OK. Due to the rushed nature of the last week I thought I might as well sit down and talk EVERYONE over what has happened. OK, lets start at the top. Basically, this blog is ending. Well, not ending. Switching to my new blog: Epic Proportions. Basically everything I blog about will be there, without censcorship so beware kiddys who have a fear of swearing.

You can subscribe Via RSS, a link to that is on the sidebar. Also, when you leave a comment, the email is kept private, so don't worry, I would love the comments, and the word spread about the blog! I'll happily trade favours or something, but I'd like all the readers of this blog, to read that blog. Its the same, but better!

FOr the moment, whenever I update there, I shall update here. Todays blog was on hatemail, my first real editorial. Please leave all comments on Epic Proportions rather than on gamespot, I cannot stress that enough. I hope this blog helped those confused. Please continue to enjoy Epic Proportions, its a public service I provide!

About my mood and stuff. In about a week I may stup updating this blog with announcements except for the important blogs. So I'd really love you guys to subscribe and comment on THAT blog. I belive the comment requires a Name and email. However, the email is kept private, it is just to prove you are real. Also, I could turn that off but then you might get some anonymous comments which are annoying. So yeah. Keep reading it guys!

Epic proportions is now open! It is just gonna be my solo blog, and I shall post here whenever I make a post there, though subscribing to the RSS feed is amazingly awesome! Please leave all your comments on the site, not on gamespot, so they are all in the same place. The first comment you ever make on my blog will take a while to appear, but as long as you use the same name and email, they shall appear instantly after that! Hope you enjoy.

Epic Proportions is, in essence my new blog. On my new blog I shall do reviews etc, and random stuff that I want to talk about, free from gamespots censcoring constraints. However, this is where you come in. I'd like to have an "Epic Team" to help me, provide submissions etc. If you would like to join the Epic Team, post a comment or PM me, and you shall have my MSN adress to talk about the details.

While Epic Proportions is my new blog, I shall put a link to every post here as well, and I would prefer it if all the comments were on EP rather than on gamespot. Please leave a comment if you are interesting in contributing to reviews and stuff, but it will be my personal blog mixed in with the "Epic Team's" reviews and whatever they feel is nescecarry. So leave a comment NAO! (If you are interested).

EDIT: Considering the difficulty of having multiple authors on the blog I have set up, I am at a hard crossroads. Whether to make this simply a personal blog, or a blog that I will try to advertise to get the best of all contributors out there into the interwebs. *Cough* Snake's Story *Cough*

EDIT V2: Don't worry, the feature was enabled, I just didnt see it. I can have multiple contributors, just one admin, which is me. So PM or comment if you want to get involved. And Epic is an adjective that goes with ANYTHING. Even chips.

EDIT V3: Well it looks like the interest level is low. No matter, would you guys rather just have it as my own personal blog, free of censcoring constraints?

You know what, the reason I haven't written many reviews on gamespot is that my blog is a better place to put them. AND, on my blog, I can make up my own original, and preferably humourous scoring system. Although only 5 people will read this blog, the games I review will be "old" by the time my review comes out so just go with it and enjoy. And yes, TV = Tylea's Verdict. Onwards we go.

Tylea's Verdict No.1: Halo Trilogy

When people think about the xbox, I'm sure one of the first things that comes to mind is the Halo trilogy. What started out as a little game for the Mac turned into one of the most famous and hyped video game series' in history. If you happen to be a "Halo Virgin," and are wondering what the fuss is all about, and the best way to experience halo, this will fill you in.

Meet the Chief

He's green. He's mean. He's a Covanent killing machine. A super soldier, and it is your turn to step up into his shoes. In the first in the trilogy - Halo: Combat Evolved, this "Master Chief" starts off as some nameless, faceless soldier, known only by his rank, hardened by the battles he has been through. The first cutscne plunges you into an all out action adventure on a ringworld known as Halo. With an AI voice in your head, and an assault rifle in your hand, you learn the secrets of the ring, with many a plot twist ahead.

