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Monday Gaming Diary: Gonna pop that MMO cherry…

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mmorpgI’ve never played an MMO. Seriously, never. I have downloaded that Marvel Heroes game on Steam but never played it. I own Final Fantasy XIV, but I’ve never played it. Today, my part of the Destiny trade I made with Blake completed, so it’s possible for me to play and get into the Destiny craze. Emphasis on possible.

I haven’t decided if I will indeed play Destiny right now, but one thing is clear. My review schedule be damned, I WILL POP THAT MMO CHERRY THIS MONTH, DAMMIT.

I do have a couple of things I need to work on for, uh, work, but I’m not going to let that get in the way of picking one of these MMOs to play. I’ve been able to set aside one night a week for Halo for the last couple of weeks, so I know I can do this, even if it means it will take years for me to finish one of the games.

Like Robin, I BELIEVE in myself!

I’m mostly worried about having to play with others, as my time is about to get even more severely limited than it already is. I just have to remember my mantra of choosing what I do and do not have time for. I’m even more thrilled that my eldest isn’t doing any team sports this semester, as selfish as that makes me sound.

Speaking of that, I’m also happy I don’t have any guides to review until October-ish. I’m a terrible person, I admit; but this is why I have minions!

Will the Gears of War Strategy Guide Work with Gears of War Ultimate Edition?

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Gears of War strategy guideThe Gears of War Ultimate Edition released this week and did not include a corresponding strategy guide in publication. The Ultimate Edition is simply a prettied up version of the original Xbox 360 game, right? So the original Gears of War strategy guide by Doug Walsh should work all the same. I had the same thoughts, but after seeing what happened with the Kingdom Hearts remixed HD versions, I didn’t want to take anything to chance. After playing the game last week with the original guide by my side, the verdict is both yes and no.

Yes, you can use the original Gears of War strategy guide, but only for the first four acts of the game. All of the strategies are perfectly sound for getting through the levels, and all of the COG tags are exactly where the strategy guide describes. I only missed one, and that was because I got distracted with one of the more tense scenes in the first Act.

No, you can’t use the original Gears of War strategy guide for Act 5. The Ultimate Edition added in the missions that remained on the cutting room floor but were put back in for the PC version of the original game. There are roughly five missions from Act 5 not mentioned at all in this strategy guide. If you need help, go find something online and make sure you look for the PC version until the Ultimate Edition walkthroughs are published. Three COG tags are also not mentioned in the original strategy guide either, forcing players to once again look online for assistance.

However, the last half of Act 5 is sound, and all COG tags mentioned in the guide for this portion are 100% there.

No, you can’t use the original Gears of War strategy guide for the multiplayer. The multiplayer portion of the game has completely changed since this strategy guide first release. All of the maps from the DLC and the PC version have been added, PC modes and modes from Gears 2 have been added, and the modes have been tweaked. Some of the advice for how to amp up your multiplayer prowess is still solid, but when it comes to map specifics, it’s best to ignore it all and just hurl yourself into the fray with that shotgun by your side.

If you already own the original Gears of War strategy guide, pull that baby out and use it to help find some of those sneaky COG tags. If you didn’t buy it the first time around, I’m not sure you’ll find your money’s worth in picking up a used copy as it is out of print.

Comic Review: Halo: Escalation #21

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Halo: Escalation #21Halo day is nearly upon us; can you feel it? It’s evident in the latest book releases, and tensions are running especially high in the Halo: Escalation comic series. Issue #21 released yesterday (my bad for being late), and everything is going pear-shaped for Jul ‘Mdama, Halsey, and perhaps Palmer’s team of Spartans as well. I am almost starting to wonder if the best recourse with all Forerunner technology is to just blow it into oblivion. Has anyone found any Forerunner tech that didn’t have some sort of doomsday device with it? Trying to find the Absolute Record may have something similar.

Dr. Halsey has royally pissed off Jul ‘Mdama, a Sangheili who could snap her neck with a flick of his fingers, but typical Halsey doesn’t care. All she can see is her goal, and everyone else be damned who is in her path. As she reaches the Monitor guarding the entrance to the Absolute Record, she’s learning that she doesn’t always have command of the situation. In fact, if she really sat down and thought about it, she hasn’t had command of a situation since the Covenant first touched down on Harvest. The only people who would defend Halsey are few and far between, and I think they all belong to Spartan Blue Team.

Uh oh, did I give away part of what Halo 5: Guardians may be about? Eh oh well if I did.

