Halo 3: ODST Review – Sort of

A little while ago, I got ODST thanks to  my awesome gaming BFF and it is pretty cool. I like playing as an ODST, and I certainly like seeing a different side of the UNSC. The game is darker, scarier, more intense, and even a little harder. The Campaign is a bit too short for my liking. Total Campaign playtime on normal was about 3 1/2 hours for one full run through. I’ve had quite a bit of fun though going back to get all the audio logs, the ‘naughty, naughty’ achievement and it’s counterpart, ‘Good Samaritan’ for deciding whether killing things that are new and different is good, or bad.

Firefight is also an amazing experience, and was definitely something different to add to the general halo experience.  Firefight seems like it can just go on for as long as you can last without losing all your lives, and therefore, the game. My first match of firefight, on lost platoon with 3 players lasted 3 hours! We actually ended up just screwing around in the end and losing all our lives, because we just didn’t want to keep going for fear that it would go on FOOOOREEEVVVEERRR!!!

I think one thing I noticed about ODST, isn’t actually about ODST itself. When I am playing ODST and switch back to playing Halo 3, It’s terribly hard to get used to being a Spartan again. I jump off buildings expecting to lose my shields, wonder where I’m gonna get a health pack, and forget how awesome my Battle Rifle is.

Overall, I really enjoy playing ODST and see myself going back to play it again and again in the future, because while it is halo, it’s completely different, with the same enjoyability. Awesome Game!

Scribblenauts is awesome!

Scribblenauts is probably the most creative game I’ve played all year. Basically you are a boy named Maxwell who has to solve puzzles to collect ‘starites’ and to do this you spawn objects by using an on screen keyboard or writing the objects name on the touch screen. So far there have been very few things I have entered that didn’t give me an object. Most of the objects appear to be usable, though I have found a few that you can’t really use. If you spawn a lasso, you can pick it up and “wrangle” a starite with it, which is cool. There are also quite a few internet ‘memes’ that can be spawned. I’m not going to tell you what they are, but I’m sure you can figure it out yourself.

One thing that I found completely interesting was spawnable character interactions. I spawned a ninja and a pirate and they fought. The ninja of course won because ninjas are much cooler than pirates. Ninja propaganda aside though, there are many other interactions like this. If you spawn a cop and a robber or a cop and a ‘bad guy’ the cop will kill the bad guy or the robber. If you spawn a vampire or a goth (the goth shows up as a vampire, much to my amusement) and a cheerleader (and possibly any other spawnable character) the vampire/goth will ‘eat’ the cheerleader, turning her all vampy like him. Some spawnable characters also interact with objects by themselves, given the right tools. If you give a fireman a fire hose and then spawn a fire in front of him, he will put it out. Or if you spawn a robber and a brick of gold in front of him the robber will steal it. If you then spawn another robber the second robber will kill the first robber and take the brick of gold from him. This of course leads to infinite amounts of amusement and I haven’t even started the game yet! This is great because the front screen (the start screen) is just one huge sandbox for you to play in. You can even change the scene and unlock more scenes by spawning objects.

The game play is fun, though some of the levels are a bit fiddly. Sometimes the most obvious way to solve the puzzle doesn’t work and you have to think of a new way, but thinking outside the box usually always works and gets you more ‘style’ points which is great. Starting out in “The Gardens” the puzzles aren’t terribly hard, but even toward the end of The Gardens the puzzles start to get a big challenging. After doing the puzzles initially you can come back for a second try on advanced mode which requires you to solve the puzzle 3 times in a row without using an object you used before on the puzzle. This can be difficult and slightly tedious. However it can also be fun. On one of the last puzzles of the level I spent nearly an hour wracking my brain for new ways to do the same puzzle and once I figured it out (Brain Blast!) I was so satisfied with myself. Besides the puzzle mode, there is also an adventure mode, though to me it just seems like more of the same.  The differences between the two modes are negligible at best. Some might argue and say that they are definitely two different modes and the puzzles are completely different, but they really are still just puzzles. I would have liked to see more ‘run through a level and spawn things to fight bad guys and save the princess (or starite, as the case may be) to win the game’ type of thing and maybe I will later into the game, as I certainly haven’t finished it yet, but my hopes aren’t very high.

Overall though, the game is great. I love it and have already spent hours playing it (some of those hours spent not even starting the game, just playing around in sandbox mode) which is more than I spent on drawn to life all together. Scribblenauts has definitely won my heart.

————–
The next game in my game queue is Mini Ninjas DS. It was supposed to technically be played before Scribblenauts, but Scribblenauts line jumped straight into my ds when it came out and I just couldn’t tell it no.

—-

Sadly Edward Cullen is not spawnable.

