ODST arrived yesterday, I filmed an unboxing video of sorts and was going to explain my first impressions on camera later on. It’s a bit too late now so I’m putting down my first impressions in writing. So far I’ve played through some of the first level and spent about an hour in firefight. I also checked out the multiplayer disk and now realize that it’s actually a really good idea to split up multiplayer and singleplayer into separate disks. The new players who didn’t get Halo 3 will still get the amazing online experience, the old players get all the new maps and the game is able to carry more content overall.
Firefight is good because it introduces AI enemies. One of the niggles of Halo 3 (and indeed most shooters) was that playing a local match against a friend is overly simple. With firefight you can team up with a fellow player and defeat a common enemy and it retains elements of teamwork which make it a co-operative experience.
Matthieu complained that firefight is slightly too hard. I’m inclined to agree with him, although on the other hand we played it on easy and it took quite a long while to reach the higher skulls.
Overall the new health system, the skulls and the teamwork force people to play tactically. One brilliant technique I found on Windward was to wait until a new wave of enemies have landed and ambush them with a gravity hammer as they push through the corridor to the surface. Because they’re so concentrated you wipe out many in a single swing, this means you rack up bonus multipliers which boost your score-per-kill into the thousands.
Because I ordered Halo:Wars at the same time it means I now have something of a collection (I know I’m missing Halo: Combat Evolved)
Anonymous said on September 24th, 2009 , 3:59 pm
I have been receiving some emails concerning this blog recently at my email address ralphwainscotting@gmail.com . Is this some kind of spam or what? Please desist with these emails, and why the hell does it think I have been commenting here, I see no comments by my name.
Yours Sincerely
Ralph Wainscotting
Pierre said on September 24th, 2009 , 9:40 pm
Dear anonymous,
Someone is clearly using your name as a pseudonym. This is because they aren’t clever enough to come up with a proper screen name. However concerned reader do not be alarmed by the foul creatures who stalk the internet. These people are probably just acting so stupidly because they’re making up for the fact that they have a small penis, or that their hair’s so long they can’t see their own blindingly ugly reflection.
I’ve taken away the barriers to posting comments (name and email not required) and as you can see everyone who wants it will simply be granted anonymity. This should solve everything.
Ralph Wainscotting said on September 25th, 2009 , 4:53 pm
Now now, were my name to be used as a pseudonym, which I completely doubt it is! I think it would make an absolutely magnificent pseudonym. One might even venture to suggest that it would make a magnificent “screen name”, and your suggestion that it would not substantiate a ‘proper’ screen name, is entirely unfounded. I should imagine, with my limited insight into the minds of stalkers, that stalking the internet should be not entirely desirable or feasible due to the internet’s immense size and lack of physical being. Furthermore I find your logic regarding to stupidity and physical attributes (size of genitalia, length of hair) to be extremely uncompelling and based on unwarranted discriminative stereotypes – to see such ignorance from the author of this magnificent blog perplexes me.
Yours Sincerly,
Ralph Wainscotting
P.S Thank you very much indeed for the lack of spam emails in recent days.
Occupational Thoughts » 2nd impressions of ODST (+ photo dump) said on October 17th, 2009 , 11:06 am
[...] overall result of this observation is that if you like Halo you should definitely play ODST. I advise against buying it now as it [...]