Don't get on the wrong side of this guy

Halo wasnt developed with plans for a humongous trilogy and such, so the story overall has a very Matrix-esque feel to it. The first game has a clear cut, simple story, yet still holding a great few plot twists that I won't spoil, even though the game is 7 years old. However, the story in the sequels is a very different affair.

Halo 2 has an extremely convolouted and complicated plot, focusing on the covenant as much as the humans, with so many loose ends left to be tied up, and an extremely dissapointing final level and cliffhanger. The third then takes a more traditional, but still more epic tone than the first, and wraps the story up nicely.

The story is very, very good, but for one flowing trilogy, it doesnt work as well as it could. The shifts in tone from game to game make the story slightly less coherant than most, but it is a great story. It draws you in, and now that all the games are out you can play them all back to back, and in that situation, the story just manages to click.

You mean you don't need a mouse?

One of the things that Halo is well known for is that it was that game for the console FPS genre. The sheer amount of little changes it made from most standard PC FPSes at the time was mindboggling, and some mini revolutions reached much further than console FPSes.

One of the biggest innovations that Halo brought along was the rebounding shield. IN halo, you never have to go into a firefight with 1% health and be expected to win. Every bullet or charge of plasma brought the sheild meter down a notch, before the bullets impacted on your health, and once they did, you knew you were in trouble. The sequels did away with the health meter entirely, with even health recharging in the end.

The halo series also started something that most games now emulate. You are only allowed to hold 2 guns at a time. And while emulated, no other game seems to have the balance of weapons that halo has. In most games, weapons went from bad to good, but not in halo. You could plan your attack on one base for hours, antagonising over which guns to take in. The weapons are balanced perfectly. Even the pistol isnt rubbish, and it stays slightly useful in the sequels - after it had been nerfed big time. Every gun has a purpose, an advantage and disadvantage. The game only gets deeper as it goes in as the sequels add in duel wielding and equipment.

I'm duel wielding my SMG's

Now, balanced guns and a health system that is fair to gamers are nothing without decent enemies to kill, and in the Halo series, there are a lot of them. However, halo doesnt just put on lots of enemies and let them swarm you, oh no. The AI is some of the best ever, even in the original halo. Enemies flank, they hide behind cover, and they run if they are outnumbered. Trying to take out a group of covenant soldiers is going to be a different affair each time.

And thankfully, there is also a great variety of enemies you will face. Covenant forces range from the basic packs of grunts (little, 3 foot tall creatures that are easily delt with) to hunters (giant hulking things, that come in pairs, for twice the pain). In the later games, the covenant gain more and more to their ranks, with a basic group of enemies in Halo 3 being very different to those in the original.

The difficulty doesnt waver. There are four difficulty settings, and normal is tough enough for the first playthrough, but when you know where enemies are, it can become a cakewalk. Heroic takes it up anotch, but legendary is where the real men play. Doing the whole trilogy on legendary is no easy task, though it isnt a humoungous trip through punishment and frustration like many games. It is fair

"We'll never walk alone..."

And then there is the feature that made halo stand out. Multiplayer. The entire campaign can be played with a friend. One friend on the same console in the first two, and with up to four people online and off for the third. This extra person (or 3) can truly help. The higher difficulties seem to be designed (especially on Halo 3) to be played on co-op, due to the tactical advantage of more people, making it even harder alone.

While co-operative modes are great, Halo has a great multiplayer mode. Halo made LAN parties popular. ****c maps like Sidewinder and Blood Gulch live on as some of the best maps in history. The balance of weapons made halo a fair multiplayer game, rather thanone person with the "BFG" owning all. Halo 2 took it online, and to a whole new level.

Halo 2 has a weapon system more balanced for multiplayer, and Halo 2 put xbox live on the map as a serious rival to online PC games. The matchmaking system worked well, allowing for a fair game, and with xbox live hosting the servers, no one has a host advantage. Halo 1 revolutionised the genre, Halo 2 revolutionised online and Halo 3 refined both aspects to a knife edge.