Dell Mini 10v review

I thought that I should talk more about my super awesome dell mini 10v now that I’ve had it for like a week.

There are certainly some upsides and some downsides to netbooks in general and some awesome and not so awesome things specific to this netbook. Let me first say that I love the thing. It is cute, pink, and even though it still remains nameless, we have definitely bonded in the past week. I’ve used it to blog, and work, surf the internet, watch videos on Hulu and Netflix, play games, listen to music, and even read a book or two! It has taken over the place of my Nokia n800 tablet, I don’t even use it anymore, and will be selling it soon actually (so if anyone wants a great condition (always had a screen protector on it) Nokia n800 with its accessories and box, an awesome leather case, and a bluetooth keyboard, for like $100 say it!)  which is sad news for my n800 but it will just have to learn to deal. I’m sure I’ll find it a good home.  Okay, now that all that’s out of the way, let me get a rundown of the specs of my 10v out here.

10.1″ Widescreen Display (1024×600)
Intel® Atom Processor® N270 (1.6GHz/533Mhz FSB/512K cache)
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 950
1GB DDR2 SDRAM
160GB, 2.5inch, 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
Integrated 1.3M Pixel Webcam

It’s decently spec’d for a netbook. I will probably bump the ram up to 2 gigs myself later on to give it a little speed boost, but it really is okay. It’s good for what it does. Sometimes it is a little slow on certain things (those crazy Facebook games like Farmville make it sad) but other than that it is snappy for basic web browsing, and even writing a blog like I am doing with it currently.

It’s keyboard isn’t cramped like many people complain that netbooks are. I believe dell says it is 92% of the size of a normal (I assume by normal they mean a 15 inch?) laptop keyboard which is actually really great. The first 5 minutes of use on it were a bit tricky for me as I would hit a instead of s and the typical typos that you would expect when you are moving to a smaller keyboard but I quickly adjusted and it feels quite nice now. I certainly don’t feel cramped at all. Another cool thing about the keyboard of the Dell Mini 10v (and possibly other dell minis but I don’t know) is the Function keys. First the Fn button is in the right place, as I’ve heard it isn’t on some netbooks, but you don’t have to push it for the volume, brightness, print screen, etc. you actually have to push it to hit the F buttons (like F5 or F11) I’ve actually found this to be a really nice change because I definitely use the volume and brightness buttons quite a bit more than I do the F keys.

The trackpad is also interesting on this netbook in that it doesn’t have buttons separated from the pad like most netbooks and laptops do. The buttons are actually built into the trackpad. The Buttons are also touch sensitive like the rest of the pad. I understand some people don’t like this, but I really enjoy it because it is not only more aesthetically pleasing, but it feels great too. The trackpad also has multi-touch, gestures, and two finger scrolling, though I haven’t really gotten into any of that yet.

Most netbooks use an awkward resolution of 1024×600 (though some don’t, like the first HP mini and the Dell Mini 12) and this one is no exception. The resolution is awkward at best. It feels odd, and sometimes viewing certain webpages may look a little different. I have found that going full screen is the best choice when a website doesn’t seem viewable.

The 10v comes with a 3 cell battery which seems to last nearly 4 hours for me when I am doing normal web browsing activities and around 2 hours when I am watching a movie (Hulu ftw) full-screen. This isn’t bad at all. If you don’t like that though you can get an upgraded battery from dell, though it lifts the notebook up a bit, and make it last a bit more than 6 hours.  Some say it is easier to type with the 6 cell battery because of the angle that it puts the keyboard at. It’s worth a look, I guess.

One of my favorite…features, though I’m not sure it can really be called a feature is the power supply. You’ve seen a normal notebook power supply with its long rectangular piece that you connect a second cable to. They aren’t terribly portable. They take up too much room. They are hard to wrap up and stick into a bag. The power supply that comes with the Dell mini 10v is awesome! It’s just one piece and is more like a larger cell phone  adapter than a normal laptop power supply.  They also come with a cord control thing on it (you know, little velcro strip you wrap around the cord and secure it to itself) for easy wrap up. Or at least mine did.

It’s a very quiet laptop also. It doesn’t have fans inside it at all. Instead it seems to just have a few extra ventilation holes. It does run a little warm at times. Especially when I am watching video.  It seems to only get warm under the right palm rest/right ctrl key area, though I’m not sure what is under there and don’t have any plans to take it apart in the near future. I will probably eventually find this out when I go to upgrade to 2 gigs of ram, because the upgrade requires quite a bit of work. At least it is upgradable though, unlike the Mini 10. It never gets overly warm though. I imagine the lack of fans also lends to its excellent battery life.

Overall, it’s a great little machine, and if you go through Dell Outlet you can get it for a great deal.