Until next time,

24

x

P.S. ‘Fan’ is not a typo, I did not mean ‘Fans’. Only one person asked me why the next episode was late and I have used this to work out my average number of viewers. I know who you are fan! Thanks for watching

My first taste of Halo came about when I was round my mates house playing multiplayer split screen. We were playing split screen death match and we chose a nice little level known as Blood Gulch. This was a very simple map that had a base on either side of the map, and a huge wide expanse of land in between. The perfect setting for pretty much any team based game variant. It was also perfect for vehicle battles and anything you can think of. The most simple of maps but the most used throughout Halo: Combat Evolved

Blood Gulch - The First Incarnation

I fell in love with Blood Gulch so much that when I got my own X Brick I organised lan parties (Before the days of Xbox Live) and we would spend hours play CTF battles, team death matches, death matches, pretty much and Halo game variant under the sun on Blood Gulch. Non of the other maps compared to this one, except maybe side winder, but that’s for a different post.

Of course as Halo got older there was always going to be a sequel. So Halo 2 came around, and I was ready to leave Blood Gulch behind and find a new terrain to rain death in. But lo and behold, Bungie had put the next incarnation of Blood Gulch into Halo 2. And I was more than happy to start reigning havoc on this level. Now dubbed Coagulation, not much had changed, save for the bases now have 2 levels and the addition of Banshees to the level. But it was still the same Blood Gulch I came to love in the first game.

The Second Incarnation - Coagulation

Ok so there were a couple of more rocks and the bases probably were a tiny bit closer together, but it was still the same map I loved, and I couldn’t get enough of it.

Now this is where Halo 3 disappointed me. I was egerly waiting for the 3rd incarnation of Blood Gulch. But there was nothing. I wasn’t giving up hope, I was going to wait for the DLC and hope that Bungie would bring back a new Halo 3 version of the map to us. But sadly, there was nothing. The closest thing I had in Halo 3 was Valhalla, and to me that map was nothing compared to Blood Gulch, even though it was very good, I still didn’t have the same nostalgia fix than I did with Coagulation.

The other base is on the other side of the map behind the camera by the way

So, eventually I just accepted the fact Blood Gulch had been dead and berried. Valhalla was the new incarnantion and the grandfather of all awesome Halo had been laid to rest. So I carried on my happy way play Big Team slayer and CTF on Valhalla, every now and again wishing it was Blood Gulch. I know it is very Fan Boyish but I really did love that map.

Then Halo Wars came along. An RTS game that was based before the Halo First Person Shooter saga. It was a very good RTS game and I really did enjoy play skirmish mode more than I did the campaign, but never the less it was fun. Now when I first booted up a skirmish game I had to take a double take. The creators had done themselves justice by making a Blood Gulch in RTS form. A huge grin spread across my face and I jumped straight in. It was very loyal to the original FPS map from Halo combat evolved and sure enough that was my favorite map for skirmish mode. It really translated well into the RTS form and I would play that map for hours.

The Halo Wars Incarnation

By now you are probably thinking, either ‘Why is he going on about a pretty much dead and berried Map from the first halo game?’ or ‘Hmm this is probably leading to something about Halo Reach. If you are thinking the latter you would be very correct (because the title of the post probably gave it away at the start.) Blood Gulch is back in Halo Reach! Bigger, Better and Greener than it ever has been, and It is looking awesome. Red Vs Blue did a nice trailer for the new map, with a couple more announcements about a new armour ability and a new warthog. So without Further adoo I present The Blood Gulch Resurrection!

As you can see this is shaping up to be one hell of a game. and I for one am hugely excited about Halo Reach. More announcements as I get them.

Garv

Hey guys, As I am suffering from a heavy dose of writers block at the moment, I thought it would be cool to look back at one of my favorite sports. This post, was written back in October last year and is still relevant to me today, lets hope to god they bring Grifball back to Halo: Reach, if they do, an extensive review will be made. Till then, enjoy!

