Discordance: Music Games In A Post-Guitar Hero Industry

Earlier this year, Activision made an announcement that the Guitar Hero series would be shelved due to low sales numbers. The last piece of DLC was released in April, and the Guitar Hero world has been dormant since. Though Rock Band is still doing quite well, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the music game genre as we know it is on its way out. While I love the Rock Band series (Devin Townsend DLC in the Rock Band Network is the greatest thing that any music game has ever had song-wise), there have been little to no truly groundbreaking innovations. This is why so far, the greatest music games released this year are the ones that stray from the given formula.

CHIME:

Chime is a strange but fun hybrid of Tetris and Lumines, set to music. Very addicting and fun, but you can't add your own tunes, which is missed potential there.
Available on: XBLA, PSN, PC (Steam)

BEAT HAZARD:

A top-down shmup in the vein of Geometry Wars with a dash of bullet-hells on LSD, Beat Hazard is not only a really fun and challenging (on the harder difficulties) game, but it is also a developmental miracle. Created by Cold Beam Games, which consists of one person (That's right, ONE PERSON), Beat Hazard is amazing in terms of not only fun factor, but content as well. There's online multiplayer, multiple gametypes, many different types of enemies, each with their own strategy, boss fights, and a fully-featured perks and leveling system. You can choose any mp3/aac/flac music file, and the on-screen action (amount of enemies, speed of projectiles, even the power of your own weapons) is linked to the frequencies of the song. It's simply brilliant, and amazing in the bang-for-your-buck sense.
Available on: XBIG (the original, highly outdated and as such, barebones release), PSN, PC, Mac OSX, Steam

More to come

Final Fantasy Retrospective (Part 2, or "Wow, it's been 2 months since an update")

Alright, been awhile. Anyways, here's the not-that-long-awaited part 2.  

Final Fantasy IV (1991 SNES, 1997/2001 PSX, 2005 GBA, 2007 DS)

Alright, now onto the good stuff.  Final Fantasy IV is a stellar game, plain and simple.  This game has strong characterization.  You play as the captain of the Red Wings of Baron.  The Red Wings, are an elite airship army for the nation of Baron.  After a few incidents in the plot, Cecil is questioning his loyalties to his king.  Eventually, he goes through a transformation to purge himself of the blood on his hands and becomes a Paladin.  

This serves two purposes: The plot reason is to help Cecil come to terms with his life and indicates a full realization of what he must do and who he is, as a person.  Gameplay wise, it changes Cecil from this HP siphoning damage dealer to a naturally protective support character.  When an ally has low HP, Cecil will automatically guard them.  

This all aside, the game is a pretty damn good.  Depending on the version, it can vary from hard, or fairly easy.  The SNES version is actually considerably harder than the DS remake.  The SNES version required a considerable amount of grinding vs the DS one.  

Good soundtrack, good characterization, good story.  Final Fantasy IV gets a recommendation from me if you're looking for a good JRPG.

Seriously, that’s all you get for FFIV.  Intentional yo.

Final Fantasy V (SNES: N/A {in N.A.}, Playstation: 1999, GBA: 2006, PSN: TBD)

Alright, now we’re a little obscure.  Final Fantasy V is one of the unheard of games.  Until a few years ago, I had never played it myself. 

If there is one thing you take away from this little recap it’s this: I love their Job System.  It’s absurdly fun to mess with.  Seriously.  Want to play a Ninja in heavy armor?  Well level as a Knight for awhile, learn “Heavy Armor” then just equip the ability when you turn Ninja.  Ta-daaaaa.  It is the precursor to the job system in Final Fantasy Tactics, which is a good thing (That had a stupidly fun job system as well).

Anyways, this game has a decent-to-good story, and the gameplay/combat is more fun than normal because of the way you can build your characters. 

Also introduced in this game is Gilgimesh, who later becomes a recurring character in later Final Fantasy titles.  Also, his theme music, Clash on Big Bridge, pretty awesome. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CMTXyExkeI

or for a more epic version:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHbYIbleQP8

The story involves stopping Exdeath, the big bad, from sending the entire world to the Void, nothingness, fates worse than death, unlife, et al.  It’s up to you, Bartz, your faithful steed Boco (a chocobo, naturally), a crass pirate, a princess, and a badass grandpa (Thanks TVTropes). 