Halo 3 Screenshots make you the one

Halo 3 online takes what Halo 2 online was, and multiplies it. Sure, some of the maps aren't as ****c, but when you can save your films of a match on one of the maps that you made in forge, and check its stats on the internet, you can forgive that. The first major feature of Halo 3 online is forge. The ability to edit all the objects on a map is a welcome one, and combined with new gametypes like infection, it becomes amazing.

The integration with bungie.net is great. YOu can check all the stats for every single game of Halo 3 you have ever played, and all the screenshots you have taken are uploaded to your profile. It just clicks. You can also download other peoples gametypes and maps from bungie.net too, which means you can play grifball, a game worth £50 in itself.

Tylea's Verdict

Well the verdict is hard to give. It depends on what you are looking for. If you are looking for a game just to play multiplayer with, and keep track of how well you are doing, with so many in depth features, then you only need Halo 3. However, the story flows nicely from game to game, and even the multiplayer changes in each game. You can probably pick the first two up for cheap anyway, and the "flowability" and accessability give this series a:

Tyle-A

Yeah, that is a good way to rate! Ciao for now guys!

This isn't a review, and that will come after I have completed it, but its just my impressions of the game so far! This is kinda ripped from a post I just made in XBL, but I thought it was long enough and good enough for a blog:

Driving is amazing, it takes ages to get used to, I am still not used to it, but the physics and handling is great, and if you play enough, it will become second nature. Shooting out of your car is handled perfectly, and 4 people can fit in the car and shoot at the same time.

Using your phone is great, especially in car, as you can't run while on your phone, or get into the car. Organising activities with your mates works suprisingly well for a game. It is unbeliveable that R* could make you care about having a social life, in a game! Going drinking, pool and bowling etc. all work really well, and being drunk is an adventure into motion sickness land, but not for too long, and you can drive if you concentrate.

Wanted system is great, the circle is piss easy to get out off in 1* and 2* but once you hit 3* especially early on in the game, you are screwed. Later on, when you have guns, armour and can drive well, it should become more manageable, so average wanting rating will go up with ability, in a natural way. And when you get away, the satisfaction is great, though sometimes something more climactic than hiding for a few seconds would be nice.

When not in a car, you will probably be either trying to get one, or shooting someone. Shooting is controlled really well, though the lock on aim adjust probably takes a bit to get used to, as I was expecting something more like Bond Everything or Nothing. There is a lot of guns, and you can only hold one of any type, but apart from that you can hold as much as there is. Ordering people around at gunpoint works well, very naturally.

Hand to Hand combat is great too. You use all 4 buttons, one for dodging, 2 for punching and 1 for kicking. Using your knife is often advised, as otherwise you may get arrested before the guy is beat up. Stun punches before you have been attacked are a great feature, and also work well. The counter attacking is very useful, but not as easily abused as asssasins creed, as normally you will have guns instead and multiple opponents with good AI.

You can buy clothes from shops, and customise your look to impress, annoy or for the heck of it. Money is obtained by doing jobs, with romans Taxi Company always able to offer some cash. And money is also used for public transport, subway or taxi. The subway lines are great for getting to locations quickly and with minimal fuss. And cabs are good when you don't want wanted ratings, or just want to get there quickly.

The health system works well, and food carts are good places to get extra health, which is best done off mission. The around the map health and armour bars are great for seeing how long til you drop, and don't clutter the screen, allowing a better view of the city. The city IS full of millions of details, adverts and people who arent just pixels on the road, you feel they actually have lives and are inhabitants of the city.

Also helping to bring life to the city are radio stations, and with Liberty City Hardcore being next to WKTT, I am always a button press away from the 2 best radio stations in the game. Though all of them have great tunes, and there never seems to be a dull one, even if you don't like rap, the music they have is still awesome and you seem to forget your predjudices.

Then there is multiplayer. GTA IV comes with a month xbox live gold subscription, and you should use it! The multiplayer is amazing. The co-op missions are rather dissapointing as they seem to be nothing more than extremely simple Single player esque missions, but with 1305864 more enemies, but in most games they would be an amazment. Cops n Crooks is probably the best game mode, especially with lots of people, but games are better arranged with friends as organisation and team work is needed, and the party mode REALLY helps this.