One of my favorite sports of ll time has to be Grifball. The sport where you brandish destructive melee weapons and plant bombs in goals, then watch them explode as they take out the opposing team with them.

No I am not some crazy masochist, this is a glorious sport that has been created for Halo 3, and today I am gonnafill you in on what this sport is and tell you what I love about it. Maybe stick some top tips in as well to help you on the sports/battle field.

Grifball Rules And How To Play.

As this sport is pretty much filled with carnage and no holds barred game play, there isn’t much in the way of rules, but as for game play, the idea is you have two teams of four players. You also have one bomb which is placed in the middle of the arena, on member from your team pics up the bomb (doesn’t matter who) and places it in the opposing teams goal to score. The first team to five goals wins.

Utter mayhem and flying bodies take place in this game, while you try yo score, every player is armed with energy swords and gravity hammers, making for some pretty epic deaths. The bomb carrier can easily be identified as he/she changes into a nice gold colour when holding the bomb and gets a over-sheild too, but they don’t usually last long around gravity hammers.

The History Of Grifball

So how did this sport come about? Well according to the Official Grifball Site it all started with the ever popular Halo Video series Red Vs Blue. The creators were doing a one-off special episode to introduce the Heroic map pack and what it could do.

As you can see the video was done pretty well, but they didn’t use all the footage. There is a deleted scene where Grif has made his own game, where he would take a flag from the flag spot and only move it about 2 meters in front of him, thus him winning his game. That wasn’t very funny so didn’t make the final cut, but the Red Vs Blue guys had the game variant made for the sketch, so while the DIY video was uploading they tweaked a few things, they changed things like turning the game into an assault variant as opposed to the original single capture the flag and went through various weapon types etc, and before you know it they had created Grifball.

The game has now become so popular that Red Vs Blue run their own Grifball league, where hopeful teams of four from all over the world join in for some carnage and fun. But I could imagine Playing Grifball on that type of playing field is a whole lot different from the amateur double XP weekends I am used to.

Garvaos’ Top Tips

As I say I am no pro to this game, but I love playing it, so maybe these tips will help you out if you are new to the game, or just have a nasty habit of running around like a headless chicken and dying every five seconds, don’t worry it happens to the best of us.

• At the start of each round everybody runs to the center of the arena to grab the bomb. Now be very wary here as gravity hammers are going to be slamming down on the ground like no ones business. So my top tips here are A) Hang back near the goal and play goal keeper for a bit, or B) Run for the bomb but back pedal just before you get there so in effect you are doing a dummy run, this will then provoke the opposing team members to attack with their gravity hammers, if all goes well and they miss, slam them with an attack of your own, and the bomb is yours.
• Even though Gravity hammers look nice and shiny and do a lot of damage across a large area, I tend to go for the Energy sword as my weapon of choice, Why? Well because it has a good range of up to about 10 meters-ish and if you unfortunately miss your first attack with the trigger, you can quickly hit B for a second quick melee attack.
• Now its easy for people, once they have possession of the bomb to go running straight for the goal, sometimes it pays off, but other times it doesn’t. Judge your surroundings and strafe and back pedal, it’s always a good idea to have your team mates around you and look for gaps to run through. Rather than just running willy nilly and probably ending up with a gravity hammer or energy sword to the face.
• And finally, this tip is good if you have great timing, me I’m not so hot at it, but give it a go if you have the opportunity. When you carry the bomb you have a melee attack that can take an opposing team member down in one hit, has hardly any range, so timing in essential. But if used well can make you into a Grifball wielding machine

So that’s about it for My insite into Grifball. I am personally not much of a sports fan but his game is absolutely genius. All you Halo 3 players out there, next time you see Grifball on a Double XP weekend be sure to play a few games, you won’t regret it.

Garv

I have been trying to give you all some news updates along the way, but there is always going to be things I have missed. So without further a-do. I give you my Halo Reach round-up Part 1, now this is all about Fire Fight, Next episode I’ll be talking about Campaign Mode and new Vehicles.