If you’re going to pick up and play this game, grab the GBA version.  It’s received higher scores than the PSX counterpart.  The PSN version hasn’t been released Stateside as of yet.

Final Fantasy Series (A breakdown) Part 1

This is a personal breakdown of the Final Fantasy games I've played.  Any release dates posted are drawn from Wikipedia since I don't have a super-tronic memory.


FINAL FANTASY (1987)

The inaugural game in the series was simply, Final Fantasy.  This, along with the Dragon Quest series, helped cement the RPG genre as we know it.  Top down maps, with turn based combat soon became the norm.

The game itself is pretty standard.  At the start, you built your party of 4 by combining any combination of the following classes: Monk, Warrior, Thief, Red Mage, Black Mage, and White Mage.  Late in the game, each class turned into a better version of their starter class through an all powerful class change.
Monk was your two handed fighter that needed no weapons.  High HP and multi-hit attacks were his trademarks.  Turned into a Martial Artist.
Warriors were your weapons and heavy armor users.  They could boast high Vitality, so they took less damage usually.  Turns into a Knight
Thieves were the quickest of the group.  They didn't hit hard in combat, but they could pilfer goods from the enemy.  Turns into a Ninja, who can then throw things... and move even faster.  With many attacks.
Black Mages could use damaging/crippling magics against the enemies.  Black Wizard gets access to the strongest Black magic in the game
White Mages used healing and buffing magics on the party.  White Wizard gets the strongest buffs and heals.
The Red Mage was a combination of the White and Black Mage, but wasn't as proficient at either.  Can cast decent spells, but not the strongest from each color.  Also can be used as a backup melee fighter.  I don't know why they didn't call it the Gray Mage though.  Red Wizard gets some of the medium-high spells from both schools.  (Like 7 or so on a scale to 10.)


Anyways, the party (I went with Fighter, Monk, White Mage, Black Mage on my PSP playthrough) starts off as a small group of do-gooders that go around doing heroic things like saving princesses, until an event occurs and you're called upon to save the world.

The story, is kinda lacking.  The gameplay is definitely monotonous.  It's a grind.  The original NES version is difficult.  The PSP version?  Not so much.  Part of the difficulty comes from getting lost.  This game can get by on it's historical merits, but to some, that's enough.  It can be entertaining enough to keep you playing for a few hours without realizing.  You're not going to get attached to any of the characters.  It shows exactly how the massively popular series started.  It may have a few gray hairs, but it's worth a look for those curious about the franchise origins.


Fianl Fantasy II (1988)

I haven't played much of this one, but I will say this... The NES version is BRUTAL.  At the beginning, if you don't stay on the intended path, you will encounter insanely tough enemies... and you will die.  Not a supposed-to-lose die, but a Game Over die.  The main premise is that there's a war going on, and an invading Empire has taken over the kingdom.  You are recruited into the resistance after a scuffle with the Empire left you and two party members unconscious, and the main character's brother missing.

That's right, they introduced characterization.  One of the more interesting things in this game is the dialogue system.  At certain times, you can either learn or say key words.  these key words can be used to grant entrance to places, or to see extra snips of conversation with the NPCs.  It's actually a pretty interesting concept for a video game.

Magic and weapons work like this, the more you use a specific spell or weapon, the better you get with it.  Granted, your characters are naturally specific at the start (Main character is better at swords at the start than axes, Big guy is better with Axes than staves, the chick is better with Bows than swords).  You buy magic and "Affix" it to a specific character, then poof, they can use it.  Using it makes it stronger and more effective, so grinding serves more purpose than just levels.

Speaking of levels, there's no real "level" system in the game.  You get stat increases at random after battles.  If your character does a lot of damage over the course of a few fights, then his strength will increase.  If they take lots of damage, their HP and Vitality will go up and so on.  A dynamic stat system like this falls in the middle of the "Pro-con" scale. At least for me.


Last in this part...

Final Fantasy III (1990)

Here we are, number 3, and the last NES release.  Granted, it never came stateside til the DS port, but whatever.  You start off as a young teen who falls into a crevice after an earthquake.  You are then deemed to be one of the "Warriors of Light", along with 3 others.  Then this rag-tag group of peoples are supposed to save the world.

