spreading itself by overwhelming and infesting other sentient lifeforms. Keyes falls victim to them while looking for a cache of weapons. The release of the Flood prompts 343 Guilty Spark to recruit the Master Chief in retrieving the Index, a device that will activate Halo and prevent the Flood from spreading beyond the facility. After the Master Chief retrieves and begins to use the Index, Cortana re-appears and warns him against the activation. She has discovered that Halo's defense system is a weapon designed to kill all sentient life in the galaxy, thus effectively starving the Flood. When confronted with this information, 343 Guilty Spark states that the installation technically only has a maximum radius of twenty-five thousand light-years, but that its pulse would trigger other similar installations as well, killing all sentient life in the galaxy. While fighting the Flood, the Covenant, and Guilty Spark's Sentinels, the Master Chief and Cortana attempt to destroy Halo before 343 Guilty Spark activates it. Cortana discovers that the best way to destroy Halo is to cause the crashed Pillar of Autumn to self-destruct. However, Captain Keyes' authorization is required to destroy the ship. By the time that they reach Keyes, he has been infected and turned into a Brain Flood. The Master Chief retrieves Keyes' neural implants directly from his brain, and Cortana activates the Autumn's self-destruct sequence. However, 343 Guilty Spark reappears and deactivates the countdown, discovering the record of human history in the process. The Master Chief manually causes the Pillar of Autumn's fusion reactors to begin to melt down, giving him and Cortana only 15 minutes to escape. The Master Chief and Cortana flee in a UNSC Longsword fighter just in time to escape the Autumn's explosion, which in turn destroys Halo. The ending reveals that 343 Guilty Spark survives the destruction of Halo. The story is continued in Halo 2.
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Johnny Danger (Godz)
Wade Wilson
loves him some cavity searches
Lord Xeen's going to kill you.
Posts: 27,736
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Post by Johnny Danger (Godz) on Mar 14, 2008 20:23:35 GMT -5
Thank GOD Halo wasn't 1. Overrated garbage.
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Post by Seth Drakin of Monster Crap on Mar 14, 2008 20:25:39 GMT -5
1. Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (KotOR) is a role-playing video game developed by BioWare and published by LucasArts. It was released for Microsoft's Xbox on July 15, 2003, for PCs running Microsoft Windows on November 19, 2003, and later for Mac OS X. KotOR is the first computer role-playing game set in the Star Wars universe. The sequel, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, was developed by Obsidian Entertainment at BioWare's suggestion as BioWare wanted to focus on their own intellectual properties. The game's system is based on Wizards of the Coast's Star Wars Roleplaying Game, which is based on the d20 role-playing game system derived from the Third Edition Dungeons & Dragons rules. Combat is round-based; time is divided into discrete rounds, and combatants attack and react simultaneously. However, the number of actions a combatant may perform each round is limited. While each round's duration is a fixed short interval of real time, the player can configure the combat system to pause at specific events or at the end of each round. The alignment system tracks actions and speech — from simple word choices to major plot decisions — to determine whether the player's character aligns with the light or dark side of the Force. Generosity and altruism lead to the light side, while self-serving or violent actions will lead the player's character to the dark side, which will alter the character's appearance, turning their eyes yellow and their skin grey and scarred. The game takes place 4,000 years before the events of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. Darth Malak, a Dark Lord of the Sith and Darth Revan's former apprentice, has unleashed a Sith armada against the Republic. Malak's aggression has left the Jedi scattered and vulnerable; many Jedi Knights die in battle and others swear allegiance to Malak. The game opens with the player's character, whom the player can customize to be either male or female (the gender is canonically male),[2] awakening aboard a doomed Republic ship with no recollection of his past. After escaping the ship, the player's character gradually gathers companions and pieces together his past while attempting to stop Malak's forces. To accomplish this, the main character and his companions search for Star Maps that together reveal the location of the Star Forge, an ancient space station that creates massive amounts of material for Malak. The main character's actions and speech influence whether he aligns with the light or dark side of the Force. Depending on the character's alignment, he eventually reaches the Star Forge either to defeat the Sith (the light-side path) or to usurp control of the Sith from Malak (the dark-side path). A light-aligned character and his companions are hailed as saviors and heroes; a dark-side character stands before the remaining Sith forces as the new Dark Lord of the Sith. Eventually joining the main character's quest are the Jedi Bastila Shan, Jolee Bindo, and Juhani; pilot Carth Onasi; mercenary Canderous Ordo; assassin droid HK-47; the Twi'lek teenager Mission Vao and her Wookiee companion, Zaalbar; and the droid T3-M4. Antagonists include Calo Nord, Admiral Saul Karath, Darth Bandon and Darth Malak. Action takes place on the planets Tatooine, Dantooine, Kashyyyk, Korriban, Manaan, Rakata Prime, and Taris; aboard the cruiser Endar Spire and Saul Karath's Leviathan; and on the Star Forge space station. A space station near Yavin is a playable location in the PC version of the game and is available to Xbox players via download from Xbox Live. Travel between these locations happens aboard the freighter Ebon Hawk, which is also a playable location.