New Fire Fight Features

Now as we all know, Fire Fight was introduced to us back when ODST was released last year. Halo’s equivalent to Gears Of War’s horde mode. As it stands Fire fight was amazing in ODST, and of course I did a whole article on what’s going to be new for Fire Fight in Reach. But there was some stuff announced after the article which was pretty damn exciting.

Vs Fire Fight

Image From IGN.com

This mode is a 2 v 2 game variant that puts 2 players in the shoes of the Spartans, and 2 players in the shoes of the elites. The Spartans, as usual have to fight wave a pon wave of Covenant in the usual fire fight way, where as the elites will be trying every way possible to eliminate the Spartans. Spartans have a set number of lives and the Elites have unlimited about of lives, the game finishes when all Spartans are destroyed.

To me this just looks like a endurance test for the spartan team. Waves of Covenant plus 2 player controlled elites must be a tough game. I can see conflicts being resolved here, instead of shouting abuse down the microphone at people, take them on in the fire fight arena, dress them up in a Spartan suit and kick the crap out of them.

Gruntopacolypse

Image From IGN.com

You know that bonus stage in ODST Fire Fight where a load of grunts would come pouring out of the drop ship. Yeah now this is a whole game mode, except now all skulls are turned on. Sounds insane and I would love to play Rocket Fire Fight in this mode.

Score Attack

This mode is for all you guys out there who love to brag about how awesome they are. This is just a standardised mode where all waves are set to a standard and not randomized it’s not customisable in any way. This is the perfect mode for leaderboard and bragging how great you are.

The great thing about all these modes in fire fight (aside from score attack) you can mix them up how you want, so you want a generator defence verses Gruntopacolypse rocket firefight? Go ahead, your aloud!

So there you have it, through the week there will be another Halo Reach Round Up article for you guys so stay tuned.

Garv.

Halo 3 brought us something that console fans had been yearning for in one shape or form since Halo: Combat Evolved, and that was a level editor of sorts. Dubbed Forge, this basic level editor would let players customise some of their favorite maps with a variety of weapons, props and vehicles.

Later on in Halo 3′s life Bungie released some unique DLC expand forge further, 2 maps came out over the months the first of which was Foundry, where keen level editors were given a small blank space to play with and a lot more terrian objects to play with, such as bridges, shipping containers etc, this got gamers such as myself pretty excited at the amount of freedom you had in such a small area. But when Sandbox came out for Halo Forge this took map editing for Halo 3 to a whole new level. You could create pretty much anything you wanted within reason, you were given 2 tiers to customise with a wealth of terrain and landscaping tools. With Sandbox I created my own game pretty much, which never really took off, but I may bring it back.

With Halo Reach just round the corner (about a month and a bit by my watch) what has Bungie done with the forge for the next game? Just to let you guys know, its worth noting here that this is the last Halo game Bungie will be creating. Also do you remember the Blood Gultch video I showed you on the last Reach post, with Sarge from Red Vs Blue asking what was beyond the mountains (or words to that effect) well your about to find out.

Forge World, as it has been dubbed for Halo Reach is this single biggest editable landscape that Bungie have ever created for the Forge Universe, just so you know how huge this is, Bungie have pre made 3 whole multiplayer maps in this world at the same time, in one place you have Blood Gultch, which has now been dubbed Hemorrhage, in another you have Pinnicle which is another remake of the classic map Ascension and in the 3rd proverbial corner you have Cage which is a map suspended in mid-are with a variety of ramps and walk ways designed for close quarters and sniper ranged combat.

Just a snipit of forge world. Taken from IGN.com

The awesome thing here is you can delete all of this and run free in the Halo World. You will be able to tell from the get go that this World is back on the ring planet itself. As a blank canvas the world is split up into five areas called Canyon, Island, “The Rock,” Quarry, and Coliseum. Each of these are big enough to house a full on playable level, that’s again another taster of how stupidly big this map is and it is all yours to edit.