The notable addition in this game was the base for future Job Systems.  You can change a characters class from say, Warrior to white mage, with the only downside is that you'd be in a weakened state for x amount of battles after the change.

I've only played a bit of the DS remake, so I can't go into full detail about this game.  I will say I do like how they tried to incorporate a job system here.  I'm a fan of how FFV (Later) and FF Tactics (Later) have used these systems.  The penalty for switching classes is a bit harsh, and it makes it difficult for experimenting with party ideas, since you're weakened for so long after a change.


That wraps it up for this part of the breakdown.  Not much to work with here, since I never played much of 2 or 3, but next up is Final Fantasy 4, 5, and maybe I'll get to 6.

Crafting Chronicles, part 1

So, I'm going to try my hand at something.  I'm going to keep a chronicle of a Vampires: The Masquerade
game I'm running this summer.  I'm going to basically give you, the reader, a story-like retelling of
the adventures of the group of young vampires (the players, obviously).  But first, character
introductions.  If you want a term defined or a small glossery made up, just let me know and I'll edit
this to include the new info.  This is mainly to test the waters on this style of post and polish up my
creative writing skills.

Name (Clan)
Short Bio

Vance Archer (Malkavian)
Vance was a pianist before his Embracing.  During his lifetime, he's accrued a small share of wealth,
but is well known throughout the state for his eccentric playing style, yet enjoyable songs.  He is the
Math Rock of the wandering classical musician market.  He made his stay up in Duluth, but after his
turn, strange voices started to echo throughout his head.  Some of them told him utter nonsense, while
others offered grave insights.  One voice rang loudest, and that's when he began his cross-state trip to
Minneapolis, to find out why this voice beckons.


Shadow (Gangrel)
Shadow still clings to parts of his former self.  A former Mixed Martial Artist before his Embraced, he
shed his real name, in favor of his nickname.  After a fairly lucrative career, he has "retired" to
Minneapolis to start his own gym.  Of course, the day to day operations of the gym are run by his Ghoul,
Bartholomew, while he trains some of the more promising students at night.  He needs to be wary though,
the Camerilla have eyes and ears everywhere, and one slip up could mean Final Death.


Aria (Assimite)
[Note: Character has no defining characteristics as of yet, hope to fix in future]



The First Night

A messenger arrives at the doorsteps of the 3 newest Kindred in Minneapolis.  Each one gaudy and
grotesque.  Their message is the same: Meet at Elysium tonight.  The Science Museum.  1 o'clock.  Sharp.
 They then disappear as abruptly as they arrived.  Shadow, who was in the midst of setting up his new
gym, tells Bartholomew "Alright, you hold the place down, I guess I have somewhere I need to be".  The
Ghoul is only happy to oblige.  Shadow hops into his Hummer and heads off towards downtown.  "This had
better be important", he mumbles to himself.

A quarter mile away, Vance has just recieved his summons and is only too happy to make the trip. The
voices were calm for once while the messenger delivered the memo.  They spoke up though, once he was on
his way.  "Elysium?  You know what that means!" cackled one sadistic voice, "That's where all the stuffy
higher-ups are going to sit around and stare.  Right. Through. Your. Head."  A softer voice replied
"Just go, nothing can be worse than this twice-damned form".  Grinning and not letting these get the
best of him, he merrily strolled downtown.

Aria coldly closed the door on the messenger as he left.  She sighed and went to her room.  "So much for
going unnoticed" she though to herself.  "God, the Camerilla must have eyes and ears everywhere".  She
considers ignoring the summons, but the mere thought of blowing off such a ominous request sent shivers
down her frigid body.  Reluctantly she grabs her coat and scarf and heads out into the cold, January
night.  She turns the key in the ignition and mutters "Better get this over with".