We’re also in another situation with a Monitor who, like Guilty Spark 343, has had way too much time to sit alone and think. Therefore, he isn’t going to follow set protocol that the Librarian established thousands of years ago. I guess this is what happens when

Halo: Primordium spoiler

you create AIs from living beings, as in creatures (mostly humans) who are still alive.

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Halsey has never met Guilty Spark 343, and I doubt she had any clue that her life is once again on the line until the last couple of pages of this issue.

This is the third issue in the six-part sequel to the Spartan Ops story. After doing some quick math, the final issue will release after Halo 5: Guardians, which makes me now wonder how much this will really affect the next game. It’s possible rocks will fall and Jul ‘Mdama and Halsey will die, allowing ONI to clean up that mess and sweep it all away. That would also be the most disappointing ending to a series since Halo 2, and I’m going to pray 343 isn’t that stupid. Well now I’m paranoid that they could be. Dammit, I shouldn’t have done that.

All I can think of is how important the extended lore has been to the Halo-verse, and the comics have lead up to extremely important issues that should be tied to the game somehow. It’s a matter of faith at this point.

Regardless of what they do with it, the current arc in Halo: Escalation continues to build a steady and solid foundation for quite the amazing story. Just a few more issues to go before we find out what’s coming to Halsey. Maybe she’ll

Halo 4 Spartan Ops Spoiler

lose her other arm.

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Halo: Escalation #21 is available now via Dark Horse and Dark Horse digital.

Digital review copy received from publisher.

Sample of the Metal Gear Solid V Strategy Guide

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Our dearth of strategy guides is about to come to an end, and the first one to hit our hot little hands will be the Metal Gear Solid V strategy guide. Piggyback is handling this one, and they sent me a few teaser photos. If the content is as amazing as the book’s presentation, Metal Gear fans are in for a treat.

The Metal Gear Solid V strategy guide will release on September 1, 2015 in both paperback and hardback, collector’s edition formats.

Monday Gaming Diary: I’ve realized why I haven’t played Destiny

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Destiny

Another week, another batch of gaming friends asking why I haven’t played Destiny yet. I constantly say I don’t have time, and in part, that is true. I haven’t had time to play a second of Final Fantasy XIV, and that’s one I really do want to play. I do find plenty of other games to play instead of Destiny, even though I can now say I legitimately don’t own the game. I gave my CE to Blake, and he’s going to trade it with his regular copy of the game. We haven’t completed the trade yet, and it’s not bothering me in the slightest.

I know I don’t want to play Destiny, but it wasn’t until this weekend that I realized exactly why that is.

It’s only partly because I have people hounding me to play it. True fact: if you want me to do/read/watch/play something, don’t bombard me about it every time we chat or even every other time. Pass along your recommendation and move on. Constant barrages of OMG YOU HAVE TO DO THIS will only put off my motivation to do whatever it is you want me to do. Most likely, I’ll never do it. I never said this is one of my better character traits, but it is what it is.

So my friends asking me about it is only partly to blame.

The big barrier is the fanboyism. My Twitter feed is constantly full of people tweeting OMG THIS IS THE BEST GAME EVER! People proudly announcing how long it took them to grind to get enough light pants to reach level 30. I thought grinding was an annoying thing, not something to really celebrate. Then they talk about the emotes, Legendary gear or engrams or whatever, going on raids (but this is totes not an MMO!), blah blah blah and my eyes glaze over. I’m so glad you all love this game so much, but do I have to be inundated with frothing fanboy comments? This is just like Halo!

OH.

MY.

GOD.

OHMYGOD. I am having the exact same reaction I had to Halo. I refused to give Halo a chance, outright refused. Everyone I knew who was into Halo was a diehard fanboy and couldn’t talk about the game rationally. More OMG BEST GAME EVAR!!11!! crap whenever anything Halo-related was leaked. I never thought about touching Halo until I was assigned to review the Anniversary edition for Gaming Angels. I think my exact response was, “Well, fuck.” And I couldn’t get out of the assignment because I was the shooter gaming editor. You can’t not review Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary when you are the shooter game expert. Well, fuck. Fine. Give me the stupid game.

And as they say, the rest is history.

So there it is; I’m going against Destiny for the same reasons I went against Halo. Perhaps if I play Destiny, I’ll love it as much as Halo. My boss says that won’t happen. He swears I’ll quit after two hours because of the grinding and lack of story. That may be true, but what Chris said about the game also has me intrigued that I could like it.

Nothing I can do about it now, as I still don’t have a copy of the game and I still have other games I will play instead. But Extra Life is coming up. That could be a good time to play the game once and for all and be done with it one way or another.

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