Keen forgers out there will be very pleased to know that actual level creation has been improved and re-tweaked. It is now way more user-friendly than it was back on Halo 3. For hours at a time I would get easily frustrated trying stand a block up in Sandbox, or aligning a walk way correctly so there were no gaps. Now in Forge world every object has 3 settings, you can make each object realistic like in Halo 3, or suspended in mid-air meaning they won’t drop to the ground as soon as you let go, and my favorite, you can make each object phased, meaning you can merge objects together to make one huge thing. There are 150 objects to choose from, including massive stair cases, huge platforms, all sorts really.

Here is some of the stuff you can use, only some mind. Taken form IGN.com

The world is yours to customise, you can section things bits off for small maps, or just make the biggest multiplayer map ever, all in all Forge world is amazing, and with another 3 forge built maps coming with the release of Halo Reach, I can safely say that Bungie have not skimped out on this one.

Garv

My first taste of Halo came about when I was round my mates house playing multiplayer split screen. We were playing split screen death match and we chose a nice little level known as Blood Gulch. This was a very simple map that had a base on either side of the map, and a huge wide expanse of land in between. The perfect setting for pretty much any team based game variant. It was also perfect for vehicle battles and anything you can think of. The most simple of maps but the most used throughout Halo: Combat Evolved

Blood Gulch - The First Incarnation

I fell in love with Blood Gulch so much that when I got my own X Brick I organised lan parties (Before the days of Xbox Live) and we would spend hours play CTF battles, team death matches, death matches, pretty much and Halo game variant under the sun on Blood Gulch. Non of the other maps compared to this one, except maybe side winder, but that’s for a different post.

Of course as Halo got older there was always going to be a sequel. So Halo 2 came around, and I was ready to leave Blood Gulch behind and find a new terrain to rain death in. But lo and behold, Bungie had put the next incarnation of Blood Gulch into Halo 2. And I was more than happy to start reigning havoc on this level. Now dubbed Coagulation, not much had changed, save for the bases now have 2 levels and the addition of Banshees to the level. But it was still the same Blood Gulch I came to love in the first game.

The Second Incarnation - Coagulation

Ok so there were a couple of more rocks and the bases probably were a tiny bit closer together, but it was still the same map I loved, and I couldn’t get enough of it.

Now this is where Halo 3 disappointed me. I was egerly waiting for the 3rd incarnation of  Blood Gulch. But there was nothing. I wasn’t giving up hope, I was going to wait for the DLC and hope that Bungie would bring back a new Halo 3 version of the map to us. But sadly, there was nothing. The closest thing I had in Halo 3 was Valhalla, and to me that map was nothing compared to Blood Gulch, even though it was very good, I still didn’t have the same nostalgia fix than I did with Coagulation.

The other base is on the other side of the map behind the camera by the way

So, eventually I just accepted the fact Blood Gulch had been dead and berried. Valhalla was the new incarnantion and the grandfather of all awesome Halo had been laid to rest. So I carried on my happy way play Big Team slayer and CTF on Valhalla, every now and again wishing it was Blood Gulch. I know it is very Fan Boyish but I really did love that map.

Then Halo Wars came along. An RTS game that was based before the Halo First Person Shooter saga. It was a very good RTS game and I really did enjoy play skirmish mode more than I did the campaign, but never the less it was fun. Now when I first booted up a skirmish game I had to take a double take. The creators had done themselves justice by making a Blood Gulch in RTS form. A huge grin spread across my face and I jumped straight in. It was very loyal to the original FPS map from Halo combat evolved and sure enough that was my favorite map for skirmish mode. It really translated well into the RTS form and I would play that map for hours.

The Halo Wars Incarnation

By now you are probably thinking, either ‘Why is he going on about a pretty much dead and berried Map from the first halo game?’ or ‘Hmm this is probably leading to something about Halo Reach. If you are thinking the latter you would be very correct (because the title of the post probably gave it away at the start.) Blood Gulch is back in Halo Reach! Bigger, Better and Greener than it ever has been, and It is looking awesome. Red Vs Blue did a nice trailer for the new map, with a couple more announcements about a new armour ability and a new warthog. So without Further adoo I present The Blood Gulch Resurrection!