Shadow was the first to arrive at a quarter to one.  He parked his monsterous vehicle, but stayed
inside.  "I think I'll just watch for now"  Five minutes later, Aria pulls in across the lot and Vance
is seen ambling towards the front door.  "Huh" Shadow thinks, trying to piece out what exactly is going
on.  Vance tries the front door, to find it locked.  Footsteps in the snow reveal a path that leads to
the side employee entrance.  Following them, he is approached by Aria.  "Summoned too, huh!" the
excitable Vance exclaimed.  "Wonder what's going on?"  His words were met with cold silence.  The path
takes them around a corner, where they spot a security guard.

From his vantage point, Shadow watches closely as the two strangers stare at the mortal.  The guard
is sitting there, glazed look in his eye, when suddenly Aria leaps forward and lands a vicious blow to
the head.  The man crumples to the ground without a sound.  "Pretty impressive there Miss..." Vance
proclaims.  No sooner than the last word leaves his mouth, the door swings violently open, and a tall,
striking figure opens the door.  He looks at the two outside and jerkily motions them inside, obviously
frustrated that his Dominated guard was so recklessly assaulted.  He then points to Shadow in his tank
and flicks his head towards the door, signaling that he too, was beckoned.

"Sit here, and wait to be summoned" the tall man orders, "The Prince will see you shortly".  They aren't
made to wait long.  Within ten minutes, a twisted figure tells them that the Prince is ready for them.
With a cackle, he hobbles off.

Uneasily, the trio wanders over to where they were directed.  "Greeting young Childer.  Welcome to my
City."  The voice carries a sickly sweet tone to it.  Like a pot of honey tainted with arsonic.  "I am
the Prince of this fair city.  I hope you do not tarnish it's beauty with by misbehaving."  The man cut
an excellent figure.  He was tall, fair skinned, and carried the look of a celebrity, even in undeath.
Though he looked like your run-of-the-mill airheaded celeb, he walked with a certain confidence.  One
that said "cross me, and I WILL end you".  He was clearly, not a man to fuck with.

"Now, tradition is important to those of us in the Camerilla.  If you wish to remain in Minneapolis, you
must adhere to the laws.  But first, you need to introduce yourself to me and ask to stay here.  As this
is my domain, I posess the power to deny your residence, so play along boys and girl."

Shadow steps forward first and says woodenly "Prince, my name is Shadow, I request permission to stay in
Minneapolis".  "Permission granted.  You may think you're tough because of your past life, but that
don't mean squat here", the Prince replies in the same lilting tone.

Aria approaches and says cooly "My name is Aria, I ask for permission to stay".
"Granted"

Finally Vance steps forward and does his best to imitate the flowing speech of the Prince "Dear Prince
of Minneapolis, head of the Camerilla, I humbly request your permission to stay in your domain".

"Also granted"  The Prince pulls Vance close "I know what you are, if you cause any... "special" kind of
trouble, I'll have the Sheriff deliver your Final Death is the most painful way possible.  Do I make
myself clear?"

"Crystal" was the reply.

"Good.  Now, first and foremost... Welcome to Minneapolis.  As part of the Camerilla, I expect you to
follow a few laws.  First and foremost, you keep information of the Kindred away from the Humans.  This
is the Masquerade.  The Kine must never know we exist.  Breaking the Masquerade results in death.  I
mean this.  I will call a hunt on your head, and you will be murdered.  Do I make myself clear?"

The three fledglings nod in unison.

"Next, I am the ultimate authority.  Everything I say should override what anyone else in this city
says.  This includes your Sire, if present, or the Primogen.  The Primogen is the council made of the
oldest Kindred of each clan, sans the Tremere.  They are high up in the chain of command, so be on your
best behavior.

Third, there is NO violence in Elysium.  I'm sure you're currently feeling uneasy here.  You can feel
the presence of all the elder Kindred.  Should you raise your hand in violence, they will swarm upon you
and leave you for daybreak... And I do hate having piles of ashes out on the street.  Is quite untidy.

Now, with all that said, I have a task for you three.  I'm sure you're sufficiently anxious to be out
of here, so I'll be quick.  There are some Sabbat running rampant out near the Mall of America.  Nothing
serious, just a few thugs ravaging some parked cars and low tier vandalism.  I want you to dispatch of
them before the authroities arrive.  You are dismissed."

Vance quietly queries "Uh, what's a Sabbat... sir.  Eheh."

