Kotaku, the Gamer’s Guide

Gimme, gimme, gimme!

What if I modeled a plane?

Halo 3, Odin Sphere, Phantom Hourglass, TetrisDS, maybe some Dewys Adventure( If I get the Wii hooked up ) and some Gears of War seems to be on the menu for me.

I've got quite a lot of catching up to do.

I would expect a price drop around August to October of next year. Currently the Wii's demand is dropping slightly because the year-long rave for the console is dying down, however the coming Christmas/winter demand will more than make up for this current miniature-lull in demand. I would expect the overall demand to drop slightly around August to October of 2008, requiring/justifying a minor price drop to revive the ravenous demand the Wii has enjoyed this past year.

Given the current market and coming times, I wouldn't expect a price drop.

To be honest, I'd consider many of Nintendo's recent games very watered down compared to their older counterparts. While this does interest *some* new casual gamers, I would say that it alienates more hardcore gamers than it does attract new gamers for these more hardcore/dedicated games.

Since unfortunately, I cannot edit posts, I'll post again...

The online play is really good too, finding players of similar level/skill to play with. While people bemoan the trashtalking and immaturity that occurred in Halo 2, I've only had one person be very vulgar and even then, I muted them, problem solved. I've had an excellent time playing online, people are friendly and the maps are diverse.

However it does pick Shotty/Snipers unusually often.

Don't get me wrong guys, I really enjoyed all 3 Halos in single and multiplayer; but there's no denying there are some unusual difficulty spike issues near the end, the feeling of running laps rather than progressing, bipolar teammate AI, the story telling mechanics becoming annoying. When I actually got to fight the Flood and the Covenant, I had an excellent time and being able to going back through on higher difficulties in co-op really extends the campaign's replayability.

Trust me, flying around and blasting the hell out of Scarabs kicks ass.

I've liked all the Halo games, but one can't deny that there are issues purely based on one's fandom.

I played through the campaign only and played one online match. Judging only on campaign, I'd give it a 8.7/10: Very good overall, however the storytelling elements become annoying towards the end and there's a few glaring issues on difficulty spikes and feeling like one is just running laps around an area rather than progressing. One thing that really bothered me about campaign were my squadmates driving. More than a handful of times, I wound up with my squadmate driving in circles and I had to get out, drive the warthog across a small area, get back into the gun seat in order to progress.

I wasn't grabbed by the story either, felt like something was 'missing'.

The graphics are beyond excellent, I think it's a type that people don't really realize how good they are, what effects are going on, how many are going on, no framerate dropping and several characters on screen with several effects on each. You really have to take a technical look at the graphics to appreciate them.

The replay mode is awesome, watching from every angle, seeing where you made mistakes, where you made smarter decisions. The online play is fun too(at least the lone match I played), balanced enough to where one player isn't totally dominating.

All considered, campaign, presentation, the replay mode, online/multiplayer/co-op modes, I'd give the game a solid 9.5/10

Kotaku

Lososaurus