As you can see this is shaping up to be one hell of a game. and I for one am hugely excited about Halo Reach. More announcements as I get them.

Garv

Anyway back to the weapons of the Halo Reach beta. I have scouted the net long and hard and have come up with a small collection of new additions and modified firearms to add to the Halo Reach arsenal. And here they are!

First we have the modded fire arms. These are the guns you are used to in the Halo series with a Halo Reach twist. Here is what we have so far

The Assault Rifle

I have heard that the Reach assault rifle is not that much different to what Halo fans are used too. If your stuck in a sticky situation, letting a blaze of gun fire out Rambo style will do some hefty damage. But I have heard that the assault rifle this time round is built more for accuracy than all guns blazing fun. But hey I’m still gonna go Rambo on peoples asses!

The Magnum

Halo without the magnum is like pizza without the cheese, this is the gun you use when the enemies shields are down, two bullets to the head and you enemies corpse is eating dirt in no time. So it is great to see this gun make a return. Weather it is scoped or not remains to be seen. but I have my fingers crossed for this one.

And now the new additions to the game, some of these fire arms have replaced some guns from Halo 3, but I am pretty sure it is for the better.

Designated Marksman Rifle (DMR)

Say bye-bye to the Battle Rifle and hello to the DMR. The best way to describe this gun is a mixture between a sniper rifle and the battle rifle. Deadly at both close and long-range, one hell of a weapon for anyone skilled enough. You have been warned

Granade Launcher

Story line wise, Brutes haven’t been invented yet in Halo reach, so they have stuck in a UNSC granade launcher instead. But this comes with a little added extra. You can either fire the grande launcher normally and you will get the classic explode on impact with enemy granade. Or hold down the trigger and the ‘nade will not explode till you let go. Now thats awesome.

Plasma Repeater

The plasma Rifle has been taken out and replaced with this awesome machine, a two-handed tank of a gun, which actually looks like a rifle this time round. A simple weapon that over heats in the classic Halo way, but this time round it doesn’t actually stop firing when it over heats. It just fires slowly, and you have to manually vent it with the reload button. Pretty cool I think.

Focus Rifle

Remember the sentinel beams? I bet most of you are there thinking, ‘what those pathetic beam guns from halo 2 and 3?’ Well you would be right there, well thankfully Bungie have chucked them out and given us a shiny Focus Rifle instead. This is a hybrid of a sentinel beam and a covenant sniper rifle from Halo 2 and 3. So this is going to be a pretty deadly weapon if used effectively.

Needle Rifle

Now this is one of the weapons in reach I am really excited about. Back in my halo 1 days I swore by the needler, But not to have a needler in Rifle form makes me very happy indeed. Don’t worry though, the original needlers will make a return in Halo Reach too.

It’s pretty much like the DMR with needler ammo, You are looking at a mid to long-range weapon with explosive ammo. Need I say more? I think not. It has also been said it can take out 3 opponents at once.

Plasma Launcher

The new covenant granade launcher is here. I mean Bungie couldn’t really make a game without a covenant counter part. It works in the same way as the UNSC ‘nade launcher but this time with plasma grenades. Again hold the trigger down to delay the explosions. I cannot wait to land a grande on a foe and just hold the trigger down. Prolonged death for the win!

And thats about it for the weapons so far. I cannot wait for the Beta on Monday.

Garv

So after downloading several gigs worth of demos onto my hard drive, I came across Halo Waypoint. Now me being the journalist I am, I personally have not heard much about this new addition to LIVE. Which is quite surprising really, seeing as I live and breath all things Halo pretty much. You could probably imagine my excitement when I saw the words, Halo, Download and Free pop up on the screen, so without hesitation I proceeded to download this interesting little gadget.