"The Sabbat are another group of Vampires.  One who feel they don't need the Camerilla or the
Masquerade.  They don't have much of a foothold in Minneapolis, but I hear they're quite the problem in
Iowa.  Anyways, they run roughshod all over the place, causing chaos and destruction, and with each
night the Kine come closer to discovering the existance of Vampires.  I WILL NOT stand for their
reckless behavior in my fair city.  You will dispatch them immediately.  Now go!"

"May as well hop in," Shadow mumbles.  "A single vehicle is less suspicous than a convoy".  Aria and
Vance pile into the car as he starts the ignition.  "Hold on", he warns as he throws the car into drive
and peels out of the parking lot.

Pulling off on a nearby exit ramp, they spot the renegades in the parking lot.  Under the dim lights,
they can make out the figures of 4 men assaulting a car with baseball bats.  "So what's the plan
fellas?"  Vance asks.  "Should we just run in and put a bullet in their collective skulls?  Then stake
'em and put them atop a billboard for the sun to roast 'em?"

"I could go down and try to seduce them" Aria plainly states.

"There's 4 of them, and 1 of you.  That'd end terribly.  I'll just walk down there and intimidate the
piss out of them." Shadow retorts.

"4 of them, remember?  Hehee" replies Vance.

"I can soak a bullet better than you fragile bags.  Plus, red eyes are a good way to spook people.  oh,
and GODDAMN CLAWS"

The bickering continues about the best possible route.  Intimidation, seduction, stealth, straight up
confrontation, when suddenly Shadow just started walking briskly towards the delinquents.  Eyes now
glowing red, and claws bared, he makes his way through the snow covered asphault, with Aria and Vance
trying to keep up.

"Hey, what gives?" Aria protests quietly
"I took action.  Bickering got us nowhere, so I did something about it" Shadow grumbles in reply.

"Well, looky here.  A couple of Cammy Welps have come to ruin our fun" one thug proclaims.
"Or maybe, they're just lost, heh heh heh"

Shadow silently replies by brandishing his claws as both Aria and Vance draw their handguns.

"Oh, so we're going to do this the hard way?  Well, that's fine by us!  We prefer it this way!" One of
the Sabbat goons roars.

Two of the Sabbat discard their baseball bats and draw guns of their own.  Both sides are trading fire
as two of the thugs rush the group with their bats.  They're met swiftly by a roaring Shadow, who begins
to tear into undead flesh with his primal claws.  A few stray bullets ping off of Shadow, but show no
signs of doing anything other than pissing him off.  Two Sabbat fall victim to Shadow's unrelenting
claws, another falls to a well aimed bullet from Vance's 9mm, as he grins manically.  The last one meets
his end from a knife to the throat by a rushing Aria...

"Well done.  I see the Camerilla has some... competent... new blood."
A tall individual, donning a treanch coat and hat steps out of the shadows.  He pulls a cigerette out of
his coat and snaps his fingers, causing a small flame to appear in the palm of his hand.  Lighting his
cig, he quickly waves away the flame as he walks towards the group.

"So, you are the people I was told about hm?  You don't look so impressive.  Just a bunch of young
fledglings.  From what I understand, this is your first night in Minneapolis, right?"

"Don't tell him anything.  He knows too much!  That Filthy filty Assimite!" One voice hisses in Vance's
head.  "You may as well tell him, those Tremere are crafty.  They can pull information out of you like a
taffy puller", cries another.  "What's the point?  Those 'regal' Ventrue can make you dance on a string on a whim...' another whines.

"ASSIMITE FIEND!" Yells Vance, out of nowhere with a crazed look in his eye.

"Uh, yeah, sure.  Anyways, I think I best be off.  What with it being late and all.  I have my eye on
you three."  The stranger snaps his fingers again, and this time, a soccer-ball sized ball of fire
appears in his hand.  He throws it at the car that the Sabbat were vandilizing.  The car bursts into a
roaring inferno as he disappears into the shadows from whence he came.  In the distance, the group hears
sirens of fire trucks and police cars, heading rapidly towards their location.

"Damn it!  Let's get out of here!  Figure out what just happened later." Shadow snarls, bolting for his
parked Hummer.  The three pile in, and head out moments before the lights arrive in the lot.