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Post by Seth Drakin of Monster Crap on Mar 14, 2008 20:27:33 GMT -5
Final Countdown Update
125. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets 124. Silent Scope Complete 123. SSX 3 122. Madden NFL 2005 121. Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis 120. Star Wars: The Clone Wars 119. Darkwatch 118. The Lord Of The Rings: The Third Age 117. The Simpsons: Hit And Run 116. Rainbow Six 3 115. Madden NFL 08 114. Blitz: The League 113. Mafia: The City Of Lost Heaven 112. Dungeons And Dragons Heroes 111. WWE Wrestlemania 21 110. World Soccer Winning Eleven 8 International 109. Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell 108. GUN 107. NHL Hitz Pro 106. Top Spin Tennis 105. Rocky 104. TransWorld Surf 103. Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy 102. MechAssault 101. Legends Of Wrestling II 100. NCAA March Madness 2005 99. WWE Raw 2 98. Brute Force 97. Metal Slug 3 96. Fahrenheit aka Indigo Prophecy 95. NCAA Football 06 94. Stubbs The Zombie In "Rebel Without A Pulse" 93. Midnight Club II 92. Showdown: Legends Of Wrestling 91. The Punisher 90. Dead Or Alive Ultimate 89. MVP Baseball 2005 88. Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup 87. Shenmue II 86. Blinx: The Time Sweeper 85. GoldenEye: Rogue Agent 84. Fight Night Round 2 83. Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition 82. The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction 81. NASCAR 2005: Chase For The Cup 80. Evil Dead: A Fistful Of Broomstick 79. Timesplitters 2 78. Def Jam: Fight For NY 77. Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy 76. Burnout 2: Point Of Impact 75. Evil Dead: Regeneration 74. MVP Baseball 2004 73. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 72. Fuzion Frenzy 71. Armed And Dangerous 70. Destroy All Humans 69. Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance 68. Red Dead Revolver 67. Amped: Freestyle Snowboarding 66. Fight Night Round 3 65. Gladius 64. NCAA Football 2004 63. Indiana Jones And The Emperor's Tomb 62. Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon 61. Forza Motorsports 60. Thief: Deadly Shadows 59. Godzilla: Save The Earth 58. Unreal Championship 57. Lego Star Wars: The Video Game 56. Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne 55. Tony Hawk's Underground 54. Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 53. Freedom Fighters 52. Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II 51. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 50. The House Of The Dead III 49. Max Payne 48. Tony Hawk's Underground 2 47. FlatOut 2 46. Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy 45. Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks 44. Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age Of Heroes 43. Timesplitters: Future Perfect 42. Tony Hawk's American Wasteland 41. X-Men Legends 40. Project Gotham Racing 2 39. Spider-man 38. Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 37. Spider-man 2 36. The Chronicles Of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay 35. Soul Calibur II 34. Ninja Gaiden Black 33. Mortal Kombat: Armageddon 32. Beyond Good & Evil 31. Mercenaries: Playground Of Destruction 30. Ninja Gaiden 29. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith 28. Star Wars: Republic Commando 27. Grand Theft Auto: Double Pack 26. Mortal Kombat: Deception 25. Amped 2 24. Crimson Skies: High Road To Revenge 23. Deus Ex: Invisible War 22. Dead Or Alive 3 21. Star Wars Jedi Fighters II: Jedi Outcast 20. Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath 19. Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time 18. Burnout 3: Takedown 17. Star Wars: Battlefront II 16. ESPN NFL 2K5 15. X-Men II: Rise Of Apocalypse 14. Jet Set Radio Future 13. Star Wars: Battlefront 12. Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory 11. Doom 3 10. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas 9. Psychonauts 8. Fable 7. Jade Empire 6. Half-Life 2 5. Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic II: The Sith Lords 4. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind 3. Halo 2 2. Halo: Combat Evolved 1. Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic
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Johnny Danger (Godz)
Wade Wilson
loves him some cavity searches
Lord Xeen's going to kill you.
Posts: 27,736
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Post by Johnny Danger (Godz) on Mar 14, 2008 20:28:42 GMT -5
Now the part where we all reveal our lists, I suppose
1 - Star Wars KOTOR 2 - Morrowind 3 - Star Wars KOTOR 2 4 - X-Men Legends 5 - X-Men Legends 2 6 - Mercenaries 7 - Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance 2 8 - Doom 3 9 - Godzilla Save the Earth 10 - Gladius 11 - Ninja Gaiden 12 - Armed and Dangerous 13 - Evil Dead Regeneration 14 - Incredible Hulk Ultimate Destruction 15 - Psi-Ops 16 - The Punisher 17 - Stubbs The Zombie 18 - Mortal Kombat Armageddon 19 - MK Shaolin Monks 20 - Jade Empire 21 - Dungeons and Dragons Heroes 22 - Darkwatch 23 - Crimson Skies 24 - Jurassic Park Operation Genesis 25 - Marvel vs Capcom 2
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Post by darthobiwan on Mar 14, 2008 20:56:05 GMT -5
awesome! kotor is first!
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andrew8798
FANatic
on 24/7 this month
Posts: 106,072
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Post by andrew8798 on Mar 16, 2008 13:40:43 GMT -5
My list
1.Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2.Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 3.Halo 4.X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse 5.Doom 3 6.Star Wars: Republic Commando 7.Halo 2 8.Lego Star Wars 9.Mortal Kombat: Deception 10.Burnout 3: Takedown 11.House of the dead 3 12.MVP Baseball 2004 13.Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith 14.Star Wars: Battlefront 15.Spiderman 2 16.Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge 17.Metal Slug 3 18.Star Wars: Battlefront II 19.Soul Calibur II 20.Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas 21.Spiderman 22.Star Wars: The Clone Wars 23.Madden NFL 06 24.Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis 25.Area 51
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