Now I approach games in two different ways. The casual way, which is for things like beautiful Katamari and Guitar Hero, these games I am not fussed about getting 100 percent completion, I am there to enjoy the game and what it has to offer. Then there is the completionists way, where I approach a game and want to milk it for every little thing it has to offer me. Halo for me is a completionists game, I have owned Halo 3 for years now and still have not got all the achievements.

This is when Halo Waypoint steps in and gives me a helping hand. For those of you out there who have no idea of what this little gem is I will fill you in. This is a Halo dashboard that links all your Halo games together in a nice neat little package as well as updating you on all things Halo.

So how does it go about wrapping all you halo games up? Well what it does is it calculates your overall achievement score on Halo 3, Halo Wars and Halo 3 ODST. It then takes that number and applies it to its own unique scoring system giving you an overall Halo Career score and set of awards. It even shows you how many achievement points you have gained over the corse of your Halo gaming career.

Before I get to carried away with my excitement let me give you some examples. Waypoint says I have an overall Halo achievement score of 1405G. That is all my gamer points added up from Halo 3, Halo Wars and Halo 3 ODST. It then takes that number and applies it to Halo Career Milestones. At the moment I am on Milestone 25, for hitting the 1400 gamer point mark. I can progress through these milestones by unlocking more achievements from any of the three games. But thats not all, you are also granted Waypoint Awards. These are medals given to you based on elements of gameplay thought the Halo 360 series. For example I have 8 out of the 15 awards which include: Special Weapons, Explorer, Halo 3 A.C.E, Halo 3: ODST A.C.E and so on. These awards are given to you depending on how many achievements you have unlocked in that particular bracket. So if I were to go into Explorer, it will show me the achievements needed to unlock that award, like finding all the skulls in Halo 3 or finding the audio tapes in ODST. The more achievements you unlock for that award, the higher your award tier. So I have a Tier 4 Explorer award because I went out my way to find the skulls in Halo 3 and stuff like that.

This is a fantastic tool for completionists, and general Halo braggers out there to really show off their achievements. But it doesn’t stop there, oh no. Waypoint gives you avatar unlockables. These unlockables are tied into Halo achievements, so If you say unlock a certain achievement on ODST the Orbital Drop Shock Trooper armour will be unlocked for your avatar. It’s little things like this that get geeks like us all riled up and wanting to unlock all Halo achievements, I mean c’mon, dress your avatar up like an ODST with guilty spark flying round your head? … Awesome!

Aside from the Halo career path, Waypoint updates you with the latest Video, images and news from all corners of the gaming globe. Wanna catch up on Red Vs Blue? or take a look at IGN’s Halo features? Or maybe you want to know the latest on Reach or the new Halo DLC? Well it is all here, plus it will be updating all Halo fans with the Halo anime series as well.

Halo Waypoint is, in a word, Huge and awesome (ok that was two words) but it does bring the games into a nice neat little package, packed full with its own achievements and awards, with a side order of news, videos and images on all things halo. This is a must download for anyone who has been bitten by the Halo bug.

No I am not some crazy masochist, this is a glorious sport that has been created for Halo 3, and today I am gonnafill you in on what this sport is and tell you what I love about it. Maybe stick some top tips in as well to help you on the sports/battle field.

Grifball Rules And How To Play.

As this sport is pretty much filled with carnage and no holds barred game play, there isn’t much in the way of rules, but as for game play, the idea is you have two teams of four players. You also have one bomb which is placed in the middle of the arena, on member from your team pics up the bomb (doesnt matter who) and places it in the opposing teams goal to score. The first team to five goals wins.

Utter mayhem and flying bodies take place in this game, while you try yo score, every player is armed with energy swords and gravity hammers, making for some pretty epic deaths. The bomb carrier can easily be identified as he/she changes into a nice gold colour when holding the bomb and gets a oversheild too, but they don’t usually last long around gravity hammers.

The History Of Grifball

So how did this sport come about? Well according to the Officail Grifball Site it all started with the ever popular Halo Video series Red Vs Blue. The creators were doing a one off special episode to introduce the Heroic map pack and what it could do.

