Halo: Combat Evolved /Halo: Anniversary

Halo: Combat Evolved /Halo: Anniversary

Plot:

Spartan super-soldier- John-117- Master Chief of the United Nations Space Command, and last of his kind. Crash-landed on Halo - an ancient mysterious ring-world- he and Cortana (His advanced AI companion,) are the first and last defense against the Covenant. The Covenant are a conglomerate of alien races banded together under one genocidal regime. Will Master Chief defeat them, or will the Covenant destroy the universe as we know it?

Rating:

Graphics 5/10 - 9/10
Acting 8/10 - 8/10
Plot 9/10 - 9/10
World 7/10 - 7/10
Online 9/10 - 9/10
Character 10/10 - 10/10
Game-play  8/10 - 8/10
Customize-ability NA/10
Camera 8/10 - 8/10
Controls 9/10 - 9/10
Difficulty )Varies) 5/10 - 5/10
Replay Value 5/10 - 9/10
Soundtrack  10/10 - 10/10

Review:

This review is two-in-one, but both games are essentially the same game. The only differance is that "Anniversary" is a High Definition remake of the original "Combat Evolved." Well "remake" isn't exactly the right word, as all they did was overlay HD graphics over the original template. This is proven by the fact that there is a button to switch between the two graphics and compare them while playing. When Halo: Combat Evolved first came out, it was all the rage. It was said to redefine first-person shooters, multi-player games, and the gaming world as a whole. While it didn't really feel that impactful to me, I was younger when I first played it. Hours spent trying to best my older brother in multi-player led to no end of frustration and "I quit's." Having grown up, and having played the sequels- and prequel- this game stands not as a "redefinition" to me, but as a stepping stone to something greater. This was only solidified further when the Anniversary remake came out. I originally bought Anniversary because it came with map packs for the latest Halo, Halo: Reach (The prequel in question.) It was cheaper to buy anniversary with the map packs, than to just buy the map packs off of the market stand-alone. Interested in Anniversary's claim of better graphics, and the fact that I needed to put the disc in to install the map-pack, I decided to give it a try. The graphics looked great, but until I pressed the button to switch back to the original graphics, I didn't realize how mind-blowingly different they really were. I can never put my original Halo disk into my Xbox, that is how bad the graphics look in comparison. The bright side is, Anniversary does look good, and is the exact same game.
     Halo's storyline is rich and really makes you root for the characters. Master Chief- the person you play as- doesn't speak a lot, but when he does, his voice is like gold, and his words poignant. He was human, and now is part machine as well, giving him a sort of robotic emotional standing. Cortana, his ever-present and guiding companion, is an AI yet somehow is the one that adds the level of emotion to the story that balances things out.
     The multi-player in Halo allowed you a new level of fun, with a jump sending you into the air like your on the moon, and a great weapon selection. Like all online communities there are annoying people, but a simple LAN party solves that. Just play with the people you know. Consequently, I met one of my best friends when I was younger by playing Halo multi-player. He came over to my birthday party, and we played Halo for a while. So I guess you could say "Halo: It brings people together," but seriously, it's a great game with a lot to offer. The best thing about this game, however, is all of its successors.

Minecraft

Minecraft

Plot:
There technically is no plot in Minecraft, as it is a sandbox game. There has, however, been several nice theories as to what the plot could be, and my favourite is; That there was an apocalypse-level event that involved in some way zombies, and everything was destroyed. You are alone and are trying to rebuild. The reason why this one fits is that the zombies in the game are the same skin as the character, but overlaid with zombie-ness.

Rating:
Graphics 4/10
Acting NA/10
Plot NA/10
World 6/10
Online 7/10
Character: 3/10
Game-play 8/10
Customize-ability 10/10
Camera 7/10
Controls 7/10
Difficulty (varies)/10
Replay Value 10/10
Soundtrack 5/10
Overall 10/10

Review:
            Minecraft is a game that anyone can play. I bought the 360 version just the other day, and I let my niece and nephew play, and they are only 7 and 6 years old. They probably don't get as much out of it as I do as far as what I can accomplish. But my nephew can play that game without looking away for countless hours. Unless he has to use the restroom, he even forgets that he hasn't eaten. Now that is both a good and bad thing, but take it as you will. First I'd like to talk about Minecraft for the PC, however. You purchase the game once, and own it forever. Anyone you want to play with will also have to own their own copy, but it is not expensive. With the purchase of the official game, you also can access all the mods for it. Tekkit is the main Minecraft, but there is honestly endless modding possibilities. I have seen Minecraft with Pokemon; you can catch, train, and trade them. If you don't like the blocky graphics the game comes in, you can download HD realistic texturepacks that look very well rendered(provided you have an adequate computer). Without the mods, Minecraft is a sandbox of unlimited creativity. Because the game is in 3x3 blocks, anything that can be seen in pixels can be made to scale. I have seen replicas of the USS Enterprise, and have made my own replica of the Tower from Lord of the Rings that has the flaming eye. I admit I could talk for hours about the creative functions, but there is more to it than that. "Craft" is only one part of the name. "Mine" is what it means, mining. You get a pickaxe, find some rock and mine. You may ask yourself "Self, why the frakk would I want to mine? No one wants to do it in real life, why would I here?" But your forgetting one thing. Farmville. I don't want you to think Minecraft is like Farmville...I hate Farmville, but the idea is there, why would anyone want to farm? Well people get strait up obsessed with that game. For me mining in Minecraft is therapeutic, relaxing. Just mining away, creating tunnels through the ground, collecting precious minerals. The best part about mining is that what you mind in turn gets used to craft. You need higher levels of materials to make better equipment. The monsters in Minecraft- while some are based off of other types of creatures- take on a personality and type of their own in this strange world. each bringing with them their own level of difficulty and unique needed for crafting.
             Basically this all comes back to the game being for everyone. I like to mine, my fiance likes to build structures, my nephew likes to kill monsters. Some people play in peaceful and spawn no monsters, some like a bigger challenge. Play by yourself, or with many others on a server.
              The Xbox 360 version of the game isn't that different. Buying the game gives you the ability to play with up to 4 people on the same disk, or up to 8 online. Modding is not available yet for the 360 version. But texture packs are, at a price. That's not to say it's all bad. It just has some downfalls, but it is cheaper to buy the game outright, without add-ons. The add-ons are also not very expensive.