Glossery can be added at request.

Gaming Trends That Failed, Pt. 1

This is the first in a trilogy of posts, with each author voicing his opinions and discussing gaming mechanics or trends that failed horribly. While the other two authors will reminisce about failures of the past, I will embellish upon the trends of the present that may just become failures of the future.

IRONSIGHTS:
Remember the old days of FPS gaming? A gun's accuracy percentage was just how accurate the gun was and the only zoom or sighting of any kind was from sniper rifles? Those days have been long gone, and with it, a new breed of FPS has emerged: Generic FPSs. You know a trend has overstayed its welcome when it's refreshing to see an FPS these days that DOESN'T use that particular trend. I acknowledge that there are FPSs that use ironsighting and are still amazing games (BioShock), but that doesn't change the fact that trends like ironsighting rarely serve a purpose at all, except to be all gritty and realistic by jamming the stock of a gun up your nose. Ironsights in games are either the only way to shoot accurately or rarely useful. In addition, ironsights in EVERY GAME EVER do not help to make a game good nowadays, it only makes it a CoD clone*.
*Not that most FPSs aren't CoD clones in the first place.

COVER-BASED SHOOTING:
First-Person Shooters are named that for a reason. That's why it's annoying as hell when a game is mainly an FPS but the camera zooms out of the character's view to show that he's crying behind an explosive barrel for thirty seconds while shooting what is usually an AI with brain damage. It's not that cover-based shooting can't be done in first person (Killzone) in addition to being done really well, but if your game is focusing on immersion, the LAST thing you want to do is strip that immersion from the player. Take the new Deus Ex for example. Now, I love Deus Ex. I'm preordering the Augmented Edition of Human Revolution for my birthday. But it makes me sad to see a cover-based shooting mechanic in the game, especially when the atmosphere is top-notch and looks to be one of the most immersive games in years. It's that time, when third-person CBS is practically shoehorned into a game that makes me wonder if this trend will eventually ruin games that thrive on being a first-person experience but are simply incapable of being so because the view zooms out to an external view every thirty seconds during an action sequence.

DEVELOPERS SIMPLY HAVE NO IMAGINATION ANYMORE:
Take the Medal of Honor series as of six years ago. It was a first-person shooter set during World War II in which you played a single member of a larger squad, undergoing countless firefights, deaths of friends, and the German Reich to come out victorious and alive. Now take the first three Call of Duty games. Those were first-person shooters set during World War II in which you played a single member of a larger squad, undergoing countless firefights, deaths of friends, and the German Reich to come out victorious and alive. Now take countless other games that are more than just "inspired" by CoD and copy that exact same statement. Call of Duty 4 brought that same motif to a modern-day fictional war against the Russians. This also inspired countless numbers of games that actively copy CoD to varying degrees of success. Cue Medal of Honor's sudden resurgence, and guess what? It's the same thing as CoD, only set in a real-life modern-day war scenario against the Taliban as opposed to a fictional war against the Russians. It also had vehicles. This is pretty much a vicious cycle that is doomed to repeat itself, oversaturating the FPS genre with countless military shooters that all bear resemblance to Call of Duty or Halo in some form. Rarely does an FPS bear a new and innovated story and bring something new to the table in terms of gameplay. AND DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON THE COLOR PALETTES (or lack thereof).

Has the beginning of the end begun for the First-Person Shooter genre? It has already begun, as long as every other game in the genre rips off Call of Duty or Halo in some form. It has if every game uses the same tired mechanics and never innovates. It CERTAINLY HAS if every developer company for every FPS never bothered to hire an artist who at least knows that colors other than grey and brown even exist. A perfect example of Det Som Engang Var (What Once Was, in case you don't listen to Burzum) is Unreal Tournament 2004. This game cared not for being gritty and realistic. It had a brightly-colored palette, no ironsights, and no cover system. On top of it all, it was unabashedly proud of itself for not conforming to the trends of the time. The next games, by that developer, however, began to go down the same path as many a series before it, beginning to also take part in the orgy of bland color palettes and third-person cover-based shooting systems. If a game was released that did not conform to the trends of the time and focused on being a fun game, that would potentially be a wake-up call for the industry to start making games fun again. After all, being fun is of the utmost importance for any from of media, right?