As you can see the video was done pretty well, but they didn’t use all the footage. There is a deleted scene where Grif has made his own game, where he would take a flag from the flag spot and only move it about 2 meters in front of him, thus him winning his game. That wasn’t very funny so didn’t make the final cut, but the Red Vs Blue guys had the game variant made for the sketch, so while the DIY video was uploading they tweaked a few things, they changed things like turning the game into an assault varient as apposed to the original single capture the flag and went through various weapon types etc, and before you know it they had created Grifball.

The game has now become so popular that Red Vs Blue run their own Grifball league, where hopeful teams of four from all over the world join in for some carnage and fun. But I could imagine Playing Grifball on that type of playing field is a whole lot different from the amateur double XP weekends I am used to.

Garvaos’ Top Tips

As I say I am no pro to this game, but I love playing it, so maybe these tips will help you out if you are new to the game, or just have a nasty habit of running around like a headless chicken and dying every five seconds, don’t worry it happens to the best of us.

• At the start of each round everybody runs to the center of the arena to grab the bomb. Now be very wary here as gravity hammers are going to be slamming down on the ground like no ones business. So my top tips here are A) Hang back near the goal and play goaly for a bit, or B) Run for the bomb but back pedal just before you get there so in effect you are doing a dummy run, this will then provoke the opposing team members to attack with their gravity hammers, if all goes well and they miss, slam them with an attack of your own, and the bomb is yours.
• Even though Gravity hammers look nice and shiny and do a lot of damage across a large area, I tend to go for the Energy sword as my weapon of choice, Why? Well because it has a good range of up to about 10 meters-ish and if you unfortunately miss your first attack with the trigger, you can quickly hit B for a second quick melee attack.
• Now its easy for people, once they have possession of the bomb to go running straight for the goal, sometimes it pays off, but other times it doesn’t. Judge your surroundings and strafe and back pedal, it’s always a good idea to have your team mates around you and look for gaps to run through. Rather than just running willy nilly and probably ending up with a gravity hammer or energy sword to the face.
• And finally, this tip is good if you have great timing, me I’m not so hot at it, but give it a go if you have the opportunity. When you carry the bomb you have a melee attack that can take an opposing team member down in one hit, has hardly any range, so timing in essential. But if used well can make you into a Grifball weilding machine

So thats about it for My in site into Grifball. I am personally not much of a sports fan but his game is absolutely genius. All you Halo 3 players out there, next time you see Grifball on a Double XP weekend be sure to play a few games, you won’t regret it.

Garv

Story mode sees you taking on the Role of an ODST. This rather cool looking acronym stands for Orbital Drop Shock Trooper. But to the UNSC (Or United Nations Space Command) these guys have been nicked names ‘Hell Jumpers’. You are dropped into Earths mega City New Mombasa to sort out a covenant invasion on the city.

As you make your merry way down to earth from orbit, a covenant mega ship conveniently decides to jump into hyperspace right above the city, this in turn causes a slip space rupture and knocks the whole squad of ODST’s right off of corse. You awaken six hours later in the city with no idea where you are or where te rest ofyour squad is. It’s from here you have to explore New Mombasa for clues to the where abouts of your team mates. The city is infested with Covenant and there is defiantly a feel of isolation and the desperate will to survive.

As the new guy to the squad it is somewhat unfortunate that you are the only trooper left in the whole city. You are equipped with the ODST issued hand gun and SMG. Now the hand gun and SMG were not the greatest weapons in the original Halo trilogy, to be quite honest they were my least used weapons. But in ODST this is a totally different ball park, these guns have been equipped with silencers and scopes making for some more precision aiming. In all fairness I think it is safe to say that both weapons have been slightly upgraded in power. I can now quite happily take out grunts and jackles with one head shot, but when it comes to a Brute Cheiftens (big brute aliens with a gravity hammers and so much armour it’s not even funny) about four or five headshots can take them down. The same goes for the SMG, both of these weapons are a necessary for surviving the dark Covenant infested streets of  New Mombasa.