Right?

Halo Reach: A Flawed Legacy

Halo is a series that I have always loved for it's art style and streamlined gameplay, but with the latest addition to the franchise, I feel it falling short.

Halo has always stood out for because of the dramatic contrasts it presented to the player. You gun down thousands of aliens, but on a mysteriously beautiful island, or in pristine yet ancient system of corridors and hallways that snake through the canyons of a great chasm, or high on the outer walkway surrounding vast city that lay covered in a think veil of fog thousands of feet below. The environments were also very mysterious and foreboding: there is almost always some massive structure that obscures the horizon ahead of you and completely dominates the scene. There was also always something just out of reach, some area or island that has a story or secret that you aren't told and can't find out.

Some of these things may seem rather insignificant, but they add a sense of vastness to the game that few games manage to accomplish. Vastness makes the player feel insignificant in the world they are in, which makes for a more immersive experience and just makes the game feel bigger.

In Reach, you could go just about everywhere, and while some of the locales were definitely interesting, you knew what everything did. Now this may seem ridiculous, but there were subtle things in the other games that made you want to know more. There are doors in unexpected places that you can't open, switches that seemingly have no function, passageways that lead to nowhere, things that make you want to see whats behind them or know what they do, but you can't. They were always placed in such unusual places that you felt that you found something special, but they did nothing. They were just...there. They were a part of the world, a seemingly useless addition the the environment that just makes the places feel all the more real and natural.

The issue with Reach is that it's more like Modern Warfare with a year 2500 facelift and more colors. You know what a house is for, if there's a locked door, it's probably a closet or bedroom. If you're in a city area and there's a locked door, it's probably an office or an apartment complex. You didn't feel the need to see what was behind these doors because they're supposed to be there. These are familiar environments with a shiny new coat of paint. Naturally, this had to happen seeing as the game details a covenant invasion on Earth, but I just can't help but to miss these elements. Everything is just too normal and functional.

I also found the Multiplayer hard to stomach. It was a totally different style of play from the previous Halo games, and while I really feel terrible because I'd rather just have Halo 2 with better graphics, I think it would have been better if they would have just slowed down with the amount of added features. It was just too much, too fast. One of my biggest issues was the Ranking System and how it was executed.

One of the best ways to rank up was by playing Challenges, and they were usually something like "Kill 150 enemies in Matchmaking". They weren't usually too hard to achieve, they just required time. I found myself having fun just playing the game as it was meant to be played for the first few rounds and found it quickly becoming a chore. I just wanted to hit that damn goal. Reluctantly I would put in the extra four or five rounds after I had grown tired of the game and accomplish the goal, and eventually this stacked up and eventually I just didn't want to touch the game at all because I knew that when I would go to shut it off that I would only be 33 kills away from unlocking this weeks challenge or something to that extent. This had a really negative effect on my experience, because I simply wouldn't feel satisfied with that last round because I had forfeited all the effort I had just put into the game those past couple hours.

The game is good, a top notch shooter, but it just isn't Halo. Hell, even the Halo theme is absent in this game. Too many elements are missing and it just doesn't have the same tone or feel anymore.

I hope that 343 realizes what makes Halo, Halo.

Ranking Systems: Are they becoming the main focus of games?

It seems to be the new trend, having a number ranking system in shooters and other games that usually don't have a rank up system. While it's a great way to reward players by consistently playing and performing well, I feel like the short term instant gratification comes hand in hand with an unfortunate side effect. Are we playing the game because it's fun, or are we playing it just to hit that next level?

I remember dumping endless hours into Halo PC. It had no ranking system or unlocks, it was just fun. The gratification came from winning and outscoring the opponents, and often to absurd degrees. The thing about it was that the reward never changed. You won or you lost, and it was usually fun either way (assuming you didn't choke, horribly). With newer shooters, you play the main game, but it's as if there's a completely different game on top of that, and while the depth of some of these rank up and reward systems is definitely something to be praised, I feel like it detracts from what should be center stage.

So this brings me to my question: will future shooters feel complete without a ranking system? Will we be able to simply play because it is fun or will the game lack the gratification of other shooters?