ODST’s are very different from playing as the Master Chief. They have been scaled down a lot. Now my classic way of playing Halo or indeed and FPS is to see a load of enemies and go in all guns blazing. In ODST however if you try this then your defiantly in for a death sentence. You can’t jump nearly as high as the chief could in Halo 3 and you are void of a shield but have a little bit of staminer to help you, not only that but duel welding has been stripped as well. Ok after that list of what there isn’t I bet a few of you out there are probably hyperventilating at the very thought of no shield. For me however this stripped down gameplay is what a game like this really needs. There is a huge element of survival here and not having a super suit to save your life adds to the effect brilliantly. But what the ODST’s lack in spartan technology they make up for with gadgets.

As you hunt the city looking for clues you have a VISR mode at your disposal, what this is, is a night vision mode, terrain analyser, city map and enemy recognition all in one. The VISR is fundamental, it links up with the city’s AI so you can locate the where abouts of your team mates, it tells you what to look for as it highlights key objects in a nice yellow outline and more importantly you can see in the dark. When linked up to the city AI you are given way points on your map, these waypoints are the last known locations of your squad. Once you get to said waypoint you then find a clue, this clue then triggers a flashback.

The flashbacks in ODST are where you get to play the other members of the squad and their story of what happened when they landed in New Mombasa. These flashbacks let you play through what happened to them six hours previous. This is where the true Halo game play we all love and adore comes in, you get all the weapons, action, gun fights and vehicles in these flashbacks. They are a real joy to play and tie the story together well, they are a great departure from the loneliness of the city at night.

The visuals of this game are very much the same as Halo 3, this is probably due to the fact it’s all done on the same engine, but Halo 3 was beautiful and this game is very much the same visually, sometimes shadows in the flashback scenes seem too dark  but other than that it is looking good.

The voice acting I can’t be happier with personally, now I am a huge fan of the TV show Fire Fly and in ODST they have brought in Adam Baldwin, Nathan Fillion and Adam Tudyk voicing three of the squad, as well as Tricia Helfer from Battle Star Galatica. So you have a brilliant set of voice actors, but you can tell that the guys at Bungie are Fire Fly fans as well, becuase each of the rolls the old Fire Fly cast has been put in to are the nearest your gonna get to the rolls they played in the TV series.

Halo 3: ODST is not all about the single player campaign though, new to the Halo Series this game brings in a new multiplayer mode, known as Fire Fight. This is Halo’s answer to Horde mode that so many gamers are accustomed to from gears of war. I personally haven’t played horde mode and this was an entirely new experience for me, and I must say, it is awesome. You can team up with up to three other team mates either over XBox LIVE or local multiplayer. The aim of the game here is to survive wave a pon wave of Covenant, and complete each stage, each stage is composed of three rounds and in each round you have about eight waves of enemies to kill. making this a huge amount of Covenant slaying. I would of personally loved to see a scara thrown ito the Fire Fight at times though, and mabe just to make it a huge Covernant fest  they couldofthrown the Elitesin as well, but you can’t have everything ‘ay? The game also likes to throw some spanners into the works. You know in Halo 3 where you could collect skulls that messed with the game play? Well in Fire Fight after each stage some of these skulls are activated. Making for some brilliant varied game play which quite frankly I am addicted too.

What is quite handy though is when I bought ODST I got a Halo 3 multiplayer disk, this entitles you to all the downloadable content map packs for Halo 3, plus three new maps, and all of forge mode, theatre, etc. This was dead handy for me, as it enabled me to free up my Hard Drive a bit so it’s a worth while purchase. That and with my copy of ODST I got an invertation to the Halo Reach Beta when it comes out next year, cannot wait for that.

All in all Halo 3: ODST is a great addition to the Halo series, with a great cast, great balance of surviving out on your own with full on action eventhough itis only a six hour campaign mode your still gonna be quite happy whith wht you have at your disposal. If you’re a Halo fan like I am, you will not be dissapointed.